Selected quad for the lemma: reason_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
reason_n	day_n	law_n	sabbath_n	3,352	5	9.6183	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56740	A discourse of the communion in one kind in answer to a treatise of the Bishop of Meaux's, of Communion under both species, lately translated into English.	Payne, William, 1650-1696.	1687 (1687)	Wing P900; ESTC R12583	117,082	148

which God had not determined could they therefore void the Law it self or transgress and violate it in any of those things which God had particularly appointed Thus the Christian Church may order many things relating to Divine Worship and even to the Sacraments themselves which no Law of Christ has ordered or determined as the time the place the outward form and manner of administring them and yet these as de Meaux says Are absolutely necessary for the observation of the Divine Law which cannot be observed without some of those circumstances thus as to Baptism it may appoint it to be performed by sprinkling or dipping because neither of those are commanded by the word Baptize but onely washing with Water as I have shewn before against de Meaux but to do this in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost is absolutely necessary because this is commanded though whether with that form I baptize thee or Be thou baptised which is used in the Greek Church is indifferent Thus as to the Eucharist the Church may command it to be taken kneeling or standing which was an ancient posture of receiving it it may use such a form of words in the consecrating the Elements and in blessing the Bread and Wine or another for it is plain one was not always used and St. Gregory tells us That the Apostles consecrated onely with Lord's Prayer † Epist 63. ad Syr. It may use such a sort of Bread and Wine or another for no particular sort is commanded but it is necessary to bless and to give both because both are instituted and both are commanded and the Ministers who are the Stewards of the Mysteries of God ‖ 1 Cor. 4.1 these alone have the ordinary power of blessing and distributing them to the people but they may do this by the hands of the Deacons or by suffering the people to take them and divide them among themselves Such things as these which de Meaux offers to us as great difficulties are onely indifferent things left undetermined by the Divine Law in which the Church has a power to appoint what it thinks most proper for decency and order and edification and thus the greatest knots with which he designed to entangle us are easily resolved and untied and yet not any one of the Divine Laws are in the least loosened or dissolved One of the greatest things he urges for the necessity of Tradition and the Practice of the Church is the Baptism of Infants for which he says we can produce nothing from Scripture but must be forced to resolve it wholly into Tradition as to that I am not willing to begin another Controvesie with him here and therefore shall onely send him to Bellarmine for his satisfaction who proves Infant Baptism from Scripture * Bellarmin de Sacram. Baptismi c. 8 9. as well as from Tradition and says It may be clearly gathered from Scripture it self † Tamen id colligitur satis apertè ex Scripturis But if it were not does it follow because the Church may make a Law which is not contained in Scripture that therefore it may break a Law which is and because it may appoint some things which God has left indifferent that therefore it may forbid what he has absolutely commanded 2. Other instances produced by de Meaux relate not onely to matters Ecclesiastical but to those that were Civil or at least mixt and so belonging to the Power of the Magistrate as the Lex Talionis and the prohibition of Marriage with the Moabites and Ammonites The Civil Magistrate was to see all possible Justice done by the one according to God's own command and it was a commendable act in him to prevent all mischief that might have come by the other though this was done without a Divine Precept by a general Power vested in the Magistrate or a particular and immediate direction perhaps given by God to Esdras and Nehemiah But how these can any way serve de Meaux I cannot imagine in the present Controversie unless he would prove the Magistrate not bound to execute the Lex Talionis at all or that the Jews might have dispensed with the Law in Deuteronomy which forbad Marriages with the Canaanites because upon the same ground and reason they forbad those also with the Ammonites and Moabites afterwards 3. Some cases he mentions were excused upon the account of necessity which when it is notorious and unavoidable dispences with a positive Law. Thus David's eating the Shewbread which it was not lawful but for the Priests ordinarily to eat is approyed by our Saviour Matth. 12.4 not upon the account of Tradition or the judgement of the High-Priest but the extream hunger which he and his Companions were then pressed with and which made it lawful for them them to eat of the hallowed Bread when there was no other to be procured But did this make it lawful afterwards for the High-Priest or the Sanhedrim to have made the holy Bread always common to others when there was no such necessity Thus if some Christians lived in a Country where it was impossible to have any Wine this might excuse them from taking the Cup but does this justisie the making a general Law to take away the Cup when there is no such necessity for it and the same may be said of many other like instances 4. In other cases when a Law was founded upon a particular reason the ceasing of that made the Law to cease which was wholly grounded upon it as in the prohibition of eating Bloud and things strangled and Meats offered to Idols this being to avoid giving any scandal to the Jews at that time when the reason of it ceased so did the Law and it is not so much Tradition which makes it void as those general sayings of Christ and the Apostle that nothing which enters in at the mouth defiles the man and that whatever is sold in the shambles may be eat without asking any question for conscience sake As to the Jews defending themselves upon the Sabbath on which they were commanded so strictly to rest it was both necessity and the reason of the Law which made this justifiable and not any Tradition or any sentence of the Sanhedrim and our Saviour when he blames their superstitious observance of the Sabbath does not reprove them for keeping it as it was commanded or otherwise than Tradition had explained it but contrary to the true reason and meaning of it and to the true mind and will of the Lawgiver As to the Christians changing the Sabbath into the first Day of the Week this was not done by Tradition but by the Apostolical Authority and whatever obligation there may be antecedent to the Law of Moses for observing one day in seven it can neither be proved that the Jews observed exactly the Seventh day from the Creation much less that the Christians are under any such obligation now or I may adde if they were