Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	act_n	great_a	parliament_n	3,586	5	6.2777	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67152	Anarchie reviving, or, The good old cause on the anvile being a discovery of the present design to retrive the late confusions both of church and state, in several essays for liberty of conscience / by Abraham Philotheus.	Wright, Abraham, 1611-1690.	1668 (1668)	Wing W3684; ESTC R12351	43,407	77

The Characters of the Books the Authour hopes he hath fully answered are thus explained P. means the Book called A Proposition for the Safety of the King and Kingdome c. D. P. is the Book called A Defence of the Proposition D. R. is A second Discourse of the Religion of England L. C. A. is a Book called Liberty of Conscience asserted and vindicated M. I. is a Book called Liberty of Conscience the Magistrate's Interest ANARCHIE REVIVING OR THE Good old Cause on the Anvile BEING A Discovery of the present Design to retrive the late CONFUSIONS both of Church and State in several Essays for LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE By ABRAHAM PHILOTHEUS an English Protestant For the use of a Person of Honour Avolent quantum volunt paleae levis fidei quocunque afflatu Tentationum eò purior massa a frumenti in horrea Domini reponetur Tert. praescrip adv Haeret. LONDON Printed in the Year 1668. ANARCHIE REVIVING OR THE Good old Cause on the Anvile HONOURABLE SIR I Read the Books you sent me with some heed pretending some for the Interest of England others for the Safety of the King and Kingdome all for the publick Good which every good man would readily imbrace But in perusing the several Pleas I found the Question to be Whether the present Uniformity or former Toleration the present Order or former Confusions or at least a Mixture of these were the happiest Constitution for England So that what I expected to be an Olive-branch of Peace proved but a pricking Thorn fitted into a Crown to expose our Saviour and his Church a second time to vexation and pain 'T is strange that men should think a Parliament so glorious for forming a golden Scepter for Jupiter would be diverted to hammer out an iron Trident for Neptune Their Counsel like Barebone's Petition had suited another Rump whose Interest lay in breaking but not this present Parliament whose glory is to be Healers of their Nation Who-ever will search into the bottome of most of these mens Design shall find them while Cromwell and Vane are silenced with a Rope bold Advocates for the Good old Cause Some indeed speak the King fair but in as ambiguous language as the Covenant spake his Father as may be instanced in the Relative His and Le Roy le veult in the 87. page of the Proposition being when a keen sword shall be brought to decide the sense as intelligible of Deliverance onely expected from God as from the King And haply this and other Slip-knots were left on purpose to take the benefit of a Comma when time shall serve Others avouch plainly the Democratick Principles That Government rises from the People's Consent and is radically founded in them as the Authour of Liberty of Conscience asserteth p. 42. Not considering that in Adam's many hundred years Monarchy he never asked his Subjects Consent and had he not fallen he had prevented the French Design and continued Universal Monarch to the World's end And though the King hath prudently forbidden all publick Disputes concerning Prince and People's power this Authour ventures in many pages to circumscribe his Prince And for the Parliament though they are beholden to them for an Act of Oblivion whereby their forfeited Lives are secured yet so unkind are they that one of them professes himself not very carefull how he carries himself towards them Prop. pag. 4. he upbraids them for passing Acts against Innocent men p. 5. calling them Murtherers p. 74. and men of a hardy Conscience 't was too broad to say brawny p. 76. that esteemed trouble for sin a Romance and accusing them for incompetent Judges of a wounded Conscience as never acquainted with such things p. 77. he tells them the damned will cry out on their Acts as made to damn men p. 75. undertakes to convince the Parliament p. 19. And all of them strive to persuade them that their way will never doe with such like Rhetorick of which these Books are full Now for the Church besides their usual Crackers they constantly brand them with a formal spirit as may be seen in D. P. p. 16 73 106. not considering Saint Paul's description of formal men to be such as are traitorous heady high-minded creeping into widows houses and conventicling there of which I suppose none have confidence enough to charge the Episcopal Divines but these tender Consciences 'T was those he say 2 Tim. 3. 5. had a form of Godliness without the power But one of them runs a stranger Risque and accuses the great States-men or his Majestie 's Privy Council for not wise in several particulars 1. For not committing Sacrilege P. p. 48. That is for not taking Church-Revenues from Church-men 2. For not burying the Covenant fetched out of the Paw of the Northern Bear who first whelped it as honourably as the Jewish Worship that came from God P. p. 51. Thus is the Northern Thistle mated with the Olive of God's Temple 3. For not compounding for Episcopacy as if they had retrived the Committee for Sequestrations at Haberdashers-Hall And for the Bishops their sentence of Extirpation is past by him P. p. 51. who are farther threatned by them all but especially the Prop. p. 86. 'T is matter of sorrow to me that so sober a man as that Authour is should run out into such intemperate expressions against Authority especially the Presbyterians having declared in their Address to the King that every good man in things he conceives to be sins will be very tender of the honour of Superiours In a word all that advise the King compared to them are judged persons of mean counsell as the Prop. phrases it p. 46. You see these Icarus's upon the wing they hope to kiss the Sun if their wings be but fastned by an Act of Parliament Nor is their kindness to all these great Interests together much larger then to them distinct For they most scandalously reckon Church and State King Lords and Commons the true Representative of every individual person in England to be but a Party and match them with Presbyterians Independents Quakers or what other Party will pretend to Conscience Nay D. P. p. 57. affirms the Non-conformers to out-balance that is his word the Conformers so trifling a thing to them is a King in Parliament And farther D. R. p. 5. calls it an unhappy Errour when Parties speaking of the Episcopal take themselves to be the whole or equivalent and act accordingly Such ill Logick these men conceive it that the Legislative power of a Nation should swell into a conceit of being equivalent to some mushrome Sect. Surely thus to libell Governors is not the way to convert them to our humour unless we conceive them to be Spaniels made pliable by Abuses Can we guess these Writers of the Scottish Foot-mark that plead so hard for Syncretism a thing so hatefull to that Party that Love at Vxbridge Treaty would have no Peace for fear lest they should mix Light and

tell the mind of the Prince better then his Embassadour And therefore S. Paul charges the Hebrews c. 13. v. 7. to follow their faith that have the charge over them Fifthly The Jew was under the obligation of Conscience as well as the Christian yet no Liberty was granted to him to publish or practice what Opinion he pleased for Heb. 10. 28. he that despised Moses Law died without mercy under two or three witnesses and is the Gospell of less moment then Moses's Law But L. C. A. p. 33. replies a greater punishment even Damnation is inflicted for contempt of the Gospell Very true but so was it for contempt of the Law of Moses too The temporal Judge kills for Murther and the eternall Judge damns and so did they then for damnable Doctrines that murthered Souls Sixthly Men may use their judgment and follow their own light and try what they will onely let them keep it to themselves as Hester did her Religion in the Court of King Ahasuerus Seventhly This Argument is no less strong for the Magistrate to prosecute Dissenters if he believe in his Conscience that he is bound to promote the Glory of God to propagate Truth and to destroy those Boars and Foxes that strive to root up the Vine or to pick off the Grapes In a word to follow an erroneous Conscience is sin and for the Magistrate to indulge a man in sin is no less cruelty then that of King Philip to bring up his Wife's brother Alexander in all kind of Debaucheries that he might effeminate him and so deprive him of his Kingdome In this case S. Hieron Com. in Ezek. 18. would cry out and every good Christian with him Nolo talem misericordiam Domine Now then manum de tabula 't is time to conclude Onely I pray leave to propose to this present and Honourable Parliament the ensuing particulars which if they conduce not to quiet yet certainly not to quarrell if they have little of Mercury they shall have nothing of Mars in them and therefore I presume will be patiently heard by a Parliament whose Discretion vies with their Justice and both seem to be Conquerours A true Parliamentum pacificum Antipodes to the Parliamentum insannum Never any met with a more dreadfull Disease never any made a more perfect Cure A Parliament that have been infinitely provoked yet know no Passions but by their Names A Parliament that is like to verifie Lucian's Character of England Ver. hist. l. 2. that 't is Insula fortunata Campi Elysti When Julius Caesar entered it captus amoenitate loci redire noluit He resolved to live and die here With such a Parliament what Caesar would not take up the same Resolution Yet Carneades tells us wise men contrive Laws and fools judge of them and therefore no wonder if some repine that doat onely on Liberty of Conscience Let such hear that discreet Heathen telling them 'T is optimus Reip. status ubi nihil deest nisi licentia pereundi 'T is a happy want to be without temptation to sin Caesar in l. 3. Com. de bello Gallico observes every man to be a Rebell by nature Omnes homines naturâ libertati studere conditionem servitutis odisse In English No man would be ruled if he could rule Obedience is not of nature but of grace therefore 't is In bonos facile est imperium It must be Gold if superlatively ductile Which proves our seeming spiritual men to be too natural their temper is so ungovernable Authority had need wear Hedging-gloves when they meddle with these scratching Thorns These discontented spirits breath so hot in the face of Authority that they make the cheeks of their reputation blister But all sober men will consider how many and wide Differences this Parliament hath composed how many Swords they have sheathed how many Grievances they have removed how gently they have touched the strings of our Concord what pains they have taken to modell Oaths so as men might disown nothing but opposition to the Government and must needs declare That this Parliament under his MAJESTIE's influence have been the Healers of our Breaches and Restorers of paths to dwell in To continue the Parliament's candour and fidelity 't is humbly conceived necessary 1. To discountenance for the future as they have now done all attempts for the Lawlesness the Authours here answered plead for I need adde no Reasons their own in 1662. given to the KING are the Quintessence of the Nation 's Reason and therefore must be eternal Yet I may say 1. If Scrupling and Faction repeal Laws then are they acknowledged stronger or honester then the Government Secondly If Subjects see that Coyn pass for currant they will bid it for what-ever Law they take distast at 3. If the Parliament be unconstant to themselves men will judge their Acts not to be the product of great Judgment grave Counsels and good Conscience but rather of Levity and Humour especially when an Act shall be repealed that was settled with great debate printed Reasons and deep Resolutions to stand by it I conceive though a Parliament be acknowledged fallible yet an Act so carefully formed comes near an Infallibility 2. 'T is absolutely necessary for the Parliament to stand by the Liturgie 1. Because they have solemnly declared in their Act of Uniformity that it is comfortable to all Christians profitable to this Realm fruitfull in procuring God's blessings an honour to the Reformed Religion and the neglect of it scandalous and dangerous If this were true in 1662 't is no lesse in 1668. 2. In respect of the People's happiness who have the same means and way to Heaven with their Prince their Nobles the reverend Judges the most reverend Bishops Doctors and Learned men of the Land The meanest man sails to Heaven in the same Bottome with the greatest and wisest So that if men conscienciously use it all must swim or all sink together 3. In respect of the Ministry whose tender Consciences must needs otherwise be filled with great anxieties for fear lest their private parts skill reasoning wisedom and direction should not be sufficient to convey so many Souls as they have charge of safely to Heaven from which they are in a great measure delivered by the Liturgy the studied assistence of the whole Church of England by which their Flock is fed and guided in the same manner in their Devotions with the best accomplished man of the Kingdome men of the greatest parts having no higher way for the daily Sacrifice then they 4. In respect of the Papists who may justly complain of our Persecutions in this last Century of years for their not coming to our Worship since we our selves at last think it unfit for use Yea in so doing this Parliament would declare their Predecessors Persecutors and condemn all former Parliaments except the Rump as well as themselves for unconscionable Acts yea and with them condemn the very Reformed Religion in this Kingdome