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Bible Encyclopedias
Ordinance
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or an institution established by lawful authority. Religious ordinances must be instituted by the great institutor of religion, or they are not binding: minor regulations are not properly ordinances. Ordinances once established are not to be varied by human caprice or mutability.
Human ordinances, established by national laws, may be varied by other laws, because the inconveniences arising from them can only be determined by experience. Yet Christians are bound to submit to these institutions, when they do not infringe on those established by divine authority; not only from the consideration that if every individual were to oppose national institutions no society could subsist, but by the tenor of Scripture itself. Nevertheless, Christianity does not interfere with political rights, but leaves individuals, as well as nations, in full enjoyment of whatever advantages the constitution of a country secures to its subjects.
The course of nature is the ordinance of God; its laws are but "the ordinances of heaven;" and every planet obeys that impulse which the divine Governor has impressed on it. (Jeremiah 31:36).
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McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Ordinance'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/o/ordinance.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
