Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	new_a	old_a	testament_n	3,965	5	8.0680	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A17962	A treatise, vvritten by M. doctor Carier, vvherein hee layeth downe sundry learned and pithy considerations by which he was moued, to forsake the Protestant congregation, and to betake himselfe to the Catholke Apostolike Roman Church. Agreeing verbatim with the written copye, addressed by the sayd doctor to the King his most excellent Maiestie.	Carier, Benjamin, 1566-1614.	1614 (1614)	STC 4623.5; ESTC S115898	33,947	58

owne conscience I must shortly appeare before the same Christ in the presence of the same his Church to giue an account thereof Therefore I neither durst any further to pursue my owne desire of honor nor to hazard my soule any farther in the iustification of that religion which I saw was impossible to be iustified by any such reason as at the day of Iudgement would goe for payment and that it may appeare that I haue not respected any thing so much in this world as my dutie to your Maiestie and my loue to my friends and Country I humbly beseech you giue me leaue as briefely as I can to recount vnto you the whole course of my studies and endeuours in this kinde euen from the beginning of my life vntill this ptesent 2 I was borne in the yeare 1566. being the sonne of ANTY CARIER a learned and deuout man who although he were a Protestant and a Preacher yet he did so season me with the principles of pietie and deuotion as I could not chuse but euer since be very zealous in matters of Religion Of him I learned that all false religions in the world were but policies inuented of men for the temporall seruice of Princes and States and therefore that they were diuers and alwayes changeable according to the diuers reasons and occasions of State But true Christian religion was a truth reuealed of God for the eternall saluation of soules and therefore was like to God alwayes one and the same so that all the Princes and States in the world neuer haue beene nor shall be able to ouerthrow that Religion This to mee seemed an excellent ground for the finding out of that religion wherein a man might finde rest vnto his soule which cannot be satisfied with any thing but eternall truth 3 My next care then was after I came to yeares of discretion by all the best means I could to informe my selfe whether the Religion of England were indeed the very same which being prefigured and prophecied in the old Testament was perfected by our blessed Sauiour and deliuerd to his Apostles and Disciples to continue by perpetuall succession in his visible Church vntill his comming againe or whether it were a new one for priuate purposes of Statesmen inuented and by humane lawes established Of this I could not chuse but make some doubt because I heard men talke much of those dayes of the change of religion which was then lately made in the beginning of Queene ELIZABETHS raigne 4 I was sorie to heare of change and of a new Religion seeing me thought in reason if true religion were Eternall then new religion could not be true But yet I hoped that the religion of England was not a change or new religion but a restitution of the olde and that the change was in the Church of Rome which in processe of time might perhaps grow to be superstitious and Idolatrous and therefore that England had done well to leaue the Church of Rome and to reforme it selfe and for this purpose I did at my leasure and best oportunitie as I came to more iudgement read ouer the Chronicles of England and obserued all the alterations of religion that I could find therein but when I found there that the present religion of England was a plaine change and change vpon change and that there was no cause of the change at all of the first but only that King HENRY the eight was desirous to change his old Bed-fellow that he might leaue some heires male behind him for belike hee feared that females would not be able to withstand the Title of Scotland and that the change was continued and increased by the posterity of his latter wiues I could not choose but suspect something but yet the loue of the world and hope of preferment would not suffer me to beleeue but that all was well and as it ought to be 5 This I satisfied my selfe at schoole and studied the Artes and Philosophie and other humane learning vntill being Master of Artes and Fellow of Corpus Christi Colledge in Cambridge I was at the last by the Statutes of that house called to the studie of Diuinitie and bound to take vpon me the order of Priest-hood then I thought it my duty for the better satisfaction of mine owne soule and the sauing of other mens to looke as farre into the matter as possibly I could that I might find out the truth And hauing the oportunity of a very good Library in that Colledge I resolued with my selfe to studie hard and s●tting aside all respect of men then aliue or of Writers that had moued or maintained controuersies further then to vnderstand the question which was betwixt them I fell to my praiers and betooke my selfe wholy to the reading of the Church historie and of the ancient Fathers which had no interest in either side and especially I made choise of Saint AVGVSTINE because I hoped to finde most comfort in him for the confirming of our Religion and the confuting of the Church of Rome 6 In this sort I spent my time continually for many yeares and noted downe whatsoeuer I could gather or rather snatch either from the Scriptures or the Fathers to serue my turne But when after all my paines and desire to serue my selfe of antiquitie I found the doctrine of the Church of Rome to be euery where confirmed and by most profound demonstrations out of holy Scripture made most agreeable to the truth of Christs Gospell and most conformable to all Christian soules and saw the current opinions of our great Preachers to bee euery where confuted either in plaine termes or by most vnanswerable consequence although my vnderstanding was thereby greatly edified for which I had great cause to render immortall thankes to our blessed Sauiour who by these meanes had vouchsafed to shew himselfe vnto me yet my heart was much grieued that I must be faine either not to preach at all or else to crosse and varie from the doctrine which I saw was commonly receiued 7 Being thus perplexed with my selfe what course I were best to take I reflected back again vpon the Church of England and because the most of those Preachers which drew the people after them in those dayes were Puritans and had grounded their Diuinitie vpon CALVINS Institutions I thought peraduenture that they hauing gotten the multitude on their side might wrong the Church of England in her doctrine as well as they desired to doe in her Discipline which indeed vpon due search I found to be most true for I found the Common-prayer-booke and the Catechisme therein contained to hold no point of doctrine expressely contrarie to antiquitie but only that it was very defectiue and contained not enough And that for the doctrine of Predestination Sacraments Grace Free-will Sinne c. the new Catechismes and Sermons of those Preachers did run wholly against the Common-prayer book and Catechismes therin and did make as little account of the Doctrine

to giue the venture and to step in himselfe to be the founder of a new Church and State amongst them and for that purpose he found them out such a Catechisme as they might easily contemne all ancient learning and authority and saue themselues by a strong fancy which he called faith And this pleased the Bourgers of Geneua so well that they called a meeting and caused all the Citizens to sweare that that Catechisme was true and that all Popery was false as may appeare in CALVINS life written by BEZA himselfe and prefixed to his Epistles And although the Ministeriall Presbytery of Geneua haue lost much of Master CALVINS greatnes yet the City hath had the fortune euer since by the helpe of their neighbours to hold out against their Bishop and their Duke and all their ancient Gouernours 28 Now it is the nature of all Common-people especially of Ilanders not only still to affect more and more Nouelty and liberty and to be weary of their old Clergie but also to admire any thing that comes from beyond the seas and to cherish and comfort one another with reporting the good successe which Schismatikes and Rebels happen to haue against their lawfull Prelats and ancient Gouernours and to impute all their good fortune vnto their new Religion Hence it is come to passe that that Doctrine which is indeed the lawfull Doctrine of the Church of England is neglected and contemned as a Relike or a Ragge of Popery and CALVINS Institutions being come from Geneua and fairely bound vp with the Preface of the Gospell is dispersed throughout all Schooles Cities and Villages of England and hath so infected both Priest and people as although it be against law yet it is cried vp by voyces to be the only current Diuinity in Court and Country In hope belike that it may one day serue the turne in England as well as it hath done in Geneua and in other places where it hath preuailed 29 These Reasons or rather corruptions of State haue so confounded the Doctrine of the Church of England and so slandred the Doctrine of the Church of Rome as it hath turned mens braines and made the multitude on both sides like two fooles who being set back to back do thinke they are as far asunder as the Horizons are which they looke vpon But if it might please your Maiesty to command them to turne but each of them a quarter about and looke both one way to the seruice of God and your Maiesty and to the saluation of soules they should presently see themselues to be a great deale more neere together in matters of Doctrine then the Puritanicall Preachers on both sides do make them beleeue they are I cannot in the breuity of this discourse descend into particulars But if it please your Maiesty to command me or any other honest man that hath taken pains to vnderstand and obserue all sides freely and plainly to set down the difference betwixt Caluinisme and the Doctrine of England established by law and then to shew Locos concessos and Locos controuersos betwixt the Church of England and the Church of Rome I doubt not but the distance that will be left betwixt for matter of Doctrine may by your Maiesty be easily compounded 30 But perhaps there is so great oppositions in matter of State that although the Doctrine might be compounded yet it is impossible to heare of agreement And if there be the same reason of State which there was in the beginning continued all Queene ELIZABETHS daies there is as little hope now that your Maiesty should hearken vnto reconciliation as there was that King HENRY the eight or Queene ELIZABETH would But when I doe with the greatest respect I can consider the state of your Maiestie your Lords your Commons and your Clergie I doe finde as little cause of holding out in reason of State as I doe in truth of Doctrine 31 King HENRY the eight although he had written that booke against the Schisme of LVTHER in the defence of the See Apostolike for which he deserued the Title of Defensor fidei yet when he gaue way to the lust of ANNE BOLEINE and the flattery of his fauorites and saw he could not otherwise haue his will he excluded the Pope made himself supreame head of the Church that so he might not only dispence with himselfe for his lust but also supply his excesse with the spoile of the Church which was then very rich But when he saw God blessed him not neither in his wiuing nor in his thriuing he was weary of his supremacie before he died wished himselfe in the Church againe but hee died in the curse of his father whose foundations he ouerthrew and hath neither childe to honor him nor so much as a Tombe vpon his graue to remember him which some men take to be a token of the curse of God 32 Queene ELIZABETH although shee were the daughter of Schisme yet at her first comming to the Crowne shee would haue the Common-prayer booke and Catechisme so set downe that shee might both by English Seruice satisfie the Commons who were greedy of alteration and by Catholike opinions gaue hope to her neighbour Princes that she would her selfe continue Catholike And all her life long shee carried her selfe so betwixt the Catholikes and the Caluinists as shee kept them both still in hope But yet being the daughter of the Breach-maker and hauinig both her Crowne and her life from the Schisme it was both dishonorable and dangerous for her to hearken to reconcilement And therefore after shee was provoked by the Excommunication of PIVS QVINTVS she did suffer such lawes to be made by her Parliaments as might crie quittance with the Pope and the Church of Rome And this course seemed in policie necessarie for her who was the daughter of King HENRY the eight by ANNE BOLEINE borne with the contempt of Rome the disgrace of Spaine the preiucice of Scotland 33 But now that your Maiesty is by the consent of all sides come to the Crowne and your vndoubted Title setled with long possession the case is very much altered for your Maiestie hath no need of dispensations nor no will to pull downe Churches nor no dependance at all on HENRY the eight and if this Schisme could haue preuented your Title with the diuorce of one wife and the marrying of fiue more neither your Mother nor your selfe should euer haue made Queen ELIZABETH afraid with your Right to the Crowne of England And therefore although it were necessary in reason of State to continue the Doctrine of Diuision as long as the fruit of that Doctrine did continue yet now the fruit of Schisme is all spent and that Parenthesis of State is at an end there is no reason but that the old sentence may returne againe and be continued in that sence as if the Parenthesis had beene cleane left out and that God had of purpose crossed the fleshly pretence

which hath not yet bin iudicially condemned by the Church of Rome They all seemed to abhorre the fact as much as the best subiects in the world and much more to fauour and defend the authoritie of their Kings and Princes then the Heretikes doe And they said that althoug your Maiestie were out of the Church yet they doubted not but if complaint were made in a iudicial proceeding that fact should be iudicially condemned In the meane time it was sufficient that all Catholike writers did condemne it and that the Pope by his Breue had condemned it exhorting the Catholikes of England to all Christian patience and obedience As for any other authority or superiority of the Pope then such as is spirituall and necessary for the vnitie of the Church I haue met with none that doe stand vpon it 14 So that whereas my hope was that by finding out the corruptions of the Church of Rome I should grow farther in loue with the Church of England and ioyfully returne home and by inueighing against the Papists both enioy my present preferments and obtaine more and more I saw the matter was like to fall out cleane contrary It is true indeed that there are many corruptions in all States God hath no Wheat-field in this world wherein the Diuell hath no Tares growing and there are no Tares more ranck then those that grow among the Wheat For optimi corruptio pessima and where grace aboundeth if it be cōtemned there sin aboundeth much more But seeing both my reading experience hath now taught me that the truth of Christian Religion taught and practised at this day in the Church of Rome and all the obedient members thereof is the very same in substance which was prefigured and prophesied from the beginning of the world perfected by Christ himselfe deliuered to his Apostles and by them and their Successors perpetually and vniuersally in one vniformity practized vntill this day without any substantiall alteration And that the new Religion of England wherin it doth differ hath no ground but either the pleasure of the Prince and Parliament or the common cry and voice of the People nor no constancy or agreement with it selfe what should I now doe It is not in my power not to know that which I doe know nor to doubt of that which I haue spent so much time and taken so much paines and bestowed so much cost and made so many trials to find And yet I know if I should yeeld to be reconciled to the Church I should be for this world in all likelihood vtterly vndone and that which grieued me more I should be reiected of your Maiesty my most redoubted Lord and Master and despised by all my deare friends and louers in England 15 These were my thoughts at the Spaw which did so vex and afflict my soule as that the waters could doe my bodie no good at all but rather much hurt Neuerthelesse I auoided the company of Catholikes abstained from the Church and did both dispute write against the Church of Rome as occasion was offred I still hoped that time would giue me better counsell and therefore resolued to goe from the Spaw to Heidelberg to doe my duty there In the mean time I thought with my selfe It may be God hath moued his Maiesties heart to think of peace and reconciliation I know his disposition was so in the beginning and I remember Master CAVSABON tould me when I brought him out of France that his errand was nothing else but to mediate peace betweene the Church of Rome and the Church of England Therefore I thought before I would submit my selfe to the Church of Rome I would write vnto Master CAVSABON such a letter as he might shew vnto your Maiestie containing such conditions as I thought might satisfie your Maiesty if they were performed by the Church of Rome The copy of which letter is too long heere to set downe But when Master CAVSABON answered me that he knew your Maiesty was resolued to haue no society with the Church of Rome vpon any condition whatsoeuer and that it would be my vndoing if those my letters should come to your Maiesties hands or of those that bare the sway I began to despaire of my returne into England vnlesse I would ouerthrow both the health of my body and the quiet of my minde and either vtterly damne mine owne soule or greatly endanger not only my liuing and credit but my life it selfe also by reason of your Maiesties displeasure and the seueritie of the Statutes made and in force against Catholikes and Catholike Religion 16 There is a Statute in England made by King HENRY the eight to make him supreame head of the Church in Spirituall and Ecclesiasticall causes which Statute enioynes all the subiects of England on paine of death to beleeue and to sweare they do beleeue that it is true And yet all the world knowes if King HENRY the eight could haue gotten the Pope to diuorce Queene KATHERINE that he might marry ANNE BOLEINE that Statute had neuer beene made by him and if that Title had not enabled the King to pull downe Abbeyes and Religious houses and giue them to Lay-men the Lords and Commons of that time would neuer haue suffered such a Statute to be made This Statute was continued by Queene ELIZABETH to serue her owne turne and it is confirmed by your Maiesty to satisfie other men And yet your Maiesty yeeldeth the Church of Rome to be the Mother Church and the Bishop of Rome to be the chiefe Bishop or Primate of all the Westerne Churches which I doe also verily beleeue and therefore I doe verily thinke he hath or ought to haue some spirituall Iurisdiction in in England And although in my yonger dayes the fashion of the world made me sweare as other men did for which I pray God forgiue me yet I euer doubted and am now resolued that no Christian man can take that oath with a safe conscience neither will I euer take it to gaine the greatest preferment in the world 17 There is another Statute in England made by Queene ELIZABETH and confirmed by your Maiesty that it is death for any English man to be in England being made a Priest by authoritie deriued or pretended to be deriued from the Bishop of Rome I cannot beleeue that I am a Priest at all vnlesse I be deriued by authority from GREGORY the Great from whence all the Bishops in England haue their being if they haue any being at all 18 There is another Statute in like manner made and confirmed that it is death to be reconciled by a Catholike Priest to the Church of Rome I am perswaded that the Church of Rome is our Mother Church and that no man in England can be saued that continues wilfully out of the visible vnitie of that Church and therefore I cannot choose but perswade the people to be reconciled thereunto if possibly they can 19 There is another Statute in