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
A47791	God's Sabbath before, under the law and under the Gospel briefly vindicated from novell and heterodox assertions / by Hamon L'Estrange ...	L'Estrange, Hamon, 1605-1660.	1641 (1641)	Wing L1188; ESTC R14890	92,840	157

understood by this Law No it is not all Expositours take it for the hole five books and yet for this there may be some colour because the 70. render it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Hierome Deuteronomium legis hujus But to return to the first text of Moses we need no other Expositour then himself what Law he appointed then to be re●d he telleth us in the immediate precedent verse it was that Law which he delivered to the Levites that Law which he commanded them to put in the side of the Ark Now if they can prove that onely Deuteronomy was delivered to the Levites and laid up there they shall gain my subscription Having thus proceeded as farre as my first intendment bounded me lest this discourse should jut too farre into that insuing of the Sabbath under the Gospel now no more Gods Sabbath under the Gospel WE have at last shaked off those remora's which retarded our arrivall at the Christian Sabbath at Gods Sabbath under the Gospel For a Sabbath God hath still but not the Jewish not the seventh from the creation No a The seventh day is vanisht our Lord is buried the first now dawneth our Lord is risen and his Resurrection hath consecrated to us a new Sabbath for a Sabbath God must have by the immutable Law of the fourth precept Remember thou sanctifie the Sabbath day that is that day which for the time being God hath marked out and appointed for his own {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} For if this Commandment injoyneth now no particular and set time under the Gospel then is the Law an Ennealogue not a Decalogue and so God hath lost one of his ten words but he payeth no tithe out of his Commandments his full Denary he must and will have If you say the Morall equitie viz. to yield God a competent and convenient time for his worship remaineth still and so the Commandment is not lost I answer This Fundamentall Law is tacitly implyed in this precept but so it was also in the institution of all other ceremoniall festivals the Passeover Pentecost c. to which we may as well resort as to the fourth precept for it And if this morall or naturall Law be the onely reliques of that Commandment I would fain learn what was in the Sabbath extraordinary more then in other Feasts which might intitle it to a roome amongst the morall Laws of the Decalogue when as the other Feasts were excluded Besides if this morall law of Festos dies coles maketh a distinct precept by it self I see no reason but there should be another for going to Church another for allowing God a convenient portion of our substance for these are also morall equities and so there will be an even dozen Lastly how cometh this morall equitie to be a peculiar of the Gospel onely God had from the Creation to the Law from the Law to Christ a day appropriated and that by himself to his worship what hath he lesse reason to require it under the Gospel hath he left the Christian Church to that liberty that every man may serve him as the toy taketh him and so God stand to our courtesie to be worshipped when we list You will say Nay we are not left at that libertie The observation of the Holy dayes appointed by the Church is reduced to the fourth Commandment as a speciall to a generall viz. Gods people must observe holy times because the equitie of the fourth Commandment obligeth thereunto But Easter and Christmasse day and Sunday c. are holy dayes lawfully appointed by the Governours of the Church and subordinate to the equitie of the fourth Commandment therefore Christian people are bound to observe these Holy dayes in obedience to the equitie of the fourth Commandment I answer The Church hath a power indeed to ordain festivals but is the observation of her constitutions concerning them a fulfilling the disobedience a breach of the fourth Commandment How can this be First what needs an Obligation be derived from the last precept of the first Table when the first of the latter is alsufficient Secondly is it not a mere non sequitur The fourth Commandment bindeth us to yield God a convenient time for his worship Ergò It obligeth us to observe the festivals of the Church Where learned you this Logick Suppose I pray the Church should injoyn but one day in a moneth doth he I pray who observeth her order that one day and not once more in the interim serve God perform his dutie which God in this Commandment requireth or doth he who plieth God with frequent addresses who strictly observeth canonicall houres yet onely perhaps faileth that one day which the Church injoyneth doth he I say violate the morall law of this precept which saith not Set apart such times for pious exercises as thy Governours prescribe but such as thou thy self thinkest meet In short to make this more evident Every Law positive is built upon some morall as upon a foundation now it is manifest that the foundation may stand and yet the superstructure fall as may be demonstrated in an example familiar to us The equitie of State requireth that particular persons be not inriched any way which reflecteth to the damage of a communitie upon this sociable equitie there is a positive a Statute law b inacted that None shall buy or contract for any victualls or wares before they come to the Market Fair or Port. But in some parts of this Realm especially in Norfolk such plentie of corn there is growing in most Towns as maketh every of them a kind of Market so as few men need go out of their own Villages to be supplied with materialls either for bread or beer yea the superfluitie is such as many Towns vend a thousand quarters of grain over and besides what supplieth their families and lands by reason of which great plenty little or none is sold in many Markets and the usuall practice hath been and is for Merchants to buy not in open Market but at the Barn doore great quantity thereof and export it into other parts of the kingdome where scarcitie is This act of theirs some Merchants have by smart experience lately found to be illegall but yet no violation of the foresaid equity for who complaineth that they are damnified thereby Not the Norfolcians they are eased not the Shires deficient they are relieved either part desireth it one ut impleatur that it may be stored the other ut depleatur that it may be disburthened Nor doth the fourth Commandment onely inferre out of these words Remember thou sanctifie the Sabbath that God must have a Sabbath in a speciall manner but it declareth also his will concerning the quotient and limitation thereof Six dayes shalt thou labour and do all that thou hast to do but the Seventh is the Sabbath so that one in a week he must have If you say the limitation

the right observation of the Christian Sabbath Is it now likely that the doctrine of so eminent a Teacher as Origen should perswade none to conformitie with what he here delivered But suppose the worst and that you were able to afford us an example or two of labour on this day must it therefore follow that there was no decree of restraint made by the Apostles and that we are at libertie to plow and cart on this day notwithstanding any divine Law to the contrary Nothing lesse for as his late Majestie g judiciously said It is not sound reasoning from things done before a Church be settled and grounded unto those which are to be performed in a Church estalibshed and flourishing There might be and was weighty cause to dispence with so strict a vacancie from worldly businesse as the state of the Church then stood Heavy were their pressures many thousands were the slaves of miscreant masters who in likelihood would not forbear their servants work an hole day in a week but exact it from them under the penaltie of many stripes so that should any of that servile condition have refused his masters work on that day nothing could he expect but severe if not inhumane usage and should the Christian Church have engaged herself in the vindication and justification of such contempt it had been the high-way to have made both her Religion and self even to eradication odious as the incendiaries of disobedience and maintainers of Anarchie And therefore very discreetly the fathers of the Laodicean Councel wary of giving offence yet willing to shew how they stood affected decreed in the twentie ninth canon of that Councel that Christians should rest from labour on the Lords day {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} if they could that is if their Pagane masters would not constrain them to work and so it is by Brerewood understood But here it will be excepted If the Law of God commanded their rest and cessation upon the Lords Day the law of man enjoyning the contrary was not to be weighed for in such cases h No man is subject to a law of an inferiour repugnant to another of a superiour or It is better to obey God then man Acts c. 5. v. 29. I answer Better it is indeed to obey God then man when they command things repugnant but it must be with this proviso that the Law of God be fundamentall and paramount from which there is no appeal to an higher For if it be a positive or ceremoniall law a law of lesser caract then Aquinas his rule must be retorted with the losse but of one letter No man is obliged by an inferiour law against a superiour All positive laws whatsoever are subordinate and when they stand in competition with moralls and fundamentalls they must strike sail Because the point is tickle and may perhaps give offence to weaker apprehensions I will illustrate it with two examples taken out of Holy writ where God dispenced with ceremoniall laws for a while that the morall might be preserved inviolate The ceremoniall law of God enjoyned the Israelites to offer such and such sacrifices at such and such times in such and such places directly crosse to which Pharaoh their King imposed upon them such a task as would not afford them any leisure to perform those sacred duties Now the fundamentall law of God enjoyned them as it doth all men to obey their superiours in all things either simply good or not simply evil and betwixt this fundamentall and the other ceremoniall laws stood the contest But what was the issue Did God with the Israelites in this case as Popes in their fury by a Nos Sanctorum with the subjects of an heretick Prince absolve them from their obedience The Israelites were more and mightier then their adversaries did he instigate and spurre them on to rebell or by assassination to make away their King No he sent to Pharaoh and commanded him to let his people go he knew the fault and impediment to be in him alone the Israelites were blamelesse and as Augustine saith in a similarie case i The obliquitie of the command made the King blame-worthy the ordinance of obeying made the subject innocent Nay to pursue this example a little further when Pharaoh condescended to let the people go to sacrifice provided they went not farre Moses refused the leave upon such conditions as were like to bring them in peril of their lives It is not meet so to do shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Aegyptians before their eyes and will they not stone us Exod. 8.26 A true confirmation of Gods impresse I will have mercie and not sacrifice Hos. 6.6 Both he will have where both may be had but if he must part with one mercie he will have let the other go Upon this text a learned Commentatour thus k God preferreth the moralls of the second Table before ceremonialls of the first And the same is the opinion of divers others * The second dispensation was in the wildernesse and that from observation of a sacramentall law for we reade Joshua 5.5 that circumcision was omitted all that time and the Israelites abode there 40 years The most probable cause of this omission was because they were every minute to watch the motion of the convoy-cloud and to march with it but circumcision would either retard their expedition or hazard the lives of the infants therefore God in mercie had rather respect to the safety of those innocents then to his ordinance of circumcision I could also instance in Gods dispensation during the persecution under Manasses and other idolatrous Kings as also under the Captivitie of Babylon in all which severall times doubtlesse there was a fail in many ceremoniall duties otherwise observable The truth is all ceremoniall laws have respect to the latitude of Jury and the land of Canaan as well in a morall as a literall sense viz. they are framed onely for the Church whilest she enjoyeth a visible and open profession of her religion whilest her peace remaineth indisturbed for when the fury of persecution hunteth her like a partridge on the mountains when times of tribulation and calamitie seise upon her God then accepteth what service she can with her own safety afford him he standeth not upon shadows the substance is that he onely then looketh after Ceremonies are but the outward dresse of religion onely made to decore her in publick profession and therefore not absolutely of the essence of a Church and so but respectively necessary The very Sacraments themselves are but so as the glory of our Church l hath rightly observed upon that fail of circumcision in the wildernesse yet Sacraments I take it are the highest stair and degree of ceremonies Now these premises considered nothing discern I to the contrary but a constitution of the Apostles concerning labour to be omitted on this day there might be though not to