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
A51000	Misericordiam volo, or, The pharisees lesson shewing the impiety and vnreasonableness of contending for outward formes and ceremonies, to the violation of obedience, charity, and the publick peace.	Long, Thomas, 1621-1707.; Long, Thomas, 1621-1707. Character of a separatist, or, Sensuality the ground of separation.	1677 (1677)	Wing M2245; ESTC R33489	37,726	84

i.e. with an opinion of the legal necessity of it Christ shall profit you nothing Yet to the Jews that he might win them he became as a Jew and then used Circumcision Acts 16.3 and to them that were without the Law as without Law that he might win the Gentiles and then he would not Circumcise and in all this he was Christs Freeman though he made himself a servant to all The Apostle knew that his Christian liberty was founded in freedom of Judgment and not of practice and that neither Circumcision nor Vncircumcision were any thing 1 Cor. 7.19 but the keeping of the Commandments Now no actions of ours that are required in obedience to our Superiours about the Publick Worship are so obnoxious to censure and scandal as these were but are under our Christian liberty And as we ought to serve one another in love in obedience to Gods commands so ought we in obedience of the same to submit our selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake and not use our liberty as a Cloke of Maliciousness or an occasion to the flesh to cast off either our Love to our Brethren or Obedience to Magistrates For to what end hath God according to his promise raised up Kings to be Nursing Fathers to his Church or what possibility is there that they should provide for its peace if they have not power in these External things If therefore the things commanded be indifferent it is certain that obedience to the Magistrate is no indifferent thing but as necessary as peace and unity which cannot otherwise be preserved Seventhly The means are alway as subservient so inferior to the end Now the end of the Commandment is Charity as the Apostle saith Col. 3.14 and therefore both he and St. Peter require charity above all things 1 Pet. 4.8 When therefore these externals of religion become apples of contention they are forbidden fruit which cannot be injoyed without the breach of the great Commandment and if they had each of them a particular precept yet when lesser duties come in competition with greater they cease to oblige Private Laws yield to publick humane Laws to the Laws of God and among God's Laws Positive Precepts yield to those that are moral and natural A Vow or an Oath concerning a thing lawful if it hinder Majus bonum Naturale ceaseth to oblige The Corban might not be pleaded in Bar to the relieving of Parents much less may any Covenant oblige against the Peace of the Church and the Publick Parent as some still plead for that which they call the National Covenant Those things therefore which are matters of Discipline and external order how precisely soever injoyned ought to give place to those that are the more substantial parts of Religion such as mercy and obedience to Magistrates charity peace and unity among Christians and as we may disuse some things which have been generally received in the Church of God as were the kiss of charity the love-feasts and anointing of the Sick so certainly we may use some other things which are injoyned by our Superiors for the sake of Order and Unity When St. Paul had established the Doctrine of Faith in the Church of Corinth he tells them 1 Cor. 11.16 that if about rites and ceremonies Any man seem to be contentious we have no such custome neither the Churches of God that is the custom of the Church is a sufficient Plea against such contentious persons Thus when the Council of Nice had composed the Articles of Faith in that Creed they all with one consent approved of the Ancient rites and customes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Sozomen says L. 7. c. 19. it was ever esteemed an unreasonable thing for those that agreed in the Substantials of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to separate from each other for customes and matters of doubtful disputation And it is generally agreed that the Churches which are sui Juris agreeing in the same Faith may differ in Rites and Ceremonies which they have power to alter or abrogate and therefore Calvin says they are Mali filii wicked Sons that will disturb the Peace of the Church their Mother for such external rites and as the Pharisees in the Text seek to withdraw the Disciples by such objections against their Master Why eateth your Master with Publicans and Sinners And yet certain it is that the Authors of Sects and Divisions among us have no better grounds for all the disorders and confusion the proud contempt and unchristian censures the slander and vexation that have been as so many evil spirits raised among us and I desire that such as are yet in the fault would not only consider the insufficiency of the grounds but also the mischievous consequences of our divisions how directly opposite to our Saviour's rule in the Text I will have mercy c. Now that there are Divisions among us may be proved by the same arguments that the Apostle useth to prove that there were Divisions in the Church of Corinth 1 Cor. 3.4 viz. when one saith I am of Paul and another I am of Apollos c. which Divisions as they cannot be warranted but on a supposition of some great corruption in our Doctrine or Worship or some grand profaneness in our Members so are they not raised without such thoughts in the hearts of those that do separate from us as Mr. Newcomen observed in his Sermon at St. Pauls Febr. 8. 1646. p. 40. Who are they that brand their Brethren with the title of Proud Time-servers Prelatical Tyrannical Antichristian but such as separate Who will say that they are of the same opinion in Fundamentals and that their differences are but in minutioribus but Why do they in matters of lesser moment transgress the Apostles rule Why do they not keep their opinions private and have their faith to themselves before God Why do they upon so small differences withdraw from Communion with us and gather themselves into distinct and separate Churches This is certainly a Pharisaical leaven that ferments and imbitters our spirits and though the effects of it may be hid for a time yet on every heat and agitation it spreads through the whole lump and swells Men with Pride and an unsociable sowrness of Spirit And though the things wherein we differ seem to be but small and have a shew of piety yet the consequences are so notoriously and really evil that the most zealous pretences for the Discipline of Christ are too narrow a Plaister to cover or cure the festred rancor and malice towards his members Ceremonies are no fit matter to exercise our zeal and contention but obedience and charity Yet as the Ordinances and Rites that were retained by the believing Jews and Gentiles were still a Wall of separation between them and the Apostle calls it the enmity Eph. 2.15 so is it with us The Jews and Samaritans differed chiefly about the place wherein they ought to

Propitiation by which their sins were covered Secondly Sacrifices were of greater esteem for their Institution than their Antiquity God himself having commanded the several sorts of them and the particular circumstances concerning them As first the Peace-offering for the fruits of the earth Secondly the Sin-offering for Atonement and pardon of Transgressions Thirdly the Burnt-offering as an acknowledgment of Homage to God the Soveraign Lord of all The book of Leviticus is but a Directory for these Thirdly They were very considerable for their usefulness First as they were to be Signa innocentiae testimonies and declarations of Innocency For as the creatures offered unto God ought to be only such as were clean for their kind so particularly they ought to be without spot or blemish and no beasts or birds of prey but the Ox and the Lamb the Turtle and the Dove harmless and useful creatures only must be brought to the Altar and the offerer was to lay his hands on the beast either to profess his innocence that he was not guilty of bribes or of bloud of fraud or violence or if he were then to confess his sins and deprecate the wrath of God by virtue of that Covenant whereof the Sacrifice was a testimony and so it was propitiatory They were Secondly Eucharistical pledges and earnests of their gratitude expressing their readiness to forgce all or to return it to him from whom they received it Thirdly they were Admonitions to the guilty persons to repent of their sins or else that they must perish as those beasts did Fourthly By external Sacrifices they were minded of their internal duties as mactare propriam voluntatem to mortifie all beastly lusts and affections Fifthly They were fences and boundaries to the Religion God commanding the Jews to Sacrifice those very beasts which their Idolatrous neighbours did worship as the Ox the Sheep and Dove which were worshipped as Gods among the Egyptians and Zabii to maintain a greater detestation of Idolatry in their hearts Sixthly They were as so many penalties and forfeitures taken on that people upon every trespass which also served not only as a present punishment but a future terror minding them that they had forfeited their own lives and Souls which God was pleased to spare expecting better obedience even a living Sacrifice And yet all this notwithstanding though Sacrifices were venerable for their Antiquity more for their usefulness as well to the Religion in general as to the Reformation of particular persons but most of all for its divine Institution the Levitical Law being but a Rubrick or directory for the Sacrifices Misericordiam volo c. I will have mercy For if hypocritical Jews should have amassed all these Sacrifices in one as the Prophet Jer. 7.21 speaks Put your burnt-offerings to your Sacrifices and eat flesh If they should go with their Flocks and heards to seek the Lord Hos 5.6 If they should have presented a Sacrifice as magnificent as that of Solomon 22000 Oxen and 120000 Sheep 1 Kings 8.63 If they should have invented more costly ones thousands of Rams and ten thousand rivers of Oil their first-born for their transgression the fruit of their bodies for the sin of their Souls yet to do justice and to love mercy is preferred to them all Mic. 6.8 For though Sacrifices were commanded yet not for any intrinsical goodness in them but with respect to some greater good Eze. 20.25 I gave them Statutes that were not good and judgments whereby they should not live they were not originally good as the duties of the Moral Law these were commanded because they were good the other good only because they were commanded they did not make the Offerer but he made them acceptable as in the case of Cain and Abel Thus God speaks to wicked men ver 19 20. Psal 50. that gave their mouths to evil and did sit and speak against their Brother and slander their own mothers son I will not reprove thee for thy Sacrifices or burnt-offerings Offer to God Thanksgiving c. And Psal 51.16 Thou desirest not Sacrifice else would I give it thee The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Solomon tells us after that he had presented that costly Sacrifice To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than Sacrifice Prov. 21.3 for it is true of the house of God what he says of ours Better is a dry morsel with quietness than a house full of Sacrifices with strife Prov. 17.1 In this therefore the young Scribe was better instructed than these Pharisees for he consented with our Saviour Mark 12.33 That to love the Lord with all our heart c. and our neighbours as our selves is more than all whole burnt-offerings and Sacrifice In a word our Saviour hath told us that whatever our gift be that we bring to the Altar if we remember that our Brother hath ought against us i. if we are conscious of any injury or unkindness wherewith he may charge us it is our duty to go first and be reconciled to our Brother before we presume to offer our gift though it be of prayer or praise God will never accept of a peace-offering from them that live in enmity with their Brethren And now if I should put into this scale the whole Oeconomy of the Jewish discipline their Oblations and Incense their New Moons and Sabbaths their calling of Assemblies for Feasts or Fasts and their Prayers too as Isai 1.11 they would for want of mercy be found too light To what purpose are they saith God v. 11. Who hath required this at your hands v. 12. Bring no more vain Oblations incense is an abomination to me I cannot away with it it is iniquity even your solemn-meetings ver 13. they were esteemed but mock services by God for want of mercy to their Brethren Two other instances I shall add because they seem of great weight First That of Circumcision which is called Gods Covenant with Abraham by which he promised to be his God and the God of his seed Gen. 17.10 and the Apostle-calls it a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith Rom. 4.11 And as God instituted it so he commanded the observation of it by a severe Sanction The Vncircumcised was to be cut off Gen. 17.14 And the Rabbies tell us that as God appointed destroying Angels to that end so he assigned guardian-Angels to every one that was Circumcised Certain it is that they bearing the marks and tokens of Gods Covenant in their flesh did boast themselves to be Gods peculiar people And as our Apostle intimates they preferred it to the Cross of Christ which the Apostle though he himself was Circumcised abhors with an absit Gal. 6. ver 14. But it was a saying among the Jews that Circumcision was equal to the keeping of the whole Law and that Heaven Earth could not stand if Circumcision were omitted therefore they made the