Selected quad for the lemma: state_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
state_n	church_n	government_n	monarchy_n	1,173	5	9.8725	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91886	A short discourse between monarchical and aristocratical government. Or a sober perswasive of all true-hearted Englishmen, to a willing conjunction with the Parliament of England in setting up the government of a common-wealth. By a true Englishman, and well-wisher to the good of this nation.	Robinson, Henry, 1605?-1664?	1649 (1649)	Wing R1678; Thomason E575_31	16,476	20

perfect and natural Heir to his Fathers Quarrel and Design as to his Crown and Dignity But the great thing to be wondred at is That any which love Presbyterial Government should dote on Monarchy especially after the Raign of such a person and stand out against this Government which the Parliament have now set up Aristocracy in Church and Monarchy in State do not run so paralel in the expressions what ever they may do in the sence Kingly Government hath never been yet very propitious or benign to Presbytery the most favour it hath got in any Kingdom is but to have a Toleration as in France and in this Nation it 's hardly a probationer but Episcopacy hath been that ancient Government which hath been bred up with Monarchy and hath of late been its greatest Darling to maintain which much of the Royal Interest hath been engaged the late King making one of the grounds of his War to be the taking away of that Government which he thought to be so fundamental and sacred that all Religion was wrapt up in it and to confirm his love unto it dyed with a Bishop in his arms And such inseparable union is between Monarchy and Episcopacy that King James himself as soon as ever he came out of Scotland into England and found himself to be a King made this State Maxime No Bishop no King which is to this day unrepealed and by experience confirmed for they have both dyed together as Twins in the bosom of each other and if we do but look a little back we shall find that Presbyterial Government never thrived well no not in Scotland the most fertile soil and natural climate wherein it flourisheth most until the King was removed at such a distance and yet what attempts have both King James and Charls made but to overthrow it in Scotland as being most unsuitable to Kingly Government and they have little cause to think that their Charls the Second will forget his Grand-fathers and Fathers Legacy And now we have begun to mention Scotland it may be some may bring in them as a president to us as formerly to the Church so now to the State who notwithstanding all their inconveniencies which they have found by Monarchy yet have thought fit to continue it and that in the right line of Succession It 's well known the Scots love the Name but care little for the Company or Power of a King Neither is it much to be admired that they should proclaim King whom they never intend shall rule over them for they well know how to make use of the Name though they mean not to subject to the Power The Scots are not a Nation of as much state and riches as other Kingdoms but of as much design as any and they well fore-see that whose King soever he be England must maintain him and bear the greatest burthen while they enjoy his small Revenue in Scotland and get places and pensions from him in England so that he must be their King but our Tyrant All that understand the Affairs of Scotland know that were it not for the name of the King the factions of their Nobility and Gentry are so great that Peace could never be kept among themselves and yet if they had a King really among them it would impoverish both Gentry and Nobility who must contribute to maintain him who in England by pensions and places hath set up them But I would not too much open the nakedness of that Nation but wish them much good with their King and his hideous train of Malignants which must necessarily follow him where ever he himself is entertained with any respect or honor Onely they should have given him title to their own Nation and have left our Parliament to have chosen for us who are come to sufficient years of discretion and have learnt to understand both their King and them but it seems it would profit them little to have him King of Scotland if he were not also of Great Britain It is for us to consult our own concernments and not trouble our selves with examples If we chance to differ from other States it 's because they have not the same advantages nor we the same causes and grounds of following them All that is proposed by the Parliament is to reduce us into a Commonwealth and if the name do not offend I know not why should the thing And as to that reverent plea of the Antiquity of Monarchy in this Nation we may answer with grief it hath been too long and we have had time enough to try and feel the sad effects of it and Kingship may very well after so long a personal reign and advancement of it self give way to a Commonwealth that the Nation may get some good and enjoy some Liberty after their long servitude to it Antiquity is an argument for nothing but truth and goodness else error and usurpation will plead its gray hairs and make a demonstration of its divinity with the best advantage And wheras many wise men object the danger of changes in States and Governments the unknown consequences which may follow it 's confest and therefore the Parliament hath took time and deliberation and tryed all expedients and made the best essays for security of the Nation without it But that change cannot be dangerous where the continuation of a former Government in such persons hath proved and is inevitably mischievous as it is in our cause and yet we have not changed our Laws or the Fundamentals of the former Government but onely the persons and mal-administrators of it that it 's but a change of persons and names which have acted and are like to act to our destruction and so hinder mischief from running in a blood And if we will with seriousness and observance look about us we may discern a bright Star of Providence leading us directly to it and a harmony of wonders and mercies accompanying it and blessing on the Parliaments proceedings in it that men which shal oppose it may wel be said to fight against the very arm of the Almighty and slight many a glorious work which God hath done by weak and ordinary instruments And whereas many men nourish their discontents against it by the present distempers they finde in the Nation and are apt to think and be made beleeve That our condition is worse then it was in the time of the late King by reason of Taxes and Oppressions They should consider the cause may be in themselves who give no better ground of security to the Parliament of an honest and faithful compliance but by their new discontents keep up our fears which makes them keep up an Army and had they been wise men who thus object they would have considered that we are not onely framing a new Government but changing the old and that we are not in in Republica Platonis but in face Romuli It 's easie to frame an Idea of a new Government

Common-wealth whereas while they act in a Parity among themselves as their judgements are most free from being acted by Superior influences so their Debates and Results must needs be of more common and publique concernment they themselves having an equal share in that good which is done unto the whole That if we do but cast up our accounts right we shall find that Kings are but meer chargeable Ceremonies or Ciphers of little use but to contract humors and promote personal designs destructive to the being and well-being of Common-wealths for they neither are executioners of justice themselves nay scarce many times Counsellors nor do any special or publique work and yet for meer custom and formalities sake we must have one man adored having a supreme power invested in him and be maintained in the greatest State and Glory meerly to sit still and have the best and wisest and most faithful and gallant instruments bow down and rejoyce but to kiss his hand If any King hath ever yet been more then ordinarily active or instrumental it hath been to prosecute some design which would advance his Supremacy more Independently against the Publique Good as the late King was in his Wars against this Nation And what ever other Nations may experiment if we have found any good by Monarchy in this Nation it is that it hath made us I hope know what Liberty and Law is and to prize them the more Quae libertas ut laetior esset proximi Regis superbia saceret Which Liberty we should esteem more had we but one tryal of the next KINGS Raign And as there is nothing more vertually and really in Monarchical then what is in Aristocratical Government and nothing to be expected by the one but what may be done by the other with less fear of danger and without such costly formality So Aristocracy or this Government of a Common-wealth the Parliament have set up is the most even and just Government that any men have yet come to the knowledge of it being a middle State between Popular Anarchy and Prerogative Tyranny whereby men are freed from the necessary exorbitancies of both and seated securely in a uniform and equal condition free from all extreams in which the people are best represented and by which the Laws and dispatches of Justice and other affairs have a quicker and easier passage with less noise Tumult then if they should run down from the high mountains of Prerogative and Majesty in the dispensations of which you have little cognisance of justice or reason but of grace and favor Kings and Princes seldom granting any thing though never so just but it 's ever as from grace so with an expectation of something from the people to advance their Prerogative the doing of which may be a greater loss and hazard then the former grant could be of concernment to them But in this other Government as justice runs more smoothly and clearer and is not painted with Royal colours so the people have a more immediate way to the redress of all their grievanc●s and are not forc'd as to clime too high so not to go to far about or through so many mercenary Favourites or rooms of State or be scar'd with the suddain beams of supposed Majesty but come to their own Representatives that themselves have chosen and who may be in the same condition and are to be tryed by the same Laws themselves which they for the present judge others by And it 's observable These few Nations which have once got the opportunity which some have ventured hard for with little success of casting off Kingly Power have naturally and out of choice fallen into this Government as the middle and best and that which was most safe and sutable to Liberty and Justice and how these Nations which have been under it have flourished I could mention if it were needful in multitudes of testimonies And not to go so far back unto the Roman State that little time it enjoyed it Let us view these little spots of Land in Europe that live under this Government how do they lift up their heads in strength and wealth above all their neighbours to name no more but the Netherlands and Venice The first even on a suddain even by it's Wars against Monarchy enriching of it self beyond many Kingdoms of ten times a larger continent and the other defending it self yea annoying one of the greatest Empires under the Sun And there is no reason why England should not flourish under it much more who hath a more Natural defence of it self then other places have and more reason and advantage of setting it up then any other people have yet had and doubtless the Climate and Air is not incompetible to it Had other Nations but the Liberty to speak and the Freedom to choose as we have we should soon hear which way the Vote would go But let it be found out as a Phoenix That some Nations have had Liberty and Justice under the Raign of some Kings which were of singular tempers and vertues or it may be had not time enough or opportunity both to plot and act designs together yet when Government shal come to be hereditary Regal Power advanced by succession there must needs be unknown mischiefs propagated together with it And all mens liberties are cast away on a peradventure at the best for be he young or old wise or unwise vertuous or vicious talis qualis he must be entrusted with all the Liberties it may be of many Nations and a necessity of bondage and misery without remedy successively entailed on men and their posterity All liberty of dissent or choice which is the birth right of rational and free-men being utterly denyed to them and destroyed by a titular plea of succession to that which it may be the person is neither fit for the mannagement of being a child or weak or worthy of through vice or ill conversation And however other Nations may out of hidden secrets of State think Monarchy best for them and be willing to venture at succession yet to us it would not be only inconvenient but mischievous Having justly cut off the Fathers head for a wicked and ill Goverment to enthrone the Son who was engaged in the same quarrel and hath entertained the same principles with an addition of more malice and revenge and what were it but to give that power to undo us which we through the providence of God have happily deprived his Father of For as we had no hopes of the late King but were in continual danger of taking advantages by us so we cannot have any probable expectation from his Son who was engaged Body and Soul in his Fathers Interest and trained up from his cradle in blood who besides his Youth and so his unfitness to manage the Affairs of such a State hath a double portion of his Fathers Spirit of Pride and Tyranny on him besides his Mothers blessing and is the