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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nation_n	call_v	church_n	national_a	2,044	5	11.4074	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50970	The case of the afflicted clergy	G. M.	1691 (1691)	Wing M22; ESTC R217340	91,229	99

any thing can be said § 19. He giveth account of the Commission of the General Assembly pag. 53. but as he doth of other things that is without Truth or Honesty About the manner of Election he prevaricateth but it is not worth the while to examine these Circumstances It is a gross untruth that They were to have full and supreme Power to Act in all things that relate to the Church The contrary is evident from the Instructions given to them by the Assembly which himself setteth down For the seventh and eighth Articles of them are 7ly That this Commission do not meddle in publick Affairs or in any thing not expressed in their Commission Which is hereby declared to be given them in Hunc finem only And pro praesenti Ecclesiae Statu 8ly They shall be answerable to and censurable by the next General Assembly and shall continue till November next If there be no General Assembly before that time Is it not evident from this That our Author either understandeth not the meaning of plain words or that he is not careful to speak Truth Their Moderation or Rigidity which he very positively and confidently determineth about must be judged of by their Actings I am sure the plurality of them are look'd upon as Men of very Moderate Principles But no Presbyterian can be moderate in this mans Opinion In the List of them he also mistaketh for many were on both Commissions Whereas he maketh the two to consist wholly of different persons but that is not material His account of the Debate about the Instructions to the Commission I need not examine What was concluded is that which we are concerned in His Account of the Instructions is most false and absurd It is strange prevarication so to corrupt and falsify a Paper in the Transcribing of it Take for example the 2 d Article which he maketh the first He hath it That they shall take into their Cognizance all References and Appeals not discussed in the Assembly and such matters as have been tabled before the Assembly Where he maketh two sorts of things to fall under their consideration Whereas in the true Copy nothing but what is expresly referred to them is mentioned It is thus To take into their Cognizance all References and Appeals and other things which being stated before this Assembly shall by them be specially referred to the said Commission to determine the same The Debate that was in the Assembly about the sixth Article about taking in the late Conformists to Ministerial Communion he doth also Misrepresent it is false that it was said That by these Instructions Repentance for Conformity is required as a Condition For that ws debated in the Committee and it was determined to be left out because the worst of them would be readiest to profess Repentance Which they who acted from a Principle could not do He observeth from the Instructions page 57. That the Commission was mainly designed against the Episcopal Clergy I deny not that it was designed against such of them as were unqualified for the Ministry to cast them out And against such of them as were Enemies to the Established Church Government to keep them from a Capacity to overturn it But it was rather designed for them who fall not under these Characters to take them in among us That Presbyterians had Malice agaenst them or such Designs to ruine them as he alledgeth is evil surmising And in this he judgeth of others by the temper of his own mind § 20. He looketh on all the Facts appointed by Presbyterians as designed to ensnare the Episcopal Men and saith that they Fasted for Strife and Debate Their Witness is on high who knoweth that other Motives engaged them to Fast and Pray Even such things as are of common concernment to all who have true Zeal for Religion But this Gentleman and others of his Stamp did not use to keep Solemn Fasts for the concernments of the Gospel Only sometimes they had Fasts with the respect to the Weather or when there was like to be a bad Harvest which we condemn not But think there are greater things that should move us to such Duties It seems he knoweth no other ground of Fasting but either averting of some outward Judgment or some politick design He mainly challengeth the Fast appointed by the Assembly because in the causes of it mention is made of Episcopacy the setting up of which is complained of on account that it was always grievous to this Nation and that it was done without the Churches consent and contrary to Acts of National Assemblies As also that a great decay of Piety was visible under it This is all that was said of Episcopacy in these causes of the Fast This Fast he saith Episcopal Men could not observe without looking on Episcopacy as unlawful As the cause of much Impiety as defection from God and his truth Nor without blameing the Church of England and other Protestant Churches yea the Catholick Churches from the Apostles to Calvin ' s time Ans 1 st What ever be our Sentiments about Episcopacy nothing is here expressed that needeth to stumble them who think it a lawful Government in the Church and there are some of that Principle who will say as much as is here said Norhing is here said of its unlawfulness nothing of its influence on Impiety But only of its observed unsutableness to this Nation and of ungodliness having been de facto its concomitant 2. If any did conscientiously scruple the Observation of the Fast on the grounds mentioned I ask who of them have been Punished by the State or Censured by the Church for this omission The Church thought fit to lay Peoples duty before them yet using all lenity toward them who cannot see their duty It was quite otherwise in former times when his party had the Rule 3. The setting up of Episcopacy was more sinful in this Nation than it could be elsewhere because of the Oath of God that the Nation is under against it Not in later times only but in the time of King James the 6th who caused the whole Nation swear the Shorter Confession of Faith called also the National Covenant where it is Abjured 4. All this sheweth that we do not meddle with the Church of England in this matter but keep within our own bounds And therefore she hath no cause to be offended with us more than we have to blame her for setting up Episcopacy 5. His big words of other Protestant Churches and the Catholick Church to Calvin ' s time are the Dialect of his Party Whose confidence of Assertion and strength of Argument in this matter bear no proportion Which we are ready to try with him when he pleaseth The Councils Act for Observation of this Fast he doth also most causelesly and petulantly ridicule What is more congruous than when the fear of God doth not perswade men to their Duty that a civil Court should deal with them by

that in England the King whether from Light or Interest I do not judge begun a half Reformation And Royal Authority enlightned the Minds of the people I speak not of all but of the Multitude but in Scotland Light from the Word of God did move first the People then the Great Ones and they prevailed with the King at last Zealously to own the Truth of God Yea and to defend it in Print 3. That the Government of the Church of England was suited to the Monarchy that is as I suppose he meaneth framed by a suitableness to the Monarchy as the Standard of it is not its commendation For that is to make it a humane Contrivance or worldly Policy brought into the Church of Christ over which he is the Head and which is to be governed by his Laws Whereas the Government of the Church of Scotland was contrived by the Word of God as the Standard of it yet was it as much suited to the Monarchy as that of England could be That is it gave and giveth to the King all that power in the State that our Laws gave him And all that Authority over the Church that is due to any Man on Earth The Abettors of it preach and practise as much Obedience and Subjection to Kings as others do and can vie in Loyalty with their Accusers as shall after be observed 4. I do not understand how our present Animosities about Church Government should depend on the one way being suited to the Monarchy and the other not seeing this Author as well as his opposites really are doth highly pretend to be not only for the Monarchy but for the present Monarch King William But either he hath a latent Meaning which hath much Truth in it or he hath hit on the Truth by guess as Cajaphas did viz. That our Animosities about Church Government arise mainly from the different Inclinations that are in the two parties toward the Monarchy as now established in the Persons of our Gracious King William and Queen Mary The strain both of their Writings and Actings make it evident that with him the Interest of King James and that of Prelacy are linked together And their Zeal for the one filleth them with Spite and Animosity against what is opposite to the other And whoso considereth the strain of this Pamphlet will find that the Zeal that this Scribler pretendeth to for King William is expressed usually under the general Notion of the Monarchy which may be understood of either of two Monarchies What he saith that Buchannan and others wrote Books that were condemned for Treason is no Argument For that which by one party is condemned for Treason by another party when they have got the Ascendent hath been absolved as not guilty of that Crime That the Puritans vexed King James VI. is no further true than that they could not yield to the endeavours of some evil Counsellers about him for overturning the Setled Government of the Church and encroaching on its Rights It is true He at last got Episcopacy setled by the help of some both in State and Church who were either none of the best Protestants or had their worldly Designs in promoting that way but still our Author owneth on the matter that the Word of God was not consulted in this weighty Concernment of the Church But only his fancied suitableness to the Monarchy and Conformity to England The account he giveth of putting down Episcopacy afterwards and setting up of Presbytery is neither like a Christian nor like a Historian It is perfect railing while he calleth the Nobles that had a hand in it Ambitious and Factious the Gentry Priest-ridden and blind Zealots the Preachers Enthusiasticks The War that he mentioneth is by all Posterity to be lamented but Men as able to discern as he have laid the blame of it on Episcopal Tyranny and Usurpation and their making many steps toward Popish Doctrine as well as Discipline He next giveth account of the Solemn League and Covenant entered into without the Royal Authority calling Parliaments c. These things were done by the Body of the Nation met in the most orderly representative that the time and case could permit And I deny not but that they were extraordinary Actings not to consider now the Morality of them But let this Gentleman freely tell us whether his Episcopal party be capable of Courses parallel to these which he so exposeth The Presbyterians under the conduct of the Primores Regni arose against their King in defence of their Religion and Laws did not the Prelatick party the same and on the same account They were indeed all for Loyalty and Non-resistance while the Royal Authority supported their greatness and power over their Brethren but when seven of their Bishops were touched it proved another case like that in Ployden if we be guilty in this they are not the Men who should cast the first Stone at us For Barbarities committed by the Presbyterians in these times I know of none but what are the necessary consequents of a War But this Man and his Associates have no other Dialect whereby to express their dislike of the Actings of the opposite party He accuseth them with a Bloody Mouth of what hath been a thousand times refuted as a horrid Lie That the Scots Presbyterians did persidiously give up their King to the English who Murdered him He was the King of the English as well as theirs and they could not withhold him from them And gave him into their hands on as good security as could be for his safety and if others dealt perfidiously with him they are not to be blamed for it He hath a hint as if Episcopacy had been setled by King Charles the Second because the Presbyterians refused all conditions of peace and pardon And for the Monarchies sake The former of these is a great untruth they never refused peace nor pardon but would gladly have imbraced both Only they could not buy them at the rate of Perjury Tho' they never refused to disown any Principles that were indeed Rebellious Their preaching up Rebellion in their Conventicles is false They both preached and practised Loyalty Only after many grievous and insupportable hardships suffered for their Conscience some few of them were prevailed upon by that Temptation to vent some Principles that the more Sober and Intelligent were not satisfied with That punishing them who were taken in Rebellion is all the severity complained of is a Notorious Falshood as all the Nation know and I have above disproved it § 3. From these so well laid Foundations he proceedeth p. 5. to give His Highness some Advices if they may not more properly be called Directions The first That the Prince being come to support our Laws is in Honour bound to support Episcopacy which is confirmed by twenty Parliaments This is Saucy enough As if His Majesty had Acted against his Honour now that Episcopacy is not supported That Episcopacy is