Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	circumstance_n	command_v	lawful_a	3,295	5	9.7889	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26854	Richard Baxter his account to his dearly beloved, the inhabitants of Kidderminster, of the causes of his being forbidden by the Bishop of Worcester to preach within his diocess with the Bishop of Worcester's letter in answer thereunto : and some short animadversions upon the said bishops letter.; Account to his dearly beloved, the inhabitants of Kidderminster, of the causes of his being forbidden by the Bishop of Worcester to preach within his diocess	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699. Letter to a friend for vindication of himself from Mr. Baxter's calumny.	1662 (1662)	Wing B1179; ESTC R1412	40,242	54

saved but so as by fire 1 Cor. 3. 15. At least they ought to be enjoyned to write Books of Retractation as St. Augustine did having much more reason to do so then St. Augustine had And this Sir is all I have to say upon this occasion and more a great deal then I thought to have said or then perhaps was needfull to be said to one that knows Mr. Baxter and me as well as you do which if it satisfie you as I hope it will you may do what you please with it in order to the satisfying of others for this is the first and last trouble I mean to put my self to of this kind whatsoever provocation I may have from him hereafter Your very affectionate Friend and Servant G. Worcester The Attestation of Dr. Gunning and Dr. Pearson Concerning a Command of Lawful Superiours what was sufficient to its being a lawful Command THis Proposition being brought by us viz. That Command which commands an Act in it self lawful and no other act or circumstance unlawful is not sinful Mr. Baxter denied it for two reasons which he gave in with his own hand in writing thus One is Because that may be a sin per accidens which is not so in it self and may be unlawfully commanded though that accident be not in the command Another is That it may be commanded under an unjust penalty Again this Proposition being brought by us That Command which commandeth an Act in it self lawful and no other Act wherby any just penalty is injoyned nor any circumstance whence per accidens any sin is consequent which the Commander ought to provide against is not sinful Mr. Baxter denied it for this reason given in with his own hand in writing thus Because the first Act commanded may be per accidens unlawful and be commanded by an unjust penalty though no other Act or circumstance commanded be such Again this Proposition being brought by us That Command which commandeth an Act in it self lawful and no other Act whereby any unjust penalty is injoyned nor any circumstance whence directly or per accidens any sin is consequent which the Commander ought to provide against hath in it all things requisite to the lawfulness of a Command and particularly cannot be guilty of commanding an Act per accidens unlawful nor of commanding an Act under an unjust penalty Mr. Baxter denied it upon the same Reasons Peter Cunning. John Pearson The Postscript LEast Mr. Baxter should say I have defamed him once more by charging him with devising and publishing Maxims of Treason Sedition and Rebellion which till he should as publiquely recant I thought it unfit to restore him to the exercise of any act of the Ministry in my Diocess I think my self obliged to set down some few of his political Theses or Aphorisms in his own words as they are extant though it be strange such a Book should still be extant in his \ Holy Common-wealth\ most falsly and prophanely so called Mr. Baxter's Theses of Government and Governours in generall I GOvernours are some limited some de facto unlimited The unlimited are Tyrants and have no right to that unlimited Government P. 106. Thes. 101. II. The 3. qualifications of necessity to the being of Soveraign Power are 1. So much understanding 2. So much will or goodness in himself 3. So much strength or executive power by his interest in the People or others as are necessary to the said ends of Government P. 130. Thes. 133. III. From whence he deduceth 3. Corollaries viz. 1. When Providence depriveth a man of his understanding and intellectual Capacity and that statedly or to his ordinary temper it maketh him materiam indispositam and uncapable of Government though not of the name Thes. 135. 2. If God permit Princes to turn so wicked as to be uncapable of governing so as is consistent with the ends of Government he permits them to depose themselves Thes. 136. 3. If Providence statedly disable him that was the Soveraign from the executing of the Law protecting the just and other ends of Government it makes him an uncapable subject of the power and so deposeth him Thes. 137. IV. Whereunto he subjoyns that though it is possible and likely that the guilt is or may be theirs who have disabled their Ruler by deserting him yet he is dismissed and disobliged from the charge of Government and particular innocent members are disobliged from being Governed by him V. If the person viz. the Soveraign be justly dispossest as by a lawful War in which he loseth his right especially if he violate the Constitution and end enter into a Military state against the People themselves and by them be conquered they are not obliged to restore him unlesse there be some special obligation upon them besides their Allegiance Thes. 145. VI. If the person dispossess'd though it were unjustly do afterwards become uncapable of Government it is not the Duty of his Subjects to seek his restitution Thes. 146. No not although saith he the incapacity be but accidental as if he cannot be restored but by Arms of the Enemies of God or of the Commonwealth VII If an Army of Neighbours Inhabitants or whoever do though injuriously expel the Soveraign and resolve to ruine the Commonwealth rather then he shall be restored and if the Commonwealth may prosper without his restauration it is the Duty of such an injured Prince for the Common good to resign his Government and if he will not the people ought to judge him as made uncapable by Providence and not to seek his restitution to the apparent ruine of the Commonwealth Thes. 147. Where by the way we are to note he makes the people judge of this and all other incapacities of the Prince and consequently when or for what he is to be Depos'd or not Restored by them VIII If therefore the rightful Governour be so long dispossess'd that the Commonwealth can be no longer without but to the apparent hazard of its ruine we that is we the people or we the Rebels that dispossess'd him are to judge that Providence hath dispossess'd the former and presently to consent to another Thes. 149 IX When the People are without a Governour it may be the duty of such as have most strength ex charitate to protect the rest from injury Thes. 150. and consequently they are to submit themselves to the Parliament or to that Army which deposed or dispossess'd or murdered the rightful Governour X. Providence by Conquest or other means doth use so to qualifie some persons above other for the Government when the place is void that no other persons shall be capable competitors and the persons doth not he mean the Cromwells shall be as good as named by Providence whom the People are bound by God to choose or consent to so that they are usually brought under a divine obligation to submit to such or such and take them for their Governours before those persons have an actual right

and Mr. Baxter disclaimes it affirmed by Mr. Baxter himself under his own hand I found Mr. Baxter at the Savoy engaged in a Dispute and I perceived that to keep himself off from that part of the argument which would presse near to the merits of the Cause he had often affirmed in his Answers That the Command of a most lawful Act was sinful if that Act commanded might prove to any one a sin per accidens This assertion I did then and there presently and openly lay to his charge and when he denied it as it was most frequent with him immediately to deny what he had before affirmed the answers which he had delivered written with his own hand were produced and upon the reading of them the Justice of my charge was most apparent whereupon I urged him farther that this Assertion of his was not only false but destructive of all Authority Humane and Divine as not only denying all power to the Church of making Canons Ecclesiastical for the better ordering and governing of the Church but also taking away all Legislative Power from the King and Parliament and even from God himself I delivered at the same time my reason for what I said which was briefly this because there can be no Act so good of itself but may prove per Accidens or by Accident a sin And therefore if to command an Act which may prove per accidens a sin be a sin then every Command must be a sin And if to command be a sin then certainly God can command nothing because God cannot sin and by the same reason Kings Parliaments and Churches ought not to command any thing because they ought not to sin Thus farre I then charged Mr. Baxter and to this Charge he gave then no satisfaction Neither can I yet conceive it possible to give any satisfaction but by one of these two waies either by proving that the assertion with which I charged him was never his or by shewing that the consequence I urged is not good neither of which was he then able to doe and by what he hath now been pleased to publish it is more then probable that he can never perform either of them For in his bold but weak Apology he doth not so much as pretend to shew any Invalidity in my Inference and for the Assertion with which I charged him he denies it so poorly and goes about to prove another instead of it so manifestly that he may without any injury be interpreted to yield it He saith indeed now That he told us that his Assertion made not every Evill accident to be such as made an Imposition unlawfull But whether he ever said so before this time or no it was then clearly proved that he did assert That an Act for nothing else but because it might be per accidens a sin could not be commanded without sin And now in his publick appeal he hath taken a strange way to wipe off all this for he makes a very brief Narration and most notoriously imperfect and then sayes You know my crime as if that were all that had been or could be objected against him Besides in the relating of this short Narrative he relies wholly upon his own memory not so much as endeavouring to satisfie himself before he presumed to satisfie others How his memory may be in other things I know not in this if it hath been faithfull to him he hath been very unfaithfull to others He relates an Answer in what terms he pleaseth and brings one proposition as made by his Opponents in what terms he thinks fit and the Application of this answer to that proposition he propoundeth as all his Crime whereas his answer was farre more largely given and that to several propositions in several Syllogisms of which the proposition which he relateth was but one or rather none so that he hath most shamefully abused his Disciples at Kidderminster with a short and partial Narrative of his fact As for his Concurring with Learned Reverend Brethren which he would pretend to be part of his Crime and his invidious insinuation That they are not forbidden to Preach for it though he be the reason is clear He had often delivered this assertion before the company his Brethren had not the words of the Answer were written with his hand not with his Brethrens His Brethren had several times declared themselves not to be of his Opinion as particularly when he affirmed That a man might live without any actual sin And therefore we were so just as not to charge them with this Assertion especially considering they did shew themselves unwilling to enter upon this dispute and seemed to like much better another way tending to an amicable and fair complyance which was wholly frustrated by Mr. Baxters furious eagerness to engage in a Disputation All his discourse which followeth after his imperfect Narrative in justification of himself is grounded first upon a mis-reporting of his own Assertion Secondly upon the dissembling of the severall Propositions to which his answer was so often replyed Thirdly upon his pretending That he says more now then that which had offended formerly which is most palpably false and in all probability if he have any memory against his own Conscience And this will presently appear by the vanity and impertinency of all those specious instances which he brings to mollifie his Assertion To Command a Navy to Sea he sayes is lawfull but if it were foreseen that they would fall into the Enemies hand or were like to perish by any accident it were a sin to send them Is there more then he said before or is it any defence of his Assertion at all Is it not certainly because the Opponents had put it expresly in the Proposition That the Act in it self lawful was to be supposed to have nothing consequent which the Commander of it ought to provide against and yet being so stated Mr. Baxter affirmed That if the Act might be per accidens sinfull the Commanding of it was sin Now certainly the falling of a Navy into the Enemies hand or the perishing of it another way if foreseen ought to be provided against by the Commander whereas Mr. Baxters answer did import That if any Prince did command a Fleet to Sea though he did not foresee the Fleet would fall into the Enemies hand or perish any other way yet if by Accident it miscarried that or any other way which he could not foresee or were not bound to provide against the very Command at first was sin The same reason nullifies his instances of the poyson and the knife because the sin in selling them supposeth the murder of the buyer to be foreseen and consequently that the seller ought to prevent it but if he will speak in correspondence to his former Answer he must shew that though the seller do not foresee that the buyer will use the poyson or the knife to his own or any other mans destruction yet

to urge Christs example against himself for as we conform our selves to the Churches order and custome of our times in receiving the Communion otherwise in point of gesture then perhaps it was received at the first institution so Christ and his Apostles conforming themselves to the order and practise of the Church of their times did celebrate the Passeover otherwise then according to the first Institution it was to be celebrated in point of gesture also thereby intending to teach us that as long as the Essentials of Doctrine and Worship which are unalteraable are preserved we are not to separate from the Church or quarrel with our Superiours if those things that are in their own nature alterable be not alwaies and in all places just the same that they were at first because there may be very just cause for the alteration of them and whether there be such a cause or no in this and the like particulars it is the Church that is to be the Judge So that there is nothing that can be collected either from the Canons of the Councels or from the practise of the Primitive Church no nor from Christs own example that can prove Kneeling at the Sacrament to be a sin neither doth Mr. Baxter himself believe it to be sinful for if he did he would not say as he does Pag. 4. 11. of his five Disputations that he himself would kneel rather then disturb the Peace of the Church or be deprived of its Communion In which words he confesseth First that Kneeling at the Sacrament is not sinful or unlawful Secondly that not to Kneel when it is imposed is to disturb the Peace of the Church and Thirdly that the imposing of it upon penalty of being deprived of the Communion is an effectual means to make those that otherwise would not kneel to conform to it and consequently that the imposing of it upon such a penalty is prudent and rational and whatsoever is prudent and rational cannot be unlawful so that not only the Act of Kneeling it self but the imposition of it by lawful Authority must needs be lawful Neither indeed would the People scruple at the imposition if they had not been taught that the thing it self were unlawful or if Mr. Baxter would yet teach them to believe what he himself believes namely that it is lawful which with what conscience he can refuse to do I know not for sure he is obliged to teach them obedience not to Divine Authority only but to humane Authority also in all lawful things and not to let them go on in such an erroneous opinion as will disturb the Peace and deprive them of the Communion of the Church and consequently make them sin against God and Man and their own Souls Of which sin of theirs he must needs be a partaker in a great measure if he do not perswade them from it seeing as he himself saith Qui non vetat peccare cum potest jubet And what Power he hath to lead or mislead those kind of men their venturing to kill and be killed in a most unrighteous quarrel upon his perswasion hath more then enough demonstrated during the time of the late troubles unlesse he will say that he hath conjured up a Spirit that he cannot lay Howsoever by how much the more faulty he hath been in misleading them heretofore by so much the more zealous he should be to reduce them into the right way hereafter which if he and the rest of his Brethren can do as I am confident they can if they wil they wil make some amends for the mischief they have done and then there will be no fear or danger of Ministers being Ejected for their tenderness towards the People nor of the Ejecting of any of the People from the communion of the Church for not conforming themselves to the Orders and Commands of it consequently there will be no Schisms or Divisions amongst us when we shall all worship the same God the same way But if they will not do this which by all obligations Humane and Divine they are bound to do for my part I know no better way for undeceiving reducing of the People then by removing such Ministers and then we shall see when the blowing of those boisterous winds ceaseth whether the waves will not be still or no In the mean time I hope the removing of erroneous and seditious will not necessitate the introducing of ignorant and scandalous Ministers though Mr. Baxter ought to remember that as there is no sin more heinous then Rebellion so no teacher ought to be more scandalous I am sure there is none more dangerous then a teacher of Rebellion And now to use Mr. Baxters own words I think there is no man to be found on earth that hath the ordinary reason of a Man but will confess That it is indeed destructive of all Government and Legislative power to Assert as Mr. Baxter did Assert the command of a thing in it self lawful by lawful Authority under no unjust punishment with no evil circumstance which the Commander can foresee or ought to provide against for all these pre-cautions were expresly put in the proposition which Mr. Baxter denied as a sinful Command for a●● other reason but because the Act Commanded may be by Accident a sin Let Mr. Baxter then know and if he have ingenuity enough confess that the words I spoke as to this particular were words of truth and words of charity also as being intended and spoken to no other end but to undeceive that People who by having his person too much in admiration as if he could neither deceive nor be deceived had been so long and so dangerously mislead by him so that it was not I that defamed him then but it is he that hath defamed me now Neither could I expect lesse from the boldnesse of this man and that party who have had the confidence publickly to own the obligation of the Covenant even since it hath been condemn'd to be burnt by the Parliament And truly I see no reason why all those Books and Sermons which have been Preach'd and Printed in defence of the Covenant or to maintain the same or worse principles of Sedition then are in the Covenant should not be burnt also Nay I dare be bold to say that if the Authors of such Books and Sermons were not still of the same opinions and if they be God deliver us from such Preachers if they were not still I say of the same opinions but did truly repent of them and were heartily sorry for the horrible mischief they have done by them they would with those converted Exorcists Act. 16. 19. bring all those Conjuring Books of theirs togethers and to save the Hang-man a labour would publickly burn them all with their own hands that so though by the burning of their works they may perhaps suffer some losse in point of reputation with some of their Disciples yet they themselves may be