Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	king_n	law_n	majesty_n	3,064	5	5.9700	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45352	A sermon preach'd in the cathedral and metropolitical church of St. Peter in York on Friday the fifth of November, 1697 being the anniversary-day of thanksgiving for that great deliverance from the gunpowder-treason, and also the day of His Majesty's happy landing in England : with a postscript and two letters, which clearly discover the Roman designs against the English church and nation / by George Halley ...	Halley, George, 1655 or 6-1708.	1698 (1698)	Wing H456; ESTC R40936	15,514	33

most refined Policy that can outvy the Strength of Heaven This the Hellish Projecters of the Gun-Powder-Treason found to be infallibly true the Arch-Plotter Garnet a perfect Achitophel a Man that could give and hide his Counsel as deep as Hell with whom his Friends would embark in any design tho' never so black and dangerous yet how far infatuated was this cunning Politician Alas he consider'd not that some of the Conspirators who were willing to work a publick Mischief for his Pleasure might also have a Desire to secure their private Friends from Danger by giving them some general or ambiguous Admonition And indeed that one of them should hint in a Letter to his honourable Friend the instant Danger was not extraordinary save only in this that so much Tenderness of Heart so much good Nature could be left in his Breast who had consented to his Country's Ruine It is really prodigiously strange that such a Man should put on the Bowels of Compassion for a private Friend as had design'd his Country's perpetual Desolation Where was then this Piety Where was then this Religious Affection Alas all Nature all Humanity all Respect of Laws both Divine and Humane were then quite abandoned there was then no Conscience made to extirpate the whole Nation and all for a pretended Zeal to the Catholick Religion Can this be the Christian Religion No the essential Mark the proper Character of the Christian Religion is Love and Charity This is a Religion which hath all of the Dove and nothing of the Vulture in it which is Wisdom from above which is first pure and then peaceable it is a charitable Religion and none can justly pretend to it whose Doctrines are Earthly Sensual and Devilish who breathe nothing but Curses and Slaughters who hold it lawful to destroy all such as differ from them in Matters of Faith to extirpate by Fire and Sword all such as worship God after the Way which they call Heresie and such are the bloody Principles of the Roman Religion Principles diametrically opposite to the Doctrine and Practice of the Author of the Christian Religion the ever Blessed Jesus He came into the World to save and not to destroy the Lives of Men But alas the Papists are for sending Men out of the World in a fiery Chariot for illuminating our Understandings with Fire and Faggot The Marian Persecution is a Demonstration of their Cruelty and the same dismal Tragedy would have been acted over again had not God sent us a Deliverer who deliver'd us from so great a Death Thus I say there was then no Conscience made to extirpate a whole Nation and all for a pretended Zeal to the Catholick Religion a horribly mistaken blind Zeal a Zeal not at all according to Knowledge Alas They know not what manner of Spirit they are of But God deliver'd the King the Queen the tender Princes the Nobles the whole Kingdom from their design'd Destruction God deliver'd them from so great a Death Death How exorbitant was that Death in its Nature How transcendently wicked in its Design How barbarous and unnatural Such a prodigious Cruelty as is beyond the Example of former Ages as is not to be parallell'd in all the voluminous Records of time from the Beginning of the World The Plot was deeply laid it was hatch'd and contriv'd in the dark they kept it secret every Man in the Deep of his Heart and not without Ceremonies of Religion Ay they swore by the Blessed Trinity and by the Holy Sacrament never to disclose it directly nor indirectly by Word or Circumstance But by the good Providence of God it was proclaim'd upon the House-tops A most wonderful Proclamation and never enough to be reflected upon with Praise and Thanksgiving such a Discovery as Bellarmin himself confesses to have been miraculous Had it taken effect as it was just ripe for Execution my Blood chills I tremble to think of the dismal Consequences of it We had then been depriv'd of King Queen Princes and all the Nobility It would have been a most miserable Desolation How would this poor Church and Nation have laid a bleeding Peace and Happiness would presently have taken the Wing and flown from this British Isle there would then have been nothing but intestine War Bloodshed and the greatest Confusion Never did the Ear of Man hear of such a Conspiracy before The highest Treason that could ever be imagin'd by any who either made or writ of Laws was Crimen laesae Majestatis the violating the Majesty of the Prince But the Gunpowder-Treason wants a Name sufficient to express it it tended not only to the Hurt but to the Death of the King and not to the Death of the King only but of his whole Kingdom to the Destruction of the beautiful Frame the Dissolation of the Noble Fabrick of this Ancient Famous and Flourishing Monarchy even the Deletion of our whole Name and Nation No Mantle of Holiness can cover such a Treason no Pretence of Religion can excuse it God and Heaven condemn it all Souls of a truly Christian Temper and Disposition must detest and abhor it Six and Thirty Barrels of Powder with Bars of Iron Stones and Wood upon them What a great Breach what a fiery Tempest what a Motion and Commotion of Earth and Air would there have been But God deliver'd our Ancestors from so great a Death But Secondly God doth still deliver from Death Ay God hath lately deliver'd us their Posterity from Death and Destruction It is not many Years ago since we had a sad and melancholy Prospect of Affairs it is not long since a thick and black Cloud hung over our Heads which in all probability would have broke and pour'd down upon us a Deluge of Waters if it had not been timely dispell'd by the comfortable Appearance of a Bright and Glorious Star in our Hemisphere by the happy Arrival of King William upon this Day I need not acquaint you how our Popish Enemies attempted to destroy both our Laws and Religion It was an excellent Reply which an ancient and eminent Serjeant at Law gave the King when he complemented him upon his Arrival His Majesty told him he had out-liv'd most of his Profession and he truly answer'd that if his Majesty had not come over he should have out-liv'd the Law it self We flatter'd our selves indeed with a Belief that it was impossible to have the Popish Religion ever introduced here because a thing so absolutely against the English Constitution that let the Principles of the Prince be what they would the Administration of the Laws must of necessity run in the same Channel he found them in But we soon saw how the Course of the River was forc'd and the Stream turn'd so as to run over our Soul we were quickly made sensible of our gross Mistake and Delusion we presently understood that there is no Government too hard for a Jesuit to cut in sunder no Constitution so strong as to wrestle