Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	argument_n	author_n	great_a	160	3	2.0926	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56270	An answer to a paper entituled The case of the Protestant dissenters of Ireland in reference to a bill of indulgence, represented and argued.	Pullen, Tobias, 1648-1713.; Boyse, J. (Joseph), 1660-1728, attributed name.	1695 (1695)	Wing P4193; ESTC R222510	6,780	7

intended to prevent the imposing of it here in case a General Indulgence should be Granted to the Protestant Dissenters in this Kingdom Fourthly To the first Argument produc'd by the Author to prove a Sacrament Test to be as unreasonable as 't is dangerous Viz. That it will put the Protestant Dissenters into worse Circumstances than they are in at present I may with great Justice and Reason Reply that whatever hardships the Dissenters may pretend they should be under by those Restrictions I am sure the Members of the Establish'd Church would be in far worse Circumstances than they now are in if an Indulgence should be Granted without those Clauses First 'T is too Notorious to be denied That the Conformists at Sligo and Crum at Inniskillen and Derry did appear at least as early and Act as Zealously for this Government as the Dissenters and consequently the Conformists will have Reason to think themselves severely dealt with if no other way can be found of Rewarding the Services of the former without the apparent hazarding the most valuable Rights of the latter by Granting the Dissenters such an Indulgence and by admitting them into such Offices as may give 'em Power and Opportunity to alter the whole Frame of the present Church Government Secondly As to what is said concerning the Sacraments not being a fit Test of Admission into Offices I observe First that the Arguments he makes use of in this matter are much the same with those that were urg'd in the late Reign for the taking off the Penal Laws and Test Secondly I answer more distinctly That by this Sacramental Test we do not prostitute that Holy Institution to mean and worldly Purposes as our Author insinuates but Religion being the great Band of Humane Society 't is highly Reasonable that those Persons should be Rewarded as well as Intrusted with Employments in the State that give the greatest Evidences of their Piety to Almighty God And if this Argument of our Authors be valid 't will not only conclude against this but all other Religious Tests and then the most Scandalous Neglects of Holy Duties must not be accounted a sufficient Bar to an Admission into the most considerable Offices for fear of Prostituting the Ordinances of Divine Worship and of Driving Unworthy Persons to a participation of those Sacred Mysteries And if as our Author says the Interest of Religion is very little concerned in the Posture of Receiving the Holy Sacrament why should any Person seperate from the Communion of the Establish'd Church on Account of that which our Author is pleas'd to call a Trivial Matter and a Trifle But if any Man refuse to give the State so Trivial and inconsiderable a Mark of his Complyance to its Orders and Injunctions There is no Reason why such an one should be intrusted with the Management of the Civil and Military Offices or that they should be esteemed such Vseful Persons that it should be thought the Interest of the Government to comprehend ' em The Case that our Author puts of a Man endued with Eminent Wisdom Integrity c. is scarcely to be be suppos'd for no Man surely that deserves that Character will unqualifie himself to serve his King his Countrey and his Temporal Interest too by refusing to Receive the Holy Sacrament in such a Posture which our Author acknowledges is more expressive of our Reverence to our Saviour than that which is in Use among the Dissenters However as a Reward to those that have been more than ordinarily Remarkable for their Services to His Majesty and are now in any Civil or Military Employment it may perhaps be thought convenient that Persons so Qualified may be excepted as Nominees and hold their Offices notwithstanding their Refusal of the Sacramental Test Lastly whereas our Author says that the Establish't Church will be no way indanger'd by the Indulgence he is pleading for I answer that tho' the Honours and Revenues of the Clergy are now secur'd to 'em yet we cannot foresee the Difficulties the Conforming Clergy may possibly contest with in asserting the Rites of the Church if Nonconformists were Qualified for Civil Offices and besides we are far less concern'd for the security of our Temporal Interest than for the Establishment of our Antient Holy and Peaceable Religion I am far from detracting from the good Services which the Dissenters did the King and the Nation in being joynt Instruments with the Conformists in the Preservation of Derry and Inniskillin nor would I exclude 'em from a Capacity of concurring to preserve their Country again But as in the late Troubles common Safety and the publick Interest of the Nation did oblige 'em to take up Arms so if a like juncture should happen which God forbid they may be in the same Circumstances to serve their King and Country as before tho' they be not Legally qualified for Offices by a General and Unlimited Indulgence As to the Authors Commendations of the Peaceable Temper of the Dissenters of this Kingdom it is to be Observed That they have not had the same opportunities of discovering their unpeaceable Turbulency towards their Neighbours as their Brethren in Scotland at present have or of expressing their Dissatisfaction to the Government as both they and the Dissenters in England have formerly had but if ever they should be in the like Circumstances here we have no great Reason to expect much more favourable Usage nor the Government a more Dutiful Obedience from them Good Nature and common Prudence will indeed direct us to provide for our own Security by condescending to all the Reasonable Requests of our Dissenting Friends but no Motives ought to prevail on us to make such Large Concessions to them as will in all probability shake the very Foundations of the Establish'd Church DUBLIN Printed by Joseph Ray at the 3 Nags-Heads in Essex-street 1695.

the strict execution of Penal Laws is a Practice that has a just Odium left upon it but are sorry That the just Odium left upon it among us should be wholly confin'd to us and that this Practice should have no Censure nor Reflection cast upon it among our Neighbours And 't is strange that the Author should say that there is so apparent a contrariety in it to the mild and merciful Genius of our Holy Religion seeing he can't but know the time when it was an avow'd Doctrine and a General Practice among the Presbyterians and Independants to bar the Members of the Church of England from the Free Exercise of Divine Worship according to their Consciences And 't is as strange that this Practice should be so apparently contrary to our Holy Religion and have so mischievous Effects upon the publick Peace here in this Kingdom and yet be thought so great an Evidence of a truly Christian Zeal and so effectual an Instrument of publick Good in Scotland and how possibly can our Author hope That all Protestants are in this Point come to a better Temper than to gratifie their Enemies by Ruining their Brethren when there is so plain a Demonstration of the contrary unless he be of Opinion that what is accounted a Warm and Sanguine Temper of Religion there is to be esteem'd the raging Heat of a malignant Feavor here Fourthly as concerning the establishing Toleration by a Law the Reason why some may be against it is not as our Author do's invidiously insinuate that they wait for a more favourable opportunity of Reviving the former Severities but that they may still have it in their Power to shew their Tenderness to their Dissenting Brethren and may prevent or repress the misdemeanors that some Nonconformists may possibly be Guilty of if they had a Legal Toleration as also that they may secure the Established Religion they profess against the Dangerous Consequences they fear from a General Indulgence And Lastly as to what he says concerning His Majesties Declaration I desire this Author to consider more seriously whether there be not some others in the Three Kingdoms besides the Protestant Dissenters of Ireland to whom One great end of His Majesties Declaration is yet unaccomplish'd and whether there be a Law made to cover the Protestant Episcopal Clergy in Scotland from Persecution on the Account of Religion By all which it may plainly be perceiv'd That 't is not by force of the Authors Arguments for the Necessity or Reasonableness of Toleration but purely in compliance to the importunate Desires of our Dissenting Brethren that the Members of the Establish'd Church are inclin'd to grant 'em a General and Legal Indulgence as Parents do often humour their Children in giving 'em those things they eagerly desire which tho' pleasant to their Pallates are yet many times prejudicial to their Health And now I proceed to the Second Desire of the Protestant Dissenters which is That there may be no such Clauses annext to this Bill as would disable 'em from serving their King and their Country which in plain terms is no more than this That whereas the Ease to Tender Consciences was the only thing they formerly desir'd they now Claim it as their due to be admitted also into all Honourable and Profitable Employments and without these whatever Ease may be given to their Consciences 't is to be fear'd they will have no quiet in their Minds But let us hear our Authors Auguments for granting this Bill of Indulgence without a Sacramental Test annext First he tells us That the Sacrament Test in England was chiefly design'd against Papists but 't is also plain it was intended against Protestant Dissenters too for tho' none but the former be mention'd in the Title yet the latter are included in the Body of the Act and if the Zeal of the English Dissenters against Popery in the late times has not exempted them from a Sacramental Test our Dissenting Brethren in this Kingdom cannot with Modesty expect that their late Services should Intitle them to any such Immunities Secondly He tells us such a Test for disabling Protestant Dissenters for any publick Service is against the common Protestant Interest of Ireland Our Circumstances indeed vastly differ as he says from those of England for here the Established Church is more in Danger than there by the Protestant Dissenters as well as by the common Enemy In England one unmixt People does compose the main body of the Nation which continues still the same but here we are made up of several Nations and there is a daily Accession of great Numbers from a Neighbouring Country of whom the meaner sort are generally of a different Communion from the Establish'd Church Tho' the Nobility and Gentry to their great praise be it spoken are generaly Conformists 'T is possible inded as he Observes That the Irish may be more Numerous if there should be a General Peace and I may add That 't is highly probable that the Papists will grow much more Numerous if there should be a General Indulgence and therefore notwithstanding our Authors Opinion we cannot think it Reasonable to give the Protestant Interest a wider Bassis here than it has in Holland which is a Place of greatest Liberty in Matters of Religion where all Protestants are not equally capable of Employments without Religious Tests As to what he says concerning the Danger of a future Rebellion we hope that by the late Acts of Parliament made against the Papists and the diligence of the Magistrates in putting them in Execution the Irish may be disabled for any New Insurrections or if we should fall into the same unhappy Circumstances that we have been lately in we have Reason to believe Notwithstanding the Authors disadvantagious Representation of the Temper of the Dissenters wherein he intimates that the excluding them from publick Offices would incline 'em in future Dangers to desert the publick Service the foreboding of which seems equivalent to an Advice to them and a Menace to us Notwithstanding this I say we have Reason to believe that the Consideration of the common Safety and their Gratitude for their Indulgence which they now expect would engage 'em to shew an equal Zeal to what they did before tho' they should not be wholly on equal Terms with us since they could not reasonably hope for so kind a Treatment from the Papists as they have had from us Thirdly To what the Author says to prove That it does not seem agreeable to the Judgment of the Parliament of England that any such Test should be impos'd here I answer That as the Substituting the New Oaths and the Declaration or Test against Popery instead of the Oath of Supremacy did not Repeal the Statute that enjoyns the Sacrament Test in England so neither can it with the least shadow of Reason be alledged That the English Act for the Abrogating the Oath of Supremacy in Ireland c. ought to be construed as