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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	act_n	king_n	parliament_n	3,554	5	6.8839	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77374	The vvounded conscience cured, the weak one strengthned, [sic] and the doubting satisfied By way of answer to Doctor Fearne. Where the main point is rightly stated, and objections throughly answered for the good of those who are willing not to be deceived. By William Bridge, preacher of Gods Word. It is ordered this 30. day of January, 1642. by the committee of the House of Commons in Parliament, concerning printing, that this answer to Dr. Fearnes book be printed. John White. The second edition, correced and amended. Whereunto are added three sermons of the same author; 1. Of courage, preached to the voluntiers. 2. Of stoppage in Gods mercies to England, with their [sic] remedies. 3. A preparation for suffering in these plundering times.	Bridge, William, 1600?-1670.	1643 (1643)	Wing B4476A; ESTC R223954	47,440	52

revolt from allegeance which hath possessed well neare tenn● Tribes of the twelve and yet in page 21. he tells us of a vote passed by ● few upon the place that this worke of resistance is not carried on with a generall and unanimous consent and yet here he saith ten tribes of twelv● are for it In examining the causes of this war and resistance the Dr. saith To speake truth Religion and liberties can be no other then the pretences of this war the King having fortified them with so many acts of his grace passed this Parliament that they cannot be in that danger that is pretende● for the raising of this war It must be something that his Majesty indeed doth deny for which the contention is raised which we shall finde to be his power of armes his power of denying in Parliament the government of the Church and the revenue of it which he is bound by oath to maintaine as by law they are established Ans This is a very bold assertion and scandalous to charge a Parliament in the face of the world with hypocrisie but how doth this agree to the Drs. owne principles who doth declaime against me● for their uncharitablenesse in not beleeving the Kings Protestations Is this then no uncharitablenesse in him charging the Houses with pretending one thing and intending another Is not conscience a● well bound to be charitable and to beleeve the Protestations of th● Parliament as those papers that come out in the name of the King and hath the Parliament and Houses carried themselves so unworthily and basely that under pretence of Religion we should think● they gape after the revenues of the Church O where is this man● charity And if the King be bound by oath as the Dr. saith to maintaine the government of the Church as by Law established yet h● is no more bound by vertue of that oath to maintaine that government then any other Law of the Kingdom and as for other Laws i● the King and Parliament thinke fit to repeale them they may ye● without breach of the Kings oath so in this also Then the Doctor comes in the 25. page to open himselfe some what more freely concerning the government of the Church b● Bishops where he saith That it is such a government which t●● Church alwaies had since the first receiving of the Christian faith in th● land and of all other governments simply the best the abolishing wher● of the King hath reason by power of Armes to divert To which I answer First that if the Doctor looke into the story of Queen Maries time he shall finde that suffering Protestant Churches which by reason of persecution were faine to lye hid in London were governed by Elders and Deacons That is simply the best government of the Church which is chalked and ruled out by the Scripture as the Doctor will confesse and if this government bee so I wonder that those that are so much for it should bee of that judgement that there is no particular forme of Church-government laid downe in the word which judgement they must needs bee of unlesse they will hold that the government of other Churches is sinfull and contrary unto the word which they are loth for to doe And truly if this government be simply the best the best hath the worst successe for there is no government in all the Churches of Christendome that hath had so many Sects and Schismes or occasioned so much separation from the Churches of Christ as this hath done There are many Sects and divisions in the low Countries but none of them departing from the Protestant Church there by reason of the Church-government or discipline but by reason of doctrine Let any man but seriously consider the Protestant Churches in Switzerland France Holland Germany Scotland and hee shall easily observe that there is no such separation or division made from the Churches by reason of the Church-government stablished in them as hath been here in England by reason of this Diocesan government And if any man shall say this bad successe here is rather to bee imputed to the wickednesse of the Governours then the corruption of government Why should hee thinke that the Governours in England are more wicked then in other Protestant Churches if the government itselfe did not give scope to their wickednesse And if the government of Diocesan Bishops bee of all governments the best wee wonder that Christ and his Apostles should not appoint it surely they appointed some government in the Church and what they appointed was ●ure Divino and so best whereas this was never counted Iure Divino till of late But if this government bee simply the best it will abide triall in its due time and place but that it should be so good as that the abolishing thereof the King hath reason by power of Armes to divert this is strange Now the Doctor shewes himselfe that hee had rather the Kingdome should be embrewed in a bloody warre then Episcopacie should be put downe and that will stirre up the King to an unnaturall civill warre for the upholding of that order Judge yee O all Englishmen whether it be better for you to have this order taken away then for the whole Kingdome to lie imbrewed in their owne gore In the conclusion of this Section the Doctor complaines That the Kings Speare and Cruse and necessary Ammunition and provisions are taken away not restored though often demanded contrary saith hee to the example of David who having taken the Speare and the Cruse from Saul his King restored them againe before they were demanded 1 Sam. 26. Ans But though Sauls Speare was restored before it was demanded yet not before Saul had humbled himselfe to David saying I have sinned returne my sonne David for I will no more doe thee harme because my soule was pretious in thine eyes this day Behold I have played the foole and have erred exceedingly vers 21. Whereupon David arose and said vers 22. Behold the Kings Speare let one of the young men come over and fetch it Neither is mention here made of restoring the Cruse Some other things the Doctor hath in this Section wherein hee doth rather charge then prove but mens knowledge may sufficiently answer to those things SECT VII IN this last Section the Doctor tells us That though Conscience could be perswaded that it is lawfull to make a defensive resistance yet it can never be perswaded that the King is such as the people must bee made to believe he is for indeed it concernes all such as will resist upon the principles now taught to render their Prince odious to his people under the hatefull notions of Tyrant subverter of Religion and Lawes a person not to be trusted or at least as one seduced to such evill designes by wicked counsels that hee will bring in Popery that hee will not stand to his promises Ans These are sad charges but how groundlesse God and the world knowes

t●● Judges then in the Kings Ans But how come we to this discourse to compare Monarc● and Aristocracy and to say that Monarchy is better government th● Aristocracy Doth it follow from the word True which the Dr. ha● said to that proposition many see more then one and more safety 〈◊〉 the judgement of many then of one But seeing he is pleased to say ●he government which God made choice of to set up among his people was Monarchicall still first in Moses then in the Judges then in the Kings let us now diligently observe that Monarchicall government which God made choice of If Moses the Judges and Kings were are all Monarchs and Monarchy the best government Then 1. The best government is such where the people have the free choice of their Governour for so they had in the time of the Judges Chap. 11. 5. And it was so when the children of Ammon ma●e war against Israel the Elders of Israel went to fetch Jephtha out of the Land of Tob and ●hey said unto Jephtha Come and be our Captaine that we may fight with the children of Ammon And Jephtha said unto the Elders of Gilead If ●● bring me home againe to fight with the children of Ammon and the Lord ●eliver them before me shall I be your head And the Elders of Gilead said into Jephtha The Lord be witnesse betwixt us if we doe not so according ●o thy word Then Jephtha went with the Elders of Gilead and the people ●ad● him Head and Captaine over them v. 11. Thus wee see that that government which the Doctor cals the best and set up by God is such when the people have the choice of their King and the derivation of ●is power is from them as I have proved at large in the Preface to ●ave beene in the Judges and Kings of Israel Secondly then the best government is that where the King and ●eople strike a covenant at his Coronation which covenant the King is bound to observe neither doth his covenanting with the peo●le make him no Monarch for David was a Monarch yet David ●ade a covenant with the Elders of Israel and so they anointed him King ●ver Israel 1 Chron. 11. 3. Thirdly then the best government is such also where the Prince ●oth advise with his people and Elders doing no great matter in State ●● Religion without their consent and with their consent doing So David 1 Chron. 13. 1. And David consulted with the Captaines of thou●ands and hundreds and every Leader and David said unto all the Con●●egation of Israel If it seeme good unto you let us bring againe the Arke ●● the Lord our God unto us and all the Congregation said that they would ●● so for the thing was right in the eyes of all the Congregation So that ●●e people having an agency in the great affaires of the Kingdome is ●o way repugnant but consistent with Monarchicall government or ●●e government appointed by God himselfe Fourthly then also is the best government appointed by God such ●● doth carry along with i● a lawfulnesse for the subjects to take up armes and make forcible resistance for their own security and safety of the Common weale against their Monarchs when cause requireth for did not the people sometime in Israel take up armes against some of the Judges And did not David though yet a subject to Saul take up armes and make forcible resistance It is said expresly 1 Chron. 12. 18. 19. Then David received them and made them Captaines of the Band and there fell some of Manasses to David when he came with the Philistines against Saul to battell The Doctor said before in his Treatise that David tooke up armes onely in his owne defence But doe these words note no more Only I presse them thus far as may shew a lawfulnes for the people to take up armes in a way of forcible resistance against the Kings commandement when the danger is eminent which we finde agreeable to the best government set up by God himselfe as the Doctor acknowledgeth In the fourth place the Doctor answers that such power of resistance will be no meanes of safety to a State but rather a remedy worse then the disease which he proveth from Rom. 13. which I have answered already and from some reasons as 1. This power of resistance if admitted and preserved may proceed to a change of government Ans To which I answer that if severall formes of government be of humane constitu●ion as the Doctor speaks why should we think that they are utterly unalterable as the laws of the Medes Persians But secondly this principle of ours cannot boyle up to that height for we only say that when the Prince shall neglect his trust the people are to see to it and silenc'd not for deposing 2. He saith This power of resistance is accompanied with the evils of ● civill war Ans No but therefore we are afflicted with civill warre becaus● some people are mis-led from their own natures to take up armes against their own Country Civill war is from the cause thereof now the Parliament calls for armes only to defend the Country thes● make the civill war that are against the Countries defence Thirdly he saith There is danger in this power of resistance for the if the people be discontented and have gotten power they may say the Members of the two Houses doe not discharge their trust and so by this rule tak● up the power to themselves and so all rapine and confusion brought into th● Kingdome Ans There can bee no such inference made from this principle o● ours for the people do all acknowledge that we are to bee governed by Lawes and that as the Doctor saith the Parliament is th● Judge what is Law the people doe acknowledge according to truth that the Parliament hath the declarative power or the supreme power of declaring the Law the King doth not professe this but rather the contrary that he is no Lawyer nor skilled in the Lawes The Parliament doe professe it and the people acknowledge them to be so and therefore there is not the same reason that they should take their power to themselves in case that the Parliament should neglect their trust for why should the people take that power unto themselves should it be according to Law The Parliament will then tell them that they have done that which is according to law wherein they confesse that the two Houses have the power of declaring But now if the Prince shall neglect his trust and the people take a power to looke to themselves in times of danger by way of forcible resistance the Prince cannot say when the Parliament is against him the supreme power of declaring law doth agree my course to be lawfull so that you see there is not the same reason of both And whereas the Doctor saith That upon the like reason if the Parliament shall neglect their trust the people may call in

who may not see how tender the Parliament hath been of the Kings honour Therefore they have not beene willing to beleeve that those Declarations that came out in his name are his owne Therefore they charge all that is done on his counsellors not on himselfe herein being fully like unto David who though Saul came out against him yet did he not impute that unnaturall warre unto Saul himselfe so much as unto those that were about him saying unto Saul If the Lord hath stirred thee up against me let him accept an offering but if they be the children of men cursed be they before the Lord for they have driven mee out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord 1 Sam. 26. 19. Therefore also when the Parliament hath written any thing that might in the least measure reflect upon his Majesty I have observed that they never did write so but to vindicate and to cleare themselves from some aspersions first cast upon them and when they did write so like Shem and Japhet they took a garment and went backward desiring rather to cover then to behold any nakednesse in our dread Soveraigne And woe be unto them from the Lord but I will not curse them with the curse of Cham who put his Majesty upon such actions whereby any nakednesse should bee discovered Then the Doctor comes to the examination of those fears and jealousies which have possessed the people which hee saith are raised on these grounds report of forraine powers to be brought in the Queens religion the resort of Papists to his Majesty his intercepting of meanes sent for the reliefe of Ireland To which he answers first That the report of forraine invasions given out to keepe the people in a muse the easier to draw them into a posture of defence are discovered in time to have been vain But saith he If there be now any foraigne aid comming towards the King as all Christian Kings cannot but thinke themselves concerned in this cause it will be just for him to use them against subjects now in armes Answ To which I answer That it doth not appeare that our fears were vaine because forraigne invasion hath been prevented for we may rather thinke that therefore we have not been invaded by forraigners because the Parliament hath beene vigilant both by sea and land to prevent them But who doth not see that so far as lies in the Doctor he doth invite forraigne forces into the land and so stir up other Princes for to send them and our King for to use them Whether this be agreeable to an English Divine or an English Subject I leave to be judged Then he saith The Queens religion is no new cause Answ To this I say nothing but leave it being matter of fact to the judgement of eyes that have seene actions whether there be no more cause of jealousie now then at her first entrance And thirdly for the resort of Papists and the Kings entertaining them the Doctor strengthens the intrust of it with that example of David we may see saith he what manner of men were gathered to David in his distresse and how Ziba was rewarded Answ To which I say this only how can the Doctor make it appeare that those that were gathered to David were men of another Religion from David and of such a Religion that by the State was counted rebellion who also by the State was to bee disarmed Which if the Doctor does not make good this instance is nothing to our case And 4 for the matter of Ireland I leave that wholy to the Parliaments Declarations who without doubt know the proceedings of those better then this Doctor and what conscience enlightened will not rather rest for satisfaction upon Parliamentary Declarations then upon this Doctors assertion in this matter The other things in this Section are mostly matter of fact and therefore I must referre them to mens sense onely I cannot but observe how in all things the Doctor cleares the King and casts dirt upon the Parliament but still with this cunning when he hath laid the greatest aspertion upon them he retracts in these words I speake not this to cast any blemish upon the wisdom of the great Councell like as before when he had said what he could or happily dar'd for the Kings ruling by conquest he comes oft with this kinde of speech This I speak not as if the Kings of the land might rule as Conquerours and this is an ordinary sleight when men have preached against purity and holinesse with as much bitternesse as they can then they thinke to come off in this or the like manner God forbid that I should speak against purity and holinesse But let him in Gods name cleare the King in what he may as wee are all bound to doe as farre as we can but can he not cleare his Majesty without such foule aspertions cast on the Parliament of whom he saith thus page 30. Men are higly concerned to consider whether they also that are the maine directors of this resistance doe discharge this trust they are called to whether to divest the King of the power of Armes and to use them be to defend his Person Right and Dignity Whether the forcing of the Subjects property to the advancing of this resistance and the imprisoning of their persons for deniall be the maintaining of the right and priviledge of the subjects Whether the suffering of so many Sects to vent their Doctrines and to commit such unsufferable outrages upon the worship of God with such licentiousnesse be a defending of Religion and the established worship of this Church Answ These are foule charges upon the Parliament How can the Doctor say I enter not this discourse to cast the least blemish upon the Parliament Well blessed is the man that condemneth not himselfe in that thing which he alloweth The Doctor confesseth That man to bee subject to higher powers and that we are to submit to them he confesseth also That the Parliament is the highest Court in the Kingdome and it ought to judge what is the Law they having therefore judged this resistance to be lawful if the Doctor shall resist this their declarative power saying it is not law and cast such dirt and reproaches upon them doth he not condemne himself in the thing which he alloweth But in this last clause of his booke he summons conscience to answer upon paine of damnation and I make no question but when men shall have seriously considered his booke the verdict that conscience will bring in will this be As in the sight of God I have perused this Treatise of his and I finde it injurious to the King to the Parliament to the Divines of this Kingdom to the other Subjects to the Treatiser himself To the King for hereby he is put on and exasperated against his Parliament and Subjects further engaged in this war and encouraged to take the assistance of Papists who if he conquer by their meanes what Protestant good subject doth not bleed to thinke what will become of him To the Parliament being charged with the blood that is spilt in these warres with the miseries of Ireland with the Schismes and Sects of this Kingdome with open hypocrisie pretending one thing and intending another To Divines all whom he makes to be of his judgement To the Subjects denying to them the liberty given them by God and Nature and the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome and calling in forraigners upon them To the Treatiser himselfe who hath needlessely imbarked himselfe in a bad cause And lastly to the Scripture and God and his great Officer on Earth Conscience the Scripture being wrested God dishonoured and the conscience deceived Now the Lord grant that whilst we speake of Conscience we may in all things make conscience of our waies for multi conscientiam habuit adjudicium non ad remedium As concerning the King Give the King thy judgements O God and thy righteousnesse unto the Kings Son And as concerning the two Houses of Parliament Let the mountaines bring grace unto the people and the little hills thy righteousnesse Let the King and Queen and people praise thee O God yea let all our England praise thee FINIS