Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	day_n	holy_a	keep_v	7,331	5	6.2245	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44852	The Puritan convert, not to prelatick Protestantism and yet to prelatick Protestantism, nor to popery and yet to popery, but absolutely and without reserve to apostolical Christianity ..., or, A discourse by way of a letter shewing that prelatick Protestants, if they will be true to their practises and principles, have all reason to turn papists in all things as to what papists indeed hold, but in nothing as to what papists are vulgarly believed to hold ... / by W. H.	W. H.; Hubert, William.	1676 (1676)	Wing H3246A; ESTC R41017	28,965	38

because he will not nor dare not Revel it with them as formerly Instead of Plays and Comedies his entertainments now are the Holy Scriptures or other good Books written by such who experimented in their own Souls what they taught others the works rather of Pious Mens Hearts than of Learned Mens Brains Whilst his Companions are roaring and rallying in Tipling Houses and Taverns he 's sighing and groaning in his Bed-chamber or Closet wrastling with his offended God by hearty Prayers according to what most presses his wounded and afflicted Spirit He dares not lye he abhors an Oath as Hell he is afraid to cheat or cozen any he deals with though he finds to his grief but too great desires of worldly wealth in the bottom of his Heart Upon days set apart for the Divine Worship he wishes he could keep his Soul wholly fixed upon God He can by no means satisfie his Conscience by bearing a part with his Lips only in any forms of Prayer though in themselves never so holy and good for an hour or two and then to spend or rather wast the rest of the day in idle talk disports and pastimes or somewhat worse Dalliances Revels c. But his employment is to lay up a stock of provision for his poor Soul to live upon all the week after Then he labours to renew his first repentant sorrow for his life past and to confirm his weak resolutions of another kind of life for the time to come c. But what hurt in all this if this be to be a Puritan would to God all the world were Puritans What need of such a Mans Conversion Whither must he turn What must he change to unless it be from better to worse But may he not change from good to better why what 's wanting in him That you shall hear by and by Only take notice for the present That I am so far from being Converted from thus much of a Puritan that I most heartily wish I could Convert all the World unto it The poor afflicted Puritan sadly and deservedly affrighted with the fear and apprehension of Eternal damnation labours and works how he may avoid it And Beading in the Holy Scripture those words of our Blessed Saviour Come unto me all ye that labour and are burdened and I will refresh you And seeing a necessity of some righteousness or other to entitle him to Heaven and finding nothing in himself but sin and wickedness and having heard much talk of the righteousness of Christ and of being saved by his Righteousness and finding some places in the Epistles of St. Paul which seem to sound that way all his care is to apprehend that Righteousness and to rely upon what Jesus Christ has done and suffer'd for him And by this means he begins to deem himself in a secure condition By the Blood of Christ thus apprehended and applied by a lively Faith he grows very confident and assured all the fire of Hell is quenched as to him and he fears damnation no longer And though unworthy of his Heavenly Fathers Benediction for any thing in himself yet appearing before him in the Garments of his Elder Brother he doubts not of a Blessing and that an Eternal one too And this conceit if it do not make hm very bold to sin at least it makes him very negligent in adorning his Soul with Piety Charity Meekness Patience Humility and other Christian Vertues partly thinking them impossible to be attained partly deeming there is no absolute necessity of them to his Salvation He having nothing to do but to believe that Jesus Christ has done all for him and what Love or Piety or other Vertue necessarily follows from such a Faith he willingly admits but for the rest solicitously to endeavour after the acquisition of Vertues he looks upon as the working of an Old Testament Spirit and a derogation from the perfect Salvation by Jesus Christ and his Righteousness The Old Covenant was Do this and Live but now he is under a better Covenant Believe and Live or Live and do this The impression his first awakening has left upon him keeps him from returning to open lewdness and profaness but his Faith of this imputative Righteousness of Christ makes him take little pains in the cultivating of his own Soul either in purging it of the Relicks of ill habits or in planting in it the Divine Vertues our Lord Jesus taught us to exercise by his Word and Example And this is our Puritans first mistake and a dangerous one too as I shall show afterwards His next mistake is he begins to quarrel with all Exterior Worship and Ceremonies And he falls into this mistake by reflecting upon his own Experience as having reaped no benefit by forms of Prayer by Bowing at the Name of Jesus by looking upon certain days as Holy-days and Fasting-days c. Hence he begins to think all such Observances are wholly useless and unprofitable if not abominable and superstitious besides And he is much confirmed in this his Imagination by considering the open profaness and little sense of God he observes generally in zealous Conformists Moreover on the other side he takes notice of his Brethren Non-Conformists that they are generally free from open and scandalous sins and at least sigh and breath after Interior Spirit and Devotion which certainly must be that must give us a Title to Heaven rather than a few cringes or Exterior Verbal Devotions which any one though never so Profane may easily exercise and indeed he sees with his Eyes many do Exercise who give no Testimony at all of any work of Regeneration in their Hearts but by their profane light and vain Conversation give too clear evidences of their being still in their natural unregenerate condition And accordingly their Preachers in their Sermons have little life or zeal and seldom discourse of such Truths as are apt to awaken Mens Consciences and make them lay to Heart the great concern of the Salvation of their Souls Or if they do at any time Preach of Judgment or Hell Repentance or a New Life they do it very coldly and imperfectly and seem to talk like Parrots what they have learnt by rote and out of others Books and not what they have had any Experience of in their own Hearts Such Reflections joyn'd with some places of the New Testament not rightly understood make him think that whatsoever was pleasing to Almighty God or profitable to the Jewish People under Moses Now we that are under the Gospel must be Spiritual Worshippers if we will be Worshippers in Truth and must cast away all Exterior forms of words and outward observances of days and places as hindrances to True Spiritual Gospel-worship And all agreeing that the Body of the Mosaical Law is abolished with its Priesthood Sacrifices special Garments in time of Divine Worship particular days to be kept Holy c. This being confessed by all as well Protestants as Papists and finding no clear

seen with their Eyes taught and established by the first Planters of Christianity No I know no such thing Though this would have been a strange favour to the World would the Almighty Creator have wrought such a Miracle in favour of Ignorant Man But what then Did Jesus Christ after the manner of Moses write a Book of all Christian Rites and Observances or did he not at least command some one of his Twelve Apostles or all of them together to write some such Book so full so compleat so plain as none that would not willingly mistake could possibly mis-understand it Certainly he could not but foresee what disputes would arise about observances of Days and Sacraments amongst Christians in future Ages Why did he not tell us plainly by some Authentick Writing or other His pleasure was that all the Mosaical Rites and Observances of Days should be abolished and instead of them he would have no Exterior Rites and Days at all or else if he would have any why did he not take care that some Book or other should be written wherein every one that could read might see how many Rites called Sacraments he would have to be used amongst Christians and how and to whom and by whom he would have them to be administred Whether he would have certain days observed by Christians in memory of his Birth Death Resurrection and Ascension or no any set days of Fasting any distinction of Garments in Priests from the People or no But himself to write never a Book to this purpose nor any of his Apostles to write any thing but his Holy Life and Death four times over and some little of the Life of some one or two of his Apostles and a few occasional Letters of two or three of his Followers to particular Christians whom they had fully instructed by word of mouth what can we conclude from all this But that surely Jesus Christ has left us some other means than those written Books we have fully to instruct us in the whole Counsel of God in Order to our Eternal Salvation Indeed I find an Ancient Prophesie that in the latter days God Almighty would write his Laws in his Peoples Hearts Was this to intimate to us that whosoever would find fully and clearly the Laws of Jesus Christ in the latter days he must not so much consult written Books as the Hearts of Christians And truly there is no other way without a miraculous Revelation by the Ministry of Angels or some such means for us who live now to know what was taught or practiced sixteen hundred years before we were born but only by Books written in that time or near that time or else without Books by the oral Tradition of Fathers to their Children But what Certitude can there be in this Could we speak with every Father and Son that has lived since the Apostles days and should they tell us unanimously that they had been taught to believe and practice thus and thus For Example to Baptize Children or not to Baptize them to abstain from Flesh on Fridays or not to abstain in memory of our Lords bitter Death and Passion and to humble our selves for our sins and such like no body could doubt of the truth of such a Testimony more than he does mistrust his own Eyes or other Senses But all the intervening Fathers and Sons 'twixt us and the first Age wherein our Lord Jesus lived except only our Fathers and Grandfathers being gone to another World my Grandfather can tell me certainly what his Father taught him concerning Fasting on Friday Baptizing of Infants Reverencing such a Book as of Divine Authority written by a Holy Man talled Mathew sixteen hundred years ago but what assurance can he give me that all his Progenitors have practic'd and believ'd after the same manner ever since the Apostles days Why what assurance could a Jew that lived in our Blessed Savioms time have given to a Pagan or to one of his own Children that the Books of the Law of Moses were written by a Holy Man called Moses who familiarly conversed with God so many hundred years ago He could only have discoursed to him after this manner Thus I was told by my Father and thus all our Neighbouts were told by their Fathers and 't is impossible in any Age since our Great Moses all our Ancestors should agree together to tell their Posterity so great a lye to their own and their Posterities Eternal damnation One Man may tell an impudent notorious lye but a whole Countrey cannot conspire in a lye which they know to be a lye or could they some neighbour Nation would tell the Cheat to Posterity In like manner must the Apostolical Christian answer when he is demanded an account why he reveres such and such Books as Apostolical writings or observes such and such Rites as Apostolical Ordinations And this is the belief and practice of an Apostolical Christian in general VVhatsoever this present Age or any other Age since the Apostles time in several Nations and Countries unanimously attest that they have received from their Forefathers from the Apostles and he cannot positively show that it was of a later date begun for Example in or near such a time by such and such he submits to it as Apostolical and this though it cannot positively be proved that for Example such a Book or Practice was received in every Age since the Apostles days by positive Testimonies out of Authentick writings of every particular Age. And thus much satisfaction and no more could Jacob have given to his Children why he kept the Sabbath day commanded by Almighty God to our first Parent Adam above two thousand years before He had neither Scripture nor other Record of writing for any such Institution the use of writing being unknown to the world till afterwards when God Almighty wrote the Ten Commandments in Two Tables of Stone He could only tell them thus he and his Neighbours had been immemorially taught to believe And their objecting how could they tell but some body out of a supersttious opinion of more Sanctity in every seventh day than in every sixth or eighth might have introduced the will-worship of such an Observation such an Objection I say as this would not have excused them before God from such an Obligation which the whole present Generation told them they had observed immemorially from Adam And indeed though it were granted that according to the Holy Scriptures we Christians are obliged to keep every first day of the week Holy yet it cannot be proved out of Scripture or any other Book or by any other Argument but the immemorial tradition and practice of several Christian Countries that the day we now observe is the true first day of the week from that first first-day on which our Blessed Savour rose from Death to Life And yet that there should be Christians who should make no distinction betwixt Friday and the other days of the week

great Lord Jesus in Heaven represented by those Figures Put all that has been said together and you will see there is no great wonder in it that the commonalty of our sadly divided Countrey should believe a thousand lies in matters of Religion concerning their Catholick Neighbours especially if you add that those who have been about 150 years slandering of them have withall told the vulgar that Catholicks are such a cunning and deceitful people that you may not believe them in one word what they say to you concerning their Religion but being asham'd of their Fopperies they will deny them if you lay them to their charge Or if at any time you meet with any whose candor and sincerity you are so convinced of that you cannot think he would tell you a lye Then you must imagine him to be of a particular belief and temper from all other Catholicks and though he hold no such absurdities by reason of his better understanding learning c. yet the generality of the people most certainly hold them all O the craft and cunning of the Devil and deceitful Men thus to blind and miserably impose upon the simple and well-meaning vulgar Jesus of his Mercy open their Eyes and make them see who they are that thus sadly delude and cheat them Besides the Laws being very severe against Catholicks many are afraid to have a better opinion of them than they are taught to have though they even see they are much slandered lest they should be convinced of the truth of their Religion and then be obliged either to damn their Souls if they would not embrace it or loose their Estates and Preferments if they did embrace it Finally Catholick Religion is a Holy and Strict Religion and therefore no wonder if the Professors of it be hated and ill spoke of by the wicked and loose world Libertines willingly speak ill of those that are strict and very conscientious in their ways but being ashamed to revile them for their Vertues though that be the real quarrel which they have with them they mis-interpret their innocent and good Actions and calumniate their persons with a thousand slanders For Example Catholick Religion teaches that if any one have wronged his Neighbour by cheating cozening or stealing any thing from him he 's bound if he be able under pain of damnation to make restitution and without this no Tears no Prayers no Faith in the Blood of Christ can save him The same Religion teaches also that you are bound under pain of damnation to confess your most secret sins to a Priest and that if you be truly penitent and resolved to lead a new life upon the Priests absolution on Earth you are most certainly pardoned in Heaven It teaches also that you have a like obligation to abstain from Flesh in Lent and upon other days of Abstinence Fridays Vigils c. Now Flesh and Blood does not like these Restraints And hence those that have no mind either to make Restitution of ill gotten Goods or to discover their shameful sins to a Priest or to abstain from Flesh on certain days and understanding that Priests when people confess to them enjoyn them to make Restitution and if they be not able to fast enjoyn them oftentimes to give Alms in lieu of it and in such cases dispense with the Ecclesiastical Law of Abstinence this is ground enough to calumniate poor Papists and to tell the simple Multitude that they can buy pardon of their sins for Money and have leave from their Priests to break any Law of God for Money and let them commit what villanies they please 't is but confessing them to a Priest and this without any repentance or purpose of Amendment Misereor super turbam What Christian Heart would it not make to bleed to see how the well-meaning Multitude are abused and imposed upon by their deceived Guides My Dear Relations For the love you have to your Immortal Souls do your selves that right as but familiarly to converse with your Catholick Neighbours and with as little passion as you can do but ask them an account of their Religion and do not against all common sense and reason believe the Testimony of their Adversaries concerning them and their Religion rather than them themselves and if you do not find that you have been taught a thousand lies concerning them and that they hold nothing nor practice nothing but what they are able to give a very satisfactory Account of to any impartial Enquirer then say I am a Knave a Lyer and a Cheat one that deserves no Mercy from God or Man in this World or the next but if you find what I have said to be most true pray for those that have deceived you and think seriously what it behoves you to do and whetehr you have not reason to suspect those Church-men who stand in need of such notorious lies and slanders thereby to defend themselves against their Adversaries If Popery be such a doltish and senseless Religion then what need of belying it and slandering it to make it odious to the People and what fear of Its overspreading the Nation by a free and unlimited Toleration But the truth is it 's a Holy and most rational Religion and such as Men must cease to be Men or they cannot but acknowledge the Finger of God in it when it is duly and truly represented as it is in it self devoid of all those fopperies and lies with which it is calumniated by its Adversaries For the love of God what Papist in the world believes that the Gospel is but a Fable of Christ that the Bishop of Rome is a God Not any sin but is or may be indulged amongst them and scarce a known sin but there is a known price for it and at their Market-rate you may commit them when you will that they allow Whoredom all the year long and the practices of other uncleannesses not to be named among Men in some Months of the year that mortal sins are put away by Agnus Dei's by little parcels of the Gospel by Popes and Bishops Pardons c. That Christ is the Saviour of Men only but of no Women for Women are saved by St. Clare and Mother Jane That the Pope may check when he pleases the Epistles of St. Paul and controul any thing avouched by all the Apostles That we must simply believe the Church of Rome whether it teach true or false and if the Pope believe there is no life to come we must believe it as an Article of our Faith What Papist in the world believes one of all these Madnesses and Blasphemies and yet the whole Roman Church is charged with them all by no less a Man than the present Arch-Bishop of York if that Book be his Grace's which is commonly sold in London with his Name to it and the Printers also under the Title of a Manul of Active Positive and Oppositive Divinity written by him to preserve a Noble