Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	authority_n	law_n	power_n	1,453	5	4.7820	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60972	Davvnings of light wherein the true interest of reformation is opened in generall, and in particular, in this kingdome for the establishment of weaker judgements, and many other things impartially hinted, to a further discovery of truth and light in many of our present controversies : with some maximes of reformation / by John Saltmarsh ...	Saltmarsh, John, d. 1647.	1646 (1646)	Wing S477; ESTC R40634	39,746	130

exactly compleatly sent down from Heaven with laws and cautionary precepts for the just observance and to these under the Gospel the notions in Scripture of Kingdom City Family Officers Offices Church-censures Administrations Applications with many things of spirituall policy both in principles and practice with necessary inference from Gods first method On the other side all this is acknowledged yet in a little more latitude and godly prudence is let in for making up some●hing where there is not a deficiency suspected but no clear principles or rul●s revealed Pretended Heresies Divisions AS we should not go about to excuse or defend any errour clearly convicted so not to condemn any thing for errour which seems not to beare up equally to our received principles and here wee must observe that there are many who when the notion of errour or heresie is abroad are only Pentioners to the multitude and measure the errour or heresie by those that are for it or against it and are resolved however to write that way that they see the most condemn and these are such who though they do not kindle yet they blow the fire amongst us and I have observed that these do so overwrite a cause that at length they improve an errour and arme it more against the truth then it was before by charging things on the wrong side of it as we have seen of late and thus while we think to gain by letting in such a promiscuous stream of opposers we rather lose as in the case of some present controversies who cōplain that they are rather oppressed then convinced and bo●n down then writ down certainly that wch makes us on all sides so far from peace and issue or successe the more we dispute is our intemperancy and unnaturall heats in which we spend as much paper as in the cause it self and I am sure in some differences I could name the truth stands by while we wrangle beside it and the dust that we raise in arguing makes the truth lesse discernable and that which is considerable amongst us here is the exceeding prejudice received against difference of judgement and divisions not considering that it is Gods secret or engine for discovery as well of truth as errour and for advantaging the one as well as disadvantaging the other To instance in our late debates about Government it will appear that truth is improved and hath received advancement frō those very principles that seemed to oppose it and I am sure in the case of the Antinomians that errour about Free-grace hath drawn our Divines into more studying and preaching it then before and stating it clearer and the very Heresies almost of all times have accidentally 〈◊〉 advanced some particular Scripture truth And that very controversie about the Ministery received from Bishops hath brought forth some advantage amongst many of the godly even a deep humiliation because it came to us with a mark of the beast with it and let not any jealousie or fear of derogation or disparagement cause us to fold it up without any Nationall contrition or acknowledgement now in a season when we are laying new spirituall fundamentals as in that late Act for Ordination let the Prelates own designes of connivence whose principles dare not look the Light in the face Selfe indulgency with the right use of Heresies and Errours FIrst it is impossible but Heresies and Errours should be though there be a woe upon the Authors and Abettors so as one would think this prediction of Christ should coole us in the heat of our tumults about them and we should make no wonder at that which Christ hath prepared us so long before hand to receive yet here we should do as the Disciples did when their Lord had foretold them of a treachery to befall him every one said Master is it I this reflective disposition or selfe-jealousie I finde much wanting in many while every one rather ●its armed at his own door and will neither search his house himself nor suffer another to go in without opposition and thus all count their opinions truth and will not do so much as suspect their own judgements which was not the Disciples practice and so we are forced to confute one another while no man will confute himself and thus differences are inflamed And be it that the things we condemn for Heresies and Errours be so then there is this left us to work up to Gods designe in such cases and to turn them into advantages for the truth and such a work is next to Gods who takes in every sinne and distemper and makes it act something to his glorious ends He hath commanded light to shine out of darknesse Are they Anabaptists as they call them Let it provoke us to awaken the Scriptures more for what we do let us study the substance of the Covenant more let us study Scripture inference and deductions more let us study the correspodency of the Seals under both dispensations more and we shall gain this to be able to do what we do upon clearer and stronger principles Are they Brownists or Separatists as they call them Let it stir us up to look to our Fundamentall truths better to our Ministery to our Churches to our Practices and sure while these controversies involve us more into the Scriptures we shall only come forth more refined and clearer in judgement and practice and what we might possibly have taken in under the notion of Tradition or Authority and so have engaged our selves implicitely to the truths we professe we shall now give up unto God a more reasonable sacrifice Are they Antinomians as some cal them or these that cry down Law or duties Let us draw this advantage to seek out how the riches of Free grace are offered and how the Law is established by the Gospel and what power of it is annulled how Christ is to be advanced above all and how he is all in all and the true Fountain in whom our life is hid and that our being in him and he in us is the cause of all graces and duties in us and that our life now in grace ought to be in conformity to that we shall live hereafter in glory where being filled with Christ we shall only live to the obedience and praise of him for that work of justification and redemption we had by him and let us study to give duties their right origination order and end Prayer Repentance Obedience c. as gr●●●s that flow from Christ into his and back again from his into Christ and that we interpret all Scriptures that concern either Christ or the Law or Sin or Obedience or Duty into the glory of God in Christ that all our conclusions may exalt him whom God had in designe only to exalt To be a Prince and a Saviour And thus we should drive on Gods ends more then we doe in making every thing serve his glory and our own edification and not dash

and some amongst us are concen●red in this to call all other Hereticks and Schismaticks who may be found perhaps to differ but as the stronger and weaker Christians who though one eat herbs and another regard a day do it both to the Lord CONSIDERATIONS in REFORMATION COnsider that the Controversies of our times amongst some take up the application of them so wholly as a few particular truths are made their only businesse and the positive work of salvation little advanced These ought we to have done and not to leave the other undone Consider that the measure of grace is not equal in all nor the degrees of light the same and this hath ever brought forth in the practice of the godly according to the examples in Scriptures an indulgency and godly prudence towards one another and this would be a seasonable consideration in these times of Reformation where all cannot bear the truths revealed to some and in the establishment of Reformation to come where if all the truths be not setled that many desire yet so much may bee setled as ought rather to bee the object of godly indulgency praise then scandall and murmuring and to blesse God for our very removes from Popery Prelacy into the Reformation to come yet so as this be no caution against the peaceable testimony of those for the greater advancements in the worship or government of God whom God shall stir up Consider that the warres in the severall States of Christendome as Germany Denmark Italy Ireland England c. are but pieces of the great work and preparatories and fall in their severall degrees and orders into the designe of God for his Church and the ruine of Antichrist and are not to be lookt upon as pieces and splinters that brake out from confused troubles therefore when you hear of wars and rumours of wars be not troubled for the end is not yet Consider that unlesse we be a people more sanctified by the successe and meanes wee have our enemies shall not fall through any divine favour to us but through the provocation of their own sinnes and then their ruine will scarcely be our salvation but they shall only have the precedency to be first in the judgement yet here we may look up at the prerogative of Gods mercy working sometimes above sins and provocations He went on frowardly in the way of his heart I have seene his wayes and will heale him And there is to this too a supplement in the holinesse of the Representative of our State or Parliament though the body or people of the Kingdome be not so disposed as we could wish and this saved a Kingdome in Iosiahs and Ezekiahs times and may save ours Consider that our dayes of Fasts c. as they ought to be exceedingly advanced we having experienced much by them so they may be possibly made to take up the reall and substantiall Reformation that ought to be if our Ministers looke more to their own designe then Gods in them and so the dayes and duties may almost devour the power of godlinesse in the practise for the reformation of a day is the easier duty then that of a whole life and sooner done and it would be well observed whether we rise up equally in this that they bee not mistaken as it were for the occasional Antidotes of our weekly sinning and then if people once think an extraordinary day the only remedy provided they will soone grow remisse in their constant practice This I speak that we keep not up a standing sinne with a standing remedy that it may be considered that God lose not any thing through mans additionall of circumstance in worship and because I see the very formality of the duty is as much lookt upon by some as the duty and the duty as him to whom it refers and carries almost the glory of our successe from Christ himself at least is made by some indistinctly a competitor in our deliverances these things would bee rightly and clearly stated to the people God and duties must have their right places and that may not only keep many right but save some from going wrong in this point let us be as much in these extraordinaries of humiliation as we can so we hold up God and Christ in their glorious preheminencies in them and the people be taught to be as constant in the power of godliness as occasionall to know Christ for the only power both of the duty and deliverance Consider whether our provocations under so many Protestations and Covenants be not equivalent to that excellent duty of our first Obligations and whether the humiliation for this ought not to be as solemne as the League and Covenant and as Nationall Consider that our debates and disputes about worship and government have not been assisted with any publick or particular acknowledgement of former and present superstitious inclinations both in Ministery and people and with any publick or particular seeking God for revealing his will in this present Reformation to us thi● may make us so long in seeking Consider whether all of Prelacy be removed as well as their vitiousnesse and superstitions and that none of their pride superciliousnesse and self-seeking be left behinde in us and any of our own Ministers especially any that stand above others in place of Reformation and if so let us endeavour the extirpation of it by vertue of our Covenant Dawnings of Light Wherein the true Interest of REFORMATION is opened The Interest stated BEing to treat of the interest of the creature only I shall not speak of the interest of the Creator of GOD himself which is so deeply and unsearchably laid in his own Essence each person in the Godhead subsisting in the same infiinite onenesse or being and so acting abroad adessentially and intrinsecally upon the creature There is not any thing created but it hath an interest there is a naturall or physicall interest that which consists in such a being or cause or in severall causes which are in consociation to the producing and improving such and such effects and this interest is strengthened and improved by the putting forth the effects and causations 2. There is a political or civil interest and that is the strength of every State as Sampson had his locks wherein his might lay so there is no Kingdome or State but they have their locks some complication where their power is twisted and takes root and like vines cast out themselves in severall veins and sinews of negotiation and so acquire improvements But there is a Supernaturall interest and that is it which I aim at in this place or an intorest of Reformation this interest is considerable either towards God or towards men The interest towards God is increated divine more immediate more immanent more pure and primary The interest towards man is more incorporated more complicated more circumstantiated more secondary These two parts if