Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	faith_n	grace_n	work_n	6,088	5	6.2038	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A68614	The unbishoping of Timothy and Titus. Or A briefe elaborate discourse, prooving Timothy to be no bishop (much lesse any sole, or diocæsan bishop) of Ephesus, nor Titus of Crete and that the power of ordination, or imposition of hands, belongs jure divino to presbyters, as well as to bishops, and not to bishops onely. Wherein all objections and pretences to the contrary are fully answered; and the pretended superiority of bishops over other ministers and presbyters jure divino, (now much contended for) utterly subverted in a most perspicuous maner. By a wellwisher to Gods truth and people.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1636 (1636)	STC 20476.5; ESTC S114342	135,615	241

neighbour-Countries compared with Isay 5 12. 13. c. 22. 12. 13. 14. c. 32. 13. 14 Amos 6. 1. to 12. Exod. 32. 19. to 35. 1. Cor. 10. 5. 6. 7. ●am 5. 1. 5. 6. Revel 18. 7. 8. and many presidents cited in a late Tract against Stageplayes and enterludes will put it out of doubt Of the latter part of this Quaere there can be no question unlesse the Bishops be very unnaturall to love a stranger better then their own Foster-mother and weavers Clothiers more then Schollers If then excessive Feasting Masking Enterludes Dauncing and Epicureanpomp the very workes of the ●lesh and therefore most unseemely of all others for those who terme themselves spirituall men yea workes that shut men out of heaven and therefore not fit for those who professe they have the keyes to let men into heaven bee more pestiferous and apt to bring the Pestilence then Preaching and Oxford to be preferred before Dedham what is the reason that our great Lordly Prelates in these dangerous times of mortality when as they should be all in sable fasting praying weeping and mourning with the people of their Diocesse and refreshing their starved bodies with that prodigall expence they have there cast away have to the great ill example of all other people grieving of the soules of all who are sensible of the Plagues we now grone under beene so lately setting up and practising the one at Oxford to draw the Pestilence thither and putting down the other at Dedham to keep the Pest from thence When as sundry Councels in all ages have strictly inhibited Bishops and Ministers neither to be Exhibiters setters out or spectators but diligent suppressors yea censurers of the one especially in mournfull times of Plague Mortality which summon all men but Gods Ministers above others to weeping sackecloath and baldnes to turne their laughter into heavines and their joy into mourning and instant both by preaching and Ecclesiasticall Censures to draw all men from them but furtherers and setters up of preaching yea of preaching twice a day and that principally in times of humiliation which they now suppresse Alast is the piety zeale of those Lordly Pontificians who will needs claime all their Episcopalities by a divine right degenerated to this Epicurian resolution let us eate and drink let us Maske and Play let us feast and keep Revell-route for to morrow wee shall die Are these the sermons the good instructions they preach to King Queene Nobles Ministers Schollers People in these pestilentiall times Must they be feasting banquetting laughing masking playing piping dauncing when all others are weeping fasting mourning at leastwise gladly would be so and that in publike as they have reason were it not for them certainly if S. Bernard were now alive and saw such Prelates he would be so farre from thinking them Gods Bishops that he would undoubtedly define them to be the Devils yea and stile them Devils too and murtherers of mens soules Who having now taken the highest degree at the Vniversity that ever the Schooles of Bacchus Venus or Epicurus can afford them may be rather deemed their professed Chaplains then Christian Bishops Yet mistake me not as if I thought it unlawfull for a Prelate or Vniversity to entertaine their Prince farre be it from me or any other to harbour such a thought But to doe it now at such a time in such a Pontificall Epicurian maner with most prophane and impious Enterludes in contempt and derision of all purity piety and religion is the onely thing which not I alone but the whole Kingdome generally crie shame on banquetting masking feasting Revelling being altogether unsuitable if not unlawfull to a Christian a Prelate a Vniversity in a time of such generall weeping and mourning when most hearts but stony ones are sad and many poore mens faces gather blacknes even for very hunger with which too many perish whose lives this prodigality would have preserved Seaventhly If the Bishops have so much fatherly care to keep off the plague from our Precissians and Puritans of Dedham so they tearme us as to put downe our Lecture yea Sermons on the very-solemne Fast-day where there is any infection as if the sick needed least spirituall phisick and instruction to keep us from the Plague what is the reason they have so little care of those of our Religion and profession whom they have mewed up in severall prisons in London Why have the Priests and Iesuites in the Gatehouse and elsewhere though Traytors to his Maiestie and the Realme and some of them condemned men with all other prisoners there liberty granted them to goe abroad this time of Pestilence and yet D. Bastwicke convicted and censured onely for shewing himselfe a true subject to his Soveraigne in defending his Majesties Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction against the Popes and your encrochements with other of your High-commission Prisoners no leave at all to retire himself into the fresh ayre for his safety It being now as it seemes a great deale better to be an open Traytor to his Majesty or the State then a meere opposite onely to these our Lordly Prelats even in their intollerable usurpations both upon his Majesties Royall Prerogatives and his subjects liberties Why have you given speciall command that Mr. Brewer committed close prisoner by you to the Kings bench for the same cause should there be detained still and not remoove with the other prisoners when as he had obtained licence to goe into Oxfordshire with his fellow prisoners that so the plague which environs both those prisons might sweep away both these Prisoners and ease you of them Why doe you still detaine others of your commitment in these and other prisons of purpose to murther them as much as in you lieth with the pest when all else that are willing are set free and walke abroad into the Country for their health Why detaine you D. Layton in the Fleet and Mr. Prinne in the Tower notwithstanding some Nobles mediation for the enlargment of the one and the Queenes most gracious intercessions for the other whose Princely clemency and pitty to those of a different religion is an everlasting foyle to your unchristian mercies and barbarous inhumanity to those of your owne faith and profession Is this your Episcopall pitty mercy grace and goodnes that when all men else can find favour and reliefe yet those whom you unjustly persecute restraine or malice without cause must finde none at all no not though King or Queene desire it What is your Pontificall malice now swollen greater then their Royall grace and goodnes Never therefore dissemble more with the world and us that you have put downe our Dedham or other Lectures out of any love to us or care of our or their safety as you pretend to keep the pestilence from us or them but confesse you have done it out of the malice of your hearts against preaching if not to bring the plague and

writes thus For this cause the Apostle saith Hee that desires a Bishopricke desires a good worke Hee would expound what a Bishopricke is it is a name of labour not of honor For it is a Greeke word and derived from hence that hee who is made an Overseer overseeth those over whom hee is set namely by taking care of them For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is over but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is intention overseeing or care therefore if we will render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine we may say it is to play the Superintendent that hee may understand that hee is not a Bishop who delights to be over others but not to profit them On which words Ludovicus Vives thus Comments The name of a Bishop is derived either from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to consider or from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth the same and to visit Whence S●idas saith there were some sent from the Athenians to the Cities under them who should looke into their affaires and these were called Bishops that is as it were Overseers or Visitors and Observers In Holy Scriptures a Bishop is commonly called a Watchman as in Ezekiel 3. 17. c. 33. 2. 6. 7. and in Hosea 5. 1. The Lord complaineth that the Bishops were made a snare on Mizpah or in the watch tower and a net spread upon Tabor as if hee had spoken of the Bishops of this age who lay snares in their Bishoprickes and large nets to catch many but not with thinne holes or threades least the gift should swim thorough yea now it is so provided by the diligence and wits of certaine men that without evasion of this Law a Bishopricke may not onely be lawfully desired but likewise bought and sold S. Chrysostome in his 10. Hom. upon the 1. Tim. S. Hierom in his Epistle to Evagrius Beda on the 1. Pet. 2. 25. Anselme on Phil. 1. 1. Aquinas secunda secundae Qu. 184. Art 6. Petrus de Palude de Potest Coll. Apostol Art 1. all cited by Bishop Iewell in the Defense of the Apologie of the Church of England part 6. c. 2. Divis 1. p. 523. and S. Bernard also de Consideratione ad Eugenium l. 2. 3. joyntly resolve that a Bishop is nothing else but a Superintendent Watchman or Overseer and that hee is called a Bishop from hence that hee overseeth survaieth or watcheth over others with which all other ancient and moderne writers whether forraigne or domestique Papists or Protestants accord Heare onely Doctor Iohn Ponet Bishop of Winchester in his Apology against Doctor Martin in defence of Preists mariage c. 4. 5. p. 44. 52. 53. 54. who as hee there expresly reckons up Popes Cardinals BISHOPS Preists Monkes Canons Friers c. to be the Orders of Antichrist taxing them likewise severely and comparing them with the Eustathian heretickes for refusing to weare usuall garments and putting upon them garments of strange fashions to vary from the common sort of people in apparell So hee thus determines of the name Bishop and Superintendent And further whereas it pleaseth Martin not onely in this place but also hereafter to est at the name of Superintendent hee sheweth himselfe bent to condemne all things that be good though in so doing ●ee cannot avoyd his open shame Who knoweth not that the name Bishop hath so beene abused that when it was spoken the people understood nothing else but a great Lord that went in a white Rochet with a wide shaven Crowne and that carrieth an oyle boxe with him where hee used once in 7. yeare riding about to confirme children c. Now to bring the people f●●m this abuse what better meanes can be d●v●s●d then to teach the people their error by another word out of the Scriptures of the same signification which thing by the terme superintendent would in time have beene well brought to posse For the ordinary paines of such as were called superintendents should have taught the people to understand the duty of their Bishop which you Papists would faine have hidden from them And the word Superintendent being a very Latine word made English by use should in time have taught the people by the very Etymology and proper signification what things was meant when they heard that name which by this terme Bishop could not so well be done by reason that Bishops in the time of Popery were Overseers in name but not indeed So that their doings could not teach the people their names neither what they should looke for at their Bishops hands For the name Bishop spoken amongst the unlearned signified to them nothing lesse then a preacher of Gods word because there was not nor is any thing more rare in any order of Ecclesiasticall persons then to see a Bishop preach whereof the doings of the Popish Bishops of England can this day witnesse but the name superintendent should make him ashamed of his negligence and afraid of his idlenes knowing that S. Paul doth call upon him to attend to himselfe and to his whole flock of the which sentence our Bishops marke the first pecce right well that is to take heed to themselves but they be so deafe they cannot hearken to the second that is to looke to their flock I deny not but that the name Bishop may be well taken but because the evilnes of the abuse hath marrid the goodnesse of the word it cannot be denied but that it was not amisse to joyne for a time another word with it in his place wherby to restore that abused word to his right signification And the name superintendent is such a name that the Papists themselves saving such as lack both learning and wit cannot finde fault withall For Peresius the Spaniard and an Archpapist out of whom Martin hath stolen a great part of his Booke speaking of a Bishop saith Primum Episcopi munus nomen ipsum prae se fert quod est spperintendere Episcopus enim Superintendens interpreta 〈…〉 visitans aut supervidens c. That is to say The cheife office of a Bishop by interpretation signifieth a Superintendent a Visitor or an Overseer Why did not Martin as well steale this peece out of Peresius as hee did steale all the common places that hee hath for the proofe of the Canons of the Apostles and of Traditions in his second and third Chapters Martin in the 88. leafe is not ashamed in his Booke to divide the significations of the termes Bishop and Superintendent as though the one were not signified by the other But it may be that Martin as the rest of the Popish Sect would not have the name of Superintendent or Minister used least that name which did put the people in remembrance of sacrificing and bludsapping should be forgotten Since therefore this Title B●shop is thus promiscuously used both in prophane and Christian writers and in the Scripture it selfe for any Officer Overseer Survayer Superintendent Watchman Guardian Pastor or Keeper

Lords flocke for whom hee shed his blood AND NEVER THEIR LABOVR CARE AND DILIGENCE HEREIN untill they had done all that lyeth in them according to their bounden duety to bring all such as were or should be committed to their charge unto that agreement of faith and knowledge of God and to that ripenes and perfectnes of age in Christ which none of them hath yet done that there should be no place left among them neither of errour in Religion or for viciousnes of life and that for the same cause they should and would forsake and sett aside as much as in them lyeth all worldly cares and studies and give themselves WHOLLY to this thing and draw all their cares and studies this way and to this end and that they should and would preach and be faithfull dispensers of Gods Word in their Congregations which charge being layd upon them by the Bishop at their ordination in the name of Christ by the whole Church and State of England and the Booke of Ordination confirmed by three severall Acts of Parliament the 8 Canon and their owne subscriptions to it and they particularly promising in a most solemne maner to performe it to the ●ttermost of their power How any Bishop can by Law suspend them from preaching as long as they continue Ministers and are not actually degraded or deprived of their livings for some just or lawfull cause warranted by an expresse Act of Parliament or how any godly Minister in point of Law or Conscience can give over his preaching or Ministry upon any unjust suspen●ion inhibition excommunication or commaund of any Bishop Visitor or Ordinary who cannot countermaund this charge or Booke of Ordination ratified by 3 Acts of Parliaments I cannot conjecture Finally That if Ministers will thus suffer every Bishop at his pleasure without any speciall Commission from his Maiesty vnder the great Seale of England or any just cause in point of Law upon every humor fancy or new minted Article of his owne which by the Statute of 25. H. 8. c. 19. and the 13. Canons resolution yea and his Maiesties too in his Declaration before the 39. Articles hee hath no power to make to suspend excommunicate and put them downe from preaching then it will be in the Bishops power to suppresse and alter Religion at their pleasure without his Maiesties or a Parliaments assent and so all shall hang vpon their wills who have no power at all either by the Lawes of God or the Realme to institute any new rites Ceremonies Articles Canons or Injunctions or to alter or innovate any thing in Religion much lesse to suspend or silence Ministers Wherefore in case our Prelates presently revoke not these their anti-christian illegall suspen●ions inhibitions injunctions or other Censures to hinder Ministers from preaching I hope every Godly Minister who hath any care either of his owne soule liberty people any love at all to God or Religion any zeale or courage for the truth or desire of the good either of Church or State taking these considerations into his thoughts and finding the Bishops Jurisdiction and proceedings to have no lawfull warrant either from the Lawes of God or man will readily protest both against their usurped authority and proceedings as meere nullities and vanities and proceed to preach pray and doe his duetie as the Apostles and Martyrs did of old without any feare or discouragement that so Gods judgements Plagues and punishments which the Prelates late practises with the Ministers silence and cowardize and all our sinnes have drawen downe upon us may be asswaged and remooved and wee may ever retaine the Ordinances and Word of God among vs in purity power sincerity and plenty both to our present and future happines I shall close all with this Syllogisme That calling authoritie and jurisdiction which obliterates persecutes suppresseth oppugneth the very Law Gospell and word of God with the frequent powerfull preaching preachers and professors thereof is doubtles not of divine right or institution but Anti-christian and Diabolicall 1. Thess 2. 14. 15. 16. Rom. 2. 13. 10. Iohn 8. 39. to 48. 1. Tim. 3. 1. to 7. Tit. 1. 5. to 10. But this doth the calling authority and jurisdiction of Lord Archbishops and Bishops as the premises and all stories witnes especially our Booke of Martyrs Therefore it is doubtles not of divine right or institution but Anti-christian and Diabolicall If the Minor be not sufficiently evidenced by the Premises by the silencing of many Ministers suppressing of so many Lectures throughout the Realme give me leave to instance but in two fresh examples more The first in Doctor Peirce Bishop of Bath and Wels who in his Visitation in the midst of August last expresly prohibited all Ministers in his Diocesse to preach on the Lords day afternoone threatning some Ministers to suspend them both from their office Benefice if they durst presume to preach any more on the Lords day afternoone without alleadging any Law or Canon which there is none or any danger of bringing or spreading the plague which there is not feared but onely out of his malice to preaching and to deprive poore people of the sprituall food of their soules to affront the Sta●utes of 5. and 6. E. 6. c. 1. 3. and 1. Eli. c. 2. which require OFTEN PREACHING AND HEARING of the Gospell upon every Sunday and Holy day and prescribe preaching twice a day as well as much as Common-prayer coupling them together in the same words to oppugne the Homily of the right use of the Church p. 3. 4. 5. which prescribes and enforceth the dayly and continuall preaching of Gods word and specially on the Sabbath-dayes from our Saviours and his Apostles owne Precepts and Examples to make all Ministers perjured who at the time of their Ordination make a solemne promise and covenant before God diligently and painefully to instruct their people never to give over preaching c. as the Booke of Ordination and the Church and State of England both in and by it injoyne them and to spite S. Paul● himselse who as by the space of three yeares together hee ceased not to warne every one Night and Day therefore hee preached Evenings as well as mornings publikely from howse to howse Acts. 20. 20. 31. So hee chargeth Timothy and in him all Ministers To preach the word instantly in season out of season that is on Lords dayes and weekedayes Morning and Evening yea and at Midnight to if need be in times of prosperity and adversity of health and pestilence when preaching is most seasonable to raise men from their sinnes 2. Tim. 4. 2. which Apostle were hee in this Bishops and some other of his Brethrens Diocesse they would schoole him roundly for such good doctrine and stop his mouth to prevent the great mischeife of often preaching yea 〈◊〉 our Saviour Christ himselfe and his Apostles were now among our Prelates and should preach DAYLY in our temples as they