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	great_a	rome_n	5,301	5	6.4962	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B21412	The vindication, or, The parallel of the French Holy-League and the English League and Covenant turn'd into a seditious libell against the King and His Royal Highness by Thomas Hunt and the authors of the Reflections upon the pretended parallel in the play called The Duke of Guise / written by Mr. Dryden.	Dryden, John, 1631-1700.	1683 (1683)	Wing D2398	39,244	65

in Queen Maries time against the Protestants neither do I any way excuse them But it follows not that every Popish Successor shou'd take example by them for every ones Conscience of the same Religion is not guided by the same Dictates in his Government Neither does it follow that if one be cruel another must especially when there is a stronger Obligation and greater Interest to the contrary For if a Popish King in England shou'd be bound to destroy his Protestant People I wou'd ask the Question over whom he meant to Reign afterwards and how many Subjects would be left In Queen Maries time the Protestant Religion had scarcely taken root And it is reasonable to be suppos'd that she found the number of Papists equalling that of the Protestants at her entrance to the Kingdom especially if we reckon into the account those who were the Trimmers of the times I mean such who privately were Papists though under her Protestant Predecessour they appear'd otherwise Therefore her difficulties in persecuting her reform'd Subjects were far from being so insuperable as ours now are when the strength and number of the Papists is so very inconsiderable They who cast in the Church of England as ready to embrace Popery are either Knaves enough to know they lye or Fools enough not to have consider'd the Tenents of that Church which are diametrically opposite to Popery and more so than any of the Sects Not to insist on the quiet and security which Protestant Subjects at this day enjoy in some parts of Germany under Popish Princes where I have been assur'd that Mass is said and a Lutheran Sermon preach'd in different parts of the fame Church on the same day without disturbance on either side nor on the Priviledges granted by Henry the Fourth of France to his Party after he had forsaken their Opinions which they quietly possess'd for a long time after his death The French Histories are full of Examples manifestly proving that the fiercest of their Popish Princes have not thought themselves bound to destroy their Protestant Subjects and the several Edicts granted under them in favor of the Reform'd Religion are pregnant instances of this truth I am not much given to Quotations but Davila lies open for every man to read Tolerations and free exercise of Religion granted more amply in some more restraindly in others are no sign that those Princes held themselves oblig'd in Conscience to destroy men of a different Perswasion It will be said those Tolerations were gain'd by force of Arms In the first place 't is no great credit to the Protestant Religion that the Protestants in France were actually Rebels But the truth is they were only Geneva Protestants and their opinions were far distant from those of the Church of England which teaches passive obedience to all her Sons and not to propagate Religion by Rebellion But 't is further to be consider'd that those French Kings though Papists thought the preservation of their Subjects and the publick Peace were to be consider'd before the gratification of the Court of Rome and though the number of the Papists exceeded that of the Protestants in the proportion of three to one though the Protestants were always beaten when they fought and though the Popes press'd continually with Exhortations and Threatnings to extirpate Calvinism yet Kings thought it enough to continue in their own Religion themselves without forcing it upon their Subjects much less destroying them who profess'd another But it will be objected those Edicts of Toleration were not kept on the Papists side They wou'd answer because the Protestants stretch'd their Privileges further than was granted and that they often relaps'd into Rebellion But whether or no the Protestants were in fault I leave History to determine 't is matter of fact that they were barbarously massacred under the protection of the Publick Faith Therefore to argue fairly either an Oath from Protestants is not to be taken by a Popish Prince or if taken ought inviolably to be preserv'd For when we oblige our selves to any one 't is not his person we so much consider as that of the most high God who is call'd to witness this our action and 't is to him we are to discharge our Conscience Neither is there or can be any tye on humane Society when that of an Oath is no more regarded which being an appeal to God he is immediate Judge of it and Chronicles are not silent how often he has punish'd perjur'd Kings The instance of Vladislaus King of Hungary breaking his faith with Amurath the Turk at the instigation of Julian the Popes Legate and his miserable death ensuing it shows that even to Infidels much more to Christians that obligation ought to be accounted sacred And I the rather urge this because it is an Argument taken almost verbatim from a Papist who accuses Catharine de Medicis for violating her word given to the Protestants during her Regency of France What securities in particular we have that our own Religion and Liberties wou'd be preserv'd though under a Popish Successour any one may inform himself at large in a Book lately written by the Reverend and learned Doctor Hicks call'd Jovian in answer to Julian the Apostate in which that truly Christian Author has satisfy'd all scruples which reasonable men can make and prov'd that we are in no danger of losing either and wherein also if those assurances shou'd all fail which is almost morally impossible the Doctrine of Passive Obedience is unanswerably demonstrated a Doctrine deliver'd with so much sincerity and resignation of spirit that it seems evident the Assertor of it is ready if there were occasion to seal it with his blood I have done with mannerly Mr. Hunt who is only magni nominis umbra the most malicious and withal the most incohaerent ignorant Scribler of the whole Party I insult not over his misfortunes though he has himself occasion'd them and though I will not take his own excuse that he is in passion I will make a better for him for I conclude him crack'd and if he should return to England am charitable enough to wish his only Prison might be Bedlam This Apology is truer than that he makes for me for writing a Play as I conceive is not entring into the Observators Province neither is it the Observators manner to confound truth with falsehood to put out the eyes of People and leave them without understanding The quarrel of the Party to him is that he has undeceiv'd the ignorant and laid open the shameful contrivances of the new vampt Association that though he is on the wrong side of life as he calls it yet he pleads not his Age to be Emeritus that in short he has left the Faction as bare of Arguments as Esops Bird of feathers and plum'd them of all those fallacies and evasions which they borrowed from Jesuits and Presbyterians Now for my Templar and Poet in association for a Libel like the