Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	kingdom_n	law_n	parliament_n	3,975	5	6.2994	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30414	The royal martyr, and the dutiful subject in two sermons / by G. Burnet.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.; Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715. Royal martyr lamented.; Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715. Subjection for conscience-sake asserted.	1675 (1675)	Wing B5869; ESTC R22925	37,186	94

Israel for whom David had that respect that even when he was most unjustly hunting his life yet he would not stretch forth his hand against him seeing he was the anointed of the Lord. And in this our Royal Martyr was his Parallel since he was by a tract of an undisputed Succession that which Saul was by immediate Revelation the Lord 's Anointed And indeed he looked on himself as having his Authority from God as will appear from the following instances which before I mention I must preface with this that I will not enlarge on the whole field of that Murdered Princes Vertues for that were both endless they being so many and needless they being so well known But having by a great happiness seen not a few I may add hundreds of Papers under his own Royal Pen I shall only now offer divers passages drawn out of those that vvill give some Characters of his great Soul And as in the Indies the Art of Painting is only the putting together little Plumes of several colours in such method as to give a representation of vvhat they design vvhich though it be but coarse vvork yet the Colours are lively so I can promise no exact vvork but true and lively Colours I vvill offer being those mixed by our Martyr himself though perhaps unskilfully placed by me And as the Popish Legend tells of tvvo Pictures of our Saviour done by himself one particularly vvhich he left in Veronica's Handkercher vvhen he vviped his face vvith it so from the svveat of our Royal Martyr some Lineaments of his Face shall be offered And to return to make good the character of our late Soveraign he ovvned all his Authority to be derived from God and therefore in one of his Papers I find these vvords vvhen he is acknovvledging the great blessings and eminent protection he had received from the hands of the Almighty he adds To whom we know we must yield a dear account for any breach of trust or failing of our duty towards our People And in another Paper reflecting on the Demand concerning the Militia he gives the reason vvhy he could not consent to it as it vvas proposed Because thereby he wholly divested himself as he conceived of the power of the Sword intrusted to him by God and the Laws of the Land for the Protection and Government of his People thereby at once disinheriting his Posterity of that Right and Prerogative of the Crown which is absolutely necessary for the Kingly-Office and so weakening Monarchy in this Kingdom that little more than the name and shadow of it will remain In another Paper he expresses his zeal to preserve the Lavvs as became Gods Vicegerent in these vvords If we wanted the Conscience we cannot the discretion to tempt God in au unjust quarrel the Laws of our Kingdom shall be sacred to us we shall refuse no hazard to defend them but sure we shall run none to invade them And that Paper vvhich is very long he thus concludes God so deal with us and our Posterity as we shall inviolably observe the Laws and Statutes of our Kingdom and the Protestations we have so often made for the Defence of the true Reformed Protestant Religion the Laws of the Land and the just Priviledges and Freedom of Parliaments From these Evidences it will appear what severe thoughts he had of the Obligations he lay under to Almighty God from whom he had his power and to whom he knew he was to give account of his Administration 2. We find it is said of Saul that after he was anointed God gave him another heart and that meeting a company of Prophets he prophesied to the astonishment of those that beheld him How much of this Divine Spirit rested on our Blessed Martyr all those Meditations which were his Exercises in his retirement do abundantly declare If by Saul's prophesying be meant the foretelling what was to come I meet somewhat very near it from his Royal Pen Anno 1642 in a Letter wherein he writes these words I have set up my rest on the justice of my cause being resolved that no extremity or misfortune shall make me yield for I will either be a Glorious King or a Patient Martyr and as yet not being the first and at present not apprehending the other I think it now no unfit time to express this my resolution to you A very overly observer will see much in these words even without a Commentaty Or if by prophesying be to be understood an elevated way of trusting in God and adoring him then I shall add what I find under the same Sacred Pen when he was at Newcastle in a Letter to one of his Subjects Know that I rather expect the worse than the better event of things being resolved by the Grace of God and without the least repining at him to suffer any thing that injury can put upon me rather than sin against my Conscience And in another Letter Now for the sad consequences I know no so good antidote as a good Conscience which by the Grace of God I will preserve whatever else happen to me A third Character we have of Saul is that he was very careful to protect his Subjects when in danger as appears both by his haste to relieve Iabish-Gilead when sore pur to it by the King of Ammon and by his engaging against the Philistines with so much Personal danger to himself and his Family Now what our Martyrs zeal for protecting his Subjects was I speak not of his care in protecting the oppressed Protestants in Germany and France which I leave to the Historians I shall make appear from the following Evidences What vast Concessions he made to his native Kingdom every body knows and therefore he concluded a Paper he signed on his Pacification with them in these words And as we have just reason to believe that to our peaceable and well-affected Subjects this will be satisfactory so we take God and the World to witness that whatever Calamities shall ensue by our necessitated suppressing of the Insolencies of such as shall continue in their disobedient Courses is not occasioned by us but by their own procurement And in a Letter to one of his Commissioners there he writes But if the madness of our Subjects be such that they will not rest satisfied with what we have given you power to condescend to which notwithstanding all their Insolencies we still allow you to make good to them We take God to witness that what misery soever fall to that Country hereafter it is no fault of ours but their own procurement And in another Letter at that same time We take God to witness we have permitted them to do many things for establishing of Peace contrary to our own judgment How far he complied with their most unreasonable desires to the very great diminutions of his Royal Authority is well enough known When he saw them inclined to engage in the Civil War in this Kingdom he

Instructions he gave his Commissioner for consenting to the abolition of the Order of Bishops he wrote thus Carry the Disputes so that the conclusion seem not to be made in prejudice of Episcopacy as unlawful but only in satisfaction to the People and for setling the present disorders and such other reasons of State And he likewise ordered him to take care that Episcopacy should not be abjured as a point of Popery contrary to Gods Law or the Protestant Religion And at the same time in a Letter to the Primate of that Church he wrote thus We do assure you that it shall be still one of our chiefest studies how to rectifie and establish the Government of that Church aright And he adds a little after You may rest secure that though perhaps we give way for the present to that which will be prejudicial both to the Church and our own Government yet we will not leave thinking in time how to remedy both After God in his wise and holy though to us unaccountable Counsels suffered the Rebellious Arms of his Enemies so far to prevail that nothing did promise any hopes of his being re-established on his Throne but the consenting to all the demands of these in whose hands he had cast himself then did the strict care he had to keep a good Conscience appear by his hazarding all things rather than endanger his inward quiet and therefore he told them That when he was satisfied in his Conscience with the lawfulness of what they desired then but not till then could he grant their demands and was willing to enter in conference with any they would appoint about these two Points the one being the Divine Appointment of Bishops and the other his being obliged to defend them by his Oath of Coronation And the account of one of his Discourses I have seen is thus That he would run the hazard of all his Crowns below rather than endanger that above and that though the quiet of his Kingdoms and the settlement of his Throne were very valuable yet the peace of his Conscience must be preferred by him to all things And in a Discourse he had which he wrote with his own Pen he used these words Not to stay you too long upon so unpleasing a subject I assure you that nothing but the preservation of that which is dearer to me than my life could have hindered me from giving you full satisfaction for upon my word all the dangers and inconveniences which you have laid before me do not so much trouble me as that I cannot give full satisfaction to the desires of my native Country especially being so earnestly pressed upon me And yet here again I must tell you for in this case repetitions are not impertinent that I do not give you a denial nay I protest against it and remember it is your King that desires to be heard And in another Paper he sent to those that governed then in his Native Kingdom he writes these words If it be so clear as you believe that Episcopacy is unlawful I doubt not but God shall so enlighten mine eyes that I shall soon perceive it and then I promise you to concur with you fully in matters of Religion and therefore he subjoyns He hopes they would not press him to do that which was yet against his Conscience until he might do it without sinning And he concluded that Paper with a Postscript to the Ministers That he hoped they as Ministers of Gods Word would not press upon him untimeously the matter of Church-government until he adds I may have leisure to be so perswaded that I may comply with what they desire without breach of Conscience which I am confident they as Church-men cannot press me to do And in these conscientious Resolutions he was so firm that in a private Letter he writes thus For Gods sake do not so much as expect much less linger after any other or further matter from me for upon the faith of a Christian you shall have no more than what is now laid before you And in another Letter As for your Covenant when and not before that I shall be satisfied in my Conscience that I may allow it I will He going on grounds so strict and well-pleasing to God it was no wonder he maintained that serenity of mind that when he got Letters that told him how he was to be used being engaged at Chess he continued to play after he had read his Letters without shew of any commotion or disturbance which I have seen under the hand of an eye-witness And in the Moneth of March before his Martyrdom when he was almost out of all hopes yet he would not depart from these Christian Resolutions which I find thus expressed by his own Pen For any enlargement concerning Church-affairs I desire you not to expect it from me for such expectations have been a great cause of this my present condition which I assure you I am still resolved rather to suffer than to wrong my Conscience or Honour which I must do if I enlarge my self any thing in these points These are some of the true Characters of a Defender of the Faith of one that did approve himself to be under God and Christ the Supreme over the Church and of one that was indeed fitted to bear all things rather than sin against God or his Conscience 2. Another Character of Saul is his cruelty which was so enraged that he spared neither Son-in-law nor Son but threw his darts at them to have killed them and his cruelty against David was also joined with perfidy and breach of trust for after he had given him the most sacred assurances he still continued to pursue him and caused to be murdered fourscore and five Priests for the pretended fault of one which he believed upon the delation of an Edomite This was a fact both so cruel and so impious that he could find none to execute it but that uncircumcised Alien and all this was the effect of that evil Spirit was let loose upon him when by his sins he had driven away the good Spirit of God But our Royal Martyr did daily shew more and more Evidences of a truly Divine and Christian Spirit What full Indemnity and Oblivion did he offer his Enemies even though they would not allow any Indemnity to his Friends And how much he was against all cruel or severe practices may appear from these Evidences one is under his own hand in these words The present distractions about Religion are so great and of that nature that perswasion as well as power must be used to restore that happy tranquillity which the Church of England hath lately and miserably lost for certainly violence and persecution never was nor will be found a right way to settle peoples Consciences And this went so far with him as to give him a strong aversion to the excuting sanguinary Laws against even the Emissaries of Rome which I find he thus

the Eternal Wisdom of that Architectonical Mind will in due time bring forth and in the mean while rest satisfied in all he does commending things in our prayers to him and doing every thing that befits our Condition for preserving Peace Order and Religion but going no further for the wrath of man doth not work out the righteousness of God And thus Conscience fixing our Subjection on the unshaken basis of our Faith and Confidence in God binds us by the strongest Ties to our Duty 3. A third Argument Conscience offers to oblige us to be subject and quiet is the servent and extended Charity it possesseth us with to all Mankind which must needs hold us from engaging in courses that will prove destructive to a great part of it Where we consider what the mischiefs of Rebellion and Civil War are what Dissolution of Government and Confusion of Justice it brings after it how much Bloud and Rapine Oppression Plunder and Profanation of the most Sacred things are the certain Effects of Commotions if they be long-lived what Lover of Mankind or Person truly charitable will engage in courses so black whose Catastrophe may prove so tragical and run far beyond what was at first designed and produce Effects far more mischievous than those that were complained of How many dispeopled Cities depopulated and burnt Villages what Tears of Widows and Orphans and of Aged Persons bereft of their Children who were the comfort and support of their Age must follow on such courses when the fields are covered with the Carkases of the dead and the Scaffolds smoak with the bloud of Innocents and that not only with common Gore but Royal and Sacred Bloud A pathetick and florid Eloquence could easily manage this Theme with those advantages as to raise horror in all at Courses so barbarous and unchristian which the common Sentiments of Humanity will make those of softer and relenting Tempers hate much more the meek and peaceable Christians And that these are not the Melancholy representations of a troubled Fancy a little Reflexion on what we have seen and known and a penetrating prospect into what may be before us will easily make out to all considering Minds Therefore strong and fervent Charity to Mankind will prove a certain curb to repress new attempts at those disorders the Effects whereof are not yet old nor out of mind And here again Conscience obliges us to be subject 4. The last Consideration which I shall propose by which Conscience binds us to Subjection is the Practice and Example of our great Master who was made perfect through sufferings the whole course of his Life was a perpetual Tract of doing good and bearing ill he paid the Tribute when demanded and charged the Iews to render to Caesar the things that were Caesars And when he was to lay down his life for us he submitted himself patiently not only to the will of his Heavenly Father but to the Civil Powers which then governed in Iudaea Though he as the Heir of all things might have claimed the Empires of the World as his Right yet since he humbled himself so as to be born in the low character of a Subject he in that as in all other things became a perfect Pattern to us of all Righteousness When the accursed Band came out against him though he could have brought down Legions of Angels for his relief yet he not only submitted himself to them but both rejected and reproved S. Peter's too forward zeal and told him That such as drew the sword should perish by the sword and when the ill-guided fervour of that great Apostle had misled him to the excess of smiting with the Sword our Saviour expressed his displeasure at it by his miraculous piecing the Ear again with the maimed Head And when he was accused to Pilate of being an Enemy to Caesar and pretending to set up another Kingdom he did in the plainest stile was possible condemn all practisings against Government upon pretence of Religion by saying My Kingdom is not of this world if my Kingdom were of this world then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Iews but now is my Kingdom not from hence This doth so expresly discharge all busling and fighting on the pretence of Religion that we must either set up for another Gospel or utterly reject what is so formally condemned by the Author of this we profess to believe And never Cause of Religion was of so great concern as the preserving the Head and Author of it whom with equal mixtures of Injustice and Violence his enraged Enemies were against all colours of Equity and contrary to Law and Religion dragging to that death which though it proved the happiest thing to Mankind yet on their part who acted it was the foulest Crime the Sun ever saw The blessed Apostles followed their Masters steps in this as in all other things and therefore having learned of our Saviour that lesson of bearing the Cross and suffering patiently when Injustly persecuted counted it their glory to be conformable to him in his sufferings and indeed if we examine the Nature and Design of that holy Religion our Saviour delivered we will find nothing more diametrically opposite to all its Rules than the distempered fury of these misguided Zealots who being carried on by the fierceness of their Ungoverned Passions have upon colours of Religion filled the World with Bloud and Confusion Otherwise does S. Paul teach the Romans in this Chapter though then groaning under the severest rigours of Bondage and Tyranny and S. Peter doth at full length once and again call on all Christians to prepare for sufferings and to bear them patiently and though the bondage of the slaves was heavy and highly contrary to all the freedoms of the humane Nature yet he exhorts them to bear the severities even of their froward and unjust Masters with this Argument That Christ suffered for them leaving them an example that they should follow his steps From these unerring Practises and Precepts must all true Christians take the measures of their Actions and the Rules of their Life And indeed the first Converts to Christianity embraced the Cross and bore it not only with Patience but Joy and as long as Christianity continued pure and unallayed this Doctrine of patient suffering was not only a big and empty boast but gave proofs of its Reality by the unexempled Patience and Sufferings of the Christians in a succession of Three Ages and Ten Persecutions These blessed Witnesses of our Faith were burning and shining Lights as well by the Purity of their Lives as by the Stakes and Flames of their Martyrdom Nero unpalled them and clothing them with Pitch-coats made burn them as Torches in the night but these Fires scattered the darkness of that Night of Idolatry in which Rome lay buried and both enlightned and inflamed many that lay freezing in darkness It was the astonishment of