Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	aaron_n	authority_n	church_n	14	3	3.5092	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62487	Three letters of publick concernment as to the present affairs ... as also concerning the late publication of the covenant in all churches / by a person of quality and of a publick spirit.	Person of quality and of a publick spirit.	1660 (1660)	Wing T1097; ESTC R38805	11,970	30

nation a great Bedlam a Wildernesse Inhabited by beasts not men a Chaos that nothing but an Almighty Power can work upon to produce beauty out of such disorder and confusion from which GOOD LORD DELIVER US Of the Influence of the Legislative Power upon Ecclesiastical Laws and Persons AS to your second Question how far the legislative power hath influence upon the Ecclesiastical I think there can be no doubt but that in the intention of our ancient laws the Judgment of the Primitive Catholick Church the suffrages and practices of all the reformed ones and the rule of Scripture they are as two great orbs in one Firmament both moving from the Primum Mobile in a motion orderly and Independing upon one another acting according to their several powers and functions although subordinate as members of one Community and Civil body so as the Civil Magistrate is supreme over their persons and in all Causes Ecclesiastical in regard of their Animation to the Exercise of their powers but not over them For as the Miter is to obey the Scepter in all things prudential in Government and to submit to the regulation of their outward actings to their Commands So the Scepter is not to interpose in Cases meerly Ecclesiastical as in matters of Faith making of Canons c. Onely in the inforcing of them for the Regulation of the Church in Decency any Order which S. Paul places in Church-men alone nor did ever any age countenance the invasion of the Clergies rights in it which were to make an assault upon God himself and sacrilegiously to force from his Spouse not onely her Jewells and Ornaments but the richest dowry she is invested with on earth Nor can the disorderly and excentrick motions and actings of the Clergy themselves in their unlawfull assemblies lay a foundation for the Civil powers imposing any thing upon us in order to the change either of Doctrine or Discipline from what our antient Laws or Canons prescribe Especially when their 's in themselves are so raw and undigested as they do rather nauseate then nourish And therefore I hope it will be the prudence of the PARLIAMENT to work after God's patterne doing all things in number weight and measure Order and proportion being that alone that gives beauty and permanency to any being and after so many wheelings and revolutions returne to our antient glorious and happy Government by the KING LORDS and COMMONS in Parliaments Bishops and Presbyters in their lawfully called nationall Synods which ballancing of the Interests cannot but unite the sober wise and moderate men of all parties as I have expressed in my Letter to my Lord General Monck For thus the Church can onely speak in her representatives as we do in our Conventions by our proxies and the spirit of the prophets be subject to the prophets as the Scripture commands so as Vzzah's hands must not uphold the Ark nor Corah's conspiracy usurp upon Moses and Aaron without engaging God as a party to revenge his owne cause and servants Interests But when all things are done in a Just and orderly subordination Laws carry reverence honour and authority in them and Religion is as the Bases and Pillars of Civil power That as the Roof and Covering of the Church to defend her against all the stormes of persecution so as it is the happy union and combination of both that makes the building durable and glorious the well tuning of them to one another that makes the Harmony when the one obeys all Civil Injunctions the other actuates and enforces all Ecclesiastical constitutions for they onely bring the Bullion prepared for the Legislators Mint he gives the Stamp that makes it currant so as all Church-laws to oblige the inward outward man ought to derive to us from the Clergy in a lawfull posture as their spring by the Magistrate as the stream the promise of the holy Ghost in regard of ministerial function and government being onely to them as hath been fully proved by many scarce ever denyed by any solid and sober Christian Which is all I have now to say in relation to what you propose The Third Leeter Of the late Publication of the Covenant in all Churches BUt there is an exile lately returned with what designe I know not the publication of the COVENANT in all Churches though it makes way for many conjectures which I am not willing to publish least with the Schoolmen in their unclean Speculations I should teach men many vices they are yet Innocently ignorant of Therefore I shall look upon it only as a well meant errour being willing to extract virtue out of a Venemous and unwholsome plant and put this interpretation upon it 1. That it is onely meant to insinuare into mens minds that naturall duty they owe their Soveraign both by divine and humane Laws and bring them to that Allegiance due to their KING by a sacred tye so universally taken to support not enervate their former OATHS of FEALTY and obedience Which my charity inclines me to for it were too daring a sinne for any Christian to own the espousing of any other sence and a suing out of a divorce from God as done in opposition to his ordinances 2. That in swearing to alter the Government of the Church as it was and is yet legally established by Archbishops Bishops Deans Chapters Officials c. It cannot be interpreted to intend the extirpation of reverent antient and APOSTOLICAL EPISCOPACY because the Oath Limits the intended reformation to the rule of Scripture in which Episcopacy is most clearly established and undoubtedly to be of the well being if not being and Essence of the Church but only to designe I hope in an Orderly Way of subordination with the KINGS Concurrence a breaking of the Chain a dissolving of that Hierarchy and taking out such links only as were of humane Authority and perhaps superfluous at this time as they drew in a train of unnecessary charges with them and increase of Fees in Ecclesiasticall Courts though prudentially retained in the reformation but if any shall be so Ignorantly bold as to attempt more it is to undermine under a pretence of building and to benight us by obscuring the great Lights of the Church and damming up the Fountain of it when Episcopacy as the Sun is the receptacle of all Light and placed by God in the Church to transmit it to the Presbyters and Deacons Stars of a lesser Magnitude by a due Ordination which in the consequences will let in an Egyptian blacknesse and even Eclips God himself in the glory of his outward Courts here on Earth which he wishes may be restored to its former lustre that is Your Humble Servant FINIS