A69533:1458
Five disputations of church-government and worship
Five disputations of church-government and worship by Richard Baxter.
London: printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons, 1659
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
CHAP. IV. Prop. 3. & 4. If things unlawful are commanded as indifferent, or things indifferent as Necessary, they are sinfully imposed, and the more, because of such pretences.
CHAP. IV. Prop. 3. & 4. If things unlawfull are commanded as indifferent, or things indifferent as Necessary, they are sinfully imposed, and the more, because of such pretenses.
§. 1. THE calling things Indifferent, that are unlawful, will not make them Indifferent. If men will invent and introduce new Sacraments, and when they have done, say [we intend them not for Sacraments or necessary things, but as indifferent accidents of other Duties,] this will not make them things indifferent: For it is not the altering of a name that maketh it another thing.
§. 1. THE calling things Indifferent, that are unlawfull, will not make them Indifferent. If men will invent and introduce new Sacraments, and when they have done, say [we intend them not for Sacraments or necessary things, but as indifferent accidents of other Duties,] this will not make them things indifferent: For it is not the altering of a name that maketh it another thing.
§. 2. If things Indifferent be imposed as Necessary, they become a sin to the Imposer, and oft-times to the Practiser. For 1. It is a falsification, when the thing is pretended to be Necessary that is not: And untruths in Laws, are far from being commendable. 2. It tends to deceive mens understandings, to esteem things Necessary that are not. 3. It tends to draw men to vain endeavours: while they use those things as Necessary (Duties or Means) that indeed are none, they lose their labour by the mistake. 4. It tendeth to corrupt mens Affections, by breeding in them a false kind of zeal for the things that they mistake to be so necessary.