Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	earth_n	heaven_n	key_n	4,997	5	10.6540	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76079	A declaration demonstrating and infallibly proving that all malignants, whether they be prelates, popish-cavaleers, with all other ill-affected persons, are enemies to God and the King: who desire the suppression of the Gospel, the advancement of superstition, the diminution of the Kings prerogative and authority, with the oppression of the subject. All which is evinced by strong proofes, and sufficient reasons. By John Bastwick Dr. of Physick.	Bastwick, John, 1593-1654.	1643 (1643)	Wing B1061; Thomason E101_8; ESTC R1900	48,987	64

he is ready to prove and make good against all the host of Prelates Doctors Proctors Commissaries Officials and Surrogats this day living But the thing that the Defendant desireth the honourable Court to take notice of is the contumacy of the Prelates for they call their Hierarchy and the Orders of their Bishops Priests and Deacons Sacred which if it be granted and so be indeed then the Prelates are from God and not from the King of whom they have no dependence For speaking of the King we say His Sacred Majesty because God himself hath appointed him over us for by me saith God Kings reigne and all Authority is from God and Kings are called Gods so that Kings are Sacred Persons But that the Hierarchy should be sacred and that there should be a holy Principality of Pastors and Ministers the prime and forman of which should have the Keys of Heaven Earth and Hell and that he should dispose of Kingdomes and Empires and make the greatest Potentates and Rulers his Subjects and Vassals and should have his domineering servants under him in all Common-wealths and Princes Courts to pry into their Royall proceedings to their revenues riches and treasuries to know their powers their allyes and confederates and be Counsellors of their most secret admission and should have an authority and jurisdiction independent over their Subjects and Lawes and Canons of their own making to rule by and by them to persecute and undoe them at pleasure in the number of which are Cardinals Patriarchs Prime-mates Metropolitans Arch-Bishops Bishops Deanes and innumerable such like vermin a member of which monstrous body our Hierarchy is the Defendant saith this is not knowne in Sacred Writ nor never came from God but rather from the Pope and the Devill Diabolus cacavit illos Yea the Word of God is absolutely against it And that our Arch-Bishops Prime-mates and Metropolitans are members of that body let not onely our Martyrs writings and speeches and Henry Stubbridge his exhortary Epistle but even Masons booke be looked into concerning the Succession of Bishops and it will be found That he derives their Pedigree from Rome and so doth Pocklington in his Sunday no Sabbath wherein he saith that our Prelates are lineally descended from Saint Peters Chaire at Rome they being therefore a branch of that Synagogue and standing by the same authority the Pope pretends to stand which is as they all challenge jure Divino they are enemies to the King and invaders of his prerogative and so they are justly guilty of all those crimes they accuse the Pope of and as great enemies of God as he is all which the Defendant hath sufficiently proved in his Apology For they challenge their Authority jure Divino and say That Jesus Christ made them Bishops and the holy Ghost consecrated them and that they were before Kings and held the Crownes of Kings upon their heads and the Pope sayes no more They call also their Hierarchy Sacred The Pope doth no more and for the erecting of this Sacred Hierarchy Emperors and Kings must be thrust down and made vassals of and all Kingdomes that are under their jurisdiction made slaves to it and all those stinking slavelings that depend upon it as the whole Christian world by wofull experience dayly findeth But this same tearme of Sacred Hierarchy and Sacred orders of Prelates ought here a little to be discussed That which is Sacred is from God But the Hierarchy is not from God Ergo it is not Sacred For the minor it is evident that which God hath peremptorily forbid to his Ministers and Servants and is an enemy to that is not of God and by his institution but he hath forbid Lordly dominion to all the Ministers of the Gospel saying The Princes of the Gentiles bear rule over them but it shall not be so among you you shall not Lord it over your Brethren Ergo the Hierarchy is not of God but of the Devill that is the cause of all disorder and ignorance For God forbad his Apostles and in them all Ministers to be Lords over one another and set his own example before them of service and commanded them to immitate him and to be humble and meek and told them plainly That the office of Principality and dominion belonged unto Kings and Princes and that their imployments consisted in their obedience to Kings in praying for them that they might live in all godly peace under them and that they should diligently feed the flock of Jesus Christ committed to their charge in season and out of season as they love him and will answere it at his last appearing and this was all the businesse that Christs ministers and Servants were to be taken up in they were not to be intangled with the things and affairs of this life not to be incumbred with worldly matters they have speciall commands and presidents to the contrary and their charge and duty assigned unto them from which station they must not go which is onely to feed the flock with all care and diligence with the sincere milke of the Word to preach unto them day and night and to goe before them in godly and holy example and to neglect this and to be taken up with domination and overruling their brethren and beating their fellow servants is to be Rebels against Christ and to usurp that which belongeth not unto them and which they ought not to meddle with and therefore when the Prelates doe not onely eate up and devour this forbidden fruit but challenge a right unto it from God himselfe and say they have no depencie from the King the Defendant maintaineth that it is intollerable arrogancie against God and the King and by which they are Delinquents in an elevated degree of contumacie against them both What an horrible impudencie is this in the Prelates or any Subject that vindicates their quarrell that they dare call the Hierarchie sacred especially when they derive it from Rome Whom King IAMES of Famous memory calls Babylon and the Pope Antichrist and can any man thinke that those that are lineally descended from Babylon and Antichrist that great enemy of Christ his Kingdome and Members can be Holy and Sacred Certainly if the fountaine be not holy the streames cannot be holy Yea King Iames is very large in that his Book to all Christian Princes in discovering the impiety of the Hierarchy of Rome and proves the Pope to be that man of Sin and all the Prelates of that Sea to be the Frogs that came out of the bottomlesse pit For the Nature of Frogs they being Amphibia is to live upon the Earth and in the water Now King Iames saith That the Prelates are the Frogs for they seeme to be Church men and are ever medling in States affaires creeping out of their stinking gutters and are such mighty busie bodies in other mens matters as they trouble all the Nations and Kingdoms where they dwell and inslave them all So that if

with many other arguments proved that Presbyters were better men then the Bishop of Rome if there were any difference The sum of which he desireth this honourable Court to take notice of that they may more ponderously weigh the businesse in hand and see the vanity of the Information And for the arguments in brief they are these They who are most obedient to the Precepts Commands and Prohibitions of Christ and do most diligently obey the Apostles admonitions they are and so ought to be esteemed more worthy and excellent thou such as regard neither of both But the Presbyters are more obedient to the commands of Christ do more diligently obey the Apostles admonitions then the Romish Bishops Therefore they are more worthy and excellent For the major no man can deny that knows loyall and obedient Subjects to their Prince his Officers just commands are to be preferred before Rebels and them that regard neither of both Now Christ and his Apostles have commanded That all Ministers should feed the stock of Christ diligently in preaching the word and administration of the Sacraments and that they should not be Lords over his inheritance Both which precepts and prohibitions the Presbyters do more exactly observe then Romish Bishops for they neither preach themselves nor will let others and are Lords over Christs inheritance which the Lord Jesus and his Apostles have peremptorily forbid Ergo the Presbyters are more worthy then Romish Bishops Againe That name which is and hath ever been a name and title of dignity and honour is to be preferred before that which is a name of pain labour sollicitude But the name of Presbyter or Senior is and hath been ever a name of honour and dignity and a title of mighty Emperours and Princes and the name of Bishop is a name and title of labour and travell Ergo the title and name of Presbyter is to be preferred before that of the Romish Bishops For the major none that are truly noble and learned can deny And for the minor to omit many other places it will evidently appeare to any that will look upon 1 Tim. 5. There the Apostle saith The Presbyters that rule well are worthy of double honour So that it is apparent enough That honour and dignity is contained in that name which deserveth both reward reverence and respect And in the same Epistle the Apostle saith Rebuke not a Presbyter but honour him as a Father and speaking of Bishops he saith He that desireth the Office of a Bishop desireth a good work He saith indeed a good work but a work notwithstanding full of care watchfulnesse toile and labour From all which it is ratified That the name and title of Presbyter is a name full of dignity honour and splendour and the title of Bishop a compellation or name full of labour anhelation and solicitude and therefore to be preferred before the title of Bishop being far more excellent Again That name which whensoever it is joyned with the name of Bishop hath alwayes the first place and precedencie that name is most excellent But the name of Presbyter when it is joyned with the title of Bishop hath ever the precedencie Ergo it is to be preferred before it For the major the adversaries cannot deny it For they conclude and the precedencie and preeminencie of Peter before the other Apostles because he is often first named And for the minor the word of God declares it illustriously as may be seene in the 20. of the Acts and the first of Titus and the fifth Chapter of the first of Peter In all which places the names of Presbyter and Bishop being joyned together Presbyter is ever first named To all this Peter calls himselfe a Presbyter The same doth Saint John as if all Ecclesiasticall dignity were placed in that name But there are many Arguments yet remaining to prove the dignity of Presbyters to be above that of Bishops if there be any difference between them For They to whom in the most difficult controversies of the Church and greatest dissentions the Primitive Christians had ever recourse and who the Spirit of God did in a speciall manner assist and who made Decrees by which the Church of God to this day is to be regulated and governed and who the Apostles themselves made their sociates and companions in both Generall and Provinciall Councels and the which had the next place unto the Apostles in their Assemblies they are more worthy and to be had in greater honour and veneration thou the other Ministers of the Church which are neither by name nor place knowne in those holy meetings But the Presbyters are such and Therefore the Presbyters are more worthy and excellent then Bishops As for the major the adversaries cannot doubt of that which bestow dignity and honour upon their Bishops according to the place and degree they had in the first Councels And for the minor none can doubt of it who hath read Acts 15. and Acts 20. But they that desire to be satisfied concerning this Argument at large the Defendant desireth would read any of his books Lastly That the dignity of the Presbyters may yet appear above the title of Bishops it is thus evident Those to whom the keys of the Kingdom of heaven by name are committed those are more worthy and honourable then those that have not that privilege But for the Presbyters they have the privilege of the keys granted unto them by name Ergo the Presbyters are more honourable then Bishops For the major no good Christian will or rationall man can deny it And for the minor he that readeth the last of Iames shall finde it manifestly enough confirmed and proved By all which arguments the Defendant did sufficiently beat down the Bishop of Romes authority and by the very light of reason overthrew it For if that every Presbyter be by the word of God as good a man as the Bishop of Rome if not better and withall if the Presbyters neither can nor may usurp authority over their fellow brethren much lesse may they do it over Kings and Emperours and by consequence and necessity of reason it followeth that the Bishop of Rome hath no cause to arrogate such authority to himselfe over the whole Church as he doth and therefore that his rule and government is a meer usurpation and an abominable tyranny over the whole Church of God and ought of all men to be defied abominated and abhorred with all his complices as impious and blasphemous against God injurious to Kings and Princes and nocent to all the faithfull members of Jesus Christ The recapitulation of all the which Arguments this Defendant thought sit to make knowne to this honourable Court that their illustricities might in every respect see his innocency who first exempted all Bishops that acknowledge their authorities from Kings and Emperours out of the number of those against which he disputed and secondly never by name fought against any other but Romish

and after all this given to the devill and that onely for writing a booke which had nothing in it but Scripture and in the which the Defendant thought they meant him and that they should still prosecute him and seeke his eares and the defacing of him which they threaten Such a President of wrong and cruelty the Defendant saith cannot be produced in toto Macrocosmo and therefore the Defendant in respect of his own particular justly chargeth them with cruelty injustice and intemperance And in respect of all other honest men that come under their jurisdiction the same may be said and proved by thousands whether one respect their souls bodies or goods for they use cruelty in regard of all sparing neither age nor sex poor or rich young or old bond or free but upon every triviall occasion or for the meane t neglect of any of their idlest and impious Ceremonies or for any misprision it is enough to have him hoisted into the High Commission Court and brought from the remotest parts of the kingdom to the utter undoing of them and their families when as the greatest breach of any of the Commandments of the first table is not once thought of And in the bringing of them into troubles they deal with those poor men as they do with bears and buls at Paris Garden they first by violence and their officers to their mighty expences hale them into their Courts and then with bands of two or three hundred pounds they tie them to their stakes and bait them three or four years together with all maner of contumelies and reproaches vexations expences calamities and torments till they have wearied them to death and made their lives tedious unto them and after all this they fling them into one jaile or other destitute of friends and moneys And as if this were not enough even as the persecuters of the Martyrs in the Primitive times as Histories relate dealt with the Saints when they brought them to the slaughter they were wont to clothe them with the skins and hides of wilde beasts that so they might make them the more formidable and the better animate their dogs and curs against them to teare them in pieces In like manner do the Prelates and their complices in these our times deale with poore honest Christians and the true and faithfull servants of the Lord and the Kings most loyall Subjects they make them monstrous ugly and deformed unto all men King and Nobles by their Relations and Informations they clothe them with saying of them That they are maligners and enemies of Governement troublers of Church and State Seducers of the Kings Subjects making them disloyall unto their Prince stirrers up of sedition and faction and a thousand such crimes setting all the people against them in their open Courts have their Orators to blanch over their defamatory false accusations charging them with foule crimes the thought of which never came into their heads as this present information may witnesse Yea in the very Court Sermons they incense the King and Nobles daily against those they brand with the name of Puritans and Sectaries which all this honourable Assembly can witnes and the Defendant hath heard many Court Sermons with his own ears in the time of his liberty but never heard one where the Puritans as they terme them were not brought up in the pulpit and most shamefully and unchristianly traduced as those that opposed the Kings proceedings and such as maligne his government and trouble the peace of Church and State and humbly besought his Majestie that some severe course might be sought and taken against them These and such like sprincklings of their brotherly Rhetorick the Defendant himself hath often heard neither can this honourable Court be ignorant of the truth of this And what is all this but great cruelty and injustice to abuse thus their brethren by malicious and false accusations to the incensing of their Gracious King and Soveraign against them when they are most innocent and harmlesse desiring nothing more then the life safety prosperity and happinesse of his Majestie and of his Royall Progeny and his flourishing raigne and would lose ten thousand lives if they had them for the honour of his Crowne and dignity for they desire nothing more then to be found loyall neither do they seek any thing more then the peace and welfare of the Church and the good of this Common-wealth And therefore if there be any this is cruelty and injustice in a high degree to deale thus mercilesly with their too too much already afflicted brethren of whom they are ever making sinister relations to King Councell and State to the depriving of them many times of their liberty livelyhoods and states to the making of them and theirs ever miserable and all this also they do in their Courts every day defaming them as enemies of government and enemies of the Church and casting them into prison with great Fines on their backs And this is the cruelty they daily use in respect of their bodies lives and estates But yet their cruelty is greater in respect of their soules for they have through the Kingdome of England and Wales taken away almost all their glorious painfull Ministers and those that with most diligence taught the people and sent droanes and loyterers amongst them dumbe dogs that cannot barke and is not this great cruelty to the poor Souls of men to deprive them of the food of life and to starve them See what Paul saith to Bariesus the Sorcerer in the 13. of the Acts when Sergius Paulus the Deputy of the Country a Prudent man called for Barnabas and Saul and desired to heare the word of God it is said that Elemas the Sorcerer withstood them seeking to turne away the Deputy from the faith to whom Saul filled with the holy Ghost fetting his eyes on him said O full of all subtilty and all mischiefe thou childe of the devill thou enemy of all righteousnesse wilt thou not cease to pervent the right wayes of the Lord Those then that take away the meanes of Salvation and hinder others from the hearing of the word they are most cruell unto them hindering of them of salvation it selfe and such are the children of the devil the enemies of all righteousnesse and perverters of the wayes of the Lord the holy Ghost hath spake it and Christ himselfe saith Matth. 23. and the 13. Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for ye shut up the Kingdom of heaven against men for you neither go in your selves neither suffer you them that are entring to go in And in Luke the 11. and verse the 52. he saith Wo unto you Lawyers for ye have taken away the key of knowledge ye enter not in your selves and them that were entring you hindred Christ himselfe pronounces woe here to all such Soule murtherers as take away the key of knowledge from the people and shut up the Kingdome of heaven against them which

is the greatest cruelty that can be exercised over miserable men and yet this is the daily occupation of the Prelates of which the whole kingdome can witnesse how that they have made most places desolate depriving them of the bread of life the preaching of the Gospell and taking away the key of knowledge from them and in stead of true nourishing food they give them the huskes of Ceremonies and vaine traditions and idle superstitious observations Neither do they onely extinguish and put out all their shining lights but they severely punish those that seek it or go after it where it is so that if one do but go out of his own parish where he hath no preaching and where perhaps there hath not been a Sermon seven yeares together as there are many such parishes in this Kingdome he is forthwith hailed into their Courts and tormented to death and is not this horrible cruelty yea if one neighbour do but go to another and that but to hear a Sermon repeated when he dare not goe out of his owne parish he is immediately hailed into their Courts as a keeper of Conventicles and miserably there tormented and is not this also great cruelty Especially when any of their lewd parishioners may goe from year to year out of their own parishes a drinking and quaffing and that on the Lords day and holy dayes as they call them and have their meetings in troopes and great assemblies in drinking Schooles tippling there to the great dishonour of God and many times to the great mischiefe of others and the prepetrating of many sinnes and all such though they never heare Service neither divine or humane finde favour in their Courts and serve for witnesses against the generation of the just and those that fear God and they are esteemed good Sons of the Church though in all other things they be also never so impious Neither is there any law against those children of Beliall neither can any man deny this that knoweth any thing for the defenders of such fellowes and tormentors of the most godly And if this be not also insufferable tyranny and cruelty let every reasonable man judge In this information his most excellent Majestie is truely and deservedly commended that he is an enemy to Popery and all innovation of religion as his Highnesse hath often declared himselfe and that he doth daily frequent the Church and is diligent in hearing of Sermons And this most eminent piety in our noble King and Soveraign we his loyall though poore Subjects heartily rejoyce at desiring the Lord of heaven still to enflame his Royall heart with a zeale for the glory of God and the propagation of the Gospel and to continue in him an increase a love unto his holy word Now all men know that Kings examples have been ever the paterne for their Subjects and it is the duty of all good Citizens and Subjects to imitate their King in all wel doing and men use commonly to say Regis ad exemplum the Kings example is ever to be followed and it is his royall hearts desire that his Subjects should imitate him in that his piety Now what a great and unexpressible cruelty is this in the Prelates towards the poore people and how great a dishonour is done to the King in it that they will not let his Subjects be good for it is good in the King and highly commendable before God and men to hear the Word of God often preached and to be diligent in the hearing of Sermons or else the Informers would not have set it down as so singular a vertue in our Royall King and yet they punish this good in his Subjects and it is a cause of the utter undoing of many of them if they goe to Sermons and when they are found to be diligent at the hearing of the Word and the going to a Sermon into the next Parish when they have none in their owne is matter sufficient to mount them up in the High Commission which is none of the smallest cruelties that holy and pious men groane under to the infinite dishonour of God and the King and the needlesse vexation and molestation of his dutifullest Subjects who desire to follow in that their godly Princes example In Saint Iohn Baptists time it is said That Jerusalem and Judea and the Region round about came all to heare him running after Sermons and so they did after Christ And it stands recorded in sacred Writ to their eternall honour and for our imitation For all the Saints godly examples are set downe for us to imitate and we never read that any were by the very enemies of the Gospel in those dayes the Scribes Pharisees and high Priests molested or troubled for the same and it is said of them that they tooke the Kingdome of heaven with a kinde of holy violence and their diligence in hearing the Word is related and told of them as a thing very honourable and praise worthy and so it is very well related in the Information of our gracious King to his immortall honour and great praise and so it is and ever to be honoured in his Majestie and his example in this to be followed of all his obedient Subjects And is it not a transcendent cruelty then in the Prelates that poore Christians in our age may neither obey the Commandement of God who injoyneth us to heare in season and out of season nor imitate the Saints of old in their pious indeavours in building up themselves in their most holy faith nor follow the good paternes of their Kings and Governours but they must be severely punished for it yea undone traduced for it as evill doers If this be not great cruelty and tyranny it selfe in the Prelates there was never none for they rob them of heaven and earth and all other comforts in as much as in them lieth Nay which is yet more to shew their cruelty injustice unrighteous dealing the Prelates in the Baptisme of infants constrain the Godfathers and Godmothers there solemnly to promise that they will call upon them that are baptized when they come to years of discretion often to hear Sermons and to this duty are also the baptized tied Now when they are come to yeares of understanding and in obedience of their promise they made by their God-Fathers and God-mothers and perhaps being stirred up also by their exhortation to this good duty of hearing the Word if they goe out to heare Sermons when they have none in their owne Parishes they are first punished in their purses and liberties and then given to the Devill for this good worke which they notwithstanding have tied them to by speciall promise in their Baptisme and if all this be not unspeakable cruelty tyrannie and injustice there was never none in the world and yet this is the dayly practice of the Prelates thorow the Kingdome as all men know And which is yet more to be observed in the same Sacrament