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
A76542	The mystery of phanaticism. Or, The artifices of dissenters to support their schism· Together with the evil and danger of them. Set forth in several letters to a friend. Wherein is made appear, that nothing but the subtilty and cunning of their teachers, doth now hinder the people from conformity. By a divine of the Church of England.	A. B.; Taylor, William, fl. 1698.	1698 (1698)	Wing B23A; ESTC R208943	49,991	144

Worship of God or their not being tied up to any other Rules in these things but such as they in their great Wisdom shall think fit hence they persuade the People that to prescribe any thing in the Worship of God which he himself hath not Commanded is an invasion of his Prerogative and an infringement of Christian Liberty But hath God any where prescribed the particular Times Places Habits Gestures and other Circumstances of Divine Worship Hath he given any other than some general Rules for the more Decent and Orderly performance hereof No 't is certain he hath not why then the particular Determination of these Circumstances wherein this Decency and Order consists must be left to that Power which Christ hath set up in his Church For to leave every one to his own Liberty in these things is a Principle of Confusion and must bring all manner of Indecency and Disorder into the Service of God How then comes this to be called Christian Liberty Hath Christ any where Commanded or Allowed any such Liberty in his Chuch or exempted Christians from Obedience to Authority in such Lawful and Indifferent things No he hath given both his Precept and Example to the contrary for he was not only Obedient to the Roman Power in all Lawful things but paid all due Reverence and Obedience to the Authority of the Jewish Church he strictly observed the Rites and Ceremonies of the Jewish Service as well those of Human as Divine Appointment he kept to the Gesture used in Eating the Passover Matth. 26.20 and punctually Conformed to all the Ceremonies of the Synagogue-Worship So that 't is prevaricating with God as well as deceiving the People to tell them that Christ hath dispensed with all Laws made for the external Order and Decency of Publick Worship and given them a Liberty to behave themselves in it as they please But does not the Apostle tell us of a liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free willing us to stand fast in it and not to be entangled again in the yoke of bondage Gal. 5.1 Yes but that was a Liberty from the numerous and burthensome Rites and Ceremonies of Moses's Law which for the number and uneasiness of them are by St. Peter justly stiled a Yoke and such a one too as neither they nor their forefathers were able to bear Acts 15.10 for their Temples daily flow'd with the Blood of their Flocks and Herds their Altars smoak'd with the most costly Incense and Perfumes in a word they were prescribed to almost in all the Punctilio's of Human Life and few or no things were left indifferent to them Now these things being for the most part Typical and only shadows of good things to come were all to be done away when the Substance came accordingly at Christ's Coming all these Shadows vanished like darkness at the approach of the Sun and the cloudy Types of the Law were dispelled by the Brightness of his Coming Now a freedom from those cumbersom Rites and Ceremonies of the Old Law is the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and to return to the Observance of them is to be entangled again in the yoke of Bondage But what is this to Governors applying the general Rules of Scripture about the Order and Decency of God's Worship to particular Laws about it Here the Ceremonies enjoined are not Typical as the Jewish were nor is the observing of them a virtual denying that Christ is come in the Flesh as the continuance of the Jewish Rites would be but are Appointed only for the more comely Worshipping of God manifest in the flesh and the more solemn Praifing of God the Father for that inestimable Blessing To observe such wholesome Orders made for this end is so far from infringing our Christian Liberty that it would be a great Infringement of it to do otherwise For First This would infringe the Liberty that Christ hath left with Governours of Ordering such Indifferent things this is the main if not the only Branch of their Ecclesiastical Power for the Substantials of Divine Worship are already Appointed by Christ and the Spirit of God hath left some general Rules for the more orderly Performance of it but the particular Rules of Order and Decency being no where Prescribed these are left to the determination of our Governors whom we are required to obey for the Lord's sake and to deny them this is to divest them of all Power in Church-matters yea this will leave a less Liberty to Ecclesiastical Governors under the Gospel than the Governors of the Jewish Church were invested with who yet were bound up and determined in far more particulars than ours now are Again To take off our Obedience in these Indifferent things is to infringe the Liberty of the People who must be thereby deprived of a better way of serving God and likewise subject them to the Punishment and Displeasure of the Magistrate for Disobeying him in things that are within his Power to Command But wherein then lies our Christian Liberty if Governors may Impose what they think fit upon us Why the Governors Liberty consists in this That they are not tied up to any particular Modes or Circumstances of Divine Worship but may establish in Indifferent things what they judge most expedient for Order and Comeliness The Peoples Liberty lies in this That they do not look upon or use the things contained in such Injunctions as Essential Parts of Divine Worship or Matters necessary to Salvation but merely for Discipline and Orders sake they retain still the Liberty of the Judgment about the Nature of the things though the Use of them be for wise and publick Reasons restrain'd Whereas such a Liberty as sets Men free from all Laws and good Orders of this kind is a wild and extravagant Fancy and lets them loose to all Disorder this is to use our Liberty as a Cloak of Maliciousness and to make it a Pretence or Covering for all Licentiousness But what is the Design of this false Pretence to Christian Liberty Why 't is to give the People Liberty to break the Laws at Pleasure and leave them to the Guidance of their own Humours without Controul by this means they teach them to leave the Church and go to Conventicles to assert their Christian Liberty and to encourage them therein they pervert for them two or three Texts of Scripture as that of our Saviour Call no man master upon earth Matth. 23.10 which is a Caution against receiving the corrupt Doctrines and Traditions of the Pharisees is by them Interpreted for rejecting the Lawful Commands of our Superiors That of the Apostle Be not ye the servants of men 1 Cor. 7.23 which forbids the enslaving the Conscience to the Imperious Dictates of False Teachers is so expounded as to take off all the Obligation of good Orders St. Peter's Lording it over God's heritage 1 Pet. 5.3 they interpret of the Tyranny of the Bishops and thereby take off their