Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	church_n	england_n	reform_a	4,212	5	9.5265	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75313	The anatomy of Dr. Gauden's idolized non-sence and blasphemy, in his pretended Analysis, or setting forth the true sense of the covenant that is to say, of that sacred covenant taken by the Parliament, the commissioners of Scotland, and the assembly, September 11. 1643.		1660 (1660)	Wing A3055; Thomason E765_14; ESTC R207156	29,164	31

and Covenant among themselves before their joyning with England in this and were threatned to be chastised for that and other things by a puissant Army yet afterwards upon a through debate thereof in the Parliament of England it was declared by King and Parliament That our Brethren of Scotland had done nothing but what became Loyal and obedient Subjects and were thereupon by Act of Parliament publickly righted in all the Churches of this Kingdom where they had been defamed Yea See the Exhortation for 〈◊〉 the Covenant ordered by the House of Commons to be printed Feb. 9. 1643. the same Exhortation out of which the precedent Paragraph is extracted telleth us That neither this Doctrine nor Practise hath been formerly deemed seditious or unwarrantable by the former Princes that have sate upon the English Throne but justified and defended by Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory with the expence of much Treasure and Noble Blood in the united Provinces of the Netherlands combined not onely without but against the unjust violence of Philip the second of Spain first and chiefly in matters of Religion King James of like blessed memory followed her steps so far as to approve their union and to enter into League with them as free States which was after continued by his last Majesty who both by his Expedition for relief of Rochel in France and by his strict confederacy and Allyance with the the late Prince of Orange notwithstanding all the importunity of Spain to the contrary did set to his seal That all that had been done by his Royal Ancestors in maintenance of those who had so engaged and combined themselves was just and warrantable Thus Mr. Doctor I have given you some patterns of Covenanting Christians beside the Holy League in France the two Houses of Parliament whom you take pleasure every where to bespatter as if they were Fools and Rebels in England and our Brethren in Scotland I forbear to mention Germany the Cantons the Albigenses and others because I have said enough already to shew the fowlness of your Pen and the falshood of him that held it in saying there is no pattern of such a Covenant in any ages of the Church and that we never read nor heard of any Covenanting Christians until the Ligue Sainte in France except those who in Baptism were sprinkled with the blood of Christ and so entred into that Covenant c. pag. 11. I have now taken my walk through your gaudy Field but have gathered little fruit I therefore forbear further progress unless to take a view of Her whom you call Your dear Mother the Church of England pag. 5. I pray who and what is She Which Question I ask not as if I were of opinion that there is none such but to know of you whom you take Her to be I have read of one Mother of us all x Gal. 4.26 I know no more Mothers although I know more Churches I have read in the Articles of Religion established in 13 Eliz. cap. 12. y Art 19. That the visible Church of Christ is a Congregation of faithful men in the which the pure Word of God is preached and the Sacraments be duly administred according to Christs Ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same But you are not so rude an Vnderstander nor so uncritical a Speaker By the Church of England you plainly and charitably mean that part of mankind in this Polity or Nation which having been called baptised and instructed by lawful Ministers in the Mysteries and Duties of the Gospel maketh a joynt and publick Profession of the Christian Faith and Reformed Religion in the name and as the sense of the whole Nation c. Thus you in your Tears Sighs c. of the Church of England pag. 24. Then all man-kind in this Polity and Nation making such a Profession is your Dear Mother Are not you then Terrae Filius Sir St. Paul tells us Hierusalem which is above is the Mother of us all But you tell us Your Mother is not Hierusalem ●u● England which is below and not free Much joy may you have of her I can own her as a Church but not as a Mother I have read of no Mothers in the New Testament in relation to Churches but onely Hierusalem not Earthly but Coelestial and Babylon the great Whore the Mother of Harlots z Rev. 17.1 5. If the Doctor have found out a third much good may she do him Now I see what makes him so excentrick and extravagant namely his sucking too much of his Mothers Milk when she had eaten too much poysonous meat of Arminianism Socinianism and Popery And now Sir I shall for this time take my leave of you with this close that whereas you pag. 25. vant that in two days you finished those Answers and Solutions truly Sir I think so too and do believe that whoever shall carefully compare those Answers and Solutions with this Reply which cost more time will be of the same opinion and that the spirit of perversness pride and time-serving ambition did dictate them unto you POST-SCRIPT I Had almost forgotten your high Commendation of Dr. Ushers Model of reformed Episcopacy in his Reduction which for my part I dislike not Only I must take occasion hence to tell you or rather others that since the reprinting of that Reduction of Episcopacy into the form of a Synodical Government which little Piece was truly Dr. Ushers child there hath a Bastard appear'd which is called The Bishop of Armagh's Direction concerning the Liturgy and Episcopal Government said to be written at the request of the House of Commons in the year 1642. Which is a meer fiction and a lye For so Dr. Bernard in his Book intituled The judgement of the Archbishop of Armagh c. assureth us pag. 160 That in An. 1640. There was a Book printed intituled The Bishop of Armaghs judgment to the House of Parliament concerning the Liturgy and Episcopal Government And in An. 164● another Book intituled Vox Hibernia being some pretended Notes of his at a Publique Fast Both these at his Petition were suppressed by Order from the House of Lords and Commons Feb. 11. 1641. And now revived to thrust out the other which is his Legitimate issue FINIS

Jayl birds who had been cast in before namely Thieves and perhaps Murderers and other Rogues and Malefactors for they are the usual Guests in such places Now if any such have taken the Solemn League and Covenant and are thereupon troubled in Conscience so as not to dare to set up the old Hierarchy again with some small refining let them repair to Dr. John to loose them of that band and he will do it But for the greater encouragement of such men and others that are for that Lordly Episcopacy and would gladly read his Book to be satisfied in Conscience therein I could wish the Title might be altered and put into the words of Martin Mar-prelate in answer to Dr. J. Bridges that had pleaded for such Bishops and their Trinkets onely changeing the Name that the Title of the Book might run thus O read Dr. John Gauden for it is a worthy Work Which how worthy it is we shall now further enquire by looking into the Book it self In prosecution whereof I shall industriously avoid the waste of so much time and paper as would be taken only up in pursuing all his out-leaps and extravagancies and use all possible brevity in opening some of the principal onely for the undeceiving of such as dote upon this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 8.10 or great one as if he were the great power of God The main scope of my present endeavour is this namely to make it manifest that this Doctor under pretence of giving that sober sense of the Covenant whereof he believeth it to be capable before God before all good Christians and in a mans own well-informed Conscience which he promiseth pag. 3 4. and to do it with freedom from passion and prejudice pag. 5. he directly laboureth to decry vilifie and blaspheme the Covenant it self and to make it odious as that which was sinfully taken at first and of necessity to be cast off and abhorred by all that have entred into it For more distinct proceeding therein I shall endeavour to make out these four Propositions 1. That he himself doth admit the Covenant to be in some sense lawful and good 2. That therein all sober Christians who understand themselves agree with him 3. That all this notwithstanding he endeavours to vilifie make odious and to destroy the Covenant it self 4. That maugre all his calumnies and malicious aspersions the Covenant even as to the point of extirpating that hierarchical Prelacy lately laid aside is to be constantly and conscienciously observed and kept in the right sense thereof by all that have taken it as they will avoid destruction here and damnation hereafter I. PROPOSITION That the Doctor himself doth admit the Covenant to be in some sense lawful and good 1. HIs own words before alledged where he saith he hath endeavoured to give that sober sense of the Covenant whereof he believeth it to be only capable before God before all good Christians and in a mans own well-informed Conscience is evidence enough against him at least that the Covenant is lawful and good How else could he give a sober sense of it which he believes would hold water before God all good men and a well informed Conscience 2. He tells us pag. 14. that he will look upon the Covenant with the best aspect considered in Conscience in the softest sense that can be made of it namely as a voluntary Vow or Religious Bond by some spontaneously taken in order to declare their sense of duty to God the King the Church their Country and the reformed Religion to make themselves more strictly sensible of the sacred and civil obligations respectively due to them that so they might be more ready to discharge them in their places and callings c. And is not this lawful and good He after addeth that he believeth that very few took it in any sense against Primitive Reformed and Regular Episcopacy so reduced to an efficacious conjunction with Presbytery as the most reverend Primate of Armagh proposed in his Reduction of Episcopacy Now if such a Reduction be necessary the Covenant in this sense cannot be unlawful but good 3. In pag. the 20. he saith The most strict and severe Covenanter cannot but be satisfied and absolved in point of Conscience if first he hath and still doth in his place and calling seasonably advise humbly petition and lawfully endeavour to reform what is truely amiss in the Church Government by Bishops Secondly If he use the like means to restore and preserve what he finds good and useful in Episcopacy They then that do not thus cannot be satisfied or absolved in point of Conscience therefore to do this by vertue of the Covenant is lawful and good 4. In his voluminous Book of Tears and Sighs c. pag. 448. he reckons up sundry evils defects and dangers incident to Episcopacy as namely pride ambition secular height and idle pomp a supercilious despiciency and Lordly Tyrannizing over other Ministers and the flocks of Christ under their inspection arrogating a power to do all things imperiously and alone without any regard either to that charitable satisfaction which was antiently given to Christian people or to that fraternal Counsel and concurrence which might and ought in reason to be had from learned and grave Presbyters c. Is not all this enough to prove from his own Pen That such a Covenant for extirpating such an Episcopacy is lawfully and good Indeed he would in the same breath fain extenuate this his unripping of the late Hierarchy by saying that this ariseth not from the function or imployment but from the persons of Bishops which he brings in by a parenthesis but when he had undertaken to enumerate the evils defects and dangers incident to Episcopacy it self of late in use How can these be separated from that Function And if they arise from the persons of Bishops do they not arise from the imployment of Episcopacy for how else could they be incident to Episcopacy That parenthesis then is but a piece of contradictory non-sense which can no way infringe the inference I have here made of it to confirm from the Author himself the first point here undertaken II. PROPSITION Herein all sober Christians who understand themselves agree with him HE is pleased indeed pag. 6. from Sir L.B. at whose motion * Pag. 3. he wrote and published that pamphlet to say that Sir L. B. a fit Patron for such a Proctor told him that many sober and honest men are by their once taking the Covenant so scared from all complyings with any Church-government under any name of Bishops or notion of Episcopacy never so reformed and regulated that they fear by looking back to the Primitive Catholique and Vniversal Government of this and all other antient Churches to be turned into pillars of Apostacy as Lots wife was into a pillar of Salt If the Knight told him so in these words we must needs admire the metamorphosis of a Cutler turned