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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
order_n	church_n	place_n	power_n	2,519	5	4.8983	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36103	A Discourse of the lawfulness of compliance with all the ceremonies of the Church of England		1660 (1660)	Wing D1605A; ESTC R15175	21,547	38

Jeshurun Deut. 33.5 And after him David Solomon Asa Jehosaphat Ezekiah Josiah Kings of Israel and Judah instituted the Tabernacle and Temple Service ordered and regulated several things in which they varied from the Law of Moses 2 Chron. 29.34 Lev. 1.6 7. erected Altars and dedicated them to the Lord destroyed Idolatry reformed abuses in the Worship of God setled both the standing Worship of God with occasional Thanksgivings and Humiliations The like power have Christian Kings and Emperours had since Christ as might be made evident and apparent by History And therefore it is an Article of the Church of England which likewise all do acknowledge in the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy that the King's Majesty within his Dominions and Countries is in all causes and over all persons as well ecclesiastical as civil next under God supreme Moderatour and Governour And therefore it is by his authority that Ecclesiastical Canons are made and enacted Laws of the Nation without which men of differing judgments might excommunicate each other but to little purpose I shall now in the next place briefly compare these Obligations together which many times cross and contradict each other The obligation then to observe indifferent Ceremonies which ariseth from the command of Superiour Powers is generally greater than any which ariseth upon other accounts And here first as to Vows and Covenants we have the case stated between Father and Child Husband and Wife Numb 30. and the same is the reason between Princes and Subjects for no man ought to bind himself with a vow unless in such cases which God and his Superiours have left to his liberty Otherwise Children Servants and Subjects might by making vows shake off all obedience to Parents Masters and Princes Whensoever therefore he knows the Will of the Prince or the Laws of the Land to be contrary to the intention of the Vow the Vow is unlawfull and if his Will be unknown it ought to be made conditionally and be of no longer force than it is permitted by the Superiours For as if there should be a contrary command of God it would immediately take off the obligation to the Vow and make it null and void so also a contradictory command of Parents Masters Princes to which last we ought to be obedient and not to resist upon pain of damnation doth also though not immediately yet consequentially by virtue of the Divine Precept concerning subjection cause it to cease It being not to be supposed in lawfull Vows and Oaths that they are against the Will of God or of Superiour powers whom by our Oaths we are bound to obey Secondly As to an erring and doubtfull Conscience 't is true that if a man through an erroneous judgment which is by reason of education or otherways invincibly such be fully persuaded that to be unlawfull which is in it self lawfull although the commands of Superiours lay an obligation yet the greater sin is to act against Conscience So Rom. 14.23 Whatsoever is not of faith is sin and the Apostle adds that he that eateth and doubteth is damned though not always in the World to come yet he is condemned in his own Conscience which how great a punishment it is we may know by divers Examples But if there be onely small inconsiderable Scruples or Arguments which draw the mind equally so that the judgment is rendered uncertain but cannot peremptorily determine the thing to be absolutely unlawfull the safest way is to obey the command and the duty we owe to the Superiour Powers ought to turn the scales Disobedience being one of the greatest sins and Obedience a necessary duty and therefore ought not to be neglected for trivial Scruples and Objections but upon very considerable and weighty reasons Thirdly As for case of Scandal we must first discharge our duty to our Sovereign and prefer obedience to the King before satisfaction of Fellow-subjects And to let pass that usual argument which is brought that obedience to Higher Powers is an act of Justice it being their due right given to them from God the King of Kings But the condescention to the infirmities of a weak Brother is an act onely of Charity and acts of charity must give place to acts of justice onely charity supposeth that we rob not others of their dues But in this case of obedience there is a concurrence both of justice and charity which surely should be of more prevalent obligation than a single one and that the weaker too to let this pass I say that the case is far different from what it was when the Apostle St. Paul wrote his Epistls for then their Faith was so much endangered that they could not tell well which sooner to part with their Faith in Christ or Mosaical Ceremonies But the Dissenters Faith now-a-days is not so much endangered but they seem to be the more confirmed and obstinate in their resolutions and affirm themselves almost to be the onely Christians But forasmuch as this Point hath been vehemently insisted on by several Separatists who having first made others to be scandalized at the Ceremonies and Orders of our Church and then pretend they cannot conform for fear of destroying the Souls of their weak brethren whose ruine they accuse our Church to endeavour I shall retort the argument on themselves and affirm in the next place that disobedience to the Higher Powers is it self the greatest scandal to Christian Religion and endangereth the Salvation of most Souls It was by this Jealousie rashly and without ground taken up viz. That Christ and Christian Religion were an enemy to government that the Devil hath in all ages stirred up men to persecute the Church upon this pretence our Blessed Saviour the most innocent person who lived upon Earth who payed Tribute to Caesar with the expence of a Miracle was yet condemned and executed If thou let him go thou art not Caesar's friend said the Jews to Pilate It was on this account that the Apostles endured bonds and imprisonments as men that would turn the World upside down It was upon this pretence that the Primi●ive Christians for above 300 years together were oppressed with the rage of heathen Emperours because thought disturbers of the publick peace So we see how the very pretence of indisposing men for subjection which notwithstanding the Apostles by their doctrine and the Primitive Christians by their example clearly refuted is apt to bring Religion into disesteem and render it odious But these disobeyed onely where God's Law was contrary to the Emperour 's and when they could not obey they patiently suffered But if we will stand out against our King in those things which God requires not of us if we will disobey our Sovereign and be never the more obedient to God if every scruple be an excuse from subjection and obedience these pretences will be turned into realities and we shall be left without excuse if we will have no regard to the Laws of Men which are the bond

of humane Society though no ways hindered by the fear of the Laws of God If tumults and insurrections shall be the appendixes of every command we find not expresly and in so many words contained in the word of God we may fear that the frequent calamities which will attend men on this account may cause to say no worse a great decay of Christian Religion Let us a little consider what the effects of mens contumacy and opposition of decent Ceremonies established by Law by which our late Wars were begun maintained and carried on in England hath been in our own Nation How much Religion hath been established and propagated by stumbling at straws and leaping over blocks by loathing indifferent Geremonies when the great duties of holiness and righteousness required conformity Hath not this been the introduction of Atheism and irreligion the greatest distemper among us hath not this been the original of all Sects and Schisms hath it not nourished those manifold Errours and Heresies which caused profane Persons to sit down in the seat of the Scorners and therefore as we tender the honour of our Religion and would vindicate it from being an enemy to government and destructive to humane Society preserved by government unless we would drive the same design with the Devil the common enemy of mankind and especially of Christians to bring an universal scandal on our Profession and render it odious to mankind we must not be refractary or disobedient to humane Laws when the Laws of God permit us to obey them and give an eedless occasion of offence to those whom God hath placed in authority over us And therefore in this case though ecclesiastical Persons are the best judges of what ought to be introduced into the Church yet if there should arise a dissention for the avoiding Scandal the Fathers of the Church ought to give place to the Father of their Country St. Paul teacheth us 1 Cor. 9.20 21. that unto the Jews he became as a Jew that he might gain the Jews to them under the law as under the law to them without the law as c. to the weak as weak to all men all things that he might by all means save some What think you he would have done nay what would he not have done if the Emperours by his condescensions should have become Christians by which means a free passage to the Gospel would be laid open throughout the whole World would he that so severely injoined obedience to the higher Powers on pain of damnation and that so readily and willingly complied with all sorts of men for the salvation of their Souls have scrupled a few indifferent Ceremonies whereby Governours and Magistrates might be alienated from the love of Christianity he had the same reason to comply with these as with all other sorts of people for their good And thus these things being premised I shall come to shew the lawfulness of compliance with all the Ceremonies of the Church of England and this I shall doe by one general and comprehensive argument If the the Jewish Ceremonies commanded in the Levitical Law were indifferent and might lawfully be observed after the Death Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour who put a period unto them even by those who knew the Levitical Law abolished at that time much more are the Ceremonies of the Church of England indifferent and may be lawfully used But the Jewish Ceremonies c. and therefore c. Of these Propositions in order now the sequel or consequence will evidently appear if w● compare theirs and ours together 'T is true indeed the Jewish Ceremonies had their institution and signification given unto them at first immediately from God himself And the Jews still thought that this obligation from God remained on them But however they were instituted onely for a certain time till Christ should come in the flesh and by oblation of himself once purchase the remission of our sins And then their signification together with the obligation to observe and perform them utterly perished so far forth as it was from God For this was the end of the institution of the Sacrifices and most of the Ceremonies to signify Christ to come and the offering him up as a Sacrifice for us all Heb. 9.23 24. And therefore the continuation of them afterwards was not from Divine Authority but depended on the ignorance of the Jews and prudence of the Apostles the Jews were zealous of the Law and the Apostles were willing to permit it as long as they embraced Christianity But God's institution and injunction being then expired they were for the time they were afterwards used as much humane and depending on the will of man as our Ceremonies are now and so in this case there is an equality And it is all one to think that to be appointed by God which is not appointed by him and to know it to be appointed by God's Vicegerent But if we will consider other circumstances we shall find that those which attended the Jewish Ceremonies were very dangerous and had such tendency to evil which ours are exempted from For first They might well be accounted vain and as the Passover Sacrifices for sin unreasonable Christ being already offered Secondly It might seem to be a mocking of God and abusing his Institution to use Ceremonies signifying Christ to come who was then ascended into Heaven and which represented his merits as future when they were already consummated Thirdly The use of them was joined in most Jews with this erroneous opinion that they were necessary parts of God's worship See Rom. 14. Fourthly Our Ceremonies signify onely ex parte hominis or on the part of man they either signify our duty and what we are or serve to put us in mind of what we should be but the Jewish Ceremonies did signify not onely ex parte hominis but ex parte Dei too they were used not onely as signs to put us in mind of our obedience to God but as means of conveying divine benediction upon us they were used not onely as mere Ceremonies but as Sacraments too and as proper parts of Divine Worship and as seals of the Covenant as Circumcision and the Passover Fifthly The observing of them among the Jews by the allowance of the Apostles might endanger as indeed it did the intrusion of them on the Gentiles And it being impossible for the Gentiles to observe all the Ceremonial Law of Moses and come up all of them to Jerusalem to keep the Passover and offer sacrifice it might cause them utterly to reject the Gospel which was incumbred with such impossible observations And here by the way I suppose that Christ came not onely to abolish the Jewish Ceremonies but also to leave all people to the indifferent use of such Ceremonies which were consistent with the service of God and agreeable to their own Country and temper which is a true kind of liberty Sixthly It might stir up the Jews to