Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	apostle_n	church_n	holy_a	989	5	4.8664	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41500	Prelatique preachers none of Christ's teachers, or, A Disswasive unto the people of God from attending the ministry (so called) of those, who preach by verture of an (Apocryphal) ordination, received from an order of men, commonly stiled Lord Bishops wherein arguments are tendered to their serious considerations, by way of motive against that practice ... .	Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.	1663 (1663)	Wing G1192; ESTC R33795	80,325	88

affirm the contrary rejects the report with great indignation as an unworthy slander Rom. 3. 8. And no marvel it being repugnant even to the Light of Nature as might be shewed from the Sayings of some of her Prophets that the attainment of that which is good should be endeavoured by unlawful wayes The reason whereof might be insisted on but that we are in hast Now it bath been formerly argued and proved by Considerations not a few That to attend upon any Ministry which is of an Apocryphal and sinful erection and consequently derogatory unto Christ and his care and faithfulness over the House of God whatsoever our ends or expectations may be in or from such our attendance is unlawful and displeasing unto God and more especially and unquestionably in the case of Scandal given to weak Christians No goodness of ends or intentions will make atonement for a sinful action 2. Though Edification be more necessary and of greater concernment to be endeavoured and sought after by a Christian than his daily bread yet God having provided orderly and regular means and these every way sufficient for his obtaining it as hath been with greatest evidence proved from the Scriptures he is not to please himself with breaking the Divine appointment on this behalf or to be his own Carver when God hath set out a meet and full allowance for him no whit more than with seeking his daily bread by indirect and unwarrantable practices when as there are honest wayes and means to supply him in this kind which have the blessing of God annexed by promise unto them and he well capable of the use of them The holy Ghost chargeth it upon the Saints as a special duty and service for the honour of Christ that they observe a Decorum and comely Order in their Church Assemblies and in managing the Ordinances and holy Institutions of God Let all things be done decently and in order And the Apostle Paul signifies to the Colossians that he rejoyced beholding though onely in spirit for he was now absent in body their Order And Titus was left by him in Crete to put things in order or as the word signifieth to set matters at rights in the Churches there Now as it is a manifest breach of order when a wife is disobedient to her own husband her obedience unto him being fit and comely as the Holy Ghost himself hath adjudged it Coloss 3. 18. So is it no lesse disorderly for any person who hath freely embodyed himself in a Church of Christ the members whereof ought to submit themselves one to another in the fear of the Lord Ephes 5. 21. 1 Pet. 5. 5. And again to serve one another in love Gal. 5. 13. To build up themselves in their most holy Faith Jude vers 20. To obey those that are over them in the Lord and to esteem them very highly in love for heir work sake 1 Thes 5. 12 13. Heb. 13. 17. Not to forsake the assembling of themselves together but to exhort one another Heb. 10. 25. Not to make rents or Divisions in their body 1 Cor. 1. 10. or to cause offences Rom. 16. 17. with several other things of like import with these it is I say disorderly in the highest for any Member being under such sacred obligations as these unto his body or fellow-members to turn his back upon them to abandon their communion to forsake their holy Assemblies and under a pretence of Christian liberty to seek after edification to betake himself from time to time unto strange Teachers especially being of an infamous and polluted Order and to frequent Congregations of a Politique Constitution and worldly complexion in the name of Churches of Christ Now for any man to expect edification by violating the Order which Christ hath established in his Churches is with as little reason as to expect to gather grapes of thorns or figs of chistles 3. and lastly for this Were it granted or supposed that a person might gather as much yea or more knowledge in the Misteries of the Gospel from the lips of strange Teachers in their Ministry than he was like to do by the teachings in his own Church and amongst those from whom he hath sperated himself yet neither will this prove that he edifieth as much or more as or than he might have done by waiting upon God at the door of the lips of him or them who speak from God in his own Congregation The Silver and Gold which an ungodly man possesseth may be of the same kind of mettal and of the same allay and refining with that which is possessed by one that is righteous yet the Prophet David saith that a little that a righteous man hath is better that is is serviceable to the owner upon a better account than the riches of many wicked The reason is or may be because the righteous mans little being honestly gotten or obtained hath the blessing of God upon it and is sanctified unto him Whereas the riches of wicked men being either unjustly obtained or unconscionably detained and kept up or both are polluted unto the owners and have the curse of God cleaving to them according as he threatneth Mal. 2. 2. I will curse your blessings In like manner the knowledg in things appertaining unto God and relating unto the saving of the soul which is obtained by breach of Gospel-order and by attending upon a Ministry of an unclean Parentage and descent may in the letter and notion of it be altogether the same yea and possibly exceed it with that which is gained by keeping close to God in his Gospel-Institutions Appointments and received from those Teachers which the Holy Ghost hath set over us or is dispensed in our own Christian Assemblies and yet come far short of it in the matter of true Edification I mean in building men up in Faith and true holiness For there is an aptness in knowledge in conjunction with the weakness and vanity of the heart of man to puff men up as the Apostle speaketh which is as contrary to Edification as contrary may be unless the flatulency and windiness of it be corrected by the Grace and Blessing of God Besides the Scripture in many known places informeth us that knowledge and ungodliness agree too well together many times in the same subject and soul Now though God may as hath been argued and granted formerly sometimes countenance and bless a Ministry of a forreign plantation to the conversion of some and edification of others namely when and whilst the irregularity and unlawfuess of it remains un-discovered so that people in the simplicity of their hearts resort unto it and whilst other means of Grace are scant and Gospel Churches few and remote yet there is little question to be made but that he much more rejoyceth over a Ministry of his own contrivance and establishment to work gracious and great things by it for the precious souls of men And Ministers

am earnestly perswaded that God will ere long raise up a better workman who by his direction and assistance shall hammer this nayl to more purpose then hath yet been done In the mean time because errour and sin have their glosses and colours as well as Truth and Righteousness their weight and substance let us briefly survey some of the fairest Pretexts wherewith the practice hitherto censured and disswaded from may probably hope yea possibly be confident that she is able to justifie her self Cities and Castles that have been long built and were never yet attempted at least never conquered either by siege or assault are like to impute their freedome in this kind and long continued safety unto their own strength The Arguments then whereby the practise condemned in the premises seems most desensible are these following And verily I shall acknowledge my self a Debtor as for a signal courtesie unto him that shall either mend or improve these my Arguments or offer me others of more strength Argument I. Our Saviour Christ to the multitude and to his Disciples saith thus The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do but c. Mat. 23. 1 2 3. If it were lawful yea matter of duty for so the command or charge of Christ maketh it for them to observe and do whatsoever the Scribes and Pharisees taught them according to Moses's Law then is it lawful and no less matter of duty for Christians to observe and do whatsoever Prelatical Ministers teach them according to the Gospel For these are not at least many of them are not a more unworthy Generation of men then they And if they stand bound to do whatsoever they thus teach they stand bound to hear them when they teach at least they may lawfully hear them Answer 1. The reason why Ministers of a Prelatical Edition ought not to be heard in their publick teachings is not because they are a Generation of men more wicked and vile then the Scribes and Pharisees were but because their delinquency is such and so unhappily conditioned that we cannot wait upon them in their Ministerial employments without being partakers with them therein and we stand expresly charged by God not to be partakers of other mens sins 1 Tim. 5. 22. Eph. 5. 11. with many other places For deriving and accepting their Ministerial Function from an Anti-christian Power I mean such a Power which exalteth it self against and in many things above the power of Jesus Christ acted and exercised by him in and over his Churches as was shewed in the last Consideration in and by every exercise and administration of this their Function they avouch and justifie that so highly-sacrilegious an Usurpation and they who countenance them with their presence whilst they act this great unworthiness do nothing less then justify such their justification and so must needs share with them in the iniquity of it Whereas the Scribes and Pharisees of whom our Saviour speaks in the Text before us according to Dr. Hamand's own Paraphrase of the place were of the Sanedrim and to be looked upon by them the people and his Disciples themselves as their lawful Rulers that had Authority over them succeeding Moses and the seventy Elders Numb 11. 16. According to this notion which is not altogether improbable there was no reasonable ground of any scruple about hearing them when they expounded and declared Moses his Law And if it could be proved on the behalf of the Ministers whom we judg it unlawful to hear in their Teachings that they in any such sence sit in the Seat either of the Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors or Teachers which Christ when he ascended up on high gave for the perfecting of the Saints c. neither should we question the lawfulnesse yea or duty upon occasion of hearing them But the conjecture of Grotius seems more rational and better comporting with the Scriptures which is this That the Jewes had no Consistory of Tryers nor any person or persons publickly authorized among them to examine or take account who were meet or fit to be allowed for expounders of the Law but that it was free for any man whose heart served him for the work or take it upon him and to instruct and teach the people accordingly only adding that more generally they who did take this profession or work upon them were Pharisaici instituti of the Sect or perswasion of the Pharisees As saith he among the Romans it was permitted unto any man that would to plead any mans Case at any Bar of Judicature in their state That which we read Acts 13. 15. favours the said conjecture And after the reading of the Law and the Prophets the Rulers of the Synagogue sent unto them saying ye Men and Brethren if ye have any word of Exhortation for the people say on which seems to imply that any person amongst them might without breach of any order or custome teach the people publickly out of the Law and Prophets If it were thus neither could there be any the like reason for the Jewish people to deny their attendance upon the Scribes and Pharisees in their teachings of the Law which according to the premises there is why Christian people should separate themselves from Priests of the Prelatical Unction in their preachings of the Gospel These pollute themselves by poluting the most Sacred and Blessed Name of Jesus Christ in accepting their Office or Power of Preaching upon the terms they do whereby they become irregular for this employment whereas the other supposing them of competent abilities for the work committed no offence offered no indignity unto God in accepting or entring upon it Argument II. The Apostle Paul rejoyced yea and professed that he would rejoyce that Christ was Preached every way whether in pretence or in truth Phil. 1. 18. Therefore certainly it is lawful yea and more than lawful even matter of duty upon occasion to hear such at least of the Prelatical Teachers who preach Christ which it seems hard to deny but that some of them do For such preaching which no man can hear without sin cannot be any just matter of rejoycing unto a Christian nor indeed unto any man Answer 1. This general expression every way is to be limited and understood according to the Subject matter in hand There is nothing more frequent in the Scriptures than to deliver that in general terms which yet admits not of a simple or absolute universality in the meaning of it but only of such which renders it consistent with the tenor and notion of other Scriptures and is for the most part commensurable to the present occasion Matth. 23. 3. Mark 1. 5. 11. 24. Luke 2. 1. 10. 6. 30. John 10. 8. Acts 5. 42. Rom. 1. 5. to omit other instances without number Besides it is a common and true Rule Praedicata sunt talia qualia à subjectis suis esse permituntar In