Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	call_v	day_n	lord_n	3,188	5	4.3142	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36233	The preachers precept of consideration, or, Englands chief lesson and duty in this sad time of visitation wherein is contained, 1. A catalogue and collection of all the particular capital sins mentioned in Scriptures ... 2. The author's opinion and judgment, for which and why it is, that this unparallel'd visitation is now laid upon us / delivered in the parish church of St. Katherine Coleman, London, upon the monthly fast-days set apart for humiliation, by His Majesties special command.	Dobson, Jeremiah.	1665 (1665)	Wing D1799; ESTC R32815	35,607	45

proof of the Point 3. To bring all home to our selves in an effectual Application 1. For the first of these Consideration in general It is a deliberate serious Act of the practical part of mans Vnderstanding Explication whereby he reflects and museth upon both his own Actions and Gods Dispensations and by comparing the one with the other in the Court of Conscience and according to the Rule of Gods holy Will revealed in his Word he draws up Conclusions against himself and secretly takes up good Resolutions to justifie God and to repent and reform himself 2. As for the Subject matter of it it may be considered either more generally or more specially More generally the subject matter of our Consideration should be the visible causes and consequences of things the evident Outgoings of God in the world and the present Operations of his hands and that both more privately as to our selves as well as more publickly as to the Church and State where we live all things indeed that happen either to our selves or others that we are any way related unto whether casually and accidentally so far as we can see or by an apparent hand of Providence More specially in the day of adversity the time here specified in my Text the Subject matter of our Consideration should be these five things following 1. The Affliction it self the Evil Disaster or Visitation whatever it be that is befalne us 2. The Author and the Dispenser of it 3. The Ground or the procuring and Meritorious Cause of it 4. The End or the minde and meaning of God therein 5. The good way and means that we are to use that so it may be removed from us or at least we may have it sanctified to us I content my self with the bare naming of these things here in the Explication because I intend to inlarge my self to the full upon them in the Application 3. Now the two Circumstances of most convenient Time and Pl●ce follow And 1. For Place though it be indifferent in respect of God whether it be in the field with Isaac or in the house with Daniel at home or abroad walking or sitting yet I conceive that a solitary and a Place set apart for pious purposes is the most proper and fit for this Exercise And such in particular are our own private Walks and Closets to which our Saviour himself directs us Matth. 6.6 Or else the publick House of Gods Worship which (f) Heb. 10.24 25. St. Paul would have us frequent for this purpose according to the example of King David Psal 27.4 And then 2. For Time the Lords Day in particular is the most proper time in the Week and ordinarily calls upon us as well as those Solemn Days of Fasting and Humiliation do in extraordinary manner put us in minde of this duty But though it must be chiefly intended on those Holy-dayes yet it must not be neglected on other days but some time convenient must be set apart for this good work every day As for the hour or precise space of time in the day each mans own Experience must instruct him and his Occasions direct him whether to take the golden hour of the Morning when he is most fresh free from distraction and fittest for Meditation And thus (g) Gen. 28.16 Jacob did Or the still hour of the Evening when he hath ended his labours which was (h) Gen. 24.63 Isaacs time Or the middest of the day which was (i) Acts 10.9 St. Peters Or else any other part of the day if not all three which as it appears were holy Davids and devout Daniels (k) Psal 55.19 Dan. 6.10 hours of devotion I mention here these two Circumstances of Time and Place because I know them to be very usefull and necessary helps and furtherances for all such as desire to perform this duty to purpose I mean so as to reap benefit and comfort by it For to say nothing of the natural aversness and indisposition of our own hearts to this good work nor yet of Satans subtil suggestions and secret opposition whereby he strives to keep us back or at least interrupt and take us off from it such and so great are most mens hinderances and distractions so many are the Obstructions and Obstacles that they meet with partly through multiplicity of business their worldly employments at home and abroad partly through the mutability of their mindes and dispositions with the instability of their affections and roving Fancies that unless some convenient Times and Places be set a part for the exercise of it it is very likely to be performed but sleightly and superficially unconstantly and unprofitably nay perhaps not at all by them There is as the (l) Eccl. 3.1 Wise man tells us an appointed Time for every thing else and shall then so weighty so concerning a Duty as this have no share in it which yet might justly challenge our attendance upon it at all times And as for some certain and set place 't is likewise as necessary because we shall finde the least and fewest Impediments there where we are most accustomed to draw neer to God either in Reading Prayer or Meditation Our (m) John 18.1 2. with Luk. 22.39 40. Saviour himself I am sure took this course and also used his Disciples to it and then well may we follow his and their example as an excellent means to make us both more carefull and constant in the performance of holy duties 1. I say carefull as to the manner sanctè magìs quàm scitè as he † Seneca says well in regard we have now placed our selves in the presence of God and are come to converse and make our addresses immediately to Him who is The searcher of the heart 2. Constant as to the Matter the revolution of time being a certain Remembrancer of the duty the wilful the negligent or excusatory omission whereof when the prefixed time is come is that which occasions the great unfitness and indisposition that many complain of And so I have done with the Explication Confirmation the Confirmation now follows and the Reasons of the Point are three Reas 1 1. Because To lay things seriously to heart and religiously to consider in the day of Adversity is the most proper Answer and Eccho to Gods correcting angry hand and that spiritual improvement which He expects that we should make of His chastising us The Lords voyce cryeth unto the City says the (n) Micah 6.9 Prophet and the man of Wisdom shall see thy Name hear ye the rod and who hath appointed it Whence we may gather that as God speaks to men by his Word even so He seems to call out and cry to them by the Voyce of his Rod And the principal end in the first place is to make them listen stand still and consider what is his minde and meaning thereby It is observable in that excellent Prayer of King Solomons at the

doth not not Consider Yea hence it is that though life and death good and evil as (d) Deut. 30.15 Moses speaks are set before us and put to our choice yet the generality of people in the world live as persons not at all concerned whether there be a God or no an Heaven or an Hell eternal Joyes or everlasting Torments So that a serious consideration is very good and necessary for us even at all times but the most proper season for it as Solomon tells us is the time of affliction In the time of Adversity Consider Whence the point of Doctrin that offers it self to our Consideration is this Doct. That when Gods Judgements are in the Earth and the sad tokens of his displeasure appear against a Person or a Nation then it 's a proper season for them seriously to lay things to heart and wisely to consider The guise and custom of all Atheistical Epicures and graceless Worldlings is quite contrary who when any crosses disasters or losses are in judgement inflicted upon them do not retire into their Closets and there enter into a serious meditation of the matter communing with their own hearts and considering who it is that smites them and for what but either with Cursing Oaths and Execrations they break forth into repining and murmuring against Gods dispensations towards them which many times end in Despair or else they run to the Tavern or Alehouse that so in the jovial company of good fellows they may drown the sense of all sorrow and care and thwart and non-plus if it be possible the end and design of God in punishing them His good end certainly was to humble them and reclaim them from their iniquities but they listen not to the voyce of his Rod but in laetitiam luxum prosiliunt resolve to take their full swinge in voluptuousness saying (e) Wisd 1.6 7 8 9. Let us eat and drink and enjoy the good things of this life let us Crown our selves with Rose-buds and leave tokens of our mirth and jollity in every place This is the common deportment and practice of the ungodly in time of adversity And this they are either betrayed into by their own deceitful vile carnal hearts or else they are byassed by the great and general custom of the world or else they are prompted to it by Satan who knows full well that a due and serious Consideration would take them from him and make them quickly renounce and abhor all wicked wayes And therefore it is that he doth still with all his might and subtilty strive to divert and disswade them from it as a most childish sad and dumpish melancholy course which probably may endanger their health but can otherwise do them no good Whereby it appears that the more necessary any Duty is the more opposite Satan and our false carnal hearts are thereunto For there is not a more advantagious usefull and profitable nor a more excellent heavenly and acceptable Duty as I shall shew more fully hereafter for a good Christian to be exercised in at all times and upon all occasions in all estates and conditions especially in the day of adversity than this of a serious Consideration And therefore it is that Almighty God commends it unto us so much in Scripture as a singular means to help and direct us how to steer our courses aright as Deut. 32.29 Oh that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end Psal 4.4 Stand in awe and sin not commune with your own hearts and be still Prov. 4.26 Ponder the path of thy feet and let all thy ways be established and Hag. 1.5 7. Now therefore thus saith the Lord of Hosts Consider your wayes In which remarkable place the Adverb Now and Conjunction Therefore plainly point out the Time and Occasion when and wherefore God required them to practise this duty of Consideration The Children of Israel being brought home to Jerusalem again out of their long Captivity in Babylon were exceeding backward and negligent in their carrying on the work and building of the House of the Lord. Forward enough it seems they were to erect and prepare sumptuous buildings and neat habitations for themselves the Prophet calls them cieled Houses v. 4. but the house of the Lord they let that lye waste pretending forsooth v. 2. that it was not a fit time yet to doe it This was their Crime Now the Judgment which God inflicted upon them for it was that of Famine as v. 6 9 10 11. Ye looked for much and lo it came to little and when ye brought it home I did blow upon it and why saith the Lord of Hosts because of mine House that is waste and ye run every man to his own house Therefore the Heaven over you is stayed from dew and the Earth is stayed from her fruit And I called for a drought upon the Land and upon the Mountains and upon the Corn and upon the new Wine and upon the Oyl and upon that which the ground bringeth forth and upon Men and upon Cattel and upon all the labour of the hands Surely a deplorable sad and most miserable state and condition And what is now the duty that God the great Physician of Souls puts them upon here by the Prophet and that both in order to a speedy and thorow Reformation of themselves as well as for the happy procuring of his loving kindness and gracious reconciliation towards them Why it is nothing but this Consider your wayes A duty which the Prophet Haggai seems to look back upon as an Instar omnium and therefore it is observable that he presseth no other duty upon them in the whole Prophecy Neither doth he content himself to deliver his Message authoritativè with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. thus saith the Lord of Hosts as here in this Chapter but again afterwards to inforce the same he earnestly prayes and intreats them to fall upon the speedy performance of it as Chap. 2. v. 15. to 20. Which frequent inculcation of the Precept serves to teach us two things by the way 1. The strange stupidity of the People in that they were no more affected with those manifest marks and tokens of Gods indignation no though he had snatched their very Meat out of their mouths And then 2. The great necessity of the Duty in times of distress So that when Gods Judgments are in the Earth and the sad tokens of his displeasure appear against a Person or Nation then its a proper season for them seriously to lay things to heart and wisely to consider In the prosecution of this Point I do intend to proceed in this method Method 1. By way of Explication to acquaint you with the Nature of the Duty in general as also the Subject matter thereof touching withall a little upon the two great Circumstances of most convenient Time and Place 2. By way of Confirmation to subjoyn some Reasons for the