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	government_n	kingdom_n	3,695	5	5.8013	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02487	A comparison betvveene the dayes of Purim and that of the Powder treason for the better continuance of the memory of it, and the stirring vp of mens affections to a more zealous observation thereof. Written by G.H. D.D.	Hakewill, George, 1578-1649.	1626 (1626)	STC 12615; ESTC S103633	13,103	40

supplications hee heard and granted and yet herein it must be acknowledged that mercy was shewed them But alas that mercy towards vs farr exceeded this For the Lord wrought our deliuerance when we were so farr from sackcloth and ashes as we dreamed not of any danger approching but were rather puffed in pride and wantonnesse promising to our selues by the entrance of his maiesty and his royall issue a setled continuance of peace plenty and prosperity Euen then when wee were lulled a sleepe in the depth of security and yet our enormious sinnes were crying alowd in his eares for vengeance and vrging his Iustice to poure downe the full viols of his wrath vpon vs euen then did the eye of his speciall prouidence and mercy watch ouer vs and for vs and deliuered vs from the very brinke of the graue from the iawes of death which had opened her mouth wide to haue swallowed vs vp quicke Herein God setteth out his loue towards vs that while wee were yet sinners Christ died for vs saith the Apostle surely herein if euer God shewed the riches of his mercy towards vs that when wee were in the hight of our sinnes he so wonderously deliuered vs when wee had no will to desire much lesse meanes to deserue it And for our enemies their owne tongues as the Psalmist speakes or rather their owne penns made them fall insomuch as who so considereth ●t shall laugh them to scorne and all men that see it shall say this hath God done for they shall 〈◊〉 that it is his worke But yet much more if we consider the issue which is the next point of Cōparison the issue I meane as well in regard of the end of the Conspiratours as the consequences of the Conspiracyes had they taken effect Touching the end of the Conspiratours for Haman himselfe wee know he 〈◊〉 on the same gibbet that he prouided for Mordecai as Catesby the first inuenter of the powder treason was scortcht and 〈◊〉 and likely to haue beene slaine by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about the time that they intended the acting of their plott Hamans sonnes went the same way that their Father did before thē Garnet the ghostly Father of these powder men went the same way his sonnes had gone before him The end of them all being a like Vpon the same day that the innocent bloud of the Iewes should haue beene poured out by their Enimies and the friends of Haman the Iewes slew of them thorowout Assuerus his dominions and in Susan the Imperiall Citty seuenty sixe thousand And I haue often wondred that the people of this land vpon the first discouery of this damnable Conspiracie being knowne to be vndertaken wholly by Romish Catholiques and for the advancement of the Catholique cause had not violently run vpon the knowne professors of that religion But that God restrained both their hearts their hands that our mercy might remaine as an argument of the goodnesse of our religion as their Cruelty shall to the Worlds end of the badnesse of theirs It was a short but a sufficient answere returned by a Professor of ours to one of theires demaunding what reason he had not to bee of their religion why quoth he because you eate your God and kill your King And as their cruelty is a sufficient reason to keepe vs from them so me thinkes it should worke somewhat specially this most bloudy and barbarous conspiracy to bring them to vs. Wee reade in the last verse of the eight chapter of this booke of Ester that when the people of the land saw the vnexpected downefall of Haman and his adherents and the wonderfull deliuerance of the Iewes many of them became Iewes that is made themselues Proselites conforming themselues to the Iewish religion And I haue many times not a little marueiled that the manifest detection and knowledge of this foule Conspiracy had not turned the hearts of many Romish Catholiques to our profession But againe when I call to minde that of our Apostle Because they receaued not the loue of the truth that they might be saued God shall send them strong delusions that they should beleeue lies I cannot but therein acknowledge the iust iudgement of God in their Wilfull obstinacy Now for the consequences of these conspiracies had that of Haman taken effect it would doubtlesse haue beene very grieuious to behold but worse to feele the children should haue beene slaine in their Parents sight the poore infants haue beene drawn from their mothers breasts and dasht against the stones It must needs haue giuen a great blow and a deepe wound to the Church of God yet not so deepe but the body of the Iewish nation and the life of their religion the state of their gouernment would still haue beene preserued there being at that tyme a great number of that people liuing in their owne countrey of Iudea But if this of ours had taken effect Lord what a marueilous confusion must needes haue suddainely followed through out the whole kingdome both in religion and ciuill gouernment as well in Church as state affaires what bitter outcries and lamentation what sheeding of teares and wringing of hands in euery quarter of the land sonnes and daughters mourning for their slaughtered fathers fathers and mothers for their sonnes brothers and sisters for their brothers wiues for their husbands and seruants for their masters that such masters such husbands such brothers such sonnes such fathers as were both for nobility in bloud ability in estate and sufficiency in wisdome the pict choice men of the land of whom they could neither take their leaues aliue nor interr their bodies being dead It is precisely noted in the ●●ve of the eighteenth and ninteenth chapters of the booke of Iudges that in those daies there was no King in Israell and thereupon follow those abominable outrages there after recorded What then was our case like to haue beene when wee should haue had neither King nor Queene neither Prince for this present King they intended presently vpon the blow to haue made away nor great officer of the Kingdome nor Counsellor of state nor Bishop nor Iudge what publique exercise of religion what administration of Iustice could any where haue taken place what cutting of throats what rifling what rauishing should wee haue seene in euery corner by rogues ruffians without any check or controll Wee should neither haue lyen quietly in our beds nor haue sate quietly at our tables nor haue walked quietly in our streets nor haue trauelled quietly in our waies much lesse haue mett quietly in our temples but euery place would haue beene full of feare and danger and horror and bloud and surely I am perswaded that in such a generall confusion of all things the Cōspirators themselues could not haue promised security to their owne goods and houses to their owne sonnes and daughters to their owne wiues and persons and if this should haue beene our case in the countrey what would

in that place being legally called thither by his Maiesties writ iudicially there to sitt had beene treason which is the highest offence the law takes notice of What then could wee haue called that act by which they should haue beene all murthered and mangled at one clap Surely as wee want an example to paralell it so doe wee a name to expresse it Touch not mine annointed saith God but these intended to haue blowne vp at one blast the King Queene both annointed with sacred oile together with their eldest sonne the Prince then liuing and with them the great Officers of the kingdome the prudent Counsellours of Estate the Honorable Peeres of the Realme the Reuerend Bishops the Graue Iudges and Sages of the law the choyce Knights and Burgesses being indeede the very flower of the land all the Clarkes of the Crowne Counsell Signet and Seales the greatest part of the learned Lawyers together With a number of the Kings and Queenes Princes neerest and deerest seruants I will doe a thing in Israel saith God that whosoeuer shall heare it shall make both his eares to tingle but surely the very relation of this had it taken effect had beene enough not only to make a mans haire stand an end his eares to tingle but his very heart to quake and tremble and I am perswaded as no Historian euer wrote or Poet faind or Painter counterfeited or Tragedian acted the like so if all the damned Spirits of hell and the damned Crew on the earth should ioyne in councell and sett the vtmost of their wits aworke they could neuer find out the like cursed divice againe It was the vtmost point of all villanie beyond which is Terra incognita no man can diuise what should bee betweene hell and it and looke by how much the more diuelish was the inuention by so much more diuine was the Preseruation It were then worth the inquiring what should moue these men to so brutish and barbarous a plott which is my third point of Comparison The Motiues That which Haman pretended against the Iewes was that they were not subiect to the Kings Lawes neither was it for the Kings honour or profit to suffer them in his dominions but intruth that which stuck in his stomake was Mordecaies stiffenes he would not creepe and crooch vnto him as others did and as the King had commanded they should he would not prostrate himselfe before that Idoll of Court and giue him diuine adoration the thing as it seemes which Haman in the pride of his heart expected and Mordecai denied for I cannot beleeue that he denied ciuill reuerence and was not this the motiue of our Conspiratours that wee would not bow to their Idolls their triple crowned Idoll of Rome and their breadden Idoll in the consecrated host pretending that it was not for the profitt nor the honour of the Catholique Church any longer to suffer vs but was this the meanes by which Christ founded and his Apostles reared vp their successours inlarged repaired his Church no no they founded and built and inlarged and repaired it with the powring out of their owne bloud not with the shedding of others Tantaene animis caelestibus irae What is it possible that Catholiques the best Christians nay the onely Christians should conceaue such a sauage enterprise Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum Is it credible that matter of religion should induce men to so damnable an attempt It was the speech of Lucretius the Epicure touching Agamemnon induring and assisting at his daughters sacrifice but what if he had knowne the Massacre of France or the powder plott of England Surely it would haue made him tentymes more Epicure Atheist then hee was There is not such a sinne against the person of the Holy Ghost to take it litterally as insteed of the likenesse of a doue to bring him downe in the shape of a rauen or a vultur nor such a scandall against their Church as out of the barke of S Peter to sett forth a flagg of Pyrats Assasines euen those of Calicutt who adore the Diuell neuer held it lawfull for quarrell of religion to enter into such mischieuous consultations and although particular men of all professions haue beene some theeues some murtherers some traytours yet euer when they come to their end and iust punishment they confessed their fault to be in their owne corrupt nature and not in their profession these Romish Catholiques onely excepted But if this be religion then let hell be heauen and let the depth of villanie be the height of piety if this be holines let Nero who set Rome on fire to see how Troy burnt and Caligula who wished all the men i●it had had but one necke that so hee might strike it off at one blow let them I say be sett in the Callander of Saints let murtherers be registred for martyrs Cōspirators for confessours treason march in the ranke of Christian vertues and be counted the fairest and shortest cutt to a crowne of immortality Cursed be their wrath for it was fierce and their rage for it was cruell the more fierce no doubt because it tooke not hold of fancy but of conscience the former being like a fire in straw which though it cause a great blaze at the first kindling yet is it quickly spent onely the smoke remaines but the latter like fire in steele quód tardè acquisiuit diu retinet though it be long before it conceaue fire yet hauing once conceaued it it retaines it long and the markes of it are lasting monuments specially if to conscience in religion be added confidence in execution which is my next point of Comparison Assurance with assurance Hamans assurance was great he relied much vpon the strength of his owne witt his wealth two powerfull meanes for the effectuating of great attempts His witt hee vsed in setting a faire pretence vpō the busines before the King his wealth in offering to pay to the Kings coffers ten thousand tallents of silver he was so deepely rooted in the Kings fauour that his offer was returned and yet his request passed his wisards were consulted with the Lott by them was cast befor● him and by it a luckie day found out for the acting of the Tragedie Letters were written in the Kings name and sealed with the Kings ring which kind of mandates were held as irreuocable as lawes by the Medes and Persians They were deliuered to the Posts or Curriers and by them to the gouernours of the seuerall Prouince and after this Haman was so familiar with the King as they two were seene drinking hand to hand Here were all things now so fast so sure as a man would haue thought there had beene no meanes possible left to vndoe them there seemed to want nothing but the very execution of the plott The like assurance if not greater was there in our Powder plotters they relied too vpon their wit and