Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	heathen_a	let_v	publican_n	2,742	5	10.9981	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86113	The right of dominion, and property of liberty, whether natural, civil, or religious. Wherein are comprised the begining and continuance of dominion by armes; the excellency of monarchy, and the necessity of taxes, with their moderation. As also the necessity of his Highness acceptation of the empire, averred and approved by presidents of præterit ages, with the firm settlement of the same against all forces whatsoever. / By M.H. Master in Arts, and of the Middle Temple.	Hawke, Michael.	1655 (1655)	Wing H1172; Thomason E1636_1; ESTC R202383	79,995	208

Christian Horizon fire and sword were the arguments he ejaculated against devout consciences The Hussits first come upon the Stage who submissively imploring of Ferdinand the Emperour to be admitted to receive the Sacrament under both Species Ludov. Aurel. Ann. Eccles f. 460. were by Pope Martin interdicted and a sacred war denounced against them wherein Zisca their blind yet quick-sighted Captain who saw as much in military affairs as Homer did in Poetical Layes and became so terrible to the enemy that he supposed a Drum of his skin would fright an Army behaved himself so skilfully and stoutly that he overthrew the Emperors Army and forced him to vail to their conscientious demands and not only to grant them the sacred mysteries under both kinds Id. 46● but to permit them to possess those goods they had taken out of Popish Churches until they were with the value redeemed with many other reformed immunities Next ensued the Scene of the Lutherans the Hussits Successors who were as one stileth them Id. f. 445. Lutheranorum Antesignani They likewise marched under their Sacred Banners and were confident propugnators and defenders of the Primitive purity and in spite of the Popes thundering power acted their parts so couragiously and piously that they withdrew Denmark Swethland and Norway with the Duke of Saxony Lantsgrave of Hesse and some other Princes of Germany from the Popes Sup emacy whose pious president the Hugonets in France and the Protestants in England with the reformed Netherlands did follow to the Popes perpetual detriment and preparation to his downfal the which he fearing and finding upon this defeat many in all his Jurisdictions to fall from him repaired to his Vulcanian Conclave Europ Spec. f. 112. and there forged the infernal Inquisition which he per antiphrasin calls the Holy House wherein is executed the more then barbarous tortures on mens consciences apprehending any upon the least suspition of any their supposed Heresies of affinity or connivance which Hereticks and the bare reproving sometimes of the Clergy's lives or the having any book or edition prohibited and especially a Bible in the vulgar language discovering men by the pressing of all mens Consciences whom they charge under an high degree of mortal sin Ib. v. 113. and damnation to appeach their neerest and dearest friends and if they know or suspect them to be culpable therein proceeding against the detected with such secrecy and severity as that they never shall have notice of their accusers but shall be urged to reveale their very thoughts and affections The which though he intended to have propagated through all the Catholick Dominious yet was it not onely rejected by Germany and France Europ spe ib. and solely retained in Italy and Spain but also most of the Catholicks within their Precincts who perhaps if need were would die for Religion abhored the very name and mention of the Inquisition as being the greatest slavery the world hath tasted And which inhumane and unnatural violence of planting and propagating of Religion was execrably detested of the vertuous Heathens and is abominated of devout Christians as opposite to pious Principles For if it were aproved and grateful to God why did he send his Son unarmed and indigent of any external power why did he restrain and rebuke Peter endevouring with his drawn Sword to defend his Master why did he send his Disciples as Sheep among the midst of Wolves and naked into all parts of the World as his Father sent him And when did it come into the minde of the Apostles to perswade and allow of any such violence or their Successors in the Primitive Church to practice any such force neither is the distinction of any force that the Christians deposed not Nero Dioclesian Julian and Valens because they were unequal to them in Military power otherwise it was a strange dissimulation in Paul to instruct the Romans to obey the power of Nero if he lawfully having had power might have deposed him Prayers were their armes and admonitions their Inquisitors The Churches Cheif Master prayed for his enemies and Paul his Selected Apostle exhorteth us to pray for all men which is acceptable to God our Saviour who would have all men come to the knowledge of the truth And it is also his admonition instruct with meeknesse those that oppose themselves if God peradventure would give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth 2 Tim. 9.25 For they who like lost sheep goe astray may be drawn to the fold and the ranke Tares may become sweet Corn. CAP. VI. 1. Knowing and obstinate Hereticks are after the first or second admonition to be rejected 2. What Excommunication is 3. It was rarely executed in the Primitive Church 4. Qui argumentis convicti persistunt tamem in heresie propugnanda Whit. de sacra script l. 1. c. 2. Grot. de Jur. Bel. pac f. 505 The abuse of it by the Pope and Prelacy hath caused it to be neglected in most reformed Churches and to be utterly abrogated in ours THere are Hereticks Scientes who know themselves to be Hereticks and who convinced by arguments as Whitaker persist in the defence of heresie either for some temporal commodity or desire of vain glory And who being carried away with selfe-love ambition or popular applause build the City of the Devil upon false and new opinions not respecting the truth but their positions because their own inventions whom Augustine onely placeth in his Catalogue of Hereticks Such Hereticks after the first and second admonition are to be avoided and rejected as the Apostle prescribeth 1. Tim. 3 10. who offend not from ignorance and infirmity but from voluntary malice and obstinate industry From the admonishment of such a one we are to abstain and to leave him to himselfe as one condemned by himselfe as the Apostle speaketh and Turtullian interpreteth Elegit sibi in quo damnetur He hath chosen to himselfe his own damnation Excommunication is a separation from the Communion and Congregation of the Church C. 8. and of it is understoood that of Matthew If he shall not hear the Church let him be as an Heathen and a Publican 1. Tim. whose body as the Apostle speaketh is delivered to Satan That is put out of the Church out of which Satan is Lord and Master as among the Jewes greivous offenders aposynagogi fiant were cast out of the Church which was to shun their Communion as the Jewes did the Samaritans Neither doth Anathema the greater and more greivous Excommunication signifie much more of which in the Gospel we have no example onely a general Precept 1 Cor. 13. Whosoever loveth not our Lord Jesus Christ let him be an Anathema which by the Glossary is expounded Esse execrationem extra Communionem honorum usque ad adventum domini To be a vehement spitting out from the Communion of the good until the comming of the Lord and it is rendered by Hesychius 〈◊〉

means to draw their affections to their Constitutions Bod. ib. for which reason some of the Christians are succoured by the Turks charitable largitions Also that they pray heartily every day in their temples In his admonition to the Alcoran that the Christians may embrace their Alcoran and becom their Proselites as M. Ross relateth But here is another objection to be refelled Tholos Jur. univ f. 368. which is strongly pressed That liberty of Religion among infidells might with lesse perill be permitted because their religions were erroneous saepe errores plures se compatiuntur and often many errors do beare one with another but truth cannot stand with error which experience convinceth of falshood For among the Romans the Religion of the Jewes was permitted which then was the true Religion and afterward there were many Christians in Rome of whom Paul was one which then was the true Religion who were so far from opposition that they professed themselves subject to that power and made prayers and supplications for it So are there among the Turks many Christians who are true professors of the Gospel and live peaceably without any reluctancy And wheras it is averred that truth cannot stand with error the opposite is manifest for among the Jewes there were divers Sects Scribes Pharises Essaes and Sadduces of which that of the Sadduces was notoriously erroneous denying the resurrection of the dead yet lived they under one Government and were admitted to one Temple Among the Christians also there always were some errors Peter denied the calling of the Gentiles which Paul preached Gal. 2.11 yet were they both Apostles and Coadjutors in the Church And in the Church of Corinth there were divers errors concerning the Doctrine of Baptism 1 Cor. 1.13 yet were they of one Congregation The selected Apostle determineth this doubt who upon such differences resolveth the Corinthians 1 Cor. 11.19 that there must be heresies which from the plantation of the Church have been and so shall continue unto the harvest the envious man alwayes sowing tares among the wheat which by our Saviours rule are not to be plucked up lest you root up the wheat also CAP. III. That religious liberty was practised in the Primitive times among Christians and in after-ages permitted by many Christian Princes AS liberty of Religion was permitted by the greatest Heathen Emperors so was it allowed by the most prudent Christian Princes Bodin de Repub. l. 4. c. 7. For if we survey the state of the Church as it was in its minority before the constitution of Christian Princes it will appear that in Tertullians time there were one hundred and twenty severall sects in the Christian Church and every one permitted the exercise of their severall professions without any disturbance or discord And afterwards whenas under Theodosius raign there chiefly flourished in the Church two sects Nihil est periculofius quam in dusas sententias s●indi civitatem Bodin de rep f. 743. Catholikes and Arrians which number by the judgement of Bodin is more obnoxious to civill dissentions then that of many for one by nature is contrary to one and not many to one so as when many differ among themselves certain means are interjected between the extreme contraries which makes them less perilous and more peaceable yet did the prudence of Theodosius so moderate and temper them that they by his Edicts were induced quietly to practise their severall Religions and though all the Provinces were full of Arrians Perpiu ut nullus fuit angulus orbis terrae ubi non fuerint Arriani de bacchati that there was no corner of the earth where there were not raving Arrians yet did the moderate Emperour abstain from coercive violence and used only pious and gentle means to reclaim them and especially by maintaining the Councell of Nice and educating and instructing his issue and Alliance in the Catholique Religion having therein good hope that they in time might be drawn to follow his Royall and pious example by which mild and godly means he by degrees did attenuate and enervate the vigour of that numerous and furious Sect and prevailed more with his goodness and clemency then all the Arrian Princes did with their severity or cruelty for which Athanasius who by them was thrust into exile inveigheth against them for that they used the judicial power against those contradicted them whom they could not perswade by argument they laboured by stripes and imprisonment to hale unto them Grot. de J. B. P. f. 78. Atque ita inquit seipsam quàm sit pia Dei cultrix ostendit And therein saith he their religion manifesteth it self how pious and godly it is alluding to that place of the Apostle Galat. as Grotius conceiveth where it is said But as then he that is born of the flesh persecuted him that is born of the spirit even so is it now Theodoric a prudent and valiant Prince though otherwise censured for his cruelty extended his goodnesse and indulgence to the divided Christians then differing in opinions and gave them free licence to professe their severall religions without any interdiction which liberty of religion is at this day allowed in Transilvania Valachia and the remains of Hungary with Poland of which it is said If any one hath lost his religion let him seek it in Poland and there he shall be sure to find it Europ spec f. 159 And it was a worthy saying of Stephen King of Poland That God had reserved two things unto himself in which he cannot have his equall Ex nihilo aliquid facere dominari conscientiis To make something of nothing and command consciences So Maximilian that famous Emperour maintained this Doctrine that it was an intolerable tyranny to domineer over mens consciences and it was his advice to Henry the third King of France that there was no sin so great as to force mens consciences And Charles the fifth his Successor though of a contrary opinion yet permitted he the Religion of the Augustane Confession in all Countryes Cities Sleyden and places of the Empire and commanded that all the associates of that Religion should peaceably use and freely enjoy their estates possessions requisites and priviledges and afterwards by advice of his Theologues imployed those of that Religion in his military affaires whom he called his black Bands And Henry the third King of France after many civill wars and bloody massacres occasioned by the enthralling of devout consciences in which were forty thousand Hugonets miserably slaughtered observing Jeam de Seris that notwithstanding their holy leagues and dubious battells the Hugonets still prevailed learned this lesson Que le bras le chaire ne peuvent forrer les ames Que les maux spirituelles requirent remedes spirituelles que la foy ne se plante point avec violence aux caeurs des homes That the arme and flesh cannot force minds

Hor. l. 2. Sat. 7. Quae belluaruptis Cum semel effugit reddit se prava catenis But these vanquished subdued captived do still persist in their obstinacy and daily subject themselves to inevitable hazards and mischiefs how much better and safer were it for them to submit to Gods providence and not to fight against heaven and his Ordinance or kick against the prick How happy would they be to live in peace and unity and under the Soveraign wings of his Highness protection to enjoy the publique blessings of peace plenty liberty and prosperity by which mutual intercourse his Highness may be the more incouraged to make this Commonwealth the most glorious Empire in the Christian world the which through the Omnipotent assistance his Highness with all his nerves both by Sea and Land contendeth to accomplish and perform that which was heretofore proffered to the late King by him and others whereby maugre the might of any forraign force he may render Britain incomparable as well as invincible which indeed in it self it is as the Roman Poet acknowledgeth Tib. El. 4. Invicti Romano Marte Britanni Alb Gent. de armis Ro. Unless that it be betrayed by our selves Per dolos malos aut per malitias malas by wicked treacheries and malitious practises which may by providence and a stable settlement of the State be prevented as now it is As also by an offensive and defensive league with some forraign Nation which is easily obtained because by it advanced according to the Motto of Henry the Eight Cui adhaereo praeest Herb H●n 8. whose part I take prevaileth by which policy he became an honor to his Allies and horror to his enemies comparing Spain and France to a pair of Scales and England to the Tongue which turned either of them it assisted Howsoever England with his wooden brazen walls hath not been unable to withstand them both and to defeat the Spanish invincible Armado which at this present never were more potent and victorious being daily augmented by the care and providence of our Themisthocles CAP. VI. 1. Mans understanding is imperfect especially in spirituall things 2. It is the cause of many sects in Philosophy and more in Theologie 3. Among Philosophers arguments not torments were their moderators 4. Among Christians in the primitive times admonitions not persecutions were the weapons of their warfare 5. The Arrians and other Heretiques first used force to maintain their opinions and afterwards the Pope and his adherents THe object of the mind is verity which is properly attributed to the divine mind as that which is credible to the humane For truth is the adequation of the notions of the mind with the very nature of things and that is said to be true when the mind representeth the expresse image of the very thing which the wife Artifex of the Universe had with him from eternity and therefore cannot be ignorant of any thing But there is so great obscurity in the nature of things and in the minds of men such obliquity and variety that oftentimes they assent to falsities and uncertainties which they conceive to be true and firm and therefore he is said to be happy and wise who can apprehend the causes of things And because sempiternall spirituall and matters of faith are remote from sense therfore is the knowledge of them more uncertain and obscure Scalig. de Sub. Exer. 1. and as it were umbratilis To the intellection of which the sharpnesse of our conceit being directed is as weak as the eye of an Owl to the beholding of the Sun and which the naturall man receiveth or discerneth not 1 Cor. 1.14 and are such as no natural light doth reach unto Which naturall imbecillity hath been the impulsive cause of all the Sects in Philosophie and heresies in Divinity And though never so strange or absurd yet have their authors and founders invented probable arguments or inferred sacred sentences in their defence There are several sects in Philosophy and more in Theologie because more remote from sense The first amounts to the number of ten and the other to ten times more Epiphanius writes against 80. heresies in his time and Augustine against 90. generall Councils have erred The Council of Nice condemned Arrianisme and the Council of Arminium confirmed it Pier. du Moulin in his preface to the Boucl d'le Foy. And the day is not more contrary to the night then the antient Councils are to the new Et fuit hoc omnium aetatum commune malum saith one truly And this hath been the common calamity of all ages heresies and schisms daily sprouting up in the Church and like Africa Perpin aliquid novi semper pariens alwayes bringing forth one new error or another Among Philosophers arguments were their arms who friendly contended to find out the truth So did the Prince of the antient Philosophers deal with Socr. Plato Arist 1. Ethic. c. 6. professing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though they were both his friends De Sub. yet he deemed it more sacred to honour the truth and so the Prince of the modern Philosophers Scaliger protested Amicus Plato amicus Aristoteles sed magis amica veritas Plato was his friend Aristotle his friend but truth his dearest friend Such inquisitors of the truth used no torments to extort it but arguments non bacillinis sed Philosophicis to find it and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was their victory Among Christians also in the primitive time though there were sometimes divisions questions envy and strife of words yet were they through the Apostles admonitions contained in charity And after the Apostles age their Successors did not use armes and violence to propagate and settle the Gospel the weapons of their warfare were not carnal but spiritual who did not contend with Bands of Disciplin'd Souldiers but with aid implored of God not with armes but with the Spirit not by beating but by admonishing and reproving But after the Church was corrupted and disceded from the Apostolical Doctrine and that by divine Authority they could not maintain their novelties arms and all instruments of cruelty were invented for the establishing of their strange Doctrine and became more barbarous and inhumane then ever Nero Domitian Niceph. l. 11. c. 3. Decius and Dioclesian were As the Arrians and the Donatists under the Raign of Valens and tyranny of the Vandals exceeded all the Heathen Persecutors in cruelty and immanity And in these last and worst daies whenas the Bishop of Rome had usurped the pre-eminency and began to lord it over other Christian Churches imposing greater and heavier burthens on Christian consciences as Prayers for the Dead Purgatory Indulgences and other impostorious trumperies Then began the Popes tyranny imperiously to raign over Christendome which did not only infest the priviledges of Princes as hath been asserted but afflict the purest professors of the Gospell Then did his Phalaris Bulls thunder and roar about the