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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79851	A second voyce from the temple to the higher povvers. Wherein is proved that the decrees and institutions of popes and popish counsels, which have been established by the law of the land, and have been continued and confirmed throughout divers ages, by several acts of Parliament, against Jesus Christ, in the way and order of the Gospel (the same yet standing) ought by the present supream authority of this nation to be taken away. Moreover; here is shewed, some particular decrees of popes, which have beeen established by several acts of Parliament, viz. A nationall ministry, tythes, prohibiting men from publick preaching of the Gospel, unlesse elected and ordained after a popish manner, &c. All which as they are the institutions of popes, formerly confirmed by the law of the land, so now, to be abrogated. By John Canne.	Canne, John, d. 1667?	1653 (1653)	Wing C442A; Thomason E710_19; ESTC R207195	25,656	36

shall not be lawfull for any Seminary Priest or other Priest or Ecclesiasticall person what soever made without or WITHIN any of her Majesties dominions by ANY AUTHORITY CHALENGED OR PRETENDED FROM THE SEA OF ROME by or of what name or title or degree soever the same shall be called or knowne to be or remaine in any part of her Highnesse dominions and every person so offending shall be judged as Traytor and shall suffer as in case of Treason And every person which shall wittingly or willingly receive relieve comfort or maintain any such Priest or Ecclesiasticall person shall be judged a Fellon without benefit of the Clergy suffer death loose and forfeit as in case of Fellony Now hence it was as I conceive that the Non conformists made so many humble suites unto Princes and Parliaments for a lawful Ministry to be established throughout the Realm and that the present Ministry might utterly be abolished as a base Ministry which God never erected in his Church As they knew it was originally from Rome so not safe to be taken up for being ordained Priests and Ecclesiastical persons by authority from the Sea of Rome they became ipso facto by our Statute Traitors and Felons and might have been punished as other Priests had the Law been prosecuted indifferently against the one as the other And heere I cannot forget the zeale of the old Puritans against the Nation Ministry their opinion of it and often addresses to the State to have it quite taken away It is in their writings ordinarily affirmed by them that the Ministry of England is a base Ministry which God never erected in his Church but came wholy from the Pope not onely the calling of the Hierarchy but also their dependent Offices all unlawfull and Antichristian A Ministry strange from the Scriptures and never heard of in the Primitive Church a meer humane invention taken up without any warrant from Gods word and brought into the Church by the boldnesse of men It wants the life essence and being whereby a Minister is a Minister The Books are extant wherein these things and a great deal more are asserted with Admonitions Supplications petitions to the Parliament to have the Nationall Ministry quite rooted out Now is it not strange this being so that those men in times so dangerous and when little could be expected from the supream Authority in answer to their Petitions should appear with so much boldnesse against the Nationall Ministry whereas now though we have better times and better men in place from whom we may expect better things and more then they could hope for neverthelesse not so much is done but the good principles of the Non-conformists are laid aside the nationall Ministry pleaded for and by whom even such as pretend more to purity of Ordinances then the old puritans ever did 3. To countenance and allow such a Ministry as is from Rome is a great dishonour to our State specially now as if we must be beholding to the Sea of Rome and know not how to worship God without taking a Popish Clergy from thence As on the contrary to disown it by repealing the Law by which it stands and so to send it back from whence it came this would make the faces of our Governours to shine and their names to be precious and blessed in future Generations 4. To allow such a Ministry is to acknowledge the Pope of Rome to be a true minister of the Gospel I pray observe it those Laws and Statutes by which the nationall Ministry is established and continued they do acknowledg and justifie that great Antichrist as to be a true and lawfull minister of Jesus Christ Hence it is by our Law that those who are made Priests in the Church of Rome if they come to the Church of England retein their Priesthood as full and ample as before And the Reason is because the Law puts no difference between a man made Priest at Rome by the Pope or Ordained Priest by a Prelate in England as to the Office and Calling it is one and the same 5. This nationall Ministery is a great dishonour and shame to the Gospel and to Christ himselfe in his most excellent servants the Apostles and Churches of the Apostolique Institution in rejecting and reproaching their precept and practice And therefore it much concernes the Parliament to confider how they suffer such lawes in force as doe openly and publickly speak out contempt against Jesus Christ I doe not deny but men may be yea and ought to be tollerated though they erre in their opinion and practice But that the Magistrate should make a Law or continue any Law made before to the dishonour of Christ and the Gospel this they cannot doe 6. It is a dishonour to a State that any mark of the Beast should by Law be justified and practised in it But this national Ministery as derived from the Sea of Rome is one of the most perspicuous and notorious markes that Popes and Popish Councels ever gave one of the first and by which Babylon hath been most advanced and Sion ever since most opposed hated persecuted 7. This Antichristian Ministery whether it be in Spaine France England c. For it is all one I speake of the Office and calling and not of the Administrations of Priests is guilty of bloud for thousand thousands of Saints have been murdered by it And therefore as the Lord is making Inquisition for bloud so should those who are called gods on earth now follow the Lamb and shew forth the likenesse and Image of their great God Master in heaven in searching after the bloud of the Prophets and of the Saints and to execute the judgement written It is true as the times may be some Acts of Justice may be foreborn which afterward ought and must be don David complaines that the sonnes of Zerviah were to hard for him yet Solomon following being in a better capacitie put one of them to death and justly too To illustrate this by a Comparison though murder be discovered and the person knowne yet no execution can be don upon him till he fall into the hand of Justice Indeed then if the Magistrate neglect his dutie and suffer him to escape he wraps himselfe in the bloud and guilt of the Malefactor That bloud guiltinesse lies on that Ministery which essentially is derived from the Sea of Rome this hath been known to Saints in former ages but the sonnes of Zerviah were still to hard for them But now when the power shall be in their hands not to arraign and execute the murderer is to be accessary I mean in some measure and degree to the bloud of the Prophets and of the Saints shed in all ages and nations by this bloudy Ministery Lastly It might here be shewed what great inconvenience will follow so long as this National Ministery is not abolished for though Tithes be taken away yet will the people doe as they have done goe

to these Priests for marrying burying Christnings Churchings administring the Lords Supper Reading the Service Booke c. And joyn with them in other Acts of superstition and will-worship Which they will not doe if by publick authoritie it be declared that this Ministery is held no longer true and lawfull and all such lawes Null by which the same was established Object That ignorant and scandalous Ministers be removed none or few are against it but we would have such as are godly Ministers to continue in their places otherwise men would live like Heathens without God and Christ in the world To this objection I shall answer divers wayes 1. If we consider the persons of the National Ministery as distinct from their calling here indeed we are to put a difference between persons though not things Concerning their persons we grant some are much better then other but for the thing it selfe that is the Ministery the Law allowes and owns all alike good and bad godly or ungodly wise or foolish And this is no other then what is asserted by a great Doctor of their own If you repel saith he writing against Mr Penrie the unpreaching Minister because of his outward calling you may by the same reason discharge the worthiest Minister in the Land of the holy Ministery FOR ALL HAVE ONE AND THE SAME EXTERNALL CALLING IN THE CHVRCH OF ENGLAND Dr Somes last Treat c. 10. p. 125. And this is most true and therefore to make the calling of one Narional Minister better or more lawfull then another is absurd In their personal graces qualifications administrations here they may differ but as to their office and Ministery so they are alike and all one I speake here what the Law of the Land hath established and allowed not valuing the distinction which some make of their own head 2. That the disowning of the National Ministery should hinder the propagation of the Gospel I answer 1. This is to cast some dishonour upon Christ as if there were a necessitie that he must be beholden to the greatest Enemy he hath to helpe him in the carrying on of the preaching of the Gospel for the sadding of soules 2. Howsoever it is true God hath made the labours of some National Ministers succesfull to the comfort of many soules yet that he hath ever ownd their Calling or Ministery that I deny It is no good reasoning Because the Lord makes a mans worke prosperous therefore he justifies the false calling he hath taken up But 3. That the laying aside of this National Ministery will be for the furtherance of the truth appeares thus 1. Because the greater number I thinke I may here leave out but few are ignorant of the Gospel and have not received the things of the spirit of God but they are foolishnesse unto them How fitly here may that place be applyed Matth. 23.13 Woe unto ye Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for ye shut up the kingdome of heaven against men for ye neither goe in your selves neither suffer ye them that are entring to goe in 2. As the unworthy are laid aside so for men of parts and pietie though the State doe no longer own that Ministery which they took from the Sea of Rome yet setting themselves on the Lords worke in his own way doubtlesse they will give them countenance and all due encouragement Besides they shall have the presence of God with them more then now they can exspect 3. The whore of Rome hath so bewitched the Nations of the world which have drunk the wine of her fornication that untill her abominations be put away they will not hearken to the voyce of Christ We see the throwing down of the Bishops was very much for the enlargement of Christs kingdome of this we have had ever since large experience so the disowning of the National Ministery will be as much if not more to the propagation of the Gospel for it is no other then to pluck up a weed that the good Corn may grow and prosper the better The next particular we are to handle concernes Tythes a thing as now in use devised first by the Pope and his Councel and established by the Law of the Land contrary to the true maintenance of a Gospel Minister and therefore by the Magistrate to be taken away But before I prove this a word or two by the way 1. The Author of that Booke lately published entituled A view of all Religions reckons this among other things to be the opinion of the Independents viz. that the maintenance of Ministers by Tythes is superstitions and Judaical It is probable heretofore when some such men were not in a capacitie to take Tythes by reason of Subscription Nonconformitie they were against the thing and held it superstitious and Judaical as the learned Knight reports But the power of the Prelates being since broken their opinion now seems to be otherwise their practice I am sure speakes it so 2. As the saying is Vno absurdo mille sequuntur grant one absurditie and a thousand will follow So is the case here grant a National Ministery which is Popish and Antichristian Tythes must follow For what more congruous and proper then every Ministery whether Christian Antichristian or Jewish to have its maintenance according to the Rule and Law belonging to it I know it is the opinion of many that Tythes being taken away a multitude of prophane and scandalous Priests will fall with them Now admit this be so Neverthelesse if the National Ministery be as unlawfull as Tythe and that which is the foundation of it why should it not be taken likewise into consideration yea and first of all Physitians tell us and we finde it true by experience The effect ceaseth when the cause is taken away 3. Howsoever I have seen severall Addresses made to the Parliament and many books in print against Tythes yet methinkes I doe not finde the Case well stated at least not home That tythes are an oppression and too great a burden for the people to beare a great discouragement to the husbandman c. Though this be true yet it s rather a circumstance or an aggravation then the thing it selfe I would state the case thus The Pope and his Councels have sent hither an unlawfull Ministerie and for the maintenance of it they have appointed Tythes as the Priest had under the Law These Ordinances and Constitutions of the great Whore have been established here by Idolatrous Princes and Parliaments against the Lord Jesus who is the King of Kings and whom all the powers of the world should obey In which regard it is desired not so much for the ease of the people and husband mans sake as for Gods sake for Christs sake and for the Gospel sake that such sinfull lawes may be repealed and this mark of the Beast kept here by Authoritie no longer 4. Howsoever I do observe that the Independents and Presbyterians doe appeare most for Tythe yet the truth is