Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	follow_v	king_n	scotland_n	2,694	5	8.4812	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52706	A letter from a gentleman in the city to a gentleman in the country, about the odiousness of persecution wherein the rise and end of the penal laws for religion in this kingdom, are consider'd : occasioned by the late rigorous proceedings against sober dissenters, by certain angry justices in the country.	A. N.; Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1687 (1687)	Wing N3; Wing L1388A_CANCELLED; ESTC R9450	23,013	34

suffered so miserably in Q. Maries time did end with her Reign which was but short And after that the Protestants never suffered more from the Papists But upon the death of Q. Mary the Crown coming to Q. Elizabeth and she thereupon declaring her self a firm a zealous and to all intents religiously a Protestant the Edge was turned against the Papists before any differences were discerned to be among the Protestants Several of the Popish Clergy suffered Persecution some even unto Death in several parts of the Kingdom And new Laws were from time to time framed and multiplyed for those purposes And if now we ask the Opinion of the Papists as to Penal Laws either Sanguinary or others and Persecutions for meer matter of Religion they will tell you and they continue in that protestation even unto this day That all such Laws and Persecutions are unlawful and against the Principles of the Gospel And though the Protestants under several changes have been in the possession of those Laws and have at times more or less Executed them yet so far as I can find they do not own Persecution for matters meerly of Religion to be their Principle or so much as lawful After the Papists had some time continued the alone-Persecuted Party for Matters of Religion several Differences in Matters meerly of Religion happened to divide the Protestants into distinct and separate Parties during some part of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and also during the several and successive Reigns of King James and King Charles the First And about the beginning of the Reign of King James some few desperate Male-contents professedly of the Popish Religion being found Guilty of a wicked Plot whereby they had designed the Destruction both of that King and of his Parliament by Gun-Powder for which they were deservedly Executed several new and more severe Laws were then and at several times after made against the Papists in general by which several Punishments were Inflicted on them for Matters of meer Religion and several Penal Laws were also made by which the then Governing Protestant Party then and still distinguished by the Name of the Church of England or the Episcopal Party persecuted Them. The Dissenting Protestants of all sorts were Prosecuted under the general Name of Non-conformists who cryed aloud for Liberty of Conscience and declared it absolutely Unlawful to Punish any for Matters of meer Religion The refusal of which bred bad Blood in the Kingdom and we all know what followed During the continuance of the War and after King Charles the First was not able to make Head against the Non-conformists the Non-conformists Retaliated the Church of England and not a little crusht the Popish Party both having engaged on t'other side and being of other Religions esteemed themselves Persecuted for matter of Religion That War being ended with the Death of King Charles the First and the expelling of our late King out of his Dominions and the Ruine of Episcopacy and the Suppression of the Papists and the total Change of the Government the Non-conformists under the several Forms took upon them and kept the Government until the late King was by the Divine Hand of Providence restored to his Crown During all which time the Episcopal Party and the Papists Suffered more or less for matters at least in their Apprehension meerly of Religion But these two Parties were not alone in their Sufferings for during those Bloody contests there appeared another Party which from its very first rise in this Kingdom hath been severely Persecuted and that only for Matters of Religion This Party was the People called Quakers They did at their first shewing themselves in the World go under the name of the Children of Light because they assert as their main and first Principle That Christ is the True Light that Enlightens every Man and Woman with a measure of saving Light which all ough● to obey on pain of Damna●ion but by one Bennit an Officer in 1650. were nick named Quakers They Professed themselves to adhere to the plain Principles of the first Christians and particularly to hold it as their Principle That all Persecution whatsoever against any Party People or Person whatsoever for matters meerly of Religion is absolutely Vnlawful Vnrighteous and against the Spirit and Will of God and Doctrine of true Christianity And to give them their due they have been true Contenders for their Principle both by their frequent Apologies and Remonstrances on the one hand and Invincible Patience in Suffering on the other hand Upon the Restauration of the King the Episcopal Party was also Restored The Presbyterians Independants and Anabaptists expected a general Toleration in matters of Religion according to some of the King 's Gracious Letters as a Reward for their helping or not opposing His Restauration The Papists also expected the same thing as a reward for their Loyalty in adhering to the Crown The Quakers now a great People grew confident of the like Freedom because of their Inoffensiveness to Government But instead of this expected Liberty all the former Penal Laws made in the time of Q. Elizabeth K. James and K Charles the First were Revived and ordered to be put in Execution as well against all Non-conformists who were Protestants as against the Papists And new and more severe Laws were made against them all And by these respective Practices we see what all these Parties have done when they had Power I think such as understand the Transactions of our Country will clear me from having made any mistake as to matters of Fact in any thing that I have here said touching past Persecutions though I believe there will not want some who will either think me mistaken in the point of Charity when I profess to believe that I do not think there is any one Party now in England who holds it as a Principle of their Religion That it is Lawful to Persecute or to make or Execute Laws for the Inflicting of Pains or Penalties for any matters of meer Religion Or else they will supect I do not in Truth believe what I here profess to believe in this point since even what I have said as to matters of Fact before urged by my self it plainly appears that there is not one Party now in England the People called Quakers only excepted who profess themselves Christians but have been notoriously Guilty more or less of the very Fact or at least of a publick allowing if not abetting of it And every Party will be apt to censure me of Singularity at least since each Party thinks that they have Arguments drawn from Facts sufficient to six this ugly Doctrine as a Principle upon that Religion which they hate most O that the Man could prevail against the Beast and that we would permit our Passions to give way to our Reason to consider things nakedly and as they truly are Si satis est accusasse Quis erit Innocens If to accuse be a sufficient

Persecution for matters of meer Religion upon the Papists as a Principle of Popery so the Papists are as Industrious to perswade the World that it is a Principle of Protestancy I might here by way of Apology and Extenuation refer the Papists as they do the Protestants to consider of Circumstances of times and things which occasion'd their Severities against them as the unruliness which might probably be amongst the people in the time of K. Edw. the VI. to see their Religion alter'd as they conceiv'd by the Protector And in Q. Elizabeth's time besides the rensentment which the Protestants had of the Cruelties which were exercis'd against them in Q. Mary's time It is certain the Papists did not look upon Q. Elizabeth to have any Right to the Crown she having been declar'd by the Judicial Sentence and judgement of Arch-Bishop Cranmer to be Illegitimate and the Marriage between K. Henry VIII and Anne of Bullen her Mother being by the same Sentence declar'd absolutely void ab Initio and that Sentence confirm'd by Act of Parliament 28 Hen. 8. c. 7. So that the Papists took Q. Mary of Scotland to be the Rightful Heir to the Crown and Rightful Queen and Q. Elizabeth was constrain'd by great necessity to keep them under but Apologies are not proper to be made on the behalf of those who have the Authority towards those who are subjected And as the Protestants in general and the Papists reproach'd each other reciprocally charging upon each other that Persecution for matters of meer Religion was a Principle of each others Religion so did the Episcopal Protestants and the Non-Conformists The Episcopal Party who first Persecuted the Non-conformists under the general Name of Puritans or Presbyterians affirm'd That their first beginners in Scotland from whence they deriv'd themselves did more than any Party upon Earth Persecute others for matters of meer Religion and had gain'd a Power by their Vsurpation Oppression and Persecution being a sort of people who wanted the very Essentials as they said of Religion viz. A Right Ordination without which as they alleadged there could be no True Church no True Ministery or True Sacraments And that therefore they ought by Penal Laws timely made to be prevented from making Disturbances in England The Puritans to justify themselves denying Persecution for matters of meer Religion to be their Principle or to be lawful labour'd to fix it upon the Church of England as their Principle and as taken up by them from the Papists And as to the particulars charg'd upon those of Scotland they said That whatsoever those of the Reformation had done in Scotland was approv'd and abetted by Queen Elizabeth and the Protestants of England without whose Advice nothing in Scotland had been Transacted and without whose Assistance things had not been so Effected They further said as to the point of Ordination That the Church of England ought not in Reason to account Episcopal Ordination to be such an Essential of Religion as they charged for that if no Ordination could be valid but by Bishops that then it would follow that no Ordination could be valid but from True and Rightful Bishops of the True Church of Christ and then the Ordination of the Church of England would be as invalid as the Ordination of those of Scotland for the Church of England could make out no Succession of Bishops but through the Popish Church which both parties as well those of the Church of England as those of Scotland had condemned and agreed to be a False Church and no True Church of Christ but an Harlot and Anti-christian Thus the Episcopal Protestants and the Puritans charged and recriminated each other the Episcopal Party nevertheless making good their ground so long as they had the Civil Power to support them but when upon the Death of K. Charles the I the Non-conformists gain'd the Civil Power into their Hands the Church of England Party like all Parties oppress'd being under Persecution together with the Papists for matters of meer Religion Did absolutely condemn all such Persecutions as Vnlawful And then the Non-conformists who were at that time sub-divided and branch'd out into several other Parties gave occasion to charge them with the Principle of Persecution for meer Religion and put them to use the same Arguments to clear themselves as the Episcopel Party and Papists had respectively before made use of when the Government was in them to prevail with the World to believe that they abhorr'd the Principle of Persecution for meer Religion and that the Persecutions us'd by them were not for any matters of meer Religion nor in Truth Persecutions but purely Acts of Prudence and doing right to themselves by a just care to keep the Episcopal Party and the Papists out of all possibility of Persecuting them any more for the future But none of them could find any reason of that Nature to excuse the Persecutions which they us'd towards the people called Quakers they could not charge them with ever having Persecuted any Party or Person Yet in Fact both the Non-conformists and the Episcopal Party did Persecute them in their turns and therefore to prevent being charged for persecuting a quiet People for matters of meer Religion They pretended sometimes that the Quakers were all Mad-men and that they Imprison'd them only to keep them out of the way and to preserve them in peace And those who had gotten the Government would upon that Title claim the right of judging what persons were Mad as they did always of judging what was Truth and what Errour At other times they pretended to punish the Quakers as Blasphemers and the Persecutors being the only Judges of what was Blasphemy under their Government they might make what they pleas'd Blasphemy When they grew asham'd of this Charge they then pretended that the Quakers were conceal'd Papists and that every one who spoke or utter'd any thing in their Meetings whether Man or Woman was a Jesuit Disguis'd It was clear that the Quakers suffer'd highly and it was as clear there could not with any shew of Truth be any thing charg'd against them but what was matter of meer Religion Now upon the whole Business what shall such a person judge of these matters who esteems himself in danger of being judged by God if he shall make any rash Judgment Shall we take for a sufficient solid Proof the Charge of an Exasperated Enemy against an Enemy who hath provoked him and this in a matter of so great a Concernment as to render not a single Person but a whole Party unworthy to live This were to judge against the Rules of common Justice and Righteousness as well as to Sin against Charity And this way of judging would render each Party the Quakers only excepted to be Guilty and to give a just Title to each Party where it hath the possession of Power and Government to put to Death all of the other Parties For though we in England should refuse