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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	humane_a	law_n	positive_a	2,470	5	10.9031	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47873	Interest mistaken, or, the Holy cheat proving from the undeniable practises and positions of the Presbyterians, that the design of that party is to enslave both king and people under the masque of religion : by way of observation upon a treatise, intitutled, The interest of England in the matter of religion, &c. / by Roger L'Estrange.	L'Estrange, Roger, Sir, 1616-1704.	1661 (1661)	Wing L1262; ESTC R41427	86,066	191

Vulgar that a Hierarchy of this Nature hath a strong bias toward Popery No doubt and so had Monarchy Was not this Imputation by the same Party cast upon the late King and with the same measure of Confidence and Bitterness when yet we know that those that charged him with it did not believe themselves it was so rank and evident a Calumny Nor to insist upon the Dying Testimony of that Incomparable Prince which was but suitable to the Pious Practise and Profession of his whole Life That early Protestation of his Majesties before his receiving of the holy Eucharist at Christ-Church in Oxon 1643. will be more pertinent to my purpose His Majesty being to receive the Sacrament from the hands of the Lord Arch-bishop of Armagh used these publick Expressions immediately before his receiving the blessed Elements he rose up from his Knees and beckning to the Arch-bishop for a short forbearance made this Protestation My Lord I Espy here many resolved Protestants who may declare to the world the Resolution I now do make I have to the utmost of my power prepared my Soul to become a worthy Receiver and may I so receive Comfort by the Blessed Sacrament as I do intend the Establishment of the true reformed Protestant Religion as it stood in its Beauty in the happy days of Queen Elizabeth without any Connivence at Popery I bless God that in the midst of these publick Distractions I have still Liberty to Communicate and may this Sacrament be my Damnation if my Heart do not joyn with My Lips in this Protestation This was not yet enough to allay the clamour till with his Royal Blood he had seal'd this Protestation If the Objector can produce a fouler Injury either to Religion Duty Truth Honor or Humanity let it be done to save the credit of the Faction unless they reckon the Superlative perfection of their wickedness a point of Glory His next remark is not amiss Let it be well observ'd that the designs of suppressing Puritans and complying with Papists had their beginning both at once and proceeded in equal paces Observation Let it be here as well observ'd that if by Puritans be meant those of the Separation by Papists is intended such as kept their Stations These Squires of the Revolt esteeming as Anti-christian whatever stands in opposition to their heady purposes We have this both from Story and Experience that it hath been the constant practise of these unmannerly Apostates to speak evil of Dignities being fall'n off themselves it is but carnal prudence by damning of the Authority to justifie the Schism No wonder then if the designs of suppressing Puritans and complying with Papists had in his sense the same beginning and proceeded in equal paces To bring himself off he shifts it thus According to a vulgar sense we take Popery in the heighth thereof for the Heresies and Idolatries and in the lower degree thereof for the gross Errors and Superstitions of the Church of Rome And 't is against English Popery in the lower degree that he plants his battery arguing so formally against our going over to Rome that any Stranger to the Story would swear The Prelates and the Pope were more then half agreed already Having at length with great good-will advised the Church of England as to the Main he concludes that All approaches and motions towards Rome are dangerous But are not all recesses from Truth more dangerous Because in every thing we cannot agree with them must we in nothing To me this appears rather petulancy then pious reason We are to hold fast the Truth where-ever it lyes and to embrace what 's good and laudable in any Church without adhering to the contrary Did not St. Paul become all things to all men that by all means he might gain some But if we walk upon the Brink he tells us we may soon fall into the Pit These wary men forget that there 's a Gulf on the one hand as well as a Pit on the other and that the narrow way is that which leads to eternal happiness But as to Reason of State he says that enmity with Rome hath been reputed the Stability of England concerning which the Duke of Rhoan hath delivered this Maxime That besides the Interest which the King of England hath common with all Princes he hath yet one particular which is that he ought throughly to acquire the advancement of the Protestant Relig●●n even with as much zeal as the King of Spain appears Protector of the Catholick Allow this Maxime good in State he hath but found a Rod to whip himself The King of England ought to advance the Protestant Religion Content What now if these Disciplinarians prove no Protestants but rather a Schismatical and dividing Party driving an Interest of their own under that specious name and with great shew of Holiness opposing not only the practises and Rules of the Reformed Churches but even the fundamentals of Christianity it self By whom will they be tryed or on what Judgement and Authority will they rest They quarrel with the Order of Bishops the Common-Prayer the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church the Law of the Land with Customes and Antiquity In short with every thing but the Geneva Discipline They do by That too as our Gallants do by French-fashions The Court of France being the Standard of queint Mode and Dress to the one as is Geneva of Church order to the other What is there used though in it self extravagant enough our humour is to over-do and if the French wear but wide Breeches we forsooth must wear Petticoats Consult the learned and most eminent Assertors of their Discipline ask the grand Architect himself or indeed any of his Sectators of fair and honourable credit concerning the Subject of our present Controversie And 1. Whether it be a Protestant Opinion that the Hierarchy is Antich●istian II. Whether such Laws of Humane Institution as neither contradict the general Laws of Nature nor any Positive Law in Scripture be binding or no III. In case of Male-Administration either in Church or State Whether the People may take upon them to Reform But this they are not so stiff in as to maintain it but by blind inferences not worth regard This is the State of our dispute and if in these particulars our Anti-prelatists oppose the current of Reformed Divines to advance their Interest is to undermine the common Interest of the King Nation and the Protestant Cause Needs must it move many Revolts and keep off many Proselytes to see such principles declared of the Essence of Christian Religion as a good honest Pagan would be ashamed of Nor less repugnant are they to Rules of Society than of Conscience No Tyranny so cruel and Imperious no Slavery so reprochful Set up their Discipline and we 're at School again Methinks I see a Presbyter with his Rod over every Parish and the whole

that suffers it and the same Crime wilfully done in those that Act it No man can rationally allow one and condemn the other For if the Violence be Lawful why not as well in the Field as upon a Scaffold In this particular the Doctor is beside his Cushion He makes me think of the Marquiss of Newcastle upon a sawcy Clergy-man Why should I remember that he 's a Priest says my Lord if he forgets it himself His next argument against Prelacy is a Modest and as I take it a queint One Can the self same State sayes he and Frame of Ecclesiasticks be now revived after so great and long continued alterations by which the Anti-prelatical party is exceedingly increased and strengthned Surely this Gentleman has a mind to give his Brother Crofton a visit Cannot Prelacy be better restored after a Discontinuance then Presbytery erected where it never had a Being The very Laws are yet to make for the One and still in force for the Other But the great Obstacle is the Anti-prelatical party is exceedingly increased and strengthned Truly I think if his Majesty should lessen the Number of them by two or three of the Promoters of that Doctrine the Precedent might do some good upon the rest Can any thing be more feditious These hints upon fair grounds and given in private might very well become the gravity of a Churchman or the profession of a Loyal Subject But to the People these Calculations are Dictates of Sedition and only meant to engage the credulous and heady multitude in false opinions both of the Tyranny of Prelates and their own Power Thus far in Observation upon the first Part of The Interest of England in the matter of Religion c. The whole Structure whereof in his own words rests upon these Positions as its adequate foundation 1. That whilest the two forenamed Parties remain divided both the Protestant Religion and the Kingdome of England is divided against it self 2. That the Presbyterians cannot be rooted out nor their Interest swallowed up whilest the State of England remaineth Protestant 3. That their subversion if it be possible to be accomplished will be very pernicious to the Protestant Religion and the Kingdome of England 4. That the Coalition of both Parties into one may be effected by an equal accommodation without repugnancy to their conscientions Principles on either side in so much that nothing justifiable by Religion or sound Reason can put a Bar to this desirable Union The whole matter in Debate he tells us rests upon three main Enquiries I. Qu. Whether in Justice or Reason of State the Presbyterian Party should be Rejected and Depressed or Protected and Incouraged II. Qu. Whether the Presbyterian Party may be protected and incouraged and the Episcopal not Deserted nor Dis-obliged III. Qu. Whether the Upholding of both parties by a just and equal accommodation be not in it self more desireable and more agreeable to the State of England than the absolute exalting of the one party and the total subversion of the other Observation I shall now offer some further Reasonings of my Own upon this Subject therein proposing such Brevity and Clearnesse that both the Lazy and the Busie may find time to read it and the Weakest not want Capacity to understand it His first Position holds no further good then as the Presbyterians are first Protestants in the matter of the difference and then Considerable in the ballance of the Nation Religion led the Quarrel so let it the Dispute In using the word Protestant I follow Custome for I had rather call it Catholick but Protestant let it be I suppose by the Protestant Religion we understand That of the Reformed Churches to whose Decision we shall willingly submit the sum of our Disagreements which may be stated under a Reduction to these Two Questions I. Qu. Whether or no the Government of the Church by Archbishops Bishops be Antichristian or Unlawful II. Whether such Laws of Humane and Significant Institution as are orderly made and neither contradict the General Laws of Nature nor any positive Law in Scripture be Binding or not First concerning the Prelacy Luther himself distinguishes betwixt Popish Tyrants and True Bishops professing his Quarrel to them as Popish not as Bishops The Authors of the Augustane Confession leave it upon Record That they would willingly preserve the Ecclesiastical and Canonical Polity if the Bishops would cease to Tyrannize over their Churches Bucer advises by all means the restoring of such Ecclesiastical Governments as the Canons prescribe Episcopis Metropolitanis to Bishops and Metropolitans Melancthon to Luther You would not imagine says he how some people are netled to see Church-policy restored as if it were the Romish Soveraignty again Ita de Regno suo non de Evangelio dimicant socii nostri Calvin himself recommends the Hierarchy to the King of Poland and treating concerning the Primitive Church says That the Antient Government by Arch-bishops and Bishops and the Nicene constitution of Patriarchs was for Orders sake and good Government Ad Disciplinae conservationem pertinebat The same person being called to accompt by Cardinal Sadolet concerning the Geneva defection and for subscribing the Augustane Confession renders this Answer Cursed be such as oppose that Hierarchy which submits it self to Christ Jesus Nullo non Anathemate dignos censeo quotquot illi Hierarchiae qui se Domino Jesu submittit subjici nolunt Zanchi the Compiler of the Gallican Confession observes a Change of Name rather than of Office throughout most of the German Churches Bishops and Arch-bishops being onely disguised under the notion of Super-intendents and General-Superintendents acknowledging That by the consent of Histories Counsels and the antient Fathers those Orders have been generally Allow'd by all Christian Societies Beza the rigid Successor of Calvin being check'd by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury for intermedling beyond his Spheare We do not charge says he all Archbishops and Bishops with Tyranny The Church of England hath afforded many learned Men and many glorious Martyrs of that Function If that Authority be there still in Beeing may a perpetual Blessing go along with it Fruatur sane istâ singulari Dei beneficentiâ quae utinam illi sit perpetua This with all Ceremony was addressed Totius Angliae Primati To the Primate of all England and in the name of the whole Church of Geneva Saravia makes him him speak yet plainer who arguing for the Hierarchy out of the Apostles Canons receives from Beza this Reply This is no more then what we wish might be restored to all Churches Quid aliud hic statuitur quam quod in omnibus locis Ecclesiis restitutum cupimus Zanchi comes up to the very Case of England nay and a little further too not onely affirming Episcopacy to be agreeable to the Word of God But where it is in exercise that it ought to continue and where by violence it hath been abolish'd that it ought

to be restor'd Vbi vigent Isti ordines scil non esse Abolendos ubicunque Iniquitas temporum eos abolevit Restituendos With what Face now shall the Enemies of Bishops call themselves Protestants in this particular at least wherein they evidently cross the whole stream of Protestant Divines Now to the second Quae●e Whether such Laws of Humane and significant Institution as are orderly made and neither contradict the general Laws of Nature nor any positive Law in Scripture be binding or not Hear Calvin first Quamvis quod oberuditur scandalum afferat quia tamen verbo Dei per se non repugnat concedi potest Scandals Taken without repugnancy to the Word of God are not sufficient to invalidate the obligation of a Ceremony imposed by the Church Beza himself nay Mr. Cartwright the Captain of our blessed Legions will allow rather than quit a Benefice to wear a Surplice Bucer thanks God with all his soul to see the English Ceremonies so pure and conform to the Word of God or at least rightly understood not contrary to it Not to hunt further for particular Authorities I shall be bold with my own Brother and make use of some general Collections which he hath gathered ready to my hand Nothing assuredly can be more demonstrative of the Protestant Tenets than the Confession of their several Churches That of Helvetia first Churches have always used their Liberty in Rites as being things indifferent which we also do at this day That of Bohemia Humane Traditions and Ceremonies brought in by a good custom are with an uniform consent to be retained in the Ecclesiastical Assemblies of Christian People at the common Service of God The Gallican Every place may have their peculiar constitutions as it shall seem convenient for them The Belgick We receive those Laws as are fit either to cherish or maintain concord or to keep us in the obedience of God That of Ausburg Ecclesiastical Rites which are ordained by mans Authority and tend to quietness and good order in the Church are to be observed That of Saxony For order sake there must be some decent and seemly Ceremonies That of Swethland Such Traditions of men as agree with the Scriptures and were ordained for good manners and the profit of men are worthily to be accounted rather of God than of Man These were the Tenents they publickly owned nor did they act different from what they taught ordaining Churches Pulpits Prayers before and after Sermon administring the Sacraments in Churches delivering the Communion in the forenoon to Women Baptizing Infants and several other things not one whereof were directly commanded by either Christ or his Apostles From hence 't is manifest we may divide from Presbyterians and yet the Protestant Religion not be divided against it self A Schism there is but whether in the Church or in the Faction is onely a dispute for those that plead the Authority of Tumults As their opinions are not one jot Protestant where they divide from Bishops so neither are their Morals any more warrantable wherein they act as Men. Which shall we credit Words or Deeds Will they not Bite where they pretend to Kiss A famous Martyr of that Party Hacket served a fellow so Some difference there had been and they were to be made friends Hacket pretends a Reconcilement takes the man in his Arms bites off his Nose and swallows it This is that Hacket that was joyn'd with Coppinger and Archington in a plot to murder the Lords in the Star-chamber because they had committed Cartwright the great Rabbi of the Party whose Crime was onely the erecting of the Presbytery without and against the Queens Authority Thus we see That in Queen Elizabeth 's days too the Protestant Religion was divided against it self Briefly that it is not Religion which moves these people is most apparent from their unquiet and distempered Actings Proceed we now to enquire what it is or in plain terms to unmasque the Holy Cheat and shew it bare-fac'd to the people Of all Impressions those of Religion are the deepests and of all Errors the most to be lamented and indulged are those of tender and mis-guided Consciences The clearness of this Principle considered it is no wonder that the foulest designs put on the greatest shews of Holiness as the onely way to gain and rule affections without which no great matters can be accomplish'd This is a truth well known to the Presbyterians and of experiment as antient as their Discipline We do not undertake to read their Hearts but their VVritings we may venture upon enquire a little into their practises and by comparing both give some tolerable guess at their Intentions The readiest way is to look back and match them for the best prospect of the future is behind us Some grumblings toward the Consistorian discipline there were in the days of Edw. 6. but the first notorious Separation was that of Frankford in the Reign of Queen Mary when Gilby Goodman and Whitingham with their Companions flew off and went to Geneva from whence they returned into England soon after Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown These led the Dance in England Knox in Scotland and at this day our Presbyterians do but write after their Copy professing the same Principles pretending the same Scruples and beyond doubt proposing the same End which was to get the same Dominion here which Calvin and Beza exercised at Geneva to whom they still repair'd for Counsel as they needed Cartwright and Travers came in the breech of these but not without consulting Beza first to learn the Knack of the Geneva Model These were the men that first brought into England that horrible Position that the Geneva Discipline was as essential a Note of the Church as either the true preaching of the Word or the due Administration of the Sacraments This is the Principle which supports the Presbyterian Interest For the first thirteen years of the Queen's Reign they contented themselves to throw about their Libels against Ceremonies and divide into Conventicles In the fourteenth of her Majesty they addressed two Admonitions to the Parliament the former in the quality of a Remonstrance with a Platform the other bolder and more peremptory This Parliament was no sooner Dissolved but they fell presently to work upon their Discipline the Progress whereof is with great exactness set down in the Third Book of Bancroft's dangerous Positions In 1572. a Presbytery was erected at Wandesworth in Surrey at which time they had also their Conventicles in London where little was debated but against Subscription the Attire and Book of Common-prayer In 82. A meeting was appointed of 60 Ministers out of Essex Cambridge-shire and Norfolk at Cockfield to confer about the Common-prayer what might be tolerated In 83. The form of Discipline was compiled and Decrees made touching the practise of it which soon after were put in execution