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	roman_a	4,619	5	7.9310	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A18302	An answere to certaine scandalous papers, scattered abroad vnder colour of a Catholicke admonition	Salisbury, Robert Cecil, Earl of, 1563-1612.	1606 (1606)	STC 4895; ESTC S107637	12,407	42

dishonor And therefore suadeat loquentis vita non oratio Besides that errour which in all mortall things hath her power strength and declination hath now her foundations discouered and her Towers taken so as it is to bee suspected shee will play so long with the temporall Soueraigntie of Kings as it shall bee the glorious worke of Kings to breake downe her walles and strongest defences And therefore ill becomming seruants to slacke their pace for feare of malice but rather to rest assured that vnto such as faithfully bestow their time in the seruice of God the euening and the night shall come vpon them naturally one after another Their faith shall ascend before them and their good fame shall remaine after them To conclude seeing God hath pleased to deliuer vs from so many vnspeakeable miseries and afflictions ready to haue fallen vpon vs like the visitation of Ierusalem wherof the Prophet speaketh When their candle hath his cleared light and when they sleepe in the armes of peace loe then shall he the time of their visitation And seeing this should haue happened vnto vs in the dayes of a iust gracious King when euery man reioyced vnder his Vine and vnder his figge Tree Let vs both for the honour of our Nation the good of our soules be mind-full to informe our selues so perfectly of all our dueties both diuine and humane as wee may not become through our owne grosse ignorance the authors of our own confusion Let no man set so high a price on that false reputation of keeping oathes to priuate friends as for their sake to forfeit faith and loyaltie to Prince and Countrey Will you finde true friends saith Seneca Search them inter recta officia and there shall you finde them So saith the Canon Law Nonest appellanda fides quae ad peccatum inuitat Tully in his bookes of Offices disputing the case inter Patrem Patriam If thy father saith he intend a Treason to his Countrey and State and tell thee of it thou must first disswade after threaten and after accuse For this is a Rule approued In promissorio prore iniusta iurans illicitum obligator ad contrarium And therefore seeing God hath saued vs so miraculously from this confusion whereof the minde of man which within a moment searcheth from East to the West can no way finde the bottome Let vs make it appeare vnto the world by the difference of our constant measure of thankefulnesse that we esteeme not this an ordinary acte of Gods prouidence nor a thing to be imputed to any fault or fayling in their plots or proiects but a miraculous effect of the transcendent power farre beyond the course and compasse of all his ordinary proceedings Who although hee seeme for a time to giue way as though hee regarded not how men come to their ends and purposes letting them grow like poysonfull herbes yet at length when they are ripest hee will cut them off and when they are fullest of their venimous qualitie pull them vp for other mens medicine hauing made the Scorpion to carry the oyle about him which cureth the wounds he giueth To which let vs adde this further Faith that as the place where this prodigious Massacre should haue bene committed is the same place where the ancient Religion of the Primitiue Church shooke off the bonds and fetters of the Romane corruption vnder which it had long continued in seruitude So whiles the same Faith shall bee Religiously and constantly professed that it shall neuer be in the power of mortall man to shake the least corner stone of that blessed and sure foundation Thus haue I giuen my pen her libertie to runne her stage thereby to free my minde trauelling as a woman with childe with more waighty cogitations then I could containe in silence or expresse in order hoping my intentions shal receiue a fauourable censure seeing they are bounded with honest and humble limittes If it be saide that I haue taken too slight an occasion to answere a slander that lacks an Authour I desire to be thus rightly concerned that no man would haue sooner contemned those Shewells or dead papers which moue with the winde then I should if so many aduertisements from abroad and Confessions at home concurring with this calumnie did not in Iustice challendge at my handes some speedy course to preserue my poore reputation from these cruell aspersions In which consideration although my desires to weare out many dayes are drawen within as small a circle as my feares and both my spirit and Iudgement farre from such a deiection or weakenesse as to endeuour or expect a remooue of fixed resolutions by force of Arguments or protestations Yet when I remember with Seneca that euen the great and fairest Kingdomes whose Lawes abound in bloody lines doe loose so much of their beautie as they become no lesse deformed then the basest Shambles and when I know that our greater IVDGE and SAVIOVR of the World who alloweth voyces to all kindes of sinnes hath made the voyce of blood to speake so lowd as it pearceth HEAVEN it selfe I doe presume so well of all indifferent and equall Iudgements as my desence in this degree shall neuer bee held for a needlesse curiositie Quia Inauditi tanquam innocentes pereunt Especially seeing mine owne conscience telleth me so plainely that as Clemencie is the truest keeper of Kingdoms So Cruelties are of al other the falsest Guards If it be said I haue bene too sharpe in censuring the Romish Catholiques in generall because I haue beene iniured by some Infested spirits of that Profession I doe professe ingenuously that I am not perswaded that such a Malice as this which hath no Paralell can euer fall into those hearts that hold any seeds of Conscience or that these fiue pretended good-men which are combined in this resolution haue any sense of any Religion at all but rather that they are some dispersed remnant of that impious Consort whose eyes and hearts are dayly wounded to behold so many faire Mornings to follow after so blacke a Day as had prepared miserie euen for the childe vnborne And when I doe remember vpon the death of the late Queene of happy memory with what obedience and applause both professions did concurre to his Maiesties succession and now obserue how little assistance was giuen to these late sauadge Papists who had gathered together some few rotten branches fallen from such decayed and withered Trees as CHRIST had cursed in the Gospel hoping therewith to haue set a Fire and made a combustion in the State Although my prayers shall neuer cease that wee may see the happy dayes when onely one Vniformitie of true Religion is willingly imbraced in this Monarchie Yet I shall euer according to the Law of God make so great difference in my Conscience betweene seeing sinnes and sinnes of Ignorance as I shall thinke it Iust by the Lawes of men Solum necis artifices arte perire sua And now for answere to your Postscript wherein you seeke so much to diuert me from suspecting those whome you call Puritanes to be Authors of this Slander I haue onely this to say That you should neuer haue needed to put your selfe to so much paines for that perswasion seeing neither the regular Protestant nor those that are vnconformable to the present Discipline of the Church can euer be iustly charged to haue mixed their priuate differences with any Thoughts much lesse with any Actes of bloody Massacres Et hic baculum fixi Further replyes expect not therefore at my hands I will henceforth rest in peace in the House of mine owne Conscience where if I doe good deedes no matter who sees them if bad knowing them my selfe no matter from whom I hide them for they are of record before a Iudge from whose presence I cannot flee If all the world applaud me and hee accuse me their praise is vaine Falli potest fama conscientia nunquam If this may not suffice but that you will still threaten and exclaime I must heare with patience and say with Tacitus You haue learned to curse and I to contemne Tu linguae ego aurium sum Dominus

by good men vpon a spirituall Resolution to take my life and that there are fiue persons vpon the secret but all bound vp by the Sacrament whereof two are so weake and so sickely as they can hardly forfeit two or three moneths of life To these I can onely say that hauing their feete so nigh the graue their ghostly father deserues small thankes that will send them thither in bloody coffins For they doe neither carrie the markes of Rome Heathen nor of Rome Christian for vnder Heathen Emperours the victories were scorned which were barbarously gotten mixtis veneno fontibus And when Rome was pure and primitiue you shall finde the Armes of the Church were Teares and Prayers But now their Oracles are so farre degenerate from the former puritie of that ancient Church as they make murder spirituall Resolution and openly threaten the liues of Kings that are Gods breathing Images when die Prophet Dauid trembled to violate the skirt of King Sauls garment All which considered I doubt not but those Recusants which doe discouer such pernicious spirits will out of the light of this fire perfectly discerne the darkenesse and danger of that Religion whereof the faith is lapped vp in such an ignorant implicite obedience and so much the rather because it hath fallen out so often that the scruples of Conscience and seeds of Treason haue growen vp as close together as the huske and Come in one eare And therefore I should thinke that those men which carie the vnlearned Papists like Hawkes hooded into those dangerous positions may instly challenge any that shall seeke to rob them of the deserued Titles of Boutefeux and fiery matches For these are they that haue made their Church a Court their religion a vassal to ambition and are so hot vpon earthly Honours as they cannot distinguish Inter summa praecipitia These are they that enioyne men to eate their God vpon the bargaine of blood where those whom they depraue doe know that whatsoeuer God doth affect in goodnes he doth effect by good meanes And howsoeuer they terme our Sacraments as bare and naked signes we may iustly say that wee haue neuer hitherto brought them into the combination of murder or into the house of crying sinnes As for that sort of them which pretend to bee so full of present griefe through the distresse of themselues and their friends for being onely Recusants as it dulleth alt apprehension of death Those that lacke charitie will iudge this dulnesse to be Plus tristitiae quàm poenitentiae more for sorrow that the proiect hath failed then that it was concerned As for the Plotters and stratagems whereof they complaine If those which vse lawfull meanes to preuent conspiracies must bee esteemed Plotters and Subiects fit for procription howe shall his Maiestie escape their censure that was Gods chosen minister vpon Earth for this particular Discouerie Or to what ende doe Princes admit of Councellors care or Secretaries vigilancie whose Offices are to stand Sentinell ouer the life of Kings and safetie of States if their endeuours to countermine the secret mynes of Treason be thus exposed to misconstruction Or if by stratagems those Lawes are meant by which all branches of Treason are punished why doe they forget that those ordinances are deriued from the wisedome of Parliaments two hundred yeeres before my cradle Besides if any thinke it in the power of fewe much lesse of anyone to be able to extort determinations of extremitie or procure new Lawes in Parliament by selfe humour those neither vnderstand the course of Law-making nor the wisedome grauitie or nature of Law-makers in this State where Kings themselues from whom as from the Center all the liues and executions of Lawes take their beginning are pleased freely to admit their Subiects negatiues with good and gracious acceptation And now for my selfe with whom you would condition to leaue Plotting as you tearme it against Recusants First discretion telleth me that as the Husbandman which casteth his eye ouer-curiously vpon winds and clouds doeth neither sow nor reape in season so that seruant whose faith and zeale in the seruice of Kings becommeth awfull of enemies either for their power or enuy is neither worthy of fauour nor protection For when I consider die Prince I serue that hee hath not taken vp wisedome of Gouernment vpon credit but carrieth still the Iethro of order in his owne bosome disposing the meane causes to those that are fit to rule ouer hundreds and ouer fifties reseruing still the greatest to the greatnesse of him selfe like a King rich in the experience of many yeeres Raigne ouer a free and valiant people both by nature seat and education I freely professe both before mine owne and all other Nations that although I participate not with the follies of that Flie who thought her selfe to raise the dust because shee sate on the Chariot wheele Yet am I so farre from disauowing my honest ambition of my Masters fauour as I am desirous that the world should hold me not so much his creature by the vndeserued Honours I hold from his Grace and Power as by my desire to bee the shadowe of his minde and to frame my iudgements knowledge and affections according to his towards whose Royall Person I shall glory more to bee alwayes found an honest and humble Subiect then I should to command absolutely in any other calling For the rest which may concerne mee in my Religion howsoeuer darkned with this middle vaile of sinne and frailtie it is built vpon the sacred grounds of Hope and Faith in the precious blood of my Redeemer without presuming vpon any particular merits And whereas they alledge that men resolued to die are masters ouer other mens liues My answere is they haue no more power then the least Spider who by permission can doe as much And if the dayes of my life were in their hands as they might peraduenture take from me some moneths of ioyes So am I assured they should take mee from yeeres of sorrowes But these poore threats amaze no hopes of mine I am none of those that beleeue with the men of the olde world that the Mountaines shake when the Moules doe cast And farre I hope it shall be from mee who know so well in whose Holy BOOKE my dayes are numbred once to entertaine a thought to purchase a spanne of time at so deare a rate as for the feare of any mortall power in my poore Talent Aut Deo aut Patriae aut Patri patriae deesse For who doubteth that the Magistrates who conuerse with varietie of spirits must not sometimes vndergo Tempests All our actions are vpon the open stage can be no more hidden then the Sunne If we deserue ill we shall heare ill Or if the present time doe flatter vs yet when our glasses are runne which cannot be long that glory which maketh worthy men line for euer dyeth with vs and our posteritie shal be the heires of our