Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	bind_v	church_n	communion_n	1,436	5	9.0889	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80836	[Analēpsis anelēphthē] the fastning of St. Petrrs [sic] fetters, by seven links, or propositions. Or, The efficacy and extent of the Solemn League and Covenant asserted and vindicated, against the doubts and scruples of John Gauden's anonymous questionist. : St. Peters bonds not only loosed, but annihilated by Mr. John Russell, attested by John Gauden, D.D. the league illegal, falsly fathered on Dr. Daniel Featley: and the reasons of the University of Oxford for not taking (now pleaded to discharge the obligations of) the Solemn League and Covenant. / By Zech. Crofton ...	Crofton, Zachary, 1625 or 6-1672.	1660 (1660)	Wing C6982; ESTC R171605	137,008	171

Subsectio quarta The Master Scholars and other Officers and Members of the University of Oxford in their Apology for not taking the Covenant urge their Reasons against the same as unlawful not in the matter it self simply considered but by accident in respect of some circumstances attending themselves and discapacitating them unto the Act and they offer their exceptions unto the Articles severally and distinctly Unto the first Article they except against the Preservation of the Reformed Religion of the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Oxford Reasons Sect. 3. pag. 4. and Worship Discipline and Government and then against the Reformation of England in those particulars Unto the first they tell us 1 Except They are not satisfied how they can in judgment swear to endeavour to preserve the Religion of another Kingdom To which I answer in General it is but reason they suspend the Act untill they can swear in judgment though such as have rashly in ignorance prophaned the Oath by swearing it must in sence of its Sacred Obligation inform their judgments that they may performe it and not cast it off but what hindreth their judgment in this required Act They urge four obstructive reasons As First As it did not conc rn them to have very much 1 Reason of this exception so they profess they had very little understanding thereof In which reason it is to be noted 1. They had some understanding of the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of the Church of Scotland and that little might so farre enlighten their judgment as lawfully to swear the preservation thereof I presume many Citizens have little and but general notion of the Liberties they swear to preserve yet are judged to swear in judgment 2. I wonder an Vniversity and Protestant Vniversity conversing in all Books and I must imagine meeting with the two Books of the Discipline of the Church of Scotland their Confession of Faith and Form of Worship entertaining Schoolmen and Bishops thence fled by reason of the same and openly oppugning and disputing against the same should profess they had thereof little understanding but it may be they minded not to study these things 3. Some understanding in the Religion of another Kingdom was necessary to them as Christians and Protestants by vertue of the Communion of the Church and some as an Vniversity and Protestant School of Learning where the true Religion of the Reformed Churches was to be defended duobts dissolved and errors oppugned and contradicted and some was necessary to them as Subjects required to swear the preservation thereof for the injunction could not but provoke an enquiry after the matter to be preserved I wonder therefore how these men could profess it did not concern them to have much who if I mistake not ought to know as much as all the Nation besides but from what they know they adde the next Reason viz. In three of the four specified particulars viz. Worship 2 Reason of this exception Discipline and Government it is much worse and in the fourth that of Doctrine not at all better than our own to be reformed I wonder Sir what account of the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of the Church of Scotland was by the occurrences of those unhappy times brought unto the knowledge of the University of Oxford I hope they were more wise and just than to take it from Mr. John Maxwel pretended Bishop of Ross a man excommunicated by the Church and censured by the State of that Kingdom a professed Enemy and enraged Delinquent cursing his very Judges whom I find about that time at Oxford writing his Issachars Burden a most railing reproachful discovery of the Discipline of the Church of Scotland and the rather for that the heat of expectation and ostentation of many in reference to that book was cooled by a providential fire which seiz'd on the Printing-House and burned the Copies ready to be published the next day as Mr. Baylie in his Vindication of the Government of that Church which these Gentlmen might have met with doth testifie Yet Sir had these men of reading regarded what more sober and impartial men have said and written they would have had another Character of this Church I may not mind them of the Apology to the Doctors of Oxford in the time of King James preferring the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of Scotland before that of England or of their Philadelphian purity Bright man on Apocalyps 3. who did not only keep the Doctrine of Salvation pure and free from corruption but doth also deliver it in writing and exercise in practice that sincere manner of government whereby men are made pertakers of Salvation mentioned by Mr. Brightman our Countreyman they will possibly tell us these were Seperatists to whom Scotland is no friend or Puritans Yet methinks * Magnum hoc Dei munus quod una religionem puram 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doctrinae viz. retinendae vinculum in Scotiam intulistis Sic obsecro obtesto haec duo simul rebinet ut uno amisso alterum diu permanere non posse semper memineritis Beza Epist 79. Beza may call for a little audience and respect from this Learned Assembly and he told us long since This is the great gift of God that you have brought into Scotland together pure Religion and good order which is the bond to hold fast the Doctrine and I heartily pray and beseech you for Gods sake hold fast these two together and alwayes remember that if one be lost the other cannot long remain And no less venerable I presume is the Corpus Confession the Harmony of Confessions of all the reformed Churches and yet therein they have an account of the Church of Scotland which might render it more acceptable and worthy to be preserved For thus it is reported by the Collector who much rejoyced in the providence that brought their Confession into his hand * Est illud ecclesiae Scoticanae privilegium rarum prae multis in quo etiam Nomen apud exteros suit celebre quod circiter aut nos plus minus 54. sine Schismate nedum Haeresi unitatem cum puritate doctrinae prevaverit retinuerit hujus unitatis adminiculum ex Dei misericordia maximum fuit quod paulatim cum doctrina Christi Apostolorum Disciplina sicut ex verbo Dei praescripta est una suit recepta quam proxime fieri potuit secundum eam totum ecclesiae regimen fuit administratum D●t Dominus Deus pro immensa sua bonitate Regiae Majestati omnibusque Ecclesiarum gubernatoribus ut ex Dei verbo illam unitatem Doctrinae puritatem perpetuo conservat Corpus Confess p. 6. It is the rare priviledge of the Church of Scotlaod before many in which respect her name is famous even among strangers that about the space of fifty and four years without Schisme yea or Heresie she hath holden fast unity with

Remonstrance they had declared to be so oppressive and dangerous if they will evade the influence compass and danger of the fourth Article of this Covenant in the first case I dare secure them from it in reference to the second 5. But the main thing which concerneth the Church of England is her foundation which if it be removed what shall the Righteous do And these serious Casuists do tell us That the holy Church of England was founded in the state of Prelacy within the Realm of England and they proved it by the Law for Gospel without doubt they had none to prove it that laying the Prophets and Apostles for the foundation and Christ an enemy to Prelacy the corner stone and in their Margin they cite the Statute of Carlile 25. Ed. 1. Recited 25. Ed 3. on which they profess They dare not by extirpation of Prelacy strike at the foundation of the Church which they are bound to uphold Truly Sir their care of the Church and its foundation is commendable but how comes it to pass that this Form of Government must be made the foundation of the Church without any danger of Schism by them to whom Scotlands making their Discipline and Government the mark of a true Church did seem so much tending to Schism Must the Government of England be a fundamental point of Religion the very esse of the Church and may not Scotland make her Government a note of distinction Turpe est doctori c. Sir we cannot deny the proofs cited and declaring the holy Church of England to be founded in the estate of Prelacy but I cannot but stand amazed to find men making Apologies propounding doubts professing a serious desire to have conscience satisfied so much to content themselves and cozen their Readers with plain fallacies such Sophisme as better beseems the Logick than Divinity Schools and common Halls than the Regent house Two things are to be explained What they mean by holy Church and what foundation this is to which the Statutes relate These learned men wel know that by holy Church in the acceptation of that Age and of those very Acts the Statute of Edward the first at Carlile and the Statute of Edward the third was meant the Pompous Popish Ecclesiastical State whereof Abbies and Priories were no small Members as in Magna Charta and other Grants of Kings which had then such influence on the Civil State as that no Act of Parliament could bind or be deemed valid without the ratifying censure of holy Church whose manner was by her authority to curse all that should not keep such Lawes as were agreed I wish the Masters and Scholars would speak out and tell us whether they think they are bound to uphold this holy Church or that the Church of Christ may not yea do not subsist in England now holy Church is driven out the Church simply Christian is very different from the pompous popish holy Church Again Sir the foundation mentioned in these Statutes is sutable to the Fabrick Foxe his Acts and Monuments p. 22. holy Churches viz. the temporal endowments whereby she was made so pompous the Lands Mannors and large Revenues given by the King or Nobles of the Land as the question occasioning the same doth plainly evidence which was Whether the exactions of the first fruits of Churches and Abbies and all Benefices in England and the profit of vacancies by Pope Clement were just and as the very words and scope of the Statute of 25. Edward 3d. doth plainly declare providing for the advousance and disposal of all Benefices and the profits thereof in manner as the founders that is first donors had established and so the Prelacy in which it was founded is an Independency as to Rome and a sole Power and Prerogative which England had free and within her self in respect of which in the very words of the Statutes themselves it is said The Bishop of Rome usurping the Seigniores of such Possessions and Benefices doth give and grant the same to Aliens which did not and Cardinals which might not dwel in England as if he had been Patron or Advowe of the said Benefices as he was not of right after the Law of England so that this Prelacy is purely Political and the foundation more profitable than pious could these learned men be so absurd as to make the very being of the Church to stand on such a foundation were there not Churches of Christ before Patrons Possessons and Presentations and may they not be when these large endowments are taken away from the places to which they are affixed This Prelacy will determine the Church of England by the fall of Monasteries to have been shaken in the foundation and by vertue of this Political Prelacy the Kings of England have given the possessions of Bishopricks to their Chancellours Treasurers Secretaries Kinsmen meer Lay-persons for increase of their means Pryns Catalogue of Testimonies for the parity of Presbyters and Bishops p. 16 17 18. and have kept the Episcopal and Archiepiscopal Seas void for 2 3 4 5 6 7 10 15 20. and sometimes 30. years together by what loadstone do these learned men think the holy Church did subsist when her Prelates her foundation in their sense was wanting or can they make us believe Denmark or Scotland have lost or the Reformed Churches never had the being of a Church of Christ because they never had or have expelled their Episcopal Prelacy Ecclesiastical Prelacy like the Petrae and Rupes as in the time of King Henery the third have ever been such swelling foundations to the Church and in the State that they have constrained the Kings and Parliament of England as of all other Nations in all Ages to exercise an high Prelacy over them by strict Laws and severe exactions to keep them within their bounds and at last to Covenant the extirpation thereof wherein the Oxford Reasons would make us believe we not only pull an old house about our ears but destroy the very Church if we have not wit enough to see how they would cosen us by the Law of man instead of the Law of God and a false gloss on fair words Having found so little weight in what is urged from the Government by Episcopacy of the estate of the Church of England we shall not expect much in what is incumbent upon themselves against their Covenanting to endeavour to extirpate this kind of Government yet that little we shall consider and it relates unto their personal capacities in their third exception or more publick Obigations in their fifth exception In reference to their personal capacities they say They are not satisfied how it can stand with justice ingenuity or humanity to require the extirpation of this Government Oxford Reasons third exception against extirpation of Prelacy unless it had been proved unlawful what Sir if it had been proved inexpedient it would have been consistent with Saint Pauls Justice Humanity and

se olbigande p r se aut per majorem sui partem Thus was Israel bound by the Oath of the Princes passed unto the Gibeonites so that although the people knowing it muttered and murmured against the Oath no one durst offer violence unto a Gibeonite and when Saul in a well meant zeal did presume to do it the Faith of Israel was violated and avenged by a Famine in the time of David an innocent person until expiated by the hanging Sauls sons three hundred years after the Oath was made and when many generations who consented not unto it had returned 3. Or Whether it be done by any single person as the King but in the name and on the account of the Kingdom so that as King of such a Kingdom he makes the Oath or Covenant and so obligeth the faith of the Kingdom and so the people are included in it and the Covenant doth not become personal according to that Rule At si cum rege contractum sit non statim personale erit censendum foedus plerumque persona pactum inseritur non ut personale pactum fiat sed ut demonstretur cum quo pactum factum est If the Covenant be made with the King it is not therefore personal for a person may be inserted to shew with whom the Covenant is made as a Covenant is passed by the King of England to declare England is bound as it was in the case of the Rrman Empire Imperator foedus percussit videtur populus percussisse Romauus foedere continetur The Emperour sware the people were included in the Covenant and such also was the Oath passed by Zedekiah the King of Israel unto the King of Babylon which bound Israel to performance and brought them under the guilt and punishment of the breach thereof Sir An Oath or Covenant is best discovered by the enquiry and caution made given by Justin in the case of the tributary Cities which had obtained terms of the Medes before the Empire was to them transferred Spectandum an in conventione fidem Medorum elegissent Whether they had engaged the faith of the Medes and if the Covenant were so sworn in a publick and National capacity that the faith of the Nation were engaged all persons and all ages so long as it continueth a Nation are obliged by it and must carefully perform it or expect to plunge themselvs under the guilt and punishment of perjury the Oath Regal being founded in sua natura a subjectum permanens a subject which ceaseth not however it succeedeth unto and is administred by different persons so that in this case as in the case of the holy wars it was generally granted every League with Christians did bind Christians who did not personally confederate because the faith of the Christians was engaged so every Covenant of England engaging the faith of England doth bind all present and future people in England whilst England abides a Nation and cannot be avoided though obtained by fraud as that of the Gibeonites or by force as that of Zedekiah which we have before noted nor will it avail any thing as to their excuse or apology for not preserving and pursuing the things promised in the Covenant to plead I took it not or my Father indeed took it but the Generation is dead and gone who sware it unless they can divide themselves from the Nation and bury the Nation in the Tombs of their Progenitors nay though there should be a mutation of the form of the Government and Administration thereof yet if it abide a Nation its National Oath will bind according to the Reason Grotius layeth us down De jure bel ex par lib. 2. cap. 16. pa. 256 Etiamsi status Civitatis in Regnum mutetur manebit foedus quia manet idem Corpus etsi mutato capite the same body politique doth yet continue unto such as suppose the death of persons to make void the Covenant I would tell them what Livie said in the case of the Romans they sware when P. Valerius was Consul they would assemble at the command of the Consul he being dead L. Quintius was made Consul and called the Assembly they begin to cavil and question whether they are bound by their Oath he being dead to whom they made it Et nondum haec quae nunc tenet seculum negligentia Deum venerat nec interpretandi sibi quisque jus jurandum leges aptas faciebant sed suos potius mores ad ea accommodabant This negligence of God hath not long possessed this Christian world that men should make unto themselves the interpretation or rules of obligation of an Oath unto which they should rather square their conversation whilest if it be a real publick and National Oath the persons swearing and sworn unto may passe away and yet as in the case of the Gibeonites the obligation passe to all posterity Sir I am sufficiently convinced that if private men and individual persons who have sworn the Covenant will make conscience of the Oath of God upon them there can be no probability of a return and re-stablishment within the compasse of this age of the evils we have sworn to extirpate they being locked under a moral impossibility of re-admission or continuance by that publick Parliamentary capacity into which many who have sworn the Covenant are at this time resolved and in which they cannot but know themselves bound to endeavour in their places and callings with all sincerity reality and constancy to extirpate the same and for that others and those not a few as Ministers of the Gospel are bound to the same in their capacity I am sure the Ministerial rebukes and confutations of the one and publick Parliamentary debates of the other will lay a very great remora unto their return and his most Sacred Majesty to speak it with due dread being in his place bound from his Royal assent thereunto I presume will not only aw from proposing to him any Laws that may restore any of them but put an absolute moral impossibility on the present passing of any Law to that purpose Yet Sir when I observe many carnal Politicians carelesse Preachers Court Divines and temporising Covenanters suggesting a nullity on the Covenant and speaking out that it is void and non-obliging by the reason of the paucity which they suppose not to be a fourth part of the Nation who sware it or at least unto such as never took it which may not only be many persons now living but the whole Generation since springing up or that the Power and Authority of the Nation whom they do not a little provoke thereunto may by their publick Edict make it void I see it to be a plain case of conscience and necessary to be resolved whether the Solemn League and Covenant be private and personal only binding individuals or real publique and National binding the power and body politick of the Nation And Sir on second thoughts and a