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	pray_v	prayer_n	1,314	5	6.4509	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35632	The case of pluralities & non-residence rightly stated in a letter to the author of a book called, A defence of pluralities, &c. shewing the false reasonings and evil doctrines therein contained / by an impartial hand, and a hearty well-wisher to the Church of England.	Impartial hand and a hearty well-wisher to the Church of England.	1694 (1694)	Wing C966; ESTC R16560	28,436	93

A Minister disabled in his Hands by the Gout or Palsy may without question make use of another to administer the Sacraments to his People and yet by his diligence in other duties deserve a double proportion of Honour and Maintenance However this case of Deacon-Incumbents doth not at all serve the purpose of the Clergy of the now Church of England For 't is plain that the allowance of them was lookt upon as a Corruption by the Church and State and therefore it hath been reformed by the Act of Uniformity And if the former permission of it were an argument that the Church did not then require Incumbents personally to supply their Cures then the present prohibition doth as strongly prove that now she doth And to what end are all Incumbents obliged to be in Priests Orders but only that they may be capable of performing all Holy Offices in their Cures unless by natural infirmities disabled I have particularly considered the force of this allegation because it looks the most like an argument of any thing in your Book But III. Though perpetual local Residence be not required by the Law of God yet to live so near the Cure and to be actually resident so far forth as to answer all the ends of the Ministry is I am so far of your mind as that God and Nature have made no particular Laws to appoint on what spot of ground the Minister's house shall stand but yet 't is absolutely required that he should watch over the flock and therefore it necessarily follows that he must be so much amongst them and dwell so near them as that he may effectually perform this duty 'T is a thing highly proper perpetually to reside where it can be done with any tolerable safety or accommodation He that doth so may have more frequent opportunities of doing good and may more easily and throughly discharge his Conscience and some Cures cannot be faithfully served but by resident Ministers by reason of the multitude of Parishioners and their daily occasions And in such cases 't is without doubt as necessary that the Minister should reside as it is that he should perform his duty and vows However so near all ought to dwell and so often to be with their Parishioners as that no Soul may be in danger of perishing no necessary duty neglected through their absence And indeed generally speaking dwelling in the Parish where a man is beneficed is so very requisite that it were very much to be desired that those Incumbents who have not an important excuse to the contrary were forced to legal and local residence When I speak of residence and dwelling in the Parish I mean it in the same sense that any plain Englishman will take it viz making it the place of abode and rambling abroad as little as may be or as is consistent with the greater business which every Minister hath lying upon his hands I say this to remind you of your little banters Pag. 26. c. Suppose say you the Incumbent lives not here viz. within the bounds of his Parish but 100 yards further c. and Pag. 27. If ten distance miles be allowed why not 20 or 30 You might have added 100 or 1000. For your argument is indefinite and pleads for 10000 miles distance as well as ten The case of the Spanish Bishops is so remarkable that I must mention it again Pag. 24. You ask them whether the Residence which they asserted to be of Divine Right included the whole year or only part of it If Residence of the whole year were required by the Law of God by what warrant did they appear in that place viz. Trent out of their Dioceses or c. If only partial residence were required who should define how much God would accept it might have been alledged that since God himself had revealed nothing as to this matter it is an evident Argument he intended no such obligation Has God revealed nothing as to this matter Yes he has revealed this that you must give an account of the people Heb. 13.17 And no man can give an account of all and therefore by People must be meant those who are peculiarly committed to your Charge he hath told you by the Apostle that you must take heed to the Flock and be instant in season and out of season and this you cannot do if you live too far distant from them God hath been pleased in this and many other particulars only to give you the general heads of your duty He commands us to be sober to avoid Covetousness and worldly Cares to pray often c. without prescribing the nice quantity of liquor or meat that we may use without stinting men to a certain number of hours or tale of Prayers and yet there certainly are quantities and hours which if we do not observe we transgress these duties So 't is in the case before us God hath only commanded Ministers in general terms to be very instant and urgent to oversee and take care of the People without telling us how far or how long they may be absent from them And yet with all your little Sophistry you will never be able to wipe off the force of these Laws But you have passed or reported a Jest in the beginning of your Book Pag. 20. which puts me in mind of a parallel Instance A man is obliged to take care of his own and to dwell with his Wife and that by the Law of God but yet if you were a married man and had caught a she Tartar whom you would be willing to shake off you might according to your way of arguing make this Dilemma If a man be obliged to dwell with his Wife and reside with his Family he is either obliged to dwell in the same House or Room with them and that perpetually and without any intermission or else at a small distance and only part of his time if the former be true then he must never be from home tho upon the most necessary occasions or even to make provision for his Family but if he may live the next wall to them and be sometimes out for a day or a week then why not altogether For to use your own words since God himself has revealed nothing as to this matter i. e. the precise time or space of being without Wives 't is an evident argument he intended no such obligation and so you might get rid of your Wife without the formality of a Process or appealing to the Ecclesiastical Consistory Is not this pretty Tattle and is not yours just the same For your argument against the necessity of partial residence runs thus If a Minister may be absent sometimes as suppose to go to Convocation or to buy Books at London why may he not as well be absent the whole year if he may dwell Ten Yards out of his Parish why not as many or three times as many Miles So that the Conventicle-Preacher when he would