Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	authority_n	christian_a	church_n	2,851	4	4.0037	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28594	A sermon against persecution preached March 26, 1682, being the 4th Sunday in Lent (on Gal. 4:29, part of the Epistle for that day) and the time when the brief for the persecuted Protestants in France was read in the parish church of Shapwicke ... / by Sa. Bolde ...	Bold, S. (Samuel), 1649-1737.	1682 (1682)	Wing B3488; ESTC R19364	31,668	42

the Enemies of God and Religion have usually cover'd their wicked Persecutions and barbarous Cruelties This cannot secure you from Vengeance God incourages his people to hope that he would appear for them and against such as should make this pretence for their Persecuting them Hear the word of the Lord ye that tremble at his Word your brethren that hated you that cast you out for my Names sake said let the Lord be Glorified but he shall appear to your joy and they shall be ashamed They pretended what they did against them that trembled at the word of the Lord was for the Church and that God might be Glorified but yet God would bring them to shame for their Hypocrisie I am afraid there are many who talk high for the Church who would be glad to see her welter in her own Blood or consumed to Ashes with those flames they hope to kindle by their own furious or intemperate Zeal People who are wicked enough notwithstanding their loud Crys for the Church to set her on Fire themselves and then like Nero Triumph and Dance and Sing when they behold her devouring Flames and utter Devastation As some in the late times did very wickedly face Rebellion with the name of Religion so it is to be fear'd some in these days do Cloak Popery Revenge and hatred to all Piety with the name of the Church All that swear by the name of the Lord and make mention for the God of Israel do not do it in Truth nor in Righteousness 3. Your not Prosecuting them who play and drink or walk loiter away the Lords day and other times they should alot for the publick service worship of God does plainly demonstrate it is not any hearty Concernment for Religion or the honour of the Church of England which ingages you in these Methods but rather an invincible Detestation to Holiness and Truth as such Could you with the like Impurity shut up our Church doors and revile our Liturgy and cast contempt on our Bishops and all the other serious and hearty Officers of our Church who oppose and contradict you in your Lusts and wickedness it is not much to be doubted but you would be as severe and Tyrannous this way as you be the other If you have such Love to the Church why are you so mild and favourable and gentle towards the Papists who are as great Enemies to the state as to the Church Why are you not for getting those Laws executed which are in force against Field and Street walkers and those that haunt Ale-houses and Taverns and who are playing at Cards or Dice when they should be at Church And those who are rattling about in their Coaches or other ways Conveying themselves from one place to another on the Lords day and in time of divine Service to perform some idle and Sacrilegious visits 4. The methods you use are no way becoming the Church They will never do the Church any Service Force and violence will never satisfie mens Judgments They will not extirpate those unjust Prejudices People have suckt in against our Church but will rather Confirm them These Courses will not fairly remove mens Scruples Suppose you should force many to come within the Doors of our Churches by harsh and severe Proceedings what is our Church the better for this Can you together with outward Compulsion infuse into their minds an affectionate Love to and unfeigned Approbation of our Service and worship If not you may make our Church fuller of Hypocrites than she was before but not fuller of real and Cordial Proselytes you may turn the places for our publick worship into Prisons if you please but you cannot by these mean's make the Dissenters a willing People in the day of your Power The members of the Church must be Volunteers and not Press'd men Such as are forced will never do acceptable Service They will embrace the first Opportunity to relinquish and bespatter us It has hitherto been the certain Property and Character of Heterodox Heretical Popish and Anti-Christian Churches and People to Persecute and oppress others or to use violent fierce and ruining Courses to advance themselves and their Interests And it was the way of the pure Christian Church anciently and since the Reformation to use no Methods with their Enemies but what were full of Reason Scripture Meekness and Christian Forbearance The learned Bishop of St. Asaph does determine the Question who are the Church of God Or who are the Enemies of it By bringing it to this issue That they who are most given to hate and destroy others especially those who differ from them in Religion they are not the Church of God or at least they are so far Corrupt in that Particular These Courses do not agree and suit with the Temper and Constitution of our Church And therefore I am afraid they who use these Methods or countenance and incourage them who appear boistrous in them are either ignorant of and Strangers to our Constitution or implacable Enemies to our Church Instead of doing the Church any Service they seem to study to do her all the mischief they can under a contrary pretence It is not the Genius of our Church she hath no Doctrine that teacheth Persecution she hath not Practised it as others when they were in Authority I thank God for it and I hope she will alway continue in that Temper which being added to the other Marks of a true Christian Church may assure no that she is a Church according to the mind of Christ It was one thing that did not a little Commend the Protestant Religion to the world that after it's Establishment in these Nations tho Popery gained Power again in these Kingdoms and influenced it's Professors to treat the Protestants with all the Cruelty and outrage that Religion doth inspire men with or direct them to yet when in Queen Elizabeths Reign Popery was cashier'd and the Protestants had the Power and Laws on their side they used no Violence Fury or revenge at all Tho living in the midst of them whose dearest Friends and Relations they had Murdered and tho Protestants could say there goes he that burnt my Father or he that Murdered my Brother or that brought them to that cruel Death tho the Queen her self could say who they were that in her Sisters time dealt most insolently and barbarously with her yet when she came to be their Queen for ten years she touched not a Hair of any of their Heads Notwithstanding Bonner had in the preceding Reign been a most bloody and barbarous Persecutor of the Protestants and had often in his Persecution of them exceeded what the Law allowed yet this was not revenged upon him no so far were the Reformers from doing any thing that might look like Revenge that he was suffered to go about in safety and was not made a Sacrifice to the Revenge of those who had lost their next

Friends by his means It was Peace and Love and Mercy and Condescention and Meekness which brought Repute to this Church formerly and adorned it in it's most flourishing state And why should you now change it's ancient Methods if your Love to it be the same and your Zeal as Regular as was that of our first and best Reformers 4ly In the fourth place this discovers what ill Offices they do whether they be of the Clergy or in other places of Power who are continually Exciting people to inform against all Dissenters without making any difference Peoples spirits are apparently over-heated already They are cast into too Violent a ferment And therefore rather then use any means to exasperate their Passions more we ought all in our places to do what we can to cool these hearts and reduce men to more calm and gentle Tempers Especially should this be the care and study of them who pretend they have a Right to that Character of being Ambassadours and Heraulds of Peace Your loud Declamations your Passionate and envenomed Instigations and your founding Alarms from the Pulpit against Dissenters in general will not please nor gratifie nor benefit any but the sensual debauch't part of your Auditors This will endanger the creating ill apprehensions of the way you pretend to in the minds of the Soberer and more harmless sort Such kind of Preaching will be Interpreted but like clapping your Hands and lowing on the Dogs which instead of bringing People into the Church will be apt to drive them out of the Church-yard St. Paul directs us to a more Christian Method and such an one as will if generally faithfully and diligently observed and we are qualified to make use of it make thousands of more real Proselytes to our Church than common Informations Fines and other Punishments will make 2 Tim. 2. 24. 25. 5ly This calls for your Prayers for and your Commiseration and pity and what other help and Assistance you are able to Administer to them that are Persecuted You have this day heard that your Neighbour-Protestants are in a very Afflicted and Calamitous Estate This calls for your Pity your Prayers your Help and what relief you can afford them You know not how soon your own Condition may be the same with theirs if you will resolutely adhere to your Religion and dare not deny Christ and his Gospel you are at present safe you injoy the Protestant Religion peaceably but you have no assurance this prosperous and shining Day will continue long Now if you would find help and relief from others when destitute afflicted and persecuted have some regard to and let your Bowels yern over your persecuted Neighbours in this their day of affliction Nature Religion Christianity all that is good and excellent intreat and importune your Charity Can you deny these sufferers Can you withhold any thing from Christ imploring and beseeching your Commiseration in these his afflicted persecuted Members Can you eat and drink and feast your selves and be merry and have no concern for Christ's wandring naked indigent distressed Servants and Followers Ye that put far away the Evil day and cause the seat of Violence to come near that lye upon Beds of Ivory and stretch themselves upon their Couches and eat the Lambs out of the flock and the Calves out of the midst of the stall that chant to the sound of the Viol and invent to themselves Instruments of Musick like David that drink Wine in Bowls and anoint themselves with the chief Ointments but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph Therefore now shall they go Captive with the first that go Captive and the Banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed But that you may be more duely affected with their Condition I will lay before you the same Account which is given of it by the most impartial learned and Celebrated Historian of this age The account is this Those born in the Communion of the Church of Rome are required not to change their Religion which was left free before Schools and Colledges are suppressed in most places The Churches which the Protestants had in the Country or small Towns are generally raised and all Religious meetings in private houses are forbidden The Synods and Colloquies of their Clergy are fordidden except a Popish Commissioner is present the singing of Psalms is Prohibited When they are sick they are forced to admit the Popish Magistrates to come with Witnesses to exhort them to change their Religion no Midwives are permitted to Practise but Papists that so they may baptise their Children upon which it may be afterwards pretended if they continue Protestants that they are reliapsed because they were baptised by a Papist and the Punishment of this is Terrible No Minister Elder or Deacon may go and visit their flocks to confirm them in their Relgion when they are Wavering in it Accusations are brought upon the sleightest Pretences against the Ministers or others that are noted for their Zeal in the cause of Religion upon which Orders for their imprisonment are easily given out and they are either forced to fly or are ruined by a long imprisonment And the intendants of the Provinces oppress them most unmercifully with design as may be easily guessed to drive them into a Rebellion that so a pretence may be given to destroy them all at once No Protestants can be admitted to any Charge or Employment how mean soever it be Nor may they be received to any Trading or Mechanical Corporation And to take from them all Confidence or Credit in Trade if any Protestant merchant turns Papist he cannot be sued for his Accounts or Debts for three years thereafter And these Orders are much heavier in the manner in which they are Executed The present Proceedings in Poictu shew what the rest are to look for the Mercenary Agents of Mr. Pelisson prevailed so far on the Weaknesses and Necessities of many as to draw them to adjure their Religion but not a few of these soon after repenting of that base Bargain by which for a few Crowns they had sold their Souls and openly Expressing their Horror for it were clapt in Prison where they lye still in great Misery only their Numbers are such that it seems it is not thought fit to proceed to Extremities against so many at once But the Intendant of that Province Mr. De Marilliac whether directed by secret Orders or set on by the fierceness of his own Temper or by his Confessors is not known is resolved to take a severe Revenge of the rest of that Religion for the sake of those unhappy Relapses and has treated them not as Peaceable and Obedient Subjects but as open Rebels and declared Enemies Their Goods and their Houses are Robbed and their Persons violently assaulted and all that is done by the Intendants Order The Soldiers under his Command are lodged only in the Houses of those of the Religion where