Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	church_n	england_n	reform_a	4,212	5	9.5265	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41295	A letter writ by Mijn Heer Fagel, pensioner of Holland, to Mr. James Stewart, advocate giving an account of the Prince and Princess of Orange's thoughts concerning the repeal of the Test, and penal laws.	Fagel, Gaspar, 1634-1688.; Stewart, James, Sir, 1635-1713.	1688 (1688)	Wing F89; ESTC R17342	6,473	8

them to take these Tests and they are not suffered to do any thing that is to the prejudice of the Reformed Religion Since as I have already told you Their Highnesses are ready to concur whith his Majesty for the Repeal of those Penal Laws by which Men are made liable to fines or other Punishments So I see there Remains no difficulty concerning the Repealing the Penal Laws but only this that some would have the Roman Catholicks render'd capable of all publick Trusts and Employments and that by consequence all those should be repealed that have secured the Protestant Religion against the designs of the Roman Catholicks where others at the same time are not less earnest to have those Laws maintained in their full and due vigour and think that the chief Security of the established Religion consists in the preserving of them Sacred and unshaken It is certain that there is no Kingdom Common-wealth or any constituted Body or Assembly whatsoever in which there are not Laws made for the Safety thereof and that provide against all Attempts whatsoever that disturb their peace and that prescribe the Conditions and Qualities that they judg necessary for all that shall bear Employments in that Kingdom State or Corporation and no man can pretend that there is any Injury done him that he is not admitted to Imployments when he doth not satisfie the Conditions and Qualities required Nor can it be denied that there is a great difference to be observed in the conduct of those of the Reformed Religion and of the Roman Catholicks towards one another The Roman Catholicks not being satisfied to exclude the Reformed from all places of profit or of Trust they do absolutely suppress the whole Exercise of that Religion and severely persecute all that profess it and this they do in all those places where it is safe and without danger to carry on that rigour And I am sorry that we have at this present so many deplorable Instances of this severity before our eyes that is at the same time put in practice in so many different places I would therefore gladly see one single good reason to move a Protestant that fears God and that is concerned for his Religion to consent to the Repealing of those Laws that have been enacted by the Authority of King Parliament which have no other tendency but to the security of the Reformed Religion and to the restraining of the Roman Catholicks from a capacity of overturning it these Laws inflict neither Fines nor Punishments and do only exclude the R. Catholicks from a share in the Government who by being in Employments must needs study to increase their Party and to gain to it more Credit and Power which by what we see every day we must conclude will be extreamly dangerous to the Reformed Religion and must turn to its great prejudice since in all places those that are in publick Employments do naturally Favour that Religion of which they are either more or less And who would go about to perswade me or any man else to endeavour to move Their Highnesses whom God hath honoured so far as to make them the Protectors of his Church to approve of or to consent to things so hurtful both to the Reformed Religion and to the publick Safety Nor can I Sir with your good leave in any way grant what you apprehend That no prejudice will thereby redound to the Reformed Religion I know it is commonly said that the number of the Roman Catholicks in England and Scotland is very inconsiderable and that they are possessed only of a very small number of the places of Trust tho even as to this the case is quite different in Ireland yet this you must of necessity grant me that if their numbers are small then it is not reasonable that the publick Peace should be disturbed on the account of so few persons especially when so great a favour may be offer'd to them such as the free Exercise of their Religion would be and if their numbers are greater then there is so much the more reason to be affraid of them I do indeed believe that Roman Catholicks as things at present stand will not be very desirous to be in publick Offices and Imployments nor that they will make any attempts upon the Reformed Religion both because this is contrary to Law and because of the great Inconveniencies that this may bring at some other time both on their Persons and their Estates yet if the Restraints of the Law were once taken off you would see them brought into the Government and the chief Offices and Places of Trust would be put in their hands nor will it be easy to his Majesty to resist them in this how stedfast soever he may be for they will certainly press him hard in it and they will represent this to the King as a matter in which his Conscience will be concerned and when they are possessed of the Publick Offices what will be left for the Protestants to do who will find no more the support of the Law and can expect little Encouragement from such Magistrates and on the other hand the Advantages that the Roman Catholicks would find in being thus set loose from all Restraints are so plain that it were a loss of time to go about the proving it I neither can nor will doubt of the sincerity of his Majesties intentions and that he has no other design before him in this matter but that all his Subjects may enjoy in all things the same Rights and Freedoms But plain Reason as well as the Experience of all Ages the present as well as the past shews that it will be impossible for R. Catholicks Protestants when they are mixed together in places of Trust and publick Employments to live together peaceably or to maintain a good Correspondence together They will be certainly always jealous of one another For the Principles and the Maxims of both Religions are so opposite to one another that in my opinion I do not see how it will be in the power of any Prince or King whatsoever to keep down those Suspitions and Animosities which will be apt to arise upon all occasions As for that which you apprehend that the Dissenters shall not be delivered from the Penal Laws that are made against them unless at the same time the Test be likewise repealed This will be indeed a great unhappiness to them but the Roman Catholicks are only to blame for it who will rather be content that they and their Posterity should lie still under the weight of the Penal Laws and exposed to the hatred of the whole Nation than he still restrained from a capacity of attempting any thing against the Peace and the Security of the Protestant Religion And be deprived of that small advantage if it is at all to be reckoned one of having a share in the Government and publick Enjoyments since in all places of the World this has been

A LETTER Writ by Mijn Heer FAGEL PENSIONER of HOLLAND TO Mr. JAMES STEWART Advocate Giving an Account of the PRINCE and PRINCESS of ORANGE's Thoughts concerning the Repeal of the TEST and the PENAL LAWS SIR I Am extream sorry that my ill health hath so long hindred me from Answering those Letters in which you so earnestly desired to know of me what Their Highnesses thoughts are concerning the Repeal of the Penal Laws and more particularly of that concerning the Test I beg you to assure your self that I will deal very plainly with you in this matter and without Reserve since you say that your Letters were writ by the King's knowledge and allowance I must then first of all assure you very positively that Their Highnesses have often declared as They did it more particularly to the Marquis of Albeville His Majesties Envoy Extraordinary to the States that it is Their Opinion that no Christian ought to be persecuted for his Conscience or be ill used because he differs from the publick and established Religion And therefore They can consent that the Papists in England Scotland and Ireland be suffered to continue in their Religion with as much Liberty as is allowed them by the States in these Provinces in which it cannot be denied that they enjoy a full Liberty of Conscience And as for the Dissenters Their Highnesses do not only consent but do heartily approve of their having an entire Liberty for the full exercise of their Religion without any trouble or hindrance so that none may be able to give them the least disturbance upon that account And Their Highnesses are very ready in case His Majesty shall think fit to desire it to declare their willingness to concur in the setling and confirming this Liberty and as far as it lies in them they will protect and defend it and according to the Language of Treaties They will confirm it with their Guaranty of which you made mention in yours And it his Majesty shall think fit further to desire Their concurrence in the Repealing of the Penal Laws They are ready to give it provided always that those Laws remain still in their full vigour by which the R. Catholicks are shut out of both Houses of Parliament and out of all publick Employments Ecclesiastical Civil and Military as likewise all those other Laws which confirm the Protestant Religion and which secures it against all the attempts of the Roman Catholicks But Their Highnesses cannot agree to the Repeal of the Test or of those other Penal Laws last mentioned that tend to the security of the Protestant Religion since the R. Catholicks recieve no other prejudice from these then the being excluded from Parliaments or from publick Employments And that by them the Protestant Religion is covered from all the Designs of the R. Catholicks against it or against the publick safety And neither the Test nor these other Laws can be said to carry in them any severity against the Roman Catholicks upon account of their Consciences They are only Provisions qualifying men to be Members of Parliament or to be capable of bearing Office by which they must declare before God and men that they are for the Protestant Religion So that indeed all this amounts to no more than a securing the Protestant Religion from any Prejudices that it may receive from the R. Catholicks Their Highnesses have thought and do still think that more than this ought not to be askt or expected from Them since by this means the Roman Catholicks and their Posterity will be for ever secured from all trouble in their Persons or Estates or in the Exercise of their Religion and that the Roman Catholicks ought to be satisfied with this and not to disquiet the Kingdom because they cannot be admitted to sit in Parliament or to be in Employments or because those Laws in which the Security of the Protestant Religion does chiefly consist are not repealed by which they may be put in a condition to overturn it Their Highnesses do also believe that the Dissenters will be fully satisfied when they shall be for ever covered from all danger of being disturbed or punished for the free Exercise of their Religion upon any sort of pretence whatsoever Their Highnesses having declared themselves so positively in these matters it seems very plain to me that They are far from being any hinderance to the Freeing Dissenters from the Severity of the Penal Laws since They are ready to use their utmost endeavours for the establishing of it nor do They at all press the denying to the R. Catholicks the exercise of their Religion provided it be managed modestly without Pomp or Ostentation As for my own part I ever was and still am very much against all those who would persecute any Christian because he differs from the publick and established Religion And I hope by the Grace of God to continue still in the same mind for since that Light with which Religion illuminates our minds is according to my sense of things purely an effect of the Mercy of God to us we ought then as I think to render to God all possible Thanks for his Goodness to us and to have Pity for those who are still shut up in Error even as God has pitied us and to put up most earnest prayers to God for bringing those into the way of Truth who stray from it and to use all gentle and friendly methods for reducing them to it But I confess I could never comprehend how any that profess themselves Christians and that may enjoy their Religion freely and without any disturbance can judge it lawful for them to go about to disturb the Quiet of any Kingdom or State or to overturn Constitutions that so they themselves may be admitted to Employments and that those Laws in which the Security and Quiet of the established Religion consists should be shaken It is plain that the Reformed Religion is by the Grace of God and by the Laws of the Land enacted by both King and Parliament the publick and established Riligion both in England Scotland and Ireland and that it is provided by those Laws that none can be admitted either to a place in Parliament or to any publick Employment except those that do openly declare that they are of the Protestant Religion and not Roman Catholicks and it is also provided by those Laws that the Protestant Religion shall be in all time coming secured from the Designs of the Roman Catholicks against it in all which I do not see that these Laws contain any Severity either against the Persons or Estates of those who cannot take those Tests that are contrary to the Roman Catholick Religion all the inconveniences that can redound to them from thence is that their Persons their Estates and even the Exercise of their Religion being assured to them only they can have no share in the Goverement nor in Offices of Trust as long as their Consciences do not allow