Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	heart_n	love_n	love_v	3,572	5	6.5737	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81105	A sermon preached in the parish-church of St Nicholas, in the city of Bristol, August the 27th, 1691 Being the anniversary festival of the natives of that city. By Thomas Cary, M.A. and vicar of the parish of St Philip and Jacob, in the city of Bristol.	Cary, Thomas, 1648 or 9-1711.	1691 (1691)	Wing C743BA; ESTC R222493	16,665	34

A SERMON Preached in the Parish-Church of St NICHOLAS IN THE City of BRISTOL August the 27th 1691. BEING The ANNIVERSARY FESTIVAL OF THE Natives of that City By THOMAS CARY M. A. and Vicar of the Parish of St Philip and Jacob in the City of Bristol LONDON Printed for Thomas Wall Bookseller in Bristol 1691. To the Worshipful Sir John Dudelstone Kt. PRESIDENT THE OFFICERS And the Rest of the SOCIETY OF THE NATIVES OF THE City of BRISTOL Honoured Countrymen THE Discourse which had lately your Audience now offers itsself to your View it was composed for you and doth by Right belong to you The Design of it is by beating down the Price of the World to perswade you to make such a good Vse of it while you live in it that you may go out of it with comfort GOD hath blessed many of you with ample Estates it is your Duty to return him a Tributary Acknowledgment by a Generous Charity That these Meditations may be serviceable for this End is the hearty Prayer of Honoured Countrymen Your most Humble Servant THOMAS CARY LUKE xij xv And he said unto them Take heed and beware of covetousness for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth THE occasion of these words was an improper Petition presented to our blessed Lord by one who came to hear his Doctrine while he was discoursing on a Divine Subject a certain Worldling who minded Earth more than Heaven interrupted him with this unseasonable address Master speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me vers 13. Perhaps apprehending Christ to be the promised Messiah and mistaking the Messiah as the Jews generally did to be a Temporal Prince he desired him to exercise his Authority in this Case Our Saviour whose Kingdom is not of this World would not invade the Office of the Civil Magistrate or intermeddle with Matters Forreign to his Commission He said unto him who made me a judge or a divider over you vers 14. The Son of God came not from Heaven to settle Mens Estates but to save their Souls he was not sent to be an Arbitrator in our Worldly Concerns but to execute the Office of a Mediator between God and Man not to compose Differences about Temporal Rights but to reconcile GOD to Man and Man to GOD. However our blessed Lord who improved all Opportunities of doing good takes advantage from hence to strike at the Root from whence this Interruption grew he doth not directly fall on the Person who disturbed him in his Discourse but obliquely reflects on the cause of it The Covetousness of this Man's Heart indisposed him to attend to our Saviour's Doctrine and therefore our blessed Lord cautions the whole Auditory against this sin And he said unto them Take heed and beware of covetousness for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth The words contain these two Particulars I. A Caution Take heed and beware of covetousness II. An Argument to enforce it For a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth I. A Caution Take heed and beware of covetousness Covetousness is an inordinate desire of worldly Riches the Root from whence this and all other Vices grow is evil Concupiscence in the Heart Sensual Lust receives distinct Names from its different Objects if Honour be its Object it is then called Ambition if Pleasure Voluptuousness if Riches Covetousness or to use the Apostle's Expression The love of money 1 Tim. 6. 10. All desire of worldly Riches is not Covetousness Men must labour in their Callings be provident in their Expences and lay up for their Families Industry is not Sin but Duty To increase an Estate by honest means and endeavours is so far from being culpable that it is a singular commendation but the desire of worldly Riches is then sinful when it is immoderate and whenever our Love of the World exceeds its proper bounds it is the Sin of Covetousness Let us then consider in what cases the desire of Temporal Things is immoderate and then we shall find out the Nature of this Sin 1. The desire of Riches is immoderate when the World alienates our Hearts from God and our Duty when we love the World more than God prefer Carnal before Spiritual Riches labour more for our Bodies than our Souls and for the World neglect God's Service and our Etenral Concerns then we are guilty of the Sin of Covetousness such a love of the World is inconsistent with the love of God No man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other ye cannot serve God and mammon Matth. 6. 24. Love not the world neither the things that are in the world If any man love the world the love of the father is not in him for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world 1 Joh. 2. 15 16. 2. The desire of Riches is immoderate when Men use unjust means to enrich themselves when they exchange their Souls for the World and have so seared their Consciences as to use Fraud Perjury Oppression or any other dishonest Practices to increase their Estates All these unlawful Methods are Evidences of a covetous Heart 3. The desire of Riches is immoderate when it distracts the Mind with perplexing Cares Excessive Sorrows for the Losses and Disappointments Men meet with in their worldly Concerns rebellious Murmurings against the Providence of the Almighty Envyings and Repinings at the Prosperity of our Neighbours anxious and disquieting Thoughts concerning Futurity and despairing Fears about the Events of our Endeavours are certain Indications of the Sin of Covetousness it is in Scripture opposed to Contentment of Mind in every state of Life and a secure Confidence in the All-sufficiency of God Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as ye have for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13. 5. 4. The desire of Riches is immoderate when it is inconsistent with the Graces of Charity Mercifulness and Liberality He that hath not a Heart to give to the Poor when God furnisheth him with means and opportunities is a covetous Man The Covetous love the World above all pursue it with Violence stick not at any Methods to attain their Ends imploy it to bad purposes keep it with trouble and lose it with despair Having thus explained the Nature of this Sin I come now to discover the Evil of it 1. Covetousness is an idolatrous departure from the All-sufficient Creator to the insufficient Creature Whatsoever a Man sets his Heart most on labours most for spends the greatest part of his time in quest of delights most in trusts most to and values himself most upon that is

his God the ambitious Man's God is Honour the Epicure's Pleasure the Gluttons the Belly and the Covetous Man's Riches the World is the Idol he adores because the gain of it is his ultimate end therefore the Apostle calls Covetousness Idolatry Col. 3. 5. The Covetous Man's Heart is wholly departed from the Lord with the Children of Israel he forsakes the true God to worship a Golden Calf with those in the Parable of the Gospel-Banquet he prefers his Farm or his Merchandize before his God and Saviour he knows no God but Gain no Paradise but an earthly Patrimony Bonds and Mortgages from Men are with him of greater Value and a better Security than the precious Promises of God give him Earth here he cares not for Heaven hereafter neither will he part with an Estate in hand for the Kingdom of Glory in reversion The Rich Man in the Gospel could boast much of his Morality yet he had not learnt so much Self-denial Go thy way saith Christ sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven but he was sad at that saying and went away grieved for he had great possessions Mark 10. 21. Our blessed Lord took occasion from hence to declare the difficulty of Salvation to those that are covetous by proportioning it to the passage of a Camel thro' a Needle 's eye How hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God vers 24 25. The Covetous Man's Practices demonstrate the infidelity of his Heart he is always laying up on Earth because he believes not that there is an Heaven his restless pursuit after Temporal Riches is an argument he expects no other Satisfaction than what this World can afford his continual Labour for the Body is an evidence he thinks his Soul shall die with it he that believes in earnest that he hath an immortal Spirit to be happy or miserable for-ever will not wholly neglect his better part and lay out all his care on that which must perish the Covetous Man would not forsake God for the World did he not apprehend to be a greater Good Mammon is the only Master he serves Worldly Gain the only Good he desires and Worldly Loss the only Evil he fears Covetousness incapacitates the Heart to perform any Religious Duty after a Spiritual Manner How can he pray devoutly whose Heart is devoted to the World How can he profitably hear the Word of God whose Ears are never attentive but to the Sound of Gain whose Thoughts are on his Worldly Affairs No! the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he becometh unfruitful Mat. 13. 22. The most Divine Discourses can no more affect his Heart than the most Melodious Musick doth the Ear of a Beast When our Saviour exhorted to Charity the Pharisees who were covetous heard all these things and they derided him Luke 16. 14. How can he value the love and favour of God the Language of whose Heart is Let my Corn and Wine increase and let God lift up the Light of his Countenance upon whom he please How can he bless God for his Mercies whose unthankful Heart is not satisfied with too much but always ravenous after more God and the World are so contrary in their Natures that both cannot have our Hearts the love of the one doth imply a contempt of the other it remains therefore that a Covetous Man is a profane and graceless Person without God in the World 2. Covetousness is an Argument of a base and sordid Nature It lodgeth only in narrow Souls and earthly Spirits a generous Mind disdains to entertain this filthy Lust the Covetous Man acts from and for Self he is unprofitable both to Church and State and useless in every relation he hath not a Heart to prefer the Publick Good before his Private Interest Of all Persons in Humane Societies the Covetous are most unfit for Publick Offices How unqualified are they for the Power of Judicature who never want Hearts when they have Opportunities of taking Bribes Covetousness perverts Justice either from fear of displeasing some great Personage or from hope to oblige him To what base Flatteries to what servile Compliances to what slavish Drudgeries doth this Vice expose Men That Mind cannot be free and ingenious which is inslaved with the Love of Money Magistracy is never more disgraced than when misplaced on Covetous Men this sin is inconsistent with that State and Grandeur that should keep up the Honour of it exact Justice and a generous Charity tend more to secure it from Contempt than all the Ensigns of Authority Liberality and Hospitality render it more honourable than Swords and Maces or a tedious Train of Attendants and therefore Jethro advised Moses to provide for Magistrates Able men such as fear God men of truth hating covetousness Exod. 18. 21. The Covetous Man is at the best but a Slave in a Mine of Ore a Captive in Fetters of Gold the Jaylor rather than the Injoyer of his Estate This Vice bows down the Soul towards the Earth hinders its flight to Things above and eclipseth it by interposing the World between it and Heaven The first sin was Pride this cast Angels out of Heaven the next to that was an Affectation to be as Gods to know Good and Evil this cast our first Parents out of Paradise these sins are very great and cannot be sufficiently aggravated but they were sins of a more generous nature than this of Covetousness they aspired to be greater than they were but the Covetous Man debaseth and lesseneth himself they would have raised themselves higher towards Heaven but the Covetous Man stoops lower towards the Earth as if he lay under the Curse of the Serpent Vpon thy belly shalt thou go and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life Gen. 3. 15. 3. Covetousness is a most cruel and unnatural Vice It fills the Head with Cares the Heart with Sorrows and the Mind with Fears What discontents at Providence what melancholy damps what excruciating thoughts do torture the Minds of Covetous Men Covetousness is a sin and a punishment together a Vulture in the Heart a Wolf in the Breast a Serpent in the Bosome it oppresseth the Spirits drieth up the Radical moisture depauperates the Blood degradeth the Soul and consumes the Body a Covetous Man starves at a Plentiful Table thirsts in Rivers of Water and is poor in the midst of abundance he lives in want of what he hath and in this is most miserable that he only knows the Cares and Sorrows not the Comforts of being Rich For what hath a man of all his labour and of the vexation of his heart wherein he hath laboured under the sun For all his days are sorrows and his travel grief yea his