Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n
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A57341
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The Ripping-up of Sir John Presbyter's garment, or, The Ground-work of schism laid open to all true Protestant readers, &c
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1679
(1679)
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Wing R1530; ESTC R38037
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8,226
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5
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The Ripping-up of Sir Iohn Presbyter's Garment OR THE Ground-work of Schism Laid open to all true Protestant Readers c. Reader I Shall not stop your desires by an Epistle but fall plainly to the Matter which I hope may not only divert but convert thee if you are not already Conformable for know those foul and damnable Presbytical practices which are daily working are not invisible to the All-seeing God though for a time they may be so to men I know their present designs are strengthned and encouraged by the same Party who made the late Insurrection in Scotland they think and stick not to speak it too that by compulsion the King must yield to their demands but let them not be deceived for howsoever in Scotland some thought themselves strong enough to resist their Prince yet I thank God they are not so popular here but the King's Laws and Authority is able to overtake them And assured they may be that these their insolent oppositions against the King and his Interest will make their Faction be more narrowly look'd into for certainly they have not any spark of God's Grace nor Loyalty to their King and so are become the Children of Sin and Rebellion wherefore behold their proceedings and judge them accordingly You may perceive how that Sect since the first beginning of it which was but in Queen Maries Reign hath proceeded from evil to worse by innumerable degrees at first they did only manifest a dislike of Episcopal Government and some Ceremonies used in the Church of England as liking better the Government of Geneva which was desired by Mr. Calvin and that cunningly enough for the State of that Republick which being Popular could not brook any other but that which is Popular also And yet I must tell you Mr. Calvin wanted nothing of a Bishop but only the Title for the Church of Geneva is not a Parochial but Diocesan Church consisting of divers Parishes which make up one great Presbytery and he all the days of his life was Moderator thereof And so likewise Mr. Beza for ten years after the others death held the same place of Government until Danaeus set him beside the Cushion and procured the Precedency to go by turns In the next place from dislike they proceeded to contempt of Episcopal Government and this if you will believe St. Cyprian hath been the very beginning of all Heresies and Schisms Initia Haereticorum saith he ortus Schismaticorum haec sunt ut praepositum superbo tumore contemnant And again Vnde Schismata Haereses orta sunt nisi dum Episcopus qui unus est Ecclesia praeest superbâ quorundam praesumptione contemnitur homo dignatione Dei honoratus ab indignis hominibus judicatur In the third place from contempt they did proceed unto open disobedience unto all the Orders of the Church and like those of whom Nazianzen speaks would be pleased with nothing but what did proceed from their own devising esteeming him the Holiest man who could find most Faults From disobedience they did proceed unto Schism and open Separation accounting themselves only to be the Brethren and Congregation of Christ and all others who are not of their Faction to be the Children of this World From Schism they proceed to Heresie for it is most true which St. Jerome did observe that Omne Schismagignit sibi Haeresin every Schism doth devise unto it self an Heresie some false Doctrine or other to maintain their Separation And these men have devised not a few and some that have been condemned by Ancient Councils and Fathers as namely Epiphanius reckons among the condemn'd Heresies of Aerius that he maintained there was no difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter and that all set Fasts are unlawful Jewish and Superstitious And is not such the Doctrine of these men But their disobedience Schism and Heresie has again drawn them even to the brink of Rebellion where the hopes of some immediate proceedings c. has stopt their Carreer for the present But I am deceiv'd if they have not yet a farther Journey to go and that they no ease can find till arrived at the second part of the Good Old Cause from which their hearts now differ but little and if you 'l but read the History of the late Civil Wars you will find their proceedings were then more moderate than now they are This is the just Judgment of God that they who out-run the limits of his infinite goodness and the mercy of their most clement and gracious King should also run out of their own wits and into the very Lake of Perdition and Puritanism I beseech all good Protestants in time to consider their ways and proceedings and how they endeavour to cast mists before our eyes whilst their Rebellious practices run to the point they so earnestly pray for I protest their gross Hypocrisie in matters of Religion and their base injurious dealing with Kings who are God's Vice-gerents here on Earth is most unpardonable both which I have observ'd by their Doctrine and Practices and will now give you a brief taste of both As for their Doctrine we know they would if they durst take from the King all Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical and will not allow him to do those things which the good Kings of Judah and the Godly Emperors of the Primitive Church did nay they will not accept or allow of so much as one Member of Parliament recommended by the King nor His Majesty to make any Laws concerning matters of outward Order and Polity nay they have gone farther allowing and encouraging Subjects to resist their Prince and are now on the same step of Rebellion and that next door to being done by force of Arms and in some cases to depose him nay and condemn him as a Tyrant And though the Godliest Prince in the World by them he must be esteemed so for it much pleases the Presbyter to declare him such so that according to this account Kings must be in a far worse case under Presbytery than ever they were under the Pope This is their Doctrine and now I will shew you their Practice First those of the same fraternity in Scotland how they dealt with King James they persecuted him in his Mothers womb and when he came unto ripe years they would not suffer him to enjoy one quiet day by their Seditious practices of a great many I will cull out some of their Attempts which are most notorious First when the Ring-leaders of that Faction had concluded the State of Bishops to be unlawful they sent their Commissioners unto the King commanding him and his Council under pain of Excommunication to put them down Secondly when King James was taken Prisoner at Ruthen by their Treachery intending thereby to enforce His Majesty to their own ends he being happily delivered from them did with the consent of his Three Estates in Parliament declare it to be a Treasonable Fact but the Seditious
Ministers being assembled and taking themselves to be the Supreme Judicatory did pronounce that Treason to be most just and lawful but they being farther examined on that point declin'd his Majesties Authority alledging he was no Judge over them in Church-matters all this and much more you may read in King James his Declaration printed Anno 1585. When the Earl of Bothwell was in the act of Rebellion against the King and had divers times attempted to take away his Majesties Life there were by the Ministers great Collections made to maintain the said Earl in his Rebellion Afterwards when the Gowries conspired against his Majesty and he miraculously rescued by the Valour of his Servants his Majesty desired there might be a Publick Thanksgiving throughout the Realm for his deliverance but those of that Faction did plainly say they neither believ'd the King or his Nobles nor that ever there was such a Conspiracy but that it was a Plot of the King to murder the Gowries One thing I cannot omit how they call'd a National Assembly to be held in Aberdeen the King suspecting the event and having long before by Act of Parliament all Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical sent to inhibit them by Proclamation but they would not desist whereupon some were apprehended indicted and found guilty of High Treason yet that merciful Prince did neither take Life nor Goods from any of them only caused six to be banished who upon the acknowledgment of their offence were admitted to their former stations again and yet the Tincture of Rebellion would not out for the Successors of those very persons are to this day some of the principal Firebrands in a new but worse Conspiracy witness the late Insurrection in Scotland the most inhuman and barbarous murder of the Archbishop of St. Andrews c. Thus have I given you a brief account of their Doctrine and Practices concerning the opposing of Kings but lest this should be thought a National sin and so Jerusalem upbraid her Sister Samaria I will shew unto you that they of the same Fraternity in England have not at all swerved from the tracks of their Scotch Predecessors but rather are become more dangerous and bloudy in their designs witness King Charles the First of blessed memory how barbarously they dealt with his Majesty and the whole Line-Royal by their means to be banished And yet when God of his infinite mercy had re-call'd our gracious King Charles the Second and set him on his Throne in the spite of those his mortal Enemies he of his great goodness and compassion extended his gracious Pardon to all such as were any ways concerned against him only some few excepted and yet even from that very day have these wicked Varlets run on in the old path of Rebellion and Conspiracy and are even at this juncture studying ways to dethrone his most Sacred Majesty and yet these are the things we silly Protestants take for Saints and cannot discover them to be of the Black Robe until we come to dance to the second part of the same Tune they play'd in 41. when then perhaps 't is too late For if ever there were Devils transformed into Saints 't is now and thrust in under the Skirt of John Presbyter's Cloak who with the pretence of Sanctity labour to bring all manner of discord into the Church and consusion into the Kingdom and the Government thereof as if the Regulating of Church and State wholly rested with the Rabble Faction By the sum of all Histories it is plain these People envy all Kings whatsoever and so get Gods promise made to his Church That Kings should be her Nursing-fathers and Queens her Nursing mothers c. But what need I repeat matters of old For the Children are worse than the Fathers and their present devices doth surpass all the Iniquities of their Fathers and will make those of old to be forgotten And yet these are the people who swear to be good examples to us of all Godliness Soberness and in fine of every Duty they owe to God and Man Now pray Reader guess what Godliness Soberness or Righteoushess has or can be in such proceedings they now begin to be weary with assaulting us with their Tongues which are sharper than Arrows and with their Pens which write Treason in as plain a stile as their Parsons in their Pulpits teach it and are come as Tertulltan says a stilo ad maechaeram from words to blows or very near the matter which puts us to say with Bernard Leones evasimus sed incidimus in Dracones we escap'd the mouths of Lions but have fallen into a Den of Dragons for these sure are Cerastes fiery flying Dragons But it would be well if their madness stay there for they not only do wrong unto God in the highest degree but would touch his Anointed by entring into a mutual League and Covenant by incensing and Arming his Subjects against him taking Oaths of them to stand by and maintain the Cause and endeavouring to sow discord amongst those of Loyal Souls to the confusion of our gracious King and his Government Good God! can such call themselves Christians that do these things can they warrant this out of Gods Word which commands to obey our King and that for Conscience sake even then when all Kings were Enemies to Christianity and Religion or have they any Examples for such proceedings out of pious Antiquity The Christians in the Primitive Church when they were led as Sheep to the slaughter and suffer'd the most exquisite Torments that could be devis'd yet would never take Arms to resist their Prince but put on this resolution Arma nostra preces lachrymae Yea when those persecuting Emperors had occasion of War against the barbarous Nations the Christians were the Emperors best and most faithful Souldiers so terrible unto their Enemies that they were call'd the Thundering Legions And St. Austin doth highly commend them for their faithful Service unto the Heathen Emperors who did most cruelly spill their Bloud only for their profession of Christ And let no man say it was for want of Power that they did not defend themselves by Arms for it is well known that if they had thought it lawful to resist the Emperor they were of that number power and resolution that they might have shaken the foundations of the whole Empire But now it seems our Presbyterians of whom I speak have learned another sort of Doctrine and think they are bound to stand to the defence of their dread Soveraign his Person and Authority in defence of the true Religion as they express it in the Confession of their Faith whereunto they all are obliged to swear so that they do plainly insinuate they are no farther bound to defend the Kings Person and Authority than he doth stand in the defence of the true Religion and that only must be accounted so which they themselves best like of If the King will not maintain that then they are