Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
fire_n	city_n	great_a	house_n	2,802	5	5.4702	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31873	Some considerations about the case of scandal, or, Giving offence to weak brethren	Calamy, Benjamin, 1642-1686.	1683 (1683)	Wing C224; ESTC R6721	36,970	62

of this reasoning they have endeavoured to load the conclusion with some seeming difficulties and absurdities which they pretend follow from this principle that we are bound to obey notwithstanding the Scandal that may ensue upon it The chief of these I shall mention and briefly return an Answer to them 1. It is pleaded that those precepts which contain only rituals are to give place to those which do concern the welfare of Mens Bodies and much more to those which do respect the welfare of our Brothers Soul so that when both together cannot be observed we must neglect or violate the former to observe the latter That this is true even of some Commands given by God himself to which purpose our Saviour doth produce that saying of the Prophet Hosea I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice Now if Sacrifices prescribed by God himself which were so considerable a part of the Divine Worship under Moses 's Law yet were to give place to acts of mercy how much more are the positive injunctions of Men that concern only the externals and circumstantials of Religion to yield to the Royal and indispensable Law of Charity of which this duty of not giving Offence to others is such an Eminent part Thus saith Mr. Jeans in his Second Part of Scholastical Divinity What Laws of any Earthly Wight whatsoever concerning Ceremonies can be more obligatory than the Commands of God touching the externals of his Worship and Service and yet it is his will and pleasure that these externals of his Worship should be laid aside for the performance of outward works of mercy If therefore the sacred Ordinances of God are to give way unto works of mercy unto the bodies of Men surely then much more is the trash of human inventions to yield unto a work of mercy to the Souls of Men. In answer to this it is readily acknowledged that when there doth happen any such interfering between two Commands of God the one Positive the other Moral the Positive ought always to give place to the Moral and by the same reason the positive Commands of our Superiours ought certainly to give way to the Moral Commands of God which are of eternal and immutable obligation They cease to bind us either in case of absolute necessity or when they plainly hinder our performance of any Moral duty to God or our Neighbour and the Church is presumed to dispense with its orders as God Almighty doth allow the neglect of his own positive Institutions in such circumstances But then this is only where the necessity is urgent and extream the sin we must otherwise commit evident and certain and at last our Obedience is dispensed withal only for that one time Thus in a case of necessity Our Saviour St. Matth. 12. 5. acquits David and his followers of all blame who being ready to perish for hunger did eat of the Shewbread which otherwise was not lawful for them to eat but had they taken a particular fancy to that Bread and refused to have eaten of any other because that best agreed with their Stomacks and was most pleasing to their Palate can we think our Saviour would have so easily excused them Or which is nearer to our Case because God did prefer acts of Mercy before Sacrifices where both could not be done yet this would not have justified any mans wholly leaving off Sacrificing or refusing to do it at Jerusalem inventing another way of Worship as more expedient than Sacrificing or choosing another place to Sacrifice in which might be more convenient for all the Jews than that City was We may leave our Prayers forsake the Church to save the life of our Neighbour or to quench the firing of his House but still this would be but a pityful pretence for our wholly absenting our selves from Chruch and constant neglect of our Prayers because in the mean time our Neighbours life may be invaded or his house fired by ill Men of which there is great store in the World and so he may stand in need of our help which is a more acceptable Service to God than any acts of Devotion So that however this Argument may serve to excuse the omission of some things Commanded by lawful Authority by those who otherwise are perfectly conformable in extraordinary cases which very rarely happen and for which no provision could be made by Law yet to be sure this will not at all help those who bid open defiance to the Laws stand out in manifest opposition against them live in plain disobedience and contradiction to them as it they were altogether free from them nay set up a distinct way and form of Worship of their own and all this because they are loth to Offend those who are not satisfied of the wisdom and goodness of what is appointed Thus our Dissenting Brethren can gain but little by this Plea if granted to them for upon this account of exercising mercy and charity towards their Neighbours they can be excused from Obedience to their Superiours in such cases only in which they may be excused also from the observation of the Sabbath from Prayer publick or private from Worshipping of God either in the Church or in a Conventicle nay from Obedience to God himself had he pleased in the Scriptures positively to have required whatever is at present enjoyned by our Church and let them well consider whether if God had plainly in his Word prescribed all that our Church doth Command they would have thought it safe to have refused compliance with such divine impositions because they were unreasonably offensive to some Godly people If our Dissenters will but acknowledge themselves bound to submit to the determinations of their Superiours about the things in controversie between us so far as the Jews were bound to obey the ordinances of God concerning his external Worship delivered by Moses and that they are freed from such obligation to obey the Laws of their Governours only in such cases as the Jews were excused from offering their accustomed Sacrifices or as they think themselves at liberty to break the Sabbath to omit Gods Publick Worship I suppose this dispute would soon be at an end for they dare not own that the Scandal others may take at such things which yet are to give place to moral duties is sufficient to void their obligation to the doing of them Mr. Jeans whose objections I shall the rather consider because of his eminency amongst the Presbyterians tho I find my self somewhat prevented by a late Writer who hath taken particular notice of them thus putteth the Question Suppose saith he the greatest Monarch upon the face of the Earth should command the meanest and lowest of his Slaves upon some important affair to ride Post through such a City without any of the least stay or diversion and then it should happen that a company of little Children should be playing in the Streets can this Slave think that he is obliged to ride over them