They had made their ordinance Of victual, and of other purveyance.
Chaucer.
2. A rule established by authority; a permanent rule of action; a
statute, law, regulation, rescript, or accepted usage; an edict or
decree; esp., a local law enacted by a municipal government; as, a
municipal ordinance.
Thou wilt die by God's just ordinance.
Shak.
By custom and the ordinance of times.
Shak.
Walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord
blameless.
Luke i. 6.
Acts of Parliament are sometimes called ordinances; also, certain
colonial laws and certain acts of Congress under Confederation; as, the
ordinance of 1787 for the government of the territory of the United
States northwest of the Ohio River; the colonial ordinance of 1641, or
1647. This word is often used in Scripture in the sense of a law or
statute of sovereign power. Ex. xv. 25. Num. x. 8. Ezra iii. 10. Its
most frequent application now in the United States is to laws and
regulations of municipal corporations. Wharton (Law Dict.).