Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	adam_n	law_n	moral_a	4,944	5	10.5377	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20688	Innovations unjustly charged upon the present church and state. Or An ansvver to the most materiall passages of a libellous pamphlet made by Mr. Henry Burton, and intituled An apologie of an appeale, &c. By Christopher Dow, B.D.	Dow, Christopher, B.D.	1637 (1637)	STC 7090; ESTC S110117	134,547	244

Ministers are and have beene censured by the Churches discipline so long as it is for offences by them committed from which they cannot exempt themselves unlesse they can be exempted from the common condition of all mankinde their punishment can neither be rightly termed an innovation nor a persecution but an act of justice and of that impartiall discipline which hath ever beene exercised in this Church and in every well ordered Church and State Politick Iustice lookes not at the person of any man but at the cause She waighs the offences of delinquents in her impartiall ballance while her eyes are blinded from all respect of persons Good men falling may deserve more pity from others but must receive the same doome at the barre of Iustice which others guilty in the like kind and measure But haply the edge of censure is more sharpe Obj. against them then other men or then their crime deserves which if it be they have good cause to cry out of an over-severity and injustice To this I answer 1. That the censured are but ill and very partiall Judges of their owne Censures there are but few that though convict of a crime would passe sentence upon themselves by the rule of justice without some favour though they and their favourers who for the most part are partakers of the same guilt and in feare of the same punishment cry out of cruelty and persecution it is not much to bee valued in this case 2. In the censure of sinnes and offences they are not altogether to be rated by the atrocity of the fact or by the law that is violated but by other circumstances whereby it comes to passe that a slight offence in it selfe considered and against a positive and humane law or constitution may sometimes without violation of justice be as deepely censured as sins of an higher nature and against the morall and eternall law of God and this is approved for good justice by all common-wealths in cases of treason and the like where sometimes a little aberration or word mis-placed is sentenced with death Yea God himselfe who is the Judge of all the world and must needs do right did set this pattern of judicature in the first sentence that was pronounced in the world sentencing Adam and all his posterity with death not for the violation of any law of nature but of the positive precept of eating the forbidden fruit which being a thing not for it selfe acceptable to God may seeme but a small sin in comparison of those that are against the law of nature yet in as much as by that sin man did as it were renounce his subjection and disclayme his obedience to his Maker whereof that precept was given for a symbole or testification God in this as in all other his actions must needs be justified In like manner if the violation of the orders of the Church being in themselves matters of ceremony rather than of the substance of Religion receive as heavy censures or perhaps more grievous then the breach of the morall Lawes of God himself Yet is not authority presently unjust besides that they are of more dangerous consequence than others or cruell considering that these offences when they come to be so censured are heightened by wilfulness and seconded by self-justification and contempt and condemnation of authority which if it should not with all severity be repressed would induce in short time a meere anarchie and confusion in the Church Then which there can be no greater evill under the Sun CHAP. XIIII Of the supposed Innovations in the worship of God Ceremonies no substantiall parts of Gods worship The crimination and a generall answer Of standing at Gloria Patri What will-worship is Standing at the Gospell Bowing at the name of Jesus Of the name of Altar and what sacrifice is admitted Of the standing of the Altar Of Communicants going up to the Altar to receive Of the railes Of bowing toward the Altar and to the East and turning that way when we pray Of reading the second Service at the Altar I Come now to the third kind of innovations pretended to be made in the worship of God which Mr. Burton saith they the Bishops goe about to turn inside outward placing the true worship which is in spirit and truth in a will-worship of mans devising c. This is the crimination which is set forth in most odious maner but proved as weakely as the former for whereas he pretendeth an Innovation in the worship he produceth nothing but certaine ceremonies or usages which cannot be accounted parts or any thing of the substance of Gods worship such as are bowing at the name of Iesus bowing toward the Altar turning toward the East standing at the Gospell and which he produces for another example in this kind a pa. 98. elsewhere at Gloria Patri reading the second Service at the Altar These and some other like mentioned by him in other places are by him charged as 1. Innovations lately brought in 2. That they are made part of Gods worship 3. That they are will-worship and as often elsewhere he calls them superstitious and idolatrous Lastly he taxeth the rigour which is used in urging of these things and punishing the refusers of them in the High-Commission c. my answer shall be briefe yet such as may give some satisfaction to the ingenuous in all these First I cannot but wonder with what face he can accuse any of these things of novelty when there is not one of the things he names which hath not been used in the primitive and purest ages of the Church and though by the disaffection of some and the carelesness and negligence of others they have beene in many places for some while too much neglected were never wholly out of use in this Church of ours but observed as religious customes derived from the ancient Church of Christ and that not onely in Cathedrals and the Royall Chappell though that might sufficiently cleare them from these foule imputations but in many Parochiall Churches in this Kingdome and generally by all that to their knowledge have added zeale and conscience by their practise to maintaine the honour and reputation of the pious and laudable rites and customes of the ancient Church And how these things can be more popish superstitious and idolatrous now then heretofore I cannot see View them every one single and let any man say which of them can justly thus be taxed For the standing at Gloria Patri which Cassianus who lived 1200. yeares agoe saith was used in all Cassian l. 2. de instit Caemb Of standing at Gloria Patri the Churches of France why any man that is not resolved to cavill and snarle at every thing that is good and commendable should judge it either superstitious or unfit is beyond my capacity Surely no man can deny but that to rise up and stand is a more reverent gesture than to sit or leane and if that bee