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	protestant_a	protestant_n	4,204	5	8.2770	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69663	The grand impostor vnmasked, or, A detection of the notorious hypocrisie and desperate impiety of the late Archbishop, so styled, of Canterbury cunningly couched in that written copy which he read on the scaffold at his execution, Ian. 10, 1644, alias called by the publisher, his funerall sermon / by Henry Burton.	Burton, Henry, 1578-1648.	1644 (1644)	Wing B6163; ESTC R6460	22,693	23

sentence of condemnation execution especially when now God is making his inquisition for bloud So he And surely in this good season of Gods inquisition for bloud it hath pleased him to find out this Achan who hath cunningly even to the last houre not as Achan glorifying God by confession as before hid all his stollen goods the wedge of gold the Babylonish garment the two hundred shekels of silver all his under-hand dealings for the undoing of this Kingdome in the hollow of his false heart and had not both Parliament and People bestirred themselves in the discoveries he had been too nimble for us all But God I say was pleased to use the industry of his people to find out this foxes holes But besides all this O the impudencie of this wretched man in commending to this Citie the consideration of that Prophecie Ier. 26.15 they are the words of the Prophet Ieremiah to the Princes of Iudah and Jerusalem The words are these though they are not set forth in the Sermon but only the pl●ce quoted with a speciall recommendation to this City and whether he spake them on the scaffold I know not for I was not there As for mee behold I am in your hand doe with me as seemeth good and meet unto you But know it for certaine that if yee put me to death yee shall surely bring innocent bloud upon your selves and upon this Citie and upon the Inhabitants thereof for of a truth the Lord hath sent me unto you to speake all these words in your eares Now could this man possibly beleeve that any in this Citie should be so simple as to beleeve him Or could he beleeve that this Scripture should perswade the Citie or Parliament Princes and People to doe as the word● follow declare vers. 16. Then said the Princes and all the People unto the Priests and to the Prophets This man is not worthy to dye for he hath spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God Here this Porcupine strikes himselfe thorow with his owne quils Hee complaines for the poore Church of England and that is his Hierarchy that that once flourished as once the Abbeyes and Monasteris did and was a shelter to other neighbouring Churches What To the Church of Scotland witnesse his reformed Service-booke and his animating the King with his Army against them for casting out such merchants and merchandice Or that of Ireland which he had filled with his Arminian and superstitious Priests and helped to make that land a field of bloud a shambles to butcher those hundred thousands of innocent Protestant Subjects as good a Protestant as himselfe is or his confederates In everie cle●t of this selfe-divided Kingdome profanenesse he saith and irreligion hath crept in Now truly himselfe was the prime wood-cleaver that drave in the first wedges and thereby brought in by the head and eares all profanenesse and irreligion which leaking yea flowing in so fast have well nigh drowned the ship But stay what meanes this profanenesse and irreligion which the Prelate here tels us of he shall be his owne interpreter In his Relation in the Epistle Dedicatorie he tels the King saying Though J cannot prophesie yet I feare that Atheisme and irreligion gather strength while the truth is thus weakened by an unworthy way of contending And p. 19. The externall worship of God in his Church is the great witnesse to the world that our hearts stand right in the service of God Take this away or bring it into contempt and what light is there left to shine before men that they may see our devotion and glorifie our Father which is in Heaven The result is as the Replyer cleareth that the neglect or contempt of his externall worship is that which bringeth in profanenesse and irreligion that is Not to set the face in a right posture towards the East in our devotion not to bow to an Altar not to kneele at the Sacrament not to use a faire white Surplice and black hood in Administration not to baptize with the signe of the Crosse not to say second service c. all this shewes that our hearts stand not right in the service of God that without these no light is left to shine before men that they may see our Devotion and glorifie our Father which is in heaven O notorious hypocrisie O egregious impietie thus to abuse Scripture and all true religion so as Prospers speech here alleaged by him hits him full home Men that introduce profanenesse which is done by a false Religion and Devotion of mans devising are cloaked with a name of imaginary Religion And what is Imagerie in worship but an imaginarie Religion And if wee have in a manner almost lost the substance we may thank his Ceremonies for it and for the danger the land is now in threatening ruine the Lord prevent it by the just ruine of this man that hath been a maine instrumentall cause of it He comes * here to his last particular which is himself He makes a solemne Protestation of his Religion to be Protestant but with this limitation in reference to the Church of England only not to other Protestant Churches for no Protestant Churches are Episcopall but this This therefore he sticks to in this profession he was born lived and will now dye He disclaimes the bringing in of Popery into this Land Now what should be the meaning of this Mystery considering all his indeavours and practises have tended and contended to reduce this his Church to as near a conformity with Rome as possibly may be For excepting the differences in Doctrine take the whole Hierarchy Government Discipline Officers Services Ceremonies Vestments and all other implements we find the Church of England to be one and the some with that of Rome as the Prelate affirmeth for which see my Reply from pag. 63. to 69 How then is it true that he is no setter up or bringer in of Popery as he protesteth surely two wayes * First because he found some old Reliques of Rome in the Kings Chappells and some Cathedralls as an Altar Jmages Adorations Organ-Service Copes and the like Therefore he makes a shift by piecing it out with some forced interpretations of the Queens Injunctions and with improvement of the Service Booke and other viis modis to bring in a generall conformity to those paterns and that under a specious colour of vniformity a very Laudable thing in a Kingdom especially Regis ad Exemplum that all should be of the Kings Religion or the Religion of his Chappell every Daughter-Church to conform to the Mother the Cathedrall and thus all being raised up to one conformity it came to passe that both Iesuits on the one side boasted that the Church of England was turned Roman and some bold Ministers began to tell tales in the Pulpit and at last to write and publish Bookes of it though to their cost This is the Golden lea●e wherewith

the Prelate hath Gilded over his Protestation for currant for which he flies and layes hold on the Hornes of the Altar in the Kings Chappell his most sacred Sanctuary His * other is a word of Equivocation which is Popery He distinguisheth Popery into Proper and Improper or lesse proper Popery taken properly is that whereof the Pope is sole Head and Master And this is that Popery which he here protesteth he never intended or endeavoured to set up in the Church of England to wit the universall Headship of the Pope which the Logitians call proprium quarto modo that is such as is proper to the Pope and onely to the Pope and alwayes to the Pope as laughing is said to be proper to man alone at all times The Prelate then would not have such a Popery set up in the Propriety of it as should exalt the P. over the See of Canterbury to over-top the Metropolitan of all England What then He would have no other Popery set up in England then that only which is lesse proper or improperly called Popery or rather a thing that is Popery but must not be called Popery And that is That the Pope shall be Head or Bishop of the Church of Rome and the Arch-bishop of Canterbury shall be an Independent Primate and Metropolitan of all England and the Pope to have nothing to doe here but himselfe alone to be Dominus fac totum Onely with this Reserve that this Primate become Pope when time serves And it seemes he takes it as a deed if gift from the Pope which he gave to the Prelat● Predecessor Anselm to whom the Pope gave this Title stiling him Patrarcha alterius orbis the Patriarch or Pope of the other world meaning England of which the Roman Poet writ of old Et penitus toto divis●s or be Britannos And thus it seemes it descended upon the Successors of Canterbury by an hereditary right from the Pope And therefore not without cause doth the Prelate make mention hereof in his * Relation telling us that a Patriarch is above a Prelate so expert was he in the learning of Ecclesiasticall Heraldry for Titles and Degrees And thus we come to understand what he means by making profession of the Protestant Religion of the Church of England namely that this Religion is not Popery properly taken but only improperly as hath been said So as herein we may give credit to his words in some sense both for himselfe and his friends whom he so highly magnifies for good Protestants of the Church of England This is that true Protestant Religion which they so much profest by hooke or crooke to maintaine Touching his Treason in subverting the Laws and perverting of Religion it matters not for all his protestations that he never intended but ever abhorred it for all things were clearely and fully proved in Court against him His Protestations of his innocency have been too well knowne as well as others what credit they deserve A man commits many Murthers and pleades he abhorres to be a murtherer He kills slayes slaughters innocent Protestant Subiects and protests he intends the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion Will this hold good in Law or yet in the Court of Conscience For his contempt of Parliaments this was also proved against him and he here in part confesseth it And in the close he forgives all the world He cryes Thiefe first calling all his Persecutors his bitter enemies He forgives them he saith but he giveth them a cruell dash calling them bitter enemies who did but in a legall way and just cause prosecute him as a grand enemy both to Religion and to the Republicke Therefore what kind of forgivenesse this is God knowes when it so ends in a most bitter calumniation But he askes forgivenesse of God and then of every man whether I have saith he offended him or no if he but conceive that I have Alas what a pittifull shu●●ing i● here Here i● a generall asking of forgivenesse but for what here is no acknowledgment of any sin against God o● of any one offence or injury to any man And tha● all may plainly see how this Hypocrite and Impostor playes mock-holi-day he askes forgivenesse of every man whether he hath offended him or no Why what needs forgivenes when no offence given or taken But 〈◊〉 he if he do but conceive that I have Oh ●ender heart But here lie would make the world beleeve that none can challenge him for wrong unlesse in conceit only t is but a conceit that men have only that the good Bishop of Canterbury should do the least wrong to any man living For what say you to that Speech of his in his Relation to the King God forbids I should ever offer to perswade a persecution in any kinde or practic● it in the least T is but a conceit then that the Prelate of Canterbury should be either a persecutour or a perswader thereunto A conceit that he should perswade that the terrible censure in the Star-Chamber against those his three bitter men as he calls them should be executed to the uttermost although he left them to the Kings Justice A conceite that he should use the least meanes to promerit the Judges a little before the censure though he made a great feast at Lambeth conceite that he should be an instrument of persecu●ion to whom poore petitioners to the King about the booke of sports were referred for mercie where none could be had or hoped for And thus he concludes Lord doe thou forgive me and I begge forgivenesse of him Of whom Of one whether I have offended him or no if he doe but conceive that I have What juggling is here No sparke of ingenuity or truth in all this nor all along Well but what then So saith he I heartily desire you to ioyne with me in prayer Nay stay He should have remembred that saying of Christ Matth. 5. 23 24. If thou bring thy gift before the Altar and there re●embrest that thy brother hath ought against thee leave there thy gift before the Altar and goe thy way first be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer t●y gi●t Agree with thine Adversary quickly c. Now the Prelate here brings his gift to the Altar he hath a Prayer in his hand in stead of his heart to offer but he should remember that not one brother but many have great and grievous things against him Therefore before he read his Prayer he should have rubb'd up his old rusty memory and called for those who had many things against him and have made his peace with them He should have called for all thos● Preachers whom he had wickedly Prelatically Suspended Silenced Deprived thrust out of their Means with their wives children exposed to beggery misery among many others Mr. Rudd of Abington Mr. Bar●ard Mr. Forbis Mr. Ward c. He should have called for all those godly Preachers

himselfe this is to pray that this more then miserable Kingd●me may be made more then most miserable If he meane the stopping of the now ●●sue of blood that is hath been shed by this intestine and unnaturall warre whereby the Beasts power seekes to destroy the Lambs Kingdome with his called and chosen and faithfull people This should extreamly aggravate and make the sin of this Prelate ou● of measure sinfull as who hath been one prime instrument and bloody agent to procu●e all this blood-shed But that which followeth surpasseth all transcendency of the malice and wickednesse of hell it selfe I shall desire saith he that I may pray for the people too as well as for my selfe O Lord I beseech thee give grace of repentance to all people that have a thirst for blood but if they will not repent then scatter their devices c. Here 1. he makes it plaine that what hee prayed before was for himselfe and his party and that the issue of blood on his part might be stopt as before 2. The maine of his prayer is to lay the guilt of al the blood that hath been shed in this war upon the Parliament and people especially this City that stand for their Rights ●s a people that thirst for bl●od whereof if they repent not that then their devices may be sca●tered as being contrary to Gods glory the truth and sincerity of Religion to wit of Popery as before is shewed to the establishment of the King and his Posterity after him in their just Right● and Priviledges to wit in an Arbitrary and Tyrannicall gove●nment whereby the Tyrannicall Prelacy the truth sincerity of the Popish Religion may he supported and maintained for which very cause all this bloody war● hath been● raised and con●●●ued in Ireland and England wherein so many hundred thousands of innocent people loyall Subiects have been most barbarously murthered and for no other cause but that they bar● the name of Protestants only not such Protestants as could be hoped to professe the true Protestant Religion of the present Church of England the truth and sincerity of which Religion is Popery improperly so called as befo●● shewed But he adds For the honour and conservation of Parliaments in their ancient and iust power Note here never a prayer in particular for this present Parliament but for Parliaments in generall and that also with a limitation in their auncient and iust power And what is that Namely so farre as standeth with the Kings Prerogative according to that new clause lately foysted into the Kings Oath at his Coronation by the Legierde-main of this Iugler to govern his people according to the Lawes and maintain their Rights and Liberties But with this Provi●o so far as stands with the Kings Prerogative Which Legier-de-main was one of those Charges proved against the Prelate in the Honourable House of Peeres so as in these words ancient and iust power doth lurck a great deal of serpentine deceit that all this ancient and iust power comes to iust nothing further then with reference unto and dependance upon the Kings Prerogative Such are the slie equivocations and mentall reservations of this subtle serpent all along in this his pretended prayer wherein he thus desperately dallyeth with God and men Then For the preservation of this poore Church in her truth peace and patrimony This poore Church to wit the late and yet proud Prelacy her truth such as is regulated by he● Canons with an Et caetera her Peace for which shee hath caused troubles and war in those Kingdomes he●Patrimony a part of Peters Patrimony for the support of her truth peace that which this Prelate in his Relation of a conference tooke all that paines about for the blessed meeting of Truth and Peace as he call● it in reconciling of Rome and England together as hee professeth throughout his booke and in the very last page and words thereof He adds And the settlement of this distracted and distrossed people c. Whatsoever he prayes here is with reference to the truth peace and patrimony of his poore Church and therefore it is added with a Copulative and the settlement c. And hereunto hee adds another And And when all this is done that then they may be thankefull with religious dutifull obedience to thee and thy Commandements Here they must take notice that there is no such blessing for which to be thankfull as the up-holding of the Prelates Protestant Religion When this is done then fill their hearts with thank●fulnesse But how can dutifull obedience to Gods Commandements and to Prelaticall Canonicall Commandements stand together For what more contrary and opposite one to the other then Christs Commandements to Antichrists We have had wofull experience hereof Christ commands to preach the Word in season and out of season the Prelates forbid Lectures on week dayes and Sermons in the afternoone on Lords dayes God commands to worship him in spirit and truth Prelates command to worship God by humane forms by Images by Adorations towards the East with many other superstitious Ceremonies of mans devising God commands his Sabboths or Lords dayes to be sanctified Prelates suspend Ministers for not reading the book for profane sports on these dayes with infinite more He closes all with a Lord receive my soule to m●rcy adding Our Father c. Now what hath an impenitent hard hearted hypocrite to doe with mercy All that hee hath here prayed or rather babled out of a paper is but meerly to delude the people and to mocke God even to his face Never came there such a forlorne and formidable spectacle upon stage or scaffold to act the hypocrites part so that as he was a seducer deceiver ell his life time so hee will dye The reply to the Relation hath set him ●orth in his colours long before prophecying of his c●rsed end which we see now fulfilled as also of the terrible iudgments and calamities that should fall upon his Prelaticall Clergy of England together with his Protestant Religion aliâs Popery though but improperly so called He complaines for want of Room to dye which he needed not for he had too much of Room that brought him to dye I beseech you saith he let me have an end of this misery For all this hast hee should have laid a better and surer foundation to build his hope upon for freedome from a future misery both infinitely durable and extreamly intollerable then yet we have seene in him Nor could he finde a word in Scripture to satisfie Sir John Clotworthie's question for any assurance that hee had of a better life And just was this with God the righteous Iudge that as hee was a great decryer and vilifier of the Scripture as The light which is in Scripture it selfe is not bright enough it cannot beare sufficient witnesse to it selfe That the beliefe of Scripture to be the Word of God dependeth primarily upon the

and Christians whom his bloody cruelty caused to fly into the Deserts of Ameries as Mr. Cotton Mr. Hooker Mr. Davenport Mr. Peter with many thousands more He should have called for all those Congregations whose soules he had famished by taking away their godly teachers the blood of whose soules were found to be upon his skirts and under ●is wings He should have called for all those whom he had most cruelly and against all justice caused to be imprisoned pillaryed eare-cropped branded whipped fined confined to perpetuall close imprisonment and that in perpetuall banishment from their native country from society of wives children freinds a●quaintance common light and ayre and what not As Mr. William Pryn Doctor Bastwick Henry Burton Doctor Leighton Mr. Iohn Lilburne Nathani●ll Wickins all which with many more indured intollerable inhumane and most barbarous usage in their prisons and persons These these should he have called for to have made his peace with them by a● least acknowledging his extreame wronging of them as having beene the prime instrumentall cause thereof though otherwise he could never make them re●●itution for their eares nor satisfaction for their losses But he should have done to the uttermost what lay in his power before he should go on so desperatly to offer his Sacrifice of Prayer at Gods Altar He should have put it past If and And w●●ther he had offended any or no as if any did but conceive so But so far was he from shewing the least ingenuity or from having the lest dramme of grace as that he refused to be spoken withall by any whom hee had wronged much lesse would he acknowledge the least offence done to any either in his lif● or now at his death But as a man beref●of his common senses stript of his understanding benumb'd with a lethargy senselesse brutish blinde obdurate he persists in his Diabolicall impenitencie acknowledging not the least offence to Man in all his Life of which to repent hoping thereby after his Death to merit his Inscription upon his Tombe Here lies the most Innocent Archbishop of Cantyrbury But now can he not be content to die in his owne sins but he must heartily d●sire the people to ioy●e with him in his most hypocriticall dead ●●me blind Prayer that he brought with him in his hand as a price in the fooles hand but he wants a heart Had he not sufficiently ca●tivated the people to such blind devotion by his Servi●-book Prayers And had not this old Arch-prelate in all the time he lived got one Prayer at least by heart though he wanted grace in his hear● Christs Spirit ●ven the Spirit of Grace and Supplication which for any evidence he hath given he never had in all his life to powre forth one 〈◊〉 sigh of godly sorrow now at his death Here be may goodly words indeed compiled together but all will not make up one prayer of Faith being but as a dumbe Image without life and breath or like Caesars Sacrifice without a heart which was taken for a presage of death as proved true the same day Againe should the people become accessory to all the hypocrisie dissimulation and impenitencie of this wretched man who would wrappe up all his villanies committed in against the State of this Kingdome all Gods faithfull people therein by ioyning with him in such a godlesse spirit-lesse Prayer even the dead carkasse of a prayer a blind and lame sacrifice which the Lord abhorreth and forbids to be offered Besides as the whole prayer for the frame of it is not an Incense according to Christs spirit but patched and made up of sundrie ingredients of a most hypocriticall spirit which makes the whole prayer to be a very packe of lies and so abominable before God so there are some passages in it so grosse and palpable as any one that hath the least sparke of Gods spirit may discover plainly to be monstrous false As 1. That he hath a heart ready to dy for Gods honour and yet he will not confesse any one particular wickednesse that he might with Achan give glory to God 2. For the Kings happinesse when yf either he counselled the King to all those courses so destructive both to himselfe and kingdome or yf hee by obeying the Kings command in being an active instrument of all those cruell oppressions perpetrated by him upon the innocent subjects and exorbitant illegall violent tyrannicall invasions upon the just lawes of the kingdome and naturall liberties of the subiect be thus by the lawes of the kingdome and a due proceeding therein brought to this just penall death surely this can little make for the Kings happinesse unl●sse the cutting off of such limbes as these and so of this active instrument of mischiefe in patticula● may be a meanes to procure the Kings happinesse in case such Heads so cut off prove not the heads of the Roman Hydra which upon the cutting off of one head puts forth two untill the whole Lerna-Lake shall be quite drained and dried up otherwise he whose life hath but a little advanced the Kings happin●sse can give but little hope of raising it by such a death the just reward of a traitour Thirdly for this Churches preservation by which he alway●● understands his Hierarchy or the protestant Religion of the Church of England as before there cannot be a more sure Omen of the utter ruine of that as whose Primate is so cut off by the hatches of Justice in the Hangmans hand Againe he boldly tells God that his zeale to these three is all the sin which he knowes is yet knowne of him in this particular of Treason Did his zeale then so far transport him as to wade so deepe through so many acts of treason to the State as to play the Traitour for the honour of God surely God will not be honoured with any such service And as for his zeale to the Kings happinesse no m●rvaile if i● were so fiery as to become an Incendiary to the State and all for the prservation of this his Church which could not be preserved but with the extreame hazz●rd if not utter ruine of three kingdomes so as such a preservation purchased at so deare a rate could be a● little for the Kings honour as for his happinesse when three kingdomes should rather welter in their owne blood then the Prelaticall kingdome should not wallow in all its pompe and pleasure and indeed the zeale hereof in all Ages hath beene that which hath set the kingdomes of the Earth in such horrible combustions as at length it hath growne to be a Proverbe of the Prelates owne making No Bishop no King and so No Bishopprick or Bishopdome no Kingdome He prayes also that there may be a stop of that issue of blood in this more then miserable Kingdome Here it may be questioned what he meanes by this issue of blood If he meane the stopping of the course of Iustice in cutting off such Trayt●rs as