Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	church_n	england_n	reform_a	3,931	5	9.9167	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91901	The petitioners vindication from calumnie and aspersion. And the young mans animation to the building up of Zion. Published in their defence, against a scurrilous book or pamphlet lately written against them by I.W. and scandalously intituled, Petitions against bishops and their votes in Parliament. Subscribed unto after a clandestine, delivered after a tumultuous manner, and falsly going under the name of a whole county or town, proved to be both contrary to our late taken Protestation, as also utterly unlawfull by many other cleare and evident reasons. Now answered and refuted, and petitions delivered unto the Parliament, by impregnable reasons proved to be both lawfull, and according to the petitioners duty, and the late taken Protestation. With many other remarkable passages worthy of observation. By T. Robinson, veritati devotum.	Robinson, T., fl. 1642.	1642 (1642)	Wing R1715; Thomason E146_24; ESTC R212725	45,496	53

King 6. 26 27. And shall not we pray help my Lord O King Nay help O ye Noble Senators ye Parliament in whose power it is through Gods good hand upon them to help us For blessed be our God our case is not yet like the womans And if mine Author be a c Protestant as he boasteth himself and that in re and not onely nomine he ought the rather to sue in the Protestants behalf and be the more forward in promoting their cause unlesse he be a withered branch and live insensible of the generall calamitie and so more fit to be cut off then nourished Who will seek and sue if the Protestant do not neither the Papist nor the Atheist nay who should seek but the Protestant For his cause it is even his onely But mine Author is like the men of Ephraim that being called would not go Judg. 12. 2. and will abuse his brethren for going ver 4. But let him take heed as like as he would seem to be a * Anguis later sub herba Gileadite he will be found but an Ephraemite he pronounceth Sibboleth for Shibboleth ver 6. And if none but d Law-makers ought to petition then the Parliament men themselves should onely petition and what needed that know they not their own minds and if the thing to wit petitioning be ipso facto unlawfull as he argueth against the Petitioners then I conceive it is much more unlawfull in the Law-makers as in Majore then it is in others But if it be lawfull in the Law-makers as by that word d Law-maker he inferres then it is also lawfull in others and so in the Petitioners Besides freedome of information and to make our grievances known is a chiefe priviledge of Parliament and of us by the Parliament And what e command more authentique then liberty confirmed by Law And although many have petitioned that there may be f no Bishops yet have they but done what they ought and what their oath doth require For both their standings and present titles as shall hereafter be fully proved are altogether Popish and unlawfull and to will that these Prelates may have no Votes in the house g of Peers who can deny it to be a thing not onely lawfull but expedient for can a man serve two Masters no more can they serve two offices And therefore all this sure can become no such heavy burthen to my Authors h conscience especially having received so much i light as he boasteth of Nor need he fear to comply herein with the people for these their humble supplications cannot by any judicious Doctors be accounted k distempers Indeed well he may do not to follow the l stream of a multitude to do evil for at this time it is so violent and strong as that perhaps it may suddenly carry him to ruine headlong But the Petitioners part is not this multitude for comparatis comparandis comparing them with the Adversaries they are but a manuall And it is certain they are fewer in number that desire the good of Zion and of the Citie Jerusalem then they that hate it But all this by the way upon his Exordium or Entrance Now to his grounds and I will repeate them in his own words as followeth fol. 2. of his book viz. First because I have by the example and recommendation of the The Authors 1. ground Parliament solemnly m taken the Protestation whereby I have seriously protested to maintain and defend so farre as lawfully I may the o true reformed Protestant Religion expressed in the doctrine of the Church of England against all n Poperie and Popish Innovations contrary to the said doctrine Now in the 36. Article of the said expressed doctrine the office of Bishops is inclusively confirmed Here he confesseth himself solemnly to have m taken the Protestation for the maintenance of the true Reformed Protestant Religion Answer and yet is his writing against all such as according to this Protestation and their conscience do arise and apply themselves to the maintenance and defence of the same Religion making the Protestation which is the very ground and strongest obligation of the Petitioners performance his prime argument to dehort them therefrom so perniciously inverting the end of the Protestation as if it had been ordained and by the Worthies of the Land taken and to us commended rather for the quenching that little love of the truth and zeal of Gods worship which is in men then any wayes to inflame and excitate the same and for the shutting men up in silence and tying them up from action rather then to imbolden and strengthen them both by word and deed to further the work of Reformation and the building up of the house of God And although he hath sworn to defend this Religion against all n Poperie and Popish Innovations yet he maketh his oath the cause of his refusing to joyn with others in lawfull means for the defence thereof and thus he overthroweth his first * As read and mark it ground and plea from thence For if the Protestation doth bind a man as indeed it doth and so himself confesseth to defend the true reformed Protestant Religion and to oppose all Poperie and Popish innovations how then is he left free what excuse can it be to him not onely for his sitting still and giving way to Poperie for he that is not with us is against us but also for his opposition against such as in discharge of their oath do stir in defence of the true Protestant Religion and expulsion of poperie and popish Innovation The Protestation hath not Twinnes in it it comprehends not contraries nor doth it leave a man to his own pleasure Therefore being thus taken by him it doth for his negligence and aversenesse plainly condemne him and better had it been for him never to have taken it then having taken it not to keep it Eccles 5. 4. for the oath is not with man but with God When the people of Judah and Benjamin had sworn and entred into covenant with God Ezra 9. 5. so soon as the Priest had told them their sin and what they should do to glorifie God they presently consent and put it in practise ver 10 11 12. We have sworn and entred covenant with our God and our Priests the faithfull Ministers of God have told us our sin and what the strange thing is we must put from us that God may be glorified by us and is it not lawfull for us to sue for a Bill of divorcement yea to divorce our selves For we have loved our strange Ceremonies and Service as well as ever the Jews loved their strange wives And although we lay not hands upon vain crosses and pictures Copes and Surplices Organs and Cornets and the rest of the Whores Dresse yet give us leave at least to petition that they may be all abolished and that with all Israel 2 Chron. 31. 1. we may now at length break down all the

Altars and Images and cast away all vain Ceremonies out of the service of God throughout the whole Land For these must be removed before our oaths can be fulfilled or God truly worshiped And whereas in the close of his first ground he ratifieth the reason of his refusall by vertue of the 36. Article of the said expressed doctrine of the Church of England wherein the office of Bishops is inclusively confirmed I answer The Protestation bindeth not to the maintenance of the whole and sole Doctrine comprized and expressed in that book nor of any part thereof otherwise and further then it consents with the wholsome words of Christ for the very words in the oath are the o true * Note I pray reformed Protestant Religion Now in that same book and in many of those devised Articles are many things contained and enjoyned which are not truly reformed or rather conformed to Gods holy Word And therefore our Oath is of a larger extent and we are thereby bounden even to oppose those Articles and the whole form of Doctrine and discipline comprehended in them so far forth as they and it be not opposite to Poperie and Popish Innovation and dissent from the truth of Reformation and this is more amply and obviously expressed in that resolving clause next under and adjoyning to the Protestation It is true that in the said p 36. Article the consecration of Archbishops Bishops Priests and Deacons are there allowed according to the manner used at the first beginning of Reformation in the time of Edw. 6. But that therein or thereby either Archbishops or Lordbishops are justified or justifiable by Gods Word I do neither read nor beleeve And therefore his secret fear of transgressing an ●bsolute Act or unlawfull constitution of the Church is no sufficient plea for my Author to break his oath and to induce others to do likewise Besides grant what he pleads for that the present office of the Bishops as it is at this day executed by them be by a Law of Parliament confirmed as lawfull by Gods Word Is it therefore lawfull by the Word of God No. There is neither Law nor Counsell against Gods Law his Statutes are like himself pure and unalterable and need not the frothy device of men either to illustrate or authorise them And as for Archbishops and Bishops nay and Prebends and Archdeacons too I am certain there is neither precept nor pattern in holy Writ for them many against them Matth. 23. 8. 10 11. Mark 9. 35. and 10. 42 43 44. Luke 22. 25 26. and 1 Pet. 2. 3. Nor doth Timothy or Titus justifie our Bishops they were men of another order and stamp 1 Tim. 3. 2 3 4. Tit. 1. 6 7 8. Neither doth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on which they so much stand prove 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est ab inspiciendo their standing true the Etymologie thereof hath no Analogie with them their jurisdiction is originally from humane invention for their institution is not jure divino but jure pontificio not by God but by the Pope and for that cause the Pope calls himself Pater Patrum the Father of the Fathers that is of the Bishops * Episcopus idem quòd Presbyter The word signifieth no more then an Elder or Overseer Act. 20. 28. One that hath the charge or * Homer an Heathen Author many ages before Bishops calls Hector Prince of Troy Episcopum quòd esset Troje praecipuus inspector propugnator ejusque curam gerebat Magistratus Atticus dictus fuit Episcopus Cicero himself was called Episcopum or ae maritimae à Formiis Epist Famil lib. 6. care of any place and so it imports all the painfull Ministers of God as well as the Bishops And that a Bishop and an Elder are one to omit other Scriptures it is evident by comparing the 7. verse of the 1. Chap. of Titus with the fifth verse And if there be any difference between a Bishop or an Elder and another Minister a true Pastor or a Teacher it is in this that the Bishop hath the greater care and burden and therefore ought to be more humble and watchfull But our Bishops will have other Ministers to differ nothing from them in pains and care unlesse it be in taking more then they do for indeed they take none at all But for dignity and honour they will have a great distance betwixt them and their brethren even as great as that betwixt Dives and Lazarus They must be the Lords nay gracelesly gracious Lords and their Brethren the true labourers of Jesus Christ * Sometime the Bishops of Oxons phrase Rogues and Rascals Their very Titles are usurped and such as Christ the Lord never appointed for there is but one Lord saith the Apostle Ephes 4. 5. Isa 42. 8. and had they not made more use of the Temporall Sword whereunto they have no right then they have of the Spirituall for they and Gods Word could never accord their tyrannicall jurisdiction had not continued untill this time Seeing all this what sufficient ground then is there for mine Author to plead the Protestation in Bar against such as petition against them and their temporall power what cause of scrupulositie for him to refuse the endeavour of their removall Nay what cause is there not for him to endeavour it if he was well affected or had so much light to walk by and a conscience so tender as he speaks of Therefore for as much as they are justly deemed Antichristian because whatsoever office or officer in the Church Gods house is not by or is contrary to Christs own institution the onely King and Lord of the same Psal 2. 6. Joh. 13. 13. is against him the Petitioners have but done their duty and discharged their oath in seeking to have them expelled And so I will recite his second ground fo 2. viz. Secondly I am ingaged thereby also to maintain and defend the The Authors 2. ground powers and priviledges of Parliaments which is chiefly to be understood of the q established Laws concerning the same Now severall r Acts of Parliament do not onely confirm as aforesaid the office of a Bishop but by the powers and priviledges of those Acts of Parliament they are also to sit as Members of the Lords House I pray observe how this man doth preposterously tye the priviledges Answer of Parliament on the q Acts of Parliament Cujus contrarium verum est the contrary whereof is true For as I humbly conceive the Laws by them made make not their priviledges But they by vertue of that inherent priviledge and power ab initio established on them as the representative body of the whole kingdom are inabled both to enact Laws and if cause be to repeal them as the cause produceth the effect Otherwise it could not be that we should be our own Law-makers and in my understanding we are called a free people because we are governed