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
A93601	Scintillula altaris. or, A pious reflection on primitive devotion : as to the feasts and fasts of the Christian Church, orthodoxally revived. / By Edward Sparke, B.D.; Thysiasterion.	Sparke, Edward, d. 1692.	1652 (1652)	Wing S4807; Wing S4806; Thomason E1219_1; ESTC R203594	218,173	522

Monthly Yearly Fasts as well as Festivals as shewed before and this duty was frequent among the Prophets and holy Saints of God witness David Daniel Esther Judith Esth 4. the Mothers of Samson and Samuel the Ninevites c. And afterward the Law of Grace was proclaimed by abstemious Iohn Matth. 11.18 Nec manducans nec bibens Mat. 11 he and his Disciples Fasted nor were they or the Pharisees themselves blamed by Christ for often Fasting but for their boasting hypocrisie therein Chap. 16.16 Matth. 16. in such holy duties He loving cheerfulness sincerity and secrecy Ocult hominum basilisci operum the designed eyes of men being the Basilisks of all good actions Moreover our blessed Lord himself by his own practice did canonize the sacred use of Fasting Chap. 4.2 Matth. 4. fasting fourty daies and fourty nights at the dedication of the new Covenant as Moses at the old In pious Imitation whereof not emulation hath his Spouse the Church since derived her Quadragessimal solemnities yet not as necessarily imposed from that example but voluntarily thence devoting some such time to Christian abstinence looking at the moral of it and not at the miracle modo possibili Jansenius de Quadrages as the School not wholly abstaining à toto all sustentation yet at least à tanto bating both of the measure and the manner of our usual diet Dan. 10.3 like Daniel 10.3 I was in heaviness three weeks of daies saith he and eat no pleasant bread neither tasted flesh nor wine the better to prepare our selves for holy duties by subjugating the flesh and infranchizing the Spirit to liberal contemplations and this is it Saint Basil intimates when he saith Christus noluit tentari usquedum jejunasset that Christ would not yeild himself to be tempted untill he had first arm'd himself with Fasting yet not as he could otherwise have incurred any danger but thereby saith he to teach his Church and us what guard to stand upon that Fasting and Devotion were the onely armout of proof against temptation to which end as Ecclesiastical History telleth us the Western Churches Socrates l. 5. chap. 21. Rome and others Fasted pertres septemanas inte pasca three whole weeks before Easter Qui autem in Illyriâ tot a Graecia sex simul jejunant quadragessimam appellant but the Eastern Churches all Greece Illyrium and Alexandria continued this solemn Fast as we did for full six weeks before the Resurrection-Festival and t is fit saith one so grand a Feast should have such ample Vigils and that at this time of the year especially both for prudent and pious reasons now the Body best can bear it and with most advantage to the general increase and t is fit sure some time should thus be set apart at least once a yeer for the Soul for each one to take an account of himself as well as of his shop wherein by Fasting Prayers and Teares those three heavenly companions Gen. 19.2 like Abrahams three Angels to make his peace with his offended God and none so fit a season as this wherein we Celebrate the Passion Christ sufferings for sin the strongest motive to repentance to see their heinousness none otherwise expiable then by the bloudshed of the Son of God! and now did the Church humble her self with Fasting and other holy duties that God would vouchsafe a gracious acceptation of such as were presented by her either by the holy Sacraments or Ordination both being as about this time more solemnly performed This was the convenient tradition of antiquity touching Lent and solemn Fasting not as absolutely Commanded or accepted of God barely for it self as of some special merit in its owne nature as some strain up the pegs too high but respectively and onely for such ends as follow Psa 58. viz. as t is a devout Handmaid both to Piety and Charity Isa 58. it sets the greater edge upon our Prayers kindles our zeal and enableth us the more to every good The ends of pious Fasting testifieth to the world our Pensiveness for sin doth as it were amerce and punish us for former excesses undermineth the strong holds of Satan hardeneth whom pleasure would melt it not onely relieveth but encourageth the poor to patience in that hardship which they see voluntary in others out of Religious purposes and it checketh and admonisheth sensual persons with wholsome examples of Frugal and severer life lastly by these abstemious contemplations we here as t were begin the life of Angels fore taste the sweetness of that heavenly Manna anticipate the excellency of that life which we shall one day live in heaven where we shall hunger and thirst no more after such outward nourishments fed only with the beatifick vision of the Lamb and the Fountain of living water yet for all this Antiquity and instrumental Piety of Fasting some are cloyd with it stomackful at very Abstinence and even uncivilly disgorge themselves against it both in their practice and invectives So that the Church complains with David Iejunavit anima Psal 69.10 my soul fasted and it was turned to my reproach These Fast-breaking Hereticks are as old as Epiphanius his time I might have said as Epicurus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Slow-Bellies saith the Apostle He meaneth not at their meat Tit. 1.12 but to all good inclinations belly Gods that think the best Feast-maker the perfectest Saint and especially if on an Ash-wednesday or a Good-friday and yet so meer Spirit forsooth that all our corporal assistance to devotion pleaseth not Epiphanius bestoweth on them his 73 Heresie Epipha 73. haer Haeres and they deserve it you shall meet their Objections answered elsewhere I will not here spoil the Harmony of our speculation with their discord Passing then the Adversaries look we unto our own practice lest some as justly complain of us as honest Lindanus of the other perswasion Panoplia lib. 5. c. 11. Jejunta nostra vini copia natant piscium varietate carnium delicias superant Our Fasts abound with lusty wine saith he and with variety of choicest fish we outvie the luxury of fleshly delicates Or if not so yet are there other abuses of this Fasting some making it their gain some their Physick some their Art and I hope some their Virtue The six several kinds according to the old verse Abstinet aeger egens cuptdus Fallax gula virtus the sick man fasts but t is for for want of appetite the poor man fasts but t is for want of nourishment the covetous man fasts and t is for want too for want of the gift to eat of his labours the Poet laughed to see an Ass loaden with Gold feeding on Thistles but a good man may mourn to see this folly among the Sons of men The Hypocrite fasteth too twice a week if you will believe him but that fast is a pampered body in a Pharisees dress a short haire perhaps and

T is ceremoniall for the manner albeit Morall for the matter And this Precept is hedged in on every side lest we should break out of its observance Fronted with a cautiou or command for it will beare both Imperat suadet Remember thou keep Holy it injoyns with perswasion and then back'd with Reasons Reasons from both parties God and Man with some remarkable eminencies above other Mandates They run either barely Affirmative as the fifth or barely Negative as all the other but in this both parts expressed beginning with the Affirmative Remember c. proceeding in the Negative In it thou shalt do no manner of work c. The Breach hereof thus both wayes met withall Again 't is more extensive it not only respects our selves but with a strange particularity involves all our Relations even to five several Ranks viz. Thou thy Servants Cattell strangers within thy gates the wife not mentioned as being included in the first Now every Master of a family hoc habet Episcopale quod habet curā animarum hath so much of a Bishop in him that he hath cure of souls viz. care of those under his charge As for this 't is God himself commends Abraham Gen 18.19 Josh 24.15 Gen. 18. as all the good world doth Joshua's pious Resolution Chap. 24. Lastly t is more Alluring then the rest more sweetly exciting and that not onely with more Reasons but with Reasons more insinuative those of the third and second Commandements being formidable and menacing but of this wooing and Allective as on our part beside the indulgent Preface Remember thou keep c. Six dayes shalt thou labour c. A permission or remission of Gods right who might chalenge all rather then an absolute command For the Church upon occasion saith Perkins may separate some week dayes also for rest and Divine Service Joel 2. Yet this withall is no Commission saith he against idlenesse every one being to live by the sweat of his Brows faithfully in his vocation Gen. 3.19 1 Cor. 7.20 1 Cor. 7. out of Genes 3. Six dayes shalt thou c. God here as liberall to us as to Adam in Paradise Of all the Trees but one as Potiphar to Joseph Gen. 49. Let us answer with him How can I deny in this one Remember thou keep holy the seventh day If I indulge thee six for thine own business saith God thou mayst well afford the seventh to my service and that wholly holy For as the Evening and the Morning made the first day the second and the rest of the week The Reasons of this Precept so the Evening and the Morning should likewise make the seventh day The other argument and that a main one is from Gods own example who herein requireth no more then Himselfe performed his own practice being the Commentary upon his Law as becomes all good Leaders For in six days the Lord c. and rested the seventh day Rested This is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Figure of condescension to our weak capacities God otherwise not being capable either of Rest or Labour and such indeed Saint Austine and others take all the description of the History of the Creation to be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 1. but a methodizing of it to mans apprehension for 't was all one to Omnipotence to make all the world in a moment and every Species as well as the light with an easie Fiat Let there be Fire and Air and Earth and Water semel simul omnia all things at once existing out of them but so marshalled in the story for our more orderly meditation of them and our more regular imitation of this patern in our own transactions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 5.1 Be ye followers of God Eph. 5. He means in proportionable actions who fram'd the world in six dayes and rested the seventh rested from Creating not from governing from creating of new Species and kinds of creatures but not from making Individua new singularities for so is he alwayes working John 5. both for Corporals and Spirituals John 5 17. My Father worketh hitherto and I work But to hasten there is Sabbatum pectoris and Sabbatum Temporis That of the mind I shall mention in the close The Sabboth of Time among the Jews was either of dayes or years and both those greater or less the lesser every seventh day and every seventh year the greater when the Passover fell on the Sabboth as at Christs Crucifixion John 19 and every fiftieth year which was their Jubile C. 19. C. 19.28 We reflect but upon their less●… Sabboth of dayes viz. the seventh day and that the Artificial day as John 11.9 being the space of 12. hours from the Sun rising to the Setting of it and so too may the Jews from evening to evening be understood And this too the blessed Apostles altered and by consequence abrogated as to the particularity of the day herein led by the Spirit of Truth and as some think by Christs own example John 20. Consentaneum est Apostolos mutasse diem Melanct. Tom. 2. fol. 363. 'T was necessary saith Melancthon even for this very cause that the Apostles should change the day to shew an example of abrogating the Legall Ceremonies in the Translation of the seventh day Which translation from Saturday to Sunday is not by Patent in the Bible but only by patern because cause the blessed Apostles usually met together on this day 1 Cor. 16.2 Apoc. 1.10 Act. 20.7 and that assuredly by the dictate of the holy Spirit and at least by the approbation of our Saviour again again manifesting himself to be risen on the 8. day So that however happily some will argue and others grant that an Oecumenicall Councell hath authority to constitute another day for publick worship as the second or third of the week yet sure I am they can never have so good a Patern nor yet so great a reason for another day as is demonstrated for this alteration the Patern being Christ and his Apostles and the Reason our Saviours resurrection even that wonderful work of our Redemption Aretius in 4. Mand. Aretius picks out a mystery out of Christs appearing on the 8. day We labour 6 dayes in this life saith he the seventh being the Sabboth of our death in which we rest from our labours Rev. 14.13 Rev. 14.13 and then being raised from the dead on the 8. day Christ in his own Body as then raised shal reward every man according to his works C. 20.13 Rev. 20.13 The Jews then gave God the last day of the week but good Christians better honour him with the first they kept their Sabboth in honour of the worlds Creation but Christians in memoriall of an higher mercy viz. its Redemption and therefore reason good the greater work should carry away the credit of the Day whose Duties principally consist in these two things viz. A Rest