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	good_a	holy_a	1,105	5	4.0458	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52316	The project of peace, or, Unity of faith and government, the only expedient to procure peace, both foreign and domestique and to preserve these nations from the danger of popery and arbitrary tyranny by the author of the countermine.	Nalson, John, 1638?-1686.	1678 (1678)	Wing N113; ESTC R3879	154,518	354

whereas for many Ages past men have beaten their Brains Joel 3.10 To beat their Plough-shares into Swords and their Pruning Hooks into Spears have Employed those Parts and Abilities with which they ought to have broken up the fallow Ground Hos 10.12 to sow in righteousness what we might reap in Peace to wound one anothers sides Would they follow this Rule of Charity we might see the Glorious Prophecy of Micha fulfilled Mich. 4.1 2 3 4. For in the last Days it shall come to pass that the Mountain of the Lords house shall be Exalted above the Hills and all Nations shall flow unto it and many Nations shall come and say Come and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his Ways and we will walk in his Paths and they shall beat their Swords into Plough-shears and their Spears into Pruning Hooks Nation shall not rise up against Nation neither shall they learn War any more but they shall sit every man under his Vine and under his Fig Tree and none shall make them affraid I know it will be objected That the Scriptures are full of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those things difficult to be understood To which I answer with the Apostle 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. The holy Scriptures are able to make any man wise unto Salvation through Faith which is in Jesus Christ being given by Inspiration of God for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteotsness that the Man of God may be perfect thoroughly furnished unto all good Works All this is contained in them in plain and easy Language and who can desire more what is necessary to be believed or done is to be found there without such Difficulty and that is all that either is or can properly be our Concern The Design of Religion is not to entertain the speculative or gratifie the Curious but to guide the Practical Christian in his Duty And if there be difficult places there is no necessity of our Understanding them For he that inspired the Holy Pens cannot without the greatest Impiety be argued of acting negligently insufficiently or without Design as other careless Writers may and that they are not more clear and perspicuous ought with a becoming reverence due to the only wise God to be believed that they are therefore wrapt up in Mysterious words either because they are not necessary or not fit for us to know Nor is there the least danger in such humble Ignorance but there is certainly in a presumptuous Curiosity and seeking after the Tree of Knowledge which God has prohibited by planting the Wall of Obscurity about it and if we will with the Bethshemites be Peeping into the Ark we may expect to be punished justly by wresting the Scriptures to our own Damnation and much more if being Unlearned and Private Men we undertake to give Publique Interpretations and Determinations different from both the Catholique Faith and Church 2 Pet. 1.20 For no Scripture is of Private Interpretation AND that this is the danger is as evident as the Punishment of it is certain for here is the Spring head of Errors and Heresies which always took their Original from the Transgression of this Caution For when men will leave the plain and beaten Path the easy Way to Happiness here and Heaven hereafter by Faith and Obedience to seek for it in their own Wisdom and Niceties it is no wonder if they wander out of the Way of Truth when they permit themselves to be lead by their Private Opinions and Interpretations it is the blind leading the blind in the Darkness of Midnight and no wonder then if at last they stumble and fall into the blackness of Eternal Darkness For self-love is a very blind Guide and self Conceit a worse and they must needs be in darkness to whom God denies the light of the Spirit which he does in all obscure places of Scripture and if as he told the Jews men therefore Err not knowing the Scripture they must needs Err who will know more than he will let them To confirm the truth of this Doctrine and that the Holy Canon is as the word Imports a Rule not only of our Actions but our Faith I would desire any Person to give me a reason why he Believes the three Famous Creeds which contain the sum and substance of our Christian Faith there can be but these three Reasons First Because he immediately by Divine Revelation is assured of his Faith or Secondly Because he is perswaded by some Person or Persons to believe or Thirdly Because he finds the Articles there mentioned either in plain Words or evident Consequences in Scripture which for good reason he believes to be the Dictates of divinely inspired Penmen THE First all sober Men reject as leading directly to Enthusiasm and under pretence of Heavenly Revelations to introduce Hellish Impieties and Doctrines of Devils who having a Power to transform themselves into Angels of Light may take that Advantage to Impose upon strong Fancies and weak Judgments FOR the Second a man will thus argue Why should I believe this or these Men since all men are Fallible and they who may be deceived may therefore deceive and if I believe this Man why not another why not Mahomet who pretended to the Holy Ghost as much as they AND therefore Thirdly Faith must be resolved into the first Principle of it which is Gods Truth and Infallibility and that Word which I believe to be his and therefore more Credible than the Word of any or all Men. Thus was Faith first propagated in the World and thus it must be increased for the Multitudes to whom the Apostles Preached throughout the World did not believe St. Peter or St. Paul that Preached Jesus and the Resurrection Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come but seeing the Miracles which they did they believed that this was the Word of God and that Jesus was the Son of God agreable to the Doctrine of the Prophets in the Old Testament concerning the Messiah This Method our Lord made use of with his Disciples Luke 24.5.4 Then opened he their Vnderstanding that they might Vnderstand the Scriptures that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning him and he said unto them Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise again the third day from the Dead and that Repentance and Remission of Sins should be Preached in his Name among all Nations beginning at Jerusalem This Doctrine of Faith the Apostles believed this they Preached not as their own but the Faith of Christ this they committed to Writing and delivered to the Christians as the Rule of their Faith and Life Rom. 15.4 For as the Scriptures of the Old Testament and whatsoever was Writen aforetime was written for our Learning

and yet had they not so much as a Rebellious thought of Establishing Religion by force or violence CHAP. VII BY what has been said it appears that the Foundation of all Charity among Christians is built upon Vnity in Faith which is the necessary bond of the Catholique Church which is the Company of all faithful People which are have been or shall be in all Ages and Places of the World and that Vnity in Government as well as Faith is the Bond of Peace and Obedience a Duty therefore which all men owe to their Lawful Superiors as the Necessary Ligature of a National Church which being a Political Society of Religious Men does therefore require a Political Government in Religious as well as Civil affairs THE not well considering of this Difference between a National and the Catholique Church seems to be the chief Ground of the Quarrels among Christians for the Catholique Church being the Spiritual Body of Christ is United in it self and to him by the Spiritual Bond of the Catholique Faith which Faith may be kept Whole and Undefiled though there be great Differences in External Rites and Ceremonies For all Ceremonies are not fit for all Places as for Example Submerging of the person Baptized may do very well in the warm Climates but would be very hazardous in the more Northern Regions of Muscovy Rushia c. Thus we see it was adjudged in that Great Controversie about the Celebration of Easter between the Eastern and the Western Churches For when Anicetus Bishop of Rome and Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna differ'd in their Opinion about it they came to this amicable Determination that each Church should celebrate it according to their own Custom for which they gave this Reason Quia non oportet propter Caeremoniarum dissonantiam rumpere Fidei Consonantiam Ecclesiae Concordiam The Peace and Concord of the Church in the Harmony of Faith ought not to be broken for a disagreement in matters of Ceremony And because this Difference made a great Noise in the Church for many years ●●d in regard it Confirms my Position of Vnity of Faith being the Bond of the Catholick Church and Vnity of Government as well as Faith that of a National Church I will relate the History of it in short as it is Recorded by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History Euseb lib. 5. c. 24 25 26. Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus and a great many of the Asian Bishops alledging the Practice and ancient Custom of St. John the beloved Disciple of our Lord who was himself Bishop of Ephesus Polycarp and several others observed Easter upon any day of the Week according to the Custom of the Jews The Christians of the Western Church observed it as we do upon the Sunday being the day of his Resurrection Upon this Victor Bishop of Rome pronounces them Excommunicate and separates from their Communion Irenoeus Bishop in Lions shews Victor his Error and that for Ceremonies and Circumstances the Vnity of the Church ought not to be broken which he manifests by the Diversity of several Churches in observing the time of Fasting before Easter some only one day some two some more to forty and yet for all this says that Excellent Father they were at Vnity one with another and as yet retain it for this Variety of Fasting commendeth the Vnity of Faith and thereupon writing to Victor he acquaints him that Anicetus Pius Hyginus Telesephorus and Xystus his Predecessors though not observing the same Custom with the Bishops of Asia yet nevertheless were at Vnity with them and sent the Eucharist unto the Brethren of other Churches that observed a Contrary Custom shewing him also how Polycarpus did not endeavour to alter the Judgment of Anicetus but told him that he ought to observe the ancient Custom of his Predecessors Upon which for the reason before-mentioned they friendly received the Holy Eucharist together the Symbol of their Vnity in Faith and parted from each other in Peace and all such adds he as held contrary Customs and Observations throughout the Vniversal Church held fast the Bond of Love and Vnity no Church endeavouring to impose upon the Liberty of others in point of Circumstances so long as they all held the Catholique Faith as the only necessary bond of Vnion in the Catholique Church and Vnity of Government as the Bond of Vnion in the several Distinct and National Churches whereof the Universal is composed and which therefore it appears had Originally a Jurisdiction among themselves over which neither Rome nor any other had a Power So that is clear that several National Churches may lawfully differ in External Rites of Government from the Catholique without the danger of Schism But now in a National Church there is a necessity of Vnity and Obedience to the Determinations of those who are the Lawful Governors of it and all Disobedience there is a Schism in regard the Peace of that Church the Order and Charity of it without this must be destroyed and therefore there is a Necessity of this Vnity in point of Government in any National Church Now every Distinct Nation as before was said being a separate Society of men Distinguished from the rest of the World by a different Government and their Obedience to it as well as by their Place of Habitation there is a Necessity that Religion should conduce all it can to the preservation of that Political Frame upon which the Well-being and Happiness of the Society depends For the Civil and Religious concerns are so mutually interwoven that no man can be a Good Citizen who is an ill Christian or an ill Christian who is Bonus Civis a good Publiquewealths-man and these do mutually support one another true Religion Improving this Interest of all Men by making the Civil part of the Polity a Duty of Religion among Christians whereas among Heathen it was only a duty of Interest and Policy For even in this sense we may truly say as our Saviour of himself Matt. 5.17 that Christian Religion came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it to conform Humane Laws to the Rule of Divine Equity Truth and Justice and for this reason our Lord himself gave that Universal Precept to Render to Caesar his Due which also he confirmed by his Practice paying him Tribute even with a Miracle NOR do we ever find the Primitive Spirit of Christianity opposing any humane Laws or Power unless they were such as directly struck at the Root of Faith and a holy Life such as were the severe Edicts of the Persecuting Emperors to compel them to renounce and Blaspheme Christ to adore the Pagan Gods or to offer Incense to the Statues of the Emperors Nay when they were treated with more than inhumanity they never had recourse to Violence or attempted to justle the Temporal Power out of the Throne or force it to a compliance with their Wills but suffered patiently even when as Tertullian Apologizes for them they were

from the Advocates own Words that none can justly plead for a Tolleration whose Devilish Principles and furious Practices tend to the Subversion of Government which both by what has been said and by Experience the surest Demonstration in the World both Papists and other Dissenters especially Presbyterians have been proved guilty of Let us now see how he manages the Cause of his own Party for whose sake this Project of a Tolleration was principally intended as is plain by his comparing Luther Calvin Buchanan c. with Mariana Suarez and Bellarmine Whose Doctrines are at least as he says as Dangerous to Monarchy and therefore unfit to be Tollerated the one or the other LET us therefore examine the Plea of Innocency which he descends to defend in particular And as their manner always is pag. 70. he tells us That the Roman Catholique Religion was the first Christian Religion planted in our Countrey from whom we had our very Christianity Suppose it were yet Quantum mutatus ab illo The present Roman Catholique Religion is not the same which they planted But with his good leave his Assertion is contrary Pol. Virgil. Hist Angl. l. 2. not only to great Probability but to the consent of Historians for Polydore Virgil tells us Test is est Gildas Britannos jam inde ab initio arti Evangelii Christianam accepisse Religionem That our Ancestors received the Christian Faith according to the Testimony of Guildas in the very beginning of the Gospel Baronius thinks St. Peter was here Theodoret Bar. An. 58. n. 51. Theod. de curand Graec. affect l. 9. Niceph l. 2. cap. 40. Baron An. 36. n. 5. Bede lib. 1. cap. 25 26. lib. 2. cap. 2. Saint Paul Nicephorus Simon Zelotes Some Joseph of Arimathea and even when Austin the Monk came from Gregory to Convert us as they say to the Christian Faith he found a Church among us as Beda testifies Bertha a Christian Queen and at Bangor a Monastery or rather a Colledg of many hundreds who upon the Question Whether they should admit of Austin put it upon this Issue Si sit humilis admittat●●● But finding him proud and Imperious they rejected him which they durst never have done had they believed even the bare Primacy of his Master or that they were owing for their Faith and Conversion to the Roman Church I will not enter into a long dispute about Merits Pardons Purgatory Adoration of Images or Transubstantiation which were but actum agere only methinks the Apothecaries Argument deserves to be put upon the File who being pressed to believe the Doctrine of Transubstantiation told the Zealous Agressor pleasantly but truly Sir I will make a Wafer and set a mark upon it that it may not be changed you shall send it to the Pope let him Consecrate it and I will venture you a 100 l. you dare not take it Oh says the other but I dare and would well reply'd the Apothecary then I will venture a 1000 l. that you shall be dead before next Morning which if it were really transubstantiated were impossible that the poison of the Body should be the food of the Soul and Christ be made a Murderer which demonstrative Conclusion so little expected puts the Romanist a little out of Conceit with his Doctrine and struck him as dumb as the other would have done dead for all the Transubstantiation there are very gross Stories and Slanders abroad if some in the Romish Church have ●●●tried the Experiment and have received their Death by what was given them as the Body of Christ and the Bread of Life BUT I will observe his Method p. 166. He tells us confidently That there makes for them all that may or can be of any Christian man required Literal Text of Holy Scripture approved Tradition General Councels Ancient Fathers Ecclesiastical Histories Christian Laws Conversion of Nations Divine Miracles Heavenly Visions Vnity Vniversality Antiquity Succession all Monuments all Substance all Accidents of Christianity Here is not a word of Proof and therefore I may take the same Liberty in contradicting it if I please But to answer this There makes against them Literal Text of Holy Scripture ●usanus Ep. 2. ad Bohem. of that Scripture which a Cardinal says is a Nose of Wax of that Scripture which the Pope has Power to inlarge at his pleasure as the Trent Councel has done making the Apochrypha Canonical Of that Scripture which speaks not a single word for the Popes Supremacy Transubstantiation Purgatory Masses for the Dead Invocation of Saints Vows of single Life c. but in a thousand places against them and therefore they are obliged to fly for refuge to their Approved Traditions and set them in the Throne above the Scriptures whose mouths must be stopped by the vulgar Latin and the Vulgar confined from reading them and even these approved Traditions are most of them such as the Universal Church never knew never acknowledged Conc. Trid. Sess 4. Dec. 1. which yet must be received with the same Reverence and Affection as the Scriptures for as Baronius affirms Bar. Ann. 53. Num. 11. Traditio Scripturarum Fundamentum and the Traditions of Men are made the Foundation of Scripture and of Faith And the Canon Law of Pope Gregory XIII Dist 40. Si Papa in Ann. Margin goes higher yet and sets the Pope above them all For men rather desire to know the ancient Institution of Christian Religion from the Popes mouth than from the holy Scripture And yet all of their own Church do not approve these Approved Traditions for Basil says Basil Reg. contract p. 502. It is necessary and agreable to Reason that all men learn what is their Duty out of Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both for the fulfilling all Godliness and lest they should be accustomed to Humane Traditions Iren. l. 3. c. 2. And Irenaeus tells us it was the Custom of Hereticks to call in Tradition to their assistance against Scripture alledging that those Truths as they called them which they held were not delivered by Writing but by word of Mouth AGAINST his General Counsels we oppose the first four and have offered a thousand times to put the Issue upon their Verdict Against Ecclesiastical Histories Ancient Fathers Christian Laws we oppose the frequent Forgeries of all these detected even by themselves and the Index Expurgatorius which Castrates all the Fathers that they may be fit Eunuchs for the Papal Seraglio the Vatican by being disabled to propagate truth For Conversion of Nations we refer them to the Acts of the Apostles for the first Age and for these last to Acosta the Jesuite and Bartholomeus Casas a Bishop in the Indies Acost de Ind. salut procurand their Conversion was such that the miserable People chose to go to Hell with their Ancestors rather than to Heaven with such Christians and if their Relations are true gives occasion to the Romanists to blush rather than boast