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	king_n	levite_n	19	3	9.7165	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07822	Salomon or A treatise declaring the state of the kingdome of Israel, as it was in the daies of Salomon Whereunto is annexed another treatise, of the Church: or more particularly, of the right constitution of a Church.	Morton, Thomas, of Berwick.	1596 (1596)	STC 18197.7; ESTC S112936	159,289	238

the Church should be at the call and commaundement of the secular power whereby they might be eyther wholly dispossessed of their places or continually troubled interrupted in ordering the affaires of the Church and the matters of God and finally iniuriously and contumeliously handled which thing the holines of their places and persons wil in no wise suffer For the answere of this doubt it is plaine in the word of God that all ecclesiasticall persons whatsoeuer yea the chiefe priestes in them the high priest himself the prince and head of the priestes who was the type of Christ the Oracle of God and on whom the whole glory and maiesty of the priesthood was bestowed was no lesse subiect to the iurisdiction of the kinge then he which had the basest place and calling in the common-wealth The trueth heereof appeareth by the lamentable tragedie of Abimelech 1. Sam. 2. who being summoned by Saule to appeare came with all the priestes that were with him and being come acknowledged Saul● to be his Lord Verse 12. and did not appeale frō his vniust sentence of death to any other power The same end befel his son Abiather who for that he tooke part with Adonia was by Salomon put out of his office and condemned to die 1. King 2.26 And likewise Zachariah the son of Ieh●ida 2. Chro. 24.21 Now although two of these kinges did impiously and tyrannically abuse their authority yet it doth appeare that they had authority ouer them yea not onely these examples but the course of the whole scripture and equitie it selfe doth shew that it ought to be so We knowe that euen Christ himselfe more holy in person and office then all the priestes men or angels in the world did throughout the whole course of his life submit himselfe to the ciuill power and at the end of it did suffer himselfe to be violently apprehended contu●eliously entreated yea vniustly cōdemned by the deputy of a heathen Emperour Likewise the Apostle Paule did appeale and subiect himselfe to the authority of Caesar. Neyther is there any cause or reason why it should be otherwise For howsoeuer the Romish prelates haue not only drawen out their neckes from the subiection of princes but also haue inuaded their thrones and subdued them vnder their feete and the whole cleargie say to the ciuill power come not near nor yet once touch me because I am holier then thou and think themselues too good to be iudged by any but by their owne ordinarie yet the trueth is that all persons as well ciuill as ecclesiasticall are and ought to be by the word of God equally subiect to the ciuill power For shall Christ himselfe and in him God himselfe stand before the iudgement seat of princes and shall sinfull men nay shall wretched wormes thinke them too prophane to be competent iudges in their causes no no the seruant is not aboue the master nor the creature aboue the creator and therefore we say with the Apostle that al soules that is euery man that hath a soule that none shoulde thinke himselfe exempted ought to be subiect to the higher powers Rom. 13.1 The ground of the contrary errour is an arrogant opinion which presumptuous men bearing function in the Church haue of their own holin●sse in respect of others whereas in the Church of God men who haue ciuil callings are no lesse holy then they who haue ecclesiastica● yea somtimes much more holy they who haue ecclesiastical holy callings being otherwise wicked prophane for it is truly said althoug● impiously applied by the rebellious company of Corah Numb 16.3 That not only Moses Aaron but euen the whole multitude of the common people much more the Lords annoynted is holy In the next place we are to search whether that as al persons so likewise al causes belonged to the authority of the King of Israell First of ciuill then of ecclesiasticall causes in the first kinde it is not needful that we should insist forsomuch as all men euen they who are most sparing and wary in giuing power to these kinges doe acknowledge that all ciuill causes did properly belong to their iurisdiction And so it was indeede For the king had authoritie to appointe all the publike officers of his kingdome who should be his counsellers at home or his Captaines abroad who shoulde be the iudges of the people and who of the chiefe senate in Ierusalem and good reason it was that he shoulde haue this power in these causes For seeing that his office was especially to iudge the causes of the people and to fight their battailes for the which purpose the people desired a king it could not be denied vnto him to appointe those to be his deputies whom he thought most able to discharge these dueties Yea further it belonged to him to call all publike assemblies and to order them to make peace with whom he would and to goe to battaile against whome ●e when 〈◊〉 thought good The trueth of this pointe doth 〈◊〉 plainely appeare throughout the whole storie that we need not insist in it Sect. X. NOwe we are to enquire what was the authoritie of the kinge in the matters of the Church to wit in ordering the state of religion and of the seruice of God Whereof there is greate question made whilest some doe wholly exclude him out of the Church not permitting him to intermeddle with any affaires belonging vnto it others suffer him to deale in these causes yet not to beare any great sway or to ouerrule in them and the third sort giueth vnto him the greatest part of that ecclesiasticall authoritie which belongeth to man The which distinction is necessarely to be considered for God hath not giuen to any man such ful and absolute authoritie in the Church as in the common-wealth for he hath made Christ the soueraign Lord and King of the Church to rule it by his owne lawes and worde Yet one parte of ecclesiasticall iurisdiction belongeth to men who are to establish the diuine lawes of the worship of God and to make ecclesiastical constitutions for that purpose But who hath authoritie to doe this there is all the controuersie In the first opinion or rather grosse and palpable errour are the Bishops of Rome with their adherentes who that they might through the Church enter into the common-wealth inuade the riches preferments and pleasures of kinges and vsurpe their states and crownes haue thrust out of the Church this king of Israell least that by his example other magistrates shoulde challenge to themselues ●uthoritie in causes ecclesiasticall In the second opinion are men otherwise syncere in iudgement who in a good meaning affection to the Church thinke it not safe or conuenient to permitte her wholly to the ciuill power and in a reuerent opinion of her iudge it vnmeete that ciuill rulers should order diuine matters and so make the Church say vnto the magistrate touch me not for I am more holy then thou

by the fame of the true religiō some haue bene conuerted so was Rahab liuing in Iericho of whome it is saide Heb. 11. that she beleeued or by reading bookes containing the doctrine of religion Lastly it may please God to vse for this purpose that knowledge which remaineth in the minds of men since the fall of Adam and which is stirred vp by the contemplation of the creatures and all those meanes which naturall men haue for the attaining of knowledge These or any other meanes God may vse extraordinarily yea he may doe it without any meanes but in his ordinarie working none of these aforesaid meanes are auailable for faith is gotten ordinarely onely by hearing the worde preached and therefore we are to esteeme and iudge of them who haue not the ministerie of the worde that they wante the ordinarie meanes of attaining a true and sauing faith alwaies excepting the power and extraordinarie worke of God the which is not tyed to any meanes CHAP. III. Of a particular Church Sect. 1. Of the originall of particular Churches THus much of the dispersed mēbers of the catholicke Church the which state God doth accept where it cannot be amended but so that he wil haue al his seruantes to indeauour by al means possible to come liue together for their mutuall edification and therefore as for the more commodious maintaining of our temporall liues he hath appointed ciuill societies so for the beginning and maintaining of spirituall strength and life in vs he hath appointed holy assemblies which are particular Churches out of the which a christian may liue this spirituall life but yet in great weakenesse and danger euen as a man may preserue his naturall life in a desert place but he cannot haue perfect strength and health vnlesse he liue in some place frequented by men and replenished with thinges needfull for that purpose And therefore we are now to declare what a particular Church is Sect. 2. Of the definition of a parlicular Church A Particular Church is a company of men separated from the infidels of the world to serue God vnder al the same diuine and humane lawes or vnder the same ecclesiasticall gouernment both diuine and humane This definition doth in some sort comprehend in it the whole nature and essence of a particular Church and therefore a great part of this treatise is to be spent in the explication of it wherein that we may proceede in some distinct and plaine order we haue these three heads to obserue First the separating of those of whom the Church is to consist from the infidels of the world Secondly the diuine lawes by the which they thus brought together are to be ordered And lastly the humane lawes which are added to the lawes of God For euen as it is in the establishing of a common wealth or kingdome first men must be brought together who are to be the inhabitantes of that citie or country Secondly there must certaine generall and fundamentall lawes be made containing the very state and forme of gouernment and of subiection which must stand in force continually without any alteration and lastly there must be added some speciall positiue lawes which are often to be changed as present occasion shall require so is it in the establishing of a Church First men are called from infidelity to faith as from barbarisme to ciuility then they haue giuen vnto them the lawes which God in 〈◊〉 word hath made for the gouernment of his Church till the end of the world and lastly the changeable ecclesiasticall lawes of men Againe as we see men doe in the building of a house first they prepare stones then they ioyne them together in some fourme of a house till by little and little they set vp the whole frame of it and lastly they adde doores windowes fenses and whatsoeuer may serue for the vse of the dweller in like manner the calling of men to the knowledge of Christ is the preparing of the matter of a Church secondly the establishing of the gouernment of the Church the māner of seruing God is a setting vp of the frame of it an lastly the making of ecclesiasticall constitutions is the applying of this gouernment to the speciall vse of those men whome we woulde bring vnto the fourme of a Church that it may be a fit dwelling place for them This latter similitude we desire the reader to marke the rather for that we are to vse it throughout this whole treatise And that because it hath pleased the spiritte of GOD to teach vs so to doe who in the scripture doth for the most parte compare the Church to a house and to the buylding of it as we may see 1. Cor. 3.11.12 1. Tim. 3.15 1. Pet. 4.17 In this definition the last wordes onely the rest being of themselues plaine enough neede this explication that by humane lawes we doe not meane ciuill lawes but ecclesiasticall constitutions added to the lawes of GOD appointed in the worde by the which humane lawes being alwaies in some pointe or other differing from the lawes of other Churches particular Churches haue their difference and distincte limittes appointed to them For therefore we haue inserted this partickle all in the definition because many yea all the Churches in the worlde may agree in some ecclesiasticall constitutions but not in all So that the same gouernment maketh one and the same Church yea although they be distinguished into diuerse congregations and haue many distinct places of seruing God As if the lawes of any towne doe stretch to the suburbes and villages aboute there is but one corporation or ciuill bodie And to vse our accustomed similitude as that is one familie which hath the same gouernour ouer it the same orders in it although they be in diuerse roomes so it is in this behalfe a distincte gouernment maketh a distinct Church The gouernment is then distincte when eyther the humane Church lawes are diuerse or at the least the rulers and gouernours of the companie haue in their handes authoritie to make diuers lawes in that manner which we are afterwardes to declare So that where we see many distinct and diuerse assemblies or congregations of christians all to depend vpon one company hauing in their handes the saide authoritie and from thence to fetch all their constitutions and determinations of causes they are to be accounted not many but one onely particular Church which notwithstanding if they did no waie depend vpon any other were to be accounted so many distinct Churches So the Church of Israell although it did consist of many distinct townes and cities the which had their proper leuites and gouernours yet because for gouernment they did all depend vpon the high priest and the other priestes which did offer sacrifice in the temple at Ierusalem they all made but one Church So that those christians are to be accounted a particular Church which are ioyned together not onely in the same faith as the