Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	world_n	worship_n	zeal_n	152	3	7.5881	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A71273	The verdict upon the dissenters plea, occasioned by their Melius inquirendum to which is added A letter from Geneva, to the Assembly of Divines, printed by His late Majesties special command, with some notes upon the margent under his own royal and sacred hand : also a postscript touching the union of Protestants.	Womock, Laurence, 1612-1685.; Diodati, Giovanni, 1576-1649. Answer sent to the ecclesiastical assembly at London by the reverend, noble, and learned man, John Deodate.	1681 (1681)	Wing W3356; ESTC R36681	154,158	329

Men preach such as they print with Publick Allowance and therefore they ought to provide better for their Souls elsewhere Especially they say That the Doctrine of Justification is Articulus stantis vel cadentis Ecclesiae an Article with which the Church falls or stands This Article say they in the Parish where we live is quite demolish'd by the Doctrine of Justification by Works We are bound therefore to provide for our safety and depart and when We are once out We will advise upon another Church not which is tolerable but which is most eligible and in all things nearest the Word p. 161 Sect. 5. They plead That there 's no Obligation upon them to own the Churches Power to impose new Terms of Communion unless the Church can prove her Power from Christ. It 's not for them to disprove it it lies upon her to prove it and to prove it substantially too or else it will be hard to prove it their duty to own it p. 181 Sect. 6. They say The World is pestered with Disputes about Worship about Religion and therefore since All cannot be in the right they are willing to go the safest Way and worship God according to his Word If the things disputed be lawful to be done let them be so they are sure it is lawful to let them alone And they think there 's no great hazard in keeping to Scripture Rule nor can believe that Christ will send any to Hell because they did not worship God in an external Mode more neat and spruce them God commanded p. 190 Sect. 7. They pretend That the things impos'd are parts of Worship which none can create but God nor will God accept of any but such as are of his own creating and whether they be Integral or Essential parts They do not know but in the Worship of God they find them standing upon even ground with those that are certainly Divine or at least as high as Man can lift them p. 196 Sect. 8. They do not find that God ever commanded the things imposed either in General in Special or their Singulars If God has commanded a duty to be done the Church must find a place to do it in But though the Church must find a place for the Duty a time for the Duty she may not find new Duty for the Time and Place p. 216 Sect. 9. They are the more cautious of all Ceremonies because the Old Church of England in her Homilies Serm. 3. of Good Works tells us That such hath been the corrupt Inclination of Man superstitiously given to make new Honouring of God of his own head and then to have more Affection and Devotion to keep that than to search out God's holy Commandments and do them p. 247 Sect. 10. They say They have read over all the Books that have been written in Justification of those things and they find their Arguments so weak their Reasons so frivolous that setting aside Rhetorick and Railing there 's nothing in them but what had been either Answered by others or is contradicted by themselves which hardens them in their Errour who are gone astray into the right Way p. 254 Sect. 11. They say It 's their Duty to endeavour a Reformation according to the Word which if others will not they cannot help it and hope they will not be angry with the Willing p. 262 A Fresh Inquiry Into the PLEA of the NON-CONFORMISTS c. SECT I. THey plead that some things are imposed upon their Faith tendred to subscription as Articles of Faith which are either false or at least they have not yet been so happy as to discover the truth of them In Article 20. they are required to subscribe this Doctrine The Church hath Power to decree Rites and Ceremonies Which Clause of the Article as we fear it hath been by some indirect means shuffled into the Article it not being found in the Authentick Articles of Edw. 6. so it proves also that the Terms of Communion have been enlarged since the first Times of the Reformation The Answer The Articles of the Church of England are not imposed under Oath nor required to be received with a like affection and piety as the holy Scriptures are nor to be believed as Articles of Faith further then they can approve themselves to be contained in the Holy Scriptures For the Sixth of those Articles declares thus Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an Article of the Faith or be thought requisite and necessary to salvation The moderation of the Church of England herein is evinced in another Treatise viz. The Proselyte of Rome called back c. p. 7. to the 10. There is no Protestant Church of any creditable denomination more moderate and ingenious in this point then ours is To keep them from Sects and Corruptions and tie them up close to the Doctrine of the Augustan Confession we find it decreed among the Lutherans Nemo quicunque sit That no man whatsoever shall be admitted to any Office or Ministry in their Churches Schools or otherwise nor shall any such be tolerated therein unless they shall approve and receive such a body of Doctrine as there mentioned and shall persevere therein and neither by word nor deed oppose the same And it is further decreed and established That if any shall be but suspected as contradicting those Doctrines and the unanimous consent therein if they refuse to be better instructed and give no place to the Fatherly admonitions of others their Superiours they shall be removed from their Offices or Employments or else their names shall be signified that due execution of punishment may proceed against them as persons refractory and contumacious And 't is their practice too upon occasion to make their Ministers and Professors to renounce such opinions as are declared to be erroneous sub jurisjurandi sacramento even under the Sacrament of a solemn Oath And the Calvinists are no less strict in this point The Proxies or Deputies to be sent from the Provinces to the National Synod as is expressed in the Form of the Letters written à Synodo Victoriacensi in Brittain are tied to this Solemn Engagement Promittimus coram Deo c. that is We do promise before God that we will submit our selves to all things which shall be agreed and decreed by your holy Assembly and will execute the same with all our power because we are persuaded that God presides over it and that he will direct you by his Holy Spirit according to the rule of his Word into all truth and equity Here we have a promise of submission made before God by a kind of implicit Faith and blind Obedience to the Decrees of a Synod of Calvinists before the Convention of it And this is grounded upon a Divine persuasion else with what confidence can they

47 and 48. and as I remember before the year 1650. They were quite out of request and laid in the dust And have not the Independents their peculiar Terms of Communion too And are not these new likewise The Synod of Charenton 1644. takes notice of their Error that they teach Vnamquamque Ecclesiam suis propriis Legibus ita gubernari debere c. That every Church ought so to be governed by its own Laws that in matters Eccclesiastical it be subject to no other nor depend upon any other nor is it bound to acknowledge the Authority of any Conference or Synods in reference to its own Government and Administration Of which Error that Synod of Charenton gives this Sentence Esse hanc Sectam tam Reipublicae quam Ecclesiae perniciosam absurdis quibuscunque insanisque Commentis viam aperire omnes iis medendi rationes tollere ac si illi sententiae locus esset Posse tot Religiones fingi quot Paraeciae privativè Conventus forent That is this Sect is pernicious both to Church and Common-wealth it opens a gap to all absurd and mad inventions whatsoever it takes away all the ways and means of healing them and if way should be given to that opinion there would be as many Religions as there are Parishes or private Meetings By this we see that the Protestants of France do not agree with the Independents of England about the Terms of Communion But in truth if the business be sifted to the very bottom the Question is not so much about the Power it self For these Dissenters suppose it in all their own expedients which they propose but really the question is What hands shall menage this Power The Laws of Christ and his Apostles of Church and State have placed the Power in few hands to make the Government the more Regular in it self the more safe to the King and the more easy to the Subject But these Dissenters would put it into every Parish Priest and so set up ten thousand Independent Jurisdictions in the Kingdom And such a Church as this is most Eligible in their Conceit The Dissenters Sixth Section THey say the World is pester'd with Disputes about Worship about Religion and therefore since all cannot be in the right they are willing to go the safest way and Worship God according to his word If the things disputed be lawful to be done let 'em be so they are sure it 's lawful to let 'em alone and they think there 's no great hazard in keeping to Scripture Rule nor can believe that Christ will send any to Hell because they did not worship God in an external Mode more neat and spruce than God Commanded Answer The World is pester'd with Disputes about Religion Hereupon some men resolve they 'le trouble themselves with none at all Wo be to them by whom this scandal is given I pray from whence come these Wars and Fightings amongst us The Reformation silenced them and setled Vniformity to establish Peace Some men are of restless Spirits and can never study to be quiet making it their business to disturbe the repose of Christendom And all the Disputes for these 40. years and we may say ever since the Reformation whether menaged by Pen or otherwise have been commenced and carried on against this Church of England by the Jesuits and Dissenters And upon what account this is done as to our Dissenting Brethren Mr. Baxter has told us long ago in these words Every one must needs reduce all others to his opinion as if his Judgment were the infallible Standard of Verity and so we have proved too proud and uncharitable while we would be Orthodox overmuch And a little after he gives good Advice if he had been stedfast enough to follow it I advise my Brethren to prepare their weapons against the Papists and Socinians and Antinomians above all other Sects and to associate speedily and carry on all their work in Vnity if ever they will succeed 2. 'T is sure all cannot be in the right 't is fit therefore we should take some pains to learn the safest way But self-conceit and the private Spirit are the worst Guides in the World He that is wise in his own eyes is very apt to put darkness for light and light for darkness Isai. 5. 20. The Holy Ghost has observ'd this to our hands and adviseth us therefore not to lean to our own understanding For as that devout man said He that is his own Scholar has a Fool to his Master The neerer the Fountain the clearer the Stream God calls upon us to tread the good Old way sends us to the Law and the Testimony But as he gave the word so he gave the Preachers too The Priests lips should preserve knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth In difficult matters God did refer earnest and cordial Inquirers to the sentence of such as were in Authority Deut. 1. 7 Our Saviour did not slight that Order wherein that Dispensation was on foot but lik'd it so well as he did many other of those Institutions that he transcribed it into his Gospel and adopted it into the practice of his Church They sit in Moses Chair c. Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves Heb. 13. 7 17. And if a Dic Ecclesiae be of so great Authority in our Saviours account to decide our civil differences much more those of a Spiritual and Religious nature as Schism and Heresie which belong more properly to her Cognizance 3. Whereas they say there 's no great hazard I say there 's none at all in worshipping God according to his word and keeping to Scripture-rule provided we rightly understand it For Luther observes there are two sorts of Prophets hinted at by Moses that should rise up against sound Doctrine One should come in the name of the Lord and bring the word of God and holy Scripture with them Such should be the Jews in Christ's time who alledged the Scripture against the Gospel for the Righteousness of the Law and such should be Hereticks after them c. Men will wrest the Scriptures to serve their own Hypothesis Is any thing more clear than the Scripture-rule for Governors that they set all things in order where it is not done to their hands and then to see that in the worship and service of God all things be done decently according to that Order And that these are the Commandments of God And the Scripture-rule for such as are under Authority is as plain as words can make it Heb. 13. 7 17. and yet if there were no such Scripture-rule common Reason would infer the Duty Where some are impowered to give Orders others are under an obligation to observe them Else Authority is Nugatory and ridiculous as has been observed formerly 4. If the things disputed be lawful to be done we are not of these Dissenters opinion that 't is lawful

have Liberty to misinform or tell a lie in representing Matters of Fact otherwise than they are Nor has Conscience any Liberty in the Third Office in determining the Case for then it should have Liberty to be an unjust judge to absolve or Condemn that is to pass Sentence contrary to the Evidence and Verdict 'T is true an evil Conscience may now make use of many shifts tergiverses and evasions but at the Grand Assize or time of Judgment God will beat it off from all its Subterfuges and starting holes He will rectifie and refine it and make it a faithful Suffragan to him in that exercise of his Jurisdiction For then the Synteresis call'd sometimes the inward man shall fully consent to the Law of God that it is Holy and Just and Good And for the breach of that Law which is Matter of Fact it will be a thousand witnesses And in the issue of the Trial it will subscribe to the Sentence of the Judge in a due acknowledgment of his Justice saying with the Angel out of the Altar Even so Lord God Almighty true and just are thy judgments Thus it will be at that great Day And now all the Liberty that a good Conscience has or can pretend to is a freedom from the Power of Satan and the Law of Sin from the rigour and yoak of Moses his Dispensation to do our duty to God and Man to work or forbear working without hesitation or scruple according to the Injunctions or Permissions of the Gospel The measures whereof we have already given some account of if I be not much mistaken to a reasonable Satisfaction Here if it be a digression it is very pardonable to take notice of a sort of busie men who seem to carry on a subtil Project and there are more than one o' foot under this disguise of Liberty of Conscience They make love to natural Religion choose her for their Mistress and cry up her Discipline to so great a height as if Christ and his Apostles came out of her School and the Moral of the Gospel were to be taken from the Philosophy of the Heathens I know very well we may borrow Jewels of the Egyptians provided we do not turn them into Idols or value them above the Gospel-Pearl which is truely Orient For the Apostle tells us of the Heathens that when they knew God they did not glorifie him as God That professing themselves to be wise they became fools for their foolish heart was darkned and they changed the Glory of the uncorruptible God not only into an Image made like to corruptible man but also to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things and worshipped and served the Creature more than the Creator In their Theology which was that wisdom which had God for the object They knew not God and generally their Morals were as Corrupt as their Divinity Hence the Apostle saith After that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe 1 Cor. 1. 21. Yet this Natural Religion is laid down with much Art and embellished with great Commendations as an immoveable foundation for Liberty of Conscience And this Liberty of Conscience is by several Engineers set up to supplant the present Church of England And this done the Great Mysteries of our Faith and the Institutions of the Gospel will with little difficulty be depretiated at the first and at last utterly evacuated and exploded Then the Socinian System or Model of Divinity will pass for Currant and That by subtile Wits will easily by degrees be reconcil'd to the Alcoran And what will the issue be but this Men at the long run will be at a loss for their Religion They will see the Holy Sacraments laid aside if not trampled under foot as obsolete or Temporary Institutions the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity accounted a vain Speculation of doting Schoolmen the Incarnation of the Eternal Son of God an incomprehensible and unaccountable thing and an Omnipotent Redeemer with his satisfaction and pretious merits but an useless imagination And in fine what will all this amount to Pious and Sober persons will in time not only be awakened but offended at it and will think themselves highly concern'd also to search tho' it be among the much Rubbish of the Church of Rome to find out the Primitive Christianity This I confess will be the furthest way about but it will advance the Jesuits design as certainly as if it were accomplish't by a shorter Method Which would very well become the wisdom of our Governors to take into their most serious consideration But to return Our great Patrons of Liberty are wont to rely much upon that charge of the Apostle Gal. 5. 1. Stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not intangled again with the or in a yoak of bondage But what is that Liberty he writes of He is writing unto Gentiles And the Gentile world the creature which the Apostle mentions Rom. 8. 21. was to be delivered from the bondage of Corruption à jugo servitute corruptionis Peccaminosae from the yoak and bondage of a peccaminous or sinful corruption that is from the Bondage of their lusts and depraved affections under which they lay so long inthral'd into the noble Liberty of the Sons of God This is a Liberty not of the brain but of the heart Freedom from the Power of Sin to serve God which is to reign and that is the glorious Liberty of God's Children I shall run the way of thy Commandments when thou hast set my heart at Liberty Psal. 119. The Liberty the Apostle speaks of is opposed to a yoak but 't is not to be understood of every yoak for there is a yoak of Privilege as well as a yoak of bondage such is Christ's yoak and this yoak we are obliged to take upon us Mat. 11. 29 30. This yoak is his Law Mat. 28. 20. which consists of Two Tables and this yoak is made up of both The Commands and Ordinances of the Civil Magistrate are a part of this yoak and we must submit our necks to that 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. Rom. 13. 1. The Orders and Injunctions of the Church are another part of this yoak and we must put our Necks under that too or else we are to be look't upon as Publicans Heathens Mat. 18. 17. And that we may not be at a loss for the Church our Saviour has committed the Keys thereof to certain Select Persons that we may know who have the right and power to govern in his stead And to their Discipline we are to submit 1 Cor. 5. 4 5. And Chap. 14. 40. This is a yoak which we must not shake off Hebr. 13. 17 Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves Mr. Calvin does not doubt at all but the Apostle speaks of the Governours

he is not offended Hence proceeds that tremulous aversion to such things as God has no where forbidden as if the use of them were sinful This the Apostle reproves in the Colossians Touch not taste not handle not Coloss. 2. 20. Whence this Observation does naturally arise That such as are afraid they should offend God and wound their Conscience by the use and practice of such things as God hath not forbidden are Superstitious And into what absurdities and extravagant Whimsies this humor will carry men we may read as has been said in Mr. Calvin if our own Experience were not pregnant with Examples to that purpose How many men have formerly and do still trouble themselves and the Church of God upon this account Sensi enim saepe dolens gemens multas infirmorum perturbationes fieri per quorundam fratrum Contentiosam Obstinationem Superstitiosam timiditatem c. They are the Complaint of the Great St. Austin I have seen with grief and sorrow that the weaker sort are much disturb'd by the Contentious Obstinacy and Superstitious timorousness of certain Brethren who in matters of this indifferent nature which can be brought to no issue either by the Authority of the Holy Scripture or the Tradition of the Universal Church or upon the account of their being beneficial towards the amendment of life but only because they fancy they have some reason for them or some forreign practice which they esteem so much the more learned because it is the more remote Tam litigiosas excitant quaestiones ut nisi quod ipsi faciunt nihil rectum existiment They raise such litigious Questions and Disputes hereupon that they will allow nothing to be right but what they do themselves Which is as true a Character of our Dissenters as if St. Austin had been alive and acquainted with their disposition and practice before he wrought it Fear is a Passion very apt to enthral us and a fear upon the account of Religion most of all This Fear many times sets up strange Opinions in mens minds and when these are once framed Humanum ingenium quod suum est illic recognoscit recognitum libentiùs amplectitur quàm optimum aliquid quod suae vanitati minùs conveniret 'T is the Nature of man to recognize his own Conceptions and not only to acknowledge them but to be fond of them and prefer them before the best things which contradict their Vanity 3. Being wedded to these New Fangles the issue of their own imaginations out of devotion to them they Sacrifice they offer up the very Commandments of God and perhaps by this means they run into Idolatry as well as Superstition though such as are most concern'd therein are not presently sensible of the guilt of it I am sure St. Austin and St. Hierome are both of this Judgment Perverse Opinions says Hierome are the Graven and Molten Images which are adored by such as frame them in their Imaginations Comment l. 1. in Habak 2 and in Dan. 3. Qui falsum Dogma componunt They which set on foot a false Opinion set up an Image and as much as lies in their power by their Perswasion they compel others to fall down and worship the Idol of their Falshood And again in his Commentary upon Jerem. 32. Sed usque hodiè in Templo Dei quae interpretatur Ecclesia c. Even at this day saith he in the Temple of God which is interpreted to be the Church or in the hearts and minds of Believers an Idol is set up when a New Doctrine is broached and as is said in Deuteronomy the 4th is worshipped in secret Nor does that Doctor rest here but he saith further in that second of Habakuk Si quando videris aliquem nolle cedere veritati c. When thou seest a man that will not yield to Truth but persist still in his Error and studied opposition when the falshood of his Doctrines is made manifest thou maist very fitly say Sperat in figmento suo facit simulachra mu●a vel surda He puts his trust in his own figment and frames to himself dumb or deaf Idols Nor does St. Austin differ in his Judgment for he says plainly They are involved in a baser kind of Superstition Idolatry and Servitude who worship their own Fancies than they who worship the Host of Heaven His words are these Est alius deterior inferior cultus simulachrorum c. There is another inferiour and baser kind of Idolatry when men worship their own Fancies and whatever the Imagination sets up in the mind through pride or fear Religionis nomine observant They observe it strictly as their Religion Now whether these Dissenters out of zeal to their Negative Superstition Touch not a Surplice sign not with the Cross kneel not at the Sacrament c. do not peremptorily reject the express Command of God for Obedience to their Governours let all sober men and the World judge 4. I would ask this Question Do these Dissenters value those Homilies or do they not If they trust our Reformers for that Observation they have reason also to believe them that there is no such peril of Superstition in those Ceremonies which the Church then enjoyned and they themselves practised for I hope their insinuation should not be more prevalent to keep them from Superstition than their constant practice to keep them in Obedience especially when 't is evident that their Disobedience runs them into one sort of Superstition which in the general they pretend to be so very shy of that they can overlook an express and necessary duty to avoid it The Dissenters Tenth Section THey say they have read over all the Books that have been written in justification of those things and they find their Arguments so weak their Reasons so futilous that setting aside Rhetorick and Rayling there 's nothing in them but what had been either answered by others or is contradicted by themselves which hardens them in their Error who are gon astray into the right way The Answer 1. He saith they are gon astray into the right way This is no time for Bullbaiting therefore if they have a mind to gad let them take their jest along to make merry with But Corah had as fair a way and as safe a Convoy too in his own conceit Yet St. Jude was of another Judgment and we know he fell into the Pit at last And 't is somewhat an unlucky expression To go astray into the right way For we read of wandring stars whose Motion if we may believe any old Philosophy is very Regular in respect of the first mover and so they are in the right way But they have Erratick Motions of their own and to these were those false-teachers resembled by St. Jude who are said to wander because really they do so by their fluctuation in their Doctrines Deviation from the common Practice of the Church and

tyranny and oppressive Yoke of the Pope c. What is the Reason we cannot live by the same Laws and perform the like Obedience as our Forefathers did After such Elogies of that Queens times and such acclamations after her is it not a wonder to see men act so Counter to her Laws and Government And is it not clear that the Change is solely in our selves That our hearts are not frought with the like Loyalty as theirs was and that we do not govern our selves by the same Principles of Duty and honour as they did For shame let every man lay his hand upon his heart and consult his own Reason and be awakned to some degree of temper and sobriety for 't is as clear as the Sun at noon day that the change is not in the Constitution of the Government but in the Principles of our Loyalty and affection to the King and Church For Have we Popish Plots now among us So they had in the days of Queen Elizabeth Are there attempts upon the life of our dread Soveraign So there were likewise upon the life of Queen Elizabeth Have we designes on foot to extinguish the Protestant Religion to Subvert the Government and introduce the Popish Tyranny and Usurpation over us The very same things were in agitation in the days of Queen Elizabeth Did the Queen and her Council therefore bend all there force against those Popish Conspirators and indulge the Dissenters of the other Factions No They know their Principles were no less Destructive to the establisht Government and therefore they had an equal Eye and Check upon them and provided to fortify the Government against them both What Do we pretend to be wiser than the Queen and her whole Council Or do we take new Measures espouse new principles and resolve upon new Models and Forms of Government if so how this course will tend to the preservation of the King's Person the Protestant Religion and Government established let wise men judge But if it appears further that these Dissenters do manage and carry on the same designs with the Jesuites and Popish Party espouse and maintain the same Principles and improve the Popish Plots to their own ends of unhinging the Government to get the Power into their own hands what Vnion or Communion can be expected with them Nor are these Hypotheses the Chimera's of a distempred Brain or the wild Caprichio's of an idle Fancy our proofs of them come nothing short of Demonstration for indeed they are matters of Fact and we shall produce no less than Three Witnesses apiece to establish them 1. That they study to improve all Po-Pish Plots to advance their own ends is observed by many Judicious worthy Persons The Reverend Dean of St. Pauls takes special notice what influence the Discovery of the late most horrid Plot had upon these men and tells us We were still in hopes that men so wise so self-denying as the Non-Conformist-Ministers represented themselves to the World would in so Critical a time have made some steps or advances towards an Vnion with us Instead of this those we discoursed with seem'd further off than before and when we least expected such a blow under the name of a Plea for Peace out comes a Book which far better deserved the Title of A Plea for Disorder and Separation not without frequent sharp and bitter Reflections on the Communion of our Church and the Conformity required by Law as tho it had been design'd on purpose to represent the Clergy of our Church as a Company of Notorious lying and perjur'd Villains for Conforming to the Laws of the Land and Orders established among us And all this done without the least Provocation given on our side when all our Discourses that touched them tended only to Union and the Desireableness of Accomodation 2. Our Second Evidence shall be out of The short view of our late Troubles c. Where the Author rells us That which afforded them the Dissenters of those times no little advantage was that horrid Gunpowder-Plot in the 3d. of King James being hatch'd by those fiery-Spirited men of the Romish perswasion whom the bloody minded Jesuites had influenc'd for that most wicked Practice For after this to terrifie the People with the Church of Rome their Sermons were little less then Declamations against the Papist aiming thereby to represent them formidable odious insinuating to the World that all the fear of danger was from those of that Religion whilst they themselves in the mean time did insensibly poyson the People with such other unsound Doctrines as became at length the Fountain of this late unparallel'd Rebellion which terminated in the execrable Murther of our late Gracious King and would have put an end to this famous and long flourishing Monarchy had not Allmighty God of his great Mercy miraculously prevented it And to shew that this sort of men are not given to change 3. The Author of the Seasonable address to both Houses takes notice of the like Improvement of this present Plot We have saith he been continually allarm'd with Libels against the Government at last a discovery is made of a Popish contrivance sifted as far as possible by the King in Council and after that earnestly recommended to the Parliaments further Consideration This is pursued but some men laying hold on this occasion designe to drive it on to further purposes and under pretence of defending the King's Person and expelling Popery to set up Presbytery and pull down the Monarchy That these Dissenters are of an humour not to Vnite with the Church in the time of Plots and troubles but to improve the advantage to carry on their own designes by making the breach wider hath been observ'd by Cambden in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and upon the very Juncture of the Spanish Invasion For saith the Historian Schismatical Impiety waxeth allways insolent when any Wars be stirring nor ever did shameless or Rebellious Impudence and outragious Malice more insolently beard the Ecclesiastical Magistracy than at that time And this is our proof of the first Hypothesis That these Dissenters do improve Popish Plots to their own ends of unhinging the Government to get the Power into their own hands 2. That they do espouse and maintain the same Principles with the Jesuites is no less-evident They deny the King's Supremacy and Headship under Christ over the Church or Churches within his Dominions They deny his Power of Calling Councils and Church Assemblies of his presideing over them Moderating Judging and Determining in them they grant him no Legeslative Power in Matters Ecclesiastical They make him but a Cypher as to the Constitution of their Rules and Orders and a Servant only to themselves in the Execution of what they prescribe To this purpose and in Confutation of their Doctrine Oliver Ormerod of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge wrote a Book 1605. Intituled The Picture of a Puritan to which he has annexed