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A48848
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A sermon preached at St. Martins in the Fields, on November the fifth, 1678 by William Lloyd ...
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Lloyd, William, 1627-1717.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing L2709; ESTC R20333
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13,102
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38
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he must be burnt There is only this difference He that dies in their hands his Body is not buried but burnt He that was buried before he was discovered he is digged up to be burnt as soon as he is discovered though it be twenty or forty years after I could give many undeniable Instances of all that which I have said in this matter Few Instances can be given to the contrary in Spain or in Italy in those parts which are under the Inquisition If it is not so in any other Country yet it was so even there when it was under the full Dominion of Popery As for instance in France a little more than a hundred years since In our Kings Dominions about a hundred and twenty years since In the Low-Countries as Grotius tells us in the first Book of his Annals a hundred thousand Men and Women had suffered thus before ever Sword was drawn against the Spanish Government Not to speak of Merindole and Cabriers and Piedmont and in Austria and Bohemia and other Places where this Cruelty was exercised so lately in Countries not under the Full Power of Popery When all was theirs before the Reformation it was no where otherwise How was it possible it should be When since the time that it came to be a Practice of their Church that all whom they accounted Heretics should be burnt that is since about the year 1200 for then it began it hath been Established by their Laws both Ecclesiastical and Civil It hath been approved by and acted in their General Councils It has been taught by their Doctors and Writers It hath been Enacted and Prosecuted and Executed every thing by the Pope whose very Throne is Established whose Greatness has been built the Foundations of it laid in the Bodies and the Walls cemented as I may say with the Blood of Orthodox and Innocent Christians Where they have not Power to do this and the colour of Law where the Government hath been against them or where it hath been weakly on their side There they have found other ways to do the same thing by Private Murther by Public Assassination by Open Rebellion by such Barbarous ways as I should not mention for fear of being accounted a Slanderer but that they are notoriously known to all the World And in All these ways there 's none like them for Cruelty among Christians There were indeed Assassines among the Heathen Saracens There are Deruices among the Turks and Saids among the Moors Single Persons or Orders of Men that are bloody enough in other Sects But for a whole Sect to be led by its Principles nay even Obliged to shed Blood I know none like these Traditionary Christians The Jews in the Apostles time to Them were but Children Their Zealots not to be mentioned with the Iesuites the Cannites of the Popish Religion They have the same Zeal that those had for their Traditions the same Diligence to make Proselytes the same Cruelty to shed Blood Only what those acted upon the small Stage of One Country these do throughout the whole World wheresoever they dare and have opportunity to do it Whether it is to be done by Private Murther or by Open War Whether by a Foreign Sword or by the Civil Whether it be upon Subjects or upon Princes And in this last thing indeed they Out-do the Turks and the Jews and all other That they spare not their own Princes where they may hope to advantage their Cause by it For the Foreign Sword they hold it not only Lawful but Necessary to be drawn upon the meer account of Religion There is no Kingdom in our Europaean World but the Pope hath given it away upon the account of Religion No Country but He has made an Aceldama upon the account of Religion His giving Kingdoms indeed hath been like the Devil 's offering them to Christ upon Condition that they to whom he gives them shall fall down and Worship him As the Devil offered All so the Pope hath given Many though they are none of His Own Though He had no more Title to any One of them than the Devil himself has to All Kingdoms The Empire he hath given away more than once France many a time over England many and many a time to those that would Conquer them And for fear that Prize should be too little he hath given them Heaven into the Bargain He hath Commanded them to Conquer those Kingdoms and that for the Remission of their Sins Thus he gave Navarre to the Spaniard who both Conquered it and holds it to this Day under no other Original Title but of the Popes Gift and that founded upon No other Right the Pope had to it but what he hath to All Kingdoms He knows little of our Story that knows not how he hath plaid with the Kingdoms of England and Ireland Sometimes exciting the Foreign Sword sometimes stirring up Princes against their Subjects sometimes Arming the Subjects against their Prince sometimes commanding them and sometimes hiring them either to Rebellion or to Assassination And in this they exceed the Turks and all others who do bloody things otherwise but not to their own Princes at least not upon the account of Religion But to Kill Kings meerly for Religion I know not one Instance where it was ever done but for Popery Not to insist upon old Stories Within this last hundred years there have been Two Kings of France Stabb'd by their own Popish Subjects but for Favouring the Protestant Religion Henry the Third in our Queen Elizabeth's and Henry the Fourth in King Iames's time For those Princes themselves Queen Elizabeth's Life was attempted many times She was never out of Danger after the first Eleven years of her Reign Though all that time she had not put One to Death of that Religion Afterwards indeed she did put some of them to Death to secure her own Life And knowing it was Chiefly sought by their Priests she forbad them to come into her Kingdoms And for coming in spite of her she did sometimes put to Death some few of them whom she had cause to judge faulty otherwise But this Rule she observ'd She never put any One to Death that would declare under his Hand That the Pope had no Power to take away her Life and her Kingdoms When King Iames came in after her He even Studied to oblige them He treated them with all possible Indulgence He could not presently take away the Laws but he put none in Execution against them He never touched either the Person or the Purse of any of those whom they call Catholicks He forgave all that was in Arrrear from them to Queen Elizabeth He refunded what Money of theirs he found in the Exchequer He gave them leave to live at Home how they pleased only peaceably Or to go Abroad and Travel where they pleased without Account Or to take Imployment under what Prince they pleased without Distinction He Honoured all alike with Advancement
Imprimatur Guil. Jane R. P. D. Hen. Episc. Lond. a Sacris Domest Febr. 27. 1678. A SERMON PREACHED At St. Martins in the Fields ON NOVEMBER the Fifth 1678. By WILLIAM LLOYD D. D Dean of BANGOR and One of His MAIESTIES Chaplains in Ordinary LONDON Printed by T. N. for Henry-Brome at the Gun in St. Paul's Church-yard 1679. JOHN 16. 2. They shall put you out of the Synagegues Yea the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God service THe Words are part of that Discourse which our Saviour made to his Disciples the Night before his Passion The Words of a Dying Man use to leave the deepest Impression And that was the end for which Christ intended this Discourse He knew there would be a more than ordinary need of it That which gave such force to his Words was the very cause of this need that is his Death For Him to suffer Death whom they lookt upon as their Messias Him that was to restore the Kingdom to Israel For Him to Frustrate that great Work by Dying They were in pain to hear this For Him to suffer such a Death They were offended at it often offended as often as He spoke of it Our Saviour considered their Weakness in this and mildly told them it should not be so but much otherwise That which they were so apt to be offended with when they heard it He made them hear it that they might not be offended when it came to pass These things have I spoken to you saith he to the end that ye should not be offended that you should not be scandalized nor deterred from my Service by any thing that I am to suffer Nay more What you shall see done in Me will likewise be done in You. As I am rejected and put to Death so shall You be and that for Righteousness sake They which now begin their Work with Me shall deal likewise with You when I am gone The time comes and thus it will be till time be at an end The time comes when they shall remove you from their Assemblies they shall put you out of their Synagogues Excommunicate you for your Christian Profession And having done so they shall kill you and all this in Zeal thinking it not only lawful but acceps to God They shall do it as Men that would 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do God Service or Worship so the Original signifies as if in so doing they should offer Sacrifice to God It is a wonderful thing That Men of Knowledge and Conscience and Religion they who doubtless were a True though then a Corrupt Church of God should think to please God with those Sacrifices which were scarce offered to the Devil by any other but the most Barbarous and Brutish part of Mankind What To Sacrifice to God with Human Blood which in his Law he had positively and directly forbidden To kill Men upon His account that has expresly said Thou shalt not kill To kill not Malefactors but the most faithful Servants of God the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ To kill them to do God service was surely a most preposterous way But they that did it thought otherwise and they thought as they were taught they acted according to their Principle It was the Principle of their Religion that false Prophets are to be put to Death 'T is most true God had so ordained it in his Law as you read Deut. 13. six first Verses But how should a false Prophet be tried Among the Jews he should be tried by his Doctrine And how his Doctrine By Scripture God sent them to the Law and to the Testimony and declared that if Men that took upon them to Prophecy spake not according to this Rule they had no Light in them then they were to be taken for false Prophets But these of whom our Saviour speaks the Jews of his Age had another way of Trial which they held at least equal with the Scripture That was their Oral Tradition Our Saviour told them of it He blamed them smartly for preferring it before Scripture You make saith he the Scripture of no Effect by your Tradition By this Tradition if they tried Christ and his Apostles and judged them all to be False Prophets that would not receive it they must judge Christ and his Apostles to be False Prophets and as such must kill them by their Law Thus they did They dealt so First with Christ himself and Then with his Apostles And they thought they did well in it They did this upon the Account of Religion It was indeed for their Religion such as it was not grounded on Scripture but on that False Rule of Oral Tradition In Defence of their Traditions they killed the Followers and even the Writers of Scripture Tanto in Religio potuit Such a mischievous pernicious Inflorence hath misguided Religion upon the Souls and Consciences of Men. So that now in my Text we have two things to consider You see the Theme of it is Persecution against the Followers of Christ. You see First the Cause of it is Misgrounded Religion In these Jews it was grounded not on Scripture but on Tradition Secondly you see the Effect of it in their carriage towards the Followers of Christ. The Effect is twofold First to shut them out of the Church by Excommunication Secondly having so done to put them to Death They shall Kill you saith my Text. Now Killing again is twofold either Publickly by the Magistrate or Privately by any particular Person 'T is all one to him that Suffereth whether he die by the Sword of Justice or whether he have his Throat cut in a Massacre or by Assassination But as to the Authors 't is far different The Sword of Justice may be Abused in many respects and is so sometimes in all Nations It may kill the Innocent through Misinformation and the Magistrate may be faultless in doing it But for Private Mens Killing by Assassination or by Massacre it is and ought to be odious in all Nations Yet some will do it and Justifie it My Text says some would not stick to do it yea and justifie it upon the account of Religion Thirdly the Time when they will do this The time comes says our Saviour Comes when Now under the Gospel The Jews did it at the Entrance of the Gospel In After-times that Christians should do it that profess to believe the Gospel Did our Saviour ever think of this If he did you may soon guess of what sort he meant For I know but one sort of Christians that do it and that justifie it upon account of Religion I know not any Principles for it among Christians but theirs in the Roman Church It seems as if Christ looked upon them when he said these words to his Disciples It appears he thought of them if what he said to his Disciples were intended of any sort of Christians He declared elsewhere Ioh. 17. 20. that what he said he