Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A30368
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An enquiry into the reasons for abrogating the test imposed on all members of Parliament offered by Sa. Oxon.
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Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing B5813; ESTC R4008
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13,002
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8
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Popery even under a Prince of that Religion but as he would turn the matter it amounts to this That that Law might be of good use in that season to lay the Jealousies of the Nation till there were a Prince on the Throne of that Communion and then when the turn is served it must be thrown away to open the only door that is now shut upon the Re-Establishment of that Religion This is but one Hint among a great many more of the state of Affairs at the time that this Act of the TEST was made shew that the Evidence given by the Witnesses had no other share in that matter but that it gave a rise to the other Discoveries and a fair Opportunity to those who knew the Secret of the Late King's Religion and the Negotiation at Dover to provide such an effectual Security as might both save the Crown and secure the Religion and this I am sure some of the Bishops knew who to their Honour were faithful to both The Third Reason he gives for Repealing the Act is the incompetent Authority of those who Enacted it for iâ— was of an Ecclesiastical nature and here He stretches out His Wings to a Top fligâ—t and charges it with nothing less than the Deposing of Christ from His Throne the disowning neglecting and aâ—fronting his Commission to his Catholick Church and entrenching upon this Sacred Prerogative of his Holy Catholick Church and then that He might have occasion to feed his Spleen with railing at the whole Order he makes a ridiculous Objection of the Bishops being present in the House of Lords that He might shew His respect to them by telling in a Parenthesis that to their Shame they had consented to it But has this Scaramuchio no Shame left him Did the Parliament pretend by this Act to make any Decision in those two Points of Transubstantiation and Idolatry Had not the Convocation defined them both for above an Age before In the 28 th Article of our Church these words are to be found Transubstantiatien or the change of the substance of Bread and Wine in the Supper of the Lord cannot be proved by Holy Writ but it is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture overthrows the nature of a Sacrament and hath given occasion to many Superstitions and for the Idolatry of the Church of Rome that was also declared very expresly in the same Body of Articles since in the Article 35 the Homiliys are declared to contain a godly and wholesome Doctrine necessary for those times and upon that it is judged that they should be read in the Churches by the Ministers diligently and distinctly that they may be understood of the People And the Second of these which is against the Peril of Idolatry aggravates the Idolatry of that Church in so many particulars and with such severe Expressions that those who at first made those Articles and all those who do now sign them or oblige others to sign 'em must either believe the Church of Rome to be guilty of Idolatry or that the Church of England is the Impudentest Society that ever assumed the Name of a Church if she proposes such Homilies to the People in which this Charge is given so home and yet does not believe it Her Self A man must be of Bays's pitch to rise up to this degree of Impudence Upon the whole matter then these points had been already determined and were a part of our Doctrine enacted by Law all that the Parliament did was only to take these out of a great many more that by this Test it might appear whether they who came into either House were of that Religion or not and now let our Reasoner try what he â—an make out of this or how he can justifie the Scandal that he so boldly throws upon his Order as if they had as much as in them lay destroyed the very being of a Christian Church and had profanely pawned the Bishop to the Lord and betraied the Rights of the Church of England as by Law established in particular as well as of the Church Catholick in general p. 8.9 All this shews to whom he was pawned both the Bishop and the Lord and something else too which is both Conscience and Honour if he has any left When one reflects on two of the Bishops that were of that Venerable Body while this Act passed whose Memory will be blessed in the present and following Ages those two great and good Men that filled the Sees of Chester and Oxford he must conclude that as the World was not worthy of them so certainly their Sees were not worthy of them since they have been plagued with such Successors that because Bays delights in Figures taken from the Roman Empire I must tell him that since Commodus suceeded to Marcus Aurelius I do not find a more incongrous Succession in History With what sensible regret must those who were so often edified with the Gravity the Piety the Generosity and Charity of the late Bishop of Oxford look look on when they see such a Harleguin in his room His fourth Reason is taken from the uncertainty and falsehood of the matters contained in the Declaration it self pag. 9. for our Comedian maintains his Character still and scorns to speak of Establish'd Laws with any Decency here he puts in a paragraph as was formerly marked which belonged to his Second Reason but it seems some of those to whom he has pawn'd himself thought he had not said enough on that head and therefore to save blottings he put it in here After that he tells the Genty that Transubstantiation was a Notion belonging to the School-men and Metaphysitians and that he may bespeak their Favour he tells them in very soft words That their Learning was more polite and practicable in the Civil Affairs of Human Life to understand the Rules of Honour and the Laws of their Countrey the practice of Martial Discipline and the Examples of Great Men in former Ages and by them to square their Actions in their reâ—â—â—â—tive Stationâ— and the life But â—ine the Bishop is here without his Fiocco yet at least for Decencys sake he should have named Religion and Virtue among the pâ—oper Studies of the Gentry and if he dares not trust them with the reading the Scriptures yet at least they might read the Articles of our Church and hearken to the Homilies for tho it has been long one of the first Maxims that he has infused into all the Clergy that come near him that the People ought to be brought into an 〈…〉 ance in matters of Religion that Preaâ—â—ing ought to be laid aside for a Preaching Church could not stand that in Sermons no points of Doctrine ought to be explained and that only the Rules of Human Life ought to be told the People yet after all they may read the short Articles and tho they were as blindly Implicit as he would wish them to be yet they would without more Enquiry find