Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	act_n	believe_v	faith_n	1,015	5	5.7119	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09963	An elegant and lively description of spirituall life and death Delivered in divers sermons in Lincolnes-Inne, November the 9.th, M.DCXXIII. vpon Iohn, 5.25. By Iohn Preston then Bachellor of Divinitie, and chaplaine in ordinarie to the Prince his Highnesse.	Preston, John, 1587-1628.	1632 (1632)	STC 20221.5; ESTC S115172	68,183	135

to bee blessed that doth meditate in the Law of God day and night Your knowledge being brought to action helpes you much often hearing of the word which puts you in remembrance addes to your life though it hinders you in other things Those who have not the word to heare live not under preaching Ministers who will not be at the cost to get them or live where they are not are much to blame and live not this life Simon Magus sinned in thinking that the holy Ghost might be bought with mony doe not they also sinne who doe lesse than hee that will not give mony for to have the Gospel brought unto them There is the like fault when as men may have the word and come not to it If they come to it though it addeth not to their knowledge yet it helpeth their acting and life Those who neglect the constant reading of the word who are not constant in private prayer those who neglect the speaking and talking of good things they neglect this life That Arabian proverbe Shut up the five windowes that the house may be full of light will be of good use here that is the five senses being shut up the fuller of light shall wee bee the not stopping up of them makes men ignorant cares and businesses possessing mens minds there is no roome left for better things Let your minds be still plodding on that which may further you in grace and truth It is ignorance that makes men strangers from the life of God Ephe. 4.18 and this is not an ignorance that proceedeth from want of knowledge but from the badnesse of your hearts hard hearts makes men ignorant why doe men heare and yet are ignorant but because their hearts are hardned they regard not the word and so they grow not in knowledge The second meanes to get this life is to bee much in doing be much in doing in acting the duties of new obedience the more yee are occupied the more yee live else deadnesse doth possesse you be still praying and meditating those revive you those are the coales that keepe the heart warme this life like water is apt to grow cold But I must be full of life ere I can doe actions I answer that one begets the other action begets life and life begets action as health produceth exercise and exercise procureth health But I am indisposed and unfit for such actions I answer that if yee are indisposed the more need you had to be doing else you are more unexcusable the way to get heate is to bee acting as motion doth bring life to a benummed member so doth it to the soule be awaked be stirring this will revive you againe Christians hearts are awaked when as they themselves sleepe if they stirre them up there will be more life in them Rom. 2.13 They beginning to languish their medicine is to rise up and be doing Gal. 5.16 Walke in the spirit those who have the Spirit stand not still as one that cannot stirre this acting helpes the Spirit first by inlarging and intending life Secondly by preventing that which increaseth death the more wee walke in the wayes of life the more we prevent the way that leades to the Chambers of death Be doing if not one thing yet another In the steppings out of your callings be doing reading and praying Conferring and talking of good things the neglect of this is the cause why there are so many dwarfes in grace Men content themselves with morning and evening duties and it is well if they doe them but doe you the actions of life more constantly and abundantly It is the corruption of our nature that wee are not doing life is maintained by the actions of life habits are maintained by actions that are sutable to them We live in the commandements by well doing as the creature doth by food Good actions maintaine life it receives strength from well-doing set your selves to pray doe holy duties still pray doe more and more the more yee doe the more life increaseth The third meanes to get this life is to get faith Faith helpes this life it is a life of faith and it makes us to live this life by three wayes First it gives a reality to the priviledges of life makes you see they are so indeed therefore yee act yee beleeve that God is such a God that yee have such priviledges that yee are heires of all things If yee thinke that God is such a one as he is in wisedome power and mercy yee intend them and live the life of grace If yee doubt and question with Atheists if these bee dreames then yee intend them not He that beleeves saith let me have God sure the other saith let me have that I touch and feele but the imaginary things resting in faith and hope I care not for the more yee beleeve these things the more yee are occupied about them Secondly faith drawes you on to action this life is the acting of the duties of new obedience Faith and a perswasion further other things as if one be perswaded that such a thing will hurt him it produceth an action of the will abstinence if a man bee perswaded that he shall dye without the Physition hee sends for him So in all other actions perswasion is that which sets a man on worke So in spirituall actions if we are perswaded that such a sinne committed will not make our bodies sicke but our soules wee will not doe it if wee are perswaded our soules shall fare the better if we doe such a thing this makes us to doe it being perswaded we shall have a recompence of reward it produceth action and the more action the more life Thirdly faith doth it by fitting us for Christ from whom our life comes 1 Ioh. 5.12 he that hath the Sonne hath life First the Sonne of God infuseth life into him to whom hee is conjoyned the conjunction betwixt Christ and us is but relative and betweene the king and the subject when the subjects resolve to take such an one for their king they are conjoyned to him so when a woman resolves to take such a man for her husband shee is conjoyned to him The action of taking Christ is to take him as a Lord to serve him as a Saviour to have all comfort by him hee that hath the Son in the relative union shall have him in the reall union the Sonne will quicken you as the soule doth the body A Chrian hath the life of the Sonne of God Gal. 2.21 I live yet not I but Christ lives in me all that I doe Christ doth it in me all that the body doth the soule doth it the body lives not but the soule lives in it After that manner Christ lives in us not a good thought or affection not any resolution or motion of the soule but comes for Christ being united to Christ by faith he lives in us Ioh. 6.33 he that eates my flesh and

soule feele more evill and good a man that lives a naturall life not knowing the life of grace is sensible of more good and evill than sensible beasts hee apprehends Heaven and Hell but a man that lives the life of grace is more capacious of comfort here you may suffer your faculties to runne out to the utmost If yee desire wealth or pleasures your affections must not runne out yee must hold them in else they drawne you into perdition pierce you thorow with many sorrowes If yee affect heavenly Treasures if yee affect praise with God yee may be as covetous of them as you will Thirdly let this move you to seeke this life of grace because it is the most excellent thing of all others All other things are subordinate to it the utmost end is still most excellent the end of warre is for peace therefore peace is better than it yee plow for harvest therefore harvest is best the end of all actions is for this life of grace Why labour yee for foode but to maintaine life why live ye but to serve your soules Prudence is a steward to this holy life as the steward provides for the family that the master bee not troubled with those meaner things so prudence is a steward that the soule may be occupied about things that are agreeable to it that it may have its conversation in heaven and with God Pervert this order it destroyes the creature Beasts living the life of sence it doth perfect them for that is their utmost end man having reason living as a beast destroyes himselfe because that is not his end hee that perfects himselfe as a beast destroyes himselfe as a man perfectio mentis est perfectio hōinis Let this stirre us up to live this life it is the utmost end of all To be Lawyers Physitions and other callings helpe us in the living of this life yet they are subordinate to it drowne not your selves in subordinate things if yee doe it it is your destruction therefore pitch on the principall Fourthly that which is best in the end I take end now in an other sence is to be chosen above all things else that is well which ends well In this life of grace yee have this advantage which yee have no where else Eccles. 7.4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning that is this life disposeth us to thinke of death the end of all which to doe is wisedome Deut. 32.29 O that they were wise then would they consider their latter end In other things the beginning is good the end is bitter but the actions of the life of grace are sweet yee fare the better for them the very remembrance of them is sweet and the reward of them comes not long after All other things are called perishing meates Iohn 6.27 there is a parable in it that is they are as perishing meats that are sweet in the palate yet they passe away but this indures unto eternall life it continues The worst thing in this life yee never repent of as it is said of sorrow for sinnes that it is sorrow never to be repented of but the best things that yee doe in the other life yee repent of All other things that yee doe they may bee sweet for the present yet as it is said of drunkennesse Prov. 23.32 so may it bee said of them that they bite like a Serpent and sting like an Adder though they seeme sweet The strange woman is sweet yet Prov. 5.4 her end is bitter as wormewood sharpe as a two-edged sword goods evill gotten are sweet for the present yet their mouthes shall be filled with gravell that got them But on the other side the end of all the actions of this life is good as it is said of Iob that his latter end was more than his beginning Iob 42.12 Psal. 37.37 Marke the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace If a man being to dye and having ended his daies should put all his honours wealth and pleasures into one ballance and all his good workes all his faithfull prayers all the actions of the life of grace into another he would find them to be best The bad man doth as the Silkeworme doth winding up himselfe into his ill workes he perisheth the other winding up himselfe in his gracious actions enters into salvation Fiftly choose this life before all others because God is pleased with it it being like himselfe as the creature is pleased with that which is like it God is a Spirit and will bee worshipped in Spirit and truth hee is a living God and doth delight in a living man wee our selves delight not in dead men no more doth God therefore Rom. 12.1 we are exhorted to give up our soules and bodies a living sacrifice to God God regards not dead bodies bee yee living sacrifices which is the act of your will acting the duties of this life This is called walking with God which is to bee in his presence to goe his way and to maintaine communion with him this is when as men doe audire et reddere voces when there is naturall delight when as they are in presence one with another and therefore walking with God and pleasing of God are used promiscuously for one and the same thing For Heb. 11.5 it is said of Enoch that he walked with God and Gen. 5.22 It is said that he pleased God But you will say what benefit is this I answer that it is great God disposeth of all things in the world is it not wisedome then to have him your friend Gen. 28.9 Iacob being to take his journey Isaack said unto him God all-sufficient be with thee God is all-sufficient if yee have him yee have all In the creature there is no such thing there is nothing but vanity in them they are but as candles as Starres to the Sunne God is all-sufficient all the happinesse of the creature makes not men happy All men seeke happinesse yet they never finde it without having God All happinesse is in Gods favour In outward happinesse you must have other compounded things Christ rebuked thē that counted her happy in the creatures saying Blessed is the wombe that bare thee and the Paps that gave thee sucke No saith Christ these will not make a man happy but blessed are they which heare the word of God and keepe it having God yee have all things God disposeth all things and giveth the comfortable fruition of them Yee may have all outward things and yet want comfort Gods curse makes all miserable though yee have all that the creature affords therefore give your selves no rest till yee have got this life without which he delights not in you Adam losing Gods Image was not happy because God was gone from him yet hee had all the creatures which he had before This life of grace brings us to that state that Adam was in at first this restors