Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	according_a	church_n	prove_v	2,572	5	5.9942	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50948	The readie and easie vvay to establish a free commonwealth and the excellence therof compar'd with the inconveniences and dangers of readmitting kingship in this nation / the author J.M.	Milton, John, 1608-1674.	1660 (1660)	Wing M2174; ESTC R33509	22,275	110

for old traytors the first inciters beginners and more then to the third part actors of all that followd it will be found also that there must be then as necessarily as now for the contrarie part will be still feard a standing armie which for certain shall not be this but of the fiercest Cavaliers of no less expence and perhaps again under Rupert but let this armie be sure they shall be soon disbanded and likeliest without a●rear or pay and being disbanded not be sure but they may as soon be questiond for being in arms against thir king the same let them fear who have contributed monie which will amount to no small number that must then take thir turn to be made delinquents and compounders They who past reason and recoverie are devoted to kingship perhaps will answer that a greater part by far of the Nation will have it so the rest therefor must yield Not so much to convince these which I little hope as to confirm them who yield not I reply that this greatest part have both in reason and the trial of just battel lost the right of their election what the government shall be of them who have not lost that right whether they for kingship be the greater number who can certainly determin Suppose they be yet of freedom they partake all alike one main end of government which if the greater part value not but will degeneratly forgoe is it just or reasonable that most voices against the the main end of government should enslave the less number that would be free More just it is doubtless if it com to force that a less number compell a greater to retain which can be no wrong to them thir libertie then that a greater number for the pleasure of thir baseness compell a less most injuriously to be thir fellow slaves They who seek nothing but thir own just libertie have alwaies right to winn it and to keep it when ever they have power be the voices never so numerous that oppose it And how much we above others are concernd to defend it from kingship and from them who in pursuance therof so perniciously would betray us and themselves to most certain miserie and thraldom will be needless to repeat Having thus far shewn with what ease we may now obtain a free Commonwealth and by it with as much ease all the freedom peace justice plentie that we can desire on the other side the difficulties troubles uncertainties nay rather impossibilities to enjoy these things constantly under a monarch I will now proceed to shew more particularly wherin our freedom and flourishing condition will be more ample and secure to us under a free Commonwealth then under kingship The whole freedom of man consists either in spiritual or civil libertie As for spiritual who can be at rest who can enjoy any thing in this world with contentment who hath not libertie to serve God and to save his own soul according to the best light which God hath planted in him to that purpose by the reading of his reveal'd will and the guidance of his holy spirit That this is best pleasing to God and that the whole Protestant Church allows no supream judge or rule in matters of religion but the scriptures and these to be interpreted by the the scriptures themselves which necessarily inferrs liberty of conscience I have heretofore prov'd at large in another treatise and might yet furder by the public declarations confessions and admonitions of whole churches and states obvious in all historie since the Reformation This liberty of conscience which above all other things ought to be to all men dearest and most precious no government more inclinable not to favor only but to protect then a free Common-wealth as being most magnanimous most fearless and confident of its own fair proceedings Wheras kingship though looking big yet indeed most pusillanimous full of fears full of jealousies startl'd at every ombrage as it hath bin observd of old to have ever suspected most and mistrusted them who were in most esteem for vertue and generositie of minde so it is now known to have most in doubt and suspicion them who are most reputed to be religious Queen Elizabeth though her self accounted so good a Protestant so moderate so confident of her Subjects love would never give way so much as to Presbyterian rereformation in this land though once and again besought as Camden relates but imprisond and persecuted the very proposers therof alleaging it as her minde maxim unalterable that such reformation would diminish regal autoritie What liberty of conscience can we then expect of others far wors principl'd from the cradle traind up and governd by Popish and Spanish counsels and on such depending hitherto for subsistence Especially what can this last Parlament expect who having reviv'd lately and publishd the covnant have reingag'd themselves never to readmitt Episcopacie which no son of Charls returning but will most certainly bring back with him if he regard the last and strictest charge of his father to persevere in not the doctrin only but government of the church of England not to neglect the speedie and effectual suppressing of errors and schisms among which he accounted Presbyterie one of the chief or if notwithstanding that charge of his father he submitt to the covnant how will he keep faith to us with disobedience to him or regard that faith given which must be founded on the breach of that last and solemnest paternal charge and the reluctance I may say the antipathie which is in all kings against Presbyterian and Independent discipline for they hear the gospel speaking much of libertie a word which monarchie and her bishops both fear and hate but a free Commonwealth both favors and promotes and not the word only but the thing it self But let our governors beware in time least thir hard measure to libertie of conscience be found the rock wheron they ship wrack themselves as others have now don before them in the cours wherin God was directing thir stearage to a free Commonwealth and the abandoning of all those whom they call sectaries for the detected falshood and ambition of som be a wilfull rejection of thir own chief strength and interest in the freedom of all Protestant religion under what abusive name soever calumniated The other part of our freedom consists in the civil rights and advancements of every person according to his merit the enjoyment of those never more certain and the access to these never more open then in a free Commonwealth Both which in my opinion may be best and soonest obtaind if every countie in the land were made a kinde of subordinate Commonaltie or Common-wealth and one chief town or more according as the shire is in circuit made cities if they be not so call'd alreadie where the nobilitie and chief gentry from a proportionable compas of territorie annexd to each citie may build houses or palaces befitting thir qualitie may