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A36103
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A Discourse of the lawfulness of compliance with all the ceremonies of the Church of England
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1660
(1660)
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Wing D1605A; ESTC R15175
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21,547
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38
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Jeshurun Deut. 33.5 And after him David Solomon Asa Jehosaphat Ezekiah Josiah Kings of Israel and Judah instituted the Tabernacle and Temple Service ordered and regulated several things in which they varied from the Law of Moses 2 Chron. 29.34 Lev. 1.6 7. erected Altars and dedicated them to the Lord destroyed Idolatry reformed abuses in the Worship of God setled both the standing Worship of God with occasional Thanksgivings and Humiliations The like power have Christian Kings and Emperours had since Christ as might be made evident and apparent by History And therefore it is an Article of the Church of England which likewise all do acknowledge in the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy that the King's Majesty within his Dominions and Countries is in all causes and over all persons as well ecclesiastical as civil next under God supreme Moderatour and Governour And therefore it is by his authority that Ecclesiastical Canons are made and enacted Laws of the Nation without which men of differing judgments might excommunicate each other but to little purpose I shall now in the next place briefly compare these Obligations together which many times cross and contradict each other The obligation then to observe indifferent Ceremonies which ariseth from the command of Superiour Powers is generally greater than any which ariseth upon other accounts And here first as to Vows and Covenants we have the case stated between Father and Child Husband and Wife Numb 30. and the same is the reason between Princes and Subjects for no man ought to bind himself with a vow unless in such cases which God and his Superiours have left to his liberty Otherwise Children Servants and Subjects might by making vows shake off all obedience to Parents Masters and Princes Whensoever therefore he knows the Will of the Prince or the Laws of the Land to be contrary to the intention of the Vow the Vow is unlawfull and if his Will be unknown it ought to be made conditionally and be of no longer force than it is permitted by the Superiours For as if there should be a contrary command of God it would immediately take off the obligation to the Vow and make it null and void so also a contradictory command of Parents Masters Princes to which last we ought to be obedient and not to resist upon pain of damnation doth also though not immediately yet consequentially by virtue of the Divine Precept concerning subjection cause it to cease It being not to be supposed in lawfull Vows and Oaths that they are against the Will of God or of Superiour powers whom by our Oaths we are bound to obey Secondly As to an erring and doubtfull Conscience 't is true that if a man through an erroneous judgment which is by reason of education or otherways invincibly such be fully persuaded that to be unlawfull which is in it self lawfull although the commands of Superiours lay an obligation yet the greater sin is to act against Conscience So Rom. 14.23 Whatsoever is not of faith is sin and the Apostle adds that he that eateth and doubteth is damned though not always in the World to come yet he is condemned in his own Conscience which how great a punishment it is we may know by divers Examples But if there be onely small inconsiderable Scruples or Arguments which draw the mind equally so that the judgment is rendered uncertain but cannot peremptorily determine the thing to be absolutely unlawfull the safest way is to obey the command and the duty we owe to the Superiour Powers ought to turn the scales Disobedience being one of the greatest sins and Obedience a necessary duty and therefore ought not to be neglected for trivial Scruples and Objections but upon very considerable and weighty reasons Thirdly As for case of Scandal we must first discharge our duty to our Sovereign and prefer obedience to the King before satisfaction of Fellow-subjects And to let pass that usual argument which is brought that obedience to Higher Powers is an act of Justice it being their due right given to them from God the King of Kings But the condescention to the infirmities of a weak Brother is an act onely of Charity and acts of charity must give place to acts of justice onely charity supposeth that we rob not others of their dues But in this case of obedience there is a concurrence both of justice and charity which surely should be of more prevalent obligation than a single one and that the weaker too to let this pass I say that the case is far different from what it was when the Apostle St. Paul wrote his Epistls for then their Faith was so much endangered that they could not tell well which sooner to part with their Faith in Christ or Mosaical Ceremonies But the Dissenters Faith now-a-days is not so much endangered but they seem to be the more confirmed and obstinate in their resolutions and affirm themselves almost to be the onely Christians But forasmuch as this Point hath been vehemently insisted on by several Separatists who having first made others to be scandalized at the Ceremonies and Orders of our Church and then pretend they cannot conform for fear of destroying the Souls of their weak brethren whose ruine they accuse our Church to endeavour I shall retort the argument on themselves and affirm in the next place that disobedience to the Higher Powers is it self the greatest scandal to Christian Religion and endangereth the Salvation of most Souls It was by this Jealousie rashly and without ground taken up viz. That Christ and Christian Religion were an enemy to government that the Devil hath in all ages stirred up men to persecute the Church upon this pretence our Blessed Saviour the most innocent person who lived upon Earth who payed Tribute to Caesar with the expence of a Miracle was yet condemned and executed If thou let him go thou art not Caesar's friend said the Jews to Pilate It was on this account that the Apostles endured bonds and imprisonments as men that would turn the World upside down It was upon this pretence that the Primiâ—ive Christians for above 300 years together were oppressed with the rage of heathen Emperours because thought disturbers of the publick peace So we see how the very pretence of indisposing men for subjection which notwithstanding the Apostles by their doctrine and the Primitive Christians by their example clearly refuted is apt to bring Religion into disesteem and render it odious But these disobeyed onely where God's Law was contrary to the Emperour 's and when they could not obey they patiently suffered But if we will stand out against our King in those things which God requires not of us if we will disobey our Sovereign and be never the more obedient to God if every scruple be an excuse from subjection and obedience these pretences will be turned into realities and we shall be left without excuse if we will have no regard to the Laws of Men which are the bond
A DISCOURSE OF The Lawfulness of Compliance With all the CEREMONIES OF THE CHURCH of ENGLAND HERE it may be demanded in the first place how indifferent actions or actions of a middle nature betwixt moral good and evil which are neither necessary nor unlawfull neither commanded nor forbidden by the Word of God and in the performance of which we can shew neither obedience nor disobedience but are left to our discretion can lay any obligation upon the Consciences of men Answer They may oblige the Conscience upon a fourfold account As first When we bind our selves with a Vow to God to doe such things to which we were not before obliged If the thing be lawfull and indifferent in it self we are bound to perform it not for the things sake but for the Vows sake For whensoâ—ver 〈…〉 is not unlawfull the bond or tye of Religion is contained in it and therefore that which before was free is now by reason of the Vow made due worship to God or at least for us necessary to be done Although the subject-matter or the thing it self vowed be indifferent yet the observation of that Vow doth directly belong to that honour which by our Religion we owe to God Of this nature were the Vows and Laws of the Nazarites of which we reade Numb 6. And by such a Vow Jephthah was entangled having rashly made a vow to offer unto God whatsoever thing came out first to meet him after his return from battel and victory for a Burnt-offering which proved to be his own Daughter and therefore was necessitated by his Vow though not to offer her up for a Burnt-sacrifice which was an abomination in the sight of God yet to doe to her so much as he thought the Law of God would permit to shut her up and to keep her in perpetual virginity which the Daughters of Israel bewailed Judges 11. Secondly Indifferent Rites and Ceremonies are then to be observed and oblige the Conscience when any for want of sufficient information and instruction is fully persuaded in his Conscience that they are not things indifferent but neâ—essary duties this was the case of the Jews when St. Paul wrote his Epistles The Ceremonies commanded by Moses were abolished by the death of Christ and therefore no man was any longer bound to conform to them yet they being otherwise strongly persuaded it was sinfull to act against the dictates of their Conscience So Rom. 14.5 Let every one be fully persuaded in his own mind It was lawfull for a Christian to esteem the Jewish Festivals all one with other days but unlawfull to profane those days which he thought holy v. 14. I know and am â—â—â—suaded by the Lord Jesus that c. It was an indifferent thing to eat Swines flesh or not to eat it yet if any man was persuaded in his Conscience the eating to be unlawfull he ought to forbear v. 23. For whatsoever is not of faith is sin Where by Faith we are to understand a particular persuasion concerning things about which we are exercised as that it was lawfull to eat or unlawfull to eat such or such meats not true saving Faith by which we become Christians and lay hold on our Saviour for life and salvation and which also the believing Jews mispersuaded in some such particulars as I have already mentioned were endued with Thirdly The third case is of evident and manifest Scandal that is when the observation or not observation of things indifferent doth manifestly endanger the Faith of weak Christians and harden others in their unbelief See 1 Cor. 10.27 28. 1 Cor. 8.8 9 10. And indeed one great design of the Apostle St. Paul was to persuade the strong Christians not to put a stumbling block before the weak Jews who still adhered to Mosaical Ceremonies So also Rom. 14.15 16 17 18 19 20 21. such was the condition of the believing Jews that though they embraced the Christian Faith yet they supposed that our Saviour came not to abolish Ceremonies but onely to reveal a farther light and that the Gospel was not to terminate or give a period to the Law of Moses but onely that it was a superstructure upon the foundation of Moses and the Prophets and therefore they thought that they might as well part with their Christianity as with their ancient Rites and Customs So that the total neglect of them by the faithfull among the Gentiles deterred the unbelieving Jews from embracing the Gospel and tempted almost those who already believed to renounce their Faith And therefore the Apostle doth exhort the believing Gentiles to abate their Liberty and not to endanger the Faith and Salvation of so many Souls Fourthly Although indifferent Rites do not oblige us to their observation directly of themselves or of their own account yet our Consciences are obliged to the observation of them indirectly and by consequence when they are commanded and enjoined by the Supreme Civil Magistrate and our Sovereign Lord. And this is by virtue of that Divine Precept Let every soul be subject to the higher powers which bindeth the Conscience directly The command of God to obey the King as Supreme in all lawfull things and such all indifferent things are doth oblige the Conscience directly and of it self as all the Commands of God do And therefore all things commanded by him if not unlawfull do likewise bind the Conscience indirectly by virtue of the Command of God So when Parents employ their Children and Masters their Servants about any business the business it self doth not oblige the Conscience directly because not commanded by God but it doth indirectly and by consequence by virtue of the Command of God to honour Parents and obey our Masters in all things And that the Magistrate may impose in Religion things lawfull in themselves will appear because if he think the imposition of them expedient some ways or other as for the peace and quietness or the uniformity and the settlement of the People whom he governs and the keeping of them from distractions and innovations c. he may certainly impose them because he doeth it as a good and expedient thing And what a private man may doe by himself in things lawfull if he think the use of them to be expedient for his better service of God that also may the Magistrate impose for uniformity on his Subjects Otherwise I suppose that no Prince would impose Ceremonies on his People against their will merely because they are indifferent things unless he thought them also some way fit and expedient Now although Ecclesiastical Persons may be thought the fittest judges of what Ceremonies are most convenient for the Church yet in imposing them they ought to have regard to the Supreme Magistrate and not to act without much less against his consent Under the Old Testament the Legal Ministery which consisted in Ceremonies and Sacrifices was not ordered by the hand of Aaron the High-priest but by the hand of Moses who was King in