Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
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A70390
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A sermon preach'd at Turners-Hall, the 5th of May, 1700 by George Keith ; in which he gave an account of his joyning in communion with the Church of England ; with some additions and enlargements made by himself.
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Keith, George, 1639?-1716.
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1700
(1700)
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Wing K209; ESTC R14185
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28,024
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34
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our Blessed Lord to his Disciples Matth. 5. 11. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake This I thank God is my case I charge my Adversaries to prove any thing against me of evil Conversation I have with Zeal and Resolution which God hath been pleas'd to give me and who has greatly supported and strengthened me opposed and testified against their vile Errours and this is all the cause of their Hatred against 〈◊〉 and that God has been pleased to bless and prosper 〈…〉 with some Success so that both in America many and here in England both in City and Country divers have come from Quakerism and gone over to the Church of England with me yea divers have prevented me and gone before me and divers here I hope will go along with me I also remember what Christ said John 16. 2. The time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God Service Persecutors commonly follow an erring Conscience few Persecutors and be sure they are of the worst sort that knowingly and wilfully persecute the Servants of God Having thus far proceeded according to the Doctrine I mentioned at the beginning of this Discourse on the foregoing Verse 1 Pet. 3. 15. I think it my Duty and a weighty Concern lyeth upon me to give to this Auditory the Reason of the Hope that is in me of my Faith and Persuasion in this very particular Why I have joined in Communion with the Church of England although I retain Charity to all the honest-hearted of other Communions hoping that in God's due time the more Sincere will follow my Example and that God will make all the Sincere to be not only of one Faith as many at present are but of one Way and Practice and Uniformity Worship and Church Discipline so as with one mouth and one heart and mind to glorifie God Rom. 15. 16. This will be a Joyful Day which I hope many here and elsewhere pray for Why then will ye not help it forward by your good Examples laying aside all weak and insufficient Scruples which upon due Examination will be found without just ground And why find ye fault with those that begin to give you good Example Though this Change of mine is not so great as some imagine I was never so uncharitable as I find some are though I grant I have been too uncharitable which I have retracted I have been for a considerable time very charitable to all sober and religious Protestants of all sorts and have oft in secret bewail'd their Opposition one to another perceiving that in great part it came more from Prejudice of Judgment and Education than any just Cause I date not my Conversion to Christianity from this Change nay nor from my first turning to the Quakers My gracious God began early to deal with me and turn'd my Heart towards him I was well instituted in the Fundamentals of Christianity by the good Education I had for which I praise God before I knew the Quakers and though in too many things I was misled by them being deceived by their high pretences to Perfection and divine Enjoyments by which they have deceived many as well as me yet I retained a sound Faith of the Fundamentals of Christianity and did constantly profess the same which I can sufficiently prove both by my printed Books from time to time and divers Manuscripts and from my Childhood to this day God has in mercy preserved me from all scandalous Conversation and Practice whereof some of good Credit are ready to give a Testimony who have known me for Fourty six Years past and my manner of Conversation I am the more concerned to give the reason of my said Change chiefly for the sake of some of my good Friends here present who though by the Blessing of God have been by me as an instrument brought off from the Quakers Errours that were opposite to the Fundamentals of Christianity yet have some remaining Scruples that at present hinder them from so cordial a joining with the Church of England and seem to be concerned with my joining with her which I hope God in due time will remove and so far as is possible for me I will endeavour as his instrument to be assisting to them as also for the more confirming of such who are cordially ready to join with me And in the next place to silence the unjust Clamours and false Accusations of my professed Adversaries and others ignorantly prejudiced against me I am desirous to let them know that I have good reason for what I have done and have acted as a rational Christian Man in my so doing A chief Reason therefore which I offer is this Suppose there were a parity or equality in all other respects betwixt the Dissenters and the Church of England I mean the more sound and orthodox among them as in Doctrine and Worship Sacraments and Church-Government Discipline and Constitution of Members yet this with me doth cast the Balance and I think ought to cast the Balance with any rational considerate person that on that supposition the minority or lesser number should yield to the majority or greater number and the younger should yield to the elder and the Daughters to the Mother For certain it is that the Church of England as she was in King Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth's time and in Queen Mary's time was the Mother Protestant Church The Dissenters Forefathers had their Christianity Baptism and Christian Education and Profession in her Communion and were nursed as it were in her Arms and suckled at her Breasts and the more sober of all Dissenters will say she was a true Church then in all the main things of Religion Now unless they can prove that she is changed from what she then was either in Doctrine or Sacraments or Worship or Discipline or Church-Government in any material thing from better to worse which I think they cannot do how can they justifie their Separation from her And I think I may safely add that the wiser Men and ablest in solid Learning and Piety and in the sound Knowledge of the Scriptures to instruct the Ignorant and convince or put to silence Opposers to refute Antichristian and Popish Errors as well as all other old and late Heresies are much more numerous to be found in the Church of England And what solid Learning the ablest of the Dissenters have had so far as may be acquired by outward means has been originally by means of Church of England Men. She hath been all along and still is the greatest Bulwark against Popery whereof she hath given sufficient Proof from time to time witness the many elaborate and excellent Books and Tracts written by her Members against Popery especially and other old and new Heresies as Deism Atheism c. yea let the Libraries and Closets of the generality of the Dissenters Ministers be searched who
therefore cannot be saved by the Terms of it But God in his great Mercy has given us a better Covenant the Covenant of Grace and Peace in and through the Knowledge and Faith of Jesus Christ as he is the Word made Flesh or God incarnate the Terms of which are gentle and easie and full of Consolation God thereby declaring that he will pardon the Sins of all that sincerely repent and truly believe the Gospel of Christ and sincerely resolve and endeavour to keep his Commands and give to them eternal Life the which Terms God has graciously promised to help every one of us to perform by the Offer and Gift of his Holy Spirit as it accompanies the preaching of the Gospel But these new Terms of the Covenant of Grace the Light as it is an universal Principle in all Men by whatsoever Name they will call it or whatsoever Worth they will ascribe to it both Scripture and common Experience doth tell us doth not teach them He sheweth his Word unto Jacob his Statutes and his Judgments unto Israel He hath not dealt so with any Nation and as for his Judgments they have not known them Psal 147. 19 20. The Jews had this Advantage over the Heathen World that unto them were committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3. 2. the exceeding great and precious Promises 2 Pet. 1. 4. which the Heathen World to whom the Gospel was not preach'd had not and we have that Advantage now that the Jews then had But the Gentiles being without the Gospel are said to be without God and Christ in the World Ephes 2. 12. i. e. without an Interest in God and Christ and without Hope Aliens and Strangers to the Commonwealth of Israel The highest Acts of Obedience to any Light within us without the Gospel and without Faith in Christ crucified and rais'd again do not denominate us the Children of God nor prove us to have any just Title or Claim to the eternal Inheritance for whosoever are the Children of God they are so by Faith in Jesus Christ as the Scripture expresly declareth Gal. 3. 26. And the Gospel requireth that to obtain Salvation we must confess with our Mouths and believe with our Hearts that God hath raised Christ from the dead Rom. 10. 8 9. even him who died for our Sins who was delivered for our Offences and rose again for our Justification But the Light within as it is an universal Principle teacheth not Men these things these great Mysteries of our Salvation these lively Oracles these great and precious Promises nor these great Fundamentals of the Christian Religion such as the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity the Incarnation of the Word the perfect Atonement and Satisfaction that Christ hath made to the divine Justice and Law for our Sins by his bloody Passion and Death his Ascension and Exaltation and Mediation for us at the right hand of God in the glorified Nature of Man consisting of a glorified Soul and Body and that he is to be the Judge of the Quick and the Dead Also there are divers positive Laws and Precepts of the Gospel that the Light within as it is an universal Principle teacheth us nothing of The Knowledge and Faith of all these things are given us by the written Word preached and read outwardly and by the special Illumination of the Holy Spirit inwardly working in us a firm Persuasion and Faith of them giving us a savoury understanding and relish of them and great Joy and Consolation through hope by the Knowledge and Faith of them It proceeds from great Ignorance and Errour in many that they will not allow any real distinction betwixt the common Illumination given to all Mankind and the special Illumination given to Believers in the crucified Jesus Some will allow a distinction in degree but not in kind or specie but I say they differ in kind or specie though both come from one and the same Fountain the Father of Lights from whom all good Gifts flow both natural and spiritual and supernatural because they discover differing Objects i. e. differing Truths by way of Object that differ from these few Truths discovered by the common Illumination specifically or in kind for whatever Truth or Truths the common Illumination discovers to Heathens of the Being and Power and Providence of God as Creator and the Duty of Mankind to him as such the holy Scriptures without and the special Illumination of the holy Spirit within discovers far other and greater Mysteries of Truth in the inestimable Love of God by the Redemption of the World through Jesus Christ and the Duty that we owe to God and Christ thereby in the Belief of his Word and Promises the Obedience to his Commands and especially all and every of them given under the New Testament as that of Baptism and the Supper Obedience and Subjection to Christ's Government and Discipline he has established in his Church and to all whom he has set up to have the Rule over us in his House and Church But whereas they plead for the Sufficiency of the Light within and its Dictates without the means of Scripture and all outward teaching to qualifie Men to be Christians and Saints and Heirs of eternal Salvation from Jerem. 31. 33. where God promised to put his Law in the inward parts making the Law writ or put in the heart Jerem. 31. 33. to be the same and of the same extent and the same manner of heart and manner of writing with that in Rom. 2. 15. This is a miserable Mistake and a very gross and mischievous Errour That in Jerem. 31. 33. respects the People and Church of God but that in Rom. 2. 15. respects the Heathen World The Law writ in the hearts of the Heathen World teaching the moral Duties of Temperance Justice and general Piety towards God as Creator is I grant without the means or help of Scripture and antecedent to it but so is not the Law or Laws of God writ in the hearts of Believers whether Jews or Gentiles who believe in the crucified Jesus peculiar to the Christian Dispensation as Obedience to the Faith of the Gospel and to the positive Ordinances and Institutions of Christ of Baptism and the Supper and others aforesaid these Laws are not writ in our hearts without Scripture nor antecedent to Scripture but posterior to Scripture and by means of Scripture These positive and peculiar Laws of the Gospel writ in the hearts of true Believers and deeply printed and engraven in them are no other than the Copy or Transcript of the Laws outwardly writ or printed in the holy Scriptures which come to be transcribed into our hearts by what we daily and frequently hear preached to us and read out of the holy Scriptures and what we read our selves out of them the Spirit of God working with our Industry and Labour in our hearing and reading and well pondering and meditating what we hear or read causing it to take deep