Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	authority_n	bishop_n	church_n	2,934	5	4.3576	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92025	A reply to the answer of Anonymus to Doctor Gauden's Analysis of the sense of the covenant: and under that, to a later tract of one Mr Zach. Crofton of the same fraternity with him. By John Rowland Oxoniensis, CCC. Rector of Footscray in Kent.	Rowland, John, 1606-1660.	1660 (1660)	Wing R2070; Thomason E1038_4; ESTC R207862	40,193	52

Government and back what they say by Scripture good Authority by Reason and Examples and we shall draw the parallel against Presbytery and then let every man be judge which of the two hath most cause to be covenanted against and if they please to enumerate the Benefits of their Presbyterial Government we shall do the like for Bishops the work would be large and worth the while to be undertaken to reconcile the Differences in Church Discipline and to give better satisfaction to the Christian world I shall now to avoid prolixtry speak a word or two only of the benefits of Episcopacy for the faults it is obnoxious to are not essential to the Government but meerly accidental First then it is more orderly regular and uniform and by consequence more free from schisms sects heresies and whatsoever mischief may gather to a head for want of good order 2. It is more decent graceful and more consistent with Monarchy a poor creeping Clergy is not comely in Christian Princes Courts who will seem always to upbraid them to their faces as if they were not willing to be at any cost for the preaching of the Gospel whereas the best Kings and Emperors as Constantine Theodosius and others sought still how with rich endowments to beautifie and adorn them Moses and Aaron must be together the King and the Priest the Crown and the Miter the Princes Scepter and the Bishops Crosier or else the Scepter will be soon made to stoop to the Presbyterian Ferula 3. It is greater encouragement to Learning and Religion Take away the reward of Vertue and you do what you can to take away Goodness itself Pramia si tollas tollitur virtus but I must not let my pen run to a volumn 4. Consider that many Reformed Churches are in misery and ready to be swallowed up continually by Popish and cruel Adversaries what can the Presbyterian party do to afford them any help surely little or none whereas when our Church flourishen under the Bishops the Protestants abroad in all places lived in more repose and quiet and found continual assistance from them insomuch that their foes did hardly dare to make any head against them and I doubt not but they will conress how sensible they have been since these troubles of the great loss they have of Prelacy in England by whose wariness and continual care of them as well as of their charge at home they were always fostered and preserved since the Reformation What horrid persecutions have fallen upon them since the expelling of our Bishops here let the Waldenses and the Albigenses and the poor Protestants living about the Valleys of Piedmont whom the Duke of Savoy and others endeavored with all their might to take away from the earth speak The like cruelties were used lately upon the Reformed Cantons in Switzerland also in Poland and Germany and the French Protestants fearing daily to be rooted out and what remedy could they sinde with you I will not speak too bad of the great Collections made by you here for them and how they were employed for their relief Also of the monstrous blasphemies damned heresies shameful adulteries and many other villanies which have sprung up since Presbytery bore the sway the names whereof were scarcely known when Episcopacy ruled Let some more able pen proceed And however some Churches of Christ expelling Popery in heat of zeal have thereby laid lawful Episcopacy aside that is have not had since the opportunity to restore it to its primitive Institution yet many of them desire to conform to the plat-form of the Church of England which they suppose to come the nearest of any to the Apostolick form His next quarrel is If the Covenant abjure all Episcopacy it runs upon a rock of novelty and schism and dasheth us in opinion and practice against the judgement and custom of the Catholick Church in all Ages and places till of latter years from the Apostles days You call this a Magisterial and traditional way Surely such traditions as these are not to be under-valued the Histories and Monuments of the Church are a great light to us in many things especially such as are circumstancial and without them we should wander in the dark But once prove that your abol shed Episcopacy was of so ancient and universal observation Abolished we praise God you cannot say but that you did your best to abolish it the antiquity of it hath been often proved to your shame Whoever shall read the Judgement of Dr. John Reynolds concerning Episcopacy expressed in a Letter to Sir Francis Knolls and Dr. Ushers Reduction will finde this mans bold assertion c. I have not means nor opportunity to see that Letter nor any of his Quotations but I remember when I was a Scholar in Corpus Christi Colledge in Oxford whereof some years before Doctor John Reynolds had been President I was told he was once much given to be a Roman Catholick and that his brother a Protestant converted him whom I knew in Glocester-Hall but he fell shortly after himself to the Church of Rome wherein he died now though Doctor Reynolds was a very learned and pious man who by a kinde of Antiperistasis because of his brothers fall might be more violent against the Discipline of our Church than perhaps otherwise he would have been yet he met with as pious and learned men as himself at the Conference at Hampton Court 2 King James that maintained it and carried it against him and all that were of his judgement The same cause that provoked Dr. Reynolds may be prevailed with an eminent person in this Land to favour your Covenanters so much at first because his brother was revolted to Popery But this was not the Bishops fault it had been more honorable for them both to have followed the example of their Reverend Uncle James Lord Bishop of Winchester Prelate of the Garter and my most honored Patron during my minority who knew better how to direct in Church affairs than they ever did but for want of his Compass they ran a great hazard to fall upon those two dangerous Rocks that lay on either hand of Popery and Presbytery As for Dr. Ushers Reduction if that be the meaning of it we grant it is not held fit that the Bishops should keep too great a distance and estrange themselves too much from their brethren it is acknowledged to have been a fault in some of them and it is proper it should be amended But pray give me leave to referre you to Dr. Downhams Defence of Episcopacy and when you can answer him I shall say that you have answered the Doctor Under colour of propounding the loy land religious sense of it he dasheth it with unlawfulness to be taken at all because not imposed by due Authority This hath been so often repeated that it is crambe saepius cocta and needs no answer Dr. The Jews sometimes solemnly renewed their Covenant with God c. which God