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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bishop_n	ecclesiastical_a	king_n	2,997	5	4.1467	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48309	A discovrse concerning Puritans tending to a vindication of those, who unjustly suffer by the mistake, abuse, and misapplication of that name.	Parker, Henry, 1604-1652.; Ley, John, 1583-1662.	1641 (1641)	Wing L1876; ESTC R212712	47,271	67

at Court be strong and active enough for matter of Counsell yet for matter of force the Puritans in City and Countrey be too predominant The Bishop of Downe in his visitation speech layes all the calamities of Church and Common-wealth upon Non-conformists and for proofe thereof instances in the Covenanters whom he charges of rebellion charging withall that rebellion upon Puritanisme The first thing says he that made me out of love with that Religion was their injurious dealing with Kings which I observed both in their Practice and Doctrine Hee taxes first their Doctrine because they deny the Kings supremacy in causes Ecclesiasticall and allow Subjects to resist nay and depose their King if he be a Tyrant Surely Ahab could say little for himselfe if he could not lay his owne crimes upon Elijah but see here by what art of confusion all Scots are called Puritans and all Puritans rebels King James spoke not so confusedly as if Puritanisme were a Religion and all that disliked Bishops and Ceremonies were of that Religion and all of that Religion were enemies to Kings If a Bishop needed any proofe it his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} were not unquestionable I would desire him to prove all Covenanters Puritans denyers of the Kings supremacy or to instance in any Kings which have been deposed or murthred by Presbyteriall authority How far Bishops have incroached upon Kings is knowne to all the world our Protestant Bishops lately have by Oath and Canon combined together to bind the Kings hands though hee bee Supreme that hee shall not governe our Church but by Arch-bishops Bishops Arch-deacons c. And yet these troublers of Israel have the face to taxe Elijah of their own sinne Presbytery indeed has heretofore passed her bounds yet not of late but Episcopacy has ever from Constantine claimed an independance of Divine right till this instant I conceive there are not in all the Kings Dominions three men except Papists and Anabaptists which hold it lawfull to depose or by any force to violate the persons of Kings how ill soever The Scotch Divines indeed maintaine that a great body of men may defend themselvs against the unjust sword of misled Kings because they cannot fly or otherwise save themselves and this they take now to be their own case whereas our Court Divines in England hold that in such case we ought all to yeeld our throats without defence This seemes unnaturall and truth was never unnaturall but I forbeare to dispute a point so horrid to mans imagination The Bishop next instances in the rebellious practices of Puritans reckons up some Fasts in Scotland appointed by the Presbytery without King Iames his privity and some other seditious Sermons and actions whereby he was much annoyed But what Did not King James know his owne enemies or how to blame them Did hee condemne all Scots alike or all Bishop haters alike or joyne the English in like condemnation We know well enough that King James called rebellious precisians Pu●itans but he never called all Puritans rebellious precisians He never used those termes as conve●tible but declared his contrary meaning by a manifest difference taken between them But the Bishops maine ●nstance is in the present Scotch insurrection this he cals a rebellion of Puritans and far greater than the Powder-treason For says he that plot was but the act of a few discontented Gentlemen but in this rebellion of the Puritans they have ingaged a great part of the Kingdome so that this may be said to be the common sin of that Sect. What could have beene raked out of Hell more slanderous to our Religion more Apologeticall for Popery The Powder-Traytors are here preferred before the whole sect of Puritans The sin of the Powder-Traytors was that they being but an inconsiderable party sought the destruction of their King and his issue and the flower of the Nobility Gentry Commonalty and the extirpation of the true Religion by a most diabolical bloudy practice and conspiracy And it ought not to be charged upon the meere actors as a symptome of discontent onely wee know how far the Romish Religion it selfe favours and gives ground to such damned feats and how far it has owned some having proved prosperous and justified the doing thereof in nature as impious though perhaps in degree not so hainous as this For take this as it was conspired and questionlesse since the crucifying of Iesus Christ the Light never discovered any treason more ugly and horrible Now to out-match this deed of darknesse the Scotch Nation by a strange general unanimity have armed themselves to oppose the ill government of Bishops and other alterations in the service of God and the administration of Iustice and being invaded therefore by another Nation have used force to defend their lives and seeing that defence not safe in their owne Countrey they have since pursued it further by way of prevention in the Country of their Invaders That is the greatest act of Rebellion whereby the common Peace and safety of a Kingdome is most disturbed and impeached but by the common act of a whole Kingdome that mischiefe cannot be effected therefore the Bishop failes in his politiques when he thinkes that the Major part disturbing the Minor is more trayterous than the contrary The unanimous act of a whole Kingdome ought to bee presumed to bee lesse injurious and more wise than the act of any small inconsiderable party for it hath scarce ever been seen that a whole Kingdome or the majority thereof hath ever been treasonable to its selfe in procuring its own ruine Many States have perisht by the machinations of a few ill-affected ill-advised Counsellors scarce ever any perisht otherwise but the totall body and collection has never been guilty of its owne ruine and if it were such Treason could not be so great as that which is plotted by a few Whilst the Scots contained themselves within their owne territories and were considered as a kingdome within themselves as they were when the Bishop past his censure they were not rightly so censured neither was he then privy to their intrusions that they would infest our kingdome with the same combustion and so prove a disturbance to the greater part of our British Monarchy whereof they themselves are but a member of lesse bulke and value Cursed therefore are those uncharitable exasperating censurers whereby the King is too far incensed and by whose rash instigations the commotions themselves become the harder to be appeased Great insurrections are like great fires wherein delay is mischievous and small remedies rather turne to fuell then extinguish and violent counsell against an inraged multitude is like oyle or pitch cast into the flame The wise politician proportions his remedy according to the mischiefe if water will not prevaile he useth milke if a little quantity will not suffice he powres as the combustion it selfe requires Vnfortunate Rehoboam stands as a Seamarke to warne all Princes how to

this suggestion is utterly false and impossible for such as the major part in Parliament is such are those that chose them and sent them thither and such are those that now approve their actions there and both in the elections of Parliament men and in the consultations of Parliament affaires the Kings party is as wise cautious and vigilant if not more as the other party and no subtilty could circumvent or cheat them out of their votes if the Puritans were so small and inconsiderable a side as now they make them No man of what capacity soever can admit this it is to all undeniable that the blame of a Parliament is the blame of a whole Kingdome But I returne to my Ecclesiasticall Puritan Though it be true that Ecclesiasticall Puritans are fewer now then heretofore they have been yet it is as true that Ecclesiasticall puritanisme is made a larger thing by farre then it was being now spread abroad like a net to ensnare the more as our many late additions and innovations testifie which have crept into the Church as may be feared for the vexation and molestation of such men as were not disquieted with former ceremonies It is generally suspected that our Prelates have aimed at two things in the novelties which they have lately induced into the Church first the suppression of those which are enemies to their pride avarice and ambition by them tearmed Puritans secondly their owne further ease promotion and advantage Both these ends seeme to be leveld at in sanctifying the Altar and unsanctifying the Lords day in advancing auricular confession and corporall penances by externall mortifications and crying downe lecturing and preaching for if we marke it these new Doctrines doe not onely serve to terrifie and scandalize tender consciences and thereby to deprive and silence many painfull good Ministers and to scare away into forreign Plantations whole troups of Laymen and to inwrap the rest in opposition but each of these doctrines besides hath a further reach in it of benefit to the Clergie The Communion Table hath lately gained a new Name a new Nature a new Posture a new Worship that Emperours and Kings may be brought againe to take notice how far the persons and offices of Priests excell in sanctity the persons and offices of Princes Theodosius within one hundred yeares after Prelacie began to arrogate to it selfe was presently taught this lesson for taking his seat in the Chancell according to the Easterne and ancient fashion a Deacon was sent to him in great state to let him understand that none but men in holy Orders might presume to set their feet on that sacred ground This was then the Bishops Law not the Emperours nor knowne in any other of his Dominions but Italy onely but sure it was fit discretion that much should be ascribed by Bishops to that place from which they were to derive much and which would be sure to repay their homage with so great an advantage of homage back againe Preaching is now also grown too burthensome and the Lords Day to Priests according to that sanctity which Puritans allow it it requires too much praying preaching singing which are not onely to them tedious but also apt means to encrease and foment Puritanisme amongst the people Auricular Confession also is a godly devise to bring the Laity into subjection and to make the people bow before the power of the Keyes and it may aptly force the consciences of Kings themselves to feare the scourges of gowned men Adde lastly Mr. Wats his bodily mortification to Mr. Sparrows confession and then Laymen will be soone inured againe to finde out the fittest penances especially Praesbyteris aeris advolvi and so in time their purses their bodies their consciences shall all bee made sensible of the spirituall Scepter of Priests It s no great wonder then if our Court Divines and their dependents doe what they can to draw us neerer dayly towards Popery under shew of Antiquity Uniformity and Charity for without all doubt of all Religions Popery is the most beneficiall to Priests most tyrannous to Laymen Neither is it strange that they pretend so much zeale and devotion to the Kings Crowne and Prerogative as things now stand in England as if none truly affected the same but themselves for its cleare that they cannot subject the people but by the King nor the King without the people and so long as they stand possessed of the Kings good opinion no man shall have power to confute them King Iames is a great instance for Antipuritans and a great prop to the Episcopall Cause it s alleadged of him that Hee hated Puritans for their hatred to Episcopacie and loved Episcopacie for its amity to Monarchie His Aphorisme was No Bishop no King Let us therefore appeale from King Iames in their words to King Iames in his owne In his Preface before his Basilicon Doron his words are The style of Puritans properly belongs to that vile Sect of the Anabaptists onely called the Family of love Such were Browne Penry Howbeit there are others which participate too much with Anabaptists contemning civill Magistrates c. It is onely this sort of men which I wish my sonne to punish in case they refuse to obey Law and cease not to stirre up Rebellion But I protest upon mine Honour I meane it not generally of all Preachers or others which like better of the single forme of Policie in our Church of Scotland then of the many Ceremonies in the Church of England which are perswaded that Bishops smell of a Papall supremacie that Surplices Caps c. are outward badges of popish errour No I am so farre from being contentious in these indifferent things that I doe equally love and honour the learned and grave of either opinion It can no wayes become mee to pronounce sentence so lightly in so old a controversie Since wee all agree in grounds the bitternesse of men in such questions doth but trouble the peace of the Church and give advantage to Papists by our division These were the golden words of that peacefull just Prince upon his second thoughts ô that they were now duly pondred and taken to peeces word for word ô that they were esteemed and understood in their owne weight amongst us that they might reconcile our present differences and that the same peace which followed him to his glorious Urne might still blesse these our times ò how contrary are these mild words to the unnaturall suggestions of Antipuritans Such as daily accuse all good men for Precisians and all precise men for Puritans and all Puritans for the onely Firebrands of the World thus aiming the King against his Subjects and by consequence raising Subjects against the King Puritans here are described both what they are and what they are not the King had been misinterpreted before writing generally of Puritans now to avoid all mistake he expresses himselfe plainely and definitely A Puritan positively in King Iames his

not alwayes the most knowing in all Ecclesiasticall cases neither are they at all indifferent and impartiall in many which concerne their owne honour and profit as the world feeles to his regret therefore for jurisdiction they are not the most competent But be they of what use soever they may still remaine subordinate and at the Princes election and admitted of ad consilium solum not ad consensum and it had beene happy for all Christians these many hundred yeares by past if they had not been further hearkned to The Sacerdotall function is not at all disparaged by this subordination for whether the order of Princes be more sacred then that of Bishops or not it is all one to Priests for an obedience they owe and must pay be it to the one Order or the other Our Bishops at this day stand much upon their Divine right of Jurisdiction and they refer their style to the providence of God immediatly not to the grace of the King and though in words they acknowledge a Supremacie of power to remain to the King yet indeed I thinke they mean rather a priority of order Whatsoever Supremacie they meane if it be not such as makes them meerely subordinate and dependent so that the King may limit alter or extinguish their jurisdiction as far as He may to his civill Judges they derogate much from his Kingly office Bishops for their claime of Jurisdiction ought to prove that they alone did exercise it over all in all causes from our Saviours dayes till the entrance of Christian Princes and that being cleared they must further prove that those times also are leading and precedentary to ours In both these their proofes are lame especially in the latter for neither is the power of the Keyes the same thing as Iurisdiction nor is jurisdiction now as it was in the Apostles dayes nor is the State of the times now the same as then In those dayes either Christians were to implead one another before Infidel Magistrats whatsoever the case were criminall or civill spirituall or temporall or else they were to erect some tribunall in the Church or else they were to await no justice at all and because some judicature within the Church was most fit therfore Christ himselfe according to the exigence of those times did endow his Church with a divine Oeconomy which was partly miraculous and of use then but not now The Spirit of God did then internally incite such and such men at such times to reside and preside in such such places and some of the Apostles at some times could judge by inspiration without proofs and allegations and could execute sentence of death or other spirituall punishment upon secret hypocrites not intrenching upon temporall authority but in these times this discipline is uselesse and therefore decayed Whatsoever the offence then was what injury or trespasse soever betwixt brother and brother the onely remedy was Dic Ecclesiae and yet that precept serves as strong for temporall as spirituall trespasses so that it cannot be enforced now to continue unlesse wee meane to drowne all temporall authority As for the extent also of spirituall power in those dayes I will onely cite a learned Politician of the Popish religion who admitting it seemed that the keyes of heaven were given to Saint Peter alone and his Successours and not to all Bishops and Ministers whatsoever thus proceeds By the keyes given to S. Peter many Holy Fathers mean the one of knowledge and the other of power and that that power ought not to be understood universally but only concerning the Kingdome of Heaven which is spirituall for the Civill Royall and Temporall power is expresly forbidden him by Christ Even so that also of knowledge it is not to be understood of naturall politike or morall things but as Saint Paul saith of Christs mysteries only Wherefore in matters of faith Ecclesiasticall authority may approve and Secular cannot condemne but in matters of policy what all the Prelates in the World approve Temporall authority may condemne It is a great wrong to pretend because Christ hath given Saint Peter the cognizance and power of the Kingdome and forbidden him the earthly contrary to this precept to extend spirituall things to temporall Saint Augustine often saith That Grace doth not destroy any thing in Nature but leaveth her all her owne adding moreover divine perfection The Temporality hath of its owne nature power to forbid all things repugnant to publike quietnesse and honesty and Christ came not to take away this authority from Magistrates He onely addes power to his Ministers in matters of faith not knowne by nature but revelation For ought wee know this power of opening or shutting Heaven of binding and loosing sinnes was miraculous and so but Temporary but admit it in this Catholike Writers sense yet we plainly see it is no prejudice at all to limit Secular Princes thereby The same learned Papist writes That the Easterne and Westerne Churches continued in unity and charity for the space of nine hundred yeares after Christ and this peace was easily kept because the Supreme power was then in the Canons to which all Churches acknowledged themselves equally subject Ecclesiasticall Discipline was then severely maintained in each Country by its owne Prelates not arbitrarily but absolutely according to Canonicall rigour none of them intermedling in anothers government No Pope of Rome did pretend to conferre Benefices in other Bishops Diocesses or to get money out of others by way of Dispensations and Buls but when Rome began to shake off all subjection to Canons then notwithstanding any ancient order of the Fathers Councels or Apostles themselves in stead of her ancient Primacy she brought in an absolute Dominion free from any Law or Canon and this made the division Neither could any re-union bee brought to passe within these 700 yeares because this abuse which caused the Division is not remedied Whilst the union held Saint Pauls doctrine was joyntly observed that Every one should be subject to Princes no man pretended to be free from punishment Nay and after the division the same opinion remained that every Christian in temporall businesses is subject to the Prince And nothing is more temporall then offence because nothing is more contrary to the Spirit Amongst the Greeks also it is still held that Bishops ought to judge what opinion is sound what Hereticall but to punish those of hurtfull opinions belongeth to the Secular The State of Venice as well as other Catholike Kingdomes walks between two extreams betweene Protestants which have no other ayme but to diminish Ecclesiasticall authority and the Court of Rome which hath no other aime but to encrease it and to make the Temporall her servant Those of the Court of Rome making use of Religion for worldly ends and respects under a spirituall pretense but with an ambitious end and desire of worldly wealth and honour would free themselves from obedience due to the Prince and take away