Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	believe_v	faith_n	true_a	5,505	5	5.0466	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86678	The divine right of government: [brace] 1. naturall, and 2. politique. More particularly of monarchie; the onely legitimate and natural spece of politique government. VVherein the phansyed state-principles supereminencing salutem populi above the Kings honour: and legitimating the erection of polarchies, the popular elections of kings and magistrates, and the authoritative and compulsive establishment of a national conformity in evangelical and Christian dutyes, rites, and ceremonies, are manifested to be groundlesse absurdities both in policy and divinity. / By Mich: Hudson.	Hudson, Michael, 1605-1648.; Stent, Peter, fl. 1640-1667, engraver.	1647 (1647)	Wing H3261; Thomason E406_24; ESTC R201931	147,691	220

be Orthodox and what Hereticall neither may he under the sanction of any personall or pecuniarie mulct or penalty enjoyne his Subjects to professe and sweare such Creeds and Articles of Faith and Religion as those Lawes shall make Orthodox or by virtue of those Lawes punish any of his Subjects who out of conscience doe professe themselves of another different Faith and Religion The Reasons for confirmation hereof are three The first whereof appeares partly in the premises declaring no humane power or authority to extend unto the acts of the soule because the soule doth derive its being immediately from God himselfe and not from our parents Ob. Saint Paul exhorteth not every body but every soule to be subject to the higher powers Rom. 13.1 thereby importing the Kings power to extend unto the acts of the soule as well as the acts of the body so that not onely the Externall but also the Internall duties of the Morall Law must come within the sphere of Politicall Cognizance Sol. That exhortation of Pauls is not directed unto Kings but unto Subjects and therefore doth not relate unto the Kings power but unto the Subjects obedience For though the King cannot judge the acts of the soule or punish the thoughts of the heart how unjust impious or Atheisticall soever yet doth not that priviledge the Subjects to performe their acts of obedience out of hypocrisie and dissimulation and with eye-service as the Apostle speaketh Ephes 6.6 And not out of sincerity and singlenesse of heart for wrath and not for conscience sake The Reason is because this duty of obedience and subjection to Kings is not meerly a service to Kings but principally to God himselfe whose person the King doth represent who seeth and judgeth the secrets of our soules and measureth the merits of our duty not by our outward worke but by our inward faith and love And therefore though the Kings power cannot yet our obedience must be extended even to the acts of the soule that it may be an acceptable sacrifice to God as well as the King but this doth not authorize the King to exercise his power over the acts of the soule The second Reason is grounded upon Christs ordinance for the plantation and promulgation of the Gospell and faith of Christ Marke 16.15 Goe ye into all the world and preach the Gospell This is all the commission which the Apostles had and which other Ministers still have for the conversion of men to the Faith and Religion of Christ And yet they were sent to convert the Gentiles a people who neither understood or beleeved any thing at all either of Christ or Scripture or any principles of that Faith and Religion nor were any way inclined to seeke after such knowledge It 's true indeed that Christ endowed his Apostles with a power farre beyond the power of Magistrates for it was a power to worke miracles but that was not for the punishment or destruction of any but for the benefit and preservation of all such upon whom they were shewed which was a fit meanes to perswade and convince their understandings but wee never read that Christ did delegate any Legislative or Judiciarie power unto his Apostles to punish any mis-beleevers or enforce the profession of those truths and points of faith which they could not perswade nay indeed he peremptorily inhibited them the affectation of any such power Mat. 20.25 whereupon Saint Peter chargeth Presbyters not to demeane themselves in the execution of their office as lords over Gods heritage And yet it is the duty of Ministers and not of Magistrates to reforme errours in matters of Faith and Doctrine for we doe not read that ever Christ gave any rule or command to Kings or Magistrates to plant or propagate his Faith and Gospell and therefore in relation to these duties the Ministers and not the Magistrates are stiled Fathers because it is the duty and office of Ministers and not of Magistrates to beget men in Christ Jesus through the Gospell 1 Cor. 4.15 Ob. Esay prophecying of the flourishing estate of Christs Church among the Gentiles under the Gospell reciteth this for a speciall meanes of the encrease thereof that Kings shall be the nursing fathers and Queenes the nursing mothers of the Church in those dayes Esay 49.23 whose office it is by power to compell and not by preaching to perswade men to forsake the errour of their wayes And therefore Kings being fathers to the Church of Christ may execute the duties of their calling over the members thereof and by consequence may exercise both their Legislative and Judiciarie power in matters of Christian Faith and Doctrine which is that which constitutes men members of this Church and gives the nomen esse to a Christian quà talis Sol. The attribute which this Text giveth unto Kings doth admirably expresse the duty of Christian Kings towards their Subjects in reference to their Christian and spirituall vocation and profession For Kings are not here simply stiled fathers as in other places of Scripture which relate directly to their power and soveraignty over their Subjects but with the addition of this Epithet of Nursing they shall be saith the Text Nursing fathers now a Nurse you know doth not beget a child but onely protect and nourish it after it is both begotten and borne And such a power indeed a Christian King may and ought to exercise over his Subjects that is after they are begotten and borne children of the Faith and Church of Christ by the preaching of the Gospell he both may and ought to use his power to protect them from the wolvish enemies of Christs Church and to nourish them by gracious expresses of his Royall favour But I cannot finde any warrant for the King in that Text to enact any Lawes or Statutes to compell men of another Faith and Religion to become such as himselfe or to punish them that will not nor can I beleeve it to be any part of his commission or calling Repl. It may be replied against this first That such a liberty for every man to professe and beleeve what his owne phantasie doth suggest and judge Orthodox in such high and sacred mysteries will fill the Church with absurd and blasphemous errours and heresies and by consequence the Common-wealth with distractions and divisions For it is a probatum of daily experience that when the people are madded and instigated by mad Sheba's and Sectaries they will adventure upon any mischiefe sparing neither Scepter nor Mitre Ephod nor Diadom fancying the cause to be Gods and that themselves doe God good service when they rage against his Anointed and kill his Prophets with the sword in the furious pursuit of their fanaticke opinions And therefore there is a necessity that Kings should exercise their power to settle an Uniformity in matters of Faith and Doctrine because the peace and unity and preservation of the Common-wealth doth so directly depend thereupon Secondly The Primitive Church hath

imploy their utmost endeavours for the Reducement of that Polarchy to the Pristine Government by restitution of their Lawful Soveraign to his just Power and his proper Rights and Revenues The detaining of the latter being manifest injustice and the usurping of the former manifest Rebellion for suppressing whereof in regard as I said before and shall in the eleventh Chapter fully prove it is a sinne Immediately against the Honour of God every man ought to engage both his life and fortune 2. In order to those Polarchs and Polarchists who are the maintainers and managers of such a Polarchy during the life of that King or of any other of the Blood-Royal who by descent from him can make a just claim and title unto that Crown And all these are partakers of the same sinnes with their predecessors who were the Original Authors thereof and therefore equally obliged to the like reducement which the Authors themselves are 3. In order to those Polarchs Polarchists who are survivers to all the blood-Royal in whom the case comes to be the same with those which we formerly mentioned living under a Polarchy erected without opposition For where the Blood-Royal is absolutely extinct God doth thereby declare his wil concerning the deposition of that family from the Government as in the cases of Jeroboam and Ahab though it be effected by never so wicked instruments and the subjects thereby freed from all obligation of obedience to that family and obliged to such an obedience to the present Governours though Polarchs and such a Reducement of that to a Monarchy as may not render them guilty of any act of resistance or opposition to those Polarchical Governours For as he that is lame in his legs and feet which are gifts of nature may lawfully use crutches til it please God to restore him to his native perfection So must subjects be content to undergoe this curse and punishment of a Polarchy til it please God to restore them unto the blessing of Monarchie but we must not seek to regain it by rebellion or any sinful meanes for that is to forsake God and to runne to the Devil for help and deliverance from our griefes and afflictions CHAP. VI. Of the true ground and cause of that Supremacy from which all Monarchs do Derive their Titles to the Crown where first of the Title of popular Election IN Crowns as in all other nay much more then in any other possessions he that entreth not in by the door of Right and justice but climbeth up another way by an Illegal usurpation or intrusion is a Thief and a Robber and what Pious pretences soever he make for justification of his wickednesse of zeal and care for the peoples security in their persons from Tyrannical violence in their estates from Illegal invasions in their liberties from Arbitrary innovations yet certainly his intent is but to rob and to steal whereby to satisfie his own ambition and avarice as the constant event hath manifested in all usurping Traitors as Abimelech Absalom Baasha Zimri Omri and many others But whether it be lawful to compasse a Crown per fas aut nefas is not the point in question for all men who understand any thing in Religion and Christianity do acknowledge that no man ought to usurp the Crown or Regal Government but he who is Legally invested with that supremacy which creates a Right and Title thereunto But from whence the investiture of that supremacy is derived is the point in difference For the true stating and decision whereof we must observe in the first place that there is a two-fold ground and cause of this supremacy viz Principal and Instrumental 1. Principal and that is God by whom all Power is ordained Rom. 13.1 For he is the Universal principal and primary cause both efficient and final of all things sin only excepted Rom. 11. last 2. Instrumental which is the secondary meanes which God doth make use of for the Immediate collation of this supremacy upon any man whereby to entitle him to the Regal diademe and this again is two-fold viz Extraordinary and Ordinary 1 Extraordinary when God doth declare his will and pleasure concerning the advancement of any person to this Soveraign Power and preheminence by Extraordinary revelations and this again is two-fold viz Gratious and Vindicative 1. Gratious when the Lord doth thus declare his wil by Angel or Prophet or some such Extraordinary meanes for the advancement of a person to this honour for a blessing to his people by making him a Minister of favours and mercies as in Moses Ioshua David Solomon 2. Vindicative when Gods wil is so declared concerning the advancement of such a person whom he doth make the executioner of his curses and judgements for a punishment of their sinnes as in Jeroboam Jehu Salmaneser King of Assyria and Nebuchad-nezzer King of Babylon 2. Ordinary when God doth advance a man to this Regal dignity and honour by those ordinary wayes and meanes which are constant Rules for us to judge of whereby to acknowledge this soveraignty and yeeld our obedience this likewise is two-fold viz Gratious and Vindicative 1 Gratious when the soveraign Power is attained by those ordinary wayes and meanes which are approved and warranted by the word of God and the Rules of reason and equity 2. Vindicative when the same Power is attained by violence and Injustice and such cursed wayes and meanes as are Repugnant to the word of God and the Rules of justice and equity The dispute of the former would be arrogant and impious for the Extraordinary wayes of God are farre above our judgement and further above our Imitation For God never intended such for a president whereby to frame our actions but onely our submissions thereunto And therefore passing over them I shall insist onely upon those ordinary meanes which God hath ordained to be a Rule for our actions in this kind i. e. both for a ground of the Monarchs claim and Title to the soveraignty and also for the peoples submission and obedience to the person who is distinguished from and preheminenced above all others in that society by a lawful Right and Title to the same The ordinary meanes as you heard is two-fold viz Gratious and Vindicative 1 Gratious when the meanes are approved and warranted by the word of God concerning which there are two different opinions 1. The former which I confesse is attested by some Authors of eminency is that the Right of the Royal Investiture pertaineth to the people Whereof in this Chapter 2. The latter more truly doth impute it to Birth-right and Hereditary succession Whereof in the next Chapter The Arguments whereupon they ground the former opinion are partly Instantial partly Rational 1. The Instances alledged for the propugnation thereof are the Inaugurations of those Kings which the Scriptures mention to be made or anointed by the people as Saul concerning whom the Text saith that all the people of the land came to