Selected quad for the lemma: church_n
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A78568
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A further vindication of the Church of England, with advice to all emperours and kings of the Romish faith Also some arguments used to prove the Church of Rome no true church, but antichristian and bloody. By William Chandler.
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Chandler, William.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing C1935A; ESTC R229536
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12,548
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33
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A FURTHER VINDICATION OF THE Church of England WITH Advice to all Emperours and Kings of the Romish Faith Also some Arguments used to prove the Church of Rome no true Church but Antichristian and Bloody By William Chandler LONDON Printed for the Author 1682. To the Kings most Excellent Majesty CHALES the Second by the Grace of God King of Great Brittain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. Most gracious and dread Soveraign HAving made a most diligent inquiry into the state of the Church of God militant upon Earth I do find that it is not limited to any one Country or Nation as the Donatists held who fondly imagined the Catholick Church of God to be confined to a Corner of Africa in which they dwelt nor yet inclosed within one Bishops Diocess or Jurisdiction as the Roman Catholicks pretend who uncharitably exclude all Christians Heaven putting them into the State of Damnation who are not subject to their Bishop vainly pretending to be truly Catholick or Universal as we do believe in our holy Creed The Apostles preached not to one Country or Nation only but to the whole World according to our Lords Command Go teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost I shall speak something of this persecuted Episcopal Church of England whom the Lord by his Providence hath made Your Majesty Overseer This Church which was first planted by Joseph of Arimathea some years before Rome according to the purest way as he had it from Christ and his Apostles the great Bishop of our Souls and so hath continued a true Church through much Persecution by the Heathen and by the common Enemy the Papists and by the Dissenters As Gamaliel told the Jews take heed if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it lest you be fighters against God No doubt this Church of England is of God and cannot be overthrown You have heard of the Persecution in Queen Maries days how she burnt twelve Bishops and Doctors who sealed it with their Blood in the Fire and Charles the First who sealed it with his Royal Blood also the Blood of the Martyrs is the Seed and Seal of a true Church We most humbly thank Your Majesty that Your Majesty hath taken such care for this persecuted Church which without doubt God prizes as the Apple of his Eye in preserving it from all these Eminent dangers And we most humbly thank Your Majesty that Your most Royal Majesty hath been pleased to put those good Laws in Execution against those Enemies of the Church of England that many of them have received Justice according to the merit of their Cause The Lord bless Your Majesty for taking such special care over both Church and State for the good of us your unworthy Subjects not doubting but Your Majesty will have the same care so long as Breath shall remain in Your Royal Majesty which the Lord of his Mercy grant for many Years to come that we may receive the Benefit and give God the Glory And all this we beg for the sake of our Blessed Redeemer Jesus Christ A word to his Royal Highness the Duke of York under Grace and Favour O Royal James live for ever Son to one of the best Kings that ever reigned though David were a Man after Gods own Heart and Solomon was a wise Man yet Your Royal Father had less Errors than any of them O Royal James Heir to the Crown of England after Your Royal Brothers Decease as the case now stands the Lord bless Your Lives with all blessings Spiritual and Temporal and if ever Providence ordereth it so that You be Crowned King of England and of the Dominions thereunto belonging that you may come to it in peace and not swim to it in Blood for then it will prove to you a Curse and not a Blessing The Lord grant that you may maintain the true Government both in Church and State as it now standeth as Your Royal Brother doth at this time and your Royal Father of ever blessed memory hath done and as your Royal Grandfather King James hath done especially this Episcopal Church of England which Your Royal Grandfather told Your Royal Father he having studied to find the true Church of God he was very well satisfied that the Church of England was the nearest to the Primitive Church planted by the Apostles I shall add something more concerning the common Enemy the Papists and Nonconformists Our Saviour Christ saith The time shall come when they that kill you shall think they do God good Service So did the Dissenters when they killed one of the best Kings that ever reigned and so would the Papists if they could have killed our King that now is you see how they tollerated Murder Treason Perjury and Rebellion and he that could have killed Gods Vicegerent should have done God good Service yea it was thought he should have been Sainted for his good Service Yea this temporal Man of Sin might as well have Sainted the Spiritual Man of Sin the Devil as to have Sainted these Priests and Jesuits whom Satan had put into their Hearts to do his will let this temporal Man of sin pretend what he will yet this wicked Plot to kill our Soveraign Lord the King came from the Devil who is the original of all sin for they reckoned to have sacrificed His Royal Body to God for the Honour of their Church when God tells them to obey is better than Sacrifice that is thou shalt do no Murder and Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft Our Saviour Christ saith I have chosen twelve and one of them was a Devil but what shall we call these Priests and Jesuits sent by the Man of sin to kill Gods Vicegerent the King We may call them as the Devil said their Name is Legion for they are many Judas betrayed his Lord and Master for thirty pieces of Silver but these Bloody Priests were to murder their Lord and Master for a bigger sum Judas when he had betrayed Christ repented and said I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent Blood but these Men were so far from repenting that they would not confess upon their Tryal though it were proved by two of the Kings Witnesses You see then Judas for all he was counted a Devil yet shewed more of a Christian in repenting and in laying down his Money again than those Jesuitical Devils which would not confess the Fact of their Devilish Designs though it was proved against them The Wise Man saith He that covereth his Sin shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh his Sin shall find Mercy Yea when the Man of Sin heard of the good success of this wicked Plot going on so well the Conclave of Hell sang te Deum and the Man of Sin gave them his Blessing you see for all they sung to God for Joy and the Man of Sin gave them his Blessing their myrth
was turned into sadness and their blessing into a Curse upon them as TYBVRN will witness and many Spectators that beheld them O my Beloved take special notice that this Plot was not from God but of themselves with the help of Satan and came to nothing as Gamaliel saith I beseech you all good People that fear God to take special notice of the Death of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey which discovers more of inhumanity in their Religion than any other of their wicked devices if all the Devils in Hell had been let loose to their assistance they could not have done more than these wicked Men did they enticed him with flattering and lying words as St. Paul saith they told him if he would go along with them they would shew him more of that wicked Conclave and he being a Justice of the Peace he might apprehend them this honest Justice being willing to serve the King according to his Oath went with them and they had him into a place where they secured him from the help of all his Friends there as I may say they opened Hell Gates and let out the Devils who fell upon him and wickedly murdered him he being without any comfort but the mercy of Christ Jesus upon his Soul O all you Emperours Kings Princes and Dukes whom God hath ordained as his Vicegerents to execute his will upon Earth take care you come not near the man of Sin nor adhere to his deceivable bloody Doctrine who allows his Priests to colour their Coats with the blood of Kings and Princes and to wash their Altars with the blood of Gods Saints and garnish their Sepulchres with the blood of Gods Elect as our Saviour saith and will not God avenge the blood of his Elect that cry to him day and night yea he will avenge them speedily You see this Scripture fulfilled quickly after the death of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey how God did avenge his Blood upon his Murderers witness TYBVRN and many that beheld them All the Massacres both in France and other places the Chronicles speak of in murdering many hundred of poor innocent Protestants was done by that bloody Church of Rome All you Emperours Kings and Dukes whom God hath ordered to execute his Will upon Earth have a care that you do not oblige your selves to the Man of sin by swearing Allegiance or Canonical obedience for then he makes you under the Man of Sin and Satan his Vassals and Slaves that when he calls his Councils you must agree to his unlawful Decrees which if you do not he will put you into the state of Damnation as he thinketh We see how this Church of England hath been approved on going through the Firy-Tryal witness the twelve Doctors and Bishops in Queen Maries days who sealed it by Blood and Fire and Charles the First of ever blessed memory sealed it with his Royal Blood also who without doubt is now a Saint in Heaven which except we could expect a better place of happiness than ever was spoken of in Scripture we could never desire to go to a better place of Joy than where this good King is gone by the mercy of Jesus Christ who dyed for the Priviledge of this Church and State hoping and not doubting but his Royal Issue will maintain the same according to their Royal Fathers last Will and Testament that they should take care of the Church and love one another then will their poor Subjects love their Royal Majesty above measure in taking such care of this true Church of God wherein contains all our happiness both of Soul and Body then will God love us when we love him and his Vicegerent for God is Love and in him is no hatred then will he dwell in us and we in him then will God bless us with blessings both temporal and spiritual wherein our whole happiness both of Soul and Body consists The honour of a King is to have the love of his Subjects and what is the comfort of the Subjects but a Godly and a pious King which the Lord grant to us such a measure of grace that we may every one of us love one another but especially our King and then shall Babylon mourn but Zion shall rejoyce One thing more I shall not forget to put His Majesties Subjects in mind of That if ever His Majesty should call a Parliament that they chuse no Dissenters for if God do not bless them to agree in matters of Religion he will not bless them when they come to sit upon matters of State In the Fifth of the Galatians it is said The Works of the Flesh are these Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Lasciviousness Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulation Wrath Strife Heresie Sedition Envying Murder Drunkenness which do appear to be some of the sins of the Church of Rome and that they that do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven But the Fruits of the Spirit is joy love peace long-suffering gentleness goodness Faith meekness temperance against such there is no Law of which you can find very little in the actions of the Man of sin but quite contrary to the said good Fruits A word in answer to the Presbyterians whom a Person of our Neighbourhood told me that they did attest they had no hand in the Death of King Charles the First Which I wish from my Heart that it were true which I fear is not because the Scots sold him for certain hundreds of thousand pounds because that blessed King spake in his little Book called his Meditation that he was sorry he was sold for more than his Saviour Without doubt they sold him to the other Dissenters which at last Crucified him If it were a sin in Judas for selling and betraying of his Lord and Master I fear it was a sin in them for betraying and selling of their Lord and Master the King Judas had some remorse in him and seemed to repent in throwing down the Money and saying I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent Blood and so I hope will these repent from the bottom of their Hearts that their Souls may be saved in the day of the Lord the which I beseech the Lord Jesus Christ to grant unto them through his Grace and Mercy and that they may return to us again from whence they went out and that they may renounce that wicked Covenant if they have taken it that they together with us and we with them may serve God together in love that this Church militant may fit us for the Church triumphant where we may all meet together to sing Halilujah to the great God that reigns for ever where there is no division nor dissention but all love and unity which the Lord of his Mercy grant FINIS THE EXCELLENCY OF THE GRACE OF CHARITY Set forth in a DISCOURSE ON 1 Corinth XIII 13. By William Chandler LONDON Printed for the Author 1682. 1 Cor. XIII 13. Now abideth faith hope and charity these three but