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cause_n	authority_n	church_n	see_v	1,737	5	3.7569	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29318	Brethren in iniquity, or, The confederacy of Papists with sectaries, for the destroying of the true religion, as by law establish'd, plainly detected wherein is shewed a farther account of the Romish snares and intrigues for the destroying the true reformed religion, as professed in the Church of England, and established by law, and for the introducing of popery or atheism among us : clearly shewing from very authentick writers and testimonies, that the principal ways and methods whereby the papists have sought the ruine of our religion and church, from the beginning of our Reformation, to the present times, and by which they are still in hopes of compassing it, are by promoting of toleration, or pretended liberty of conscience, and that for above these sixscore years the papists have so craftily influenced our dissenters, as to make them the unhappy instruments of effecting their most pernicious designs, which they contrived for, the subverting our church and state.		1690 (1690)	Wing B4382; ESTC R6507	50,245	71

33. c. saith Liberty of Conscience falsly so called may in good time improve it self into Liberty of Estates Liberty of Houses and Liberty of Wives and in a word Liberty of Perdition of Souls and Bodies This only would I know of you are Idolaters Hereticks Blasphemers and Seducers Evil-doers If so then look to your charge Rom. 13.4 Rulers must be a terrour to Evil-doers unless you mean to bear the Sword in vain And if you will God will not and if God take the Sword into his own hand once he will smite to purpose and execute vengeance throughly both upon the Evil-doers and upon you that have not been a terrour to them Oh therefore up and be doing that you may deliver the Kingdom out of the hand of the Lord for it is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the Living God O let not your Patience be interpreted a Connivence and your Connivence be taken for a Toleration it may be the Kingdom 's ruine but it will be your Sin Also in his Sermon before the Commons February 19. 1645. pag. 25. he thus addresseth to them Fathers and Brethren how will you call this keeping of Covenant with God had we a Parliament of Apostate Julians of whom it is reported that at what time he opened the Temples of the Heathenish Gods he set open the Christian Churches called home all the Christians that were banished both Orthodox and Heretick and gave them as we call it Liberty of Conscience but as Austin more truly phraseth it Libertatem perditionis Liberty to destroy themselves for that was his policy and end namely by Liberty of all Religions to destroy the true and the Professours of it too If we had a Parliament of careless Gallio's we should not wonder c. Mr. George Hughes late Minister of Plymouth in his Sermon before the Commons May 26. 1647. p. 34 preached thus I must say that Toleration must be a destructive Principle to the State or Church where-ever it be allowed experience hath shew'd us no less in Kingdoms and Churches called by God's name Ye Servants of Christ take heed of yielding to the pretences of Conscience The Devil and not Christ hath his throne there and no stronger hold for him than Conscience if he once takeit Christ will not suffer him to shelter there therefore you may not so much as in you lieth Object Do not other States and some of the united Provinces tolerate all these Heresies and protect them and yet they prosper who more Answ I desire not to meddle with other States unless I might do them good But 1. Can any Man say that Prosperity is a sign peculiar to Truth then let Rome come in and speak more than any for outward Prosperity 2. Are not spiritual Wickednesses as odious to God as carnal and are not these Heresies such which God condemns as works of the Flesh inconsistent with Christ's Kingdom 3. Hath God made an end of visiting Nations for the Sins of them when God hath done judging were a better time to urge this Example than now I pray God the evil day may not overtake these States the good God cause the cup of trembling to pass by them and purge their inquities peaceably but I am pressed in Spirit to say God hath not spared such State polities which have sought their own rise by the ruine of God's Truth Witness Jeroboam the Son of Nebat who made Israel to sin and as Seneca saith Qui non vetat peccare cum potest jubet he bids sin that doth not hinder it when he can God's Truth my beloved and not Man's example must be the Rule If Heresies yet must be let us mourn for what we cannot help It is a miserable Necessity when not allowed It will be rejoicing in Iniquity either for Church or State wilfully to tolerate Mr. Edmund Calamy in his Sermon before the Lord Mayor January 14. 1645. pag. 3. makes this Lamentation The Churches of Christ lie desolate Church-reformation is obstructed Church-discipline unsetled and Church-divisions increased The famous City of London is become an Amsterdam Separation from our Churches is countenanc'd Toleration is cried up Authority lieth asleep And pag. 4. Divisions whether they be Ecclesiastical or Political in Kingdoms Cities or Families are infallible causes of ruine to them See Mark 3.24 25. Again pag. 14. Hereby the hearts of people are mightily distracted many are hindred from Conversion and even the Godly themselves have lost much of the power of Godliness in their lives I say the hearts of people are mightily disturbed while one Minister preacheth one thing as a Truth of the Gospel and another Minister preacheth the quite contrary with as much considence as the former Pag. 17. If Divisions be so destructive to Kingdoms Cities and Families this reproveth those that are the Authors and Fomenters of these Divisions that are now among us These are the Iincendiaries of England If he that sets one house a fire deserveth hanging much more they that set a whole Kingdom on fire If he that murders one Man must be put to death much more he that murders three Kingdoms mark them saith the Apostle Rom. 16.17 that cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them avoid them as the greatest enemies of England these are like the Salamander that cannot live but in the fire of Contention These are of a Jesuitical Spirit and no doubt the heads and hands of the Jesuits are in all our Divisions Pag. 33. Take heed of the Land-destroying opinion of those that plead for an unlimited Toleration of all Religions even of Turcism Judaism c. the Lord keep us from being poison'd with such an Errour Our Saviour's saying in Matth. 12.25 riseth up against it Every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation for it will divide Kingdoms against it self it will rend it in a thousand pieces it is a Doctrine that overthroweth all Church-Government bringeth in confusion and openeth a wide door unto all Irreligion and Atheism For at the same door that all false Religions came in the true Religion-will quickly get out and if it be as good for a Man to live where nothing is lawful as where all things are lawful surely it is every way as uncomfortable to live where there are all Religions as where there is no Religion at all Pag. 37. It is your Duty right Honourable whom God hath intrusted with great Power to suppress these Divisions and Differences in Religion by your Civil Authority as far as you are able least you are accessary unto them For God hath made you Custodes utriusque Tabulae Keepers not of the Second Table only as some fondly imagine but of the First Table also and not only Keepers but Vindices utriusque Tabulae Punishers also of those that transgress against either of them For you are the Ministers of God for good and Revengers to execute wrath upon him that doth

believe that it is with extream unwillingness and reluctancy of Heart that we are brought to differ from any thing which your Majesty hath thought sit to propose And though we do no way doubt but that the unreasonable Distempers of Mens Spirits and the many Mutinies and Conspiracies which were carried on during the late intervals of Parliament did reasonably incline your Majesty to endeavour by your Declaration to give some allay to those ill Humours till the Parliament assembled and the hopes of Indulgence if the Parliament should consent to it especially seeing the Pretenders to this Indulgence did seem to make some Titles to it by virtue of your Majesty's Declaration from Breda Nevertheless we your Majesty's most Dutiful and Loyal Subjects who are now returned to serve in Parliament from those several Parts and Places of your Kingdom for which we are chosen do humbly offer to your Majesty's great Wisdom That it is in no sort advisable that there be any Indulgence to such Persons who presume to dissent from the Act of Uniformity and the Religion establish'd We have also considered the Nature of the Indulgence proposed with reference to these Consequences which must necessarily attend it It will establish Schism by a Law and make the whole Government of the Church precarious and the Censures of it of no moment or consideration at all It will expose your Majesty to the restless importunity of every Sect or Opinion and of every single Person also who shall presume to dissent from the Church of England It will be a cause of increasing Sects and Sectaries whose numbers will weaken the true Protestant Profession so far that it will at least be dissicult for it to defend it self against them And which is yet farther considerable Those numbers which by being troublesome to the Government find they can arrive to an Indulgence will as their numbers increase be yet more troublesome that so at length they may arrive to a general Toleration and in time some prevalent Sect will at last contend for an Establishment which for ought can be foreseen may end in Popery It is a thing altogether without precedent and will take away all means of convicting recusants and be inconsistent with the method and proceedings of the Laws of England Lastly it is humbly conceived that the Indulgence proposed will be so far from tending to the peace of the Kingdom that it is rather likely to occasion great disturbance And on the contrary that the asserting of the Laws and the Religion established according to the act of Vniformity is the most probable means to produce a setled Peace and Obedience throughout the Kingdom Because variety of professions in Religion when openly divulg'd doth directly distinguish men into Parties and withal gives them opportunity to count their numbers which considering the Animosities that out of a Religious Pride will be kept on foot by the several Factions doth tend directly and inevitably to open Disturbance Nor can your Majesty have any security that the Doctrine or Worship of the several Factions which are all governed by a several Rule shall be consistent with the Peace of the Kingdom And if any Persons shall presume to disturb the Peace of the Kingdom we do in all humility declare That we will for ever and in all occasions be ready with our utmost endeavour and assistance to adhere to and serve your Majesty according to our bounden Duty and Allegiance These impregnable and unanswerable Reasons did the excellent Members of that House alledge against Toleration Reasons full and clear carrying with them all the advantages of strength and evidence and as Dr. Tompkins said deservedly of them in his Pleas for Toleration discussed These renowned Gentlemen did then shew that they were able with their Pens to give an account of that Cause for which very many of themselves and Fathers did honourably draw their Swords and knew very well how to assert that Church by all the Rules of Christian Prudence as well as they did formerly set inimitable patterns of Christian Courage in suffering for it In these we may see and admire how those glorious Worthies came up to the Greatness of themselves and of the Argument and indeed they were both worthy of one another they to defend and that to be defended And as nothing was ever better penn'd than those Reasons so there was scarce ever a better occasion The best Church in Europe was then bore witness to by the best House of Commons which ever sat in this Nation And these Votes shall ever remain as a lasting Monument not only of their Zeal and Religion but of the incomparable Endowments and Abilities of those who drew them up A LETTER OF THE MINISTERS Of the CITY of LONDON Presented the First of January 1645. to the Reverend Assembly of Divines sitting at Westminister by Authority of Parliament against TOLERATION To our Reverend Learned and Religious Brethren the Prolocutor and the rest of the Divines assembled and now sitting at Westminster by Authority of Parliament these present Reverend and beloved Brethren WE are exceedingly apprehensive of the desirableness of the Church's Peace and of the pleasantness of Brethrens Vnity knowing that when Peace is set upon its proper basis viz. Righteousness and Truth it is one of the best possessions both delectable and profitable like Aaron's Ointment and the Dew of Hermon It is true by reason of different lights and different sights among Brethren there may be dissenting in opinion yet why should there be any separating from Church Communion The Church's Coat may be of divers colours yet why should there be any rent in it Have we not a touchstone of Truth the good word of God and when all things are examined by that word then that which is best may be held fast but first they must be known and then examined afterward If our dissenting Brethren after so many importunate Entreaties would have been perswaded either in zeal to the Truth or in sincere love to the Church's Peace and Vnity among Brethren or in respect to their own reputation by fair and ingenuous dealing or in conscience to their promise made with the Ministers of London now five years since or any such like reasonable consideration at last to have given us a full Narrative of their Opinions and grounds of their Separation we are perswaded they would not have slood at such a distance from us as now they do But they chose rather to walk by their own private lights than to unbosom themselves to us their most affectionate Brethren and to set themselves in an untrodden way of their own rather than to wait what our covenanted Reformation according to the Word of God and Examples of the best Reformed Churches would bring forth But the offence doth not end here it is much that our Brethren should separate from the Church but that they should endeavour to get a warrant to authorize their separation from it and to have

used and the Government as in an ague divided between hot and cold sits no wonder if Laws so unsteadily executed have failed of their effect But if the Government shall think it sit to imitate that prudent excellent Princess and in instead of shewing any fear of the Dissenters put the Laws moderately in execution against them we shall no doubt in a short time find the good effects of it in the happy uniting them to the Church of England to the great disappointment and grief of the Papists And till this be done we can expect no other than Confusion and disorder in the Church and Distraction in the State And the Book that was written in the Oliverian days by a learned Presbyterian intituled Wholesome Severity reconciled with Christian Liberty licenced by Ja. Cranford will justifie such a proceeding against the several sorts of Dissenters and vindicate it from the odious Imputation of Persecution In which Book there is this memorable sentence That Liberty of Horesie and Schism is no part of the Liberty of Conscience which Christ hath purchased for us but that under these fair colours and handsome pretexts Sectaries infuse their poison their pernitious God-provoking Truth-defacing Church-ruinating and State-shaking Toleration The Character which the Great and good Arch-bishop Whitgift gave of the turbulent Spirits of the Puritans is very considerable in a Letter of his to the Privy Council which was occasion'd by a Paper of some Suffolk Ministers True it is saith he they are no Jesuits neither are they charged to be so but notwithstanding they are contentious in the Church of England and by their Contentions they minister occasion of offence to those which are seduced by Jesuits and give the Sacraments against the Form of publick Prayer us'd in this Church and by Law establish'd and thereby increase the number of them and consirm them in their willfulness They also make a Schism in the Church and draw many other of her Majesty's Subjects to the misliking of her Laws and Government in Causes Ecclesiastical so far are they from perswading Men to Obedience or at least if they perswade them to it in the one part of her Authority in Causes Civil they disswade them from it as much in the other in Causes Ecclesiastical so that indeed they pluck down with the one hand that which they seem to build with the other And is is truly observed by Doctor Tompkins in his Pleas c. Pag. 141. That notwithstanding all the Zeal which the Non-consormists doe declare against Popery it is well known that they have and as their Interest leads them can still join both Counsels and Arms together The leading Men of both Parties in Ireland were wonderfully great together all the while that the Design was managing against the Earl of Strafford And here in England in the Declaration which King Charles I. set forth concerning the Success of the Battel at Edgehill on October 23. 1643. he hath left this Memorial to all Posterity All Men know the great member of Papists which serve in their Armies Commanders and others the great Industry to corrupt the Loyalty and Affection of all our loving Subjects of that Religion the private Promises and Vndertakings that they have made to them That if they would assist them against us all the Laws made in their prejudice should be repealed The Popish Party also used the same perswasive methods in the late Days of King James the Second to allure the Dissenters to join with them for the pulling down the Established true Religion and how effectually this Bait was swallowed by them and into what a hellish Confederacy these two Brethren in Iniquity enter'd together for the Destruction of the Church of England their many scandalous Addresses and other their libellous Invectives against the Church of England which were stuffed with the most inveterate Hatred Rancour and Malice that Hell could devise against it do abundantly testifie nor can I better express suitably to their deserts how foolishly as well as criminally they acted in those Days inconsistent with Prudence Honesty and their former Clamours against Popery and Arbitrary Government Then in the Words of a late Author their Friend and Favourer who professes a great deal of kindness for them in many Pages of his Book Entitled A Representation of the threatning Dangers impending over Protestants in Great Britain before the coming of his Highness the Prince of Orange In this Book notwithstanding the good will he shews to the Dissenters and his undeserved Censures and Reproaches of the Church of England which very spitefully do abound in it yet when he came to consider the Dissenters siding so much with the Papists and the brave opposition the Members of the Church of England made against Popery it drew from him smart reflections on the one and very high Commendations of the other according to the just Merits insomuch that by reason of the Dissenters many flattering Addresses and their countenancing and defending the King 's Arbitrary unjustifiable Proceedings he says of them Pag. 44. The World has just ground to say That the Phanaticks are not governed by Principles but that the measures they walk by are what conduceth to the private and personal Benefit or what lies in a tendency to their loss and prejudice and that it was not King Charles II. his Vsurping an Arbitrary and Illegal Power that offended them but that they were not the Objects in whose favour it was Exercised And Pag. 46. he saith this of them Notwithstanding all the danger from Popery that the Nation was exposed unto and all the hazard that the Souls of Men were in of being poisoned with Romish Principles yet instead of Preaching or Writing against any of the Doctrines of the Church of Rome they agreed among themselves and with such of their Congregations as approved of their procedure not so much as to mention them but to leave the Province of defending our Religion and of detecting the falshood of Papal Tenets to the Pastors and Gentlemen of the Church of England And being asked as he knew of some that were why they did not preach against Antichrist and confute the Papal Doctrines they very gravely replied That by preaching Christ they did preach against Antichrist and that by teaching the Gospel they refuted Popery which is such a piece of fraudulent and guileful Subterfuge that I want words bad enough to express the Knavery and Criminalness of it It was but the other Day that the conformable Clergy were represented by some of the Dissenters not only as favourers of Popery but as endeavouring to hale it in upon us by all the methods and ways that lay within their Circles and yet now the whole Defence of the reformed Religion must be entirely divolved into their Hands And when all the sluces were pulled up that had been made to hinder Popery from overflowing the Nation they were left alone to stem the Inundation and prevent the Deluge They among

Person and that by the Poison which they spread the Humours of most Papists were altered and that they were no more Papist in Conscience and of Softness but Papist in Faction Then were there new Laws made for the Punishment of such as should submit themselves to such reconcilements or renunciation of Obedience And because it was a Treason carried in the Clouds and in wonderful Secrecy and come seldom to light and that there was no presuspicion thereof so great as the Recusancy to come to Divine Service because it was set down by their Decrees that to come to Church before Reconciliation was to live in Schism but to come to Church after Reconcilement was absolutely Heretical and Damnable Therefore there were added Laws containing punishment Pecuniary viz. such as might not enforce Consciences but to infeeble and impoverish the means of those about whom it resteth indifferent and ambiguous whether they were reconciled or not And when notwithstanding all this provision the Poison was dispersed so secretly as that there was no means to stay it but by restraining the Merchants that brought it in Then lastly there was added a Law whereby such seditious Priests of new Erection were exiled and those that were at that time within the Land shipped over and so commanded to keep hence upon pain of Treason This hath been the proceeding though intermingled not only with sundry Examples of her Majesty's Grace towards such as in her Wisdom she knew to be Papist in Conscience and not Faction and Singularity but also with extraordinary mitigation towards the Offenders in the highest degree committed by Law if they would but protest that if in Case this Realm should be invaded with a Foreign Army by the Pope's Authority for the Catholick Cause as they term it they would take part with her Majesty and not adhere to her Enemies For the other Party which have been offensive to the State though in another Degree which named themselves Reformers and we commonly call Puritans this hath been the proceeding towards them A great while when they inveighed against such abuses in the Church as Pluralities Non-residence and the like their Zeal was not Condemned only their Violence was sometimes Censured When they refused the use of some Ceremonies and Rites as Superstitious they were tolerated with much Connivency and Gentleness yea when they called in Question the Superiority of Bishops and pretended to a Democrary in the Church yet their Propositions were here considered and by contrary Writings debated and discussed yet all this while it was perceived that their Course was dangerous and very popular As because Papistry was odious therefore it was ever in their Mouths That they sought to Purge the Church from the Reliques of Papistry a thing acceptable to the People who love ever to run from one extream to another Because multitudes of Rogues and Poverty was an Eye-sore and a dislike to every Man therefore they put into the Peoples head That if Discipline were planted there should be no Vagabonds nor Beggars a thing very plausible And in like manner they promised the People many of the impossible wonders of their Discipline besides they opened to the People a way to Government by their Consistory and Presbytery a thing though in consequence no less prejudicial to the Liberties of private Men than to the Soveraignty of Princes yet in first shew very Popular Nevertheless this except it were some few that entered into extream contempt was born with because they pretended in dutiful manner to make Propositions and to leave it to the Providence of God and the Authority of the Magistrate But now of late Years when there issued from them that affirmed the consent of the Magistrate was not to be attended when under pretence of a Confession to avoid Slander and Imputations they combined themselves by Classes and Subscriptions when they descended into that vile and base means of defaming the Government of the Church by ridiculous Pasquils when they began to make many Subjects in doubt to take Oaths which is one of the fundamental Parts of Justice in this Land and in all places when they began both to vaunt of their strength and number of their Partizans and Followers and to use Comminations that their Cause would prevail through Vproar and Violence then it appeared to be no more Zeal no more Conscience but meer Faction and Division And therefore though the State were compelled to hold somewhat a harder hand to restrain them than before yet was it with as great moderation as the Peace of the State or Church could permit And therefore Sir to conclude consider uprightly of these matters and you shall see Her Majesty is no more a Temporizer in Religion It is not the success Abroad nor the Change of Servants here at Home can alter her only as the things themselves alter She applied her Religious Wisdom to Methods correspondent unto them still retaining the Two Rules before mentioned in dealing tenderly with Consciences and yet in discovering Faction from Conscience and Softness from Singularity Farewel Your loving Friend Fr. Walsingham The Learned Dr. Burnet now the Right Reverend Bishop of Sarum first published this Letter in the second Part of his History of the Reformation Pag. 418. and had he joined it to his Preface of Persecution before Lactantius his Book of the Death of Persecutors it would have vindicated the Proceedings against Dissenters in the Reign of King Charles II. from the odium of Persecution when the Laws were so justly and deservedly Executed against them for their insolent provocations This Sir Francis Walsingham was sometime before a Friend and Favourer of the Puritanical Party and therefore he is not in the least to be suspected of doing them wrong in the Account which he hath given of their unruly boisterous Carriage to the Government The Lord Keeper Puckering gave the like Account of their ungovernable Temper and how dangerous they were to the Government in his Speech to the House of Lords by Queen Elizabeth 's Command which you have in the following Page Lord Keeper Puckering's Speech IN the day of Queen Elizabeth the Puritans as well as Papists persecuted her Majesty so vigorously that they thereby open'd the door and prepared the way to the Spanish Invasion and although they were very troublesome and made a noise with their great numbers which would arise by disobliging them which were implicite threatnings to awe her Majesty into a favourable compliance with their insolent demands yet even in that critical time when she was inviron'd about with potent Enemies from abroad she was nothing terrified with the impetuous clamours of these domestick Foes nor would she stoop so much beneath the Honour and Dignity of the Government as to condescend even in that juncture of time to their unreasonable as well as ungodly desires And though they had also great favourers of them at Court as the Earl of Leicester Sir Francis Walsingham and others that were ready