Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	king_n	law_n	restrain_v	2,948	5	9.3714	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56393	Reasons for abrogating the test imposed upon all members of Parliament, anno 1678, Octob. 30 in these words, I A.B. do solemnly and sincerely, in the presence of God, profess, testifie, and declare, that I do believe that in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper there is not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, at, or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever, and that the invocation or adoration of the Virgin Mary, or any other saint, and the sacrifice of the mass, as they are now used in the Church of Rome, are superstitious and idolatrous : first written for the author's own satisfaction, and now published for the benefit of all others whom it may concern.	Parker, Samuel, 1640-1688.	1688 (1688)	Wing P467; ESTC R5001	62,716	138

future Ages think of the Injustice and Barbarity of the present Peerage to suffer English Noblemen to be stript of the greatest Privilege of their Birth-right by so unheard of a Villainy And when it is in their Power to see their injur'd Peers redressed that they should not only suffer 'em to be so basely robb'd of their Peerage but should for ever establish and ratify the Fraud by Authority and force of Law. This wou'd be an eternal National Reproach and such a Blot upon the House of Peers that no length of Time cou'd wear away nothing but the Universal Conflagration could destroy Thirdly It ought to be repealed because of the incompetent Authority by which the Law was enacted It is a Law of an Ecclesiastical Nature made without the Authority of the Church contrary to the Practice of the Christian World in all Ages and indeed to our Saviours own Commission who setled all Power of Government and especially the Legislative which is the highest Act of it upon the Officers of his own Kingdom so that for any other Order of Men to assume the Exercise of any such Authority to themselves is no less than to depose him from his Throne by disowning neglecting and affronting his Commission to his Catholick Church This Power of making Decrees concerning Divine Verities is the very Foundation upon which the whole Fabrick of the Christian Church hath hitherto stood and is to stand to the End of the World. For if it be once taken away as here it is there is no peculiar Government left to the Church it self and without Government there can be no Society or Band of Union and without that there remains nothing but Confusion So dangerous a Trespass is it for the Temporal Powers to entrench upon this sacred Prerogative of the Holy Catholick Church The Civil Power may restrain the Exercise of it as they shall judge meet for the Ends of Peace and the Interest of the Common-Wealth and punish it too at their own Discretion if it shall any way presume to entrench upon the Power of the State. But tho' it may prevent or correct Abuses yet it cannot usurp the Power it self without manifest Sacrilege and Blasphemy in short this is such a daring Invasion of our Saviour's own Kingdom that nothing more imports Christian Kings and Governours than to be wary and cautious how they lay Hands upon it Neither can it be pleaded this Law was consented to by the Bishops to their Shame in the House of Lords For First it being an Ecclesiastical Law it ought to have been antecedently enacted by them without any Lay-concurrence and when they had first decreed it by their own proper Authority Then and not before then was it lawful for the Parliament to take it into their Consideration and as they judged fit to abett it with temporal Penalties Which Practice as I have before mentioned was ever most religiously observed by all Christian Kings and Princes and never before violated but by Apostates and Rebel Parliaments But then Secondly The Bishops sit not in the House of Lords as Bishops but as Temporal Barons and so act not there by virtue of any Power derived from our Blessed Saviour but from the meer Grace and Favour of the King And if they themselves should pretend to exercise any Ecclesiastical Authority in that Place they would most scandalously betray and as much as in 'em lyes destroy the very Being of a Christian Church and profanely pawn the Bishop to the Lord Besides that lastly by the Law of England the Ecclesiastical Power is setled in Convocation so that to Enact any thing of that Nature without their Consent is to betray the Rights of the Church of England as by Law established in particular as well as of the Church Catholick in General Fourthly It ought to be repealed because of the uncertainty and Falshood of the Matters contained in the Declaration it self as First That there is no Transubstantiation in the Sacrament of our Saviour's Body and Blood. And Secondly That the Invocation of Saints and the Mother of God is Idolatry Both which Propositions are by this Law to be solemnly and sincerely in the Presence of God professed testifyed and declared which in Conscience is the same thing with a formal Oath whatever it is in Law. Now to oblige the whole Nobility of a Nation to swear to the Truth of such abstruse and uncertain Propositions which they neither do nor can nor indeed ought to understand and this upon Penalty of forfeiting the Privileges of their Birth-right is such a monstrous and inhumane Piece of Barbarity as could never have enter'd into the Thoughts of any Man but the infamous Author of it neither into his as malicious as his Nature was but in his fierce Pursuit of Princely Blood for that was the only Design of all his Actions after the starting of the Otesian Villainy of which this Test was the first Sacrament to pursue and hunt down the Heir of the Crown which all the World knows and is now satisfied he sought by numberless Perjuries tho' by nothing more than this Test by which he stript his Royal Highness of the Guards of his most faithful Friends and when he was left alone it was an easy matter to come to his Person and in him to the Monarchy so that the very next thing that followed immediately upon it was the black Bill of Exclusion And next to that it was the very Master-piece of little Achitophel's Wickedness But to return to my Argument What is meant by Transubstantiation is a thing altogether unknown and uncertain especially to the Persons chiefly concerned the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom It is a Word and a Notion chiefly handled by the Schoolmen and Metaphysicians Skill in whose Writings is the least part of a Gentlemans Education their Learning is more polite and practicable in the civil Affairs of Humane Life to understand the Rules of Honour and the Laws of their Country the Practice of Martial Discipline and the Examples of great Men in former Ages and by them to square their own Actions in their respective Stations and the like but for the Wars between Scotus and Thomas Aquinas the Nominalists and the Realists and the several Common-wealths in the Metaphysical World they are not more beyond than they are below their Knowledge and yet these numberless Sects of Disputers do not quarrel and differ more about any one thing than the Notion of Transubstantiation How unreasonable a thing then is it to impose it upon the Nobility and Gentry of a whole Nation under Forfeiture of all their Share in the Government to abjure a thing that is morally impossible for them to understand This seems too bold and profane an Affront to Almighty God in whose Presence the Protestation is made and only declares that Men will swear any thing they know not what before the great Searcher of Hearts rather than lose any worldly Interest And I dare

High Places These two things Idolatry and Adultery being so frequently joyned together in Scripture as the same Crime Thus far to mention no more it pleased God to provide against Idolatry by enacting special Laws in direct Opposition to the Heathen Rites When God had casher'd the more rank and notorious Acts of Heathen Worship he retained some of their more innocent Rites especially those that were derived from the antient Patriarchs before the later Corruptions were crept in lest if God had given a Law altogether new and abolished all their Old Customs People that are always fond of the Usages of their Fore-fathers should rather have revolted to the Heathen Idolatry than submit themselves to such a new and uncouth Religion and therefore out of condescention to their rudeness and weakness God permitted them to retain several of their former Rites and Ceremonies in his new Worship that by that Indulgence he might win them more easily to embrace his new Institution And this seems to be the Grammatical Sense of St. Paul's Expression That God suffered their Manners in the Wilderness Forty Years where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suffered is taken from the Use or Language of Mothers or Nurses that are forced to humour and comply with the little Follies of their Children by any way to please them In allusion to this word God was pleased to express his Treatment of the Children of Israel who knowing the weakness of their rude and childish Understandings permitted and indulged them to enjoy not a few of their former Conceits together with his own Divine Law. And so Moses lets them know in his Farewel Speech That the Lord had all along born with them as a Father doth with his Child And so Grotius paraphrases that passage of St. Paul When we were Children we were in Bondage under the Elements of the World i. e. says he we were under subjection to those Rites and Usages that were common to us with the rest of the World as Temples Altars Sacrifices New Moons to which he might have added Oblations of First Fruits Purifications Festival Solemnities Tabernacles Dedication of Tenths the Ark the Cherubim or Teraphim for they are promiscuously used in Scripture and are of very antient use These and the like old Customs were enjoyned the People of Israel lest for want of them they should relapse to Idolatry And because these Customs were common to the Jews with the rest of the World therefore they are call'd the Elements of the World and weak and beggarly Elements and carnal Ordinances that were impos'd and born with till the time of Reformation in the Apostolical Writings when they would beat down the value of the Mosaick Law. But to omit the rest I shall only insist upon the Cherubim that God commanded to be placed over the Ark and all Divine Worship to be directed towards them And thou shalt make two Cherubims of Gold of beaten work shalt thou make them in the two ends of the Mercy seat c. That they were Statues or Images is out of doubt by their Description but of what particular Form is matter of Controversie among learned Men tho what ever they were I am not concerned it is enough that they were Images used in the Worship of God and then the use of Images is not in it self Idolatry That the Word originally and properly signifies an Ox is evident from Ezekiel who uses the Words promiscuously Chap. 1. 10. As for the likeness of their Faces They four had the Face of a Man and the face of a Lyon on the Right side and they four had the face of an Ox on the left side they four also had the face of an Eagle but Chap. 10. 14. the same things are thus described And every one had four faces the first Face was the face of a Cherub the second the face of a Man the third of a Lyon and the fourth of an Eagle And as an Ox or a Cherub was used by the Antients as a Symbol of Strength or Power so thence came they to signifie the thing it self so God tells the King of Tyre that he was his anointed Cherub i. e. that he had made him great and powerful Hence whenever God in Scripture is said to sit upon or dwell between the Cherubims it is when his Power particularly is represented Thus when the Israelites were defeated by the Philistins they agree at a Council of War to send for the Ark of God to save them out of the hands of their Enemies So the People sent to Shiloh that they might bring from thence the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of Hosts who dwelleth between the Cherubims So King Hezekiah in his Distress calling upon the Divine Protection and Deliverance from his Enemy And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said O Lord God of Israel that dwellest between the Cherubims thou alone art God of all the Kingdoms of the Earth So Psal. 99. 1. The Lord reigneth let the People tremble he sitteth between the Cherubims let the Earth be moved And for this reason were these sacred Images placed over the Ark as the Symbols or Hieroglyphicks to represent the Presence of the Divine Majesty so that as the Ark is styled God's Footstool the Cherubims are called his Throne And so when the Ark and Cherubims were brought into the Temple this Anthem was sung Lift up your Heads O ye Gates and be ye lifted up ye everlasting Doors and the King of Glory shall come in Who is this King of Glory the Lord of Hosts the Lord strong and mighty the Lord mighty in Battle In short these Images were the most sacred things in all the Jewish Religion what they were I will not determine some will have them to have been Statues of Beautiful Youths as they are now vulgarly represented Others the Statue of a young Bullock from the synonymous signification of the Words But the most learned conclude them as they suppose with good Authority from the Scriptures not to have been any one certain Form but mixt of several Forms in which that of a Bullock had the biggest share but compounded of these four shapes a Man's Face an Eagles Wings a Lyons Back an Oxes or Bullocks Thighs and Feet As they are described in the fore cited Chapters of Ezekiel 1. 10. And to this no doubt St. Iohn alludes in his Vision of the Four Beasts Rev. 4. 6 7. Round about the Throne were four Beasts and the first Beast was like a Lyon and the second like a Calf and the third had a face as a Man and the fourth was like a flying Eagle And they rest not day and night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come In Allusion 't is no doubt to the representation of the immediate Divine Presence in the Ark by the Cherubims that were made up of these four Beasts that were probably pitcht