Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	day_n	reason_n	sabbath_n	12,233	5	10.0568	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42880	Panta dokimazete a sermon treating of the tryall of all things by the Holy Scriptures, the confest rule of faith and practice : shewing the deplorable abuse of that rule, with an attempt touching the examen of ceremonies / delivered in St. Paul's Cathedral November 8, being the xxi Sunday after Trinity, by J.G.	Goad, J. (John), 1616-1689.	1664 (1664)	Wing G902; ESTC R535	23,350	40

Custome the decent rational custome of the Church of God ver 16. Nay but what is the Rule The Apostle answers We know not how he will please you Tradition Apostolick ver 2. Which places if again consulted you shall find that he speaks of such Natural Light as it is shame not to obey Such Customes which have enough in them to silence the Contentious and such Traditions as he praises them for observing and exhorts them to hold fast and so I am upon my Text this third time Prove all things hold fast that which is good And this the Presbyterians abroad with open face acknowledge that much is to be attributed to the Antient Customes of the Church that it is no Derogation to the Perfection of Scriptures imployed in the determination of Greater Articles to leave the less to the Publique Wisedome of the Church but 't is not the Interest of ours at home that these things should be taken notice of Yet let Chamiers 9th Book de Canone be consulted particularly cap. 1. p. 20. where he saith Et sanè illum oportet esse oris impudentissimi qui eam Traditionem Consuetudinem Ecclesiae contemnat Nos verò illum parum abest quin sacrilegum appellemus quidem non tantum in Rebus levioribus the Ceremonies c. sed grauioribus c. Et ix cap. xviii sect 52. Resp per observantias nulla dogmata intelligi sed duntaxat varios ritus quorum exempla quaedam subnectit speaking of Origen Genu flexionem conversionem ad Orientem Ritus sumendae Eucharistiae c. Atqui illa omnia Catholici the Protestants libere permittunt Traditioni But once more for I appeal to the whole Book he hath these words Hinc autem non sequitur Scripturas esse imperfectas nisi prius demonstrentur dogmata Fidei ab Apostolis instituta esse quae omninò scripta non sunt ix 20 32. For as to the Rites he saies It is not denied quandam ab Apostolis potuisse constitui quae quia non essent de essentia naturafidei minùs curavint scriptis referre ix 19 20. Pray let it be ponder'd The same reason give we Scripture is not their Rule because it is above them Secondly Because they are of a mutable condition where the first constituent Reason of the practise proves to be such otherwise not There are some Traditions immutable which 't is not in the power of the Church to change as the institution of the Lords Day fixed on the first day of the Week and yet they bely Calvin if he would not have changed it to Thursday but that Reason of our Lords Resurrection hath determined it to that day of the Week as the Sabbath by another was determined to the Jew Here it is to be noted when we say Custome or Tradition we do not mean an Arbitrary usage of the Church as the Gentry put on their Garments and the Ladies their Fancies meerly for variety but there is discernible with it something more of moment either the Light of Nature as in all Humble Postures Institution of Festivals many times Gods and Christs own Wisdome and Spirit in all of them Reason sufficient to constitute them For why the Apostles Love-Feast Why the Veil S. Jude xii 1 Cor. xi 10 2 Cor. xiii 13 Why the Holy Kiss Why the Love-Feast because it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Love the Reason is in the Name Why the Kiss the Reason is in the appellation a Holy Kiss a Kiss of Charity Why the Vail because of Modesty and Reservedness in the Virgin in the presence of God and his holy Angels Thou shalt not adde thereto 1 Cor. xi nor diminish therefrom establisheth Gods authority but it doth not overthrow his Churches Moses his Chair and the Sanedrim were put up by God to make Canons of Church and State in points not decidible by the Text. The Church of God always knew it her Innocent Right to ordain a Ceremony on a just Reason before Moses was born Gen. xxxii 32 witness the abstaining from the sinew in memory of Jacobs wrestling so do the Jews ever since observe solemn Fasts for Miriams Leprosie Moses his breaking of the Tables and the Death of the sons of Aaron as the learned Vsher hath noted them and more for us in his Ages of the World Many that are used to this day come from Gods own wisdome under the Law-Dispensation and therefore adopted by the Church under the Gospel the Spirit of Christ so thought it good who is thereby throughly witnessed to the Jew to be their Messias promised by the God of their Fathers in this that bating the meer shadows and servile work in whose room he hath put substantial and more glorious services in founding his Church he hath retained all that was fit and solemn and decent such as are the distinction of the Courts of the Lords House the Orders of Priest and Levite their hours of Prayer their attendances by night in the Temple secubations in times of Humiliation the Baptism of the Infant about the eighth day the giving of the Name at Baptism and the Godfathers at they used at Circumcision the seclusion of the Woman after Child-bearing for a Moneths space the Reading the Law in their Synagogues their singing the Hebrew Amen and Alleluja the Dominical day for the Sabbath nay our very Sacraments themselves advanced from the Jews who had their Baptism and Cup Eucharistical and many others in which God God I say is visibly evident I should surfet you if I should lead you as I thought to have done through every particular but at present it cannot be Only thus far have I attempted to bring all good Christians to Truth and Vnity Let no man do me that wrong past repair to think that I have in any of this an evil eye toward the holy Scripture whatsoever is said I wish un-said that is not proved thereby If for matters of Faith and practical conscience the holy Scriptures suppose the Creed and Light of Nature it cannot exclude them If for matters of Ceremony the Scripture undertaketh not but commendeth to us other subordinate authority let those places be expunged or else we dare not say but what we have said If we be judged by Scriptures let us be judged by Scriptures and he that maketh conscience of one clause must make conscience of all uniformly or else he had better never seen it Would men but consider this That the holy Scripture is the Rule I have not insisted on because I took it for granted and I should have been tedious in asserting what every body knows It is a Rule and such a Rule that he that loves his salvation must diligently attend it see how many Precepts are in it Think not of x or xx but of x times xx And as many as there are I never counted my self to understand any thing till I perfectly believed that every one of them were my Rule in order to salvation so that men of unwary conversations such as I am cannot read them without a sigh and shaking of the head as S. Austin uses to say Yerret me this and that Precept frights me when I know how far I come short All that I have laboured for is that the Scripture may not be wrested that we may not lose the fruit of it by abusing it Hereby will I nill I owning it to be a Rule if it be but in this that it is liable to be wrested But let no man strange that Scripture may be abused as profane and audacious as the Practise is though I fear not commonly thought so even by those that seem to cry it up How do we take it when some cry up Liberty to bring in Confusion Do they not abuse Liberty thereby The seditious Party do so What think you of those that magnifie grace in flat opposition to all duty Do they not abuse it the Autinomian does so Nay if one shall cry up Jesus Christ himself can Christ be extolled too much yea but if he should be set up in opposition to his Father I have seen a Cursed Paper do so Nothing is done right but what is stated according to its due limits of explication This is the sourse of all our misery And now this objection is out of the way how shall I bespeak you to return to the unity of that Church to which if you had once proved all things by Scripture Rules you must at last retire the worst that you can gain is the character of an understanding and peaceable person a wise man and a meek one Why must a Ceremony fright you What deformed Multiplying-Glass do you see that in which of it self is rational innocent and solemn Do we place the substance of Religion in them Nay we say indeed there is no outward profession without them no real body but what will cast its shadow Which of us would not have censur'd Mary Magdalen of superstition to have wiped Christs feet with her hair and have pitied the ignorance of those men that threw their Garments under our Saviours Asses feet How many counted our Saviour himself a breaker of the Sabbath because they consulted not right reason and how many a Blasphemer because they knew not his authority Our Lord was not stanch enough for those that called him wine-bibber and the holy Baptist for his fasting and prayer had a Devil Have we no need of proving all things and take in all the lights and helps that God vouchsafes us Let not Reason Creed Scripture Christ all be against us for in the end they will be too hard for us FINIS

Moral and Spiritual good to be held fast when found by Faith and a tenacious observance Now since all Acts of Examen and Probation are made with respect to some Rule as in Angles the Square in Levels the Plumb-line in Measures the Standard our chief enquiry must be what is this Rule according to which our Examen must proceed And secondly Who are the proper Judges to fit on these things Whether every one of the Laity or Clergie only To whom for certain it only belongs in a special manner Rev. 11.2 Upon which account some very Learned and Christian men have restrain'd the Precept here to them only Yet I shall not deny them nor do they I think their right of Tryal and Judgement even as far as they themselves shall venture when they shall be rightly instructed in the true nature of application of the Rule on one hand which is our business and consider soberly and meekly the more petite measures of their own Parts and Graces seeing God dispenseth not his Talents to all equally but divideth to each man severally as he pleaseth I say I shall not deny them nor indeed can I the way I go provided they use the Rule according to the Authors minde and withal keep themselves within the bounds that God and Nature hath set them as they will answer dearly to God for the contrary who will have every member to know his own station as lusty and liking and thriving as he may be in his own esteem Howbeit since the Act of Examining and Proving in the Text supposing the Rule with the Spirit of God toward the admission and love of it is an Act of the Understanding it is clear that the rational man is the proper Judge here regarded the Scripture many times referring things even to our Judgment 1 Cor. x. 15. Luke XII 57. and all the world knows that Judgment is an Act of the Understanding For as in the first admittance of the Rule we did not take it up upon an easie credulity as the Atheist upbraids us but upon most weighty moment abundantly courting and pressing us for our assent so after that assent the same Reason which draws conclusions for her own use is able to turn and taste of those which she sinds drawn to her hand But in this her Estimate of so sacred a thing as Religion she is not a little jealous and cautious because a Drug or Jewel the more pretious it is the more do men study how to adulterate it The Case is plain Religon is not the Fools Gospel it despises not the Fool neither provided he be a docile i.e. a wise Fool. The Body consists not of Babes only it hath its men and the Scriptures call upon us to be men in understanding that we may approve 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 1. the things that are excellent for so Hesychius explains the word in all judgment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to that Psal 119. Teach me good judgment and knowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Hebrew a spiritual taste to distinguish joyn'd in that place with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the LXX render by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No man saies at least I cannot that Reason can make out the mysteries of Religion the Holy Trinity c. But that Religion hath to do with Reason appears because no other creature is capable of Religion and no Law of God can lay hold of us without it Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not commit Adultery doth not reach us but upon these reasonable Suppositions 1. That God speaks to All 2. That We are some of that number For that Reason makes inference from the sacred Text observe the Apostle who having occasion to apply that place of Scripture to our Lord Christ He hath put all things under his feet steps in and sayes that 'T is Manifest that he is excepted who did put all things under him 1 Cor. xv 27. Manifest to what but to Reason as in another place 'T is manifest that we can carry nothing out of this world Manifest to sense it self But then how our Lord himself uses arguments and deductions from the Text. 'T is excellent for every one that loves the praxis of Reason to consider how he handles the Pharisees and Sadducees and worsts them as in case of the Sabbath Do the Priests saith he do such butcherly work as kill and flay the sacrifice for the ends of God and may not my Disciples grinde an ear of corn for the ends of nature S. Matth. xii 5. May David's Hunger entrench upon the Shew-bread and must we starve in the midst of a Corn-field ver 3. and if Circumcision when he had heal'd on the Sabbath that wounding Ceremony be no violation a healing Miracle sure saith he is no breach S. Joh. vii 23. Thus in the question of the Souls Immortality he argues S. Matth. xii 32. If God entitled himself to be the God of Abraham and Isaac then sure they have a perpetual Being and subsistence with their God for 't is no Title of Honour to be the God of the Dead those that are not the better for him as They that have no subsistence are not Ergo. And once more in the case of Blasphemy S. Joh. x. 34. Jesus answered Is it not written in your Law I said you are Gods If he call them Gods to whom the Word of God came and the Scripture cannot be broken say ye of him c. Nay since one way of Probation of all our Hopes our ever blessed Jesus to be the Messias lies in deduction from the Prophesies of the Old Testament it will be but wrong to intelligent men to say any more The reasonable man then is constituted the Judge after examination and proof to bring in his Inference What is the Rule now The Answer that is justly expected here is the Scriptures the Word of God and of his Prophets the Law and the Gospel the Law of Moses and the Law of Christ And this Answer takes its date from the time in which the Church of God first owned the Canon as now it stands For however it pleased God to tutour the Patriarchs by Tradition and other Revelations and to found the Christian Church by the oral Preaching of the Apostles it is evident that since he hath committed Both Testaments to Writing seeing 't is his Word it is our RULE and being such no question hath lost nothing by the writing All confessing that God had designes of safety and conservation of that his Word to the respective after-ages when first he began the writing part himself I might adde to this that ONELY Scripture is the Rule but then I must crave leave to distinguish and take heed that the word Onely be a just exclusive of what is extraneous to Scripture not to have any malignancy against ought that hath natural intimacy and consanguinity with it Of this nature are these Let notional men dispute how