Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	great_a	king_n	majesty_n	3,331	5	6.0086	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87160	A vindication of the Holy Scriptures. Or the manifestation of Jesus Christ the true Messiah already come. Being the Christians antidote against the poysons of Judaisme and atheisme of this present age. Proved out of sacred scripture, ancient historians, and Jewish Rabbins. / By that learned, and late eminent divine, John Harrison.	Harrison, John, of the Inner Temple.	1656 (1656)	Wing H896; Thomason E1685_1; ESTC R209168	62,938	174

A Vindication OF THE Holy Scriptures Or the Manifestation of JESUS CHRIST The TRVE MESSIAH Already Come Being the Christians Antidote against the poysons of Judaisme and Atheisme of this present Age Proved out of Sacred Scripture Ancient Historians and Jewish Rabbins By that Learned and late Eminent Divine JOHN HARRISON LONDON Printed by J. M. and sold by J. Benson and J. Playford at their shops in Dunstans Church-yard and in the Inner Temple 1656. The AUTHORS EPISTLE To the forlorn and distressed Jews in Barbary and in them to all others now groaning under the heavie yoke of Captivity in what Nation soever scattered and dispersed throughout the world Grace Mercy and Peace be multiplyed in Christ Jesus the true Messiah BEing employed not long since into Barbary the land of your Captivity where at this present you live in great Bondage and Slavery and so have done this long time as do also the rest of your Brethren and Nation elsewhere dispersed throughout the world groaning under the yoke of their cruel Task-masters as did your forefathers in the land of Egypt four hundred and thirty yeers this Captivity of yours having continued now almost four times four hundred yeers the last and greatest of all then the which was never heard nor read of greater of any people from the Creation of the World to this day nor shall be The King at that time of my arrival upon his expedition towards Fez I appointed to stay at Saphia till his return back from those wars where I remained in the lower Castle almost six moneths solitary and in suspense expecting the doubtful event thereof Whether resorted to me often to accompany me and for my better instruction in the Hebrew whereof I had a little taste before one of the chief Rabbins of that your Synagogue Rabbi Shimeon a man of grave and sober carriage and pleasant otherwise of whose company I was very glad Now and then among other matters arguing and reasoning of the Messiah as ye say yet to come but as we say and are able to prove by invincible arguments and demonstrations both out of your own Law and Rabbins already come which gave me occasion having little else to do and not knowing how to pass that tedious time better to gather together all those arguments and reasons I had read or for the present could conceive of my self drawn out of the sacred Scripture and other Books as touching that controversie Whereby I might be the more able over and besides the matter of employment and business I came about to maintain that Religion professed in my Country and the Vndoubted Faith whereof his Majesty the King of great Britain as others his Predecessors have done pro●●ss●th himself a chief Defender according to that his most just Title Defender of the Faith And afterwards when the King sent for me to Morocus being lodged amongst you by his appointment in the Judaria in one of your principal houses where I staid before I could get a dispatch from the King three moneths and an half where also I grew familiarly acquainted with divers of your Nation and was presented at sundry times especially at your Marriages and solemn Feasts with divers of your Dainties which I took very kindly and ever since have studied what Christian Dainties I might send you back again in recompense or rather Duties insteed of those Dainties Seeing also in the mean time which I could not chuse but see with much pity and compassion the great and grievous oppression under which you groan taxations vexations exactions grammings as you call them even with torments rather then fail drubbings so many hundred blows at once as my self have both seen and heard with that base servile and most contemptible state and condition otherwise above any other Nation or People under which you live not only in Barbary but in all other parts of the world besides as a fatal effect of that heavie curse laid on you by your own forefathers long ago upon the death of Christ when Pilate the Judge washed his hands saying I am innocent of the blood of this just man look ye to it they cryed with one consent his blood be upon us and on our children As also of that Prophesie of our Saviour in his life time when he wept over Jerusalem saying Oh if thou hadst even known at the least in this thy day those things which belong to thy Peace but now are they hid from thine eyes c. And more particularly to his Disciples he reneweth it over and again When ye shall see Jerusalem besieged with Souldiers then know ye that her desolation is at hand For these be the days of vengeance to fulfil all things that are written For there shall be great distress in this land and wrath over this people And they shall fall on the edge of the Sword and shall be lead captive into all Nations c. Which heavie curse of your own forefathers and Prophesie of his how truly they have been fulfilled both the one and the other all the world seeth and ye your selves feel the effect as before The Lord in mercy take away the vail from your hearts that at length ye may know those things which belong to your peace which now are hid from your eyes For why will ye die O ye house of Israel These considerations I say and reasons with some others have moved me and partly in recompense of those your Defina's and Dainties whereof I tasted so often while I was amongst you to send you here a small banquet of such Dainties as Christendome can afford wishing you would but tast some part of mine as I did of yours being indeed Sabbath days dainties Tast I say and see how sweet the Lord is And the rather do I invite you to this Banquet yea rather provoke you thereunto even to your own salvation which through your fall is come to us Gentiles to provoke you as it as in that place for that now the time of your redemption draweth near with ours much neerer now then when we believed foretold also both by Christ and his Apostles as was your desolation and shall one day as surely and certainly come to pass the one as the other For God that hath promised is of power to perform it he will do it He is able to graff you in again into your own Olive Tree Verily I tell you saith our Saviour to the Pharisees ye shall not see me until the time come that ye shall say Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord Therefore such a time shall come without all doubt wherein ye shall so say that is to say most willingly obey the heavenly calling without any more resisting the holy Ghost as did your forefathers Also in another place And Jerusalem shall be trodden under foot of the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled So long and no longer there is the period And Paul

right hand of God David saith Thou art gone up on high thou hast led captivity captive and received gifts for men c. And in another place The Lord said to my Lord Sit thou at my right hand c. which is the place alledged by our Saviour wherewith he put the Jews to silence both as touching the Deity and the Humanity of the Messiah for saith he If David call him Lord how is he then his Son Where we may see David acknowledgeth him his Lord and consequently his God even the Son of God sitting at the right hand of God for the present as touching his Divinity afterwards to be accomplished also in his Humanity which David believed as verily should come to pass and foresaw by the eye of Faith as did Thomas when it was come to pass putting his hand into his side and crying My Lord and my God so saith David here my Lord The Lord said unto my Lord c. I say this article of our Faith as touching his Ascension it followeth necessarily to be concluded upon his Resurrection it needeth no other proof For that whosoever seeth and acknowledgeth that Jesus being dead could raise himself to life again will easily believe also that he was able to ascend up to heaven at his pleasure And hereof we have also all his Apostles and Disciples for witnesses eye witnesses in whose presence and sight he ascended as it is in that place They looked stedfastly towards heaven as he went and in witness thereof gave up their lives and sealed the same with their blood Therefore I conclude upon all these premisses so necessarily following and depending one upon another to wit his birth life doctrine actions death resurrection ascension seeing nothing hath hapned in the same which was not foretold by the Prophets of God nor any thing foretold by the same Prophets concerning the Messiah which was not fulfilled most exactly in the person of our Saviour We may most certainly assure our selves that as God is truth and therefore can neither foretel an untruth nor yeild testimony to the same so it cannot be but that these things which have been shewed to be so manifestly fore prophesied and so evidently accomplished in the person of this our blessed Lord and Saviour must needs I say assure us Christians that he was indeed the true Messiah and quite confound the Jews in their vain imagination and expectation of another The sending of the holy Ghost with the first Plantation and wonderful increase of the Church NOw for those things that followed after his Ascension as arguments and effects of his Divine power they were also foretold by the Prophets to wit the sending of the holy Ghost that Comforter from on high with the sudden strange and miraculous increase of his Church throughout the world even against all worldly power and policy by the only power and ministry of his word confirmed with signs and wonders that followed wrought by his Apostles Disciples and other his faithful servants and witnesses in the Primitive Church then the which there can be no greater argument in the world of the truth of Christian Religion if we consider how all other Religions in the world have grown and been maintained by force of Arms Fire and Sword this only by the preaching of Christ crucified in all Nations hath encreased and multiplyed and shal do more and more to the end of the world this must increase all others decrease howsoever the Turks have possessed the greatest part of the world at this day yet our Saviours prophesie in the end shall be found true this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached throughout the whole world for a witness unto all Nations Now for the first increase of it How small a number were there gathered together after the ascension at Jerusalem from whence they were to march even the twelve Apostles no great army God wot to conquer the world as it is in that place The Law shall go forth from Zion and the Word of God from Jerusalem There was the Rendevous there they stayed there they rested there they continued in prayer and fasting till such time as Christ after his ascension according to his promise sent them the Comforter even the holy Ghost enduing them with power from on high and arming them at all points for so great a work When and where being gathered together all with one accord in one place suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a mighty wind and filled all the house where they sate And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like fire and it sate upon each of them and they were all filled with the holy Ghost and began to speak with other Tongues as there is mentioned And with these fiery cloven tongues these twelve silly souls without any means men money or munition in a very short time conquered a great part of the world insomuch that at one Sermon of S. Peter at the same time there were added to the Church three thousand souls and so multiplyed successively from time to time and from place to place spreading it self from one Country to another and from one Nation to another and so at length into all Nations There is neither Speech nor Language where their voice is not heard Their line is gone forth through all the earth and their words into the ends of the world as we see it is come to pass this day Of which coming of the holy Ghost in the time of the Messiah Joel prophesied saying And it shall be in the last days that I will pour out my spirit c. and on my servants and on my handmaids I will pour out my spirit c. It filled all the house where they sate and it sate upon each of them and they were all filled with the holy Ghost Here is a deluge of Gods grace poured upon the world immediately upon the ascension of our Lord and Saviour First upon his Apostles and Disciples of those times in greater measure as the first fruits of his spirit by the which they wrought miracles spake all manner of languages healed all manner of diseases cast out Divels raised the dead and lastly sealed the same with their blood Poor Fishermen and such like of no reputation in the world without learning without credit without means as before yet by this means conquered the world to the subjection of their master Christ that stone cast aside of the Builders but now become the head-stone of the corner this the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes The sincerity of the Evangelists NOw for the Evangelists or writers of the Gospel that is to say the registers of his Birth Life Doctrine and Death It is to be noted that our Saviour being God took a different way from the custome of man in delivering unto us his Laws and Precepts For that men who have been law-makers unto the world

this Jesus we could never obtain any profit by our gods Thus much confessed this Patron of Paganism concerning the maim that his gods had received by the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ which albeit he spake with a malicious mind to bring Christians in hatred yet is the confession notable and confirmeth that story which Plutarch in his forenamed Book doth report That in the latter yeers of the reigne of the Emperour Tiberius a strange voice and exceeding horrible clamour with hideous cries screetches and howlings were heard by many in the Grecian Sea complaining That the great God Pan was now departed And this affirmeth Plutarch that was a Gentile to have been alledged and approved before the Emperour Tiberius who marvelled greatly thereat and could not by all his Diviners and Soothsayers whom he called to that consultation gather out any reasonable meaning of this wonderful accident But we Christians comparing the time wherein it hapned unto the time of Christ his death and passion and finding the same fully to agree we may more then probably perswade our selves that by the death of their great god Pan which signifieth all was imported the utter overthrow of all wicked Spirits and Idols upon earth according to that Vision of our Lord and Saviour before mentioned I saw Sathan like lightning fall down from heaven c. and again in another place Now is the judgement of this world now shall the Prince of this world be cast out even this great god Pan who in another place is called the god of this world the Prince that ruleth in the Ayr and therefore may well be said by our Saviour to fall down from heaven being before time worshipped in those Idols Oracles and heathenish Prophanations as a God in all the world and exalted as it were into the highest heavens But behold as Dagon that Idol of the Philistims fell flat on his face and that twice his head and hands dismembred before the Ark of God in Ashdod so did Sathan this great god Pan the god of this world the Prince of the Ayr c. let me give the Divel his due yea rather more then his due as doth the holy Scripture so did Sathan I say immediately upon the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ into this world and preaching of his Gospel the Ark of his everlasting Covenant fall flat on his face to the ground his head and hands dismembred according to that first promise and covenant to our first parents which was this that he to wit the Messiah should break the Serpents head c. which he had done not only in his own person by subduing Sathan with all his whole legions of Divels and Powers infernal trampling them under his feet but also in his members to whom he gave like authority as before he gave them power and authority over all Divels yea over all the power of the enemy which argueth again the power and omnipotency of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who not only in his own person here on earth but also in his servants disciples and followers was able to conquer and subdue even the Divels themselves as they themselves acknowledge Jesus I acknowledge and Paul I know c. And thus much of the subjection of Spirits The punishment of Enemies NOw resteth this his Divine Power and Omnipotency yet further to be manifested by another consideration of his Justice and severity shewed from heaven upon divers his greatest enemies here on earth after his departure out of this world as we may read in Josephus of Herod the first who persecuted Christ even in his cradle and slew all those Infants in and about Bethlehem and that other Herod Tetrarch of Galilee who put John Baptist to death and scorned Jesus before his passion himself scorned afterwards by the Emperour and disgracefully sent into exile first to Lions in France and after that to the most desert and inhabitable places in Spain where he with Heredias wandred up and down in extream calamity all their life time and finally ended their days as forlorn and abandoned of all men In which misery also it is recorded that the dancing daughter of Herodias who demanded John Baptists head being on a time to pass over a frozen River suddenly the Ice brake and she in her fall had her head cut off by the same Ice without hurting the rest of her body So likewise it is recorded in the Acts of Herod Agrippa Who stretched forth his hand to vex certain of the Church killed James the brother of John with the sword and imprisoned Peter how immediately thereupon as it is in that chapter going down to Cesarea he was there in a solemn assembly striken from heaven with a most horrible disease whereby his body putrified and was eaten of worms as also Josephus maketh mention Pilate that gave sentence of death against our Lord and Saviour we read that after great disgrace received in Jurie he was sent home into Italy and there slew himself with his own hands And of the very Emperors themselves who lived from Tiberius under whom Jesus suffered unto Constantine the great under whom Christian Religion took Dominion over the world which contained the space of some three hundred years or thereabouts very few or none escaped the manifest scourges of Gods dreadful justice shewed upon them at the knitting up of their days Whereas since the time of Constantine whiles Emperors have been Christians as one hath observed few or no such examples can be shewed except upon Julian the Apostata Valens the Arrian heretick or some other of like detestable and notorious wickedness And thus much of particular men chastised by Jesus But if we desire to have a full example of his justice upon a whole Nation together let us consider what befel Jerusalem and the people of that place for their barbarous cruelty practised upon him in his death and Passion And if we believe Josephus and Phylo the Jewish Historiograpers who lived in those times it can hardly be expressed by the tongue or pen of man what insufferable calamities and miseries were inflicted upon that people presently after his ascension first of all by Pilate their Governour under Tibarius and then again by Petronius under Caligula after that by Cumanus under Claudius and lastly by Festus and Albious under Nero through whose cruelties that Nation was enforced at last to rebel and take arms against the Roman Empire which was the cause of their utter ruine and extirpation by Titus and Vespasian At what time besides the overthrow of their City burning of their Temple and other infinite distresses which Josephus an eye witness protesteth that no speech or discourse humane can declare the same Author likewise recordeth eleven hundred thousand persons to have been slain and fourscore and seventeen thousand taken alive who were either put to death afterward in publike Tryumphs or sold