Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	apostle_n	church_n	tradition_n	3,170	5	9.1818	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47791	God's Sabbath before, under the law and under the Gospel briefly vindicated from novell and heterodox assertions / by Hamon L'Estrange ...	L'Estrange, Hamon, 1605-1660.	1641 (1641)	Wing L1188; ESTC R14890	92,840	157

it is to be examined the Lords day being an Apostolicall Tradition whether it be immutable whether the Church hath power to alter the day and substitute another in liew thereof I answer Nay the Church hath not such a power the sphere of her activitie extendeth not so farre she cannot null and rescind the act of God If the Sunday be established and established so I have proved it Jure divino it is without all dispute unchangeable for Immutable is one ingredient into the definition of Jus divinum as the Canonists compound it who make it which is comprehended in the Law and Gospel and remaineth perpetuall a True it is I grant that many positive divine Laws are changeable by the same authority which first imposed them but that a divine Law can be abrogated yea or displaced by humane authority that no sober man will yield to And I hope though many have of late set her on her tip-toes and advanced her to a tickle point the Churches power and authority reacheth not Divine Besides there is an especiall and peculiar reason of the inalterability of the Lords Day more then is usuall in other constitutions though Divine for God hath a propriety therein Six dayes in the week he hath bestowed upon us but the seventh he reserved for himself wherein he hath as good nay better freehold estate then any man in his possessions and then the rule of the Law is b What is ours without our assent cannot be transferred to another So that the Church hath no power to make that a work-day which God himself hath consecrated to his holy worship Nor mattereth it whether this designation were performed by Christ immediately or by the mediation of his Spirit assisting and infallibly directing the Apostles and so it becometh an Apostolicall Tradition for even this though the lowest degree of Divine appointment doth conferre exemption enough upon this day to secure it from any jurisdiction the Church can claim over it I will not dissemble it some learned men have I confesse ascribed to the Church an authoritie over this day so as she may if it please her transferre it to another But you must know withall that not one of these do repute it as an Apostolicall Tradition which is the hinge upon which the hole question moveth nor if they did are we to give absolute credit to their dictates Men they were of excellent endowments great both for their piety and learning and amongst them I honour none more then that famous Bishop c of Geneva Mr Calvin yet in some things as this for one I may say of him as Augustine of Cyprian d As there were many things which learned Calvin taught others so were there some things which he might learn of others If you can produce any one who hath affirmed it to be an Apostolicall institution or tradition and withall an alterable ordinance and I will promise you to affoard you two at least for him who have resolved the contrary But here perhaps you will demand What are all Apostolicall Traditions immutable That restriction from eating bloud or things offered to idoles that of collections for the poore every Lords Day c. I answer let it be first agreed what Apostolicall Traditions are under which name many upstart and recent customes intruded themselves into the Church a Every Province accounteth the constitutions of its Forefathers Apostolick Traditions saith Hierome Apostolicall Traditions then I say were of two sorts the one particular the other generall Particular were such as were framed by the Apostles either joyntly or severally but restrained to some especiall circumstance of time place persons or the like and so having onely reference and regard to such circumstance the removall of that circumstance made the observation of the Law to cease Such are those Traditions above named in the objection such are supposed to be the different rites of the East and West b one observing both the Sabbath and Lords Day the other the Lords Day onely and fasting on the Sabbath one celebrating the Festivall of Easter on the fourteenth day of the Moon the other upon the Sunday after Generall were such as neither regarding any circumstance of time place c. nor any moveable occasion were universally agreed upon to be received and so prescribed to the Christian Church by all the Apostles such were the Creed the books of the Canonicall Scripture the observation of the Lords Day Paedobaptisme c. whereof that golden rule of S. Augustine b is a character What the Catholick and Vniversall Church holdeth not decreed by Councels but ever observed we may safely believe it proceeded from no lesse then Apostolick authoritie Now these generall Traditions I averre to be immutable and such as must ever be observed in the Church not onely because they have or mention or foundation in the Scripture for so the particular have also and they which have not are not by us owned for Traditions Apostolicall but because they were at first made without limitation and restriction and herein I have the suffrage of Zanchy c Pareus d and other learned men As for particular Traditions they being at first framed for speciall occasions are now those occasions being ceased but as laws dormant untill the emergency of the like occasion awakeneth them again Dormant I said not dead Life vigour and force they have still and should the same occasion arise again God would expect from the Church the same observation For they being Apostolicall and so evidences of the Divine will upon severall occasions we must not think that one and the same cause can operate in the Immutable Essence a diverse will seeing in Philosophy The same agent whilest he is the same effecteth the same thing Dead therefore they cannot be so long as there remaineth a possibilitie for the same occasion to set them on work again and so that School-rule may fit them well e They oblige alwayes but not upon all occasions Well be the Lords Day Divine be it Immutable what then are we obliged to observe it with that severe and rigid vacation which the Jewish Sabbath required I answer Yes f He which succedeth into anothers jurisdiction is invested in his predecessours right The same strictnesse of observation belongeth to the Lords Day that anciently did to the Sabbath I say by the fourth Commandment for that Commandment hath not lost under the Gospel the least scruple or atome of obligation which it injoyed during the Law but bindeth still without abbreviation of time or alleviation of restraint during that time As for the duration of time though I cannot discern such distinct abbuttalls thereof in this Commandment as some seem to perswade yet am I of opinion that the word Day comprehendeth {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a hole naturall Day And as touching restraint from negotiation and toil on that Day the words are

will to them by the holy Ghost after his Ascension To render mine own opinion and beyond opinion I will not adventure Furiosares est in tenebris impetus it is madnesse to run too boldly in the dark where the Scripture is silent it is never safe dogmatically to determine any thing to render I say mine own opinion the first way seems to me the more probable considering our Saviours apparition the assembling of the Apostles upon that day whilest he abode with them and the testimony of Athanasius Nazianzene and Augustine but especially because Clemens a contemporary of the Apostles in his genuine epistle to the Corinthians saith g Our Saviours pleasure was that oblations and publick service of the Church should not be inordinately and uncertainly performed but at times appointed Which if it were true we need not then doubt but that Christ himself made the Lords day a weekly holyday it being the principall day we reade of destined to sacred duties in the Apostolicall age But the matter is not much by which so we be able to prove that at least by one of these waies he did it And this is a thing very feasable For to take a short and speeding course the most embraced and popular opinion is that the Apostles instituted and translated the Sabbath into the Lords-day this is agreed upon by all ancient and modern Augustine a The Apostles and Apostolick men ordained the Lords day to be celebrated with religious solemnity The Authour b of that Tract or at least of that Chapter falsely ascribed to Basil affirmeth the station and custome of standing upon the Lords day to be an Apostolicall Tradition if so then the day it self much more Isichius c We following the Tradition of them that is the Apostles sequestre the Lords day for holy meetings Epiphanius d saith that the Apostles ordained the Synaxes to be held {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} on the Wednesday Friday and Lords day I keep the originall word Synaxes because of the diverse sense whereof it is capable e The same is affirmed by Zanchy in quartum praeceptum pag. 669. Melancth. tom. 2. fol. 363. Bucer Ratio Can. Examin Mercer in Gen. Beza in Apoc. Pareus also ascribeth the Translation of the day Apostolicae Ecclesiae to the Apostolick Church onely of the time when they translated it he leaveth as he findeth doubtfull Quando autem facta sit haec mutatio in sacris literis non apparet And so 〈◊〉 his words in two severall editions I have perused that in quarto and the other in folio which I note the rather to whisper to you D. Heilens fidelity who in his also two severall editions hath by a new transsubstantiation converted Quando into Quomodo and to make it apparent he did it de industria he descants on it and renders it How by what authority Ursin Catech. p. 3. in Decalogum is of the same mind and so Junius in Gen. Baldwin Cas. pag. 474. Alsted catech. in praecept 4. Bellarm. De cultu Sanctor l. 3. c. 11. and infinite others indeed what needs more it is confest by our very Antagonists themselves Brerewood a B. White b Heilen c who all {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with one mind acknowledge the Apostles to be the instituters of the Lords day This foundation of Apostolicall institution being thus laid I advance forward to enquire whether this act of the Apostles did flow onely from the generall authority delegated to them by Christ or some definite and expresse command to that effect or rather in clear terms I proceed to discusse that great question Whether the Lords day be established Jure Divino Great I call it not for any abstruse and perplexed intricacy in it no Learned and eminent maintainers it hath got and therefore great but it is not her great Patronage shall advantage errour Magna est veritas praevalebit Truth is great and will prevail yea but that is the question whose Truth is It is so and come then for the decision of this question d To that truth which is neither mine nor thine but the equall object of us both let us give attention our clear and 〈◊〉 judgements not beclouded with peevish stubbornnesse To entitle a command Divine it is not onely required saith that thus farre judiciously learned Brerewood that the Authority be so whereby it is originally warranted for there may be Divine authority for humane decrees but that the Authour also by whom it is established be Divine Because Divine commandments are not so much evidences of Gods authority as they are declarations of his will and pleasure Which being without controversie true that which we are to make good is That this Act of the Apostles was but the execution of a particular and severall command to that purpose which can no sooner render it self manifest then by surveying the Apostolicall both Mission and Commission As for their Mission it was with all the grace and honour that might be nothing wanting that might any way enhance it As my Father sent me so send I you John 20.21 He that heareth you heareth me Luke 10.16 where our Saviour maketh them a kind of letter of Atturney to receive what obedience himself might claim And having dignified their embassage with these previous expressions Go saith he Matth. 28.19 there is their Mission and Legation and teach there is their Commission But what to teach what themselves think fit no there is a limitation a restriction it must be onely the observation of what thin●s I have commanded you and lest through frailty of their memories any thing should perish which was essentiall to their message Christ himself will have an eye to them I am with you alway even to the end of the world saith he With them how in corporeall presence that could not be for he was now ready to leave them No he was with them in Spirit by the Comforter whom he promised to send them John 15.26 And this Comforter had his Commission too To bring all things to their remembrance whatsoever Christ had formerly said to them John 14. ●6 And though this Comforter is called the Spirit of Truth and so impossible it is that he should inspire any thing lesse then truth yet when Christ telleth his Apostles that this Comforter should guide them into all truth he presently saith withall That he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall heare that he shall speak He shall receive of mine and shew it to you which denoteth to us that the doctrine of the Gospel is in a more especiall manner to be ascribed to Christ then to the holy Ghost who was but our Saviours delegate and Committee therefore S. Paul saith that Christ spake in him 2. Cor. 13.3 It being then indisputably clear that the Apostles were inspired by the holy Ghost and that that Divine enthusiasme was