Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	write_a	write_v	year_n	107	3	4.4301	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79817	The reclaimed papist· Or The process of a papist knight reformd by a Protestant lady wth [sic] the assistance of a Presbyterian minister and his wife an Independent. And the whole conference, wherby that notable reformation was effected.	J. V. C. (John Vincent Canes), d. 1672.	1655 (1655)	Wing C435; Thomason E1650_1; ESTC R209116	94,350	241

for the worlds conversion carried any written Gospell at all wth them wch might be made by themselves much less is it to be thought that they staied to write out theirs having their own breasts so well fraught wth all that and far more than they found ther written especially considering that two of the Evangelists were but their pupills and disciples Nay before those Gospels were written out and completed especially that of S. John the Church of God was spread up and down the world and flourisht in all the duties of Christianity By wch it may appear that even the written Gospell is neither it self necessary to the being of the Church nor the reading or expounding of a text the essentiall work of Christianity As for the Epistles wch be the other part of the new Testament written by S. Paul and others These t is well enough known were pend a long while after the Church of God was perfectly formd and grown up in most parts of the known world in particular after those Churches of Rome Corinth Ephesus Galatia Thessalonica and the rest unto whom they are addrest were perfected in all the essentialls of Christian faith and they were occasiond merely accidentally upon the creeping in of some disorders and errours in those places contrary to the tradition of faith they had received as may soon appear to him that reads and understands the tenour of those spirituall Epistles So then the Church is antecedent to her Scriptur and altogether independant theron either for her being or profession helps of memory as all these writings be do presuppose both the memory and the things to be remembred before those helps were brought to light And so the reading of these Scriptures or hearing them expounded can no wise be the essentiall work of Christian religion or the totall exercise therof but somthing that is altogether independent of them more ancient than they be and that is more intrinsecally a worship homage adoration and service of the most high God than hearing or looking upon words and syllables can be I make no doubt but the whol Scriptur or writing of the new Testament both Epistles and Gospells was merely casuall and accidentall For I find it long ago foretold by the Prophets that the law and government of the Messias should in this differ from the Law of Moses that Moses Law was all committed to paper but the doctrin of Iesus should be writ in the heart and entrailes of his Church You may see one place in the Prophet Ieremy c. 31.33 wch the Apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrewes applies unto Christ our Lords dayes Heb. 10.16 and S. Paul doth not obscurely allude unto it in one of his letters he wrote to Corinth c. 3.3 Indeed to imprint in the churches breast a law from wch she should never deviat is in my judgment a greater argument of divinity than any written Gospell could afford The things wch Solon Numa Lycurgus Draco and other such like men contrived and dictated for the good of their common wealths did much commend their gravity vigilance and wisedome and elevated them above other men not above manhood Moses himself the most profound judicious Lawmaker the world ever had by the excellency of his written Laws hath merited the title of a divine and sacred legislatour but he is known to be a man by his hand-writing and the paper he wrote on He is a God that writes on the velin of the heart characters indelible unto eternity The Law of Christ onely is written not wth ink but wth the spirit of the living God not in tables of stone but in fleshly tables of the heart I do also verily think that the religion wch the Son of God deliverd to his church was neither commanded by him to be written nor yet ever intended either by the Euangelists or other of those primitiv writers to be totally set down under the notion of a rule of faith altho so much as ther is of it drawn principally for the use of devotion and charity be a rule of faith also What the occasion might be that moved the four Euangelists to write their compendious Gospells by the little learning I have I could never yet assuredly gather altho I remember I have read somthing thereof in a learned latin book made by a friend of mine called Systema fidei put forth some few years ago wherein be very many things of excellent learning worthy of the Authour but I have not now the book at hand Wt occasion moved S. Paul to write his Epistles unto Rome Corinth and other places is manifest enough and I shall afterward declare it when I shall come to discover the religion of the Apostles and Euangelists and make it appear that they were all papists and of the very self same religion Catholiks be of at this day All this put together that Christ himself neither wrote any thing nor comanded any thing to be written yea gave notice that he would use his speciall prerogative of legislatourship and write his law in hearts promising to animate the body of his Church wth his own spirit wch should lead them into all truth and that the church was disperst over the earth before any Christian writting was made wch was afterwards drawn to confirm and strengthen the faith and devotion it found already planted All this being true it follows apparently that hearing or reading or preaching upon a text is not the great capitall work of Christian Religion Indeed t is childishnes to think that God unto whom all prostration adoration all homage service and worship both of the outward inward man is more than due should be sufficiently served wth a little labour of the lips or ears when a man thinks good so to do Preaching is indeed necessarily antecedent to Christian faith yet it onely disposes unto furrher actions as may easily appear both by autority of Scriptures wch exclaime bitterly against such as hear and go no further and also by the very natur of hearing and all kind of exhortation wch ever tends to somthing besides it self For who ever heard onely to hear and no further who but our mad reformers ever preacht onely to be heard And how can speaking on one side and hearing on the other complete the whol duty of man to his God as if one were nothing but tongue and ear or had receivd nothing from him but those two organs Tell me Madam ingenuously Do not you think you have sufficiently done your duty to God if you go but forth once a Sunday to hear a Sermon and if you read a chapter or two in a week day this is nothing else in effect altho by your favour you do not think you self bound under sin to either but if you like the weather or the parson pleases or your clothes be neat and handsom then you will go forth to church if not you will stay at home if you find your self

by men who introduce and receiv them which is all one in human society for amongst men that is the best wch is in use and fashion as may be seen in languages garbs and fashions of attire wch chang continually stil for the best at least in vulgar opinion till the fashions do insensibly wear out one another and that return again by degrees wch afortime was rejected rendring that fashion contemptible by wch it self had been in former times made vile Thus mans thoughts and al the works of his hands run incessantly in a circular motion wearing out one another wth a strang restlesness conveyed into things from the instability of fansy their first contriver wch can never stay or remain in the fame state but likes and dislikes creats and destroyes does and undoes continually and seems to be pleasd wth nothing but variety And so all human workmāships of whatsoever kind they be do meet with severall fansies of men unto all wch they are equally subject and apt at pleasur by them to be contrould alterd varied and subdud according tot he diversity of imaginations they meet withall All this is apparently tru and lively set out by Salomon in his Eccelesiastes where he affirms that ther is nothing new under the Sun and that ther is a season for every thing and a time for very purpos under heaven a tim to break down and a tim to build a tim to rent and a time to soe As if he should have said man now fansyes one thing and then is pleasd wth the contrary now hee l plant an orchard then hee l turn it into a meadow now he will build a hous in one fashion and then alter it into another and the like so that all his works chang and run in a circl till his former rejected fansy perhaps return again and seem to be som new busines but indeed it is not for all that is now brought up has been afortime rejected as that wch is now refused hath been liked of and will be so again so that under the Sun is nihil novi no new thing either in lawes states governments buildings books fashions languages or other thing invented or contrivd by man The very dyet and company wch seven years ago displeasd us hath now lost its tast Finally al that one mā does either himself or som other like himself will undo it again and mould it in another fashion the works of man being totally subject to his humour and not issuing at first from any self-sufficient self-singular self-eternall uncontroulable intellect are apt indifferently to follow the guidance of any thing that pertaks of that reason wch gave them their first being But religion is not thus subject to the understanding or fancy of any one man or all men together For mans understanding and gods do not agree together in the same reason as two individualls in one species and consequently wt is dictated by the one that is infinitely perfect self-singular and incomunicable cannot be contrould by the other wch is infinitely imperfect common and accidentally singularisd A thing is naturally subject to his own caus or some thing at least unto wch that principl it self is subject and nothing els the works and will of man to man the works and will of God to god the thoughts and actions of man both to man and God also to whom man himself is subject but the word and will of God are so his that they can not be in mans power who is a poor vassail both to God and his will and word too What man hath once willed not onely God but man also may frustrat it by willing the contrary but he cannot alter the will of God nor destroy any of his works Towns he can overthrow and Orcards and Gardens wch himself hath planted but where is the man can pull a star out of heaven annihilat one of the elements or add another to those wch God hath made In all reason I think it is apparent to every one that the will and Word of the Allmighty cannot be subjected to such a poore pittifull thing as man is he must be led by it and not draw it to his pleasure by adding or diminishing by chopping and changing as he lists Wherfore our B. Saviour when som upon the doctrin they had heard him deliver doubted and askt him wth a quomodo how can man forgive sins and again others how can he give us his flesh to eat It is very observable that our Lord never went about to satisfy their curiosity or declar to them how or in what manner it might be don it being indeed below the Majesty of God to give his vassail a reason of his will but he singly repeated again his owne assertion wthout showing the provability or possibility thereof therby giving us to understand that the institutions and will of God ar not to be subjected to the understanding or man to be admitted or rejected according to that probability they shall carry in it but humbly to be accepted wth all submission and lowlines as the will of that in finit suprem power unto wch mans understanding and the whol creation is subjected And therefore good S. Paul willed that every intellect should be captivated to the obedience of Christ 2. Cor. 10.5 that is to say subject to the dictamens of his faith and Religion as a captive slave to the will of his maister And consequently as a slave cannot controul his maister so neither hath mans reason any right or power at all to chang or alter add or diminish from Gods revealed will holy scripture denounceing therfor anathema to such as should dare to do it against their duty and allegiance All this being assuredly true ther can be no place in religion for new ways of fresher wits for innovations reformations clearings clensings additions subtractions and other such like mouldings and workings upon it as there is in arts and sciences and other such like effects of mans own contrivance In these mans understanding is the workman trades fashions laws languages and the like human inventions ar the matter on wch the fansy understanding works and the matter is naturally subject to the workman the clay to the potter the building to the architect as reason and scripture teaches Rom. 9.21 But in religion mans understanding is the clay and the will and word of God is the workman or potter to fashion and frame it to his pleasur Mans inventions as clay are subject unto mans understanding as the potter and again mans understanding as clay is subject to faith as the artificer and the same reason that makes human inventions receive alteration from man makes mans will to receive impressions from religion So likwise on the other side Religion is no more in the power of man then is the artificer in the hand of his clay but hath absolut and full dominion over him and every created intellect is fully in the