Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	commandment_n	law_n	moral_a	2,159	5	9.3779	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25228	Some queries to Protestants answered and an explanation of the Roman Catholick's belief in four great points considered : I. concerning their church, II. their worship, III. justification, IV. civil government.	Altham, Michael, 1633-1705.	1686 (1686)	Wing A2934; ESTC R8650	37,328	44

on whose decisions they so much depend hath a quite different Notion of Justification and Merit That Council after some Months debate upon the Point of Justification at last came to a decision and declared That the only formal Cause of our Justification is God's Justice not by which he himself is just but by which he makes us just wherewith being endowed by him we are renewed in the Spirit of our Minds and are not only reputed but are made truly just receiving every man his own measure of justice which the Holy Ghost divides to him according to each mans predisposition of himself and co-operation And withall denounceth a flat Anathema to all those who shall dare to say that we are formally justified by Christ's righteousness or by the sole imputation of that righteousness or by the sole remission of our sins and not by our inherent grace diffused into our hearts by the Holy Ghost Sess 6. Can. 10 11. And the same Council speaking of the Merit of good Works saith If any man shall say that the good Works of a justified Person do not truly merit the increase of Grace and eternal Life let him be Anathema Sess 6 Can. 32. Now one would think the choice were very easie which of these to believe whether the Council of Trent or this Explainer The accounts they give are too different to be both believed and can there be any question which of them is most authoritative Certainly our Expla●ner must be a very bold Person who in defiance of such a celebrated Council durst deliver what he hath done for the belief of Roman Catholicks in this point and he must look upon his Persons of Quality to whom he presents it as a parcel of unthinking and inconsiderate Animals who would swallow any thing without Examination Either he was in earnest or he had a mind to put a cheat upon them if the latter he plainly discovers how good a Christian and how true a Catholick he is If the former surely he did not well consider how fatal the Consequences of that Doctrine would be to the Church of Rome For 1. If this be really the Faith of Roman Catholicks then What becomes of that gainful Trade of Indulgences which is wholly founded upon the Treasure of the Church wherein are heaped up piles of satisfactions of Saints of which the Pope only keeps the Keys and hath power to dispense them where he lists There was a time indeed when Indulgences were look'd upon to be nothing else but a Mitigation or Relaxation upon just Causes of Canonical Penances which are or may be enjoyned by the Pastors of the Church on penitent Sinners according to their several Degrees of Demerits But this is a Doctrine out of date with the present Church of Rome insomuch that Greg. de Valentia saith That this Opinion differs not from that of the Hereticks and makes Indulgences to be useless and dangerous things de Indulg c. 2. And their great Champion Bellarmine among several other Arguments against this Doctrine brings this for one That if this were so there would be no need of the Treasure of the Church which he takes a great deal of pains to prove to be the Foundation of Indulgences But 2. What will become of the profitable Doctrine of Purgatory which is built upon Indulgences and they upon the Treasure of the Church wherein the Merits of Saints are kept to be dispensed by the Pope for the delivery of Souls out of Purgatory But 3. What will become of the Pope's Coffers which being once emptied and this Spring dried up which should have supplied them can have no prospect of any other so effectual way to replenish them again Had our Explainer well considered these ill Consequences of his Explanation he would certainly have thought of it more than once before he had exposed it I cannot imagine what should perswade him to such an Explanation unless he had obtained a dispensation to guild his Bait the more easily to catch what he angled for And if this be it is it not a great Argument of the Candour and Ingenuity of our Explainer and a mighty motive to his Persons of Quality to swallow all that shall be propounded by him And now we are come to the last point which he undertakes to explain and shall examine whether he be more ingenuous in that than he hath been in the other The EXPLAINER 4. We firmly believe and highly reverence the Moral Law being so solemnly delivered to Moses upon the Mount Exodus 20. Matth. 19. Eccles 12 13. so expresly confirmed by our Saviour in the Gospel and containing in it self so perfect an Abridgment of our whole Duty both to God and Man Which Moral Law we believe obliges all men to proceed with faithfulness and sincerity in their mutual Contracts one towards another and therefore our constant profession is That we are most strictly and absolutely bound to the exact and intire performance of our promises made to any Persons of what Religion soever much more to the Magistrates and Civil Powers under whose Protection we live whom we are taught by the Word of God to obey not only for fear but Conscience sake and to whom we will most faithfully observe our Promises of Duty and Obedience notwithstanding any Dispensation Absolution or other proceedings of any foreign Power or Authority whatsoever Wherefore we utterly deny and renounce that false and scandalous Position That Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks as most uncharitably imputed to our Practices and most unjustly pinned upon our Religion These we sincerely and solemnly profess as in the sight of God the searcher of all hearts taking the words plainly and simply in their usual and familiar sense without any Equivocation or Mental Reservation whatsoever The ANIMADVERTER Our Explainer would have the World believe that those of his Communion do highly reverence and have a mighty regard for the Moral Law We do the same but we know and believe the Second Commandment to be part of that Law and therefore dare not be guilty of Image-Worship which perhaps the Explainer did not think of He further tells us that they believe that this Law doth contain in it self a perfect Abridgment of our whole Duty both to God and Man We believe the same and we do further believe that whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point he is guilty of all James 2.10 And therefore we dare not worship Images nor give divine Honour to any Creatures nor disobey Magistrates nor deal falsly with our Neighbours under any pretence whatsoever nor do any thing that is there forbidden nor leave undone any thing that is there commanded Whether the Explainer thought of all this I know not but he cannot but know that the Practices of those of his Communion are not correspondent thereunto But the two great things that he would have the World believe of them upon the Credit of his Explanation are these