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cause_n	ecclesiastical_a	person_n	power_n	3,185	5	5.2905	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77236	Several treatises of vvorship & ceremonies, by the Reverend Mr. William Bradshaw, one of the first Fellows of Sydney Colledge in Cambridge; afterward minister of Chattam in Kent, 1601. Known by his learned treatise De justificatione. 1. A consideration of certain positions archiepiscopal. 2. A treatise of divine worship, tending to prove the ceremonies, imposed on the ministers of the Gospel in England, in present controversie, are in their use unlawful. Printed 1604. 3. A treatise of the nature and use of things indifferent. 1605. 4. English Puritanism, containing the main opinions of the ridgedest sort of those called Puritans in the realm of England. 1604. 5. Twelve general arguments, proving the ceremonies unlawful. 1605. 6. A proposition concerning kneeling in the very act of receiving, 1605. 7. A protestation of the Kings supremacy, made in the name of the afflicted ministers, and oposed to the shameful calumniations of the prelates. 1605. 8. A short treatise of the cross in baptism.	Bradshaw, William, 1571-1618.	1660 (1660)	Wing B4161; Thomason E1044_5; ESTC R20875	92,680	129

from the Civil Communion of men so ought the Congregation of which he is a Member cut him off from all spiritual Communion with them If any one of the Ecclesiastical Officers themselves shall sin he is subject to the censures of the rest as any other member of the congregation If they shall all sin scandalously either in the execution of their Office or in any other ordinarie manner Then the Congregation that chose them freely hath as free power to depose them and to place others in their room If the Congregation shall erre either in choosing or deposing of her spiritual Officers Then hath the Civil Magistrate alone power and authority to punish them for their fault co compel them to make better choise or to defend against them those Officers that without just causes they shall depose or deprive 27. We hold that those Ecclesiastical Persons that make claim to greater power and authority then this Especially they that make claim Iure Divino of power and Iurisdiction to meddle with other Churches then that one Congregation of which they are or ought to be members Do usurp upon the Supremacy of the Civil Magistrate who alone hath and ought to have as we hold and maintain a power over the several Congregations in his Dominions and who alone ought by his authority not only to prescribe common Laws and Canons of uniformity and consent in Religion and worship of God unto them all But also to punish the offences of the several Congregations that they shall commit against the laws of God the policy of the Realm and the Ecclesiastical Constitutions enacted by his authority 28. We hold that the King ought not to give this authority away or to commit it to any Ecclesiastical Person or Persons whatsoever But ought himself to be as it were Archbishop and general overseer of all the Churches within his Dominions and ought to imploy under him his honourable Counsel his Iudges Leiftenants Iustices Constables and such like to oversee the Churches in the several divisions of their civil Regiments visiting them and punishing by their civil power whatsoever they shall see amiss in any of them Especially in the Rulers and Governers 29. For as much as no people are more hated persecuted and wronged of the wicked world then the true Churches of Christ We hold that no people in the Earth stand in more need of the civil Magistrate then they And that it is the greatest outward blessing they can injoy in this life to live under the Protection of their Swords Scepters the greatest cause of mourning when the same shall be bent against them And we hold those Churches to be no true Churches of Jesus Christ that living in any Country shall refuse subjection to the civil Regents and Governers of the same be they in respect of Religion never such Paganish Infidells 30. We hold it utterly unlawfull for any Christian Churches whatsoever by any armed force or power against the will of the civil magistracy and State under which they live To erect and set up in publique the true worship and service of God or to beat down or suppress any superstition or Idolatry that shall be countenanced and maintained by the same Only Every man is to look to himself that he communicate not with the evils of the times induring what it shall please the State to inflict and seeking by all honest and peaceable means all reformation of publick abuses onely at the hands of civil publicke persons and all practises contrarie to these we condemn as seditious and sinfull 31. All that we crave of his Majestie and the State is that by his and their permission and under their protection and approbation it may be lawfull for us to serve and worship God in all things according to his revealed will and the manner of all other reformed Protestant Churches that have made separation from Rome that we may not be forced against our consciences to stain and pollute the simple and syncere worship of God prescribed in his word with any humane Traditions and Rites whatsoever but that in Divine worship we may be actors only of those things that may for matter or manner either ingeneral or special be concluded out of the word of God Also to this end that it may be lawfull for us to exhibite unto them and unto their Censure a true and syncere Confession of our faith containing the main Grounds of our Religion unto which all other doctrines are to be consonant as also a Form of Divine worship and Ecclesiastical Government in like manner warranted by the word and to be observed of us all under any civil punishment that it shall please the said Majestie and state to inflict under whose authority alone we desire to exercise the same and unto whose punishment alone we desire to be subject if we shall offend against any of those Lawes and Canons that themselves shall approve in manner aforesaid and our desire is Not to worship God in dark corners but in such publick places and at such convenient times as it shall please them to assigne to the intent that they and their officers may the better take notice of our offences if any such shall be committed in our Congregations and assemblies that they may punish the same accordingly And we desire we may be subject to no other Spiritual Lords but unto Christ nor unto any other Temporal Lords but unto themselves whom alone in this Earth we desire to make our Judges and supreame Governers and Overseers in all causes Ecclesiastical whatsoever renouncing as Antichristian all such Ecclesiastical powers as arrogate and assume unto themselves under any pretence of the Law of God or man the said power which we acknowledge to be due only to the Civil Magistrate 32. So long as it shall please the King and civil State though to the great derogation of their own authority as we may have occasion hereafter to prove to maintain in this Kingdom the State of the Hierarchy or Prelacie We can in Honour to his Majestie and the State and in desire of peace be content without envy to suffer them to injoy their state and dignity and to live as brethren amongst those ministers that shall acknowlege spiritual homage unto their spiritual Lordships paying unto them all temporal duties of tenths and such like yea and joyning with them in the service and worship of God so far as we may do it without our own particular communicating with them in those humane Traditions and rites that in our consciences we judge to be unlawfull Only we crave in all dutifull manner that which the very Law of Nature yeeldeth unto us that for as much as they are most malicious enemies unto us and do apparently thirst either after our blood or shipwrack of our faith and consciences that they may not hence forth be our judges in these causes but that we may both of us stand as parties at the bar of

do any act of Religion or Divine service that cannot evidently be warranted by the same 2. They hold that all Ecclesiastical actions invented and devised by man are utterly to be excluded out of the exercises of Religion especially such actions as are famous and notorious Mysteries of an Idolatrous Religion and in doing whereof the true Religion is conformed whether in whole or in part to Idolatry and superstition 3. They hold that all outward means instituted and set apart to expresse and set forth the Inward worship of God are parts of Divine Worship and that not only all moral actions but all typical rites and figures ordained to shadow forth in the solemn worship and service of God any spiritual or religious act or habit in the mind of man are special parts of the same And therefore that every such act ought evidently to be prescribed by the Word of God or else ought not to be done it being a sin to performe any other worship to God whether External or Internal Moral or Ceremonial in whole or in part then that which God himself requires in his word 4. They hold it to be grosse superstition for any mortal man to institute and ordain as parts of Divine Worship any mystical Rite and Ceremonie of Religion whatsoever and to mingle the same with the Divine Rites and Mysteries of Gods Ordinance But they hold it to be high presumption to institute and bring into Divine worship such Rites and Ceremonies of Religion as are acknowledged to be no parts of Divine Worship at all but only of Civil Worship and Honour For they that shall require to have performed unto themselves a Ceremonial Obedience Service and worship consisting in rites of religion to be done at that very instant that God is solemnly served and worshiped and even in the same worship make both themselves and God also an Idol so that they judge it a far more fearfull sin to add unto and to use in the worship and service of God or any part thereof such mystical Rites and Ceremonies as they esteem to be no parts or parcells of Gods worship at all than such as in a vain and ignorant superstition they imagine and conceive to be parts thereof 5. They hold that every act or action appropriated and set apart to divine service and worship whether moral or ceremonial real or typical ought to bring special honour unto God and therefore that every such act ought to be apparently commanded in the Word of God either expresly or by necessary consequent 6. They hold that all actions whether Moral or Ceremonial appropriated to Religious or Spiritual Persons functions or actions either are or ought to be Religious and Spiritual And therefore either are or ought to be instituted immediately by God who alone is the Author and Institutor of all Religious and Spiritual actions and things whether Internal or External Moral or Ceremonial CHAP. II. Concerning the Church 1. THey hold and maintain that every Companie Congregation or Assembly of men ordinarily joyning together in the true worship of God is a true visible Church of Christ and that the same title is improperly attributed to any other Convocations Synods Societies combinations or Assemblies whatsoever 2. They hold that all such Churches or Congregations communicating after that manner together in divine worship are in all Ecclesiastical matters equal and of the same power and authority and that by the Word and will of God they ought to have the same spiritual Priviledges Prerogatives Officers Administrations Orders and Formes of Divine worship 3. They hold that Christ Jesus hath not subjected any Church or Congregation of his to any other superior Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction than unto that which is within it self So that if a whole Church or Congregation shall erre in any matters of faith or Religion no other Churches or spiritual Church-Officers have by any warrant from the Word of God power to censure punish or controle the same but are only to counsel and advise the same and so to leave their soules to the immediate judgment of Christ and their bodies to the sword and power of the Civil Magistrate who alone upon earth hath power to punish a whole Church or Congregation 4. They hold that every established Church or Congregation ought to have her own spiritual officers ministers resident with her those such as are injoyned by Christ in the New Testament and no other 5. They hold that every established Church ought as a special prerogative by which she is indowed by Christ to have power and liberty to elect and chuse their own spiritual and Ecclesiastical Officers and that it is a greater wrong to have any such forced upon them against their wills than if they should force upon men wives and upon women husbands against their will and liking 6. They hold that if in this choice any particular Churches shall erre that none upon earth but the Civil Magistrate hath power to controle or correct them for it And that though it be not lawfull for him to take away this power from them yet when they or any of them shall apparently abuse the same he stands bound by the Law of God and by vertue of his Office grounded upon the same to punish them severely for it and to force them under civil mulcts to make better choice 7. They hold that the Ecclesiastical Officers and Ministers of one Church ought not to bear any Ecclesiastical Office in another but ought to be tyed unto that Congregation of which they are members and by which they are elected into office And they are not without just cause and such as may be approved by the Congregation to forsake their Callings wherein if the Congregation shall be perverse and will not hearken to reason They are then to crave the assistance and help of the Civil Magistrate who alone hath power and who ought by his Civil Sword and Authority procure to all Members of the Church whether their Governors or others freedome from all manifest injuries and wrongs 8. They hold that the Congregation having once made choice of their spiritual Officers unto whom they commit the Regiment of their Soules they ought not without just cause and that which is apparently warrantable by the Word of God to discharge deprive or depose them but ought to live in all Canonical obedience and subjection unto them agreeable to the Word of God And if by permission of the Civil Magistrate they shall by other Ecclesiastical Officers be suspended or deprived for any cause in their apprehension good and justifiable by the Word of God then they hold it the bounden duty of the Congregation to be continual suppliants to God and humble suters unto Civil Authority for the restauration of them unto their Administrations which if it cannot be obtained yet this much honour they are to give unto them as to acknowledge them to the death their spiritual Guides and Governors though they be rigorously

even for the Divine Calling and Ordinance sake CHAP. V. Concerning the Censures of the Church 1. THey hold that the spiritual keyes of the Church are by Christ committed to the aforesaid spiritual Officers and Governors and unto none other which keyes they hold that they are not to be put to this use to lock up the Crowns Swords or Scepters of Princes and Civil States or the Civil Rights Prerogatives and Immunities of Civil Subjects in the things of this Life or to use them as picklocks to open withal mens Treasuries and Coffers or as keyes of Prisons to shut up the bodies of men for they think that such a Power and Authority Ecclesiastical is fit only for the Antichrist of Rome and the consecrated Governours of his Synagogues who having no Word of God which is the Sword of the Spirit to defend his and their usurped Jurisdiction over the Christian World doth unlawfully usurp the lawful Civil Sword and Power of the Monarchs and Princes of the Earth thereby forcing men to subject themselves to his spiritual vassalage and Service and abusing thereby the spiritual Keyes and Jurisdiction of the Church 2. They hold that by vertue of these Keyes they are not to make any curious Inquisitions into the secret or hidden vices or crimes of men extorting from them a confession of those faults that are concealed from themselves and others or to proceed to molest any man upon secret suggestions private suspition or uncertain fame or for such crimes as are in question whether they be crimes or no But they are to proceed only against evident and apparent crimes such as are either granted to be such of all civil honest men or of all true Christians or at least such as they are able by evidence of the Word of God to convince to be sins to the conscience of the Offender As also such as have been either publikely committed or having been committed in secret are by some good means brought to light and which the delinquent denying they are able by honest and sufficient testimony to prove against him 3. They hold that when he that hath committed a scandalous crime cometh before them and is convinced of the same they ought not after the manner of our Ecclesiastical Courts scorn deride taunt and revile him with odious and contumelious speeches eye him with big and stern looks procure Proctors to make Personal Invectives against him make him dance attendance from Court day to Court day and from Term to Term frowning at him in presence and laughing at him behind his back but they are though he be never so obstinate and perverse to use him brotherly not giving the least personal reproaches or threats but laying open unto him the nature of his sin by the light of Gods Word are only by donouncing the judgements of God against him to terrifie him and so to move him to repentance 4. They hold that if the party offending be their civil Superiour that then they are to use even throughout the whole carriage of their Censure all civil Complements Offices and Reverence due unto him That they are not to presume to convent him before them but are themselves to go in all civil and humble manner unto him to stand bare before him to bow unto him to give him all civil Titles belonging unto him and if he be a King and Supream Ruler they are to kneel down before him and in the humblest manner to censure his faults so that he may see apparently that they are not carried with the least spice of malice against his Person but only with zeal of the health and salvation of his soul 5. They hold that the Ecclesiastical Officers laying to the charge of any man any Errour Heresie or false Opinion whatsoever do stand bound themselves first to prove that he holdeth such an errour or heresie and secondly to prove directly unto him that it is an errour by the Word of God and that it deserveth such a censure before they do proceed against him 6. They hold that the Governours of the Church ought with all patience and quietness hear what every Offender can possibly say for himself either for Qualification Defence Apology or Justification of any supposed crime or errour whatsoever and they ought not to proceed to censure the grossest offence that is untill the Offender have said as much for himself in his defence as he possibly is able And they hold it an evident Character of a corrupt Ecclesiastical Government where the parties convented may not have full liberty to speak for themselves considering that the more liberty is granted to speak in a bad cause especially before those that are in Authority and of judgment the more the iniquity of it will appear and the more the Justice of their Sentence will shine 7. They hold that the Oath ex officio whereby Popish and English Ecclesiastical Governours either upon some secret informations or suggestions or private suspitions go about to bind mens consciences to accuse themselves and their friends of such crimes or imputations as cannot by any direct course of Law be proved against them and whereby they are drawn to be instruments of many heavy crosses upon themselves and their friends and that often for those Actions that they are perswaded in their consciences are good and holy I say that they hold that such an Oath on the urgers part is most damnable and tyrannous against the very Law of Nature devised by Antichrist through the inspiration of the devil that by means thereof the professors and practizers of the true Religion might either in their weakness by per jury damn their own souls or be drawn to reveal to the Enemies of Christianity those secret religious acts and deeds that being in the perswasion of their consciences for the advancement of the Gospel will be a means of heavy sentences of condemnation against themselves and their dearest friends 8. They hold that Ecclesiastical Officers have no power to proceed in Censure against any Crime of any Person after that he shall freely acknowledge the same and profess his hearty penitency for it And that they may not for any crime whatsoever lay any bodily or pecuniary mulct upon them or impose upon them any Ceremonial Mark or Note of shame such as is the white sheet or any such like or take any fees for any cause whatsoever but are to accept of as a sufficient satisfaction a private submission and acknowledgment if the Crime be private and a publike if the crime be publike and notorious 9. They hold that if a Member of the Church be obstinate and shew no signs and tokens of repentance of that crime that they by evidence of Scripture have convinced to be a crime that then by their Ecclesiastical Authority they are to deny unto him the Sacrament of the Supper And if the suspension from it will not humble him then though not without humbling themselves in prayer fasting and great demonstration

the removal of them and therefore he cannot be scandalized at the refusal when it is of meer conscience though of conscience deceived 2. The States and Inferiour Magistrates of the Kingdom have in all Parliaments shewed themselves willing and ready to set their hands to the removal of them 3. If the King and State will be scandalized because upon their meer will and pleasure I will not do that which I am perswaded will be a means of the destruction of their souls for whom Christ died They will be much more scandalized at me if I do it For such an obedience as this must needs be a means of begetting or confirming strange sins in their souls for as it is a kind of deifying of themselves To require even in the case of scandal a thing indifferent to be done so they that shall in such a case obey cannot but nourish exceedingly that corruption from which such a commandment shall proceed 4. The soul of the meanest and poorest in a Kingdom cost as great a price and is as dear to Christ as the soul of the Noblest and in the matter of scandal as great heed is to be taken to them as to any other And it shews of what spirit these men are of that think they may betray the souls of Christs little ones rather than displease a mortal man Object What Must the Magistrates Laws be changed for every humour that will pretend scandal Answ Yea such Laws as command only things indifferent in cases of general scandal are to be changed of particular scandal are at the least to be dispensed withall For if Laws that command things necessary are sometimes to be dispenced with and if of them it is said Extream right is extream wrong Much more then such Laws as require only such things as are indifferent 1. Such things that but for the Commanders pleasure makes no matter whether they be done or no. Which are indeed unworthy to be commanded of Worthies 2. A pretended scandal in humour is easily discerned by those that are wise and not malicious for they that are ready to performe all obedience to the Magistrate in all other heavier and greater things are ready in his Service to spend their goods and lives that think nothing too dear for the redeeming of his safety that are in all other things as obedient and more obedient than any other of his subjects It is not to be supposed of any that are not possest with the malicious spirit of Antichrist that such should refuse to obey the Kings pleasure in a toye and a trifle such as are all things indifferent except that in obeying him they were perswaded that they should sin against their own conscience which next unto God they have cause to please far above all the Kings of the earth for it hath greater power to torment them than they have But I prove the Assumption All apparent means of confirming men in Schism Superstition and Idolatry by means whereof many have professedly lived and died therein without repentance are apparent means of the damnation and destruction of many souls amongst us But These Ceremonies are such Ergo The Proposition cannot be denied for what action of man can be said to be a means of the damnation and destruction of anothers soul if these actions be not that confirm men in such foul sins So that either a man can do nothing that shall destroy his brothers soul which is directly against the express words of S. Paul Or else such a conformity in such actions as confirm men in such damnable sins doth destroy his soul The Assumption is as evident as any such matter can be For 1. The Papists not only amongst us which are innumerable but others also do profess that by our use of these Ceremonies which are consecrated mysteries of their own Religion they are confirmed in the truth of their Religion and the falshood of ours And good reason they have so to judge For if the broth be good that the Devil is sod in sure the Devil himself must needs be good also 2. Those Christians of the Seperation that are called Brownists being many hundreds professing the same faith that we do are by the retaining of Reliques confirmed in their Schism and Seperation from us And live and die in this opinion That our Churches are no true Churches and that a man cannot without sin communicate with them And the main ground of this is for that we mingle with Divine worship these base and vile inventions of men Yea of the accursed Antichrist What Is a linnen rag and a Christs Cross c. to be reputed of so great value and price that the fellowship and spiritual communion of so many Christians as sound in religion as any Prelate in the Realm should be contemned and rejected for them 3. Common experience teacheth us that there are infinite numbers in this Realm ignorant and superstitious folk that place as much or more holiness in these things than in the holy Ordinances of God And how can it be otherwise when they shall see the Rulers of the Church mingle Heaven Earth and Hell together in this manner about them Cursing and anathematizing all that shall not embrace them How can they but imagine that the sight of a Surplice upon a Priests back shall bring them to heaven when they shall see those that keep Heaven Keys send a man for want of such a wedding garment ipso facto to hell 4. If it be but considered that all other Protestant Churches have rejected them as menstruous cloaths that more than the greatest number of Pastors in our own Land that desires the name of faithful and painful Teachers either count them impious or at least the burdens or reproaches of our Churches that the first appointers of them after our seperation from Rome intended only a toleration of them that the most scandalous and leud persons in our Congregations are the hottest for them that every Parliament since her Majesties raign hath been forward in the removing of them that the defence of them hath driven men to run into the broching of many grosse and Popish errours And that so many Ministers a catalogue of whose names and states I could wish were published to all posterity that it may see the wonderfull milde and moderate government of Prelates have endured and expected daily to endure the gratest extremities for the same I say if these things be duly considered a man shall easily see that these ceremonies are stumbling blocks layd by the Devill and his Agents in the wayes of all the people of this Realm to hinder the progress of the Gospel and to make all men stumble in the wayes of salvation AN ADDITION NOt onely our Conformers unto Rome but they also that abhor the same can hardly endure to hear that these Ceremonies are parts of divine worship for whose further satisfaction I add this one Argument Whatsoever being used in divine worship is directly