Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	authority_n	church_n	scripture_n	4,231	5	6.1426	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A10180	The Church of Englands old antithesis to new Arminianisme VVhere in 7. anti-Arminian orthodox tenents, are euidently proued; their 7. opposite Arminian (once popish and Pelagian) errors are manifestly disproued, to be the ancient, established, and vndoubted doctrine of the Church of England; by the concurrent testimony of the seuerall records and writers of our Church, from the beginning of her reformation, to this present. By William Prynne Gent. Hospitij Lincolniensis.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1629 (1629)	STC 20457; ESTC S115281	150,664	200

make any doubt or scruple of passing such a sentence Neuer were there any truthes more copiously confirmed more constantly defended more posit●uely resolued more aboundantly propagated more generally Preached more vnanimously imbraced more vncontrolably published more peremptorily established in our Church then these Anti-Arminian Tenents which I heere present vnto you There is scarce one publike whether Ancient or Modern Act Record or Euidence of our Church since her Reformation hitherto but doth in terminis at least in substance guie iudgement for them Scarse a learned or godly Martyr of note or eminency in our infant Church but hath planted them with his hand watred them with his bloud Scarce one Diuinity Professor in either of our Vniuersities hardly an Orthodox or renowned Writer in our Church from the beginning of King Edward the 6. his Raigne till this very present but hath subscribed them with his hand and feale and transmitted them to posteritie in some publike Worke. Not one constant Preacher of a thousand who hath not proclaimed them in the Pulpit Scarce a Graduate in Diuinitie but hath either in Lectures or Disputes defended them in the Schoole Scarce an Act or Commencement hath passed in either of our Famous Academies wherein all or some of them haue not bene publikely affirmed in Diuinity Exercises Not one authorized or approued Writer of our Church for I count not Barret Thomson Mountague or Iackson such the only opposites to them that I know off and those generally opposed by all our Orthodox Diuines who did euer once oppugne them Yea al such who haue formerly but barked against them in their inconsiderate Sermons haue beene forced to sing a publike Palinodie for their paines as the Recantations of Barret Sympson and others largely testifie And shall wee now beginne to question whether they are the Doctrines of our Church or no because some pur-blinde squint-eyed ideall Arminian Nouellists begin for to dispute it What is this but to make a scruple whether the day be light or no because Buzzards and blind-men cannot see it or sottishly to enquire whether the Sunne stands centred in one constant climate whiles the massie Earth wheeles round because one brainesicke Copernicus out of the sublimitie of his quintessentiall transcendentall Speculations hath more senselesly then Metaphysically more ridiculously then singularly auerred it Shall others wilfull gainefull and aspiring blindnesse make vs to doubt our eye-sight or shall the absurd and idle Quaerees of some Romish or Temporizing Spirits so vnsettle vs in our long-professed faith as to cause vs now to question the most positiue palpable and resolued Principles of our reformed Religion Yea so farre to besot vs as to put vs to this irrationall this frantique scrutinie Whether that bee the vndoubted Doctrine of our Church which shee hath alwayes hitherto beleeued embraced professed as a truth or that rather which she hath alwaies Diametrally opposed yea censured as an Error O let not vs be so vnchristianly so Atheistically wauering in the Fundament all Tenents of our long-professed Faith as that this Apostolicall Stigmaticall brand of an admired subitane Galathian Apostasie I maruell that you are so soone remoued from him that called you into the grace of Christ vnto another Gospell O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that yee should not obey the truth c. With the disgracefull and soule-pricking obloquies of our insulting Aduersaries who will be apt to vaunt that we now begin to doubt of our Religion and fall backe to them should now iustly seize vpon vs for our halting in these oft yea late resolued points in which both we and our Forefathers haue beene so long instructed Alas why should Papists why Turkes or Atheists thus reproach vs Where now is your reformed Religion in which you haue thus long reposed your Saluation and imbarqued all your soules Where is the Faith the Doctrines of your Church which you haue thus pertinatiously embraced since your reuolt from Rome Where is the precious bloud of all your glorious mocke-Martyrs in which you haue so long gloried Where the Orthodoxie Learning and Solidity of your much renowned Academies of your vnparallel'd Martyr Bucer Tyndall Latimer Beacon Cranmer Iewell Nowell Veron Fox Fulke Reinolds Whitakers Hooker Hutton Cartwright Hill Babington Willet Perkins Abbots Field Crakenthorpe Whites Vsher Prideaux Ward Benefield Sharpe Sybthorpe Ames Featley Wilson Carleton Dauenat Morton Goad Belcanckquall Burtons your imcomparably learned King Iames the Phaenix of his Age and eminentest of his ranke for solid learning with all your other Centuries of Writers in which you so much triumph Where the Authority of your Church you Parliaments or your Articles that you now begin to doubt yea question and re-examine the truth and verity of these dogmaticall Conclusions which all these haue planted watered sealed and setled thus among you What a shame a brand a downefall will this bee to our Religion What an inexpiable blemish and intollerable disgrace to all our godly Martyrs to these our famous Writers to our learned Soueraigne of blessed memorie to his two vnparalleld Predecessors Queene Elizabeth and King Edward to our whole glorious and flourishing Church since the beginning of her Reformation to this present What a griefe a heart-breaking to all faithfull members of our Church State yea what a dangerous Praecipice and fatall ouerture to all our soules if wee should now beginne to plucke those foundations vp on which wee haue thus long built the hopes the structure of our eternall happinesse or to call that into question which wee haue so oft resolued for the vndoubted Orthodox beleefe and Tenent of our owne yea of the Catholike and Apostolike Church of Christ frō age to age which can neuer totally nor finally erre in Fundamentall truthes Memorable is the answere of that blessed ancient Martyr Policarpus when hee was vrged by the Pro-consul to blaspheme and denye Christ that so hee might escape Fourescore and sixe yeeres saith hee haue I serued him neither hath hee offended me in any thing and how can I now reuile or denie that King which hath thus kept mee Surely not to ascend to Wickcliffe Bradwardine Bede or Anselme who all concurred with vs in our present Tenents but to confine our selues vnto the Ages of those later Martyrs and Writers of our Church which I haue heere recorded I can safely say and I hope I haue sufficiently euidenced it in the ensuing Catalogue that our Church hath this fourescore and sixe yeeres and more euen constantly embraced and defended these Anti-Arminian Theses neither did they euer offend or doe her harme in any thing yea they haue beene so farre from preiudicing or offending that they haue accumulated her with all varieties of blessings of contentments making her as the very Eden and Paradise of God while they dwelt in peace within her whereas now shee ebbs and sinckes together with them And shall shee now proue so vngratefull to her gracious God so iniurious

particular sinnes are freely forgiuen him neither doeth it follow hereupon that that Petition of the Lords prayer to wit forgiue vs our Trespasses is needlesse for in that Petition we aske not onely the guist but also the increase of Faith Sixtly these words escaped me in my Sermon viz. As for those that are not saued I doe most strongly beleeue and doe freely protest that I am so perswaded against Caluin Peter Martyr and the rest that sinne is the true proper and first cause of Reprobation But now being better instructed I say that the Reprobation of the wicked is from Euerlasting and that that saying of Augustine to Simplician is most true viz. If sinne were the cause of Reprobation then no man should be elected because God doeth foreknow all men to bee de●iled with it And that I may speake freely I am of the sam● mind and doe beleeue concerning the Doctrine of Election and Reprobation as the Church of England beleeueth and teacheth in the booke of the Articles of Faith in the Article of Predestination Last of all I vttered these words rashly against Caluin a man that hath very well deserued of the Church of God to wit that he durst presume to lift vp himselfe aboue the High and Almighty God By which words I confesse that I haue done great iniurie to that most learned and right godly man and I doe most humbly beseech you all to pardon this my rashnesse as also in that I haue vttered many bitter words against Peter Martyr Theodore Beza Ierome Zanchius Francis Iunius and the rest of the same Religion being the Lights and Ornaments of our Church calling them by the odious names of Caluinists and other slanderous termes branding them with a most grieuous marke of reproach whom because our Church doth worthyly reuerence it was not meet that I should take away their good name from them or any way impaire their credit or d●hort others of our Cuntrey-men from reading their most learned workes I am therefore very sorry and grieued for this most grieuous offence which I haue publikely giuen to this most famous Vniuersity which is the Temple of true Religion and sacred receptacle of Piety And I doe promise that by Gods helpe I will neuer hereafter offend in the like sort and I doe earnestly beseech you Right worshipfull and all others to whom I haue giuen this offence either in the former Articles or in any part of my said Sermon that you would of your courtesie pardon mee vpon this my repe●tance That the authoritie and consequence of this precedent Recantation may bee more fully manifested I will briefely relate both the occasion and the carriage of it One Maister Barret of Kayes Colledge Preaching a Concio ad Clerum in Saint Maries Church in Cambridge on the 29. day of Aprill 1595. made bold to vent these then Pelagian and Popish but now both Popish and Arminian Tenents which are here recanted which gaue such generall offence vnto all the Auditors that on the 5. of May next following about nine of the clocke in the fore-noone hee was conuented for the publishing of these Erronious Tenents and his reuiling of Caluin Beza Peter Martyr Luther Iunius Zanchius and others before all the Heads of the Vniuersitie of Cambridge to wit Master Doctor Some Doctor Duport Doctor Goade Doctor Tindall Doctor Whitaker Doctor Barwell Doctor Iegon Doctor Preston Maister Chaderton and Maister Clayton Thomas Smith the publique Notary of the Vniuersitie being there present who appointed him to appeare againe before them at three of the clocke in the afternoone at which time Dr. Duport being then Vicechanceller read openly certaine Articles containing the positions which Maister Barret had broached in his foresaid Sermon alleaging these his assertions to bee Erronious false and opposite to the Religion receiued and established in the Kingdome of England by publique and lawfull Authoritie to which Articles he required Maister Barret to giue an answere who confessed that he had published in his Sermon the-Positions comprised in the said Articles but with all denied them to be contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of England Whereupon the Vicechancellor and the forenamed heads entring into a mature deliberation and diligently weighing and examining these Positions because it did manifestly appeare that the said Positions Were false erronious and likewise manifestly repugnant to the Religion receiued and established in the Church of England adiudged and declared that the said Barret had incurred the penaltie of the 45. Statute of that Vniuersity De Concionibus and by vertue and tenor of that Statute they decreed and adiudged the said Barret to make a publike Recantation in such words and forme as should bee prescribed vnto him by the Vice-chancellor and the said Heads or any three or two of them or ese vpon his refusall to recant in this manner to be perpetually expelled both from his Colledge and the Vniuersitie binding him likewise in an assumpsit of forty pounds to appeare personally vpon two dayes warning before the said Vice-chancellor or his Deputy at what time and place they should require Afterwards this Barret was re-summoned before the Vice-chancellor Doctor Goade Dr Tindall Dr. Barwell and Doctor Preston his assistants who deliuered him this praecedent Recantation in writing admonishing and peremptorily enioyning him on Saturday following being the 10. of May immediatly after the Clerum ended to goe vp in person into the Pulpit of Saint Maries where hee had published these errors and there openly in the face of the Vniuersity to read and make this Recantation which he did accordingly Not long after this Palinodium Master Barret to shew that these positions are but a bridge to Popery departs the Vniuersitie and gets beyond Sea where he as Bertius and some other Arminians since haue done turnes a professed Papist After this he returned into England where he liues a Laymans life being still an open dangerous violent and most pernicious and seducing Papist as some men of credit in these very termes haue informed me who both know and will auerre him to be such a one This is the true Relation and carriage of this Recantation which I haue taken verbatim out of a Transcript of the Vniuersitie Register of Cambridge vnder the Registers owne hand wherein all the passages of it are entred and recorded for the benefit of posteritie For the recantation it selfe of which Thysius and others make some mention it was fairely Printed and Published in Queene Elizabeths dayes some Copies of it being yet extant in the very selfesame words and forme as here you see it And that none may suspect it to be forged or corrupted I haue a transcript of it in Latine taken out of an Originall Coppy vnder Master Barets owne hand which agrees verbatim with this English one onely in this they differ that our 17. Article is at large recited in the Latine Coppy in the ende of the 6. Section wheras as

impoyson and corrupt their iudgements as if they were some Saints or petty Gods disdaine for to peruse much lesse subscribe vnto them accounting it a disparagement to their reading so much a● once to vouch them vnlesse it bee by way of censure or controule How venerable are the names and memoryes how sweet how gracefull and delightfull the poysonous VVorkes of Aquinas Lombard Scotus Suarez Bellarmine and such like Popish Schoolemen whom many make the ground-worke and foundation of their Diuinity studies whence they smell and stinke of Popery and Neutrality euer after to their owne perdition and our Churches preiudice vnto some who cannot brooke the Honorable names and pious VVorkes of Caluin Beza Zanchie Iunius or other Orthodox forraigne Protestants much lesse reuolue digest approue or magnifie the venerable Names the vnparalleld Writings of our owne Martyr Bucer Tyndall Iewell Fox Whitakers Fulke Babington Reinolds Perkins Willet Abbot ●ield White Bilson Morton Carlton Vsher Prideaux Benefield Ames and the like who far transcend all Popish Writers not onely in Orthodoxic of Matter but in Art Solidity and depth of Learning Alas it grieues me to consider and I hope our vigilant Watchmen will lay it neere to heart as being an ominous presage a fatall preamble to our Religions downefall if it bee not in time preuented that not onely all kind of Pseudo-Lutheran and Arminian but euen of Iesuiticall Popish books which haue arriued here of late in great varietie and abundance without the least restraint are now more diligently inquired after more speedily and greedily bought vp and vented though at excessiue rates more studiously more commonly read more generally quoted more plausiblie vouched in Sermons Schooles and Writings more highly magnified in the hearts and lips of many then the best and learnedest of all Forraigne or our owne vn-matched protestant VVriters whose Impressions almost canker for want of vse and sometimes perish in the Printers hands for want of Chapmen for to vent them It is the pollicy of our Romish Achitophels to traine vp their Schollers in their owne Popish Authors and to inhibit the transportation much more the reading of any Protestant yea of some Popish VVriters without a speciall licence vnder paine of their Inquisition Slaughter-house for feare they should conuert their Readers yea quite subuert their Antichristian Babell and shake the rotten Pillars of their Machiauillian state-Religion consarcinated and made vp of Heresie Pollicie Luxury Pride and Couetousnesse the greatest Opposites to Religion which cannot once withstand their strong assaults And shall we then giue free allowance to their pernicious Bookes who thus exile our true soule-sauing Authors Is it no blow no danger thinke wee to our Religion to suffer or perswade young Schollers to skip from Aristotle to some Popish Schoolemen or to giue open Hospitality and free welcome to all Popish Arminian and other seducing forraigne VVriters which haue lately turned our Faith into meere doubting our Religion into Quaerees our Scriptures into fancies our Grace into Free-will or Nature our Communion Tables into Altars our Cathedrall Praying into Piping our Substance into Ceremony our Deuotion into Superstition our Zeale into Neutrality our Perseu●rance into Apostasie and the certainety of our Saluation into a bare Contingency Alas these cursed fruits are sufficient testimonies of those seuerall dangers of those varieties of mischiefes which result from hence O therefore let vs now at last especially before wee are thorowly grounded and setled in our owne vndoubted Religion reiect these pestilent seducing yea State-disturbinge VVriters which will prooue our combustion our ruine at the last vnlesse they bee in time suppressed or restrayned and cheerefully betake our selues vnto the serious and delightfull study of our owne incomparable Authors who are therefore vnderualued by vs because they are our owne who will re-establish re-confirme vs in our Ancient Faith reduce vs to our true Religion exile all Popish Ceremonies and Arminian Nouelties reconcile and comprimise our present Differences and settle such Peace such Vnity in our Church and State as shall secure our selues and daunt our ●oes for future times ●●othing is there that doth more vnsettle vs in Religion then the neglect contempt and ignorance of the Scriptures and our own approued Writers with our ouer-studious dotage vpon Popish and Arminian forraigners Let vs therefore quite abandon their poysonous Works at leastwise read them as the Bookes of Heretiques to know auoid reiect them not retaine them to answere or refell them not admire them to discouer their Errors not embrace them and now at last betake our selues vnto our owne approued Authors especially those here quoted who will put a Period to all these new Arminian Controuersies which now disturbe our Peace The Apostle informes vs that the spirits of the Prophets are subiect to the Prophets Let vs therefore submit our spirits to the spirits and doctrine of all those famous Martyrs Prophets and Fathers of our Church whose works I haue here recited and then Popery and Arminianisme will prooue odious to vs which haue little in them for to make them amiable Not to speake of Popery which besots so many what beauty what spirituall sweetnesse what excellency is there in Arminianisme that wee should so much degenerate from all our famous Ancestors our selues yea all the Worthyes of our Church and Nation as now to dote vpon it It s father was an Amorite its mother an Hittite corrupt Ambition proud Nature was the Father Pelagius the Midwife Popery the Nurse Arminius and Socinus the modern● Aduocates Champions and Godfathers of this infernall Monster which Proclaimes professed Hostility to the freedome soueraigntie certaintie and perpetuity of the grace of God and breakes the golden chaine of Saluation into peeces which onely links vs vnto Christ. Certainely Arminianisme whateuer some ●●en vainely dreame is but an olde condemned He●●sie raised vp from hell of late by some Iesuits and infernall spirits to k●●dle a combustion in all Protestant States and Churches to trample vnder feete the soueraigntie and kingdome of Gods grace and true Religion in all places where they raigne or flourish that so Romes grand Impostors might possesse their throne to make way and passage for an vniuersall Spanish Papall Monarchie which haue much enlarged their Dominions by this Church firing and State-disturbing Heresie It is but a desperate and bloudy Error which cuts off all peace all ioy all comfort and saluation from the soules of men especially from broken hearts and wounded consciences to which the Arminian Doctrines of Freewill the Resistability of grace Conditionall yea mutable Election with totall and finall Apostasie from the State of grace are but so many Lectures of despaire It is a cursed Error which hath brought a curse a plague diuisions tumults defeatments shame consumption innouations pressures and sundry other iudgements on all those Protestant States and Churches where it hath bene harboured which haue neuer thriuen since this contagious blasting Heresie