Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
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A35698
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Some remarks recommended unto ecclesiasticks of all perswasions
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Denton, William, 1605-1691.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing D1068; ESTC R14
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74,373
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48
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they had put on they not living to the adorning but to the shame of the Gospel This is the Summ of the Discipline and Government that Christ left to his Church for ought appears by any plain Scripture And what need of more or other For if the Ministers of the Everlasting Gospel have free liberty to Instruct break Bread exhibit the Sacraments and Pray the Civil Magistrate hath sufficient Power by God's own Ordinance to order all the rest And their Commission extends no farther viz. Go ye and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you Matth. 28.19 20. Cura Animarum Salvation and Damnation of Souls being of Everlasting consequence and of the highest concern in the World to every individual is beyond all peradventure and contradiction the main Duty and Glory both of Priest and Prelate and to be apt to teach to be instant in season out of season to reprove rebuke and exhort with all long suffering and doctrine 2 Tim. 4.1 2. for hereunto most especially and if not onely they are called as was Aaron and if not called unto this Duty they are called unto none by any Patent or Commission from Heaven This was the Government the Apostles used and left no other and the Gospel prospered under it then and why it should not prosper under it still no reason can be asscribed however let us trace the steps thereof and see by what vile arts and means it became degenerated into meer worldly Forms set up for meer worldly Ends and Interests In the Days of our Saviour whilst on Earth there was a common Purse which Judas carried which was always filled and supplied with the free-will Offerings of pious devout Princes and of private Persons who plentifully contributed their Temporal Riches to the Churches which was first instituted kept and distributed for two Ends only viz. First For the Necessities of Christ and his Apostles Preachers of the Gospel Secondly For Alms for the Poor which was distributed as the Lord commanded by Judas who was a Thief and usurped to himself the said Goods common to the Apostolical Colledge and was so Covetous that he sold to the Jews the very Person of Christ When Christ was ascended into Heaven the Holy Apostles in the Church of Jerusalem kept on foot the same Holy institution and for the self-same Ends viz. for the Necessities of the Ministers of the Gospel and for Alms for the Poor the Faithful in those Days making all their Goods common sold their Possessions for the same Purse or Stock and Uses So that the Community of the Church was not distinct from the particular of each faithful Man Yet this Custom of having all things in common went not out of Jerusalem And in other Churches planted also by the Holy Apostles this Custom was not observed neither did it last long in Jerusalem Whereupon 26 Years after Christ it is read That the publick was distinct from the private every one knowing his own but the Money being common in that Church as in others founded in Oblations which placed in common served onely for the Ministers and for the Poor The first Day of the Week which for that cause was called the Lord's-Day the Faithful met together and each one offered that which he had set apart of the foregoing Week for the Necessities of the common which was administred and distributed by the Apostles themselves for a short time after the Ascension whence arose murmurings and discontents and many dissatisfactions some thinking they were neglected and had too little and that others had too much which gave great trouble and distractions to the Apostles which they considering and finding that they could not attend this perfectly together with Preaching the Word of God they resolved to stick close to the Ministery of Preaching and Teaching and Praying continually and therefore appointed for this Office of having care of Temporal things another sort of Ministers Deacons quite disserent from that we see done in these Days wherein the Pope and Chief Prelates of the Church attend the Government of Temporal things and the Office of Preaching and Teaching and the Doctrine of the Gospel neglected and left unto Friars or Brethren and inferior Priests in the Church Wherefore they directed the Brethren to look out among themselves from the body of the Faithful Seven Men of honest report full of the Holy Ghost and Wisdom whom they appointed for that Ministery that they might give themselves continually to Prayer and to the Ministery of the Word And wheresoever they founded a Church they also appointed Deacons in the same manner and to the same Ministery As also they ordained Bishops and Priests and other Ecclesiastical Ministers Fasting and Praying preceeding And the common Election of the Faithful following after observing inviolably this order never deputing any Man to any Ecclesiastical Charge who was not first Elected by the Universality of the Church which is of all the Faithful together This Custom was observed not only during the life-times of the Apostles but even about two hundred Years maintaining the Ecclesiastical Ministers and the Poor also with the publick Stock raised by such Oblations And the fervent Zeal and Charity of those Times was so great that the Oblations amounted to very great Summs In the Church of Rome that rich City Marcion about the Year 170 gave a free-will Offering at one time of Five thousand Crowns of Gold in the Church of Rome who afterward holding Erroneous Opinions in matters of Faith he was expelled from the Congregation and all his Money restored to him This rich City grew so rich by those Oblations that after Two hundred and twenty Years the Roman Emperours coveted them Whereupon Decius the Prince arrested St. Lawrence a Roman Deacon to take the Ecclesiastical Treasures from him but he being aware thereof distributed them all suddenly and so disappointed the Tyrant The Church thus abounding in Riches the Clergy began then to degenerate and to live at ease not being content with the daily Food of the Church but would have their separate shares every Day or Month or longer and live where they pleased which tho' it declined from the Primitive Perfection was yet winked at by the Fathers but it rested not here for the Bishops began to fail the Poor of their due and kept more for themselves and so growing Rich with the Goods of the Church dealt also in Usury to increase in Riches and withall leaving off the Care of Teaching the Doctrines of Christ and busied themselves in getting Pelf of which St. Cyprian complains in his time Tho' the Church possessed so much Wealth yet it had no settled or stable Goods at the first Yet in France and in Italy some left or gave stable Goods to Churches which in the Year 302 were all confiscated by Dioclesian and Maniminian tho' in France
deny their Communinn that are as capable of Heaven without the use of them as themselves with the use of them To the Council met at Jerusalem Acts 15. consisting of Apostles and all the faithful in the Church and to the Holy Ghost it seemed good to lay upon them no greater burthen than things necessary yet some of our Mungril Church of England Men taking themselves to be wiser than either the Apostles or the Holy Ghost have dared to impose Ceremonies and Observances no way necessary nor conducing to the Saving of Souls or Edification yea and more strictly requiring Conformity unto them punishing more severely the breach of them than the breach of Gods Precepts Tho' to err manifestly against the Scriptures be the most dangerous and greatest blindness that can possibly befal any Christian and the greatest Chastisement that God can impose in punishment of them whoever shall make use of the Divine Authority to serve their own turns in any worldly Interests yet so active is the Zeal of Priests of enlarging their own Phylacteries their Greatness and Impery that they make no Bones of wresting and perverting any Scripture Old or New to make it serve their turns which in plain English is to make Godliness wait upon Gain Pride and Ambition Let us now also add and consider the grand Pique these Priestly Court Parasites pure Church of England Men have had against Puritans the sober and thinking part of the Nation and Puritanism of old and the same under the names of Whigs and Phanaticks the Arts and Tricks they have used to suppress the Purity and Power of Religion by reviling their Persons decrying and suppressing Lectures on the Week-days Sermons on Sundays in the Afternoon and Conventicles and giving encouragement to Idleness Looseness and Prophaness in the People Witness the Book allowing Sports on the Lord's Day Printed 1633. and the Countenance given thereto by the then Court Prelates and Prelatical Priests who procured a Royal Proclamation to justifie the same And Archbishop Laud sequestred Mr. Wilson four Years for not Reading that Book and prosecuted him in the High Commission Court for not Reading the Prayers of the last Edition commanded by the Archbishop Nalson 571. Who yet Countenanced Publick Sports on the Lord's-Day by the Examples of the Reformed Churches beyond Sea and for the Publick Dances of our Youth upon Country Greens on Sundays after the Duties of the Day so Bishop Bramhall otherwise a pious Person and stout assertor of the Protestant Religion against Popery who sees nothing in them but innocent and agreeable to that under sort of People who likewise takes the promiscuous License to unqualified Persons to read the Scripture to be far more prejudicial nay more pernicious than the over rigorous restraint of the Romanists p. 641 642 643. This may be the Court Dialect and Prelatical Gospel but certainly not Apostolical for the same Equity for keeping the Sabbath strictly yea very strictly not Jewishly Ceremonious is as incumbent and obliging unto us under the Gospel at this Day as to the Jews under the Law I cannot understand such Liberty to be keeping of the Sabbath but rather a polluting of it Isai 56.2 6. Keeping of the Sabbath is not to rest only from bodily Labour but to abstain from doing our own pleasures and our own ways and not speaking our own words Isai 58.13 14. and abstaining from the delights of Sin as well as from the Works of our ordinary Callings What! weary of strict keeping the Sabbaths here and yet presume on the expectation of an Eternity which shall be nothing else but Sabbaths Certainly our Sabbaths here are but an Earnest and a Pledge of that Eternal Sabbath which we desire to Celebrate with Saints and Angels in Heavenly Places I wonder how so Pious a Prince and of such mighty Insight and Understanding could be so imposed upon by his Prelates and to Countenance such a Book by his Proclamation I wonder also how Bishop Bramball could shew such dislike of unqualified Persons Reading the Scriptures when to search them is a Precept Universal and to judge of Doctrines also and whereas there 's nothing in them of absolute necessity to Salvation to be believed but what is very obvious and intelligible to every indifferent capacity Bold Church of England Men that dare to be wiser than Almighty God by taking upon them to foresee Dangers that God never did foresee and to prevent them by such Methods as thwart God's own Appointments Beyond all peradventure such Doctrines such Practices such Methods can never conduce to the Benefit and Service of God's Holy Church and Chosen or to the Putity or Propagation of the Gospel but are rather a muzling of their Mouths who should tread out their Corn which should bring forth the food of Life Everlasting unto the People However tho' there have been such Priests and Prelates that have so acted yet I am not of their Opinion who therefore deemed them Papists in Heart No no some of them have given abundant Testimony to the contrary by their worthy Works as of Archbishop Laud Bramball and others But it is too plain that they improved what Interest they had at the upper end of the World towards tho Setting up and Advancing the Power Impery and Grandeur of the Church Men and to keep the Laiety under and did not improve their Interest towards advancing the Purity and Simplicity of the Gospel or towards the making of a high way of Holiness through out the Land that way-fairing men though fools might not err therein Isai 35.8 that being certainly their greater Duty to have bestowed themselves and their Interest on the benefit and Service of the Church rather than of the Pride and Ambition of Church Men. Thus much by way of Caution to prevent the like for the future being of Opinion that the Persecuting Dissenters and Conventicles is as National a Sin as Drinking Drabbing and Swearing and ought to be as nationally to be lamented both by Clergy and Laiety For I must confess my self absolutely ignorant of any one thing or signal Constitution from the very beginning of the Reformation to this very day to which the Dissenters were required to conform and submit that was essentially necessary either to the Salvation of Souls or to the more pure and sincere Preaching of the Gospel unto which they deenid their Conformity or Submission They would yet very much oblige us if they would make known unto us such Constitutions if any such there be for if in truth they have not been such then the Imposers not the Dissenters are the Separatists and Schismaticks for tho very self same Reasons that the Papists are Schismaticks not Protestants And I am afraid that it is not Conscience but finister ends that makes Prelates contend so out of measure for things no way Essential to Salvation According to St. Cyprian In sinu sacerdorum ambitio dormit ibi sub umbrâ recubat in Secreto Tholami