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	day_n	lord_n	3,160	5	4.2209	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35528	Of the unity of the church a discourse written a thousand four hundred and thirty years since, in the time of Decius the persecuting emperor / by Cyprian, bishop of Carthage and martyr ; most usefull for allaying the present heats, and reconciling the differences among us.	Cyprian, Saint, Bishop of Carthage.; Fell, John, 1625-1686.	1681 (1681)	Wing C7714; ESTC R29694	19,253	46

OF THE Unity of the Church A DISCOURSE WRITTEN A Thousand Four Hundred and Thirty Years Since In the time of Decius the Persecuting Emperor By CYPRIAN Bishop of Carthage and Martyr Most usefull for allaying the present heats and reconciling the differences among us Printed at the THEATER in Oxford 1681. To the READER WHen the Idolatrous violence of heathen Rome under the Emperor Decius attemted the extirpation of the Christian Faith and brought on the seventh bloody persecution Novatian a Presbyter of the Roman Church separated himself from the communion thereof and became leader of a dangerous schism upon suggestion that others were polluted by the conversation of ungodly men and favourd those who were Idolatrous reproching them with the titles of Apostats Idolators and Jews as Pacian informs us Which most unseasonable rupture exceedingly weakned the hands of the Orthodox Christians and as S. Cyprian expresses it became another persecution unto them In this unhappy state of affairs when Idolatry destroied from abroad with all possible violence and Schism divided with like heat and earnestness within the good bishop of Carthage S. Cyprian thought it lay upon him for the privilege of the pope of Rome had not then placed his Church above admonition nor his infallibility set it beyond instruction to endeavor the reducing the dissenters in that Church whose godly labors had very great effect bringing back into communion several of the most eminent partizans in Schism and thereby many others also who by large pretences to godliness and the name of some pious men drawn aside into the party gave reputation to it I need not say how parallel a case we have in the Church of England When we are now assaulted by the plots and machinations of Idolatrous Rome we are molested by domestic dissentions from within upon the same pretences that we are polluted with the conversation of the Vngodly and favor those who are Idolators are lukewarm Professors Popishly affected and protestants in Masquerade It would be most happy if the parallel could be advanc'd yet farther and that as the advices of the holy Bishop and Martyr S. Cyprian were efficacious heretofore they may again be so on the like occasion He being dead above fourteen hundred years since yet speaketh and his discourses cannot be imagin'd to be levened by interest or passion and therefore they are faithfully translated into our English tongue and presented to the view and consideration of Dissenters among us The Christian Church stands under the same terms of duty to God and man as heretofore it did we have as strict obligation to Vnity among our selves Obedience to those who are over us in the Lord as had our first forerunners in the faith We are as forcibly bound to join in the same public Worship as they were and Excommunication especially that which the Schismatic voluntarily executes upon himself will be as penal and as certain a prejudice of the judgment of the great day as it was esteem'd in the primitive Church and 't is declar'd to be by Tertullian And not only the guilt but also the danger of Division is now as great as it was ever heretofore according to the saying of S. Paul If we bite and devour one another we shall be destroied one of another God Almighty grant that we may see at least in this our day the things belonging to our peace before they be hid from our Eies THE Holy Martyr S. CYPRIAN Of the Vnity of the Church WHEREAS our Lord instructing us hath said You are the salt of the earth and commanded us to be simple as to the doing any wrong and yet withall to join wisdom with our simplicity what can be more sit and becoming us then that with watchfull diligence we should endeavour to understand both what are the ambushes of our crafty enemy and how to avoid them that we who have put on Christ the Wisdom of God the Father may not seem destitute of wisdom in securing our salvation for we are not only to fear that persecution which by open force attemts the overthrow of the servants of God T is easie to be cautious where the hazard is manifest The mind is prepared before for the combat where the enemie professes himself Then is he most formidable and most to be took care of when he secretly approches and under a fraudulent pretence of peace by an undiscernible motion steals upon us insensibly from the practice of which methods the Devil has the name of Serpent for such hath bin always his craft and so dark and conceled from all view is the fraud by which he circumvents the sons of men Thus in the infancy of the world he enterprizd upon and by mixing flattery with lies he decieved our unexperienced Forefathers thro their unwary credulity Thus when he attemted our Lord he secretly approched as if by stealth he meant to deceive him but he was immediatly understood and as soon repulsed and vanquishd because he was discoverd and known Whence we may learn to decline the path of the first Adam and pursue the steps of Christ the victorious that we may not again unawars be entangled in the snare of Death but being provident against danger we may at last enjoy the purchased immortality But how can we attain the fruition of this immortality unless we keep those commands of Christ by which death is to be vanquish'd and subdued according to that counsel and saying of his If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments And again Ye are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you Such who are thus minded and resolved he stiles the couragious and stable founded upon a rock of vast bulk and strength firmly compacted and consolidated by an unshaken immovable constancy against all the storms and tempests of the world Whosoever heareth saith he these sayings of mine and doth them I will liken him to a wise man who built his house upon a rock And the rain descended and the flouds came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not because it was founded upon a rock It is our duty therefore to regulate our goings by his precepts and to learn and do the things he taught and did for with what face can any one profess he believes in Christ while he neglects to do what he enjoyns to be don or expect to reap the reward of faith who is unfaithful in the observation of his commands It cannot be but such a one must stagger and wander to and fro being hurryed about by the spirit of error like dust driven by the wind Nor shall he by his walking forward ever reach salvation who keeps not the saving way of truth But we must not only take care to decline the Devils more obvious and manifest attemts but those which his subtile craft and fraud hath laid in the dark the more easily to entrap us For what artifice more fine

bond of peace He cannot be a martyr who is destitute of brotherly love Saint Paul both teacheth and contests this saying Altho I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity I am nothing And tho I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and tho I give my body to be burned and have not charity it profiteth nothing Charity suffers long and is kind charity envieth not charity vaunts not it self is not puffed up doth not behave it self unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things charity never faileth This shall continue in that kingdom we look for this shall remain to all eternity in the brotherhood and never to be divided union of glorified saints Discord cannot enter heaven nor recieve rewards from Christ who has declar'd to his disciples This is my commandment that ye love one another even as I have loved you He can have no relation to him who violates his love by perfidious dissention Whoever hath not charity hath not God It 's the blessed Apostle John's assertion for he saith God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him They cannot dwell with God who thro dissention will not abide in his Church Tho they fry in flames tho cast into the fire or to wild beasts they lay down their lives therein they recieve not the crown of faith but the reward of disobedience not the glorious exit of religious fortitude but the final destruction of despair Such a one may be killed but cannot be crown'd The schismatic assumes the Christian name no otherwise then the Devil do's when he counterfiets Christ according as he forewarn'd us saying Many shall come in my name saying I am Christ and shall decieve many Now as Satan is not Christ tho he falsly takes his name so neither is he to be lookt upon as a Christian who perseveres not in the truth of his Gospel and faith thereof It is indeed a sublime and wonderful privilege to prophesy cast out Devils and to perform on earth works of power And yet whosoever he be who hath these gifts doth not thereby attain to the Kingdom of heaven unless he tread in the strait and even path of duty The Lord hath pronounced such a one's doom in these words Many will say unto me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out Devils and in thy name don many wonderful works And then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye workers of iniquity 'T is righteousness alone that can recommend us to God when he comes to judgment We must obey his commands and counsels that the good works which we have don may be rewarded Our Lord in the Gospel when he would guide the progress of our faith and hope in the shortest track tells us The Lord thy God is one And Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy strength This is the first and great commandment and the second is like unto it Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets In his instruction he joyns together love and unity and in two precepts comprised the Law and the Prophets But how doth he retain unity or preserve love or so much as think on 't who furiously mad with the poyson of discord mangles the Church destroyeth the faith disturbs the peace dissipates charity and profanes all holy mysteries This mischief my beloved Brethren began long since but now the destruction occasion'd thereby is apparently encreased and the poysonous bane of heretical perversness and separation hath shot up and shews it self For the holy Spirit foretelling admonishing us by the Apostle declares that in the declination of the world it was necessary so it should be In the last days saith he perilous times shall come For men shall be lovers of themselves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good traitors heady highminded lovers of plesures more then lovers of God having a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof Of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins led away with divers lusts ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the truth But they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be made manifest unto all men as theirs also was What hath been foretold hath been exactly fulfill'd and the world now drawing to an end the times and men are a proof thereof The adversary now raging more and more in like proportions error decieves stupidity thrusts forward envy enflames avarice blinds impiety depraves pride puffs up discord provokes anger transports Yet notwithstanding all this the abounding of iniquity ought not to shake and disturb us but rather the truth of the prediction ought to confirm and strengthen our faith Therefore should the brethren rather take heed of such for that all things were foretold of them our Lord himself teaching us and saying But take ye heed behold I have foretold you all things Avoid I beseech you such men and walk not with them and keep your ears shut and your selves far from their infectious communication which carrieth death along with it as it is writen Set an hedge of thorns about thine ears and hearken not to an evil tongue And again Evil communication corrupts good manners The Lord instructs and counsels us to withdraw from this sort of persons They are blind leaders of the blind And if the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the ditch Whoever he is that lives in separation from the Church he is to be detested and shunn'd He who is such is perverted and sinneth being condemn'd of himself Can he concieve himself to be on Christ's side who acts against his Priests who departs from the communion of his Clergy and people Such a one bears arms against the Church against God's ordinance is an enemy to the altar a rebel against the sacrifice of Christ instead of being faithful is a traitor instead of religious sacrilegious an undutiful son an ungodly servant an hostile brother contemning the Bishops and renouncing God's priests he presumtuously sets up altar against altar makes new and unlawful praiers profanes by false sacrifices the true offering of our Lord not deigning to consider that they who resist the ordinance of God recieve to themselves damnation Thus Corah Dathan and Abiram who challeng'd to themselves the power of sacrificing in opposition to Moses and Aaron the priest were immediately punisht for