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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A61897 Bishop Sanderson's judgment concerning submission to usurpers Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663. 1678 (1678) Wing S607; ESTC R8226 14,341 48

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for his sake that we henceforth study to serve and please thee by leading a godly righteous and sober life to the glory of thy holy Name and the eternal comfort of our own Souls through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen After the Confession the Lord's Prayer with the Versicles and Gloria Patri and then Psalms for the Day and the first Lesson After which in the Forenoon sometimes Te Deum but then only when I think the Auditory will bear it and sometimes an Hymn of mine own gathered out of the Psalms and Church Collects as a general Form of Thanksgiving which I did the rather because I have noted the want of such a Form as the only thing wherein the Liturgy seem'd to be defective And in the Afternoon after the first Lesson the 98th Psalm or the 67th then the second Lesson with Benedictus or Iubilate after it in the Forenoon and Afternoon a singing Psalm Then followeth the Creed with Dominus Vobiscum and sometimes the Versicles in the end of our Letany From our Enemies defend us if I lik'd my Auditory otherwise I omit the Versicles After the Creed and instead of the Letany and the other Prayers appointed in the Book I have taken the substance of the Prayer I was wont to make before Sermon and dispos'd it into several Collects or Prayers some longer and some shorter but new modell'd into the language of the Common Prayer Book much more than it was before And in the Pulpit before Sermon I use only a short Prayer in reference to the hearing of the Word and no more So that upon the matter in these Prayers I do but the same thing I did before save only that what before I spake without Book and in a continued Form in the Pulpit I now read out of a written Book broken into parcels and in the reading Desk or Pue Between which Prayers and the singing Psalms before the Sermon I do also daily use one other Collect of which sort I have for the purpose compos'd sundry made up also as the former for the most part out of the Church Collects with some little enlargement or variation as namely the Collects Adventual Quadragesimal Paschal or Pentecostal for their proper seasons and at other times Collects of a more general nature as for Pardon Repentance Grace c. And after one or more of them in the Forenoon I usually repeat the Ten Commandements with a short Collect after them for Grace to enable us to keep them This hath been my practice and is like still to be unless some happy Change of Affairs restore us the liberty of using the old way again or it be made appear to my Understanding by some able charitable Friend That I therein have done otherwise then I ought to have done For I may say that I have not yet met with any thing in Discourse either with my own Reason or others of sufficient strength to convince me that I have done any thing but what may stand with the Principles as well of Christian Simplicity as Prudence There are but three things that I know of that are of any consideration oppos'd viz. 1. The Obligation of the Laws 2. The Scandal of the Example 3. The unseemly symbolizing at least with Schismaticks if not partaking with them in the Schism 1. Law Object The first and strongest Objection which I shall therefore propose to the most advantage of the Objector is that which is grounded upon the Laws and their Obligation For it may be Objected That every humane Law rightly establish'd so long as it continueth a Law obligeth the Subject and that for Conscience sake to the observation thereof in such manner and form as in the same Law is prescribed and according to the true meaning and intention of the Law-giver therein That a Law is then understood to be rightly establish'd when it containeth nothing but what is honest and lawful and is enacted by such person or persons as have full and sufficient authority to make Laws That a Law so establish'd continues a Law and is so in force till it be either Repealed by as good and lawful Authority as that by which it was made or else antiquated by a long continued uninforc'd disuse with the tacit or presumed consent of the Law-giver That the Act printed before the Common Prayer Book and entituled An Act for the Uniformity was such a Law being it was established in a full and free Parliament in peaceable times and ratified by the Royal Assent That it still continues in force and being not yet Repealed but by such persons as at least in the Opinion of those that maintain the Dispute for want of the Royal Assent have not a sufficient right or authority to do such an Act nor disused but of late times and that by enforcement and as is presum'd much against the mind of the Law-giver That therefore it still retains the power of obliging in part of Conscience that power being so essential and intrinsecal to every Law quatenus a Law that it can in no wise be sever'd from it And that therefore no Minister publickly officiating in the Church can with a good Conscience either omit any part of that which is commanded by the aforesaid Law or use any other Form than what is contained in the foresaid Book but must either use the Form prescribed in the Book or else forbear to officiate The Answer to this Objection granting all in the Premisses besides dependeth upon the right understanding of that which is affirmed concering the Obligation of the Laws according to the intention of the Law-giver which if it should be understood precisely of that particular actual and immediate intention which the Law-giver had declared by the words of the Law in which sense only the Objection proceedeth will not hold true in all cases But there is suppos'd besides that in Law-giver a more general habitual ultimate intention of a more excellent and transcendent nature than the former which is to have an influence into and over-ruling power over all particular Laws viz. an intention by the Laws to procure and promote the publick good The former intention binds when it is subservient to the latter or consistent with it and consequently bindeth in ordinary cases and in orderly times or else the Law is not a wholesome Law But when the observation of the Law by reason of the conjuncture of circumstances or the iniquity of the times contingencies which no Lawgiver could either certainly foresee or if foreseen sufficiently provide against would rather be prejudicial than advantageous to the Publick or is manifestly attended with such inconveniencies and sad consequents to the Observers as all the imaginable good that can redound to the Publick thereby cannot in any reasonable measure countervail In such case the Law obligeth not but according to the latter and more general intention only even as in the operations of nature particular Agents do ordinarily move according