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A64760 The dovvnfall of the pretended divine authoritie of the hierarchy into the Sea of Rome from some arguments and motives, to the finall extirpation of that unlawful government of the prelacy : as having no foundation in the Scriptures, but onely in that filthy dung-hill of by V.N.V. V. N. V. 1641 (1641) Wing V14; ESTC R1331 28,994 45

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wherein it s as possible for them to bring forth good fruit as for an Apricock to grow in a dunghill Wee have Christs assurance for it A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit the tree still signifies the office not the person for it s spoken of false Prophets and tryall of them by their fruits Doe men gather grapes on thornes or figges on thistles still shewes it to be the office of those false Prophets where Christ never ordained any good fruits to grow and therefore none to be expected but of a corrupt tree corrupt fruit Therefore every tree which brings not forth good fruit shall be hewen downe and cast into the fire Mat. 7.16 to 20. This good fruit as wee shewed even now is fruit unto holinesse We will try then the fruits of this tree of Episcopacy and the severall branches of its offices and we finde them all taste of the dunghill soyle they are rooted in and receive their proper nourishment from and are no fruite unto holinesse For wee doe finde by wofull experience that the fruits of their offices and government hath filled the Land with all prophanenesse and sinning with greedinesse in all licentiousnesse and therefore unholy offices an unholy government which not onely countenance sincks of sin and wickednesse but live in and are maintained by the vices of men as the hire of whores selling of sinnes and filthinesse commutations of pennance and oppressions of his Majesties Subjects and disabling them for King and Countryes service This is the chiefe maintenance of their offices which if once with the Canon Law that warrants these practices were taken away we should quickly see this great Amphitheater of Prelacy moulder downe and fall into the dunghill from whence it arose and then one faire flood of Justice from this honourable Parliament would soone sweep away all the filth together and clense the Land of these corrupt and contagious offices The seats of their offices their Cathedrall Cities and Pallaces are very donnes of all filthinesse and prophanenesse the most uncleane birds in the Countrey resort to dwell under their shadow as having there libertie to live in all licentiousnesse The name of holinesse there is as a Jew to an Egyptian an abhomination their Abbeyes Deaneries and Episcopall Seas are like the A●phaltites pitchy sulphurious Lake nothing that favours of or breaths holinesse can live there Their Courts and Judgements-seats are so many batteryes against holinesse thundering and flaming out fire and smoke from their Canons and murthering pieces at the very name of or persons that looke after holinesse as the mortall enemies of their dominion and government against which if a man let the least word fall presently ex officio excommunicate him ipso facto ere he stirre from them he shall not have a warning peace to be gone but a whole battery of Canons discharged upon him in such heate and rage fire and smoke of their fulminations as he shall scarce know what ground he stands on till for change of ayre he be hald away to a stincking prison to complaine to the bare-walls Oh if he be a Puritane that 's condemnation in the abstract enough to rid the Land of him yea the world too if they get their opportunitie And for their language in the exercise of their offices they speak half in the language of Ashdod Nehem. 13.24 like the mingled people Jere. 50.37 of many religions yea of any save the true because that 's no friend to them and their functions But because they boast so much of their descent from Christ and his Apostles but are found lyers Apoc. 2.2 We will by their leave take a walke further through their Orchards and taste of their ripest fruits and try what soyle they taste of whether the fruits of the functions of Christ and his Apostles or of Antichrists functions and offices 1. When Christ was to leave his deare Disciples in a troublesome world he left his peace with them for a Legacy Ioh. 15.27 to comfort them in all their troubles and commands them to love one another because the world would hate them as it hated him Ioh. 15.17 But these Prelates by their vexatious offices suffer Christs Ministers and servants to have little peace and lesse love hate them Cain-like even to the death but a Papist is a brave companion for them at Table in Coach in counsell and familiaritie in all their affaires as Blackwell the Priest said long agoe I wonder said he of what religion your Bishops are us they persecute because we are Papists but they hate a Puritane and of the two they love us the better and how that love is encreased shews they are birds of the black feather like the Raven that after she once got out of the Arke never returned so as soone as ever one of these Prelates is got into a Bishops Sea they are flowne out of the Church the infection of the fowle nest like the plague of Leprosie strikes them some sooner some later so as they take to their wings and flie home to Rome the resting place of their ambitious minds and who can blame them for it is the nature of the office to be like and love their mother and not rather help them forward to her Sic canibus catulos similes sic matribus haedos Virgil. Of this their flight to Rome see it clearly in their endeavours of reconciling us to their Mother and others of them not so skilfull in the art as forward in the flight labouring openly to reduce us wholly to Rome Ex professo tanquam ex officio as the very nature of the office so to doe to beget and bring forth many children to their mother ther 's some plaine dealing in these if they doe not turne with the winde which now troubles them in their flight and work For as birds nodding their heads let us see which way they are flying so the Prelates and their sonnes of the Church by their nodding Eastward let us see their ayme is Rome-ward And when in this late Episcopall quarrell with the Scots by their sole instigation they saw a necessitie of open flight to the Popes and Papists ayde or lose their fat Bishopricks expecting this faire season for their flight they were so ready for it as they had their excuses ready before hand That if Popery came into England againe the Puritanes were the cause of it * Prelate of Duresme as Tenterton Steeple is the cause of Goodwin Sands 2. Christ would not meddle with the Magistrates authoritie in dividing the Inheritance Luk. 12.13.14 as without compasse of his office his kingdome was not of this world Ioh. 18.36 These Prelates are wholly worldly must be chiefe in Parliaments in the Kings Councells in chiefe offices Lord Chancellour Lord Treasurer c. and oversway all the affaires in Court and Countrey as if by their pretended divine Authoritie they had full Commission from Christ to divide the world amongst them and
guilty of the like sinne and punishment Argument X. If Nadab and Abihu Corah Dathan and Abiram were so strangely punished for once presuming in the exercise of their lawfull offices to doe that which they had no warrant for What may the Prelates and all their confederates expect but unheard of plagues and strange punishments for not once but many yeares after many warnings and against light and knowledge abounding doing many things in the worship of God without warrant of the word of God and that in the exercise of their unlawfull offices As those perished wonderfully in the withstanding Moses and Aaron and the word of God shall not these Prelates and their partakers perish much more wonderfully in the withstanding of Christ farre greater than Moses But Nadab and Abihu were so strangely punished as fire from heaven consumed them Levit. 10.1 and the Earth opened her mouth and swallowed up quick Corah Dathan and Abiram and all their company in the sight of Moses and Aaron and all the people as we may see at large Numb 16. Ergo the usurping Prelates and all their partakers may look out for some strange unheard of punishment from the Lord of Hoasts waiting for them and all that joyne with them in opposing Christ in his Kingly office and discipline An end is come the end is come it watcheth for them behold it is come saith the Lord Ezek. 7 6. It is recorded to all posteritie to the worlds end as a brand of infamy upon all those that did partake in that opposition of Moses They perished in the gainsaying of Core Jude 11. Let all that plead for and partake in the unlawfull offices and practises of the Prelates take heed to this in time for the Lord is a strong God who judgeth the whore and all her bratts and abhominations Partake not in her sinnes least yee partake in her plagues Apoc. 18.4.8 Come out of the tents of these wicked men Numb 16.26 Object The maine objection for Prelacy answered Oh but say some we have had godly Martyrs and many learned men that have been Diocesan Bishops as these are and their government been long approved and Religion under it wonderfully flourished as in any Nation And many worthy Instruments both in the Magistracy and Ministery who have submitted to this government which sure they would not have done if it were unlawfull and Antichristian Answ 1. The Church and faithfull Ministers have not all light at once or by one instrument or yet by many worthy lights the remembrance of whom is precious and therefore as we would not detract any thing of their deservings from them so must we not stick fast in their footsteps and goe no further For still daily more and greater light of the Gospells brightnesse is to be expected till the fulnesse of the Gentiles light come in and be swallowed up in the Jewes fulnesse Rom. 11.12 Christ Jesus comes to his people as the Sunne arises first there 's the dawning then the darknesse expelled and still brighter light till the Sunne shine in his full strength Secondly These worthy Martyrs that were Diocesan Bishops in the dawning of the Gospels light after a long darksome night of Popery must be confessed to rise up in their Rochets out of the Papacy and saw not presently into the unlawfulnesse of their office yet some of them did and resigned as Latimer but they set themselves against the most cleare corruptions in doctrine and worship so farre as they had light as for Discipline it was so swept away in that great deluge of Popery that no footsteps of it were to be seene in those times or if any thing of it yet but as the blinde man in the Gospell recovering his sight saw men walking like trees very darkly and confusedly Thirdly As their sight grew somewhat clearer they saw into a godly discipline in the primitive Church at which they aymed as in the Preface to the Common prayer book at the Commination may be seene and implyes they saw into another discipline than that they had amongst them and brought with them out of the Papacy and is used to this day therefore not the right discipline and yet that primitive discipline it is as probible they saw at a great distance even then and so left it to be searched out more clearly of the following generation and if they did see it any thing clearly and if any thing hindered their light of breaking out into a more full reformation we may thank even the Diocesan Bishops for it whose love of preheminence as ours now was the chiefe let in reformation in those times as our Histories shew So as we have little cause to boast of Bishops as instruments of our resormation if we were well acquainted with the state of those times and what hinderers of Reformation the Bishops were yea some of them that after suffered as Martyrs in Queene Maries time Fourthly Some Bishops suffering as Martyrs after their morning light was clouded againe with hot persecutions and stormes arising even out of the same Seas they were in by the changing of the winde in Queene Maries time is no more an argument from their martyrdome that their office was good than if a Cardinall in Rome or Spaine should professe the Gospell and suffer for it his office were neverthelesse still Antichristian Fiftly When these stormes were over and a greater light broke out in Queene Elizabeths time of a brighter Sunne-shine multitudes of learned and godly Ministers began to see clearly the foundation of Babell lay close and unseene in the office of Episcopacy and in the keeping out Christs Kingly office especially and therefore preached writ disputed and suffered for it even as Martyrs of those times by the tyranny of the Prelates who still oppose it to this day as witnesse Cartwright Parker Fenner Childerley Chatterton Traverse Reinolds and a many more and at King James his first entrance about a thousand Ministers stood for Reformation of the Episcopall government and for setting up of Christs Kingly office who were in a sew yeares wasted and spent and banished and devoured of these ravenous Wolves wives and children undone and many families scattered estates ruined for opposing this prelaticall office and government so as little cause have we to boast of the office it hath been a bloody office to this day Also many living yet can witnesse how a reformation hath been still petitioned for to Parliaments even to this day though with no successe because their sins were not full nor ours repented of and reformed Sixtly For many worthy instruments in Magistracy and Ministery submitting to Episcopall government Ans 1. Divine examples but not humane doe binde the Conscience and make their practises rules to us secondly the Churches of a whole Nation yea of many Nations abounding with men of excellent parts both in the Magistracy and Ministery may yet long neglect some of Gods Ordinances partly through ignorance partly for want of assistance