Selected quad for the lemma: reason_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
reason_n	catholic_n	church_n	communion_n	2,927	5	9.4030	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77459	A briefe relation of the present troubles in England: vvritten from London the 22. of Ianuary 1644. to a minister of one of the reformed churches in France. VVherein, is clearely set downe who are the authours of them, and whereto the innovations both in church and state there doe tend. Faithfully translated out of the French.; Letter concerning the present troubles in England.	Tully, T. (Thomas), 1620-1676.	1645 (1645)	Wing B4630; Thomason E303_1; ESTC R200287	52,984	69

three or foure of our Kings raignes and against which our Protestants have alwaies so eagerly declaimed laying their grounds upon certaine proofes drawne from the corruption of Rome which gave life unto it had nothing in it of more venimous consequence then this we see here save that the Emissaries and Boute-feus of the English Confederacy have not as yet imbrued their hands in the bloud of their King And can it suite with their profession who talke so much of reducing Christian Religion to it's primitive purity and reviving the Innocence and Simplicity of the Apostolique times who call him their Master that reconciled the world to God and united men in the same mutuall affections who are not ignorant that Peace and Concord are the essentiall characters of a Christian and that such should never be the occasioners of warre to employ the sword in such a manner as this I cannot thinke there 's any man so credulous as to beleive that such courses can finde any welcome among those that are Protestants indeed they may with many who are such in shew onely of which sort are all the opposers not of monarchy alone but indefinitely of any secular authority whatsoever There were some in the infancy of the Church who strained Christian liberty so farre that they condemned it as unjust for the Enfranchised of God and such as were guided by his spirit to be subject to the command of any creature The Donatists sucked the same poison from them which afterwards diffused it selfe among the Anabaptists and in fine reached us also by meanes of some who gave a second birth to this Heresy which now walkes up and downe here in great bravery under pretences very specious in the apprehension of some shallow Judgements And though I conceive this will not be to the generall prejudice of the Reformed Churches in Europe by reason of that just jealousy which Princes ought to entertaine that they hold no intelligence amongst themselves and that they doe not all bandy togethr against the rights and prerogatives of their respective dominions Yet it must needs 〈◊〉 to their shame atleast if they doe not openly declare against the villany of their proceedings and the iniquity of their designes especially since they have had the impudence to invite them to an imitation of their example and to steppe in for the support of their faction I am not ignorant what grounds we goe upon and how little resemblance ours ●eare to theirs but the world will not passe sentence upon us by our positions but either by our actions or by our silence For if we be silent when they are bragging of 〈◊〉 with us and yet appearing in the field against their Soverai●● who will not be ready to conclude that had we the like power ●● our hands we would do as much every w●●it our selves ● but if 〈◊〉 the contrary we speake our mindes condemning the unlawfullnesse and horridnesse of their designe our actions suiting still with 〈◊〉 doctrine in stead of exasperating the secular powers we shall 〈◊〉 them for it cannot be but they will take part with us and 〈◊〉 off such as make them so subordinate either to the people in gro●●● or to some select parcell of the whole body who let them talke what they will are no lesse Subjects then the rest In breife ● need but demand whether of the two are the better Christians those that wast so much bloud to subvert the right of Kings and to cherish a warre under counterfeit pretences for the suppression of all order and engaging the whole world to the same common confusion Or they of the Primitive times who maintained that to sh●● bloud was to violate Christianity to oppose Kings was to disobey God and to contest with Superiours was to fight against that Order which he established I beleeve they will hardly be swayed by examples lesse by reason nor that they put any great value upon the authority which the practise of the first ages may challenge over us If they do I would exhort such preachers of fire and sword to call to minde how the ancient disciplien of the Church denied their communion to such as had slaine an Enemy in a lawfull warre and that they would hence collect how those times stood affected to such as voluntarily embroyled themselves in an unlawfull and unjust one See Sir in part what I have to say to you upon this argument It will not be amisse if in the next place I acquaint you with the innovations they make in Religion and what fruits Christianity is like to reape from the labours of such doughty Reformers 'T is a truly impious designe to per●ue a Reformation in such manner as these men do and which tends onely to the subversion of an order established by God under a pretence of pulling downe one devised by man which they call Tyranny because indeed it is the onely meanes whereby to check them in that full ca●c●●● of unbridled licentiousnesse unto which they are naturally so much devo●●● Not but that there is alwayes matter enough for a reformation both in manners and government and that it is extreamely necessary to correct the evills and disorders of the present times and withall to prevent that corruption which may be feared from the future But who will be the fittest to go through with this taske will the Parliament no in as much as the Bishops that is the Clergy are no longer a part of it Will the Synod be able to supply this defect no not they because the whole body is composed of persons interessed besides that ignorance and blindenesse are there for the most part in their greatest exaltation● or if perhaps there be some knowing there is a great dearth of honest men most of them being possest with the spirit of division which hath drawne them into the by-paths of Hereticks as well ancient as moderne Well then shall the People beare the burthen this is altogether impossible unlesse first there be made an universall resignation of all sence and reason because of themselves they are uncapable of all manner of order and conduct Neither can the King assisted only by his Counsell and Magistrates be thought a ●it instrument to mannage the businesse for feare he make Religion waite upon his owne private interest and by consequent bring the spirit under the command of the Flesh The issue then will be to finde out a just and lawfull way for the advancing of this Reformation which in my opinion can be no other then that of a generall Assembly indicted by the Prince wherein the Boroughs shall have their Deputies whose voices are to be heard and their suffrages admitted The Church it's Bishops and Doctors The Parliament diverse of the Nobility which they may chuse out of their severall Houses and the King his principall Officers And to make the action more Authentique to establish in the Church that uniformity which ought to be in a body in which

would have strucke in for their defence and engaged themselves in the same quarrell France it selfe would not have suffered them to be made such an easy prey to the house of Austria But all things seemed to conspire the ruine of that State which to the prejudice of it's owne particular interests the interests of Christendome and of all those of the North who had declared themselves both against Rome and against all such as aim'd at an universall Monarchy would needs set on foot new maximes and pursue the project of a reformation from which it had so many visible evills to feare I have long since exceeded the bounds of a Letter and contrary to my first thoughts have well-nigh swelled it into a Volume The feare I have to trespasse upon your patience makes me passe by a whole cloud of our first Reformers all jointly subscribing to the same conclusion And besides the small remnant of time behind will not suffer me to recall into your memory what those of our Age determine upon the Question I have scarce heard of any able and judicious Divine with us who values not this Ancient Order as the band and instrument of that peice which Christ preached I know very well that all your narrow and popular Judgements doe leane another way and that the number of these exceeds by much that of the more knowing sort Nor am I ignorant that there be some able malicious heads amongst us which clearely see the truth but cannot affect it they are so transported with the love of an unlawfull and counterfeite liberty that they never busy themselves about the prevention of that disorder which it will inevitably sooner or later pull upon them and all such as adhere to them Mounsieur du Mouli● is none of that number This gallant man whom God honoured with so many eminent gifts above all that were either the Authors or Abettours of such corruptions as had crept into the Church is peremptory in the point appealing to the generall suffrage of Ecclesiasticall story that immediately after the times of the Apostles or indeed while they were yet living there begun in every City to be one of the Pastours set over the rest distinguished by the Title of Bishop and invested with a power above his fellowes to prevent that confusion which ordinarily flowes from equality this institution met with a generall approbation whence saith He we cannot excuse Aërius for opposing the determination of the Church in his time when the difference stood onely in point of Discipline A little after he concludes that in England God made use of certaine Bishops out of the Church of Rome for accomplishing that glorious worke of the Reformation whereupon the name and dignity Episcopall hath beene derived successively unto such his Ministers whom he hath raised up to discover the errours and corruption of men That in other places where God made choice of Presbyters and Doctours the Pastours of the Church are barely stiled Ministers the People with us being not able to digest the names of Preists and Bishops the bad conversation of such as went under that name having rendred them so extreamely ●dious Which yet is but a slender ground for their extirpation as I shall cleare anon Antonius de Dominis an able m●n without question and a professed adversary to the Romish Tyranny under which in fine he perished maintaines with great force of reason that the Election of Ministers to wit of Bishops and Preists was made by the Apostles according to the institution of Christ that the Church hath alwaies acknowledged and professed a difference betwixt them the diversity of their functions and the generall practice of antiquity having ever ranked Bishops before Presbyters And in the same place he takes the paints to collect and salve the severall passages of Scripture which seemingly speake the contrary as also those in the Fathers and Canons of Councels Whereupon he gives us a very remarkeable observation which I gave you a light touch of before and 't is this That all such as forsooke the Communion of the Catholicke Church as the Novatians and Donatists would yet still retaine their Bishops knowing very well that the Church could not possibly subsist without them as being absolutely necessary in the Catholique Church of which every one in particular would pretend to be a Member And hence is it that in Rome there have sometimes beene three at once one of the Catholiques who was the lawfull and true one the other two of those two bodies or rather dismembred peeces of the Church which they set up for no other reason but because they would otherwise have beene convicted to be without the pale of the Church of Christ I hope Monsieur Blondell and Salmasius when they have once purged Episcopacy from such corruptions as the spirit of lying had fastened upon it on purpose to render it as pernicious in the use is it was sacred in the institution will no longer keepe aloose in th●● opinions from us ●ut sadly laying to heart the evills which will inevitably oppresse the whole Church if once it be deprived of it's ancient forme of government they will contribute such advice to this miserable Country as their knowledge and honesty shall suggest unto them nor continue to stifle a knowne truth as many at this day strangers to neither of us so unconscionably doe Let the Monkes grumble as long as they please against that Order to which they cannot endure their owne extravagant rules should be any way subordinate Let the insolent and saucy Jesuite oppose their authority and slinke out of their sight for feare they should take notice of his Corruption But let us whose thoughts ought to be most pure and actions most regular submit unto those maximes to which these fifteen last Centuries have paid an universall obedience Who knowes not that if the Power delegated to the Ministers of the Gospell should be equally shared amongst all Confusion and Division must needs be the issue Had not the Jewes who were but an inconsiderable Body in respect of us Christians their High Preist answerable to our Bishop in every particular Church who marched before the rest enjoyed divers peculiar prerogatives above his Brethren and had certaine distinct functions in point of Religion apperteining to him Doth not even reason informe us that 't is impossible for any Congregation or Society of men to keepe long together if there be not some one set over the rest that like an indissoluble chaine is to restraine the severall members how different and disagreeing soever among themselves within the limits of their proper callings What would be the issue of all our Assemblyes had they not a president over them by meanes whereof we still retaine an Idea of that Churches practise which we have abandoned for it's impurities And this indeed is the onely Antidote for all sores and distempers in the Church no remedy so present and Soveraigne it being impossible for the