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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

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91392	The true grounds of ecclesiasticall regiment set forth in a briefe dissertation. Maintaining the Kings spirituall supremacie against the pretended independencie of the prelates, &c. Together, vvith some passages touching the ecclesiasticall power of parliaments, the use of synods, and the power of excommunication.	Parker, Henry, 1604-1652.	1641 (1641)	Wing P428; Thomason E176_18; ESTC R212682	61,943	101

from these Tenets but because many of them especially Clergimen do not wholly dissent from all the grounds of these Tenets therefore they also doe partake in some errours and absurdities of the like nature One Scotist says That Mountague and our learnedest Protestant Divines nay even Rainolds himselfe though otherwise a Puritan yet they all hold that there is due to the King no spirituall but only a temporall rule over persons and causes Ecclesiasticall and that also by accident for the common peace sake Hee sayes also that in his presence at a Cambridge Commencement the chiefe Bishop was called Maximus Pater and that it was maintained that the care of spirituall things did appertain to the chiefe Bishop and of temporall to the King and whereas it was at last concluded that all was to be governed by the King yet he sayes questionless the intent was civilitèr not spiritualitèr And if wee look back to the primitives we shal find that in good times before Popery had any considerable growth Kings for penance were enjoyned to kneele to Priests and were not admitted to have seats in the Chancell neere the Altar no not amongst the Deacons but were sometimes subjected to heavie and sharp censures of Bishops and sometimes strucke with the thunderbolt of Excommunication it self And we shall find that the Name Church was applyed in common speech to Churchmen only and the Name Spiritualitie was taken in the same sense as if all other persons had beene strangers to the Church and had beene of a meere Temporall and Secular condition and by the name Clergie it was intimated to the World that the Sacerdotall function was the only lot and patrimony of God and these usages were ab antiquo And wee shall finde that the holiest and learnedest Fathers of the Church did seeme to preferre the Mitre before the Diademe and to dream of a Spirituall Empire belonging to Priests more worthy and sacred then that of Emperours And therefore Gregory of Nazianzen in a Sermon before the Emperour says thus to him The Law of Christ hath committed you to my Charge and to my Pulpit for we rule also and ours is a more excellent and perfect regiment And comparing further the rule of Priests with the rule of Princes Hee cals the one spirituall the other fleshly and concludes that the spirit ought not to give place to the flesh nor heavenly things to earthly What hee meant here by giving place whether hee meant it of externall submission or internall awe I cannot tell but he left it uncertain To the same purpose that of Ambrose tends also Thinke not O Emperour that thou hast any right over divine things for the Palace is for the Emperour but Churches for Priests And that also of Athanasius It s neither lawfull for us to hold a Kingdome upon earth nor hast thou O Emperour power over sacred things Wee see they speake of their Ministery and Ecclesiasticall vocation as of a sovereigntie and rule and that more sacred then that of Princes of which Princes were not worthy or capable And to passe by the blinde times of Popery wherein upon these grounds the Roman Bishops inthralled a great part of Christendome with temporall bondage wee shall finde also that since the abjuration of Romish servitude yet Protestant Ministers themselves have assumed a sanctitie more then is due The Kings Supremacie or Headship over the Ecclesiasticall or Spirituall State Hee being accounted but meerly temporall in comparison of Priests is as ill wished by many Calvinists as by Papists their word is of Secular Princes Istis non competit iste Primatus And as Sir Thomas More suffered death in testimony of his dislike so Calvin himselfe condemnes this Realme of Blasphemy for entitling Henry the Eighth Supreme Head of the Church here under Christ And not only the Name but the power it selfe which wee give to Civill Magistrates he protesteth against as that which had wounded him deeply Princes being made thereby too spirituall hee complaineth that this fault did raigne throughout Germany and in some parts of France to the taking away of Spirituall Regiment whilst Princes were made chiefe Judges as well in matters of doctrine as discipline Hence it is that all which follow Calvin which is almost the generality of Protestants besides Papists hold Princes incompetent for spirituall Regencie accounting the intermedling of Princes therein as an abolition or prophanation of the same And hence it is that our contrary faction of Hierarchists also deny the Kings Supremacie in Spiritualibus though not in Ecclesiasticis and our Prelats Style is providentia divina not gratiâ Regis and as they issue Writs in their own Names so they use their owne armes in their Seales and not the Kings And wee know it was my Lord of Canterburies industry of late to procure a Commission about five yeeres since that all Bishops Courts might proceed without any subordination or dependency to any other of the Kings Courts So that though they complaine of the Presbyterian Discipline and the doctrine of Calvin as injurious to Princes yet they themselves seeme to be of the same confederacie But that I may not seem to misreport or misinterpret any I will cite only two Divines of prime note both defenders of Supremacie Hooker speaking of that dutifull subjection which is due from all Christians to the Pastors of their souls in respect of their sacred Order affirmes that the same is as due from Kings and Princes as from their meanest vassals Reverence due to the Word and Sacraments and to Gods Ordinances is not here meant for that is as due from Priests themselves also as from any other it is meant of reverence due to the persons of Priests this he cals subjection and challenges as due in respect of their sacred Order And so Bilson descanting upon the words of Nazianzen after a comparative manner as Hooker did inferres thereupon that Priests have a greater and perfecter regiment then Princes For sayes he Priests governe the souls of men and dispense the mysteries of God whereas Princes are set to rule the bodies of men and to dispose the things of this life c. Hee does not compare the offices but the Regiments of Priests and Princes and hee averres as confidently that Priests governe the souls and exercise dominion over the spirits of Christians as that Princes have no power at all but over the bodies and temporalities of their Subjects And for these causes the Crosier is generally preferred in Honour and Sanctitie before the Scepter to detect therefore the errour of Divines herein I will now truly produce and throughly poize those arguments which they most rely upon The first argument runs thus Spirituall things are not to be managed and treated but only by spirituall persons but Princes are not spirituall Ergo Wee must first understand here what is meant by spirituall things and spirituall persons If by spirituall things here such things are meant as appertain to

that the King is supreme and he but the secondary agent therein But Bishop Bilson will yet say that the Priest in the worke of conversion winnes the soule to a willing obedience and that the Princes worke only by externall politicall terror which begets not virtutis amorem but only formidinem panae and therefore it seemes that the worke of the Minister and the Prince differ not only in order but also in kinde the one being far more spirituall and divine than the other I answer hereunto that if power doth only induce a servile feare of punishment and so cause of forcible forbearance of sin and if preaching only make a voluntary conquest upon the soule then by the same reason the power of Bishops as well as the power of Civill Magistrates is of lesse value than preaching but this none of our adversaries will agree to My next answer therefore is that Preachers in the wonderfull worke of regeneration are not in the nature of Physicall causes they are rather in the nature of the meanest instrumentall causes under GOD they are but as Vessels in the hand of Husband men from whence the seed Corne is throwne into the ground If the Corne fall into the furrow and there fructifie God opens and enlives the wombe of the Earth God sends showres and influence from Heaven God blesses the seeds with a generative multiplying vertue nay God casts it into the furrow from the mouth of the Preacher and as He uses the mou●h of the Preacher for the effusion of his grain so He uses the Princes power as his Plough to breake and prepare the ground and in this case the use and service of the plough is as Noble as that of the Bushell Neither is the office of Kings the lesse Glorious because they can use force nor Ministers the more Glorious because they may use none but ethicall Motives and allurements for power it selfe being a Glorious Divine thing it cannot bee ignoble to use it in Gods cause And therefore wee see Iosiah and other good Kings are commended for using compulsion and diverse other Kings which used it not for the removing of Idolatry and suppressing of the high places did grievously offend God and draw curses upon themselves and their subjects And whereas it is objected that force and compulsion restraineth only from the act of sin but restraineth not the will from the liking thereof We see common experience teaches us the contrary For Scotland Holland Denmarke Sweden Bohemia England c. Suffered great changes of Religion within a short space and these changes were wrought by the force of civill Magistrates and could never else without strange miracles from Heaven have been so soone compassed but these changes are not the lesse Cordiall and sincere because civill authority wrought them Authority it selfe hath not so rigorous a sway over the soules of men as to obtrude disliked Religions universally it must perswade as well as compell and convince as well as command● or else g●eat alterations cannot easily and suddainly bee perfected And in this respect the Proclamations of Princes become of●entimes the most true and powerfull preaching that can be and t is beyond all doubt that if preaching were as a Physicall cause in the act of regeneration of sinners or reformation of Nations yet the edicts and commands of Princes are sometimes more efficacious Sermons than any which wee heare from out our Pulpits For let us suppose that a considerable number of our Ministers were sent into Mexico or Perue to preach the Gospell of Christ amongst the poore blinde Savages could wee hope for so great successe thereby without the concurrence of some Princes there as we might if some of them would assist and joyne to advance the same word and doctrine by their wisdome and power which our Ministers should publish with their art and eloquence If we cast our eyes back upon former times also we shall see that before Constantine favoured Religion the Gospell spread but slowly and that not without a wonderfull confluence of heavenly signes and miracles wrought by our Saviour and his Disciples all which we may suppose had never bin in such plentifull measure shewed to the world had it not bin to countervaile the enemity and opposition of secular authority And it may be conceived that had the Caesars joyned in the propagation of CHRISTS Doctrine more might have beene effected for the advantage of Religion by their co operation than all Christs Apostles Bishops Prophets Evangelists and other Elders did effect by their extraordinary gifts and supernaturall endowments We see also that Constantines conversion was of more moment and did more conduce to the prosperity and dilatation of Christianity than all the labours and endeavours of thousands of Preachers and Confessors and Martyrs which before had attempted the same And to descend to our late reformations wee see Edward the sixth though very young in a short time dispelled the mists of Popish error and superstition and when no men were more adverse to the Truth than the Clergy yet He set up the banner thereof in all his Dominions and redeemed millions of soules from the thraldome of Hell and Rome In the like manner Queene Elizabeth also though a woman yet was as admirable an instrument of God in the same designe and what she did in England diverse other Princes about the same time did the like in many other large dominions whatsoever was effected by miracles in the hand of Ministers after our Saviour the same if not greater matters were sooner expedited by the ordinary power and wisdome of Princes when Ministers were generally opposite thereunto And as we see the spirituall power of Princes how strangly prevalent it is for the truth so sometimes we see most wofull effects of the same against the truth Religion was not sooner reformed by Edward the sixth than it was deformed againe by Queene Mary And though many godly Ministers were here then setled as appeares by their martyrdoms yet all those Ministers could not uphold Religion with all their hands so strongly as Queene Mary could subvert it with one finger of her hand onely One fierce King of Spaine bound himselfe in a cursed oath to maintaine the Romish Religion and to extirpate all contrary Doctrines out of his confines if many pious Ministers could have defeated this oath doubtlesse it had not so farre prevailed as it doth but now wee may with teares bewaile in behalfe of that wofull Monarchy that one Kings enmity in Religion is more pernicious than a thousand Ministers zeale is advantagious And by the way let all Princes here take notice what a dreadfull account of soules God is likely to call them to Fort is not the Clergy that are so immediately and generally responsible when Religion is oppressed or not cherished and when soules are misled and suffered to goe astray the abuses of the very Clergy it selfe will be only set upon the Princes account for according to

contrary and we will acknowledge the Function of Ministers to bee more venerable than any amongst men besides that which beares the sword the Embleme of Gods imperiall Majestie But to such as are Gods sword-bearers upon Earth we conceive Ministers ought to give place and pay subjection as humbly as any others The preminence of Kings we hold to be three ways manifest in order in measure and in kind In the very sanctity of the Priest-hood it selfe we conceive the ministration of Priests to be subordinate to Princes inasmuch as to superintend in the most religious affaires is due to Princes and to officiate only to Priests and to superintend is more than to officiate Secondly In measure we conceive Princes excell also in asmuch as in religious affaires such Priests have the charge of such flockes and such Bishops of such Priests but all both Bishops Priests and flockes are under the Kings charge And not only in religious affaires but in civill also the authority of Princes is both intensive and extensive many wayes where Priests may not at all intermeddle And though to governe Christians as Christians be the most transcendent honour of Kings yet to governe men as men and not only to governe but to governe well is a thing of divine impression Thirdly in kinde the regiment of Princes is far excelling for the regiment of Kings is a true proper regiment assisted with reall power decored with externall honour founded in the generall consent of men and blessed by the gratious influence of God but the rule of Priests is but ethicall or metaphoricall only its utmost vigor is but perswasive and is not at all coercive either inwardly or outwardly and that subjection which it challengeth is not to it selfe but to the Word and Sacraments whereto it selfe rendreth as much as it requireth from others This generall answer might suffice but to each particular Title we will briefly reply further Ministers they are GODS viz. to such as are under their cure but then as they are GODS to others so Princes are GODS to them Thus Moses was a God to Aaron though Aaron was a God to his inferiors Ministers are Stars but not in magnitude equall to the Sun neither is their light and influence so independent as the Suns Ministers are Angels viz. upon earth and their internall piety is like a shining rayment to them amongst men but they serve under Gods on Earth whose robes of Majesty are every way resplendent as well externally as internally Ministers are Embassadors but all Embassadors persons are not of the like honour nor all their Embassages of the like moment nor all their Commissions of the like extent and in all these respects Preachers are inferior to Princes being joyned to them as Aaron was to Moses for a spokesman or an Interpreter only Ministers are Rulers viz. quoad vim directivam but not quoad vim coactivam Ministers are Fathers viz. such as have been Gods instruments to regenerate us and so as Saint Ierome sayes they are the Fathers of our soules and perhaps as Chrysostome sayes in this respect they are more to be honoured than our naturall parents But Ministers alwayes and onely are not so our Parents and they that are so our Parents are not so physicall and selfe efficacious causes as our naturall Parents are but if they may challenge more honour than our fleshly Parents yet this advances them not above Kings who are both politicall and Spirituall Fathers also Fabius the Consull though he was to pay Honour and reverence to his naturall Father yet he was to demand a greater measure of the same from him being his politicall son and it did not mis-beseeme him to prefer the civill right before the physicall Yet Fabius here was a meere Magistrate and in that farre lesse glorious than our Christian Magistrates are Ministers are Stewards but not the highest in the house of God for Princes are Stewards also and only accountable to God but they are accountable to Princes themselves And as Stewards doe provide food for those by whom themselves are fed and manage only but one part of their Lords affaires so it is with Ministers under Princess Ministers are Pastors Leaders Teachers their Doctrine is their food wherewith they comfort the people their perswasion is the light wherewith they secure them from falling they feede by their exhortations and guide by their dehortations but all these are offices of a servant rather than priviledges of a Master and even in these offices they are subordinate also So the Pilot at Sea may have the safety of his Prince committed to his direction charge and rule So the Commander in Warre gives order for all affaires of the battaile assigning to the King Himselfe a fit station So the Iudge in matters of Law by his just decree bindes the right of his owne Master So the Physition limits and prescribes rules of diet and sets downe Lawes of exercise to his Soveraigne Lord In all these cases there is a kinde of Obedience due from Kings and that obedience implyes some kind of inferiority and yet this obedience of the King doth not drowne the higher and greater obedience of the Subject nor doth this inferiority contradict that which is of a farre other quality and degree In the selfe same manner also the Priest officiates in the Church perhaps before the King perhaps before his owne Metropolitan at this time in this place and in this office there is honour reverence and obedience due to him from the King and Metropolitan yet this doth not exempt him from that stronger and holyer tye of subjection awe and subordination by which he is alwayes bound to those which governe him in other things when Ambrose therefore sayes Honor sublimitas Episcopalis nullis poterit comparationibus adaequari and againe Nihil potest esse in hoc seculo excellentius Sacerdotibus nihil sublimius Episcopis reperiri wee answer if he here include Princes as having Episcopall power and a jurisdiction both over Priests and Bishops we agree hereunto but if he exclude Princes we exclude this from our beliefe And againe when he sayes if you compare Episcopall sublimity to the brightnesse of Kings or Diadems of Princes that of Kings and Princes will be more inferior than leade compared with gold we answer if he here intend the meere secular authority of Princes in things meerly temporall we suppose some mild construction may bee allowed but if he speake of the intire Soveraignty and Prerogative of Princes and put that as lead in comparison of the golden Miter we reject him as erroneous That which Chrysostome sayes that more awe is due to Priests than to Kings and Princes we admit also in this sense viz. to the Embassages of God in their mouthes not to their persons and those Embassages also and instructions we oppose to the meere civill Ordinances of Kings not to religious injunctions wherein Princes are sent with larger Commission than they are

perverted by private interest and that they are superior to all Christians under their charge yea grant them a right to make what Canons they please and grant them no power to compell obedience to the same and to punish disobedience to the same and this would take away peace and cause much mischiefe and disturbance every where and this we cannot thinke God would be the Author of How ridiculous are the Popes anathemaes to those which renounce his allegiance they seem to us but meere Epigrams sent abroad to provoke laughter And yet why doe they not appeare as ridiculous in Italy as in England were it not for common consent they were not in more force amongst Italians then Englishmen and there is no more true naturall vigor in the Popes Bulls to procure common consent in Italy then in England we may gather then from hence that there is no Ecclesiasticall Supremacie but founded upon the same basis of common consent as temporall supremacie is and being so founded it cannot be Divine or unalterable or above common consent so as to have any efficacie without much lesse against it That some Nations are gull'd and cozen'd out of their consents is no presedent for us for as many Nations are addicted to Mahomits commandes as are to the Popes and in this the dominion of Mahomet is as spirituall as the Popes and is as strong a case to over-rule us as the Popes for if consent were to be forced the Pope might as well force Mahometans as Christians and if it be free his Empire depends as much upon it as Mahomets They then that have erected a Spirituall supremacie not depending upon common consent have been in a great error and they that slight common consent as not capable of a spirituall supremacie seem to have been as much mistaken Many of our Divines say that Parliaments are temporall Courts and so not of spirituall jurisdiction and others say that they may as well frame acts to order the Hierarchie in heaven as to dispose of Ecclesiasticall things on earth both these seeme to me verry erroneous The Argument methinks is equally strong as God would not give a right to binde up other men by Statutes and Commandements but he would give some power withall to drive men by constraint to observe and yeeld obedience to the same so He would not indue any Prince or Court with such power but He would give a right of binding equall and congeniall to that power Princes of themselves are sacred as I have proved and spiritually sacred how much more then are they accounted sitting in Parliament and if Princes in Parliament how much more Princes and Parliaments for to Princes on their awfull Tribunalls is something more due then at other times but to Princes in Parliament there is most of all due in regard that there they are invested with more then their owne naturall power common consent having not derived all power into the King at any other time or in any other place but reserved much thereof till a full union be in Parliament besides setting aside the sanctity of power in Parliaments yet in regard that they are assisted with the best counsell of Divines so they ought not to be accounted meere Temporall Courts for what better advise can those Divines give out of Parliament then in Parliaments Some Parliaments in England have made some Ecclesiasticall acts excluso clerò nay that which was the the most holy act which ever was established in England viz. The Reformation of Religion was passed invito clero and when these things are not only legall but honorable shall we limit Parliaments in any thing wherein the votes of the Clergie are concomitant and concurrent with the Laytie Hooker sayes that the most naturall and religious course for the making of Lawes is that the matter of them be taken from the judgement of the wisest in those things whom they concerne and in matters of God he saies it were unnaturall not to thinke the Pastors of our soules a great deale more wise than men of secular callings but when all is done for devising of Lawes it is the generall consent of all that gives them the forme and vigor of Lawes This we allow of for the most part but wee conceive this to be understood of such Divines as in the judgement of Parliaments are omni exceptione majores for it was not unnaturall in the beginning of the Reignes of Edward the Sixth and Queen Elizabeth to thinke that the Lords and Commons were better Judges of Religion than the Bishops and the Convocation house as matters then stood in England For the whole body can have no sinister end or interest to blinde them but the whole Clergie which is but a part of the whole body may and therefore the whole body is to judge of this and when they see a deviation in the Clergie and observe the occasion of it they must not blindly follow blinde guides but doe according to that light which God hath given them And certainly it were contrary to that interest which every man hath in the Truth that any should be obliged to receive it from other mens mouths without any further inquiry or judgement made upon the same The meanest man is as much interessed and concerned in the truth of Religion as the greatest Priest and though his knowledge thereof be not in all respects equally easie yet in some respects it may be easier for want of learning doth not so much hinder the light of the Laymen as worldly advantage and faction sometimes doth the Priests Examples of these are infinite corruption in the Church before our Saviour and in our Saviours daies and ever since hath oftner begun amongst the greatest Priests Rabbers and Bishops than amongst the meaner Laitie And for this cause God requires at every mans hands an account what doctrine he admits what Lawes he obeys holding no man excused for putting blinde confidence in his ghostly Father and not taking upon him to weigh and try how sure his grounds were And if every private man stand so responsible for his particular interest in the Truth being equally great in the Truth shall not whole States and Nations whose interest is farre greater than their Priests or Bishops is give a sadder account to God if they leave themselves to be seduced by such men which are as liable to error as themselves If wee consider the meere matter of Lawes they are either profitable for the Church or not if they are profitable why should wee thinke that Princes and Parliaments want power to impose Lawes upon themselves for the availe of their owne soules they standing to God accountable for the same according to the greatnesse of their owne interest and if they are not profitable there is no obedience due to them whether Priests or Princes make them and that they be not profitable is equally doubtfull whether Priests or Princes make them Take then Lawes to be questionable as all