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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	law_n	power_n	resist_v	2,109	5	9.2401	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56742	Discourses upon several practical subjects by the late Reverend William Payne ... ; with a preface giving some account of his life, writings, and death.	Payne, William, 1650-1696.; Powell, Joseph, d. 1698.	1698 (1698)	Wing P902; ESTC R21648	184,132	418

tho' it conduces never so much to our Interest or Advantage so that we could gain the World by it yet it will prove a dear Bargain at the last and we must lose our Souls for it for by the irreversible Terms and unalterable Conditions of the Gospel every willful and habitual sin destroys our good State and without a timely Repentance and Amendment excludes us out of Heaven And however we may think fit to abate of those Terms by our loose Opinions and false Principles and make other Judgments of our selves by the wrong measures of a Licentious Age or as Mistaken and as Licentious Doctrines yet Christianity has so plainly fixt these that we have no reason to believe that God will or can any way abate of them and to be sure our Religion does not 3. There are some particular duties in Christianity that seem very hard and difficult as well as the general Terms of it such as loving Enemies not revenging Injuries self-denial Mortification and the like which tho' they are against the grain of our Nature as some Men think and as impracticable as the Rants of Stoical Vertue yet are made necessary to our Pardon and Salvation by the Gospel Mat. 5.43.6.14 15. Mark 8.34 Rom. 8.13 and they truly are so in their right Sense and Meaning and ought to be as much performed by us as any other parts of our Religion we are bound as Christians to love our Enemies with the general Acts of Charity due to all mankind not with the particular Offices of kindnesses due to our Friends we must not revenge an injury to gratify a mere Private and Outrageous Passion without regard to publick good we must deny our selves any Worldly Interest when it is Inconsistent with our duty we must mortifie every Natural Passion and Sensual Inclination so as to keep it within the bounds of Virtue and Religion these are all agreeable to Reason and Prudence and to the Laws of Civil Government as well as to the Principles of Religion 4. Religion puts a check and restraint not only upon our Actions but upon our Words and our very Thoughts and this is hard some think that their Tongues should not be their own nor their Thoughts neither but that of every idle Word they must give an account in the day of Judgment and by our Words we shall be Condemned or Justified as well as by our Actions Mat. 12.36 37. and that our secret Thoughts should be tyed up so that we must not harbour any wickedness even in our Hearts and Thoughts Mark 7.21 Now this however severe it seems yet if by idle Words be meant only evil Words as I doubt not but 't is such as those of Slander and Desamation of which our Saviour there particularly spoke or such Prophane and Lewd Discourse as tends to affront Heaven or to Corrupt those who hear it and proceeds from a Malicious Irreligious and Corrupt Mind This gives such a vicious Tincture even to our Words that he who cannot better govern his Tongue than thus to injure his Brother or let fly at God and Religion This Man's Religion is vain as St. James says Jam. 1.26 if he pretend to any and he who by his Mouth thus vents the Exulcerated Malice Pride and Uncharitableness of his Heart and from such an Unchristian Temper calls his Brother Fool or Racha is in danger of Gods Judgment and of Hell-fire as our Saviour says Mat. 5.22 'T is the Venom and Malignity of the Heart and inward Disposition that like a Corrupt Fountain Poysons and Vitiates those ill streams that flow from it and this is the true Plastick Principle within us that Forms and Denominates all our Actions which are but the Fruits growing upon that Root and as our Saviour says A good Tree bringeth forth good Fruit and a Corrupt Tree that which is evil v. 17 18. of this Chapter All Moral Good and Evil is conceived and produced from the Heart and God who sees it there even before it comes into Act whenever it has the full consent of the Will does very justly Condemn it and charge it upon us For as without this consent of the Will no Action is Criminal before him so with it the Crime is both Specified Committed and Perfected tho' it go no further than the Thoughts and the Heart 5. Religion requires our lives to be usefull as well as Innocent and enjoyns us not only to do no ill thing but to do all the good that we are able else 't is but a negative and a useless Vertue the easiest and the softest side of it like the old Principle of Privation without the Matter and Form that is to give it a Being and a Substance We read in Scripture not only of the wicked Servant who was guilty of great Crimes Misdemeanors and Injuries against his Lord but of the Unprofitable one who did no manner of good but was idle and useless in his Service and for this Reason alone was cast into outer darkness God will call every one of us to a strict and severe account how we have used and improved all the Talents he committed to us all the Powers Abilities and Opportunities of doing good he hath put into our hands and if like Loiterers in his Vineyard we have only Feasted our selves with the Fruits and Delicacies of it and wasted our idle time in Ease and Luxury and spent a vain and useless Life in trifling and impertinent either Pleasure or Business and not Laboured at all in the great Work and Business of Religion for which we were sent into the World we must not at the last expect any wages from him but be punished for our useless idleness and great omissions by the Just Distributer of Rewards and Punishments who will render to all Men according to their Works and who expects we should do all the good we can for the sake of Heaven as well as abstain from all manner of Evil for the sake of Hell 6. Religion requires the Uniform practice of all Vertues and the entire Union and Conjunction of all Christian Graces to make and constitute a good Man whereas any single Vice or willfull Habit of Sin will denominate and make a bad one so as to make him incapable of Happiness and obnoxious to Misery This is an undoubted truth in Religion which requires tho' not the Perfection of Degrees yet the Perfection of parts so that no plain Vertue must be wanting nor no voluntary sin be allowed without the certain danger of being excluded out of Heaven as St. James says he that shall keep the whole Law besides and yet offend in one point willfully break any part of it Commit one Act of willfull Treason and Disobedience against Heaven is guilty of all resists and opposes all that Divine Power and Authority which gives Force and Sanction to every Law and becomes liable to the same sort of Punishment tho' not to the same equal degrees of it The Vertue of

since Christ and his Apostles which has found it necessary to appoint many external rites in their religious service 4. It is impossible in the nature of the thing to perform Divine worship without some rites and usages that God has now here Commanded nor is it possible to make Laws concerning these to reach all places for they must alter according to the several Manners and Customs of different People and Countries We must worship God with all signs of Honour and Reverence with respect and decency becoming so great a Majesty but the marks and outward signs of Honour alter and change according to Customs and Places and People that 't is impossible particularly to determine them As for Example pulling off the Shoe is a sign of Honour and Reverence in the Eastern Countries as pulling off the Hat with us and to this it is thought the precepts of the wise man alludes Eccles 5.1 Keep thy foot when thou goest into the house of God i. e. be carefull to show all manner of Reverence in his presence as the Jews did who always went barefoot into God's house as the Mahometans I think do still into their religious places but this would be a very odd and irreverent thing with us It was no irreverence among the Jews to have their heads covered in Divine worship at their Prayers and Sacrifices when the Priests constantly wore their Caps and Bonnets and sometimes Veils and other coverings and so Plutarch says it was accounted comely among the Romans to be covered at their worship but among the Graecians it was quite otherwise and at Corinth where St. Paul declares it to be an act of irreverence for the Men to Pray or Prophesie having the head covered 1. Cor. 11.4 tho' it was otherwise for the Women And therefore since matter of decency and order depends upon particular Customs and Places and Circumstances and is in it self variable and mutable there cannot be a Law given to determine it in all places nor is it possible to have all the little Rites and Circumstances of religious worship be comprehended in a Divine Law and therefore in the 5. Fifth place God has left those to be determined by particular Churches and Governors and has only commanded the substantials of his worship and given general Rules for all things to be done decently and in order 1 Cor. 14.40 and for mutual edification and the lesser circumstances and adjuncts that belong to Divine worship those he has lest undetermined and indifferent and those to whom he has committed the Government of the Church they are to settle those for prevention of confusion and disorder according to the rules of Prudence and those general measures which God has given in the Gospel It is plain he has no where Commanded them himself nor can there be any particular directory for them produced out of the Scriptures and as plain it is that there would be perpetual confusion and disorder in the Church if these were not appointed in several places by those who are Governors of it and when they are so they are to be obeyed and observed when there is nothing in them that is contrary to a Law of God they cannot be unlawfull when no Law forbids them but they may become necessary in their use when they were indifferent in their nature by a Lawfull Authority 's commanding them and surely there can be no sin or superstition in them upon that account Which that I may then clear the particular Ceremonies and Impositions of our Church from I shall very freely and openly give you my thoughts in some farther particulars about the lawfull and the superstitious use of these things in the worship of God 1. I own that there ought to be no new parts of worship other than what God himself has appointed there may be new circumstances and adjuncts appointed but no real and substantial parts of Divine worship As for Example no human Authority can institute new Sacraments as the Church of Rome does or more Sacramental parts of worship than those two which Christ himself has appointed to wit Baptism and the Lord's Supper but whether Baptism shall be performed by sprinkling or by dipping that is but a circumstance which the Church may determine according to the difference of the Climate or the strength of the Child or the season of the year and is left to every Minister's discretion in his own Church and so also whether it shall be by single or a trine immersion this as not being an essential of Baptism has been variously determined So in the other Sacrament none can add or take away from an essential part of Christ's own Institution as the Papists do in depriving the Laity of the Cup but whether we shall take this in a posture of sitting or kneeling or which is very ancient standing is not essential to it but what the Church may appoint as it thinks most becoming so solemn a Duty and most suiting the Prayers and Devotions that are joyn'd with it which no doubt kneeling is So farther to use Adoration and Invocation to God alone and not to Angels or Saints is a necessary duty but whether we should pray to God with a form or without it this is not necessary tho' the former be much more convenient in publick to prevent the many faults and undecencies of extemporary effusions so whether we adore God by bowing or by prostration or by kneeling or by standing as the ancient Church did between Easter and Pentecost is only a new manner or circumstance of adoration not a new act or part of it And this I have the more carefully illustrated that we may see the difference between parts of worship and only accidents and appendages and circumstances of worship The Church of England appoints only the latter not any substantial worship or any parts of it but what God himself has appointed as will appear farther 2. That which is in it self very Lawfull and Innocent may become superstitious by the opinion which he that uses it has of it as if he thinks it is a means to please God and procure his favour and that it has such a vertue in it self to do this as that God would be pleased with us for the doing this and displeased with us if we should not do it meerly for it self tho' there were no human Authority that required it of us as the Jews thought that their washing of their hands would please God and that it was a defilement of their Consciences to eat with unwashen hands which was the mistake our Saviour reproves them for Mat. 15.20 their superstitious opinion of that Ceremony and the Tradition of their Elders to think that it was a piece of Sanctity and Religion to wash their hands and that it was a sin and real defilement of their Consciences not to do it to ascribe a true spiritual Vertue to an outward Ceremony as that it expiated inward guilt and was not a meer