Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	ceremony_n	church_n	rite_n	2,845	5	10.3412	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A15824	A modell of divinitie, catechistically composed Wherein is delivered the matter and method of religion, according to the creed, ten Commandements, Lords Prayer, and the Sacraments. By Iohn Yates, Bachelour in Diuinitie, and minister of Gods word in St Andrewes in Norvvich.	Yates, John, d. ca. 1660.; Yates, John, d. ca. 1660. Short and briefe summe of saving knowledge. aut; Richardson, Alexander, of Queen's College, Cambridge.	1622 (1622)	STC 26085; ESTC S103644	253,897	373

of many that in things indifferent will haue a speciall Text to allow and warrant euery particular It is enough for the Church or Magistrate to command in these vpon the generall warrant of the word they that oppose must bring the particular inhibition from heauen or else they neither obey God nor man If they take from the Magistrate power in things indifferent they leaue him none at all for in all the rest he is as well bound as any other man And here some questions may be moued first whether of things indifferent any image may be made of Religion It is plaine of God we are to make none for he is onely to be taught by his owne voyce and not by any image Deut. 4.12 To teach his nature and maiestie by images is to turne his truth into a lie Rom. 1.25 But of religion it selfe there may be images and similitudes for man hath two senses that are aboue all the rest apt to teach or receiue instruction for the minde the eye and the eare And almightie God hath provided that we might learne by both hence his word for the care in speaking and the eye in reading hence in the old law his service was full of visible sacrifices and many other images of holy things And now the worship being more abstracted from sense wee haue Sacraments which are images and similitudes of holy things But all the question is what man may doe in these things for the precept is thou shalt not make c. I answere Images of Religion are either in the substance of it or the circumstances In the first man hath no power for the whole essence of Divinitie must haue God for he sole Author In the second man hath power for time lace and person and some outward rites and ceremonies of morall and historicall signification for such ceremonies and circumstances as are of no signification are most idle and absurd in Gods worship The history of the Bible in pictures of Kings Priests and Prophets of Altars Beasts Cherubins Arke Mercie-seat Temple c. are not vnlawfull yet wee are to vnderstand that these things serue onely for our intellectuall part and that God is not to bee worshipped in or at any of these things or the like The Iewes were commanded to worship God in the images of things to come and the thing being come wee are not to worship in them but learne from them They may bee to vs of historicall vse but not of morall for they are ceased as appendices or additions to the morall law and therefore are left vs for instruction not for adoration Yet still it remaines whether the Church haue any power to set vp religious images of morall signification and such as ought to carry with them not onely our vnderstandings but our wills and affections vnto the performance of some morall dutie I answere if morall be taken for the rule the Church may prescribe no such duties they rest then onely vpon the morall law of God but if morall be taken for manners then it cannot be denied but the Church hath power to order the outward man in good behauiour and morally to teach him by humane rites and ceremonies yea even such as should outwardly helpe the inward man for morall decency and order ought to tend to edification Now that the Church hath power in this generall sense to make some religious images I shew by this example Iosh 22. The Altar of testimony was not civill but religious as may appeare by ver 24.25.26.27.28.29.34 It was not to distinguish their borders but to testifie that they were Gods people and had all one God and that this Altar should put them and their posteritie in mind to sacrifice vpon Gods Altar wheresoever it should be set c. Yet this Altar of morall signification was subordinate to Gods Altar and an help to the people to bring them to worship God as he had commanded And so must the Church doe nothing in things indifferent hut as they helpe forward the substance and truth of Gods worship And in this sense the Crosse in Baptisme a transient signe of Christ crucified made in remembrance of the Crosse whereon he was crucified cannot be denied but to be an image of Religion and of morall signification which if it should come in to thrust out Gods image I meane water wee had as iust cause to be offended with it as the Children of Israel at the two Tribes and an halfe for the new Altar but when they expounded it to bein token not in taking away of Gods Altar they were not onely pacified but praysed God for his goodnesse therein So the Crosse in Baptisme though it come neere a signe in Baptisme and may at the first blush make vs feare with Israel the revenge of the iniqu●●ie of Peor yet seeing how our Church hath expounded it that it comes not in to confront the water of Baptisme or to coniure it with Papists or to be any part of the Sacrament for hee that may appoynt a Sacramentall signe must be able to giue the Sacramentall grace and so the Church should blaspheme making her selfe a God who onely can giue that grace that in the Sacrament is sealed It is therefore by the doctrine of our Church no signe sealing grace but as that Altar Iosh 22.27 was a witnesse betwixt party and party so this betwixt the Childe and the Congregation for the Minister baptizing in the name of the Trinitie sayes I baptize but in that action the phrase is altered and hee sayes in the name of the Congregation wee receiue shewing that as God by Baptisme admits the Childe into fellowship with himselfe so they the Infant into the same communion of the Crosse of Christ with themselues that is they gladly testifie that they are not ashamed of any ignominies or reproches for their Saviours sake And I would to God that so Christian an exposition could stay our brethren for going vp against vs in Battell A second Question may be whether Christ as man may be pictured I answere that subiect that is to be adored is not to be painted for it can no wayes be set forth as civill and so wee cannot haue an image of Christ as he is to be adored for civill or historicall vse Wee are flatly forbidden the very making of an image of God and whole Christ being to be adored as God we are not onely forbidden to worship his image but also to make it If any by the subtiltie of their wits can abstract Christs man hood from his Godhead or worship from either of them both I shall not oppose the keeping of an image of Christ as of the greatest Benefactor that ever came into the world but my braine is too dull to devide in this case and therefore from the precept Than shalt not make that is of the proper subiect of Religion such as was expressed in the first Commandement any image If it were of Religion it selfe the

precept could not be so generall for the making of an image of God is morally a sinne I meane in the very nature of the thing it selfe and admits no dispensation nay God himselfe though he tooke libertie in his worship to expresse it by images yet never did fie goe about to paint out himselfe in any similitude Deut. 4.12 Yee heard the voyee of words but saw no similitude onely yee heard a voyce this is the way to shew his nature which no other image can doe And therefore I may conclude that Christ as he is to be adored so he is not to be painted c. The third question is whether things indifferent abused may againe be vsed in the worship of God especially if their first institution haue beene superstitious I answere they may Iudg. 6.25.26 Baals bullock with Baals wood is sacrificed to God by Gideon His Altar is throwne downe first will God haue him cut the very throat of Idolatry and when once Gods detestation and their danger is ceased then may the good creatures of God prophened to Idolatry be imployed to the holy service of their makes Ioh. 2.6 The fixe water pots were superstitiously abused for private purification whereas God had onely inioyned it for the Temple yet our Sauiour vsed both the pots and water see the holy working of a miracle c. yet this rule must ever be obserued that things indifferent when they become scandalous and offensiue are to be foreborne The Iewish Ceremonies were retained in the Church of God as things in different after the dissolution of their necessary vse But when they became hurtfull and offensiue to Gods Church they were reiected by the Apostles Methinkes these foure propositions should quiet any man conscience in this subiect which hath in all times caused such trouble to Gods Church First that the Church of God hath power to retaine things indifferent Secondly that the same Church as it ought hath power to remoue them when they proue scand aloua and offensiue Thirdly that this power is to be exercised by our Governours and not by private men Fourthly that private men sinne not in the retaining of them they cannot be taxed or touched with that which is none of theirs for God requires reformation of none but such as haue receiued iniunctions from him Q. What is the Law concerning the right vsage of Gods worship A. It either hath respect to reverence in doing it or diligence in learning it As wee are to avoyd all contempt of the glorious name of God so are wee to neglect no time to learne his will Wee are to worship him with all reverence especially vpon his owne solemne day To whom is the account of our dayes either more due or better knowne then to God All the dayes are his who gaue time a beginning continuance yet some he hath made ours not to command but to vse In none may wee forget him in some wee must forget all besides him Isa 56.2.4.6 and 58.13 Q. What is the precept concerning the reverent worship of God A. The third Commandement Exod. 20.7 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vaine c. By name we are to vnderstand any thing by which Almightie God is made knowne vnto vs as his nature attributes word and workes Q. What is here commanded A. All reuerence possible to be shewed in the worship of God or in speaking of God and his holinesse Isa 48.11 Ier. 4.2 Q. What is here forbidden A. All kind of prophanenesse and light esteeme of God and goodnesse Hos 4.2 The Iewes haue a conceit that the sinne of that Israelite which was stoned for blasphemy was onely this that he named that ineffable name of foure letters Iehovah Shall their feare keepe them from once mentioning the dreadfull name of God and shall not our feare keepe vs from abusing it Durst wee so boldly sinne God in the face if wee feared him Surely if any feare of him stood before our eyes wee durst not dally with his name or at our pleasure teare him in peeces Wee must needs despise his person whose name we contemne Q. What is the law of our diligent learning to worship God A. The fourth Commandement Exod. 20. S. 9.10.11 Remember the Sabboth day to keepe it holy Q. What is here commanded A. The setting apart of the seventh day to the service of God as like wife all diligence in learning to know his will He that will needs be his owne Scholler hath commonly a foole to his Master It is dangerous medling with the things of God according to our owne appoiatments How perplext and in how manifolde mindes are men as those that are encountred with diverse wayes and know not which to take in this poynt of the Sabboth It shall be well if some change not their master as they seeme to haue changed their livery in their service on this day All our thoughts and vitall spirits are too little in remembring the sanctification of it True it is that the substance of the Sabboth consisteth not in houres but in holinesse not in a naturall day but the sanctification of it and therefore the alteration of the time is no mutation or change in the essence of the fourth Commandement but onely in the accident of it Time as other naturall things is separate and set apart for holy vse All time is Gods by creation and waites vpon the creature and his actions but the seventh part of time is to be his by the holy observation of it And here a iourney to Damascus were happily vnder-taken to meet with some good Annanias that might cause to fall those scales of ignorance where with wee are blinded in a fallacie of composition and division thinking the Sabboth to be abrogated because the time is changed from a seventh day to a first day Truth is great and prevaileth for I see no greater change in this then if the Sacrament should bee celebrated with one kinde of water or bread and not with another For naturall things in both are elevated aboue themselues to supernaturall ends Time therefore is as morall in the fourth Commandement as bread wine or water evangelicall in the Sacraments First the distribution of time proues the seventh part consecrated to God Exod. 20.9 And let him take heed that sacrilegiously sleales it from God I am resolved like Surgeans and Physitians rather to force a bitter pill or smarting salue then suffer a patient to perish With what face canst thou say O wretched Soule not sixe dayes will I labour but also play and please my selfe vpon the seventh Secondly the order and succession of parts will proue either the first or seventh part of time to be Gods The whole is seven and of these God must haue a part and if it be neither the first nor the last it will be in two weekes for either from the first to the last is a seventh day or from the last to the first and