Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	england_n	king_n	kingdom_n	4,625	5	5.7154	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96595	Vindiciæ regum; or, The grand rebellion that is, a looking-glasse for rebels, whereby they may see, how by ten severall degrees they shall ascend to the height of their designe, and so throughly rebell, and utterly destroy themselves thereby. And, wherin is clearly proued by holy Scripturs, ancient fathers, constant martyrs, and our best modern writers, that it is no wayes lawfull for any private man, or any sort or degree of men, inferior magistrates, peeres of the kingdom, greatest nobility, lo. of the councel, senate, Parliament or Pope, for any cause, compelling to idolatry, exercising cruelty, prastizing [sic] tyranny, or any other pretext, how fair and specious soever it seems to be, to rebell, take armes, and resist the authority of their lawfull king; whom God will protect, and require all the blood that shall be spilt at the hands of the head rebels. And all the maine objections to the contrary are clearly answered. / By Gr. Williams, L. Bishop of Ossory.	Williams, Gryffith, 1589?-1672.	1643 (1643)	Wing W2675; Thomason E88_1; ESTC R204121	92,613	114

take upon you more learning then the chosen Bishops and Clerks of this Realme have this was the judgement of that judicious man and I must tell you that Religion never taught Rebellion neither was it the will of Christ that faith should bee compelled by fighting but perswaded by preaching for the Lord sharply reproveth them that built up Sion with bloud Micah 3.10 and Hierusalem with iniquity and the practice of Christ and his Apostles was to reforme the Church by prayers and preaching and not with fire and sword and they presse obedience unto our Governours yea though they were impious infidels True religion never rebelleth and idolatrous with arguments fetched from Gods ordinance from mans conscience from wrath and vengeance and from the terrible sentence of damnation and this truth is so solid that it hath the cleare testimony of holy Writ the perpetuall practice of all the Primitive Saints and Martyrs and I dare boldly say it the unanimous consent of all the Orthodox Bishops and Catholique Writers both in England and Ireland and in all the World that Christian Religion teacheth us never with any violence to resist or with armes to withstand the authority of our lawfull Kings If you say the Lawes of our Land Whether the Lawes of our Land doe warrant us to rebell and the Constitutions of this our Kingdome doe give us leave to stand upon our liberty and to withstand all tyranny that shall bee offered unto us especially when our estates lives and religion are in danger to bee destroyed To this I say with Laelius Laelius de privileg Eccl. 112. that Nulla lex valeat contra jus divinam mans laws can exact no further obedience then may stand with the observance of the divine precepts and therefore wee must not so prefer them or rely upon them so much as to prejudice the other and for our feare of the losse of estate life or religion I wish it may not be setled upon groundlesse suspitions for I know and all the World may beleeve that our King is a most clement and religious Prince that never did give cause unto any of his subjects to foster such feares and jealousies within his breast and you know what the Psalmist saith of many men They were affraid where no feare was And Iob tels you whom terrours shall make affraid on every side Iob 18.11 12 and shall drive him to his feet that is to runne away as you see the Rebels doe from the Kings Army in every place and in whose Tabernacle shall dwell the King of feare for though the ungodly fleeth when no man pursueth him yet they that trust in God are confident as Lyons without feare they know that the heart of the King is not in his owne hand but in the hand of the Lord Prov. 21.1 as the rivers of waters he turneth it whithersoever it pleaseth him either to save them or destroy them even as it pleaseth God hee ordereth the King how to rule the people Bonav ad secundam dist 35. art 2. q. 1. And therefore in the name of God and for Christ Iesus sake let me perswade you to put away all causles feares and groundlesse jealousies and trust your King if not trust your God and let your will which is so unhappy in it selfe become right and equall by receiving direction from the will of God and remember what Vlpian the great Civilian saith that rebellion and disobedience unto your King is proximum sacrilegio crimen and that it is in Samuels judgement as the sin of witchcraft The remembrance of his oath should be a terrour to the conscience of every rebell whereby men forsake God and cleave unto the Devill and above all remember the oath that many of you have taken to bee true and faithfull unto your King and to reveale whatsoever evils or plots that you shall know or heare to bee contrived against his Person Crowne or Dignity and defend him from them Pro posse tuo to the uttermost of your power So helpe you God Which oath how they that are any wayes assistant in a warre against their King can dispence with I cannot with all my wit and learning understand and therefore returne O Shulamite returne lay downe thine armes submit thy selfe unto thy Soveraigne and know that as the Kings of Israel were mercifull Kings so is the King of England 1 King 20.32 thou shalt find grace in the time of need but delay not this duty lest as Demades saith the Athenians never sate upon treaties of peace but in mourning weeds when by the losse of their nearest friends they had paid too deare for their quarrels so thou be driven to doe the like for except the sinnes of the people require no lesse satisfaction then the ruine of the Kingdome I am confident and am ready to hazard life and fortunes in this confidence that the goodnesse of our King The Authors confidence of the Kings victory the justnesse of his cause and the prayers of all honest and faithfull Ministers for him and our Church will in the end give him the victory over all those his rebellious enemies that with lyes slanders and false imputations have seduced the Kings subjects to strengthen themselves against their Soveraigne and all the World shall see that as Christ so in Sensu modificato this Vicegerent of Christ shall rule in the midst of these his enemies and shall raigne untill hee puts them all under his feet And because we never read of any rebellion not this of Corah here A rebellion that the like was never seen which of above six hundred thousand men had not many more then 250. Rebels nor that of Absolon against David who had all the Priests and Levites and the best Counsellours and a mighty Army with him such as was able to overthrow Absolon and twenty thousand men in the plaine field nor Israel against Rehoboam because they did but revolt from him and not with any hostile Armes invade him nor the Senate of Rome against Caesar though hee was the first that intrenched upon their liberty and intended to exchange their Aristodemocracy into a Monarchy nor any other that I can remember except that Councell which condemned Christ to death that was growne to that height to bee so absolute and so perfect a rebellion in all respects as that a whole Parliament in a manner and the major part of the Plebeians of a whole Kingdome should make a Covenant with Hell it selfe yea and which is most considerable that as I understand the beginning of this rebellion in this Kingdome of Ireland was the Commenalty therein should so fascinate the Nobility as to allure them so long to confirme their Votes till at last they must bee compelled in all thhings to adhere unto their conclusions that they whose power was formerly most absolute without them must now bee subordinate unto them that the strength of the people may defend

maintaine the Liberty of his Subjects the just Priviledges of Parliaments and the true established Religion in the Kingdome of England and likewise to rule over us according to our Lawes in this Realme of Ireland And we have least reason to rebell and take armes against him and therfore let us not be perswaded by any meanes by any man to doe it because God will preserve his annointed and will as you see plague the Rebels but let us pray for our King and praise God night and day that he which might have given us a bramble not onely to teare our flesh but also to set us all on fire hath given us such a Cedar such a gracious and a pious King and if either forreigne foes or domestique Rebels doe presse him so that he hath need of us let us adde our helpe and hazard our lives to defend and protect Him that protecteth us and suffereth all for the protection of Gods service as it was established in the purest time of Reformation and for the preservation of our Lawes from any corrupt interpretation or arbitrary invasion upon them by those factious men that under faire yet false pretences have with wondrous subtilty and with most subtile hypocrisie seduced so many simple men to pertake with them not onely to overthrow the true Religion to imbase the Church of Christ that hitherto hath continued glorious in this Nation and by trampling the most learned under feet to reduce Popery into this Kingdome and to bring in Atheisme or Barbarisme into our Pulpits when they make their Coach-men and Tradesmen like Jeroboams Priests the basest of the people to become their trencher Chaplaines and the teachers of those poore sheep for whom the Son of God hath shed his precious bloud but also to change the well-setled government and to subvert the whole fabricke of this famous Common-wealth either by their tyranny or bringing all into an Anarchie for if we have any regard of any of these things either true Religion or ancient Government a gracious King and a learned Clergy a glorious Church and a flourishing Kingdome we ought not to spare our goods or be niggards in our contributions to helpe his Majestie yea as Debora saith To helpe the Lord against the mighty Or if we be cold and carelesse herein pinurious and tenacious of our worldly pelfe preferring our gold before our God or fearing gracelesse Rebels more then we love our gracious King It may fall out as Saint Augustine saith Quod non capit Christus vapit fiscus or as it did with the Carthaginians who because they would not assist Hanniball with some reasonable proportion of their estates they lost all unto the Romans and with the Constantinopolitans that for denying a little to Paleologus lost all unto the Turkes so we may be robbed and pillaged of all because we would not part with some and I had rather the King should have all I have then that the Rebels should have any part thereof Therefore I hope I shall perswade all good men to honour God with their riches and to assist His Majesty to the uttermost of their powers even to the hazard and to the losse both of liberty and life And doing this our God which is the King of Kings will blesse us and defend us from all evill and make us Kings and Priests to live with him for ever and ever through Jesus Christ our Lord To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all praise and glory and dominion from henceforth for evermore Amen Amen Hester 4.16 If I perish I perish Yet Esdras 4.41 The truth is great and will prevaile Iehovae liberatori FINIS O Eternall and Almighty God thou Lord of Hoasts that givest victory unto Kings and deliverest David thy Servant from the perill of the sword save and defend our King from all dangers strengthen him that he may vanquish and overcome all his enemies and be with us O Lord that are thy faithfull servants and for thy sake his Loyall Subjects to preserve us from the gathering together of the froward and from the insurrection of the wicked doers that are confederate against thee and against thine Anointed for Iesus Christ his sake in whom we have ever trusted through whom we shall never be confounded and to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen

families of the Tribe of Reuben A subtle practise of that pestiferous Serpent to joyn Simeon and Levi Clergy and Laity in this wicked faction of Rebellion the one under colour of dissembled sanctity the other with their power and usurped authority to seduce the more to make the greater breach of obedience And so it hath been alwaies that we scarce read of any Rebellion but some base Priests the Chaplaines of the Devill have begot it and then the Nobles of the people arripientes ansam taking hold of this their desired opportunity do foster that which they would have willingly fathered as besides this Rebellion of Corah that of Jacke Cade in the reigne of Henry the sixth and that of Perkin Warbeck in the time of Henry the seventh and many more that you may finde at home in the lives of our owne Kings may make this point plaine enough But they should have thought on what our Saviour tells us that Every Kingdome divided against it selfe is brought to desolatiou and every Citie or House devided against it selfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall not stand What a mischiefe then was it for these men to make such a division among their owne Tribe and in their owne Campe Nondum tibi defuit hostiis had they not the Egyptians and the Canaanites and the Amalckites and enough besides to fight against but they must raise a civill discord in their owne house could not their thoughts be as devout as the heathen Poets which saith Lucan Pharsal lib. 1. Omnibus hostes Reddite nos populis civile avertite bellum And therefore this makes the sinne of home-bred Rebells the more intollerable because they bring such an Ilias malorum so many sorts of unusuall calamities and grievous miquities upon their owne brethren 3. These Rebels were of their owne Religion 3. Of the same Religion professing the same faith that the others did Et religio dicitur à religando saith Lactantius and therefore this bond should have tyed them together firmer then the former for if equall manners do most of all binde affections Es similitudo morum parit amiciciam as the Orator teacheth then hoc magnum est hoc mirum that men should not love those of the same Religion And if the profession of the same trades and actions is so forcible not onely to maintaine peace but also to increase love and amity JACOB REX in Ep. to all Christian Monarchs as we see in all Societies and corporations of any mechanick craft or handy-work they do inviolably observe that maxime of the Civill Law to give an interest unto those qui fovent consimilem causam so that as birds of the same feather they will cluster all in one and be zealous for the preservation of them that are of the same craft or society why then should not the profession of the same Religion if not increase affection yet at least detaine men from dissention For though diversities of Religion non bene conveniunt can seldome containe themselves for any while in the same Kingdome without civill distractions especially if each party be of a neer equall power which should move all Governours to doe herein as Haniball did with his army that was a mixture of all Nations to keepe the most suspected under and ranke them so that they durst not kicke against his Carthaginians or is Henry the fourth did with the Brittaines to make such laws that they were never able to rebell so should the discreet Magistrate not root out a people that they be no more a Nation but so subordinate the furthest from truth to the best professors that they shall never be able any wayes to endanger the true Religion yet where the same Religion is universally professed excepting small differences in adiaphorall things Quae non diversificant species as the Schooles speake it is more then unnaturall for any one to make a Schisme and much more transcendently heynous to rebell against his Governours But indeed no sinne is so unnaturall no offence so heynous but that swelling pride and discontented natures will soon perpetrate no bonds nor bounds can keep them in And therefore Corah must rebell and ever since in all Societies even among the Levites and among the Priests the disordered spirits have rebelled against their Governours fecerunt unitatem contra unitatem erecting Altars against Altars as the Fathers speak they have made confederacies and conspiracies against the truth and thereby they have at all times drawne after them many multitudes of ignorant soules unto perdition This is no new thing but a true saying and therefore our Saviour biddeth us to Take heed of false Prophets and of rebellious spirits that as Saint John saith went from us but were not of us but are indeed the poyson and incendiaries both of Church and Common-wealth 4 These Rebells had received many favours and great benefits from their Governours 4 Much obliged for many favours that Governour for they were delivered è lutulentis manuum operibus as St. Augustine speaketh and as the Prophet saith They had eased their shoulders from their burthens and their hands from making of pots they had broken the Rod of their oppressors and as Moses tells them they had separated them from the rest of the multitude of Israel Numb 16.9 and set them neer to God himselfe to doe the service of the Tabernacle of the Lord and therefore the light of nature tells us that they were most ungratefull and as inhumane as the brood of Serpents that would sting him to death which to preserve his life would bring him home in his bosome And it seems this was the transcendencie of Judas his sinne and that which grieved our Saviour most of al that he whom he had called to be one of the 12. Apostles whom he had made his Steward and Treasurer of all his wealth for whom he had done more then for thousands of others should betray him into the hands of sinners for if it had been another saith the Psalmist that had done me this dishonour I could well have bornc it but seeing it was thou my familiar friend which didst eat and drinke at my table it must needes trouble me for though in others it might be pardonable yet in thee it is intolerable and therefore of all others he saith of Judas vae illi homini woe be unto that man by whom the Sonne of man is betrayed it had beene better for him he had never been borne as if his sin were greater then the sinnes of Ananias Caiphas of Pilate But the old saying is most true Improbus à nullo flectitur obsequio no service can satisfie a froward soule no favour no benefit no preferment can appease the rebellious thoughts of discontented spirits And therefore notwithstanding Moses had done all this for Corah yet Corah must rebell against Moses So many times though Kings have given great honours unto their subjects made them their Peeres their

1. c. 8. pag. 95. in English and the place is worth the noting no power to make Lawes without their King no right to meet without his Writ no liberty to stay any longer then he gives leave how then can you meet as you doe now in my Episcopall See at Kilkenny and continue your Parliament there to make warre against your lawfull King What colour of reason have you to doe the same you cannot pretend to be above your King you have with lies and falshoods most wickedly seduced the whole Kingdome and involved the same in a most unnaturall civill warre you are the actives the King is passive you make the offensive He the defensive war for you began and when he like a gracious King still cried for peace you still made ready for battell And I doubt not but your selves know all this to be true for you know that all Parliament men must have their elections warranted by the Kings especiall Writ you will say The letter sent from a Gentleman to his friend that so you were well and you were chosen but by subjects and intrusted by them to represent the affections and to act the duties of subjects and subjects cannot impose a rule upon their Soveraigne nor make any ordinance against their King and therefore if the representative body of subjects transcend the limits of their trust and doe in the name of the Subjects that which all subjects cannot doe That men intrusted should not go beyond their trust and assume that power which the subjects neither have nor can conferre upon them I see no reason that any subject in the world should any wayes approve of their actions for how can your priviledge of being Parliament men priviledge you from being Murderers Theeves or Traytors if you doe those things that the Law adjudgeth to be murders thefts and treasons Your elections cannot quit you and your places cannot excuse you because he that is intrusted cannot doe more then all they that doe intrust him and therefore all subjects should desert them that exceed the conditions and falsifie the trust which their fellow subjects have reposed in them Besides The King must needs be a part of every Parliament you know the King must needs be reputed part of every Parliament when as the selected company of Knights and Burgesses together with the Spirituall and Temporall Peeres are the representative body and the King is the reall head of the whole Kingdome and therefore if the body separates it selfe from the head it can be but an uselesse trunke that can produce no act which pertaineth to the good of the body because the spirits that give life and motion to the whole body are all derived from the head as the Philosopher teacheth And further you doe all know The power of dissolving the Parliament greater then the power of denying any thing that as the King hath a power to call so he hath a power to dissolve all Parliaments and having a power of dissolving it when he will he must needs haue a power of denying what he pleaseth because the other is farre greater then this And therefore all these premises well considered it is apparent that your sitting in Kilkenny without your King or his Lieutenant which is to the same purpose and your Votes without his assent are all invalid to exact obedience from any subject and for my part I deeme them fooles that will obey them and rebels that will take armes against their King at your commands and if you persist in this your rebellious obstinacy I wish your judgements may light onely upon your owne heads and that those which like the followers of Absolon are simply led by you may have the mist taken from their eyes that they may be able to discerne the duty they owe unto their King that they be not involved and so perish in your sin For though you be never so many and thinke that all the Kingdome Townes and Cities be for you yet take heed lest you imagine such a mischievous device which you are not able to performe Psal 21.11 for the involving of well-mearing men into your bad businesses 1. Reg. 22.29 as Jehoshaphat was misled to warre against Ramoth Gilead doth not onely bring a punishment upon them that are seduced but a farre greater plague upon you that doe seduce them and God who hath at all times so exceeding graciously defended His Majesty and contrary to your hopes and expectation from almost nothing in the beginning of this rebellion hath increased his power to I hope an invincible Army will be a rock of defence unto his anointed For what causes the King suffereth because it is well known to all the world that whatsoever this good King hath suffered at the hands of his subjects it is for the preservation of the true Protestant Religion of the established Lawes of his Kingdoms and of those Reverend Bishops Grave Doctors and all the rest of the Learned and Religious Clergy that have ever maintained and will to the spilling of the last drop of their blood defend this truth against all Papists and other Anabaptisticall Brownists and Sectaries whatsoever And therefore if you that are his Parliament What a shame it is to use the power we have received against him that gave it us should like unthankefull vapours that cloud the Sunne which raised them or like the Moone in her interposition that obscures the glorious ' lampe which enlightens her in the least manner imploy that strength which you have received from His Majesty when he called you together against His Majesty it will be an ugly spot and a foule blemish both for your selves and all your posterities and if not suddenly prevented you may raise such spirits that your selves cannot lay downe and sow such deeds of discord and discontent betwixt the King and his people as may derive through the whole Race of all succeeding Kings such a disaffection to Parliaments as may prove a plague and poyson to the whole Kingdome For if the King out of his favour and grace call you together and intrust you with a power either of continuing concluding or enacting such things as may be for the good of the Commonwealth you abuse that power against him that gave it you I must needs confesse that I am of his mind who saith That it is lawfull to recall a power given when it is abused that the King were freed before God and man from all blame though he should use all possible lawfull means to withdraw that power into his owne hands which being but lent them hath bin so misapplyed against him for if my servant desireth to hold my sword and when I intrust him with it he seekes to thrust the same into my breast will not every man judge it lawfull for me to gaine my sword if it be possible out of his hand and with that sword to cut off his head that would