Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	add_v	part_n	word_n	2,755	5	4.4590	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25212	Melius inquirendum, or, A sober inquirie into the reasonings of the Serious inquirie wherein the inquirers cavils against the principles, his calumnies against the preachings and practises of the non-conformists are examined, and refelled, and St. Augustine, the synod of Dort and the Articles of the Church of England in the Quinquarticular points, vindicated.	Alsop, Vincent, 1629 or 30-1703.; G. W.	1678 (1678)	Wing A2914; ESTC R10483	348,872	332

they should expect that Mercy they will not show or institute themselves in those Priviledges out of which they would eject all others I have heard that the famous B. Andrews Disputing with the great Cardinal P●…ronne about these Matters urged very smartly That Man ought not to Add to Gods word lest he loose his part in the book of life The Politick Cardinal askes why then do you retain the Cross in Baptism The Bishop answered Because Authority enjoyns it And for the same Reason replyed the Cardinal we retain all the rest of the Ceremonies ●…hat Rejoynder the Bishop made I do not remember It 's the great duty and will be the unspeakable comfort of all in Authority to preserve the whole worship of Christ pure and undefiled and all the Worshippers of Christ in peace and security and when they have done this they seem to me to have discharged their Commission and may sue out their Quietus est and easily receive That huge well done good and faithful servant Thou hast been faithful in a few things I will make thee Ruler over many things enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. As for them who fear a Prince will have nothing to do since Necessaries are already Determined unlawful things prohibited if he may not Determine the Rest They are worse scared then hurt God has cut him out work enough in his precept and many times for the sins of a people ●…uts them out harder work by his providence and he is little beholden to those Over-officious 〈◊〉 who prompt him to grasp more employment whilst any lyes upon his hands The Christian Religion was perfect and absolute at all points as it came out of Christs Hands and if we make it no worse when 't is in ours he will never complain though we never make it better Alcibiades brings in the Athenians Complaining to the O●…acle of Iupiter 〈◊〉 that their enemies the 〈◊〉 pr●…vailed against them and yet say they we offer many and costly Sacrifices when they present the Gods with few cheape or none The Oracle answers and it might have become a better mouth That the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The plain simple service of the Lacedemonians was more acceptable to the Gods then all the splendid pompous will-worship of the Athenians As the great God is exceedingly jealous in this particular so has he not le●…t himself without a witness in the Consciences of those who had no other Notices of Gods nature but what came in by the light of nature or some refracted beams of Revelation conveyed to them by Tradition The Pythagoreans taught this Doctrine that the Gods were to be worshipt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to their own good pleasure And it was one of the Platonical dictates That all Divine Worship must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 measured by the Acceptation and appointment of God The Conference which Numa Pompilius the great Roman Ritualist had or pretended to have with the Goddess Aeger●… instructs us that he confided little in his regal power without a divine 〈◊〉 to conciliate a due Reverence to those Ceremonies which having in them no moral goodness depended wholy upon a positive institution and that no Artifice will ever preserve a Religious Rite sacred and intemerate which is not stamped with a jus Divinum If indeed an Old fragment a trivial sentence or shred out of an heathen Author were to be the Canon of our Faith or the Rubric of our worship I could easily comply with this Enquirer who brings and 't is as fair a proof as any he brings a saying of Aemilius Paulus to his Souldiers Vos Gladios acute What you your swords and be ready to execute what shall be commanded you but leave the Management of affairs to your General If Christans do really owe that subjection in Religious matters to their Superiours which Private Soldiers owe their General in the field this Controversy is at an end and with it all instituted Religion in the world that deserves that excellent Name It may easily be applied Provide you knees to bow and backs to bear mouths to say what shall be put into them Hands to subscribe what shall be tendered to you and leave the Truth of Principles the composure of a worship the guidance of Conscience to wiser heads And he might have quoted us Caesars Commentaries to as much purpose where that great Commander upon the reluctancy of his Souldiers to engage sharpely chides them quod aut quam in partem aut quo Consilio 〈◊〉 si●…i 〈◊〉 aut cogit●…dum putarent Who durst once surmise ●…r enquire either whether or upon what design they were ●…rawn out And thus at last we shall be sped both of a Dir●…tory for worship and a Canon of Church-government and may with the Traditores of old deliver up our Bibles for wast paper unless we had rather imitate the famous Legi●… fulminatrix who knew how t●… wh●…t their swords against the Common Enemy at the Command of the Emperour and yet to refuse a Religious Ceremony vouched by no other then humane Authority His fine sentence out of Cato is also hugely wide in this case Nulla lex s●…tis ●…mnibus comm●…da id 〈◊〉 qu●…ritur si majori Parti 〈◊〉 summ●… prodest No Law sits aequally easy upon all mens shoulders the only consid●…ation is whether it suit with the Generality and be useful in the main 'T is very true Law-makers cannot apportion out their Civil Constitutions to an Ounce or a Drachm but one scruple of Conscience weighs heavier then a Pound of temporal inconveniences If it be true that because in the laying of an Impost Custom or E●…cise the Minor part of the civil S●…ffragans must yeeld to the Major that therefore a Religion too must be chosen by the Poll and God compelled to accept of that or Nothing which the Majority of votes shall allot him Religion shall be sure in most parts of the world to be out-voted by Atheism Truth run down by Errour Holiness proscribed by impiety As Socrates in his time was a Fanatick Athanasius in his an Heretick and Christ himself amongst the high-trotting Scribes and Pharisees a Deceiver with such maximes as these has Christianity been prostituted to will and pleasure Regi aut civitati imperium habenti nihil injustum quod utile To a Prince or Commonwealth vested with soveraign Power nothing can be unjust that is profitable In summâ fortunâ id aequius quod validius In the highest estate that is ever most just that has obtained the upperhand And the Enquirer has approved himself a person qualified with Carneades his Excellencies Qui pro falso non minus quam pro vero vires eloquentiae potest intendere One that for time of need can strain his wit to set a fair Gloss upon a fowl matter and with as little trouble can expose a Truth as impose an Errour CHAP. VII Wherein Christian Liberty consists The Enquirers Reasonings examined and

spur up and quicken the lazy Priests and Levites to their duty and yet no power to create them a duty He had power to punish Church-men to restrain the exorbitances of the Clergy and for Male-administration to cashiere them nay to order the High-priest himself if he proved factious seditious or Rebellious and endeavoured any Alteration of the Theocracy either in Church or State but he had no power to make New administrations He had a power to restore the corrupted worship to it's primitive integrity but he had no power to institute Worship and therefore it 's more then Ridiculous to Argue from a Power to such a power § 2. He pretended to prove That the Magistrate in Determining these circumstantials did not exceed his Commission and his medium is from the Iewish Magistrate Now his proper di●… and easy way to have evinced that the Iewish Magistrate had this power had been to have exemplifyed the Commission it self and not stand trifling with Matter of fact to prove Matter of right especially seeing that the Commission is upon Record and many doubts in Law will arise from the fact as whether what was done was done jure and if jure then Quo jure Now for the Commission from him by whom Kings reign it was ready drawn of old only a blanck left to insert the Name of that particular Person whom God immediately or by ●…cession should chuse 17. Deut. 18. 19. 20. It shall be when he 〈◊〉 upon the Throne of the Kingdom that he shall write him a Copy of this Law in a book out of that which is before the Priests and Levites and it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God to keep all the words of this Law and those statutes to do them that his heart be not lifted up above his Brethren that he turn not aside from the Commandement to the right hand or to the left to the end he may prolong his days in the Kingdom he and his children in the midst of Israel from whence 't is evident that though the Israelites were for some time in their minority govern'd by Judges yet when their Nation should grow up to it's greatest perfection God would then bestow upon them ●…he most perfect form of Government viz. Monarchy and in the most perfect manner continue it viz. by succession not impeaching his own prerogative to alter either the form or the time but with a Negative upon any or all the people so is it as plain that God fyes up his Prince to Govern by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Deuteronomy à Copy of the Laws and statutes Morel and positive without turning to the right hand or the left in excess or defect mangling or mending Gods Laws Allowing to himself still a power to vary but not to them save by his Direction § 3. This great proof for the Magistrates power over the Circumstantials of Religion is fetcht from the Magistrates power i●… the Iewish Commonwealth He that is so severe upon the Nonconformists that they are Iudaizers if they argue but a fortiori from Moses to Christ now takes his greatest proof from David to the Christian King and though it be scandalous for them to Reason from that Topick in Doctrinals yet is safe and honourable for himself to Reason thence in Politicals and Ceremonials his instances come now to be considered § 1. David as I shewed before altered somethings and instituted others in the Temple worship That 's his instance And David as I proved before altered nothing instituted nothing without special Direction from God that 's my answer which special warrant when it shall be produced for any Alterations of or Additions to Christs institutions under the Gospel they shall by me be most Cordially embraced § 2. Hezekiah says he without a Scripture for it broke the Braze●… Serpent to pieces though it was a Symbolical Ceremony of Gods own Iustitution Oh but if Hezekiah had set up one braz●… Serpent as a Symbolical Ceremony without Gods institution it had been more to his purpose then if he had broken a hundred Let him take these few things along with him and then make the best he can of his instance 1. If Hezekiah needed no Scripture warrant to destroy an old Antiquated Institution of God because it had been and still was abused to Idolatry much more may a Christian Prince without further Scripture warrant abolish such Symbolical Ceremonies as being originally the meer inventions of men have been and still are abused to the most fowle Idolatry and grossest superstition that ever was in the world 2. Let the Enquirer recollect himself a little He undertook to prove that Princes have power to set up Ceremonies and his instance proves only thus much that they have power to pluck them down 3. Hezekiah needed no Scripture to empower him to destroy the brazen Serpent because it was then no institution of God It had been once indeed a temporary appointment of God but the ceasing of the End was the Determination of the use when it 's sacred Relation ceased it was of no more value in Gods account when Hezekiah broke it then so much Brass 'T is not true therefore that Hezekiah broke in pieces the brazen Serpent though it was but though it had been for●…rly an institution of God He did not make it but declare it to be Nchushtan an old Relique made a New Idol and now served as it deserved 4. I do not understand that the brazen Serpent was a Symbolical Ceremony what grace what duty did it signify A type it was to direct their faith to Christ fot that time to expect the healing of their souls from him but the visible service was only to heal their bodies stung with the firy Serpents 3. John 14. As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up 5. Hezekiah had Scriptures more then one not only to enable but Command him to do it He needed no new Authority but new wisdom to Apply al●…s old general Command to a particular case If the Enquirer could but shew as much Scriputre warrant for the setting up one Ceremony as Hezekiah had for destroying a thousand Idols he would think himself a jolly fellow I might urge his Authority from the second Commandement where God declares himself a jealous God in the Matter of instituted worship and how many following generations might smart for the prevarication in that particular he well knew There might have been a Drachm of the brazen Serpent as well as an Ounce of the Golden Calf in their subsequent calamities if he that was Custos utri●…sque Tabulae and now had not his name for nothing had not testifyed against that abomination But I shall crave leave to Remember him of the incomparable Huge who upon this fact of Hezekiah thus Egregium Documentum Regibus at quamvis