Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	law_n	liberty_n	parliament_n	4,902	5	6.1958	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94382	Killing noe murder. Briefly discoursed in three quæstions. By William Allen.	Titus, Silius, 1623?-1704.; Allen, William, Adjutant-general of the army in Ireland, attributed name.; Sexby, Edward, d. 1658.	1657 (1657)	Wing T1310; Thomason E501_4; ESTC R203800	27,104	20

Killing Noe Murder Briefly Discourst in Three Quaestions By WILLIAM ALLEN And all the people of the Land rejoyced and the City was quiet after that they had slain Athaliah with the Sword 2. Chro. 23.21 Now after the time that Amaziah did turn away from following the Lord they made a Conspiracie against him in Ierusalem and he fled to Lachish but they sent to Lachish after him and slew him there 2. Chro. 25.27 To his Highnesse OLIVER CROMWELL May it please your Highnesse HOw I have spent some howers of the leasure your Highnes hath been pleased to give me this following Paper will give your Highnes an accompt How you will please to interpret it I can not tell but I can with confidence say my intention in it is to procure your Highnes that justice no body yet does you and to let the people see the longer they deferr it the greater injury they doe both themselves and you To your Highnes justly belongs the honour of dying for the people and it cannot choose but be an unspeakable consolation to you in the last moments of your life to consider with how much benefit to the world you are like to leave it 'T is then onely my Lord the titles you now usurpe will be truly yours you wil then be indeed the deliverer of your Countrey free it from a Bondage little inferiour to that from which Moyses delivered his You will then be that true Reformer which you would now be thought Religion shal be then restored Liberty asserted and Parliaments have those Priviledges they have fought for We shall then hope that other Lawes will have place besides those of the Sword and that Iustice shal be otherwise defind then the will pleasure of the strongest and we shal then hope men wil keep oathes again and not have the necessitie of being false and Perfidious to preserve themselves and be like their Rulers All this we hope from your Highnes happie expirat on who are the true Father of your Countrie for while you live we can call nothing ours and it is from your death that we hope for our inheritances Let this consideration arme and fortifie your Highnesses minde against the feares of death and the terrours of your evil Conscience that the good you will doe by your death wil something ballance the evils of your life And if in the Black Catalogue of High Malefactours few can be found that have lived more to the affliction and disturbance of mankind then your Highnes hath done yet your greatest enemies wil not deny but there are likewise as few that have expired more to the universall ben fit of mankind then your Highn is like to doe To hasten this great good is the chief end of my writing this Paper and if it have the effects I hope it will your Highnes wil quickly be out of the reach of mens malice and your enemies will only be able to wound you in your memory which strokes you will not feel That your Highnesse may be speedily in this security is the universall wishes of your gratefull Countrey This is the desires and prayers of the good and of the bad and it may be if the only thing wherein al Sects and factions do agree in their devotions and is our onely common prayer But amongst all that put in their Requests and supplications for your Highnesses speedy deliverance from al earthly troubles none is more assiduous nor more fervent then he that with the rest of the Nation hath the Honour to be May it please your Highnesse Your Highnesse present Slave and Vassall W. A. To all those Officers and Soldiers of the Army that Remember their ingagements and dare be honest I Heartily wish for Englands sake that your number may be farre greater then I fear it is and that his Highnes his frequent pargations may have left any amongst you that by these Characters are concern'd in this Dedication That I and all men have reason to make this a doubt your own actions as well as your tame sufferings do but too plainly manifest For you that were the Champions of our Liberty and to that purpose were raised are not you become the instruments of our Slavery and your hands that the people employ'd to take off the yoake from of our necks are not those the very hands that now doe put it on Doe you remember that you were raised to defend the Priviledges of Parliament and have sworn to doe it and will you be employed to force Elections and dissolve Parlements because they will not establish the Tyrants iniquity and our slavery by a Law I beseech you think upon what you have promised and what you doe and give not Posterity as well as your own Generation the occasion to mention you with infamie and to curse that unfortunate valour and successe of yours that onely hath gained victories as you use them against the common-wealth Could ever England have thought to have seen that Armie that was never mentioned without the titles of Religious Zealous Faithfull Conragious the fence of her libertie at home the Terrour of her enemies abroad Become her Gaolers not her Guard but her oppressours not her Souldiers but a Tyrants executioners drawing to blocks and gibbets all that dare be honester then themselves This you doe and this you are nor can you ever redeem your own honour the trust and love of your Countrie the estimation of brave men or the praiers of good If you let not speedilie the world see you have been deceived which they will onelie then beleeve when they see your vengeance upon his Faithlesse head that did it This if you deferr too long to doe you will finde too late to attempt and your Repentance will neither vindicate you nor help us To let you see you may doe this as a lawfull action and to perswade you to it as a Glorious one is the principall intent of this following Paper Which what ever effects it hath upon you I shall not absolutely fail of my ends for if it excites not your vertue and Courage it will yet exprobrate your Cowardice and Basenesse This is from one that was once one amongst you and will be so again when you dare be as you were IT is not any Ambition to be in Print when so few spare Paper and the Presse nor any instigations of private revenge or malice though sew that dare be honest now want their causes that have prevailed with me to make my sel● the Authour of a Pamplet and to disturbe that Quiet which at present I enjoy by his Highnes great favour and injustice Nor am I ignorant to how little purpose I shall imploy that time and paines which I shal bestow upon this Paper For to thinck that any reasons or perswasions of mine or convictions of their own shall draw men from any thing wherein they see profit or security or to any thing wherein they fear losse or see danger is to have

before any judgment past to kill him that but Aspired to Tyranny Likewise the Consular law which was made after the suppression of the Tyranny of the Decemvirate made it lawfull to kill any man that went about to Create Magistrates sine Provocatione c. Without reference and Appeal to the people By these lawes and Innumerable testimonies of Authours it appeares that the Romans with the rest of they re Philosophy had learned from the Grecians what was the naturall Remedie against a lyrant nor did they honour these lesse that durst apply it Who as Polybius Sayes Speaking of Conspiracies against Tyrants were not Hist lib. 6. Deterrimi Civium sed Generosisiimi Quique Maximi Auimi not the worst and meanest of the Cittizens but the most Generous and these of Greatest vertue Soe were most of these that conspired against Julius Caesar He himself thought Brutus worthy to succeed him in the Empire of the world And Cicero who had the title of Pater Patriae if he were not conscious of the designe Yet he at least affected the honour of being thought soe Quae enim Res unquam c. What Act sayes he o Jupiter more glorious Philip. 2. more worthy of Eternall memorie hath beene done not only in this Citty but in the whole world In this designe as the Troyan Horse I willingly suffer my self to be Included with the Princes In the same place he tells us what all vertuous Romans thought of the fact aswell as he Omnes Boni Quantum in ipsis fuit Caesarem occiderunt aliis consilium aliis animus aliis occasio defuit Voluntas nemini All Good men Saith he as much as lay in them killed Caesat Some wanted Capacity some Courage Others opportunity But none the will to doe it But yet we have not declared the extent of theire severity against a Tyrant They exposed him to fraud as well as force and left him no security in Oathes and compacts that neither law nor Religion might defend him that violated Both. Cum Tyranno Romanis nulla fides nulla jurisjurandi Religio Saith Brutus in Appian Appian lib. 7. de Benef. with a Tyrant the Romans thinke no faith to be kept observe no Religion of an Oath Seneca gives the Reason Quia quicquid erat quo mihi cohaereret c. For what ever there was of mutuall obligation betwixt us his destroying the lawes of humane society hath dissolud Sin soe these that thought that there was in hostem nefas that a villany might be committed against an enemie these that profes't non minus juste quam fortiter arma gerere Id. to manage theire armes with justice as well as Courage these that thought faith was to be kept even with the perfidious Saul of (b) Regulus Qui longum semper same c. Senec. in exerc 4.7 Mich. Ephes ad 5. Nich. yet they thought a Tyrant Could receiue no injustice but to be let live and that the most lawfull way to destroy him was the Readiest No matter wether by force or fraud for against Beasts of Prey men use the toyle and the net as well as the speare and the lance But soe great was theire detestation of a Tyrant that it made some take theire opinions from theire passions and vent things which they could but ill justifie to theire morality they thought a Tyrant had soe absolutety forfeited all title to humanity and all kind of Protection they could give him or his that they left his wife without any other Guard for her chastity but age and deformity and thought it not adultery what was committed with her Many mote testimonies might I bring for 't is harder to make choice then to find plenty But I shall conclude with Authorities that are much more Authentique and examples we may much more sately Imitate The law of God it self decree'd Certaine (c) Vtique morietur vir ille Deut. 17.12 death to that man that would doe presumptuously and submit to no Decision of Justice Who can Read this and thinke a Tyrant ought to live But Certainly neither that nor any other law were to any effect if there were no way to put it in execution But in a Tyrants Case Processe and Citation have no place and if we will only have Formall Remedies against him we ave sure to have none There 's ' small hopes of Justice where the Malefactour hath a power to condemn the Judge All remedie therfore against a Tyrant is Ehuds dagger without which all our lawes were fruitlesse and we helplesse This is that high Court of justice where Moses brought the Egyptian whether Ehud brought Eglon Samson the Phililtins Samuel Agag and Jehoiada the she Tyrant Athaliah Let us a little consider in particular these severall examples and see whether they may be proportioned to our purpose First as to the case of Moses and the Egiptian Ex. 2.11.12 certainly every Englishman hath as much call as Moses and more cause then he to slay this Egiptian that is alwayes laying on burdens and alwayes smiting both our brethren and our selves For as to his call he had no other that we read of but the necessity his brother stood in of his help He look't on his brethrens burdens and seeing an Egiptian smiting an Hebrew knowing he was out of the reach of all other kind of justice he slew him Certainly this was and is as lawfull for any man to doe as it was for Moses who was then but a private man and had no authority for what he did but what the law of nature gives every man to oppose force to force and to make justice where he findes none As to the cause of that action we have much more to say then Moses had He saw one Hebrew smitten we many Englishmen murderd He saw his brethrens burdens and their blowes we our brethrens burdens imprisonments and deaths Now sure if it were lawfull for Moses to kill that Egiptian that opprest one man being there was no way to procure an ordinary course of justice agains him It cannot be but absurd to think it unlawfull to kill him (a) vid. Et. Governador Christiano c. 8. p 40. Qualquiera ciudadano me de repeter la fuerta c. that oppresses a whole nation and one that justice as little reaches as it defends The example of Ehud shews us the naturall and almost the only remedie against a Tyrant and the way to free an opprest people from the slavery of an insulting Moabite t is done by prayers and teares with the help of a Dagger by b crying to the Lord and the left hand of an Ehud Devotion and action goe wel together for beleeve it a Tyrant is not of that kinde of Devill that is to be cast out by only fasting and prayer And here the Scripture shews us what the Lord thought a fit message to send a Tyrant from himself Iudg. c. 3. v. 11.19.20 v. 15. A Dagger of