Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	apostle_n	appoint_v	bishop_n	3,573	5	5.9455	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77374	The vvounded conscience cured, the weak one strengthned, [sic] and the doubting satisfied By way of answer to Doctor Fearne. Where the main point is rightly stated, and objections throughly answered for the good of those who are willing not to be deceived. By William Bridge, preacher of Gods Word. It is ordered this 30. day of January, 1642. by the committee of the House of Commons in Parliament, concerning printing, that this answer to Dr. Fearnes book be printed. John White. The second edition, correced and amended. Whereunto are added three sermons of the same author; 1. Of courage, preached to the voluntiers. 2. Of stoppage in Gods mercies to England, with their [sic] remedies. 3. A preparation for suffering in these plundering times.	Bridge, William, 1600?-1670.	1643 (1643)	Wing B4476A; ESTC R223954	47,440	52

revolt from allegeance which hath possessed well neare tenn● Tribes of the twelve and yet in page 21. he tells us of a vote passed by ● few upon the place that this worke of resistance is not carried on with a generall and unanimous consent and yet here he saith ten tribes of twelv● are for it In examining the causes of this war and resistance the Dr. saith To speake truth Religion and liberties can be no other then the pretences of this war the King having fortified them with so many acts of his grace passed this Parliament that they cannot be in that danger that is pretende● for the raising of this war It must be something that his Majesty indeed doth deny for which the contention is raised which we shall finde to be his power of armes his power of denying in Parliament the government of the Church and the revenue of it which he is bound by oath to maintaine as by law they are established Ans This is a very bold assertion and scandalous to charge a Parliament in the face of the world with hypocrisie but how doth this agree to the Drs. owne principles who doth declaime against me● for their uncharitablenesse in not beleeving the Kings Protestations Is this then no uncharitablenesse in him charging the Houses with pretending one thing and intending another Is not conscience a● well bound to be charitable and to beleeve the Protestations of th● Parliament as those papers that come out in the name of the King and hath the Parliament and Houses carried themselves so unworthily and basely that under pretence of Religion we should think● they gape after the revenues of the Church O where is this man● charity And if the King be bound by oath as the Dr. saith to maintaine the government of the Church as by Law established yet h● is no more bound by vertue of that oath to maintaine that government then any other Law of the Kingdom and as for other Laws i● the King and Parliament thinke fit to repeale them they may ye● without breach of the Kings oath so in this also Then the Doctor comes in the 25. page to open himselfe some what more freely concerning the government of the Church b● Bishops where he saith That it is such a government which t●● Church alwaies had since the first receiving of the Christian faith in th● land and of all other governments simply the best the abolishing wher● of the King hath reason by power of Armes to divert To which I answer First that if the Doctor looke into the story of Queen Maries time he shall finde that suffering Protestant Churches which by reason of persecution were faine to lye hid in London were governed by Elders and Deacons That is simply the best government of the Church which is chalked and ruled out by the Scripture as the Doctor will confesse and if this government bee so I wonder that those that are so much for it should bee of that judgement that there is no particular forme of Church-government laid downe in the word which judgement they must needs bee of unlesse they will hold that the government of other Churches is sinfull and contrary unto the word which they are loth for to doe And truly if this government be simply the best the best hath the worst successe for there is no government in all the Churches of Christendome that hath had so many Sects and Schismes or occasioned so much separation from the Churches of Christ as this hath done There are many Sects and divisions in the low Countries but none of them departing from the Protestant Church there by reason of the Church-government or discipline but by reason of doctrine Let any man but seriously consider the Protestant Churches in Switzerland France Holland Germany Scotland and hee shall easily observe that there is no such separation or division made from the Churches by reason of the Church-government stablished in them as hath been here in England by reason of this Diocesan government And if any man shall say this bad successe here is rather to bee imputed to the wickednesse of the Governours then the corruption of government Why should hee thinke that the Governours in England are more wicked then in other Protestant Churches if the government itselfe did not give scope to their wickednesse And if the government of Diocesan Bishops bee of all governments the best wee wonder that Christ and his Apostles should not appoint it surely they appointed some government in the Church and what they appointed was ●ure Divino and so best whereas this was never counted Iure Divino till of late But if this government bee simply the best it will abide triall in its due time and place but that it should be so good as that the abolishing thereof the King hath reason by power of Armes to divert this is strange Now the Doctor shewes himselfe that hee had rather the Kingdome should be embrewed in a bloody warre then Episcopacie should be put downe and that will stirre up the King to an unnaturall civill warre for the upholding of that order Judge yee O all Englishmen whether it be better for you to have this order taken away then for the whole Kingdome to lie imbrewed in their owne gore In the conclusion of this Section the Doctor complaines That the Kings Speare and Cruse and necessary Ammunition and provisions are taken away not restored though often demanded contrary saith hee to the example of David who having taken the Speare and the Cruse from Saul his King restored them againe before they were demanded 1 Sam. 26. Ans But though Sauls Speare was restored before it was demanded yet not before Saul had humbled himselfe to David saying I have sinned returne my sonne David for I will no more doe thee harme because my soule was pretious in thine eyes this day Behold I have played the foole and have erred exceedingly vers 21. Whereupon David arose and said vers 22. Behold the Kings Speare let one of the young men come over and fetch it Neither is mention here made of restoring the Cruse Some other things the Doctor hath in this Section wherein hee doth rather charge then prove but mens knowledge may sufficiently answer to those things SECT VII IN this last Section the Doctor tells us That though Conscience could be perswaded that it is lawfull to make a defensive resistance yet it can never be perswaded that the King is such as the people must bee made to believe he is for indeed it concernes all such as will resist upon the principles now taught to render their Prince odious to his people under the hatefull notions of Tyrant subverter of Religion and Lawes a person not to be trusted or at least as one seduced to such evill designes by wicked counsels that hee will bring in Popery that hee will not stand to his promises Ans These are sad charges but how groundlesse God and the world knowes

their ancient and acoustomed liberties regiments and lawes they may not well be accounted rebells And the title of that page is the Law sometimes permits resistance and the margent is in some cases the Nobles and Commons may stand for their publicke regiment and laws of their Kingdome All which judgements of severall Divines I doe not bring forth as if I were of their mindes for deposing or punishing of Princes by the people which we plead not for in Hereditary Princes but to shew how the Doctors Dr. Willet Co. on Ro. 13. Q. 17. judgement is different from the judgement of the Divines of all Protestant Countries notwithstanding he would insinuate that our Divines of England are of his judgement and that our judgement is no Bilsons true difference between Christ●an subjection and unchristian rebellion p. 5. 251. new upstart opinion you see what was the judgement of the Divines in the Counsell of Basil where one of them saith thus That in every well ordered Kingdome it ought specially to be desired that the whole Realme ought to be of more authority then the King which if it happened contrary it is not to be called a Kingdome but tyranny so likewise doth he thinke of the Church c. And presently another of the Divines of the s●me Co●●●●ll saith thus For the Pope is in the Church as the King is in his Kingdome and for a King to be of more authority then his Kingdome this were too absurd ergo neither ought the Pope to be above the Church for like as oftentimes Kings which doe wickedly rule the Common-weale and exercise cruelty are deprived of their Kingdomes even so it is not to he doubted but that the Bishops of Rome may be dep●sed by the Church that is to say by the generall Councell neither doe I herein allow them which attribute so large and ample authority unto Kings that they will not have them bound under any Lawes for such as doe so say are but flatterers who do talke otherwise then they think For albeit that they doe say that the moderation of the law is alwaies in the Princes power● that do I thus understand that when as reason shall perswade hee ought to digresse from the rigour of the law for he is called a King who careth and provideth for the Common-weale taketh pleasure in the profit and commodity of the subjects and in all his doings hath respect to the commodity of those over whom he ruleth which if he doe not he is not to be accounted a King● but a Tyrant whose property it is only to suck his owne profit For in this point a King differeth from a Tyrant that the one seeketh the cōmodity profit of them whom he ruleth the other only his owne The which to make more manifest the cause is also to be alledged wherefore Kings were ordained At the beginning as Cicero in his Offices saith It is certaine that there was a certaine time when the people lived without Kings but afterward when ●and and possessions began to be divided according to the custome of every Nation then were Kings ordained for no other cause but only to execute Justice For when as at the beginning the common people were oppressed by rich and mighty men they ran by and by to some good and vertuous man who should defend the poore from injury and ordaine Lawes whereby the rich and poore should dwell together But when as yet under the rule of Kings the poore were oft oppressed lawes were ordained and instituted the which should judge neither for hatred nor favour and give like care unto the poore as unto the rich whereby we doe understand not only the people but the King to be subject unto the Lawes Then the Doctor tells us that he is against the Arbitrary way of government For saith he we may and ought to deny obedience to such commands of the Prince as are unlawfull by the Law of God yea by the established Lawes of the Kingdome Ans This reason doth no way destroy Arbitrary government but rather erect it For government is not said to be Arbitrary because the subjects may deny in word and so left to suffer For then the Tur●ish government is not arbitrary For when the great Turke commands his subjects to doe any thing if they will deny and suffer for their deniall they may and doe sometimes deny their obedience If there be lawes whereby a King is to rule which he shall command his subjects to breake and his subjects are neither bound to obey him nor suffer by him then his government is not arbitrary but if there be lawes made and he may inforce his subjects either to keepe them or breake them and punish them at his pleasure that shall refuse and the whole kingdome bound in conscience to suffer whatsoever he shall inflict for not breaking those Lawes then is his government arbitrary for arbitrary government is that whereby a Prince doth rule ex arbitrio which he doth when either there is no law to rule by but his owne will or when hee hath a power to breake those lawes at his will and to punish the subject at his pleasure for not breaking them and in truth this latter is rather an arbitrary government then the former as it shewes more liberty in the will that it hath a power to act when reason perswades to the contrary then if there were no reason disswading and else there should be no arbitrary government in the world For no State but hath some lawes whereby they rule and are ruled even the very Indians onely here lyes the arbitrarinesse of a government that notwithstanding the law the Ruler may pro arbitrio force his subjects according to his owne pleasure Then the Doctor saith We must consider that they which plead for resistance in such a case as is supposed doe grant that it must be concluded upon Omnibus ordinibus regni consentientibus that is with the generall and unanimous consent of the two houses Ans 1. First these words are ill translated for omnes ordines regni may consentire and yet there may not be an unanimous and generall consent of the Members of the two houses as of one man 2. If so that the Doctor grant this to be our Sentence why then doth he object against us that the Christians in the primitive times did not take up armes for the defence of themselves against the Emperors seeing they had not the consent of all the orders of the Empire and therefore their case is nothing to ours as hee pretends afterward But if they had the whole Senate of Rome with them the representative body of the Empire then their case had beene more like unto ours and then no question but they would have taken up armes for the defence of themselves Then the Doctor saith We suppose that the Prince must be so and so disposed bent to overthrow Religion Liberties Lawes c. Ans Here he takes that