Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A02549
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An humble remonstrance to the High Court of Parliament, by a dutifull sonne of the Church
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Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656.
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1641
(1641)
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STC 12675; ESTC R210029
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12,040
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46
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AN HUMBLE REMONSTRANCE TO THE HIGH COVRT OF PARLIAMENT BY A dutifull Sonne of the CHVRCH LONDON Printed by M.F. for Nathaniel Butter in Pauls Church-yard at the pyde Bull neare St. Austins gate 1640. AN HVMBLE REMONSTRANCE TO THE HIGH COURT of Parliament Most Honourable Lords And yee the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Honourable House of Commons LEST the world should think the Presse had of late forgot to speake any language other then Libellous this honest paper hath broken through the throng and prostrates it selfe before you How meanly soever and unattended it presents it selfe to your view yet it comes to you on a great errand as the faithfull Messenger of all the peaceable and right-affected sonnes of the Church of England and in their names humbly craves a gracious admittance Had it regarded the pomp and ostentation of names it might have gloried in a train past number It is but a poore stock that may be counted Millions of hands if that tumultuary and under-hand way of procured subscriptions could have reason to hope for favour in your eyes shall at your least Command give attestation to that which this scroll doth in their names humbly tender unto you Ye are now happily through Gods blessing met in a much-longed-for Parliament It were but a narrow word to say that the eyes of all us the good Subjects of the whole Realme are fixed upon your successe Certainly there are not more eyes in these three interessed Kingdomes then are now bent upon you yea all the neighbour Churches and Kingdomes if I may not say the whole Christian world and no small part beyond it look wishly upon your faces and with stretched-out necks gaze at the issue of your great Meeting Neither doubt wee but since Soveraigne Authority hath for this purpose both summoned and actuated you you will not faile to produce something worthy of so high an expectation Yee are the Sanctuary whereto now every man flees whether really or pretendedly distressed Even a Ioab or Adonijah will bee also taking hold of the hornes of the Altar Your noble wisedomes know how to distinguish of men and actions and your inviolable justice knowes to award each his owne Many things there are doubtlesse which you finde worthy of a seasonable reformation both in Church and State Neither can it be otherwise but that in a pamperd full body diseases will grow through rest Ponds that are seldome scoured will easily gather mud metals rust and those patients that have inured themselves to a set course of medicinall evacuations if they intermit their springs and falls fall into feverous distempers Not that supreme and immediately-subordinate Authority hath in the meane time been wanting to its charge Surely unlesse wee would suppose Princes to be Gods wee cannot think they can know all things Of necessity they must look with others eyes and heare with others eares and be informed by others tongues and act by others hands and when all is done even the most regular and carefullyinquisitive State is not like the Sunne from whose light and heat nothing is hid It cannot be expected that those constellations which attend the Southerne Pole should take view of our Hemisphere or intermixe their influences with those above our heads Every agent is required and allowed to work within the compasse of its own activitie Yee therefore who by the benefit of your dispersed habitations enjoy the advantage of having the whole Kingdome and all the corners of it within your eies may both clearly see all those enormities wherewith any part is infested unknown to remoter intelligence and can best judge to apply meet remedies thereunto Neither can it be but that those eies of yours which have been privately vigilant within the places of your severall abodes must needs not without much regret in this your publique Meeting take notice of the miserable disorders of so many vicious and misaffected persons as have thrust themselves upon your cognizance Whiles the Orthodoxe part in this whole Realme hath to the praise of their patience been quietly silent as securely conscious of their own right and innocence how many furious and malignant spirits every where have burst forth into sclanderous Libels bitter Pasquines railing Pamphlets under which more Presses then one have groaned wherein they have indeavoured through the sides of some misliked persons to wound that sacred Government which by the joynt-confession of all reformed Divines derives it selfe from the times of the blessed Apostles without any interruption without the contradiction of any one Congregation in the Christian world unto this present age Wherein as no doubt their lewd boldnesse hath been extremely offensive to your wisedomes and piety so may it please you to check this daring and mis-grounded insolence of these Libellers and by some speedy Declaration to let the world know how much you detest this their malicious or ignorant presumption and by some needfull Act to put a present restraint upon the wilde and lawlesse courses of all their factious combinations abroad and enterprises of this kinde And if you finde it passe for one of the maine accusations against some great persons now questioned before you that they endeavoured to alter the forme of the established government of the Common-wealth how can these Pamphleters seem worthy of but an easie censure which combine their counsels and practises for the changing of the setled form of the government of the Church Since if Antiquity may be the rule the civill Politie hath sometimes varied the sacred never And if originall Authority may carry it that came from arbitrary imposers this from men inspired and from them in an unquestionable clearnesse derived to us And if those be branded for Incendiaries which are taxed of attempting to introduce new formes of administration and rules of Divine worship into our neighbour Church how shall those boute-feux of ours escape that offer to doe these offices to our owne the severall and daily variable projects whereof are not worthy of your knowledge or our confutation Let me have leave to instance in two the prime subjects of their quarrell and contradiction Leitourgie and Episcopacy The Liturgie of the Church of England hath been hitherto esteemed sacred reverently used by holy Martyrs daily frequented by devout Protestants as that which more then once hath been allowed and confirmed by the Edicts of religious Princes and by your own Parliamentary Acts and but lately being translated into other Languages hath been entertained abroad with the great applause of forraigne Divines and Churches Yet now begins to complain of scorn at home The Matter is quarrelled by some the Form by others the Use of it by both That which was never before heard of in the Church of God whether Jewish or Christian the very prescription of the most holy devotion offendeth Surely our blessed Saviour and his gracious Fore-runner were so farre from this new Divinitie as that they plainly taught that which these men gain-say a direct