Selected quad for the lemma: rest_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
rest_n	day_n	moral_a	sabbath_n	2,812	5	9.9431	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34542	The remains of the reverend and learned Mr. John Corbet, late of Chichester printed from his own manuscripts.; Selections. 1684	Corbet, John, 1620-1680.	1684 (1684)	Wing C6262; ESTC R2134	198,975	272

Acts of observance towards God we are upon this ground immediately obliged unto they are Natural Worship due to God as our Creator All Natural Worship due to God as Creator is discernable by natural revelation or the Book of Nature In Nature intire it was clearly and compleatly thereby discernable but in Nature fallen more dimly and defectively yet not for want of objective evidence but for the indisposition of our faculty Likewise to God our Redeemer there is a Worship due from us naturally and immediately arising from our redemption and our relation to God therein founded And it is our redemption being supposed no more of Gods arbitrary institution than that Worship which is founded in the Law of our Creation and primitive State To the knowledg of this sort of Natural Worship we come by means of that Divine revelation by which we come to the knowledg of our redeemed state But the knowledg of our redeemed state being supposed natural Reason will shew that such and such Acts of observance in specie are naturally and indispensably due to God our Redeemer § 6. Of Divine instituted Worship INstituted Worship is that which depends in specie and immediately upon Gods free Will and Arbitrary institution But the institution being made and continuing it is naturally and necessarily due to God so far as he requires it tho it be not immediately natural For our natural and unchangeable relation to God necessarily and perpetually obliges us to whatsoever God hath appointed so far and so long as he hath appointed it § 7. Of Moral and Ceremonial Worship THis distinction being commonly used must here be taken notice of It is wholly coincident with the former For that which is commonly called Moral is for the most part but not all of it natural Worship nor perhaps is all natural Worship to be called Moral for there may be some natural Ceremonies that is to say naturally laudable tho not absolutely necessary Nor is all instituted Worship Ceremonial but some is Moral as observing of the weekly Sabbath or Lords day Nor is all Ceremonial Worship instituted For besides natural ceremonies other ceremonious religious Acts may be used arbitrarily and occasionally and but once indeed such Acts may be called instituted as Instituted is opposed to Natural but not as it betokens stated or setled The word Moral is ambiguous and as I suppose inconveniently used in this matter as it also is when used in distinguishing the divine Law into Moral and Ceremonial For every Law is Moral or circa mores and all Worship is Moral as being an Act of our behaviour conformable to the divine Law Nevertheless we must yield to use which hath the dominion of words and inquire into the meaning of this word in this point Sometimes the word in this case is taken by them that use it for that which is of perpetual right But that this is not the adequate sense appears for that some things not ceremonial but esteemed moral are not perpetual And there is a common distinction between Moral natural and Moral positive and that Moral positive is not in the nature of the thing perpetual is unquestionable and it is evident that some Moral positive is not de facto of perpetual right as the old seventh-Seventh-day Sabbath Concerning which day tho there might be something ceremonial in the corporal rest thereof especially under the Mosaical dispensation yet the observing of that measure of time and that special day every week set a part for Gods solemn Worship was not ceremonial nor yet natural but Moral positive yet not perpetual Besides there is nothing in the nature of the thing to hinder the perpetuity of some ceremonial Law or Worship if it pleased God to perpetuate it Yea there are some ceremonial Ordinances of Divine Worship now instituted that are to indure to the Consummation of all things namely the two Sacraments of the New Testament The best distinguishing-terms that I can find to express what is generally meant by Moral and Ceremonial Worship is That the former is substantial ●nd by it self Divine Worship the later is but a supplemental as an appurtenance to the former the better to express it and set it off and externally to compleat it I suppose the term Complemental might here fitly enough be used but that it sounds ill from the sense which it hath in common use And meer ceremonial persons do indeed but complement with God according to the common meaning of that word Tho ceremonial Worship be but supplemental to that which is called Moral and Substantial yet being appointed of God it is not to be lightly esteemed but to be valued according to its importance And there be some parts or kinds thereof that are of high importance in Religion as the Sacraments and Sacrifies under the the Old Testament and the Sacraments of the New-Testament § 8. The parts of Worship distinguished from the adjuncts or accidents thereof WOrship may be considered both as a generical and as an integral whole and accordingly it hath specifical and integral parts Every specifical part or kind thereof hath in it the common name and nature of the genus And every integral part of the same species is homogenial and hath the name and nature of that species And the specifically different parts may be considered as integral parts and heterogenial that go to the making up of one intire Divine Service It imports much to discern and distinguish rightly between Worship it self and the accidents thereof without which it is not performable or at least not performable in due manner such as are order method phrase or form of words degree frequency time place furniture These things appertain to Divine Worship not in any peculiar reason but in common as to all grave civil or humane actions Nor do these things immediately and directly respect God and his Honour to whom the Worship is directed but Man and his convenience by whom the Worship is performed Nevertheless God and his Honour is concerned in them in as much as he is concerned that men be set in all convenient circumstances for his Worship and therefore ultimately they respect him and they are to be used for the hallowing of his name I take not this to be any constitutive or consecutive difference between the Worship it self and its adjuncts that the one makes acceptable to God and is a means of Grace from him and the other not For I conceive both the one and the other may have this effect tho not in equal degree Tho Ceremonial Worship be but an appurtenance of that which is called Moral yet it is truly a species of Worship as having the common nature of Worship in it Howbeit it is but an Analogical species as having the nature of its genus but in an inferior way §. 9. Of those acts of Religion that are Moral Natural Worship THE acts of Religion that are Moral Natural Worship are the hearing of Gods word with

of the Cross in Baptism are these 1. That it is not a meer circumstance but an Ordinance of Worship as important as an external rite can be 2. That being a solemn and stated Symbolical sign of a Divine Mystery and devised of men it is of that classis or rank of things which are not necessary in genere and so not allowed to be determined and imposed by men as things necessary in genere are allowed 3. That either the whole nature of a Sacrament or at least a part thereof is in it That it is a Sacrament is thus proved It is an outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual Grace The outward sign is the representation of the Cross the instrument of Christs sufferings and the inward spiritual Grace is fortitude in the Christian warfare according to the words of the Liturgy Here is a signification of Grace to be given us of God and of our duty according to that Grace Likewise this sign hath assigned unto it the moral efficacy of a Sacrament for working Grace by teaching and exciting us to the spiritual warfare and minding us of Christ crucified Also it signifies and seals our Relation to Christ or the Grace of being a Christian And the Liturgy so speaks We receive this Child into the Congregation of Christs Flock and sign him c. in token c. The pretence that no rite can be a Sacrament but what God hath instituted is answered before Sect. 4. And tho the imposers thereof say it is not a Sacrament yet if they so declare its meaning as to be of the formal nature and reason of a Sacrament they make it to be one indeed tho in word they deny it If it were granted that it hath not the compleat or intire nature of a Sacrament yet there is one essential part of a S●crament most apparently in it that is to be an ingaging sign on our part in the Covenant For we use it as a token of ingaging our selves to Christ crucified as our Captain and Saviour by his Cross and to perform the duties of his Soldiers and Servants to our lives ends And as Baptism dedicates to Christ so doth the sign of the Cross according to the express words of the Canon viz. It is an honourable badg whereby the party Baptized is dedicated to the Service of him that dyed on the Cross So it hath that in it which is essential to a Sacrament and part of the nature thereof at least Besides it seems to be an Ordinance of that nature and kind which Christ our Lawgiver hath reserved to himself from the reason in Sections 3 4 5. § 12. Of Holy-days THAT some time of every day is to be spent in Religious exercises and that whole days of Humiliation and Thanksgiving are to be kept upon special occasions and that there may be an Anniversary commemoration of great Mercies or Judgments is little doubted I see no reason why it is not lawful for a Nation or People to institute an Anniversary Commemoration of some eminent person sent of God as a great light among them as the first propagator of the Gospel or great Restorer of true Religion among them as of Luther among the Germans and Calvin among the French Protestants For scarce a greater blessing doth arise to a Nation Mr. R B. saith That an Apostolical Ministry being so eminent a mercy he can see no reason why the Churches of all succeeding Ages may not keep an Anniversary day for Peter or Paul c. but he saith also that whether it be lawful to separate an Anniversary for the commemoration of Christs Nativity Circumcision and such like things c. which were equally existent in the Apostles days and the reasons for observing them then equal with the following times is hard for him to determine being not able to prove it lawful and yet not seeing a plain prohibition of it Yet he gives these reasons of doubting their lawfulness First the occasions of these days were existent in the Apostles times and if God would have had these days observed he could as easily and fitly have done it by his Apostles in the Scripture as he did other like things 2. If it were necessary it would be equally necessary in all Ages and parts of the Catholick church and therefore must be the matter of an universal Law and God hath made no such Law in Scripture and therefore to say it is necessary is to overthrow the sufficiency of Scripture as the Catholick Rule of Faith and Universal Divine obedience 3. God himself hath appointed a day for the same purposes as these are pretended for the Resurrection implies all the rest of the Works of the Redeemer 4. The Fourth Commandment being one of the Decalogue seems to be of so high a nature that man is not to presume to make the like He accounts it plainly unlawful for any Earthly Power to appoint a Weekly day in commemoration of any part of our Redemption and so make another stated Weekly Holy-day because it is the doing of the same thing for one day which God hath done by another and so seems an usurpation of power not given and an accusation of Christ and the Holy Ghost as if he had not done his Work sufficiently I think it also an usurpation of Power not given for any Human Authority to make any day or time permanently and unmovably holy as a perpetual oblation to God and not only sanctified by the duties therein performed but also sanctifying the duties and making them the more acceptable But as to the observation much more to the imposing of the observation of Holy-days of human institution regard is to be had not only to what is lawful but also to what is expedient And it is as easie to offend by excess as by defect in the instituting of set-times and days appropriated to Divine Worship § 13. Of a LITVRGY ANY particular form whether stinted or free is not of the essence of prayer but only its accidental shape or mode and pertains to it not as to a holy action but as to an action in general And for that no action can be performed but in some particular mode or other this holy action cannot otherwise be performed Now neither Scripture nor the nature of the thing hath made either a stated and stinted or a free and extemporal form in it self necessary and therefore either the one or the other may be used as expedience requires according to due choice and judgment As on the one hand they are too weak and ill advised that reject all set-forms so they on the other hand are too opinionative that reject all immediately conceived yea or preconceived forms that are not prescribed And both of them shew that they are too much addicted to their Parties § 14. Of Religious Austerities as acts or matter of Divine Worship THere are Austerities inconvenient in their kind such as the self cutting and lancing of Baals Priests and