Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	act_n	parliament_n	person_n	2,736	5	5.0257	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44854	Hē apostasīa, ho antichristos, or, A scriptural discourse of the apostasie and the Antichrist, by way of comment, upon the twelve first verses of 2 Thess. 2 under which are opened many of the dark prophecies of the Old Testament, which relate to the calling of the Jews, and the glorious things to be affected at the seventh trumpet through the world : together with a discourse of slaying the witnesses, and the immediate effects thereof : written for the consolation of the Catholike Church, especially the churches of England, Scotland, and Ireland / by E.H.	Hall, Edmund, 1619 or 20-1687.	1653 (1653)	Wing H325; ESTC R11943	203,833	222

pragmatick fellows made it a snare to tender consciences of the Kings party by pressing it upon them and oppressing those that refused it This was doubtlesse a grosse sinne but it cannot properly be laid to their charge as if they thereby intended to make a party for themselves against the King but to make all within their Garisons and Commands both Ministers and People true Subjects to the King to the Lawes and the Protestant Religion Whiles this was strictly observed in the Parliaments Quarters Iesuites and Popish Priests were not so frequent nor so bold as since they have beene amongst us 3. As to that of throwing down of Bishops a double scandal is taken if not given thereby 1. In their manner of proceeding without and against the King which in it self was absolute usurpation for though they did send to the King to passe it yet they resolved upon his denyal to proceed which was an absolute denyall of his Negative voyce in which implicitely they denyed him to be their Soveraign 2. In throwing down the ancient Government of the Church by Bishops which Government hath continued in the Church since the Apostles time unquestioned until within these hundred yeers and then the Orthodox onely questioned their Persons not their Office onely the Anabaptists cryed down the Office as Antichristian Now for the Parliament under pretence of Reformation of Religion to cast off that primitive Government universally received in the Churches without and against the consent of the King and solemnly ingage others in the same thing seems to be a most rash and inc●…nsiderate act done out of blinde mislead zeale or an ungodly act done wilfully to bring to ruine the Protestant Church of England to rob the Church of its Maintenance and ruine the learned Clergie of the Nation Here we must answer le●…t both innocent persons and a good Cause suffer 1. The Parliament intended not by throwing down the English Hierarchie to throw down any Worship Discipline or Government according to the word of God for then their second Article would clash with the first in the Covenant so that their meaning is they will extirpate so much of Prelacy as shall be found contrary to the word of God and the Example of the best reformed Churches I suppose by Churches they meant the purest Primitive Churches for all these late Reformed Protestant Churches did before we thought of a Reformation yeild that we were better reformed then they We hold the Calvinists the best reformen Churches but saith learned Beza to the praise of the English Protestant Bishops Let the Church of England injoy this singular bounty of God which I wish may be hers for ever So far was he from thinking it a piece of Reformation to pull them down Calvin Bucer Luther Melancton Z●…nchy Chamier are all of them no enemies to Bishops though professed enemies to the Superstitious Idolatrous Practices of Bishops in that Age. Every solid Protestant is so far from thinking the Office of a Bishop to be Antichristian that he rather thinks it a high degree of Antichristianism to oppose that Office this is as we have shewed to deny the Father and the Son for he that denyeth an Apostle or the Successo●…s of an Apostle in the Office of the Ministry denyeth Christ and he that denyeth Christ denyeth God that sent him Charity therefore makes me hope that the sincere Protestants what ever other subtil Foxes designed intended no otherwise by that second Article in the Covenant then to reduce the Church of England to a Primitive Purity by removing Popish Prelates and all those humane Institutions depending on the English Hierarchy if through Error they were mis-led from the right means to this end the discovery of that Error may seasonably reduce them into a right way for wise men never think it a shame to repent It is most certain that the intent of the sincere Covenanters was to re●…ine not ruine the Ministry by pulling down the English Hierachy they struck not at the order of the Ministry but at the degree of Episcopacy they struck at the Discipline of the English Church therein more then at the Ministry for they pulled down Bishops as they were Superintendants over their brethren not as Ministers so that they took away their degree above their brethren but left them standing in their order as Ministers Bishops lost not their Order by the Covenant but their Degree for though they are in a distinct degree above the Presbyters which have ever been allowed them in the purest Churches since Christ time yet they never were a distinct order from the Presbyters neither the Scripture nor the Fathers make them so so that Aerius an ancient Writer in that saith truth a Bishop and a Presbyter are joined in the same Commission the Bishop imposeth hands so doth the Presbyter the Bishop administers the Sacraments and dispenseth the Ordinances so doth the Presbyter so that essentially there is no difference betwixt them what is is only gradual Now here lies the great question Whence they had this degree above their fellow Ministers in the Church If they had this from Apostolical Institution then without all doubt it was a grieveous sin in any Civil Power to pull it down and they that convenanted so to do did unadvisedly and foolishly But if this degree of Episcopacy be but an Ecclesiastical Institution though of great Antiquity the case is altered there cannot be an absolute necessity of its immutability Meer humane Institutions admit of alterations Hierom and Epiphanius say They were set up as a remedy against Schism and Heresie long after Presbytery But to come to the thing suppose this degree to be as probably it is an Apostolical Institution which continued unquestionable in the Church for many hundred years Yet here the question will still be Whether since the grand Apostasie that Paul prophesies of there hath not been an Apostasie from this Institution whether this Institution in the Apostasie did not contract much corruption This is granted by all the Protestant English Bishops especially by the late Lord Primate of England B. Laud in his Conference with Fisher Bishop Jewel and Bishop Downam hence these two latter conclude That the Hierarchy of Rome is so corrupted and apostatized from its Primitive Institution that it is become the Antichristian State nay more then that they call it the Antichrist That question then which concerns us is Whether the Hierarchy of England were so exactly conformable to the Primitive Institutution as that it needed no alteration These two things are granted 1. That the persons in that Hierarchy needed to be reformed for some of them were prof●…ssed Papists and the most of them bitter enemies to a powerful and a painful Orthodox Ministry 2. That whatsoever is built upon an humane foundation may upon humane or divine considerations be taken down again if so then those Titles Offices and Dignities conferred meerly by men may be taken away but

the title of Lord Bishop Dean Arch-Deacon Chancellor Vicar Generall Commissary Officiall Surrogate Register Promoter c. Of which our English Hierarchical politie was compacted were meerly humane titles and offices as appears upon record In 16 of Rich. 2. Chap. 1. we find the English Bishops first putting on the title of Spiritual Lords though as Barons long before in William of Normandy's time who conferred that temporall honor on them they claimed a place in the house of Peeres These acts of grace conferred by the Kings of England on their Clergy argued their piety and true affection to religion Nor did those honours they conferred on the Clergie make those persons much lesse their office as some foolishly affirm Antichristian only thus much it argues them mutable that civil power that changeth them so farre changeth not a divine institution So farre therefore as the alteration that the Parliament of England made in the Hierarchy of England was not against the primitive institution so farre for the matter of it it was lawfull but as for their manner of proceeding in it without and against the Kings consent let him that hath skill vindicate them I am sure none that know the duties of the second Table and are sincerely pious will dare to applaud it or once open their mouth to plead for it My aym is onely to vindicate the Parliaments Cause from that fowl aspersion of Antichristianisme cast upon it as for many of their particular acts they are inexcusable 4. Another great Scandall taken and given is that the Parliament not only took away the dignities of the Clergy but the estates of the Clergie What shall we make for an answer to this monstrous Crime Before we say any thing to this we wil make a step back to former times We shall find the house of Commons alm●…st as full of envie as of age against the Clergies wealth In the ninth of Hen. 4th We shall find the lower House exhibited a bill against the riches of the Clergie wherein they signifie to the King that he may possesse so much of th●… temporall possessions of the Clergie as will maintain One hundred and fifty Earles One thousand five hundred Knights six thousand two hundred Esquires and One hundred Hospitals had the King been as covetous as the Commons were base the Clergy had not been lef●… a prey to his successors In Henry the Eighth his raign the Lords and Commons fell upon the Clergy for their fleece took from them as saith Cambden in England and Wales Six hundred forty five Monasteries they dissolved ninety Colledges and of Chanteries and fire Chappels two thousand three hundred seventy four of Hospitals One hundred and ten The yearly value being 161100l. Besides the stocks of Cattel which the poor men and their families possessed which they took and sold. Also the timber lead bells the plate and other rich Ornaments of the Church which they robbed and spoiled the Church of And in the Reign of King Charles the last Parliament that that King called which was the gladding of the hearts of all the people of the Kingdom whose eyes were fixed upon them in hopes of enjoying some eminent good from them these alone without and against the consent of the King fell upon the Clergies Estates and swept all that away which King Henry left What shall we say here That we may not condemn the righteous with the wicked we answer 1. They never pretended at the first to any such thing Ab initio non ●…uit sic they convenanted no such thing and the most of those that were secluded and imprisoned were professed enemies to the alienating of the Church Lands from the Church and alwayes so declared themselves Lands given to the Church are sacred things and he that al●…enates them steals from God Indeed it is the part of the Civil Magistrate to restore to the widow the fatherlesse and the oppressed those Lands that the Clergie fraudulently got from them though they have long possessed them And also to restore that Land they have got●…en from the Crown But to take away by force the lawfull rights and possessions of the Church under pret●…nce of Reformation is both grosse Hypocrisie and abominable Sacriledg For my owne part I really beleeve That God is this day punishing the Royall Family for that sin of their Fore-fathers Henry the Eighth's sins are not yet forgot chiefly that of Sacriledg God will punish to the third and fourth generation except we repent of those sins by endeavouring a reformation And as for the Church-robbers of this age wait but a while and without their repentance you shall see misery and shame upon them God will find them out It hath been ●…bserved that scarce any prospered an age with the alienated Lands of the Church In Henry the Eighth's time many who before they griped it lived well after they got it decayed and were brought to beggery and great want That sacred flesh stollen from the Altar had a cole in it which burnt up their nests where their other store lay God grant the guilty of this age repentance for this crying sin otherwise let David's deprecation be fulfilled upon them Psalm 83. 11 12. Make them like Oreb and Zeeb as Zeba and Zalmunna who said Let us take to our selves the houses of God in possession c. As to that scandall That when the Parliament had an opportunity to declare to the world that all their Remonstrances Declarations Vows Protestations and Covenants proceeded from a sincere heart by establishing the King when they had drove evill Counsel from about him that then directly Contrary to those declarations and vows they began upon new termes with him they must have the sword put into their hands else they could not trust him and necessity and self preservation put them upon it The self same arguments that were used as a just judgement upon them in their overthrow which soon followed To this there is a double answer by divers persons a witty one and a pious one Some say that the King desired for the Satisfaction of all parties a treaty with his Parliament before he came to be reestablished and that upon the surest grounds of reason and policie it was on both sides thought most fit for to have it yet it had been most Religious in the Parliament and more for the honour of their cause if not for the safety of it to have kept to their former Declarations and performed their word and publick promises made therein Others more piously say and those formerly of the House God in justice hath overthrown our policie with others sinful policie God shews us our own sins in their lively pictu●…e acted by others against us God Punisheth our foregoing sins with these present sins as they dealt with others so others dealt with them they would not trust their superior and their inferiors would not trust them Thus have we wafted over a rough Sea wherein we have discov●…red

Ἡ απωστασία ὁ ἀντιχριστος OR A Scriptural Discourse of the Apostasie and the Antichrist by way of Comment upon the twelve first Verses of 2 Thess. 2. Under which are opened many of the dark Prophecies of the Old TESTAMENT which relate to the calling of the IEWS and the glorious things to be effected at the seventh Trumpet through the World Together With a discourse of slaying the Witnesses and the immediate effects thereof Written For the consolation of the Catholike Church especially the Churches of England Scotland and Ireland By E. H. REVEL 16. 15. Behold I come as a Thief Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments clean He which testifieth these things saith I come quickly Printed Anno Dom. 1653. TO THE RIGHT REVEREND AND Profound Prophetick Text men of ENGLAND Most Reverend Fathers THe Author of this short-leg'd Treatise doth humbly submit and submissively present these his mean endeavours to you whether his presumption in writing it or presenting it be the greater he knows n●…t upon second thoughts he bl●…sheth at both and for both craves pardon of you His designes in it are honest and may plead his excuse hereby he would publickly acquit himselfe of the two great sins of this age Vaine glory and Heresie for though it may plausibly passe in the world amongst ordinary capacities yet you are able to discerne such failings in it as may for ever keepe him humble And Hereticks seldome or never submit their opinions to the learned his main designe is to provoke you to this honourable imployment for since he as a single spie walking along these goodly Prophesies hath made such a comfortable discovery his hopes are that you as so many Joshuah's will enter in and by removing those obscurities and false glosses which as so many Sons of Anack stand in our way give us peaceably to possesse the length and the breadth of those rich and fruitfull Prophesies For his owne part he professeth he hath been in the midst of these mellifluous Texts but as a little Bee fallen into an Ocean of Hony which after much delightfull dabling and much adoe to get out by that little be hath brought away discovers the Ocean hee hath left behind So far hath the Author been from pressing any Texts to serve him that they have pressed him in their service he thought to have gon but one mile with them and they made him goe with them twaine These Texts found him as David found the Amelekites servant faint and sick and hungry and ready to die but by their Spirituall revivings they put strength and life into him to make discovery of those accursed Amalekites who have totally devoured Ziglag the Kings and the Churches inheritance This weake Tract beggs of you most reverend Fathers as that fainting Aegyptian did of David that you will not kill it nor deliver it into the hands of these Amalekires It lies at your mercy and without your mercy at the merciless cruelty of brutish and unnaturall men it is as Lot without doors in the midst of Sodom unlesse you prove its gardian Angells and pluck it within the do●…res of your protection It is without you a fatherlesse friendlesse harb●…urlesse stranger in a strange Common wealth it was brought forth in the Dogg dayes of the Church whiles the Author laboured under the 〈◊〉 Feavor of the States displeasure in a Prison and now t is abroad far worse then the Foxes or the fo●…ls of the times it hath not where to put its ●…ead It hath trod like constant Ruth in the wearie steps of its beloved Mother the Church though as a Widow she sit alone and have changed her name to Marah And as that vertuous Daughter it hath sought amongst the Learned for a benevolent Kinsman but unlike to her it hath return'd from their imbraces as Abishag from the royall bed untouch't The subject of the Treatise is unquestionably excellent it is of the Apostasie and the Antichrist and of the finishing and finall conclusion of both at the seventh Trumpet Oh the glorious things that are to be done at the sounding of the seventh Trumpet the meditations whereof revive the soul as another Sacrament Augustine wished in a misselanious mood 1. Videre Christum in carne conversantem 2. cernere Romam in flore ac pristino imperii splendore triumphantem 3. Audire Paulum in Cathedrâ fulminantem Might I have my wish in this world it should be auscultare septimam tubam clangentem Then shall the witnesses be established the twelve Tribes converted and restored to be a Monarchy againe great Babilon shall fall and the Nations of the world shall bow to Christs Scepter the Dragon the Beast and the false-Prophet shall be cast into the lake that burneth with Fire and Brimstone These great things are foretold both by the Prophets of the Old and New Testament The Author as an humble and diligent hand-maid having laid himselfe down at the royall feet of these bigg-bellied Prophecies from thence ariseth and hasts to you the skilfull and expert Midwives to assure you that they groane and travell in pain together longing to be delivered of what the Churches expectation waits for viz. the glorious kinde of manifestation of the Son of God at the seventh Trumpet He humbly craves pardon for his hasty comming in an unready dresse into your presence his hast from them to you is that you may make the greater hast to them a high esteeme both of you and them hath put him on beyond his naturall boldnesse to what he hath done in all he hath done or whatsoever he shall do or suffer he desires to expresse himself An obedient Son and Servant to the Church and State of ENGLAND H. The Authors Preface to the Reader IT may justly be thought a high presumption for so low a person to undertake in such a learned age so lofty a task had the Author only weighed his own weaknes the fear alone of falling under the weight of so great an Argument would have taught his humble thoughts to have pitcht upon a lower subject In it self the Subject is most comfortable necessary and profitable and to speak in Gregory Nazianzens words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most sutable to the present season Though we owe an equal respect to truth in general yet some particular Truths at some times call for our more necessary defence therefore Peter adviseth us to be established 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the present truth 'T is the part of a true Souldier and of a true Christian too to repair to that guard against which the enemy makes his nearest approaches 'T is needless to tell the Church how these Prophetick Texts have their beautiful faces beaten black and blue by the polluted fists of presumptuous I●…iots they lye openly wound●…d and bleeding and miserably stript of their proper V●…stments whiles learned Cowards like the merciless Levite pass them by The Author not only by the Rabins Lawes by reason of his