Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	church_n	england_n	reform_a	4,212	5	9.5265	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87776	The kingly myrrour, or King Charles his last legacy to the prince his son. Written a little before his death. Containing many excellent instructions and directions, how to carry himselfe in all estates and conditions. And may serve as a good monitor for all the princes in Christendome.	Gauden, John, 1605-1662.; Charles I, King of England, 1600-1649, attributed name.	1649 (1649)	Wing K588; Thomason E1317_5; ESTC R209063	8,741	24

THE Kingly Myrrour OR King Charles His last Legacy to the Prince His Son Written a little before His Death Containing Many excellent instructions and Directions how to carry Himselfe in all Estates and Conditions AND May serve as a good Monitor for all the Princes in Christendome Aprill 11th London Printed for C. V. 1649. The Kingly Myrrour SOn If these Papers with some others wherin I have set downe the private reflections of my conscience and my most impartial thoughts touching the chiefe passages which have bin most remarkable or disputed in my late troubles come to your hands to whom they are cheifly designed they may be so far useful to you as to state your judgement aright in what hath passed whereof a pious is the best use can be made they may also give you some directions how to remedy the present distempers and prevent if God will the like for time to come It is some kind of deceiving lessening the injury of my long restraint when I find my leisure solitude have produced something worthy of my self useful to you That neither You nor any other may hereafter measure My Cause by the successe nor my judgement of things by my misfortunes which I count the greater by far because they have so far lighted upon you and some others whom I have cause to love as wel as my self and of whose unmerited sufferings I have a greater sense then of mine own But this advantage of wisdome You have above most Princes that You have begun and now spent some years of discretion in the experience of troubles and exercise of patience wherein Piety and all Vertues both Morall and Politicall are commonly better planted to a thriving as trees set in winter then in the warmth and serenity of times or amidst those delights which usually attend Princes Courts in times of peace and plenty which are prone either to root up all plants of true vertue and honour or to be contented only with some leaves and withering formalities of them without any reall fruits such as tend to the publick good for which Princes should alwayes remember they are born and by providence designed The evidence of which different education the holy Writ affords us in the contemplation of David Rehoboham The one prepared by many aflictions for a flourishing kingdom the other softened by the unparaleld prosperity of Solomons Court and so corrupted to the great diminution both for peace honor and Kingdom by those flatteries which are as unseparable from prosperous Princes as Flies are from fruit in summer whom adversitie like cold weather drives away I had rather you should bee Charles le Bon then le Grand good then great I hope God hath designed you to be both having so early put you into that exercise of his graces gifts bestowed upon you which may best weed out al vitious inclinations and dispose you to those Princely endowments and employments which will most gain the love and intend the welfare of those over whom God shall place you With God I would have you begin and end who is King of Kings the Soveraigne disposer of the Kingdomes of the world who pulleth down one and setteth up another The best Government and highest Soveraignty you can attain to is to be subject to him that the Scepter of his Word and Spirit may rule in your heart The true glory of Princes consists in advancing Gods glory in the maintenance of true Religion and the Churches good Also in the dispensation of civil Power with Justice and Honour to the publicke peace Piety will make you prosperous at least it will keep you from being miserable nor is he much a loser that loseth all yet saveth his own soul at last To which Center of true happines God I trust hath and wil graciously direct all these black lines of affliction which he hath been pleased to draw on me by which he hath I hope drawn me nearer to himself You have already tasted of that Cup whereof I have liberally drank which I look upon as Gods Phisick having that in healthfullnesse which it wants in pleasure Above all I would have you as I hope you are already wel-grounded settled in your Religion the best profession of which I have ever esteemed that of the church of England in which you have bin educated yet I would have your own Judgement and Reason now seale to that sacred bond which education hath written that it may be judiciously your owne Religion and not other mens custome or tradition which you professe In this I charge you to preserve as comming nearest to Gods Word for Doctrine to the primitive examples for Government with some little amendment which I have otherwhere expressed often offered though in vain Your fixation in matters of Religion wil not be more necessary for your soul then your Kingdoms peace when God shall bring you to them For I have observed that the Devill of Rebellion doth commonly turne himselfe into an Angel of Reformation and the old Serpent can pretend new Lights when some mens consciences accuse them for sedition faction they stop its mouth with the name and noise of Religion when Piety pleads for peace and patience they cry out Zeal So that unlesse in this point You be well setled you shall never want temptations to destroy you and yours under pretensions of reforming matters of Religion for that seemes even to worst men as the best most auspicious beginning of their worst designs Where besides the Novilty which is taking enough with the Vulgar every one hath an affection by seeming forward to an outward Reformation of Religion to be thought zealous hoping to cover those irreligious deformities wherto they are conscious by a severity of censuring other mens opinions or actions Take heed of abetting any Factions or applying to any publicke Discriminations in matters of Religion contrary to what is in your judgement and the Church wel setled your partial adhering as head to any oneside gains you not so great advantages in some mens hearts who are prone to be of their Kings Religion as it loseth you in others who think themselves their profession first despised then persecuted 〈◊〉 you take such a course as may either with calmnes charity quite remove the seeming differences offences by impartiality or so order affairs in point of power that you shal not need to fear or flatter any faction for if ever you stand in need of them or must stand to their courtesie you are undon the Serpent will devour the Dove you may never expect less of loyalty justice or humanity then from those who ingage into religious rebellion Their interest is always made Gods under the colors of Piety ambitions policies march not only with greatest security but applause as to the populacy you may hear from them Iacobs voice but you shall feel they have Esau's hands Nothing seemed less considerable then

palliations for any designes as other men so that you study really to exceed in true and constant demonstrations of goodnesse piety and vertue towards the People even all those men that make the greatest noise and ostentations of Religion so you shall neither feare any detection as they say who have but the face and mask of goodness nor shal you frustrate the just expectations of your people who cannot in Reason promise themselves so much good from any Subjects novelties as from the vertuous constancy of their King When these mountains of congealed factions shall by the Sunshine of Gods mercy and the splendor of your vertues be thawed and dissipated and the abused Vulgar shall have learned that none are greater Oppressors of their Estates Liberties and Consciences than those men that entitle themselves the Patrons and Vindicators of them only to usurp power over them Let then no passion betray you to any study of revenge upon those whose own sin and folly will sufficiently punish them in due time But as soon as the forked arrow of factious emulations is drawn out use all princely arts and clemency to heal the wounds that the smart of the cure may not equall the anguish of the hurt I have offered Acts of indempnity and Oblivion to so great a latitude as may include all that can but suspect themselves to be any way obnoxious to the Lawes and which might serve to exclude all future jealousies and insecurities I would have you alwaies propense to the same way when ever it shall be desired and accepted let it be granted not only as an Act of State policy and necessity but of christian charitie and choice It is all I have now left me a power to forgive those that have deprived me of all and I thank God I have a heart to do it and joy as much in this grace which God hath given me as in all my former enjoyments for this is a greater argument of Gods love to me then any prosperity can be Be confident as I am that the most of all sides who have done amisse have done so not out of malice but mis-information or misapprehension of things None will be more loyal and faithfull to me you then those Subjects who are sensible of their Errors and our Injuries wil feel in their own Souls most vehement motives to repentance and earnest desires to make some reparation for their former defects As your quality sets you beyond any Duell with any Subject so the nobleness of your mind must raise you above the meditating any revenge or executing your anger upon the many The more conscious you shall be to your own merits upon your people the more prone you will be to expect all love and loyalty from them and to inflict no punishment upon them for former miscarriages You will have more inward complacency in pardoing one than in punishing a thousand This I write to you not desparing of Gods mercy and my Subjects affections towards you both which I hope you will study to deserve yet we cannot merit of God but by his own mercy If God shall see fit to restore me and you after me to those enjoyments which the Laws have assigned to us and no Subjects without an high degree of guilt and sin can divest us of then may I have better opportunity when I shall be so happy to see you in peace to let you more fully understand the things that belong to Gods glory your own honour and the Kingdoms peace But if you never see my face againe and God will have me buried in such a barbarous imprisonment and obscurity which the perfecting some mens designs require wherein few hearts that love me are Permitted to exchange a word or a look with me I doe require and entreat you as your Father and your King that you never suffer your heart to receive the least check against or dis-affection from the true Religion established in the Church of England I tell you I have tried it and after much search and many disputes have concluded it to be the best in the world not only in the Community as Christian but also in the speciall notion as reformed keeping the middle way between the pomp of superstitions Tyranny and the meannesse of fantastique Anarchy Not but that the draught being excellent as to the main both for Doctrine and Government in the Church of England some lines as in very good figures may happily need some sweetning or polishing which might here have easily been done by a safe and gentle hand if some mens precipitancie had not violently demanded such rude alterations as would have quite destroyed all the beauty and proportions of the whole The scandall of the late Troubles which some may object and urge to you against the Protestant Religion established in England is easily answered to them or your owne thoughts in this That scarce any one who hath been a Beginner or an active prosecutor of this late War against the Church the Lawes and me either was or is a true Lover Embracer or Practiser of the Protestant Religion established in England which neither gives such rule nor ever before set such examples T is true some heretofore had the boldnesse to present threatning Petitions to their Princes and Parliaments which others of the same Faction but of worse Spirits have now put in execution but let not counterfeit and disorderly zeal abate your value and esteem of true piety both of them are to be known by their fruits the sweetness of the Wine fig-tree is not to be despised though the Brambles and thornes should pretend to bear figs and grapes thereby to rule over the Trees Nor would I have you to entertain any aversation or dislike of Parliaments which in their right constitution with freedome and honour will never injure or diminish your greatness but will rather be as interchangeings of love and lovaltie and confidence between a Prince and his People Nor would the events of this black Parliament have been other than such however much by assed by Factions in the Elections if it had been preserved from the insolencies of popular dictates and tumultuary impressions The sad effects of which will no doubt make all Parliaments after this more cautions to preserve that Freedom and Honour which belongs to such assemblies when once they have fully shaken off this yoak of Vulgar encroachment since the publike interest consists in the mutuall and common good both of Prince and people Nothing can be more happy for all than in fair grave and Honourable waies to contribute their Councels in common enacting all things by publike consent without Tyranny or Tumults We must not starve our selves because some men have surfeited of wholesome food And if neither I nor you be ever restored to our rights but God in his severest justice will punish my Subjects with continuance in their sin and suffer them to be deluded with the prosperity of their

the Presbyterian faction in England for many years so compliant they were to publick order nor indeed was their party great either in Church or State as to mens judgements But as soon as discontents drave men into Sidings as ill humors fal to the disaffected part which cause inflamations so did all at first who affected any novelties adhere to that fide as the most remarkeable specious note of difference then in point of Religion All the lesser Factions at first were officious servants to Presbytery their great Master till time military success discovering to each their particular advantages invited them to part staks leaving the joynt stock of uniform Religion pretended each to drive for their party the trade of profits or preferments to the breaking undoing not only of the Church State but even of Presbytery it self which seemed hoped at first to have ingrossed all Let nothing seem little or despicable to you in matters which concern Religion and the Churches peace so as to neglect a speedy reforming and effectual suppressing errors and schisms which seem at first but as a hand-bredth by seditious Spirits as by strong winds are soone made to cover and darken the whole Heaven When you have done justice to God your own soul and his Church in the profession preservation both of truth unity of Religion The next main hing on which your prosperity will depend and move is that of civil justice wherein the setled Laws of these kingdoms to which you are rightly heir are the most excellent rules you can govern by which by an admirable temperament give very much to Subjects industery liberty and happines yet reserve enough to the Majesty Prerogative of any King who own his people as Subjects not as slaves whose subjection as it preserves their propriety peace and safety so it will never diminish your Rights nor their ingenuous liberties which consists in the injoiment of the fruits of their industry and the benefit of those Lawes to which themselves have consented Never charge your Head with such a Crown as shall by its heaviness oppress the whole body the weakness of whose parts cannot return any thing of strength honor or safety to the Head but a necessary debilitation and ruine Your Prerogative is best shewed and exercised in remitting rather an exacting the rigor of the Laws there being nothing worse then legal tyranny In these two points the preservation of established Religion and Laws I may without vanity turne the reproach of my sufferings as to the worlds censure into the honour of a kind of Martyrdome as to the testimony of my owne Conscience The troubles of my Kingdomes have nothing else to object against me but this That I prefer Religion and Laws established before those alterations they propounded And so indeed I do and ever shall till I am convinced by better Arguments then what hitherto have been cheifly used towards me Tumults Armies and Prisons I cannot yet learn that lesson nor I hope ever will you That it is safe for a King to gratifie any Faction with the perturbation of the Laws in which is wrapt up the publick Interest and the good of the community How God will deale with mee as to the removeall of these presures and indignities which his justice by the very unjust hands of some of my Subjects hath been pleased to lay upon Me I cannot tell nor am I much solicitous what wrong I suffer from men while I retain in my soul what I beleeve is right before God I have offered all for Reformation and Safety that in Reason Honour and Conscience I can reserving only what I cannot consent unto without an irreparable injury to my own soule the Church and my people and to you also as the next and undoubted Heir of my Kingdoms To which if the divine Providence to whom no difficulties are insuperable shall in his due time after my discease bring you as I hope he will My Counsel and Charge to you is That you seriously consider the former real or objected miscarriages which might occasion my troubles that you may avoid them Never repose so much upon any mans single councel fidelity and discretion in managing affairs of the first magnitude that is matters of Religion and Justice as to crease in your self or others a diffidence of your own judgment which is likely to be always more constant and impartial to the interest of your Crown and Kingdome then any mans Next beware of exasperating any Factions by the crossenesse and asperity of some mens passions humors or private opinions imployed by you grounded only upon the differences in lesser matters which are but the skirts and suburbs of Religion Wherein a charitable connivence and Christian toleration often dissipates their strength whom rougher opposition fortifies and puts the dispised and oppressed party into such Combinations as may most enable them to get a full revenge on those they count their Persecutors who are commonly assisted by that vulgar commiseration which attends all that are said to suffer under the notion of Religion Provided the differences amount not to an insolent opposition of Laws and Government or Religion established as to the essentialls of them such motions and minings are intolerable Alwayes keep up solid piety and those fundamentall Truths which mend both hearts and lives of men with impartiall favour and Justice Take heed that outward circumstances and formalities of Religion devour not all or the best incouragements of learning industry and piety but with an equall eye and impart●all hand destribute favours and reward to all men as you find them for their reall goodnesse both in abilities and fidelities worthy and capable of them This will bee sure to gain you the hearts of the best and the most too who though they be not good themselves yet are glad to see the severer wayes of virtue at any time sweetned by temporall rewards I have You see conflicted with different and opposite Factions for so I must needs call and count all those that act not in any conformity to the Lawes established in Church and State to sooner have they by force subdued what they counted their common Enemy that is all those that adhered to the Laws and to Me and are secured from that feare but they are divided to so high a rivalty as sets them more at defiance against each other then against their first Antagonists Time will dissipate all Factions when once the rough hornes of private mens covetous and ambitious designes shall discover themselves which were at first wrapt up and hidden under the soft and smooth pretensions of Religion Reformation and Liberty As the Wolf is not lesse cruel so he wil he more justly hated when he shall appear no better than a Wolfe under Sheeps cloathing But as for the seduced Traine of the Vulgar who in their simplicity follow those disguises My Charge and Councell to you is That as yee need no

wickednesse I hope God will give me and you that grace which wil teach and enable us to want as well as to wear a Crown which is not worth taking up or enjoying upon sordid dishonourable and irreligious termes Keep you to true principles of piety vertue and honour you shall never want a kingdom A principle point of your honour wil consist in your deferring all respect love and protection to your mother my Wife who hath many waies deserved well of me and chiefly in this that having been a means to blesse me with so many hopeful children 〈◊〉 all which with their mother I recommend to your love and care shee hath been content with incomparable magnanimity and patience to suffer both for and with me and you My prayer to God almighty is what even becomes of me who am I thank God wrapt up and fortified in my own innocency and his Grace that he would be pleased to make you an Anchor or Harbour rather to these tossed and weather-beaten Kingdoms a Repairer by your wisedom justice piety and love of what the folly and wickednesse of some men have so far ruined as to leave nothing intire in Church or state to the crown the Nobility the Clergy or the Commons either as to Laws liberties estates order honour conscience or lives When they have destroyed me for I know not how far God may permit the malice and cruelty of my enemies to proceed and such apprehensions some mens words and actions have already given me as I doubt not but my blood will cry aloud for vengeance to Heaven so I beseech God not to pour out his wrathupon the generality of the people who have either deserted me or ingaged against me through the artifice and hypocrisie of their Leaders whose inward horror will be their first Tormenter nor will they escape exemplary judgements For those that loved me I pray God they may have no misse of Me when I am gone so much I wish and hope that all good Subjects may be satisfied with the blessings of your presence and vertues For those that repent of any defects in their duty toward me as I freely forgive them in the word of a Christian King so I beleeve you will find them truly Zealous to repay with interest that loyalty and love to you which was due to me In summe what good I intended doe you perform when God shall give you power much good I have offered more I purposed to Church and State if times had been capable of it The disception will soon vanish and the Vizard will fall off a pace This maske of Religion on the face of Rebellion for so it now plainly appeares since my Restraint and cruell usage that they sought not for me as was pretended will not long serve to hide some mens deformities Happy times I hope attend you wherein your Subjects by their miseries will have learned That Religion to their God and Loyalty to their King cannot bee parted without both their sinne and their infelicity I pray God blesse you and establish you● Kingdoms in righteousnesse your Soule in true Religion and your honor in the love o● God and your people And if God will have disloyalty perfected by my destruction let my memory ever with my name live in you as of your Father that loves you and once a King of three flourishing Kingdoms whom God thought fit to honor not only with the Scepter government of them but also with the suffering many indignities an untimely death for them while I studied to preserve the rights of the Church the power of the Laws the honor of my Crown the priviledges of Parliaments the liberties of my people and my own Conscience which I thank God is dearer to me then a thousand Kingdoms I know God can I hope he yet will restore me to my Rights I cannot dispair either of his mercy or of my peoples love and pity At worst I trust I shal but go before you to a better Kingdom which God hath prepared for me and me for it through my Savior Jesus Christ to whose mercies I commend you and all mine Farewell till We meet if not on Earth yet in Heaven FINIS