Selected quad for the lemma: nation_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nation_n	england_n	law_n	statute_n	1,497	5	9.0809	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39570	The bishop busied beside the business, or, That eminent overseer, Dr. John Gauden, Bishop of Exeter, so eminently overseen as to wound his own cause well nigh to death with his own weapon in his late so super-eminently-applauded appearance for the [brace] liberty of tender consciences, legitimacy of solemn swearings, entituled, A discourse concerning publick oaths, and the lawfulness of swearing in judicial proceedings, in order to answer the scruples of the Quakers ... / by Samuel Fisher ...	Fisher, Samuel, 1605-1665.	1662 (1662)	Wing F1051; ESTC R37345	155,556	170

is the World and the Civil States and several Nations thereof which howbeit the Bishop takes Nations for Churches by whole-sale here as if the words Church and Nation were Synonima's yet qua Nations are not Churches to grow together with the Wheat until the harvest or end of the World and that with this Caveat least men in the midst of their Busslings and busie minds mistaking should under a pretence of plucking up the Tares root out the Wheat it self also which what Kingdom or People soever doth Bishop Gaudens Counsel and Caveat to the contrary notwithstanding who sayes he is not for such a ●…ame permission of Tares to be among the Wheat least that good seed of Religion which is sown by the Publick Ministry by which he means no other then their own and fenced by Legal Authority should be ●…hoaked had better busie it self wholly about other and meer secular matters of wrong and wicked Lewdness which reason wills they should be Totally taken up with in the exercise of their Civil Power those being the things which not onely properly but indeed alone appertain to them to be exercised in or take Congnizance of For if the Wheat which are indeed those true worshippers only who worship the Father of Spirits who is a Spirit and seeketh such onely to worship him in Spirit and in Truth in reference unto whom all other outside worshippers are as nothing for what is the Chaff to the wheat saith the Lord and which onely must go into the garner when all chaffy Formalists must in this day wherein the Lord is sifting out the house of Israel from among the Nations or several Sorts of Professions as Corn is sifted in a Sieve fall to the ground be driven away with the Wind and burnt up with the unquenchable Fire of that great day of the Lord which now burns as a Oven against all Flesh and fleshly Christianities if we say the foresaid true worshippers be of God then they cannot be withstood in a way of Safety to it self by any Nation Sith to withstand●… them is not onely to resist that People which are the Chariots and Horsmen thereof but also to be found fighters against God himself against whom and his People it is as impossible finally to prevail as it was for Egypt to prevail against Israel which when God arose to Redeem them from their bondage increased upon them so much the more by how much the more they were opressed and intended to be for ever suppressed by them God himself taking part with his own chosen against the other who hath said he will give Kingdoms for their ransome and Nations for their Life rather then his own Seed shall go unredeemed We say that this were the way to setle all in Peace to change all setled Lawes that are for Persecution into a Law for the Tolleration of all Religions much more of that one which though it be struck at both by and before all the rest will be found at last to be the onely true one which yet must unavoidably suffer Violence in some place or other while that Principle of Persecution hath place in Peoples hearts for as all Nations are not of one and the same but of many respectively so all men are not of one and the same Religion in any one Nation whereupon in case it happen that any Nation by Law Establish that Religion which is not Truth that Nation suppressing by outward Violence all Religions besides its own whether that be Heathenish Turkish Iewish Popish Prelatical Presby erian or any other must necessarily ex officio in point of duty Persecute and tread down the Truth it self for if the Civil Magistracy as such ought de jure to root out all Religions but that which it judges to be Righteous and convenient then even those that are heathen Magistrates who would be no more as to that capacity of Magistrates then now they are if they should turn Christians must root out quoad posse all that 's Christian and every Magistrate being a Magistrate as well as any one the notion of Christian adding nothing to mens Power as Civil Governors according to that rule of quatenus ipsum which includes de omni what ever belongs to any thing as so belongs also to every thing that is so not onely those Nations which happen to be of the true Religion must Persecute all those that are found in false ones but each Nation that is found in any false Religion must seek the utter ruine not only of all the rest but even of those also which are Established in the Truth But this is the way which the Bishop in no wise approves of for any Nation or at least for this to renounce the unsound Principle of forcing under Penalties all Dissenters to conformity in Religion unto it self because saith he it is not consistent with the Piety Prudence Honour or Safety of a Nation and Church when it judgeth its Constitutions to be Religious Righteous and Convenient But what a contrary conclusion is this not only to all Scripture Reason as is shewed above but also to all common Experience in this our Nation in which it hath been seen in the dayes both of Edward the sixth Elizabeth and Iames his times neither can it be denyed by the Bishops themselves unless they will deny themselves to be conscientious Dissenters from that Popery which stood here of old how much it was for the piety prudence honour and Safety of the Nation which did before generally judge those Popish constitutions it was then establisht in to be Religious Righteous and Convenient and yet upon further and more mature deliberation saw good ground for the sake of that small yet more enlightned Protestant Party that dissented to change the then and long before establisht Lawes concerning their Mass and many other matters as the Statutes themselves declare at large The Bishop therefore by this reasonless Reason both condemns that course of all the Protestant Princes of England that changed the Popish Laws before establisht for the sake of tender Protestant Dissenters as not savouring of piety prudence nor yet either safe honourable or convenient for the Nation but also secondly justifies the Pope himself and all Popish Princes in Persecuting such Protestants against him as are found within these Precincts and Dominions and in not changing their establisht Laws against the Truth for their sakes sith as the Bishops judge the English Constitutions so to be whereby they stand So other Nations judge their own Constitutions to be Religious Righteous and Convenient and thirdly makes a fence against the spreading of all sorts of Protestanism not that only which is so at large but of that which is Christianity so truly called Moreover where ever the alteration of any suppressive Lawes for the sake of a few Dissenters tends to the encrease of Love and Amity Peace and Unity which is a better thing than Uniformity in a Nation the preservation of

count their Persecutors And p. 164. Your Prerogative is best shewed and exercised in remitting rather then exacting the rigor of the Lawes there being nothing worse then Legal Tyranny But we need not go so far abroad to fetch in Testimonies of others to the truth of this seeing we have the Bishops own Testimony herein siding with us neerer home whose words in that 7. 8. pages of his Epistle are these In point of State Policy or Methods of true Government I do conceive that meer Plagiary Counsels and Punitive courses are never likely to obtain the main end which is to stop the contagion of Errors and to extirpate those depraved opinions which are justly thought to be the spawn of dangerous Actions for unless the generality of credulous people who are Spectators of those that differ and suffer for their Opinions and Consciences do also see so much Light of Reason and cl●…er Religion as may justifie the severity of the Lawes Executed upon those offenders who profess Conscience for their disobedience and Scripture for their Consciences it is most certain that the Spectators of their sufferings will very much soften to a compassion for them and by Sympathizing with their persons in affliction they will by degrees Symbolize with their Opinions easily runing as metal that is melted into the fame mould At length the Popu●…acy if not fortified by Pregnant Demonstrations of Truth against those spreading Errors and their Pseudo-Martyrs will mightily cry up their Piety admire their courage and magnifie their constancy At last they will conclude those sufferers to have some special support or Diviner Spirit above ordinary men because they seem to be so much above the ordinary passions of fear and hope self-love and preservation which prospect of Patience Justine Martyr tells us was the first occasion of his examining the Doctrine of Christians that he might see on what ground so fixed a constancy grew which shewed a Divine security midst humane infirmity By such popular pitty and applause not onely sufferers will be confirmed in their pertinacy but their Spectators also will dayly increase and multiply as the shoot's of Trees do by the lopping of their Branches especially i●… the lives and actions of such dissenters and sufferers be morrally just and civilly honest And pag. 9. where harmlesness of life sets a gloss on Opinions and Errours thereby grow more lusty and rank there meer robust Power or punitive severity can no more pull them up then a strong arm doth Thorns and Bushes when they are deeply rooted breaking of the stemme or top of them but leaving the roots still in the ground which will spring again and spread farther All this the Bishop writes in pursuit of the proof of that truth we affirm in justification of the above said Indulgence and Tolleration and in condemnation of the rashness of them who hastily run into Rigor Severity and Persecution as such as make more hast then good speed to the end they aim at and are more mischievous and Injurious then successful to themselves in their own undertakings Only with this difference from us which we may not passe by without some notice viz. that whereas we look upon such conscientious dissenters as are morally Righteous civilly innocent and of harmless lives and are also sufferers meerly for their Consciences under what dark Form soever because for want of conviction only they cannot conform to another Form that is false and darker as true Martyrs whether Papists suffering for not turning Turks and Iewes or Protestants not turning Papists as in the Marian dayes those that owned not the real presence or any People more reformed in matter of Form for non-conformity●…o ●…o those that remain behind more Superstitious unreformed The Bp. mean while looks on all such kind of suffering dissenters though never so morally honest just civilly innocent and harmles●… in their lives as contagious dangerous disobedient offenders spreaders of Errors and Pseudo-Martyrs In confutation of which Episcopal Error and mistake in that particular we need go no further than this self same Section of the Bishops sayings in which he is found confounding himself while he sayes that same prospect of Patience which is found among meer modern Sufferers and is at this day and thereby many like Lyons are become as Lambs to them seen among the Quakers of all others whom yet with others the Bishop seems to conclude as disobedient Offenders Spreaders of Errors and Pseudo-Martyrs was seen among the Primitive Christians and was the first occasion of Iust. Mart. examining the Christian Doctrin that he might see on what ground so fixed a constancy grew and which shewed a Divine Security midst of humane Infirmity For if it be the same Patience Piety Courage and Constancy as was in the primitive Christians that now appears in the Quakers by which they are kept above the ordinary passions of Fear Self-Love and Preservation as himself saith it was then Bishop Gauden must either prove that all those vertues in those Christians by which Iust. Mart. as by the occasion of it was convinced was no true ground whereupon to conclude them to be true Christians but that all those things notwithstanding they might be Erroneous Contagious Dangerous Depraved Disobedient Offenders Spreaders of Errors and Pseudo-Martyrs or else upon the same gro●…nd and Prospect of their Patient Sufferings must he conclude and acknowledge that the Quakers are proved to be true Christians and neither contagious nor dangerous ●…or deproved in their oppinions or actions nor Offenders nor Spreaders of errors nor Pseudo-martyrs And in prosecution of the proof of the point afore spoken to viz. how not only ineffectual but also dangerous and disturbing it is to Nations to Persecute and not tolerate Dissenters from the Religion establisht The Bishop saith moreover in the 13th page of his Epistle thus I am not for heavy Mulcts and rigorous E●…actions which shall Imprison Banish Impoverish or Destroy modest Dissenters and their Families onely for the variety of their Iudgment when their Civil Actions are otherwise moral just and inoffensive this Severity would in some Countries and possibly now in England be not only destructive to many thousands but very disadvantagious to the King and Kingdom to the Trade and commerce of the Nation by opening a little Wicket of Royal Clemency only to some and shuting the Great Gate to many whose tender and unsatisfied or Scrupulous Consciences do as much need and deserve it as those that have it in petty matters while all other Scruples are driven to discontent and dispair by denyal of all indulgence to them in greater Scruples Thus far the Bishop goes along hand in hand with the Quakers in his pleas for Liberty of scrupulous Consciences impleading tooth and nail the Principle of Non-toleration and Persecution as if he were most earnestly desirous to impede the parctice of it from the consideration of its dangerousness to the King and Kingdom as well as its

very Rough Barbarous Unwelcome Unchristian Way disallowed by all wise Men of all Perswasions that mear Plagiary Counsels and Punitive Courses are never likely to obtain c. That he is against heavy Mulcts Rigorous Exactions c. And that such Severity possibly now in England would be not onely destructive to many thousands but very disadvantagious to the King and his Kingdomes to the Trade and Commerce of the Nation and much more on this Part to the Same Tune Yet contrariwise here to go round again he intimates it to be no lesse then Folly and Injustice necessarily injurious to the Community utterly Inconsistent with the safety and happinesse of it for any King not to use such like Severities but to Exercise the same Lenity to any Party of his Dissenting Subjects Moreover as if he were wedded to his Wonted way of Walking the Rounds whereas before he gave us to understand that Actions though inconform to the Lawes Establisht may be innocent Actions Yet here he gives us to understand the clean Contrary viz. that Non-conformity of all Parties to the same Laws about Religion cannot possibly be Innocent or in a Community consistent without injury thus Diruit aedisicat mutat quadrata Rotundis what he calls Innocency in one place that he calls injury in another and what he holds out to be Wisdome and Iustice in one Page that he holds out to be Irreligion Unreasonablenesse Folly and Unrighteousnesse in another To conclude whereas he sayes the Laws must be the Rules and Measures of all Mens Publick Actions if by Lawes he means those that men in their own wills and wisdomes make as touching Religion we deny his Assertion for these Reasons First because the Light of the Spirit of God according to the Scriptures of Truth is and ought to be the onely Rule and Measure of all Mens Publick Actions in all Spiritual and Religious Matters Secondly Because by dayly experience it appears that the Lawes of men are liable to Mutations Alteratio●…s and Repea●…s according to the prevalency and constitution Respectively of those that make them and yet though such may lawfully be the Rules and Measures of mens Manners in meer Outward Mutable and Civil Matters when altered not for the worse but for the better But that which is to be the Standard and Measure in matters meerly Spiritual as Faith and Worship are must be something that is ●…xt ●…irm immutable as no outward Letter Writing or Scripture is without liablenesse to mis-interpretation not subject to be Rep●…aled by man For the Foundation of God stands sure and all his requirings must and ought to be answered notwithstanding any of mans Lawes and Edicts to the Contrary By this time it is sufficiently apparent how the Bishops Rabbinicab rigidity to the Quakers as well as others to whom he would be thought a greater Friend and far more favourable then to other Dissenters hath bewrayed it self and so much the more shamefully First by how much he slyly betrayes them before-hand by his Consent to the Act into a tasting of the same Cup of Excommunication from the comfortable Enjoyment of their Native Countries and from the Commerce with the Community of English subjects From Participating of that Native Gentlenesse and Royal Clemency which the King hath seemed alwayes ready to Expresse to all of what Prosession of Religion soever that live Peaceably in his Dominions as the Quakers do save onely that they cannot sin against their Consciences and so against God for which the Bishop praises them And Secondly by how much he would shrowd all his doings and sayings under that shelterlesse Shrub of such Empty Expressions and Non-enticall Notions as his Charitable endeavours Humanity Facility Gentlenesse Lenity Paternal Compassion c. For all the courses he consents at least and sometimes incites to of Fines Prisons Banishment like those of the King of Castile which himself calls Barbarous and Unchristian which yet himself Diminishes when he is found Inciting to them and will admit to be stiled by no harsher or stricter Name being as blind at home as Eagle-ey'd abroad then those Severities which the Kings Native Gentlenesse may be Compelled to use at last and it may be too late and which not the Kings benignity but Publick necessity doth require of a Wise and Iust King whose Lenity to any Non-conforming Party of his Subjects will soon be injury to the safety and happinesse of the Community Pag. 3 4. We say all this his Unchristian Cruelty comes Marching in under a Mask of Christian Charity to which his Native Temper and Candor which abhors after the genius of Primitive Christians all severity or rigors onely upon the sco●…e of Religion doth incline him And Thirdly By how much he deems he hath deserved so well from that People as that saving onely their Morosness in respect of which he does not he might very justly expect thanks from them for his pains as appears by his words that follow Bish. Nor do I expect any thanks for my pains from any of that faction while they continue in their morose opinions in their surly rude and uncourteous manners I do not hear that they are generally a people of so soft and ingenious tempers as to take any thing kindly or thankfully from those that are not of their own Perswasion many of them seem to affect a reserved and Rustical way of Clownish yea of Scornful Demeanour prone to censure despise and reproach not onely their betters but even their Benefactors and Instructors Answ. This course of thanking Clergy-men for their pains that won●…ed Gratulation they have long had from the Great Ones when they have done any thing that is counted by themselves a piece of Service to God or men in which if they did all that they ought to do and that 's more too then they believe in this World they shall be ever inabled to do they ought of right rather to say we are but unprofitable servants we have done what we ought that it is now become a matter wel-nigh of custome among such of them as love the praise of men more then the praise of God to expect yea to exact it as their Right and that so ridgidly that it s counted a surly rude uncourteous rusticall way of Clownish yea scornful Demeanour not to use it Yea with such a strictnesse as in the Case of Tythes and other of their Priviledges and proper Honoraries which being once of Old given and received on no other account then as the Almes to all the Churches Poor out of which the poor Priests and Curates had their Part that gratuity and benevolence of the People is now laid claime to with such eagernesse and earnestnesse as their own not onely jure humano but divino that they condemn it as no lesse then Injustice in People that deny to pay it as that which is as due to them as any mans estate is due to him and as not onely allowed but ordained of