Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	according_a	church_n	true_a	3,022	5	5.0934	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33237	Second thoughts, or, The case of a limited toleration, stated according to the present exigence of affairs in church and state	Clarendon, Edward Hyde, Earl of, 1609-1674.	1660 (1660)	Wing C4425; ESTC R15288	7,331	10

SECOND THOUGHTS OR THE CASE OF A Limited Toleration Stated according to the present Exigence of Affairs in CHURCH and STATE Nihil Violentum Durat SInce our present Condition more than ever Requires our being Strong of a Peice within our Selves for besides Domestique misunderstandings have we not powerful Neighbours Hovering over us and perhaps Watching the Opportunities which our Weakness and Divisions may give them And since our want of Union Intestine Animositys chiefly Result from our different Judgements in Religion and from the several Consequences thereof I hope I shall not mistake my duty in offering my thoughts to those who are the Proper Judges concerning that so much debated Question of Punishing or Tolerating Non-Conformists On this Subject my Endeavour shall be to speak plainly like a good English man without any Byas of prejudice or favour to the Persons concern'd and whereas many Persons of great Authority may perhaps be of a different Judgement from mine in the Point I am to handle I beg the favour of my Reader to beleive that nothing but the Interest of my Country could have Engaged me in a Question of this Nature in Opposition to so considerable a Party of whose Abilitles I have a very true and just Veneration In the first Place it must be allow'd that cold it be effected nothing were more to be desi●ed in order to the lasting Happiness of this Nation than a Conformity of all Minds under the same Doctrine and Worship in Religion That so as our Bodys and outward Actions are govern'd by the same Temporal Laws our Souls and our Opinions though in Matters relating to the World might also be united under one and the same Ecclesiasticall Discipline and were England at present under that happy Condition of Spiritual Vnion I should think it rational and seasonable by the Rigour of Law● to preserve it in such a State of Tranquillity by suppressing all Upstart Innovators frighting the People from the dangerous affectation of Novelty But since we enjoy this Universal Harmony only in our Wishes diversity of Opinions in Matters of Religious Worship having held so long a possession in the Minds of the People since the Cockle is so generally spred and mingled with the Corn that 't is impossible wholly to root up one without apparent Danger of destroying the other I think it behoves us to take our Measures according to the present State and Juncture of our Affairs and choose that expedient which is best for us and withal is attainable by us in the Circumstance we now are in not that which although best in its self is not possible for us to attain And here I conceive lyes the Root of their Mistakes who have lately with so much Zeal opposed a Toleration They tell us what should be not what may be done and deliver many Truths concerning the Beauty and Expediency of a General Vniformity but their Discourse seems cut out and made to fit an Vtopian Kingdom not England in its present Condition For according to true Policy Reason we ought either wholly to Root out all Dissenters or else so to Tolerate them that they may live at ease and contentedness amongst us whereby they may become if not of the Church at least sound Members of the Common Wealth Let the Opposers of a Toleration shew us a safe and ready way to rid the Nation of all Non-conformists though I confess I am no Friend to Force and Violence especially in Matters of Conscience yet I should not obstruct any Cause that would certainly produce so happy an effect But if this be impossible for them to do and if the Method by them prescrib'd and made use of serves only to exasperate not to carry of the peccant Humour I must conclude that the good of the Nation is either not rightly understood or not justly pursued by them For what can be more Pernicious to the Safety of any Kingdom than to have within it self so great a Body as all the Dissenters in England make continually exasperated by Penaltys and invaded by a legall kind of Hostility who thus made Enemys by the Law must by a Natural Consequence be still watching Occasions of easing and unburthening themselves What is this but to Nourish and Foment in our Bowels the Seeds of a Civil War that want nothing but an Opportunity which for Mischief too frequently presents it self to Break forth in a consuming Flame Perhaps you will say that a wholsome Violence may Cure their Obstinacy and Reduce them to Obedience and in time make them less Numerous and so less Dangerous I answear That Compulsion may bring many Hypocrites but no real Converts into our Church For Conscience is of so Spiritual a Nature that outward Force can have no Influence nor Dominion over it We cannot Over-rule it in our selves much less in others At home in our own Breasts interest cannot Bribe it to Judge otherwise of our own proper Actions than according to that Light of Nature or Grace which God has bestowed upon it And although it be granted in the Case of Non-conformists that their Conscience is Erroneous yet as such it can never be Rectified by Fear and Force but only by Conviction of Judgment Hence it may be inferred that nothing does more Efficatiously dispose and prepare the Minds of Men for Treason and Rebellion than by Force to make them Act against their Conscience in matters of Religion For they who have once overcome the Remorse of their God which is the Case of all such Compliers without Conviction of Judgment shall never stick at Breach of Faith with Prince or Magistrate when ever the like Motives of Interest or Fear shall prompt them to it Whoever therefore shall design to Reduce so great a Multitude of differing Judgments to an Uniformity of Profession by the way of Rigour and Infliction of paenalties can reasonably expect no better Success than to fill the Church with Hypocrites and the State with Subjects train'd up and principled for Rebellion Of this Truth we have an Illustrious Example recorded by Sozomen Cap. 7. Hist. Trip. Constatius Father to Constantine the Great having many Christian Souldiers under his Command himself being a Gentile resolved to make Trial of their Temper and find out amongst them who were fit or unfit for Trust and Employment Accordingly calling them together he declared that all such as would Sacrifice to his Gods should continue in his Service but that the Refusers should forthwith be Casheerd and might thank his Clemency that he proceeded no farther against them Hereupon when some Obeyed the General and some their Conscience those who prefer'd Religion to their Interest he immediately took into Favour and Office and the Temporizing Conformists he Excluded from all Employment presuming says our Authour that such could never be Loyal to Man who so lightly had forsaken their God From what has been said We may draw this Conclusion that where Infliction of

paenaltys prevails in order to an exterior Conformity in such to their Errour of Judgment it adds Hypocrisie whereby they become worse Christians and Subjects than before and where it does not so prevail it lays the Foundation of a Civil War by daily Exasperating so great a part of the Nation or rather begins it by continually Invading though under Colour of Law the Liberties and Goods of our fellow Subjects If it be Replyed that although being Prosecuted by the Law they may be irritated and dispos'd for mischief yet being Tolerated they will encreas in Strength and by Consequence encreas our Danger I answear that how great a Paradox soever it may seem at first sight yet most true it is that taking the whole Body together of the dissenters who are equally concerned in the Prosecution they are far more dangerous and powerfull to do Mischief when Prosecuted than when Tolerated For when they are all in a suffering Condition they are united together in one Common Cause and Concern of easing themselves from the pressure they are under and being so different in their other Principles this is the only point they can eenter in and Knit together into a Body and the only Band that binds them up in a Bundle But when they are Indulged and left Free the Cement of a joynt Interest being taken away they will naturally and necessarily fall in sunder and remain as divided in point of Faction and party as they are in tenets and principles Of this we have a fresh and convincing Example in the late Revolutions for before the War when all Sectaries and Nonconformists lived under the Curb and penaltys of the Law and high Commission Court they were all embodyed together as Fellow Sufferers in the Common Cause and appeared to the World but as one Sect and were generally known only by the Common Name of Puritans And to what Power and Strength they grew by this union was too fatally known by the Famous Mischiefs they did But afterwards having shaken off their Fetters and clapt them on their Masters when they were at ease and prosperity then did each Sect apart begin to set up its own Colours and the Distinctions of the Presbyterians Independents and Quakers grew visible to the World by their Divisions and Quarrels amongst themselves And I desire it may be observ'd that Monarchy and the Church were pull'd down by them at that time when by a preceding prosecution they had been united together and that the Church and Monarchy were then again restored when by Liberty and Prosperity those very Sects were fallen from one another and each had rankt it self in its own Canton and Division But now it remains to be considered whither these Dissenters and Nonconformists in Religion are any ways capable of being made Loyal and faithful to the Government I think there is but one certain Rule to resolve this and all Cases of a like Nature First allowing them to have common Sense it will evidently follow that if we can make it their Interest to be good Subjects they will not fail of being so whoever shall assign any Security but this for the Peoples Allegiance do in my Opinion but play with the Wind and pay us with Words I know that No Bishop no King has past for a Fundamental Maxime with some and that English Loyalty cannot consist but in the Church of England as it is now establisht And I suppose they go chiefly upon this Ground that true Allegiance must proceed from a rectified Conscience and a rectified Conscience from true Religion But I must begg their leave to dissent from them in this Particular All Men I confess should be obedient to their Lawful Governours for Conscience sake but all Men are not as they should be Man-kind in general is constantly true to nothing but their Interest how much that over rules Conscience in all Religions is but too visible in the World Yet I am far from denying but that many may be found who by the ty of Conscience only are sufficiently withheld from the enormous Crime of Rebellion But since no other Person can tell all pretending to it who these are and since every good Security must be apparent and visible I think in Foroexterno we ought to exclude Conscience or rather the pretense of it which is all we can know of it in another from being a sufficient warrantly of Allegiance To retourn therfore from this Digression to my former Proposition let Men be never so Differing in Matters of Religion certain it is they will all agree in this point of being Constant and true to their own Interest And therefore the great Art and secret of Government is to make it the Peoples Interest to be True and Faithful to their Governours Now 't is apparent that if all these Dissenters in Religion who at present lye under the Lash of the Law were so far indulged that they might live with Security of their Estates and Liberty of their Persons amongst us and peacably enjoy their Conscience in their own way of Religious Worship it would be clearly their Interest to be obedient unto and maintain that Government under which they are so Protected For none are so Dull but must understand that when they are in a quiet enjoyment of their livelihoods if Disorders and War should come upon them they must needs at least the Major part of them be greater Loosers than Gainers So that the Publick Peace will now become their private Interest And this is the only Basis and Foundation on which all Government can firmly be Establisht They who imagine that Vnity of Religion is absolutely necessary to Vnity of Interest must needs fancy to themselves such an Extraordinary Charm in the Peoples meeting together on Sundays in the Church that they cannot fall out all the Week after But we find by sad Experience that Persons of the same Religion Witness the Wars between Sweden and Denmark France and Spain Quarrel no less fiercely than others who are most distant in their Principles of Belief And they are Strangers in the Affairs of the World who have not learnt that Interest and not Religion makes all the great Enmitys and amitys both Publick and Private Our Neighbours of Holland who are very Competent Judges in Matters relating to Publick Advantage and Self-preservation by their practice sufficiently shew the Conscistency and expedience of Tolerating different Religions under the same Government France affords us the like Presedent And I fear till we follow their Example in England too I fear we shall not arrive to that Plenty and Power which both those States at present enjoy For Nature hath so placed this Island that whenever we are Masters at Sea we are Umpires of this part of the World so that we must always Rise or Fall in Plenty and Power as we encrease or decay in Traffick and Navigation Now upon a just Calculation t wil appear that the Sea-fareing Men and the Trading Part