Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A60137
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The mourners companion, or, Funeral discourses on several texts by John Shower.
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Shower, John, 1657-1715.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing S3673; ESTC R25149
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101,466
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242
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receiveth Heb. 12.6 But the Usefulness and Necessity of such Providences and the Wisdom and Faithfulness of God therein may be made conspicuous to a considering Mind And it is frequently acknowledged by the Experience of those who are exercised in this kind That it is no more than is needful that we should sometimes be in heaviness by such Dispensations As will appear by considering a few things First Such Providences are proper to Awaken Repentance for our many Omissions and Failings in the Relation we stood to them whom God hath taken from us How seriously should we reflect Did I discharge the Duty of my Place to such or such a deceased Relative Did I value and prize such a Mercy as I ought Did I thankfully Improve such a Blessing as I might It is our fault and folly as well as our unhappiness that we seldom know how to prize and use such Mercies till God hath depriv'd us of them And that neglect is no way to be retriev'd but by a penitent sense of our Error in compliance with the Call of God That Call of God I mean which he gives us by their Removal And it is part of the Wisdom of God's Government to order our Tryals and Afflictions for the kind for the manner and for the season of them as may best serve to convince us of our Sin and promote our Repentance For Example Children should consider upon the Death of Holy Parents in what Instances they failed of hearkning to their Counsels and following their Instructions Admonitions and Examples of paying that Honour Reverence Duty and Obedience which God commands They should then remember consider and mourn to think how often their Miscarriages against God and them was a Grief and Burthen to their Souls and made them walk softly They should recall the Vanity of their Childhood and review the Stubbornness and Frowardness and Intractableness of Youth and the many particular provocations they were guilty of while their Parents lived against their frequent Reproofs against the cry of their prayers and the meaning of their Tears against their many Warnings and Compassionate Calls to Repentance against all the methods God used to awaken humble and reform them Is not this the voice of such a Rod to many Children when their godly Parents are taken away by Death And the like Reflections should Parents make when God removes their grown Children whether they have answered their Trust and been faithful to their Souls solemnly dedicating them to God endeavouring to instruct them in the Principles of Religion and Educating them in the Christian Faith and saving them from the Temptations of the World the Flesh and the Devil endeavouring by all means to make Religion amiable and Sin odious and practical Godliness lovely by their own Circumspect walking by keeping up the Authority of God and his daily Worship in their houses by faithful Instructions and prudent seasonable Reproofs and fervent Holy Prayer to God for them and with them c. The like for other Relations when the Desire of our Eyes is removed as a Dear Husband or a beloved Wife God expects we should reflect and consider whether we enter'd into such a Relation as becomes CHristians marrying in the Lord Whether we did walk as Heirs of the Grace of Life together whether by tenderness and Affection by Meekness and Wisdom by Watchfulness and Prayer by Counsel and other Assistance we faithfully performed the Duty of that Relation We ought to reflect in such cases How much more good we might have received and done with reference to the Deceas'd How much more we might have contributed than we did to the furtherance of their Grace and Holiness their Knowledge and Comfort their peace of Conscience and meetness for Heaven or what Advantage and Increase of our own we might have had by their means and did not improve You that are now Happy in one anothers Affection remember this before a parting time do come for such thoughts as these will be apt to follow us under such providences and it is fit they should And if we have the warning of their Approaching Change by Sickness it may then be proper to reflect how we then demean'd our selves whether we were duly sensible of it what was the Temper of our Spirits in prayer for them and what our carriage and deportment toward them and toward God with relation to their case How far we expected and prepared for a Separation by Death what solemn acts of Resignation of them and of our selves to the Will of God our Spirits were formed to what impressions their Sick-bed Discourses their Dying Speeches Comforts or Counsels with their last Agonies had upon us what Duty lyes upon us at such a time in reference to these things is sufficiently obvious But how far we then comported with it ought seriously to be inquired when God hath removed them by Death that wherein we have failed we may be awaken'd to Repent which is one Design of God by such a stroke Secondly To testifie his Displeasure for our fond Inordinate Affections to those Relatives he snatcheth from us and to prevent the like as to those that survive God is Jealous of his Honour and he will not bear a Rival and if the Desire of our Eyes lay too near our Hearts and rob him of our Delight and Love and Time no wonder if he make a Separation When Jacob's Affection to his Joseph and Benjamin were so excessive that his Life was bound up in theirs he and his must then be parted And the good Old Man be brought to say with a doleful accent and aking Heart Joseph is not and Simeon is not and must Benjamin go too all these things are against me A Husband a Wife a Mother a Father a Child a Friend which is as thy own Soul Any of them All of them must go if we Love them too well i. e. if we value them too highly if we delight in them excessively if we rejoyce in them more than in the presence of God if we place the satisfaction of our Minds the solace of our Lives too much in their Company if we love them not only in the Lord or in subordination to him if we reckon too much content in their Continuance if we are too unwilling to part with them at the Call of God c. This we may be sure of God will break that from us from which we would not be broken or turn it to our Cross And that stroke which makes the breach should teach us to moderate our Affections to surviving Friends to Possess Enjoy and Use all things and persons in this World as if we used them not because the time is short and the fashion of the World passeth away 1 Cor. 7.31 That we may be brought to speak it as the inward sence of our very Hearts Lord I see all Earthly Comforts are withering Gourds how quickly how easily how suddenly are they gone O let me henceforward
affecting manner to the faithful discharge of his Duty by that Consideration I charge thee before God and before the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and dead at his Appearance and his Kingdom or when he shall appear in his Kingdom 2 Tim. 4.1 The Jews knew and granted that the Messiah was to come as a Judge by the Traditional Prophecy of Enoch which began with those words The Lord shall come This they understood long before the Incarnation of our Saviour So that they were wont to begin their Writs or Instruments of the Greatest Excommunication with those words of the Prophecy of Enoch The Lord shall come As if besides all other Punishments they bound over the Excommunicated Person to the last great Assize to be Judged by the Messias And the Apostle seems to allude to this 1 Cor. 16.22 If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha i.e. Accursed with that great and terrible Excommunication The Lord shall come For so they call it from the first words as we often give Names to Writs and other Instruments by reciting the first words of them He shall come again he shall be revealed from Heaven in slaming sire with his mighty Angels to render vengeance to them which know not God and obey not the Gospel c. 2 Thes 1.7 9. We shall all be made to stand before his Judgment-Seat 2 Cor. 5.10 14. Rom. 14.10 And every one shall then give an account of himself to God and receive according to what he hath done in the body whether it be good or whether it be evil He is delegated and appointed by God for this Work and every way fitted and qualified to undertake it Acts 17.31 II. The Suddenness and Vnexpectedness of his Coming again The hour of it no man knows no not the Angels of God in Heaven It will surprize Mankind as the Deluge did the Old World in the days of Noah The time of it is lock'd up in the Treasuries of Heaven and we have no Key that will open it Neither the time of Christ's coming to Judge the World or the time of his calling us by Death to come to him is certainly known Behold I know not the day of my death we may every one say with Isaac Gen. 27.2 The Knowledge of this time and Season he hath reserved in his own power it belongs not to us it is no part of our Priviledge to know it Acts 1.7 If it had been fit and becoming adviseable and expedient for us to understand it if it had been for our Advantage to know the precise time of our own Death or of the Final Judgment if it would have added any whit to our Spiritual Stature and Growth in Grace if it would not have much better promoted our Watchfulness and serious Diligence and forwarded our Preparations to have remained Ignorant he would not have drawn such a Veil over that Day and Hour But would have left it written in fair Characters But he every way consulted our Interest and the general Good of the World by hiding this Knowledge from us God's Government of the World and the Magistrates influence under God for the Good of Men would very much be weakned if every Man did certainly know before-hand the time of his Death Our Usefulness to others would be very much check'd and the necessary Preparation for being so if we knew we should not out-live such a Year or such a Stage of our Lives Our Joys and Sorrows with respect to our Relations and Friends would then be immoderate our Carriage in Prosperity and Adversity would be more unbecoming our Dependance upon God and his Providence the Redemption of our Time the Contempt of this World and the Preparation for another would all be very much hindred by the certain knowledge of the time of Christ's Coming to call us to Judgment Therefore he tells us That in an hour we think not of the Son of Man cometh It shall be suddenly when he is not expected and therefore All should be Ready It is sometimes represented by the travailing Pangs of a Woman with Child which may over-take her at a distance from her own House when she looks not for it 1 Thes 5.3 'T is set forth by the surprize of a Thief entring the Window of a House by Night when the good Man of the House little expected him Rev. 16.15 Behold I come as a Thief blessed is he that watcheth And again we are told As a snare shall it come upon all that dwell upon the face of the earth Luk. 21.35 When Men are careless and secure and confident of Long-life when they are busie in pursuit of great things for themselves in this World when they are big with mighty Projects and Designs for hereafter when they enlarge their Imaginations to contrive the Satisfactions they shall have for many years to come in the Pleasures and Dignities and Wealth which they count upon before-hand when they say in their Hearts Our Lord delays his Coming I have yet time enough to get ready Then shall this day overtake them when they think not of it The Lord of that Servant will come in a day that he looked not for him and in an hour that he is not aware Luk. 12.46 III. The Necessity and Obligation of being Ready because of the Certainty and Suddenness of the Coming of Christ Where I shall First Consider the Nature of this Readiness and Explain something of it Secondly Shew the Force of the Argument and amplifie it in several Considerations to urge it the more effectually upon All to make Ready I. What is the Nature of this Readiness In the general it is expressed by Two or Three Evangelists under the term of Watching Which as the summary Preparation for the Coming of Christ takes in all the Duties of a Christian with respect to the Affairs of his Soul and the Everlasting World as awaking out of Security foreseeing our Danger providing against it carrying it suitable to the Expectation of the Appearance of Christ from Heaven Looking for Waiting for Praying for Hastning to or hastning of the Coming of the Day of God It comprehends an awaken'd Heart an active Faith a lively Hope a diffusive Charity and persevering Diligence in all the Fruits of Righteousness That we may perfect Holiness in the Fear of God lay up a good Foundation against the time to come and at last lay hold of Eternal Life That we may have Confidence at Christ's Appearance and be able to stand before the Son of Man with exceeding Joy This in general under the Name of Watching and being Ready is the Duty of all 2. Besides this General Account we may consider some of the Particular Metaphors under which our Lord represents himself or is set forth in Scripture when he comes again First As a Bridegroom And so our Readiness consists in our Accepting him and Choosing him in such a Relation I have espoused you