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	church_n	scripture_n	4,231	5	6.1426	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01004	God and the king. Or a dialogue wherein is treated of allegiance due to our most gracious Lord, King Iames, within his dominions Which (by remouing all controuersies, and causes of dissentions and suspitions) bindeth subiects, by an inuiolable band of loue and duty, to their soueraigne. Translated out of Latin into English.; Deus et rex. English	Floyd, John, 1572-1649.; More, Thomas, 1565-1625, attributed name.	1620 (1620)	STC 11110.7; ESTC S107002	53,200	142

together with the vse of Scriptures their authority to iudge definitions of the Church by Scriptures The deuisers of this way seemed to haue great zeale of the truth but were not carefull to prouide for peace And so in practise this deuise begot a multitude of Sects and Religions one against another that many weary of all began to thinke it were better men should be vnited in error then thus mortally diuided in Truth A meane was deuised to decide Controuersies by nationall Synods that are confessed may erre but the Ciuil magistrate as our chief Deuines teach as being President in them is to compell his subiects by the sword to imbrace those doctrines that be determined be they true or fals For this course say they was appointed by God who thought it better in the eye of his vnderstanding that sometimes an erroneous definitiue sentence should preuaile then that strifes should haue respite to grow and not come speedily to some end Heere desire of peace concord may seeme to haue made these men lesse zealous of the Truth then behooued them So it opened a gappe specially in England to prophanes irreligiosity which is to be iust of the Kings Religion whatsoeuer it be or rather of none A salue for this sore hath been inuēted that subiects ought to obey their Princes Lawes and definitions when they haue only probabilities against them not when they haue necessary and demonstratiue reasons which discharge the conscience and giue liberty to resist This caueat and salue for Truth sets the wound of dissention againe a bleeding Sects in the world are now allmost infinite for number amongest which not one is found that pretendeth not cleere and euident demonstration and proofe from holy Scripture for their contrary and repugnant opinions And who shall iudg in this contradiction and confusion whose reasons are necessary and demonstratiue The arguments which we think demonstrati●e moue Papists nothing at all and arguments which we iudg of no force Puritans as Archbishop Bancroft writeth of them take to be so vrgent that if euery hayre of their head were a seuerall life they wold giue them all in the cause This controuersy therfore whose reasons are demonstratiue and whose are not is the greatest of all others nor is there any way to decide it in our churches besides the sword of the temporall Prince Princes therfore for conseruation of peace must keep the spirit in awe practising power infallible in deedes which they dare not challenge in wordes This is the cause of the secret emnity betweene power of Kings and feruour of our Ghospell The Prince can neuer be assured of our Gospellers by the Principles of their Religion that their zeale to the Truth will not trouble the peace of his Kingdome nor Ghospellers of the Prince that his loue of temporall peace will not compell them to trust to his deceaueable definitions Whence it is manifest that so longe as the one shal be zealons and feruent to follow and preach what by light of the spirit they conceaue to be in Sc●ipture occasions cannot be wanting to the other that will force him to vse his power to curbe their liberty Which power so long as he shal vsurpe so long as he will be Prince and Protestant he must needes vsurpe let him neuer expect that Ghospellers can loue his gouernment though they may flatter in outward shew Those men had no doubt the pure spirit of our Ghospell who professed that except they might haue the re●ormation they desired they would neuer be subiect to mortall man Looke vpon the first erecting of our Religion in Germany France Flanders Swe●eland Denmarke and Scotland you shall find that the Ghospell went not so fast vp but Kings and their authority went as fast downe What Bullenger writeth of Anabaptist● was the true course of our Reformers They began with Bishops pulling them from their seates they ended with Kings casting them frō their Thrones Books haue been written of this argument by no Papists that shew their practises and doctrines to be in the highest degree iniurious to Kings Luthers inuectiues I omitt not to pollute your eares Caluin is more modest yet so bould with Kinges as to write that when they resist the Ghospell they are not to be obeyed but rather we ought to s●it it in their faces This is nothing to that which Hottomā Beza Goodman Knox Vrsinus Buchanan to forbeare the naming of others innumerable haue writtē wherby they make Maiesty subiect to the peoples pleasure no more sure of his state then wethercocks that must turn● with the wind Vt sumat vt ponat secures Arbitrio popularis aurae What thinke you of these their propositions following Yf Princes be tyrants against God and his Truth their subiects are freed from their oath o● Allegiance The people are greate● then the King of greater authority The people haue the same power o●uer the King that the King hath oue● any one person The people haue right to bestow the Crown at their pleasure As the patient may choose the phisitiā he like●● best reiect him at his pleasure so the people in whose free choice at the beginning it was to be vnder kings or no may when they be weary of their bad gouernment cast him from his Office into prison into irons put him to death and set whome they please to gouerne in his place Kings haue their authority from the people and the people may take it away againe as men may reuoke their letters of Attorney Yf kings without feare transgresse Gods Lawes they ought no more to be taken as magistrats but be examined accused condemned and punished as priuate transgressors When magistrats do not their duties God giueth the sword into the people● hand from ●e which no person King Queene 〈◊〉 Emperor is exempt being Idolater 〈◊〉 must dye the death These and the ●●ke positions haue been inuented by ●●e zealous professors of our Religion ●he same or worse were renewed and ●ttered by the feruerous reformers that ●roue for discipline in Queene Eliz. ●ayes that as a worthy prelat writes All the Popi●● traitors that hither●o haue written and all the Gene●ian Scottish Reformers come not neere ●hem for malicious and spiteful taunts ●or rayling and bitter tearmes for dis●aineful and contemptuous speaches ●gainst Prince Bishops Counsailors ●ll other that stand in their way Their ●ecret practises to set vp by som meane ●r other sweete or violent the said ●isciplin haue neuer been interrupted ●r remitted as he doth particular●y relate beginning at the yeere 1560. ●o the yeere 1591. when was practised ●hat most blasphemous and barbarous ●reason of their counterfait Iesus-Christ Hacket and his two Prophets ●f mercy and vengeance who would ●aue planted the discipline by depriuing the Queene and murthering th● nobles that stood against it of

so longe as the Common-wealth doth endure the tyrant not depriue him by publick sentēce so long priuate men must endure him must obey him willingly for conscience sake Thus the Fathers cited by Theodidact persuaded Christians to ob●y the ancient persecuting Emperors that were tyrants Thus S. Peter as also Theodidact largely vrgeth commaunded the beleeuing Iewe● to obey Claudius a bloudy and barbarous Emperour which must be vnderstood in things not against iustice and religion so long as the tyranous E●perour should be tolerated by the Cōmonwealth For who will thi●ke that S. Peter by that his exhortation meant that they should obey Claudius further then for the time he shold be admitted as lawfull Prince who can wi●h any probability im●gine that S. Peter by that sentence decided the controuersy betwene the Rom●n Emperour the Senate about the right of making and deposing Emperours and that he defined in behalfe of ●he Emperour that he might no● be deposed by the Sen●te that in case of deposition Christians were still to obey the depriued not the new erected magistrate I cānot thinke S. Peter dyd desire that Christians in those times shold busy their heads with these speculations but simply for conscience sake obey the present Prince they foūd allowed in the state wherin ●hey liued so long as he was permitted to rule It would goe hard with Kings if their condition were like the Emperour seeing the greatest patrō● of Kings dare not deny what Emperors themselues haue acknowledged that they may be deposed by the Senate or Peeres of the Empire So that these exhortations of Apostles and Fathers to obey tyranous Princes for the time they be tolerated by the Common-wealth which Theodidact vrgeth so diffusely come short of prouing that Princes are in all cases indeposable Fourthly the Papists hold that the sentence of deposition must not only be giuen by a publick magistrate but allso by the whole magistracy and nobility of the Commonwealth or by the far greater part thereof And for this cause they say that neither Iulian the Apostata nor Constantius nor Valens Arian Emperors were deposed which Theodidact exaggerateth as an argument of great momēt to proue that Christiās cā vse no forcible resistāce against persecuting Princes But the cause why these hereticall Em●erours were not deposed cannot be proued to haue byn want of authority in the Church but because there wāted at that time meanes to vnite the whole Empire in the busines of deposing hereticall Emperours For from the time of Constantine to the sack of Rome by Alaricus heat●ens and infidells did abound through the whole Romane Empire many of them bearing chief offices euen in the Senat who could not be brought nor commaunded to concurre against Emperours for their heresy or apostacy so that the attempts of Catholiks to depose them could then haue had no other successe but faction and ciuill warre Nor could the sentence of the supreme pastor vnite them in that enterprize seeing a great part of the Empire were Infidells as hath been said and so not the Popes subi●cts But when the Commonwealth consisteth of only Christians then heresy and apostacy of the Prince ioyned with persecution ought to breed in them all a generall dislike thereof the sentence of their spirituall Pastor challengeth like●ise vniuersal obedi●nce so that if factiōs grow amongest them the fault is not in the cause which is common to all nor in the sentence which b●ndeth them all but in themselues that are neither zealou● in their Religion nor obedient to th● Church He that shall consider wha● orthodoxe Fathers haue written against Constantius the Arian will soon● perceaue that the Bishops of the primitiue Church were sharpe censurer● of hereticall Princes They rebuke him for gathering together places o● Scripture that commaund that he b● honored and obeyed omitting other testimonies that giue liberty to resist and bind him to obey his spirituall Pastors They tell him in playn● tearmes they might deale with him as the Machabees did with Antiochus whō they resisted his armies they ouerthrew cast him from the Kingdome of Iury. I tell thee Constan●ius saith one of those Fathers hadst thou been in the hands of Ma●tathias that zealous priest so wicked a persecutor as thou art he would haue killed thee Thus bouldy writeth that Bishop which shewes ●hat the reasō why Ariā Emperors in those dayes were not deposed was not want of iust desert in the Princes nor of power in the Church but because the sētence would not conioyne the whole Commonwealth being then mixed of heathens Christians in the execution thereof so that the sentence could not be lawfully executed without the asistance of some absolute temporall Prince And this assistance the primitiue Church in those dayes did not neglect to craue of Constantine the most pious Christian Emperour who tooke vpon him the protection of Catholike Bishops that were banished by his Arian Brother Constantius to whome he sent word that vnlesse he would restore them Hostem se illi fu●urum nec quicquam nisi bellum expectandum that he would become his enimie and that he should expect nothing from him but warre And as for Iulian the Apostata I do fearefully relate what they write For wheras by some it had byn giuen out that he was by a Christian souldier depriued both of Empire life they magnify the stroke whosoeuer were the Author thereof And some Christian historiās graunt that it is not incredible that some Christian souldyer killed Iulian and defend the fact as most glorious seeing say they not only Pagans but all men of what religion soeuer euē to our age haue allwaies exalted them that haue taken away tyrants venturing their liues for the liberty of their kindred and countrey how much more glorious is it to do this for God and Religion These sayings and the like may be found in the writings of the Auncients which I do not bring as approuing them yea this last of priuate vndertaking against Emperours I vtterly mislike But this sheweth what I pretend that it were better wholly to relinquish the discussion of this controuersy then to prouoke men to produce these authorities and that they be not wise or not friends of the King that will needes be stirring in this busines Fiftly Papists teach that a Christian Commonwealth may not proceed against their Christian Prince though he be a tyrant without the aduise an● consent of the supreme Pa●stor of their soules This they require not only in the case o● heresy and Apostacy but also when subiects are moued against them for tyranous oppression of their liues and temporall state And their reason is because deposition beeing an affaire of singuler moment● ought to be done wi●h the grea●est aduise and deliberation that may be Nor is it secure to commit the cause to the sole Commonwealth least the people out of passion the Nobles out of

the new oath For their standing with such daunger against an oath which they thinke vniust shewes they will not for humane respects sweare but what really they beleeue to be true● nor promise but what they truly meane to performe It may be iustly supposed that these men as they will rather dye then sweare Allegiance which they think not due so they wil loose their liues sooner then neglect the allegiance they haue once sworn And though they cannot frame their consciences to sweare the speculatiue denyall of th● Pop●s authority to depose Princes in some circumstances imagin●●le yet they are ready to sweare that in practise they will stand with the King against ●ll treasons and in al quarrells not openly and vnexcusably vniust Such as persuade his Maiesty to neglect such loyall offer of loue I pray God their trecherous flattery bring him not into occasions that he may need the helpe of such trusty subiects This we see that already the flaterers haue brought him to engage his Honor for the ouerthrow of the Popes authority in this poynt which is the fourth cōsideration that I made promise to present vnto you For I cannot thinke the successe wil be such as might become the enterprise of so great a Monarch Philanax The power to depose Kings at his pleasure which the Pope challenge●h so sauoureth of presumption is so odious that his Maiesty needs not feare the successe of so plausible a quarrell Aristobulus This authority hath ●yn now many yeares together impugned and the abiuration thereof vrged vnder gri●uous penalties What haue we gayned or rather could this doctrine haue more preuailed then by this opposition it hath done Before this stirre I know some learned Papists denyed that authority in the Pope many that held it thought it not a poynt of Faith but the more probable opinion and in France that opinion might scarce be spoken of Now find me a popish Priest that houlds it or thinks that doctrine tollerable in their Church When the matter was vrged in France to haue a like oath enacted did not both Clergy Nobility stand against it When Cardinall Per●ns speach for the Popes authority to depose K●nges was printed what Papist durst p●t his name to an answere We know that that doctrin forsaken of the Papists of France was forced to fly for succour to his Maiestie● pen. Some Papists complayne that we change the state of the question of purpose to make their doctrine odious Which is not that the Pope may depose Princes at his pleasure but in case of necessity But this change of the question to me seemes not so disgraceful to the Pope as to our ●hospell that after so great promises to burne Rome and ouerthrow Popery the heat of al our controuersies worketh vpon this poynt Whether Kings for their Crownes be the Popes tenants at will Would the Pope renounce his right in this point for the rest we would not greatly care to giue ouer When I co●sider the late quarrell begun by our King Henry the 8. against the Pope me thinks the successe thereof hath been much like that of the Carthaginians vnder Haniball against the auncient Common wealth of Rome At the first the Carthaginians so farre preuailed as they got most part of Italy from the Romans and fought with them about the walls of Rome Within a while fortune so changed that the Carthaginians were driuen backe into Africke warre w●s there maintained that much adoe they had to saue their own● Carthage Our Kings in the beginning stroue with the Pope for supremacy in spiri●ua●l things many Papists euen Bishops stood with the King that the Pope was in danger to loose his Miter The more that matters were searched into the more did the Popes cause daily preuaile so that not only Papists be now cleerly resolued in that point as in a most notorious truth but also Puritans mislike Princes supremacy and euen Protestants as far as they da●e go paring away peeces from it And now the Pope secure of supremacy in spirituall things pretends right to dispose of Crownes when the necessity of Religion shall require it And who seeth not that euen in this controuersy they dayly winne ground Had not we s●t our s●lues to impugne this authority had not so many books fr●ught with weak arguments which Papists conf●te with great shew of truth on their side beene written against it had not Priests lost their liues lay Papists their liuings for it I am perswaded it might haue beene buried in obliuio● or at least within their schooles haue beene kept from common peoples ●ares Now persecutiō hath made the question so famous as it will hardly be forgotten the bloud shed for the affirmatiue part thereof hath printed the same deepe in many m●ns conceipts yea the death of men so graue learned and pious hath made some Protestants that hated it before cast vpon it a more fauourable looke Per arma per caedes abipso Sumit opes animumque serro And this is a very remarkable proceeding of Popery different from the course of our Ghospell The light of our Ghospell shined exceeding bright at the first there was no diuision amongest our Ghospellers it stirred vp in mens harts wonderfull zeale● that as one noteth out of pure light they did not consider what they did and i● their zeale their goods lands children wiues and liues were not greatly deere vnto them With time this light waxed dymmer and dymmer the doctrine lesse certaine they grew into factions and sects and therupon their zeale b●came could that now the greatest feare is as oftentimes from one extreme men are prone to fall into the cleane opposite least the supposed cleere shining of truth make men vncerten and not greatly zealous of any Religion at all The Papists contrarywise when controuersies are first raised are very wary and circumspect their censures be not absolute there are commonly diuers opinions amongest them the more that Scriptures Fathers Councells testimonies of antiquity and reasons are examined the more they grow into consent the more resolute and immoueable they become in their doctrine m●re z●alous one day then another to giue their liues for it This course they hold in the doctrine of the Popes power which in the beginning was taught neither so certainly nor vniuersally nor zealously as now it is and wil be euery day more and more except these controuersies be remoued from vulgar examination which cannot be so long as the oath is vrged seeing such as are to sweare must least they be forsworne search into the certainty of this Truth and read bookes that treat of that argument And when no other inconuenience should ensue of this course this alone might moue the prudent frends of Kings to labour the silencing of this controuersy that the wordes of deposing and murthering Gods annointed which should be buried in the depth of amazement horror come by vulgar disputation to sound familiarly in euery eare

And without doubt by this their familiar acquaintance with the word part of the horror against the action is lost Which may be the cause that where speach against the Pops authority for deposing of Kings hath been rifest most vulgar those Countries for practise against the life of their Kinges haue been most vnfortunate Whereas Spayne hath seene no such tragicall practise nor any attempt thereo● but hath enioyed a longe happy peace where the questions how to proceede with Tyrants are freely permitted to the schooles without any popular declamations agaynst Scholastical● opiniōs in this poynt Philanax I must confesse that I haue been my selfe much deceaued in my expectation about the suc●esse of Papists in this controuersy When I considered the circumstances of the contention the doctrine impugned not gratefull to Princes not so cleerly decided in their Church by some of their writers denied the person impugning by sword and penne a Monarch mighty learned beloued euen of Popish Potentates and this at a tyme of great aduantage vpon the gunpowder treason which was vrged as a sequell of this doctrine that euen the greatest fauorers therof seemed fearfull These circumstances made me think that P●pery would receaue a great blow and that his Maiesty would draw the whole Church to be of his opinion What the successe hath been we see you haue shewed I could wish the Controuersy might not haue further progresse be now buried in silence that posterity may not say that Rome grew by his Maiesties opposition against it that this point of her authority was made renowned by victory ouer him what the Papists before did doubtfully defend the bloud of their Martyrs suffering vnder King Iames made certaine knowne illustrious And peace concluded about the silencing of this controuersy might be the beginning of an vniuersall agreement with that Sea seeing other doctrinall controuersies by discussion be brought to that yssue that as I haue heard some learned intelligent persons auerre a calme consultation void of priuate interest and animosity might soone end them Aristobulus This peace were much to be wished nor is it safe to mantaine strife with that Sea but vpon vnauoidable occasions And this is the fifth and last thinge which I wish you would seriously ponder and not wonder that this counsell should be suggested by mee that am no Pa●●st The knowne bad successe that Kings and Princes haue still had in their opposicions against the Romane Church may mooue sufficiently all faithfull Counsailors though not of the Popes Religion neuer if they may choose to engage their So●craignes in such quarrelles Arioch the Ammonite Prince could tell Holosernes out of experience that his power and force would not be able to subdue the Iewes that in the end he would be repelled with disgrace yet he was not a Iew in Religiō The like aduise Amon● Counsailors that were heathens gaue● him to desist in his quarrell against Mardochaus the Iew Thou canst not say they resist him he being of the stock of the Iewes but shalt fall be●ore him It was noted that when Octau●a● and Antony were youthes still in their games Octauian had the best wherupon a prudēt frend gaue Antony warning in ciuill controuersies neuer to encounter him Thou art said he more noble then he more eloquen● and better qualified yet I see cleerly his Genins is stronger thē thine if thou try the for●une of warre with him he will doubtles be Conquerour What the cause may be why it shold be so who knows but experiēce now a thousand and six hundred years old● shewes that this is the● fate and felicity of that Sea to conquer with their patience and bring vnd●● subiection into nothing all the opponents against their doctrine or their authority The Roman Emperors for 300● yeares together bloudily oppugned Christian R●lig●on but principally the Roman Sea in so much as thirty Bishops therof were martyred and the persecuting Emperors as S. Cy●rian saith were more greeued that a new high Priest was placed in that Sea then that a new Prince was chosen set vp against them What was the successe For those three Centuries of yeares scarce any Emperour that persecuted them can be named that deriued the Empire to a third heire or dyed not an vnfortunate death and in the end Constantine their Successor submitted the Empire to the obedience of the Roman Bishop wherin the Empe●ors that followed him contynued Afterward so●e Christian Emperors begā to quarrell with the Church about the priuiledge● and immunities of the Clergy specially Valentinian the third and the succeeding Emperors of the West Did they preuaile In their daies the westerne Empire began to decay The Franks tooke to thē France the Saxons Britanny and VVandalls Asrick the Visigothes Spaine the Gothes Italy ● which ●oone after were made Chri●●●ans and submitted their Kingdomes to the Pope and their Kings professed to receaue their Crownes authority from him Who knoweth not how pittifully the Easterne Emperors and the Patriarches of Constantinople vexed th● Pope for many ages which their quarrell they neuer would giue ouer till finally they fell into the miserable bondage sl●uery of the Tu●ke wherin at this present without hope of remedy they grone What successe to omit many other experiences had the German Caesars that stroue with the Pope for the inuestiture of Bishops by staffe ringe Henry the 4. excommunicated and deposed by Gregory the 7. vpon that cause prospered for a while which this treatiser sets downe to encourage Princes to follow his example but he concealeth how in the end in punishment of his rebellion against his spirituall Father as Papists thinke he was deposed by his owne Sonne put in prison whence escaping he gathered forces was defeated brought to such want as he sued to be Sexton in a Churc●● and serue Priests Masse who had most cruelly vexed the high Priest of Christians many yeares together Not admitted to that office he turned himself to begge of laymen in lamentable manner crying Haue mercy on me at least you my friendes for the hand of the Lord hath touched mee and so full of misery repentance and anguish of mind he pined away to death The newes whereof was receaued with generall ioy of all Christians And his Sonne though for a while he trode the steps of his Fathers disobedience yet finally he yielded vp his right in possession whereof the Roman Bishop is at thi● day Wherein not only the successe which Popes had against so potent Aduersaries as was Henry the 4. who fought more battaile● then euer did Iulius Caesar but their courage and confidence also was admirable Neither ought any discreete Protestant trust Theodidacts relatiō of Hidelbrāds fainting in the quarrell taken out of Sigebert a partiall Monke seeing Papists bring 50. Historians that contradict him These whose fidelity can with no rea 〈…〉 called in question relate that he ended his life full of cōstancy