Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	book_n	church_n	religion_n	2,750	5	5.6458	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78461	Certain considerable and most materiall cases of conscience, wherewith divers wel-affected in this kingdom are much perplexed, the cleering wherof would worthily deserve the paines of the Assembly at London.		1645 (1645)	Wing C1688; Thomason E270_7; ESTC R212357	14,633	26

to the Kings Supremacy and now hold any coequall and coordinate power are not forsworn To him that is supream there can be no equall neither will it help to say The oath hath reference to forraign powers for though in the processe of it it hath reforence indeed to forraign powers yet in the beginning of it we do testific and declare in our consciences that the King is the onely supream Governor c. absolutely and generally without any exception or limitation at all and who can give us a power to understand the oath with a limitation when we have all taken it without a limitation IX Whether it be not contrary to the such to go about to Wrest the Militia out of the Kings hand when we have in the same oath of Supremacy declared in our consciences That the King is supre can Governor c. in all things or canses both spuituall and temporall If the Militia be a temporall businesse temporall or spirituall the King by this oath must be supream therein And here it is to be considered whether the Militia be not already sttled by Act of Parliament if yea why is not that course followed which by Law is prescribed if no why then it is to be thought it belongs to the Kings prerogarive which we have all bound our selves to maintain both by our oath of Alegiance and also by our late Protestation and indeed how can he else be a King for without it he cannot afford that Protection which he owes to his Subjects as he is their King X Whether all we that do not take up Arms in behalf of the King having taken the Oath of Allegiance to him be not forsworn The words of the Oath are these I will bear faith and true Allegiance to His Majesty his heirs and successors and him them will defend to the uttermost of my power against all conspiracies and attempts whatsoever which shall be made against him or their persons their Crown and Dignity c. These are the very words of the Oath now whether our disregard of his Commands our depraving his Government our fighting against his Armies our endeavour to take him captive in the sight of the Almighty will be esteemed as tending to the defence of his Person Crown and Dignity is such a scruple that the Malignants who take up Arms for him seem more directly to follow the words of the Oath and thinke that none do rightly perform this Oath but themselves Neither will it serve the turn to say That Oath was made to prevent all encouragements of Rebellion that might be brought from Rome for divers reasons shew that the intent of the Oath is to binde the Subjects to true Allegiance whatsoever encouragement from any power might be presented to them though because the Romanists or Papists were at that time principally suspected the Oath doth principally bend its Forces against them for first there was an Ancient Oath of Allegiance before which did binde the Subjects indefinitely that is generally to bear to their Soveraign truth and faith both of life and member without application to any particular power from whence Rebellion might be suspected and it were a vain thing to imagine that in an Oath newly framed there should be a gap left open to endanger the Prince which had been prevented in the old Secondly in this latter Oath we are bound to defend the Kings Person c. against all conspiracies and attempts whatsoever which shall be made by reason of any incouragement from Rome or otherwise Thirdly it is acknowledged by us in that Oath That neither Pope nor any other person whatsoever hath power to absolve us of this Oath or any part thereof whereby it is evident the Oath doth binde us to perfect Allegiance without digressing upon any occasion whatsoever XI Whether all we that have taken the Protestation to maintain the Priviledges of Parliament do not violate our Protestation so long as we joyn with the two Houses at Westminster It is one Priviledge of Parliament That none of the Members should be excluded thence or hindred from Voting there and that freely it is another priviledge that no forraigners Scottish Commissioners or others should have any power there whiles both these things are done and suffered by the two Houses at Westminster how are the priviledges of Parliament maintained by them and how do we keep our Protestation while we consent unto and joyn with them XII Whether a man who hath subscribed that there is nothing in the Book of Homilies contrary to the word of God as all Beneficed men and Lecturers have done as will appear if the 3. Article of subscription in the 36. Canon be compared with the 35. Article of Religion whether he that hath thus subscribed can joyn with the two Houses but that he must make not onely them but himself also guilty of Rebellion There be four Homilies against Rebellion or rather four parts of one Homilie wherein these wayes of taking up Arms against the Prince are wholly condemned and this must needs be consented to for sound and orthodox by all Ministers in the Kingdom or else they must say they subscribed meerly in a colour that they might hold a Lecture or a Benefice XIII Whether we all that have vowed by our late Protestation with our Lives and Estates to maintain the Doctrine of the Church of England as it is opposed to Popery do not violate our Protestation if we maintain not all the Doctrine contained in the Homily against Rebellion Who knows not that the Homilies against Rebellion were compiled purposely against Popery the Popish Priests in those dayes being so busie to stirre up Rebellion it being also one speciall point of Popery to justifie the Arms of Subjects against their Soveraign The fashood of such tenets and the iniquity of such practises is fully declared in the Homily against Rebellion and if any Doctrine may justly be said to be established in the Church of England surely this is one part of it because by Act of Parliament in the 13. of Elizabeth the Articles of Religion are confirmed among which Articles this is one viz. Article 35. That the Book of Homilies doth contain Godly and wholsome Doctrine c. The Doctrine then that forbids the taking up of Arms against the Prince is Godly Doctrine established in the Church of England by Act of Parliament and so established as opposite to Popery and if we maintain not this Doctrine what care do we take of our Protestation pay that which thou hast vowed Eccles 5.4 if we maintain not this Doctrine what care do we take of Acts of Parliament XIIII Whether those Ministers that have taken the oath of Canonicall obedience can safely take the new Scottish Covenant or yeeld to a change of the present Government of the Church of England so long at least as these Bishops are living And yet if the oath of Canonicall obedience be not enough see how the Ministers

spilling meerly upon carnall motives Religion is indeed partly pretended but draw this faire Curtain aside and behind it there stands the carnall care of self-seeking seeking to save our Skins and Purses we are unwilling to suffer for Religion and therefore we would establish a Religion according to our own minds we would willingly prevent Ship-money and other burthens and therefore we desire to have more power in our own hands and lesse in the Kings so this War in the up shot is altogether to save our selves from trouble which we know not whether it will ever come upon us and yet here it is to be considered withall whether the good that is aimed at in it will justifie all the evils that have been committed by it nay whether if all that was feared by our over-forward jealousies had been brought upon us we could possibly have been in so bad a condition as this War hath put us so doth the wise Lord justly Crosse mens carnall proceedings XXII Whether it be not extream rashnesse to affirm That the whole Catholike Church in the point of Episcopacy was in an error all the world over 1500. yeers together That the whole Church was governed by Bishops all the world over till Mr. Calvins time of late at Genevae is known to all and amongst those Bishops to reckon up how many burning and shining lights how many zealous propagators and propugnators of the truth how many learned Professors how many constant Confessors how many glorious Martyrs have been found from time to time though amongst them as amongst men of all callings there have been some faulty were a work large enough to fill a spacious volume and if notwithstanding all this we shall blemish them and the whole Church of God that not onely tolerated but honoured them if we shall blemish them all with an error about the lawfullnesse of their calling shall we not take more upon us then the Psalmist durst to take upon himself he did not dare to condemn the generation of Gods Children Psal 73.15 XXIII Whether our party being so divided some being Presbyterians and some Independents and both sides contending strongly that each of their severall disciplines is that discipline which Christ hath ordained and appointed in his Church whether it be not apparent to all the world that one of them must be in an error Two contraries can never be both true and while one maintains a dependency and the other an Indepency there is between them a contrariety XXIIII Whether it being undeniable rashnesse to condemn Episcopary as before and an error being unavoydably acknowledged in one branch of our party both branches also being equally confident of their assertions and both introducing novelty whether there be not just cause to suspect them both as erroneous and lesse agreeing to the word of God then is Episcopacy XXV Whether the case being so uncertain and disputable there be any necessity so much blood should be spilt and so many lives lost for the removoll of the old and bringing in of a new government It was Davids Prayer and he utter'd it with some sense oa heavy burthen that was upon him deliver me from blood-guiltinesse O God and he had killed but one Vriah and a few more with him but so many thousand being lost amongst us and so much blood spilt for the change of a government if it be without necessity Oh how intolerable will this guilt be on whom soever it lights whether on the Parliament that begun it or on the assembly that did not since warn them of it or on us all that have been their well-wishers and abettors in it XXVI Whether Christ did ever prescribe such a way as this for setting up his throne viz. the use of the bloody sword Our Saviour doth injoyn his Disciples to take up the Crosse and follow him so far is he from commanding them to impose the Crosse on others and when the Samaritans would not receive him he did not allow his Disciples to execute vengeance upon them yea when his Enemies came to apprehend him yet he forbids Peter to use a sword for his own defence neither will it help to say that our Saviour was at that time to suffer for our Redemption and that therefore he did forbid Peter to use a sword in his defence had our Saviour aimed at nothing else it had been enough to have rebuked Peter for his present action without mention of a rule for perpetuity but when our Saviour doth not onely rebuke him but also as a reason of his rebuke doth annex the establishment of a perpetuall Law all that take the sword shall perrish by the sword he doth thereby shew that not onely at that time but also at all times he forbids a sword to be taken up against the civill Magistrate for his sake XXVII Whether in our consciences we be not perswaded that the State of the Kingdom might without war and with his Majesties good leave and furtherance have been reduced from its deviations unto the happy condition wherein it flourished in the blessed dayes of good Queen Elizabeth About the beginning of this Parliament there was some such thing commended by His Majesty in his speech unto the Parliament for a Reformation not an Alteration and never did any Nation live more happy then the people of England did in those golden dayes which were since continued also though some ecclipses of that happinesse a just judgement upon us for the abuse of our long Peace and Plenty have of late befallen us Religion flourished Soules were saved every man sate under his own Vine in safety and if we might have obtained so happy a condition without War let all the world judge whether that which we desire beyond the condition of those times be worthy of the losse of so much as one mans life or no and if not of one much lesse of so many thousands The Parliament-men were chosen sent up out of their severall Countreys respectively for the good of the Kingdom and Oh that they would seriously consider as they expect to answer it before Gods tribunall seat at the great Judgement day whether would be better for the Kingdom to have been restored to the condition it injoyed in Queen Elizabeths dayes or to be reduced to the plight in which now it stands I but though it be bad now yet it will be better when we have wrought a perfect reformation hereafter Be it so and let us feed our selves with those hopes but yet the question doth still remain The happy condition of Queen Elizabeths Reign we might have had freely the glorious contentment which we dream of beyond the condition of that Queens dayes hath already cost much blood the question is whether that glorious contentment which we think to obtain God knows when will be a sufficient recompence for all the lives that have and shall be lost in the obtaining of it neither is this all the losse of so many thousand