Linguistic DNA - Concept Modelling Demonstrator

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	church_n	good_a	minister_n	1,289	5	6.5274	4	true

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12700	A brotherly persvvasion to vnitie, and vniformitie in iudgement, and practise touching the receiued, and present ecclesiasticall gouernment, and the authorised rites and ceremonies of the Church of England. VVritten by Thomas Sparke Doctor in Diuinitie. And seene, allowed, and commended by publike authoritie to be printed	Sparke, Thomas, 1548-1616.	1607 (1607)	STC 23019.5; ESTC S102433	84,881	104

easilier be brought in the same respects to yeeld to the other and he that cannot bee brought to the former will neuer be drawne to the latter first let vs consider what may be said to induce men to the former and then after likewise how best the obiections that stay men from the latter may be answered and remoued in both which because I haue to deale with men of wisedome and learning I will study to be as briefe as I may CHAP. 3. Consisting of the maine proposition of the whole and of seauen grounds of the discourse following That we are bound to yeeld the former the statute made Eliza i first to authorise the booke the vniforme practise vse thereof and since his Maiesties proclamation published therewith as it is now to ratefie the same and the Canons aucthorised by his highnes as they are in my opinion make it so cleare and euident that wee can iustly make no doubt thereof All the question therefore I would thinke now is whether being thus by lawfull acthority commaunded the nature of the things within the compasse of the commaundement and the maner of the vrging thereof considered we be bound or no to yeeld quietly our obedience therunto wherin my opinion is were not the law that requires this at our hands so penall as it is yet but commaunding it the things commaunded being neither in their owne nature either against faith or good manners and therefore but things indifferent nor yet in the vse as they are vrged otherwise by the coÌ„mon rules of the word in that case set downe touching the obedience of the inferiour to the superior Rom. 3.1 c. 1 Pet. 2.13 c. wee were quietly and willingly euen to discharge our duety conscience towards such in respect of those rules for our owne good and the Churches and to maintaine good order peace in the same to yeeld our obedience conformity thereunto yea further seemed there to bee some inconuenience and vnexpediency in some of the things commaunded yet being by such lawfull authority and vnder such penalty vrged as they are so long as by any right and charitable construction of our Churches and her gouernours intent meaning therein they may be so taken as that there is nothing in the word of God set downe in the canonicall scriptures contrary thereunto in my poore iudgment it is the duety of euery modest and christian Minister to yeeld rather his conformity thereunto then hee cannot tell how much to the wrong and preiudice of the Church himselfe and his vnto all which he stands so strictly bound as he doth for his perseuering still and refusing so to doe to suffer himselfe by his ordinary either to be kept from entring into the ministry or to be depriued of place or ministry Now yet before I can come to answere the obiections against this required obedience and conformity by your gentle patience let vs a little consider of a few necessary grounds I hope coÌ„fessed of vs all which notwithstanding duly weyed may well serue not onely to confirme these points but also to open a way to answer all that is or can be obiected against the same 1 First therefore good brethren I trust wee all are resolued that things neither for their nature nor vse commaunded nor forbid by the word of God in the canonicall scriptures of the old or new testament expresly or by any sound deduction from thence are may lawfully be held for things indifferent Of this mind I am sure Augustine shewes him selfe to haue beene Epist 118. and Epist 86 ad Casulanum and so it is noted in the Heluetian confession Sect. 17. of the harmony of the confessions of the reformed Churches that Hierom writing to Augustine was also of the same iudgement the same also appeares most flatly to haue beene Ambrose opinion in the foresaid Epistle of Augustine And indeed in all ages all learned writers amongst christians for any thing that euer I could read to the contrary and yet for this cause I may truly say I haue taken some paines to read and search as many of them as I could come by are fully with vs in this point 2 Now next we know that though christiaÌ„ liberty especially consists in our freedom from the curse of the Law from sin from the wrath of god for the same in our freedom from the seruice of sin from the rites iudicialls of Moses froÌ„ being tyed in all coÌ„mon wealths churches to the precise followng either of one outward ciuill policy or of one selfe same forme of rites ceremonies ecclesiasticall yet one parte therof lyeth vndoubtedly also in our freedom liberty in coÌ„cerning things indifferent For of these things the Apostle spoke saying I know am perswaded thorough the Lord Iesus that there is nothing vncleane of it selfe but to him that iudgeth any thing to be vnclean to him it is vnclean Rom. 14.14 againe vnto the pure all things are pure Tit. 1.15 And all things are lawfull for mee though all things are not expedient 1. Cor. 10.23 And therefore in respect of such things it was no small part of his glory as he shewes 1. Cor. 9.19 c. to become all vnto all so to win the more 3 Thirdly therefore wee may not deny the christian supreme magistrate who by Gods ordinance is to be Esai 49.23 as a nurse father vnto his churches vnder him nor to the Bishops and others of the Clergy by his authority lawfully assembled in a nationall Synod authority in such matters as these for the more orderly gouernment of the Church in their iudgments to prescribe ordinances alwaies prouided that the rites ceremonies that thereby they impose vpon the Churches be not contrary but rather consonant to the generall rules left them in the word to direct theÌ„ therein For else to what purpose hath the Apostle left that generall rule in this case to al churches to the worlds end 1. Cor. 14.40 Let all things be done honestly by order this therefore as their very due and right is with one consent yeelded theÌ„ in the foresaid 17 section of the harmony of the confessions Caluin vpon the 11 of the first to the Corinth Beza in his 8 epistle as indeed generally alwaies the learned of all ages the continuall practise of Christs church also haue done graunt theÌ„ the same Indeed whiles as yet consultation is but by them held what shall in this kind be ordayned or continued or what shall not I find that lawfully so it be done orderly in quiet sort they that haue lawful calling thereunto may shew the best reasons they can to direct them therein to determine conclude for the best but when once vpon mature deliberation the conclusion is made published howsoeuer then we may not deny the rest of the church that fredome liberty because of those generall rules giuen all christians try

therefore bee thought to bee vnlawfull because by the end and vse thereof it teacheth some good religious dutie For none can be ignorant that Paul ordered that in the Church assemblies women should be couered and men vncouered 1. Cor. 11. and that as well Caluin notes euen from ground sufficient in the words of the text there thereby to signifie the subiection of the one to the other and the superioritie of the other ouer the other which are good religious duties and lessons And a man would thinke they were so much the more commendable and the more tending to edification by how much the more they occasioned men to learne thereby and to remember good religious duties But as I haue often said we neyther maintaine nor defend ours for any signification they haue neyther doe we hold they signifie of themselues any such religious dutie onely by the helpe of our meditation by occasion of them and by our intention in the vse of this in particular we retaine and vse it adding withall as we doe in hope of the childe learning and practising that after so the better also for that we liue amongst such who haue abused it otherwise and would faine so doe againe to keepe and preserue it from all such abuse and in this auncient and lawfull vse yet all other arguments failing many thinke that because it hath so superstitiously yea idolatrously beene abused of the Church of Rome euen therefore as Ezechias for like abuse of the brasen Serpent commendably defaced and destroyed that though once commaunded to be set vp by God himself Num. 21. So much more should this being but a mere humane ordinance haue beene abandoned and that therefore it ought not thus to be vrged as it is or so being is yet not in any case for the vsing thereof by vs to be yealded vnto Whereunto I answere first that there is more in the conclusion then the antecedent or premisses will beare for though the idolatrous abuse thereof amongst the Papists by that example of Ezechias carry neuer such shew of a sufficient reason to haue moued our Ezechias accordingly rather to haue quite remoued it as questionlesse none will or can deny but vpon that consideration and others if it so had seemed good vnto his maiesty he might for doubtlesse Princes may as well vse their authoritie to remoue such as to continue them yet the same reason and considerations whatsoeuer else are not therefore streight of sufficient force to binde vs rather to leaue ministerie and all then he chusing rather for other reasons that seemed stronger vnto his highnesse to retaine thus to vrge it which otherwise I am fully perswaded he would not haue done to yeeld our obedience in the vsing it accordingly For it is generally held that Ioab did lawfully at the last in obeying Dauids commaundement in numbring the people 2. Sam. 24. hauing before in dutifull manner sufficiently shewed the king his reasons to diswade him therfrom howsoeuer Dauid notwithstanding persisting in his purpose offended And therefore euen Beza writing of these verie matters of ours that we haue in hand saith that many things may be well obserued that are not so well commaunmaunded how much more therefore herein may we lawfully obey seeing as yet there is not found any vnanswerable reason but that lawfully we may also be commaunded as we are And Maister Cartwright after he had said all that hee could against the imposing of these rites and ceremonies vpon vs yet concludes in his second part of his reply Pag. 265. in these verie words if the Prince vpon declaration of the inconuenience of such ceremonies and humble suit for the release of them will loose nothing of the cord of this seruitude for my part I see no better way for the minister of God then with a vnâ—â—onition of the weak that they be not offended prayer to God to strengthen them thereunto to keepe on the course of feeding the flocke committed vnto him But indeed welbeloued now the question is not that we haue in hand what the state should haue done herein though euen in that respect yet we in dutie as I haue said all are bound to thinke and iudge that for that they which are in authoritie haue done and doe in this case they haue sufficient warrant and reasons to ground and iustifie their consciences vpon both before God and man though sundrie priuate men not so acquainted as they with the necessarie rules of gouernment conceiue them not straight but the question that we are now to seeke to be resolued vpon onely is this whether any of the things whereunto our conformitie vnder paine of depriuation is thus required as it is be so intollerable for vnlawfulnesse or inconueniency as that rather then we will be drawne to yeeld obedience thereunto wee are by our persisting in refusall thereof to suffer that sentence of depriuation or but of suspention from our ministery to passe vpon vs. Touching therefore the rest of this obiection and so that notwithstanding to resolue vs that we may and ought rather by yeelding to the vse of this to hold on our ministery and to keepe our places then for absolute refusal so to do to leese both Again I would wish euery man to take the paines to read what the foresaid Archbishop hath set downe touching the lawfull retaining in the publicke seruice of God things formerly vsed to idolatry in his forenamed tract touching apparell beginning at Pag. 272 vnto 279. for there out of Aug. 154. Epistle ad publicolam out of Caluin vpon the 23. of Exod. v. 24. Peter Martirs Epist. to Hooper Bucers to Iohn Alasco and out of another of his to Cranmer as also out of Bullinger and Gualters Epist he shall find in all these mens iudgements that things both wickedly inuented and also grosly abused may yet be so purged of that abuse as that they may be vsed to good Ecclesiasticall vses Yea who knows not that Gedeon was commanded to take his fathers bullocke which he had dedicated to Baal the wood which he had likewise appointed to his seruice ã€ˆâ—Šã€‰ therwith to offer and burnt a sacrifice to the Lord Iud. 6.25 that the vessels of the temple abuse by Belthasar Dan. 5.3 were restored by Cyrus Ezra 1.7 and after againe without scruple vsed in the Temple about Gods seruice by the people of Israel after their captiuity and that sundrie things profaine before abused by the idolatrous inhabitants of Hiericho were yet reserued consecrated with Gods owne liking and allowance to the vse of the tabernacle and sanctuary Iosua 6.23 Whereby what exceptions soeuer otherwise they make against these examples as vnlike to the things with vs in question thus much yet is got that the grosse abusing of a thing to to idolatry makes it not alwaies after so polluted as that eueÌ„ therfore simply it can neuer be purged of that abuse so vsed againe about Gods seruice to a lawfull and

from the effect substance of it for doubtlesse the childe priuately baptised by the order of the booke without it though it immediately after die is therby by our church taken and held to be fully effectually baptised the very name of the crosse as it is said in the beginning of that canon we find indeed so honored by the pen of the Apostle S. Paule as that vnder that very word often in his epistles he comprehends the death of Christ with all the fruits effects thereof therfore the signe after a sort bringing the name of the crosse to remembrance and expressing it by all likelyhood euen thereupon grew as there it is further noted very early reuerently also to be vsed in the primitiue Church to make thereby outward and open shew to the astonishment both of Iew Gentile that Christians were not ashamed to belieue in Christ that dyed vpon a crosse For the vse thereof to that end is so ancient indeed as that the most diligent studier and searcher of ancient writers cannot shew the first originall and beginning there of he may shew when first hee reads it was vsed but that will not prooue that it was not vsed before but rather shewes the contrary Wherupon some thinke that it is so frequent with the ancient Fathers as namely with Basil Cap. 27. de spiritu sancto to tearme it an Apostolike tradition for that they thinke it came from them and their times for that other originall sense they cannot shew thereof For that indeed as Saint Augustines rule de baptismo contra donatistas Lib. 4. Cap. 24 namely that which is vniuersally obserued in the Church and whose originall wee cannot shew by councells and which hath alwaies therein beene vsed that wee are to thinke certainly to bee an Apostolike tradition I wonder therefore the author of the late booke published against the crosse allowing the vse practise hereof in the primitiue Church to the same ende and vse that is in vse amongst vs should dissallow it in vs he saith it was ciuill in them but it is ecclesiasticall amongst vs but what reason hath he to say so seeing it was vsed by them in baptisme at the first to the same end that it is amongst vs neither will that serue that some say it was then taken vpp and vsed because christians then liued intermingled with vnbeleeuing Iewes and Gentiles for let the testimonies of the Fathers bee examined where they mention the vse of it and it will appeare that they vsed it aswell when none such were by or neare as when they were and if their liuing amongst such was a warrant to them for the vse thereof why is not ours likewise liuing amongst so many profane Atheists as wee doe Wee vse it but as it is said in the foresaid canon as a lawfull outward ceremony and as an honorable badge of our Christian profession Whereunto Peter Martyr writeing vppon the second commandement hauing an eye saith if it bee lawfull for vs to weare the Cognizance of our owne house and family licet etiam signo crucis Christianam nostram religionem profiteri And this also was so cleare and manifest that euen Beza though elswhere no great friend or patron hereof in this answere to Baldwin speaking of such Churches that still thus to this end do vse it writeth plainly let such as it is meete vse their liberty therein Bucer also in his censure vpon the first communion booke doth most plainly allow it and wee know Cranmer and Ridley and sundry other learned and famous Martyrs liued and dyed in the liking and allowance of it It is not vrged nor vsed nor defended by vs as simply necessary or as immutable For the late Archbishop euen when and whiles hee sought most and best to maintaine and defend the vse of it as it is with vs writes plainly of it Page 617 of his foresaid booke it was vsed of the primitiue Church and still may bee vsed and it may be left but wee choose rather to retaine it and to vse it as Paule did imposition of hands and thereby as by an admonitory token to put the child in minde of the duety as hereby the other moued Timothy to bee mindfull of his 1. Tim. 4.14 All which laide togither may make it euident that not onely it is a thing of the owne nature indifferent because it is so neither commaunded nor forbid in the word of God but also as it is vsed and vrged for that neither so any way is it contrary to faith or good manners but may well stand with the generall rules of the word left the Church for her direction in such matters Howbeit I know for all this many both godly and learned will hardly bee perswaded so of it let vs therefor consider the reasons they seeme to haue yet further against it CHAP. 7. Containing answeres to certaine obiections against the same some new and some olde generally stood vpon by the refusers to vse it FIrst some seeme now to mislike worse of it since by the said third canon the vse of it hath beene explained as it is there then they did before and that for two reasons for that it is there said to be retained for the remembrance of the crosse of Christ whereof the sacrament of the bodie and blood of Christ is a sufficient remembrance vntill his comming againe 1. Cor. 11.26 and for that therin also it is first said that the christians in the primitiue Church signed their children therewith when they were christned to dedicate them by that badge to his seruice whose benefits bestowed vpon them in baptisme the name of the crosse did represent and then afer that we now following therein the primitiue and apostolicall churches and accounting it a lawfull outward ceremonie thereby also as by an honorable badge dedicate our baptized infants to his seruice For this now say they must needs be taken for the sense and meaning of our Church in the vse thereof howsoeuer before we might haue taken it as I before haue set downe But if such would herein put in practise the last of the seuen rules layd downe for a preamble to this treatise neither these reasons would proue so strong as otherwise they seeme nor yet hereby would it follow that they are one whit enforced to take it in a worse or harder sense then they might before for first in reason and charitie we are all bound to thinke that whereas by that Canon as it euidently appeares thereby the reuerend Bishops and Prelates assembled seriously and carefully went about by their explaining the meaning of our Church in the vse thereof to draw men to like and allow thereof better then before that they were not so vnconsiderate as so directly to crosse their owne intent in making it harder and worse to be like of then it was before Then secondly it is certaine if these their words might be so hardly taken as thereupon now

and ours is plainly with all expressed and set downe in our book of euery bodie to be seene and therfore the better to preuent all offence or other construction of our meaning thereby but indeede neither they nor we hold that the altar or our signe of the Crosse of themselues or any otherwise then in our intention signifie any such thing at all And yet this puts me in remembrance of another difference betwixt that of thicks and this of ours that that was visible and permanent as the substantiall crosses vsed in poperie also are whereas ours is but as an action transient and by and by ceased and gone and therefore neither so subiect to further abuse nor yet to giue offence as either that of theirs or these of the Papists which are vsed without any expresse notification with all of the ende and vse thereof much more of anie lawfull and warrantable meaning they haue therein and therefore the more doubtlesse offensiue Yet if wee should thereunto annexe the signification imagined why should that bee vnlawfull in our publicke estate when as the writers of the admonition thinke that they lawfully may preferre sitting in the receipt of the Lords Supper before any other gesture for that it best signifies rest thorough Christ from sinne and the rites of Moses yea that more is read wee not Ioshua 24. that hee hauing pitched a stone vnder an Oake told the people that that should be a witnesse against them if they at any time after forsooke that God whom they then had chosen to serue But yet for further and more full answere to these prooffes of theirs we are to vnderstand that Gods worship or seruice is taken eyther properly as it is immediately tendered and done to himselfe for that he hath so commaunded it Or it is taken in a large and generall sense for whatsoeuer is done so with warrant from any rules of his word as that the doer may doe it in faith without which in nothing he doeth he can please God Rom. 14.23 as it seemeth to be taken Coloss 3.17 where the Apostle saith whatsoeuer ye shall doe in word or in deed doe all in the name of the Lord Iesus In which sense seruants doing at the commaundement of their maisters according to the flesh any seruile worke not forbidden by God doing it willingly and cheerfully as they ought for that God hath commaunded seruants to obey their Maisters in such things the Apostle saith they therein serue the Lord and not man Ephes 6.7 And therefore so also when subiects obey the lawful ordinances and lawes of their Princes and Superiours be they ciuill or ecclesiasticall because God hath commaunded obedience and subiection to such Rom. 13. and 1. Pet 2. as we haue heard and Hebr. 13.17 and their commaundements haue warrant from generall rules left them in the word though there they be not particularly specified they may euen therein in this sense be said to serue God himselfe But yet then any man may see that there is great difference betwixt this kinde of seruing of him and the other for the other is so his proper and immediate seruice as that men sinne if they yeald him it not because of his owne onely commaunding it and requiring it at their handes Whereas this growes to be but an inferiour kind of seruice of his though rightly done verie accetable also by the meanes of the lawfull commaund of the superiour whom hee hath commaunded to bee obeyed And therefore the late Reuerend Archbishoppe in his foresaid booke Page 269. writing and speaking there of the commaunded rites ceremonies amongst vs and namely of the distinct apparrell appointed ministers saith that men know we could be without them that but for obedience sake we do not much esteme them which he neither could nor would haue said of any thing expresly and immediatly commaunded by God as a point of his perpetuall or necessarie seruice or worship Now then who is so simple but he may easily conceiue that things of this latter kinde may be vsed about religion and the seruice of God in the former sense and yet for all that made no part nor peece eyther of religion or of the worship and seruice of God in that kinde which as long as they are not but onely keepe their owne inferiour ranke and place that which they say of their so being vsed makes nothing to proue their antecedent or any vnlawfulnesse in them For the rules against all addition by man to Gods seruice and worship prescribed by himselfe in his written word and against worshipping and seruing of him by the precepts or traditions of men are onely to be vnderstood as it is euident euen by that which we heard Paul say of seruants seruing the Lord Christ in doing their maisters lawfull commaunds in any thing that he hath not forbid of his seruice and worship in the first sense and therefore they are no better then wrested when they are drawne against such rites and ceremonies and conformitie therein as we spake of 5 Neyther is that any reason of force against them that they are said to be needlesse and vnprofitable traditions of men nor that they are made meere ecclesiasticall though they had some signification of some religious duety annexed vnto themselues for the iudgment of the publike state of a Church touching the needfulnesse and profitablenesse of such things is to bee preferred before the iudgment of priuate men For they that bee in place of authority and haue beene long exercised therein beeing also Godly and learned through their better acquaintance with the mysteries of gouernment must needs see and iudge better what is fit and meete for order and comlinesse then priuate men can And as for their beeing made mere ecclesiasticall by that which I said before of the surplisse partly appeares to be false and reason I can see none as I haue said also why the author of the booke against the crosse should account the vse of it in the primitiue Church beeing the same for which we vse it namely to shew that we are not ashamed to professe faith in Christ crucified c. to haue bene then ciuill and therefore lawfull and ours to be meere Ecclesiasticall and therefore vtterly vnlawfull If their reason be because we vse it onely in the church that by the minister they vsed it also elsewhere by any of them surely that is a very weake one For though mariage be or were only to be solemnized in the church and in the time of diuine seruice and that onely by a minister yet that would not proue it to be meere Ecclesiasticall and the like may be sayd of the buriall of the dead For notwitstanding burials are in some sort ciuill humane and politicke thinges and therefore neither the vsing it onely in the Church nor onely by the Minister will prooue it so And I wonder that any should euer imagine that an Ecclesiasticall rite or ceremonie should

beginning of morning and euening praier but that there it is pronounced generally to all there present that are truly penitent and beleeue in Christ according to the Gospell and here particularly but to the sicke party likewise so professing both faith and repentance And why may we not in the Collect of Trinitie sonday pray as there the booke appoints to be deliuered from all aduersitie as well as in the Lords prayer to be deliuered from all euill For the Church and her members at the least some particular Churches sometime may haue rest therefrom but if not and she were sure thereof also why may she not yet so pray to shew her desire that she might as Christ did that the cup might passe from him which he knew should not These things duly considered I remember nothing of any moment in the booke to stay any man from yeelding to conformity in the vse and practise therof For as for the few supposed incommodious phrases in some other praiers they will and may be easily remooued but by taking them in the best and fairest sense most standing with the substance of sound doctrine otherwise publikly professed and authorised in this Church which vntil euident cause be giuen meÌ„ to the contrary euery one in duty is bound to do For what reason hath any man to think but that our professed authorised doctrine and our praiers and practise agree Our Church therfore disalowing praier for the dead as it doth and requiring alwaies stedfast faith in our praiers we may be sure therby we are only in the Letany so taught to pray that God would not remember the sinnes of our forefathers as therfore to take vengeance of vs and in the two collects the fift after the offertory the second after Trinity to feare and to distrust only in respect of our selues but not in respect of Gods mercy in Christ at all Wherfore hauing now thus said what I hope may be sufficient to moue my good brethren for the Churches peace good and also for their owne and to preuent greater inconueniences to stand forth no longer in their refusal to conforme themselues in their practise to the orders of our Church required at their hands let vs passe on to that which yet seemeth to be wanting to perswade theÌ„ also if and when need shal be in the same respects rather to yeeld to the vrged form of subscription then either therfore to shun to enter into the ministry when otherwise they are fit and might or for the refusal therof to be debarred of the vse of their gifts therin CHAP. 13. Touching the yeelding to the now vrged subscription and answering certaine obiections against the same BEing therefore now come to the question about this subscription howsoeuer heretofore it was doubted whether it had any express law or canon to warrant it or no now wee are put out of doubte thereof by these last cannons and namely by the 36 in that wee see and know them all to be so authorised by his Maiestie as they are who hath full and sufficient authority by his highnesse tytle prerogatiue confirmed vnto him by expresse law otherwise so to doe And therefore we cannot be now ignorant but that our reuerend fathers the Bishops haue thereby authority to vrge such ministers thereunto as bee vnder their iurisdictions at such times and in such cases and vpon such occasions and in such manner as are expressed in the said canons and also vnder the penalties to the refusers then specified in the same Wherefore as I said of the former so I must needs say of this so farre as there is nothing within the compasse therof either in the owne nature or as it is meant by the order of our Church and the gouernors thereof contrary either to sound faith or good manners taught in Gods word conscience in respect of them and this their authority which they haue now by law or canon though not in regard of the bare nature of euery thing within the reach of the same without all question doth bind vs for the Churches good and our owne to yeeld thereunto And this is certaine the first Article touching his Maiesties iust Title and supremacie therin set downe the last touching the booke of Articles so far forth as they concern faith the sacraments all meÌ„ of our religion profession that hold communion with vs haue alwaies since subscription hath beene first required beene willing and ready to yeeld the same acknowledging as by the lawes of the realme so also by the lawes of God for the plaine and manifest truth therin contained that they were bound in coÌ„science also euen for the matter therof so to do The question therfore concerning this point lies in this whether the rest contained in these thre articles mentioned in that 36 canon in the form there set down may be yeelded vnto with a safe good coÌ„science wheruÌ„to first I say that coÌ„paring the Articles wher vnto now subscriptioÌ„ is required with the 3 that formerly were wont to be vrged touching either the whole or the rest now only in question I find no great difference some words are added in the first somewhat more fully to expresse his Maiesties title and supremacy wherof therefore I think euery one likes so much the better and as for the second it is word for word the same it was and that requires that by our subscription therunto we only aduouch that those twoe bookes therein named the booke of common prayer and the booke of ordering Bishops Priests and Deacons containe nothing contrary to the word of God and in the last as I finde these words added now to make it plaine how many articles the said booke of Articles containes being in number 39 besides the ratification so I obserue for the word beleeueth vsed before touching all the Articles therein contained as it there is expresly set downe a softer word put namely acknowledgeth so that herein euen in the construction of those that most mislike and write against the former it is most cleare that this now vrged is in respect of the matter therof the very same if not better and easier then it was before especially considering also the things amended explaned in the booke of common prayer of late as was noted in the beginning 2 If any say yet now it is worse then it was in respect of the forme because now is added ex animo where it was before but volens that is such a difference whereupon it will not follow that it is one iot worse then it was before for who can indeed say or write that he doth a thing volens and yet not ex animo it also appearing by that which I haue said already of the former point that our Church by these last canons hath in nothing made the sense of any thing harder then it was before it must neees follow that now to refuse thus to subscribe for any

Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Text snippets containing the quad