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	faith_n	true_a	1,190	5	4.8677	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28223	Prosecution no persecution, or, The difference between suffering for disobedience and faction, and suffering for righteousness and Christ's sake truly discussed and stated in a sermon upon Phil. I. 29, preached at Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk on the 22th of March, 1681, being the time of the general assizes there held / by Nath. Bisbie ...	Bisbie, Nathaniel, 1635-1695.	1682 (1682)	Wing B2983; ESTC R18612	20,745	38

40. for having called the Apostles and beaten them they commanded that they should not speak in the Name of Jesus Pass we next to St. Stephen the Proto-martyr of the Christian World and we shall find the Multitude gnashing on him with their teeth and stoning him and for no other Crime Acts 7. 54. than that he preached to them concerning one Jesus whom they had betrayed and murthered Next to Paul the Proto-persecutor of the Saints Acts 9. 2. who when he found any of that way whether Men or Women he brought them bound to Jerusalem in order to their further Suffering and the only reason was Ver. 21. because they called on the Name of Jesus Nay see what it was that this Paul when he was Converted first Preached and verily no more Acts 13. than that God had raised one Jesus for the Forgiveness of Sins whom the Jews had slain And for Preaching this Doctrine and this Doctrine alone it was that he was Persecuted and Stoned Acts 14. 5. for this Accused and Imprisoned Acts 24. 21. for this sought for to be Condemned Acts 25. 19. for saith Festus They brought no Accusation against him but concerning one Jesus which was dead but affirmed by Paul to be alive So that when these or any other places and texts of Scripture are brought by our modern Sectaries to adjust and justifie the troubles and miseries that their Disobedience and Sedition brings upon them they are utterly perverted their Auditors cheated and their Proselytes gull'd into Schism and unnecessary Suffering And indeed if some speedy stop be not put to their exorbitant Proceedings I cannot see but that ere long we may have no Christ to preach no Church to go unto no King to govern us They may talk of Christ and of preaching of Christ but were they all Silenced or would they rather be Silent as in Duty and Conscience they are bound to be Christ would no less be preached his Death and Resurrection no less published but Schism not so Sainted nor the Nation so disturbed the King would live more at ease the Church be more at quiet and Christianity flourish more among us Secondly Our Sufferings are then warrantable and justifiable when they are on Christ's behalf or for those things which more immediately concern him his Precepts his Doctrines and Institutions so near unto the Faith as that our Religion would be in danger of being notoriously corrupted perhaps utterly lost most certainly altered if there be not a full adherence to and a stout profession made of the same Our Saviour chides the Pharisees for teaching for Doctrines the traditions of men and by that very means making the Commandments of God of no effect intimating that there may be such Doctrines obtruded upon the Church and superadded to the Faith that may cassate and evacuate the very Doctrines of Religion deface Christianity and make the Faith another thing and of another colour to that which Christ brought along with him into the World And therefore our Ancestors would rather themselves suffer than suffer a piece of Bread to be Worshipped by them for Christ or in Christ's stead rather suffer their own Blood to be spilt than Christ's Blood to be taken from them in the Sacrament rather be broke themselves than to bow down to Saints and Images when God with his own tongue hath said Thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them rather undergo the utmost fury of Adversaries than derogate from Christ's plenary Satisfaction by advancing their own Merits into equal claim with his and for this they have worthily obtained the Name and the Honour of being Martyrs But then there are other Doctrines more remote and rather points of Speculation than of Faith or Practise nay the World is grown to that pass that there are no less variety of Opinions than of Faces and what is worst of all and tends most to the disturbance of the Church on the one hand and to the dishonour of our Religion on the other we call all these by the name of Religion and by the appellative of Faith laying many times as great a stress upon the least of them as upon the fundamental Articles of Christ's Resurrection nay of Christ's being Prince and Saviour and from these it is that there are such feuds and bussels in the World or that there is such an out-cry of Persecution Whereas God knows it would be more for our comfort and the Churches peace more for the good of our own Souls and the salvation of others not to spread divulge much less to confront an establishment with them Most certain it is That the Apostles in all their Preachings established no one Doctrine more next to the coming of Christ than that of Peace Hence we are exhorted To speak the same things to have no Divisions among us to be perfectly joyn'd in the same mind and in the same judgment to follow the things that make for Peace and if it be possible to live peaceably with all men Telling us That if we are Factious we are Carnal that if we are refractory to Government and Governors we are Devilish nay that if for such things as these we do suffer we are no less than Malefactors Let none of you suffer as a murtherer or as a thief or as an evil-doer and I may justly add not as a Schismatick nor as a Rebel yet if any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God on this behalf I have only hinted this to shew that while I Preach for honour to be done to those who really and truly suffer for Righteousness or for Christ's sake I might not seem to advocate for such mens enormities who may be said to Preach the Gospel no o●herwise than as they set the Father against the Son and the Son against the Father turning all to Confusion under pretence of having the Gospel of Peace in their mouths And thus you have seen what those Sufferings are that are the gift of God unto his Church and of what nature those other Sufferings are that are for Faction Sedition Treason and not for Righteousness or for Christ's sake Wherefore my Brethren and Fellow-sufferers in the Faith be once more advised First Not to let the fear of Suffering scare or deter you from your Faith or Duty Secondly That though you Suffer for Christ and in his Name yet not to Suffer all that come in his Name First Not to let the fear of Suffering scare or deter you from your Faith or Duty Be not faint nor weary in well-doing What if the World do hate you abuse you design and work evil against you Is it not for the support of your Loyalty for the safety of your King for the benefit of your Country and for the continuance of a well-reformed Establishment among you Bonds and Fetters in such Cases as these are as Chains of Gold unto the Neck and as Jewels and rich Ornaments to the Breasts

nay Si fractus illabatur orbis Though they should murther their King again and pull the Foundations of the earth about your ears yet hold your own and let it be said of you in the Transcript as of the Philippians in the Original That to you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe in him but also to suffer for his sake My second advice is Secondly To add Obedience to your Faith that especially which is due to your King the Defender of your Faith It is observed of the defection made by the ten Tribes from the two whereby Judah and Israel came to be two Kingdoms that all the Levites all the Land over as also all the well-affected and good men who were not for the High places and for the Devils and for the Calves which Jeroboam the Rebellious and Factious Usurper had set up clove to the House of David and to Rehoboam their Natural and Lawfull Prince 2 Chron. 11. 13. And it may be observed further to the eternal Honour of their Loyalty that small or no interruptions were made by them or by their Posterity as to the Lineal descent of their Kings so long as they remained a Nation though in Israel seldom above three of the same Stock continued in a direct Succession Nay further Judah had but two Tribes to ten for the support of their King and Government and yet Israel that were ten to two were long destroyed and captivated before them Loyalty being certainly a most sure and lasting Bulwark against all Desolations And in good sooth if any thing keeps up our Religion so that Jeroboam his High places his Devils and his Calves do not utterly devour us it must be our Integrity and Loyalty to our King Loyalty the unquestionable duty of all good Subjects and of all the sincere Worshippers of the true God Loyalty the fondling and darling of Princes which will make us be beloved and defended by our Kings and at last will prove the surest Preservative to our Church against Confusion and the likeliest Remedy to restore it and give it a Resurrection if it should ever happen to be overlaid It is always prosperous and victorious it hath the favour of Kings here and the reward of the King of Kings hereafter It gives us Crowns because we love the Crown and it will make us Kings in another World for being good Subjects in this Think not then that Loyalty will hurt you or that your being and continuing faithful to your King and his rightful Successors shall ever endammage your Religion A Religion so eminent for its Allegiance and so hitherto unattainted that God's Vicegerents as long as they love their Regality cannot will not suffer it to be oppress'd If you aim at a Scotish Presbytery saith King James it agreeth as well with Monarchy as God and the Devil then Jack and Tom and Will and Dick shall meet and censure Me and my Council I may thank you my Bishops that these men plead for my Supremacy But if once you were out and they in I know not what would become of my Supremacy for NO BISHOP NO KING One of the greatest faults some men found with the COMMON-PRAYER BOOK saith King Charles the Martyr was this that it taught them to pray so oft for Me to which Petitions they had not Loyalty enough to say Amen No Church in the World saith our present Sovereign hath Taught and Practised LOYALTY so Conscientiously as the Church of England hath done Experience hath shewn saith the present Heir the only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Bugbear to a sort of Mungrel Protestants That the Members of the Church of England are the best Supporters of the Crown insomuch that if it fall to Him to be concerned he will ever countenance and preserve Them and It. Wherefore let remoter Fears keep remoter off and as we are bound by the 37th Article of our Religion to give that Prerogative to our King which was given to the Godly Princes in Scripture Let us likewise give the same Loyalty as they did such I mean as Judah and her Brethren gave to their Kings and Princes and I doubt not but by so doing if ever we go into Captivity our King must with us And so I have finished the first branch of their commendation viz. their Faith Pass we Secondly To the other part thereof and that is their Fortitude their disposition and resolution to suffer the worst of Evils for this so well-grounded and established Faith To you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake We live in an Age that talks much of Suffering and with this noise and clamor the Jesuite and Enthusiast the one on the behalf of his devout Catholicks the other on the behalf of his Schismatical Anticatholicks endeavour to run down the Church of England making the truly Orthodox and Loyal Members thereof the only Opposers of Christ and themselves the only Confessors Us the Martyrers and them the Martyrs But all Sufferings neither give Commendation nor Consolation to them that Suffer neither do all that Complain really and truly Suffer for Christ's sake There is a difference between Punishment and Persecution That an act of Justice This of Malice That for our Ill deeds This for our Good It is not what we Suffer but why that will justifie our Sufferings not the Blood but the Cause that will make a Martyr For were it otherwise Then would Cromwel and his bloody Myrmidons Bradshaw and his band of Halberdiers notwithstanding their Bodies have been mangled and quartered for their Bloodshed and Villany be found still Riding in the Host of Heaven and admitted once again to be Judges and Sentencers of Kings Then would Clement the Monk who stab'd Henry the Third and Ravilliac who did the like to Henry the Fourth instead of being justly punished for their Murdering Tucks be rewarded with Triumphant Palms Then would Heaven above as well as Earth below be fill'd with Regicides Traytors Covenanters Associators and little or no room left in that Glorious Palace for the Honest Peaceable and Loyal good man Wherefore upon this account it will be fully requisite to describe the true Nature of those Sufferings that are the good Will and Gift of God unto his Church and thereby distinguish them from those other Sufferings that are the due Retributions and just Punishments of Faction and Sin And the only Sufferings that are justifiable must be either First For Righteousness or Secondly For Christ's sake First For Righteousness sake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for being Righteous and Just that is for not Violating either the Laws of God or of Man the Eternal and Natural Laws of the one the Prudential and Alterable yet Just Laws of the other And such Sufferers as these our blessed Saviour afore ever he discovered the Necessity of Suffering for his sake pronounceth Blessed Blessed are they which are persecuted for

They add lustre to your Arms and enrich the Coat whereof your Posterity will not can not be ashamed What if there be some so set against our Way that as Cicero said of Cataline Notant designant oculis ad caedem unumquemque nostrum they mark and point out whom they intend to undoe and destroy and perhaps if some mens Studies had been as narrowly looked into as other mens houses were there might have been found black Phanaticks Lists as soon if not sooner than Black Romish Bills However both akin to those Papers of Caligula the one whereof he calls his Sword the other his Dagger but equally designed to Ruin those whom he observed to stand in his way Yet still your Case is good and will make a Martyr your late Royal Sovereign traced out the way and certainly it is no small comfort the Conscience of our Innocence It teacheth us to live in all Honesty and to dye without all Fear making our Lives blameless and our Deaths dreadless This is that brazen Wall that is impregnable This the Feast that is continual This the Light that never fadeth This the Sun that never setteth It walketh with thee when thou goest out it returneth with thee when thou comest home It is as Wine when thou feedest It is as the Spirit of Wine when thou saintest If thou bee'st Impleaded it answers for thee If Judged it defendeth thee If Condemned it acquitteth thee It Enlargeth thee when thou art in Prison Healeth thee when thou art Wounded Quickneth thee when thou art Kill'd In Peace it is thy Delight in Trouble thy Deliverance Nay we may call it with a small allowance the Helmet of Salvation the Breast-plate of Righteousness the Shield of Faith the Panoply of God By this we approve our selves as the Servants of God in much Patience in Afflictions in Distresses in Stripes in Imprisonments in Tumults in Labours in Necessities This is our Vaunt saith St. Paul our Vantage saith the Author to the Hebrews our Confidence saith St John yea and our Conscience too for saith one of the afore-named Apostles ye must needs be subject not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake My Advice is Secondly That though you suffer for Christ and in his Name yet not to suffer all that come in his Name This is to Tolerate not to Suffer To tolerate all Villanies Impudencies Wickednesses Pretensions Factions Designers and Designs no less grievous unto God than the Abominations of Chemosh and of Milcom Though you are to suffer for Christ's sake and on Christ's behalf yet you are not to Suffer and to let go unpunished whatsoever sets it self up in the Name of Christ against the Faith of Christ against the Established Church of Christ against the Defender of that Church and Faith They that have caused so many dangerous Rebellions such Damn'd and Execrable Attempts both in Church and State are they Tolerable Methinks we ought to repress their Disloyal Practices with some if not with the utmost rigour To you it is given on the behalf of Christ not only to believe in him but also to suffer for his sake but if it be given you thus to Suffer instead of building Temples for the gods as Numa did we must with Romulus build Asylums for Rogues and Villains Ket and his Clowns Cromwell and his Saints will be the only Canons at least the only Canonized Tribe among us Good men but of them there are but a few will be good out of a pure love to Vertue but evil men of whom there is the greater number will not be good if it were not for fear of punishment It is the Axe and the Rod the Block and the Gallows that teach many men Vertue Nay if such things as these be suffered Innocency it self would no where be safe Honesty and Justice appear the only Malefactors And I doubt not but some of you to your cost almost undoing full well remember That to Murder a Loyal Subject was accounted good Service to Plunder an Honest Neighbour a great piece of Justice and to Fight against nay Barbarously to Judge and to Kill their Lawful Sovereign an act of advanced Piety The Faithful Ministers was looked upon as the only Judas and the Loyal Gentleman as the only Malignant Thus it was and thus it will be if there be none to declaim against nor none to punish perverse and froward Criminals Let me therefore in this my advice before I conclude request the worthy Patriots of our Church and State not to be affrighted or scared from their Duty their Vigilancy and Care by the Noise and Clamor of any of their Supplanters or Opposers and First Not with the Outcry and Clamor that Conscience makes for I observe That if the Faction goes out with that in their mouths if Conscience lead on the Party though never so wicked never so full and pregnant of Mischief and Design against Church and State Though like the Trojan Horse it be lined with Armed men and stuft up with Guns and Musquets and other Instruments of Death yet the bare naming of Conscience like Lightning presently melts the Sword in the Scabbard and causes the Minister of Justice like another Belshazzar to shake and to tremble till the rod wherewith he should punish its wickedness drops out of his hands Conscience Oh it is a good an a tender thing but withal it is many times Proud and Haughty Wilfull and Erroneous Disorderly and very Rebellious I could name many Kings that even sigh from their Tombs and complain of Conscience for the loss of their Lives and the downfall of their Kingdoms What Barbarous Outrages what notorious Villanies it hath acted and still continues to act England and the Church of England can well tell Wherefore as they that deny fire to be hot for their more certain Conviction should be thrown into it or ice to be cold should have some thrust into their Bosoms or a Cudgel to be hard and heavy should be banged with it even so they that deny such dealings to be in Conscience are rightly served if in the end they suffer the madness and extremity of it Conscience It is much countenanced by God and so are the Poor insomuch that he who shews no mercy to them shall receive none from God or he that wrongs them or severely deals by them shall be judged as severely Nay I question whether a poor Orphan or a distressed Widow be not as tender in Gods eyes as the most tender Conscience And yet saith God Exod. 23. 3. Thou shalt not Countenance a poor man in his Cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt not Honour him saith the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt not be kind unto him saith the Talmud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt not pity him saith the Septuagint Though of himself he be never so much befriended and favoured by God though otherwise to be handled gently and tenderly by man yet if he be caught in a Contention 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a Fault or a Quarrel either Mutinying or Tumultuating so that the Judge must Judge him then thou shalt not favour nor countenance him at all have no respect nor regard either to the Man or to his Poverty And thus I conceive of Conscience for though whilst Modest Peaceable and Orderly it be to be respected and tendered yet if it grow Wild and Furious if once it be Criminal and Contentious so that the Judge must take Cognizance of it it must not then be Honoured Advanced or Pitied no kindness shewn when it grows it self unkind Secondly Not with the Out-cry and Clamour that Persecution makes for let but the Offending Party guild over his Actions with the specious name of Religion and call the Good Old Cause of Rebelling the Cause of God making thereby the Minister of Justice the spiller of Innocent Blood and God's Avenger the Saints Persecutor though never so falsely yet it dulls the sharpness of the Axe rusts the most glittering Sword and makes the most active Patriot to lay them by leaving the Offenders to themselves least in truth he should be what the cry would make him not only a Butcherer of his Brethren but a Murderer of the Saints An Imputation so keen and makes so deep an Impression upon the weaker Phansies of the more easie Magistrates that generally an omnia bene and an Universal Impunity is granted by them to all manner of Disorders though never so Fatal and Destructive to Church and State rather than they 'll bear the Odium and Guilt of so bloody a charge But the Apostle most strictly commands the Christians Pet. 1. 4 15. not to suffer as Evil-doers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui in publicas leges delinquunt as those who Transgress the Publick Laws 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as those that will play the Bishop in another mans Diocess the Preacher in another mans Cure and thereby become Seditious And questionless if ill they do notwithstanding they be Christians nay notwithstanding they pass for Saints as do it they must whenever the Peace of the Nation and her wholsom Sanctions are violated they may nay they must suffer neither need the hand that smites them fear a Withering for it If these and such Pretences as these must give an Indulgence or Toleration to men to Act as they please for my part I cannot see but that the wild Arab as well as the furious Zealot The Turkish Janizary as well as the Christian Incendiary the Circassian Thief as well as the English Creeper into Houses may claim a Liberty But it is time to have done having sufficiently angred the men of Faction and therefore I shall conclude with the words which a Famous Chancellor of this Nation caused to be engraven on his Tomb-stone for an Epitaph here is a Minister and there lies an Officer of the Realm who lived and dyed in Peace with all men only furibus homicidis Schismaticisque infestus FINIS