Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	henry_n	king_n	prince_n	7,937	5	6.0693	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A17345	Religions peace or A reconciliation, between princes & peoples, & nations (by Leonard Busher: of the county of Gloucester, of the towne of Wotton, and a citticen, of the famous and most honorable citty London, and of the second right worshipfull Company) supplicated (vnto the hygh and mighty King of great Brittayne: etc: and to the princely and right Honorable Parliament) with all loyalty, humility and carefull fidelity	Busher, Leonard.	1614 (1614)	STC 4189; ESTC S121938	38,867	38

Christ hath injoyned Christians not by perseqution to force other mens consciences against their wils by the irritation of the Bishops of our Land Sixteenthly because perseqution doe cause men and women to make shipwrack of faith and good consciences by forceing a religion vpon thē even against their mindes and consciences and also doe send them quike to the devil in their errors if that be heresy for which they are hāged ād burned which to doe is a most vnChristian vnnaturall cruell and tyrannous deed and I am suer you would not bee content to be so dealt with all your selves but indeed the popish and Idol Bishops are the authors hereof against the people as wel as of other persequtiō against the princes For Antychristiā Bbs doe draw Kings ād Princes hereto against their myndes as may appeare by Edward the sixt that Godly King of famous memory who being vrged by his bloudy Bbs to subscribe to the burning of a womā caled Ioane Butcher he answered wil you have me to send her quick to the devil in her error but when his bloud thirsty Bs wouls have no nay he said againe to Bishop Cranmer I lay al the chaledg therof on you before God and Cranmer said he had never so much to doe in al his life as to procure it whereby I doe perceave that godly Kings are drawen to battel against the Saints by Antychristian Bbs and false Prophets who otherwyse would rule and reigne more agreable to the mynde of Christ Also herby may al men perceave that the counsel and Bbs could not satisfy the Kings consciēce by their perswasiō if they could have shewed him the word of God for burning that Christian it wold have prevailed with that godly King and he might then of faith have consented but his answer sheweth that he was not of their minde for al that they had said and therfore now if it please you to require of your Bishops warrant from the word of God for the persequting of Christians or for forceing Prince and people to church you shal find not one Bishop yea not all of them together though assisted with their Ministers wil be able to shew warrant from Gods word whereby to perswade your consciēces therevnto and whatsoever is not of faith is sinne and whatsoever is not from Gods word cannot be of faith Seaventeenthly because perseqution of Christians by Christians doe not onely justifye papists and teach the Iewes and Pagās to persequte Christians but also doe teach the papists and others that know not the mynde of Christ and once get the vpperhād to persequte those that persequted them yea it is a meanes as we have had lamentable experiēce to set such as are forced to Church against their consciences at deadly hatred against the King and State and vrgeth al them to treason and rebelliō that have not truly learned Christ who himself was persequted to death whose harmles crosse al true Christians must take vp ād whose gentle and humble steps they must follow ād walke in or els they cānot be his disciples nor sheepe of his pasture And nether can the papists be perswaded that perseqution is a sinne so lōg as they ād other Christians are also persequted by the protestants seing the papists doe build their perseqution on the same ground with the protestants but both sorts of Bbs doe erre grosly as shal be shewed Godwilling when they make their defence except heerewith their consciences be convinced to yeld as I wish they may for the salvation of their owne foules the peace both of Prince and people and the saftye of the King and State In the meane whyle it is to be observed that those Bbs ād Ministers which perswade the King and Parliament to burne bannish hang and imprison for difference of religion are bloud-suckers and manslayers and such it cannot be denyed caused Kings and Magistrats to be their excicutioners and tormentors in burning the Martyrs in former tymes even in the dayes of King Henry the eyght Queene Mary as the books of Acts Monumēts wil witnes if they be not burned and I aske the Bbs and their Mini if the martyrs should have obeyed the King and Queene rather thē have suffered death And now I must humbly and with al reverence doe beseech his Maje and parliament advisedly to consider among themselves whether the Prince or Princesse differing with the Church now in matter of cōsciēce and religion stablished by law in our land as the right noble Princesse Elizabeth did in Queene Maryes dayes doe not incurre the danger ad cruelty of the law now as that worthy Princesse did then seing that popish and cruel law standeth stil in force in most points of religion and who dare trust the Bbs and ther adherēts in such a case the matter lyeing in their hands Let it be supposed that the Princes heart should be moved by the lord to embrace the Apostoliq faith discipline shal he be forced to beleeve as the Bishops doe against his conscience shal he bee constrayned to submit to their goverment and discipline against his conscience shal he live in vexation and perseqution and in danger of his life by the Bishops and law stablished as the Princesse Elizabeth did yea it must bee thus with our right noble Prince except there bee partiality yea it will bee thus with his Princely person except those popish and cruel lawes be repealed and extinguished Wherefore I meekly intreate seeing death is most certaine though most vncertayne when that those Antychristian and Popish Lawes may bee dissimulled and made voyd in tyme least wee all lament and bewayle it when it wil bee to late And I pray your Majesty and honors to consider that Kings and Princes hearts are in the hands of the Lord as the Ryvers of waters to turne as he will And the scripture saith The ten hornes by which I vnderstand ten Kings shall hate the whore and make her desolate and naked Likewyse the Scripture saith to Abraham the Father of beleeving Princes as well as beleeving people Also I will make thee exceeding fruitful and will make Nations of thee Yea Kings shall proceed of thee Which Scripture doe also overthrow the judgment of those men that hould a Christian may not bee a King nor Magistrate Let such consider that the Lord here speaketh of Abrahams Spirituall seed and not of his naturall seed Because if it be vnderstood of his Natural seed then cannot Abraham be o Father of many nations seeing all Abrahams natural seed are caled Iewes and are but one nation of the Iewes so that the covenant of God could not be performed that said I wil make nations of the yea Kings ●●al proceed of thee Therefore it must be vnderstood of his spiritual seed of which may be Kings and Princes that are not naturaly descended of him as wel as people that are not

no man to perish but would that al men come to repentāce but not by perseqution but by the word of reconciliation which he hath committed to his ministers And as kings and Bishops cannot command the winde so they cannot command faith as the winde bloweth where it listeth so is every man that is borne of the spirit You may forcemen to Church against their consciences but they wil beleeue as they did afore when they com there for God giueth a blessing onely to his owne ordinance and abhorreth Antychrists And kings are to thinck that they are men as well as Kings ād that Christ hath ordeyned the same meanes of faith for Kings which he hath for subjects and that subjects are Christs freemen as wel as Kings subjects Kings that beleeve are Christs Servants even as subjects are Kings servants and both are bought with a price therefore both ought not to bee the servants of men in matter of faith religion but Kings shal giue a greater account at the day of judgment then their subjects And to judge mē now for religion is to judge afore the tyme ād also to sit in the judgement seate of Christ to whom onely it belongeth yet not before the day appointed how much lesse to Kings and Bishops I read that Constantyne the Emperor called the greate wrought to the Bishop of Rome that he would not force and constrayne any man to the faith but onely admonish and commit the judgment to God Christes Kingdom is not of this world therefore may it not be purchased nor defended with the weapons of this world but by his word and spirit no other weapons hath he giuen to his Church which is his spiritual kingdom Therfore Christ saith He that wil not heare the church let him be to thee as a hethen a publicane he saith not bur ban hang or inpriso him that is Antichrists ordinance And though a man be an heretick yet ought he not to be bur but to be rejected after once or twise admonition that is cast out of the Church but as in the chur of Rome people of al sorts are by perseqution forced thereinto by the Bishops and ministers therof so it is in the Church of England also which sheweth that the Bs and min of Rome and Eng are of one spirit in gathering peopel to their faith and church which is the spirit of Satan who knoweth wel that his kingdom the false Church wold greatly decay if perseqution were laid downe seing himself cannot stand before the word and spirit of God much lesse his Bs and mi therfore he wil haue them for a name and shew to vse the word of God but indeed if the false interpretation and alledging of the scriptures wil not help then saith he constrayne them by fyer and sword or els if people haue liberty of consciēce they wil trye the spirits which of them is of god as the Apostle joh teacheth and then saith he the Prince as wel as people wil try all things keep that which is good and wil also prove themselves as the Apostle Paule teacheth whether they are in the Apostoliq faith or not And as the Church of Rome provoketh the Magestrats to peesequte to death such as are excōmunicated out of her so doth the Church of England provoke the Magistrats to persequte to death such as she excomunicate And as the Bs. and min of Ro wil perswade the prince and people to heare ād read none but themselves so doe the Bs and min of Eng also But the Bs ād min of the Apostoliq Church doe perswade al men to prove trye the Spirits whether they are of God which they cannot doe except they heare and read other mens doctrines as wel as the Bs ād their min neither can they if they would so long as the Bishops have power from the King and state to silence and imprison etc al preachers ād to burne al books which teach not their doctines Your Majesty and Parliament shal vnderstand that al those that confesse freely without compulsion that Iesus is the Messiah the Lord and that he came in Flesh are to be esteemed the Children of God and true Christians seeing such are borne of God and no man can say that Iesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost therfore not to be persequted And as Abel killed not Cayne but was killed himself ād as Isaack ād Iacob did not persequte Ismael and Esau but was persequted of Ismael and Esau who ād Caine were figuers of al persequters so the beleeving doe not persequte the vnbeleeving nor the true chur the false but the beleeving and true chur are as they have beene most often persequted thē selves of whom Abel Isaack and Iacob were figures whose childrē are al beleevers and free mē that stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made thē free ād wil not be tangled with the yoke of bondage no not with cir-cumcision much lesse with the discipline and doctrijne of the Church of Rome whose Bs are able ministers of the fyer and sword both to Prince ād people as many Historyes doe lamentably witnes to theyr vtter infamy and overthrow Also if the beleving should persequte the vnbeleving to death who shold remayne aliue then none but the beleeveing shold liue in the world and the vnbeleeveing shold dye in theyr vnbeleeif and so perish for ever the Lord wil not that the beleeveing shold live to the destructiō of the vnbeleeveing but vnto theyr conversion edificatiō and salvation And by persequting of Prince and people to death because they wil not heare and beleeve is no gayning of soules vnto God but vnto the devill And whereas ignorant and wicked Bs. may thinck to wijn soules by killing Prince and people for religion they are deceaved greatly for therby they loose many soules viz their owne and the vnbeleeving their owne they loose because they wilfully breake the Lords Commandement that saith Thou shalt not kill meaneing such as are corporal malefactors and the others which dye in their vnbeleeif they confesse themselues are eternaly lost except they as som of their minist hold a redemption after this life And the Bs. shold know that error and heresy cānot be killed by the fyer and sword but by the word and spirit of God that is the onely weapons of Christs Bs. and Ministers and such onely Christs Ministers doe vse whose liues and conversations are so harmlesse holy ād gentle that therby and by their deaths ād sufferings they wynne many soules vnto god wherby they are knowen fro al false Bs. and ministers who like wolues and beares not like sheep and lambs make pray and devour both Prince and People that are not of their kinde if they bee able to Master them Besides may it please your Majesty and Parlia to vnderstand that the beleeveing man that hath an dnbeleeveing