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

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47136	Divine immediate revelation and inspiration, continued in the true church second part. In two treatises: the first being an answer to Jo. W. Bajer Doctor and Professor of Divinity, so called, at Jena in Germany, published first in Latine, and now in English. The second being an answer to George Hicks, stiled Doctor of Divinity, his sermon preached at Oxford, 1681. and printed with the title of, The spirit of enthusiasm exorcised; where this pretended exorcist is detected. Together, with some testimonies of truth, collected out of diverse ancient writers and fathers, so called. By G.K.; Divine immediate revelation and inspiration, continued in the true church. Part 2.	Keith, George, 1639?-1716.	1685 (1685)	Wing K158; ESTC R218958	105,601	220

Holy Spirit alone to the Heart and Soul of the Faithful I inquire if in this case the inward presentation of the object were not to be called an Immediate Revelation The which if he grant therefore I say it is now immediate when the outward object is adjoyned to it for that inward illumination and Revelation doth not change its Nature in the absence and presence of the outward object having all entirely in it self that belongs to an Immediate Revelation but remaineth the same whether it be joyned to the outward or separated therefrom Even as the soul of man whether joyned to the Body or separated therefrom yet it still retaineth its own Nature that it is the immediate Principle of its operations both in the Body and out of the Body And indeed by a certain Analogy as the Soul is to the Body so is the Spirit of God inwardly operating and illuminating to the outward testimony of the Letter And because the Soul doth many things by the means of the Body yet that doth not hinder but that it is the immediate principle of its operations But the Soul doth many things in respect of its most inward and intellectual operations without the means and help of the Body even when it is in the Body and therefore why may not that Divine Spirit as it doth many things in the Saints by means of the Letter of the scripture do or work some other things and not use the means of the Letter Yea how many things doth the Holy Spirit reveal and open in Men as belonging to the special and particular acts of Vertue and Vice that do far transcend and go beyond the straitness and narrow compass of words of which Seneca the Gentile and an Heathen so called doth Write well Lib. 2. De Ira. How narrow Innocency is that saith he to be good according to the Law He understandeth a Law writ or contained in words How much more doth the Rule of Duties extend than that of Law How many things doth Piety Humanity Liberality Iustice and Faithfulness require which are not in the publick Tables or Records to wit all written Laws Thus Seneca For as he who describeth some Kingdom as of Germany or England with Words or Mapps cannot describe it in as great largeness as it doth contain in it self but in much narrower bounds And although he describe all the Cities Towns and Villages of the said Kingdom yet he doth not describe all the houses of every City and Village or all the Fields and Orchards belonging to it much less all the Rooms and Chambers of each House or all the Acres and Roods of the Corn Fields or all the particular Ears of Corn that grow in those Fields or all the Trees and Fruits of these Orchards particularly one by one And even so they who describe the Kingdom of God which is within us to wit the Writers of the Holy Scripture they could not describe all the particulars contained in that Kingdom the which particulars are yet very necessary to be known unto the Saints and therefore the Holy Spirit revealeth unto them those particular things which are not contained in the Scripture And the same is to be understood of the Kingdom of Vices and of Satan that it containeth many more particular vices and sins than can be described by any words And as concerning the glory of Gods Kingdom in the Saints it may be well said in the words of the Queen of the South concerning Solomon's Glory that the same or report of the Glory was true but the half of it was not told the which cannot be told by any words And therefore the Scripture it self calleth the joy of the Lord in the Saints a joy unspeakable and that the Peace of God which is in them doth not only surpass all words but all to wit discursive understanding Moreover R. B. showeth in his Apology from pag. 39. to pag. 43. to which the Adversary hath answered nothing that there are many particular things very necessary to be known unto every one of the faithful which are no where revealed in the Scripture and are therefore immediately to be revealed unto them by the Spirit such as especially concerning the Souls inward state and those inward calls of God unto the soul to the discharging or performing of its particular services In his thirtieth parag he saith it is one thing that the Spirit is within a man and another thing that the said Spirit is given not mediately but Immediately by a meer inward operation without an outward mean surely saith he the habits of arts and sciences are within in the mind of man and yet for most the part they are given to men not Immediately but mediately or by means of the outward teaching of the Master and a few lines after he saith we not only grant but we earnestly plead for the indewlling of the Holy Spirit as altogether necessary to Christians That he doth acknowledge and plead for the indwelling and inbeing of the Holy Spirit to be altogether necessary to Christians it is well but that he doth absolutely deny the Immediate Operation and Revelation of the indwelling Spirit of God he doth badly for although that this inward teacher and Master doth frequently teach his Disciples by means of the Scripture shall he therefore teach them nothing by word of mouth or his own living voice Immediately shall he not expound open to them what they read in the Scriptures with his living voice or shall he sit and remain in them always as one dumb which God forbid that we should so imagine speaking or saying nothing nay not so much as one small sentence but what is in express words contained in the Scripture and borrowed from them surely such an assertion is too rash and without all ground from Scripture and is most unworthy of God immortal our most excellent Master and Pastor yea our Bridegroom and Husband to fain any such things of him which no Mortal or Earthly School-Master would do to his Disciples and if he did so all would judge him a Fool and unfit for such an affair if to wit he should say nothing unto them but what is contained in the Book which they became in so many words and which he takes out of the Book and should speak nothing to them Immediately by word of mouth What disciple would bear such a School-Master or rather would not turn him off and chuse another more friendly and familiar unto him or what woman would not take it very unkindly and unworthy if her Husband did not speak to her any one small sentence immediately and by word of mouth but did leave all that is to be said to letters or epistles writ by him of old or what servant would willing serve such a Master who being presently with him in the same house did not speak to him at any time not one word by word of mouth immediate whither he did well or ill please him Surely this

him do not say That the Gift of Praying by the Spirit was expired in his time and though Chrysostome had said so I suppose the Author himself doth not think that all Chrysostoms words are infallibly to be believed Yea the reason given by Chrysostome why God was pleased to give that Gift of Prayer doth still remain viz. Because without the spirit we know not what to pray for as we ought and therefore there is as great necessity for the spirit of Prayer now as then But it hath no weight what the Author saith Pag. 29. That the Christians might learn what to pray for and how out of the Scriptures which are an excellent Rule of Devotion as well as Faith and since that Gift was also rendred useless by the early general use of Liturgies I say this hath no weight to prove that the spirit of Prayer or praying by Divine Inspiration is expired for in the Apostles days the Scriptures were extant as much as now and therefore if the spiritual Gift of Prayer is made void by having the Scriptures in the room of it that Gift should have ceased in the Apostles days Surely it was not Gods design to give us the Scriptures that he might take away his spirit from us and leave us only the Scripture-words in his room but he promised that his spirit should remain or abide with his people for ever whose abiding and presence was necessary unto all true Christians to give them the inward and spiritual sense and understanding of the words of Prayer contained in the Scripture and to teach them what words to use at one time and what at another seeing they could not use them all at once And as for the early general use of Liturgies which this Author saith was in the Church to be sure there was none in the Apostles times as the Author confesseth and if there had been any need of them for the succeeding Ages the Apostles had been the fittest persons to have composed them which yet we do not find that ever they did It is too apparent that when the spirit of Prayer began to be lost composed Liturgies came to be set up and that the loss and decay of this spirit or spiritual Gift of Prayer was caused by the carnality and apostacy of the far greatest part of those called Christians though we have cause to believe it remained in the Hearts of a remnant all along CHAP. IV. BUT whereas the Author saith as for the Gift of Praying and Preaching by the Spirit there is no mention made of it in the Ecclesiastical Writers even where they enumerate the rest of the spiritual Gifts unless Irenaeus comprehended it under the Gift of strange Tongues with all sorts of which he saith many of the Brethren spoke in his time by the Holy Ghost Surely this the Author doth too confidently affirm for as concerning Praying by the Spirit Tertullians Testimony is clear who lived about the end of the second Century who discoursing of Prayer and the manner how the Christians used it said expressly That they prayed ex pectore siue monitore per spiritum sanctum i. e. out of the Heart without one to go before them and by the Holy Ghost And both Tertullian and Iustine Martyr and Eusebius make mention of the Gift of Prophesie by the Spirit remaining in the Church in their time And the Author himself acknowledgeth that under Prophesie Preaching and praising God by the Spirit is understood frequently in Scripture and why not also in the Ecclesiastical Writers Yea even Bernard who lived above a thousand years after Christ did say tepida est omnis oratio quam non prevenit inspiratio i. e. All Prayer is dead or lukewarm which Inspiration doth not prevent But it is easie to apprehend why when the Ecclesiastical Writers did mention the miraculous Gifts of the Spirit then remaining in the Church they said nothing commonly of Preaching and Praying by the Spirit because they did not reckon Preaching and Praying by the Spirit any of that sort of miraculous and extraordinary Gifts but judged it as a common and necessary Gift and therefore did not mention it among those that were miraculous and singular which is an argument rather against the Authors assertion than in favour of it And since the Author doth acknowledge that divers miraculous Gifts of the Spirit did remain in the Church for some hundreds of years after the Apostles it is strange he should suppose the Gift of Preaching and Praying by the Spirit to have expired before the rest but his prejudice against the Principle of Inspiration maketh him to fall upon such an absurd supposition Now when I say the Gift of Preaching and Praying by the Spirit was none of the miraculous and extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit I mean it had nothing of any external or outward Miracle in it any more than Faith Love Hope or any other of the Evangelical Vertues all which being supernatural were internally miraculous as much or rather more than the outward And whereas the Author pleadeth that none of these miraculous Gifts were of a moral consideration as having any immediate influence to sanctifie the persons so inspired consequently not necessary to remain in the Church If then it can be proved that Preaching and Praying by the Spirit are of a moral consideration and have a sanctifying Influence upon the persons inspired it will necessarily follow that they do and must remain in the true Church And first as to Praying by the Spirit that is a Moral Duty and of a moral Consideration which is a Gospel-precept but Praying by the Holy Ghost is a Gospel-precept see Eph. 6.18 Praying always with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit and Iud. 2. Praying in the Holy Ghost And as concerning all true Worship which is to be given to God Christ hath expresly taught that it is to be performed in Spirit and in Truth And I ask the Author whether he doth not think that Davids Prayers and Psalms which were by the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit had not a sanctifying Influence upon David himself And also whether the Prayers of those in the primitive times who prayed by Inspiration and brought forth such deep inward sighings with great contrition of Heart by the help of the Holy Spirit had not a sanctifying Influence going alone with them and were not those Prayers holy Prayers and those sighings holy sighings which left some holy Impressions both upon the Speakers and Hearers the which if they did as most certainly they did unto all sincere Christians who heard them then Prayers by Inspiration have a moral and intrinsecal excellency in them and consequently were to remain in the true Church to the end of the World Next as to Preaching by the Spirit it is clear that it had a sanctifying and converting power going alone with it so that many thousands were converted unto the Lord and became truly sanctified by means of such Preaching But if