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	love_n	parent_n	6,450	5	9.2665	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12181	Divine meditations and holy contemplations. By that reverende divine R. Sibbes D.D. Master of Catherine Hall in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher of Grayes Inne in London	Sibbes, Richard, 1577-1635.; Culverwell, Ezekiel, 1553 or 4-1631.	1638 (1638)	STC 22490; ESTC S112642	60,923	350

all and therefore oftentimes God in justice to them suffers good men to fall that such men may take scandall at them to their ruine A man may know that the Word hath wrought upon his conscience when hee comes to it that hee may heare and learne and reforme A man that hath a heart without guile is glad to heare the sharpest reproofes because he knowes that sinne is his greatest enemy but if we live in a course that wee are loath should be touched it is a signe our hearts are full of guile corrupt men they mould their Teachers and fashion them to their lusts but a good and upright heart is willing that Divine truths should have their full authoritie in the soule giving way to our dutie though never so contrary to flesh and blood It is the duty of Ministers to labour to prevent objections that may arise in the hearts of the people so as to hinder the passage of their Doctrine and that truths may more readily come into the heart wee should labour to rellish the person for secret surmises are stones to stumble at therefore both Ministers and people should be carefull to remove them A man ought not to commend himselfe but in some speciall cases first because pride and envie in others will not indure it secondly it toucheth upon Gods glory and therefore we should take heed thirdly it deprives us of comfort and hinders the Apologie of others The Heathens could say that the praising of a mans selfe is a burdensome hearing Le ts take heede therefore that wee snatch not our right out of Gods hand but now on the contrary in some cases wee may praise and commend our selves as when we have a just calling to make an A pologie in way of defence and for the conviction of them that unjustly speake evill of us secondly wee may speake well of our selves in way of example to others as Parents to their children and this doth well become them because it is not out of pride or vaine-glory because the end is discovered to be out of love unto them It s the dutie of those that are Gods children when they have just occasion to take the defence of others upon them and thus did the blind man Iohn 6. He defended Christ against the Pharisees and Ionathan spoke to his Father in the behalfe of David though hee was called the sonne of a rebellious woman yet he knew that hee ought this unto the truth God hath a cause in the world that must be owned and therefore when the cause of Religion is brought upon the stage then God seemes to say as Iehu did Who is on my side who God commends his cause and his children to us And therefore curse yee Meroz said the Angell of the Lord curse yee bitterly the Inhabitants thereof because they came not to the helpe of the Lord to the helpe of the Lord against the mightie so a curse lies upon those that when the truth suffers have not a word to defend it Vsually the defamers of others are proud vaine-glorious persons if a man will search for the spirit of the devill in men let him looke for it amongst vaine-glorious Teachers Heriticks and superstitious persons the ground of it is from the neerenesse of two contraries there the opposition is the strongest as fire and water when they are neere make the strongest opposition and who are so neere Gods children as vaine-glorious Teachers that are of the same profession Pilat a Heathen shewed more favour to Christ than the Pharisees and this use we should make of it not to take scandall when we see one Divine deprave another for it hath beene so and will be so to the end of the world All things out of God are but grasse when wee joy in any thing out of God it is a childish joy as if wee joyed in Flowers that after we have drawne out the sweetnesse we cast them away all outward things are cōmon to Castawayes as well as to us and without Grace they will provesnares at the houre of death what comfort can wee have in them further than we have had humilitie and love to use them well Therefore if wee would have our hearts seasoned with true joy le ts labour to be faithfull in our places and endeavour according to the gifts wee have to glorifie God To glorie in any thing whatsoever is Idolatry because the minde sets up a thing to glory in which is not God secondly its spirituall adultery to cleave to any thing more than God thirdly its false witnesse bearing to ascribe excellency where there is none wee have a prohibition Let not the wise man glory in his wisedome nor the strong man in his strength nor the rich man in his riches God will not give his glorie to another and therefore when men will be medling with glory which belongs to God alone he blasts them and sets them afide as broken vessells and disdaines to use them A Christian joyes aright when it proceedes from right principles from Iudgement and Conscience not from Fancie and Imagination when Iudgement and Conscience will beare him out when there is good termes betweene God and him for our joy must spring from peace Rom. 5. Being justified by Faith wee have peace towards God The Apostles beginne their Epistles with Mercy Grace and Peace Mercy in forgivenesse Grace to renew our natures and Peace of conscience here these are things to be gloried in if wee finde our sinnes pardoned our persons accepted and our natures altered then we may comfort our selves in any thing in health in wealth in wife in children in any thing because all come from the favour of God we may joy in afflictions because there is a blessing in the worst things to further our eternall happinesse and though we cannot joy in affliction it self as being a contrary to our nature yet wee may joy in the issue so that we may joyaright when having interest in God wee glory in the testimony of a good conscience when looking inward we finde all at peace when wee can say upon good grounds that God is mine and therefore all is mine both life and death and all things so farre as they may serve for good The hearts of men yea of good men are apt to be taken up with outward things when the weake Disciples had cast out devils they were ready to be proud but Christ quickly spies it and admonishes them not to rejoyce that the devils were subject to them but that their names were written in the Booke of life Therefore when wee finde the least stirrings to glory in any thing wee must checke our selves and consider what Grace wee have to temper them what love wee have to turne these things to the common good for whatsoever a man hath if hee have not withall humilitie and love to use it aright it will turne to his bane It hath beene an old imputation to lay distractednesse upon men of

but as anointing makes the members nimble and strong and chearefull so where the Spirit of God is in any man it makes him nimble and strong and chearefull to good duties but when wee are drawne to them as a Beare to the stake for feare or an inbred naturall custome this is not from the Spirit for where the Spirit is there duties are performed without force feare or hopes A child needes no extrinsecall motion to make him please his father because its inbred and naturall to him As the weights of a Clocke makes all the wheelesto goe so artificiall Christians are moved with things without them for they want this inward principle to make them doe good things freely but where the Spirit of God is it workes a kind of naturall freedome As the woman in the Law when she was forced by any man if shee cried out shee was blamelesse so if wee unfainedly crie unto Christ and complaine of our corruptions that they are too strong for us this will witnesse to our hearts that wee are not Hypocrites Good duties come from unsound Christians as fire out of the flint but they floow from a childe of God as water out of a Spring yet because there is flesh in them as well as spirit therefore every dutie must be gotten out of the fire And yet there is a libertie because there is a principle in them that resists the flesh Gods children are hindred in good duties by an inevitable weakenesse in nature as after labour with drowsinesse therefore the Spirit may be willing when the flesh is weake If wee strive therefore against this deadnesse and dulnesse Christ is ready to make excuse for us if the heart be right as hee did for his Disciples A child of God is the greatest Freeman and the best Servant even as Christ was the best Servant yet none so free and the greater portion that any man hath of his Spirit the freer disposition hee hath to serve every one in love Sight is the most noblest sence its quicke it can see from earth to heaven in a moment its large it can see the Hemispheare of the heavens with one view its sure and certaine for in hearing wee may be deceived and lastly it s the most affecting Sence Even so is Faith the quickest the largest the most certaine and most affecting it s like an Eagle in the cloudes at one view it sees Christ in heaven and lookes downe into the world it sees backward and forwards it sees things past present and to come and therefore it is that Faith is expressed by beholding A Vaile or Covering had two uses amongst the Iewes one was Subjection and therefore the women were vailed another was Obscuritie and therefore was the Vaile on Moses face Both these are now taken away in Christ for wee serve God as sons and as a Spouse her husband we are still in subjection but not servile and now also with open face we behold the glory of the Lord wee behold the things themselves they are now cleerely laid open the Vaile is taken away Our happinesse consists in our subordination and conformitie to Christ and therefore let us labour to carry our selves as hee did to his Father to his friends to his enemies In the dayes of his flesh hee prayed whole nights to his Father How holy and heavenly minded was he that tooke occasion from Vines and Stones and Sheepe to be heavenly minded and when he rose from the dead his talke was onely of things concerning the Kingdome of God for his carriage to his friends Hee would not quench the smoaking flaxe nor breake the bruised reede hee did not cast Peter in the teeth with his Deniall Hee was of a winning and gaining disposition to all for his carriage to his enemies Hee did not call for fire from heaven to destroy them but shed many teares for them that shed his blood O Ierusalem c. and upon the Crosse Father forgive them for they know not what they doe So that if wee will be minded like unto Christ consider how hee carried himselfe to his Father to his Friends to his Enemies yea to the devill himselfe when hee comes to us in wife children friends c. we must doe as Christ did bid avoid Satan and when wee have to deale with those that have the spirit of the devill in them wee must not render reproach for reproach but answer them It is Written When wee finde any grace wrought in us wee should have a holy esteeme of our selves as when wee are tempted to sinne What I that am an heire of Heaven a King a Conqueror the Sonne of God a Freeman shall I staine my selfe God hath put a Crowne upon my soule and shall I cast my Crowne into the dirt No I will be more honorable these are no proud thoughts but the befitting our estate Those that are besotted with the false lustre of the world doe want spirituall light Christ himselfe when Hee was here upon the earth Hee lived a concealed life onely at certaine times some beames broke out So let it comfort us that our glory is hid in Christ now it is clouded with the malice of wicked men and with our owne infirmities but let us comfort our selves with this that we are glorious in the eyes of God and his Angells As men after a fit of sicknesse grow much so Gods children grow especially after their falls sometimes in humility sometimes in patience as wee may observe in Plants and Herbes they grow at the roote in Winter in the leafe in Summer and in the seede in Autumne so Christians appeare sometimes humble sometimes spirituall and joyfull and sometimes they grow in spirituall courage That which wee drew from the first Adam was the displeasing of God but we draw from the second Adam the favour of God from the first Adam wee drew corruption from the second Adam we drew Grace from the first Adam wee drew misery and death and all the miseries that follow death wee draw from the second Adam life and happinesse whatsoever wee had from the first Adam wee have it repaired more abundantly in the second Grace makes us glorious because it puts glory upon the soule it carries the soule above all earthly things it tramples the world under her feete it prevailes against corruptions that foyle ordinary men A man is not more above beasts than a Christian that hath grace is above other men It is an evidence that wee are gracious men if wee can looke upon the lives of others that are better than we and love and esteeme them glorious A man may see Grace in others with a malignant eye for naturall men are so vaine-glorious that when they see the lives of other men outshine theirs instead of imitation they darken what grace they will not imitate they will defame therefore those that can see grace in others honour it in them it is a signe they have grace themselves Men can indure