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	good_a	work_n	1,094	5	5.3618	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A10018	Sermons preached before his Maiestie; and vpon other speciall occasions viz. 1 The pillar and ground of truth. 2 The new life. 3 A sensible demonstration of the Deity. 4 Exact walking. 5 Samuels support of sorrowfull sinners. By the late faithfull and worthy minister of Iesus Christ, Iohn Preston Dr. in Diuinity, chaplaine in ordinary to his Maiesty, master of Emmanuel College in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher of Lincolnes Inne.	Preston, John, 1587-1628.; Goodwin, Thomas, 1600-1680.; Ball, Thomas, 1589 or 90-1659.	1630 (1630)	STC 20270; ESTC S120145	80,456	162

well as the best In a word they are ignorant what belongs to this life saith the Apostle and therefore they are strangers to it Partly againe they are strangers because of the hardnesse of their hearts that is either because they are so distracted and possessed with worldly businesse that they cannot attend it or they are so soaked and surfetted with pleasures and delights that they are not sensible of the things that belong to this life and therefore they are strangers to it that is they are not able to judge of it whether they have this life of grace or not You will say vnto mee How shall we know it I answer from those properties of life and death that wee take from the similitude of the naturall life and death First a man may know whether hee remaine in the state of Nature whether hee be a dead man by considering whether hee have anie change wrought in him For as it is said of Christ he was dead and is alive so it is true of everie man that is in Christ he was dead and is alive and this implies a great change There are manie changes in a man age makes a change place and companie make a change education and custome and experience make a change but when a man is translated from death to life it is another kind of change it is such a change as if another soule dwelt in the same bodie that a man thus changed can say Ego non sum Ego When his old lusts his old acquaintance his old temptations shall come he is able to answer them and to say hee is not the same man though they knocke at the same doore yet there is another inhabitant come into the house and they finde not him they looke for Even as you see when a graft is put into a Crab-tree-stocke it changeth all the sap and the fruit and the leaves and all are of another fashion so it is when the life of grace is put into the heart of a naturall man it changeth the inward man and the outward it changeth the whole frame of the soule For my Beloved this is not a light alteration but as the old stampe must bee obliterate before the new can be imprinted as the old building must be pulled downe before you can set up a new so this old nature of ours in a great measure must bee broken in pieces new moulded before a man can be made a living man which is done by the infusion of the supernaturall qualities of grace and holinesse I say supernaturall for even as the earth may bring forth grasse and common wilde flowers of it selfe but it must be plowed and sown before anie choise plants can grow there even so these common natures which we all have may bring out things that are morally good but before they can bring forth fruits of true righteousnesse they must be plowed and sowne Plowed that is a man must be broken in heart with an apprehension of his sinne and of Gods eternal wrath he must see himselfe but a dead man and hee must be pricked and wounded in heart with the sense of it as those in Act. 2. after the sermon of Peter who were pricked in their hearts and cried out Men and brethren what shall wee doe to be saved For this is the plowing the breaking of the heart And againe they must be sowne too that is there must bee an implanting of spirituall graces which change and renew vs according to that which you shall find Rom. 12. 2. Fashion your selves no more after this world but be ye changed or metamorphosed by the renewing of your minde and this is one way by which you may discerne whether you bee dead or alive Secondly when there is no action when there is no motion in a man you say he is dead when a man acts nothing when hee stirres not himselfe we reckon him a dead man now this is the case of every naturall man he is not able to move hand nor foot in the waies of true godlinesse If you say I but they are able to doe something they are able to pray to heare the Word to receive the Sacrament they are able to doe many excellent dueties of justice and righteousnesse amongst men I answer it is very true but yet the Scripture speakes of certaine dead works as Heb. 9. 14. The bloud of Christ is said there to purge our consciences from dead workes that is all these may bee done by naturall men and they are good works in themselves having all the lineaments of works truely good as you know a dead bodie hath of a living but yet indeede they are but dead workes that is they may have a golden out-side and bee verie beautifull in the sight of the doer and likewise in the sight of men but yet as Christs speakes be abominable in the sight of God A naturall man you see therefore may pay a certaine debt of duetie and obedience to God but hee paies it in counterfeit coine that hath the stampe and colour and similitude of true coine yet it consists if you looke to the inwards but of base mettall I remember a storie that Remigius tels who was a Iudge in Loraine under whose iudgement many hundreds of witches were condemned vpon their owne confession saith he the devill did bring them many boxes that had currant coine in them to the appearance of the witches but when they came to use them they proved nothing but withered leaves I say after the same manner Satan couseneth natural men in things of greater moment hee suffers them to thinke well of the good workes and of the dueties that they do to make them thinke they are currant coine but when they come to make use of this treasure at the day of death in the time of extremity at the day of judgement they finde them to bee but withered leaves such as God will not accept The Apostle speakes 1. Tim. 3. of certaine men which had a forme of godliness but denied the power thereof that is that had a formall customary performance of good works and of good duties with which the conscience is satisfied because it is ignorant and is not able to judge Satan doth with men in this case as we are wont to do with children we take from them true gold and silver and when they fall a crying stop their mouthes with counters So I say Sathan labours to keep men from the lively and through performance of good workes and of holy dueties and then satisfies their consciences with that which hath but a forme of godlinesse without the power of it But you will say How shall a man discerne it whether those good works that are good in themselves be good indeede whether they be good in such a manner as they are wrought by him I answer you may know it by these two things First it is certaine that except they be vitall actions

that is except they proceede from an inward principle of life within they are not good actions they are such as the Lord regards not Now you know there are motions as the motions of clockes and watches that proceede not from life but from art so it is in this matter of religion many good actions may be done many good motions in the waies of godlinesse which yet may not proceede from life from the life of grace but from outward respects to men from feare of hell from feare of judgements in sickenesse from the apprehension of death and calamity in such cases wee may be stirred vp to doe them and then even as the wheeles that are set a going by a spring when the spring is downe you know they cease their motion so commonly it is in these good fits in these good moodes of godlinesse when that which sets them a worke is removed there is an end of it and therefore if you would know whether the workes that you doe bee right or no such as God will accept at the last day consider if they proceede from an inward principle from a principle of life within Secondly you shall know them by their coldnesse for coldnesse you know is a symptome of death These good workes when they are done by a naturall man yet there is no life in them there is no warmth no vivacity and quicknesse in them whereas you know it is said Iam. 5. Praier if it be fervent prevailes much and Rom. 12. Be yee burning in spirit serning the Lord that is all those dueties that have not heate in them that haue not fire in them God regards them not the reason is this because if no heate bee there then is none of his spirit there and then you know our praiers are but the voyce of our owne spirits the workes that we doe are but dead workes because they are but the fruits and effects of dead flesh if there be none of the holy Ghost there Now if there bee no heate there I say there is none of the spirit for the spirit is as fire Whence you know it is that our Sauiour saith I will baptize you with the holy Ghost and with fire that is I will baptize you with the holy Ghost which is as fire And therefore you shall finde that holy men have been usually described by the similitude of fire as Chrysostome saith that Peter was like a man made all of fire walking among stubble and to one that desired to know what kind of man Basil was it is said there was presented in a dreame a pillar of fire with this motto Talis est Basilius Such a one was Basil and old Latimer when he was asked the reason why there was so much preaching and so little practising hee gave this reason Deest ignis fire is wanting the same wee may say in this case there may bee a performance much performance of many good dueties of praier of hearing of receiving the Sacrament of worshipping God c. but consider whether there bee fire consider whether they bee not done without that livelinesse and that fervency that the Spirit of God requires whether they are either done without heate or but halfe baked as Hosea's cake was and if so they be but dead workes whereas true praying in secret betweene God and us it is such as warmes and quickens the heart it is such as brings the heart into a good frame of grace and sets it right before God and right hearing is such as kindles a fire in us that in a great measure burnes up the drosse of sinnefull lusts and corrupt affections So that is the next means the second meanes by which wee may know whether we are alive to righteousnes or dead in sin to consider whether we have any motions and of what kinde those motions and actions are Againe you shall know it by considering what you contend for most for life is sweete and every Creature would maintaine his life and will part with any thing rather than with that So a man that hath this life of grace in him hee will suffer any thing hee will lose his life his goods his libertie and all rather than hee will wound his conscience and violate his inward peace and communion with God because that is as sweet and as deare to him as life whereas another man he contends as much for his lusts for his profit for his credit for his pleasures nay for his sins and will rather suffer the losse of a good conscience will rather suffer any unevennesse in his wayes towards God and men suffer any sinne rather than hee will be prejudiced in these things because in this is his life being dead to Christ and alive to sin Againe such as the food is such is the life If it be the life of sinne that a man lives which the Scripture calls death then the secret thoughts and the inward affections feed on carnall delights eyther past present or to come that is either hee solaceth himselfe with the contemplation of what he hath had or he feeds on that which is present or hee cheares up himselfe with the thoughts and projects of those carnall delights which are future whereas a man that lives the life of grace the contrarie is most acceptable to him for everie life drawes to it selfe that which is most sutable and most agreeable to it that is the food wherewith it is maintained and that wherein it delights Pleasure voluptas being nothing else indeed but the application of that which is convenient and agreeable to us And if you say now But naturall men may occupie themselves in hearing in reading in praying and such like holy exercises I answer that they may and it is well these things are very good and commendable and not to bee omitted but yet there is something must be added for this is not enough except we bee nourished by these dueties and grow by them as you know it is said 1 Peter 2. Desire the sincere milke of the word that you may grow thereby and as your common saying is Shew me not the meat but the man For Christ the great Shepheard of the sheepe is affected in this case as shepheards are wont to be that say not to the sheepe shew me the hay that I have given you but shew me the lac lanam the woole and the milke that is shew me the fruits and the effects of all your hearing and praying for a man may bee conversant in all these dueties and yet for want of life and for want of a digestive facultie within that is not turning them to bloud and spirits hee may not be nourished hee may not grow and be strengthened by them but be as a man in an atrophie that cates verie much and yet is as leane and meager as if he had eate nothing Of such the Scripture saith They have a name to live but are dead And they are alway