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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	authority_n	jurisdiction_n	power_n	1,683	5	4.9363	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77236	Several treatises of vvorship & ceremonies, by the Reverend Mr. William Bradshaw, one of the first Fellows of Sydney Colledge in Cambridge; afterward minister of Chattam in Kent, 1601. Known by his learned treatise De justificatione. 1. A consideration of certain positions archiepiscopal. 2. A treatise of divine worship, tending to prove the ceremonies, imposed on the ministers of the Gospel in England, in present controversie, are in their use unlawful. Printed 1604. 3. A treatise of the nature and use of things indifferent. 1605. 4. English Puritanism, containing the main opinions of the ridgedest sort of those called Puritans in the realm of England. 1604. 5. Twelve general arguments, proving the ceremonies unlawful. 1605. 6. A proposition concerning kneeling in the very act of receiving, 1605. 7. A protestation of the Kings supremacy, made in the name of the afflicted ministers, and oposed to the shameful calumniations of the prelates. 1605. 8. A short treatise of the cross in baptism.	Bradshaw, William, 1571-1618.	1660 (1660)	Wing B4161; Thomason E1044_5; ESTC R20875	92,680	129

from the Civil Communion of men so ought the Congregation of which he is a Member cut him off from all spiritual Communion with them If any one of the Ecclesiastical Officers themselves shall sin he is subject to the censures of the rest as any other member of the congregation If they shall all sin scandalously either in the execution of their Office or in any other ordinarie manner Then the Congregation that chose them freely hath as free power to depose them and to place others in their room If the Congregation shall erre either in choosing or deposing of her spiritual Officers Then hath the Civil Magistrate alone power and authority to punish them for their fault co compel them to make better choise or to defend against them those Officers that without just causes they shall depose or deprive 27. We hold that those Ecclesiastical Persons that make claim to greater power and authority then this Especially they that make claim Iure Divino of power and Iurisdiction to meddle with other Churches then that one Congregation of which they are or ought to be members Do usurp upon the Supremacy of the Civil Magistrate who alone hath and ought to have as we hold and maintain a power over the several Congregations in his Dominions and who alone ought by his authority not only to prescribe common Laws and Canons of uniformity and consent in Religion and worship of God unto them all But also to punish the offences of the several Congregations that they shall commit against the laws of God the policy of the Realm and the Ecclesiastical Constitutions enacted by his authority 28. We hold that the King ought not to give this authority away or to commit it to any Ecclesiastical Person or Persons whatsoever But ought himself to be as it were Archbishop and general overseer of all the Churches within his Dominions and ought to imploy under him his honourable Counsel his Iudges Leiftenants Iustices Constables and such like to oversee the Churches in the several divisions of their civil Regiments visiting them and punishing by their civil power whatsoever they shall see amiss in any of them Especially in the Rulers and Governers 29. For as much as no people are more hated persecuted and wronged of the wicked world then the true Churches of Christ We hold that no people in the Earth stand in more need of the civil Magistrate then they And that it is the greatest outward blessing they can injoy in this life to live under the Protection of their Swords Scepters the greatest cause of mourning when the same shall be bent against them And we hold those Churches to be no true Churches of Jesus Christ that living in any Country shall refuse subjection to the civil Regents and Governers of the same be they in respect of Religion never such Paganish Infidells 30. We hold it utterly unlawfull for any Christian Churches whatsoever by any armed force or power against the will of the civil magistracy and State under which they live To erect and set up in publique the true worship and service of God or to beat down or suppress any superstition or Idolatry that shall be countenanced and maintained by the same Only Every man is to look to himself that he communicate not with the evils of the times induring what it shall please the State to inflict and seeking by all honest and peaceable means all reformation of publick abuses onely at the hands of civil publicke persons and all practises contrarie to these we condemn as seditious and sinfull 31. All that we crave of his Majestie and the State is that by his and their permission and under their protection and approbation it may be lawfull for us to serve and worship God in all things according to his revealed will and the manner of all other reformed Protestant Churches that have made separation from Rome that we may not be forced against our consciences to stain and pollute the simple and syncere worship of God prescribed in his word with any humane Traditions and Rites whatsoever but that in Divine worship we may be actors only of those things that may for matter or manner either ingeneral or special be concluded out of the word of God Also to this end that it may be lawfull for us to exhibite unto them and unto their Censure a true and syncere Confession of our faith containing the main Grounds of our Religion unto which all other doctrines are to be consonant as also a Form of Divine worship and Ecclesiastical Government in like manner warranted by the word and to be observed of us all under any civil punishment that it shall please the said Majestie and state to inflict under whose authority alone we desire to exercise the same and unto whose punishment alone we desire to be subject if we shall offend against any of those Lawes and Canons that themselves shall approve in manner aforesaid and our desire is Not to worship God in dark corners but in such publick places and at such convenient times as it shall please them to assigne to the intent that they and their officers may the better take notice of our offences if any such shall be committed in our Congregations and assemblies that they may punish the same accordingly And we desire we may be subject to no other Spiritual Lords but unto Christ nor unto any other Temporal Lords but unto themselves whom alone in this Earth we desire to make our Judges and supreame Governers and Overseers in all causes Ecclesiastical whatsoever renouncing as Antichristian all such Ecclesiastical powers as arrogate and assume unto themselves under any pretence of the Law of God or man the said power which we acknowledge to be due only to the Civil Magistrate 32. So long as it shall please the King and civil State though to the great derogation of their own authority as we may have occasion hereafter to prove to maintain in this Kingdom the State of the Hierarchy or Prelacie We can in Honour to his Majestie and the State and in desire of peace be content without envy to suffer them to injoy their state and dignity and to live as brethren amongst those ministers that shall acknowlege spiritual homage unto their spiritual Lordships paying unto them all temporal duties of tenths and such like yea and joyning with them in the service and worship of God so far as we may do it without our own particular communicating with them in those humane Traditions and rites that in our consciences we judge to be unlawfull Only we crave in all dutifull manner that which the very Law of Nature yeeldeth unto us that for as much as they are most malicious enemies unto us and do apparently thirst either after our blood or shipwrack of our faith and consciences that they may not hence forth be our judges in these causes but that we may both of us stand as parties at the bar of

do any act of Religion or Divine service that cannot evidently be warranted by the same 2. They hold that all Ecclesiastical actions invented and devised by man are utterly to be excluded out of the exercises of Religion especially such actions as are famous and notorious Mysteries of an Idolatrous Religion and in doing whereof the true Religion is conformed whether in whole or in part to Idolatry and superstition 3. They hold that all outward means instituted and set apart to expresse and set forth the Inward worship of God are parts of Divine Worship and that not only all moral actions but all typical rites and figures ordained to shadow forth in the solemn worship and service of God any spiritual or religious act or habit in the mind of man are special parts of the same And therefore that every such act ought evidently to be prescribed by the Word of God or else ought not to be done it being a sin to performe any other worship to God whether External or Internal Moral or Ceremonial in whole or in part then that which God himself requires in his word 4. They hold it to be grosse superstition for any mortal man to institute and ordain as parts of Divine Worship any mystical Rite and Ceremonie of Religion whatsoever and to mingle the same with the Divine Rites and Mysteries of Gods Ordinance But they hold it to be high presumption to institute and bring into Divine worship such Rites and Ceremonies of Religion as are acknowledged to be no parts of Divine Worship at all but only of Civil Worship and Honour For they that shall require to have performed unto themselves a Ceremonial Obedience Service and worship consisting in rites of religion to be done at that very instant that God is solemnly served and worshiped and even in the same worship make both themselves and God also an Idol so that they judge it a far more fearfull sin to add unto and to use in the worship and service of God or any part thereof such mystical Rites and Ceremonies as they esteem to be no parts or parcells of Gods worship at all than such as in a vain and ignorant superstition they imagine and conceive to be parts thereof 5. They hold that every act or action appropriated and set apart to divine service and worship whether moral or ceremonial real or typical ought to bring special honour unto God and therefore that every such act ought to be apparently commanded in the Word of God either expresly or by necessary consequent 6. They hold that all actions whether Moral or Ceremonial appropriated to Religious or Spiritual Persons functions or actions either are or ought to be Religious and Spiritual And therefore either are or ought to be instituted immediately by God who alone is the Author and Institutor of all Religious and Spiritual actions and things whether Internal or External Moral or Ceremonial CHAP. II. Concerning the Church 1. THey hold and maintain that every Companie Congregation or Assembly of men ordinarily joyning together in the true worship of God is a true visible Church of Christ and that the same title is improperly attributed to any other Convocations Synods Societies combinations or Assemblies whatsoever 2. They hold that all such Churches or Congregations communicating after that manner together in divine worship are in all Ecclesiastical matters equal and of the same power and authority and that by the Word and will of God they ought to have the same spiritual Priviledges Prerogatives Officers Administrations Orders and Formes of Divine worship 3. They hold that Christ Jesus hath not subjected any Church or Congregation of his to any other superior Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction than unto that which is within it self So that if a whole Church or Congregation shall erre in any matters of faith or Religion no other Churches or spiritual Church-Officers have by any warrant from the Word of God power to censure punish or controle the same but are only to counsel and advise the same and so to leave their soules to the immediate judgment of Christ and their bodies to the sword and power of the Civil Magistrate who alone upon earth hath power to punish a whole Church or Congregation 4. They hold that every established Church or Congregation ought to have her own spiritual officers ministers resident with her those such as are injoyned by Christ in the New Testament and no other 5. They hold that every established Church ought as a special prerogative by which she is indowed by Christ to have power and liberty to elect and chuse their own spiritual and Ecclesiastical Officers and that it is a greater wrong to have any such forced upon them against their wills than if they should force upon men wives and upon women husbands against their will and liking 6. They hold that if in this choice any particular Churches shall erre that none upon earth but the Civil Magistrate hath power to controle or correct them for it And that though it be not lawfull for him to take away this power from them yet when they or any of them shall apparently abuse the same he stands bound by the Law of God and by vertue of his Office grounded upon the same to punish them severely for it and to force them under civil mulcts to make better choice 7. They hold that the Ecclesiastical Officers and Ministers of one Church ought not to bear any Ecclesiastical Office in another but ought to be tyed unto that Congregation of which they are members and by which they are elected into office And they are not without just cause and such as may be approved by the Congregation to forsake their Callings wherein if the Congregation shall be perverse and will not hearken to reason They are then to crave the assistance and help of the Civil Magistrate who alone hath power and who ought by his Civil Sword and Authority procure to all Members of the Church whether their Governors or others freedome from all manifest injuries and wrongs 8. They hold that the Congregation having once made choice of their spiritual Officers unto whom they commit the Regiment of their Soules they ought not without just cause and that which is apparently warrantable by the Word of God to discharge deprive or depose them but ought to live in all Canonical obedience and subjection unto them agreeable to the Word of God And if by permission of the Civil Magistrate they shall by other Ecclesiastical Officers be suspended or deprived for any cause in their apprehension good and justifiable by the Word of God then they hold it the bounden duty of the Congregation to be continual suppliants to God and humble suters unto Civil Authority for the restauration of them unto their Administrations which if it cannot be obtained yet this much honour they are to give unto them as to acknowledge them to the death their spiritual Guides and Governors though they be rigorously

7.16 and those Ceremonies accounted Rudiments of the World Gal. 4.3 So that after faith that is the Gospel came that Law and the Ceremonies thereof gave place as being less perfect a childish Paedagogy and beggarly Rudiments 1 Cor. 13.10 11. Gal. 3.25 and 4.2 3 9. In respect of the more perfect Word of Christ Col. 3.16 2 Cor. 3.13.17 18. Who is that Messias who when he came did tell us all things concerning the outward worship of God Joh. 4.19 20 25 26. But Christ never told us the Ceremonies in question Therefore if the Negative Doctrine against Jewish Ceremonies instituted by God to the purposes aforesaid be part of the Gospell or Word of Christ much more is the Negative Doctrine against Ceremonies instituted by man to the same purposes without warrant of the word part of the Gospel Col. 2.20 22 23. Galat. 1.6 7 8 10. And the rather because the Word saith That they who burthen the Church with Ordinances of the world which are Traditions after the Commandemens and Doctrines of men do not hold Christ the he●d Col. 2.19 20 22. and 3.1 and opposing such Traditions to the Commandements of God and Faith of Jesus maketh them part of the Beasts Mark Revel 14.9 12. Hereunto accordeth that which is affirmed in the BOOK of Common-Prayer in the Preface of Ceremonies viz. Christ his Gospell is not a Ceremonial Law as much of Moses was but it is a Religion to serve God not in bondage of the Figure or shadow but in the freedome of spirit 4. Ministers refusing Conformity are Schismaticks This word Schisme according to the now received use thereof in the Church signifieth A voluntary rending of the Church only for matters of the outward Government therof So that Schismaticks are by Dr. Bancroft in his Notes before his Sermon at Pauls Cross an 1588. defined as out of Augustine to be such as retaining with us the true Faith seperate themselves from Orders and Ceremonies In which sence though Brownists so called may be deemed Schismaticks yet cannot Ministers refusing only to conforme be so accompted Because their Deprivation or Suspension notwithstansting they do not seperate themselves from the Church neither do they indeed forsake the Ministry of the Gospel which they desire before all worldly benefits whatsoever to execute with a good Conscience but are thrust from it and therefore If men driven by Excommunication out of the Church be not Schismatiques much lesse Ministers driven by deprivation or suspension only from the Execution of their Ministry This word Schisme is sometimes taken for any dissention in the Church whereby the Peace but not the Unity thereof is broken 1 Cor. 11.18 In which sense they are to be called Schismaticks who are specially to be blamed for such Dissention But if all the Prelates cannot give one Argument soundly concluded from the word to prove That the Ceremonies in question may be prescribed by authority and yielded unto by the Ministry without sin then are they Schismaticks according to the judgment of the Apostle who beseecheth the Brethren To mark them diligently who cause Division and Offences besides the Doctrine which they have learned and to avoid them For they that are such serve not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own bellies and with fair speech and flattering deceive the hearts of the simple Rom. 16.17 18. By which Answer Protestants do sufficiently justifie their Separation from the Papists Much more may Ministers justifie their refusing to Conforme yet without Separation But when any such Argument shall be given which hath not yet been heard of then are Ministers refusing Conformity to be deemed Schismaticks In mean while this Position is to be taken for Petitio Principii FINIS A Treatise of Divine Worship Tending to prove that the Ceremonies imposed upon the Ministers of the Gospel in England in present Controversie are in their use unlawful CHAP. I. Of Divine Worship in general DIvine Worship is any action or service that is immediatly and directly performed unto God himself whether the true God or a false whether commanded by Divine Authority imposed by humane or assumed upon our own heads and pleasures For in this latitude of sense is Divine Worship to be conceived that it may comprehend under it both true and false Worship 2. Though all Actions and Services that Man performeth unto Man are not parts of Civil Worship yet every Action and Service that Man performeth directly to God is a part of Divine Worship and ought meerly to concern his own glory It being impossible to imagine how the Creature should perform any service or do any action to the Creator himself but Worship For the ground of Worship is the sence of some excellent eminency of goodness in the Party worshipped and defect and inability to do an answerable good to a good received in the party worshipping for we need not to worship God if we could be as good to him as he is to us and therefore except we should mock him because receiving all good from him we are not able to do the least good unto him all that we can do is to worship him that is to glorifie him above all things and debase our selves before him as nothing in his presence 3. All special things therefore done in the Service and Worship of God is Worship and a part of that honour that is done unto him And whatsoever special thing done in Divine Service is not a special honour and worship unto God must needs be a dishonour and abuse of his Majesty who requireth nothing but worship at our hands and unto whom we cannot possibly do any other good 4. If therefore a man shall do any special Action in the Service of God of which there is no use out of the same and that Action so done bring no special honour to God the doing of it is a prophanation of the Name of God For all special Actions done in the Service of God must either bring special honour to God or else they must needs dishonour him 5. Divine Worship is Internal only or External also Internal worship is meerly spiritual and performed only within the temple of mans heart of which none are witnesses but God and a mans own conscience All the inward motions of the heart directed unto God are parts of this VVorship as Faith Hope Confidence Love Fear and Joy in God c. which are all of them divers acts and parts of Inward worship in every one of which God is honoured All which spring from the apprehension of our own wants and Gods infinite excellency and goodness towards us We need not proceed any further in handling of this Worship it nothing appertaineth to our present purpose 6. External Worship is an expressing and setting forth of the Internal by outward signs and rites By which as by certain outward bodily shadows and colours the spiritual and Inward Worship of God is made visible and sensible to others CHAP. II. Of Ceremonies in

cause a Sacrament because it is a mystical Rite whereby the soul spiritually feedeth upon Christ i. e. is edified in Christ These being Mystical Rites also whereby the soul is edified which it cannot be but also by feeding upon Christ It must needs follow That these Ceremonies are Sacraments The Assumption is their own for when they are urged with this That all things must be done to edification They all hold with one consent That they do edifie The tenth Argument It is a sin against Christ the sole Head of the Church for any one of his Ministers especially in the administration of Divine things either by Word or Signs solemnly to profess and acknowledge a spiritual homage to an usurped spiritual authority in the Church But to use these controverted Ceremonies in manner and Form prescribed is even in the solemn Service of Christ by solemn Signs to acknowledge a spiritual homage to the spiritual authority of Lord Archbishops and Bishops which is usurped Ergo It is a sin to use these Ceremonies THE Proposition may not be gainsaid For all spiritual power usurped over the Churches of God is an Antichristian authority and to profess spiritual homage thereunto is to profess spritual homage unto Antichrist which must needs be a sin The Assumption hath two parts 1. That these Ceremonies are an acknowledging by solemn signs a spiritual Homage to the spiritual authority of Archbishops and Bishops Which is most evident for it having been proved before that they are meer Ecclesiastical Religious and spiritual Actions enjoyned by an Ecclesiastical and spiritual authority They must needs be Signs of spiritual homage to the same authority For either the doing of a Religious and spiritual Action in obedience to a spiritual authority is a Sign of spiritual homage or no Actions can be a Sign thereof As therefore a Serving man being a civil person upon the Bishops pleasure wearing a Tawny Coat and a Chain of Gold holding up his Train going bare-headed before him holding a Trencher at his Table lighting him to the house of Office dressing his meat rubbing his Horses c. doth by these Actions as it were by solemn Signs acknowledge Civil homage to him being a Civil Lord and Master So a Minister of the Gospel and a Pastor of a particular Congregation being by his Office a meer spiritual man being commanded by the Bishop as he is a spiritual Lord and Master over the Church of God to wear a Tipper a square Cap a Priests Gown and Cloak a Surplice to make Crosses upon childrens faces to put Rings on Brides fingers c. and all this in their Divine Service I say a Minister doth thereby give solemn Signs and Tokens of spiritual homage to their spiritual Lordships even as by preaching the Word and administration of Sacraments and Prayer he professeth by solemn Signs a spiritual homage to the spiritual authority of Christ If they shall peremptorily affirm That they are only Civil matters as some in high place have done to my self then this will follow of it Whereas the Bishops command now Ministers to wear a Surplice a Priests Cloak c. he may command them to wear Tawny Coats and livery Cloaks and in their courses to wait and at end upon him as serving Creatures For there is no more Civil Authority shewed in requiring the one than the other if the one as well as the other be Civil matters Neither will it help their cause that the Magistrate requireth these things to be done For the Magistrate commanding Ecclesiastical matters to be done his commandment doth no more make them Civil than his commanding the Sacraments and other parts of Divine Worship to be administred duly doth make them Civil matters For the ratification by Civil authority the Constitutions of Ecclesiastical authority doth no more make them Civil matters than the ratification and confirmation of Civil matters by Ecclesiastical authority doth make them Ecclesiastical or spiritual matters Though therefore there is none of us that stand our in these matters but have ever been content to yield unto their Lordships all C●vil honour such as is given to Barons Earls Dukes and Princes yet except they were Gods and Christs we have no reason to give spiritual homage unto them which is it that in very deed they require in these things And therefore hence it comes to pass That as they turn out of their Palaces those Servants that refuse their Liveries and to do their civil Services So as though they were Lords and Masters in the Church they turn the Ministers out of their Offices and shut them out of the Church if they refuse to wear their spiritual Liveries and to do them spiritual and religious Service But I come to the second part of the Assumption 2. That the authority of our Lord Archbishops and Bishops is an usurped authority This is sufficiently proved of late by Mai. Jacob in his I. Assertion by many reasons only because the weight of the Argument leaneth upon it I will use one Reason Those Officers and Rulers in the Church that make claim to be of Divine Institution challenge to themselves Apostolical authority and jurisdiction as the only Successors of the Apostles to sit only in Moses Chair To have sole power of the Keys To cut from the visible Church and receive again To have power of creating and displacing all other Ecclesiastical Officers To be the Universal Pastors of whole Dukedoms and Kingdoms under whom all other Pastors are as Curates c. And yet for all this are such as stand and are supported only by humane Traditions and Ceremonies such as a Civil Magistrate may without sin put out of the Church and such as the true Churches of God may renounce and yet continue the true Church as Antichristian Usurpers and spiritual Tyrants I say all such Officers and Rulers exercise a usurped authority in the Church But our Archbishops and Bishops are such Rulers and Officers as are aforesaid Ergo They execute a usurped power over the Church The Proposition may easily be justified For if inferiour Officers viz. Pastors of particular Congregations have had and may have firm continuance in the Church without these humane devises and inventions If the Magistrate cannot without sin put them out of the Church And if those can be no true Churches that renounce to have particular Pastors and Ministers over them it must much more hold in such Church-Officers and Rulers as these are if their authority be lawful and good For whilest the Apostles lived they needed not any humane Traditions and devices to support their authority the Magistrates that sought to put them down sinned with a high hand And that was no Church that renounced and disclaimed their Office Authority and Jurisdiction The Assumption is as easily justified For 1. They make claim and title to all those Prerogatives before rehearsed in the first part of the Proposition and unto more than that as shall be proved if it

the removal of them and therefore he cannot be scandalized at the refusal when it is of meer conscience though of conscience deceived 2. The States and Inferiour Magistrates of the Kingdom have in all Parliaments shewed themselves willing and ready to set their hands to the removal of them 3. If the King and State will be scandalized because upon their meer will and pleasure I will not do that which I am perswaded will be a means of the destruction of their souls for whom Christ died They will be much more scandalized at me if I do it For such an obedience as this must needs be a means of begetting or confirming strange sins in their souls for as it is a kind of deifying of themselves To require even in the case of scandal a thing indifferent to be done so they that shall in such a case obey cannot but nourish exceedingly that corruption from which such a commandment shall proceed 4. The soul of the meanest and poorest in a Kingdom cost as great a price and is as dear to Christ as the soul of the Noblest and in the matter of scandal as great heed is to be taken to them as to any other And it shews of what spirit these men are of that think they may betray the souls of Christs little ones rather than displease a mortal man Object What Must the Magistrates Laws be changed for every humour that will pretend scandal Answ Yea such Laws as command only things indifferent in cases of general scandal are to be changed of particular scandal are at the least to be dispensed withall For if Laws that command things necessary are sometimes to be dispenced with and if of them it is said Extream right is extream wrong Much more then such Laws as require only such things as are indifferent 1. Such things that but for the Commanders pleasure makes no matter whether they be done or no. Which are indeed unworthy to be commanded of Worthies 2. A pretended scandal in humour is easily discerned by those that are wise and not malicious for they that are ready to performe all obedience to the Magistrate in all other heavier and greater things are ready in his Service to spend their goods and lives that think nothing too dear for the redeeming of his safety that are in all other things as obedient and more obedient than any other of his subjects It is not to be supposed of any that are not possest with the malicious spirit of Antichrist that such should refuse to obey the Kings pleasure in a toye and a trifle such as are all things indifferent except that in obeying him they were perswaded that they should sin against their own conscience which next unto God they have cause to please far above all the Kings of the earth for it hath greater power to torment them than they have But I prove the Assumption All apparent means of confirming men in Schism Superstition and Idolatry by means whereof many have professedly lived and died therein without repentance are apparent means of the damnation and destruction of many souls amongst us But These Ceremonies are such Ergo The Proposition cannot be denied for what action of man can be said to be a means of the damnation and destruction of anothers soul if these actions be not that confirm men in such foul sins So that either a man can do nothing that shall destroy his brothers soul which is directly against the express words of S. Paul Or else such a conformity in such actions as confirm men in such damnable sins doth destroy his soul The Assumption is as evident as any such matter can be For 1. The Papists not only amongst us which are innumerable but others also do profess that by our use of these Ceremonies which are consecrated mysteries of their own Religion they are confirmed in the truth of their Religion and the falshood of ours And good reason they have so to judge For if the broth be good that the Devil is sod in sure the Devil himself must needs be good also 2. Those Christians of the Seperation that are called Brownists being many hundreds professing the same faith that we do are by the retaining of Reliques confirmed in their Schism and Seperation from us And live and die in this opinion That our Churches are no true Churches and that a man cannot without sin communicate with them And the main ground of this is for that we mingle with Divine worship these base and vile inventions of men Yea of the accursed Antichrist What Is a linnen rag and a Christs Cross c. to be reputed of so great value and price that the fellowship and spiritual communion of so many Christians as sound in religion as any Prelate in the Realm should be contemned and rejected for them 3. Common experience teacheth us that there are infinite numbers in this Realm ignorant and superstitious folk that place as much or more holiness in these things than in the holy Ordinances of God And how can it be otherwise when they shall see the Rulers of the Church mingle Heaven Earth and Hell together in this manner about them Cursing and anathematizing all that shall not embrace them How can they but imagine that the sight of a Surplice upon a Priests back shall bring them to heaven when they shall see those that keep Heaven Keys send a man for want of such a wedding garment ipso facto to hell 4. If it be but considered that all other Protestant Churches have rejected them as menstruous cloaths that more than the greatest number of Pastors in our own Land that desires the name of faithful and painful Teachers either count them impious or at least the burdens or reproaches of our Churches that the first appointers of them after our seperation from Rome intended only a toleration of them that the most scandalous and leud persons in our Congregations are the hottest for them that every Parliament since her Majesties raign hath been forward in the removing of them that the defence of them hath driven men to run into the broching of many grosse and Popish errours And that so many Ministers a catalogue of whose names and states I could wish were published to all posterity that it may see the wonderfull milde and moderate government of Prelates have endured and expected daily to endure the gratest extremities for the same I say if these things be duly considered a man shall easily see that these ceremonies are stumbling blocks layd by the Devill and his Agents in the wayes of all the people of this Realm to hinder the progress of the Gospel and to make all men stumble in the wayes of salvation AN ADDITION NOt onely our Conformers unto Rome but they also that abhor the same can hardly endure to hear that these Ceremonies are parts of divine worship for whose further satisfaction I add this one Argument Whatsoever being used in divine worship is directly

Whereas it shall appear that no Christians in the world give more unto the same then we and that in very truth the cause that we maintain is for the King and Civil State against an Ecclesiasticall State that secretly and in a Mystery as we may hereafter have occasion to prove opposeth it selfe against the same If this protestation shall in any measure satisfie you Then we desire your Honourable Mediations for us to the highest If not That then we may know wherein it is defective and we shall be found ready to give all satisfaction CHAP. I. A PROTESTATION of the Kings Supremacy WE hold and maintain the same Authority and Supremacy in all causes and over all persons Civil and Ecclesiasticall granted by Statute to Queen Elizabeth and expressed and declared in the book of Advertisements and Injunctions and in Mr. Bilson against the Jesuites to be due in full and ample mannner without any limitation or qualification to the King and his Heirs and Successours for ever Neither is their to our knowledge any one of us but is and ever hath been most willing to subscribe and swear unto the same according to form of Statute And we desire that those that shall refuse the same may bear their own iniquity 2. We are so far from judging the said Supremacy to be unlawful that we are perswaded that the King should sin highly against God if he should not assume the same unto himself and that the Churches within his Dominions should sin damnably if they should deny to yield the same unto him yea though the Statutes of the Kingdom should deny it unto him 3. We hold it plain Antichristianism for any Church or Church Officers whatsoever either to arrogate or assume unto themselves any part or parcel thereof utterly unlawful for the King to give away or alienate the same from his own Crown and dignity to any spiritual potentates or rulers whatsoever within or without his dominions 3. We hold that though the Kings of this Realm were no Members of the Church but very Infidels yea persecutors of the truth that yet those Churches that shall be gathered together within these Dominions ought to acknowledge and yeild the said supremacy unto them And that the same is not tyed to their faith and Christianity but to their very Crown from which no subject or subjects have power to separate or disjoyne it 5. We hold that neither King nor civil estate are bound in matter of Religion to be subject and obedient to any Ecclesiastical person or persons whatsoever no further then they shall be able to convince their consciences of the truth thereof out of the Word of God Yea we think they should sin against God if they should ground their Religion or any part or parcel thereof upon the bare Testimony or Judgment of any man or of all the men in the world 6. We hold that no Churches or Church-Officers have power for any crime whatsoever to deprive the King of the least of his Royal Prerogatives whatsoeer much less to deprive him of his Supremacy wherein the Height of his Royal Dignity consists 7. We hold that in all things concerning this life whatsoever the Civil Jurisdiction of Kings and Civill States excelleth and ought to have preheminence over the Ecclesiasticall and that the Ecclesiasticall neither hath nor ought to have any power in the least degree over the bodies lives goods or liberty of any person whatsoever much lesse of the Kings and Rulers of the Earth 8. We hold that Kings by virtue of their supremacy have power yea also that they stand bound by the Law of God to make Laws Ecclesiastical such as shall tend to the good ordering of the Churches in their Dominions And that the Churches ought not to be disobedient to any of their Lawes so far as in obedience unto them they do not that which is contrary to the Word of God 9. We hold that though the King shall command any thing contrary to the Word unto the Churches that yet they ought not to resist him therein but onely peaceably to forbear Obedience and sue unto him for grace and mercy and where that cannot be obtained meekely to submit themselves to the punishment 10. We hold that the King hath power by virtue of his supremacy to remove out of the Churches whatsoever he shall discern to be practised therein not agreeable to the Word of God And if he shall see any defect either in the Worship of God or in the Ecclesiastical Discipline he ought by his royal Authority and power to procure and force the redress thereof yea though it be without the consent and against the will of the Ecclesiastical Governers themselves 11. We hold that the King hath as much Authority over the Body Goods and Affaires of Ecclesiastical Persons as of any other of his Subjects whatsoever And that by his Authority he may force them not onely to all civil duties belonging unto them but also unto Ecclesiastical afflicting as great punishment upon them for the neglect thereof as upon any other of his Subjects 12. We hold that he hath power to remove out of the Churches all Scandalous Schismatical and Heretical Teachers and by all due severity of Lawes to repress them 13. We hold that all Ecclesiastical Lawes made by the King not repugnant to the Word of God do in some sort bind the consciences of his Subjects and that no subject ought to refuse obedience to any such Law 14. We hold that the King onely hath power within his Dominions to convene Synods or general Assemblies of Ministers and by his Authority Royal to ratifie and give life and strength to their Canons and Constitutions without whose ratification no man can force any subject to yeild any Obedience unto the same 15. We hold that though the King may force the Churches to be subject and obedient unto him and to be Members of the Common-wealth yet that the Churches severally or joyntly have no power to force him or any Subject against their will to any service unto them or to any religions duty whatsoever No nor to be so much as a Member of any Church 16. We hold that the King ought not to be subject to the Ecclesiastical Censures of any Churches Church Officers or Synods whatsoever but onely to that Church and those Officers of his own Court and Houshold unto whom in reverence of their Religion and of the spiritual Graces of God he sees shining in them he shall of his own free will subject and commit the Regiment of his Soul in whom there can be no suspition nor fear of any partiality or unjust or rigorous dealing against him 17. We hold that if any Ecclesiastical Governours call them by what name you will shall abuse their Ecclesiastical Authority in the execution of their censures upon any man whosoever That the King and Civil States under him have power to punish them severely for it much more if they