Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	book_n	great_a	king_n	1,806	5	3.5242	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29665	A discovrse opening the natvre of that episcopacie, which is exercised in England wherein with all humility, are represented some considerations tending to the much desired peace, and long expected reformation, of this our mother church / by the Right Honourable Robert Lord Brooke.	Brooke, Robert Greville, Baron, 1607-1643.	1641 (1641)	Wing B4911; ESTC R17972	85,248	148

men would remember that even Nature her selfe as much abhorres a forced violent Vnion as a Rent or Division BUt in the next place let us seriously consider whether the Bishops as now they be setled here be not the Cause of most Sects Schismes and Heresies now amongst us Some of them will not deny themselves to be Arminians and others cannot deny themselves Socinians If at least they think we can understand their writings printings yea and Sermons though These bee very Rate Yea some doe not deny but they may at least receive Orders they meane a Pale Mitre and Cardinalls Hat if they come All which we may yet better construe by their carriage to Priests and Jesuites both in publique and private which now we know more than by bare surmise Many of These they countenance openly and never question any though it be certainly knowne we had they had more such in London than were good Ministers in all England almost All the Livings under most of our Bishops have been committed to the Cure and Care of superstitious Formalists Arminians Socinians Papists or Atheists Yea the Universities are much corrupted by their malignant influence for Nero-like they think they have done nothing till they have murdered their owne Mother In a word through the whole Kingdome Preaching Praying Expounding and the like exercises both in publick and private are severely suppressed and in many places altogether forbidden except such and such more pernicious than profitable and all This by the Fathers of our Church the Lords our Bishops And is not This the most compendious way possible to beget and encrease Heresies They cry out of Schisme Schisme Sects and Schismes and well they may They make them and it is strange they should not know them When they laid such stumbling blocks Reall Scandals not only accepta but data in the way of good men whose Consciences they have grievously burdened and wounded with Things violently pressed on the greatest fines that are so farre from being indifferent that many of them were point blank unlawfull have they not by This even forced their brethren to separate themselves in Judgement and Practice till they could finde some remote place that might separate their bodies also Was not This in Them the readiest way to produce Divisions Separations and as they call it Schismes in the Church Rents are bad I confesse where ever they be violent but yet then worst when most out of the eye Schismes in the Conscience are of greatest danger and to prevent These if I am forct to That which they please to call a Schisme in the Church Woe to Him that so forceth me Scandals Schismes and Divisions must come but woe to him by whom they come God forgive them in This paticular I professe I take no pleasure in ripping up their foule loathsome sores I would they could bee throughly healed without launcing and opening I could give you a strange account of sad Divisions which themselves have caused both to Church and State I could tire you and my selfe in This though I should begin but little higher than mine owne Time mine owne Knowledge In Queene Elizabeths Time many good men were cut off from the Church some from the State a sad Schisme Some by violence laid asleep Many suspended silenced deprived cut off by a strange Schisme from liberty livings that I goe not higher And all This for one word of their owne compounding Non-Conformity While they themselves are indeed the greatest Non-Conformists to all the Reformed Churches in Europe Surely It would have savoured more of Humility of Christianity if they had suspected their owne Judgements and Opinions allowing something to the Judgement Learning and Piety of those holy worthy pretious Saints Calvin Beza Bucer P. Martyr Oecolampadius Zuinglius with many more great famous and eminent Lights in their times If they will stand for Conformity Let any man living judge whether it bee fitter for some few Bishops newly come out of grosse Popery and still retaining their old Popish Ceremonies to reforme and conforme themselves to the Judgement and Practice of all Reformed Churches or all Churches to subscribe to Them As they began so they continued Christ and they being like parallel lines though they should run out in infinitum they would never meet Nay rather like the Crura of a Triangle the farther they run out from the Center the more they differ and are distant each from other Under King Iames in a few years four or five hundred Reverend men were divided from their Livings and Ministery And was not this a cruell Schisme Now also by Them was first forged that sharpe Rasor or Book of Sports with which they have since made great Divisions of heart But in our Gracious Kings Reigne they have come to Cutting off Eares Cheeks and have yet struck deeper and estay'd many Soule-Schismes not only in the Hearts and Consciences of thousands of good men but whole States also and Kingdomes as much as in them lay While I heare the sad groanes and see the bleeding wounds of Three Kingdomes at once by their Schismes I have almost forgotten the parting sighs and farewell teares of ten thousand poore Christians by Their Tyranny forc'd to abandon their native Country and dearest acquaintance while others were here violently detained in Fetters some smoothered in Dungeons some Dismembred some driven out of house and Living and forced to beg All which yet would have bin born patiently had not only all Good men but Goodnes it self Learning Religion Piety All that speaks any worth been altogether not only discountenanced but suppressed smoothered and by most exquisite Tortures almost forced to breath its last Yet that these Glorious Princes under whom such Tyrannies have beene committed may not suffer in your thoughts Give me leave to speake some things on mine owne knowledge and experience others from best intelligence Queene Elizabeth when shee heard of Their miscarriages fell on Them in most sharpe language threatning Them if they should ever doe the like againe to her Subjects King Iames offered faire discourse to the Non-Conformists honoured Mr. Cartwright and others of them disclaimed the Book of Sports And being asked why hee made so many Bad Bishops answered ingenuously with a strong asseveration That hee was very sorry but could not helpe it For no good men would take the Office on them And our Gracious Soveraigne since some light hath dawned out of darknesse hath delivered our Sister Church of Scotland from that unhappy Generation For now I hope the Clouds begin to breake away Light springeth up while Dark Iniquity is forced not only to shut her mouth but hide her selfe and disappeare Now the Sun againe mounteth up in our Horizon and quickeneth the drooping spirits so that now many that were Bed-rid some moneths since now begin to take up their Beds and walke leaping up and blessing God Fire and Water may bee restrain'd but Light cannot It will in at every cranny and the

converse with those who are therein Arts Masters or in reading their writings or lastly and mainely in an happy use of both Neither of the two former hardly both together can make us so expert as Practice Scribendo discimus scribere Long Active costly and dangerous Observations are the onely way to make a wise States-man Now when these Gentlemen I meane the most refined wits amongst them for others come not within our question designe the Ministeriall Function they either lay aside Divinity and so God is displeased or else they labour seriously in the more spirituall pathes and then the Common Weale is by them deserted For these two so different studies cannot goe forward pari passu A Minister cannot serve God and Mammon I know other men think otherwise of these Studies but I conceive the case is cleare For sure the complaints of good men Canòns and Act● of Councels forbidding Ministers to meddle in State affaires and the Answers of our owne breasts prove this truth more then sufficiently You shall have St. Austin in his 81. Epist. complaining that worldly affaires distracted his thoughts from his calling and S. Cyprian apprehends those great per●ecutions were but just consequences of the Clergies guilt in this kinde Gregory the great was much troubled to feele himselfe under that load Secondly Canons and Councells discover their judgments fully in this point so Can. 6.8 and 83. of the Apostles Councells also doe the same Con. Carthag Can. 16. Counc Calced Can. 3. and thus still they did while Canons and Councels did at all study the advancement of Christs Kingdome I confesse of later times Ministers like Water-men have looked one way and row'd another so that perhaps now you may finde Canons of another straine But thirdly which may answer all Objections let every good Minister examine but his own breast his own heart and then let him speake I am sure to those who maintaine such Prelaticall Bishops this absurdity will follow that to one man the whole power may be given both in Civilibus Ecclesiasticis a Thing which God thought Christ onely fit for and so on His shoulders onely did he place the Worlds Government Yet some will perhaps affirme Both these compatible and this by example from Gods owne Injunctions to some of the Ministers under the Law in the Jewish Polity But I answere first There are Two maine things in which our Ministery and the Jewes of old doe differ First all their solemne externall worship at least most part of it lay in Bodily Work in such things wherin the minde brain was but little exercised as in offering Sacrifice burning Incense divers washings c. Secondly That which made their members uncapable of comming into their assemblies was outward uncleannesse as touching of a dead body Leprosy want of Legall washings c. and from hence their Ministeriall watch one of the greatest works became as Easy as Outward and Visible so that even of the inferior Levites were made Porters and to these the Office of restraining unmeete persons from their Congregation did belong But now the Worke of our Ministers under Christ differeth toto Caelo and that both in publique and private In publique it is Preaching Expounding Chatechising c. which require mighty workings of the braine and inward man specially fith these must be done with Majesty and Authority Let no man despise thy youth and yet with all sweetenesse and gentlenesse for a Bishop must not be fierce In private his Worke is to compose differences that they breake not out into publicke to visite the sicke to comfort the afflicted for Who is sicke saith Paul and I am not troubled who is weake or offended and I burne not Yea and many more workes of this Nature And all this besides the care of his Family and besides his private study a worke too great for any man If you then con●ider the quantity the variety or spirituality of the Ministeriall Worke under the Gospell you cannot but acknowledge it great very great and much greater than that of old under the Law Indeede they dispute sometimes who have not tryed but a painfull Preacher still cryeth out Who is sufficient who is fit for These things In the Censures of the Church though indeede the Keyes be entrusted with others as well as himselfe yet by his learning piety and prudence he must steere all so that hee must alwayes be awake Caveat Dictator nequid detrimenti capiat Respublica Will any man now say that the Case of a Priest and a Minister is all one for suppose the Priests of old did intermedle with secular affaires shall any Minister now from this example when the calling is so vastly different take upon him both functions If he doe let him take heede he be not as one that hath taken up the Plough of the Kingdome of Heaven and then doth the worke of the Lord negligently If so his judgement will be intolerable But in the second place I answere confidently and I hope truely that these two Offices or Callings did not under the Law meete in One except in some Extraordinary Cases and persons First the old Patriarchs I confesse did exercise Both Functions in some sense and in some sense they did not I meane as a Calling Abraham indeed swayed the Scepter but his whole Kingdome was limited to his owne Family and so he was a King and no King for every Master of a Family must in the like case keepe up Government I confesse he offered Sacrifice but then when there was no Law no Priest and others might have done it as well as He had they beene so well inclined Thus he was a Priest and no Priest for in his Priestly Office hee did but what every good man would doe at least might have done and in his Kingly Office he was but as a Master of a Family And so it was in the rest of the Patriarches so that little can be urged from these examples To which may also be referr'd that old instance of Melchisedech if at least he were a man and not the Second Person of the Trinity in mans forme as Cuneus Molineus and many others hold Secondly I finde Two Judges that were High-Priests also Samuel and Ely but it seemes they were thus by some expresse particular Extraordinary Command for God saith to Samuell These have not rejected Thee but Me intimating that he had particularly appointed him to judge as in an Extraordinary Case which may therefore bee no president for Ordinary men in Ordinary Cases Samuels speciall calling appeares not onely from his being devoted before his Birth and strange call of God after but most clearely in that he was not as all the Priests were to be of Aarons house as appeares by 1 Sam. 1. Compared with 1 Chron. 6. Yea and Ely too though of Aaron yet was not of the eldest sonne whose Line by right ought to have had the High-Priesthood as the Jewes discourse

not long before he shew'd his Ends. Turne your Eye but a little about and you shall see an Emperour stand barefoote at his G●ute Here One kneeles to kisse That foote that spu●●●●th off His Crowne There one holds the stir●up while that Proud Bishop steps up into the saddle And have not our Bishops the same Designes with their Holy Father Even to free themselves from all Power and ●● bring all things under their owne Power What meaneth of his Maxime of Episcopacie that a Clergie man cannot fall under the Execution of a Civill Magistrate Except they first degrade him which they may refuse to doe as long as they please Is not This to Exempt themselves from all Civill Jurisdiction What is the sense of This that for breach of Their Church Injunctions they may Excommunicate people Ministers Lords Kings themselves whom they please But shortly This to reduce all men Even Princes as well as others to plenary Obedience to themselves And when Once They have passed that sentence on their Soveraigne at their owne fancie I doubt not but some of Them would be ready to receive the Crowne from their kneeling Prince as of old If any King would againe so farre forget himsel●e and lay his Glory in the dust to be trampled on by such proud insulting Prelates Which God forbid Their Insolent Words and Actions vented lately against the Crowne are very sutable to these Principles Some of themselves in open Court of Judicature have dirst to affirme They were beholding to none but Christ for the place they held Others of Them and Their Creatures have said They are under no Law of man Some have preached point blanck that Their standing did not at all depend on the Crowne Others have flatly denied the King to be Head and Governour in Ecclesiasticall Causes over all persons though they cannot but know that This Title was given mainly to Exclude any other Earthly Head as it is Interpreted by Order of Parliament All of them Erect Episcopall Courts send out Summons Exercise Jurisdiction Sentence Fine Imprison doe what they list in their Owne name Though All the Bishops put together Vis unita est fortior da●e not to do so for the High Inquisition had a Commission under the Broad Seale and yet Every particular Bishop Exerciseth Jurisdiction under their owne seale by their owne power in their owne name without any Commission directly against Statute by which they all incurre a Praemunire Indeed they have learnt to faune upon Princes and would make them beleeve all This is for their Honour and Advantage yet they are but Impostors This is but to stroake the Horse as the Proverb is till they are well up in the Saddle for at That they aime and thither would they come which God forbid I could heartily wish the Kings of the Earth would be pleased to read Master Broughtons Epistle in his Refining the Roman Fox Or Ni●hol de Clemengiis in his Excellent peece de Corrupto Ecclesiae Statu Or that Noble Learned Lords incomparable Mysterium Iniquitatis presented to Our Late Learned Soveraigne King Iames though in some late Prints It hath beene refined by an English-Romish Index Expurgatorius yet It will still with the other represent the sleights of this kinde of Episcopacie in such lively Colours that I beleeve no Prince would trust them againe I neede not goe farre to seeke instances that may fully represent how much Our Bishops have in all ages promoted the Weale Peace and Honour of This Kingdome and Cowne For their Treasons against the State and King want not a Register I could briefely present you with a true Emblem of Episcopacie ab ovo ad malum and yet not goe higher than the Conquerour Lanfranck would have conquered the Conquerour and by gentle insinuations have perswaded him to submit his Scepter to the Triple Miter but Etiamsi suasit non persuasit Art could not prevaile and therefore Anselm went more rudely to worke Though Rufus forbad him yet with many thankes and much honour from the Pope he went to Rome for his Pall. After he had oftentimes bearded the King in many matters he succeeded so well that he attempts the same against the First Henry and left not till he had caused the Scepter to bow and the Crowne to totter In Stephens time Two Great Prelates dispute about Precedencie and at last passing by the King they call the Pope to be Moderator B●ckets heights are well knowne and scarce parallel'd in amy Story Onely as Henry the second that Great Prince did suffer sore stripes here so did the Duke of Thoulouse in France for joyning with the Albigenses That was done by a Pope This by a Bishop King Iohn fell with his whole Kingdome under an Interdict for some quarrell betwixt himselfe and Two or Three Prelates nor could he buy or begge his peace but on his knees resigning his Crowne ●o proud Pandulph In Edward the seconds time Gaveston was much abetted by Coventry in this a Traitor to his Countrey What prankes Winchester plaid with Edward the First Stratford with Edward the Third and with the second Richard Norwich was touch the ●ore Henry the fourth was ill handled by Yorke that waged warre with him at the same time Arandell vow'd he would not leave a slip of that Religion which then he saw Dawning in England In Henry the sixts time Yorke● Quarrell with W●●chester lost all that England had gaine● from France at last Yorke sides with Warwick against the King Edward the fourth had little r●●rse no pardon the new Arch-Bishop Ely ended better then he beganne but it was per accidens for first he perswaded Buckingham to claime the Crowne but He refusing at least not daring to stirre for himselfe sets him on Richmond the true Heire But you will say These were all Papists and lived in the dark times of Popery True and were not Their Soveraignes such also were not Kings and Bishops of one Religion then Are they more now hath a Protestant Prince now more reason to trust a Protestant Prelate than a Popish King a Popish Bishop Let all the world judge Seeing in Those times it was no difference in Religion But Malignance against Civill Government that produced Th●se Commotions in Those Bishops But since the Pope and Popish Religion is confessed to be the Cause of all those Treasons and Rebellions what if I prove Prelacie and Popery to be the same in re and onely to differ in name This we stall Essay anon In the meane time It is worth considering whether Our Prelates be not more like to s●de with the Pope against a Protestant then Popish Prince I will over-looke the darke times of Popery Let us beginne with the Reformation which yet could hardly have entrance for that strong Opposition the Prelates still made Alas what Commotions have they still raised in Scotland ever since the Reformation Wee have felt what Our Parents onely saw They Eate at least suffered a soure