Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	king_n	law_n	supremacy_n	3,288	5	10.6148	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54980	The plain man's essay for England's prosperity more particularly referred and submitted to the consideration of the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled, 1698.	Philalethes.	1698 (1698)	Wing P2364; ESTC R10783	22,461	29

were not distinct in England nor in most Nations till the See of Rome got the Ascendant then and not till then did the Clergy attempt to bind the Laity by those Laws they never consented to And in another place That the Powers the Clergy claimed to themselves being inconsistent with the Principles of the Reformation and in England with the Oath of Supremacy and that Power the Laws have invested the King with there is nothing so contradictory as their pretended Power and that which they are forced to own does belong to the Magistrate So that our High Churchmen are not consistent with themselves no not in one point but what is worse assert such Principles as make the Reformation it self criminal and which must unavoidably oblige a man that acts agreeable to those Principles to return to the Popish Yoke I find it likewise queried by the same Reverend Divine before referr'd to Whether it be not more agreeable to the Primitive Times and the Nature of the Christian Religion that the Clergy should have some dependance on the People as to Temporals who depend so much on their Clergy as to Spirituals Who thereupon also notes That we consider the Inconveniences of a Depending Clergy but not the greater ones of having them Absolute and Independent No wonder then if the Laity be it may be over and above jealous of intrusting more Powers with men of such Pretensions but remove the Obstacles and the Effect follows in a manner as naturally as the Cause being taken away the Effect is said and known to cease But then again as to the State I am far from exciting Rigour or stirring up an extreme Execution of the Laws as convinc'd that summum Jus est summa Injutia And tho agreeable to what goes before I hold that a due regard should be had to a Regular Exercise of Civil Discipline yet I readily confess withal that Example goes as much beyond Penal Laws and Human Penalties as beyond Precepts and therefore I desire to be understood to lay the far greater stress there according to what is said at the beginning of this Paper but yet the one may be done without leaving the other undone I will therefore conclude this Head with an Instance assign'd as a Cause of the Deism of the Age in some Reflections on an Account of the Growth thereof in further Proof of the Force of Example beyond as I said or Law or Precept and which the Author seems at least to allow as it were propter duritiam cordis as a Plea for the common practice he complains of and decries and that is in the Author's words this That by the false Laws of Honour now in vogue they see they cannot live and act like Gentlemen and at the same time keep to the plain Rules of their Religion Christ commands us to forgive Injuries Not to render evil for evil But if a Gentleman at present won't cut his Neighbour's Throat for a small Affront he must be contented to suffer himself what is very hard to be born to be expos'd and counted a Coward and be perhaps kick'd out of Company By which means the Christian Religion is really in a state of Persecution Now this is a great snare to young Gentlemen and must make very many of them resolve rather to leave their Religion in that point than undergo what is so hard to be born And tho the Case do never happen to them yet the very Resolution must debauch the Conscience take away much if not all the Authority Religion has over it which must needs make that very uneasy and so incline him for his own quiet to throw it quite off or come to despise it as not being fit to be the Rule of the Life and Actions of a Gentleman Which practice notwithstanding however evil in it self and destructive in its Consequences is hardly scarce possibly to be superseded till and unless the State so take upon it to inspect protect and preserve all particular mens Reputations and to judge and determine between them in those nice and tender Points of Honour so as by this means or some other of the like or more efficacy it become Reputable to appeal and submit in such matters to its final and peremptory Decision But after all the Business of a Religious and Civil Reformation doth not wholy lye on any Set or any sort of men whatever tho such as sit at the Helm of Church and State should no doubt lead and may steer and influence a great way But this is so much every one 's own in one kind and degree or another as in his respective Station to bear a part at least wherein by the way the voluntary Societies of one and another Denomination now associated for any of these purposes are particularly commendable deserve encouragement and are worthy imitation in animating and encouraging our Heads and Chiefs and in manifesting in our selves and helping to work in others for that purpose a disposition to so noble and such generous Impressions without which even the utmost care and endeavours whether of preaching or due punishing c. in our Superiors will be labour in vain For though mens Wills are often found very perverse and obstinate yet there is nothing in Nature so stubborn and inflexible as the nature of things themselves which yet may be and often is subdu'd o'recome and corrected but it 's more by humouring it in some sort than opposing it more by going as it were along with it than against it This His Majesty in His Princely Wisdom hath admirably well considered in His late Royal Proclamation for preventing and punishing Immorality and Prophaneness issued as thereunto moved by the pious Address of the Commons in Parliament assembled as appears not only by his exciting in us a due sense to whom we owe our peace His so judiciously pointing at the unquestionable occasions of the Nation 's being so universally over-run with those Enormities His declaring His Royal Purpose and Resolution to discountenance and punish all manner of Vice Immorality and Prophaneness in all persons from the highest to the lowest degree within this His Realm and particularly in such who are employed near His Royal Person But more especially by His adding That fer the greater Encouragement of Religion and Morality He will upon all occasions distinguish men of Piety and Virtue by Marks of His Royal Favour For the Bulk of Mankind is so made that there is no working on them but L d B p of Sarum's Past Care by moving their Affections and commanding their Esteem who yet with all their Natural Propensions to Evil are not such utter Enemies to Godliness as to the Forms of it nor such Abhorrers of the Priesthood as of the Craft But would thus without the mystick Appendages of mens Inventions be soon more thoroughly persuaded That Religion is neither the Effect of Chance because 't is universal Gent. Rel. Nor of Ignorance because it possesseth