Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	ecclesiastical_a	king_n	supremacy_n	2,485	5	10.5338	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77238	A letter unto a person of honour & quality containing some animadversions upon the Bishop of VVorcester's letter.	Bagshaw, Edward, 1629-1671.	1662 (1662)	Wing B417A; ESTC R223492	8,516	16

A LETTER unto a PERSON of Honour Quality Containing some ANIMADVERSIONS upon the Bishop of Worcester's LETTER LONDON Printed in the Year 1662. Honourable and Worthy Sir I Am to thank You for the last piece of Divertisement you gave me in sending the Bishop of Worcester's Letter and I wish you would have let me enjoyed the satisfaction I took in reading it without obliging me to give You my sense upon it For besides my unwillingness to meddle in a Personal quarrell it will not I think be very safe for any to engage against so angry an adversary which I shall be thought to do though I resolve to speak nothing but Truth in the Character I intend to give of him And it is briefly this That in fewer leaves I never yet read more Passion which is so very predominant that his disorderly abrupt stile doth altogether partake of it so that the Bishops best way will be to get his Heat mistaken for Zeal for else it may justly be accounted something that hath a worse Name and which in the Dog-daies will be very dangerous This being Sir my Judgement upon the whole Letter You may well expect that I should make it good by an induction from particular instances but before I do this I must deal impartially and assure you that as to the main Controversie I think the Bishop hath much the better of Mr. Baxter For if the Question between them was as Dr. Gunning and Dr. Pearson do attest such a command is so evidently lawfull that I shall much wonder if Mr. Baxter did ever dispute it and till he doth clearly disprove that that was not the thing in Question I must needs think that he hath much forgot himself in making an Imperfect and Partial Relation Setting therefore aside the business of that particular Contest wherein You see how much I am inclined to favour the B●shop there are other things in his Letter of general concernment which I think liable to just Exception As First That he supposeth there is so strict an Union and so inseparable a Dependance between Kings and Bishops that they must stand and fall together and all who are enemies to the one must needs be enemies to the other I know very well this Axiom is much talked of and some advantage may be taken to confirm it from the event of our late Warres You know likewise Sir how much my Judgement is for the Order of Bishops and how Passionate a Lover I am both of the Kings Person and Government but yet being thus called by You to declare the truth though contrary to my own Humour and Interest I must needs say 1. It is clear from Story that Kings were in all parts of the world in their most flourishing Estate before ever Bishops were heard of and no reason can be given why what hath once been may not with the same terms of convenience be again 2. Bishops as they are by Law established in England are purely the Kings subordinate Ministers in the management of Ecclesiastical Affairs which his Majesty may conferre upon what order of men he pleases though they be as much Lay-persons as You and I are It is therefore very injurious to the Kings Authority to averre that He could not otherwise uphold and maintain it then by preserving the Undue and as some think Antichristian Dignity and Prelation of his inferiour Officers 3. Bishops are so little usefull to support the Regal Dignity which is founded upon a distinct Basis of its own that upon enquiry it will be found how none have been greater enemies to the True and Undoubted Soveraignty of Princes then some Bishops themselves for by their Officious and scarce warrantable intermedling in Civil Affairs by their Absurd and Insignificant distinguishing between Civil and Ecclesiastical Causes of which last they have alwaies made themselves sole Judges they mangle the Kings Authority and as to Church-matters which may be extended as far as they please they leave the King nothing of Supremacy but the Name The Pope of Rome therefore who is the great Father of all such Bishops hath improved this Notion and Distinction so farre that in ordine ad spiritualia he hath laboured to subject all Civil Empires unto his sole Jurisdiction So that if the Bishop of Worcester's Rule hold good of Crimine ab uno Disce omnes Pag 21. i.e. That all men who are of a Party may be judged of by the miscarriages of one then I must leave it to You to judge what all those Bishops that are of the Bishop of Worcester's complexion really drive at by the fatal example of that one Bishops Usurpation For Secondly That Assertion that the Bishop of Worcester and consequently every other Bishop is the sole Pastor of all the Congregations in his Diocess if it be●t all defensible Pag. 2 3. I am sure can be defended only by those Arguments which are commonly alleadged to maintain the Popes Supremacy over all Churches whatever For since a Bishop can no otherwise discharge his duty herein then by providing Substitutes what hinders but the Bishop of Rome may as well oversee a million of Churches as the B●shop of Worcester five hundred Since if Deputation be lawfull more or lesse compasse and circuit of ground doth not at all alter the case I forbear to urge how contrary this Practise is to the Doctrine of the Apostles both Paul and Peter I hope the Bishop will not take it ill that I do not call them Saints for these Holy men do not need any stile of Honour out of the Popes Kalender When Paul had sent for the Elders of the Church at Ephesus he bids them to feed the Church of God over which not he himself Act. 20 28. by his sole Authority as Bishop of the Diocesse but the Spirit of God had made them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Overseers 1 Pet. 5.2 or to use the proper stile Bishops And Peter commands his Fellow-Elders for so doth that Apostle condescend to call himself to feed the Flock which was among them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Overseeing or Acting the Bishops not like the Bishop of Worcester as Lording it over Gods Heritage but as Patterns of the Flock From which places we learn not only that those two so much controverted Names of Bishop and Presbyter are without distinction ascribed to the same Persons but likewise that whoever feed the Flock are under Christ whom the Apostle there stiles the Chief-Shepherd the next and immediate Pastors of the Flock and to extend the Pastoral Power beyond the actual care of Feeding is a Notion altogether unscriptural and likewise leaves us no bounds where to fix till we come to center upon some one Universal Pastor who may claim this Power over the whole world by the same parity of reason that a Bishop doth over one Diocesse Thirdly It seems to be a Light and to say no more unseemly trifling with sacred Scripture