Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	king_n	kingdom_n	parliament_n	5,178	5	6.3666	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85989	The prelatical Cavalier catechized, and the Protestant souldier incouraged. By a missive sent to King Charles in the name of the Protestants beyond seas. Wherein these three questions are resolved. Viz. First, how inconsistent a prelaticall government is with the true Protestant religion, and with the peace and welfare of this kingdome. Secondly, how absolutely necessary it is for King Charles and his associats, to entertain peace with the Parliament at any hand, if ever he hopeth to recover or enjoy any glory or splendour of his royalty. Thirdly, which are the best means King Charles, &c. can use for obtayning an honourable peace for the present, and improving and continuing the same in time to come. Much conducing to encourage and confirme all true Protestants in the truth of the Protestant cause, especially all souldiers that are for King and Parliament. ... Presented to the Honorable Councels of Great Britain, now sitting in Parliament; and the rest of the Kings Majesties subjects. / By Eleazer Gilbert, a minister of Gods Word. Printed, and published according to order.	Gilbert, Eleazer.	1645 (1645)	Wing G706; Thomason E296_28; ESTC R200215	22,248	25

THE PRELATICAL CAVALIER Catechized and the Protestant Souldier incouraged By a Missive sent to King CHARLES in the name of the Protestants beyond Seas Wherein these three Questions are resolved Viz. First how inconsistent a Prelaticall Government is with the true Protestant Religion and with the peace and welfare of this Kingdome Secondly how absolutely necessary it is for King CHARLES and his Associats to entertain Peace with the Parliament at any hand if ever he hopeth to recover or enjoy any glory or splendour of his Royalty Thirdly which are the best means King CHARLES c. can use for obtayning an honourable Peace for the present and improving and continuing the same in time to come Much conducing to encourage and confirme all true Protestants in the truth of the Protestant Cause especially all Souldiers that are for King and Parliament Being a Work very usefull and profitable to be read of all Presented to the Honorable Councels of Great Britain now sitting in Parliament and the rest of the Kings Majesties Subjects By Eleazer Gilbert a Minister of Gods Word Printed and published according to Order LONDON Printed for Robert Leyburn and Richard Wodenothe and are to be sold at the Star under Peters Church in Cornhill 1645. with brothels and whore-houses But when did your Highnes or any of your followers taxe these men For not onely dispensing with but even selling and licensing adultery fornication Idolatry perjury c. Yea which is as it were the very essence and soule of Church Discipline Excommunication for so great was the corruption of your Bishops and their Officials that for the value of twelve pence or some other such trifling summe of money a man might either be received in or ejected and cast out of your Hierarchicall Consistory so that they have made Excommunication almost a very Chimaera and consequently have enervated extenuated or rather annihilated the whole strength and power of your Church Government Furhermore we appeal unto your Highnesse and your Associates what ungodly unjust and preposterous thing it was that these Bishops Officials being themselves but Laick men neither Prophets nor perhaps bred in the Schools of the Prophets should at their own pleasure summon up from the furthest corners of your Kingdom nay and not onely so but punish suspend and censure both the persons and doctrine of your most godly learned and orthodox Divines if either themselves or their Bishop had conceived the least spleen against them may not the Proverb be well applied to such unequall and rigid Judges Sus Minervam or may not such reverend men say unto such Laick Bishops as the Egyptian said to Moses Who made you a Judge over us In one word if your Highnesse will but with an impartiall eye behold or survey the stupendious insolencie and corruption of your Bishops Courts and their Officers these twenty yeers past c. you cannot but confesse with us that they were and are no other then a company of covetous temporizing Horsleeches come to their Consistories not so much to compose and decide differences and to preserve peace and piety amongst your people as to get mony and enrich themselves by the sins of the people whereas if this charge were committed to godly and conscionable Pastors and Ministers assisted with the Suffrages of their Elders and Deacons as it is in the government Presbyteriall all this corruption might be or at the least the most part prevented Finally that we may perswade your Highnesse c. not onely to leave but also to loath the paps of that inchanting Sorceress wee will adde this one thing more viz. the greatabuse which was committed by your Bishops in their Ordination of Ministers how contrary to the Gospell and inconsistent with the practice of a Protestant Church is it that the Ordination of many Ministers should be committed to the hands and authority of one man viz. a Bishop and that when such easie terms and so small a triall that let an Artificer or Husbandman come to a Bishop or his Chaplain upon some Ordination day provided with some perfunctory Letter or superficiall testimony from a man if but of ordinary quality always provided that he hath his fees in his hand and a black coat upon his back and then although hee were as false and wicked as ever was Judas or Cain as void of feature and good manners as was Thersites and had no more learning then had Balaams Asse He shall be admitted to the Ministerie quite contrary to Pauls charge to Timothy which was not to lay hands suddenly upon any man Not that this authority of laying on of hands or ordaining Ministers belonged to him alone as the Prelats do alleage for this is contrary to his own practice when 1 Tim. 3. 14. He would not be admitted himself without the laying on of hands of the company of the Eldership but rather to dehort him from being corrupted by the example of these men who had arrogantly assumed unto themselves this liberty and as contrary is it also to the practice of Paul and Barnabas Acts 13. 1. and these Deacons mentioned Acts 6. 6. From which Pontificiall presumption it hath come to passe that in your English Prelacy as from the Trojan Horse there have issued so many Apostolicall Preachers who being for their fees admitted to the Ministery by some Bishop without any Church stipend or maintenance are forced as it were to beg their bread from doore to doore and that not out of conscience as the Popish Mendicants but of constraint they not having so much by their calling as will supply their necessary sustenance or which is much worse sometimes to go beyond the Seas and there turne Apostates either to the Roman Nicholaitan or Lutheran superstitions or thirdly which is as bad or little better then the former or rather then they should starve some of them doe wander to Amsterdam or New England their side with some new fangled schisme Good God how abominable should this be to your Highnesse who professe your selfe Defender of the Faith How dishonourable is it to your Nation and how prejudiciall to the true Protestant Religion and professors thereof who should have amongst them all but one God one Faith and one Baptisme and who should have no more Ministers amongst them to work at their Altars but such as have a competent maintenance and are able to live by the Altar Is this the care of your right reverend Fathers to provide for their children or hath your Highnesse all this time suffered your selfe so wofully to be misled by these ghostly Vultures as to permit them so shamefully as the Pope doth to himselfe and his Cardinals Nephews to ingrosse unto themselves and their symonaicall friends neither of whom nor perhaps any of them ever dared to adventure themselves beyond the seas to see the face or learn the posture of any Christian or Protestant Church or it may be hath no more learning in them then to resolve the

9. 6 7 8 verses and in Exod. 25. 40. hee is expresly charged by God not to make the Tabernacle after any other fashion then was shewed him in the mountain but also Christ himself who was Moses prototype whom God in the 18 of Deuteronomy 15. did promise to raise up as a Prophet like unto Moses although much more excellent for Moses as a servant but Christ as a sonne Heb. 3. 5 6. Did dispose and regulate his little flock according to the will of his Father not according to the will of man nor according to his owne will as he was man but according to the will of his Father for as himself witnesseth John 5. 30. He came not to seeke his own will but the will of his heavenly Father and this kinde of government revealed in his Gospel without all question he will continue and have amongst all his chosen people to be continued untill his second comming whose voice all Christians but especially all Protestants or reformed Christians must obey unlesse they will deny Christ to be their Prophet or derogate from the worthinesle of his propheticall office one principall part whereof was not only to reveal unto his people his Fathers will concerning their redemption but also to govern and rule them in the performance and execution of that will unto the end of the world wherefore to draw the frame and authenticalnesse of a Church government from any other pattern then from Christ and his Apostles is no other then to deny both the Propheticall and Regall office of the Sonne of God who if he be a King over his people why should he not be able both to prescribe laws unto them and also guide and rule them according to these Laws so far as may conduce to his owngory and their happinesse Surely they that draw the frame and government of an Evangelicall Church under the Gospel from any other authority or build the same too much upon the placets and inventions of men who are not onely vain but vanity it selfe nor subject to deceive but also to be deceived doe but take their marks by the moon build their house upon the sand preferring Eleazer the servant to Isaac the sonne and Moses the messenger unto Christ the master and Judge of all the earth In a word to say that Christ is not as carefull of his Christian Church under the Gospel as Moses was of the Church of the Jews and that he hath not in his Gospel prescribed what kind of Magistrates Ministers and Officers hee would have and by what Laws he would have them to be governed were to make him more negligent of his people then was Numa of the Romans Solon of the Lydians or Lycurgus of the Lacedemonians all which although Heathens did prescribe wholsome Laws unto their Common-wealth which so much as to thinke of the Lord Jesus in whom were hiden all treasures of wisdome and knowledge were most damnable and blasphemous So much of the first Question viz. How inconsistent your late Church government was with the Gospel and how far it hath been of late years in your Kingdoms abused The second Question HOw inconsistent this kind of Church government is unto your Highness safety and prosperity of the Republick and consequently what a preposterous thing it is to continue the same in these Kingdoms This Question is easily resolved if you will suffer your judgment without partiality but to reflect upon these three Objects viz. First the disposition and affections of your own Subjects Secondly the reputation and expectation of Protestant Princes and Professors amongst us beyond the Seas Thirdly the condition and nature of the true Protestant Religion and Protestant Professors established and regulated by a Presbytery which without all peradventure of all Christian professions this day in the World is that which is most sound and orthodox in it self as being most free from corruption and most safe for a true Protestant Prince which undertaketh to mayntain not a Protestant Religion for so do the Kings of Poland Sweden and Denmark although corrupted with the Roman and Lutheran Superstitions but the Protestant Religion which onely is most consonant with the doctrine and practice of Christ and his Apostles and most agreeable to that pattern of wholsome doctrine expressed in the Gospel the patronage whereof no Prince can deny that is a true Protestant unlesse it be such a Prince that affecteth tyranny and would make under the cloak of Relgion not the Word of God and welfare of his people but worldly policy and private respects to be rule of his government First then May it please your Highnesse and Confederates to cast your eyes upon the people we mean not such people whom malice corruption or covetousnes without any respect to the Word of God or a good conscience have drawne to your side but the mayn body of the two of your best Kingdoms of England and Scotland for the most and best part how exasperatly and uncontrolable are they set against this way mayntayning it for a maxime as your Associates doe No Bishop no King so they No Bishops no Popery where by the word Bishop they do not understand any of Pauls Bishops mentioned in the Epistle to Timothy and Titus for such Bishops as these they seek for and their Petition unto your Highnesse is Da nobis tales Timothaeos nos eos cib abimus auro potabimus balsamo Such Bishops as these may be well consistent with the Presbyteriall Government and by the prayers and suffrages of such Bishops before ever hee medled with a Hierarchy your Royall Father King James did enjoy many peaceable and happy days which if it had pleased our Great Land-lord might have been continued unto your Highnesse and your posterity and which wee beseech the Almighty mangre the unhappinesse of your present distempers may be continued unto you and yours as long as the Sun and Moon endureth But by a Bishop your people for the most part understand a domineering temporizing and self-seeking prelate where by the word Bishop or prelate they doe not so much conceive one particular office or individuall person of one Clergy man but collectively all his subordinate Officers Assistants and Attendants such as Deans Archdeacons Prebends Surrogates Chancelours Commissaries Registers Proctors Apparitors Chaunters Choristers Canons Pety-Canons Vergers and all their Ecclesiasticall Courts Laws Canons Orders Innovations and Ceremonies which although they were in themselves never so indifferent decent or commendable yet the Commons for the most part of both these Kingdomes are perswaded and hold it for Maxim irrefragible that dictates such a Bishop we say not such a Prines mayntaining or approving such persons or things is no other then a relike of popery a limbe of Antichrist a Wenne upon the face or a Boyle upon the blest of a true Protestant Reformed Church Nay there be many thousands of Husbandmen Artificers and Tradesmen besides people of greater quality if we be not much misinformed

within your Island whom if wee should goe about to perswade of the lawfulnesse of such a Bishop but in jest they would be ready to cut our throats in earnest so rigidly are they set against this kinde of Prelacie the Hierarchy that the very name of a Bishop is to an ordinary English or Scotish countrey man as the King of Spain is to a Hollander for as the one taketh it for an argument somuch honesty to rail against the Spanish King so doth the other hold this to be a speciall marke of a good Protestant to condemne and cry down Episcopacy the very name of a Bishop they hate worse then a young Court Lady doth old age or a Jew Images Seeing therefore your people for the most part are thus disposed it is the duty of a wise Prince being Pater patriae to comply to their desires your greatest strength consisting in their affections and their affections being so brittle as a Crystall glasse which being once broken can hardly be souldred together again yea although that which they desire should be unreasonable yet if the common stream be very strong a discreet Prince can have no better policy then to row with the tyde although he should be forced through the violence of the weather to land at the wrong stairs it is but a little going on foot if he cannot have a Coach or Sedan that will bring him to his right Harbour Nor can the foregoing or quitting the Prelacy Hierarchy detract any thing if you consider rightly from the stature of your magnificence For why may not a Moderator in a government presbyteriall be as safe and honourable unto your Highnesse and as well endowed by your Highnesse bounty as any prelate under the government Hierarchicall your Highnesse especially having therewith which wee are sure you have not now the affections and consent of your people Neither can it any ways be dishonourable to admit of this change at the request of the Commons seeing you have the president of divers wise and mighty Potentates for the same who rather then they would admit of warre to come within the channell of their Dominions upon any terms did think it no disparagement to subscribe unto their peoples demands although sometimes absurd and ridiculous Witnesse Lewes the Eleventh and Henry the Seventh then which all England and France cannot point forth two of more profound judgment and better verst in the mystery of government who in cases of controversie with their subjects were the first propounders and seekers of peace and by their soft complyance did dint the bullets of their peoples fury and so by this means when the storme was over and businesse came to be debated upon the great Carpet did in a short time and by degrees become Masters of their own ends and their subjects affections Yea which is yet more Suppose that your Great Counsell would comply with your Highnesse to continue this Hierarchy which as we understand they will yet hardly do yet shall not ever your Highnesse or your posterity have any setled peace in your Dominions unlesse you abolish the same The people wil stil once in twenty or thirty yeers run into their old byas Episcopacy as it hath been there amongst you exercised being in their construction as is aforesaid no other then a wound or gangreen upon the brest of the English Church in which wound so long as there remayneth any corruption so long there will be pain and so long as there is pain the patient will complain the humour therefore must be purged and the wound before it be sewed up well clensed lest it burst out again or if it be a gangreen the part that is festered must be cut off Immedicabile vulnus Ense recidendum ne pars synceratrahatur For if it be let alone the whole body will be thereby endamaged so long as the cause remayns so long will the effect be continued so long as your Highnesse doth mayntain and patronize Episcopacie so long will your people murmur and grudge at your government As therefore you tender the health of the Common-wealth and as you desire the setled peace of this Kingdome venienti occurrite morbo purge out this old leven cleer the brest and heal the heart of your politicall body and that so seasonably and speedily that your miseries come not to a greater heighth for Sero medicina paratur Cum mala per longas invaluere moras If your disposition to jarring turn once into a setled habit of warring without the rich mercy of God there will be norhing wanting to make your calamities irrecoverable Furthermore let your Highnesse and your Confederates if you be as you professe your selves to be true Protestants duly consider what a great improvement this will be to the Protestant Religion if you will abandon this kind of government and establish throughout all your Dominions the government Presbyteriall what a great heartning and encouragement to all forreigne Protestant Princes and professors throughout Europe who do worship God in spirit and truth are resolved to maintain their Religion in the same purity it was in the Apostlestime and many yeers after untill pride ambition and corruption began to sway What joyfull news we say will this be to them that your Highnesse and Associates have resolved to put to your helping hands towards the curtaling of the Popes horns and that you have given such a blow to the Roman Antichrist as that you have not only within your Dominions cutoff the head and members that is the Prelaticall Bishops and their Court-keepers but also demolished and defaced the very Images and representations of that Babylonish Monster yea that you have not onely cashiered and discarced all open professors of popery such as were Jesuits Priests and others their Disciples and Emissaries but also all Ecclesiasticall Dignities Orders Canons Courts and Conditions of men which did any ways concern or rellish a popish Hierarchie For certainly say what you will their is no Religion in the world next to the Muscovites except the Lutherans who yet in their Prelacy and Church Discipline are not so corrupt and extravagant which doth more punctually resemble the government of the Roman Church then doth the English Hierarchie in so much that since the beginning of your late intestine broyls in Great Britain the Jesuits have not failed to stirre up and incense the King and Parliament of Poland either to banish and exterminate all your Highnesse Subjects and Countrymen out of their Kingdome or else to vex and charge them yeerly with such grievous and unaccustomed taxations as that now they can hardly gain livelihood amongst them notwithstanding their laborious endevours good desert and great services which they have done for them and why is all this forsooth but because they will not be of their own Kings religion which they take for granted to be Roman Catholick else why did the Jesuits of the City of Vilna wherein is the chief Tribunall