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	honour_v	parent_n	3,428	5	9.3487	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33971	Par nobile two treatises, the one concerning the excellent woman, evincing a person fearing the Lord to be the most excellent person, discoursed more privately upon occasion of the death of the Right Honourable the Lady Frances Hobart late of Norwich, from Pro. 31, 29, 30, 31 : the other discovering a fountain of comfort and satisfaction to persons walking with God, yet living and dying without sensible consolations , discovered from Psal. 17, 15 at the funerals of the Right Honourable the Lady Katherine Courten, preached at Blicklin in the county of Norfolk, March 27, 1652 : with the narratives of the holy lives and deaths of those two noble sisters / by J.C.	Collinges, John, 1623-1690.; Collinges, John, 1623-1690. Excellent woman.; Collinges, John, 1623-1690. Light in darkness.	1669 (1669)	Wing C5329; ESTC R26441	164,919	320

such a one if God hath put him or her in a subjection to them A godly child honours his Parent as his Parent A godly woman will honour and obey her husband as her head A godly person will give honour and obedience to such as are in Authority over him though possibly they may be vile persons but not as such they will in their hearts contemn their vile affections and dispositions their lewd and prophane courses whiles they give that reverence and honour to them which the Laws of Nature God and Man require with respect to the Authority with which they are clothed toward us and the subordination in which we are set towards them But it is further added He honoureth them the Hebr. is he glorifieth them that fear the Lord. Musculus observeth that it is an easie thing to contemn a vile person especially if his malice hath hurt us but it is not so easie to honour them that fear the Lord especially if they be such whose lives before have been stained with sin and they are but in the exercise of Repentance Or in case they live under wicked Magistrates and are black through persecutions Or in case they be mean and of small estate in the world But Sirs if we be such as fear the Lord our selves 1. We cannot but have a true honour and value for those in whom we see the fear of the Lord let their circumstances in the world be what they will be they never so much reviled persecuted abused be they never so mean and poor in never so vile and abject a condition But alas how few are there who fall not under the reproof of the Apostle Having the faith of God without respect of persons If one cometh near them with a gold Ring and goodly Apparel yea though Jam. 2. 1. he or she be a vile person which yet seemeth not to be the Apostles case and there come also a poor man having vile rayment have we not respect to them that have the gold Ring and the goodly Apparel and do we not despise the poor Christian that hath the vile rayment Do we not say to the former Sit thou here in a good place and to the poor Sit thou there or under my footstool Thus do we not despise the poor and in them oft-times those that fear the Lord in an eminent measure and degree and at least interpretatively as St. James saith Blaspheme that holy Name by which we are called It is our duty to value others according to the fear of the Lord in them and more or less excellent according to that degree of the fear of the Lord which we discern in any of their souls and we should do so if we truly judged the fear of the Lord. As it is the most excellent thing and the persons that fear the Lord the most excellent persons 3. Ask your selves what more excellent thing you do than others Wherein you live a more noble excellent life than others live In reason those who judge themselves the more noble and excellent persons stand obliged to live more distinguishing excellent lives ratable to their honour and dignity The Gentleman thinks himself obliged to live as a Gentleman the Noble man as a Noble man And it speaks a low and dirty spirit for any man to look upon his honour and dignity as that which gives him priviledge for a low and for did converse Christians do you live according to your order and dignity You that are Christians indeed are the excellent of the earth David calls you so reason evinceth you to be such You have ascended above all others in divine favour you excel others in spiritual gifts in what do you live ratably to your order It was our Saviours question to his Disciples What do Mat. 5. 47. you do more than others Matth. 5. 47. In what doth your conversation towards God more distinguish you Are you more in sufferings in prayers in reading the Word in hearing of it in communion with Gods people more holy more patient c. Wherein doth your conversation more shine before men Are you more humble more meek more just and exact in your dealings more free and liberal more compassionate and merciful This is to live ratably to your order and profession and if you do not do this you do not live like the most excellent persons But I proceed Thirdly What you have heard may give you 3 Branch the true notion of one fearing the Lord. The fear of God is an excellent thing and in some degree approves its self to the natural reason of men but more yet to those who in an outward Profession at least in some degree own the Scripture as the Rule of their life and conversation Hence it is that every one is a pretender to it and thinks it an high dishonour to him to be thought or discoursed of as a person not fearing the Lord. Hence you shall observe in our Law in the ordinary indictments for Felonies this is put in Such a one not having the fear of God before his eyes did this or that c. But amongst those who would be thought persons fearing the Lord we shall find that the number of such as indeed do fear him is a very small number You may judge from what you have heard who they are who indeed do fear God Our Saviour saith Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Not every one who saith he feareth the Lord doth indeed fear him How many are there that say so to whom we must reply as Samuel to Saul boasting of his obedience What then meaneth the bleating of the Sheep and the lowing of the Oxen What mean those bold and presumptious actions against the Commandments of the Lord What means that course of sin which they run that trade which they make of dishonouring God Yea and as it is not every one that faith he feareth the Lord nor is it every one that hath some dread of God upon him at some times of whom it can be said that he is a person fearing Jehovah There is so much Majesty and Power so much Greatness and Ability to punish every created Being in the Divine Being that every creature naturally dreadeth God even the Devil that hateth God yet trembleth So the Apostle tells you The Devils believe and tremble And there was never any person in the world so vile but at one time or other something of this discovered it self in him That wretched Emperour of Rome who so impudently defied the Deity yet when it thundred would run under a bed But it is not I say every one who hath some awe and terrour of God upon his spirit who can be called A person fearing God For then God said no more of Job than might have been said of Saul Ahab or Pharaoh who were made at last to reverence the Divine Majesty and to tremble before the Maker of Heaven and

houshold things which were afterwards to her and her dear husband also of extraordinary advantage Now partly by the diligence of her Governess partly by the Care of one Mr. Moor her Fathers Chaplain partly by the superintendent care of my Lord her Father she was fully instructed in the principles of Religion As to which I have often heard her with honour mention her Governess and her Noble Father Her father for seasoning her against Arminian Principles and once suspending her from the Sacrament upon his re-examination of her after that his Chaplain had passed an hasty approbation of her Her Governess for the good stories she would tell her the good counsel she would give her and her care of her information as to Religion She would alwayes say that she learned of her to be a Calvinist in point of Doctrine and a Presbyterian as to Discipline for it seemeth she was both flying her own Country for her Religion or at least the Daughter of Parents who upon the massacre so fled for truly I do not well remember every particular in her Ladyships relations though I often heard them I have often heard her discourse with a gratefull remembrance how exactly the hours of her dayes were distributed to these several kinds of instruction So as no time was left her unless a little proportion for exercise and what was assigned for her more private devotions as to which her Governess was her most faithfull monitor or for the more publick Religious Duties of the Family her presence at which was as diligently required by my Lord her father The Evangelist recordeth concerning our Luk. 2. 15. Saviour That he went down to Nazareth and dwelt with his Parents and was subject to them Indeed subjection to Parents is the greatest vertue can adorn so tender an age the want of this in our Children is often caused by our selves God ordinarily securing the Parental Authority till themselves prostitute it This Rare Lady was bred up in this subjection I have heard her say that till she was married she never more than once sate down in the presence of her Lady-mother never was allowed to stay in a room with her when she received the visits of other Ladyes c. these and many other things of like severity I remember I have had in discourse from her which now have slipt my memory She did not take a liberty like Denyal to go see the Daughters of the Land at her own pleasure Her mother was like the cloud unto her when she moved to Court the Daughter moved also when she sate at home the daughter moved not at all I have often heard her mention it to the great honour of her Mother That she would require her constant attendance upon her self both going to the Court and returning from it and she was to her mother as the Centurions servant unto him If they said unto her Go she went if they said Come she came if Do this she did it Having attained to riper years she frequently was at the Court of King James and Queen Ann and was in great favour with that Queen and King Charles the first then Prince of Wales I do not remember any thing I have heard from her much momentous as to this part of her life unless frequent sad reflexions upon her self for mispending part of many Lords dayes in masks and other Court pastimes according to the fashion of others in her circumstances This she would often mention with bitterness and honourably mention and prefer before her self one of her Noble Sisters who in her youth had a just sense of that errour and courage enough to resist the temptations to it It was the only thing in which I ever heard her repent her obedience to and attendance upon her Mother whom yet she thought exceeding pious and paid alwayes a just honour to her mention and memory which reverence she had also for her Noble Father I remember the Passion she fell into when she heard of his death though I communicated it to her with as much advantage as I could to hinder sudden passions which made me as the Jews cry out Behold how she loved him The sequel of this discourse will evidence that it is not through want of more momentous matter that I instance in these things of more minute consideration But I have the rather mentioned them to let my Readers see how far we are degenerated from the ancient culture of youth and that orderly Discipline under which those male and female Worthies were educated who have done famously in our Ephrata and what probably is one great cause of that impudent licentiousness which dishonoureth the present generation The Generous Soul of this excellent Lady was ordained to higher things than Balls and Masques and Visits It now grew time for a Plant bred under so rare a cultivation to be removed into another place That her God might have the glory and her generation the fruit of such an education Her native beauty and the rare parts she began to discover made many noble persons desire her in marriage but to shew how early she was mortified to the vanities of youth with the approbation of her Parents she at last chose a Widower for her first and only husband Sir John Hobart of Blicklin in the County of Norfolk Baronet he was the eldest Son of Sir Henry Hobart at that time Lord Chief Justice and Chancellour to the Prince A Person indeed as to title in the lowest order of the Nobility but one whose Estate bare a full proportion to his quality and whose noble spirit and temper far better suited this excellent Lady than a greater title with another temper and spirit would have done She was married to this worthy person in the year In her Conjugal Relation she was now more perspicuous she was now planted upon an hill where those rare seeds which had been sown in her ingenuous Soul during her Nonage began to spring up and bring forth abundant fruit in that triple capacity to which this relation in some little succession intituled her that I mean of 1. a Wife to a worthy Husband 2. A Parent to Children and 3. a Governess to a numerous Family of Servants The Philosopher having rationally evinced the difference of vertues with relation to their subjects and shewn some more proper to those that Govern and others to such as are governed for the Vertues of a good Wife reckons up Chastity Prudent ordering of the affairs of the houshold within doors Reverence to her Husbands person seen in a respective behaviour to him a concealing his weaknesses and obedience to his commands Together with a just sympathy and patient sharing with him the vicissitude of Providences under which he is exercised All which being in themselves but morall vertues dictated by the light of Nature God in holy Writ by several Precepts and recommendations in the allowed examples of his Saints there canonized hath made the religious dutyes of

God may not fall into He that considereth that Lot and Noah were surprized with Wine and Lot committed incest Abraham fornication or adultery rather what David did in the murther of Vriah and taking of Bathsheba to his bed what Peter did in the hour of temptation and what Job did in his passion will I say be at a great loss to fix upon such a sin concerning which he can say this is a sin which one fearing God cannot be guilty of On the other side there is no sin which a child of God can live in making it his constant course and practice 3. Though the fear of God will constrain a soul to every duty yet even the soul which truly feareth God may either through ignorance or through weakness fail much in the performance of his duty I say the fear of God will constrain a soul to the performance of every duty By duty I mean whatsoever God commandeth to be done your reason teacheth you this Will any of you think that your child or servant feareth you who will not do every thing which you command them The Centurions servants feared him he said to one go and he went to another come and he came to a third do this and he did it Every soul that feareth God doth likewise But yet I say even that soul which truly feareth God may yet fail much in the performance of something of his duty And that 1. Through ignorance or forgetfulness The child that truly feareth his Father may possibly not know or if he hath known he may have forgotten something that his Father would have him do So may a child of God We know in part saith the Apostle and what we do know we through forgetfulness of our duty do not alwaies attend to in the hour when we should do it 2. Secondly Through wantonness we have the best of us wanton hearts which are easily led aside from our duty and while we are in the world we are incompassed with a multitude of temptations we are subject to be flattered from our duty by the Sirens of the world and to be frowned from our duty by the frowns of the world And indeed if the flatteries and frowns of the world have no influence upon us yet our spiritual duty is a thing that agreeth not with flesh and blood it pincheth our flesh and that is very ready to say to us Spare thy self or to suggest to us that God doth not expect from our hands or at least will not strictly insist upon such measures of duty as the holy Scriptures seem to lay out for us but God will give us leave for five hundred to set down fifty Who liveth and doth not fail much in his duty But yet as to this point of duty something will be seen more in a soul truly fearing God than in another soul 1. First The soul fearing the Lord will not live in a constant neglect or omission of any known duty It is one thing to omit a duty at this or that time another thing never to perform it A man or woman fearing the Lord may under the force of some temptation or in a multiplicity of business erre by omitting a morning or evening sacrifice of prayer or praise or in the strict observation of the Lords day But it is not possible that such a one should live in a constant violation of the Lords Sabbath or without God in the world from day to day and from week to week never so much as calling upon his Name the reason is because the fear of the Lord in his heart biasseth him to his duty and though some worldly distraction like a rub to a Boul turneth him out of his road yet when he is over that the biass works again and his soul turneth to his course Again 2. Secondly A soul truly fearing the Lord will hardly omit such duties as God in his precept hath put some special Emphasis upon For as it is in our commands to our children though we may command them many things yet there may be some things that we lay a greater firess upon that our children or servants understand our special will to be that we should be careful in them So it is in the precepts of God there are some which 〈…〉 Lord hath in his Word laid a great Emphasis upon them Our Saviour justifieth this distinction when he telleth the Pharisees They tithed Mint and Annis and Cummin but neglected the greater and weightier things of Gods Law Now here the soul truly fearing God will be very strict and will very rarely omit these And hence possibly it is that souls truly fearing God are generally found very strict in the matter of his worship both as to the thing and as to the manner of the performance God having in his Word more Emphatically and severely declared his will in these things So in matters of Righteousness and Mercy and in all such other things as are the weightier things of Gods Law Thus far I have shewed you how the fear of the Lord in any soul where it is works both 1. In reference to the Word of God it trembles at that 2. In reference to sin 3. In reference to duty I shall proceed yet a little further in this Argument giving you some notes of a person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fearing the Lord. 4. Fourthly A person fearing Jehovah will have upon his heart a great awe of Divine Judgement or whatsoever looketh like such There is no person truly fearing the Lord but in some measure understandeth what that Lord is and being possessed with a true notion of God it is as natural for the rational creature to fear him in the least roarings of his judgements as for the beasts of the Forrest to tremble when the Lion roareth For as their trembling proceedeth from a natural sense of their subjection to the Lion and the Power he hath over them So doth this persons dread proceed from the apprehensions he hath of the Greatness and Majesty of the Divine Being as also from what he believeth of his severity and justice Besides this There is no soul truly fearing God but hath been at some time or other less or more under the spirit of bondage or some way or other felt the weight of Gods hand and as we say Ictus Piscator sapit and it is natural for a child that hath been once smartly whipped to fear the hand of the Father or the Master a second time So it is for the child of God having once felt the weight of Gods hand he trembleth at every lifting of it up whether it be against himself or others Now it is true the natural fear of a meerly carnal man as well as the reverential fear of the child of God will discover it self upon this occasion and it may offer a foundation of a new question How that reverential fear of God in his judicial dispensations which is and ought to be found in a

imputed to us Daniel of old prayed to be heard for the Lords sake we are commanded to ask in the Name of Christ believing Or whether it be in the way of comfort Christ is the only glass in which we can behold our Fathers face and therefore we are bid to rejoyce in the Lord and joy and peace is annexed to beliving an act of which Christ is the object In the righteousness also of an holy life Without peace and holiness no man shall see God saith the Apostle not in glory when this l●fe shall be determined not in this life by the reflections of faith Not in duty God heareth not sinners he that lifts up hands unto God must lift up pure hands without d●ub●ing The very Heathens by the light of nature could see that pure hands must be reached out to the Altars if they expected to find the Gods upon their duties propitious In the righteousness of an innocent and just cause It is ●ll appealing to God in an unrighteous cause and hopes of countenance and assistance from him in unrighteousness are but bold presumptions and ●acit reproachings of his spotless purity Hence learn how few there are who truly behold the Lords face in duty who truly feel the warming influences of his divine love Ah! how many cheat themselves with images and dreams how many rise up from duty thinking they have seen the face of God when they have seen nothing but the reflectiors of their own g●fts or presumptions how many dream of beholding the face of God in the sensible consolations of his Spirit who alas have seen nothing but the spirit of delusions cheating their souls with false confidences and delusions what do Papists talk of beholding Gods face in their own or their fellow-creatures righteousness what doth any drunkard swearer morally vitious and prophane person talk of beholding the face of God whiles he lives a leud and unholy life and conversation If he makes many prayers God will not hear him his heart is full of prophaneness his hands are full of unrighteousness Let no man dare to appeal to God in an unrighteous matter to seek counsel of God or assistance from him in unrighteous causes The unrighteous soul can never behold the Lords face Thirdly From Davids present resolution confidered with respect to the present state of affliction in which he was Observe It is the duty of Gods people though Gods 3 Obs face be not towards them yet in righteousness to be beholding it This was the Churches resolution Isa 8. 17. I will wait upon him who hides his face from the house of Jacob and I will look for him Isa 50. 10. Who is amongst you who feareth the Lord and obeyeth the voice of his servant that walketh in darkness and seeth no light let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God God expecteth that his people should not desert him because in the wisdom of his providence he is sometimes pleased to hide his face from them But I shall I think have occasion in my following discourse further to inlarge upon this I therefore pass it over here and come to what I intend to fix upon as the subject of my discourse Doct. It is the great duty of the people of God although they want visions of peace yea thougb they should fall asleep in death without such sensible manifestations yet to stay their souls and be in some degree satisfied if they find the Lord inabling them to watch for his likeness and having a sure confidence that in the resurrection they shall be abundantly satisfied with it The Proposition is complex and containeth many within it There is in it some things implied others expressed Five things are implied 1. That a child of God may sometimes walk in darkness and not satisfied with Gods likeness 2. That it is possible he may fall asleep and die under a dissatisfaction 3. That during this his dark estate it is his great duty to watch for the likeness of God 4. That though a child of God shall fall asleep yet he shall awake in a resurrection 5. That when in that morning be doth awake he shall be abundantly satisfied with Gods likeness These things are implied Two things are expressed 1. That under their darkness it should much satisfie them if they find God inabling them to watch for his likeness 2. That if they die in this dissatisfaction yet it ought to stay their hearts that in the resurrection they shall be abundantly satisfied with the likeness of God I shall speak something first to those Propositions which are but implied in the main Proposition The first was this That Gods children may sometimes walk in 1 Prop. darkness and not be satisfied with his likeness 1. In darkness as to their outward man Joseph Job David almost all the servants of God whom the Scripture hath canonized had their dark hours of affliction some of one kind some of another Many are the afflictions of the righteous bue God delivereth them out of all 2. In darkness as to their inward man there is a state of sin and ignorance which in Scripture is compared to darkness This they cannot walk in they are translated out of darkness into marvelous light they wer● indeed as others darkened in their minds but God hath made a glorious light to shine in upon them But there is a darkness of the inward man with respect to sensible manifestations and comfortable apprehensions of the love of God this they may walk in Isa 50. 10. They may walk in the dark and see no light Isa 50. 10. though they be such as fear the Lord and obey the voice of his servant The Spouse in Cant. 3. 1. the Canticles sought him whom her soul loved she sought him but she found him not David Psal 30. 6. was troubled when God hid his face from him And as it is possible that they may be unsatisfied as to the manifestations of Gods love unto them so they may be and often are as unsatisfied as to the image and likeness of God in them Perfection is our rule Heb. Heb. 6. 1. 6. 1. but though the Lord hath for it up for our mark 2 Cor. 13. 11. yet there is none of 2 Cor. 13. 11. Phil. 3. 18. us but shooteth short even Saint Paul counted not himself to have apprehended but forgetting what is behind pressed forward to what is before unto the price of the high calling Now the child of God cannot sit down satisfied whiles he seeth himself short of the Rule which God hath set him and this is reason enough for his dissatisfaction in the latter sense For the former the reason lies here 1. God upon the Covenant of Grace hath reserved to himself a liberty notwithstanding Christs satisfaction so to chastise his people that they might not go altogether unpunished Some will not understand how God should punish any of his Saints for sin

David You will find these words to be a part of his dying speech Although my house be not so with God that is not so spotl●ss as the morning when the Sun ariseth when the Sun ariseth without clouds yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant well ordered and sure in all things for this is my desire and salvation although he make it not to grow The words speak much of Davids adherence and strong fiducial application of his soul to the Covenant but little of a fulness of joy and peace I think we may determine thus much that if David did ever recover his fulness of peace the Scripture hath not recorded it that we might learn to serve the Lord with fear and to walk before him with trembling yet neither is this the Lords constant dealing Peter denyed his Master cursed and sware yet afterward Christ shewed him special favour After Christs resurrection the Angel bid Go tell his Disciples and Peter that he went before them into Galilee Mark 16. 7. Divines think those words and Peter are put in to assure Peter under some dejection by reason of his fall of the Lords favour to him notwithstanding his backshding Peter was designed for a great service of his Master in the work of the Gospel to which a sad and dejected spirit would not a little have discomposed him Thus much may serve for the second Proposition which I told you was no more than implied The third follows While a child of God doth not behold the face 3 Prop. of God it is his duty to watch for it Two terms must here be opened 1. That of beholding Gods face 2. That of watching for it There is a twofold beholding of Gods face 1. By faith in righteoussness 2. By sense in assurance 1. There is a beholding of God by faith Faith in Scripture is sometimes expressed to us by the action of the mouth He that eateth my flesh Joh. 6. 54. and drinketh my blood saith our Saviour dwelleth in me and I in him Sometimes by the action of the hand by receiving and laying Joh. 1. 12. hold upon Christ and the Covenant To as many as received him he gave power to be called the Heb. 6. 18. Prov. 3. 18. John 6. 35 37. Sons of God Sometimes by the action of the feet Coming so often in Scripture Come unto me you that are weary and heavy laden and he that cometh unto me I will in no wise Isa 50. 10. Cant. 3. 8. Psal 37. 7. Zech. 12. 10. cast away And so in many other texts Sometimes by the actions of the whole man thus it is called a staying a leaning a trusting resting committing our selves unto God So also sometimes it is expressed by the action of the eye Now by this vision of faith it is impossible that one should be a b●liever and not see God Indeed the fight of this eye may possibly at sometimes be clearer and quicker than at other times it may sometimes be more full and bright at another time more dim and weak and imperfect but faith is this very visive faculty if I may so speak and a child of God must thus behold the face of God though not actually or not gradually to such a degree at one time as at another yet habitually it must alwaies have a power thus to behold God though sometimes it exerts it more seebly sometimes more strongly yet more or less a gracious soul in this sense at all times doth behold the Lords face even in its darkest hours Isa 8. 17 I will wait upon him who hid●s his face from the house of Jac●b and I will look for him 2. There is another Vision which I called the Vision of Sense which is the beholding of the Lords face in the reflections of divine love for this David prayes Psal 4. 6. Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us and often in the Psalms Make thy face to shine upon us Now in this sense as I have shewed you it is very possible that Gods dearest children may not see his face and this is that beholding the Lords face of which the Proposition is to be understood during the ecclipse or want whereof it is the duty of the child of God to watch for his likeness So I told you here the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be and is sometimes in Scripture translated so By the Likeness of God I understand as before either his likeness in us which the Apostle calleth the Image of God in knowledge righteousness and holiness or Gods sensible manifestations of himself when a believer wants these when he cannot bebold the face of God in such sweet apprehensions it is even then his duty to watch for Gods likeness for Gods likeness in either sense as it signifieth both holiness and comfort I say to watch for it it is a metaphorical expression and signifies 1. Negation of sleep 2. Industrious dil●gence to keep our selves in a capacity fit to receive what we desire 3. Patient expectation 1. He who watcheth sleepeth not It is an ordinary metaphor in holy Writ to express death and sinning by sleep the latter only is here meant So saith the Spouse I sleep but my heart waketh 2 Thes 5. 6. Let us not 2 Thes 5. 6. sleep as do others Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead And look as it is in sleeping None lives and sleepeth not Eph. 5. 14. Some set themselves to sleep some strive against it sometimes yet fall asleep through heaviness Some by some more for in means are made to sleep So it is as to fin some are greater sinners sleep more than others but none liveth and sinneth not against God but one man sinneth wilfully and presumptuously sets himself to sin his life is nothing e●e another sets himself against sin yet through that heaviness which is in him from original corruption the remainder of the body of death he often falleth asleep and sometimes through Rom. 7. 23 24. the methods devices and depths of Satan and the allurements of the world as from so many sleepy potions given him he falls into a sleep Now he who watcheth in a spiritual sense doth not sleep in the first sense according to that of the Apostle He that is born of God sinneth not The child of God in his dark hours ought to take heed of wilful sinning against God thoug● he walks in the dark of a divine desertion yet he ought to take heed of a sinful conversation he must be able to say with David I am become like a bottle Psal 119. 83. in the smoak yet do I not forget thy Statutes And with the Church All this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee neither have we dealt falsly in thy Covenant Our heart is not turned back neither have our steps declined Psa 44. 17 18 19. from thy way though thou hast sore broken us

in the place of dragons and covered us with the shadow of death This is the first thing implied in this metaphorical expression But this is not all 2. There is a difference between watching and bare waking Watching is a voluntary industrious action whereby a man striveth to keep himself awake at such a time when he is inclined to sleep for the heeding of something in a more special manner To watch therefore in a spiritual sense implieth to labour strive and use all means and diligence to obtain the likeness of God not only to eschew evil but to do good Thus watching for Gods likeness includeth praying hearing performance of all holy duties lead● g●an holy life and conversation that which the Psalmist calleth ordering our conversation aright that we may see the salvation of God And this is as the duty of a child of God at all times so more especially in his hours of desertion and darkness you shall find this eminently exemplified in the Spouse Cant. 3. 1 c. By night on my bed I Cant. 3. 1 2 3. sought him whom my soul loveth I sought him but I found him not I will rise now and go about the City in the streets and in the broad waies I will seek him whom my soul loveth c. v. 3. The watchmen that goe about the City found me to whom I said Saw ye him whom my soul loveth This is a second thing A child of God under a des●rtion is not to sit still and mourn and be wail it self but to be up and doing watching unto prayer to all 1 Pet. 4. 7. religious duties to all parts of an holy and religious life to be at such a time especially much in close and diligent communion with God for the recovery of its lost peace and comfort 3. Lastly The watchman is to look out for the morning and with patience to wait for it This is also the duty of him that walketh in spiritual darkness I mean the want of sensible consolations My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning saith holy David Psal 130. 6. I say Psa 130. 6. more than they that watch for the morning Thus the Church Isa 8. 17. I will wait upon Isa 8. 17. him that hideth his face from the house of Jacob and I will look for him Thus Habakkuk for the answer of his prayer on the behalf Hab. 2. 1 2 3. of the Church I will stand upon my watch and set me upon my Tower I will watch to see what he will say unto me The vision is yet for an appointed time but in the end it shall speak it shall not lye though it tarry wait for it Thus now I have opened this duty to you and shewn you what this is to watch for God to watch for his likeness Now that this is a Christians duty in his hours of darkness appears 1. From the Precept of God obliging you to it The will of God revealed is that which makes a Christians duty God hath bidden us watch and wait and order our conversation aright 2. From the Examples of the Children of God recorded in Scripture wherein they have done well they are lights unto us and oblige us to do likewise Look upon Job David the Church of God all those of whom you have record in holy Writ see them in their dark hours observe their practice you shall find them all fearful of sinning resolved against it full of prayer and other religious duties and striving and resolving to order their conversation aright 3. This will appear to be your duty if you consider the several parts of it as means prescribed by God in order to so good and blessed an end The promise of seeing God is made to such as order their conversation aright Psal 50. Psal 27. 14. Wait upon the Lord Psa 50. 23. Psa 17. 14. and he shall strengthen your heart They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength like the Eagle Isa 40. 31. It is made to such Isa 40. 31. as ask and seek and knock Ask and you shall have seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened to you 4. Lastly Whoso considereth God in that freedom which belongs unto him as to the manifestations of himself to his peoples souls or whoso considereth his own distance from and subjection unto God and how little he deserveth of any such dispensation from him will confess that it is not equal that we should forsake God or abate in our zeal for and duty to God because he forsaketh us and withdraw our duty from God because he withdraweth the light of his countenance from us God is a free agent and as the wind bloweth where it listeth so his Spirit moveth and as it is free in all its motions and influences so it is most free as to consolatory manifestations being not of the necessaries to our eternal salvation but such influences as God without breach of Covenant may in whole or in part for what time and in what degree he pleaseth to with-hold from those most in convenant with him To which might be added that whatsoever the Lord hath is the product of infinite Justice Wisdom and Goodness God in it is just and doth no more than he may do he is infinitely wise and whatsoever he doth is for wise and righteous ends and he is infinitely good and would not do it were it not for his peoples good Besides this this watching against sin unto prayer and to other duties of an holy life are the moral and perpetual duties of Christians from which nothing of Gods dealing with us can exempt us but I shall add no more to my discourse upon the third thing implied in the Doctrine The fourth follows which is founded upon the phrase according to our translation of it When I awake that is as I formerly opened it when I shall awake in the resurrection when I shall awake from the sleep of death where is implied Though the Children of God shall in death fall 4 Prop. asleep yet they shall awake in a resurrection Death in Scripture is ordinarily expressed under the notion of sleep David slept with his 1 King 2. 10 11 43. Mat. 9. 24. Joh. 11. 11. Fathers so did Solomon Jeroboam Rehoboam In the New Testament the Maid sleepeth saith our Saviour and again Our friend Lazarus sleepeth Great is the Analogy betwixt death and sleep if I had time or that were the business of my present discourse to shew you Death is a sleep common to the children of God as well as others The Apostle to the Hebrews saith It is appointed for all men once Heb. 9. 27. to die and after to come to Judgement Your Fathers where are they And do the Prophets live for ever Zech. 1. 5. Who is he that lives Zech. 1. 5. Psal 87. 48. and shall not see death For saith the wise man

of death should take the terrour of it off our spirits no man is afraid to go to sleep why should we be more afraid to die but for unbelief and a reproving conscience 2. Were it indeed a perpetual sleep there would be less of relief in it but there shall be an awaking out of this sleep though the night be long there shall be a morning This doctrine of the Resurrection is indeed the great argument of comfort against death The Apostle having mentioned it to the Thessalonians to relieve them as to their sorrow for their friends asleep in the Lord concludes wherefore comfort your solves with these words 3. But yet the feast to which we shall awake in the Resurrection is of a further consequence to relieve us under disturbances of this nature This was that which cleared the Martyr that although he had an ill Supper he should have a good breakfast The sleep of death is not like the sleep the Prophet speaks of When a man dreams he is at a feast and when he awaketh behold he is an hungry Indeed there is no dreaming in this sleep but when the child of God awaketh from it in the resurrection he shall awake to a feast not an imaginary but a real feast where he shall be filled with the likeness of God to all eternity 3. Branch Lastly What we have heard administers great consolation to such as mourn for their friends fallen asleep in the Lord. Have we had any friends who have made it their business to behold the face of the Lord in righteousness and to watch for the Lords likeness who herein have exercised themselves to keep a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men and possibly have had their sad hours for a long time sitting in darkness and seeing no light and whose Candle possibly hath at last gone out in obscurity as to visions of peace They have indeed died breathing and thirsting after God hoping and trusting in God and quietly committing their selves unto him but not being able to say Lo this is my God I have waited for him this is my God I have waited for him I will rejoyce and be glad in his salvation I say have we known any so have we had at any time any such friends under such circumstances possibly we have been troubled and have had sad thoughts for them but there is no reason what though they have fallen asleep they shall awake what though they fell asleep not satisfied they shall be satisfied with the Lords likeness when they awake they shall be satisfied There are thousands that die without any such troubled thoughts Some it may be with bold and groundless confidences who will awake with terrour and trembling There be many that shall in that day say Lord Lord open unto us have we not prayed in thy name and prophecied in thy name and in thy name cast out Devils to whom the Lord shall say Matth. 7. Depart from me I know you not you workers of iniquity But there is no soul who hath truly believed in the Lord Jesus Christ who hath walked strictly and closely with God and made it his or her business to serve the Lord in truth to mortifie his or her lusts and corruptions but though it may live in the dark and it may be die in some dissatisfactions but that soul shall awake in a glorious resurrection and so awaking shall be satisfied and filled with the consolations of God Mourn for loose walking Professors who have lived here without any fear of God or any care to please God and yet when they die have talkt of full perswasions and been full of presumptuous confidences but be not troubled for holy and gracious souls whose lives have been full of faith and holiness though it may be they have had their fears while they lived and a dark hour when they died hath clouded them yet doubt not of them mourn not for them those persons have not died without hope do not you mourn as those without hope their salvation is certain whether it hath been ascertained to them or no hoping in God committing their souls unto God trusting in him walking with him they shall not be ashamed trouble not your selves for them though they fall they shall rise though they sleep they shall awake though through a too much love-jealousie or through the wise dispensation of God when they fell asleep they were unsatisfied yet when in the resurrection they shall awake they shall be satisfied inessably plenteously abundantly satisfied with the Lords likeness and in the joy of that glorious day they shall forget all their former sorrows Vse 4. What you have heard may be applied by way of Caution 1. To all ungodly impenitent sinners such as never beheld the face of God in righteousness nor at all watch for his likeness yet live without any fears it may be with strong confidences and doubt not of being satisfied with the Lords likeness in the resurrection of the just Oh! the presumptuous groundless hopes of an infinite number of Hypocrites they make no question of salvation and think it great uncharitableness for any to doubt of their eternal welfare yet whoso observeth their lives seeth them neither exercising a good conscience towards God nor man instead of walking in righteousness they live in all manner of wickedness yet they will tell you they hope to be saved by Jesus Christ they are of the number of those whom the Apostle speaks of who are dead in trespasses and sins who still have their conversation in the world according to the power of the Prince of the Air who lives and works in the children of disobedience and walk fulfilling the lusts of the flesh and the desires of the mind without Christ and his righteousness strangers to the Covenant of Promise having no true ground of hope living without a God in the world in all neglect of duty towards God and man yet these men hope to be saved these men hope in the resurrection that they also shall be filled with the likeness of God I shall but offer one text of Scripture to such bold presumptuous sinners it is that in Deut. Deut. 29. 18 19 20. 29. 18 19 20. Lest there should be amongst you man or woman or family or tribe whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of these Nations lest there should be amongst you a root that beareth gall and wormwood And it cometh to pass that when he heareth the words of this curse that he bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of my heart to add drunkenness to thirst The Lord will not spare him but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoak against that man and all the curses that are written in this Book shall be upon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under Heaven and the

have judged thus What Roman did not prefer Cato before Clodius or Catiline In the mean time what account is made amongst us of men and women fearing the Lord they are counted as the filth and off scouring of the earth Fanaticks Precisians Puritans the vilest persons on the earth the only persons fit for all manner of filth to be thrown upon all manner of injuries to be done unto the only persons fit to be thrown into Gaols c. Yea and this fear of Jehovah is become their crime if they dared to sin against God they might avoid these dangers Nor is it any wonder at all The Disciple is not above his Master nor is the Servant above his Lord. They that said of our Saviour He hath a Devil may be allowed to say so of his Disciples I hope The Apostle calls wicked men and such as have 2 Thes 3. 2. not faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unreasonable men The Scripture ordinarily calleth them fools Want of reason and understanding in men and women appears in nothing so much as in their judgement about persons and things that differ Would not you account that man a fool that should chuse an Apple before a piece of Gold and prefer a serving-man because dressed up in gay clothes before a Prince or noble man or before some other person of known intrin●ecal worth and excellency and are not those persons fools and unreasonable men who when reason thus many waies evinceth the fear of the Lord to be the most excellent thing and persons fearing the Lord to be the most excellent persons yet dote upon other things and persons as more excellent than it or them desire chuse delight in any persons rather than these yet this is the ordinary course and practice of the world What more despicable than the fear of the Lord Who makes himself so much a prey so odious and despicable as he who dares not to sin against God and is afraid of disobeying his sacred precepts Is not their judgement an evidence of their folly Do they not still make it good that wanting faith they are unreasonable men But leaving the ignorant world which Use 2 knoweth not the excellency of Grace and is no fitter to judge between things earthly and spiritual than the blind man is to judge of colours that differ Will not this Doctrine convince Gods people of many errours in practice There are a people in the Lord who own the Lord and seriously profess unto his fear yet neither live as if they judged the fear of God the most excellent thing or those who fear the Lord the most excellent persons Give me leave to speak freely to you who I know do own what you have heard to be truth and will profess a cordial assent unto it Do you indeed judge the fear of the Lord Grace the best and most excellent thing Do you judge persons fearing the Lord the most excellent persons I had rather you should judge your selves than my self to pronounce sentence against you Let me therefore only offer you two or three Questions to propound to your selves 1. Whether do you not value your selves more for other things than for the fear of the Lord with which you are blessed It is true through a demissiori and humbleness of mind Some naturally have lower opinions of themselves than others have but there is none lives but hath some value for him or her self Men will speak vilely and meanly of themselves and a child of God from a principle of Grace is vile and mean in his own eyes but yet there is none who hath not some good thoughts for himself Now I would have you inquire of your own souls what that is which raiseth your thoughts of your selves Whether it be the fear of the Lord or no The Prophet calleth out to us Jer. 9. 24. Let Jer. 9. 24. not the strong man glory in his strength nor the wise man in his wisdom nor the rich man in his riches but let him that glorieth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth the Lord. I am afraid that if we ask our own hearts wherein they chiefly glory we shall find them sincerely making us some other answer than this that we glory chiefly in this that we understand and know the Lord. Take a man or woman fearing God if they have but the advantage of a little parentage a little birth or breeding or some great relations are they not apt to glory in these more than in this That God is their Father the Lord Jesus Christ their Saviour c. If they have but a little honour or estate are not their hearts more apt to glory in this than in the riches of grace they have in possession or the riches of glory which they have in reversion than in this great honour which the Lord hath dignified them with that they should be called the Sons of God It is reported of Theodosius a Christian Emperour that he gloried more in this that he was the servant of Christ than that he was the Emperour of a great part of the world I am sure we should glory more in our interest in Christ than in all the world besides But alas how few are to be found that are truly of that good Emperours mind that make their boast of God and what he hath done for their souls and look upon this as their great glory yet if they do not they do not in practice attend to what they profess to believe concerning the excellency of the fear of the Lord. 2. Whether do you value others according to the fear of the Lord which you see in them The Psalmist gives this as the character of one who shall come to Heaven Psal 15. 4. He in whose eyes a vile person is contemned but he honoureth them that fear the Lord. Who is a vile person there is a vile person in mans account thus those are vile who are poor and servile whose condition in the world is mean and abject are accounted vile There is also a vile person in Gods account so the only vile person is the lewd debaucht impenitent sinners such as God hath in judgement given up to vile affections Rom. 1. 26. One that speaketh villany Isa 32. 6. Thus 1 Sam. 3. 13. The Sons of Samuel that lay with the women who came to the Tabernacle and were prophane in abusing holy things are called vile persons So the prophane swearer curser blasphemer the bruitish drunkard the beastly unclean person these are all vile persons God counts them so the Scripture calls them so let their circumstances in the world be what they will God overlooks them as signifying nothing in his eyes they are all base vile persons in his eyes Now this is made the character of one that shall dwell in Gods holy hill he must be one in whose eyes a vile person is contemned Not that he shakes off his natural duty or his moral subjection and duty to