Selected quad for the lemma: law_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A43842
|
Pithanelogia, or, A perswasive to conformity by way of a letter to the dissenting brethren / by a country minister.
|
Hinckley, John, 1617?-1695.
|
1670
(1670)
|
Wing H2047; ESTC R29478
|
103,888
|
196
|
words in the confession There is no health in us with the Letany as if it were a role of curses with kneeling at that short prayer at the end of the commandements Lord have mercy vpon us and incline our hearts to keep thy Law Alass Conscientis minus scrupulosa noscitur ex vitis these are poor vulgar cavils your scruples run higher concerning assent and consent And here you are very critical learned and curious in finding out gins to intangle and perplex your own consciences as if you had found out a spititual Microscope to discern what is invisible to our duller eyes Not only your wills say you must Consent to the use of it as good but your understanding is ingaged in the truth of the Liturgy And indeed I had thought these two acts had been so twisted together in rational men that ordinarily one doth suppose and infer the other When I consent with my will to use the prayers of the Church this ariseth from the conviction of my reason that I may and ought to do so And the act of my will would be brutish and irregular like that of Medea who was hurried only with the Ocstrum of her wilful passions if it were not steer'd by the dictate of my understanding this is to do it in judgment therefore you-do but put a fallacy upon your selves a bene conjunctis c. And whereas you say some of you that you could read our prayers if you might be abated your Assent n = * The Church in her best ages hath secur'd her vitals with an hedge of subscription In Austins time such as were admitted to the ministry were to renounce the errors of the Manichees Arrians Novatians and Pelagians to declare whether they allowed of first and second marriages the eating of flesh repentance after lapses Whether original concupiscence were a sin or whether such as were out of the Church might inherit eternal life in the Synode of Nice not only the Bishops but Constantine himself subscribed to the decrees of that Synode with his own hands So in Luthers time when the Church was pestered with Anabaptists Servetus Canipanus Stuckfoldius and other Furies it defended it self by prescribing bounds to those that were in the ministry which they should not pass See Melancton Tomo tertio Declarationum selectavum Cap de calumnijs Osiandri p. 699 700. And why should not the Church of England after these and other laudable examples fortifie and preserve the Capitol of her peace against turbulent invaders and pernicious incendiaries by limiting mens exorbitant excursions in joyning their consent to her wholsome discipline saying hitherto shall ye go and no further and Consent 't is all one to me as if if you should say you would use them in hypocrisie But if after all this strife what if these words Assent and Consent are but exegitical where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same thing is expressed in several terms as it is very usual in Scripture and import no more than that you shall constantly and unseignedly use this form in publick excluding all others Not as if our Assent to these definitions were in the same manner internal as that is which we give unto decrees as infallible but such as we give to those which are not contrary to the fundamentals of faith out of submission for peace sake Stilling fl desenee of the Arch-Bishop 82. l 509. as one well expresses it whose reading and judgment out-strips his years Whereas some of you have told me you would conform were you not injoyned to do do what is absolutely sinful These are but swelling words of vanity For I must tell you again prove what you say and you shall have more companions If any thing in the Common-prayer were contrary to any part of Gods word we have authority from our subscription to disclaim it It is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to the word of God or besides the same They are the very words of our twentieth Article of Religion so far is she from imposing any thing that is sinful so unlike is our Church to the Church of Rome if Cardinal Peroon hit her meaning right when he told King James pressing him that the cup in the Sacrament was according to Christs institution That t is lawful for the Church to dispense with Christs institutions or if this single Cardinal be no competent Interpreter of that Churches sense yet the counsel of Constance cannot be denied affirming that although Christ hath appointed the Sacrament to be received under both kinds yet Hoc non obstante we decree that the lay-people shall only receive under the species of bread I only add this that by the illustration of contraries ingrateful men might be brought to see their own happiness who breath in the air of the English Church I bless God for his mercy and conclude with those words of remarkable D. Downham Though envy cannot say but our Church holds all substantial points of Divinity and uses the ordinary means of salvation as other Churches testifie yet so wanton in Religion are men through spiritual pride that they care not for the sound food of their souls unless they may have their own sauce 10. Besides your giving Assent and Consent you stumble again very unluckily at the very threshold of the Liturgy The very Calendar you say is intollerable For therein is injoyned the observation of festival dayes by the institution of man I will not dispute with you about the change of the Sabbath day from the seventh to the first day of the week I had rather grant that to be by Apostolical and divine Authority than raise any dust about it Yet this hinders not but that it is in the power of the Church to set apart other dayes especially I am confirmed herein because I find dayes of thanksgiving and fasting set apart in the Scriptures by comission from men and I have seen the like practised by your selves I find the feast of Pu rim so lemnly observed in the Old Joh. 10.22 and the feast of the dedication owned by Christ himself in the New Testament Those Agapae or Love feasts the Apostle speaks of were taxed by him not simply as feasts but as abused by the Corinthians 'T is easie to mention the Homilies and Orations which the Ancients made upon the Nativity of Christ and other festivals That is a false plea against Saints dayes as if they were equalliz'd to the Lords own day For look what difference there is between the Lady and her Maid Christ and his servants the same we acknowledge twixt the Sabbath and other festivals We Honour the Saints and if we should not I find by experience we should give the Papists just offence yet we do not adore them We desire to imitate those vertues and graces that were in the Saints We rejoyce at their conquest over the World their triumph in Heaven because they keep an
have Titus circumcised He well knew that the confronting of establishments is not only to throw down the battlements but even to undermine the very foundations of the Church Et utinam probè expenderent sayes Calvin I wish that such persons as stand for an unlimited liberty and cast off the yoke of subjection would seriously lay to heart Epist ad Questiones circa disciplinam Ecclesiae p. 461. how by his meanes they contrive the ruine and desolation of the Church 30. You say 't was otherwise in the Law there every pin every circumstance in Gods worship was prescribed but there is this difference in the Law we were little children under the pedagogy of it now we are adulti A Camer p. 369. and injoy the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free CHAP. XIV Good Subjects may lawfully declare or swear that 't is not lawful to take up Arms against the King THE next Mountain in your way which you have not faith enough to remove is that you cannot declare it to be unlawful upon any pretence to take up Arms against the King And this suggests one true reason why some of you are so inveterately bent against the Lyturgy Take it in the words of our Martyr'd Soveraign One of the greatest faults some men found with the Common-Prayer-Book I beleive was this p. 285. that it taught them to pray so oft for me to which petitions they had not loyalty enough to say Amen This is such a Shibboleth that some of your lisping tongues are not able to pronounce And this discovers that the main spring or primum mobile of your hearts hurries you another way And herein we are the more confirm'd since many of you have chosen to flitt your habitations and expose your wives and children to the mercy of the Parishes wherein they dwell rather than take that oath of fidelity which in effect is no more than the oath of Allegiance in other termes which the wisdom of the Parliament thought fit in these times of danger to impose upon you that they might make a tryal how your pulse beates or how you stand affected to the Kings welfare and the Kingdoms peace Whether you are likely to follow the right line of David or revolt into the tents of Jereboam And I wish that former manners had not occasioned this Law Who is ignorant that one Sinon within the walls is more dangerous than a whole Armado without one Doeg or Achitophel at home than Armies of professed enemies abroad therefore 't is a Proverb in some Countryes God deliver us from our friends that is such as do salute and stab us under the fifth rib at the same time And may not Kings in such a case use lawful means and take security even by the Ordale of an oath to distinguish chaff from wheat bran from flower who are Israelites indeed such as will obey Gods Vicegerent for Consciscience sake and such as are Subjects in an abusive signification per Antiphrasin because they will be no longer subject than his command doth comply with their own wills If he cross them let him look to himself To your Tents O Israel we have no part in David Now although such persons as these are who can never be good Christians because ill Subjects will make as little Conscience of oaths as they do of their allegiance yet the best of Kings have bound their Subjects unto them by this kind of ligature 1 Chron. 11.3 When David came to the Crown the Elders of Israel came to him to Haebron and made a Covenant with him there And when Solomon succeeded his Father 1 Chron. 29.24 all the Princes and mighty men submitted themselves unto Solomon the King or as it is in the Hebrew they gave their hand under Solomon which was the custome Gen. 24.9 or manner of swearing among the Hebrews Ephes 8.2 as is apparent by Eliazar putting his hand under Abrahams thigh and swearing to him The Annotators therefore do with good reason understand Solomon speaking of this oath of fidelity Icounsel thee to keep the Kings commandment that in regard of the oath of God Hence it is that some of the more sober dissenters amongst you being convinced of this truth and foreseeing the scandal they should gain had they refused have submitted to the present oath unto whom I could make this address Go on my brethren mastering and subduing all the remaining difficulties until ye arrive both at the Penand the Pulpit I hope that you having pass'd this Iron-gate you 'l make no stop until we all meet in Navi Ecclesiae in the body of the Temple that we may not be Almost but Altogether such Subjects Christians Ministers as may most advance our Masters service Rumpantur ilia let their bowels like Judas's gush forth who rather like Devils gnash with their teeth than with Angels rejoyce at the return and reception of such brotherly coadjutors That 's a poor surmise that we are afraid lest your glory should eclipse our names No your glory shall be ours As Saint Paul rejoyced at the flourishing of the Romans Rom. 1.8 that it was spoken of through the world so the lustre of your parts industry piety and integrity shall be so farre from offending my weak eyes that I shall exult with joy that my Master is so well provided with servants that I am the meanest of those that wait at his Altar and of the lowest form in the school of the Prophets But I must break off this delightsome theme and come to that more unpleasing task of reasoning with those who refuse to give this assurance of their loyalty to their Prince Sirs where 's the Thorne that pricks you Are you troubled that your distinctions are cut off that your old Avenews and Postern-Gates are in this Declaration and oath now shut up Are there not Evasions or starting-holes left open Are you to be so cloister'd up that you can make no excursions 'T is no wonder if men sweat that are so strait lac'd if the waters roar that are penn'd up with such dams Le ts look back and see what pretences there were for an unnatural warre p. 141. I may usher in this discourse as Jerom did his concerning the Arrians Claudite aures qui audituri estis ne tantae impietatis vocibus polluamini 10. Some thought it a sufficient ground of warre to remove evil Counsellors that is all faithful Hushai's from the King All loyal souls that trembled at listing up their hands against the Lords anointed were cursed with bell book and candle Curse ye Meroz c. 20. Others told us they might fight against the King if it were for the cause of Religion to purge the Church from idolatry and superstition Master Baxter seemes to go this way in his Book of rest as if Nero and Claudius had been Saints and there had been no idolatry or superstition in theird ayes when Saint Paul and Sain