Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	hear_v	pray_v	prayer_n	3,315	5	6.6995	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45205	Dorcas revived the second time: or a sermon preached at the funerals of Mrs. Anne Mickle-thwait the one and twentieth of March 1658.	Hunter, Josiah, minister in York.	1656 (1656)	Wing H3765B; ESTC R224179	44,466	48

precious to be but drosse and dung in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ her Lord. 3 Phil. 7 8. More particularly She was full of the Grace of Faith and therefore notably well acquainted with the promises Pabulum fidei which are the food of Faith A diligent attender on the word Organum fidei 10 Rom. 17. Nutrimentum fidei the instrument of Faith An earnest desirer and a most conscientious frequenter of the Lords Supper the means to increase it and by reading the promises hearing the Word receiving the Sacrament joyned with a special Act of application in them all she had attained to a kind of Plerophorie a full assurance of Faith 10 Heb. 22. When she was now Sick she told me that since her conversion she had at several times many doubts and fears arising in her Heart Satan desired to Winnow her as Wheat but said she my Faith failed not God did enable her still to hold fast her integrity 22 Luk 31.32 2 Iob. 3. and Satans shaking her with his temptations did but help to establish her the more afterwards and well indeed might she hold fast the integrity of her Faith who continued to hold fast the integrity of her Obedience walking as Elizabeth in all the Commandements and Ordinances of the Lord blameless 1 Luke 6. making such Conscience of the discharge both of her personal and relative duties that so farr as I have observed or been acquainted though many Daughters have done vertuously yet she excelled them all The strength of Faith is best judged of 31 Prov. 29. when brought to the Tryal And I shall never forget her deportment under the sad death of her most dear Husband Mrs. Stillington When I took upon me the boldnesse to ask her in private her Daughter being then only present whether she did under this affliction doubt of Gods Fatherly love or whether the guilt of any Sin but those which are called Sins of dayly incursion Quotidianae incursionis Te●t pressing her Conscience did render the affliction more bitter her answer was she did not doubt she was assured of Gods love She looked on God at that time as an angry Father but she had ever found him and then knew him to be a loving Father And for the guilt of any Sin pressing her Conscience she acknowledged that her infirmities were many 1 Nehem. 11. 119 Psal 5. and though her desire was to fear Gods name and to direct her wayes according to his Statutes Yet she was defective in many things and fell short of her duty that was her grief of her desire likewise that was her comfort but she professed that her Conscience did not accuse her of any wicked or willful disobedience 119 Psal 104. 119 Psal 6. she hated every false way and had respect unto all Gods Commandements at all times 79 Psal 8. only she feared that in this affliction God might remember former iniquities long since committed which it may be she had not throughly humbled her self for I asked her then why she was so sorrowful the substance of her reply was that she thought a more than ordinary measure of sorrow was in such cases lawful being warranted out of the Scripture by the examples of good men and also convenient to express the sense of Gods hand upon her but yet she desired she said and would endeavour so to restrain her grief that it might neither offend others nor dishonour God Being thus full of the grace of faith she could not but be full of love seeing faith where it is works by love A great lover she was of the ordinances 5 Galat. 6. a lover likewise of Gods people her delight was in the Saints of the earth in her eyes a vile person was contemned 16 Psal 3. 15 Psal 4. Christum hospitantem in Augustino but she honoured them that fear the Lord where she saw any thing of Christ she loved the person as Ambrose loved Christ dwelling in Augustine I think one of the greatest arguments of a mans love to Christ is when it puts him upon endeavours to gain others to the love of him and in this very thing she spent most of her time wherein through Gods blessing she laboured with such successe that beside her natural daughters I doubt not but she hath many other daughters in the faith 1 Tim. 1.2 who may arise up and call her blessed such whom she was a special instrument either to beget unto Christ 31 Prov. 28. or afterwards to build up in their holy faith She was full of the spirit of prayer and supplication in which duty she was very frequent according to the injunction of scripture 12 Za. 10. 4 Colos 2. 1 Thes 5.17 and though she was not an Euchite so as to neglect all other duties of her calling yet she remembred that all things are sanctifyed by prayer 1 Tim. 4.5 and therefore would never omit it Nazianzen would have men so much in this duty that they might be able to shew the wounds of the knees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and there is a figure in the Heavens which Astronomers call in the knees Sure I am this Gentlewoman if any might have shewed the wounds of the knees for set aside her private and family devotions I have seen her my self once twice more than the third time in private meetings use this gesture for four or five houres together and though age and her infirmities might have tolerated her another posture yet I have observed to my admiration that for so long time she hath seldome changed her gesture when others more young and strong have made use of their liberty to sit or stand 12 Rom. 12. It is not enough that we be frequent in prayer unlesse fervent no more did this servant of God think it The Orator said once of the Athenians comparing them to men running up an hill they breath much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but have little strength so many men in prayer breath much but have little strength whereas Basil would have us with an holy impudence to make God ashamed 32 G●n 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he cannot look us in the face if he deny our importunity Such a powerfull faculty had this Gentlewoman in prayer as I have heard those that lived with her acknowledge and admire One thing of her practise in this duty I may not omit and that is she used to go to prayer with her children alwayes about five of the clock in the afternoon and then examined them and because she was sensible how much the welfare of the Church depends upon Gods guidance of the Governours thereof therefore in her devotions she never forgot to pray for the King and taught her Children while they were yet young to do so 1 Tim. 2.2 She was full of humility which is the grace of all other graces

and likewise of Alms-Deeds in Particular As Mr. Hieron calleth her a discreet compassionate cheerfull and Simple-hearted Almoner I come now to the sad part of my Text and that is her sickness and death It may be you have heard me hitherto with delight if I now stirr up your grief I cannot avoid it But I must go as I am led by the Text and the occasion Who would not be ready to say it was pity that Dorcas so good a Woman should all any thing that she should be sick but much more that she should die But so it seemed good to Divine Providence For it came to passe in those days that she was sick and died And it came to passe Observ There is a providence in and to be observed in the Sicknesse and Death of Gods Saints Pretious in the sight of the Lord 116 Psal 15● is the Life and also the Death of his Saints And if they be so pretious to God how can we think but that there should be a special providence in their Sicknesse and Death If the hairs of their Heads are numbred 10 Mat. 30. much more the days of their Sojourning and if one of their hairs cannot fall to the ground but by the providence of their Heavenly Father much lesse can their whole bodies There is a threefold Providence of God First General which he exerciseth over all his Creatures Secondly Special which he exerciseth over Man Thirdly Particular which he exerciseth over his own People Of this last the Psalmest speaks 56 Psal 7. Thou tellest my wandrings put thou my Tears into thy Bottle are they not all in thy Book God in his providence orders the time when his people shall be sick and Dye the place where the Disease of which with all other circumstances of that nature and which is above all he doth fashion their Hearts by the same providence to bear Sicknesse and so disposeth of things that they are not taken away by Death till they have finished their work and are fit to enter into Glory Well then let us see his providence and submit to it acknowledging the Justice Wisdom and Goodnesse of it We are apt oft times to wonder that God should cast his people into Sicknesse and take them away by Death at such a time that he casteth them into such places it may be where they are at a distance from their Habitation that they are taken away by such a sharp Disease and violently that he doth not spare them a little to recover their strength before they go hence and be no more seen 39 Psal 13. Now we must answer all such questions as these with a sic evenit so it came to passe by the most wise providence of God whose respect to his Children is such that if he had seen any thing better this had not been Observ It came to passe in those days that She was Sick Gods dearest Children are not exempted from Sicknesse no more than any other affliction Si amatur quomodo infirmatur it is said 11 Joh. 3. Behold he whom thou lovest is Sick Augustine asks if he were beloved how came he to be Sick But in outward accidents of this life God makes no difference Nay it is usual in providence that they who have Gods Heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 feel Gods Hand most heavy It is a very pretty saying of Clemens Alexandrinus Gods Children are not neer him unlesse they be within the reach of his Rod. They sit as Augustus said he did when he sate between Virgil and Horace Inter suspicia lachrymas the one melancholly the other troubled with sore eyes between sighing and weeping All the day long have I been plagued and chastned every Morning saith David 73 Psal 14. When yet it is said of some wicked worldly Men 73 Psal 7. that they were not in trouble like other Men neither were they plagued like other Men. You have read it may be or heard the Story of the holy Hermite that having lived to a compleat Age though very piously yet made a question of Gods love to him because all that while he had not which he could remember felt one hours sicknesse It pleased God in some short time before he dyed to visit him with an Ague which he blessed God for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and received as a Love-token not scrupling that so much afterward which formerly had troubled him Paul had a racking pain which he expresseth by a Thorn in the flesh 2 Cor. 12. Mr. Manton A learned Man thinks that he alludes to such kind of punishment as Slaves or Men not free were put to for great offences They sharpned a Stake and pointed it with Iron and put it in at his Back till it came out at his Mouth and so with his Face upward he Dyed miserably And therefore by that expression the Apostle intendeth some grievous bodily distemper or racking pain 2 Coo. 12.5 Certainly he speaketh of such an infirmity wherein he would Glory and therefore it is not probable that it should be meant of Sin or some prevailing Lust as many expound it but rather of some extreme corporal pain Yet I have observed that Gods Children are not apt to question his Love so much as in Sicknesse For Satan takes the advantage of the solitude of a Sick person to tempt him more and makes use of the pain and distemper of the Body to disturb and disquiet the mind But however Gods people have no more cause to doubt of Gods love in Sicknesse than any other affliction That which troubles them most is that hereby they are rendred unserviceable but where God disenableth from duty he looks not for it but accepts of the desire for the deed Besides Sicknesse it not such an unserviceable Estate may not one serve God acceptably in suffring as well as doing As it is said in the Revelation 14 Revel 12. here now is the Faith and Patience of the Saints Therefore if God shall cast your Bodies into Sickness be not dejected cast not down your Spirits 38 Isa 1. 7 Job 3 4. 38 Psal 7. 2 Phil. 27. Gods dearest Saints have had experience of sore Sicknesses such as Hezekiah Job David and Epaphroditus The Children of God have Bodies of the same matter and making with other men They are but earthen vessels subject to knocks and cracks as others are only they have a more pretious Lamp shining in these earthen pitchers than others have I mean a more pretious Soul Therefore comfort your selves and remember that in Sickness all your desire is before God and your groaning is not hid from him 38 Psal 9. And though your bodily distemper indispose you for duty yet God accepted Hezekiahs prayer 38 Isa 5. though when he prayed he did but chatter like as a Crane or a Swallow 38 Isa 14. So much of Dorcas Sickness I come now to her Death It is very