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
A50646	Some remarques upon a late popular piece of nonsence called Julian the apostate, &c. together, with a particular vindication of His Royal Highness the Duke of York, by some bold truths in answer to a great many impudent calumnies raised against him, by the foolish arguments, false reasonings and suppositions, imposed upon the publick from several scandalous and seditious pamphlets especially from one more notorious and generally virulent than the rest, sometime since published under the title of A Tory Plot, &c. / by a lover of truth, vertue, and justice.	Meredith, Edward, 1648-1689?	1682 (1682)	Wing M1784; ESTC R23540	71,436	69

Presumptive was a Nonsensical Distinction to make the best of it for he ought not according to your Argumment to have allowed that the Duke was so much as Heir Presumptive but ought to have declared That the King till he was dead could have no Heir at all but I suppose he knew where he was and was wiser What stuff too is this which follows against another Argument which he says he has heard fetched from the Common Prayer viz. That no Church of England Man can with a good Conscience be for a Bill of Exclusion which they say is to the Prejudice of His Royal Highness because we there Pray that God would prosper him with all Happiness both here and hereafter To answer which says he it would be a Curse either in the mouth or heart of any Protestant under the name of Happiness to wish him the Opportunity invincible Temptation and a kind of Necessity to Extirpate the best Religion in the World Now does not this Fellow deserve to be pelted and hollow'd out of every Society that had but Common Sense Kind of Necessity In the Devil's Name what Conjuration's this What does he mean by Kind of Necessity Is not all Necessity the same Are there any kinds of it Thou Noddle full of unutterable Nonsense there are several kinds of Conveniency indeed but I never heard of kinds of Necessity before as for Example I could propose several kinds of Conveniencies for our Author viz. It were convenient for him to learn Grammar It were convenient for him to turn an Honest Man It were convenient for him to get a good Parsonage c. But for the First it may be he is too old or too dull For the Second I am afraid he has no Seeds of it in his Nature For the Third I am informed he has behaved himself so scandalously in one post already that he will hardly be trusted in hast with another I know not what a new Patron may do for him But it is absolutely necessary for him to Eat in this World Bread he must have and he finding that playing the Knave and the Fool is the most agreeable way to his Nature of getting it has very fairly set up his Trade with a Julian the Apostate This I take to be an illustrative destinction of Necessity and Conveniency But why my dear Author should he ever succeed which may be I hope as much as you that he will not for I hope the King may out-live him But why will he have a Necessity upon him to Extirpate the best Religion in the World I am afraid my little Mephistophilus may have a Quirk in this for if by the best Religion in the World thou meanest Presbytery Independency Anabaptism Brownism Quakerism c. all blended together as they are already in a Faction or either of them separated from the rest as it is probable thou mayest my dear Author verily I am of thy Opinion For I think it so absolutely necessary for the too merciful Prince who possesses the Throne already to do it That I am afraid and perswaded They will never let him Rule in Peace so long as there is one of their Priests of Baal left to blow the Trumpets of Sedition affront the Authority of the Government and vex the Quiet and the Peace of his Kingdoms To Extirpate these false Religions I think there is a kind of Necessity as thou callest it But how the D. should he succeed will have by that a Necessity to Extirpate the Church of England as by the Law it is Established is a Riddle I would fain see interpreted I believe he would find it absolutely necessary for him to do otherwise I believe he may find it necessary for him to Preserve maintain and Indulge that Religion so essential to the Royal Authority it self that That and the Best King fell together and what sort of Church succeeded ask Mr. Baxter The Church of England is a Religion whose interest is so mixed and interwoven on one hand with the Prerogatives Authority and Safety of the King on the other with the Liberty Property Quiet and Ease of the Subject in short so much the Golden Chain that tyes the Interest of Rule and Obedience together that I dare pronounce no King can be Happy in England that does not in all its Interests and nicest Points support it Nor will it for all the Preface to Julian the Apostate be necessary for any Successor to suffer its Diminution or its least Impair much less to extirpate and destroy it All this Virulence and bitterness he has expressed in his Preface against the Duke of York But when he comes to speak of Julian I desire but the Reader to take notice how favourably he handles him There was says he a Law and an Ancient Law of the Empire and so great stress was laid upon it that the breach of it was look't upon as an Offence against the Government and the Empire that every one should Honour and Worship the Emperors Statues and Pictures which were set up for that end in Publick places Now says he He meaning his Friend Julian took advantage of that Law to ensnare them unawares in Heathenish Worship for he added the Figures of the Heathen Gods to his own Picture and as Gregorie 's words are this fellow has a great honour for Gregory as we shall see hereafter mingled Poison with their meat abusing their Loyalty to the purposes of Idolatry Now let us Construe this Gibberish and see what it signifies If there were a Law of the Empire for the worshipping of the Emperours Statues and Pictures then was Idolatry established by Law for worshipping Statues is no better and what a Libel has he made upon Christianity nay and quoted Gregory for his Author in telling us That the Christians thought themselves bound in Loyalty to obey that Law Or how though the Pictures of the Heathen Gods were added to the Emperours was their Loyalty in Danger of being abused for if those Christians could dispence in Conscience with adoring and worshipping the Emperours Statues they might easily have separated their adoration from the Images of the Heathen Gods and kept their Loyalty as found as ever it was what stuff is this to be Published in Print I am afraid the Press has got a Contagion of Nonsence and will never vent wholsom Sense and sound Reasoning agen for I am fain to write almost as bad Nonsence as he to answer him as some sort of Poisons are only to be expell'd by another But to enquire a little farther who were they that refused this why he refers us to St. Gregory agen who he says tells us Some of the Wiser and more Conscientious found out the Fraud but they paid for their Sagacity the Pretence was that they offended against the Honour of the Emperour but the Truth was they came into Danger for the sake of the true King Was there ever a Libel against Christianity and an Apology for an

he Page the 71st calls it to summ up all in a word he tells us that the first Christians suffered indeed according to the Laws of their Country whereas those under Julian were persecuted contrary to Law who did not fairly enact sanguinary Laws against them but put them to death upon Shams and pretended Crimcs Now how this agrees with what our Author told us before in Page the 66th let the Reader look back and he will soon be satisfied for there he tells us Julian's persecution was but a Flea-biting to what the Christians formerly felt That he good man wrought upon mens covetousness more then their fear yet here Page the 71st he was a Cruel Murderer and putter to death Nay upon pretended Crimes too what credit ought to be given to so impudent a Fellow as this who will rather give himself the Lye then use the memory of an Enemy to God and a reviler of his Blessed Son as it deserves yet this is he whom a true Protestant party as they call themselves cry up for a Libel written against their Christianity and a most Religious Zealous Pious Lord has chosen for his Chaplain And these indeed are the reflections of our Author upon the behaviour of the Christians against Julian with this Title had he charged his dreadful Murdering piece of all the Ninth Chapter But finding that it would not go off so has primed it with a new one of passive obedience which may more properly be called an Appendix to his Preface for it is a solution of the case how far we ought to be obedient to a Popish Prince Now though it be palpable enough at what head he Aims his odious Title And though I own my self a naturally devoted Servant to that Illustrious Heroick Virtuous Sufferer whom I never could be convinced by any proof or the strickest enquiry I could yet make barring publick suspicion deserved that denomination yet here Abstracting the case from the Person I am contented for once to take the frivolous discourse in hand as this trifling Author has stated it and see what dammage according to his Arguments are likely to accrue from a Popish Prince granting there could be such a thing to the Established Religion of these Kingdomes After which allowing the esteem our Authors party have for the service he has done them if it appear from his own Arguments to the contrary that our Religion according to its Establishment in its inward perfect purity of doctrine and it 's outward defence and bulwark of the Law be so confirmed that if it forsake not its own strength nothing at home can shake or disturb it much less persecute it I think it were but Reason if Peace and Truth according to their pretensions be the things they so much labour for that they henceforth return into the Arms of the Church the obedience to the Law renounce their Pharisaical pride of separation and let the People of England be once more fellow Christians and fellow Subjects If then as our Author says Page 73d We have our Religion settled by Page the 73d such Laws as cannot be altered without our own Consent what need he in the next page have asked the foolish Question Whether or no we are to go to Mass to Morrow or have our Throats out If as he says there can be no Page the 75th need of passive obedience for our Religion but by our own Treachery to it in parting with those good Laws which protect it and in agreeing to such as shall destroy it why all these noises and clamors why these alarums among us why these outcries of approaching Persecution and imminent Popery If the Laws of the Kingdom absolutely and entirely tend as certainly they do to the maintenance of the established Church and the rooting out the Superstitious Religion of Rome and if there be no power in England Civil or Military but what meerly depends upon the Authority of those Laws and cannot move without it where are those dangers we so foolishly affright our selves withall or whence can they arise From within our selves I am sure they cannot except Popery be to grow upon us out of the Earth like Mushrooms in a Night or gather over our heads like a thick Cloud in the Air and rain down a shower of Armed Papists in ready Rank and File to over-run and destroy us er'e we can think of our defence Popish black bills 't is true have been sent to a Rendezvous by the Post but never more heard of An Army of Pilgrims too were Landed but to no purpose neither Yet these things were in a time when we had a dangerous Plot ready to discharge it self among us but now the Pay-Master of the Imaginary Army to be raised for the use of that Plot is gone into another World the rest of the Principal Officers under a close Imprisonment and like to lie there Nay all their Commissions lost too and not somuch as one Cypher of Father Oliva's to shew for the bus'ness What grounds are there for our Fears now Are not all the Popish Nobility in the Kingdom excluded from their Votes in the House of Lords Or can any Man be a Member of the Lower House who does not take the Oaths of Allegiance Supremacy Test and Sacrament according to the Church of England And are not these Two Houses the great Council of the Kingdom who are to prepare by Votes all manner of Instruments for the preservation of our Safety and Religion and Confirmation of our Rights to be passed into Laws by the Royal Assent And can there in a Government and Church thus Established thus Fortified be fears of Popery or Persecution from it self No were there but another Test to pass through the Kingdom against Separation and Schism as there is against Popery I think then even our own Treachery to our Religion were impossible to be supposed in parting with those good Lawes which should protect it I believe then the 35th of Elizabeth would no more be struck at but put in due Execution Rebels and Mutineers reduced and made obedient to the Government and Laws Mechanicks kept to their Shops and not suffered to turn their Ware-houses into Nurseries of false Doctrine Prophaneness Blasphemy and Rebellion And since as our Author says it would be Treachery to part with those good Lawes which protect our Religion They who would Abolish this Law are not 't is to be feared so true Sons of the Church as they ought to be by Leaving so wide a gap for all manner of Confusion to enter in at and rend the peaceful Bowels of their Mother No Let us banish those needless Fears that serve for nothing but to perplex the sweetest Peace that ever a happy Nation was blest withal and avoid those Enemies of our Prosperity that would promote them Let all true Sons of the Established Church resolve by Loyalty to their Prince Obedience to his Authority Mutual Love Charity and entire Union

Julian be named in it I desire to forfeit my Credit with him for ever Well but sayes our Author this Metropolitan was a better Graecian than ever I expect to be But by this he gives us room to observe that he expects to be a Metropolitan though at least and surely he deserves it for writing so noble a History of Primitive Christianity And now sayes our Author page the 44th I know no more then the Pope of Rome what to make of all this what they meant by it or upon what Principles these men proceeded this is a familiar way of expressing himself but ô my Conscience the man speaks truth whether sayes he Old Gregory distinguished and did not resist Julian but only the Devil which his Son so often tells us was in him Ah Friend of mine have a care there These sorts of distinctions may stand You in ill stead one day for should you by these distinctions cheat your self into a share in such a Rebellion as theirs was who said they fought not against the King but his ill Ministers about him and then should be hanged for your Logick what an Advocate would Paganism lose and what a Chaplain his Lordship But if ever the Deacon our Author were drunk in his life which is not a thing impossible For there is very good Ale in Essex certainly he had Chap. 5. Page the 45th taken a Cup when he wrote the succeeding Chapter concerning the Devotions of his Primitive Arrian Christians about this business For sayes he when they go to Church and enter upon holy ground there one may expect to see the flights of their self-denying and suffering Religion There one may expect they should lay aside all their animosities and pray for Julian though he were their enemy Yes sayes he and so they do the wrong way Witty Varlet They cannot sing a Psalm but they make his Confusion the burden of it The Burden of a Psalm is indeed a new expression by which we may perceive our Author is deeply read in Ballad and what does a man's Learning signify if he may not have the liberty to shew it But now according to the preparations for the raising of our expectation we might imagine to find something very extraordinary indeed As how they met in large Congregations and with one Heart and Voice Invoked the Fall and Ruin of this Cruel Persecuter How the whole Church kept Solemn and at least Weekly Fasts to humble themselves before the Throne of Mercy that the Miseries and grievous Sufferings they lay under might in some measure of time be taken from 'em But as I have observed before it is not the Method of this Worthy Author to perform any thing that he would make us believe The contents of his Chapters are high and threatning like the Huffings of Cowards But his Chapters themselves like the fighting of Cowards too as much at a distance from the point as is possible But instead of all this this Bankrupt-Brain'd Fellow when he has run into our debt almost a whole History would Compound with us for two ridiculous Stories of a Company of Mad Fellowes not unlike our Modern Muggletonians and a foolish Old Woman that had made her self Head of a Female Consort of sweet Singers The Stories run thus Page the 46th Julian having given the Christians Leave to remove the Bones of one Babylas a Martyr from the place where Apollo's Temple stood The People that setched the Cossin went dancing before it and singing David's Psalms repeating after every Verse Confounded be all they that Worship graven Images Upon which Julian Commanded the Leaders of this Dance to be apprehended Now to examine the meaning of this a little And we shall find it palpably no more then a Libel upon the Ingratitude of these Christians for what can be gathered from hence but that our Author intended to represent Julian a Merciful and Indulgent Prince and one that proceeded much rather like a Cherisher af Christianity then a destroyer of it for a Merciless and Inhumane Persecutor might have Commanded Ministers of his Fury to have digg'd up the Carcass of the Martyr out of it's Quiet grave and Exposed it with Disgrace and Contumely to the Birds of the Air and the Beasts of the Field c. Instead of this we find him here Commended to us as One that practized Methods much milder and let the Christians themselves remove the reliques of their dead Brother that all Decent and Pious Ceremony might be used in the performance of it Well and how did the Christians thank him for this Indulgence Why sayes our Author They wished God Confound him for his pains This is the true Exposition of the Text this is the plain English of the Story and if this be not a Satyr against Christianity and a Panegyrick upon the Apostate I know not what can be The other Story is this of an Old Woman one Madam Publia who had Page the 48th under her Command a Company of Virgins forsooth now our Author may call this reverend Lady by what title he pleases whether a Lady Abbess or Mother of the Maids no matter but an old Woman's keeping a Company of Virgins will bear a great many Interpretations Well but in short according to Theodoret this ancient Gentlewoman and her Young Ladies were alwayes singing Praises to God that 's certain but when the Emperour passed by they sung their Psalms the louder accounting him fit to be despised and derided now which the relative Him here relates to whether God or the Emperour for ought I can guess by his Writings may puzzle a Better Graecian or Grammarian than our Author to determine and if so the old Woman for all this may be a very wicked old Woman But to make the best of the case it seems as often as Julian passed by they Left off the devotion of singing meekly to the Praises of their Creator and fell a roaring and bawling to affront and provoke the Emperour This seems not very unlike a Nest of Hornets that hum and buzz mighty Musically while they are busie with their harmless honey but if any thing pass by though it never disturb e'm they encrease their notes to a hideous cry and all swarm out to sting and vex it Though for the credit of her Profession I hope this old Womans Ladies were not every way like Hornets that is I hope they had no stings in their Tayls how sharp soever their Tongues were But to return to the matter What return did Julian make for these Indignities Why as to the first A Leader of the Dance One Theodorus being apprehended and put to rack and here we have our true Protestant Author clenching his Nayl with a Popish Miracle being asked if he felt any pain answered he felt a little but there stood by him a certain Youth who all the while wiped off his sweat with a very white linnen cloath and often poured cold water upon him which so

a Lye for commonly when we hear a Story delivered so many several wayes we suspend our belief and give no credit to it in General at all so that for ought we know Julian the Apostate may be living to this very hour nay Conversant as Nebuchadnezzar once among the Beasts with many worthy true Protestants and others here in England where having forgot the past glories of his Empire and contenting himself with the solitary pleasures of Brandy and Mundungus still preserving his name has Condescended to the humble office of transcribing and publishing dull Libels and Lampoons for worse fools to own then the blockheads that make e'm In the next place as to the usage of Julian's memory this precious Author has thought Convenient to write a whole Chapter how they that is to say by Gregory their representative in an Invective call'd him Herod Page the 63d Judas Traytor Murderer c. till after all they Lodged him in Hell and there they left him which I say was very charitably done and so farewel poor Julian Only I must desire to remind our Author of a mighty mistake he has made in matter of truth for whereas towards the begining of his Book page the 14th in the short account of Julian's Life he sayes that some of the Fathers write that he would suffer no Christian Masters to teach but make no mention at all of his forbidding the Youth to learn In this viz. the 7th Chapter and Page the 56th rather then lose the credit of a Miracle as he calls it he makes bold to give all those Fathers the Lye and declares That the News of Julian 's Death was Convey'd Page the 56th and 57th to some of the Christians by Miracle for there was a Christian School-Master at that time at Antioch and he being asked in derision what the Carpenter's Son was doing being fill'd with Divine Grace sayes our Author Another Popish Miracle of our true Protestant Authors reply'd He is making a Coffin A very heavenly Speech truly and the School-Master was a Wagg I 'l warrant him as well as a School-Master This is the Sum total of the Account our Author has given us of the Sence of the Primitive Christians about Julian's Succession and their behaviour towards him where I think it is sufficiently Evident That his whole drift and design has been as much as in him lay to strike at the very root of Christianity by exposing the weakness false dealing and ingratitude of a few intemperate Zealots under the name and title of Primitive Christians and cha●ging other principal Members of the Church at that time with no less Crimes then Witchcraft and Murder While Julian all along is represented the most Indulgent forbearing temperate and patient Prince that ever wink 't and turned aside at the Effrontive Insolencies of an unruly people whom his heart pity'd and that this was his drift will more largely appear in the following Chapter Being our Authors own reflexions upon the behaviour of these Christians and here indeed speaking for himself and not having occasion to Quote Gregory fo often we may more particularly distinguish the spirit of the Man for he cannot help shewing us his thoughts fairly and Page the 65th clearly upon the matter but sayes in the very first line of this Chapter and so onward for a whole leaf together which I shall epitomize as well as I can That Julian's persecution was but a Flea-biting to what the Christians formerly had felt that the case of the discarded School-masters Physitians and Souldiers was the greatest severity of all Julian's Edicts that Julian to speak properly was rather a Tempter then a Persecutor and one who wrought upon Mens Covetousness Ambition more then their fear and that whatsoever he ever designed against the Christians was far short of what other Emperors had executed Is not this an Apology for Julian now is not this making Page the 66th him the most equally dealing and Indulgent Prince that ever reigned if the Reader is not so satisfy'd let him but carry his Eyes a very little farther and observe how he treats and justifies those Christians and their proceedings For yet sayes he notwithstanding all this how do the Christians Treat this Emperor One would take them Page Ib. to be the Apostates one while reproaching him ruffling with him and vexing every vein in his Royal heart another while saying all their Prayers backward and calling down vengeance upon his head After that dancing and leaping for joy at his death and insulting over his memory but for the name of Christians he had better have fallen amongst Barbarians And yet sayes our Author farther he often would mildly put them in mind of their christianity too But they call him by the bloodiest names of the Devil for taking advantages of the Christian doctrine in this particular which sayes we must not avenge our Page the 67th selves nor render evil for evil c. Now let any unprejudiced Readers but peruse these two Characters seriously Viz. that first of Julian and this after it of the Christians and thence Judge who set this noble Author to work and the cause he writes for Judge which he has done the best service to by the feats of his triumphing Pen whether Christianity or Apostacy God or the Devil Nor ought his telling us that christianity was then the Established Religion of the Empire at all to prevail upon our belief till he bring better Arguments for it then those I before observed of the mighty number of Seven Thousand that did not bow the Knee to Baal Christianity was indeed a Tolerated Religion of the Empire increased and got strength under the Patronage and Protection of those Christian Emperors before Julian but that it was ever Constituted or Commanded by their Laws to be receiv'd as the universal Religion of their Dominions is a secret which I am afraid our Author's Learning will hardly yet a while from any Histories discover to the World For though those Emperors were Christians themselves we do not find from any thing at least that our Author informs us except we will take his own bare word for the matter that they ever began a general tirpation of Heathenism or Commanded universal Baptism over all their World They made no Laws for bringing Nations under the same Discipline of one Christian Church which had it been a Religion established by Law must and would certainly have been done But whether it were or were not signifies little or nothing to my present purpose it being only my design in these Remarques to let the World see how falsely they are dealt withal by a Scribler that pretends to write a Satyr upon an Apostate when he has taken all the care that 's possible to vindicate and defend him which as he has done sufficiently in contradicting the truth so has he been as Industrious for it in contadicting himself too for when he comes as

sayes the Page Ib. Gentleman farther if he does not persecute Hereticks with fire and sword he lyes at the Popes Mercy to have his Kingdom taken away from him Indeed Mr. Author and that 's a very weighty Consideration But do you think in your Conscience that he will part with it so Truly a deep foresight into politick Consequences is a great blessing to one that is to write much upon Supposes Though if a man might be so bold as to put in a word with you really it seems unto me Noble Sir Poll. that you do please to speak of more then need be done for if you dare to Engage this Popish Successor after you have established your Interest by your project from bringing in his Religion to let us poor Protestants live in Peace and Quietness as I believe you may I 'l Engage the Pope shall be very favourable to him and for a very small Quit-Rent let him keep the Copyhold of his Kingdom Bless us how things will be managed when the Reader of Covent Garden comes to be a primiere Minister and I Ambassadour Extraordinary to his Holiness but till that time comes I can foresee no fear of a Popish Persecution nor very great danger of the Popes disposing of these Three Kingdoms Well but what are we to think now if as our Author sayes into the Page Ib. bargain that besides the danger of being dethroned by the Pope if he does not persecute Protestants he runs also the hazard of being served as the Two Henry 's of France were Why truly nothing is Impossible but we hope it is not altogether so probable that a King should be stabb'd in a Protestant Country for not persecuting its Religion let him keep the Enemies of the Church from hurting the Protestants and certainly the Protestants will be able to keep their Enemies from hurting of him or the Pope from taking away his Kingdom either 100000 Protestants will be too hard for all the Pope's Bulls in Christendom This Policy I believe Any Successor let his private Perswasion be what it will may find very necessary in England and Twenty to One be wise enough to practise it too for Henry the Fourth of France it is very observable was not Kill'd by Ravillac till he left the Protestant Religion and encouraged Popery had he kept it under still and Establish'd the Reformed above it it is an even wager but he might have dy'd in his Bed and been gather'd to his Fathers in Peace Besides it is not absurd to imagine that it was not so much an Ecclesiastical as a Temporal Policy which sent the Villanous Dagger to that Brave Prince's Heart But our Author has indeed a most extraordinary Rule of Policy of his own and we may perceive it plainly enough by that which follows For says he Let things fall as they will though some persons may be so happy as to think he will not persecute yet every body must grant that he may persecute that the thing is Possible Now from this hour Thou most Confounded Author do I declare Immortal enmity with thee nor will ever be Ambassadour to the Pope nor shalt thou be ever a Minister of State It is possible in the Devil's name that a Popish Successor may persecute And is this the Mouse that thy Mountain of a Book has brought forth at last and ought a Bill of Exclusion to pass for this because Thou say'st it is possible that a Popish Successor may persecute hadst Thou stuck to thy first Argument That our Religion can never be in a condition of Persecution but by our own Treachery to it in parting with those good Laws which protect it and in agreeing to such as shall destroy it hadst Thou kept to that Foundation thou mightest indeed have raised some discourse of Reason but that the possibility that an evil may happen is sufficient for any reasonable men to raise their fears of it upon or a lawful cause to use unnatural and unequal means to prevent it is an opinion I would gladly see thee put in practice It is not impossible but that thou mayest come to be a Slave in the Turkish Galleys one day and compelled to live a wretched painful life for several miserable years together why dost thou not generously hang thy self for a remedy against it for such an accident may happen to thee the thing is possible Or if since it is possible that a Popish Successor may persecute that it would be therefore just and reasonable to exclude him why thou vile blunderer it is possible too if that be all that a Protestant Successor may persecute as well as a Popish one that a Protestant Successor may turn Papist it is possible that the best Prince may change his Nature and turn a Tyrant neither of these accidents but are possible in Nature so by thy Argument all Heirs to the Crown ought to be therefore Excluded and no more Kings reign over us because 't is possible they may one way or other prove persecutors I am very much afraid indeed that 's the vile false consequence thou wouldest dispute for But to come closer to thee in thy rule of possibility it is not impossible but that such a Parliament may come as to Vote a Bill for the rooting out of our Religion and Establishing Popery or a Worse in its place were it therefore reasonable to pass a Law that never any more Parliaments should Sit in England nay as thou hast stated it it really carries the more specious pretence of danger of the two for it being impossible that our Religion in its lawful Establishment can be peaceably altered if any way by any other means then an Act of Parliament the King too being but one man and the Parliament many it is more reasonable that the opinions of the many should sway the will or inclination of one then that the will of one should over-rule the opinions and inclinations of the many since therefore it is impossible that any Successor can lawfully violate the Protestant Religion but by the concurrence and consent of a Parliament All thy Argument amounts to is Take away Parliaments and our Religion in law is safe For ever the Nation is beholding to thee for thy parts and by the service thou art fit to do the State by thy Policy we may guess what the Church may hope from thy Divinity Well but after all sayes our Author Since it is possible that a Popish Successor may persecute it is even high time that we look about us and see what we have to trust to The Gospel doth not so much as allow any means when we cannot escape by Flight betwixt denying and dying for the Earth Well but by what Law must we dye By none sayes our Author that I know but Parasites Sycophants and Murderers may Now I dare venture to hold this Author of ours Fifty pound to a shilling that amongst all his Noble acquaintaince there is not