Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A33470
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The grand expedient for suppressing popery examined, or, The project of exclusion proved to be contrary to reason and religion by Robert Clipsham.
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Clipsham, Robert.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing C4717; ESTC R27263
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164,018
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330
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interval between the Death of one and the Election of another Prince no Forreign Enemy can have any encouragement to invade the Kingdom upon the Death of the King because the Royal Throne is fill'd by the next Heir who succeeds immediately and the People have a new Prince ready to protect and defend them as the other did from the Violence and Injuries of all their Enemies Nor are the People only happier but the Prince also is safer than in the other sort of Monarchy for the Crown when he dies descending to his Heirs what temptation can any that is not of the Royal Family have to attempt any thing either against his Life or Government If his Treason against the King himself should succeed as by the just Judgment of God such Villany seldom doth unless he could destroy all the Royal Family what is he the better Will not they revenge the Parricide in this and the righteous God Punish the Actor of it with the most horrible damnation in the other World So that unless the Princes Enemies be those of his own House and they that have a Title to the Crown when he is Dead conspire against and make him away which is more horrid unnatural and villanous than it can possibly be in any other Traytors and that which by the just Judgment of God will bring the same barbarous and bloody fate upon themselves for how can any Prince sit safe or easie upon that Throne which he stain'd with the Blood of his Father or Brother or Kinsman Will not the guilt and horrour of his Fact terrifie and distract make him affraid with Cain that every Man that sees will slay him How is it possible he should enjoy an happy day or a quiet hour that is haunted with an Evil Conscience groans under the smart and anguish of it and hath the guilt of Royal and Innocent Blood lying as an intolerable load and burthen upon his Soul So that excepting these no other Traytors can have any Inducement or Encouragement to attempt the Princes Life because they can propose to themselves no probable benefit or advantage by it for if their Treason prosper and one of them seize or possess himself of the Kingdom he comes in as a Thief and Murderer and Usurper and as such is abhorr'd by all the Honest and Loyal part of the Kingdom who to revenge the injury done to their Lawful Prince will assist the next Heir against the Usurper and his own party by whose help he Kill'd and took possession prompted either by Envy at his Greatness or by Discontent as not thinking themselves sufficiently rewarded for the service they did him will in a little time grow weary of and lend their helping hands to destroy him And being most obnoxious to Factions Wars and Treasons the Elective must needs be the worst sort of Monarchy Now that which is Evil or Sinful in it self and being done cannot be defended without a standing Army if that can do it which would impoverish and Ruin the Kingdom and tends likewise to Subvert or change the Monarchy is to sin or do evil for evils sake which is the highest wickedness and if their Damnation be just as the Apostle says it is that do evil that good may come theirs must needs be more just and fearful who do evil that mischief misery and ruin may come both upon Prince and People But though this Device be contrary to Christian yet it is they plead agreeable to Natural Subject 4. Justice though the Law of Christ condemns yet the Law of Nature they say allows and warrants it This is a weak or idle pretence for is not Christianity a perfect Digest or Body of the Law of Nature doth it not contain all the practical dictates of Right Reason That it is and doth may be proved from the great end of and the things contained in both these Laws from the great end of them for is it the prime or chief design of the Law of Nature to promote the common good of all Rational Beings that is the Glory of God and the Felicity of Mankind This is equally the design of the Law of Christ which takes care that God have his Honour and that Men live happily That God have his Honour the Honour of Adoration Love and Imitation The first as it requires and directs tells mankind they must Adore or Worship the Glorious Author of their Being and shews them how to do it acceptably enjoyns the one with the highest Sanctions Offers of the greatest rewards if they pay unto God the Glory and Worship due unto him Denunciations of the most dreadful punishments if they neglect or refuse to do it Describes the other the right way of doing it so plainly and intelligibly that they cannot Err or Mistake in it without their own fault those words of Christ being a full and plain both Precept and Direction for conducting this great Duty God is a Spirit and they that Worship him must St. John 4. 14. Worship him in Spirit and in Truth The honour of Love by representing to us the transcendent Excellencies and Perfections of his Nature his admirable Bounty and Beneficence to us and the perfect Equity or Reasonableness of all his Precepts that the first may produce in us a due esteem and admiration of him the second ingage us to the choice of him prompt us to the pursuit of him as our happiness and oblige us to make him all the grateful returns we are able the third excite and endear our Obedience to him The honour of imitation that we transcribe his excellencies and perfections as far as we can be mercifully as our heavenly father is merciful and holy as he is holy express in our actions such a conformity to his Purity Justice Benignity and universal kindness to his Creatures especially the Rational that Men may See our good works and Glorifie our Father which is in Heaven because this shews the mighty value and esteem we have for him is an open Declaration that we think him the most excellent Being whom it is our honour as well as duty to resemble and therefore is the highest Glorification of him Christianity too promotes the Felicity of Mankind and that so fully or perfectly that if they would intirely comply with it they could not possibly be miserable Their Happiness single or a part and as conjoyn'd or united in Societies Every Man that obeys or lives up to the Law of Christ is therefore happy because he enjoys the sweetest peace and tranquillity of mind his appetites and passions are so restrain'd and subdued as to create him no trouble nor vexation they do not lead him into any of those evil practices which being done disturb and wound the Soul produce in it amazing fears and expectations of punishment the vertues and good works he performs are sweet and grateful to him all their ways are ways of pleasantness and all their paths are peace afford his Soul
not worse fears suggest and would it not be Egregious Knavery for some of the Mariners to cast the Pilate overboard because they have a wild Suspition that he will run the Ship upon a Rock on purpose to sink himself and them Besides though every man be allow'd to do all that is just and innocent for his own Preservation yet there are some Persons that must not have any injury or violence done them for any cause whatsoever because the great Author of the Law of Nature forbids it saying Touch not mine Anoynted No Provocation can ever make it Lawful for a Son to assault his Father nor for a Subject to resist his Prince because that is contrary to Nature this destructive to Civil Society of which he is born a Member and which he is indispensably obliged by the Law of Nature to preserve The Jews were full of Projects and had their Grand Expedient to save their Nation It is Expedient St. John 11. 50. for us saith Caiaphas that one man should dye for the People and that the whole Nation Perish not The Nation was in no Danger at all no Storm nor Shipwrack approaching no more Fear of the Romans than at other times only a danger feigned that they might have a poor pretence to Destroy an Innocent Person to Murder the Holy Jesus And what was the event of this Politick Expedient did it answer their expectations contribute any thing to their Safety or Security No no! instead of saving it sunk the Ship turn'd their so craftily pretended into a real danger involv'd their whole Nation in the greatest and most deplorable Ruin or Destruction and that by the Romans that ever any People Suffer'd or any History Related thereby warning all Kingdoms and Nations to take heed of such wicked Expedients never to do any unjust thing for the avoiding any danger how great or real soever or to seek the Publick Safety by oppressing or injuring any Innocent Person for God is Righteous and will be sure to Punish the wrong-doers So that the Bill of Exclusion is contrary to the Law of Nature as well as to the Law of Christ and as this forbids so that condemns it and therefore it cannot be agreable to Natural Justice unless they mean that of Mr Hobs who represents the Humane to be as savage and barbarous as the Brutish Nature and affirms that Men have no obligations upon them to do justly but what humane Laws lay upon them but that all Men have a natural Right to do every thing they please and that to all Persons for which and all his other lewd and impious Assertions he hath been sufficiently reproved and bafled by divers learned and excellent Persons The Bill of Exclusion may be acknowledg'd if that be any honour to it to be agreeable to this Wild and Atheistical Justice but Christianity condemns and Right Reason abhors it This is the true Character and real Nature Subsect 5. of your so much admired Project of Exclusion I have done it no injury laid no false colours upon to render it more deformed and odious than it is and deserves to be but have only examin'd it by the just and holy Laws of Christ and the Dictates of Right Reason that seeing what your fears of and Zeal against Popery would not then give you time to consider the high Injustice and great Impiety of it you may be ashamed and repent of it which with all humility I conjure and beseech you to do by all that is dear to you and which you have the greatest Reasons and most pressing Motives to perswade you to The Offence you have commited against God For doth not he love righteousness and hate iniquity and require that all men especially Magistrates do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with him But this Device of yours is a manifest contradiction to all these 'T is to oppress and rob an innocent person of his Right to offer him that hard Measure which you would by no means have done to your selves and therefore to do unjustly 'T is to treat an erring person for such his Royal Highness is if he be a Papist with the greatest rigor or severity to ruin or make him miserable in this because he is become as you believe a Proselyte to that Church which he if he be of it thinks though erroneously will guide him safely to the Eternal Glory and Happiness of the other World and therefore is most unmerciful If any man Err from the truth Charity prompts and obligeth us to endeavour his Conversion and to restore him in the Spirit of meekness with all mildness and gentleness to shew him his mistake and represent to him the evil and dangerous consequences of it that he may hate and forsake it But your attempt to Exclude the Duke doth not design his Conversion but Destruction leaves him no place for Repentance but intends his Ruin and therefore is Cruel not Charitable Amongst the many praises they adorn'd it with some of the Admirers of it I remember commended this Device for the mercy of it An Elogium destitute of all shadow or appearance of Truth because the punishment it would inflict is worse than Death for a brave and valiant Prince as his Royal Highness is had rather dye than survive the loss of a Crown which is his Right by Birth if he survive his present Majesty than to be degraded from and unjustly depriv'd of the highest Dignity and Honour upon Earth to see another leap over his Head get into that Throne wear the Royal Diadem and possess the Kingdoms he was born to must needs be a continual grief trouble and vexation to him and make him weary of his Life Such Iniury and Disgrace would be intolerable and cause him to dye daily to linger out a tedious Life but Death would soon put a period to all his miseries and conduct him to that blessed place where they that suffer wrongfully here shall be greatly rewarded when a Man hath no just claim to any thing that the World admires and calls great or glorious the want of it cannot reasonably create him any trouble or discontent but he is as well pleas'd with and thinks himself as happy in his low condition as others are in the highest and most honourable stations upon Earth but to be deposed or cast down from that Empire or Soveraignty which his Illustrious Ancestors enjoy'd before him and not suffer'd to Inherit the Throne of his Fathers to be laid aside as unworthy to possess the Kingdom he was born to this must needs be an Hell upon Earth the greatest or most perfect misery any Man living can endure that hath nothing to comfort or support to sweeten or ease it and therefore must needs be most rigorous and cruel If this be mercy God deliver every Man from it And being a contradiction to that Justice and Mercy he requires it cannot possibly be consistent with the other great duty the walking humbly