Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A31186
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The case of the suspended bishops considered in which the unreasonableness of their descent from the present government and the mischievous consequence that hath attended it, is demonstrated.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing C1168; ESTC R3534
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16,373
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38
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tho our Author is greatly in Admiration of their former Gallantry a word too material for Sons of Peace yet I can scarce be perswaded the Parliament will take his Counsel in accepting the Bishops Parole of Honour for a Formal Oath In the Old out-of-fashion Trade of Knight Errantry a Parole of Honour might be of sufficient Value But the World we know is become Stricter in such Points than to follow the Martial Dictates of such Don Quixots as our Author is It had been a Thousand Pities this Gentleman and the rest of his Gloucester Addressers were not present at that Session of Parliament wherein the Oaths were enacted for he had certainly by his Eloquence and Knight-errantoratory perswaded the Parliament to pass from so Silly a kind of Assurance as an Oath and to revive in its place the Sacred Sanction of Parole of Honour as in the days of Amodis do Gaule or the Seven Champions of Christendom But pray forgive me to ask one Question of this Learned Author How comes it that the Six Bishops refuse to take the Oaths and yet as he says are willing to give their Parole of Honour For if they be willing to give their Honour and which is a thing most Sacred among Men of Probity as a Pawn of their Faithfulness to the Government Why should they stick at giving their Oath for it But our Apologist tells us that one Huddelston tho a Papist was by an Act of Parliament in King Charles his time excused from taking the Oaths What then Must the Suspended Bishops be so too I do not remember that any of these Reverend Persons had the Good Fortune to preserve the Life of a King when sought for by Enemies nor can I find any of their Names mentioned in our History of King Charles's wonderful Escape after the Fatal Battel of Worcester Until they have as great a Stock of Merit on a like Score as Mr. Huddelston had we must even allow them to come under the Act of Parliament with the rest of England and allow Mr. Huddelston to stand alone in the Act of Parliament without the Honour of a Clergy-man to bear him company This is not all our Apologist is extreamly vex'd That the Convention I believe he would say the Parliament did not Copy out something in Favour of the Bishops which if it had done he tells us would have sav'd him and his Friends the labour of an Address Alas that the Parliament did not call the Grand-Jury of Gloucester and with them this Learned Author to set a Copy for them how to treat the Bishops that would not take the Oaths Sure the Parliament would have alter'd all their Measures if they had had the good Fortune to consult so wise and sedate Heads who are not for rapid and critical Haste in Counsels as he says are the Fate of a great many Men. We never knew before of setting a Copy to the Two Houses of Parliament nor till now could we have fallen upon the Men to do it far less did we know such Mighty Politicians were confin'd to the County of Gloucester But which was yet a greater Omission in the Parliament They not only forgot to follow a Gloucester Copy in Favour of the Bishops but by this neglect they have had the ill Manners to put so many Great Men as our Author and his Colleagues to the labour of an Address which must certainly be a great Loss to the Nation considering the Mighty Importance of their Time and Pains It 's hoped the Parliament will in time coming occasion no such Loss to the World as the putting these Gentlemen to the Labour of any more Addresses And yet methinks it could be no Labour to appear in favour of Persons for whom they have so blind a Veneration and whom they treat so often with the Title of Holy But at last our Author from making an Apology for the Bishops to make one for himself and his Colleagues the Grand Jury of Gloucester or rather for their Address And now it is he tells us what the Intent and Heads of the Address was In short It was says he no other than the return of Thanks to His Majesty for His repeated Assurances to maintain our Religion by Law established and for his Gracious Resolution to grant to all his Subjects except such Persons as he in his Royal Wisdom should distinguish from the rest his Gracious Pardon And Praying that the like Favour might be extended to their Pious Bishops particularly their Diocesan that the Incapacity he lyes under by not taking the Oaths might no longer disable them from serving their Majesties in their several Provinces This is the Address if we believe our Apologist in its full Force and we need not put our selves to the pains of making a too large Commentary upon it since it neither deserves nor requires it I sha I only hint at a few Reflections that rise naturally from it I. They return Thanks to His Majesty for his reiterated Assurances to maintain our Religion as by Law established This is Just indeed and never Prince deserved a greater return of Thanks than His Majesty does upon this Score for it was for the Preservation of our Religion that he ventur'd his Life and his All in coming over to England at first and if it had not been for him it is more than probable we had been beyond the possibility of a Retreat from Ruine before now But the manner of Thankis in this Address seems to be the very same words of our rediculous Addresses in the two preceding Reigns when our Gloucester Gentlemen among others besieged King Charles and King James with their Thanks for the reiterated Assurances to maintain our Religion as by Law established when in the mean time every Body of common Sense saw our Religion was every day incroach'd upon and that Popery was breaking in upon us like an impetuous Torrent I am apt to think our Gloucester Grand-Jury has been so accustomed to these words of thanking the Kings that designed the Subversion of our Religion for their Assurances to maintain it that they cannot get rid of the old rot they then used now when we are under a King that tho he were desired would not alter our Religion by Law established II. They thank His Majesty for his Resolution to grant all His Subjects a Gracious Pardon A Man would naturally infer that our Grand-Jury found themselves in some need of a good Act of Indemnity for we all know what sort of Men were most Earnest for having such an Act even those that needed one most For my part I do think His Majesty did express a great deal of good Nature in granting so Universal an Indemnity and it was likewise an extraordinary piece of good Policy so to do at that Juncture but of all Men living those that needed it should not have endeavoured to abuse it by making Addresses afterwards prejudicial to His Majesties Interest and Honour and to the
our Apologist in setting forth a few days Imprisonment in one of the Royal Palaces of the Kings of England for such the Tower is under the Notion of such Prisons as the Primitive Christians were buried alive in under Dioclesian does really detract from the real Glory the Reverend Bishops gain'd by their Restraint since every body will tell us the vast disproportion between the Dungeons of the Primitive Christians and the place where the Seven Rishops were confin'd In the next period our Author seems to be willing to teach the World how to give Uncharitable Names to the Suspended Bishops their standing out against taking the Oaths And they are very little oblig'd to him for putting such words as Obstinacy Pride and Prejudice in the Mouths of uncharitable People who are inclinable enough of themselves to put a harsh Interpretation upon these Reverend Persons their Carriage in that Point But they are yet less oblig'd to them in taxing them with mourning in Spirit for the Miseries of the Protestant Religion Alas how strangely does this Man accuse instead of defending the Persons he Apologises for And what can he say worse of them than that they mounn in Spirit for the Miseries of the Protestant Religion when those that have a just measure of Charity for them believe they are so far from looking upon the Protestant Religion to be in a worse condition through this late Revolution that on the contrary we are all willing to think these Reverend Persons do rejoice heartily for it as carrying with it the happiness and prosperity of the Protestant Religion which otherwise would have been at the bottom of misery But he comes to tell us page 4. That the Bishops Conceal their Reasons why they do not take the Oaths and therefore he has not the ill manners to dive into them Pray why an Apology for the Suspended Bishops their not taking the Oaths and yet no diving into the Reasons why they will not take them I confess the Gentleman his fall'n upon a new and hitherto unheard of manner of making an Apology since he will not â—â—â—er into the Reasons why they did not the thing for which he Apologises If he had pleased he might have sav'd himself and us the trouble of his Pamphlet for this is all we desire to know why the Suspended Bishops did not take the Oaths and he thinks it ill manners to dive into them Thus we are just as wise as before for any thing this Gentleman is pleas'd to tell us to the contrary Commend me to the Grand Jury of Glocester for drawing up Addrosses and for making Apologies tho' the one comes never to be delivered and the other never to touch the Principal Subject it should reat of I hope this folly in their Apologiser will oblige some of the Reverend Persons concern'd to do it themselves by which they will extraordinarly oblige the World But our Apologist comes pag 6. to tell us of the Christian temper of our Holy Primate and his Brethren in not rejoicing as others in the Afflictions of that Calamitous Prince King James and that in their anguish of Soul and great pangs of Spirit they have often wept for their avowed Enemy and endeavoured with their Holy Tears like the Soveraign Balm Tree to cure his Wounds It 's a great pity this Gentleman were not in the Chair to preach a Panegyrick upon the Suspended Bishops What stuff and Cant is here without any design I know of but either to render these Reverend Persons Cause ridiculous or the Case of those that have taken contrary Measures to them less odious Might not the Suspended Bishops have mourn'd for the Afflictions of the late King without having by their stiffness encouraged a Party that 's an Enemy both to them and all of their Religion tho' never so much against the present Settlement Where has the Panegyrist learn'd this new kind of canting flattery Holy Primate Holy Tears c. And what needed the Man tell the World that these Fathers have endeavour'd by these their Holy Tears to cure that unfortunate Prince's Wounds That is worse of them than I am willing the World should know For King James his greatest Wounds are certainly his being sot beside a Throne his being stopt in the midst of his Carreer of destroying the Protestant Religion the Laws and Liberties of three Kingdoms his being forc'd to see a Religion he abhors to become Triumphant in spight of all his hopes and endeavours to the contrary Pray do the Bishops endeavour by their holy tears to cure such Wounds as these Or does their Champion design to assront them with pretending they endeavour to bring King James back again to his Throne and to put him in condition of executing his begun design upon us and our Religion I know no other Cure of his Wound than this And does this our Author under the colour of making an Apology for them venture to put them in a new fright by acquainting the Mob that they endeavour to cure King James 's Wounds which is all one with restoring him to the Throne We justly say there is no Wound like that of a Friend and this Champion of the Suspended Bishops whether out of inadvertence or design has said of them what their greatest Endemes would scarce have ventur'd on and all under a pretence of writing their Panegvrick I am as much as any against Harsh Treating the Suspended Bishops and I am loath to give the Name of Ignis fatuus to this Light he says these Reverend Persons entertain in their Breasts But I never thought it was Harsh Treatment to get leave to enjoy the Protection of a Government at the very time they refuse to acknowledge the Government that gives it them And tho every Body is pleased these Fathers should enjoy Protection and Safety under the present Settlement yet I must tell this Author That there is no Government I know upon Earth that would be so Favourable in this case as Ours is To pass over that Mass of indigested Stuff about the Sacredness of an Oath on which our Author expatiates in the 7 and 8 Pages I cannot but laugh at the Poor Mans rediculous Notions of the Suspended Bishops their not being yet satisfied in their Perplexity of their Doubt to give his own words tho scarce good or intelligible which he says does so much affect them than for this reason they refuse to Swear The truth is we are obliged in good Manners to think these Reverend Persons have some Doubts that forbid them to take the Oaths but what these Doubts are neither they nor this their New Champion are at the Pains to let us know It 's greatly to be regrated that this Divine Spirit which he says Page 8. Reigns in their Breasts should be of the Nature of those Spirits our Saviour met with on Earth both Deaf and Dumb Deaf against all Reasons offered to them and Dumb as to all Reasons expected from them And