Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	power_n	spiritual_a	temporal_a	1,927	5	9.8031	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91309	Truth triumphing over falshood, antiquity over novelty. Or, The first part of a just and seasonable vindication of the undoubted ecclesiasticall iurisdiction, right, legislative, coercive power of Christian emperors, kings, magistrates, parliaments, in all matters of religion, church-government, discipline, ceremonies, manners: summoning of, presiding, moderating in councells, synods; and ratifying their canons, determinations, decrees: as likewise of lay-mens right both to sit and vote in councells; ... In refutation of Mr. Iohn Goodwins Innocencies Triumph: my deare brother Burtons Vindication of churches, commonly called Independent: and of all anti-monarchicall, anti-Parliamentall, anti-synodicall, and anarchicall paradoxes of papists, prelates, Anabaptists, Arminians, Socinians, Brownists, or Independents: whose old and new objections to the contrary, are here fully answered. / By William Prynne, of Lincolnes Inne, Esquire.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1645 (1645)	Wing P4115; Thomason E259_1; ESTC R212479	202,789	171

in the Old and New Testament at hainous sin● and capitall offences punishable in some cases with imprisonment banishment confiscation of goods and death it selfe And on the contrary chearful obedience to them is not only commanded but commended by God Himselfe in by and for whom they rule and command as the marginall Scriptures fully manifest Therefore undoubtedly they binde the Conscience And so all Parliaments Law-givers ever held and believed else they would never take care or pains to enact or publish Lawes Finally Princes Magistrates and Parliaments may and oft-times do prescribe solemn Oathes and Covenants to their people to observe both Gods just Laws and their own to as is clear by the Marginall Texts by 28 H. 8. c. 10. 1 Eliz. c. 1. 3 Jac. c. 4. which prescribe an oath of abjuration of the Popes Authority the oathes of Supremacy and Allegiance with infinite other Acts enjoyning sundry other oathes and by the late Protestation Vow and Nationall Covenant made and imposed upon all by the present Parliament Now these oaths and Covenants do without all controversie binde the Conscience to observance and obedience in the highest degree Therefore questionlesse these their oaths Laws Covenants binde the Conscience els we might with safe Conscience refuse and violate them at pleasure which none dares affirme they may who hath any sparkle of Conscience remaining in him I shall now propound and answer the principall contrary Objections which are these 1. It is contrary to Christian liberty and a plaine tyranny that humane Lawes should obliege the Conscience Christ having freed us from all humane Ceremonies Lawes obligations and the Scripture enjoyning us to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and not to be again entangled with the yoake of Bondage Not to be the servants of men Not to be subject to Ordinances as touch not tast not handle not which all are to perish with the using after the commandements and Doctrines of men If therefore humane Lawes should binde the Conscience Christian liberty would be destroyed and tyranny over consciences introduced 1. Answer 1. That it is no wayes repugnant to but very consistent with Christian liberty to be obliged to obey al honest just necessary Lawes all decent and convenient things which may advance Gods glory worship the peace wee le or prosperity of Church State our own felicity and are consonant not repugnant to Gods Law Neither do the objected scriptures extend to such Lawes or Edicts at these 2. That Christian liberty which Christ hath purchased for us is not an exemption or freedome from the obedience of humane Laws but from the dominion and power of sinne the yoake and bondage of the Ceremonial Law abolished by Christs death from the exact performance and condemning power of the morall Law not from obedience to it and from placeing inherent holines o● any matter of Religion worship conscientiousnes in things meerely indifferent in themselves as Mr. Calvin with others who write Deliberitate christiana with most Commentators on the Galathians resolve yet Magistrates may command such things to be done or not done for 〈◊〉 order peace and other publicke ends so as they place no inherent holinesse religion or worship in them and Christians are bound to obey them therein without infringement of their Christian Liberty Thirdly As to the Texts objected The first of them is meant of the Ceremoniall Law and morrall to so farre forth as to seeke justification by it or to be under the rigour and condemning power of it Not of just humane Laws The next is intended onely of● men-pleasers who flatter men in their lusts pleasures errors or obey their unjust commands repugnant to the will of God not of obeying the just Lawes or precepts of Kings Parliaments Magistrates Parents Masters and other superiors for then there shall be no servants no subjection or obedience at all to superiors in this world and this Text should repeale the 5. Commandement with all other precepts of obedience given to subjects wives children servants if thus expounded For that of the Colossians 2. 20 21 22. it appeares by verse 14 15 16 17 c. that it is spoken onely of the Ceremoniall Law and of that Ceremonial holynes or intrinsicall uncleannes which some did put between meats and drink●s which were indifferent in themselves as is most cleare by comparing it with Acts 10. 10. to 16. Rom. 14. 2 3 to 23. 2 Cor. 8. 1 Tim. 4. 3 4 5. Therefore it makes nothing against the Ecclesiasticall or Civill Lawes of Princes and Parliaments who may command abstinence from flesh and such particular things creatures at certaine times for lawfull civill ends which we are obliged to obey though not out of any religious or superstitious respect as if the creature it selfe were unlawfull at such times by any divine precept or in its owne nature our Statutes and Homylies concerning Fishdayes define The second Objection is this That the civill power is temporall and the end of civill Lawes externall or temporall peace and order Therefore they binde not the Conscience I Answer That the end of Ecclesiasticall Lawes is not meerly temporall but spirituall and Ecclesiasticall Therefore the objection is not solid 2ly Admit the power he but temporall inregard of the object or end yet internall and outward obedience to those Laws is the principall thing intended in them which none can with safe conscience deny where the Laws are just necessary The third is That Magistrates Parliaments and their Lawes have nothing to do with mens consciences which they cannot judge or discerne but onely with th●● outward actions Therefore they cannot binde the conscience I answer that though Majestrats have nothing to do with nor can judg of mens consciences or opinions simply considered in themselves concealed yet they have to do withal their external actions flowing from regulated by their consciences and opinions Therefore they may binde the conscience as it is Practicall punish Atheists Heritickes Papists Idolaters when they openly appear to be such 2ly The very Law Of God hindes the conscience to obey all iust commands of higher powers therefore such commands even by vertue of Gods owne precept oblige the conscience to internall obedience as wel as the body to externall The 4th is That Princes and temporall Majestrates cannot inflict inward and spirituall but only temporall and externall punishments Therefore they cannot binde the conscience I Answer that men may binde and deliver others over to such punishments as they cannot immediatly inflict The Church may deliver men over even for ecclesiasticall offences to the secular power which they cannot exercise and to temporall punishment which they cannot inflict yea they may deliuer a● they hold men ever unto Sathan and to the judgement of God at the last day which they cannot actually execute Majestrates doe frequently punish the

not onely in their Pulpits but likewise in sundry late Pamphlets wherewith they have filled the World That every particular Congregation of visible Saints and Independent Church is under the Government of Christ alone as the ONELY Head King Governour Law-giver of it and subject TO NO OTHER IVRISDICTION then that of Christ his word and Spirit That NO POWER ON EARTH NOR EARTHLY LAW-GIVERS MAY CAN OR OVGHT TO GIVE LAWES FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THIS REPVBLIKE nor claime nor exercise an Headship or undertake the Government of this Body That neither KINGS NOR PARLIAMENTS NOR SYNODS have any Authority to prescribe Lawes or Rules for the Churches Government to order the affaires of Christs Kingdome or institute the Government of his Churches or to make coactive Lawes in any Ecclesiasticall matters to bind the conscience of any Church or Christian to outward conformity or inflict any mulcts or penalties for contempt or disobedience Christ onely being the Lord of mens consciences which ought to be left at liberty That the Members of the Parliament are chosen but by a secular Root by the Generality and Riffe Raffe of the world Papists Atheists Drunkards Swearers Men voyd of the knowledge feare and grace of Christ And therefore the Independent Brethren conceive as great AN IMPOSSIBILITY that a Legitimate Ecclesiastick Power should according to the mind of Christ bee by them conferred upon any men or that they should have any Power or Authority from Christ to nominate or appoint who shall bee the men by vertue of such nomination or election to enact Lawes and Statutes in matters of Religion and to order under mulcts and penalties how men shall worship and serve God as it is in Jobs expression to bring a cleane thing out of an uncleane That the Parliaments claiming or exercising any such Ecclesiasticall Power or others attributing of it to them is a meanes to awaken the eye of Jealousie upon them and seven times more destructive and under-mining of not onely their Power but Honour Peace nd Safety also than any thing that is found in the Independent Way so ill entreated That it is a claiming of the sacred and incommunicable Royalties of Heaven an accounting it no Robbery to make themselves equall with God and such an high provocation in the eyes of the Most High as IF CONTINVED IN by the Parliament will kindle a fire in the brest of him whose name is Jealous which will consume and devoure Yea one of them puts this Question If the whole Kingdome may deny obedience unto Popish Acts and Canons or upon any other like just occasion and they themselves bee Judges whether the occasion bee just or no Whether MAY NOT INDEPENDENTS a part of the Kingdome onely doe the like in all respects Or Whether ought they because a Lesser part of the Kingdome yeeld obedience to Popish Acts and Canons because a Major part approve of and agree with a Parliament and Synod in approving them What if they should be for Popery again Judaisme or Turcisme t is no offence to make a Quere nor impossible to come to passe the greatest part of those that chose our Parliament men being thought to be Popishly or Malignantly affected c. Putting divers such like Queries destructive to the very fundamentall Power and Being of Parliaments and as bad or worse than the Popish Gun-powder Plot to blow up the Soveraign Ecclesiastick and Civill Authority of this High Court in all succeeding Ages These with infinite other Anti-Parliamentall Anti-Synodicall and Anti-Monarchicall Paradoxes at which I professe I stand amazed have not onely dropped from the Lips but Pens of sundry Independents who have avowed them publikely in Print with their Names affixed to their Bookes even before the face of Your Right Honourable Parliamentary Assembly and Supreme Tribunall in such open affront and high contempt of Your undoubted Rights Power Priviledges which Your Honours and wee all are obliged by Late Solemne Oathes Covenants Protestations to defend maintaine with our very Lives and Estates and to discover oppose all others who shall invade them to our uttermost power as I am confident no Age nor History can ever parallel in the least measure the very Malignant Prelates and Anti-Parliamentary Cavaliers having not proceeded in this kind so farre as they which I speake with deepest griefe of heart and spirit out of Conscience of that common Vow and Covenant which bindes mee to discover oppugne reveale abhorre it and detestation of their most pernicious Assertions not out of the least malice or hatred to any of their Persons What the Independents end of publishing these desperate Anti-Parliamentary Paradoxes should be unlesse to prepare their party and all others as much as in them lies utterly to reject whatever publike forme of Church-Government Discipline Reformation and Directory of Worship Your Honours by the advice of the Reverend Assembly shall establish in our Church for the future after all your serious consultations debates paines Prayers and Fastings about it and to set up their owne Anomolous Platforme which they averre is Christs Kingdome and Government and which may upon probable and higher grounds than of reason bee thought in time to overthrow and put downe all other Governments whatsoever and to stand up alone in their stead since Christs Kingdome shall stand up when all opposite earthly Kingdomes like earthen vessells shall with an Iron Rod bee dashed in peeces Which they close up with a Faxit Deus festinet in despight of Your Authority and all humane Power whatsoever I cannot conjecture And their owne late printed Passages with Mr. Iohn Goodwins Sermon that it would be more easie for him and hee should rather yeeld to bee torne in pieces by wild horses than submit to such a Government which proceeded from a Parliament chosen by the Riffe-raffe of the world c. intimate and expresse as much Which what an high contempt it is against Your undoubted Power and pious Ecclesiasticall proceedings in Reforming setling the Doctrine Discipline and Government of our Church the grand desire and prayer of all wel-affected spirits I most humbly submit to Your saddest thoughts and deepest wisedomes who have both Power and Authority in Your hands to suppresse incomparable Prudence and Providence to prevent these growing dangerous Insolencies before they become Masterlesse or Epidemicall past Your cure Farre be it from my thoughts to exasperate Your Power or Iustice against any Delinquents of this kind some whereof are so neare and deare unto mee that it is my heaviest affliction to mention their extravagancies in this kind of which I trust they and all their followers will be now ashamed and a Brotherly Admonition to their Persons though their Writings undergoe the sharper Censure will I hope induce them upon second thoughts both to discerne lament recant their fore-mentioned Paradoxes and abhorre themselves for them even in dust and ashes as one of them professeth hee will doe in case hee be convinced And

by Parliament only THirdly As Bishops and Clergy-men have no power at all to summon Councells Synods or Convocations nor yet to treat or conclude of any Ecclesiasticall Canons or Constitutions in them c. without the speciall licences of Kings under their Great Seals authorizing them so I shall next manifest that when Councells or Synods have by vertue of their license agreed on and composed any such Articles Canons Constitutions Orders Ceremonies c. they cannot print publish promulge impose execute or put them in ure nor are they of any binding force or authority till they are approved ratified confirmed by Kings and Christian Princes Subscriptions Imperiall Edicts Patents Acts of State and Parliament and that most ancient Councells Synods were but Parliaments wherein Kings Nobles and Lay-men were present as well as Clergy-men This I shall manifest by some Presidents both abroad and at home in all ages To begin with Scripture Testimonies When all the whole Congregation of Israel assembled by the summons of Joshua had in their Convocation at Shechem made a Covenant Ordinance and Statute that they would serve the Lord and obey his voyce Joshua being then their chiefe Governour confirmed the same by writing it in the Book of the Law of God and erecting a great stone in the place for a witnesse thereof When the Princes and all the Congregation in Jerusalem assembled by King Hezechiah had took counsell together and concluded to keep the Passeover in the second Moneth because they could not doe it on the first the King established their Decree by his Proclamation and Letters When the Jewes upon Mordecai his Letter to them had in a publike Convocation ordained and took upon them and their seed to keep the feast of Purim throughout every generation family province and city in remembrance of their great deliverance from Hamans conspiracy against them Queene Esther and Mordecai wrote with all authority and confirmed this Feast and Decree by their Letters the Decree of Esther Yea we read that when the Presidents Governours Princes Counsellours and Captains of King Darius to entrap Daniel moved him to establish a royall Statute and make a firme Decree that whosoever should aske a petition of any god or man for thirty dayes save of the King hee should bee cast into the Lyons denne they brought this Decree to Darius to establish and signe that it should not bee changed requesting him to signe it who did it accordingly else it had not been obligatory And wee likewise find in Scripture that when as the King of Nineveh and his great men upon Jonah his preaching had made a Decree for a publike Fast the King confirmed and published it to bee observed by his Proclamation To come to Councells under Christian Princes and Emperours The first famous Synod of Nice with the Constitutions Canons and Decrees therein compiled were confirmed by the Imperiall Edicts of Constantine the Great who sate President in it Edictum quod quidem pondus habebat autoritatem cum hac Epistola Imperator in singulas misit Civitates writes Eusebius Who records further of him That hee confirmed and consigned by his authority the Canons made by Bishops in publike Councells that so it might not bee lawfull for the Princes of other Nations to abrogate the things which were decreed by them Which had been invalid without his Imperiall confirmation The Councell kept at Rome under Pope Sylvester was confirmed by the subscription of Constantine and Helena his mother The second generall Councell of Constantinople after they had finished their Decrees and Canons sent them with this Epistle to Theodosius the Elder desiring him to ratifie them In the beginning verily of our writing to your Piety wee give thanks to God who hath constituted the government of your Majesty for the common peace of the Churches and the CONFIRMATION of the true Faith But giving God due thanks wee likewise referre to your Majesty those necessary things which are acted in the sacred Councell to wit that from the time wee assembled at Constantinople by your Majesties command wee have first of all renued our mutuall concord between us and after this we have prescribed and pronounced as it were certaine Conclusions or Canons in which we have confirmed and approved the faith of the Fathers assembled at Nice and have rejected with extreme execration and detestation the preverse heresies and wicked opinions which have sprung up against it Moreover also for the right setling and ordering of the state and discipline of the Churches wee have enacted and prescribed certaine Canons all which wee have annexed to this our Writing Wee therefore beseech your Clemency VT PER LITERAS TVAE PIET ATIS RATVM ESSE IVBEAS CONFIRMES QVE CONCILII DECRETVM that by your Majesties Letters you would command the Decree of the Councell to bee ratified and confirme the same and as you have honoured the Church with those Letters by which you have called us together so you would likewise CORROBORATE WITH YOVR DECREE AND SEALE THE SVMME AND CONCLVSION OF THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE DECREED And hereupon writes Nicephorus CONSTITVTIONE QVO QVE IMPERATOR SANXIT the Emperour enacted by his Constitution that the authority of the Nicene Creed should bee firme and perpetuall and that all Churches in all places should bee committed to those who professed one Divinity of the Father Son and holy Ghost in the subsistence of three Persons of the same honour and glory And likewise made a Law that those who abhered from the profession of this faith should not keep any Ecclesiasticall assemblies nor should not presume thenceforth to preach concerning the Faith nor have power to elect or consecrate any one that they should bee banished out of the City and Country fined and have no communion with other Citizens c. Which Edicts of his are Registred verbatim by Justinian The Synod of Ancyra sent Legates to Constantius informing him that Eudoxius did study to deprave the Faith requesting him TO CONFIRME THOSE THINGS which were decreed at Sardice Syrnium and in other Synods So the Catholike Bishops in the Councell of Ariminum write to the same Constantius beseeching him to heare their Orators who should declare unto him the Sentence of that their Councell in writing and not to permit any innovation or change but to suffer them to rest in those things which were lawfully defined and decreed by their Ancestors and that nothing might be added to or detracted from their Constitutions but that they all might remaine untouched and intire as they were preserved by the piety of his Father till that time The Councell of Africk Can. 25. to 32 34 42 51 59 60. and the Bishops therein assembled make divers petitions and requests to the Emperor Honorius and the temporall Judges and Magistrates to reforme Idolatry suppresse the Donatists and reform many abuses by them complained of by their Lawes and

out of which the Independent Brethren CONCEIVE AN IMPOSSIBILITY that a spirituall extraction should be made That a man may as well bring a cleane thing out of an uncleane in Iobs expression as make A SPIRITVALL EXTRACTION out of this SECVLAR ROOT who have NO Authority nor power from Christ to nominate or appoint who shall be the men that shall order the affaires of Christs Kingdom or institute the government of his Church That therefore there is AN IMPOSSIBILITY that a legitimate Ecclesiasticall power should according to the minde of Christ or any precept or prefident of Scripture be by them conferred VPON ANY MAN OR THAT THE PERSONS SO ELECTED SHOVLD HAVE A POWER by vertue of such nomination or election TO ENACT LAWES OR STATVTES IN MATTERS OF RELIGION and TO ORDER VNDER MVLCTS PAENATIES HOW MEN SHALL WORSHIP and SERVE GOD c. Are diametrally opposite to the ancient priviledges and undoubted Ecclesiagicall Authority of Parliaments which they pluck up by the very roots and altogether as bad as if not far worse than Bishop Laudes with whom he symbolizeth in this particular which I have elswhere answered fully resuted These Passages of his were first unseasonably vented by him in a Sermon in Colemanstreet 25 February 1643. to what other end unlesse to prepare his Auditors to slight or reject what ever forme of Church-government the Parliament should prescribe or settle I cannot discerne for which with other particulars being questioned before the Committee for plundered Ministers even pending the complaint there he presumed to justifie them againe very unseasonably in the Pulpit on a solemne Fast day and likewise in two printed Books to one wherof he prefixed his name in high affront of that Committee which suspended him and contempt of the Parliaments Authority not to be paralleld in any age by any person for ought I finde Which audaciousnesse of his who pretended so much respect and honour to the Parliament heretofore engaged me according to my Covenant and Protestation to give a publicke answer in print to these scandalous passages in vindication of the Parliaments indubitable Right and Priviledge to intermeddle in and make Lawes for all Church matters as I have manifested by a cloud of witnesses in all ages in the foregoing Section and so farre incensed the Committee against him that they sequestred him from his living in Colemanstreet for the very things I mentioned in my Full Reply c. and ordered the passages in his Sermon and Theomachia to be specially reported to the House with all expedition as an unsufferable affront and presumptnons under mining of their Priviledges which they could neither in honour nor justice connive at without exemplary punishment and censure And yet this Gentleman since this censure hath had the boldnesse in another Pamphlet of his to which hee hath prefixed his name Intituled INNOCENCIES TRIVMPH an unfitting Title for a sequestred Nocent to deny those very matters of fact which he voluntarily confessed in my hearing before the Committee for which he was sequestred and to justifie his forementioned scandalous passages in such a daring way as cannot bee paralleld For first he professeth p. 2. That he hath not denyed the least dram or scruple of that power belike he hath weighed it exactly in the scales which is truly Parliamentary and consistent with the Word of the great and glorious God of which misdemeanour he is not in the least measure conscious to himselfe as yet This manifestes him incorrigible impenitent after censure proclaims him that which this whole Pamphlet vainly endeavours to acquit him from One who hath presumptuously undermined the undoubted Priviledges of Parliaments and here trebles in his former offences Secondly he averreth that what he formerly preached and writ was out of a loving tender affectionate jealousie over the Parliament lest possibly they might dash their foot against that stone by which all Rule all Authority and power will one day be broken in pieces So that if his tongue or pen have in the least miscarried in this point it was Error Amoris not Amor erroris he being extreamly jealous over the Parliament lest they should touch with any Title or claime the most sacred and incommunicable Royalties and privilledges of Heaven and so count it no robbery to make themselves equall to God knowing most assuredly that this is a most high provocation to the eyes of the most High and IF CONTINUED IN will kindle a fire in the breast of him whose name is Iehovah which will consume and devoure c. But good Sir first can any rationall man thinke though you should protest it ten thousand times over that such Anti-Parliamentary passages as yours are should proceed from your love to Parliaments The blindest charity I feare will hardly credit it that a friend to Parliaments should thus successively Preach and Print against their jurisdiction more desperatly than the worst Malignant Royalist Cavalier or the Arch-Prelate himselfe as you have apparently done Secondly If this proceeded from such affectionate jealousie over the Parliament I pray what made you so strangely if not ma●gnantly jealous over them as to feare and presume they might dash their feet against that stone by which all power shall bee broken in peeces claime the most sacred and incommunicable priviledges and royalties of Heaven to themselves and count it no robbery to make themselves equall with God Did the Parliament ever give you the least colour or occasion of any such uncharitable unchristian that I say not detestable jealousie could you have harder or more jealous thoughts than these of the very Pope or Turke himselfe or of that great Antichrist who exalts himselfe above all that is called God Can such jealousies as these issued from any but a rancorous or disaffected heart against Parliaments or did ever such execrable jealousies as these proceed from the heart tongue much lesse the pen of any Oxford Aulicus or most venemous Malignant to our Parliament Doe their calling of an Assembly of most pious and conscientious Divines of all sorts to reforme our Church and conforme its Government Discipline in all things as neere as possible to the Word of God with all their religious proceedings in this kinde infuse any such jealousie into you If not then for shame retract these your groundlesse fanaticke jealousies of and uncharitable hard thoughts against the Parliament else the world will censure you an Arch-Malignant and the greatest Enemie to our Parliament that ever yet appeared openly in Presse or Pulpit within the lines of Communication if not without them to Thirdly had you had any just cause of such a jealousie yet it had bin your duty to have privately informed your friends in Parliament with it in a brotherly Christian way but to publish these your brain-sick jealousies and suspitions of them behind their backs in open Pulpit and then to the whole world in print of purpose to make your Auditors Readers jealous of