Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	church_n	divine_a	tradition_n	2,510	5	9.4719	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

which is the greatest of all But none ever affirmed a Divine Institution Ergò c. They do not indeed mention it sub terminis because it was not questioned in their dayes but if they make it instituted by Christ as some or by his Apostles as almost all and if they tell us * Whatsoever the Apostles delivered by the dictate of the holy Ghost is as firm and indefeasable as what Christ himself then I hope by necessary consequence they make it of Divine Institution That which the orthodox condemne for popery should not be consented to by us But that the Lords day is a part of Gods worship and more holy then other dayes as from Divine authoritie is condemned by Reformists in the Papists Therefore we ought not to symbolize with them No reformed Writers condemne this in the Papists because they hold the Lords Day more holy then others but onely such and those very few as think the Day to be of Ecclesiasticall not of Divine Institution The orthodox Thesis is this * Festivall dayes cannot by humane constitution be made more holy then others as Amesius to whom you appeal could have informed you Lastly Socrates affirmeth that the Apostles never intended to establish laws concerning Holydayes S. Augustine also maketh it will-worship or idolatry to observe any day as commanded of God S. Hierome likewise saith we have no dayes having any holinesse in them and necessitie from Divine institution The book of Homilies affirmeth that Christian men of themselves without any Divine precepts did take upon them the observation of the Lords Day All reformed Churches consent with us and many Martyrs in the Marian dayes as Tindall Frith Barnes Lastly Master Perkins speaketh doubtfully herein yet he was one of the first that took up this tenet Socrates must have a candid Reader or be argued of overbold singularitie against all Antiquitie who affirmed the contrary Augustine saith that the Christians in his time did not observe so much the festivals themselves as what was signified by them and therefore he saith that the Apostle did blame the Galatians in this because they did observe appointed times servilely not knowing the mystery to which they tended he speaketh nothing of their institution not one word Hierome indeed I grant was inclining to your opinion but his single judgement is not equivalent to the many reasons and authorities urged on the contrary The book of Homilies affirmeth no such thing as you say these words of themselves without any Divine precept are yours not the Churches not expresly not interpretatively so not hers as she is positive in the direct contrary For there being two things wherein the Divine right of the Lords Day is founded upon legall Institution in the fourth Commandment and Evangelicall by either Christ or his Apostles for the first she saith that God expresly in that precept commandeth the observation of the Sabbath which is our Sunday and not onely commandeth it but also by his own example doth stirre and provoke us to diligent keeping of the same For the second having a while after declared it to be Gods Will and Commandment to have a solemn time and standing day in the week consecrated to him she presently addeth This example and Commandment of God the godly Christian people began to follow immediately after the ascension of our Lord Christ and began to chuse them a standing day in the week to come together in Now where she speaketh of Godly Christian people she doubtlesse meaneth the Apostles for who else durst at that time take upon them to begin such a custome and so as touching the Institution of the day as a weekly day she reduceth it to the fourth precept and as the first of the week she foundeth it upon Apostolick practice What some other reformed Churches think in this point of the Lords Day may plausibly enough against us be urged on your parts I confesse and it is your Drusian your keenest objection and yet we can oppose many things to turn the edge of it For first they are onely positive in setting down their own opinions but the reasons inducing them thereto they suppresse and seeing they are not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} we must not be governed by their bare Thesis Secondly those confessions are not generall but particular to some Churches Thirdly were they the Canons of a generall Councel yet must they not predominate over Truth a Nationall and Provinciall councels ought to give place to the authoritie of Vniversall and Oecumenicall and these have been oftentimes amended when experience hath cleared some truth which before lay hid saith Augustine Lastly though some will think it b periculosa praesumptio judicare de caeteris ipsum ab omnibus judicandum to speak the truth yet to speak it with all terms of venerable regard to those famous Churches I dare pronounce they are not right in this point not so full reformed but they stand yet in need of further reformation Nor ought we to wonder at their mistake herein For first the precept of the Lords Day is not so legible in sacred Scripture as the rest which concern matters of faith thereby to instruct us to put a difference betwixt fundamentalls and ceremonies it is written in a finer character in a smaller Print and therefore might well escape the eyes of those Churches at the first break of day of Reformation when the light shone somewhat dimme Secondly the question was never on foot in their times and so the evidences demonstrating Divine Right were never laid open to them and having inquiries concerning sacrifice of the Altar Adoration c. more proper for those times to imploy them they were not like to inform themselves better upon accident What I have said concerning the Reformed Churches may also be applyed to those holy and blessed Martyrs you cite and partly to master Perkins who had he lived now would I dare say have been as positive and resolute as any other And whereas you make him the prime inventer of this tenet though what I have urged out of the book of Homilies is your sufficient confutation yet will I produce one Testimony more and that no lesse then Royall and as Reformation it self ancient The Sabbath Day was used and ordained but for mans use and therefore ought to give place to the necessity and behoof of the same whensoever that shall occur much rather any other holy day instituted by man What say you now Sir if Perkins was the first that took up this tenet who I pray laid it down and down it was laid for certain if he took it up for up it was you see in Henry the eighths time Having thus waded through all the objections and discovered their frame to consist of very loose and defeasable stuff wherein truth is no ingredient I step forward to other questions incident and pertinent to this discourse And first