Selected quad for the lemma: religion_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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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-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
and the best if not absolutely necessary when it could be had The third Query is Why all this waste Why not sold and given to the poor The Bishops having 2.3.4.5.6.7.8 thousand pounds per ann a man Had he said 2.3.4.5.6.7.8 hundred pounds a year he had come nearer the truth For so it is indeed with most of them except some very few the best of which come hardly up to four But it is a Judas Query and so I leave St. John to explain it 4. The fourth is soon answer'd Whether other Nations without Bishops have succeeded in any particular better than England with Bishops let the World judg And had this Author been endow'd with as much knowledg and understanding as he is with Malice and Covetousness he would nver have put a question so disadvantagious for his purpose 5. The fifth and last Query is begging the Question upon a false supposition as you will see by what follows Now his Queries are done he comes to prove his Assertions which he does by the same Arguments that will Establish Anarchy for a Law and overthrow all Government He tells you the Bishops keep Chaplains and I believe as eminent for Learning and Piety have come out of that Rank as from any places whatever But their several Officers keeping Courts c. What would he have jurisdictions look after themselves or rather would he have the Clergy be left to the wide World without Laws and Authority to protect them Had this Author as much concern for the next World as he has for this he would then think that to honour God with our substance and to adorn his worship with a grateful share of what he has bleft us with might be of as much advantage to us under the dispensation of Providence as other layings out and that the Judges of the Land with the innumerable Officers and Dependences upon the Executive part of the Justice of this Nation even to the Constables and Overseers of the Poor might as well be reckoned a burden because their Gains in a full Computation are ten times more than the Clergies and yet I hope no man in his senses can think it possible for us to subfist without such a Constitution If he will number Parishes let him Compute what is gathered for the Poor in all the Parishes of England and see what a prodigious sum is spent to maintain numbers in idleness But he reckons and computes at so strange a rate as if nothing were to be done to right the Church as if its Officers were to live upon the Air and that whatever were received went into a great Gulf never to return by procuring the Necessaries of Nature Meat Drink and Cloathing by providing for their Families and if they provide not for the Poor above any other sort of men let others take their Office Now if unreasonable and wilful men have suffered by Censures for resisting the Laws why are not Thieves Robbers and Murderers as well pittied for their losses For where a Law may be obeyed with the same Liberty of Conscience as for pretence it is broken that Offender is as unjustifiable as a Thief and a Robber That this is the Case with all Dissenters is plain from the Statute which allows Meetings to such a number And yet how little disturbance do even the greatest Offenders in this kind meet with But you say men are Prosecuted for three pences and six pences more Knaves they that will Cheat and put to trouble their Neighbours for so slight a sum by with-holding anothers right The vast sums of mony the Bishops Deans c. heaped up at the Kings coming in is a great Eye-sore to him And that the evil Eye of Judas may manifestly appear he tells you a grievance Those that bought Church-Lands are undone if he durst he would say Crown-Lands too So here is the Case Our Progenitors out of a just resentment of Religion gave many Endowments to the Church for the more Comfortable and Honorable maintenance of those that Ministred in it lest the Service of God should become vile in the Eyes of the people if he should still be Worshipped in Dens and Caves while the Professors of his Worship dwelt in stately Palaces and fared plentifully It is a sign we will not acknowledg the hand that gave it if we grudg a grateful return But in comes an usurped power by means of an execrable Rebellion and divides the spoil of Church and Crown Lands Gods and the Kings Inheritance and when it pleases God to restore the right again it must be Oppression to turn these young Ahabs out of their Sacrilegious and Traiterous Possessions Neither was this envyed sum which the Church got near of that value this Author would have it and what Charges were upon it let any judg when they that came in had for many years before been stript naked for their Loyalty Cathedrals pulled down or let fall Houses wasted and ruined Dilapidations to a prodigious Charge and yet if the Government had taken a more narrow inspection perchance it might have been better Still Judas proceeds why all this cost What have we for it You have a splendid Church suitable to the prosperity God has blessed us with the wonder and rejoycing of all our Friends abroad and the envy of Rome and its adherents and such as work under a Cloak for Popery here at home You have a Learned Orthodox and a Godly Clergy such as are not afraid to speak with their Enemy in the Gate but challenge either single or in a body the whole Herd of Sectary-Ministers to see if they can answer them one word of a thousand If they have colour of truth why do they not desire a free Synod Why do they not seek Conferences If they are so Sober why do they go Drunk home ten or twenty Teachers of them every Sunday night after they have ended their Conventicles I hear no such thing of the Conforming Clergy and if they know any such let them prove it and he shall be cast out But we can prove this of a greater number of theirs than has yet been named even within the Walls of London and make it appear that part of their Congregations know of it But I am sick of this stuff full of nothing besides railing false suggestions and upholding stubbornness and disobedience so that I am resolved no longer to answer a Fool according to his folly lest I should become such another Only this let me say that all he urges were it as true as it is false amounts to no more than what the several Authorities he quotes at the end do amount unto which is That the prosperity of this World is a great snare and that the Church as well as other Bodies is liable to abuse it And therefore great care ought to be taken to reform and moderate the manners of such as are intrusted with the Wealth or Power of the Church And in Gods name let the