Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	doctrine_n	faith_n	scripture_n	3,083	5	5.9043	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52461	Parliamentum pacificum, or, The happy union of King & people in an healing Parliament heartily wish't for, and humbly recommended / by a true Protestant and no dissenter.	Northleigh, John, 1657-1705.	1688 (1688)	Wing N1302; ESTC R15979	62,138	77

upon the Dutch themselves for certainly were these Penal Laws so favourable as only to incapacitate them for Office and Trust yet even that is a severity which they are necessitated to suffer and that for Conscience sake it is but a poor extenuation of an uncharitable temper when he tells us that for some Political ends these Laws for Religion must remain unrepeal'd as if the Sacraments themselves were only made to be subservient to some Civil Institutions and the God of Heaven but an instrument to work out the inventions of man if meerly for secular ends so sacred a being as the Drity it self must be so solemnly invok't which the best Advocates for the cause do seem to confess I am afraid such an Invocation may be worse than that to Saints and be at least very profane if not Idolatrous neither can it be answer'd us that then all Declarations all Oaths must be laid aside for the Consequence fails them too for the Common reason of Imposing them is only or only should be for the detecting of Justice and Equity the discovering of truth from falsehood whereas these Protestations call'd Tests are by their own Confession kept a foot only to be Injurious to their fellow-Subjects that are Equitably born to the Common Priviledges of their Country and are so far from a discovery of what is true or false that they are made about matters so profoundly divine and mysterious that it is morally impossible for human understanding to discover or find it out unless the swearing to an Article of Faith be found a sufficient proof of the soundness of the Doctrine and the books of Scripture Antient Fathers modern Criticks can be all Confuted or be better Expounded by the Votes of an house of Commons This States-man makes it so Incomprehensible for any that profess Vid. Letter themselves Christians to go to disturb the quiet of a state and over-turn Constitutions only that they may be admitted to employments And pray must not others then think it as Vnchristian to have the professors of the same faith and their fellow-Subjects excluded from such employs which as their Religion cannot really debar them from so their very Native Birth-right demands it it is false in fact tho they take it for granted that it is the Roman-Catholicks alone that do so disturb and disquiet the State of the Kingdom it is only these Laws that create all this disturbance to them and the state these establisht-men would have been loath under the Oppression of Oliver to have merited the Name of disturbers of the Nation and 't is shewn before that suffering from a power Legal or Vsurpt is still the same where the Laws are oppressive and if the Overturning of old Constitutions be a thing of that consideration tho hardly a Parliament passes in which there are not new ones made if that I say be such a considerable argument as to make it absolutely necessary for our English Catholiques to acquiesce to continue Out-Laws more incapacitated them some Protestant Aliens how destructive must this be to the Protestant Interest should the Romanists take an opportunity to return upon us an old Law of the Romans that of Talionis and exclude all the Reform'd from Trust with a Test of Retaliation why we must submit we must not endeavour for our Restitution we must not disturb the state overturn establishment or repeal Laws And must not we look very silly too when by our own Arguments we have silenc'd our selves What a formidable blow will this give to the Reformation in England which was carried on as some say by the overturning of all that was Antient and Establisht Sacred and Civil both in Church and State and afford them a Scurvy Argument That they may overturn with a better warrant than they were turn'd out that their alterations will be only a restoring of an old establishment whereas we overturn'd that to set up new Constitutiens In short if they bring no better Reasons for our Religion than its being so much Establisht it will certainly resolve it self into the Power and Pleasure of the Prince and really be what they so scornfully reject truly * Vid. Oxford Reasons Precarious for surely they must see that assoon as they had a Protestant King they presently had their Protestant Religion And that in spite of far more Antient Constitutions and Establishments to the contrary I 'le grant him that every constituted body or Assembly whatsoever will be willing to make Laws for its own safety and Preservation But whatever be the Policy of the State it must be still agreeable to the Rules of Reason and Equity otherwise it proves no more than that all things are Lawful that are Expedient and that a Common-wealth to use his own terms as well as their own Constitution tho the result of an absolute rebellion revolt and defection from their Prince may make what Laws they please to prevent any Casual return to there natural Allegiance or that an Assembl'd or tumultuous People may pull in pieces even a Pensioner to provide against attempts thaet may disturb their peace and granting too that in Political bodies like to those that are truly natural there will be alway somwhat of innate tenderness to their own Preservation that genuin Principle only respects all opposing of a forreign force and no way determines it to domestick oppression no more than if the lazy man that is said alway to see the Lyon in the way should cut off one of his legs that he might the better run away with the rest of his carkass I am sorry I can say that this dismembring of our selves for the difference of Communion at home does no less expose us to Invasions from abroad but I am sure the saying is as certainly True prov'd by Experience Fact unavoidable from these Statutes and the Laws for should the best Seaman the best Souldier by his birth or Conversion be a Papist Convict he is totally incapacitated utterly impossible to do the least service to the Kingdom or the Crown and why should these Dutch people put that upon us the inconvenience of which they see in themselves and take all the care to avoid unless they would Vid. Letter have the more of the Kings Subjects unqualify'd to fight for him only that they might the sooner invade him Before the making of our first Test * 1673. when Papists Participated of Employments had their Places in Parliament I cannot remember that they did Impeach our Peace I am sure some of them did us signal service in the Dutch Wars his foes felt too much of the force of the Admiral and so may well fear the Preferment of his friends What the Reform'd Religion suffers from the Roman-Catholicks in France is no reason at all against the repealing of Vid. Letter these Laws in England unless they can prove the disposition of the Princes and the Politicks of the Two States to be

the King could cause the Parliament to proceed upon Articles by him Limited I think this might have spoil'd the Letter-Makers Jest upon the Elections of Congee d'eslire when it would have chang'd his Liberty of Debate too into a Merit of Obedience and yet these were the resolutions long since of Judges and Lawyers But this I know they 'l say was only offer'd at by an Arbitrary King. I am sure an unfortunate one and whom his Subjects us'd as ungratefully But then wee 'l turn the Tables and tell them of a Popular one whom they Complimented into the Throne and that is his immediate Successor in the 6 of Hen. 4. he call'd a Parliament at Coventry and some say in his process to the Sherifs and Writ of Summons my Ld. Coke will only allow to be in his Letters he Commands that no Lawyer shall be return'd a Knight or Burgess And so by his Royall Authority it succeeded too T is true in the next Year and the next Parliament they Petition'd for the Liberty of freer Elections and had it granted them however this still proves that such Royal Interpositions are not altogether new and that in former Reigns the Prerogative ran higher in this point So much for the second Section of the same old Clamors rais'd and reviv'd and that the Third may be the same too some Churchmen have taken too much Pains and I wish I could say to little purpose No sooner was the Prince by Providence placed in his Throne and whom their Sermons of Nonresistance they say solely set upon it tho' his fortunate Arms in the West did somewhat secure it too but some of the very same men manag'd the matter so as if The Protestant Princes of Germany provided against such reflections on the Emperors Religion at the Dyet at Ratisbone they had a mind to Preach him out again Arbitrary power Popery Protestant Religion was more the Theam of the Pulpit than before it had been of the Fanaticks Papers and Pamphlets and that at the same time that his Majesty had commanded the Priests of his own perswasion to meddle with nothing that was controversial * and which was as Religiously observ'd by them too This was a Great indecency at least if not a little disobedience especially when after the Kings injunctions had satisfy'd them He lookt upon it as tending to Sedition Controversies never yet edify'd much out of a Pulpit and it may be well wisht there were less of it in the Press What party was the first aggressor will not so soon be found tho' that which first desists may be found the Wisest Arguments may now be better worded * Some say the Protestant Side began first in their Sermons Vid. Preface to the further Desence of the Bishop of Condom as all Arts are by length of time improv'd but the best of our Virtuos●es in Divinity have with all their late Experiments hardly made any new Discoveries and little has been said after they have labour'd so much on both sides but what has been brought on the Stage before People enter only the List now to shew their Courage and make a Spectacle and like Gladiaters seem to draw by consent and assign the Places of their Combate and sure never was that sacred Science so truly Polemical whereas after all the Mysteries of Religion must either be left to God that gave it to the Church that he has Establisht or to every Individual Breast If to the first we must leave off all disputes and leave the Issue to God and the Last day if to a Church then without doubt to a Universal and Catholick one to which if we submit to be guided by we must think it Infallible whatever it be for sure 't is best to trust most our Salvation where there is the least Error and madness to swear Absolutely to the truth of a thing that may possibly be false And if the Bible and the Books of Scripture as well Interpreted must be the guide who shall be Judg of its being done so well and I cannot see how a National Church or Establisht one that will not pretend to this infallibility can command with Punishment Pains Death and Anathema to believe as she does interpret unless we acknowleg'd that Church to be always in the right that has the Power for if she punishes People for not believing her to Interpret well it will be hard for her to avoid an impossibility of interpreting amiss that will amount almost to somewhat of a Judg that cannot Err so that unavoidably we fall into the last part of the Dilemma of letting every one adhere to the Expositions and Principles of that particular Church which agree best with his Reason and are most satisfactory to his Soul. I confess these Considerations weigh'd with me so much as to think an Establish't Toleration unavoidable both from the Circumstances of the State and the Doctrine of the Church for as Infallibility is hard to be believ'd so sure 't is more hard to think a Church can force you to Believe Her that does not pretend to it and if an Alliance between that and Liberty be such a Contradiction what an Absurdity must Persecution be from those that will not presume to be Infallible and that an Absolute or Implicit Subscription to all her Articles has been alway requir'd I need not prove since Dissenters 't is certain have often Offer'd Conditional Ones and were not so much as suffer'd this modest Interposition of subscribing to her Laws * So Adjudg'd 33 34. of Eliz. were Rejected on the same Account in the 13 14. Car. 2. as far as they were agreeable with those of GOD and the Land which I wish may not lay too much of the Schism at their door that think it only to be supprest with Severities and Executions but while we muster up these Arguments about Religion we raise but the Legion of Spirits we would lay and is only so far from an Impertinence and Digression as it terminates to prove the necessity of a Tolleration and the design of the Discourse I do no Injury to them or the Truth when I tell them thus That the Din of Protestant Religion has founded too much of late the alarum from the Pulpits as if the Watch-man had been plac't upon the Top of the Tower and seen the whole Host of the Assyrians to come up and besiege the * A City that was of Old At unity with it self City of Jerusalem Martyrdom Persecution Sufferings have been the Subject of some Sermons not as Passive Exhortations but rather to create dreadful Apprehensions which can't be so well Justify'd by such as are fond for the retaining the Power of Forcing and were it not so intended the Preachers up of such Suggestions would see themselves impertinent when they take their Texts from all the miseries of the afflicted as if they were already in Torment when they make the Church of England another