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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nation_n	church_n	king_n	rule_v	1,351	5	9.4691	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91279	The signal loyalty and devotion of God's true saints and pious Christians, especially in this our island towards their kings: (as also of some idolatrous pagans) Both before, and under the law and gospel; expressed by their private and publick prayers, supplications, intercessions, thanksgivings, well-wishes for the health, safety, long life, prosperity, temporal, spiritual, eternal felicity of the kings and emperours under whom they lived, whether pagan or Christian, bad or good, heterodox or orthodox, Papists or Protestants, persecutors or protectors of them: and likewise for their royal issue, posterity realms; and by their dutiful conscientious obedience and subjection to them; with the true reasons thereof from scripture and policy. Evidenced by presidents and testimonies in all ages, worthy the knowledg, imitation, and serious consideration of our present degenerated disloyal, antimonarchical generation. In two parts. By William Prynne Esq; late bencher, and reader of Lincolns-In; Signal loyalty and devotion of Gods true saints and pious Christians, towards their kings. Parts 1 and 2.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1680 (1680)	Wing P4082A; ESTC R229902	277,267	460

c. And when he refused to accept the Dignity by reason of his Age acclamationes Senatus fuerunt Et Trajanus ad Imperium senex venit dixerunt decies c. Antoninum tamen non corpus eligimus dixerunt vicies TACITE AUGUSTE DII TE SERVENT Statimque acclamatum est Omnes omnes After this Itum est ad campum Martium comitiale tribunal ascendit ibi Praefectus urbis Aelius Caesenanus sic locutus est Vos sanctisimi milites et sacratissimi vos Quirites habetis Principem quem de sententia omnium exercituum Senatus elegit Tacitum dico augustissimum virum ut qui hactenus sententiis suis Rempublicam juvit nunc juvit jussis atque consultis Acclamatum est a populo felicissime Tacite Auguste Dii te servent et reliqua quae solent dici Probus comming to the Army when there wanted an Emperor Quasi divino nutu undique AB OMNIBUS ACCLAMATUM EST PROBE AUGUSTE DII TE SERVENT Deinde concursus cespititium tribunal appellatusque Imperator ornatus etiam pallio purpureo quod de statua templi ornatum est atque inde ad Palatium reductus invitus et retrectans et saepe dicens Non vobis expedit milites non mecum bene agitis Ego enim vobis blandiri non possum After his Letters read in the Senat their Opinions being demanded accl matumest PROBE AUGUSTE DII TE SERVENT Olim dignus et fortis et justus bonus ductor bonus Imperator Exemplum militis exemplum Imperii DII TE SERVENT Assertor Reipublicae FELIX IMPERES Magister militis FELIX IMPERES TE CVM TVIS DII CVSTODIANT c. After which Manlius Statianus the President made an Oration beginning thus Diis Immortalibus gratias et prae caeteris Patres conscripti Iovi optimo qui nobis Principem talem qualem semper optabamus dederunt Si recte cogitemus non nobis Aurelianus non Alexander non Anto●ini non Trajanus non Claudius requirendi sunt omnia in uno Principe constituta sunt c. Decerno igitur Patres conscripti votis omnium concinnentibus nomen Caesareum nomen Augustum addo Proconsulare imperium Patris patriae reverentiam Pontificatum maximum jus tertiae relationis tribuniciam potestatem Post haec acclamatum est Omnes omnes To pretermit all other Presidents of this kind in Histories and in Panegyrical Orations Poems Epistles and Inscriptions by the Pagan Romans to their Heathen Emperors expressing their Prayers Supplications Intercessions Thanksgivings Acclamations Vows Applauses in behalf of their Emperors both at their elections inaugurations confirmations triumphs congiaries and all other occasions I shall conclude with these already cited being full punctual and rarely taken notice of these Pagans by the light of Nature punctually pursuing the Apostles exhortation 1 Tim. 2. 1 2 3. to the shame of those Christians who neglect it A Corollary to the 5. precedent Chapters I Should now proceed to the 3. remaining Chapters wherein I shall evidence by manifold notable punctual Testimonies Presidents and Records not Vulgarly known 1. The constant practice of the Christians and Churches of this our Island of Great Britain from Lucius the first Christian King thereof till Jan. 30. 1648. the day of King Charles his bloody death in making supplications prayers intercessions and thanksgivings unto God for their Kings Queens and their royal posterity both in publick and private devotions and in their Epistles addresses to them whether good or bad pious or impious orthodox or heterodox gracious or tyrannical 2. The universal practice of all the primitive Christians Churches Fathers Councils under the Roman Emperors and Kings after they turned Christians and of their successors in ●●cceding ages to this present in doing the like 3. 〈◊〉 usual special forms of prayers collects supplications and thanksgivings at the solemn Inaugurations a 〈◊〉 Coronations of their Emperors Kings and Princes But these being somewhat long and requiring more time to digest and publish them than I am yet master of I shall reserve them God willing for a Second part if this find acceptation as no doubt it will with all pious real Subjects truly fearing God and honoring their lawfull King I shall therefore cloze up this part with a few brief Corollaries and Conclusions deduced from and warranted by the premised Chapters 1. That it is not a meer arbitrary and voluntary but the very bounden commanded indispensible duty of every Christian and Subject whatsoever but more especially of Ministers and Clergy-men by the Law of God Nature Nations to make daily hearty fervent constant supplications prayers intercessions and thanksgivings unto God for their lawfull Emperors Kings Princes and their royal Posterity where hereditary whether their Emperors or Kings be Infidels Idolaters Papists Hereticks Persecutors Tyrants or Orthodox Christians Protestants Just Righteous Pious Mercifull and Fathers to their people And that it is not only a great sin and impiety against God but a high contempt Indignity Disloyalty and Treason to their Soveraigns to neglect and give over these duties or coldly or rarely to perform them 2. That these duties are more frequently fervently and constantly to be practised by Ministers and all other Subj●cts and Christians in the times of their Emperors Kings and Princes greatest Dangers Troubles Trials Distresses Exiles Necessities Sickn●ss●s Sufferings Afflictions Temptations because then they need them most as well as private Christians Churches Nations as the marginal Scriptures will abundantly evidence 3. That it is not only unnatural unchristian and inhuman but antichristian tyrannical treasonable if not diabolical and atheistical for any usurped 〈…〉 Innovators whatsoever not only to enforce Subjects against their Loyalty Consciences the Presidents of all Christians Pagans and the Precepts of God himsel●● not only by unrighteous flagitious Edicts and Engagements to command and injoyn both Ministers all other Subjects to abjure their former hereditary Kings their Heirs lawful Successors against all Scripture presidents Laws their former Oaths of Fealty Homage Allegiance Supremacy Protestation Vow Leagues Solemn Covenant to be true loyal faithful and obedient Subjects to them their Heirs and Successors and to maintain and defend their Persons Rights Jurisdictions and Crowns with their lives and estates against all attempts conspiracies and machinations whatsoever but to inhibit under severe penalties all publick and private Prayers Intercessions and Thanksgivings unto God in their behalfs even in their greatest extremities when they stand most in need of them And to commit imprison sequester and cast any Subjects into a Lions den● for obeying God herein rather than men as the High-Priests heretofore committed and imprisone● the Apostles and the Babylonian Princes and King the Prophet Daniel the extremity of Tyranny Impiety and devilish persecution which God will most severely revenge and recompence in due season 4. That for any professing themselves the chiefest of all Saints and men truly fearing God to obliterate deface

all or most of those Army-Officers and Souldiers who first created them a Parliament without a King or House of Lords and restored them to their present power in May last and engaging others of them in such displeasing services as do render them odious for the present and infamous to posterity Their exasperating the generality of the Nobility Gentry Ministers and Commons of our three Kingdoms against them by their peremptory denyal to admit and forcible seclusion and voting out the old secluded Members the Majority of the House to monopolize all Parliamentary power and Offices into their own hands and refusing the convening of a free and full Parliament without prelimitations to settle our Distractions according to the general Desires and Addresses of most Counties and Cities of the Kingdom and imprisoning some worthy Gentlemen Swordmen only for presenting at their Counties requests these their Desires in Letters directed to their Speaker and unjustly refusing to bayl them upon Habeas Corporaes in Courts where they sit both as Members and Judges and Parties which none ever did before thereby leaving the subjects in greater Vassalage than ever they sustained under the late King whom they branded and beheaded as the worst of all Tyrants And yet doubling and trebling their Taxes in their exhausted condition and losse of all Trade for those very 6 Months space for which they were taxed and forced to pay in before hand by them without their Common consent in Parl during their Representatives forcible seclusion against their own Act Oct. 11. 1659. contrary to all their former late Declarations no Kings of England having been so extravagant arbitrary unjust oppressive in their Governments and proceedings as they have been and that in the very midst of their own private fears and unsettlement and our publick dangers after all the late vast expences of blood and treasure to maintain our Laws Liberties Propertys against all arbitrary and tyrannical powers nor yet daring to attempt against their Subjects what they have boldly acted against their fellow Members and the People whom they once voted the Sovereign power of the Nation whose servants not Lords they pretend themselves which desperate violences oppressions and extravagances without any hopes of ease peace liberty or settlement will render our Kings and Kingship more amiable and desirable than ever and more promote and accelerate their restitution than all Royallists Counsels and endeavours whatsoever in wise mens Judgements Cum duplicantur lateres Venit Moyses 1 Tim. 1. 17. Now unto the King eternal immortal invisible the only wise God be Honor and Glory for ever and ever Amen FINIS ERRATA P. 4. l. 24. last r. middle p. 43. l. 19. 500 r. 300. p. 68. l. 31. disci● r. dejicis l. 34. r. dolori p. 77. l. 32. dele si p. 78. l. 1. r. orationis l. 19. nuncupari l. 34. Antoninus Margin p. 78. l. 9. Antoninus l. 10. p. 10 r. 49. THE SECOND PART OF THE Signal Loyalty and Devotion of Gods true Saints and pious Christians towards their KINGS HAving lately presented the world with the first part of the Signal Loyalty and Devotion of Gods true Saints and Pious Christians as likewise of Idolatrous Pagans towards their Kings and Emperors both before and under the Law and also under the Gospel whiles their Emperors and Kings were Idolaters and Ethnicks expressed both by their private and publick Supplications Prayers Intercessions and Thanksgivings unto God by their Votes Acclamations unto themselves others for their health safety long-life temporal spiritual and eternal felicity whether they were Good or Bad Orthodox or Heterodox Protectors or Persecutors in 5. distinct Chapters I shall now by Gods assistance proceed to the constant practice of Christians under the Gospel in this kind after their Kings and Emperors became Christians professing the Gospel of Jesus Christ whether their Kings and Emperors were gracious and Religious vitious or impious Orthodox or Erronious beginning with the Kings of our own Island and presenting you with presidents of this kind both in forein Prelates and Clergy-men as well as in their Domestick Christian Subjects of all sorts our British Island producing the first Christian King Queen and Emperor in the world and the first presidents of private and publick Supplications Prayers Intercessions and thanksgivings for them unto God and Votes Acclamations for their safety health life and prosperity as they were Christian CHAP. VI. THe very first Christian King professing the Christian Religion under the Gospel mentioned in History is Lucius King of the Britons reigning in this our Island this King Anno Christi 156. as Radulphus Baldoc the Chronicle of Gis●urn the antient Manuscript De primo statu Landavensis Ecclesiae and Bishop Vsher out of them relate sending two Embassadors to Pope Elutherius most earnestly and devoutly intreating him That by his command and will he might be made a Christian This Pope thereupon granting his request Gratias agens Deo suo c. giving thanks to his God and singing Glory be to God on high for joy that this King and Nation who had continued Gentiles from the first peopling of the Island by Brute did so ardently hasten to the faith of Christ sending Eluan and Meduin to convert them After which this King Lucius in the year 179. or sooner as some or in the year 185. or later as others think it writing a Letter to Pope Elutherius to send him a Copy of the Imperial Laws to govern his Nation by them this Pope in the conclusion of his Epistle in Answer to the Kings Letter inserted this devout Prayer unto God in his behalf Det vobis omnipotens Deus c. Almighty God grant you so to rule the Kingdom of Britain that you may reign for ever with him whose Vicar you are in the Realm aforesaid If this Pope though a forein Prelate thus prayed to God for this first Christian King no doubt his own Christian Bishops Ministers whom he endowed with ample possessions and maintenance and his Christian Subjects in their private and publick Prayers and Devotions to God and in their Epistles and Addresses to him did much more imitate his example in pursuit of the Apostles precept 1 Tim. 2. 1 2 3. as all the Primitive Christians did even for their Pagan Kings and Emperors as I have evidenced in the precedent Chapters though we find no expresse mention thereof in our British Histories The first Christian Queen in the world was Helena Daughter of King Coel whose Son Constantine the Great born and first created Emperor in our Island of Britain was the first Roman Emperor who publickly professed the Christian faith and instituted publick Prayers to be made unto God by his Souldiers People and Subjects whether Christians or Ethnicks for himself his Sons and his Posterity who constantly powred forth their Supplications Prayers Intercessions and Thanksgivings unto God for his life health safety victories and successes

expresse our unspeakable Joyes That immediately upon the dissolution and decease of Elizabeth late Queen of England the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England and of all the Kingdoms Dominions and Rights belonging to the same did by inherent Birthright and lawfull and undoubted Success●en descend and come to your most Excellent Majestie as being Lineally Justly and Lawfully next and sole Heir of the Blood Royal of this Realm as is aforesaid And that by the goodnesse of God Almighty and lawfull Right of descent under one Imperial Crown your Majestie is of the Realms and Kingdoms of England Scotland France and Ireland the most Potent and mighty King and by Gods goodnesse more able to protect and govern us your loving Subjects in all Peace and Plentie than any of your noble Progenitors And thereunto we most humbly and faithfully do submit and oblige our selves our heirs and posterities for ever until the last drop of our Bloods be spent And do beseech your Majestie to accept the same as the first fruits in this high Court of Parliament of our Loyalty and faith to your Majestie and your Royal Progenie and posterity for ever Which if your Majestie shall be pleased as an argument of your gracious acceptation to adorn with your Majesties Royal Assent without which it can neither be complete and perfect nor remain to all posteritie according to our most humble desire as a memorial of your Princely and tender affection towards us we shall adde this also to the rest of your Majesties unspeakable and inestimable benefits In which Act there are these particulars very seasonable and observable in respect of the present posture of our publike affairs 1. That the happy union and conjunction of our divided Kingdoms formenly torn and wasted with long and miserable dissentions and bloody civil wars between Competitors for the Crown and the King and Subjects is a great and unspeakable benefit and blessing to the Kingdom and Nation bestowed on them by God himself 2. That the re-uniting not only of the two but three mighty famous and antient Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland under one Imperial Crown and Heredirary King is a far more inestimable and unspeakable blessing to all 3. Kingdoms and Nations 3. That there is no Interregnum in Law in the Realm and Crown of England but that immediately upon the decease of the King thereof the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England and of all the Kingdoms Dominions and Rights belonging to the same do by inherent birth-right and lawfull and undoubted Succession Lineally Justly and lawfully descend to the next heir of the blood Royal before he be publikely crowned King As this Act in direct Terms declares and all the Judges of England unanimously adjudged in the case of Watson and Cleark 2. Popish Priests who held King James no lawfull King before he was Crowned and thereupon conspired to imprison him in the Tower c. for which they were both condemned and executed as Traytors Hill 1. Jacobi as had been oft adjudged before in the first 7. years of King H. 6. and in the cases of Queen Jane the Dukes of Northumberland and Suffolk the Lord Rochford Sir John Gates Sir Thomas Palmer and others condemned in levying War against her and executed 1 Mariae for Treason against Qu. Mary before she was Crowned to deprive her of the Crown which both the Peers and Judges of the Realm and the Parliament of 1 Mariae ch 16. adjudged Treason within 25 E. 3. against the mistaken Doctrine of Mr. Thomas Scot and some temporizing Lawyers of late years 4. That it is the duty and practice of all loyal and faithfull Subjects of all estates and degrees with all possible publike joyes unspeakable general rejoycings acclamations applauses affectionate desires by other means to proclaim acknowledge and Crown their lawfull hereditary Kings after the decease of their Ancestors and to make all possible demonstrations of their cordial loyalty love zeal and affection to them both in and out of Parliment being obliged thereunto both by the Laws of God and Man 5. That this Act of Parliament and the Oathes of Supremacy and Allegiance do both in point of Law Loyalty Justice Conscience oblige the whole English Nation their heirs and posterities for ever to be true faithfull loyal and obedient to King James his heirs and posteritie for ever and so to our present King till the last drop of their blood be spent as to their undoubted lawfull and hereditary Kings and Soveraigns 6. That a numerous hopefull royal Progeny likely to continue and perpetuate the hereditarie succession of the Crown in the true Regal line is an extraordinarie blessing and happinesse to the Kingdom for which they are all bound both in and out of Parliament to render all humble thanks and praises unto God To this I shall subjoyn the Statute of 3 Iacobi ch 1. entituled An Act for a publick Thanksgiving to Almighty God every year on the fifth day of November FOrasmuch as Almightie God hath in all ages shewed his power and mercy in the miraculous and gracious deliverance of his Church and in the protection of religious Kings and States And that no Nation of the earth hath been blessed with greater benefits than this Kingdom now enjoyeth having the true and free profession of the Gospel under our most gracious Soveraign Lord King Iames the most great learned and religious King that ever reigned therein enriched with a most hopefull and plentifull Progeny proceeding out of his Royal loyns promising continuance of this happinesse and profession to all posterity the which many malignant and devillish Papists Jesuites and Seminary Priests much envying and fearing Conspired most horribly when the Kings most Excellent Majesty the Queen the Prince and all the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons should have been assembled in the Upper House of Parliament upon the fifth day of November in the year of our Lord 1605. suddenlie to have blown up the said whole House with Gunpowder An invention so inhuman barbarous and cruel as the like was never before heard of and was as some of the principal Conspirators thereof confesse purposely devised and concluded to be done in the said House that where the sundry necessarie and Religious Laws for preservation of the Church and State were made which they falsly and slanderously term cruel Laws enacted against them and their Religion both place and persons should be all destroyed and blown up at once which would have turned to the utter ruine of this whole Kingdom had it not pleased Almighty God by inspiring the Kings most Excellent Majestie with a Divine spirit to interpret some dark phrases of a Letter shewed to his Majestie above and beyond all ordinarie construction thereby miraculously discovering this hidden Treason not many hours before the appointed time for the execution thereof Therefore the Kings most Excellent Majestie the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and all his Majesties Faithfull and loving

THE Signal Loyalty and Devotion OF GOD's True Saints and Pious Christians Especially in this our Island towards their KINGS As also of some Idolatrous Pagans Both before and under the Law and Gospel expressed by their private and publick Prayers Supplications Intercessions Thanksgivings well-wishes for the Health Safety Long Life Prosperity Temporal Spiritual Eternal Felicity of the Kings and Emperours under whom they lived whether Pagan or Christian Bad or Good Heterodox or Orthodox Papists or Protestants Persecutors or Protectors of them and likewise for their Royal Issue Posterity Realms and by their dutiful conscientious Obedience and Subjection to them with the true Reasons thereof from Scripture and Policy Evidenced by Presidents and Testimonies in all Ages worthy the Knowledg Imitation and serious Consideration of our present Degenerated Disloyal Antimonarchical Generation In TWO PARTS By William Prynne Esq late Bencher and Reader of Lincolns-Inne Psal 72. 1 2. Give the King thy Judgments O Lord and thy Righteousness unto the King's Son Then shall he judge thy people with Righteousness and thy poor with Judgment Tertulliani Apollogia adversus Gentes c. 32. Hoc agite boni Praesides extorquete animam Deo supplicantem pro Imperatore Hoc erit crimen ubi veritas Dei devotio est LONDON Printed for Edward Thomas at the Adam and Eve in Little-Britain 1680. Where you may be furnished with most of this Learned Authors Works and a Printed Catalogue To his most Illustrious over-long Exterminated but now happily Restored Soveraign CHARLS the SECOND By the Miraculous Grace of God and indubitable Hereditary Birthright and Succession of ENGLAND SCOTLAND FRANCE and IRELAND KING the invincible constant Professor and DEFENDOR of the truly Antient Catholick and Apostolick FAITH in the midst of manifold Persecutions Provocations Solicitations Temptations and Fiery Tryals the Magazin of all Christian and Royal Virtues and Miracle of Gods preserving and restoring Mercies Most gracious Soveraign THe only potentate and KING OF KINGS who removeth Kings and SETTETH UP KINGS and ruleth in the KINGDOM OF MEN TO GIVE IT TO WHOMSOEVER HE PLEASETH having by his own Omnipotent out-stretched arm and successive Miraculous Providences unexpectedly cut off cast down subverted dissipated without hands or bloodshed the most Execrable Persidious Trayterous Murderers of your Royal Father KING CHARLS the first of Glorious Memory and Unjust disinheriters and proscribers of your Sacred Majestie out of all your own Hereditary Kingdoms and some forein States by Violence War and inhumane Tyranny enforcing your Majesty oft to cry out with the Exiled Kingly Prophet Wo is me that I am constrained to dwell in Mesech and to have my habitation among the tents of Kedar c. who by rigorous Edicts debarred your Majestie not only of the Charitable Relief of your own Protestant Subjects but likewise of the Christian Aid and Evangelical Tribute due to all Pagan as well as Christian KINGS by divine and common natural Right of their daily Supplications Prayers and Intercessions to God for your Personal Preservation and Restitution under severest Penalties imposed many insupportable new Yoaks of Bondage on all your Subjects necks and worse than Aegyptian Burdens upon their galled backs for sundry yeares almost to their Irrecoverable ruine it pleased this Soveraign King over all the earth and God of the Spirits of all flesh by strange Miracles of mercy through the preparatory loyal Endeavours of some of your Majesties most inconsiderable faithfull Subjects upon the very first Reception and reading of your Majesties most gracious Letters and Declarations to the Lords Commons City of London Army and Navy immediately to bow the hearts and spirits of both your Houses of Parliament and all your Subjects yea of the very Military Officers Forces by Land and Sea formerly raised engaged against your Majesties Cause and Kingship as the heart of one man as he bowed the hearts of the men of Judah after rebellious usurping Absoloms death in the case of exterminated King David so that they immediately and unanimously voted your Majesties speedy return dispatched their several Letters Votes Messengers Fleet and Monies to your Majesty without one dissenting voice to hasten your Majesties return and transport you with honour and safety to enjoy your KINGLY AUTHORITY and PATRIMONY contending with a most cordial aemulation who should be first and forwardest to bring back and conduct your Majesty together with your Princely Brothers and Followers from your long most deplorable exile to your Royal City and Palace with all possible demonstrations of their publike joy and dutifull Allegeance to your Majesty and farr greater Magnificence Solemnity Triumph and multitudes of Conductors than any of your most Victorious Royal Progenitors enjoyed when they returned into England from their greatest Forein Conquests And that which crowned this Miracle of Mercies was its celerity and season it having both its inception and perfection within the limits of one Month and its completion on Your Majesties Birth-day May 29. whereon as You were first born a Prince You were now re●born A MOST GLORIOUS KING and most magnificently invested in the possession of Your Royal Throne at Whitehall in the presence of all your Majesties Lords Commons and thousands of your People there assembled who with their united Shouts Prayers Praises Acclamations Benedictions and Panegyricks congratulated your Maties Natural and Political Nativity thereon both as a Man and Monarch together with the new Birth and Resurrection of Your three United Kingdoms and Churches of ENGLAND SCOTLAND and IRELAND and their respective Dominions being all raised from their Graves of Death and Misery wherein they had for some years space before been interred and were new born AS KINGDOMS and Churches too on that joyful day worthy to be celebrated by them in all succeeding Generations and to have this Divine motto engraven thereon The stone which the builders refused is this day become the Head of the corner This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes THIS IS THE DAY WHICH THE LORD HATH MADE WEE WILL REJOYCE AND BE GLAD THEREIN What the elegant Prophet Isaiah records of Gods miraculous Mercies towards his Church and people Before she travelled she brought forth before her pain came she was delivered of a man-child Who hath heard such a thing WHO HATH SEEN SUCH THINGS Shall the Earth be made to bring forth in ONE DAY OR SHALL A NATION BE BORN AT ONCE For as soon as ZION travelled she brought forth her children Was now verified both of your Majesty and your three whole Kingdoms Churches all brought forth and born together in this one DAY Wherefore Rejoyce ye with Jerusalem with England and be glad with her all ye that love her rejoyce for joy with her all ye that mourned for her It hath been the antient cavill of our Romish Adversaries against our Reformed Protestant Churches Religion that they are false and spurious because they have no

as well in this our Island as in all other places of his Empire as these passages of Eusebius who lived in his Court and flourished under him will aboundantly evidence This Godly Christian Emperor Constantine before his Battel with the persecuting Tyrant Licinius dedieated a certain vacant time to powr forth Prayers to our Saviour Christ in the tabernacle of the Crosse which he fixed far remote from his Camp where afflicting his body with fasting and abstinence he powred out Prayers Supplications to God to reconcile him to himself and become his gracious Protector In which Duty he imployed certain Persons whom he reputed eminent both for faith and piety to joyn with and assist him in the performance thereof as he usually did upon other occasions before every battel with the enemy After which having vanquished Licinius and by his death obtained the sole power and government over the Roman Empire Omnes ubique victorem hymnis celebrabant Tum choreis hymnis primum Deum summum omnium regem esse praedicarunt deindè victorem Constantinum ejusque filios modestissimos Deoqu● charos Caesares acclamationibus continuis extulerunt After which this Godly Emperor to excite his Subjects to Prayers was portrayed in all his Coyns Statues standing upright with his eyes looking up and his hands stretched forth and elevated towards Heaven as if he were praying prescribed all his Legions and Soldiers as well Pagans as Christians this set form of Prayer in the Roman tongue which they were to use and recite every Lords day in their daily prayers with their hands and eyes lifted up to Heaven unto God the Giver of all good things and Author of victory Te solum Deum agnoscimus c. We acknowledge thee to be God alone we professe thee to be King we invocate thee our helper by thee we have obtained victories by thee we have overcome Enemies from thee we confesse we have received present hope that we shall obtain future felicity Tui omnes supplices sumus abs te petimus ut Constantinum Imperatorem nostrum unà cum piis ejus liberis quàm diutissimè nobis salvum victorem conserves We are all Supplicants unto thee We all request from thee that thou wouldest conserve our Emperor Constantine together with his pious Children safe and victorious to us for many generations or as long as possible may be or for ever Ejusmodi ferè Sanciebat a Militibus solis die fieri talesque ab eis voces in diurnis Precibus adhibert Which prayers no doubt were used in this our Island of Britain where he was born and crowned by his Soldiers and other Subjects for him and his royal posterity as well as in other places the Churches and Christians then in Britain concurring both in their Doctrine and Practice with the Churches in Rome Italy Aphrick Aegypt Spain Frauce Lybia Greece Asia Pontus and Cilicia as Constantine himself records in his Epistle to all Churches concerning the affairs of the Council of Nice Anno 330. But of this more in the next Chapter It is the Observation of Thomas Rudburne the History of Winton Church and Bishop Vsher out of them Orationes ac deprecationes justorum assiduae cum multum valeant apud justum judicem Deum ascenderunt lacrymae suorum fidelium in conspectu conditoris altissimi sedatum est gravissimae persecutoris ac percussionis jaculum fulminosum completo videlicet spatio viginti duorum annorum undè Christiani qui priùs in sylvis opacissimisque locis se posuerant within this our Island of Britain as well as in other places during the reigns of Dioclesian Maximinian and Licinius who grievously persecuted them in publicum se ostendentes under Constantine the Great renovant Ecclesias quae usque ad solum undique erant destructae Quo in tempore aedificata est Ecclesia Wintoniensis secundò ab Christi fidelium oblationibus The Christians daily Prayers and tears to God in this our Island being the principal means to cease their former persecutions under their cruel Pagan Emperours and to procure them peace and prosperity under this first Christian Emperor Constantine for whose long life and prosperous reign they daily Prayed unto God in the Churches they re-edified and repaired during his pious Reign Guithelin Archbishop of London in the the year of our Lord 455. being sent by the Christian Britons of our Island into Britain in France to crave ayde against the barbarous Nations who invaded murdered spoyled and miserably oppressed them thereupon Androenus King of the French Britons sent his Brother Constantine with 2000. men unto them upon condition they should elect and crown him for their King Which expedition Constantine undertaking Guithelin thereupon brake out into these gratulatory Acclamations and Prayers unto Christ for him Christus vincit Christus regnat Christus imperat Assit igitur gratia Christi Regi Britanniae qui est defensio nostra ut insulam miserimam ad pristinam reducat libertatem Christ overcommeth Christ reigneth Christ commandeth Therefore let the grace of Christ be present and assistant to the King of Britain who is our defence that he may reduce the miserable Island to its pristine liberty A Prayer as suitable for our miserable exiled King and Island now as for this their new British King and Island in that Age wherein the other Bishops and Christian Britons made the like Prayers for him both at and after his Coronation as Guithelin did before it Our famous British King Aurelius Ambrosius after he had destroyed and burnt the bloody Regicide and Usurper Vortigern and conquered and exiled the Pagan Saxons in the year of Christ 488. repaired and new built the Churches they had demolished placed Priests and Clerks in them restored divine service to its due state conferred many Gifts Rents and Revenues upon Church-men Et orare pro Regno et Ecclesiae statu omnibus imperavit And he commanded all men to pray for the Realm and state of the Church which no doubt they performed accordingly in their Churches not forgetting to pray likewise for this good King who repaired them and restored Christianity To pretermit Saint Patricks Prayers and Petitions to God for the seven Kings he baptized and the Irish he converted to the Faith with his ascending into a Mount and there fasting forty daies ut oraret pro eis that he might pray for them Pope Gregory the 1. in his Epistle to Aldeberga or rather B●rtha wife to King Edilbert before his conversion to the faith of Christ who after her conversion was very instrumental to help convert the King and his subjects to the faith useth this thanksgiving and prayer to God on her behalf Omnipotentem Deum Benediximus qui conversionem Gentis Anglorum mercedi vestrae dignatus est propitius reservare c. Bona vestra non sol●m jam apud Romanos qui pro vita

Servants in their daily Prayer afore all other to remember that most worthy Minister of God King Edward the sixth which hath so sore wounded the Beast that he may throw all his Superstition into the bottomlesse lake again from whence they have comen to the comfort of his People Our learned Thomas Beacon in his Preface to The Flower of Godly Prayers dedicated to Anne Dutchesse of Somerset as he doth exceedingly blesse God for the extraordinary zeal and piety of King Edward the 6th in delivering his Realm from Antichristian Tyranny and Popery reforming the Church propagating true religion and in giving us this most worthy Prince to be our King So he hath this particular Prayer for the King to be used by all private Christians daily in their respective Families and Closets with zeal and devotion Almighty God King of Kings and Lord of Lords which by thy divine ordinance hast appointed Temporal Rulers to govern thy People according to equity and justice and to live among them as a loving Father among his natural Children unto the advancement of the good and punishment of the evil we most humbly beseech thee favourably to behold Edward thy Servant our King and Governour and to breath into his heart through thy holy Spirit that Wisdom that is ever about the Throne of thy Majesty whereby he may be provoked moved and stirred to love fear and serve thee to seek thy glory to banish Idolatry Superstition and Hypocrisy out of this his Realm and unfeignedly to avance thy holy and pure Religion among us his Subjects unto the example of other forein Nations O Lord defend him from his enemies send him long and prosperous life among us and give him grace not only in his own Person godly and justly to rule but also to appoint such Magistrates under him as may be likewise affected both toward thy holy Word and toward the Common-weal that his Subjects living under his Dominion in all godlinesse peace and wealth may passe the time of this our short pilgrimage in thy fear and service unto the glory of thy blessed name which alone is worthy all honour for ever and ever Amen Next after this follows one Prayer for the Kings Council And after that a Prayer for the common peace and quietnesse of all Realms very seasonable for our times And in his Pomaunder of Prayer he hath this Prayer of Subjects or Commons As it is thy godly appointment O Lord God That some should bear rule in the world to see thy Glory set forth and the common peace kept so is it thy pleasure again that some should be Subjects and Inferiours to others in their vocation although before thee there is no respect of Persons And for as much as it is thy good will to appoint me in the number of Subjects I beseech thee to give me a faithfull and an obedient heart unto the High Powers that there may be found in me no Disobedience no Vnfaithfullnesse no Treason no Falsehood no Dissimulation no Insurrection no Commotion no Conspiracy nor any kind of Rebel●ion in Word or Deed against the Civil Magistrates But all Faithfulnesse Quietnesse Subjection Humility and whatsoever else becommeth a Subject That I living here in all lowlynesse of mind may at the last day through thy favour be lifted up into everlasting Glory where thou with the Father and the Holy Ghost liv●st and reignest very God for ever Amen These were the Godly Loyal fervent daily publick and private Prayers of Protestant Ministers and Subjects for King Edward the 6th in that Age. Queen Mary a Popish Prince succeeding King Edward set aside the Book of Common-prayer and introduced Popish M●ssals Processionals Howers Primers and Popery again wherein they publickly prayed for her in the forecited manner under our Popish Kings her zealous Protestant Bishops Ministers and Subjects likewise making fervent constant Prayers for her But some over-zealous Anabaptistical Fanaticks using some unchristian expressions in their Prayers against her That God would cut her off and shorten her daies of which there was complaint made in Parliament Whereupon there was this special Act made against such Prayers Anno 1555. 1 2 Phil. Mar. ch 9. Forasmuch as now of late diverse noughty seditious malicious and heretical persons not having the fear of God before their eyes who in a divellish sort contrary to the duty of their Allegiance congregated themselves together in Conventicles in divers and sundry prophane places within the City of London esteeming themselves to be in the true Faith where indeed they are in Errors and Heresies and out of the true trade of Christs Catholick Religion and in the same places at several times using their phantastical and schismatical services have of their most malicious and wicked Stomachs prayed against the Queens Majesty That God would turn her Heart from Idolatry to the true Faith which was good and Christian or else to shorten her daies or take her quickly out of the way Which Prayer was never heard or read to have been used by any good Christian man against any Prince though he were a Pagan and Infidel and much lesse against any Christian Prince and especially so virtuous a Princess as our Soveraign Lady that now is is known to be c. For reformation whereof it is enacted That every such person and persons which since the beginning of this Parliament have by expresse words and sayings prayed required or desired or hereafter shall pray by express words or sayings That God would shorten her daies or take her out of the way whose life Almighty God long preserve or any such like malicious Prayer amounting to the same effect their Promoters Abetters therein shall be taken reputed and judged Traytors and every such praying requiring and destring shall be judged taken and reputed High Treason And the Offendors therein their Procurours and Abetters being thereof lawfully convict according to the Laws of this Realm shall have suffer and forfeit as in Cases of High Treason Provided alwaies and be it enacted that if any Person or Persons shall be indicted for any the offences aforesaid done and perpetrated during this Session of this present Parliament and upon his or their arraignment shall shew him or themselves penitent for their offence and submit him or themselves to the Kings and Queens mercy and humbly desire the same before such Justices or Commissioners before whom he or they shall be arraigned that then no judgement of conviction or attaindour of Treason shall be given against any such Person or Persons so being penitent and submitting themselves And in every such case the Justices or Commissioners before whom such Person or Persons shall be arraigned shall have authority by virtue of this Act to prescribe adjudge and appoint such corporal punishment other than death to such offender and offenders as to them by their discretion shall seem convenient and upon that penance prescribed and done