Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	false_a	true_a	worship_n	4,780	5	7.8086	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35705	The deplorable state and condition of the poor French Protestants commiserated, and humbly represented to all princes and people of the true reformed church with reasons for a Protestant league.		1681 (1681)	Wing D1076; ESTC R38	14,092	12

THE Deplorable State AND CONDITION Of the POOR French Protestants COMMISERATED And humbly Represented to all Princes and People Of the TRUE Reformed Church With Reasons for a Protestant League LONDON Printed for Richard Janeway in Queens-Head-Alley in Pater-Noster-Row MDCLXXXI The Deplorable State and Condition of the Poor French Protestants Commiserated c. NO sooner have these Popish Hornets their Priests been Expel'd and Fired out of any Kingdom or Countrey but like the fallen Angels They use all means and endeavours to recover again their lost Dominions and accordingly leave no expedient unattempted whereby they might draw over the most Powerful Princes to their Party With the Emperour the King of Spain and others of weak Judgments they make a Religious account only and the Promotion of the Catholick Cause to be a sufficient ground for their assistance or at least to prevent their interruption of those more Vigorous Princes who help to carry on their Designs With the French King and others of more refined Politicks abandoning all motives of Religion they use the Perswasives of some temporal Interest engaging to assist him in the Design of his Universal Monarchy if he will as mutually promote their Universal Hierarchy and the extirpation of Heresie Thus as the Jesuits have given him many Tastes of their services in a Politick way So now they think it high time that his most Christian Majesty should present them with some Testimony of his Zeal for the Church service And as in order to his Universal Monarchy they have divided the English with Plots bred Jealousies between the States and Prince of Orange by the Lovaisten Faction exasperated and divided the Emperour and Princes of the Empire one against another and Betrayed the Counsels of all other Courts to the French So now in requital for all these Eminent State-services His Majesty though Impartial to all Religious in His Judgement yet on a Politick score hath thus begun the Extirpation of Heresie by this Barbarous Invasion of the Lives of some but Fortunes and Children of all his most Loyal though Protestant Subjects From hence it more plainly appears that the Plot for Introducing Popery into England was but one small part of their Designs who undoubtedly intended an Universal Extirpation of the Protestant Religion out of all parts of the World Wherefore this is the time that all Protestant Princes and States ought Firmly and Unanimously to League and Confederate with the same zeal against the Papists and their false Religion as They do against the Protestants and the true Worship of God Whereto we are oblig'd both by the Law of God Law of Nature and Law of Nations as appears by many Presidents as well Sacred as Prophane which I shall here produce in behalf of these distressed and miserable People who by this Jesuitical Hector of France are reduced even to the extremity of Want and Misery expecting every hour in the Night to be Allarm'd with another St. Bartholomew's Massacre who like Herod Butchering the Innocents may serve to Warn all other Protestant Subjects what quarter they are like to meet with under a Popish King There are many Princes who hoping to advance their own ends and encroach on others Rights will rightly embrace the part of the afflicted and proclaim the Lawfulness of it but the hope of gain is the certain and only aim of their procecedings Thus the Romans Alexander the great and divers others pretending to suppress Tyrants have oftentimes enlarged their own Territories It is not long since Henry the second of France made Wars upon the Emperour Charles the first under Colour of defending and delivering the Protestant Princes As also Henry the eighth King of England was in like manner ready to assist the Germans if the Emperour Charles should molest them But if there be some appearance of Danger and little expectance of Profit then it is that most Princes dispute the Lawfulness of the Action And as the former cover their Ambition and Avarice with the evil of Charity and Piety So on the contrary do the others call their fear and Cowardise Integrity and Justice Therefore without leaning either to the one side or the other let us Impartially examine those rules in such cases which Piety and Justice trace us out in matter of Religion First All accord in this That there is one only Church whereof Jesus Christ is the Head the members whereof are so united and conjoyned together that if the least of them be offended or wronged they all participate both in Harm and Sorrow as throughout the Holy Scripture plainly appears Wherefore the Church is compared to a Body Now it many tims happens that the Body is not only overthrown by a Wound in the Arm or Thigh but also sometimes endanger'd and killed even by a small hurt in the little Finger Vainly therefore doth any Man boast of the safe custody of his Body if he suffers that to be Dismembred and Pulled in pieces which he might have preserved whole and entire The Church also is compared to an Edifice on which side soever the Building is undermined it often happens that the whole tumbles down and on what Rafter or piece of Timber soever the Flame takes hold it endangers the whole House of Burning He must needs be therefore very ridiculous who should defer to quench the Fire which had seized on his House-top because he dwells most in the Celler Again the Church is resembled to a Ship which as it Sails together so doth it Sink together insomuch that in a tempest those who be in the Fore-castle or in the Keel are no more secure then those who remain at the Stearn or on the Lower Deck they both venture in one Bottom This being granted questionless whosoever hath not a fellow-feeling in Commiserating the Trouble Danger and Distress of the Church is no Member of that Body nor Domestick in the Family of Jesus Christ nor hath any place in the Ark of the Covenant of Grace He who hath any sense of Religion in his heart ought no more to doubt whether he be obliged to aid the afflicted Members of the Church than whether he would be assisting to himself in the like distress for the Union of the Church Unites us all into one Body and therefore every one in his calling must be ready to assist the Needy Now as this Church is one so is she recommended and given in charge to all Christian Princes in general and to every one of them in particular for in as much as it was dangerous to leave the care to one alone and the Unity of it would not by any means permit that she should be divided into pieces and every portion assigned unto one particular God hath Committed it all entire to particulars and all the parts of it to all in general not only to preserve and defend it but also to amplifie and increase it as much as might be insomuch that if a Prince who hath undertaken the