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	parliament_n	7,328	5	6.6868	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57541	Sagrir, or, Doomes-day drawing nigh, with thunder and lightening to lawyers in an alarum for the new laws, and the peoples liberties from the Norman and Babylonian yokes : making discoverie of the present ungodly laws and lawyers of the fourth monarchy, and of the approach of the fifth, with those godly laws, officers and ordinances that belong to the legislative power of the Lord Iesus : shewing the glorious work incumbent to civil-discipline, (once more) set before the Parliament, Lord Generall, army and people of England, in their distinct capasities, upon the account of Christ and his monarchy / humbly presented to them by John Rogers ...	Rogers, John, 1627-1665?	1654 (1654)	Wing R1815; ESTC R17577	155,416	182

Right and Rise to the Common Lawes So in Synod August c. 19. Qui just as non solvant decimas ter moniti iis neganda communio Those that after thrice admonition pay not their full Tithes deny them the communion so that they had such Lawes to give them their pretended right and to punish the refusers which Prelates punctually observed yea Littleton himselfe sayes Sect. 5. 28. the Ordinaries give the grant of Tithes yea Anno 1538 K. H. 8. made this positive Law That whoever denied to pay his Tithes should be made to doe it by the Parsons or Vicars c. at their Ordinaries Hence were such cruel Bishops Court so that the Kings Lawes were but to help the Whore herein being besotted with the wine of her fornication Revel 17. 2. Thus wee have proved Tithes fallen with the Bishops Ecclesiasticall Courts Ans. 2. Ex objecto The Lawes which they plead and pretend for Propriety look on such only as were ordained according to the Popish Cannons then in force when those Lawes were made but the present Clergy dis-owne those Cannons and Ordination ergo the Lawes that referre thereto That they dis-owne that Ordination and those Cannons none can deny the Presbyterians practise an Ordination being openly contrary thereunto though indeed as Popish and soppish as theirs The major is easily proved Judge Dier quoted by Sir H. Spelman Lord chiefe Justice of the Common Pleas H. 8. fol. 58. p. 3. avers it a horrible thing for persons though religious to take Tithes and not ordained i e. according to the then Cannons to give the Sacraments and read Divine Service c. he instances in Appropriations now as we say it is an horrible thing to be so ordained so we say also to take the Tithes which are given by the Lawes and to such so ordained and therefore ought to be abolished But this sayes Master Lambert an eminent Lawyer in his Preamble of Kent It is one of the monstrous births of Covetousnesse that came from the man of Rome in the night of Superstition So Serjeant Rastal in verbo Appropriation sayes It is a wicked and unlawfull thing for any Lay-men or one un-ordained by the Bishops to hold Tithes c. So Sir Edward Cooke before and the severall Councels say the same and those very Lawes which the Lawyers brought before the Committee to plead for Parsons right give right to none else but such so ordained as their Magna Charta 28 of Edw. 1. c. 13 the 27 of H. 8. the 31 32. Stat. and the first of Edw. 6. ch 13. c. Thus it appeareth that these Lawes look not on this Clergy Ans. 3. A Fine from the end of all honest Lawes which must be preferred before the Letter of the Lawes viz. the publick good and freedome of the People Those Lawes lye forfeited to the State that are against the Publick good and freedome of the People but these Lawes for Tithes are against the Publicke good for they are a Publick evil and freedome of for they are an oppression to the People therefore their end being voyd they must be voyd and lye forfeited to the State vide Chap. 4. Ans. 4. From the foundation of the Lawes which ought to be the eternal Law of God ch 4. So far Moralists reach as Tully Plutarch Suarez Plato c. So the School-men say that all Lawes must fetch their radicall force and vertue from Gods as Prov. 8. 15. By me they decree Justice c. Now there is no Law of God that requires to maintaine the Ministers of the Gospel by Tithes but the contrary for Hebr. 7. 12. The Priesthood being changed the Law of Tithes that kept it up is changed with it But Doct. Seaman wil not that they be called New-Testament Ministers but he hath told the Committee the Ministers of the Nation and the State i. e. for Tithes-sake and Masterships of Colledges so that their foundation-lesse Lawes cannot stand to give them a right no more then a Caligula's Law could to make his Horse Incitatus a Priest This businesse of Tithes the Protestants of old ingaged against the Papists in And we shal finde the Civil Power hath pulled downe such groundlesse Lawes as these they pretend to of old as Constantine Lib. 1. tit 14. leg 1. who tooke away the goods of the Priests as forfeited to the State for their Idolatry So Theodosius Leg. 5. he was zealous against their superstitious Publick places of worshipping he required them to be joyned to his Treasuries So when Symmachus said O! the Emperours have taken away the Priests revenues Ambrose answers Sublata sunt praedia c. They are aprey to the State for that they did irreligiously use that they tooke under pretext of religion so are Tithes now which are taken under pretence of Gods Worship and Law but they keep up Idolatry Superstition Service-Booke hence lyes Drunkennesse Malignancy and Popery and what not that is Antichristian o● Prophane among the Nationall Clergy especially in the Countries a hundred or two hundred miles off Therefore there is as much yea more reason for the down-fall of this Devillish not Divine as now it is maintenance as was for the fall of Abbies Monasteries or the like which had as good Lawes to keep them up as Tithes now have In Augustines time there was no compelling to pay Tithes who was content with the 1000th part and to lick up the Peoples crums for their good The Bohemians have protested against Tithes in 15 Art and say The Priests preach that men are bound to pay Tithes but they say falsly for there is no proof for it in the New Testament that Christ commanded it or the Disciples tooke it c. So the Muscovites say Sacerdotes ex contributione sustentantur c. and many others therefore their present Lawes for Tithes being without foundation of God must fall and lye forfeited to the State that stands for God as unlawfull reasonlesse and religion-lesse Lawes The 6th and 16th Article against Wickliffe Martyr was his opinion in this that the Civill Magistrate might alter or take away such maintenance from the Spiritualty so called that offended habitualiter as these doe Secular Lawes are but the materials or the hempe of our obedience Religion twists them strong to last The worke that lyes before this Parliament is as to the Lawes themselves as well as to the Tithes the omission of which made their Predecessors the former Parliament to be rejected and these to be called of God and as soon as they were set to have this Work of Lawes and Tithes first presented to them that they might begin where the other left off and goe on where the other stumbled and fell which if these also doe the Lords work negligently deceitfully and but by halves their rejection wil be the more to their reproach and shame then the former

godly people have their rights of a free choise of another Representative in their stead that will doe better and more righteous things for the People and this priviledge the people may freely seeke by peaceable means to enjoy and challenge as their right If these in this Representative should wrong or yet rob us of our Rights and Priviledges or act against the publicke good Seeing the People have the right and originall power as was declared in the last Parliaments Declaration after the cutting off of the King for his tyranny of chusing their own Rulers Thus the States or Princes of the people met at Mispah to chuse Saul 1 Sam. 20. 18. so 1 Sam. 11. 14. which was confirmed to him by the people at Jabesh-Gilead so was David first in Hebron and after in Judah by the generall suffrage of the people In this sence saies Hushai to Absolom 2 Sam. 16. 18. Nay but whom the Lord and this people and all the men of Israel shall chuse his will I be and with him will I abide Yea we read how the Heathen people had learned this lesson by the light of nature to chuse their own Governors Thus Cicero saies 1. de offic that Deioces from a Judge of private controversies was for his uprightnesse chosen by the whole people of the Medes for their Supream Governor and Livy tels us the like how their Governors and Senators were chosen by the people and upon their defaults how they set up others and put them out Hence Tarquinus Superbus was esteemed a Tyrant being neither chosen by the people nor the Senate but intruding And thus wee might goe on to show the people had ever the right of chusing their own Governors therefore they have the priviledge orderly to declare against their male-administrations and to use all means that may be to remove them that are retrograde to the publicke good that others may succeed who are more sensible of our bondage and tyranny And this I say that the people have a defensive force of armes to preserve their Rights and Liberties with from those tyrannies and oppressions of their Rulers as would wrong them of them and wring them from them yea moreover if it be by consent of the publick and not upon discontent of a few private hot-brain'd spirits the people generally concurring may decline obedience to those Governors that have or hold them in slavery under Laws against the publick good whether as in relation to liberty of Conscience or liberty of the Subject with reference to Gods Laws or the Peoples Thus Libna withdrew obedience from Jehoram King of Judah 1 Chron. 6. 17. 2 Chron. 21. 10. for abandoning the Laws of God and the People So when Antiochus by his tyrannicall Laws required the Jews to imbrace his Religion and thereby robbed them of all the Laws of God and their own Laws We finde Mattathias resolute to resist and he saies to the King We will not obey nor will we doe any thing contrary to our Religion But he took up armes got into the mountains gathered Troops and waged war against Antiochus for Religion and Laws and Liberties of the people the Jewes Yea we shall find Debora raise under the conduct of Barac an Army for the Laws and Liberties of Israel yea when many of the Tribes thought not of Liberty as Reuben Dan Asher Benjamin and Ephraim and were against it too and adhered to the Tyrant and tyrannies of Jabin by a few out of Z●bulon Nepthalie and Issachar they overthrew Sisera and restored the people to their just Rights and Priviledges Now these are so far from being Adversaries to the Publick that have a publick call thus to do that they are her faithfull Friends and Servants that seek to defend her Rights and Liberties though it be a disobedience to usurping or tyrannicall powers but be sure they have a clear call upon the publick account before they appear so then let them be on the defensive side too as for their own Fourthly Let our Countrymen know that this conquest hath been altogether upon the peoples account i. e. for their just Rights Laws and Liberties now is it not fit for them to demand their own will they loose their own for want of humble asking or honest acting The children of Sophocles would have impeached and impleaded their Father for an old Dotard but Sophocles brings forth a book of his own writing which was ful of Ingenuity Art and Reason and bids his Judges see by that whether he were a Dotard or no So let other Nations see by something or other that we are past children and fools to loose our Liberties and Rights any longer therefore for Christs sake and the Countries let us use all honest and lawfull means to take possession of our owne and pull them out of the hands of the Norman Tyrants and Intruders Where be the faithfull Commonwealths-men that call for their Liberties and Laws as was before William the Conqueror are any of them left alive The Host of Nola in the story being commanded by the Roman Censor to goe and call the good men of the City to appear before him went to the Church-yard and there called at the Graves of the dead Ho! O yee good men of Nola come away the Censor calls for your appearance for I know not where any good men are left alive I think we may go so to the graves of some faithfull Commonwealths-men and say O hasten out of your graves for we know not where to finde such faithfull ones for the Peoples Liberties left alive for where are they that will stand up for their Rights would we but joyn more magnanimously in a general issue herein some particular faithful ones would not be so much sufferers under the tyranny and cruelty of the Normans as they are whiles we sit still and say nothing O sad will not after ages blush at our folly doe we not say it is pitty but the prisoner should stay there and lye by it seeing he will not goe free when he may when his Irons are off and doors are open on purpose although it is true after a man hath his Reprive the dogged Keeper will make him wait and beg too long enough ere he sets him at liberty and lets his feet out of the Iron bolts and this I fear is our case too much but then le ts complain to the Supream Power of Heaven and sue them before him for our false imprisonments and bondage if they doe not deliver us and give us our Liberties upon our concurrent desires so to do Wherefore pluck up courage Countrymen and let us be no longer cheated with Lawyers or Oppressors Lastly Consider the daies entring in the fifth Chapter which will put a full period to all their Tyrannies and Usurpations CHAP. V. Of the FIFTH MONARCHY when and how and why with the alteration of all the LAWS and OFFICERS of the

27. and Noahs flood ver 38. and terrible to the enemies whose hearts faile them for fear But glorious to the Saints Mal. 4. 2 3. The wicked understand not this but the wise shall Dan. 10. 12. Thirdly Why this Fifth Monarchy hastens so Amongst other things I pick out two as First for the Redemption of the People Luk. 21. 28. lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh and the creature or the whole Creation groans for this liberty of the Sons of God Rom. 8. 20 21 22. and for this manifestation Because the creatures will then be freed from that bondage of corruption inutillty vanity and failing of their true end as Gellius hath it which they are now subject unto But our Redemption will be 1. From Ecclesiastick Bondage Decrees Councels Orders and Ordinances of Pope Priest Prelate or the like The whore shall be striped stark naked and made desolate Rev. 17. 16. and all the Statutes of Omri taken away Mic. 6. 16. 2 From Civil bondage and slavery or those bloody base unjust accursed tyrannicall Laws and sin-monopolizing Lawyers as now oppresse and afflict the people For the sighing of the poor and oppressed now will I arise saith the Lord. A Heathen said once Let Justice be done though the world perish for it But Jehovah saith now Justice shall be done though the world perish for it Then woe be to the Lawyers and Priests I meet with many old Prophesies of these daies as in the Oracles of the Sibyls there is one in lib. 3. p. 246 247. mentioned by John Opsopaeus that in the latter daies of Kings and Emperors Christ alone shall be the King and shall deliver his Subjects that have been captives under other Kings and Emperors and then shall there be good Laws and Religion together with Justice and Righteousnesse which shall come down from Heaven to visit men upon the Earth and the evill Religion which I thinke they meant the Popish and Antichristian that belongs to Babylon and Laws which surely relates to the Civill Laws by what followes with all envy hatred spight anger violence wrongs and deadly slaughter shall flie away with them from mortall men Woe be to the Lawyers then There is another Prediction by one Paracelsus a German Physitian which was long since presented to Ferdinand K. of the Romans and since to the Emperor which is this About 50 which I conceive he meant An. 1650 There will be a terrible Eclipse of the Sun together with great inundations or overflowings of waters and after that will be diverstumults seditions battels burnings and bloodsheddings to molest the Northerne Nations viz. Brabant Flanders Zealand and Holland especially and then will the Rosen Crown I suppose hee meant the English-Rose be ripe The Summer or hot weather i. e. the wars in these dayes that beareth this Rose is that contentious time wherein All shall be divided A sure argument then that that thing shall perish which man hath built upon the sand and then shall the sandy foundation i. e. in this Ecclesiasticall and Civill both be changed into a Rock where at all men shall wonder O the wonderfull things that ●re now to be done in these Nations he goes on very largely and foretels great calamities to France Flanders Zealand and Holland as never were and that it shall fall fiercely upon Spaine too insomuch as the Pomeg●anat meaning Spain shall be divided and the seeds thereof cast forth And thence he goes forward in his twelfth Prediction to the Pope and saies Behold thou hast placed thy selfe above God but now he will give thee thy reward thou soughtest worldly glory but now as worldly things perish so dost thou Those things shall befal thee which thou never lookedst ●or And then in his 31 Prediction by the image of four naked children embracing each other he saies Magnafutura est mutatio renovatio c. O! then enters the great change which shall be called the happy Reformation that followes which is without deceit arts subtleties but in plaine naked innocent Laws And this shall bee when 60. may be numbered from such a year I suppose he meant by An. 1660. And then he goes on in his 32. Prediction which bears the image of the Sun shining upon a man that is asleep to shew what glorious daies succeed to Church and State for ever after that Besides him we shall find Nostradamus in his 1. Century and 10. Quadr. tels us what troubles his poor Country France must be in and in 3. Cent. 9. 32. 38. 41. and so in 7. 34. he saies there shall be such sudden mutations that their Salique Law shall faile them and finishes his 38. Quadrin of his fifth Centurie thus Qu' en fin fauldra la loy Salique And that their divisions at home in their own Kingdome by their own Princes and Peers as it is now shall occasion the fall of their Crown the alteration of their State Lawes and Religion The Prediction saies thus Ie prevoy de grandes guerres des grandes effusions de sang à l' occasion des premiers du Royaume c. But Wolfius in his 13. Centenarie saies he had this too out of an old manuscript in the City of Auspurge beginning thus Praelia magnatum video cum sanguinis undâ c. And Nostradamus in Cent. 5. 9. 99. tels how the sword must begin the Reformation of Rom● and that it shall be ruled by the Brittains meaning our English Army Quand Rome aura le chef vieux Brittanique Thus one Joachim an Italian hath long since foretold too a man many honorable and learned men make much mention of as Paulius Aemilius c. in a certaine Book of pictured Prophecies in the second Prediction hee paints out the Pope thirsting for the blood of Christians and in the eighth Prediction saith of him Behold here the Husband of the Whore of Babylon and in 25. Prediction he saies Vae tibi Civitas Septicollis quando C. litera comminabitur moenibus tuis c. Woe to thee Rome when the letter C. perhaps the late Charles shall begin to ●ound within thy wals or else it may be Cromwel will give them an Alarme And after that he tels them that almost all Christian Princes and Nations shall unite to afflict them and become their enemies and turn out of the City the proud Prelates and Cardinals and take in in their roome the humble and more worthy And now proud Rome saies he ch 21. that saith I sit as a Queen I am not a widow neither shall I see sorrow c. The time is now come that that whorish Synagogue of Romish Prelates shall be stripped stark naked and their iniquities laid open For the LORD himselfe will arise in Judgement to destroy Babylon root and branch by the hand of the flying Power meaning England

to put a cause into their hands or to take one out of their hands though it goes well as we say on our side yet he that eat● their eggs will be sure to be poysoned Hence saye● the Prophet Vers. 7 8 9 10. Wasting and destruction are in their way there is no judgment in their goings they have made them crooked paths whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace Therefore is judgement far from us neither doth justice overtake us we wait for light but behold obscurity c. Vers. 15. Yea truth faileth and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey c. i. e. By these savage Beasts he shall be ruined and spoiled Now the righteous hateth lyers Prov. 13. 5. as well as the lyers or Lawyers hate those that are afflicted by them says Solomon Prov. 26. 28. And so sayes he in Prov. 6. 17 18 Six things doth the Lord hate yea seven are abomination to him First A proud look secondly A lying tongue thirdly Hands that shed innocent blood fourthly An heart that deviseth mischief fiftly Feet swift to it sixtly A false witness that will speak lies seventhly One that sows discord among Brethren Now the very children in the streets can easily understand all this in the Lawyers yea in their constant practises and can men of conscience fearing God any longer abide them that live so openly and notoriously by sin If the Governors will suffer this they have as much reason and Religion for it too to set up and suffer drunkenness whoredom or other sins in the sight of God and men in open Courts to be bought and sold at Westminster-hall or the Parliament door And I do beleeve it yea am sure of it that the Lord will by some sudden stroke declare as much to this Nation if this living by sin and these monopolizers of lying swearing cheating and oppressing be much longer continued up Therefore I take no great care concerning this matter for as a little before the ruine of Nineveh so now saith the Lord Wo wo wo be to you for you are full of lies and robberies and your prey departeth not Nahum 3. 1. Vers. 5 6 7 8. Behold I am against thee I will cast filth upon thee I will make thee vile and they that see it shall say Who will pity them I pray God then give our Governors Grace and Religion enough before this Decree come forth to declare and decree down these trades of sin for if both in the Law of God and Light of Nature it be abominable to commit adultery by open day light in Westminster-hall before all what is it then to plead a hundred lies in one morning is not lying a sin as well as whoring or what would you say to see a woman lie down to sin before a beast and will ye O ye Governors if ye fear God! will ye see hundreds of men every T●rm time to prostitute their souls and lie down to commit sin with Satan every morning next their heart too to engender and bring forth lies and many such mis-shapen Monsters as Robinson sayes in his Essayes p. 164. of the Devils own seed and begetting Every morning O how many are in travel to bring forth most monstrous foul sins in the open Courts and can an honest Parliament sit so ●igh them and own them if any object O but it is for the peoples good they speak like fools then for is sin for the good of the Nation then see Isai. 59. 2. and Jere. 5. 25. Or was it unlawful to commit fornication with the Moabites to draw them thereby to Religion or is it unlawful and wicked to steal from the rich to relieve the poor and yet not unlawful to trade in lies grant it were to do good This pretence of theirs makes them mock and merry at sin and they oftentimes do as beggers cover one patch with another and a lesser patch with a bigger But a servant of them a little honester then his master told him That if he did not couch his lies more close and make them more cleanly he should tell them himself for all him and a vouch them too for he did not like the trade Thus for this the people as religious are obliged to look and labor for the fall of this ungodly interest and trade 2. To heap up the measure of sins and make us ripe for judgments they cause much false-swearing and for-swearing by compelling the poor people to useless sinful and unnecessary oaths and making nothing many of them of an oath themselves which is horrible sinful and unsufferable For although there is a holy solemn kinde of swearing which is a part of Gods worship yet it is by the Name of the Lord Isa. 65. 16 not by Baal nor Malcham Zeph. 1. 5. nor by faith and troth which some are so prodigal of that swear all away nor yet by the Bible or kissing the Book Much less lawful is it to force any to an oath which is done daily by the Ceremonies of kissing the Book and laying on hands whereby the sacred Name of the most high God is greatly dishonored and prostituted to millions of filthy and unclean lips upon slight and sleeveless occasions O crying sin of taking God Name in vain for which I am sure He will not hold them guiltless Oaths ought to be never used but on holy-days and it were a thousand times better a mans ex●rements should run from him and he not know it then such oaths and he not minde them when he hath made them Lawyers many of them make as light of an oath as that Hoast did who told his Guest in Lent he might eat flesh in another Inn For Sir sayes he we are bound but they are but sworn Sometime since a Gentlewoman and Sister of mine was left a Widow to some considerable Estate and Goods but the Court requiring her to take oath that the Inventory was true she refused it as not onely scr●pelling that oath but any oath the Court perceiving her out of Conscience inflexible up starts one of the Lawyers who never saw her before nor since Ha! sayes he this Gentlewoman hath a nice conscience truly Come sayes he give me it give me the oath I will take it for her and so for fear of losing his fees if no oath had been taken he takes it at a venture though he knew nothing of the Inventory yet he would take his oath it was true and made no bones of it O! what brave desperadoes these Lawyers are they will make a notable sally for sinful fees then If Samson will set so on the City gates what withes can hold him and if these Lawyers dare venture so lustily upon oaths what Laws will hold them He that enters into a Statute conceives the extent of it to reach his Body Lands Goods Estate and all now an oath what is it but such a kinde of Statute entered into and acknowledged before