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	subject_n	4,732	5	6.6515	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35517	A discourse shewing that kings have their being and authority from God that therefore good kings when dead are lamented, that all while living are to be obeyed, and that treason and rebellion are punishable both in this and the next world : preached the Sunday following the news of the death of ... Charles the Second / by John Curtois ...	Curtois, John, 1650 or 51-1719.	1685 (1685)	Wing C7700; ESTC R17308	19,772	38

gentle but also to the froward for this is thankworthy if a man for Conscience toward God endure Grief suffering wrongfully For what glory is it if when ye be buffeted for your faults ye shall take it patiently But if when ye doe well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God And then he proposeth Christ as the great pattern and exemplar for it For even hereunto were ye called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffer'd threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously And both St. Peter and St. Paul with all the other Apostles acted answerably to this Doctrine and their Master's example This we are ascertain'd from their Acts recorded by St. Luke and from other Histories of their Lives The Governours of the Church that followed the Apostles in the first Centuries and so had reason to understand their Doctrine best exactly transcrib'd this Copy publickly teaching and practising the same Euseb l. 3. c. 36. p. 108. ed S. Polycar Ibid. l. 4. c. 15. p. 132. Cypr. ad Demetr Ep. 83. §. 2. All the weapons they used themselves in desence against the severity of the Pagan Emperours and all they taught to be used by every Christian were their Prayers Fasting and Tears And so it came to pass that when Christianity had gain'd ground on Heathenism and was so far advanc'd in the Empire that the Christians equall'd if not exceeded the Heathens in number and courage Tertul. Apol. c. 37. p. 30. Naz. in vec 1. in Jul. p. 94. they generally valued their Faith and Allegiance more than their lives and chose rather to open their Breasts to the point of the Emperour's Sword Just Mart. Apol. 2. Vsser ep Ign. p. 9. Lactan. de Just l. 5. c. 13. p. 495. Tertul. ad Scap. c. 1. p. 72. than lift up their own against his Their Persecutors in the heat of their Cruelty saw this and confess'd it And the Apologists for Christanity rejoyc'd and glory'd in it as one great cause of the propogation of their Religion Agreeably to these first and purest Ages of Christianity the Church of England teacheth her Children not to resist or rebell against their Prince This she doeth very copiously and strenuously in her Homily against Disobedience and Rebellion set forth in the Reign of Q. Elizabeth Which because she doth so largely there insist upon it I shall rather chuse to refer you to for your better satisfaction than mention any particulars from it It was necessary this Doctrine should be vehemently press'd in the days of that Queen because there were then a company of men started up that began to corrupt and ridicule it Bell. de Rom. Pontif. l. 3. c. 9. l. 5. c. 7. Knox to Eng. and Scot. p. 78. Hist p. 343. Buch. de jure Regn. p. 61. Bp. Bancrost danger Positions such as Bellarmine the Romanist the two Presbyterian Scots Knox and Buchanan and our first Nonconforming Divines men who as the Apostle saith of some other enemies of the Truth could not but be willingly ignorant But they had the Luceferian Ambition to be above all that are called Gods to be Kings themselves and therefore had brazen'd their Foreheads and were resolv'd to say any thing that would serve their designs in dethroning the Rightfull Sovereign And indeed there is nothing in the World could doe it more effectually than this for the Subject being once persuaded of the Lawfulness of Resisting his Prince any little humour or passion any private grudge or animosity would be soon heated into open Rebellion And so it follow'd the viperous progeny of these men in after years improv'd and promoted their Fathers principles They sate brooding a while upon that Cocatrice's Egg and then Rebellion and Regicide sprang from it The Malecontented people did actually rebel and King Charles I. was murthered And not satisfied with that the same men have with the same Trumpet of late sounded another Alarm to Battel And therefore it is but necessary that the Clergy of the Church of England should as loudly sound a Retreat by proclaiming the duty of Nonresistence and Passive Obedience And it is their glory and their honour that they doe so because they are hereby true to God the King and the Church Speech concerning Bill of Exclusion printed for Baldwin Notwithstanding some of the Excluding Speech-makers cast it into their Teeth as their shame and reproach The shame be onely theirs that contrary to Oaths and protestations throw dirt in the face of their Venerable Mother and for no other reason malign their Spiritual Guides but because they tell them the Truth That of St. Paul is very Applicable to them 2 Tim. 3.8 As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the Truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the Faith but they shall proceed no farther for their folly shall be manifested unto all men as theirs also was I will say no more than that the very Heathens will rise up in judgment against the men of this leaven Tac. Hist l. 4. c. 8. For Marcellus told the Romans that Subjects might wish for good Princes but ought to bear with any And Pliny That as mem are Reverent in their behaviour when they converse with God Praef. ad Admiran Rom. so ought they to be in their deportment to their King And as the Supreme part of the World is above the disturbance of the lower Regions so the Courts of Princes are not to be profan'd with the rude approaches of their people L. 2. exem Po. c. 16. So Sacred and revereable was the Person of a King among the Antient Heathens by the mere light of natural Religion After all this some perhaps may Quaere in particular What if Our King should actually endeavour to destroy the Religion that is now by Law Establish'd or punish us for the open profession of it might we not then Lawfully take up Arms and list up our hands against him in defence of Religion To this I cannot answer better than in the words of the Learned Dean of Canterbury viz. Letter to late Lord Russel That the Christian Religion doth plainly forbid the resistence of Authority That though our Religion be Established by Law yet in the same Law that Established our Religion it is declared that it is not lawfull upon any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King Besides that there is a particular Law declaring the power of the Militia to be soley in the King and that tyes the hands of Subjects though the Law of Nature and the General Rules of Scripture had left us at liberty which I believe they doe not because the Government and peace of Humane Society could not well subsist upon those Terms Thus the

he hath are Antecedent Both the Crowning and Proclaming of him are onely Publick Declarations that he is by Birth-Right in Lawfull Possession of it And if he should not observe his Coronation Oath who shall say to him thou art wicked and ungodly What Law is there that can reach his Sacred Person Or what particular man or company of men can exhibit a Commission from God to judge and condemn him But I shall prosecute this Argument no farther Enough is said to convince any reasonable man Thus I have made it clear to you that all Kings or other Supreme Governours of Nations are Ordained of God and owe their Sovereignty to God and God onely by what ways or methods soever they be invested with it whether by Conquest Election or Inheritance And that the King of England in particular who Reigneth over us by the indisputable Right of Inheritance is as truly God's Minister and Vicegerent as any other Prince can be knowing no Superiour but God Let us now draw an Inference or two from the premisses First Kings having their Being from God when God takes away from a Nation a Good and Gratious King one that Rules as well after his Example and Will as by his Power it becomes matter of publick mourning and lamentation Cruelty and Oppression are things so odious in their Nature and so mischievous in their consequences being as prolifick of evils as Pandora's Box Murther Depopulation and a long c. attending that a Tyrannical Prince soon groweth uneasie to his people the men as wicked as himself are weary of him impatient for his death curse and abhor him wish and conspire his ruine And though the good man dares not doe this because his Religion will not suffer it yet upon his fall he lifts up his eyes to Heaven and blesseth God for the deliverance whilst he hates the Treason Whereas on the contrary Love and Clemency and all the other Qualities of a Godlike Prince are so amiable and attractive so productive of publick benefits peace and plenty and every thing that conduces to make a Nation happy that when these are manifested the people rejoyce in their Prince while Living as the Light of their eyes and the Breath of their Nostrils they love him as their Father and depend upon him as their Saviour The profane equally with the pious are ready to rise up and call him blessed to esteem his Life worth ten thousand of their own and to offer up themselves and all they have in defence of his Royal Person But when God who gave them this blessing from Heaven is pleas'd to call it thither again than these Great Rejoycings are immediately converetd into sorrows as excessive They look upon their Prince indeed to be happy but upon themselves to be forlorn and miserable And therefore as Rachel when she had lost the Darlings of her Affections they grieve and will not be comforted till Nature hath had her Fill of Grief or the sorrow be in some good measure proportionate to the loss This hath been the general sense of the World from the beginning of it The antient Jews and Christians and Heathens also give Testimony to it When Moses died the Children of Israel wept for him in the plains of Moab thirty days Deut. 34. The visible assurance they had of the continuance of God's special care over them the Divine Accomplishments of Joshuah his Successour their earnest expectations of Canaan could not divert that mighty sorrow which they had conceived at the death of this excellent Prince who had preserv'd and brought them through the perils of the Wilderness to the confines of the promis'd Land So at the death of their King Josiah all Judah and Jerusalem mourned 2 Chron. 35.2 And Jerimiah lamented for Josiah and all the singing men and singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations and made them an ordinance in Israel and behold they are written in their lamentations He had purged their Religion from all Heathenish superstitions he had repair'd their Temple and restor'd the Worship of it to its primitive purity and so had endear'd them to God and himself And they thought in return they could do nothing too much to perpetuate the memory of his Goodness And therefore besides their mournfull Elegies at his Funeral they transmitted their Griefs to posterity in a Book of Lamentations Upon the death of Constantine the Great in Nicomedia Zuing. Theatr. Vol. 1. l. 1. p. 97. the first Christian Emperour who had not onely embrac'd Christianity himself but had industriously promoted it throughout the Empire his Souldiers were so overcome with sorrow that they tore their Cloaths cast themselves prostrate upon the ground dashing their Heads against the wall omitting no outward expression of Grief that a sorrowfull heart could dictate crying out in dolefull Accents that they had lost a Protectour a Guardian and a Father The Citizens at the same time as men out of their wits ran howling about the streets not able to suppress their Grief within Others as men amaz'd walk'd silently about with their Heads hanging down all complaining that they were no longer possessours of the comforts of this life And answerable to this were the sorrows of the Senate and People of Rome for his death At the Relation of it their Baths were shut up their Markets and Plays unfrequented and their publick sports and pleasures and days of Festivity neglected They could find no Alleviation to their Grief but by painting him above the Firmamental Regions partaking with other blessed Souls of Heavenly Glory and by petitioning his Son Constantius that they might have the Honour of interring his Remains at Rome And the like were the Resentments of the Roman Senate for Titus Vespasian Id. p. 98. one of their Heathen Emperours a Prince so universally fam'd for his Vertues that his Motto was Princeps bonus Orbis amor upon the news of his death they rushed into the Curia and there bewail'd their loss of him in Panegyrical Orations and could not be satisfied till they had decreed him the honour of an Apotheosis till they had Deisy'd and plac'd him amongst the rest of their Supernal Gods whence they might hope for some sarther Experiments of his favour and protection To name no more this is a Truth that our own experience testifies How grievous hath the Death of our Late Sovereign been to every one of us How full of surprize and sadness was the news of it At its first Reception we look'd as half Dead our selves and stood staring upon one another as men at our wits end Every eye was ready to drop a tear and every heart to breath a sigh I think I may truly say never was King of England so generally and so heartily lamented And is was no more than was due to a Prince so extraordinary Good as he was a Prince that exceeded all others in a benign and gratious Government a Prince to say all of him we can