Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	apostle_n	child_n	parent_n	1,952	5	8.8211	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12191	The riches of mercie In two treatises: 1 Lydia's conversion. 2. A rescue from death. By the late learned, and reverend divine, Richard Sibbs, Doctor in Divinitie. Published by the authors own appointment, and subscribed with his owne hand to prevent imperfect copies.	Sibbes, Richard, 1577-1635.	1638 (1638)	STC 22501; ESTC S100975	53,245	274

hath discharged that he comes to parents and masters and children and servants and such particular duties because the spring of our duty to man is our duty to God and the first justice is the justice of religion to God when we are not just to giue God his due thereupon come all breaches in our civill conversation and commerce with men for want of the feare of God men doe this as Ioseph sayd how shall I doe this and offend God and Abraham he had a conceit they would abuse his wife Surely the feare of God is not here therefore he thought they would not bee afraid to doe any thing he that feares not God if opportunitie serue he will not be afraid to violate the second table hee that feares God hee will reason how shall I doe this to wrong another in his name and reputation or in his estate sin against God for I cannot sinne against man but I must first sin against God that is the reason he sets it downe thus transgressions and iniquities See an vnhappy succession of sinne that where there is transgression there will be iniquitie when a man yeelds to lust once presently he breaks upon Gods due and then upon mans one sin drawes on another as wee see David giving way to one sin it brought another so the giving way to transgression neglecting the word of God and duties of religion presently another followes neglect of dutie to men Take heed of the beginnings of sinne there are degrees in Sathans schoole from ill to worse till we come to worst of all and there is no staying it is like the descent down a steepe hill let us stop in the beginning by any meanes as we would avoid iniquitie let us take heed of transgression Are afflicted HEE meanes especially that affliction of sicknesse as appeares by the words following Sin is the cause of all sicknesse Fooles for their transgressions and iniquities are afflicted for Gods quarrell is especially against the soule and to the body because of the soule I will not dwell on this point having spoken of it at large on another text The Use that I will make of it now shall bee First of all If sinne be the cause of all sicknesse Let us justifie God and condemne our selues complaine of our selues and not of God Wherfore doth the living man complaine and murmure and fret Man suffereth for his sinne Iustifie God and judge our selues I wil beare the wrath the Lord because I have sinned against him judge our selues and we shall not bee judged Then againe is sin the cause of sicknes it should teach us patience I held my tongue because thou Lord diddest it Shall not a man be patient in that he hath procured by his owne evill and sin And search our selues for usually it is for some particular sin which conscience will tell a man of and sometimes the kind of the punishment will tell a man for sins of the body God punisheth in the body he payes men home in their owne coyne what measure a man measureth to others shall bee measured to him againe If a man have beene cruell to others God will stirre vp those that shall be so to him therefore we should labour to part with our particular transgressions and iniquities It is a generall truth for all ills whatsoeuer as well as this of sicknesse Therefore we should first of all goe to God by confession of sinne It is a preposterous course that the athesticall carelesse world takes where the Physitian ends there the divine begins when they know not what to doe If diseases come from sinne then make vse of the divine first to certifie the conscience and to acquaint a man with his owne mercy First to search them and let them see the guilt of their sins and then to speake comfort to them and to set accounts straite betweene God them as in Ps. 32. an excellent place David roared his moysture was turned into the drought of summer what course doth hee take he doth not run to the Physitian presently but goes to God Then sayd I it was an inward resolution and speech of the mind then I concluded with my selfe I will confesse my sinne to God and thou for gavest my iniquities and sinne so body and soule were healed at once Divinity herein transcends all other Arts not onely corrupt nature and corrupt courses but all other For the Phisitian hee looks to the cause of the sicknesse out of a man or in a man out of a man and then especially in contagious sicknesse hee looks to the influence of the heavens in such a yeare such conjunctions and such eclipses haue beene he lookes to the infection of the Ayre to subordinate causes to contagious company and to diet c. And then in a man to the distemper of the humours and of the spirits when the instrument of nature is out of tune it is the cause of sicknesse But the divine and every Christian that should be a divine in this respect goes higher and sees all the discord betweene God and vs there is not that sweet harmony there and so all the jarres in second causes come from God as the cause inflicting from sin as the cause demeriting The Divine considers those two alway The Phisitian lookes to the inward distemper and the outward contagion and this is well and may be done without sin but men must ioyne this too to looke into conscience and looke vp to God together with looking for helpe to the Physitian because we haue especially to deale with God I would this were considered that wee might carry our selues more Christian-like vnder any affliction whatsoever what is the reason that people murmure struggle and striue as a bull in a net as the Prophet speakes when God hampers them in some judgement They looke to the second causes and neuer looke to cleare the conscience of sinne nor never looke to God when indeed the ground of all is God offended by sinne Fooles for their transgressions are afflicted We by our sins put a rod into Gods hand A rod for the fooles backe as Salomon saith and when wee will be fooles wee must needs indure the scourge and rod in one kind or other those that will sin must looke for a rod it is the best reward of wicked and vaine fooles that make a jest of sinne as the wiseman saith They cast firebrands and say am I not in jest That raile and scorne at good things that sweare and carrie themselues in a loose ridiculous scandalous fashion as if God did not eye their carriage and yet am I not injest Well it is no jesting matter sinne is like a secret poyson perhaps it doth not worke presently as there are some kind of subtile poysons made in these dayes wherein the Devill hath whetted mens wits that will worke perhaps a yeare after so sinne if

darts out oathes and blasphemies against God that shall returne backe upon his owne pate many such fooles there are God will not hold them guiltlesse He is a foole that knowes not or forgets his end every wicked man forgets the end wherfore he liues in the world hee comes here into the world and liues and is turned out of the world againe and never considers the worke that he hath to doe here but is carried like a foole with affections and passions to earthly things as if hee had been borne only for them A wiseman hath an end prefixed in all that hee doth and hee works to that end Now there is no man but a sound sanctified Christian that hath a right end and that works to that end other men pretend they haue an end and they would serue God c. They pretend heaven but they worke to the earth-ward like moles they digge in the earth they work not to the end they pretend to fixe to themselues All men how wittie soeuer they are otherwise in worldly respects they are but fooles As we say of owles they can see but it is by night so wicked men are wittie but it is in the workes of darkenesse they are wise in their owne generation among men like themselues but this is not the life wherein follie and wisedome can be discerned so well it will appeare at the houre of death and the day of judgement then those will be found wise that are wise for eternity that have provided how it shall goe with them when all earthly things shall fayle them and those will bee fooles that haue only a particular wit for the particular passages of this life to contriue particular ends and neglect the mayne they are penny wise and pound foolish Achitophel a wittie wiseman his counsell was an oracle yet he was not wise to prevent his owne destruction He is a madman a foole that hurts and wounds himselfe none else will doe so wicked carnall men they wound and hurt and stab their owne consciences oh if any man should doe them but the thousandth part of the harme that they doe themselves every day they would not indure it they gall and load their consciences with many sins and they doe it to themselves therefore it is a deserved title that is given them God meetes with the pride of men in this terme of folly for a wicked man above all things is carefull to avoid this imputation of foole account him what you will so you account him a shrewd man withall that can over-reach others that he is craftie and wise he glories in the reputation of wisedome though God account him a foole and hee shall bee found so afterward and to abate the pride of men Hee brings a disgracefull terme over their wit and learning and calls them fooles This should abase any man that is not a right and sound Christian that the God of wisedome and the Scripture that is GODS word esteemes of all wicked men bee they what they will to be fooles and that in their owne judgements if they bee not Atheists if they will grant the principles they pretend to beleeve Let this therefore bee an aggravation in your thoughts when you are tempted to commit any sinne Oh! besides that it is a transgression and rebellion against Gods commandement it is follie in Israel and this will bee bitternesse in the end Is hee not a foole that will doe that in an instant that hee may repent many yeeres after Is hee not a foolish man in matter of dyet that will take that that he shall complaine of a long time after None will bee so foolish in outward things So when we are tempted to sinne thinke is it not follie to doe this when the time will come that I shall wish it undone againe with the losse of a world if I had it to giue And begge of God the wisedome of the holy Ghost to judge aright of things the eye salve of the Spirit of God to discerne of things that differ to judge spirituall riches to be best and spirituall nobilitie and excellencie to be best and to judge of sinfull courses to be base how ever otherwise gainfull let us labour for grace The feare of the Lord is the beginning of wisedome those that doe not feare the Lord they haue no wisedome And passe not for the vaine censures of wicked men thou art hindred from the practise of religious duties and from a conscionable course of life why Perhaps thou shalt be accounted a foole by whom By those that are fooles indeed in the judgement of him who is wisedome indeed God himselfe who would care to be accounted a foole of a foole We see the scripture judgeth wicked men here to be fooles Wee must not extend it only to wicked men but euen likewise Gods children when they yeeld to their corruptions and passions they are foolish for the time in Psa. 38.5 My wounds stinke and are corrupt because of my foolishnesse and in Psa. 73. So foolish was I and ignorant c. Therefore when any base thought of Gods providence comes in our mind or any temptation to sin let us thinke it folly and when we are overtaken with any sin let us be-foole our selues and judge it as God doth to bee foolishnesse this is the ground and foundation of repentance So much for the quality of the person here described Fooles I come to the Cause Because of their transgressions and because of their iniquities Transgression especially hath reference to rebellion against God and his ordinances in the first table Iniquity hath reference to the breach of the second table against men and both these have their rise from folly for want of wisedome causeth rebellion against God and iniquity against men all breaches of Gods will come from spirituall folly Why doth hee begin with transgressions against the first table and then iniquities the breach of the second Because all breaches of the second table issue from the breach of the first a man is never vniust to his neighbours that doth not rebell against Gods will in the first table and the foundation of obedience dutie to man it riseth from mans obedience to God Therefore the second table is like the first that is our loue to our neighbour is like to our loue of God not only like it but it springs from it for all comes from the loue of God therfore the first command of the first table runs through all the Commandements Thou shalt honour God and honour man because we honour God A man never denies obedience to his superiour to the magistrate c. but he denies it to God first a man never wrongs man but he disobeys God first Therefore the Apostles lay the duties of the second table in the Scriptures vpon the first Saint Paul alway begins his Epistles with the duties to God and religion and when he