Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	henry_n	king_n	pope_n	16,586	5	6.9376	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35015	An answer of a minister of the Church of England to a seasonable and important question, proposed to him by a ... member of the present House of Commons viz. what respect ought the true sons of the Church of England ... to bear to the religion of that church, whereof the King is a member?	Cartwright, Thomas, 1634-1689.; A. B.	1687 (1687)	Wing C696; ESTC R16020	49,784	64

other Men for the Exercise even of their Christian Prudence For they who are Priests promis'd at their Ordination all faithful Diligence to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange Doctrines contrary to God's Word and the Bishops at their Consecration in like manner And farther that they will call upon and encourage others to do the same among which our Articles have reckon'd many Doctrines now taught in the Roman Church and every Clergy-man licens'd to Preach has as the 36th Canon requires acknowledged by Subscription under his own Hand that every thing contained in the 39. Articles is agreeable to the Word of God and consequently he must acknowledge that many Romish Doctrines are erroneous and strange Doctrines repugnant to the Word of God as being so declar'd in those Articles those therefore are evidently such Doctrines as he promised at his Ordination to be ready with all faithful Diligence to banish and drive away And is he not then bound in Conscience to do this in his Publick Sermons and Private Discourses as he has a good Occasion and Opportunity Is he not bound in Conscience at convenient Seasons to shew the Error and Danger of such Doctrines without so much as naming those who think more favourably of them saving all Respect due to the King when he has not only Liberty granted him but is required and directed by his Majesty himself so to do For in his Majesty's Directions for Preachers which was sent us by his Command and we accept with all Thankfulness Dir. 3. He bids us assert the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England from the Cavils and Objections of such as are Adversaries to either This resolves the Case of Conscience and as to Christian Prudence his Majesty hath been graciously pleased to give excellent Directions as to that Case too bidding Preachers thus to vindicate the Church of England when they arc occasion'd by Invitation from the Text they Preach upon or that in regard of the Auditory they Preach to it may seem requisite and expedient so to do Thus to Preach That the Pope or Church of Rome is not infallible and that the Pope has no Authority or Jurisdiction within these Realms is expresly determined by the Church of England Art 19. 37. And our Parliaments have in all Ages as well before the Reformation as since expressed their just detestation of the Pope's Pretensions to it as appears by the Stat. of Carlisle and by that of Provisoes made 25. Edv. III. and by many more in King Henry VIII's Reign who was both Parliamentarily and Synodically invested with the Supremacy in all Canses Spiritual as well as Temporal not that he had Power of Mission or Ordination but of Permission and Ordering Men so sent by the Church to Preach the Gospel in his Dominions which was legally and essentially Inherent in the Crown before the Kings of England being Supreme Ordinaries by the ancient common Law of this Land of which those Statutes were not Introductory but Declarative And the very First Canon of our Church does require That all Ecclesiastical Persons Preachers c. shall several times every Year to the utmost of their Wit Knowledge and Learning sincerely without any Colour or Dissimulation teach in their Sermons c. that no manner of Obedience and Subjection within his Majesty's Realms and Dominions is due to any Vsurp'd or Foreign Power but that the King's Power within his Realms is the highest under God to whom all his Subjects do by God's Laws owe most Loyalty and Obedience before and above all other Powers and Potentates on Earth Now if a Preacher whilst he is doing the duty of this Canon shall call the Pope Vsurper for claiming or exercising that Jurisdiction here which belongs not to him and should be thought for that Reason not to bear Respect enough to the King's Religion he would indeed but shew so much the more Respect to his Royal Person and Regal just Power as he is obliged to do by the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and could be censur'd only for his Fidelity and Loyalty to the King such as becomes a True Son of the Church of England But in Points wherein we are not determined by Authority or other Obligations but at perfect liberty to declare or not to declare our Opinions in these we have the sairest if not the only Opportunities for the Exercise of our Christian Prudence And therefore for a Preacher of the Church of England to affirm positively or go about to prove in a Publick Auditory or Assembly That St. Peter was never at Rome or that the Pope is Antichrist or that no Man in his Right Wit can turn Papist must necessarily under our Circumstances be reckon'd Imprudent if not Impudent These and such like Matters of Private Opinion which when Published are like to give Offence to our Superiors and if forborn could give no Scandal to any Christian Prudence will unquestionably direct such should now be forborn out of Respect to the King and the Roman Catholick Religion because 't is His The daily decay of solid and substantial Piety is the most unhappy effect of Christians foolishly Fighting in a Mist and Scuffling in the Dark among themselves against the Interest of Peace and Charity and scrambling so eagerly and so childishly as they do for Nuts and Cherry Stones or things fit to be put into the same Bag with them as being of no value with Men of Judgment And therefore a Prudent Man will always take care to avoid as much as is possible unnecessary Controversies and in handling such as he thinks necessary I know not how he can give better proof of his Prudence as well as Obedience than by observing his Majesty's Directions to Preachers which give a full Resolution to the Case in hand viz. by doing it with all Modesty Gravity and Candor without Bitterness Railing J●ering or other unnecessary and unseemly Provocation and he who shall transgress these his Royal and Religious Directions will those of the New Testament too He that shsll use the Liberty granted him by his Majesty for a Cloak of Maliciousness and upon such Occasions or indeed any other act the Merry Andrew in the Pulpit deserves not only the Fools Coat but the Rod too upon his Back From whence I inser in the next place 3 ly That those of our Communion especially the Clergy ought neither to rail nor rally upon the Religion which the King owns Religion with a Man of Sense and Affections is a tender Point and the Affronts done it do as doily touch him and wound him more feelingly than any offer'd to his dearest Relations or to his own Honour as a Gentleman and howsoever the one part resents and the other takes it 't is a diseas'd heat of the Mind and not Christian Zeal to make any fort of Religion the sport of our Wits and the triumph of our Drollery They who are guilty of it may have espous'd the Fortune but

They are not Christians of a sound Constitution who labour under such Fits of unnatural Zeal nor have they their Conversation in Heaven For this is not to Follow Peace with all Men and Holiness without which none shall see God who searches the Secrets of the Hearts and loves weak Sincerity better than strong Hypocrisy which is the Original of all such Vnchristian Heats Every Man as well the Prince as the Subject is bound to stand up in his own way for the defence of that Religion which he verily believes to be True And when the Foundations of Faith are shaken either by Superstition or Prosaneness he who puts not out his Hand as firmly as he can with Justice and Charity to support it is too wary and may come to be condemn'd at the last Day for his Neutrality and for having more care of himself than of the Cause of Christ and it may prove a wariness which in the end will bring more danger than it shuns We think our selves therefore oblig'd to lay aside the Rule of a late Philosopher of our own Country That every Prince is God's Interpreter and so consequently That His Religion ought to be Ours For except Contradictions could at the same time be true it would make God the Author of all the Religions in the World of which there are many so called which are neither Pure nor Vndesiled But the Enquiry is saving our own Integrity and walking Humbly and Vprightly with God who hates Juggling and playing Fast and Loose concerning a sort of Brotherly Forbearance and good Manners to which Christ was never thought to be an Enemy Let us seriously consider what shall be done to that Religion which the King desires to honour and which He embraces as the best in his Judgment To which I answer 2 dly That the True Sons of the Church of England of what Quality or Degree soever ought not to have a less Respect for the King for being of another Church or Religion because as Dominion is not founded in Grace so neither is our Duty grounded upon having a Religion common both to the King and his Subjects Neither will it suffice to say That though we cannot pay him the same high Respect that we would if he were of our Church and Faith yet we will still be Loyal For this High Respect is a main part of the Thing and as fast as this lessens and cools the remainder of Loyalty will proportionably grow fainter as to its outward Exercise And if Religion be once set up against Loyalty they will both be spoil'd Though the Prince be of one Religion and the People of another yet he will be Gracious if they are Loyal and they may live very quietly together if they do their Duty to God and Him The Elector of Brandenburgh is himself a strict Calvinist and most of his Subjects Lutherans and a late Duke of Zell was a Papist and his Subjects of the Reform'd Religion and yet liv'd in all Love and Concord as we may do I am sure in this Kingdom better than any People in the World if we are not wanting to our selves And therefore he is neither a Good Christian nor Subject who does not do all things that are Lawful and Honest which his Sovereign expects or requires with all Alacrity and Respect without Murmuring Disputing or Repining Or who would limit his Prince's Pleasure where God hath not done it 'T is no good Religion whose Principles destroy any Duty of Religion or give any Disturbance to the Government or alienate the Hearts of his Subjects from the Supreme Governor Ours I am sure will not suffer it nor matters it what Religion any Man is of that is a Rebel The Opinion of his Sect will neither satisfie the State nor save his Soul Whatsoever is Peevish Disrespectful Vnthankful or Dispising of Dignities is against the Form of Sound Doctrine which Christ and his Apostles have taught us Lex Christiana neminem suo jure aut dominio privat non eripit mortalia qui regna dat coelestia And our Law is as clear as God's in this Point Nemo de factis suis praesumat disquirere multò minus contra sactum suum venire saith the Learned Bracton who was Lord-Chief-Justice Twenty Years under Henry III. And therefore 't is no new Law of new Judges of a Popish Prince's putting in but the old Law of England Nullus est qui ab eo factorum aut rationes exigere possit aut poenas 'T is not Tyranny Infidelity Heresy or Apostacy that can discharge the Subject's Duty to his Prince as we are truly instructed in that Excellent Book which was formerly and ought still to be read in our publick Schools called Deus Rex Neither Priest nor People must lessen their Respects to the king upon these or any other Pretences whatsoever The deportment of the Saints of God towards the persons of Princes was always Humble and their Behaviour Respectful Nathan the Prophet bow'd his Face to the Ground before David the Mitre always stoop'd to the Crown And when the Prince sits on his Throne the Prophet himself must lie at his Footstool Nay when Princes were themselves Vnholy the Saints of God shew'd them all Respects imaginable not as Sinners but as Sovereigns Saul was none of the best of Princes to any especially to David to whom he could never afford a good Word and yet David calls him My Lord the King and that not out of Flattery and Courtship but of Loyalty and Duty Nor had he behav'd himself like a Saint nor a Man after God's own Heart if not like a Subject and been afraid to speak evil of Dignities the worst of which even Pharaoh himself was of God's raising up and ought to be to his Subjects as an Angel of God in Mephibosheth's Judgment Nay the Immortal King calls them Mortal Gods I have said ye are Gods tho Devils in Practice they are Fountains and Objects of Honour Nero as well as Augustus Julian as well as Constantine not as Holy for Dominion is not founded in Grace but as Supreme not for their Goodness but for their Greatness for they are at worst more worth than Ten thousand of us They are the Lord-Treasurers of Heaven put in Places of more Trust and Honour than other Men they arc intrusted with our Estates liberties and Lives with our Religion and Souls they are the Churches Nursing-Fathers and God's Vicegerents his Prime Ministers And who may say to them What do'st thou 'T is not who dares say but who may lawfully or ought to do it with Impunity For so Elihu Interprets it Is it sit to say to a King Thou art Wicked and to Princes Ye are Vngodly It is not only unsafe in respect of the danger but it is an unsanctified and sinful Saying it is damnable and next to Blasphemy 't is a Wickedness against God and a Wound to our own