Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	archbishop_n	like_a	lord_n	18	3	2.0774	3	false

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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

Containing exceptions to the first Article of the Covenant really and constantly through the Grace of God endeavor in our several places and callings the preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government against our common Enemies The Reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the example of the best reformed Churches And shall endeavor to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in Religion Confession of Faith Form of Church-Government Directory for Worship and Catechizing That we and our posterity after us may as Brethren live in Faith and Love and the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us II. That we shall in like manner without respect of persons endeavor the extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church-Government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierarchy Superstition Heresie Schisme Profaneness and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of Godliness lest we pertake in other mens sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues and that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the three Kingdoms III. We shall with the same sincerity reallity and constancy in our several Vocations endeavor with our estates and lives mutually to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms and to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties person and authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms that the world may bear witness with our Consciences of our Loyalty and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish His Majesties just power and greatness IV. We shall also with all faithfulness endeavrr the discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evil Instruments by hindring the Reformation of Religion dividing the King from His people or one of the Kingdoms from another or making any faction or parties amongst the people contrary to this League and Covenant that they may be brought to publick trial and receive condign punishment as the degree of their offences shall require or deserve or the supream Judicatories of both Kingdoms respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall judge convenient V. And whereas the happiness of a blessed Peace between these Kingdoms denied in former times to our progenitors is by the good providence of God granted unto us and hath been lately concluded and setled by both Parliaments we shall each one of us according to our place and interest endeavor that they may remaine conjoyned in a firm Peace and Vnion to all posterity And that Justice may be done upon the wilful opposers thereof in manner expressed in the precedent Articles VI. We shall also according to our places and callings in this common cause of Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdom assist and defend all those that enter into this League and Covenant in the maintaining and pursuing thereof and shall not suffer our selves directly or indirectly by whatsoever combination perswasion or terror to be divided and withdrawn from this blessed Vnion and Conjunction whether to make defection to the contrary part or to give our selves to a detestable indifferency or neutrality in this cause which so much concerneth the glory of God the good of the Kingdoms and the honour of the King but shall all the dayes of our lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all lets and impediments whatsoever and what we are not able our selves to suppresse or overcome we shall reveal and make known that it may be timely prevented or removed All which we shall do as in the sight of God When I consider the matter of these several promises to have been propounded by a Parliament on advice had with an Assembly of Grave Learned and Judicions Divines who were to discover sin and make men to discerne between good and evil I cannot but retain a strong conjecture that it is all good and lawful And when I consider His late Majesties dissatisfaction expressed in His Contemplations to be more in respect of the manner than the matter my conjecture is much confirmed And when I observe His most Sacred Majesty at His late Coronation to have by Solemn Oath testified His allowance and approbation of the Solemn League and Covenant and by His Royal Declaration from Dumfirmling to have professed That on mature deliberation and being fully satisfied of the lawfulnesse and equity of the Solemn League and Covenant and every the Articles thereof Himself had sworn it and conjureth all his Subjects to lay aside their opposition to it Loyalty leads my conjecture unto a conclusion For such serious scrutiny by so sage and conscientious persons and that under the afflicting hand of that God who will not be mocked could not but have described the sinfulnesse of the matter if it be found But when I weigh the particulars promised and find them to be the Preservation of Religion and Reformation wherein it is corrupted and removal of what is thereunto obstructive as to the religious part of it and the preservation of the Kings Prerogative and peoples liberty and Nations unity and removal of the enemies thereof as to the civil part of it my conclusion is established and I find it so farre from unlawful that it binds us not to any thing which in the nature of it is not on us a positive duty though not bound by this most Sacred Bond and so farre is this Covenant from a repugnancie to our baptismal Covenant as our Dr. hath suggested in his * Page 12. Analysis that as I have in my * Page 22. Analepsis noted It is no hard matter to resolve it into the three heads of our baptismal promise taught by our Church For if I must believe the Articles of the Creed I must preserve sound Doctrine and reform to my power what is corrupt If I must keep Gods Commandments I must pursue pure worship and Religion towards God and Loyalty Love and unity towards men And if I must renounce the Divel and all his works I must extirpate Popery and Papal Prelacy Superstition Heresie Schisme will all incendiaries and evil instruments hinderers of Reformation And now I shall pray Dr. Gauden will shew us wherein this Covenant is so vastly different from the Covenant made in Baptisme Yet I shall consider once more the matter of the Covenant by those Rules which resolve the matter of an Oath unlawful and if it be therein chargeable I shall consent to the discharge of this Holy Bond. An Oath is in reference to the matter of it determined unlawful when it is unnecessary and about trifles and that is the prophaning of an Oath yet will

of God in the sense there intended is at this time encreased To which Sir I should have then answered 1. Answer Their ability to say it is of little moment nor could we well judge it for whether they were under any natural wilfull violent or judicial incapacity is not our part to determine Others were able to say it and if these reverend Fathers and Students did know it though they were not able to say it it was for us sufficient And therefore may I be bold further to enquire 2. Whether they were able to read the whole Sentence expressing the sense Of the enemies of God whose rage power and presumption was at this time encreased here intended and calling to mind the treacherous and bloody plots conspiracies attempts and practices of the enemies of God against the true Religion and Professors thereof in all places especially in these three Kingdoms ever sinte the Reformation of Religion and how much their rage power and presumption are of late and at this time encreased whereof the deplorable estate of the Church and Kingdom of Ireland the distressed estate of the Church and Kingdom of England and the dangerous estate of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland are present and publick testimonies Are not these full expressions of the sense in which the enemies of God whose ra●● power and presumption were encreased are to be understood And is it rational or religious to enquire after and suspend a duty on jealousie of a sense intended when we have the sense plainly expressed Is not this repugnant to the end of Speech the Interpreter of the mind 3. Were the Masters Scholars and other Members and Officers of the University of Oxford such strangers in the Protestant Israel as not to know the Papists and Popishly affected were enemies of God against true Religion and the Professors thereof in all places Or so unacquainted at home as not to know their plots conspiracies attempts and practices were especially against these three Kingdoms the most publick and potent professors of true Religion ever since the Reformation Had they no notion of the Rebellions against King Edward the sixth Of the Treasons Plots Conspiracies Roaring Bulls and Raging Spanish Armado against Queen Elizabeth Of the Gunpowder-Treason and other plots against King James Of the Colledge of Propagators of the Catholick cause erected in Rome under the Government of Cardinal Barbarin and designed against these Kingdoms Or of the grand Plot agitated by Con or Cuneus the Popes Nuncio in England discovered by Andreas ab Habernefield first to Sir William Boswel His Majesties Resident in Flanders and by him unto Laud late Archbishop of Canterbury and since fully cleared and laid open by Mr. William Prynn in his Romes Master-piece published in 1643. four years before their reasons and might have been profitable to their eye-sight 4. Did not this learned University judge it to be an high encrease of their Rage Power and Presumption to distribute their Jesuits into such several Orders as should be capable in any place or profession to propagate their plots To press upon the late King and Archbishop for a publick profession of union with Rome To boast openly of Englands returning to Popery To tender a Cardinals Hat to the late Archbishop To poison our Fountains the Universities and our very people with Arminian and Popish doctrines publickly preached and printed and Popish pictures publickly sold and bound up with our Testaments and Bibles To provoke the High-Commission cruelties and Puritans discontents To plot a plain Popish Service-book with very little variation o● from the Mass-book and procure it to be by force and violence imposed on the Church and Kingdom of Scotland to the raising Mutinies and stirring up the Bellum Episcopale with pretence to yoke them and intention to destroy the King and Protestant cause To rebell openly in Ireland and with rage and cruelty to murder and massacre the Protestants To divide between King and Parliament in England and possess themselves of his Majesties Garrisons and Armies as under their command To abet advise and effect the most barbarous murther of his late Majesty and our since confusions All which and many the like to have been the atchievements and accomplishments of these enemies of God to true Religion He that is in any measure observant of our affairs can run and read And are not these expressions of rage power and presumption let right reason judge 2. Oxford Reasons second exception They cannot truly affirm that they had used or given consent to any supplication or remonstrance to the purposes therein expressed To this Sir consider That although they cannot affirm it yet others can do it in truth and with joy 2. What are the purposes therein expressed not as before intended shall we judge it from the Preface It is the glory of God and the advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the honor and happiness of the Kings Majesty and His Posterity the publick liberty peace and safety of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private condition is included For the End is the Argument which is urged to enforce the constancy to the Covenant and in Article the sixth it is expressed to be the glory of God good of the Kingdoms and the honour of the King and these are the onely purposes expressed in these particular acts propounded for the production of them and shall we be so uncharitable as to think the Gentlemen of Oxford to have been so void of piety towards God love to their Country or loyalty toward their King as not to have used or given consent to Supplication or Remonstrance to these purposes therein expressed Must we think them so speechless as not to pray to God nor speak to men for the effecting of these purposes expressed No! I will rather presume them modest and not willing to publish their piety and zeal to good purposes or passionately prejudiced against some one expedient propounded to the effecting of these purposes expressed and thereby acted to confound the purpose and pursuing meanes But 3. Had not the University of Oxford Representees in Parliament If they did not sit were they violently excluded Or did they give their No to the Supplications or Remonstrances to the purposes expressed in the Covenant and if they did were not these Supplications and Remonstrances carried by the Majority of Votes And is not the Negative so swallowed therein that all persons and bodies corporate through the Nation did thereunto consent When we finde Oxford excepted we will say they could not truly affirme they gave consent But 3dly Oxford Reasons third exception they did not conceive the entring into such a League and Covenant to be a lawful proper and probable means to preserve our selves and our Religion from ruine and destruction To this Sir we must enquire into the conceipt of these Gentlemen and desire to know whether it relate unto the quality of the Covenant or the act

purity of Doctrine the greatest help of this unity by the mercy of God was that with the Doctrine the Discipline of Christ and his Apostles as it is prescribed in the Word of God was by little and little together received and according to that Discipline so near as might be the whole government of the Church was disposed the Lord God of his infinite goodness grant unto the Kings Majesty and to all the Rulers of the Church that according to the Word of God they may perpetually keep that unity and the purity of Doctrine Unto these might be added the testimony of Arundel Hutton and Matthews three English Archbishops approving the order of the Church of Scotland and the joy of King James professed in the Assembly 1590. That He was born to be a King of the sincerest Church in the world All which might have brought to their knowledge a better account but they looked not so farre back but take it up by occurrents of those unhappy times in which I fear Scotland was not more full of perplexities than Oxford of passion and prejudice 3. But in what particulars are the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government much worse than that of England They should specifie these bad things for generalia non pungunt I confess in a Notion of Philosophy or question in Divinity the Say so of a University is of some Authority but of none in the case of an accusation which must be particularly charged and plainly proved if Englands Doctrine be doudtful and defective in respect of its clearness and certainty or sophisticated by the obtruded fancies and terms of private men as Mr. Prynn hath plainly charged in his Epistle to the late King prefixed to his Quench-coal and as the Ministers of sundry Counties in their Reasons for Reformation have suggested and Mr. Ham●lton in his modest answer to Dr. Peirson hath cleerly demonstrated it will be found as much better than the Doctrine of the Church of Sco land as its Worship Discipline and Government is worse than that of England And I hope if the one be as good though nothing better than the other there can be no great Scruple to swear to endeavour the preservation of it 3 Reason of this exception referred to the fifth Section of this Treatise 4th Reason of this exception But to proceed Their third Reason is a supposed contradiction in this first Article of the Covenant This shall be considered under another Head The fourth Reason why they could not swear the preservation of the Religion in Scotland is this Wherein we already find some things to our thinking tending towards Superstition and Schism which call for Reformation Here Sir they seem to specifie what in the 2d reason they had suggested in general terms But let it be observed 1. That they find not in the Church of Scotland any formal Superstition or Schisme but at the most something tending towards them I imagine many Oxford Masters will not willingly admit a Reformation or be denied a preservation of many things apparently tending towards Popery bua not Popery it self 2. The things they find do but to their thinking tend towards Superstition or Shisme but they have no certainty of it Must conjecture stand against the Covenant and conclusions of others Methinks Superstition and Schism should be so well known to the Scholars of Oxford that they might be able to conclude what things tend thereunto 3. What are the things they find in the Church of Scotland which tend in their thinking to Superstition and Schism They point us unto the Margine and there we find viz. in accounting Bishops Antichristian and indifferent Ceremonies unlawful this they refer to Superstition And viz. in making their Discipline ad Government a mark of the true Church and the setting up thereof the erecting of the Throne of Jesus Christ and this they referre to Schism Sure Sir they were in a great strait that made a shift to specifie these sad corruptions but yet they do not tell us where they find these laid down as the Doctrines of the Church of Scotland whether in their Confession or form of Discipline Whilst in their Confession of Faith they give unto general Assemblies authority about Ceremonies Corpus Confessi Conf. Scot. Art 20. p. 120 121. I cannot think they deem indifferent Ceremonies unlawful nor do I find that they as England hath done do any where make their Discipline a part of their faith that so they might damn Bishops as Antichristian I find indeed Artic. 8. p. 118. that they make Discipline rightly administred as is prescribed in the Word of God the note of a true Church but they do not appropriate it to their Discipline and Government as these learned men would have us read it I know indeed that the Scotch Divines do account English Bishops Antichristian and English Popish Ceremonies unlawful but they deny them to be indifferent but these are specials and far from the generals charged on them nor can these specials be condemn'd in them until Catherwoods Al●are Damascenum and Mr. Gillespies Dispute against the English-Popish Ceremonies which have passed with much approbation through all the Reformed Churches and I presume missed not Oxford be fully answered 4. But wherein lieth the tendency of these principles to Superstition and Schism that these learned men think of As to their nature they are negative and exclusive and I deem a denial of any of Gods appointments to be prophanenesse not superstition I am apt to think Superstition to be a positive innovation and erection of some new matter and action into the worship of God on mans meer will and invention without Gods institution I remember Mr. Blake denieth the baptizing of Bells or the Horse in Huntingtonshire to be Superstition and damns it as a prophane misapplication of Gods Ordinance How then the exclusion neglect or prophane esteem of Bishops and Ceremonies can tend to Superstition I confesse I see not Think you Sir the Learned men of Oxford did deem Bishops and indifferent Ceremonies to be such immediate institutions and essential parts of Divine worship that they think a profane contempt of them might tend by exclusion thereof to make way for some innovation in their room then I also will think they tend towards Superstition but must think they are not indifferent I wish Sir they have not mistaken the Scotch notion of a true Church Gent. 2da c. 2. col 109. which is opposed as well to a corrupt as falsely constituted Church the Magdeburgences do so oppose it in the very same case Vera enim ecclesia c. For a true Church as it retains pure Doctrine so also it keep simplicity of Ceremonies but an hypocritical Church for the most part changeth the Ceremones instituted by God and multiplieth to its own traditions And Bishop Halls Vere and vera Ecclesia is no stranger at Oxford and if then Scotland concluding her Government to be according to the

the Preachers defended even in the University from censure for them nay these were Printed in several Books of the same Authors licensed and allowed by the Archbishop and his Chaplains and many of them asserted in the visitation Articles of some Bishops and yet were not established in the Church of England As in Doctrine so in worship many corruptions were innovated and exercised As Bowing at the Name of Jesus The turning Communion-Tables into Altars or Altarwise and Railing them in furnishing them with Candlesticks and Tapers Tying the Gospel the blessing and other parts of the publick service to that place enclosed and bowing to these Altars The making Crucifixes and Canopies pictures of God Christ the Holy Ghost Virgin Mary and other Saints in our Church-windows Consecration of Churches Fonts Bells and the like All which and many such were first innovated to the Chappel at Lambeth and ferried over to White-hall and so transmitted to all Cathedral and almost all Parish Churches and yet were not established by Law though enforced by the corruption of Discipline in the Visitation Articles of Bishop Wren Bishop Mountague Bishop Peircy Bishop Lindsey and Bishop Skinner and others in their several Diocesses and by the silencing suspension excommunication and imprisonment and High Commission vexation of Mr. Chauncey Vicar and Mr. Parker an Inhabitant of Ware Mr. Burros of Colchester and many others Nor was Government any more pure if we consider how it was exercised in the High Commission and Star-Chamber with all rigor cruelty and injustice and in Visitations Citations Probate of VVills Letters of Administration and Excommunication in the name and under the Seal of the Bishops themselves never authorized thereunto All which were evidently needful to be reformed as having been so publickly exercised and potently defended and might well enforce a covenanted endeavor to reform Religion in the Kingdom of England I well know Sir that the change of Religion makes a great sound in the world especially if established I cannot be insensible of the noise made by it against our first Reformation and must expect the Eccho to follow all after acts and degrees thereof for all changes are scandalous and many very dangerous If therefore these Masters and Scholars of Oxford could rationally conceive the Covenant to bind them to endeavor a change of Religion in the substance matter and essential parts and form thereof then I must confess their exception is very important for we cannot deny that our Bishops Martyrs and Learned Divines have by Suffering and Writing testified it to have been agreeable to the Word of God And that to resolve that into the power and pleasure of a Parliament who may direct and authorize the profession but not prescribe the matter or form were to make it a Parliamentary Religion and the change thereof must needs condemn our Laws and the punishment of Papists not joyning with us as unjust and so justifie Papist and Separatist the one in his recusancy and the other in his separation But Sir when I consider the Religion of Scotland to be preserved as the concomitant and provocation the VVord of God to be the Rule and the best reformed Churches professing the same substantial Religion though differing in administration and order propounded as the pattern I see not how right reason can render any such sence of it and the rather for that Reformation not alteration of Religion is the formal act which presupposeth the continuation of the subject about which it is conversant But Sir if they as they needs must by Religion understand the order and annexed Ceremonies appendant to Religion whether established as was the Cross in Baptism holinesse of dayes and order of the Liturgy and the like or only exercised and enforced by Prelates power and countenance as the corruptions before mentioned then we must say their exception is of no weight not the reason any thing worth for this change can be no such scandal as is conceived for we deny them to have been testified by our Bishops Martyrs and learned men by any Sufferings or Writings untill of late by the persons and such like before mentioned as agreeable to the Word of God and must put them to the proof of it we think we are able to produce Tindal Latimer Hooper Ridley Farrar and many other Martyrs by laying down their Bishopricks and other contests and sufferings to have testified against them and Mr. Cartwright Baines and many Devonshire Cornwal and Lincolnshire Ministers and others ever since the Reformation by Writing Petition Remonstrance Apology and Sufferings to have testified against not only the corruptions exercised against which our Jewel Fulk Whitaker Archbishop Parker Dr. Ward Dr. Brownrigge Dr. Bancroft and all sound and learned Divines not devoted to return to Rome have written but even the very Order and Ceremonies established as being not agreeable to the Word of God And if these learned Gentlemen had pleased to observe the Visitation and high Commission proceedings they might have found Prynn Burton Bastwick Layton Workman Langley Hind Nichols Ball and many others known learned men who were silenced suspended imprisoned stigmatized and in much Sufferings testified these appendants to our Religion whether established or exercised to be no way agreeable to the Word of God and I know not whom they can ment on as a Martyr for them unless it be Lawde the late Archbishop the grand Innovator of our Church 2. If therefore our Religion be by Papists or Prelates reproached as a Parliamentary Religion we will rejoyce in our reproach and bless God we had a Parliament that had zeal to improve their power about those things that were properly subject thereunto 3. Nor can this Reformation justifie the recusancy of the Papists because these things never became a Reason for their recusancy further than they occasioned their obduracy by assuring their hopes of Englands return to them Nor the Separation of the Separatists for that the corruptions established were never made such essential parts of worship as to make a sufficient ground for separation Witness Cartwrights defence of the Church service The Masters and Scholars of Oxford cannot have been so little observant as not to know that the sober zealous Non-conformists who groaned under the burden of these corruptions and for this Reformation were grieved by and greatly contended against the * Mr. Geree his Vindiciae ecclesiae Anglicanae shewing necessity of reformation not Separation And Mr. Balls two Books against Mr. Cann Separation as that which was without sufficient ground yet like Jesus Christ their Master kept Communion with a Church whose Doctrine and Worship was very much in need of Reformation and taught men so to do granting There was something in the Doctrine and Worship of the Church of England not agreeable to the Word of God and yet not enough to lay a ground for separation 4. Much less doth this endeavor judge the Law against and punishment of Papists as unjust which