Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	call_v	church_n	true_a	5,947	5	4.9197	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40765	A Faithful account of the renewed persecution of the churches of Lower Aquitaine in France in the year 1692 to which is prefixed a parallel between the ancient and new persecutors, or the portraicture of Lewis XIV in some of his cruelties and barbarities : with some reflections upon the unreasonable fondness of a certain party amongst us, for the French king.		1692 (1692)	Wing F263; ESTC R31494	23,131	32

Ages will hardly believe what we see with our own Eyes These Gentlemen would fain perswade the World that the Persecutions in France have not been so violent as we have been informed and that the French King hath now chang'd his mind and is become another man But what can be more idle ridiculous and impertinent than this stuff of theirs Would they with a Brazen brow give the lye to so many Thousands of Witnesses and to our own eyes too But what new varnish can they find to put upon this last Persecution Truly if the French King hath now changed his mind he must have been exceeding violent indeed since the very dregs of his Fury are still so terrible For what more Cruel can be imagined than to put a Gentleman to a vile and infamous death to send so many others to the Gallies and to condemn others to shameful Punishment upon the bare pretence that they have met together to Pray to God notwithstanding his prohibition If so hard treatment may not be call'd a Persecution I do not know then what may deserve that name and on the contrary if this be meekness and gentleness I cannot imagine what that is which we call Inhumanity I would beg leave to ask our Murmurers only two questions 1. How is it possible that a Tyrant who has so cruelly persecuted the Protestants in his own Kingdom who has pulled down so many of their Churches put to death so many men upon account of Religion only who further yet boasts That he himself hath almost rooted out the Heresie and who still continues his Rage and Fury against all the Protestants that are found in his Dominions I say How is it possible that such a man can ever be the Protector of the Church of England as our Grumbling Crew call him Perhaps they will answer That the French Hugonots have not been used with so much severity upon the account of their Religion merely but because the French King found them dangerous to his Grandure and his State having strong suspicions of their Fidelity but let them prove what they say I would fain know what Publick Act or Declaration they can instance in and whether they have any Witnesses that will say the Booted-Missionaries have ever required from the Hugonots a greater Test of their Fidelity than they had before but only their forcing them to go to Mass Every body knows that this French King owes his Crown to those very Protestants he has so cruelly used and consequently that their Fidelity could not be in the least called into question But if the French King aimed not at the extirpation of the Protestant Religion why doth he say in his Letters and Memorials against the Emperor and the King of Spain that it was his intention Why hath he destroyed the Churches of Orange and forc'd his Majesty's Subjects as well as his own to forsake their Religion and to go to Mass And why hath he compelled the Duke of Savoy 10 destroy the Vaudcis as his Royal Highness has publickly declared The French King having then declared War against all the Protestants of the World I thought the Church of England had not been excepted and I was induced to that belief by the Measures the late King had taken with him effectually to destroy it but being now assured by some that he is the Protector of it I am surprized at such a wonderful Change and this is the first Phoenomenon the Solution of which I humbly desire of our Learned Mutmurers I ask 2dly If it be possible that a true English-man that is one living free under Their Majesties most Gracious Government and making use of his right Reason can wish a Tyrant for his King an Oppressor who has made his Subjects the most miserable Wretches and Slaves in the world tho Inhabitants of one of the most plentiful Countries of the earth who sucks their very blood and marrow from them to satisfie his vast Ambition or his impure Lusts and Pleasures and who sacrifices them to his least Interest or Vanity The Enemy of Mankind the Invader of his Neighbours A Prince if I may call him so who has ever yet scorned to be a slave to his Oaths or Treaties and on whom the Religion be professes and all that is sacred amongst men has no manner of Force or Power to use the very words of the King of Spain in his Letter to the Pope In a word If it be possible for an English-man who loves the Interest of his Nation to wish for a man of the Character of this French King to be his Absolute Lord and Master Till these Gentlemen will be pleased to answer me these two questions I shall make bold to deliver my own thoughts upon them And as to the first I say That the French King is not the Protector of the Church of England and that his Idolaters who give him that magnificent Title prevaricate and make use of some equivocation for they must mean another Church far different from that here established by the Laws of this Kingdom Ours needs no other Protection than that of Their Majesties and sure I am the Gentlemen I speak of are Papists in their hearts notwithstanding their so much affected outward shew of Protestantism if they have any Religion at all As to the second Query If it be possible for an English-man who loveth the true Interest of his Nation to wish his Master might be a man of the Character of this French King I answer No And therefore by the reasons contained in the Query I conclude That the Murmurers are either Fools or Enemies of this Countrey Now to say they are the former I confess it would seem a little too hard a Censure and I should wrong several of them whom I know to be men of Parts They are so fond of themselves that sure I am they would much rather be called Enemies to this Nation And tho Complaisance is opposite to my temper yet for their sakes I must upon this occasion force my natural inclination and agree with them that this last Character is more suitable to their proceedings than that of Fools Having given an exact Parallel between the Ancient and Modern Persecutors my Design would be imperfect should I omit saying something of the Tragick Death that commonly attends the Enemies of the Church God has in all ages made manifest the severe Judgments he exercises upon them The Relation of the Deaths of the Primitive Persecutors written by Lactantius which I have so often quoted is so frightful that the consideration of their miserable end ought one would think to deter any man from Persecuting for the future and had the French King but reflected upon their Fate and the Tragick Deaths of his own Ancestors I doubt very much whether he would have taken so dangerous a course King Henry the 2d who had sworn to see Ann Dubourg a Protestant burning at the stake received a mortal wound in