Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	answer_v	pope_n	rome_n	3,024	5	6.3013	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55142	Loyalty and conformity asserted, in two parts the first preached the seventh of August, 1681 ... : the second preached the sixteenth of October, 1681 ... / by Jos. Pleydell ...	Pleydell, Josiah, d. 1707.	1682 (1682)	Wing P2568; ESTC R17033	24,967	48

will be Observed To Improve this to our Purpose What 's the near as to the higher ends of Government to burn a Fellow in the Hand for sttealing of a Sheep or a Calfe Or Truss up a poor Wretch for Committing of Burglary to the great damage of wakeing the Child and loosing a Chese There are enormities of another kind but more dangerous issue then these which are very much in your power to redress In curbing such as go about to Debauch the Minds of His Majesties good Subjects with Atheism and Faction thereby robbing him of his greatest Treasure and best security of his Government and our Peace their Affections and Consciences Such as Preach Seditiously and can't tell how to pray for the King without Libelling of him Such as dare not only Disobey but Confront Laws who not only act contrary to the Government but endeavour to Subvert it Who not only break their Superiours Injunctions but as our Saviour says of the Pharisees whose Successors they are in mischief and hypocrisie teach others to do so too And for this reason I think they ought to be punish'd and punish'd worse too Let me adde then Common Drunkards Open Whoremasters and Prophane Swearers I make no Apology for them because as my Lord Verulam has well Observ'd and he was no great friend to the Churches Exaltation as in the body Natural we dread a Wound that makes a Solutio Continui worse than Botches and Ulcers that are more painful and offensive so in the Parallel these Mens Principles lead to Schism and Rebellion and we have pretty well known their Practises which are the Solutio Continui in Church and State whereas the other are indeed against the Dignity of the Crown and Honour of Religion and do by a long Consequence weaken and by degrees dispose both Church and State to Ruine but not like Drums and Trumpets If it were only for their peevish stubbornness they deserve Punishment perhaps more than worse Offenders in another kind because the Laws do not so much Consider the Nature of an Offence in it self as its evil tendency to the Publick which because it is more and more often indangered by persons under that Guise than any other they therefore ought to proceed more severely against them than Offences in the estimation of Religion of a far more hainous Nature And for the Mobile's being scandaliz'd hereat concludes no more with me but that their Ignorance does not comprehend the Wisdom of our Laws And if what has been said seem to warp too much one way 't is not because I think better or worse of Phanaticism or Popery though to give the Devil his due we can't Charge them with such another Instance as the Late Kings Death which we could never have been quit with them for had not Oates in his Evidence made them a party in it The truth is they are as bad or worse but their Numbers and Advantages are not so great and the danger on this side was so Imminent that the very fear of the other had almost undone us And the Word Popery was like to have done us as it had done formerly as great or greater mischief then we could suffer by the thing And yet we think our selves as good Protestants as them that speak so little in so much against Popery i. e. If by Protestant we understand the Religion of the Church of England as it is by Law Established and not meerly an Anti-religion form'd in Contradiction to another If they mean such a Protestant I am none nor ever will be And 't is the thing Popery I am angry with whether I meet with it in Mariana or Buchanan Bellarmine or Knox. Of the two 't was more Creditable to disown the debt upon their death then to justifie the Rebellion as Kid and King did and the rest of them have since done upon the Gallows One thing me thinks looks intolerable from this sort of men they have not only the impudence to deny all this and some the folly to believe them innocent but they set up for the Patriots of our Liberty and the King 's best Friends and the great Bulwarks against Popery All true alike As to our Liberties If they mean the quiet enjoyment of those Rights and Properties the Kings of England have given to us by their Bounty and confirmed by their Laws when were they invaded when were they in Jeopardy but from them If they mean the putting us into a capacity of doing what we list and disobeying those Laws we do not like and disturbing the King's Peace it concerns His Majesty and those about him to look to that We well remember what fast Friends they were to the Old King for which I shall never be reconciled to them till they blush and repent But they atton'd for that by bringing in this I believe their Spleen against the Independent Party did contribute towards it But if they had been the only Instruments of his Restoration and had done it too upon the most Loyal and Generous Principles neither of which is true must that attone for all their Treasons past present and to come I for my part think them such Back Friends to the King and to Monarchy that I do not think either safe till they are disarm'd if not suppressed And as for Popery Alas They keep it out did ever any of them say or write any thing against it The Church of Rome thought fit to answer They wound the Pope they never levell'd their Arrows higher than the Church of England I 'll give you an Instance equivalent to a Demonstration When they had the Power in their own hands what new Laws or Provisions did they then make against Papists what Severities did they then execute upon them Their Zeal and Malice extended as far as to tear the Surplice rend the Prayer-Book break the Communion-Rails prophane the Altar hang the King's Party and famish sequester'd and outed Ministers but went no farther If I might guess the Heads of that Party are not governed by Conscience and Religion but by Covetousness and Ambition to rule Now what Booty will Popery afford them I believe all the Lands they have discovered yet will scarce pay one of the Prosecutors Debts But the Crown and Church-Lands would make a world of New Squires and Lords I would not be thought to speak this to abate any bodies Zeal against Popery Let Justice have its Course in the name of God but then let it be equally and impartially distributed If men Will be plotting against the King's Life and the Fundamental Establishments of the Government I value not what Religion they be of I can easily foresee a great many well meaning People will account all this as spoken against Godliness and good Men I don't much matter it for I may serve them more effectually by their dislike because I know 't is the easiest matter in the earth to wheadle the Multitude especially in Religion whom I therefore

manifestly violated as namely if our Rulers think this makes for the decency of Religious Worship or such a thing may be expedient for the peoples information much more when they both concur and are signally discernable as most certain one or both of them are obvious in all our Ceremonies The Surplice besides the comeliness of the habit speaks Innocence and Purity The Ring besides the Ornament it 's worn for signifies the perpetuity and endlesness of the Conjugal Love The use of the Cross is explained by the Church her self and Kneeling vindicated from its corruption and abuse I know some make this the pretended ground of their exception whereby I go about to defend them namely for their being symbolical and significant which I look upon to be a great instance of their folly for their significancy is one part of their excellency without which the enjoyning of 'em were not however not so highly justifiable For as in humane Polity those Laws are unquestionably the best which are stampt with the marks of Authority and of great usefulness so no doubt in Religion those are the best Canons and Constitutions whereby men are not only contain'd in their Obedience but instructed in their Duty And though this be not so necessary to the constitution of any Law as that it should cease to oblige without it for the will of the Law-giver is the formal reason of our Obedience from which nothing can absolve us but an apparent contrariety to a superior will I say notwithstanding the necessity of Obedience in those cases the superinducing of this makes our Obedience more rational and easie and it makes those Laws look more Divine when like those of Heaven they are accommodated to the principles of Reason and advancement of our Interest And now from hence it will be no difficult matter to infer the necessity of our Conformity and Obedience to the Laws of our Church for besides that we are oblig'd by the same Rules in doing our duty as they are in commanding namely of decency in reference to Almighty God and the promoting of our own good 〈◊〉 far as our apprehensions concur with theirs There is besides another obligation incumbing upon us as I before hinted viz. that of the Apostle in Heb. 13.17 Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves i. e. the Episcopal Power how much more when it is twin'd and corroborated with the bands of Civil Authority All which considerations are complicated in our present case and so conclude the stronger for our Obedience And therefore altho my apprehensions were not throughly convinc'd of the decency and expedience of these things I stand obliged for all unless the thing appear very plainly to be sinful and unlawful not only to command for so a thing may be for want of the other reasons and yet be lawfully obey'd for this but it must be so in it self and to you or else we sin and the reason is evident because Obedience to Authority is an express Duty and to evacuate that there need to be as plain a Prohibition and not every fidling scruple and petit cavil that by men who are dispos'd to wrangle may be brought against any thing whatever Much less may we censure or condemn Authority upon this account forasmuch as we cannot without the greatest pride and vanity but confess that the Governors by reason of those advantages they have above us by their Learning Leisure Station and special assistance of God must needs see and know more than we do or can And if we believe this and if we do not we must be intolerably impudent where 's our Charity if we reproach them with tyrannical and unreasonable impositions The plain truth is Rulers are to govern by their own consciences and not yours or mine And therefore if your Conscience be opposite to his 't is your own Rule and the whole strength of the objection he must follow his Conscience Which besides the necessity of maintaining the reverence and authority of Laws would be well considered by such as are in Power whether it does not reflect a guilt upon them if they don't do it whatever they say or suffer who are the occasion on 't Mean while how little just ground is there for those so wide and contrary imputations that are falsly charg'd upon the Church of England Of Schism from the Papists and of Popery from the Phanaticks We had in vain complained of the Romish Superstitions and long groan'd under the Yoke of its Tyranny but never dream'd of a Separation till the terms of their Communion grew to that height that no Salvation could be expected therein or but very difficultly and 't was but time to seek a remedy when the Disease was become almost incurable Altho I must needs assert there wanted no such reason to have justified our Reformation which might very lawfully have been effected by the Right and Power of a National Church distinct and independing upon a Forein Jurisdiction but this made our proceedings fair and candid as well as just As to the charge of Popery on the other side 't is the silliest but most malicious slander that ever was thrown upon any Order of men We know they don't use to heed what ground Calumnies have so they will but serve their turn Which because 't is very certain the grandees of them do not 〈…〉 themselves it can have no other design but 〈◊〉 They know and are assur'd what by that aversation in the Kingdom against Popery and by the inconsiderable numbers of Papists comparatively for I wish with my soul their numbers were not so great for if ever the Government be subverted which God forbid the Power must necessarily devolve among their party And there is no way to do this but by rendering those of the Church of England odious to the Mobile and there is no way to do that so effectually as to call them Papists And he that does not see this has more credit for an evidence that may possibly deceive than for a demonstration that can not Well and what are the pretences of this Clamor some of them belong to the being of the Church as the distinctions of Orders Some to its flourishing and well-being as the honorary additions of Power and maintenance some to the places of Divine Worship their relative holiness and appropriate discriminations and some to the modes of Worship as habits and gestures And is it enough to make a man a Papist for believing a Bishop to be above a Priest or assert the Bishops Peerage or the sacredness of Churches and decency of a Surplice and is that all the reason too because we observe these things among them Jesu What do men pretend to by the same reason I would prove a Turk a Protestant and a Protestant a Devil The truth is they better deserve to suffer under the reproach themselves for besides their agreeing with the Church of Rome in those very Doctrines wherein we do protest against her and them as denying the Kings Supremacy Excommunicating Deposing and Murdering of Princes founding Dominion in Grace and the like besides this let any body judg whether they do not serve the Church of Rome hereby For if when I look below the Church of England I see nothing but distraction and confusion no Priest no Sacrament whereof a man may very well doubt and if there be no more hurt in Popery than Lawn Sleeves a Cross or a Surplice who that lov'd his soul would not who ought not to be a Papist Thanks be to God we profess a Religion infinitely better than either of them however envied and persecuted by both A Religion I would choose as a man 't is so pious and rational A Religion I would choose as a Believer so safely does it direct men to Heaven A Religion I would choose as a Prince or Magistrate as the best instrument of Government in the world that ties mens souls to obedience And which only by its Loyalty would make a Princes Guards useless This is the Religion we profess I hope to God we shall all continue to live and die in it and if we would but live up to it is able to make us good Governors good Subjects good Christians and in the end glorious Saints Which God make us for Jesus sake to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be Glory and Honor Amen FINIS