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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	king_n	prince_n	time_n	3,325	5	3.4597	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88100	A discourse concerning Puritans. A vindication of those, who uniustly suffer by the mistake, abuse, and misapplication of that name. A tract necessary and usefull for these times.	Ley, John, 1583-1662, attributed name.; Parker, Henry, 1604-1652, attributed name.	1641 (1641)	Wing L1875; Thomason E204_3; ESTC R15236	40,576	60

extreams alike as well to represse Papal Bishops as to curbe proud Puritans For sayes the King the naturall sicknesses which have ever troubled and beene the decay of all Churches since the beginning changing the Candlestick from one to another have beene pride ambition and avarice and these wrought the overthrow of the Romish Church in divers Countries K. James knew well how apt Church-men had ever beene to abuse their power and pomp what enemies they had beene to our Saviour and what a tyranny they had erected over all Christendom ever since Constantine almost and therefore though Hee dislikes a democracie in the Church as Hee had reason yet Hee so limits and circumscribes his Bishops both in power and honour that they might be as sensible of their chaines and fetters as of their Miters and Crosiers I wish K. Iames had particularly signified what bonds and bounds Hee thought fit to prefix to Episcopacy to preserve it from corruption and what his opinion was of a Prelacy so active in secular affaires as ours is now in England and how it would have pleased him to see a Metropolitan amongst Protestants almost a rivall to the French Cardinall The world in my opinion hath little reason to dote upon a gowned Empire we have all smarted long enough under it men of meane birth commonly beare preferment with little moderation and their breeding having beene soft and esseminate in their malice cruelty they neerest of all approach to the nature of women and by the advantage of learning they extend their power and win upon others more then they ought When the Church was at first under Heathen or Jewish Governours which sought as enemies to ruine it not as Fathers to protect it they which were within could not live in peace and unity without some Politicall bonds so at that time there was a necessity of some coercive power within besides that which was without The world is now unsatisfied what kinde of power that was whether Episcopal or Presbyteriall or what Episcopacy or Presbytery was in those dayes Yet me thinks what government so ever then was it is not necessarily precedentary to us now The Episcopal faction at this day takes advantage by the abuses of the Presbyter al the Presbyterial by the Episcopal and most men think either the one power or the other necessary and some more favour the Episcopal as K. Iames some the Presbyterial as M. Calvin but sure the Presbyterial is lesse offensive then the Episcopal and yet neither the one nor other of necessity Kings may grant usuram quandam jurisdictionis either to Bishops or Elders but the jurisdiction it selfe is their owne property from which they ought not to depart nor can without wrong to their charge committed to them For the power which God gives the Prince is not given for his use alone but for the peoples benefit so that since He cannot let it fall to decay without making it insufficient for good and entire government which is mischievous to the people he cannot justly lessen it at all And it is manifest that except one supream head be alone in all causes as wel Ecclesiastical as civill humane nature must needs be destitute of those remedies which are necessary for its conservation since power cannot be divided but it must be diminished to him which suffers that division and being diminished it proves insufficient All confesse some government necessary for men in holy Orders to whom the power of the Keyes belongs but some account Princes but as meere temporall or Lay persons and therefore conclude against their authority over sacred Ecclesiastical persons as incompetent especially in cases meerely ecclesiasticall For this cause spirituall Governours have ever beene in the Church to whom some have attributed a divine right depending from none but God and subordinate to none but God but this hath beene controverted by others and no little debate and strife hath followed hereupon But it seemes to me that princes doe receive from God a spirituall unction whereby not only their persons are dignified and their hearts prepared and enlarged with divine graces fit for rule but their functions also innobled and sanctified above any other whatsoever and higher advanced then the sense of Laick or Secular will beare To Princes an assistance of counsell is requisite in spirituall as in civill affaires but that that Counsaile ought to bee composed onely of persons Ecclesiasticall or that those persons ought to bee invested with all those Ensignes of Honour and Authority which our Bishops now claime as of divine right seemes not necessary Clergy-men are not alwayes the most knowing in all Ecclesiasticall cases neither are they at all indifferent and impartiall in many which concerne their owne honour and profit as the world feeles to its regret therefore for jurisdiction they are not the most competent But be they of what use soever they may still remaine subordinate and at the Princes election and admitted of ad consilium solum not ad consensum and it had beene happy for all Christians these many hundred yeares by-past if they had not been further hearkned to The Sacerdotall function is not at all disparaged by this subordination for whether the order of Princes be more sacred then that of Bishops or not it is all one to Priests for an obedience they owe and must pay be it to the one Order or the other Our Bishops at this day stand much upon their Divine right of Jurisdiction and they refer their style to the providence of God immediately not to the grace of the King and though in words they acknowledge a Supremacy of power to remain to the King yet indeed I think they mean rather a priority of order Whatsoever Supremacy they meane if it be not such as makes them meerely subordinate and dependent so that the King may limit alter or extinguish their jurisdiction as far as He may to his civil Judges they derogate much from his Kingly office Bishops for their claim of Jurisdiction ought to prove that they alone did exercise it over all in all causes from our Saviours dayes till the entrance of Christian Princes and that being cleared they must further prove that those times also are leading and precedentary to ours In both these their proofes are lame especially in the latter for neither is the power of the Keyes the same thing as Iurisdiction nor is jurisdiction now as it was in the Apostles dayes nor is the State of the times now the same as then In those dayes either Christians were to implead one another before Infidel Magistrates whatsoever the case were criminall or civill spirituall or temporall or else they were to erect some tribunall in the Church or else they were to await no justice at all and because some judicature within the Church was most fit therefore Christ himselfe according to the exigence of those times did indow his Church with a divine Oeconomy which was partly miraculous of

it selfe was presently taught this lesson for taking his seat in the Chancell according to the Easterne and ancient fashion a Deacon was sent to him in great state to let him understand that none but men in holy Orders might presume to set their feet on that sacred ground This was then the Bishops Law not the Emperours nor knowne in any other of his Dominions but Italy only but sure it was fit discretion that much should bee ascribed by Bishops to that place from which they were to derive much and which wonld be sure to repay their homage with so great an advantage of homage back againe Preaching is now also grown too burthensome and the Lords Day to Priests according to that sanctity which Puritans allow it it requires too much praying preaching singing which are not only to them tedious but also apt means to encrease and foment Puritanisme amongst the people Auricular Confession also is a godly devise to bring the Laity into subjection and to make the people bow before the power of the Keyes and it may aptly force the consciences of Kings themselves to feare the scourges of gowned men Adde lastly Mr. Wats his bodily mortification to Mr. Sparrows confession and then Laymen will be soone inured againe to finde out the fittest penances especially Praesbyteris ars advolvi and so in time their purses their bodies their consciences shall all bee made sensible of the spirituall Scepter of Priests It s no great wonder then if our Court Divines and their dependents doe what they can to draw us neerer daily towards Popery under shew of Antiquity Uniformity and Charity for without all doubt of all Religions Popery is the most beneficiall to Priests most tyrannous to Laymen Neither is it strange that they pretend so much zeale to devotion to the Kings Crowne and Prerogative as things now stand in England as if none truly affected the same but themselves for its cleare that they cannot subject the people but by the King nor the King without the people and so long as they stand possessed of the Kings good opinion no man shall have power to confute them King Jawes is a great instance for Antipuritans and a great prop to the Episcopall Cause it s alleadged of him that Hee hated Puritans for their hatred to Episcopacie and loved Episcopacie for its amity to Monarchie His Aphorisme was No Bishop no King Let us therefore appeale from King James in their words to King James in his owne In his Preface before his Basilicon Doron his words are The style of Puritans properly belongs to that vile Sect of the Anabaptists only called the Family of love Such were Browne Penry Howbeit there are others which participate too much with Anabaptists contemning civill Magistrates c. It is only this sott of men which I wish my sonne to punish in case they refuse to obey Law and cease not to stirre up Rebellion But I protest upon mine Honour I meane it not generally of all Preachers or others which like better of the single forme of Policie in our Church of Scotland then of the many Ceremonies in the Church of England which are perswaded that Bishops smell of a Papall supremacie that Surplices Caps c. are outward badges of popish errours No I am so farre from being contentious in these indifferent things that I doe equally love and honour the learned and grave of either opinion It can no wayes become mee to pronounce sentence so lightly in so old a controversie Since wee all agree in grounds the bitternesse of men in such questions doth but trouble the peace of the Church and give advantage to Papists by our division These were the golden words of that peacefull just Prince upon his second thoughts ô that they were now duly pondred and taken to pieces word for word ô that they were esteemed and understood in their own weight amongst us that they might reconcile our present differences and that the same peace which followed him to his glorious Urne might still blesse these our times O how contrary are these milde words to the unnaturall suggestions of Antipuritans Such as daily accuse all good men for Precisians and all precise men for Puritans and all Puritans for the only Firebrands of the World thus arming the King against his Subjects and by consequence raising Subjects against the King Puritans here are described both what they are and what they are not the King had been misinterpreted before writing generally of Puritans now to avoid all mistake hee expresses himselfe plainly and definitely A Puritan positively in King James his sense is He which imitates Anabaptists in rebellion turbulence and opposition to Law and such are liable to Law but negatively a Puritan in the acception of King James is not Hee which dislikes Episcopacy or the Ceremonious Discipline of England This King James protests upon his Honour though to his great dishonour Hee be now often cited to the contrary As for those which rellish not Bishops and Ceremonies or the English Policie He wishes them to be at peace only with those of the opposite opinion Hee himselfe vowing equall love and honour to the grave and learned of either side and not taking upon him to bee a Judge in so old and difficult a controversie He only like a sweet arbitrator perswades both parties to peace and amity I wish our Bishops would now stand to this arbitration I wish they would neither condemne the Scotch discipline nor urge the English I wish they would put difference betweene seditious and scrupulous Puritans and not inferre the one out of the other I wish they would either disclaim King James as a manifest favourer of Puritans or else imitate him in the same definition and opinion of them K. James further takes notice that the reformation in Scotland was far more disorderly then in England Denmark c. whilst the mayne affaires there were unduly carried by popular tumults and by some fiery-spirited Ministers which having gotten the guiding of the multitude and finding the relish of government sweet did fancie to themselves a democratick forme of policy wherein they were likely to be Tribuni plebis That the Crown might be disincombred of these usurping ringleaders the King advises the Prince to entertaine and advance godly learned and modest Ministers promoting them to Bishopricks but restrayning them heedfully from pride ambition and avarice These things then are hence observable 1. Scotland differs from England in turbulent Ministers Secondly this is imputed to the iniquity of the times not to Puritanisme as if by nature the Scots were more enclining to Puritanisme then other Nations Thirdly notwithstanding that iniquity of those times there was a number sufficient of worthy Ministers fit for preferment Fourthly King James erects Bishops Sees in Scotland for peculiar reasons and therefore He speaks not of Denmark c. Lastly notwithstanding that peculiar reason Hee advises the Prince to be indifferently at war with both

cause as the Court of Rome does Thirdly that I might produce the same Author against himselfe in those points wherein he taxes Protestants We will yield that for the space of nine hundred yeers the See of Rome did not usurpe over other Sees but did acknowledge equall subjection to the Canons and that the division and separation of the Easterne Churches happened when Rome arrogated above Canons but withall we must have it yielded to us that those Canons had been composed only by Clergy-men and that in too much favour of Clergy-men and too much abridgment of Temporall Rights and Priviledges and that they did concerne matters more then meerly spirituall and speculative and things known by meere revelation So that though one Prelate did not usurpe over another yet all Prelates had usurped over the Laity from the times of Constantine almost It is true the Church had Bishops before in its times of persecution but of what power or pompe It is said of Calvin that in regard of his sway in Geneva he wanted nothing but the Name of Bishop and it may be as truly said of the Bishops before Constantine that they wanted all but the Name The power of Bishops before the installment of Christian Princes was rather like that of Arbitrators then of Judges and that held in all cases alike Civill and Spirituall but in case of disobedience they did not intrench so far upon the Lay power as to inflict any pecuniary or corporall punishment but they did deny the Sacrament and eject delinquents out of the Congregation and this was then an abscission from Christ being done Clave non errante that is whilst God did inspire according to his promise a miraculous power of binding and loosing infallibly The Priestly function was then an Office not a Jurisdiction of sacred dignity not Power but the Function of a Prince was ever sacred both for honour and power for dignity and command Constantine the Great was the first Prince which tooke upon him the care and protection of the Church after that it had suffered contempt and poverty for 300 yeares and now did even that authority and protection cease and devolve into his hands which the poore persecuted Bishops had but feebly managed before but such was the extraordinary indulgence of this pious Emperour as well to religious persons as to Religion it selfe that taking little notice what the Church had gaine by him as its Head and Governour He heaped up greater Titles and Honors upon Bishops Archbishops Patriarchs and Popes as if some other supreme Ruler more sacred and competent then himselfe were necessary Neverthelesse it is thought that this was as poyson poured into the Church and not Balme for from that very time Clergy men began to be more glorious but lesse gracious more rich outwardly but more poore and vile inwardly Within a little space after Constantine there was just cause of complaint that excessive Honours had corrupted the Church and that Religion had prospered better in former times when it had wooden Chalices and golden Priests then now when it had golden Chalices but wooden Priests It is remarkable also that soon after Constantine the temporall power being too much restrained and abased and the spirituall as much inlarged and exalted the whole face of Christendome began to be imbroyled with wars and poysoned with heresies so that the Historians of those times have almost nothing else to write of but the forcible investing and devesting by armes of such Bishops and Patriarchs and of the oppositions of such and such Councels and Synods and of the Appeals Jars Schismes Excommunications and Commotions of such and such Priests and Monks Nay such were the ill effects of those ages which were certainly more zealous then politike that they cannot yet be wholly rectified and purged in these our latter times which are growne too too contrary being more politike then zealous Thus did the Church fare for 900 yeares till the Roman Bishops began to Empire above all and then did the greatest part of the Clergie themselves especially East from Italy make their departure and separation Neither did the Romish Vice-god after this great rent and division in the World hang his head for shame or seeke any re-union by letting fall his pompous painted plumes but audaciates himselfe rather to mount higher yet and to detrude the Western Emperour quite out of the bounds of Italy And in this his industry fails him not for after much bloud-shed in many cruell conflicts Hee gains in Italy a Temporall and in all Europe besides a spirituall Monarchy making a triple Mitre shine as gloriously upon the seven-hilled City as the Diadem had done before During his wars with the Emperour of Germany He had other contestations also with England and some other Potentates at sometimes but all dismaid him not only once Hee was heard to say It was time for him to compound with the Dragon that hee might crush the lesser Adders at his pleasure Yet after this even this Holy tyranny grows too insolent and insufferable and so conspires its owne dissolution so that many Countries in the Northwest parts lying more remote from Rome quite revolt from her Allegeance and Protest against her Amongst those other Countries also lesse distant which still in words confesse her Supremacy her Reigne is now but little more then precarious Venice regards not Buls and Anathemacs France disdains a yonger brothers benediction and Spain being honoured with the title of the Popes eldest Son confesses him a Fathe● but employs him as a Chaplain gives verball but reaps reall honours by him Augustus having cashiered an unworthy Commander gave him leave to say that he had cashiered Augustus and so the Popes great sonnes shake off his yoke by degrees but conceal it and give him leave to doe the like It is now very good policy in the Pope not to pretend to Temporall things as they stand in ordine or have relation to spiritual things but rather to relinquish his right to spirituall things as they stand in order to Temporall it is eminent wisdome in him to forbeare threatning roaring cursing and sending his ridiculous Epigrams out of his owne Territories as hee was wont to doe Nay his very last refuge of sending forth his poysoning and stabbing Ministers cannot remayne in season much longer But to returne to our learned Statesman as Hee justly taxes the Court of Rome so He unjustly taxes Protestants of the contrary extream and this will appeare out of his own words For He grants first that the Secular Magistrates have nothing diminished of their authority by Christs comming and it is cleere that Princes were absolute Governours of the Church before Christ both in Spirituall and Temporall Cases In the next place Hee yields that the power and knowledge of Clergy-man called the power of the Keyes is no other but such as Christ infuses in smeere supernaturall things knowne only by Faith and Revelation not by any Physicall or

we see who Puritans are all such as hold not with Episcopacy that is in probability halfe Ireland more then halfe England all Scotland and many other Protestant Countries King James did put a difference betwixt such as disrelisht Bishops and Ceremonies meerly and such as under that pretext fraudulently sought to perturbe the State and make a factious separation But here the difference of all Puritans is graduall only not substantiall for dislike of Bishops is the beginning of all Heresie and must needs end in Anabaptisme and rebellion How plainly does it here appeare that Episcopacy is the true Helena of all this warre and yet Saint Cyprian is to be understood of the Pastorall function not of the Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction of a Bishop or else in his sense the Genevans and the greatest part of Protestants are Heretiques and King James made a frivolous distinction Such stuffe as this had not mis-beseemed a Papist but it s very odde in a Protestant Bishop except wee consider him as one who hath looke back towards the Onions and Flesh-pots of Aegypt and is inamor'd again upon those glorious titles ensignes of Honour and Pompe which Rome confers upon her Courtiers But to conclude this point I wish Princes would not allow such Bishops to be carvers to themselves and make them Judges in cases of their owne interesse they are surely good spectacles for Princes in Theologicall deliberations as Temporall Counsellors are in State affaires but miserable are those Princes whose eyes cannot see without such spectacles If Religion did not prosper worse if peace were not more violated if persecution were not more common in Countries wher Bishops govern than where they are expelled we might suspect the Scots as Hereticall and Rebellious by nature for chusing all the plagues of warre rather then Bishops but when we see the contrary we may aswell listen to the Scots against Bishops as to Bishops against the Scots So much of the Ecclesiasticall Puritan next after whom sprung up the Puritan in Religion of whom I shall speak very briefly There are many men amongst us now which brooke Bishops and Ceremonies well enough and perhaps favourably interpret our late innovations and yet these may be too grave to escape the name of Puritans To be a Protestant may be allowed but to dispute against Papists smels of preciseness to hold the Pope fallible is tolerated but to hold him Antichrist is abominable Puritanisme to goe to Church is fashionable but to complaine of the Masse or to be grieved at the publick countenance of Popery whereby it intwines our Religion and now drinkes up that Sap which is scarce afforded to Protestantisme or at all to take notice how far some of our Divines are hereat conniving if not cooperating is a sumptome of a deepe infected Puritan He that is not moderate in Religion is a Puritan and hee that is not a Cassandrian or of Father Francis Syncters faith is not moderate he savours too much of Calvins grosse learning exploded now by our finest wits But I passe from this kinde of Puritan to another whom I shall call my Politicall Puritan for the bounds of Puritanisme are yet larger and inclose men of other conditions Some there are yet which perhaps disfavour not at all either Ecclesiasticall Policy or moderate Papists and yet neverthelesse this is not sufficient to acquit them from the name of Puritans if they ascribe any thing to the Lawes and Liberties of this Realme or hold the Prerogative royall to be limitable by any Law whatsoever If they hold not against Parliaments and with Ship-money they are injurious to Kings and to be injurious to Kings is proprium quarto modo to a Puritan Our present civill nay more then civill warre with Scotland and all the mischiefes thereon attending the disaffection betweene the King and his Subjects and all the mischiefes thereon attending the discontinuance of Parliaments the proper remedies of all State-maladies and universall grievances which is a mischiefe whereby all mischiefes become incurable all are caused by the abusive mistake and injurious misapplication of this word Puritan The Scots are Puritans and therefore enemies to Monarchy the English are Puritans and therefore haters of Royall prerogative both the Nations have beene hitherto famous for their devout reverence and obsequious zeale to their Princes but now Puritanisme has infected them and perverted them to disloyalty Thus is the Kings heart alienated from his Subjects and by consequence the Subjects loyalty blunted towards him to the incomparable almost irreparable detriment of both neither is this disaccord betweene the King and his best Subjects more fatall and pernicious to the Common-wealth then his accord with the Recusant faction Papists have now gotten the repute of the best Subjects and fittest for trust in places of eminent service nay 't is almost necessary that forraine Papists be brought in for the supporting of the indangered royalty for though the Popish faction at Court be strong and active enough for matter of Counsell yet for matter of force the Puritans in City and Countrey be too predominant The Bishop of Downe in his visitation speech layes all the calamities of Church and Common-wealth upon Non-conformists and for proofe thereof instances in the Covenanters whom he charges of rebellion charging withall that rebellion upon Puritanisme The first thing saies he that made me out of love with that Religion was their injurious dealing with Kings which I observed both in their practice and doctrine He taxes first their doctrine because they deny the Kings supremacy in causes Ecclesiasticall and allow Subjects to resist nay and depose their King if he be a Tyrant Surely Ahab could say little for himselfe if he could not lay his owne crimes upon Elijah but see here by what art of confusion all Scots are called Puritans and all Puritans rebels King James spoke not so confusedly as if Puritanisme were a Religion and all that disliked Bishops and Ceremonies were of that Religion and all of that Religion were enemies to Kings If a Bishop needed any proofe if his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} were not unquestionable I would desire him to prove all Covenanters Puritans and all Puritans denyers of the Kings supremacy or to instance in any Kings which have beene deposed or murdred by Presbyteriall authority How far Bishops have incroached upon Kings is known to al the world our Protestant Bishops lately have by Oath and Canon combined together to bind the Kings hands though hee be Supreme that he shall not governe our Church but by Arch-bishops Bishops Arch-deacons c. and yet these troublers of Israel have the face to taxe Elijah of their owne sin Presbytery indeed has heretofore passed her bounds yet not of late but Episcopacy has ever from Constantine claimed an independence of Divine right till this instant I conceive there are not in all the Kings Dominions three men except Papists and Anabaptists which hold it lawfull to depose or