Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	kingdom_n	law_n	parliament_n	3,975	5	6.2994	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67877	The history of the troubles and tryal of the Most Reverend Father in God and blessed martyr, William Laud, Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury. [vol. 2 of the Remains.] wrote by himself during his imprisonment in the Tower ; to which is prefixed the diary of his own life, faithfully and entirely published from the original copy ; and subjoined, a supplement to the preceding history, the Arch-Bishop's last will, his large answer to the Lord Say's speech concerning liturgies, his annual accounts of his province delivered to the king, and some other things relating to the history.	Laud, William, 1573-1645.; Wharton, Henry, 1664-1695.; Prynne, William, 1600-1669. Rome's masterpiece.	1700 (1700)	Wing L596; ESTC R354	287,973	291

never move His Majesty directly or indirectly for that Honour and was surprized with it as altogether unlooked for when His Majesty's Resolution therein was made known unto him Nor ever did that Bishop take so much upon him as a Justiceship of the Peace or meddle with any Lay-Employment save what the Laws and Customs of this Realm laid upon him in the High Commission and the Star-Chamber while those Courts were in being and continued Preaching till he was Threescore and four and then was taken off by Writing of his Book against Fisher the Jesuit being then not able at those Years to continue both And soon after the World knows what trouble befel him and in time they will know why too I hope Besides the Care of Government which is another part of a Bishop's Office and a necessary one too lay heavy upon him in these Factious and broken Times especially And whatsoever this Lord thinks of it certainly though Preaching may be more necessary for the first planting of a Church yet Government is more noble and necessary too where a Church is planted as being that which must keep Preaching and all things else in order And Preaching as 't is now used hath as much need to be kept in order as any even the greatest Extravagance that I know Nor is this out of Christ's Commission Pasce Oves John 21. 15. for the feeding of his Sheep For a Shepherd must guide govern and defend his Sheep in the Pasture as well as drive them to it And he must see that their Pasture be not tainted too or else they will not thrive upon it And then he may be answerable for the Rot that falls among them The Rhetorick goes farther yet To contend for sitting at Council Tables to govern States No but yet to assist them being called by them To have States-Men instead of Church-Men No but doing the Duty of Church-Men to mingle pious Counsels with States-Mens Wisdom To sit in the highest Courts of Judicature And why not in a Kingdom where the Laws and Customs require it Not to be employed in making Laws for Civil Polities and Government And I conceive there is great Reason for this in the Kingdom of England and greater since the Reformation than before Great Reason because the Bishops of England have been accounted and truly been grave and experienced Men and far fitter to have Votes in Parliaments for the making of Laws than many young Youths which are in either House And because it is most fit in the making of Laws for a Kingdom that some Divines should have Vote and Interest to see as much as in them lies that no Law pass which may perhaps though unseen to others intrench upon Religion it self or the Church And I make no doubt but that these and the like Considerations settled it so in England where Bishops have had their Votes in Parliaments and in making Laws ever since there were Parliaments yea or any thing that resembled them in this Kingdom And for my part were I able to give no Reason at all why Bishops should have Votes in Parliament yet I should in all Humility think that there was and is still some great Reason for it since the Wisdom of the State hath successively in so many Ages thought it fit And as there is great Reason they should have Votes in making Laws so is there greater Reason for it since the Reformation than before For before that time Clergy-Men were governed by the Church Canons and Constitutions and the Common Laws of England had but little Power over them Then in the Year 1532. the Clergy submitted and an Act of Parliament was made upon it So that ever since the Clergy of England from the Highest to the Lowest are as much subject to the Temporal Laws as any other Men and therefore ought to have as free a Vote and Consent to the Laws which bind them as other Subjects have Yet so it is that all Clergy-Men are and have long since been excluded from being Members of the House of Commons and now the Bishops and their Votes by this last Act are cast out of the Lord's House By which it is at this Day come to pass that by the Justice of England as now it stands no Clergy-Man hath a Consent by himself or his Proxy to those Laws to which all of them are bound In the mean time before I pass from this Point this Lord must give me leave to put him in mind of that which was openly spoken in both Houses that the Reason why there was such a Clamour against the Bishops Votes was because all or most of them Voted for the King so that the potent Faction could not carry what they pleased especially in the Vpper House And when some saw they could not have their Will to cast out their Votes fairly the Rabble must come down again and Clamour against their Votes not without danger to some of their Persons And come they did in Multitudes But who procured their coming I know not unless it were this Lord and his Followers And notwithstanding this is as clear as the Sun and was openly spoken in the House that this was the true Cause only why they were so angry with the Bishops Votes yet this most Godly and Religious Lord pretends here a far better Cause than this namely that they may as they ought carefully attend to the Preaching of the Word and not be distracted from that great Work by being troubled with these Worldly Affairs And I make no doubt but that the same Zeal will carry the same Men to the devout taking away the Bishops and the Church Lands and perhaps the Parsons Tythes too and put them to such Stipends as they shall think fit that so they may Preach the Gospel freely and not be drawn away with these Worldly Affairs from the principal Work of that Function Well! my Lord must give me leave here to Prophesie a little and 't is but this in short Either the Bishops shall in few Years recover of this Hoarseness and have their Honour and their Votes in Parliament again or before many Years be past all Baseness Barbarity and Confusion will go near to possess both this Church and Kingdom But this Lord hath yet somewhat more to say namely that If they shall be thought fit to sit in such Places and will undertake such Employments they must not be there as ignorant Men but must be knowing in Business of State and understand the Rules and Laws of Government and thereby both their Time and Studies must be necessarily diverted from that which God hath called them unto And this surely is much more Vnlawful for them to admit of than that which the Apostles rejected as a distraction unreasonable for them to be interrupted by Why but yet if they shall be thought fit to sit in such Places and will undertake such Employments what then Why then they must not sit there as ignorant Men

of another Nature and so he is at a loss in that And if it be of another Nature yet it appears by the Apostle's practice that for all that it can give a Rule in this For that which can give the Apostle a Rule can give a Rule to us And so he is at a loss in the whole Proposition For whether that which was before be or be not of another Nature yet it can give a Rule I have been long upon this Passage because I conceive the main Controversie hangs and turns upon this hinge And if any Reader think it long or tedious or be of this Lord's Mind that he need not go so high for Proof yet let him pardon me who in this am quite of another Judgment And for the pardon I shall gratifie him by being as brief as possibly I can in all that follows Thus then this Lord proceeds The Question which will lye before your Honours in passing this Bill is not Whether Episcopacy I mean this Hierarchical Episcopacy which the World now holds forth to us shall be taken away Root and Branch but Whether those exuberant and superfluous Branches which draw away the Sapp from the Tree and divert it from the right and proper use whereby it becomes unfruitful shall be cut off as they use to pluck up Suckers from the Root After this Lord had told us we need not go so high for the business he comes now to state the present Question Where he tells us what himself means by Episcopacy Namely Hierarchical Episcopacy such as is properly and now commonly so called in the World And this his Lordship adds because of that distinction made by Beza in his Tract de Triplici Episcopatu Divino scilicet Humano Satanico In which what part Beza plays I will forbear to speak but leave him and his Gall of bitterness to the Censure of the Learned Sir Edw. Deering in his printed Speeches tells us that others in milder Language keep the same sense and say there is Episcopus Pastor Praeses and Princeps So in his account Episcopus Princeps Satanicus is all one in milder terms But the Truth is that in the most learned and flourishing Ages of the Church the Bishops were and were called Principes Chief and Prime and Prince if you will in Church Affairs For so Optatus calls them the Chief and Princes And so likewise did divers others of the Fathers even the best learned and most devout And this Title is given to Diocesan or Hierarchical Bishops which doubtless these Fathers would neither have given nor taken had Episcopus Princeps and Satanicus been all one Nor would Calvin have taught us that the Primitive Church had in every Province among their Bishops one Arch-Bishop and that in the Council of Nice Patriarchs were appointed which should be in order and dignity above Bishops had he thought either such Bishops or Arch-Bishops to have been Satanical And had Beza lived in those times he would have been taught another Lesson And the Truth is Beza when he wrote that Tract had in that Argument either little Learning or no Honesty But for this Lord whether he means by Hierarchical Episcopacy the same which Beza I will not determine He uses a Proper word and a Civil and I will not purpose to force him into a worse meaning than he hath or make him a worse Enemy to the Church if worse he may be than he is already Though I cannot but doubt he is bathed in the same Tub. Having told us what he means by Episcopacy he states the business thus That the Question is not whether this Hierarchical Episcopacy shall be taken away Root and Branch So then I hope this Lord will leave a Hierarchy such as it shall be in the Church We shall not have it all laid level We shall not have that Curse of Root and Branch for less it is not laid upon us Or at least not yet But what shall follow in time when this Bill hath us'd its edge I know not Well if not Root and Branch taken away what then What why 't is but whether those exuberant and superfluous Branches which draw away the Sapp from the Tree and divert it from the right and proper use whereby it becomes unfruitful shall be cut off as they use to pluck up Suckers from the Root This Lord seems to be a good Husbandman but what he will prove in the Orchard or Garden of the Lord I know not For most true it is that Suckers are to be plucked from the Root and as true that in the prime and great Vine there are some Branches which bear no fruit and our Saviour himself tells us that they which are such are to be taken away St. Joh. 15. 2. And therefore I can easily believe it that in Episcopacy which is a far lower Vine under and in the Service of Christ and especially in the husbanding of it there may be some such Branches as this Lord speaks of which draw away Sapp and divert it and make the Vine less fruitful and no doubt but such Branches are to be cut off So far I agree and God forbid but I should But then there are divers other Questions to be made and answered before this sharp Lord fall to cutting As first What Branches they be which are Exuberant and Superfluous as this Lord is pleased to call them What time is fittest to cut them off Whether they be not such as with Pruning may be made fruitful If not then how near to the Body they are to be cut off Whether this Lord may not be mistaken in the Branches which he thinks divert the Sapp Whether a Company of Lay-Men without any Order or Ordinance from Christ without any Example from the days of Christ may without the Church take upon them to prune and order this Vine For whatever this Lord thinks in the over abundance of his own Sense the Lord hath appointed Husbandmen to order and prune this Vine and all the Branches of it in his Church without his Usurpation of their Office And while he uses a Bill which is too boisterous a Weapon for a Vine instead of a Pruning-hook the Church it self which is the Vine which bears Episcopacy may bleed to death in this Kingdom before Men be aware of it And I am in great fear if things go on as they are projected that Religion is upon taking its leave of this Kingdom But this Lord hath not quite done stating the Question for he tells us next That The Question will be no more but this Whether Bishops shall be reduced to what they were in their first advancement over the Presbyters which although it were but a Humane device for the Remedy of Schism yet were they in those times least offensive or continue still with the addition of such things as their own Ambition and the Ignorance and Superstition of succeeding times did add thereunto and which are now

very much of this and Ambition sticks so close to Humane Nature as that it follows it into all Professions and Estates of Men And I would to God Clergy-Men had been freer from this Fault than Histories testifie they have But this hath been but the fault of some many Reverend Bishops in all Ages have been clear of it and 't is a personal Corruption in whomsoever it is and cannot justly be charged upon the Calling as this Lord lays it Neither have the worst of them some Popes of Rome excepted been the common Incendiaries of the Christian World But Incendiaries is grown a great word of late with this Lord and some of the poor Bishops of England have been made Incendiaries too by him and his Party But might it please God to shew some token upon us for good that they which hate us may see it and be ashamed Psalm 86. 17. there would be a full discovery who have been the Incendiaries indeed in these Troubles of England and then I make no question but it will appear that this Lord flames as high and as dangerously as any Man living But behold saith God all ye that kindle a Fire that compass your selves about with Sparks walk in the light of your own Fire and in the Sparks which your selves have kindled This shall ye have of my hand ye shall lie down in Sorrow Isai. 50. 11. Next I pray be pleased to consider how unworthily and fallaciously withal this Lord manages this Proof For all this Discourse tends to prove it unlawful for Bishops to intermeddle in Secular Affairs that so to do is hurtful to themselves in Conscience and in Credit and to others also by this their irregular Motion And this he proves by their never ceasing from Contention one with another either about the Precedency of their Sees or Churches They have indeed some and sometimes contended too eagerly for their Sees and Churches but neither all nor any that I know with a never-ceasing but the Bishop of Rome for his Supremacy And say this were so yet these Contentions were about their own proper Places not about Civil Affairs which now should lie before his Lordship in Proof and therefore was no irregular Motion of theirs in regard of the Object but only in regard of the manner Nor were they out of their Orb for this though faulty enough The like is to be said for that which follows their Excommunicating one another upon these Quarrels As for their drawing of Princes to be Parties with them thereby casting them into bloody Wars this hath seldom happened and whenever it hath happened some Church business or other hath unhappily set it on not their meddling in Temporal Affairs But whatever caused it the Crime of such misleading of Princes is very odious and as hateful to me as it can be to his Lordship But the Persons must bear their own Faults and not the Calling and sure I am this Lord would think me very wild if I should charge the antient Barons Wars in England upon his Lordship and the Honourable Barons now living But howsoever by this 't is plain that this Lord would not only have the Bishops turned out of all Civil Employments but out of their Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions also They must have no Power nor Superiority there neither their Sees must be laid as level as Parity can make them For all these Mischiefs came on saith he as soon as they were once advanced above their Brethren And one thing more I shall take occasion to say Here 's great Clamour made against the Bishops and their meddling in Civil Affairs but what if the Presbytery do as much or more Do they Sin too by breaking out of their Orb and neglecting the Work of the Ministery No by no means Only the Bishops are faulty For do you think that Calvin would have taken on him the Umpirage and composing of so many Civil Causes as he did order between Neighbours if so great Sin had accompanied it For he dealt in Civil Causes and had Power to inflict Civil Punishments in his Consistory For he committed divers to Prison for Dancing and those not mean ones neither and he arbitrated divers Causes and in a great Controversie between the Senate of Geneva and a Gentleman he tells one Frumentius who laboured for a Reconciliation that the Church of Geneva was not so destitute but that Fratres mei saith he huic Provinciae subeundae pares futuri essent some of his Brethren might have been fit for that Work Belike he took it ill that in such a Business though meerly Civil he and his Fellow-Ministers should be left out And for matters in the Common-wealth he had so great Power in the Senate and with the People that all things were carried as he pleased And himself brags of it that the Senate was his and the People his And to encrease his Strength and make it more formidable he brought in Fifty or more of the French his Country-men and Friends and by his solicitation made them Free Denizons of the City of which and the Troubles thence arising he gave an account to Bullinger Anno 1555. Or can you think that Beza would have taken upon him so much Secular Employment had he thought it unlawful so to do For whereas in the Form of the Civil Government of that City out of the Two hundred prime Men there was a perpetual Senate chosen of Sixty as Bodin tells us my worthy Predecessour Arch-Bishop Bancroft assures me Beza was one of these Threescore And yet what a crying Sin is it grown in a Bishop to be honoured with a Seat at the Council-Table Besides this when Geneva sent a solemn Embassie to Henry IV. of France about the razing of a Fort which was built near their City by the Duke of Savoy Beza would needs go along to commend that Spiritual Cause unto the King and how far he dealt and laid Grounds for others to deal in all such Civil Causes as were but in Ordine ad Spiritualia is manifest by himself And I am sure Laesus proximus may reach into the Cognizance of almost all Civil Causes Or can any Man imagine that so Religious a Man as Mr. Damport the late Parson of St. Stephen's in Coleman-street would have done the like to no small hindrance to Westminster-Hall had he thought that by this meddling he had hurt both his Conscience and his Credit whereas good Man he fled into New-England to preserve both Or if Mr. Alexander Henderson would have come along with the Scottish Army into England and been a Commissioner as he was in that whole Treaty wherein many of their Acts of Parliament concerning the Civil Government of that Kingdom were deliberated upon and confirm'd if he had thought his so doing inconsistent with his Calling Or that the Scots being so Religious as they then were even to the taking up of Arms against their King for Religion

Collect in the latter Editions of the Common Prayer-Book as well as in the Book for the Fast. And this was done according to the Course of the Church which ordinarily names none in the Prayer but the Right Line descending Yet this was not done till the King himself commanded it as I have to shew under his Majesty's Hand Secondly I beseech your Lordships to consider what must be the Consequence here The Queen of Bohemia and her Children are left out of the Collect therefore the Prelates intend to bring in Popery For that you know they say is the end of all these Innovations Now if this be the end and the Consequence truly the Libellers have done very dutifully to the King to poyson his People with this conceit that the Lady Elizabeth and her Children would keep Popery out of this Kingdom but the King and his Children will not And many as good Offices as these have they done the King quite thorow these Libels and quite thorow his Kingdoms For My part I honour the Queen of Bohemia and her Line as much as any Man whatsoever and shall be as ready to serve them but I know not how to depart from my Allegiance as I doubt these Men have done 7. The Seventh Innovation is That these words who art the Father of thine Elect and of their Seed are changed in the Preface of that Collect which is for the Prince and the King's Children And with a most spiteful inference that this was done by the Prelates to exclude the King's Children out of the number of God's Elect. And they call it an intolerable Impiety and horrid Treason To this I answer First That this Alteration was made in my Predecessor's time before I had any Authority to meddle with these things farther than I was called upon by him Secondly This is not therefore to lay any 〈◊〉 upon my Predecessor for he did in that but his Duty For his Majesty acknowledges it was done by his special Direction as having then no Children to pray for And Thirdly This Collect could not be very old for it had no being in the Common Prayer Book all Queen Elizabeth's time she having no Issue The Truth is it was made at the coming in of King James and must of necessity be changed over and over again pro ratione Temporum as Times and Persons vary And this is the Intolerable Impiety and horrid Treason they charge upon Vs. In this Method the Innovations are set down in the News from Ipswich But then in Mr. Burion's News from Friday-street called his Apology they are in another Order and more are added Therefore with your Lordship's leave I will not repeal any of these but go on to the rest which Mr. Burton adds 8. The eighth Innovation is That in the Epistle the Sunday before Easter we have put out In and made it At the Name of Jesus every knee shall bow which Alteration he saith is directly against the Act of Parliament Here give me leave to tell you 't is At the Name of Jesus in the late Learned Translation made in King James his time About which many Learned Men of best note in the Kingdom were imployed besides some Prelates But to this I Answer First 'T is true the Common Prayer Book was confirmed by Act of Parliament and so all things contained in it at the passing of that Act. But I hope if any thing were false Printed then the Parliament did not intend to pass those slips for current Secondly I am not of Opinion that if one word be put in for another so they bear both the same Sense that there is any great matter done against the Act of Parliament Thirdly This can make no Innovation For In the Name and At the Name of Jesus can make no Essential Difference here And Mr. Pryn whose Darling business it hath long been to cry down the Honour due to the Son of God at the mentioning of his saving Name Jesus knows the Grammar Rule well In a Place or at a Place c. Fourthly If there were any Errour in the change of In into At I do here solemnly protest to you I know not how it came For authority from the Prelates the Printers had none and such a word is easily changed in such a negligent Press as we have in England Or if any altered it purposely for ought I know they did it to gratifie the Preciser sort For therein they followed the Geneva Translation and Printed at Geneva 1557 where the words are At the Name of Jesus And that is 94 years ago and therefore no Innovation made by us Fifthly This I find in the Queen's Injunctions without either word In or At. Whensoever the Name of Jesus shall be in any Lesson Sermon or otherwise pronounced in the Church 't is injoyned that due Reverence be made of all Persons Young and Old with lowliness of Coursy and uncovering of the Heads of the Men-kind as thereunto doth necessarily belong and heretofore hath been accustomed So here 's necessity laid upon it and custom for it and both expressed by Authority in the very beginning of the Reformation and is therefore no Innovation now 9. The Ninth Innovation is That two places are changed in the Prayers set forth for the Fifth of November And ordered to be read they say by Act of Parliament The first place is ohanged thus from Root out that Babylomish and Antichristian Sect which say of 〈◊〉 c. Into this form of Words Root out that Babylonish and Antichristian Sect of them which say c. The second place went thus in the old Cut off these Workers of Iniquity whose Religion is Rebellion But in the Book Printed 1635 't is thus altered Cut 〈◊〉 those Workers of Iniquity who turn Religion into Rebellion c. To this I say First 'T is a notorious Vntruth that this Book was ordered to be Read by Act of Parliament The Act of Parliament indeed is Printed before it and therein is a Command for Prayers and Thanksgivings every Fifth of November but not one Word or Syllable for the Form of Prayer That 's left to the Church therefore here 's no Innovation against that Act of Parliament Secondly The Alteration first mentioned that is That Sect or That Sect of 〈◊〉 if of so small Consequence as 't is not worth the speaking of Besides if there be any thing of moment in it 't is answered in the next Thirdly Both for that and the second place which seems of more moment and so for the rest not only in that Book but that other also for His Majesty's Coronation His Majesty expresly commanded Me to make the Alterations and see them Printed And here are both the Books with His Majesty's Warrant to each of them So that herein I conceive I did not offend unless it were that I gave not these Men notice of it or asked them leave to obey the King Against this there can be