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	see_v	2,371	5	3.7700	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69195	Certaine demandes with their grounds, drawne out of holy writ, and propounded in foro conscientiæ by some religious gentl. vnto the reverend fathers, Richard archbishop of Canterbury, Richard bishop of London, William bishop of Lincolne, Garvase bishop of Worcester, William bishop of Exeter, & Thomas bishop of Peterbourough wherevnto the said gentl. require that it would please their lordships to make a true, plaine, direct, honest and resolute aunswere.	Bancroft, Richard, 1544-1610.	1605 (1605)	STC 6572.5; ESTC S112734	57,418	70

as that not only they content not thē selves by eating flesh themselves to grieve to offend a weak brother to give him an occasion to sinne but also cōmand a weake brother to eate that meate by eating wherof he can not but fal but stumble but grieve but offend but sinne and but destroy him selfe This kind of charitie may deserve vnhappely the name of some Synodal or Provincial charitie but certes it can neverworthely deserve to be called an Apostolicall charitie But Sirs you mistake the matter very much you deceive your selves draw not the cases rightly The vse of Crosses Copes Surplices Cappes kneelings are cōmanded by the christiā Magistrates soveraigne authority only as things indifferēt for orders sake not that men should be grieved and offended or that they should fall stumble sinne destroy them selves Touching the christian Magistrates authoritie about ordering rites ceremonies in the church we have somewhat at large argued before which we had thought might have fully satisfied your Lordships but because it pleaseth you still to presse vs with the same we must once againe plainly signifie vnto you that we beleeve that your selves do not attribute any more spirituall authoritie vnto the King to make constitute and ordeine canons constitutions rites or ceremonies then you give vnto him spirituall power to preach the word administer the Sacraments and excommunicate For we beleeve that your selves with the residue of the clergie assembled by the Kings writt in your convocation doe chalendge all spirituall power vnto your selves to make ordeine and decree all maner of canons constitutions ordinances ornaments rites and ceremonies in the Church Yea and this spirituall power we beleeve that you pretend to be derived vnto your selves and the rest of the clergie in the convocation not from any spirituall power invested in the person of our soveraigne Lord the King but onely from the spirituall power of our Saviour Christ alone And this is manifest by your Cxxxix canon for so are your words Whosoever shall hereafter affirme that the Sacred Synode of this nation in the name of Christ and by the Kings authoritie assembled is not the church of England by representation let him be excommunicated c. These wordes wee say of your canon viz. Sacred Synod is assembled in the name of Christ and by authoritie of the King plainely testifie that you hold your Synode not to be assembled by authoritie of the King in the name of the King or in the name of Christ and the King but only in the name of Christ And therefore by your owne wordes wee are inforced to beleeve that you attribute vnto the King none other authoritie then such as you attribute to the godly Kinges of Judah namely an authoritie to assemble and command your persons as they assembled and commanded the persons of the Priestes What to execute the rites and ceremonies of the Kinges of Iudah No but to execute the rites and ceremonies of God And so we beleeve your persons being assembled by authoritie and commandement of the King that your selves by your owne authoritie and that in the name and by the power of Christ and not in the name and power of the King doe ordeine decree and make canons constitutions rites and ceremonies as if they were sent vnto vs by your handes from God And thus much doe the very first words of your first canon and some words in your 140. 141. canons clearly prove For howsoever in the title of your book you vse these words Constitutions and Canons treated and agreed vpon by the Bishop of London c. Yet both in the proheme body of your first canō you affirme as followeth In your proheme or title you say thus the Kings supremacy over the church of Englād in causes ecclesiastical you say not over the church causes but over the church in causes and in the body of the same canō you say we first decree ordeine that the Archb. of Canterbury c. and in the Cxl. canon your words are these Whosoever shall affime that no maner of person c. are to be subiect to the decrees therof speaking of the Synod eccllesiasticall made ratified by the kings Maiesties supreame authority c. let him be c. your words also in your last canō are these whosoever shal hereafter affirm c. that the sacred Sinod assembled c. was a company of persons c. in making canons cōstitutions in causes ecclesiasticall c. ought to be despised c. the same being ratified confirmed and inioyned by the regall power supremacie and authoritie lett them be excommunicated Now by all these your owne words and sentences we decree ordeine decrees of the Synod making canons by the sacred Synod ratified confirmed inioyned by the regall power c. by all these words we say we can not but beleeve that you chalendge your ecclesiasticall power of ordeining decreeing making decrees canons constitutions rites and ceremonies to be invested in your owne persons assembled by authoritie of the King from the authoritie and power of Christ and not from any spirituall or ecclesiasticall power invested in the person of the King and derived and conveighed vnto your persons assembled by his regall writt For then how should we not beleeve also but that you iudged the Kings writt to be no civil but an ecclesiasticall and spirituall writt But howsoever as yet wee beleeve not this latter yet still we beleeve that you appropriate vnto your owne persons assembled by the Kings writt a sole power and that from our Saviour Christ to give vnto your decrees canons constitutions rites and ceremonies their first being and their first birthright and that you assigne vnto the King none other power but a power of their after birth of ratifying and confirming of that life being which your persons have first put into them So that the King is in this but as it were an executioner of your canons and not you the executioners of the Kings decrees Yea thus much M. Doctor Bilson in his Book intituled True difference betweene Christian subiection vnchristian rebellion Pag. 243. avoweth testifieth whose words are these We never said that Princes had any spirituall power it is a false collection of yours it is no part of our cōfession the sword which they bear we never called but external tēporall Againe to devise new rites and ceremonies for the Church is not the Princes vocation but to receive and allow such as the Scriptures and canons commend and such as the Bishops Pastours of the place shall advise not infringing the Scriptures or canons so for all other ecclesiasticall things causes Princes be neither the devisors nor directors of them but the confirmers and establishers of that which is good and displacers and revengers of that which is evill which power we say they have in all things be they spirituall

integrity But by your Lordships favour all men have not knowledge of the Idoll as you have All mens knowledge among vs doth not edifie but by their knowledge many men be puffed vp All men among vs professe not a detestation of their pollutions All men doe not knowe those betters from whom as you say they were taken Neither lastly doe all men vnderstande what that ancient integritie is whereof you speake The Papistes you know as they daily commit fornication with that great whore so doe they greatly delite and much solace them selves to see their minionly Priestes attired in the vnchast colours of their wanton paramoure Nay with great insolencie and ostentation they vaunt that Crosses Surplices c. are to be received and vsed not as things indifferent but as necessarie parts of Gods divine worship The Atheistes as they neither embrace the doctrine nor reverence the person of the Minister of Christ much lesse doe they regard from whence ministeriall apparell originally came Only if they live vnder an ordinary who glorieth to be a ceremonie master they can then find witt and opportunitie and agilitie and nimblenes ynough to make vse of these ceremonies as by them to worke mischief against their Godly Minister if at any time them selves be reproved for their drunkennes whoredome vsurie swearing poperie and such like But if any of them being of the age of 60. 70. or 80. yeares shal be willed by their honest ordinarie to returne home and to learne of their Minister the Catechisme before they prosecute their presentment for the not wearing of a Surplice in this case rather then they wil be religiously taught the principles of godlines at their Ministers hand they force not for xxv yeares space together to bee wholy silent Liking in the meane while the not wearing of a Surplice well ynough And as for our partes and others of the Religion we doubt very much whether your Lordships be able to prove that the Surplice the crosse in Baptisme or kneeling in the act of receiving the Communion were by their first originall of any integritie for an orderly or comely vse of outward divine service or worship as now they be vsed yea or no For though now they bee vrged as decent and comely signes and ornaments to the forme of Gods worship yet if at the beginning they were not for this end and purpose drawne directly or by consequence from some expresse commandement of God but were meerely the devises inventions of men then can we not assure our selves that they be restored to their ancient integritie For how should their originall bee of ancient integritie when they had beginning not from the will of God but from the witt of man not from the Well of life but from the pitt of death when they were not pure but corrupt therefore without integritie For which cause we are to beware least we be taken in a snare by them provoking the Lord to anger through the workes of our owne hands And howsoever these ceremonies be taken from men better affected to the Gospell then be the Papistes neverthelesse seeing servants be they never so young are not to be guided by their fellow servants be they never so old without knowledge of their Lord Masters pleasure first declared vnto them by his Prophets or Apostles we pray your Lordships to prove vnto vs out of holy Writt that these ceremonies hold their originall from God For if they be not according to the old way which is the good way and wherein we are bidd to stand and to behold and to aske after it namely the Testimonie which is bound vp and the Law which is sealed vp among Gods Disciples then shall the Pastours offend for running about so much to change their wayes going after things that doe not profit yea if they doe not according to this word they may iustly be reproved because their is no light in them The ancienty then of your ceremonies let the same be as ancient as possibly ye can devise yet in respect of the ancient of dayes and of him that inhabiteth the eternitie they shal be but novelties and the Author of them but a novelist For as this saying in the Schoole of reason is true omne magnum tum est paruum cum sit aliquid maius so is this saying also in the same Schoole true omne vetus tum est novum cum sit aliquid vetustius Yea and the holy Scriptures teach vs to call those things new whatsoever man inventeth be the errour never so old They have saith the holy Ghost offered vnto Devills not vnto God but to gods whom they knew not new gods that came newly vp whom their Fathers feared not And in an other place they are pronounced to be accursed when they turne after other gods which they have not known whereby also is reproved the vanitie and fondnes of those men which leave that which is certeine to follow that which is vncerteine If the Apostle then the first and most ancient father of all the children whom he begate with the word of the Gospell and the planter of all the Churches among the Gentils never knew those or any the like rites ornaments or ceremonies much lesse never knew them to be for any decent and orderly forme of Gods worship in any of the churches which he begate and which he planted it must needes follow as wee conceave that the children of the Church who devised and appointed these rites and ceremonies for an orderly and decent forme of Gods worship in the ages succeeding the Apostles left the ancient integritie together with the certaine and single forme of Gods worship setled in the Apostolicall churches without any ministeriall apparrell crossings or kneelings in the act of receiving the communion And so following their owne hearts became Novelistes vnto the Apostles in these vncerteine and new found ceremonies Neither for the poynt in question is it materiall whether they were children next and immediatly succeeding the Apostles yea or no For so soone as they declined from that integritie simple maner of Gods worship and from that certeyntie wherein the Apostle left the Churches even so soone was their vncerteyne and newly start vp forme of Gods worship corrupt and impure For when the Lord hath once spoken wordes and doeth add no more thereby we are taught by his example to lay our handes vpon our mouthes to bee content with his word and to add nothing of our owne Yea and we bee warned to beware least our heartes deceyve vs and least we turne aside by devisinge foolish inventions according to our owne fantasies Wherefore your Lordships argument of such ancientie and of such integritie of these ceremonies as declineth from that ancient and in al poyntes and qualities certeyne and vpright forme of Gods worshippe practised without Copes Surplices Crosses and kneelings in the acte of receyving the communion