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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	scripture_n	tradition_n	word_n	2,934	5	4.8289	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A10190	Lord bishops, none of the Lords bishops. Or A short discourse, wherin is proved that prelaticall jurisdiction, is not of divine institution, but forbidden by Christ himselfe, as heathenish, and branded by his apostles for antichristian wherin also sundry notable passages of the Arch-Prelate of Canterbury in his late booke, intituled, A relation of a conference, &c. are by the way met withall.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1640 (1640)	STC 20467; ESTC S115311	76,101	90

the Lords day which is an open proclaiming of Warre against God against Christ against his holy Laws against all holinesse against our Christian vow in Baptisme against the good Laws of the Land and Acts of Parliament and against the very bonds of all Civill and Natural Societies And thus our Prelates are the most notorious Lawlesse men onely excepting the Grand Antichrist the Pope unlesse in some things they doe outstrip him that ever were in any Age of the world Further two wayes more doe the Prelates prove themselves to be o`i a'nomei those Lawlesse men As first in hanging the Keys of Scripture at their Girdle saying that the Credit and belie●● of Scripture to be the word of God doth necessarily depend upon the Authority and Tradition of the present Church as the prime inducing cause to that bel●●f This our great Prelate in his said Book boldly affirmeth● and often repeateth saying withall that the Scripture hath not light enough in it selfe is not sufficient to shew and prove it selfe to be the word of God So as the whole Authority of Scripture● depending upon church-Church-Tradition and Authority is necessarily made subject to Episcopall Power and so consequently the Law of God contained therein shall not be Divine unlesse it please their good Lordships to give their good word for it and to make it of so much credit by the vote of their Authority and Tradition as that men may beleeve it to be Gods Law And upon this ground it is that if the Prelates shall pronounce the 4th Commandement not to be Morall for the sanctifying of a Seventh day yea the first day of the weeke for Sabbath and that Servants and Children are not bound to yeeld obedience to their Masters and Parents on that day in Case Civil or Ecclesiasticall Authority shall dispense with them to be free that day for their Sports then all men must be of their opinion that those Commandements are none of Gods Commandements The second way whereby Prelates doe shew themselves Lawlesse men is by denying the Scripture to be Iudge in Controversus of Faith For the said Prelate pe●emptorily saith * I absolutely make a lawfull and free Generall Councel Iudge of Controversies by and according to Scriptures Which By and according to the Scriptures come in by the By and are meere Cyphers For by these words he either meanes That By and according to the Scriptures hee absolutely makes c. which is most false for by and according to the Scripture no Generall Councel is Iudge of Coneroversies Neither by and according to the Scriptures hath the Prelate power absolutely to make a Generall Councel Iudge of Controversies or els by these words he doth but cast a ●yst before his Readers eyes to make him beleeve upon the first rebound of his words that he makes Scripture the Rule for Generall Councels to determine Controversies by Whereas he meanes no such thing For elswhere he hath sundry speeches to the contrary as ‡ The Churches Declaration can bind us to peace and externall obedience where there is not expresse letter of Scripture and s●nce agreed upon And againe If there be a a●eal●usie or doubt of the sense of Scripture a Generall Councel must judge the Difference onely Scripture must be the Rule Now if Scripture be doubtfull and not cleare how can it be a rule to others to judge by But if Scripture be sufficiently and aboundantly cleare in it selfe in resolving of matters of faith for salvation how come men to take upon them to be Iudges But that the Scripture it selfe should be Iudge the Prelate in no case in no place of his Booke will allow of that Onely he confesseth that the Scripture is a * Iudge but without light Sufficient visible but not living not speaking but by the Church So as the Iudge he makes upon the matter both blind and dead and dumb As the ‡ Papists make it a dead letter and Leaden or Lesbian Rule that so they may set the Church above it to be Supreme Iudge Thus our Prelates if they will allow their Primate to speake for them have made the Scripture and so Gods word of no Authority in and of it selfe when it must depend both for its Authority and Sense upon the Church and that the Prelaticall Church or that Catholicke wherein the Church Prelaticall of England and of Rome are one and the Same Are not the Prelates then next after the Pope those Lawlesse men branded here by the Apostle under the name of that Lawlesse one We come now to the Sixth note of Antichrist in the Text which is●that he at God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himselfe that he is God Now the ‡ Temple of God properly according to the New Testament the ancient Temple of the Iews being abolished is the Soule and Conscience of every beleever or true Christian namely a Spirttuall Temple Now all that beare but the beare name of Christians as Papists doe doe also participate of the bare Name of such as are the true Temples and so in that respect Antichrist is said to sit in or upon or over the Temple of God For sitting argues a Seat Chaire or Throne which Antichrist sets up in the Soules and Consciences of all Papists Sitting and raigning as King over them in all matters of faith So as thus he makes himselfe a Spirituall Lord or King over them And thus by Antichrists sitting is understood his raingning as the Scripture doth often use this Terme as Revel. 17. 1. 3. 15. and 18. 7. And so in other places of Scripture by sitting is understood raigning as Heb. 1. 13. 1. Rev. 1. 13. Now that the Pope doth thus set up his throne and sit and raigne in the Consciences of men who are the Subjects and vassalls of his Spirituall Kingdome himselfe cannot will not deny And he sits as God that is assumes and exercises that power and authority over the Conscience which appertaines to God to Christ alone And thus he makes shew that he is God as to whom God hath committed all his Power and authority unto As the Pope calls himselfe Vice-God Christs Vicar and the like usurping whatsoever Titles of Power Christ hath in the Scripture as we read of Leo 10 in the Councel of Lateran calling himselfe the Lyon of the Tribe of Iudah and the like And Bellarmine blusheth not to say and therein to Blas-Pheme that what soever is attributed to Christ in the Scripture is communicated to his Vicar the Pope And thus is fullfilled that which Christ foretold * Many shall come in my Name saying I am or I am Christ and shall deceive many Thus for the Pope that man of Sinne that Sonne of Perdition who opposeth and exalteth himselfe ab●ve all that is called God or that is worshiped that Lawlesse one that as God sits in the Temple of God shewing himselfe that he is God● Now for our Prelates are they not herein

First Protest against the Hierarchy as an Antichristian Tyranny over the Soules Bodies and Estates of all the Kings Subjects and therefore ought to be rooted out and not suffered in any Christian Church or Common Weale Secondly and consequently Protest against all Altars Images and such like Popish Idolatrous Reliques utterly unlawfull to be erected in any true Christian Church Thirdly Protest against all humane Rites and Ceremonies whatsoever imposed upon mens Consciences in the worship of God as being all of them Antichristian bringing into bondage mens Soules which Christ hath redeemed with his precious blood who is the onely Lord of the Conscience and the onely Law-giver to his Church for all matters of Faith and of the worship of God Fourthly Protest against all such generall Taxes layd upon the Subjects as whereby both their ancient Liberties and the fundamentall Laws of the Kingdome are overthrowne and so vindicate the Honour both of the King and of this noble Kingdome that it may not be recorded to Posterity for a State of Tyranny and Slavery Fiftly and consequently Protest against all those wicked Iudges which have in such wise declared their opinions for intollerable Taxes expresly contrary to the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdome as thereby they have given occasion for the betraying of all and the bringing of the whole Land under perpetuall Slavery Sixtly Protest against that Prelaticall Declaration set forth in the Kings Name before the 39 Articles wherein those Articles of the Dostrines of Grace are made voyd and so all preaching of them suppressed Seventhly Protest against that Booke for Sports on the Lords dayes as whereby both the fourth Commandement and the fifth are most desperately overthrown as also against all those Bookes that have been set forth for the maintaining of such profanation as whereby God is greatly dishonoured and his wrath provoked even to the Spewing out of such a Nation out of his mouth Eightly Protest against all that Prelaticall Tyranny in oppressing the preaching of Gods Word on the Lords dayes in the after-noone and other dayes in the week and their Antichristian persecuting and putting out of all godly and painfull Ministers such as will not conform to their lawlesse Ordinances Ninthly Protest against that most terrible and odious shedding of the innocont blood of those 3 forementioned now perpetuall Exiles and Closse Prisoners even their very Wives most lawlesly detained from them with a●● their other severe punishments one of them being a Minister who in discharge of his duty first preached in his own Church and then published his Sermons in Print against the Prelates notorious practises and Popish Innovations for which he underwent punishments so great so many as no Age● no Christian State can parallell so as their blood doth incessantly cry against this whole Land as guilty thereof though shed onely by the Prelates instigation as aforesaid untill it be purged Tenthly Protest against that accursed Booke Relation of a Conference c. published in Print and Dedicated to the King by the now Prelate of Canterbury wherein he belyes and so blasphemes God Christ the Holy Ghost the holy Scriptures the Church of England in saying it is one and the Same with that of Rome of the same Faith and Religion with that Whore of Babylon and many such like impious assertions the whole Booke professedly tending to reconcile England and Rome and so to bring the whole Land backe againe to Popery Eleventhly If this great and Warlike preparation be by the Prelates Diabolicall Instigation as by no other it can be except by the Pope and his Iesuiter and his Nuncio's Negotiation have also a hand in it to goe against the Scots and if the cause shal be found to be no other but that they have abandoned and Remaunded to Rome all their Prelates as the grand Enemies of Christ and his Kingdome and of the peaceable and prosperous estate of the Realme and consequently of the Kings Crown and Dignity and that they stand for the maintenance of their just Laws and Liberties the continuance whereof is the Kings honour and the establishment of his throne If I say no other cause can justly be alledged and yet they shal be invaded as Rebells Protest against all ayd and assistance of such an Invasion as being against the Law of God of Nature and of Nations and as being a Warre directly against Jesus Christ in the maintenance of Antichrist and his Antichristian Hierarchy and so such as must needs recoyle and that in divine fury upon England it selfe which having burned her neighbours house exposeth her owne to the flames Yea for England to Invade Scotland for no other cause in truth then before mentioned namely for their maintaining of the true Faith and Religion of Christ and their just Lawes and Liberties which all true Christians and Civil States ought to lay down their very lives for as the light of Nature taught the very Heathen Pugnare pro Aris ac focis and that Grecian could say A'iresomai teleutan mallon è a'neleutheros sun I choose rather to dye a Free-man then to live a Slave And the Monarchicall estate governed by good Laws was ever preferred and opposed to Tyranny were to renounce and give up her own ancient Liberties and to betray and persecute and destroy the true Faith and Religion of Christ and so set up and professe the Infidelity and Idolatry of Antichrist and so with him and his cursed Crue to goe into perdition The Primitive Christians under Julian the Apostata served him in the Warres against his Enemies but when he Commanded them to goe against Christians who refused to worship or offer Incense to his Idols they cast down their Weapons acknowledging the Emperour of heaven And when Saul * commanded his Servants to fall upon the Lords Priests none of them would doe it And I read of a Secretary to an Empresse who being commanded by her to draw an Edict againg the Christians he still found delayes but at length she growing instant upon him for it so as he could no longer delay it he tooke off his Military girdle the Ensigne of his service and cast it at her feet and so discharged himselfe from her Court Thus if you make and leave these Christian zealous and just Protestations among the Recods of Parliament in case it shal be by the malice and inchantments of the Prelates unhappily dissolved before you can produce them into a full Act and establish them for a Law though otherwise ye cannot effect a reall Reformation of all the mischiefes and maladies which the Prelates in speciall have filled the Land withall yet forasmuch as you have thus publickly both for your own persons and as the Body representative of the whole State of the Land solemnly protested against all these things there is no question to be made but that God in his mercy and favour will accept of your will for the deed it selfe and will still preserve both you and your

good as the former and no better For what Laws of the Realme doth he account just Those that crosse any Prelaticall practises and Antichristian lawlesse courses of his Spirituall Courts Surely those are not to be ranked among the just Laws of the Realme those must needs be unjust Laws which are made to restraine the Infolencie and Lawlesse proceedings of Prelaticall Courts Which is the reason that now of late under this Archprelate Prohibitions out of the Kings bench to the High-Commission are so gueason so well Schooled are both Lawyers to move and Judges to grant any such thing Thus the Prelates practises are a sufficient Commentary of his owne words So as the Summe of this his whole passage is That his Church of England must submit her beliefe to her Arch Bishops and Bishops as visible Iudges left by Christ to governe and to determine all matters of difference in point of Faith and Religion and that according to Scripture too so farre as they crosse not her own Canons and those of the Catholicke Church wherein England and Rome are one and the Same one Church of one Faith of one Religion And all this if we may beleeve her Metropolitan the Church of England beleeves O miserable Church CHAP. IIII. Wherein some other Passages of the Prelate in his Booke touching the Authority of his Hierarchie are met withall and confuted by evidence of Scripture IN his * Epistle Dedicatory he hath these words She the Church of England practises Church-Government as it hath been in use in all Ages and all Places where the Church of Christ hath taken any rooting both in and ever since the Apostles times and yet the Seperatist condemnes her for Antichristianisme in her Discipline So he A bold Speech and the more bold because most false and hath nothing but his bare Ipse dixit his naked affirmation as Authority sufficient Whence I note sundry particulars First that he calleth the Hierarchie or Ecclesiasticall Government therof the Church of England A thing familiar with Prelates to make themselves the Church And such a Church as that of Rome the Pope and his Priests or Prelates are the Church as themselves affirme Whereas indeed as Iunius hath well distinguished ● they are not the Body it selfe of the Church but ●●ennes or swellings grown up and so incorporated into the Body as overspreading it like a Leprosie it assumes the denomination of the Body And such are Prelates who in the Church of England are Strumae great swellings like the Kings Evill which are commonly next the Head or about the necke in the most principall parts of the Body Onely in this they will not be called the Kings Evill because they claime their Originall from Christ as before is noted and therfore though they be but certaine Abscessus or Apostemes and so indeed Apostat●s from the true Church of Christ which not onely deforme the Body but greatly in danger the life thereof yet the name of Church they challenge in peculiar to themselves But surely the true Church of Christ in England disclaimes communion with such a false Church as the Hierarchie calls it selfe Secondly he saith that his Church or Prelaticall Government hath been in all Times and Places where the Church of Christ hath taken any rooting Here he finely excludes all the Protestant Reformed Churches as no Churches of Christ because they have weeded out those * bittet roots whereby many are defiled and rooted up those plants ‡ which our heavenly Father hath not planted to wit all Prelates with their Hierar●hicall Government which being rooted out of those Churches the Gospell blessed be God and so the true Church of Christ hath taken the deeper and firmer rooting and brought forth the more abundant ‡ fruits of holin●sse But the Prelate in thus unchurching all true Reformists is as good as his word which he openly spake at Dr. Bastwicks Censure in High-Commission saying The Protestant Churches beyond the Seas were no Churches as having no Bishops calling Calvin a plaine Rascall But so long as those Churches have the true Bishops namely Orthodox and Sound Pastors to feed their severall ●locks it is not the Arch-prelate that can so easily degrade them from being Christs true Churches as he can deprive those Ministers both of Ministry and Meanes who are obnoxious to his Church-Go●ernment Thirdly where he saith that his Church-Government hath been in use in all Ages and in all Places where the Church of Christ hath taken any rooting both In and ever since the Apostles times although this be most false yet were it true it would not therupon follow that this his Church-Government is either Apostolicall or jure divino or from Christ For first every thing that hath been in use in the Apostles times and in the true Church of Christ is not therfore Apostolicke or such as the true Church of Christ alloweth of For we read that the Mistery of Iniquity began to worke in the Apostles times and even then there were § many Antichrists and that in the very midst of the Church in those dayes † And if Prelates shall prove to be those Antichrists which the Apostles detected and described by their qualities as will appeare anon● then because such Antichrists were extant and their Church-Government in use in the Apostles times will the Prelate therfore conclude such were Apostolicke and had their Originall jure divino Secondly neither can the Prelate ever prove that his Prelaticall Government as now of later and of long time it hath been is any thing like to the Church-Government exercised by those who took upon them to be the first Diocesan or Provinciall Bishops in those ages succeeding the Apostles He that shall read the Centuries Cat●lagus Testiun● veritatis and other true Church Stories shall find as vast a difference between those poore ancient Bishops both in their manner of life and Church-Government and the moderne Prelotes since Antichrist mounted aloft in his Pontificalibus as the * Poet makes between the Silver Age and the Iron Age or as the ‡ Prophet shews between the brazen brest of the Image of the Babylonish Empire and the feet mixt of iron and clay And that Image may well resemble the State of the Spirituall Babylon or Hierarchy which had its rise of simple and small beginnings but by degrees Successively it grew and got strength and both height and bredth and so became at length of a blind Brooke a goodly navigable River so as the Church turned a City of Traffique and Trade in all worldly pleasures and riches as Babylon is described Revel. 18. and so the more worldly it grew the more wicked proud tyrannicall lordly and imperious and of a Militant Church turned Triumphant as the Prelate himselfe saith of Rome so as now the Church Government of the Prelates in regard of their great Courts and Consistories and doing all things without the Presbytery● is as much unlike that ancient