Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	christian_a	great_a	life_n	2,755	4	4.1264	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B08994	A reply, on behalf of the people called Quakers, to two petitions against them (the one out of Norfolk, the other from Bury in Suffolk) being some brief observations made on those petitions, and humbly tendered to the consideration of the House of Commons, to whom those petitions are directed.	Ellwood, Thomas, 1639-1713.	1699 (1699)	Wing E627A_VARIANT; ESTC R171932	8,605	16

that Honourable Society and to Act or Enact so Barbarous a Tragedy only to remove the groundless Fears of a few Jealous-Headed Alderman and Burgesses of Bury who seem to have forgotten what is written of some whom they in this too nearly resemble who were said to have been in great Fear where no cause of Fear was Psal 53.5 They close their Petitions That out of Norfolk thus Petit. That the true Christian Religion may be preserved from Popish Superstition and unpolluted with Enthusiastical Innovation That from Bury thus That our Posterity may untroubled live by this early Care of our Laws and Liberties and we enjoy the wisht-for Happiness of a Peaceful life Obs To the First we say It is strange they should fear the Christian Religion should be polluted with Popish Superstitions by the Quakers who of all that go under the Protestant Name are generally acknowledged to be farthest removed from and most averse to Popish Superstitions and whose great Objection to those of other Persuasions has always been their not having throughly enough relinquish'd Popish Superstitions And for Enthusiastical Innovations as we do not own the word in that sense in which they abusively apply it to us tho' Divine Inspiration or God's speaking by his Spirit in the Heart of man we do own so we always offer our Doctrines and Principles to be Examined by the Holy Scriptures which were written by Divine Inspiration and are best understood by the Inspiration of the same Spirit by which they were written To the Second we say We desire as well as they that their Posterity may live untroubled But we think they might have done well to have considered that we have Posterity as well as they and the like Inducements from natural Affection to wish that our Posterity may live untroubled as they for theirs Sure we are and it is but too obvious that we have more cause to apprehend Trouble and Danger too to our Posterity from them and theirs than they or theirs from us or ours For tho' we have done nothing since we were a People that might either give Trouble to them or threaten it to their Posterity they stick not here openly to propose and seek the Ruin and Extirpation of both us and our Posterity They desire they may enjoy the wisht for Happiness of a Peaceful Life We envy it them not But God forbid they should Swim into it through a Sea of Innocent Blood Can they find no way to the wisht-for Happiness of a Peaceful Life but by the Destruction of their Fellow-Subjects and Peaceable Neighbours Had not Self-love to say no worse been more prevalent with them or with their Envious Guides who probably have animated them to these Malicious Counsels than Christian Charity which seeks the Good and Happiness of all and teaches to love our Neighbours as our selves they would have been Content that we also should enjoy the wisht-for Happiness of a Peaceful Life But since they are so uncharitable to grutch us that and so unchristian to seek to bereave us of it We humbly address our selves in the first place to Almighty God the sure Refuge of the Righteous who knows the Innocency even of our Thoughts And in the next place to our Governours the Witnesses as well as Judges of our Actions unto whom with humble Confidence we appeal in the latter as unto God in the former Hoping that the same Divine Goodness which moved the Government to grant this favourable Indulgence and Toleration will incline and prevail upon you to continue it both to us and all other Protestant Dissenters to whose intended Ruin also we look upon this Assault upon us to be but the Praeludium that under the Protection of this Propitious Government we may lead a quiet and peaceable Life in all Godliness and Honesty which is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour 1 Tim. 2.2 3. And may thence have the Obligation of Gratitude added to that of Duty not only to pray for but in our several Capacities to advance and promote the Interest Safety and Prosperity of this Government and Nation FINIS

Sum of true Christian Faith and which whosoever rightly believes ought not we think to be accounted Anti-christian in Principles of Faith Pet. Of Government Anti-monarchical Obs One would think this Arrow also had been taken out of the Popish Quiver against Protestants so exactly does it resemble what the same Jewell in the same place says the Papist charged them withal Where having recited a large Beadroll of particular Slanders cast upon them Clamant says he nos id agere et querere ut Monarchiae et Regnorum Status evertantur c. They cry that we do these things with purpose thereby to overturn Monarchies and the States of Kingdoms We doubt not but this was unduly charged upon them But nothing could be more falsly suggested against us whose avowed Principle and known Practice it has always been to yield a peaceable and quiet Subjection to the Powers which God hath set over us Pet. In point of Doctrine Anti-Scriptural Obs We deny that and are ready to undertake the Proof of every Doctrine we hold by and from the Scriptures Pet. And in Practices Illegal Obs This also if it relate to Civil matters we deny as utterly false and may we hope with modesty say That no People are more conformable to the Laws in things Civil than we And if it relate to Religious Performances as it seems to do by the words next following viz. Having their Weekly Monthly Quarterly and Yearly Meetings We shall need to say no more to it but this That if we and other Dissenters could have actually comply'd with whatsoever the Laws required in Matters of Religion there would not have been room for Indulgence or need of an Act of Toleration Pet. Having their Weekly Monthly Quarterly and Yearly Meetings which we cannot but reasonably believe tend not only to the Subversion of our Laws but of our Religion also to us of greater concerns than our Lives Obs To Believe is one thing to believe reasonably or to have Reason to believe is another thing Which if these Petitioners pretend to have they should if they expected to be believed have assigned the Reasons of their so believing Well known it is to the Nation in general and to the Government in particular that we have had Weekly Monthly Quarterly and Yearly Meetngs and those the same that now we have and for the same Services many Years before the Government was pleased to grant the present Indulgence yea and that in the times of the greatest Troubles and hotest Persecutions Which was an Evidence beyond bare saying so That our Religion was of greater Concern to us than our Lives But what one single Act or thing have any or all of those Meetings of ours produced in all this time that has tended to the Subversion of the Laws or Established Religion Do not both the one and the other stand now at this very day as Safe and Firm as ever they did at least for us Can it reasonably be supposed that if those Meetings of ours had so dangerous a Tendency as to Subvert the Laws and Religion of the Nation the Piercing Eye of the Government should not see it as well and as soon as the Aldermen and Burgesses of Bury How come they now all of a sudden to be so Eagle-Ey'd to pretend to see that which their Betters and who have much better Advantages for seeing could never yet see For can it be imagined that if our Governours had seen or suspected our Meetings to have so Evil and Dangerous a Tendency as is here Suggested they would so Propitiously have Indulged those Meetings and granted us a Toleration thus to hold them We wish these Petitioners would think well of this and consider whether it was decent for the Aldermen and Burgesses of Bury thus to Impeach the Wisdom and Conduct of the Government Hitherto they have spoken in the Accusative Case They now turn to the Vocative Invoking the Parliament against us As therefore we have made brief Observations on the Charges Let us now as briefly take notice of the Prayer in each Petition which we chose to consider together because one seems to explain the other That out of Norfolk must be acknowledged to speak the more modestly of the two For it Prays the House of Commons To take these things the Charges in the Body of the Petition mentioned into Consideration that the said Principles and Practices may be strictly Examined and Censured or Supprest as they shall appear to deserve and as in their great Wisdom shall seem expedient Nor is it wholly destistute of some Shew of Tenderness towards us For it prays This may be done With whatsoever Tenderness to the Persons and Estates of these People But as it can hardly be conceived how Principles and Practices flowing therefrom especially where Divine Inspiration as these Petioners say is vouched for Warrant thereof can be Supprest without exercising great Cruelty the Opposite to Tenderness on the Persons or Estates of the People whose Principles and Practices they are So if the Prayer of the other Petition from Bury which was Formed after this and comes from their near Neighbours may pass for a Comment upon the Norfolk-Text it will not be very difficult to find what in the softer Norfolk Dialect is meant by Suppressing our Principles and Practices For the Alderman and Burgesses of Bury say We therefore oblig'd in Duty to God and our Country do humbly pray your timely Consideration of our Jealousies and remove our Fears if not by totally Suppressing yet at least by preventing their after Growth and Increase amongst us Here after an acknowledgment that all those High Charges exhibited against us in the Petition are grounded but upon their own groundless Jealousies they how mannerly let others judge offer the Parliament Hobson's Choice either totally to Suppress us or at least to prevent our after Growth and Increase which perhaps cannot be done without totally suppressing us or if it could must needs tend to a total Suppressing of us Now if they who have declared their Religion to be of greater Concern to them than their Lives could find in their Hearts to have so much Charity for their Neighbours as to admit our Religion to be of greater Concern to us than our Lives which we think we have given a full proof of to say no more as ever they have done they might thence reasonnably conclude that we will part with our Lives rather than with our Religion and that there is no way totally to Suppress us but by Cutting our Throats or Knocking out our Brains Which must therefore be supposed to be their Meaning And would they have the Honourable the Commons of England in Parliament Assembled undertake this Inhumane Piece of Butchery to defile their hands in the innocent Blood of so many Thousands of harmless peaceable and industrious People who are their Fellow-Citizens and Fellow-Commoners and by the Suffrages of some of whom many of themselves were Elected into

A REPLY On Behalf of the People called QVAKERS To Two Petitions against them The One out of Norfolk the Other from Bury in Suffolk Being some Brief Observations made on those Petitions and Humbly Tendered to the Consideration of the House of Commons To whom those Petitions are Directed LONDON Printed and Sold by T. Sowle in White-Hart-Court in Gr●ci●ns-street and at the Bible in Leaden-Hall-street 1699. A Reply on Behalf of the People called Quakers to Two Petitions against them c. THat we may not build too large a Porch to so small an House we shall only premise That the Christian Religion hath often Suffered but never taught or countenanced Persecution That it was the Persecuting Jews not the Persecuted Apostle who cry'd Men of Israel help Acts 21.28 That these Petitioners against us have nothing to Charge us with of Immorality nothing against the Publick Peace nothing but what concerns our Religion Which is an implicit Acknowledgment at least that they are in the same Streight to find out Matter of Accusation against us that Daniel's Adversaries were in to find Matter against him who thereupon ingeniously confest We shall not find any Occasion against this Daniel except we find it against him concerning the Law of his God Dan. 6.5 We begin with the Norfolk Petition as that which we understand was contrived first and probably led on the other Petition We cannot without Resentment take notice of the great Growth and daily Increase of the Quakers and the Mischief and Dangers from thence threatning this Nation Observation We hope we may without incurring their Resentment observe That the Jews of old took notice and that not without Resentment of the great Growth and daily Increase of the Christians in the first Age of the spreading of the Gospel and of the Mischief and Dangers they apprehended did from thence threaten their Nation John 11.48 Which Misapprehension of theirs made them bend their Forces against the Innocent Christians to Suppress Destroy and Root them out Whereby they brought upon Themselves and their Nation the Mischief and Dangers they feared God avenging by the hands of the Romans and their own one against another their Evil Treatment of his Son and Servants Pet. 'T is observable with what restless Zeal their deluding Teachers ramble into all parts of these Kingdoms Obs 'T is probable the little Zeal unless for Maintenance the Petitioners have observed in their own over-rested Teachers makes the Zeal of those they Petition against so observable to them But they may do well also to observe which if they will not it may be hoped They to whom they have Petitioned will how much this Charge of Restless Zeal renders us like unto the Apostles and Primitive Christian Teachers whose Restless Zeal would not suffer them to sit down and rest in a Fat Benefice with a Curat to perform the Service for them But made them Travel into most of the then Civilized Parts of the World as the Acts of the Apostles and Ecclesiastical Histories shew And though their Enemies then were more modest than to call it Rambling yet they failed not to call them Deluding Teachers as these do us Pet. And as we suspect many Romish Emissaries under their Disguise Obs The Petitioners should have done well to have given the Ground of this Suspicion of theirs if they had any to give that it might have been examined But to Suggest for it is probable this came è Suggesto out of the Pulpit For Justices we hope would deal more justly so Scandalous a Matter upon a bare Suspicion without assigning any Ground for it is to speak modestly of it an Evil-Surmising and against Charity For Charity we are assured 1 Cor. 13.5 thinks no Evil. And since Charity is so excellent a Christian Vertue as to be preferr'd to both Faith and Hope verse 13. We are sorry to find so little Charity among the Justices and Grand Jurors of Norfolk This Suspicion of Romish Emissaries going under the Disguise of Quakers is indeed an old Scandal rais'd by our profest Enemies the Priests above Forty Years ago and by them industriously spread and kept up ever since on purpose to Traduce us to the better sort of People But is it not strange that if this had been true not one single Instance could be given not one Proof made in all this time of one Romish Emissary found among the Quakers This alone is enough to baffle the Slander which it hath done already with considerate Persons Therefore without taking further notice of it here we will conclude with Queen Elizabeth's Motto used while she was Princess Persecuted and a Prisoner viz. Much suspected by me Nothing proved can be Pet. And boldly spread their Venemous Doctrines every where Obs This Venemous Epithet so ill becomes Justices and Grand Jurors that we are not willing to think it theirs but rather imposed on them by some of their dictating Teachers But passing by the Venome of it we cannot but observe here likwise how much they make us even in this also to resemble those whom we desire and labour to imitate the Apostles of our Lord. Whose Boldness in Asserting the Christian Faith and Spreading the Doctrine of their Holy Religion which no doubt their Opposers the Priests of that Age and such Rulers as those Priests could influence thought to be wrong though they seem to have been more modest than to call it Venemous made even their Adversaries Marvel who yet were so ingenuous as to impute their Boldness to their having been with Jesus Acts 4.13 Pet. Attempting to infect and shake the Minds of weak Protestants Obs Had not those Protestants weak Teachres they would not be such weak Protestants Nor will it peradventure upon due Consideration be found a Dis-service in the Quakers if by their Zealous Preaching they excite those Teachers how unwillingly soever to be more Zealous more Assiduous more Laborious and Diligent in Preaching to strengthen their weak Hearers Pet. And Assuming Rules of Discipline Power in matters of Religion and Forms of Government Repugnant to the Establish'd Laws of this Kingdom contrary to the very Acts of Toleration and not allow'd to any other Dissenters Obs We presume it is intended in all the Branches of this manifold Charge with respect to themselves only and we hope it will be so understood That if we assume Rules of Discipline in Church Matters they are for our selves only Power in Matters of Religion for and amongst our selves only As for Forms of Government though they are Ambiguous Words and such as we do not use amongst or of our selves Yet as there ought to be Government in every Religious as well as Civil Society and a Form or Forms of such Government So we know of no Form of Government in our Religious Society no Rules of Discipline no Power in Matters of Religion among us that is Repugnant to the Establish'd Laws of this Kingdom relating only to Civil Matters nor contrary to