Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	master_n	parent_n	superior_n	1,280	5	11.2870	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56562	The magistrates authority asserted, in a sermon, preached at the cathedral in Norwich by James Paston ...	Paston, James, d. 1722?	1673 (1673)	Wing P666; ESTC R13819	15,825	32

of this will further appear if we consider how often the Apostle inculcates this very thing it is this he begins with 1 Cor. 1.10 which he presses with Intreaty and conjures them by that blessed Name to which all should bow and yield Now I beseech you brethren by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye speak the same thing and that there be no Divisions among you And it is this he ends with 2 Cor. 13.11 and endears the Command with the Promise of a Blessing which will sufficiently crown our Obedience Be of one mind live in peace and the God of peace shall be with you and wherefore is this Exhortation so frequently repeated but to shew how highly necessary Unity is since without it there will be little of that Peace and Charity which should be among Christans which makes Kingdoms and Societies happy Therefore since Unity is the Bond of Peace Since unless some particular way be prescribed Men will have several Modes of Religious worship since Governors prescribe this or that way for all to embrace to the end differences and mischief might be prevented We must needs be subject Thirdly Without subjection there can be no order but a strange confusion If there be no obedience from the Child to the Parent If there be no subjection from the Servant to the Master No submission from the Subject to the Ruler it would be safer living among the Beasts of the Wilderness than among men We are not all born Parents or Masters or Governours and questionless we ought not to usurp these places For God has commanded Children to obey their Parents Servants their Masters and also Subjects their Governours And if a Parent or Master should command his Child or Servant in the publick duties of his Family to use this or that Prayer with him at this or that time in this or that place in this or that posture What place of Scripture or what Precept of nature forbids their obedience so it be not contrary to the Word of God and if a Parent or Master has this power over a Child Heb. 13.17 1 Cor. 14.40 or Servant why may not our Superiours appoint the like things to those whom God had committed to their charge for whom they must give an account why may they not provide that all things be done in decency and in order since if there be any undecencies any disorders they must be as liable to punishment at the great day as any Parent or Master for the disorders and undecencies of his Child or Servant And that Man that disobeyes his Superiours at the same time teaches and pleads that his Child or Servant may refuse obedience to himself For he has no other Charter for his liberty And there is no more ground for the levelling of Kingdoms than for making all equal in Families And God hath given us no warrant for either 1 Cor. 14 33. for he is the God of Order not the Author of Confusion If therefore we break from those stations which his most wise Providence has set us if with the Complices of Corah we take too much upon us though with Uzzah to support that Ark which Faction and Prophaneness has put into a tottering condition we provoke the God of Order and have cause to fear his vengeance Wherefore we must needs be subject Fourthly We must needs be subject because our Superiours must needs command Men commonly are apt to run into error and the pride or ignorance of some Men makes them as apt to deceive and to be deceived To mislead and to be misled into Factions and Divisions and those Divisions breed a dislike between this or that party and that dislike produces uncharitableness and this uncharitableness proceeds to hatred and this hatred brings forth cruelty blood and ruine to the scandal and undoing of Religion and Justice Now those whom God sets over a Nation are bound in Conscience to prevent these miseries and to institute some ways to reduce Men to that Unity Love and Charity which should be among Christians If therefore they be bound in Conscience to command we no less to obey For without our Obedience their Commands can be no Remedy If the Governours of a Church or Nation do not endeavour to prevent by some injunctions those miseries which fall upon a people for whose Souls they watch they questionless must give an account at the great Audit And so likewise they who are the people of such a Church or Nation if they obey not those that rule over them in those Injunctions which for so good an end are laid upon them they will find a dreadful doom at the last day when they shall appear before his Tribunal who is the God of Love and Unity Wherefore we must needs be subject And thus we see in what things we must be subject And also wherein lies the necessity And I presume this necessity is not taken away by the suspension of the penal Laws And my presumption is so far from being groundless that it is founded upon the words of the Apostle in that part of my Text which I am now going to treat of Which tells us we must be subject not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake not only for fear of the Punishment but also for the love of the Duty First For Wrath to avoid this we must be subject For self-preservation is a duty which cannot be dispensed with and therefore that Man that shall suffer rather than perform this or that thing which is indifferent his blood is upon his own head He that will sacrifice his Life or Health or Estate to an obstinate groundless humour although he scruples a Ceremony is so far Superstitious that he is a great Idolater for he offers up all to his own vain imagination For what should make kneeling at our Prayers less lawful than standing or a form of Prayer than a Directory since no Scripture commands the latter rather than the former One is commanded at least by those whom God hath set over us The other neither by God or Man And what can better merit the name of Will-Worship than that which is set up by every particular Man's will But here is the Grand inducement to disobedience in such things Men call that persecution which is but being buffeted for their faults and glory in suffering for the Cause of God when alas there is no such thing For God never required this at their hands Therefore when we exclude our selves from the priviledge of the Church or Nation wherein we live rather than obey in such things as are no where proved to be unlawful When Men have suffered their bodies to be imprisoned their Estates to be wasted and by this means their Families to be unprovided for to suffer Hunger and Thirst and all other kind of Wants Who has exacted such severe things from them that they should endure these just effects of the Superiours wrath rather than be

Gods Word But it is against none of these and therefore it is not unlawful in it self to do them If therefore it be lawful to do them before they are commanded certainly it is lawful after for since God has made it our duties to obey the Commands of our Superiours their Commands cannot make that unlawful which was lawful before but if nothing is to be done but what is commanded in Scripture expresly in every particular circumstance we shall never finde the true Worship of God either in Geneva or Scotland or Amsterdam it self Therefore the summ is this the Saints and Martyrs of old never suffered for disobedience in things indifferent God has no where prohibited our obedience in such things though we see no reason why they should be commanded for himself has been pleased to appoint such things as do not appear to be naturally necessary and likewise his servants even under the Gospel and he has rewarded such obedience He has also commanded obedience to every ordinance of man Those things before they were ordinances were in themselves lawful and therefore are so after because the Command cannot make them otherwise for he that commands them is appointed by God to this very end that he might command therefore it plainly appears that there is a necessity of Subjection in things indifferent We must needs be subject But wherein lies the necessity this is the Second thing which I come now to treat of how it is necessary that we be subject in things indifferent And before we weigh those Arguments that prove this we must consider that it is impossible to perform the worship of God without such things as before they are commanded are indifferent The whole World both Christians Jews and Heathens agree upon this that God is to be worshipped but at what time in what place with what circumstances is not generally agreed upon Whether on the last or first day of the week whether in a private house or in a publick place set apart for that purpose whether sitting or standing or kneeling is indifferent till the Law of God or man has determined But at some of these times in some of these places with some of these Ceremonies the Worship of God must be performed and there is no man that exclaims against a Ceremony but is his own accuser if he ever sayes his Prayers for he must either use the Ceremony of standing or sitting Luke 18.11 Acts 9.40.20.36.21.5 Mark 14.35 or if he can stoop so low of kneeling or lying prostrate and one of these is as much a Ceremony as another he that stands as stiff as the Pharisee is as ceremonious as he that kneels with the Apostle lies prostrate like our Saviour and in some of these Ceremonies the Worship of God must be performed And since any of them is as lawful as the other the Superiour may appoint which he in Reason and Conscience thinks fitting and in so doing he commands nothing unlawful and therefore we must be subject to either which he shall appoint and that First because God hath so commanded which questionless were of it self a sufficient obligation though alone And he that will deny that God hath so commanded must first erase many places of Scripture For God has as plainly therein commanded honour your Father and Mother and obey those that have the rule over you as he hath said Thou shalt have none other Gods before me Therein also is recorded that as dreadful vengeance has been inflicted upon the disobedient to earthly Governours as upon the rebellious to the King of Heaven Therein also he has plainly told us Mal. 2.7 that The Priests lips should preserve knowledge and that the people should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts and were not men plainly obstinate as well as prejudiced they could not but be convinced that the Gospel gives no liberty nor makes so wide a gap for licentiousness as to give them power to do what they list either in matters of spiritual or civil concern Mar. 12.17 1 Pet. 2.17 but manifestly injoynes us to give Caesar his due and not only to Fear God but also to Honour the King And questionless Christ gave not that great power to his Church but with an intent they should be obeyed when he said that whatsoever they should bind on earth should be bound in Heaven Mat. 18.18 and whatsoever they should loose on earth should be loosed in Heaven Matth. 23.3 Nay though Scribes and Pharisees which are Hypocrites sit in Moses his Chair though their lives were not fit for imitation Luke 10.16 yet he tells his disciples their Precepts must be obeyed and whatsoever they say unto them they must doe And if this be the Word of God He that despiseth you despiseth me Rom. 13 1. 1 Pet. 2.13 Let every Soul be subject to the higher power Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man and the like I say if this be the Word of God and this Word of God has any power over us We must be subject Secondly God has not onely injoyned this in his written Word but also in those Precepts of Reason which he has imprinted by the hand of Nature For Unity in the external Worship of him who is one God is necessary for the well-being of the Church For commonly Unity and Peace like Hippocrates his Twins are born and dye together for we know there are no greater Hatred and Animosities in the World than what have risen from Difference in Religion And as the holy Psalmist Ps 113.1 and Reason will inform us that it is a Pleasant thing for Brethren to dwell together in Unity so sad experience will tell us that Division tends to the dissolution of Concord and carries men into war and bloodshed cruelty and oppression and no combustions have been more furious and dreadful than those that have been kindled from Altar set up against Altar for what will not men doe for that Religion that they think is true and for that Cause which they think is Gods and such an Opinion has every man of his own particular cause and therefore will he hazard Life and Estate for promoting it and all that are not of his way are as zealous in procuring advantages for theirs What better expedient therefore can there be to surcease these differences among the Subjects of the Prince of Peace and to unite them in Christian Love and Charity than to prescribe one mode of Worship for all to embrace which is not contrary to the Will of that one God whom we all worship that since there is one Lord one Faith Eph. 4.5 one Baptisme we who profess this one Lord one Faith one Baptism should be also of one mind 2 Cor. 13.11 1 Cor. 1.10 should be perfectly joyned together according to the Apostles injunction in the same minde and in the same judgment And the grand necessity