Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	command_n	command_v	lawful_a	2,968	5	9.4987	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23673	A serious and friendly address to the non-conformists, beginning with the Anabaptists, or, An addition to the perswasive to peace and vnity by W.A.	Allen, William, d. 1686.	1676 (1676)	Wing A1072; ESTC R9363	75,150	222

fact it is true that more may and sometimes is made the condition of Communion than is necessary And when it is so it usually becomes a temptation to more or less to run into Schism and it likewise furnisheth such with some pretence to draw Disciples to themselves who are ambitions of Heading a Party In which respects it may be matter of great Prudence in order to the Churches Peace and Unity to make no more than is necessary the condition of Communion But although more should be imposed as the condition of Communion than is necessary yet if it be not so much more as makes it sinful to hold Communion on those terms Then they must needs be guilty of the sin of Schism who separate upon account of such an imposition And the reason is because such a Schism is without sufficient cause or just ground which just ground is when one cannot do otherwise than separate without a necessity of sining Things may be ill imposed as when they are inadequate to their end and yet well observed by them on whom they are imposed as when not sinful in themselves and when by that means they and the Church suffer less in point of inconvenience and enjoy a greater benefit in preserving Peace in the Church than could be obtained in a way of opposition If we should allow a liberty much more if we hold it a duty for inferiours under Government to oppose and withstand the Commands of their Superiours as oft as they think they Command things inconvenient though they should think right so long as they do not Command things which they know to be unlawful for them to observe we should soon bring intolerable confusion into Church and Common-wealth into Families and all Communities of men where Government is exercised Inconveniencies in such cases must be yielded to rather than greater mischiefs drawn on us and on the Community by not yielding But you at least many of you think that it is an infringing of your Christian liberty for men to determine and impose upon you where God hath not determined and imposed and that in such cases it would be a betraying of that liberty should you not withstand such impositions To which I answer that thus far 't is true that when any thing is imposed by men under the notion of being commanded of God of Divine Institution or of necessity to Salvation which is not so as this would be a teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of men so a yielding to them so imposed would be a betraying of our Christian liberty and more than so it would be a betraying of the Prerogative of our Lord unto the usurpation of men and a making to our selves other Masters than Christ and our selves servants of men in the prohibited sense and all contrary to the express Doctrine of our Saviour and his Apostles But though this be the case in the Church of Rome in many things and in some respects among your selves also yet this is not the case touching the things in dispute between you and the Church of England The things imposed at which you most stick are not at all imposed under the notion of Divine right but only upon a prudential account being things mutable in their nature and alterable at the pleasure of them who impose them and are so declared in the Preface before the Book of Common Prayer So that your Conscience is not imposed upon to take the things themselves for any other than they are in their own nature things left undetermined by God one way or other But then there is a sense in which it is not true that our Christian liberty is unduly infringed by the imposition of men although we were at liberty to do or not to do the things enjoined us before such an imposition was laid upon us Our Christian liberty does not exempt us from the duty of obedience to our Superiors in things which in their own nature are but indifferent and out of such circumstances might be done or let alone The same Divine authority which enjoins us to call no man on Earth Master nor to be servants of men enjoins Children also to obey their Parents Servants their Masters Church-members their Spiritual Guides and Governours and Subjects their Princes and that in all things in which they shall not disobey God in doing contrary to his Commands So that when things indifferent or undetermined by God are imposed by our Governours Domestick Politick or Ecclesiastick only as their Commands our Christian liberty is no bar nor plea against them And whoever pretends that it is draws too near the wicked Gnosticks who pretended exemption from being commanded and governed by men by their being Christs freemen Against which abuse of Christian liberty St. Peter cautioned the Christians then For after he had exhorted them to submit themselves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake 1 Pet. 2.13 14. he presently adds in ver 16. as free and not using your liberty as a cloke of maliciousness not to pretend Christian liberty to cover their disaffection to Government as the Gnosticks did Our Christian liberty is so far from being a bar to our Obedience to our Governours in all things not otherwise ordered by God as that it is a great accommodation to us in yielding obedience to them without scruple of Conscience For when circumstances in the external administration of holy things are left so much undetermined by God as they are we are at the greater liberty to yield obedience to the prudential determinations of our Governours either one way or other so long as they do not determine any thing against what God hath determined In things even of this nature we are to be subject to our Governours for Conscience sake Rom. 13.5 that is out of Conscience to God who commands our obedience to our Governours but not out of Conscience to the things commanded by them as if by any inherent holiness in them our Consciences were ingaged unto them And here lies the difference between superstition and lawful obedience to authority In the Case of Superstition the act is done out of Conscience to the thing done as if sacred though but indifferent in its own nature But in the case of lawful obedience in indifferent things the same act is done out of Conscience to God not as commanding the thing but as commanding my obedience to him in all lawful things who commands me to do it and commands it under no other notion but as a thing indifferent in its own nature and not made sacred by any command or institution of God Let me say this further to you There is more of real Religion and true Christianity in thus obeying the lawful Commands of our Governours out of Conscience to God who would have it so than I fear is well considered and more of Irreligion Profaness and Hypocrisie in slighting Gods express command in this while we seem so very fearful and scrupulous to

and those who have since abetted this Doctrine that asserts nothing to be lawful in the worship of God which he hath not commanded when they extend it farther than to the substance of worship have corrupted or rather gone about to overthrow the Doctrine of Christian liberty in great part And they have thereby hid from the peoples eyes the liberty left them by Christ in these matters and filled their minds with endless scruples and hurried them into unlawful Schisms If those formerly or more lately who desired some alteration in the external form of administration used in our Church had not run so high as to assert things unlawful which by all their Mediums they could never prove to be so but had peaceably and modestly pursued their desires from time to time only upon account of the inconveniency of some things as apprehended by them and had satisfied themselves that in doing so they had gone as far as in duty they were bound without ever rending themselves from Communion with the Church or disturbing the peace of it by unsetling the peoples minds and filling their heads with Jealousies and their Consciences with scruples they would without doubt have taken a more safe and Christian a more prudent and probable way to have obtained their desires in time than by that course by which they have exposed the Church and Religion to unspeakable disadvantages they have done And therefore after tryal of other ways to come now to this at last will doubtless be a more honourable and Christian course and more prudential as to all worthy ends both in reference to the honour of Religion and its influence upon mens hearts and lives the peace of the Nation the composing of peoples distracted minds the reducing of the erroneous the frustration of the designs of adversaries and the restoring Christian liberty to its right use For I have shewed before that men then use their Christian liberty best when they can and do act in ways though but only lawful when the common good of Christians and the interest of Religion in the main in the World calls for it though otherwise and in some respects not pleasing to themselves And so did St. Paul and so he exhorted others to do when he said give no offence neither to the Jews nor to the Gentiles nor to the Church of God even as I please all men in all things not seeking my own profit but the profit of many that they may be saved 1 Cor. 10.32 33. And again let no man seek his own but every man anothers wealth ver 24. And again we then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not please our selves Let every one please his neighbour for his good to edification for Christ also pleased not himself c. Ro. 15.1 2 3. And again look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others Phil. 2.4 And again I am made all things to all men that I might by all means save some and this I do for the Gospel sake 1 Cor. 9.22 23. And if ever you would follow him both in his Doctrine and example you must certainly alter your course For I cannot imagine when I see how far St. Paul denied himself in his own liberty in things not otherwise acceptable to him and perswaded others to do so likewise rather than breaches should be made or continue in the Church and Charity be thrust out and rather than Jews or Gentiles without or in the Church should be scandalized against the Christian Religion I say when I consider this I cannot imagine but that if he had been in your circumstances but that he would have yielded to have done any thing not sinful in it self and every whit as much as you need to do to have prevented or removed such manifold and intolerable evils as Schism hath brought upon us You may and do perhaps think that if things relating to the external administration of Gods Ordinances and worship are at least in great part left so much undetermined and at liberty to chuse this or that as circumstances shall direct as I have asserted they are then why should you be restrained from making use of that which you apprehend to be the best There is no doubt but that this may be done this liberty be used when other mens good or hurt is not concerned in it But when my forbearing to use this liberty will tend to the publick good and my using of it to a publick hurt which is plainly the case before us then I should not act like such a Christian as St. Paul was if under these circumstances I should use that liberty which out of them I might freely use St. Paul saith all things are lawful for me but all things are not expedient all things are lawful for me but all things edifie not all things are lawfull for me but I will not brought under the power of any 1 Cor. 6.12 and 10.23 His meaning I doubt not is that though those things which he speaks of were in themselves simply considered lawful and such as to which he had an affection also yet he resolved this notwithstanding that he would not be brought under the power of them but would hold and keep himself at liberty to use his liberty one way or another according as it would be consistent with or tend to the publick good or to forbear to use it when it tended to the contrary Now I have represented to you before in part how many great and lamentable the evils are which are brought on this Church and Nation by your assuming the liberty you use under the present circumstances in which you are And therefore methinks if you can but tell how to reconcile your selves unto St. Pauls mind and resolution you should quickly and without any great hesitation desist and put a stop to your present proceeding and return to Parochial Communion I Hope you do not think that the interest of Religion in the Souls and lives of men is more advantaged than damnified in the total account by your dividing or that it would at all have lost in the general account of profit and loss in case it never had been begun since the Reformation If you do I acknowledge my self herein to differ from you unless you estimate mens religiousness by their zeal for and against outward modes and forms and opinions in Religion and for and against parties upon account of those forms and opinions and not by their sober and serious piety modesty humility fidelity Justice and Charity together with their Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ which are the things by which I measure mens religiousness And I appeal to all such among you as are in a like capacity with my self in point of age and experience in this matter to make a Judgment of this Nature whether there be not just cause to fear that Religion hath lost ground among us upon the