Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	bind_v	law_n	moral_a	1,736	5	9.5201	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42350	The Christians labour and reward, or, A sermon, part of which was preached at the funeral of the Right Honourable the Lady Mary Vere, relict of Sir Horace Vere, Baron of Tilbury, on the 10th of January, 1671, at Castle Heviningham in Essex by William Gurnall ...	Gurnall, William, 1617-1679.	1672 (1672)	Wing G2258; ESTC R10932	62,221	185

which imports the hardest of labour Negotium quod nos caedit quasi vires frangit saith an Etymoligist and this we may conceive to pre-occupate an Objection of such that could be willing to do some work but afraid of meeting with too much labour Secondly Here is the reward that sweetens this labour and may make the Christian more easily submit unto it For as much as ye know your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. In which first here is the certainty of the reward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knowing or ye know your labour is not in vain It is not an uncertain surmise taken up by a self-flattering hope from some easie ground of a weak fortassis or may be but ye know it upon infallible grounds ye doubt no more of the being of another World where God will reward his faithful labourers then ye do of the being of this which you see with your bodily eyes and live at present in Here you know it though here you do not receive it Secondly the transcendency of this reward 't is a great reward as well as sure For there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this Phrase an elegant figure in Rhetorick wherein more is meant than is spoken the words sound low but the sense is high You shall not lose your labour that is you shall be infinite gainers by it you shall receive a reward greater than now you can conceive Thus in our own Language we are wont to speak when we would make one willing to do a work we set them about we 'll say to him you shall not repent doing of it you shall not be a loser or work for nothing in which we intend more than we express that it shall redound to his great advantage Thus here under this expression your labour is not in vain is intended no less than Heaven that exceeding great and eternal weight of glory which no tongue of men or Angels can express how great it is First of the first the nature or quality of the Christians work his work is a labour and so will every one find it that means to be faithful in doing of it Man is born to labour and the Christian is not born again to be idle God sends not his servants into the World as a Play-house but Work-house and such a work it is which he appoints them as is not an idle mans business that may be done sitting at his ease on the chair of sloth but requires his greatest pains and diligence therefore Christianity is in Scripture compared to the most toylsom imployments is it a labour to run a race which strains all parts of a mans body what is it then to run this spiritual race which is every step of the way up-hill and straineth not legs and lungs as the other doth but faith and patience which is a harder exercise Is the Husbandmans work laborious to plow up his stiff ground and with many a weary step to go sowing his heavy land especially in a wet season what then is the Christians labour who is to plow on the Rock to break up an heart by nature harder than stone and whose whole life is a wet seed-time he living in a Valley of tears Is the Souldiers work laborious and hazardous who must be content to lye hard and fair hard and which is more prepare for hard blows and knocks yea wounds and death it self then the Christians cannot be easie who must deny himself and take up his Cross and follow Christ and that cheerfully amidst all his losses and crosses For this Captain non amat gementem Militem loves not a Souldier that followeth him groaning and grumbling But for the further clearing and amplifying this point it will not be amiss to descend to some particulars to discover what it is that makes the Christians work so laborious and difficult and in the next place why God hath charged Religion with so much labour and so many difficulties First of the first The vast circumference of his duty the more strings an Instrument hath the more art is required to handle it well the larger the Field is the more labour it will cost him that is to Till it in a word the greater the Servants charge is and the more business which lies upon his hánds the more care is needful to tend it and where the care must be great the labour cannot be little because care is it self one of the greatest labours O how great then is the Christians labour whose care and duty has no less compass than the commandment of God which is of such vast comprehension that the Psalmist who saw an end of all perfections could see no end of it Psalm 119.96 I have seen an end of all perfections but thy commandment is exceeding broad The Commandment here includes both Law and Gospel and the Christians duty extends to yea diffuseth it self over both First the Law Moral this is bound upon the Christian in point of duty to make it his rule as strictly as it was upon innocent Adam himself though not upon such strait conditions and dismal consequences The Christian is bound to it upon peril of contracting sin though not of incurring death and damnation the Christian hath no more liberty to transgress the Law than Adam had though he hath a promise of pardon upon repentance when he hath sinned which Adam had not how indeed can we imagine that Christ who was made a curse for sin would come to be a cloak to sin now is it an easie work for the Christian to keep his heart in a sincere compliance with and respect to this Law in his daily walking a Law which is so large as reacheth from Heaven to Earth commanding us to keep a conscience void of offence to God and Man a Law so pure and precise that forbids all sin omissions of good as well as commissions of evil that indites him for a Murderer that doth not feed his Brother yea his Enemy as well as he that stabs him to the heart him that doth not pray to God as well as him that doth curse him the barren Heath without good fruit as well as the Dunghil-life of the profane sinner filled with the stinking weeds of gross crimes that condemneth sudden passions as well as deliberate sins that bindeth the soul to its good behaviour as well as the hands Is it an easie thing to hate every false way to be ready to every good work to have respect to every Command which yet he must have that will not be put to shame Psal 119.6 willing in all things to live honestly Yet this he must do that will keep a good conscience Heb. 13.18 is not here enough to fill the Christians head with care and his heart continually with an holy fear and trembling But this is not all his work for secondly the Evangelical Law is also bound upon the Christian the sum of which the Apostle gives us in

these two comprehensive duties Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ and are these to be got or exercised when got without labour When the poor Christian hath done his utmost to keep the Law how far short doth he fall of that exact Rule Now these deficiencies and obliquities call for repentance and is it easie for him to comply with this duty is it easie to rifle his conscience and search his own heart so impartially as if he forgot it was his own house he was searching and his own shame he was to discover yet this is a necessary antecedent to the act of repentance how can he correct the Errata's or faults of a book that never read nor examined it and to do it surely will cost some pains I confess this review the Christian is to make is more easily done when he doth it daily and examines his life if I may so say sheet by sheet as it is printed off in every particular days conversation but even this is a labour too heavy for a slothful heart to endure is it easie when the poor creature hath found out his many sins and failings upon this review to get his heart into a melting frame and sorrowful sense of his ingratitude and disingenuity to God in them so as to throw up those sweet morsels with more bitterness of spirit than they were swallowed down with pleasure In a word Is it easie for the poor Christian to get these Inmates out of doors which he hath so unadvisedly let in to clear his affections of that poyson with which these his sins have infected them Is it easie to recover the strength of his resolutions which his sins must needs have much loosned and weakned The second great duty of the Gospel is Faith and this is as hard as the other for indeed the difficulty of believing makes that of repenting so hard Is it easie to assent to the truth of these Mysteries of the Gospel which are contrary to the apprehensions of corrupt reason and beyond the comprehension of the Christians most elevated understanding Is it easie for one of a wounded spirit sunk and dejected as low as Hell under the heavy sense of his guilt to lift up an eye of faith to the promise and to conceive a hope that such a Wretch as he hath been may ever find grace and favour in the eyes of a just and holy God Verily it is a wonder little less than that of the Prophets in making Iron to swim it is easie for a stupid sinner indeed to dream of a pardon while Conscience is asleep but when this is once throughly awake only he that can still the waves and winds in a storm at Sea can pacifie this can give either power to believe or peace in believing Is it easie to repent and bring forth the meet fruits of it good works and not to make them the Idol of our trust not to relye on the first to procure our pardon here nor on the other to purchase our reward hereafafter but to rejoyce only in Christ Jesus as the sole entire object of our trust for both Secondly The curious Sculpture with which every Duty in Religion must be engraved to render it acceptable to God a miscarriage in any of which is like an hair on the writers pen enough to mar and blot his fairest copy for bonum ex integris First every duty in Religion to render it acceptable to God must spring from a supernatural principle It is not labour in the Lord except the labourer himself be in the Lord. Actio sequitur vitam a carnal man can do no other than a carnal action though the matter of it be spiritual A dead state can have no other but dead works a corrupt Tree cannot bring forth good fruit Mat. 7.12 Secondly the Christians work must be performed with an holy fervor Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently Psalm 119.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 valde vehementer The word is emphatical importing an exerting the utmost force of our Souls Zeal is the religious part of our affections the first-born and strength of a mans spirit and therefore God sets it apart for himself as his peculiar portion fervent in spirit serving the Lord without this he accounts himself slighted not served and accordingly deals with such cold servitours giving them as cold welcom as they do him service cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord negligently If we would repent we must be zealous and repent Rev. 2. v. 2. if hear the word we must be swift to hear if pray it must be an effectual fervent prayer or else it is but thuribulum sine prunis a censure without fire If we would give an alms we must draw out our soul as well as our purse to the hungry Now those imployments are counted most laborious to which most strength and force must be put and those which intend the powers of the soul more than such as strain the limbs of the body the Scholars labour in his study is more spending than the Plow-mans in the field What then is the Christians labour which exerts the zeal and heat of his spirit O how hard is it to kindle or kindled to keep this heavenly fire alive on a hearth so damp and cold as our heart is Thirdly the Christians work must be done from a right motive to a right end First a right motive from obedience to the will of God and that such as springs from the love of God he doth not Gods work that doth not obey him and he doth not obey him that doth not love him that only being true obedience which is hearty obedience Ye have obeyed him from the heart and that only hearty obedience which is loving for love hath the regency of the heart and it goes only whither love carrieth it O how hard is this where there is so much of the slave even in those that are children where Hagar so oft overtops Sarah's servile fear our filial affection Secondly it must be to a right end it is in vain to wind up the watch if it be not set to the right figure or to draw the Arrow though to the head if the Archers eye direct it not to the right mark Zeal winds up and draws forth the powers of the soul it makes the Christian act vigorously and forcibly but if sincerity which is the singleness of the souls eye be not present to direct it ultimately to the glory of God the labour is in vain the faster a man goes when out of his way the worse for the faster he goes the further he hath to come back he that is slothful in the Lords work doth displease him but he that makes a great bustle in Religion and by this his activity calls others eyes to behold his zeal yet secretly intends his own not Gods praise provokes him more because more hypocritical in what he doth hypocrisie