Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	clerk_n	seal_n	usher_v	18	3	17.3760	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33531	English-law, or, A summary survey of the houshold of God on earth and that both before and under the law, and that both of Moses and the Lord Jesus : historically opening the purity and apostacy of believers in the successions of ages, to this present : together with an essay of Christian government under the regiment of our Lord and King, the one immortal, invisible, infinite, eternal, universal prince, the Prince of Peace, Emmanuel.	Cock, Charles George.	1651 (1651)	Wing C4789; ESTC R37185	322,702	228

of God that Christ had not destroyed this Law he came to fulfill it And lastly they enforced this from the rule of reason If man had no boundary to his Reason no rule to make his Law by reason would be infinite which error had been the foundation of so many dreadful alterations as States had suffered under in such clymaterick revolutions as now this Nation laboured under and therefore they desired the drawing of Englands Laws to their primitive rule namely the Judicials This was objected against by others who yet desired a rule of righteousness alledging that if this were the Rule then it must be all so or but part not all for the Ceremonial Law being the shadow fled away at the coming of Christ in the body and that the Church of Rome had done evil yea that it was the foundation and root of their so dangerous Apostacy to carry the shadow along with the body for from thence had come their high power of the Pope their sacring of Churches as well as persons their Altars Trinckets c. their Jubiles Pardons Indulgences c. Canonical hours holy Vestments and all the rest of their trash and that one admitted all would follow and as the entertaining the amusive or formal part of worship into religious services had under the supremacy of the Ecclesiastick power defiled Church and Commonwealth taking away all sence of inward serious conscionable moral duty as well as religious and resting only in the exterior form either the pomp of the action or the act it self So now in the reformation of the Ecclesiastick power by the Magisterial Civil power the Commonwealth would at last lay the foundation of a new defilement to the Church and that this might be was too too evident by the precedent example So that we should but change the Tables and keep the false Dice still which would never better our game and therefore they said that unless there could be shewed exactly which part of the Judicials by an infallible word and that as given by Moses that is not as confirmed by Christ or his Apostles was the rule of Christian duty they would take none at all as so given for if man were Judge of a part of that Law how agreeable to the Nation whereof he or they were rulers then of all and if so then as good take pure reason not contrary to the Law of Christ and his Apostles but founded rather upon his Doctrine in the general rule though the particular application might vary in respect of circumstances so not rejecting the judicials but not taking them as obligatory as given to the Jew the people of God or typing out all Christian Nations or an Ensign of the faith but as a wise Law yea the wisest as being the dictates of the prime wisdom the same God that the Christians worshipped they not only admitted but desired such as were consonant to Christian reason to be established amongst us There were some particular contentions as first for Tythes secondly Appeals next the Sabboth then Theft not to be death then Adultery and Blasphemy to be death and these were things of principal Interest indeed But the Interest in part which discredited the whole was so visible as I cannot allow it though I may them who sought the thing as afflicted in spirit seeing the want of conscience in multitudes thinking ill of all called Ministers for some evil mens sakes open prophanation of the Sabboth by those professed a Sabboth and by the last Act restrained in part and left in other part as loose as before petty Theft death yet in the same State common and manifest Adultery go without any punishment or question all for want of a rule for we hear of long debates about it and Swearing and Blasphemy almost as ordinary as speaking yet proof made difficult and punishment easie but no conscience of reforming for few thought it a sin for the great men and the wise men were most guilty and gloried in it so that it was evident that as some sought the re-establishment of the old frame of Government and that both in Church so called and State according to the old pattern of the Erroneous Church or Apostacy of Rome founding upon the equity and useful allusion so called of the Mosaical Judicials and Ceremonials some nothing but confusion so others desired one wholly new avoiding all the errors which corrupt interests had introduced and that not only because the way of Error was before tracked and therefore easie to be trodden anew but as being builded upon a false foundation as well as by time and error corrupted and perverted Some of these though holding the truth were by a part of themselvs supposed to be in an error while presuming upon the wonderful mercies the Lord had bestowed upon them they were over-rash in their desires of a change for the evident symptomes of unavoidable ruine say they threaten us the multitude of interests are so divers and contrary how few are there to manage such a work not one to ten if one to an hundred this were to tempt God To expect miracles in a day when miracles cease God bade the Jew not destroy all their enemies at once lest the beasts should prevail against them it may hold forth the simplicity of the Dove but not the subtilty of the Serpent which is requisite in this case for you see say they what a contest hath been with the single interest of the Clergy and the scattered fry of their corrupt Courts but if you engage against all the remainders of them with the numerous off-spring of all Courts as of Judges Serjeants Counsellors Sollicitors Attorneys Protho-notaries Secondaries Clerks of the Crown Clerks of Assise Clerks of the Exigents Clerks of the Papers Clerks of the Warrants Clerks of the Essoyne Clerks of the Juries Clearks of the Pipe Clerke of the Kings silver Clerks of the Seal Clerk of the Peace Custos brevium Chyrographers Fillizer Marshals Cryers Waiters Chancellors Remembrancers Six Clerks Registers Comptrollers of the Seal Examiners Clerk of the Hamper Clerk of the petty Bag Cursiters Serjeants of the Mace Ushers of the Court Clerks in nature of ordinary Attorneys with many more and all these having their adherents for which of these but come in under some corrupt interest or other But generally the chief in Offices at least of profit as Judges Serjeants Councellors Advocates Doctors Proctors Attorneys Six Clerks Clerks of Assize c. are all the younger Brethren or sons of Lords or of their Families however of the greatest Gent. and of the Parliament men themselves and setled by the Bastard so called the Conquerour upon a politick Maxime That the Land in England being appointed for the safeguard of the Kingdom might not be brackled away therefore as all the Land went to the eldest these were the wayes of educating and maintaining the younger make them Lawyers and make the Laws dubious Offices plentiful and there would be as