Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	power_n	spiritual_a	temporal_a	8,634	5	8.7196	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80413	What the Independents would have, or, A character, declaring some of their tenents, and their desires to disabuse those who speak ill of that they know not. / Written by John Cook of Grays Inne Barrister.	Cook, John, d. 1660.	1647 (1647)	Wing C6031; Thomason E405_7; ESTC R201877	9,934	18

WHAT THE INDEPENDENTS Would have OR A CHARACTER Declaring some of their Tenents and their desires to disabuse those who speak ill of that they know not Written By JOHN COOK of Grays Inne Barrister LONDON Printed for Giles Calvert 1647. What the INDEPENDENTS would have or a Character declaring some of their TENENTS and their desires to disabuse those who speak ill of what they know not BEing called to the study of the great Controversie of this age many yeers since by an occasionall residence with some who dissented from the Church of England concerning Independency of Churches I stood as stiflly as I could for Episcopacy I read with a single eye Master Ainsworth Master Jacob Master Robinson Master Johnson and every Book else I could finde of that subject Pro and Con as concerning the Kingly office of Christ Jesus to be the onely point worth studying and when the points of their arguments stuck so close that I could not answer them I grew angry the Lord lay it not to my charge and held a fair correspondency with the Church of England in all the Ordinances so long as I could possibly get leave of my conscience so to doe and the question truly stated is but this whether the inventions of men ought any more to be mixed with the Institutions of Christ in his Kingly Office then their good works in his Priestly Office which I am confident ere long will be as much out of question as whether the Protestant or the Popish be the true Religion whereof I hold it altogether impertinent to discourse it having been so cleerly vindicated by learned pens But because there is a great noise made what would the Independents have They never yet told us their desires the poore children are kept fasting all day and then some rigid spirits like the curst step-mother to whom they dare not speak for feare of a flap on the mouth quarrel with them why what would these untoward children have Is any body troubled with such paltry Rascals and harlotry baggages as I am These scurvy children make me weary of my life when as she knows wel enough it is bread that the children cry for I shall tell you in a word what will content all the Independents in England 't is this they desire neither more nor lesse then what the Puritans desired of Queen Elizabeth and King James viz. an entire exemption from the jurisdiction of all Prelates and Ecclesiasticall Officers other then such as themselves shall choose and to be accountable to the Magistrate for what they shall do amisse submitting to the Civil Government in all things to be lyable to all taxations that by law are chargable upon persons of their condition not holding any opinions destructive of State-polity not having a naturall tendencie to disturbe the peace of the Kingdom as all seditious practices have but otherwise to be as free to choose their own company place and time with whom where and when to worship God as they are in the choice of their wives for a forced marriage will not hold This I say will satisfie all that goe under the name of Independents which name and the word Presbyters as it is used I wish they were extinct and buried If there must be a distinction I wish rather they might be called Conformists and Reformists but to give you an account of some of the Tenents of him that is properly and singularly called an Independent by way of a Character Hee is one that judges every man in a happy condition though he hold many errours that believes in Jesus Christ and is content to be every mans servant so as Christ may but reign over his conscience which if hee should not hee knows not where hee is to reign hee holds a subordination of Officers in the same Church but an equality in severall Congregations which as sisters depend not upon one another but are helpfull as one hand to another as God hath ordained a paritie and eminencie in power between severall Kings and Princes and that one ought not to invade the others Sovereigntie not excepting against the consultative perswasive and deliberative Synod but the ruling Synod that shall command any thing Imperio voluntatis by a Pythagoricall authoritie without demonstrating any utilitie or advantage to accrew thereby and therefore an Independent is he that depends not of any but Christ Jesus the Head in point of Canon and Command for Spirituall Matters but is dependent upon man in all Temporall Matters absolutely and for Spirituals by way of advise and counsell it being an Article of his Faith that every man must be saved by his own faith and knows no Medium between a reasonable service and an Implicit faith He counts the Royall Law of Unitie amongst honest men to be the supreme law of the most noble Descent to which all inferiour orders of Uniformitie must do homage as the Ceremoniall Law to the Morall loving every man that hath any thing of Christ in him or common honesty and would not have Discipline breed disaffection Concerning the Discipline of Christs Church does no more depend upon man then the doctrine counts it the most glorious Light in the World to see Jesus Christ walk as King ruling by the Scepter of his Word in the midst of his golden Candlesticks Hee is ever privy to his owne infirmities being far from dreaming of perfection in this life therefore doth not separate from mixt communions because he thinks himself too good or better then his neighbours for he thinks himself the greatest sinner being most privy to the deceitfulnesse of his own heart and is sure he hath more errours then he can discern nor is it because he would displease any man but because he dares not displease God for he is fully perswaded it is a sin in him to doe otherwise He thinks no man will be godly unlesse he will promise to be so therefore wonders that any Christian should speake against a Church Covenant which is no more then to promise to doe that by Gods assistance which the Gospel requires of him yet will not say that it proceeds out of a desire of carnall liberty or contempt of the ordinances for rigid censures seldome lodge in meeke and humble brests he esteems protestation against practice prevarication as if Bilhah had said though I lye with Reuben my heart is honest to my husband for one acre of performance is worth a whole land of promise He is a professed enemy to all imperative co-active violence in matters of conscience which are not an offence against civill justice and thinks that to force men to come to Church is but to make them hypocrites He cannot be content with an inferiour accommodation for his soul when he may have a superiour going to the Ordinances to meet Jesus Christ there and to heare good news from heaven he desires to finde him in the fullest manner but is not of so strong a constitution as to

suspects his own heart and thinks that possibly some men live at a very high rate in spirituall enjoyments being wholy at rest in God and have the lesse need of Ordinances and for those that thinke the Saints are here in full perfection of grace and glory his sinfull heart tels him it is an errour yet he will not judg any tree to be evil but by its fruits He knows no hurt in a million of millenary-like errours who would not be glad to see Jesus Christ That Christ died for all he judges to be a great error for then all must be saved or possibly none may be saved yet there are prudentiall reasons and motives for it as the Papists have for good works if not meritorious why commanded If he dyed not for all why is he preached to all Yet the maintainers ayme is thereby to honour and exalt Christ which is the great designe of the Father and thereby his greater study so by different opinions he learns to doe things upon clearer principles and so to walke in love and peace as seeing him who is invisible and knows no reason why their brethren by the good leave of the maof the family and Parliament may not live lovingly together He thinks it very absurd that Popish Bishops should ordain Ministers as if the sheep should have no shepherds but such as the Wolves appoint the rather for that the Apostles did not abridge the people of that liberty of choosing an Apostle much lesse may a Synod deprive them of choosing their own Officers He desires no Toleration for any Errours against Religion or State-policie but of some errours in Religion which do not raze the foundation conceiving liberty to be the best means to cure all such differences and that the Sword hath no capacity to settle Religion being not sanctified to that purpose and if imprisonment cure an heretick 't is but like his curing an enemy by letting out the Impostume when he thought to kill him for mysticall Wolves are to be kill'd mystically and therefore marvels that any politick Christian should oppose his desires for why may not he which five years since was for Bishops considering the wheeling vicissitude and revolution of things five years hence be an Independent Hee thinks compulsion is the onely way to make Hypocrites and if Church Papists were ever accounted most dangerous he wonders why men should be forced to go to Church He thinks it strange that Christians should have most wars who can least justifie them but conceives it is for want of liberty of conscience The Turke hath more colour to come with three or foure hundred thousand men to invade this Kingdom because we are not of his Religion then one Protestant hath to persecute another And he verily beleeves that if every man might take his Religion upon choyce and tryall thousands would be saved which dye securely making no question of their salvation He thinks it is a soloecisme for Ministers to bid men search the Scriptures when they may not profess that which they find to be true He finds that this Kingdom hath had litle peace since the Bishops banished men into New England where Independencie hath bin so far from being the root of evill as it hath cured Schismes and Heresies He conceives the rigid Presbyters are notable Polititians to put the Parliament between themselves and the envy of the people for they do but untie the poynts and deliver the party to the Magistrate to be whipt as the Papists doe who put Protestants to death because Protestants delight in persecution but wishes they would be moderate if they intend to last for the rigidness of the Bishops was their ruine He doth not finde any punishment in Scripture for tender consciences and by that politique Law which puts Idolaters to death their cattell also were to be destroyed He would gladly conforme to the present government if he had his conscience at command in his own power and knows no reason why carnall professors should oppose liberty but because they desire not to be troubled about Religion but have it put into their mouthes by authority which they hope will stand between them and harme He conceives variety of opinions in circumstantials is but as one star differs from another difference in hearts cannot hurt nor difference in heads need not breed difference in hearts and understands not why Covenants should be made to repaire Castles in the aire and since the moderate Disciplinarians agree that every congregation in America hath intirenesse of jurisdiction intrinsecally within it selfe hee wonders that any man should hold that Churches are in worse condition where the Magistrates professe christianity or that it is not a favour that corporations may determine differences within themselves but he looks not at the likelynesse of the means but Christs institution who is onely King of the conscience and conceives that all the world hath no more power over the conscience then a Tinker hath which can be no disparagement to say that a stone hath as much life as the Sun Hee conceives that Mat. 18. Tell the Church are very plain words but that learned men have invēted distinctions to make them intricate and that Christ hath intrusted the keyes to hang rather at his Spouses girdle then with the Stewards and that a Churches censure being ratified in heaven there can be no appeal on earth to any other Church He conceives that such a liberty will wonderfully indeare all conscientious men to the Magistrate the King and Parliament will gain the hearts of the people without which all obedience will be uncordiall Compulsion can no more gain the heart then the fish can love the fisher-man As for those arguments of disorder and confusion the two Theologicall Scar-crows he conceives they are but imaginary vain fears yet have been so drunk with the bloud of the Saints that like Lycurgus Vines he would never have them more urged for an Heretike is but to be rejected and as Luther said to be burnt with the fire of charity nor should we send them to hell who give no signes of repentance He is an irreconcilable enemy to tyranny and popery and it is the joy of his heart that God may have glory though in his confusion He counts every godly Presbyterian to be his deare brother but not to be preferred before the truth He conceives that whosoever is above his brother in spirituall matters unlesse impowred is a pre ate the onely way to make the Assembly more victorious then Alexander is by reason and gentlenesse to conquer consciences without bloud He conceives that Magistrate in probability to be more religious that will suffer diffring opinions cōsisting with the publike peace then he that Haman-like will have all to bow and stoop to his sheaf and that all the wars in Christendome have sprung from this one depraved principle to suffer no opinion but his own for how can truth appear but by argumentation He