Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	sin_n	sin_v	transgression_n	4,837	5	10.4181	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01094	Foure sermons, lately preached, by Martin Fotherby Doctor in Diuinity, and chaplain vnto the Kings Maiestie. The first at Cambridge, at the Masters Commencement. Iuly 7. anno 1607. The second at Canterbury, at the Lord Archbishops visitation. Septemb. 14. anno 1607. The third at Paules Crosse, vpon the day of our deliuerance from the gun-powder treason. Nouemb. 5. anno 1607. The fourth at the court, before the Kings Maiestie. Nouemb. 15. anno 1607. Whereunto is added, an answere vnto certaine obiections of one vnresolued, as concerning the vse of the Crosse in baptisme: written by him in anno 1604. and now commanded to be published by authoritie	Fotherby, Martin, 1549 or 50-1620.	1608 (1608)	STC 11206; ESTC S102529	138,851	236

their writings shew most plainely Yea and being yet more mad and swelling like Aesops frogge with greater pride of themselues euen to the cracking of their skinnes they haue challenged to the combat euen Moses and Aaron to dispute the case before the King himselfe and all the Princes of the land as Iannes and Iambres did But being vndertaken they haue beene found vpon the trial to be as blind as bold and all that they could say to be indeed nothing els but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristophanes speaketh that is A hoarse and harsh croking of vnreasonable frogges Who though they were at that time as soundly charmed by some of our most reuerend and learned Bishops as certaine frogges in France were once by Bishop Regulus which haue continued dumbe silent euer since like Seriphian frogs yet our frogs lesse modest continue stil to trouble the whole land with their croking as though nothing had euer beene spoken against them Notwithstanding that action was both begunne and proceeded in with as great a solemnity and preparation as euer was any since the time of great Constantine our Constantine himselfe in his owne royall person vouchsafing to sustaine the greatest part of the burden and with admirable dexteritie to confound their garrulity The third and last meane whereby the truth shall be resisted by this brood of hypocrisie is The cruelty of blood Of which although it may truely be sayd Gods name be praised for it that As yet we haue not resisted vnto blood as it is in the Epistle vnto the Hebrews yet that must be ascribed rather vnto Gods most merciful dispensation then vnto their merciful disposition For that they intended blood yea and blood vpon blood their diuulged libels shew threatning Fistes and Clubbes and Bickerings that shall make all our harts ake yea and Blood spilt by butchers They be their owne words and I gather no more then their owne pennes haue skattered and that they were not in ieast when they threatned these thinges their owne ouert actitions commenting vpon their inward intentions haue notably declared Their strength was suruayed their armie mustred and found to be an hundred thousand hands strong as they themselues haue boasted if happily their muster-maister was not deceiued Nay the sword was almost drawne to haue struck a deadly stroke yea and that euen at our soueraigne head The signe was giuen by them and the trumpeters themselues were mounted vp aloft but it was but in a cart a worthy chariot for such worthlesse persons but yet euen there they sounded vnto the battaile proscribing by name diuers honorable Counsellers and intending by a more effectuall Metamorphosis then euer Iannes and Iambres did to haue turned the water of our riuers into blood All this is well knowne vnto those that doe remember the furious commotion of Haccket and Copinger which as all men know was not done in a corner but proclamed in the open streetes of our chiefest citie and all this for the furthering of the new pretended Discipline But it pleased the Lord in mercie to confound their conspiracie and by the blood of a few to spare the blood of many in powring that blood which they thought to haue shed by his mercifull prouidence vpon their owne head And so be it vnto all that seeke the trouble of Israel Whereunto let euery true hart say Amen FINIS An answere vnto certaine obiections of one vnresolued as concerning the vse of the Crosse in Baptisme Vestra solum legitis vestra amatis caeteros causa incognita condemnatis Cic. lib. 2. de Nat. Deor. Peccat qui damnat quasi peccata quae nulla sunt Aug. lib. 3. de libero arbitr cap. 15. Primus felicitatis gradus est non delinquere secundus delicta cognoscere Cyprian Cornelio The Obiectors praeface FIrst I humbly desire that this may be interpreted as not done of mee in derogation of the booke of Common-prayer which I haue euer vsed with reuerence and respect nor of contradiction to the Estate or opposition to authority to which I haue euer submitted my selfe Secondly in all the time of my forbearance I would haue it knowne and considered that I neuer inueighed against it or condemned others that did vse it or disswaded any from doing it and carried my forbearance so as none or few espied what I did vpon care not to be offensiue by mine example My conformity in other things showeth that this is omitted neither contentiously nor contemptiously Answer FOr the protestation vsed in this Praeface I rest charitably perswaded because it is made both by one who best knowes what hath beene done in that matter and by one who as I trust for the feare of God would not make any protestation contrary to his practise I likewise desire that what I shall write in answere of these obiections may be held and esteemed as mine owne free iudgement begotten in me onely by an indifferent inquisition into these causes and not imposed vpon me by an ouer-weening opinion of any mens persons that haue waded before me in the search of these questions whose reasons in many points I may happily follow but their authority without reason in none at all The first obiection First by forbearing it I was sure I did not sinne by vsing it I doubted least I should haue sinned seeing it hath neither word of Christ nor example of the Apostles to warrant it And whatsoeuer is done doubtfully is sinne to him that doeth it Answere As concerning both your positions deliuered in the ingresse of this first obiection my iudgement is opposed ex diametro vnto yours That if you had vsed the signe of the crosse it being so inioyned you by a Christian law you might haue beene sure that you had not sinned but hauing forborne it you could not but know that therein you greatly sinned My reason is this because Sinne is nothing else but a transgressing of the law either Diuine or Humaine where diuine doth not resist it And therefore your yeelding obedience vnto such a law must needs yeeld you assurance that therein you sinned not On the other side your detracting of obedience from such a law must needs resolue you as fully that therein you sinned as you knew assuredly the law was by you transgressed both these consequents be grounded vpon the Apostles owne definition of sinne of which you could not be ignorant Ob. But happily you will say that sinne is but onely a transgression of the law of God and not of the law of man Such as the crosse is Resp. I answere that whosoeuer disobeyeth the law of man commanding in things of indifferent nature he therein transgresseth the law of God and consequently committeth sinne For the Apostle Peter commandeth vs to submit our selues not onely vnto the law of God but also vnto the ordinances of man and that for the Lords sake Which place of Saint Peter eyther giueth the Magistrate commission to

command and inioyneth the subiect submission to obey in matters of indifferencies or els is he cleane stript of all power and authority Ob. But you say that though you knew it were commanded by law yet you doubting still of the lawfulnesse of it and taking it rather to be legitimum then licitum this doubting had turned your obedience into sinne Resp. It is very true indeed and therefore I doubt not but that your very doubting in this case was your sinne nay many sinnes bound together it being both the effect and the cause and the body of sinne in you The effect because it proceeded from ignorance of the truth And againe because as a learned Diuine noteth Conscientia nimis scrupulosa nascitur ex vitio vel naturali vel acquisito the cause of sinne because it produced disobedience in you and that vnto a most ancient and a most generall Christian law and the body of sinne because it kept you from assenting vnto the truth for in doubting there can be no determination and therefore no assenting be the thing whereof wee doubt neuer so true and certaine Which suspence and vncertain●● in matter of duty euen the Heathens define to be a great sin Qui deliberant vtrū id sequantur quod honestū esse videant aut se scientes scelere contaminent in ipsa dubitatione inest facinus So that your doubting was not onely a sinne but also a sinne out of measure sinfull corrupting your best actions and intangling your conscience with a most vn-auoidable necessity of sinning If you obey you sinne against your owne perswasion if you disobey you sinne against the law which you ought to obey euen for conscience sake an indissoluble knot Whereby euen your future obedience if you shall returne ad meliorem mentem yet will carry this euill with it as to accuse condemne your former disobedience For as Tertullian reasoneth in an other like matter Qui hodie non deliquit suscepta corona deliquit aliquando recusata If you do not then offend whē you obserue the crosse you must needes haue offended when you refused it This is the faire fruite of your needlesse scrupulosity that it maketh one part of your life to giue in euidence against an other Now if your doubting as you say do corrupt your obedience and turne that into sinne doe you thinke that it acquiteth your disobedience from sinne Or can you thinke that it is no sinne to go against a grounded law when you thinke it so great a sinne to go against an vngrounded opinion I doubt not but if these two sinnes were put into Critolaus his ballance togither your sinne against the law would appeare much the heauier For as Tertullian noteth in the fore-cited place Nec nullum nec incertum videri potest delictum quod committitur in obseruationem satis auctoratam such as the crosse is And as the Prophet Samuel teacheth vs Disobedience is as the sinne of witch-craft which must needes make your sinne against the law beeing the sinne of disobedience to be much more greeuous then the sinne against your perswasion it being but erroneous Ob. But you will say that that disobedience which is there so condemned was disobedience vnto the commandement of God Resp. And I say that it is the commandement of God that we should obey the magistrate Let euery soule bee subiect to the higher powers For there is no power but of God Whosoeuer therefore resisteth power resisteth the ordinance of God Neither ought we only to obey the magistrate in those things which God himselfe commandeth but also euen in those which only man ordaineth as the Apostle Peeter expresly teacheth vs. Submit your selues vnto all maner ordinance of man for the Lords sake Marke vnto all ordinances of man not being opposed to the ordinances of God as the crosse is not Yea and these we must obey euen for conscience sake as the Apostle Paul teacheth vs in the fore-cited place We must be subiect saith he not only for wrath but also for conscience sake which sentence hath oftentimes made mee to wonder at the strange mishapen conscience of many men in our daies who make a great conscience of not obseruing the crosse and other like ceremonies of the Church where they haue no scripture to guide their conscience and yet make no conscience of breaking Godly lawes which the scriptures command them for conscience sake to obserue Ob. But you say that this signe of the crosse hauing neither any word of Christ nor example of Apostles to confirme approue it your conscience would not suffer you to yeeld obedience vnto it Resp. I answere that it hauing againe neither any word of Christ nor Apostles example to infirme and reproue it this proueth it to be in his owne nature indifferent and so to be put in the power of the magistrate to command or forbid as occasiōs may induce it And therfore it being out of doubt by the magistrate cōmanded no man ought to make a doubt whether it shold be obeied For as Eusebius obserueth out of Plato they which be priuate persons must neither disputare nor dubitare de legibus but simpliciter parere Which branch of Platoes law he cēsureth to be consonant to the heauenly law of God With whō in this point of simple obedience consenteth Tertullian allowing much better of our simple obeying then of our subtil inquiring into things of this nature Lando fidem saith he quae antè credit obseruandum esse quàm didicit The equity of which rule euen you your selfe and diuers other by your practice do confesse in yeelding your obedience to the cap and surplice and many other ceremonies of our English Church And therefore I desire but to know some good reason why you do not the like to the crosse in baptisme What commandement of Christ or what example of Apostles haue you for the surplice or what speciall warrant and rule for your conscience saue onely this generall rule of obedience And therefore you must shew by the commandement of Christ or example of the Apostles either that the surplice is more allowed then the crosse or that the crosse is more condemned then the surplice or els you must follow that rule of obedience as well in the one as you do in the other otherwise you shall plainely declare vnto the world that you play but fast loose with the name of your conscience which when you will is bound and when you will is free hauing so none other rule for it but onely your owne will which is a croked rule Againe if your conscience were so scrupulized by your doubting it must needes bee because you knew no light of scripture to giue you resolution either on the one side or on the other For Dubitatio is in neutram partem consensio Now you being thus vncertainly poised why did you rather propend vnto that