Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	day_n	holy_a	week_n	1,884	5	10.1877	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12166	Beames of divine light breaking forth from severall places of holy Scripture, as they were learnedly opened, in XXI. sermons. The III. first being the fore-going sermons to that treatise called The bruised-reed, preached on the precedent words. By the late reverend and iudicious divine, Richard Sibs, D.D. Mr. of Katharine Hall in Camb: and sometimes preacher at Grayes Inne. Published according to the Doctor his owne appointment subscribed with his hand; to prevent imperfect coppies.	Sibbes, Richard, 1577-1635.	1639 (1639)	STC 22475; ESTC S117279	299,907	604

18. how he loved God and joyed in God and in the word of God above all things in the world hee esteemed the light Gods coun●enance more than corne or wine or oyle Psal. 4. I give but a touch to shew how this description is true of this blessed man that ●e served the will of God And for the expression of 〈◊〉 praise and prayer hee was a man after Gods owne heart especially in this he was ready upon all occasions to blesse and praise God hee kept his communion with God as we see though hee were a King yet his 〈…〉 was to serve God as we see in Psal. 1. hee meditated in the word of God day and night What time had he to rule his Kingdome then The meaning is that all the spare time that hee had it was to think of God to looke to the rule the word of God how to guide his life And for his outward calling there is a double calling wherin we serve God as Christians our generall and our particular calling wherein wee are to deale with men what an excellent man was hee ●hee served the will of God as a Governour of a family wee see in Psal. 101. how he carried himselfe in the middest of ●his house to all his servants a lyer should not abide in his house You have a direction there how to guid● your families you see how hee served the Will of God as a governour yet there was a fault in him in that respect hee was too indulgent to Absolon and Adoniah A man may be a good man and yet be too blame in some particulars but when his heart is right God pardons the rest You see how he carried himselfe as a King he was an excellent King the delight of Israel hee carried himselfe every way as a King should doe hee tempered mercie and judgement together I will sing of mercie and judgement so he did in his whole carriage sweetly temper mercie and justice he dispenced these two And as a King must not only serve God himselfe but to make others serve God so his care was to stablish the worship of God as you find in the storie David when he saw all in peace and quiet then he begins to take care for the Arke 1 Chron. 17. I dwell in a house of Cedar but the Arke of the Lord remaines under curtaines therfore hee tooke a course for that So governours should doe when God hath setled them in their government quietly to begin to thinke of Gods house for they rule not well they serve not the Will of God except besides their owne service they call others to serve him A Magistrate must be the keeper of both Tables himselfe and cause others to doe it he must lay downe his crowne at the feet of Christ as it is in Isay. Thus David was a nursing father to the Church of God hee served God in his particular calling Now to make use of another division the Will of God it is either in things to be done or to be suffred and obedience answerable to that is either active or passive as David served God in doing so hee yeelded obedience and served the Will of God in his passive obedience wherein hee did deny himselfe exceedingly as much as ever man did next to Christ you see how he denied himselfe in his carriage toward Saul in matter of revenge how he overcame himselfe because hee knew that revenge was Gods and that God was his and therefore would right him well enough and in Shimei God hath bid him raile hee would not revenge and other notable examples wee have how he submitted to Gods Will as in 1 Sam. 30.6 when hee was in extremitie hee encouraged himselfe in the Lord his God there he staied himselfe in extremity and in 2 Sam. 15.25 there is a notable place how hee submitted himselfe to God The King said Carry backe the Arke of God if I have found favour in the eyes of God he will bring me again but if God say thus I have no delight in him behold here I am let him doe as seemes good to him Here was a resignation of himselfe to the will of himselfe in serving of him so in Psal. 39. I held my tongue Lord because thou didest it Thus you see how he served the will of God in the inward service of God and in the outward to God and man in both callings as a good man and a good governour in his family every way he served the Will of God And wherefore is all this Here is a patterne for us that we should serve the Will of God to serve the Will of God immediatly to labour to bring our hearts to trust in him to feare him above all to delight in him above all and to expresse it in our outward service of him and in doing duties to men from inward respect to God in conscience of our dutie to serve God when we serve men to carry our selves in our generall calling as Christians and in our particular place not only to be good men but good in our callings good Students good Lawyers c. Let us shew our Religion there as David did this is to serve the Will of God That is not Religion that is left behind in the Church● as Lactantius saith that is no Religion that wee leave behind when wee come to the Church doore but that is Religion when wee learne our dutie here and carry it in our breasts to practise it every day in the weeke when wee shew it in our places that is the service of God Therefore let this holy man bee an example to us wherefore are these particular things recorded of him in the Scriptures but that we should transforme our selves to this blessed patterne The whole life of a Christian wee see is a service of God there is nothing that we doe but it may be a service of God no not our particular recreations if wee use them as wee should as whettings to bee fitter for our callings and enjoy them as liberties with thankfulnesse to God that allowes us these liberties to refresh our selves There is no passage of a mans life but it may have the respect of a service of God it is not the matter or stuffe but the stamp that makes the coyn so it is not the worke but the stamp that makes it a service when we doe it with a● eye to God Let the King set a stamp but upon brasse upon a token yet it will goe for current if it have the Kings authority and stamp upon it let it be but an action of our callings suppose to give counsell in our studies or pleading of the Law c. if it have Gods stamp upon it if there be Prayer upon it to blesse it and it bee done in obedience to God and with justice not against the rules of Piety and Charity and as farre

comes I say from selfe-love and not from any change of heart As in the the humility of wretched persons a little before the judge comes though they haue carried themselves as rebels before yet then they will humble themselves not out of any hatred to their courses but out of feare of the judge So it may be now thou art arraigned by Gods judgements thou forsakest thy sinnefull courses not out of the hatred of thy sinnes for if thou couldest thou wouldest sinne eternally and that is the reason sinners are punished eternally Because they would sinne everlastingly but thou seest thou art in danger to be pulled away by Gods judgements It is not out of love to grace it is not from any change of nature that thou desirest to be a new creature that thou admirest grace to be the best state but it is to avoid danger not that thou carest for the face of God to be reconciled to him but to avoid the present judgement And what a staggering will this be to conscience when a man shall deferre his repentance till Gods judgements seaze upon him We see it is false for the most part Because such persons that are then humbled when they recover they are as bad or worse then ever they were Therfore an Ancient saith well He that is good onely under the crosse it never good it comes not from any change that God works but meerely from selfe-love Therefore presently let us repent of those waies that God convinceth our conscience to be evill wayes God may strike us suddenly Those that forget God and care not for him now it may be just with God to make them forget themselves to strike them with frenzy to take away the use of their memories then and when sickenesse comes wee shall have enough to doe to conflict with sicknesse we shall have enough to doe to answer the doubts of conscience Oh it would upbraid then We shall thinke it a hard matter then to have favour from God whose worship we have despised the motions of whose Spirit we have neglected and resisted Conscience after long hardening in sinne will hardly admit of comfort it is a harder matter then it is taken for Therefore even to day presently you that are young now in the daies of your youth now in the spring of your yeares repent you of your sinnes before old-age comes which indeed as Salomon describes it is an ill time to repent in Alas then a man can hardly performe civill duties as we see in Barzillai he complaines that in his old-age he could not take the comfort of the creatures Therefore put not off this duty till then And all both young and old now when the judgements of God are abroad in the world take the advantage returne to God renew your covenants make your peace now now this danger doth warme our hearts a little let us strike the Iron now while it is hot let us take the advantage of the Spirit now avvakening us vvith this danger Our hearts are so false and so dull we have need to take all advantages of withdrawing our selves from our sinful courses And to incourage us to doe it let us consider if we doe this and doe it in time wee shall have the sweetnesse of the love of God shed abroad in our hearts You will say wee shall loose the sweetnesse of sin I but you shall have a most sweet communion with God One day of a repentant sinner that is reconciled to God is more comfortable then a thousand yeares of an other man that is in continuall feare of death and judgement Oh the sweete life of a Christian that hath made his peace with God! he is fit for all conditions for life for death for every thing now by this wee shall have this grace and favour of God the Lord will say unto us by his Spirit I am your salvation And besides you shall have his grace renewing and altering and changing you framing you to a better course of life And he will be so farre from misliking any for their former sinnes that hee will give them cause to love him the more as wee see Luk. 7. Shee loved much because shee had much forgiven her Christ we see upbraided not any of his followers with their former sinnes hee regarded nor what they had beene formerly Zaccheus the extortioner Mary Magdalen Matthew the Publican Peter that denied him wee never heare that he upbraided any of them hee doth not onely vouchsafe mercy to Peter repenting but advanceth him to his former office Apostolicall so sweete a God have we to deale with let this incourage us Againe it is the way to prevent Gods judgements as wee see in Nineveh and others Put case we repent not we cannot goe fafe in the citie nor any where but God may meete with us and strike us with his arrow The onely way to prevent his judgements is to meete him speedily by repentance This is the way not onely to turne away the wrath of God concerning eternall damnation but outward judgements as wee see Ioel. 2 and many other places Then againe should we be stricken if we have made our peace with God if we have repented all shall be welcome all shall be turned to our good wee know the sting is pulled out If the sting of death be pulled out if the malignity and poison of any sicknesse be it the plague or whatsoever be pulled out why should we feare it Jt comes in love and shall be turned to our good and in the meane time God sweetens it Here is a grand difference betweene the children of God and others If the judgement of God light upon a repentant person it comes from favour and love to correct him for his former sinnes it is turned to good and in the meane time it is sweetned with love and mixed with comfort and moderated as it is Isa. 27.7 hath hee afflicted thee as I afflicted others No hee moderates his judgements to his children and not onely moderates them but sweetens them with comfort Jf God doe correct a repentant person hee is no looser by it nay he is a gainer It is good for mee that I have been afflicted Oh the blessed estate of that person that repents and turnes from his evill wayes But if a man doe not repent but live still in sinne what a state is hee in God cares not for his prayers If I regard iniquity in my heart God will not heare my prayers and what a state is a man in when his prayers that should beg for blessings and avoid judgements and procure deliverance are not heard but shall be turned into sinne When God that is a God hearing prayer shall not regard his prayer What a case is this Yet if we regard iniquity in our hearts if we repent not of our sinnes God will not regard our prayers Then besides that there is a noise of feare in the

examine our wayes every day especially now when God calles for it by his judgements repentance is the covenant of the Gospell and repentance depends upon this consideration so much for that No man repented him of his wickednesse saying what have I done But did they stay here No it followes Every one turnes to his course as the horse rusheth into the battell Every one hath his course his way whether good or evill the course of a wicked man it is a smooth way perhaps but it is a going from God it leades from him and where doth it end for every way hath its end Jt is a going from God to hell there all the courses of wicked men end Examine then where thy course begins and where it ends from what thou walkest and to what whether thy course aime Consider where thy speeches and actions are like to end The specification and denomination of our waies to bee good or evill is especially from the end The wicked they take their courses smooth wide courses the broad beaten way where they may have elbow-roome enough though it end in Hell and destruction but the wicked and their waies are both hated of God otherwise it is with Gods children they may sometimes step into ill waies but they have not an ill course and God doth not judge a man by a step but by his course and way Therefore consider what is the tenour of thy life is thy way good Oh it is an excellent thing to be in a good way For a man every day to repent of his sinnes to make his peace with God to practise the duties of Christianity in his generall calling and in his particular calling to call upon God for a blessing Such a mans way is good it hath a good end Perhaps hee may step out of his way by the temptations of Satan but that is not his course The best man in the world for a passion on the sudden may step into an ill way as David when he determined to kill Naball but it was not Davids way therefore we see how soone he was put off with a little counsell and how thankefull he was Blessed bee the Lord and blessed be thou and blessed be thy counsell c. his way and course was another way And so on the other side the wickedest man in the world may set a step in a good way for a fit a very Saul may be amongst the Prophets and speake excellently and divinely but all this while he is out of his way his way is a course of wickednesse to which therefore he will soone betake himselfe againe as it is heere said of these men They turned to their owne courses As the Horse rusheth into the battell Here it is comparatively set downe If you would see how the horse rusheth into the battell it is lively and divinely expressed Iob. 39.19 by God himselfe Hast thou given the horse strength hast thou cloathed his necke with thunder Canst thou make him affraid as a Grashopper the glory of his nostrils is terrible he pa●eth in the valley and rejoyceth in his strength hee goeth on to meet the armed men Hee mocketh at feare and is not affrighted neither turneth hee backe from the sword The quiver ratleth against him the glittering speare and the shield He swalloweth the ground with fiercenesse and rage neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet He saith among the trumpets ha ha and he smelleth the battell a farre off the thunder of the captaines and the shouting There you have an excellent description of this creatures fiercenesse the wit of man hath not such expressions and how he rusheth into the battell God to abase wicked men compares them here to the horse not for that which is good in him but for their violence in ill courses they rush into them as the horse rusheth into the battell Now the horse rusheth into the battell 1. Eagerly as you see him described in the place of Iob and 2. Desperately he will not be pulled away by any meanes and then 3. Dangerously For he rusheth upon the pikes and oft-times falls downe suddenly dead he regards not the pikes nor guns nor nothing but rusheth on in the danger Heerein wicked men are like unto the horse going on in their course eagerly desperately dangerously 1. They go on eagerly it is meate and drinke unto them They cannot sleepe untill they have done wickednesse They plot and study it it is their delight they are not in their element but when they are talking wickedly and corruptly or deceiving or satisfying their desires the ambition and lusts of their corrupt nature They can no more live out of these courses then the fish can live out of the water therfore they goe eagerly upon them And as they goe eagerly so desperately and irreclaimably too nothing will restraine them no thornes nor troubles that can lye in their way though God hedge in their wayes with thornes they breake thorow all Even as Balaam hee would goe on though there were a sword drawne before him hee was more brutish and unreasonable then his poore beast the very sword of the Angell could not moove that covetous wretch to goe backe So it is with every wicked man he goes on desperately nothing will keepe him backe and reclaime him though God take many courses to doe it by his Ministers Magistrates by the motions of his Spirit by his judgements threatned by judgements executed upon others and upon themselves sometimes yet they are so eager upon their sins all this will not beate them off they love their sinnes better then their soules nor is it onely open riotous persons that thus rush into sinnes but civill rebellious persons also that blesse themselves in their wayes and it may be live as irreligiously as the other Take a covetous or an ambitious man hee sacrificeth all to get such a place c. Such a man mockes Christ as the Pharisees mocked him notwithstanding all his good Sermons and miracles hee goes on desperately nothing will hold him hee breakes through all barrs and oppositions he cracks his conscience grieves the good motions of the Spirit despiseth good counsell and will venture upon the outward breach of lawes sometimes rather then he will be defeated of his designes And as they goe eagerly and desperately so dangerously too for is it not dangerous to provoke God to rush upon the pikes to runne against thornes Doe you provoke me to jealousie saith God and not your selves to destruction No they goe both together if you provoke me to anger it will bee to your owne ruine In Levit. 26. God will walke stubbornely to them as they have done to him and he will be froward with the froward Psal. 18. Those that are rebellious sinners whom no bonds will hold no counsell that breake all lawes as the man possessed with the Divell brake his chaines the time will come that when God executes