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
A85382	The apologist condemned: or, A vindication of the Thirty queries (together with their author) concerning the power of the civil magistrate in matters of religion. By way of answer to a scurrilous pamphlet, published (as it seems) by some poposalist, under the mock-title of An apologie for Mr John Goodwin. Together with a brief touch upon another pamphlet, intituled, Mr J. Goodwin's queries questioned. By the author of the said Thirty queries.	Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.	1653 (1653)	Wing G1148; Thomason E691_16; ESTC R202305	21,381	34

Thou hast a Devil say they who goeth about to kill thee b as if they had been the most innocent persons under Heaven in respect of any such vile and bloody intentions and He a person of a Diabolical spirit to lay any such thing to their charge Yet we know they were never the more innocent but the more guilty rather for their peremptory and high rejection of their Charge nor he at all guilty or blame-worthy for charging them notwithstanding their deep offence and exulceration of spirit thereat Most certain it is that all the water in the Sea will not wash the heads whatever it may the hearts of the men I now speak of from the guilt and crime of writing and speaking impiously of the Nature of God They may Proteus-like turn themselves their tongues and pens into twenty several shapes and ten of shifts evasions pretences provisions and what not but all their washings will not make the Blackamore white all their wrestings and wringings it this way and that notwithstanding Haeret lateri laetalis arundo The deadly arrow still sticks fast in their sides Concerning the Testimonies both of Gentiles and Jews for it seems he layeth his hands across upon the heads of his two Compurgators placing the Gentiles at his right hand and the Jews at his left wherewith he concludes his worthy Apology first he giveth instance in the first founding of Rome bonis avibus for good success sake telling us that Romulus and Numa Pompilius the first Kings layd the Foundations of their Law-making in Piety and Justice and that of Romulus it is particularly said that before all things he began with the Divine Worship c. I marvel to what account these Instances turn for his purpose Do they not rather prove that Kings and Magistrates and Rulers of the Earth have more generally an itching humor and love to be tampering in matters of Religion and Divine Worship and to have Religions and Worships of their own calculation and contrivance how blind or insufficient soever they be for the managing or regulating such an affair then that they have any regular Interest or right of Power to intermeddle therein Or doth the Apologist intend to commend the examples of Romulus and Numa Pompilius in setting up what Religion and what Divine Worship they thought best amongst their people unto the Christian Magistrate for his imitation or encouragement Certainly that Religion and kind of Worship which these Kings set up in their dominions was not taught them by the Law of Nature unless it be supposed that the one was the true Religion and the other the true Worship For the Law of Nature teacheth no man any false Religion or false Worship much less doth it teach any man to compel others to submit either to the one or the other Therefore the Gentleman is no Debtor unto the Gentiles for any contribution from them towards his cause For what he cites from Mr Selden's Book De Jure Naturae c. about the Opinion of the Jews concerning the Light of Nature condemning Idolatry making Laws against it c. not having the Book by me nor leasure at present to enquire after it I cannot examine the truth of his citations But whereas he attempts to overawe me with Mr Selden's learning and judgment saying that perchance Mr Goodwin will think fit to comply with them rather then to contest I freely and clearly say that I am most ready to comply with the learning and judgment of a man by many degrees inferior to Mr Selden in the honour which belongeth unto Learning who shall teach me that which I am able to comprehend or to conceive at least as probable but otherwise Angels from Heaven and Scarabees or Beetles from the dunghill are Teachers alike unto me unless the light of Reason sheweth me a difference between them I have no more Faith for the teachings of the one then of the other Were Mr Selden Socrates and my Apologist Plato I must commend them but not forsake my ancient and fast Friend Truth for their sakes But touching the Jews in a word 1. By the course and current of the Scriptures it appears that they were no Great Students in the Law of Nature neither had they the like occasion or necessity which other Nations had to engage themselves much in this study For they from their great Progenitor and Founder of their Nation Abraham were discipled and trained up to a religious and holy Conversation by Miracles Signs and Wonders by extraordinary Appearances of God by literal and express Revelations and Discoveries from Heaven of the Mind and Will of God concerning them Behold saith Moses to this people I have taught you Statutes and Judgments even as the Lord my God commanded me that ye should do so in the Land whither ye go to possess it Keep therefore and do them for this is your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the Nations which shall hear all these Statutes and say Surely this great Nation is a wise and understanding people For what Nation is there so great who hath God so nigh unto them c c. Therefore this Nation having God so nigh unto them as it follows to instruct and teach them all things that were needful for them either to know or practise had no occasion to pore much on the Book of Nature nor to seek that by labour and travel which was brought unto them in such abundance by the immediate hand of God himself Whilest they were dayly fed with Manna from Heaven ploughing and sowing had been but lost labour The case was otherwise with the rest of the Nations on the Earth 2. And with more particularity to what the Apologist alledgeth concerning the Jews their making Laws against Idolatry and false Worship What occasion or necessity can it be imagined they should have to interpose their Laws or Constitutions Laws I mean of their own framing and enditing by the Light of Nature against or about Idolatry and false Worship when as they had so many particular full and express Laws touching matters of this nature delivered unto them by God himself Nay 3. They had not only no occasion or necessity upon them to trouble themselves with making Laws against Idolatry and false Worship being so plentifully in this kind provided for by God himself but they were restrained by an express Law given unto them in that behalf by God from setting their threshold by his I mean from super-adding any Laws of their own unto those which he had delivered unto them Ye shall NOT ADD unto the Word which I command you neither shall ye diminish ought from it that you may keep the Commandments of the Lord your God d And again What thing soever I command you observe to do it thou shalt NOT ADD thereto nor diminish from it e Doubtless though my Apologist judgeth the Laws against Idolatry and false Worship delivered by God unto the Jews to

Nature is not sufficient to discover the worshipping of God in a false manner at least not every worshipping of him in such a manner For then wherein should the light of the Scriptures themselves exceed the light of Nature in that important affair of Christian Religion Therefore certainly there is a real Distinction and this broad enough between worshipping God in a false manner and doing evil against the light of Nature And if he would have pleased only to peruse those few Pages in another Treatise of mine which for brevity sake I refer unto in the end of this Query he might I suppose have been better satisfied touching the Apostles meaning Rom. 13. 4. by him that doth evil and that by this expression he could not mean or intend any such Spiritual Delinquent as I describe by some particular instances in the said Query He yet addeth that the Law of Nature teacheth the Magistrate to make Laws against false Worship and Idolatry I beleeve my Apologist speaketh this without Book For what Laws against false Worship and Idolatry can he produce or instance the making whereof was taught by the Law of Nature All Laws of this kind made by Christian States and Magistrates he hath no reason to judg were taught by the light of Nature but rather by the Scriptures whether rightly or amiss as to this point understood I now dispute not If there were any such Laws made by Pagan States or Magistrates I mean Laws made against some particular kinds of false Worship and Idolatry the spirit and intent of these Laws was rather for the countenance and support of one kind of Idolatry or false Worship viz. that which was more generally practised and perhaps commanded in this State then for the punishing or suppressing of those prohibited and made punishable by such Laws as Lerinensis reports of Nestorius the Heretique that to make way for the credit and propagation of his own he fiercely opposed all other Heresies a In which case supposing the Laws we speak of made against particular Idolatries were taught by the Law of Nature which yet is evident enough in the case in hand that they were not they cannot be looked upon as Laws made against but rather for Idolatry and false Worship 2. If the Law of Nature teacheth the Magistrate to make Laws against false Worship and Idolatry I would gladly know of my Apologist whether it teacheth him to do it against all and all manner of false Worships and Idolatries whatsoever or whether against some particulars only in this kind If against all in general then are the teachings of the Law of Nature in this great Affair of Christian Religion as compleat and absolute as the teachings of the Scriptures yea and of the Spirit of God himself which I know is none of my Apologists thoughts If against some particulars only let my Apologist either by the light of the Scriptures or by any other light that shineth clearly particularize them and separate them from their fellows against which the said Law of Nature teacheth no making of Laws and his reward shall be this Erit mihi magnus Apollo As Great Apollo he shall be to me If he shall not do this and that secundum sub suprà i. e. as well in all particulars against which the Law of Nature teacheth him to make Laws as in all those also against which this Law of Nature teacheth him no such thing but rather prohibiteth him the doing of it he doth but entangle and ensnare the Magistrate in telling him that the Law of Nature teacheth him to make Laws against false Worship and Idolatry These Premisses of my Apologist p. 7. warily understood are good Ignorance of the true God is the greatest plague I presume his sence is causalis not formalis of all Commonwealths And again He pulls down the foundation of all humane Society I suppose he speaks of the best and most worthy foundation who takes away Religion or abolisheth it out of the minds of men But the Conclusion which he infers from hence is extreamly inconsequent Whence it is that all Impiety is to be punished with the greatest and most grievous punishments How doth the man wring the nose of his Premisses to force the blood of this Conclusion from it Certainly this grape that all Impiety i. e. all and all manner and all degrees of Impiety is to be punished with the greatest and most grievous punishments is so harsh and sowre that it never grew upon any vine of Gods planting Nor hath the said inference any tolerable connexion with his Premisses For if the Ignorance of God be the greatest plague in all Commonwealths then ought the Magistrate to use all wisdom and diligence and good conscience to introduce and plant the knowledg of the true God in his Commonwealth But to punish ALL Impiety with the greatest and most grievous punishments is so far from being a prudential or likely method or means to produce this effect that of the two it is more proper and likely to abolish all Religion and true knowledg of God out of the minds of men And where a Nation is generally prophane or Atheistically disposed as all those are who deny God in their works which is more then to be feared is not morbus Epidemicus but Oecumenicus also the temper of the generality of all or the greatest part of the Nations under the whole Heavens in case my Apologist's Conclusion should take place and ALL Impiety be punished with the greatest and most grievous punishments the Inhabitants of such a Land though before as the stars of Heaven for multitude would soon be left few in number that a child may write them So that the Conclusion we now speak of may very properly be called The Abomination of Desolation Whereas in process of discourse viz. p. 8. he saith He disturbs Religion who speaks or writes impiously of the Nature of God therefore he is to be punished and truly with death hath he not spoken this against himself and his own life yea and against the lives of all his beloved fellow-Proposalists if the severity and strictness of his own Law should be put in execution upon him For doth not He that representeth God whether by words or writing either as unmerciful or as unjust as tyrannical as a Dissembler as walking contrary to his Oath as imprudent as mutable c. speak or write impiously of the Nature of God And hath not the Apologist himself if not by writing which whether he hath done or no certain I am that many of his Judgment touching the Nature of God have yet by words represented him under the Reproach and deep dishonor of some or all of these Abominations Dies indicabit The day will declare it I know the men of this demerit and guilt will resent the Charge with as much indignation as the Jews did that of our Saviour against them wherein he charged them with going about to kill him

so incident unto men that have the opportunity of inriching themselves by the labour of others were likely to transgress in this kind Or in case there should be found any disposition in a child or servant man or maid and there is the same reason of the stranger to work on the Sabbath day without being compel'd unto it by their Parents or Masters this disposition is sufficiently reproved or restrained by God partly in his restraining their Masters and Parents themselves from working partly by restraining them from imposing any burthen of labour upon them on this day These two particulars are sufficient to inform them that his will and mind is that they should rest from labour on the Sabbath day So that when God in the Commandment turns himself so particularly unto Parents and Masters charging them they shall not do any work they nor their children nor their servants of the one sex or the other his meaning is not that they should compel them to keep the Sabbath which is my Anti-querists notion but that they take heed that they compel them not to break it viz. by imposing any servile work or labour upon them on this day Thy children thy servants shall do no work i. e. they shall not be employed or required or constrained by thee to work on the seventh day This to be the meaning of God is yet more evident from hence viz. that the same Charge or Injunction is layd upon the Parent or Master in reference to his Cattel which is layd upon him in respect of his Children or Servants In it thou shalt not do any work Thou nor thy son nor thy daughter thy man-servant nor thy maid-servant nor thy CATTEL Now sure enough it is that men are not commanded to compel or force their Cattel to keep the Sabbath day but only not to compel them to labour on this day which is their breaking of it But as touching the work or interposure of the Magistrate in one kind or other as such about the observation of the Sabbath here is altissimum profundissimum silentium most perfect and profound silence from the one end of the Heaven of this Commandment unto the other To conclude whereas the Anti-querist informeth his Reader that my 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. Queries concern only the Ordination of Ministers which he well saith is nothing to the Question about the Magistrates Power the truth is that to my best remembrance the Ordination of Ministers was not so much as once in all my thoughts whilest I was drawing up the said Queries nor do any of them concern the Ordination of Ministers in the least Or if the Gentleman will needs by an Acyrology term the subject of those Queries the Ordination of Ministers then I must crave leave to inform him that although the said Queries do not concern the Question of the Magistrates Power about matters of Religion in the general yet do they mainly concern a particular branch of that Power which is asserted unto him about such matters in the Ministers Proposals as the Reader if he judgeth it worth his time to compare the one with the other will readily find But by the sence of this Anti-querist and the Apologist touching the interposure of the Magistrates Power in matters of Religion it appeareth sufficiently that if the Land had a Phalaris King over it there would be found more then one Perillus to make him brazen Bulls for the tormenting of such Christians who are either too weak or too wise to swim down the stream of a State Religion or to call men Rabbi ERRATA Page 11. line 1. for Wirship read Worship Pag. 13. l. 30. for Nye r. nigh FINIS a Mat. 26. 61. a Mat. 6. ●3 If therfore the light which is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness a Hic ut utini haec est suae aditum patefaceret Cunctarum haeres● ων blasphem as i● sectabatur b John 7. 19. c Deut. 4. 5 6. 7 c. d Deut 4 2. e Deut. 12. 32. f In duas enim partes quibus tota continetur justicia legem suam sic divisit Deus ut priorem religionis officiis quae peculialiter ad numinis sui cultum pertinent alteram officiis charitatis quae in homines respiciunt assignaverit Calv. Inst. l. 2. c. 8. §. 11. g Prima tabula est quae circa Deum absque ullo medio versatur Altera vero ad proximum dirigitur P. Martyr Loc. Com. Class. 2. c. 3. §. 21. h Si cogites de dilectione Dei proximi prima tabula dilectionem Dei altera dilectionem proximi requirit Musc. Loc. in Praecept Octav. Et paulo post Prima tabula quid Deo altera quid proximo debeamus praescribit i Nec in primâ tabulâ continentur mandata de officio nostroerga nos proximum sed erga Deum Rivet Explicat Decalogi p. 109. Secunda tabula continet sex alia praecepta quae nos erudiunt de iis quae proximo debemus ut prioris praecepta nos direxerunt ad ea quibus specialiter immediate Deo sumus astricti Idem p. 170. k Exod. 23. 12. l Deut 5 14 15 m 1 Tim. 1. 9.