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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	world_n	worthy_n	year_n	15	3	5.3109	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52421	A discourse concerning the pretended religious assembling in private conventicles wherein the unlawfullness and unreasonableness of it is fully evinced by several arguments / by John Norris ...	Norris, John, 1657-1711.	1685 (1685)	Wing N1251; ESTC R17164	128,825	319

by Law should be bonum positive that it should be an act of vertue but it is sufficient if it be bonum negative that is nothing sinfull or morally evil as all vices are Otherwise there should be no room for Laws about middle and indifferent things And suppose a Law should be defective in regard of the efficient final or formal cause yet if the matter of it be such as may be done without sin ●t binds the Subject to obedience And that the forbearance of such illegal meetings as are in question may be done without sin and that those dissenting brethren who have been ejected for their non-compliance in Uniformity to the present legal establishment being under a legal restraint as to the use of their Ministerial Function may without sin forbear the irregular use of their gifts and labours in the said private meetings to the undermining and confronting of the Laws the increase of Sedition Schism and divers other Horrid Evils I think is out of question Learned Beza thought so or else he had never returned such an answer as he did to that Case of Conscience which was proposed to him by certain English Ministers who in the Reign of Q. Eliz. were silenced for non-conformity The case proposed being Whether they might or ought not to preach notwithstanding their being prohibited by man's law His answer verbatim is Tertium illud nempe ut contra Regiam Majestatem Episcoporum voluntatem Ministerio suo fungantur magis etiam exhorrescimus propter eas causas quae tacentibus etiam nobis satis intelligi possunt He was so far from thinking it lawfull that he trembled at the thought of such a thing that they should exercise their Ministry contrary to the Queen's Laws and the will of the Governours of the Church And the same hath been the judgment of Antiquity in the like case The ancient and orthodox Fathers of the Church being met together in Council at Antioch in the first year of the Reign of Aurelianus the Emperour and in the year of Christ according to Eusebius 269. decreed Non licere Episcopo vel Clerico si exauthorizatus fuerit ministrare That if any Bishop being condemned by a Council or any Presbyter or Deacon by his Bishop should presume to Preach or meddle with any thing of or belonging to the Sacred Office of the Ministry there should never be any hope for him ever to be restored again by any other Council or Synod And all that Communicated with him should be cast out of the Church As may be seen more at large in that Canon Of the like judgment were the Divines of the Presbyterian-way touching those learned Godly and orthodox Ministers who suffered ejection out of their livings and deprivation of all they had in the late times of troubles by a pretended authority of Parliament for their adherence to his late Majesty of ever Blessed memory When the Earl of Northumberland discoursing with Mr Calamy about the supplying of above fifty Churches in London void of Ministers told him That they must restore some of the sequestred Clergy of London and admit them to preach again for unless they did so the Parliament could not find men of ability to preach in London Mr Calamy replied God Forbid As it is recorded and published to the world in a Book called Persecutio undecima Printed in the year 1648. page 42. And if the thought of the Restauration of those worthies to their Office how unjustly soever they were suspended from it was in the judgment of that person rejected with indignation as a thing offensive and either forbidden or wished to be forbidden of God how much more execrable and abominable a thing would he have thought it to be if they should have taken upon them as some now do under a lawfull power to preach again without any readmission by that power that silenced them yea in opposition and defiance of it And because no testimony is so fit to convince any party as that which proceeds from their own Mouths Let therefore the Judgment of a Non-conformist otherwise a Person in Learning Sobriety and Solidity inferiour to few of his generation be heard and weighed in this case He writes in defence of our Church assemblies against those who being silenced for Non-conformity as he was yet not as he did separated themselves from the publick Congregations and not enduring to have their Mouths stopped or to sit down in silence thought themselves bound according to the Example of the Apostles Act. 4. 19. and 5. 29. to exercise their Ministry though not in publick yet in private Meetings notwithstanding any Legal prohibition to the contrary First he distinguisheth betwixt the calling of the Apostles and that of the Ministers now The former as they had their ministry immediately from God so had they the designation of that ministry to their persons immediately from God also And therefore the exercise of it was not restrainable or to be forborn at the Commandment of men The latter though their ministry be from God also yet have their Calling to that ministry or the designation of that office to such and such particular persons from men in God's ordinary way and cannot exercise that function but by virtue of that Calling wch they have from men And therefore saith he in common sense they ought to obey man forbidding them the exercise of a Calling which they do exercise by virtue of a Calling from men Otherwise there should be no power so to depose a man from his Ministry but that notwithstanding any Command from the Church or State he is still to continue in the exercise of his ministry and should be bound to give that example which the Apostles did which is not onely absurd but a conceit tending plainly to manifest Sedition and Schism Afterwards he hath these words Neither were some of the Apostles onely forbidden so as that others should be suffered to preach the same Gospel in their places but the utter abolition of the Christian Religion was manifestly intended in silencing them But over Churches whereof we are Ministers are no private and secret Assemblies such as hide themselves from the face of a persecuting Magistrate but are publick professing their worship and doing their Religion in the face of the Magistrate● and State yea and by his Countenance Authority and Protection And we Are set over those Churches not onely by a calling of our People but also by Authority from the Magistrate who hath an armed power to hinder such publick actions who is also willing to permit and maintain other true Ministers of the Gospel in those places where he forbiddeth some And thereupon the said Authour makes this threefold Conclusion 1. If after our publick Calling to minister in such a known and publick Church not by the Church onely but by the Magistrate also the Magistrate shall have matter against us just or unjust as to our obedience it matters not and shall

Hoc frater tuus Edvardus Angliae Rex praeclarissimus pro viribus sane prae quam ejus aetas pateretur facere studuit cujus regnum diutius extrahi peccata nostra ingratitudo intolerabilis non siver●nt eximias illius adolescentis virtutes egregiam pietatem Deus orbi tantum ostendere voluit deinde ut nos quemadmodum mala nostra merita exigebant aliquantulum castigaret illum e terra citius ad se revocavit The same your brother Edward the most renowned King of England did study to the utmost of his Power and beyond what his age would permit to doe whose reign our sins and most intolerable ingratitude would not suffer to continue longer over us God onely would shew to the World the singular virtues and most excellent Piety of that young man and then to correct us as our evil deservings did require he soon recalled him from this World to himself Judicious Mr. Hooker calls him Edward the Saint in whom it pleased God righteous and just to let England see what a blessing sin and iniquity would not suffer it to enjoy This rare and most excellent person God raised up to see this Book composed to establish it by regal Authority and then he was taken to his Crown of Glory 2. For the matter contained in that Book Sober and Learned men have sufficiently vindicated it against the cavils and exceptions of those who thought it a part of Piety to make what prophane objections they could against it especially for Popery and Superstition Whereas no doubt the Liturgy was exactly conformed to the Doctrine of the Church of England and this by all reformed Churches is confessed to be most found and orthodox It casts out all false Doctrine and Worship and is of it self sufficient to confute a Papist and other the Enemies of the Protestant Religion It is fitted for all occasions and uses of the Church and comprehends the whole Duty of a Christian both for the credendis contained in the Confessions of Faith the faciendis in the ten Commandments and the petendis in the Lord's Prayer and others framed thereby 3. For the Confirmation of it it stands ratified and enjoined by the Laws Statutes and Sovereign Authority of five most prudent and pious Persons immediately Queen Mary a Papist onely interposing succeeding one the other on the English Throne sealed and confirmed by the bloud of so many Martyrs that suffered in those Marian days shortly after the composure of it and so written in the bloud of those that compiled it 4. For the approbation of it it is commended and allowed by the best Divines of the reformed Churches both at home and abroad Such as Cranmer Tayler Ridley Iewel Calvin Bucer and many others 5. Touching God's acceptance and owning of it the History of ages past and the strange providence of God in relation to the framing preserving blessing and restoring it do so evidently declare this that he seems to be very much darkned in his mind with prejudice that can deny or gainsay it Which grace and favour of Divine assistence having not in one thing or two shewed it self nor for some few days or years appeared but in such sort so long continued our manifold sins and transgressions striving to the contrary what can we less thereupon conclude than that God would at leastwise by tract of time teach the World that the thing which he blesseth defendeth keepeth so strongly cannot chuse but be of him Wherefore if any refuse to believe us disputing for it let him believe God himself thus miraculously working for it What I have said in commendation of this book amounts to no more than what the reverend Divines of the Presbyterian perswasion have been constrained to say of it even then when they were to make all the exceptions they could against it They say We have an high an honourable esteem of those Godly and Learned Bishops and others who were the Compilers of the publick Liturgy and do look on it as an excellent and worthy work 'T is true they add for that time But these words seem to me no way to abate or detract from the acknowledged excellency and worth of it For if it were an excellent and worthy work then what hinders but that it is so now Wherein doth the excellency and worthiness of any form of God's worship at any time consist but in its Conformity to the Scriptures which is the rule and measure of Divine worship at all times It could never be excellent and worthy that was at any time unlawfull and it could have been no otherwise had it been contrary to God's word And they that shall impartially reade the History and seriously consider the profound Learning clear Light admirable Piety incomparable Zeal Purity Patience Loyalty and all other Christian Graces and Virtues which did shine forth in those renowned Fathers and Martyrs the Compilers of that book cannot without blushing arrogate to themselves greater● and higher attainments than they had Are the men of this age the onely Children of the light and were those Worthies one of whom prophetically said to his fellow-sufferer at the stake We shall this day light such a Candle by God's Grace in England as I trust shall never be put out but in the mist of Popish ignorance and superstition in comparison of us now Rather I think they ought to be acknowledged men extraordinarily filled with the Spirit of God Light and understanding and sound wisedom was found in them and in nothing did they come behind the very chiefest Servants of God in this generation We allow and confess them to have been men not onely profound in Learning but sound in the faith Orthodox in judgment yea the great assertours of the Protestant Religion and glorious instruments in the hands of God of causing that light of truth to break out of darkness by which we now walk and which we all profess How is it then that they who spent all their time studies and strength in opposing the Idolatry and Superstition of the Romish Church and loved not their lives unto death but were slain for the word of God and testimony which they hold should be thought to retain any thing of Popish superstition in worship What is this but to condemn the generation of God's Children which cannot be well pleasing to their Father But what if it should be proved that the Liturgy of our Church was for the substance of it in use in the very first and purest times of the Church of Christ before ever Popish Superstition came into the World Then I hope it will be acknowledged to be free from that whereof it is secretly and most ignorantly charged But Godly and Learned Cranmer in Queen Mary's days who knew well what he said and was well able to make his words good offers to enter the lists with any Papist living for it had no other Enemy in those days