Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	according_a	faith_n	true_a	2,988	5	4.5560	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58699	The religion established by law, asserted to conduce most to the true interest of prince and subject as it was delivered in a charge, at the general quarter sessions of the peace, held at the borough of Newark, for the county of Nottingham, by adjournment for taking the oaths of Supremacy, &c., according to the late act of Parliament July 21th 1673 / by Peniston Whalley Esq.	Whalley, Penistone.	1674 (1674)	Wing S1535; ESTC R183102	23,556	38

we of Bishops They that is the sober part Clevel for There is a Church as well as Kirke of Scots wave enthusiasms and such like dreams and make the Scripture the rule of Faith as well as of manners all the difference then lies in the construction of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they say signifies a preaching ruling and sometimes a lay-elder and our Divines and doubtless with more reason say a Bishop and such an one as hath superintendency over Presbyters too but this having been the subject of the learned pens pro and con I shall say no more but that many of them are worthy in their generations and eminent both for Learning and Piety and have been instrumental too in the Kings and consequently the Churches Restauration let them now come into her bosome who is always willing to receive them and reap at least the fruits of those worthy labours least the controversie betwixt us and them be decided by a third party as that of the Mouse and the Frog in the Fable was to the ruine of both the gladiators And I hope there may be an expedient found out for it for I am sure the Church of England is not of the humor of Pope Paul the fourth Cor. Trid. p. 406. who said rather then he would loose one jot of his due he would see the whole world ruin'd It cannot be said that they were ever immediately guilty of any Soveraign Princes blood yet they were a little School-men like too nice in the distinction betwixt the Politique and the Personal capacities of Princes and did a little too inconsiderately swallow the Vulgar Error of the Kings being one of the three * I humbly propose to those worthy persons of that judgment whether the making the King an Estate makes him not a co-ordinate power and where such is then in reason all matters are to be decided by majority of suffrages and how that will lesson Majesty he is very shallow that cannot discern Estates not having a due regard to the ill consequences of both which naturally are such as must render the assertours of those opinions liable at least to a suspition that they have been far from being zealous in every thing that may advance a peaceable conversation amongst men The next in order is the Church of England whose Credenda matters of Faith are according to the holy Scriptures and the first four general Councils and are such as all her opposers but the buzzardly Quakers believe or at least pretend so to be true and Orthodox she claims a succession of Bishops from the Apostles and hath as much authority for it notwithstanding the Fryer-like tale of the Nags-head-Tavern as any of the most potent of her adversaries she directs Prayers to God according to his command and not to the uncertain ear of a Creature intercessor in fine she believes according as they believed in the purest primitive times and directs mens practice accordingly and though her directions are not so successful perhaps as then yet then there were immoralities as may be seen by the irregularities in the infant Church of Corinth and the impurities amongst the Nicholaitans and filthy Gnostiques it can no more be attributed to her then the Idolatry of the old Israelttes could be to Moses who directed them otherways I shall not use many Arguments for truth needs not many Champions but only say That if Loyalty and Obedience to Lawful Authority be an argument of a peaceable conversation the Church of England is to be preferred before all others of our Cognizance witness her brave and patient suffering during the almost 20 years of tumult and tyranny in which her sons asserted their allegiance with so much chearfulness to the loss of their lives and fortunes as is not to be parallel'd in any age to whose restless endeavours and constant struglings against the pretended powers his Majesties happy return may more justly be attributed then to any other second Cause Independency it self was not more eminent for Rebellion then she for Loyalty which is as inseparable from her as light from colour for it s as well known as a Negative can be that never any of her sons ever made defection as to that except one Apostate Bishop which is the less to be wondered at considering there was a Judas amongst the twelve since the Reformation from Rome and though many did pay obedience to the late powers yet it was for wrath not conscience sake All this considered it will appear no great wonder if her sons be still kindly lookt on by his Majesty according to the saying of his Royal Unkle to his Cardinal upon another occasion There was no reason he should forsake them that loved him Lust Ludo. p. 169. to humor the Caprichio's of those that did not love him So what the Spirit said to the Church of Philadelphia may I hope without presumption be applied to that of England Rev. 3.10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the Earth Now we come to the Church Triumphant that of Rome whose Grandeur hath o're gone all the Churches that ever were in the pomp and vanity of this wicked world she professes the well-bred that is the Travelling Religion and thinks I suppose that we are as discerning in the point of Religion as we are in that of Cloaths in love with every thing that is Forraign she would never offer else to impose all her little tricks upon us The two Pillars or Staves Zec. 11. v. 7. on which this mighty Machine of Popery is supported are not Gods staves of beauty and bands but Supremacy and Infallibility Pope Boniface the 8th was a great Asserter of the former when he made it Authentick Law in these words We say and define and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary to salvation for every humane Creature to be subject to the Bishop of Rome A new Article of Faith never heard of amongst the Ancient Creeds Antiquity making out the contrary Cited by L. Cook Re. 5. For S. Edw. Laws c. 19. delivers this for Law Rex autem qui vicarius summi Regis est ad hoc constitutus est ut Regnum populum Domini super omnia sanctam Ecclesiam regat defendat ab inimicis maleficos autem destruat By this you may see that the King was owned by the Law then to be Gods Vicar or Vicegerent not foreseeing the proud decree of Boniface Inter omnes convenit quod nemo possit appropriare ullam Ecclesiam cui animarum cura incumbit cum sit res Ecclesiastica Ecclesiastica personae approprianda nisi ille qui jurisdictionem habet Ecclesiasticam sed Gulielmus primus ex se sine quovis alio Ecclesiarum curam personis Ecclesiasticis ut Rex Angliae appropriavit unde ipsum

birth and that she had a Revelation that if she dipt her self in such a Well whilst a Priest said Mass by the place she should be recovered The Plot thus laid and accordingly executed she comes halting to the Well but returns out of it perfectly sound which was a miracle to the people and got the contriver a great Sum of mony and confirmed many in their Superstition after some time the woman had some remorse of conscience and came to the Author of this Relation o confession in order to absolution which he would not grant till an accompt of the cheat should be given to the Congregation which she did accordingly Yet for matter of Fact against which there 's no arguing they will tell you Mat. Paris 880 Lew. 9. both out of History and by daily experience too that many have been recovered out of desperate sicknesses by having a piece of the Holy Cross or some other * But of all reliques the most admirable is the Hem of the Carpenter Joseph inclosed in a Set of boxes to be seen at Nints in Britany the first a Wainscot within that a Silver box within that a golden or guilt box within that a Chrystal box conteining a wooden plain one visible through the Chrystal which conteins the Holy Hem and reason enough for so many boxes for if it should get loose after so many hundred of years confinement it would be as boistrous as the Liquor so fam'd by a Poet of our own when It bounces foams and froths and flitters As it were troubled with the Squitters Virg. Travesty l. 1. Relique applyed to them and therefore those things are not to be derided In answer I will give you the reply of Diagoras of Samothrace to a friend weakly though truly arguing for providence from the pictures of a great many persons hung up in a certain Temple that had by prayers escaped Ship-wrack * Pet. Ga●● in Diog. Laer. an imad p. 739. Ita fuit illi enim nunquam picti sunt qui naufragium fecerunt in marique perierunt Very likely for there are no pictures for them who have suffred Shipwrack and are lost in the Sea So they generally apply to all sick persons some relique or other and if any live 't is forsooth by the merit and intercession of some Saint or other but if the party dye then no story of the Application Paralel to this the Portugals have a custom after praying to St. Anthony to give them a good wind to attempt or bind a little Image of the Saints but commonly upon the Pilot's intercession who passes his word for the Saint telling them he is so honest he will do it without being bound Travels of Ped della valle into the E. Indies p. 550. they forbear A barbarous superstition says my Author but yet such as sometimes through the Faith and simplicity of those that practise it uses to be heard a very worthy observation and fit for Pope Vrban viii his Chamberlain of honor ibid. pag. 218. As the Heathens had their particular Gods for particular things as Cuna for Cradles Hebe for Youth Morpheus for Sleep c. so they with an equal reason as well as devotion have their Saints for particulars as to offices persons diseases callings Countrys and brute Animals too as St. Patrick for Ireland St. Luke for Painters Sr. Hubert for hunters St. Gertrude for Rat-catchers St. Clare for sore Eyes St. Roch for Coblers St. Iue for Lawyers St. Gallus for Geese derogating thereby from the worth and honor of those blessed Saints as if they could not and that implys weakness or as if they would not and that implies spight benignly concern themselves in the general affairs of mankind One especial Argument they have for the truth of their Religion especially against us the many severities in order to mortification that many of their orders impose upon themselves but if they would consider that herein they are quite out-done by the Chinese and other Eastern Idolaters and that Baals Priests had no great applause from the Prophet for the like they would not much press that point Lucian tells us of strict severities that the Priests of Hieropolis a Town in Syria were guelded Now if there was so sharp a ceremony to their admittance into England It would keep this Land as safe from them especially the Jesuits as the flaming Sword did Eden from our Ancestors Thus have I hinted the most considerable Doctrines of that Church for Purgatory Prayers for the dead Indulgencies or Pardons for forty thousand years to come sometimes are but as indeed many of the rest the wanton excrescencies of Infallibility which was not in Pope Alex. vi when he was poysoned by mistaking the cup of Wine that he and his hopeful Son Caesar Borgia had prepared to poyson Cardinal Carnete with I will now superadd a little of their Principles of morality which are such as cannot be grateful to Society for the Jesuits have sound out a way by directing the intention to sanctify the most Flagitious act imaginable I will not excuse their other orders neither for a Franciscan lately converted declares thus F. Egan I thought it a meritorious action to murder either Prince or Protestant Subject provided I was commissioned so to do by the Pope And this cannot be concluded to be a single opinion when one considers the Assasinations of the two Henrys of France though Papists the many attempts upon Queen Elizabeth the Gun-powder Treason and the late Rebellion in Ireland none of which was ever yet by any Publique instrument of that Church disavow'd Now comparing all what has been sayd together it will be easy to determin what Religion makes most for a peaceable conversation and that I am sure is the true Interest both of Prince and People Now considering what hath been discourst on you will conclude I suppose that penal Laws about Religion will be given in Charg which some kind natur'd man may perhaps say were made only in terrorem and therefore not to be strictly executed but as that is but a weak Argument to defend those Felonies that are made so by Statute so ought it not to be of more force here for the Magistracy is rationably in point of prudence though there was no other obligation bound to do it For the Congregations or troupes of Dissenters filling every day by reason of the Itching ears of the Populace especially the Independants may possibly encourage their Ledders by their number that being the ordinary way to take measures of strength by to attempt upon the Government which we have reason to think not impossible when the attempt of Venner and his complices with that of the Anabaptists a tribe of the Independents upon Germany is considered and all Casuists do agree it is as lawful to levy war against this King as it was against his Father and though something may be pleadded for those Sects if any such be amongst us that like the * Bramans or Banians amongst the East Indians hold it sin to destroy any creature though of never so mischievous a kind and strictly practise it even in their diet yet nothing can be said for such who like the Mahometan Dervices hold it an acceptable service to God if not meritorious to destroy any person of an erroneous perswasion as they count all who are not of their Judgment And as at the Council of Clermont about the holy War Holy W. c. 8. l. 1. the whole assembly said God willeth it so to encourage you further in your presentments the Bench says the King willeth it which is sufficiently made out when you consider the Law for as there is no ordinary way of knowing Gods Will but by the Scriptures So the most proper way of knowing the Kings will especially at this Distance is by his Laws from whence is that Principle in Law that the King can do no wrong because he is still presumed to act the Law which is the only true Standard of wrong and right 'T is true it was a maxime amongst the Civilians Ulpian when the Government was arbitrary Quicquid placuit Regi legis habet vigorem Whatsoever pleases the King has the force and vigor of a Law But such is the happy constitution of our Government his Majesties Grace concurring that it may pass for a Maxime in England Quicquid est lex Placet Regi whatsoever is Law pleaseth the King which his Majesty hath sufficiently evidenced by not attempting in the least upon either Religion or property The Laws being the King of Englands Edicts by which he reigns more in the hearts of his then others over the fortunes of their Subjects You are therefore to present Recusants of all sorts because disobedient to the Laws under which we enjoy more happiness than any Nation whatsoever FINIS