Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	word_n	write_a	yoke_n	19	3	9.7550	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66898	The late proposal of union among Protestants, review'd and rectifi'd being a vindication of the most reverend father in God, Edwin, Lord Arch-Bishop of York, and the reverend Dr. Tillotson, Dean of Canterbury, from the misprisions of an apocryphal proposer : with a full answer to his proposal, presented to the Parliament.	Womock, Laurence, 1612-1685.	1679 (1679)	Wing W3345; ESTC R20318	24,189	16

by this Concession Besides what is little in its own nature may be great in its consequence The Pin of a Watch is a small matter if we look upon the bulk of it yet the loss of such a Pin disorderss the whole Movement or makes the Wheels to stand still and so you lose your aim and the time or the day by it The taking away of a little Turf is but a small matter in appearance but such as are well acquainted with the Po-Dyke Law will tell you it may occasion a breach in the whole bank and let in such an Inundation as may drown a fruitful Level for which reason such a wilful Breach is made Felony by Statute But grant the things to be so little as is ordinarily imagined Deios ubi supra p. 172. for that Learned Man said very right in the days of Queen Elizabeth The Controversies wherein we differ have small weight in the matters and less in the proofs But it seems these Dissenters have no great value for Authority when it was not vested themselves that such little matters can give them occasion to quarrel with it If the matters be smell the performance is the more easie and consequently the disobedience the more intolerable And this is acknowledged by no less Authority than an Act of Parliament for in the Preface to the Book of Common Prayer under the Title of Ceremonies it is declared that Although the keeping or omitting of a Ceremony in it self considered is but a small thing yet the wilful and contemptuous transgression and breaking of a Common Order and Discipline is no small offence before God We find therefore that Instances of contempt in the smallest matters have been punished with the greater rigour To pick up a few sticks one would think no great violation of the Sabbath yet 't was so high an affront to Government the Lawgiver would not dispense with it Num. 15 32. 'T is true such Affronts may be prevented if the Law be changed by the same Authority that made it but this course in preventing one would draw on another and a much greater mischief For as that Reverend Dean observes There is no greater disparagement to a man's understanding Dr Tilloison's Sermon on 1 Cor. 3.15 no greater argument of a light and ungenerous mind than rashly to charge ones Religion Eft enim proprium viri nobilie constantem esse in re laudabili honoréque digna nec sinere se ab honesto proposito vel secundis vel adversis rebus abduci saith the Learned Zanchy This chopping and changing leaves a legible brand of unsteddiness and levity and argues want of good advisement when the Law was first established and this is the readiest way to make the gravest Councils ridiculous and their Laws contemptible This that wise and learned Prince very well understood K. JAMES and therefore in his Proclamation for the Uniformity of Common Prayer he concludes thus And last of all we do admonish all men that hereafter they shall not expect nor attempt any further Alteration in the Common and Publick Form of God's Service from this which is now established This Proclamation was printed before the old Book of Common Prayer for that neither will we give way for any to presume that our own Judgment having determined in a matter of this weight shall be swayd to alteration by the frivolous suggestion of any light spirit Neither are we ignorant of the Inconveniences that do arise in Government by admitting Innovation in things once settled by mature deliberation and how necessary it is to use Constancy in the upholding of the publick Determinations of States for that such is the unquietness and unstedfastness of some Dispositions affecting every year new Forms of things as if they should be followed in their Unconstancy would make all Actions of State ridiculous and contemptible whereas the stedfast maintaining of things by good advice established is the Weal of all Commonwealths And now Sir I shall take leave to do right to that Reverend and Worthy Dean whose Words are alleaged by this Apocryphal Writer to his own ends but with a Construction far distant from the Dean's intended sence and meaning For 1. The Dean does avouch himself to be of our Governours side but these Dissenters are professedly against them 2. The Dean tells you It is not for private persons to undertake in matters of publick concernment but whatever they have done since I am sure the Dissenters in the time of Queen Elizabeth thought it lawful to attempt any thing which they were pleased to call a Reformation by Clamour Tumult and Violence and sometimes they did act accordingly without and against Authority In evidence whereof we need produce no other than the words of that Author so often mentioned Laur. Deios in the said Discourse p. 163 164. This their Liberty saith he of those Dissenters is one of the chief Points wherein they stand Here neither Prince nor Counsellour nor Bishop nor Law must restrain them from refusing or casting off whatsoever they mislike or from taking upon them and putting in practice any thing they have determined or concluded to be done seeing according to their conceit they have sound out that Bishops and all other Officers in our Church are Popish and that the Ministery as they suppose beareth Popish Names and Marks and the Laws are Popish they will neither sue to Prince nor Council for the removing of any of these things but with all speed cast the Yoke from their own necks And seeing they have found in their fancies that an Eldership and no other Laws but the written Word is to be heard therefore they will erect these things amongst themselves And it were to be wished that the same humour did not reign incorrigibly among them at this day witness the late Practices in Scotland which agree exactly with their seditious Principles for which Ireser the Reader to a Book entituled Raviliac Redivivus and their late Declaration 3. The pious Inclination of that Reverend Dean was for a not-insisting upon a few little things These Dissenters are for a change of all viz. the Liturgy Discipline and Government of the Church 4. These Dissenters demand a change of things as sinful The Dean taken them onely for indifferent having all the advantages of Authority and Reason which he would never have alleaged if he had thought such things sinful 5. The Dean doubts not in the last of the Piety and Prudence of the Governours of the Church but he finds no such relenting melting temper in these Dissenters For after such a Condescention in our Governours as he supposes to be attainable he is still doubtful of those Dissenters Conformity and Obedience which makes him say If that would do it In short when his heart was warm with Meditation and a Discourse of Charity the Reverend Dean freely utters his pious Sentiments for peace-sake and in order to a firm union among