Selected quad for the lemma: majesty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
majesty_n	excellent_a	king_n	printer_n	5,735	5	10.5658	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A05347	A treatise of the authority of the church The summe wherof was delivered in a sermon preached at Belfast, at the visitation of the diocese of Downe and Conner the tenth day of August 1636. By Henrie Leslie bishop of the diocese. Intended for the satisfaction of them who in those places oppose the orders of our church, and since published upon occasion of a libell sent abroad in writing, wherin this sermon, and all his proceedings are most falsely traduced. Together with an answer to certaine objections made against the orders of our church, especially kneeling at the communion.	Leslie, Henry, 1580-1661.	1637 (1637)	STC 15499; ESTC S114016	124,588	210

A TREATISE OF THE AVTHORITY OF THE CHVRCH The summe wherof was delivered in a Sermon preached at Belfast at the Visitation of the Diocese of Downe and Conner the tenth day of August 1636. BY HENRIE LESLIE Bishop of the Diocese Intended for the satisfaction of them who in those places oppose the Orders of our Church and since published upon occasion of a Libell sent abroad in writing wherin this Sermon and all his proceedings are most falsely traduced Together with an ANSWER to certaine Objections made against the Orders of our Church especially kneeling at the Communion 1. COR. XI 22. Doe yee despise the Church of God AVGVST Contraratiorem nemo sobrius contra scripturas nemo Christianus contra Ecclesiam nemo pacificus senserit CIC. lib. 2. De Nat. Deor. Vestra solùm legitis vestra amatis caeteres causâ inc●gnit● condemnatis DVBLIN Printed by the Society of Stationers Printers to the Kings most Excellent Majesty Anno Dom. 1637. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE THOMAS LORD VISCOUNT WENTWORTH Baron of Wentworth-Woodhouse Lord Newmarsh and Oversley Lord Deputy General of the Realme of Ireland Lord Lieutenant of the Countie of Yorke and Lord President of His Majesties right Honorable Councell established in the North of England and one of the Lords of His Majesties most Honorable Privy Councell RIGHT HONORABLE SOCRATES reports that there happening a terrible fire in Constantinople which consumed a great part of the city and fastened on the Church the Bishop went to the Altar and falling downe upon his knees would not rise from thence till the fire was quenched and the Church preserved So when I entered into my charge whereunto I was called by your Lordships gracious favour I found a great fire kindled in that Church which though it was but Ignis fatuus proceeding from inconsiderate zeale yet it threatned the destruction of our Church and the utter abolishing of all good order wherefor l indeavoured to bring diverse buckets of water out of the Sanctuary for quenching of that flamme albeit as yet I have not found either my paines or my prayers to be so effectuall At first the Apostles Quaere tooke a deepe impression in me ● Cor. 4.21 Shall I come unto you with a rod or in love and in the spirit of meekenesse And therefor I begun with gentle perswasions suspendens verbera and producens ubera 2. Tim. 2.25 as the fathers speake even in all meeknesse instructing them who are contrary minded as having such a charitable opinion of them as Salvian had of some Arian haeretickes in his time Salv. de Cube●n l. 5. Errant sed bono animo errant and Euthymius of others E●thym in Luc. 14. Quidam Pharisaei semi-mali But I found that I had to doe with men praeoccupyed with praejudice and partiality and so wedded to their own wills that they were resolved to receive no information making good the saying of Maxentius Ap. B●gn in Biblioth T. 4● Mens contentioni indulgens non sanari fed vincere cupiens aversa ab eis quae recte dicuntur tantum intenta est in hoc ut inveniat quod pro partibus suis loquatur A contentious mind desiring victory and not truth takes no notice of that which is truely spoken and deviseth only how to elude the same and find something to speake for his owne part VVhereupon I altered my course and finding by the symptomes of their disease that it is a head-paine or rather heady I remembred that when the Shunamites child cryed my head 2 Kings 4 1● my head his father bid carry him to his mother So I thought it the best course to carry them unto their mother the Church and shew them both her authority to injoyne those orders which they oppose and her power to censure and correct such as are disobedient unto her constitutions But for all this They persist in their errors grow more resolute in their opposition and more diligent to draw disciples after them Revel 12.12 like unto him of whom it was said He is come downe unto you having great wrath because hee knoweth that he hath but a short time So that it may be said of them as the Prophet of the hard hearted Iewes Ierem. 5.3 Lord thou hast stricken them but they have not sorrowed thou hast consumed them but they have refused to receive correction they have made their faces harder then a stone and have refused to returne And this is no new thing for haeretickes to bee confirmed in their errors by their sufferings It was observed in ancient time that not only Christianitas but even haeresis mortibus crescit And surely I have many times wondered how those men who are none of the learnedest should be able to draw such a faction after them and bewitch the minds of the people for every one of these Presbyteriall Dictators is more esteemed then the whole Church of God they take upon them to teach their mother to give suck the people have plucked out their owne eyes and given to their teachers being now able to see nothing but through their spectacles unto whom they doe ascribe more then Papall Infallibility But I find that it hath beene so in former times that in a faction neither the learnedest men nor the best but the most factious are regarded Primianus and Maximianus were the heads of the two factions of the Donatists and sayeth S. Augustin It was well for them that faction fell out else Primianus might have beene Postremianus and Maximianus Minimianus But now in schisme either of them was a jolly fellow and the head of a party So faction gaines these men more esteeme then otherwise they could either have or deserve in Gods Church And besides their forwardnesse to lead a faction I have observed diverse other meanes wherby they have wonne the affection of the people unto a generall liking of their cause I. A great shew of holynesse like the Encratites of old who termed all other Christians that lived not in like austerity Psychicos that is carnall And yet even in this they come farre short of that mortification which was either in Pelagius of old or is at this day in the Socinians whom I may justly terme sentinam haereticorum the worst of haeretickes II. Their diligence in preaching which yet in them is rather the labour of the lungs then of the brain and I thanke God many of the conformable Clergie are as painefull as they III. To taxe the faults of men in chiefe place and the present government which the multitude being ever prone to innovation and dislike of the present Lawes are apt to approve as Nazianzen observed in his time he is thought the holiest man that can find most faults and the greatest zelot for the trueth who is pleased with nothing but what proceeds from his owne devising Are not these they whom S. Peter describes that should arise In populo II. Pet. 2. amongst the people despisers

unto the commandements of God which is the thing for which they are condemned as shall appeare unto any that reades the Text But our Church is farre from such presumption as may appeare by her doctrine published which I have alleadged as also by that which followeth in the same preface In these our doings wee condemne no other nations nor prescribe any thing but to our owne people only For we thinke it convenient that every Countrey should use such Ceremonies as they shall thinke best to the setting forth of Gods honour and glory and to the reducing of the people to a most perfect and godly living without error or superstition Now I have proved in my Sermon by Arguments unanswerable that the Church hath such a power to ordaine Ceremonies and to make Lawes of things indifferent for decencie and orders sake And that obedience ought to be given unto her constitutions Especially considering that therein our Church was not only assisted but authorized by the Kings most excellent Majesty as the supreme Governor upon Earth In all causes within his highnesse dominions And therefore I shall intreat my good brethren if they will neyther deceive others nor be deceived themselves that in this point of Christian liberty they would have alwayes one eye fixed upon the nature of things indifferent and the other upon the duty of a subject to his Soveraigne And now having vindicated our Church from those aspersions cast upon her of infringing Christian liberty and giving offence by her constitutions I will in the last place turne the Disputers weapon against himselfe and cut off the head of that Philistine with his owne sword shewing that he and his fellowes of all others are most injurious unto Christian liberty Rem XIV 16. which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were the common good of Christians And also that they are scandalous to all sorts of persons And first Christian liberty as it respecteth things indifferent is not only a freedome from the yoke of bondage but also a right or power to doe many things which they could not doe who were under the Pa●dagogie of the Law which by the Apostle is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I. Cor. VIII 9. This power or liberty is extended both to Magistrates and to subjects The Magistrate hath this liberty that he is not tyed to any particular Lawes which determine all things incident unto the outward form of Gods worship not mentioned in Scripture But as the Iudiciall Law being-abrogate it is lawfull for him to ordaine civill Lawes so the Ceremoniall Law being abolished to establish ecclesiasticall constitutions such as are not repugnant unto the word of God These men deprive him of this libertie they will not allow him to appoint any thing to be used in the outward forme and administration of Gods worship And if by the consent of the whole Church he doe establish a forme though never so decent they are resolved not to observe it Agayne the liberty of the subject is that being freed from the Mo●aicall Law he may with a free conscience observe all other Lawes which are established by lawfull authority and are not repugnant unto the word of God I. Cor. VI. 12. Tit. I. 15. I. Pet. II. 13. 16. as knowing that All things are lawfull and To the pure all things are pure This freedome S. Peter magnifies when he exhorts us To submit our selves to all manner ordinance of man As free that is knowing that we are not bound to those particulars as things in themselves necessary but using them with free consciences as being indifferent and therefore such as whereunto our Christian liberty extendeth And is not this a goodly freedome that a Christian having liberty of many things he can make use thereof in one thing rather then in another to please and ●ati●fie him unto whose power God hath subjected him without offence to his conscience These men deprive us of this liberty likewise for they will not allow men to obey Magistrates civill or Ecclesiasticall in any constitution established touching the decent administration of Gods worship And as though they were Iudges at Law they have sent foorth a prohibition against all the Canons of our Church Now a negative precept is a restraint of Christian liberty as well as a Positive the false Apostles who laboured to subvert Christian liberty col II 21. did it by forbidding things in themselves lawfull saying Touch not ●aste not handle not And our brethren speake almost the same language Kneele not Crosse not weare not And indeed the Church hath not more positive precepts then they have negative But this is the difference The Church hath authority to command they have none to forbid The Church commands only the use of these things and layes no obligation upon the conscience by pressing them as simply necessary in themselves but they make their negative restraints absolutely necessary place religion in them binding their followers in conscience not only to refuse but also to despise our Ceremonies Whereby they doe not only overthrow Christian liberty but also are guiltie of the breach of the second Commandement by will-worship Lastly As they take both from the Lawgiver and the subject that free power which God hath granted unto them So they deprive themselves of all true liberty while they cherish in their owne minds doubts and scrupulous opinions of the lawfulnesse of these things which are commanded and alleadge their unresolved conscience as an excuse for their disobedience So our Disputer as he is acted in the Libell God alloweth every man to be fully perswaded in his owne minde of what he doeth Rom. XIV 5. Which priviledge I crave to my selfe and all others doubting of kneeling I have shewed before that the Apostle in that chapter as also I. Cor. 8. Speaketh of things left to our owne choyce and not determined by any Law civill or Ecclesiasticall In which case this is a safe rule for the conscience Let every man stand fully perswaded in his owne minde that he may doe or not doe that which hee intends without the offence of God or his neighbour But when the Magistrate doth interpose his authority to command or forbid the use of a thing in it selfe indifferent If any man shall plead that he can not obey because he is not perswaded in his owne minde of the lawfulnesse of the thing commanded he doth but excuse one sinne by another which S. Peter calls having the liberty for a cloake of maliciousnesse for as he ought nor to disobey so he ought not to doubt I. Pet. II. 13. 16. But as I sayd before submit himselfe unto all manner ordinance of man As free that is as being perswaded of the indifferency of the thing before God and so that he may lawfully therein obey his superiours And indeed if a mans doubts and feares were a sufficient excuse for disobedience the Magistrate should be obeyed in nothing for there