Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	great_a	king_n	parliament_n	3,205	5	6.3516	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55819	A letter to a friend relating to the present convocation at Westminster	Prideaux, Humphrey, 1648-1724.; Kidder, Richard, 1633-1703.; Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.	1690 (1690)	Wing P3413; ESTC R23295	18,264	30

in the true worshipping of God though openly professing so false a worship as that of Popery And must we also be forced still to put that abuse upon the power of the Keys committed to our charge as to excommunicate and thereby thrust out of our Churches sometimes the best of our people for being right or wrong overthrown in some penny or twopenny Cause in our Ecclesiastical Courts And must we always be necessitated to pronounce all damn'd that do not believe every tittle in Athanasius's Creed which so few do understand and on the contrary to declare every man sav'd at his burial how wickedly soever he liv'd all his life before And must we always be bound to many other grievances and defects of this nature which I could tell you of and still deny our selves all redress under the burden of them by refusing all those desirable alterations and improvements which are now in our own power to effect because some of our Brethren are obstinately bent to doe nothing for the satisfaction of those that dissent from us In summ it cannot be denied but that there are many things in our Liturgy which may be amended and improved many defects in our Discipline and Constitutions which may be supplied and abundance of other particulars in our Church which may receive a great advance for the better enabling us to promote Religion and Piety and suppress sin and iniquity among us And since the King and Parliament are now so well inclined to comply with us in all these particulars which we have so often laboured for in vain in other times provided that we will on our side doe what justly we may to satisfie our dissenting Brethren for the sake of peace and union among us which the necessities of our present circumstances doe so much require for our common safety it is a barter of that advantage on our side that none I think can refuse that have any regard to the honour of God the good of his Church or the true interest of Religion among us But to all what I have said I very well know many objections will be made which I daily hear from those who are of your opinion in this matter The first is That altering any thing in this now constituted Church will be like the plucking of a Beam out of a well built House and that it cannot be done without endangering the whole Fabrick To this I answer If all had been of this mind we could never have reformed from Popery because this Argument would have been as strong against all alterations then as now but I thank God we altered for the better then and still preserv'd our Church and therefore I hope we may be able to doe so still without any prejudice thereto 2. It is objected If we once begin to alter where shall we stop To this I answer Whensoever any thing is proposed to us which is not fit to be done 3. It 's objected If we yield now they will still be craving more and never rest till at last they have taken all from us To which I answer When they doe this then it will be time enough to resist them in the interim let us not refuse them what is just and sitting for us to grant them lest thereby we make good the old Saying Omnia dat qui justa negat and we give them an advantage against us by our obstinate rigor against yielding any thing to get that power on their side which may deprive us of all 4. It 's objected That some of those alterations which they require are in things as ancient as the Primitive Church from which we ought not to vary as may be instanced in the Cross in Baptism To which I answer That we are not bound to retain all things that were used in the Primitive Church For if so why have we not still their Love-feasts and their Deaconesses which have been long since disused in all Christian Churches and yet the mention of them is as ancient as the Scriptures themselves For in truth it is not ancient usage but the necessities and exigencies of the Church that are the reasons of all its constitutions and establishments which are to be framed in every Age as will best sute with the promoting of the honour of God and the edification of his People to which abundance of things might very well serve in the primitive times which will not now and therefore to say that what was in use in the primitive times must be retained now for this reason onely without any other to enforce it is just the same as if we were bound to revive all the old Saxon and British Laws because they were the ancient Constitutions of this Land without considering whether they are usefull to us or no. 5. The fifth Objection is That it will be a reproach to change To which I answer That it will be a much greater reproach obstinately to resist a change when there is good reason for it And therefore I cannot approve the confidence of that Gentleman who hath lift up his banner against the whole intent and design of this Convocation with a Nolumus Leges Angliae mutare For doth he think we are bound never to make any new Constitutions in our Church or abolish old ones according as the exigencies of it doe require If so why have we any Convocations at all for is not the whole intent and reason of these assemblies of the Clergy of this Church to consider its grievances and corruptions in the same manner as the Parliament doth those of the State and from time to time in like manner provide remedies for them and that by abolishing old Constitutions as well as by decreeing new ones and hath not the Church ever asserted this power as one of the most essential things which belong to its Constitution and must it now renounce all this for the sake of this Gentleman's motto and now in this critical time when its safety doth so much depend upon what it shall doe for it self rather sit quietly down and languish to death than make the least motion of effort to save it self If this be it which this Gentleman would have we have no reason to thank him either for his Speech or his Motto the last of which I suppose pleased him best because it carried a double stab with it the one against the Church and the other against him that was his greatest benefactor to promote him in it 6. The sixth Objection is That we have no reason to alter any thing for the sake of Dissenters because the fault of our divisions is not from any Constitutions of ours but from their obstinacy and perverseness in unreasonably dissenting from them To which I answer That I acknowledge all this to be true that it is not the Church which is the Cause of our divisions by any of its constitutions or impositions which are all rational and good but they onely who refuse to