Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	church_n	doctrine_n	rome_n	9,664	5	7.6656	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88612	A landskip: or a brief prospective of English episcopacy, drawn by three skilfull hands in Parliament: anno 1641.	Falkland, Lucius Cary, Viscount, 1610?-1643.; Fiennes, Nathaniel, 1607 or 8-1669.; Vane, Henry, Sir, 1612?-1662.; England and Wales. Parliament. House of Commons.	1660 (1660)	Wing L324; Thomason E1045_13; ESTC R202705	20,959	20

the Law of this Land it is against the Law and Light of Nature it is against the Law of GOD it is against the Lawes of this KINGDOME and that no obscure Lawes nor concerning any mean or petty matters It is against the Law of the Kings Supremacy in that it maketh Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans Arch-Deacons c. to be jure Divino whereas the Law of this Land hath annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm not only all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction but also all Superiority over the Ecclesiastical STATE and it is to be derived from him by Commission under the Great Seal and consequently it is Jure humane Again it is against the Oath of Supremacy established by Law point-blanck for therein I am sworn not only to consent unto but also to assist and to the uttermost of my power to defend all Jurisdictions Preheminences c. annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm of which this is one and that which immediately precedeth this Oath in the Statute and whereunto it doth especially relate that his Majesty may exercise any Jurisdiction or Ecclesiasticall Government by his Commission under the Great Seal directed to such persons as he shall think meet so that if he shall think other Persons meet than Arch-Bishops Bishops c. I am sworn in the Oath of Supremacy not only to assent thereunto but to assist and to the utrermost of my power defend such an appointment of his Majesty and in this new Oath I shall swear never to consent unto such an alteration In the like manner it is against the Law and Light of Nature that a man should swear to answer c. to he knowes not what It is against the Law and Light of Nature that a man should swear never to consent to alter a thing that in its own nature is alterable and may prove inconvenient and fit to be altered Lastly It is against the Law of God for whereas there are Three Rules prescribed to him that will swear aright that he swear in Judgement in Truth and Righteousness He that shall take this new Oath must needs break all these three Rules He cannot swear in judgment because this Oath is so full of ambiguities that he cannot tell what he swears unto not to speak of the unextricable ambiguity of the c. there is scarce one word that is not ambiguous in the principal part of the Oath as first what is meant by the Church of England whether all the Christians in England or whether the Clergy only or only the Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans c. or whether the Convocation or what In like manner it is as doubtfull what is meant by the Discipline and what by the Doctrine of the Church of England for what some call Superstitious Innovations if others affirm to be consonance to the Primitive and that the purest Reformation in the time of Edward the 6. and in the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and so for the Doctrine of the Church of England if all the Positions that of later years have been challenged by some of our Divines to be Arminian and Popish and contrary to the Articles of our Religion and which on the other side have been asserted and maintained as consonant to the Doctrine of our Church and the Articles of Religion were gathered together they might make a pretty Volumne nay Sancta Clara will maintain it in despire of the Puritans That the Doctrine of the Church of Rome is the Doctrine of the Church of England Truly it were very fit that we knew what were the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England before we swear to it and then Sir give me leave to say that I should be very loath to swear to the Discipline or to the Doctrine and Tenents of the purest Church in the World as they are collected by them farther than they agree with the Holy Scriptures Lastly It is as doubtfull what is meant by the Doctrine and Discipline established and what by altering and consenting to alter whether that is accompted or established which is established by Act of Parliament or whether that also that is established by Canons Injunctions c. and whether it shall not extend to that which is published by our Divines with the allowance of Authority and so for consenting to alter whether it be only meant that a man shall not be active in altering or whether it extend to any consent and so that a man shall not submit to it nor accept of it being altered by the State More ambiguities might be shewen but these are enough to make it clear that he that shall take this Oath cannot swear in judgment Nor can he swear in truth for it is full of untruths It is not true that Discipline is necessary to Salvation It is not true that Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans Arch-Deacons c. are Jure Divino as they must needs be if the Law-makers ought of right to establish them as they are established for the Law-makers are not bound as of right to frame their Lawes to any other than the Lawes of God alone Now whether Bishops be Jure Divino we know it is a Dispute amongst the Papists and never did any Protestant hold it till of late years but that Arch-bishops Deans Arch-Deacons c. should be Jure Divino I do not know that ever any Christian held it before and yet he that taketh this Oath must swear it Lastly As he that taketh this Oath cannot swear in judgment nor in truth so neither can he swear in righteousness for it is full of unrighteousness being indeed as hath been well opened a Covenant in effect against the King and Kingdome for if the whole STATE should finde it necessary to alter the Government by Arch-Bishops Bishops c. a great part of the Kingdome especially of the Gentry for not onely the Clergy but all that take degrees in the Universities are bound to take it will be preingaged not to consent to it or admit of it Again it is a great wrong to those that shall be Parliament men that their freedome shall be taken away being bound up by an Oath not to consent to the altering of a thing which it may be fit and proper for a Parliament to alter And suppose that for the present it be no hinderance to the service of God nor yet burdensome to the King and Kingdome yet if it should prove so hereafter for a man to be bound by an Oath never to consent to alter it may be a great wrong to God in his service and to the King and Kingdome in their peace and well-fare and therefore this Oath cannot be taken in righteousnesse For the other Oath de parendo juri Ecclesiae stando mandatis Ecclesiae though it make lesse noise than the other yet is it not of leste dangerous consequence If I remember well the Story this was the Oath that the Pope made King John to take and when he had

right as founded in the fabrick and frame of the policy and Government but of Grace or by Commission as Doctor Beal affirmeth I have done with the first Canon only I shall add this That considering the Principles and Positions that are laid down therein and comparing them with a clause toward the end of the Canon that in no case imaginable it is lawfull for Subjects to defend themselves we may judge how farre forth these Canons were to prepare mens mindes for the force that was to follow after if the Accusation against my Lord of Strafford be laid aright For the matter it self I hope there will never be any need to dispute that Question and I do believe they had as little need to have published that position had it not been upon designe As for the second Canon therein also they have assumed to themselves a Parliamentary power in taking upon them to appoint Holydaies whereas the Statute saith in expresse words That such daies shall be only kept as Holidayes as are named in the Statute and no other and therefore though the thing may be bonum yet it was not done benè because not ordained by Parliament notwithstanding what hath been alledged to the contrary It seemeth to me to be the appointing of an Holiday to set a time apart for Divine Service and to force men under penalties to leave their labours and businesse and to be present at it And of the same nature is that other clause in the same Canon wherein they take upon them without Parliament to lay a charge upon the People enjoyning two Books at least for that day to be bought at the charge of the Parish for by the same right that they may lay a penny on the Parish without Parliament they may lay a pound or any greater Summe As to the Third Canon I shall passe it over only the Observation that my neighbour of the long Robe made upon it seems unto me so good as that it is worth the repeating That whereas in the Canon against Sectaries there is an especial Proviso that it shall not derogate from any Statute or Law made against them as if their Canons had any power to disanull an Act of Parliament There is no such Proviso in this Canon against Papists from whence it may be probably conjectured that they might have drawn some colour of exemption from the penal Lawes established against them from this Canon because it might seem hard that they should be doubly punished for the same thing as we know in the point of absence from the Church the Law provideth that if any man be first punished by the Ordinary he shall not be punished again by the Justices For the Fourth Canon against Socinianisme therein also these Canon makers have assumed to themselves a Parliamentary power in determining an Heresie not determined by Law which is expresly reserved to the determination of a Parliament It is true they say it is a complication of many heresies condemned in the four first Councels but they do not say what those Heresies are and it is not possible that Socinianisme should be formally condemned in those Councells for it is sprung up but of late therefore they have taken upon them to determine and damn a Heresie and that so generally as that it may be of very dangerous consequence for condemning Socinianisme for an Heresie and not declaring what is Socinianisme it is left in their brests whom they will judge and call a Socinian I would not have any thing that I have said to be interpreted as if I had spoken it in favour of Socinianisme which if it be such as I apprehend it to be is indeed a most vile and damnable Heresie and therefore the framers of these Canons are the more to blame in the next Canon against Sectaries wherein besides that in the preamble thereof they lay it down for a certain ground which the Holy Synod knew full well that other Sects which they extend not only to Brownists and Separatists but also to all persons that for the space of a moneth do absent themselves without a reasonable cause from their own Parish Churches do equally endeavour the subversion of the Discipline and Doctrine of the Church of England with the Papists although the worst of them do not bear any proportion in that respect to the Papists I say besides that they make them equall in crime and punishment to the Papists notwithstanding the great disproportion of their Tenents there is another passage in this Canon relative to that against Socinianisme which I shall especially offer to your consideration and that is this If a Gentleman coming from beyond Seas should happen to bring over with him a Book contrary to the Discipline of the Church of England or should give such a Book to his friend nay if a man shall but abett or maintain an Opinion contrary thereunto though it were but in Parliament if he thought it fit to be altered by this Canon he is excommunicate ipso facto and lyeth under the same consideration and is lyable to the same punishment as if he had maintained an Opinion against the Deity of CHRIST and of the Holy Ghost and of our Justification by the satisfaction of Christ Sir If in these things that are in their own nature indifferent if in things disputable it shall be as heynous to abett or maintain an Opinion as in the most horrible and monstrous Heresies that can be imagined What Liberty is left to us as Christians What Liberty is left to us as men I proceed to the Sixt Canon wherein these Canonists have assumed to themselves a Parliamentary Power and that in a very high Degree in that they have tak●n upon them to impose new Oaths upon the Kings Subjects Sir under favour of what hath been alledged to the contrary To impose an Oath if it be not an higher power then to make a Law it is a power of making a Law of a most high nature and of higher and farther consequence than any other Law and I should much rather chuse that the Convocation should have a power to make Lawes to binde my person and my Estate than that they should have a power to make Oaths to binde my conscience A Law bindes me no longer than till another Law be made to alter it but my Oath bindes me as long as I live Again A Law bindes me either to obedience or to undergo the penalty inflicted by the Law but my Oath bindes me absolutely to obedience And Lastly A Law bindes me no longer than I am in the Land or at the farthest no longer than I am a member of the State wherein and whereby the Law is made but my Oath once being taken doth binde me in all places and in all conditions so long as I live Thus much I though good to speak concerning the power of imposing new Oathes as to the matter of this new Oath it is wholly illegall It is against

sworn stare mandatis Ecclesiae the Pope commanded him to resigne his Kingdome to him and truly be he Gentleman or Nobleman or whatever else when he hath once put his neck into this noose his Ghostly Fathers may drag him whither they will for they have the quantity and the quality of the penance in their own brests and if they shall enjoyn him to give any Sum towards the building of a Church or the adorning of a Choppel he must pay it or if they should enjoyn him any servile or base Action as there are not wanting Examples of that kinde in the time of Popery they are sworn stare mandatis Ecclesiae and so cannot recede but must performe it Nay I dare not warrant any man from the rods of Henry the second or of Raymond of Tholouze what hath been done may be done I am fure the power is the same And that other Oath also though more usual in practice and more confirmed by these new Canons which is administred to Church-Wardens would be looked into For it is hardly possible for them that take it not to be forsworn being they sware to so many particulars that they cannot mind and to some that they cannot understand as how many Church-Wardens are there in England that understand what Socinianisme is in case they be sworn to present the Offenders against that Canon which concerns that matter I shall only add a word or two concerning two Canons more which seem to be Canons of Reformation The First is concerning Excommunication to be pronounced only by a Divine wherein it is alledged for the Framers of these Canons that if they have not more Law on their sides yet they may seem to have more reason For my part as in all other things I think they have so mended the matter that they have made it farr worse for before that which was found fault with was this That a Lay man did that which the grave Divine should have done and now the grave Divine must do whatever the Lay man would have done for the cognoscence of the Cause and the power of Judicature is wholly in the Lay man only the grave Divine is to be his servant to execute his Sentences and hath such a kinde of managing the spiritual sword allowed only unto him as the Papists in some cases were wont to afford unto the Civil Magistrate in respect of the temporal sword for as if the Civil sword by an implicite faith had been pinned to the Lawn sleevs they condemned men of Heresie and then delivered them over to the Secular Power but what to do not to have any cognisance of the cause nor to exercise any power of judicature but only to be their Executioners and to burn the Heretick whom they had condemned and so they judged men excommunicate and then the Civil Power was to send out Writts de excommunicato capiendo against them But one said well that the sword without Cognisance of the cause and judgment was like Polyphemus without his eye it became violence and fury but being accompanied with the eye of judgment it is equity and justice and surely where the Spiritual or Civil Governour is called upon to strike he must be allowed to see and judg whom and wherefore he strikes otherwise he will be able to give but an ill accompt to God of the managing of the sword wherewith he is instructed The other Canon is the Last Canon against Vexatious Citations wherein they seem to have some sence of the great grievance that poor people lye under by occasion of Vexatious Citations and Molestations in Ecclesiastical Courts and I verily believe that there is not a greater Oppression in the whole Kingdome upon the poorer sort of people than that which proceedeth out of these Courts But now Sir Let us see what provision they have made against it by this Canon They say because great grievances may fall upon people by citations upon pretence only of the breach of that law without any presentment or any other just ground that no citations grounded onely as aforesaid shall issue out except it be under the hand and Seal of the Chancellour Commissary Arch-Deacon or other competent Judg so that if there be any sence in these words though there be no Presentment at all nor any other just ground yet a citation may issue out so it be under the hand and Seal of the Chancellour Commissary or other competent Judg and the party shall not be discharged without paying his Fees nor have any relief by this Canon But suppose the Citation be not under the hand and Seal of any Competent Judge and that there was neither Presentment nor any just grounds for it shall he then be dismissed without paying any Fees no unless first contrary to the Law of Nature there being no Presentment nor just ground of Accusation against him he shall by his Oath purge himself of pretended breaches of Law and then too he shall only have the Fees of the Court remitted but shall have no satisfaction for his troublesome and chargeable journey and for the losse of his time and being drawn away from his Affairs Nay least they should seem to have been too liberal of their favour they add a Proviso in the close of the Canon that this grace of theirs shall not extend to any grievous crime as Schisme incontinency misbehaviour in the Church or obstinate Inconformity And what do they call misbehaviour in the Church It a man do not kneel at the Confession or have his hat on when the Lessons are reading In like manner what do they call obstinate inconformity If a man will not think what they would have him think If a man will not say what they would have him say if a man will not swear what they would have him swear if a man will not read what they would have him read if a man will not preach what they would have him preach if a man will not pray what they would have him pray In short if a man will not do whatever they would have him do then he is an inconformist and after that they have duely admonished him primò secundò tertiò all in one breath then he is contumacious then he is an obstinate Inconformist Now Sir my humble Motion is that in consideration of all the Premises and what besides hath been well laid open by others we should proceed to damn these Canons not only as contrary to the Lawes of the Land but also as containing sundry matters destructive of the right of Parliaments and of the fundamentall and other principal Lawes of this Kiagdome and otherwise of very dangerous consequence A SPEECH in the House of Commons at a Committee for the Bill against Episcopal-Government Mr Hide sitting in the Chair June 11 1641. Mr. Hide THE debate we are now upon is whether the Government by Archbishops Bishops Chancellors c. should be taken away out of the Church and Kingdom of England for