Selected quad for the lemma: woman_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
woman_n	cover_v	head_n	prophesy_v	1,689	5	11.0692	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56742	Discourses upon several practical subjects by the late Reverend William Payne ... ; with a preface giving some account of his life, writings, and death.	Payne, William, 1650-1696.; Powell, Joseph, d. 1698.	1698 (1698)	Wing P902; ESTC R21648	184,132	418

since Christ and his Apostles which has found it necessary to appoint many external rites in their religious service 4. It is impossible in the nature of the thing to perform Divine worship without some rites and usages that God has now here Commanded nor is it possible to make Laws concerning these to reach all places for they must alter according to the several Manners and Customs of different People and Countries We must worship God with all signs of Honour and Reverence with respect and decency becoming so great a Majesty but the marks and outward signs of Honour alter and change according to Customs and Places and People that 't is impossible particularly to determine them As for Example pulling off the Shoe is a sign of Honour and Reverence in the Eastern Countries as pulling off the Hat with us and to this it is thought the precepts of the wise man alludes Eccles 5.1 Keep thy foot when thou goest into the house of God i. e. be carefull to show all manner of Reverence in his presence as the Jews did who always went barefoot into God's house as the Mahometans I think do still into their religious places but this would be a very odd and irreverent thing with us It was no irreverence among the Jews to have their heads covered in Divine worship at their Prayers and Sacrifices when the Priests constantly wore their Caps and Bonnets and sometimes Veils and other coverings and so Plutarch says it was accounted comely among the Romans to be covered at their worship but among the Graecians it was quite otherwise and at Corinth where St. Paul declares it to be an act of irreverence for the Men to Pray or Prophesie having the head covered 1. Cor. 11.4 tho' it was otherwise for the Women And therefore since matter of decency and order depends upon particular Customs and Places and Circumstances and is in it self variable and mutable there cannot be a Law given to determine it in all places nor is it possible to have all the little Rites and Circumstances of religious worship be comprehended in a Divine Law and therefore in the 5. Fifth place God has left those to be determined by particular Churches and Governors and has only commanded the substantials of his worship and given general Rules for all things to be done decently and in order 1 Cor. 14.40 and for mutual edification and the lesser circumstances and adjuncts that belong to Divine worship those he has lest undetermined and indifferent and those to whom he has committed the Government of the Church they are to settle those for prevention of confusion and disorder according to the rules of Prudence and those general measures which God has given in the Gospel It is plain he has no where Commanded them himself nor can there be any particular directory for them produced out of the Scriptures and as plain it is that there would be perpetual confusion and disorder in the Church if these were not appointed in several places by those who are Governors of it and when they are so they are to be obeyed and observed when there is nothing in them that is contrary to a Law of God they cannot be unlawfull when no Law forbids them but they may become necessary in their use when they were indifferent in their nature by a Lawfull Authority 's commanding them and surely there can be no sin or superstition in them upon that account Which that I may then clear the particular Ceremonies and Impositions of our Church from I shall very freely and openly give you my thoughts in some farther particulars about the lawfull and the superstitious use of these things in the worship of God 1. I own that there ought to be no new parts of worship other than what God himself has appointed there may be new circumstances and adjuncts appointed but no real and substantial parts of Divine worship As for Example no human Authority can institute new Sacraments as the Church of Rome does or more Sacramental parts of worship than those two which Christ himself has appointed to wit Baptism and the Lord's Supper but whether Baptism shall be performed by sprinkling or by dipping that is but a circumstance which the Church may determine according to the difference of the Climate or the strength of the Child or the season of the year and is left to every Minister's discretion in his own Church and so also whether it shall be by single or a trine immersion this as not being an essential of Baptism has been variously determined So in the other Sacrament none can add or take away from an essential part of Christ's own Institution as the Papists do in depriving the Laity of the Cup but whether we shall take this in a posture of sitting or kneeling or which is very ancient standing is not essential to it but what the Church may appoint as it thinks most becoming so solemn a Duty and most suiting the Prayers and Devotions that are joyn'd with it which no doubt kneeling is So farther to use Adoration and Invocation to God alone and not to Angels or Saints is a necessary duty but whether we should pray to God with a form or without it this is not necessary tho' the former be much more convenient in publick to prevent the many faults and undecencies of extemporary effusions so whether we adore God by bowing or by prostration or by kneeling or by standing as the ancient Church did between Easter and Pentecost is only a new manner or circumstance of adoration not a new act or part of it And this I have the more carefully illustrated that we may see the difference between parts of worship and only accidents and appendages and circumstances of worship The Church of England appoints only the latter not any substantial worship or any parts of it but what God himself has appointed as will appear farther 2. That which is in it self very Lawfull and Innocent may become superstitious by the opinion which he that uses it has of it as if he thinks it is a means to please God and procure his favour and that it has such a vertue in it self to do this as that God would be pleased with us for the doing this and displeased with us if we should not do it meerly for it self tho' there were no human Authority that required it of us as the Jews thought that their washing of their hands would please God and that it was a defilement of their Consciences to eat with unwashen hands which was the mistake our Saviour reproves them for Mat. 15.20 their superstitious opinion of that Ceremony and the Tradition of their Elders to think that it was a piece of Sanctity and Religion to wash their hands and that it was a sin and real defilement of their Consciences not to do it to ascribe a true spiritual Vertue to an outward Ceremony as that it expiated inward guilt and was not a meer