Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	church_n	kingdom_n	time_n	2,800	4	3.6726	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86198	The vnlavvfulnes and danger of limited prelacie, or Perpetuall precidencie in the Church, briefly discovered.	Henderson, Alexander, 1583?-1646.	1641 (1641)	Wing H1444; Thomason E206_5; ESTC R212599	12,364	23

perswaded others to consent unto it but did aftewards breake all these bonds and finding themselves unable to give account according to the Councell given to Perecles they procured that there should bee no free Generall Assemblies lest they should be called to account and when they were challenged of their perjury and perfidious dealing their Printed Apologie declared their perfidie to be double Refut libel de regim Eccles Scotae pag. 89. cum viderit breviz in quibus voluntatur incerta ancipitia repeter pedem nec vertet terga sed sensim recedit in tutum Senec. Epist 22. which wee will expresse in their owne words because they may bee usefull at thit time and teach us what may bee expected from their fellowes Conditiones aliae protempore mag is quo contentiosis rixandi ansa praeriperetur quàm animo in perpetuum observandi acceptae What then may be hoped for in this Land were people have beene inured to this yoke Prelates have beene in possession the Court is near to shire upon them and where there be no Nationall Assemblies but such Provinciall Assemblies where these new Bishops shal be Presidents or if National Assemblies shall be appointed shall they not either be fordidden to meet or shall they not be overruled by these Bishops that in a short time they shall not only recover their wonted power and pompe by the consent of the Assemblies and thus be come deeply rooted and with greater difficulty removable then before but shall also double their tyranny manet alta mente repostum and thus our last state shall be worse then the first This perpetuall president Prelacy not the cure but the cause of Shisme or moderate Prelate which was at first and is now pretended to be a remedy against Schisme hath not only proved a remedy worse then the disease by making way to the greatess Bishop the Antichrist but likewise doth foment and increase the disease it selfe of Schisme and Division for beside that it shall maintaine a shamefull Schisme against all the Reformed Churches especially against the neighbour Church of Scotland which will cause continuall jealousies and heart-burning betwixt the two Nations if we shall allow and establish Episcopacy which we did before but tolerate and they have found and judged upon good reasons to be intolerable It shall rent the bowels of the Church and Kingdome within it selfe the Parliament shal be divided some for it and others against it and of these who shall be for it there shal be subdivisions some for one limitation and some for another after the Parliaments Authority shal be for it the body of the Kingdome at least the godly and Religious shal be against it Whence shall arise almost in every Parish no small debate and contention and many sorrows and discontents instead of that universall joy which is expected through the whole kingdome The Ministers and whole Clergie shall be rent asunder is their Sermons Lectures and Polemick writings and Pamphlets some defending the old Episcopacie some the new and the sounder part oppugning both and still pressing a further Reformation some gaping for Prelacies and getting them others enraged for want of them a third sort still living in hope of preferment and the remnant opposing all this competion and emulation And although this Prelacie were appointed and received with generall consent of Parliament Pastors and People which no man will expect who is not a stranger in this Church and Kingdome yet who can hope that this Tree shall bring forth the fruits of truth and peace in this Land at this time which it never produced in any time or place since the beginning There can be no peace to the Body till the bad humour now stirred be purged out and when this Ionah is cast into the Sea then shall there be a calme The worke also shall be more easie and the labour much lesse in rooting up the Tree then in lopping the branches which will take a long time and much debate and deliberation In Christian Policie Prelacy against both Christian and common policy that Government of the Church is most usefull for Kings and Kingdomes which is best warranted by the Word of God by whom Kings reigne and Kingdomes are established Religion and Righteousnesse are the Pillars which God hath made for upholding his Majesties throne Prelacie and Ceremonies are invented and framed by the wisdome of Man for setting up and supporting the Popes Monarchie no Ceremony no Prelat no Prelat no Pope 2. Which serveth most to the preservation of pietic righteousnesse and sobriety against their contraries which where they reigne as they doe alwayes where Prelates have place and power are the certaine causes of many calamities and judgements and of the changes and periods of States Kingdomes and Families 3. Which maketh the face of the Church and Religion in a Kingdome most beautifull and glorious not with Prelaticall pompe and splendor like the Kings of the Nations but with sound faith a pure worship and holy life And 4. Which conduceth most for truth and peace against Heresie and Schisme for which effect Church Assemblies of Ministers equall in order and degree meeting in Presbyteries Provinciall and Nationall Assemblies are powerfull meanes as the experience of all the Reformed Churches hath taught us and against which Prelacie hath a naturall antipathie it being the nature thereof to love greatnesse and to grow bigge by the division of the Church and therefore the Prelacie will beare with all Religions provided they be not Anti-episcopall will not onely suffer Heresies and divisions to arise and grow but will foment them that the parties may depend upon him as their Judge Contzen polit Lib. ● c. 19. and that the thoughts of others may be drawne from his Mitre to other matters Againe in common policie that Governement of the Prelates should be shunned because he is a superfluous and unprofitable member the Sonne of God having provided for all the necessities of the Church by Officers of his owne appointment Shall that be esteemed to be good policie in the Church which no wise man would judge to be good aeconomic in his owne house no Magistrate would admit in his owne charge shall Servants or subjects appoint one to rule over them at their owne pleasures or shall we thinke that a Minister hath abilities for all the parts of his function and shall not be able to preside in an Assembly or is there none in the assembly fit to be president but one 2. because the Prelate is an unprofitable burden requiring in his greatest moderation a revenue more then ordinary and serveth for no good use neither to Church King nor Countrey 3. Because the Prelate by his power with Prince and Peere and by his usurpation and tyranny over the People divideth betwixt the Rulers and the people and maketh the Civill government which without him would bee light and easie to be heavie and grievous to the people 4. Because a

from the first times and from the very beginning as Christ in the matter of divorcement did not speake of Davids or Abrahams or Lamech's times but of Adams saying but from the beginning it was not so so must we in the matter of this divorcement ascend not to the times of Augustine or Cyprian or Ignatius but to the times of Christ and the Apostles and to the first Institution of the Ministerie at the beginning and so much the more because many of the Fathers did unwittingly bring forth that Antichrist which was conceived in the time of the Apostles and therefore are incompetent Judges in the question of Hierarchie and upon the other part the lights of the Christian Church at and since the beginning of Reformation have discovered many secrets concerning the Antichrist and his Hierarchie which were not knowne to former ages and have shewed us that at the beginning there was no kinde of difference of a Bishop from a Presbyter The way of defection is broad and easie of which we have domestick examples In this Iland in fewer yeeres the Church of Scotland suffered a great Eclipse in fewer yeers ours was greater and darkenesse had covered the Land if the Lord had not prevented us Suppose Episcopacie were shaven and stript naked of all externall Limited Prelacy unlawfull and heterogeneall pompe and power and of the internall power of sole ordination and jurisdiction suppose nothing were left unto the Bishops but a perpertuall presidence in Church assemblies and Synodes Suppose him to be chosen by the Clergie and to be subject to their censure as other Ministers and suppose all the cautions and limitations that can be devised be put upon him to keep him within his bounds from exorbitancie yet still is he such a plant as God never planted rooted not in Scripture but in the Earth and bringing forth such fruites as can neither bee acceptable to God nor profitable to men This degree and primacie of order by which hee is lifted up above his brethren cannot bee separated from some primacy of power and when it meeteth with ambition and opportunitie of advancement through the favour of Princes or the neglect of another time whether carelesse or more carefull about other matters it shall gather strength againe and regaine what it now looseth by the rasour of Reformation shall of a Consull make a dictator and pull downe the house which it made even now to shake Election doth nor hinder his power to be Episcopall for not onely inferiour Bishops are chosen by their Chapters but the Pope also by his conclave of Cardinals neither will this hinder his power to be Episcopall because it is under a Synod for the best of the Papists hold that the Pope subject to an oecumenicall Councell Woefull Experience hath taught that from this perpetuall presidence and Primacy of order Prelacy and Popery inseparable as the first step of the ladder Antichrist hath mounted up to the Primacy of power to Archiepiscopall dignitie to be a Patriarch and at last to be universall Bishop and Antichrist and shall we now after the mystery of iniquitie is made manifest allow him in this land the first step of the Ladder establish him thereby and not turne him quite off and overturne the ladder it selfe this were a dangerous recidive this were twise to make shipwracke and the second because wilfull worse then the first where before wee were patients now to be agents in so great an evill and to make that which was before against our will our evill of paine now by our wilfull errour to be our evill of sinner were it not better by the totall ruine of Episcopacie to give example to other Churches whose eyes are upon us by doing the like to pull downe the Pope to put him out of hope to rise againe in this Church and to make all Papists despaire to regaine this Kingdome to the Roman religion it being their owne declaration that were all England once brought to approve of Bishops it were easie to reduce it to the Church of Rome (a) Cutzen pol Li● 2. c. 18. Limitation of Prelacy will proue weake by the example of the Church of Scotland All bonds and limitations although many although strong although made never so wisely will prove but weake to keep them in order and beare downe their aspiring Ambition which our neighbour Church of Scotland for the greater part did not beleeve at first and which we could hardly be induced to beleeve now were wee not taught by their example for in the yeere one thousand sixe hundred the Church of Scotland being met in a General Assembly at Montrose these cautions and limits were agreed upon the Kings Majesty consenting 1. That the Minister chosen to this place shall not be called Bishop but Commissioner of such a place 2. That hee shall neither propound to the Parliament any thing in name of the Church without their expresse warrant and direction nor shall he keepe silence or consent to any thing prejudiciall to the weale and liberty of the Church under the paine of deposition 3. Vnder the paine of Infamy and Excommunication he shall at every Assembly give accompt of the discharging of his Commission and shall submit himselfe to their Censure and stand to their determination whatsoever without appellation 4. He shall content himselfe with that part of the Benefice which shall be assigned him not prejudging any of the Ministers in their livings 5. He shall not dilapidate his benefice 6. He is bound as any other Minister to attend his particular Congregation and shall be subject to the tryall and censure of his owne Presbitery and Provinciall assembly 7. Hee shall neither usurp nor claim to himselfe any power of jurisdiction in any point of Church government more then any other Minister 8. In Presbiteries Provinciall and generall assemblies he shall behave himself in all things and be subject to their censuring as any of the Brethren of the Presbitery 9. At his admission to his Office he shall swear and subscribe to fulfill all these points under the paines foresaid otherwise not to be admitted 10. In case he shall be deposed he shall no more voyce in Parliament nor injoy his Benefice 11. He shall not have voyce in the Generall Assembly unlesse he be authorised with Commission from his own Presbytery 12. Crimen ambit●● shall be a sufficient cause of deprivation 13. The Generall Assembly which the advise of the Synod shall have power of his nomination or recommendation 14. He shall lay down his Commission annuatim at the foot of the Generall Assembly to be continued or changed as the Generall Assembly with his Majesties consent shall think fit 15. Other cautions to be made as the Church shall sinde occasion The godly and sincere Ministers disliked this course altogether and some did protest against it but others loving preheminence above their Brethren and hunting after fatter Benefices did consent themselves and