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Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88818	The wolf stript of his sheeps clothing or The antichristian clergy-man turn'd right side outwards. Wherein is briefly discovered and layd open their subtile and wicked wayes and practises to deceive and destroy not only private people, or particular societies, but whole nation and kingdoms, and all under the plausible vizzard of reformation, church-government, punishing of hereticks and sectaries. / By R. Lavvrance Marshal General.	Lawrence, Richard, d. 1684.	1647 (1647)	Wing L682; Thomason E386_10; ESTC R201479	19,259	30

destroying and ruinating many thousands of good Christians the whole Histories of Christendom being but a brief story of the bloody wicked barbarous practises of these blood-thirsty Clergy-men there would be no end if I should come to particulars whole Volumns not containing them But thou mayest object and say We know the Romish-Clergy are bloody deceivers cruel persecuters of good Christians We have heard often of the Spanish Inquisition and the bloody massacre in France c. But what is this to us we have had a Learned Pious Clergy in England for many yeers Let me intreat thee to consider a little what pious men they have been where shall we begin in Henry the eights time or in Queen Maries dayes For till those dayes they were all as Romish as the other are now Let me intreat thee to peruse well the Chronicles of England Scotland and Ireland Master Fox his Books of the Acts and Monuments of the Church his History of Martyrs and when thou hast done then tell me whether the Clergy of England hath not been more wicked bloody and cruel then all the Clergy of Christendom besides How many thousands of precious Christians have had their blood spilt and been put to cruel torments such as ye hardly read of in any other story by our cruel bloody English Clergy-men And this is chiefly observable in them wherein they have exceeded all others That they have not onely been as Popish superstitious and cruel as others in other Kingdoms when the stream hath run that way but that they were never true to their own principles wherein they have been alwayes a shame to their cloth for as their Popish Superstition and Idolatry hath declared them to be not Christians but Antichristians so their turning like the weather-cock with all windes hath declared them unworthy cowardly people as they are meet natural men Thus ye shall finde them in Henry the eights dayes when the Kingdom was under the height of Popery they were all cruel Papists when the King denied the Popes supremacy and went about to demolish the Abbeys and Monasteries which they all knew was not out of any pious zeal he had for Reformation but out of wrath pride and coveteousness yet how did they all fide with him except the Cardinal and the poor Fryers and Monks that were all undone and beggered by it Then in the dayes of Edward the sixt by reason of the Kings pious disposi●ion though young they feared a turn and presently a great part of them fell a Preaching against some particular points of Popery and such as defended them did as if they had not greatly cared what Religion they were on but in the mean time the Lord Protector with several others were resolved to reform the Church and presently abolished the Mass with most of the Popish Service and caused the Common-Prayer Book to be read in English to the people and presently all the Clergy were zealous Protestants great Common-Prayer Book men except some four or five of their chief Bishops as Gardiner Bonner Toustal and Day and about three or four yeers after at the most when Queen Mary was made Queen of England they presently all turned about again except such another number as Cranmer Rogers Hooper Ferrer Ridley and Latimer and grew more cruel throughout the whole Kingdom against the poor Saints then ever they were Bonner being then Bishop of London did drive the very same trade Master Edwards is about now for if ye observe it the first officer Antichrist entertains when he is begining a new designe is a good Scout-master General to keep a correspondency with all the rest of the wicked Clergy spred abroad over the Kingdom as ye may see by those many wicked Letters and accusations which daily he received from all parts of the Kingdom against one poor man or other so that friends durst not talk together for fear some words should slip and Bonner should come to hear of it which was the bloodiest minded man that is upon record for persecuting the poor Saints and inventing punishment for them or I hope we ever shall hear of if God keep but Master Edwards and his ungrateful bloody faction out of authority And in this rage did those wolves continue devouring the poor sheep of Christ all the dayes of Queen Mary and how many thousands of good Christians were destroyed and banished by them would make a Jews heart bleed to consider off and all those suffered by them as evil doers as Heretikes and Schismatikes and themselves then as they do now assumed the name of Christs Ministers and Ambassadors Then after Queen Mary was dead and Queen Elizabeth swayed the Scepter in six moneths the whole tribe of them except some few of their Bishops which had gotten money enough to live upon any where and so did not care much for their trade turned quite about again and all turned Protestants in which shape and under which visage they have continued to the beginning of this Parliament who then presently discovered to the whole Kingdom that they had been as deceitful and as cruel in this shape as ever they had been in the former that they had onely got on sheeps clothing but were all inwardly ravening wolves they had got a trick to call all their Antichristian practises and Popish ceremonies the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England and all their Antichristian proud Prelates with the rest of their superstitious dumb Priests must be called the Bishops Stewards and Ministers of Jesus Christ and all the true worshippers of God in the Kingdom they were all scattered abroad silenced and persecuted under the name of Heretikes and Schismatikes c. Every day growing worse then other bringing in some new invented Popish ceremony or other to the end they might have further advantage against such as could not submit to them sure it will be needless for me to give you any particulars of their insolent proud wicked carriage in our times it must needs be fresh in your memory their incroachments upon the Civil power their oppressions by their wicked Courts in all parts of this Kingdom their superstition and idolatry which they were every day inventing and bringing into the Church their insolency and pride in setting themselves up with if not above the Nobility of the Kingdom their wicked and damnable plots tending to the ruine of both Church and State doth not all the blood both of England and Ireland stand upon the stone of these bloody men have not they been the great fomenters of this bloody war amongst us by stirring up the spirits of wicked cruel men against the poor Saints of God in the three Kingdoms and was there ever any wicked plot discovered either against Church or State but these men have had a great hand in it if not the chief contrivers of it If a Deputy of Ireland be in fault ye may be sure of an Archbishop of Canterbury How did they flock to the Kings

party at the beginning of this war that in some Garrisons as Oxford Newark York and several others there were whole Troops and Companies of black-coats and where ever the greatest flocks of these learned Deceivers were resident there were the people most disaffected to the Parliament as witness the Universities and Cathedrals which appeared to be the very nests and cages of unclean birds If the Parliament should have forborne to have given them the tenth of the Kingdom till such time as the tenth of the Clergy had been of their sides the Ordinance for Tithes might yet have been unpast If I should go on to particulars of their Malignant speeches and actions which they have spoken and done against the Parliament and their proceedings since this war begun you would not have the patience to read them of their villifying the Parliament and all that adhered to them under the names of Rebels and Traytors frequently charging them of sacriledge and robbing the Church of her ancient Rites and Ceremonies extolling the Book of Common-prayer calling it the Divine Service of God thereby to render the Parliament odious for taking away such holy things with abundance more of this nature so that all these things well considered and laid together I wonder who will appear the great Sectaries the grand Heretikes the factious Fellows the sowers of Sedition and destroyers of Religion in the Kingdom whether the Laity or the Clergy and who we have now most cause to stand in fear of whether those which are now discovering the superstitious blindness and wicked practises of the Clergy or the Clergy themselves which are driving on their old designes in a new shape that are building a new Babel out of the old rubbish that are giving that great skarlet whore a new dress thereby to make the world once more wonder after her that they may once more hear that voice Great is Diana of the Ephesians but let me perswade thee not to fear them neither it is enough for their servants their vassals such as stand and fall with them to live in fear of them But if thou best one of those which follow the Lamb wheresoever he goeth Rev. 14 4. that art willing to carry the cross of Christ as well as wear his Crown that art willing to suff●r with him as well as raign in the day of their great calamity When they shall drink the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his Indignation and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb Revel 14.10 Then shalt thou stand with the Lamb upon mount Sion verse the first Then shalt thou sing a new song before the throne Verse 7. Then shall you sing A●leluia salvation honor and power unto the Lord our God for true and righteous are his judgements for he hath judged the great whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand Revel 19.1 2. Therefore be not now at all troubled when thou seest the day begin to grow dark it is but a cloud that is arising it will be no more night with the Church if they have a dark hour the sun will shine through the cloud For lo the winter is past the rain is over-gone the flowers begin to appear on the earth Cant. 2.11 It is now spring-time with the Church and though there may be many a cold blast and stormy showre yet they are rather to be desired then feared They will cause the fig-tree to put forth her green-figs and the vine with the tender grape to give a good smell Cant. 2.13 What though Truth be yet called Error and Light darkness the Saints and faithful servants of God Schismatikes and Heretikes c. let not this trouble thee it is no new thing that hath befaln thee they never were called by other names yet by this generation of men called Clergy and Paul was not ashamed to confess to Felix that after the way they call Heresie he worshiped the God of his Fathers and if thou best ashamed to confess that now thou mayest come to be ashamed of Christ and Truth and so deny both Therefore do not thou minde so much what men cry up for truth and tread down for error for all is not error that is voted so It hath been the lot of truth in most counsels if not in all to have the fewest voices and thou mayest be sure they themselves that put truth upon vote are not themselves satisfied what truth is till they have done voting But if they were the sons of truth or had any love to or high esteem of truth if they had ever tasted of that word of truth and righteousness if they had ever received the truth in the love of it it would be more precious to them then to be ventured at one stake But this doth fully declare to us they hold the truth in unrighteousness Romans 1.18 These are such as Isaiah speaketh off Isaiah 48.1 Which are called by the name of Israel and are come forth out of the waters of Judah which swear by the name of the Lord and make mention of the God of Israel but not in truth nor in righteousness These men never followed Christ for the love of Truth it is the loaves more then the miracles that they minde These Simon Magus's which have purchased their Apostleships by their money love their wages better then they do their work The first thing they minde is how to get a Gospel-maintenance and then they never fear a Gospel Ministery they know by experience the former begets the latter These are not of the race of that true Shepherd for his work was to save mens lives Luke 9.56 But the business of these hath been to destroy mens lives He came to lay down his life for the sheep John 10.15 These come to take away the lives of the sheep John 10.10 His work was to feed the flock John 10.9 These take the fleece and starve the flock Ezekiel 34.2 His disposition and expression to the flock are full of love and tender bowels He shall feed his flock like a shepherd he shall gather the Lambs in his arms and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those that are with young Isaiah 40.11 But these like those wicked cruel shepherds are on the contrary nature The diseased have you not strengthned neither have you healed that which was sick neither have you bound up that which was broken neither have you brought again that which was driven away neither have you sought that which was lost but with force and with cruelty have you ruled them Ezek. 34.4 These are of those theeves Christ speaks off John 10.10 that come not but for to steal to kill and destroy but I am come that ye might have life saith Christ and that you might have it more abundantly These are not