Selected quad for the lemma: war_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
war_n	alexander_n	great_a	king_n	2,448	5	3.9725	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67481	Some remarks upon a speech made to the grand jury for the county of Middlesex concerning the execution of penalties upon the churches of Christ, which worship God in meeting-houses, for their so doing : and may serve for an answer to part of the order of the justices, Jan. 13 to the same purpose : in a letter to Sir W.S. their speaker.	J. W.; Smith, William, Sir, 1616 or 17-1696.	1682 (1682)	Wing W69; ESTC R3500	12,116	16

under our present Protestant Prince to whom God grant a long and happy R●ign we can scarce keep our selves from being over-run and destroyed by Assassinations Sham-Plots and Suborned witnesses with other Engines of mischiefs to which the parish Church men as well as others are equally Subject we see that even in the Church it self they have raised a strong enmity one against another according as they are either more fierce against Protestants and more moderate against Papists or on the contrary more moderate to Protestants and more zealous against Papists what then would be done under a Popish Successor should all Dissenters be reconciled to the Church would that extinguish the animosities among the Bishops and other Clergy and Laity as they call 'um of the Church it self I pray consider it Our Divisions you say give boldness to the common enemy to make attempts upon us you say very true for whilst he sees a party that pretends to the Church so desperately mad against those whether in the Church or out of it that being deeply concerned for their Religion King and Government are zealous against the Papists and their Fautors it cannot but incourage the Papists to go on in their Devilish Plots and machinations against us Is 't not wonderful that since the discovery of a most horrid Popish plot against all Protestants some of that name that were gentle before should now be violent in the prosecution of their Brethren as if the Dissenting Protestants were to be punished for the Popish plot O unhappy Titus hadst thou suffered the popish Plot to proceed to effect thou mightest have reap't a great share in the profits of their success But now thou hast discovered their Treachery and saved thy King and Country thou art scorned and reproached thou art in jeopardy of thy life every hour either by assassination or false accusation And thy wretched Country is in worse circumstances to withstand the Popish and Malicious enemies of its Religion and Government than before The Luxury and Security of Asia gave Alexander the Great hopes of Conquest Ergo Our worshipping of God some in Churches some in Meetings encourages the French King A natural consequence Did the French carry on their War the worse because they permitted Protestants though at the same time they made War against Protestants but he 's afraid of it for the future and must we needs tread in his steps and act by his Policies surely he that prosecutes Protestants with Penalties for being so does the Pope and French King's Work for what can they desire more at present And I heartily wish That the ill consequences which may easily be foreseen to arise therefrom to use your words may prevail with men that pretend to love their King and Country and Religion not to be guilty of any thing that will bring ruin upon them For when they have ruined the Dissenters they will next fall upon those of the Church that favour them and when they are ruin'd it will be easie for a Popish Successor either to turn them to Popery or ruine the remainder As for the Diberty you say they have according to Law of exercising Religion in their own Houses First That is denied where Protestants are prosecuted to Confiscation of their Estates as Popish Recusants for not going to Church And Secondly The same Passions and Councils that now endeavour to suppress their Meetings would then prosecute them as Rioters for meeting above Three besides the Family to do an unlawful action as I have known it done by some of your Bench. It is easily said by you rather Humor than Conscience when they will yet offend against the Law by these Publick Conventicles but they would be very glad to find it such an humor as they could correct with satisfaction to Conscience it would be a great ease to their minds besides the advantage to their outward concerns which are so destructive to the Peace and Safety of the Kingdom There was a time when His Majesty was pleas'd to declare That it was evident by the sad experience of Twelve Years that there is very little fruit of all those forceable courses many and frequent ways of coertion And therefore saith he We do now issue this Our Declaration as well for the quieting of the minds of Our good Subjects in th●se points for inviting Strangers in this conjuncture to come and live under us and for the better encouragement of all to a chearful following of their Trades and Callings from whence we hope by the blessing of God to have many good and happy advantages to our Government As also for preventing for the future the danger that might otherwise arise from private Meetings and Seditious Conventicles His Majesty you see Sir W. was not then of your mind after Twelve Years Experience and Observation that Publick Conventicles were so destructive to the Peace and Safety of the Kingdom but the very contrary What tho His Majesty was graciously pleased to Cancel that Declaration at the Humble Request of His Loyal Long Parliament because it did not ground it self upon a Legal Authority yet I hope His Majesties Reason and Judgment exprest in it may be of weight to the Justices of Middlesex and London too especially when the Opinion of the Commons of England in Parliament concurs with it besides who knows that if there be any Favourite at Court who designes against the people as there seldom wants such as cannot endure the breath of a Parliament he or she has the recommendation of Justices which therefore being their creatures must serve their ill purposes and how easie it is for one or two such Justices to get the approbation of the Bench to their nomination of Jury-Men and then wo be to the People for they declare in their Vote of Luna 10. Januar 1680. That it is the Opinion of this House that the presecution of Protestant Dissenters upon the Penal Laws is at this time grievous to the Subject a weakning of the Protestant Interest an encouragement to Popery and DANGEROVS to the Peace of the Kingdom Now I am clearly of Opinion that the King and Commons of England together their Judgment is rather to be taken in this matter than Sir W. S's and all the Bench of Justices assenting You will say perhaps that the Popish Plot since the time of His Majesties Declaration discover'd has render'd them unworthy of that Toleration I grant it but what have the Dissenters done to confute the King's Judgment in this point I hope that Toleration was not given for the sake of the Papists alone so that because They cannot have benefit by His Majesties Reasoning No body else shall that were a hard thing to impute to our Sovereign However it was I presume Sir W. and his Fellow Justices did not Then put in execution the penal Statutes against Dissenters neither for some years afterward such Deference did they give to His Majesties reason tho his Authority was with-drawn

of Nature c. This is a surprising way of discourse for the natural import of it is this Viz. That to prevent the mischief of being without Government God had made every man his own Governor so that he has no need of any other Government Again It proceeds somewhat incoherently God knew when he created man what evils he would incur notwithstanding the Law of Nature in his heart if there was not also an outward Government therefore he gave him the Law of Nature and printed it in his heart I suppose Sir you spake extemporary but I then wonder you should be against extemporary Prayers and extemporary Sermons and use an extemporary Speech upon such a Solemn Occasion You proceed If man had attended to this Law there would have been no contentions or quarrels no nor fears and jealousies which are the Devils Engines to batter down the peace of the World but the Devil made man forget his God and grow to such wickedness that God swept them away by an universal Deluge c. Here is a special remark upon Fears and Jealousies in the Old World but I find no such mentioned in the Holy History it was past that The Mighty Men executed according to their Lusts so that the Earth was filled with violence effectually and if they feared it before it came upon them they had cause enough and those fears were not in vain It seems it was in your mind to expose the Phrase of Fears and Jealousies and therefore you must needs bring it in here by Head and Shoulders But if you please to call to mind some of the Addresses of your Loyal Long Parliament you will find they did not abhor from such like expressions In their Address against the Duke of York's Marriage they pray His Majesty To relieve his good subjects from those fears and apprehensions which they ly under from the progress had been made in the Treaty And they further say We greatly fear c. That for another Age at the least this Kingdom will be under continual apprehensions of the Growth of Popery and the danger of the Protestant Religion In their Address of March 1677 8 they advise His Majesty That for the satisfying the minds of his good Subjects who are much disquieted with the apprehensions of the dangers arising to this Kingdom from the Growth and Power of the French King c. I could cite you more of this kind but my resolved brevity hinders Thus Sir You were a Member of that Loyal House of Parliament which had the Presumption to tell His Majesty of the Fears and Jealousies of his good Subjects but what is the matter now after a horrid Popish Plot against His Majesty and a great many Plots against his good Subjects that now it must be a breach of the Peace to talk of Fears and Jealousies I fear Sir you have taken it ill you were not chosen in these late Parliaments and that you are fallen out both with Parliament and People upon that score You go on This Rebellion of Corah you may observe as all other Rebellions almost that I have heard of began upon the pretence of Religion and Liberty Here you have a mind to expose the Terms of Religion and Liberty as before you did Fears and Jealousies and you pick out the Rebellion of Corah as a singular instance of the prevalence of the Devil in that Tract of time between Noah and our blessed Saviour One would have thought that the Kings of Egypt keeping in Bondage and evil entreating the Children of Israel Four Hundred years together who at last commanded the Male Infants to be killed and upon their demand in the name of the Lord God and upon their petition to him for liberty of Religion encreased their affliction and bondage forcing them to make Bricks without Straw and still exacting the same Tale of Bricks as before beating them if they performed it not and the King said Ye are idle ye are idle therefore ye say Let us go and do Sacrifice to the Lord. And Pharaoh hardened his heart to such a degree that God raised him up or made him stand to shew his power and that his Name might be declared throughout all the Earth One would have thought I say that this example af Wickedness against the Law of Nature and Gods stupendious Vengeance that pursued the Egyptians to almost their utter destruction for the same should have been as ready to your mind as the Rebellion of Corah I hope you do not think that Moses and the People of Israel being Subjects to Pharaoh were therefore Rebels for being of another Religion and craving-liberty upon that account But now I think on 't this of Corah was brought in as an instance of great Sin after the Law of Nature was written in two Tables but he must be wonderfully sagacious that can find in the Law of Nature or Ten Commandments that the Priesthood was to be entailed to the Sons of Aaron and none else of Levi's Family of which Corah was Under favour I think this was a Rebellion against a special Revelation as Saul's aso was when he destroyed not King Agag and the Cattle with the Amalekites 1 Sam. 15. A proper example is this of Corah to be urged by the Pope against those Princes and others that Rebel against him as High Priest upon earth of all Gods People But Religion and Rebellion must be made to depend one upon another a neat way of making Atheists and when all 's done I reckon it a very false Notion That all Rebellions almost you have heard of began upon pretence of Religion and Liberty for take we but a view of the Wars and Rebellions that have been in England since William the First and how few of them have began upon pretence of Religion and Liberty in comparison with them that have been commenc'd upon pretence of Title to the Crown The bloudy Contest between the Houses of York and Lancaster alone lasted about a Hundred Years And the Wars of our English Kings in France which dured long and brought great desolation upon that Country had the same ground perhaps you will not call these Rebellions except Religion had been pretended but that were to beg the Question And if you respect the Wars occasion'd and fomented by the Pope he will fairly tell you that all his Wars are of a Priestly Sovereign against Rebels and Hereticks But that which lies coucht in these two passages is That to fear the coming in of Popery by a Popish Successor to the subverting our Religion and to be jealous of our Liberty from a series of Treasonous actions in great men against the Government is a breach of the Peace and at least bordering upon Rebellion Next you are pleas'd to make merry with Appeals to the People Excellent Arbiters in matters relating to Government Methinks Sir you come too near the Declaration against the Two last Parliaments and manifold Addresses of the Justices