Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	child_n	father_n	honour_v	1,529	5	9.1433	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12171	The bruised reede, and smoaking flax Some sermons contracted out of the 12. of Matth. 20. At the desire, and for the good of weaker Christians. By R. Sibbes. D.D.	Sibbes, Richard, 1577-1635.	1630 (1630)	STC 22479; ESTC S102404	79,256	424

wee can beare the greatest the Spirit wil joyne his shoulders to help us to beare our infirmities The Lord will put his hand to heave us up You have heard of the patience of Iob saith ●…ames wee have heard likewise of his impatiency too But it pleased God mercifully to over-looke that It yeelds us comfort also in desolate conditions as contagious sicknesses and the like wherein wee are more immediately under Gods hand Then Christ hath a throne of Mercy at our beds side and numbers our teares and our groanes And to come to the matter we are now about The Sacrament it was ordained not for Angels but for Men and not for perfect men but for weake men and not for Christ who is truth it self to binde him but because we are ready by reason of our guilty unbeleeving hearts to call truth it selfe into questions Therefore it was not enough for his goodnesse to leave us many pretious promises but he giveth us seales to strengthen us and what though we are not so prepared as we should yet let us pray as Hezekias did The Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seeke the Lord God of his fathers if hee be not cleansed according to the purification of the Sanctuary Then wee come comfortably to this holy Sacrament with much fruit This should cary us through all duties with much chearefulnesse That if we hate our corruptions and strive against them they shall not be counted ours It is not I saith Saint Paul but sinne that dwelleth in me for what displeaseth us shall never hurt us and we shall bee esteemed of GOD to be that we love and desire and labour to be What wee desire to be we shall be and what wee desire truely to conquer wee shall conquer for God will fulfill the desire of them that feare him The desire is an earnest of the thing How little incouragement will cary us to the affaires of this life and yet all the helps GOD offers will hardly prevaile with our backward natures Whence are then discouragements not from the Father for hee hath bound himselfe in Covenant to pitty us as a father pittieth his children and to accept as a father our weake indeavors and what is wanting in the strength of duty he giveth us leave to take up in his gratious indulgēce wherby wee shall honour that grace wherein hee delighteth as much as in more perfect performances 2. Not from Christ for he by office will not quēch the smoaking flaxe 3. Not from the Spirit he helpes our infirmities and by office is a Comforter Discouragements then must come from our selues and Satan who labours to fasten on us a loathing of duty and among other causes of discouragement some are much vexed with scruples even against the best duties partly by distemper of body helped by Satans malice casting dust in their eyes in their way to heaven and partly from some remainder of ignorance which like darkness breedeth feares and as ignorance of other things so especially of this mercifull disposition in Christ. The perswasion of which would easily banish false fears they cōceive of him as one sitting at a catch for all advantages against thē wherein they may see how they wrong not onely thēselves but his goodness This scrupulosity for the most part is a signe of a godly soule as some weedes are of a good soile therefore are they the more to be pitied for it is a heavy affliction and the ground of it in most is not so much from trouble of cōscience as frō sicknes of fātasy the end of Christs comming was to free us from all such groundlesse seares 2. There is still in some such ignorance of that comfortable condition wee are in under the Covenant of Grace as by it they are much discouraged Therefore we must know that weaknesses do not breake covenant with GOD they doe not betweene husband and wife and shall wee make our selves more pitifull then Christ who maketh himselfe a patterne of love to all other husbands 2. Weaknesses do not debarre us from mercie nay they incline GOD the more Psal. 78. 39. Mercy is a part of the Churches joynture CHRIST marrics her in mercie The husbands be bound to beare with the wife as being the weaker vessell and shall wee thinke hee will exempt himselfe from his owne rule and not beare with his weake Spouse 3. If CHRIST should not bee mercifull to our infirmities hee should not haue a people to serve him Put case therefore wee bee very weake yet so long as wee are not found amongst malicious opposers and underminers of GODS truth let us not give way to despairing thoughts wee have a mercifull Saviour But lest we flatter our selves without groūd we must know that weaknesses are accounted either 1. imperfections cleaving to our best actions or 2. such actions as proceed from want of age in CHRIST whilest we are Babes or 3. from wāt of strength where there hath beene little meanes or 4. they are sudden indeliberate breakings out contrary to our generall bent and purpose whilest our judgement is overcast with the cloud of a sudden temptation After which 1 we are sensible of our infirmity 2 we grieve or it 3 and from griefe complaine and with complaining strive and labour to reforme and in labouring get some ground of our corruption There be some almost invincible infirmities as forgetfulnesse heavinesse of spirit sudden passiōs feares c. which though naturall yet are for the most part tainted with sinne of these we are weary and would faine shake them off as a Sickman his Ague otherwise it is not to bee esteemed weaknesse so much as wilfulnesse and the more will the more sinne and little sins when God shall awake the conscience and set them in order before us will prove great burthens and not onely bruise a Reed but shake a Cedar Yet GODS children never sinne with full will because there is a contrary Law of the minde whereby the Dominion of sinne is broken which alwaies hath some secret working against the Law of sinne Yet there may bee so much will in a sinfull action as may wonderfully waste our comfort afterward and keepe us long upon the racke of a disquieted Conscience GOD in his fatherly dispensation suspending the sense of his love So much as we give way to our wils in sinning in such a measure of distance we set our selves from comfort Sin against conscience is as a theefe in the Candle which wasteth our joy and thereby weakneth our strength We must know therefore that wilfull breaches in Sanctificatiō wil much hinder the sense of our Iustification What course shall such take to recover their peace Such must give a sharp sentence against them selves and yet cast themselves upon GODS mercy in CHRIST as at their first conversion And now they had need to claspe