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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	day_n	good_a	great_a	2,831	5	2.5730	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41500	Prelatique preachers none of Christ's teachers, or, A Disswasive unto the people of God from attending the ministry (so called) of those, who preach by verture of an (Apocryphal) ordination, received from an order of men, commonly stiled Lord Bishops wherein arguments are tendered to their serious considerations, by way of motive against that practice ... .	Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.	1663 (1663)	Wing G1192; ESTC R33795	80,325	88

Heavenly Glory So that one of these two Propositions must needs be yielded either that conversion for many ages by-past hath been wrought by other means and by another Ministry than that of a Prelatical descent and so not necessarily by this or in case this Ministry hath converted any that these upon their conversion have been required by God not to remain or sit still under it but to seek their edification amongst their Brethren in Assemblies of a beter complexion and from a Ministry of a more honourable and lawful extraction The former of these granted confirmeth the Argument in hand the latter the main cause we have undertaken 4. and lastly Concerning that great good Service in the cause of Religion which is pleaded to have been done in former dayes by the Ministry so much decried by us in this our Nation I confess that our great High Priest who is more able than Priests taken from among men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sufficiently to compassionate the ignorant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and those that are led out of the way Heb. 5. 2. did so far shew mercy unto some who in the simplicity and uprightness of their heart suspecting no evil in such an action comported I might say compounded with the Prelates for their Ministerial functions that he kept them faithful unto him in his work and vouchsafed them the great honour of co-operating with them to the bringing home of souls unto God But 1. The number of these was but small scarce exceeding the proportion of one of a City and two of a Tribe Out of the great Cloud of Prelatical Priests for their Ordination baptizeth them by that name nor are they offended at it Sathan rained upon the people Snares of Idolatrous and Superstitious conceits and practises without end and in these snares of death the feet of the greater part of the poor ignorant souls in the Nation are taken and held fast to this day Nor is it any breach of charity to conceive and think that for the greatest part of these Ministers were in their course of preaching more zealously bent to beget Sons and Daughters to the Church of England in their notion than unto God although possibly to allay all seeming hardness in the saying they might suppose that men and women being made the true Sons and Daughters of the Church of England were hereby made the true Sons and Daughters of God also For what may not Ignorance and Interest conspiring together suppose Doth not the Apostle speaking of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the Truth say that they supposed gain to be godliness admonishing Timothy to with-draw himself from men of such importune and unreasonable suppositions 1 Tim. 6. 5. But for the Church of England who shall live when either of her Sons or Fathers will be able to declare her Generation or satifie the world who or what kind of creature she is 2. Those few Ministers of the Prelatical Sanction whom Christ was pleased to separate from their fellows in blessing their labours to the begetting of Sons and Daughters unto God in the Nation were smoak in their noses and as thorns in the eyes of those who had intrusted them with a Ministerial employment being by them looked upon as a spurious and illegitimate brood of children and as walking contrary to the Interest both of the Spiritual Lords their Fathers and of the Lady the Church of England their mysterious Mother Yea for their laboriousness zeal and faithfulness unto God and men in the work of their Ministry which by reason of the success that God gave unto them in the hearts and affections of the people their Ghostly Fathers were not able or rather not willing to distinguish from Schism Faction Popularity c. they were evil entreated injuriously handled vexed with Summoners and Apparitors cited into their Courts where they must at their peril appear at the day and hour appointed how long and wearisome how unseasonable or expersive how tempestuous or dangerous soever their journey hither should be here to be falsely charged to be vilified and reproached before all that are present by Chancelors Commissaries c. persons who many times know not their right hand from their left in things appertaining unto God as meet to fit in judgement upon a learned and godly Minister as in the Greek proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as an Asse is to play upon a Harp and after all this were sometimes silenced or suspended deprived degraded imprisoned yea constrained through an experimental sence of the implacableness of these bloody avengers to commit themselves unto the Seas how inconvenient or dangerous soever either through age tenderness or weakness of constitution present indisposition of body or otherwise such journying were like to prove unto them and to seek for a Sanctuary in strange Lands So that the Ministers that with greatest zeal and faithfulness planted the saving knowledge of God and promoted the Interest of true Godliness in the Nation though being led out of the way by the false light of those times they owned the Prelates in their Usurpations by accepting their Office of Ministry from their unhallowed hands yet the Prelates soon after namely as soon as they saw or heard that they held a straight course in preaching the Gospel disowned them and took from them at least from many of them and their will was the same towards them all but that prudentials hindered the sameness of execution upon some by silencing and suspending them the exercise of that Ministry and so in effect the Ministry it self which they had conferr'd upon them So that by this time if we respect the reality of things rather than the rigour or formality of words the Ministers we now speak of were no Ministers of a Prelatical investure for they who had invested them devested them again Adde hereunto that which we may not only in charity but according to the guidance of reason it self suppose their conscienciousness and loyalty unto God in all other their wayes and actings considered that had they known or once suspected the great evil of putting their heads under Prelatical hands to receive an Evangelical function from them they would rather have suffered them to be taken from their shoulders as John Baptist's head was by the hands of the common Executioner This being so they were but in a very deminutive sense Ministers of a Prelatical Ordination nor ought they in reason to be simply or absolutely termed such For when the mind and will of a man are really set and bent against the doing of any thing whatsoever that is sinful in case he shall through ignorance or mistake do any thing which is sinful this action is imputable unto him onely in the letter not in the spirit of it For so far as his will stood against it and was not consenting to it that is or as far as it was sinful it was not properly or in a moral and equitable consideration

affections towards the Saints chusing for their bosome converse persons whom they judge most able and willing withal to justifie them in their Apostacy and to maintain the Prelatical cause from the one end to the other with greatest zeal and dexterity they become self-willed self-conceited boasting of their knowledge imputing it to the weakness and ignorance of all others that they do not sacrifice at the same Altars with them or that they scruple question or condemn any thing which they allow and practise In a word these Crow-trodden professors let the Metaphor offend no man by offering and suffering their judgments and consciences to be ridden by a Prelatical Clergy become in time not only transform'd into an uncouth strange and hard favour'd kind of Christian much unlike unto themselves when and whilest they consorted with the Sons and Daughters of God and drank of the same waters of life with them but for the most part so intoxicated also besotted and bewitched with their new wine that they seldom or never recover that lovely image of God wherein they formerly appeared to the comfort and joy of many a precious Soul For that which Solomon saith concerning the woman which forsaketh the Guide of her youth and forgetteth the covenant of her God namely that none that go unto her return again Prov. 2. 17 19. may be said of those that turn aside to a Babylonish Ministry God in judgment poureth out upon them the spirit of deep sleep and closeth their eyes Esa 29. 10. so that they hardly ever awake out of the snare until they dye CONSIDERATION XVIII Nor falleth it much short of a Demonstration of the Evil or sinfulness of that Way from which by many Arguments we have disswaded already that so much secular violence hath been and still is imployed to compel and force all men into it How did the Prelates heretofore before the great mountain of their power and glory was removed by the late King and Parliament turn every stone of tyranny cruelty and oppression to constrain both men and women to keep their Parish Churches What troups of Summoners and Apparitors were levied up and down the Nation to hunt out and pursue like Blood-hounds all both male and female bond and free whose Judgements were too full of Light their Consciences of Goodness to drink of the waters of those polluted Cisterns which they had hewn out chusing rather some of them to worship God chastly and purely even with two or three gathered together in the name of Christ amongst whom he hath promised his presence Mat. 18. 20. although in such an attempt as this they exposed themselves to the danger of being with Daniel cast into the Lyons Den I mean of being brought into their High Commission or some of their Antichristian Consistories many I say chusing this rather than without any such danger to communicate with the Parish Assemblies either in their adultrous worship or idol ministry and of late since their deadly wound was almost healed how have they by their sorceries insinuated and prevailed with the Legislative Powers of the Nation only to legitimate Ministers of their spurious brood and conformity and to disinherit all others of their functions as if they were basely descended because they do not call them Fathers and not only this but by several penalties also to restrain all assemblings of men for the Worship of God and their Christian Edification excepting only in consort with such Congregations where they shall be necessitated to hear such Teachers only who bring their office of teaching from under their hands Thus doth the spirit of Prelacy in conjunction with an arm of flesh with the powers of this world instead of those of the world to come labour in the very fire to bring the whole trade of hearing to the shops of their journey-men be their wares never so braided sleight or deceitful and this verifieth the saying Superbia appetitum habet unitatis omnipotentiae i. e. The Pride of man greatly affecteth unity and omnipotency Now it can hardly be shewed that ever the real interest of the Gospel or true Christianity endeavoured their advancement or promotion in the World by threatning or inflicting secular punishments as Fines Confiscations Imprisonments Banishments Deaths or the like upon those who refused to comply with them but upon their service and for their gaining upon the world rather offered and exposed their own proselytes and friends upon all occasions to the suffering of these things from the world Whereas on the contrary it is well known that Idolatry Superstition and false Worships almost in every kind in all ages for the enlargement of their quarters and for encreasing the number of their Proselytes have according to their strength warred after the flesh in the Apostles phrase and pleaded their cause with Fire and Sword and all manner of outward severities against those that refused compliance with them By how authoritative and bloody an Act of Uniformity did King Nebuchadnezzar endeavour a universal concurrence of all within his vast Dominions to joyn with him in his Idolatrous Worship of the Golden Image which he had set up Then all his Princes and great Officers of State being summoned together and present an Herald cryed aloud To you it is commanded O People Nations and Languages That at what time ye hear the sound of the Cornet ye fall down and worship the Golden Image which Nebuchadnezzar the King hath set up And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace Dan. 3. 4 5 6. And when only three persons in his Dominions were accused as Nonconformists to this his Decree with what fierceness of indignation doth he proceed against them First In his rage and fury he commanded to bring them before him Being come he himself examined them or rather expostulated with them about the crime laid to their charge as if it had been an high affront put upon him or an undervaluing of his Majesty and Power Is it true O Shadrach Meshach and Abeduego Do ye not serve my gods nor worship the Golden Image which I have set up Even as our Prelates and great men of their Inspiration count it an insufferable disparagement and reproach unto them when persons of meaner rank in the World judge it not safe or well-pleasing unto God to worship him after the same mode with them as with the same Ceremonies the same Gestures or Postures of body in the same places and assemblies the same I mean in nature or kind and especially with the same Liturgies and forms of Prayer when they shall authoritatively solemnly and with a borrowed visor of gravity and devotion impose all this upon them When the King having re-minded the said three Servants of God of the tenour of his Decree concerning the worshipping of his Golden Image and threatned them with the heavy doom therein expressed in case they should persist in their

Interest under some Religious pretence one or more in the Christian world he is pleased likewise to suffer the plausible pleas and pretences of this Interest together with the large portion of worldly accommodations which it promiseth unto those that shall espouse it so to dazle and blind the eyes of the reasons judgements and consciences of some wise learned and good men all along the continuance of it that they shall not see the evil of it nor yet be convinced hereof by those who do see it most clearly but shall cleave fast and close unto it and stand up in their might to justifie and plead the cause of it It is said that the eyes of the two Disciples travelling to Emaus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 24. 16. were mightily or powerfully held by reason whereof they did not know the Lord Christ though present with them in his proper countenance and face with which they were so familiarly acquainted only as it seems by what Mark affirmeth Chap. 16. 12. he was somewhat disguised in his apparel yet all this while their eyes were as open to see and discern all other objects but onely the face of Christ as at other times In like manner the eyes of the minds and understandings even of men piously-learned and grave may upon Gods withholding his wonted concurrence with them in reference to the discerning of such and such particular Truths be so deluded captivated and bewitched with the false colours and appearances of truth in the contrary-errors that they will without fear or scruple embrace these yea and with an high hand of confidence and importunity rise up to justifie and maintain them when as they may all this while approve themselves for men of an exact judgement and discerning spirit between truth and error in other cases Men of this Character or at least seemingly such I mean holy and good men generally quick-fighted but particularly blinded generally have been and are at this day the main Props and Supporters of all those adulterate and Anti-Evangelical Interests and Combinations of men which are found in the Christian world although I make a little more question whether they also were such who were the first Founders and Authors of them Such persons as these now and then found within the Territories of the Romish profession have been and are the breath of the Nostrils of that Religion Such as these taking part with the Admirers of and Contenders for the Common-Prayer-Book prescribed Liturgies c. Keep life and soul together in this party of men amongst us Some such persons likewise have incorporated themselves with that body of men who dote upon the Prelatical Hierarchy as if it had either Scripture or sound Reason to friend or both are helpers in chief to prolong the days of that Interest which otherwise would soon be Aposynagogized by the Christian world And were there not some persons of the Character mentioned in the numerous retinew of those who flatter Christian Princes into formal Antichristianisme by teaching them to lay claim to both Swords as well the Spiritual as the Temporal neither would this Generation or Sect of men lift up their heads at that rate of height and confidence which now they do It were easie to adde many more instances if need were But by what hath been lately and formerly discoursed in these papers it plainly appeareth that the holy and good men who have interessed themselves in the cause of Prelacy and avouched the descent of it from the Great Apostle and High Priest of Christian Profession by accepting their Office of Ministry from it are they who have compassion on it as the Ziphims had on Saul when he persecuted David 1 Sam. 23. 21. and in and by the exercise of their Ministry are the chief Contributers towards the maintenance of the life of it in the world Therefore those worthy qualifications of holiness and goodness in such Ministers are so far from being any reasonable Grounds or Motives unto Christians to strengthen their hand in the way of their present standing and relation unto Prelacy by a consciencious attendance on them in their Ministry that the evil tendency of this Ministry considered they are rather grand dissuasives herefrom For strike the shores and props from under a crazie and tottering building the fabrique will soon fall as flat as the walls of Jericho to the ground Sathan by none of all his other Methods or Devices is able to consult the peace of his Kingdom upon such terms of advantage as by tempting holy and good men with secret overtures or promises of enjoying the goodly and great things of the world to fall down and worship him Nor hath God any means more proper to weaken this Kingdome and prepare it for destruction than by opening the eyes of his Servants that darkness be no longer for a Vision unto them and that they hasten out of Babylon which whilest their eyes were held they verily thought to be Jerusalem Argument IV. But God himself hath from time to time given testimony to that Ministry which you would perswade us to decline as being unlawful by granting the conversion of many souls unto himself to be wrought by it together with the edification of many formerly converted in their most holy Faith Yea he hath done much good by it in both these kinds in this very Nation since he brake the yoke of Romish subjection from off the neck of it Or doth not such a gracious concurrance or co-operation of God as this with a Ministry amount to as much as the setting of his Seal unto it that it is true and such wherein he delighteth the Apostle Paul writing thus to the Corinthians For the Seal of mine Apostleship are ye in the Lord 1 Cor. 9. 2. Can it then it be unlawful for Christians to here such Ministers whom God himself-countenanceth and blesseth in their work Answer 1. That voice from Heaven that is from God Come out of her my people meaning out of Babylon the Mother of fornications Rev. 18. 4. sheweth that there may be conversion of Souls even in Babylon and this as seems not improbable by the Spurious Ministry that is exercised here It is no wayes like that those persons whom God by the Name of his people warneth by a voice from Heaven to come out of Babylon were his People that is truly regenerate and believing before they entered into Babylon and that afterwards they went and took up their dwellings here If conversion may be wrought by a Babylonish Ministry it is a clear case that it is not universally and in all cases a convincing proof of a legitimate and true Ministry And therefore whereas the Apostle termeth the Corinthians the seal of his Apostleship it was not simply or so much in respect of their conversion by him unto the Faith but rather in respect of the extraordinary manner and high hand of divine power which appeared with him and in him for their conversion