Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A51462
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A letter to a person of honour in London concerning the papists from an old cavalier in Yorkshire.
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H. M.
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1663
(1663)
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Wing M29; ESTC R36490
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8,444
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16
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what need we punish those who now are Papists lest they should grow hereafter so many as to be fear'd Is it not enough to lay penalties on such as shall turn to them for the future If to preserve the peace be our intention and that cannot be molested by those of the Roman communion as now it stands let us but shut the door that no more enter in and we are safe without pulling down the House on the heads of those that are there already I cannot deny but I 'm thus far Popishly affected that I willingly converse with a Papist if he be a Cavalier and heartily love a Cavalier though he be a Papist this is my character and I 'm not a jot asham'd to own it Shew me a Papist that took the Covenant or fought against the King and I 'le hate him worse then a Presbyterian so much care I for their Religion but when I find many of them civil and ingenious and well-bread persons why should I decline their Company When I find all of them true and earnest and constant Cavaliers why should I hate their Persons All this I see may easily be done without either approving their Religion or diminishing my own Especially since the most eminent Divines of England allow the Church of Rome to be a true Church from whence they acknowledge to derive their Orders wherein they agree that both salvation may be had and all fundamentals are profest which I believe they will not say of any other Dissenters in this Nation I 'me sure if they say it they cannot maintain it till they have answered this Argument No true Church without true Pastors No true Pastors without true Ordination No true Ordination without true Bishops Therefore where there are no Bishops there 's neither Ordination nor Pastors nor Church Thus clearly to my eye Protestants differ from Presbyterians and the rest not in circumstantials onely but in essentials they differ as Church and no Church which is a far grater distance then between Protestant and Papist This single consideration has often made me wonder why we should so violently persecute the Papist with the uncouth names of Idolatrous and Antichristian and which is worse with the churlish actions of Sequestration and Death hanging and quartering them only for taking Orders from the same Church from whence we derive our own And all this while we kindly call our other Neighbours Brethren and pray for our Sister-Churches beyond the Seas who yet are so far from having One Mother with us that our selves say they have None at all Are then the Calvinists no Church are all the Reformers in France Germany Holland and even Geneva it self no Church I refer you to the Argument the Conclusion perhaps may be unwelcom but the Premises I doubt are unavoidable If no Governors there can be no Governed and if neither of Those there can be no Community whether we speak of spiritual or civil Communities Only somtimes when we would reckon up our numbers to cross-bite the Papists who for the same purpose will count the Greeks their Brethren we let all sorts of Reformers passe the Muster for Protestants a kind of pia fraus to sustain reputation and bear up the hearts of the People and have somwhat to say to an Adversary Whether upon this Reason or some other I know not but I observe our gravest Preachers and our learnedst Writers generally affirm that We punish the Papists not for Religion but for Treason Sure we must not mean their Religion is Treason for then we plainly contradict our-selves while we say we punish them for Treason not Religion if at the same time we make them but two Names for one Thing What is then their Treason Either their Actions and let all that are guilty dye without mercy without so much as the least syllable of benefit by the Act of Oblivion let them all be hang'd and drawn and quarter'd and none be found to pity them onely let our Justice not be blind and punish the Innocent with the Criminal but the Soul that sins let that dye Or else their Opinions are Treasonable And then let the Opinions be first singled out and either publickly renounc't or the Maintainers proceeded against with what penalty you please But if their Religion that is their Faith not their Opinions be clear from the charge of Treason let us honestly stand to our Principles and no longer upon that account punish them as Traitors Well though they now have approved themselves good Subjects yet time has been when they were not so But shall we not cease to punish when they cease to deserve it Shall we not take off their Fetters when they do well as willingly as we laid them on when they did ill Nay shall we charge them with new and heavier chains now they have given us such evidence of their constant Loyalty even Bedlams themselves are set at liberty when we see they are returned to their wits We know all have suffered long for the crimes of a few Why may they not hope as well to be indulged now for the Loyalty of many Time too has been when others were no good Subjects and that within the memory even of young men but the gracious clemency of His Majesty has buried all in Oblivion and may all treasonous Rebellions of what Sect or Faction soever be eternally buried and never rise again to molest us either in our duty to our King or charity to one another But let the Lovers of Peace do what they can some will be still delighting to rub over old sores and immediately they fall upon the Gunpowder-Treason and the Spanish Invasion As for the last if we look into our own Histories we shall see our Nation had disoblig'd the Spaniard by a long course of sharp unkindnesses of which he desâ—â—â—ng to be avenged and finding no handsomer pretence then that of relieving the oppressed for Religion he took it 〈◊〉 and brought it along with him But in all 〈…〉 the crime of the English Papists Do not our own Historians say they were ready with their service like true Englishmen and desired to take their fortune with the common Soldiers Do not our Authors expresly note that the Spaniards indeed perswaded themselves they should be seconded by the English Roman Catholicks but were utterly deceived The truth is a few English Fugitives beyond Sea were guilty and all at home were punishâ— And for the other it was indeed the most devilish and most foolish Plot that ever was devis'd But how many were geâ—â—ry Read the Proclamations immediately upon the Discovery and you 'l find the number of their chief Contrivers to be about a dozen and all the forces they could levy say our Histories were not full fourscore Now if we reflect on the multitude of Roman Catholicks who faithfully serv'd our Gracious King and his Royal Father we shall easily see how far more apt they are to adhere to their Prince then rebel