Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	command_v	servant_n	unprofitable_a	1,244	5	10.6349	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35535	An exposition with practicall observations continued upon the thirty second, the thirty third, and the thirty fourth chapters of the booke of Job being the substance of forty-nine lectures / delivered at Magnus neare the Bridge, London, by Joseph Caryl ...	Caryl, Joseph, 1602-1673.	1661 (1661)	Wing C774; ESTC R36275	783,217	917

his prosperity I shall never be moved Babylon glorified her selfe having sayd in her heart I sit a Queene and am no widdow and shall see no sorrow Revel 18.7 Secondly In that God is here sayd to hide pride from man Observe Pride is a very vile and most odious sin If God hide it from mans eyes then surely God himselfe is of purer eyes then to behold it and be pleased Psal 138.6 The Lord knoweth the proud afar off He that meets a spectacle or person which he cannot endure to look upon avoydes it or turnes from it while he is yet afar off whereas if the object be delightfull he draweth neer and comes as close as he can when therefore 't is sayd the Lord knoweth a proud man afar off it shews his disdaine of him He will scarce touch him with a paire of tongs as we say he cannot abide to come neere him He knows well enough how vile he is even at the greatest distance Pride is the first of those seven things which are an abomination to the Lord Prov 6.17 And how abominable a thing pride is may appeare further by these six Considerations First The folly and Irrationallity of pride renders it odious to God nothing is more odious to a wise man then folly how odious then is pride to the most wise God! When Paul did any thing which had but a shew of pride in it though he did it only upon Constraint yet he calls himselfe foole for doing it 2 Cor 12.11 I am become a foole in glorying ye have compelled me Doth not this intimate that in Pauls opinion all proud selfe-gloriers and boasters are fooles that is such as act below common sense or reason In the Hebrew language the same word that signifies boasting and pride signifies folly and foolishnesse The empty vessell yeilds the greatest sound and they that make so great a noise of themselves are usually nothing else but a Great noyse themselves at least they unavoydably rayse suspition of themselves that they are but empty vessells or shallow rivers This was Solomons conclusion Pro 25.27 For men to search their owne glory is no glory that is a man obscures himselfe by selfe-glorying How foolish how irrationall a thing is it for any man to glory proudly when as by doing so he obscures that which is the chiefest glory of man as man his reason and seemes to put himselfe to the question whether he be a reasonable creature yea or no. Secondly Pride is more abominable because it is not only the folly of man but a robbery of God nothing robs God of his honour so much as pride It is said of Jesus Christ Phil 2.6 He thought it no robbery to be equall with God He did not wrong God in making himselfe his equall himselfe being God But if men will match themselves with God or are lifted up in their spirits as proud men are beyond the line of man this is a robbery of God Whatsoever we take to our selves more then is due we take from God yea we steale from God They who forget God the author and fountaine of all they have and take glory to themselves commit the worst kind of robbery and are the most dangerous Theeves Isa 42.8 My glory will I not give to another therefore if any take glory to themselves as I say againe all proud men doe 't is stealing and 't is not only as I may say picking of his pocket but the breaking open of his Treasury of his Cabinet to carry away the chief Jewel of his Crowne so is his glory Rom 11.36 All is from him therefore all must be to him all is from the father of light therefore what light what gifts what strength soever we have it must returne to him in prayses and in the glorifying of his name we may not deck or adorne our own name with it nor put our name upon it How much soever we have we have received it is from the Lord therefore 't is extreamly sinfull and sacrilegious to take or keepe it to our selves And as whatsoever good we have we have it of God so whatsoever good we have done we have had light and strength from God to doe it naturall yea spirituall strength not only the first power of acting but all subsequent actings of that power are from God therefore to have secret liftings up of spirit in our owne actings is to rob God Psal 51.15 Open thou my lips and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise sayd David As if he had sayd Lord if thou wilt open my lips and help me to speak as I ought I will not shew forth my owne praise nor boast of what I have either spoken or done but I will shew forth thy praise because the opening of the lips is from thee Thirdly It is an abomination to be proud for whatsoever any man hath done or how good soever any man is he is no better then he should be and hath done no more then was his duty to doe he hath done but his duty to God and his duty to man when he hath done his best he hath done no more every man is bound to doe the good that he doth how much soever it be that he doth therefore it is both an ignoble and an abominable thing for any man to boast of what he hath done Fourthly Is it abominable to boast of what we have done seeing how much soever we have done it will appeare upon a right and due account that we have done lesse then we ought and are much short of our duty Luke 17.10 When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you say we are unprofitable servants and have done but that which was our duty to doe We can doe nothing but what is our duty but all we doe is not the one halfe of our whole duty and shall we glory as if we had obliged God by doing more then all Fifthly It is an odious thing for any man to be proud of what he hath done for God might have done it by another if he pleased No man is necessary to God as if his worke could not be done unlesse such a one doe it He hath choyce of instruments and is able to fit those for his businesse who are most unfit of themselves It is matter of thankfulnesse that God will call and use us to doe him any service and enable us to doe it God could have put his talent into another mans hand the riches the power the wisdome the learning the parts which thou actest by he could have put it into other hands he can make the dumb to speak as well as the greatest speaker He can make an Ideot a Dunce knowing and learned as well as the most knowing among the learned Therefore the learned the eloquent have no reason to be proud but much to be thankfull He can make the weakest to doe as much as the strongest therefore the strongest have no reason to be