Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A37900
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The censors censured, in a brief discourse to which is adjoyned the authors letter to an anti-episcopal minister concerning the government of the church : written in the year 1651, but not printed till now.
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Edmonds, Hugh.
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1661
(1661)
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Wing E178A; ESTC R36147
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7,054
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17
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perpetration thereof can adapt him to justice Repentance though it may be too soon ended can never bee too late begun he that lives like St. Lukes judge on the bench neither fearing God nor regarding man may have the grace to die like the Jewes theef on the Crosse with profession of both for that power which expresly denyeth forgivenesse to one sin onely doth implicitely conceede a possibility of pardon to all others On this consideration it would be worth their paines to translate their Petition for Presbytery into a Suit for Indempnity and publickly to acknowledge his Majesties Declaration which is the proof of his grace to be an argument of their guilt who like cunning fencers that aim at the legs when they intend to veny the pate under a reformative pretence of destroying those revenous beasts which worry the people begg'd leave of their master to hunt the kingdome which being granted they took liberâ—y of themselves to make him their chief game for it is well known from Dan to Beersheba that the credit of their false doctrine was the very leaven wherewith the people were first moulded into a sowre lump of armed malice against their Sovereigne And I may truly say it was the unlucky Boutefen which not only yielded smoak to smother all Treaties into a nullity of successe but that gave light also to clear the way for more active instruments then themselves to take off the Head of our eternally renowned Saint Charles together with the Government from his soulders for although they entred not the Stage with those miscreants that personated Pilate in the fifth Act yet because they appeared with others who playd the parts of Annas and Caiphas in the first Scene of the Tragedy we may justly christen them the Grandfathers in law of that bloudy fact which being unmatchable in humane stories may be in some sort compared to the crafty complement of the cruel wolfe in the fable who told the sheep Da mihi potum ego mihi dabo cibum meaning to eat him up for his courtesie A fact which as former ages have not been so learnedly wicked to invent so I hope the future will be more honestly wise than to imitate A fact which may schoole our Kings of England into a use of the Italians prayer to be delivered from their friends whom they trust as well as from their enemies whom they fear and inform the people with the Spaniards soul rather to sheath their swords in one anothers bowels upon private quarrels than to draw them against their Sovereign in open war But if the Recognition of such an execrable murder be not caution enough for subjects to restrain them from Rebellion let the memorable example of the Amalekites punishment be their exhortation to obedience 2 Sam. 1. 13 14. who though a stranger to Sauls kingdome and by them requested to conclude his pain with the inference of death was by Davids command for touching the Lords anointed instantly condemned to loose his life If Kings lives then are so precious in Gods account that they may not be touched in the heat of proclaimd hostility what a cursed sin must that be which justifieth those who take them away in cold bloud By these animadversions I hope the whole host of spirituall officers who have fought against the Regiment of the Church will be victoriously fens'd into a unanimous Iudgement that it is far better for them to have the Apostles doctrine in their hearts then the Scots discipline in their hands to be content with that estate wherein they have been then to covet that wherein they ought not to be to submit to the King in causes Ecclesiastical rather then by calling his power in question to abuse their own authority in the Gospel to give Caesar his will be no substraction from their due had not our Saviour paid for himself and Peter it might be doubted whether the Clerks of this age like the old Egyptian Priests would not plead their estates untributary as well as their offices unsubjâ—ct to the King With what tenure of spiritual power they are invested Jure divino none but those Laicks whom the Popes Mandate hath screen'd from the Sun-shine of Gods word can be ignorant The officious Acts of Jehoiada to Jehoash and Nathan to David are not only presidents to warrant the right but boundaries to limit the extent of their claim they must instruct Kings as the one and may reprove them as the other did which was not executed by an excommunicative scourge to make David do pennance for his offence but with the monition of a meek spirit to give him a penitent sense thereof for as the act of reproof argued the King to be Gods subject so the mode of reproving maintain'd him to be the Prophâ—ts Sovereign And thus I believe Azariah withstood Vzziah by no other force save that of the tongue whose aim was to strike at the fact not the person of the King to induce him into a consciousnesse of his fault not to require his submission to punishment which because immediately inflicted of God supposeth him priviledg'd not to receive it from man so that rebus sic stantibus our ministerial Guides have little reason and lesse grace to pride themselves in their Ghostly authority of rebâ—â—ing Kings such verbal Reprehensions being no more then religious servants not adventuring beyond the sphear of their calling may lawfully practise towards their ungodly masters for as it is the Resolve of Divines that in case of neccessity Quilâ—bet Christianus est sacerdos so it is not only the liberty but the duty of every one in Gods case boldly to reprove an offending brother as I think my self bound to tell the associated brethren that they have highly wronged the Majesty of God the King both by their orall and manual prolusions to introduce a new fangled government in the Church that it will be more safe for them to observe the duty of looking into their own then the false commission of overseeing their superiours actions the performance whereof might happily make that saying ex culpa sacerdotum ruina populi to be as well known to themselves as felt by others and convert the hypocrisie which some do into the sincerity of obedience which all should professe for though none of them be puritanized into Donatisme but can protest it their necessary obligation to reverence the Kings person yet most are so far sublimated from the drosse of superstition that they cannot without defiling their consciences vaile to the train of his ceremonious Titles they can easily concoct supream Governours dryly swallowed but with the sawce of Ecclesiastical causes it quite nauseates their stomacks and the name of head is more offensive to their palates then perfumes are to the nostrils of those that are grieved with an Histerical passion a monstrous straw for such mighty men to stumble at which may be put in the same ballance with that of their schismatical Predecessours
in the conference at Hampton Court who were scandalized with the word absolution in the Liturgy but well content with the Term Remission of sins What difference there is betwixt supream Governour and Head in a notional acception is more fit for Grammatical Criticks then politick Christians to inquire as they are complicated in one subject and determined to a constant onenesse both of action and end they must by the rules of honesty as well as Art be construed Synonymous and in a promiscuous manner adjudged to contract their literal variety into an identity of sense Indeed we cannot deny but the Title of supream Head was first given to King Henry the Eight by the Pope who being by his own institution in the world as the soul is in the body by Gods Creation Totus in toto and not onely singulis but universis major cannot be supposed to part with a piece of himself but for his own ends yet we conceive it no trespasse against any Canon either of Scripture or reason to convert that to a good use which was first bestowed to an ill purpose but for Presbyters to take that away for the better esteem of their own authority which was given by the Pope to disgrace the Kings jurisdiction in the Church is no lesse unreasonable to devise then irreligious to practise That great Bulwark of objection Christ is the sole Head of the Church ergo no other can have the Title which hath been presumed too strong for an army of Schoolmen to beat down must necessarily yield upon terms to our side For although as the Church is internally considered in respect of the kingdome of Grace and our Saviour Christ as Lord thereof by right of Redemption ruling the hearts of the faithful by his spirit there is no subjection allowable nor headship to be attributed but to him only yet as he is King by right of Creation loving an Imperial Sovereignty over all his creatures and the Church in a militant condition which by reason of an inseperable commixture of good and bad and common relation of the inward and outward man doth necessarily require an external policy to maintain a uniformity and order in the worship of God so he hath ordained his Vicegerent on earth to whom both Clergy and Laity must be subject And in this qualification of sense Kings may be truly stiled supream Heads in causes Ecclesiastical within their Dominions Thus Samuel called Saul the Head of the Tribes of Israel 1 Sam. 15. 17. which in eodem signo rationis doth imply all persons as well Ecclesiastical as civil in that Commonwealth to be his subordinate members And that the Priests were subject in their very Offices to the supreame power of their magistrates 2 Chron. 8. Solomons Acts in ordering their courses and appointing the Levites to their charges who in manifestation of their duty are said not to depart from the commandement of the King do sufficiently evidence whose authority likewise to punish sins of the first table that refer to Religion as well as those of the second which belong to humane society Gods own prescript Laws to Moses Deut. 13. Deut. 17. Levit. 17. are the authentique seals to confirm whereunto we may annex that fact of our Saviour Christ himself chastising the Jewish Pedlers by vertue of his divine Royalty for profanation of the Temple as an exemplary proof beyond all exception Having pickt out the pith of their Divinity in the former objection there resteth one hard Argument more a break wherein lies the marrow of their Logick if the power say they in Ecclesiastical matters be proper to the supream magistrate as a Magistrate then it should belong to all magistrates and consequently to the heathen the definition of a magistrate being one in Christian and Heathen Princes but this would be both sinful and ridiculous to assert ergo that cannot lawfully be maintained Truly this is a witty sophisme which deserves the Reply of an ingenious Respondent in the Philosophers School salse profecto sed falso quidem I presume the same learning which qualified them to oppose others may enable them to answer themselves in this point for if their consequence be good Baals Priests had as much right to the service of the Temple as the Levitical Clergy-men neither can our Protestant ministers have a better Title to the dispensation of Christs ordinances then the officers of the Romish Church do now claim Therefore if they will honestly defend their own as we do the Kings authority in the Church they must acknowledge their argument to be contrary to the principles of art as their opinion is to the precepts of Religion for when a Restrictive Term is adjoyned to an equivocal subject as magistrate is To argue from an indefinite to a universall is an illegal consequence the reason is because what is attributed by such a note of limitation is not an absolute but a comparate propriety which doth convenire subjecto mediante alio as the power of the King in câ—uses Ecclâ—siastical is not proper to him simply secundum naturam but Relatively as he is a true Christian Magistrate according to which univocation if their Argument had been formed the consequence would be logically true But as we do appropriate this power onely to Kings truly Christian So I must acquaint them that the Heathen subjects had such a Reverend respect to the authority of the supream magistrate in matters of their idolatrous Religion that Aristotle Polit. l. 3. could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The King is Lord and Ruler of things that pertain to the Gods To conclude I wish those men who like the first matter have an indifferency to all forms and are so unfixedly disposed â—n Religion â—hat they can be content with the Sichemites to â—e circumcised for their advantage would not for wraâ—h but for conscience sake give a seasonable Testimony of their obedience by a willing conformity to the Kings power in Ecclesiastical causes that the Church may be no longer grieved with the rapine of forreign wolves or 〈◊〉 of 〈…〉 but that sound doctrine may flourish within her gates and true discipline be established in her borders to which end the Lord send us a speedy Restauration of our ancient Government by the hands of Zerubbabel and Joshua the King and the Bishop that as we are baptized in one faith so we may be subject to one Rule as we are of one body we may be all of one mind to worship God both in the purity and beauty of holinesse and to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Amen FINIS