Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	body_n	zeal_n	zealous_a	11	3	8.1889	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91526	Jewish hypocrisie, a caveat to the present generation. Wherein is shewn both the false and the true way to a nations or persons compleat happiness, from the sickness and recovery of the Jewish state. Unto which is added a discourse upon Micah 6.8. belonging to the same matter. / By Symon Patrick B.D. minister of the word of God at Batersea in Surrey.	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.	1660 (1660)	Wing P817; Thomason E1751_1; Thomason E1751_2; ESTC R203168	156,691	423

many c. Or if we render it with others Did not be who is one make it i. e. the covenant of marriage and he hath abundance of spirit still to breath into our seed And wherefore did that one make that order that a man should cleave to his wife but that he might have a godly seed and therefore take heed what you do in putting away your wives and taking others for hereby you offend him that breaths the spirit of life into us Or if we take it as others interpret it their wickedness is still argued to be the greater because they boasted that they were the children of Abraham Now Did that one i. e. the first of your family do so of whose spirit we are the residue and what did that one he sought a godly seed he put not away Sarah though she was barren which to you would seem a just cause nor matched with an Idolater that he might have issue Or if we receive that rendring of the words which the learned De Dieu prefers above all the rest it argues them of great inhumanity and that they had not common good nature in them which makes the sin still greater No one would do thus that had but any reliques of the spirit of God in him and therefore much less they that seek a godly seed as you pretend to do You see that he might well call this covering violence with his garment ver 16. because it was such a wrong to those that by the Laws of God and nature deserved better at their hands To spread ones garment or ones skirts over a woman is a phrase in holy writ for to marry her Ruth 3.9 Ezek. 16.8 By taking therefore of a strange woman into their society which was engaged before to another they did as it were marry to violence and contract a relation with injustice Or as the forenamed author thinks it should be translated Violence covered their garments i. e. when as they ought still to have cast their garments of love and protection over their wives violence and wrong did cover those garments their marriage was an act of injustice and their skirts which they spread over strangers were all over stained with cruelty hard-heartedness and oppression 5. And Zachary tells us by way of prophesie what should be in after times toward the end of this Nation and what manner of Rulers should be over the people He compares their Shepherds i. e. Governours as I have shewn before unto young Lyons who do not use to protect but to devour the sheep Zach. 11.3 And he calls the people the flock of slaughter ver 4. whom he is bid to instruct either because they were to be destroyed by the armies of their enemies or because they were a prey unto their Governours According as it follows ver 5. Their possessors slay them and they hold themselves not guilty Yea to such a confidence were they arrived in these sins that they Bless God for the riches which they had got in this sort They had some devotion you see left though no honesty nor goodness God is intituled to all wicked possessions and acquisitions that he may make them good and defend them against all the clamors of men and the suits of their own conscience And it seems the people were very bad also for ver 6. he threatens them that he would have no more pitty on them then their Rulers had but let them destroy one another by seditions and at last deliver them all into the hands of the King that oppressed them who should be so far from taking any pastoral care of them that he should only slay and devour them as you may read v. ●6 6. And some understand by that King the Roman Caesar to whom they made themselves a prey by such sins as those I have been treating of That long Captivity which indures to this day had its way prepared by their avarice and cruelty as those acquaint us upon whom the spirit of prophecy was again poured forth For our Lord coming and reproving the chief of that generation when he lived for devouring widdows houses for extortion rapine and blood for covetousness and oppression for being without natural affection and the like sins while they made long prayers and pretended a great deal of sanctity and religion He declaring also that faith judgement mercy and the love of God were more to be regarded then their strict observation of dayes and the multitude of sacrifices They out of a great zeal for their religion which they thought he did not speak honourably enough concerning most shamefully put him to death I believe they took themselves to be very religious persons and were zealous in what they did only their zeal was not equally dispensed nor conveyed alike through the whole body of duties that God commanded Their heat was like the flushing in mens faces or the burning in their hands which we do not take to be an argument of a good temper but rather a sign that there are obstructions as the ordinary language calls them in the body so that there is not a free motion of the vital blood in all the parts I mean they spent so much zeal in a few things that they left no warmth of affection for other most necessary duties In those things their heat was staid and stopt which made them of an extraordinary high colour and to have the repute in the world of very great Saints and most vertuous persons Yea they themselves gazed so much upon this flame that they took no notice how cold they were in matters of common honesty but they committed all iniquity in a comfortable belief that they were good men and most beloved of God Their great zeal for the Sabbath and such like matters made them take themselves for pious and devout persons but the partiality and particularity of it whereby it remained there confined made them really to be such as our Saviour calls Hypocrites which appellation they took in such disdain that they conspired his death who would not let such as they pass for godly men 7. And are Christians to this day more reformed who have inherited their promises I wish I could say that we are as free from covetousness rapine and unmercifulness as the Pharises were from Sabbath-breaking and Idolatry R. D. Kimchi upon Hos 2.19 20. hath confessed a great deal of that truth which I have endeavoured to illustrate but I can only wish that the latter part of his gloss were found as true as the former part hath proved He saith those words cannot have a compleat sense till the time of the Messiah and that God uses the word betroth three times because of the 3. captivities after which God doth as it were marry them to himself but in the dayes of the Messiah after a more excellent manner then in former times For when they came out of Aegypt he did not betroth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for

of these devotions When you come to appear before me who hath required this at your hands c. The Sabbaths the calling of Assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even the solemn meeting your new moons c. are a trouble to me I am weary to bear them c. And he bids them if they intend that he should speak kindly to them and be friends with them that they should cease to do evil learn to do well and put away the evil of their doings from before his eyes Isa 1.11 12 13 c. Strange indeed it was and worse then all the rest that they should see so much reason to do all those things and yet see no reason to be good But they were like to most men now who will have God to be pleased with what pleases them and gives no great distaste to their natures but will part with nothing that they dearly love though it be the greatest offence to him Very desirous they were to give God content by sacrifices and make him satisfaction even for the most secret sins if we may believe themselves For the burnt-offerings as some of them say was to expiate for the thoughts of the heart or in their phrase for that which goes up in the heart but they forgot what Isaiah saith in another place Isa 55.7 that unless the unrighteous man forsake his thoughts and return to the Lord he will not have mercy on him 4. And the Christian world still depends on their prayers which are their daily sacrifices and on their Alms which are another offering unto God and upon their Altar as the Lords Table may be called where they represent Christs sacrifice of himself I heartily wish there were more of all these acts of Religion exercised but if Prayer do but hallow our unjust and unrighteous actions and if Alms be but a bribe for the passing by of our drunkenness and debauchery and if the Table of the Lord be but the putting of a complement upon him after we have many wayes offended him and continue still to sin against him we shall but still maintain and propagate to posterity that false and hypocritical spirit against which God hath of old expressed so much hatred But of this and concerning the ends and uses of Sacrifices See the Sermon hereto annexed more hereafter CAP. VII 1. The sins that we forsake must never be again embraced 2. And without this perpetual forsaking all our strictnesses about Religious performances will not avail us though done out of conscience 3. Let every man make a judgement of himself by what hath been said 1. AND now I might shew that as God expects a through reformation in all things which I have already often suggested and shall more fully ere long demonstrate so we must continue in that state and not put away our sins only for a short time till we think that Gods anger is passed over us and will not fall down upon us To be good for a while after we have fasted confessed our sins and prayed will not quite turn away his wrath though it may deferr it That which God expects is an eternal divorce between us and our sins and that we seek him with our whole heart so as to continue in well doing For else with our return again to folly the stripes which are for the back of fools will return also And commonly the case is more dangerous and the disease harder to cure when we do relapse after we were pretty well recovered and the rods which before were prepared for us will be turned into scorpions But the holy Story is so clear in this that he must be much unacquainted with the condition of this people in all those times that doth not see it and therefore knowing every one can furnish himself with proofs enough if he do but read any one Book of their History I shall herein spare my further labour 2. I might take occasion likewise here to show that though all this be done out of conscience and we would not for any good omit these performances but out of a kind of honesty we observe dayes of fasting times of confession and constant prayer and have pious intentions in the business yet this will not procure our good acceptance But it is plain enough in the temper of this people as I noted in the beginning of this discourse You could not have hired them to have laid down these Fasts and when they could not offer sacrifices at the Temple they were very constant in their prayers at those times that they used to be offered And because they could not in their captivity offer those sacrifices that are commanded to be added on the eight dayes of the Feast of Tabernacles to the constant sacrifices Numb 29. they used certain peculiar prayers which they retain to this day which they recited at that time that those sacrifices used to be offered at the Temple calling the time wherein they recited them Musaph V. Buxt in voc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. an additament to their ordinary devotions And they were very scrupulous in their consciences also a thing that many please themselves in very much as a mark of piety and they came to the Prophet as men do now to the Minister for to be resolved Very loth they were to displease God by the neglect of such good duties and if it were his pleasure they would still perform them but alas poor souls this was the hypocrisie the Scripture so much speaks of the finer sort of hypocrisie that carries so many to Hell in a pleasing belief that they are going to Heaven They were serious and zealous in some things but not in all and so they did but in good earnest as we say and in a more sober way set themselves to cheat their souls They fasted very severely they mourned very bitterly knocked their breasts heartily confessed devoutly and prayed earnestly and sacrificed plentifully but yet they did not search and try their wayes to turn again unto the Lord they did not every one put away the evil of their doings and so all their zeal in the former things instead of doing them good wrought their greater mischief by making them confidently to account themselves Religious persons and to be angry with the Prophets who would perswade them to the contrary 3. It were well now if every one before he read any further would examine his own heart and give himself an account whether he have done thus much as the peple of the Jews did and then whether he have done any more There are not many it is like that have thus fasted and wept and prayed either for their own good or the good of their Nation and at what a vast distance are they from Gods favour who are not come to the porch of his house no are not in the way to become his servants But I doubt they are very hard to be found one perhaps of

for some water and bid every one of them wash and the Boyes rubbing their faces pretty hard as they used to do but the girls only gently sleeking them over or scrarce touching them with their fingers he easily knew the difference Even so howsoever men may dissemble their natures and put themselves into such a dress of Religion as if they were no less masculine and strong Christians then others yet you will find them to be so tender to themselves in the washing and purifying of themselves from some filthiness or other that they will soon discover their effeminate constitution 6. For Religion consists not only in acts of worship whereby men may smooth their faces and give them a superficial gloss but in the through scowring of their souls from all evil habits which stick so fast unto them It makes us not only to bow our bodies and study the neater and more complementall performances but to undertake the rougher and severer duties to bow our souls before God and to purge our hearts from all that is offensive to his eyes and hinders him from embracing of us Where the Gospell comes in truth saith Erasmus very well it makes people more obedient to their Magistrates In praefat ad suum Ecclesiast more observant of the Laws Lovers of Peace and haters of War Husbands and wives agree better children are more obedient to parents and servants to Masters no workman but performs his task with greater fidelity nor tradesman but doth as he would be done by and to speak in a word all men will become more kind and slow to revenge less greedy of the world and more sober in the enjoyment of it 7. And give me leave from that excellent man to present you with a sum of Christian Doctrine which he would have a learner of Religion to keep alwayes in his eye He must think that Christ was an heavenly teacher De ratione verae Theol. that came to purchase a people that should depend on heaven and not trust in this world as those that were in another manner rich wise noble potent and happy then the world is A people that should by contempt of the world attain a felicity that others seek after by enjoying of it A people of a single eye ignorant of all envy malice and spite That should be void of all lust and meditating an Angelical life in this flesh Not makeing divorces as being a people that could either mend any thing or else bear it That should not swear as not distrusting nor deceiving any That should not seek after money as having their treasures in heaven That should not be tickled with vain glory as referring all to the glory of Christ their Saviour That should not be ambitious as knowing the greater they were the more they should do for Christ and the lower they should submit to all for his sake That should not be angry when provoked or give ill language much less take revenge as being men that must return good for evil That must be of such an innocent life that heathens themselves should approve of them That must be of a childlike purity as being born again That should live like the birds and Lillies from day to day That should perfectly agree among themselves as members one of another That should do all Christian offices one for another helping others in need bearing of their burdens or making them lighter by their officious love That should be so taught by the Spirit so live after the example of Christ that they should be the salt of the earth the light of the world a city set upon an hill To whom this life seems vile and immortality most desirable That should fear neither tyranny nor Death nor the Devil himself trusting in Christ only That should alwayes be ready to die and give an account This is the scope of Christs doctrine and such men we are to labour more and more that we may grow Haec sunt authoris nostri dogmata nova quae nulla Philosophorum familia tradidit These are the new principles of the Author of our Faith which no sect of the Philosophers hath delivered This is the new wine to be committed only to new bottles 8. All this Christ expressed in his life and doth but desire us to follow his Example He was so innocent that the false witnesses who were suborned for the purpose could not tell how handsomely to accuse him He was so meek that he was led like a sheep to the slaughter So free he was from covetousness that he had nothing nor affected any thing that we can hear of He was so humble that he washed his disciples feet So free from ambition that he would not be made a King when the people would have crowned him He stuck not to die the death of the Cross When they buffeted him he returned not their stroaks when he was reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to the righteous judgement of God And hereunto are we called 1 Pet. 2.21 22 23. because Christ suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps Who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth All this that I have said from him may be thus reduced into some order by considering that our Religion teaches us to cross all our own desires and to be wholly at the will of our Lord and master To believe what he reveals and to obey what he commands to fear only what he threatens and to hope for nothing but what he promises And our Desires being either sinfull or only natural it teaches us to deny our selves in both To fast as well as to be sober to be content with poverty as well as not to be covetous to bear disgrace as well as not to hunt after vain glory to indure pain patiently as well as to despise unlawfull pleasures to suffer oppressiion as well as to forbear to oppress and domineer over others to put up wrongs as well as not to do wrong to our neighbour to lie quietly on a sick bed as well as not to abuse health to submit to persecution as well as to be innocent 9. The Devil hath no way to hinder those that read the Scripture seriously from minding these things but by making them look upon it as a Book that teaches them to be knowing rather then good to dispute rather then to live And thus the Pharisees cozened themselves who studied this Holy Writ to make them subtile and wise very curious and nice about several cases that might be argued in the ceremonial Law but they did not look upon it as a Book that should make them like to him that made it There they learnt to oppose the Sadduces who denied another life more then they did to attain that life by opposing and subduing all their lusts And so at this day men read the Scriptures to defend their opinions to uphold