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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

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85088	Two treatises The first, concerning reproaching & censure: the second, an answer to Mr Serjeant's Sure-footing. To which are annexed three sermons preached upon several occasions, and very useful for these times. By the late learned and reverend William Falkner, D.D.	Falkner, William, d. 1682.; Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.; Sturt, John, 1658-1730, engraver.	1684 (1684)	Wing F335B; ESTC R230997	434,176	626

his tongue It is very suitable also to the occasion on which our Saviour spake these words which was the Pharisees defaming his Miracles and him in working them as if he did them by Beelzebub And therefore this speech hath a particular respect to words of calumny The sad doom of Reproachers hence observed and speaks the heavy doom of such persons as please themselves with speaking evil of others when Christ himself shall come to judge Let every Christian therefore stand in awe of this threatning of our Lord and carefully observe that precept of S. James Jam. 2.12 So speak ye and so do as those that shall be judged by the law of liberty Both our words and actions will be hereafter judged according to that Gospel which passeth a Sentence against reproaching expressions And the Gospel is such a law of liberty that besides other advantages they who will seriously mind their duty may under it and by the grace thereof be set free from the power and rule of their passions and lusts and therefore the serving these under the grace of the Gospel is utterly inexcusable 12. Fourthly 4. A pious government of the tongue is an excellent Christian perfection The good and pious government of the tongue is a very considerable perfection in the practice of Religion For this manifests such a person to have gotten the victory over the passions and disorderly motions of his mind which are apt in others to discover themselves by rash words the tongue being a quick and glib mover and oft forward to express any prevailing irregular discomposure of the Spirit Hence Jam. 3.2 If any man offend not in word the same is a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body But these words of that Apostle must be so understood as to speak particularly the perfection of him who thus behaves himself upon the true principles of Christianity For it must be acknowledged that passionate and reproachful words may be suppressed in some by the advantage of their natural temper of mildness and courteousness which doth not much encline them to this sin whilst they live in the practice of others In others they may be restrained by the rules of policy and subtilty and a strong resolution in the managing of some design and much may be done in others by mere rational and Philosophical considerations There are many instances among the ancient Philosophers and their followers of such persons as gained a considerable mastery of their passions and a great command of their words and actions Among others Socrates was a rare instance hereof if he came any thing nigh that admirable character that (k) Xenoph. Memor l. 1. p. 710. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Xenophon gives him That no man ever saw Socrates do any action or heard him speak any word that was contrary to Religious piety or unholy This was mighty considerable though we understand it only with respect to the rules of morality admitted under the Pagan Philosophy And it is unbecoming Christians to come short of such examples when their Religion doth so wonderfully go beyond all the principles of Ethnick Philosophy 13. Where this is wanting the Christian spirit hath not had its due effect Christianity tends to bring men into a lively sense of the only true God to a clear knowledge of that excellent revelation delivered by our Saviour it guides unto that universal purity which excludes all the Idolatry and other vices which the most refined Paganism did admit it sheweth obedience to its precepts to be of the highest concernment imaginable from the plainest manifestation of the great account and judgment to come and the future state either of endless glorious perfection or of intolerable torment And it also most expresly manifests the great necessity of well governing the tongue both as to the practice of Religion and the obtaining everlasting happiness and it affords the aids and grace of the Holy Spirit to assist and enable us to the performance of all those duties it injoyns upon us Now this Religion cannot be received in any considerable degree by them who entertain the practice of evil speaking and reproaching which is contrary and opposite to it to the author of it and to the obtaining the good it proposeth to its followers But where the true fear of God and a conscientious regard to all the rules of the Christian life have prevailed for the well-ordering of the tongue it may be expected that they will have a like power and efficacy for the government of the whole man And where this member is disordered it becomes an incendiary and as a pestilential Contagion spreads abroad venome and evil and in S. James's expression it sets on fire the course of nature and it is set on fire of hell who also saith it is a world of iniquity and defileth the whole body Jam. 3.6 And the Great miscarriages of the tongue which in that Chapter are complained of with divers earnest and emphatical expressions appear plainly to be the censuring and speaking evil of others and the promoting and exciting strife and contention CHAP. II. The excessive disorders and unreasonable extravagancy of speaking evil when men give way to their passions and uncharitable temper manifested especially from the Censures our Saviour underwent SECT I. The best deserving persons are oft under obloquy and undeserved Censure Sect. I THese things being premised I shall now come to discourse 1. Of the great disorder of an ill-governed tongue in censuring and reproaching 2. Of the sinfulness of this practice and the great guilt thereof 2. First The tongue is such an unruly evil as S. James calls it Jam. 3.8 that when men indulge themselves in uncharitableness and censoriousness it puts them upon the contriving Censoriousness is unruly and wonderfully extravagant or pursuing the most unaccountable and unreasonable calumnies and slanders Good Hezekiah shall fall under the lavish revilings of a Rabshakeh and his reformation excellently and piously performed will be condemned as impious And Christianity it self was made a matter of reproach by Saul whilst he was a blasphemer a persecuter and injurious and by many others who professed themselves enemies unto it and the Christians in general were spoken of as evil doers 1 Pet. 2.12 But we cannot better discern how ungovernable and extravagant the censorious and uncharitable tongue is than by considering the instances of our blessed Saviour and other excellent men Even the Holy Jesus when he conversed upon Earth escaped not the sharp and bitter reproaches of reviling tongues though he deserved no censure nor gave any just occasion for any The persons considered who bear reproach And therefore what he and other good men met with will abundantly manifest the strange unruliness of a defaming temper which is contained under no bounds and limits of truth justice or charity 3. This may especially appear by our enquiring into three things 1. What the great excellencies were

mean Peasant who is an offender shall have the same treatment from men with an excellent and gracious Prince or shall be in the same storm abroad in his voyage or journey that he should be in a fury as thinking himself too good to be thus dealt with while his good Prince goes through all this with a quiet and calm demeanour 6. To imitate Christ in these duties is the way to happiness But there is yet a farther very weighty consideration upon which all Christians stand bound to follow this example of our Saviour and that is that the imitating him in this very thing is directed and enjoined as the course we are to take for the obtaining happiness Mat. 11.29 Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest unto your souls So that the following him in humility and meekness is the walking in the path of rest for this as all acts of goodness and duty bringeth here serenity and peace to the mind of him who practiseth it and is one of the great duties to be performed in order to perfect peace and rest hereafter And those his Servants who thus serve and follow him shall be with him where he is Thus S. Austin (e) De Temp. Serm. 61. Enarrat in Ps 90. having considered those words of S. Matthew Chap. 11.29 and of S. Peter 1 Pet. 2.22 23. observes that that example of our Lord which it is necessary for us to imitate is not that which is too high and great for us in our capacities to perform as to restore the dead to life or to walk upon the Sea but it is to be meek and humble in spirit and that we should love not only our friends but even our enemies with all our hearts 7. And as this duty is particularly recommended to us There is no true piety in them who do not walk as he walked as one especial and main thing in which we are to imitate our Lord and shall be highly rewarded by so doing so it will be useful to take notice in general that it is a very vain thing for any to talk of Christ and Christianity and of their hope and interest in him if they do not follow his example and live according to his life And of this we are assured by S. John 1 Joh. 2.6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked And these words are the more necessary to be minded and seriously regarded because S. John in the former part of that Chapter doth particularly undertake to declare and reckon up in large and comprehensive expressions divers of those things which are of absolute necessity for every man to observe who would be owned as truly Religious and in a comfortable relation to God To this purpose he saith v. 4. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandments is a lyar and the truth is not in him And v. 5. But whoso keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected hereby know we that we are in him And after he had inserted some emphatical expressions to manifest the weight and excellency of these things which he was now discoursing he proceeds to assert v. 9. He that saith he is in the light and hateth his Brother is in darkness even until now and v. 15. If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him And amongst these he expresseth what I now mentioned v. 6. concerning walking as he walked Which Verse also is intended to express what is so necessary to true Christianity and communion with Christ that they cannot consist without it How far then do they go astray who are so negligent of Christian meekness and gentleness as if fierceness and passion were rather to be accounted the practices of our Religion 8. 2. Our Lord's example peculiarly requireth reverence to Superiours Cons 2. Our Saviour's example is particularly set before us to silence and suppress all evil speaking against Superiours and reproaching them who are in Authority and to engage us to behave our selves towards them with reverence and due respect And for the manifesting this I shall shew three things 9. First That this is the scope and intention of S. Peter in proposing to us the example of Christ 1 Pet. 2.21 23. for the proof of which I need only make a brief reflexion on the foregoing Verses To this purpose it is urged by S. Peter That Apostle had spoken of the duty of Subjects to their King and Governours v. 13. commanding them to submit themselves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him And he continueth his discourse with particular respect to them unto the end of v. 17. concluding it with these precepts Fear God and Honour the King And v. 18. he comes to speak of that duty and respect which is due to those Superiours who are in a more inferiour domestick relation and are not furnished with that Dignity and Honour which belongs to them who govern in an higher rank and capacity And here he commands Servants to be subject to their Masters with all fear c. and then he proceeds to declare what patience meekness and reverence is to be expressed towards such Superiours by those who are subject to them though they should meet with hard measure from them and suffer undeservedly by them And for the guiding Christians in this case he bringeth in the example of Christ and this part of it particularly that he who did no sin when he was reviled he reviled not again and when he suffered he threatned not v. 22 23. 10. Secondly That our Saviour did behave himself Our Saviours practice expressed great respect to Superiour Relations particularly to his Parents with that respect to superiour Relations both in words and actions which is fit to teach us to do the like In his Divine nature he was Lord of all even in the depth of his humiliation and in his humane nature he was advanced to an high dignity in Union to the Divine and as our Mediator But yet considering him as made under the law and in the form of a servant and he therein carefully performed the duties of the fifth Commandment as well as any other precepts of the law of God both to his Parents and to all that were in Authority whether Civil or Ecclesiastical When he took on him the nature of man he became subject to those duties which belong to that nature and tend to the publick good and order of the World In his younger years he began his life with subjection to his Parents Luk. 2.51 And this thing deserves to be the more especially taken notice of because as some (f) Ludolph de Vit. Chr. P. 1. cap 16. Barrad in Concord Evang. Tom. 1. l.

and its freedom from sin And the ancient Ecclesiastical Writers give large and high commendations thereof Polycarp saith (n) Ep. ad Philip. p. 16. that he who hath charity is free from all sin which hath some affinity with those words of the Apostle Rom. 13.8 he that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law And Origen speaks of the Christian man as being pure from sin (o) Cont. Cels l. 3. p. 148 149. and having left off to sin which is of like nature with not continuing any longer therein Rom. 6.2 as having departed from a vicious wicked and impure life And the Christian life is a perfect life as it greatly outdoth the practice of evil men and is in it self excellent and contains a resemblance of God Mat. 5 44-48 and as it is guided by the fear of God and directed to the eschewing evil and doing what is just and good Job 1.1 Psal 37.37 11. And every true Christian doth and must perform all the necessary conditions in the Gospel-Covenant for acceptance with God and obtaining Salvation or otherwise he can never be saved And the practice of Faith and true holiness the subduing lusts and evil affections and being renewed after God is included in these conditions But the terms and conditions of the Gospel-Covenant are not the same thing but must be differently considered from the rules of duty which the Gospel injoins For a constant practice of every duty towards God and man and a careful performance of every moral precept without any transgression thereof is injoined more highly under the Gospel than ever it was before But the conditions of the Gospel-Covenant are upon more mild and gentle terms of grace than were contained under the foregoing Dispensations for they admit and approve true uprightness and sincerity of obedience though there may some failings and imperfections attend it and they allow of repentance and promise mercy and pardon to those offenders who are truly penitent So that the rules of duty considered in their large extent do so far shew what we are obliged to perform that whensoever we fail in the least part thereof we thereupon need the benefit of the pardoning mercy of God and the atonement and expiation of our Saviour to which when we discern our failing in the exercise of self-reflexion we are to apply our selves according to the directions of the Gospel with a pious and penitent behaviour But the great and necessary conditions of the Gospel and the Covenant of grace contain those things which are of such indispensable necessity to be performed and observed by us that the mercy of God will never accept of those who neglect them nor will it pardon the omission thereof Such conditions under the Gospel Revelation are the embracing the Christian Faith the diligent exercise of a holy life and under the sense of our failings an humble address to God through Christ for his mercy pardon and supplies of further grace with penitential exercises 12. And in the best of men who exercise themselves diligently in piety and the discharge of a good conscience there may be many things wherein they fail and come short of the exact performance of what they ought to do And therefore our Saviour taught his Disciples ordinarily to pray forgive us our Trespasses and appointed that petition to be part of that prayer which he directed and commanded them to use Upon which words of the Lords Prayer (p) Cyp. de Orat. Dom. S. Cyprian observes how every one is hereby taught and instructed that he offends every day when he is commanded daily to pray for the pardon of his sins And he observes also how constant a need every person hath of seeking for and obtaining pardon for his failings in that upon this account our Lord urgeth the necessity of our constant care of forgiving others because otherwise our heavenly Father will not forgive us and therefore he gives this as a rule to be always practised whensoever we pray Mark 11.25 When ye stand praying forgive if ye have ought against any that your Father also which is in Heaven may forgive you your trespasses And from the consideration of the Lords Prayer (q) Aug. Ep. 89. S. Austin well observes that if the Christian state here were so far perfect as to be free from all offences our Saviour would never have taught such a Prayer to his Church to be constantly used by his Disciples when they pray and even by the Apostles themselves And in the Institution of the Lords Supper our Saviour tendred the Sacrifice of his Body and Blood to be received by Christians in the continued administration of that Ordinance for the remission of sins All which doth manifest that Christian life and Gospel-obedience which is accepted upon the conditions of the Covenant of grace is not an absolute sinless obedience though it doth include a real purity of heart and integrity of conversation And the pious Christian is sometimes called perfect with respect to that excellency to which he hath attained Phil. 3.15 16. and yet at the said time in a different sense is not acknowledged to be perfect Phil. 3.12 by reason of the defects which are still remaining Hence the Holy Scriptures oft speak to this purpose that in many things we offend all and that there is no man that lives and sins not and that if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us 13. And we further assert and acknowledge that in the Christian state there is also a perfection by way of comparison in them who have arrived to greater degrees and a more eminent height and growth in Christian graces and vertues than others and this excellent state is very desirable and ought to be diligently endeavoured by every pious man But no such persons either will or can truly say that henceforth they have no need of any interest in the mercy of God for the forgiving their failings or in the benefits of Christ's Merits and Sacrifice for obtaining thereby pardon and remission But (r) Ep. ad Eph. p. 18. Philad p. 41. Ed. Vos Ignatius when ready to lay down his life by Martyrdom acknowledged his imperfection And (Å¿) Paed. l. 1. c. 2. Clemens Alexandrinus describes the Christian that his failings must be as little as is possible and he must strive against all disorders of affections and disown all customs of sin and it is an excellent thing to be free from all fault but this is the state of God The imperfections of such men as Asa and Job and others who are called perfect are noted in the Scripture And that same Epistle in which S. John speaks so much of him that is born of God that he sins not as having rejected a vicious and evil life and being set free from the service thereof he also declares against him who saith he hath no sin 1 Joh. 1.8 directs confession of sin v. 9. and speaking concerning