Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A81282
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The case of peoples duty in living under a scandalous minister, stated and resolved
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1684
(1684)
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Wing C965; ESTC R229514
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12,032
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23
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a Traditor i. e. had in times of Persecution delivered up the Bible to be burnt denying therefore to hear him preach or to receive the Sacraments at his hands But when after a full hearing before Constantine the Great together with a great number of Bishops for that purpose assembled he was purged from the Slander and declared guiltless then Donatus and his Faction said he had been ordained by Felix who was a Traditor therefore his Ordination was null and void and this is made guilt enough to justifie their defection Pope Hildebrand Decreed and Commanded That no man should hear Mass from the mouth of a Priest that had a Wife The Rhemists further say That the Sermons of Hereticks and so they term all Protestants must not be heard though they preach the Truth their Prayers and Sacraments are not acceptable to God but are the howlings of Wolves And our Modern Dissenters will teach you That if a Minister conform to the Laws of the Church and read the Common Prayer he is also not to be heard or the Sacraments received from him At this rate Sir who is Innocent Whither will you go Who shall be your Pastor Or will you have none At this rate you may separate and separate from all the Churches and from all the Men in the World till you come to abhor your own dear self for what Man is there that lives and is not a great Sinner And sure I am you would be loth that your Wife and Children and Servants should rebound this Argument upon you and plead Exemption from their known respective Duties upon the pretence that you are a sinful Man for if you rightly consider it the dint of the Argument will hold good against Parents and Masters of Families as well as against Magistrates and Ministers and then farewel all Order and Government in the World No Sir Government is a Sacred thing and an Ordinance of God and so are Governours as such whatsoever they are in their private personal capacity And was I to give account in short of that shameful disobedience and stubborness in Children that perverseness self-will and unfaithfulness in Servants generally complained of by Parents and Masters of Families at this day I should ascribe it to the want of that reverence and regard which God expects from us towards them that Rule over us both in Church and State Men may read their Sin in their Punishment while their Consciences will tell them that they are but paid in their own kind measure for measure and that they have furnished their Children and Servants with Proofs and Examples against themselves 2. Next to the publick Security I must offer to you the Consideration of your private peace which is in danger to be lost by such rash defiance to your Minister For the Laws are on his side as long as he performs his Duty according as they have Enacted and if he be either a man of Stomach or shall think himself bound to put the Laws in force against you this will make your life uneasie to you will sowre your temper otherwise never so sweet will ruffle your Spirit stir up all your passions and at last provoke you most insensibly to some Indecencies against him both in Word and Deed. And let me tell you Sir you will certainly find it a most uncomfortable thing to live at variance with your Pastor a vexation like to that which the Wise Man calls a Continual Dropping Besides that it will mightily prejudice you against all his Doctrines though never so sound and good as often as you shall hear him For it is necessary the Word be received with meekness or else it will never profit you since the wrath of Man cannot work the righteousness of God It will prejudice you against his Person prejudice you against his very Name and Mention it will so every way prejudice the present healthful Constitution of your own Soul as instead of Cure you will unavoidably fall into those Diseases which you seek to prevent Not to say any thing of what hazard your Estate may run in a Case which so nearly concerns your Soul for in my most deliberate thoughts I had rather you should quit your present Station as pleasant as it is and in the strength of Abrahams Faith seek a Land of Promise and Blessing from God than live where you do at variance with your Minister which hath neither Promise nor Blessing belonging to it 3. It is also matter of discredit in the Eye of the World for men are not yet so wholly devoid of all respect to God but they will in heart bear some secret regard to their Minister for Gods sake and to his Office for either love or fear of Laws and Government under which he serveth These things have a great awe over the Minds and Consciences of Men and carry such a strange unaccountable sway with them as you must be a Man of extraordinary Credit and Influence not to say Considence to think to over-bear them Such hath been the constant Reverence and so great which the meer light of Nature hath taught the worst of Heathens to shew and express towards the Ministers of their Idol gods which is certainly much rather due to such as minister at the Altar of the only Great and True God Fear the Lord with all thy Soul saith the Son of Syrac Ecclesiasticus 7.29 and reverence his Priests Fear the Lord and Honour the Priest ver 30. It is also a Wise Rule which the same Author lays down Chap. 19. v. 8 9. Saying Whether it be to a friend or foe talk not of other Mens lives and if thou canst without offence reveal them not for he heard and observed thee and when time cometh he will hate thee When St. Paul had unadvisedly reviled Ananias that most corrupt and wicked High Priest he corrects himself saying I wist not Brethren that he was the High Priest for it is written Thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of thy people Acts 23.4 5. 4. I might also press the consideration of that ill use which the more ignorant or more wicked in your Town and Neighbourhood would make of your Example to wander at large like Sheep without a Shepherd or to stay at home and go no where or to keep the Sabbath at the Tavern or Ale-house instead of Feasting together at the Table of the Lord together with those sad consequences to your own Family while you it may be go one way and your Wife another and your Children and Servants pretend to Worship each and all of them in a way by themselves to the gradual ruin of all Peace and Piety in your Family in the room of mutual Edification and Comfort But I know a word to the Wise is sufficient and I am minded to have done Wherefore Sir were I worthy to be listened to I would advise you should abide in the Station wherein God hath placed you sitting down with quiet and thankfulness
under the use of such means as his gracious Providence hath afforded you doing your own Duty to God in a constant diligent Attendance upon his publick Ordinances and to your lawful Minister for the sake of God You may countenance him in his Office and yet discourage him in his Sins The worse he is pray the more for him and talk less against him but take more pains with him to recover him and if nothing will do wait with patience till God put you under some milder and more comfortable Dispensation by removing him one way or other from amongst you and sending you a better in his place Which thing I am confident God will do for you in his good time if he see you thus to deny your self in meer obedience to him by casting your self and cause upon him and wholly referring it to him free from all indirect projects and practices of your own which may argue your being dissatisfied with the present provision which he hath made In the mean while if you edifie by your Minister in nothing else this exercise of Faith and Patience and Meekness and Love and Unity and Uniformity will become far better Evidence of your real Edification and growth in Grace than any you will be able to produce in the contrary course For whoever they be that minister to your Losts or Passions or meerly to a Party will never minister truly to your Edification And indeed woe to this present World that Mens growth in Grace should be measured by their heats and contentions about indifferent things by being ready to quarrel at the times and to arraign the actions of Superiors and Governours in Church and State by being always complaining of the miscarriages of other Men but especially Ministers as if all the title Men had to vertue in themselves consisted in a certain delight which they took in repeating and proclaiming other Mens vices which is such a kind of Edifying as Infernal Spirits boast of and which is indeed only proper to the Accuser of the Brethren did Men rightly consider it Where envy and strife is saith the holy Apostle Jam. 3.16 there is confusion and every evil work as also that this sort of Wisdome is from beneath even earthly sensual devilish v. 15. Because I fore-see and know the Consequences of these things both in reference to the publick and your private Peace to the rending the Church and your own Soul asunder I am therefore concerned to warn you against every thing that hath but a necessary appearance or tendency thereunto as much as against all inclinations or tendencies to Drunkenness or Adultery or Stealing or Forswearing your self and the like For a Conclusion Let me remind you of the Advice of the Blessed St. Paul to the Corinthians in the like Case where one was for Paul another for Apollo and another for Cephas and all were in that respect and therefore carnal saying I have in a Figure transferred these things to my self and to Apollo for your sakes that ye might learn in us not to think of Men above that which is written that no one of you be puft up for one against another Therefore let no Man glory in Men 1 Cor. 4.6 And here Sir I had concluded your trouble in reading these Lines having already transgressed the Lines of an Epistle did I not fear you might fancy I had some Design in writing some of these at least to make an Apology for the sinsulness of Ministers Lives which God forbid and my comfort is that you know me better But lest any may hereafter become privy to these Papers who may be inclined by Inrerest Party or Prejudice to Judge so hardly I think it therefore needful to add that I abhor all Debauchery and Ungodliness in any Man but most of all in a Minister who hath so solemnly Consecrated not only his mouth but his whole Self Soul and Body unto God so that to desecrate or unhallow either is an high point of Sacriledge against God and a most grievous Scandal to the World while all good Men are afflicted to see it and all bad Men are hardned in their wicked Courses by it While the poor wretch in all his Preachings playeth but the Orator against himself and each good Sermon which he makes is but a fresh Inditement of his old wicked life No no I wish from my heart that every Minister in his respective place was as St. Paul for his Conversation in Heaven and an Apollos for his Eloquence in the Pulpit that he was furnished with both a Mouth and Wisdome which Gain-sayers were not able to contradict I mean in few words that he was himself a living Word This would be a means to heal our divisions and make up those breaches amongst us which the sins of both Preachers and Hearers keep open and in Gods good time help to make us of one heart and of one mind Amen Though my own sad Observation for the present gives me to see that as yet this alone will not do it For as much as it is too too manifest and plain that in such places where the Ministers live every way exemplary and blameless and are sound laborious and faithful in their Preaching yet even in those places the Breaches are kept open and the Separation continued Whence I cannot but conclude there is something else at the bottom besides the pretence to Religion and Reformation which keeps men from their Duty and at that distance one from the other But the making Men of one mind in an House as well as the working effectual grace in Mans heart is a Dispensation beyond the reach and power of Man and indeed is the only Prerogative of God who seems to me to have reserved this so great a Blessing and so much to be desired for another World or some other Age of this In the mean time it is a great comfort that you and I have got thus far on our Journey toward our longed for rest in so much Prosperity and Peace free and secure from all those amazing staggering temptations of the Primitive Christians under the good Providence of God and gracious Protection and Sun-shine of mild and most merciful Governours whom God of his goodness yet preserve notwithstanding all our frowardness and unthankfulness so as we may live to to see our Childrens Children and Peace upon Israel I have thus far gratified your pressing importunity upon a most unpleasing Subject in compliance with my Duty to your Commands and to exemplifie how much and how far I am to be commanded by you who indeed am SIR Your most humble Servant Aug. 28. 1684. FINIS