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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	evil_a	good_a	sin_n	7,176	5	5.3331	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

of sorrow for him they are to denounce him to be as ye● no member of the Kingdom of Heaven and of that Congregation and so are to leave him to God and the King And this is all the Ecclesiastical Authority and Jurisdiction that any spiritual Officers of the Church are to use against any man for the greatest crime that can be committed 10. They hold that the Officers of the Church are not to proceed unto the extreamest Censure against any man without the free consent of the whole Congregation it self 11. They hold that the Minister or any other particular Officer offending is as subject to these Censures as any other of the Congregation 12. They hold that if any Member of the Congregation having committed a scandalous sin shall of himself forsake the Worship of God and the Spiritual Communion with the Church that then the Ecclesiastical Officers have no authority or jurisdiction over him but only the Civil Magistrate and those unto whom he oweth Civil subjection as Parents Masters Landlords c. CHAP. VI. Concerning the Civil Magistrate 1. THey hold that the Civil Magistrate as he is a Civil Magistrate hath and ought to have Supream power over all the Churches within his Dominions in all causes whatsoever and yet they hold that as he is a Christian he is a Member of some one particular Congregation and ought to be as subject to the spiritual Regiment thereof prescribed by Christ in his Word as the meanest subject in the Kingdom and they hold that this Subjection is no more derogatory to his Supremacy than the Subjection of his body in sickness to Physitians can be said to be derogatory thereunto 2. They hold that those Civill Magistrates are the greatest Enemies to their own Supremacie that in whole or in part communicate the virtue and power thereof to any Ecclesiastical Officers And that there cannot be imagined by the wit of man a more direct means to check-mate the same than to make them Lords and Princes upon Earth to invest them with Civil Jurisdiction and Authority and to conform the state and limits of the Jurisdiction to the State of Kings and bounds of Kingdoms 3. They hold that there should be no Ecclesiastical Officer in the Church so high but that he ought to be subject unto and punishable by the meanest Civil Officer in a Kingdom City or Town not only for common crimes but even for the abuse of their Ecclesiastical Offices yea they hold that they ought to be more punishable than any other Subject whatsoever if they shall offend against either Civil or Ecclesiastical Laws 4. They hold that the Civil Magistrate is to punish with all severity the Ecclesiastical Officers of Churches if they shall intrude upon the rights and prerogatives of the Civil Authority and Magistracy and shall pass those bounds and limits that Christ hath prescribed unto them in his Word 5. They hold that the Pope is that Antichrist and therefore that Antichrist because being but an Ecclesiastical Officer he doth in the height of the pride of his heart make claim unto and usurp the Supremacy of the Kings and Civil Rulers of the Earth And they hold that all defenders of the Popish Faith all endeavours of reconcilement with that Church all plotters for tolleration of the Popish Religion all countenancers and maintainers of Seminary Priests and professed Catholicks and all deniers that the Pope is that Antichrist are secret enemies to the Kings Supremacy 6. They hold that all Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans Officials c. have their Offices and Functions only by will and pleasure of the King and Civil States of this Realm and they hold that whosoever holdeth that the King may not without sin remove these Offices out of the Church and dispose of their Temporalities and maintenance according to his own pleasure or that these Offices are Jure Divino and not only or meerly Jure humano That all such deny a principal part of the Kings Supremacy 7. They hold that not one of these Opinions can be proved to be contrary to the Word of God and that if they might have leave that they are able to answer all that hath been written against any one of them FINIS TWELVE General Arguments Proving that the CEREMONIES Imposed upon the Ministers of the Gospel in England by our Prelates are unlawful And therefore That the Ministers of the Gospel for the bare and sole omission of them in Churh-Service for conscience sake are most unjustly charged of disloyalty to His MAJESTIE Mat. 18.23 If I have spoken evil bear witness of the evill but if I have spoken well why smitest thou me Printed in the Year 1660. To the Reader GOod Reader We come not as voluntaries into this field of Contention but dragg'd into it by the very hairs of our head If our cause be righteous and good Thou wilt easily grant in so great Imputations and Extremities inflicted upon us for the same that we can do no less than give reasons for our selves and it All the favour I require of thee is That thou wouldst look into our cause not by the flashing lighting 's that come out of the mouths of our Adversaries the Prelates but by the light of our own Reasons by which if thou shalt see the goodness of our cause and innocency of our persons than embrace it with us and in pity pray for us that without shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience we may endure patiently and meekly whatsoever God shall suffer to be inflicted upon us for the same in these wicked and licentious times THE FIRST ARGUMENT All Will-Worship is sin To use these Ceremonies in Church-Service in manner and form prescribed is a Will-Worship Ergo To use them is sin THE Proposition cannot be denied for the Apostle Paul plainly condemneth Will-Worship The Assumption may thus be proved All parts of Divine Service and Worship imposed only by the will and pleasure of Man upon the Ministers of Divine Service and that of necessity to be done is Will-Worship But to use these Ceremonies in manner and form prescribed is to use such Ceremonies as are 1. Parts of Divine Service and Worship 2. Imposed only by the pleasure and will of Men upon the Ministers of Divine Service 3. Of necessity to be done therein Ergo To use these Ceremonies in manner and form prescribed is a Will-Worship The Proposition is as clear as the Sun at noon-day The Assumption hath three parts 1. That they are parts of Divine Worship and Service This is proved evidently by this Argument All Mystical and Ecclesiastical Rites and formes of Divine Service instituted by Ecclesiastical authority to be Ministerial actions in the solemn Worship of God and performed in that manner and having that use in Divine Service that if God should but ratifie and confirm the same use they should then be parts of his true Worship I say all such Ceremonies are used as parts of Divine Worship But these Ceremonies

be denied 2. It is an Embleme of their own NO CEREMONY NO BISHOP Ergo No humane Tradition and Invention no Bishop Ergo The Office of a Bishop is supported by them either only or specially 3. Their Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction is derived from the King else it is a flat denial of his Supremacy Also themselves grant in their last Tables of Discipline That the King hath power to encrease or diminish the Circuit of a Bishopprick That he may make two or more Bishoppricks of one and one Bishopprick to be two or more Yea what should hinder but that he may devide the Bishopprick of London into eight hundred For where God hath not defined the number of Parishes that a Bishop is to raign over it must needs be a thing indifferent In which by their own Doctrines the King hath authority without sin to dispose If therefore the King may as well notwithstanding any thing in the Law of God Give the Keys of the Church to every particular Pastour of a Congregation over his own Congregation as to a Bishop over a Diocess which taketh away the very Essence of an English Bishop He may without sin take away the very Office of the Bishop which consists in having Jurisdiction over many Congregations Also it being not defined by the Word of God but left free what attire Bishops shall wear as also what maintenance they shall have The King having absolute power in things indifferent according to their own Doctrine He may turn them out of their Rochets and Parliament Robes Thrust them out of their Pallaces and put them to their stipends to live upon voluntary devotions of poor Christian People and then a man may easily imagine what the Office of a Bishop would be worth For he that hath authority to prescribe to a Bishop and other Ministers the Forms Rites and Ceremonies of their Divine Service hath also power much more to prescribe moderate and appoint their Apparel Diet and manner of maintenance So that it is clear That the King may without sin disanul the Authorities Dignities and Prerogatives of Bishops Any of which shall be if it be denied proved to be matters of greater indifferency and therefore more appertaining to his Supremacy than the prescribing of Forms of Divine Service and mystical Rites of Religion For let the King take from the Bishop all indifferent things which he may do by their own Doctrine and a Bishop will be no Bishop as shall be proved if it be denied 4. There is no true and sober Christians but will say that the Churches of Scotland France the Low-Countries and other places that renounce such Archbishops and Bishops as ours are as Anticristian and usurping Prelates are true Churches of God which they could not be if the Authority and Prerogatives they claim to themselves were of Christ and not usurped For if it were the Ordinance of Christ Jesus That in every Kingdome that receiveth the Gospel There should be one Archbishop over the whole Kingdome One Bishop over many hundred Pastors in a Kingdome and all they invested with that authority and Jurisdiction Apostolicall which they claim jure Divino to be due unto them and to reside in them by the Ordinance of Christ Certainly that Church that should renounce and disclaim such an Authority ordained in the Church cannot be a true Church but a Synagogue of Sathan For they that should renounce and deny such must needs therein renounce and deny Christ himself Thus the Assumption is cleared The eleventh Argument All Humane Traditions and Rites enjoyned to be performed in Gods worship as necessary to Salvation are unlawfull These Ceremonies in controversie being but Humane Traditions are enjoyned to be performed in Gods worship as necessary to Salvation Ergo These Ceremonies are unlawfull THe Proposition is freely granted of all our Adversaries hitherto If any hereafter by reason of some difficulties the cause may be thrust into by granting the same shall be so desperate as to deny the same we shall be ready to make it good at any time The assumption is thus proved Whatsoever Humane Tradition Ceremony or Action that may without sin or inconvenience to any part of the Worship of God be omitted in the same and yet notwithstanding are injoyned and urged as more necessary than those Actions that are by the Word of God necessary to Salvation I say such humane Ceremonies and Traditions are injoined as necessary to Salvation But these Ceremonies are such as may without any sin or any inconvenience to any part of the Worship of God be omitted in the same and yet notwithstanding are enjoyned as more necessary for Christians to do than those Actions that are necessary to Salvation by the Word of God Ergo These Ceremonies in controversie are injoyned c. as necessary to Salvation He hath no blood of shame running in his veins that will deny the Proposition The Assumption hath two parts The first is this That these Ceremonies are such as may without sin or any inconvenience to any part of the worship of God be omitted This is evident For 1. if they could not be omitted without sin in Divine Worship they were Divine and not Humane Ordinances For example Though to go clothed to the Congregation be a Civil action yet because it is a sin for any to go naked to the Congregation It is a Divine Ordinance That men should go clothed thither And in this case as in any other case of sin a man ought rather never Worship God publickly than to go naked to the Congregation For the omission of a Good Action is no sin when it cannot be done but by committing of a sin 2. Divine Worship consisting in Prayer the Sacraments and the Word no wit of man can shew wherein the bare omission of any one of these Ceremonies is inconvenient to any one of these parts for what inconvenience can a man that is not drunk with the dreggs and lees of Popish Superstition finde it to publick Prayer to be said in the Congregation without a Priests Surplice The omission of ordinary pawses and Accents points and stopps the suppressing of the voice or a loud hooping and hallowing out of the words or an undistinct sounding of them were such actions as common reason will teach are inconvenient for Prayer and so inconvenient that a man ought never to pray publickly in the Congregation as the voyce thereof that should by Canon be tied thereto And the Magistrate though there were no Canon to the contrary ought to turn such out of the Ministry that should omit such matters in prayer But for a Minister to pray without a Surplice can be in reason no more inconvenient than for him to pray without Book without a pair of spectacles upon his nose And there may be as good reason given to prove it convenient for a man that saith a thing without Book to put on a pair of Spectacles as there can be to prove it convenient for him

commanded by the Church are said not to be humane but Divine Constitutions binding conscience therefore they as they are urged are necessary to Salvation For all divine Constitutions binding conscience are necessary to Salvation or else nothing on our part can be said in any sence to be necessary thereunto 3. It is necessary to Salvation that men should not only worship God but worship him in a comely decent and orderly manner it being a matter of damnation to worship God in a confused unseemly and disordered manner but by the Doctrine of our Prelates comeliness decency and order consists in the use of these Ceremonies Ergo in their Judgment they are necessary to Salvation Objection The Church doth not intend to urge these things as necessary to Salvation Ergo They are not urged as necessary to Salvation Answ 1. The Church urgeth not these things at all but only three or four Bishops in the Church which if their own Doctrine be true are Usurpers over our Churches and not so much as any true members of a Church What if the Synod should Decree that the King should hold the Arch-Bishops stirrop and the Prince and Nobles kiss his toe once or twice a year and withall they should protest that they do not require this as a worship or honor to the Archbishop but only for comelinesse Order and Edification were not this a shamefull shift as bad as the thing it self The twelfth Argument All actions not required by the Word of God though commanded by humane authority that are apparent means of the Damnation of the Souls of infinite numbers of men are directly against the Law of charity and therefore sin But these Ceremonies are such Actions Ergo THE Proposition is without question For if without commandment from God I may upon the sole will and pleasure of the Magistrate or Governours of the Church do that by which I shall be a means of the damnation of my brothers soul which is the greatest breach of the law of charity that can be Then may I do any sin at their commandment without sin for what greater sin can there be against the second Table than this to be a witting Instrument of my Neighbours damnation Which though it be but a matter of Jest to our great Doctors that have many Cures and no care of souls yet to them which know the price of a soul it is more than if upon the meer will of the Magistrates they should be forced to kill their own Children and dearest Beloveds with their own hand Object The Magistrate having authority given him by God to command things Indifferent he commanding they are to be done notwithstanding the Scandal of our Neighbour Answ 1. Though the Subject ought to obey his Magistrate in all Indifferent actions imposed upon him whatsoever yet I desire that it may be proved that God in his Word hath given to any Power or Potentate upon Earth any such absolute authority The Magistrate is Gods Lieutenant and the glory of the Magistrate consists in this In that under God he beareth a Sword to punish those that transgress his Laws but he is by Gods Ordinance to be the procurer and protector of the Christian Liberty of his Subjects That therefore he hath power granted him of God upon his own pleasure to take away the same especially in such a case requires proof out of the Word of God 2. If he have such a power yet those things that God leaves to his will to command or not to command he cannot command under a greater penalty than bodily death for his Sword can cut no deeper and then in the case of Scandal a Christian Subject ought rather to suffer the Magistrate to take away his life than to do that which shall procure the Damnation of his Brothers Soul And in thus doing he is no contemner of the Magistrates Law but a fulfiller of the Law of Charity in not destroying his brothers Soul upon the meer pleasure of a mortal man Object But the commandment of the Magistrate takes away the scandal when the thing is done in obedience to him Answ This is another desperate shift As though the conscience of the weak brother that judgeth a thing indifferent to be a Sin will be ever the more satisfied and relieved in the matter by the authority of the Magistrate nothing but the authority of God either can or ought to satisfie a doubting conscience And as for them that put superstition in things indifferent and are that way scandalized the authority of the Magistrate or Church commanding them their scandal is encreased and not removed by the same Object But we must more respect Obedience to the Magistrate than the scandal of inferiour persons the thing commanded being indifferent and not evil Answ 1. The thing commanded is not indifferent then when it is a scandal and stumbling block to our brother 2. We must obey the Magistrate only in the Lord but this is not to obey him in the Lord only upon his pleasure to destroy a soul for whom Christ died 3. An obedience to the Magistrate so far as to the condemnation of our brothers soul must be a special obedience in some special good and just commandment which cannot be verified of a commandment that requireth only a thing indifferent much less such an indifferent as is a scandal and means of destruction to mens souls 4. Such a forbearing of obedience only in love to the salvation of our brothers soul being without apparent contempt of the Magistrate and having adjoyned with it a meek submission to the mercy of the Magistrate cannot be called a disobedience but is indeed a better obedience than theirs that do contrary who in their obedience bring the bloud of the souls they destroy both upon their own heads and the Magistrate which is a sin in the eyes of God worse than rebellion Object But by obedience to these Ceremonies many souls by means of preaching are saved which shall want the means in the refusal Answ 1. We must not destroy the souls of some that we may save the soules of other we must do that which is just though the World go to wrack for it 2. The greatest good that a man can do cannot countervail the least evil much less so great an evil as to be a witting instrument of the damnation of a brothers soul 3. He that preacheth cannot assure himself of the salvation of one soul by the same for that is wrought by the work of the Spirit of God And he hath little cause to hope for a blessing upon that preaching which he purchaseth with the price of bloud yea of the bloud of souls Object But the King the Magistrate and State are scandalized also at the omission of them and their scandal is more to be respected than the scandal of inferiour persons for the using of them Answ 1. For his Majesty we doubt not but if the Prelates would he would easily yield to

shall abuse it upon the Supream Majesty himself 18. If the King subjecting himself to spiritual Guides and Governours shall afterwards refuse to be guided and governed by them according to the Word of God and living in notorious sin without Repentance shall wilfully contemn and despise all their holy and religious Censures that then these Governours are to refuse to administer the holy things of God unto him and to leave him to himself and to the secret Judgement of God wholly to resign and give over that spiritual charge and tuition over him which by calling from God and the King they did undertake And more then this they may not do And after all this We hold that he yet still retaineth and ought to retain intirely and solidly all that aforesaid supream power and Authority over the Churches of this Dominion in as ample a manner as if he were the most Christian Prince in the World 19. We acknowledge King JAMES to be our onely lawful Sovereign and unto him to be due all the aforesaid Supremacy and we renounce and abjure all Opinions Doctrines Practises whatsoever repugnant or contrary to the same as Anabaptistical and Antichristian and wish they may be severely punished 20. We never refused Obedience to any Lawes or Commandements of the King or State whatsoever but onely to such as we have proved or are ready to prove if we might be heard with indifferency to be contrary to the Word of God And we are ready to take our Solemn Oathes before the Throne of Justice that the onely cause of our refusal of Obedience to those Canons of the Prelates for which we are at present so extreamly afflicted is meere Conscience and a fear to sin against God And that if by due form of reasoning we may be convinced in our Consciences of the contrary we are as willing as any Subjects in the Realm to Obey and Conform 21. We refuse Obedience onely to such Canons as require the performance of such Acts and Rites of Religion as are rejected and abandoned of all other Reformed Churches as Superstitious Disorders Such as are special Mysteries of the Romish Antichristian Idolatry Such as have been controverted in the Church ever since the last breaking forth of the Light of the Gospel out of the cloud of Popery in Luthers time Such as all Protestant Writers and Defenders of our Faith beyond the Seas and most of our own Country men have either in general or particular condemned as vain idle and unprofitable Such as all the Faithful and Painful Pastors of this Realm and in a manner all States and degrees of the same would be content were removed and swept out of the Church and for which few or none are zealous but the Prelates and their Adherents 22. We deny no Authority to the King in matters Ecclesiastical but onely that which Christ Jesus the onely Head of the Church hath directly and precisely appropriated unto himself and hath denyed to communicate to any other creature or creatures in the World For we hold That Christ alone is the Doctor of the Church in matters of Religon and that the Word of Christ which he hath given unto his Church is of absolute perfection containing in it all parts of the true Religion both for Substance and Ceremony and a perfect direction in all Ecclesiastical matters whatsoever Unto and from which it is not lawful for any Man or Angel to add or detract 23. We are so far from making claim of any supremacy unto our selves and those Ecclesiastical Officers which we desire that we exclude from our selves and them as that of which we are utterly uncapable all Princely and Lordly state pompe and power whatsoever holding it a sin for any whosoever to exercise no not by commission from the Magistrate any Authority over the Body Goods Lives Liberty of any Man whosoever for any crime or offence whatsoever So that any one of the basest and most inferiour civil officers in a Kingdom hath and ought to have in our Judgement more Authority and Power over men then any or all the Ecclesiastical Officers in the same Kingdom or in the whole World Yea we hold that the highest Ecclesiastical Officer in the Church ought to be as subject unto the basest civil officers in the Kingdom as the meanest Subject in the Kingdom And that they ought not by virtue of their office to challenge any freedom or immunity at all from any Civil Subjection whatsoever belonging to any common Subject 24. We confine and bound all Ecclesiastical power within the limits onely of one particular Congregation holding that the greatest Ecclesiastical power ought not to stretch beyond the same And that it is an arrogating of Princely Supremacy for any Ecclesiastical person or Persons whosoever to take upon themselves Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction over many Churches much more over whole Kingdomes and Provinces of Christians 25. We hold it utterly unlawful for any one Minister to take upon himself or accept of a sole Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction over so much as one Congregation And therefore we hold that some of the sufficientest and most honest and godly men in the Congregation ought to be chosen by the Heads of Families to be adjoyned in Commission as assistants to the Minister in the spiritual Regiment of the souls of that Congregation of which he is the pastor 26. We hold that these Ecclesiastical Officers being so chosen by the Church or Congregation are to exercise over the said Congregation only a Spiritual Iurisdiction and power consisting in a carefull oversight of the outward behaviour of the Members of their Church That it be not scandalous offensive and unbeseeming Christians And if any Member shall be delinquent they are brotherly to admonish him shewing him the nature of his crime by the word of God And if after two or three admonitions he shew no tokens of sorrow and penitencie then are they to deny unto him the pledges and seales of the Church to wit the Sacraments If this cannot humble him but that he continue obstinate in that sin then they are by the mouth of the Minister in Congregation the whole Church consenting freely thereto denounce him to be no Member of the Kingdom of Heaven and so forbear to have any further charge over him untill God shall work the grace of Repentance in him in this manner they are to proceed against all apparent and Evident crimes only as Murder Adultery Theft Blasphemie Ribaldery Lying Slandering Profanation of the Sabothes contempt of Divine Worship Disobedience to the Civil Magistrate c. Neither ought the extreamest of the Ecclesiastical Censures any whit hinder the course of justice that the Civil Magistrate is to exercise against the same crimes for if a Traytor himself should be penitent the Church ought to forgive him and lovingly to imbrace him as a Son but the Magistrate ought to execute him if he should be obstinate in that crime As the Magistrate ought to cut him off