Docility

“ We ought to be built up and fortified by the truth, we ought to become acquainted with the principles, doctrines, and ordinances pertaining to the Church and Kingdom of God. We are told, in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, to search after wisdom as we would for hidden treasures, both by study and by faith, to become acquainted with the history and laws of the nation we live in, and of the nations of the earth. ”

“ For so is the will of God, that by doing well you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men."
3. Our holy religion, therefore, plainly commands that we should regard those possessed of lawful authority as the representatives of God and should honor them as such, obeying them cheerfully, as long as they command nothing which is incompatible with the commandments of God and of His Church. Obey, therefore, the civil authorities for the love of God, not merely from compulsion or fear of punishment. The example of Jesus Christ and of His apostles teaches this obedience. ”

“ He has organized the different Quorums, authorities, helps, and governments in his Church and kingdom, to convey his will to his people, and through them to the people of the world, to bring them to a knowledge of correct principles, laws, and ordinances, that they may learn to do right and fear him, that there might be a people on the earth who will fear him, acknowledge his law, and submit to his authority, which is the power of the holy Priesthood. ”

“ We moreover by these presents decree, that the regular discipline, which, by divine favour, hath been instituted in your house, shall be inviolably observed, and that the brethren who have there dedicated themselves to the service of the omnipotent God, shall live together in chastity and without property; and making good their profession both in word and deed, they shall remain subject and obedient in all things to the Master, or to him whom the Master shall have set in authority over them. ”

“ What we are to understand by an ordinance, and its being founded on a divine institution, which is our only warrant to engage therein, has been before considered; and, indeed, every duty that is to be performed by God’s express command, which he has designed to be a pledge of his presence, and a means of grace, is a branch of religious worship, and may be truly styled an holy ordinance. ”

“ The other grand ordinance of God, magistracy, which he hath in his sovereign wisdom, justice, and goodness, appointed, ordained, and consecrated, for the demonstration, illustration, and vindication of his own glory, and the communication, conservation, and reparation of the peace, safety, order, liberty, and universal good of mankind, is next to that of the ministry of great concern: wherein not only the prudence, policy, property, and liberty of men, but also the conscience, duty, and religion of Christians, have a special interest. ”

“ By God's bounds we understand such laws and their administrations and enforcements as do not conflict with, oppose, or violate any precept or command contained in the Divine Word which he has given for the moral and spiritual government of his people. By government, to which we as a body acknowledge and teach our obligations of duty and obedience, we understand rightful human authority. And by this, again, we understand, as the Apostle Paul puts it, "the power that protects and blesses the good, and punishes the evildoer." ”

“ He charges them to keep God's commandments (v. 2) , to do them (v. 5, 14) , to keep and do them (v. 6) , to perform the covenant, v. 13. Hearing must be in order to doing, knowledge in order to practice. God's commandments were the way they must keep in, the rule they must keep to; they must govern themselves by the moral precepts, perform their devotion according to the divine ritual, and administer justice according to the judicial law. He concludes his discourse (v. 40) with this repeated charge: Thou shalt keep his statutes and his commandments which I command thee. ”

“ The difference between the authority of doctrine and discipline is beautifully marked in 2 Timothy ii. 25, and Titus ii. 12-15. In the first passage, the servant of God, teaching divine doctrine, must not strive, but must "in meekness instruct those that oppose themselves;" in the second passage, teaching us "that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts he is to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world," the minister is to speak, exhort, and rebuke with ALL AUTHORITY—both functions being expressed as united in 2 Timothy iv. ”

“ When there is divine authority in the administration of an ordinance here on the earth, that ordinance is sacred and holy, and is recorded here and in the heavens, and the records of heaven will agree with the records of earth; and by these records and books will mankind be judged. ”

“ Therefore We, fulfilling the duty of our supreme pastoral office, entreat by the mercies of Jesus Christ, and, by the authority of the same our God and Saviour, We command, all the faithful of Christ, and especially those who are set over others or are charged with the office of instruction, that they earnestly and diligently apply themselves to ward off and eliminate these errors from Holy Church, and to spread the light of pure faith. ”

“ When I speak of the authority of the Christian religion, I do not pretend to confine the extent of that term to the single authority of its holy assemblies, in which, through the mouths of its pastors, the church makes decisions, and holds out to all believers the infallible rules of worship and of doctrine. ”

“ Now it is the major of this syllogism that I undertake to prove, the minor being so clear from their history, that to prove it by witnesses were to do what is already done.
1. All authority to be owned of men must be of God, and ordained of God: for so the apostle teacheth expresly, Rom. xiii. 1. &c. which is the alone formal reason of our subjection to them, and that which makes it a damnable sin to resist them; because it is a resisting the ordinance of God. The Lord owns himself to be the author of magistrates, Prov. viii. 15. By me kings reign and princes decree justice. ”

“ While the faith of the Church remains the same in all ages, from time to time she introduces changes in her discipline. By her discipline is meant the laws and regulations which she prescribes for her own government and for the direction of Christian life. Her disciplinary laws and precepts comprise, among other matters, Divine worship, the administering and receiving of the Sacraments, the duties of fasting and abstinence. ”

“ Those who derive their authority by a continued succession from the apostles, who are called unto and constituted in their office in a regular and peaceable way, agreeable to the institution of God, and the constant practice of his Church, according to rules approved in the best and purest ages; who are prepared to the exercise of their functions by the best education, that ordinarily can be provided under sober discipline, in the schools of the prophets ”

“ There is definite doctrine in regard to the law that rules over man as a natural and a spiritual being. The natural world and life become clear to the understanding, and the spiritual world is comprehended as really and intelligently as is the natural.
The office of the Church is made known as the preserver of the Word of the Lord, the teacher of truth revealed from Him, and the saver of souls as a minister of the Lord. ”

“ God has placed us in our several stations; the virtues of a private Christian are patience, obedience, submission, and the like; but those of a magistrate or a general or a king are prudence, counsel, active fortitude, coercive power, awful command, and the exercise of magnanimity as well as justice. ”

“ The Obligation by Reason of Special Offices or Duties.—Pastors are bound to say or provide Mass for their people on days of obligation as a duty of justice, and it seems on other days also as a duty of charity if there is a great need or demand and no reasonable impediment. There is an obligation of justice to celebrate Mass, if one has contracted to do so; an obligation of fidelity, if one has freely promised; an obligation of religion, if one has vowed; an obligation of obedience, if one has been lawfully commanded by one’s superior. ”

“ In the review of this subject, we see the necessity of keeping most exactly to the holy scriptures, in the discipline and order of our churches, in the forms of external administrations, as well as the doctrines and duties, ordinances and practice. Our articles of faith, and our rules of life are to be taken wholly from them. ”

“ So far as the scriptures are concerned, and on subjects of this character their authority is conclusive, wherever we have an account of men administering in the things pertaining to God, and their administrations are accepted of him, they have either been called directly by revelation from him, or through inspiration in those who already had authority from God to act in his name; and to be called by a legitimate, divinely established authority is to be called of God. ”

“ That the Church supervises and penetrates into the domestic circle, and enjoins and inculcates obedience to her own counsels, as articles of faith paramount to all the obligations of society and morality, allegiance and law. ”

“ All that one has to believe of the infinite and absolute, after he has established by evidence appropriate in the case the divine institution and commission of the church, he believes on the authority of the church herself. ”

“ These facts which compel obedience are declared to be 'the part which is played in the general human lot by hereditary conditions in the largest sense and the fact that what we call duty is entirely made up of such conditions.' The scientific conception of law in human nature was combined by her with the moral or religious fact of duty. ”

“ And once more: within the region of religious activity itself there are provinces which demand varying degrees of distinctness in definition and graduation of discipline; there are matters of doctrine, of discipline proper, of property and of judicature; there are legislation, jurisdiction, administration; there are functions for the theologian, the casuist, the canonist, and the civilian; questions of doctrine for the theologian, of morals for the casuist, of discipline for the canonist, of procedure for the civil lawyer. ”

“ Religion, the internal discipline of the organ [Pg 243] ized kindred, and the law of the state were three co-ordinate agencies of social control in ancient society. Nor was law for a long time the chief of these nor the one which covered the widest field. If the gods had been called to witness or good faith had a religious sanction, the duty to keep a promise was a matter for religion. ”

“ XXXVI. That to the public profession held forth none shall be compelled by penalties or otherwise; but that endeavours be used to win them by sound doctrine and the example of a good conversation.
XXXVII. That such as profess faith in God by Jesus Christ (though differing in judgment from the doctrine, worship or discipline publicly held forth) shall not be restrained from, but shall be protected in, the profession of the faith and exercise of their religion ”

“ The most obvious answer, then, to the question, why we yield to the authority of the Church in the questions and developments of faith, is, that some authority there must be if there is a revelation, and other authority there is none but she. ”

“ But when Thou on a sudden commandest an unwonted and unthought of thing, yea, although Thou hast sometime forbidden it, and still for the time hidest the reason of Thy command, and it be against the ordinance of some society of men, who doubts but it is to be done, seeing that society of men is just which serves Thee? But blessed are they who know Thy commands! For all things were done by Thy servants ”

“ Let us join issue then on this plain ground, whether or not the doctrine of "the Church," and the duty of obeying it, be laid down in Scripture. If so, it is no matter as regards our practice, whether the doctrine is primary or secondary, whether the duty is much or little insisted on. A Christian mind will aim at obeying the whole counsel and will of God ”

“ The authority of Emperors, Kings, and Princes, is human. The authority of Councils, Synods, Bishops, and Presbyters, is human. The authority of the Prophets is divine, and comprehends the sum of religion, reckoning Moses and the Apostles among the Prophets; and if an Angel from Heaven preach any other gospel, than what they have delivered, let him be accursed. Their writings contain the covenant between God and his people, with instructions for keeping this covenant; instances of God's judgments upon them that break it: and predictions of things to come. ”

“ History of the Church 2:54-60.
1 Verily I say unto you, my friends, I give unto you counsel, and a commandment, concerning all the properties which belong to the order which I commanded to be organized and established, to be a united order, and an everlasting order for the benefit of my church, and for the salvation of men until I come—
2 With promise immutable and unchangeable, that inasmuch as those whom I commanded were faithful they should be blessed with a multiplicity of blessings ”

“ I. Shew the NATURE and EXTENT of the DUTY. II. The MOTIVE by which the Christian is to be actuated in the discharge of it. I. I am to endeavour to shew the nature of the duty enjoined in the text, "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man." We must understand, then, first, What is meant by every ordinance of man; and this the Apostle himself explains to us in the following words: "Whether to the king as supreme, or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him." ”

“ The general principles on which her action is based are the maxims and precepts of our divine Lord himself, the character of the holy sacraments which he established in his church to be the channels of grace, the institutions which came to her from the apostles, and which she will ever preserve, and those principles of right and morality which God has planted in the heart of man, and of which her divine commission makes her the highest and the most authoritative exponent. ”