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
A47939	A whipp a whipp, for the schismaticall animadverter upon the Bishop of Worcester's letter by Roger L'Estrange.	L'Estrange, Roger, Sir, 1616-1704.	1662 (1662)	Wing L1325; ESTC R10187	33,398	64

Unwinding the Clew and unperplexing the People If Those that taught them wrong would but now tell them that they did so and take the payns to set them right again all were well but till that 's done the Common sort continue under the same misperswasion and for Their Errours the Bishops must answer whose Office 't is to see them Instructed better Well well but such as Hee that make the Law instead of being a Buckler to Protect Converts a Sword only to cut off such as were once ●fenders c. The Hypocrite is pleasant Such as He As if only the Bishop of Wor'ster stuck in his Stomack when 't is the Hierarchy it self he boggles at The Bishop he sayes makes the Law a Sword in stead of a Buckler but I say the Schismatique would make both of it A Buckler to Traytours and a Sword to Loyal Subjects This is the way he sayes to Enrage the People and render the welfare of his Majesty very Insecure and Hazzardous Indeed to suffer these Mutinous Affronts is the ready way to another Rebellion but if This Scandalous and Seditious w●etch were now made Exemplary for this Audacious Menace upon the King who would either help or Pitty him EXCEPTION V. A IT is bold and impious I know not how to express it more mild'y what he affirms That I● to command an Act which by accident may prove an occasion of sin be sinful then God himself cannot command any thing For though as I said before I will by no means own that Assertion yet a thing which by accident may become sinful may be unlawful in another to command for want of sufficient Authori●y whereas God's Sovereign Power doth without dispute or controversie make all his Commands to be just and therefore his Name ought not to be mentioned in our trivial Disputes because every such vain use of it is nothing but a diminution and lessening of his Greatness A DId you Learn This Language of your Patron the President Or did the Good Old Gentleman bequeath you his Conscience that you so little regard either Authority or Truth Let the Reader judg of the Libeller Bold and Impious and This from a Pedant to a Prelate from an Aërian Heretique to a Grave Learned and Orthodox Divine Where 's the Reverence of Government the Honour of England the Protection of the Law nay Where 's the Power of Religion the Safety of the King and the Welfare of the People if such Indignities passe unpunish'd The Example is Emboldening and Contagious for what can the Rabble think but either that the Insolence is Lawful the Reproch just or the Party Terrible Where are They whose Duty 't is to watch the Presse Is the Bloud of the Last King so soon Forgotten or the Security of our present Sovereign so little Regarded that we should now try the Operation of the same Poyson upon the People again which formerly intoxicated them and the Effect of the same Popular Madnesse upon This King which so lately destroy'd his Royal Father Let not us perswade our selves neither that these Luxuriances of Bitternesse against the Bishops are only the over-flowings of some Private Humours meerly as dissatisfy'd to Church-Government No no there 's more in the Case then so The Libellers find they get by it Credit Countenance and as by the By commodious fortunes Their Mecaenasses are too wise to tell the Virtuoso's look ye there 's This or That for such a Gird at the King or such a Lash at the Bishops But a word to the Wise they understand for what and to distinguish from such hands betwixt a Reward and a Bounty What is This other then tacitly to keep a Faction in Pay and to allow a Salary to Sedition I have digress'd too long but the Animadverter is not forgotten all this while Now to our Teazer again He challenges the Bishop with affirming That if to command an Act which by accident may prove an occasion of sin be sinful then God himself cannot command any thing and imputes to him as if either he derogated from Gods Almightynesse or Trifled with his Holy Name and Majesty Observe now his Prevarication The Bishop of Worcester Relates a Dispute that pass'd betwixt Himself and Mr. Baxter at the Savoy concerning Obedience to the Command of a thing in it self Lawful by Lawful Authority under no unjust Punishment and with no evil Circumstance which the Commander can fore-see or ought to provide against Mr. Baxter contends that the first Act Commanded may be per Accidens Unlawful and be Commanded by an unjust Penalty though no other Act or Circumstance be such Thus under his own Hand in writing The Bishop desirous to bring him off from an Assertion so Weak and wicked at once layes before him the Impious tendency of it Tells him that it is Destructive of all Authority Humane and Divine taking away all Legislative Power not only from the King but from God Himself for no Act can be so Good of it self but may prove by Accident a Sin which being admitted every Command is a Sin If every Command then God that cannot Sin cannot Command In This manner does the Bishop Reason with Mr. Baxter and to divert him from so foul a Mistake shews him the Horrid and Blasphemous Consequences of it and This in fine does our Spider-catcher deliver to the world for Impious and Irreverent in the Bishop which was no other then a Logical Result from Mr. Baxter's Argument Neither is God's Omnipotence the Question Cujus Velle Potentia Cui Opus Voluntas but the Corruption of Deprav'd Nature By this Rule whatsoever we may Abuse must not be Commanded Bid me Pray I may Wander Go to Church I may sleep Keep the Sabbath I may fall into Judaisme Relieve the Poor Cavaliers I may do it to be seen of Men and at This Rate in In●nitum Our Writer's Pen is in Course and rather then say Nothing he is Resolv'd to say lesse Supposing a want of sufficient Authority to Command which is the Thing Granted in the Proposition EXCEPTION VI. A THat an offence to which a disproportionable penalty is annexed is not to be measured by the quality of the Act considered in it self but by the mischievous consequences it may produce whether this ought to hold good in Civill Lawes becomes neither the Bishop nor me to dispute but in Divinity nothing can be more false and dangerous For to impose in the ●orship of God as necessary circumstances of it things confessedly trivial and needless and upon the forbearance of them to debar any from the benefits first of Christian and then of Civil Communion is a thing which hath not the least pretence of Scripture or Primitive practice to justifie it For our Saviour te●s us That whosoever were not against him were for him and the Apostle bids us to receive our weak Brother and not to judge much less to burden his Conscience A QUestionless This Man is In