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
A65682	The second part of The ignoramus justices, or, An answer to the scandalous speech of Sir W.S. Barronet spoken to the grand-jury at the Sessions of Peace held for the county of Middlesex, at Hick's-hall, on Monday the 24 of April, 1682 : together with several remarks upon the order of Sessions, for the printing and publishing the same / by the same authour.; Ignoramus justices. Part 2	Whitaker, Edward.; England and Wales. Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace (Middlesex)	1682 (1682)	Wing W1705; ESTC R2042	37,153	39

never so formidable And for what you are pleased to say they are a Herd of Swine that when one being chased all the rest go and condole pray where is the evil of that if it were so but I have been otherwise informed that they are not so kind and natural one to the other However since you have so compared them to swine and since it is their nature as you say to condole one with another when they are all chased I wish that part of your Speech were true that these Dissenters will make your words good and stand by one another in Righteous and good things to oppose the wicked malice of their enemies who daily watch not only for their goods and estate but for their blood too could they have but an opportunity once put into their hands which as is said you and the rest Sir W. of your fellow Justices were indeavouring after when a Petition was by you preferred that the Sheriffs of Middlesex might not be chose by the City could you Sir W. and the rest of your crew but have got that either by hook or by crook you would no doubt have stopped all their mouths having before settled your Evidence ready for the purpose But Sir W. do but have patience and keep the Irish cattle together a little longer and you do not know how fortunate you may be after Midsummer day next and then have at the Beasts at Ephesus these unreasonable Dissenters that will not believe their Mother the Church nor pin their faith upon the Crape-Gonorum Thus our Barronet lays about him in this Page against these hoggs beasts and unreasonable men now is it not a pitty this Gentleman had not acted in Doctor Sprat's place the other day and Sprat in his if it had been so I am confident the Knight would have done more in the work of conversion by his Speech to the Artillery men than the Doctor did for the word of the Apostle and the very names of unreasonable men and wild Beasts would certainly have sounded very sweet to that Auditory for the Doctor took all to be unreasonable men that refused to dine with them that day and yet dared to eat their dinner together the next day in another place than where the D. was And if the Doctor had but spoke half so much as a Divine to the Grand-Jury about Hoggs and Religion the Jury could not for shame but have believed him because he hath authority to speak Scripture But what authority the Justice had to speak so to the Grand-Jury when he was not in Orders is not yet known and it is well if the Church do not take him to task for medling with that which did not concern him and which indeed is another man's trade and it was the Justice-trade to have preached the necessity of buying swords to suppress the Dissenters and keep their mouths stopped well but before we leave this Page we shall find out Sir W's Religion I dare lay a groat on 't for he tells us in plain English now what I did but suppose before that he was once on the other side for saith he there are not more unreasonable men than some we have in England I have heretofore had an indifferent good opinion of the Dissenters I thought they had been as they pretended a peaceable sober sort of People and that they had desired nothing but liberty of Conscience and Indulgence So then once by his own shewing he was of another mind then now he is Well what changed him in his discourse in this place it must be because of the unreasonable men that are in England but he forgets to tell us who they are and wherein it appears so but if you believe himself the unreasonableness of some men is the main reason that makes him now not of the opinion he was before and that serves him well enough for an excuse But how was he mistaken about their being a sober quiet sort of People what hath altered his mind have they been unruly or unquiet more then himself have they done any evil to the Publick now more then they did before when he had his good opinion of them nothing of that can appear But to be plain in the 4th Page he tells you what hath altered him why it is his tenaciousness that the Dissenters aim at Dominion and therefore he cannot have any longer a good Opinion of them but still this is but to excuse himself by loading of others with such untruths as there is nothing the least colour for it nor was ever proved against them unless he means by Dominion that the Dissenters will have the Dominion over their own Estates and Families and not suffer others to have it from them without better Warrant from the Law then any this Ignoramus Justice can shew to the contrary for the Dissenters do think they may with as much Law and Justice defend their Liberties and Properties as the Justice may find Law to compel them to conformity in point of Church Discipline But now the Justice must have one flout or fling at tender consciences in this Page or else the fat will be in the fire and no wonder at all why he cannot let that alone the reason may be because he having lost his if ever he had one is something like the Devil that hates man because he is in a better State then himself otherwise sure he would not mock and jeer at tender conscienes and liberty of conscience as if their were no such thing left but all was a piece of Pagentry like my Lord Mayor's show as he saith to draw the Eyes of Spectators upon them The Justice may know it is dangerous to meddle with Edge tools But to proceed the Knight tells us He met with a Pamphlet the other day wherein he read a Ticket to a Feast at the two Halls The Pamphlet he means I suppose may be the Gazette which forbids under the pretence of Authority the seditious Design of dining together at Goldsmiths Hall c. in regard his R. H. was not to be there or because they intended to be merry without a Licence from the Court Truly it was a horrible Design of those Whigs to offer to eat together and give God thanks for Mercies and not first consult the Stars or the Court at Milky-Hall And that which more affrighted the Loyal Party was there were no less than thirty odd Affidavits produced or intended in due time which made it appear that all the Pye-crust was Walls Batteries and strong Fortresses within which were hid all sorts of Warlike Provision Blunderbusses only excepted And most certain it is this was the most desperate Association that has been these many Years fit to be abhorr'd in the next Return when those now upon the Wheel shall be spun out for as the Justice tells us It is like the old Way of Associating or blowing a Trumpet before a War But the Ticket-Feast at Merchant-Taylors Hall was

of Commons that the Revenue will not defray the charges of the Government it is most like he hath For the Reader may please to remember that Sir W. was one of that long Pentionary-Parliament which was always free of giving what some of them was hired to give as appears by the Votes of another House And may it not well be conjectured now from his experience he pretends in the Revenue of the Crown as he seems to intimate to us that either he is or would be Lord Treasurer or at least one of the Commons very shortly by this Speech Howsoever sure he cannot miss of some great place of Trust in the State because he likewise is pleased in this third page to tell us not only that the Subjects ought to pay it with Interest and with thanks but they had done it before now if the Dissenters and Differences that are among us had not prevented it and wise men lay it upon the Conventicles being suffered thus he hath hit the point certainly and now we come to know what is the reason all of a suddain the Conventiclers and Dissenters are disturbed which we never knew before and that is the King hath disbursed a great deal of money and the Dissenters will neither pay it themselves for the benefit they enjoy of the Conventicles nor will let others pay it If this be so then 't is no wonder at this eager prosecution and this inciting Speech to stir up the Jurors but how comes it to pass it was not found out before that the Conventicles hinder'd the King of his money disbursed Is it not known both to thinking and unthinking people that when the greatest Gifts and Sums of Money that ever was given the King that now is there was as many Dissenters and Conventicles as now and that at all times they instead of hindering fo a good a Work ever paid their shares very chearfully witness the great Tax 2500000 l. at once and 1200000 l. at another time in the Pensionary Parliament and other Sums since And for the venom and infection of the Conventicle Preachers as he is pleased to call them it cannot be proved that they have ever preached or taught Sedition either in those Times or now much less to come within the compass of the Act the Justice seems to hint at and the Act of the 17th of this King if there be any such was as much violated then as ever it hath been since and it doth not appear nor can by any art uhe Justice can use that ever the Dissenters or Conventiclers did either preach or pray against Gifts and Grants of money to supply the King's Affairs especially when the good of the Nation required it And without doubt those Dissenters and Conventiclers are and ever were as ready with their Purses to serve the King and Country as any of the Abhorrers ever were or ever will be notwithstanding their Heroick expressions But yet to bring in Popery or support Popish Designs the Dissenters will not whatever the Abhorrers may yield to It is true in some of the Gazers great promises and assurances have been lately made to stand by the King with their Lives and Fortunes and their Purses to be ever at the Kings Command And not onely so but have by their Abhorrences declared their Resolutions to choose such Members for the next Parliament as his Majesty shall approve of Now if these stubborn Fanaticks would have been so mannerly as to have done that too then it is more than probable that all this prosecution against the Dissenters in the Justices opinion might cease too And it cannot be any wonder that the Abhorrers should promise to assist his Majesty with their Purses for they have nothing to assist the him with but what comes from the King either in Places or Gifts Well but after all tho' sometimes the Justice if for the Divisions to be made up that the King may be repaid with Interest and therefore saith it is high time to do it yet that must not be done by giving any grains of allowance to the Dissenters side at all or to bear with this weakness in things indifferent or to make any step of compassion towards them in leaving off one small Ceremony or sin out of the Church of England to win them no not for the whole World and all the Dissenters souls to boot but the unity the Justice would seem to aim at is that whatever the Church-men of England say the Dissenters must do that must be done or else stop their mouths the Dissenters infectious Breath will undo us all and and give us the Plague besides want of money therefore Instead of any condiscention to them stop their mouths with the Act of the 17th of this King least they grow too formidable Here is the Union the Justice but now talked of in his third page O rare charitable Justice and good natur'd man Well but what if Sir W. should be out in his Polliticks that the way to Union is to force it by devouring the Dissenters by penal Laws now I am apt to think he is out if he will but give himself leave to recollect himself a little as to History both sacred and prophane and let him but show in any one place that ever the force of the Civil Magistrate or by any one force of Arms in the whole world in matters of Religion it ever prevailed or effected such an end as Sir W. would make the world believe he aims at the Scripture tells us have a care lest you be found fighting against God and advises to let the Secrets as they were called by the Jews and the Pharisees in the Apostles Time alone for said a wise man among them then to the Councel have a care what you do if this be of God it will stand if not it will soon come to nought All that ye do against them will come to nought if they be of God for Religion is neither to be played withall nor affrighted from and it commonly thrives best when the Enemies of it do most industriously oppose it God's Justice hath a longer reach Mr. Justice than the fingers of the King or the Temporal Law more than you are aware of therefore it may be that all your malice can amount to will be so far from rooting up the Dissenters and stopping the mouths of their Teachers that it may rather increase than decrease and it may be as far out of your power to hinder it as it was once out of your power to keep Richard Cromwel in the Chair after you had taken so much pains in addressing him And for your fear of the Dissenters being formidable to the Government as you say in this page if they be so formidable in their help to support the Government with their Persons and Purses as heretofore they have been in Restoring His present Majesty then sure there will be no great terrour upon the Government from them be they