Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	apostle_n	church_n	creed_n	2,605	5	10.2206	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47791	God's Sabbath before, under the law and under the Gospel briefly vindicated from novell and heterodox assertions / by Hamon L'Estrange ...	L'Estrange, Hamon, 1605-1660.	1641 (1641)	Wing L1188; ESTC R14890	92,840	157

it is to be examined the Lords day being an Apostolicall Tradition whether it be immutable whether the Church hath power to alter the day and substitute another in liew thereof I answer Nay the Church hath not such a power the sphere of her activitie extendeth not so farre she cannot null and rescind the act of God If the Sunday be established and established so I have proved it Jure divino it is without all dispute unchangeable for Immutable is one ingredient into the definition of Jus divinum as the Canonists compound it who make it which is comprehended in the Law and Gospel and remaineth perpetuall a True it is I grant that many positive divine Laws are changeable by the same authority which first imposed them but that a divine Law can be abrogated yea or displaced by humane authority that no sober man will yield to And I hope though many have of late set her on her tip-toes and advanced her to a tickle point the Churches power and authority reacheth not Divine Besides there is an especiall and peculiar reason of the inalterability of the Lords Day more then is usuall in other constitutions though Divine for God hath a propriety therein Six dayes in the week he hath bestowed upon us but the seventh he reserved for himself wherein he hath as good nay better freehold estate then any man in his possessions and then the rule of the Law is b What is ours without our assent cannot be transferred to another So that the Church hath no power to make that a work-day which God himself hath consecrated to his holy worship Nor mattereth it whether this designation were performed by Christ immediately or by the mediation of his Spirit assisting and infallibly directing the Apostles and so it becometh an Apostolicall Tradition for even this though the lowest degree of Divine appointment doth conferre exemption enough upon this day to secure it from any jurisdiction the Church can claim over it I will not dissemble it some learned men have I confesse ascribed to the Church an authoritie over this day so as she may if it please her transferre it to another But you must know withall that not one of these do repute it as an Apostolicall Tradition which is the hinge upon which the hole question moveth nor if they did are we to give absolute credit to their dictates Men they were of excellent endowments great both for their piety and learning and amongst them I honour none more then that famous Bishop c of Geneva Mr Calvin yet in some things as this for one I may say of him as Augustine of Cyprian d As there were many things which learned Calvin taught others so were there some things which he might learn of others If you can produce any one who hath affirmed it to be an Apostolicall institution or tradition and withall an alterable ordinance and I will promise you to affoard you two at least for him who have resolved the contrary But here perhaps you will demand What are all Apostolicall Traditions immutable That restriction from eating bloud or things offered to idoles that of collections for the poore every Lords Day c. I answer let it be first agreed what Apostolicall Traditions are under which name many upstart and recent customes intruded themselves into the Church a Every Province accounteth the constitutions of its Forefathers Apostolick Traditions saith Hierome Apostolicall Traditions then I say were of two sorts the one particular the other generall Particular were such as were framed by the Apostles either joyntly or severally but restrained to some especiall circumstance of time place persons or the like and so having onely reference and regard to such circumstance the removall of that circumstance made the observation of the Law to cease Such are those Traditions above named in the objection such are supposed to be the different rites of the East and West b one observing both the Sabbath and Lords Day the other the Lords Day onely and fasting on the Sabbath one celebrating the Festivall of Easter on the fourteenth day of the Moon the other upon the Sunday after Generall were such as neither regarding any circumstance of time place c. nor any moveable occasion were universally agreed upon to be received and so prescribed to the Christian Church by all the Apostles such were the Creed the books of the Canonicall Scripture the observation of the Lords Day Paedobaptisme c. whereof that golden rule of S. Augustine b is a character What the Catholick and Vniversall Church holdeth not decreed by Councels but ever observed we may safely believe it proceeded from no lesse then Apostolick authoritie Now these generall Traditions I averre to be immutable and such as must ever be observed in the Church not onely because they have or mention or foundation in the Scripture for so the particular have also and they which have not are not by us owned for Traditions Apostolicall but because they were at first made without limitation and restriction and herein I have the suffrage of Zanchy c Pareus d and other learned men As for particular Traditions they being at first framed for speciall occasions are now those occasions being ceased but as laws dormant untill the emergency of the like occasion awakeneth them again Dormant I said not dead Life vigour and force they have still and should the same occasion arise again God would expect from the Church the same observation For they being Apostolicall and so evidences of the Divine will upon severall occasions we must not think that one and the same cause can operate in the Immutable Essence a diverse will seeing in Philosophy The same agent whilest he is the same effecteth the same thing Dead therefore they cannot be so long as there remaineth a possibilitie for the same occasion to set them on work again and so that School-rule may fit them well e They oblige alwayes but not upon all occasions Well be the Lords Day Divine be it Immutable what then are we obliged to observe it with that severe and rigid vacation which the Jewish Sabbath required I answer Yes f He which succedeth into anothers jurisdiction is invested in his predecessours right The same strictnesse of observation belongeth to the Lords Day that anciently did to the Sabbath I say by the fourth Commandment for that Commandment hath not lost under the Gospel the least scruple or atome of obligation which it injoyed during the Law but bindeth still without abbreviation of time or alleviation of restraint during that time As for the duration of time though I cannot discern such distinct abbuttalls thereof in this Commandment as some seem to perswade yet am I of opinion that the word Day comprehendeth {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a hole naturall Day And as touching restraint from negotiation and toil on that Day the words are

Eucharist otherwise then by implication as it was then an usuall work of that day because it is said that they might not intermittere which especially relateth to time as interpose to place and inferreth the not doing of a dutie in its proper quando which cannot be well interpreted of the celebration of the Eucharist it being not restrained by any positive Law of God to a certain time And indeed it was more proper to examine them whether they held their Christian assembly whether they met on the Lords Day considering it consequently inferred the performance of all sacred duties then to inquire whether they had celebrated the Eucharist which according to the custome of those times was often performed at home being reserved for the same purpose If Christ had either here on earth or after by revelation from Heaven given his Apostles any such charge of Instituting a new Sabbath sure Christs Apostles would not have concealed Christs command Besides the Apostles holding their first Synod would doubtlesse have exprest as much to the Gentiles First Christs Apostles did not conceal Christs command for what if perhaps it be not extant in their writings They were indeed our Saviours executours performers of his will but was his hole will exemplified in Scripture certainly no Some part thereof was declared in ima Cera as Civilians say and by Tradition For Tradition which is clearly known to be Apostolicall is as perfect evidence of Christs will as the Canonicall Scripture it self For the Scripture before it was Scripture was but a part of Tradition and became Scripture that it might be of more ready use and better preserved from perishing but mainly because it was the fundamentall Canon of our Religion Secondly The Apostles in their Synodicall Epistle had onely respect to the Judaicall not to Evangelicall observances Moreover the solemnity of the Lords Day was made known to them by former practice equivalent with precept at least if not by precept it self for according to our Church a The Christian people immediately after the Ascension began to chuse them a standing day of the week to come together in My learned Authour biddeth us here observe that the day was chosen by Christian people and if chosen by them then not injoyned by the Apostles I see a man may learn something every day for I professe ingeniously till this instant I took the Apostles to be Christians Lastly the precept was in the negative not in the affirmative If you say True and hence we may inferre that the first Christians were tied to no affirmatives but such as were expresly commanded by Evangelicall precept I answer then it must follow that women did not communicate children were not baptised Ministers not ordained incorrigible persons not excommunicated these being not expresly commanded by any Evangelicall Law Whatsoever is of divine Institution and by necessitie of precept laid upon the whole Church is a necessary dutie without which if it may possibly be observed no salvation can be had But no man will affirm so of the Lords Day Ergò c. The major is false for positive precepts omitted do not inevitably damne any man but where there is a malicious contempt or wilfull neglect of the ordinance The Sacrament of Baptisme shall be mine instance It was in the Primitive Church procrastinated by some many years by most in their usuall practice some moneths and is even in our own Church some dayes In all this delay no inevitable impossibility debarreth the competent or person to be baptized from this Sacrament will you then say that Heaven gates are precluded against all those whom hasty death cutteth off in this delay Heare the most uncharitable of all the Ancients in this point d S. Augustine The Sacrament of Baptisme is invisibly accomplished as long as the fault proceedeth from absolute necessitie not from contempt of the ordinance The Gospel commandeth onely such observations which are either means of grace as the Word and Sacraments or wherein the exercise and use of grace doth consist as the duties of love towards God and Man But the observation of the Lords Day is neither a means of grace nor exercise of grace Ergò c. That which is a part of divine worship is a means of grace But the observation of the Lords Day is so Ergò c. The minor I prove thus That is a part of divine worship whose Institution is divine But the Institution of the Lords Day is divine as I have made evident Ergò c. If you say that Junius * Amesius and others who hold the Day to be Jure divino make it yet onely an adjunct to not a part of divine worship I answer that as it is a time set apart for holy worship it is an adjunct to it but as it is a time determined by God himself the very observation thereof is a part of divine worship which is nothing but a religious observance of the true God according to the prescript of his own will Besides it is a means to stirre up our souls to the exercise of grace in pious meditations when we consider it in all its prerogatives superlative above other dayes as that which was the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and in all probability shall be the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of dayes and therefore aptly dedicated to him who calleth himself {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as the day of our Saviours resurrection by which we are justified as the day of the holy spirits descension by whom we are sanctified as the day which mystically prefigureth our eternall rest when we shall be glorified And therefore it is worthily and truly called by * Ignatius The sublimest and primate of all dayes That day which cannot be kept universally throughout the whole world was never commanded the whole Church of Christ by an Evangelicall Law For the Gospel is given to all Nations But the Lords day cannot thus be universally observed considering the diversitie of meridians and unequall rising and setting of the sunne in divers Regions in some whereof time is not distinguished into weeks or dayes by morning and evening as in Groinland Finmark Lapland c. The positive Laws of God do not alwayes imply a possibility in them upon whom they are imposed The Jews were injoyned many observances of sacrifices feasts c. which could not alwayes be performed by them as in case of captivity or durance So the Christians are commanded the celebration of the Eucharist and yet the condition of some Countreys is such as they have not bread a of others as they have not wine b The truth is Gods commandment may impose but never oblige unto things sometimes impossible where there is an utter impossibility of observation as in this or the like case that