Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	church_n	england_n	reform_a	3,931	5	9.9167	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27543	The present interest of England stated by a lover of his king and countrey.	Bethel, Slingsby, 1617-1697.	1671 (1671)	Wing B2072; ESTC R5304	27,311	42

from any kindness he can have for the Protestants in other Countries Nor do I know how to reconcile his boasting of the transcending Charity of the Church of England towards other Churches with his accusing them of looking upon the Non-consormists of England as bastards or making no account of any other Interest in them than a man makes of the Vermin which breed out of his excrementitious sweat or those Ascarides which comes sometimes in his most uncleanly parts but for such homely expressions surely the Church of England will not think themselves beholding to him no more than for rendring them so charitable to those that differ from them both in Doctrine and Discipline as the Papists do who are the Church he must mean and so uncharitable to those that agree with them in all material points of Doctrine and differ only from them in circumstantials as the Non-conformists do Secondly The growth of Papists in England ought to be prevented because there is a kind of natural unaptness to business in that Religion compared to the reformed as Italy and Spain where they are the greatest Bigots do evidence besides that the same seems to be made good in England in that for one Papist stranger of business that is in it there is thought to be fifty Protestants or more though I fear that the difference in the number of the one and th' other Religion is not much and the fewer idle and unprofitable persons any Country hath the more prosperous it must needs be Thirdly Because the vast sums of money that go out of England sent by Papists to such uses as they call pious for putting young Gentlewomen into Nunneries and breeding Gentlemens sons in Popish Schools and Universities is a great impoverishing of the Nation and so a prejudice to Trade the School at St. Omers having seldom less than an hundred and twenty English youths and the Colledge at Doway eighty or more Students besides their other Schools Universities Convents and Nunneries scattered over all the Popish territories sounded on purpose to encrease that Interest in England corrupt and pervert their Gentry which are too many to enumerate And lastly Because the multitude of lazie Priests and Jesuits sent as Emissaries to seduce Protestants and encourage Papists in their errours are a vast charge to those of that Religion and in them to the Nation without contributing any thing to the good of mankind And if the French King thinks it his Interest in order to the rendring himself Protector of the Romish Religion to suppress his Protestant Subjects who by Law have a right to Liberty of Conscience equal with the Papists who own no other Head but their Native King and who were so faithful to him that when reduced to the greatest extremities at Rochel and forced to implore the assistance of England yet would never depart from their Allegiance in putting themselves under England when sollicited to it The King of England hath much more reason to think it his Interest in order to his safety and making himself Head of the Protestant Party to suppress the Papists who own another Head and so have a Forein Interest and who are bred to Principles which lead them to a restless plotting against their Sovereigns if contrary to them in Religion never joyning with such but upon design for themselves holding the murther of King and people rebellion or any thing else which they judge may tend to the propagating of their Religion lawful in the case of such as they call Hereticks as those who have conversed with Papists abroad where they sometimes speak their hearts and own their principles do know as well as the Gun-powder Treason the Massacre in Ireland and the many plots in Queen Elizabeths dayes which cannot be forgotten do sufficiently witness In contemplation whereof were I suppose made those wise Statutes enacting that the Popish Recusants shall be restrained to their private houses in the Country and not at any time after to pass or remove above five miles from thence upon pain of forfeiture for life of all lands goods and chattels That none of them convicted or to be convicted shall remain within ten miles of London nor come into the Court or House where his Majesty or Heir apparent shall be nor have in their own houses or in the hands or possession of any others at their disposition any Arms Gun-powder or Ammunition whatsoever and by the Book of Thanksgiving appointed for the fifth of November set forth by King James and the Parliament it is enjoyned to pray upon that day for the strengthening of the hand of the King and Magistrates of the land to cut off with Judgment and Justice those workers of iniquity the Papists whose Religion is Rebellion whose Faith is Faction whose practice is the Murthering of Souls and Bodies and to root them out of the Confines of the Kingdome And now since the wisdome of the Nation hath judged the Papists so dangerous it may seem strange that putting the Laws in execution against the Non-conformists should be thought a good reason for the prosecution of them and be none against the other of whose dangerons principles there hath been such large experience some observations here may peradventure be thought strained and new as that is a kind of Natural unapness in the Popish Religion to business whereas on the contrary amongst the Reformed the greater their zeal the greater is their inclinations to Trade and Industry as holding Idleness unlawful but experience in most places makes it good as in Spain and Italy no one City can boast of any great Trade driven by their Natives the greatest part of their Commerce being carried on by Protestant strangers Amsterdam alone having more Trade than all the Sea Towns of Italy and Spain have put together but to come closer to the Observation In Germany even in those Cities where they are Papists without toleration to any other there the Reformed may be said to carry all the Trade as at Colne in other Towns where they are Lutherans with a publick toleration to Papists which is denied to Calvinists there the reformed carry the Trade clearly from both Lutherans and Papists the latter having little as at Frankford upon the Main In other places where the Cities are half Papists half Lutherans without toleration to any other there the latter have the Trade as at Augsburgh In France the Reformed for their number are the greatest Traders though that people being looser from the Bishop of Rome than Spain or Italy are more given to Industry than either of those Nations but yet that the Reformed are by much the more Industrious appears in that they have no beggars amongst them though calculated to exceed three or four millions of souls it having been observed by one that travelled France round and crossed it several wayes that in all his travels in it he never met with one Protestant beggar and yet the multitudes of Popish are such

Cities without having his Religion enquired into as at Bruges Newpart c. those Countries had not been so thin of people nor Spain so depopulated as they are nor yet the whole house of Austria so low as it now seems to be Nay had the Pope made formerly so little use of his Inquisition as he doth at this time few places being less inquisitive after mens belief than Rome where one may be as good as he will and spend all his dayes without being proceeded against either Ecclesiastically or Civilly for not coming to their Churches Italy had had more people than it hath and been more considerable than it is The French could never advance by Massacres of which they are reckoned to have had thirty or forty at several times in several places nor yet get forward in power and greatness until they laid aside Persecution confessing as Lewis the 13th did at the taking of Rochell that although it would rejoyce him to have all his Subjects of the same belief with himself and that he should use all sweet means possible to draw them to it yet since the experience of times past had sufficiently made France to know that Religion is not to be planted by the Sword but to use his own words that it is God alone that must incline the heart and illuminate the understanding with his knowledge he assured them he would never use Violence in matters of Religion and to give that King his due he truly inherited the merciful good Nature of his incomparable Father Secondly It may be concluded to be the Interest of the King and Kingdom of England to grant Liberty of Conscience because by a general consent of Nations liberty in ceremonies invented by men seems to be accounted necessarie for the good of humane society For I believe I may without boldness affirm that England is singular in prosecuting them who are one with them in Doctrine for differing only in ceremonies no other Christian Church that I know of doing the like In Germany the Lutherans have scarce in any two Cities or Countries the same ceremonies Nurenburg and Leipsigg having almost as many as the Papists and yet differ in them Hamburg hath fewer and Strasburg none at all and so it is through all the Lutheran Cities and Countries in the Empire and yet agreeing in Doctrine their differing in circumstantials make no breach of charitie amongst them although at the same Communion I have seen some receive standing as others have kneeling The Church of Rome in their using the inventions of men in the worship of God seems their Principles considered to act rationally because they pretend to the assistance of an infallible Spirit but for the Reformed Churches who do not pretend to any such help to maintain that the Lord of Heaven and Earth who is so jealous of his own worship that under the Law he severely prohibited the adding to or diminishing one little from what he had commanded and under the Gospel gave no other Commission than to teach according to what he had commanded that he hath left his Worship to the inventions of corrupt frail man inclinable above all things to superstition and idolatry and who are by nature endlesly various in their imaginations sense and understandings seems to be irrational and to accuse Christ of not having been as a Son so careful of his Church as Moses a Servant was of the Church of God under the Law for had Christ intended to have left his Church under a negative obedience in worship making all things lawful that he had not forbidden the command had been as readily made to do whatsoever he had not prohibited as it was to do whatsoever he hath commanded And that the Church of Rome who pretends to infallibility should not exact Conformity in Ceremonies where there is an agreement in Doctrine as they do not even in Rome it self where they might force it without prejudice to Trade having little to obstruct there being in that City several Popish Churches differing from one another in Ceremonies and all abundantly from that properly called the Roman Church and yet agreeing in Doctrine have publick toleration without exceptions And yet that the Church of England who pretends not to infallibility should to their civil prejudice be rigid in imposing them upon those that agree with them not only in Fundamentals but in all material points of Faith Worship and obedience with punishment for denial I cannot conceive the reason except without Ceremonies to administer matter of employment in punishing tender Consciences they think they should be without work in any kind adequate to their great Revenues and that they dread the consequent of uselesness Thirdly Liberty of Conscience to all Protestant Non-conformists is the true Interest of King and Kingdome in that it is absolutely and indispensibly necessary for raising the value of Land which at present is miserably mean and low and advancing the Trade and Wealth of the Kingdome First Because imposition upon Conscience hinders the resort of Strangers and so the encrease of people whereof England is greatly wanting coming so far short of Holland in numbers whereby that Province alone is made more considerable than all the other six that whereas they are calculated to have six Souls for one Acre of ground England I fear hath hardly one for ten and the riches of Holland under such multitudes as the provisions of their own Country are said not to be sufficient to nourish above an eighth part of their People all the rest being supplied by the Sea and Trade with other Countries argues Plenty of Inhabitants to be a benefit to Trading Countries and Foreign Conquests or Plantations exhausting men and money where there is not an overplus of both a prejudice which ought to be avoided Secondly Imposition upon Conscience drives the soberest and most industrious sort of Natives into corners leaving trade into too few hands and to a kind of people that do but rarely mind it amongst whom though there are some that get large estates it is not the thriving of a small number but diffusive wealth that makes a Country rich And as most of the Corporations in England have declined in their flourishing condition since many of the soberest and publick spirited Citizens and Townsmen have by the imposition of Oaths they could not comply with been barred all share in Government so the influence would have been the same upon the whole Nation had not His Majesty wisely considered the good of his Kingdome in expressing his sense for Liberty and in some kind conniving at it And if men setting aside passion would but seriously remember and ponder the sad consequence of ancient popish Episcopal Persecutions in the deaths by several brutish wayes and torments of many millions of precious Christians in France England Netherlands Germany the Alpine Vallies Italy and Spain producing no other effects than the depopulating of the two last and increasing the number