Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	faith_n	good_a	work_n	3,907	5	6.0359	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54122	A commentary upon the present condition of the kingdom and its melioration	Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1677 (1677)	Wing P1268; ESTC R32305	33,126	47

have been invested with I shall not now trouble the Reader with a particular recitation of those disturbances and molestations wherewith our Kings and Nobles as well as Commons have suffered under Popish Bishops Nor yet the Practices of our late Bishops of the Reformation how they oppressed the Subjects and overthrew all Laws and Constitutions of the Kingdom to set up their own Power and satisfie the lust of tyrannous and absolute Dominion abusing the goodness of our Kings to this purpose which things have been shewed already by others It shall be sufficient to observe that when by the Reformation the Scriptues were opened and put into every mans hands for their Direction there were found very few whose minds were dis-engaged from the Superstition of Popery but manifested an inclination to embrace the Scripture in the true and native plainness of it and to yield obedience to the sincere practical Duties therein contained And at that time it seemed to have an Influence upon the Clergy as well as others who minding the calling the People off from Popery or Confirming them in the Reformed Religion or building them up in Faith and good Works were not much sollicitous of Dominion and Jurisdiction but depended upon the Kings Grace not only for any Authority to be exercised by them but also for their very Lands and Revenues And he that had so boldly spoiled Abbies and Monasteries bringing down proud and stately Fabricks to the dust and Confiscating their Revenues could also upon the least occasion offer'd or tending to oppose his Projects have caused them to taste of the same Lot with their Brethren These two things were concurring the Truth of Christ and Fear of the Prince to whom they were subject must needs make tolerable Bishops though it is probable they were good men notwithstanding But as it was in the Bishops of Rome who of tollerable B●shops at the first when their Fortunes were small and the Secular Authority too Potent to be resisted became intolerable Usurpers of uncontrollable Power when once they had settled their Foot and enlarged their Dominions So likewise the old Serpent had the same Game to play with us For after a little time having settled themselves by Law they began to look about and think of amplifying their Power making all men submit thereto and to suppress all opposition and root it out And now they held no longer of the Kings Grace but Jure Divino still augmenting and riveting themselves by degrees in Secular Authority and exceeding therewth from the Light and Purity of Scripture to a hatred thereof and the Preaching of it and all such as owned it in Publick declaring and teaching it or in private Till at length no Remonstrances or Petitions to the contrary notwithstanding They had erected a Court of Commission and had brought a Spanish Inquisition amongst us and proceeded to other acts by corrupting or delaying Justice that it was hard to say whether the Subject was more opprest by being deprived of the Priviledges the Law allows him or the Bishops more Tirants Usurpers in going so far beyond the limits that the Law had set them every where acting with such a Power as the Effects made appear to be unlimited They having been thus seduced by Riches and Greatness to abandon the Truth and Purity of Christian Religion Yet other Persons wanting that Temptation had no reason to submit to a domineering Lust against the Testimony of Truth and Religion nor lend their assistance to maintain a laizy and usurped authority So that animosities must needs be kindled and as the Bishops grew more in Authority and Dominion and farther departed from this Truth the Malice and Rage of the one increased which added stubborness and resolution to the other These Causes of dissention were kindling and somenting a long while till the Bishops at last so far abused the good nature of K. Charles I. so far to the oppression of the Truth and the mantainers of it and it was but the Name of a Puritan that must make a Man lyable to all the Inconveniences of a tyranical Court to be susspended from his Office and the Benefits of it to have his Study and House ransack'd forced to accuse himself by an Oath Ex Officio and besides waiting upon Vexatious and Dilatory Suits without liberty of Pleading or answering to any thing that was objected against him He must thus spend his Time and his Estate to the Ruine of Himself and his Family These and other things became so general a burden that there was no redress but by taking up Arms against those unjust Invaders of their Liberty whose original Greatness being establisht by Deceit and Falshood their Authority a Usurpation their Government though it had been Legal yet so unreasonably abused to the disturbance of the Peace and Liberty of the Subject It were not in the Kings power though they decoy'd him to their Party nor was it just and right in him to defend or abett them much less to esteem what was done against them to be done against Himself His Royal Crown or Sacred Authority He is to be the Minister of Justice and this must be adherd to though with the loss of whatsoever is most dear to him T is He acts against his own Life Crown He betrays his Scepter and Authority and is guilty of Treason against himself when he takes part with the unrighteous with cruel and blood-thirsty men to disturb the Peace of his true and Loyal Subjects to spoil them of their Lives and Fortunes and leave the Children of Innocent Men to the extremity of Sorrow and Distress Thus were we at length engaged in a Civil War and by a soul and reproachful Disaster contrary to the desires and wishes of the Nation The Hand of the Subject was imbrued in the Blood of his King and shall we think these Men Innocent in all this Then may it be said that he who shall all manner of ways exagitate his enemie and leave no part of malice unattempted to hasten the destruction of him who hath no other quarrel to his Persecutor but the desire of his amendment if he shall drive him to the utmost and last extremity so that he knows not which way to turn and finds no possible means of Recovery and safety but by disarming his Persecutor and captivating that Power that was so unjustly drawn out against him This Person thus disarmed may then complain he is abused and set upon his Life and Fortune assaulted upon no ground or reason he is Innocent and only guilty if that be guilt of endeavouring to bring his Enemy to a right mind that is to be his Vassal that he may set his foot upon the neck of his Enemy and make him know that HE also is a God that ruleth in the Earth The same imbittered Spirit seems to continue still with us and has not been without its Essays of disturbing that Peace and repose which we at present enjoy

and Ceremonies what Reference have they Unless it be to amuse the mind and frame a beliefe in men that Religion quite contrary to the nature of it consists in externalls whereby to the destruction of Religion the mind shall be drawn forth into external appearances to cause it delight in that Pomp and Vanity which it should forsake and by this means it will be blinded so much as not once to look within it self but thinks all is well where there is nothing but rottenness and Corruption If you say that these externals are representations of the Internal work and serve to lead us to them I answer it is a Preposterous and indirect means for what is so near me as I am to my self And why cannont I descend into my own mind every moment without taking that for an advantage which brings ruine with it As Crosses Garments c. For Ceremonies are not only needless but mischeivous cheating and blinding the World whereby they let go the substance and embrace the shaddow 3. Ministers or Bishops have no concern in publick Affairs or in Secular Jurisdiction their business is to press Faith in Christ both in themselves and others to remove the Corruption fallen upon mens minds what duty then lyes upon them for Secular business or what claime have they to it The nature of their Profession and Doctrine does divest them thereof as much as is possible being quite opposite to it forbidding even too much concerne for their Private Affairs in the World which shews that it is their extravagancy and degeneracy when they thrust themselves into publick Imployment which has such tendency to overcharge their minds with that which they should be altogether cleansed from as we have before shewed 4. It is almost needless here to say there is no such Power of Excommunication as is now in use being made to uphold a lye and an unjust usurpation in Secular Affaires to lacky after Fees and to serve the Secular Interest of the Clergy which according to the Truth of their Imployment is none at all we have shewed before what this Excommunication is And certainly the true Church as well as the Government thereof being Internal and Spiritual not External and Secular all the Acts of its Jurisdiction must be agreeable thereto 5. That Method of Preaching is a prejudice to the Life and Power of Religion wherein men set forth themselves by Studied Discourses with Ornaments of History Rhetorick subtile Disputations nice Distinctions c. For by these things the mind is taken up with things that are Circumstantial and External and thereby le ts slip those things that are Internal and of nearer Concernment and therefore has a stamp of of the Beast upon it tending to inhance the value of all other External things which men ought to deny causing them to love and embrace what they should cast away to desire more earnestly such things as they should be mortified unto and consequently they will run more swiftly then before to the pit of Destruction where Antichrist and the false Prophet is So that at the end these men are worse then at the beginning they might have been had they not been trained up in such a Religion as this and it were better for them not to have known the way of Truth then having known it to make it the Instrument of more enlarged wickedness and of going yet farther from God then at first 6. The Minister or Bishop takes no honour to himself all that he is or hath he hath received it it is the purchase of the the blood of Christ exhibited according to the word in the second Covenant to all that belive he seeks not reward nor laboureth for gain having devested himself of Worldly and outward things He Governs the people ●e is set over not with force but meekness he useth no means of Compulsion but draweth them gently he pretends not power over their Wills but an Office to perswade but if men will destroy themselves he is guiltless doing what is suitable to his Office to reclaime them alwayes willing to help them alwayes with open Arms to receive such as come to the Church and restore such as are fallen Lamenting and Praying for such whose Miscarriages are from their own Wills and not in his power to help 7. The last thing we observe from what is said before is that it is impossible there should be any Difference or Sect in the Christian Religion and if you find any amongst them say assuredly Inimicus homo fecit hoc it is a stranger to the Truth a●d proceeds from some other cause The reason is plain for what occasion can be imagined of Division or Schisme amongst those who all conspire only in this to keep their minds Pure and clean from Corruption by Faith in Jesus Christ and in the power of that Holy Spirit which is one in all of them From which oneness divided through many members there must needs be unity But you will say the present time testifies the Division that is among Christians I answer that such as are Christians in pretence only may divise a hundred more Sects and Parties They are men that will inspite of the Scriptures serve two Masters God and Mammon the Lord and Baall Men who are Christians by the halfes that will serve the Lord yet not without a Babel of their own setting up In Briefe the Presbyterians Independants Anabaptists c. Will add to the Scriptures something that is meerly of their own fancies imagining the Scripture to sound according to their prejudice and preconception Now if one man will set up one thing and say this is according to Scripture another man with the same reason may set up another thing of his own hatching and framing and say the like and so we may go on in Infinitum If the Bishops say such and such Ceremonies are to be used in the Church seeming to them decent and according to Scripture The Presbyterians are not obliged to think as they do nor take the same measures of Decency as they do and therefore may claim Priviledge as well as the other of a second Constitution which perhaps will not so well agree with Independants and therefore with as much Right may they set up a third and so every man as his Fancy leads him In the mean time this difference is not in Religion it self but in the Braines and Fancies of men that love to cloth and dress Religion according to their own fashion and there cannot be a unity till men shall come to throw away all these their delightful Imaginations and return to the obedience of that Spirit of Life and Truth which proceedeth from the Father and the Son and is only able to make us wise unto Salvation There is no unity but in this the occasion of our divisions was by departing therefrom and our returning to it will be our advancement to our right minds to live in unity in love in Peace in