Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	christian_a	church_n	religion_n	1,340	5	5.5492	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49844	Observations upon a short treatise, written by Mr. Timothy Manlove, intituled, The immortality of the soul asserted and printed in octavo at London, 1697.	Layton, Henry, 1622-1705.	1697 (1697)	Wing L757; ESTC R39118	87,777	128

Adversary has very little of the Power of Christianity in him for that the latter Part of his Treatise is full of censorious uncharitable Expressions without any Truth in there or Provocation to them but proceeding rather from his own natural Inclination and Practice perfectly Pharisaical which was to dignifie and magnifie themselves by vilifying and despising other Men. Upon which Practice Meekness it self was whetted to use sharp Expressions Our Lord says Mat. 23.33 Ye Serpents ye Generation of Vipers how can ye escape the Damnation of Hell Ch. 12.36 I say unto you That every idle World that Men shall speak they shall give Account thereof in the Day of Judgment What then is like to become of the Adversary at that Day concerning his many idle uncharitable censorious false Expressions purposely deliver'd in this Treatise without any just Provocation given him for so doing May not our Lord's Words be reasonably applied to this Person Thou Serpent thou Generation of a Viper how canst thou escape that Damnation of Hell which after the Day of Judgment shall be made ready to receive not the Souls of condemned Persons but their Souls and Bodies together into everlasting Burnings where the Worm dyeth not and the Fire is not quenched If Practice has made this Course so habitual to thee as that thou canst not forbear the Usage of it yet oughtest thou to be careful to confine it to thy own Flock or Herd who probably are much us'd to it illa te carcere regnare sit tibi satis Be thou therefore advis'd to follow thine own Trade within the proper Sphere of its Activity and be guided by the old Rule Ne sutor ultra crepidam Solomon directs Men to take care of their own Flocks and their own Herds and St. Paul forbears to judge them that are without And yet if the Adversary thought himself oblig'd to contend for the Truth against those who are without his Precinct he ought however to have done this modestly tho' earnestly and therein to have avoided those contumelious Expressions which he has frequently used especially all Injuries and false Aspersions laid upon his Opponent contrary to the clear Truth and the Civility of Manners which ought to be used by Men of his Profession not to name his Calling for that it does not appear whether he has any or no. P. 144 The Observer demands of the Adversary Is this Course which he has follow'd to imitate the Innocence of little Children Is this to demonstrate we are Christ's Disciples by loving one other Or is it not rather to proclaim to the World that he knows not what Spirit he is of May his Readers not have a just Cause of Suspicion that such Fruits are earthly sensual and Devilish The Adversary says further That the Love born to one another is the best Badge of Christianity acting thereupon like Rowers in a floating Vessel who look one way and row another P. 145 He speaks of such who would hear God's Words but not do them What shall then his Judgment be who will speak but neither the Words of God nor those of civil Persons amongst Men. The Adversary speaks of many good Duties Men may be able to perform to which he shou'd have added That wise and good Men are able to bear patiently with other Men who may fall into such Over-sights as they may think to be Weaknesses and Errors without reproaching and reviling them upon those Accounts remembring St. Paul's Admonition Take heed to thy self lest thou also be tempted P. 146 he quotes divers Texts of Scripture good in themselves without any of his Comments upon them We read Matt. 4. Texts of Scripture used by the old Serpent in his Temptation of Christ and we meet with like Things in divers other Places of Scripture and that Satan can change himself and is apt to change himself into an Angel of Light thereby to deceive and mislead such as he can perswade to hear and follow him P. 147 He says It is no easie Matter to be a Christian indeed The Observer grants it and that the Adversary's present Treatise is a good Proof of it P. 149 He says meaning it is likely concerning his own Congregation That there are many who know not what Regeneration means nor the other ordinary Duties belonging to the Christian Religion and if they be ask'd concerning them cannot answer Three Words of Sense about them The Observer replies That in the Catechism of the Church of England the Doctrines necessary for the Salvation of Men are well deliver'd and specified and that ali devout Members of that Church are taught and requir'd to learn the same Memoriter and are daily taught in their Churches the Sense and Meaning of those Articles and all other Doctrines contained especially in the New Testament So as that if there be not great Fault and Defect either in the Teachers or the Hearers either one or both of them the People of our Church cannot be so ignorant as he pretends Men commonly are so as not to know the Water of Baptism is the Laver of Regeneration the Catechism teaching them That by Baptism they are regenerated and ingrafted into the Church of Christ and are thereby directed and enabled for dying to Sin and to be Partakers of a new Birth unto Righteousness the Benefits of which are to be made a Member of Christ and an Inheriter of the Kingdom of Heaven And in Prosecution of that Design Men are thereby directed to forsake the Devil and all his Works believe the Articles of the Christian Faith and keep God's Holy Will and Commandments and walk in the same all the Days of their Lives P. 150 The Advers does here wish to know many fine and curious Questions and Things concerning Angels and the future State of separate Souls The Observer thinks all his Conceit and Fancy thereupon to be vain and unedifying or else to be frivolous and false What he talks of the Angels is vain and utterly unknown to him what he pretends to know of Souls is false and frivolous He demands further Can ye believe two States so vastly different hereafter as a happy or cursed Resurrection and yet not consider there must be some suitable Preparatiens made whilst we are here for avoiding the one and obtaining the other The Observer assures himself There are very few Men who believe in that manner except they may be such as are of the Advers own Education The Advers says He has set a Description of Heaven before his Reader meaning it seems such a Heaven as Mens Souls go to presently upon the Death of the Person The Observer replies That he finds no Description of that or any sort of Heaven in this his Treatise and for Souls going thither at the Death of the Persons he and all they who read our Writings cannot but know that it is the very Point in Question And for him to think that any Body will be led away by his presumptuous