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
A41326	The liturgical considerator considered, or, A brief view of Dr. Gauden's considerations touching the liturgy of the Church of England wherein the reasons by him produced for imposing the said liturgy upon all, are found to be so weak, his defence of things offensive in it so slight, the arguments against the liturgy by himselfe afforded, are so strong, that some, who upon His Majesties declaration did incline to the liturgy, are now further from it, by reading his wordy discourse about it : also some reasons humbly rendered, why many ministers, as yet cannot conform to that liturgy, but not out of disloyalty, pride, ingratitude, peevishness, nor schismatical petulancy, as the sarcastical pen of this uncharitable doctor hath published ... / by G.F.	Firmin, Giles, 1614-1697.	1661 (1661)	Wing F956; ESTC R843	47,787	64

and many other things we are too like unto the Papists and that it is our fault generally that we differ no more from them in all our Ministry I wish we find men convinced of the Nature and resolved for the Duty of Seperation from Babylon and Antichrist of which if they doubt they may well plead for this grand prop of their uniting Fabrick so suitable to what is catled Catholick Religion but for us we judge Separation not sufficient unlesse it proclaim Detestation and resolve union to be the result of Papists murning Protestants and cannot but endeavor to abolish what is like and suitable to their service But Secondly The Scandal given by this Service-book doth constrain the abolishing of it That it hath been a stone of stumbling and Rock of offence unto the sin of some and sufferings of others no observing Protestant can possibly deny and it hath been made most plainly legible by the troubles of Frankford constant complaints of men fearing God in the times of Queen Elizabeth and King James at the Conference at Hampton Court Anno 1603. the Corrections promised though not performed the Apologies and Challenges of the silenced suspended Ministers of Lincoln Devon and Cornwal the High Commission and Visitation Censures the earnest Petitions and importunate Remonstrances from London and all parts of England the Commotions of Scotland sinful separations from the Church of many weak men hereat scandalized obduracy aad ostentation of the Papists complaints of the Reformed Churches and finally by the concurrent judgment of the lare * Preface to the Directory Assembly of Divines and Determination of Lords and Commons in Parliament Assembled on this ground and consideration among others laying it aside by their * Ordinance for taking away the Common-prayer book Jan. 3. 1644. Authority unto the unspeakable joy and content of many pious and prudent men That offences and stones of stumbling occasions of sin or ruine ought to be taken out of the way and abolished none that know the word of Christ Mat. 18.6 7 8 9. the wariness and warnings of the Apostle who would rather never eat fiesh than offend the weak 1 Cor. 8.9 10 11 12 13. Rom. 14. or the worth of immortal souls can or will deny Thirdly The scandal symmetry of the Service-book doth not so much satisfie us and stir us up unto the desire of abolishing the same as to see it so shamefully Idolized by not only the Vulgar but such as affect to be accounted the Fathers of the Church in which respect it calls as loudly for a zealous Hezekiah to make it a Nehushtan and break it in pieces as ever he did the Brazen Serpent This Idolizing of the Service-book is grown most obvious and common having been super-superlatively expressed by the applause of it acclamations for it as the unum necessarium of salvation only way of Gods worship and all of piety unto the thrusting out Preaching and planting in the Church a Reading Ministry appropriating to it the effect and attributing to it the honor of all Gods Ordinances palliating all prophaneness and neglect of piety by the bare use of the Service-Book and zealously persecuting unto bonds and death if possible all that decline to use it thinking they do God good service I have been often astonished at the high devotion to it D. John Gauden and commendation of it by meaner persons but the considerations of our Antagonist hath scrued it to that heighth that if it presage and provoke not its utter extirpation I cannot but conceive men want sense or zeal In his florid expressions he thus extolls magnifieth our Service book unto that heighth that I tremble to transcribe his terms This Liturgy is the most excellent means to preserve the truth of Christian and Reformed Religion Considerations of the Liturgy pag. 10 11 12 42 43. it is necessary for the holy harmony and sweet communiou of all Christians mightily conduceth to the salvation and edification of the meaner sort of people the Christian Religion cannot easily be planted nor thrive among the Countrey or common people without a setled constant Liturgy imposed and used nor can the Reformed part of Religion be preserved in England to any flourishing degree without the Liturgy be maintained as the firm and most impregnable Bulwark against Romish Superstition upon the Liturgy dependeth the peace and unity of this Church as much as the House did on its Pillars which Sampson pulled down The Liturgy is the only bond of Loyalty Love and Duty to Soveraign Majesty the only Basis of Glory Charity Vnity Safety Reformation and true Religion that in the variation of the Liturgy England must shake hands with all these And much more to this purpose in which if he say true we must cast off Confessions of Faith cease from Catechising silence Preaching suspend Statutes slight Sacraments receive and read the Service-book the Ark of Gods presence assurance of Salvation all in all of Piety and Morality Almighty instrument to convince of sin convert to God conjoyn to the Church confirm against Error and conduct to Glory It is sure time and reason this holy Book be placed on the Altar handled and opened by the Priest only with no less reverence than the Jews Thorah or Papists Mass-Book or rather cast out of the Church with indignation But our Second Exception against the Service-Book on which we pray we may not be pressed to the use of it is this 〈◊〉 The form and onder of this Liturgy is Superstitious Second Exception against the Liturgy or unsutable to Publick Solemn Worship I shall not now meddle with the matter of this Book which by its ambiguous phrase is obnoxious to the Exceptions taken to it Be that good yet forma dat essentiam the form and order must constitute it solemn publick worship And in that I conceive something will be found Superstitious an evident 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Will-worship humane invention without beyond divine prescription His Spi●itual House pag. 144. I must tell Mr. Masterson who affects that term it seems to be a plain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an over-earnest importunate unwarrantable approach to God which can expect no other Answer than Who hath required these things at your hand not directed by the Word or dictated by the nature of a duty but founded in the superstitious fancies of men Of which nature I judge these particulars 1. The whole extraordinary Service Epistles Gospels Collects and Lessons appointed for Wednesdays Fridays Lent other Holy-days whichmaketh a difference in days and gives them some dignity above others and sets them in a parity with the Lords day sanctifi'd by God our Saviour and that in honor of the Saints or memory of the parts of our Redemption which abstractedly considered are mysteries not mercies and this without any appointment of God See my Fastning St. Peters Fetters Sect. 3. pag. 55. who only can make Time holy or

just Interest that it may rationally be concluded I would not in the least decline His just Desires or deviate from his Royal Command did not Conscience towards God countermand the Compliance with them And I am so much affected to the peace of the Church that I have of late preached what God assisting I resolve to practice viz. That many and great corruptions in Gods Worship are to be grieved for and patiently groaned under before Schisme be consented un o or seperation consulted Provided nevertheless I be passive not active in them I can keep communion under that Form of Worship whereby I cannot administer and heartily say Amen to the matter of those Petitions which are put up●n an order so confused preposterous and indigested that it seems to me to be so much below the gravity of the Church whose mouth I must be the seriousnesse of the Office whereby I minister the sanctity of the Duty I am to perform and the s●ored nature of the Object to whom they are presented that I dare not stand between God and his people with the same Calvins Epistle to Mr. Knox Mr. Wittingham and the brethren at Franck ford and therefore cannot but in my place and capacity contend against it and with Calvin in this very case allow their constancy who strive for a just cause being forced against their will unto contention and worthily condemn the frowardness which doth 〈◊〉 and stay the holy carefulness of ref rming the Church Let not men mistake us I profess it for my self and presume I may do it for many of my Brethren we are not against Set-forms of prayer or their use in publick we believe them lawful and convenient but not necessary and therefore not to be exclusively imposed they may be helps to weakness and happy expressions of special emergent occasions of prayer or praises in the Church I do believe the Church of the Jewes had certain Set-forms of prayer and praises but I believe also they were occasional and transient indited by the Holy Ghost and composed by Holy men for that present and peculiar occasion of this nature was the Song of Moses Deborah and Barak and Davids Psalme in 2 Sam. 22. and that at placing the Ark in the Tabernacle 1 Chron. 16. which beareth this Note upon it Then on that day David delivered this Psalm to thank the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his Brethren and many other Psalms and Set-forms which are referred to their special occasions for which having served they were added to the Canon of Scripture as witnesses of Gods dealings and directions of his peoples duty in all future Ages but were never compacted into a set Liturgy prescribed and imposed as the only standing Form of Worship the Jewish Rabbines tell us from Moses to Ezra more than one thousand years the Jewes had no stinted Forms of prayer in their Church and yet they had two considerable Reasons to have enforced it which we Christians have not their infant weak estate wanted Crutches and the time of the pouring out the spirit of supplication was not yet come 2. The Forms were indited by holy men in this very act inspired by the Holy Gkost I am easily perswaded the several parts of the Service-book were composed by single persons and who so will read Isidior Durandus His Parallel of the Liturgy and Mass-book and the Rationalists will find the time when the occasions on which and the reasons for which they were appointed in the Church Mr. Baylie hath assigned many parts thereof to the particular Popes Ecclesiastical policy Book 5. Pag. 265. and seasons prescribing the same and our own Hooker reports so much of the Letany or Rogations that chief part of our Service but that these things perished not with their Authors and occasions I see no good Reasons for it admit we that they were the good expressions of good men on good occasions yet they were only expressions of men not inspired by the Holy-Ghost and unwarrantably resolved into a Liturgy and made unjustly exclusive to the expressions of good men succeeding as in time so in capacity to express their own desires as their occurrent occasion should direct in no less sacred expressions the alterable condition of the Church doth necessitate their expression to be alterable I pray what part of our contended-for Liturgy as exactly perfect shall solemnize the saul-humbling memorial of the malicious mischievous Murther of His late Majesty to be held on the 30th of January or the God-praising memorial of the Happy and Honourable Return of his Sacred Majesty that now is to be observed Annually on the 29th of May. I hope men shall not be indicted for making mention thereof by conceived prayer or praises none being in the Book prepared or prescribed which can do it for it is most unreasonable that we should be imposed upon by the personall composures of private fancies who without warrant compose set forms and therein vent their own superstitious notions as hath been attempted by the books published as forms of prayer for the 29th of May and 30th of January the last of which was sent in the name of the Bishop of London to our Churches if by his Authority I conceive not more to the offence of many Godly men then Breach of the Laws and Usurpation on his Majesties Authority and abuse of his Royal Power punishable with a Praemunire In reference to this variation the Church might and must keep a standing Council to vary the Liturgy if we be not bound to dependance on the Spirit which the Apostle directeth when we know not what to ask Rom. 8.26 as the only help to our infirmities and so excludeth all prescribed prayers which must render the dictating power of the spirit uselesse unlesse the prayer be in an unknown Tongue or ambiguous phrase much at one with latine-service where the spirit is needed as an interpreter not dictator or most perfectly comprehensive words that the mind may expatiate upon and that is peculiar to the Lords prayer and so that must be our only Liturgy That St. John the Baptist taught his Disciples to pray I yield and that our Saviour teaching his propounded to them a most perfect prayer compendious for the manner but most comprehensive for the matter of the expression to be their pattern no serious sober Christian can or will deny but that they were confined to the only or constant use there of none do or dare affirm or that it should be to them the Dictator of a standing Liturgy cannot be rationally inferred because the prescription of it affords no premifes to enforce such a conclusion the Disciples who learned that they might teach the Church never improved it to such an end themselves prayed often and openly in the Church yet only in their own expressions for ought appears to us by holy writ and the nature and order of prayer being a serious expression of the hearts sensible conception doth

Authority given by any legible Commission to the Church and contrary to the Word of God Gal. 4.10 Col. 2.16 and must therefore be a Superstition 2. In the frequent impertinent use of the Lords prayer which is a Prayer when time prevents or abruptly contracts our own expressions or to which as a puttern our Prayes must conform but will not therefore be necessary to be used in the beginning middle and end of Prayers Eccl spo● lib. 5. Sect. 34. p. 255 256. as the Reverend Hooker doth suggest nor is essential to every Act of Devotion to which a fancy of a sanctifying power of the words not Christs prescription doth direct it rendring it a vain sensless repetition and self-devised Worship 3. The Doxology a good compendious Confession of the Deity and Eternity of the three persons yet ungroundedly added to the end of every Psalm unless on sense of some Sacred Nature and efficacy of the words without which I cannot acquit it from addition to the Scriptures 4. The dignifying of the Gospel by the specialty of Minister Place Gesture and popular Acclamations above the Epistles though containing the same matter and having the same Author One Scripture may be more useful but none more honorable than others of the same Nature and Authority and I can have no confidence of their courage in fighting for the Gospel who are too cold to burn for the Epistles 5. The Ceremonies hereto affixed The English Popish Ceremonies part 3. cap. 3. pag. 124. which have been argued to be superstitious beyond my ability to answer being purely Religious not Natural or Civil Rites used to edifie by their significancy the peculiar work of a Sacrament and so opening a dore for others no less significant but wanting Christ his Institution ' which the Church is not commissioned to stamp on any than are the Cross in Baptism kneeling at Sacrament and the Surpli●e of which last I should have granted to Du Moulin that if the King commanded me to preach in a fools coat I would do so rather than not preach yet cannot admit the Surplice for I think it is one thing to wear a garment the token of Royal displeasure and derision wherein Ministers must be wonders and fools to gain Souls and it is another thing to wear a Garment piously prescribed as a piece of Religion part of Worship a peculiar holiness in access to God as were the Priests Garments under the Law and as are the Popish Vestments of which number ours makes one As in these things the Liturgy seems superstitious in other things it is unsuitable to solemn publick worship and that in all the parts of it In the reading of the Scriptures it leaps and skips much thrusts out some and brings in Apocrypha cuts and parcels and keeps no serious Soul-edifying order which is indeed pretended unto in the preface to it The Creed and Ten Commandments profitable compendiums of faith and obedience the profession of which is a convenient and necessary piece of order unto the discrimination of such as * Turks and Infidels who conversed among but ought not to communicate in Christian Churches unduly intrude into the Assemblies of Christians and direction of some administrations as Baptism and Confirmation but are made a positive constant part of publick solemn Worship on what good ground I confess I am not convinced In the Sacrament of Baptism the foederal holinesse and Parents interest in the Covenant the onely ground of applying that Ordinance to Infants is obliterated and opposed by the Personal stipulation used by adult persons and here by appointed to be done by Deputies God fathers and Godmothers no way constituted by the Child commissioned by the Lord or called for by the form of the Covenant sealed in Ba●tism unto the great advantage of the Antipoedobaptists And notwithstanding the Canonical Comment upon it the making the sign of the Crosse is made the formal act of incorporation into the Church made at the saying of those words Canon 1603. Can. 30. We receive this Child into the Congregation of Christ● flock and do sign it c. as if this were not done by the very application of the Sacrament and Baptismal act Confirmation the primitive course of admitting adult persons to the Lords Table is unduly applyed to children in an Infant state and that as an act of solemn worship rather than Church order and as an Exorcism or Spell therefore declared to be applied unto children at such age as they begin to be in danger of falling into sin though not capable of making any moral improvement and reflection thereof I might passe through every part of this Service and shew its dissonancy to Solemn worship but I must not thus much enlarge I shall therefore only take a view of its sutablenesse to solemn publick Prayer which it mainly intends by comparing it with this general description of solemn publick Prayer whereby it differs from personal and ejaculatory Prayer Solemn publick Prayer is a serious composed and at once making known to God the desires of the Church by expressions sutable to their present occasion openly uttered by the Minister enforced and concluded by the peoples Amen Let this description be admitted as I think it cannot reasonably he denied as the Square Test of a wel-ordered set-form of Prayers and it resolved into these Rules will decide our Question 1. The occasions of the Church must dictate their desires These be variable and conclude for variation of expression and against imposed set-forms which however they may do as to the general and common ●●sires of a Christian yet cannot possibly fit all particular occurrences and therefore leave such as adhere to them in very frequent straits and constrain new composures as in the case of the 5th of November and now the 30th of January and 29th of May In this case we know the Common-prayer books defect is rendred ridiculous by the famed than giving for deliverance from Bull-goring 2. The expressions of the Churches desires must suit the occasions which dictate them Be it Confession of sin Supplication Imprecation de-Precation or Thanksgiving General for the Church and common state of a Christian or Special in reference to a particular Duty Ordinance or Condition for Divine assistance in efficacy or acceptance of any Dispensation or Ministration How fitly the Confession and Absolution wherein though a General yet kinde of Venial unworthiness is acknowledged and acbeptance by an Authoritative Supplication and Ministerial Absolution is prayed more sutably to the Popish penitential order than a preparitive supplication in which unfitness ought to be bewailed subsequent duties expressed and assistance in them desired will square with this Rule let wise men judge and likewise compare the subsequent order of Prayer 3. The desires of the Church must be expressed seriously and composedly The whold man sequestred from all other acts and businesse set and intent with all seriousness to mention them before God in