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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A36103 A Discourse of the lawfulness of compliance with all the ceremonies of the Church of England 1660 (1660) Wing D1605A; ESTC R15175 21,547 38

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of humane Society though no ways hindered by the fear of the Laws of God If tumults and insurrections shall be the appendixes of every command we find not expresly and in so many words contained in the word of God we may fear that the frequent calamities which will attend men on this account may cause to say no worse a great decay of Christian Religion Let us a little consider what the effects of mens contumacy and opposition of decent Ceremonies established by Law by which our late Wars were begun maintained and carried on in England hath been in our own Nation How much Religion hath been established and propagated by stumbling at straws and leaping over blocks by loathing indifferent Geremonies when the great duties of holiness and righteousness required conformity Hath not this been the introduction of Atheism and irreligion the greatest distemper among us hath not this been the original of all Sects and Schisms hath it not nourished those manifold Errours and Heresies which caused profane Persons to sit down in the seat of the Scorners and therefore as we tender the honour of our Religion and would vindicate it from being an enemy to government and destructive to humane Society preserved by government unless we would drive the same design with the Devil the common enemy of mankind and especially of Christians to bring an universal scandal on our Profession and render it odious to mankind we must not be refractary or disobedient to humane Laws when the Laws of God permit us to obey them and give an eedless occasion of offence to those whom God hath placed in authority over us And therefore in this case though ecclesiastical Persons are the best judges of what ought to be introduced into the Church yet if there should arise a dissention for the avoiding Scandal the Fathers of the Church ought to give place to the Father of their Country St. Paul teacheth us 1 Cor. 9.20 21. that unto the Jews he became as a Jew that he might gain the Jews to them under the law as under the law to them without the law as c. to the weak as weak to all men all things that he might by all means save some What think you he would have done nay what would he not have done if the Emperours by his condescensions should have become Christians by which means a free passage to the Gospel would be laid open throughout the whole World would he that so severely injoined obedience to the higher Powers on pain of damnation and that so readily and willingly complied with all sorts of men for the salvation of their Souls have scrupled a few indifferent Ceremonies whereby Governours and Magistrates might be alienated from the love of Christianity he had the same reason to comply with these as with all other sorts of people for their good And thus these things being premised I shall come to shew the lawfulness of compliance with all the Ceremonies of the Church of England and this I shall doe by one general and comprehensive argument If the the Jewish Ceremonies commanded in the Levitical Law were indifferent and might lawfully be observed after the Death Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour who put a period unto them even by those who knew the Levitical Law abolished at that time much more are the Ceremonies of the Church of England indifferent and may be lawfully used But the Jewish Ceremonies c. and therefore c. Of these Propositions in order now the sequel or consequence will evidently appear if w● compare theirs and ours together 'T is true indeed the Jewish Ceremonies had their institution and signification given unto them at first immediately from God himself And the Jews still thought that this obligation from God remained on them But however they were instituted onely for a certain time till Christ should come in the flesh and by oblation of himself once purchase the remission of our sins And then their signification together with the obligation to observe and perform them utterly perished so far forth as it was from God For this was the end of the institution of the Sacrifices and most of the Ceremonies to signify Christ to come and the offering him up as a Sacrifice for us all Heb. 9.23 24. And therefore the continuation of them afterwards was not from Divine Authority but depended on the ignorance of the Jews and prudence of the Apostles the Jews were zealous of the Law and the Apostles were willing to permit it as long as they embraced Christianity But God's institution and injunction being then expired they were for the time they were afterwards used as much humane and depending on the will of man as our Ceremonies are now and so in this case there is an equality And it is all one to think that to be appointed by God which is not appointed by him and to know it to be appointed by God's Vicegerent But if we will consider other circumstances we shall find that those which attended the Jewish Ceremonies were very dangerous and had such tendency to evil which ours are exempted from For first They might well be accounted vain and as the Passover Sacrifices for sin unreasonable Christ being already offered Secondly It might seem to be a mocking of God and abusing his Institution to use Ceremonies signifying Christ to come who was then ascended into Heaven and which represented his merits as future when they were already consummated Thirdly The use of them was joined in most Jews with this erroneous opinion that they were necessary parts of God's worship See Rom. 14. Fourthly Our Ceremonies signify onely ex parte hominis or on the part of man they either signify our duty and what we are or serve to put us in mind of what we should be but the Jewish Ceremonies did signify not onely ex parte hominis but ex parte Dei too they were used not onely as signs to put us in mind of our obedience to God but as means of conveying divine benediction upon us they were used not onely as mere Ceremonies but as Sacraments too and as proper parts of Divine Worship and as seals of the Covenant as Circumcision and the Passover Fifthly The observing of them among the Jews by the allowance of the Apostles might endanger as indeed it did the intrusion of them on the Gentiles And it being impossible for the Gentiles to observe all the Ceremonial Law of Moses and come up all of them to Jerusalem to keep the Passover and offer sacrifice it might cause them utterly to reject the Gospel which was incumbred with such impossible observations And here by the way I suppose that Christ came not onely to abolish the Jewish Ceremonies but also to leave all people to the indifferent use of such Ceremonies which were consistent with the service of God and agreeable to their own Country and temper which is a true kind of liberty Sixthly It might stir up the Jews to