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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
child_n	duty_n	parent_n	superior_n	1,710	4	11.5706	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49524	The reformed Presbyterian, humbly offering to the consideration of all pious and peaceable spirits several arguments for obedience to the act for unifromity, as the way to vnity and endeavouring to demonstrate by clear inferences from the sacred scriptures, the writings of some of the ancients, or several old pastors of the reformed churches abroad, and of the most eminent old non-conformists amongst ourselves : as Mr. Josias Nichols, Mr. Paul Baines, and other learned divines : as for Mr. Perkins, Mr. Iohn Randal, and Mr. Rob. Bolton, that there is nothing required by the act for vniformity that is forbidden by the law of God / by Rich. Lytler ...	Lytler, Richard.	1662 (1662)	Wing L3573; ESTC R1525	139,662	290

in matters of religious Worship it is bonum jucundum utile it is good it is pleasant it is profitable and that not onely as you have read it is pleasing and delightful to those that joyn in that Worship but as it is profitable also and so edifying Sect. 21. As the God of peace who hath promised to be with them that are like-minded Rom. 15.33 So the great Master of the Assemblies the Prince of peace hath not onely promised to be present where two or three are gathered together in his Name but also hath made a promise to their uniformity and agreement together in prayer Mat. 18. Where two shall agree together to aske any thing on earth it shall be granted them When they shall symphonise so the word is in the Original when they shall be harmonious and uniform in their supplications even to this agreement together is the promise made if I mistake not And I think St. Chrysostom is somewhat of my mind in Homil. 3. de incomprehensibilis Dei natura Thou dost not so soon obtain thy prayers when thou prayest alone unto the Lord as when thou prayest with thy brethren for there is somewhat the more of concord and consent c. Sect. 22. And in his 4. Homil. upon 2 Thes saith he Quod quis apud se precatus accipere non poterit hoc cum multitudine precatus accipiate quare etiam si non propria virtus tamen concordia multorum potest The thing that a man cannot obtain praying alone praying together with the multitude he may obtain why so though not for his own worthiness yet the concord unity and agreement prevaileth much And thus now having I hope made it evident That obedience to this Act of Uniformity is the way to Unity and that to have all one form in publick Worship though to some it may seem very unnecessary yet for those good ends and purposes aforesaid though in it self it be an indifferent thing neither forbidden or commanded by God yet obedience to it when commanded by our Superiours is very necessary as it delivers from dividing sins and tends to the honour of Religion I shall before I proceed further desire all humble and peaceable spirits to compare without prejudice this argument with my proofs thereof with an argument that I find in Five Disput chap. 6. pag. 433. CHAP. V. That indifferent things may lawfully be commanded and that to obey such commands is not onely lawful but profitable for the peace of the Church To refuse obedience to indifferent things as sinful is negative Superstition with several considerations about the regulating of our zeal about things indifferent in themselves Section 1. THough I do confess that there is much prudence and moderation to be used in every Government and what the Wiseman saith is applicable to all Governours Be not thou a Lion in thine own house and that Fathers are not to provoke their Children to wrath by unjust and unmeet precepts and by pursuing them with contumelious words c. and severe corrections beyond the merit of their crime Imperiousness in government doubtless is to be avoided Sect. 2. But yet should our superiours fail of their duty in this or any other kind we are not to fail in ours duty to our superiours being not an act of commutative but distributive justice The same Law-giver that forbids Fathers natural spiritual political not to provoke their children to wrath lest they be discouraged yet doth likewise command children whether natural spiritual or political to obey their Parents in all things Col. 3.20 in the Lord Ephes 6.1 And this with the consideration of what followeth that in every act of obedience to the lawful commands of our superiours there is a complication of many graces which grace our profession as humility self-denyal love to God care of the publick peace and of the preservation of unity and order in the place where God hath set us I say this consideration should keep us from disputing our Superiours commands from possessing either corrupt heads or hearts with any principle which may heighten that aversness which is in every mans heart naturally to subjection as Mr. Calvin saith Sect. 3. The argument therefore with the reason thereof I desire may be a little weighed in the balance of the Sanctuary as I find it in Five Disput. pag. 423. proposit 6. It is not lawful to make any thing the Subjects duty by a command that is meerly indifferent amecedently both in it self and as clothed with its accidents The reason is evident because that nothing but Good can be the object of the Governous desire and nothing but Good can be the just matter of his Law Sect. 4. Now taking into consideration good and indifferent in the sense there propounded I humbly conceive that the reason is not evident That therefore it is not lawful to make any thing the Subjects duty by a command that is meerly indifferent because that nothing but good may be the just matter of a Law and not that which is neither good or evil but indifferent For should this be true all Government would be dissolved the Magistrate then is to make no Law at all What would then become of us may easily be judged I offer therefore to consideration this distinction concerning Good and Indifferent the omitting whereof I suppose may occasion this great mistake A thing may be said to be good materially or mediately Sect. 5. Now an indifferent thing neither good or evil in its own nature may be mediately good may have in it bonitatem medii it may have bonum publicum the publick good for its end A command therefore of our Superiours by which a thing indifferent is made bonum necessarium a necessary good and bonum publicum for publick peace and unity it is no idle Law pag. 434. because it is not unprofitable It may therefore lawfully be commanded for the reason beforesaid Now that a publick agreement in the externals of Gods Worship is a publick good as the way to peace and good in the acception you take goodness commended by Gods Law which is the first rule of moral good pag. 435. that which this Law propoundeth being no more then what is our duty viz. That which the Apostle did so earnestly pray for and perswade to That With one mind and mouth men would glorifie God that they would be like-minded seek peace and follow after it Sect. 6. I humbly conceive that the Answers to all those Objections in Five Disput from pag. 435. to pag. 437. in my weak judgment are not strong enough to bottom that upon which is like to be made the great occasion of those sufferings which are expected to come upon many good and pious men by reason of this Act. For it will appear that most of the matters enjoyned by the Act except the Declaration about the Covenant are allowed by the Author of the Five Disputations as you will find hereafter

especialty when we are supposed to be brought unto such an hour of temptation that we must either betray the truth through cowardise in our own apprehensions or in the apprehensions of others betray our liberties sacred and civil by a rash and precipitant suffering Sect. 3. Now this I suppose being the case of many both Ministers and People at this time there being but small hopes notwithstanding our former Civil wars and late Petition for peace but that now by the Act for Uniformity established we must either conform thereunto or suffer the penalties of the same The present duty that now lieth upon us is by all the helps we can to make a serious search into the nature of those things which are the subject matter of that Conformity enjoyned and to satisfie the conscience in this particular Whether by obedience thereunto we become not children of disobedience unto Christ who is the everlasting Father and supreme Law-giver of his Church Sect. 4. For this being a certain truth That we are never called to suffer as Christians by yielding passive obedience but when we cannot without sin yield active obedience and that no Minister I suppose is to lay down his Ministry but in as clear a case as he can lay down his Life it doth very much concern us to be perswaded in our consciences by that which hath absolutely the commanding and obliging power thereof viz. the Word of God Whether or no by yielding obedience to this Act of U ifo mity we are not Violaters of the Law of God For where no law is violated there is no transgression sin being the transgression of the law Sect. 5 And doubtless though there be as the Authors of the Pe ition for peace do intimate p. 4. an appearance of very great love to Christ in refusing conformity to things indifferent because that they judge it to be an Usurpation of his Kingly power and an accusation of his Law as unsufficient and because that they dare not be guilty of adding to or diminution of his worship or of worshipping him after any other Law then that by which they shall be judged or such as is meerly subordinate to that supposing them to be mistaken in thinking things to be so displeasing to God Sect. 6. Though this may be commendable in such cases and about such matters wherein persons are left to their own liberty and are not under the commands of their Superiours Yet when by so doing upon a mistake through their disobedience they shall violate a positive and clear Gospel precept and in suffering upon this account shall condemn the generation of the just even the practice of the primitive Christians in the Apostles dayes who did conform to indifferent things of no necessity to salvation Acts 15. and of the tender-conscienc'd Martyrs in Queen Maries dayes when they shall thereby also deprive the Church of God of their labours in the Ministry and be also matter of grief of heart to many solid and judicious Christians and thereby administer matter of horrour and great scruple of conscience in weak Christians who thence conclude that surely there must needs be many conscience-wasting sins in the use of the Common Prayer Rites and Ceremonies of the Church c. that men will suffer so much for their Non-conformity Sect. 7. I humbly conceive that a mistake in this case is of very dangerous consequence and to avoid these miserable and sinful evils is a duty incumbent and that it would argue a very great fear of displeasing of Christ and a sollicitous care of obeying him to make a diligent search into Gods Word and into the Writings of pious and learned men Before such who especially are Teachers of others shall expose themselves to the deprivation of their Ministry and thereby many good souls that delight therein to the loss thereof Sect. 8. I say they ought to be clearly and fully perswaded they are not onely Truths but Truths of so high a nature as may bear proportion with what they do expose themselves to suffer for the same I do verily believe it would be a great sin and highly displeasing to Christ if now in this juncture of time meerly to please men or avoid suffering we should do any thing whereby we might violate any Law of Christ the King of his Church If Daniel when there was a Law made forbidding him to offer unto God his daily sacrifice of prayer for 30. dayes Dan. 6.7 his conformity to this Law would have been as manifest a breach of Gods Law as for the three children to have fallen down and worship'd the golden Image at the command of the King Sect. 10. But to refuse such commands as are doubtful and disputable whether sinful or no it is not the judgment of those Worthies named in the Petition for peace pag. 18. who have taken this Non-conformity to be a sin but it must appear upon a well-grounded conviction of the conscience from Gods Word truly applyed which doth either in express terms or by a just consequence make this or that to be a sin which is now the matter of obedience by this Act otherwise we shall suffer but for our own fancies or opinions or upon a tradition received from our Forefathers And though I do believe what I have read professed in the name of many who are yet unsatisfied in the Petition for peace that you have by reading and prayer sought for satisfaction yet considering what I find asserted in the book aforesaid pag. 14. That men have not their Understandings at command who can tell what a word in season may do now especially from so unlikely and so unlook'd-for as well as from so unworthy a one as I my self Sect. 11. It is an old saying That sometimes a looker on may see more then a gamster And therefore though unconcerned in this last Act for Uniformity being in none of those capacities which call me to the observance of the same Yet sympathising with those that are scruplers and desiring that they may not thereby be exposed to those sufferings which may be the fruit of their Non-obedience and that all the ill effects thereof may be prevented Sect. 12. I have presumed to be a Remembrancer to such persons as I was sometimes to the Army to mind them of such things which I shall present from the Writings of such Non-conformists and other Divines as are now above all Interest and being dead yet speak as also from the judgment of the reverend Mr. Richard Baxter yet living By which I hope it will appear That there is not that matter of sin and danger which I do observe some do conclude and take for granted there is in yielding obedience unto the Act for Uniformity CHAP. II. Concerning subjection and obedience in general our averseness to it and the way to heal it Section 1. NOw for as much as the subject matter of Obedience to this Act for Uniformity to some appeareth so sinful that