A70766:119
Moderation a virtue, or, A vindication of the principles and practices of the moderate…Moderation a vertue, or, A vindication of the principles and practices of the moderate…
Moderation a virtue, or, A vindication of the principles and practices of the moderate divines and laity of the Church of England represented in some late immoderate discourses, under the nick-names of Grindalizers and Trimmers / by a lover of moderation, resident upon his cure ; with an appendix, demonstrating that parish-churches are no conventicles ... in answer to a late pamphlet entitled, Parish-churches turned into conventicles, &c.Moderation a vertue, or, A vindication of the principles and practices of the moderate divines and laity of the Church of England represented in some late immoderate discourses, under the nick-names of Grindalizers and Trimmers / by a lover of moderation, resident upon his cure ; with an appendix, demonstrating that parish-churches are no conventicles ... in answer to a late pamphlet entitled, Parish-churches turned into conventicles, &c.
London: printed for Jonathan Robinson, 1683
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
2. In case the Minister or Curate be but a Deacon, I doubt of his Power to use or make the sign of the Cross, without an equitable Construction of the Law, (of which afterwards): for in the Margin of the Office of public Baptism it is said; Here the Priest shall make the sign of the Cross in the Child's Forehead. The Priest shall, not the Curate, or the Minister, for then it had plainly reached to the Deacon as to the Priest, but a Deacon is not a Priest in this Church: A Deacon doth it only by Presumption.
2. In case the Minister or Curat be but a Deacon, I doubt of his Power to use or make the sign of the Cross, without an equitable Construction of the Law, (of which afterwards): for in the Margin of the Office of publick Baptism it is said; Here the Priest shall make the sign of the Cross in the Child's Forehead. The Priest shall, not the Curat, or the Minister, for then it had plainly reach'd to the Deacon as to the Priest, but a Deacon is not a Priest in this Church: A Deacon doth it only by Presumption.
Lastly; To make the sign of the Cross, is an Ecclesiastical Affirmative Precept, a divine affirmative Law binds not ad semper, to every particular nunc or time: why should we be more strictly bound to observe in public an affirmative humane Precept, than a divine? Are we more strictly tied by the Laws of Men, than of God? It may by an Equity of Reason be allowed, upon Occasions of some Necessity, to omit an Ecclesiastical Precept, as we through a gracious Indulgence omit a Divine Precept.
Lastly; To make the sign of the Cross, is an Ecclesiastical Affirmative Precept, a divine affirmitive Law binds not ad semper, to every particular nunc or time: why should we be more strictly bound to observe in publick an affirmative humane Precept, than a divine? Are we more strictly tied by the Laws of Men, than of God? It may by an Equity of Reason be allowed, upon Occasions of some Necessity, to omit an Ecclesiastical Precept, as we through a gracious Indulgence omit a Divine Precept.