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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
tradition_n	church_n	law_n	scripture_n	2,211	5	6.0049	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A05347	A treatise of the authority of the church The summe wherof was delivered in a sermon preached at Belfast, at the visitation of the diocese of Downe and Conner the tenth day of August 1636. By Henrie Leslie bishop of the diocese. Intended for the satisfaction of them who in those places oppose the orders of our church, and since published upon occasion of a libell sent abroad in writing, wherin this sermon, and all his proceedings are most falsely traduced. Together with an answer to certaine objections made against the orders of our church, especially kneeling at the communion.	Leslie, Henry, 1580-1661.	1637 (1637)	STC 15499; ESTC S114016	124,588	210

humane inventions but Gods Ordìnance because they bee naturall circumstances of Worship II. They could not well be expressed in the Scripture and that first because they are so numerous Ioh. XXI 25. All things that Iesus did are not recorded because our Bible should not grow too big for us and was it fitt then the Scripture should record all things that are or may be lawfully incident to the particular service of God So it should have swolne in quantity above the Popes Decretalls whereas the Canon of our fayth should be briefe that all may peruse it III. Because they are so chaungeable and diverse according to the diverse conditions of the Church they could not be commaunded by an unchangeable Law but were to be taken up by occasion Therefore the Apostle having instructed the Corinthians in matters of fayth and godlinesse puts off these other matters till his owne comming that he might see what was most expedient 1. Cor. 1● 34 Other things will I set in order when I come In which words he promiseth to appoint things belonging to outward Order and Politie Aug 1. epist ad Ianuar. chrysost in Loc. Muscul in Loc. Calvin in Loc Baeda Aretius Beza Whitaker de perfect Script Quaest VI. c. 6. 10. Moulin Buckler of faith p. 46.47 or as St Austin calls it ordinem agendi as I proved unto you at large at our last meeting both from the notation of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and from consent of all writers Now we know that he never came unto the Corinthians after that who then thinke you did order those other things but the governors of the Church And yet the Church of Corinth being a particular Church and so to be governed by one Law one would thinke that the Apostle might have prescribed unto them a compleat forme for outward Order and Politie But he foresaw in his wisedome that the Church would not alwayes be in the same condition and that those Orders that were agreeable for her Infancie would not suite so well with her afterward when she was growne unto ripe yeeres Therefore hee puts off these other things till his comming which being prevented the Governours of the Church had power to determine of these things Now sect 22 if the same Orders will not serve one Church at all times * Tert. de cor mil. Basil de S. sanct cap. 27. Con. Toll IV. c. 5. how was it possible for the Scripture to expresse all matters of Order belonging to the Catholicke Church Wee know that which is fit for the Church in one Nation is not so fit for another And that which is fit at one time is not so fit at another The Church is sometimes in prosperitie sometimes in adversitie sometimes hath to doe with Pagans sometimes with Heretickes and those diverse by reason whereof the Church hath beene occasioned to chaunge her Rites as namely dipping in Baptisme which she hath chaunged from thrise to once and againe from once to thrise So hath shee chaunged many other Ceremonies laying some downe and taking others up And how could she otherwise doe for who can imagine that one and the same fashion can accord unto the Church in her Infancie and fuller growth persecuted and in Peace flying into the wildernesse and resting as the Dove in the Arke at one time dwelling in Hierusalem a Citty built at unitie within it selfe at another diffused over the whole world You may as well shape a coat for the Moone to fit her both in her waxing and in her waning in the full and in the want as to set downe one manner of Discipline for all Churches at all times The internall beauty of the Church is alwayes the same Ps XLV 13. but her outward garment is of diverse colours And requisite it is it should be so for if in these things there were no alteration Ceremonies would be taken to be matters of substance As Calvin hath well observed saying As concerning rites in particular let the sentence of Augustin take place which leaveth it free unto all Churches understand Nationall Respons ad medias not Parochiall Churches to receive their owne Customes yea sometimes it profiteth and is expedient that there bee difference lest men should thinke that Religion is tyed to outward Ceremonies Tertullian's rule therefore is infallible Lib. de Virgin veland● Regula sidei immobilis irreformabilis caetera disciplinae conversationis admittunt novitatem correctionis Thus it is cleare that these things are not expressed in Scripture but are to be ordered by the Church My II. sect 23 Argument is taken from the consent of all learned Orthodoxe Divines auncient moderne who doe acknowledge that the Church hath authoritie to make Lawes for matters of Order and outward Politie and to appoint Rites and Ceremonies to bee observed in the worship of God that al men who are within the Cōmunion of that Church are bound to give obedience unto these Lawes Neither was there ever any learned Divine of the Reformed Churches who did deny Ceremoniall Traditions or indeed any Traditions but such as doe crosse either the verity or the perfection of the sacred Scripture Here it were easie for me to hold you till night onely in delivering the suffrages of Divines for confirmation of this point but I will content my selfe with a few The reformed Church of France in her Confession published in the yeare 1562. sayth Wee confesse Fatemur tum omnes tum etiam singulas Ecclesias hoc jus habere ut Leges Statuta sibi condant ad Politiam communem inter suos constituendam Ejusmodi porto statutis obedientiam deferendam esse Qui hoc detrectant cerebrosi pervicaces apud nos habentur Apud Calvin in opusc that all and every Church hath this power to make Lawes for establishing Common Politie amongst her own members And that obedience is to be given to these Lawes and those who refuse to obey are accounted with us obstinate and brain-sick And so they are indeed M. Calvin whose judgment you professe to honour and follow hath most judiciously determined this Question of the power of the Church in appointing of Ceremonies and outward Orders to bee observed in the worship of God whose judgement I will deliver in these propositions following I. a In externâ disciplinâ ceremonijs nonvoluit sigillatim praescribere quid sequi debeamus quod istud pendere à temporum conditione praevideret neque judicavitunam saeculis omnibus formam convenire Lib. IV. Instit c. X. §. 30. In externall Discipline and Ceremonies Christ would not particularly prescribe what we should follow because he fore-saw that would depend upon the conditions of the times and he thought that one forme would not bee agreeable unto all ages II. b Si enim velut in medio positae singulorum arbitrio relictae fucrint quoniam nunquam futurum est ut omnibus idem placeat brevi futura

our disobedience Finally amongst the Romanes some were offended at the eating of those meates but I doe not reade that any was offended at the not eating of them It is otherwayes with us where one is offended at our Ceremonies ten wiser then they would be offended if we did not use them And farre more if we did follow their fashion in the manner of Gods worship The case being cleere that the Orders which our Church injoynes are neyther contrary to Christian libertie nor to that care wee should have for to avoyd offence In the next place I will labour to finde out the cause of this grosse mistake in the brethren which certainely is this that they doe not rightly consider the nature of Christian liberty whilst they set it upon tenter-hookes and stretch it further then the nature thereof will beare seeking not only a liberty of minde and conscience in things indifferent but a freedome also in their outward actions which is not Christian libertie Calv. Inst lib. III. cap. 19. Sect. 10. but licentious immunity contrary to the doctrine of the Gospell for S. Peter exhorting all men to be obedient unto Magistrates I. Pet. II. 16. he warnes them not to use their libertie as a cloake of maliciousnesse Namely In casting off the bridle of governement It is proper to the libertie of the Creator alone to be unlimited but all lawfull libertie of the creature is and must be bounded not onely by the Law of charitie which these men will acknowledge but also by the law of loyaltie for if all restraint of the outward man were contrary to Christian liberty then were it not lawfull to obey the Magistrate in any thing Then if the King should be pleased to confirme the Orders or as they terme them the circumstances of worship which have beene used in their congregations They were bound to forsake them for the zeale of their Christian libertie And what is this else but to bring flat Anabaptisme and Anarchie into the Church to overthrow all Governement and dissolve the bonds of subjection and obedience to lawfull authority You shall therefore understand that the Magistrate by his Lawes may moderate or restraine the outward actions wherein the externall use of our liberty consisteth The inward liberty of conscience before God notwithstanding remayning intyre He may injoyne any action which in Gods worship may be used lawfully So that no opinion be put upon the conscience which taketh away the full respect of its indifferency And this is that which St Peter sayes We must obey the Magistrates as free that is as being perswaded that the thing commanded in it selfe and to God-ward as Calvin speakes is indifferent and whether we doe it or not doe it in it selfe it commends us not unto God otherwise then that by obeying of the Magistrate we doe also obey God who hath commanded us to be subject unto him Which will better appeare if we consider that Christian liberty is inward and spirituall which may stand with the outward servitude of slaves as the Apostle shewes I. Cor. VII 22. much more with the obedience of free subjects It is seated in the minde and conscience and respecteth nothing but what is betweene God and us It contenteth it selfe if there be no opinion put upon the conscience of the necessity of these things which God hath left indifferent if they be not obtruded as divine Lawes if no Religion be plac't in them nor they pressed as immediate parts of Gods worship It is only the subjecting of the conscience unto a thing indifferent I. Cor. VI. 12. which the Apostle calls The bringing us under the power of a thing which overthrowes our Christian liberty not the necessity of obedience unto lawfull authority but the doctrine or opinion of the absolute necessity of the thing it selfe In a word Christian libertie is not taken away by the necessity of doing a thing indifferent or not doing but only by that necessity which taketh away the opinion or perswasion of the indifferency of it As may appeare by this whensoever the Apostle condemnes the practise of Iewish Geremonies at that time when there was some dispensation and indulgence granted unto Christians till the Synagogue should be buried with honour It is manifest that he condemnes not so much the use as the doctrine and opinion which they had of them because they were urged and used not as things indifferent but as necessary unto salvation For we know that he himselfe many times did use them which he would not have done if they had beene then simplie evill he circumcised Timothie and many Christians who gave their lives for the Testimony of Iesus Christ were circumcised at that time even after their conversion unto the faith And yet when the false Apostles did urge the necessity of Circumcision he said If ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing Gal. V. 2 That is If you bee circumcised with an opinion of the necessity of that Ceremony as if it did avayle unto justification so he expounds himselfe ver 4. Whosoever are justified by the Law that is seeke for Iustification by the Law are fallen from Grace That it was only the doctrine opinion they had of Circumcision at that time which he condemnes may appeare further by this that those Ceremonies were not praescribed by a Civill Magistrate who hath power to commaund the outward man in the use of a thing indifferent but only by seducing teachers who had no power of bringing a necessity in the outward practise but by perswading and possessing mens mindes with an opinion of the necessity of these things After the like manner doth the Church of Rome at this day tyrannize over the consciences of men equalling her constitutions unto the Word of God Concil Trid. fess IV. placing Religion in them and ascribing unto them a divine necessity effectuall holynesse But our Church is farre from such an usurpation she doth place no Religion in them ascribe no holynesse unto them nor obtrude them upon the conscience as things necessary in themselves like Gods Commaundements but only requires obedience unto her constitutions thereby to reduce all her Children to an orderly Uniformity in the outward worship of God And to this purpose she hath sufficiently declared the innocencie of her meaning in the Articles of Religion Artic. XX. The Church ought not to enforce any thing besides the holy Writ to be beleeved of necessity for salvation And in the Pre face before the Booke of Common Prayer The Ceremonies that remaine are retayned for a discipline and order which upon just causes may bee altered and changed and therefore are not to bee esteemed equall with Gods Law So that I can not but wonder at the impudencie of the Libeller who changes our Church as Christ doth the Pharisees that she makes the commandements of God of none effect by her traditions Whereas the Pharisees did equall and preferre their owne traditions

est rerum omnium confusio Ibid. § 23. That yet these rites must not be left free for every man to use what fashion he pleaseth but must be established by Law otherwise for asmuch as the same orders will never please all men there will follow great confusion in the Church III. c Prout Ecclesiae utilitas requirit tam usitatas mutare abrogare quam novas instituere conveniet Ibid. §. 30. That it is lawfull for the Church when she findes it convenient to chaunge and abrogate old Ceremonies and to institute new in their roome IV. d Christiani populi officium est quae secundum hunc canonem fuerint instituta liberâ quidem conscientiâ nullâque superstitione piâ tamen facili ad obsequium propensione servare non contemptim habere non supinâ negli entiâ praeterire tantū abest ut per fastum contumaciam violare apertè debeat Quód siquis obstrepat plus sapere hic velit quàm oportet videat ipse quâ morositatem suam ratione Domino approbet Nobis tamen illud Pauli satisfacere debet nos contendi morem non habere neque Ecclesias Dei §. 31. That it is the dutie of every Christian not to contemne or neglect such constitutions but to keep them without superstition with a free conscience and with a pious and facile propension to obedience And if any will oppose them and be more wise then is needfull let him looke to it which way he will approve his morositie unto God for that of S. Paul should satisfie us that we have no custome to contend namely about such matters nor the Churches of God V. e Neque tamen permisit Dominus vagam effraenamque licentiam sed cancellos ut ita loquar circumdidit And a●gaine Confugere hic oportet ad generales quas dedit regulas See §. 10. That God hath not given his Church unlimited power to establish what Ceremonies shee lists but hath bounded her within certaine rules So that here wee must have recourse unto the generall rules layde downe in the Scripture Now the generall rules bee especially these Let all things be done decently and in Order I. Cor. XIV 40. Doe all things to the glory of God I. Cor. X. 31. Let all things be done to edifying I. Cor. XIV 26. follow those things which concerne Peace Rom. XIV 19. Of which kinde many more might be gathered out of Scripture which are the very Rules and Canons of the Law of Nature written in all mens hearts which wee are bound to observe though the Apostle had not mentioned them for they were not delivered in the Law of Moses and yet the Iewes observed them unwritten as being edicts of Nature and thereby framed such Church-Orders as in their Law was not prescribed So the Christian Church in all ages having respect unto those generall rules hath established Lawes for the outward forme and administration of God's worship See harmony of the confess Sect. 17. Zarich in 4. ptaecept Martyr epist ad Hooperum and a Cloud of witnesses alleadged by Archdishop Whitg ft in the defence of his Answer and O● Forbesse in his Irenicum as I will shew in the next place I will not trouble you any more with quotations but referre you to the confessions of all the reformed Churches and to the Bookes of all learned Protestants who have written of Traditions Rites and Ecclesiasticall constitutions Thirdly this hath beene the practice of all Churches to make Lawes of things indifferent and to appoint certaine Rites in the administration of God's worship The Apostles did it They appointed some which we reade of and yet holde not our selves bound to observe as abstinence from blood and strangled the kisse of Charitie sect 24 and Widowes to bee imployed in the service of the Church And many more which are not recorded as is confessed by the learned Whitaker Deperfect Script q. VI. c. 6. The Apostles sayth he did in every Church institute and ordayne some Rites and Customes serving for the seemlinesse of Church-regiment which they have not committed to writing The Primitive Church did both institute new Rites and abrogate some used by the Apostles as I thinke you will confesse Yea even the Church of the Iewes did institute many things without any speciall warrant Foure set Fasts whereof you may reade in the Prophecie of Zacharie Zach. VIII and by the authority of Iudas Maccabaeus the Feast of Dedication which our Saviour sanctified with his blessed presence The Musicke of the Temple that David brought in wee reade it approved wee never read it commaunded The appointment of the houres for day lie sacrifice the building of Synagogues throughout the Land See T. C. Reply p 35. the erecting of Pulpits and Chaires to teach in the order of Buriall The Rites of Marriage are not prescribed in the Law but taken up by themselves So I may say for the forme of administration of the Sacraments it was not prescribed who should be the Minister of Circumcision in what place it should be ministred with what kind of knife after what manner the Child should be presented what gesture should bee used either by the Minister or the people what words should be used As for the Passeover though the forme of it be more particularly prescribed yet it is certaine that the Church after changed some things and added many things to the first institution The gesture used in the first Passeover may appeare by many circumstances in the Text to have been standing and yet I thinke you will confesse that they changed it afterwards into sitting or lying And they added many things which were not commaunded as washing of their feete after they had eaten the Lambe and after that a second course of Sallets in which the soppe given to Iudas was dipped The dividing of the Bread into two parts the reserving of the one part for a while under a napkin and at the end of the Supper dividing it into so many parts as there were persons and delivering it unto them The forme of blessing which was used all which are set downe particularly by Beza Beza in Matth. XXVI 20. who professeth that he collected the same out of Paulus Burgensis Tremellius and S●aliger And for all these they had no direction in the Word but they were appointed by the Churches discretion Now if the Church of the Iewes had such power much more the Christian Church for Agar was in bondage Gal. IV. 25.26 with her children but Hierusalem which is above is free For in God's worship they were bound unto many circumstances of Time Place and Person which no man will say wee are under the Gospell And indeed they being a Nationall Church onely were to be governed by one Law and all things incident to the worship of God amongst them might bee expressed in that Law But the Christian Church being spread farre and wide over the face of the