A69533:1471

Five disputations of church-government and worship

Name: Five disputations of church-government and worship
Author: Richard Baxter

Five disputations of church-government and worship by Richard Baxter.

Richard Baxter 1615–1691London: printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons, 1659

[10], 38, [10], 24, 492 p. · 215k words · Wing B1267 · ESTC R13446

Title page: Princeton Theological Seminary Library copy, digitized by the Internet Archive (opens the Internet Archive in a new tab)

Qu. Whether Humane Ceremonies be Necessary or Profitable to the Chu… › Chapter 5: Prop. 5. A lawful and convenient thing is sinfully commanded, when it is commanded on…Qu. Whether Humane Ceremonies be Necessary or Profitable to the Chu… › Chapter 5: Prop. 5. A lawfull and convenient thing is sinfully commanded, when it is commanded on…

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.

[ Earlier:1468–1483 of 1,637

:1468p. 430¶3

§. 3. Object. But (saith the Preface to the common prayer-book) though the keeping or omitting of a Ceremony in it self considered, be but a small thing; yet the wilful and contemptuous transgression and breaking of a common order and discipline, is no small •ffence before God.

§. 3. Object. But (saith the Preface to the common prayer-book) though the keeping or omitting of a Ceremony in it self considered, be but a small thing; yet the wilfull and contemptuous transgr•ssion and breaking of a common order and discipline, is no small •ffence before God.

:1469p. 430¶4

§. 4. Answ. 1. You should therefore put no such snares on men by your commands, as to impose upon them needless thing•, when you think the penalty of disobeying you will be damnation. 2. But how came you to see into the hearts of men, that their non-conformity is wilful and contemptuous? when they themselves profess that they would obey you if they durst. They think they stand at the brink of Hell, and should wilfully sin against God if they did obey you: and you come behind them, with silencing and imprisonment, and drive them on, while they cry out to you for compassion, and protest that they are ready to obey as far as they can see the lawfulness of the thing: and yet you say, its wilfulness and contempt. 3. And why doth not your Laws except from punishment all those that conformed not, that were not wilful or contemptuous? The Act for conformity makes the penalty to be Imprisonment half a year for the first fault: a year for the second, and during life for the third, beside deprivation: and Imprisonment during life for the second offence, if the person have no Benefice: and this is besides the Ecclesiastical censure. 4. If the work of Church Governors be to make small matters great, and make that damnable that before was lawful, and this without any necessity at all, it will tempt the people to think such Governors to be the plagues of the earth.

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Five disputations of church-government and worship

CHAP. VI. Prop. 6. It is not lawful to make any thing the subjects duty by a command, that is merely indifferent antecedently, both in it self, and as clothed with its accidents.

CHAP. VI. Prop. 6. It is not lawfull to make any thing the subjects duty by a command, that is meerly indifferent antecedently, both in it self, and as cloathed with its accidents.

Reformers309

Puritans1,782

Westminster Assembly24

Evangelicals36

CHAP. VI. Prop. 6. It is not lawful to make any thing the subjects duty by a command, that is merely indifferent antecedently, both in it self, and as clothed with its accidents.

CHAP. VI. Prop. 6. It is not lawfull to make any thing the subjects duty by a command, that is meerly indifferent antecedently, both in it self, and as cloathed with its accidents.