Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bishop_n	church_n	council_n	3,236	5	6.7056	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87463	A declaration made by King James, in Scotland; concerning, church-government, and presbyters.; Declaratioun of the Kings Majesties intentioun and meaning toward the lait actis of Parliament. English and Scots.	Adamson, Patrick, 1537-1592.; James I, King of England, 1566-1625.	1646 (1646)	Wing J132; Thomason E506_27; ESTC R202599	10,166	12

A DECLARATION MADE BY King James IN SCOTLAND CONCERNING Church-Government and PRESBYTERS C R HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE DIEV ET MON DROIT Now Printed in English and Scotch for Matthew Walbancke at Grays-Inne Gate 1646. A Declaration of King James made in Scotland Anno Dom. 1585. Concerning Church-Government FOr so much as here are some evill affected men that go about so farre as lyeth in them to invent lyes and calumnies to stain and impair the Kings Majesties fame and honour and raise brutes as if his Majestie had declined to Papistry and had made many Acts to derogate the free passage of the Gospell good order and discipline in the Church which brutes are nourisht and entertained by rebellious subjects who would gladly cover their seditious enterprises under pretext of religion albeit there can be no religion in such as raise armour and disquiet the estate of their native Soveraign and perjuriously have contraried the Oath bond and obligation of their faith whereunto they have sworn and subscribed Therefore that His Majesties faithfull Subjects be not abused with such slanderous reports and His highnesse good and affectionate friends in other Countries may understand the verity of his upright intentions His Majesty hath commanded this brief declaration of certain of His Majesties Acts of Parliament held in May 1584. to be publisht and imprinted to the effect that the indirect practices of such as slander His Majesty and his lawes may be detected and discovered IN the first Act His Majestie ratifieth and approveth the true profession of the Gospell sincere preaching of the word and administration of the Sacraments presently by the goodnesse of God established in this Realm and alloweth of the confession of the faith set down by Act of Parliament the first year of His Majesties reign Like as His Highnesse not onely professeth the same in all sincerity but praised be God is come to that maturity of judgement by reading and hearing the Word of God that His highnesse is able to convince and overthrow by the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles the most learned of the contrary sect of the Adversaries So as Plato affirms that Commonwealth to be most happy wherein a Philosopher reigneth or he that reigneth is a Philosopher we may much more esteem this Country of Scotland to be fortunate wherein our King is a Theologue and his heart replenisht with the knowledge of the heavenly philosophy for the comfort not only of his good subjects and friends in other countries but of them that professe the Gospell every where he being a King of great expectation to whom his birth-right hath not only destinate and provided great Kingdomes but much more His Majesties vertue godlinesse and learning and daily encrease of all heavenly sciences do promise and assure him of the mighty protection of God and favour of all them that fear his holy name IN the second Act his Maj. royall authority over all estates both spirituall and temporall is confirmed which act some of malice and others of ignorance do traduce as if his Maj. pretended to be head of the Church a name which His Maj. acknowledgeth to be proper and peculiar to the Son of God the Saviour of the world who is the head and bestoweth life spirituall upon the members of his mysticall body and he having received the holy spirit in all abundance maketh every one of the faithfull partakers according to the measure of faith bestowed upon them of the which number of the head Christ His Maj. acknowledgeth himself to be a member baptized in his name partaker of the mystery of the crosse and holy communion and attending with the faithfull for the comming of the Lord and the finall restitution of Gods elect And notwithstanding his Maj. surely understands by the scriptures that he is the principall member appointed by the law of God to see God glorified vice punisht and vertue maintain'd within his realm and the soveraign judgment for a godly quietnesse and order in the common-wealth to appertain to His highnesse care and solicitude which power of his highnesse certain ministers being called before His Maj. for seditious and factious sermons and stirring up the people to rebell against their native King would in no wise acknowledg but disclaimed His authority as an incompetent Judge and especially one Mr. Andrew Melvile an ambitious person of a salt and fiery humour usurping the Pulpit of Sandrois with out any lawfull calling and privy at that time to certain conspiracies against His Maj. went about in his sermon upon a Sunday to inflame the hearts of the people by odious comparisons of His Maj. progenitors and councell Albeit the duty of a faithfull preacher of the Gospel be rather to exhort the people to the obedience of their native King nor by popular sermons which hath been the decay of great commonwealths and hath greatly in times past disquieted this Estate The said Mr. Andrew called before His highnesse answered he would not be judg'd by the King and his Councell because he spake the same in a Pulpit which Pulpit in effect he alledged to be exempt from the judgment and correction of Princes as if that holy place sanctified to the word of God might be a colour to any sedition against lawfull authority without punishment His Maj. being a most gracious Prince was unwilling to use rigour against the said Mr. Andrew if he had humbly submitted himself acknowledg'd his offence and craved pardon but he afraid of his own guiltinesse being private to divers conspiracies before fled into England whose naughty and presumptuous refusing of his Highnesse judgment was the occasion of the making of the 2d Act That none should decline his Highnesse Authority in respect that the common proverb is that Ex malis moribus bonae leges natae sunt that is Of evill manners good Laws proceed And indeed intollerable arrogancy in any Subject called before his Prince professing and authorizing the same truth to disclaim his authority neither do the Prophets Apostles or others conducted by the Spirit of God minister the like example For it is a great errour to affirme as many do that Princes and Magistrates have only power to take order in civill affaires and that Ecclesiasticall matters do onely belong to the Ministry by which means the Pope of Rome hath exempt Himself and His Clergie from all judgment of Princes and hath made himself to be Judge of Judges and to be judged of no man whereas by the contrary not onely by the examples of the Godly Governours Judges and Kings of the antient Testament but also by the new Testament and the who●e History of the Primitive Church in the which the Emperours judged over the Bishops of Rome deposed them from their Seates appointed Judges to acknowledg and decide in Causes Ecclesiasticall vindicate innocent men as Athanasius from the determination of the Councell holden at Tyrus and by infinite good reasons which shall be set down

Minister that shall offend and transgresse against duty or quarrell with the whole number of the ministry but it behoveth His Majesty to have Bishops and over-seers under him that may be answerable for such bounds as the law and order of the country hath limited and appointed unto every one of them And that they having accesse unto His Majesties Parliament and Councell may intercede for the rest of the brethren of the ministery propound their griefs unto His highnesse and the Estates and receive His Majesties favourable answer therein The which form doth preserve a godly harmony unity peace and concord in the estate and a solid order in the Church As contrariwise the pretended equality divides the same and under pretext of equality makes some of the most crafty and sutable dealers to be advanced and enricht and in pretending of purity to seek nothing but their own ambition and advancement above the rest of the simple sort And notwithstanding that His Majesty hath re-establisht the said estate it is not His highnesse will and intention that the fore-said Bishop shall have such full power as to do within his Diocesse what he pleaseth For as His Majesty cannot allow of a popular confusion wherein as the proverb witnesseth Nulla tyrannis aquiparanda est tyrannidi multitudinis that is No tyranny can be compared to the tyranny of a multitude having power in their hands So on the other part His Majesties will is that the Bishops authority in any grave matter be limited and circumscribed to 13. of the most ancient wise and godly pastours of his Diocesse selected forth of the whole Synodal assembly of the Province by whose advice or at the least the most part thereof the grave and weighty affayrs of the Church may be conducted and governed to the glory of God and quietnes of the realm Further it is His highnesse will and expresse commandement that their Bishops and Commissioners twice in the year to wit ten days after the Pasche time and the sixt day of September hold their Synodall assemblies of every Dioces for the keeping good order therein And if any be refractory or a contemner within their bounds of the good order of the Church they may be declared unto His Majesty and punisht in example of others according to their deservings Neither is it His Majesties meaning or intention that such Bishops or Commissioners as shall be appointed shall receive their onely and full Commission of His Majesty without admission ordinary by such as are appointed to that effect in the Church but having His highnesse nomination presentation and commendation as lawfull and only patron they to be tried and examined that their qualities are such as they are able and sufficient to discharge their cure and office and if it shall happen any of the said Bishops or Commissioners to be negligent in their Office or to be scandalous or offensive in their behaviour life and manners in any time comming it is not His highnesse will that they shall be exempt from correction notwithstanding of any priviledge of His highnesse Estate counsell or Parliament but their labours travails diligence and behaviour to be tried in the generall assembly not consisting of a confused multitude as it was before but of such worshipfull persons as is heretofore prescribed in His highnesse own presence or His Majesties deputies to that effect Last His Majesty giveth Commission to the said Bishops or Commissioners at their visitations to consider in what part of the country the exercise or interpretation of the Scriptures by conference of a certain number of the ministery within that bounds may be most commodiously in the fifteen days For as His Majesty inhibits all unlawfull conventions which may engender troubles and contentions in the Country so His Majesty is well affected to see the ministery encrease in knowledge and understanding and by all means to fortifie and advance the same wherein His Majesties commandement is that a grave wise and sage man shall be appointed President who may have the oversight of that bounds and be answerable therefore to the Bishop his Councell and Synod and he to be respected reasonably for his paines at the modification of stypends that all things may be orderly done in the Church peace and quietnesse maintained in the realm and we delivered from the appearing plagues and the blessing of God continued to the comfort of our posterity And in the mean time His highnesse inhibits and expresly commands under the paines contained in His Majesties Acts of Parliament and all other pains arbitrall at His Majesties sight and counsell That no Minister take in hand to convene themselves for the foresaid cause without the appointment and order taken by the said Bishops or Commissioners whereby His Highnesse may be certainly enformed that the foresaid Ministers convene not to meddle with any civill matters or affairs of Estate as was occasioned before but onely to profit in the knowledge of the Word and to be comforted one by another in the administration of their spirituall Office which His highnesse wisheth them faithfully to discharge and then to call to God that His Majesty may in a prosperous reign enjoy good and long life and continue and increase into the fear of the Almighty The Kings Majesties intentions HIs Majesties intention is by the grace of God to maintain the true and sincere profession of the Gospell and preaching thereof within this Realm 2 His Majesties intention is to correct and punish such as seditiously abuse the chair of truth and factionsly apply or other wise bewray the text of the Scripture to the disquieting of the Estate and disturbing of the Commonwealth or empairing His highnesse or Councels honour 3 His Majesties intention is if any question of faith or doctrine arise to convocate the most learned godly wise and experimented Pastors that by conference of Scriptures the verity may be tried and heresie and schism by that means repressed 4 His Majesties intention is that for keeping good order in every Parish certain to be censors of manners of the rest be appointed at the visitation of the Bishop or Visitor who shall have His Majesties authority and Officers of Armes concurring for the punishment of vice 5 His Majesties intention is to maintain the exercise of prophesie for the encrease and continuing of knowledge in the Ministery in the which a wise and grave man selected by the Bishop or Commissioner at the Synodall assembly shall preside and render an account of the administration of that bounds where the exercise is holden For which cause some respect of living shal be had to him who sustaineth the burden 6 His Majesties intention is not to derogate unto the ordinary judgment of matters of the Church by the ordinary Bishops their Councels and Synodes but if any of them do amisse and abuse their callings to take order for the correcting amending and punishing thereof 7 His Maj. intention is not to hinder or stay any godly or solid order grounded upon the word of God and order of the primitive Church but that the Ministers of the word meddle only with their own calling judg not temerariously of the state 8 It is His Maj. intention that the Presbyteries consisting of many Ministers and Gentlemen at Landwart or otherwise be no further tolerated within this Realm but the exercise and jurisdictions of the Churches to be in the hands of the Bishop or Commissioner and their Councels or Synods 9. His Maj. intention is that the Bishops or Commissioners convene not any generall assembly out of the whole realm without His Maj. knowledge and license obtained thereunto which upon supplication His highnesse will not deny that an uniform order may be conserved in the whole realm the Bishops their diligences there tryed and examined and the complaints of every particular heard and discussed 10 It is His Majesties intention to assist this assembly himself or by a Nobleman of his Councell his Deputy 11 It is his Maj. intention that when any parish findeth necessity of a Fast they intimate the occasion to the Bishop or Commissioner their Councell that they may understand that the cause is lawfull Likewise the Bishop of the Diocesse finding lawfull occasion may with his Councell prescribe a publike humiliation there 12 It is his Majesties intention that a generall Fast throughout the whole realm shall not be proclaimed but by His Majesties commandement or by that generall Councell wherein His Majesty or His highnesse Deputy be present 13 It is His highnesse intention that the Bishops in the Realm in every Diocesse with their Councell preside into the Ecclesiasticall government but as is said with a Councell that both tyranny and confusion may be avoided in the Church 14 It is His highnesse intention that Commissioners be directed universally throughout the whole realm to establish a godly order and that his Majesties Commissioners take order presently for the translation of such Ministers whose travels they esteem may more conveniently and profitably serve in another place FINIS

appoint no Bishop in times to come because they had concluded that estate to be unlawfull And notwithstanding that which they would have dejected in the Bishops they concluded to erect in themselves desiring that such Commissioners as they should send to Parliament and Councell might be authorized in place of the estate whereby it should have come to passe that whereas now His Majesty may select the most godly learned wise and experimented of the Ministery to be on His Majesties Estate His highnesse should have been by that means compelled to accept such as the multitude by an odd vote of the most unlearned should have appointed which could not tend but to the overthrow of the realm whereof that Estate hath been a speciall stay After they had discharged Bishops they agreed to have Superintendents Commissioners and Visitors but in the end they decreed that there should be no difference amongst the Ministers and imagined that new form of Presbytery whereof we have spoken before Neither was there any other apparance that they should have stayed from such daily alterations in the Common-wealth which could not but continually be disquieted where the law of conscience which they maintained by the sword of cursing was subject to such mutations at the arbitrement of a number whereof the most part had not greatly tasted of learning After the foresaid assembly was accustomed not only to prescribe the law to the King and State but also did at certain times appoint generall Fastings thoroughout the realm especially when some factioners in the country were to move any great enterprise For at the Fast all the Ministers were commanded by the said assembly to sing one song and to cry out of the abuses as they termed it of the Court and State for the time whereby it is most certain great alterations have ensued in this land untill at the good pleasure of God and his blessing towards His Maj. the pretext of the last Fast was discovered and His highnesse delivered from such attempts whereby His Maj. hath been justly moved to discharge such conventions which might import so prejudicially to His Estate but especially His Maj. had no small occasion Whereas the same assembly being convened at Edinburgh the day of did authorize and avow the fact perpetrate at Ruthuen in the taking of His highnesse most noble person The which deed although His Maj. with the advice of His States in Parliament hath counted to be treasonable the said assembly esteeming their judgement to be the soveraign judgment of the realm hath not onely approved the same but ordained all them to be excommunicate who would not subscribe and allow the same So the Acts of this Assembly and the Acts of Estate directly in civill matters with which the Assembly should not have medled it behoved His highnesse either to discharge himself of the crown or the Ministery of that form of assembly which in very deed in it self without the Kings Majesties license and approbation could not be lawfull Like as generall Councels at no time could assemble but by the command of the Emperor for the time And our King hath no lesse power in his own realm then any of them had in the Empire yea the Bishop of St. Andrews had not in time of Popery power to convene the Bishops and Clergy out of his own Diocesse without license impetrate before of His hignesse most noble progenitors of good memory and the causes thereof intimated and allowed Notwithstanding that His Maj. intention and meaning may be fully understood it is His highnesse wil that the Bishop or Commissioner of any Diocesse or Province or part thereof shall at their Visitation appoint in every parish according to the greatnes thereof some honest vertuous and discreet men to concur and assist the Minister and to have the oversight and censure of the manners and behaviour of the people of that Parish And that there be any notable offence worthy of punishment that the Bish and Com. be advertised thereof who shall have an Officer of arms to concur with his decree for the punishment of vice and execution to follow thereupon that they who contemn the godly and lawfull Order of the Church may finde by experience His Majesties displeasure and be punisht according to their deservings And further his Maj. upon necessary occasions which may happen by divers manners of wayes amongst the Clergy upon humble supplications made to his Highnesse will not refuse to grant them licence to convene to wit the Bishops Commissioners and some of the most vertuous learned godly of their Diocesse where such Ecclesiasticall matters as appertain to the Uniformity of Doctrine and conservation of any godly order in the Church may be intreated and concluded in his Maj. own presence or some of his Maj. honourable Councell who shall assist for the time where if necessity so require a publique Fast throughout the whole Realm may be decreed and by his Maj. Authority proclaimed to avoid the eminent displeasure and danger of the wrath of the Lords judgments which is the right end of the publike Humiliation and not under pretext thereof to cover such enterprizes as have heretofore greatly disquieted and troubled the Peace of this Common-wealth THe XX. Act ratisieth and approveth and re-establisheth the estate of the Bishops within the Realm to have the over-sight and jurisdiction every one in their own Diocese which form of government and rule in Ecclesiasticall affairs hath not only continued in the Church from the days of the Apostles by continuall succession of time and many Martyrs in that calling shed their blood for the Truth but also since this Realm embraced and received the Christian Religion the same estate hath been maintained to the welfare of the Church and quietnesse of the Realm without any interruption while within these few yeers some curious and busie men have practised to bring in the Ministry an equality and purity in all things aswell concerning the preaching of the Word and ministration of the Sacraments as likewise in discipline order and policy The which confusion his Maj. finding by most dangerous experience to have been the Mother and Nurse of great factions seditions and troubles within this Realm hath with the advice of his Highnesse Estates maturely and advisedly concluded the said pretended party in discipline order and policy in the Church to be no longer tolerate in this Country but the solicitude and care of my Churches of one Diocese to appertaine to the Bishop and Commissioner thereof who shall be answerable to His Majesty and Estates for the right administration and discharge of the office of particular Ministers within the bounds of their jurisdiction For as it becommeth his Majesty as Eusebius writeth of CONSTANTINE the Great to be a Bishop of Bishops and universall Bishop within his realm in so far as His Majesty should appoint every one to discharge his duty so His highnesse cannot his country being large and great take him to every