Selected quad for the lemma: nation_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nation_n	law_n	nature_n	positive_a	2,085	5	11.0131	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53135	The countermine, or, A short but true discovery of the dangerous principles and secret practices of the dissenting party, especially the Presbyterians shewing that religion is pretended but rebellion is intended : and in order thereto, the foundation of monarchy in the state and episcopacy in the church are undermined / by one who does passionately wish the prosperity of the Church, his King and country.	Nalson, John, 1638?-1686.	1677 (1677)	Wing N96; ESTC R7744	126,642	332

from the Express Word of God which is amongst all Dissenters the most Universal Sanctuary where their Disobedience seeks and as they think finds a most certain Refuge and sure Protection LET them now shew us for the proof of this new Tenent any one place of Scripture where all Obedience is limited only to what is expresly commanded in the holy Canon If they can they have better Eyes than all the rest of the World and if they cannot why do they destroy their Maxime by their own Practice by yielding Obedience to a Doctrine no-where warranted by express Words or Commands of Scripture and this impregnable Fortification in which they think their Disobedience so securely retrench'd will like the Walls of Jericho fall flat in an Instant if we consider FIRST That the Members of the Church ow'd all Obedience to their lawful Superiours both in Church and State before some parts of the Scripture were committed to writing and long before they were collected into one Volume and so communicated to the dispersed Church Now before they were either written or published they could be no Rule for their Obedience which nevertheless was a Duty which they were obliged to perform both as Men and Christians SECONDLY If we consider That though the Scriptures are sufficiently able to make the Man of God wise unto Salvation in point of Faith and Doctrine yet they are altogether silent as to the particulars of Discipline and Government Some general Rules are laid down as That every thing must be done with Decency and in Order 1 Cor. c. 14. v. 26 40. Now the Question is what is Decent what Orderly and what Edifying The Scriptures cannot be the Arbiters of what they leave undetermined nay not so much as mentioned Who must then be Judges Surely those Powers and that Authority which are ordained of God and established by the Fundamental Laws and Constitutions of our Nation and not these Men nor indeed any private Persons who can shew us neither Mission nor Commission Succession nor any other Authority more than they may have obtained by Usurpation to be Judges over the Church of God And their own Practice when they were in Power shews the unreasonableness of this Plea since what they deny to others they did then arrogantly challenge to themselves viz. To determine the Times and Modes of Worship and in their worthy Directory they did impose many things not expresly commanded in Scripture nor so much as incouraged by any ancient Usage or Custome in the Church of Christ Nay the very making and imposing such a Directory was by this Rule absolutely unlawful as being no-where commanded in the Word of God And what were all their Exercises publick and private Fasts and days of Thanksgiving for their prosperous Wickedness but Times of Worship Prosperum scelus virtus vocatur I dare not say of God of their own not the Scriptures appointment So that it makes it very suspicious that they are of the same spirit with Diotrephes and that their prating with such malicious words against their Lawful Superiours 3 S. John v. 9. proceeds from that Ambitious Love which they have to Preheminence themselves which gives them such an aversion to those Humilities and due Submissions which they owe to others THIRDLY the impotency of this Evasion will most fully appear if we consider the Nature of Obedience which is hereby utterly destroyed for the very Essence of Obedience does consist not in disputing the lawfulness of the Commands but in a willing and ready putting those Commands in Executions provided they are such as are not directly contrary to the plainly understood and Positive revealed Will of God or to the Universal and Common Laws and Dictates of Nature and Nations which none of those to which Dissenters are disobedient can be proved to be And the Subject of all Obedience either to the Laws of God or Man usually consists in such things as are expedient to be done in order to the publick good rather than agreeable to our inclinations which though under the specious Name of Conscience if they may be permitted to be Judges will emancipate all Mankind and set them free from that Duty which they owe to their Superiors and it would be no more but pleading this Corban against whatsoever is expected from them and all the Obligation to Duty is immediately cancel'd And I would gladly be satisfied if this Doctrine were Universally received and put in Practice Deus fecit omnia pondere mensurâ Sap. c. 11. v. 20 and therefore saw that every thing was veery good Gen. 1.31 whether it would not quickly turn the whole World upside down and in a few Moments destroy that Beautiful Order of which Almighty God was the Primitive Author in Nature and as St. Paul tells us is no less in the Church for God is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace as in all the Churches of the Saints and that Peace is never to be hoped for had or enjoyed without Order and Obedience to those Decencies which by a Lawful Authority are commanded and which therefore the same Apostle absolutely and universally enjoins Let all things be done decently and in order BUT to shew the impracticableness of this Opinion in the common concerns of Life and much more therefore in the Religious we will suppose that one of these precious Men has Children and Servants whom he has educated in the fear of the Lord and instructed in the Way of Righteousness according to his own Principles He calls for his Son and tells him Son such a Man owes me a considerable summe of Money this is the day for payment pray go and receive it for me to supply my present urgent occasions But replies the Son Sir how do I know whether this be a just Debt and unless I be satisfied in Conscience that 't is so I dare neither demand nor receive it of him Oh Son says the Father Remember your Duty and the Commandement Honour thy Father c. and from that Text he preaches him a long Lecture of the Necessity of Obedience and the many advantages both Temporal and Eternal which do attend it Sir answers the Son All this is true and I am Obedient to you and Honour you so far as the Scripture warrants me but I can find no express Command in the Word of God for this you would have me to do and unless I can my Conscience will not give me leave for I must obey that and God rather than Man Having such ill success with his Son whom he has made so good a fencer as to beat him at his own Weapon he betakes him to his servant who has been sufficiently taught that he must not be an Eye-servant but serve with singleness of Heart as unto the Lord Pray says he to him go to my Grounds and take up such a Horse carry him to the Fair or Market and sell him but not under such a Price Oh Sir

within this hundred Years none could be or otherwise their Doctrine is false and Salvation may be had without it and in the Communion of another Church which if they confess all goes to Ruine and the Opus multorum annorum will be broken in pieces and would not that be a great Pity that so curious a Frame should be ruin'd in a Moment as for their own Children if they will damn them who can help it it is a sign they are a kind good natur'd charitable Generation of Men. But if the poor Infants must suffer for it and go to Hell I am sure they may thank their Parents whose want of Faith or not procuring their Baptism must if any thing be the occasion of it or else Saint Paul is much mistaken when he tells us that the Faith of one of the Parents shall over ballance the Infidelity of the other in favour of the Child for the unbelieving Wife is sanctified by the believing Husband 1 Cor. 7.14 and the unbelieving Husband by the believing Wife else were your Children unclean but now they are holy And if so and they die so I dare say they shall be happy and whosoever dare say the contrary my Charity would oblige me not to believe him and I am sure my Religion obliges me to believe him who best knows and who bought and paid for them the price of his own dear Blood and he tells me S. Mat. 10.14 that of such consisteth the Kingdom of God But which is at the bottom of all hereby they still more and more ingratiate themselves with the People whom it is absolutely necessary to please and without a strong interest in whose love and esteem they cannot hope to make a Party strong enough to carry on the rest of their Designs and how is it possible but that the very feet of these Messengers of glad Tidings must be beautiful their News and Person in the highest esteem How is it possible enough to admire and love these Men who discover unto them this distinguishing Grace of God so particularly by their preaching manifested to their Souls above all the rest of Man-kind undoubtedly if they will not go so far as Saint Paul witnesses of some of his Converts as to be willing to pluck out their Eyes for his sake yet they will be ready to pluck out their Purses for a present Maintenance and if occasion be both with those and some of them with their Persons assist the Cause the Good Cause of Reformation which is the thing they by this Doctrine would bring them to and assure themselves of As for their dislike of Christian Burial and several other things I have not much to say to them about it or can think they have any other Design than what they have in all the little occurrences of Life Words Looks Gestures to keep up a distinction c. make a Party and like the wicked King of Israel they will be buried with the burial of an Ass much good may it do them And thus having taken a Survey of these Dissenters their Original and Education their Positions and Doctrines which are so useful and necessary to them in order to the promoting the Main Design of Reformation by making ours the Kingdom of Antichrist that so they may have a colour and pretence to pull it down we should now come to a particular declaration of their Practices but having already upon the several Points of their Doctrine spoken fully of them I shall not use their Method and endeavour to swell these pages into a larger Book by vain Repetitions for I design the Publick and not the Stationers advantage and can assure them I am no Hackney Scribler and therefore for their Practice I refer the Reader backwards for about Fourty Years and shall only Recapitulate That all these great and fair pretences with which the Heads of Faction indear themselves to the People and the People to them all that Diligence they use both Night and Day for they are not without their to be suspected Night-Meetings of which the Politique Historian so well Remarques That they are Longè periculosiores because they seem to favour Deeds of Darkness I say all this industry is principally intended to alienate the Affections of the Subjects of these Nations from the present Government and Governours both Civil and Ecclesiastical and by creating Fears and Jealousies the old Engines of Sedition to unsettle the Minds of Men by pretending great abuses and unlawfulness in Persons and Things to bring the People first to a dislike of them and by degrees to wish an Alteration and in plain Terms to fit and dispose them by these secret and subtile Artifices which the unwary cannot and the Designing Party will not discover with the first Opportunity for downright Rebellion It is a matter of the greatest Wonder that there should be found any Men who pretend either to Honesty Prudence or Policy who should dislike a Government which for Excellency has not its equal in the whole World There is no Place or People under the Sun where the Laws do so exactly hold the Ballance betwixt the Prince and the People as in the Realm of England where every mans Right is to be bounded and Property secured that the poorest Cottager enjoys such Priviledges and Protection as the Gentry of other Nations would think themselves happy in and the better sort of People the Free-holders possess many such Liberties and Franchises as the Counts and Grandees amongst our Neighbours can hardly boast of and it is a great pity that those People who pretend to be weary under so mild and fresh a Constitution of Government have not seen or felt the hardship of the Lives of the Bores and Peasants on the other side of the Sea not only now when they are Slaves to all Parties in the present War but in the Times of the most profound Peace and flourishing Trade amongst them It has been esteemed a State Maxim by the wisest Heads Malum bene positum non est temere Removendum What must we then think of those Persons who are for Innovations in that Government which with the Wisdom Caution and Prudence of several Hundreds of Years has been established and by the constant succession of all that experience has been found so useful and advantageous to all the ends of Society Should a man go now about to perswade the Worthy Citizens of London to carry the ancient River of Thames out of its Channel over Black-Heath which would be difficult enough only because it did not please him or in hopes of finding Treasure at the Bottom of the Old River would they not provide a lodging think you for him in the most stately Louvre that ere was built for mad Inhabitants but if he should not only frame such a Project but secretly endeavour to perswade the Populace to compel the more Rich and Wealthy to undertake so unreasonable a Design and which must certainly mine

the Glorious City beyond hopes of a second Resurrection I am afraid he would find a Lodging more inconvenient than Bedlam and need not fear to be drowned in his new River The madness and malice of those persons who would alter the Old Channel and Stream of Government is far greater being of universal ill Consequence not only to that stately Metropolis but to all Places Persons Ranks and Degrees of men But the Miracle of Wonders is that these men who dislike and despise the present Government who tread in the same steps preach the same Doctrines use the same Arts and Methods make the very same pretences of Religion and Reformation with those desperate Rebels who so lately did overturn the Government should yet be able so successfully to employ their Talent to put the same cheat upon us a second Time and so easily again deceive People into the direct Road of those Miseries Distractions Confusions Ruines Desolations and almost Destruction which are still so fresh in Remembrance After all this do I know they will look as demurly as if Butter would not melt in their Mouthes and yet speak as if they had nothing else there Ps 55.21 their Words will be softer than Butter smoother than Oyl in pretending all imaginable Innocence and to say truth even the best of them who it may be do not penetrate into the Bottom of the Mischief are yet like Solomons Madman who cast about those Firebrands Arrows and Death with which the Engineers of the Faction furnish them who deceives his Neighbour and sayes Am I not in sport I mean no harm to any Body I know not what others may do But for my part I like no such Jesting especially with such dangerous Edge-Tools as will cut the Nerves of Government and dislimb the Body Politick They are not yet come so high as to the removing Evil Counsellors and indeed that Stratagem is too stale and has been too often made use of It were well if they were not now busie upon the other Extream and endeavouring to put such upon us It is but too easie to observe even by those who are not over Curious that something they do design which it is not yet time for them to make Publick And there is nothing more confirms the Suspicion than the great and indefatigable Industry which of late they have employed to promote their Interest in the Present Parliament in which there has rarely happened a Vacancy and by consequence a new Election but all their Forces are united and all their Friends are made if possible to set up such a person as is a Moderate Man as they call them if they can go no further that is such a one as will be so favourably inclined to them and their affairs as to let them alone and to confirm the probability of this I heard it confidently affirmed that one of the great Leaders of the Presbyterians at an Election not long since induced all his Party to give their Voyces for a Gentleman who it may be would have deceived their Hopes if he had carried it with this all-powerful Argument All you that hope for the Salvation of your Souls give your Voices for such a one So that now it is clear that Elections of Knights and Burgesses in Parliament is a necessary ingredient and sign of their Election as Saints For I am satified that they do not promise themselves much from this Parliament which is composed of so many Worthy Gentlemen eminent for their sufferings for Loyalty as well as Prudence and Wisdom All that ever they hoped for or it may be at present would desire would be only a Comprehension or Connivence that so the Gospel might have free Course that it might run and be glorified and that is in the true Sense and meaning of it That thereby they might gain the advantage of Time and Opportunity without Controllment of Laws to make their Party so strong as to have the greatest Voice and Poll in the Elections of future Parliaments which dangerous design of theirs it is the general hopes of all those who wish well to the Government the Prudence of the Present will in their Wisdom in time endeavour to obviate by that much to be desired Bill of Regulating Elections And there appears no Reason that they who will not observe Laws It is a saying of our Law Utlagatus habet Caput lupinum Intimating that they who will not be obedient to Laws which is the reason of utlawry are like Wolves and such noxious Animals and why the Wolves though in Sheeps cloathing should either chuse or be chosen a Guard for the Sheep I know no reason unless we have a mind to be worried And possibly in something of this Nature were provided to disable all Recusants it might prove a safe Expedient to secure the Government at it is now established and free us from the Fears both of Popery and Persbytery and be obedient to Government should have the Priviledges of Laws which they endeavour to destroy To have a Parliament of their Persuasion would be the most glorious thing imaginable and they know by experience that the Protection of that great Name of Parliament and colour of Law are the surest Wayes to overthrow all even the Fundamental Constitutions of the Nation and as the late Vsurper was wont to say make even Magna Charta Magna F if contrary to the Establishment of their Dominion and it is well for them if they be innocent of the guilt of which they have not without reason been suspected That those great Heats and Animosities which have of late obstructed all the publick Affairs and so much eclipsed the former Glories of this Renowned Parliament have in a great measure proceeded from this mutinous and fermenting Spirit which wherever it comes like a strong Poyson in the Blood and Humours of the Natural Body causes most violent Ebullitions Spasmes and Convulsions in the Body Politique And I think it will appear but too plainly if likewise it be considered that they have been the Party who have used all endeavours for the Dissolution of the Present Parliament and a New one to be called which being sufficiently taken notice of already has spared me the pains One thing however deserves our Observation which confirms what has before been spoken That the Confinement of some who both by Print and Words did endeavour to prove this no Parliament as it has given a great dash to the Hopes and Confidence of the Party so it is resented by them with the greatest trouble and the most sensible affliction that could have befallen them and that they may still do something when they cannot do what they would as a Noble Lord takes notice the reason of their misfortune is attributed to the prevalency of the Court-Party by which distinction they endeavour to make a Fraction in the House and set the Country against the Couit so that they are for any Tooth Good Barber