Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	conscience_n	law_n	sin_n	4,881	5	5.2089	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36461	The triumph of Christianity, or, The life of Cl. Fl. Julian, the Apostate with remarks, contain'd in the resolution of several queries : to which is added, Reflections upon a pamphlet, call'd Seasonable remarks on the fall of the Emperor Julian, and on part of a late pernicious book, entituled, A short account of the life of Julian, &c.	Dowell, John, ca. 1627-1690.	1683 (1683)	Wing D2057; ESTC R8708	83,984	256

perverted Eudoxia his Empress a person of great Learning and Spirit to persecute the Orthodox and Catholick Christians Constantinus Junior and Constans Brother of Constantius governed in the West and South these did not at all disturb any sort of Christians Julian succeeding Constantius his Persecutions we have recited Jovian by the Acclamations of the Army was immediately created Emperor who being a Religious and Orthodox prince moved no persecutions but gave even to Hereticks Liberty On his death Valentinian was invested with the Eastern and Western Purple the Soldiers after his Election in a tumult declared that another should be his associate he in a resolute yet complying Speech acquainted the Army that it was in their Power not to have elected him but having elected him it was in his power to appoint a time when a Colleague should be chosen taking his opportunity he by the consent of the Army caused his Brother Valens to be chosen his associate To him the Eastern Purple was assigned To see the Power of God! Jovianus enjoyed the Empire but Eight Months the Army proceeding to another election constituted a great Soldier a wise person and most religious Christian Emperor who made then with the consent of the Army Valens his Partner at that time an Orthodox and Catholick Emperor who under Julian professed the true Doctrine but marrying a Princess who was an Arrian instilling those pernicious Doctrines into the head of him a Soldier and being Baptized by Eudoxius Bishop of Constantinople an Arrian and by him at his Baptism sworn to maintain the Arrian impieties he proved a most dreadful Persecutor God was so angry with him as to substract his Grace that falling from the true Faith he scarce appeared to be a Christian and being vanquished by the Goths he was forced to take Shelter in a Cottage where he was reduced to Ashes At Antioch the famous Miletius being Banished when he kept his Court in that City he gave to persons of all persuasions full Liberty publickly to perform their religious Offices he opened the Jewish Synagogues and the Pagan Temples and gave a general indulgence to all that owned the name of Christians to Hereticks and those who divulged opinions contrary to the Apostolical Faith By his connivance and approbation the Mysteries and Festivals of the Heathens were celebrated Those cheats were suppressed by Jovian Then began to flourish Ceremonies Sacrifices and Religious Rites of Jupiter Ceres and Bacchus were celebrated and this was done not in Corners as in the Reign of Religious Emperors but now in the midst of the City In the Forum they wildly ran up and down madly performing their Orgias He is only an enemy to those who profess and preach the Apostolical Faith These he first drove out of their holy Churches they then convened upon the tops of Mountains there they heard the Words of God there they glorifyed God with Hymns and Praises To perform Divine Exercises they endured the violence of all sort of Weather Storms Snow Frost and Scorching heats These recesses he permitted not to them but by his Troops dispersed them Theod. Lib. 4. The cruelties of these persecutions Basil does lively describe in his Letters to the Western Bishops the Persecutions of the Arrians were dreadful the Donatists had liberty till they grew violent then their Churches were taken from them and some of the Bishops punished but they becoming Bloody and a Sect amongst them especially called the Circumcelliones a feral and rabid company acting Barbarities upon the Catholicks they were restrained by more severe Laws That the Arrians prosecuted the Catholicks with the greater Rage and Cruelty the Vandalick Persecutions not to be read without Tears are too sad a Testimony The Catholiok Emperors were not Bloody nor did they prosecute the Arrians with Fire and Sword The first sanguinary Law was against the Manichees 5. Arcadius it was a most frantick and abominable Sect. 3dly An erroneous and wicked Principle imbib'd may be the Reason of Persecution Religion is not the cause of it but mens ignorance passion prejudice and evil apprehensions of things Because the Samaritans did not receive Christ James and John said unto him Wilt thou command fire down from Heaven to consume them Luk. 9. When Zeal like raging Fire does not warm but destroy lays Towns and Cities in Ashes no wonder they condemn to the Flames those whom they account Hereticks What blood will not those persons shed What Murders will not they commit what cruelties not exercise when instigated by an erroneous Conscience and believe that when they kill their Brethren they do God good service But this is absolutely contrary to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus 'T is true by the Law of Moses the Blasphemer was to be put to death In the new Law He that will not hear the Church let him be as an Heathen or Publican Matt. 18. I wish they were cut off that trouble you saith St. Paul Gal. 5. But from these words to prove that it is meritorious to put an Heathen on a Rack broyl a Publican on a Gridiron and to cut off the thread of a Schismaticks Life by Instruments of cruelty is as ridiculous as that of a Sciolus Hoereticum devita an Heretick reject To turn it de vita tolle take away the life of an Heretick it is unquestionably true The Gospel commands no corporal punishment The Church pronounceth the person an Heretick but the sentencing of that Heretick to the Fire and the executing of that sentence was performed by the Civil Judge and his Officers I must not be misinterpreted as tho' I judged that a corporal punishment may not be inflicted upon those who are real Hereticks granting that Conscience can't be forced yet it must be concluded that an erroneous person may be forc'd to those actions which may alter his judgement No Boy can be forc'd to believe that amo signifies I Love yet a Boy may be justly forced to go to School and to attend to his Masters Lectures and by that means he may be convinc'd that amo doth signifie to Love And this was the case of the Donatists For St. Augustin a Man of a meek and Divine temper who very well knew the sweetness of the Gospel and the greatness of mans infirmity was against any Penal Laws in causes Ecclesiastical But when the Donatists were compell'd to restore the Churches which under Julian were taken from the Catholicks and to come to Divine Prayers and to the hearing of Orthodox Sermons many of them were converted Upon this St. Augustine approves of that severity But that persons being subject to their Prince demeaning themselves soberly merely for an opinions sake should be kill'd as Dogs and that by all feral means to extirpate that which they call Heresy is meritorious is not the product of Religion but of Prejudice and Passion What a scandal did this give to the Name and Faith of the Lord Jesus The Indian King would not be in Heaven because

burning upon an Altar dissipates Thunder and Prayer averts the anger of Heaven Qu. V. If Christianity hath such an innate purity and glory how comes it to pass that Christians should so violently persecute Christians IF such an Intrinsick worth be in Religion how comes it to pass that Christians are so cruel to Christians that no sort of men prosecute one another with greater violence and hatred than Christians do 'T is a sad Character that Ammianus Marcellinus gives of Christians No Tygers nor Wolves so cruel as Christians to Christians Those most dreadful Persecutions raised by Christians against Christians those instruments of cruelty wherewith Christians have Tortured Christians are sad Evictions of this truth To which I Answer that though the matter of Fact be confessed yet Religion cannot be judged culpable It prompts not to anger but meekness not to Revenge but forgive not to Fierceness and Cruelty but to Humanity and Sweetness It urges not War and Blood but Health and Peace the Master that Christians serve is the Prince of Peace the Gospel which is the Rule of their Lives is the Gospel of Peace and the future happiness to which they are invited is a peaceable Habitation Justin Martyr had a great contest with Crescens a Cynick Philosopher who acted a Philosopher in his garb and demeanor when otherwise he was one that hunted after Praise indulged his Pleasures and immoderately heaped up Riches he practised those Vices which were different from the Virtues which are the ornaments of a true Philosopher This Crescens slanders Christ him Justin confutes and proves him to be vicious and ignorant this charge in his Apology he profers to make good Crescens perceiving how he was bafled endeavoured to procure the death of Justin for which he thus reprehends him That He who perswaded others to despise Death should himself fear it and he who exhorted to a Patient and joyful enduring of Death by reason it puts the Soul into harbour opens the Prison-door whereby the Soul is at Liberty and enjoys a Blessed Immortality yet endeavours to inflict death upon me as the greatest evil I may say the same of Christians how absurd is it for them who believe a life Eternal a future retribution future torments for which the quality and nature far surmount the Spanish Inquisition Ravilliac's Tortures or the dreadful miseries which Moses one of Scanderbeg's Lieutenants endured in Fifteen days flaying should persecute Christians with the most feral cruelties which Policy and Malice can invent or execute This can't be imputed to our Religion which for Meekness Peace Amiableness and Love is preferable to all the Religions in the World 'T is this Religion which calls to endure to suffer for Righteousness-sake to fry Ten thousand Faggots with our Flesh to Purple as many Axes with our Blood rather than sin That same Religion cannot prompt its Professors to such bloody actions We will confess these things have given a great reason to complain of many Professors of so excellent a Religion These actions are no reproach to Christianity 1st It must be granted the Vices of most men are not a just reproach of humane nature What Murthers what Fires what Blood what devastations have been by men caused against men upon no account of Religion Those Wars managed with so great success by the Romans that no Empire of the World ever did or is ever in any probability to attain those they never commenced on the account of Religion they revered the Tutelar gods of every Country and therefore at the besieging of a City that they might the more easily conquer it they did avocare Deos yet what murthers and the sad effects of War they themselves were the causes of 't is notoriously known Pompey did glory that he was the occasion that Eleven hundred Thousand men were destroyed Tamerlane that in the Torrent of his Victories he should be the cause of the death of Eight hundred Thousand What cruelties have been acted by men upon men the Histories of all Ages will attest All these ascertain that there is an Original Sin but yet does not reproach humane nature indeed Mr. Hobs saith that the State of nature is a state of War and that all persons are equal And Spinosa who is Hobs Unvailed says expresly that men are formed to destroy one another as greater Fishes to devour the smaller Theol. Polit. Cap. 13. A fulsome similitude he uses to explain a notorious untruth There is no such estate of nature nor is it possible to conceive such an equality amongst persons for if the Original of man be by Creation then by the Successive generation the question is determined if we suppose men to be born by the prolifick power of Egyptian slime and the benign influence of the Heavenly bodies yet experience acquaints us there is no such equality naturally Think we the understanding of every Grecian was equal to the vast Wit of Aristotle the valour and conduct of every Scythian to that of Tamerlain the eloquence and parts of every Roman could parallel those of Cicero whose Wit equalled the Roman Empire No Fictions may be admitted which serve to explain the Phornomena's of the Heavenly Bodies but to admit such Fictions which destroy Justice under the pretence of giving the true nature of Justice explaining it is a most notorious absurdity and not to be endured Vertue and Goodness are not fictitious though such feral and Bloody actions have been perpetrated by Men yet it doth not conclude that mortals are divested of all humanity or that there are no Laws wrote on the Breasts of men which may be fairly read in the just lives of many excellent persons As Cruelties acted by men upon men reproach not humanity so the persecuting Spirit of some Christians do not justly cast an imputation on Christianity its self 2. It will not be amiss to enquire when this persecuting and bloody spirit invaded the Breast of Christians It must be acknowledged that during the first Ten Persecutions no such spirit appeared There was great divisions many Heresies yet the true Church maintained its self by holiness of Life patient suffering of Tortures and an excellent discipline The only allurements to Christians were a future glory and terror Eternal punishments but when the Emperors became Christians that restless Enemy of Mankind and the great opposer of Christ Jesus imploy'd all his Arts to make Christians act upon Christians those cruelties Pagan Emperors did In the Empire of Constantinus the great Arrius was raised up by Satan to disturb Christianity he colouring what some former Hereticks had not so clearly broached declared in the Church of Alexandria that Christ was not true God coessential with the Father Whence sprung those first Persecutions of Christians against Christians but on the Arrian account Under Constantius the Great no Persecutions were moved His Son Constantius to whom he gave his Empire of the East was prompted though not by his own nature but his Court-Parasites who