Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	according_a	law_n	parliament_n	2,488	5	6.5410	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89788	Beames of former light, discovering how evil it is to impose doubtfull and disputable formes or practises, upon ministers: especially under the penalty of ejection for non-conformity unto the same. As also something about catechizing.	Nye, Philip, 1596?-1672.	1660 (1660)	Wing N1484; Thomason E1794_2	79,198	266

questions as our Brethren of Scotland affirm about Religion Declar. of the Com. of the Gen. Assemb p. 26 and matters Ecclesiastical ought to be determined by the assemblies of the Church as matters Civil by the Parliament a Parliament is absolute and independent in its determinations Then this question whether stinted Forms of Prayer or instruction composed by men ought to have a constant setled use and how frequent or seldome to be used in the Worship of God and of the sufficiency or insufficiency of a Minister in any such respect being undoubtedly questions of that nature should first have been determined by the Church which hath not been done before the Parliament had medled with it §. 2. Obj. If it be said the Assembly of Divines disposed put the principles of Religion into this form or mould and fitted it for such a method and way of instruction and commended this Catechism to the Parliament A. 1. So were the forms of Prayer and Homilies composed by learned godly men and out of a good intention those first reformers are acknowledged to be excellent instruments raised of God The Preface to the Direct c. it is not the matter in those Prayers and Homilies that was so much blamed but the end and use for which and the authority by which they were brought into the Church they are imposed saith the Admonition to the Parliament as a set service to God Adm. p. 9 though the words or matter be good the use is naught Our Supplications Remonstrances say our Brethren of Scotland in the aforesaid Declaration Acts of assembly and Parliament and our defensive armes in Anno 1630. and 1640. were not only against the Book of Canons Pag 26. Service-book c. for the evil matter there contained but the manner of introducing the same that is by a Civil and not by a Church power Ans 2. The Assembly did never intend such a stinted stated use of it in the solemn Worship of God as in the Case according to which a Sabbath is not judged well spent wherein the words of this Catechism or some part of them are not read or said And that the not submission hereunto upon any account should be a sufficient test of a persons unfitnesse to enjoy a place or station in the Ministry Such a severe strict use of it was never advised by that Assembly but rather condemned by them in condemning the like use made formerly of set forms of the same nature Preface to the Directory The Liturgy say they hath been a great meanes as on the one hand to make and increase an idle and unedifying Ministry which contented it self with set forms made to their hands by others c. so on the other side it hath been and ever would be if continued a matter of endless strife and contention in the Church and a snare both to many godly and faithful Ministers who have been persecuted and silenced upon that occasion and to others of hopeful parts many of which have been and more still would be diverted from all thoughts of the Ministry to other Studies especially in these latter times wherein a greater discovery of error and superstition and more knowledge in the Mysteries of godliness and gifts in preaching and prayer In another place wee are told in the same preface how by reason of such forms and the not submitting to them divers able and faithful Ministers are debarred from the exercise of their Ministry to the indangering of many thousand souls in a time of such scarcity of faithful Pastors and spoyled of their livelihood to the undoing of them and their families §. 3. These were the evils of such a stated authoritative use of set forms in the solemn Worship of God observed by the Reverend Divines of that Synod And therefore they advise there may be no more such severe injunctions but instead of them a Directory for all parts of Worship in which the Minister is left at more freedom Preface to the Direct having liberty to furnish both his heart and tongue with further or OTHER materials of Prayer and exhortation as shall bee needful upon all occasions These words of the Assembly contain the true nature and notion of a Directory as it differs from a stinted form and is the same with Hookers distinction before mentioned Pa. 58 59. A prescript form is such an appointment as every man must observe A Directory is a form men may use if they please or change it and please themselves in some other if there bee just reason Now it is professed by the Assembly of Scotland Act of the Gen. Ass for appro the Cat. that they receive this Catechism under no other notion but as a DIRECTORY for CATECHISING and not as a stinted Catechism And thus the Parliament understood the Assembly in all the forms they presented to them and condescended so far as to reason with our Brethren of Scotland and justifie the liberty and freedom they had given by the Directory as being according to the judgement of moderate Presbyterians here in England When we consider saith the Parliament what some Ministers of the Presbyterian judgement and members of that Assembly in their book subscribed Smectimnius dedicated to the Parliament say of the Litourgy then established by Law it was never established to be so punctually observed so rigorously pressed to the casting out of all that scruple it Declar. of the Lords and Com. in answ to the Scot Papers or any thing in it wee have reason well to consider what we put the stamp of publick authority upon for if this uniformity of the Directory Church-Government Confession of Faith and CATECHISE should produce such a rigid Conformity unto them it is not easie to fore-see all the mischiefs and inconveniences it would beget though we may easily guess they would not be small by what we have felt in the like kind Ans 3. Wee are told Eng. po Cer. p. 154 before Princes Ordinances can bee said to bind us it must first bee shewed they have been prescribed by a lawful Synod of the Church The Magistrates power is only Cumulative so that an Ecclesiastical power is first to be put forth by a lawful Synod of the Church The Assembly called by the Parliament was no such Synod being 1 Not made up of persons delegated from the Churches by the intrinsical power received from Christ ●en As●●●b of 〈◊〉 Anno 1647. Ses 23. nor 2 Any power of suffrage for the minor part presented their resolutions as well and with as much authority as the major 3 Nor had they liberty to debate of any thing but what was proposed by the Parliament Hence those Ordinances were examined and owned by the general assembly in Scotland before they had any sanction of that State or reception in their Churches And we in England having no general Assembly so established the Provincial assembly of London took it

upon themselves and after the Parliament had injoyned us forthwith to practise according to their Ordinances they added considerations and cautions before they would receive them And by consequence if no Provincial a Classical Assembly may doe the like and if no Classis each Congregation being furnished with a Presbytery ought to make if not afore Judgement by their Delegates in some greater Assembly yet an after Judgement and to accept or refuse what a Parliament shall doe in this kind by their Presbytery according to Presbyterial principles which liberty cannot be enjoyed where Civil powers impose with such penalties as in the case CHAP. X. The Fifth Argument It is difficult in Ecclesiastical matters to obtain reformation of what is amiss These things are pressed with greatest severity upon the most conscientious WHen any change happens in Ecclesiastical affairs it is long before wee can come to a settlement as we have formerly shewed This settlement being made and munited with penal Lawes by the Civil Magistrate it is difficult if not impossible in an ordinary way to get any thing reformed though it bee ever so inconvenient and burdensome to mens Consciences Repeals and changes are made frequently of Lawes about Civil affairs and our evils cured as they come to bee discerned but Church grievances like diseases in the spirits are in a manner incurable 1 There are but a few in comparison and those more strict and conscientious who are ordinarily the worst beloved and least regarded that feel the pain of such distempers 2 By such impositions we rid our selves of those Ministers whom wee esteem most troublesome and have great advantage to fashion the rest I mean the less conscientious to a state guise The sad experience we have had formerly and what great and constant endeavours after reformation have been many years prosecuted with little or no fruit may be a proof sufficient hereof In the Reformation began with Edward the Sixth such reliques of Popery were left in the Church as did much offend divers godly learned even in those dayes These Superstitions coming to a settlement and by penal Lawes fixed in the Worship and Service of God they held their station neer a hundred years notwithstanding the testimonies at several times given all along against them In the beginning of Queen Maries dayes those learned men that left their own Country and went into Germany where this reformation and the superstitions setled in it being stuck to by some amongst them there was then a very great testimony and in the eye of the Churches of Christ given against those evils by others of them better affected to a thorow reformation of which more afterwards These endeavours and witnessings did not in the least loosen the hold those corruptions had gotten by their first establishment but were continued still as will appear in what followeth §. 2. Those Brethren and such others as desired further reformation conceived great hope to themselves upon Queen Elizabeths coming to the Crown who was a Sufferer with them SHEE by Imprisonment as they by Banishment Application was made betimes and with much zeal and so it was continued all her days There were Petitions preferred to her Majesty to the Parliament to the Council to the Bishops to the Convocation Pleas Admonitions Advertisements Considerations and the like to the Common people Multitudes of Books daily and profers of Disputation against those forms and impositions as also Assertions Demonstrations wherin a more savoury Discipline in the Church and order in the Worship of God is held forth and in so much evidence of Scripture light as they were not able to put it under a bushel much out of our Brethrens Writings might bee brought forth to this purpose and of the great actings and sufferings by the godly party all her reign and yet all this obtained not the least alteration or to have the lightest penalty taken off from such as could not conform though some of them sealed their testimony with their bloud Greater hopes by farre were conceived upon King James his coming to the Crown whose breeding seemed to set him fair for the desired reformation as also the Oathes Covenants and other engagements that were upon him his seeming dislike also of our Bishops and Ceremonies expressed frequently As a preparation hereunto there were representations and applications made to him while in Scotland and speedily at his first comming into England There were by a discreet and moderate Pen some considerations put into his hand about this work of reformation And to make way hereunto in the first place the Author endeavours to represent the slownesse and neglect of States in altering what hath gotten any settlement in Ecclesiastical affaires though matters bee ever so much amisse his words are these I ask why the Civil State should be purged and restored by good and wholsome Lawes made in every third or fourth year in Parliament providing remedies as fast as time breedeth mischiefs and contrariwise the Ecclesiastical state should still continue upon the dreggs of time and receive no alterations now for this five and forty years and more It is above five and forty years since Wee have heard saith he of no offer of Bills in Parliament Is nothing amisse The pretensions for not making alterations in Churches setled are mentioned by the same Honourable Pen in page 29. Tares say they Discourse concerning Church affairs by the L. Bacon must not bee plucked up lest you supplant the good Corn but let them grow together they stiffly hold that nothing may bee innovated because it would make a breach upon the rest which hee reasoneth against thus Qui mala non permutat in bonis non perseverat Without change of ill a man cannot continue in good to take away abuses supplanteth not good orders but establishes them Morosa moris retentio res turbulata aeque ac novitas est Contentious retaining of Custom is a turbulent thing as well as innovation pag. 32. There were solicitations by the godly Ministers and people of both Kingdoms the suffering of good Ministers all Queen Elizabeths days were represented to him which before hee came to this Crown hee seemed much to resent These hopes were strengthned by his Majesties condescension to a Conference which could never bee obtained before in which hee was present in his own person And what was the issue of all those hopes and endeavours It is strange to consider 1 Not one grievance some small things only explained rather than changed or imposition removed or penalty lessened but advantage taken to lay the yoke heavier upon those that desired reformation in representing them to the Nation as persons Schismatical and troublesome in the Church 2 A Proclamation was sent abroad immediately March the 5. in 1 Jacobi to let all men know that whatsoever was presumed upon of his Majesties intentions to further reformation was without cause given by him All former Lawes and penalties are anew enforced