Selected quad for the lemma: nation_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nation_n	church_n	people_n	world_n	4,021	5	4.7325	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26400	An address to the Church of England: evidencing her obligations both of interest and conscience, to concurr with his gracious Majesty in the repeal of the penal laws and tests Allowed to be published this 1st of September, 1688.		1688 (1688)	Wing A564B; ESTC R213112	25,350	25

will it excuse her to say that they were ch●●●y at least the Sanguinous 〈◊〉 of them ●●r our Gaols themselves sometimes have been scarce able to contain the Thousands that at one time have groaned 〈◊〉 her he● kn●t●est Tho●gs her Halt●●● and Ax●● only excepted Enacted Interrorem as being but seldom put in Execution as if a deliberate studied Ill aggravated with the Formality of Justice and in the pretended cause of Heaven were therefore more excusable because commited supposed but once in an Age when a foul Act for that very cause should rather appear the more deform'd as t is the rarity that makes the Monster Besides Queen Mary had that plea to make for what were Two hundred and sixty Protestants even by Foxes Muster-Roll Burnt for Religion in her five years Reign to the some Millions of Protestants in those days when ha●f the Kingdom was of that Perswasion A far shorter Catalogue of Sufferers I am a fraid when fairly computed compared with the infinitely larger Scroll of those almost unaccountable numbers of more lingring Martyrs that have done our Reformation the honour to breath out their last in her Penal Jayls besides some of them that have tasted her kinder stroke of Mercy from the quicker Dispatch of Halters The number of both which upon inquiry made has been found to amount to near six Thousand To return therefore to his Majesties proposal of Abrogating these Laws t is a greater Duty upon the Church of England to abolish them then in the Dissenters themselves for as t is a Yoke imposed upon their weaker Brethren in it self wholly unjust the Sufferer under that Yoke in indeavouring to break it only Acts by the motives of self-defence the common Principle of Nature But the Imposer of that Yoke is tied by the Obligation of Religion it self to repeal and repent his own Act of Injustice Besides If all arguments of Conscience cannot prevail and Policy not Equity though Heaven forbid so uncharitable a thought is our Churches guide yet even then too what does she yeild up in abolishing those Laws why truly nothing for whilst the Government continues in the Hands of a Prince of the Romish Religion those Statutes will utterly lye dead for the Royal Indulgence a Prerogative in the Crown will never put them in Execution What reason therefore has the Church of England for her Nonconcurrence to a proposal so Equitable when she has not so much as the least pretext even of meer Interest it self for her refusal But this I am sure as the Church of England can have no solid Reasons to oppose their Repeal the State has very substantial Ones to inforce it For as Trade is the greatest support and strength of a Kingdom I know no Politicks so conducing to the Commerce and Wealth of a Nation as Liberty of Conscience What greater encouragement to Naturalization and England that is not overloaded with People can have no fairer Inlet to bring in whole Families and Estates and indeed the Wealth of the World besides the opening that current of Commerce even amongst our present Natives which the restraint of Worship at all times so much shut up than Liberty of Religion Nor can I better instance the effects of this policy than in the grouth of the Dutch Greatness and the decay of the Spaniard from their different Extreams of National conduct in that Point I am certain his Majesty resolves to eternize his Glory by being the truest Pater Patriae of all the Crow'd Heads since the Conquest nor has he a fairer prospect of making his Kingdom a true Paradice of Peace and Plenty but by taking this pattern at the least from the first Paradice that is by making the Lyon and Lamb lye down in Peace together our long dissention being no otherwise to be reconciled and our Enmities husht but by this only universal Pacification I shall only add this last Consideration the Execution of our Penal Laws and the Restraint of Conscience has been the greatest Blow that ever was given to the Hereditary Right of the Subjects of England their natural Properties and Immunities given and Sealed to them by Magna Charta it self For who can call his Liberty or Estate his own whilst a Superiour Opinion in Power shall seize our Persons and confiscate our Estates for no other cause but difference of Worship and Faith and neither Person Estate or Liberty redeemable under a less Composition then renouncing of God for Conformity of Worship absolutely against Conscience is little less And all this capital offence so unfixt and so undeterminable a sort of Transgression that a Man has only a meer Lottery to be in the Right or the Wrong For the blackest Criminal in one Reign has been the whitest Saint in the next and so Vice Versa over again witness the Reigns of Edward the sixth Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth where the Protestants were the Devils one while and the Papists another Nay in the Reign of Henry the eight both Papist and Protestant were at one time in the wrong For t' was remarkable in his Reign that in the same day have Papists been Hanged for Traytors for disowning his Church Supremacy and Protestants Burnt for Heriticks for denying of Transubstantiation Thus in their turns have all Religions and Opinions lain under the Scourge of the severest of Laws and all for want of that Obedience to a Law which Humanity it self is utterly unable to pay For though our breach or not breach of all other Laws either Human or Divine lyes in our own free will and choice to conform or not conform to this or that Belief is wholly above the Power of Man Faith only being irresistible And if our wordly well-being and all we enjoy in this Life depends upon such Capricious Decrees of Law certainly the great Charter of our Liberties and Estates that confirmed 'em both under no such condition or Restriction is not a little invaded by the Penalties of such Laws Nor is Restraint of Conscience and the Execution of our Penal Laws in their own nature and tendency only destructive to the rightfull Liberty of English-Men but the very Letter of those Laws themselves has made the most visible Rupture into the very strongest Walls of our Magna Charta that is our Tryal by our Peeres by a Jury of Twelve our Magna Charta more particularly confirmes to us that hereditary right and our Penal Laws most notoriously take it from us For instance 22 Car. 2. Cap. 2. It is there Enacted That one Justice of Peace or other chief Magistrate shall upon the Oath of two Witneses make a Record of a Conventicle which Record shall be a Conviction and the Offender sined as the Statute further Expresses So that to gain the point of Gaolment or Consiscation without any process whatever here 's a Justice of Peace or a Mayor of a Town though but by Occupation a Thatcher shall in Conjunction with no more then a Clark or perhaps none