Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
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A43459
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A sermon preach'd before the King in his Royal Chappel of Windsor, July the 27th 1684
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Hesketh, Henry, 1637?-1710.
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1684
(1684)
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Wing H1618; ESTC R5316
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11,752
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36
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A SERMON Preach'd before the KING In his Royal Chappel of Windsor July the 27th 1684. By HENRY HESKETH Chaplain to His MAJESTY Published by His Majesties special Command LONDON Printed for Henry Bonwicke at the Red-Lyon in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1684. A SERMON Preached before the KING In his Royal Chappel of Windsor July the 27th 1684. MAT. 5.17 Think not that I am come to Destroy the Law or the Prophets I am not come to Destroy but to Fulfill THat a Religion that is Pure and Undefiled Holy and all Light should produce effects so unlike its self in the lives of most of its Votaries That Men should so freely indulge themselves in almost all manner of Vice and yet profess a Religion that allows none at a cheaper rate then Eternal Damnation that they should call upon themselves the name of the Blessed Jesus yet live as if they designed the Disparagement of it is a reflexion that no Man that honors his God or has a concern for his Religion or the least respect to the Souls of Men can entertain without a very deep and most afflictive resentment I do not come to this place to enter an Idle complaint that it is thus Nor to spend this time in fruitless tears Lamenting its being so but to try if I cannot discover the reason of this Monstrous absurdity and offer something by way of remedy and I beseech you that with your wonted Candor and Clemency you will hear me a few Words I can resolve the Reason of this into nothing methinks so charitably as into Men's errors and mistakes about their Religion for I have more Charity for them that profess the Religion of Christ than to think they Sin either out of design or of malicious wickedness Amongst these Errours I know not how to fix upon any of a more mischevous influence than that Primitive one that debauched this Religion at first which was propagated by that filthy Sect of the Gnosticks and fix'd by Simon the Sorcerer with such strength of Magick that it sticks fast in the minds of most Men to this Day And that is an Opinion that the Gospel Supersedes the Law and dischargeth from obedience to it that it is all promise of Immunities and Priviledges to be injoyed by the Saints without any respect to the drudgery of Duty The Grace which the Gospel so much magnifieth is Faith and that Faith nothing else but a brisk confidence of being saved by the Righteousness of Christ without any necessity of a righteousness of our own This is the main Fundamental Errour which lies at the Bottom of a great deal of that profaneness which is the reproach and shame of Christian Religion at this Day and it is the more Dangerous because it is strangely charming and easily insinuates it self into the minds of carnal Men. Against this therefore the word of God is so very express and the Holy Ghost hath taken care to furnish all Men with so many obvious and plain Remedies that I must needs count it either Artifice and Design or brutish Inadvertency unto things that betrays them into it These Words that I have read contain one and they are so much the more Considerable for coming from our Lords own Mouth who certainly best knew the reasons of his own coming into the World and the purpose of that Religion which he intended to found in it And he we see here even then when he was promising so many Blessings to all that should become Votaries to it and when multitudes flocked to him in expectation of some new Religion or probably some great Indulgence to be granted by him makes this plain Declaration to them and all the World that he did not come to Destroy the Law or the Prophets but to fulfill them Which words are an evident Prolepsis whereby our Lord anticipates an Errour in some and a Calumny it's probable in others that he came to cancel all Law and Discharge his followers from all necessity of obedience thereto which Errour or Calumny 1. He forbids all thoughts of in them think not 2. Discliams any intention of in himself I am not come to destroy 3. And Thirdly Asserts the direct contrary and some thing more too I am not come to Destroy but to Fulfill In speaking to which words I shall endeavour to do these three following things 1. Give you the plain sense and purport of the words 2. Make good the Truth of what our Saviour affirms in them 3. Draw some useful Deductions and Inferences from them 1. A little matter will serve upon the first of these in such an Audience as this By the Law and the Prophets you are to understand that Rule of Life and Manners that God was pleased to deliver to the Jews by the hand of Moses and by the Ministry of the Prophets This Rule was so Comprehensive and full as to reach all Circumstances and take in all Instances of Duty that Men owe to God themselves or one another and therefore these Laws for our more distinct Apprehension of them are Distinguishable into three Ranks Moral Judicial and Levitical The Moral are those which direct Men in the Instances of Piety Justice and Charity Temperance and Chastity things of an Eternal Obligation and Goodness The Judicial those that concerned them as a Theocrasie or Kingdom and the Levitical those that concerned them as a Church The business of the Prophets with respect to these Laws was chiefly to give the true sense and meaning of them when Men mistook them and by Promises and Threatnings to awaken Men into a due observance of them when they became careless and negligent Now Destroying these is plainly intelligible without a Comment it means the loosing the Obligation of these Laws discharging Men from any necessity of being Obedient to them And by this you will easily understand what is said in Contraposition to it and what Fulfilling of them means Not only asserting and continuing the force of them but something more and that is one or both of these two things 1. The adding more strength to them asserting Obedience upon better principles and stronger motives then it was before 2. Or Secondly setting the Duties and Instances of Obedience at a Higher pitch then they were formerly i. e. in plain Terms requiring more from a Christian then either was or at least was supposed to be required from a Jew of Old In these two things doth the sense of our Saviours Fulfilling the Law and the Prophets consist and accordingly I shall undertake to prove that our Lord came not only to establish Law and Obedience to it but to add strength to the one and to sublimate the other 2. And this is the Second thing proposed which that I may do as distinctly and fully as so little a time will give me leave I shall consider Laws according to the forenamed division of them 1 Beginning with the Moral Laws of God those Eternal Rules of Piety Justice and
us that our Labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. In respect of the present Success as well as future Reward that we shall be assisted in Duty as well as Rewarded for it St. John observes it as a great preference of the Gospel above the Law John 1 17 that the Law was given by Moses but Grace came by Jesus Christ All that Moses did was to deliver a Systeme of Laws to the World and teach Men their Duty but Christ besides this purchased Grace to inable us to do our Duty to be Sufficient for us and to enable us to do all things as the Apostle speaks Therefore good Men are said to be under Grace and for that reason sure to be Victorious in Duty Rom. 6.14 To which I need but add one thing that the Spirit of God is made the great Almoner and Bestower of this Grace and I beseech you do but see by what an affecting Argument our Lord hath assured us that God will give this Spirit to those that ask him Mat. 7.9 10 11. But Thirdly I go on to shew that our Lord hath not only thus Established the necessity of Duty and done it upon better Principles but he hath set the instances of it at a higher pitch than they were formerly And for the Truth of this I appeal only to the following Sermon and subsequent particulars of Duty that he Instances in You may see it clear in the case of Murther of Oaths and Charity c. Something is added to the Law in all these cases and something taught by our Saviour over and above what was said by them of old time some things that were indulged the Jew and supposed Lawful are made for ever unlawful to a Christian upon which reason as well as others it is said v. 20 That unless our Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees we shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And sure no Christian hath any reason to take this ill or to think himself hardly dealt with for if our Encouragements and Helps be so much greater it is but reasonable that our returns should be in some measure proportionable This is enough to clear what I undertook as to this first branch of Laws i. e. the Laws of God and Obedience to them 2. I proceed to consider the Second i. e. Humane Laws respecting Civil matters and to consider whether Christ came to Destroy these and not rather to Fulfill them It hath been an old Imputation upon Christian Religion and an Artifice to Prejudice Kings against it to represent it an Enemy to Government Thus our Blessed Lord must be accused as an Enemy to Caesar and his Apostles Persecuted as Factious Seditious Persons and those that turned the World upside down And upon this the Primitive Christians were mostly Prosecuted as we Learn from the Ancient brave Apologists for them But how invidiously unjust this Accusation was against our Lord and is yet against his Religion a little pains will suffice to shew clearly 1. For First I observe that out Lord was so very tender of Laws and so mighty careful not to give the least Suspicion of the contrary that in all things he shewed himself most ready to comply with them he waved his own Priviledg when it might Legally have been pleaded in Bar of it and pay'd Tribute as a Stranger although he was at the Expence of a Miracle to do it And when he was convened before Pilate and Interrogated about his Kingdom he so fully satisfied him that it was not of this World nor in the least an Enemy to Government in it that Pilate himself declares him Innocent and acquits him from the guilt of that Spightful Accusation Joh. 18.36 2. From which in the Second place you may Collect that his Doctrine in this was accordant to his Practice for by declaring his Kingdom not to be of this World He hath sufficiently secured all Kings that they should never be rivall'd in their Thrones by him that neither he nor his Religion would ever intrench upon their Rights or invade their Prerogatives And yet besides this there are many express Doctrines of his to this purpose I mention two only one is his Speech to Peter Mat. 26.52 with his Reason anexed to it Put up thy Sword for all they that take the Sword shall Perish by the Sword Which words are plain without any Art to improve them and make it for ever Unlawful for any private Person to use the Sword against his Lawful Governours in any Case no not in the so much pleaded Case of Religion For if it be not Lawful to use it in defence of Christs own Person it certainly can be Lawful in none no not in defence of his Religion Another is that known Answer that he gave to the most insidious question that was ever proposed to him Mat. 22.22 Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are Gods By which he hath happily adjusted the Rights of God and the King and Commanded Men to be as careful to pay one his due as the other and if Allegiance be tyed upon Men by the same Bands that Duty is to God the Obligation is strong enough and cannot be stronger But this is too little to say in this Case Truth and Justice to our Holy Religion will warrant me to say more viz. that Christ hath not only thus Established the Laws of Government and the Duty of Subjection to it but he hath indeed fulfilled it fixed it upon firmer Principles and stronger Reasons than it was before For that Religion that makes Subjection to Caesar as necessary as Duty to God That Religion that tyes Subjection immediately upon the Conscience That Religion that declares Government to be Gods own Institution and that Kings are immediately appointed by him That Religion that Interests God in Resistance as much as the King That Religion that presseth Men to Subjection upon Reasons of their Love to God and for the Lords Sake That Religion that Threatens Damnation as expresly to resistance as to any other Sin whatsoever That Religion which so strictly forbids and so severely Threatens all those Evils from whence Rebellion and Resistance proceed such as Pride and Ambition Covetousness and Discontent Faction and a busie-medling in other Mens Matters and whatever other causes there are of these things That Religion which by Arguments of no less then Eternal Felicity injoyns the Practice of such Vertues as make Rebellion impossible such as Meekness and Humility Patience and Contentedness in every Condition Peaceableness and keeping within our own calling Love and an Universal Charity unto all Men I say a Religion that doth all this as it is Notorious the Christian Religion doth doth indeed Fulfill and fix Subjection upon the most steddy Principles that can be Doth Incomparably more to this purpose then the utmost Policy or Power of Man shall ever be able to do for these can but compel or