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	people_n	sabbath_n	981	5	9.0818	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30925	The faithful and wise servant discovered in a sermon preached to the Parliament of the commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, at their late private fast in the Parliament House, Jan. 9, 1656 / by Matthew Barker ...	Barker, Matthew, 1619-1698.	1657 (1657)	Wing B773; ESTC R20191	33,385	52

such love as that which Christ shew'd to the world and was there ever any carriage so unworthy and so unsufferable as that which Christ receives from the World We have the Type of this in the Nation of the Jews You know God did wonderfully for that people brought them out of Egypt by an out stretched arm and carried them through the wilderness by a continual miracle and then setled them in a pleasant land such a land as could not for all things be matched by any upon earth might not now God expect think you eminent love and service from such a people but when they come into the good land they presently defile it with their Idolatries they forget the workes of God and as the Prophet Jeremy expresseth it They say not where is the Lord that brought us out of the Land of Egypt that led us through the wilderness c. So after all the wonderfull works of power and love that Christ hath wrought for the redemption of man and for the setling him in an heavenly inheritance Oh how much is this Christ forgotten How few are there that say where is this Jesus that hath done these things Oh where is he that we may adorn him that we may embrace him that we may devote our selves and all that we are and have to him Ah must not this be for a Lamentation this day may we not lament upon Christs account that he should be so much despised and his service neglected and upon the worlds account that they should no better understand their own Interest then to be serving other Masters and cast him off But to come a little nearer home May not we particularly mourn over our selves and the Nation this day Oh the mercies that England hath received But have we not too soon too soon forgotten them Hath God been served under his mercy and served with his mercy as he should have been Do we ask after the God of our mercies and say Where is the God of all these mercies Where is that God that delivered us from the Bondage of Popery and Superstition in Queen Marys days and from those ensnaring Ceremonies and superstitious Innovations in the late Prelats days Where is that God that appeared for us at Keint●n Newberry Naseby Dunbar Worcester c Might not God promise himself that when he had delivered us out of the hands of our enemies we would serve him without fear in righteousness and holiness all the days of our life But do we so And that when he had delivered us from those innovations that were intruded into his Worship he should have a pure worship and pure Ordinances set up amongst us and a joyful and holy walking in them But is it thus And that when once the danger of Saints meeting together called Conventicling was removed they would fall into a sweet and blessed communion and fellowship among themselves But alas is it thus As also might not God expect that those which suffered together and were delivered together should joyn heart and hand together to promote the common Interest of Christ against the Common Enemy But is this found amongst us God told the Jews Zach. 8. 19. that he would deliver them and turn the Fasts of the fourth fifth and seventh moneth into joy and gladness and cheerful Feasts and that therefore they should love the Truth and Peace God hath done much toward our deliverance we must not we dare not deny it we inherit the fruit of the Prayers and blood of many of his precious Saints But after all Do we love the Truth and Peace Is Truth embraced Is Peace preserved Nay Is not the light of Truth darkned by pernicious Errors and the beauty of Peace sadly defaced by unhappy divisions And must not these things be for a Lamentation this day I remember when the Book of Sports came out in the late Kings days there was a general lamentation among the good people of the Land and a holy zeal for the spiritual observation of the Christian Sabbath But now How many have set their Consciences free from any such duty and others are running back to the Jewish Sabbath and that more then every one is aware of And the first step to fall to the latter must be the casting off the former Vse 3 That which I shall next infer from the Truth in hand is with all seriousness to exhort and beseech that that which is our greatest work may be most minded And seeing that Honoured in the Lord you have appointed us to be this day your SPEAKERS to speak to God for you and to speak from God to you give me leave to enjoy that which is the Priviledge of this House to speak freely And I shall be bold to speak to you as standing before the Lord this day in a threefold capacity 1. As Men. 2. As Christians 3. As Magistrates and the TRVSTEES of the three Nations First I shall speak to you as men and as men you are engaged to serve the Lord For First Have you not received your Beings from him Hath not he made you and not you your selves Doth not then the Law of Creation engage you to serve him by whom you are or else you had never been There are certain Duties which Divines call Natural Worship which the light of Nature doth dictate to men and are due to him by the very Law of Creation as to love God fear him trust him so also to serve him and refer our actions to him which God never did nor never will dispense with to the sons of men So that he that lives in the world and is not truly serving God in the world this man sins against the very Dictates of natural light and against the Original and Fundamental right which God claims to us as being his creatures and the work of his hands Shal● the thing that is formed say to him that formed it What hast thou to do with me And wherein am I indebted to thee Shall not God enjoy his own Creature And doth he enjoy it if it is not serving him Secondly As man was made by the Lord so he was made peculiarly for the Lord He made the rest of the Creation to serve man but he made man to serve himself He furnish'd him with such Faculties of mind that rendred him capable of knowing praising and serving his Creator and is there but this one creature in this lower world that God made peculiarly to serve him and shall he be disappointed in that one Nay shall the rest of the Creatures keep their station and serve their end and man not serve his When God would Arraigne a people that was rebellious against him he calls Heaven and Earth to hearken Isa 1. 2. Hear O Heavens and hearken O Earth Why What strange thing hath God to bring forth Why this I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me As if he had said Is there such a thing to be

Lord where we have first the Act serve and the Object about which it is conversant The Lord. The Act Serve The word Service as applyed to God or Christ is taken either more strictly for that service we perform when we are upon some part of his instituted worship as prayer hearing c. and so is enjoyned in the second Commandement and is so taken Acts 26. 7. Or else it is taken more largely for any duty of Christianity any action of mans life which he performes in obedience to the will of God and subordination to his glory and so it takes in all the other 9. commandements and is thus used Rom. 12. 11. And as I conceive also in the Text. Then for the Object The Lord. In the Heb. Jehovah And whether it is God the Father here spoken of or Christ who is the King mentioned before that was set up and the Son that is to be kissed though it is somwhat controverted among Expositors yet I think it not material to spend time about it seeing we cannot serve one aright but we must serve both the Son as in the Father and the Father as in the Son And then for the persons that are thus more particularly admonisht to serve the Lord they are Kings and Judges men that sit at the upper end of the world The eminency of their place doth not the more acquit them but rather the more ingage them to service Though they be Kings yet there is a King eminently above them from whom their power is derived upon them and therefore they must serve If they be Judges yet there is a Judg higher then they before whose tribunal they must stand and be judged and therefore they must be serving So that the main propositions from hence resulting which I shall insist upon is this Doct. That the great work that every man hath to do in this world especially those that are set down in places of power and seat of judgement is To be serviceable to the Lord. This is the work we come into the world for and if this be not done we shall give but a sad account of our lives to the Lord. God made all creatures for service the Sun Moon and Stars for service the Clouds the Air the Fire the Earth for service c. but much more Man And it is a monster in nature for the creature not to serve its end As for the Sun and Stars above to confine their light within themselves and not to send it down upon the world for the clouds to hold in their moisture and not to resolve it upon the earth for the earth to imprison its fatness and virtue within its selfe and not send it forth in grass corn and fruit for the use of man and beast would not this be a monstrous thing in the world So for man to be serving himself with those powers and abilities that God hath put into him and not the Lord is a thing as absurd and anomalous Look through the whole Creation you shall not find any creature that was made for it self every creature is serving some end without it self So is man much more made for an end without himself which is to serve the Lord. So that Right Honourable my work I come upon this day amongst you is to put you in mind of your Debt I mean that Homage Duty Service and Subjection which you all do owe to the Lord and which must be paid by every one of you for though the Debt of Satisfaction which through sin we owe to the justice of God he remit it for Christs sake to his people yet the Debt of Service which we owe to his glory he neither hath remitted it or ever will remit it to any of the sons of men But that we may a little understand what it is to serve the Lord take this twofold distinction There is a serving God either mediately or more immediately First As to the Mediate Service The whole Creation serveth God by and through man the creatures without reason without sence and without life do serve their Creator as they hold forth to man such footsteps of his glory wherein he may admire praise and glorifie him The greatness of the works of God shew forth his greatness their beauty his beauty their perfection his perfection their order and workmanship his infinite wisdom their course and motion his providence in the world Or else they serve God through man as they serve to maintain him in his Life and Being which being maintained are to be subordinated to the Lord and to his service The Sun sends down its influence that man might live the clouds distil their moisture that man might live the Sea sends forth its waters that man might live the Earth brings forth its fruit that man might live all do serve the life of man that the life of man might serve the Lord. 2. There is a more immediate serving God and so there are but two sorts of creatures Angels and Men whose service can immedia●ely refer to God For no other creatures are capable of an immediate application of themselves to him They have not understanding to know him Wills to close with him and so not capable of applying themselves to him or looking at him in any thing they do The second Distinction is this There is a serving the Lord ex Intentione and praeter Intentionem 1. Praeter Intentionem or accidental as to him that serveth and so wicked men who thought of nothing less then serving God yet have eminently served him As Nebuchadnezar King of Babylon served a great service for God against Tyrus Ezek 29. 18 19 20. and God gave him the land of Egypt for his wages though he intended nothing less then to serve God in that Designe And so the King of Assyria was employed by God to execute his vengeance upon the hypocritical Nation of the Jews Howbeit saith the Text he meaneth not so neither doth his heart think so as you read Isa 10. 6 7. And so when Baasha executed the vengeance threatned upon the house of Jeroboam 1 King 15. 29. and when Zimri executed the vengeance threatned upon Ba●sha 1 Kings 16. 12. and when Jehu executed the judgement of God upon the house of Ahab it was service done for God though they did not do it with an intention of serving him yea the most eminent Prophesies upon Record have been fulfilled besides the intention of the instruments As that of Christ's being crucified for the redeeming of the world Pilate and the Jews thought of nothing less then the fulfilling the counsel of the Lord in what they did or in serving his decrees or his glory therein though they were eminently served hereby 2. There is a serving God ex Intentione when the mind and heart of man respect God in what he doth And this is the service that God calls for and the Text calls for and doth alone find acceptance with God Now to this