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	faith_n	pope_n	3,103	5	6.3417	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25517	An Answer to a late pamphlet, entituled, A character of a Popish successor, and what England may expect from such a one		1681 (1681)	Wing A3307; ESTC R19980	23,175	18

Doctrine daily sounded in our Ears we are told by many of them that they abominate the Position and must needs be convinc'd that granting many of the Doctors of their Church to be of that opinion yet it is a Doctrine never universally received and that even they who believe do not preach to all and therefore very unlikely it is if they hide it from any that it should be used as a Bait for the Conversion of any Prince from whom in all probability they would studiously conceal such a point as would put him in danger of the loss of his Kingdoms as often as his holy Father the Pope should be teasty or call him Heretick Well but considering him to be of such a perswasion why may not his Religion release a King from his Faith to an Excommunicated and Heretical People Ay! there 's the mischief on 't these Absolutions and Dispensations and Jesuitical Loopholes can do any thing But now let us a little consider and weigh the probability of these poor shifts and evasions ever being made use of to our prejudice by his Royal Highness Can it be believed that He who only out of the Conscience that he made of an Oath and the Obligation that he thought was in it has already parted with the places of the greatest Honour Profit in the Kingdom is ever likely to have a less Veneration for that most Religious one that he then must take Or can we imagine that if he thought any power whatever could absolve him from such a tye he would ever have scrupled at the swallowing that which he could with so much ease have disgorged again Especially when such a proceeding had removed all Suspitions and Jealousies concerning his Religion and facilitated his way to the Throne wherein he might establish it before the people had warning enough to make any opposition Had this been his Principle then had been the time to make use of it and the easie ascent thereby to a Throne had been the best plea for his breach of Faith then if ever it was necessary for si violandum est jus regnandi causa violandum est But to strengthen this Argument our Author will give the World an instance of the power of an Oath with a Roman Catholick King And that is His most Christian Majesty the Famous Gentleman on the other side the water who contrary to his Oath upon the Sacrament has Invaded Flanders And must all of that Religion be Vow-breakers and Perjur'd because one Ambitious Prince has violated at once his Oath and his Religion too Besides how far this Perjury of his is to be imputed to the Romish Faith and how Zeal us a Son he is of that Church his quarrel even at this instant on foot with the Pope is sufficient to inform us If a man has born in him those Seeds of Ambition and that Lust of being Great 't is not the fault of the Religion that he professeth but the Viciousness of his Nature that makes him sacrifice his Conscience to his pride If a man be naturally inclin'd to Virtue or Vice let his Faith be what it will his Morality will be the same and he that has learnt from the great Law of Nature how Sacred the tye of an Oath ought to be let him be in what Church he will shall very hardly be brought to think that this Gordian knot can be unty'd by every jugling Priest Again if Oaths will not bind Papists if they come up as easily as they go down why do we betray our folly so palpably as to think to secure our selves by administring them to Roman Catholicks Why are the Allegiance and Supremacy Oaths tendered to them and why do they refuse them Why are new Tests devis'd that may be taken as harmlesly with a Dispensation in the Pocket as the Mountebank does poison with his Antidote by Why is the Wisdom of the whole Nation thus arraigned and the High Court of Parliament it self accused of the Goatham Policy in building the Hedge to fence in the Cuckow For this must be the very top of their sage forecast if they did not think that these Oaths did clip their wings as well as build the hedge about them And that if they can do not only the little suck-egge Cuckow Priest but the Imperial Eagle it self may be kept within the Fence I design'd in pursuance of my first undertaking to be on the Defensive part only and not to have at all meddl'd with the opposite Faction The Tale of Forty One and Forty Eight hath been long enough the Theme to be better made use of than it is But here 's an unlucky harrangue of our Author's against Religion immediately follows that is enough to make the Old Rebellion rise again even out of its Grave of the Oblivion Act. I will therefore joyn with him in his railing at that desperate Incendiary of all Nations Religion I hope he means honestly and understands the pretence and masque of it by that Name as heartily as himself I will bring him in my share of ends of Verse and Sayings of Phylosophers I 'll muster all Lucretius's scraps against it I can tell you of Tantum Religio and Religio peperit sceterosa atque impia facta and all this I can make out too Religion was the Gospel-trumpet that first sounded to Battel and whetted our Fears and Jealousies into Courage and Rebellion Religion that first kindled the Flame maintained it with Fuel The Fight against the Lords Anointed began still with a Psalm and ended in a Hymn Religion was the Song Religion was the burden of the Holy Ballad-singers when the Scots came tweedling it over with the praise of God in their mouths and a Two edged-sword in their hands No matter then if we must be ruined whether St. Ambrose's or Robert Wisdom's Te Deum be sung for the Victory whether the holy Io Paean goes to David's or to Nero's Harp to the Church-Organ or the Scotch-Bagpipe And see our Author is already at it he 's sounding a Parliament-Armies Epinicium or rather holding forth in a Thanksgiving-Sermon and in the insulting Language of the prosperous villany of the late times crying out To vow and Covenant and with a Solemn League forswear three Kingdoms out of their Liberties and Lives that 's Illustrious and Heroick There 's Glory in great Atchievements and Virtue in Success Come on then Let us the mighty Nimrods hunt for Nobler Spoils and fly at a whole Nation Property and Inheritance That is as he explains himself in the 29 page Let us never leave till we have hunted the Imperial Lyon down But now he 's out of breath and his Glass is run and therefore so much for this time But now to the main Objection Some people will tell us says he That 't is wholly impossible for any Popish Successor by all his Arts and Endeavours whatsoever to introduce Popery into England Yes indeed will they tell you so again For if you

any Prudence he would have burnt his Book and sav'd the Hang-man a labour But stay let us be as favourable to him as we can let us try if we can excuse him his ill treatment of the Virtues perhaps he rail'd at them only to bring in his Quibble and because Cardo is Latin for a Hinge therefore the Cardinal Virtues were to be the Hinges to open the Gates to Popery or what if his Picque against them be their having some Name-sakes in the Church of Rome since his Friend Merry Andrew in that excellent piece of Smithfield Drollery The Rehearsal Transprosed has been pleased to call them The Red-hatted Virtues Well whatever his quarrel be I am sure His Royal Highness has reason to be not a little satisfied to see that the defence of the Duke of York and of Virtue it self is the same cause and that whoever opposes the Justice of his Succession must forfeit his Morality as well his as Allegiance But then the Notion of such a Popish Successor such a one as shall maintain the Constitution of the present Government and in that the publick Worship of the Church of England is included without any alteration puzzles the Gentleman strangely Nor can he make it consist with reason no not he nor with the least shadow of possibility And where is the difficulty where is the unreasonableness Why forsooth he must suppress the potent and dangerous enemies that would destroy the Protestant Worship Peace and Interest And the Wisdom of several successive Monarchs and a whole Nations unanimous prudence has declar'd Popish Priests to be these potent and dangerous enemies Have they so then there are Laws to secure us against them then why are we in such fear Then what is left to any Monarch that succeeds but to execute the Laws he finds derived down to him to maintain and preserve together with his Crown and Dignity And since by the prudent zeal of both our Kings and People our Religion has so strong a fence built round about it since this Vine is so hedged in that neither the Wild Boars out the of Wood can root it up nor the little Foxes devour it why do we torment our selves with any further disquiet why do we not rather sit down under the shadow of it and bless him whose right hand has planted it But alas under the Reign of an English Papist the case will not be the same But we shall be in much greater danger by reason of the multitude of their Roman Emissaries and those too embolden'd by hopes of Connivance and Mercy and if ever the Protestant Religion want a Defender it will be then Truly I am so far from thinking that the Reign of a Popish King can be any way advantagious to the designs of the Jesuitical Instruments that I rather believe it will of necessity be the greatest occasion of their destruction especially since it is in the Power of every Subject in the three Kingdoms to be a Defender of the Protestant Religion if it want it And if people shall think so as naturally then they will to be sure no Information no Conviction of Recusants no Administration of Tests or Oaths to the least suspected shall be wanting no diligence spar'd which is backt by the Laws of the Land which then more then ever will be waken'd against them and which can't be dispens'd withal must needs be effectual to the utter ruine of the whole party This our Author himself seems to be sensible of and to allow and this is one of his pretty Chimara's and mismatched incongruous Ingredients as he elegantly Phrases it that must go to make up the Composition of a Popish King and can He then or the most violent opposers of the Church of Rome desire any thing beyond this to gratifie their utmost malice upon the Members of that Church than to be assured that a Prince of that very Religion shall be the cause of their destruction suis ipsa Roma viribus ruet For indeed all this a Popish King must do or suffer to be done and all his Apology to them must be what the Phamphleteer says We must expect to be made to us He cannot help it p. 20. He cannot help it that is if the Law will have it so his duty is to see that the Law have its course and whatever his private opinion may be whatever tenderness he may bear to the very persons he shall punish yet to remember his obligation to the publick so far as to give them up to the hands of Justice with the same constancy of mind with the same applause of the present and commendation of all succeeding Ages that the immortal Brutus deliver'd up his darling Sons to the Rods and Axes of the Lectors This had our Author consider'd he would not have so far betrayed his Morals as to have stil'd a Prince in every thing else brave to admiration abject and deplorable Coward for not daring to undertake either unlawful or impossible exploits nor been so out of his Politicks as to call governing by Law sneaking on a Throne But alas good man he has a fit of kindness on the suddain come upon him he is infinitely concern'd for that Scene of war and restless inquietudes such a Prince must have within himself who to spare a Fagget at Smithfield must walk on hot Irons himself and have only Good Friday entertainments on a Throne and with such like no doubt prevailing pieces of Rhetorick would perswade us that a Crown to him would be so uneasie a thing that he had better be without it Alas he would not have the Duke undergo that torment for all the world not he but this is only a flourish of his stile in imitation I suppose of a Brother Sir Formal of his who Laboured as much as he could to prove that the Bill was for the Duke 's good and undertook by dint of Argument to make it appear that the Exclusion of his Royal Highness was an act of Grace Let us come now to an Argument of some moment and consider what weight so solemn a Protestation and so sacred an Oath as a King of England is obliged at his Coronation to take is likely to have with a Prince that has any sense at all either of Honour or Religion Why truly our Characterizer says none at all and tells us That some can give us smart reasons for it He gives us but one which we will examine and try if we can produce as smart ones against it If he keeps his Oath says he we must allow that the only motive that prompts him to keep it is some obligation that he believes is in an Oath Yes we will allow it there is a double obligation of Nature and of Religion Well what then But considering he is of a Religion that can absolve Subjects from their Allegiance And are you sure he is of such a Religion We hear the Roman Catholicks Protestations against that