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
A46777	A proposition for the safety & happiness of the King and kingdom, both in church and state, and prevention of the common enemy tendered to the consideration of His Majesty and the Parliament against their next session / by a lover of sincerity and peace.	Lover of sincerity & peace.; Humfrey, John, 1621-1719.; Jenkins, David, 1582-1663.	1667 (1667)	Wing J601; ESTC R26145	22,405	102

A PROPOSITION FOR The Safety Happiness of the King and Kingdom both in Church and State and prevention of the Common Enemy Tendered to the Consideration of his Majesty and the Parliament against their next Session By a lover of Sincerity Peace The Interest of England lies in holding a firm Union in it self and the advancement of the Protestant Religion For England is a mighty Animal which can never die except it kill it self The Duke of Roan in his Treatise of the Interest of the Princes and States in Christendom London Printed in the Year 1667. A PROPOSITION for the safety and happiness of the King and Kingdom IT hath pleased Heaven to visit us of late with his heavy and astonishing Judgments The year before he swept away our Citizens from their houses The last year he swept away our houses from the Inhabitants And this year who knows what and who may be swept away by that divastation which accompanieth the Sword If there be not a spark as there is not a Sparrow lights on the House or the Mast top without the Divine Will methinks it will neither be unseasonable to lay his Providences to heart nor unsuitable to make use of them unto acts of mercy and commiseration of others I am a person that am not very careful how I appear to you and if it were a light matter I had to speak about you might turn away your ear from it and regard me as little But if it be a business of the greatest consequence as I am perswaded it is that can be tendered at this present for a healing of the Nation I hope you will both spare me a reasonable hearing and a candid interpretation There hath passed of late some Acts whereby you have been very severe against many innocent persons that fear God and do you no harm I am loth to declare my resentments in particular unless I have further necessity But I will pursue in the general those ends I have in my purpose which are the happiness of our State the peace of the Church the safety of the King and preservation of the Nation not in that way which hath been trodden hitherto in late proceedings but in the paths of moderation which some have not known and some will not know who have already perhaps imposed too much and would not I hope be imposing more on us It shall be an Argument good enough for me from this late calamity on the City and upon our Ships to alarm you to the quenching those Flames which we have helped to enkindle by the over-rigour of such Acts in the hearts of the Nation God Almighty's righteous dealings towards us may bring our own toward others into remembrance and his severity teach us indulgence It can neither be an unchristian or unwise admonition when our Churches with other buildings are laid in heaps to look after our Religion to prevent the ruine which therein also doth threaten us by beginning our repentance in those ashes I shall be clear and plain I desire to be faithful to my Country to my King and to my God I hope though I know not how I shall approve my self in the delivery In magnis pejus est illud non voluisse quam quomodo facias non intelligere We are at this time involved in Warrs abroad with our neighbours and we are incompassed as our Island is with a Sea of intestine dangers amidst our selves in the divisions of our people There is the subtilty of the Jesuite with those many too much to be feared advantages of that party and there is on the other side the wildness of the Sectary with their multitudes and high exasperations Both these are as it were the upper and nether jaw of destruction opening her mouth upon us If we do not finde out a way to reconcile the sober Protestant that we may have their combined strength to oppose these extreams in case of inundation I know not how soon these jaws may shut upon us and overwhelm us in our confusion The Motion therefore I have to make is for moderation in the business of Religion first seriously debated and then prudently concluded in an Act of Accommodation between the Conformist and Nonconformist that are sober in their principles and Indulgence toward others who are so in their lives So far I mean as ever it will stand with the Rules both of Civil and Religious Prudence and the good Order of the Land I am sensible of what a pause there will be on some mens spirits at this Motion I am with Coesar at the flood of Rubicon and the Dye is cast I will confess ingenuously I know not how it fares with others but there is a company of people about us in the Country of different perswasions who meet sometimes many hundreds together that our Justices have been in perplexity what to do The most of them for ought I perceive are certainly inoffensive persons and they have really no more against them than Pliny against the Christians of old when he sent to Trajan about them that is only that they meet and preach and pray together And if that excellent Prince was ashamed after this report he gave him of them in his Epistle to have these good men sought out any more unto punishment I cannot but favour those inclinations which are averse from the like inquisition I profess to God it is such an ungentleman-like thing methinks to trouble ones Neighbors that I should be glad to rid modest men of that work It were better all these Acts suffered at once a due and Christian Regulation than we should be still put upon this untoward dragging innocent folks thus to prison for doing nothing in earnest but endeavouring to save their souls In the name of God take you your Psalter and let them say their prayers as they will I have made my Proposition I shall now offer you my Arguments Visa est enim mihi with the forementioned Author res digna consultatione maximè propter periclitantium numerum Multi enim omnis aetatis omnis ordinis utriusque sexus etiam vocantur in periculum vocabuntur Neque enim Civitates tantùm sed viros etiam atque agros superstitionis istius contagi● pervagata est quae videtur sisti corrigi posse My Arguments may be reduced to these heads The course you have taken in your former Acts will not reach the End you have designed in them The way I propose in this Act is liker to do it The present consideration and exigency of affairs requires the same of us One more The present juncture of affairs and conscience toward our Brethren requires it These heads I will wrap together in my discourse and leave the Analysis to your acuter Judgments If it were not a time to speak now we might lay our hands upon our lips and our mouthes in the dust I said Dayes should speak and years teach wisdom But there is a spirit

on thus I tell you what perhaps you may have thought too mean for your notice You will not by Violence under present circumstances bring People to Uniformity The great thing that keeps these Fanaticks from the Church and Common-Prayer lies in such private odd impressions on their thick beliefs and dark minds I tell it you and it were well if none of the most serious and learned are not touched after a soberer fashion with the same malady Find out a way now to root out such principles such fearful conceits and superstitious jealousies of you To meddle with their persons is but to torment the body not heal their conceptions You must take another course than quite that you may do this For what ●s that which can make these men with any appearance of Truth think our Governmen● Antichristian unless it be the persecuting them by your Acts which they lay all upon the Prelate and look upon it as the spirit of Antichrist and our Church as Babylon opposing the Powe● of Religion That you persecute is Faction and the factiou● spirit but they take that Spir● to be the Power and Life o● Christianity The natural way it follows to convince them t● the contrary is a Cessation 〈◊〉 these Acts that when there 〈◊〉 no rage or persecuting the may believe there is no Bea● nor Antichrist a conjunctio● with the sober of them that the may see you advance and n● hate true Piety and overco●ing the rest in their weakness with forbearance long-suffering and gentleness There are none ignorant of one piece of advice that was given by an honourable Lawyer among the Jews where the holy Apostles those Fishermen-Preachers disturbed the World There was one Theudus rose up and boasted himself saith he and one Judas and these came to nothing wherefore I say to you Refrain from these men and let them alone for if this counsel or work be of men it will come to nought as others did but if it be of God ye cannot overthro● it lest happily ye be found even to fight against God I wish to the Lord the great Ministers of our State would be content to be no wiser men than Gamaliel If these Sects and Sectaries in their union against Prelacy how contemptible soever in their dispersion are indeed of God or a Counsel of his then shall not Prelacy stand before them But if they be all nothing but the imaginations of divided mortals without the power of Religion as their center Then refrain from these men and let them alone according to the advice of that time and you shall see how much more easily they will break all to pieces of themselves than by your keeping a stir with them Let me offer you one president to your conviction When Vespatian and Titus came to the last Destruction of Jerusalem there was three factions of the Seditious called the Zealous the one held the City the other two divided the Temple At the Roman Army drawing up before the Walls all these factions agree unanimously withstood them with equal courage and bravery The General hereupon takes this advice he withdraws his Army from their Territories for a season leaving them to themselves purposely They presently upon his removal fall together into their former discords till they had almost wasted and ruin'd one another and then comes he with his Army back and after a cruel siege takes the City There are more than three Factions among us who are zealously united against Prelacy If you could find a way to divide them and break them you must withdraw these Acts against them It is your Laws combine their interest that otherwise was divided A strange piece of Policy that proposes safety to Episcopacy in the union of the Adversary and Peace to the Nation in their highest exasperations A little before Arch-Bishop Lauds time the Puritans had got a fashion of wearing their hair so short as above their ears They placed matter of Conscience in it and there was few but were careful observers of it It pleased God that Dr. Laud took a humour to approve short hair for the Ministry which he requiring more than ordinary strictly as Canonical This presently has a contrary effect on our zealous Brethren who plead for their liberty by their practice and none of late were seen to wear their hair more long than those who were for a Gathered-People If I know any thing of the spirits of men it is Rarity and Difficulty that whets the appetite and it is Satiety and Liberty asswageth them And if some such way as this could it be hit upon did not prevail more toward Uniformity than the flat severity of direct Injunctions for it I will shut up my Table-Books and take no more reckoning of Experience It may be there are some please themselves in the thought that the new Oxford Oath hath divided the Non-conformists seeing part of them do take it and par● do not But what is the division of men into some taking the Oath and some not taking it any more than some of the● Presbyterians some Anabaptists so long as they retain the sam● heart and principles as to thei● common concerns While thei● combined Interest is all one th● dividing them in their single Interests and little angers is bu● multiplying parties against you● and playing with their disturbance I know some Politicks ma● direct you that when there is 〈◊〉 growing Party or Faction unde● any State to keep a severe hand ●ver them for their suppression ●ut this must be understood be●ore those parties be grown and ●ou be sure that they are the ●●sser number If such Factions ●e considerable and equall a ●eutral kind of unconcernment ●●d indifferency makes the chief ●agistrate strong while he keeps ●s interest in all of them where 〈◊〉 an espousing of one doth ●oth bandy the others against it ●d makes his Horses to be but ●●eir Horses and his Chariots ●●eir Chariots It is not a few ●considerable Ministers onely ●e engagement of whose souls ●e against these late Acts but ●ere are many worthy Gentle●en and grave Citizens and sober Persons besides the multitude of multitudes of such tha● are mixt with the Sectaries 〈◊〉 wish heartily that our Sovereig● Lord the King could but mak● one equal tryal of the gener●● inclination Suppose he shoul● give Commission to the Sheri● of any County pitched upon i● differently granting leave to th● people promiscuously to me● together and give their Vot● freely whether they would hav● an Indulgence and Liberty 〈◊〉 Conscience or no Let us hav● but fair play for it and if we 〈◊〉 not carry it in the Hearts an● Votes of the good Subject 〈◊〉 will neither move the wing n● open the mouth nor peep more 〈◊〉 this business It hath pleased God at this ●eason to bring us into that con●ition that an Agreement of all ●ersons to the strengthening of ●ur hearts and our hands for his Majesty would be seasonable And were I asked

offer the other Namquid facimus id nisi utile sit stultae omnis atque inanis inde est gloria To eke out then this Proposition I will take breath and not be afraid to shew you also my Opinion There are the learned and sober Godly amongst us which are to be compounded with as your Brethren And there are the Zealous and Giddy in lesser Fractions which are to be born withal in mercy won over with patience gentleness For the former There was a Declaration of his Majesties about these Ecclesiastical Affairs before black Bartholomew wherein a composition is drawn up to our hands well and wisely and there are Laws in our Statute-Books against Pluralities If that Declaration were passed into a Law with as little canvasing and alteration as may be though with no less than is necessary to calm the withholding party we need no more to do our business And if those Statutes were refresht into a new Act that no mortal breathing should hold more than one Living and one Dignity that is one Cure of Souls upon which also he should ordinarily be resident with one Canonship Prebend or the like which is a sine-Cure as a reward of special merit or favour then should you not onely do God right and render the Hire to the Labourer which cryes for justice but you would make an Act of Grace or Accommodation significant while you put the means into his Majesties hands to gratifie his Restored and make him bountiful with their leavings I know who will be ready to stamp here and fling dirt in the Air. This is a kind of Clergy-Treason But it is no matter I will leave it upon Record for his Majesties service that if there be occasion or exigence for it what is prepared may be used For the latter Let us suppose a Liberty granted to these persons for their Assemblings according to their Consciences provided by Law that for security to the State and upon account of that Rule Not a Novice which modesty should teach those who are without learning to hold themselves to be so much longer than others lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the Devil they do not permit any to be their Pastors or to speak in their Churches but such as are of gravity and years as is fitting and that lest they should meddle about State-matters their Meeting-places as they would have them should be open for any that will to hear them and implead them if guilty I humbly conceive without any policy more that when the present Zeal of this Generation had beat ●t self out a little season and ●here be none of the heat of the Young man which runs out in ●ese persons unto the itch of reaching as it doth unto amo●es and the like in others to keep alive the strange fire which ●eaking against Government sually enkindles Before these men that are so hot upon it unto four or five twenty shall come to have fourty years hairs upon their beards or thirty five if they will be content at least but to stay so long they will get it is likely that discretion to see how contemptible is their stuffe in comparison of the grave studied Minister and being cold moreover to applauses by that time They will be so ashamed and flat to such an insolence that as soon as ever a few of those that are now living shall give up their Churches and Ghosts together there shall not hardly in a little time be any found more to succeed them I heard to strengthen this i● fared so with one of their Churches of great resort in London that was a fierce Revelation-mans one Mr. Strange who being taken away by the Mortality they having not his Peer left to take his Bishoprick dissolved immediately and their place knew them no more Had that person as he was often sought chanced to have been taken and put up in Newgate it is like they would have been provided of a Substitute It is not therefore your haling these men and women to Goal that will disperse them for when you have them in Prison they will Conventicle there and the rest be at the next Meeting but if you refrain from these men and let them alone as that grave Gentleman before in Scripture advised till a few of the more stanch and considerable do die they will come to dissolution of their own accord One thing yet I will tell you further which you perhaps think not of Suppose this Freedom in the Worship and Service of God according to mens inclinations Those that are for the Congregational way shal draw the most considerate and moderate from the Sectary and those that are the Presbyterian Preachers shall drain the Gathered Congregations And then the most eminent and judicious of the Presbyterian coming over to the Liturgy upon a little condescention to them in a few of their most material exceptions This thing Liberty of Prophecy which you so mortally dread as the enemy of Conformity shall happily become one of the most politick apt and kindliest means that can be thought upon at this season to bring up the people to it There is a block after this which I foresee will be laid in the way and pretended to enervate this discourse It cannot stand with ingenuity for any that plead in general for Indulgence in regard of their own Consciences to put in any barr against others that are consciencious and consequently the door hereby will be opened for the Papist to under-set and over-run the Protestant Religion But this is a Cloud that need not be feared by a Wind that blows so opposite to it For besides that the Act moved for is an Act for Concord and Indulgence in the Reformed Causes and this Liberty of Conscience must necessarily include that of the Magistrate aswel as the Subject which cannot allow of Idolatry or any thing of that nature by Publick Sanction when it may condescend much in matters of indifferency The thing we know is to pass the debate and deliberation of both Houses who will provide well enough beyond doubt in that matter Neither am I much moved if you say that the Arguments I use for the Non-conformists may be applied ●o the Papists for though some of them indeed may many of ●hem may not nor the main heads of them These are not like to be reduced this way The interest of State consists not with the Jesuite as the King's Supremacy does not with the Pope Otherwise were there no more danger to mens souls and lives ●n prevailing Popery than in Presbytery or the Sectary I am not the man that could find in my heart to persecute any harmless peaceable person for doing his devotions another way than I do I know there will be this and twenty things perhaps more said to traduce and choak this Motion But I oppose the same buckler to wit The Motion as it was at first stated and the Debate