Selected quad for the lemma: state_n
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A44973
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An humble apology for non-conformists with modest and serious reflections on the Friendly debate and the continuation thereof / by a lover of truth and peace.
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Norton, John, 1606-1663.
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1669
(1669)
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Wing H3402; ESTC R20176
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79,882
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174
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their Larger Catechise and in part by their own example in the Directory for publick Worship And as for their practise I say greater Loyalty than this hath no man than that a man lay down his life for his Soveraign and yet such were some of them as Mr. Love and Mr. Gibbons Some of them also had tryal of cruel Mocking for their Loyalty some of them of Bonds and Imprisonments of Sequestration and Banishments There are to be found among the present Nonconformists who sollicited Heaven and Earth with their Prayers and Tears for the saving of the Life of his late Majesty of Blessed Memory And whereas there were threescore and three unjust Judges that condemned his Majesty there were just as many Minister all except two accounted Presbyterians who appeared with the hazard of their Livings and Liberties if no also of their Lives with Scripture-Reasons and most earnest Entreaties to disswade men from and to declare against so horrid a wickedness Which very thing was the occasion that afterward some of them were driven from their Houses others imprisoned sequestred an◠threatned to be hanged Mr. H. Dr. W. Mr. A. That these persons were real cordial and conscientious too and that of th◠Oaths they had taken to his Majesty you may in charity judge if you take a taste of one of those Papers to the General and the General Council of War Presented and Printed during his Majesties Tryal In it they declare against all Proceedings against his Majesties Crown and Life upon grounds of Conscience and Prudence Which when they had laid down c. they conclude saying It was the Conscience of the many Oaths 〈◊〉 God its which you we and the generality of the Kingdom indispensibly stand bound before God Angels and Men which made them thus to declare themselves That we desire to wash our hands as from the Blood of all men so especially of our Dread Soveraign and to approve our selves innocent of all that blood and misery the Deposing and taking away his Majesties Life will in our apprehension involve us our Posterity and all men professing Godliness in the three Kingdoms We do therefere from our Soul beseech and importune you and every one of you as Men Gentlemen and Christian Souldiers by all that can be dear to good men as you desire to render a good account of your actions at the great day to the righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth That you will forbear doing ought in the Premises which may wound the Conscience or pierce the Hearts of any of Gods People who are all alike with you or any of you precious to him as the Apple of his Eye which may rend and tear the Bowels of this your and our native Countreys and occasion the common Enemy to blaspheme the Majesty Truth and Cause of our God And further to contribute the utmost skill study and endeavours of you and every of you in your proper places and the great Counsellor and mighty GOD direct you all to remove ours and the Kingdoms fears to remedy the present abounding Distempers and present and universal Destruction That we and the Generations to come may rise up and call you Blessed and so eminent a preservation of the Kingdom in such an extremity may be had in everlasting Remembrance And as for their Loyalty to our most Gracious Soveraign that now is and long and long may God continue Him and bless Him with all the Blessings of Heaven and Earth both in his Person and Government the Presbyterians have given good Proof thereof Mr. Cawten prayed for his Majesty with his Royal Titles in publick and for his so doing was accused and arraigned of High-Treason Others of them in private Houses prayed for him would not own the Government that then usurped over us nor keep their Days of Thanksgiving for the Victory at Dunbar or Worcester nor publish their Declarations against his Majesty or Sir George Booth and those that endeavoured his Restauration yea there are to be found amongst the present Nonconforming-Ministers who had like to have been hang'd for engaging with Sir George Booth and hardly escaped with their Lives then who have since lost their Livings Yea so zealous were the Presbyterian Ministers for his Majesties Restauration that the chief Quarrel in reason of the high Hierarchists against them should have been no other than that of the men of Israel against the men of Judah Because they were the first in bringing the King back Quest Can any man believe that the High Conformists were not the great Doers and Sufferers both for his Majesty and that meerly out of Principles of Conscience Answ I acknowledge there were divers amongst the Bishops and the Conforming-Clergy that did both do and suffer really out of principles of Conscience yet that their own Interest had some considerable influence into the Loyalty of many of them may be suspected for that they seem to express more and greater Zeal against the Presbyterians who yet endeavoured to save the King's Life than against the Regicides themselves that put him to death and more frequently and more fiercely every where charge arraign and condemn the Covenant than the Engagement as if they judged it was a more unpardonable crime to endeavour to extirpate Prelacy than actually to take away King and House of Lords more heinous to divest a Prelate of his Pontificalibus than to cut off the Head of the Lords Anointed This may possibly occasion many sober persons to query If the Tables had been turn'd and that his Majesty bad been for the extirpation of Prelacy and the removal of Liturgy and Ceremonies and the Parliament for the continuance and upholding of them whether many that were very hot would not have been lukewarm if not key-cold in his Majesties cause I conclude the Answer to this Question when I have laid down this great Truth That the Mitre is more beholden to the Crown than the Crown to the Miter and that it wit his Majesty that restored the Bishops and not the Bishops which restored his Majesty Quest Is not this then a true Maxim in Policy That Monarchy is greatly supported by Prelacy and that the greatest Hectors for Uniformity serve his Majesties Interest and Government most and best Ans The Lord Falkland either then or a while after Secretary of State said in Parliament of some stirring and leading Prelates before the War as followeth A little search will find them to have been the destruction of Unity under pretence of Uniformity to have brought in Superstition and Scandal under titles of Reverence and Decency c In which they have abused his Majestie as well as his People Heyl Cyp. Ang. p. 408. Quest. But if it be granted that the Presbyterians have any Loyalty to his Majesty have they also any love to the peace of the Church and to Dissenters from their Government Do they not implacably hate the Episcopal Clergy and stand irreconciliable to all Uniformity and Liturgy Answ