Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	word_n	world_n	zealous_a	76	3	8.4060	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81336	A collection of speeches made by Sir Edward Dering Knight and Baronet, in matter of religion. Some formerly printed, and divers more now added: all of them revised, for the vindication of his name, from weake and wilfull calumnie: and by the same Sir Edward Dering now subjected to publike view and censure, upon the urgent importunity of many, both gentlemen and divines.	Dering, Edward, Sir, 1598-1644.	1642 (1642)	Wing D1104; Thomason E197_1; ESTC R212668	73,941	173

brotherly unity and surely I thinke order and unity if one be broken neither is firme Let this then happen to other nations to our enemies but wth us let the hands of unity the beauty of order be our double support otherwise we shall have cause to bemoan our selves in the words of the same Prophet Howle ye firre trees for the Cedar is fallen Because all the mighty are destroyed for the defenced forrest is cut downe There is the voice of howling of Shepheards for their glory is destroyed For my part I do here freely and heartily professe that I am none of those men that 1600 yea after my Saviour came to plant his Church wil consent to give a new rule a new invented government to his Church never known untill this age I dare not thinke who can thinke it salva pietate that the Sonne of God the wisdome of the Father came downe from Heaven to plant a Church to erect a Kingdome and that he did erect this kingdome that he did plant this Church many hundred yeares since and this with the deare price of his precious blood but either never would or never could 〈…〉 government till we were 〈…〉 of such assertions that 〈…〉 consequences 〈…〉 impiety and may leade on a new path to Atheisme Believe it Sir believe this The Wisdome of the Wisdome of God cannot be guilty I speake with zeale and reverence of such an improvidence to erect his kingdome then and to give it his rule but now Joyne with me I beseech you Sir in this Faith that our blessed Saviour on whose shoulder the government did rest did not immediately and for so many ages after forsake his Church and abandon it to Antichristianisme with whom at first he promised to be alway unto the end of the world In a word Sir we are all quick sented we are all on fire to heare of an arbitrary rule in the civill State I beseech you let us all be equally or more zealous for the Lord of Hosts Let us not be guilty of bringing in an arbitrary rule into his House Take heed Sir let us all take heed of such a dangerous parity as some would bring in among us the rather because they presume to set the stampe of divine authority upon that counterfeit mettal Parity of degrees in Church-government hath no foundation in holy Scripture is as absonous to reason as parity in a State or family Indeed it is a fancy a dream a meer non entity it neither hath nor ever had a being If it be any thing it is absolute Anarchisme and that is nothing for privation of government is not a government But on the contrary imparity is from Divine authority our Saviour did plant it then I am sure it is a plant that should grow and continue By the way I presse you not wth instances of Gods Church under the law thogh that this under the Gospel were both planted by the same All-knowing wisdome From the equity of which law there from the imparity of governors therein a most solid and unfailing argument may be deduced for the lawfulnesse of an imparity also under the Gospell For that which is good in it selfe is ever so And without all peradventure if Church imparity did in its own being lye crosse unto the will of God or to the law of his Church God never would never could have commanded it But that our Saviour also so in the Evangelicall Church did plant imparity is most cleare First he chose his a 12. Apostles Afterward he appointed b 70. Disciples yet no man can affirm that these were all of the same Order Dignity and Degree If they had been so what needed so curious c supplement when once the number was reduced to eleven After our Saviours ascension the holy Apostles did ordaine another imparity and that was of d Deacons e S. Paul biddeth some {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to watch and observe He commendeth others if they desire f {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to Oversee So are there g {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} labourers in the word and you know who was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} h a wise master-builder which is more then others were though all be called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i fellow-workmen fellow-labourers in the spirituall building Farther Sir as you read k {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} souldiers and l {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} fellow-souldiers so you may read also that there were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} m Leaders and Governors such as had oversight and must be obeyed The Elder or Presbyter is frequent in the Apostolicall Epistles and there are in power and honour above these not as our novellists do fondly construe under these n {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the ruling Presbyters One of which number S. Paul doth call o {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Ruler As in p Ignatius there are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Leaders or Rulers of Churches Is there no imparity in all this Then the Rulers and the ruled are the same in Logick But for my part I am cleare and confident in this that imparity in power among persons officed in the Church is both lawfull and expedient and ought to be preserved if order decency Necessity Universall practice Apostolicall example and Divine authority can altogether make but one concludent argument M. Speaker I do humbly and earnestly entreat beg of every member of this House seriously and sadly to examine his own soule never more cause then in this present vote what end and what ultimate ayme he hath in this dreadfull Bill What is the government his heart doth wish for Three ways of Church-government I have heard of and no more the Episcopall the Presbyteriall and that new born bastard Independency Non datur quartum The last of these is nothing but a confounding Ataxy rent upon rent and a schisme of schismes untill all Church community be torn into Atomes every three men a nay every three women dissociating themselves into an {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a wilworship of their own devising which fondly madly they would call a Church Where and in what corner of the world hath this aery Independency been asleep untill these daies Quo consule under what Kings raigne was it born where may I heare that it hath a being where may I read below the world in the Moone that ever it had a being I will be bold to brand it with the name of a new-minted Seminary for all self-pride heresie schisme sedition and for all libertinisme except an outward seeming saintship A pestilence to all government a traiterous and a clouted Anarchy

in way of pursuit for this one argument that no Canons can bind the Laity where we have no voyce of our own nor choyce of the Clergy persons who do found them nor assent in the susception of them after they are framed Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari debet M. Speaker It remaines as a wish that every member of that meeting who voted these exorbitant Canons should come severally to the Bar of the Parliament House with a Canon book in his hand and there unlesse he can answer his Catechisme as I called it shew what is the name of their meeting and unlesse he can manifest that the Laity are no part of the Church Conceptis verbis in such expresse terms as that House should think fit to abjure his own ill-begotten issue or else be commanded to give fire to his own Canons Section VI UPon my motion November 23. it pleased the grand Committee for Religion to appoint a Subcommittee to receive complaints from oppressed Ministers which Subcommittee was shortly after made a Committee by order of the House It pleased the Gentlemen of this Committee to put the honour and the burden of the chaire upon me from hence severall Reports have been delivered in I shall only trouble the Reader with the first of them 18 Decemb. 1640. Mr. White This grand Committee for Religion did authorize a Sub-committee among other things to take into consideration the unjust sufferings of good Ministers oppressed by the cruell-used authority of Hierarchicall Rulers In this and in other points we have entred upon many particulars we have matured and perfected but one If we had lesse worke you should before this time have had more but complaints crowd in so fast upon us that the very plenty of them retards their issue The present Report which I am to make unto you is concerning M. Wilkinson a Batchellor in Divinity and a man in whose character do concur Learning Piety Industry Modesty Two hardships have been put upon him one at the time when he presented himselfe to receive Orders and that was thus The Bishop of Oxfords Chaplen M Fulham being the examiner for Bishops now do scorne to do Bishops work it belongs to himselfe he propoundeth foure questions to M. Wilkinson not taken out of the depth of Divinity but fitly chosen to discover how affections do stand to be novellized by the mutability of the present times The questions were these 1. Whether hath the Church authority in matters of faith 2. May the Kings booke of sports so some impious Bishops have abused our pious King to call their contrivance His Majesties book may this be read in the Church without offence 3. Is bowing to or before the Altar lawfull 4. Is bowing at the Name of Jesus lawfull The doctrine of the first affirmed will bring a dangerous influence upon our beliefe by subjecting our faith to humane resolutions The other three are disciplinarian in the present way of Novellisme As soon as M. Wilkinson heard these questions Lupum auribus he had a Wolfe by the eares And because unto these captious interrogatories he could not make a peremptory answer M. Fulham would not present your petitioner to the Bishop for ordination Thus you see Mr. White a new way of Simony Imposition of hands is to be sold if not for money yet to make a side a party a faction They will not confer Orders but upon such as will come in and make party with them in their new practices as is evident by these questions Take this in this kind as a leading case a first complaint more are comming and M. Wilkinson shall have the poore common comfort Solamen miseris socios habuisse I proceed to his second sufferance which was by the Vice-chancellor of Oxford for a Sermon preached in his course at S. Marys in Oxford Short to make he preached better then they were willing to heare the Sermon fell into the eares of a captious Auditour For this Sermon he stands now suspended by the Vice-chancellor from all the spirituall promotion that he had which was only the reading of a Divinity lecture in Magdalen-hall The Committee required the Vice-chancellor to send unto us the Sermon with his exceptions in writing They were brought and being received they are three in number great and weighty in the accusation none at all in proof Nay M. White there is nothing presented unto us wherein to finde a colour or a shadow whereby to make the accusation semblable and consequently the suspension just Ecquis innocens erit si accusare suffecerit The particulars insisted upon pickt and chosen out of that Sermon by the Vice-chancellor are three every one a hainous charge and the first sounding little lesse then treason Give me leave to read them as Mr. Vicechancellor hath sent them in writing 1. Our religious Soveraigne and his pious government is seditiously defamed as if his Majesty were little better then the old pagan persecutors or then Queen Mary 2. The government of the Church and Vniversity is unjustly traduced 3. Men of learning and piety conformable to the publicke government are uncharitably slandered The least of these being duly proved will make him worthy of suspension but if M. Wilkinson be guilty of the first he is not worthy to live The truth is the Vice-chancellor hath learned audacter criminare and fayling in proofe hath only fowled himselfe Your Subcommittee upon due consideration of the cause and circumstance have hereupon unanimously voted that M. Wilkinson is free from all and every of these exceptions made against his Sermon by the Vice-chancellor We are all of opinion that there is nothing therein that deserves Notam censoris nedum lituram judicis If M. White there be in a Sermon as there ought to be aliquid mordacis veritatis shall the Preacher be for this suspended His mouth shut up for preaching truth boldly It is contrary to their commission for Sir they have a great charter to speak freely it is warranted unto them Jure divino Saint Paul doth own it in his instruction of Timothy The words are I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ preach the word be instant in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine Here is our case exactly Here was reproofe here was exhortation here was preaching out of season to unwilling or to unprepared hearers and yet in season the Theame was necessary and fitted to their want of zeale But the only fault was that the time is come when sound doctrine will not be endured Thus the Committee found it thus have I faithfully but imperfectly reported it and do now subjoyn the opinion and request of your trustees to this grand Committee Mr. Wilkinson is innocent and free from this accusation He had just cause to petition The Vice-chancellor hath been without cause nay against cause rigid and oppressive The Sermon deserved

thanks The preacher received injuries His suspension to be taken of The retracting and dissolving whereof ought to be as publike as was the inflicting thereof One word more I ask leave to adde and I hope I shall not therein erre from the sence of the Committee though indeed I received it not in command to be joyned to the Report This businesse M. White is spread into a wide and ample notice Two great Primats have appeared in it and that with different perhaps contrariant sences sences as distant as Lambeth and Armagh The Vice-chancellor saith that the Preacher was censured by the most Reverend Lord Primate of Ireland who heard him to be a bold or rash fellow for it Hereupon I attended that learned pious and painefull Primate and did read these words of the Vice-chancellour unto him His answer was that he takes it as an Aspersion upon him He remembers the Sermon and commends it This is an additionall to the Report and with this I leave M. Vice-chancellor and the Bishops Chaplen Fulham to the wisdome and consideration of this grand Committee Section VII MY next walk was in a hazardous way and although it was not so lodged in my memory as that in due season I could make use of it as I intended publikely in the House yet being since gone forth without my appointment into print I do now own it for my sence untill I be better instructed as I was promised long since by a Cathedrall friend of mine but do now despaire to see performed The Theam is that secular jurisdiction ought not to be held by such as are of the Clergy function {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. They raigned to themselves saith the Lord and not by me they have beene Princes and I knew it not The words of that short passage were these OUR Lord and Saviour blessed for ever being indeed a King Pilate his Judge seemeth to start and be in feare at that great title Although our Saviour had told him saying a My Kingdome is not of this world Pilate still in feare b sought to release him but more in feare of Caesar the King at that time of this world he adjudged the Lord of life to death yet honourably writeth his Title c This is Jesus the King of the Jewes This title he then was crowned withall when life and death divided his soule and body asunder that in a manner it may be said he never was King indeed untill he was out of this world If he who was our a Lord and Master had not this worlds royalty whence commeth that the Pope is Crowned and his Cardinals in Purple whence have our Bishops their Lordships and as themselves call it b Jura regalia their royalty and rites of Baronage It may prove a disquisition deep and dangerous yet I desire without envy to their pomp or persons to wade so farre as may satisfie a mind that loves truth and desires to be led by it and this with all possible brevity There hath been a happy and blessed reformation of our Church God send a better and a more severe reformation of our Church-men or else our Church is now in danger to be deformed again The state of this inquiry may be this viz. whether the Ministers of Christs Kingdome may receive worldly titles and execute worldly Offices and powers or more generally thus Whether a Clergy-man may semel simul be both a Clergy-man and a Lay-man in power office and authority over other men in both kinds Goe we to the fountain head c There was a strife among them the Apostles which of them should be accounted the greatest which of the twelve soever began this emulation of power Certaine it is that the two sonnes of Zebedee a James and John with their mother first presumed to come and aske the highest places of honour next to the very Throne in the Kingdome of Christ which Kingdome was conceited by them shortly after to be raised in the splendour of this world This is genuinely gathered from this very story generally confessed and clearly confirmed in the History of the Acts where the Apostles do aske our Saviour even after his resurrection saying b Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdome to Israel Therefore to these two brethren and their mother so much mistaken in the nature of his Kingdome he maketh answer c Ye know not what you aske He presently sheweth the entertainment of his Kingdome A cup to drinke of that many were like to pray might passe from them but they answer they are able to drinke thereof This their answer as it proved true in all the twelve Apostles so by the providence of God one of these two brothers d James was the first of the rest as some do gather who drank the cup of martyrdome and as some think John was the last of the Apostles Equals look awry on the ambition of their fellows These two were vaine in their high request and the other ten murmured at their presumption a They were moved with indignation saith Saint Matthew b They began to be much displeased saith Saint Marke But by this happy error of these two Apostles our Saviour takes occasion to instruct them and the other ten and in them all other Ministers belonging unto him how far different the pastorall care of his Church is from the power which governeth in Common-wealths Hereupon the Sonne of God calleth unto him all the twelve Apostles saying c Ye know that the Princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion c. d Yet know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise Lordships c. e The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordships c. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} But it shall not be so among you This is a statute not to be repealed This is spoken authoritative definitivè it is the determinate Law of a just authority A Canon ordained and irrevocably fixed by the wisdome of God Confirmed by an example above all argument f For the sonne of man came not to be ministred unto but to Minister g I am among you as he that serveth And before this he had taught them that the h Disciple is not above his Master i I have given you an example that you shall do as I have done to you verily verily the servant is not greater then the Lord This ministery being thus performed in humility and without worldly titles The Ministers shall be then exalted Our blessed Saviour in expresse words following saith unto them a I appoint unto you a Kingdome but addeth as my Father hath appointed me Now his owne Kingdome is spirituall or as himselfe said unto Pilate not of this world Let them then renounce temporall and they shall have spirituall honour But some of the Clergy would it seems confound both Kingdomes being ambitious

to inherit Glory in the Kingdome of Grace I feare that there are some Bishops do not know how sublime a vertue Christian humility is how full of Honour Every {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} must be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} b Let the greatest be as the youngest that is the way to be a right Elder he must be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c as he that serveth that is the way to be ministred unto He must be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} d a servant that he may be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a prime or chiefe He must be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} e a Minister that he may be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a great one These antitheses our Saviour hath placed in the text upon the former occasion From hence may well be argued as a Corollary to these undoubted premisses that no Minister of the Gospell can lawfully assume hold or exercise that power which by the Lord of the Gospell is inhibited to his Ministers But our Saviour Jesus Christ Lord and onely head of his Church hath inhibited all temporall Lordship Magistracy and Dominion unto his servants in the lot of his Clergy Therefore no Minister of this Gospell may hold or exercise temporall Lordship or Dominion These words {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. It shall not be so among you doe so streighten the Bishops Miters that they sit uneasie on their heads to soften and as it were to line them for their ease the Bishops that are and would be all the papall and some of the Protestant doe quilt a gentler sence into these words then can beare analogy with the text They search the originall and pretend to finde another sence in our Saviours sentence The Text saies that the Lords of the Gentiles are called gracious Lords and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not tyrants but benefactors a title fit for the best Princes And yet this Text say they forbids not unto Clergy men the use and exercise of worldly titles power offices dignities Cōmands dominion Lordships c. but the abuse of them domineering tyrannizing with them not exercising and holding This they pretend to make firme out of the Greeke word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which they would have taken in the worst sence of exorbitant power even for Tyrannizing So then they would teach us that Lord it they may and Lord it they may not Lord it they may with all pompe state power Lord it they may not with pride vanity and oppression But I shall easily prove this interpretation to be inconstant with the scope and analogy of the Context Will they frame their argument from the verbe {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to be a Lord or to rule or from the preposition {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} added and united thereunto neither will serve And if the pompe of our Prelates cannot avoyd the power of this text they are downe for ever Let me therefore scan it to the full First {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to be a Lord or to have rule or Lordship is never properly taken in that ill sence which they would here create as having unjust and oppressive power It is derived from the usuall and most frequent title of our Lord and Saviour whom the holy Scripture so often saluteth {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Lord Here is no shadow for Tyranny The true sence of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is authoritatem habens one that hath authority being derived from {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} authority which is known to be approved and ordained by God himselfe from whom all lawfull authority is derived Marke how well this word is sensed through all Authours Demosthenes calleth the heads and chiefe of the City {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} A law in force and principall authority is called by Aeschines {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Galen calleth the chiefe and principall members of a mans body {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} yet one member doth not tyrannize over another Aristotle hath a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} propria virtus that is a vertue properly or principally so called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is one that is Lord or master of himselfe not one that domineers over himselfe {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} b The Lords day {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Lords Supper c Saint Paul saith that d The law hath dominion over a man so long as he liveth he doth not meane that the Law is a Tyrant yet the word is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} e Christ both died and rose and revived that he might e be Lord both of the living and the dead {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} From {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Lord commeth {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Lordship foure times mentioned by the holy Apostles but never taxed as a power tending to Tyranny but to be obeyed in them who duly are therewith invested as may be seen Eph. 1. 21. Coloss. 1. 16. 2 Pet. 2. 10. and Jude 8. Clearely then in {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} there is no print of usurpation or of oppressive and tyrannicall power If there be we are then well warned to beware of our Bishops who not onely owne the title {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} but expressely plead for it as the f Bishop of Exeter in his late Episcopacy Secondly {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the very word used by Saint Matthew and Saint Marke in these before alledged Texts whereby our Saviour forbiddeth his Apostles to exercise Dominion or Lordship is a compounded word of two {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} That is to rule as one that hath authority I may render it to be or to behave ones selfe {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} juxta Secundum according as one that hath authority This preposition in words compounded hath sometimes a signification of his owne sometimes none at all as in {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. clearely it hath no speciall signification in this {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} much lesse a force so exegeticall as to draw the lawfull power of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} into the exorbitancy of a Tyranny That it hath no force here is by this apparent for that the speech of our Saviour recorded by the holy Ghost in S. Matthew and S. Marke by {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and by {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} are rendered by the same spirit in Saint

Religion with us doth even cut my very heart with griefe and feare If we let forth the government into a loose liberty for all religions we shall have none Libertinisme will beget Atheisme And truly Sir at present betweene Papisme on the one hand and Brownisme on the other Narrow is the way and few there be do finde it to right good Protestantisme Many mournfull sad complaints I have of late received from Ministers the ablest and every way the worthiest that I know I could willingly name you two one at Dover the other at Cranebroke in Kent Men upon whose merit let my credit stand or fall in this house He that hath preached least of these hath preached severall thousands of excellent Sermons to his people These are in no better condition then many other deserving men who doe generally complaine with griefe of hearts to see their now infected sheepe after long pastorall vigilancy and faithfull ministery to runne and straggle from them more in these last ten moneths then in twenty yeares before Give us I beseech you give us a remedy a speedy remedy to this growing evill or else our schollers are like to turne Papist Arminian or Socinian and all the ignorant party will either turne Atheist or else which is the next degree make to themselves a Religion of their own as themselves best please Sir we may sit here for ought I see and debate our selves and the world abroad into more and more distances of opinion we are not likely to worke our selves much lesse others into unity What is then to be thought on Sir the usuall ancient the best and I think the only way of cure is by a Councell A free learned grave religious Synod There is in some hand of this House and long hath beene a Bill for a Nationall Synod ready drawne With it we are curable without it I look for no peace My humble motion is this in a word If you love the peace of our Ierusalem command forth that Bill to be forthwith read or if that Bill be not to be had appoint a Committee to draw up another This is my motion and it is founded in a hope of piety and peace Section XIV UPon occasion of a Remonstrance 19 Novemb wherein divers passages then were concerning Religion and the Church-government and some in particular as I conceived very aspersive to our Religion in the solemne practice of it by our publick Liturgy charging it in hypothesi with vaine repetition and with savour of Superstition I did humbly move that some of that Committee who framed up that Remonstrance for us would please to assigne what those vaine Repetitions are in our Liturgy and what passages of Superstition Nothing was at all said as I remember to that point of Superstition But at length a Gentleman did adventure to name that which he seemed to think to be vaine Repetition He said that the Lords Prayer is eight nine or tenne times repeated I did with leave of the House reply that such repetition toties quoties how oft soever was if heart and words did go together farre from vaine That in my book the Lords Prayer was but twice in the whole morning Service unlesse the additionals of Baptisme Churching Communion Buriall c. did occurre That then in every severall act of Divine Service it was once and but once repeated as the high compleature of all devout expressions That this repetition in it selfe was warrantable as by our Saviours example who although he had not the Spirit by measure yet in the Garden he prayed three times using the same words The further debate of this was ofted to the next day and then it did grow toward a question whether all exceptions against the Liturgy should be totally laid by or further debated I did not hold our selves the proper determinators of this point I did thinke that from hence occasion might againe be taken inductive to renew my motion for a free Nationall Synod which I desired to enforce the best I could especially there being now obtained a generall promise of a Synod in this very part of that Declaration or Remonstrance Hereupon thus I adventured A coppy whereof being stolne from me issued lately forth both unknown to me and misprinted also which hath beene entertained abroad both with Applause and Exception Saturday Novemb. 20. M. Speaker THe question is whether these clauses concerning some pretended erroneous passages in our Liturgy shall be laid by or not I am of opinion to decline them here but not to bury them in a perpetuall silence In this very period you give us in generall tearmes a promise of a Nationall Synod I doe still wish the presency thereof it being to my understanding the onely proper cure and remedy for all our Church-distractions and may be proved if proofe be needfull to have been practised in the booke of God This promised Synod is too farre off let me have better assurance then a promise which that I may obtaine I will be bold to give you some reasons to induce that assembly and to speed it also M. Speaker Much hath been said and something attempted to be done to regulate the exteriour part of our Religion but Sir we bleed inwardly Much endeavour hath been to amend the deformed forms we were in and to new govern the government Yet Sir this is but the Leaves of good Religion fit I confesse notwithstanding to be taken care of for beauty and for ornament Nay some Leaves are fit and necessary to be preserved for shadow and for shelter to the blossomes and the fruit The fruit of all is good life which you must never expect to see unlesse the blossomes be pure and good that is unlesse your doctrines be sound and true Sir sir I speake it with full griefe of heart whilst we are thus long proyning and composing of the leaves or rather whilst some would pluck all leaves away our blossomes are blasted And whilst we sit here in cure of government and ceremonials we are poysoned in our doctrinals And at whose doore will the guilt and sin of all this lie Qui non vetat peccare cùm potest jubet It is true that this mischiefe growes not by our consent and yet I know not by what unhappy fate there is at present such an all-daring liberty such a leud licentiousnesse for all mens venting their severall sences sencelesse sences in matter of Religion as never was in any age in any Nation untill this Parliament was met together Sir It belongs to us to take heed that our countenance the countenance of this honourable House be not prostituted to sinister ends by bold offenders If it be in our power to give a remedy a timely and a seasonable remedy to these great and growing evils and that we being also put in mind shall neglect to do it we then doe pluck then sins upon our own heads Alienum qui