Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	faith_n	good_a	work_n	3,907	5	6.0359	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92764	The godly mans choice, or, A direction how single godly persons, who intend marriage, may make choice of a fit and meet yoak-fellow being the meditations of Caleb Grantham in his single state, as a rule and guide for himself to walk by, and since his death perused and published with some profitable directions how persons should live as becometh Christians in the married state / by Henry Scudder ...	Grantham, Caleb.; Scudder, Henry, d. 1659?	1644 (1644)	Wing S2138B; ESTC R42507	34,805	158

life according as it is well or ill done The composer of these choyce Rules or Directions was a most ingenious and holy young man of good learning rare parts he studied before hand and practised these Rules which he had gathered out of the Oracles of God and he had God going along with him for he gave him a wife according to his desire with whom he lived but a short time it pleasing the Lord in favour to him to take him away from the evil to come The memory of the just is blessed Some erect monuments in Marble that their name may be kept in perpetuall remembrance And it was the manner in some places that in their mourning for their dead friends they held forth and shewed some of their most excellent works which they wrought while they lived I think a better monument cannot bee raised nor better means can be used to preserve this mans name most pretious sweet and ever living and most profitable to posterity then by making this his work publick to the Churches of God These are such as will alike serve to direct a single woman in her acceptance and choyce of an husband to teach parents how to make choyce of husbands and wives for their children as well as to direct a man to make a good choyce of a wife I commend unto all the practise of this our brother for their imitation that every one study and endevour to know and to do the works and duties of the places and conditions wherin God hath set them that they may walk with God and please him therein Amongst the secondary evidences of being in state of grace and accepted with God I know none more clear and certain then this that a Believer in Christ Jesus doe adde unto his faith a conscionable care to please God in the well doing the work of his particular calling and relation I cannot think that a man hath any more power of godlines then as he shall respectively endevour to manifest it in the particular calling condition of life wherein God hath placed him as well as in his generall For an upright man as he will as David did keep himself from his iniquity that is the iniquity which through his naturall corruption he was most prone unto to which through the particular condition of his life he was most tempted and in greatest danger so his speciall care will be to doe the duty of his own place to do that work which God in speciall hath given him to doe The Apostle in divers places after he had delivered the doctrine of faith he subjoyneth the doctrine of good works First more generally as the effects and evidences of a lively faith and then he descendeth to particular duties of men and women according to their severall ranks and relations as of Wives to their Husbands Husbands to their Wives of Children to Parents and of Parents to their Children of Servants to their Masters and of Masters to their Servants as the effects and evidences of true sanctity Where a generall good conversation is not endevoured there faith is not alive but dead and if a man think he hath faith and hath not works he deceiveth himselfe so if he think he hath works because he doth many of the works of holinesse and righteousnesse which his generall calling to Christiaanity leadeth him unto but yet doth not the work which God particularly hath given him to doe he also deceiveth himselfe he may fear that the holines and righteousnes which he seemed to have is not sound Whosoever shall bee desirous to make use of these Directions to make a good entrance into marriage will I thinke be as desirous to know how to live as becommeth Christians when they are maried Wherefore for their help I have added unto the end of these directions some others touching Husbands and wives their loving and living together so as they may please God and may live comfortably and happily in the married condition Both these directions I commend to all that desire information herein and also commend you and these to be blessed to you by God the instituter of the ordinance of marriage to whom be ascribed as most due is all honour and glory now and for ever Yours to serve you in the Lord HENRY SCUDDER Pastor of Collingburn Ducis in Wilts. July 23. 1644. The Godly mans Choyce EVery end hath its proper way and means appertaining to it All ways will not equally alike lead to the same end there is a contrary way that will never bring thee to it There is a crooked and indirect way that may perhaps but with much trouble and labour but then there is a streight and direct way and this is that way which will both with ease and pleasure bring thee to thy desired end This is the way which all men grope after but few can find it Now if to marry and to marry in the Lord a wife and a good wife one with whom thou mayst begin thy dayes with joy continue them in quiet and end them with comfort if this be the end of thy thoughts then surely the most direct and streight way to obtain it will be to seek her of God Not a few are the inducements to move us to this course 1. Because hee is best able to guide and direct you to the finding of her she is a flower that growes not in every garden an hearb that is not in every field she is not to be found in every house you may seek long enough ere you find and finding be deceived unlesse God direct you 2. She cannot be had from any other but from him he it is who is the great Patron in whose family are all the prudent wise vertuous religious persons that are to be desired and if thou wouldest have one of these apply thy self to obtain his favour so shalt thou find a good wife Pro. 18. 22. In other families no doubt thou mayst find a rich wife a beautifull wife but a prudent wife is from the Lord Pro. 19. 14. 3. It is the easiest way to find her Mercies though great yet when they cannot but with great difficulty be obtained it either disheartens us in the pursuit of them or els abates the sweetnesse in the enjoyment of them but with how much content and delight is the heart filled when it apprehendeth a great mercy tumbling into his lap Wouldst thou obtain a good wife which of temporall mercies is the greatest lo this is the most compendious way sit thou still doe but seek and wait and at length thou shalt as it were behold God bringing her in his hand and offering her to thee we see Adam slept while God brought Eve unto him Gen. 2. 21. 4. Never any found that did not thus seek many indeed have wandred roved over this wide world seeking in every place casting their eyes in every corner

these concern Husband and Wife mutually some concern each peculiarly 1. When God hath joyned you in so neer a relation you are first to see God and to acknowledge him in this your match It was God who joyned you together 2. All things come to pass by his providence which is to be taken notice of but marriages are made by the speciall hand of his providence House and inheritance are of the fathers but a prudent Wife and so a good Husband are of the Lord yea every good Husband and Wife is of the Lord 3. The seeing and acknowledging of God in your marriage as it will cause you to be thankfull to him so it will arm you against all the troubles in the flesh which you shall meet with in that estate It will keep you from repenting of your match and from wishing that you had not married this person and from wishing that you had married such and such you cannot now say unto or twit one another with this that I might have had such an one so beautifull so personable so rich so well qualified no now you see you could have none other this is the man this is the woman that God hath given me you must say I will therefore thankfully and contentedly satisfie my self in this my lot and portion 4. Now you are married consider what you then did you then entred into a neer covenant one with another yea into a Covenant with God to be one anothers and to be faithfull to each other Now you are no longer two but one flesh not your own but one anothers self So that if you break covenant one with another you break covenant also with your God 5. You must love each other as your own souls with a Christian pure tender abundant naturall and matrimoniall love 6. The foundation that must bear up this love and the spring which must feed and nourish this love is not only or chiefly the commendable parts and endowments that are in each of you but the neer relation into which you are entred being now no more two but one flesh and bone of each others bone and that it is now from God that you are thus made one and that it is his will and pleasure that it should be so 7. When your love is thus ●rounded it will be constant to each other as well in one condition as another You must therefore love her as before you are taught because God hath made her your wife And you must so love him because God hath made him your husband Although it may happen that there is not in your yoke-fellow that personablenes beauty wit vertue and good qualities that are in many others yet the own husband and wife must be the object of your choycest and singular love and you must esteem of each other so as to be endeared one to another above and before any other in the world 8. This love must shew it self in the fruits of it and first to the better part to the souls one of another True love edifieth not only a mans self but others also 9. You must therefore pray one for another and one wth another you must further one another in holiness and righteousness The godly and unblameable conversation of man and wife doth much conduce to the conversion and building of one another up in their holy faith being accompanied with instructing exhorting and comforting and as there shall be cause admonishing in the Lord It is no usurpation but love and duty in a wife as well as in the husband to perform to each these Christian offices provided always that the wife do it with all humble respect to her husband in due time place and manner 10. This love must also shew it self in all due study and care to please each other in all things wherein you may giving all lawfull content one to another you to your power and skill must be helpfull one to another If the wife be made to be an help to the husband the husband much more is to be helpfull to the wife because God hath made him to be the stronger and hath given him more ability to do it Your hearts must be so knit to each other and so for one another that you may trust one in the other doing good and not evill the wife to the husband and husband to the wife all the dayes of your life 11. You must also shew your love in faithfulness to each other in keeping your bodies chaste and only one for another giving to each due benevolence in a seasonable temperate and sanctified use of marriage There are some times wherein God hath forbid marriage societie Also intemperate and immodest use of marriage springing from immoderate affections will not satisfie and quench lustfull desires but increase them rather and marriage is reckoned amongst those good things of God which are warranted and sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer 12. You are to satisfie your selves in the societie and embraces each of your own husband and wife Adulterie is a most heynous sin and most destructive of the marriage Covenant you cannot wrong one another in any thing more nor any way sooner wrong and root out your posterity nor bring a greater or more abominable and everlasting blot and infamy upon your name then by the embracing of the bosome of a stranger It will bring destruction upon the soul for Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge If any temptation or motion to that evill shall present it self either from within or from without repell it with indignation saying thus with thy self in like words to those of chast Joseph when hee was tempted by his lewd Mistress Shal I wrong my yoak fellow shal I break my covenant that I made with my God How can I commit this great wickedness and sin against God Adulterers by the law of Moses were to be put to death 13. As you must not give cause no nor occasion of jealousie so abhor to be causelesly jealous one of another true ardent love will think no evill it believeth all things it hopeth all things 14. You must with all tender care be preservers of each others names and credits you must be so firm to each other that you may trust one in another and lock up your selves in one anothers brests keeping each others secrets never blazing abroad the faults or frailties of each True love can and will cover even a multitude of sins you must do with them as you will do with the soars of your own bodies never uncover them but when a plaister is to be laid to them 15. If God give you no children do not impute the fault to the one or other It is God that giveth or withholdeth children when you have commended this to God by Prayer you must patiently and contentedly submit to Gods will It was Rachels great