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A25450 Animadversions upon Dr. Calamy's Discourse in the conformists cases against dissenters, concerning a scrupulous conscience wherein the nature of a doubting, tender conscience is considered, together with the duty of such as are proffessed of it. 1700 (1700) Wing A3203; ESTC R16305 21,244 32

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not to judge much less to ruine and undoe those that doubtingly dare not eat and can meet with no Satisfaction to their Doubts tho' they diligently seek and desire it 3. We needed not therefore our Author's Advice to be willing to receive Satisfaction if the Desires of Peace and Vnity the Goodness of our Natures our Love to our Wives and Children would not obtain this of us Yet surely the destroying of our Healths by nasty Prisons the taking away our Estates would e're this time have made us willing if it had been possible for us to have believed what we listed or the Dread of God had not awed us from doing what we believe is not lawful for us to do We have read the Books wrote on these Arguments but it is our Unhappiness that we cannot find the Question truly stated If we tell them a thousand times that we question not the Lawfulness of some Circumstances to be appointed in Worship but of appointing Ceremonies and Rites entailed to Acts of Worship still we find the Question stated about Circumstances Whether Superiors may appoint them Let us often tell them the Question is not Whether we may do things which we scruple but Whether we may do things which we by Arguments which we cannot answer do judge unlawful yet the next time the Question is stated shall be about Scruples Tell them the Question is not about things indifferent but things which whatever Opinion Superiors have of them we judge sinful still will we nill we it must be taken for granted that the things are indifferent If we tell them the Question is not about the Lawfulness of Forms of Prayer nor yet of the Lawfulness of their Use in Devotion as well as for Instruction but of the Lawfulness of the universal Vse of them by all Persons and those Forms too not prescribed by God nor made by him that himself afterwards useth them but such as are made for our Use by other Men and imposed on us the next time the Question is stated it shall be about the Lawfulness of Forms of Prayer a thing we never denied We would be very glad if our Reverend Author could direct us to any one Book where the Questions we insist upon are truly stated and the Part opposite to us closely argued and we not only pressed with the Arguments of meer Authority commanding and the Practice of Antiquity when 't is certain Superiors are not to be obey'd in all things and we cannot find any such Antiquity nor if we could can judge it a sufficient Guide to our Consciences We do not despise nor neglect some of us at least to go to our Ministers nay to some Parochial Ministers tho' we could never understand Parishes Jure Divino nor the Rectors or Vicars or Curates of or in them as such to be so tho' we own a Ministry and their Ministry many of them we mean to be such but all that we can hear from them is The things commanded are indifferent being commanded you are bound to obey your Superiors If not we must present you c. When we tell them That if we could judge them indifferent our Obedience would be Matter of Dispute to none or few of us but we cannot so judge them They indeed tell us God hath no where forbidden them but when we reply Neither hath God in any Letter of Scripture forbidden us the Vse of Salt and Cream and Spittle or Oil in Baptism yet were these things commanded we could not judge them lawful because of no Institution no Necessity no Vse we cannot hear any thing satisfactorily replied We own our selves bound to obey Superiors in things lawful but we cannot allow our Superiors as to our Practice to be Judges of things always lawful in God's Worship because they cannot foresee all Circumstances that may make things in themselves lawful pro hic nunc unlawful We cannot allow our selves the same Liberty to practise as our Physician directs us for the Health of our Bodies or a Lawyer for the Security of our Estates and as our Minister directs for our Souls because we think our Souls better than our Bodies and Estates and therefore a Trust as to them cannot be so safe but of infinite more Hazard and besides tho' we have not Avicen and Paracelsus and Galen and Hipocrates to read and if we had them we could not understand them and the Physician prescribes not ad hominem but ad Socratem yet we have the Word of God it is nigh us in our Eyes and Ears we can read it and it prescribes ad homines the same things to all Men and we are bid to search it and by it to prove all things and then to hold fast what is good not in others but in our own Eyes So as under Correction the Reason is not the same for following the Prescripts of Divines as of Physicians and Lawyers yet few Men will follow either of them if they have any strong Opinion they advise them ill tho' they may when they have nothing to object to what they prescribe or advise But the Author is aware that the Trumpets also may give incertain Sounds the very Guides and Ministers of Religion may determine differently He directs also what to do in this Case p. 25 26. 1. His first Direction is very Reasonable That those who are able tolerably to judge for themselves should not rely upon the Authority of any that do it nor become the Proselytes of any further than they give them good Scripture and Reason for it Let that Soul forfeit the Name of Rational and Religious too that will not receive this This is indeed to make Men Proselytes of the Law But 2. For others he saith and how to know them he hath not told us they had better trust to and depend on those Ministers of known Sufficiency for their Office who are regularly and by the Laws of the Land set over them than any other Guides and Teachers that they can choose for themselves This he saith To be sure is the safest Course But he afterwards tells us He speaks not of such things as concern the Salvation of Men which are plain and evident to the meanest Capacities but of Forms and Ceremonies His Reason is Because if they chance to mislead the People they have something to say for themselves Their Error is more excusable and pardonable as being occasioned by those to whose Judgment by God's Command the People owe a great Respect and Submission I know not how we shall ever agree here unless in this 1. That they had better trust to and depend upon none at all but the Judgment of their own Consciences enlightned first as well as may be by the Information of those Learned and Holy Men on both sides who may in the Point differ one from another after seeking God for his Direction 2. For the Truth is we are for no Trusts in Matters of Sin or Duty all which