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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	holy_a	part_n	word_n	2,550	5	3.9498	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36405	The dangers of new discipline to the state and church discovered fit to be considered by them who seeke, as they tearme it, the reformation of the Church of England composed by a Trve Protestant, a loyall subject, a loving fellow member of the Common-wealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland ...	True Protestant, a loyall subject, a loving fellow member of the Common-wealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.	1642 (1642)	Wing D199; ESTC R1376	17,359	37

of God but your owne erronious collections on him you must father whatsoever yee shall afterwards be led either to doe in withstanding the Adversaries of your cause or to thinke in maintenance of your doeings and what this may bee God doth know In such kindes of errours the minde once imagining it selfe to seeke execution of Gods will laboureth forthwith to remove both things and persons which any way hinder it from takeing place and in such cases if any strange or new thing seeme requisite to be done a strang and new opinion concerning the lawfullnesse thereof is withall received and broached vnder countenance of divine Authority 7. One example herein may serve for many to shew that false opinions touching the will of God to have things done are wont to bring forth mighty and violent practises against the hinderances of them and those practises new opinions more pernicious then the first yea most extreamely opposite unto that which the first did seem to intend where the people took upon them the Reformation of the Church by casting out Popish superstition they having received from their Pastours a generall instruction Mat. 15.13 that whatsoever the heavenly Father hath not planted must be rooted out proceeded in some forraigne places so farre that downe went Oratories and the very Temples of God themselves For as they chanced to take the compasse of their Commission stricter or larger so their dealings were accordingly more or lesse moderate Among others Anabaptists there sprung up presently one kinde of men with whose zeale and forwardnesse the rest being compared were thought to be marvellous cold and dull These grounding themselves on rules more generall that whatsoever the Law of Christ commandeth not thereof Antichrist is the Authour and whatsoever Antichrist or his adherents did in the world the true Professours of Christ are to undoe and found out many things more then others had done the extirpation whereof was in their Conceipt as necessary as of any thing before removed Hereupon they secretly made their dolefull complaints every where as they went that albeit the World did begin to professe some dislike of that which was evill in the kingdome of darknesse yet fruits worthy of a true repentance were not seene and that if men did repent as they ought they must endeavour to purge the truth of all manner of evill to the end there might follow a new World afterward wherein righteousnes only should dwell Private repentance they said must appeare by every mans fashioning his owne life contrary unto the custome and orders of this present World both in greater things and in lesse To this purpose they had alwayes in their mouthes those great things Guy des Bres contre l'erreur des Anabapt pag. 4. Charity Faith the true Feare of God the Crosse the Mortification of the flesh All their exhortations were to set light of the things in this World to count riches and honours vanity and in token thereof not only to seek neither but if men were possessours of both even to cast away the one and resigne the other pag. 5. that all men might see their unfained conversation unto Christ They were sollicitours of men to fasts pag. 16. pag. 118. pag. 119. to often meditations of heavenly things and as it were conferences in secret with God by prayers not framed according to the frozen manner of the World but expressing such fervent desires as might even force God to hearken to them Where they found men in diet attire furniture of house or any other way observers of Civility and decent order pag. 120. pag. 116. such they reproved as being carnally and earthly minded Every word otherwise then severely and sadly uttered seemed to pierce like a sword through them pag. 124. If any man were pleasant their manner was presently with sighs to repeat these words of our Saviour Christ Luk. 6.12 Woe bee to you which now laugh for you shall lament So great was their delight to be alwayes in trouble that such as did quietly lead their lives they judged of all other men to be in most dangerous case They so much affected to crosse the ordinary custome in every thing pag. 117. that when other mens use was to put on better attire they would be sure to shew themselves openly abroad in worse the ordinary names of the dayes in the week they thought it a kind of prophanenesse to use and therefore accustomed to make no other distinction then by number the 1 2 3 day 8. From this they proceed unto publique Reformation First Ecclesiasticall and then Civill Touching the former they boldly avouched that themselves only had the truth pag. 40. Which thing upon perill of their lives they would at all times defend and that since the Apostles lived the same was never before in all points sincerely taught Wherefore that things might be brought againe to that ancient integrity which Iesus Christ by his word requireth they began to controule the Ministers of the Gospell for attributing so much force and vertue unto the scriptures of God read whereas the truth was that when the word is said to engender faith in the heart and to convert the soule of man or to work any such spirituall divine effect these speeches are not thereunto appliable as it is read or preached but as it is ingrafted into us by the power of the Holy Ghost opening the eyes of our understanding and so revealing the mysteries of God according to that which Ieremy promised before should be Ier. 31.34 saying I will put my law in their inward parts and I will write it in their hearts The book of God they notwithstāding for the most part so admired pag 29. that other disputation against their opinions then only by allegation of scripture they would not heare pag. 27. besides it they thought no other writings in the World should be studyed insomuch that one of their great Prophets exhorting them to cast away all respects unto humane writings so farre to this motion they condescended that as many as had any Bookes save the holy Bible in their Custody they brought and set them publiquely on fire 9. When they and their Bibles were alone together what strange fantasticall opinion soever at any time entred into their heads their use was to thinke the spirit taught it them Their frensies concerning our Saviours Incarnation the state of soules departed and such like are things needlesse to be rehearsed And forasmuch as they were of the same suit with those of whom the Apostle speaketh saying 2. Tim. 3.7 They are still learning but never attaining to the knowledge of truth it was no marvaile to see them every day broach some new thing never heard of before which restlesse levity they did interpret to be their growing to spirituall perfection and a proceeding from faith to faith pag. 65. pag. 66. The differences among them grew in a manner

ensue within this land in case your desire should take place must be thought upon 3. First concerning the supreame power of the highest they are no small Prerogatives which now thereunto belonging the forme of your discipline will restraine it to resigne Againe it may justly be feared whether our English Nobility when the matter came in Tryall would contentedly suffer themselves to bee alwayes at the talye and to stand to the sentence of a number of meane persons assisted with the presence of their poore Teacher a man as sometimes it hapeneth though better able to speake yet no whit apter to judge then the rest from whom bee their dealings never so absurd unlesse it bee by way of complaint to a Synod no appeale may bee made unto any one of higher power in as much as the order of your discipline admitteth no standing inequality of Court no spirituall Iudge to have any ordinary superior on Earth but as many supremacies as there are Parishes and severall Congregations 4. Neither is it altogether without cause that so many doe feare the overthrow of all Learning as a threatned sequell of this your intended discipline For Sapien. 6.24 if the Worlds preservation depend on the multitude of the wise and of that sort the number hereafter be not likely to waxe overgreat Eccle. 26 29. when that wherewith the sonne of Syrack professeth himselfe at the heart greived men of vnderstanding are already so little set by how should their minds whom the love of so precious a Iewell filled with secret Iealousy even in regard of the least things which may ny way hinder the flourishing estate thereof chuse but misdoubt least this discipline which alwaies you match with divine doctrine as her naturall and true Sister bee found unto all kinds of knowledge a stepmother seeing that the greatest worldly hopes which are proposed unto the cheifest kinde of learning yee seeke vtterly to extirpate as weeds and have grounded your Platforme on such propositions as doe in a sorte undermine those most renowned habitations where through the goodnesse of Almighty God all commendable Arts and Sciencies are with exceeding great industry hitherto and so may they for ever continue studied proceeded in and profest To charge you as purposely bent to the overthrow of that wherein so many of you have attained no small perfection were injurious only therefore I wish that your selves did wel consider how opposite certaine your positions are unto the state of Collegiate Societies wherein the two Vniversities consist Those degrees which their Statutes binde them to take are by your lawes taken away your selves who have sought them yee so excuse as that yee would have men to thinke yee Iudge them not allowable but tolerable only and to be borne with for some helpe which yee finde in them unto the furtherance of your purposes till the corrupt estate of the Church may be better reformed Your Lawes forbidding Ecclesiastical persons vtterly the exercise of Civill power musts needs deprive the Heads and Masters in the same Colledges of all such authority as now they exercise either at home by punishing the faults of those who not as Children to their Parents by the Law of Nature but altogether by Civill authority are subject unto them or abroad by keeping Courts amongst their Tenants Your Lawes makeing permanent inequality amongst Ministers a thing repugnant to the Word of God enforce those Colledges the Seniors whereof are all or any part of them Ministers under the government of a Maister in the same vocation to choose as oft as they meet together a new President For if so yee judge it necessary to doe in Synods for the avoyding of permanent inequality amongst Ministers the same cause must needs even in these Collegiate Assemblies enforce the like Except peradventure yee mean to avoyd all such absurdities by dissolving those Corporations and by bringing the Vniversities unto the forme of the Schoole of Geneva Which thing men the rather are inclined to looke for in asmuch as the Ministery whereinto their Founders with singular providence have by the same Statutes appointed them necessarily to enter at a certaine time Humb. motion to the L. L. P. 50. your lawes binde them much more necessarily to forbear till some parish abroad call for them Your opinion concerning the Law Civill is that the knowledge thereof might bee spared as a thing which this Land doth not need Professors in that kinde being so few yee are the bolder to spurne at them and not to dissemble your minds concerning theire removall in whose studyes although my selfe have not much beene conversant neverthelesse exceeding great cause I see there is to wish that thereunto more encouragement were given as well for the singular treasures of Wisdome therein contained as also for the great use wee have thereof both in decision of certaine kinds of causes ariseing dayly within our selves and especially for commerce with Nations abroad Whereunto that knowledge is most requisite 5. The reasons wherewith yee would perswade that Scripture is the only rule to frame all our Actions by are in every respect as effectuall for proofe that the same is the only Law whereby to determine all our Civill Controversies And then what doth let but as those men have their desire who frankly broach it already that the worke of Reformation will never be perfected till the Law of Jesus Christ bee received alone so pleaders and Counsellours may bring their bookes of the Common Law and bestow them as the Students of curious and needlesse Arts did theirs in the Apostles time Act. 19.19 I leave them to scan how farre those words of yours may reach wherein yee declare that whereas many houses lye waste through inordinate sutes in Law Humb. motion P. 74. This one thing will shew the excellency of Discipline for the wealth of the Realme and quiet of Subjects that the Church is to censure such a party who is apparently troublesome and contentious and without REASONABLE CAVSE upon a meere will and stomacke doth vex and molest his Brother and trouble the Country For my owne part I doe not see but that it might agree very well with your Principles if your discipline were fully planted even to send out your writs of surceace unto all Courts of England besides for the most things handled in them A great deale further I might proceed and descend lower 6. But for as much as against all these and the like difficultyes your answer is Counterp 6. P. 108. that wee ought to search what things are consonant to Gods word not which be most for our owne ease and therefore that your discipline being for such is your errour the absolute commandement of Almighty God it must bee received although the world by receiving it should be cleane turned vpside downe herein lyeth the greatest danger of all For whereas the name of divine Authority is used to countenance these things which are not the commandements

and let your proceedings behold for a barre against that impediment one opinion yee have newly added unto the rest even upon this occasion an opinion to exempt you frō takeing Oathes which may turne to the molestation of your Brethren in that cause The next neighbour opinion whereunto when occasion requireth may follow for dispensation with Oathes already taken if they afterwards be found to import a necessity of detecting ought which may bring such good men into trouble or damage whatsoever the cause bee O mercyfull God! what mans witt is there able to sound the depth of these dangerous and fearfull evills whereinto our weake and impotent nature is inclinable to sinke it selfe rather then to shew an acknowledgment of errour in that which once wee have unadvisedly taken upon us to defend against the streame as it were of a contrary publique resolution Wherefore if wee any thing respect their errour who being perswaded even as yee are have gone further upon that perswation then yee allowe if wee regard the present estate of the highest Governour placed over us if the quality and disposition of our Nobles if the Orders and Lawes of our famous Vniversities of the profession of the Civill or the practise of the Common-Law amongst us if the mischieves whereinto even before our eyes so many others have fallen headlong from no lesse plausible and faire beginings then yours are there is in every of these considerations most just cause to feare least our hastinesse to imbrace a thing of so perillous Consequence should cause posterity to feele those evills which as yet are more easy for us to prevent then they would be for them to remedy The Concl. of all 15. The best and safest way therefore for you my deare Brethren is to call your deeds past to a new reckoning to examine the cause yee have taken in hand and to try it even point by point Argument by Argument with all the diligent exactnesse yee can to lay aside the Gall of that bitternesse wherein your minds have hitherto overabounded and with meeknesse to search the Truth thinke yee are men deeme it not impossible for yee to erre fift unpartially your owne hearts whether it bee the force of reason or vehemency of affection which hath bred and still doth feed these opinions in you If truth doe any where manifest it selfe seeke not to smother it with glosing delusion acknowledge the greatnesse thereof and thinke it your best victory when the same doth prevaile over you 16. That yee have bene earnest in speaking and writing againe and againe the contrary way shall bee no blemish nor discredit at all unto you Amongst so many so huge volumes as the infinite paines of Saint Augustine hath brought forth what one hath gotten him greater love commendation and honour then the booke wherein he carefully collecteth his owne oversights and sincerely condemneth them Many speeches there are of Iobes whereby his wisdome and other vertues may appeare but the glory of an ingenious mind hee hath purchased by these words only Iob. 39.37 Behold I will lay mine hand on my mouth I have spoken once yet will I not therefore maintaine argument yea twice howbeit for that cause further I will not proceede Farre more comfort it were for us so small is the joy wee take in these strifes to labour under the same yoake as men that looke after the same eternall reward of their labours to bee injoyed with you in bands of indissoluble love and amity to live as if our persons being many our Soules were but one rather thē in such dismembred sort to spend our few wretched dayes in a tedious prosecutiō of wearysome contentions the end whereof if they have not some speedy end will bee heavy even on both sides Brought already wee are even to that estate which Gregory Nazianzene mournfully described saying G. Naz Apol. My mind leadeth mee sith there is no other remedy to fly and to convey my selfe into some corner out of sight where I may scape from this cloudy tempest of maliciousnesse whereby all parts are entred into a deadly warre amongst themselves and that little remnant of love which was is now consumed to nothing The only godlynesse wee glory in is to find out somewhat whereby wee may Iudge others to bee ungodly Each others faults wee observe as matter of exprobration and not of greife By these meanes wee are growne hatefull in the eyes of the heathens themselves and which woundeth us the more deeply able we are not to deny but that wee have deserved their hatred With the better sort of our owne our fame and Credit is cleane lost The lesse wee are to marvaile if they Judge vilely of us who although wee did well would hardly allow thereof On our backs they also build that are lewd and what wee object one against another the same they use to the utter scorne and disgrace of us all This wee have gained by our mutuall home dissentions This wee are worthyly rewarded with which are more forward to strive then becometh men of vertuous and mild disposition But our trust with the almighty is that with us contentions are now at their highest floate and that the day will come for what cause of dispaire is there when the passions of former enmity being allayed wee shall with ten times redoubled tokens of our unfainedly reconciled love shew our selves each towards other the same which Ioseph and the Brethren of Ioseph were at the time of their intervew in Egypt Our comfortable expectation and most Thirsty desire whereof what man soever amongst you shall any wayes 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 as wee truely hope there is no one amongst you but some way or other will the blessing of the God of peace both in this world and in the world to come be upon him more then the starres of the firmament in number AMEN ECCLES POLIT LIB 5. §. 79. ad fin Such is the generall detestation of robbing God or the church that whereas nothing doth either in peace or warre more uphold mens reputation then prosperous successe because in common construction unlesse notorious improbitie bee joyned with prosperity it seemeth to argue favour with God they which once have stained their hands with these odious spoiles doe thereby fasten unto all their actions an eternall prejudice in respect whereof for that it passeth through the world as an undoubted rule and principle that sacrilege is open defiance to god whatsoever afterward they vndertake if they prosper in it men reckon it but Dionysius his navigation and if any thing befall them otherwise it is not as commonly so in them ascribed to the great uncertainty of casuall events wherein the providence of God doth controle the purposes of men oftentimes much more for their good then if all things did answere fully their hearts desire but the censure of the world is ever directly against them both a Novimus multa regna reges eorum