Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	church_n	divine_a	faith_n	4,548	5	5.6243	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66381	The case of indifferent things used in the worship of God proposed and stated, by considering these questions : Qu. I. Whether things indifferent used in divine worship (or, whether there be any things indifferent in the worship of God?) : Qu. II. Whether a restraint of our liberty in the use of such indifferent things be a violation of it?	Williams, John, 1636?-1709.; Bagshaw, Edward, 1629-1671.	1683 (1683)	Wing W2689; ESTC R260	33,991	53

Customs of it For the same reason if there was no more that Restrains or Determines us in Conversation is as much more forcible in Society as the Peace and Welfare of the whole is to be preferred before that of a part And if the not grieving a Brother or endangering his Soul makes it reasonable just and necessary to forego our Liberty and to Restrain our selves in the exercise of it then much more is the Peace of a Church upon which the present Welfare of the whole and the Future Welfare of many depend a sufficient reason for so doing and to Oblige us to act or not to act accordingly The Apostle saith Let every one of us please his Neighbour for his good to Edification that is to his Improvement in Knowledge or Grace or Christian Piety and the promoting of Christian Concord and Charity Now Edification is eminently so with respect to the whole as the Church is the House of God and every Christian one of the living Stones of which that Spiritual building is compacted and so he is to consider himself as well as he is to be considered as a part of it and to study what may be for the Edification of the whole as well as the good of any particular Member of it And how is that but by promoting Love Peace and Order and taking Care to Preserve it So we find Edification Opposed to Destruction to Confusion to Disputacity and Licentiousness And on the contrary we find Peace and Edifying Comfort and Edification Union and Edification joyned together as the one doth promote the other And therefore as the Good and Edification of the whole is to be always in our Eye so it s the Rule by which we ought to act in all things lawful and to that end should comply with its Customs observe its Directions and Obey its Orders without Reluctancy and Opposition Thus the Apostle resolves the case Writing about publick Order and the Custom newly taken up of Worshipping Uncovered if any Man seem or have a mind to be contentious we have no such Custom neither the Churches of God looking upon that as sufficient to put an end to all Contentions and Debates that whatever might be Plausibly urged against it from the Jewish Practice and the Representation even of Angels adoring after that manner and from the reason of the thing as a signification of Shame and Reverence or from the Practice of Idolators that did many of them Worship Uncovered yet he peremptorily concludes We have no such Custom c. The Peace of the Church is to a Peaceable Mind sufficient to put an end to all Disputes about it and the Peace of the Church depending upon the Observation of its Customs that is infinitely to be preferred before Scrupulosity and Niceness or a meer inclination to a contrary Practice For in publick cases a Man is not to go his own way or to have his own mind for that would bring in Confusion one Man having as much a right as another There must be somewhat Established some Common Order and Bond of Union and if Confusion is before such Establishment then to break that Establishment would bring in Confusion and where that is likely to ensue it is not worth the while for the trial of a new experiment to decry and throw down what is already Established or Used in a Church because we think better of another for saith a Grave Author and well Skill'd in these matters The very change of a Custom though it may happen to profit yet doth disturb by its Novelty Publick Peace is worth all new Offers if the Church is Disquieted and its Peace Endangered by them though in themselves better and it is better to labour under the infirmity of publick Order than the mischief of being without it or what is next to that the trial of some Form seemingly of a better Cast and Mould that hath not yet been experimented I say it again Infirmity in a Church is better than Confusion or Destruction which is the Consequent of it And I had rather choose that as I would a House to have one with some Faults rather than to have none at all And if I cannot have them mended when tolerable I think my self bound not only to bear with them but to do all I can for its preservation though with them and to observe all things that are lawful for its suppore and encouragement In doing thus I serve God and his Church my own Soul and the Souls of others promote Religion and Charity in the World For God is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace in all the Churches of the Saints In things which neither we nor the Worship are the worse for but the Church the better for observing Peace and Order is far to be prefer'd before Niceties And certainly neither we nor the Service of God can be the worse for what God hath concluded nothing in What the Gospel looks at is the Main and Essential parts of Religion in Doctrine Worship and Practice And if these be Secured we are under no Obligation to contend for or against the modes and circumstances of things further than the Churches Order and Peace is concerned in them So the Apostle Let not your Good be Evil spoken of For the Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink but Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy-Ghost the promoting Love and Charity and substantiul Righteousnes He that in these things Serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of Men. The Beauty of the Kings Daughter is within saith St. Austin and all its observations are but its vesture which though various in different Churches are no prejudice to the Common Faith nor to him that useth them And therefore what he and his Mother received from St. Ambrose and looked upon as a Divine Oracle is worthy to be recommended to all That in all things not contrary to Truth and good Manners it becometh a Good and Prudent Christian to Practise according to the Custom of the Church where he comes if he will not be a Scandal to them nor have them to be a Scandal to him And if the Custom and Practice of a Church should be thus taken into consideration by a Good Man then certainly much more ought it so to be when that is Established and is made a Law and is backed by Authority For then to stand in Opposition is not only an Offence but an Affront and to insist upon the Gratifying our own Inclination against publick Order is to contend whether we or our Superiours shall Govern whether our Will or the publick Good and Order must take place And what can be the Issue of such a temper but the distraction if not Dissolution of Government which as it cannot be without Governed as well as Governours so cannot be preserved without the submission of the Governed in all lawful things to

prevailing Custom and was as a thing decent introduced into the Christian Church Thus it is also as to Edification which doth in like manner often depend upon circumstances and according to those circumstances the Edification of the Church in its Peace Union and Comfort may be promoted or hindered and that may be for Edification in one Age or Church which is not so in another Thus the being covered in Divine Worship was for Edification in the Jewish Church being used in token of Fear and Reverence Distance and Subjection in allusion to which the Seraphims are represented appearng before God after that manner Isai. 6. 2. and in mitation of whom the Apostle pleads that Women should be vailed in Religious Assemblies in token of Subjection and Shamefacedness 1 Cor 11. 10. But on the contrary He doth Judge and Determin that for the Reasons above given it was better and more for Edification that Men should be therein Uncovered So the Love-feasts and Holy-kiss of Charity were at the first thought good for Edification and were accordingly used in Apostolical times being an Excellent and Useful Admirable and Friendly Custom as thereby was signified the Universal Love and Charity that Christians ought to maintain and which they should at all times but especially in Divine Worship be forward to express and renew But when Disorder and Licentiousness arose from them they were generally laid aside and Abolished by Authority So it was thought to be for Edification in the Primitive Church to Administer Baptism by immersion or dipping and the Apostle doth make use of it as an excellent argument to newness of life Rom. 6. 3 4. and yet notwithstanding the signification of it and the practice of the Church for a long time a Charitable reason hath over-ruled it and brought in Sprinkling instead of it Thus sitting at the Lords Supper is accounted decent by some and for Edification as it 's a table posture and is a sign of our being feasted by God and yet in a general Synod of the Reformed Churches in Poland c. it was declared that forasmuch as sitting was introduced first by the Arrians beside the Custom used in all the Evangelical Churches throughout Europe we reject it as peculiar to them that as they do irreverently treat Christ so also his Sacred appointments and as a Ceremony less Comely and Devout and to many very offensive So that Order Decency and Edification being generally mutable things and varying as circumstances vary there could in the nature of the thing be only general rules prescribed and so the particulars must be left to discretion and to be determined by those that are best able and have Authority to judge of the circumstances and to pick out of them those which are Indifferent what may best serve the ends of Religion and the honour of its institutions 2. I shall prove that things Indifferent in themselves though not prescribed may be Lawfully used in Divine Worship from the practice of our Saviour and his Apostles Under the Law the Constitution was very exact the Rites and Orders of it very particular and the Observation of them punctually required But as it was not so precise but that many things respecting the outward order were added so some things were altered upon prudential considerations and by the addition or alteration of which the Authority of that Law was not conceived to be infringed nor violated as it 's evident from the respect which our Saviour shewed to them and his compliance with them An instance of this is the Synagogual Worship It 's a controversy whether there was any provision made under the Law for the places themselves the intimations of that are if any very obscure but there are not so much as any intimations of the manner and order or parts of the Worship therein to be observed and yet we find such there was Acts 15. 21. Moses being read and preached there every Sabbath day and that our Saviour frequently resorted to it and bore a part in it John 18. 20 c. The like temper we find him of when he used the Cup of Charity after the manner of the Jews in the Passover though there was no institution for it and that it was as many other things taken up and used amongst them by way of signification and as a Testimony of entire Friendship and Charity Luke 22. 17. But I conceive alteration of circumstances in the institution is much more exceptionable than the addition of such to it and yet this was both done by them and observed by our Saviour when there was nothing else to oblige him but only a condescension to them in such usages and rites as were inoffensive in themselves and what were then generally used in the Church That the posture first required and used in the Passover was standing the circumstances being to be eat with Staves in their Hands and Shoes on their Feet c. do prove and is affirmed by the Jews and it is as manifest that the Jews in the time of our Saviour and for a long time before did recede from it and did eat it in the posture of discumbency whether it was as they looked upon themselves as settled in the possession of Canaan which they were at the first institution Travelling towards or as it 's said by the later Jews because it was a sign of Liberty and after the manner of Kings and Great men is not so material as it is that our Saviour did follow this Custom and complied with this practice of theirs without hesitation And thus did the Apostles when they observ'd the hours of Prayer Acts 3. 1. which were of humane institution as well as the Pray●rs themselves for without doubt they were publick Prayers which were used in the Temple but though the place was yet that service was of no more Authority than what was used in the Synagogues Now if the Jews did thus institute and alter things relating to external Order and Administration according as the case might require and it was lawful for them so to do as it 's plain from the compliance of our Saviour and the Apostles with them in it then much more may it be supposed lawful for the Christian Church to exercise that liberty when they have no other than such general rules for their direction as they had then without such particulars as they had And that this is no other than a certain Truth will appear from the same liberty taken in Apostolical times in Religious Assemblies when the Christian Church not only complied with the Jews in such Rites as they were under no Obligation but that of Charity to use and which they did use because they were not forbidden and so lawful as when St. Paul took upon him a Vow Acts. 21. 26. but also had some Observances of its own that were of a ritual nature and as they were taken up so might be laid down upon