Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	good_a	king_n	subject_n	3,003	5	6.4581	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57599	Loyalty and peace, or, Two seasonable discourses from I Sam. 24, 5 viz., David's heart smote him because he cut off Saul's skirt : the first of conscience and its smitings, the second of the prodigious impiety of murthering King Charles I, intended to promote sincere devotion and humiliation upon each anniversary fast for the Late King's death / by Samuel Rolls.	Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678.	1678 (1678)	Wing R1880; ESTC R25524	110,484	255

their lives and were they not charg'd with lying not only to men but to the Holy Ghost Now there is nothing of greater tendencie and efficacie to bring Religion into hatred and disgrace if a man had a real design so to do than to make a Cloak of Religion for all sorts of Villanies and to entitltle them thereunto to put Rebellions and Treasons and Sacriledges and Murthers and Regicides all to its account and to shelter them under its wings They that make Religion the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some do say signifieth the Dung-cart which passes by a City to receive all its filth or like to those persons whom the Latines called Piacula i. e. Sacrifices on whose head all the sins and curses of the people should be laid and expiation made by sacrificing of them I say thus to do by Religion is the way to make every one smile at the naming of it and bid defiance to it Their sin had been less if they had said in so many words we will kill the Heir that the I●heritance may be ours c. To conclude this Article Wo to you Regicides as because of Perjury Reb●llion Treason Sacriledge so no less because of what I mentioned last viz. notorious Simulation and Hypocrisie And so I proceed to the Ninth particular Ninthly To all the former I must needs add That the putting of King Charles the Martyr to death was Parricidium Parricide or the Murthering of a Father a Crime which useth to make the ears of all that hear such a thing done to tingle If a Son or Daughter happen to kill either of their Parents all the Country rings of it and it makes as it were an Earthquake throughout the whole Kingdom But the Parricide of Parricides was then committed when K. Charles the First was put to death who was not only a Father to them that had a hand in it but to the whole Nation besides a common Father a Political though not a natural Father To be fure he was one of those whom the fifth Commandment intends by the name of Father when it saith Honour thy Father and thy Mother meaning every whit as much Kings and Princes whom God hath somewhere promised to make nursing Fathers and nursing Mothers to his Church as those whom the Scripture calls the Fathers of our Flesh For though we owe not our Being to them as to our natural Fathers yet our well-being we do owe to them under God though we owe not our Generation to them yet our Preservation we do owe to them under God Every good King is a Protector of his People as to their Lives Limbs Estates good Names Relations Property Religion c. And is not that a great piece of Fatherhood as I may call it Are not his Subjects safe under the shadow of his wings Philosophers say That Preservation is a continued Creation If that be so do we not owe as much to those by whom we are preserved under God though not so preserved as by God himself as to them by whom we were propagated David did both represent himself and was represented by others unto Nabal as one that had deserv'd very well at his hands and the hands of his because he was able to say as it is 1 Sam. 25.7 Thy shepherds were iwth us we hurt them not neither was ought missing to them all the while they were in Carmel As who should say It is a favour in those who have power over us though no lawful Princes neither if they do us no hurt Also in the 15th ver we find one of Nabal's Servants thus pleading with Abigal the wife of Nabal But the men meaning David's Souldiers who came to salute our Master and he raild on them were very good to us and we were not hurt neither missed we any thing as long as we were with them This they look'd upon as a great obligation though that which followeth as a greater ver 16. They were a wall unto us by night and by day all the while we were with them keeping sheep Nay David himself insists upon it as a piece of merit ver 22. Surely in vain saith he have I kept all that this fellow hath in the wilderness so that nothing was missed of all that pertained to them and he hath requited me evil for good Now Nabal's returning a churlish answer to a Captain and his Company who had not only not plundered but protected him tempted David to say in a great passion as ver 22. So and more also do God to the enemies of David if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any one that pisseth against the wall Did Nabal owe so much to David and his Souldiers for not injuring him or suffering others to injure him whilst they were near him what then do we owe to good Kings for their fatherly kindness to us In not dealing with us as Samuel told the Israelites should be the mishepat hammelec or the manner of a King 's dealing with them 1 Sam. 8.11 He will take your sons and some of them s●all run before his Chariots ver 14. He will take your fields and your vineyards and your olive-yards even the best of them and will give them to his Servants ver 16. He will take your goodliest Servants and put them to his work c. i. e. he will use them as he list and you shall be able to call nothing your own but he will let ye know that whatsoever ye call yours is now his and shall be more at his command and dispose than at your own If they who have power enough in their hands to serve us so do not even for that we have cause to thank them and bless God on their behalf but if they defend our Lives Limbs and Estates and above all the true Christian and Protestant Religion as thanks be to God His Majesty that now is doth and so did his Father before him we have cause to own them as our Fathers yea Nursing Fathers Such Fathers they are as we are bound to honour fear and obey more than our Natural Parents for though we are bound to obey them in all lawful things and are not bound to obey Kings in what is sinful yet when the Commands of the Parents of our Bodies interfere with the commands of our Political Parents or of our Kings and Rulers we ought to obey the later rather than the first viz. because what is injoyned by the former becomes unlawful when it is forbidden by the latter I was about to say that respective Kings are not only our Fathers but our Fathers Fathers our Grandfathers yea our great Grandfathers Fathers if they be living and within their Territories Soon should we lose what our Parents gave us viz. our Lives and Estates if we had no King or Rulers to protect us Receive it therefore for an indubitable truth that Kings are Fathers what then are they that murther them but

for none of these are the Faith These are but Mint Annise and Cummin in respect of the great things of Religion the Magnalia Dei the two Tables of the Law of which he is Keeper Those are but the arbitrary Modes Habits and Dresses of Religion Clothes do not belong to the essence of a man A man is a man to all intents and purposes whether he wear a Cloak or a Coat or neither or both Christianity is the same thing in all good men whether they wear Gowns or no Gowns Cassocks or no Cassocks and who are called either Episcopal Presbyterian Independent or whatsoever else So long as the essentials Vitals and Fundamentals of Religion are guarded by the Laws of England and the vigilant care of his Majesty what becomes of those little airy vehicles of disciplinary names divisions and distinctions is the least thing of a thousand For so long as a man lays no other foundation than that which God hath layed viz. Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 3.11 building upon him by faith love and obedience if he should chuse besides Gold and silver and precious stones to build upon the foundation wood hay and stubble that his superstructure would be burnt yet himself should certainly be saved If a man may go to heaven out of the Church of England as well yea more readily than from Geneva or Amsterdam and from under the Discipline of any of those places let him look to it that he be a good Christian exercising himself to have a Conscience void of offence towards God and men one that worshippeth God in the spirit rejoyceth in Christ Jesus and has no confidence in the flesh as it is Phil. 3.3 and my Soul for his having thus his fruit unto holiness his end will be everlasting life So a man come to Heaven at last fighting a good fight finishing a good course and having kept the faith i. e. having been true to the great Doctrine and Rules of Christian Religion defended by the Church of England and his Majesty more especially the Supreme Governor thereof under God by a sincere life and practice thereof I say if a man persevering thus to do come to Heaven at last whether he come in the Kings high way as I may call it I mean in the more eminent and beaten Road of Episcopacy or in the more private narrow and unfrequented paths the matter is not great But I make account no man can ever come there who shall live and dye an incourager of known Schisme in others which is as truly a damning work of the flesh as Adultery or Murther or a wilful allower of it in himself 'T is no complement much less flattery or blasphemy to call him Defender of the Faith by whom as much of Religion as is necessary to Salvation is defended or rather we his Subjects in the free and safe exercise thereof though the same favour be not shewn to those who turn aside from the only established Discipline for but one Discipline can be established in one place as to those who conform thereunto If a man travel upon the Kings high way betwixt Sun and Sun and be rob'd he may sue and recover his Money but so may not he that travelleth in By-roads or cross the Country or over hedges and ditches I say if any man rob them that shall chuse to travel in such by obscure and unguarded paths no amends is made him only if he chance to be kill'd or murder'd in any wood or wilderness the Law will lay hold on him that did it Let who will govern or the Government be what it will be they who conform thereunto will always find more regard and countenance than those who do not though others may be tolerated and protected also And so much of our Kings being Defender of the Faith truly and properly so called upon account whereof we have cause to bless God for him 9thly We have cause to give thanks to God for those Kings by and under whom all the great ends of Government are provided for and therefore for his Majesty that now is By him all the great ends of Government are provided for What are they but in two words Religion and Property How Religion ot the preservation thereof and our protection in the profession and practice thereof are provided for I shew'd under the 8th and last head 'T is manifest that care is taken that we may lead a quiet and peaceble life in all godliness and honesty as it is 1 Tim. 2.2 Also how Property is secured to us may be gathered abundantly out of the formentioned particulars Now if you have any thing more to expect from a King declare what it is For I confess I know nothing else that there is for him to do as a King for us or for us as his Subjects to expect 10thly and lastly I do solemnly appeal to the discontented people of the Nation and to those whose mouths are most full of complaints I say I appeal to them in two cases which I shall propound in the two following Questions 1. Quest If you meet with less misery enjoy more mercy under his Majesty that now is than ye did expect or look for have you not cause to bless God for him Quest 2. Do you not really meet with less misery and more mercy under his Majesty that now is than you thought you should have done How oft have I heard many that were Parliamenteers say If ever the King were restored they should not be left worth a morsel of bread there would be no being for them then in England he would make the Land too hot for them and all such as they They had as good buy Bishops or Deans and Chapters Lands as not for if a change came they should as certainly lose their Lands of Inheritance and what they got by their own labour and was as free as any in the world as Kings and Bishops Lands if they intended to buy them I know that many did look upon the King's return as the giving up the Ghost of all their joys and comforts possessions and enjoyments But did it prove so Have not many of them seen as good days as ever they saw before Where is the Popery you prophesied of that would come in presently For you saw it flying towards us as upon the wings of the wind Where has been the bloody Persecution the Marian-days which your minds boded to you Have you not since that seen days of Grace and Peace and of the Son of man Is the Ark taken as you thought it would be Is God gone Is the Glory departed Is the Gospel extinguished and the Sun set as it were at Noon day as you fancied it would be O leave your dreaming of Dreams and divining of Divinations away with those hypocondriack vapours which turn to new Light and Prophecy Silence and slight your mistaken fancies Your eyes yet see your Teachers and your ears hear them Now even now there is

who not only despised the Authority but destroyed the very Life of that excellent King of whom we have been speaking But there is one cause more of mens despising the great sin of Sacriledge and making nothing of it viz. A great mistake which they are and have been under as touching the holiness of Persons viz. That they know and acknowledge no holiness of Persons but that which the Scripture intends when it saith without holiness no man shall see God Whereas most evident it is both from the Old and New Testament that Persons are very often called holy upon a much more laxe large and loose account Ex. gr 1. Vpon account of being dedicated though not by themselves to God yet by God to himself to his own use and honour Luke 2.23 Every Male that openeth the Womb shall be called holy unto the Lord. Surely that is not meant of a saving but of a ceremonial Holiness of a typical rather than of a substantial Holiness 2. Vpon account of Gods external Adoption of a people to the title and outward priviledges of his Children and Holy ones Hence it is said of the Jews or Jewish Nation though it were not savingly true of all or of the most of them 1 Pet. 2.9 Ye are a chosen Generation a holy Nation a peculiar People c. The reason of which Apellation is because they were Israelites to whom pertained the Adoption and the Glory and the Covenants c. Rom. 9.4 Not so far forth as that all of them were thereby finally sav'd but only put into a much better capacity for Salvation than others were who did not enjoy the same priviledges 3. Vpon account of meer profession and outward appearance men are often called in Scripture Holy and Saints which is all one c. So 1 Thes 5.27 Let this Epistle be read to all the Holy Brethren So he calls the whole Church So Heb. 3.1 Wherefore Holy Brethren partakers of the Heavenly Calling c. So we find the word Saints scattered so freely and us'd so commonly in Saint Pauls Epistles that we may rest assured it is not there applied to them only who are Saints indeed Rom. 12.13 Distribute to the necessity of the Saints i.e. Of all poor persons professing the Christian Religion for they could not search or judge of their hearts Rom. 15.25.26 Rom. 16.15 With innumerable other Texts to the some purpose 4. Vpon the account of federal Holiness are they called Holy who are not all so in strictness of speaking or i● relation to eternal Life So 1 Cor. 7.14 Th● unbelieving Husband is sanctified or rendre● holy by the Wife and the unbelieving Wife is sanctified by the Husband else were your Children unclean but now are they holy meaning federally not savingly holy as the unbelieving Wife is said to be sanctified by her Husband not savingly for so many never are but federally 5ly and lastly Persons may be called sacred upon the account of their being inviolable or such as do not lie open and exposed so as common persons do but there is a noli me tangere upon them Touch not handle not hurt not to be sure Touch not mine annointed and do my Prophets no harm So the Feast of Jubile was called Holy because inviolable Lev. 25. Now though none but religious and godly Kings be holy so as is meant when the Scripture saith Without holiness none shall see God yet every King professing the Christian Religion is sacred upon the five accounts last rehearsed and in a peculiar manner upon the last of them viz. As being more inviolable and unapproachable for the matter of hurting more guarded from the violence of men by the sacredness of his Office and Supremacy of his Condition than Subjects are Yea and upon one accompt more 6ly ●ings and Rulers as they have more of the Image and Stamp of God in point of Authority therefore called Gods in Scripture and they are set apart by God for his more especial service as his Deputies and Vicegerents upon earth may and ought to be counted sacred persons Now being Sacred the injury done to such especially the destroying of theirlives may very fitly be stiled Sacriledge Now when I have spoken to two things more viz. 1. That Sacriledge is a very great sin and 2. That this Regicide was very great Sacriledge I shall dismiss this 4th Article and proceed to another May not the heavy judgments of God inflicted for Sacriledge be alledged as a great proof of the hainousness of that sin for though God hath now and then signally punished sins seemingly but small yet it is possible they might be really much greater all things considered than we know of yet ordinarily they are great and hainous sins for which God visiteth men with great and heavy Punishments And such are the Judgments which God hath inflicted for Sacriledge witness Mal. 3.9 Ye are cursed with a curse for ye have robbed me even this whole Nation Witness also what we read touching Eli and his Sons 1 Sam. 2.25 When Hophni and Phineas took away pa●● of the Flesh which the People brought fo● offerings to rost for themselves Eli th●● expostulated with them If one man sin against another the Judge shall judge him b●● if a man sin against the Lord who shall entreat for him Where their Sacriledge i● spoken of as so great a sin and so immediately against God that they would find it hard to get any body to intercede for them though in Law-suits betwixt man and man Advocates and Council a● they are called are allowed on both sides In Jer. 7.16 God said to Jeremy Pray no● you for this People neither make intercession to me for I will not hear thee And in Exod. 32.10 The Lord said to Moses let me alone that my wrath may waxe hot against them and that I may consume them Now Eli spoke to his Sons as if their sin had made God so angry that he scarce knew what mortal man would dare to intercede for them or be suffered by God to stand in the gap Yea the following words are very severe viz. Notwithstanding they hearkened not to the voice of their Father because the Lord would slay them i. e. God was so provoked by their liquorish Sacriledge that he was resolved not to prevent their ruin by any special interposure of his Grace nor yet to put their Father upon what further means he might have used for the reclaiming of them viz. By hard blowes instead of soft words Yea so angry was God with Eli's Sons for their Sacriledge that it reached not their heads only but also run down upon the Skirts of their Father Eli for not punishing of them at an otherguess rate than his tender over-indulgent heart had suffered him to do because he smote them not as with Rods God smote him and his as with Scorpions 1 Sam. 2.34 This shall be a sign unto thee that shall come upon thy two Sons on Hophny and Phineas

save in a few instances here and there one c. and of them whom they censured as carnal and ungodly or but moral people at the best for that the morality of some of them did much outstrip their own has put me out of conceit with what had wont to be called The Good Old Cause more than any thing else has done And then to see that the Chieftains and greatest Bigots of and for the good old Cause as they call'd it could swallow such a Camel as was the murthering of the King yea be themselves some of the Camels that murthered him or caused him to be murthered whilst they seem'd to strain at meer Gnats could say This is the heir come let us kill him and the inheritance shall be ours Those I say are the things which have made me think cheaply of those times those men and their pretensions to suspect if not more than so a very grand cheat and a bottomless-pit of worldly interest and carnal design in and under all those things and to wish heartily that the Church and State might always continue as now it is much rather than to fall back again into the hands of such Tinker-like Reformers as were in those days making ten holes where they mended one and be re-invaded by hypocritical Vsurpation Sacriledge Enthusiasme and Confusion If I know any thing of my own heart I do at this very day sincerely love every body that I know or think to be truly good and possibly my charity is as large as most mens and my censoriousness as little but as for those who make the highest pretences to Religion and seem to be Piety-like Calomelanos as Physicians call it six or 12 times sublimed or like the Pharisees of old who said to other men Stand off I am holier than thou who rather blaze and blare like great Comets than shine like Stars in the Firmament of Religion if I find them playing the Knaves becoming the Ring-leaders of Murther embrewing their hands in Royal blood under pretence of abhorring Idols committing Sacriledge and bringing all to confusion and under colour of Reforming Church and State to design nothing but the feathering of their own Nests getting wealth and power into their own hands per fas nefas overturning overturning overturning till they themselves whose right it is not come and take all and when they have done all entitling God and Religion to all their Villanies like those with whom the great God doth thus expostulate Jer. 7.9 Will ye steal murder and commit Adultery and swear falsly and come and stand before me in this House and say we are delivered to do all these abominations c. I say the people to whom this Character is due whose Inscription this is are to my Soul as one calls it the first-born of Abominations Now after all that hath been said of the exceeding sinfulness of their bloody fact who were the Murtherers of the late King and of the woful hazard which their precious and immortal Souls did incur thereby give me leave to hope that if the same opportunities should ever come again which God forbid i. e. if ever the now dissenting people of England should have so puissant an Army at their back as then they had and so subtile skilful and resolute a General to conduct them and so many covetous people at their heels waiting to enrich themselves by the spoil of the Kings and Churches Lands so dividing the Lions skin when once he were dead from a real dread of thereby plunging themselves into everlasting flames they would rather burn at a stake than have their hands in such another business To shut up all I have been induced to insist so long upon the heinousness and danger of their sin who put the King to death because a thorow belief and due consideration of what I have said and I do aver it is all true might and would in my opinion be a very great security against all publick Mutinies Insurrections and Civil Wars hereafter For if the people of England did universally and all as one man dread the thoughts of Regicide as of a sin next to that which is unpardonable there would be no cause to fear Rebellion for then would men be govern'd and over-aw'd by this Dilemna If the King against whom we rebel shall always keep his head we shall lose our lives first or last but if he lose his head by our means and contrivances we shall be in great danger to lose our Souls which is worse For what will it profit a man to gain the whole world and to lose his own Soul FINIS