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	rite_n	580	5	10.7927	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95370	A sermon preached before Sir P.W. Anno 1681. With additions: to which are annexed three digressional exercitations; I. Concerning the true time of our Saviour's Passover. II. Concerning the prohibition of the Hebrew canon to the ancient Jews. III. Concerning the Jewish Tetragrammaton, and the Pythagorick Tetractys. / By John Turner, late fellow of Christ's College in Cambridge.	Turner, John, b. 1649 or 50.	1684 (1684)	Wing T3318AB; ESTC R185793	233,498	453

occasions to advance their secular designs under the specious covert of a Concern for Liberty or a Zeal for Religion it behoves those in publick Authority as they tender the reputation of their own wisedom and justice or the quiet of the World to cut off all occasions of disturbance by seeing that all things be done decently and in order which rule of the Apostle's is founded upon the same reason upon which all Laws whether humane or divine are founded and from whence alone they can and do receive their obligation namely the common Interest of mankind and the particular Happiness of private persons it depends upon the same reason and the same necessity for which Injustice and Robbery are forbidden or upon which Industry Sobriety and usefull Arts are encouraged which is nothing else but the consideration of the publick Good which if it be as plainly concerned in this as in any other case this is sufficient to defend the Authority of the Church and to make its Sanctions in indifferent matters so long as they are steered by principles of undoubted Interest to be of perpetual force and obligation Those actions are properly said to be indifferent which may either be done or let alone without inconvenience or advantage to the publick or to the interest of any private person but if any prejudice or advantage will accrue then there is a plain reason why they should be done or omitted and consequently they cease to be in different and become necessary in proportion to the weight of those reasons upon which their performance or omission is founded So for example we will suppose it for the present indifferent in what posture we say our Prayers in a publick Congregation yet if we say them at all thus much is of absolute necessity that we say them in some posture or other but now if the Civil or Ecclesiastical Magistrate for the avoiding of Confusion and for the preventing of those Piques and Animosities which frequently happen among men about things of little or no value in themselves especially when Religion is concerned shall ordain that all men shall say their Prayers in one and the same posture and shall determine and assign what that particular posture shall be then here is a reason of Interest for the good of the World and for the quiet of that Society of which we are members why this posture should be used rather than any other and consequently this posture though indifferent before does now derive a necessity from that reason of State and interest upon which it's imposition is founded To be sure men of common sense and understanding if they have but common honesty joyned together with it will take their measures of obligation as to the lawfulness or unlawfulness of what is commanded from it's design and tendency to promote or obstruct the interest of the Publique and the happiness of particular Persons and if either the pretended or the real Scruples of any might be sufficient to stop the course of Law against the common interest there could be no such thing as Order or Government in the World There are many Laws enacted by the sublime Wisdome of the King and his three Estates in Parliament assembled which though they be for the interest of the whole Kingdome all things considered yet they manifestly tend to the Prejudice of particular persons but yet those very persons are as much obliged by these Laws as they who reap the benefit and advantage of them because the obligation of these Laws is to be taken from the fundamentall Constitution of all Societies that a greater Interest be preferred before a less and that when the publique advantage shall interfere with a private the private must give place because otherwise the Society cannot be preserved how much more strictly therefore are we obliged by those Laws whose design and tendency being nothing else but to keep us all at unity and peace together are so plainly for the advantage of the Publique and of every particular Person And if notwithstanding the manifest Conducibleness of such an Uniform way of Worship to the publique Peace and the experience of those sad Effects which our Religious Differences have produced every private man shall yet after this take upon him to Judge of the Reasonableness or Expedience of what is Enacted by his Superiours and shall from thence proceed upon I know not what Pretences ridiculous in themselves and destructive of the publique Wellfare to withdraw his Obedience to their just Commands he may as well take upon him an insinite and boundless liberty of questioning the Reasonableness and Equity of all Laws whatsoever and either upon the same or more warrantable Exceptions for the expedience of no Law can be more evident than of that which enjoyns Uniformity in Divine Worship he may withdraw his Obedience from all kind of Government and Subjection whatsoever But here it is Objected That if there were nothing but the Civil Interest or the Interest of this World to be considered the experience of all Ages and Nations will sufficiently demonstrate that an Uniformity in Religious matters is the best Expedient that can be thought of to secure the publique Peace But alass we carry souls and Consciences about us and these are precious things there is an immortal Interest lyes at stake which it would be great folly and madness to part with upon any temporal consideration But to this I answer first in the general That the main design of Christianity being to promote Peace and Charity in this world as well as to procure us Eternal peace and happiness in the next and indeed the one in order to the other it follows plainly that Uniformity in Religious Worship as being a necessary means to Peace is in the general of Divine Institution though what the particular terms of that Uniformity shall be the Scripture has no where prescribed as in truth it could not do for a reason which I shall shew hereafter it remains therefore that the Church it self be in all Ages furnisht with a right and power of prescribing what those terms shall be and that all her members are obliged to a necessary Observance of them But here because I have made so frequent mention of the Church that I may avoid Ambiguity and leave as little room as may be for Exception before I go any further I will explain what I mean by that term and without descending to too much nicety the Church is one of these three things First it is the congregation of Christian People dispersed over the whole earth and agreeing together in the fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith which are either expresly or by direct and lawfull consequence revealed in the Scriptures of the New Testament to be of necessity to Salvation And in this sense it is not only unnecessary that there should be every where the same Rites and Ceremonies observed in the Church but it is in the nature of the thing

impossible that there should because of necessity the several manners customes and other circumstances of several Nations will introduce a diversity of external Formalitie into Religious Worship which may be done without any breach of Charity or Friendship among men because there is no interest to be served by promoting Feuds and Animosities between them and it will be all one to the peace and happiness of this Kingdome what rites or usages soever the Greek or Armenian Churches shall embrace We do not much trouble our heads though by reason of their near Neighbourhood we have some reason to do it about the French saying Mass or adoring Reliques or Images or praying for Dead or worshipping the Host Nay you shall hardly ever see a man in a passion when he hears the Tragicall stories of those horrible persecutions against the professours of the Reformed Religion but though he may relieve and pity them so far as a small temporary Contribution will go yet in truth and reality he is not much concerned whereas at home we can make a shift to fall out about much smaller matters the reason is because we are not embarked in the same bottom with them and so being able to do neither good nor hurt by being angry or displeas'd we scarce ever trouble our selves But at home the pretences of Religion and Liberty which are always stirring when ever there is any prospect of publique Disorders likely to ensue upon them will never fail to excite the ambitious the discontented and the needy to embroyle the State out of principles either of Interest or Revenge while the passions of men that dayly converse together and are engaged by interest or prejudice or duty in the respective parties do but serve to blow the cole and improve the sparks of Animosity into a flame of War The consequence of all which is That there may be differences in the universal Church consisting of many Kingdomes and Provinces without dissention and that all that whatever it is which is requisite to the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace may be consistent enough with differences in smaller matters but that in the same Kingdome or Dominion this can never be But secondly By the Church we may understand a National Congregation of Christian People divided into many partitions or particular assemblies united together by an unity of Faith and Discipline and Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction and this is that which I affirm to be necessary in every Kingdome or State that would avoid all occasions of publique Tumults and Disorders and would be as happy either as themselves can wish or as Christianity designs to make them And therefore this is that unity which is by every Good Christian good Citizen or good Subject above all things which this world can afford the most earnestly to be desired for the obtaining of which he is to submit to every thing that shall be required of him and he is to abstain from every thing which is forbidden him if all things considered it may lawfully be done or avoided Thirdly In compliance with those of the Congregationall way I am content to allow a third sense of the word Church to be a particular and independent Congregation governed by Laws and measures of its own and acknowledging no Jurisdiction Forreign to it self and this is a Form of Church Government which in a Christian Kingdome or Common-wealth I affirm to be naturally unlawfull And here there are two cases to be considered First Either the whole body of the People is divided into such particular and independent Congregations or there is a nationall Establishment from which these particular Congregations have separated themselves The first of these is Babel in Effigie the very Emblem and Landskip of Confusion subject to inconveniences that cannot be thought of till they are felt and capable of such infinite sub-divisions as will at length reduce the comely Form of Government by so many particular interests and factions into a State of publick Hostility and Rapine for the reason why men separate from one another is always out of some reall or some pretended dislike which dislikes by actuall separation are so far from being composed that they are manifestly improved and heightned by it and from hence arise so many several Interests as there are Sects or denominations of Parties in a Common-wealth For it is natural to all men to desire to gain Proselytes to their own Opinion for men to love themselves and those of their own way and to think of other men who are not enroll'd in the same list with themselves if not with a reall hatred yet with a less esteem and a comparative Aversation which whenever a Ball of Interest is thrown between them will be improved into all the sad effects of the most desperate Malice and Revenge But here to make all sure as I go along I must repeat again That by Ind●●endent Congregations I mean such as own no Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction externall to themselves from whence it is easie to perceive that every such Congregation may be a new Sect and Party by it self as it was in a manner in the late Times when the Sects were spawned in such increadible abundance that the Alphabet began to complain of want of Letters to furnish so many different and disagreeing Parties with names Neither is it to be supposed that so many several Factions notwithstanding their differences in matters of Religion shall yet conspire in an uniform Obedience to the Civil Power because to be uppermost is that which they all desire and since the very same persons are members of the Commonwealth and of a particular Sect or Party it is ridiculous to hope that the State can ever be quiet till all these parties can agree together to be of the same mind which is to make them cease to be what they are In the United Provinces where the greatest Liberty is given and taken of any other Territory in the Christian World the peace of the publick could not be secured if it were not for the Overballance of the Calvi●isticall Party above the rest for the Calvinists as Sir Willian Temple in his Observations upon the United Provinces takes notice p. 204. make up the body of the People and are possessed of all the publick Churches in the Dominions of the State as well as of the onely Ministers or Pastours who are maintained by the publick who have no other Salaries than what they receive from the State upon whom they wholly depend and for that reason they will be sure to preach obedience and submission to the People But yet notwithstanding this so great has the power and interest of the Louvestane or Arminian Party alwaies been that it has been the occasion of great revolutions among them and as it was probably one of the main causes of their so sudden fall from the height of envy into the lowest region of pity and despair within the compass of a very few years

that the Jewish Nation must have been canton'd and divided into as many Sects as there were different possibilities of interpretation arising from either of the two causes which have been above specified and assigned What confusion would this have introduced into the Ceremonial part of the Mosaique Law while every alteration of a letter or vowel would have made a new Ceremony and there would have been as great diversity of rites as there was possibility of variation and all pretending to the same divine authority to justifie and vouch themselves how would the people out of that innovating humour which is natural to the populace of all the world have divided and subdivided themselves into several Parties Conventicles and Factions and how would the Priests as fast as revenge or ambition or opiniatrity and affectation should prompt them have put themselves in the head of disagreeing Sects and would have fomented those differences among the Jews with the same real or pretended zeal and earnestness that the Non-conformists do now among us only with this advantage that the Jews might have done it when the interpretation of places for want of a standing punctation was left so much to every man's honesty and judgment with infinitely greater plausibility and pretence of warrant from above than our dissenting Incendiaries can do who are so shamef●lly driven out of all their posts unless it be their ignorance knavery and impudence which are citadels impregnable against all the power of argument in the world and can only be taken in by the faithfull and vigorous execution of severe and wholesome Laws how would they have lampoon'd and ridicul'd the Prophets and how would the several Parties by a several way of reading pointing or accentuation have discharged the several Prophecies at one another Lastly what strange uncertainty would this have brought upon the Law and Prophets how would it have confounded all those Prophecies that foretold and all those Rites and Sacrifices that typified and shadowed out the coming of the Messias And by consequence how would it have perplexed and entangled nay plainly evacuated and disanulled all the evidence which we have besides the unquestionable miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles for the Christian Religion how would it have baffled and defeated that argument for our Saviour's Person and Doctrine upon which he himself laid so mighty stress that he despaired any miracle how great soever should perswade them with whom the testimonies of Moses and the Prophets were of no force and signification For upon supposition of such infinite variation as the Promiscuous use of the Original Hebrew before the use of points would have introduced these testimonies could not possibly have been of any weight or value with any considerative or thinking man because the several readings by their mutual opposition would have destroyed and supplanted one another It is so far from being true that the ancient Jews were permitted the promiscuous use and reading of the Law that it seems rather to have been denied to most of the Priests and Levites themselves for we are to consider that in the distribution of the Levites to their several employments there were none admitted to the actual exercise of any sacred office whatsoever till they were arrived to the age of twenty years and that at that age they were only capable of the more servile or handy-work employments and as they arrived to greater maturity of years so they were admitted to offices and employments of a more honourable nature that there were some appointed for Porters others for Singers whose business was only to be instructed in the Songs of the Lord without any obligation that appears to any particular study of the whole Law And so for those that were employed in dressing or preparing the sacrifices or in sprinkling the blood it was not requisite they should learn this skill by a personal converse and acquaintance with the Law as well because all the Ceremonies belonging to the performance of such Ministeries as these neither were nor could be prescribed in the Law it self without swelling it into a much larger Volume than that in which it is now contained as hath been already observed to the shame of all Non-conforming scruples and to the undeniable justification of humane institutions in religious worship as because it is seen that things of this nature that is the ceremony and formality of Offices whether Civil or Divine may be and are actually handed down to men in a traditionary way as it is possible for a man and many a man actually does understand the Laws of England sufficiently well and yet in the practice of a particular Law-Court is not half so well skilled as an ordinary Attorney Besides all which it is still further to be considered that at the return from the Captivity of Babylon as hath been already observed Esdras did not only instruct the people in the knowledge of the Law but also the Priests and the Levites themselves Nehem. 8. 13. which would have been needless if all the Priests had been equally instructed in the knowledge of it or if some of them unless in those matters which belonged to their particular charges which as well as the Law it self were now by seventy years disuse forgotten had not been either altogether or very nigh as ignorant as the common people Wherefore it is most reasonable to conceive that as the line and family of Aaron were of all the Levitical race the highest in the Priestly dignity among the Jews insomuch that the Priests and the Levites are frequently distinguished from one another in Scripture though it is true that the Levites were Priests too though in a greater latitude as well as Aaron and his sons being all of them equally substituted instead of the first born and all of them dedicated though in a less degree to the service and ministery of the holy things I say it is highly reasonable from hence to conclude that the more particular knowledge and study of the Law was confined to the family of Aaron who were those Priests most properly and strictly so called whose lips in the language of Malachi were to preserve knowledge and to whose custody alone as being the most sacred depositum in the world the Original M S. of the Law it self or the most Authentique and unquestionable Copy of it was committed Deut. 17. 18. It is not certainly for nothing that the Letter or Commission of Xerxes to Esdras in Josephus is thus superscribed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Esdras the Priest and Reader or Interpreter of the Law of God and so he is called again afterwards in the body of the Epistle it self which is to me a plain intimation that the skill of reading and much more of interpreting the Law was in the time of Esdras a great rarity among the Priests themselves for that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Reader somewhat more is implied than what the Jews afterwards in their Synagogue