Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	church_n	civil_a	magistrate_n	1,328	5	8.0220	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B20531	English Presbytery, or, An account of the main opinions of those ministers and people in England, who go under the name of Presbyterians published for the vindication of divers noble and worthy persons, who by papists, and their adherents are without any ground aspersed with that name : and also of those who indeed do hold those principles, appealing to the judgement of all sober Christians, what there is of falshood or unpeaceableness in them.	Collinges, John, 1623-1690.	1680 (1680)	Wing C5315; ESTC R9925	10,428	16

be left to the passions and Infirmities of any single persons It being therefore apparently the will of God that ignorant persons and such as are scandalous should be secluded and so adjudged by all Reformed Churches They do think that the Judgment in this case ought to be by more than one Whether if there be several Ministers in the same congregation it be done by more Ministers or by the Pastor or Pastors with some of the ablest members chosen by the rest to assist in that Judgment they do not think so clear in Scripture as to contend for onely they generally judge these two things of Divine right in the case 1. That a judgment be made to separate the unworthy from the worthy 2. That it be not the Judgment of any single person but of more whether Ministers or People 13. Because both the turning out of unfitting Ministers and the admitting persons into the Ministery and the casting out of any persons by Excommunication and the hearing of the complaints of those who shall judg themselves injured by any act of jurisdiction be all of them matters of High consequence They cannot think them fit to be done and finally determined by the Officers of any particular congregation but by the Officers of several Churches And if for order sake the Civil Magistrate being a Christian shall please Or the Officers of several Congregations with the Consent of the Civil Magistrate shall please in several Precincts to appoint a number of the most grave and pious Ministers to judge as to the casting out of any Ministers and to prove and ordain such as shall be received into the Ministry and to hear the complaints of any such as judge themselves injured and if the Magistrate will please to ordain that one person as his Commissioner dignified under what title he please shall attend such acts in such or such Precincts and with others judge in the case The Presbyterians have nothing to oppose to it provided things be fairly transacted and adjudged according to the Rules of God's Word in the cause but judge it a prudential act consonant to reason and the will of God But they can allow no single person by any Divine Right to have any such power more than other 14. These being all the things that are purely Ecclesiastical the Presbyterians take not themselves to be concerned whom the Civil Magistrate pleaseth to appoint to take care of Temples Glebes and Houses or Tythes or other Revenues given to maintain the Ministry or giving legal investitures in them or hearing causes or questions about them they being all Civil things within the Magistrates sphere as also what Titles of Honour and Dignity he will please to bestow upon his Substitutes in such trusts They judge these things of no religious nature but such as the Church hath been without in the best times and may again be without and yet exist the Spouse of Christ Nor are they at all concerned whom the Magistrate will entrust and under what Titles to licence Physicians Midwives School-Masters Marriages or to take any profits relating to such things they are Civil things and in the Magistrates own disposal he may do with them what he pleaseth and Titles of Honour are his creatures he may make what he pleaseth and distribute them to whom he pleaseth 15. They do judge there is an Officer of the Church also called a Deacon and though the term in the Greek be of larger significancy yet they conceive the work of this Officer sufficiently described and limited Acts 6. to take care of the poor whose work it is to take care by the voluntary almes of Christians to provide for the poor of his particular Church they do not disapprove but highly applaud the care of the Magistrate in appointing civil Officers and giving them a legal power to make equal rates for this end but they say this Law was made for the hardiness of mens hearts for would people do their duty the poor of every congregation might and that more acceptably to God be provided for by the due care of the Officers of Churches and the free contributions of people when ever they meet together to worship God and the Civil Magistrate eased of the great burthen he hath upon him in that particular Of the Censures of the Church 1. THey know no Censures of the Church but Admonition Suspension and Excommunication or Rejection or as some delight rather to speak Admonition and the greater and lesser Excommunication 2. For Admonition they say there is a Brotherly Admonition which is a charitable act whereby one Private Christian reproveth his Brother not suffering sin upon him 2. A Pastoral Admonition which is the Act of the Minister admonishing any under his charge of any errors which hath more authority in it than the other 3. An Admonition which is a Church censure and is the Act of the whole Congregation or the Officers of it as well in the name of Christ as in their names shewing a person offending his error from the word of God and exhorting and warning him to reform it This they say may be often repeated 3. They say a person under this censure ought not to be allowed all the priviledges of the Church but to forbear the Holy Supper till he hath given some evidence of his repentance and reformation satisfactory to the Congregation 4. Excommunication being the highest censure they believe ought not be denounced by any persons but those whom Gods Word hath appointed thereunto nor for any crimes but what the Word of God directs nor in any other manner than it directeth The persons decreeing it must be the Church by it's Officer or Officers they agreeing thereunto for in vain is that person attempted to be cast out of the communion of a Church with whom the members of that Church will have a communion The crimes expressed in Scripture are pertinacious continuance in heresy and scandalous living after reiterated admonitions and patient expectation of Reformation As to the manner the Scripture directs it to be done in meekness after much waiting and all due means used in order to Reformation They do believe that all other Excommunications are but abuses and like the Mad-man's throwing about Fire and Darts 5. Hearing the Word and Prayers being Religious Acts to which Heathens and Publicans may be admitted as designed for the conversion or Reformation of Sinners they do believe that Persons Excommunicated ought by the Divine rule to be admitted unto them being persons who by the Apostles rule ought still to be admonished as Brethren not accounted as enemies 1 Thes 3. 15 16. 6. When Persons are Excommunicated the Church can proceed no further and have nothing to do but to pray for them and the particular members privately to admonish them but they are still as Men and Subjects under the power of the Civil Magistrate if they commit or persist in any crimes under his cognizance Concerning the Civil Magistrate 1. THey do with all thankfulness to God own and Revere his Ordinance of Civil Magistracy and are so far from encroaching upon it That they believe no Minister of the Gospel ought to imploy himself in it But to give up himself to Meditation and Prayer and the meer spiritual oversight of the flock of Christ committed to him 2. For the due form of Government or power of Governours in any Nation they believe Gods word hath fixt no universal Rule onely confirming the just Laws of Kingdoms and Polities and they believe it their duty to be obedient to such Governours in all places as the laws in that place have established and in the exercise of such power as those laws have given them From the obedience to which no person upon the account of Religion can pretend to an immunity and in the exercise of which no Magistrate ought by any to be resisted 3. But they believe it their duty onely actively to obey Magistrates in such things which are not contrary to the Law of God and whether they be contrary or no as to their own practice they conceive their own consciences must be judges and as to such things they conceive themselves onely obliged to suffer the penalties for such disobedience peaceably In short they acknowledge themselves bound to obey the Magistrate legally commanding in all things wherein so far as they are able to Judge the word of God saith to all Do it not Concerning Matters of Faith IN all matters of Faith The Presbyterians believe whatsoever is in the Apostles Creed the Nicene Creed the Confessions of Faith of the Churches of God in Switzerland Holland France Geneva The Articles of Ireland our own 39 Articles with exception onely to the Articles concerning the Ceremonies and Discipline And defy the Doctrines of Papists Socinians Pelagians Semi-Pelagians and all others erring from the Faith From this paper we trust our Countrymen will understand That the Principles of those called Presbyterians in the strictest notion of the term are no such things but very good and honest men may own and the briskest tongues and pens of their Adversaries will not be very forward to evince either to be unscriptural or Irrational FINIS

of people of whom Christ is the Head and who are his Members to whom belong the promises of all spiritual things and of Eternal Life and Salvation and this is the Church Invisible for the Lord alone knoweth who are his part of whom are in Patriâ their souls being already with Christ in glory who are therefore called the Church Triumphant having conquered all their Spiritual Enemies part of them yet in Via in the way towards Heaven or being chosen of God are daily coming into that way in which they have and shall have the certain conduct of the Spirit of God until they come to their Journeys end but till that time will be fighting the good fight with the World the Flesh and the Devil and are therefore called The Church Militant 3. God alone knowing these they believe that all those who have given up their names to Christ and are baptized in his name making an outward profession of Faith in the Doctrine of the Gospel and Obedience to the Precepts of it make up the Visible Church and are in Scripture called the Church and Churches and herein they agree with the ninteenth Article of the Church of England which truly saith That the visible Church of Christ is the Congregation of the Faithful in which the pure Word of God is Preached and the Sacraments duly administred according to Christ's Ordinance in all those things that are of necessity requisite to the same That the whole number of these scattered over the whole world make the Universal Visible Church and that the number of these in any Nation make up the National Church of this or that Nation 4. They believe that Christ hath appointed Ministers of the Gospel for Officers to this Visible Church who may Preach the Gospel and Baptize in any parts of it but can only exercise an ordinary jurisdiction in those particular parts of it over which God hath given them a particular Oversight as Pastors and Teachers the exercise of Acts of Jurisdiction requiring a particular knowledge of persons Opinions Knowledge and Conversation which no single person can have as to all the Members of the Visible Church 5. They believe that Ministers ought to be made by those that are Ministers ordinarily first proving those that desire that Office whether God hath called them to it by fitting them with his gifts and graces for the performance of the several acts of that Office Then solemnly setting them apart to it by Fasting and Prayer and Imposition of Hands not as a token of their then receiving the Holy Ghost as the Apostles used it but as a token of their separation to the work of the Ministry In a total corruption of the Ministry or a want of Ministers they believe that a faithful people may prove and set apart persons to the Ministry that no Ordinance of God may be lost which he hath given to his Church so that none to prove their Ministry need run to an Apostolical Succession impossible to be satisfactorily made out by the greatest pretenders to it which are the Papists or pleaders for it 6. They believe persons thus set apart to the Ministry are fully authorized to Preach the Gospel and to baptize in any place where they are called to it and to administer the Lord's Supper when they shall be fixed in any Congregation that they may administer it knowingly to persons that are able to discern the Lord's body and whose conversations are such as they may charitably judge them members of Christ who shall not eat and drink unworthily as also authorized to joyn with other Ministers in setting apart of Persons to the Ministry and to exercise Acts of jurisdiction in their fixed congregation admonishing the erroneous ignorant and scandalous withholding the Lords Supper from them till they give some evidence of their Reformation and casting them out of the Communion of the Church if after admonitions instructions and patient waiting they shall at last appear contumacious 7. They believe that Ministers of the Gospel are bound to pray and to preach in the exercise of those abilities which God hath given them for the work of the Ministry and to administer the Sacraments and acts of Jurisdiction according to the rule God hath set them in his Word and no otherwise for they are Ministers of Christ not of men and Stewards of the mysteries of God of whom it is required that they should be faithful 1 Cor. 4. 2. 8. They believe any number of Christians living in the same City so agreeing or in the same Parish or Neighbourhood may call or chuse any persons to be their Pastor and Teacher or Pastors and Teachers who may either singly or joyntly take the care of such a flock and perform all Ministerial acts towards them either meeting in one or more places for worship ordinarily provided such persons be either Ministers before proved and set apart to the Ministry or so set apart before they take upon them that Pastoral charge of such People but we believe no Person can be so called and set apart according to the rule of Scripture but he who is sound in the faith of an unblameable life apt to teach and furnished with abilities both to pray and to preach and that all callings of other persons ought to be reversed and adjudged Nullities 9. Our Saviour having determined Ministers to be the Salt of the Earth and that if the Salt hath lost its savour it is good for nothing but to be thrown upon the dunghill They do believe that he hath left a power both in the Church if there be no Christian Magistrate and with the Christian Magistrate who is to be a nursing Father to the Church if any called to or placed in the Ministry appear to be Unsound in the Faith scandalous in his life Insufficient for his work Or negligent in the performance of it to admonish such persons and in case he reformeth not to remove him from the Ministry who may for no other cause be removed from it either by the Magistrate or the Church 10. They believe That no Minister can be over more places than he can discharge his Duty to and he can reside amongst and that all Ministers ought ordinarily to reside with their People or so near to them that they may perform the several acts of his Ministry to them and that he can delegate that trust to no others Being himself but a delegate from Christ 11. They do believe by the Law of Christ no Minister of the Gospel is Superiour to or hath further power than another but all are equally obliged and authorized to Pray and Preach and Baptize and to give the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in that due order which the Scriptures have prescribed c. 12. But in regard That the Judgment of persons fitness or unfitness for the receiving the Supper of the Lord is a matter of great moment they cannot judge it the will of God that it should