Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	christian_a	church_n	profess_v	3,448	5	8.0722	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27494	Clavi trabales, or, Nailes fastned by some great masters of assemblyes confirming the Kings supremacy, the subjects duty, church government by bishops ... : unto which is added a sermon of regal power, and the novelty of the doctrine of resistance : also a preface by the right Reverend Father in God, the Lord Bishop of Lincolne / published by Nicholas Bernard ...	Bernard, Nicholas, d. 1661.	1661 (1661)	Wing B2007; ESTC R4475	99,985	198

authority in the outward government which disposeth the affairs of Religion so farre forth as the same are disposable by humane authority and to think them uncapable thereof only for that the said religion is everlastingly beneficiall to them that faithfully continue in it And even as little cause there is that being admitted thereunto amongst the Jews they should amongst the Christians of necessity be delivered from ever exercising any such power for the dignity and perfection which is in our Religion more then theirs It may be a question Whether the affairs of Christianity require more wit more study more knowledge of Divine things in him which shall order them then the Jewish Religion did For although we deny not the forme of external government together with all other Rites and Ceremonies to have been in more particular manner set down yet withall it must be considered also that even this very thing did in some respects make the burthen of their spiritual regiment the harder to be born by reason of infinite doubts and difficulties which the very obscurity and darkness of their Law did breed and which being not first decided the Law could not possibly have due execution Besides in as much as their Law did also dispose even of all kind of civill affairs their Clergy being the Interpretors of the whole Law sustained not only the same labour which Divines doe amongst us but even the burthen of our Lawyers too Nevertheless be it granted that more things do now require to be publickly deliberated and resolved upon with exacter judgment in matters divine then Kings for the most part have their personal inhability to judge in such sort as professors do letteth not but that their Regal authority may have the self same degree or sway which the Kings of Israel had in the affairs of their Religion to rule and command according to the manner of supreme Governors As for the sword wherewith God armed his Church of old if that were a reasonable cause why Kings might then have Dominion I see not but that it ministreth still as forcible an argument for the lawfulness and expedience of their continuance therein now As we digrade and excommunicate even so did the Church of the Jews both separate offendors from the Temple and depose the Clergie also from their rooms when cause required The other sword of corporall punishment is not by Christs own appointment in the hand of the Church of Christ as God did place it himself in the hands of the Jewish Church For why he knew that they whom he sent abroad to gather a people unto him only by perswasive means were to build up his Church even within the bosome of Kingdomes the chiefest Governors whereof would be open enemies unto it every where for the space of many years Wherefore such Commission for discipline he gave them as they might any where exercise in a quiet and peaceable manner the Subjects of no Common-wealth being touched in goods or person by virtue of that spirituall regiment whereunto Christian Religion embraced did make them subject Now when afterwards it came to pass that whole Kingdomes were made Christian I demand whither that authority served before for the furtherance of Religion may not as effectually serve to the maintenance of Christian Religion Christian Religion hath the sword of spiritual Discipline But doth that suffice The Jewish which had it also did nevertheless stand in need to be ayded with the power of the Civil sword The help whereof although when Christian Religion cannot have it must without it sustain it self as far as the other which it hath will serve notwithstanding where both may be had what forbiddeth the Church to enjoy the benefit of both Will any man deny that the Church doth need the rod of corporall punishment to keep her children in obedience withall Such a Law as Macabeus made amongst the Scots that he which continued an excommunicate two years together and reconciled not himself to the Church should forfeit all his goods and possessions Again the custom which many Christian Churches have to fly to the Civil Magistrate for coertion of those that will not otherwise be reformed these things are proof sufficient that even in Christian Religion the power wherewith Eeclesiastical persons were indued at the first unable to do of it self so much as when secular power doth strengthen it and that not by way of Ministry or Service but of predominancie such as the Kings of Israel in their time exercised over the Church of God Yea but the Church of God was then restrained more narrowly to one people and one king which now being spread throughout all Kingdoms it would be a cause of great dissimilitude in the exercise of Christian Religion if every King should be over the Affairs of the Church where he reigneth Supream Ruler Dissimilitude in great things is such a thing which draweth great inconvenience after it a thing which Christian Religion must always carefully prevent And the way to prevent it is not as some do imagine the yielding up of Supream Power over all Churches into one only Pastors hands but the framing of their government especially for matter of substance every wher according to one only Law to stand in no less force then the Law of Nations doth to be received in all Kingdoms all Soveraigne Rulers to be sworn no otherwise unto it then some are to maintain the Liberties Laws and received Customs of the Country where they reign This shall cause uniformity even under several Dominions without those woful inconveniencies whereunto the State of Christendom was subject heretofore through the Tyranny and Oppression of that one universal Nimrod who alone did all And till the christian world be driven to enter into the peaceable and true consultation about some such kind of general Law concerning those things of weight and moment wherein now we differ If one church hath not the same order which another hath let every Church keep as near as may be the order it should have and commend the just defence thereof unto God even as Judah did when it differed in the exercise of Religion from that form which Israel followed Concerning therefore the matter whereof we have hitherto spoken let it stand for our final conclusion that in a free christian State or Kingdom where one and the self same people are the church and the common-wealth God through christ directing that people to see it for good and weighty considerations expedient that their Soveraign Lord and Governor in causes Civil have also in Ecclesiastical Affairs a Supream Power Forasmuch as the Light of reason doth lead them unto it and against it Gods own revealed law hath nothing surely they do not in submitting themselves thereunto any other then that which a wise and religious people ought to do it was but a little over-flowing of wit in Thomas Aquinas so to play upon the words of Moses in the old and of

the least misinterpretation of contumacie and the people went into it with him and there continued night and day in fasting and prayer that God would move the Emperor not to disturb them which as some observe to prevent a weariness in it occasioned the use of Anthemes in these Western parts though long before in the East he offered all his own proper goods to the pleasure of the Emperor Were it my Land I should not gain-say it doth the Emperor require my Body I shall meet him would he have me to prison put me to death I am pleas d with it I shall not enclose my self with a guard of the multitude of the people nor will I take hold of the Altar to ask my life but I shall freely be sacrificed for the Altars or the Service of God Thus saith another Father many hundreds of years after him We will fight for our Mother the Church but with what arms not with Swords and Shields but with Prayers and Tears to God Athanasius was four or five times banished by several Emperors but in each he quietly yielded as conceiving it more consenant to the Religion professed by him to overcome that injury by a patient suffering then to have made his defence by an unwarranted seditious opposition by the people and therefore in his Apology ye shall not find a word tending that way but on the contrary upon any Tumult of them whose zeale to him might possibly have carried them beyond their Limits he ever exhorts them to be quiet and to retire to their homes telling them that for those of his order no ways was allowed them in their defence but preces fuga humiles supplicationes i. e. Prayers to God petitioning the Emperor or a flight and for Petitions to the Emperor ye have the example of Ebedmelech for Jeremiah to the King of Israel Esther for her Nation to Ahasuerus Jonathan for David to Saul In Ecclesiasticall story Plinius Secundus for the Christians in the Province of Bythinia to Trajan And as each of these in some measure prevailed so can they be hardly rejected by any person who is not wholly a stranger both to piety and humanity For a flight when petitions will not prevail the same Athanasius in his Apologie for his from the Arrians produceth a great Catalogue of Examples Jacob from Esau Moses from Pharaoh David from Saul Elias from Jezabel St. Paul from the Conspirators against him at Damascus Acts 9. Nay the Example of our blessed Saviour in his fight from Herod into Egypt in his Infancy afterwards from the fury of the Jews and Pharisies and the other Herod till his time was come according to which is his command to his Disciples Mat. 10. When ye are persecuted in one City flye to another but no warrant or example from him or his for a resistance or in the Primitive times succeeding for many hundred years as Sigebert tells us that Doctrine or Heresie rather was a novelty in the world till the year 1088. after Christ. There is this one Evasion pretended against these Quotations of the Fathers which must be answered viz. that this their patience then was to be attributed rather to their b necessity then virtue their number and strength being so smal that they could not help it and so were compelled to yield This indeed is the very objection of the Jesuites Bellarmine against Barclay saith the same facultatibus non fuerint prediti satis idoneis i. e. they wanted sufficient forces to resist and would have that of Nazianzen Lachrymas solas superesse Christianis contra Juliani persecutiones c. i. e. That Tears was all the Christians had to defend themselves against the persecutions of Julian thus to be understood as if Julian had by his tyranny cut off all their forces which else it had been lawfull for them to have made use of against the Apostate against whom in that many of the Church of Rome have written Gregorius Thelosanus Bercliaus whom we named before Widringtonus This is the objection of Bellarmine But the Contrary is evident that the number and strength of the Christians was then very great not only to have resisted but overthrown and even shaken the foundations of the Empire They were as the Israelites in Egypt stronger then their enemies See what Eusebius saith that when Constantine the first professed to be a Christian who succeed Dioclesian that had made such havock of them the whole world rose with him and forsaking their Idols joyned themselves unto him Tertullian who lived an hundred years before him sets so th thus the number of the Christians in his time We fill the whole Empire your Cities Castles Corporations Councels your very Camps Courts of Justice Palaces Market-places your Senate with whom are not we able to make a warre who so willingly offer our selves to the slaughter but that our Religion teacheth us that 't is better to be killed then-to kill in such cases It was so in St. Ambrose his time the Army and people were at least the major part of them at his beck I saith he upon all occasions am still desired ut compecerem populum ego Tyrannus appellor plus quam Tyrannus The Emperor often tells his Courtiers he must doe what Ambrose will have him the whole implying the great number of the Orthodox Christians then and yet alwayes submitted to the Government Now no man can conceive that in this the Christians wanted courage That passage which Theodoret tels us of sufficiently satisfies viz. that when many of the Souldiers had been deluded by Julians impostures to have offered some incense to the Idols they ran to and fro the Cities offered not only their hands but their bodies to the fire that being polluted by fire they might be purged by the fire Can any in reason think that they who were so fearless of death in the profession of what they were taught by the Fathers if they had been also by the same teachers assured what a merit it had been to have fought for them and themselves against the Emperor and his Edicts made for their destruction can we think them so senseless and heartless as not to have appeared accordingly No it was only for the fear of God and this Text with-held them as Tertullian hath it Reprimebant manus quia non ignorabant quod leg ssent qui resistit potestati Dei ordinationi resistit c. There was then no such Jesuiticall doctrine known contrary to the doctrine of the Church of England that men may in the like cases take up Arms in Rebellion against their lawfull Princes And surely it not in case of Heresie i. e. if the Prince shall exemplo vel praecepto compel or endeavour to draw his Subjects to it which is the assertion of Bellarmine fideles heretico non obligari licite posse veneno aut quacunque ratione è

were of greater scandal to the Church then that aptitude habitually attained unto by some could be of profit His Judgment of the Articles of Religion and practice of the Eeclesiastical Constitutions of the Church of England THe Articles of the Church of England as the Primat had long agon subscribed them so have I often heard him highly commending them The reception of which Articles in the First Canon of Ireland Anno 1634. He drew up himself with his own hand with an addition of a very severe punishment to such as should refuse to subscribe them as may appear in it Anno 1614. He was a principal person then appointed for the collecting and drawing up such Canons as might best concern the Discipline and Government of the Church of Ireland taken out of Queen Elizabeths Injunctions and the Canons of England to be treated upon by the Arch-Bishops and Bishops and Clergy of that Kingdom some of which I have which were written then with his own hand and presented by him The two first of them were these 1. That no other Form of Liturgy or Divine Service shall be used in any Church of this Realm but that which is established by Law and comprized in the Book of Common-Prayer and Administration of Sacraments c. 2. That no other Form of Ordination shall be used in this Nation but which is contain'd in the Book of ordering of Bishops Priests and Deacons allowed by Authority and hitherto practiced in the Churches of England and Ireland c. And in his subscription in relation to the above mentioned it is in these words viz. I do acknowledge the Form of Gods Service prescribed in the book of Common-Prayer is good and godly and may lawfully be used and do promise that I my self will use the Form in the said Book prescribed in celebration of Divine Service and administration of the Sacraments and none other I do also acknowledge that such as are consecrated and ordered according to the form prescribed in the Book of Ordination set forth by Authority have truly received holy Orders and have Power given them to exercise all things belonging to that Sacred Function whereunto they are called c. For the now more perfect Canons of the Church of Ireland constituted Anno 1634. in the Convocation there whereof I was a Member most of them were taken out of these of England and he being then Primate had a principal hand in their collection and proposal to the reception of them the methodizing of all which into due order I have seen and have it by me written with his own hand throughout whereby 't is apparent what his Judgment was in relation to them The Annual Festivals of the Church he duly observed preaching upon their several Commemorations On Christmas-Day Easter Whitsunday he never fail'd of Communions that excellent Treatise of his Entituled The incarnation of the Son of God was the substance of two or three Sermons which I heard him preach in a Christmas time Good-Fryday he constantly kept very strictly preaching himself then upon the Passion beyond his ordinary time when we had the publick prayers in their utmost extent also and without any thought of a superstition he kept himself fasting till the Evening Confirmation of Children was often observed by him the first time he did it when a great number were presented to him by me he made a Speech to the Auditory to the satisfaction of all sorts of persons concerning the Antiquity and good use of it The publick Cathechism in the book of Common-Prayer was enjoyned by him to be only observed in the Church a part of which for a quarter or half an hour was constantly explained by me to the people every Sunday before evening Prayer himself being present which was also accordingly enjoyned throughout his Diocess He was much for that decent distinctive habit of the Clergy Cassocks Gowns Priests-Clokes c. according to the Canon in that behalf provided to be used by them in their walking or riding abroad which himself from his younger years always observed And in Anno 1634. that Canon of England of the decent Apparrel of Ministers was by his special approbation put in among those of Ireland Lastly though in our Constitutions there is no form appointed for the consecration of a Church or Chappel yet he was so ready to apply himself to what had been accustomed in England that at his consecration of a Chappel not far from Drogheda in Ireland he framed no new one of his own but took that which goes under Bishop Andrews name and used it with little variation which I have in my custody And thus I have endeavored by this Declaration of his Judgment and Practice in these particulars to give satisfaction to all such who by their misapprehensions have had their various censures and applications to the great injury of him I shall only wish that not only they but all others that hear this of him were both almost and altogether such as he was Mr. HOOKERS Judgment of Regal Power in matters of Religion and the advancement of Bishops wholy left out of the common Copies in his eighth Book here confirmed by the late Lord Primate USHER'S marginal notes and other Enlargements with his own hand THe service which we do unto the true God who made heaven and earth is far different from that which Heathens have done unto their supposed Gods though nothing else were respected but only the odds between their hope and ours The office of piety or true Religion sincerely performed have the promises both of this life and of the life to come the practices of Superstition have neither If notwithstanding the Heathens reckoning upon no other reward for all which they did but only protection and favour in the temporal estate and condition of this present life and perceiving how great good did hereby publickly grow as long as fear to displease they knew not what Divine power was some kind of bridle unto them did therefore provide that the highest degree of care for their Religion should be the principall charge of such as having otherwise also the greatest and chiefest power were by so much the more fit to have custody thereof Shall the like kind of provision be in us thought blame-worthy A gross error it is to think that Regal Power ought to serve for the good of the body and not of the soul for mens temporal peace and not their eternal safety as if God had ordained Kings for no other end and purpose but only to fat up men like hogs and to see that they have their Mast Indeed to lead men unto salvation by the hand of secret invisible and ghostly regiment or by the external administration of things belonging unto Priestly order such as the Word and Sacraments are this is denied unto Christian Kings no cause in the world to think them uncapable of supreme