Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	burden_n	favour_n	great_a	17	3	2.0871	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A16151	The suruey of Christs sufferings for mans redemption and of his descent to Hades or Hel for our deliuerance: by Thomas Bilson Bishop of Winchester. The contents whereof may be seene in certaine resolutions before the booke, in the titles ouer the pages, and in a table made to that end. Perused and allowed by publike authoritie.	Bilson, Thomas, 1546 or 7-1616.	1604 (1604)	STC 3070; ESTC S107072	1,206,574	720

of his seruants and none that trust in him shall perish yea He shall redeeme Israell from all his Iniquities And so God in his owne person speaketh by his Prophet I will Redeeme them from the hand of hell I will Redeeme them from death Repentance is hid from mine eyes Here is he that first vndertooke out cause and professed and promised to be our Redeemer ●…uen the Sonne of God who being the brightnesse of glorie and the Character of his Fathers substance or liuely Image of his Person supporting all things with the word of his power made the purgation of our sinnes by himselfe that is in his owne Person Now if you being a Christian haue any bands to tie God withall besides his loue and his truth you were best shew them forth we shall otherwise take you if you stand vpon it for little better then an Arian to lay subiection or seruitude on any of the Persons in the most glorious Trinitie The word is vsed in the Scripture it selfe he was made a Suretie of a better couenant Is not this sufficient to warrant the goodnesse and aptnesse of the similitude against your vndutifull reproofes of it It is not written in the Scriptures that Christ was made our Suretie to God much lesse that he was a Suretie bound to the Law to pay our debts for vs. Our debt was euerl●…ting damnation of Body and Soule which either Christ or we must pay or suffer if your prophane vrging of this Similitude take place The Scripture saith He was made a Suretie of a better Testament proouing expresly by the Comparison of two Testaments a former and a weaker which was the Law a later and a better which was the Gospell that Christ was not a Suretie of the Law nor to the Law as you falsely conceaue but of a better Testament then the Law that is he was Gods assurance to vs that all his promises of ●…ercie grace and glory should stand fast notwithstanding our iniquitie indignitie and Infirmitie were neuer so vnmeete and vnworthie thereof This Suretiship of Christ to establish with his bloud the new couenant which God made with vs not we with him without all respect of our merits to pardon our offences and to make vs heires of his heauenly kingdome the Scripture mentioneth which is no more like to your Suretiship then freedome is to bondage I therefore reprooued not the word which my selfe also did vse I reprooued your seruile applying the word to bring Christ from loue and libertie which led him to be our Redeemer vnto thraldome and debt to make him thereby sinfull and defiled with our vncleannesse And is it not worthie of reproofe when a word is vsed in the Scriptures to one purpose for you to take vpon you to draw it as you list to your deuices It is plainly written in the Gospell The Sonne of man came no●… to be serued but to serue Will you hence presume your selfe to be Christs Master and take him bound to fulfill your Commandement as seruants must their Masters He saith of himselfe I am a worme and not a man Will you trample on him as you doe on wormes God hath giuen vs his Spirit as the pledge of our inheritance Shall we claime power ouer Gods spirit as we doe ouer pledges that are in our possession What wickednesse may not be bolstered if we stretch Similitudes vsed in the Scriptures farder then they were intended and we authorized You say Christ was not as a Suretie bound to the Law but of a better couenant euen of grace Verely a Suretie to vs of both Verely if you say that Christ was bound to vs or to the Law in both that is as well to beare our sinnes as to giue vs grace you broch two apparant blasphemies If you shift with saying Christ doth assure vs he hath done both for vs you slide from your former Assertion For that both these are done by Christ we bothagree only you would haue him when he bare our sinnes to be thereto bound and in that respect worthely condemned by the iust sentence of the Law which layeth the Penaltie on the Suretie when the Debtor cannot discharge it I told you that not onely we were in our selues to wicked and hatefull as being Enemies to haue any loue or fauour due to vs from God but also the Person of the Redeemer was so full of might and maiestie that no bands could be laid on him by the Lawe because he was afore the Law and aboue the Law that vndertooke our Redemption To this what reply yon He was a Suretie to vs of both But was he bound to vs or to the Law in either Why speake you not to that which is in Question It would well become the rest of your conceits to say that Christ was bound to redeeme vs being his Enemies and that the Sonne of God was bound to beare our burdens for vs. He promised so to doe Then the Loue of God which began it the Will which published it and the Truth which performed it are the more to be magnified by vs in the Sonne of God who could owe vs no duetie nor be bound to vs nor to the Law Those are the greatest bands that God can enter If Gods Counsels purposes and Promises be bands to barre the freedome of his fauour grace and mercie and in all these to impose on him a necessitie then is there in God no freedome but onely bondage which God forbid should come within any Christians hart He is most constant in all his thoughts words and waies which we may not thinke much lesse call debts to vs or bands to him without euident and extreame impietie but as he giueth all things to all and oweth nothing to any which the Scripture calleth his Grace whereof he is a giuer and not a Debtor so he cannot repent or change as men doe which we must ascribe to the infallible stedfastnesse of his most wise and glorious will the only Rule of all his gifts and works No band then if you know what a band meaneth can be fastned on God since that hath in it a debt which must of necessitie be yeelded whereto the partie may be compelled and forced by the right of the Law which chalenges in Gods promises are most prophane and heathenish Blasphemies It is written that Christ was made Hyponomon subiect to the Law or vnder the Law which you mightely denie against expresse Scripture You are so well acquainted with corrupting and deprauing other mens words that you make no care to doe the like to mine That Christ was vnder the Law I neuer denied no more then that he was vnder death but I said he was not bound to the Law no more then he was bound to death though he willingly for our sakes subiected himselfe to the rudiments of the Law for of those the Apostle speaketh to liue vnder them for a time

flagitiorum maculas morte voluntaria suo innocente sanguine luisse atque eluisse It is euident that Christ admitted receaued and suffered of his owne good will the paines due to mans wickednesse but not due to him and with a voluntarie death and his owne innocent bloud did wash and clense the spots of our filthinesse And againe It is euident the Iewes had not in their power these things or times sed sua ipsum voluntate nulla v●… coactum harc mortem pro nostra salute oppetijsse but of his owne accord without anie c●…action Christ died this death for our saluation Where also this is set downe as a true position that eligendae mortis optio penes ipsum fi●…t the election and direction of his death was left to his owne power and choise which the whole Church of Christ hath hitherto ascribed to the power and will loue and mercie of the Sonne of God reiecting your bands and obligations lately deuised to barre the freedome and abridge the power of the Sauiour of the worlde because you would tie him to the paines of hell You see not you will say how these Fathers make against you None otherwise but that they directly denie that which you affirme Christ you say though of good will he was at first content so to doe yet after became bound to the Law to pay our debts Now he that is bound must needs obey and so you lay on Christ not onely a necessity but also a dutie These Fathers with one consent disclaime al necessitie in the death of Christ and consequently they confes●…e he was free from all bands and debts but in loue and mercie as a free Redeemer he would giue himselfe for vs which was a farre greater price then we were woorth or could owe. And these multitudes of men as you call them though they be not of equall strength with the word of God which is the touchstone of all trueth yet doe they plainely prooue that you innouate the faith of Christes Church which in their seuerall ages they all beleeued and professed and for their faith they haue the manifest wordes of our Sauiour that none tooke his soule from him but he laid it downe of himselfe and the witnesse of the Apostle that Christ for loue gaue himselfe for vs which argueth that he was vrged thereto with no violence necessitie nor dutie much lesse was thereto bound and you for your deuice haue the curiositie of creditours the discredite of debtours of whom men require Suerties with bands because they trust not their words and promises much lesle their willes and dispositions But this iealousie in the Sonne of God is hainous blasphemie therfore there could be no cause to bind him as there could be no distrust of him since our miserie and his mercie were motiues enough to incline and continue his loue though we leaue him at his full libertie without all seruitude or necessirie Gods decree and his owne good will was that he should satisfie and pay none otherwise for vs then so as he did There can be no question but in creating condemning and redeeming man the Father the Sonne and the holie Ghost had one and the same will and decree yet except with the Arian heretickes you make an inequallitie of the persons in the most blessed Trinitie you can impose no seruice nor suffering on the Sonne of God by any decree but what must come from his owne good pleasure offer and perfourmance And that the Scriptures euerie where imply when they say Christ loued vs and gaue himselfe for vs that is he FIRST of loue towards vs OFFERED to serue and suffer in our places and AFTER of the same loue submitted himselfe to performe his purpose and promise of our saluation So that Gods decree was no iniunction nor ordinance that his Sonne should doe it but an ACCEPTATION of his Sonnes loue and mercie towards vs and an APPROEATION that it was a most sufficient recompence for all the transgressions of men And the Father is said to giue his Sonne for vs not that he loued vs better then he did his Sonne whom he infinitely loueth as himselfe and for whose sake onely he accepteth vs not that he vsed any authoritie or power ouer his Sonne to appoint him to this seruice but that knowing the strength and sufficiencie of his Sonne to be as his owne and seeing his loue and mercie towards vs which was common to him with the rest of the persons in that most glorious Trinitie the Father out of the same loue towards vs thought it fitter to accept the offer of his Sonne then that we should perish And therefore though the Father loued his Sonne as himselfe yet he was content his Sonne should beare our burden which we could not without euerlasting destruction and his Sonne could with exceeding honour and admiration of his mercie humilitie obedience and patience If you slide from the Godhead of Christ to his manhood to binde that because it was a Creature and not the Creator by diuiding the person of Christ you runne into the heresie of Nestorius condemned in the generall Counsell of ●…phesus and yet releiue not your selfe For the person and not this or that part of his nature must be the Redeemer since neither man could saue vs vnlesse he were also God nor God could die for vs vnlesse he were also man and so did suf●…er death in his humane nature So that the Suertie as you call him that vndertooke our saluation not onely from the beginning but before the world was precisely the person of the Sonne of God and not the humane nature of Christ and therefore you must either binde the Godhead of Christ as our Suertie or free his manhood from all bands Neither could any of Christs sufferings be of infinite price and merite for vs except we as●…ibe them to the voluntarie obedience of the person since the death of a iust man could not be the redemption of the worlde but the death of that person which was more woorth then all the world If then Christs sufferings take their force and value from the person they must likewise haue their freedome and election from the person Those sentences of your Authors Gregorie Austen and Ambrose if they be spoken simply seeme very harsh where they say that Christ could haue saued vs otherwaies then by suffering and dying for vs. For herein they oppose Gods absolute omnipotencie against his expresse and reuealed will which how it may be liked in Diuinitie I know not Yours is more harsh that reprooue them before you vnderstand them and chalenge that as false which is most apparantly true by the maine grounds of Christian Religion For if you auouch Gods power to extend no farder then his works as if God could doe no more then he hath done or will doe is a manifest denying of Gods omnipotencie which is larger then either his will or his