Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	bind_v	law_n	obligation_n	1,168	5	9.4651	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44145	Letters written to J.M. a nonconformist teacher, concerning the gift and forms of prayer The second part. By Matthew Hole, B.D. sometime fellow of Exeter College, Oxon. now vicar of Stoke-gursey in Somersetshire.; Correct copy of some letters written to J.M. a nonconformist teacher, concerning the gift and forms of prayer. Part 2.	Hole, Matthew, 1639 or 40-1730.	1699 (1699)	Wing H2410; ESTC R215281	96,332	185

I hope the sequel of this Letter will plainly discover But first I cannot but observe That before the making of that Act your Conventicles were as frequent and with as little regret as they have been since And I find you declaring in your Letter of June the 30th That tho' you have a Law permitting and allowing your Preaching yet you still counted it your Duty before and your Practice was accordingly So that whatever claim you make to a Law 't is no better than a meer pretence For 't is plain That you matter not the Law but will do as you think fit as well without as with it however since you have it you will not fail to make the best of it And tho' the Title of it shews it only to be an Exemption from some Penalties yet you will not have it thought barely an Allowance but an Approbation of your Assemblies which shews how much you extend Favour further than you should and if the Government at any time give you an Inch how apt and ready you are to take an Ell. And therefore to give a check to this Vanity I must tell you 2dly That the Law you insist upon does not take off the Obligation of repairing to the Establish'd Churches but only suffers you to go unpunish'd if you do otherwise Now if you would rightly consider the nature of Laws and the true Principle of Obedience to them you would soon see That the bare suspending the Punishment is far from annulling the Obligation of Laws For the clearing of which I shall premise a few things that may help to give some light to it 1st And First In all Laws two things are to be consider'd viz. a Precept requiring some thing to be done or left undone And a Penalty to be inflicted upon the doing or not doing of it In the first of these consists the Nature and Essence of a Law which lies in commanding something to be done or not done and this is to be a Rule to govern the Actions and oblige the Consciences of such as are subjected to the higher Powers whereas the latter is only a Circumstance added to it to make it observ'd By which it appears 2dly That the Penalty appertains not to the Being or Essence of a Law but is meerly an accidental Adjunct or Appendix annext to it to enforce Obedience Were all Men led as they should be by Principles of Conscience there would be no need or use of Penalties But because too many thro' the pravity of their Natures lose the Sense of their Duty and are led by Humour Interest and corrupt Designs away from it Punishments become necessary to reduce them to it Furthermore you must note 3dly That the main Reason of our Obligation to Laws is founded on the Will of the Law-giver sufficiently made known for he having a Commission and Authority from God to command in all lawful things we are therefore bound in Duty and Conscience to obey him therein as God's Minister So that whensoever he duly declares and publishes his Mind then does the Obligation commence and ceases not till he think fit to countermand and recall it 4thly We must observe a double Principle or Motive of Obedience the one for Wrath or Fear of Punishment the other for Conscience sake now our Obedience to Laws is by the Apostle's Direction to be grounded on both but chiefly on the latter for he wills all Christians to be subject not only for Wrath but for Conscience sake so that if the Fear of Wrath or the Displeasure of the Magistrate be gone by removing of the Penalty there remains another and stronger Tye to our Duty even the Obligation of Conscience which must hold us to it while the preceptive part of the Law remains tho' the coercive ceases Now from these Propositions duly consider'd these two things will necessarily follow 1st That while the Will and Pleasure of the Law-giver is to continue a Law which must be suppos'd till the preceptive part of it wherein it mainly consists be repeal'd so long the Law continues in force and the Obligation of it remains 2dly That the bare Suspension of the Penalty is no repealing of a Law for while the preceptive part which is the Essence of the Law remains it still keeps its Force and our Obedience to it is not superseded by the ceasing of the Punishment In short then seeing the things commanded in those Laws that require Conformity to the Church continue still unrepeal'd and nothing taken off but the Punishment which belongs not to the Essence of them it evidently follows that the Obligation to them remains and that the Subjects are still bound to do what is still required by them which was the thing to be prov'd The want of a right Understanding of these things hath occasioned many and great Mistakes in this Matter For 1st It was not long since you took the undergoing the Penalty to be the keeping of the Law for when you were charged with Disobedience to the lawful Injunction of Superiors your Reply was That tho' you did not what the Law requir'd yet you suffer'd what the Law inflicted and this you thought sufficiently answer'd the end of the Law Now the Weakness of this arguing will easily appear by considering that 't is the preceptive Part that is the Form or Essence of the Law and if you disobey that you cannot be said to keep the Law by undergoing the Punishment which is inflicted only for the Breach of it Yea the end of the Penalty being only to enforce Obedience to the thing commanded to suffer the one without doing the other is to contradict and defeat the ends of both Indeed where the Matter of a Law is sinful their undergoing the Penalty is as much as a good Christian may or ought to do and in such Cases Submission is required when Obedience is not But where the Matter of a Law neither is nor can be proved unlawful there 't is not the suffering what is inflicted but doing what is required that answers the end of the Law For the primary Intention of all Laws and Lawgivers is not the Punishment and grieving the Subjects but their observing what is commanded them for the good of the Common-wealth He that thinks the Magistrate is well pleas'd with punishing the Contempt as rewarding Obedience to his Laws must think unworthily of him and he that makes this the Rule and Measure of his Actions is no better Observer of Laws than the Thief or the Traytor who are hang'd for the Breach of them Again 2dly As you formerly mistook the suffering the Penalty for keeping of the Law so now you are fallen into the quite contrary Mistake and take the not-suffering the Penalty for the keeping of it For you imagine the late Act exempting you from the Punishment of some Laws hath freed you from any farther Duty or Obligation to them These Errors you unawares run into merely by over looking the principal and

preceptive Part of Laws and having an Eye only or chiefly to the coercive Part by which means if you are not at any time subject 't is merely for Wrath and not for Conscience sake Again 3dly This hath led you into a farther Mistake and made you take the suspending the Penalties for the Abrogation of the Laws for you imagine That the Act of Uniformity and all the Laws against Conventicles to have lost their Force from your being exempted from the Penalties of them Which shews That you place the Obligation of Laws not in the Matter or Things enjoined by them but wholly and solely in the Penalties annex'd to them so that when these are taken off the other of course are gone with them Yea 4thly You have a wilder Conceit than all this for you imagine That the removing the Penalties not only removes the Obligation of Laws but establishes the things forbidden by them For you take Conventicles to be allow'd and establish'd by that Law which merely exempts you from being punished for them which shews your deep reach in the Knowledge of the Laws or rather your gross Prevarications in the Observance of them In your Letter of July 11th you tell me That your Places of Meeting are as lawfully allowed as our Temples now our Temples being establish'd by Law yours it seems must have the same Authority And in your Letter of June 30th you say 't is to arraign the Government to affirm otherwise 'T is to be fear'd Sir That your Confidence in time will mount you so high as to reckon it a Crime to go to Church and to shut up all Religion and Virtue within the Walls of a Conventicle But let us hear what you have to say for these things and 1st you tell me That this Law amounts to more than a Suspension of the Penalty For it allows your Congregations guards them from Disturbance and exempts the Ministers from serving in any secular Office which is a sort of Reward Sir the Allowance mentioned in that Act implies no Approbation of your Congregations much less any Establishment of them but merely a winking at them for some temporal Reasons To keep any from disturbing them amounts to no more than a bare Permission or Toleration And for exempting you from secular Offices 't is a privilege granted to all in holy Orders of which you make a very bad use to think it a Reward for your making and continuing Divisions But you go on to tell me That if it were a bare Suspension of the Penalty yet that were enough to render them void of any Obligation on your Consciences to Obedience because they are merely Penal Laws Sir if you account all Laws that have a Penalty annex'd to the Breach of them to be Penal Laws you may then reckon the Ecclesiastical Laws and indeed all other Laws in that Number there being scarce any to be found without it But to reckon them merely Penal upon that account is a great Mistake to rectifie which you must know That there are some Laws express'd in Disjunctive Terms requiring to do this or that as in the Case of bearing such an Office or paying such a Fine Here the Law is purely Penal and paying the Fine answers the end of it being left in the Power of the Subject to chuse either but there are other Laws that directly and positively require something to be done or not done with a Penalty added to the Violation of it and here 't is not the suffering the Punishment but observing the thing that satisfies the Law Of this kind are the Laws that establish Conformity where he that does not what is commanded is a Transgressor of the Law and justly suffers for the Breach of it But you prove these to be merely Penal Laws because they require things that are no way apt to promote the common Good and till we prove them otherwise you will never be sensible of their pretended Obligation Sir Are Unity Order and Decency in the publick Worship which are the subject of these Laws things no way apt to promote the common Good Do you not read many express Precepts and Exhortations to them for the Benefit and Edisication of the Church Certainly if you have any Sense of Duty to the Laws of God or Man these things will carry more than a pretended Obligation But you have one thing more to say in your Letter of June 28th and that is That the Law does not only call your Liberty an Allowance but also that 't is for the Ease of Conscience Now the Suspension of the Penalty is only say you for the Ease of the Back and the Purse but 't is the taking off the Obligation that is for the Ease of Conscience Sir All the Ease granted or intended by that Act relates only to the Persons and Purses of Dissenters which are thereby exempted from the Temporal Fines and Penalties annex'd to the Breach of some Laws which is all that the Civil Magistrate can do but may not be extended to the taking off the Guilt or Obligation to Eternal Punishments which none but God the sole Law-giver and Judge of Conscience hath Power to remove Now Schism which is a Breach of the Peace and Unity of the Church being forbidden by the Law of God cannot have its Guilt or Obligation to eternal Punishment taken off by suspending the Temporal Penalties much less can it become lawful or made harmless by humane Laws I hope you do not think that Impunity can void the Obligation of Divine Laws or that a thing ceases to be a Sin because it ceaseth to be punish'd by the Civil Magistrate for then Theft Adultery and Murder would be no Crimes if the Punishment of them were at any time forborn and suspended And if Sentence against an evil Work be not executed presently the Hearts of the Children of Men might be safely set in them to do Evil Eccles viii 11. But how come they to plead for Toleration now who not long since thought and stil'd it intolerable Is that which was then the Mother of Confusion the Nurse of Schism Jus. Div. Reg. Eccl. and the Step-mother of Edification as they were wont to call it become of a sudden the Parent of all true Religion and Vertue No certainly the Matter is That 't was other Mens Case then and 't is their own now and that makes a mighty Alteration Are you not asham'd of such gross Partiality which is enough to make a Forehead of Brass to blush I shall conclude this Letter with the Words of your beloved John Calvin who tells us That in a true Church Instit L. 4. cap. 1. Sect. 10. where the Word of God is truly preach'd and the Sacraments duly administred none may presume to despise the Authority or resist the Admonitions or refuse the Counsels or slight the Corrections of it much less to withdraw from it and break its Unity and go unpunished Adding That God so highly

same one to another which Words are commonly interpreted of Alms which the Apostle would have imparted as occasion should require But cannot with any congruity of Sense have any Reference to Prayer for the Apostle speaks there of Ministring one to another whereas in Prayer He that Ministreth Ministreth to God only to whom alone our Prayers are directed But if this Gift be not to be sound in either of these places James 1.17 they think they cannot fail of it in that of St. James Every good Gift and every perfect Gift is from above and which Words being so general they think must necessarily comprechend it But if there were no appearance of any such Gift at that time or since why should we think that this must needs comprehend it Besides the Gifts mentiou'd by St. James are good and perfect Gifts and such as came down from above whereas the Imperfections that attend your pretended Gift and the many Evils that have proceeded from and are still continued by it shew it to have no Title to either Yea the Mischief done by this black Art of Variations shews it came rather from the Fiends of Darkness than Father of Lights with whom is no Variableness neither shadow of Change However these Men having strongly possess'd themselves with vain Imaginations of this Gift think themselves bound to use it not only without but against the Authority of their Superiors for one of them tells us That this Gift is a Mean given by God for the performance of the Duty of Prayer and therefore may not be omitted at the Command of Man for they are required not to neglect but to stir up the Gift of God that is in them and are called upon daily to imploy and improve the Talent that is committed to them But is it a sinful neglect think you of your own Gifts at any time to make use of the Composures of others in Divine Worship And must all the Gifts we have or imagine our selves to have be constantly Exercis'd upon pain of being thought Idle and Lazy Persons Why then as a Reverend Divine hath well observ'd He that hath any Talent in Greek and Hebrew may not use the Translation of the Bible drawn up by others but must for the Exercise of his Gifts make a new Translation of his own and vary it too if he can as oft as he hath occasion to quote it Again he that is able to gather the Articles of the Christian Faith into a brief Summary may not make use of the Creed drawn up by others for that purpose but must for the Exercise of his own Gifts be daily making of new Creeds Once more he that hath any Talent in Poetry or Musick must not make use of Psalms set to Musick or Meeter by others but for the Exercise of his own Gifts must be still making new Hymns of his own and if he can daily set them too to new Tunes These things are every jot as necessary upon the account of exercising Mens Gifts as it is to lay aside the pious and well compos'd Forms of others and think themselves oblig'd to be daily making new Prayers of their own But the Preservation of any Gift or Faculty say you depends on the Exercise of it and it must be extreamly prejudic'd and impair'd by Disuse Sir There are Times and Occasions enough for the Exercise and improving your Gifts without affecting or making new Prayers which are more hurtful than helpful to true Devotion As for the Gift of Speech which you still Mistake for the Gift of Prayer that may well enough be preserv'd by daily Discourse and Conversation especially if they are applyed to wise and useful Subjects whereas the true and proper Gift of Prayer is better preserv'd and improv'd too by a devout and diligent Application of the Heart and Soul to the known Words of a well-digested Form than by the Study of new and varied Words in an Extempore Prayer But does not this set aside the Gifts of good Men in Prayer to be thus confin'd to Forms No it only sets aside such Gifts as Alexander the Copper-smith boasted of in St. Paul's time and Weavers and Coblers have pretended to in ours But it sets aside none of the Gifts of wise godly and authorized Persons who find Work enough to employ their greatest Abilities to the Glory of God and the good of the Church in the Use of these Forms which are enjoin'd for the Unity and Decency of publick Worship And to tell you the Truth the not setting aside the pretended Gifts of these gifted Brethren by publick Authority hath employed the Gifts of the best and ablest Persons to lay them aside by Argument and Perswasion to keep ignorant bold and unauthorized Persons from foaming out their own Shame to the great Scandal of Religion Increase of Athcism and Disorder of the whole Church of Christ And if these do not prevail 't is time for Authority to work lest they who would now be indulg'd as weak Brethren do by that means in a little time grow too strong for their Masters But to carry on the Charge of Loosness and Laziness you farther add That the Neglect of using Mens Gifts in Extempore-Prayer hath hinder'd them from studying the Scriptures and other good Books that reading the Liturgy tempts them to lay the Reins upon the Neck of their voluptuous Inclinations makes them waste their Time in Drinking Sports and Recreations and gives them Leisure to frequent Fairs Markets and Coffee-houses c. Now here are a great many Bolts shot at Randome and serve only to shew the Badness of a Cause that must be supported by such Calumnies As for what you say of the Liturgies hindring Men from the Study of the Scriptures what a wild Accusation is this when the Use of the Liturgy consists altogether in the reading of the Scriptures and of devout Prayers compos'd by them where all the Psalms of David are appointed to be read over every Month the Scriptures of the Old Testament once and of the New thrice a Year beside what they may do in private at other times And is this the way to hinder Men from studying and understanding the Scripture Sir If you had studied and understood the Scriptures as you ought you might soon see the Baseness and Wickedness of such false Accusations As for what you say of Leisure for Fairs Markets and Coffee houses there may be many just and necessary Occasions that may call Men of all Professions to those Places and this can be no fault in any if they are not unnecessarily or unseasonably frequented much less is this to be charg'd upon the Liturgy For if you look abroad you will find the Frequenters of Conventicles as great Frequenters of those Places as any others As for what you say of a Liturgy's making Men lay the Reins upon the Neck of their voluptuous Inclinations this is either a foul Calumny or a Fallacy of non Causa pro