Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	action_n	law_n	moral_a	1,065	5	9.0930	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75805	The Catholiques plea, or An explanation of the Roman Catholick belief. Concerning their [brace] church, manner of worship, justification, civill governement. : Together with a catalogue of all the pœnall statutes against popish recusants. : All which is humbly submitted to serious consideration. / By a Catholick gentleman.	Birchley, William, 1613-1669.	1659 (1659)	Wing A4242B; ESTC R42676	68,166	129

unanimously agreed upon this following Explanation to declare and witnesse to the world the perfect consistency of their Religion both with civil Government and civill society joyning also in the same Paper the like expressions of their Belief concerning some few other points which they were informed to be more obnoxious to exception than the rest As the undervaluing of holy Scripture and over-valuing the authority of the Church Invocation of Saints and Angels and worship of Images and above all the proud opinion of Merits This Paper they drew up as a preparatory to a more full and perfect clearing of their Faith from those prejudices and misunderstandings which ordinarily men of different perswasion entertain especially in Controversies about matters of Religion The Paper containing certain Doctrines of the Papists and by them delivered to divers persons of quality for their particular satisfaction WE believe the holy Scriptures to be of divine inspiration and infallible Authority and whatsoever is therein contained we firmly assent unto as to the word of God the Author of all Truth But since in the holy Scriptures there are some things hard to be understood which the ignorant and unstable wrest to their own destruction we therefore professe for the ending of controversies in our Religion and setling of peace in our Consciences to submit our private judgments to the Iudgment of the Church represented in a free Generall Council 2. We humbly believe the sacred Mystery of the the Blessed Trinity one Eternal Almighty and Incomprehensible God whom only we adore and worship as alone having Sovereign Dominion over all things to whom only we acknowledge as due from men and Angles all glory service and obedience abhorring from our hearts as a most detestable Sacrilege to give our Creators honour to any creature whatsoever And therefore we solemnly protest that by the prayers we addresse to Angels and Saints we intend no other than humbly to sollici●e their assistance before the Throne of God as we desire the prayers of one another here upon earth not that we hope any thing from them as original Authors thereof but from God the Fountain of all Goodnesse through Jesus Christ our only Mediator and Redeemer Neither doe we believe any divinity or vertue to be in Images for which they ought to be worship'd as the Gentiles did their Idols but we retain them with due and decent respect in our Churches as instruments which we find by experience do often assist our memories and excite our affections 3. We firmly believe that no force of nature nor dignity of our best works can merit our Justification but we are justified freely by grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ And although we should by the grace of God persevere unto the end in a godly life and holy obedience to the Commandements yet are our hopes of eternall glory still built upon the mercy of God and the merits of Christ Jesus All other merits according to our sense of that word signifie no more than Actions done by the assistance of Gods grace to which it has pleased his goodnesse to promise a reward a Doctrine so far from being unsuitable to the sense of the holy Scriptures that it is their principal design to invite and provoke us to a diligent observance of the Commandements by promising heaven as the reward of our obedience 1 Tim. 4. 8. Godlinesse is profitable to all things having the promise of this life and of that which is to come And Rom. 2. 6. God will render to every man according to his deeds to them who by patient confidence in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortalitie eternall life And again Rom. 8. 13. If you live after the flesh you shall die but if through the spirit you mortifie the deeds of the body you shall live And Heb. 6. 10. God is not unjust to forget your work and labour of love which you have shewed for his name c. Nothing being so frequently repeated in the Word of God as his gracious promises to recompense with everlasting glory the saith and obedience of his servants Nor is the bounty of God barely according to our works but high and plentifull even beyond our capacities giving full measure heaped up pressed down and running over into the bosomes of all that love him Thus we believe the merit or rewardablenesse of holy living both which signifie the same thing with us arises not from the self-valu● even of our best actions as they are ours but from the Grace and Bounty of God and for our selves we sincerely professe when we have done all those things which are commanded us we are unprofi●able servants having done nothing but that which was our duty So that our ●oasting is not in our selves but all our glorying is in Christ 4. We firmly believe and highly reverence the Moral Law being so solemnly delivered to Moses upon the Mount so expresly confirmed by our Saviour in the Gospel and containing in it self so perfect an Abridgement of our whole duty both to God and man Which Moral Law we believe obliges all men to proceed with faithfulness and sincerity in their mutual contracts one towards another and therefore our constant profession is that we are most strictly and absolutely bound to the exact entire performance of our promises made to any person of what Religion soever much more to the Magistrates and Civil Powers under whose protection we live whom we are taught by the Word of God to obey not only for fear but conscience sake and to whom we will most faithfully observe our promises of duty and obedience notwithstanding any dispensation absolution or other proceedings of any forein Power or Authority whatsoever Wherefore we utterly deny and renounce that false and scandalous Position that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks as most uncharitaly imputed to our practices and most unjustly pinned upon our Religion These we sincerely and solemnly professe as in the sight of God the searcher of all hearts taking the words plainly and simply in their usuall and familiar sense without any Equivocation or Mentall Reservation whatsoever THese expressions concerning four of the most offensive points wherein the Papists differ from us have I confesse given me a great and unexpected satisfaction And though I remain in the same mind as to the erroneousnesse of many of their Tenets yet I see we may easily be too passionate in the degree of detesting any different opinion since every errour is not presently to be censured as an unsufferable abhomination and too severe in the degree of persecuting the dissenters from our own judgements as if they were unworthy to breath the same ayr with our selves Certainly many Protestants who quietly enjoy a just and unmolested freedom approach very neer to the first assertion of the Papists whilst some both Writers and Discoursers professe to submit their private judgements unappealably to a truly-free Generall

Council that we might once have an end of all strife and contention about matters of Religion others refer themselves without further instance to a Provinciall Assembly of Divines and very few but will prefer the judgment of the supreme Authority of this Nation before their own particular sense readily conforming to that Declaration which the Parliament shall hold forth to be the true meaning of the Scripture So that almost every one agrees in the acknowledgment of an external Authority to decide such Controversies as arise out of the different interpretation of Gods word which is the main exception against the Papists in that they pin their Faith upon the Churches sleeve and yield a blind obedience that is without appealing any further to her determinations And for the second branch I am sure many Protestants continue still those old customs of baring their heads when they come into a Church nay of bowing at the name of Iesus Practices that ly open to the greatest part of those objections whichour more godly and conscientious penns make against the Papists in the question of Pictures yet I hope there will never be the least thought entertained of imposing penalties upon the private and unscandalous use of any such Ceremonies rather let us apply our endeavours to open their eyes with a mild and gentle hand than beat them out with the club-fist of the Law But when I reflect upon the third conclusion in the Recusants paper I am astonisht to consider how education with a little mixture of Passion or interest makes every slight distemper amongst Christians so desperate that it often becomes irrecoverable and endangers both the health and life of Christianity Surely in many things we strangely mistake one another I professe sincerely I should be so far from seizing on the Estate of a Papist for refusing that part of the Oath of Abjuration wherein he is compelled to renounce the Doctrine of Merits that I am resolved to suffer a thousand deaths rather than abjure so great and manifest a truth according to the sense wherein they explain themselves or affirm so great and manifest an Errour according to the sense wherein we explain our selves For when we censure the doctrin of Merits we understand by that word our Deserts as they exclude the merits of Christ and abstracting from the Covenant God hath been pleased to make with us in his Son and in that sense we justly condemn all opinions of Merit even of the best works as presumptuous and Luciferian but I now see when the Papists affirm that good works are meritorious they include both the promise of God and the merits of Christ Iesus and in effect when all is summed up it amounts only to this that God hath graciously promised and will faithfully keep his word to reward all those with eternall life that believe in him and obey his commandements In this sense the Papists hold mercifullnesse to be meritorious or avaylable to salvation because the Scripture sayes Blessed are the mercifull for they shall obtain mercy Mat. 5. 7. In this sense the Papists hold patience in affliction to be meritorious or avaylable to salvation because the Scripture sayes Blessed are they who are persecuted for Righteousnesse sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 5. 10. And this as I am informed by very understanding men amongst them is the reall truth of their Doctrine concerning Good works which in my judgment differs nothing from ours but only in the unsavory proud sounding word Merit The last Clause of the Papists Noat which I have transcribed is so full and satisfactory that if they will be as good as their words I shall neither fear to have such neighbors or need any Magistrat fear to have such subjects And to prove their trustinesse and fidelity in the observance of their Oathes I cannot imagin a more evident demonstration than that they make a conscience of what Oathes they take he that swears any thing without distinction may justly be suspected to be as false to men as he is fearlesse of God whereas no cleerer argument can be alleged in the behalf of any that they intend to keep all the Oathes they take than this that they will not take all the Oaths you offer surely if either the Pope or their own Consciences could give them this extravagant privilege to be bound by no Oath they might without difficulty take any and if they were allowed by their Religion to swear any thing certainly they are all worse than mad if they do not immediately post away to Haberd●shers-hall call for the Oath of Abjuration swallow it down quickly without any chewing and so save at least 50000 l. a year in a morning In the late Kings dayes many Papists were smartly punished for not taking the Oath of Allegiance none for observing it nay I have heard some Papist D●linquents argue for themselves that the utter ruine which now endangers their whole estates proceeds solely from their performing to the late King that service which he called Allegiance and this is yet a higher proof of their fidelity in their promises since they adventured with so much hazard to keep that Oath in substance which they refused with almost as much hazard to take because against their Conscience in some circumstance And now let any one judge indifferently whether they that firmly believe all the holy Scriptures of the old and new Testament worship and adore only one God rely upon Iesus Christ for their sole Mediator and professe it their duty to observe the Commandements of the Morall Law may not reasonably be suffered to live in their native Country with the peaceable enjoyment of their Consciences in their private houses especially those who will quietly submit to such cautions and restrictions as the Common-wealth shall require for prevention of scandall or disturbance of the publick peace Besides I am perswaded a farre lesse liberty will oblige the Papists than content any other because hitherto all liberty has been wholly denyed to them and wholly allowed to every one else So that they will gladly receive as a mercy and favour what others challenge as a right and their affections being once purchased at so cheap a price as a little private exercise of their Conscience free from the fright and smart of penalties I am confident they will neither be such fools as to forfeit their liberty nor so ungratefull as to forget them that gave it since out of all our Histories not one example can be assigned that they ever offered to move the least sedition in a time when they enjoyed but half the liberties of free-born English-men Therefore I shall close my thoughts upon this paper with a short and free conclusion which I conceive abridges in few words the whole difficulty betwixt subject and superiour The Magistrate that protects any sort of people in his dominions may justly require their service and safely rely upon their obedience but if he