Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	king_n	parliament_n	sovereign_a	3,527	5	9.3552	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27487	The anatomie of the service book, dedicated to the high court of Parliament wherein is remonstrated the unlawfulnesse of it, and that by five severall arguments, namely [brace] from the name of it, the rise, the matter, the manner, and, the evill effects of it : whereunto are added some motives, by all which we clearly evince the necessitie of the removeall of it : lastly, we have answered such objections as are commonly made in behalfe of it / by Dwalphintramis.	Dwalphintramis.; Bernard, John.; Bernard, Richard, 1568-1641.	1641 (1641)	Wing B1997; ESTC S100014	61,280	81

piacle against God and man to offer to make up the waight with humane Lawes It is not unworthy your remembrance how one of the later brood of the Scotrish Prelates alleadging or rather mis-alleading before our late Soveraigne King Iames some Act of Parliament for the establishing and maintenance of the Prelacy the King asked a Noble-man being by being a great Legist and Officer of State what he thought of those Acts the Noble-man replyed That it went never well with them since their Church men laboured more to be versed in the Acts of Parliament than in the Acts of the Apostles But to the matter for all this cry we are more than halfe confident they shall have but little wooll for the Service-booke from the Acts of State when they are well looked into Wee know not any colour of confirmation for this Service-booke except that Statute prefixed to it which how little it maketh for it let the words of the Statute testifie of which we shall set downe those that are most pertinent for it is needlesse to write them all In the fifth and sixth yeare of King Edward the sixth an Act was made for the establishing of a Booke called The Booke of Common-prayer the which was repealed in the first yeare of Queene Mary which Statute of repeale was made voide by this same Act the first yeare of Queene Elizabeth and that the aforesaid Booke with the alterations and additions therein added shall stand and be and all Ministers shall use the said Booke authorized by Act of Parliament in the said fifth and sixth yeare of King Edward the sixth and no other This is the summe of the Statute in relation to the Subject namely What Service-booke it is that the Statute establisheth and for any thing we can see there is not one passage or title for confirmation or establishing any other Service-booke but that of King Edward the sixth divers Ministers in King Iames his time urged vvith subscription answered the Prelates True it was that if they refused they and theirs were like to bee desolated but if they yeelded they should make themselves transgressours of the Lawes of the Kingdome in subscribing to another Booke than that established by Law the Prelates in pressing this subscription forced two Statutes namely the Statute alleadged by the change of the Booke and also another Statute requiring no subscription but barely to the Articles of Religion which onely concerne the Confession of true Christian faith and the Doctrine of the Sacraments Now to come to further answer let us grant by way of Confession that there were an Act or Acts for ratifying of the Booke which in terminis we cannot see as Statutes use to be expressed yet by the Law of charity and duty we hold our selves bound to beleeve that a State professing the truth of Religion would never inact so for a Service-booke of mans device as that it might be a snare to the people of God having other ends as a kinde of uniformity supply for want of Ministery and bringing Papists to the Church but not to presse it in the bulke beyond the spheare of any mans Conscience witnesse a Rubricke in King Edward the sixth his Booke but give it to speake as punctually for the Booke as they would have it shall it be simply good for that it is onely in the power of a divine Statute simply to make a thing good all Divines Humanists and Lawyers that have written on the Laws concurre in this Maxime Omnium legum inanis censura nisidivinae legis imaginem gerant the power of all Laws is void except they beare the impression of the Law of God the Orator gives a reason for it ●ex divina omnium legum censura the divine Law is the standard of all lawes yea a thing evill in it selfe established by a Law becommeth worse as the learned tell us it becommeth armata injust●tia an armed injustice or with Laciantius to the same purpose legitime injurias inferre to do injurie in forme of Law just with the Poet jusque da●um sceleri well Englished and licenced Which truth also is cleared from divine Authority the Psalmist complaineth of the injurious evill done upon Gods Church and People aggravating it from this that is it was framed by a decree which place the Authour of Zyons Plea applyeth very pertinently to the Hierarchie proving it to be the Master-sin wherewith the Church and State are pestered and for which especially God hath a controversie with us because it is decreed by a Law and as a Law for the Hierarchie proved of no force to keepe it up no more then the late Lawes of Scotland could uphold their Prelates so grant that there were a Law for the Service-book the thing being naught what could it help it Within these hundred yeeres there was a Law in England for the Popes supremacie say that were not repealed stood it either with Reason Religion or Loyalty to submit unto it Yea some fragments of Lawes are yet unrepealed in this land that no judicious man will obey neither have we alledged those evidences upon this suspition to encounter with any Statutes but to stop the mouthes of those men who would make the Statute-Law a blinde guide under which their unlawfull callings and superstitious service might march furiously against the word of truth Now to come to an end for we are sorry we could be no briefer we will onely answer this Quaere consisting of these two heads First whether we do approve of any set-prayer in a more private way And secondly whether we do approve of any set-liturgie in publike to both these we answer ingenuously as we thinke and for the former we do thinke that parties in their infancie or ignorance may use formes of prayer well and wholsomely set for helps and props of their imbecillity yea riper Christians may do well to read such profitable formes the matter whereof may by setting of their affections on edge prepare and fit them as matter of Meditation the better for Prayer but for those parties so to continue without progresse to conceived prayer were as if children should still be poring upon spelling and never learne to reade or as if children or weak should still go by hold or upon crutches and never go right out We may say of set-prayer used for infirmity as Divines say of the legall ceremonies in the interim that they were tolerable not necessary and so vvhatsoever is or may be said in the behalfe of it is not so much as vve conceive for the commendation of it as for the toleration of it for a time and for giving satisfaction to scrupulous consciences for the vvarrantable use of it in case of necessity To the second head for a set forme of Liturgia in publique vve ansvver that vvith all the Reformed Churches vve do allovv a sound forme of set-liturgie as an exampler or president of our performance of

cast themselves upon the ends of the earth to injoy with much affliction the purity of the ordinances yet Esau his hatred slaked not like a a boyling furnace till he cast the scum of his cruelty after them doing them all the mischiefe he could in word and deed the serpent cast not onely the flood of waters out of his mouth that way after the woman but also pursued others in other parts who endeavoured to sacrifice that which God called for for proofe whereof take Doctor Laud his owne words This hand saith he shall reach them and threatning a Scottish-man for refusing to take the oath against his Countrey he laid his hand on his breast and vowed and protested as he lived he would make the hearts of all the Scots to ake and what had the Scots done to him nothing but maintained that worship that was an abomination to him and his One instance more very pat to the purpose God having appeared to Abraham as often he did Abraham in thankfulnesse builded an Altar but immediatly after he is said to remove to a Mountai ne Eastward of Bethel but what was the cause he staid not by it the learned tell us that it was dangerous so to do for the erecting of the Altar of God was so offensive to the Idolatrous Inhabitants that it was a wonder he was not stoned of them where observe now by the way that if the Altars now erected were of God they would be an abomination to the Prelates and their faction and dangerous for God his people to stay by them but as they are Altars of Baal erected and maintained by Baalites and Bala●mites so they and all their ceremoniall accoutrements and the Service-booke it selfe are an abomination witnesse that place of Exodus already quoted The abominations of the Egyptians shall we sacrifice to Iehovah our God saith Moses to Pharaoh it is not meet so to do The last ground or evidence of this particular is from the undeniable testimony of King and State namely King Edward the sixth and the Councels letter to the Papists of Cornwall and Devonshire making of Commotions and Insurrections against the King and State amongst many they give this satisfaction for the Service-booke that it was the very same word for word with the Masse-book the difference onely was that it was in the English tongue the extract of the letter recorded in the Acts and Monuments are these as for the Service in the English tongue it perchance seemes to you a new Service and yet indeed it is no other but the old the selfe same Words in English that were in Latine a few things taken out If the Service of the Church was good in Latine it remaineth good in English for nothing is altered but to speake with knowledge that which was spoken with ignorance we have the whole letter in print at large for your Service we thought fit for brevity onely to transcribe so much as made for the clearing of the point the summe of that which hath beene said by way of open discourse we draw up in this Argument That which is word for word out of the Popis● Masse-book is not to be offered to God as worship but to be abolished as an abomination to him But the Liturgie in controversie is word for word out of the Masse-book as hath been proved abundantly Therefore it is not to be offered as a worship to God but to be abolished as an abomination to him As the later proposition of the Argument is proved to the full so the former is as clearely by the parallelling place of Exodus twice quoted to which we will adde for abundance these places following Deut. 7. 25. and 12. 31. 2 Kings 23. 13. Ezra 9. 1. Esa. 44. 19. in all which places the Lord commands all Idols and Idolatrous Service to be utterly det●sted and abandoned and still the ground and reason is given that they are abominations to the Lord for so the word is in the number of multitudes to speake impartially we see no colour of way to evade this proposition but by undertaking the defence of the Masle-booke for as Mountague and others produced that their Service is the same in most things with the Church of Rome the differences are not great nor should they make any separation then a necessity is laid upon the Prelates and the rest either to defend the Masse so farre to be the true worship of God against the truth and all Orthodox Writers or else to give up the Service-booke to fall with the Originall and though the Treatise will not give us leave to limne out the Masse in every piece patch'd up by divers Popes having given a specification of some parts of it most concerning our Liturgie yet will it not be amisse to lay down from the learned the first entrance of it into England and then to take off briefly the silly defence that the Papists seeme to make for it To the former Augnstine the Monke sent from Gregori● called the great for what we know not except for his grand devices of wil-●orship his man Austin finding not all things for his tooth in France put over into England and there finding an ignorant King and a superstitious Queene there like the envious man he sowes his corrupt feed of all Popish trumpery as Masses Letanies Processions Copes Vestments Altars Candlesticks Holy waters Consecrations c. having like a serpent deceived the people and as the Apostle faith corrupted their mindes from that simplicity that was in Christ sore against the mindes of the godly and learned Preachers of the times yet to make them as Beda witnesseth adde this condition vvhich he never meant to keep that no man should be forc●d or co●strained thereunto but having played the wyly Fox in his entry to finish the vvorke he had begun he took on the Lyons skin and being opposed by one Dinoth a great Divine vvho vvithstood him to his face in a publike Synode avouching that he ought not to change the ancient form of Religion neither vvould he acknovvledge him for Archb. but the bloody Prelat to be revenged on him incensed Etheldred King of North●mber land against him vvho murdered the servant and Minister of God and tvvelve hundred of Monks vvith him aftervvard about the yeer 637. Pope Iohn the fourth sends over Malitus Honorius Iustus his Bandogs one after another to hold out and confirme the continuance of this dismall alteration as they might easily do once having got footing for Pompous superstition sutes too vvell vvith corrupt nature then came in keeping of Easter after the Romish manner Ministers called Priests chanting and playing upon Organs with all which godly Beda his soule was grieved who vented his griefe in this sad complaint heretofore instead of these things the principall service of God consisted in preaching and hearing of God his word Here we may observe for matter of humiliation how