Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	covenant_n	law_n	moral_a	1,086	5	9.5331	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26780	An account of the life and death of Mr. Philip Henry, minister of the gospel near Whitechurch in Shropshire, who dy'd June 24, 1696, in the sixty fifth year of his age	Henry, Matthew, 1662-1714.	1698 (1698)	Wing B1100A; ESTC R14627	175,639	290

first time he went thither after that Calamity a Neighbouring Justice having Notice of it sent to forbid him to Preach to his own Grief as well as to the Grief of many others who came expecting But saith he in his Diary there was a visible Sermon before us the Ruins Preaching that Sin is an evil thing and God a terrible God However a few days after he got an opportunity of Preaching to them a word in Season which some will not forget from Hos. 6. 1. Come and let us return unto the Lord for he hath torn And at the return of the Year when the Town was in the Rebuilding he gave them another very suitable Sermon from Prov. 3. 33. The Curse of the Lord is in the House of the wicked but he blesseth the Habitation of the just Though it be rising again saith he in his Diary out of its Ashes yet the burning of it should not be forgotten especially not the Sin that kindled it He oft pray'd for them that the Fire might be a Refining Fire In the Years 1677 1678 and 1679 in the Course of his Ministry at Broad-Oak he Preached over the Ten Commandments and largely open'd from other Texts of Scripture the Duties requir'd and Sins forbidden in each Commandment For thô none delighted more than he in Preaching Christ and Gospel-Grace yet he knew that Christ came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets but to fulfil and that though through Grace we are not under the Law as a Covenant yet we are under it as a Rule under the Law to Christ. He was very large and particular in pressing second Table Duties as essential to Christianity We have known those saith he that have called Preaching on such Subjects good Moral Preaching but let them call it as they will I am sure it is necessary and as much now as ever How earnestly would he press upon People the necessity of Righteousness and Honesty in their whole Conversations A good Christian he us'd to say will be a good Husband and a good Father and a good Master and a good Subject and a good Neighbour and so in other Relations How often would he urge to this purpose that it is the Will and Command of the Great God the Character of all the Citizens of Sion the Beauty and Ornament of our Christian Profession and the surest way to thrive and prosper in the World Honesty is the best Policy He would say that these are things in which the Children of this World are competent Iudges They that know not what belongs to Faith and Repentance and Prayer yet know what belongs to the making of an honest Bargain they are also Parties concern'd and oftentimes are themselves careful in these things and therefore those who profess Religion should walk very circumspectly that the Name of God and his Doctrine be not Blasphemed nor Religion wounded through their sides Thus he Preached and his constant Practise was a Comment upon it One thing I remember he was more than ordinarily enlarged in the pressing of which was upon the Ninth Commandment to speak evil of no Man from Tit. 3. 2. If we can say no good of Persons we must say nothing of them He gave it as a Rule Never to speak of any ones faults to others till we have first spoken of them to the Offender himself He was himself an eminent Example of this Rule Some that have Convers'd much with him have said That they never heard him speak evil of any Body nor could he bear to hear any spoken evil of but often drove away a Backbiting-tongue with an angry Countenance He was known to be as Faithful a Patron of Offenders before others as he was a Faithful Reprover of them to themselves Whenever he Preached of Moral Duties he would always have something of Christ in his Sermon either his Life as the great Pattern of the Duty or his Love as the great Motive to it or his Merit as making Atonement for the neglect of it In the Year 1680. he preached over the Doctrines of Faith and Repentance from several Texts of Scripture He us'd to say that he had been told concerning the famous Mr. Dod that some call'd him in scorn Faith and Repentance because he insisted so much upon those two in all his Preaching But saith he if this be to be vile I will be yet more vile for Faith and Repentance are all in all in Christianity Concerning Repentance he hath sometimes said If I were to dye in the Pulpit I would desire to dye Preaching Repentance as if I dye out of the Pulpit I would desire to dye practising Repentance And he had often this saying concerning Repentance He that Repents every day for the sins of every day when he comes to dye will have the sins but of one day to repent of Even Reckonings make long Friends That Year also and the Year 1681 he preached over the Duties of Hearing the Word and Prayer of the former from the Parable of the four sorts of Ground of the latter from Luke 11. 1 c. when he preached over the Lord's Prayer in above Thirty excellent and elaborate Discourses Helook'd upon the Lord's Prayer to be not only a Directory or Pattern for Prayet but according to the advice of the Assembly of Divines proper to be us'd as a Form and accordingly he often us'd it both in Publick and in his Family And as he thought 't was an Error on the one hand to lay so much stress upon it as some do who think no sol●…mn Prayer accepted nor any solemn Ordinance or Administration of Worship compleat without it and so repeat it five or six times and perhaps oftner at one Meeting so he thought it an Error on the other hand not to use it at all since it is a Prayer a compendious comprehensive Prayer and may be of use to us at least as other Scripture Prayers but he thought it a much greater Error to be angry at those that do use it to judge and censure them and for no other reason to conceive Prejudices against them and their Ministry A great strait saith he poor Ministers are in when some will not hear them if they do not use the Lord's Prayer and others will not hear them if they do What is to be done in this case We must walk accord-to the Light we have and approve our selves to God either in using or not using it and wait for the day when God will mend the matter which I hope he will do in his own due time He was in the close of his Exposition of the Lord's Prayer when a dark Cloud was brought upon his Assemblies and he was necessitated to contract his Sails CHAP. VII The Rebukes he lay under at Broad Oal●… betwixt the Years 1680. and 1687. IN the beginning of the Year 1681. in April and May the Country was greatly afflicted and threatned by an extream Drought there was no Rain for several Weeks