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	law_n	moral_a	1,184	5	9.0839	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41118	Four profitable treatises very useful for Christian practise viz. I. The killing power of the law. II. The spiritual Watch. III. The new birth. IV. Of the Sabbath : all which are printed in folio, but these small pieces are intended for those that cannot go to the price of the greater volume / by the reverend Mr. William Fenner, late minister of Rochford in Essex.	Fenner, William, 1600-1640.	1657 (1657)	Wing F690; ESTC R32802	121,979	218

nation that did righteously and had not forsaken the statutes of their God they ask of me the ordinances of Justice they draw near to me saying We have fasted and thou regardest it not We see here they take delight in approaching unto God they take delight in Gods Ordinances and seek God early they can do thus and thus and are alive in all performances but that man whose spirit the law hath pulled down and the Lord hath convinced him of his infinite inability to perform the law he cannot see any livelinesse in him unto any performance Let any duty come it kills his heart I should now hear the Word of God but my heart is unprepared and my ear uncircumcised and I cannot hear aright Let an opportunity be offered to pray it kills his heart I should now call upon the Name of the Lord but I have such a cursed heart I cannot pray I cannot speak one right word before God Let an occasion be offered of holy conference it kills his heart alas saith he I want pure language my tongue was never touched with a coal from the Altar my lips have not ability to drop forth savoury speeches I am not able to speak one syllable aright to Gods glory it kills his heart he sees no life at all in him unlesse he can have life from without and ability from without he is dead all is nothing to him the law hath taken away the livelinesse that was in him But he that is not humbled by the law he is alive he hath life in himself it is nothing with him to Pray and go to Church and hear Gods Word it is nothing but thrusting to do the duty he hath life in him to do duties and wait upon God in his ordinances but when the law comes home to him it plainly lets him see that he hath no life in himself to do any good he must seek for life and ability from without else he is a dead man he can do nothing in this case David in this case cannot lookup Mine iniquities are gone over my head I cannot look up Psal 40. Moses he is a man of uncircumcised lips and cannot speak unto Pharaoh Paul cannot do any thing that is good In me dwelleth no good thing Rom. 7. And so for the rest of Gods people when the law hath killed them and laid them dead in regard of any performance they must have life from without there is no life at home no grace at home no understanding at home they must go out for all but a carnal man he is alive unto all performances Many a man is like unsavoury salt good for nothing but to throw upon the dung-hill He never received the Holy Ghost and yet he will be inducted into a living and take Pastoral Charge upon him as if he were able to performe the Duty of a Minister and take the Charge of Souls upon him So Ananias will be a husband and Saphira a wife Athalia will be a Queen and Nimrod a King and Abimelech a Judge they are alive to discharge all these duties thus men are alive the Law of God hath not killed their hearts pulled down their spirits it hath not made it appear unto them what wretched cursed creatures they are This is the second thing wherein this livelynesse consists Thirdly This livelynesse consists in a presumptuous hope he conceives that he is justified before God and that God will not damn him but forgive him his sins There is nothing can make a mans heart more full of life then to think that he is righteous before God and that God will not impute his sins unto him there is nothing can make a man more alive then this If they think they are justified before God they have then a lively hope 1 Pet. 1. 3. blessed be God saith the Apostle even the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the Resurrection of Christ from the dead So these men have a hope that makes them lively and full of life as a poor man that hath some grounded hope of an Earthly inheritance it makes the heart lively Poverty deads the heart he that hath nothing to maintain himself and those that belongs unto him it deads his heart but if he hath some hopes of an hundred pound a year and his hope is grounded if he hath sure hope of it and he makes no doubt of it it makes his heart full of life so when a man doth believe that he is in a good case that he is delivered from death that he is in the estate of grace when he hath some probability that God hath justified him from sin this breeds an hope in him of an eternal Inheritance and this hope the consideration of it makes the soul full of life There is nothing can make a man more lively then a hope that he is justified before God and that God will not impute his sins unto him Now when a carnal man conceives he is righteous before God and that God will forgive him his iniquities that God will not damn him nor count him a dead a damned man so long as a man doth imagin this he must needs be a lively man he is alive in his own apprehension nay all the delights in the world cannot make a man so ful of life as this hope It is not mens following their pleasure that makes their hearts so full of life as to have hope that the Lord doth not account them dead men that they are justified men and righteous men that they have salvation to shew for heaven and Eternall happinesse to shew for that they shall go to heaven But if now the Law were charged upon a man if he knew that he were a dead man a damned man it would pluck down his spirits and make his spirits dead for all his pleasures It is the conceit that men are justified that makes them so full of life so long as the Law doth not come home to a man and point him out in his colours and make it appear to him that he lyeth under the wrath of Almighty God that the Lord doth account him an abominable wretched creature so long as he doth not apprehend this especially if he have any good gifts and parts and qualities and moral obedience to the Law doing good duties and a general laying hold upon the promises and a hope they belong to him this makes him alive Phil. 3. 9. Paul when he was a Pharisee and did Moral Duties and performed Moral Obedience to the Law of God he thought he had righteousnesse of his own he calls it there his own righteousnesse he so apprehended of himself now this is that which makes men alive when they conceive that they have some Religion and some Grace You shall have many men and women that hate the Servants of God and yet think they are godly men and have Grace and

had the Spirit Lord take not thy holy Spirit from me Psal 51. 11. So when a man hath not the Spirit of God he should pray to God Lord Give thy holy Spirit to me and send down thy holy Spirit into my heart that may work this work in me But it may be many of you will think that you expect this and desire it and wish it and use some means I Answer Then shew it by thy coming unto God for it from day to day will any man say That Noah did expect that God should deliver him from the Deluge if he had not took that course which God appointed If he had not built an Ark certainly we may justly say That he did not look that God would deliver him Therefore it is said of Noah That as he did expect that God should keep him so being warned of God he built an Ark c. Heb. 11. 7. So when a man shall say That he looks that God should deliver him from his natural estate and condition that God should renew him by his Grace and goodness yet if a man will not prepare an Ark if when a man is Commanded and directed by God what to do yet he will not come to God to do that which should be done for him these men do but deceive their own souls and treasure up indignation against themselves I remember the story of Moses Exod. 14. when the Children of Israel were in Pi-hahiroth and the Egyptians were behind them and the Mountains were on the side that they could not pass and the Sea was before them and there was notable crying out Oh! that God would deliver them now they were dead men the Egyptians were come out to destroy them the Mountains were on the side and the Sea before them Now mark what an Answer God gives to their cry cause the people to go forward you keep a crying to me I pray go forward you are not yet at the red sea but go to the red sea and when you are there then cry to me you are idleing and lazing and mistrusting me though the red Sea be before them yet cause them to come thither and when they are there then cry for help to me So thou sayest thou desirest that God would Regenerate thee and quicken thee and turn thy heart vouchsafe thee his holy Spirit do you so I say it is very well the thing is very good but if the desire be sincere you will take that course God bids you art thou come to the utmost difficulty Are not many things to be done which thou refusest to do Must thou not seek God more and more carefully Go forward go forward if thou meanest to have help and aid from God otherwise it is in vain if thou wouldst go on in the wayes of God and do what God Commands thee thou shouldst be quickened and renewed Fourthly Another Vse is for Examination To examine our selves whether the Word of God hath wrought this for us yea or no. And the first sign is this If thou beest born again if thou hast this new Nature then it is natural to thee to do good duties to follow good courses and to yield obedience to the commandements of God it is not enough for a man to do good duties a natural man an unregenerate man may do them but whether is it natural to thee A proud man may do the actions of humility a proud man may pull off his Hat and give the time of the day and speak meanly of himself a proud man may suffer another to do him wrong and put up base language he may do these things but the man is a proud man still he hath no humble nature but the question is whether it be thy nature to do this May be thou dost these things for fear or some by-respects A worldly man may speak of heavenly things but is thy nature heavenly A man may think of God but is thy nature godly Here is the thing If a man be regenerate there is Grace got into a mans nature Jer. 31. 33. when God regenerates his people he saith He will write his laws in their inward parts he doth not only say they shall do these duties but their very hearts shall carry them their very hearts shall go to a Sermon their very souls shall go about the duties of God as it is with the fire water may heat but not by nature but it is the nature of fire to heat So if a man be Regenerate it is natural to him to do good duties Rom. 2. 14. A man by nature may do the things commanded in the Law but here is the question Whether he doth them with this new nature this heavenly nature The old creature may hear and pray and be sober and moral for by nature the Heathen did the things contained in the Law But if a man be Regenerated as he doth the things contained in the Law and Gospel so he doth them with a new nature as Deut. 5. 29. when the Children of Israel had spoken admirable speeches All that the Lord saith to us we will do they made goodly professions now mark what God saith Oh that there were an heart in this people to keep my commandments As who should say These are very good words and I know that you think what you speak but Oh that this were written in your hearts that this were natural to you this will not hold your hearts are not carried this way Secondly If the Spirit of God hath Regenerated a man then the heart begins to be a good soyl for Grace and the heart begins to be sutable so that the heart is fit for Grace A natural heart is not a proper soyl for Grace As if a man should bring a Plant from Spain and set it here in England it cannot thrive unlesse a man meet with a soyl that is fit for it So Grace if it come into the heart and the heart is not a soyl for it it can never thrive there unlesse the heart be Regenerated and unlesse there be a new nature there may be admirable things in a natural man excellent good purposes and resolutions God may come to him as a Passenger that lodgeth for a night but he is gone the next morning he may come as a sojourner to endure for a while but here is no dwelling for him these resolutions and purposes and desires cannot last long that heart will squander them away it is like the putting of a new piece into an old garment Matth. 9. 16. When a man puts a new piece into an old garment a fine new purpose into an old heart a new good desire into an old mind the rent will be worse for that man will return back again and will have his lusts and will be worse then he was before for the heart is not able to hold these 't is true in the best hearts of Gods people is a great deal of unnatural soyl