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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	church_n	minister_n	ordination_n	2,890	5	10.2282	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43613	The ceremony-monger his character in five chapters ... with some remarks (in the introduction) upon the new-star-chamber, or late course of the Court of King's Bench, of the nature of a libel, and scandalum magnatum, and in conclusion, hinting at some mathematical untruths and escapes in the common-prayer book, both as to doctrine and discipline, and what bishops, were, are, and should be, and concerning ordination, humbly proposed to the consideration of the Parliament / by E. Hickeringill ...	Hickeringill, Edmund, 1631-1708.	1689 (1689)	Wing H1799; ESTC R20364	90,871	81

all with them no not the Pope himself But what if I prove that our Kings at their Coronations have at the same time been ordain'd Clergy-men they are no more excluded then by our Laws from the power of the Keys then Mr. Archdeen or the Pope himself What is Ordination but the ordering designing or setting a Man a part to some office if to the Ministry then there are certain significant Words to that purpose and what more significant words for Ordination to the Priest-hood or making a Man a Clergy man than those the Bishops uses to our Kings namely with Unction Anthems Prayers and Imposition of Hands as is usual in the Ordination of Priests with the same Hymn come Holy Ghost Eternal God c. The Bishop saying also amongst other things Let him obtain favour of the people like Aaron in the Tabernacle Elisha in the water Zacharias in the Temple give him Peters Key of Discipline and Pauls Doctrine Which last Clause was pretermitted in times of Popery from the Coronation of Hen. 6. till Charles 1. and Charles 2d lest it should imply the King to be more a Clergy man and Ecclesiastical Person than these Archdeacons could afford him but our Gracious King Charles 2d and his Father at their Coronations had the antients forms of crowning Kings reviv'd and in the Anointing the Bishop said Let those Hands be Anointed with Holy Oyl as Kings and Prophets have been Anointed and as Samuel c. Then ●he Arch-bishop and Dean of Westminster put the Coif on the King's Head then put upon his Body the Surplice saying this Prayer O God the King of Kings and Lord of Lords c. And surely of old the very Pope himself look't upon our Anointed Kings as Clergymen else why did the Pope make Hen. 2 his Legate De Latere here in England the usual office of the Archbishop of Canterbury usually styled Legati Nati Therefore Mr. Arch-deacon you talk like an unthinking Black-coat stockt with a little superficial Learning when you say our Laws exclude the King from the Keys of the Church to which he has as good right as your D. D. Divinity ship And indeed to give the Man his due he is glad afterwards to confess that Constantine and the Eminent Christian Emperours called Councels and approv'd their Canons Then by your leave dear D. D. They also for the same reason might upon occasion and if they had seen cause also disprove the same who then was Papa of old Pater Pa-trum surely no other but he that is PaPa I mean Pa●ter Pa-triae All the Male-Administrations in Ecclesia stical Government take their Rise and Original from our Ignorance of the Power of the Keys or who are the Clavigers Key-keepers or Porters to let them in and turn them out of the Church The bulky Clergyman called a Bishop an Ordinary or a Diocesian he we say keeps the Church-Keys he Excommunicats and Excludes Sinners out of the Church and he alone receives them and lets them in but that 's false the sneaking Register and Surrogate do that Job Ay But who entrusted a Bishop alon● to be the Church-Porter Door-keeper or Church-key-keeper Where is his Commission Where is his Authority and who gave him this Authority For it is evident in Holy Scripture that God never gave him any such Commission Place Office or Authority to keep the Keys of the Church any more than the Speaker of the House of Commons or Chair-man to a Committee has power to turn out of the House or let in any of his Fellow-Members For does a Bishop differ from another Presbyter more than the Chair-man from the rest of the Committee or he that gives the Rule of the Court at Session differ from the rest of his Brethren and Fellow-Justices he is no better man nor the more learned wise nor more honest a man though he be Ordain'd to be the mouth of them that 's all to to speak what they put into his Mouth The Speaker takes too much upon him to speak the Sense of the House 'till the Majority of Votes has given him Instructions and Commissions to pronounce a Sentence or the Sense of the House or to turn any Member out of the House of Commons he has no such Authority he is the Speaker indeed and is look't upon as the wisest and fittest Man for that place it should be so it is not always so one or other of the Members must be chosen Speaker or Chairman and have precedency for Order●salte and to avoid confusion but he no otherwayes differs from other Members except only that the Honourable Speaker is the Honourable Mouth that 's all after the Members have chosen and ordain'd him and the King has confirm'd him Even so a Bishop has no new Character confer'd upon him more then when he was but a Presbyter or Elder save only the Kings Ordination or Mandate or Conge d' Estire The E●●ction of the Dean and Chapter is a mee● mockery as aforesaid besides the playing with the Edge●ools and mocking of God. Bishops and presbyters used to be chosen just as Parliament Men are chosen by the Majority of the Vows of the people as shall be more particularly proved in the 〈◊〉 in the Chapters concerning Bishops and Ordination Thus Paul and Barnabas were chosen and ordain'd by the whole Church Acts 13.3 Perhaps the chief Church-members laid their Hands upon or ordain'd the Ministers Missioners or Messengers of the Church but the worst Member had as much power and vertue to ordain a Messenger Elder or Bishop as the best Bishop or presbyter if the Majority of Votes had ordain'd and so appointed as is clear from Scripture and the practise of the primitive Church and shall be more particularly insisted upon in the Conclusion of the Chapter of Ordination Ordination What is it more then chusing approving or setting a Man a part for an Office to do business relating to this life or a better I will not say in Church or State or as a Clergy-man or Lay-man for these are idle ungrounded vain and odious names of distinction where God and Holy Scripture never made any such distinction and has not only confounded our notions of things but has been and yet is the cause of most of our Confusions in what Men mischievously distinguish and call Church and State which are not two things nor two distinct Bodies if you make them so you must make two Kings and two distinct Heads to these distinct Bodies and that is one too much And if you make a Clergy-man and a Lay-man two distinct sorts of persons you make a Man that God never made And if so Then Clergy-man I must Catechize you Who made you so God It is false For God in Holy Scripture does not call the Preachers but the Hearers not the Bishops Presbyters and Minister's the Clergy but the Hearers and Flock are God's Clergy 1 Pet. 5.1 2 3. The Presbyters which are amongst you I exhort who am also

a great Crack't Bell that is good for nothing but to fill up the Vocancy But must Apocryphal books too Justle the Holy Scriptures also out of the Church You 'l say the Mass-book did it before we did it Yea that 's true so a Popish interest also possibly brought this great Crack't Bell into a Protestant Steeple What does it do there there it hangs but had never been hang'd so high but that it was crack't and good for nothing but to give an unintelligible and Jarring sound to keep out a better and in room of a better it will serve well enough to make up the number of the Yea's and the No's Well may this Crack't Ceremony monger dread a wise and a pious and honest English Parliament more than he sears either God or the Devil more than Heaven or Hell lest they spy this Church-Cobweb though it hang alost and sweep it down or new Cast this useless Crack't Bell. You may know him by this certain mark for conscious of Guilt and of his own uselessness and Futility through well-grounded sear like the murmuring Israelites he longs for the Flesh pots of Egypt again Egyptian or Popish d●rkness which has cover'd as darkness does all his faults this Pope Joan in the dark has been as good as my Lady and a Popish King he joyes in to chuse rather than Angels food Manna What is it he knows not he relishes it not For he loves Popery in his heart as the Carpenter loves his Ladder because it helps him up so high to overlook his betters Well! let him even march then after his Brother Cartwright he is fit for nothing so well as to read Common-Prayer in the French Protestant Chappel in the Castle of Merli Thus have I run him to an Inavoidable Dilemma one of the Horns whereof must Gore my Ceremony-monger for it he obstinatly persist in his irrational and illegal Ceremonies the Law and the next Jury deprives him by his own Celebrated Act The Act of Uniformity which condemns all Ceremony mongers and all Ceremonies not contained in the Common-Prayer Book and then the King may in the Vacancy without Invading any mans propriety like Queen Elizabeth put this unprofitable and impossibly to be performed Nusance to its proper use and to a good use But if he Recant Abhor Repent and Forsake his Illegal and Popish-like Ceremonies we have got the day he is converted to be a good man and will then voluntarily relinquish that burden which no mortal can bear for fear of the Torments Eternal which none can bear the saying of St. Chrysostome in Heb. 13 7. H●mil ult 24 will penetrare his hard Heart and ●cared Conscience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I wonder in my heart 〈…〉 〈◊〉 it is posh 〈◊〉 for a chief Bishop in the Church to be saved c. High Priest Aaron said Nolo Episcopari Moses also was as loath to come into the Collar Send by the hand of whom thou wilt send said he in a Pet to God Almighty foreseeing the dreadful burthen St. Chrysostome in that Homily says in effect concerning a great Bishop as one said of an Executor viz. If I had a mind to send a man to the Devil I would make him my Executor and if I had a mind to send a man to the Devil I would make him a great Lord Bless me That vain ambitious man should hope to comb Heaven by that very sin of Haughtiness and Pride which made Lucifer a Devil I well know that in this Juncture every Projector is full of his Notion which may do well to in Utopia but is not practicable here And I 'le Answer such well-meaning Noddles is a grave Senator of Old Rome did his pious Friend that brought him an excellent Model of Government my Friend This would do well in Plato's Common-wealth but it is not feazable for us who live in the Dregs of Romulus But nothing is here propos'd but what is easie good for all sound pure primitive and practicable as well as profitable and hurts no body no not the great Diocesan and sleepy fat Prebend in their present Incumbencies and Possessions if they can with a safe Conscience continue them For St. Chrysostome is bolder with such Bishops as are so addicted to filthy Lucre that he quite incapacitates their for the place 〈…〉 in Ep. ad Tat. c. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hic ut indigenus Sacerdotio est removendus Let him be Depos'd nay Degraded as unworthy of that holy Function Some Repairs of necessity must be done as the Wisdom of a Pious King and Parliament shall think meet upon those that have by their filly illegal and foppish and Popish-like Constitutions and Ceremonies reduc't all true Devotion to a meer Pharisaical and Out-side Superstition which is also very silly and non-sensical to boor Does not St. Cyprian tell us Ep. 68. That in the Ordination of Sabinus the Bishoprick was conferred upon him by the Suffrage that is the Vote of the whole Fraternity or Brethren and by the Judgment of the Bishops that mee together in our presence c. That Exhortation in the Common-Prayer-Book before the Communion concerning the quieting of a troubled Conscience when the guilty person thinks himself not qualified sufficiently for the receiving that blessed Sacrament gives the Minister power of Absolution that is power of the Keys the Church Keys good reason of his own Church whereby I judge that every Minister has power to loose what any R●gister or Bishop or Surrogate has ●ound if he think fit tho' they also have bound the Spirit down to Hill or his body afterwards lies bound for want of Absolution in a ayl I think a Minister has power like Orphtus to setch him back from Satan but not from the Jaylor is not this to give the power of the Keys to a Minister by the Stature or Common Prayer Book which the common practice or Canons do not allow or admit This is to give and take again this is to give we do not know what this is to give the great Bishop more eyes than those same large eyes called Archdeacons this is to give Ministers the power that Christ gave them to Ru●e and Feed for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 1 Pet. 5 2. Signifies both Feed and Rule and one as much as the other God has joy ' d them together and wo be to him that sepatates those whom God hath joyned together only to gratifie his own ambitious and avaricious Claw that grasps more than it can possibly hold and by endeavouring to be Mr. Do all becomes Mr. Do ill this is to mock the Presbyrery give and take again this is just like the silly Charm In-Dock Out Nettle Ye shall saith the Stature Ye shall not says the Present Discipline here is wise work and most cousounded clashing and irreconeileable Ministrations Ecclesiastical well it is well in Apology that we can say it was made in

all Languages As Mat. 1.21 Thou shalt call his Name Jehoshua Joshua or Jesu all one Hebrew word Besides That Holy Text doth not say in the Name Joshua but in the Name of Joshua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but my Ceremony-Moneer does not bow at the proper Name of our 〈◊〉 or Joshua to wit Emmanuel or God with us which 〈◊〉 both his ●ivinity and Humanity nor at the found of the word Christ Messiah c. but stands as unconcern'd and as 〈◊〉 as a Stake Besides he does not how the Knee but like the Papists nods his Head or puts off his Cap or Hat as the Popish Jesuites do when they Preach every time they mention the word Jesu if they do not forget which they commonly do and as commonly Sin if that Foppery be a Duty Besides That Text says Every Knee shall bow in Heaven and Earth and under the Earth but there are no Knees in Heaven and those in Graves in the Earth and under the Earth are too stiff to how Come 't is Nou sense and Ridiculous all over and as a very Specimen of my Fop as any other For as there is no Scripture to Vouch for him so no Reason What shal Christians be like that Hystaron Proteron Herb. which Physicians as toolishly call Filius ante Patrem The Son before the Father Do we well to blame the Arrians for placing the Father above the Son Do we well to believe the Unity and Equality of the Holy Trinity And yet do we bow at the Name of the Second and not at the Name of the First and Third Person of the Holy Trinity Nay Is Christ divided do we pay more Reverence to the Name Joshua the N●me of my Foot Boy then to the Holy Name of Jesu namely Messia Christ or Emmanuel For shame do not pretend a reason for such Foppish Adoration And if neither Holy Writ nor right R●ason be of thy side Mr. Ceremony-Monger thy Canon will be noll'd by the Statutes the Acts of Uniform●●y that makes it very Penal even deprivation 〈◊〉 for thee to follow thy Trade of making Coremor●es which God never made nor the King and Parliament or right reason ever made Besides there are several 〈◊〉 of Provisors and then he incures also a Prem●ire to set up the Mi●re above the Crown the Bishop and Priest above the King and the Convecation-house above westminster-hall And this Sawey and Priestly Petulaney deriv'd from Rome makes my Ceremony-monger many times very troublesome to the State and to the Crown which he will obey like Thomas a Beck●t with a salvo honore Dei that is many times as far as he list and when he list or in any thing that is for his own ends and his own honour nor a jot further of which I shall give no late instances here of those that could strain at a G●at when against their Interest though for and against Gods glory and yet could swallow a Camel if sent from that Court if it would but advance their Dominion and sway or at least not hinder it witnesses their publishing in Churches the Sports that may be used on the Lords Day c. when this Spirit possesses my Ceremony-monger he is not only troublesome but dangerous and insufferable which will make me repeat some o● my own Speech Printed Anno 1681. p. 3.4 In Vindication of my Book called the naked Truth though I am no Erastian concerning the Keys the the Keys of the Church which some said was true but unseasonably urg'd surely 't is now seasonable what was then said to the Arch-deacon viz. And first like a Churchman of the old stamp he will permit his Majesty to come into the Church that 's more kindness than old St. Ambrose Bishop of Milan would show sometimes to the great Emperour Theodosius when he did not do as he would have him to do nay this Arch-deacon opens the doors himself to let his Majesty into the Church but he will nor trust him with the Keys as who should say we will open the Church doors to your Majesty and come in and welcome whilst we continue good friends But they that keep the Keys and can open the Church-doors to let his Majesty in can also whilst we have the keeping of the Keys upon displeasure lock him out well for this very trick and for another late Scotch trick it I were a Privy Councellour I would advise his Majesty as Head of the Church and the Governour thereof to keep the Keys of the Church in his Pocket or hang them under his Girdle if it be but because this Prclatical Champion this same pitiful Arch-deacon like another Pope or Sr. Peter w●●● keep the Keys of the Church and will keep his Majesty from them and we would f●●● perswade him that our Laws to use his words p. 2. of the Proeme Excludes the purely Spiritual Power of the Keys from the Supremacy of our Kings except it be to see that Spiritual Men do their Duty the 〈◊〉 Belike this same Arch-deacon carries the Leges Angi● the Laws of England in his belly and greedy gut for I am su● he carries the● 〈◊〉 or no where he carries not these bulky L●ws of England in his 〈…〉 no gues in his brains For I pray Good D D. where goes our Laws 〈…〉 ●urely Spiritual Power of the Keys from the Soptemacy of our Kings if our Kings ●ke good King David or wh● King Soloman shou● have a mind to be ●cclesia●tes In the days even of Popery I never heard of a King shut our even from the Topp●n-Pulpit if he had a mind to climb so high stone Henry the 3d. made 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 ●he Pulpit took his Text Psal 85.10 Righteousness and Peace have kiss d●each other and then in his Sermon ad Cierum to the Le●rned M●ks of the Cathedral Church of Winchester when he had a little self end too as some Pulpiteers have also had in the case namely to C●jole the said Monks to Elect his Brother Athelmar Bishop of Winchester Paraphrasing and enlarging upon his Text and saying to use his own words 〈…〉 To me and other Kings who are to govern the people belongs the rigour of Judgment and Justice to you who are men of quiet and Religion Peace and Tranquillity And this day I hear you have for your own good been savourable to my requ●● With many such like words I do not know whether the King had got a License to Preach from a Bishop It seems the Clergy then too would favour Kings in what was for their own good and if it were for their own good would also permit the King to take a Text and preach in their Cathedral Church how hard hearted or strait-lac't soever our Archdean proves and will not suffer our Kings to have the Keys neither of the Church nor Pulpit I say therefore some Kings would therefore keep the Keys of the Church themselves and trust never a D. D. of them

maintain and uphold that single and paramount Vertue of his Foppish and illegal Ceremonies and therefore at the Choice of Parliament men what pains and cost does he lavish in making Parties for such men as are most like himself and such as he thinks will keep up the out-side of the Church how little soever of true Devotion is within being Zealous for Faith and perhaps true Faith in his head though he banishes Charity by a Penal Law Good or bad are but empty Names with him and things indifferent Is he a Ceremony monger That 's his Test by which he tries all Mens Religion and Devotion Like the Prince of darkness he hates the very Sun in the Firmament if it discover his dark abode This Eccle●cal Fop espouses Religion as other Fops Marry only for the fair F● Portion and gaudy Dress and may be a Son of God notwithstanding I mean in that Sence the Scriptures called the Old Gyants the ●●ns of God that seeing the Daughters of Men that they were fair took them Wives of all which they chose meerly for the Skin deep perfection Eyeing nothing of inward goodness nor the Beauties of the mind for both of them are Carnally-minded and Fleshly given hankering after the Law of a Carnal Commandment and Carnal Ordinances O! how he hugs them And if any Man dare speak a word against the Beauty of his Mis or dare make Comparisons or prefer a richer Beauty Oh! how he Suaggers with his curses and Anathema's and Damms him for a Schismatick and if he can Jay is him too and there lets him D●● and Rot what speak against Mis● Thus he is indeed the great Scare crow in the Church a man of Clouts that looks like a man at a distance but if you search him he has no bowels he wants not Will but Power to make his 〈◊〉 Finger thicker than his Predecessors Loyns His Conscience is always just of the Size with that of his Prince If his Prince be given to Wantonness he dares not so much as quote the Seventh Commandment in his Sermon nor name Adultery If he had liv'd in Maoedon in the Reign of Alexander you might have known him for a true Courtier by his Wry neck Regis ad exemplum His Ceremonies are more futile and thin than a Spiders Web and can neither catch nor hold any body but Flyes or such silly Infects yet he has in their Defence the Venom and Gall of a Spider which transcends him in one thing for she begins her Web at her Bowels but he has none as being of the Opinion of the Philosopher Zeno who amongst the Diseases of the Soul which he reckons up makes Humane Compassion to be One. He keeps a bustle for his Trinkets let it make never so great a Disturbance or Danger to the Church or Sate pro Aris Focis he cries stand up for the Church though indeed his Area is the Ara to which he bows so devourly and demurely Not that he cares for his Trinkets neither if he could make more Money by parting with them than he has got by keeping of them He would forsake them and the Saints too with Demas for love of this present World upon a fair Prospect of a better Market at Thessalonica in the Idols Temple Amicus Plato he cries amicus Socrates fed magis amici Divitiae Honores He is worse than Balaam who would not curse Israel tho' Balak would have given him his House full of Silver and Gold. For my Ceremony-monger is always for that Religion that is most in Vogue For my Ceremony-monger is always for that Religion that is most in Vogue and like a French-man loves any thing that is infashion but when out of fashion he leaves it like Lice that prey only upon the Living but forsake men when they are going to die or like Rats that by Instinct desert the House that is ready to fall Thus he worships with the Indian the Rising Sun. When the Mendicant Fryar preach'd before Cardinal Odescalcho this present Pope before he got up to the Infallible Chair and Cardinal Sachetti he begun his Sermon thus St. Peter was a Fool St. Paul was a Fool the Prophets and Aposties all Fools for wandring about in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins being destitute afflicted and tormented in their way to Heaven when they might as well have gone thither as their Successors in Scarlet Gowns and Scarlet Hats The Capuchin had an Eye to my Ceremony-monger or to one as like him as ever he can look For this Ceremony-monger notwithstanding his voluntary humility it as proud as Lueifer and hectors like a Pope against all Opposition exalts himself above all that is called God valuing his Canons above the Statutes of the Realm Thus as the Papists preach up the Rules of St. Francis St. Benedict and St. Dominick that may be good things too many of them not only above the Laws of the Land but above the Laws of God too and strains at a G●at at the same time when he swallows a Camel for in his Prayer before Sermon he speaks like a Mouse in a Cheese when he prays to God there but when he preaches up ●he Gospel Rules then he makes the Pulpet thunder till the Church Eccho again with the Canons The Canons which may be good things too some of them so that they make no comparisons with their betters making a hideous noise with preaching up them and his Ceremonies methinks he then looks like the Emperour Caligula when with a numerous Army he march'd with Colours flying Trumpets sounding and Drums beating loud as a Thunder clap to gather Cockie Shells No man more zealously cries up the Laws of the Land and Acts of Uniformity when he gets a Non-conformist thereby upon the Hip and to Penal-Law him but when the point of the same Acts and Laws of the Land are turn'd upon himself or he be commanded to do any thing he does not like he cries out Conscience and the Liberties of Holy Church are Invaded Just as the Jews to affront Caesar they cry'd out That God alone was their King but to affront Christ They alter their note and say We have no King but Caesar Thus he lays heavy Burdens upon others and grievous to be born but he himself that is the greatest Non-conformist to the Act of Uniformity with his irrational and illegal Ceremonies does not touch the Burden with one of his fingers Yet you cannot well discover him for ye shall not readily see him walk but like a Spaniard never or seldom abroad without his Cloak Beggarly enough too for the most part and can scarcely cover his Rags and his beggarly Elements and Will-worship CHAP. VI. Concerning unlighted Candles on the Altar Organs Church-Musick and other Foppish Symbols c. THE Papists like the Cynick Diogenes that went with his Candle and Lanthorn at Noon-day into the Market-place to see if he could find an honest Man there because the Sun could not show one at

Rule blows will never cure his Blindness Besides Uniformity is an unnatural impossible and therefore an irrational wicked and vain attempt Go teach God to make a new Heaven with Uniformity of Stars and Skies spangled uniformly they are now all of different Forms and Features Go reach him to make Men uniform they are all now of different Forms and Features Go teach him to make a new Earth and set a new Face on it The Landskip now looks so much the more lovely by the Variety which God and Nature seems to delight in And wilt thou thou silly Ceremony monger and Projector be wiser than God If thou hadst seen our blessed Saviour sometimes stand and pray sometimes kneel and pray sometimes ly on a Bed or Couch and eat the Holy Supper sometimes fall on his Face and pray if thou hadst seen this variety thou wouldst have Excommunicated him then caplass'd and jalled him if thy fierceness had not kick't him and spurn'd him up hadst thou but had an Act of Uniformity to back thee We are bound to honour God with our Substance In Works of Charity the greatest Duty but how much when and how in particular is left to the discretion and liberty of every Man no rule of Imposition is or can be made about it We are obliged to honour God with our Bodies the least thing in true Worship for bodily Exercise profiteth little but how much when and how in particular is lest to the discretion and liberty of every Man no Rule of Imposition is or can be made about it Then you 'l say the Church of England was mistaken in one of her XXXIX Articles that says The Church has power to appoint Ceremonies And also the King and Parliament were mistaken in the Act of Uniformity that enjoint all Bishops and Clergy-men on pain of Deprivation to subscribe assent and consent to all and every thing as true which is contained in the Common-Prayer Book Here is a heavy Charge Convocation-House and Parliament-House both upon my back but come one at once and I 'le deal with them both one after another as well and as fast as I can First then I say in general that any Decree under Heaven that is either unlawful or Impossible to be obeyed is not at all Obligatory This is so plain that it needs no further Proof it is like the Light of the Sun self-evident if the Sun shine no man doubts it but he that is blind or winks on purpose lest he should be convinc'd And as to that Article viz. The Church has power to enjoin Ceremonies it confounds all the Ceremony-mongers amongst us And in all my Travels Reading and Discourses I never met with any Man Bishop Priest or Lay-man that ever did could or durst explain what is there meant by Church If it be taken for the Clergy either in or out of Convocation or Synod viz. That they have of themselves a Jus Divinum a Divine Right to enjoin Ceremonies to the People of England they all incur a Praemunire that claim such a Power and justly for they there by set up a Legislative power independent of and distinct from the King and Parliament the only Legislators and is of most pernicious Consequence and found to be so in all Ages And by the Statutes of Provisors made both by Popish and Protestant Kings and Parliaments condemn'd as most pernicious and insufferable by invading the only Legislative power Kings Lords and Commons the great Fundamental of our Government and setting up a Thing called A Church independent of and equal with or above the State and bearding the State if it be so bold as not to please them or should dare to displease them Better it is not to be a State than to be such a pitiful State at this precarious rate that dare not but be Priest-ridden Our Noble Ancestors in Popish Times scorn'd the motion and were true English Men This distinction of Church and State is a Popish and pernicious distinction two higher powers is one too much But if by the Church in that Article be meant the King and Parliament the Representatives of the whole Body of the people the Convocation and Canon-makers will by no means acknowledge that for that makes them Cyphers and as many people account them useless Tools And never did King and Parliament neither make Laws coercive in matters of Religion or Uniformity in Religion but Confusion Divisions Schisms Tumults Sedicion Blood Ruine and civil Wars were the dismal consequences in England whereas there would be none of these no dissentions no penalties no complaining in our Streets if the Legislative power unsuborned by Priest-craft make no Laws but what are proper for their cognizance and for the peace welfare good manners and good abearing in the State And then where there is no Law there can be no Transgression and those odious Names of Dissention and Sedition Conformist and Nonconformist will find an eternal Grave I 'le give but one Instance in that same Act of Uniformity which requires all Clergy-men to give their assent and consent to all and every thing for Truth which is contained in the Common-prayer Book But who made the Kings and Parliaments of England infallible Popes since the Church of England confesses she may Err And how irrational and unaccountable is it for men that confess their ignorance and yet with the same mouth will vote a Law or Imposition of their Sense in Religion upon all Mankind under their Jurisdiction For ought they know they may command and enact that all Clergy-men shal assent in their Judgments and consent in their Wills to a palpable error lie or untruth or else take their choice to starve lie down and die for Farm they may not Thrash they cannot and if they Beg they are sent to Bridewel And this is our very case this day We may not chuse what Chapters for Lessons what Collects Epistles and Gospels we list to read but must read those that are appointed for the day And the last year they were all falsly appointed or else those words in the Common-prayer Book are false that fixes and ascertains Easter Sunday the Aera or beginning of the Account whence all the Lessons Collects Episties and Gospels are computed nominated and appointed But that is not only silly and uncertain but false and contradictory in the Common-prayer book and therefore both the said Aera's cannot be true As for example by one Common-prayer Book Rule the last Easter Sunday should have been kept upon April 8 because Easter Sunday whence all other Feasts Lessons Collects are computed all the year after is always the first Sunday next after the first Full Moon which happens after March 25 which was April 8 last past But by another Rule in the Common prayer Book it was and so we kept it upon April 15 last past They cannot both be true but one of them is a Mathematical untruth and which no body can deny yet Bishops and