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

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59576	The things that make for peace delivered in a sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, and the Court of Aldermen, at Guild-Hall Chappel, upon the 23 of August, 1674 / by John Sharpe ...	Sharp, John, 1645-1714.	1674 (1674)	Wing S3003; ESTC R9975	18,272	41

to be is directly contrary to the preserving the Unity of that Body And therefore certainly such a Rent or Separation must be unlawful And if so then it must be unlawful also to joyn with any Congregation of men among us that have made such a Rent or Separation So that let our Pretences be what they will so long as the Fixed Regular Assemblies of the Nation wherein we live do truly belong to the Catholick Church and we can lawfully joyn with them it is certain we are bound so to do and not to joyn with those Congregations that have withdrawn themselves from them for to do this would be to joyn in Society with Separatists would be a partaking with their Sin and a breach of the Apostles Precept of Avoiding those that cause Divisions The third Proposition is That the being a Member of any Church doth oblige a man to submit to all the Laws and Constitutions of that Church This Proposition is in the General so unquestionable that no sober man will deny it And indeed it is the Basis upon which all Societies are founded and by which they do subsist For to suppose a Society and yet to suppose the Members of it not under an Obligation to obey its Laws and Government is to make Ropes of Sand to suppose a Body without Sinews and Ligaments to hold its parts together So that all the question here is concerning the nature and extent of the Churches Power over her Members How far and in what instances she hath Authority to oblige them Which is a question not difficult to be answered if men would come to it without passion and prejudice For it must be acknowledged in the first place that the Church must as all other Societies be entrusted with at least so much power over her Subjects as is necessary for the securing her own Welfare and Preservation For to think otherwise is to suppose God to have founded a Church and intended the Well-being and Continuance of it which are things that every one must grant And yet to suppose that he hath denied her the use of the Means without which that Well-being and Continuance cannot be attained which is monstrous and contradictious Furthermore it must be granted that the Welfare and Preservation of the Church cannot be secured but upon these two Suppositions First That Provision be made for the due and orderly performance of the Worship of God Secondly That there be means of maintaining Peace and Unity among its Members This latter is necessary to the Welfare and Preservation of a Church as a Society the former is necessary to it as a Religious Society Now then this being admitted it follows in the general that what ever Power over her Subjects is necessary in order to either of these things all that at least must be supposed to be lodged in the Church that is to say in Those that have the Government of it So that from hence it is plain in the first place that the Church hath power so far to restrain the exercise of her Subjects Liberty as to oblige them to all such Laws Rules Orders and Ceremonies as She shall establish for the more Solemn Regular Decent and Convenient Administration of Religious Affairs And if it be questioned whether her Appointments do indeed conduce to that end of that She her self is to be the Judge Her Members being no farther concern'd therein than onely before they obey her Impositions to see that they be not repugnant to the known Laws of God This Power the Church must be supposed to have otherwise She will not be enabled to make Provision for the first thing whereon her Welfare doth depend viz. the Performance of Gods Worship and Service in a due and orderly manner Secondly from hence also it is plain that the Church must be furnished with a Power to end and determine Controversies of Religion that arise among its Members that is to say to give such an Authoritative decision of them as that all Parties are bound to acquiesce in it for without this she would be defective in the second thing required to her Welfare and Preservation viz. Maintaining her self in Peace and Unity But here it may be taken notice that this Power of Ending Controversies which we ascribe to the Church doth not imply any Authority over our Judgments or that in vertue thereof she can oblige us to give an inward assent to her Determinations any further than she gives us evidence for the Truth of them which is that extravagant Power the Church of Rome doth challenge to her self but onely an Authority over our Practices that she can oblige us to submit so far to her Definitions as not to act any thing contrary to them A Power in the former sense is not necessary to the Churches peace and the reason is because our Judgments and Opinions so long as we keep them to our selves cannot possibly cause any disturbance in or do any injury to Society But a Power in the latter sense is absolutely necessary for if men may be allowed to vent and publish what ever fancies come into their heads and the Church have no Authority to impose silence upon them it cannot be avoided but she will be overrun with Heresies and embroiled in infinite Quarrels and Controversies to the destruction of her Publick Peace The fourth Proposition is That we can have no just cause of with-drawing our Communion from the Church whereof we are Members but when we cannot communicate with it without the Commission of a Sin For if we are bound to Communicate with the Church when we can lawfully do so as hath been before proved it is plain we are bound so long to continue our Communion with the Church till it be unlawful to continue in it any longer But it cannot be unlawful to continue in her Communion till she require something as a Condition of her Communion that is a Sin So that there are but Two cases wherein it can be lawful to withdraw our Communion from a Church because there are but two cases wherein Communion with her can be sinful One is when the Church requires of us as a Condition of her Communion an Acknowledgment and Profession of that for a Truth which we know to be an Error The other is when the Church requires of us as a Condition of her Communion the joyning with her in some Practises which we know to be against the Laws of God In these two Cases to withdraw our Obedience to the Church is so far from being a Sin that it is a necessary Duty because we have an obligation to the Laws of God antecedent to that we have to those of the Church and we are bound to obey these no further than they are consonant or agreeable to those But now from this discourse it will appear how insufficient those Causes how unwarrantable those Grounds are upon which many among us have proceeded to Separation from our Church

live under is neither so Lax as to defeat its own ends nor so Severe as to exercise Tyranny over our Consciences The Terms of our Communion are more large and moderate and easie to be submitted to by men of different Perswasions than any other Church-Society that I know of doth allow at this day And this is so acknowledged that there is scarce any of the several disagreeing Parties among us but next to their own Church would prefer Ours before all Others The Doctrins that make up our publick Confession are expressed in such a latitude that they have been and are generally assented to by most of the Dissenters from us And that wherein We differ from others is not our adding to the Faith new and questionable Doctrins but our rejecting or not imposing their Innovations Our Publick Service hath not a Prayer in it but what any Christian in the World may lawfully say Amen to Our Ceremonies are but few and those very decent and unquestionably of Primitive Antiquity The Penalties which the Laws inflict upon those that separate from our Communion are so easie and so moderate that methinks Sober men should be ashamed to call them Persecutions and should rather sit down contentedly under them than by endeavouring or desiring any Alteration endanger the bringing the Church and possibly themselves into far greater inconveniencies than those they now suffer In a word so excellent is the temper of our present Settlement that there is no Church in the World with which men of differing Perswasions may more safely communicate and under which even Dissenters if they be peaceble may live more happily than the Church of England But now how do we demean our selves under this happy Constitution of affairs What Fruits of the Gospel of Peace do we yield suitable to these great external Advantages One might rationally expect to see Religion in quite another Face among us than it hath in other parts of the World and that enjoying such excellent means of Peace and Unity as we do and especially having sufficiently experienced the Miseries of Discord there should no such thing as Faction or Division be heard of among us but that we should All like Brethren Christianly joyn together with our Common Mother and in smaller matters bear with one anothers Weaknesses and Ignorances and Mistakes as doubtless God himself will and as the Church which is principally concern'd in many cases doth But alass the event doth too notoriously discover the contrary to all this and that to the shame of our selves and the reproach of our Church and the scandal of Religion and the rejoycing of our Enemies and the grief of all good men Never were our Differences higher our Oppositions one of another more violent our Schisms and Separations more numerous and more obstinate than they are at this day We dispute eternally we quarrel without grounds and without measure we stickle for every Trifle and are as much concerned for the propagating a silly Notion which might very well be let alone without our being a jot the worse Christians as if the Fundamentals of our Religion lay at stake We revile we reproach we bespatter one another and though we be extremely scrupulous in smaller matters yet we make no scruple of sacrificing charity and the Churches peace to every humour and every passion And whilest we are zealous in the matter of an Opinion or a small Ceremony we often lose all sense of Religion and Good manners and even Humanity it self What the Consequences of these unreasonable and unchristian Feuds may be we know not I pray God they do not end either in a very great Corruption or a total Subversion of Christianity among us It was these sins if it be lawful to guess at the reason of Gods Judgments from outward Appearances that brought desolation upon those once flourishing Churches of Afric and Asia and who knows if they be obstinately persisted in but they may be an occasion of Gods removing his Candlestick from us also And now is it not needful that every Christian should use his utmost endeavour to still that Spirit of Contention that is gone forth among us Is it not needful that every Son of Peace should bring some water to the quenching of our Flames Let me therefore this day take up St. Pauls exhortation to you let me beseech you let me conjure you if there be any Consolation in Christ if any Comfort of Love if any Fellowship of the Spirit if any Bowels and Mercies that now at length laying aside all bitterness and evil speaking all variance and emulation all needless Disputes and Contentions you would unanimously joyn together in following after the things that make for peace And that my Exhortation may be the more effectual to the purposes I intend it for I shall pursue it First by way of Direction Secondly by way of Motive First I shall reduce the Duty here enjoyned of Following the things that make for peace to its particular Rules and Instances that you may know what is to be done by you in order to the performance of it Secondly I shall set before you the very great Engagements and Obligations that lie upon us to follow after the things that make for peace that you may be perswaded the more vigorously to set about it And both these things I shall manage as near as I can with respect to the present state and posture of Affairs among us and withal shall alwayes remember that my business is not to prescribe Laws or Rules to my Superiors for their Carriage in these matters but only to represent the Duty that Christians of a private capacity do owe to the Publick and to one another As for the First thing which is to direct and instruct you in the performance of this duty of following the things that make for peace you may be pleased to take notice That this Duty hath a twofold Object according to the two different Relations and Capacities in which we are to be considered to wit the Church our Mother and Particular Christians our Brethren In the first Relation we are considered as Subjects in the second as Fellow-Christians With respect to the former the Peace we are to pursue implies Obedience and Preservation of Communion in opposition to Schism and Separation With respect to the latter it implies mutual Love and Charity in opposition to Quarrels and Contentions My business therefore upon this first head is to shew what are the Particulars of our Duty what are the means that conduce to Peace in both these respects And first of all I begin with what is due from us to the Church in order to Peace as Peace stands in contradistinction to Schism And this Point I shall beg leave to discuss very freely and very particularly because I fear we have generally many false Notions about it and yet it is a matter of such consequence that I doubt not but the right understanding of it would go a