Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n
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A45585
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An humble essay toward the settlement of peace and truth in the church, as a certain foundation of lasting union by Sir Edward Harley.
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Harley, Edward, Sir, 1624-1700.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing H777; ESTC R11056
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25,032
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42
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Isralites for Blaspheming God upon the Hills that is in the high Places where God was Worshiped in a manner not commanded by God Therefore it remains a blemish upon the good Kings of Judah See this fully evinced by Mr Mede in his Com. upon Apoc c. 13. P. 624 625. who abolished the false gods notwithstanding permitted superstitious Worship in the high Places to the true God The Lord Jesus also tells the Woman of Samaria that the Samaritans Worshipped they knew not what 2 King 15.4.35 2 Cron. 33.17 Not because they worshipped a false God that was not their Crime but because they adored God by a Worship invented by Man and not appointed by God Joh. 4.22 't was therefore meer Superstition which could not bring to Salvation the blessed of End of true Religion Superstition is fitly called a colloguing with God Joh. 15.14 consequently the acceptance must be as diverse from that of Religion as flattery is from friendship For they only are the friends of Christ that keep his Commandments Religion is the rule of true Wisdom to bring Mankind to Eternal Happiness Religion by directing all his affections and actions to their proper Object according to the will and command of God God Isaiah 45.18 Acts 17.26 27. who made the World of nothing created it not in vain He formed it to be inhabited and made of one Blood all Nations of Men for to dwell on all the Face of the Earth that they should seek the Lord. Not as though he needed any thing seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things Neither is he worshipped with Mens hands nor dwells in Temples made with hands It is equally impossible for Man to be happy without Religious dependance upon his Creator And for the Worship or Service of any Created Being to be necessary unto God The whole world was made an Harmonious Scheme every Being from the least and lowest to the greatest and highest chiming into the Consort whereof Man was the chief Musitian Eccles 7.29 Man was made upright in a likeness of conformity to his Creator His mind will and affections replenished with Divine knowledg Righteousness and Holiness by which he was capacitated to exercise the Dominion bestowed upon him by God over all the Living Inhabitants of the Air Earth and Water Man therefore is justly defined to be a Rational Religious Creature therein consisting the formal ultimate difference from a Brute and the highest character of his Nature The Excellency of true Religion to be such as before represented will appear in all the due acceptations thereof by which also will be manifested the vanity and mischief of all false Religions Rectum est index sui obliqui for Truth presents the Rule and Indication both of it self and of what is false God who subjected all Creatures to Man bound Man to himself by the Law of Religion This was the Covenant of Life God vouchsafed to man as soon as Created which our Lord Jesus rehearsed to the Scribe in the Gospel Thou shalt Love the Lord thy God with all thy Soul and Mind and Heart and strength and thy Neighbour as thy self do this and thou shalt live Luke 10.28 This is the perfect Rule of true Wisdom the way to real Happiness when the Soul and Mind the understanding and Judgment know God as the only Infinite All-sufficient Good the Almighty Creator Ruler and Preserver of all Beings thence concludes there can be no happiness but in conformity to the will and enjoyment of the favour of God accordingly the whole Heart Will and Affections Fear Trust Hope Delight in God and the strength of all the Powers both intellectual and animal Serve Obey and Prays His Sovereign Lord in whom he lives moves and hath his Being This is vita frui To live indeed As the Eternal Power of the invinsible Godhead is clearly seen by the Creation of the World so all the Creatures we see have such evident Signatures of the Divine Wisdom Power and Goodness as exact a behaviour converse and enjoyment according to the Law of intire Love for love is the fulfilling and Lust is the transgression of the Law Rom. 13.9 10. Therefore he loves not God who loves not Himself and his Neighbour in conformity to the Image of God in which Man was made Holy and Upright How Pleasant and Safe and Happy would Life be if every one did to another only what he would receive from another if every one were sincerely loved by every one This is Natural Religion for he only that doeth Righteousness is Righteous as God is Righteous 1 John 3.7 This was the felicity of innocent Man before his Heart was venomed with Lust and Vanity And even now the work of this Divine Law is Written in all Mens Hearts to which their Conscience bear Witness The Conclusion or summ of the whole matter of Religion is Eccles 12.13 Fear God and keep his Commandments This is the whole Duty of Man Therefore the second part of Religion called Instituted is therein necessarily comprised and from thence derives Evidence of Authority and Obligation being given before the fall to establish and direct natural Religion and since the fall to supply its defects This part of Religion is fitly called supernatural or Revealed and is known not by Reason but by Faith For though it be the highest Reason to believe the Word of God which is the only ground of Faith yet Faith is above Reason representing things not seen by Reason and evidencing Divine Objects more certainly then any Method of Reason can demonstrate viz. by the infallible word of God Instituted Religion is the Rule of Divine Worship both Moral and Ceremonial prescribed by God Instituted Religion Prayer by which the Heart powers out it self to God by which the Soul ascends to God Psal 62 8. is only such when animated with the Priviledge and Authority of Gods Word For only God can teach how he pleaseth to be prayed unto and worshipped Solus Deus docere potest ut se velet orari It is the Word of God that teaches we shall not be heard for our much speaking Tertul. de Orat c. 9. that we must not use vain Repetion as if prayers like Egyptian Bricks were to be delivered by Tale Mat. 6.7 or there were Efficacy and Interest in a Phraseologie of Devotion All Flesh is guilty and silent before God Psal 65.23 until the word of promise opens the lips Rom. 8.26 and teaches the Heart how to pray And this Tertul. p. 6.60 sine Monitore quia depectore Oramus saith Tertullian was the Practice of Primitive Christianity It is the Scripture that assures whoever calls on the Name of the Lord Rom. 10.13 14. shall be saved But it also saith How shall they call on him whom they have not believed and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not
in order to a present Service but the same Apostle would not permit Titus to be compelled to be circumcised Gal. 2.3.4 because it would have brought the Liberty of the Church into Bondage After the Decease of the Apostles many Rites and Ceremonies not commanded by God crept into the Church but they were Arbitrarily practised Tertul. Lib. de Cor. Militis c. 2. Nam si idco dicetur Coronari Licere quia non prohibeat Scriptura aeque retorquebitur ideo Coronari non Licere quia Scriptura non jubeat not at all enjoyned as Tertullian manifests and particularly instances among many others the signing the Forehead with a Cross upon several occasions of Civil Conversation These and others by him mentioned saith That Learned Father were only Customary Practises not warranted by Scripture But for things imposed the Rule saith he is before I believe for whatsoever is not of saith is sin I must know what Scripture it is that commands me to obey For Sed quod non prohibetur ultro est permission Imo prohibetur quod non ultro est permissum saith he this or that is not Lawfull because the Scripture doeth not forbid it but that is unlawful which the Scripture doth not command The Discourse is directed against the Imposition of any humane Rite upon the Conscienceofany Christian And the reason isenforced by him C. 11. Ter. de Cor. mil. Credimus ne humanum sacramantum Divino superduci Licere in alium Dominum respondere post Christum because it is not Lawful to superinduce any Humane Sacrament or Ordinance upon a Divine What havock in the Church did the breach of this Rule make One instance concerning Easter may serve for all The Christian Churches all under the Dominion of one Imperial Crown varied among themselves concerning the Observation of Easter Socra Eccles Hist. Lib. 5. c. 21. Euseb Lib. 5. c. 3. Nevertheless communicated without discord That variety as saith Irenaeus commending the Unity of Faith Every Sect had sundry and divers Rites and Ceremonies yet therefore conceived they no worse Opinion of others then of themselves To be short faith the History among the Customs and Observations of all Sects we shall not find two which follow and retain one and the same order of Service Notwithstanding the Customary and Arbitrary practice of so many various and different Rites the Peace of the Church remained intire untill the Arrogance of Victor Bishop of Rome Imposed upon the Churches concerning Easter and broke the Unity of Communion Then as the same History Notes the Commandments of God were despised and Men established Canons of their own They made no account of the Law determined by the Apostles which only prescribed the Observation of things necessary and rashly urged the Practice of Decrees contrary to the Will of God contending about Festivals as it were for Life and Death It is too well known what blood and ruine this Usurpation in the Church occasioned in Brittain and other parts of Christendom In succeeding Ages the Latine Churches differed much in the practice of several Rites and Ceremonies Council Lat. 4. yet without breach of Communion So that when the Fourth Lateran Council made a New Cannon of Catholick Faith viz. The Doctrine of Transubstantiation another Cannon immediately Decreed That provided their Unity of Faith were professed If in the same Diocess or City several Persons Observed divers Rites The Bishop was enjoyned that the Offices of Divine Service should be Administred to every one according to their own various Rites In the English Church before the Reformation the Rites and Usages were various since the Reformation until the late Act of Uniformity the only condition of Communion enjoyned by Law was Subscription and Assent 13 Eliz. R. c. 12. not to a Uniformity in Rites and Ceremonies but to all the Articles of Religion which only concern the Confession of the True Christian Faith and the Doctrine of the Sacraments This was sufficient for any Minister though ordained in other Form then prescribed by the Rubrick The Ceremonies also retained in the Rubrick Dr. Stillingst Irenic P. 122. In composing our Liturgie those Holy Men who did seek by any means to draw in others at such a distance from their Principles as the Papists did never intend by what they did for that End to exclude any truly tender Consciences from their Communion seem not to be necessarily Commanded but rather Temporarily reserved and recommended for the Cross is not enjoyed in private Baptism the Reverence at the Name of Jesus is not determined how or when to be performed These and the like are declared in the Rubrick to be indifferent in their Nature and were so accounted in the first Practice after the Reformation during which time the Church of England flourished in great Peace The disturbance and breach of which being occasioned by the strict Imposition of Rites and Ceremonies in themselves indifferent the encrease of those severities still widening the breaches and heightning the disturbances How easie might the cure be accomplished if the Practice or Omission of all the Rites and Ceremonies in the Rubrick not commanded by the Word of God were left to that indifferent Freedom prescribed in the Seventh Cannon made 1640. Can. 7. 1640. concerning the Situation of the Communion Table and the approaches there unto and the doing Reverence and Obeysance coming in and going out of Churches c. viz. That the Rule of Charity prescribed by the Apostle be Observed which is that they which use this Rite despise not them who use it not and that they who use it not condemn not those that use it The Doctrine of the Church is owned and believed Art of Relig. 8.21 because it is taken out of Holy Scriptures for what is not so hath neither strength nor Authority though Constituted by any General Council whatsoever Accordingly in Divine Worship Human understanding ought not to Contrive or Impose but intirely Observe the absolute and simple perfection of the Gospel The departure from which Religionem Christianam absolutam simplice Arinesti superstitione confundens Am. Mar. as was long since Observed even by Amianus Marcellinus proved the Confusion of Christian Religion by vain Superstition It is the Command of Christ Joh. 10.4.5.8 therefore no Crime in Christians not to obey nor know the voice of any but Christ in matters of Religion Est in Vniversis servientibus non Dominium sed Ministerium Opt at Milevi Lib. 5. to whose Scepter only it belongs For all in the Church by what Names or Titles soever dignified are yet but Servants now the Universal Property of Servants is Ministry not Dominion They cannot make Laws they can only obey and require Obedience to the Laws of Christ our King and Lord Isa 25.9 for whose Salvation the Church waits The Divine Will is the only Rule and Measure of things Therefore Chrisostom declares to