Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	england_n	king_n	kingdom_n	13,057	5	6.0109	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A03350	A quartron of reasons of Catholike religion, with as many briefe reasons of refusall: By Tho. Hill	Hill, Edmund Thomas, ca. 1563-1644.	1600 (1600)	STC 13470; ESTC S113265	68,569	200

and to follow it who neuer fast seldome or neuer praie to obtaine the same neuer punish theyr bodies neuer mortifie theyr earthlie members c. rather then to a number of quiet modest harmeles men who by prayer by fasting by almes deedes by workes of mercie by all vertuous meanes labour to attaine the knowledge of the truth And who is he that can deny but that in our auncestors dayes when Catholike Religion flourished brauerie in apparrell was vnknowne and insteede thereof innocent plainenesse vvas to be seene that there was no chaūge no new deuises litle lawing for when anie strife fell out the Priest theyr Ghostlie Father decided the matter and made them friends seldome any single woman miscarried in any parrish no Simony no Vsury litle fraude or deceit each one trusted other without bill or bond and to be briefe that euery where raigned simplicity innocency Oh how many thousandes then left the world before it left thē dedicating themselues whollie to the seruice of God and that of all Estates many Kings and Queenes not only of other Countries but diuers euen of England gaue ouer their Kingdomes and became Religious men and women And the like did innumerable of inferiour degrees whereas the Protestants prouide by wast desolation destruction and as it were by law that no such orders of holie men and women be amongst them they will haue no Maides but such as can get no matches no man is poore amongst them but vvith grudge and much against his wil no vow is made to God but if it should be it must not be kept fasters with them are Pharises Monks mad men those which mortifie thēselues they account Hypocrites in in one word they are in theyr liues as they be in doctrine Libertines And in nothing more doth the difference of the efficacy of their doctrine the Catholikes appeare then in this that if for feare of troubles or for any other cause one who was a Cath. is become in outward show a Protestant for in his conscience such a one seldome or neuer thinketh the Protestants religion to be true the same is so far from bettering his former life thereby according to Erasmus his saying before alleaged as that you may see him wallowe in al kind of sins Set before your eies any one ther in England who hath left the Catholike Religion is become a Protestant marke whether he be not as a yoūg calfe let out of his crew or as a colt leapt out of his inclosure How manie may you see there amongst you of such good fellowes which shew plainely that they haue Conscientiam cauteriatam a seared Conscience If you turne any Seminary Priest to your side doth he liue more vnspottedly with you then hee liued before in his own professiō or doth he not rather then drinke vp any kind of sinne as easilie as a Dogge lapeth water But on the other side if anie doe leaue the Protestants become a Catholike doth he not forthwith leaue al his vices I wish you would but consider a litle the wonderfull chaunge of such a one whom I may more easilie leaue to your consideration then describe him but surely if you did see into it you would say Digitus Dei est hic this is the finger or power of God THE XVII REASON Constancie in Doctrine THE Doctrine of the Romaine Church hath euer remained setled and stated without chaunge or innouation howsoeuer time euer fleeting altereth many thinges to disaduantage and no man will denie but that it had the truth when the Apostles said to the Romanes Rom. ca. 1. I giue thanks to my God through Iesus Christ for you all because your faith is reported in the vniuersall world Therefore vntil it be shewed that it hath swarued from that Faith vvhich the Apostle then spoke of I cannot but iudge it to haue the true Religion And I thinke that no man can proue that euer anie Pope or Bishoppe in anye See did at anye time chaunge in any point the Religion of his predecessour For example sake if you looke but into the See of Canterbury in your owne Countrye rekon from him who was Arch-bishop therof in King Henry the eight his daies before he chaunged Religion you shal find that that Arch-bishop taught the same Religion in all pointes which his next predecessor had dōe before him and he the same that his next predecessour and so from one to another euen vntil the first that sate in that See The very same may you see in other Bishops Sees and especially in the Apostolike See the See of Rome for neuer was any mā able to proue that the successor at any time changed the doctrine of his predecessour so it must needes be al one the same that was immediately before this new religion and at the first beginning or in the Apostles time For I aske the protestants for examples sake whē Italy Fraunce or Spaine chaunged their Religion I am sure they neuer changed but kept still the same which was deliuered to thē by their first Apostles But cōtrariwise the Protestantes beginning but some fiftie or threescore yeares agoe haue in this small time so chopped chaunged so altered and transformed theyr Religion as you may well saye Proteus in regard of them to be constant in shape wherin they shew thēselues like theyr Fathers the old Heretikes Greg. lib. 3 mor. expo sit in Iob. cap. 19. who also in inconstancy of doctrine were very notable and no meruaile for when they be once foorth of the right waie they take euerie pathe which offereth it selfe vnto them but neuer can happen vpon the right way againe except they goe backe from whence they came but runne stil further 2. tim 3. and further out of the vvay euer learning but neuer comming to the knowledge of the Trueth This inconstancy chaunge in Doctrine was so great in Luther his followers Riuander in lupo excoriato fol 73. as that they themselues complained therof And heereupon it is that the Lutheranes are so easilie chaunged into Zwinglians or Caluinistes Caluinistes into Anabaptistes or Arrians Anabaptists into Libertines Frākistes or into the Family of Loue. And this lenity they haue as they haue all their other Capricches frō their grandsire Luther whose inconstancy in Doctrine is most notable For at his first beginning hee protested that he only misliked the abuse of Indulgences and in no wise the Indulgences themselues A litle after he plainly despised the Indulgences themselues Vlemberg causa 12. pag. 391. Then he began to call in question the authoritye of the Pope afterwardes Ceremonies and by little and little going forwarde at the length he denied Free-will rowling vp and downe as it were a snowe-ball of heresie made the same bigger and bigger in such sorte as he came to that audacitye that he burned openly at Wittenberge the bookes of the Canon Lawe affirming the Pope