Ordination

“ Speak, then, O Infallible Teacher, and we, the youthful sons of the Catholic Church, will hear Your words as the words of eternal wisdom; Your judgment shall be for us the judgment of God; Your definition shall be as the definitions of God; Your instruction as the instruction of God. In your authority as Vicar of Christ we venerate the authority of God, and submitting our mind and our heart to that authority, we have faith to sustain the dignity of human nature in face of the pretentious tyranny of haughty intellect spoiled and blinded by guilty passions. ”

“ But what right have we, I would ask, to choose, among the essentials of the mysterious Ordinance, one which, as we conceive, we may dispense with, while we condemn others who select for themselves another? And yet, what do we? what is our practice? the practice so universally adopted throughout our Church, that the exceptions are few, and but of yesterday; so that those who contend for and practise the contrary are deemed visionary and righteous over much? ”

“ But if such pay obedience to the same commands and authorities, then are they even much more obedient to this supernal allotment, this divine mind and all-powerful God. So that this universal world is to be considered one commonwealth of gods and men.” “Law is the supreme reason, implanted in nature, which commands all things that are to be done, and prohibits their contraries.” “The radical idea of right I derive from nature, under whose guidance we have to draw out the whole of this subject-matter.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ We are attending to the ordinances pertaining to the Church of God, temporal and spiritual, ordinances pertaining to the body, and ordinances pertaining to the spirit. And then, as men having to do with the world on which we live, with the Territory that we possess, we have to enact laws, and we have to conduct ourselves properly, and seek the assistance of the Almighty to direct us in all our affairs, and the Lord has promised if we would do that, he would show us that the wisdom of God is greater than the cunning of the devil. ”

“ Judge. Why do you not come to church, and hear service, and be subject to the law, and to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake?
F. H. We are subject, and for that cause we do pay taxes, tribute, and custom, and give unto Cæsar the things that are his, and unto God the things that are his, to wit, worship, honour, and obedience; and if thou mean the parish assembly, I tell thee faithfully, I am persuaded, and upon good ground, their teachers are not the ministers of Christ, neither their worship the worship of God. ”

“ If not, then every human standard is deficient in this leading, all-important, and indispensable property of a rule or standard for the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government of the Church of God. ”

“ It concerns us all rightly to understand the meaning of those holy ordinances wherein we worship God, what is the nature and what the end of them, what is signified and what intended, what is the duty expected from us in them and what are the advantages to be expected by us. Every ordinance has a meaning; some ordinances, as sacraments, have not their meaning so plain and obvious as others have; therefore we are concerned to search, that we may not offer the blind for sacrifice, but may do a reasonable service. ”

“ Deign’d to make known a mean, by which the welfare
Of Christendom, or of his holy church,
In some peculiar and especial manner
Might be promoted or secured, who then
Shall venture to rise up, and try by reason
The will of him who has created reason,
Measure th’ eternal laws of heaven by
The little rules of a vain human honour?—
But of all this enough. What is it then
On which our counsel is desired? ”

“ Then look upon this earth beneath you, this earth of beings whose lives are of so poor account to you, and tell us, where is God and what is he doing?
Everyone has a right to life! What mockery! When the control of the necessaries of life is given to the few by the State, and above the seal of the law the priest has set the seal of the Church! ”

“ 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. ”

“ So that you see, whosoever makes a jest of Church Discipline, makes a jest of an ordinance of God; and a man may as well despise the whole Christian Religion, as this power, which is as much the ordinance of Jesus Christ, as preaching, or the use of the Sacraments. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Obeying these truths—living them—practicing them, in the parlor, the kitchen, the office, the shop, the counting-house, the market-place, the school-room, on the farm, at the fire-side, and in legislative halls—everywhere and always conforming our dispositions and conduct to their requirements, and so weaving these laws into the very fabric of our spiritual being, and making them, as it were, a part of ourselves—this is the laborious and difficult part of the work. ”

“ It is an ordinance pertaining to this state of existence, and by those dwelling in the flesh upon the earth have all these ordinances to be performed. If they are not by ourselves during this life they must be done by some one acting for and in our behalf still existing in the flesh, and in the authority of the holy Priesthood, which has come down from heaven. ”

“ They must be sufficiently also able to judge in all spiritual causes, and that with their own, and not with other men’s eyes, no more than they do in civil causes, contrary to the common practice of the governors and rulers of civil states, who often set up that for a religion or worship to God, which the clergy, or churchmen, as men speak, shall in their consciences agree upon. ”

“ I took truth for my text, salvation for my subject, and the whole world for my circuit, to go as far as I could and talk all I could about it. It takes every truth from every sect and party. What! in a civil capacity also? Yes. All law, all powers, all kingdoms, and all thrones,—in fine, all things are under the control of God. ”

“ The duty to serve the divine cause of humanity in its entirety, that of my people in particular, was the law of my life,—the supreme law, whose voice stilled my passions, my desires, in short, my weaknesses.... ”

“ The wise answer is, that this institution of Religion, like Society, Friendship, and Marriage, comes out of a principle deep and permanent in the constitution of man; that as humble, and transient, and partial institutions come out of humble, transient, and partial wants, and are to be traced to the senses and the phenomena of life; so this sublime, permanent, and universal institution came out from sublime, permanent, and universal wants, and must be referred to the Soul, the religious Faculty, and so belongs among the unchanging realities of life. ”

“ Again, another duty we have to do is to preserve the order of God among ourselves. And here is a great responsibility resting upon the Presidents of Stakes and their Counselors, and upon the Bishops and their Counselors, and upon all men holding authority in the Church and Kingdom of God, and upon the Twelve specially, to see that the order of God is carried out, and that iniquity does not exist among the Saints of the Most High God. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Institution after institution rises up, all of them baptized by religion and confirmed by law, taking the sacrament from the hands of each. At length it comes to pass that law seeks to turn religion out of doors. ”

“ 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." ”

“ I have ever been a good and faithful subject, and of this I believe my judges to be convinced. I have always preached to my flock patience, obedience, and submission; and my sermons, which you possess, are summed up in these words, ‘Fear God, honour the king.’ If I have contravened the law touching religious assemblies, it was by God’s commandments I contravened them; God must be obeyed before men. ”

“ Those duties, which are of moral and natural obligation, are to take place even of those divine laws which are positive and ritual, much more of those impositions of men, and traditions of the elders, which make God's law stricter than he has made it. ”

“ The two ordinances, in comparison with a religious life and character, are no more than the rattles and straws of a child, compared with the attainments of an accomplished man; it is a beautiful feature of God's Providence, that things in themselves of no value, can yet serve so important a purpose as the intellectual, moral, and religious development of a man. ”

“ It is scarcely necessary to say, that the phrase, "moral law," is a technical expression of theology, and refers to the Ten Commandments, which are so called, because they define the regulations necessary for the government of the morals and manners of men. ”

“ A. My notions are, “True religion is the loving God with all our heart, and our neighbour as ourselves; and in that love abstaining from all evil, and doing all possible good to all men.” Now, it is not possible in the nature of things, that any should be led by these notions, into either a disregard or disesteem of the common duties and offices of life.
Q. 4. But may they not be led by them into such a degree at least, of disregard for the common duties of life, as is inconsistent with that attention to them, and diligence in them, which Providence has made necessary? ”

“ Unto whom, God willing, we exhibiting our due reverence and obedience as faithful children, in those thing's which are lawful, honest, and agreeable to reason and the law of God, will make our request and petition, that speedy remedy may be provided for us, our said kingdom and marquisdom, upon the premises, according to the law of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the institutions of the holy fathers. ”

“ Until the sublime lessons of the Sermon on the Mount become the inspiration of every human heart—that is, until the millennium shall come—mankind must be governed by law, and the laws must be made by human beings who have all the frailties and imperfections of their fellows. ”

“ To suppose a society—call it a Church or what you will—constituted holy by an arbitrary decree of God, its members remaining unholy, I hold to be a most dangerous fiction; one which we cannot too vehemently repudiate, as alike condemned by experience, by reason, and by Scripture. ”

“ They ask of me the ordinances of justice, the rules of piety in the worship of God, the rules of equity in their dealings with men, both which are ordinances of justice. (5.) They appear to the eye of the world as if they made conscience of doing their duty: They are as a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinances of their God; others took them for such, and they themselves pretended to be such. Nothing lay open to view that was a contradiction to their profession, but they seemed to be such as they should be. Note, Men may go a great way towards heaven and yet come short ”

“ No sooner is the idea of Universal Order present to the reason, than it is recognized as an absolute law; and, in consequence, the special end of our being, by participation in its character of goodness and sacredness, is henceforth pursued as a duty, and its satisfaction claimed as a right. ”