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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

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A82002	A sober and temperate discourse, concerning the interest of words in prayer, the just antiquity and pedigree of liturgies, or forms of prayer in churches : with a view of the state of the church, when they were first composed, or imposed. Together with a discovery of the weakness of the grounds upon which they were first brought in, or upon which Bishop Gawden hath lately discoursed, the necessity of a liturgie, or the inconveniency of altering the English liturgie, the utility of church musick, and the lawfulness of ceremonies : in which are mixed reasons justifying those godly ministers, who forbear the use of the Common-prayer, against the late out-cryes of the said bishop. / By H.D. M.A.	H. D. (Henry Dawbeny); Collinges, John, 1623-1690, attributed name.	1661 (1661)	Wing D449; Thomason E1086_14; ESTC R208152	100,305	119

hundred things of that nature which even reason and nature it self teacheth all sober persons to be such as that without some order to be observed in them the worship of God either would not be performed or would be undecently performed VII But that either any Church or Civil Authority shall be absolute judges of order and decency and that whatsoever of this nature shall be commanded by them shall therefore be judged decent and orderly because they say so and their commands shall oblige mens consciences in things of this nature where the word of God is silent will want some proof before it be credited VIII Or that they have power to command and impose such things under the notion of order and decency which have been grosly abused to idolatry and superstition or at which pious people have for a long time declared themselves scandalized or which have any remarkable appearance of evil in them is so grosly false that it needs no confutation for they themselves are commanded To abstain from all appearance of evil to give no offence either to Jew or Gentile IX Nor is it true that they have any authority to appoint significative Ceremonies where are sensible signs to affect the understanding This is to give them authority to institute Sacraments God hath appointed us Ordinances where by sensible signs spiritual mysteries are represented to us These are his Sacraments we know no authority men have to add to them though they avoid the Popish rock of their conferring grace which we say no true Sacrament doth ex opere operato X. Now for any such Ceremonies as these we crave leave to dissent from the Bishop let them be never so few imposed under what specious pretence they will let who will be for them and let them be established how they will we believe them reducible to no command but certainly and justly burthensom to any tender conscience No vvayes like clothes fitted to our bodies because not any way necessary not like tunes for Pslams because the worship of God might be decently enough performed without them They may for ought we know be as good as perukes or periwigs to make a specious shew of devotion for them the baldness of whose hearts stands in need of such things to dissemble them to the world XI If the Bishop thinks that the Churches power to establish such Ceremonies be a principle to death to be asserted We dare say he is the first Confessor that Doctrine ever had and which God forbid should he ever seal such a cause with his blood we should think he deserved no better Epitaph then Hic jacet Protomartyr Gregorianus cui parem Ecclesia Christiana nunquam prius habuit nec posthac unquam habeat Was there ever heard of any yet that died in the defence of a Churches right to institute in the Church what it pleased so as it was such as Gods Word did not forbid Tell it not in Gath O publish it not in the tent of Askelon XII Let us hear Arch-Bishop Parkers opinion in this case he lived in darker times then ours are but yet is seems had more Gospel-light or a more Gospel Spirit he was consecrated 1559. Having told us of Augustine the Monk's eagerness even beyond his Mr. Pope Grogories directions to bring in the Romish Liturgy and Ceremonies in England which yet he could not do Antiq. Ecclas Britan. cap. 17. without the blood of 1200 Monks that opposed him He thus bewailes that first Prelates fury And truly saith he that contention then stirred up by Augustine about bringing in the Popish Ceremonies or Rites which could not then be appeased without the blood and slaughter of many innocent Brittains hath reached unto our times with the like destruction and slaughter of Christians For when men by those pompous Ceremonies departed from the pure simplicity of the primitive Church they took no great care for holiness of life for the preaching of the Gospel for the comforts and efficacy of the holy Spirit but they raised new contentions every day about new Ceremonies added by several Popes who thought none worthy of any great place who did not bring in some new Ceremonious that I may not say monstrous unheard of and unusual thing and so they filled both Schools and Pulpits with tales and brablings The primitive Church was more simple and white with the intire and inward worship of God prescribed in his word she was not splendid with garments nor adorned with magnificent buildings nor shining with gold silver and precious stones But the Romish Church even in that great St. Augustines time was so overgrown with Ceremonies that he complained that the condition of Christians in respect of the multitude of Rites and Ceremonies was vvorse then that of the Jews who though they acknowledged not their time of liberty yet vvere subjected only to Rites appointed by Gods Law not to humane presumptions for they used fewer Ceremonies then the Christians in Gods worship But had he perceived vvhat heapes vvere after added by several Popes I believe that he vvho then saw the evil of them in the Church vvould have set some Christian bound to them For vve see that the Church is nor yet free from that contention about Ceremonies but men otherwise learned and pious contend and quarrel about Vestments and such trifles in a more brawling and military then Philosophical or Christian manner This vvorthy person vvould hardly have died in defence of a power to appoint Ceremonies XIII But suppose it vvere not per se unlawful for the State or Church to appoint some mystical and significant Ceremonies yet may all such things be done without any regard at all to circumstances St. Paul saith All things are lawful for me but all things are not expedient all things are lawful but all things edifie not And we have heard such a maxime as Quicquid non expedit in quantum non expedit non licet Every thing that is not expedient so far as 't is inexpedient is unlawful St. Paul determined the eating of flesh and many other things inexpedient by reason of the offence and the scandal those things would have given supposing any Ceremonies to have been used by idolaters and that the former use of them hath proved a continual scandal to many good Christians and bred a continual division in the Church and if restored that the scandal will be ten times greater then ever and the sufferings of innocent souls for non-conformity to them an hundred times more than ever Quaeritis quomodo vincuntur Pagani● descrite eorum ritus c. are they yet lawful or desirable or is it worth the dying to maintain the Churches power as to the establishing such Ceremonies The Father of old we know thought the best way to convert the heathens was to have nothing to do with their Rites c. And is not this the likeliest way to convince the Romish idolaters at least to keep our souls clear of

the time it self sheweth wherein they first began to be used in Sacred Offices For Bellarmine himself confesseth that they first began to be used in the time of Pope Vitalian but he brings no reason why none of them were used either in the Apostles or in Constantines time For if they began to be used after the year 660. or 820. we must believe that humane nature had a great wrong in that for so many years it did not apply this Faculty to the praise of God For we believe the Apostles loved Christ with all their hearts The former and more religious ages had weak ones too though no Organs were used to help them I know not whether they encrease or diminish tediousness For men seldom see those Musical Masters godly and those Instruments with their length are troublesom to such as sing with the voice Let the matter be as it will I affirm that Bellar with his distinction of Ceremonies could not answer P. Martyrs reason against these For as the offering of bloudy Sacrifices though common both to the Jews and Heathens was taken away by Christs Bloud on the Cross as unsuitable to the Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedech so though the Heathens used these Instruments in the Solemnities of their Idols as Nebuchadnezzar in the Dedication of his Image yet these were convenient only for the Jewish Ceremonial worship c. XXVI But the truth is all that can be pretended for Church-Musick is the Authority of the Church to add what Ceremonies she pleaseth to the worship of God which we must speak somthing to in the next Chapter Though neither can Church-Musick come under that Notion for it is a perfect Service of it self not alwaies appendant to singing and is so used a perfect Post set up by Gods Posts an Ordinance of mans added to the Ordinances of God for his Worship which our souls shall desire to take heed of CHAP. XVI The Bishops Reasons for the English Ceremonies considered The Churches Power about Ceremonies examined No Principle to be maintained to death Archbishop Parkers Opinion of humane Ceremonies Reasons against them I. VVE are come to the last thing which we shall take notice of in the Bishops Book and that is his zealous Assertion of the Churches power in appointing Ceremonies and Circumstances of Divine Worship This is indeed the root of all the Pandora's Box the very Fountain head of all those Impositions which have bred so much trouble disturbance and persecutions in the Church of God Let us first see how the Bishop asserts it II. He tels us That the last shock of popular envy which the innocent and excellent Lyturgy of England was wont to bear was from the Ceremonies For which the summe of his Plea is this 1. That they are few 2. Retained as signal marks of Faith or Humility or Purity or Courage or Constancy 3. Not as Sacramental Signs conferring Grace but meerly as visible Tokens apt by a sensible sign to affect the understanding with somthing worthy of its thoughts as signified thereby 4. St. Augustine was no enemy to them 5. They are established by the Lawes of Church and State 6. They fall not under the Second but the Third Fourth and Fifth Command 7. They are like Cloaths fitted to our Bodies and Perwicks to our Head and Tunes to our Pslams 8. They do not burden any Conscience 9. It is most true and undeniably to be maintained even unto the death That this National Church as well others hath from the Word of God Liberty Power and Authority within its own Polity and Bounds to judge of what seemeth to it most orderly and decent as to any Ceremony or Circumstance in the Worship of God which the Lord hath left unconfined free and indifferent in its own nature and only to be confined or regulated by every such Ecclesiastical polity within it self c. III. We must in our examination of this Harangue of discourse crave leave to alter his Lordships method and to begin with the last thing first for if the Lord hath left to the Church or State no such power at large or if it be bounded by some general rules to be observed in the exercise which are not observed in some particular impositions all the former pleas that they are few signal marks c. not Sacramental sign c. come to just nothing Yet we cannot but observe how the Bishop hath provided a way to light upon his legs say what we will For it cannot be denied but the Church hath a full power from the Word of God within its own polity and bounds to judge of what seemeth to it most orderly and decent as to any circumstance in the worship of God which the Lord hath left unconfined free and indifferent in its own nature And only to be confined or regulated by every such Ecclesiastical Polity within it self i.e. The Lord hath left that to be regulated by the Church which he hath left to be regulated by the Church A most momentous and undoubted truth never denied by any But that is not the question This is the question Whether it be the will of God that the Church should regulate and determine all things which the Word of God hath left indifferent as to his worship or whether God by leaving them indifferent hath not declared his will that the Church should so leave them too IV. Yet were the first part determined affirmatively it would not reach the mark for it would then be queried Whether the particular Ceremonies appointed for us be such considering the letter of the Scripture or the circumstances of those Ceremonies with the reason and consequents of Scripture Text that they under those circumstances considered can be lookt upon as indifferent yea or no. V. The Bishop is yet confounding us with the complicated notion of the Authority of the Church and State In England there are no Ceremonies established by any other authority then that of the State which having called together some Ecclesiastical persons heard their advice and by a Law established some Rites and Ceremonies to which no soul is otherwise obliged then to a State-constitution VI. That the Word of God hath left many things not possible to be determined by it to the Authority of the Christian Magistrate cannot be denied whether any Ceremonies or no is a question diverse circumstances relating to the worship of God are undoubtedly so left These are such as relate to order and decency i. e. without which the worship of God cannot be orderly and decently performed and do chiefly relate to time and place the ordinary adjuncts of humane actions Thus we freely grant that the Civil power or the Church orderly assembled may determine at what hours on the Lords day the Congregation shall meet as also it shall determine particular times for fasting or thanksgiving as Gods providence shall administer occasions that places of publique worship shall be erected frequented kept decent and an

their guilt XIV 'T is true The number of Ceremonies retained in our Church pretending to any legal authority is but small The Surplis the Cross and kneeling at Sacrament are we think all See more of this point about Ceremonies in Altare Damascenum A dispute about the English Popish Ceremonies Dr. Ames his fresh suit against Ceremonies in all which this point about Ceremonies is execellently handled but we know how grosly all these are abused by the Papists that none of them have any footing in Scripture that kneeling as Sacrament was never heard of in the Church till 1226. in Pope Honorius his time admirably fitted to their idolatry of Transubstantiation That they grosly make the Cross an Idol That the Surplis is made significant of many things for which we can see no ground at all that all these have been strenuously opposed by as holy and learned men as any our Church hath bred That the patern of all Synods Acts 15. thought fit to impose only some few necessary things for the state of the Church at that time That the urging of these Ceremonies hath been the cause of sad separations the loss of diverse learned and holy mens ministry The offence of the generality of pious people That the imployment of the Ecclesiastical Courts was almost wholly taken up about Ministers and people not conforming to these instead of admonishing suspending excommunicating scandalous and debaucht Ministers and people c. XV. We know further that though there be no more Ceremonies established by Law as yet yet there are many probationers such as bowing at the Name of Jesus bowing to the Altar saying second Service much like the Popish in Secreto's which the people must not hear and what not almost And we can see no reason but the Churches power if allowed to appoint any save only such without which the Service of God would apparently to all rational men be performed indecently disorderly may appoint hundreds XVI Nor is it prudence could such a power he allowed to State or Church for either of them in such cases to do all that they may in strictness be proved to have a power to do Many men think that the State hath power in any civil things by Laws to oblige the consciences of Subjects to do any things not forbidden in Gods Word and doubtless the States power in such kind of Laws is far less disputable then in the case of Ceremonies relating to the worship of God Yet the wisdom of all States restrains them from enjoyning people by their Laws to do such kind of things for the doing of which rational persons may not see a just reason of the Law as either urging some Law of God or tending to a manifest publique or private good No State yet ever busied themselves or tied their Subjects by making Laws to command all their Subjects to wear Turbants or a thousand such things which would apparently signifie nothing of profit or advantage to the State nor yet to particular persons it where the way to bring their authority into contempt XVII We would fain know of what use or profit any of these Ceremonies are we look upon them as things that perish with the using and upon that account by no means reasonable if otherwise lawful for the grave Authority of a Church or State to interpose in And we hope God will thus far convince the Authority under which we are that they will not for these husks of Ceremonies destroy those many thousand Souls in England who cannot conform to them for whom yet Christ died And we are most humbly thankful to His most-Excellent Majesty for the indulgence as to them which he hath granted to us through which we can yet speak to our people that they may be saved how long we shall enjoy this breathing time the only all-knowing God can tell We are sensible enough how much others envy it we shall onely say as Calvin once of Luther We wish they would use their heat against the known enemies of God such as are drunkards blasphemers unclean persons cursers swearers c. rather then against the servants of the living God who shall one day judge betwixt them and us and who as it is very probable would more approve that zeal then this fury A Postscript Containing a Threefold Supplement to the former Discourses The first relating to the Chapter about the Antiquity of Liturgies The Second to the Argument about Idolatrous Usages The Third to the Argument concerning scandalizing of Brethren I. THere is nothing in which those we have to deal with in these Points of Liturgies Ceremonies Musick in Churches Suppl 1. c. will pretend more advantage against us than in the business of Antiquity nothing so much in their mouths as all Antiquity all the Fathers the Church of God in all ages hath been of their minds Our Brethren know or may know that the Writings of the Ancients for 8 or 900 years viz. from Pope Gregories time till the Reformation were in hands by no means to be trusted and that the Papists who for the most part of the time had them in their keeping as they had opportunity so they neglected not their time to correct the Fathers to put in and leave out what they pleased to suppress what of their Writings they pleased and to publish Canons of Councils and Commentaries Witness the Indices expurgatorii and other Writings under specious Names without any shadow of Truth or any reasonable Modesty So that it hath been a great piece of the work of our Reformed Divines to look over the books with which the Popish writers in that time had filled the world and prepared in M.S. for it which M. Scripts they have since published in part and what part yet remains who knows He is but meanly versed in Divinity that knows not that Bellarmine Sixtus Senensis Possevinus and Erasmus four Popish writers have took some pains of this nature and how many hundred pieces of pretended Antiquity not only Protestant writers but even the Papists themselves have been forced to disclaim and reject And how many more our learned Cocus Rivet Perkins and others have shewed them as much reason to reject Yet we cannot but observe how some late writers as if nothing had been said to disprove those spurious writings have with confidence enough urged those writings so rejected as pure and unspotted Authority witness Dr. Hamonds writings and Dr. Sparrow in his Rationale and indeed all those who have traded in the business of Liturgies and Ceremonies and for the Extravagancies of Episcopal Government c. we must confess we have upon this account no great value for any Arguments they bring us meerly from Antiquity as to matters that concern the worship of God because we think the word of God is a perfect and sufficient rule in the case and we want Vouchers to prove those pretended pieces of Antiquity which they produce to have been theirs