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england_n	act_n	king_n	power_n	3,247	5	5.0875	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79864	A rod discovered, found, and set forth to whip the idolaters till they leave off their idolatry (which yet remains in the rulers of England, their ministers, and the people who follow thier wayes) which doth consist in the houses of high places, falsly called churches; the two universities, Cambridge and Oxford, (and their ministers, which are made by man, and not of God) and their ministers maintenance (not the ministers of Christs) which is portions of lands, tythes, offrings, oblations, obventions, and great houses for a certain dwelling place on the earth, and forms of oathes, all which is the fruit of idolaters, and the abomination of the heathen. So likewise here is described the true magistrate and his work; and the way (for he who is not) to become such a one; and likewise, the way for all people to come out of their idolatry, vo worship the true God in spirit and truth. Written by me Henry Clark. Unto which is prefixed the epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Laodiceans.	Clark, Henry, 17th cent.	1657 (1657)	Wing C4457; Thomason E926_1; ESTC R207580	107,831	79

according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel And Iosiah he turned himself and spyed the Sepulchres that were at Bethel in the Mount and sent and took the bones ●ut of the Sepulchres and burnt them upon the Altar a●d polluted it according to the Word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed by the Altar before the face of Ieroboam as he stood by the Altar at Bethel to burn Incense and he slew all the priests of the high places t●at were there upon the Altars and burnt mens bones upon them And then he returned to ●erusalem and that he might perform the words of the Law which was written in the Book that Helkiah the Priest found in the House of the Lord Iosiah he put away all the abominations that were spyed in the Land viz. the Images and the Idols and the Wizards and the workers with familiar spirits and the times that Manasseh observed too And thus Iosiah he went on and prospered in his work Lev. 26.30 31. Deut. 18.9 to the 14. and made a thorow reformation both in Israel and in Judah for he turned to the Lord with all his might and with all his soul and with all his heart according to all the Law of Moses neither after him arose any like him Here ye may see that King Iosiah did not do as other Kings did before him that is reform Idolatry in Judah and let it remain in Israel and take away Baal the Altar and the Grove and the House of Baal at Samaria and leave the two golden Calves the high place and the Altar standing still at Dan and Bethel which Ieroboam set up Nay he reformed Iudah and Ierusalem Israel Samaria Dan and Bethel Lev. 20.27 and all of the abominations that were spyed in the Land according to the Law of Moses And now ye shall see what reformation hath been made in England since that the Saxon Kings the Danes and other Idolaters built up the high places falsly called Churches Monaste●ies Nunneries Fryer-Houses Chant●y-Houses and Colledges Now the first beginning of any reformation that I find of the Idolatry that they had set up was in the dayes of Henry the eighth wherein a Parliament was called it was enacted and decreed That in causes and matters happening in contention no person should appeal provoke or sue out of the Kings Dominions to the Court of Rome Secondly It was designed and concluded That all exportation of Anuities first Fruits out of this Realm to the See of Rome for any Bulls Breefes or Palles or expedition of any such thing should utterly cease Thirdly It was enacted That the Pope all his Colledge of Cardinals with his Pardons and Indulgences which had so long clogged this Realm of England to the miserable slaughter of so many good men and which never could be removed before was now abolished eradicate and exploded out of this Land and sent home to their own country from whence they came and what reformation was this none at all for all this which they took away from the Pope in a manner was setled upon King Henry the 8th For first they made him Head of the Church as they called it instead of the Pope Their words of the Act are as followeth Be it enacted by this present Parliament That the King our Soveraign Lord his Heirs and Successors Kings of this Realm shall be taken accepted and reputed the onely supreme Head in Earth of the Church of ENGLAND so called Anglicanâ Ecclesia Secondly And shall have and enjoy annexed and united to the Imperial Crown of this Realm as well the Title and Stile thereof all Honours Dignities Preheminences Iurisdictions Priviledges See Foxes Acts Monuments Vol. 2. Authorities Immuniti●s Profits and Commodities to the said Dignity of Supream Head of the same Church belonging and appertaining Thirdly And that our said Soveraign Lord his Heirs and Successors Kings of this Realm shall have full Power and Authority from time to time to visite repress redress reform order correct restrain and amend all such errors abuses offences contempts and enormities whatsoever they be which by any manner of spiritual Authority or Iurisdiction ought or may lawfully be reformed repressed ordered redressed corrected restrained or amended any usage custome forraign Laws forraign Authority Prescription or any thing or things to the contrary hereof notwithstanding Now for my part I see that none of the poor common people were ever the more eased of their burdens onely the King and the Bishops with the rest of the Clergy except their paying of Peter-Pence to the Pope and that was none at all because now the Priests have a Penny for the smoke of every Chimney as the Pope had Now see where the reformation was first That a Bible of the largest Volume and in English be provided and set up in some convenient place of every Church as they called it Secondly The Pater-Noster was to be in English Thirdly Sermons was to be made quarterly Fourthly Such feigned Images but not all which were abused by Pilgrimage and Offerings were to be taken down without delay Fifthly Tho. Bockets day was forbidden to be observed but no other And sixthly The knoling of Aves was forbidden lest the people should hereafter trust to have pardon from the Pope for the saying of Aves between the said knoling as they have done in times past Seventhly The Abbies Monasteries Fryar-Houses were many of them pulled down destroyed And eighthly The Abbots the Monks the Fryars were suppressed but the Popish Bishops viz. Arch-Bishops Bishops and Priests were upheld stil maintained by their goodly Lordships Glebe-Lands Rectories and Tythes as well as when the Pope was the Head of the Church and men and women were burned for Hereticks as they called them then as they were when the Pope was Head of the Church so called And Transubstantiation and the Communion in both kinds and Vows of Chastity and the forbidding of Priests marriage and private Masse and Auricular Confession and all Images which served for no other use but as Books for unlearned men that can no Letters to be admonished by them as they said All such stuffe was left with the High Places falsly called Churches standing without any scruple at all And again in the dayes of King Edward the sixt many or very near all the aforesaid stuffe was laid aside onely the Houses of High Places the Bishops Arch-bishops Parsons Vicars Curates their great Lordships Rectories Parsonages Glebe-lands Tythes first fruits and all these remained still unpull'd down But when Queen Mary came to the Crown and ruled then all that her Father and Brother had reformed she set up again except Abbies Monasteries c. and fell to burning of men and women for declaring against her and her Bishops and the Clargies and the peoples abominations according to the measure of light by them received faster then all the Kings that were before her And Queen Elizabeth she and

after they had sung a Psalm the Assembly was to be dismissed with a blessing Canon 33 35. and then they was to give with him a Testimonial of his ordination for the which he was to pay ten shilllings to the Register of the Assembly March 20. 1653. Ordinance O. P. and his Council Can. 39. and Can. 51. And an Ordinance was made by the present Rulers of this Nation for appointing Commissioners for Approbation of publike Preachers that the places destitute throughout this Nation may be supplied with able and faithful Preachers And for this end Commissioners were authorized to judge and take knowledge of the ability and fitness of any person that was nominated and presented to them and before any person was to be admitted to be setled in any Benefice or publike Lecture to preach and to take the stipened or profits thereof he was to be judged and approved one by the persons hereafter named in the Ordinance of whom you may see in the said Ordinance at large First They were to see if the party nominated and presented be a person for the grace of God in him Can. 36. 39. Secondly of his holy and unblameable conversation And thirdly as also for his knowldege and utterance able and fit to preach the Gospel And fourthlyly upon their Approbation of such his ability and fitnesse according to the qualification above mentioned they are to grant unto such Parson admission to such Benefice or Lecture by an Instrument in Writing under a common Seal Can. 41. The Bishops Cannons and Constitutions and the two Ordinances are in part equivolent each with other But in the latter end of the Ordinance they conclude and say It is not intended n●r shall be construed to be any solemn or sacred setting apart of a person to any particular Office in the Ministry of which I let passe for others to judge what difference there is betwixt this solemn and sacred setting apart and fome others in the foregoing generations for the Pope he gave power to the Cardinals who were his Legates and by them to the kings and the bishops And a Parliament they set King Henry the eighth in the seat of the Pope and then the bishops received their power from the King and the Parliament to make Ministers by a carnal commandment and so it continued so long almost as Kings and Queens reigned in England And the Parliament of Lords and Commons they took that power from the late King and his Bishops Articles of Religion 36. to themselves and gave power to an Assembly of Presbyter Divines to make Ministers by but that lasted but until the Parliament was dissolved And since the dissolution of the short Parliamont O. P. and his Council have taken the like Power and given the like power to their Commissioners for to judge and approve of who are fit to be preachers only in those places destitute throughout this Nation So that the Kings Queens and other Rulers of this Nation having got into their hands the same power that the Pope had did and do the same works in effect as the pope did but say I Who hath required this at their hands to do seeing that it is the alone and proper work of Christ to make and send forth his Messengers and Ministers as the Scripture testifieth how that Christ Jesus said unto his Disciples Luke 10.2 Matt. 9 37 38. Eph. 4.8 9 10 11 12. 1 Cor. 12.28 The Harvest truly said he is great but the labourers are few pray ye therefore the Lord of the Harvest that he would send forth labourers into his Harvest And Christ when he ascended on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men and he gave some Apostles and some Prophecs and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers And said Paul God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondly Prophets thirdly Teachers for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the Body of Christ and for the perfecting of the Saints Now I say That God nor Christ did not give that power neither to pope nor to Cardinals nor to Bishops nor to Kings or any other Rulers nor to Councils or Assemblies nor to Commissioners since the dayes of the Apostles neither did he command them nor any one of them to go and ordain men to be preachers for hire nor to make ministers of the Gospel nor to give any man a commission to go to a parish in a city or to a town or to a village and there of the people take tythes and money for their preaching to the value of 100.l 200.l more or less by the yeer this is a work that God never required at any one of their hands to do no more then he did of Ieroboam who for making and consecrating of the lowest of the people to be priests for the high places which thing doing became a sin unto the House of Ieroboam even to cut it off from the face of the Earth 1 King 13.33 34. and to dedroy it Ye may read in the Scriptures that Moses he had a command from God alone for to go and take Aaron and his sons the Levites with him Exod 28 29 chap. to 12 13 14 15. c. Lev. 8.1 2 3 4 c. Numb 8.5 6 19. ver from among the children of Israel that they might minister unto the Lord in the priests office and to do the service of the Tabernacle of the Congregation But who gave Ieroboam and other the Kings of Israel and Judah any command to make priests for the houses of high places And who required any Emperor King Queen or any other Ruler of the Earth to make ordain or consecrate bishops priests ot ministers for to pray read or preach in the houses of high places falsly called churches And Elijah he had a command from the Lord to go and annoint Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-Meholak to be a prophet in his room 1 King 19.16.19 20 21. ver FOXES Acts Monuments Vol. 1. but by what authority did the pope go annoint cardinals bishops c. for did not the Emperor and others choose the pope or popes then had not the pope his command and authority from the Emperor and others and not from the Lord God that commanded Elijah to do what he did Matth. 28.19 20. And Je●us Christ said unto his Disciples All power is given to me in heaven and in earth go ye therefore and teach all Nations teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you alway unto the end of the world But the Bishops of England they had their power in the dayes of King Henry the eighth An. 25. Hen. 8. cap. 20. Luke 24.49 Acts. 1.4 and 2.4 Eph. 4.11 from him and the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament to make ordain and consecrate Arch-Bishops Bishops Deanes and Chapters Deacons Priests Ministers

God and man and the Canonical Institutions in this behalf accustomed That such Hereticks convict and condemned in form aforesaid ought to be burned with fire We command you as straitly as we may or can firmly injoyning you that you do cause the said William Sautre being in your custody in some publike or open place within the Liberties of your City aforesaid the cause being aforesaid published to the people to be put in the fire and there in the same fire really to be burned to the great horror of his offence and the manifest example of other Christians Fail not in the execution hereof upon the peril that will fall thereupon Teste Rege apud Westmonast 26. Febr. An. Regni sui And the like was done upon Iohn Badly a Taylor and Sir Iohn Oldcastle alias Lord Cobham and William Thorp for denying swearing by the Book and saying the Priests had no title to tythes under the Gospel was committed to prison in which it was thought that he dyed Now here I observe that in the Scriptures and in the heart it is written that Christ said Swear not at all and likewise that those Ministers that he sent out to preach the Gospel writ to the Brethren saying My Brethren swear not neither by heaven nor by earth nor by any other oath c. Now Christ that taught men they should not sweare at all he was by the Scribes and Pharisees and the high Priests who taught men to swear counted a perverter of the Nation and was vehemently accused and said that they had a Law and by that Law he ought to dye and they did not cease till that he was put to death And Iames he was by Herod slain with the sword who writ to the twelve scattered Tribes saying Above all things my brethren swear not c. And William Thorpe for denying to swear by a Book at the Pope and his Adherents command was put in Prison wherein it was thought that he dyed And now in these dayes some lye in prison because they will not swear at all Now I suppose that none will be so impudent as to say that Christ and the Apostles were not guided by the spirit of truth but that they will say on the contrary viz. That Christ and his Apostles were guided by the spirit of truth Then I say thus That the Scribes Pharisees and the high Priests and the Pope and his Adherents viz. the Rulers of the earth the Bishops and the Clergy were and are all guided by a spirit of error by which spirit of error the Scribes Pharisees chief Priests the Pope and his Adherents viz. the Bishops and the Clergy and the Rulers of the earth taught men to swear and do teach and compel men to swear by the same spirit of error And again The same spirit which Christ Jesus and his Apostles taught men that they should not swear at all taught many of the Martyrs to deny swearing at the Pope and his Adherents command And the same spirit teacheth us the people called Quakers to deny swearing at all for say we It is better to obey God rather then man and therefore we rather choose to suffer for the name of Christ then to obey man by swearing contrary to the Law written in our hearts by the spirit and by the power of the spirit of truth are we taught and do deny the paying of tythes to the priests of this Nation who are called Ministers or any other and by the power of the same spirit of truth do we so many of us as are called thereunto suffer not only bonds with patience but likewise the spoyling of our goods with cheerfulnesse for the Name of Christ Jesus our Lord our Law-giver our Judge and our Priest for ever of God by the power of an endlesse life and not by a carnal commandment as the priests of this Nation called Ministers are now made by But of tythes I have more to say hereafter and the priests likewise Anno 1540. 31. year of H. 8. April 8. And now I come to shew what an Act was made in the dayes of King Henry the 8th the popes Successor here in England who by the means of Stephen Gardiner was stirred up to shew himself severe and sharp against those new Sectaries Anabaptists and Sacramentaries as they called them and that some Articles might be set forth to confirm the ancient Catholike Faith and for this and other ends through the device of the popes Adherents the King summoned a parliament to be holden at Westminster of all the States and Burgesses of the Realm also a Synod or Convocation of all the Arch-bishops Bishops and other of the learned Clergy of this Realm to be in like manner assembled in which Parliament and Synod of the Bishops and the Clergy and by their means viz. the Bishops and Clergy it was decreed in pretence of unity among the Kings subjects That the six Articles which they had made should be received among the people and withall a penalty to be inflicted upon them that refused them which penalty and the Articles were called the Whip with six strings And the six Articles consisted the first of Transubstantiation The second of their Sacraments of both kinds FOX Act. and Mon. Vol. 2. The third about Priests Marriage The fourth was about the Vows of chastity or Widow-hood The fifth was about private Masse helping of souls out of purgatory And the sixth was about Auricular Confession And for the bloody penalty that was annexed unto those six Articles take as followeth and then judge whether the King and his Bishops and Clergy did not act like the Pope and whether they were not led all by the same spirit as the Pope was led by yea or nay Item That if any person or persons within this Realm of England or any other of the Kinge Dominions after the twelfth day of Iuly next coming by word writing printing cyphering or any other way should publish preach teach say affirm declare dispute argue or hold any opinion that the blessed Sacrament of the Altar under the form of bread and wine after the consecration thereof there is not present really the natural body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ conceived of the Virgin Mary or that after the consecration there remaineth any substance of the bread and wine or any other substance but the substance of Christ God and man or after the time abovesaid publish preach teach say affirm declare dispute argue or hold opinion that in the flesh under the form of bread is not the very blood of Christ or that with the blood of Christ under the form of Wine is not the very flesh of Christ as well apart as though they were both together or by any means abovesaid or otherwayes preach teach declare or affirm the said Sacrament to be other substance then is abovesaid or by any means contemn or deprave or despise the blessed Sacrament that then every such person or

persons so offending their aiders comforters counsellors consenters and abettors therein being thereof convinced in form under-written by the Authority abovesaid shall be deemed and adjudged Hereticks and every such offence shall be adjudged manifest Heresie and that every such offender and offenders shall therefore have and suffer judgement execution pain and pains of death by way of burning without any abjuration Sanctuary or benefit of Clergy to be therefore permitted had allowed admitted or suffered and likewise the forfeiture of all the Estate real or personal to the King c. And by the same Parliament it was likewise enacted That Parliament confirmed the Spanish Inquisition The Oath for the Commissioners of the bloody Inquisition That for the more effectual execution of the Premises full Authority of Inquision of all such Heresies c. should be committed and directed down into every Shire to certain persons provided that the Arch-Bishop or Bishop or his Chancellor or his Commissary to be one and that every person that should be named Commissioner in this Inquisition should first take a corporal Oath the tenor of which Oath here ensueth Ye shall swear that ye to your cunning wit and power shall truly and indifferently execute the Authority to you given by the Kings Commission made for correction of Hereticks and other offendors mentioned in the same Commission without any favor affection corruption dread or malice to be born to any person or persons as God you help and all Saints c. All you Rulers and Magistrates of England that swear and take Oaths what spirit is it that teaches you to frame Oaths leads you to swear Oaths and to give Oaths to men or women Heb. 6.16 Exod 22.10 11. 1 Kings 8.31 were they that forged the Oath above-written and sware and required people to take the said Oath guided by the spirit of God so to do yea or nay And again Was that Oath the Oath of the Lord that they had forged to be taken yea or any Did the Pope and his Adherents give or administer the Oath of the Lord to any yea or nay Was the Pope and his Adherents taught by the spirit of God to frame Oaths to be taken yea or nay Or did the spirit of God lead the Pope and his Adherents to swear and to take Oaths against the Saints and Servants of God whom they persecuted to death yea or nay I say Nay the spirit of God neither taught them to make or to forge Oaths neither did the spirit of God teach or guide them to swear by their own forged out of the bottomlesse pit Oaths Neither are Parliaments nor Councils in these our dayes taught by the spirit of God to make Oaths nor doth the spirit of God teach them to swear neither by the Bible or by their hand Iames 5.12 Matth. 5.34 35 36. 23.16 to 22. or by any other creature or part of any creature nor by any of their framed Oaths but the spirit of God did teach and does teach the contrary now as it did in the dayes of Christ and the Apostles which spirit I own and obey but that spirit that frames Oaths which are not the Oath of God and swears and requires people to swear by an Oath forged out of the bottomlesse pit FOX Act. Mon. Vol. 2. L. CROMWEL made Earl of Essex Great Chamberlaine of ENGLAND and Vice-go●●rnor to the King I deny that spirit and its practise for it is not the spirit of God but the power of the prince of the Aire that rules in the hearts of the children of disobedience I have read in the Book of Martyrs of one Thomas Lord Cromwel that in the dayes of King Henry the eigth did this Nation of England a deal of good service as the story of his life death doth relate how profitable an Instrument he was in destroying Abbies Monasteries Nunneries c. and routing out of the Land the works of the Monks Fryars Nuns and other such like brutish drones and pulled down the Rood called the Rood of Grace and all his Engines and shewed them openly at Pauls Crosse with the blood of a Duck which the papists made the people to believe it was the blood of Hailes and other such like pieces of Idolatry and Witchcraft he removed out of the way that the people was seduced by with the learned men of Oxford and Cambridge So likewise he was an Instrument to discover the treachery of the Bishops and the Clergy who had sworn to be true to the King and afterwards swore also to be so to the pope and for the proof of the same he produced a copy of their oath to the pope which was read in the Convocation-House before them and the matter was so plain that they could not deny it And likewise Thomas Lord Cromwell presented the Bible to the King and obtained License that the same might freely passe to be read amongst all his subjects This Bible was of the lesser volume but a Bible of a large Volume began to he printed at Paris with an intent of Marginal Notes to it of which the said Lord Cromwel was a great helper of it forward At which the Clergy was offended and the cursed Bishops bringing their purpose to passe brought Thomas Lord Cromwell out of favor with the King and after to his death For after the six Articles with the penalty annexed to them and the full Authority of the bloody Inquisition was confirmed then the said Thomas Lord Cromwell being in the Council-chamber was suddenly apprehended and committed to the Tower of London and sundry crimes surmizes objections and accusations as they called them were brought against him c. The best of men in their generations have alwayes been counted Hereticks by they who are Hereticks indeed 1. The first and chiefest Article that they had against him to accuse him with was above all others Heresie alias an Heretick 2. That he was a supporter of them whom they counted for Hereticks as Barns Clark and many others who he by his Authority and Letters written to the Sheriffes and Iustices in divers Shires rescued and discharged out of Prison And I say he did well in so doing 3. That he did disperse among the Kings subjects great numbers of Books containing as they said manifest matter of much Heresie Diffidences and Misbeliefe was their manifest Heresie in the Bible that he disperst abroad let the Hereticks themselves answer 4. That he caused to be translated into our English Tongue books comprizing matter expresly against their Sacrament of the Altar and that after the translation thereof he commended and maintained the same for good and Christian Doctrine and good reason he should so do 5. They charged him with some hainous words spoken against the King in their falsly called Church of St. Peter the Poor in the month of March so called in the thirteenth year of the Kings reign which was about 18. years before but