Selected quad for the lemma: book_n
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A58472
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The religion of the Church of England, the surest establishment of the royal throne with the unreasonable latitude which the Romanists allow in point of obedience to princes : in a letter occasioned by some late discourse with a person of quality.
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Womock, Laurence, 1612-1685.
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1673
(1673)
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Wing R902; ESTC R14331
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24,790
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40
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THE RELIGION OF THE Church of England The Surest ESTABLISHMENT OF THE Royal Throne WITH The Unreasonable Latitude which the Romanists allow in point of Obedience to Princes In a LETTER occasioned by some late Discourse with a Person of Quality ROM 13. 5. Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake LONDON Printed for Randal Taylor and John Williams junior at the Crown and in Cross-Keys Court in Little Britain 1673. THE RELIGION OF THE Church of England The Surest ESTABLISHMENT OF THE Royal Throne In a LETTER occasioned by some late Discourse with a Person of Quality Honoured Sir I Cannot charge you with Vnkindness or say you have put me upon an unpleasing Task by commanding my Thoughts about the matter of our last Discourse though thousands of my Brethren might have done it to better purpose since you have rendred me capable of expressing the Service I owe to my Prince and the Duty to my Mother the Church of England She like her Saviour hath met with a great many Reproaches and by some either Ignorants or Adversaries been particularly misrepresented to you and that Excellency wherein she hath just occasion to glory above all the Churches in the world so miserably sullied by unrighteous Aspersions that she appears not half so amiable to your eye as formerly she hath done Give me leave then to wipe off the Dirt which hath so maliciously been cast upon her to wash off the Spots spirted on her Face and her own Beauty will sufficiently commend her I cannot believe your Judgment so unsteady as really to be captivated with those false Insinuations nor wonder enough at the Impudence of some persons who dare insinuate such palpable untruths as you seem in danger to be perverted with In plain terms That any man should have so hard a forehead as to question the Church of England 's Loyalty to her Prince or maintain that she affords the least Encouragement to any Rebellious Attempt either against his Person or Dignity to shake the Crown upon his Head or make a Finger of his Hand to bleed would put me into a strange fit of Admiration did we not liâ—e in so prodigious an Age that mens tongues are their own and they will say what they please For my part I look upon these charges to be so grosly slanderous that for your Satisfaction and possibly the Conviction of others I shall confidently assert That no King sits so securely upon his Throne as the King of England by virtue of the Religion established among us It is not to be imagined that the bare propounding this Truth should presently gain it a favourable Reception especially where the Judgment seems already fore-stalled with no mean Prejudices against it But still a Truth it is and to prove it one I shall only proceed upon these two Grounds I. That the Church of England obligeth all her Children to the most Dutiful Carriage imaginable towards All Princes II. To take off your Mis-prision That the Church of Rome allows those of her Communion an unreasonable Latitude in this very point of Obedience and Duty I. That the Church of England obligeth all her Children to the most Dutiful Carriage imaginable towards All Princes It is but Reasonable we should clear our own Innocency before we quarrel with anothers Guilt least our selves fall under the charge of that Crime which is so justly condemned in those of the Romish Party Now certainly the most Rational Account we can have of any Churches Principles must be taken from the Infallible Rule to which in all cases she submits the Doctrin she professeth the Worship which she owns the Ecclesiastical Constitutions she hath framed for outward Order and the constant Practice of all her Obedient Children Her Rule are the Holy Scriptures Commented upon and Interpreted by the Sentiments of the Primitive Fathers Her Doctrin is conteined in the Articles and Homilies Her Worship in the Public Liturgy Her Constitutions in the Book of Canons to which the Carriage of all those who have not only in pretence but reality been her sons hath exactly corresponded Nor is there any one of these which furnisheth us not with an abundant Confirmation of that Truth on behalf whereof it is alledged No Church ever professed a greater Reverence to the Proved I. From the Scriptures Holy Scriptures nor charged her children more strictly to make them the Rule both of Faith and Life We believe nothing but what is therein revealed and are obliged to observe all the Commands therein conteined whatsoever sort of Duties they have respect unto Now it is beyond dispute that the Word of God calls for Obedience to Princes and forbids all Opposition to and Rebellion against them Solomon in the old Testament speaks of a King against whom there is no rising Prov. 30. 31. up which King is every King for by virtue of his Supreme Authority he is beyond the reach of his Subjects Power and above the attempts of all their Force Nor is this only true of such who like David are men after Gods own heart or like Hezekiah and Josiah not to be equalled scarce parallel'd by those that either preceded or succeeded them but of a wicked Saul a loose Amaziah an Idolatrous Manasseh These also being Gods Anointed and wickedness in the Heart wipes not off the sacred Oil from the Head If we look into the Gospels our Blessed Saviour commands the Rendring unto Matth. 22. 21. Caesar the things that are Caesars with the same care that he requires the rendring unto God the things that are Gods which Caesar was Tiberius of whom the Roman Historians give no very good Character And rather than any Offence should be taken he works a Miracle for paying his Tribute-Money sending S. Peter to take it Matth. 17. 27. out of a Fishes mouth To him succeeded the two great Apostles S. Paul and S. Peter the one with his charge Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers Subject Rom. 13. 1. not only for Convenience but upon the account of Duty not only as a piece of Policy to prevent any Secular Punishment but a point of Conscience to please our Heavenly Father Ye must needs be subject not 5. only for wrath but also for conscience sake The other with his command Submit your selves to every 1 Pâ—â— 2. 13 14. Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto them that are sent by him Fear God Honor the King And it is plain 17. when these Apostles wrote Nero that Portentum hominis as Suetonius calls him that Monster of men Suet in vitâ Nâ—roâ—â—s was then Emperor as wicked a tyrannical Prince and as great an Enemy to the Christians as ever lived Whence we may rationally conclude Though a King be of another Religion though his Life be extremely debauched and his Government severe and cruel yet None of these
upon them is that the People committed to their charge may be instructed therein for the conviction of their Judgments and the regulation of their Practice Nay lest such Teaching should not produce an effect answerable to the desires of these good men but people should still take a liberty of Believing and Asserting what they list there is a severe Censure to be inflicted upon such irregular Can. 2 persons for their punishment Whosoever shall affirm that the Kings Majesty hath not the same Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical for in Temporal our Adversaries will grant it more than what they can hook in by In ordine ad spiritualia that the godly Kings had among the Jews and Christian Emperors in the Primitive Church which is the same we plead for or impeach in any part his Regal Supremacy let him be Excommunicated So little do any of our Church Constitutions derogate from the Kings Power that they establish it both by their positive Command to have it preached and received as true Christian Doctrine and the Opposers of it thrown out of the Churches Bosom as not fit for the Society of Christian men And now Sir I cannot imagine there wants any From the Pâ—actice of her Children thing for your further satisfaction unless it be to consider how the Practice of the Children of this Church hath agreed with the excellent Rules delivered unto them For although their Miscarriages could not justly be charged upon her yet we shall find that these Rules have had so great an Influence upon them as they have never dared to engage in any concern against their Prince nor ever been wanting in the manifestation of a due Obedience unto him Be not therefore I beseech you deceived with the vain Pretences of the Romish Party who tell you openly in some of their Books There have been more seditious Insurrections since the Reformation of Religion than were in some hundreds of years before For as there is no reason to take their bare word for it so no more are we engaged to vindicate any but those of our own Church I dare not undertake to justifie all the Proceedings of the Hugonots in France much less of the Kirk-party in Scotland but for the Sons of our Holy Mother of England let them if they can produce any Accusation against us and we are ready to submit to a fair Trial. The ordinary things pleaded are the late Rebellion and the Death of our Royal Martyr neither of which touch us any further than as our sins added to the rest filled up the Number and provoked God to make use of such Instruments for the executing his wrath as startled not at the most excerable Villanies in the world It is notoriously known how many Persons of Honour and Quality out of mere conscience attended that poor injured Prince from place to place during the unnatural War and paid their Service to his Son our now Gracious Sovereign throughout the many years of his calamitous Exile What Numbers spent their Estates and sacrific'd their Lives with all the generous Alacrity in the world to maintein the Distressed Kings Cause had Heaven given success to their loyal Endeavours How many Thousands might we reckon up who fought valiantly fell gallantly and spent their dearest bloud in the asserting his Majesties just Rights against all the Abettors of Rebellion Whereas those who either fomented the War or were afterwards active in the carrying it on had receded from true Protestant Principles and sucked in those pernicious Doctrins from Scotland which she had infectiously drawn either from Rome or Geneva It is not barely upon my own credit that this Truth begs your Belief take it from King Charles his incomparable Pen who being the Sufferer might best distinguish between his Friends and Foes The Scandal of the late Troubles which some may object and urge to you writing to the then Prince of Wales against the Protestant Religion established in England is easily answered to them or your own thoughts in this that scarce any one who hath been a Beginner or an active Prosecutor of this late War against the Church the Laws and Me either was or is a true Lover Embracer or Practiser of the Protestant Religion which neither gives such Rules nor ever before set such Examples And for the Death of that Royal Martyr the remembrance whereof we so much detest as to keep an Anniversary Humiliation upon that day Malice itself dares not lay it at our Door But if you would indeed be satisfied what mischievous Wretches carried on this bloudy Design brought Majesty to bleed on the Scaffold and openly acted such a piece of Villany as the Sun never beheld since Christs Crucifixion They were in plain terms the Papists and the Sectaries who like Sampson's Foxes have their Tails tied together though their Heads seem far asunder For the Papists I shall satisfie you in their Activity afterward For the Sectaries the Proof against them is but too evident and for those of the more refined sort who have confidence enough with Pilate to call for water and wash their hands and say they are innocent from his bloud yet their own Actions testifie against them both before and after that dreadful Blow was given And what horrid Encouragements to and Justifications of that abominable Act fell from the Mouths of those who were then the Godly Preachers of the Gospel remain upon Record Not to surfeit you with such coarse Diet take but a Tast in two or three passages of some eminently esteemed Persons though their Names shall be spared When Meroz had been cursed from one Fast-Day to another and thereby men seduced to take Arms against their Prince called in their sacred Dialect Agoing to the help of the Lord against the Mighty Then were the people of this Kingdom possessed with strange Apprehensions of the King and his Party some telling us it was their Design to root out all Religion I know saith one among them how unsatisfied many are concerning the unlawfulness of the War which hath been managed As I cannot yet perceive by any thing they object but that we undertook our Defence upon warrantable Grounds so am I most certain that God hath wonderfully appeared through the whole And as I am certain by sight and sense That the Extirpation of Piety was the then great Design So am I most certain that this was the Work which we took up Arms to resist The fault was that we would not die quietly nor lay down our Necks more gently upon the Block nor more willingly change the Gospel for Ignorance nor our Religion for a Fardle of Ceremonies with several things to the same purpose Others declared their Fears of a Tyrannical and Arbitrary Government but the greatest Number like the unruly Assembly at Ephesus knew not wherefore they were gathered Acts 19. 32. together When the Sword had for some years been glutted with Bloud mens minds at least appeared a little more composed