Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
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A65010
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A vindication of addresses in general, and of the Middle-Temple address and proceedings in particular in answer to the impartial account of addresses : wherein the popular pretences of some men are exposed / by a barrester of the Middle-Temple.
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Barrester of the Middle Temple.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing V469; ESTC R18697
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15,280
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8
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composed Blunders that I ever met with I have heard of one that would Swear bloodily all Swearers were damn'd I have heard of a Jesuit in a Conventicle bitterly railing against the Whore of Babylon But now these instances cease to be Comical they are far out-done 'T is a sign the Well-meaning Party had all the understanding men as they boasted of their side for none but profound Considering men could be hotly condemning what at the same time they were hotly practising Upon the whole I think it may be concluded that our proceedings are fully justified by even the Practices of our Opposers There remains nothing therefore now but to remove the Objection against the Address it self which lyes p. 33. against these words That we will Serve His Majesty c. against those who under specious pretences and by possessing the people with groundless Fears and Jealousies would bring us back into Anarchy and Confusion Surely says my Author had these persons who presume to suggest this unto His Majesty known any Republicans or Phanaticks who did do this they ought by their Allegiance to have deposed against them and given in their Names that they might be Prosecuted Deposed against a Phanatick any thing good Sir any thing but that there 's a Notion indeed at this time a day when there must be more Witnesses to satisfie even a Grand-Jury when the Bill is against one of them then is required at Rome to Convict a Cardinal Now 't is but Herding with the Godly Conscientious party and you may commence Rogue with safety for you must know they are our Jury-men and 't is beneath those Saints to be guided by the old Fusty Rules of doing as you would be done unto of doing Justice equally without Favour or Affection Alas there are Crutches fit only for weak Brethren to bear on fit for those only who have not arrived to their pitch of Godliness There 's nothing guides them but their Consciences and their Consciences can notwithstanding their Oaths to the contrary find one Guilty without Evidence another Innocent though there be many Credible Witnesses to the contrary Verily verily these men were i' th right on 't when they only ask'd Liberty of Conscience had they but Liberty of Conscience the Devil were an Ass if he put them upon asking more Did we therefore know how 't would be in vain to Depose against the Sanctified Crew But it does not follow by the Gentlemans leave that I cannot have a Moral certainty that Discord and Rebellion are the ends of these mens Actions and yet not be able to bring them under a lash by Deposing For first this may be done by Mediums which come under no Law yet as they are circumstantiated do manifestly tend to or at least are aim'd at no other ends 2dly If their Medium do come under a Law as by Treasonable Pamphlets c. they are pleased to let us have them without Names so that it would be very difficult without the help of one of our late Grand-Jury mens Consciences to Depose positively against any particular person I say this may be done first by Mediums which come under no Law yet as they are circumstantiated do manifestly tend to or at least are arriv'd at no other end And these are principally three 1st Petitioning for Parliaments 2dly Their desires of a Bill of Exclusion 3dly Their Fears of the Popish-plot They themselves don 't think that any one of these three things come under any Law therefore whether they do or not I need not inquire but demonstrate that every one of these particulars as manag'd by them I say as manag'd by them are designed means to raise groundless Fears and Jealousies among the people and then as I before observed what signifies Deposing in such Cases To begin with the first Petitioning for Parliaments His Majesty was made sensible what they would Petition for and shewed His dislike thereto by publick Proclamation yet still did they obtrude Petitions for the same things And what could be the meaning of such Rudeness and ill Manners No hopes of Success those were all Anticipated by the Proclamation But this vehement repeated Petitioning would serve to breed groundless Fears that Ruine hung over the peoples Heads and His Majesty would not see it that He was wholly regardless of His Peoples Welfare and Safety whereas the people cannot be either Injur'd or Ruin'd but the King must be so too If this undoubted Truth were well considered 't would be enough to dissipate all Jealousies of His Majesties Managements But to return why all this Fondness for Parliaments What evil have they done that these men Satyr them with their good words Does none Reverence Parliaments but Phanaticks If Reverence be best seen by Obedience to Acts of Parliament I am certain there are those that pay greater respects then Dissenters though with less noise Could an Act of Parliament keep them from Conventicles Could an Act bring them to Church Could an Act keep them any distance from Corporations Could an Act hinder them from Scribling Treason and Rebellious Principles No all Acts are but Cobwebs when they in the least competize with the Interests or Inclinations of their party And therefore which brings me to the second plausible pretence a Bill of Exclusion according to their own Tenents cannot be an Expedient for the Kingdoms Safety for how can they who barely for the sake of unreasonable Whimseys trample upon Acts of Parliament believe the Duke would be concluded by an Act in so great and weighty a matter They will not object surely That his Royal Highness is a better Subject than themselves one more conformable to Laws No they proclaim him a rigid Papist and that no Laws can bind a Papist when they come in Competition with the good of the Church Upon this very reason they seem to press a Bill of Exclusion No Laws say they can bind a Popish Successor That says the Character of a Popish Successor is hedging in the Cuckow Well then a Bill of Exclusion would come in Competition with the good of his Church or not If not then his Royal Highness being upon the Throne would be no advantage to his Church then where 's the fear of Popery If it would according to themselves his Royal Highness would not deem such a Law obligatory and then they cannot believe the Peace and Quiet of the Nation would be the consequence of such a Bill but rather War and Confusion And 't is that they would have they care not which way they obtain it whether by passing that Law or whether by sowing Sedition rendring the King His Subjects dreadful Enemy for not passing such a Law One second hit for the Bishops fair Possessions would mightily revive the hungry Saints The 3d. plausible pretence is fears of a Popish-Plot which was a Plot against His Majesty's Sacred Person the present Government and the Protestant Religion We shall properly therefore inquire into these three things
First Whether Phanaticks desire His Majesty's Life more heartily than all the rest of His more Loyal Subjects or indeed more than His Majesty Himself 2dly Whether they are the chief persons aim'd at by the Romanists when their Plots are laid against the Protestant Religion 3dly Whether They are the only persons who would protect and preserve the present Government First That Phanaticks desire His Majesty's life more than He does Himself is wonderfully credible or that they value it more than the Loyal Party is almost as credible for the Question is no more than this Whether those who have Martyr'd the late King and used their utmost endeavour to Martyr This be more zealous for the Preservation of His Majesties Life than those who to their utmost have assisted His late Majesty and this present King in all times of dreadful Tryals and Adversities The decision of this Question I leave to any just man and if it does appear that 't is in reason to be supposed that the King is as willing to preserve His own Life as the Phanaticks are to Preserve it If 't is in reason to be supposed that those who have ventured upon all occasions their own Lives and Fortunes for the preservation of the King covet preservation of His Majesty's Life as much as those who have hazarded their Lives and Fortunes to Deprive HIs Majesty of His Life and Government then it as reasonably follows that their over Fear and Care of His Majesty's Life which exceeds greatly in appearance both the King and his Loyal Subjects are but Pretence and Sham. 2dly Whether Phanaticks are the chief persons aim'd at by the Romanists when their Plots are laid against the Protestant Religion One would believe by these mens over-bustling and noise that they were the only Defenders of the Protestant Faith That 't was only the Ruine of Them the Papists levell'd at as a certain means to eradicate the Protestant Religion Whereas Rome well knows these men are a Goad in our Churches side and therefore its Emissaries were careful to make and increase them That the Papists made them out of meer envy to our incomparable Church is evident from the Examinations of some Popish-Priests in Queen Elizabeth's time The first was one Faithful Commin a Frier of the order of St Dominick he made the first breach in our Churches walls by railing against Forms of Prayer calling the English-Prayers English-Mass perswading people to pray Spiritually and Extempore to whom the Pope gave a reward for his considerable Service Two years after one Thomas Heath a Jesuit was taken acting the same part which stories see at large in Foxes and Firebrands Printed 1680. and in the Reverend Dr. Stillingfleet's Preface to the Vnreasonableness of Separation But the Papists were not only careful to make but ever since constantly to increase Votaries to the Phanatick Party to this end the Jesuits have constantly preache among the Conventiclers to the Truth of this many can witness And Dr. Oates has deposed nay when we press Phanaticks with their actions of 41. they tell us for Excuse they were deluded by the Papists from which it fully appears that 't is against the Church of England all their Plots and Conspiracies are planted So far from being aim'd primarily at Dissenters that the Papists do with all their Art endeavour to preserve them as Instruments and Tools to afflict and overthrow us From these Premisses I shall draw not unnaturally two Conclusions First That those declamatory Revilings the Phanaticks throw upon the Members of our Church as being Popishly affected are but bare-fac'd Lyes and Calumnies for 't is incredible the Papists would vent all their malice agaisnt their Friends and do what in them lies to cherish and increase their only Enemies as the Nonconformists would have the World believe they are Is it not the Protestant Religion Papists would extirpate And can that be supposed a way which increases the preservers thereof Whatever these Dissenters pretend they cannot but know that this is too too absurd They cannot but know the Papists believe them the scandal and affliction to the true Professors of the Protestant Religion that they deserve not the name of Protestant for by Protestant is meant one who protests against the Errors only not the Truths too of the Church of Rome if other wise a Turk may be called a Protestant Is it not them the Papists upbraid us with in all our Disputations Is it not amongst them they shrowd in all their Hellish practices nor had the Papists had any thing to say or do against the Protestant Religion had it not been for the unhappy assistance given them by these foolish and wicked Dissenters A second Conclusion is That whatsoever reasonable fear there is of execution of a Popish plot it ought to be lodg'd in the breasts of the Members of the Church of England they being only the marks and Butts of all the malitious stratagems of the Papists Wherefore when we see those who have least to lose Those whom the Plot is least aim'd at the only men who seem to be scared and frighted out of their Senses the only men who roar out Murder as if the knife were already at their throats and that tho the Plot be defeated it nothing at all abates their unreasonable noise what can a man conclude but that this excessive Feat Zeal they pretend is only to heighten Jealousies among his Majesties Subjects beyond all Prudence and Reason It Non-conformists were in earnest why do they not run into the Arms of our Church which has been always open and ready to embrace them for that 's the only means to make Protestant Strength more Formidable By this means we should be able to oppose the Pope and the Gates of Hell too If they did this there might be some credit given to their zeal But can a considering man believe that they can possibly fancy Popery such a dreadful thing and so unavoidably almost tumbling upon us That they have so great a fondness for the Protestant Interest that now they deem it in extremity of Danger and yet will not make this one easy and certain step to dissipate that Threatning Cloud and to increase the Strength Interest and Reputation of the Protestant Cause Surely these prodigious Fears they express are feigned or they had rather Popery shound come in than they themselves should conform to our present Churches which ever of these it be the Government had need look warily to them Our third Inquity is Whether Phanaticks are the only Persons that are truely zealous for protection of the present Government The Romish Priests did not make nor does increase them for that purpose And we have found them continually owning and practisiing Principles destructive to our envied Government So then in King Jame his time writing to the Lord Hamilton to invite him to be their General they told him the People were animated by the Word and Motion of God's Spirit