Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A25324
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Ananias and Saphira discovered, or, The true intent of a pamphlet called Omnia comest[a] a Belo in a letter by way of answer.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing A3048; ESTC R11808
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6,884
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18
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strictest scrutiny be made to heal the broken and purge out the corrupt But to cut off the thing abused with him that does abuse it the Office with him that is entrusted with it is neither Sober Just nor Rational And whenever it was so done you will find it in all Ages to have been done in a tumultuous and rash way and by such disorders as have cut off the Just with the Unjust when it has succeeded well to none but the violent So that for the sins of the people such things may come to pass but I beseech you never let it be imposed upon us as a prudent or justifiable proceeding Ananias and Saphira were ten times juster than this man of Belus For they only kept back part of what they had not yet parted with Whereas this Gentleman would take away not of his one gift but what our Ancestors either found already bestowed or themselves of pious intention gave to the honour of God and his worship But to conclude that you may be truly convinced out of whose Quiver this Arrow comes take the Deposition and Evidence of Dr. Oates in his true Narrative of the Horrid Plot where you will find the Papist to be the manager of all this Controversie And indeed what party else can benefit by it For when the Clergy are brought low and despicable distracted with Sects and Heresies Scattered Rent and Divided What mischiefs are they not exposed to Can the Pope and all his Conclave direct us an easier way to fool our selves into their hands The words of the Doctor are these Art 1. Richard Strange Provincial John Keins Basil Langworth John Fenwick and Mr. Harcourt Jesuits did write a Treasonable Letter to one Father Suiman an Irish Jesuit at Madrid in the Kingdom of Spain in which was contained their plotting and contriving a Rebellion in Scotland of the Presbyterians against the Episcopal Government In order to which they had employed one Matthew Wright and William Morgan and one Ireland to go and Preach under the notion of Presbyterians and give the disaffected Scots a true understanding of their sad state and condition in which they were by reason of the Episcopal Tyranny exercised over them and withal to tell them they had now a fair oppoctunity to vindicate their Liberty and Religion and that it could be done by no other way but by the Sword Art 2. Other Letters from the Jesuits to Father Leshee the French Kings Confessor in which they told him that they had stirred up the Presbyterians in Scotland to a Rebellion and that twenty thousand would be in Arms if His Majesty of France would break with the King of England Art 22. A Letter for Whitebread Provincial Father Mico c. That they had received Letters from Scotland in which they were informed that the people would rise to oppose Duke Lauderdale and the Royal Party and also that they would endeavor by themselves their Agents and their Purse to provoke the Scots against the English Art 25. Their designs the Jesuites say in another Letter went on well in Scotland Art 35. Upon a Conference of the Jesuits by order of the Provincial they are to send new Messengers into Scotland to promote the Commotions there and inform the people of the great Tyranny they lay under by reason of their being denyed Liberty of Conscience and that not being to be procured but by the Sword they must take that course to purchase their Liberty By which means said the Fathers so assembled we shall weaken both the Presbyterian and Episcopal Faction Art 43. That two new Messengers were sent into Scotland one by the name of Father Moor and the other Father Saunders alias Brown with instructions to carry themselves like Nonconformist Ministers and to Preach to the disaffected Scots the necessity of taking up the Sword for the defence of Liberty of Conscience These the Deponent saw dispatched and ordered to go by Father Harcourt in the name of Thomas White Provincial Art 50. They renew their hopes of success in Scotland upon assurance of the Papists there that they would keep up the Commotions to their utmost Art 51. They own that the Provincial had taken great care to keep alive the difference betwixt the disaffected Scots and Duke Lauderdale c. and likewise to beget a difference betwixt the Dutch and the Prince of Orange Art 54. That one Matthew Metbourn Mr. Penny Mr. Mannock c. meeting upon Thursday and Sunday nights at a Club are employed by the Jesuits to vilifie the House of Commons and go about the City of London to incense the people against them and against the Bishops of the Nation Art 55. Mr. Jennison boasted that he had put several out of love with the Kings interest and would so continue Art 73. The Fathers in Scotland write that their party was ready to joyn with the disaffected Scots and that one Westby was destroyed by one that was servant to Lovel the Jesuit for endeavouring to detect the Rebellion with its Authors and Contrivers to the Council in Scotland Pag. 64. § 6. They would weaken and divide the Kingdoms by Civil Wars and Rebellions as in the late Kings time Pag. 67. § 1. They would charge the King with Tyranny and designs of Oppressing governing by the Sword and without Parliaments § 4. They would misreport and raise false News of the Kings affairs § 6. They would disturb Trade § 7. They would disaffect the Kings Subjects by Seditious Preachers set up sent out maintained and directed what to Preach in their own or other private or publick Conventicles and Field Meetings And now see whether the Church of England or others work most for the Popish Interest You shall know them by their Fruit. FINIS
Ananias and Saphira discover'd Or The true intent of a PAMPHLET CALLED OMNIA COMESTA BELO IN A LETTER By way of ANSWER LAMENT iv 16. The anger of the Lord has divided them he will no more regard them they respected not the persons of the Priefts LONDON Printed by M. Clark for Henry Brome at the Gun in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1679. SIR I Have rceiv'd so many Libels and other Pamphlets from you that I am both asham'd of troubling you any farther and weary of Reading so many words with so little sense or common honesty But my great grief is to find it so much the humor to lessen the Credit and Reputation of Authority and by weakning the Government in alienating mens hearts from it to cut the Grass from underneath our own feet and whilst the Enemy is pushing sore at us our selves to shake if not remove the Foundations whereon we stand And in the midst of this wilful murder no wound seems to me so envenom'd and mortal as that which pierces the Soul and Conscience of the Nation the bitter words wherewith the Church is dayly slander'd Is it a time to strive among our selves for Reformation when Antichrist is at the Gates Is it a time to divide and scatter to pull and tear one another just when the common Enemy is upon our backs To mind our defence least when he is most at leisure to Assault us It must certainly be the Gall of bitterness that shall disturb and distract us at this time Amongst other ungracious Libels against the Church there is one called Omnia Comesta à Bello The Author intended Belo but hapned to be more right then he was aware of For the late unhappy Times plainly shew what the issues of War are like to be Then were the Rich and Wealthy the only marks of Violence and Oppression none but the Profligate and those that delighted in troubl'd waters became Rich then the worst of events befel us if the Proverb says true for Beggars were set on Thrones and mounted on Horsback whilst Princes went on Foot And if we consider the Original of this Book it was first Printed at the beinning of the Rebellion to Usher in the Covenant and so accessary as much as such a poor spiteful Pamphlet could be to all the bloud-shed and wickedness that then follow'd God be thanked the memory of those licentious days when no man could say ought was his is by woful experience so fresh now upon the minds of thousands that without most fatal Infatuation it will be impossible to be deluded into the same snare again And yet what endeavours there are to destroy us with the grievous wounds of Friends and under pretence of Regulation overwhelm us once more with the same Confusion What is Liberty when the multitude is made judg of it but an Inundation of Disorders and letting the wildness of Corrupt Nature loose to all extravagance And yet what courting of the people at this day to take the matter into their own hands Though God knows it is not that these Incendiaries care for the people but knowing that the reigns of Government must be placed in some hands they hope by getting them loose to catch hold of them themselves And as this is evidently the course the Pope or Devil himself wou'd advise to destroy us by Divisions so I shall shew you in the conclusion that this is their advise and that they do work together with the disturbers of our Peace and principally with those that strike at our Church First he charges the impoverishing the Nation ruin of Trade and general Consumption of Comfort Setlement and Content which as he says has brought the Nation to a mere Anatomy upon the Pride Luxury and Oppression of the Prelates To which may easily be answer'd 1. That the first assertion is false For never was there more mony in the Nation and if it be not so equally divided the Gentry and Nobility living so much at London are the great cause of it As for Trade it never run so high as of late years of which experience is so evident a judg that I can only wonder at the Confidence of the contrary declaration But then where the Consumption of Comfort c. lyes who can tell I am sure if a Prince detesting Bloud-shed and Oppression and for fear of being hard upon his people suffering his Prerogative to run lower than ever any Kings or Queens of England did before him would be a Comfort we have it in the highest degree If the Clergy have contributed to this Consumption let them shew the man and he shall be punisht But I see none but the envious and them that are given to change discontented and how you will please them I cannot tell And I fear the Nation is rather like Jeshurun than any of Pharaohs lean Kine if we observe truly Nay but the pride of the Prelates has done this thing which indeed is not done It must be a beggarly pride in many of them if they are proud and that can do mischief to none but to themselves However I would have this Learned Author shew who they are For general reflections are the most unjust and by Consequence the most Unchristian proceeding in the World The Innocent as well as Guilty are Condemn'd and know not how to kelp themselves But Luxury indeed is the wasting Vice and I would it were not so much in fashion as it is However there are not many Bishops that have wherewithal and those few that have are I make no doubt ready to give an account to the shame of their Accusers Where the Oppression lyes that I am to seek unless be such to punish injustice as wrongful dealing But of these particulars more hereafter 2. in the next Query there is as much falshood and ignorance put together as well could be comprehended in so few terms He tells you that all the Reform'd Churches in Europe cast off Episcopacy with Popery and why did not England England did not do it because it has been the Universal and constant Church-Government for the first fifteen hundred years deriv'd from the Apostles by as Authentick Testimony as any part of our Religion England did not do it because it is an Order that stands most in the Popes light and which therefore Rome has always oppos'd most eminently in the Council of Trent and most injuriously by exempt jurisdictions whereby to have creatures more immediately depending upon Rome the Government of the Church is broken and its Antient Constitutions and Canons violated And I wish this Rag of Popery were removed from us But lastly England did not do it because many of the Reformed Churches did not do it as Sueden Denmark the Protestant Church in Poland the Protestant Switzers the Lutherans in Germany besides the Greek Churches c. many that did it have acknowledg'd it to be out of pure necessity and the learnedst men among them have ever approved Episcopal Government