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	husband_n	wife_n	2,839	5	7.4256	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61667	The voice of the rod, or, God's controversie pleaded with man being a plain and brief discourse on Mich. 6, 9 / by Samuel Stodden.	Stoddon, Samuel.	1668 (1668)	Wing S5716; ESTC R26260	166,900	354

a duty at your hands while your poor servants are even forced to serve the Devil that they may serve and please you oh that ever such things should be heard of among Christians How few are there that with good Joshua have solemnly set up their resolutions and faithfully walkt up to their resolutions That they and their houses will serve the Lord oh that God would perswade us to more seriousness and unwearied diligence in this business Questionless this is not the least cause for which the Land is mourning this day How can we expect that God should remove his Judgments before our sins be removed that he should restore us before he hath reform'd us and Caudrey Fam. Reform Gouge Domestical Dutie Abbot Christian Family builded by God with what reason can we ever hope to see a National reformation prosper unless it be founded on a domestical and personal reformation I can but briefly touch at these things onely to mind you of them and to referr you to those that have purposely and fully treated of Family-Government or reformation 2. Parents Methinks I should need no other Argument here to provoke you to your duty than the nearness and dearness of such a Relation If any provide not for his own and especially for those of his own house and much more then for his own children he hath denyed the faith and is worse than an Infidel 1 Tim. 5.8 Doth the Apostle speak only of temporal Provisions here Nay were it so yet doubtless by the same Argument virtute majoris the spiritual part is manifestly included having alwayes due respect unto our Saviour's command Matth. 6.33 But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness Some there are even among Christians that are worse not only than Infidels but the very brute beasts that regard neither the Bodies nor Souls of their own children But I shall say nothing to such the very light and principles of Nature do sufficiently condemn them The greater sort of Parents think they have done enough nay very wisely and commendably if through their Care Frugality Labour or Wits they have brought them up to some calling or competent Estate that they may live in fashion amongst men Nay strange is the Ambition of some Parents that care not what become of themselves bodies or souls so that they may by any means advance their children above the rank of their Predecessours that will bethink no pains no sweat no travel no disgraces nor repulses for the promotion of their ambitious aims Might I take such Parents aside and ask them seriously What they mean to heap up with so much labour and diligence the heavy curses and vengeance of God on their poor children to hang Mill-stones about their Necks and so to set them afloat in a leaking Vessel to damn their own Souls that they may betray those they pretend so dearly to love Oh Sirs methinks your hearts should bleed within you to think what a preposterous course you are taking to consult the welfare of your dear children Have they not immortal souls as well as bodies think you Have you begotten beasts or Men Is there an everlasting estate both of glory and misery in the world to come Are your children born under the condemning sentence of the Law and the Wrath of Almighty God If not then expunge those Scriptures out of the Book of God that plainly affirm it Matth. 25.46 Rom. 5.12 Eph. 2.3 with those hundreds more that speak to the same thing But if God be true and his Word must stand then tell me whether the Souls of your children be not of as great a value and require as much of your care as their Bodies I cannot stand here on the Institutions of Family-Discipline I am at present but your brief Remembrancer though in a somewhat lax and digressive way Oh my brethren Are children a blessing to you take heed ye be not a curse to them What pains and care have you taken to instruct them in the knowledge and fear of God With what wrestlings and tears are you wont to go to God for them With what gentleness and impartiality have you administred due and seasonable correction Have you begotten Slaves for the Devil Limbs of Satan and shall they be brought up in the same case they were brought forth Oh remember you are but Stewards of these Mercies and must shortly give up your account of them They are God's Proprietie and the Souls that he hath made 3. Husbands The Apostle summs up the Husbands Duty toward the Wife in this one word Love Col. 3.19 Eph. 4.25 And so ought men to love their wives as their own bodies he that loveth his wife loveth himself ver 28. Here are two things to be considered The Object and the Nature of this Love 1. The Object This should be no Accident nor Adjunct but the very Person of the Wife Portion Parts and Beauty are indeed lovely accomplishments but yet are fading and impermanent and therefore not the adequate Objects of the Husbands affections Hence it is that some men love their Wives as their Merchandise for their Portions sake Some as their Slaves for their Stewardship Care or Service-sake Others as their Harlots for their Beauty and Lusts sake These are the horrible abuses of such a Relation He that loves his Wife as he ought hath his Love grounded on her Person and loves her as his Wife abstract from all other Considerations which Love alone is like to hold as long as the Relation holds 2. The Nature of this Love Love is both an Active and Passive affection Here I might shew you what Love hath to do and what to bear in this case But because it seems somewat alien from my present purpose I shall only mention it and so proceed 1. What this Conjugal Love will do in the behalf of the Wife We must know that the Object of this Love hath a double respect or consideration both the Body and the Soul the Outer and the Inner man 1. The outer Man Love is a benevolous and diffusive affection 1. It bestows its self on its Object and unites its self with it And they two shall be one Flesh 2. It delights to live with its Object Verus amor maximè delectatur praesentiâ amati Daven in Coloss cap. 3. v. 19. quasi cruciatur ejusdem absentiā True love greatly delights in the presence of its beloved and is even crucified by its absence 3. True love will provide for the Wife Amor est diffusivus sui boni according as her necessity or degree requires 2. The Inner man This is the special Care and Charge of a Christian Husband He is therefore called the Head of the Wife Eph. 5.23 And she required to ask and to learn of her Husband at home 1 Cor. 14.35 who should be able to instruct her What knowest thou O Wife whether thou shalt save thy Husband and what knowest thou O man whether

thou shalt save thy Wife 1 Cor. 7.16 2. What Love will bear with toward the Wife 1. With all the deformities and decaies of Nature 2. With all humane Infirmities Passions Weaknesses or unkindnesses 1 Pet. 3.7 Giving honour unto the Wife as unto the Weaker Vessel 4. Wives The summ of their duty as contradistinct unto that of the Husbands is to obey Eph. 5.22 Col. 3.18 Here 's the plain Precept Besides St. Peter pleads prescription too 1 Pet. 3.5 After this manner in the old time the holy women also who trusted in God adorned themselves being in subjection unto their own husbands Even as Sara obeyed Abraham calling him Lord. 'T is the excellency of a Christian to know the duties of his Relation God hath made the Husband the head of the Wife in all things under Christ And certainly for a Wife to disobey her Husband in things lawful or indifferent is manifestly to rebell against her Maker 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Obedience is the Mother of Felicity If you would live happily live obediently Though God hath in his Providence joyned thee with a Cross Disposition yet that will not discharge thee of thy duty Daven in Col. Quò difficilius eò laudabilius The more difficult the more praise-worthy 'T is true the great Lord and Husband of his Church must be obeyed whatever become of the Wills or Laws of man But take heed you make not a pretence of Duty a cloak of wickedness and disobedience 5. Children Their Duty likewise is to obey their Parents Eph. 6.1.2 but here we find their duty limited Obey in the Lord. Obey them as you may obey God too Children have a double Parentage a Father in Heaven at least by Creation as well as a Father on Earth Now in all Relations whatsoever Whether it be better to obey God or man when one must necessarily be disobeyed we make no doubt But the Instruction of children at least in their minority being the bounden and domestick duty and care of the Parents and especially of the Mother as might appear by 1 Tim. 5.10 2 Tim. 1.5 Prov. 31.1 〈◊〉 shall not undertake it here but commit it unto those whose more proper and peculiar work it ●s Though I doubt not but that the obedience ●nd duty here required of children to their Parents expires not with their minority The Relation never dies while the Correlates live The child is a child as long as he hath a Parent and the duties of his Relation though as 〈◊〉 Circumstances may be varied yet as to their obligation are not at all remitted or diminished 6. Servants Their duty also is Obedience ●nd faithfulness not with eye-service but in ●ngleness of heart loc cit Remember How●er you may deal with your Masters on earth ●ou have a Master in Heaven whose eye is alway upon you and observes your going out ●nd your coming in and hath a Hell or a Heaven to pay your wages with Oh! take heed 〈◊〉 those sins especially that are most incident ●nto servants and all those provocations and ●ticements of evil Company which are like 〈◊〉 beget or foment corrupt Principles in you ●ow hard a matter is it to find an Onesimus wicked Company is ordinarily one of the ●eatest snares that servants are caught in My son if sinners intice thee consent thou not Prov. 1.10 c. Bad servants become bad masters and so sin and misery run in a successive and hereditary line Thus I have finished the first Question How have you improv'd your Talents 2. How have you kept your Watch How importunately doth Christ press this duty Mar. 13.33 Take ye heed watch and pray for ye know not when the time is And Watch ye therefore for ye know not when the Master of the house cometh ver 35. And What I say unto you I say unto all Watch. ver 37. Watch ye stand fast in the faith quit you like men be strong 1 Cor. 16.13 Behold I come as a thief blessed is he that watcheth Rev. 16.15 Christians God hath set you on the Guard you are his Watchmen Now there are these four things especially requisite in a good Watchman 1. A Watchman must be a man of Counsel and Judgment able to discern between good and evil Friends and Enemies He must know the bounds and extent of his Commission Watching is the work of the eye therefore surely blind men can never be good Watchmen 'T is true there are a generation whom the world applauds for wise understanding knowing men and these are Watchmen too But David tells us what it is they watch for Psal 4.6 Who will shew us any good and the next verse specifies what good it is they watch for even the excrease of their corn and wine And Christ himself tells us whereto such wisdom comes at last Luk. 12.20 Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee Others there are that are wise and watchful too but it is to do evil Eph. 4.14 That lie in wait to deceive Others that are wise in their Generations but are such as David complains of Psal ●19 95 The wicked have waited for me to destroy me Of this sort were they that met with the Spouse Cant. 5.7 That watch to wound and to smite Whose feet run to evil and make haste to shed innocent blood Isa 59.7 These as wise as they are are none of God's ●ut the Devil's Watchmen Here is not only ●he Serpents Craft but his Nature his Venom and his Curse too But I shall tell you through Gods assistance more fully in what follows wherein the work and wisdom of your Christian watch lies Only in general know by the way that your wisdom consists in the Choice of your work and in the management of your Choice And it is a supernatural wisdom a self-denying flesh-displeasing wisdom it is a simple innocent and in a word a heavenly wisdom which is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie Jam. 3.17 2. VVatch men must be men of Courage Alas Christians you know not what you may meet with on your watch nor how you may be ●ut to it Men are not set to watch but in dangerous times See then that ye walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exactly or warily because the dayes are evil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 difficult dangerous as well a● sinful Eph. 5.15 VVatchmen must be resolved men Your work is of publick concernment and therefore you must be men of publick spirits VVatching is night-work Watchman what of the night Isa 21.11 And nights are dark and cold and perillous Now what are your resolutions How are you arm'd for this Night-work God hath already le● you through the Caput Vigiliarum some o● the first Watches of this sad night with what undaunted zeal have you stood your ground against all opposers and oppositions where are the Prizes you have taken May you not say with