Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	church_n	civil_a	magistrate_n	1,328	5	8.0220	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77236	Several treatises of vvorship & ceremonies, by the Reverend Mr. William Bradshaw, one of the first Fellows of Sydney Colledge in Cambridge; afterward minister of Chattam in Kent, 1601. Known by his learned treatise De justificatione. 1. A consideration of certain positions archiepiscopal. 2. A treatise of divine worship, tending to prove the ceremonies, imposed on the ministers of the Gospel in England, in present controversie, are in their use unlawful. Printed 1604. 3. A treatise of the nature and use of things indifferent. 1605. 4. English Puritanism, containing the main opinions of the ridgedest sort of those called Puritans in the realm of England. 1604. 5. Twelve general arguments, proving the ceremonies unlawful. 1605. 6. A proposition concerning kneeling in the very act of receiving, 1605. 7. A protestation of the Kings supremacy, made in the name of the afflicted ministers, and oposed to the shameful calumniations of the prelates. 1605. 8. A short treatise of the cross in baptism.	Bradshaw, William, 1571-1618.	1660 (1660)	Wing B4161; Thomason E1044_5; ESTC R20875	92,680	129

or a Ceremony but it must needs respect him that Re●igion it self respecteth ●s therefore we performe civil honour unto those unto whom we performe civil Ceremonies so we performe Religious and Divine honours unto those that we obey in a Religious Ceremonie They therefore that claim and performe obedience therein do claim and performe that which is due only to God 8. Nothing intended or done by man is an honour to God but that which is an obedience unto God in some Commandement All Ceremonies therefore of Religion that are an honour unto God must be commanded by God himself and to bring in such Ceremonies into his worship as are no honour to him is to mock God 9. All Religious Ceremonies or Ceremonies of Religion are spiritual that is are ordained for spiritual uses and ends and not for civil or temporal and therefore are outward notes and testimonies of those things that make us spiritual men and they are parts of spiritual honour due unto spiritual authority and Lordship 10. All spiritual Lords may claim as their due spiritual worship and therefore may institute religious Ceremonies for look what difference there is between humane and divine Temporal and Spiritual the same difference there is between the peculiar worship due to the one and to the other if therefore Temporal Lords may require all civil rites and honors Spiritual Lords may require all Divine and Spiritual Rites and honors 11. Civil honor and reverence only cannot nor ought not to please a Spiritual Lord hence it is that the Spiritual Lords of our Church cannot content themselves with such honor that we give to civil Magistrates and Princes but we must obey them in peculiar religious duties and services and surely it is meet that if there be any such besides Christ that we performe spiritual homage unto them and they are not worthy that high style that will be content with temporalls when spiritualls are due 12. Those Ceremonies that are enjoined by true spiritual Lords are truly spiritual and holy even as spiritual and holy as the Sacraments though they consist of some things in their own nature indifferent and those Lords are not spiritual that are not able by their sole authority and word to hallow that which before was not holy 13. Those that can make a Surplice a Cope a Cross c. to be ornaments of Religion and holy Ceremonies can when it pleaseth them make a shaven Crown a Monks habit spittle in Baptism holy Water the triple Crown and all the Missal Rites as holy For they are all of the same nature And those that can find no reason to prove those unholy and unlawful would find none to prove any other external Rite to be so if they should in the same manner be imposed 14. Those that have power upon their own will and pleasure to bring into Gods Service some indifferent thing may bring in any * For all indifferent things are of the same nature indifferent thing those that may bring in without special warrant from God pyping into his Service might as well bring in dancing also those that have authority to joyn to the Sacrament of Baptism the sign of the Cross have authority also no doubt to joyn to the Sacrament of the Supper Flesh Broth Butter or Cheese and worse matters than those if they will Yea those that have power to make peculiar forms of Religion and Worship have power to make and invent a Religion and Worship of their own CHAP. VI. Of Divine Worship in special and first of true Worship THus much of Divine Worship in general both Inward and Outward and of Ceremonies wherein Outward Worship especially consisteth Now let us in special consider the same Divine Worship therefore is either true Worship or false 2. True Worship is that immediate service that the true God himself requireth to be performed unto himself In the exercise whereof consisteth true holiness and Religion 3. True Worship both for matter and manner ought to be according to the prescript rule of Gods Word only Neither hath any mortal man authority to frame according to his own conceit any form or fashion of Gods Service and Worship for the manner of Worship also must be holy and not the matter only and no man hath power to make any thing holy that God halloweth not by his Word and Spirit 4. All civil furtherances and necessary circumstances of Gods solemn Worship though they be not essentiall parts of the same nor by special Nomination commanded Yet are they to be esteemed Ordinances of God and not humane inventions As God having ordained that this Saints dwelling together both Men Women and Children of all sorts and degrees should ordinarily at appointed times meet together it must needs be presupposed to be his Ordinance that they meet together in some such ordinary places as are fittest for to receive most commodiously such Assemblies So God having ordained that his Ministers should preach or proclaim salvation to a multitude gathered together and that they should sit at his feet hath also ordained that the Ministers seat should be higher than the rest of the Peoples and the like may be said of all other such Circumstances of Divine Worship which are matters of so base and low consideration and so subject to common sence that it neither beseemeth the majesty of the Word of God in special or humane authority derived from God to make any Laws in particular about them no more than to make Laws that one should not fit in the Congregation upon anothers lap or one spit upon anothers cloaths or face or that men should not make antick faces in the Church CHAP. VII Of False Worship THus much of true Worship False Worship is such a service of God as hath no warrant from God himself Worship is false in matter or manner in whole or in part neither can the true matter of Worship sanctifie a corrupt manner or the true manner sanctifie a corrupt matter or some parts of true Worship or the whole it self sanctifie any part of false Worship that shall be adjoyned to it or mingled with it 2. Whatsoever is unholy and superstitious out of Gods solemn Service cannot be made by the sole appointment and will of man holy and good in the solemn Service of God but must needs be more unholy and superstitious therein and therefore a part of false Worship If for a man to sign himself or another in the forehead with the sign of the Cross out of Baptism be superstitious and unholy it cannot be good in Baptism but a prophane rite 3. The more light and to toyish the things seem to be that without warrant from God are brought into the Worship of God the more we should abhor conformity unto them it being a fearful presumption to serve God in a toyish manner for who is he that trembles at the Majesty of God that dares use in his Worship any toy and trifle They are deceived therefore

and Duties to that Congregation over which he is set And that those Civil Magistrates weaken their own Supremacy that shall suffer any Ecclesiastical Pastor to exercise any Civil Jurisdiction within their Realms Dominions or Seigniories 6. They hold that the highest and supream Office and authority of the Pastor is to preach the Gospel solemnly and publickly to the Congregation by interpreting the written Word of God and applying the same by exhortation and reproof unto them They hold that this was the greatest work that Christ and his Apostles did and that whosoever is thought worthy and fit to exercise this authority cannot be thought unfit and unworthy to exercise any other spiritual or Ecclesiastical authority whatsoever 7. They hold that the Pastor or Minister of the Word is not to reach any Doctrine unto the Church grounded upon his own judgment or opinion or upon the Judgment or opinion of any or all the men in the world but only that truth that he is able to demonstrate and prove evidently and apparently by the Word of God soundly interpreted and that the people are not bound to believe any Doctrine of Religion or Divinity whatsoever upon any ground whatsoever except it be apparently justified by the Word or by necessary consequent deduced from the same 8. They hold that in interpreting the Scriptures and opening the sence of them he ought to follow those Rules only that are followed in finding out the meaning of other writings to wit by weighing the propriety of the tongue wherein they are written by weighing the Circumstance of the place by comparing one place with another and by considering what is properly spoken and what tropically or figuratively And they hold it unlawfull for the Pastor to obtrude upon his people a sence of any part of the Divine Word for which he hath no other ground but the bare testimonies of men and that it is better for the people to be content to be ignorant of the meaning of such difficult places than to hang their Faith in any matter in this case upon the bare Testimony of man 9. They hold that the people of God ought not to acknowledge any such for their Pastors as are not able by Preaching to interpret and apply the Word of God unto them in manner and forme aforesaid And therefore that no ignorant and sole reading Priests are to be reputed the Ministers of Jesus Christ who sendeth none into his Ministry and service but such as he adorneth in some measure with spiritual gifts And they cannot be perswaded that the faculty of reading in ones Mother tongue the Scriptures c. which any ordinary Turk or Infidel hath can be called in any congruity of speech a Ministerial gift of Christ 10. They hold that in the Assembly of the Church the Pastor only is to be the mouth of the Congregation to God in Prayer and that the people are only to testifie their assent by the word Amen And that it is a Babilonian cofusion for the Pastor to say one piece of a Prayer and the people with mingled voices to say another except in singing which by the very ordinance and instinct of nature is more delightfull and effectual the more voices there are joyned and mingled together in harmony and consent 11. They hold that the Church hath no authority to impose upon her Pastors or any other of her Officers any other ministerial Duties Offices Functions Actions or Ceremonies ei●her in Divine worship or out of the same then what Christ himself in the Scriptures hath imposed upon them or what they might lawfully impose upon Christ himself if he were in person upon the earth and did exercise a Ministerial Office in some Church 12. They hold that it is as great an injury to force a Congregation or Church to maintain as their Pastor with Tithes and such like Donations that person that either is not able to instruct them or that refuseth in his own person ordinarily to do it as to force a man to maintain one for his wife that either is not a woman or that refuseth in her own person to do the duties of a wife unto him 13. They hold that by Gods Ordinance there should be also in every Church a Doctor whose special office should be to instruct by way of Catechizing the Ignorant of the Congregation and that particularly in the main grounds and Principles of Religion CHAP. IV. Concerning the Elders 1. FOrasmuch as through the malice of Sathan there are and will be in the best Churches many disorders and scandalls committed that redound to the reproach of the Gospel and are a stumbling block to many both without and within the Church and sith they judge it repugnant to the Word of God that any Minister should be a sole Ruler and as it were a Pope so much as in one Parish much more that he should be one over a whole Diocesse Province or Nation they hold that by Gods Ordinance the Congrega●ion should make choice of other Officers as Assistants unto the Ministers in the spiritual regiment of the Congregation who are by office jointly with the Ministers of the Word to be as Monitors and Overseers of the manners and conversation of all the Congregation and one of another that so every one may be more wary of their wayes and that the Pastors and Doctors may better attend to Prayer and Doctrine and by their means may be made better acquainted with the estate of the people when others eyes besides there own shall wake and watch over them 2. They hold that such only are to be chosen to this Office as are the gravest honestest discreetest best grounded in Religion and the ancientest Professors thereof in the Congregation such as the whole Congregation do approve of and respect for their wisdome holinesse and honesty and such also if it be possible as are of civil note and respect in the world and able without any burden to the Church to maintain themselves either by their Lands or any other honest Civil Trade of life Neither do they think it so much disgrace to the policy of the Church that Tradesmen and Artificers endowed with such qualities as are above specified should be admitted to be Overseers of the Church as it is that persons both ignorant of Religion and all good letters and in all respects for person quality and state as base and vile as the basest in the Congregation should be admitted to be Pastors and Teachers of a Congregation And if it be apparent that God who alwaies blesseth his own Ordinances doth often even in the eyes of Kings and Nobles make honourable the Ministers and Pastors of his Churches upon which he hath bestowed spiritual Gifts and Graces though for birth education presence outward estate and maintenance they be most base and contemptible so he will as well in the eyes of all holy men make this Office which is many degrees inferior to the other precious and Honourable

damned for it 15. The more indifferent an action is in it self the more odious it ought to be unto us when we shall perceive it to hurt our brothers soul which ought to be a thousand times dearer unto us than his body or our own lives for he shews neither love nor mercy to his brother that had rather be the instrument of his everlasting damnation than omit the doing of a meer indifferent thing though he should incur therefore any bodily punishment whatsoever That Form therefore of Gods Service that consists in the use of such things indifferent as experience manifesteth are a scandal and by consequent a destruction to the souls of infinite numbers ought not to be used of any much less of those who are called by Christ to feed the souls of men and not to destroy them How scandalous these Ceremonies are to all how the omission of them cannot be scandalous to any but unto such as are worse scandalized already by embracing them requires a larger Treatise 16. No Magistrate that is a Christian will challenge authority to destroy the soul of any man and therefore he cannot upon his own meer will and pleasure without sin against God enjoyn any thing not required by God that evidently tendeth to the destruction of any mans soul and those subjects that being ready to perform any duty that God requireth unto the Magistrate shall refuse to do any such thing so required and shall patiently and meekly yield themselves to any punishment the Magistrate shall think good to lay upon them without resistance shall * A patient suffering when we cannot in conscience obey is the best obedience perform more true and loyal obedience unto his authority therein then any of those that shall yield obedience to any Laws of that kind enacted by never so good a Magistrate and in shew to never so good an end 17. No subject therefore can take any such authority from the hands of the Magistrate which may warrant him to do any thing that shall evidently destroy his brothers soul at any time much less in the Service and Worship of God wherein all things that are to be done ought to tend to the edification of his soul in a special manner 18. It is plain in the Word of God that the Kingdom of God that is the Service and Worship of God standeth not in meats and drinks nor any such external Rites having no authority from God When therefore without any commandment from God such external things shall be brought into the Service of God and made the very forms of the same such Rites must needs be false Worship and that form of Gods Service must needs be adulterate that is made to consist in such things For no authority can make that a part of Gods Kingdom that the word of God doth expresly deny to be a part thereof 19. Those Ceremonies therefore in present controversie being meerly by man brought into the Worship of God are by no means to be yielded unto for it is in effect to make the Kingdom of God to consist in meats and drinks or in such like things For if man hath authority to make the Kingdom of God consist in apparel c. he hath also authority if it please him to make it consist in eating and drinking and may make them a part of the Lyturgie as well as any of those things that are in controversie 20. Those peculiar Rites and Ceremonies which are in that manner and form used in the Service of God that if God himself did but ratifie and confirm that present use of them should then be parts of his true outward worship must needs as they are used without Gods Ordinance be parts of a false outward worship But our Surplices Crosses Kneeling at the Lords Supper c. are such that if God should but command to use them as we use them that is if he should require every Minister in Divine Service to wear a Surplice to note Joy Dignity or Sanctity or in Baptism to cross a child in sign c. N●● though he should express no use at all but barely enjoyn the things themselves to be used in his Service yet they should be parts of Gods true outward worship for whatsoever God tieth in a peculiar manner to his worship is a part thereof These Ceremonies therefore in controversie having such a use in the Service of God unto which they are peculiarly tied must needs be used as parts of Divine worship for else the bare ratifying of their present use could not make them true worship Being therefore as they are used parts of Divine Worship and not parts of true Divine Worship because not commanded of God they are parts of false Divine VVorship for that Divine VVorship that is not true VVorship is false VVorship FINIS A TREATISE OF THE NATURE USE OF Things Indifferent Tending to prove That the CEREMONIES in present Controversie amongst the Ministers of the Gospel in the Realm of England are neither in Nature or Use Indifferent Joh. 18.23 If I have spoken evil bear witness of the evill but if I have spoken well why smitest thou me Mat. 5.11 Blessed are ye when men revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you for my sake falsely Rejoyce and be glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets that were before you Printed in the Year 1660. The Printer to the Reader A Copy of this Treatise by the providence of God coming into my hand I thought it behooful for my Country-men that they should be made acquainted with it that by means thereof they might receive some light of the truth for which so many suffer The Author whosoever he is hath little cause to be offended with it The pains he hath taken in it doth perswade me that he cannot but desire the same in it self though danger and want of means might hinder him from publishing it But howsoever good Reader accept it as a Testimony of my Vows for the good of my Country the Weal whereof shall ever possess me though I cannot possess it Farewel A Treatise OF Things Indifferent CHAP. I. Of Things Indifferent in general A Thing Indifferent in the largest extent of sense is any Mean between two Extreams 2. Extreams properly are the uttermost bounds and limits of any thing being in direct opposition one unto the other 3. To be a Mean between two Extreams is so to be seated between them as that it stand equally affected to either enclining no more to the one than to the other 4. Hence the Latines call things indifferent Res mediae middle matters and that by reason of that analogy and proportion that is between them and those things that in Physical or Mathematical Dimensions possesse the middle place in any line figure or body For that is properly called the middle of any thing that in position being as near as can be to both

Whereas it shall appear that no Christians in the world give more unto the same then we and that in very truth the cause that we maintain is for the King and Civil State against an Ecclesiasticall State that secretly and in a Mystery as we may hereafter have occasion to prove opposeth it selfe against the same If this protestation shall in any measure satisfie you Then we desire your Honourable Mediations for us to the highest If not That then we may know wherein it is defective and we shall be found ready to give all satisfaction CHAP. I. A PROTESTATION of the Kings Supremacy WE hold and maintain the same Authority and Supremacy in all causes and over all persons Civil and Ecclesiasticall granted by Statute to Queen Elizabeth and expressed and declared in the book of Advertisements and Injunctions and in Mr. Bilson against the Jesuites to be due in full and ample mannner without any limitation or qualification to the King and his Heirs and Successours for ever Neither is their to our knowledge any one of us but is and ever hath been most willing to subscribe and swear unto the same according to form of Statute And we desire that those that shall refuse the same may bear their own iniquity 2. We are so far from judging the said Supremacy to be unlawful that we are perswaded that the King should sin highly against God if he should not assume the same unto himself and that the Churches within his Dominions should sin damnably if they should deny to yield the same unto him yea though the Statutes of the Kingdom should deny it unto him 3. We hold it plain Antichristianism for any Church or Church Officers whatsoever either to arrogate or assume unto themselves any part or parcel thereof utterly unlawful for the King to give away or alienate the same from his own Crown and dignity to any spiritual potentates or rulers whatsoever within or without his dominions 3. We hold that though the Kings of this Realm were no Members of the Church but very Infidels yea persecutors of the truth that yet those Churches that shall be gathered together within these Dominions ought to acknowledge and yeild the said supremacy unto them And that the same is not tyed to their faith and Christianity but to their very Crown from which no subject or subjects have power to separate or disjoyne it 5. We hold that neither King nor civil estate are bound in matter of Religion to be subject and obedient to any Ecclesiastical person or persons whatsoever no further then they shall be able to convince their consciences of the truth thereof out of the Word of God Yea we think they should sin against God if they should ground their Religion or any part or parcel thereof upon the bare Testimony or Judgment of any man or of all the men in the world 6. We hold that no Churches or Church-Officers have power for any crime whatsoever to deprive the King of the least of his Royal Prerogatives whatsoeer much less to deprive him of his Supremacy wherein the Height of his Royal Dignity consists 7. We hold that in all things concerning this life whatsoever the Civil Jurisdiction of Kings and Civill States excelleth and ought to have preheminence over the Ecclesiasticall and that the Ecclesiasticall neither hath nor ought to have any power in the least degree over the bodies lives goods or liberty of any person whatsoever much lesse of the Kings and Rulers of the Earth 8. We hold that Kings by virtue of their supremacy have power yea also that they stand bound by the Law of God to make Laws Ecclesiastical such as shall tend to the good ordering of the Churches in their Dominions And that the Churches ought not to be disobedient to any of their Lawes so far as in obedience unto them they do not that which is contrary to the Word of God 9. We hold that though the King shall command any thing contrary to the Word unto the Churches that yet they ought not to resist him therein but onely peaceably to forbear Obedience and sue unto him for grace and mercy and where that cannot be obtained meekely to submit themselves to the punishment 10. We hold that the King hath power by virtue of his supremacy to remove out of the Churches whatsoever he shall discern to be practised therein not agreeable to the Word of God And if he shall see any defect either in the Worship of God or in the Ecclesiastical Discipline he ought by his royal Authority and power to procure and force the redress thereof yea though it be without the consent and against the will of the Ecclesiastical Governers themselves 11. We hold that the King hath as much Authority over the Body Goods and Affaires of Ecclesiastical Persons as of any other of his Subjects whatsoever And that by his Authority he may force them not onely to all civil duties belonging unto them but also unto Ecclesiastical afflicting as great punishment upon them for the neglect thereof as upon any other of his Subjects 12. We hold that he hath power to remove out of the Churches all Scandalous Schismatical and Heretical Teachers and by all due severity of Lawes to repress them 13. We hold that all Ecclesiastical Lawes made by the King not repugnant to the Word of God do in some sort bind the consciences of his Subjects and that no subject ought to refuse obedience to any such Law 14. We hold that the King onely hath power within his Dominions to convene Synods or general Assemblies of Ministers and by his Authority Royal to ratifie and give life and strength to their Canons and Constitutions without whose ratification no man can force any subject to yeild any Obedience unto the same 15. We hold that though the King may force the Churches to be subject and obedient unto him and to be Members of the Common-wealth yet that the Churches severally or joyntly have no power to force him or any Subject against their will to any service unto them or to any religions duty whatsoever No nor to be so much as a Member of any Church 16. We hold that the King ought not to be subject to the Ecclesiastical Censures of any Churches Church Officers or Synods whatsoever but onely to that Church and those Officers of his own Court and Houshold unto whom in reverence of their Religion and of the spiritual Graces of God he sees shining in them he shall of his own free will subject and commit the Regiment of his Soul in whom there can be no suspition nor fear of any partiality or unjust or rigorous dealing against him 17. We hold that if any Ecclesiastical Governours call them by what name you will shall abuse their Ecclesiastical Authority in the execution of their censures upon any man whosoever That the King and Civil States under him have power to punish them severely for it much more if they