Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	blessing_n	child_n	parent_n	2,162	5	9.2185	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33474	Vox corvi, or, The voice of a raven that thrice spoke these words distinctly, Look into Colossians the 3d and 15th : the text it self look'd into and opened in a sermon preached at Wigmore in the county of Hereford : to which is added serious addresses to the people of this kingdome, shewing the use we ought to make of this voice from heaven / by Alex. Clogie.	Clogie, Alexander, 1614-1698.	1694 (1694)	Wing C4724; ESTC R26607	70,214	178

or Christ many of them yet what should that do here in the midst of other Duties pertaining to Man Christ being not named Therefore I will speak of it in that sense which in my Conscience I take it was ment m. Be ye thankful Be not unkind and ungrateful to those that have deserved well at your hands Q. What is the thankfulness that is here required R. It may be described a willing acknowledging and readiness to requite Benefits and good Turns received I did not say a Requital for many times there is no Power or Means so to do but at least there is Readiness to do it and Mind of the good Turn if either of these fail there is a Defect in Thankfulness The occasion of Thankfulness is a Benefit received the greater Benefit calls more Thanks which hath diversity from the Person 1. Sometimes we are wholly prevented in receiving before we have shewed any occasion 2. Sometimes again we are first in some Office but are exceeded in the answering the same 3. Sometimes the Persons are Superiors or Equals of such quality I mean as there is no great odds between the Donor and Receiver To the First and Second of each Thankfulness is the more to be shewed I mean we are more beholding inasmuch as there is less desert on our part and in the one nothing at all I would speak plainly 1. To our Parents Ministers and Masters in Learning there is no Office we could shew to deserve Kindness therefore to them we must be more bound to be thankful So to a Stranger that shall first upon some acquaintance no expectation of Requital bestow only upon us in the same measure of Beneficence our Debt is more than to one that we have or may be helpful or shew duty to again 2. To our Superiour being kind we owe more gratitude than to our Equal as Ishbosheth David 2 Sam. 19. 30. 28. 3. Even the Value of the Benefit adds some degree unto our Debt of Thankfulness most our selves as Paul writes to Philemon v. 19. Albeit I do not say unto thee how thou owest unto me even thine own self besides 4. And the Speediness sometimes adds to our Debt especially if it be at the first knowledge of our Want or Desire and perhaps expects not our moving the Matter or if at our Suit be given undelaiedly Beneficium qui cito dat bis dat He gives twice that gives speedily 5. But most of our debt of Thankfulness comes from the Mind of the Donor as proceeding from greater Love though there be by reason of want of power less worth in the good Turn We are then to be taught here Doctr. That to all those that have been Instruments of God's Providence to procure good unto us we are to owe Thankfulness they are so many Blessings of God to us That which the Queen of Sheba once affirmed before Solomon is very true The Instruments of God's Blessings are the Arguments of his Love to us Because the Lord loved Israel for War therefore made he the King to do Judgment and Justice 1 Kings 10. 9. 1. The first duty of Thankfulness that under God we owe is to our Parents which is so necessary that the Apostle would not have the Widows to be chosen to the service of the Church that had Children to maintain them and perform duty to them Let them saith he recompence their Ancestors So the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies For that is good and acceptable before God 1 Tim. 5. 4. The Greek Elegantly expresseth this by a Metaphor taken from the Stock 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‑ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which feedeth her aged Parents and carries them upon her shoulders and in that regard in the Hebrew Tongue is called Chasida that is pious and merciful Let all Children hear this and as they will have the blessing of their Parents and of God that is tender of their honour learn it and fail not to praise it as Joseph did Gen. 45. 10. There will I nourish thee when he sent for his aged Father from the famished Land of Canaan to come into Goshen the most fertile Soil in all the Land of Egypt 2. So we are to be thankful to the Ministers of the Gospel to whom God hath committed the word of reconciliation that break the bread of life unto us that have the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven committed to their trust that administer unto us the Seals of the Covenant of Grace according to Christ's Institution that watch over our Souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief as the Apostle speaks Heb. 13. 17. 3. To our Teachers and Masters as Philemon owned himself to Paul v. 19. To our Benefactors to our Friends to all that are loving and kind to us David sent a Present of Thankfulness of the Spoyl of the Enemies of the Lord to all those places where David himself and his men were wont to lament in his Exile 1 Sam 30. 26. 3. He makes diligent inquiry Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul that I may shew him kindness for Jonathon's sake whose love to him was wonderful passing the love of women to their Husbands or Children 2 Sam. 9. 1. His thankfulness to the Living for the Dead's sake to the Child for his Fathers sake is again recorded Then said David I will shew kindness to Hanun the son of Nachash as his father shewed kindness unto me and David sent to comfort him by the hand of his servants for his father 2 Sam. 10. 2. What this kindness was the Scripture mentions not nor when it was shewed for David in his flight from Saul fled first to Achish King of Gath then to the King of Moab And he said unto the King of Moab Let my father and mother I pray thee come forth and be with you till I know what God will do for me and he brought them before the King of Moab and they dwelt with him all the while that David was in the hold He durst not trust them to Saul's mercy in Bethlehem that had exercised such barbarous cruelty upon the Priests of the Lord and to the City of No● without any just cause 1 Sam. 22. 17. 20. Possibly the King of Moab might shew some such kindness to David out of his hatred of Saul that had given him a great Overthrow 1 Sam. 11. 11. But whatsoever the matter was that had obliged David he was not unmindful of it but studied to requite it to his Son Hanun though ill entertained and misinterpreted to his destruction and his Countries The first Ambassadors that David sent after the Solemnity of his Coronation was over is thus recorded And David sent Messengers to the men of Jabesh Gilead and said unto them Blessed be ye of the Lord that you have shewed the kindness to your Lord even unto Saul and have buried him and now the Lord shew

Look into Colossians the 3. v. 15 IF a dumb Beast cou'd Natur●s Silence break And Bal●am's Ass at Heaven's Command cou'd speak Let 's wonder less that the same God cou'd reach The Voice of Ravens his great Truth to Preach ●ut 't is his own kind Call no less a Grace Than to invite us his Rich Peace ●'embrace V●ion and Love Oh happy Is●ael When in Thy Gates such Heavenly Guests can dwell VOX CORVI OR THE Voice of a Raven That Thrice spoke these Words distinctly Look into Colossians the 3d. and 15th The Text it self look'd into and opened in a Sermon Preached at VVigmore in the County of Hereford To which is added Serious Addresses to the People of this Kingdom shewing the use we ought to make of this Voice from Heaven By Alex. Clogie Minister of Wigmore c. Licensed according to Order Matth. 21. xviii And Jesus saith unto them Yea have ye never read Out of the M●uths of Babes and Sucklings thou hast perfected Praise London Printed by W. B. And are to be sold by R. Baldwin at the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane and by most Booksellers in London and Westminster 1694. TO THE Christian Reader THis following Discourse is presented to thy Perusal under a double Recommendation not only as containing so Evangelical a Blessing as the Peace of God in the Text offer'd to thee our heartiest endeavours for the obtaining whereof is so much our highest Christian Importance and Duty but likewise more particularly the Occasion that gave the Reverend Preacher the choice of this Text which first in the plain matter of Fact take as follows On the 3d. of February 1691. about Three in the Afternoon this Reverend Divine a Person of the venerable Age of Eighty Years and Forty of those a Laborious Teacher of God's Word in the Parish of Wigmore in the County of Hereford being in the Hall of his own House being with the Pious Matron his Wife some Neighbours and Relations together with two small Grand-Children of his in all to the number of Eight Persons Thomas Kinnersley one of the said Grand-Children of but Ten Years of Age starting up from the Fire-side went out of the Hall-Door and sate himself down upon a Block by a Wood-pile before the Door employing himself in no other Childish Exercise than cutting of a Stick when in less than half a quarter of an Hour he returned into the Hall in great Amazement his Countenance pale and affrighted and said to his Grand father and Grand mother Look in the Third of the Colossians and the Fifteenth with infinite Passion and Earnestness repeating the Words no less than three times which Dep●rtment and Speech much surprizing the whole Company they asked him what he meant by those words who answered with great Ardency of Spirit That a Raven had spoken them Three times from the Peak of the Steeple and that it look'd towards W. W.'s House and shook its Head and Wings thitherward directing its Looks and Motions still towards that House All which words he heard the Raven distinctly utter three times and then saw it mount and fly out of sight His Grand father hereupon taking the Bible and turning to the said Text found these words And let the Peace of God rule in your Hearts to the which you are also called in one Body and be ye thankful Upon reading whereof the Child was fully satisfied and his Countenance perfectly composed agen Now as the Voice of a Ràven to speak in such a marvellous manner may seem an incredible Relation especially in an Age of such little Faith yet we do here offer these serious Considerations for the Manifestation of this real though amazing Truth First What may stagger some People viz. That the greatest and indeed only Authority in so weighty a Concern is only from the Testimony of a Child of but Ten Years old is upon due and full Examination one of the strongest Arguments of an undoubted Truth For first here were no less than Eight People of honest Credit and Reputation that heard this Declaration of the Child and were all Witnesses and Observers both of the Childs Countenance Gesture and Behaviour in the whole thing Now tho' but a Child of no more than Ten Years to come running from his Play with so alter'd and changed a Countenance and so much Vehemence of Spirit and Earnestness of Expression to press an aged Grand-father and Grandmother to so serious a work as the search of a particular Text of Scripture had something extraordinary in it Now had any Person of riper Years or any other single Authority come in the like manner and with the same Vehemency advised the Inquiry into such a Text and given any such credible Relation of hearing a Raven speak here might have been some Grounds of Suspicion in the Veracity of such a single Testimony for at those elder Years the change of Face and passion of Expression might possibly be Vizor and Artifice and consequently afford matter of Doubt and Scruple Nay possibly a Person of Maturity as knowing the Fewds and Jarrs of the Family towards which the Raven directed this Text might even out of a good and honest design have feigned such a Relation as thinking thereby to have reconciled the long Disunion and Discords of a Neighbour's House by so amazing a warning-piece for Peace and Concord as coming from the Mouth of a Raven tho' in reality a Fictitious story But in the case of a Boy all this shadow of Doubt is utterly removed for both the forementioned change of Countenance and importunate Earnestness together with the Child 's constant Asseveration of the Truth of this astonishing Accidents were all beyond the capacity of a Child to feign or counterfeit as being a Masque morally impossible for his young Face to wear And not only so but the matter and manner of his Delivery were Alien to his Years for a poor Infant then out of doors a whitling of a Stick or some such piece of innocent Childhood to come running home on such an important Errand as indeed no less than a Message from God take it in all the Circumstances was beyond the possibility of Art or Cunning. And moreover as a thing done at Noon-day here was the plain and sensible Conviction both of the Child's Eye and Ear in the case and not as people in the Dark many times frighted and Bug-bear'd into the seeing imaginary Chimeras and Fantoms To sum up the Evidences therefore Here is possibly a full Testimony even to demonstration it self And undoubtedly the Almighty was particularly pleased to deliver this unusual Warning from Heaven only to the Ear of a Child that Innocence and Simplicity might be the greater and stronger Commissioner of his Divine Will and Pleasure on such an occasion Now the Reasons why this Reverend and Pious Divine has appeared thus in publick and so long after now above Two Years since the thing was done are these As a modest sober good Man it