Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	bishop_n	church_n	reformation_n	2,930	5	8.7259	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27512	A short view of the prelatical church of England laid open in ten sections by way of quere and petition to the High and Honourable Court of Parliament, the several heads whereof are set down in the next two pages / written a little before the fall of that hierarchie, about the year 1641, by Iohn Barnard, sometime minister of Batcomb in Somerset-shire ; whereunto is added The anatomy of The common-prayer.	Bernard, Richard, 1568-1641.; Bernard, John.	1661 (1661)	Wing B2034; ESTC R17815	85,593	122

dissolute ignorant and erroneous men in the Ministry which swarme like the Locusts of Egypt over the whole Kingdome and will they but weare a Cononical Coate a Surplisse a Hood bow at the Name of Jesus and be zealous of Superstitious Ceremonies they may live as they list confront whom they please preach and vent what errours they will and neglect preaching at their pleasures without controule VII The discouragement of many from bringing up their Children in Learning the many schismes errours and strange opinions which are in the Church great corruptions which are in the Universities the grosse and lamentable ignorance almost every where among the people the want of preaching Ministers in very many places both of England and Wales the loathing of the Ministry and the general defection to all manner of profaneness VIII The swarming of lascivious idle and unprofitable Books and Pamphlets Play-books and Ballads as namely Ovids fits of Love the Parliament of Women came out at the dissolving of the last Parliament Barnes Poems Parkers Ballads in disgrace of Religion to the increase of all vice and withdrawing of people from reading studying and hearing the Word of God and other good Books IX The hindring of godly Books to be printed the blotting out or perverting those which they suffer all or most of that which strikes either at Popery or Arminianisme the adding of what or where pleaseth them and the restraints of reprinting Books formerly licensed without relicensing X The punishing and venting of Popish Arminian and other dangerous Books and Tenets as namely that the Church of Rome is a true Church and in the worst times never erred in Fundamentals that the Subjects have no propriety in their Estates but that the King may take from them what he pleaseth that all is the Kings and that he is bound by no Law and many other from the former whereof hath sprung XI The growth of Popery and increase of Papists Priests and Jesuites in sundry places but especially about London since the Reformation the frequent venting of Crucifixes and Popish pictures both engraven and painted and the placing of such in Bibles The multitude of Monopolies and Pattents drawing with them innumerable Perjuries the large increase of Customes and Impositions upon Commodities the Ship-monys and many other great burthens upon the Common wealth under which all groan XIII Moreover the Offices and Jurisdictions of arch-Arch-Bishops lord-Lord-Bishops Deanes Arch-Deacons being the same way of Church-Government which is in the Romish Church and which was in England in the time of Po●ery little change thereof being made except only the head from whence it was derived the same Arguments supporting the Pope which do uphold the Prelates and overthrowing the Prelates which do pull down the Pope and other reformed Churches having upon their rejection of the Pope cast the Prelates out also as Members of the Beast Hence it is that the Prelates here in England by themselves or their Disciples plead and maintain that the Pope is not Antichrist and that the Church of Rome is a true Church hath not erred in Fundamental points and that Salvation is attainable in that Religion and therefore have restrained to pray for the Conversion of our Soveraign Lady the Queen Hence also hath come XIV The great Conformity and likeness both continued and increased of our Church to the Church of Rome in vestures Postures Ceremonies and Administrations namely as the Bishops Rotchets and Lawn-sleeves the four corner'd Cap the Cope and Surplisse the Tippit the Hood and the Canonical Coat the Pulpit clothed especially now of late with the Jesuites badge upon them every way XV. The standing up at Gloria Patri at the reading the Gospel praying towards the East bowing at the Name of JESUS the bowing to the Altar towards the East Cross in Baptisme kneeling at the Communion XVI The turning of the Communion Tables Altar-wise setting Images Crucifixes and conceits over them and Tapers and Books upon them and bowing and adoring to or before them the reading of the second Service at the Altar and forcing people to come up thither to receive or else denying the Sacrament to them terming the Altar to be the Mercy-seat or the place of God Almighty in the Church which is a plain device to usher in the Masse XVII The Christening and Consecrating of Churches and Chappels the Consecrating Fonts Pulpits Tables Chalices Church yards and many other things and putting holiness in them yea reconsecrating upon pretended pretended pollution as though every thing were unclean without their Consecrating and for want of this sundry Churches have been interdicted and kept from use as polluted XVIII The Liturgy for the most parts framed out of the Romish Breviarie Retualium Masse-book also the Book of Ordination for Archbishops and Ministers framed out of the Roman Pontifical XIX The Multitude of Canons formerly made wherein among other things Excommunication ipso facto is denounced for speaking of a word against the devices abovesaid or subscription thereunto though no Law enjoyned a restraint from the ministry without such subscription and Appeal is denyed to any that should refuse subscription or unlawful conformity though be never so much wronged by the inferiour Judge also the Canons made in the late Sacred Synod as they call it wherein are many strange and dangerous devices to undermine the Gospel and the Subjects liberties to propagate Popery to spoyl Gods people insnare Ministers and other Students and so to draw all into an absolute subjection and thraldome to them and their government spoiling both the King and the Parliamant of their power XX. The countenancing pluriality of Benefices prohibiting of Marriages without their license at certain times almost half the year and licensing of Marriages without Banes asking XXI Prophanation of the Lords day pleading for it and enjoyning Ministers to read a Declaration set forth as it is thought by their procurement for tolerating of sports upon that day suspending and depriving many Godly Ministers for not reading the same only out of Conscience it was against the Law of God so to do and no Law of the land to enjoyn it XXII The pressing of the strict observation of Saints Dayes whereby great summes of Moneys are drawn out of Vens purses for working on them a very high burthen on most people who getting their living by their dayly imployments must either omit them and be idle or part with their money whereby many poor families are undone or brought behind hand yea m●ny Church-wardens are sued or threatned to be sued by their troublesome Min●sters perjured persons for not presenting their Parishioners who fayled in observing Holy dayes XXIII The great increase and frequencie of whoredomes and Ad●lterers occasioned by the Prelates Corrupt administration of justice in such cases who taking upon them the punishment of it do turn all into monies for the filling of their purses and least their Officers should defraud them of their gain they have in their late

but these dregs of Popery now in controversie and the hurtful Hierarchy one of these upholding another a godly and famous Minister preaching to the banished beyond Seas in Queen Maries time that Gods anger was m●ch provoked against England for slackness to reform when they had time place and power and so it was indeed for he cast back that partial reformation into the flames of Antichristian tyranny gave many up unto fearful Apostacy Further the good man said it stood them upon to look to it and to be circumspect for fear of after-claps meaning that a partial reformation would not serve God will never indure as hath been said the post and threshold of Baal and his to stand together the like more fully was delivered by Master Rogers that honourable Proto-Martyr in his daies when the Gospel should be established in England if the King ●ome of Antichrist were not utterly cashi●red and total reformation made in Gods worship that our persecution should be greater and our trial hotter than in the daies when he and others suffered I● we will not remove that which is an abomination to God as this Book is proved to be it is just with God to cast us away One more of this kind from a Peer of this Land who on his death-bed cried Wo to England because they turned all their Religion into policy dangerous experience hath taught us the truth of these predictions for from that halting reformation after Queen Maries death wherein we pleased our selves with Agrippa his almost in the original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but a little the Babylonian and Edomites Prelates and Jesuites under the favour of their Canons Act 26.28 got at length such footing and made such head for Popery Arminianisme and that especially by causing the Nilus of that Service-book to swell and heating the furnace of persecution that Religion and Policy the two twi●s of Gods favour were grown like to Archimedes his tomb so over-grown with thorns Tul●y Cap. 12.14 that it could not be found yea the woman in the Revelation was brought again unto that straight as to think on nothing but of flight to the wilderness And further how nigh were our nighbours and brechren the Scots to the pits brink of ruine both of Religion and State and that by remitting of these Syno●ial Prelates and the Trojan-horse the Service-book to enter out of which if God had not beaten the brains 1 Sam 20. ● we were like to have h●d a new Babylonish captivity yea we may both truly say with David There was but a step betwixt us and death had not God set in as a present help in our distress Psal 12.3 and ra●s●d you others the men of his right hand in the very neck of need our enemies as the Psalmist hath it had swallow●d us up alive As we are gone thus far with the danger past Sect. and partly present so we desire your honours leave to present the appearance as we conceive of future danger and that partly to the Church and State in general and partly more particular to yourselves if this Service-book be not removed to make both these dangers more visible let us compare our presentment with the ninth Position of Sions ples in these words If the Hierarchy be not removed and the Scepter of Christs Government namely Discipline advanced to its place there can be no healing of our sore no taking up of our controversie with God yea our desolations by his rarest judgements are like to be the astonishment of all Nations As the parts of the Position are soundly proved so the same may be said of the Service-book and the very same Arguments concerning our danger will serve the one as well as the other wherefore we intreat your Honours to review the Position and its proofs the Hierarchy and the Service-book are resembled already to Mother and Child so may they be two twins begotten and born of Pride and Superstition nursed and brought up in the lap of Covetousnesse these twins are born together live together and must dye together a great Judge returning from the Circuit of the Emperours service and hearing his wife to be alive replyed si vivat i●l●i morior ego if she live I am dead so if they live we mean their callings then our life may prove worse than death God will bear with many sins in a people professing Christ but with keeping Christ out of his Throne by intruding Officers and a superstitious worship he will not bear especially of a long continuance but will be avenged of such a people if they be as the Apple of his eye witnesse Samuels speech to the Israelites who besides their desiring a King before the Lords time were faulty in many other things as appeareth verse the 20. yet he telleth them If they and their King will follow the Lord they should both continue for that is the best reading where by following the Lord 1 Sam. 12.14 15 20 25. is meant especially the serving of him according to his will but if they should turn aside from following the Lord in a corrupt way of his worship then the hand of the Lord should be against them Verse 17 as it had been against their Fathers yea they should be consumed both they and their King and as Samuel to terrifie them called for thunder and rain so we have felt both thunder and rain Judgement yet mixt with Mercy both from the mediate and immediate hand of God and do feel it at this present and to the end we should clear his House of corrupt worship The yoak of the Philistims was never removed from the neck of the Israelites till they put away their strange Gods and Ashtaroth their special Idol 1 Sam 7.3 4 c. But when their humiliation was joyned with Reformation then the Lord gave not onely deliverance but also Victory over and freedom from their enemies II. From the danger of not doing A word now of the particular Danger Sect whereof we make bold to give you notice as God hath honoured you in calling you to be the Reformers of Church and State Cap. 4.19 so the work is great as Nehemiah said and the danger proportionable if it be neglected When God putteth his select Servants upon high employments whether they be Magistrates or Ministers knowing best their weakness and the many impediments he puts them on ever anon to be couragious Josh 1.9 Jer. 1.17 not to fear or be afraid and the ground of all is Have not I commanded you So the Lord giveth the Prophet Jeremy a charge to s●eak all that the Lord should command and backeth it with a threatning Be not dismayed at their faces lest I confound thee both the Hebrew and the Septuagint hath it Lest I make thee afraid Saul his disobedience in sparing Agag and the fat of the cattel notwithstanding all his fair pretexts with the fearful punishment inflicted by God upon him

may be a terrour to all men in place that they do not the work of the Lord by halves and quarters Num. 14.24 but that with Caleb they follow the Lord to the full The Lord hath said his Command upon you to put away the Excommunicate thing and to cleanse his house of Idols and Idolothites and blessed be that God whom you serve ye have begun by your Edict though men of disobedience hinder the work but follow home the work we intreat you and remember those Achans but above all put away that Ashtaroth the Service-book for that we may well call Fundi nostri calamitas the very Caterpiller of Gods Husbandry To shut up this Motive from the point of danger be pleased to take notice how God bears in upon Moses that great Commission to Pharaoh to let his people go Exod. 4. and that both by words and signes namely by turning his Rod into a Serpent his hand made leprous and the waters turned into bloud which were not onely to confirm him in his message against the fear of his adversaries but more particularly to teach him that if he withdrew himself in part or in whole from the work the Plague of Leprofie of Blood and Biting with Serpents should be upon him yea God put Moses upon a present trial of Obedience and Faith by causing him to take the Serpent by the tayl notwithstanding of the danger to be bitten by it we speak to the wise who can apply it better than we CHAP. X. Of the Covenant THe third Motive for removal of the Book may be taken from the Protestation dated May 5. 1641. Confirmed sent abroad and solemnly sworn unto yea and bound up with a publick Covenant on the publick day of T●anksgiving by Ministers and People so that it is an inviolable Covenant stricken between God and us like unto that in Nehemiah which is there called a sur● Coverant Neh 9.38 Coverant a written Covenant to which our Princes Ministers and People seal unto from which we cannot depart except we will incur that fearful Judgement threatned against Covenant breakers Emblemed out un ous in Scripture Psal 15.4 by dividing of the Sacrifices and causing the parties to go betwixt them Gen. 15.17 admonishing that God will so divide them in his wrath if they forsake the Covenant The subject of the Covenant consisteth of three parts In the first we are sworn and tied to maintain all the Rights of Religion Jer. 34 18 King and State In the second to oppose all Persons and things that do oppose the three former mentioned and more specifically to oppose with all our life and power all Popery and Popish Inno●ations which Expressions are thrice mentioned once in the Protestation or Oath and twice in the Explanation The third and last piece of the subject i● the Peace of the three Kingdomes England Scot a●d and Ireland which we by Oath are also bound to maintain H●nce two Arguments will offer themseives one more directly and the other by way of conse●uence For the former Sect. if all Popery and Popish Innovations are to be opposed then it will follow that the Service book and Ceremonies should be opposed and by consequence by your Authority abolished Verba Statuti sunt amplianda non r●stringenda the words of Acts and Statutes for good and against evil are to be taken in the largest extent but the words themselves are universal enough Now that the Service-book and Ceremonies therein contained and pressed upon mens Consciences are Popery we and many others have cleared yea they are Popish Innovations Nam omnia quae a Chri●o non sunt nova sunt all things that are not from our King Christ in his worship are meer Innovations Cant Prax. as Tertullian was wont to call Praxeas hesternum Praxeam a yesterdaies upstart so one and all of them are Exotick upstart things It is true indeed by the malignity of the Masters of those Ceremonies the bulk was increased and would have been like Crocodiles who grow so long as they have a being if you had not come in place of the T●tyrites a creature terrible to the Crocodiles which leapeth upon their backs and brings them to the shore but otherwise for the kind they are all non ejusdem farinae sed furfuris the same kind of Bran and as the woman said of the Foxes Plin. lib. 8. c 25. If one be good all are good For the further confirmation that they are Popish we have proof from that Treatise of Ceremonies annexed to the Service-book Bible in the Du●● letter Anno. 1561 in some antient Copies we have read that they thought good to retain some Popish Ceremonies but in another Copy they call them the old Ceremonies retained stil all one in effect The latter Argument from the Protestation Sect. by way of sequel is from our mu●ual Covenant and Oath joyntly and severally to maintain the peace of the three Kingdoms which is impossible to be done in the opinion of our Brethren the Scots without Identity of Discipline and Worship witness the very words of the Arguments by the Scotish Commissioners given to the Lords of the Treaty perswading conformity in these to be the chief meanes of peace We will transcribe some passages for all we cannot leaving the thing it self to your Honours review It is said they t● be wished that there were one Consession of Faith one form of Catechisme one Directory for all the parts of Gods publick Worship as Prayer Preaching Administration of Sacrame●ts c. Page 2. The Arguments that they use are first from the Conjunction of spirit and presence both of great and small of Assemblies in the Courts and other where where there is oneness of worship but by the contrary there is division where the worship is diverse Secondly Vnity of worship will extinguish those Nick-names as Puritanes and Scismaticks put upon Professors Thirdly This will make the Ministers of both Nations with face to face labour strenuously and chearfully to build up the body of Christ Fourthly and lastly Pages 3 4. This will break the back of the Recusants hope of bringing Rome into England all which works strongly for peace the sense whereof we cite though not the very words But if this unity of Worship be not say the Commissioners there is no unity in Policy or Church to be looked for for as all the former combustions and stormy tempe●●s formerly arose from that Popish Service-book born it upon them whereby all the three States were much indangered so they professe in plain terms that their Reformation so dearly bought Page 8. shall again be spoiled and defaced from England and whatsoever peace shall be agreed upon they do not conceive how without Reformation it shall ever be firm and durable for that Service Government and Officers being none of Christs but the main evil and the cause of all evil in the three Nations That Maxime