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
A60455	A sermon preached in St. Saviour's Church in Dartmouth, July 24th. anno Dom. 1698 Together with some refections on the opinion of those, who affirm, that the only difference between the Church and the meeting-house, is that of a few ceremonies. In a letter to a friend. By Humfry Smith, M.A.	Smith, Humphry, b. 1654 or 5.	1698 (1698)	Wing S4086; ESTC R224030	30,983	72

Piety of our first Reformers in retaining those ancient Forms in our Publick Service The late growth of Heresy amongst us makes us too sensible of what Consequence it is to keep up the fences against it In an Age so fruitful of Monstrous Opinions if the People know nothing before-hand of the Prayers and Praises they are to joyn in they cannot be certain whether they shall offer up a Service leven'd with Arrianism or Socinianism or some other Abomination destructive of the Common Principles of Christianity But as they appear in God's presence to speak unto him in the voice of his Church as they are sure to keep to the same Forms of sound Words which have been made use of to express the true Faith by the most Glorious Defenders of it in ancient time they are secure from the fear of offering an unholy thing before the Lord or blaspheming that Name which they pretend to glorify Another Difference between the Church and the Meeting-house is that one requires External Worship and the other hath but little regard for it And this I take to be as great a difference as that between Obedience to a Divine Precept and the neglect of it O come let us Psal 95. 6. worship and ●ow down let us kneel before the Lord our Maker Thus in the Jewish Church they encouraged one another to their Duty in that divine Song compos'd as a learned Father Theodorer thinks on purpose for the Reformation of Josiah And that this outward Reverence is a Branch of natural Religion to which we are equally obliged under the Gospel appears from St. Paul's Exhortation not only to glorify God in 1 Cor. 6. ●0 our Spirit but our Body too In Conformity to these and several other places of Scripture our Church having provided excellent Forms of Devotion directs and requires in the Use of them such external Acts as do properly express our inward Adoration But that the Dissenters have very little respect for these agreeable yea these necessary things is not to be denied I think by such as frequent their Assemblies Certainly when they are occasionally present with us as we serve the Lord they for the most part seem not at all concern'd to fall down on their Knees to Pray to him or to stand up to Praise him The Excuse perhaps is that if we Worship God in Spirit and in Truth there is no need of such inconsiderable things as the Gestures of the Body But so to assert is to seem wiser than the Church of God in all Ages yea then Christ himself the Head of it When the Devil offer'd him all the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them for a single act of external Adoration as that cunning Spirit did not certainly set so great a price upon a trifle so our blessed Saviour puts him in mind of the Value telling him it was a Holy thing somewhat which the Great King of Kings had claim'd as his Right and therefore was incommunicable to any Creature It is written Mat. 4. 10. thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Were not bodily Adoration as well as spiritual intended by God where he commands us to worship him then this answer of our Saviour would have been nothing at all to the purpose The Devil we find was willing at any rate to purchase that external Veneration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is paid by falling down to the Ground and would the words of our blessed Lord have stopp'd his Mouth and made him fly if he had said no more than this It is written the heart is the Lord's and with that we are to worship him Indeed Sir I have often thought that the Notion which some People have entertain'd about such external Acts of religious Worship would go a great way towards the justifying most of the Idolaters that have been in the World those I mean who have still preserv'd an awful sense of the supreme Being whilst they have bow'd down to Images If Bowing and Kneeling or the like external Expressions of our inward Devotion be not due to the Almighty How do People rob him of his Honour in bestowing them upon other things Such an Opinion as this could it have been depended on might have been of admirable Use to the Primitive Christians under the Rage of the Heathen For then according to the Temptations of some of their Persecutors when they appear'd in a good humour the Champions of the Faith might have escaped the Axes and the Gibbets the Gridirons and the Saws by doing a very small matter even the giving but a little of that sort of Honour to an Idol which God neither claims nor has any regard for I might give some other Instances of a greater disagreement than that of a few indifferent Ceremonies between Us and the Dissenters But as you Sir may justly think that a very few words would have been enough in so plain a Ca●e so some others will conclude that if the thing I have been attempting were even some new discovery I should deserve but little thanks for making it The distance it will be said is indeed too great and they are engaged in an ill Employment who instead of closing the wounds are for keeping them still open And now to this Objection I think it would be a sufficient answer to say that searching Wounds can certainly be no hinderance to their cure and that a different Method is so far from promising Success that it is likely in the Issue to expose them that shall be employed about it to such Correction as that in the Prophet They have healed the hurt Jer. 6. 14. of the Daughter of my People Slightly Saying peace peace when there is no peace Certainly a Solid and lasting Union can never be hoped for till People will be willing seriously and impartially to consider wherein the difference lies and who made it Notwithstanding the hard Censures which some have so liberally passed on the Stiffness of our Church It has not been backward to encourage any real advances 〈◊〉 towards a good agreement But it is doubtless able to distinguish between true Moderation or Peaceableness and such artifices as are made use of on purpose to betray it For my part as you know Sir that I was always very far from envying any favour which Our Governours think fit to shew to those Dissenters who approve themselves to be truly Conscientious so if ever they shall begin to shake off their Scruples and make approaches towards us I could heartily wish they might be received with all possible Expressions of Kindness and Condescention But then I must own that the Men of design and intrigue they that sometimes blow cold and sometimes hot that sometimes consider us as if we were Anti-Christ and Babylon and at other times are ready to say to us Be not affraid of us we are your near Friends yea Churchmen as well as you

I say I must acknowledge that such as these have always been consider'd by me as a very unaccountable kind of People If they are for the Establish'd Church how can they go as they often do to those Assemblies which are founded in this very Opinion that the Worship of our Church is unlawful If they are Dissenters what are become of the Grounds of their Dissent when they Joyn with us as they sometimes will even in such things as that Party condemns for most offensive The Character which a Dissenter himself is pleas'd to give of such as these would dispose one to be more affraid of their Smiles than their Frowns For he tells us as you have observ'd that they give too much cause for us to look upon them as such as break all bounds and leap over all Vox Clamant●s Sec. 6. hedges Such as would indeed support their Reputation with Jesuitical Artifices but yet do the things which are most likely to render them in the eyes of all as men of flexible and profligate Consciences The shewing the mistakes of a Pretence which hath been made use of to no good Purposes hath drawn this Letter you See to a very unusual length I shall therefore do little more than only mention another fault this Sermon is accus'd of and that is Personal Reflections I do not deny that there are Several things in it which bear hard upon some Peoples Practices But if I have represented nothing as amiss which the Word of God doth not also condemn nor let fall any Expression which can be justly accounted spiteful or even unbecomeing I cannot I think be said to have exceeded the Bou●ds of my Duty Whether in this matter as well as the former I am guilty or not they that shall read my Papers are to determine Your Judgement upon the whole I particularly desire and that it may be free from all kind of partiality I will be contented while you peruse them that you do that which upon other occasions I cannot possibly consent to namely consider me as a perfect stranger to you and not as Your Most affectionate Friend and Servant H. S. August 30th 1698. A SERMON Preached in St. Saviour's Church in Dartmouth JVLY 24th 1698. Being the Fifth Sunday after TRINITY 1 Pet. 3. 13. Part of the Epistle for the Day And who is he that will harm you if ye be followers of that which is good PART I. THE greatest Discouragement to any undertaking is the danger that attends it Many things there are which People would soon conclude fittest and best were it not for the Lion in the way a doubt of their own Safety in them Fears and Terrours which draw them from the attempt Tho' the Israelites had so much Experience of the Power of that God who delivered them from their bondage and conducted their Armies Yet upon the very Entrance into the Land of Promise they are amaz'd with a Panick Fear and even resolve again for the Slavery they had been so wonderfully rescued from When they heard an evil report of the Men of great Stature Num. 14. 1. the Giants the Sons of Anak they lifted up their v●ice and cried and wept all night They Verse 4. said one to another let us make a Captain and let us return into Egypt And as it is thus in other matters So alas it is too frequently in the things of Religion Many would more readily espouse it and the Interest of it in a Season of difficulty were not such a regard for it thought a dangerous thing a thing that would expose them to trouble loss or even utter ruine Nicodemus was a man who seemed to have been very well disposed towards Jesus but he was a Ruler of the Jews and there was no small hazard in a way which was cryed down by all the great men of the times and therefore tho he came to Jesus it was by night Jo. 3. 2 The Disciples as their worldly Interests were less so they expressed more courage and resolution Defying the Danger they followed their Master through the whole course of his Ministry yea Solemnly engaged their word that death it's self should never part them Tho' we die with Mat. 26. 35. thee said they yet will we not deny thee And yet when a mighty difficulty actually came when the Multitude appeared with Swords and Staves bound their Lord and led him away These men of Resolution were subdued by their own fears shrunk from the Engagements so lately made they forsook him and fled Verse 56. The most daring amongst them all was Peter He had been the most zealous in the Profession of his own stedfastness he gave some proof of his Courage tho' by a Violence that was unwarrantable and after the flight of the rest followed his Master Still at some distance But yet at length he failed and denyed him Easily gave up the Faith and the constancy he had resolved on to terrour and amazement These and many more are the sad instances on record of humane weakness And yet all the while as to matter of Religion the affright and despondency are for the most part groundless People are scar'd from their Duty by the Creatures of their fancy the Mormos of their own invention A stedfast adherence to the things of God is not attended with the Difficulties which are ordinarily imagined St Peter here being now better acquainted with the tendencies of our holy Religion and the Wisdom and the Care of Providence thus bespeaks the Christians he wrote to even in days of trouble and sorrow And who is he ●●at will harm you if ye be followers of that which is good In which words we may observe these two things 1. The Christians duty which is here Supposed If ye be followers of that which is good 2. The Christians security in the practice of this Duty proposed by way of affirmative question who is he that will harm you that is There will be no body Both these I intend to speake to beginning with the first the Christians duty here supposed If ye be followers of that which is good Tho' the general design and aim of this Expression seems clear enough yet the particular Notion we are to pitch upon as the genuine Sense of it is not so manifest The Opinions of Expositors being somewhat different 1. concerning the thing to be followed the Good here intended and 2. concerning the act what it is to be followers of it It will not be unprofita●ble in this case to enquire a little what they say of each As for the first the Good that is to be followed some there are that understand by it the Supreme Good God Almighty himself And so the Duty is the very same which the Apostle St. Paul recommends Eph. 5. 1. Be ye followers of God as dear Children And endeavouring to transcribe as far as we are able the divine Perfections being Holy as he is Holy Merciful as