Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A47971
|
A Letter formerly sent to Dr. Tillotson, and for want of an answer made publick, and now reprinted with the said doctor's letter to the Lord Russel a little before his execution.
|
Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.
|
1690
(1690)
|
Wing L1362; ESTC R41462
|
7,018
|
10
|
your own Conscience We would as soon deliver our Reasons at the Door of a House of Commons and I am not sure that the same Spirit of Integrity which has hindred me from succumbing under what we think an Usurpation will not the next time there is an Assembly there carry me that length if I don 't in the mean time publickly hear from you I beg of God Almighty in whose Being I bless his Name I yet believe to lay a happy constraint upon me to do what may be most for his Glory and the Good of these Nations and I earnestly supplicate him that he will enable me to suffer what-ever may be necessary for those great Ends and that he will incline you either to publish yâ—ur Reasons or Repentance To his blessed Guidance and Protection I heartily recommend you ADVERTISEMENT â‚ Since Dr. Burnet's Pastoral Letter is burned by the Common Hangman according to the Order of the House of Commons it 's therefore now far more necessary that you or he should explain King William's Title and what you have now to say against the following Letter to my Lord Russel Dr. Tillotson's Letter to the Lord Russel My Lord I Was heartily glad to see your Lordship this Morning in that calm and devout Temper at Receiving the blessed Sacrament but Peace of Mind unless it be well grounded will avail little And because transient Discourse many times hath little effect for want of time to weigh and consider it therefore in tender Compassion of your Lordship's Case and from all the good Will that one Man can bear to another I do humbly offer to your Lordships deliberate Thoughts these following Considerations concerning the Points of Resistance if our Religion and Rights should be invaded as your Lordship puts the Case concerning which I understood by Dr. Burnet that your Lordship had once received Satisfaction and am sorry to find a Change First That the Christian Religion doth plainly forbid the Resistance of Authority Secondly That though our Religion be established by Law which your Lordship urges as a difference between our Case and that of the Primitive Christians yet in the same Law which establishes our Religion it is declared That it is not lawful upon any Pretence whatsoever to take up Arms c. Besides that there is a particular Law declaring the Power of the Militia to be solely in the King And that ties the Hands of the Subjects though the Law of Nature and the General Rules of Scripture had left us at liberty which I believe they do not because the Government and Peace of humane Society could not well subsist upon these Terms Thirdly Your Lordships Opinion is contrary to the declared Doctrine of all Protestant Churches and though some particular Persons have taught otherwise yet they have been contradicted herein and condemned for it by the generality of Protestants And I beg your Lordship to consider how it will agree with an avow'd asserting of the Protestant Religion to go contrary to the general Doctrine of Protestants My end in this is to convince your Lordship that you are in a very great and dangerous Mistake and being so convinced that which before was a Sin of Ignorance will appear of a much more heinous Nature as in Truth it is and call for a very particular and deep Repentance which if your Lordship sincerely exercise upon the sight of your Error by a penitent Acknowledgment of it to God and Men you will not only obtain Forgiveness of God but prevent a mighty Scandal to the Reformed Religion I am very loth to give your Lordship any disquiet in the Distress you are in which I commiserate from my Heart but am mâ—ch more concerned that you do not leave the World in a delusion and false Peace to the hindrance of your eternal Happiness I heartily pray for you and beseech your Lordship to believe that I am with the greatest Sincerity and Compassion in the World My Lord Your Lordships most Faithful and Afflicted Servant JOHN TILLOTSON Dr. Tillotson's Last Prayer at the Execution of the Unfortunate Lord RUSSEL O Almighty and Merciful God with whom alone live the Spirits of Just Men made perfect after they are delivered from these Earthly Prisons we humbly commend the Soul of this our dear Brother into thy hands as into the hands of a Faithful Creator and most Merciful Saviour humbly beseeching thee that it may be precious in thy sight Wash it O Lord from all its Guilt in the Blood of the immaculate Lamb that was slain to take away the Sins of the World that whatsoever Defilements it may have contracted in the midst of this wicked World by the Lusts of the Flesh or the Wiles of Satan being purged and done away by a sincere and unfeigned Repentance through thy infinite Mercy and Goodness in our Lord Jesus Christ it may be presented pure and holy and without spot before thee O Lord we humbly beseech thee to support thy Servant and stand by him in this last and great Contest Deliver him from the Pains of Eternal Death and save him O Lord for thy Mercies sake and grant that all we who survive by this and other Instances of thy Providence may learn our Duty to God and the King and that by this and other like Spectacles of our Mortality we may see how frail and uncertain our Condition is in this World that it is all but Vanity and teach us so to number our days that we may seriously apply our hearts to that holy and heavenly Wisdom while we live which may bring us to Life Everlasting through Jesus Christ our Lord In whose holy Name and Words we conclude our Prayers Our Father c. It being credibly and confidently reported That you Sir immediately after the Execution went to visit that Excellent Lady my Lady Russel and assur'd her amongst other expressions to comfort her That you wish'd your Soul might go to the same place whither my Lord 's was gone I beseech you to make Mankind understand that expression or vindicate your self from the Imputation wherewith this Story charges you FINIS
A LETTER formerly sent to Dr. Tillotson and for want of an Answer made publick and now Reprinted with the said Doctor 's Letter to the Lord Russel a little before his Execution To the Reader THE Author of the following Letter sent the Original to Mrs. Tillotson for her Husband and a Copy of it to my Lady Derby for the Princess of Orange several Months ago and when he writ it he hoped the Members of Parliament would have been against the Sessions awakened by their Disappointments and Taxes to consider aright what is the present State of this miserable Nation and how much worse is our future prospect and had he found them in that Temper and acting steddily for their Countrey he had thoughts to have presented with his own hands his Reasons why he thinks they have wronged King James over-rated their Disease and mistaken their Cure and he would also have given in Proposals how the King may be restored without hazard either to our Religion or Property and this the Author would have done because he thinks that if either Reason or Religion would prevail such an Offer must have had some weight but whilst the Whigs as much Sacrifice their Understandings to support this Change as the Tories did their Consciences to make it a Man would be reckoned mad that attempted in such a manner to reclaim such a Sett of Men as have no more publick Spirit than what lies in wrangling for their particular Parties or common sense than what is pâ—oper to get into Pensions and Places that at the witty Sir Charles Sidley once said in the House They may charge in Armor How wild a Project too would it be to offer Reason to Men that so little know their own Minds that are so inconstant as that what they pass unanimously one Sessions they throw out the next as they have done the Judges Bill The Author would venture himself against great odds if it was but an even Wager that England might reap Good by so bold an Undertaking for he sees Slavery coming on so fast that he thinks Life will be a burden to an honest and free Spirit yet nothing that Cato were he here could do or suffer would repair our broken Constitution unless God teaches our Senators more Wisdom or is pleased to teach the People that a House of Commons may as scandalously abuse the Trust they repose in them as some of his Ministers did King James which that he may is the hearty Prayer of the Author both for the sake of the English Liberties and Protestant Religion for the sake of the very Being of the one and the Honour of the other The LETTER SIR I Shall Preface what I am about to say with an assurance That I have formerly had the greatest Veneration for You as well for your Piety as good Sense and Learning That my Notions of Government are so large that the first thing that I ever doubtfully examin'd that had Your Name affix'd to it was the Letter to my Lord Russel but your Actions since do less quadrate with that Opinion I had of your Sincerity and seriously make me address my self to You to know how you reconcile your present Actings to the Principles either of natural or revealed Religion especially how you reconcile them to the Positions and Intentions of that Letter and consequently whether you have a Belief of God and a World to come Sir I think it a very extravagant Maxim in Government to affirm all Insurrections which are only levell'd at Reformation and designed to correct Mal-administration and the Authors of them and thereby when the Common Methods are at a loss to let the King know what are the Measures of his Government the Voice and Interest of his People that so Justice and Mercy may prevail against illegal Courses and his flattering Minions and that the Rights of his Crown aâ—d the Privileges of his People may be adiusted and preserved I say I think it an extravagant Position to affirm That what may be so conducive to publick Peace and the maintenance of a Constitution and the general Ends of all Government is Illegal Yet I have often thought that the Oath that expects a Man should swear it unlawful upon any pretence whatsoever to rise in Arms against the King or any Commissioned by him intended to establish this wild Civil Article and I thought your Lordship writ upon so solemn an occasion designing to justifie the Purport and Doctrin of that Oath which was carrying Loyalty to a higher pitch than I ever thought necessary to make a good Man or a good Christian. But Sir to lay your Letter aside at present give me leave to examin this Revolution with the most impartial desire of being informed for I solemnly invoke God Almighty to attest That my Non-compliance with K. William and Q. Mary's Title and Administration is founded upon Scruples of Conscience to which I yet want satisfactory Answers I am a Protestant of that size that I hope God would enable me to undergo all the Persecution that the Malice of Men and Devils can invent rather than one moment prostitute my Conscience so far as to give any reasonable Umbrage for Protestants to suspect or Papists to hope I could be made a Convert to the Church of Rome I love my Country better than my Wife and Children and certainly therefore so much that I would for no Interest in the World disquiet the present Settlement if I thought it was fit for an honest Man to comply with it I have no Personal Obligations to King James and I thank God I have an obstinate Honesty that will scarce allow me to be acceptable to any King Whatever I have done or shall do for the Exil'd Prince is upon meer Motives of Conscience I have no reason to believe my self uncapable of being forgiven or perhaps employed under the present Government my Râ—lations and Frieâ—ds are many of them violent and almost all at least for it But let us begin with the Revolution I acknowledge King James's Ministers gave great Provocations I could have joined with any but a Foreigner to have rescu'd our Liberties and yet I must as freely declare I saw nothing done that would have been too hard for a Parliamentary redress or at least for the intrinsick Power of this Island the natural Weight of those who are sensible of their Religion and Property but I cannot tell how any Provocations thaâ— were given the People of England can justifie the Invasion of a Nephew and a Son-in-law I cannot tell by what distinctions in Morality the Dutch could salve their denial by their Ambassador that those Forces were designed for England I cannot imagin what dispensation gave them and the Subjects of England liberty to tell so many things that were notoriously untrue that they knew then to be untrue and that have been much more apparently proved so by the sequel of things Sure the Morality of the Decalogue is not abolished Let