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
A44655	A letter to Mr. Samuel Johnson occasioned by a scurrilous pamphlet, intituled, Animadversions on Mr. Johnson's Answer to Jovian in three letters to a country-friend : at the end of which is reprinted the preface before the History of Edward and Richard the Second, to the end every thing may appear clearly to the reader, how little of that preface has been answered / both written by the Honourable Sir Robert Howard.	Howard, Robert, Sir, 1626-1698.	1692 (1692)	Wing H3000; ESTC R4333	26,604	76

against the Political Laws he is bound by the Common Laws of Soveraignty not to resist him or defend his Life against him by force It is to be observ'd that here are two sorts of Law God's Law and the Devil's Law that which supports and defends Right is God's Law that which takes away Life unjustly is the Devil's Law for he was a Murderer from the beginning But Contradictions are so frequent in that Discourse that I do not wonder to see the zealous Author shew one in his own particular and incogitantly perhaps profess a violent Resolution to break his own sacred Rule of Passive Obedience For I suppose if a Woman scolds and gives hard Names she is not Passive for then Billingsgate is Passiveness incorporated And I shall desire the Reader to judg whether there be much difference in theirs and our Author 's active Tongue-Assault for he loudly cries out with a very sharp Excursion That he should rather think it his Duty than the breach of it to tell not only a Popish Prince but a Popish King to his Face did he openly profess the Popish Religion That he was an Idolater a Bread-Worshipper a Goddess-Worshipper an Image-Worshipper a Wafer-Worshipper with an c. as if he had more Names in store for him But I must do the Author right to let the Reader know that Jovian was written when King James the Second was Duke of York and had not declar'd himself a Papist and perhaps he thought he would never have done such a rash thing but yet for fear of the worst the Author retreats to his Doctrine of Passive Obedience from this dangerous Sally he had made with an unadvised Boldness and then tells us 't is reasonable to depend on the Conscience of a Popish King and seemingly returns to a modest Repentance that he had express'd such a Displeasure against one that worshipped more Gods than one for after this terrible muster of hard Names he falls back as he was and pays such a profound Devotion to Passive Obedience that now he seems to extend it even to Thoughts as not to think ill of his own rail'd at Idolater this I suppose may be called forward and backward or to blow hot and cold in the same breath to make the Contradictions appear plain enough This Opinion yet he sticks most to if you will trust him as much as he advises you to trust the Idolater and tries to give you a Reason for it for he says That Suffering as in the Case of the Thebean Legion can never happen in Great Britain we of these Kingdoms having such Security against Tyranny as no People ever had I suppose he forgets his own Position and means a Truth that he before destroyed the Security he means if he can mean any after he has taken away all must be the Political Power that is the Laws Can any Man have the Charity to believe that he could think he proposed any Security from Laws that had set up an Imperial Power or Soveraign Law as he calls it which is the Will of a King to take them all away if he pleases He might as well tell us of a Security by certain Deeds to all which were fix'd Revocations and yet would have us depend on such Arbitrary Settlements without Right or Power to oppose those Revocations thus the continued Contradictions appear that mingle with such Notions A Man that stutters much in his Speech is hardly to be understood but such an excessive Stammering in Writing makes it much harder to guess what a Man means But in another place he gives us an additional Reason for trusting and to deter us from examining a Tyrant's Actions or opposing the Imperial that is Arbitrary Power which is That a King is accountable to none but God To make good this Opinion he quotes some of the Church-of England-Divines and of the Reformed Bochart a French-man whose Authority he often repeats As to these of the Church of England Mr. Johnson has fully answered that and quoted Statutes enough and Judgments of Convocations in Queen Elizabeth's Time that assert and support a contrary Doctrine to this unlimited Passive Obedience for they approved the Resistance of those in Scotland and France who actively and by force attempted to defend their Religion and Liberties I shall only add the Precedent of King Charles the First reputed the Church of England's Martyr He was of the same Judgment with the Church and State in Queen Elizabeth's time witness that Business of Rochel who took Arms upon the same account and received Assistance from him which approved an active Opposition against the Oppression brought on their Religion and Liberties But I find not only our Author but he that writ the History of Passive Obedience is a great Admirer of Bochart calling him the Glory of the Reformed and having quoted many of the Church-of England-Divines he then as well as Bochart's Letters to Dr. Morley quotes some other of the Reformed Divines But though I do not think this Cause depends as Mr. Johnson says upon telling Noses yet I will set down in the Margent that I may not interrupt my Discourse the several Opinions of eminent Reformed Divines which the Author of the History of Passive Obedience being so industrious to search Opinions must probably omit as not being useful for his business and indeed there are very few Arguments that may not be supported with Opinions for Flattery Design or present Interest has caused more Opinions than the true just Reason of the subject Matter could ever allow But if we should build a Confidence on this Foundation and the Prince be such a one as either does not believe or consider there is such an Account to be made up we should be miserably deceived And it hath not been frequently known that a Prince has liv'd as if he ever apprehended any Account in the other World to be given of his Actions in this all these Doctrines are but insinuating Flatteries to make Princes forget Men for the Service of God can hardly be performed by the Neglect of Men. But if the Author would have us believe that a King is accountable to none but God he ought to explain himself to us in the particular of K. James the Second a profest Papist and tell us to which of all his Gods he is to be accountable for our Good whether to a piece of Bread a Wafer an Image a Goddess or to all I could not have been so ingenious as to make his own Position so ridiculous as he himself has contrived to do it but in it self it appears a very strange Doctrine to trust to the Account a Popish King is to make with his God for those he believes his God will damn 'T would seem as rational for a Man to take an Estate to hold by the Life of a Man that he believed was to be certainly executed There is another as rational a