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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bishop_n	church_n	faith_n	1,387	5	4.9058	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43613	The ceremony-monger his character in five chapters ... with some remarks (in the introduction) upon the new-star-chamber, or late course of the Court of King's Bench, of the nature of a libel, and scandalum magnatum, and in conclusion, hinting at some mathematical untruths and escapes in the common-prayer book, both as to doctrine and discipline, and what bishops, were, are, and should be, and concerning ordination, humbly proposed to the consideration of the Parliament / by E. Hickeringill ...	Hickeringill, Edmund, 1631-1708.	1689 (1689)	Wing H1799; ESTC R20364	90,871	81

Synod ep l. 2. c. 8. for not being contented with small Bishopricks and no bigger than a Bishop might superintend in his own person If Rapin be no sin It was never ● good World since ●he Clergy and Layety drove on two several Interests and two Bodies distinct and made the Church one thing and the State another If the Clergy endeavour to keep the people in subjection and under their Girdle Canonical by Impositions Canons and Acts of Uniformity endeavouring to Lord it over God's Heritage the Layety no wonder that they strugle for life and liberty and that the Feuds and Animosities betwixt them are Immortal but they would die cease and decease If Clergy-men studied to restore sinners and erroneous persons in the spirit of meekness Ay but the obstinate will not so be restored then let him alone perhaps he knows more than thou dost that art his Teacher However to his own Master he standeth or falleth and thou by giving him Warning hast deliver'd thy Soul as to matters of Faith and Opinion but as to evil works that is the Magistrates Province and care to correct and punish But if we cannot fright our Parishoners they will not care a Pin for us No you should say they do not care for you nor love you because you are such Scare-crows and Bug bears that would be If they fear you only they 'l never love you Do but labour diligently in the Word and Doctrine and fear not but that all good men will give thee of all men living as the Apostle says double honour which is due to a Ruling Elder much more to the Ministers ●hat labour in the Word and Doctrine though with us quite contrary to Scripture The Ruling Elder or Bishop is the man of double Honou● amongst us and the Pastor or Teaching Elder must ●carce keep his Har●on in the presence of the great Ruling Bishop to who● the Apostle indeed commands us to give double honour but more especially to the Ministers or Pastors that Labour in the Word and Doctrine Those are the most honourable the most reverend Jure divino if you believe the holy Scriptures But Fops mind chiefly who speaks not wha● is spoken if it be the word of a Lord It is with them more valued and obey'd than the Word of the LORD These are unjust and corrupt Judges but I will not punish them if I had power as King Cambyses did one of his unjust Judges of the Kings-Bench viz. pull'd his Skin over his Ears stuf● it with Straw and there Hung my Gentleman over the Bench in terrorem that other Tresylians might learn to beware of undermining the chief Pillar of any Government the Fundamental Laws Since therefore to give a Ruling Elder or Bishop more honour than a Paster or a good Preacher is expresly against holy Writ as aforesaid look you to that but that great Scripture which they bring to prove that every City had a Bishop and but one Bishop and every Bishop had but one City you see by what has been said both these assertions are sufficiently prov'd to be false though we had no other instance than in Tit. 1.5 For this cause left I thee in Greet to ordain Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greet is an Island that 〈…〉 a hundred Cities and was therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Reign of Leosophus the Emperor and Anno 880. there were but Twelve Bishops but all that time why should we imagine that they were all Christians when the third great City of the Empire Antioch where Disciples were first called Christians and bigger than any City except Rome and Alexandria yet had no more Christians in is than one Church will hold Acts 13.44 Nay Jerusalem where our Lord was Crucified had so few Christians fourty years after at the destruction thereof that all the Christians being warned by God to depart did depart to Pella a poor little Village says Eusebius lib. 3. c. 5. held them all But we will take it for granted that Titus ordain'd in every City in the Island of Creet a Bishop namely a hundred And which is not at all likely that all were Christians for till Constantines time one Church held all the Christians in Rome and one great Church in Alexandria held all the Christians there as their Bishop Athanasius gives an account in his Epistle to Constantius the Son of Constanine yet Heylin in his Cosmeg p. 263 says There are in Creet but two hundred and seven Parishes then by that account the great Bishops will get but a Plurality two Parishes for their Diocesses And ever since that Bishops first Monopoliz'd so many Parishes all under their Ecclesiastical Government There has been no Ecclesiastical Government at all but a meer Anarchy and confusion as at this day and has been the occasion of setting up so many Independent Churches to the care of themselves and one another for whom the Ruling Bishop could not poisibly take care E●grossing all Government we have none at all but some silly face of it in a poor surrogate and Register that minds little else than to singer the Pence and shear the poor Clergy and Church-Wardens twice a year in Visitations c. Deliver your Purse Poor Sheep escape better than we they are clipt but once a year and the Master that seeds them has the Wool but they that shear us poor Lambs take our Wool but seed us not they have it for nothing and their great Revenues will not satisfie but as I said in my naked truth It is not a sin for a rich man to rob the Spittle Let such hard hearted Clergy-men who have such exceeding many Flocks and Herds read their Neck Verse 2 Sam. 12.5 6. In Nathan's Parable of the Lamb and the Sentence And David's anger was greatly Kindled against the man and he said to Nathan As the Lord liveth the man that hath done this thing shall surely die and he shall restore the Lamb four fold because he did this thing and because he had no pity And what do they visit for To see that all be Uniform Pish it is not to be done they themselves are not Uniform nor their Cathedral Worship Uniform with one another nor with Countrey Churches nor with the Act of Uniformity And what harm So all things be done decently and in order it needs not by order of Uniformity Nay Pope Gregory the 〈◊〉 Six hundred years after Christ commends variety of Usages In unâ fide nibil officit Sanctae Ecclesiae diversa consuetudo Let them show us one such Diocesan Bishop as we have got in England In the best and purest Times or one Bishop that ever durst pretend to Govern the Church by Implicite Faith in others for the first three hundred years or any thing like it In holy Scriptures or any reason for it or any possibility to discharge that heavy charge And I 'le strike out Avarice and Ambition as the

Apparitor to drive them by Shoales to the Play House if they should admit any such dull Tools and Actors that could not say a Word without Book but must read every Word they say or else they are dumb For take away the Play-Book or No●es and they are mute as Fish the Play is at an end though you have paid your Money some small note indeed or prompter the best may need sometimes or some Breviate even so my Reading Don Ecclesiastical is a noteless Fellow without his Notes and worse than an Ass for he can Bray without book nay worse than a Peacok for he can yawl against Rain but this Gay Fowl has nothing that speaks him divine but his gay out 〈◊〉 The Propher Eztkiel calls him Dumb-Dog that cannot bark meaning not that these Dumb Prophets or Dumb-dogs had no Tongue and could make no barking Noise but when he seeth the Sword or a Thief coming he giveth no warning but being senceless and noteless is therefore a dumb dog For he poor Heart has his Lesion before him there is his stint like a Horse in a Mill he cannot go out of the Track if he does he must leav● work if the Notes drop out of the Pulpit or the Candles go out or the Spectacles fall down from his Nose or a dark day or any such woful disaster befal him his busi●eis is done he needs no Bishop to silence him Come Sir you may even come down out of the Pulpit The Play is done N●y his very Prayers to Alrighty God in the Pulpit he is glad to read them too except perhaps he has like a Pariot got a few words by ●ote which all the people of the Church can say as well as himself for like a Turn-spit Dog in a Wheel he keeps ado but makes no Progress For alas for Shame and Sorrow how should he speak to God who is a Spirit From his Heart or Spirit or to the People's Hearts that never had any Divinity in his Head or Heart It is sufficient that he has It in the Book of Homilles or in his Notes stylo novo of another Sermon book that is more in Yogue and 〈◊〉 because more adapted to our present Language and Age● Stole said I he 'll bring his Action against me of Scandalum magnatum perhaps but I 'll prevent him for I recant He did not steal his Sermon nor Sermon Notes for they were his own upon a double account First because he lawfully bought and paid for the● six pence a piece witness the Book seller Secondly because all the Sermons in Print are dedicated to him To the Reader All To the Reader sometimes to Coaks him out of six pence To the curteous Reader If Parents have a Ricketty Son and crook'd legg'd and Baker-knee'd he 'll serve to make a Parson his Cassock will hide his Legs Is the poor Child Pur-blind also He 'll serve to make a Parson say his Parents If he have but Eye enough to spy Advent Sunday the day of the Month and the first and second Lessons for the day Is he a half witted Lad He 'll serve poor Child say his Parents well enough for the Pulpi● if he but hold his Notes to his Pur-blind Eyes it is but holding them the Closer and the bunness is done especially if his Parents or Friends scrape Acquaintance with a Patron I know how or buy 〈◊〉 Advousion or the next Avoydance And then make room for the Parson a true Son of the Church Why do you smlle It is too serious too great and too dismal a Truth and Mischief to draw Tears from your Eyes by laughing you have more cause to be weeping Jeremies and make Lamentations at so mischievous a Constitution of a Church in making Watchmen that are blind and lame and dumb being ordained unto Holy Orders by blind Implicite Faith which we all condemn in the Papists but in the Church of England draw a new Scene and it is received with Applause Oh poor English A foolish people and unwise though the most Courageable and best Hearts as well as the most plain hearted Nation under Heaven You think now that this is a Romance and not literally true well then so let it go 'T is so much the fitter for this Character of a Ceremony-monger which is all a Romance A Romance What 's that It comes from Roma Rome the Ground and Platform of the truest and best Histories of Truth and the Scene of the greatest Acts the Sun ever saw And a Romance is as like a true Roman History as my Ceremony-Monger is like a Papist he is not a Papist he says no he is not a bare-sac'd Papist I 'll do him right but to see to he is as like a Papist as ever he can look and his Devotion as like Popery as ever it can look He does not say the Mass indeed in Latine but his Hood his Cope his Surplice his Rocker his Altar Rall'd in his Candles and Cushions and Book thereon his bowing to it his bowing or rather Nodding at the name Jesu his Organs his Violins his Singing Men his Singing-Boys with their Alternate Jabbering and Mouthings as Unintelligible as Latine-Service and so very like Popery that I profess when I came from beyond Sea about the year 1660. to Pauls and White-Hall I almost thought at first blush that I was still in Spain or Portugal only the Candles on our Altars most Nonsensically stand unlighted to signifie what The darkness of our Noddles or to tempt the Chandlers to turo down-right Papists as the more suitable Religion for their Trade for ours mocks them seeds them with Hopes only he gapes and stares to see the lucky Minute when the Candics should be lighted but he is cheated for they do not burn out in an Age. But the Foppery is Homogeneal all of a piece foolish and illegal Ceremonies all over only my Ceremony-monger has got Law of his side for his Surplice and his Common-Prayers which are both very good things and though perhaps he may be perswaded to part with the former if you take away the latter viz. the Common-Prayer-Book ye had is good cut out his Tongue nay even few up his Mou●h also for he has no occasion for it nor for his Teeth neither for his Body most starys and be as clean and jejune as his Soul Therefore as you love his Life and Soul let him have his Common-prayer Book or else his Curate will have nothing in the World to do but must be forc'd to turn Sexton why should not the Dead bury the Dead The dead in Sin bury the Dead for Sin to so liseless and spiritless a thing is Religion reduc'd by my Ceromony-Monger nay some of them in their pretended prayer before Sermon do mock both God and the people praying or pretending to pray as the mouth of the people in the pulpit and yet like good Hannah's private prayer their Lips only move but their Voice is not heard Old Eli

Burden so much too heavy for any single Shoulder that they are forc'd to perform the great Acts of a Bishop in Ordinations Confirmations Excommunications Absolutions c. only by Foppish as well as Popish like Implicite Faith seeing with other Mens Eyes and hearing with other Mens Ears that it is no wonder that they err so often Oh! but the Wages then must be divided as well as the Work Flesh and Blood cannot bear this Doctrine No it cannot therefore Flesh and Blood cannot enter neither into the Kingdom of Heaven But a Bishop of all others ought not to consult with Flesh and Blood and self-Interest which above all things in the World does bribe Mens Judgments that they cannot because they will not give their Assent and Consent to so great a Truth King Charles I. was tenaciously in love with Bishops as now in England constituted even to death so great was his Opinionatree in the Case ●nd yet he says they were not Bishops Jure Divino by Divine Right and yet neither contra Jus Divinum But I think quite contrary viz. that ●here is nothing in Scripture more plain than that Bishops are Jure divino and nothing more plain than that the Bishops in Eng●and now constituted are contrary absolutely contrary to Jus Divi●um or Divine Right so far as they act like Novices in Implicite Faith Tim. 3.3 A Bishop must neither be a Novice nor given to filthy ●ucre For any B●y-Bishop any ignorant and unlearned Bishop is as ●ood as the best in those Acts of Implicite Faith any Novice can see ●ith other Mens Eyes and hear with other Mens Ears any Novice can and the greater Novice the fitter too believe as others believe without any other Reason Therefore since the Holy Scripture says a Bishop ought not to be a Novice if he be a Novice that sees but by Implicite Faith then tell me count them if you can How many Novices have we in England that do all their greatest Acts by Implicite Faith This is as bold a Stroke you 'l say as ever was and yet not a jot too bold to strike at so Grand so Poppish so Popish a Folly as Implicite Faith by which it must be granted and cannot be denied our protestant Bishops do all their mighty Businesses and is the cause of such a contemptible and ignorant Glergy ill grounded Excommunications and Absolutions and ●apias's thereupon and such unscriptural irrational and Blind Confirmations perswading the Ignorant that they are fit to receive the other Sacrament of of the Lord's Supper when they know nothing of the Creed and sometimes were never listed or matriculated into Mother-Church by the Initiating Ordinance of Baptism But that is the Fault of the Person not of the Constitution If that were true it might be amended but it is false for it is not the Fault of the Person only but the Fault of the Constitution which obliges no Bishop in his Office and performance of these great Episcopal Acts but only to the knowledge of a Novice or implicite Faith. Nay if our Constitution did oblige him it would oblige him to Impossibilities for his Work is more than any Mortal can perform in propriâ personâ and the great charge of Souls which he takes upon him more terrible if his Conscience be awake or not brib'd with the Wages it must be sensible that no Plety Parts or Prudence can possibly discharge except as now by implicite Faith which any Bay a● Child a● Nevice can perform as well as the best It was Covetousness therefore and Ambition that first made Bishopricks so large for the sake of making all the Bishops Lands therein one Man's Monopoly and also made Bishops Consciences so large as to gape and swallow all the relishing Bit was so gustful and grateful to a greedy Gut but from the beginning it was not so Now every County must have a Bishop nay sometimes two or three or four Counties will scarcely hold one great Bishop nay to them too must be added sometimes a Rich Deanery Is it not strange that a Bishop should be a Deacon again for the Mony sake and a Parson again by Commendum for the sake of some bulky Parsonage like Wiggin in Lancashire in Commendum held by Dr. Cartwright Bishop of Chester now advanc'd to be a non-such Protestant Reader in Popish France and Curat to a Popish Prince in the Protestant Chappel in the Castle of Merli And I am perswaded they will have the Grace to blush if it do not also make their heartsake before I have done at the horrible Burthen they have undertaken which the Shoulders of the strongest and ablest Apostles of Christ never did or durst renture to take upon themselves no Mortal ever did or can discharge it but in this Novice way by Proxy or blind Implicite Faith God in his Mercy forgive them they know not what they do Philippi nay Jerusalem a little scanty City not so big and populous as Colchester by half and yet had several Bishops at a time therein Philip 1.1 To all the Saints which art at Philippi with the Bishops and Deacons How many Bishops of London at this rate must there needs be in London not to mention the three Counties of Hartford Essex and Middlesex into the bargain Ay but the House of Lords will not hold so many Bishops No I grant There are Bishops ●now there already as some have laid and angerly grudge that we Clergy-men who are as much represented in the House of Commons as any Commoners in England and make as great a bustle at an Election of Members to get Men for our turn should also be represented in the other House which no other Commoners are and that my Lords the Bishops are tried by their Peers that is by their Equals Commoners but the Lords are Conciliarii Nati It is part of their Inheritance to be the King's Councellors and a Seat in the House of Lords is part of their Estate and State. But such Men talk like those that say that we had English Parliaments before Bishops and Abbots sat in the House of Lords and many Statutes the Judges say are good Law tho made in several Parliaments excluso Clere the Lord-Bishops and Lord-Abbots being shut out of Doors and not permitted into the House of Lords nay the Lord Abbots that had as good and as antient Right to sit in the House of Lords as Lord-Bishops are Long ago and to this day excluded Notwithstanding my known Devotion to my Lords the Bishops I confess I have not skill enough to answer such Reasons and Records It behoves them that have more wit and are more concern'd than I to give this a Rational Answer I consels my Ignorance but my Devotion to them is well enough known And I cannot deny but that the Bookish-men as my Lords are bred and usually Fellows of Colledges by that state they take upon them in the Colledge all but themselves going bare to them if they do but

great cause and Surrogate a better Reason in the room and be their Profe●●te Nay I 'le stoop lower I 'le condescend to be my Lord 's the Bishops Chaplain and Apologist But If all their skill cannot do it then it is high time to Recant and Repent that iniquity may not be our ruine and to restore the Lamb four-fold and because rich Dives had no more pity of his brethren whom the rich Diocesan calls according to the Style in the Primitive Church Reverend Brother and Brother but looks over the head of his Brother Elder or Presbyter as if a Conge d'Fslier had made him a Saul and higher by the Head when he only Struts being Rich and stands a Tip-toe but is not a better man nor a better Scholar than he was before It may binder his Worth and Learning rather by Avocations runing from Ordinations to the House of Lords thence to the Council-chamber thence to confirmations thence to Visitations c. If these do not hinder a Mans Study and Improvement I have lost my aim Let them but Read Mr. Baxter's Learned Book of Episcopacy or Arch-bishop C●●nmer's Opinion or Ordination This latter a Learned and Holy Martyr The former a most Learned and pious Confessour or let them bu● read the New Testament and there is little or no difference at all betwixt a Presbyter or Elder and Bishop what in one Verse is called Presbyter in the next is called Bishop as Bethlehem the Town is the same with Bethlehem the City aforesaid And a Parish signifi'd the same with Dioce●s But in alter ●●mes when Christians Multiplyed if a Presbyter could not Watch over all their Souls they allowed him a Co-adjutor and for distinction and Precedency sake called him a Bishop who sometimes had not one Presbyter under him as aforesaid most commonly but one and till Bishops begun to Scramble for more Ground and like other Princes to enlarge their Dominions and Jurisdictions which was not till the Emperour Constantine made them so bigg that in the Fourth Century the great Work of Councils and synods was Perambulation to Mark out the Bounds of the● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Parishes or Diocesses to keep the Peace bet wixt the Encroaching Bishops in that Fourth Century called Ambitionis seculum The Ambitious Century not that Bishops in after Ages grew more humble or were Ensamples to the Flock in Self-denial Modesty Humility and Contempt of Worldly Grandeur and as they say they Vow'd in Baptism to forsake the Devil and all his Works the Pomps and Vanitles of this Wicked World c. But then first they begun to be ambitious of large Diocesses more than possibly they could 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or oversee then they got Journey-men and Surrogates and Registers and Apparitors and all that Tribe to Feed whom the Church Wardens are the Spaniels Sworn to Hunt and Flush the Game that the hovering Jar-Faulcon the Register may Pounce them there 's all and make a Prey of Poor Sinners never to be Redeem'd but by Silver or Gold. The Golden Key always gets Absolution which in Gospel Times and the Primitive Times never was purchased but with Tears in the midst of the congregation as Jerom of Fabiola ep ad ocean Episcopo Presbyteris omni p●puio Collachry-mantibus c. The Bishops Presbyters and all the People Weeping for Joy at those Peultent Tears and at the Return of the Prodigal mixing their Tears with his Heb. 13.17 Obey them that Rule over you for they Watch for your Souls as they that must give an Account c. A woful and sad Account must that Bishop make when God calls him to give an Account which will be very shortly of his Bishoprick for he shall be no longer Bishop Howought he to Tremble at the Thoughts of it When in ●●ead of Watching for the Souls committed to his Charge he has only wa●ch't for their Pu●●es And instead of Guiding them he has sent out Doctor 's Commons-men to Watch all England over in the Bishops Room we Trace them by the Footing at a Visitation c. What have they been doing Citing Admonishing Excommunicating Jayling Absolving this Twenty Nine long Years in all this Kingdom What ●en●●en●s have they made What Penance What Repentance Is it not a great Chear that defeats all Repentance By Commuting as the Papists and we say turning the Whores Sins by which she got Money they Joy in her for they go Ships into Money and a few great Whores are ●how to Maintain all the Ecclesiastical free-booters in Doctors-Commons she is the Thief that Pick 's Men's Pockets they the Receivers Oh! the Jubi●ee's they make when the Apparitor has found out a Rich Wh●re and a Rich Bastard which least they should miss let the Church-Wardens look to it for they Swear the Ecclesiastical Span●el always to quest upon a Haunt if he do not he is forsworn Oh most Preciou● Ecclesias●ical D●scipline that begins with Perjury and ends with Mercenary Repentance or Bribery Why should not the King and Parliament be as careful of their Subjects Souls as their Bodies For they also must give an Account But what an Irrational account would it be if it was to be feared that an Enemy should Land and Invade us at Harwich or Canterbury to say I have set a Watch-man upon the Top of Paul's or to make sure upon the Higher Steeple of Lambeth call to the Watch-men is the Enemy Landed at Harwich How angry would they be at such a non-se●sical Question And say Surely you are Mad Do you think any Mortal Man can see from London to Harwich Or from Lambeth to Canterbury There may be a Hundred Thousand Enemies Landed for ought we know How is it possible for us to Watch and Ward at this Distance In the ●nte●im the Kingdom is well look't to And the Coasts well Guarded are they not We are the next Door to Ruin if more Watch men be not set and stronger Guards which is easie and no charge or expence at all when the Pay that two Watch-men have ingrost would well pay and maintain fourty of as good Vigour and Ability and in some Sence better-sighted and better Tongu'd Watch-men to Feed and give Warning Or are the wellfare of our Lands and Bodies only the care of Governours And as for Mens Souls one Watch-man is enough betwixt this and Canterbury But you 'le say a Man is but a Man he does what a Man can do Nemo tenetur ad Impossibilia I grant But who bid him undertake such a Charge that no Mortal can discharge Who Who think you but Filthy-lucre and Ambition The Council of Sardica in the Fourth Century Anno 347. saw this Devilish mischief coming Trowling into the Church and a perpetual strife and comest about the Borders and Limi●s as Litigious as now at Doctors-Commons about the Probate of Wills and about Letters of Administration namely who shall get the Money whether the Bishop's or Arch-deacon's Courts of that Diocess