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	great_a	religion_n	1,317	5	5.4600	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49156	The abominations of the Church of Rome discovered in a recantation-sermon lately preached in the French church of the Savoy : whereunto are added many curious particulars of the practices of the papists beyond the seas / by Franc. de La Motte ... ; English'd.; Motifs de la conversion à la religion reformée. English	La Motte, François de.	1675 (1675)	Wing L303; ESTC R8201	73,183	130

her shame and disgrace as the Antiquity of a Noble Family is a reproach to a degenerated Son I have found that the Authority which she claims hath no other foundation nor beginning but the pride and tyranny of such Popes as have succeeded Gregory the Great for neither he nor any of his Predecessors have ever thought it lawful for them to challenge or pretend to an universal Dominion or Authority in the Church I have found this Succession which is said to be without interruption to be an abyss where the most learned Historians lose themselves they can find no sure footing so that they themselves are forced to confess that they flote upon the waves of a Sea subject to calms and tempests to ebbing and flowing if I may make use of their own expressions Sometimes they see this Ship of St. Peter without Helm or Pilot overwhelmed with the billows without hope of a recovery or expectation of salvation for such as are there imbarqued I have found that the Holiness wherewith this Church was adorned under the Conduct of its ancient Bishops is at present much degenerated an universal corruption hath spread it self into all the Members of this politick Body so that where grace did formerly abound there at present sin and heresie abound to the shame and disgrace of Christianity This I have found as soon as I could open my eyes to take notice of such matters without prejudice or partiality which we must banish from us if we will give a true judgment This I have learned in the study of Holy Scripture in the reading of the ancient Fathers of the Church and from the Records of Antiquity without the assistance of Protestant Books or any information from Ministers § Antiquity hath always had a Command over the minds and judgments of men We look commonly with a great deal of reverence and respect upon a head which time hath loaden with gray hairs and which discovers the number of its years by the many wrinkles of its face we see many times the ruins of an old Dwelling encompassed about with a few rotten Oaks is more looked upon than the noblest Palaces reared up according to the newest and most regular form of Art a Brass Medal shall be more esteemed than ten others of a more precious Metal if it can but shew forth the Image and Name of some ancient Monarch or of a Conquerour of former Ages This respect which Nature and Custome discover for things of a long continuance is not disagreeable to the directions of Moral and of Christian Policy We are to have more esteem for a State that hath subsisted a thousand years than for another that hath continued but one or two hundred and we are advised to have most regard for that Religion which can produce the ancientest Records and prove its establishment to be the first This hath always been my judgment As therefore I did look upon the Church of Rome as the most ancient as that which had been founded by the Apostle St. Peter as the Romanists would perswade us I have for a long while entertained the greatest esteem for her and judged such as were not agreeable to her Principles to be but hasty productions of Nature in comparison of an ancient Tree or as Bastards in comparison of the Child well born I did wonder how men could harbour any other thoughts My Mind being thus filled with partiality for my ancient Religion I could not imagin how any man of wit and ability without being grievously blinded could embrace any other I did oft-times argue with my self in this manner Is it possible that there should be some men so silly and ridiculous to prefer a Religion which we have seen in its Cradle to another which hath continued sixteen hundred years a Church formed by the wit of Calvin and Beza and some others to that which Christ and His Holy Apostles have established c. Thus it is saith Lactantius in his Book of the Rise of Errour l. 2. c. 7. Thus Antiquity commands the judgments of men Its authority is so great that we look upon it as a crime to inquire into the qualities of that which is ancient and to question its rights credit is given to it at the first sight as to a most known truth In the same manner saith that Author l. 2. c. 8. some imprudently neglect the advice of wisdom approving without any examination the inventions of their forefathers suffering themselves to be lead as beasts whithersoever others please and not whither they should go In this manner they are deceived and are willing to be so by taking for the rule of their faith the belief of their forefathers out of a strong conceit that they cannot be wiser than they were before because they have succeeded them and that it is not probable that they were deceived seeing that they have preceded them and are named their ancestors These words of this wise man and some passages of others made me think that it was not so great a crime as is declared in the Church of Rome to examin the Antiquity of the Religion of our Forefathers and to consider from whence it proceeds whither it tends what it hath been what it should be what are its Priviledges Duties Doctrine Laws Conduct if that which is professed to day be the same as that of yesterday that of this age be like to that of the first times or whether it be not differing or a strange Bastard put into the room of the true Child whether it hath not robb'd the lawful Heiress of her Titles of Honour usurped her Rights by counterfeit Letters seised upon her Demesnes driven her from her Inheritance banished her out of her Dominion by a disguise under the most beautiful habits and whether by this means the Romish Church hath not seated her self in the seat of the lawful to procure unto her self a greater esteem amongst men who have so much respect for things that appear with a grave and ancient countenance I have seriously examined these things I have sought for the Rights and Titles of the Church of Rome amongst its pretended Ancestors Christ St. Peter and St. Paul who have been saith she my Founders and Apostles I have read over the Priviledges that they ascribe to her and the Duties that they require from her that which she hath received from them and that which they command her to have the language which they teach her and the Laws that they have given her and how they behaved themselves that succeeded immediately after her first Founders When I had thus compared the one with the other the present Rome with the ancient the World that is now with that which was the Children with the Father that which is believed and preached at present with that which was believed and preached heretofore that which was practised and that which is now done that which is seen with that which was anciently I have found after a