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	king_n	parliament_n	2,763	4	6.1596	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49832	The Lay-man's answer to the Lay-mans opinion, in a letter to a friend.		1687 (1687)	Wing L747; Wing D265_CANCELLED; ESTC R18586	7,591	15

study to be thought deserving of it They have their Charters as other Corporations of the Kingdom have and several Privileges and Immunities granted them by Acts of Parliaments And it is at present their Misfortune I dare say to find themselves obliged by all those Tyes that are common to them with the rest of the King's Subjects and some peculiar to themselves too not to be able to answer the King's Expectations in the Matter before them whose Grace they would gladly purchase with the Price of all they have that is dear to them in this World. And they are in hopes that it will not be in the Power of any their Malevolent Adversaries to interpose betwixt the Royal Clemency and them After the Parliament Clergy and Universities are confounded on this manner he has nothing to do but return to his Considerable Divine and make him confess the truth of the whole Charge in a very lamentable manner truly with a fad wipe to the Church of England for not pretending to Infallibility for matters are now come to that pass that a man will hardly venture to call a Hackney-Coach before he be infallibly assured it will bring him to his Journey 's end and a Coach-man will hardly come unless he be infallibly sure not to be bilk'd to so great certainties are we arrived in Matters of Practice Well but does this Considerable Divine give no reason for all this Obstinate Rebellious Opposition Yes he does and 't is this By serving the King we only ensnare ourselves in assisting the Church of Rome which is endeavouring our ruine A very considering Divine certainly I hope there are not many such in England that think they cannot serve the King without ruining themselves or that would not serve him were their ruine unavoidable but God be thanked things are not come to that yet there always was and always will be a great difference betwixt Serving the King and Betraying ones Trust 't is a scandalous kind of Blasphemy to affix that Sacred Name to a restless and ambitious Faction Matters may easily be thus accommodated The King's Intentions are always Honourable and Just and we will always serve him as in Duty bound with most Unparallel'd Fidelity If the Roman Catholicks are endeavouring our Ruine we will meet with them too in all the Lawful Methods of Peaceable and Just Defence Let them grow wanton in these days of Sun-shine if they please but let them not amidst their Gaiety forget they have to deal with neither Slaves nor Fools If you are not convinced by what is past you will be by what is to come that the Author of this Pamphlet made this Considerable Divine himself and his Reason too for certainly the Church of England owns none such for thus it goes on For if to the Zeal Magnanimity and Indefatigable Industry of the King we add the heightning his Prerogative and the firmness of all his Protestant Subjects both in his Armies and Parliament what imaginable Hopes is there to put the least delay to an Vniversal Change of Religion Did ever any Mortal Man hear such a weighty Reason as this Take it in other words thus The Church of England apprehends it is utterly impossible but that her Establishment must be overthrown and Popery set up if a Protestant Army and a Protestant Parliament be firm to the King especially since he is so excellently qualified Now as I am an honest Man I think this Church argues like a great Fool and ought to have concluded just the contrary And now after all the Pamphleteer has the ridiculous Impudence to tell us he has put the Objection fairly and as strongly as the Case will hear whereas you see there is no Objection at all and indeed the Case of the Church of England requires and needs none but if this had not been put here the Author would not have had one word to say and then he could not have told us that supposing the King had a design to resettle Popery he is sure we are bound in Conscience to be entirely passive in all things so designed by him The Church of England will never think herself at liberty to suppose any such thing as a design to resettle Popery till the King is pleased to tell her so and both then and till then she will behave herself as she ought to do If ever such a thing as it is an impious thought to think should happen she knows how to practice upon those Principles she has formerly and all along so advantageously promoted for the Royal Interest In the next place the Author fancies the Clergy compounding the Matter thus that in Secular things they will assist the State all they can but where their Church is concerned they must beg the State 's pardon and oppose a little or so and as if it were agreed on he desires to know how far this Opposition may proceed Not to Arms no by no means how far then why thus far in Pulpits to exclaim against the Religion of our Sovereign and brand it with Idolatry itself a Mark like that of Cain to invite every body to do him a mischief I wish this Author were oblig'd to bring the Man that in his Pulpit has in so many words asserted the Religion of the King to be Idolatry and left any such Insinuation in his Audience as though the Mark of Cain were set upon him or were obliged to answer for so villanous a Calumny on so great a Body when so many Millions of Protestants as are throughout the World are damned to Everlasting Perdition for they know not what by every little Roman Emissary we can pity their Uncharitableness but I know of no privates person that thinks himself affronted or abused thereby and yet damnation is the utmost that the Idolatry of the Heathens themselves can suffer and as for any danger in this World it is not the Church of England that threatens it to Kings but it is another Church and she has often set her Marks with a vengeance The next Period is another fling at the Universities which would make one think the Butler or the Beadle did not very well agree with him there But now for the Gentlemen that would not take away the Test and Penal Laws With some of whom it is a point of Conscience on that account to quit those Places to which they had no other pretence of Merit but their having opposed those Laws formerly which yet out of a fatal stubbornness they refuse now to Repeal Did yon ever hear such a grievous Accusation in your whole Life Don't you think these Gentlemen are the greatest Knaves and Villains on the Earth You will certainly think so when you have more closely attended to the force of this reason And thus it runs There were some Years ago a great many well-meaning Men that could by no means assent to some certain Laws then making against Papists and they opposed their Passing as vigorously as they

could and this their Zeal though unsuccessful was yet thought sit to be rewarded with some considerable Offices Matters changing some time after it was proposed to these same Gentlemen to take away these Laws they had before opposed but they having in the mean time been convinced that these Laws were not only serviceable to the Publick then but were since become necessary refuse to repeal them and are content to resign their Places both Honourable and Benesicial rather than comply with what they judged incommodious to the State freely sacrificing the Rewards of their former Vertue to preserve their present one And these are the Men so loudly exclaimed against But good God! in what dregs of time do we live when that Probity and Courage which in any other Age would have deserved a Statue does in this furnish Matter for a Libel Non olim sic erit Well then if Men cannot part with their Places without giving offence sure they may keep them innocently for to an ordinary understanding there seems to be no Medium No but you must not do this neither if you chance to squint whisper or look slily for then it will be construed as done with contempt of all your Master does or designs 'T is very strange that a Man can't squint or look a little slily at Court and be all the while a very good Subject But this is too malicious a Reflection on the present Courtiers to make merry withal Those worthy Gentlemen are wise enough to see this is only one of the many sly Insinuations of some malicious Viper that wants a Place himself 'twere much beneath the meanest of them to slacken either in their Service to the King or Duty to the Church for any thing that can be said by such bold Defamers as this But who are they who think themselves so dextrous as to convince the King they are his Friends though it never appeared so before they were his Subjects I could guess as well as other folks if I might but I dare not I will only venture to say they were not Church-of-England-Men and some of them at present are not such Ay but these very men whose Consciences are complaisant enough on other occasions yet dare not venture any farther than the Threshold of the King's Chappel to hear Sefache sing What then is it so very strange for a Man's Conscience to permit him quietly to pursue one evil course and to disturb him in another Would this Author's Conscience permit him to kill his Father and ravish his Sister because it permits him to slander and defame a Whole Church and Nation I hope not Nay but he does not say this so much to censure them as to vindicate our Church which condemns no Man for staying at Divine Service in any Christian Congregation but rather blames so nauseous an Affectation of Zeal and Faction Here he is in one of his loving fits again and will needs be vindicating the Church of England though it be at the expence of his own Truth and Honesty for he had before told us that our Clergy exclaimed against the Religion of our Sovereign and branded it with the Mark of Idolatry and he knows it is one part and that a principal one too of that Divine Service which we can find no civiller name for And within ten lines of this very Passage he says the same again and yet this is the Church that condemns no Man c. These things look like Contradictions And now let our Author summ up all May we not oppose the Government and yet do all these things That is in plain English thus May we not oppose the Government and yet our Parliaments debate Matters before them and yet our Clergy Preach up the 39 Articles and yet our Universities humbly Remonstrate to the King the Inconveniencies of a Mandamus May we not oppose the Government and yet some Old Courtiers resign their Places and yet some Others keep theirs still though perhaps they look somewhat slily and yet some Faces constantly appear at the Protestant Chappel which were great strangers there before and yet some others venture to the Threshold to hear Sefache sing but dare no farther had we not as good be down-right Rebels as do these horrid and unheard of things It may be you may think I jest when I put this sence upon our Author's Queries but by the Faith of an Honest Man there is nothing else in them of substance he has only put them into spiteful and invidious Terms for want of true Matter to furnish out an Accusation Here follow some more of them Did we pull down a Pope to set up a King The Parliament all the Bishops but one and the whole Convocation pulled down the Pope though all of them Papists themselves and restored the King to his just Authority And this Author would have a Protestant Parliament and Clergy set him up again And are we tugging with the King to pull him down and set up ourselves No not We of the Church of England but let Others acquit themselves as well What Pretence have We of all the World for doing this None for they who do Nothing want no Pretence We have no Private Spirit to guide Vs in such Dark Paths And therefore we keep out of them walking in the Light as Children of the Light. We have no Infallible Council to secure us against any Doubts of Conscience And we have no Doubts or Objections and therefore need no Infallible Council but we have the Word of God our Infallible Rule We have listed ourselves under a King ever since Henry the Eigth's time and about a Thousand Years before and like Aesop's Horse are obliged to bear him for a Rider ever after We like our King so well that we wish with all our hearts and souls there may never want of his Race to Govern us to the worlds end We never strove to throw off our Rider as the malice of the Author may seem to suggest by the Fable he has chosen but reckon ourselves securest when our Royal Rider sits the fastest Whom God long preserve And now because our Author has set me an Example out of Esop and because Fabling is very much in fashion I will take the liberty of presenting one which this and other the Enemies of our Church may apply as they see good And to recommend it the more it is of a Panther It chanc'd a Panther heedless of her feet Slipt unawares and fell into a Pitt Whether the Pitt were dug with that design Or not our Authors leave us to divine Which when some Churles lab'ring at distance knew Thither they with united fury flew Snatching such Arms ās haste or made or found Stakes from the hedge and Stones from off the ground These most of them bestow'd upon the Beast Lab'ring for life and almost quite opprest Whilst Others mild and more compassionate Pitted the wretched Creatures lost estate And kindly threw her scraps of Bread to eat Concluding as at Night they homewards made To find her early in the Morning dead But she recov'ring strength made an essay And by a vigorous bound escap'd away Homewards she fled nor many days were past Before she laid the Neighb'ring Country waste Shepherds and Flocks were undistinguish'd slain And raging Vengence foam'd around the Plain Then they who had in pity spar'd the Beast With fear and trembling to her now addrest Their Goods and Fortunes they no more regard But only ask to live for their Reward To whom the gen'rous Panther Friends no fear Rest you secure there is no danger near Well I distinguish 'twixt my Friends and Foes And well remember who gave Bread who Blows FINIS