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
B03937	Mr. Keith's sermon, preach'd on May the 12th, 1700. At Dr. Bedford's church, being Saint George Butolphs-Lane, by Billings-Gate. On Luke the 1st and verse 6th.	Keith, George, 1639?-1716.	1700 (1700)	Wing K210; ESTC R179321	14,369	16

These and a numerous other Absurdities to the Reason of Mankind are contained in that senseless Mystery of Transubstantiation to defend which their Doctors have been and are forced to deny Reason and say that the same thing may and can be and not be c. But Beloved if neither Reason nor so much as our Senses may be believed Pray what assurance can we have of any thing But Oh! What assurance had 〈◊〉 to strengthen his staggering Faith about our Saviour's Resurrection This only and that particularly from his Lord viz. Stretch out thine hand and thrust it into my side and be not faithless but believing Nay further the now Roman Church destroys the Ground of Certainty by an innumerable Company of Lying Wonders which you may Read of in their Legends which the Priests do impudently obtrude upon the belief of the silly and ignorant People only for proof and confirmation of their Religion But on the other Hand the Sects and Sepratists being in as dangerous an Extream concerning Faith c. For I found and have now just Reason to acknowledge that the greatest part of my Religion when among them was made up of senseless and absurd Notions which I am now ashamed of they being as we were wont set forth in unintelligible fantastical Phrases by as 2 Pet 3. 16. saith wresting of Scriptures to our own Destruction tho' I indeed then as well as they accounted it the heights of Spirituality and Mystery upon which we valued and boasted our selves as the only Knowing and Spiritual People When as Thanks be to God it is known now to me and all discerning Persons that there was and is nothing in such pretended Heights and Spiritualities but only vain Imagination and Dreaming which are dangerous Deceits For as the Light of Reason and Sense dispels the vain Images of Dreams So these admitted would and will cure all Phantastical Impostures and Delusions for which cause they as well as I formerly declared against nothing so vehemently as Reason under the notion of Carnal and so an Enemy to the Spirit and the things of it True I must needs confess now that there is a Carnal Reason which is Enmity to Truth and Goodness But that as I am rightly inform'd is not the Reason of our Minds but our 〈◊〉 Passions and corrupt Interests which is not Reason truly and properly so call'd no more than an Ape can be call'd a Man And for want of knowing and distinguishing the things which so differ Verily Enthusiasticks rail violently against all Reason as the grand Adversary of the Truths and Mysterys of the Gospel Nay further resolving as I did formerly all assurance either into or upon a bare belief of the Testimony of a private Spirit For as mine was so their Ground and Belief of the Scriptures both was and is this Testimony and consequently whatsoever is received from hence bottoms there The Papists as it 's confest believe the Scriptures on the Testimony of their Church but that Sect of which I was with others believe them on the Testimony of their Spirit That is in Sober Sadness by the Suggestions and Resolutions of their own viz. they like silly Women led Captive believe because they will believe finding themselve inclined to it So upon the same Reason as has been observed when the Imagination and Humour as mine did alters they then may and will cease to believe or as I do now believe the contrary I shall not appeal only to my own Experience but to that in others also For have not some vastly multiplyed Articles of Faith by making all their private Opinions sacred calling them Gospel and saving Truths whereas at the best they were but uncertainties For being senseless Imaginations they are usually false by which they expose the whole Body of Christian Principles to Suspicion and so weaken the Faith of some and destroy that of others So now having given you the Characters of a true Church Namely First that its Articles of Faith and Doctrine are antient viz. as St. Jude saith That which was once delivered to the Saints Secondly That it 's Pure and Peaceable And Thirdly That those things it commands are both reasonable and certain And since for all the fine and gay Pretences I cannot find such a Faith in these two dangerous Extreams which I have fairly and impartially Examined I will by God's assistance Examine and see whether that Church into which I am now entred being by Law Established has those Marks and Characters of a true Faith which I have before described And First I am well assured and so dare boldly assert that the Church Established without fondness or over-weaning doth profess and teach the antient Primitive and Apostolick Faith having admitted no new things that are contrary to it For it was reformed according to the Scriptures and the Apostolick Rules and Ways I say according to the Scriptures as they were interpreted by the first General Councils and Fathers those I mean next to the Apostles whom we ought to believe for they then assuredly understood what was the Apostles Doctrines and Ways nay the Church is truly and rightly called Protestant 〈…〉 against the Roman and Sectarian Innovations so according 〈…〉 Character must be true Secondly It teaches us Righteousness in general namely our duty to God our Neighbours and our Selves in the just Latitude and extent of them For it has no Shifts and Evasions of Repentance and Reformation it allows no hopes of Salvation but upon Gospel terms It teaches no Practise that is either Impious or Immoral nor indulgeth any by its Doctrine perhaps some Rotten Members may wink and connive at such For the Church it self tells us that whosoever is Evil must know it by being Judged and Condemned Nay further the Church leaves no hopes of Salvation but what is grounded on effectual Repentance and Reformation nor imposeth any Articles of belief as necessary to Salvation but the antient Creed and no terms of Communion but reasonable Orders and Decencies as are free from all appearance of Idolatry and Superstition or any thing else that i● unlawful and as to the concerns of civil Peace the Church with Christ and his Apostles hath taught all active Chearful and Conscientious Obedience both to God the King and also Subordinate Rulers in all lawful things and a quiet Submission to the Penalties of not Obeying when the things required are plainly or certainly so to its former Praise Renown and Happiness be it spoken So Lastly the Church now Established teaches no Opinions that needs such a desperate Course to defend them For all its Articles are reasonable and may be proved or defended by Reason against all Athe●sts or Infidels c. She secures also the certainty of her Faith by resolving it into the Scriptures the true Seat of Infallibility and the belief of the Scriptures on the other hand into the Testimony of the Spirit of God which confirmed it by Miracles So that by these

this That when the Opinions of others are at a great distance from our own then we look upon them as a simple Perswasion but when they come near to ours we look upon such as a kind of Affront presuming that where the Distance is so little it is not so much the Matter of Controversie as the Malice of the Party that keeps up the Difference So that is a Prejudice which naturally inflames Men and Women to Revenge and breeds as we find by woful Experience even a Canker in Religion which insensibly eats up the Spirit of it which caused the Princely Prophet to say Psal 99. 9. The Zeal of thine House hath eaten me But waving all this to proceed to the Second Particular namely What that Righteousness is which made and will make any Blameless Now give me leave to suppose that that Man or Woman which breaks Communion with a true Church which is by Law established tho' they maintain all other Acts of Charity as much as possible as to bear no Malice to any to Censure none to Pray for and wish well to all yet I can and must assure you that indeed is to be Righteous before God but yet far short of the Duty in keeping all the Commandments since that Duty of Brotherly Love namely that Love which one Christian owes to another is not expressed For Brotherly love is not or at least can't be shown but by Communicating in Religious Offices viz. Breaking of Bread and in Prayers as the Primitive Fellowship of Christians is expressed in Holy Scripture which Offices in all Ages have been looked upon as the necessary Tests and Symbols of Christian Love c. But alas alas Division both is and has been as I know by Experience the Mother of a great many Evils For what an Harvest was and is it as I formerly found to wily Seducers and what a Rock to unstable Minds yea what a Snare to Itching Ears and what anopportunity to Men and Women of either wanton or peevish Fancies to sow the Ta●es of Confusion And what a Provocation to God to suffer that they who can't agree with one another should sometimes or other be suffered to be devoured one of another But Lastly Some nay many pretend that their differing or dissenting from a true and established Church is because they cannot Edifie as they think under the Churches Teachers and that is the chief if not the only Reason they do or cannot communicate with her thinking it almost impossible to edifie as much under her Teachers as they do under those that seperate from her And what the true Reason of non-edifying is I shall now inquire into and that being now by me perceived and to you related I am afraid will prove a very scandalous Reason for I find that it s nothing but Prejudice that hinders their Edification Prejudice I say which would hinder some from Edifying even under the Labours of an Angel I am well assured that it hindred many from improving under the Labours of a God much more then under either some Angels or Men for without all doubt our blessed Lord was a most edifying Preacher and yet its evident that a great many of those that heard him were never the better they were indeed such which spread abroad III Characters and entertained a mean opinion of him calling him the Carpenter's Son a Wine-bibber a Friend of Publicans and Sinners with which Prejudice they hindred not only themselves but also others from edifying And to conclude this Second Particuiar of my Text give me leave once more to tell all such which as I once did do dissent from the Church in making such slender but gay and plausible Pretences that if they as I did once think or imagine that theirs is the right and true Way To which I Answer That that is but bare Thought or Imagination which they as I once foolishly did so eagerly contend for and that which they now have and do contemn are all Possitive and Divine Commands and Ordinances nay were such certain that the Rules and Ways which they propose were in their judgment better than those of the established Church c. yet they may be as certain that Love and Charity are better than these And granting that Humane Laws are now dispensable at pleasure yet I hope that none dare or will think that the Laws of God which require an Obedience not only to some Commandments and Ordinances but to all to be blameless are and may be dispensed with by us True all Opinions plead Scripture for what they say and do and many pretend to Reason and the most to Antiquity Ages I must confess alters Judgments and Affections changes the Thoughts and Imaginations often shift the Scene and what some calls Reason has proved oftentimes a chain of Phantasms so that often many are guided by Prejudices and over-ruled by Authority or formed as I have shewn by Education and so suck in their Opinions carelesly or by accident and are deeply settled before they have examined yea when they do examine it s but by halves For they seeing know but few things judge all the rest by those they know and see so that such do not either seek the Truth at all or are unable to manage a due and impartial search of it Or when they stumble upon it they do not know or when it is in their sight they boggle and are afraid and so runs away from it or else begins to daub it with vile Aspersions whilst they catch only at Shadows and grow fond of the Images of their own Fancies crying up those for Truth and Faith Thus disturbing Societies and the Peace of Mankind to gain Credit to their own fond Dreams and Fancies being confident of their Opinions and even hating those which are not of their Perswasion Thus forsaking a certain Duty for some doubtful and foolish Tenets If these were but considered by all Fondness towards Opinion would be lessened and Charity promoted which is so necessary among all Christians which that it may come to pass God grant for Christ's sake AMEN FINIS