Selected quad for the lemma: book_n
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A35698
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Some remarks recommended unto ecclesiasticks of all perswasions
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Denton, William, 1605-1691.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing D1068; ESTC R14
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74,373
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48
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King James the Parliament sitting Dr. Harsenet Bishop of Chichester Preached a Sermon at Whitehall upon Mark 12.17 Give unto Caesar c. wherein he insisted that Goods and Money were Caesars and therefore they were not to be denied unto him at which the whole Parliament stormed and took great Offence which that wise and peaceable Prince endeavoured to calm and qualifie by moderate Exposition thereof to the Lords and Commons for that purpose Assembled in the Banquetting-House viz. That the Doctor meant it according to the Laws and Customs of the Country wherein they did live This did mollifie but not satisfie and therefore the Sermon was burnt to satisfie their Indignation against such vile and destructive Doctrines for which he was well rewarded by being translated to Norwich Rush 177. then to York a shrewd sign that such Doctrines did please the Court tho' not the Parliament Likewise Mr. Ric. Montague who 21 Jac. printed an Answer to the late Gag of Protestants and about 22 Jac. printed another Book Entituled A Treatise of the Invocation of Saints 1 Car. 1. he printed another Entituled An Appeal to Caesar which Books contained so many Erronious and false Doctrines contrary to the very Articles agreed on in the Convocation held at London 1562. that they disobliged the whole Nation so much that the Commons House exhibited Articles against him 1 Car. and prayed that he might be punished This Cause began 21 Jac. when he had published a former Book called A new Gag for an old Goose and was then questioned in Parliament and committed to the Archbishop of Canterbury and ended in an Admonition only given to Montague by the Archbishop who disliked that Book and thought to suppress it but could not It was printed and dedicated to the King and his Cause was recommended to the Duke of Buckingham by the Bishops of Oxford Rochester and St. Davids all mighty Church of England Men not Puritans whereby they espoused it as their common Cause and Concern and Montague is made his Majesties Chaplain yet his Majesty was so just and prudent as to leave him to the Parliament which did not please the Bishops and the Commons House did exhibit Articles against him and prayed his Book might be burnt and himself punished but the Bishops prevailed so much with the King on their own behalf that he was made first Bishop of Chichester and then Bishop of Norwich and his Book only called in by Proclamation yet so as all Answers thereunto by Preaching or Writing were forbidden For the several Answers made by Dr. Featly Dr. Gâ—ad in their Parallels by Mr. Burton Ward Yates Wetton Rouse in a Book called King James's Religion were all suppressed and some of the Printers questioned in the High Commission and Montague had a Royal Pardon which was inquired into 4 Car. by the Commons House In the same Parliament a Petition was exhibited from some Booksellers and Printers in London complaining of the restraint of Books written against Popery and the contrary allowed of by the only means of Dr. Land Bishop of London and divers of the Printers and Booksellers were sent for by Pursevants for Printing Books against Popery and the Licensing is only restrained to the Bishop of London and his Chaplains Ph. de Comines complained That tho' the King of France had a wise Council yet they rid all upon one Horse And must we be Priest-ridden by a Bishop and his Chaplains Upon which Mr. Selden declared That there was no Law to prevent Printing of any Books only a Decree in Star-Chamber and he advised that a Law might be made concerning Printing else one may be Fined Imprisoned prisoned and his Goods taken from him by vertue of such Decrees which is a great invasion upon the Liberty of the Subject About the same time also came out Cosins his Book of Seven Sacraments containing strange things against whom the Commons House exhibit 21 Articles whereof one was for calling some Gentlewomen Whores and Jades and Pagans and for tearing some of their Clothes when they were in their Seats in the Church because they would not bow to the Altar nor at the Name of Jesus c. Nalson 789. About this time the Clergy had wrought themselves with great Power and Interest at Court which encouraged the Inferior Clergy to great boldness and to pulpit any thing that might please as the very Road of Preferment Teach for Hire and Divine for Money Another that did appear bare faced and without any Vizard was one Sybthorp Vicar of Brackley scarce Batchellor of Art who preached Feb. 22. 1626. at Lent Assizes at Northampton on Rom. 13.7 Which Sermon called Apostolical Obedience tho' full fraught with many Theses destructive to all human Society yet had such countenance from the Court-Clergy that they procured his Majesty to send to the Archbishop of Canterbury to License it for the Press for the better grace of the business which his Majesty did feveral times by Mr. William Murrey but the Archbishop like a true Nathaniel refused to give it an Imprimatur but not without great Reasons humbly submitted to his Majesty for his so doing It was afterwards carried to Dr. Worrall Chaplain to the then Bishop of London who having hand over head Licens'd it afterward took advice of Councel who told him That if all in that Sermon were true there was no meum tuum left to Subjects and that he might be called to an Account for it and hanged Whereupon he blotted out his Name again and the Book was afterward Licens'd by Laud then Bishop of London who gave it a great and stately Allowance and caused it to be dedicated to the King and published upon his Majesties Commission for the Raising of Money by the way of Loan which was by such Royal Authority to give greater countenance thereto It taught that the King's Duty is to direct and make Laws that nothing may excuse from Active Obedience but what is against the Law of God or Nature or Impossible That all Antiquity was absolutely for Absolute Obedience in all Civil and Temporal Things Laud also allowed the Book called The Seven Sacraments with all its Errors which were afterwards expunged Another bold faced Priest that did appear about the same time was Dr. Manwaring who promoted the same Design in two Sermons preached before the King and Court at Wintehall called Religion and Allegiance in which he declared That the King was not bound to observe the Laws of the Realm concerning the Subjects Rights and Liberty but that his Royal Will and Command in imposing Loans and Taxes without common consent in Parliament doth oblige the Subjects Conscience upon pain of Eternal Domnation that they who refused to pay this Loan offended against the Law of God and the Kings Supreme Authority and became guilty of Impiety Disloyalty and Rebellion and that the Authority of Parliament is not necessary for Raising the of Aids and Subsidies c. for which he was impeached
deny their Communinn that are as capable of Heaven without the use of them as themselves with the use of them To the Council met at Jerusalem Acts 15. consisting of Apostles and all the faithful in the Church and to the Holy Ghost it seemed good to lay upon them no greater burthen than things necessary yet some of our Mungril Church of England Men taking themselves to be wiser than either the Apostles or the Holy Ghost have dared to impose Ceremonies and Observances no way necessary nor conducing to the Saving of Souls or Edification yea and more strictly requiring Conformity unto them punishing more severely the breach of them than the breach of Gods Precepts Tho' to err manifestly against the Scriptures be the most dangerous and greatest blindness that can possibly befal any Christian and the greatest Chastisement that God can impose in punishment of them whoever shall make use of the Divine Authority to serve their own turns in any worldly Interests yet so active is the Zeal of Priests of enlarging their own Phylacteries their Greatness and Impery that they make no Bones of wresting and perverting any Scripture Old or New to make it serve their turns which in plain English is to make Godliness wait upon Gain Pride and Ambition Let us now also add and consider the grand Pique these Priestly Court Parasites pure Church of England Men have had against Puritans the sober and thinking part of the Nation and Puritanism of old and the same under the names of Whigs and Phanaticks the Arts and Tricks they have used to suppress the Purity and Power of Religion by reviling their Persons decrying and suppressing Lectures on the Week-days Sermons on Sundays in the Afternoon and Conventicles and giving encouragement to Idleness Looseness and Prophaness in the People Witness the Book allowing Sports on the Lord's Day Printed 1633. and the Countenance given thereto by the then Court Prelates and Prelatical Priests who procured a Royal Proclamation to justifie the same And Archbishop Laud sequestred Mr. Wilson four Years for not Reading that Book and prosecuted him in the High Commission Court for not Reading the Prayers of the last Edition commanded by the Archbishop Nalson 571. Who yet Countenanced Publick Sports on the Lord's-Day by the Examples of the Reformed Churches beyond Sea and for the Publick Dances of our Youth upon Country Greens on Sundays after the Duties of the Day so Bishop Bramhall otherwise a pious Person and stout assertor of the Protestant Religion against Popery who sees nothing in them but innocent and agreeable to that under sort of People who likewise takes the promiscuous License to unqualified Persons to read the Scripture to be far more prejudicial nay more pernicious than the over rigorous restraint of the Romanists p. 641 642 643. This may be the Court Dialect and Prelatical Gospel but certainly not Apostolical for the same Equity for keeping the Sabbath strictly yea very strictly not Jewishly Ceremonious is as incumbent and obliging unto us under the Gospel at this Day as to the Jews under the Law I cannot understand such Liberty to be keeping of the Sabbath but rather a polluting of it Isai 56.2 6. Keeping of the Sabbath is not to rest only from bodily Labour but to abstain from doing our own pleasures and our own ways and not speaking our own words Isai 58.13 14. and abstaining from the delights of Sin as well as from the Works of our ordinary Callings What! weary of strict keeping the Sabbaths here and yet presume on the expectation of an Eternity which shall be nothing else but Sabbaths Certainly our Sabbaths here are but an Earnest and a Pledge of that Eternal Sabbath which we desire to Celebrate with Saints and Angels in Heavenly Places I wonder how so Pious a Prince and of such mighty Insight and Understanding could be so imposed upon by his Prelates and to Countenance such a Book by his Proclamation I wonder also how Bishop Bramball could shew such dislike of unqualified Persons Reading the Scriptures when to search them is a Precept Universal and to judge of Doctrines also and whereas there 's nothing in them of absolute necessity to Salvation to be believed but what is very obvious and intelligible to every indifferent capacity Bold Church of England Men that dare to be wiser than Almighty God by taking upon them to foresee Dangers that God never did foresee and to prevent them by such Methods as thwart God's own Appointments Beyond all peradventure such Doctrines such Practices such Methods can never conduce to the Benefit and Service of God's Holy Church and Chosen or to the Putity or Propagation of the Gospel but are rather a muzling of their Mouths who should tread out their Corn which should bring forth the food of Life Everlasting unto the People However tho' there have been such Priests and Prelates that have so acted yet I am not of their Opinion who therefore deemed them Papists in Heart No no some of them have given abundant Testimony to the contrary by their worthy Works as of Archbishop Laud Bramball and others But it is too plain that they improved what Interest they had at the upper end of the World towards tho Setting up and Advancing the Power Impery and Grandeur of the Church Men and to keep the Laiety under and did not improve their Interest towards advancing the Purity and Simplicity of the Gospel or towards the making of a high way of Holiness through out the Land that way-fairing men though fools might not err therein Isai 35.8 that being certainly their greater Duty to have bestowed themselves and their Interest on the benefit and Service of the Church rather than of the Pride and Ambition of Church Men. Thus much by way of Caution to prevent the like for the future being of Opinion that the Persecuting Dissenters and Conventicles is as National a Sin as Drinking Drabbing and Swearing and ought to be as nationally to be lamented both by Clergy and Laiety For I must confess my self absolutely ignorant of any one thing or signal Constitution from the very beginning of the Reformation to this very day to which the Dissenters were required to conform and submit that was essentially necessary either to the Salvation of Souls or to the more pure and sincere Preaching of the Gospel unto which they deenid their Conformity or Submission They would yet very much oblige us if they would make known unto us such Constitutions if any such there be for if in truth they have not been such then the Imposers not the Dissenters are the Separatists and Schismaticks for tho very self same Reasons that the Papists are Schismaticks not Protestants And I am afraid that it is not Conscience but finister ends that makes Prelates contend so out of measure for things no way Essential to Salvation According to St. Cyprian In sinu sacerdorum ambitio dormit ibi sub umbrâ recubat in Secreto Tholami