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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	bishop_n	jurisdiction_n	presbyter_n	5,522	5	10.5127	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36804	A short view of the late troubles in England briefly setting forth, their rise, growth, and tragical conclusion, as also, some parallel thereof with the barons-wars in the time of King Henry III : but chiefly with that in France, called the Holy League, in the reign of Henry III and Henry IV, late kings of the realm : to which is added a perfect narrative of the Treaty at U[n]bridge in an.	Dugdale, William, Sir, 1605-1686.	1681 (1681)	Wing D2492; ESTC R18097	368,620	485

was it will not be amiss to consider that Letter written by the Commissioners of Scotland unto the two Houses at Westminster dated the sixth of November then past in reference to the King together with that Answer of the Commissioners of the general Assembly of the Kirk unto certain Proposals made to them anno 1646. touching the King's coming into that Realm upon his exclusion from the Government in England in case of his leaving them without taking the Covenant he being then at Newcastle in custody of the dear Brethren of that Realm Being thus got away from Hampton Court he arrived in the Isle of Wiht upon the thirteenth of November whence incessantly desiring a safe and well-grounded Peace to these Kingdoms he soon sent another Message to the Members at Westminster wherein to shorten that Work he expressed his mind to this effect viz. That conceiving himself to be at much more freedom and security than formerly he thought it necessary to offer such Grounds to the two Houses for that purpose which upon due examination of all Interests might best conduce thereto And therefore as to the abolishing of Arch-Bishops Bishops c. he could not consent to it as he was a Christian and a King first being satisfied in his Iudgment that this Order was placed in the Church by the Apostles themselves and that ever since that time it had continued in all Christian Churches throughout the World till this last Century of years And in this Church in all times of Change and Reformation it had been upheld by the wisedom of his Ancestors as the great Preserver of Doctrine Discipline and Order in the Service of God Next as a King at his Coronation that he had not onely taken a solemn Oath but that himself and his predecessors in their confirmation of the great Charter had inseperably woven the Right of the Church into the Liberties of the rest of the Subjects Nevertheless was willing that it should be provided that the particular Bishops might perform the several Duties of their Callings both by their personal Residence and frequent Preaching in their Diocese as also that they should exercise no Act of Iurisdiction or Ordination without the consent of the Presbyters and to limit their powers that they might not be grievous to tender Consciences Moreover that he could not consent to the Alienation of the Church-lands it being a Sin of the highest Sacrilege conceiving it also to be a prejudice to the publick good many of his Subjects having the benefit of renewing Leases at much easier rates than if those Possessions were in the hands of private men besides the discouragement that it would be to all Learning and Industry when such eminent Rewards shall be taken away yet considering the great distemper concerning Church-Discipline and that the Presbyterean-Government was then in practice to eschew confusion as much as might be and for satisfaction of the two Houses of Parliament was content that the said Government should be legally permitted to stand in the same condition it then was for three years Provided that himself and those of his Iudgement or any other who could not in Conscience submit thereto might not be obliged to comply therewith but have free practice of their own profession And that a free Consultation and Debate might be had with their Divines at Westminster twenty of his Majestie 's nomination being added to them whereby it might be determined by his said Majesty and the two Houses how the Church-Government after that time should be setled or sooner if differences might be agreed as should be most agreeable to the Word of God with full Liberty to all those who should differ upon consciencious grounds from that settlement Provided that it might not be understood to tolerate those of the Popish-profession nor to exempt those from the penalty of the Laws or tolerate Atheism or Blasphemy 2. As to the Militia though it was undoubtedly the inherent right of the Crown yet to evidence his desire to secure the performance of such Agreement as should be made in order to a Peace his Majesty was content that during his whole reign it should be disposed of by his two Houses of Parliament 3. As to the Arrears of the Army that he should concur in any thing that might be done without violation of his Conscience and Honour 4. As to the Disposal of the great Offices of State and Naming of Privy-Councillers he offered the disposing of them for the whole time of his reign by the two Houses of Parliament 5. For the Court of Wards and Liveries that it should be taken away so as a full recompence might be setled on his Majesty his Heirs and Successors in perpetuity 6. That he would consent to the making of all Oaths Declarations and Proclamations against both or either House of Parliament null and void So likewise of all Indictments and other proceedings against any person for adhering unto them And that he would pass a general Act of Oblivion 7. That for Ireland he would give satisfaction to them 8. That as to such Acts and Grants passed under his great Seal since the 22th of May 1642. and confirming such as had been passed under that made by the two Houses he would give satisfaction in what might reasonably be desired 9. That for confirmation of all these and whatsoever else might be proposed by the two Houses and also of what he should propose on his own part he did earnestly desire a personal Treaty at London with Honour Freedom and Safety 10. And that the Proposals of the Army concerning the Succession of Parliaments and their due Elections should be taken into consideration 11. So likewise that as to what concern'd the Kingdom of Scotland he would apply himself to give all reasonable satisfaction After the sending of this Message by his Majesty the next thing observable that hapned was a Petition through the influence of the Presbytereans presented to the two Houses at Westminster by the Common-Council of the City of London acknowledging the Parliament for by that Title they then call'd those Members sitting at Westminster to be the Supream Power in this Kingdom and inter alia praying that the Covenant might be duly observed No wonder then that his Majestie 's gracious Message of November the xvjth was so little regarded as that he had no Answer at all thereto upon the sixth of December following he therefore put them in mind of it still pressing for a personal Treaty Whereunto insted of an Answer they sent him four Bills to be assented unto by him as preparatory to a Treaty These were those four Dethroning Bills which if passed into Acts as they required might have saved the labour of a Treaty Unto which for Answer his Majesty made these most prudent and rational Observations 1. That the Commissioners of Scotiand had openly protested against them 2. To allow of that great Seal made by them without his

having form'd sundry congregations as at Francfort Strasburg Geneva and other places they devised such new models of Discipline but all of them more or less favouring of those Tenets as upon their return after the death of that Queen not a few both of the Clergy and Laity were unhappily tainted therewith And at length through the countenance of some chief Ministers of State who then seemed to favour them for certain private respects became dangerous Enemies not only to the Doctrine and Discipline of this Church but to the very temporal Government of the Realm as by their heterodox opinions which they boldly promoted and spread under the specious Title and name of the Gospel will evidently appear of which I have here thought fit out of their own Books and Writings to give a Taste Lay men may teach to get Faith Lay men may preach to Congregations to exercise their abilities Every member of the Church hath power to examine the manner of administring the Sacrament That to have a Liturgy or form of prayer is to have another Gospel Some Protestants are of opinion that Ordinances cannot be performed but by a Prelate or at least by Ministers only without whose Imposition of Hands it were no Ordination as if it did confer such an order whereas the prime and proper conferring of this Order is by Christ himself inwardly calling and gifting a man for the work of the Ministry To the people belongeth the laying on of Hands as a token of their approbation and confirmation of him that is chosen Arch-Bishops and Bishops are superfluous members of the Body of Christ. They are unlawful false and bastardly Governours of the Church they are the ordinances of the Devil yea they are petty-Popes petty-Antichrists Bishops of the Devil and incarnate Devils If the Hierarchy be not removed and the Scepter of Christ's Kingdom namely his own Discipline advanced there can be no healing of the sore If the Parliament do not abrogate the government of Bishops they shall betray God the Truth and the whole Kingdom Though the Parliament be for Bishops yet all the Godly and Religious will be against them If the Brethren cannot obtain their wills by Suit nor Dispute the multitude and people must work the feat Reformation of Religion belongs to the Commonalty Christian Sovereigns ought not to be called Heads under Christ of the particular invisible Churches within their dominion They ought not to meddle with the making of Laws Orders and Ceremonies for the Church The people may well enough be without Kings for there was none till Cain's days These therefore being their Principles that their continued Practises have been sutable thereto is not unknown to many viz. to subject all Princes and Governours to their own Rule and Authority and in ordine ad Spiritualia to determine in temporal matters Hence I shall proceed a little farther and out of their own Writings make manifest what a noise they have made that their Discipline founded on these Principles might be firmly setled The establishing the Presbytery saith T. Cartwright is the full placing of Christ in his Kingdom The Presbyterian Discipline is the Scepter of Christ swaying his own House according to his hearts desire the Soul the Cheif Commander in the Camp Royal. Huic Disciplinae omnes orbis Principes Monarchas fasces suas submittere parere necesse est There is a necessity that all Princes and Monarchs should submit their Scepters and obey this Discipline This Discipline ought to be set up and all Princes ought to submit themselves under the yoke of it Yea what Prince King or Emperor shall disanul the same he is to be reputed God's Enemy and to be held unworthy to reign above the people This Discipline is no small part of the Gospel it is the substance of it This Discipline is the Gospel of the kingdom of God They that reject this Discipline refuse to have Christ reign over them and deny him in effect to be their King or their Lord. This Discipline is the eternal Council of God If any refuse to have the Lord Jesus set up as Lord i. e. to submit to this Discipline let him be Anathema Maranatha Aut hoc aut nihil is their Ensign They who hinder Discipline bring the Estate at length to an extreamly desperate point None but Enemies to Christ are Enemies to this Government Strike neither at great nor small but at those troublers of Israel Smite that Hazael in the fifth rib Yea if Father or Mother stand in the way away with them Down with the colours of the Dragon Advance the standard of Christ. Those mine Enemies who would not that I should reign over them bring hither and slay them before me Strike the Basilic vein Nothing but this will cure the Pleurisy of our State And Gibson threatned King Iames that as Ieroboam he should be rooted out and conclude his race if he maintained Bishops Which dangerous positions being thus maintained by this sort of men occasioned Mr. Perkins an eminent Divine of those times thus to express There is in England saith he a Schismatical and indiscreet Company that would seem to cry out for Discipline Their whole talk is of it and yet they neither know it nor will be reformed by it They are full of pride thinking themselves to be full when they are empty to have all knowledg when they are ignorant and had need to be catechised The poison of aspes is under their Lips They refuse not to speak evil of the blessed servants of God And as the German Sectaries upon the Principles before mention'd did act in those parts so did the Scots upon those Documents they had received chiesly from Iohn Knox who told his Countrymen in print that the Nobility and Commonalty ought to reform Religion and in that case might remove from Honours and punish such as God hath commanded of what estate condition or honour what soever Hereupon taking an Oath of confederacy and Subscription under hands to some agreement for a Reformation much strength was added thereunto by the Sacrilegious hoping thereby to swallow up the Church-Revenues Next without the authority of Sovereignty or knowledg of it those Confederates prescribed orders for Reformation of Religion to be observed and practised throughout the whole Kingdom Then preach'd against the Queen-Regent and Parliament and wrote to the Bishops and Clergy that except they did desist from dealing against them they would with all force and power execute just vengeance and punishment upon them likewise begin the same war which God commanded Israel to execute against the Cananites And lastly arriving at the highest pitch of Rebellion they deposed their Queen By that which hath been said it is no less apparent what those Disciplinarians in Queen Elizabeth's days did also aim at had their

us and another as bad is come in the room Yea this last extremity into which we are fallen is far more high violent and dangerous in many respects c. Have we not a deformation and worse things come in upon us than ever we had before were any of those Monsters heard of heretofore which are now Common among us and denying the Scriptures c. You have broken down the Images of the Trinity Virgin Mary Apostles and we have those who overthrow the Doctrine of the Trinity oppose the Divinity of Christ speak evil of the Virgin Mary and slight the Apostles You have cast out the Bishops and their Officers and we have many that cast down to the ground all Ministers in all the Reformed Churches You have cast out Ceremonies in the Sacraments as the Cross kneeling at the Lords Supper And we have many who cast out the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper You have put down Saints Days and we have many who make nothing at all of the Lords Day and Fast-days You have taken away the superfluous excessive maintenance of Bishops and Deans and we have many that take away and cry down the necessary maintenance of Ministers In the Bishops Days we had singing of Psalms taken away in some places conceived Prayer and Preaching and in their room Anthems stinted forms and Reading brought in And now we have singing of Psalms spoken against and cast out of some Churches Yea all publick Prayer questioned and all Ministerial Preaching denied In the Bishops time Popish Innovations were introduced as bowing at Altars c. And now we have Anointing the Sick with Oyl Then we had Bishopping of Children now we have Bishopping of Men and Women by strange laying on of Hands In the Bishops days we had many unlea●ned Ministers and have we not now a company of Jerobam's Priests In the Bishops days we had the fourth Commandement taken away but now we have all the Ten Commandements at once by the Antinomians yea all ●aith and the Gospel denyed The worst of the Prela●es in the midst of many Popish Arminian-Tenets and Popish Innovations held many sound Doctrines and had many commendable practises yea the very Papists hold and keep to many Articles of faith and truths of God have some order amongst them encourage Learning have certain fixed principles of truth with practises of Devotion and good Works but many of the Sect and Sectaries in our days deny all Principles of Religion are enemies to all holy-duties Order Learning overthrowing all being vertiginosi Spiritus wh●lgigg-Spirits And the great opinion of an universal Toleration tends to the laying all wast and dissolution of all Religion and good manners c. What swarms are there of all sorts of illiterate mechanick Preachers yea of Women and Boy-Preachers What liberty of Preaching Printing of all Errors or for a Toleration of all and against the Directory Covenant Monthly-fast Presbyterial Government and all Ordinances of Parliament in reference to Religion These Sectaries have been growing upon us ever since the first year of our sitting and have every year increased more and more And in his Book from pag. 18. to pag. 36. he instances no less than one hundred seventy six Heretical and Blasphemous Tenets broacht by the Sectaries the Off-spring of the Presbyterian within the compass of the four years next and immediately insuing the Convention of that Long-Parliament But to draw towards the end of this point touching their Preservation and Defence of the Protestant Religion exprest in the Doctrine and Discipline Establisht by Law in the Church of England so much protested declared and voted for at the first I shall be bold to observe after all these Barbarous and Blasphemous Practises That having by their Malitious and Causless Impeachment of that worthy Pillar of our Church the late Arch Bishop of Canterbury kept him a Prisoner for above four Years and had nothing against him by the Law of the Land worthy of Imprisonment much less of Death these Blood-thirsty Harpyes by their own usurped Legislative Power Condemn'd him to Death And the very same day to accompany that Horrid Fact damn'd the Reverend Liturgy of the Church of England Establishing a thing called a Directory instead thereof and within six days following Executed that Bloudy Sentence upon that worthy Prelate whole Memory and Martyrdom for the Protestant Religion as it stood here Establish't by Law will be precious with the best of Men to all Succeeding Ages And having done this they sent Commissioners Scottish and English to treat at Uxbridge with others from his Majesty concerning Peace Where the very first day of their Meeting they countenanced a Bold and Scandalous Person to Preach to the People that they had no Enemy but the King adding that if they had no truth with their Peace they should have God to be their Enemy Bidding them not dote upon that Treaty saying that there was as much distance between that Treaty and Peace as between Heaven and Hell And How can ye hope for truth since there are so many Prophane Lords such an Un-preaching and un-gifted Clergy so many Erroneous Papists perverse Bishops so many Irish Rebels who are the chief Assistants at Oxford I tell you these Lords come hither with Hearts full of Bloud Towards which Blessed Peace as they call'd it a mongst other things to the absolute Ruine of Monarchy they there demanded no less than the utter Extirpation of the Protestant Religion as it stood Establish't by Law with the Patrimony of the Church to boot as a Prey to themselves and the Scotts who would serve God if I may fitly call it a Service in Barnes or Stables at a cheaper Rate which makes me call to mind that Expression of Sir Walter Raleigh in his History of the World Where making mention of the Care which Moses had of all things that concern'd the Worship and Service of God which Care of his all Ages have in some Degrees imitated Says thus it is now so forgotten and cast away in this Superfine Age by those of the Family by the Anabaptists Brownists and other Sectaries as all Cost and Care bestowed and had of the Church wherein God is to be Served and Worshipped is accounted a kind of Popery and as proceeding from an Idolatrous Disposition in so much as time would soon bring to pass if it were not resisted that God would be turned out of Churches into Barnes and from thence again into the Fields and Mountains and under the Hedges and the Offices of the Ministery Rob'd of all Dignity and Respect be as contemptible as those places All order Discipline and Church Government left to newness of Opinion and Mens Fancies Yea and soon after as many kinds of Religion would spring up as there are Parish-Churches within England every Contentious and Ignorant Person Cloathing his Fancy with the Spirit of God and his Imagination with the Gift of Revelation In so much