Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	authority_n	church_n	scripture_n	4,231	5	6.1426	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54185	One project for the good of England that is, our civil union is our civil safety : humbly dedicated to the great council, the Parliament of England.	Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1679 (1679)	Wing P1334; ESTC R32178	14,589	11

next place they do not only consequentially disclaim the Pope's Supremacy and all adhesion to forreign Authority under any Pretence but therewith deny and oppose the Romish Religion as it stands degenerated from Scripture and the first and purest Ages of the Church which makes up a great Negative Union And it cannot be unknown to men read in the Reasons of the Reformation that a Protestation made by the German Reformers against the Imperial Edicts of Charles the fifth imposing Romish Traditions gave beginning to the word Protestant In short It is the Interest of the Ruling or Church Protestants of England that the Pope should have no Claim or Power in England It is also the Interest of the Dissenting Protestants that the Pope should have no Claim or Power here in England because they are subject to the same Mischiefs and Sufferings in their Civil and Religious Rights that the Church Protestants are liable to if then both are like to lose by Pope and Forraign Authority their Interest must needs be one against Pope and Forraign Authority and if they have but one Interest it will follow that the Church Protestant cannot prejudice the Dissenting-Protestant but he must weaken and destroy his own Interest The Civil Interest of English Protestants being thus the same and their Religious Interest too so far as concerns a Negative to the Usurpation and Error of Rome I do humbly ask if it be the Interest of the Government to expose those to Misery that have no other Civil Interest than THAT of the Government Or if it be just or equal that the Weaker should be prosecuted by the more Powerful Protestants whose Interest is Positively the same in Civils and in Religion Negatively One would think 't were Reasonable that they should not suffer by Protestants who if Popery ever have a day are likely to suffer with them and that upon the same Principles Experience tells us That the wisest Architects lay their Foundations broad and strong and raise their Squares and Structure by the most exact Rules of Art that the Fabrick may be secure against the Violence of storms but if People must be destroy'd by those of the same Interest truly that Interest will stand but Totteringly and every breath of Opposition will be ready to shake it 'T was the Inconfutable answer Christ made to the Blasphemers of that Power by which he wrought Miracles A Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand what he said then let me on another occasion say now an Interest divided against it self must fall I know some Men will take Fire at this and by Crying The CHURCH The CHURCH hope to silence all Arguments of this Nature But they must excuse me if I pay no manner of Regard to their Zeal and hold their Devotion both Ignorant and Dangerous at this time It is not the way to fill the Church to Destroy the People A Church without People is a Contradiction especially when the Scripture tells us that 't is the People that makes the Church And 't is not without an appearance of Reason that some good wise men are apprehensive that the greatest Sticklers for Persecuting Protestant Dissenters in favour of the Church of England are men addicted and devoted to the Church of Rome or at least animated by such as are who disparing of doing any great Feats if known hide themselves under these pretences but the meaning of it is to debilitate the Protestant cause in general by exciting the Church of England to destroy all other Protestant Interests in these Kingdoms that so nothing may remain for Popery to conflict with but the few Zealous abettors of that Church And that this may not look disingenuous or like a Trick of mine I will enforce it by a demonstration It is plain fact that the Church of Rome hath ever since the Reformation practic'd the Restoration of her Religion and Power in these Kingdoms It is as evident that Religion is with her a word for Civil Interest that is that she may have the Rule over men both Body and Soul For 't is Government she aims at to have the rains of Power in her hand to give Law and weild the Scepter To do this she must either have a greater interest then the Protestants that are now in possession or else divide their Interest and so weaken them by themselves and make them Instruments to her ends That her own force is Inconsiderable is clear She has nothing within Doors to give her hope but the Discord of Protestants It follows then that she must of necessity bestir her self and use her Arts to enflame the reckoning among Protestants and carry their Dissents about Religious matters to a division in the Civil Interest And it is the more to be fear'd because whatever she has been to others she has been ever true to her self If this then be the only domestick Expedient left her we are sure she will use it and if so it must needs be of great Importance with all Protestants to let fall their private Animosities and take all possible care that their dissents about Faith or Worship which regard the other World divide not their Affection and Judgment about the Common and Civil Interest of their Country because if that be kept entire it equally frustrates the designs of Rome as if you were of one Religion For since as I said before Religion with the great men of that Church is nothing else but a softer word for Civil Empire preserve you but your Civil Interest from fraction and you are in that sense of one Religion too and that such an one as you need not fear the temptation of Smithfield if you will but be true to it This being the case I would take leave to ask the Zealous Gentlemen of the English Church If Conformity to the fashion of their Worship be dearer to them then Englands Interest and the Cause of Protestancy if their love to Church-Government be greater then to the Church and her Religion and to their Country and her Laws or lastly whether in case they are sincere in their Allegations for the Church which I confess ingenuously I am apt to suspect it is to be supposed that the present Church-men Conformists I mean are better able of themselves to secure Protestancy and our Civil Interest against the Attempts of Rome then in Conjunction with the Civil Interest of all Protestant Dissenters If they say yes I would have them at the same time for the same reason to give it under their Hands that 't is a standing Rule in Arithmetick that ONE is more then SIX and that hitherto we have been all mistaken in the art of Numbers Being brought to this pinch I conceive they must say that they had rather deliver up their Church to the Power and Designs of Popery then suffer Dissenters to live freely among them though Protestant of one negative Religion and of the same Civil Interest or else hasten to break

ONE PROJECT For the GOOD of ENGLAND THAT IS Our CIVIL UNION is our CIVIL SAFETY Humbly dedicated to the Great Council The Parliament of England RELIGION as it is the noblest End of Man's Life so it were the best Bond of Humane Society provided Men did not err in the Meaning of that excellent Word Scripture interprets it to be Loving God above all and our Neighbours as our selves but Practice teacheth us that too many meerly resolve it into Opinion and Form in which not the Text but the Comment too often prevails whence it comes to pass that those Bodies of Men who have but one Common Civil Interest are miserably distramed in favour of their adopted Notions upon whom they are impatient to bestow an Earthly Crown And this is the Reason of that Mischief and Uncertainty that attend Government No sooner one Opinion prevails upon another though all hold the Text to be sacred but Humane Society is shaken and the Civil Government must receive and suffer a Revolution in so much that when we consider the Fury and Unnaturalness of some People for Religion which shews they have none that 's True Religion making Men most Natural as well as Divine we have Reason to Bewail the Mis-understanding as well as Mis-living of that venerable Word But since 't is so hard to disabuse men of their wrong Apprehensions of Religion and the true Nature and Life of it and consequently as yet too early in the day to fix such a Religion upon which Mankind will readily agree as a common Basis for Civil Society we must recur to some lower but true Principle for the present and I think there will be no Difficulty of succeeding 'T is this That Civil Interest is the Foundation and End of Civil Government and where it is not maintained entire the Government must needs decline The word INTEREST has a good and bad Acceptation when it is taken in an ill Sense it signifies a pursuit of Advantage without regard to Truth or Justice which I mean not The good signification of the word and which I mean is a Legal Endeavour to keep Rights or augment honest Profits whether it be in a private Person or a Society By GOVERNMENT I understand a Just and Equal Constitution where Might is not Right but Laws rule and not the Wills or Power of Men for that were plain Tyranny This Goverment must have a Supream Authority in it self to Determine and not to be Superceeded or Controuled by any other Power for then it would not be a Government but a Subjection which is a plain Contradiction Having thus explain'd the Terms of the Principle I have laid down I repeat it viz. That Civil Interest is the Foundation and End of Civil Government and prove it thus The Good of the Whole is the Rise and End of Government but the Good of the Whole must needs be the Interest of the Whole and Consequently the Interest of the whole is the Reason and End of Government None can stumble at the Word Good for every man may easily and safely Interpret that to himself since he must needs believe 't is Good for him to be preserv'd in an undisturb'd Possession of his Civil Rights according to the Free and Just Laws of the Land and the Construction he makes for himself will serve his Neighbour and so the whole Society But as the Good of the People is properly the Civil Interest of the People and that the Reason and End of Government so is the Maintenance of that Civil Interest entire the Preservation of Government For where People are sure of their own and are Protected from Violence or Injury they chearfully yield their Obedience and pay their Contribution to the support of that Government But on the contrary where men are Insecure of their Civil Rights nay where they are daily violated and themselves in danger of Ruin and that for no sin committed aginst the Nature of Civil Interest to preserve which Government was instituted we ought to suppose their Affections will flagg that they will grow dead-hearted and that what they pay or do may go against the Grain And to say true such unkindness is ready to tempt them to believe they should not of right Contribute to the Maintenance of such Governments as yield them no Security or Civil Protection Which Unhappy Flaw in the Civil Interest proves an untoward Crack in the Government Men not being cordially devoted to the Prosperity of that Government that is exercis'd in their Destruction and how far that Fraction upon the Common Interest of the People may Affect the Government I cannot tell but to be sure 't is insecure to any Government to have the People its Strength divided as they will be where their Interest is so disjoynted by the Government One Protected the Other Expos'd Wherefore Wise Governments have ever taken Care to preserve their People as knowing they do thereby preserve their Interest and that how Numerous their People so large their Interest For not only Solomon has told us That the Honour of a Prince is in the Multitude of his People but Experience teaches that Plenty of People is the Riches and Strength of a Wise and Good Government as that is where Vice is corrected and Vertue encourag'd and All taken in and secured in Civils that have the same Civil Interest with the Government But as the Good and Interest of the Whole is the Rise and End of Government so must it suppose that the whole which takes in all Parties concurs in seeking the Good of the Government for the Reason of the Government will not suffer it to protect those that are Enemies to its Constitution and Safety for so it would admit of something dangerous to the Society for the Security of which Government was at first instituted It will follow that those that own another temporal Power superior to the Government they properly belong to make themselves Subjects not of the Government they are born under but to that Authority which they avow to be superior to the Government of their own Country and consequently men of another Interest because 't is their Interest to pursue the Advantages of that Power they acknowledge to be soveraign But those that own embrace and obey the Government of their own Country as their temporal supream Authority and whose Interest is one and the same with that of their own proper Government ought to be valued and protected by that Government The Principle thus far lyes General I will now bring it to our own Case ENGLAND is a Country Populous and Protestant and though under some Dissents within it self yet the Civil Interest is the same and in some sense the Religious too For first all English Protestants whether Conformists or Nonconformists agree in this that they only owe Allegiance and Subjection unto the Civil Government of England and offer any Security in their power to give of their Truth in this Matter And in the