Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	affection_n	good_a	love_n	1,128	5	5.0684	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67900	A sermon, preached at St. Pauls Church in London, April 17. 1659. And now published at the desire of the Lord Mayor, and the court of aldermen. / By Nath. Ingelo D.D. and Fellow of Eton Coll.	Ingelo, Nathaniel, 1621?-1683.	1659 (1659)	Wing I186; ESTC R202594	36,584	167

Epist. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} may be justly applyed to the true Saviour viz. That he doth not heal men in hope of reward but doth every where expresse his own goodnesse by way of discipline He gaines nothing by the exercise of his native goodnesse but whilst he relieves those that need him he teacheth them to do likewise What glory or lovelinesse is in the Creation which he had not before in himself what could he attain out of himself It is true the works of God do praise him it is but decent that they should it is impossible that they should not All excellent things honour their Authour The heavens declare the glory of God Wheresoever the voyce of the Creatures is heard they sing his praise This is no greater wonder then that the fire burneth Who can conceale the light of the Sun or confine the sent of sweet odours {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The beauty of excellent good things cannot be hid But though all wise beholders will praise God the Authour of all good works yet we must not think that God aimed at such a thing as being ambitiously desirous of his creatures applause which is below the Temper of a virtuous man Clemens Alexand. hath informed us better {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i.e. God shewes himself freely to his Creatures he doth not sell his truth It is true he accepts the love of his creatures and is well pleased with just adorations not that he receives any advantage thereby or is tickled with praise but he rejoyceth that his creatures do as they should and conform to originall goodnesse and truth We pay what we owe though he needs it not as the same Father {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i. e. We return to God who needeth it not the worship of well-composed souls as a grateful acknowledgement of the great Land-Lord and a small rent for the habitation which he hath given us in this world Whatsoever we do in affectionate worship of God is but a just imployment and a rare improvement of our faculties What are our understandings and affections good for but to know and love God He accepts our guifts not that he wants them but to comfort us with his acceptance and that he may have opportunity to reward sincere expresses of duty when as we ought we give him his own Our most spirituall devotions adde nothing to God but they do enlarge our capacities for him whilest we worship God as we ought {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} said the Philosopher we grow bigger and are filled with God The more we submit our selves to God in due posture of obedience the more we are exalted in wisdom and goodnesse Our Saviours words are incomparable to this purpose when the blind Pharises made such a shew of zeal for the religious observation of the Sabbath in honour of God that they would needs look at it as a great crime in the Disciples who when they were hungry pulled eares of corn to satisfie the necessities of Nature our Lord answers The Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath i. e. Though the Law of the Sabbath and other exercises of Religion scem to be made for the glory of God yet they were indeed designed and appointed by God for mans bodily and spiritual good For neither man nor Sabbath can advance his glory a jot but the great Lord of the Sabbath hath respected our happinesse in all his institutions It is fit that all the world should appear before God in humble reveren●e by the right of his nature He is to be had in reverence of all that dwell round about him but all the use which he makes of such opportunities is to bestow his blessings It is a vain thing to offer ought but empty Pitchers to the Fountaine of Life {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i. e. Thou canst not honour God by giving any thing to him but by making thy self meet to receive from him If we think to poure out our own fulnesse upon his Altar we make our selves richer then God and him beholden to us So the Apostle convinced the Heathens of vanity in thinking that they did God a courtesie by presenting their oblations He is not worshiped with mens hands as though he needed any thing seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things A good man adores God the more affectionately because that though he needeth not us yet he was so good as to make all things happy and then takes delight to see their natures made partakers of his beauty and to rejoyce in the proportions which they bear to his goodnesse and symmetries with his truth It is a great part of our doing honour to God to think that he is exalted above all blessing and praise as Nehemiah said What are all our names of praise to God Iust. Martyr hath expressed this in my mind excellently {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i. e. as it was the custome to honour God with the most pretious of material things so also in names of praise not that God doth need them but we do to declare our thoughts of him And he needs not them neither It was a noble saying of Simplicius {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i. e. God needeth not our good life nor our best apprehensions of him In our best thoughts we do not comprehend him and if we could think more honourably of him by an hundred-fold what is he better for our thinking of him neither doth he need our holy life If thou dost well what profit is it to him Thou maist do good to a man as thy self but thy goodnesse extends not to him And if he need not our holinesse much lesse doth he want our sins to advance his glory If thou sinnest what is it to him Thy disobedience will hurt thy self and may prejudice thy neighbour but it reacheth not to him and if he lose nothing by our sin what can he get by our punishment It is true sin is in the world but God brought it not in It is as he said {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and men and devils had never been permitted to bring it in but that God can make a good use of evill but that use is not to advance himself They are pitiful people that need the faults of others to set off their own low perfections But he will get glory by punishing it that is by making the sinner miserable Truly it is fit that sin should be punished but alas if God need not our happinesse to make him glorious much lesse will our misery contribute any thing to such a purpose What glory is it to the God of Israel to hunt a flea upon the Mountains It was Domitian only that pleased himself with killing flyes God delighteth not in the death of a sinner His

defenders of christian Religion reproved the folly of the Heathen world for attempting to introduce vertue into men and yet acknowledged vices and enormities in the Gods whom they adored For when they had said all they could to shame a sinner which was guilty of the worst crimes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that is He will make a fair evasion of punishment by alledging that it is no sin to imitate the Gods Clemens Alexandrinus quoting against the Greeks that ugly passage in Homer concerning Mars and Venus sayes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Away with your song Homer it is not good it teacheth Adultery So the wicked Hypocrites in Davids time utterly unwilling to raise their low soules up unto God would needs call him down to themselves And that they might continue more securely what they were they would needs perswade themselves that God was such as themselves So the Dirty Ranters of our times that they might wallow more quietly in filthinesse thought they had Apologized sufficiently for their villanies by saying That every thing is God It is not impertinent to this matter also that we take notice that there are many things in God which are not imitable by us because they sute not our Nature or else transcend our State Which is no wonder at all for there are divers things in the created world which though they are in themselves Excellencies yet do not fit our constitutions A man cannot shine as the Sunne doth nor is he strong as an Oake How shall we guide our selves then Easily Such as will be at leisure to think will soon perceive many imitable Perfections in God And that we may misse none God manifest in the flesh both by word and deed hath shewed us what is good and what the Lord requires us to follow And having commanded us to do nothing but what he hath done before us He hath both given us encouragement by shewing us the practicablenesse of God-like vertues in our Nature and hath excellently taught us the performance of our Duty By his Gospel that commands us to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect it is plainly revealed wherein that perfection consists as in Love Charity Mercifulnesse Forgivenesse Righteousnesse Purity and indeed the compleat beauty of all Holinesse I need not transcribe the Scriptures which have pointed out this truth to the life you have them before you I shall only write an excellent passage out of Justin Martyrs Epistle which he wrote to Diognetus in which they are very well summed up His words are these {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. It is not blessednesse to have dominion over others nor to seek the advantages of a worldly condition nor to oppresse those which are below us neither can any man by such things imitate God For they belong not to his Greatnesse But to bear your neighbours burdens and by how much you are above others so much the more to do good to those which are below you and to relieve those which want with such things as you have received from God makes you a God to those who receive them from you This is to be a true follower of God To conclude since by the premises we see laid before us the divine pattern of necessary Duties God grant that none of us be like the man of whom Saint James speaks Who looking into the Law of Liberty the Royall Law of our King that frees us from the slavery of sin and death takes notice of his face and peradventure of many spots there but having beheld himselfe goes away and forgets what manner of man he was nor remembers to wash them off But rather that we may look carefully upon our selves as we are represented by this holy mirrour and continue till we understand perfectly what we ought to be and then not forget to reform our selves wholly according to the prescriptions that are there and so attain the blessednesse of the Gospel of which none but obedient Christians are capable You have great abilities and constant opportunities Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus who in the fulness of time put on the form of a srevant to save the world By being in the world as he was that is in the same temper and practise {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} you shall know That you are of the truth and secure your confidence in God for the present and afterwards through his unspeakable mercies you shall be counted worthy to stand before the son of Man in the great day of his most glorious appearance Which Grace that you may obtain is the prayer of Eaton Coll. Iuly 26. 1659. Your affectionate Servant in Christ Jesus NATH. INGELO 1 Cor● 10. 31. Whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do do all to the Glory of God SAint Paul having received a Question in a Letter from the Corinthians viz. Whether it was lawfull to be present at an Idol Feast or to eat any thing that was sold in the Shambles if it had been offered to an Idol before either by the Owner who having offered a part devoted the whole or the Priest peradventure having brought his portion to the market gave an answer to it Chap. 8. and in this Chapter explains himself a little further As to the first branch of the Question he answers expressely That they might not be present at an Idol Feast it being a part of the worship or at least such an Appurtenance as none could partake of without sin the Heathens offering part to the Devils and feasting upon the rest Those which pretend fellowship with Christ as all Christians do in the Feast of the Holy Eucharist must take heed of this Idolatrous Communion lest they put Devils in Competition with Christ who came to destroy their works As to the other part of the Question concerning things offered to Idols and afterward sold in the Shambles he sayes they might eat without scruple because they knew an Idol to be nothing and that the Earth with the meats and fruits thereof as also the Sea Psal. 95. 5. belong to God and are held of us in his right not of Ceres or any other heathenish God or Goddesse Therefore a good man need make no question but if any guest at the Table say This or that portion was offered to an Idoll then he must forbear to eat of it Why he accounts an Idoll nothing what is it the worse It 's true it is not yet forbear for his sake for he esteems an Idol something and worships it as a God with the oblation of meat and will by thy eating after he told thee what it was be confirmed in his sinne and so through thy true knowledge uncharitably managed thy brother perisheth whom Christ in love died to save Thy Master preferred the salvation of a sinner before his own life and thou wilt