Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	day_n	lord_n	week_n	2,075	5	9.7497	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80845	Fœlix scelus, querela piorum, et auscultatio divina; or, prospering prophaneness provoking holy conference, and Gods attention, in which you have the [brace] happy estate of the wicked, holy exercise of the godly, hazard and event of both. Plainly propounded in sundry sermons preached at Botolphs Algate London: and after contracted in two sermons preached in Peters Church in West-Chester, July 17. 1659. Now published to the counsell and confirmation of the godly; and check of the false surmises and reports of the wicked. / By Zachary Crofton.	Crofton, Zachary, 1625 or 6-1672.	1659 (1659)	Wing C6993; Thomason E1870_1; ESTC R209731	120,321	422

his Embassadors speaking to the whole Assembly it becomes not private Members to be speaking one to another the Lords day is designed of God himself unto duties of Religion publick domestick and personall and acts of society must be occasionall It is great folly nay grosse prophanenesse to spend the time of Church edification and instruction in private colloquie I would we had not known some good men guilty of it do not many among us get into a private house and employ themselves in holy conference unto the negle●● nay at length the contempt of publick ordinances or must we fix for holy conference the time which is our families that is to say the feason of our particular calling in which we ought to labour unto the subsistance of our selves and family when poor men leave their trades and spend much time in the society of the Saints and holy conference but leave their families in want their affections to holinesse may be commended but their indiscretion is to be blamed no exercise of holinesse which is private and occasionall must hinder our particular callings when God teacheth we need not teach one another and when hardship hinders speciall acts of holy society it is not required at our hands 8. Nor must you manage your conference with more caution in reference to time then to the Place all places are in point of holinesse alike but not so in point of prudence ●he people of God may occasionally conferre in any place and so in the Church as well as an house but when by mutuall consent you make conference a fixed duty you must in prudence avoide the Church for private duties do not become publick places the Church is a place purposely prepared and preserved for publick Assembly and administrations of the Church and therefore bears its name Church as the notation of its nature and by long and uninterrupted custome and practice of all Christian ages and nations all holy exercises in these publick places have the Church for their object and presuppose ministeriall authority for their form avoid therefore these places as you would avoid all enchroachments on the holy function of the ministry and the appearances thereof 3. Nor must we have more care in reference to the time and place then the manner of holy conference let us us not instead of conference make set and formal discourses after the manner of ministeriall instruction I have come into some private societies who have assembled to confer and heard one man preach to the rest rather then conferre with them and I have indeed sadly observed that society to be a nursery of presumption to the ministry I do not say that private Christians are prohibited from inferring doctrines from Scriptures and enforcing them with reasons and application I doubt not but masters may thus do in and to their families and tutors in the university to their pupils each according to their capacity but for private Christians in any fixed friendly society thus to do is in my eye without the least of warrant for they want not only the ministeriall but parentall and magisterial authority which should award such a kind of instruction I do believe the propheticall priveledge of a believer is prescribed and limited to those whom nature hath put in subjection to him and will not nay must not be extended to his Peeres brethren moreover they in so doing destroy the duty to which they pretend for their work should be to conferre by colloquy to communicate each to other their businesse is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mutual debate expostulation colloquie each speaking to other answering one another when speak in order proposing their doubts urging their objections imparting their thoughts and so communicating one unto another which is clearly destroyed where one only is the speaker all the rest are hearers should a stranger come into such an assembly and observe that one instruct the others and that withall magisteriall nay ministeriall circumstances could he call this a conference or would he not rather conclude it a preaching to the Church 4. Prudence must direct us unto order in our conference as wel as care in respect of time place and manner confusion is incident to and must be carefully set against by all society when the godly meet to conferre they must be orderly in the matter of their conference laying the foundation before they rear the superstructure acquainting themselves with Rudiments and principles before they enquire into higher matters of faith there are many things in Religion which men whilst weak in or ignorant of principles are not able to bear first conferre of matters essentiall to saith and then go forward debate the duties before the dignities of a believer the high flown Saints of our age can conferre of nothing but their priviledges and high enjoyments of God Christ and the spirit and so nourish pride and fancy but not faith and as you must be orderly in the matter debating what may profit more then what may pleas so also you must be in the manner speaking one unto another and one after another suiting an answer proper for the thing propounded not speaking all at once unto confusion and distraction whatever coms first into your mouth without any care of it's pertinencie to the thing discoursed Having then associated each with other and made your holy conference a dutie in it self occasionall and transient to be fixed manage it withall wisdome in respect of time place manner and order for by the miscarriage of these you do expose your selvs and exercise unto scandall and just censures giving way to the Devill in a little you lay your selves open to temptation conference in the time place and manner of gospell ministry is but a praeludium to the prophane contempt and presumptuous undertaking that holy function give me leave to enforce this direction with a sad example of the sinfull issue of the imprudent management of holy conference which hath fallen within my own time and knowledge which proved the prologue of apostacy from the Church and Covenant of God unto the men that used it In Audly parish in the County of Stafford lived many eminent professors of Religion with whom I have had sweet Communion and taken sweet counsell many times many of them were men of eminent parts unto prayer and conference in which they were very conversant in processe of time they fell under a very weak dul ministrie which gave them occasion to be more frequent in their conference each with other and especially on the Lords day pretending by themselvs to make up the defects of the ministry which was over them untill at length they fixed their conference on one day in the week and sometimes on the Lords day to be held in the publick place or Church and did cal unto it by the tolling of the bell one of them more apt then the rest spake unto the rest of which miscarriage in a private duty I

yet gifts and graces are only communicated to the members thereof in Colloquie Saints stand charged each with other and the joints must supply their places by mutuall conferences administring nourishment to the whole body lively and profitable Christians do in evill times enquire the way to Zion with their faces thitherward saying one to another come and let us joyn our selves unto the Lord in a perpetuall Covenant And in evill times they say every one to his neighbour and every one to his brother what hath the Lord answered and what hath hee spoken they do stand charged with the souls each of other and are therefore bound to exhort rebuke admonish comfort edifie one another And if ever the life of grace must bee manifested by acts communication it must bee in evill times the hour of temptation which commeth on them in a day of generall defection and diligent seduction the Saints must edifie one another in their most holy faith and save one another with fea●e pulling them out of the fire if you are will ng to witnesse your selves stupid under Gods heavy judgments sencelesse of Gods glory and the welfare of Religion and livelesse uselesse members in the body you may with due shame stand at distance each from other and smother thoughts of God in your own brests for want of vent by holy conference but consider profession of the tongue is no lesse usefull to salvation then the perswasion of the heart and withholding counsell from the weak in evill times is wickednesse 3. You disgrace Religion and are condemned by the wicked of the World whilst you sinfully suggest that sanctity destroyeth society and maketh the ungodly conclude Religion a solitary condition in which communion is not to be enjoyed whereas indeed holinesse is a bond of union and ground of Communion which whilst it seperates us from the Tabernacles of the wicked seateth us in the Temple of God and doth not more divide us from the society of the prophane then drive us into the Cōmunion with the Saints the scope of sanctity is to turn the stream and direct mens thoughts and expressions into an holy channell which not being thus employed makes Religion look like the Ruine of charity and that which barrs all kind of counsell admonition or conference The men of this world are wiser in their generations then the children of the kingdom they are Reduced into no straits but they run together and counsel each other to escape and evade them they agitate no affairs in the world but by good counsell and ordinary conference men that seduce from the truth are diligent and dextrous in their discourses Chatechizing and conference the two great preserva ive of truth and Religion have been exercised as eminent means of seduction whilest neglected by such as should be established by them is it not ashame that the enemies of God should beat us at our own weapon Popery Arianisme Socincanisme Anabaptism and other heresies are propagated hy Catechising and conference whilest these edifying exercises are omitted and slighted by the professors of truth in the affairs of this world we are common in Counsels and mutuall Colloquies but mindlesse of the great concernments of salvation Let it therefore be our shame that we are so slack unto acts of Communion and so carelesse of this eminent means of confirmation and the rather for that the successe of sin should stir us up unto the frequent discharge thereof Lay your hands on your hearts and blush who are professors of the same faith and worshippers of the same God pretenders to the same covenant and priviledges and yet such strangers unto each other and so much unacquainted that you speak not unto the comfort confirmation one of another Repent your sinfull neglect of these sociable soul-edifying acts of conference or renounce your relation to the Saints who have gone before you of whose spirit you do not partake Nay renounce your relation to God and his people of and to whom you speak so little that you seem insensible of their estate and unprofitable to their souls The 2. Use that I shall make of this doctrine is of exhortation to stir up the godly to be frequent in holy conference to get together and speak often one to another This is the duty incumbent on you that fear the Lord and cannot but be discharged by you whose hearts are full of thoughts of Gods holy name if you are indeed in union maintain the Communion of Saints and whilst you sit joyntly under the same ministrations of grace fail not in your places and capacities to minister one to another Consider Christian brethren Scripture as well as nature doth teach us it is not good to be alone we are not born for our selves we are members one of another we must seek every man the good of his neighbour the things of others not our own things solitude is not more burdensome and dangerous to nature then to grace nor more unsuitable to man then to a Christian much hurt have the godly received by solitarinesse when David exilde from Israel did walk alone in the land of the Philistins he fell into diffidence and despondency and blasphemous conceits that God had forgotten to be gracious he had in vain washed his hands and cleansed his heart in innocency and when Peter wandered alone in the high Priests hall he was overcome with the temptation to deny his master Profit of holy conference is ever great but most in evil times by it we are established in holinesse kept from falling Restored when fallen strengthened in the day of temptation quickened when dead and dull in duty It is the very veins of the Church by which every joynt supplieth its place unto the edification of the body there is not more profit then priviledge in holy conference It is the Communion of Saints and fellowship of the Gospel the comunication of the gifts and graces of Gods holy spirits it gives counsell in doubts and straits comfort in despondencies and sorrows It is the vent of grief easeth our hearts of the burden of sad apprehensions by friendly cōplaints it is the expression of zeal which would burn he uphold of the heart by the Common consent of good men and mutuall counsell each of other how is it then Christian souls that you are so much unacquainted and unaccustomed to holy conference for shame content not our selves to hear the word preached but conserre of what you have heard live not in the Church but in your places communicate each to others as lively members of the Church are not the times evill in which we live do not the proud prosper are not they who work wickednesse set up and see we not men that tempt God delivered are not truth blasphemed ordinances trampled on sincere sanctity slighted vilified and contemned is not perfidy perjury violation o● solemn oaths and covenants the way to preferment do not men court us by providences into wayes pinciples

give me leave therefore to appoint the borders of your holy conference and that you may never hereafter pleade ignorance I will tell you what private Christians in their conferences may do and what u●der the pretence of conference private Christians may not meddle withall as they tender the edification of the Church advancement of Religion and salvation of their own souls First then there are seven p●si ive and speciall acts of con●er●●ce and Communion of Saints which particular Christians and private brethren not onely lawfully may but in duty must discharge each with and towards other and they are briefly these 1. Private Christians may and must pray one for another in the behalf of themselves and the whole Church of God prayer is indeed an act of publick worship to be done in and by the Church whose mouth must be the Ministers of God Joel 2.17 But it is also a private and personall duty to be done by every child of God in secret and in society It is Required that every Christian do it and that believers do pray one for another James 5 16. And it is the promise of the covenant of grace that families and tribes shall every of them pray apart and in the times of the Churches perplexity even private Saints though there were no Ministers among them should go together and pray in Communion and by joynt supplication thus did the men that feared God in our Text and the many who were gathered into the house of Mary the mother of John and were praying in the day of Herods Rage acts ●2 12 Some have been angry at but never durst argue against the practice of Christians in private fasts and prayers no it is their duty and priviledge 2. Private Christians may and must confess their sins one unto another none but Papists will confine confession to a Priest or publick officer sin must indeed be sometimes confessed in and to the Church when she is become the object of offence and scandalized by the miscarriage and so the finner become the subject of her censure but private brethren may not onely confess their sins one unto another as they are the parties offended but as they are brethren and subjects of pity and of comp●ssion who seeing his brother sin a sin not unto death will pray for him and it shall be forgiven him private brethren must not onely pray against the guilt but power also of each others lust and must not onely pray against sin but be serviceable by other means to the subduing the strength thereof and saving the soul from the error of his way and therefore it is commanded that common Saints do confesse their sin one unto another I presume I need not advise prudence in the choice of those brethren to whom we will commit such secrets 3 Private Christians may and must in their private conferences Check and Rebuke one anothers impieties and miscarriages fraternall correption is a duty beyond all exception commanded of God Thou shalt in any wise Rebuke thy brother and not suffer sin up on him Lev. 19.17 Appointed by Christ if thy brother offend tell him of his faults between thee and him as an hinderance to sin and help in temptation exhort by way of Rebuke one another least ye be hardened through the deceitfulnesse of sin It is the provocation of Repentance balme of a wounded conscience desired by David Let the Righteous smite me it is the Restitution of a Relapsed soul Gal. 6.1 The private mans passage to glory and provision for honour covering a multitude of sins and converting the soul James 5.19.20 The end of mutuall confession is mutuall Reprehension these are the wounds of a friend more faithful then the kisses of an enemy Prov. 27.6 Where let it be Remembred that Reproof is the wound of a friend done in Charity not out of office with pitty and successefull by its truth and justice not with power prevailing by its Authority 4. Private Christians may and must counsell and quicken each others graces And so spur each others duties say come let us return unto the Lord let us joyn our selves to God in an everlasting covenant they must consider observe have an eye unto each others ways and walkings to warm the cold affections and provoke unto love and good works none but the slothfull in duty and slaves to prophanesse can be angry at or argue against the private Rebukes and exhortations of holy conference 5. Private Christians may and must comfort one another in their anguish and affliction sanctity supplanteth no act of society but sets us in a better capacity to perform to Reason much more religion leads friends to visit Job in his affl●ct●o● for to him that is afflicted pity must be shewed by his friend The not speaking consolation was the mistake of Jobs friends in all that long conference they had with him when our friends interr their dead we are directed to comfort each other 1 Thes 5.11 by conferring of the Resurrection of the body the speaking of promises and providences of God so as to prop up a sinking soul to strengthen the feeble hands is the work not onely of publick communion but also of private conference the consolations of God must not be concealed but imparted as occasion requireth unto the good of others 6. Private Christians may and must cōplain of the evil of the times to affect each others hearts with sence of and sorrow for sin or Gods sad providences mens stout words against God must be matter of expostulation to them that fear God Jonathan David must into the field to confer of Sauls wickedness and cruelty Israels abomination must be made mention of among the mourners for it the d●eadfull dispensations of God at the death of Christ must be the matter of discourse to the Disciples as they wa●k to Emmaus every soul must see Gods hand observe Gods providences and make the prosperity of prophaness and escapes impiety the matter of discourse unto his own and other mens discretion to a due demeanor and suitable conversation 7. Private Christians may must confer with each other of the things of faith and salvation none but Papists who lock up the knowledge of the truth from poor souls and the people of God and impose on their faith what the Church doth believe will make it heresie to enquire into and debate of the Articles of the Creed Obadiah may without any sin or disobedience expostulate the injunctions of the Prophets and it shall be a note of Nobility to the Bereans to enquire into the Scriptures to finde the verity of the Apostles doctrine This is no other then the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Christian conference allowed and enforced by the ministers in jus divinum ministerii cap. 5. Pa. 81. of this City Nay and was honoured by our Saviour in joyning in society and debating with the Disciples that went to Emmaus the death and resurrection of himself those