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	subject_n	3,995	5	6.4954	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55538	The religious rebel a sermon preach'd at South-Marston near Hyworth in Wiltshire, on the ninth of September, being the day of publick thanksgiving for the deliverance of His Majesty's sacred person, his royal brother, and the government from the late hellish fanatick conspiracy / by Charles Powell.	Powell, Charles, b. 1644 or 5-1685 or 6.	1683 (1683)	Wing P3046; ESTC R3301	12,130	32

Family Math. 24.45 must give the Houshold as their Meat so in due Season too I hope the present face of things will justify my choice of the Subject now before us and if you cannot choose but make the Application your selves upon their Heads be it who gave the Cue That I may not therefore disappoint you of a Sermon by a tedious Preface or by making A pologies for my Discourse before hand which yet not long since they had need to do that durst speak Loyalty even in the Pulpit give me leave to lead you to the Text by looking a little back on the Context which will give you the occasion of the Psalm and the meaning of the words I am to insist on The Psalm therefore in general is a Pathetical complaint of David to Almighty God of the Pride Treachery Malice and Cruelty of wicked Men who as his Son the wisest of Kings says seek only Rebellion and these wicked men Expositors tell us are those whom he had maintain'd and prefer'd in his own Court and therefore were the more wicked and the more dangerous Of which very Persons he says It is not an Open Enemy that hath done me this dishonour for then I could have born it Neither was it mine Adversary that did magnify himself against me for then peradventure I would have hid my self from him But it was thou even my Companion my Guide and mine own Familiar Friend We took sweet Counsell together and walked in the House of God as Friends And this very well agrees with the Character in my Text. For though in the former part of the Psalm we have the Lion drawn Rampant roaring out his Cruel and Bloody Intentions scorning all Resistance either from God or Man as if he were sure of his prey boasting of his hearts desire and confident that he could not be moved Vers 6. Yet lest this boysterous noise might rouze the Royall Game and make them provide for their own security in my Text and the two preceding Verses we find him in another posture though he will in no wise forsake his Lionish Ferity and Cruelty yet he will draw on the Fox's Skin to conceal it and therefore he turns Huntsman Vers 8. He sits lurking in the secret places of the Villages 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he lurk's among the Rich Farmers and Country men among those who are most likely to be drawn in by his glozing and specious Pretences and there he lyes secretly as a Lion in his Den Vers 9. and there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 futled upon his Nest wrap'd in an Hypocritital garb of Humility and Piety he falls down and humbles himself that the Congregation of the Poor may fall into the hands of his Captains So that my Text is the Character of a Religious Rebel a Villain for so it will easily appear if we look on the words either as a part of the foregoing Metaphor or as a description of him who was the occasion of this querulous Psalm viz. the Rebellious Ahsolom who humbly beg's leave to go to Hebron not to pay his Vow to the Lord 2 Sam 15 7 as he falsly pretended but to prepare a Rebellion against his King not out of any regard to Religion but to serve his own Ambition not to serve God but his own Interest where he falls down indeed and seem's to humble himself to God but in the same posture Courts the People and all this that the Congregation of the Poor the Caetus Inopum the Multitude of Poor helpless People that knew not his Drifts nor were prepared to resist him might fall into the hands and power of his voracious Followers or as it is according to the 70. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that himself may Lord it over the Poor Divisions are of late so dangerous that I shall not dare so much as to divide my Text and therefore shall only raise from it one Proposition which I hope to prove more infallible than ever proceeded either from the Roman Chair or the Geneva Classis And that is this That it is no new thing for the Worst of men to make use of the Sacred Name of Religion to palliate the most abominable Undertakings Blood-shed the Murther of the Fathers and Defenders of Religion pious Kings and Princes destruction and Massacre of their fellow Subjects pulling down and overturning of all Order and Polity in the world must be all usherd in as we see it this day with the Lamb-like harmless voyce of Religion And though in these Glorious times of the Gospel they cannot possibly think so yet they will pretend that in all this they do God service so true is that of our Saviour Math. 7.15 They come to us in Sheeps cloathing but inwardly they are ravening Wolves My Proposition has been so often and so sadly proved even among our selves that to go about to confirm it by Arguments or Presidents were to light you with a Lanthorn in the Sunshine or to perswade you that you are wounded when you are roaring under the smart and anguish of the blow Yet since the Sincerity of our Religion and the Justice of our Nation will not suffer us to pass Sentence upon any thing without full proof let me beg your patience while I call an Evidence or two out of the Record of Scripture and the Chronicles of former Ages which though they do not speak vivà voce as Witnesses in Temporal Courts use and ought to do yet since their Evidence is handed down to us by the Infallible Spirit of God who neither will deceive nor can be deceived I hope we need not fear an Ingnoramus on the Bill for if Men believe not Moses and the Prophets neither will they believe though one arose from the Dead to testify his Knowledge of the thing That I may not therefore instance in matters of Private Concerns in which also wicked Men palliate their Evil Designs with the shew of Piety and Religion I shall confine my-self to that which is more properly the Business of the Day viz. Rebellion against Lawful Kings and Princes Of which the First that offers it self to us in Holy Writ is that remarkable one of Corah and his Company against Moses the meekest Man upon all the Earth and therefore the most likely to have retain'd the Love and Allegiance of his People had he not been to deal with a Stiff-necked and Rebellious Generation of whom God himself says by his Prophet that they were Rebellious from their Youth up even in the Infancy of their Government they began to be Rebellious And this Rebellion we find usher'd in with the pretext of Religon For though Moses and Aaron govern'd them by Laws both Temporal and Spiritual which were dictated by God himself yet in the Pride of their Hearts they thought themselves already so perfect in what they could teach them that they were become a Law to themselves and therefore counted it a piece of Usurpation an Invasion of

them but himself submitted to them that they might not take any Occasion from his Practise to deal hardly with his Country-men and Brethren according to the Flesh and exhorted all his Hearers to do so likewise that they might not Pull down Vengeance on themselves In all his Actions in the whole Course of his Life he was a Pattern to them of Meekness Gentleness Peaceableness and Subjection And truly I am afraid those men who make such an Hurry and Clutter about Religion are not his Disciples nor did they ever learn it from the King of Righteousness and the Prince of Peace especially when they make Religion the Argument of Publick Commotions and Disturbances And therefore it will neerly concern us to take St. John's Advice 1 Ep. 4 ch 1. v. not to believe every Spirit but to try the Spirits whether they be of God not to follow every Teacher that pretends to be inspir'd but to make Tryal of all that shall so pretend by the Rules afforded them both by Moses and Christ For certainly there is no thing doth more trush and hinder us in our Journey to the heavenly Canaan than to stand still and listen to every Whisper to every one that shall pull us by the Sleeve and talk to us on the Road. Do you meet any then that says T is true your Aim is good your Design pious in the Voyage you have undertaken toward Heaven and Happiness but are you sure your Guide is faithful that he will not Hand you about or bring you into a wrong way which will never bring you at least not safely to your Journeys end I am your Friend says he and I speak this out of Kindness to you and in the Fear of the Lord 't is dangerous to trust those guides that are impos'd on you by Human Authority Since God himself has chalked you out a Way so Plain that you cannot miss it and you have Eyes in your Head and can see as well as those that call themselves Seers in Israel Have a care of such a Man Either he is out of the way himself and out of a Blind Zeal endeavors to seduce other into the same Mazes and Labarynths for even Error it self desires Company and loves not to be alone Two is better then one is a Maxim that all men bad as well as good grant and acknowledge or else he is Proud and Ambitious and thinks himself fit to Judge and Censure others and would have you throw off and disown your spiritual Guides pretending that he himself has greater Sanctity and abillity for those very Offices which he would decry in others Remember that God led his People of old by the hands of Moses and Aaron and their slighting of those Guides made them wander so long in the Wilderness and so few of them to enter into the promised Land And remember also that it was God and not Man who gave some Apostles some Prophets and some Evangelists Ephise 4.11 and some Pastors and Teachers for the prefecting of the Saints for the work of the ministry for the Edifying of the Body of Christ And they that set light by those and will have Guides of their own setting up Rebel against God by whom they are sent and can entitle themselves to no other Leader but to him who is called Abaddon and Apallyon the King of Locusts and the Destroyer of all Grace and Goodness In a word Dan and Bethel may have Temples or rather Conventicles outwardly pargitted with the shew of Reverence and Religion Holiness to the Lord may be written on the walls but the gods within to which Men fall down and humble themselves are but the Calves of the People to whose service they consecrate their Ear-rings and Jewels while Jeroboam sets up his Tyranny and swallows their Estates Jerusalem only is a City that is at Unity within herself where is that Mount Sion in which is the Temple of the Lord which he has chosen to be an Habitation for himself of which he has said This shall be my Rest for ever here will I dwell Psal 11.21 v. 15. for I have a delight therein And that the poor may not be enveigled with the pretences of wealthy Hypocrites or be moved to transgress for a peice of Bread and as Solomon says in another case V. 16. of that Psalm he says I will bless her Victuals with Encrease and will satisie her Poor with Bread And that the Preists may not be stagger'd in their service nor desert their Station in the House of God v. 17. he says I will deck her Priests with health and her Saints shall rejoyce and sing And that David also may not be discouraged in waiting upon his God though perhaps an Absalom or Jeroboam may with glittering shews and glaring false Pretences at once seduce and make the People to Sin he saies v. 18 19. There will I make the Horn of David to flourish I have ordain'd a Lanthorn for mine Anoynted As for his Enemies I shall cloath them with shame but upon himself shall his Grown flourish Again Doth any one come to you in Samuels Mantle in the garb and posture of a Prophet and in that Sacred Disguise falsely whisper to you what that Apparition said truly to Saul That God is departed from the King and become his Enemy for such Sprights also there are now abroad in the World and those in black too have a care now and stand upon your Guard Look diligently about you are ye not got into Endor e're you are aware Is not the Witch and the Devil at work now instead of Samuel tempting you to ill Thoughts of him whom that more sure Word of Prophesy the Word of God tells you ye shall not dare so much as to think irreverently of Remember that Apparition was an Extraordinary thing never permitted but once a thing that frighted the Witch herself and not likely to be repeated again for every Fantastick mans-sake that would pretend to Inspiration 'T is true indeed there are such Spirits in the World but they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wicked Spirits Spirits of Rebellion and Mischeif and Murder as St. Paul prophecies of 2 Tim. 3. v. 4. Traiterous heady high minded lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God Such as St. Jude describes v. 8. who despise Dominion speak evil of Dignities and these St. Paul tells us in the foremention'd place to Timothy have a form of Godliness they appear like Lucifer himself when he is transform'd into an Angel of Light all clad with the bright and glorious Raies of pretended Sanctity as if they were Sons of the Morning some of the Corps du Guard to the great King of Heaven But then have a Care Mulier formosa superne Desinit in Piscem Beware of the Cloven foot under the Robes of Light for though they have the Form of Godliness yet you may be sure they deny the power of it who endeavour to lessen and vilify those

their Privileges for the Prince to command or the Priest to presume to teach those who now thought themselves fit to be Teachers of others and therefore say they Ye take too much upon you you Moses and Aaron are not all the Congregation Holy as well as ye and must we still submit to your Magisterial Commands No we have Princes of the Congregation that will vindicate our Liberties and force a Toleration for us that every Man may do what seems good in his own eyes we all know as well as you how to Serve and Worship God and therefore will not any longer be restrain'd by Human Authority You have no Power over our Consciences that is Gods Prerogative we have our Charter from him and rather than part with that we will burst your bonds asunder and cast away your Cords from us And had not Gods Providence and Care of future Ages Signalized this Primitive Rebellion with a Notorious and Miraculous Punishment I am afraid our Age would have argued it as a President and from thence have pleaded the Lawfulness of Rebelling for Liberty of Conscience For ever therefore blessed be the great King of Kings who has set forth their Punishment as a Landmark for others to avoid the same Rock And thrice blessed be his Glorious Name who has so Graciously deliver'd our meek Moses and our Pious Aarons from the Bloody Zeal of those Sons of Rebellion who with the false Name of Religion would this Day have extirpated the best Government and the Purest Religion in the World Even so let all thine Enemies perish O Lord but let those that love him be as the Sun when he goeth forth in his Might The next Instance we have of this is that of Absolom who is now grown so stale a Theme that you cannot but think it Superfluous though not impertinent to mention him We all know his pretended Zeal to Religion and Justice the one of which was not pure enough for his Tender Conscience at Court but he must to Hebron to perform his Vow there and the Other as he falsely and Traiterously pretended either perverted or so slackly administred that he gets him to the Gate where in an Humble posture he proffers himself to the Rabble who had need I confess of Severity of Justice to curb their Insolencies and there he falls down and Humbles himself before them When any Man came nigh unto him to do him Obeysance he put forth his hand and took him and kissed him and in the next Verse 't is said So Absolom stole the hearts of the Men of Israel But it is not long before we hear the paying of his Vow in Hebron and his performance of Justice in the Gate the Congregation of the Poor are fallen into the hands of his Captains and his King and Father forced to save his life by an Ignominious Flight But once more and for ever praised be the great Jehovah who deliver'd David his Servant from a Rebellious Son and Ungrateful and Perfidious Counsellor who hung up that Trophy of his Justice that Posterity and future Ages might see and do no more so wickedly And let us pray that all the Enemies of our Royal David and all that rise up against him to do him hurt may be as that Young Man is It would be too tedious now to display Jeroboam's Religious Stratagem to move the People to a Rebellion by pretending to ease them of the Burthen of that Worship which was established by Law at Jerusalem and therefore inviting them to his own way of Worship in places as remote as he could from the Royal City and Mother-Church that so they might not be won by the Loyalty and Uniformity which they should see there either to their Allegiance to the House of David or to David's Religion I shall not trouble you with a Transcript of Josephus or Eusebius concerning Theudas the Sorcerer of whom St. Luke writes in the Acts of the Apostles who that he might stir up the Jews to a Rebellion called himself a Prophet and told them that for their Deliverance out of the hands of the Enemies of their Religion he would work Wonders for them make Jordan divide it self as for their Forefathers of old that they might escape out of the Idolatries of Egypt Nor shall I mention Judas the Galilean who as Eusebius tells us out of Josephus seduced the People of that Region to Rebellion telling them that they ought not to suffer Humane Authority to rule over their Consciences or to prescribe Laws in matter of Religion Still it is in Nomine Domini the Sacred Name of God is brought in to palliate their Rebellion and how many cold Blasts of this Doctrin we have had from the Scotch-Horn who under the Pretexts of Religion and Reformation have permitted so few of our Sacred Kings Ancestors to go in Peace to their Graves is fitter for Authority to remember than for me to mention Nor need I do it since at this very day we see that a Conspiracy against the Life and covernment of the best of Kings cannot be carry'd on without a Religious I mean a Scotish Agitator I shall not trouble you therefore with more Witnesses though they be almost innumerable to prove the Truth of my Assertion but shall conclude my Evidence with a Maxim of the wisest of Kings Prov. 17.11 An evil Man seeks only Rebellion therefore a Cruel Messenger shall be sent against him Now because the End of all Sermons is Instruction and the best Instruction is that which tends most to Practise give me leave to draw down those Practical Inferences which are most Natural from the Text and most Useful for our selves upon this Occasion The first Inference therefore will be That we have a care how we hearken to those men that make the greatest Noise about Religion which is not a thing of Talk and Noise and Tumult but a Quiet Calm Peaceable thing The Author of it was the Lamb of God who neither stirred up the Jews to Rebell against the Roman Heathen Caesar nor did he ever make use of any Sinister or Violent Means to escape the hands of his Bloody Persecutors and Crucifiers who envied him for nothing more than his Religion which he came on Purpose to plant among them and which was to be waterd with his own Blood and brought to perfection by his own Death But he was oppressed and he was afiicted yet he opened not his mouth he was brought as a Lamb to the Slaughter as a Sheep before her Shearers is dumb so opened he not his mouth Isa 53.7 As for Corruption in Religion it was never so general among the Jews as at his coming into the World Yet in all his Sermons and Discourses to them though some times he was forc'd to pronounce a Woe to the Hypocritical Professors and Lewd livers among them yet he never did as he might have done in the least excite the Romans their Governors to perfecute or destroy