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
A88612	A landskip: or a brief prospective of English episcopacy, drawn by three skilfull hands in Parliament: anno 1641.	Falkland, Lucius Cary, Viscount, 1610?-1643.; Fiennes, Nathaniel, 1607 or 8-1669.; Vane, Henry, Sir, 1612?-1662.; England and Wales. Parliament. House of Commons.	1660 (1660)	Wing L324; Thomason E1045_13; ESTC R202705	20,959	20

the Law of this Land it is against the Law and Light of Nature it is against the Law of GOD it is against the Lawes of this KINGDOME and that no obscure Lawes nor concerning any mean or petty matters It is against the Law of the Kings Supremacy in that it maketh Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans Arch-Deacons c. to be jure Divino whereas the Law of this Land hath annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm not only all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction but also all Superiority over the Ecclesiastical STATE and it is to be derived from him by Commission under the Great Seal and consequently it is Jure humane Again it is against the Oath of Supremacy established by Law point-blanck for therein I am sworn not only to consent unto but also to assist and to the uttermost of my power to defend all Jurisdictions Preheminences c. annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm of which this is one and that which immediately precedeth this Oath in the Statute and whereunto it doth especially relate that his Majesty may exercise any Jurisdiction or Ecclesiasticall Government by his Commission under the Great Seal directed to such persons as he shall think meet so that if he shall think other Persons meet than Arch-Bishops Bishops c. I am sworn in the Oath of Supremacy not only to assent thereunto but to assist and to the utrermost of my power defend such an appointment of his Majesty and in this new Oath I shall swear never to consent unto such an alteration In the like manner it is against the Law and Light of Nature that a man should swear to answer c. to he knowes not what It is against the Law and Light of Nature that a man should swear never to consent to alter a thing that in its own nature is alterable and may prove inconvenient and fit to be altered Lastly It is against the Law of God for whereas there are Three Rules prescribed to him that will swear aright that he swear in Judgement in Truth and Righteousness He that shall take this new Oath must needs break all these three Rules He cannot swear in judgment because this Oath is so full of ambiguities that he cannot tell what he swears unto not to speak of the unextricable ambiguity of the c. there is scarce one word that is not ambiguous in the principal part of the Oath as first what is meant by the Church of England whether all the Christians in England or whether the Clergy only or only the Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans c. or whether the Convocation or what In like manner it is as doubtfull what is meant by the Discipline and what by the Doctrine of the Church of England for what some call Superstitious Innovations if others affirm to be consonance to the Primitive and that the purest Reformation in the time of Edward the 6. and in the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and so for the Doctrine of the Church of England if all the Positions that of later years have been challenged by some of our Divines to be Arminian and Popish and contrary to the Articles of our Religion and which on the other side have been asserted and maintained as consonant to the Doctrine of our Church and the Articles of Religion were gathered together they might make a pretty Volumne nay Sancta Clara will maintain it in despire of the Puritans That the Doctrine of the Church of Rome is the Doctrine of the Church of England Truly it were very fit that we knew what were the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England before we swear to it and then Sir give me leave to say that I should be very loath to swear to the Discipline or to the Doctrine and Tenents of the purest Church in the World as they are collected by them farther than they agree with the Holy Scriptures Lastly It is as doubtfull what is meant by the Doctrine and Discipline established and what by altering and consenting to alter whether that is accompted or established which is established by Act of Parliament or whether that also that is established by Canons Injunctions c. and whether it shall not extend to that which is published by our Divines with the allowance of Authority and so for consenting to alter whether it be only meant that a man shall not be active in altering or whether it extend to any consent and so that a man shall not submit to it nor accept of it being altered by the State More ambiguities might be shewen but these are enough to make it clear that he that shall take this Oath cannot swear in judgment Nor can he swear in truth for it is full of untruths It is not true that Discipline is necessary to Salvation It is not true that Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans Arch-Deacons c. are Jure Divino as they must needs be if the Law-makers ought of right to establish them as they are established for the Law-makers are not bound as of right to frame their Lawes to any other than the Lawes of God alone Now whether Bishops be Jure Divino we know it is a Dispute amongst the Papists and never did any Protestant hold it till of late years but that Arch-bishops Deans Arch-Deacons c. should be Jure Divino I do not know that ever any Christian held it before and yet he that taketh this Oath must swear it Lastly As he that taketh this Oath cannot swear in judgment nor in truth so neither can he swear in righteousness for it is full of unrighteousness being indeed as hath been well opened a Covenant in effect against the King and Kingdome for if the whole STATE should finde it necessary to alter the Government by Arch-Bishops Bishops c. a great part of the Kingdome especially of the Gentry for not onely the Clergy but all that take degrees in the Universities are bound to take it will be preingaged not to consent to it or admit of it Again it is a great wrong to those that shall be Parliament men that their freedome shall be taken away being bound up by an Oath not to consent to the altering of a thing which it may be fit and proper for a Parliament to alter And suppose that for the present it be no hinderance to the service of God nor yet burdensome to the King and Kingdome yet if it should prove so hereafter for a man to be bound by an Oath never to consent to alter it may be a great wrong to God in his service and to the King and Kingdome in their peace and well-fare and therefore this Oath cannot be taken in righteousnesse For the other Oath de parendo juri Ecclesiae stando mandatis Ecclesiae though it make lesse noise than the other yet is it not of leste dangerous consequence If I remember well the Story this was the Oath that the Pope made King John to take and when he had

A Landskip OR A BRIEF PROSPECTIVE OF ENGLISH EPISCOPACY Drawn by three skilfull hands in PARLIAMENT Anno 1641. Say not then What is the cause that the former dayes were better than these for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this Eccles 7.10 Do men gather grapes of thornes or figgs of thistles Matth. 7.16 Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a morter among wheat with a pestle yet will not his foolishnesse depart from him Proverbs 27.27 Cursed be the Man before the Lord that builds up the walls of this City Jericho Josh 26.6 For if I build again the things that I have destroyed I make my self a Transgressor Galat. 2.18 Printed in the Year MDCLX To the Ingenuous and Judicious READER THou hast here put into thy hands three SPEECHES The First beares in its from the Name of the Learned and Renowned Authour The Lord Viscount FAULKELAND whose Name is annexed because First he was known to be a Friend to Episcopacy and so this verie Speech shewes him and therefore His Testimonie is the more Authentick Secondly Because he is now dead and so out of the reach of Envie and Revenge But the Names of the other two Gentlemen are concealed because they are yet living Two Things have moved the publishing of these at this time First It is supposed there are many Hundred Persons of considerable quality in the Nation either now entering or already entered upon the Stage for Action who were either unborn or at least very young when the Episcopal Controversie was agitated among us who are displeased with what the PARLIAMENT and Nation did against EPISCOPACY because they onelie knew what they did but not why and who are favourers of Bishops and that party as knowing onelie how much they suffered not how much they had offended For their sakes therefore these things are published at this time And Secondly For the sakes even of the BISHOPS themselves that they may be put in remembrance of the Rocks upon which formerlie they have dashed and may carefullie avoid them least a worse thing happen to them A SPEECH made to the House of Commons concerning Episcopacy An. D. 1641. By the Lord Viscount FAVLKELAND who was known to be no Presbyterian Master SPEAKER HE is a great Stranger in Israel who knowes not that this Kingdome hath long laboured under many and great Oppressions both in Religion and Liberty and his acquaintance here is not great or his ingenuity lesse who doth not both know and acknowledge that a great if not a principal cause of both these hath been some Bishops and their Adherents Mr. Speaker A little search will serve to find them to have been the destruction of Unity under pretence of Uniformity to have brought in Superstition and scandal under the Titles of Reverence and Decency to have defiled our Church by adorning our Churches to have slackned the strictnesse of that Union which was formerly between us and those of our Religion beyond the Sea An Action as unpolitick as ungodly Master Speaker We shall finde them to have Tith'd Mint and Annice and have left undone the weightier works of the Law to have been lesse eager upon those who damn our Church than upon those who upon weak conscience and perhaps as weak reasons the dislike of some commanded Garment or some uncommanded posture only abstained from it Nay it hath been more dangerous for men to go to some neighbours Parish when they had no Sermon in their own than to be obstinate and perpetual Recusants while Masses have been said in security a Conventicle hath been a crime and which is yet more the conforming to Ceremonies hath been more exacted than the conforming to Christianity and whilest men for Scruples have been undone for attempts upon Sodomie they have only been admonished Master Speaker We shall finde them to have been like the Hen in Aesop which laying every day an egge upon such a proportion of barly her Mistresse increasing her proportion in hope she would encrease her eggs she grew so fat upon that addition that she never laid more So though at first their Preaching were the occasion of their preferment they after made their Preferment the occasion of their not preaching Master Speaker We shall finde them to have resembled another Fable The Dog in the manger to have neither preached themselves nor imploy those that should nor suffer'd those that would To have brought in Catechising only to thrust out Preaching cried down Lectures by the Name of Factions either because their industry in that duty appeared a Reproof to their neglect of it not unlike to that we read of him who in Nero's time and Tacitus his Story was accused because by his vertue he did appear Exprobare vitia Principis or with intention to have brought in darknesse that they might the easier sow their tares while it was night and by that introduction of ignorance introduce the better that Religion which accounts it the Mother of Devotion Master Speaker In this they have abused his Majesty as well as his people for when he had with great wisdome since usually the children of darknesse are wiser in their Generation than the children of light I may guesse not without some eye upon the most politick action of the most politick Church silenced on both parts those Opinions which have often tormented the Church and have and will alway trouble the Schooles they made use of this Declaration to ty up one side and let the other loose whereas they ought either in discretion to have been equally restrained or in justice to have been equally tollerated And it is observable that that party to which they gave this License was that whose Doctrine though it were not contrary to Law was contrary to Custome and for a long while in this Kingdome was no oftener preached than recanted The truth is Master Speaker That as some ill Ministers in our State first took away our mony from us and after endeavoured to make our mony not worth the taking by turning it into brasse by a kinde of Antiphilosophers stone So these men used us in the point of Preaching first depressing it to their power and next labouring to make it such as the harm had not been much if it had been depressed the most frequent Subjects even in the most facred Auditories being the Jus divinum of Bishops and Tithes the sacrednesse of the Clergy the Sacriledge of Impropriations the demolishing of Puritanisme and Propriety the building of the prerogative at Pauis the introduction of such Doctrines as admitting them true the truth would not recompense the scandal or of such as were so farr false that as Sir Thomas Moore sayes of the Casuists Their businesse was not to keep men from sinning but to enform them Quam propè ad peccatum sine peccato liceat accedere so it seemed their work was to try how much of a Papist might be brought in without Popery and to destroy as much as they could of

sworn stare mandatis Ecclesiae the Pope commanded him to resigne his Kingdome to him and truly be he Gentleman or Nobleman or whatever else when he hath once put his neck into this noose his Ghostly Fathers may drag him whither they will for they have the quantity and the quality of the penance in their own brests and if they shall enjoyn him to give any Sum towards the building of a Church or the adorning of a Choppel he must pay it or if they should enjoyn him any servile or base Action as there are not wanting Examples of that kinde in the time of Popery they are sworn stare mandatis Ecclesiae and so cannot recede but must performe it Nay I dare not warrant any man from the rods of Henry the second or of Raymond of Tholouze what hath been done may be done I am fure the power is the same And that other Oath also though more usual in practice and more confirmed by these new Canons which is administred to Church-Wardens would be looked into For it is hardly possible for them that take it not to be forsworn being they sware to so many particulars that they cannot mind and to some that they cannot understand as how many Church-Wardens are there in England that understand what Socinianisme is in case they be sworn to present the Offenders against that Canon which concerns that matter I shall only add a word or two concerning two Canons more which seem to be Canons of Reformation The First is concerning Excommunication to be pronounced only by a Divine wherein it is alledged for the Framers of these Canons that if they have not more Law on their sides yet they may seem to have more reason For my part as in all other things I think they have so mended the matter that they have made it farr worse for before that which was found fault with was this That a Lay man did that which the grave Divine should have done and now the grave Divine must do whatever the Lay man would have done for the cognoscence of the Cause and the power of Judicature is wholly in the Lay man only the grave Divine is to be his servant to execute his Sentences and hath such a kinde of managing the spiritual sword allowed only unto him as the Papists in some cases were wont to afford unto the Civil Magistrate in respect of the temporal sword for as if the Civil sword by an implicite faith had been pinned to the Lawn sleevs they condemned men of Heresie and then delivered them over to the Secular Power but what to do not to have any cognisance of the cause nor to exercise any power of judicature but only to be their Executioners and to burn the Heretick whom they had condemned and so they judged men excommunicate and then the Civil Power was to send out Writts de excommunicato capiendo against them But one said well that the sword without Cognisance of the cause and judgment was like Polyphemus without his eye it became violence and fury but being accompanied with the eye of judgment it is equity and justice and surely where the Spiritual or Civil Governour is called upon to strike he must be allowed to see and judg whom and wherefore he strikes otherwise he will be able to give but an ill accompt to God of the managing of the sword wherewith he is instructed The other Canon is the Last Canon against Vexatious Citations wherein they seem to have some sence of the great grievance that poor people lye under by occasion of Vexatious Citations and Molestations in Ecclesiastical Courts and I verily believe that there is not a greater Oppression in the whole Kingdome upon the poorer sort of people than that which proceedeth out of these Courts But now Sir Let us see what provision they have made against it by this Canon They say because great grievances may fall upon people by citations upon pretence only of the breach of that law without any presentment or any other just ground that no citations grounded onely as aforesaid shall issue out except it be under the hand and Seal of the Chancellour Commissary Arch-Deacon or other competent Judg so that if there be any sence in these words though there be no Presentment at all nor any other just ground yet a citation may issue out so it be under the hand and Seal of the Chancellour Commissary or other competent Judg and the party shall not be discharged without paying his Fees nor have any relief by this Canon But suppose the Citation be not under the hand and Seal of any Competent Judge and that there was neither Presentment nor any just grounds for it shall he then be dismissed without paying any Fees no unless first contrary to the Law of Nature there being no Presentment nor just ground of Accusation against him he shall by his Oath purge himself of pretended breaches of Law and then too he shall only have the Fees of the Court remitted but shall have no satisfaction for his troublesome and chargeable journey and for the losse of his time and being drawn away from his Affairs Nay least they should seem to have been too liberal of their favour they add a Proviso in the close of the Canon that this grace of theirs shall not extend to any grievous crime as Schisme incontinency misbehaviour in the Church or obstinate Inconformity And what do they call misbehaviour in the Church It a man do not kneel at the Confession or have his hat on when the Lessons are reading In like manner what do they call obstinate inconformity If a man will not think what they would have him think If a man will not say what they would have him say if a man will not swear what they would have him swear if a man will not read what they would have him read if a man will not preach what they would have him preach if a man will not pray what they would have him pray In short if a man will not do whatever they would have him do then he is an inconformist and after that they have duely admonished him primò secundò tertiò all in one breath then he is contumacious then he is an obstinate Inconformist Now Sir my humble Motion is that in consideration of all the Premises and what besides hath been well laid open by others we should proceed to damn these Canons not only as contrary to the Lawes of the Land but also as containing sundry matters destructive of the right of Parliaments and of the fundamentall and other principal Lawes of this Kiagdome and otherwise of very dangerous consequence A SPEECH in the House of Commons at a Committee for the Bill against Episcopal-Government Mr Hide sitting in the Chair June 11 1641. Mr. Hide THE debate we are now upon is whether the Government by Archbishops Bishops Chancellors c. should be taken away out of the Church and Kingdom of England for

so fresh I need eater into no particulars A second fruit of this Government in the Church hath been the displacing of the most godly and Conscientious Ministers the vexing punishing and banishing out of the Kingdom the most religious of all sorts and conditions that would not comply with their superstitious inventions and Ceremonies in one word the turning the edge and power of their Government against the very life and power of Godliness and the favour and protect on of it unto all prophane scandalous and superstitious persons that would uphold their party Thousands of examples might be given of this if it were not most notorious A third fruit hath been Schism and Fractions within our selves and alienation from all the reformed Churches abroad And lastly the prodigious monster of the late Canons whereby they had designed the whole Nation to a perpetual slavery and bond age to themselves and their superstitious Inventions These are the fruits of the Government in the Church Now let us consider these in the Civil State As 1. The countenaucing all illegal Projects and proceedings by teaching in their Pulpits the lawfulness of an arbitrary Power 2. The overthrowing all process at Common Law that reflected never so little upon their Courts 3. The kindling a War between these two Nations and blowing up the flame as much as in them lay by their Councels Canons and Subsidles they granted to that end 4. The plots practises and combinations during this Parliament in all which they seem to have been interested more or less Thus have they not contented themselves with encroachments upon our spiritual priviledges but have envied us our civil freedom desiring to make us grind in their mill as the Philistims did Sampson and to put out both our eyes O let us be avenged of these Philistims for our two eyes If then the tree be to be known by its fruits I hope you see by this time plainly the nature and quality of this tree In the last place give me leave for a close of all to present to your consideration the mischiefs which the continuance of this Government doth threaten us with if by the wisdom of this Committee they be not prevented 1. The danger our Religion must ever be in so long as it is in the hands of such Governors as can stand firmly in nothing more than its ruine and whose affinity with the Popish Hieratchy makes them more confident of the Papists than the Professors of the reformed Religion for their safety and subsistence 2. The unhappy condition our civil State is in whilst the Bishops have vete in the Lords House being there as so many obstructions in our body Politick to all good and wholsom Laws tending to salvation 3. The improbability of setling any firm or durable peace so long as the cause of the war yet continues and the bellowes that blow up this flame 4. And that which I will assure you goes nearest my heart is the check which we seem to give to divine Providence if we do not at this time pull down this Government For hath not this Parl. been call'd continued preserved and secured by the immediate finger of God as it were for this work had we not else been swallowed up in many inevitable dangers by the practises and designs of these men and their party hath not God left them to themselves as well in these things as in the evil administration of their Government that he might lay them open unto us and lead us as it were by the hand from the finding them to be the causes of our evil to discern that their rooting up must be our only cure Let us not then halt any longer between two opinions but with one heart and resolution give glory to God in complying with his providence and with the good safety and peace of this Church and State which is by passing this Bill we are now upon FINIS

the right stating whereof we must remember the Vote which past yesterday not only by this Committee but the House which was to this effect That this Government hath been sound by long experience to be a great impediment to the perfect Reformation and growth of Religion and very prejudicial to the civil State So that then the Question will lie thus before us Whether a Government which long experience hath set so ill a Character upon importing danger not only to our Religion but the civil State should be any longer continued amongst us or be utterly abolished For my own part I am of the opinion of those who conceive that the strength of reason already set down in the Preamble to this Bill by yesterdaies Vote is a necessary decision of this Question For one of the main ends for which Church-government is set up is to advance and further the perfect reformation and growth of Religion which we have already voted this Government doth contradict so that it is destructive to the very end for which it should be and is most necessary and desirable in which respect certainly we have cause enough to lay it aside not only as useless in that it attains not its end but as dangerous in that it destroys and contradicts it In the second place we have voted it prejudicial to the civil State as having so powerful and ill an influence upon our Laws the Prerogative of the King and Liberties of the Subject that it is like a spreading leprosie which leaves nothing untainted and uninfected which it comes near May we not therefore well say of this Government as our Saviour in the fifth of Matthew speaks of salt give me leave upon this occasion to make use of Scripture as well as others have done in this debate where it is said that salt is good but if the salt hath lost its savour wherewith will you season it It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and troden under foot of men so Church-government in the general is good and that which is necessary and which we all desire but when any particular form of it hath once lost its savour by being destructive to its own ends for which it is set up as by our Vote already pasted we say this hath then furely Sir we have no more to do but to cast it out and endeavour the best we can to provide our selves a better But to this it hath been said that the Government now in question may be so amended and reformed that it needs not be quite pulled down or abolished because it is conceived it hath no original sin or evil in it or if it have it is said regeneration will take that away Unto which I answer I do consent that we should do with this Government as we are done by in regeneration in which all old things are to pass away and all things are to become new and this we must do if we desire a persect reformation and growth of our Religion or good to our civil state For the whole Fabrick of this building is so rotten and corrupt from the very foundation of it to the top that if we pull it not down now it will fall about the cars of all those that endeavour it within a very few years The universal rottenness or corruption of this government will most evidently appear by a disquisition into these ensuing particulars First Let us consider in what soil this root grows Is it not in the Popes Paradise do not one and the same principles and grounds maintain the Papacy or universal Bishop as do our Diocesan or Metropolitan Bishops All those authorities which have been brought us out of the Fathers and antiquity will they not as well if not better support the Popedom as the order of our Bishops So like wise all these arguments for its agreeableness to Monarchy and cure of Schism do they not much more strongly hold for the acknowledgment of the Pope than for our Bishops and yet have Monarchies been ever a whit the more absolute for the Popes universal Monarchy or their Kingdoms lesse subject to schismes and seditions whatsoever other Kingdoms have been I am sure our Histories can tell us this Kingdom hath not and therefore we have cast him off long since as he is forteign though we have not been without one in our own bowels For the difference between a Metropolitan or Diocesan or universal Bishop is not of kinds but of degrees and a Metropolitan or Diocesan Bishop is as ill able to perform the duty of a Pastor to his Diocess or Province as the universal Bishop is able to do it to the whole world for the one cannot do but by Deputies and no more can the other and therefore since we all confess the grounds upon which the Papacy stands are rotten how can we deny but these that maintain our Bishops are so too since they are one and the same In the second place let us consider by what hand this root of Episcopacy was planted and how it came into the Church It is no difficult matter to find this out for is not the very spirit of this order a spirit of pride exalting it self in the Temple of God over all that is called God First exalting it self above its fellow-Presbyters under the form of a Bishop then over its fellow Bishops under the title of Archbisnops and so still mounting over those of its own profession till it come to be Pope and then it sticks not to tread upon the necks of Princes Kings and Emperors and trample them under its feet Also thus you may trace it from its first rise and discern by what spirit this order came into the Church and by what door even by the back-door of pride and ambition not by Christ Jesus It is not a plant which Gods right hand hath planted but is full of rottenness and corruption that mystery of iniquity which hath wrought thus long and so fit to be plucked up and removed out of the way Thirdly Let us consider the very nature and quality of this tree or root in its self whether it be good or corrupt in its own nature we all know where it is said A good tree cannot bring forth corrupt fruit nor a corrupt tree good fruit Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles By its fruit therefore we shall be sure to know it and according as the fruits of the Government have been amongst us either in Church or Common wealth so let it stand or fall with us In the Church 1. AS it self came in by the back door into the Church and was brought in by the spirit of Antichrist so it self hath been the back-door and in-let of all superstition and corruption into the worship and doctrine of this Church and the means of hastening us back again to Rome For proof of this I appeal to all our knowledges in late years past the memory whereof is