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
A56751	The unlawfulness of stretching forth the hand to resist or murder princes with the principal cases about resistance, considered, in two sermons : the first preacht upon the last thirtieth of January, the other, upon the day of thanksgiving, for the deliverance of the King and kingdom from the late treasonable conspiracy / by William Payne ...	Payne, William, 1650-1696.	1683 (1683)	Wing P912; ESTC R22908	23,488	47

be of no Religion at all Treason in Papists is like Original Sin to Mankind they all have it in their Natures though many of them may deny it or not know it and tho' it break not out in all to the same outward Extravagancies but in Protestants it is like the Italian Distemper it was first brought from another Country and is no way natural to our own tho' the Infection has been taken by too many who had an ill Temper prepared for it and others if they take not Care are liable to catch it by the Lewdness of Ambition Revenge or Discontent There is no Church in the World that I know of but the Romish which teaches Treason I wish I could say there were no Men but they who did so but if there be too many it cannot however with Justice be charg'd upon any Protestant Church who all disown it any more than Atheism or Polygamy can be charged to the Church of Rome because some of their Members have defended and beenguilty of those Crimes but where ever it is in Pope or Presbyter in Conclave or Classis in Jesuite or Fanatick 't is to be abhorred detested abominated by every good Christian and he that can think upon it without doing so and not let his Heart and his Tongue rise up against it may in time I doubt be brought to commit it Stretching out the hand to resist the Prince is most plainly unlawful as I showed you formerly from the Examples and the Principles of the Christian Religion from the Constitution of our own Government and from the consideration of the publick Good and Peace of the World and that to Murder or take away his Life is the most horrid guilt that can be I then understood that Phrase of Stretching out the hand in both those Senses and so it takes in both the Parts of this present Conspiracy and indeed though Monsters do not use to be alike yet this does so much resemble that other Treason in its main parts and in its manner of production that I could think of nothing fitter to shew the Villany of this and to antidote mens minds against the like for the future then by reviving the same thoughts in your minds and by proceeding further on the same Subject and especially in that Method which shall meet with those Objections which are brought against that Duty of Nonresistance those are chiefly some outlying Cases as they account them which come not into this general Duty but are Exemptions from it and these are they by which Men are generally drawn into Treason which is a Sin too ugly in its looks to tempt Men if it wore not a Vizard 'T is these Cases which by a Rebellious Witchcraft are cast like Mists before Mens eyes and so they are jugled and seduced into the saddest Treasons and Conspiracies though a great many of them are like the Proposals of Mathematicians to move the Earth if you grant them such and such Postulala and allow things to be so ordered as they would suppose which can never be really done and the Earth is in no danger to be moved for all their Demonstrations yet these Men do really move the Kingdom and turn it out of its place by fancied and Romantick Cases which it is impossible perhaps should ever come into practice But I intend to consider such Cases as are thought more probable and plausible and which are the common Stumbling-blocks that lie in the way of this Duty and cause a great many as they did our present Conspirators to fall into that Treasonable Gulph which wholly swallows them up if they come too near the brink of it They are these four The Case of Religion The Case of Legal Rights The Case of Natural Defence and the otherwise Remediless Case of Mankind by the Encroachment of Princes 1. The Case of Religion which is the greatest and most important Concern to Mankind wherein their Souls and their Eternal Fortunes lie all at stake and both they and their Posterity may loose what is more valuable then their Lives or Estates if they stand not up sometimes and fight for their God and their Altars which were Considerations that always inspired Men with the greatest Courage and Resolution If a Prince shall set up a false and Idolatrous Religion and attempt to destroy the true Worship of God here they think both a Zeal for him and Religion and a Care of their own and their Posterities Salvation calls loudly upon them to resist him to the utmost and with the noble Maccabees to shed the last drop of their Blood for their Religion and their Temple If the Protestant Religion be like to be overthrown and Popery to be brought in this is such an allarum to those who love the one and hate the other as will not fail to bring in vast numbers forcibly to Resist that Prince who shall ever attempt it and think it their duty so to do To which I shall give this general Answer That we may show our Zeal and our Love to our Religion a better way then by thus Resisting and Fighting for it for that is to do what our Religion expresly forbids which can no way consist with that love we should have for it They who are such Gallants for their Religion as immediately to draw and fight for it do commonly abuse and prostitute it to some ill and Carnal ends and are seldom such chaste and constant and pure Lovers of it as they pretend Our Saviour and his Apostles had without doubt as much love for Christianity and were as zealous to preserve and maintain it as we can be but yet never thought fit to show it this way by Resisting the Authority that then was though it did all it could to destroy it There is another and a much better way to demonstrate the highest Affection for our Religion and that is by suffering for it and enduring all manner of Evils rather then forsaking it and this is a likelier Method to preserve and propagate it and to transmit it down to Posterity both with safety and credit By this very way Christianity has come down to us in a Channel of blood indeed but that drawn from its own Friends and Professors who laid down their Lives for it but not the least drop from its Enemies The Maccabees were zealous indeed for their Law and fought for it but not against their own Lawful Prince but an Enemy that invaded them for such was Antiochus who used all manner of provoking Impiety and barbarous Cruelty against the Jews who were not his rightful Subjects and might therefore rescue themselves from his Oppression and unjust Usurpation At other times when any of the Jewish Kings set up Idolatry and Worshipt Baal or other False Gods none of the Prophets who were the mo●st zealous Lovers of their Law and rebuked the Princes for those Faults to their very Faces did yet ever call upon the Elders or encourage the People

THE UNLAWFULNESS OF Stretching forth the Hand TO Resist or Murder PRINCES WITH THE Principal Cases about RESISTANCE CONSIDERED In Two SERMONS The First Preacht upon the Last Thirtieth of January The other upon the Day of Thanksgiving for the Deliverance of the King and Kingdom from the Late Treasonable Conspiracy By WILLIAM PAYNE Rector of St. Mary White-Chappel LONDON Printed by A. Grover for Walter Kittilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-yard 1683. TO THE HONOURABLE Sir WILLIAM SCROGGS Late Lord Chief Justice of ENGLAND My Lord I Could be very glad that I had less Reason to justifie the publishing of these Sermons and that they were altogether as unseasonable as the putting out of Bills to Cure the Plague when no Body is Sick or Dies of it but Treason is a Disease that Rages amongst us and though it be not like the Sweating-Sickness of old a Malady peculiar to English Men yet the plenty and Luxury of our Country may perhaps make us more Subject to it then others Were I able to prescribe any thing however ordinary that was likely to be either a Remedy or an Antidote against it I should think it my Duty as a Lover of the Peace and Salvation of Mankind as a Lover of my King and Country and as a Minister of that Church and Religion which has been often the Mark but never the Author of any Treason and I hope the good meaning of this Endeavour will compound for the weakness of it and its Honesty and Charity cover the Multitude of its Faults and Imperfections I thought my self more then ordinarily concerned to do this when the Infection had so largely spread at our end of the Town and in my own Parish where two of the Conspirators that are Executed and two others that are in the Proclamation had their last Abodes for though this does not like other Contagions begin in Alleys and the Out-parts among the Poor and Ordinary Persons yet the Great ones make it their Business to spread it among those and there it settles and there it generally breaks out Had these Men come to our Churches they had learnt other Principles then what I am afraid they have done elsewhere and that none may be so malitious as to think we calculate our Sermons merely for the present Circumstances as if the Pulpit were but a kind of weather-glass wherein the Doctrine of Obedience to Governours is higher or lower according to the temperature or Variation of outward Affairs I have put out a plain Sermon without any addition or alteration that was Preacht long before the Plot when I little thought of having any such occasion to make it publick I thought then and do so now that those Obvious and Familiar things which every one must use on that Subject would do good but there remained a harder part which was to keep the good Seed I had sowed clear from the Weeds that are apt to grow up and choke it for Treason has stood so long without being cut down especially in the late Times that it has run to seed and scattered its Principles that will not fail to nourish and make it grow again and I thought the only way to destroy it was to pluck up those by the Rootes I know My Lord the Subject will commend it self to your Patronage whose Loyalty to your Prince is so well known to all that as it was always your vertue so it has been sometimes your Crime and who have so well shown your Zeal and Abhorrence of all Plots and Treasons in the late Popish one where your Justice and Eloquence were too hard for the cunningest of Traitors and the Priests found your Reason out-doe their Infallibility yet I should not have presumed to offer these Discourses unto your Lordships hands who is not only so great a Judge but so great a Master of sence and of speaking but that I know your Candour and Mercy is equal to your Judgment so that what has inclined you to approve and encourage me in some other things of this nature will I question not prompt you at least to excuse me in this The Extraordinary kindness and Civility you have been pleased to show me would require a much better Testimony of my Observance and Gratitude then this which is the only one I can pay at present and therefore must beg you to accept it from My Lord Your most Obedient and most Obliged Servant William Payne A SERMON UPON THE Thirtieth of JANVARY 1683. Being the Day of the Martyrdom OF King Charles I. 1 SAM 26.9 For who can stretch forth his Hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless RELIGION as it makes Provision for us in another World and is the only Means to secure us a good State after this Life a future and eternal Happiness for our Souls so 't is that also upon which the present Welfare the Comfort and Felicity of this Life does chiefly depend 't is that which supports the World and preserves the Peace and Order the Quiet and good Settlement of it 't is that which sets a Guard about our Lives and all our Enjoyments and restrains Mankind from ravening and devouring one another 'T is that which is the main Strength the true Foundation of Government which supports the Princes Throne and Guards it like an Angel from the Sons of Violence and as it obliges us to all those Duties of Right and Justice that are necessary for the Good and Welfare of all Mankind so it especially secures and maintains the Rights of Princes and Governours which cannot be violated without the greatest Mischief and the most pernicious Consequences to the World David who was the most singular Example of all Religion and Piety to God who was the great Example and Teacher of it to the Jewish Church and who has left such Memorials and Monuments of it as make up a great part of the Devotion and Worship of all Christians Him was God pleased to make as great an Example of Loyalty to his Prince and of Duty and Obedience to his Sovereign and that purely from the same Principles of Religion and Conscience that made him so to God He had the least Reason otherwise to be so to his Prince that could be well imagined Who sought to take away his Life unjustly he hunted him as a Partridge upon the Mountains and intended to make him a Prey to his unreasonable Fury and Displeasure Who would have taken away that Right which God had expresly given him and deprived him of the Succession to the Crown which Heaven had entituled him to Who destroyed all his Friends he could light of and murdered fourscore and five of the Priests of the Lord in one day upon his account 1 Sam. 22.18 Who put a whole City to the sword Man Woman and Child v. 19. and exercised all the Acts of Cruelty and Injustice to him and all those that favoured him How much less than all this would have served some Men

to Resist them or to fight for their Religion Popery is an abominable and Idolatrous Religion the most corrupt of any Sect or Party that calls it self Christian and the most dangerous to the Souls of Men but 't is a better way to keep it out with our Hands bound to the Stake then stretcht out against our Lawful Sovereign and we shall show our love to Protestancy much better by dying for it our selves if need be then by killing others One Life of our own Sacrificed to it is a Nobler Offering and more acceptable to God and our Saviour than a thousand Victims at the expence of other Mens Lives 2. If Men may not Resist purely for Religion and to defend that yet when they have Law on their sides either for their Religion or any thing else and their Princes who are bound to keep the Law will yet act against it and despoil them of their Civil Rights and Priviledges or invade their Properties and destroy their Religion contrary to Law and to the setled Constitutions of the Kingdom then surely they may forcibly desend their Laws and consequently their Religion or any thing that is thus twisted and complicated with their Laws which it is not in the Princes power to alter or unloose To this I shall return a Treble Answer 1. If the Law had made a Provision and expresly allow'd Resistance when any such Cases should happen however foolish a Constitution that had been yet the Case had been much stronger and the nullity of the allowance not so easie to be made out as in the German Empire there is such a Provision made that if the Emperour invade the Establisht Rights of the Princes who though they are Sovereigns in their own Territories yet are sworn Subjects to him they may take Arms and such a Capitulation there was formerly between the King of Spain and the Low Countries but in our Kingdom there is plainly no such thing and care has been taken that none should imagine that there was any such kind of tacit or implicit condition the Law making an express Declaration to the contrary to wit That it is unlawful to resist upon any account whatsoever which puts the thing out of all manner of dispute that we cannot by Law resist though it be to defend what we have by Law for that would be to act against one express Law whilst we were defending another 2. As long as the Power of the Sword is wholly in the King by the Law of God and of Man who shall ever use or draw it without an authority derived from him From whence else shall any Man have a Commission to raise Companies to array an Army to be a Commander or a General over them and to use that force which is often necessary for the execution of Justice and giving force to Laws for without that they are often but dead Letters and therefore no Man can be the Guardian of the Laws who is not the Keeper of the Sword which is committed to the Prince alone 3. If a Prince will injure his Subjects and invade their Rights nay and their Lives against Law when they have tried all other means they must as Christ did patiently submit to an unjust Sentence rather then resist and as the first Christians did who often complain'd that they were punisht adversus formam adversus naturam judicandi contra ipsus quoque leges Tertull Apologet. c. 2. and that their Persecutors would not let them have the same benefit of the Roman Laws with others aliter in nos quàm in caeteros nocentes disponitis ibid. and yet the great numbers he there tells them they had did not put them upon Resisting and as St. Paul did who though inconsiderately and in Passion he call'd the High-Priest a Whited-wall because when he sat to Judge him after the Law he commanded him to be smitten contrary to the Law Acts 23.3 yet he presently acknowledged his fault and own'd that he should not have so much as spoke evil of a Ruler though he punisht him illegally and contrary to the Law and therefore much less have Resisted him 3. But though the Law of the Land forbids Resistance yet the Law of Nature which no other Law can supersede will allow it for our own necessary defence and Self-Preservation that is such a natural Right as can never be taken from us and no Man can ever be supposed to part withal By this we may take away anothers Life in our own defence and yet fall under no Law of God or Man for it and by this a Prince may be resisted as well as a Robber if he will take away my Goods or my Life as unjustly as he To this I shall Answer Three things 1. The Law of Nature can at most be said only to permit this not to enjoyn it if there were a Right of Nature that allow'd this yet there cannot be a Law that commanded it and obliged us to it but a Man might still part with his Natural Right without any fault and it would be an Heroick instance of Vertue to do so rather to give our own Life or part with any Private Interest of our own then take away the Life of another Man and this to be sure is much the safer side which is out of all danger and undoubtedly lawful when there are great Reasons to fear that Resisting even in that Case may prove Damnable 2. Positive Constitutions may limit and restrain Natural Right in this or any other Case or else all Pacts and Covenants are in vain nay and all Civil Laws whatsoever because they do all of them restrain Men from that which before they had a Natural Right to and if we cannot by any means be abridged of that then there is an end not only of all Government but of all Property too and Mankind may return into a Wild State of Nature when ever they please 3. Though the Law of Nature allows us to resist private Violence in our own defence yet it does not to resist the Publick Magistrate for that would be destructive of publick good and injurious to the Peace and Welfare of Mankind which the other is not and though I may fairly stand upon my defence when there is only a competition between my own and anothers private good yet I must not do it when the Competition is between the publick good and my own private whoever considers himself as a Member of the vast Body of Mankind or of a particular Kingdom must think it as unreasonable and absurd to prefer his own private good to the publick as to believe a single part to be as great as the whole This is the Prime and Fundamental Law of Nature to promote as far as we are able the publick good and endeavour to increase not so much our own private share as the common and publick stock of Happiness which belongs to the whole Company and Community in which our own is likewise included