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	prince_n	queen_n	3,203	5	6.8163	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27586	A Catholick catechism shewing the impossibility the Catholick religion should be varied to the degree of a thought, from the measures left sealed by the apostles, without the loss of truth, and therefore the impossibility popery, or whatever else is not found in Scripture, should be Catholick : composed to the capacity of the meanest that will but consider, that they may know and be ready upon unmovable reasons, to give an apologie or defensive answer for the Catholick religion, if they are indeed of it, and be secured from temptation in times of danger.	Beverley, Thomas.	1683 (1683)	Wing B2128; ESTC R37094	96,192	164

Images of the most High in their Vicegerency according to what is said to them by Inspired Wisdom I have said ye are Gods and Sons of the Most High Quest But why hath it not pleased God to appear himself in this Authority and Power Visibly and Immediately which would cut off all Dispute as to Supreme Right and Male-Administration which do now often disturb the Peace of Government and the People under it or at least why hath he not given Angels a Superiority and Visible Presidency over Kingdoms as that which would much more awe and Compose the World Answ The Wisdom of God hath in all things appeared in attempering things one to another with greatest Equality So he hath thought fit in infinite Wisdom to Govern Men by Men. He hath Committed all Judgment to Christ because he is the Son of Man he will Judge the World at last by that Man whom he hath appointed Christ Jesus Thus he Governs Men all along by the Men of his Right-Hand as Images of himself but more immediately of Christ the Great Son of Man thus in his Word he speaks to Men by Men like themselves And as to the Conceit of Mankind Submitting with greater awe to a Government from Heaven it is but like that of having one from the Dead to speak to them when they have Moses and the Prophets by which if they are not persuaded neither would they be persuaded though one should rise from the Dead nor would they be Governed by one from Heaven that are not Governed by that Humane Majesty and Soveraignty Created by God on purpose for them as is most Evident in those many Rebellions of the People of Israel under so evident a Theocrasie or so immediate a Government of God Quest Is the Power of Magistrates only in those clear and undoubted points of Godliness Righteousness and Soberness Answ Because under the two latter of these there is a vast Compass of the Interests of the Peace and Weal and Honour of Nations in all Traffique and Commerce in provision for safety and security and adjusting of Laws to all these ends there must be a vast Compass also of Power in these extending to all Indifferent things Indifferent till they come to be determined by Princes and Powers but then by the Ordinance of God to be observed according to those Laws determining them this way or that way Quest But I desire you to give yet a closer and stricter Account of the Power of Soveraigns in Religion or Godliness being the main point of of the present Enquiry Answ That I may answer your desire I must consider Religion as it is Natural Religion written in the Hearts of Men as it is Revealed Religion published by extraordinary Ministers and Consign'd to after Ages by inspired Writing or Scripture and lastly as Religion is so or so Circumstantiated and Modelled in the External Administration of it Now by Natural Religion as distinguish'd from Revealed Religion I do plainly intend that Religion whether it be drawn out by the meer force of Natural Conscience without any plain or known Assistances of Revealed Truth or whether it was not known to be Natural Religion till being Revealed Natural Conscience acknowledges it and must needs Confess it to be True Natural Religion or that the wisest and soberest part of Mankind confesses it to be so or whether it be what Natural Religion teaches upon the supposition of Revealed Religion acknowledged and confessed to be from God for then Natural Religion confesses and urges that all Revelations from God that evidence themselves to any Mans mind to be from God should be received with Reverence and submitted to with Obedience In all these cases of Natural Religion I boldly and positively assert the Soveraign Power hath a Right given it by God to Make and Execute Laws according to the Obligations of Natural Religion even as in all Cases of Righteousness and Soberness or Common Peace and Welfare and to punish Offenders and Transgressors according to the Degree of their Guilt and can no more be Impeached in that procedure than in any the most undoubted Functions or Rights of Government whatever Quest I must desire to be guided in my Thoughts concerning the Power of Governours in Revealed Religion Answ Besides the Legislative and Vindictive Power of Supreme Magistrates in Natural Religion there is that Divine stamp of Authority God hath Engraven upon them so that besides their Laws they recommend Religion by the very representation of God himself whose Presence they bear and have not only the more Remote Authority of a Prince but the nearest most Natural and kindly Authority of a Father On account of which Solomon as a King so often speaks Hear O ye Children the Instruction of a Father and as having all Parental Affection in himself forsake not saith he the Law of a Mother The Care of all means for Instruction and Propagation of Religion is most proper to Government And all these Administrations in Religion run not only through all points of Natural Religion in that ampleness before expressed but do most genuinely and freely stream through all points of Revealed Truth and the whole Counsel of God in the Scripture nothing being more Princely and Paternal than the utmost Providence and Influence of Princes and Soveraign States herein wherein they fulfill the Prophesie of Kings being Nursing Fathers and Queens Nursing Mothers to the Church of God But there is this difference between Natural and Revealed Religion Natural Religion is written in the Heart and may certainly be found there however it comes to be known clearly and truly only by Revelation and so may be absolutely Commanded But Revealed Religion is reco●ded by Faith and Faith cometh by Hearing and Hearing by the Word of God and therefore cannot be Commanded but must be expected by the Blessing of God upon Instruction But if any Man profess to believe Revealed Religion to have receievd it as the undoubted Truth of God it is then the Law of Nature he should deport himself in it and towards it as to the Truth of God Nebuchadnezzer Darius and the King of Nineveh their Laws were rightly grounded upon the Principles of Natural Religion concerning the True God The Laws of Moses and the Princes of Judah in Revealed Religion were upon the so unavoidable acknowledgement of the Divine Presence and Authority in and with those Laws the so many Repeated Covenants Indentures and Engagements of that People on the evident Appearances of God to be obedient to those Laws But in the Revelation of Jesus Christ we find no tracks of Humane Power but all was done by Instruments fitted from Heaven naked of all Humane Authority that the Excellency of the Power might be of God and not of Men till Princes and People agreed in the Faith of the Gospel not by Compulsion but by Evidences and inward Assurances of the Faith and so it is still to continue Quest Before you pass from this point that

Deordination of Spirit into Body that whatever true Principles of Reason might effect if duely pursued he is without Revelation upon all Experiment no better than in the Valley of the Shadow of Death Quest But does there appear any Expectation of Revelation in the Motions of Natural Reason Answ Very great so that no Religion in the World hath been without the Pretence of it And it is both most hopeful according to the Laws of Natural Light that God will reveal himself and most just that his Revelations should be accepted with all Reverence when vouchsafed our very Reason being a Revelation from him and if any Revelation from him could be false even That might be so also But in all things Natural Light must needs bow to Divine Veracity Quest How happy might the World be if all the Religions of the World were but reformed to this Natural True Religion Answ Undoubtedly so for the State of it could not then be far from the Kingdom of God all True Religion whether Natural or Revealed being so closely allied to it self For though Revealed rises much higher yet in an inseparable connexion with and in a continuation undivided from Natural Quest But as the State of the World is and hath always been there seems to have been no Effect of True Natural Religion Answ Very great in many respects 1. To justifie God in his Dealings with Mankind that there have been such Possibilities of Return to True Religion laid up in them 2. To be as Sense in a Mans Soul upon which all Divine Applications might take either to Conviction or Conversion 3. To be at all times ready to be re-enlivened by Revealed Truth and to unite with it 4. To be an Universal Code of True Religion in which it is always reasonable for Mankind to agree or in any Parts of it on any Occasion as Jonah and the Mariners did in their Calamity or as St. Paul and the Seamen with him in giving Thanks to God 5. That it might be a Standard to punish Prophaneness and Irreligion by without entrenchment on Conscience which Revelation cannot be but in some peculiar Circumstances 6. That Men may on all Occasions treat with one another by it on Terms of Reason and Justice as the Apostle Paul with the Men of Athens with Felix and generally Men one with another in all their Commerce All Society good Laws and Government Restraint of excessive Evil depending upon it CAP. IV. Of Revelation and the Reasons of so great Miscarriages against both the Light of Nature and Revelation with the Means of Cure Quest SEeing there is by all that hath been spoken so great a weight resting upon Revelation let the Accounts of Gods Revealing himself to Mankind be more fully stated Answ Besides Gods Revealing himself to Adam even in Innocency in a Doctrine suitable to those two Sacramental Trees the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life and besides that Original Revelation of Christ after the Fall The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents Head he hath been pleased to guide that Holy Seed which is his Church by Revelation as by a Pillar of Fire throughout succeeding Ages till he compleated the whole he intended in a Kingdom of Truth that cannot be shaken which is to continue to the end of the World Quest How then did God deal with the rest of the World Answ Even they were for some considerable Spaces in the first Ages of the World within the Advantages of Revelation by mixture with or Neighbourhood to the Church by Tradition from the Holy Patriarchs which if they had faithfully observed together with the Improvement of Natures Light it would have secured them in True Religion Besides that they who were faithful in these were on all proper occasions provided for by the Faithful Creator though they were not strictly of that Seed with immediate Revelations But when all these were corrupted as they were in the generality of Mankind God withdrew himself by degrees as the Glory did from the Temple in Ezekiel till there was nothing left but the Darkness of Tradition fearfully debauch'd false Deductions from Nature's Light and worse than that the Devils Oracles in the room of Gods so that there was in the generality of the Nations a second and more desperate Fall of Mankind from the true Religion the Jewish Church and a small Proselytisme to that only excepted Quest What Examples are there of Gods continuing Favour to any parts of Mankind out of Abrahams Family justifying him as not departing from men till they departed from him Answ Melchisedek no descendent from Abraham was King of Righteousness and King of Peace at the same time the Church was placed in Abrahams Seed Laban was not wholly revolted from true Religion But especially Job and his Friends of the Posterity of Esau were eminent Instances of the Favour of God that whole Book of Job testifying that being helped by Holy Tradition together with occasional Revelations they held the Light of Nature at its own Purity Quest How long did the Nations that deserted God continue under that dismal obscurity Answ Till that Blessed Seed in whom all the Families of the Earth were to be Blessed and who was the desire of all Nations came and shone as the Sun of Righteousness upon the whole World Quest How was the Light of Revelation conveyed to the People of God in Elder Times Answ In divers Ways and Manners in more immediate Appearances in Visions Dreams Prophesies in inward Illumination by a Voice In all which there were when ever they were truly from God such mighty Evidences of Divinity as over-ballanc'd all doubt Together with these were the ordinary and familiar Instructions of Patriarchs and Holy Men grounded upon Natural and Revealed Religion Quest How did God conclude his Manifestations of himself in the way of immediate Revelation Answ By speaking in the last Days by his Son and the Apostles immediately Commissioned by him sealing up Vision and Prophesie in the fullness and Complement of Truth Quest Did God take any care for the securing the Monuments of his Truth given out by Revelation Answ Yes very early how early we know not but beyond Controversie in the first forming the Jewish Church into a setled Body he began the more sure and certain way of committing his Word and Will to Writing and for the Honour of it set the Copy with his own Hand and continued it till the whole Revelation was compleat Passant Revelation or Oral Tradidition not being sure enough Quest Wherein is the Written Word more sure than the Word in passing Revelation or Tradition Answ The Word committed to Writing stands unalterable Divine Providence watching over what was Written to keep it the same All Covenants and Treaties all Monuments of Knowledge have been thus secured transmitted into all Parts and consigned to after Ages Appeals in Cases of doubt are more safely made to what is Written and every one