Selected quad for the lemma: diversity_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
diversity_n	ceremony_n	church_n	ordain_v	421	5	9.4689	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69535	The grand debate between the most reverend bishops and the Presbyterian divines appointed by His Sacred Majesty as commissioners for the review and alteration of the Book of common prayer, &c. : being an exact account of their whole proceedings : the most perfect copy.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; Commission for the Review and Alteration of the Book of Common Prayer.	1661 (1661)	Wing B1278A; Wing E3841; ESTC R7198	132,164	165

been divers and changed according to the diversity of Countryes times and mens manners so that nothing be ordained against Gods Word And after every particular or national Church hath authority to ordain change or abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained only by mans authority so that all things be done to edifying they that believe not this should not subscribe it nor require it of others As for the Testimonies cited by you they are to little purpose We deny not that the Custom of observing Lent either fewer dayes or more was as Antient as those Authors But 1. That Lent was not known or kept in the 2d or 3d. Ages you may see as followeth Tertul. de jejun l. 2. cap. 14. pleading for the Montanists Si omnem in totum devotionem temporum dierum mensium annorum erasit Apostolus cur Pascha celeramus anno circulo in mense primo cur quodragin●a inde diebus in omni exultatione decurrimus cur stationibus quartam sextam sabbati dicamus jejunits Parasceven quanquam vos etiam sabbatum si quando continuatis nunquam risi in Pascha jejunandum c. And cap. 15. excusing that rigor of their Fasts quontula est apud ncs interdictio ciborum duus in anno Hebdomadas xerophagiarum nec totas excaptis scilicet sabbatis dominicis offerimus Deo The old general Fast at that time was only the voluntary unconstrained fasting on Good Friday after that on one or two dayes more and then on six Iraeneus in a fragment of an Epist in Euseb Hist lib. 5. cap. 26. Gr. Lat. 23. saith the Controversy is not only of the day of Easter but of the kind of Fast it self for some think they should fast one day some two others more some measure their day by 40. hours of day and night and this variety of those that observe these Fasts began not now in our Age but long before us with our Ancestors who as is most like propagated to posterity the Custom which they retein as brought in by a certain simplicity and private will And yet all these lived peaceably among themselves and we keep peace among our selves and the difference of Fasting is so far from violating the consonancy of Faith as that it even commendeth it Thus Iraeneus read the rest of the Chapter thus is the true reading confessed by Bellarmine Rigaltius c. and Dionis Alexand. Ep. Can. ad Basil pag. 881. Balsam saith nor do all equally and alike sustain those six dayes of Fasting but some passe them all Fasting some two somethree some four some more And the Catholicks in Tert. de jejun cap. 2. say neque de caetero differentur jejunandum ex arbitrio non ex imperio nova disciplinae pro temporibus causis uniuscujusque sic Apostolos observasse nullum aliud imponentes jugum certorum in commune omnibus obeundorum jejuniorum And Socrat. admireth at many Countries that all differed about the number of dayes and yet all called it Quadragesima lib. 5. c. 22. Eat Gr. 21. So Sozomen lib. 7. c. 19. Gr. Niceph. lib. 12. cap. 34. which may help you to expound Hierom and the rest cited by you as Rigalitus doth ad Tertul. de jejun 128. as shewing that they did it with respect to Christs 40. dayes fast but not as intending any such thing themselves as any fast of 40. dayes It is against the Montanists that the Quadrages was but once a year that Hierom useth the title of Apostolick tradition And how to expound him see Epist ad Lucin. u●aqueque provincia abundet in suo sensu precepta Majorum leges Apostolicus arbitictur But saith August ad Casulan Ep. 86. In Evangelicis Apostolicis literis totoque Instrumento quod appellatur Testamentum Novum animo id revolens video preceptum esse jejunium quibus autem diebus non oportet jejunare quibus oporteas precepto Domini vel Apostolorum non invenio definitum And that Christ ans abstinance in Lent was voluntary quanto magis quisque vel minus voluerit vel potuerit August affirmeth cont Faustum Manich. lib. 30. cap. 5. And Soerat ubi supr saith ac quontam nemo de eâre praeceptum literarum monumentis proditam potest ostendete perspicuum est Apostolos liberam potestatem in eadem cujusque menti ac arbitrio permississe ut quisque nec metu nec necessitate inductus quod bonum sit ageret And Prosper de vit Contempl. li. 2. C. 24 veruntamen sic jejunare vel abstinere debemus ut nos non jejunandi vel abstinendi necessitate subdamus ne jam deveti sed inviti rem voluntariam faciamus And Cossianus lib. 2. col 21. cap. 30. saith in primitivâ ecclesiâ equale fuisse jejunium per totum annum Ac frigescente devotione cum negligerentur jejunia inductum Quadragiâ Sacer dotibus But when you come to describe your fast you make amends for the length by making it indeed no fast To abstain from meats and drinks of delight where neither the thing not the delight is profitable to further us in our duty to God is that which we take to be the duty of every Christian all the year as being a part of our mortification and self denyal who are commanded to Crucifie the flesh and to make no provision to satisfie the lusts of it and to subdue our bodies But when those meats and drinks do more help than hinder us in the service of God we take it to be our duty to use them unless when some other accident forbids it that would make it otherwise more hurtful And for fasting till noon we suppose it is the ordinary way of dyet to multitudes of Sedentary persons both Students and Tradesmen that find one meal a day sufficient for nature If you call this fasting your poor Brethren fast all their life time and never knew that it was fasting But to command hard Labourers to do so is but to make it a fault to have health or to do their necessary work We beseech you bring not the Clergy under the suspition of Gluttony by calling our ordinary wholesome temperance by the name of fasting sure Princes may feed as fully and delightfully as we yet Solomon saith woe to thee O Land when thy King is a Child and thy Princes eat in the morning Blessed art thou O Land when thy King is the Son of Nobles and thy Princes eat in due season for strength not for drunkenesse For meer sensual delight it is never lawful And when it is for strength it is not to be forbidden unless when by accident it will infer a greater good to abstain Eccl. 20. 16. 17. so Prov. 31. 4. 6. It is not for Kings to drink wine not for Princes strong drink give strong drink to him that is ready to perish and wine to those that be of heavy hearts Nor does the Act of Parliament 5 Elizab. forbid it

diversity of Liturgies and Ceremonies be allowed where they allowed it May we but have love and peace on the Terms as the ancient Church enjoyed them we shall then hope we may yet escape the hands of uncharitable destroying Zeal we therefore humbly recommend to your observation the concurrent Testimony of the best Histories of the Church concerning the diversity of Liturgies Ceremonies and modal observances in the several Churches under one and the same civil Government and how they then took it to be their duty to forbear each other in these matters and how they made them not the test of their Communion or center of their peace Concerning the observation of Easter it self when other Holy dayes and Ceremonies were urged were lesse stood upon you have the judgement of Irenaeus and the French Bishops in whose name he wrote in Euseb Hist Eccl. l. 5. c 23. Where they reprehend Victor for breaking peace with the Churches that differed about the day and the antecedent time of fasting and tell him that the variety began before their times when yet they neverthelesse retained peace and yet retain it and the discord in their fasting declared or commended the concord of their faith that no man was rejected from Communion by Victor's predecessors on that account but they gave them the Sacrament and maintained peace with them and particularly Polycarp and Anicetus held Communion in the Eucharist notwithstanding this difference Basil Epist 63 doth plead his cause with the Presbyters and whole Clergy of Neocaesarea that were offended at his new Psalmodie and his new order of Monasticks but he only defendeth himself and urgeth none of them to imitate him but telleth him also of the novelty of their own Liturgy that it was not known in the time of their own late renowned Bp. Greg Thaumaturgus telling them that they had kept nothing unchanged to that day of all that he was used to so great alterations in 40. years were made in the same Congregation as he professeth to pardon all such things so be it the principal things be kept safe Socrat. Hist Eccl. l. 5● c. 21. about the Easter difference saith that neither the Apostles nor the Gospels do impose a yoke of bondage on those that betake themselves to the doctrine of Christ but left the Feast of Easter and other Festivals to the observation of the free and equal judgement of them that had received the benefits And therefore because men use to keep some Festivals for the relaxing themselves from labours several persons in several places do celebrate of custom the memorials of Christs passion arbitrarily or at their own choice For neither our Saviour nor the Apostles commanded the keeping of them by any Law nor threaten any mulct or penalty c. It was the purpose of the Apostles not to make Laws for the keeping of Festivals but to be Authours to us of the reason of right living and of piety And having shewed that it came up by private custom and not by Law and having cited Irenaeus as before he addeth that those that agree in the same faith do differ in point of Rites and Ceremonies and instancing in divers he concludeth that because no man can shew in the monuments of writings any Command concerning this it is plain that the Apostles herein permitted free power to every ones mind and will that every man might do that which was good without being induced by fear or by necessity And having spoken of the diversity of customes about the Assemblies Marriage Baptism c. He tells us that even among the Novatians themselves there is a diversity in their manner of their praying and that among all the forms of Religions and parties you can no where find two that consent among themselves in the manner of their praying And repeating the decree of the Holy Ghost Acts 15. To impose no other burden but things necessary he reprehendeth them that neglecting this will take Fornication as a thing indifferent but strive about Festivals as if it were a matter of life overturning Gods Laws and making Laws to themselves c. And Sozomen Hist Eccles l. 7. c. 18. and 19. speaketh to the same purpose and tells us that the Novatians themselves determined in a Synod at Sangar in Bythinia that the difference about Easter being not a sufficient Cause for breach of Communion all should abide in the same concord and in the same Assembly and every one should celebrate this Feast as pleased himself and this Canon they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and c. 19. He saith of Victor and Polycarp that they deservedly judged it frivolous or absur'd that those should be separated on the account of a custom that consented in the principal heads of Religion For you cannot find the same traditions in all things alike in all Churches though they agree among themselves and instancing in some Countries where there is but one Bishop in many Cities and in other Bishops are ordained in the Villages After many other instances he adds that they use not the same prayers singings or readings nor observe the same time of using them And what Liturgy was imposed upon Constantine the Emperour or what Bishops or Synods were then the makers of Lyturgies when he himself made publick prayers for himself and auditory and for his Souldiers Euseb de vit Constantini l. 4. c. 18. 20 c. But the diversity liberty and change of Lyturgies in the Churches under the same Prince are things so well known as that we may suppose any further proof of it to be needless In the conclusion therefore we humbly beseech you that as Antiquity and the custom of the Churches in the first ages is that which is most commonly and confidently pleaded against us that your mistake of Antiquity may not be to our Cost or paid so dear for as the loss of our Freedom for the serving of God in the work of the Ministery to which we are called we beseech you let us not be silenced or cast out of the Ministery or Church for not using the Liturgy Cross Surplice kneeling at the Sacrament till ye have either shewed the world that the practice or Canons of the Catholick Church hav● led you the way as doing it or requiring it to be done And make not that to necessary as to force men to it on such dreadful terms which the ancient Churches used with diversity and indifferency of liberty we beseech you shew the world some proof that the ancient Churches did ever use to force or require Ministers to subscribe to their Liturgies as having nothing in them contrary to the word of God or to swear obedience to their Bishops before you impose such things on us while yet you pretend to imitate Antiquity And have but that moderation towards your brethren as in suffering or at death or judgement you would most appear Remember how unpleasing the remembrance of such differences about Ceremonies was to Bp. Ridley as

we desire no other rule to decide the Controversie by As to your Citation 1 Socrat. there tells us of the alternate singing of the Aruians in the reproach of the Orthodox and that Chrysostome not a Synod compiled Hymnes to be sung in opposition to them in the streets which came in the end to a Tumult and Bloodshed And hereupon he tells us of the original of alternate singing viz. a pretended vision of Ignatius that heard Angels sing in that order And what is all this to alternate reading and praying or to a Divine Institution when here is no mention of reading or praying but of singing Hymnes And that not upon pretence of Apostolical Tradition but a vision of uncertain credit Theodor. also speaketh only of singing Psalmes alternately and not a word of reading or praying so And he fetcheth that way of singing also as Socrat. doth but from the Church at Antioch and not from any pretended doctrine or practise of the Apostles And neither of them speaks a word of the necessitie of it or of forcing any to it so that all these your Citations speaking not a word so much as of the very Subjects in question are marvellously impertinent The words their Worship seem to intimate that singing Psalms is part of our Worship and not of yours we hope you disown it not for our parts we are not ashamed of it your distinction between Hopkin's and David's Psalms as if the Meetre allowed by Authority to be sung in Churches made them to be no more David's Psalms seemeth to us a very hard saying If it be because it is a Translation then the Prose should be none of David's Psalms neither nor any Translation be the Scripture If it be because it is in Meetre then the exactest Translation in Meetre should be none of the Scripture If because it 's done imperfectly then the old Translation of the Bible used by the Common-Prayer-book should not be Scripture As to your reason for the supposed priority 1. Scripture examples telling us that the People had more part in the Psalms than in the Prayers or Readings satisfie us that God and his Church then saw a disparity of Reason 2. Common observation tells us that there is more Order and less hindrance of Edification in the Peoples singing than in their Reading and Praying together vocally It is desired that nothing should be in the Liturgy which so much us seems to countenance the observation of Lent as a religious Fast and this as an expedient to Peace which is in effect to desire that this our Church may be contentious for Peace sake and to divide from the Church Catholick that we may live at unity among our selves For Saint Paul reckons them amongst the lovers of Contention who shall oppose themselves against the Custome of the Churches of God that the religious observation of Lent was a Custome of the Churches of God appeares by the Testimonies following Chrysost Ser. 11. in Heb. 10. Cyrill Catec myst 5. St. August Ep. 119. ut 40. dies ante Pascha observetur Ecclesiae consuetudo roboravit and St. Hierom ad Marcell saies it was secundum traditionem Apostolorum This Demand then tends not to Peace but Dissention The fasting Forty daies may be in imitation of our Saviour for all that is here said to the contrary for though we cannot arrive to his perfection abstaining wholly from meat so long yet we may fast forty daies together either Cornelius his Fast till three of the Clock afternoon or Saint Peter 's fast till noon or at least Daniel 's fast abstaining from Meats and Drinks of delight and thus far imitate our Lord. Reply If we had said that the Church is contentious if it adore God in kneeling on the Lords daies or use not the White Garment Milk and Honey after baptism which had more pretence of Apostolical tradition and were generally used more anciently than Lent would you not have thought we wronged the Church if the purer times of the Church have one Custome and later times a contrary which must we follow or must we necessarily be contentious for not following both or rather may we not by the example of the Church that changeth them be allowed to take such things to be matters of Liberty and not necessity If we must needs conform to the Custome of other Churches in such things or be contentious it is either because God hath so commanded or because he hath given those Churches Authority to command it If the former then what Churches or what Ages must we conforme to If all must concurr to be our patterne it will be hard for us to be acquainted with them so far as to know of such Concurrences And in our Case we know that many do it not If it must be the most we would know where God commandeth us to imitate the greater number though the worse or hath secured us that they shall not be the worst or why we are not tied rather to imitate the purer Ages than the more corrupt If it be said that the Church hath Authority to command us we desire to know what Church that is and where to be found and heard that may command England and all the Churches of his Majesty's Dominions If it be said to be a General Council 1. No General Council can pretend to more Authority than that of Nice whose 20th Canon back'd with Tradition and common pratice now bindes not us and was laid by without any Repeal by following Councils 2. We know of no such things as General Councils at least that have bound us to the religious observation of Lent The Bishops of one Empire could not make a General Council 3. Nor do we know of any such power that they have ever the universal Church there being no visible head of it or Governours to make universal Laws but Christ as Rogers on the 20. Article fore-cited shews our 21. Article saith that General Councils may not be gathered together without the Commandment and Will of Princes and doubtless all the Heathen and Mahomitans and all the contending Christian Princes will never agree together nor never did to let all their Christian Subjects concurre to hold a General Council It saith also and when they be gathered together forasmuch as they be an Assembly of men whereof all be not governed with the Spirit and Word of God they may erre and sometimes have erred even in things pertaining unto God therefore things ordained by them as necessary to Salvation have neither strength nor authority unlesse it may be declared that they be taken out of the Holy Scriptures And if they may erre in things pertaining unto God and ordained by them as necessary to Salvation much more in lesser things And are we contentious if we erre not with them Our 39. Article determineth this Controversie saying It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one or utterly like for at all times they have