Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	call_v	law_n	moral_a	1,184	5	9.0839	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A11627	The course of conformitie as it hath proceeded, is concluded, should be refused.	Scott, William, ca. 1566-1642.; Calderwood, David, 1575-1650, attributed name.; Melville, James, 1556-1614, attributed name.	1622 (1622)	STC 21874; ESTC S120840	184,517	202

est idem secūdum speciem naturae potest ordinari sicut in fin●m ad conservationem justititae ad satisfaciendum irae Et ne hoc erunt diversi actus secundum speciem m●ris quia uno modo erit actus v rtutis al●o modo erit actus viti● Thom. 12 41 art 3. ends and conditions are made unchangeably good or evill Archip. The danger is great I perceiue in the application For if I passe that for indifferent vvherupon the Lord hath before passed his determination to be good or evill I fall into the transgression of the law of God and under his curse and therfore I would heare more of that Application Epaph. Two observations for sound applicatiō of the first determination Circumstan●ae vel accidentia fixitāti momenti sunt ut penes illa peccatum judicetur id quod agitur Pet. Martyr Lo● Com. p. 347. Humani actus non solum ex object●s verum ex circumstantus boni vel mali dicuntur Thom. 2.2 qu. 18. art 3. Quando circumstantia res●●icit ordinem actionis pro vel contra ex tali circumstantia censt●uitur allqua species mora is actus in bonitate vel ma●itia Ibid. art 10. Ipsae Circumstantiae interdum constituunt rerum earum quae aguntur speciem ex qua res sive actiones nostrae di●u●tur bonae aut malae Nam quae v●s simpliciter per● bonae sunt eae inter●ū malae fiunt circumstantus est tempus quo res bona aut indifferens redditur mala quia intempe●tiva est similiter de lo●o instrumentis Iunius de P●●t M●ssis c. 7. thess 34. For that end I giue you two Observations vvithout vvhich it can never be sound One is that the Accidents or Circumstances of a morall or spirituall action are of the same essence and substance thereof The squarest Conformitant shall either proue a praecisian heere in standing upon circumstances or else quit his conformity vvith the law of God The circumstances of persons vvill make fornication adulterie incest the circumstance of place sacriledge of time the profanation of Sabboth c. Archip. I vvill never think it strange then that the observation of one day is good service to God and the observation of another is will worship and superstition that the circumstance of a private person or a Midwife the circumstance of a private place where the Congregation is not assembled the removall of a table the taking away of Sacramentall distribution the hurting of Sacramentall fraction c. doe alter the substance of the ministration of the Sacrament of Baptisme or of the Lords Supper That kneeling in one action be pious in another action at another time be idolatrous Circumstance will make an action otherwise laudable to be laesae majestatis and he that can swallow a Camel in the matters of God vvithout an hoast vvill straine a gnat in the circumstances of his own affaires as though they vvere all substance What is your second observation Epaph. That the ten commandements be not taken literally as ten vvords but largely as Christian Pandects and common-heads of all morall duties toward God and Man to be exponed extend●d according to the commentary of the Prophets Christ the Apostles in the old and new testament according to the perfection of the large law of God vvhich commands every du●y forbiddeth every sin So that whatsoever is cōmanded or forbi●●ē in the whole word is cōtained here contrary to the sinistrous glosses of naturall men the least degree of every sin is censured under the name of the highest degree grossest of that kind Vnadvised anger is murder All vvh●ch vvhich I vvould haue you to obserue may be reduced to three heads Some are so naturally evident that none is found who vvill deny them as loue to God and our neighbour vvorship of God c. Praeceptorum mora ●●m triplex est gradus n● quae●am ●●t cōmun●ssima quaedam v●ro sunt m●gis determinata qu● 〈◊〉 ●●ique quorum ratio non est ●u●l be● n●anis●●●a sid so●●●● S●●i●●tibus Thom. 12 qu 100 art 11. The second sort is of such duties and sinnes as may be easily discerned and yet in this blindfolded estate of man may be unknown or denyed by some as the particular sins and duties expressed in the severall commandements and other duties are sinnes like unto them As perhaps some are ignorant that they cannot tell vvhich of the commandements forbiddeth drunk●nnesse gluttony c There is finally a third sort of such as are not known but by the vvise through a diligent search of Scripture as Levit. 14. the rising up before th● hoary head is to be reduced to the fift commandemant The abomination of the Nations forbidden in many particulars D●ut 18 is to be reduced to the first and second command All vvhich expositions and determinations are also moral precepts by the force of nature obliging no lesse then the letter of the ten commandements Archip. Every thing that may be reduced to the ten commandements and that is a determination of the morall Law is not morall for all the precepts Ceremoniall and Iudiciall Ist● autem ●on un● determ nativa praec●ptorum de●a●og●●a vi i●si●iutio●●● sed e● vi natu●alis ins●●nctus Thom. ibid. may and must be reduced thither and yet they are alterable as the ceremonies of the Kirk seeme to be Epaph. Ye haue touched that string vvhich hath deceived many even of the learnedest eares Consider then that the exposition and particular determinations of the morall precepts be of two sorts some are immediate and determine by force of the law of nature Another sort are positiue and oblige by mediation of another law and force of institution Had Mr. Sprint sounded this ground he might haue felt that the comparison of Ceremoniall duties and morall the one having the force of institution onely the other of the law of nature as wel as the rising before the hoarie head the one mediately the other immediately commanded was no sure ground to build his necessitie upon The ignorance of that thi●● sort of duties and sinnes extends the bounds of indifferencie beyond her right Archip. I perceiue that every externall thing vvhich vve call a ceremonie is not of the ceremoniall Law but many of them be of the law Morall Both made p●ain in the second commandement and therefore unchangeable as being sparkles of the light of the law of nature Make your second observation plaine in some part●cular comman●ement Epaph. The first commandement bidding us haue Iehova onely for our God forbiddeth the having of no God at all the sin of Atheist Psal 14 the having of strange Gods and not the true as the Pagans Acts 14 11 12 the having of strange gods with the true as the Samaritanes 2 King 17 33 the not having of the true God aright Tit. 1 16. But the second commandement is a more pertinent example vvhich enjoyning to vvorship the true

though in a bad cause Doe so I pray you that the things wee haue received when wee were children we may transmit to the posterity when we become old that the following age may finde nothing to be amended Men may promise little for themselues albeit their intention vvere answerable to their profession lesse for their superiours whom they dare not challenge least of all for Satan who hath the warp of defection rolled up in secret upon the beame of his hellish project and employeth one malignant wit after another to make out the web by Gods just judgement ever plaguing former defections with following Apostasie Never man made count of such promises but he who first laid his count to keep the vvorld in all cases of the Kirk that he might haue something to say for his honestie before the world rather then for the peace of his conscience before God in vvhose dreadfull sight who dare appeare vvith the vveak promises of sinfull men against his infallible verities Fourth difficulty of hard success removed Frater frater ubi in Cellam dic mise●ere meus Deus Res propter resistentiam laborem inclinationē sunt Physice ethice sed non Theologice ●●possibi●es Archip. When all my forces vvere mustered together in the beginning they made some shew but now vvhen they are severally provoked to the conflict they bewray their weakenesse my last souldier called hard successe dare not set out his head Epaph. His name should not be heard in a cause of this quality Care of duety belongeth to us care of successe to God and not to us Luther had not been the right man if he had been ruled by feare of events vvhen it was said to him in sad earnest Brother brother take you to your Cloister and pray to God to help you Policie hath so farre prevailed vvith M. Sprint that he hath found a false key to open a gate for many to enter vvithin the threshold of ceremonies in case of deprivation and a back dore to escape by in case of reformation that his man shall ever fall on his feet But piety is no temporizer and in all times of heresie profanity impiety looks to the will of God to doe it for a good successe and 〈…〉 first or last All difficulties are not impossible ●t●er and many naturall and morall impossibilities proue demonstrations of his power with whom nothing is impossible All hearts are in Gods hand either converting or changing vvhom he converteth not or restraining vvhom he changeth not or at least ruling and governing to good ends whom he restraineth not Ecclesiasticall history points at sixe notable changes of the Christian Kirk every one of the first fiue including three hundred yeares In the first three centuries Piety simplicity martyrdomes abounded under persecution In the next three by occasion of heresies learning increased After that for three hundred yeares supremacie and primacie prevailed in the Kirk The fourth three yeeres was a time of soveraignty and domination over saecular Princes and Emperours The last period of the same extent was a time of Mammon and heaping up of riches At last in the sixteenth hundreth yeare when Kirkmen had no further to aime at vvhen the unkindly daughter had devoured the mother and every one vvas saying in his own bosome my soule take the ease then it pleased the Lord from heaven to pitie his own Kirk in working that blessed reformation never at any time before so much desired and so little expected Our Nationall Kirk so like is she unto her mother during these sixtie yeeres past hath experienced the like diversitie We had in the beginning a time of martyrdom vvith great power and simplicity of the Gospell a second time of learning abounding with a greater number of Doctors indeed then this time doth with titles soone after succeeded a time of primacie vvhen Pastors sought after preferment aboue their brethren When that vvas obtained they rested not till in the fourth time they were preferred to the Nobles and Seculars of the land And now in the fift time sitting in the highest chaires of honor they leaue no meane unassayed by taxes and taxations by plots and pluralities Pauper Episcopus Pauperio● Cardinalis Pauperimus Papa by simonie and legacie of the quick and of the dead to multiply vvealth howbeit some of them find the successe of Alexander the fift Why then may we not hope whatsoever be the present course of second causes for a reformation except the feare of worldly shame and skaith in the particulars remembred in the end of your third demand make us all to fall away and there be few or none to stand in the gap Archip. The danger is great for the aspersions are very contumelious and the incommodities greevous that I feare few shall be able to beare them with courage Epaph. He that seemeth to be a ceremoniall Confessour hath the lesse evidence that he shall proue a substantiall Martyr We haue not so much to regard what is said as how true it is nor what we shall suffer as vvhat vve haue deserved Against them 〈◊〉 vve might make reply in the vvords of the vvorthiest instruments that haue lived in the Kirk of God after the Apostles vvho haue been burthened vvith the same and other like imputations And vvhat is true may be better known then by the slanders of our enemies 1 By our doctrine of obedience to all our lawfull Superiours 2 By our practise vvherein vve haue altered nothing since the time vve vvere esteemed obedient to our superiours Peace-keepers and peace-makers in the Kirk and enemies to Papists 3 By our abhorring the name of Puritanes vvhich that sect of Heretickes affected and vvhich the Papists first brought upon us as the name of Calvina-papistae upon our Opposites to make our Religion the more odious And 4 by our unwillingnesse to be shut out of our particular residencies so long as we are suffered to be faithfull in them by such as are resident in place but non-residents in office leaving their flockes following after the vvorld fostering others like unto themselues requiring of Intrants subscription for qualification and sending the best qualified spirits because they haue not learned to subscribe to hang up their harpes on the vvillow trees and their silver trumpets prepared for the Temples about the unworthy walles of other professions Archip. I know it vvas given forth of the holy Apostle that he turned Christian for a vvorldly respect That Wickliffe finding himselfe disappointed of a Bishoprick became a Schismatick That Iohn Husse Ierome of Prage and Luther all three fell into apostasie because they wanted preferment yet so mighty was the Lords assisting grace that they through good and evill report kept the truth pressed hardly towards the marke But alas what are vve whether Pastors or Professours able to beare Epaph. If we suffer not greater things for Christ we are not vvorthy of him If all make defection our desolation shall be exemplarie