Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	pray_v	prayer_n	supplication_n	1,200	5	11.1166	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30414	The royal martyr, and the dutiful subject in two sermons / by G. Burnet.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.; Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715. Royal martyr lamented.; Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715. Subjection for conscience-sake asserted.	1675 (1675)	Wing B5869; ESTC R22925	37,186	94

the foul colours of guilt Another Method by which Conscience binds on us the sense of Duty and Subjection to those set over us is the Obligation to pray for them according to that great Rubrick of Prayer S. Paul gives I exhort therefore that first of all supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men for Kings and all that are in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty which whosoever is a Christian must needs observe This then must every day awaken and keep alive the sense of Duty to those over us so that if we have been prevailed on to undutiful courses when we retire to our Devotions this must certainly open our eyes to discern and repent of our faults for if we pray and act contradictions then we either mock God by praying for that we do not desire and which we study to destroy or we act most impiously in opposition to that we judge our selves bound to pray for And every man whose Conscience is not strangely asleep will soon discover this double dealing in himself if he pray against what he acts and be acting against his Prayers Thus it appears that Conscience brings the sense of our Duty to the Sovereign Power nearer us and to closer conflicts with our daily thoughts and forceth upon us a frequent review of them Nor is this a blind and brutish Subjection to which Conscience ties us but it binds it on us with the fullest evidence of Reason 3. And this is the third Particular to which my Design now leads me wherein I am to lay-out those Arguments that Conscience and the Doctrines of Christianity offer for this Subjection we must pay the Magistrates I shall not meddle with those Reasons that may be drawn from the Rules of Humane Policy the Nature of Societies the Origine and Ends of Magistracy but shall confine my Discourse to those which natural and revealed Religion do offer for obliging us to Subjection to the higher Powers 1. And first of all we are taught that these Powers are of God that they are the Ordinance of God his Deputies Ministers and Vicegerents That have the Sword of Iustice put in their hands by him for the punishment of evil doers and the encouragement of those that do well and he himself hath said They are Gods a strain of speech that if Divine Authority did not warrant it would pass for impudent and blasphemous Flattery Though then the Powers that are over us be clothed with our Natures and are subject to like Passions and Infirmities with us and live and die like men yet for all that we must look on them as Sacred and Divine by their Character The severe Respect that Conscience enjoyns us to pay Authority appears in the Instance of David who though pursued by Saul with all the violence and injustice of Oppression and Cruelty yet when he had him in his hands and offered him the small affront of cutting off the hem of his garment his heart smote him for it This was a Character of a man according to God's heart Deputed Powers are only accountable to those from whom they derive their Authority so the higher Powers being deputed by God must indeed render to him a severe account of their administration but not to others we are therefore to obey them for the Lords sake and to be subject to them for Conscience-sake 2. Another consideration that obligeth to Subjection which Religion offers is the steady and firm belief of the Government of the World by that Unerring Providence that wisely maintains that great Fabrick and vast Frame of Beings which it self raised out of nothing We are apt upon the first appearances of things to judge rashly even before we have seen all the sides and secrets of humane Counsels which would often alter our thoughts very much from our over-forward Judgments But the secrets of the Divine Counsels lie hid from all the living and yet the long experience which the Oeconomy of the World offers us may justly convince us that we are not to pass sentence hastily and that often those things which did look most cloudy and threatned some dismal Consequences did by the secret Governings of that Supreme Mind produce Effects very different from those that not without great probabilities were feared This therefore must clear the Melancholy of our discouraged and dejected minds and dissipate those thick mists of fears and jealousies which might otherwise damp and dishearten us He that gave the Laws to Day and Night and can reverse these when he will that taught the whole Frame of Nature those Motions they observe and yet can force the Sun both to stop and to give ground when he will and can make the Sea to rise up in hills is able to extricate the darkest and most involved Ravelings of Second Causes We are therefore secure knowing That all things work together for good to them that love God believing that his Providence watcheth over his Church and all that trust in him so that not a hair of their head falls to the ground without his care and that he hath given his Angels charge to encamp about and Minister to the heirs of Salvation and this may well supersede our fears and throw off the anxieties of all perplexing thoughts and compose our minds to an humble Subjection to those God hath brought us under I know some may think I plead here the stupidity of Fate which must needs dishearten and slacken all good Intentions and Designs but we are to consider the Order God hath fixed in the Government of the World and the particular station wherein he hath placed and posted us out of which we are not to stir on the pretence of heroical excitations which when examined will be found the heats of a warm Fancy or the swellings of an elevated Mind that distrust the Providence of God as if he were not able to compass his designs and therefore he must stretch out his hands to help him labouring under too great a load which is indeed the language of all those who pretending zeal for his Service do step out of their station and meddle with matters that are too high for them The fate of Uzzah should have taught us both more Wisdom and Religion who seeing the Ark of God shake and considering how dismal an Omen the overturning that sacred Repository had been and how disgraceful and impious it would be to see those precious Symbols of the Divine Presence laid in the dust and not remembring that none but the Family of Aaron might touch those holy Mysteries put out his hand to hold them but was struck dead on the place We are rather to look on and adore the hidden Traces and Methods of the Divine Counsels and patiently to wait for that Issue of things which notwithstanding of all the disorders may at any time appear in humane affairs