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
B09464	Animadversions on the defence of the answer to a paper, intituled The case of the dissenting Protestants of Ireland, in reference to a bill of indulgence from the exceptions made against it together with an answer to a peaceable & friendly address to the non-conformists written upon their desiring an act of toleration without the sacramental test.	Mac Bride, John.; Pullen, Tobias, 1648-1713. Defence of the ansvver to a paper intituled The case of the dissenting Protestants.	1697 (1697)	Wing M114; ESTC R180238	76,467	116

an establish't Church Answ We tell you that if the inconveniencies are sinless we are willing to suffer in and with an Establish't Church or tho' it were not Established by Law but if the inconveniencies be to our Consciences we must and will Dissent nor will our Charity bear with what is inconsistent with a good Conscience Such as found their separation from your Assemblys upon this that they find themselves more edified in Godliness and Piety by their own Meetings than yours ye confess your inability to find what reason they can ground upon this for a down-right separation and utter refusal of your Communion Answ Tho' our edification in Godliness is the great end of our joyning with any Assembly and where that may be best had Communion is there most eligible yet if we may be really edified in that Assembly whereof we are Members we allow not separation on pre●ence of better elsewhere no more than a Womans leaving her Husband to live with another for more pleasure and conveniency Yet Edification being the end of Church-Communion no wise men should condemn those who choose the best means for that end I suppose you make use of the best meat and medicines for preserving of your life and health and would take it ill 't is possible if Governors of Church or State should confine you to the quantity quality and time of your Diet which experience teaches you to be inconsistent with health and strength and why may not men be as much concern'd for their Souls as Bodies Dr. Stillingfleet Ire● page 109. in answer to a question disputed by Grotius to wit whether it be in a time when Churches are divided it be a Christians duty to communicate with either Party that divides the Church or to Communion from all of them the Dr. says that a Christian by virtue of his general obligation to Communion is bound to adhere to that Church which retains most of Evangelick purity in it Bramhall in his vindication of the Church of England page 7. cites Dr. Holden with approbation When there is a mutual division of two parts or member of the Mystical Body of the Church one from the other yet both retain Communion with the universal Church which for the most part springs from some doubtful opinion or less necessary part of Divine Worship whatsoever part you take you are no Schismatick because the universal Church hath condemn'd no part so that real experience of edification will warrant separation from these Assemblies where it is not found to these where it is found To such as plead for occasional Communion who do not utterly renounce your Communion but sometimes come to your publick Worship and receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper after your form your Question upon this is If occasional Communion be lawful why is constant unlawful Answ Altho I allow of no such amphibious creatures as a Non and Conformist appears to be because as a Neuter in the Common-Wealth nec amicum perit nec inimicum pellit so in Religion he is worse according to Christ's reasoning Luke 11. 23. yet if we distinguish occasional Communion in total and partial total I call a communicating in all Sermons Liturgy and Ceremonies for such I have nothing to say and will not judge other mens Servants but as for those who can and do occasionally hear such as are orthodox in the Faith and sober in their Conversation as they do not despise others so we do not judge them But as for most of us we are of your judgement as to such who communicate with you occasionally in all things according to the form prescribed if they see no sin in such conformity they are but fools to suffer for non conformity Having heard your Doctrine we come now to its Use in which you ingenuously discover your design which is either to perswade us to Conformity or disswade us from thoughts of a legal toleration As for your desire to know our aims and purposes in respest to an Act of Toleration tho we are not obliged to discover our thoughts to you yet finding you a plain-dealing man in telling yours we shall tell you ours by ingenuously answering your Quaeries distinctly To the first to wit Is it only to have the liberty of serving God in that way which you think to be b●st and thereby to be free of persecution and to go the readiest way to Heaven as ye suppose To this 1. We confess we sincerely desire liberty to serve God according to that perfect rule he hath given us which we firmly believe is the best way and safest both for you and us both 2. We desire by this not only to be freed from persecution but that ye may free your selves from the guilt and appearance of that evil 3. Having bodies as well as souls by which we are bound to glorify God and serve our King and Countrey as we shall be called or capable we desire that we be not deprived of or rendred unfit for enjoying our birth-right-privileges as free-born Subjects and persons professing the Reformed Christian Religion by yoking our Consciences to unlawful or suspected practices or insnaring Oaths But ye tell us If liberty to serve God the way we think best be all we desire why are we against the Sacramental Test by which we are made uncapable of any Office or Employment unless we Receive the Sacrament after the form prescribed by the Church of England if we be not content with liberty unless we have share in the Government and be made capable of Employments of Power Trust and Profit 't is apparent we design somewhat else than the Salvation of our souls and freedom from persecution Answ Tho Non-Conformists shou'd aim at more than the saving of their souls and freedom from persecution where is the great fault of it if we be guilty in this you are not innocent who we suppose aim at something more than these things I have already in the Animadversions shewn the inconsistency of the Test with the true interest of Ireland which the Ingenuous Author of the Remarks on the Affairs of Ireland c. hath well done but it seems you have low thoughts of Salvation who rate it lower than Employments of Trust and Profit upon Earth for that you seem to grant us liberty to seek but the other is too good for us and therefore you are either not in earnest in permitting us to seek the best way of Salvation or else you over-value earthly honour and profit while you would monopolize that to your party and deprive others of the ordinary means of subsisting and serving God and their Countrey To the 2d Question if it be our aim to lay a foundation for the overthrow of the Establish't Church and to get into our hands all Civil and Ecclesiastic Power which is already done by those of our perswasion in another Kingdom Ye confess ye were not wise if ye give us not all the opposition ye can

he saith to be always in extreems very good or very bad and is at several times highly applauded and violently decry'd by the whole Body of Dissenting Protestants it hath some truth but not the whole truth in it for both Papists and Sons of the Church have and do decry and commend it according to their need for do not the Papists in England and Ireland and his Episcopal Brethren in Scotland plead for it as much as Protestant Dissenters We suppose he hath seen Bishop Taylor 's Liberty of Prophecying and when he hath answered the Preface to that Book he may possibly prevent mens looking on Toleration as unlawful If he had the wisdom of the unjust Steward he might improve his Remark that should he be put out of his Stewardship which is metaphysically possible he might have Friends to receive him into their Houses To the V's Question whether he could produce one Instance of any Protestant Dissenter even in the late Reign turning Papist The D. gives a womans reason he could give several Instances but will not mention one which certainly flows not from tenderness of our Reputation which he labours on all occasions industriously to blast but either because he can't as we are sure he can't fairly or because he is tender of their honor now they are turn'd Papists and will not expose them or fears if we come to ballance Accounts with him he shall be much a Loser But however He tells the great reason why so few of theirs or our Communion were perverted is under God to be ascribed to the excellent Discourses wr●t against Papists by the Episcopal Clergy and amongst the vest numbers of those admirable Tracts two only were wrote by Dissenters and then he falls to downright calling and revi●ing Dissenters A. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 think it unjust to derogate from the worth of any mans labours yet it is only native to Animals of 〈…〉 their own Praise and inconsistent with the 〈◊〉 of God which directs us to let another man praise 〈…〉 Lips A stranger and not thine own 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 D. being jealous none would undertake to be his Parties Herald but with so much Vanity That he calls to our remembrance a frantick man who before the Troubles wandred about in the North under the Title of King of the Rainbow who with great assurance asserted he defended Brittain and Ireland from all foreign Enemies that he fought our Battles and that we ow'd our lives to his Valour Conduct and hath been observ'd busie in an old Fort in his imaginary War So tho we will not deny all good that such discourses may have done yet we are confident that their influence upon Dissenters hath been very weak seeing very few of them hath heard or seen these Admirable Tracts which would justly deserve the Epithete if they could preserve those who never saw nor heard them But how comes he to know that only two were wrote by Dissenters against Papists doth he know all of that nature is done by them we suppose the Morning Exercises Preach't and Printed by the Dissenting Ministers of London to that purpose may vi● with any of these admirable Tracts several others also might be Instanced But yet we see not that the Irish-English Clergy have any great share in this Honour except it be the Bishop of Derry in his Admirable Tract against Manby in which he hath taken the same method to prevent Dissenters being perverted that so did wh● recommended cutting off the Head as a Soveraign Remedy against the ●oothach for lest the Catholick Church shou'd lose its Members by their being perverted he prudently cut them off from being Members of it And left the Lawful Spiritual Governours of the Church shou'd laugh at Presbyterians and Independants he appears to us to treat them no better if his Difinition of the Catholick Church hold good ●or pag. 4. He defines it to be the whole Body of Men professing the Religion of Christ and living under their Lawful Spiritual Governours Now the Lawful Spiritual Governours can't live under the Lawful Spiritual Governours for then should they be undermost and upmost at the same time and therefore a Bishop is as little a member of the Catholick Church as a Presbyterian Bishop Sheridon also Preach't a Sermon against Popery which we have seen but how it preserv'd him in his Bishoprick the D. knows and yet notwithstanding all these admirable Tracts he boasts of the Establish't Church has furnish't Rome with twenty Proselytes to one more than all the Dissenting Protestants in Britain and Ireland so that their Works has been better Amulets for their Neighbours than themselves If we intended to render railing for railing we would charge the Episcopal Clergy with what he falsely accuseth all Dissenting Ministers as being Trumpoters in State Tumults and Seditions But we leave that work to his Jacobitish Brethren who have upbraided many of their own Clergy with that Evil under the aggravation of Treachery and Perjury But wickedness proceedeth from the wicked my hand shall not be upon them Tho the D. endeavors to ridicule Preaching the Gospel under the name of raising the Hue and Cry c. Yet it hath pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe The Gospel was planted by Preaching not by Printing and shall be preserved by the same means Acts 20. 32. And as Rome's first wound was given by the faithful Preaching of the first Reformers more than by their Printing so we understand not that the Walls of Rome shall be battered by Books but as the Walls of Jericho did fall by Faith even so shall Rome's 2 Thess 2 8. The Lord shall consume it with the spirit of his mouth and Faith comes by hearing and hearing by God's Word Preached Rom. 10. 14 15. The V. having told to mortifie the man's vanity that years experience might convince them how unsuccesful they had been in gaining Dissenters to their Communion the D. tells that this is mainly to be attributed to the unwearied labours of Dissenting Preachers in raising unreasonable prejudices and in fixing invincible aversion to our Ecclesiastical Discipline and Constitutions c. in them A. As their endeavors have been very unsuccesful as to the numbers they have gain'd from us so the worth of such is inconsiderable being persons whom a worldly Interest and a more licentious Life prevail'd upon and as they are no Ornaments to their Church except their admired Bishop of Derry so they are no loss to us who could spare them more such when we detect them Nor is this to be attributed so much to the unwearied labours of Dissenting Preachers as he saith as to the Dignified Clergy's easy wearying in their labours and inverting the Apostle's words into Woe to me if I Preach the Gospel and the unwearied pursuit of Dignities and Revenues of the Church more than Ministerial Duties nor need the Dissenting Preachers weary themselves to beget in people an aversion and prejudice against

But if we can make appear that these Ceremonies as imposed by you are made essential parts of Religion and necessary to Salvation then you must acknowledge them destructive of Christian Liberty This will appear if it be considered 1. That if these Impositions be necessary in order to Communion with the Church and Communion with the Church necessary to Salvation then they must be necessary to Salvation that they are made necessary conditions of our Communion with the Church is evident by the Act of Uniformity and your calling us all Schismaticks who conform not to them 2. What is made necessary to the Solemn Worship of God is made necessary to Salvation but so are they seeing without them it cannot be solemnly performed in England and Ireland 3. If the bare omission of them tho' out of tenderness of Conscience be ju●ged Schism Sedition and Rebellion and be made worthy of Fining Imprisonment and Excommunication 4. If for calling them unlawful a man must be delivered to Satan according to Can 6. 5 If the omission of these make a Minister more lyable to Deprivation c. than Whoredom Drunkenness or breaking the Lord's day 6. If the refusers of Conformity to them be judged worse than Idolatrous Papists if they be more necessary than the Peace and Unity of the Church with what confidence can any man say that he judgeth them not necessary to Salvation That our Directory requ●reth any Ceremonies of mystical signification or imposeth any indifferent things save such circumstances as nature's Light and right Reason direct us to for the decent and orderly performance of our duties we deny and demand proof from all who assert it Having justify'd as you think the nature of your Ceremonies you proceed to vindicate their number telling us if we should say that your Ceremonies were too numerous and burthensome c. if this were really so it were only an inconvenience and not a sin Ans God's word tells us that to do what is not convenient is sinful Rom. 1. 28. Ephes 5. 4. though to suffer things inconvenient is not still so and by what authority can any burthen Consciences with their own Inventions was not this the sin of the Pharisees Matt. 23. 4. if Augustine complain'd as you say of the number and burthen of Ceremonies in his time why may not Dissenters do so now who are as unable to bear them as he was yet had he lived in some place of the World and complain'd of such a burthen there is a Canon called the 10th by which he had been ipso facto shut out of the Church But ye'll say he did not separate tho' he complained Answ How do ye know that he did not separate if he refused to use them he separated from them as well as we do and if he used them after his complaint of their being burthensome and too numerous it would be hard to excuse him from sinning against his confession but we have more Charity for him than to believe he did so To your Non-Conformists last Objection to wit The Ceremonies are unnecessary and therefore the Governors of the Church are not to lay unnecessary impositions on the People Ye Answer thus Tho' this were true that Governors did impose such things yet our complyance therewith for Peace and Vnity● sake were no sin but a virtue Answ That they are unnecessary you confess while you declare them indifferent and therefore the dubious supposition if they were c. is needless but that it is a virtue rather than a sin to comply with the unnecessary impositions of Church Governors for peace and unity is asserted not proved seeing nothing can be a Christian virtue which wants Christ's Command and we know of none he hath given for our complyance with Governors in their unnecessary impositions Yea we find Church Governors obliged by their Commission to teach us to observe no more than what Christ commanded them Matth. 28. 20. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and the good Centurian Cornelius would submit no further to the Apostle Peter Acts 10. 33. Now therefore are we all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God for seeing God and Nature do nothing in vain they have no power to impose things needless and where their power to command is void we are under no Obligation to obey yea such complyance is but a conspiracy with men usurping power and so partaking of their sins Paul withstood Peter to the face in his imposing unnecessary things on the Jews Gal. 2. 11. And seeing the Church hath no Power but to Edification 2 Cor. 10. 8. We are to follow them no further than they follow Christ 1 Cor. 11. 1. The Synod of Jerusalem Acts 15. guided by the holy Spirit thought fit to impose nothing but necessary things Bishop Bramhall page 101 of his Vindication says It was not the Erroneous opinions of the Church of Rome but the imposing them by Law on other Churches that warranted the separation So when things unnecessary are made conditions of our Communion we look not upon it as a Christian virtue to comply with them Having asserted not only the lawfulness but innocence of your Communion you profess your self assured that we do not think every man is at liberty either to join himself with the establish't Church of a place or to set up a distinct Church for himself Answ Such as on good grounds judge your Communion lawful and innocent will not set up for themselves but your asserting your selves such makes it not evident seeing there is a generation all whose ways are clean in their own eyes tho they be not wash'd from their iniquity Therefore we say with Memerable Hales of Eaton page 194. Notwithstanding of the great benefit of Communion in regard of divers Distempers Men are subject to Dissention and Dis-union are often necessary for when either false or uncertain Conclusions are obtruded for truth and acts either unlawful or ministring just scruple are required of us to be performed by us in those cases consent were conspiracy and open contestation is not Faction or Schism but due Christian animosity For tho' you value your selves mightily on account of your legal establishment which is indeed your most powerful argument yet the aforesaid Author page 231. says That publick Assemblys though according to form of Law are indeed nothing else but Riots and Conventicles if they be stain'd with Corruption and Superstition A Legal Establishment gives protection and provision but makes neither Doctrine true Worship pure or Government of Divine apponitment and seeing it adds no intrinsick value to a Church it can merit nothing barely upon that account else other Churches who have had a longer title to a Legal Establishment than ye might expect more honour While you desire to know whether one or more bare inconveniencies which are or may be free from sin can be a sufficient reason to separate from