Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sin_n	apostle_n	law_n	transgression_n	5,619	5	10.4785	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96590	The discovery of mysteries: or, The plots and practices of a prevalent faction in this present Parliament. To overthrow the established religion, and the well setled government of this glorious Church, and to introduce a new framed discipline (not yet agreed upon by themselves what it shall be) to set up a new invented religion, patched together of Anabaptisticall and Brownisticall tenents, and many other new and old errors. And also, to subvert the fundamentall lawes of this famous kingdome, by devesting our King of his just rights, and unquestionable royall prerogatives, and depriving the subjects of the propriety of their goods, and the liberty of their persons; and under the name of the priviledge of Parliament, to exchange that excellent monarchicall government of this nation, into the tyrannicall government of a faction prevailing over the major part of their well-meaning brethren, to vote and order things full of all injustice, oppression and cruelty, as may appeare out of many, by these few subsequent collections of their proceedings. / By Gr. Williams L. Bishop of Ossory.	Williams, Gryffith, 1589?-1672.	1643 (1643)	Wing W2665; Thomason E60_1; Thomason E104_27; ESTC R23301	95,907	126

to the best of Gods Properties which though they be all equall in themselves summè perfectissimè yet are theynot so perceived by us but his mercy is over all his workes But you will say was this man so just that he was unjustly condemned to death did all men so untruly complaine against him and was he good notwithstanding all the evill that was proved against him I answer that I dare not and I doe not say that he was unjustly adjudged to death or that the Bill it selfe was unjust but this I assure my selfe The Earle's vertues that he was a very wise and understanding man and indued with many rare heroicke vertues and most excellent graces as among the rest with those two incomparable indowments that cannot easily be found among many of the Nobles of this world 1. Faithfulnesse to his Prince to whom as I conceive he shewed himselfe a true servant and most trusty in his greatest imployments save in what was and I know not that justly proved against him and I believe he would never have taken Armes as some others of the Lords doe now against his Soveraigne 2. Love unto the Church and Church men to whom though others thinke it their glory to oppresse them and a vertue to contemne them yet he was a true friend a most noble benefactor and most just unto his death as his very last speech unto his dearest Sonne doth sufficiently testifie unto all posterity which speech was to this effect and I would to God it were indelebly imprinted in the memory of all our Nobility that as he regarded his fathers blessing or expected a blessing from God upon what his father left him so he would be carefull never to take away or in any wise to diminish any part or parcell of the goods or patrimony of the Church which if he did would prove a canker to wast and consume all that he had Yet it may be he was which in truth I cannot imagine as the Philosopher saith of Marcus Antonius a man of that composition that his vices did equalize if not exceed his vertues and his-offences cloud all his graces and obscure all his glory and as the saving of one mans life cannot save him from suffering that doth unjustly put another man to death so the rarest vertues cannot justifie the man that committeth so many horrible offences How a malefactor may be unjustly condemned as his accusers conceived this man did to which it may be well replyed that a notorious malefactor though I apply not this to him may be unjustly condemned and so he may be justly condemned and unjustly executed as when he is not condemned for the fault committed or condemned not according to the Law which condemneth that fact for though a murderer deserveth death yet any one may not presently be the death of that murderer nor the Judge condemne him for robbery and though I should commit many offences worthy of death yet if the Law doth not condemne me I ought not to die for any of them for as the Apostle saith Where there is no law there is no sinne because sinne is the transgression of the law therefore the Earle of Strafford might be an evill man and doe many things that in the sight of God and good men were worthy of death yet if our Law made not those crimes capitall or if the Law made them capitall and not treason we ought not for treason to adjudge him unto death so in summe the result is this that he might justly deserve death and yet be very unjustly condemned to death And it seemed to some of his friends that so he was especially because they had no plaine unquestionable Law but were faine in some kind to make a Law to take off his head and when his head was off this new manner of proceeding should end and be no Law for any other that came after and a Declaration must be made that the course prosecuted for his punishment shall not afterwards be drawne into an example it must be produced for no patterne but for him alone and none other lest perhaps if the same course should be still practiced Complaint to the House of Commons p. 6. the contrivers of this plot might have the like payment to fall ere long upon their owne heads therefore some say this may well draw a suspicion upon the justice of the sentence though I will not censure any man for any injustice therein But as the Earle said at his death The Earle's words at his death which he undertooke like a good Christian full of charity and no lesse piety it was an ill omen to this Nation that they should write the frontispiece of this Parliament with letters of bloud which if unjustly done or unduly prosecuted I feare may with Abels bloud cry for vengeance in the cares of God against the contrivers of this mischiefe to produce our miseries and the God of Heaven doth onely know how much of the bloud of this Kingdome must be squeezed out to expiate all the mis-proceedings and the fearefull projects of our people God Almighty turne his anger from us and let not the righteous perish with the wicked not the sinnes of some few be laid upon us all This was the first impediment that was to be removed before they could proceed any further in this Tragedy and thus it was most artificially acted and I say he was a great and a very great impediment of their designe which made me the larger in the prosecution thereof because he was a person of that great ability and so great fidelity both to the Church and State and the taking off of his head made a very wide gap for our enemies to enter into the vineyard of Christ and a large breach into the Citie of God to deface the Church and to destroy this Kingdome CHAP. III. Sheweth how they stopped the free judgement of the Iudges procured the perpetuity of the Parliament the consequences thereof and the subtle device of Semiramis 2. The second impediment of their designe THe next let that might hinder their designe was the great learning long experience and free judgement of the grave Judges to declare what is truth and what is law in every point for these men being skilfull in the Lawes and Statutes of our Land knew how contrary to the same and how repugnant to the fundamentall Constitutions of our government the erecting of a new Church and the framing of a new Common wealth would be and their judgement being to be inquired in any emergent doubt might prove very prejudiciall unto their plots and a hinderance of their designe except it were diverted by some course Therefore to stop this streame How they stopped the free judgement of the Judges to put a gagge in their mouthes to imprison all truths that might make against them and to make these Judges yeild to whatsoever they doe or at least not to contradict any

therefore if we have any regard of our goods that God hath given us we have great reason to look about us for these are the greatest Cheaters in Christendome and as they have made us Malignants so they will make us reprobates when they please that they may enjoy those things that we have 3. They thinke themselves free from all sin Numb 23.21 Tit. 1.15 3. Because Balaam saith God beheld no iniquitie in Jacob and the Apostle saith To the pure all things are pure they teach their proselytes that in them which are the holy Brethren there is no sin and their adulterie drunkennesse cozenage and the like odious crimes are no crimes because God loving them so tenderly as a fond mother seeth no fault in her untoward childe so he takes no notice of any offence that they commit but for the ungodly their Prayers are sinnes their Almes are odious and whatsoever commendable dutie they do performe To the unbelieving nothing is pure Titus 1.15 God accounteth their best actions to be heinous trangressions and to adde the more weight of punishment to their damnation which Doctrine how abominable it is to God and how destructive to all men to make these holy Brethre and their sanctified Sisters senslesse in all sinnes uncapable of repentance Matth 9.12 when the whole hath no need of the Physician and to discourage all other ignorant men from doing good duties when the performance of them shall multiplie their stripes is so apparent to all men that I need not stand to confute it for if Coniah though he wear the signet upon my right hand Ier. 22.24 or as the apple of mine eye doth offend I will cut him off and if the wicked forsake his wickednesse Ezech. 33.15 and do that which is just love mercie and speak truth he shall be accepted and the Lord will not call light darknesse nor good evill in any one 4. 4. They allow the women to offend while their husbands sl●ep Ioh 11.11 1 Cor. 7.39 Because our Saviour saith Our friend Lazarus sleepeth when as indeed he was dead and the Heathens say Sleep is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brother of death they take this colour to hide their adulteries that while the husband sleepeth the wife is as free from him as if he were dead a foolerie so ridiculous that the naming of it is a sufficient confutation of it and yet you shall hardly withdraw our London Anabaptists from it 5. 5. They justifie many kindes of lyes and equivocatious Gen. 12.13 Acts 23.5 Because Abraham said that Sara was his sister and Saint Paul said I wist not brethren that he was the high Priest they hold it as an Article of their Creed that for officious lyes and equivocations being for the furtherance of their cause the good worke which they pretend they may and ought to use them to swallow them down like water they make no bones of them and therefore it is dangerous to treat and weaknesse to give credit without sufficient pledges to the faith of these men whose profession may as lawfully deceive us as their Religion teacheth them to destroy us and I believe the experience which his Majesties Officers had of them in the performance of their promises and conditions of departure from Winchester Reading and other Townes surrendered unto them may sufficiently confirme this equivocall point of their Publique Faith 6. 6. They would root out all those that they terme wicked Deut. 7.2 1 Sam. 15.23 Psal 58.8 Because the Lord straitly charged the Israelites to root out the wicked Canaanites and the rest of those cursed Nations and translated the Kingdom of Israel from Saul unto David because he spared Agag and our Saviour bids us succidere ficum to cut down that unprofitable tree which bare no fruit they are so filled with such unmercifull crueltie towards all those they terme wicked and judge Malignants that they had better fall into the hands of heathen Tyrants than of these their holy brethren who embruing their hands in the blood of so many faithfull Christians do sing with the Psalmist The righteous rejoyce when they see this vengeance they shall wash their feet in the blood of the ungodly for as Solomon saith The tender mercies of the wicked are meer crueltie Prov. 12.10 And I believe the first inventers of that Designe to root out all the Papists in Ireland and to get that Act to purchase all the Lands of the Rebels had tasted too much of this bitter root of such destructive Doctrine whereby you see how the Religion of these men robbes us of our Estates keepes no faith with us and takes away our lives 7. Though among the workes of God 7. They would have a paritie among all men both in Church and Common wealth Gal. 5.6 Col. 3.11 every flower cannot be a Lillie every beast cannot be a Lion every bird cannot be an Eagle and every Planet cannot be Phaebus yet in the School of these men this is the Doctrine of their to be new erected Church that with God there is no respect of persans and neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but whether they be bond or free masters or servants few or Gentile Barbarian Scythian a countrey Clown or a Court Gallant rich or poor it is all one with God because these Titles of Honour Kings Lords Knights and Gentlemen are no entities of Gods making but the creatures of mans invention to puffe him up with pride and not to bring him unto God and therefore though for the bringing of their great good worke to passe they are yet contented to make the Earle of Essex their Generall and Warwicke their Admirall and so Pym and Hampden great Officers of State yet when the worke is done their Plot perfected and their Government established then you shall finde that as now they will eradicate Episcopacie and make all our Clergie equall as if all had equally but one talent and no man worthier than another so then there should be neither King Lord Knight nor Gentleman but a paritie of degrees among all these holy Brethren and to give us a taste of what they mean as the Lords concurrence with them inabled them to devour the Kings power so they have since with great justice prevailed with the House of Commons to swallow up the Lords power and have most fairly invaded their priviledge when they questioned particular Members * As my Lord Duke and my Lord Dighte for words spoken in that House and then the whole House when they brought up and countenanced a mutinous and seditious Petition which demanded the Names of those Lords that consented not with the House of Commous in those things which that House had twice denied 8. 8 They would have no man to pray for temporall things Mat. 6.33.34 Matth. 6.11 Because our Saviour saith Seek ye first the Kingdom of of Heaven and the righteousnesse thereof and all these

omnium sapientum seniorum populorum totius regni per praeceptum regis Inae and in the second Charter of King Edward the Confessour granted to the Church of Saint Peter in Westminster How former times respected the Clergie it is said to be Cum concilio decreto Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum Comitum aliorumque suorum optimatum with the councell and decree of the Archbishops Bishops Earles and other Potentates And so not onely the Saxon Kings but the Norman also ever since the Conquest had the Bishops in the like or greater esteem that they never held Parliament or Counsell without them And surely these Princes were no Babes that made this choice of them neither was the Common wealth neglected nor justice prejudiced by these Governours And whosoever shall reade mores gentium or the pilgrimage of Master Purchas Livie Plutarch Appian and the rest of the Greek and Latine Histories I dare assure him he shall finde greater honour given and farre lesse contempt cast upon the Priests and Flamins the Prophets of the Sybils then we finde of this faction left to the Servants of the living God who are now dealt withall worse than Pharach dealt with the Israelites that took away their straw and yet required their full tale of brickes for these men would rob us of all our meanes and take away all our Lands and all our rights and yet require not only the full tale of Sermons and Service as was used by our Predecessours but to double our files to multiplie our paines How the Clergie are now used and to treble the Sermons and Service that they used to have of our forefathers more than ever was done in any Age since the first Plantation of the Gospell and when we have done with John Baptist the utmost of our endeavours like a shining and a burning lampe that doth waste and consume it selfe to nothing while it giveth light to others they onely deal with us as Cartiers use to do with their packe horses hang bels at their eares to make a melodious noise but with little provander lay heavie loades upon their backes and when they can bear no more burdens take away their bels withdraw their praises call them Jades exclaim against their lazinesse and then at last turne them out to feed upon the commons and to die in a ditch and thus we have now made the Ministers of Christ to be the emblems of all miserie and in pretending to make them more glorious in the sight of God we have made them most base in the eyes of all men And therefore the consequence of this Act is like to prove most lamentable when the people considering how that hereby we are left naked of all comfort and subject to all kinde of scorne and distresse and how that this being effected is but the praeludium of a farre greater mischiefe they will rather with no great cost make their children of some good Trade and their children will choose so to be than with such great costland more care and yet little hope to bring them up to worse condition than the meanest of all Trades The Clargie alone are deprived of Magna Charta or the lowest degree of all rustickes when as they can challenge and it shall not be denied them to have the priviledges of the Law and a propertie in their goods which without their own consent yielded in their persons or their representours cannot be taken from them and the Clergie onely of all the people in this Kingdom shall be deprived of the right and benefit of our great Charter which so many famous Kings and pious Princes have confirmed unto us and when we have laboured all the dayes of our lives with great paines and more diligence to instruct our people and to attain to some competencie of meanes to maintain our selves and our families we shall be in the power of these men at their pleasure under the pretence of Religion contrarie to all justice to be deprived of any part of our freehold when we shall have not one man of our own calling to speak a word in our behalfe on no Seat of Justice throughout the whole Kingdom O terque quaterque beati queis ante ora patrum contigit oppetere O most miserable and lamentable condition of Gods Ministers I must needs speak it though I should die for it and if some did not speak it I thinke the stones would crie against it and proclaim it better for the Clergie were their hope onely in this world never to have been borne or at least never to have seen a book then to fall into the hands and to be put under the censure of these men that do thus love Christ This Act more prejudiciall to to the future times than now by hating his Ministers who as I said before by this one Act are made liable to undergo all kinde of evils which shall not onely fall upon the present Clergie for were it so our patience should teach us to be silent but also to the increase of all prejudices to the Gospell more than my foresight can expresse in all succeeding Ages And therefore I may well say with Jeremie Jer. 5.9.29 Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this And we need not wonder that such plagues calamities and distresses have so much encreased in this Kingdom ever since the passing of this Act and yet the anger of the Lord is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still and I fear his wrath will not be appeased till we have blotted this and wiped away all other our great sinnes and transgressions with the truest teares of unfained repentance These are like to be the consequences of this Act and yet our good King who we know loved our Nation and built us a Synagogue and was as I assure my selfe most unwilling to passe it was notwithstanding over-perswaded considering where thirteen of the Bishops were even in prison and in what condition all the rest of them stood in question whether all they should stand or be cut down root and branch to yield his assent unto the Act though if the case in truth were rightly weighed not much lesse prejudiciall to his Majestie than injurious to us to be thus deprived of our right How the King hath been used ever since this Act passed and exposed to all miseries by excluding us from all Civill Judicature and I would to God the King and all the Kingdom did continually consider how his Majestie was used ever since the confirmation of this Act for they no sooner had excluded the Bishops and Clergie out of their right but presently they proceeded and prosecuted the designe ever since to thrust out the King from all those just rights and prerogatives which God and nature and the Lawes of our Land have put into his hands for the government of this Kingdome neither was it likely to succeede any other wise as

things that is meat and drinke and clothes and all other earthly things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be cast unto you and again Be not carefull for to morrow they teach their proselytes that they ought not to pray by any meanes for any of these things whereas Christ biddeth us to say Give us this day our daily Bread 9. 9. Not to say the Lords Prayer They cannot endure to say the Lords Prayer for that 's a Popish superstition but their Prayers must be all tautologies and a circular repetition of their own indigested inventions 10. 10. Not to say God speed you 2 Iohn to 11.11 Not to pray for the Malignants 1 Iohn 5.16 You must not say God speed you to any neighbour or any traveller lest he intends some evill worke and then you shall be partaker of his sin 11. They will not allow any of their Disciples to pray for any of the Reprobates and therefore they do exceedingly blame us and tear our Liturgie because we say That it may please thee to have mercie upon all men 12. Because Christ saith Call no man father on earth for one is your Father which is in Heaven the childe must not call him that begat him and nurseth him his father not kneel unto him to aske him blessing nor performe many other such duties which the Lord requireth and the Church instructeth her children to do to this very day and this foolish Doctrine of calling no man father no man master or Lord and the like in their sense because they understand not the divine meaning of our Saviours word hath been the cause of such undutifulnesse and untowardnesse such contempts of superiours and such rebellions to Authoritie as is beyond expression when as by their disloyaltie being thus bred in them from their cradle they first despise their father then their Teachers then their King and then God himselfe CHAP IX Sheweth three other speciall points of Doctrine which the Brownists and Anabaptists of this Kingdom do teach 13. BEcause they can finde no Text in Scripture when as the Alcoran is not so impudently hellish as to justifie the action for to warrant men to absolve our consciences from any Oathes that we have voluntarily taken for the performance of any businesse I cannot say that they do professedly teach but I do hear they do usually practice this most damnable sin as that Master Marshall and Master Case did absolve the Souldiers taken at Brainceford from their Oath which they took never to bear Armes against his Majestie which is a sin destructive both to bodie and soul when their Perjurie added to their Treason makes them twofold more the children of hell than they were before and if they be taken again they can expect nothing but their just deserved death and therefore I do admire that any man can challenge the name of a Divine which doth either preach or practice a point so devilish 14. Because Saint Paul saith These hands have ministred to my necessities and to them that were with me 14. They thinke sacriledge to be no sin Acts 20.35 1 Thess 2.9 1 Cor. 1.12 and again Labouring night and day because we would not be chargeable to any of you we preached unto you the Gospel of God and because the rest of the Apostles and Disciples were Fishermen Trades men or professours of some Science either liberall or mechanicke as Saint Luke was a Physician Joseph a Carpenter and the like who did live by their manuall crafts and were chargeable to none of their people but sought them and not theirs to win their soules to God and not their monies unto themselves therefore they thinke it no robberie to take away all the revenues of the Church nor sacriledge to rob the Clergie of all the meanes they have because they should either labour for their livings as the Apostles did or live upon the peoples Almes as many poor Ministers do to the utter undoing of many soules in many distressed and most miserable Churches But because this revenue of the Church and the Lands of the Bishops is that golden wedge and the brave Babylonish garment which the Anabaptistical Achans of our time do most of all thirst after in this their pretended holy Reformation I must here sistere gradum stay a while and let you know 1. 1. Sacriledge What it is That the taking away of any Lands or goods given and consecrated to holy uses and to convert the same to any other purpose than which they were dedicated is termed sacriledge that is the stealing of holy goods from the right owners to our selves and others to whom we leave them 2. 2. That is a sin That this sacriledge is a sin for it is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy and after vowes to make inquirie that is whether such a service be needfull or such a taking away be a sin 3. 3. A great sin That this sin is a very great sin for Saint Paul saith Thou that abhorrest idols committest thou sacriledge And idolatrie is the giving of our goods and service to false gods sacriledge the taking away of goods dedicated to the service of any God especially of the true God and this seemeth by the Apostles words to be a greater sin than the other because the devill laboureth more to take away the service of the true God than to establish his own service for he knoweth that as light taken away darknesse must needs follow Hosea 2.8 Ezech. 16. 1 Reg. 18.19 Gen. 22. so the true Religion being destroyed idolatrie must needs succeed and he knoweth that idolatrie hath been bountifull enough to the service of idols that he needeth not so much to fear the taking away of their goods as to care that the goods dedicated to Gods service be taken away 4. That this sin is a very dangerous sin both to 1. The Persons that cōmit it 2. 4. A most dangerous sin Ioshua 7. Acts 5.4 1. To the sacrilegers To the Common-wealth that suffers it for 1. Not onely Achan Ananias and Sapphira and other private men perished for this sin but the proudest Kings and greatest Peeres that became sacrilegious were plagued and destroyed by God as Belshazzar the great Monarch of Assyria William Rufus and abundance more that you may finde in our Histories for the curse of God like Damocles sword by a slender thred hangs over their heads and makes them like those that perished at Endor and became as the dung of the earth and I beseech you marke it Make them like a wheel and as the stubble before the winde persecute them with thy tempest let them be confounded and be put to shame and perish which say let us take to our selves the houses of God in possession and if this be the guerdon of them that say it I wonder what shall be the plague of them that do it and I wonder more that the very thought of this curse