Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	gospel_n	minister_n	preach_v	1,915	5	7.2349	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76079	A declaration demonstrating and infallibly proving that all malignants, whether they be prelates, popish-cavaleers, with all other ill-affected persons, are enemies to God and the King: who desire the suppression of the Gospel, the advancement of superstition, the diminution of the Kings prerogative and authority, with the oppression of the subject. All which is evinced by strong proofes, and sufficient reasons. By John Bastwick Dr. of Physick.	Bastwick, John, 1593-1654.	1643 (1643)	Wing B1061; Thomason E101_8; ESTC R1900	48,987	64

A DECLARATION DEMONSTRATING AND INFALLIBLY PROVING That all Malignants whether they be Prelates Popish-Cavaleers with all other ill-affected Persons are enemies to GOD and the KING Who desire the suppression of the Gospel the advancement of superstition the diminution of the Kings Prerogative and Authority with the oppression of the Subject All which is evinced by strong Proofes and sufficient Reasons By John Bastwick Dr. of Physick LONDON Printed in the Yeare MDCXLIII The simply Portrareture of Mr John Bastwick Dr of Phisick sate Captayne of a foote Company A Declaration of Iohn Bastwick Doctor of Physick infallibly proving that all who desire the suppression of the Gospel the advancement of superstition c. are enemies to God and the King THe said Defendant saving and reserving to himselfe now and at all times hereafter all advantages and benefits of exceptions to the incertainty and insufficiencie and other imperfections of the said Information For answer thereunto so far forth as concernes the said Defendant he saith He doth with all thankfulnesse acknowledge his Majesties great care and zeale at all times for the maintenance and defence of the true Christian faith and Religion and the service of Almighty God love charity and concord among his Subjects and withall that his people and all loyall Subjects have great cause daily to praise God for the happy government they have under him and for that they may for futurity promise unto themselves under his Royalty and Principality especially when he hath so graciously made knowne his pious intentions for the good and welfare of Church and State in that his Majesties Declaration to all his loving Subjects of the causes which made him dissolve the last Parliament published by his Majesties speciall command in which Declaration pag. 21. his Majestie thus speakes For we call God to record before whom we stand That it is and alwayes hath beene our hearts desire to be found worthy of that Title which we account the most glorious in all our Crowne Defender of the Faith Neither shall we ever give way to the authorizing of any thing whereby innovation may steale or creepe into the Church but preserve that unity of Doctrine and Discipline established in the time of Queene Elizabeth whereby the Church of England hath stood and flourished ever since c. These words and solemne protestations of our most pious King cannot but stirre up the hearts loves and affections of all his true loyall Subjects both incessantly to pray for his happy life reign and preservation and also to the utmost of their powers to yeeld all subjection obedience yea and their lives and liberties for the honour of his Crowne and Dignity in the number of which Subjects the said Defendant professeth himselfe to be being willing and ready at all times and upon all occasions not onely to lose his liberty livelihood and estate but millions of lives if he had them in defence of his Empire and Prerogative Royall and doth againe and againe acknowledge and that with the thankfulnesse his renowned Highnesses zeal and care for the maintenance of the true Religion love charity and concord amongst his Subjects and beseech the King of kings and Lord of lords long to continue him among us and to put into his royall heart to remove all scandals in Church and State which have beene such hinderances of the propagation of the Christian Faith and true Religion established in his Majesties kingdoms of the which he is Defender in his dominions and the right instruction of the people in the same who alone are most of the Prelates in generall and the Arch-Prelates in speciall being so farre from seeking the right and due instruction of the people in the true Christian Faith and Religion as the Information would infer as they spend their whole endeavours to take away all the possibility and meanes of instruction which is the preaching of the word that is onely able to save our soules and without which no man can beleeve or come to life eternall as thousand places in sacred Writ witnesse and among other that in the 26. of the Acts where Christ saith unto Paul Rise and stand upon thy feet For I have appeared unto thee for this purpose to make thee a minister and witnesse both of the things which thou hast seene and of those things in which I will appeare unto thee delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee to open their eyes and to turne them from darknesse unto light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgivenesse of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith which is in me And Paul was not disobedient to this heavenly vision but preached unto all men that they should repent and turne to God and do workes meet for repentance And this was and is the onely way that God hath appointed to save our soules by for Faith commeth onely by hearing and this preaching was all that Paul did I came not to baptise saith he but to preach the Gospel so that preaching is the effect of all the ordinances and in another place he saith Wo be me if I preach not the Gospel And in the sixth of the Acts the Apostles told the Church That it was not reason that they should leave the word of God and serve tables and therefore they resolved continually to give themselves to prayer and to the ministery of the Word And in the 4. of the Acts when the Rulers commanded Peter and John not to speak nor teach in the Name of Jesus They answered and said unto them Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more then unto God judge ye for we cannot but speake the things which we have heard Here we see the whole office and care of the Apostles was to preach the Gospel and this is onely the work taske and duty of Ministers to publish the same word of life And Paul set his owne example before them for his sedulity in preaching day and night and commands them to follow him in that and chargeth Timothie and Titus and all Ministers in them to be instant in season and out of season in preaching the Word and they that neglect that duty are no Ministers of Christ nor of the Gospell Yea the Bishops themselves and all their Priests as they call them as we may see in the Booke of Ordinations solemnely promise before God and the Church that they will be diligent in the preaching of the Word of God and publishing of the Gospel And for the better stirring of them up to that Duty and Office they reade the 20. Chapter of the Acts concerning the charge that was given the Elders and Bishops of Ephesus for their diligent preaching of the Gospel And in most of all their Prayers before their Sermons they beseech God to blesse the two fountaines of all learning in this kingdome and that he would

he is ready to prove and make good against all the host of Prelates Doctors Proctors Commissaries Officials and Surrogats this day living But the thing that the Defendant desireth the honourable Court to take notice of is the contumacy of the Prelates for they call their Hierarchy and the Orders of their Bishops Priests and Deacons Sacred which if it be granted and so be indeed then the Prelates are from God and not from the King of whom they have no dependence For speaking of the King we say His Sacred Majesty because God himself hath appointed him over us for by me saith God Kings reigne and all Authority is from God and Kings are called Gods so that Kings are Sacred Persons But that the Hierarchy should be sacred and that there should be a holy Principality of Pastors and Ministers the prime and forman of which should have the Keys of Heaven Earth and Hell and that he should dispose of Kingdomes and Empires and make the greatest Potentates and Rulers his Subjects and Vassals and should have his domineering servants under him in all Common-wealths and Princes Courts to pry into their Royall proceedings to their revenues riches and treasuries to know their powers their allyes and confederates and be Counsellors of their most secret admission and should have an authority and jurisdiction independent over their Subjects and Lawes and Canons of their own making to rule by and by them to persecute and undoe them at pleasure in the number of which are Cardinals Patriarchs Prime-mates Metropolitans Arch-Bishops Bishops Deanes and innumerable such like vermin a member of which monstrous body our Hierarchy is the Defendant saith this is not knowne in Sacred Writ nor never came from God but rather from the Pope and the Devill Diabolus cacavit illos Yea the Word of God is absolutely against it And that our Arch-Bishops Prime-mates and Metropolitans are members of that body let not onely our Martyrs writings and speeches and Henry Stubbridge his exhortary Epistle but even Masons booke be looked into concerning the Succession of Bishops and it will be found That he derives their Pedigree from Rome and so doth Pocklington in his Sunday no Sabbath wherein he saith that our Prelates are lineally descended from Saint Peters Chaire at Rome they being therefore a branch of that Synagogue and standing by the same authority the Pope pretends to stand which is as they all challenge jure Divino they are enemies to the King and invaders of his prerogative and so they are justly guilty of all those crimes they accuse the Pope of and as great enemies of God as he is all which the Defendant hath sufficiently proved in his Apology For they challenge their Authority jure Divino and say That Jesus Christ made them Bishops and the holy Ghost consecrated them and that they were before Kings and held the Crownes of Kings upon their heads and the Pope sayes no more They call also their Hierarchy Sacred The Pope doth no more and for the erecting of this Sacred Hierarchy Emperors and Kings must be thrust down and made vassals of and all Kingdomes that are under their jurisdiction made slaves to it and all those stinking slavelings that depend upon it as the whole Christian world by wofull experience dayly findeth But this same tearme of Sacred Hierarchy and Sacred orders of Prelates ought here a little to be discussed That which is Sacred is from God But the Hierarchy is not from God Ergo it is not Sacred For the minor it is evident that which God hath peremptorily forbid to his Ministers and Servants and is an enemy to that is not of God and by his institution but he hath forbid Lordly dominion to all the Ministers of the Gospel saying The Princes of the Gentiles bear rule over them but it shall not be so among you you shall not Lord it over your Brethren Ergo the Hierarchy is not of God but of the Devill that is the cause of all disorder and ignorance For God forbad his Apostles and in them all Ministers to be Lords over one another and set his own example before them of service and commanded them to immitate him and to be humble and meek and told them plainly That the office of Principality and dominion belonged unto Kings and Princes and that their imployments consisted in their obedience to Kings in praying for them that they might live in all godly peace under them and that they should diligently feed the flock of Jesus Christ committed to their charge in season and out of season as they love him and will answere it at his last appearing and this was all the businesse that Christs ministers and Servants were to be taken up in they were not to be intangled with the things and affairs of this life not to be incumbred with worldly matters they have speciall commands and presidents to the contrary and their charge and duty assigned unto them from which station they must not go which is onely to feed the flock with all care and diligence with the sincere milke of the Word to preach unto them day and night and to goe before them in godly and holy example and to neglect this and to be taken up with domination and overruling their brethren and beating their fellow servants is to be Rebels against Christ and to usurp that which belongeth not unto them and which they ought not to meddle with and therefore when the Prelates doe not onely eate up and devour this forbidden fruit but challenge a right unto it from God himselfe and say they have no depencie from the King the Defendant maintaineth that it is intollerable arrogancie against God and the King and by which they are Delinquents in an elevated degree of contumacie against them both What an horrible impudencie is this in the Prelates or any Subject that vindicates their quarrell that they dare call the Hierarchie sacred especially when they derive it from Rome Whom King IAMES of Famous memory calls Babylon and the Pope Antichrist and can any man thinke that those that are lineally descended from Babylon and Antichrist that great enemy of Christ his Kingdome and Members can be Holy and Sacred Certainly if the fountaine be not holy the streames cannot be holy Yea King Iames is very large in that his Book to all Christian Princes in discovering the impiety of the Hierarchy of Rome and proves the Pope to be that man of Sin and all the Prelates of that Sea to be the Frogs that came out of the bottomlesse pit For the Nature of Frogs they being Amphibia is to live upon the Earth and in the water Now King Iames saith That the Prelates are the Frogs for they seeme to be Church men and are ever medling in States affaires creeping out of their stinking gutters and are such mighty busie bodies in other mens matters as they trouble all the Nations and Kingdoms where they dwell and inslave them all So that if

is the greatest cruelty that can be exercised over miserable men and yet this is the daily occupation of the Prelates of which the whole kingdome can witnesse how that they have made most places desolate depriving them of the bread of life the preaching of the Gospell and taking away the key of knowledge from them and in stead of true nourishing food they give them the huskes of Ceremonies and vaine traditions and idle superstitious observations Neither do they onely extinguish and put out all their shining lights but they severely punish those that seek it or go after it where it is so that if one do but go out of his own parish where he hath no preaching and where perhaps there hath not been a Sermon seven yeares together as there are many such parishes in this Kingdome he is forthwith hailed into their Courts and tormented to death and is not this horrible cruelty yea if one neighbour do but go to another and that but to hear a Sermon repeated when he dare not goe out of his owne parish he is immediately hailed into their Courts as a keeper of Conventicles and miserably there tormented and is not this also great cruelty Especially when any of their lewd parishioners may goe from year to year out of their own parishes a drinking and quaffing and that on the Lords day and holy dayes as they call them and have their meetings in troopes and great assemblies in drinking Schooles tippling there to the great dishonour of God and many times to the great mischiefe of others and the prepetrating of many sinnes and all such though they never heare Service neither divine or humane finde favour in their Courts and serve for witnesses against the generation of the just and those that fear God and they are esteemed good Sons of the Church though in all other things they be also never so impious Neither is there any law against those children of Beliall neither can any man deny this that knoweth any thing for the defenders of such fellowes and tormentors of the most godly And if this be not also insufferable tyranny and cruelty let every reasonable man judge In this information his most excellent Majestie is truely and deservedly commended that he is an enemy to Popery and all innovation of religion as his Highnesse hath often declared himselfe and that he doth daily frequent the Church and is diligent in hearing of Sermons And this most eminent piety in our noble King and Soveraign we his loyall though poore Subjects heartily rejoyce at desiring the Lord of heaven still to enflame his Royall heart with a zeale for the glory of God and the propagation of the Gospel and to continue in him an increase a love unto his holy word Now all men know that Kings examples have been ever the paterne for their Subjects and it is the duty of all good Citizens and Subjects to imitate their King in all wel doing and men use commonly to say Regis ad exemplum the Kings example is ever to be followed and it is his royall hearts desire that his Subjects should imitate him in that his piety Now what a great and unexpressible cruelty is this in the Prelates towards the poore people and how great a dishonour is done to the King in it that they will not let his Subjects be good for it is good in the King and highly commendable before God and men to hear the Word of God often preached and to be diligent in the hearing of Sermons or else the Informers would not have set it down as so singular a vertue in our Royall King and yet they punish this good in his Subjects and it is a cause of the utter undoing of many of them if they goe to Sermons and when they are found to be diligent at the hearing of the Word and the going to a Sermon into the next Parish when they have none in their owne is matter sufficient to mount them up in the High Commission which is none of the smallest cruelties that holy and pious men groane under to the infinite dishonour of God and the King and the needlesse vexation and molestation of his dutifullest Subjects who desire to follow in that their godly Princes example In Saint Iohn Baptists time it is said That Jerusalem and Judea and the Region round about came all to heare him running after Sermons and so they did after Christ And it stands recorded in sacred Writ to their eternall honour and for our imitation For all the Saints godly examples are set downe for us to imitate and we never read that any were by the very enemies of the Gospel in those dayes the Scribes Pharisees and high Priests molested or troubled for the same and it is said of them that they tooke the Kingdome of heaven with a kinde of holy violence and their diligence in hearing the Word is related and told of them as a thing very honourable and praise worthy and so it is very well related in the Information of our gracious King to his immortall honour and great praise and so it is and ever to be honoured in his Majestie and his example in this to be followed of all his obedient Subjects And is it not a transcendent cruelty then in the Prelates that poore Christians in our age may neither obey the Commandement of God who injoyneth us to heare in season and out of season nor imitate the Saints of old in their pious indeavours in building up themselves in their most holy faith nor follow the good paternes of their Kings and Governours but they must be severely punished for it yea undone traduced for it as evill doers If this be not great cruelty and tyranny it selfe in the Prelates there was never none for they rob them of heaven and earth and all other comforts in as much as in them lieth Nay which is yet more to shew their cruelty injustice unrighteous dealing the Prelates in the Baptisme of infants constrain the Godfathers and Godmothers there solemnly to promise that they will call upon them that are baptized when they come to years of discretion often to hear Sermons and to this duty are also the baptized tied Now when they are come to yeares of understanding and in obedience of their promise they made by their God-Fathers and God-mothers and perhaps being stirred up also by their exhortation to this good duty of hearing the Word if they goe out to heare Sermons when they have none in their owne Parishes they are first punished in their purses and liberties and then given to the Devill for this good worke which they notwithstanding have tied them to by speciall promise in their Baptisme and if all this be not unspeakable cruelty tyrannie and injustice there was never none in the world and yet this is the dayly practice of the Prelates thorow the Kingdome as all men know And which is yet more to be observed in the same Sacrament