Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	church_n	communicate_v	communion_n	1,771	5	9.7997	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41043	A sermon preached before the House of Peers on December 22 1680 being the day of solemn humiliation / by the Right Reverend Father in God John, Lord Bishop of Oxford.	Fell, John, 1625-1686.	1680 (1680)	Wing F621; ESTC R6374	13,806	33

other continued to them still the self same union and according to the method of the primitive Church Totus orbis commercio formatarum una communionis societate concordabat as saies Optatus lib. 2. The whole world was united by the commerce of credentiall letters and the fellowship of communion Abstractedly speaking It is the duty of every Christian to communicate in holy offices with every Christian and likewise t is the duty of every one to admit all others to the like communion So that whatever impunity human Laws may give to separation they can never make it lawful t wil still be sin though it have the encouragement of innocence Indeed Schism is so severely branded in the holy Scripture that even they who place their Religion in separation acknowledge the guilt of it and lay the blame of their dissent on those from whom they differ alleging either the immorality of their lives or errors in the Faith and in fine resolve their separation is therefore innocent because t was necessary Hence it comes to pass that notwithstanding the strict obligation to an entire agreement among all Christians it is not likely nay not possible to be obtain'd for besides the ready excuse of casting blame on others and the perpetual subterfuge that peace is never to be sought for with the loss of truth which makes an out-let for all self opinionated men who will be sure to guild their errors with the name of truth and make up their defect of knowledge with abundance of perverseness there are very many so full of malice that nothing is so hatefull to them as the name of Peace so that as the Psalmist saies if any one speak to them thereof they make themselves ready to battel But over and above all this there is upon the part of Almighty God a fatal bar imposd he having said there must be heresies in the Church and that t is necessary offences should come that they who are approved may be made manifest So that they who propose to themselves the uniting either all Christians or all Protestant dissenters or those who ●●ve even the slightest differences between themselves will be more happy in the piety of their design then the successe and issue of it To speak distinctly to our present case Popery in its unhappy additions to the faith once delivered to the Saints is a Religion made up of superstition and cruelty hypocrisy and profaness of craft and folly but yet it has not so exhausted the whole nature of ill but that there are several other Sects pretending to Christianity extremely bad And the same principle of duty to Almighty God that forbids an orthodox Son of the English Church to communicate with Popery must also as forcibly oblige not to communicate with them and what we do upon just conviction every Dissenter is directed to by the sway of his opinion and will be as little gratified by the widest and most comprehensive Scheme if it oblige unto communion on the terms which it holds forth without which it do's nothing as now they are with the establisht constitution of the Church Indeed our Church in reference to the present state of things has very rightly by a great wise man bin compar'd unto a fortified Town and the several denominations of dissenters to so many Villages about her now in case of an assault from a common enemy which God knows lies hard upon us as it would be a great imprudence in the Citizens not to give all encouragement to those without to come within the line and share the safety of it so t would be utter madness in the Villagers to continue still without or demand that the walls or works should be demolisht that they might dwell with better ease or more unto their mind When Julian the Apostate labored with all his force and skill to extirpate Christianity the means he used was to encourage the several Sects of heretics in their differing waies of worship as we learn from Ammianus Marcellinus a Heathen writer in his 22. book Dissidentes Christianorum antistires cum plebe discissa in palatium intromissos monebat ut civilibus discordiis consopitis quisque nullo vetante religioni suae serviret The Emperor calling to him in his Palace the heads of the divided sects of Christians both Priests and People admonishd them that laying aside civil discords every one without controul should exercise his own way of worship And then adds that this was thus diligently don by him that dissentions being encreased by licence be might from thence forth be secure from danger of the Christians unanimity having experimentally found that no wild Beasts are so enraged against one another as disagreeing Christians And we know how this very thing has bin from time to time endeavourd by the Factors for the Roman Church And it would be exceeding strange if the readiest way to bring in Popery and extirpate the very being of Christianity should now be thought a good expedient to promote the Protestant interest The practise of our Neighbour State is indeed urged to shew the safety and advantage of leaving Religion at large but t is obvious to see what footing Popery has thereby got among them which their public writings fruitlessly complain of and what progress other Sects have made the numbers of Socinians and Jews and some of a worse mark will plainly evidence When Christianity was lately under persecution in Japan there were a sort of men that answered they were Hollanders and so escaped the Test Were we here professors of that cold complexion a toleration of all or possibly of no Religion might well consist with peace especially under the guard of a Military force but they little understand the English temper that think the like indifference will pass with us When all is don there is no possible expedient to heal our divisions till there be first procur'd a mutual desire to have them heal'd To this end it would be of great effect that S. Pauls advice should be considered That the strong would not despise the weak nor the weak judge the strong that the knowing would with meekness instruct those that oppose themselves and the opposers would lay aside hostility and receive with meekness the engrafted word and grow thereby Did men but heartily desire a reconcilement did they thoroly consider that the Kingdom as it now stands divided against it self must certainly be brought to desolation and that nothing but a closure can avert it how would those differences which now appear like mountains shrink into mole-hills and that which we have hitherto taken for a beam in our brothers eie seem scarce a mote and that possibly not in his but in our own How would the motives of discord and defiance with which we have hitherto whet our selves against each other put in the balance with our obligations to charity and love prove light as air nay lighter then vanity it self Good God! we have one