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	rule_n	word_n	3,728	5	4.0830	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A83701	A disclaimer and answer of the Commons of England, of and unto a scandalous libell, lately published against the Parliament, and espcially the House of Commons and their proceedings: intituled The remonstrance of the Commons of England to the House of Commons assembled in Parliament, and falsely suggested to be preferred to them by the hands of the speaker. Wherein the malicious cavills and exceptions by the libeller taken to the proceedings of Parliament are detected and summarily answered, and the sottish ignorance and wicked falsehood of the libeller cleerely discovered, and the justice of the proceedings of this Parliament and House of Commons evinced and manifested.	England and Wales. Parliament. House of Commons.; White, John, 1590-1645, attributed name.	1643 (1643)	Wing E2573; Thomason E100_23; ESTC R12060	28,839	39

he be an English man or Subject of England and he party to it we are confident the Parliament would gladly assent to a dissolution of it their attendance upon the publike service being extreamely burthensome and prejudiciall to their private estates and advantages Ob. 5 He saith That we never intended that the House of Commons should have such a latitude of power as to imbarke us all in a civill warre to the destruction of us and of our posterity Sol. When we chose our Knights and Burgesses for the Parliament we entrusted them with all the power we could invest them withall to doe whatsoever in their wisdome they should thinke meet and to use all meanes even warre or whatsoever should to them seem convenient or necessary for the safety or preservation of our Religion Lawes and Liberties and we hold it infinitly better to endure for a time a civill warre and the effects of it then to loose our Lawes Liberties and Religion and with our posterity to be inslaved perpetually to the personall wils of our Kings and to the base spirits of wicked Councellors that pervert and seduce them from their people We never received prejudice from any free Parliament from the beginning of this Kingdom hitherto but we have in all ages suffered from our Princes when contrary to their Oath Office and trust they have followed their personall wils and forced the illegall issues therof upon us and forsaken or neglected the Lawes and the counsels of Parliament and we never found any meanes to relieve us against such sufferings but by our Parliaments which as we respect the happinesse of our selves and of our posterity we will love and adhere unto Ob. 6 He saith We were further off from having any thoughts that by any of their Votes they would or could draw us into any acts of disloyalty or disobedience against our naturall liege Lord to whom by the laws of God and man we owe and will pay allegiance and fidelity Sol. We could never heare of neither doth this false Libeller expresse any particular Vote of the House of Commons by which any man can be justly said to be drawne into any act of disloyalty or disobedience against the King if he had we should have bin able to give our sence of it But the deceitfull are conversant in Generals We have seen and considered his preparatives and by it we see what Physitian we have if this Mountebanke should be entertained that so impudently thrusts himselfe into office before he be called Now let us follow this wild-Goose on in his chace Who nextly offers divers things to the consideration of the House of Commons Object And first he saith We are resolved with our lives and fortunes to maintain the true Protestant Religion established by the lawes in our Church and to maintaine our well setled government under a Monarchy according to the Knowne Lawes of this Land and to maintaine the just Priviledges of our Parliament without which our Lawes can hardly be continued and in asserting of this we have the daily Protestation of both Houses and His Majesties Declaration and we hold our selves bound in Feverence to his Person and in Christianity to beleeve that he will faithfully performe his word with his people and that we have this further assurance thereof that he hath descended so low from his Throne as to acknowledge some errours that have slipt him in his past government and to undertake not to give way to the like hereafter and that we wish that the House of Commons would with the same Ingenuity acknowledge their errours and amend them Sol. This man though he assume our Name is farre from our sense We dare not limit the holy one of Israel the holy Scriptures is the adequate object of our Faith and Religion and not our Lawes and if any thing concerning Religion be established by our Laws which is not warranted by the holy Scriptures or that is defective and comes not up to the perfect rule of Gods Word we desire our Laws may be amended by the Parliament and all the Worship of God and Discipline of the Church formed in all things according to the patterne given of God least the divine Curse lye upon us and our Land for adding to the Word or diminishing ought from it and the Scriptures reject every thing in the Worship of God meerely for this cause because he hath not commanded it because it never came into his mind and countes it vaine Worship vaine Inventions if it be mens precepts or not part of his Law a Ier. 19.5 Lev. 10.1 Mat. 15.9 Psal 119.113 Deut. 12.32 Secondly we cannot allow of the Epithite given to our Lawes limiting them to knowne Lawes for be they knowne or unknowne to us we leave the declaring and determining of them to Courts of Justice especially the most high Court the Parliament and this is certainely knowne Law and hath ever beene so The King hath beene in all Ages held and pronounced by our Lawes ignorant of them as we for the most part of us are and therefore were never by our Lawes intrusted with it And it is neither Law nor reason That Delinquents against the Law should expound or declare the Law as now adayes they presume to doe for if that shall be permitted they would be sure to escape There is certainely a Snake hid under this greene Grasse knowne Lawes for our parts we resolve with our lives and fortunes to maintaine our Religion according to the Word of God the only rule and judge of it whatsoever our Lawes be concerning it for so our God hath commanded and to maintaine our Lawes as they are or shall bee declared and determined in our Courts of Justice the onely certaine way to know them by and not to allow of any thing our King or Delinquents shall pretend to be Law though the same be ever so much cried up for knowne And we are as covetous to have Reall ground to confide in his Majesties Protestations as any can be and are onely troubled and shaken that we cannot so fix upon them as we would by the wayes of government and actions that under these Protestations from the beginning of his Majesties Reigne hitherto have run and doe runne cleane contrary unto them Can the admitting of Masse and Masse-Priests against the Law in the Queenes Houses and elsewhere and the open exercise of that abominable Idolatry now in Redding every day and in Yorke and the permitting of the holy Scriptures to be burnt in contempt of God under the Gallowes and elsewhere in Redding the Arming of Papists and confiding in them and the persecuting of the strictnesse of Religion under the Names of Puritans and Round-heads consist with the maintaining of the true Protestant Religion Can the Illegall taxes Impositions Contributions Pillaging Plundring consist with the maintenance of the Lawes Liberties and Properties of the Subject Quid verba audio cum sacta videam We should receive more satisfaction

and speedy Justice with ease to our purses and without great travell to our persons and not be consumed and tired out with endlesse chargeable suites concerning them as we have beene in those Courts and notwithstanding remaine in the long runne uncertaine of Justice And for matters in their owne nature meerely and onely Spirituall as Adultery c. we desire some better course should be set for the punishment of them according to the Word of God and not by the Popes Canon Law and we partly perceive by the Bills that have past both Houses of Parliament that they not only intend but had long before this setled all these things by their wisedomes in the best way if they had not beene hindered by men that hate to be reformed the fault this Libeller would insinuate to be in the Parliament lies not in them but in others that are of the same spirit with this false accuser Ob. Fourthly He saith That under the Name of reforming the Church governement the Parliament endeavoureth to take away the function and very being of Church governours as Bishops Deanes c. and so to take away at once the preferments of Learned men and incouragements of Learning Let the abuses be taken away but not the good uses also Sol. We beleeve this may be as well objected by the Pope his Cardinalls and shavelings as for Bishops Deanes c. whose temporall honours and possessions are greater and by them held the functions and very beings of Church governement and the preferments of Learned men and the incouragements of Learning but we desire all these functions and beings of governement being abuses and equally branches of the Man of sin the Popish Hierarchy and Babell that must fall may be taken away roote and branch out of the Church as they be out of other reformed Churches And that the Gospell-Bishops painefull Preachers of the Gospell that give themselves to prayer and the administration of the Word a Act. 20.28 6.4 may be restored to all the parts of their function and office which these usurpers have a long time deprived them of And that the maintenance devoured by these Idle slow bellies may be distributed among the Churches officers ordained by God worthy of double honour which will be preferments for Learned men that shall make use of their Learning for the saving of soules the highest and most noble imployment of it and incouragement to all true Learning Ob. Fiftly He saith That for rectifying Church discipline and some things in Doctrine also an Assembly of Divines is propounded to be convocated and consulted with The matter is right but the manner amisse for the Divines are not nominated by Divines who can best judge of their abilities which is the Legall way The greatest part of those who are Named are knowne or justly suspected to be persons ill disposed to the peace of the Church and addicted too much unto Innovations and the Parliament being all Lay men are to be the only Iudges of what shall be propounded and determined The Divines are but their Assistants and the King is totally to be excluded from having any voice or hand in it and as it is propounded it is to be a perpetuall Convocation if the Houses of Parliament so please Sol. This cavill might have been made to the Reformation of our Doctrine in the beginning of the Raigne of Qu. Elizabeth wherin if the consultation had bin with Divines named by Divines there should never have been any Reformation at all the legall way had prevented the divine way of Reforming this Church the Divines being then universally corrupt in Doctrine as they now be in discipline Have not the eares of our Divines universally been so filled with Lauds Whites Wrens and their complices clamours of Bishops government by Divine Right and their hearts corrupted with a hopefull expectation themselves might climbe up into the Chaire as they are scarce patient to admit a question to be made thereof and is it in such a time and cause reasonable to leane the Reformation of Discipline and Church-government upon such deceitfull Reeds will they not pierce the hand and deceive and delude us And when our fresh experience in the last Convocation informes us what a dreadfull misery was like to have befallen us had not this Parliament by the good providence of our God prevented it by Divines nominating Divines when both the Electors and elected are birds of a feather like Ieremies bad figgs exceeding bad shall we now againe desire such a choice We conceive it is better never consult with never choose Divines then give way to such elections or nominations If Divines be chosen and those godly and learned that we hope will by their debates endeavour to search out Truth and love and imbrace it found out and not seek themselves what matters it by whom they be nominated And when we find the House of Commons able to judge of and discover the inabilities defects and errours of the last Convocation Divines chosen by Divines and to convince them of their folly and wickednesse shall we question their ability to judge of the abilities of Divines and their fitnesse to nominate them to consult of Discipline and Government of the Church And that the Divines nominated by the Parliament are ill-disposed to the peace of the Church we verily believe is a false groundlesse Accusation and if this man know any such he shall doe a very good office to name them that they may be put out of this great imployment And for their being addicted to Innovation we feare it to be true of such of them as have given testimony thereof in their giving way and yeelding unto the tyranny of the Bishops in their late Innovations pressed without and against Law upon the Ministers and we know there are many such nominated to be of the Assembly But we conceive the Parliament have in their nomination and choice done as those that desire to have the truth and the best way of Church-government and Discipline found out in that they have named men of very different judgements and opinions concerning the same and as neare as they can honest men that will submit to truth discovered and heaten out by debate and dispute among them And though this man call the Parliament Lay-men we know though they be not in orders they are in the language of the Scriptures as much Clergy-men viz. the Lords lot portion and inheritance as the word signifies as those that are in orders and we find by experience they can judge of Church-government and Discipline and of the reasons and grounds upon which Divines found their judgement concerning them as well as Divines can and better too then our Convocation Divines and such as they have been members of the first great Councell at Ierusalem a Act. 15. and of all great Councels in orthodox times And the conclusion and results of the debates concerning Church-government and Discipline being to

House of Commons have had their elections questioned and in two years space have had no leisure to determine them if they incline to the positions they lay down least they should loose such from their party Sol. If this Libeller had instanced in particulars an answer might be particularly given thereunto and he convinced of his forged accusation but to a generall charge we can say thus much in generall That all questions concerning election that have been brought to the House from the Committee of Elections have bin presently upon the Report thereof determined But if the Committee hath not had leisure to sit or opportunity to report because of the great obstructions that have been by the enemies of the publike good cast in the way of the Parliaments proceedings and the House of Commons enforced to spend all their time to resist and to endeavour to remoove the same it is not the fault of the Parliament but the fault of these men of Beliall that are risen up against the Parliament and Kingdom Ob. Sixtly He saith That when a matter of Importance hath beene in debate and put to the question and thereupon determined the same question hath been again resumed at another time better prepared for the purpose and determined quite contrary Sol. First That any such question hath bin received after determination that hath not come into the House upon some new occasion inforcing it we doe not beleeve to be true but that a great Councell upon debate determines one time one way and upon better preparation and second thoughts when it is by some emergent occasion brought againe into debate conclude another way and quite contrary is no newes it being both the priviledge and property of wise men to change their opinions upon better further and more mature deliberation and consideration being better prepared for it then they could be at first when it was suddenly and unexpectedly moved debated and determined Seventhly he quarrells at the Statute by which this Parliament is fixed so as it cannot be dissolved without common consent of the King and both Houses which in truth is a Statute onely declaratory of the Common Law of this Kingdome and no Parliament neither can or ought to be dissolved till they have redressed all the grievances of the Kingdome This wretch in this discovers a heart full of poyson against the publike good that like the raging Sea casteth out nothing but mire and dirt and foming out his own shame A Law made by the Supreame power of this Kingdome the Three Estates cannot escape the virulent tongue of this Rabshekah If this Law may be spoken against or questioned all others may And whereas the King in almost all his Declarations protests he likes well of and will observe and maintaine all the Laws made this Parliament this Villaine forbeares not to say he was over-reached in it Lastly he reckons up the miseries of a Civill War and saith that the Parliament is the cause of it when all men that have observed the History and Acts of these times knowes well at whose doores that sin and mischiefellies and whom it calls Father And he desires amendment of what is amisse without plucking up the foundation of government intended to be pluckt up except he meane the government by that Officer whom we call Bishop which never appeared in holy Scriptures but in the person of Diotrephes which the Parliament desires to remove that the same may be changed into the government of the Church by Presbiters the Officers and Bishops which the Scriptures approve of and give the government of the Church unto we know not what he meanes by foundation of government and we as we conceive all good men also doe doe for our parts desire to have a Church government according to the will of God expressed in his word and not according to the patterne of his professed Arch Enemy expressed in the Popish Hierarchy And we are confident that the Parliament had long before this by their judgement and wisdome provided for and setled our Religion according to God which is the true and indeed onely honour of Religion and the greatest satisfaction to our consciences if they might have had their wills and if it were obtained would procure mercy from Heaven that the Sword should be sheathed and devoure no more flesh and our Lives Estates and Liberties be preserved which are onely secured by our walking according to the Rule the only way in which the Angells will attend us and all happinsse flow upon us and our Posterity for ever And as for burying of by-past Actions in an act of Oblivion we are confident the Parliament neither needs nor desires it for themselves nor their friends being conscious of nothing done by them for which they have cause to feare the hand of Justice and if the honourable peace which they now so sincerely seeke and desire shall not be obtained we protest to all the world that with the utmost hazard of our lives and fortunes and of all we can call ours we will endeavour to vindicate them and our selves from the barbarous inhumane and more then Turkish and Heathenish Tyrannies of the Evill Counsellours about the King which seduce him and their Cavaleres and we doubt not but our God in whom we trust who hath wrought great salvations and done great things for us since the beginning of this unhappy War will be our guide and our strength and fight our battells and goe before us as a devouring fire to consume the enemies of our Peace and his Glory and perfect the worke of Reformation so happily begun and wonderfully carried on hitherto in spight of all opposition and in the sight of them that hate him Amen FINIS