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	government_n	reform_a	2,718	5	10.4681	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62890	The rebels plea, or, Mr. Baxters judgment concerning the late wars in these particulars : viz. the originall of government, coordinate and legislative power in the two Houses, third estate, force upon the Houses in 1642, principles the Houses went by at the beginning, destructive to monarchy, covenant, reasons for submitting to the late government.	Tomkins, Thomas, 1637?-1675.	1660 (1660)	Wing T1838; ESTC R32811	35,816	50

read that the Prophets ever exhorted the People to such attempts But no remedy ●here is men must be undone unless● they will swear with hands lifted up to Heaven this matter of fact though they do not know it to be so nay though they know it not to be so and which is prodigiously strange One of the first argu●ents that commended it to the world is a direct contra●iction to this assertion when the Covenant with a Narrative tells us that there never was such a Thing seen in the world before It might be observed that Errour is far incorporated with her Tenents that what is true in it self is false when they speak it as almost the very first word All living under one King according to the Declaration of May 26. 1642. and the ●octrine that ●ustified the War from being Treason though against the King be●ause he was not King in his Personall but Politique capacity i. e. the two Houses to war against whom by that law was Treason according to this I say we have three Kings in as much as we have three Parliaments in the three Nations and in my weak judgment appointing all Officers Declaring who are Offenders and uncapable of mercy resolving to reform Church and State according to their own modell against the Kings expresse Will and Command are no great evidences of living under him The first Article is To endeavour the preservation of the Religion of the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Discipline c. The Reformation in England Ireland according to the word of God the best example of the best Reformed Churches and to endeavour to bring the three Kingdomes to uniformity in Church Government c. By those words according to the word of God They use to mean prescribed in it upon which where do you finde such or such a Ceremony was the common Question But so the forms of worship in Scotland used in Marriage Burial Preaching Discipline by Classes Assemblies higher and lower are not so well known in England muchlesse so clear in the word of God that every Artisan can in an instant be so assured that they are there as to swear it in judgement this Oath is by so much the more oppressive intolerable that it is not satisfied with a quiet submission to and a patient enduring of their intollerable insolencies in which respects it is more barbarous than the Engagement but obliges every man zealously and constantly to premote it There is in this Article more jugling then is tolerable in so sacred a thing as an Oath their friends being of so severall parties neither of which would be content the Church should be reformed according to the others modell There are several words put in which that party which wit or strength or accident shall set uppermost at last may interpret to their own sense i● e● advantage To please the Presbyterians The Church of Scotland Doctrine and Government is sworn to be preserved and all the three Kingdomes to be brought to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in Confession of ●aith Church-Government Directory c. Now this can be compassed no otherwise then by reducing all to the pattern of Scotland that being before sworn to be preserved But that the Sectarian Brethren of no sort may be displeased the word of God is expressely said to be the rule by which each Sect were sure of carrying the cause their own way and if any had a peculiar fancy to New-England or any other Church he thought better of the term of the best reformed Church secured him to them and he was by that assured the day was approaching wherein the men of his perswasion should triumph That the Covenant was taken in the various senses and with different hopes every one knows and that the ambiguous penning gives each party ground for it it is fondnesse to deny To please those who were for Church-government they Covenanted against Schism but least they should displease those who were against Church Government they could never be brought to proscribe nor while they had use of them to fight against the King so much as to tell who were Schismatick Surely Conscientious men who had sworn to extirpate Schisme Heresie and whatever was contrary to godlinesse would have thought Antinomians Ana●aptists c. or some other of those hard names that then swarmed about the City to have come under that head but in the same sense as fighting against the King is being for him being against Schismaticks is putting Armes and Offices into their hands The Common enemies this Oath engageth men against must not be explained too far least it discourage their best friends Papists and Prelatists may safely be named for the rest Mr. Henderson explicated them to be the Syrians and the Babylonians The second Article is to extirpate Archbishops Bishops c. whom there being no need I shall not at present plead for only this That Government in the judgment of very many Covenanters Clergy and Lay was inexpedient onely and not unlawfull upon whom the guilt of Perjury lyes very heavy for breaking their former Oaths leavying War against their King disturbing the peace of the Nation turning so many gallant men convict of no crime but their lands which other men had a minde to be guilty of and they had as good a right to as the law of England could give and all upon the sole point of inexpediency Into this point I shall dive no further but take some small notice of the reason here rendred for this certainly illegall Act of pulling down that Government of the Church without the Kings Authority lest they be partakers of other mens sins I doe not apprehend that ever I read words more destructive to every Government and to the peace of every Nation in the world they sound thus Whensoever there is a Government or form of worship in the Church which we doe not believe to be according to the word of God we are bound in Conscience nay they of another Nation are as the Scots were to us who upon this Reason Vow to extirpate our Bishops to take up Arms though it be against our King and reform for if we doe not we make our selves guilty of other mens sins A proposition that creates a perpetuall Apology for crafty men and justifies nay necessitates the vilest attempts of deluded ones The Anabapt●●s in Germany did the Separatists in Queen Elizabeth's dayes attempted no more then this warrants If this Doctrine were true I wonder the Prophets and Priests of old that lived under Idolatrous Princes were nor carefuller of their own souls and lift up their voice like a Trumpet in another sense than the Scripture mentions them to have done There cannot easily be imagined greater occasion for such irregular proceedings if they are at all justifiable in any Nation then in the Jewish their Princes being so often and so strangely guilty of Idolatry a crime clearly by their law described and forbidden yet we

Parliament The Covenant is lyable to more exceptions then at present I am willing to take the very designe was extreamly scandalous and as great a blow to Religion I am perswaded as it ever recei●ed in the world as representing it to be the parent of the worst of vices rebellions sacriledge and perjury some men have adventured to teach that God is the author of all sin these men come very neer them that can do the worst of Villanies upon his score fear God and break his commandements and all upon the newly revealed Doctrine of Piety and Plunder Surely Humility Patience self-deniall taking up the Cross loving enemies praying for persecutors are things commended only to pusillanimous and morrall men Hath the spirit that came down upon Christ in the forme of a Dove appeared since in the shape of a Vulture or a Roman Eagle was it weaknesse not religion that kept the primitive Ch●●stians obedient must whatever they said about Rebelion be construed with this tacite reserve untill we have an opportunity We read in Scripture of a blessing laid up for those who in defence of Christ and his truth part with their Lands Houses or Life but not of any for those who upon that score invade other mens That there were no rewards appointed for those who killed Tyrants Buchanan esteemed it as a defect in policy and it is one in religion too He might as easily observed it to be an omission in the Law of God as man The quarrel was not then about Doctrine so much as discipline our articles were esteemed Orthodox our discipline not appostolick enough Their discipline in terminis in Scripture and as a command to introduce it with fire and sword in defiance of Prince and Laws are surely to be found in the same chapter These tender Consciences are very prety things that dare not conform to an indifferent Ceremony in obedience to all the authority the law of England takes notice Civill or Ecclesiasticall without an expresse command or example of Christ or his Apostles and yet without either can take up arms against their Soveraign plunder and slay all whose Consciences are not of the same size The Covenant not to mention upon what grounds they who at first Idolized it do now look upon it as an abominable Idoll lyes open to very just and very many material Ob●ections It being my businesse onely by the by I shall onely intimate those that are so obvious that they cannot escape a very ordinary observer First It is directly contrary to the Oath of Supremacy formerly taken wherein they swear the King to be the o●ely supream Governour in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporall which power they there swear to defend and by resolving to reform the Church without nay against his direct Command they now as absolutely with an Oath too deny it Secondly It is contrary to the Oaths of Canonical obedience to their Ordinary Bishops Chancellors c. which those of them which had entered into Orders took and conscienciously observed by swearing their utter exterpation a Government they by subsciption testified to be lawfull which judgement many of them were known never to change till it was their interest the late usuall season of conversion so to do And some think a good Bishoprick would seduce many of them to their old errour again Thirdly Ecclesiasticall affaires never were nor can be by the law of England which they broke even in this very act of Covenanting for the laws as they said consulted on in Parliament but onely to have the civill Sanction and that after the law is expresse they have been determined by the Clergy in Convocation See The Reformation of the Church of England Justified a whole book to that purpose Now whether the Assembly of Divines being not called by the King who alone hath power by the Law to do it nor elected by the Clergy who alone have power to send the true Convocation not dissolved may be called The Clergy in Convocation I will leave to any one to determine and onely observe that as in other illegall Acts the late Powers proceeded according to their example so in this particularly Their naming what members they pleased without Election of the Clergy to sit in the Assembly was a fit President for Oliver Cromwel to call whom he pleased without choice of the Country to sit in the little Parliament The State and Church was pulled down the same way Fourthly The Covenant could not be imposed according to the Doctrine of the long Parliament who Ex Col. p. 859. tels us Men are not to be compelled to be sworn without an Act of Parliament which certainly the Votes of the two Houses are not I shall not prosecute these things any further but observe some few particulars in the Covenant it self and onely wonder with what face not to say with what Conscience men the professed Champions of our Liberty and of no part so much as our Consciences in regard of Oaths imposed even by an unquestionable Authority could on the sudden use such barbarous rigour toward the freeborn people of England for not taking that Oath which themselves had according to the fore-cited Doctrine no power to impose and the others had the ●ommand of the Prince Law and unanswered Reason to refuse at least they could say what themselves once thought enough it was against their Consciences We shall now examine whether there is any amends made in the Materiall Cause for the faultinesse of the Efficient and there is a presumption that it is so sure such good men would not involve their Country in the miseries of a War resist their Prince but in an order to a thing that was very excellent if not necessary That assertion in the Preface which gives chief countenance to the undertaking is a most horrible falsity that it was according to the Commendable practise of these kingdomes in former times and the example of Gods people in other Nations England hath behaved her self so commendably that it is impossible to make it out to have been her practise whosoever swears it to have been untill he can produce his instances if he doth not meet with very charitable persons will be looked upon as one horribly Perjured The Churches of God if there were any before Presbytery Rebelled into a being whose examples may be Rules to us must be either the holy men before the law under the law or the Primitive Christians beofore Religion was made a Bawde to Interest He that thinks there can be a thing fetcht from their doings in favour of this league let him serve that cause so far as to attempt The History of Covenants and see how many examples he can produce of Fighters with their Prince for not introducing a form of Worship they better liked of than what was by law established The Covenants we read of in Scripture were not against the King but with the King nor when the Kings refused doe we