Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	good_a	king_n	subject_n	3,003	5	6.4581	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51052	The case of the accommodation lately proposed by the Bishop of Dumblane to the non-conforming ministers examined wherein also the antient Prostasia, or, Episcopus Præses is considered, and the Solemne League and Covenant occasionally vindicat : together with a copy of the two letters herein reviewed : vvhereunto also is subjoined an appendix in ansvver to a narrative of the issue of the treaty anent accommodation.	McWard, Robert, 1633?-1687.	1671 (1671)	Wing M231; ESTC R5121	109,669	138

for the former part of the assertion the Acts other things by me premised do abundantly clear it As for the latter that the King hath no such power in and over the Church it being uncontroverted in the Presbyterian perswasion and the Supremacy made the ground of the abovementioned Act of Restitution being to them a greater cause of offence then any of these difficulties in this matter of conjunction with Presbyteries Synods intended by the Accommodation it was the part of the Accommodators either by conviction or condescendence to have removed it However I may not digresse only I am assured if these three things be considered which I am readie to demonstrat against whatsoever Opponent 1. That this Ecclesiastick power is the sole prerogative of Iesus Christ whereof the administration was committed by our Lord to his Church when no Magistrat was a Member thereof and that upon the Magistrats becoming Christian there is no ground adduceable whereupon it could accrease to him 2. That all the power of the Magistrat is under God from the People and in such things over and about which the original power was to them competent to which this Church-power can in no sort be reckoned 3. That all the extraordinarie interpositions of good Kings and Emperours in matters of Religion did no wayes flow from any inherent right or prerogative they had conversant in these matters but were the pure product of necessitie sustained by the righteousness of the work deficiency of the more proper means These things I say being duely considered I am very confident that all the pretensions of the Supremacy will very quickly evanish and therefore it inevitably followes that seeing the Kings Supremacy is a high usurpation against our Lord Master all Courts depending thereon and acknowledging the same partaking therein what ever opinion a man do reserve or whatever declaration be made anent it must also be rejected But here there ariseth a great noise and clamor what are the present Presbyteries and Synods no Presbyteries and Synods then are the present Ministers no Presbyters But their is no such haste neither have these things any further connexion then that the present Ministers are not Presbyters in so far as the same denotes a power of ruling committed by Iesus Christ which truly I think in ingenuitie they can not deny specially seing that although they hold themselves to be Ministers by mission from Christ yet they do nevertheless acknowledge their power of Ecclesiastick Government and Iurisdiction to be from the King on whom they grant that the Ministerie as to other things doth not in such a manner depend Whereupon it evidently followeth that if the power of government do as well and in the same manner flow from Iesus Christ as the power of order as the Schools speak doth and that thereby true Presbyteries and Synods do only subsist then these meetings which recognosce his Majesty as Supreme for and in the exercise of the power which they acclaime can no more be truly such then he who by vertew of his Soveraign's mission would pretend himself to be a Minister But what need of more words if the present conform Ministers and there meetings have disclained Iesus Christ for their immediat Head in matrer of Government and owne no power thereof but what acknowledgeth a dependence upon and subordination to his Majesty as Supreme wherewith nevertheless he himself is not at all vested and if on the other hand we do disallow all Church-Government and medlings and meetings thereof which do not hold their commission and warrant from Christ alone as the Head of the Body what concurrence can we make in on and the same Assembly Or by what salvo may my sitting and acting be justified in a meeting in the power whereof I hold it unlawful to partake For my part since in the matter of Ecclesiastick Government they do not hold the true Head but have betaken themselves to another to whom they do referr are accountable for all their power if we who in Conscience do both detest this usurpation and disclaime all share in any power save what our Lord hath committed unto us desire to be excused from these Assemblies I think until they first convince us of our mistake in these things they cannot rationally blame us for Separation And therefore what ever may be the effect of an entrie qualified either by declaration or protestation in order to the freeing of the partie from an apparent constructive accession to certain accidental corruptions that may be in a meeting to which he is otherwise obliged to joine yet sure I am in this case where the very constitution it self is so unwarrantable and corrupt that non can actively partake therein without sin this remedie here offered is altogether insignificant The next thing that here occurres is that although this reservation of opinion and declaration permitted could be a salvo as to the evills of the constitution yet without doubt there is a consideration to be had in such conjunctions of the persons also with whom it is to be made There may be an Assembly nay a Presbyterie or Synod of evill doers which we are bound to hate and even the Assembly of the wicked who inclosed him and pearced his hands and his feet wanted not a specious name yea it was the house of his friends sure no man will think that a simple protestation may warrant constant presence in these cases but rather encline with Ieremiah to leave and to draw from an assembly of treacherous men What for assemblies the present Church-meetings are I can be no more tender then it is superflous to utter only this I will say that if it be once granted that such may be the condition of a meeting by reason of the quality of its members that no declaration can warrant any fellowship therein I am certain that the subsumption viz. that such are the Courts to which we are invited may be to the satisfaction of all unbyassed men upon these sufficient grounds of notorious perjury intrusion profanitie and insufficiencie unquestionably made out But I proceed to the next Article bearing That all Church-affaires shall be managed in Presbyteries and Synods by the free vote of Presbyters or the Major part of them This is indeed the main principal condescendence and it is to this place that aswel for the satisfaction of such Brethren as possibly will not so easily at first admit of the foregoing reasons as for a full answere to all that can be said for this Accommodation I have reserved to discourse upon it at more length and on all fair and probable Suppositions In supplement therefore of this Article and to take it in the most advantageous sense that the Proposers can desire I adde that consistently therewith it seems the Bishop is to be reduced to a constant Moderator whence in prosecution of my declared purpose waving any further exceptions against the nullity of

particular inquirie thereinto for the time do without all peradventure most convincingly redargue these weak quiblings bo●h of grosse ignorance and calumnie What shall we then say to t●e folly and bitternesse of these reproaches w●ereby this Author upon no better reason then what doth equally militat against all our general obligations either to God or man is pleased to asperse the Covenant as an hodge podge of various concernments religious and civil What Can not these thing lye easily enough together in an Oath which yet are all comprehended in the Law of God Are the Churches true Government the righteous privileges of Parliaments and liberties of the Subject and the duty of endeavouring in our place and calling that evill do●rs may be punished and the rebels purged out of the Land upon whom by the law of God the hand of all the people is commanded to be the great concernes both of Religion and Righteousnesse things either impertinent to any or in themselves incompatible Or is it because that our Author hath by confounding and trampling upon all these things and betraying at this time the Churches government unto the supremacie as formerly under the Usurpers he little regarded either the Subjects liberty● or his Prince his Authority and is known to have alwayes his pretended charity as contracted towards zealous godly protestants as dilated unto irreligious papists and prelatists polluted his own conscience and rendered it unclean that therefore even this sacred Oath is become unclean and nauseating unto him what can he reply to these things Or can he assigne us a better reason for his assertion He sayes It is hard enough for the wisest and learnedest to draw the just lines of these things and to give plain definitions of them But will it therefore follow that none but such have any concernment in or obligation to them No this were in effect an inference no lesse nay more absurd then to alledge that none are bound or may swear to maintain his Majesties authority but such as can draw the just lines of all his prerogatives or rather that none are obliged to defend his person but such as can draw his picture to the life It is therefore certain that as all men have undoubtedly an interest more or lesse remote in these matters● so they either really have or ought to have a knowledge proportionable to their ingagement thereto to which an Oath for confirmation is most properly accessory The Author add's that These things are as far from the reach of poor Country Peoples understan●ing as from the true interest of their souls And O how desirable is it that this the one thing necessary were indeed the speciall and main care of all men but to offer to confine poor Peoples knowledge and obligations to their souls interest alone with an aime so palpable to have all other things abandoned to lust and tyranny according to the great design of these adversaries against which this Covenant was ingaged in savours more of hypocrisie then true spirituality And therefore I say 1. that the true Discipline and Government of Gods House are in themselves and have been experimented to be of such important influence as to the promoving the great work and ends of the Gospel the great concern of Gods glory and wherein no doubt the interest of all souls is involved that whatever may be in this pretense of abstraction and self confinement yet he must needs be of a very Gallio temper that careth for none of these things 2. Although privileges and liberties and the punishment of Malignants have no such direct tendencie yet I am not only assured that in the then juncture of affaires their defence was of notable subservience to the preservation and reformation of Religion principally covenanted but that of themselves and as to the main of their import they are so much within the reach of the sense let be the knowledge of the meanest of men that to take them off from their concernment therein and ingagement thereto by the insinuation of their souls true interest will be judged by all ingenuous persons a very cunning and deceitful impertinencie Now from the premises that we have heard the Author concludes in these terms So that to ty them viz. the common people by a religious sacred Oath either to know all these or to contend for them blindfold without knowing them can there be instanced a greater oppression tyranny over Conscience then this c. But seeing it is most certain that the Oath doth neither tye to know all these nor yet to contend for them blindfold but being entered into from the universal feeling of all ranks of the invasions made and threatned both against Religion and Libertie did according to the nature of all such assertory and accessory Covenants only bind every on in his place and calling and sutably to that measure of knowledge which he either had or ought to have of such general and important concerns to stand to their defence against the common enemie the ignorance and insolence of this inference doth in deep astonishment only prompt me to say the Lord rebuke the O Adversarie The Lord who hath chosen this poor Church rebuke thee Is not the small remnant of the faithful as a brand pluckt out of t●e fire But behold how he wipes his mouth Certainly sayes he they who now govern in this Church cannot be charged with any thing near or like unto it No All pious holy tender souls But seing I have removed the calumny the subject of the comparison I will not recriminat yet we must hear a little of the mens praise viz. That whatever they require of Intrants they neither require subscriptions nor Oaths of Ministe●s already entered far lesse of the whole People But 1. Seing there can be no solid distinguishing reason given for this practice we must conclude Policy to be the only motive of this pretended moderation 2. The Oath with the Act 1612. prescribed to be taken of Intrants is so plainly and truely chargeable with a laxe dubious and insnaring generality that I am certain all the light and knowledge to be found in the most of these who conform to it will not prevent the Authors being confounded with his own argument I shall not tell you that therein they sweare to the Supremacy an infinite mysterie of iniquitie But the point wherein this Oath is really peccant in all the foul reproaches wherewith the Covenant is falsly loaded is that thereby they are bound to defend all Iurisdictions Privileges Preheminencies and Authorities granted and belonging to his Highnesse or united to his Royal Crown Whereby it is clear that they are not only obl●ged positivè to whatsoever Priviledges and Prerogatives granted and belonging to the King without the destinction of righteous or unrighteous but also without any restriction to their place callings Now not to retort the Authours impertinencies as if this Oath did tye all Intrants either to know