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
A29934	The certainty of the future judgment asserted and proved in a sermon preached at St Michael's Crooked Lane, London, Octob. xxvi, 1684 / by Matth. Bryan ...	Bryan, Matthew, d. 1699.	1685 (1685)	Wing B5246; ESTC R19907	26,200	46

ungrateful use of his patience and long-suffering But 't is such as the Wise man spake of and observ'd long ago Eccles 8.11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil and St Paul here intimates and sadly observes and bewails in this his passionate Expostulation Despisest thou the riches of his Goodness c. But hear O despising scoffing ungrateful man Hear what follows v. 5. After thy hardness and impenitent heart thou treasurest up unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous Judgment of God who will render to every one according to his deeds For though the Lord is long suffering yet he will not be ever-suffering But the day of the Lord will come as St Peter observes ver 10. and it will come speedily as a Thief in the Night unlookt for and so surprize or as 't is worded 1 Thess 5.2 3. The day of the Lord so cometh as a Thief in the night for when they shall say Peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a Woman with Child and they shall not escape Secondly This Doctrine of the certainty and severity and dreadfulness of the future Judgment may serve to awaken secure Sinners out of their sinful and dangerous security As there are some that Atheistically scoff at Religion so there are others that are sufficiently careless of it do not speak but act against it who live vicious lives and are led by their passions and appetites and are regardless of the World to come and stupidly and securely sinful They are perhaps more carnal and sensual than the former though not so Diabolical If there are any such here let me seriously ask them Sirs Do you believe the Bible to be true Do you believe the Articles of the Christian Faith that there is a God that made the World and governs it that you have immortal Spirits within you that are capable of endless happiness or misery that you must dye and come to Judgment appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ who shall come from Heaven to judge the quick and the dead Do you believe all this You 'll readily answer Yes that we do God forbid we should be Unbelievers we can say our Creed as sincerely and devoutly as the best Can you so What! and live in such manifest contrariety and opposition to what you believe and the terms of salvation as if all this were false as if all were cheat and imposture as if the Gospel were a Fable or an idle Romance For God's sake Sirs be serious and consider and do not suffer your selves so tamely to be impos'd upon and baffled by your Spiritual Enemies those that hate you and will laugh at your folly and triumph over your misery Do not live the reverse of your Reason and Religion too and contradict your Faith and Perswasion and suffer your selves to be fool'd out of that eternal happiness which you say you hope for and lose the best and greatest interest which is more valuable than all the Treasures and instances of happiness in this World which you must shortly leave and dye from when nothing here below neither Riches nor Friends can help you but only an effectual saving interest in the Judge of the World 2 Thess 1.7 8. who will shortly be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that do not obey his Gospel O that I could make some secure Sinner here to tremble Ephes 5.14 and effectually warn him to flee from the wrath to come Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Thirdly It exhorts us to Holiness And indeed this Doctrine is a powerful disswasive from Vice and perswasive to Vertue a disswasive from Vice because it will be certainly and severely punished a perswasive to Vertue because it will be certainly and amply rewarded I doubt not but there are some that are very indifferent as to the State of happiness in the other World for which they are not greatly concern'd but could be content to part with it provided they might not be miserable they could be content that their Bodies and Souls too should sleep eternally They could be content perhaps not to be rewarded in Heaven so that they might not be punished in Hell But know Christian that there is no medium here If we are not rewarded we shall certainly be punished if we are not happy we must be miserable If we do not go to Heaven we must to Hell If we have not the enjoyment of God we must have the company of Devils for ever So that holiness is indispensably necessary not only to intitle us to Heaven but to keep us out of Hell And there is no greater or more forcible Argument to perswade to holiness than this of Judgment to come This is the great Argument the Wise man useth to perswade both to negative and positive holiness Thus in the 11th of his Ecclesiastes ver 9. he does tacitly exhort to negative holiness i. e. he does by a sharp and keen but pleasant Irony disswade from Vice and youthful Lusts and sinful Pleasures Rejoice O young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth and walk in the ways of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes there follows a terrible But which is like the Damp to the Candle or the Death's Head to the Egyptian Feasts a Cooler to the heat of Lust and like Belshazzer's hand upon the Wall dasheth all that mirth and jollity But know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into Judgment And Chap. 12. ver 13. he exhorts to positive holiness not excluding negative i. e. to the practice of Vertue and doing good Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole Duty of man And this he presseth by the same Argument the great Motive of Judgment to come ver 14. For God shall bring every work into Judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil This is the great beaten Argument that both the Prophets and Apostles are frequently upon and spreading before the eyes of men Most of the weighty Exhortations in Scripture like the Scales upon the Beam are fastned upon this therefore work walk run strive deny your selves be stedfast 1 Cor. 15. ult unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. 'T is the great Argument both to Active and Passive Obedience Saint Paul observes it to be so 2 Tim. 4.7 8. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day

least catching at part of a Sentence or a piece of a Period not minding the Scope or Coherence whereby 't is possible to make foul work with the fairest discourse that proceeds from the Pulpit for endeavouring to retrieve the credit of my reputation and stop the mouth of a flying Slander which getting upon the wings of Fame that swift and often lying Messenger as the Poet observes Fama Malum quo non aliud velocius ullum Mobilitate viget viresque acquirit eundo need not be bid to make speed to carry its message through the World Report say they in the Prophet Jer. 20.10 and we will report And though I need not I confess which some may retort upon me stand upon the Punctilioes of Honour or value my self much on that account being perhaps as little in the eyes of the world as I desire to be in mine own yet were I ten times less than I am rather than tamely sit down under the black cloud of so unjust a scandal and severe an Imputation neither is it inconsistent with Christianity or the meekness of the Dove so to resolve the crime here insinuated being not strictly a carnal sin as Drunkenness Adultery c. the reproach whereof how unjust soever I could more easily have born as my Saviour did before me but Spiritual and Diabolical viz. to despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities which a little warm Breath and brisk Air would easily blow off I had rather I say die than live it being determined long ago Praestat penitus emori quàm per dedecus vivere I will detain the Reader no longer than to tell him that I thought sit for the common good to publish my whole Discourse on this Subject excepting only the Illustrations of some Particulars relating to the third Head of Discourse p. 20 21. which I was forc'd to omit lest these Papers should swell too big though no more was strictly necessary for my Vindication than from p. 1. to p. 18. as aforesaid that it might not be imperfect in which the Argument is weighty how weak soever the management be and a mighty Perswasive to a virtuous and good Life And if the production of it in the World though by an Evil Cause has any good Effect towards the furthering of any ones Salvation and the promoting of his spiritual and eternal Good I have my End who desire to live no longer in the World than I may be sineerely serviceable to God the King and my Countrey M. B. 2 COR. v. 11. the former Part. Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men THE Apostle in this and the former Chapter professeth his Christian integrity with the constancy of it and that upon a double Motive viz. the expectance of Immortal Glory and the General Judgment Of the former he speaks in the Close of the fourth Chapter and the Beginning of this And as this Motive was before his eye so that of Judgment to come ver 10. For we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad Which last Motive or Argument he lays down by way of Position or Doctrine and in the Words of my Text draws his Inference from it by way of Application to others Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men Knowing i. e. being assured of the certainty of Judgment to come which he calls The terrour of the Lord being the cause of terrour We i. e. I and the rest of the Apostles and Ministers of Christ do perswade men i. e. press and excite and stir up and exhort them to their Christian Duties to Gospel-Piety and Obedience So that the Remark or Observation which naturally ariseth from the Words is this viz. That the pressing and perswading men to Gospel-Piety and Obedience by the Apostles and Ministers of Christ Observ is grounded upon no less Motive than the infallible certainty and severity and dreadfulness of the future Judgment In speaking to which I shall endeavour to do these four things I. Clear the Point as to its Inference II. Shew you the infallible certainty of a future Judgment after this Life III. Enquire into the severity and dreadfulness of it styled here The terrour of the Lord and then IV. and Lastly Make Improvement of all by Application I. I shall first of all endeavour to clear the Point as to its Inference and shew you That no less Motive than this viz. The infallible certainty and severity and dreadfulness of the future Judgment could put the Apostles and Ministers of Christ upon the so earnest pressing and perswading men to Gospel-Piety and Obedience And this will appear by considering what other Motive could have any probability to prevail with them 1. Could they be prevailed with to tell the World of a Terrour that they should never feel and themselves did not believe and thereupon to press Gospel-Piety and Obedience and that only as an Engine of State-Policy to keep men in awe and Obedience to their Governours and preserve Civil Peace as some Prophane Men would have it If so why then were they not more in esteem with Rulers and Princes with the Great and Noble why were they the Mark of their malice and envy of their rage and fury if they were hired as their Politick Servants and did them such great and acceptable service Again 2. Was it Honour they had in their eye Why then were they the Object of the World's contempt and scorn scoft at and derided having tryal of cruel mockings reviled defamed and accounted the filth of the World and the off-scowring of all things 1 Cor. 4.13 3. Was it Profit that was the Motive Surely no For then our Saviour and his Apostles and Ministers would have had a greater interest in the World then they would have had full Chests and Barns to boast of as well as others But 't is notorious how great a degree of poverty did await them Christ himself not having a house wherein to put his head no Lands or revenues to give him the title of rich or great And his Apostles following him left their gainful Trades and were not much richer than their Master Yea may it not be truly observ'd to this day that the employment of a Minister is none of those direct Courses to Wealth and Riches whereas other Arts and Employments can raise an Estate and advance a Family they who wait at the Altar with their Dependents for the most part live in meaner circumstances Not but that God has a Blessing for the Posterity and Sons of the Clergy as well as others many of them arriving to eminent degrees of Greatness and Wealth in the World but then that owes it self not always so immediately to their Fathers encouragement and Estate in the World but to their own through God's Blessing upon those Employments and gainful Trades wherein they were