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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	church_n	great_a	time_n	3,780	5	3.5201	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54191	A perswasive to moderation to dissenting Christians in prudence and conscience humbly submitted to the King and his great council by one of the humblest and most dutiful of his dissenting subjects.	Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1685 (1685)	Wing P1337A; ESTC R28423	35,496	61

will end these forregin Instances with a Prince and Bishop all in one and he a Roman Catholick too and that is the Bishop of Mentz who admits with a very Peaceable success such Lutherains with his Catholicks to enjoy their Churches as live in his Town of Erford Thus does Practice tells us that neither Monarchy nor Hierarchy are in danger from a Toleration On the contrary the Laws of the Empire which are the Acts of the Emperor and the Soveraign Princes of it have tolerated these three Religious Perswasions viz. the Roman-Catholick Lutherain and Calvanist and they may as well tolerate three more for the same Reasons and with the same Success For it is not their greater nearerness or consistency in Doctrine or in Worship On the contrary they differ much and by that and other Circumstances are sometimes engaged in great Controversies yet is a Toleration practicable the way of Peace with them And which is closest to our point at home it self we see that a Toleration of the Iews French and Dutch Churches in England both Dissenters from the National Way And the Connivance that has been in Ireland And the down-right Toleration in most of his Majesties Plantations abroad proves the Assertion That Toleration is not dangerous to Monarchy For Experience tells us where it is in any degree admitted the King's Affairs prosper most People Wealth and Strength being sure to follow such Indulgence But after all that I have said in Reason and Fact why Toleration is safe to Monarchy Story tells us that worse things have befallen Princes in Countries under Ecclesiastical Vnion than in places under divided forms of Worship and so tolerating Countries stand to the Prince more than upon equal terms with conforming ones And where Princes have been exposed to hardship in tolerating Countries they have as often come from the Conforming as Non-conforming party and so the Dissenter is upon equal terms to the Prince or State with the Conformist The first is evident in the Iews under the conduct of Moses their Dissention came from the men of their own Tribes such as Corah Dathan and Abiram with their pertakers To say nothing of the Gentiles The Miseries and Slaughters of Mauritius the Emperor proves my point who by the greatest Church-men of his time was withstood and his Servant that perpetrated the Wickedness by them substituted in his room because more officious to their Grandure What power but that of the Church dethron'd Childrek King of France and set Pippin in his place The miseries of the Emperors Henry the fourth and fifth Father and Son from their rebellious Subjects raised and animated by the power of Conformists dethroning both as much as they could are notorious 'T is as plain that Sigismond King of Sweedland was rejected by that Lutherain Country because he was a Roman-Catholick If we come nearer home which is most suitable to the Reasons of the discourse we find the Church-men take part with William Rufus and Henry the first against Robert their elder Brother and after that we see some of the greatest of them make Head against their King namely Anselm Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and his party as did his Successor Thomas of Becket to the second Henry Stephen Usurpt the Crown when there was a Church Vnion And King John lived miserable for all that and at last dyed by one of his own Religion too The Dissentions that agitated the Reign of his Son Henry the third and the Barrons War with Bishop Grosteeds Blessing to Mumford their General The Deposition and Murther of the second Edward Richard sixth Henry and his Son the Prince The Vsurpation of Richard the third and the Murther of the Sons of Edward the fourth in the Tower of London The civil War that followed between him and the Earl of Richmond afterwards our wise Henry the seventh were all perpetrated in a Country of one Religion and by the Hands of Conformists In short if we will but look upon the civil War that so long raged in this Kingdom between the Houses of York and Laneaster and consider that they professed but one and the same Religion and both back't with numbers of Church-men too to say nothing of the Miserable end of many of our Kings princely Ancestors in Scotland especially the first and third James will find cause to say That Church-Vniformity is not a Security for Princes to depend upon If we will look next into Countries where Dissenters from the National Church are tolerated we shall find the Conformist not less Culpable than the Dissenter The Disorders among the Iews after they were settled in the Land that God had given them came not from those they tolerated but themselves They cast off Samuel and the Government of the Judges 'T was the Children of the National Church that fell in with the Ambition of Absolom and animated the Rebellion against his Father David They were the same that revolted from Solomon's Son and cryed in behalf of Jeroboam To your Tents O Israel Not two Ages ago the Church of France too generally fell in with the Family of Guise against their lawful Soveraign Henry the fourth Nor were they without Countenance of the greatest of their Belief who stiled it an holy War at that time fearing not without cause the Defection of that Kingdom from the Roman See In this conjuncture the Dissenters made up the best part of that King's Armies and by their Loyalty and Blood preserved the Blood Royal of France and set the Crown on the Head of that Prince That King was twice assinated and the last time murdered as was Henry the third his Predecessor but they fell one by the hand of a Church-man the other at least by a Conformist 'T is true that the next civil War was between the Catholicks and the Hugenots under the conduct of Cardinal Richlien and the Duke of Roan But as I will not justifie the Action so their Liberties and Cautions so solemnly settled by Henry the fourth as the reward of their singular Merit being by the Ministry of that Cardinal invaded they say they did but defend their own and that rather against the Cardinal than the King whose softness suffered him to become a property to the great Wit and Ambition of that Person And there is this Reason to believe them that if it had been otherwise we are sure that King Charles the first would not in the least have countenanced their Quarrel However the Cardinal like himself wisely knew when to stop For though he thought it the Interest of the Crown to moderate their greatness and check their growth yet having fresh in Memory the Story of the fore-going Age he saw ' twaswise to have a Ballance upon occasion But this was more then recompenc'd in their first Adhesion to the Crown of France under the Ministry and Direction of the succeeding Cardinal when their Perswasion had not only Number and many good Officers to value it self upon but

she has it But her Dissenters cannot forget That of his Clemency And as they were both great and admirably distinguish't so by no means are they inconsistent or impracticable And if his Justice will not let him be wanting in the One His wonted greatness of Mind will hardly let him leave the Other behind him in the Storm unpitied and unhelpt Pardon me We have not to do with an insensible Prince but one Toucht with our Infirmities More than any Body fit to judge our Cause by the share he once had in it Who should give Liberty of Conscience like the Prince that has wanted it To suffer for his own was Great but to deliver other mens were Glorious It is a sort of paying the Vows of his Adversity and it cannot therefore be done by any one else with so much Justice and Example Far be it from me to solicite any thing in Deminution of the just Rights of the Church of England Let her rest protected where she is and if in any thing Mistaken let God alone perswade her I hope none will be thought to intend her Injury for refusing to understand the King's Promise to her in a Ruinous sense to all Others For it is morally impossible that a Conscientious Prince can be thought to have ty'd himself to compell others to a Communion that himself cannot tell how to be of or that any thing can oblige him to shake the Firmness of those he has confirmed by his own Royal Example Having then so Illustrous an Instance of Integrity as the hazard of the loss of Three Crowns for Conscience Let it at least excuse our Constancy and provoke the Friends of the Succession to Moderation that we may none of us loose our Birth-Rights for our Perswasion us Dissenters to live Dutifully and so Peacably under our own Vine and under our own Fig-Tree with Glory to God on High to the King Honour and Good Will to all Men. The Publication of the following Discourse is occasioned by an Appeal made by a late Author to all Crowned Heads against Toleration and Liberty of Conscience in his pretended Answer to the Duke of Buckingham I shall not Commend it and I hope it will need no Excuse 'T is writ with Duty to the King and Compassion to many of his peaceable People The usual Objections against the Moderation desired are stated and answered The Whole recommended to the Reader By his Affectionate Friend W. P. A PERSWASIVE TO Moderation c. MODERATION the Subject of this Discourse is in plain English Liberty of Conscience to Dissenters A Cause I have with all Humility undertaken to plead against the Prejudices of the Times That there is such a thing as Conscience and the Liberty of it in reference to Faith and Worship towards God must not be denyed even by those that are most scandal'd at the Ill use some seem to have made of such Pretences But to settle the Terms By Conscience I understand the Apprehension and Perswasion a man has of his Duty to God By Liberty of Conscience I mean A free and open Profession and Exercise of that Duty But I alwayes premise this Conscience to keep within the bounds of Morality and that it be neither Frantick nor Mischievous but a Good Subject a Good Child a Good Servant As exact to yield to Caesar the things that are Caesar's as jealous of with-holding from God the thing that is God's For he that with-holds from Man the thing that God requires him to pay with-holds it from God who has his Tribute out of it They do not reject their Prince Parent or Master but God who enjoyns that Duty to them The difference being only this They deny not God his Due immediately and to his face but they do it too often in the Person of his Deligate Those Pathetick words of Christ will naturally enough reach the case In that ye did it not to them ye did it not to me for Duty to such Relations have a divine Stamp And divine Right runs through more things of the World and Acts of our Lives than we are aware of And Sacriledge may be committed against more than the Church Nor will a Dedication to God of the Robbery from Man expiate the Guilt of Disobedience For though Zeal could turn Gossip to Theft his Altars would renounce the Sacrifice The Conscience then that I state and the Liberty I pray carrying so great a Salvo and Deference to publick and private Relations no ill design can with any Justice be fixt upon the Author or Reflection upon the Subject which by this time I think I may venture to call a Toleration But to this so much craved as well as needed Toleration I meet with two Objections of weight the salving of which will make way for it in this Kingdom And the first is a Disbelief of the Possibility of the thing Toleration of Dissenting Worships from that establish't is not practicable say some without danger to the State with which it is interwoven This is Political The other Objection is That admitting Dissenters to be in the Wrong which is alwayes premised by the National Church such Latitude were the way to keep up the Dis-union and instead of compelling them into a better Way leave them in the possession and persuit of their old Errors This is Religious I think I have given the Objections fairly 't will be my next business to answer them as fully The strength of the first Objection against this Liberty is the Danger suggested to the State the Reason is the National Form being interwoven with the Frame of the Government But this seems to me only said and not only with submission not prov'd but not true For the establisht Religion and Worship are no other ways interwoven with the Government than that the Government makes profession of them and by divers-Laws has made them the Currant Religion and required all the Members of the State to conform to it This is nothing but what may as well be done by the Government for any other Perswasion as that 'T is true 't is not easie to change an establish't Religion nor is that the Question we are upon but State Religions have been chang'd without the change of the States We see this in the Governments of Germany and Denmark upon the Reformation But more clearly and near our selves in the case of Henry the eighth Edward the sixth Queen Mary and Elizabeth for the Monarchy stood the Family remained and succeeded under all the Revolutions of State-Religion which could not have been had the Proposition been generally true The change of Religion then does not necessarily change the Government or alter the State and if so a fortiori Indulgence of Church-Dissenters does not necessarily hazard a change of the State where the present State-Religion or Church remains the same for That I premise Some may say That it were more facile to change from one National Religion to another than to