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	england_n	rome_n	5,202	5	6.8819	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43197	Loyalties severe summons to the bar of conscience, or, A seasonable and timely call to the people of England, upon the present juncture of affairs being an epitome of the several præliminaries or gradual steps the late times took to their ... ruine, by their civil dissentions, through a needless fear of the subverting, losing, and destroying of religion, liberty of the subject, and priviledges of Parliament ... : in two parts / by Robert Hearne, Gent.	Hearne, Robert.	1681 (1681)	Wing H1307; ESTC R16702	50,264	47

Author of Peace was to be Propagated by His Ministers by the Sword OH the Blindness and wilful Obstinacy of Man Oh the Proclivity of the depraved Humane Nature to Errors and Abuses How is it that Thou Religion art thus mistaken How is it Thy Dictates and Sacred Rites are thus mis-construed and mis-applyed Dost Thou Teach Men such Horrid and Abominable Doctrines 〈…〉 That to Propagate their Empire and extend their Dominions Subjects should be absolved from Obedience to their Lawful Sovereign Princes impowering them to Depose Them or pull Them down from their Thrones take the Crown from their Heads and at last their Heads from their Bodies Dost Thou warrant Disorders Distractions and Discords in the Socieries or Communities of Men to the utter Subversion of Governments Laws and Liberties and to the totall Ruin of Kingdoms Dost Thou lead Men to Contrive the most Execrable Designes to hatch Treasons and to lay Plots and Conspiracies to Endeavour nay Perpetrate Assassinations Nay if they fail in These to kick at Authority and contemn the Laws asperse the Governor and vilifie the Government Are those Thy Precepts No no not at all nor in any wise consisting with My Nature as I am Profess'd by the Church of England Indeed Rome and Geneva may understand Me so and the World has felt they do ever understand Me so The Religion of the Church of England As I am Profess'd by the Church of England I command Her Preachers to endeavour to implant Virtue in Mens Minds To let Her Doctrine as it truly and purely is be Undefiled Orthodox and Evangelical Teaching Piety or our Duty towards God Justice or Love towards those in Society with us and primarily towards His Vicegerent our Lawful King and Governour and Sobriety or Love to our own Persons in living in the Practice of those Excellent Virtues of Temperance and Soberness which tends so much to the Glory of God and our own Comfort and Happiness Have not we then who have the Church of England for our Mother great Cause to bless God for those daily Influences of Divine Love and Comfort which we receive from Her That nothing but the Pure and Uncorrupt Milk of Sincere Piety and True Religion may be suck't from Her Immaculate Breasts But Alas What the Reverend Pious and Learned Arch-Bishop Laud said in his Speech upon the Scaffold before his Death speaking of the Church of England may be too aptly the more is our Shame applyed to Her at this Time This poor Church of England said that Reverend Prelate has Flourish't and been a Shelter to other Neighbouring Churches when Storms have driven upon them but Alas now it is in a Storm it Self and God knows whether or how it shall get out And which is worse than a Storm from without it is become like an Oak cleft to Shivers with Wedges made out of its own Body and that in every Cleft Prophaneness and Irreligion is creeping in a-pace Lib. 2. de Vitae Contem. cap. 4. while as Prosper saith Men that introduce Prophaneness are cloak't with a Name of Imaginary Religion For we have in a manner almost lost the Substance and dwell much nay too much a great deal in Opinion and that Church which all the Jesuits Machinations in these parts of Christendome could not Ruin is now fallen into a great deal of Danger by Her Own BUT hold Consider Is it Religion alone that hath thus distracted Men's Brains or is it Mistaken zeal that drives Men into these Madnesses Is there nothing else in the Grass that lyes Latitant and pricks us and makes us so uneasy Yes I fear there is a Serpent that stings us and makes us kick at Authority called as heretofore Liberty of the Subject 'T is this wounds our Stomacks Liberty of the Subject and without a little Aqua Tetramagogicon or an Indubitable Assurance of its being Preserved we cannot be at ease God God! Is there any People or Nation in Europe ever Bless'd with Greater Freedoms and more Undisturbed Libertyes than this Kingdom of England Or Is there found from the One Part of the World to the Other one People bless'd with such a Land A Land whose Constitutions make the Best of Governments which Government is strengthned with the Best of Laws which Laws are Executed by the Best of Princes whose Prince whose Laws whose Government makes Us the Happiest of all Subjects makes Us the Happiest of all People And what a late Learned Writer said speaking in the Praise of a Land and the Admirable Blessings of it may be said of England and I shall apply it according to his Words A Land sayes he of Strength England described as it now flourishes of Plenty and of Peace where every Soul may sit beneath his Vine unfrighted at the Horrid Language of the Hoarse Trumpet unstartled at the Warlike Summons of the Roaring Canons A Land whose Beauty hath surpriz'd the Ambitious Hearts of Forreign Princes and taught them by their Martial Oratory to make their vain Attempts A Land whose Strength reads Vanity in the deceived Hopes of Conquerors and crowns their Enterprizes with a Shameful Over-throw A Land whose Native Plenty makes her the World's Exchange supplying Others able to subsist without Supply from Forreign Kingdoms In it Self Happy and Abroad Honourable A Land that hath no Vanity but what 's the sweetest of all Blessings Peace and Plenty that hath no Misery but is propagated from that Blindness which cannot see Her own Felicity A Land that flows with Milk and Honey and in brief wants nothing to deserve the Title of a Paradise The Curb of Spain The Pride of Germany the Aid of Belgia the Scourge of France the Empress of the World and Queen of Nations In fine England is the Envy of all Nations the Ambition of all Princes the Terror of all Enemies and the Security of all Neighbouring States Thus far I follow the Steps of my Learned Author in this Encomium of the Land whereof we were both † Oh Fortundt●s nimium sua si bona norint Anglos Natives BUT Alas I find at the Bottom of the Role a Blot or Blur which as it were oblitterates part of the Account for all these Blessings and Happinesses are but as so many Steps towards her Woe or as so many Gaps to let in Pride Ambition c. as Foxes and Wild-Boars to eat up and tread down these her Flowers For Alas She renders her Self miserable by Not being Compact within her Self in Unity but is apt and prone to Civil and Intestine Broyls Did Her Children but cherish Brotherly Love and Charity Vnion the best Antidore against Evils and endeavour the maintaining a good and right Understanding one with another and not suffer every Private Man's Interest to disturb Publick Peace Utility and Order the Devil himself nor the Pope and all his Instruments can or will ever harm or molest us But that 's the Colliquintida that alwayes spoyls our Pot

would be a Vanity in me to Imagine that this Essay or Compendium can have so great and good an Effect yet I promise my self it may be of some use and perhaps a Means towards the Reconciling Our Differences and the making up Our Breaches which who ever brings to pass raises to himself immortal Monuments of Honour and renders Us as Necessary and Helpful to Our Friends and as Dreadful and Formidable to Our Enemies as We have been of late Neglected and Despised by both the One and the Other I SHALL begin first with the Introduction to the late King's Miseries and Necessities which was the War the Parliament had engaged His Father in with the House of Austria for the R●…ry of the Palatinate and which was left Him as a Heavy Incumbrance and Mortgage upon an Estate and finding His Exthequer Empty and His Revenues spent and drained He was forced to take such Courses and Stoop to such Things as He would not have done in another Occasion His Necessities were still increased by the War He was not long after Engaged in for the Defence and in the Behalf of the Huguenots of France wherein having failed of those timely and seasonable Succours from His Parliament as He might Reasonably have promised Himself in a juncture when so great a Part and Branch of the Protestant Communion as was that of France lay at Stake He failed of that good Success that a more ready and willing Relief might perhaps have procured The Factions now begin and the publick Ministers Censur'd This Furnished the Male-contents and the Promoters of Sedition with Pretexts of Censoring and Blaming the Conduct of those at the Helm of Demanding the Heads of some of the Ministers in Favour and the Removeal of Others from all Charges and Places of Trust THIS Bustle was Attended with loud Cryes The Bishops for introducing Popery and Detestations of Popery and several were Accused of being Promoters and Abettors of it The Bishops and others of the Clergy of the Church of England were not free from this Aspersion but were said to be of the Party and joyned their Endeavours with those who had a mind and designed to set up the Roman Catholick Religion in this Kingdom This helped to nourish and spread abroad Jealousies and Distrusts occasioned Distractions and Consternations and gave deep Root to Dissention and Rebellion But these Promoters of Mischief did not content themselves with Stigmatizing the Clergy and the Chief Ministers of State for they endeavoured to insinuate into the People underhand that the Crown it self was Popishly Affected The Crown it self Popishly Affected and that it did favour and encourage the Growth of that Religion That it Aimed at Arbitrary Government Arbitrary Government c. and that the Subjects were to be Deprived of their Priviledges The House of Commons Daily found out New Grievances drew up Remonstrances Priviledges of Parliament Cryed out for and Cryed out against most of the Actions of the King and his Ministers as contrary to the priviledges of Parliament But notwithstanding all these Artifices and Contrivances to set the Nation on a Pare they would never have Gained their point had they not found the Scots Aiming the same way being willing to be Instruments for the putting in Execution their Execrable Designs Whereupon they Invited them underhand into England The Scots Rebel The Scots a Hungry and Poor Nation ever ready to be upon the Wing on such Occasions Accepted the Offer came in Swarmes full of Hopes and with fair prospects of Riches and Booty The King Raises an Army to Oppose them They Seized upon the best Towns of the more Northern Parts of England But the King having drawn a Considerable Army together Marched to York to Oppose them and his Forces being much more Considerable than the Scots would certainly have Routed them had they not Tampered and Insinuated into the English that their Ruine would be certainly attended or followed by the Oppression of them themselves and they once Subdued the King would be enabled to use His English Subjects as he thought fit by which Intelligence and Correspondence it was Evident that the English had no mind to Fight though their Army was much Stronger than the Scots A Treaty held whereupon by the Mediation of some Persons a Treaty of Peace was begun and soon Finished Wherein it was agreed that His Majesty should Publish a Declaration whereby all should be confirmed that His Commissioners had promised in His Name that a General Assembly and Parliament be Held at Edenburgh in a short time And Lastly that upon Disbanding their Forces Dissolving their Counsels and Restoring the King to His Forts and Castles c. The King was to Recal His Fleet and Forces and make Restitution of their Goods since the Breach NOW that which made the Scots so ready to undertake this Expedition was not only a prospect of Gain and Plunder but the Fears they were in of losing their Darling Presbitery made them take Arms and Spirited them into this Rebellion The King endeavours to introduce the Liturgy into the Kirk of Scotland For the King in Pursuance of His Father's Design of Establishing the Common-Prayer in Scotland as it was in England did Endeavour to introduce the Liturgy into practice in that Kingdom But the Nobility and Gentry having since the first Reformation of Scotland from Popery thrown out the Bishops and shared their Estates among them by the Instigation of John Knox the great Presbyterian John Knox a great Presbyterian were afraid that if they were again Re-established and Recovered their former Power and Reverence they would likewise quickly find the means of procuring again their Antient Estates and Revenues For the preventing of which they thereupon spread abroad Discontents and Fears foment Jealousies and Distractions and Engage the Clergy on their side who were generally inclined to Knox's Discipline and the Soveraignty which they had for some time enjoyed under the Government of Presbitery The Lyturgy and Episcopal Government Termed Popery the Clergy Influence the People and Terrify them with the Danger of Popery for so they Termed the Liturgy and the Government by Bishops By these means and pretexts they allured the People into a Rebellion notwithstanding all the Care that was taken by those at the Helm to prevent it and the Confederates entred into a Solemn League and Covenant The Solemn League and Covenant and oblig'd themselves to a Mutual Defence against all persons whatsoever not excepting the King himself and then they begun an Actual War An Actual War follows Raised Men and Money Seized His Majesties Armes Magazines Castles Forts and Walled Towns and all this was done for Conscience Sake But to avoid becoming Horrible and Abominable in the Eyes of all the World by being called Traitors and Rebels Tho Varnished with a pretended Design for Petitioning c they Varnished and Termed all these Preparations and

dispose of it by Authority of Parliament desiring also That He would make His Abode near London and the Parliament The King 's absolute Refusal to their Second Petition for the Militia The Parliament's Publick Declaration hereupon and continue the Prince at some of His Houses near the City for the better carrying on of Affairs and preventing the People's Jealousies and Fears All which not being then fit to be granted and therefore refused they presently order That the Kingdome be put into a Posture of Defence in such a Way as was agreed upon by the Parliament and a Committee to prepare a publick Declaration from these Two Heads 1. 1. The Just Causes of the Fears and Jealousies given to the Parliament 2. 2. To consider of all Matters arising from His Majesty's Message and what was fit to be done IN the mean time the Bishops were so threatned and terrifyed by the Tumults and Rabble that Twelve of Them absented themselves from the House Protesting against all Laws Orders Votes The Bishop's Protestation Resolutions and Determinations as in Themselves Null and of Non-effect which had Passed or should Pass during their forced Absence desiring their Protestation might be Registred by the Clerk of the House of Lords But immediately after at a Conference between Both Houses it was agreed That this Protestation of the Twelve Bishops did extend to the deep intrenching upon the Fundamental Privileges and Being of Parliaments and presently after They are Accused of High-Treason seized and Ten of them Committed they were Accused of High-Treason seized and brought on their Knees at the Bar of the House of Peers Ten of them were Committed to the Tower and the Other Two in regard of their Age to the Black-Rod NOW the Parliament proceed to make Great Preparations both by Sea and Land and ordered the Admiral of England The Parliament now makes great Preparations both by Sea and Land Pamphlets dispers'd to Rigg the King's Ships and fit them to Sea and likewise all Masters and Owners of Ships were perswaded to do the like The Beacons were repaired Sea-Marks set up and extraordinary Posting up and down with Pacquets Pamphlets flew abroad and all the Other sad Prognosticks of a Civil War did appear THUS did Our late Execrable Troubles begin That were attended with all the Calamities of Domestick Broyls the Parliament every Day pretending to entertain New Jealousies and Suspicions of the King's Actions that so they might have a Pretext to Arm their Party which having done and provided Moneys for the Defraying the Expences of the War they unmasked Themselves and the King and all the Good People of the Nation began to discover That all their Assurances of making His Majesty the Most Glorious Prince that ever swayed the English Scepter was no otherwise to be understood than that they designed to Crown Him with the Crown of Martyrdom and that all the Out-cry they had made and the Fears and Jealousies they had spread abroad of the Loss of their Priviledges and the danger that Religion Liberty and Property were in was like Pick-pockets who bawl out and accuse Passers by of Picking their Pockets that so they might get a Crowd together and really deprive Them of what they had falsly accused Others of who not discovering the Cheat till it was too late and that all was gone had nothing left them but Regret for having been drawn into their Own and their Friends Ruine and Destruction AND now being come so far as to have a full but sad View of all those Devastations and Horrours of those Torrents of Blood and Mountains of Carkasses which are the usual Effects nay inevitable Consequences of a Civil War I must beg Leave to retire from so Deplorable and Dreadful a Prospect and give you a short Account of the Crew that occasioned all these Desolations and Miseries and from whence they sucked their Poysonous Principles with which they infected the whole State DURING the Reign of Queen Mary The Rise of the Presbyterians several of the Reformed flying the Persecutions of Her Government retired to Geneva where sucking in Doctrine and Principles that were no wayes conformable nor consistent with Monarchy at their return Home under Queen Elizabeth they spoke even with Adoration of the Discipline of that Place assuring and perswading People that It and only It was what was taught and directed by our Saviour and His Disciples and practised in the Primitive Times accusing all others of Impurity Superstition and Popery THE Iesuits quickly took notice of these Weeds in Protestanisme Taken Notice of by the Jesuits and took great Care to humour and cultivate them hoping that They One Day might cause such a Breach in Our Church as that they might enter through it and compleat Our Ruin And indeed these People what by the Forced Modesty and Austerity of their Lives what by the Novelty of their Doctrine and their being opposed by Publick Authority that was no wayes consistent with their Tenets they came at first to be Pittyed and then to be Loved and Admired by the Common People THUS growing at length to be very numerous that ever-tobe-admired Princess Queen Elizabeth Queen Elizabeth's Care to depress them thought fit to hinder this Contagion from spreading and by the Advice of Her Parliament as well as Her Council enacted very severe Laws against them and put several of them to Death as Disturbers of the Peace both of Church and State And though they expected more Favour under the Reign of King Iames King James did the like yet that Wise Prince thought fit to curb their Zeal and bridle their Invading Humour Notwithstanding having once allowed them a Conference and taking upon Himself to be the Arbitrator it rendered them so Insolent and Confident and brought their Party into such Repute that towards the Latter End of His Reign they began to have great Influence in the House of Commons which they dayly augmented and encreased by their seeming Abhorrence of Popery and Superstition But with everto-be-lamented Methods till at length by their Arts and Practices they brought into Ruin and Destruction that Prince and Government they all along pretended their whole Design was to Defend Support and Maintain and under the Cloak of Religion let in all Manger of Impiety Atheism and Superstition THE Great Influences the Doctrines of these Men have had amongst the Factious Parties of this Kingdom of late Times too since the Happy Restauration of His Sacred Majesty to the great Disturbance of the Publick Peace to the Dis-uniting the Members of the Church of England and raising Schism and Divisions in the Communities of Men in Matters of Religion to the utter Subversion of Religion it self nay Morality too I say of the Truth of This we have daily Demonstrations and Experiences of The Iesuits of Geneva and Those of St. Omers I dare affirm in their Damnable Tenets with relation to Monarchy and Episcopacy

Answer did not satisfie Him His Graces Answer and that since they trifled he would receive no more Messages from them In the mean time Our Canon with some Horse and Foot was brought down from the Body of the Army and posted not far from the Bridge The particular Account of the Fight being by me I shall Relate it here as I have it Word for Word THe Duke having put himself in the posture above-said A Relation of the Fight in Scotland commanded the Canon to Fire which it no sooner begun to do but the Rebels who were drawn up on the other side upon a rising Ground near the Bridge threw themselves upon the Ground to avoid the Shot Those that were posted upon the Bridge Fired at first pretty briskly but after Five or Six Shot of Canon they all ran away they upon the rising beginning first Our Men immediately seized the Bridge threw into the River their Barricadoes of Stones Cart-Wheeles and the like took a piece of Canon they had and followed them up the Hill but their Number being very small the Rebels rallied and faced them but had not the Courage to come down upon them Our Men came down again to the Bridge and one Shot more of Canon made the Rebels flye to their upper Line where they stood again In the mean time my Lord General passed the Army over the Bridge and drew up upon the Rising which took up some time and before we were quite in order the Rebels advanced upon Us and to appearance in very good Order When they approach't they espied Our Canon at Our Head and thereupon immediately shifted their Order and opened in the middle thinking it seems We were obliged to Shoot strait forward but Our Canon being turned upon them as they then stood and discharged Three or Four times they begun to Run again their Commander Robert Hamilton being one of the first and our Dragoons and the Highlanders advancing upon them it was a perfect Rout and they fled all wayes Our Men pursuing them Of the Rebels there were Seven or Eight Hundred killed and Eleven or Twelve Hundred taken which were afterwards brought prisoners to Edinborough THE Lord General behaved himself with extraordinary Conduct and Bravery and all the Officers Gentlemen and Souldiers carried themselves with great Chearfulness and Resolution But above all the Mercy of Almighty God was most signal in that tho the Rebels were near Seven Thousand Yet were they totally defeated without any loss to His Majesties Forces save of Two or Three private Sentinals Killed and some few Wounded THUS was extinguisht that furious Flame of Rebellion fed by Presbyterian Doctrines and Zeal to the destroying of so many poor Souls who obstinately refused the Mercy of their Prince and Dyed Martyrs as they call them for the Doctrine of King-killing I pray God divert them from such like Practices for the future and make them know That without Honouring the King we do not Fear God NOW to proceed to a Second Remark which is Episcopacy spoken against the great Hatred these sort of Men have had and now have against Episcopacy as well as Monarchy For as in those late Times the Bishops were ever an Eye-sore to the Scots and the Presbyterian Faction here and therefore the Church of England in its Government Liturgy Common-Prayer and Ceremonies was termed direct Popery and could not be entertain'd as any thing else and therefore to throw down this Rome as they called it destroy the Members of this Church and at the last the Head too was what was suitable to a Good Conscience and consistent with the Liberty of the Subject and the Protestant alias Presbyterian Religion So now adayes Men are so bold to call it the like and will not stick to say the King is a Papist and the Professors of this our Religion of the Church of England Romish or Popishly affected Nay it is publickly asserted That there is not one Bishop in England who was advanced to their Episcopal Dignity by any Protestant but Popish Hand And therefore say they They must needs have a great relish of that Leaven And as the Parliament in those times began to throw their Bolts at the Bishops and to shew their Dislike to that Reverend Apostolical Order and to that Authority and Honour which is due to them and their Right of Sitting in that August-Assembly they Vote That no Bishop should have any Vote in Parliament nor any Judicial-power in the Star-Chamber nor be concerned in any Temporal Matters c. So of late in the Tryal of the Earl of Danby the Commons in Parliament Vote the Bishops useless nay The Bishops Right of Sitting in capital Causes Disputed disown their Right of Sitting there upon Capital Causes c. They Dispute their Right of Sitting at that time and at all times of Session and divers Papers flew about concerning the Right of the Lords Spiritual to Sit in the Lords House or Vote in matters Judicial and others è contra were disperst abroad to the vilifying their Reverence and beating down their undoubted pretensions But the Wisdom and Prudence of Our Gracious Sovereign knowing well enough by sad Experience That they were Treading in the same Steps with their Old Fathers who began at the Church in order to the better subverting the State put an end to the Session After which we have but little News of them the Anti-Episcopates or Presbyters holding their Fingers in their Mouths and standing as mute as Metamorphosed Niobes SINCE the Mutterers against Episcopacy were thus silenced the Clergy have been pretty quiet tho sometimes we meet with a little Piece or two of Controversial Points thrown into their Closets or sent to them by the New found way of Dispatch and that 's the most they can do now They would have their Old Darling bear sway and would be dancing to Westminster to the Assembly of Grave Divines of which some Hugh Peters or Faringdon may be President I should say Moderator But here 's the Plague They have no long Triennial nor meet with such Concessions tho indeed they have had too many very gracious and great ones of late which have been too much abused as we shall take Notice of hereafter as their Fore-Fathes did nor have they a Durante Voluptate Parliament else you would find they would do glorious Things for the Good People of the Land and the Lord's Cause In Truth had these great Antagonists of the Bishops but what they Merit for either their scandalous stigmatizing them in private in their Conversations as well as in exposing them to the World with their spiteful Censures the Punishment which their Patrons Pryn and Burton and Bastwick Suffered in the late Times is too great a Favour and too mild a Resentment AND now I must hasten to Generals only I cannot choose but take Notice That these Times or the Men of them as if they were driven by the pure Dictates of a