Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	writ_n	write_v	year_n	53	3	4.0239	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A68902	The holy table, name & thing more anciently, properly, and literally used under the New Testament, then that of an altar: written long ago by a minister in Lincolnshire, in answer to D. Coal, a judicious divine of Q. Maries dayes.	Williams, John, 1582-1650.	1637 (1637)	STC 25725.2; ESTC S120079	170,485	253

some strife and contention about the naming of the Child The Commonaltie and Corruptions of the time and as I shall shew anon the Course of the Common Law name it one way the holy Scripture another way And if it were a matter de stillicidiis as Tully speaks a matter of Custome or Prescription that two or three Good-fellows might eeke it out with an Oath before a Iury of the same feather I think it would go hard with both Church and Scripture But in a matter of the most venerable Sacrament of the Christian Religion and before a Learned and Iudicious Divine as his best friend his Alter ego stiles him me thinks there should be no question but that the holy Scripture should carry it quite away and that The Sacrament of the body and bloud of Christ The Supper or The Communion should be the right name and The Sacrament of the Altar the Nick-name or vulgar Appellation onely of this blessed Sacrament But a penall Law as this is was to take notice not onely of the proper name but of every Appellation whatsoever this blessed Sacrament enjoyned to be had in reverence by that Law was at that time known by and discerned A man may be known by twenty Names and yet have but one Name say the learned in our Laws The Sacrament of the body and bloud of Christ as by the right name of the Altar as a thing known by saith the Statute It is so called indeed but not by the Law of God nor by the Law of Man but commonly that is by the common Errour and Popery of those times Learn Doctour learn to language this Sacrament from a Prelate of this Church from whom you may well learn as long as you live The Sacrament as you call it of the Altar Gaggers of Protestants call it so Protestants themselves do not For there hath been much alteration in this Church and State God be praised for it and all in melius and all confirm'd by Acts of Parliament sithence that Time This very Sacrament was then commonly called the Masse and allowed to be so called by Act of Parliament and in that Appellation appointed to be so sung or said all England over I hope it is not so Now. For every person that shall now say or sing Masse shall forfeit the summe of 200 Marks c. And if Dr Coal shall report of me that I have said Masse when I have onely administred the Communion I shall have against him my remedy in Law as in a cause of foul Slander And presently after this Act was reviv'd by Q. Elisabeth there was at the same Session an Addition made to the Catechisme and that likewise confirm'd by Act of Parliament whereby all the Children of this Church are punctually taught to Name our two Sacraments Baptisme and the Lords Supper So that this Iudicious Divine was very ill catechised that dares write it now The Sacrament of the Altar For the Writ directed in that Act of Parliament it doth not call it as D. Coal doth expressely falsifie the passage Sacramentum Altaris but it saith onely that it is grounded upon that Statute which was made concerning the Sacrament of the Altar Having therefore clear'd the Statute it self from naming it so the Writ will never be found guilty of such a Misnomee But how many presidents of that Writ can this great Lawyer shew in the Book of Entries However it was high time for the wisdome of the Parliament to take some quick Order in this kinde when they were resolv'd to revoke all former Laws that commanded honour to the Sacrament and yet found the unsufferable indiscretion of the Zelotes mounted to that height as to dare to term the Institution of Christ however disguis'd in this superstitious habit with those base compellations of Iack of the Box and Sacrament of the Halter on the one side and then Bakers bread Ale-cakes and Tavern-tokens on the other side Purposing therefore to keep in force one Branch of those two Laws which were by and by to be repeal'd I mean 2º H. 5. c. 7. and 25º H. 8. c. 14. which required due reverence to be performed to this Sacrament they reserved the ancient words and Additions not of the people onely but of the Common Law it self in the Indictments for Lolardy as we may see in the Book of Entries And because this Sacrament was so commonly called not onely in the Mouth of the Church but in the Mouth of the Law it self the Statute in the head of the Act and foot of the Writ gives it this Addition of Sacramentum Altaris But this Lollard Writ these threescore yeares hath had God be thanked for it no more operation in Law then the Clause against Lollards in the Sheriffs Commission And if there were any occasion to put it in force me thinks the subsequent Laws considered it ought to be issued contra formam Statuti concernentis sacrosanctum Sacrament●m Corporis Sanguinis Dominici admitting the variance by this matter ex post facto as men and Corporations may do in some Cases But being led by this fellow quite out of my way I wholly submit my Opinion herein to the Reverend of that Profession I make haste therefore to return to the Doctour again before he finish his Triumph over this Section attended with Princes Prelates Priests and Parliaments to confirm his Altar and his Sacrifice Whereas in very truth all his Witnesses are under Age and are not able to speak of themselves one word to his purpose Iohn Frith as you have heard speaks by Sr Thomas More Iohn Lambert by S. Austin Archbishop Cranmer by Iohn Fox Iohn Philpot by the ancient Writers B. Latimer by the Doctours who might be deceived B. Ridley by the publick Notary that drew the Articles the Writ by the Act of Parliament and the Act of Parliament by Vox populi and common Report Not one of all these that speaks of his own knowledge as a witnesse ought to do But this is some Susenbrotus Figure by which this judicious Divine useth to write in a different manner from all honest Authours to make one man still to speak what was uttered by another Thus he handleth the Writer of the Letter in that similitude of Dressers unmannerly applyed to the Altar-wise-situation of the holy Table For although the Writer saith clearly he likes that fashion he allows it and so useth it himself yet if one Prinne hath printed it I know not where or some Countrey-people said I know not what he must in most Oyster-whore language pinne it and Prinne it upon the Writer of the Letter And if one Bishop of Lincoln the Popes Delegate and one Dean of Westminister Queen Maries Commissioner shall speak irreverently of the Protestants Table by this new Figure all Bishops and Deans of those two places must untill the end of the world

Mysteries of State how this question of Ceremonies doth relate unto the King and that the Statute of 1º Elis. cap. 2. which by long search and study he found in the very first leaf of his Common prayer Book was not a power personall to the Queen onely but to be continued unto her Successours and that the Kings most excellent Majesty may safely and without any danger at all command the Table to stand as the Doctour would have it and to be rayl'd about These are high matters indeed if they be well proved That they shall be to a hair For this old Lawyer and new-created Judge doth tell us that if a Fee-simple be vested in me and I passe it unto the King the Fee-simple doth passe without these words SUCCESSOURS and HEYRES as it doth to a Major a Bishop or any other meaner Corporation as you have it there at large Well said Doctour His Majesty is much beholding unto you and those about him to take speciall care of your speedy preferment You have not in most of your scribble given a Bishop any more prerogative then to the Vicar nor the King in this Allegation then to the Alderman of Grantham Peradventure not so much For by perusall of your Authour I finde the Alderman ranged in the third place but the King and the Bishop jumbled up together as in a bagge after Chesse-play and so thrown into the fourth place But I pray you good Doctour where upon earth was this power of ordering matters ecclesiasticall vested before it pass'd away as a piece of land held in Fee-simple unto his Majestie by the Statute of Imo Elis. cap. 2 Quis est tam potens cum tanto munere hoc Was it in the Pope in the people in the Clergie in the Convocation in the Parliament or peradventure was it in Abeyance Away Animal I tell thee The Power in matters ecclesiasticall is such a Fee-simple as was vested in none but God himselfe before it came by his and his onely donation to be vested in the King And being vested in the King it cannot by any power whatsoever no not by his own be devested from him The donour in this Feoffment is God and God onely the Deed a Prescription time out of mind in the Law of nature declared more especially and at large by that Statute-law which we call the Word of GOD. So that Doctour you deserve but a very simple Fee for your impertinent example of this Fee-simple But what do you merit for your next prank where you say most ignorantly and most derogatorily to his Majesties right and just prerogative that that Statute of 1º Elis c. 2. was a Confirmative of the old Law What and was it not good until it had pass'd the upper and lower house of Parliament was not God able enough the King his bright Image upon earth capable enough the Deed of Nature and Scripture strong enough but that like a Bishops Concurrent Lease it must receive a Confirmation in that great Chapter Your Authour a deep learned man in his faculty hath it otherwise and rightly It was resolved by the Judges that the said Act of the first yeare of the late Queen concerning Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction was not a statute introductory of a New Law but declaratory of the Old Parliaments are not called to confirm but to affirm and declare the Laws of God Weak and doubtfull Titles are to be confirmed such cleare and indubitate Rights as his Majestie hath to the Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction are onely averred and declared by Acts of Parliament And all declarations of this kind are as the stuffe whereof they are made to last forever and no Jonas Gourds to serve a turn or two and so expire as those Probationers did which peradventure some Justice his Clerk might tell you of Yea but your meaning is that this Jurisdiction was intruth or of right ought to be by the ancient Laws of the Realme parcell of the Kings Jurisdiction and united to the Crowne Imperiall Still you are short and write nothing like a Divine I tell you man It is the Kings right by the ancient Law of God and a main parcell of the Kings jurisdiction although the Laws of the Realm had never touched upon it Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester in his Oration of true Obedience saith that by the Parliaments calling of King Henry the Eighth Head of the Church there is no new invented matter wrought onely their will was to have the power pertayning to a Prince by Gods Law to be the more clearely expressed with this sounding and Emphaticall Compellation So likewise in that Book set forth by the King and Convocation called The Institution of a Christian man in the Chapter of the Sacrament of Orders it is thus written Vnto Christian Kings and Princes of right and by Gods Commandment belongeth specially and principally to conserve and maintain the true doctrine of Christ and all such as be true Preachers and setters forth thereof and to abolish all abuses heresies and Idolatries c. And John Beckinsan speaking of these particulars in hand to wit Ceremonies and Traditions not commanded by God but recommended by Clergy-men to stirre up the people to pietie and devotion saith That however they mayor ought to be maintained by the Bishops yet can they not be established as a Law otherwise then by the Authority of the supreme Magistrate And these are all Papists not Protestants who may be suspected to collogue with their Princes Nor is this Right united to the Crown of England onely as this Scribbler seems to conceive but to all other Christian Crowns and challenged by all Christian Princes accordingly For the Romane Empire one of the former Authours doth instance in Justinian that with the approbation of all the world he set forth those Laws of the most blessed Trinity the Catholick Faith of Bishops Clergie-men here●icks and the like For the most ancient Kingdomes of Castile Leon Toledo and others of Spaine famous is that great work of the seven Partidas or Sections of Laws advanced by Ferdinando the third otherwise called the Saint in whose long reign of 35 yeares there was no touch of hunger or contagion but finished and compleated by his Sonne Alfonso the tenth in the first Partida or Section whereof he speaks wholy of matters pertaining to the Catholick faith which directs a man to know God by way of credence or beliefe Nor were those Volumes so composed and collected in those seven yeares imployed in that service to be afterward disputed of in Schools and Vniversities onely but for the decision of Causes and the doing of justice in all those Kingdomes and Dominions And how many Kings before this had made Laws to the same effect in those Countreys God knoweth For these Partidas were for the most part but a Collection of the ancient Laws And no otherwise have these matters been carried in the Kingdome of

be defended onely by Dr Coal I say that all Commands of the King for this Fellow jumbles again the King and the Bishop tanquam Regem cum regulo like a Wren mounted upon the feathers of an Eagle that are not upon the first inference and illation without any Prosyllogismes contrary to a cleare passage in the Word of God or to an evident Sun-beam of the Law of Nature are precisely to be obeyed Nor is it enough to finde a remote and possible inconvenience that may ensue therefrom which is the ordinary objection against the book of Recreations For every good subject is bound in Conscience to beleeve and rest assured that his Prince environed with such a Counsell wil be more able to discover and as ready to prevent any ill sequele that may come of it as himself possibly can be And therefore I must not by disobeying my Prince commit a certain Sinne in preventing a probable but contingent inconveniency And then in the next place for the Bishop or Ordinary If he command according to the Laws and Canons confirmed for otherwise he is in his Eccentricks and moves not as he should do why then insuch a case as we had even now that is a Case of diversitie Doubt and Ambiguity he is punctually to be obeyed by those of his Jurisdiction be they of the Clergie or of the Laity I say in matters of doubting and ambiguitie where the inferiour shall be approved of God for his duty and obedience and never charged as guiltie of Errour for any future inconvenience The exceptions from this Rule are very few in cases onely when the Command of the Ordinary doth expressly oppose an Article of Belief one of the ten Commandments or the generall state and subsistence of Gods Catholick Church In all other Cases whatsoever that are dubious the inferiour is bound to believe his superiour saith the most wise and learned of all the Iesuits This point well poised and considered would clear a world of Errours both in Church and Common-wealth And therefore I will set down in the Margent some of my best Authours that confirm it I have not heard I protest sincerely of any Lord Bishop that hath exacted of his Diocese the placing of the Holy Table as this man would have it and do believe this passage of his to be rather a Prophesie what he means to do when he comes to his Rochet then a true History of any Diocesan that hath acted it already But howsoever as long as the Liturgie continueth as it is without offence to any man in place be it spoken I had farre leiver be he should obey then he that should peremptorily command in this kinde of Alteration And my reason for this shal be the reason and expression of a wise and learned man If it be a Law which the custome and continuall practice of many yeares hath continued in the minds of men to alter it must needs be troublesome and scandalous It amazeth them it causeth them to stand in doubt whether any thing be in it selfe by nature good or evill and not all things rather such as men at this or that time agree to accompt of them when they behold those things disproved disannulled and rejected which use had made in a manner naturall And so in all respect and humilitie to their high places and callings I leave those reverend persons herein to their owne wisdome and discretion But that Mounsieur the halfe-Vicar should have a power to remove of his own head the Communion-Table from that place of the Quire it had hitherto stood in from the very first Reformation and to call that an Altar which his Rubrick never calls otherwise then a Table and to be enabled to this by the Canons and to be a Iudge of the conveniencie of the standing thereof yea a more competent Iudge then the Ordinary and his Surrogates and no way to permit the Church-Officers to do what they are enjoyed by their immediate Superiours is such a piece of Ecclesiasticall politie as were it but countenanced by many of these judicious Divines would quickly make an end of all Discipline in the Church of England Here is not only I. C. but T. C. up and down and New England planted in the midst of the Old O foolish Vicar of Boston that would needs take Sanctuary as far as America to shelter himself from Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction Whereas had he but made a permutation with his next Neighbour the Vicar of Gr. and gotten but the acquaintance of these judicious Divines as they pass'd by that Road he might have done what he would in his own Church Ostendens digitum sed impudicum Alconti Dasióque Symmachóque in despite of the Ordinary all his Officers I am afraid that these judicious Divines that tamper so much in Doctrine with Sancta Clara and in Discipline with Sancta Petra Flood and Lomeley will prove in the end but prejudicious Divines to the estates of Bishops I am sure this Tenet is in the highest degree Iesuiticall and that the solid Divines both of ancient and later times were of another opinion To impaire the power of Bishops is no little sinne Let no man presume to dispose of any thing belonging to the Church without the Bishop saith Ignatius For he that doth otherwise doth tear as you would doe a bough from a tree the unitie sodder and comely order that should be amongst Gods people Suffer nothing to be done in that kind without thine own approbation saith the same Father writing to a Bishop And this advice was so well approved of in the Primitive Church that word for word it was inserted into the body of that famous Counsell of Laodicea Anno 364. The word used both by Ignatius and the generall Councell is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be active and stirring in these businesses And therefore the Priest must needs in despite of our Doctor and his Doctrine keep him still to his meditations and be a looker on untill his Ordinary shall otherwise direct and appoint him Especially in the matter controverted which is Erecting of Altars For the Case must be taken as it is in the Letter and was in truth and verity not as this poore Mooter doth reasonably that is against all the Laws of reasoning presume it For to presume a thing against the words of his adversarie is not to take a case but to make a case which wil be laught at in the Inns of Court There were some Priests in France and Germany that encouraged thereunto by the Chorepiscopi or Countrey-Suffragans did presume in the absence of their Bishops erigere altaria to erect Altars And this about the time of Theodosius the yonger But Leo the great tells them plainly they had no more power to erect then they had to consecrate an Altar and that the Novells and Canons Ecclesiasticall did

Offer bread and incense And therefore we have borrowed nothing at all from the square Altars of the Law but leave that form to the Papists requir'd of them in their Canons but the onely Vtensill we relate unto is the Long-square Table of the Incense Yet will not this man be got off by any means from the King and the Counsell He saith that a small measure of understanding is sufficient to avoid offence at an Altar howbeit he prayeth heartily to God there may be but such a measure found in Kings and Bishops houses of which he either is over-carefull or hath a very base conceit and that they have had now 80 yeares to become better edified towards Altars Lastly if that they still continue scandalized thereat they are rather Head-strong then strong enough as was said of the Puritanes in the Conference at Hampton-Court The Puritanes mov'd then for an Abrogation those that are scandalized with your new Altars move onely for a Confirmation of the ecclesiasticall Laws and the practice of them as they have beene these last fourescore yeares generally executed So that your quotation of that Conference is a fine new Nothing The Act of Counsell made for this Reformation doth say peremptorily in two severall places That the form of a Table shall more move the simple from the Superstitious Opinions of the Popish Masse and that this superstitious Opinion is more holden in the mindes of the simple and ignorant by the form of an Altar then of a Table And therefore they did not intend to make a provision to prevent this inconvenience in the Church of England for foure-score yeares onely but for ever And accordingly they went to work caus'd their Liturgie to be mended in this particular the word Altar to be left out the word Table to be put in in their Rubricks for that purpose Nor rested they there but confirmed this corrected Liturgie by Act of Parliament revived againe by another Act of Parliament confirmed by the Proclamation of the late King of famous Memorie which was revived with his other Proclamations by his most excellent Majesty in the very beginning of his happie Reign And what is the sonne of your father to dare to offer limitation of time to a Law so absolute and Authenticall But this Counsell-order doth not appeare to have beene transmitted to any other Diocese beside Bishop Ridley's This Quiblet is grounded upon a mere Errour of the Printer by not putting a Period where he should and putting it where he should not The words rightly pointed run thus Anno 1550. other Letters not a Letter likewise were sent for the taking down of Altars in Churches and setting up the Tables in stead of the same And here the full point should be Vnto Nicolas Ridley made Bishop of London in Boners place Here is a Period in the new but a Comma onely in the old Book the Copie and contents of the Kings Letters are these as followeth So that Letters were written to all but Iohn Fox having accesse to the Bishop of Londons Registry prints onely the Copie of those which were sent to Bishop Ridley So that this is a subtilitie indeed a subtilitie in Print as they use to say But the next is more grosse and down-right That he saith that both parties that strove about the placing of their Tables in Bishop Ridley's Visitation were left to follow their own affections and the thing left at large and not determined There fell out about the yeare 1605 a great Controversie between M. Broughton and M. Aynsworth that troubled all the Diers in Amsterdam Whether the lining of Aarons Ephod was blue or sea-water-green And M. Aynsworth poore man was put to print a large Apologie in that businesse But had the Question been of the colour of this Tale told here by D. Coal it might have been resolved in one word It is a blue and perfect blue Tale. For Bishop Ridley there resolves these Questionists That the Situation most conformable to Scripture to the usage of the Apostles to the Primitive Church to the Kings proceedings was not to lay the holy Table all along the wall and therefore in Pauls Church he brake down the wall standing then by the high Altars side nor to lay it onely in the right form of a Table as this mus Ponticus as he said of Marcion this nibbler at all Quotations doth mis-recite the Text but to lay it in the form of a right Table that is a long Table or as your own Index doth interpret the word not Altar-wise but as a Table So that by this impudency of yours which put us to this narrow search we have met with two particulars very pertinent to the present dispute First that upon the taking down of the Altar the Table is not directed to be set up in the place where the Altar stood but in some convenient part of the Chancell That 's the first And secondly that the meaning of the Kings proceedings better known to this Bishop then to you was that the Table should not be placed and disposed Altar-wise which is the Question now before us Soone after D. Coal begins to relent and could finde in his heart to bestow half a Vicaridge upon the Writer of the Letter for saying That in the old Testament one and the same thing may be call'd an Altar in respect of what is there offered unto God and a Table in respect of what is there as he hath it participated by men See what it is to put a man into a peevish humour Velle tuum nolo Dindyme nolle volo Now I would not give the Writer a Peas-cod for that distinction nor do I beleeve he ever dream't of it He said that an Altar might be call'd a Table in what was Thence not there participated by men For it is a thing notoriously known saith Cas●●bon that Feasts heretofore were wont to accompany all solomn Sacrifices And that they did eat their good Cheer not upon but from the Altars And so saith Theophra●●s that they did first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 offer up their Sacrifices and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lay it on in entertainments But if they did the one then necessarily the other For if I did Sacrifice then surely I did eat saith Apollonius Tyaneus in his Apologie to Domitian The first they did at the Altar the second at their houses Sacrificant Me ad se ad prandium ●o●ant They never offer a Sacrifice saith the Parasite but they invite me to dinner to their houses And this custome was no stranger to the people of God For so we reade that Samuel did blesse the peoples Sacrifice in the high place but Feasted his strangers with his portion of that Sacrifice in his own Parlour So they that wait upon the Altar are partakers with the Altar And because their provision came from the Lords Altar as