Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
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A40299
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To the ministers, teachers, and priests (so called and so stileing your selves) in Barbadoes by George Fox.
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Fox, George, 1624-1691.
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1672
(1672)
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Wing F1957; ESTC R36426
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49,015
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79
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one else For there is something in them that tells them That they should not Practice those Evils or any other before mention'd Which if notwithstanding they should do them that there are but two Ways the one that leads to Heaven where the Righteous go the other that leads to Hell where the Wicked and Debancht Whoremongers and Adulteres Murderers Lyars Thieves go To the one the Lord of Heaven and Earth will say Come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the Foundation of the World but to the other he will say Depart ye Cursed into Everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels The Wicked into Everlasting Punishment but the Righteous into Life Eternal Mat. 25. Now consider Friends that it s no Transgression for a Master of a Family to instruct his Family himself or else some others in his behalf but rather that it is a very great Duty lying incumbent upon them As Abraham did and Joshua did as to the first the Lord said I know that Abraham will command his Children and his Houshold after him and they shall keep the Way of the Lord to do Justice Judgment that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him And as for Joshua said he Josh 24.15 And if it seems Evil unto you to serve the Lord choose you this Day whom you will serve whether the Godds which your Fathers served that were on the other side of the Flood or the Godds of the Amorites in whose Land ye dwell But as for me and my House we will serve the Lord. And further consider this That it is a Duty lying upon us to Pray and to Teach Instruct and Admonish those in and belonging to our Families it being the Command of the Lord the Disobedience to which will incur the Lord's Displeasure as you may see in Jer. 10.25 where it s written Pour out thy Fury upon the Heathen that know thee not and upon the Families that call not upon thy Name Now Negars Tauny Indians make up a very great part of Families here in this Island for whom an Account will be required at the Great Day of Judgment when every one shall be Rewarded according to his Deeds done in the Body whether they be Good or whether they be Evil In that Day I say of the Resurrection both of the Good and of the Bad of the Just and of the Unjust when the Lord shall be revealed from Heaven with his Mighty Angels in Flaming Fire taking Vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with Everlasting Destruction from the Presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his Power when he shall come to be Glorified in his Saints 2 Thess 1.8 Here follows the Addition VVHereas divers Reproachful Speeches by some of the Priests and People of the Island of Barbadoes were cast upon George Fox since his arrival here its manifest that the Devil was the Author of them to prevent and pervert the Minds of People from the Living Truth of God and the Right Way to God to wit Jesus Christ of whom the said G.F. inform'd the People that so they might all come to inherit Christ Jesus and so inherit the Substance viz. Christ their Teacher their Way their Prophet of whom Moses prophesied long since That him they should Hear their Bishop to Over-see them and their Shepherd to Feed them and their Minister that Ministereth Grace and Life and Truth unto them who is their Rock and Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles and of us who in Scorn they call Quakers yea of that Christ who bruised the Serpent's Head and destroyes the Devil and his Works So he is the Way to God to the pure God who is the Pure Foundation of many Generations is the Life of all Mankind that have Life for as they all dyed in the first Adam so the Life they have is in the second Adam to wit Christ Jesus by whom the World was made who was Glorified with the Father before the World began Now I say every one must receive him in whom they have Life Eternal who is the Son of God and so receiving him they receive the Faith of the Son of God and receive his Blood that sprinkles their Hearts and Consciences from dead Works that so they might serve God in the new Life in Christ Jesus I say that Christ Jesus that was Crucified without the Gates of Jerusalem who was born of the Virgin Mary and was Dead and Buried whom Judas betray'd to the Chief Priests for thirty pieces of Silver who afterwards arose out of the Grave even the third day though the Magistrates and Priests set a Watch a Guard of Souldiers upon his Sepulchre and the chief Priests gave the Souldiers large Money to say That his Disciples stole Him away by Night This Christ I say is our Life who Dy'd for our Sins and is Risen for our Justification who remains in the Heavens at the Right hand of God until the restitution of all things And we say He is Manifested and Revealed in us and we are in him by his Light Power and Spirit and he hath taught us what to believe in to wit the Light as you may see in John who saith He is the Light and commands us to believe in the Light that we may be the Children of Light And so we are Believers in the Light to wit Christ Jesus and have the Witness within our selves And after we believ'd we were seal'd by the Spirit of Promise and we can set to our Seal That God is True in all his Prophets and Promises concerning his Son and the Doctrine of the Apostles that preacht Christ's Birth and Life Miracles Sufferings his Death and Resurrection So we do confess him before men to be our Shepherd our Way and our Foundation and the Head of his Church and he is our Bill op our Minister and our Priest who is made higher then the Heavens Holy and Harmless and this we are not ashamed to confess before men Now as for the Filthy and Unsavory words that have been cast upon me they are all False O! that People should bend their Tongues to invent filthy Lyes and that others should be given up to believe a Lye So that Say … of Christ is fulfilled They shall speak all manner of Evil◠you for my sake But yet this we can truly say The Lord forgive them if it be his will if that they have not sin'd out their day and we do earnestly desire their Repentance if there be any place found for Repentance But truly it is much if God's Wrath and his Sore Judgments do not fall heavy upon them in this Island a great measure whereof they have seen and felt already and that not long since both by the Plague that swept Multitudes away as with a Besom and by a very great Fire that
the Alpha and the Omega the Bening and the Ending Hallelujah A Copy of the Priests Petition To the Honourable President and Council of his Majesty's Island of Barbadoes the Humble Petition and Address of the Clergy of the said Island Sheweth THat whereas many of us in the Publick Discharge of our Ministerial Function upon the Lord's Day in the Time of Divine Prayer and Sermon have been Frequently and Irreverently Interrupted and Holy Mother the Church of England Scandalously Vilified as if she were both in Doctrine and in Discipline False and Erroneous and Antichristian the Honest and Learned Clergy thereof even in the Face of their own Congregations not only taxed as Seducers Hirelings Teachers of Lyes and such like but Uncharitably Pursued and Anathematized with Words and Execrations and Bitter Invectives by a Base Sort of Phanatick People commonly termed Quakers Men whose Practices and Opinions seem not less repugnant to Civil and Ecclesiastical Government which tends to the Disparagement of us and Prostration of our Order to Contempt but also and chiefly which is the saddest Evil of all to the Poysoning if not the utter Ruin of many Well-meaning Souls in our Flock who being infatuated and inveighed with their Pernicious Tenents do desert the Publick and Consecrated Places of God's Worship to with-draw into Private and Unlawful Conventicles which we are credibly informed they do repair to Duty Four Times in the Week contrary both to Common and Ecclesiastical Laws and to Acts of Parliament in the Raign of Edward the sixth Queen Elizabeth and King James and King Charles the first and of our now Gratious Soveraign Charles the second in such Cases Wholsomely Provided May it therefore please your Honour either to Revive and Inforce the Statute against them or that some other Speedy Expedient against those Growing Distempers may be considered of whereby our People may be less exposed to the Danger of the Wicked Insinuations and our selves by your Pious Care succoured from such Rude Affronts and Scurrillities for the future may be Enconraged with more Alacrity to proceed in the Faithful Discharge of that High Calling wherein God hath placed us and we shall continue your Daily Chaplins and Orators William Lessley John Bernad William Johnson John Hopwood Mathew Grey John Page The Priests of this Island about the beginning of the 10th Moneth 71. did Petition the Assembly to make Laws against the People called Quakers and to suppress them amongst which Will. Lessley and Will. Johnson and Priest VValker were very active But after their Paper was read in the House it s credibly affirmed they were advis'd to put it into their Pockets lest the Quakers by some means or other might procure the Copy of it and so they did their Deeds of Darkness being ashamed of the Light lest it should Reprove them Here follows George Foster's Testimony concerning Priest Lessey's Striking and Kicking of him INasmuch as William Lessley Priest of the Parish called St. John's doth revive his Rage and Malice against the People of God called Quakers and against the Precious Truth of God which they hold forth to all even That Christ Jesus is the True Light of the VVorld and that he hath Enlightened all Mankind with a measure of his True Light I say Inasmuch as he revives his Rage I think it not amiss to revive my Testimony which once I bore against him in his publick House of Speaking so far as I was permitted to speak which is That he is no True Minister of Christ Jesus the Lord of Life and Glory for his Fruits make him so manifest Once I went to his House Civilly to ask for some Goods that were due to me and he did fall upon me with several hard Blows and with Violence Thrust me out of his Porch and gave me one bad Kick in the Small of my Back as I went or was down the steps of the Porch Now let all Sober People judge and to God's Pure Witness in all Consciences I leave it to be judged Whether Priest Lessley's Dealings with me do not manifest him to be one of those whom Christ Jesus speaks of saying Many shall come in Sheep's Cloathing but inwardly they are Ravening Wolves by their Fruits ye shall know them George Foster This Paper was sent us about the 26th of the 8th Moneth 1671 somewhat before his Death To VVilliam Lessley VValker VVilliam Johnson VVilliam Frith Dyke and the rest of the Priests and Ministers in Barbadoes Friends IN much Terderness of Love and Yearning Bowels of Compassion some of us called Quakers but indeed True Christians came here to this Island through the Tender Mercy and Good Providence of our Heavenly Father to visit our Brethren in Spirit being thereunto moved by him as was the Practice of the Servants of the Most High in the Primitive Times before the Grand Apostacy so to do as you may read in Acts 15.36 37 c. and verse 40. Paul took Silas being recommended by the Brethren unto the Grace of God Now since I have been fully informed that you as your Fore-Fathers ever did in Ages past are the Main and Principal if not the only Instruments in the Hands of Antichrist to provoke and incite the Civil and Military Powers here in this Island to draw out their Swords against us to exercise I mean their Power to disturb our Peace and Quiet and to Persecute us as we read how Saul persecuted the Christians in Acts 9.1 2 c. which great Wickedness he acknowledgeth with much Ingenuity after he became Paul a Convert Gal. 1.13 1 Cor. 15.9 yea persecuted unto Death and into Prisons Acts 22.4 and 1 Tim. 1.13 I was saith he a Persecutor and a Blasphemer and Injurious but I obtained Mercy because I did it Ignorantly in Unbelief And even Paul himself after he I say became a Convert and a Preacher of Righteousness was sorely Persecuted but by whom Mark by the Chief Priests and Elders of the Jews who by one Tertullus their Orator informed the Governor against him saying We have found this man a Pestilent Fellow Mark and a Mover of Sedition among all the Jews throughout the World and a Ring-Leader of the Sect of the Nazarens who also hath gone about to Prophane the Temple c. Acts 24.1 2 3 c. and in the 14th verse they call that Way of Worship Heresie mark that For do not you so if not worse of us Christians in terming our Ministry Heresie and Blasphemy and what not as they did his then And you may read how Christ himself the Beloved Son of the Father the Saviour and Redeemer of the World who did no Sin who knew no Sin then whom no man spake like did not escape their Persecution viz. of the Priests So then this is plain that this has ever bin the usual and constant Practice of the Priests in all Ages and of the false Prophets false Apostles and Clergy and Ministers of Antichrist who falsly term themselves the True