Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	build_v	christian_a	zion_n	19	3	9.0959	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02834	A vision of Balaams asse VVherein hee did perfectly see the present estate of the Church of Rome. Written by Peter Hay Gentleman of North-Britaine, for the reformation of his countrymen. Specially of that truly noble and sincere lord, Francis Earle of Errol, Lord Hay, and great Constable of Scotland.	Hay, Peter, gentleman of North-Britaine.	1616 (1616)	STC 12972; ESTC S103939	211,215	312

that the Spaniard who is the strong Atlas that beares vp the same can aboue any Christian King establish the assurednesse of his affaires vpon the ruines thereof Fourthly all the orders of the Papall Clergy are bent to ouerthrow the Iesuites who are the onely cunning craftsmen who build and vphold this Babilonian tower Fiftly the meanes which God seemeth to put into the person of his Maiesty our gracious Soueraigne to sway the world to peace and vnity in Christian Religion as well by the weight of his power as by the vertue of his temperate wisedome and solid learning which hath procured vnto his Maiestie authority not onely with all Protestant people but with the best of the Opponents Sixtly the absolute credit giuen vnto the primitiue Church against which there is no side of Christian Clergy that taketh exception All which things well considered what I pray you is wanting heere to reforme the holy Church but these two Courage to vndertake it and this one word from the mouth of God Benedicamus And seeing the world pointeth at your Maiesty as the onely man to whom that courage doeth belong it compelleth mee to turne my speech vnto you O great and mighty Monarch As they haue seene how God hath made your Maiesty like Hereules able to ouercome the Gigantine forces of these Kingdomes dispairefully disseuered by inueterate and implacable emulations placing your Maiesty in a triumphant Throne ouer this fortunate Isle that Cyrus-like your Maiesty hath your foot vpon the midst of the hyde that no side thereof can reuolt and hath giuen your Maiesty ample dominions without and that in a miraculous sort hauing no concurrance of humane helpe making your Maiesty alone both the Actor and the Instrument Therefore doe they looke that your Maiesty should in like manner cry with Cyrus The Lord God of heauen hath giuen me the Kingdomes of the earth and hath commanded mee to restore Ierusalem and to deliuer his people from captiuity because they see how almighty God hath furnished your Maiesty with prudence and power like armed Pallas to execute the same your Maiesty hath hitherto well followed the example of the powerfull Moses in this toilesome gouernment whereunto the Lord hath brought you but the chiefest praise of Moses was his perseuerance non coronabitur nisi qui legitime certauerit when hee came vp to the mountaine hee was commanded to put off his shooes to shew plainely that hee might make himselfe light and able to walke to shew figuratiuely that hee must shake off all fleshly desires and affections which burden our mindes and pull them downeward from a familiar conuersation with God O what a laborious thing it is to come vnto this mount the vallies bee rich full of sensuall pleasures and of easie passage and therefore they are inhabited of the multitude of the world the mountaines are steepe and precipitious and it is hard to clime vp into them and yet there it is where the Lord hath euer almost shewen himselfe as mount Sinai mount Horeb mount Tabor mount Oliuet mount Caluarie and diuers others declare to signifie how difficult a thing it is to exalt our selues aboue the sensuality of the world and how few are worthy to come into the familiar mount of God onely Iosuah was found worthy to ascend with Moses all the rest were commanded to remaine at the foote of the mountaine with Aaron and Hur which made his charge to bee the greater for not onely did God command him to come vp but sayd the Lord ascende in montem esto ibi Come vp and see thou be there by which words hee would stirre him vp from lazines to think that he must not only be there but be watchfull there as it is sayd Non dicitur vemsse qui non steterit who standeth straight in the mountaine he seeth euerie thing which passeth by below him but to him who wearieth and lieth himselfe down to repose all the things which are vnder him be hidden and if the enemies come to spoyle the vallies he can neuer discouer it As your Maiestie hath beene most watchfull hitherto So let your Highnesse thinke that the worke of God doth but begin in you and that he hath called your Ma to come vp to the Mount not like a fainting Eliah who in his voiage to the mountaine to talke with God tired or delighted with the beauty or freshure of the tree fell asleepe vnder the Ginobre but like vnto a vigilant Moses who stood vpright fortie dayes in the Mountaine without refreshment not like vnto a timorous Eliah who was afrayd at the voyce of a woman but still like a couragious Moses who being of his owne nature the most milde among men yet when he found the people in Idolatry of the Calfe at his returning from the Mount he was enraged and commanded the Leuites to be armed and stood in the gates of the Campe till punishment was executed Let your Maiestie therefore haue watchfull eies to penetrate the latent things of your popular vallies that no distemper grow among them which may renuerse your Maiesties former cares Doe specially Sr. ouerwatch these two things First that this lurking Gangrene of pretended Puritanisme doe spred no further nor lie in waite to trouble the settled order of your Maiesties gouernment But to the end your Maieiesty and your Royall posterity may euer hit surely in that marke which your Maiestie hath so long shot at to reestablish into this Isle the primitiue and orthodoxall policie of the Church Imitate the skilfull Archer by chusing your arrowes of that wood which is most proper for your Maiesties aime by receiuing into Episcopall dignities those who bee most religious and sincere rather the best then the most learned considering how many men in these daies doe carry Letters as Uria did to cut his owne throat like vnto those vnhappy Carpenters who builded an Arke for the safety of Noah and his family while they themselues did miserably perish in the flood Since your Maiestie hath now store of men both of conscience and learning who are resolued enough in the Question of the Church Policy let them see how your Maiesty thinketh no man so worthy of the Episcopall chaire as he who commeth vnto it after the sort of that tradition which we haue of Gregorius Magnus who being chosen for his meere vertue was sayd to flie into the wildeines til he was discerned by a piller of fire which kithed aboue him Let the light of their learning their zeale integtity of their life shining aboue them where they are be their onely recommendations to Ecclesiasticall preferment to the effect that your Maiestie may in that manner stoppe malignant mouthes and take away all pretext of discontentment or disconformity from these who say that your Maiestie doth not preferre the vertuous So that the treacherous lesuite who like the crafty fish conueyeth himselfe into troubled waters may want a couert to hide his head which is

be could not be admitted to the sacred mysteries of his goddesse I●… if he had not changed himselfe out of a Phylosopher into an humble Asse further to let these fine fellowes know how in this a sinn●…●…ge of mine I haue been ●…urious 〈◊〉 ●…orneelie 〈◊〉 w●…th pertaineth to the Asse The People D●…d saith Nolita fieri sicus Equus Mulus q●…bus none 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but of the Asse the Prophet Esay wonderfully noting perhaps the particular circumstances of our Sauiour as somethinke in a Prophetica●…ision hath said Cog●…nit B●… p●…rem suunt 〈◊〉 pr●…sepe D●… It is manifestly seene that by naturall goodnesse the Asse hath those properties which euery Christiane is commanded to follow so patient of iniuties that being ●…ten of any other beast it taketh no offence so painefull and obedient that the greater burthen maketh it to trauell more willingly so simple that it requires no attendance as horses and other seruiceable beasts so temperate and soberat food that while it ●…eth the most percious fruits oyles coines spices it putteth downe the mouth to p●…re vpon th●…les as it were a figure of that simplicity and a●…ty which ●…ght to bee vnder the Crosse as some ●…o imagine it hath the marke of a Cross●…pon the backe Tertullian in his daies did glory in this That in the Pri●…e Churc●… the Pagans and prophane 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 did all the Christians Asina●… 〈◊〉 holding in the●… those A●…e qualities Finally that asse whospake to Bal●…m as hee carried him to curse Gods people 〈◊〉 and to impugnents Will So went I beyond Seas ●…ying my head●…ll of false and error ●…pinione and 〈◊〉 fraughted with desires to sed and 〈◊〉 super 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pleased God of his mercy to open my eyes 〈◊〉 old to that beast that I did see such odious 〈◊〉 of his worship the iudgements which 〈◊〉 the ●…tned against it it pleaseth him whole ●…ded 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 to loose me from the bands of ignorante The Prophet D●…d saith D●…mint ●…iamea ap●…es 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 anna●… laude●…●…uam do●… i●…iquos vi●… 〈◊〉 imp●… ad to connuertentur Since he who opened the mouth of the Asse hath also for his glorie opened my mouth I must not neither be silent although I ●…o Doctor nor doe not presume to instruct your L●… conscience yet must I remember that commandement of our Sauiour giuen to one whom he dis●…ssed of many Diuels ●…euertere in domum tuam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quanta tib●… fecer at Dominus Returne homeward and now become a simple Asse in Christian knowledge That which the Lord hath done to mee I shall preach it to others for his glorie and their edification and so I preceede to tell your L●… how I was tranformed into ●…his Asse of Balaam CHAP. II. A Discourse of our naturall light and diuine instinct of our Conscience A true definition of Idolatry for the better triall of superstitious worship and preuarication in Gods seruice THe Scripture records that the Asse of Balaam went on a pace before he did see the Angel and that the Angel was diuers times seene before obedience was done vnto him so was it with mee all the while of my being in France I did professe the Popish Religion and as sincerely obey the discipline of that Church as any man could doe of my weakenesse and that from vpright zeale and not from designe whereof I could my selfe giue many great proofes which be not pertment here onely this farre I say That many times I haue heard in one weeke more then twenty Masses and that for the greatest part there where I knew no man nor yet was knowne my selfe of any Whereof also your Lo selfe may beare witnesse by diuers of my Letters written to you in those times chiefly by one if it please you to remember from Paris immediatly before my going into Italy in the which I did play the Paranymphe to my selfe by praising the resolution of my comming foorth from the example of Abrahams calling who was comanded by God to goe forth of his owne Country that he might worship the Lord truely and he blessed of him in a strange land In such sort that for the time I could haue been content to remaine a Transfuga to my liues end In this Letter I did allude to the greater light of the Southerne Sunne and to the Aquilonar darkenesse founded vpon that Thalmudicall fable which we read in the writs of Rabbi Eleazer in his booke called Zoar that in the creation of the heauens God did leaue a hole in the Northerne parts thereof that in the beginning the Sunne had his first point of motion in the Southeast that about Damascus in the Southeast God tooke that Terra virgo that most perfect Earth whereof he formed Adam that the garden of Eden and mount Sion were planted in the South-east that God chose the Patriarckes and his peculiar people in the South-east remote significations of Gods truth to remaine for euer in the Climats of the Southeast according to that in the Canticles Vbi habitabit dilectus 〈◊〉 in meridie vbicubabit in meridie And that the Northerne parts of the earth were the seate naturally of darkenesse and iniquity as being subiect to the imperfect parts of the heauen and to the aforesaid hole whereout Lucifer and his companions did fall according to that vision of the Prophet who heard him saying Sedebo in montibus Aquilonis fimilis ero altissimo alleaging this Scripture Omne malum pandetur ab Aquilone and the text of Moses of the seuen Candlestickes of the Arke looking from the North towards the South as if the North were sinistra Mundi and the proper habitation of vncleane spirits like as we see the Aquilo to be a tempesteous and destroying winde whereas by the wholesome and nourishing Auster is meant the sweete and peaceable spirit of God incalled in the Canticles Ueni Auster perfla hortum meum And whereof Abacuc saith Deus ab Austro veniet So that the seuen Candlestickes looking to the South were signes of the perpetuity of the spirituall light there neuer to bee extinguished by any tempest of Northerne heresies These and such like fond fantasies which were then infused into mee and which haue beene inuented by curious braines to poyson simple wits did I introduce in that Letter And they were arguments good enough both of my zeale and of my ignorance as if the garden of Eden were not many thousands of yeeres agoe depriued of true light and consumed with the fire of Gods wrath as if that holy mount Sion and that mother City Ierusalem who had fairer promises of perpetultie made by God then Rome and all the Cities in the world because shee was like vnto Na●…h who preached to two worlds the mother not onely of Iewish but of Christian Religion as the Apostle saith The law went out of Sion euen the law Euangelicall the perfection of all lawes the Lord Iesus Christ declared to Moses obscurely in Sinai but

the Mountaine which shall neuer disappeare so liuely seene by that Prophet of the olde Law that other of the New Ezechiel and Saint Iohn being both in one extasie whereof Saint Iohn said in his vision in the Apocolyps Sustulit me Angelus in montem altissimum c. The Angell of God tooke me vp into a high Mountaine and shewed mee the holy City of Ierusalem comming downe from heauen couered with the beauty of God and whereof Esay saith Tu vocaberis quaesita Ciuitas non derelicta Thou shalt be called a Citie sought for and not abandoned And whereof the Prophet Dauid maketh a glorious description Gloriosa dicta sunt de te Ciuitas Dei c. But speaking of places what Christian Church or Towne may compare to Ierusalem who was the Mother Citie not onely of Iewish but of Christian Religion The Law went out from Sion saith the Apostle Et non peribit lex à Sacerdote saith the Prophet She was like vnto Noah who preached vnto two Worlds as I haue said And if Rome may bragge of Gods promise aboue Ierusalem why hath Dauid said in his Psalme to the derogation not onely to the Mountaines of Rome but of all others Why bragge yee thus yee Hilles most hie And leape for pride together This Hill of Sion God doth loue And there will dwell for euer Alwaies it is enough by way of comparison for the first they did both boast of Templum Domini for the second as it was long before prophesied that Ierusalem should fall away and become an Adultresse as the Lord said to Hosea Goe take vnto thee a Wife of Fornication and Children of Fornication Quia fornicando fornicabitur terra ne eat post Iehouam Because the whole Land shall be defiled that it should not follow the Lord. So do we finde in the Euangelicall prophesies of the Apoc a prediction of the falling away of Rome cleere enough thirdly as Ierusalem now fallen in her filthinesse was sayd of the Prophets to haue a Whores forehead who would not be ashamed And againe the faithfull Citie was become a Harlot shee who was full of Iustice was now full of Murthers her siluer was become drosse her wine mixed with water her Princes companions of Theeues euen so during all this fall of the Church of Rome there hath neuer beene wanting singular men whom God did stirre vp to rebuke her for her pollution And as Ierusalem did persecute her Prophets so hath Rome long since persecuted these euen with cruell martyrdome as Ierom Sauanarola and Iohn Husse in speciall with numbers moe thereafter in diuers Countries Fourthly Rome is now in that same condition which Ierusalem was in when the Prophet Ezechiel was carryed of the Angell by the hayre from Babilon and placed in the inner part of the Church of Ierusalem where saith he I was commaunded to looke vpon the great Idoll of indignation which was in the entrie whose abhomination saith the Lord causeth me to depart from my Sanctuarie What other thing I pray your Lordship is that Idolatrous worship of Rome which I haue related then a great Idoll of Gods indignation as it is conioyned with that scandalous impietie of manners Then further it was saide to Ezechiel Turne thee and thou shalt see greater abhominations enter at the gate of the inner Court and digge a hole through the wall where thou shalt behold similitudes of all abominable things and all the Idols of the house of Israel painted vpon the walles and thou shalt see the seuentie Ancients of the house of Israel standing with Censours in their hands and the vapours of their incense going vp like a Clowde and yet dost thou not see what they doe in the darke euery one in the chalmer of his images saying to himselfe The Lord hath left the earth and doth not see any more And I did see one saith the Prophet who stood mourning for Ierusalem Can any thing bee more like to the Colledge of their seuentie Cardinalls who haue their Palaces throughly adorned with idolatrous images of all sores and the Altars within them smoking with daily incense of ascending vapours and who can digge a hole through the wall that is to say who can see through the clowde of these externall shewes of pietie to behold the secret practises of their Consistorian Councell or to behold the works of darknesse which be in their secret Cabinets and sensuall solitudes hee would assuredly say that they did also thinke the Lord had left the earth and did no more see their actions But specially one shall perceiue and consider the likenesse of Ierusalem and Rome by foure points rehearsed by the Prophet in his sixteene Chapter First he doth introduce God obiecting to her the weakenesse and miserie of her youth saying O Ierusalem when thou wast borne thy nauell was not cut thou wast not washed in water to soften thee and when I saw thee polluted in thine owne blood I had pitie on thee and said thou shouldest liue I did sweare vnto thee and thou becamest mine A viue portract of the first age of the Church of Rome the first 300. yeeres of her being vnder the crosse from Christ to Constantine the great during all which time the citie of Rome did lie pitifully defiled with the blood of the Apostles Saints and Martyrs vnder the persecuting Emperours Secondly God doth obiect vnto her the Grandure and beautie whereunto hee had exalted her and made her the most conspicuous city in the world saying Ierusalem I entered a couenant with thee and thou becamest mine I washed the blood from thee I clothed thee with broydered worke I couered thee with silke I gaue vnto thee bracelets chaines and all kind of ornaments I put vpon thy head a beautifull crowne I made thee eate of fine flower hony and oyle and thou grewest vp vnto a kingdome and thy name was spread Which doth most competently figure the second age of the Church of Rome now washed from her blood and put in prosperitie from the dayes of Constantine to Pope Boniface the third who did vsurpe the vniuersall Popedome and began to erect in it a kingdome as no man can take exception against it Thirdly the Lord doth obiect against her by his Prophet her pride and declination saying Ierusalem thou didst trust in thy beauty and play the harlot because of thy renowne thou hast taken the faire Iewels of gold and siluer which I gaue thee and madest Images of them vnto thy selfe and diddest commit whoredome with them thou hast taken thy sons daughters which were borne vnto me sacrificed them to be deuoured of those thou hast not remembred the dayes of thy youth when thou wast naked and bare Thou hast builded thy high places vpon mounts and at euery corner of the way thou hast made thy beauty to be abhorred The application whereof to the present condition of Rome is so conuenient Quod etiam