Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	authority_n	church_n	respect_n	2,578	5	7.4167	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96061	A century of reasons for subscription and obedience to the laws and government of the Church of England, both ecclesiastical and civil. With reasons against the covenant Justifi'd by scripture, confirmed by the laws of the kingdom, the right and power of kings, ecclesiastical and human authorities, with an harmony of confessions. [T]o which is annexed the office and charge belonging to the overseers of the poor, &c. [By] W. Wasse school-master in Little Britain near unto Christ-church.	Wasse, William.	1663 (1663)	Wing W1030A; ESTC R231143	60,180	186

have so deeply conceived a deep and strong perswasion of his Majesty's Princely Virtues and much renowned propension to Piety and Equity that they will urge their consciences to assent unto every thing which the King enjoyns as Right and Convenient Because abstaining from Christian Assemblies and publick Worship of God under pretence of employing their Talents for the good of the Church in private meetings is scandalous and an inductive to sin Because the Churches of God do hold with the Church of England the lawfulness of Absolution after satisfaction enjoyned by the Church when men have defiled themselves with Murther Idolatry or filthy Lusts and that formerly they were sever'd from mutual society and afterwards the Churches did not suddenly receive such offenders again though they did repent that it might be known that they did unfeignedly repent of their Murther Idolatry and filthy Lusts and ask pardon and for example sake that it might profit others for certain days Absolution was deferred 1 Cor. 5. that they might be seen to ask pardon publickly which publick satisfaction before the Church although in a sort Political yet may be referred to the Ecclesiastical Order and may altogether be distinguished from those punishments which are meerly Civil and from those which are to be inflicted by the Magistrate which the Churches doubt not is both acceptable to God and commodious for the edifying of the Church Because if a Minister be found guilty of crimen laesae Majestatis the King may punish whereupon by consequence will follow his falling from his Ecclesiastical Office and Dignity saith an Anonymus of Scotland And the Churches abroad with the Church of England say there must be publick Satisfaction and Absolution after Repentance before he can be received again into the Church of God because of Scandal given to the whole Church of God although the King do pardon him For as there ought to be diligent enquiry in the Synods touching the Life and Doctrine of the Ministers so those that offend are to be rebuked of the Seniors and to be brought into the way if they be not past recovery or else to be deposed and as Wolves to be driven from the Lord's Flock by the true Pastors if they be incurable For if once they be false Teachers they are in no wise to be tollerated saith the Harmony of Confessions And in publick Discipline saith the Church of Geneva it is to be observed that the Ministery pretermit nothing at any time unchastised with one kind of punishment or other And if Ministers shall do any thing which is Scandalous to the Congregation or punishable by Civil Authority then such a Minister shall be Suspended from his Ministery and it shall stand in the judgment of the Classis with us of the Bishops whether he deserves not to be deposed say the Synods of the Low-countries The sum of all to unsetled spirits is this to get a full perswasion of the mind concerning our establish'd Government and Governors because a full perswasion of the mind yea even where the judgment faileth touching matters not intrinsecally evil giveth rest to the conscience Especially when you have considered indeed that the judgment of all causes the deciding all controversies the censure of all men the sentence determining all actions are the Kings and in His performances rests the very Soul of the State and the life of a State 's flourishing whose Soul is of too fine and quick a Metall to love doing nothing And when the affections of the minds of men or any other humor usurps an overswaying Authority the body of the State languisheth and by refusing to obey men ruine one of the two best parts of man For whether a Prince cometh to Authority by Succession or just Election it is not lawful to practise against Him because he is the Lord 's Annointed The greatest motive to Moderation the onely stay of the reeling steps of Man's humanity and next unto that nothing should move us more to continue our Moderation than the great commiseration of our Prince towards us that were his enemies Arguments sufficient to make us love Him and not to contend with Him his Government or Governors much less to study to fetch the means of our supposed safety from false grounds which will prove a humor unsafe and most displeasing by the want of which Moderation we shall serve a wrong Master and by our strong affections and weak experience shew what folly governs us in resisting of His Authority Therefore let us give Him the love of our hearts it will make Him happy and us in Him For what we desire to make us happy and at peace is matter of thought onely without truth which kind of thoughts formerly hath led us into strange transgressions against a Divine Law besides other errors like wandring Empericks respiting pain and doubling the pain and danger afterwards or else like Women with child that like nothing but what is hard if not impossible to come by and so by an uncertain pleasure purchase certain loss and pain Wherefore let us hearken to the counsel of St. Chrysostom who observeth that the God of All hath given All but one House the world to be domesticos naturae The Houshold of Nature that Father of Lights hath light all but one Candle the Sun to be Filios lucis Just and unjust Children of that Light seeing he that spreadeth it out as a Curtain hath covered all but with one Canopy and roof of Heaven to be one Family of Love and seeing the Feeder of every living thing hath spread all but one Table the Earth at which Boord we are all Companions of one Bread and drink all of one Cup the Air doubtless this community of natural things should breed such a common Unity in nature as should make men in this common House to be of one mind and sons of one light and the family under one roof to walk in this House of God as familiar friends and companions at one Table to eat their meat together with singleness of heart And not with the Bramble affecting Superiority over the Cedars of Lebanon set on fire the Trees of the Forest or like that Wood in the Poet being shaken by the wind Sponte edidit ignem qui ipsam consumpsit Of it self gave fire which consum'd it all Which leads me to add a word or two unto you that will not conform Unto you I wish peaceable spirits with serious consideration of the Reasons which with me have prevailed to own and subscribe unto the establish'd Government of the Church of England notwithstanding those seeming Reasons Scriptures and Authorities brought by you to perswade that to subscribe and yield obedience to the established Government is sinful and unlawful and to joyn in Worship with the Church of England as it is now constituted a Church is to commit Idolatry But after long search and inquiry made I find your Scriptures Reasons and Authorities to fall short of

that truth I once believed to be in them and of no power to convince the Church of England doth err either in Doctrine or Discipline which while I did believe I did not conform in any Circumstantial supposed error but was a Non-conformist with you upon the Reasons Scriptures and Authorities by you Urged Preached and Printed yet have I not at any time knowingly risen up against the Powers that commanded and enjoyned Obedience as they are Powers but upon the grounds aforesaid which grounds I have considered upon in more ripe judgment and find them not to be sufficient to warrant disobedience to the Higher Powers or to joyn with you in your determined Non-conformity having the eyes of my understanding better enlightned by the Divine goodness by Scriptures Reasons and Authorities the Confessions and Professions of the Churches abroad the Laws and equitable Constitutions of the Kingdom of which I am an unworthy Member besides what I have learnt from your own Writings of which formerly I was ignorant From all which Grounds Reasons Scriptures Authorities Writings c. I see not any cause to make further appeal nor know not of any higher search that can be made for the discovery of the truth Now that ye may the rather weigh and consider of what I have here offered to publick view after the satisfaction given hereby to my own conscience know that I am not a person under any temptation neither have I any Ecclesiastical Promotion to lose nor one that hath ever sought after or doth seek after Honor Advancement or to be preferred in the world though I might have had it for Swearing subjection unto an Usurping Power no I am a person studying to get my daily bread with hard labour labouring under great unthankfulness unjust and vexatious sutes and all-devouring scandals not mounted upon the uncogged wheels of prosperous fortune no the Plutoes of the world sons of violence rapine and spoil have cogged every spoak in my wheels I mean men who by force and power and other unjust practices have possessed themselves of all I have and have possessed it for more than ten years without an accompt or restitution which puts me in mind of an Historical Example not utterly to be despised of them The example of injustice is reported by one Antonius de Florentia an antient Doctor who tells us of a certain man that would not make restitution of his unjust gain alleging if he should do so his Children might beg or be sent to the Hospital The Father dieth in the same estate his eldest Son succeedeth and likewise will not restore The younger Brother demandeth his part of those goods and restoreth after the rate of his portion the rest that remained he gave to the poor and entred into the state of a solitary life Shortly after the elder Brother dyeth whereupon was shewed to the younger Brother living in chast contemplation this Vision following He seeth his Father and his Brother in torment one cursing the other the Father saying the Son was the cause of his damnation because it was for the love of him and enriching of him that he did not make restitution The Son he cursed and said that his Father was the cause of his damnation because he left him these ill-gotten goods the keeping whereof hath wrought his perdition Let such as have gotten ill-gotten goods in their possessions or are intangled with the iniquity of them apply this Example before it be too late and consider of Thespesius Fable in Plutarch He Fableth an infernal Vision of Souls like Vipers hanging on together did bite and gnaw one another Ob memoriam injuriarum in vita actarum Remembring old grudges and wrongs done in their life time here on earth keeping their hatred for ever Ovid. nec mors mihi finiet iras Though we be dead our malice shall not die I am sure such Caitiffs are of that Family who at the hour of death Lavat remittunt culpam non poenam Odia inimicitias quasi per manus liberis suis tradunt haeredes paterni odii Senec. They say I forgive all and in the Will and Testament bequeath their hatred and malice by Tradition to the hands of their sons and make them heirs of their fathers hatred Et astutam vapido servant sub pectore vulpem They appear in Sheep's cloathing but inwardly they are ravening Wolves Tuta frequensque via est per amici fallere nomen Tuta frequensque licet sit via crimen habet A safe and common way it is by friendship to deceive But safe and common though it be it 's knavery by your leave Now I return to our purpose I find it recorded of Dionysius Hallicarnasseus who was never advanced to Magistracy in the Roman Re-publick that he hath Written farr more truly the History of the Romans than those which Flourished amongst them with Riches and Honour So I hope you shall find from an Obscure person more of the truth concerning our established Government and reasons for the same than you have ever heard delivered or seen Written by most in Honour and Esteem amongst you Many of them being like the Franciscans of Old who at the beginning professed Conscientia losing a Syllable and Honesty with it fell to Scientia and now having lost two Syllables remain pure Entia Stocks and Images Such as these may well despise and reject these Reasons as of no worth and disdain to read them much more to own them and in hatred of my Name consider my Person and not the Weight that is to be found in every sentence in them though of so great concern as wisely improved would put a stay to the Reeling steps of many thousand Ignorant Unstable and All-concluding Souls What I have Written is necessary though by disowning of your Principles I seem to savour of Levity and Inconstancy but my reward is with me I know and am prepared for the Slanderous tongues of an Ungratefull and Miskenning world I reckon not what becomes of me or my credit in this World or what I have that is most dear unto me so God may be Glorified in me and by me it is not what men can Speak or may Write will dismay me it were better their pains were bestowed about their own Everlasting peace as others had better in former times to have bestowed the Labour they took to prove and perswade the Church of England did err in taking care they themselves had not erred in Doctrine and joyned Practice with it Departing from the Truths of God Rejecting the Book of Common-prayer and Teaching others so to do with great Judgment purposely framed as I believe out of the Grounds of Religion which we profess and hold for Agreement sake and that Scandal might be avoided in our Christian Divine Worshipping of God By means of which in former times great Mischiefs were presaged which came to pass in our days besides Perjury which did accompany all our Evils to

can hold any thing of Type or Figure but what is of a Moral equity as the Surplice Sanctity in the Minister to mind us of our first Estate a mark of an High-calling of the Dignity of the Person The Cross constancy in every Christian Baptized intimating also what the Congregation hope and expect afterwards from the Infant The Ring a token and pledge of sure performing and keeping the Vow and Covenant betwixt them made whereby the Man may be kept from the Flattery of the Tongue of a strange Woman and the Woman remembred that she forsake not the guide of her Youth neither forget the Covenant of her God The Act of Kneeling Humility in all faithfull Communicants every Communicant having a Prayer appointed for him in receiving Because our Church doth not deny our Ceremonies to have such matter and form as gives them the Essence of Religious Ceremonies or Appurtenances to bound Worship but doth deny them to have any such matter and form as gives them the Essence of Worship it self properly so called Because our Church doth not teach men to think that the Lord is better pleased with these Ceremonies even in themselves than he is without them or that they are as pleasing to him as if he had Commanded them Howsoever Ceremonies and a form of Liturgy is necessary yet not more necessary for Episcopal than Presbyterial Government Because to make a Conscience of things not forbidden as if God would else be offended is as much Superstition as to hold him necessarily pleased with that he hath not forbidden Because by Subscription I am required no more than to acknowledge those things Commanded to be Lawfull as not repugnant to the Word of God and obliged thereby not to resist or speak evil of those Lawfull Governours and Ordinances that preserve Peace Ex animo i. e. dare fidem dare igitur fidem magis est quam promittere Because our Subscription ex animo is but the faithfull Declaration of our hearts which by our Subscribing we Testifie to be real and sincere and by way of Tolleration to accept our Hands without Hearty approbation would but subtilly procure an outward Peace and when occasion should serve dangerously disturb the Church and State Nevertheless by whatsoever Art of words any Man sweareth yet God who is the witness of the Conscience accepteth it as he doth to whom the Oath is made Because the Church can make no new Articles of Faith nor no new Sacraments no new Kind of Worship to God properly so called yet is left at Liberty in matters of God's Worship to ordain Decencies for Edification of her self and as God's Embassadors have Power in Ecclesiastical matters Because we have the constant Judgment of all Churches in all Ages for our Government which is much to be Honoured and heard in all things that contradict not Scripture Because our Lord Jesus Christ did not fix any certain Fashion for the receiving of the Sacrament but ordained that which was Necessary and left the rest to occasion and choice which hath made the Law even by the Largeness of it the more Perfect and in respect of the Use the more Commodious Because the Church doth not Bow nor profess to Bow before and to the Holy mysteries in the Sacrament for respect of their Holiness which in that action the Church doth not look at as Creatures but as Divine Symbols signifying and sealing the Covenant of Grace to us Because the Cross in Baptism is not added to the Sacrament of Baptism but to the Solemnity thereof neither doth the Church esteem the Cross any Essential thing nor hold that it alters the Institution but as a thing Indifferent as a Lawfull outward Ceremony and Honourable badge of Christian Profession whereby the Infant is Dedicated to the Service of Jesus Christ which Sacrament of Baptism the Church doth hold to be perfect without Confirmation and that it adds not any thing to the virtue and strength thereof but receives it as an Apostolical Institution and as one of the particular points of the Apostles Catechism set down Heb. 6.2 which is confirmed by the Judgment of Mr. Calvin in these words Calvin in Heb. Hic unus locus abundè testatur hujus Ceremoniae originem fluxisse ab Apostolis This one place doth sufficiently evidence the beginning of this Ceremony to have been from the Apostles Because Ceremonies as they are not against the general rule of the Word of God so they are not determinable by every Voice and being setled not likely to be removed For what are we the State should be moved for us either this or that way especially considering it hath not imposed any thing Unlawfull or not Necessary but what is allowed by Fathers Councils c and St. Augustine saith St. Aug. That whatsoever the Universal Church hath held and doth hold and is not found in following Councils constituted but always retained is most rightly believed to be delivered by the Apostolick Authority Because our Ceremonies are not Private but Publick Sacred not Civil but yet Sacred by Application not by Divine Institution Mutable not Permanent Indifferent not Necessary ordained to be used necessarily in respect of Order Peace and Edification Because to Judge of Order and Peace of what is convenient and what not and to determine thereof belongeth only to those which together with the Power of doing what they shall well like of have the Scales of Wisdome and Judgment to weigh all Circumstances and so to make choice of the best way Because Non-conformity begets difference of Minds diversity of Opinions and hath brought forth Schism yea caused Heart Schism and this amongst such who know Non-conformity is Sinfull and cannot be Justified nor ought not to be Tollerated whereby each Non-conforming party become worse and worse and the more confirmed in their mistakings Because by In-conformity the main Duties of God's Worship are neglected and from Confidence fixed to an error of Opinion with the reputation of some few to be maintained the Bellows of strife are blown whence ariseth despising of Government and speaking evil of Dignities Because nothing is gained by the opposition of established Government but in the end the strictest pursuerts of Reformation fall to Vanity in their Writings to make others Laugh and in the mean while open a Door to Atheism and Prophaneness The sad consequences hereof would better become such to Study than thus to make themselves Popular by wilfull Disobedience to Lawfull Authority not because of the Unfitness of Ceremonies but of their Unwillingness to Obey Because by the extreme opposition of established Government we may incense Our Prince and Governour to courses inconvenient for us when as nothing but Fewel is brought to the Fire still nothing but what doth foment Strife Bandying one against another and against the established Government the Consciences of men say within them is not Unlawfull but ought to be Submitted unto Because the Law-givers are not restrained to