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	papist_n	protestant_n	3,430	5	8.0447	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93763	The reason of the war, with the progress and accidents thereof. / Written by an English subject. VVherein also the most material passages of the two books printed at Oxford (in which His Majesties party do undertake to justifie their proceedings) are briefly examined; viz. The [brace] declaration, entituled, Tending to peace; relation of the passages at the meeting at Uxbridge. July 1. 1646. Imprimatur Na: Brent.	Stafford, William, 1593-1684.	1646 (1646)	Wing S5152; Thomason E350_8; ESTC R201041	87,456	156

should depend thereupon which if the demands on either side were granted by the other might haply have determined into Peace The reason for demanding on the one side as for refusing on the other are too tedious for this Discourse The OXFORD Relator hath by a large Discourse taken pains to satisfie the world of the justice of their own demands the Parliaments experience and wisdom in the transaction of matters incident to this Quarrel declares the reason for their demands here to be insisted on To the first that is to say the Protestant Religion exercised rather in Manners and Doctrine then in Church discipline comprehends and secures the second the businesse concerning IRELAND for unlesse a discreet and saving hand be had in reducing as of Governing that Kingdom and managed by a most choise wisdom the increase of the Papists and Rebels there will endanger the subversion of the first the Protestant Religion so these two first PROPOSITONS demanded on the Parliaments part having a mutual connexion and depency seem to attract each other in the maintenance of justice and the Subjects Right Religion being the ground of justice as justice is of Peace In matter of Church-Discipline or in the forms of Hierom. Zanch. in quartum Mandatum quod multiplex genus est Christi Ministrorum pag. 950. probat Presbyter Episcop idem esse Edw. Leigh Armig. in libro titul Sacrar Critic novi Testam in nomine Episcop ubi recenset Plutarch in Numâ vocat custodem Sacrarum Virgin Episcop citat Septuaginta vertere Episcop in Ezek. Hosea legit a Watchman Paulo post dicit Episcop esse qui verbo gubernat pr●erat puta Doctior Pastor Presbyter pag. 158. Neither is there so great and material a Difference betwixt the two subdivided parts of the Parliament side The Presbyterian and Independent as for a quarrel to continue and depend upon The wisdom of that Court hath taken away the virulency of any quarrel which might happen betwixt them two by constituting the one yet with respect had to the tendernesse of Conscience in the other Although the one be fully declared for by the Lords and Commons in the Parliament in their solid and satisfactory Declaration this present April yet with a due regard had to Tender consciences not differing in Fundamentals of Religion that they also may be provided for c. wherefore it is rather Luxury Pride of Wit and contempt of Authority then any object of a real difference which animates and maintains these quarrels Divine Worship that which His Majesty demands of Episcopal Government differs little from what the Parliament doth intend of Presbyterial Bishops and Presbyters in their primitive Institution being all one In the Forms of Divine Worship the Directory injoyned by the Parliament not really differing in the material parts thereof from the Common-Prayer-Book required by the King onely the one expugning for the present what the other doth contain That being more painful to the Minister not more declaring his Abilities This the more easie as being dictated unto him either may be of use either behoofful to the Auditory as meeting with all the necessities and deprecating the contingency of all afflictions incident to man-kinde the Common-Prayer-Book compiled by sound and learned Divines and accordingly ordained by an ancient Law the Directory framed by the like learned men and Ordained by a Modern Authority to be made use of for the present season or so long as Authority shall think good But that which abates the value of this is the weaknesse of the Argument in the defender thereof preferring it therefore before the Common-Prayer because the use of the Directory sets forth the gifts and Abilities of the Preacher beyond his reading or exercise of Common-Prayer which is digested already into a Form when as that rather denotes the best Abilities and parts of Schollership in point of Science Study Judgement which is able to perform the hardest work to dispence Gods Mysteries aright to set them forth in a hansome and polite stile the power of the spirit is no whit checked or blemished by an eloquent expression to raise and apply sound Doctrine winning the Attention and edifying the hearer is harder then to conceive and utter Prayer One other reason for using the Directory is that seeing we and the Scots are United by a Solemn League and Brotherhood and they not using the Lyturgy of our Church we should therefore abstain from using the same Answ They and we are born and Governed under different and distinct Laws their Manners and Customs differ much from ours The Union betwixt the Nations will serve for support aid of both being under one and the same Dominion in case of either infested by an enemy but for the same numerical Form of Divine Worship to be performed after the self same kinde this Arguing seems rather an Illustration then a proof God is an uncircumscribed and incomprehensible Spirit to be Worshipped in truth and spirit he cares not whether by heart without book or in a book opened so he be Worshipped with the heart This onely by the way to shew as there is no identity of Form betwixt the Directory and Common-Prayer-Book so no such Discrepancy unlesse in the persons using them as to heighten or continue these unnatural differences The reasons given by His Majesties Commissioners for making a Cessation betwixt Him and the Irish Rebels and the Parliaments Commissioners contending to have such Cessation void are of greater moment the Kings urging it dishonorable on His part to vacate the Cessation wishing also that it were in See the Relation pag. 131. His power to do it But why dishonorable or how comes it to passe that it is out of His Majesties Power to suppresse the Rebellion there as his Commissioners urge unlesse by employing and making use of his strength against this he abates and lessens it as against that Kingdom His Commissioners their reasons given for both are answered in what follows and the judgement in deciding the Question to be given according to the late past occurrences which the Declarations and Remonstrances within these few years published have set forth If His Majesty did make the Cessation to the end to save the Remainder of His Protestant Subjects there it was an Honorable and Pious care in him towards those his Subjects but if from a more principal and ultimate end of making such Cessation to make use of the contending parties in that Kingdom against his Subjects called Rebels in this the Parliaments Commissioners had reason to presse the vacating of such Cessation They farther insisting thereon that if the Cessation had not been made in the time of the Rebels their greatest wants and the Forces imployed then and there against them not drawn off they might in probability have been subdued and this War even finished They also urge that if the Cloaths going into IRELAND for the supply of the Protestants and Army there

had not been taken away by the Kings Souldiers near COVENTRY and within His Quarters the English and Protestants there had been relieved c. That the goods and Cloaths so taken away was not without His Majesties knowledge and direction unto which the Kings Commissioners reply That those Cloaths had not been taken away if they had had a Conduct to have more safely passed through the Countrey and further urge That those Forces and other Provisions intended for the Relief of His Majesties Subjects in that Kingdom were diverted and imployed against Him namely in the Battel at EDGE-HILL For proof whereof they mention three or four witnesses some of whom engaged for the service of the Parliament and deserting now the same engagement are advers and none more extreme Enemies to the Parliament whither they be competent witnesses in so extreme a Conflict to prove the Accusations If witnesses may be admitted known to be ☞ maliciously opposite to that party against which they are witnesses the inconvenience may prove in these loose and desperate times as generally noxious as the War it self hath been The Answer to such Accusation as the Kings Commissioners therein urge is no where more fully to be had then to the Enquiry into the Original of this War whereunto all Treaties had to compose this vast difference must have recourse otherwise a meeting to conclude a Peace will vanish into Contention and Disputes for want of a certain Rule or constant Principle to guide the Treaters by The well weighing of the Protestation lately taken might have confined and setled the doubtful and various thoughts of man in what the end and aime of the Protestation was a promise to fulfil in as much as in us lies the Commandments of the first and second Table of the Law directing our duty towards God and man the several parts in the Protestation tending in the sum to the maintenance of Gods Honor the Kings the Subjects Right and Liberty no one part thereof if rightly understood and applied crossing another and therefore how it comes to passe that the Protestation being one and the same the course of mens affections should be thus divided into partakings or that some should be of opinion that to maintain the Kings Honor Person and Estate is to adhere unto Him in this present War in what He shall command They should withal consider the other parts of the Protestation viz. The Defence of the Protestant Religion the Power and Priviledges of Parliament the Subjects Right and Liberty for by the Protesters observing all the King is best observed and trullest His Honor and promises being ingaged to maintain the latter three when as every one who takes the Protestation doth thereby endeavor to make Him a Soveraign Lord of a free and flourishing people The Kings Protestations concurring with and tending to that end so the Protestation taken altogether is best observed and kept To the Protestation for the defence of the Protestant Religion every one who takes it is not immediatly bound by vertue of his Vow to extirpate or remove all Papists that is above the power and liberty of every common person but if he sees the Protestant Religion in danger of declining and that the Papist is connived at and countenanced by higher powers for the question is not about the certain and actual bringing in of Popery but touching the causes of suspition if the Protester adhereth to that party which promiseth to defend the Protestant and opposeth that which countenanceth the Popish his Protestation is the truliest kept a Promise or Vow the more pursued the more fulfilled In like maner to the other part of the same Protestation viz. The maintenance of the Kings Honor every one who takes the same is not thereby bound to comply assent unto and obey the King in whatsoever He may command whether unlawful or unjust or to think all His attempts and actions Justifiable throughout This were indeed in the highest degree to Honor Him but in a more serious and as truly a loyal way of His being honored by His Subjects is when they or those who are put in place and authority over them shall enquire into and provide against all things incident to His Dishonor when they shall endeavor to chastise and suppresse all Affronts and insolencies which may be offered to His Honor This although a more remote and lesse flattering yet a more stable and certain discharge of Duty in Honoring Him But to proceed and examine wherefore His Majesties Page 119. Commissioners presse the want of a Conduct for the guard of those Forces and other provisions intended for the relief of His Majesties Subjects in the Kingdom of IRELAND c. it seems strange when as His giving way to many subscribers and adventurers into that Kingdom His often and tender expressions of the deplorable and sad Estate of His Subjects there His offering to go in Person for the better reducing the Rebels there all or most of these being known to all His Subjects was safety enough in all likelihood and above the strength of many Regiments of Souldiers or above the validity of any Commanders passe to have secured the transporting of such Cloaths and other Provisions intended thither from the violence of His own party The Parliament Commissioners urge farther That it was Declared from His Majesty That he did disapprove the subscriptions of the Officers of the Army by means whereof that course was diverted That the Commissioners sent by the two Houses of Parliament for the better supplying and encouraging the Army in that Kingdom were discountenanced and commanded from the Councel there where the prosecution of the War was to be managed unto which no Answer or Excuse is set down by the Author of the Relation His Majesties Commissioners derive the good and Justice of the Cessation from the Lords Justices and Councel of that Kingdom intimating the same by Letters sent from those Lords to His Majesty and the Speaker of the House of Commons and that had it not been for such Cessation the Protestants there could not have subsisted The Parliament Commissioners answer That Page 135. those Letters sent do no way intend the inducing a Cessation nor that the Copies shewed to them do contain any thing tending to or any the least intention of a Cessation and that those Letters sent were therefore written to quicken a supply from the Kingdom of ENGLAND They farther averring That notwithstanding such Cessation which many and considerable persons of that Kingdom do still oppose many English and Scotish there do yet subsist The Arguing and Debating which hindering the Supplies and Assistance which otherwise might have been afforded hath added much to the Affliction and Calamity of His Protestant Subjects there and to be imputed wholly to the Authors and Persisters in this War For whilest both parties in the War do contend to maintain and increase their power in opposition each to other and consequently

Birth-right of the English Gentry a supine and carelesse Ignorance let in in stead of the vertuous Emulation which they have alwayes studyed Seeing then Peace and Justice are the Blessings which the Subject lives by both Issues of Religion when to expect a blessing on a Kingdom The Kingdom of Heaven must first be sought Gods Worship especially provided for to be built on firm unshaken Pillars when the care thereof principally resides in those chosen men set apart for Gods and their Countreys service Their endeavor is to be fully ascertained of their Princes inclination thereunto that by His Countenance and Authority the love of Gods Honor may like the pretious Oyntment on his head run down to the skirts of his lower garments and so seated in his heart as all Jealousies to be abandoned all Evil and appearance thereof to be abstained from and the Parliament not to leave that in suspence or doubt which they would have provided to make more sure for it is not a transitory matter of Arbitrary Event or Chance to be or not to be performed but most weighty of great concernment and whereon the prosperity and welfare of the Common-wealth depends whether the Laws shall be kept entire and God certainly and constantly honored or whether the Laws shall be in danger to be broken his Name to be prophaned The main Jealousie grows by reason of an Army under the Conduct of Papists which no man will imagine is raised for the defence of the Protestant Religion for howbeit that there may be peradventure Papists in the Parliaments Army when as the number of them hath been great their Presumption increasing more and more the chief and eminent Commanders Papists are in the King 's And which is to be observed few of them miscarry in the Quarrel as not exposing themselves to the danger and hardship of the War as if they did hope through the effusion of Protestant blood and lessening their number under the name of Rebels to make unto themselves a Province yet both parties the Kings the Parliaments do professe the maintenance of the Protestant Religion And the Kings recriminatorily chargeth the Parliament with a Design to subvert the same The reason given is because Schismaticks or other the preciser sort relishing not the book of Common-Prayer are adhering to the Parliament Answ That Prayer is but a Form and humane Constitution although anciently received and of use directing us to pray blesse give Thanks c. And alterable by Authority upon devising a better Form But the difference betwixt Protestant and Papist is in Fundamentals as in Doctrine and Points of Faith so opposite as no man will judge that the parties on the one side will fight to maintain the others Cause Popery and Schism opposite in themselves agree in this that they both do undermine and seek the rooting out of the true Protestant Religion This participatively and by secret wiles That privatively and by open Enmity the one may be an aberration from the other is Idolatry and opposition to the true Protestant Religion What upon an upright discussion that is whether we take it in point of Manners or of Doctrine the one enjoyned by and comprehended in the Decalogue the other set down and fenced in by a moderne and learned * Mr. Rogers his 39. Articles Writer against the force and wiles of Popery and Schisme both parties the King and Parliament do contest for and protest to maintain the Protestant Religion so whilst there is no equivocation in the word Protestant Religion a divers acception may be in the extended sence the aforenamed Writer hath by his industry composed the difference in determining what it is and that agreed upon the contention as to that particular may cease Truth and Uniformity in Religion which cannot be without Accord without a distinct and certain knowledge what it is is the foundation and corner stone of Peace If in this Contention the Kings Army shall prevail many Papists engaged and Commanders in it what is like to be the sequel Those Papists and their followers will hope and challenge it as a condign Reward to have an especial interest in His favour because they say it was their Sword their Arme that got the victory so the King must tread a slippery and narrow path either to desert His friends who have assisted Him in this War or disabling Himself to make good His often Protestations for the maintenance of the Protestant Religion And if in this Quarrel Popery shall be let in when Justice and Law shall fail when every one given up to his own heart's Lust the Papists and other the Parliaments Enemies will in an exprobratory way thank the Parliament as the cause thereof It is true it may be said so accidentally and very remotely but neither the Impulsive Formal or Efficient cause rather if Logick will bear such a member in the division of causes a deficient cause as the absence or rather the Ecclipse of the Sun the cause of Darknesse their endeavours having failed of successe being interrupted by a strong and countermanding Power opposing them In a more fit resemblance if a Band of Souldiers should be sent out to guard a Town and a stronger Power then theirs to be imployed to oppose and master them in whom lies the fault in case the Town be lost in the watchmens deficiency or in the stronger Power opposing them so Popery and Treason the Parliament are guilty of alike and what other contumelies the wit and restlesse malice of their Enemies accuse them of And unlesse to every objection this opposite observation be applyed that in the whole course of this Quarrel there be a distinguishing between what hath been Intentionally and Principally aimed at and what hath accidentally and through necessity fallen out there can no clear judgement be given in deciding the Question How the War began who have been the Cause and Authors of these Miseries It may be as well objected by malitious and cruel Enemies that His Majesties Clemency and goodnesse have been the cause of so much blood already spilt for that he hath not put those whom His party call Rebels to the sword or hanged them to teach others their duty of Submission such Doctrines are spread abroad to foment the War when the Doctors themselves are the incendiary and impulsive means together with those Soldiers now in Arms which incites the surviving suffering people to make resistance least if they submit also as in many places they have done they are undone by it No marvel if Subjects be called Traytors and Rebels if resistance against opposition and violence be Rebellion the often Robbing and Spoiling used in the Kings name and for the King which were wont to be conservative and saving terms tending to peace and security but now grown destructive as the Souldiers use them to the Subject are able to turn him out of his natural and accustomed Frame Oppression saith the wise man makes wise men