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
A54407	Indulgence not justified being a continuation of the Discourse of toleration, in answer to the arguments of a late book entituled A peace-offering, or plea for indulgence, and to the cavils of another call'd The second discourse of the religion in England.	Perrinchief, Richard, 1623?-1673.	1668 (1668)	Wing P1594; ESTC R26874	40,846	54

distinct Sect from all of that name beyond the Seas Pub. Disp Salm. Part. 3. de Liturg Nuperririme exorti sunt in Anglia Morosi scrupulosi c. And they produce this Testimony of a Foreign Learned Man Ludovious Capellus who saith There are of late arisen in England certain Morose Scrupulous and too tender not to say Superstitious Men to whom that Liturgie which their Church hath hitherto used seems not only reprovable but they have wholly abolished it together with the whole Hierarchical Government of Bishops and in its place have substituted that which they call their Directory And however they may agree with those abroad in some things Yet they do not in this principle which was observed to be the reason of their Instability For 1. The French Churche's sense is exprest by Mr. Calvin We confess all and every Church hath just Authority to make Laws and Injunctions Confes Fidei oblata Caesari c. Inter opuscula Calvini Fatemur tum omnes tum etiam singulas Ecclesias hoc jus habere ut Leges statu ta sibi cond●nt Spanhem de Labert Christiana Thes 23. to Constitute a Common Polity among themselves 2. The Dutch Church doth not countenance such a principle For Spanhemius a Professor among them saith Every Church hath a Power that is not abrogated to make Laws nor are all humane Traditions to be utterly prescribed for Traditions of Doctrine are to be distinguished from those of Rites the Church indeed hath no Legislative power about those things yet it hath about these 3. As for the Helvetian Churches this Discourser hath been told by the Learned Durel in his Treatise p. 6. That they are not Presbyterian For they have a Subordination of Ministers as Antistites Deans Canons Pastors who have the Care of Souls and Deacons as here amongst us in England they have set forms of Prayer Holy dayes Organs and other instrumental Musick and sure the principles of these men as well as their Practices are not Presbyterian and those Churches that are have not the principles of giddiness which are maintained here If the Scotch Church were so pure as the Author saith we may assign their Purity to their Severities which frighted all Dissenters of drawing their principles farther than they would endure In the next place this Maxim That an Indifferent thing becomes unlawfull by being commanded which was said to be common among the Dissenters gives us little hopes of Stability For since some things Indifferent i. e. neither commanded nor forbidden by God will necessarily fall into practice in the Worship of God and through the weakness of men there may and will arise contradictory Opinions and so consequently through Interest Humour and Corruptions Dissentions about them if there be no power left to the Church to determine those things and whatsoever she determines doth therefore become sinful as these men imagine what way is left to us to come to an Establishment and what hopes of Peace and rest between the contending Parties when none can determine and enjoyn That this Maxime is common among them this Author doth not deny but only gives us the Speech of some of them out of Papers they have printed Which does not disown what was imputed to them but by several ambages seek to hide their sense in that point But I conceive their judgment in this point is clear under their own hands when in the Conference at the Savoy Where this Proposition That command which commandeth an Act in it self Lawfull 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 was denied by the joynt Consent of those who disputed for the Non-Conformists Let this be considered whether this be sound speech that cannot be proved Another ground of discouragement from having any hopes of Stability by admitting their Comprehension is their shyness to give us the particulars wherein they will rest and what will satisfy them to an acquiescence For though the Discourser saith that the propounded Latitude leaves out nothing necessary to secure the Churches Peace Yet he refuses to give us the boundaries of his Latitude and putting us off as he did before with these General things necessary to Faith and Life and godly Order he quarrels the Answerer for saying this Establishment is not enough for settlement because it doth not secure the Churches Peace Yet he doth not answer any thing to that which proved it as the Instance of the present Dissentions Wherein though the Church of England and the Presbyterians agree in things necessary to Life Faith and Order Yet we finde no peace betwixt them To which we may add that the Presbyterians and Independents have a further agreement yet there was no peace among them but they mutually writ and preached one against the othrr the first declaring and petitioning that the last should not have a Toleration and the last by Subtlety and force weakening and exposing the first to Contempt and Ruin And therefore sure there is something else necessary to Peace It was also instanced that in Government and Worship in both which some particulars are not absolutely necessary there might arise Differences This he doth not disprove but replies with gravity Verily it may much amuse one to think what that thing should be in the Ecclesiastical Polity which is not necessary to the Christian Faith and Life or Godly Order in the Church and yet necessary to secure the Churches Peace To take of this amusement let it be considered how the Great things of Christianity differ from the peace of the Church The Principles of Faith Good Life and Order are the Foundation of that Christian Society which is the Church But Peace being as the agreement and mutual fitness of all the parts of the edifice must necessary be of larger extent There may be breaches in an House where the Foundation remains firm and entire and there have been often fierce contentions among Christians that yet have agreed in things necessary to Salvation and essential to Christian Worship These truths of Faith and principles of Life have a continual existence and though the World should not receive them and wicked men Contradict them yet they have still their being in Nature and are commensurate with Eternity But peace may be and as experience tells us is but Temporary In civil Societies the meanest and vilest Persons have been able to make Seditions and Mutinies even to the overthrow of an Established Government and we may finde Schisms and Divisions have been made in the Societies of Christians by persons who through Ignorance have wrested the Scriptures and men of perverse minds whose glory was their shame and that also