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
A50959	A treatise of civil power in ecclesiastical causes shewing that it is not lawfull for any power on earth to compell in matters of religion / the author, J.M.	Milton, John, 1608-1674.	1659 (1659)	Wing M2185; ESTC R13133	23,223	97

taken scandal not a given To heal one conscience we must not wound another and men must be exhorted to beware of scandals in Christian libertie not forc'd by the magistrate least while he goes about to take away the scandal which is uncertain whether given or taken he take away our liberty which is the certain and the sacred gift of God neither to be touchd by him nor to be parted with by us None more cautious of giving scandal then St. Paul Yet while he made himself servant to all that he might gain the more he made himself so of his own accord was not made so by outward force testifying at the same time that he was free from all men 1 Cor. 9.19 and therafter exhorts us also Gal. 5.13 ye were calld to libertie c. but by love serve one another then not by force As for that fear least prophane and licentious men should be encourag'd to omit the performance of religious and holy duties how can that care belong to the civil magistrate especially to his force For if prophane and licentious persons must not neglect the performance of religious and holy duties it implies that such duties they can perform which no Protestant will affirm They who mean the outward performance may so explane it and it will then appeer yet more planely that such performance of religious and holy duties especialy by prophane and licentious persons is a dishonoring rather then a worshiping of God and not only by him not requir'd but detested Prov. 21.27 the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination how much more when he bringeth it with a wicked minde To compell therfore the prophane to things holy in his prophaneness is all one under the gospel as to have compelld the unclean to sacrifise in his uncleanness under the law And I adde withall that to compell the licentious in his licentiousness and the conscientious against his conscience coms all to one tends not to the honor of God but to the multiplying and the aggravating of sin to them both We read not that Christ ever exercis'd force but once and that was to drive prophane ones out of his temple not to force them in and if thir beeing there was an offence we finde by many other scriptures that thir praying there was an abomination and yet to the Jewish law that nation as a servant was oblig'd but to the gospel each person is left voluntarie calld only as a son by the preaching of the word not to be driven in by edicts and force of arms For if by the apostle Rom. 12.1 we are beseechd as brethren by the mercies of God to present our bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is our reasonable service or worship then is no man to be forc'd by the compulsive laws of men to present his body a dead sacrifice and so under the gospel most unholy and unacceptable because it is his unreasonable service that is to say not only unwilling but unconscionable But if prophane and licentious persons may not omit the performance of holy duties why may they not partake of holy things why are they prohibited the Lords supper since both the one and the other action may be outward and outward performance of dutie may attain at least an outward participation of benefit The church denying them that communion of grace and thanksgiving as it justly doth why doth the magistrate compell them to the union of performing that which they neither truly can being themselves unholy and to do seemingly is both hatefull to God and perhaps no less dangerous to perform holie duties irreligiously then to receive holy signes or sacraments unworthily All prophane and licentious men so known can be considerd but either so without the church as never yet within it or departed thence of thir own accord or excommunicate if never yet within the church whom the apostle and so consequently the church have naught to do to judge as he professes 1 Cor. 5.12 them by what autoritie doth the magistrate judge or which is worse compell in relation to the church if departed of his own accord like that lost sheep Luke 15.4 c. the true church either with her own or any borrowd force worries him not in again but rather in all charitable manner sends after him and if she finde him layes him gently on her shoulders bears him yea bears his burdens his errors his infirmities any way tolerable so fulfilling the law of Christ Gal. 6.2 if excommunicate whom the church hath bid go out in whose name doth the magistrate compell to go in The church indeed hinders none from hearing in her publick congregation for the doors are open to all nor excommunicates to destruction but as much as in her lies to a final saving Her meaning therfore must needs bee that as her driving out brings on no outward penaltie so no outward force or penaltie of an improper and only a destructive power should drive in again her infectious sheep therfore sent out because infectious and not driven in but with the danger not only of the whole and sound but also of his own utter perishing Since force neither instructs in religion nor begets repentance or amendment of life but on the contrarie hardness of heart formalitie hypocrisie and as I said before everie way increase of sin more and more alienates the minde from a violent religion expelling out and compelling in and reduces it to a condition like that which the Britains complain of in our storie driven to and fro between the Picts and the sea If after excommunion he be found intractable incurable and will not hear the church he becoms as one never yet within her pale a heathen or a publican Mat. 18.17 not further to be judgd no not by the magistrate unless for civil causes but left to the final sentence of that judge whose coming shall be in flames of fire that Maran athaà 1 Cor. 16.22 then which to him so left nothing can be more dreadful and ofttimes to him particularly nothing more speedie that is to say the Lord cometh In the mean while deliverd up to Satan 1 Cor. 5.5 1 Tim. 1.20 that is from the fould of Christ and kingdom of grace to the world again which is the kingdom of Satan and as he was receivd from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God Acts 26.18 so now deliverd up again from light to darkness and from God to the power of Satan yet so as is in both places manifested to the intent of saving him brought sooner to contrition by spiritual then by any corporal severitie But grant it belonging any way to the magistrate that prophane and licentious persons omit not the performance of holy duties which in them were odious to God even under the law much more now under the gospel yet ought his care both as a magistrate and a Christian to be much more that conscience be not inwardly violated

2 Cor. 10. of which anon and think weakly that the church of God cannot long subsist but in a bodilie fear for want of other prooff will needs wrest that place of S. Paul Rom. 13. to set up civil inquisition and give power to the magistrate both of civil judgment and punishment in causes ecclesiastical But let us see with what strength of argument Let every soul be subject to the higher powers First how prove they that the apostle means other powers then such as they to whom he writes were then under who medld not at all in ecclesiastical causes unless as tyrants and persecuters and from them I hope they will not derive either the right of magistrates to judge in spiritual things or the dutie of such our obedience How prove they next that he intitles them here to spiritual causes from whom he witheld as much as in him lay the judging of civil 1 Cor. 6.1 c. If he himself appeald to Cesar it was to judge his innocence not his religion For rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil then are they not a terror to conscience which is the rule or judge of good works grounded on the scripture But heresie they say is reck'nd among evil works Gal. 5.20 as if all evil works were to be punishd by the magistrate wherof this place thir own citation reck'ns up besides heresie a sufficient number to confute them uncleanness wantonness enmitie strife emulations animosities contentions envyings all which are far more manifest to be judgd by him then heresie as they define it and yet I suppose they will not subject these evil works nor many more such like to his cognisance and punishment Wilt thou then not be affraid of the power do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same This shews that religious matters are not here meant wherin from the power here spoken of they could have no praise For he is the minister of God to thee for good true but in that office and to that end and by those means which in this place must be cleerly found if from this place they intend to argue And how for thy good by forcing oppressing and insnaring thy conscience Many are the ministers of God and thir offices no less different then many none more different then state and church-government Who seeks to govern both must needs be worse then any lord prelat or church-pluralist for he in his own facultie and profession the other not in his own and for the most part not throughly understood makes himself supream lord or pope of the church as far as his civil jurisdiction stretches and all the ministers of God therin his ministers or his curates rather in the function onely not in the government while he himself assumes to rule by civil power things to be rul'd only by spiritual when as this very chapter v. 6 appointing him his peculiar office which requires utmost attendance forbids him this worse then church-plurality from that full and waightie charge wherin alone he is the minister of God attending continually on this very thing To little purpose will they here instance Moses who did all by immediate divine direction no nor yet Asa Iehosaphat or Iosia who both might when they pleasd receive answer from God and had a commonwealth by him deliverd them incorporated with a national church exercis'd more in bodily then in spiritual worship so as that the church might be calld a commonwealth and the whole commonwealth a church nothing of which can be said of Christianitie deliverd without the help of magistrates yea in the midst of thir opposition how little then with any reference to them or mention of them save onely of our obedience to thir civil laws as they countnance good and deterr evil which is the proper work of the magistrate following in the same verse and shews distinctly wherin he is the minister of God a revenger to execute wrath on him that doth evil But we must first know who it is that doth evil the heretic they say among the first Let it be known then certainly who is a heretic and that he who holds opinions in religion professdly from tradition or his own inventions and not from Scipture but rather against it is the only heretic and yet though such not alwaies punishable by the magistrate unless he do evil against a a civil Law properly so calld hath been already prov'd without need of repetition But if thou do that which is evil be affraid To do by scripture and the gospel according to conscience is not to do evil if we therof ought not to be affraid he ought not by his judging to give cause causes therfore of Religion are not here meant For he beareth not the sword in vain Yes altogether in vain if it smite he knows not what if that for heresie which not the church it self much less he can determine absolutely to be so if truth for error being himself so often fallible he bears the sword not in vain only but unjustly and to evil Be subject not only for wrath but for conscience sake how for conscience sake against conscience By all these reasons it appeers planely that the apostle in this place gives no judgment or coercive power to magistrates neither to those then nor these now in matters of religion and exhorts us no otherwise then he exhorted those Romans It hath now twice befaln me to assert through Gods assistance this most wrested and vexd place of scripture heretofore against Salmasius and regal tyranie over the state now against Erastus and state-tyranie over the church If from such uncertain or rather such improbable grounds as these they endue magistracie with spiritual judgment they may as well invest him in the same spiritual kinde with power of utmost punishment excommunication and then turn spiritual into corporal as no worse authors did then Chrysostom Ierom and Austin whom Erasmus and others in thir notes on the New Testament have cited to interpret that cutting off which S. Paul wishd to them who had brought back the Galatians to circumcision no less then the amercement of thir whole virilitie and Grotius addes that this concising punishment of circumcisers became a penal law therupon among the Visigothes a dangerous example of beginning in the spirit to end so in the flesh wheras that cutting off much likelier seems meant a cutting off from the church not unusually so termd in scripture and a zealous imprecation not a command But I have mentiond this passage to shew how absurd they often prove who have not learnd to distinguish rightly between civil power and ecclesiastical How many persecutions then imprisonments banishments penalties and stripes how much bloodshed have the forcers of conscience to answer for and protestants rather then papists For the papist judging by his principles punishes them who beleeve not as the church beleevs though against the scripture but the protestant