Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	ancient_a	custom_n	king_n	5,031	5	3.9587	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54946	An old way of ending new controversies in a sermon preached to the comptroller, and the rest of the gentlemen of the honourable society of the Inner-Temple, on Sunday the 8th of January 1681/2, and at their special desire printed / by Thomas Pittis ...	Pittis, Thomas, 1636-1687.	1682 (1682)	Wing P2315; ESTC R8604	14,972	44

AN OLD WAY OF ENDING NEW CONTROVERSIES IN A SERMON PREACHED To the COMPTROLLER and the rest of the Gentlemen of the Honourable Society of the Inner-Temple On Sunday the 8th of January 1681 2. and at their special Desire Printed By THOMAS PITTIS D. D. one of His Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary Quisquis ab Ecclesiâ segregatus adulterae jungitur à promissis Ecclesiae separatur Cypr. De Unitat. Eccles Cath. Pag. 181. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isidor Pelusiot Epist Lib. 4. Epist 67. LONDON Printed by J. R. for Joanna Brome at the Gun at the West-End of St. Paul's Church-Yard 1682. To the Honourable the Comptroller and the rest of the Society of the INNER TEMPLE Gentlemen THat I expose an accidental Sermon to the world who have alwaies been so shie and wary is only from the force of your command delivered to me with that usual state though complement too which became men who at the time of preaching it had the Government of their house in their own hands I owe much excuse to the world but cannot reasonably owe any to you because your Judgment upon it justified the Discourse and your Authority enjoyn'd me to deliver up the Copy I was the more encouraged to do it because I heard you had made a Loyal Address to the King with which I hope the Sermon doth not interfere If you or others may receive Advantage by the Perusal I care not whether it please the Multitude or no for Physick is not acceptable to the Patient but shall rest satisfied that I have observed your Commands and that a Learned Body of Ingenious and Gentile Men are engag'd to defend it whilst I remain Gentlemen Your most Obliged and most Obedient Servant THO. PITTIS Jan. 13. 1682. 1 John 2.24 former part Let that therefore abide in you which ye have heard from the beginning AMongst all those various broods of Sects that ignorance and wilfulness have spawned in the World there is none but is covetous that Antiquity should Patronize it never decrying its venerable Testimony nor fearing its oraculous Answers but when they distrust its votes opposite to their present espousals Gray hairs being as well the Glory of an Opinion as the Crown of the Old man Hence is it that both Nations and Families have had such severe Contests with each other concerning the time of their first rise that from thence their Pedegree may appear Ancient and they might gain renown from the date of their Original And as in Persons and Opinions so in things too quo antiquius eò melius by how much the more Ancient a thing is by so much the more is it prized and valued by those that covet a strict inspection into the Periods that did preceed their own who measure the proportions of an infant World and thus antedate their own Beings How precious is a Script of Trismegistus Or the least Workmanship of an inspired Bezaleel The smallest Leaf of Solomon's Herbal would be deemed a Present Noble enough for the greatest Monarch How do we prize an old piece of Roman Coin Or an antiquated Grecian Monument Nor is this a Truth receiving a general impress and confirmation in respect of Artificial and Philosophical Objects but even Divinity too having for its Author the Ancient of Days values that which carries Age furrowed in its Face and has Gravity and Years visible on its Brow And nothing seems more to asperse and disparage whatever wears the Title of Religion than to accuse it of Novity and to bear the date of a late Invention Hence Haman endeavoured from this Topick to brand the Jews in that they used other Customs different from the ancient Laws of the Persians Esther 3. that their Novelty might render them odious to the King being a crime it seems sufficient to ruin them when Mordecai could not bow to so insulting a Favorite St. Paul when he Preached the Gospel at Athens Acts 17. had prejudice raised against the Truth of his Doctrine by affirming him only to be a setter forth of strange Gods and introducing new propositions into the World Celsus when he professedly wrote against the Truth and Divinity of the Christian Institutions Orig. contra Celsum Lib. 1. thought he had cast sufficient blemish and contempt upon its Authority when he had satisfied the World that it was new and unheard of Euseb Eccles Hist Lib. 1. Cap. 4. And Eusebius assures us that it was a common stratagem and usual contrivance for the Christian Religion from its first entrance to be reproached with its strangeness and novelty all mankind as it seems measuring the truth of things by their Antiquity and general reception and if we approach nearer to our own Confines we shall find the two great struglers for the Western Empire of Conscience and Religion still endeavour to Crown their Opinions with old Age and to gain both Strength and Honour to their Establishment from time and duration The Romans would have the World to understand that the Pillars of their Church were founded with Christianity and that our Saviour himself once held those Keys which he afterwards delivered to the Papal Succession But though they had a firm Foundation they have built upon it a tottering Superstructure The Protestant would willingly obliterate the odium of a late Reformation and will antedate Luther and the German heats searching in the midst of a bloody Inquisition some being willing to Travel to Bohemia to derive their Principles from John Hus and Jerom of Prague not only sending us to our own Wiccliffe but eating through the Mountains to find out the more Ancient though obscure Waldenses others and that more justly too as if all this will not yet evince their Principles Aged will Travel farther to the Churches Cradle and find out the Manger in which our Saviour himself was laid and from his Mouth receive their Doctrine reviving what might seem dead having for some time been buryed in the dust and rubbish of mens Inventions and freeing it from those Burdens and Corruptions which a gainful Interest and bold Presumption had loaded it withal thus cause that to abide in them which Christians heard from the beginning Antiquity then being so powerful a motive to persuade to Religion that all strive to catch and grasp it I shall easily prevail for a diligent attention since what I deliver shall be that which has been heard from the beginning In which Text we have an Exhortation both Grave and Seasonable Grave it is avoiding those levities and varnish which Novices use to wrap their late and uncouth Opinions in that they may be snatched at with the more greedy Appetite As Physicians put their bitter Pills in sweet Conserves that the Patient may swallow them with the greater delight and seasonable was this advice too since Simon and the Gnosticks did now attempt the murdering Christianity when it was just born as Herods cruelty drinking in with an insatiable thirst the blood of