Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	church_n	england_n	time_n	2,923	5	3.6256	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44757	A letter to a dissenter, upon occasion of His Majesties late gracious declaration of indulgence	Halifax, George Savile, Marquis of, 1633-1695.	1687 (1687)	Wing H312; ESTC R176	10,014	12

being the Law is so Sacred that no Trespass against it is to be Defended yet Frailties may in some measure be Excused when they cannot be Justified The desire of enjoying a Liberty from which men have been so long restrained may be a Temptation that their Reason is not at all times able to resist If in such a case some Objections are leapt over indifferent men will be more inclined to lament the Occasion than to fall too hard upon the Fault whilst it is covered with the Apology of a good Intention but where to rescue your selves from the Severity of one Law you give a Blow to all the Laws by which your Religion and Liberty are to be protected and instead of silently receiving the benefit of this Indulgence you set up for Advocates to support it you become voluntary Aggressors and look like Counsel retained by the Prerogative against your old Friend Magna Charta who hath done nothing to deserve her falling thus under your Displeasure If the case then should be that the Price expected from you for this Liberty is giving up your Right in the Laws sure you will think twice before you go any further in such a losing Bargain After giving Thanks for the breach of one Law you lose the Right of Complaining of the breach of all the rest you will not very well know how to defend your selves when you are pressed and having given up the Question when it was for your advantage you cannot recall it when it shall be to your Prejudice If you will set up at one time a Power to help you which at another time by Parity of Reason shall be made use of to destroy you you will neither be pitied nor relieved against a Mischief you draw upon your selves by being so unreasonably thankful It is like calling in Auxiliaries to help who are strong enough to subdue you In such a case your Complaints will come too late to be heard and your Sufferings will raise Mirth instead of Compassion If you think for your excuse to expound your Thanks so as to restrain them to this particular case others for their ends will extend them further and in these differing Interpretations that which is back'd by Authority will be the most likely to prevail especially when by the advantage you have given them they have in truth the better of the Argument and that the Inferences from your own Concessions are very strong and express against you This is so far from being a groundless Supposition that there was a late instance of it the last Session of Parliament in the House of Lords where the first Thanks though things of course were interpreted to be the Approbation of the King 's whole Speech and a Restraint from the further Examination of any part of it though never so much disliked and it was with difficulty obtained not to be excluded from the liberty of objecting to this mighty Prerogative of Dispensing meerly by this innocent and usual piece of good Manners by which no such thing could possibly be intended This sheweth that some bounds are to be put to your good Breeding and that the Constitution of England is too valuable a thing to be ventured upon a Complement Now that you have for some time enjoyed the benefit of the End it is time for you to look into the Danger of the Means The same Reason that made you desirous to get Liberty must make you solicitous to preserve it so that the next thought will naturally be not to engage your self beyond Retreat and to agree so far with the Principles of all Religions as not to rely upon a Deathbed Repentance There are certain Periods of time which being once past make all Cautions ineffectual and all Remedies desperate Our Understandings are apt to be hurried on by the first heats which if not restrained in time do not give us leave to look back till it is too late Consider this in the Case of your Anger against the Church of England and take warning by their Mistake in the same kind when after the late King's Restoration they preserved so long the bitter taste of your rough usage to them in other times that it made them forget their Interest and sacrifice it to their Revenge Either you will blame this Proceeding in them and for that reason not follow it or if you allow it you have no reason to be offended with them so that you must either dismiss your Anger or lose your Excuse except you should argue more partially than will be supposed of Men of your Morality and Understanding If you had now to do with those Rigid Prelates who made it a Matter of Conscience to give you the least Indulgence but kept you at an uncharitable distance and even to your more reasonable Scruples continued stiff and exorable the Argument might be fairer on your side but since the common Danger hath so laid open that Mistake that all the former Haughtiness towards you is for ever extinguish'd and that it hath turned the Spirit of Persecution into a Spirit of Peace Charity and Condescention shall this happy Change only affect the Church of England And are you so in love with Separation as not to be moved by this Example It ought to be followed were there no other reason than that it is a Vertue but when besides that it is become necessary to your preservation it is impossible to fail the having its Effect upon you If it should be said that the Church of England is never Humble but when she is out of Power and therefore loseth the Right of being Believed when she pretendeth to it the Answer is first it would be an uncharitable Objection and very much miss-timed an unseasonable Triumph not only ungenerous but unsafe So that in these respects it cannot be urged without Scandal even though it could be said with Truth Secondly This is not so in Fact and the Argument must fall being built upon a false Foundation for whatever may be told you at this very hour and in the heat and glare of your present Sun-shine the Church of England can in a moment bring Clouds again and turn the Royal Thunder upon your Heads blow you off the Stage with a Breath if she would give but a Smile or a kind Word the least Glimpse of her Complyance would throw you back into the state of Suffering and draw upon you all the Arrears of Severity which have accrued during the time of this kindness to you and yet the Church of England withall her Faults will not allow her self to be rescued by such unjustifiable means but chuseth to bear the weight of Power rather than lie under the burthen of being Criminal It cannot besaid that she is unprovoked Books and Letters come out every day to call for Answers yet she will not be stirred From the supposed Authors and the Stile one would swear they were Undertakers and had made a Contract to fall out

with the Church of England There are Lashes in every Address Challenges to draw the Pen in every Pamphlet in short the fairest occasions in the World given to quarrel but she wisely distinguisheth between the Body of Dissenters whom she will suppose to Act as they do with no ill intent and these small Skirmishers pickt and sent out to Picqueer and to begin a Fray amongst the Protestants for the entertainment as well as the advantage of the Church of Rome This Conduct is so good that it will be Scandalous not to Applaud it It is not equal dealing to blame our Adversaries for doing ill and not commend them when they do well To hate them because they Persecuted and not to be reconciled to them when they are ready to Suffer rather than receive all the Advantages that can be gained by a Criminal Complyance is a Principle no sort of Christians can own since it would give an Objection to them never to be Answered Think a little who they were that promoted your former Persecutions and then consider how it will look to be angry with the Instruments and at the same time to make a League with the Authors of your Sufferings Have you enough considered what will be expected from you Are you ready to stand in every Borough by a Vertue of a Conge d'eslire and instead of Election be satisfied if you are returned Will you in Parliament justifie the Dispensing Power with all its consequences and repeal the Test by which you will make way for the Repeal of all the Laws that were made to preserve your Religion and to Enact others that shall destroy it Are you disposed to change the Liberty of Debate into the Merit of Obedience and to be made Instruments to Repeal or Enact Laws when the Roman Consistory are Lords of the Articles Are you so linked with your new Friends as to reject any Indulgence a Parliament shall offer you if it shall not be so Comprehensive as to include the Papists in it Consider that the implyed Conditions of your new Treaty are no less than that you are to do every thing you are desired without examining and that for this pretended Liberty of Conscience your real Freedom is to be Sacrificed Your former Faults hang like Chains still about you you are let loose only upon Bayl the first Act of Non-compliance sendeth you to jayl again You may see that the Papists themselves do not rely upon the Legality of this Power which you are to Justifie since they being so very earnest to get it Established by a Law and the doing such very hard things in order as they think to obtain it is a clear Evidence that they do not think that the single Power of the Crown is in this Case a good Foundation especially when this is done under a Prince so very tender of all the Rights of Soveraignty that he would think it a diminution to his Prerogative where he conceiveth it strong enough to go alone to call in the Legislative help to strengthen and support it You have formerly blamed the Church of England and not without reason for going so far as they did in their Compliance and yet as soon as they stopped you see they are not only Deserted but Prosecuted Conclude then from this Example that you must either break off your Friendship or resolve to have no Bounds in it If they do not succeed in their Design they will leave you first if they do you must either leave them when it will be too late for your Safety or else after the squeaziness of starting at a Surplice you must be forced to swallow Transubstantiation Remember that the other day those of the Church of England were Trimmers for enduring you and now by a sudden Turn you are become the Favourites do not deceive your selves it is not the Nature of lasting Plants thus to shoot up in a Night you may look gay and green for a little time but you want a Root to give you a continuance It is not so long since as to be forgotten that the Maxim was It is impossible for a Dissenter not to be a REBEL Consider at this time in France even the new Converts are so far from being Imployed that they are Disarmed their sudden Change maketh them still to be distrusted notwithstanding that they are Recoriciled What are you to expect then from your dear Friends to whom whenever they shall think fit to throw you off again you have in other times given such Arguments for their excuse Besides all this you Act very unskilfully against your visible Interest if you throw away the advantages of which you can hardly fail in the next probable Revolution Things tends naturally to what you would have if you would let them alone and not by an unseasonable Activity lose the Influences of your good Star which promiseth you every thing that is prosperous The Church of England convinced of its Errour in being Severe to you the Parliament when ever it meeteth sure to be Gentle to you the next Heir bred in the Country which you have so often Quoted for a Pattern of Indulgence a general Agreement of all thinking Men that we must no more cut our selves off from the Protestants abroad but rather inlarge the Foundations upon which we are to build our Defences against the Common Enemy so that in Truth all things seem to conspire to give you ease and satisfaction if by too much hast to anticipate your good Fortune you do not destroy it The Protestants have but one Article of Human Strength to oppose the the Power which is now against them and that is not to lose the advantage of their numbers by being so unwary as to let themselves be divided We all agree in our Duty to our Prince our Objections to his Belief do not hinder us from seeing his Vertues and our not complying with his Religion hath no effect upon our Allegiance we are not to be Laughed out of our Passive Obedience and the Doctrine of Non-Resistance though even those who perhaps owe the best part of their Security to that Principle are apt to make a Jest of it So that if we give no advantage by the fatal Mistake of misapplying our Anger by the natural course of things this Danger will pass away like a shower of Hail fair weather will succeed as lowring as the Sky now looketh and all by this plain and easie Receipt Let us be still quiet and undivided firm at the same time to our Religion our Loyalty and our Laws and so long as we continue this method it is next to impossible that the odds of two hundred to one should lose the Bett except the Church of Rome which hath been so long barren of Miracles should now in her declining Age be brought to Bed of One that would out-do the best she can brag of in her Legend To conclude the short Question will be Whether you will joyn with those who must in the end run the same Fate with you If Protestants of all sorts in their Behaviour to one another have been to blame they are upon the more equal terms and for that very reason it is fitter for them now to be reconciled Our Dis-union is not only a Reproach but a Danger to us those who believe in modern Miracles have more Right or at least more Excuse to neglect all Secular Cautions but for us it is as justifiable to have no Religion as wilfully to throw away the Human Means of preserving it I am Dear SIR Your most Affectionate Humble Servant T.W.