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duty_n	according_a	good_a	law_n	1,316	5	4.6145	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47294	A discourse explaining the nature of edification both of particular persons in private graces, and of the church in unity and peace, and shewing that we must not break unity and publick peace, for supposed means of better edifying in private virtues : in a visitation sermon at Coventry, May 7, 1684 / by John Kettlewell ...	Kettlewell, John, 1653-1695.	1684 (1684)	Wing K365; ESTC R13841	32,265	39

and pretty Allegories may be used in setting off a thing and yet there shall not be much knowledge in them They amuse the mind with pleasing Ideas and strike the fancy with lucky hints whilst they are recited but they give us no just Apprehension of the thing and upon examination a man shall find himself little the wiser or more able to explain it unto others after he has heard them 3. A Third Instance of Particular mens Edification is when their Affections for Religious matters are made more Fervent or their holy Purposes are more unalterably fix'd and established This exercise and increase of Religious Affection and Godly Resolution is another way of edifying And so St. Paul says of him that speaks in the Church in an unknown Tongue that he edifies himself i.e. in Devout Prayers and Affections for such Enthusiasms were ordinarily express'd in Prayer and Praise he that speaks in an unknown tongue speaks not unto men but unto God v. 2. 1 Cor. 14. 4. And profitable communication which ministers Grace i.e. a Gracious bent of Heart and Good Affection to the Hearers he sayes is good to the use of edifying Eph. 4. 29. And their comforting or exhorting themselves together to be Firm and Resolute in the Faith of Christ amidst all the Dangers and Persecutions which then environed it he tells the Thessalonians is the way to edifie one another 1 Thes. 5. 11. Good Resolution is the very Strength and Vigor of the Soul which prepares it for Tryals putting it upon all the Pains and enabling it to conquer all the Difficulties in Religion So that then we are mightily confirm'd in any Graces when we are more resolute and bent upon them Especially if this Resolution be not a rash Act made hastily in some Religious heat but the Effect of serious and due Consideration as it is when we foresee the Pains and Self-denials we are to undergo in any Duties but yet being fully convinced of the perfect Reasonableness the absolute Necessity and the incomparable Advantage of them we absolutely resolve upon them notwithstanding And Fervor of Desire and Devout Affection will enable us more chearfully and strongly to resolve upon any Good thing It will make us careful and intent to please God and ready to deny our selves for his sake and give us not only Ease but Pleasure and Delight in well-doing it being natural for Men to be inwardly satisfied when they have what is desired and take delight in things when once they have an affection for them So that then also we are furthered and edified in any Graces when we are stirr'd up to a greater quickness in devout Affections and find in our selves more ardent Desires and a higher Passion for them Especially if these Affections were kindled in us not only by pleasing Similitudes and pretty Sayings or solemn Looks or melting Tones or the Preacher's Passion and Vehemence but by the Weight and awakening Force of the Reasons and Things themselves which touch'd our Hearts either when they came from him or afterwards when we reflect and dwell upon them in our own Meditations If we are put into a Religious Heat and good Affection only by Voice and Vehemence and the Shew and Solemnities of Action that indeed is something if a Wise Man have the government of it who will apply it to the embettering of his Life and fix and fortifie his holy Resolution whilst that Religious Heat is upon him Tho I confess if he stops in the Affection and doth not take advantage thereby to be thus resolv'd he is much more pleas'd than profited with it and gains not much of Edification But when the Conviction of our Understandings goes along with this Agitation of our Fancies in the affecting of our Hearts and we are struck by considering the Greatness of the Motives and the Weight of the Things then we have such an holy Affection as is much more strong and lasting and more apt to edifie us When only Voice and Vehemence begot the Affection in us a very small time will wear it off as they wear out of our Fancies which they will quickly do of themselves or thro our Fancy's being diverted and taken up with other things But when the Weight of Things and Arguments affected us those are embodied into our Minds and Judgments and so are like to stay with us and also mightily startle and convince our Consciences and so are like to have great power over us These Convictions are both Potent and Durable things which greatly affect us for the present and stick by us to affect us equally when we reflect upon them at any time afterwards 4. A Fourth Instance of Particular Mens Edification is when their Consciences are more freed from Doubts and Scruples and are fuller of Comfort and Joy in God than they were before And thus the weak Brother's being confirm'd in Conscience tho that was in a wrong case and emboldned St. Paul calls his being edified If any see thee who hast knowledge fit at meat in the Idols Temple shall not the Conscience of him that is weak i. e. scruples it be embolned the word is edified i. e. made to lay aside his Doubts and Fears by the Authority of thy Example and eat also 1 Cor. 8. 10. Vexatious Scruples and distrustful Fears are the Pain and Sickness the Swoonings and Faintings of a Religious Soul They are a heavy Burden to it putting it into great Uneasiness Horrour and Disquietude and also a great hindrance for by disheartning they beget a Feebleness and break its Strength they keep its Thoughts and Intention employ'd mainly upon themselves which are things that do not profit and detain them from making a progress in those which are truly good And since Doubts and Despondencies are so truly a Disease and Unhappiness to our Spirits and so great a Discouragement and Stop to all Religious Service and Improvements it must needs be an high part of Edification to be clearly resolved about Practical Cases and to have Peace of Mind upon safe Grounds and well-satisfied Consciences So that then our Souls are much edified when our Doubts are clear'd and our Consciences truly resolv'd and comforted And thus it is when they are loaded with a just sense of necessary things and freed from the vexation of needless Scruples when they are better satisfied either about their Duty being resolved whether some Doubtful Cases are either allowed of forbid by some Laws or about the Safety of their State being satisfied upon good Grounds of God's Favour and Acceptance which will give them Peace and Joy in God and comfortable Expectations And thus we see wherein lies the Edification of Particular Men and Private Christians viz. in any Confirmation or Improvement either of Faith or Manners So that then a Private Person may know himself to be edified when he gathers strength and improves in the practice of any or of all Virtues when he thrives in plain and clear Understanding and

of Separation If you had lived in Corinth when Men separated as you do here to follow more Gifted Guides would not you have returned again to the Unity of the Church upon the Apostle's Admonition And why then should you not do the same now upon this Intimation that his Reproof reaches you as much as it did them The Way of Separation my Brethren is a most unedifying Course for Unity builds up but Schism destroys the Church and all Societies So that if you would edifie the Church which is Christ's Spouse if you will be at any pains to build it up as he was at the pains to die for it it must be in the way of Peace and by submitting to any thing which you think may be done with a safe Conscience as this Plea it self shews you do think in our Case it being against our Way only because as you say less Edifying not because of any Unlawfulness rather than upon account thereof to divide and form separate Parties I would exhort you the Church-wardens to be careful of edifying not only as Private Christians but also in the faithful discharge of your Oaths considering that Perjury has in it a most horrible Guilt and in the Duties of your Places That when you endeavour to suppress Vices you would be impartial and intire in such endeavours considering that all Notorious Swearing Drunkenness and Immoralities as well as staying away from Church and that all staying away out of Irreligion and Carelessness as well as out of Scruples and pretence of Conscience is equally a matter of your Oath and a Point wherein you may do God and the Souls of Men Service The Church-wardens swear indeed to discharge this only according to the best of their Knowledge but then they must use a competent endeavour to know it and this is no warranty at all to affect Ignorance and much less to pass over what they do know in negligence or connivance And many it may be of those that fail would discharge it so far as they know were it not that they are afraid to anger and displease their Neighbours But 't is most unreasonable any Man should be angered with them for performing their Oaths and discharging a Good Conscience Can any Man if he has left the Conscience have left the Modesty withal so far as to desire them to forswear themselves and destroy their own Souls to do him a kindness Or will any Man that is Conscientious and stays from Church out of Conscience take it ill that they should be tender of their Consciences as well as he is of his and dread the horrid Sin of Perjury the greatest wound to a Good Conscience They have no liberty of Connivance being bound up by Oaths so that if any favour and indulgence be expected it must not be from them but at higher Hands And therefore no Man in any Reason or Modesty can be angred at them for acting faithfully according to their Oaths But if any be that Anger at Men for performing Oaths and a Good Conscience is nothing less than frighting them from their Duty and laying Stumbling-Blocks before others and putting the Burden of the Cross on Good Mens Shoulders for good Actions which has so many Woes denounced to it in the Scriptures And as for the Church-wardens themselves when they incur any Displeasure or Malice of Men on this account they may encourage themselves with this that therein they suffer for Righteousness sake and endure the Cross for keeping a Good Conscience wherein they may comfortably commit themselves to God expecting that either his Providence will prevent any ill effects or infinitely make them up to them afterwards because they have thus exposed themselves only to be faithful in his Service FINIS Books lately Printed for Robert Kettlewel at the Hand and Scepter in Fleet-street THe Measures of Christian Obedience or A Discourse shewing what Obedience is indispensably necessary to a regenerate state and what defects are consistent with it for the promotion of Piety and the Peace of troubled Consciences By John Kettlewel Vicar of Coles-hill in Warwick-shire The second Edition with large Additions in Quarto Price bound 8s An Help and Exhortation to worthy Communicating or A Treatise describing the Meaning Worthy Reception Duty and Benefits of the Holy Sacrament and answering the Doubts of Conscience and other reasons which most generally detain Men from it together with suitable Devotions added By John Kettlewel Vicar of Coles-hill in Warwick-shire In Twelves Price bound 3s Two hundred Queries Moderately propounded concerning the Doctrine of the Revolution of Humane Souls and its conformity to the truth of Christianity together with a Dissertation concerning the Pre-existency of Souls In Octavo Price bound 2s 6d * See a Discourse of Profiting by Sermons and another Of Edification * Eph. 3. 19. Heb. 3. 6. 1 Pet. 2. 5. † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theoph. Comment in Eph. 2. v. 21. * Rev. 2● 13. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theoph. in Eph. 2. v. 22. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theoph. in 1 Cor. 8. 1. † Unde utique manifestum est eum qui non est in membris Christi Christianam salutem habere non posse Membra vero Christi per unitatis charitatem sibi copulantur per eandem capiti suo cohaerent quod est Christus Jesus Aug. de Unit. Eccl. cont Ep. Pe●il Donat. c. 2. † It grieves my very Soul to think what pitiful raw and ignorant kind of Preaching is crowded most after in many places for the mere affectionate manner of expression and loudness of the Preachers voice How oft have have I known the ablest Preachers undervalued and an ignorant man by Crowds applauded when I that have been acquainted with the Preacher abincunabulis have known him to be unable well to answer most Questions in the common Catechism Mr. Baxter Cure of Ch. Divis. p 215. And againe The worlds experience puts it past doubt that the generality of the Vulgar Unlearned and Injudicious sort of men do value a man by his Tone and Voice more than for the Judgment and excellency of his matter if not put off by such Advantage Id. Defence of Cure Ch. Divis. p. 108 109. Also Hildersh Lect. 58. on Jo. 4. p. 270. † 1 Cor. 14. 1. 5. † c. 12. v. 25. * Tales etiamsi occisi in confessione nominis fuerint macula istae nec sanguine abluitur Inexpiabilis Gravis culpa Discordiae nec Passione purgatur Ardeant licet flammis ignibus tradite vel objecti Bestiis animas suas ponant non erit illa fidei corona sed Paena Perfidiae c. Occidi talis potest coronari non potest Esse Martyr non potest qui in Ecclesia non est Cyp. de Unit. Eccles. p. 113 114. Ed. Ox. † 1 Cor. 12. 3● * Eph. 4. 4. Col. 3. 15.

will please himself in some unmeet or unseasonable delight to the disturbance of the whole Houshold And he is an ill Man in any Neighbourhood and a bad Subject in any Country who will seek his own private gain and emolument tho it be at the general loss and when the Publick suffers by it It is ill in any Member for some private end to bring any Detriment to the Publick but especially to make Seditions and break the Peace and Unity which is the Ligament by which it stands for that is the Civil Death and Dissolution of it But as this is against the Fundamental Law of all Communities so particularly against the Laws Christ has made for the Peace and Preservation of his Church who obliges his Members to forgoe their own Private Profit for Publick Peace and Benefit more than any others He puts us in mind that we stand in his Church not as independent individuals who have only our own gain to look to but as Parts and Members God has made us the Body of Christ says St. Paul and Members in particular 1 Cor. 12. 27. And being Fellow-members he would have that beget in us a general care of all that are the same Body with us making us sensible not only of our own but of others wants and ready to denie our selves or forgoe our own pleasure or profit for their advantage If one Member suffer all the Members suffer with it or if one be honoured saith he all the rest rejoyce with it v. 26. And the Members should have the same care one of another v. 25. and let no Man seek his own but every Man anothers wealth 1 Cor. 10. 24. And this looking beyond our selves and having a mutual care of others will keep us from all Schisms and dividing the Church for our particular satisfaction or advantage When the Members have the same care one of another there will be no Schism in the Body v. 25. Among all the Duties he has injoyned he lays greatest weight as I have observed on those which make for Love and Peace so that they must be secured in the first place they are set as the Ruling Virtues which must give Laws which utterly excludes all Plea of breaking them upon pretence of Greater Profiting in any others In Religious Matters says the Apostle let us follow after the things which make for Peace and things whereby one may edifie another Rom. 14. 19. Above all things says he again put on Charity which is the Bond of Perfectness i. e. which by binding us together perfects us for all other Graces are imperfect as I before noted without Unity and Peace and it must be added to them to gain acceptance Col. 3. 14. And let the Peace of God rule in your Hearts whereto you are also called in one Body i. e. of all others Peace must give Laws and be the Ruling Virtue because it secures that which is the greatest Profit and most to be aim'd at in all Societies viz. Unity v. 15. Thus are Men in all Societies and the Members of Christ's Church more than any obliged to be most tender of Publick Benefit and Peace and to deny themselves in any Private Interests and Advantages rather than in pursuit of them to break Unity and work Publick Disturbance When they are Members of Publick Bodies they must have Publick Spirits and not seek their own Benefit against the Benefit of the Community So that if any man seeks only to please himself and to carry on his own Profit and Satisfaction he can only be Good then when there is none in the World besides himself and he lives alone but is an ill man and an awkward mis-form'd Member in all Society and Communion 2. This breaking Unity to redress and supply less edifying Means in the Church is like Sedition in the State for redress of Civil Defects and Grievances and subject to a like Condemnation What Sedition is in the Civil State that Schism is in the Church of Christ. It breaks one Society into many Pieces and makes them no longer one Body but so many several Bodies as there are disjoynted Parties And therefore Church-Schisms are call'd Seditions both by St. Paul the Works of the Flesh are Heresies Seditions i. e. Heresies and Schisms Gal. 5. 20 and by St. Clement ordinarily and other Apostolical Writers And when this is made in any Church for Means of better Edification because the established Helps happen to have some Defects and are not so fitted to our Profit as we would have them it is such another way of Redress as when a Sedition is made in a State to remedy the Defects and Grievances of any Kingdom In both which as the Remedy is most sinful being such an high and open Breach of Peace which God has made the most sacred of all Duties so is it withal most foolish and a way of Cure incomparably worse than the Disease For surely the tearing Things to pieces is the worst way of mending Faults and Sedition and the utter loss of Peace are among the worst of Grievances that can befal any Communities 3. 'T is against the End even of the best Helps and Means of Edification which is to establish Peace and keep out Schism and so are utterly perverted when they are made the Ground of Separation As for Private Graces and Improvements themselves the Exercise even of them is oft-times subject to this End and they are always best and most perfect when they are so used as that we may not only profit our selves with them but edifie the Church too Love and Peace are the Ruling Virtues as I have shew'd which must guide the rest and the Great End whereto all others must be made subservient This Rule St. Paul gives the Corinthians for the management of themselves in other Duties Let all your things be done with Charity so that even other Duties are in danger of losing their Grace when they are exercised uncharitably 1 Cor. 16. 14. And the Exercise of Devotion even in inspired Prayers and Hymns when Men were acted by them he tells them must be with deference to Peace and Publick Edification Every one saith he hath a Psalm but let all things be done to edifying 1 Cor. 14. 26. But as for all the outward Means and Helps of Edifying in these Private Graces they are more absolutely subservient to Peace and must be so used for profiting Private Men as that they be sure at the same time to edifie the whole Church and maintain Union These Means of Edification are either those Publick Officers God has appointed in his Church or those Gifts he bestows upon them for the Edification of Believers And tho it be a great Design of both these to edifie particular Persons in Faith and Practice yet is it an higher End to edifie the whole Church in Peace and Unity and keep out Schisms 1. This Edification of the whole Church and preserving Peace and Unity is the main