Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	act_n	believe_v	faith_n	1,015	5	5.7119	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54151	The guide mistaken, and temporizing rebuked, or, A brief reply to Jonathan Clapham's book intituled, A guide to the true religion in which his religion is confuted, his hypocrisie is detected, his aspersions are reprehended, his contradictions are compared / by W.P., a friend to the true religion.	Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1668 (1668)	Wing P1301; ESTC R15309	49,937	66

not because the Seed of God abideth in him As is the begetter so is the begotten It may be further observ'd that into the Kingdom of which they are called Children or Inhabitants other places will not allow an entrance for any thing that is unclean or makes a lye nor is it congruous with Scripture and common sense the same Temple should hold God and Mamon Christ and Belial or that any can witness a being dead and crucified with Christ whilst living in that which has no share in him And though he would imply a Salvo or Defence for the admission of all sorts to Sacraments so call'd under the notion of the Field's being the Church yet if he well observes it is call'd the World out of which the Church of Christ both as to Doctrine and Conversation was alwayes gathered otherwise those Heathens Turks Jews c whom he would exclude must be members of his Church and whilst he would intrude Tares or the whole rabble of unrighteous persons as members of Christs Church he has forgot the Testimony born by the Apostles concerning that spotless blamless and perfect Body of which Christ Jesus was the Head And if he would from Christs words of letting them alone cover his practice of admitting all as being ignorant who is a Believer since none knows but in plucking up the Tares he may pluck up the Wheat also for this Guide's a Latitudinarian what need his whole discourse for a particular constitution he might I am sure a let that alone as knowing it would be of little force yet may he better understand the passage if he please of Persecution for they were known to be Tares else how could the servant say Sir didst not thou sow good Seed in thy Field from whence then hath it Tares if he had not rightly discerned their nature and that the Wheat was to hold no communication in any religious sort with them nor were they to express severity or force but leaving them in supernatural cases to the determination and punishment of the great Judge live a self-denying example to the world In this sense Imperfection is granted I mean to the carnal and unregenerate but to the Redeemed of God and Children of the Kingdom Perfection I am now come to the examination of the essentials of his so much recommended Choice Sect. 12. His first Article is concerning the nature of God and what of him is to be believed by those that would be happy his words are these That there is one God of an infinit perfect and spiritual nature subsisting in three most glorious persons the Father Son and Holy-Ghost who is the Maker Preserver and Governour of all things and intends his own Glory in all his Works That the greatest concernment of reasonable creatures is to know and acknowledge this God fear love adore and glorifie him and their chiefest felicity stands in his love and favour in fullest conformity to his Image and in no earthly good separate from him Taking the former part of his Definition for granted to wit the perfection infinity and spirituality of his Nature how very unsuitable herewith is the Religion and practice of this Guide first in denying that Revelation by which only a knowledge of this glorious and invisible Deity can be obtained which was the Testimony Christ bore concerning him that no man knew the Father but the Son and him to whom the Son revealed him so that if such Revelation as gives to behold the Father see his shape and contemplate the excellency of his Nature be wholly rejected by this Guide methinks it is either arrogancy to intrude into things he doth not know or folly to tell a tale received from other people for infallible truth without a demonstration in himself Next If there be no other way to have communion with this invisible God that thereby the Conformity he talks of may be known for being a Spirit it 's preposterous to imagine a knowledge of him obtainable by other mediums than what are aedequate to his Divine Nature but by this Revelation of Himself through his Son Christ in us except we are Reprobates it will necessarily follow that he must either deny Christ's Doctrine or else confess himself ignorant of what he writes and since the God he would advise all to know fear and love is that perfect Spirit I fain would know what Worship can be termed suitable thereunto but the internal and spiritual one which is altogether void of those Ceremonies Formalities Will-performances and perishing Observations once used as condescending signs to the weakness of some seasons which at this day fills up the Sacrifices and in which stands the Religion of those called Christians through the World whose ignorance of God's once dispensing with beggarly elements for their sakes whose understandings were vailed and too weak-sighted to behold at first the glorious Light has put many upon the imitation of past generations though void of their spirit and not answering the end for which they were then practised vainly conceiting them an offering acceptable to the eternal Spirit when it were as well-pleasing to present a dogg's neck as anciently was said What shall I hence conclude but as the Almighty God is a Spirit so cannot he otherwise be known or served and since he has required homage from his creatures and yet 's so purely just as to but expect what he has impow'red them to do how absolutely necessary is it that all Worship Godward should stand in the ability given of him thereunto and reasonable to believe that the occasion of all the Apostacy Darkness Inventions and whole variety of Forms and Constitutions of Religion has been from the neglect of that pure spiritual capacity once given of God to act and order them in all things that did concern their duty both to God and man As for his strange distinction of the Deity which he inforces on the faith of all that value their eternal welfare I cannot find one Scripture that will bear him out and if they had been of so much credit with this Guide as to have been by them led into their undeniable form of sound words he would not have intruded Tradition for Scripture to the creed of any but rather have inserted the Text or phrase it self whose Authority might have commanded an assent And it had more become him to give the world a Reason for his requiring a submission to and credence of his Doctrine rather than barely to draw up so many Articles and thus impiously to call on all for a subscription as they would be saved especially since he cannot but know how strongly these very points have been debated in ancient Councils and not less controverted by modern persons of Reputation and Learning Some owning one Eternal God void of all personal relations as Arrius with many Prelates and some Emperors in former Centuries F. Socinus L. Socinus Crellius Slictingius c. of later dayes

one let him but peruse his 17th page and tell me if he doth not find this amongst the many other contradictions that the Opinion or Dream that every man may be saved in his own Religion if he be true to it is more becoming Turks than Christians I must confess I have not met of late in any Author with such palpable confusion and can assure thee Reader I do avoid for brevity's sake the recital of much more I might instance in What Superstructure it 's possible for the best Artists to erect on a Foundation so imperfect and unsound he need be no exact Architecturist to determine but notwithstanding his mistake in his way to the true Religion he may prove Guide sufficient to his many following errors defects Sect. 7. I shall a little insist upon his second Chapter the head is this Shewing wherein the wise chusing ones Religion lys and acts concurring thereunto He needs must play the crack-Philosopher and imperfectly has manag'd his little distinctions in the pedantick phrase of the canting Priests and Accademists He tells us first what Election is in general and then divides the right-chusing of Religion into three Acts the Intellect precedingly discerning the nature of the thing that by the will is chosen And what in the 7th page he hath defin'd in the 8th he instances these following words to confirm his definition viz. Man being a Religious Creature by the common instinct of his natural conscience is mov'd strongly to worship a Deity as we see in all the Nations of the Earth much more when he is stirred up by a divine instinct Answ It hath been the unhappiness of many Ages as it is of this to darken and confound matters of Religion mostly with terms not more affected and difficult than very often impertinent of which this Guide is not a little guilty as must be obvious to such as will examine his most frivolous and contratradictory distinction betwixt Natural and Divine Not that I shall not allow them to be terms proper in their place but very improper where he puts them Let me perswade thee Reader to observe impartially the Confusion I have to do with one who characters himself a Christian and not a profest disciple of the Heathen Aristotle and I should therefore think it may become me best as it had him to use such a sound form of words as are warranted by and laid down in the Scriptures of Truth and that he with all others may know how far the Quakers are on all occasions ready to bring their Principles to be tried by that which the Spirit there declares I shall expose both his and theirs to the judgment of them and leave thee Reader to determine which holds the greatest harmony therewith although the contradiction of his own words might have been confutation evident enough Religion is by James a Prophet of the most high God thus defined Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the Fatherless and Widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world Also to believe as Paul has it in thy heart and confess with thy tongue in and to the Lord Jesus Or as he hath it in another place to wit A subjection and obedience to that Spirit Light or Grace manifested from God to all men teaching them that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts they should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Taking these passages for the clear and compleat signification of that term Religion as I shall till some more ample be produced and not the whimsical conjectures of men from their wresting of the Scriptures patcht up into a formal Creed by their eclipst understandings as this Guide must not deny if he will own Scripture then will it consequently follow that no man can be truly stiled Religious from a natural instinct or cause for since the one and true Religion or Primitive is divine Religious or the Relative must necessarily participate of the same Divine Nature and if by Natural Conscience he means Reason abstractively the Relative cannot amount to more than Rational for as what is simply Animal cannot generate what 's Rational so is it altogegether impossible for what is but simply Rational to produce what is Spiritual nor can I understand how he will secure himself from gross impertinency in nominating Man a Religious creature from a natural instinct or to assert any thing but what is divine can act Man to worship a Divinity How far he may to save himself extend the signification of natural I know not but if he means it in the sense Paul often us'd it methinks the very letter of the Scripture should have barr'd his unsuitable expression for saith that Apostle The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God neither can he because they are spiritually discerned But if he will take Natura 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro generatione viventium sive animalium id est nativitate or if he rather will accept it in the sense of him they call Divine Seneca that it imports a Deity or Divine Reason sown in all parts of the world he would do well to let us know for the incongruity of his Assertion with good sense lies very palpable He further confirms his opinion of the universality of that by him call'd Natural Instinct with his Parenthesis as we see in all Nations of the Earth much more when he is further stirred up by a Divine Instinct I must confess to the universality of it but how disguis'd it is through the various trims of mens Inventions and fore-fathers idle Traditions a person never so little spritualiz'd may see and easily discry the notorious foppery of most professions the cause of which vniversal darkness has been the Nations sacrificing their judgements to the implicite Faith of their deceitful Priests who have been and are a Monopoly to the Souls and Bodies of the whole Creation And what he ignorantly calls the father stirring of a divine instinct is not a difference from the former in respect of its nature or quality but measure or degree I have the longer insisted on this particular because most material as well to detect his weakness and grand inability to the work he forwardly has undertaken as from his own expressions to elucidate and maintain the Quakers Principles to be Orthodox although it was against them he mainly did design his Book but with what success the end will manifest I shall just hint upon his three branches into which he has split the first act of his Election 1 He advises to take a particular view of the Principal Doctrines and Misteryes of Faith and duty of Godliness taught in the Scriptures but doth not tell us by what infallible Expositor we ought to peruse them that might unfold those Mysteries he speaks of which imply a dubious intricate and obscure sense does he mean the Instinct