Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	church_n	congregation_n	true_a	2,989	5	6.1703	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47466	King William's toleration being an explanation of that liberty of religion, which may be expected from His Majesty's declaration, with a bill for comprehension & indulgence, drawn up in order to an act of Parliament.	William III, King of England, 1650-1702.; Nottingham, Heneage Finch, Earl of, 1621-1682.	1689 (1689)	Wing K580; ESTC R22778	16,192	20

them Acts 13. By the Laying on of the Hands of those at Antioch and such an Ordination as this being capable to be used more than once is the Remedy applyed therefore to these Persons in the Bill as the only medium for Resolution of this Difficulty For the Other matter concerning the Subscription to the Churches Articles I have something more than this to say about it Whosoever have read a Book called A part of Register wherein there is a relation of several things in reference to the Nonconformists in Q. Elizabeth's Days they will find that nothing was then so grievous to them as the Subscriptions of those Times and the Subscription to these Articles was one which gives me Affliction to consider how by the Contexture of both those Bills before named and like now to be revived and be two again the Nonconformist Ministers whole Freedom from Prosecution of the Law against him is made to depend upon his Subscribing the Articles of Religion A bottom I must say more narrow more servile and less ingenuous than might be wished For what man of a free Judgment can Subscribe to the 39. or 36. Articles which himself hath not drawn up without a Liberty of his own interpretation Indeed if that were a thing lawful upon the reading the Articles to frame a Sense of ones own and Subscribe it in that sense nothing would be more easie than such a Subscription But when the Impositions of our Superiours must conscientiously be taken in the Sense of the Imposers or else we do but prevaricate are false or perjurious in the sight of God there is nothing almost under Heaven that a Man should be more tender of than this business of Subscribing The doubtfulness of many about the Ceremonies is not to be compared to a Conviction of Conscience that a Man must not Subscribe to any point of Doctrine which he believes untrue and I must needs add that Except the Declaring and Swearing that it is not lawful to take Arms against those that are Commissionated by the King upon any cause there is no part of Conformity more hard to my Genius than this Subscription It is an unfortunate thing therefore that when Assent and Consent to the Liturgy is found a thing so truly grievous to all as to be judg'd necessary to be taken away this Assent and Consent yet and Approbation of the Articles should be thought no Grievance to any Body Especially when in One the Conformist hath a Shift or Salvo that he Subscribes but to the Use but in the Other there is no Shift no Salvo at all nothing but down-right Hypocrisie and False-hood when a Man comes and professes his Assent and Consent to and Approbation of those Articles in the Churches Sense but does understand them to be true only in his own I know indeed that in the Opinion of many some of our more eminent Divines the Subscribing the Articles is to be taken for nothing but a Respect to the Church and an Engagement that they will not Preach against them But these Men how worthy or how conscientious they be otherwise must be told that in this they shew no Conscience for I would know from any such Man in what Dictionary I shall find that Assent and Consent to an Article and Approbation of it is no more than I won't Preach against it And what Imposition after that shall hold him who can get leave of his Conscience to make such an Evasion Besides that to promise I will never Preach or Write against these Articles if I believe the Church mistaken in the Doctrine of any of them is really to me a harder Task than to Subscribe them in as much as to tell one Lye is not so grievous as to tell a great many which as often as I break my Promise I must be doing The Question therefore here arises upon this What the Parliament should do about this Subscription seeing it is a Grievance undoubtedly and ought to be Redressed Now there are Four ways may be proposed Either the removing it or changing it or providing a Salve against it or that which is least letting this little Addition stand and be allowed That which is put into the Bill for that end For the first Way I must needs say That that is the easiest and it is a common Saying The first is best And what does hinder but this Assent and Consent to the Articles may be taken away as well as Assent and Consent to the Book of Common Prayer Here are the same crooked●ss's to stick in our Throats and why should not both Declarations fare alike Why is it not enoug● fo● a Man to profess his Belief of the Scripture and of the Apostles Creed and to take the Test against Popery to qualify him for the benefit of any Bill of this kind For the Second Way which I suppose to be the most likely to take Effect is this Let these Declarations of our Assent and Consent to and Approbation of the Articles which we are required now to Subscribe be turned into a Declaration of That which the more ingenuous of our Conformists do say is all their meaning in their Subscribing of them and that Expedient may do the business We must not Subscribe to such Words as these with the Reservation of a less Meaning That is Equivocation but we may Subscribe to such Words as signifie only that Meaning instead of these which signifie more and be at ease in our Subscription I A. B. do declare That I do bear that due Respect to the Church of England and her Book of Articles as an Instrument of Concord That I will not Seditiously or Schismatically I will not directly or expresly Preach or Write against any of them to the Breach of Charity or making disturbance among Christians There are some such Words as these must be put in for consequentially and reductively or before we are aware innocently and sometime necessarily in regard to some point of Doctrine which we think in their Sense contrary to Scripture we must and shall Preach against them and yet our Promise must not be broken I will to avoid Scruple quite as to my self and for the fuller satisfaction to my Conformist Brethren and to acquit my Conscience before all sorts of Men make this Declaration of my own Accord That I do from my Heart give my Consent to the Reformation of Religion which was made by the Church of England in her Doctrine and her Worship I do esteem those Persons that are made Ministers by her Book of Orders to be lawful Ministers and our Parochial Congregations to be true Christian Churches consisting of Pasture and People who have a Fundamental Authority from Christ of Teaching and Ruling them according to his Institution I do submit to her Government as under the King And I do receive her Articles and Homilies as Books full of wholesom Truth and good Instructions Instrumental to Concord and that They contain in them

King William's TOLERATION BEING AN EXPLANATION OF THAT Liberty of Religion Which may be Expected from His Majesty's Declaration WITH A BILL FOR Comprehension Indulgence Drawn up in Order to an Act of Parliament LICENSED March the 25. 1689 Iames Fraser LONDON Printed for Robert Hayhurst at the Axe in Little Britain 1689 Toleration Explain'd SINCE it hath pleased his present Gracious Majesty William the Third in his Declaration upon his Coming into the Kingdom to signifie That this Expedition was intended for no other design but to have a free Parliament and to have That as more especially expressing his mind for the making such Laws as may Establish a good Agreement between the Church of England and all Protestant Dissenters as also for the Covering of all such who will live peaceably under the Government as becomes good Subjects from all Persecution upon the account of their Religion I cannot but think it a very seasonable and acceptable piece of Service to make some little larger Explanation upon these Words which carry in them the full Purport of these two things which we call Comprehension and Indulgence and which no Wise man but will see if they be drawn up into such a Bill as they ought and pass the Houses are the true means to the Settlement and Happiness of the Nation I shall present the Explanation Then offer such a Bill And make some Animadversion on it and that is the Business of this Paper For the first of these in this Atchievement then or Design full of all Princely Wisdom Honesty and Goodness there is a Double interest to be distinguished and weighed That of Religion it self and that of the Nation The Advance of Religion does consist much in the Unity of its Professors both in Opinion and Practice to be of one Mind and one Heart and one Way in Discipline and Worship so far as may be according to the Scriptures The Advance of the Nation does lie in the Freedom and Flourishing of Trade and ingrafting the whole Body into the Common Benefit and Dependance on the Government The One of these calls for an Established Order and Agreement the Other bespeaks an Indulgence and the fullest Liberty of Conscience that is but Tolerable For while People are in danger of suffering about Religion they dare not launch into Trade but keep their Money as knowing not into what Streights they may be driven and when in reference to their Sect and Party they are held under Severity it is easie for those who are designing Heads to Mould them into Wrath and Faction which without that occasion would melt and dissolve it self into bare dissent of Opinion peaceably rejoycing under the Enjoyment of an equal Protection The King is concern'd as Supreme Governour and as Christian Governour As he is King he is to seek the Welfare of the Nation as he is Christian the Flourishing of Religion The Protestant Religion is particularly his interest not only as imbarked with Holland and his Allies but as this Kingdom does lye in Balance still with its Neighbour Nations The Judgment now of some hath been for a Comprehending Act which might take in those that are for our Parochial Churches that the Laws then might be more severely Executed upon all those that separate from Them in order to their Reduction But the Judgment of some others is for a Free and Equal Act of Crace to all indifferently whether Separatists or Others abhorring Comprehension as more dangerous to them upon that account mentioned than all the Acts that have passed Neither of these judge up to the full interest of the King and Kingdom as is proposed It becomes not him whose Principles will admit him to own our Parochial Churches and enjoy a Living to be willing to have his Brethren that cannot to be given up to Persecution And it becomes not the Separatist if he may not enjoy his Conscience to repine and envy another for reaping any farther Emolument seeing both of them supposing the latter may do so will have as much at the Bottom as can be in their Capacities desired of either It is an Act therefore of a Mixt Complection providing both Comprehension and Indulgence for the different Parties that must serve the Nation There are Two forts of the Protestant Dissenters One that owns the Established Ministry and our Parish Congregations and are in a Capacity of Union upon that account desiring it heartily upon such considerations only as may but satisfie their Consciences in the Matter The Other that owns not our Churches and so are uncapable of a Conjunction who do not and cannot desire or seek it For the One that which is to be proposed is a farther Latitude in the present Constituted Order that such may be received and this we call Comprehension For the Other there is indeed nothing can be done to bring those in and joyn them with us in Parochial Union yet is there this to be propounded That we bear with them and not let any one that lives peaceably be Persecuted for his Conscience and this we call Indulgence If the Presbyterian now may be Comprehended he will be satisfied to act in his Ministry without any endeavouring the alteration of Episcopacy any otherwise than as conducive to advance that Comprehension If the Congregationalist be Indulged he will be satisfied though he be not Comprehended for That he cannot come up to And so shall there be no Disobligation put on any but all be pleased and enjoy the Benefit of such a Bill Let but the Stakes for Comprehension be set wide enough to take in all who can own and come into the Publick Liturgy which are far the greater Weight of the Nation and when the Countenance of Authority and all State-Emoluments are cast into one Scale and nothing but Labour and Conscience put in the other the Men that Conform not being let alone to come to themselves without Persecution to enflame them or Preferment to encourage them especially if one Expedient be used that is some other Bill be preferred against Pluralities to let in the Comprehended to something that such as come in may find it really better to them to be a Priest to a Tribe than a Levite to a Family we need not doubt but Time the Mistriss of the Wise and the Unwise will discover the peaceable Fruit of such Counsels Thus much for the Design and Explanation of it Now for the Second thing A Bill to comprize the Contents and to prevent all malignant and insufficient Endeavours of any Person or Party to shorten or widen that Liberty of Religion more than is meet or charitable to their Brethren on one side or the other which we may expect from our King and Queen and present Parliament for the accomplishment of His Majesties Royal Words so well tempered with Benignity and Wisdom in his Declaration at first mentioned and unto which the Nation may undoubtedly trust I shall need nothing but to Re-print a Bill