Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	ancient_a	church_n	time_n	2,337	5	3.6439	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51000	Misericordiam volo, or, The pharisees lesson shewing the impiety and vnreasonableness of contending for outward formes and ceremonies, to the violation of obedience, charity, and the publick peace.	Long, Thomas, 1621-1707.; Long, Thomas, 1621-1707. Character of a separatist, or, Sensuality the ground of separation.	1677 (1677)	Wing M2245; ESTC R33489	37,726	84

MISERICORDIAM VOLO OR THE Pharisees LESSON SHEWING The Impiety and Vnreasonableness of contending for outward Formes and Ceremonies to the Violation of Obedience Charity and the Publick Peace Haud dubitem affirmare eos qui falluntur tamen fraternam communionem cum aliis retinere parati sunt esse coram Deo magis excusatos quàm qui veras opiniones in iis controversiis tuentur mutuam communionem cum aliis Ecclesiis etiam desiderantibus aspernantur Davenant pro pace Ecclesiae p. 24. LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1677. THE PREFACE Concerning the Ceremonies of the Church IT is granted by all sober Protestants that the Church hath power of making Canons and Constitutions for Decency and Order in the publick worship of God and not only to prescribe the necessary circumstances of time and place but also to continue and establish those ancient rites of the Christian Church which were practised in the primitive times and are in themselves of an indifferent nature which authority of the Church was asserted in the Augustan confession Instit l. 4. c. 10. S. 27. See T. C. l. 1. p. 27. and particularly by Mr. Calvin and other worthy persons in the Reformation Which our Reformers also did assume to themselves as is declared in the 20th Article and hath been practised and defended against all Dissenters Acts 15.28 1 Corinth 11.16 as well by Scripture as by Antiquity and right reason and therefore those persons that condemn the Ceremonies of the Church which the Martyrs and Confessors of our Church did establish upon mature deliberation do reflect too severely upon those Worthies who with equal prudence and constancy did commend them to us And the Royal Martyr was so tender of their reputation Exact collect p. 26. that in his answer to the Parliaments Remonstrance he promiseth to reform the Ceremonies with these cautions 1. That the Reformation were pursued with such modesty and submission that the quiet of the Kingdom were not disturbed 2. Nor the decency and comeliness of God's service discountenanced 3. Nor the pious sober and devout actions of those reverend persons who were the first labourers in the blessed Reformation be scandalized and defamed And some that are not friends to Ceremonies Saints care for Church Communion p. 334. have vindicated those persons in this respect What shall we say of reverend Ridley saith Master Crofton hearty Hooper sincere Sanders trusty Tayler and most brave Bradford with the cloud of Witnesses that served God by the Liturgy to their last breath even in their most personal and dying devotions and suffered also for so doing having the same objected against them by their Persecutors and also pressed the people and their choicest friends to adhere to it and serve God by it And however some succeeding Christians have desired some reformation of the Liturgy they have constantly and with due devotion served God in the use thereof and defended the same against the censorious Brownists and rigid Separatists And the first reformation had the perfection of substance though not of degrees Gods true worship was restored to a right order of ministration the Ordinances of God did then truly exist as to their substance and salvably as to their Ministerial mode towards the people otherwise those holy Men had not wherein to rejoyce before God and the World And certainly they did not entayl a Popish Superstitious or Idolatrous Yoke as some call the Ceremonies on the Church of God Mr. Cartwright was one of the first Opposers of the Ceremonies and instead of acquainting you with the Answers of Arch-Bishop Whitgift and judicious Hooker to his arguments it will be sufficient to say that Mr. Cartwright himself hath said enough to confute the dissenters of our times for first he opposed them only as inconvenient not unlawful and perswaded Ministers rather to wear the Garments than cease their Ministry 2d Reply p. 262. and in his Evangelical Harmony on Luke 22. à v. 14. ad 19. he saith that kneeling in the receiving of the Sacrament being incommodious in its own nature p. 877. Edit ult and made more incommodious by Popish Superstition is not so to be rejected that for the sake thereof we should abstain from the Sacrament because the thing is not in its own nature unlawful And what his judgment was in the case of Separation appears in a Letter of his to Mr. Harrison lately published And in another Letter to his Sister Anne Stubs reproving her for stumbling at this stone that because of some defects in a Church instead of concluding that Church to be imperfect she concluded it to be no Church The wise and holy Mr. Hildersham Bradshaw Paget Ball Gifford Cure of Divisions p. 188. and other learned Nonconformists of old did foresee and greatly fear this Spirit saith Mr. Baxter But this Spirit being very troublesome and pragmatical the most learned of the dissenters did alway endeavour to moderate it as well by their quiet and peaceable practice as by their learned and earnest arguments and exhortations to unity in the publick Worship And accordingly when King James shortly after his entry into the Throne had appointed the conference at Hampton Court where Doctor Raynolds Dr. Chaderton Dr. Spark and others were appointed to discourse the matters in controversie with some Episcopal Divines They were so far from affirming the ceremonies to be unlawful that they would not have it known that any of that party were so weak as to affirm it and Dr. Raynolds was so far satisfied that before his death he solemnly declared himself to be of the communion of the Church of England and desired absolution according to the form appointed in the Liturgy About this time Bishop Morton Doctor Burges Mr. Sprint and others did most rationally and irrefragably assert the innocency of the Ceremonies and the necessity of the Ministers conforming rather than to suffer deprivation and of the peoples rather than to be deprived of the Ordinances of Christ I intend not a History of the transactions in this business and therefore shall only give you a brief account of it from the beginning of our unhappy troubles The Long Parliament in their Petition and Remonstrance joyned with it December 15. 1642. inform us of some Malignant parties whose proceedings evidently appeared to be mainly for the advantage and increase of Popery and were composed set up and acted by the subtle practice of the Jesuits and other Engineers and Factors for Rome who had so far prevailed as to corrupt divers of the Bishops and others in prime places of the Church Exact Collect. and p. 20. they intimate that Idolatry and Popish Ceremonies were introduced to the Church by command of the Bishops and the people were not only debarred the Church but expelled the Kingdom And that those were counted fittest for Ecclesiastical preferment and soonest attained it who were most officious

that every one in his place ought to do his part to the abolishing of it and not sit still in the midst of such defilements and snares but discover their hatred of them decline their use and endeavour the rooting of them out and all upon this ground that things which have been abused in false Worship must be laid aside Gilaspy Then comes another Boreas from the North whence most of our evils came called a Dispute against the English Popish Ceremonies which he explains to be a contending for the purity of Christ against the corruptions of Anti-christ and this Spirit as if he were indeed of the triumphant party leads in chains no meaner persons than Hooker Morton Burges Sprint Paybody Andrews Saravia Tilen Spotswood Lindsey Forbes c. who were all particularly confuted and vanquished by him as he boasted But this pitiful man dealt very mercifully with them for their chains were such as fell off of their own accord and so do those viperous appellations which he endeavours to fix on the Church and her practises Preface p. 6. calling them Popish Antichristian Idle and Idolized for thus he bespeaks the Church of Scotland Oh thou fairest among Women what hast thou to do with the inveagling appurtenances and habiliments of Babylon the whore c. But his Arguments are as impotent as his Obloquy the naming of which is confutation enough at least if the Reader will but turn his negatives into affirmatives and his affirmatives into negatives the weakness of the man and his manner of arguing will be manifest to all As First when he says we are not to account the Ceremonies matters of small importance contrary to the sense of ours and all the Reformed Churches which account them things indifferent and not worth the contending for Secondly Let not says he the pretence of peace and unity cool your fervour or make you spare to oppose your selves to those idle and Idolized Ceremonies contrary to the Text and to Rom. 14.17 Thirdly beware also you be not deceived with a pretence of the Churches consent and of Uniformity as well with the ancient Church as with the now Reformed Churches in the forms and customs of both as if the consent of the Ancient Church before Popery and all the Reformed since were one of the snares to be avoided Fourthly moreover because the foredeck and hindeck of all our opposites probations do resolve and rest finally into the authority of a law therefore we certiorate you with Calvin that Si acquievistis imperio pessimo laqueo vos induistis as if there were no difference between the establishing of iniquity by a Law of which Calvin speaks and the laws of our Superiors for decency and order Fifthly do not reckon it enough to bear within the inclosure of your secret thoughts a certain dislike of the Ceremonies Contrary to S. Paul Ro. 14.22 and other abuses now set on foot except by profession and action you evidence the same and so shew your Faith by your fact principally prayers and supplications are the weapons of our Spiritual warfare but as they ought to be done so the atchieving of other secundary means ought not to be left undone These are the chief of his arguments which he sums up in the Epistle dedicated to all and every one in the Reformed Churches of England Scotland and Ireland and you may judge by these of the validity of the whole Book which consists of 336. pages wherein is nothing objected or asserted but what hath been abundantly confuted by cogent reasons and arguments After this Scottish Pipe march many English Reformado's headed by Dr. Owen whose chief objection is Evangelical love p. 212. that the ceremonies are unwritten and unscriptural inventions of Men and that Christ's warrant and authority must be shewn for what is imposed in the worship of God The ridiculousness of this objection hath been clearly demonstrated by the Reverend Bishop Sanderson and others Then Mr. Hickman sends forth his Apology and his Bonasus Vapulans who inveighs against the ceremonies especially for being significant and instanceth in the sign of the Cross which is made a sign of dedication to God in Token that c. Whereas others of his party do oppose them because they are not significative enough To him succeeds the Author of the Rehersal who says that the Conformists defining a Sacrament to be an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace Omitting the chief part of the definition viz. ordained by Christ himself do make the ceremonies of a Sacramental nature To these the learned Ritchel in his Tract de Ceremoniis gives satisfactory answers to all unprejudiced Readers and Durel Parker * Mr. Calvin Mr. Baxter have done the same 41.61 p. 90 454. and others have done no less It will be but labour in vain to repeat here all the solid replies to those empty objections One such argument from Scripture as our Saviour urgeth in the Text against those that on pretence of contending for their own against the established rites and customes of the Church do violate the laws of Obedience Love and Peace will silence them all if they be not possest with a spirit of contradiction For if we should suppose that the rites and ceremonies were as expresly set down in the Gospel to be used or forborn in the publick worship of God as the rites and circumstances concerning Sacrifices were in the ceremonial law yet as the Sacrifices themselves much more the modes of preparing and offering them might be used or omitted for the performance of moral duties so doubtless if things of an external ceremonial nature had been commanded or forbidden in express terms they might yet be observed or omitted as the substantial service of God and obedience to his greater commands for charity and peace might be best performed But these things being not determined particularly by the Gospel but left under general rules for decency and order may doubtless be determined by a lawful authority such as that of our Church under our Gracious Soveraign is and being so determined and imposed there is an advantage on the side of Authority against a scrupulous conscience which ought to over rule the practice of such who are members of that Church It remains only that I endeavour to remove an objection or two against what is here said Object 1. If the ceremonies be things of such indifferency Why do not they who are in authority dispense with the use of them or totally lay them aside for the sake of peace and unity Answ 1. The Magistrate doth but his duty in providing for the solemnity of Divine worship according to those general rules for decency and order prescribed by the Apostles 2 ly What the Magistrate doth is not only agreeable to his private discretion and conscience for he practiseth the same things that he prescribes but according to the deliberate determinations of the most wise and pious persons