Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	church_n	faith_n	hold_v	3,740	5	6.0925	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44363	The Spirit of Christ, and the spirit of the Apostles and the spirit of the martyrs is arisen, which beareth testimony against swearing and oaths, for which the martyrs suffered in the time of the ten persecutions and some since, which we also, the people of God called Quakers, do suffer for, as many thousands have done, for keeping the commands of Christ who saith, swear not at all and also, here you may see such martyrs as could not put off their hat or bonnet to the Pope, nor his legate, and as example of one martyr that could not give sureties, being innocent, so that you may see in this book following, to swear not at all, nor to take oaths, nor to deny putting off the hat or bonnet, nor to deny giving sureties being innocent is no new thing, which is proved out of the Scriptures and book of martyrs / published by Ellis Hooks.	Hookes, Ellis, d. 1681.	1661 (1661)	Wing H2662; ESTC R4402	20,779	30

Henry 8ths dayes That every man swearing by our Lady or any other Saint or Creature giveth more honour to the Saints than to the holy Trinity and so he saith they be Idolaters In the second of the Ten Persecutions ●reat Vol. ●ag 34. An. 69 70. the cruel Laws and Condemnations of the Heathen Emperours against the Christians who had many Accusers for Lucre's sake to have the Possessions of the Christians so incensed the mind of the Emperour and were ready to accuse them to have the spoyl of their Goods and that the Christians should swear to declare the Truth that was the Form whether they were in very deed Christians or not and if they confessed then by their Law Sentence of Death proceeded The kinds of death which they suffered were divers and horrible whatsoever the cruelty of mens inventions could devise for the punishment of man's body who were of the Christian Party as I have mentioned before first Imprisonment Stripes Scourging Drawing Tearings Stonings Plates of Iron and Brass laid unto them burning hot deep Dungeons Rackings Stranglings Imprisonments the Teeth of Wild Beasts This way in the time of the Ten Persecutions before ther was a Pope who afterwards also compelled to swear Grid-irons Gibbets Gallows tossing upon the Horns of Bulls and when their bodies were thus killed they laid them in heaps and Dogs left to keep them that no man might come to bury them for when they were thus slain crucified cast to Wild-beasts and into Fires and cast to Tormentors yet they kept their Confession and would not go from it but kept the Faith of Christ Jesus and could not be compelled to Swear but kept the Doctrines of Christ and the Apostles who saith they should not swear and the more came to the Faith of Christ As a man cuts a Vine-tree the more it grows so did the Christians grow This was before there was a Pope which afterwards brought up Swearing against Christ's Doctrine and his Apostles and so is the Antichrist for the Pope compelling to swear made void as much as in him lay the Testimony of the Martyrs in the Ten Persecutions In Clark's Book titled A General Martyrologie Vol. 1. p. 97. Pag. 103 104. Hunrick the King in the seventh year of his Raign having caused all the Bishops in Africa on a certain day to meet at Carthage among whom many refused to swear at all who having suffered very much whereupon their just Complaints were very grievous unto the King Hunrick who afterwards commanded the said suffering Bishops to meet him at the Temple of Memory and when they came thither they had this Writing delivered to them Our Lord King Hunrick lamenting your obstinacy in refusing to obey his Will and to imbrace his Religion yet intends to deal graciously with you and if you will take this Oath he will send you back to your Churches and Houses Then they all said with one consent We are all Christians and Bishops and hold the Apostolical and only true Faith Mark they that hold the true Faith deny to swear at all and thereupon they made a brief Confession of their Faith But the King's Commissioners urged them without any further delay to take the Oath contained in that Paper Whereupon they answered Do you think us brutish beasts that we should so easily swear to a Writing wherein we know not what is contained Then the Oath was read unto them which was this You shall swear that after the death of the Lord our King his son Hilderick shall succeed him in the Kingdom and that none of you shall send a Letter beyond the Seas If you take this Oath he will restore you to your Churches Then some of them were willing to take it but others that saw further into the subtilty of it refused it Then were those which would take it commanded to separate themselves from the other which being done a Notary presently took their Names and of what City they were he did so likewise by the Refusers and so both Parties were committed to Ward and shortly after the King sent them word first To those that would have taken the Oath Because that you contrary to the Rule of the Gospel which saith Thou shalt not swear at all would have sworn The King's will is that you shall never see your Churches more but shall be banished into the Wilderness and never perform any Ministerial Office again and there you shall till the Ground And was not this a just reward upon such as denyed their Religion and broke Christ's Command And those that would not take the Oath he banished also into the Isle of Corse to hew Timber for Ships which was 427 years after Christ which was two hundred twenty three years before there was a Pope who afterwards compelled Christians to swear The Persecution of tho Waldenses began in the year of CHRIST 1160. In the dayes of Pope Alexander the third Vol. 2. pag. a 30. 26. some Christians called Waldenses refused to take any Oath whereby they should be inforced to accuse themselves or their Friends Blandina and Ponticus suffered about the year 170 in the fourth Persecution of the ten before there was a Pope because they would not swear Basilides a Captain went with a fair Virgin to Execution and he shewed her some favour and she took it kindly and said she would pray for him Not long after it hapened that Basilides was required to give an Oath from the Emperour but he plainly affirmed that he was a Christian and at the first he was thought dissemblingly to jest but afterwards he constantly and in earnest did affirm the same and they had him before the Judge and committed him to Ward the Christians marvelled thereat enquired of him the cause of his sudden Conversion To whom he answered and said that Polimiena had prayed for him to the Lord and so he saw a Crown upon his head adding moreover that it should not be long before he should be received and so the next day was beheaded because he would not swear and give the Oath but confest himself a Christian This was before there was a Pope that set up Swearing in the first Persecution of the ten about the year 197. Eusebius lib. 6. cap. 5. In Q. Maries dayes they would have had Dr. Sands have entered into Bonds with two Sureties when he was to be set at liberty but he said he came a free-man into Prison and he would not go forth a bond-man and so he passed out free In Henry the 8th's dayes there were some spoke against Vowes And Seven were burned because in their Occupations they would not use any Oath nor could abide it in them that occupied with them In the Germans Complaint they say Vol. 1. p. 8. That those that chuse Bishops and make them by an Oath are plainly wicked and unlawful Cornelius writing to the Bishop of the East Churches Great Vol. pag. 59. ordained that no Oath