Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	bind_v	law_n	nature_n	1,568	5	5.4669	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41120	Practicall divinitie: or, gospel-light shining forth in severall choyce sermons, on divers texts of scripture Viz. 1. The misery of earthly thoughts, on Isa. 55. 7. 2. A sermon of self-denial, on Luke 9. 23. 3. The efficacie of importunate prayer in two sermons on Collos. 1. 10. 5. A caveat against late repentance, on Luke 23. 24. 6. The soveraign vertue of the Gospel, on Psal. 147. 3 7 A funeral sermon, on Isa. 57. 1. Preached by that laborious and faithfull messenger of Christ, William Fenner, sometimes fellow of Pembroke Hall in Cambridge, and late minister of Rochford in Essex.	Fenner, William, 1600-1640.	1647 (1647)	Wing F693; ESTC R222658	119,973	322

other businesse it is not good to trust fits of devotion 't is a base kind of praying when men gallop over their praiers that so they may come to an end quickly Should I accept this at your hands saith God by his Prophet when they brought a sheep it wanted a lim they were loth to give God a whole offering Mal. 1. 13. Many pray a peece of a praier in the morning and then they go after the world he down's on his knees and gives God a rag of a praier a companie of ragged ends And God counts it an indignitie shall I accept this saith he What a lame praier No no the Lord looks for a prayer that hath its full growth it is a shame to speak in the congregation what men do in secret before God which many have confessed after they have been converted how they have gone into Gods presence and have shuffled over their praiers thinking every houre seven untill they had done Fourthly Silent praiers are never importunate I mean by silent praier when a man is silent in that which God looks he should most insist upon David made a praier Psal 32. and the Lord looked that he should stand much upon his adulterie and murther which he had committed to see what shame he took on him for it but he shuffled it over and what saith the text When I kept silence what did the Prophet roare and yet keep silence these are contradictions Yea the Prophet roared and kept silence as if he should say the Lord counted his praier but roaring so long as he laid not open that sinne which the Lord lookt he should have stood on the Lord let him roare and roare he might long enough but saith he I brake my silence I said I will confesse my transgressions and then thou forgavest the wickednes of my sin So many go to God and tell God they must needs have mercie and fain they would have mercie and yet they are silent in confessing the sinne they should I say the Lord will never hear that man he may pray to God all his life and yet go to hel in the end Hast thou been a drunkard and dost thou think that the Lord will forgive thee for crying Lord forgive me c No no thou must insist on it and say Against thy word I have been a drunkard my conscience told me so but I would not heare I haue felt the motions of thy holy spirit stirring against me and I regarded not Now if thou shouldest turn me into hell I were well requited so many Sermons have I neglected I have wronged others in this kind and I have been the cause why many are now in hell if they repented not I have praied for mercie yet with the dog to his vomit have I returned and therefore for all my praiers thou maiest cast me into hell for ever and now I haue praid yet it is a hundred to one but I shall run into my old sin again yet as I expect forgivenesse so I desire to make a covenant to give over all my sinful courses and I am justly damned if I go to them again Such a kind of praier the Lord loves Fifthly Seldome praier is no importunate praier when the soul contents it self with seldome comming before the throne of grace an importunate soul is ever frequenting the way of mercie and the gate of Christ he is often at the threshold before God in all praier and humiliation The reeling'st Drunkard in the world sometimes can do so too the basest Adulterer in the world sometimes can be chaste the Devil is quiet so long as he is pleased and the wicked may sometime have a fit in praier But this is the condition of an importunate heart he is frequent at the throne of grace The Propher David praied seven times in a day and Hannah continued in praier night and day Sixthly Lukewarm praier is not an importunate praier when a man praies but is not fervent when a man labours not to winde up his soul to God in praier That man that praies outwardly only that man teaches God how to denie his praier Though you make many praiers saith God yet I will not hear you why Your hands are full of blood Qui frigidè orat docet negare They are like luke-warme water that never boils out the blood So they have been guiltie of murder and abundance of other sinnes and they did indeed pray against them but they were never but luke-warme they never boiled away the blood of their sins Thou must pray fervently with a seething-hot heart if thou meanest to get pardon for all thy sinnes as securitie and deadnesse of heart c. And as it is Jonah 3. let every man crie mightily unto the Lord. Seventhly and lastly Bie-thoughts in praier keep praier from being importunate as when a man praies and let his heart go a wooll-gathering I remember a storie of an unworthy Oratour who being to make an acclamation O earth O heaven when he said O heaven he looked down to the earth and when he said O earth he looked up to heaven So many when they pray to God in heaven their thoughts are on the earth these praiers can never be importunate When a man praies the Lord looks that his heart should be fixed on his praier for our hearts will leake and the best child of God do what he can shall have bie-thoughts in praier And that First from corrupt nature Secondly from nature curbed Thirdly from Sathan Fourthly from a mans own sluggishnesse For the first The best children of God have corrupt natures and when they have done what they can distractions will fasten on them They would performe good duties better if they were able saying with Paul The good which I would I do not c. Secondly from Nature as it is curbed The more grace binds nature to its good behaviour the more rustling it keeps Even as a Bird being at libertie keeps no stir but being in a cage it flutters about because it is abridged of its libertie so when thou hast curbed thy corrupt flesh it will be skittish in every good dutie thou goest about and hence it is that the Apostle useth this phrase viz. I find another law in my members rebelling against the law of my mind c. When grace curbs the law of sinne then nature rebels Thirdly from Satan as in Job Satan stands at his right hand as a Plaintiffe as Aegidius compares it which puts in all Cases to hinder the Defendant Even so the Devil puts in all bie-thoughts that he can devise to hinder a mans suit for going on before the throne of grace But thou must do as Araham did when he was sacrificing when the birds came he drave them away so must thou do by they bie-thoughts if thou wilt have fruit of thy supplications before God Fourthly they come from spiritual sluggishnesse that creeps on the best if they take not heed And this was

die c. and yet they think inwardly that they shall live for ever Now according to these inward thoughts men act and hence it is that men neglect repentance and other holy duties as if God would never call them to an account they have not these thoughts above-board but they are inward and these spoile the heart and these are the causes why men cannot forsake their own thoughts Epiphanius speaks of a fig-tree which grew in a wall c. Bad thoughts will be alwayes seizing on a man till he dies and then all his thoughts perish But so long as a man is alive in old Adam these thoughts are rooted in the bottom of the soul which hinder good duties and this is the cause why vanity of mind sprouts up Vse Examine your selves then for it is one of the best wayes for a man to try his estate by even to examine his thoughts If a man would see whether the sea be salt he need not drink all the water that is in it one drop will serve his turn So a man may see whether he be a child of God or of the Devil even by his thoughts I will make it appear by these Reasons First because mens thoughts are the free acts of their hearts Many times you speak not as you would you do not as you would but a man thinks always as he will Favour of Great men and desire to please them makes men doe many times what they would not but thoughts are free I may say so and so but I will think what Ilist Ergo if thou wilt judge a man judge him by that he does freely and not by that which he does by compulsion But now thy thoughts are free they are thine own act nothing can force thy thoughts but thy self ergo in them thy heart shews it self whether it be carnal or spiritual When Peter denied his Master could a man have judged him by that then he might have judged him an Apostata but that was his passion he discovered what his fear was not what his heart was For if a man might have but looked into Peters heart though it was a fearfull sin and without Gods mercy might have damned him Yet there you might have heard him say Oh it is my Master Oh that I had never come hither It is my Master and Saviour I have none but he It was for feare of his life that he denied him For Prov. 23. 7. As a man thinketh in his heart so is he A covetous Usurer may make a rich feast and say with his tongue Sir you are welcome he must give good words the shame of the world and speech of people will make him do it yet his thoughts it may be are not towards thee Sory thy self how go thy thoughts at home or abroad Are thy thoughts on heaven or heavenly things or are they below Sure I am if a mans thoughts were on heavenly things then his heart would be there also for as a man thinks so is he Prov. 23. 7. 2. As they are the freest acts so they are the immediate acts of the heart Can a man judge of the fountain by the water that runs seven miles off as well as by that which runs immediately from it The water seven miles off may have tincture from the soyle and so it may be bad there though good at the fountains head ergo judge of the fountain by the water which comes immediately from it Now thoughts come immediately from the heart nothing is between them and the heart and out of the heart saith our Saviour proceed evil thoughts c. Mark 7. 21. Other sinnes come from the heart too but it is at the second third or fourth hand abundance of circumstances come between them and the act as in the act of murder it may be there were base words offered yea and blows too c. but thoughts come immediately from the heart Ergo if thy thoughts be proud carnal c. so art thou if thy thoughts carry thee away in the cares of this life so is thy heart c. 3. Thoughts they are the continued acts of the heart a man is always doing them Can a man judge of an Usurer and say he is liberal because he makes one great feast unto his neighbours No but he may say it is a Vsurerve feast a great feast By what a man doth alwayes by that judge him Thou art not alwayes praying c. or in good company but thou art alwayes thinking good or evil thoughts thy thoughts are continued acts of thy heart Can a man judge a horse for stumbling once in a long journey At such a place he went well and at such a time and alwayes yet perhaps once in a year he may stumble Can you or will you judge him by that No rather judge him by that which he is alwayes doing Thou art alwayes thinking now that is thy God which thou art alwayes thinking on If on riches then that is thy god or whatsoever it be then that is thy god Examine then thy heart by thy thoughts for out of the abundance of thy heart thy mouth speaketh yea for one word there is abundance of thoughts for one good duty there is abundance of thoughts ergo if thou wilt examine thy heart examine thy thoughts 4. Thoughts are the Vnivocal acts of the heart such as wherein the heart shews its own nature As for example the Univocal act of Light is to lighten the room but now you cannot judge of the Light by the heat so well as you may by the shining So an ill savour must be judged of by the stinking which is the univocal act of it It causeth abundance of other effects but this is the proper act whereby it shews it self So the thoughts of men are the univocal acts of their hearts therefore in Scripture called the way of the heart just as the heart is so are the thoughts if the heart be proud so are the thoughts just according to the nature of the heart so are the thoughts 5. They are the swiftest acts of the heart If I judge of a Scholar I will judge him by that which he doth ex tempore if a fool study he may speak to purpose but look what a man doth by his own inclination that a man discovers himself to be Thoughts are the extempore acts of the heart if thy heart be heavenly it will scatter out heavenly meditations if carnal then thy thoughts are carnal thoughts are as the visions in the night ergo we use this proverb his thoughts are gone a sutering If then they be the swiftest acts of mens hearts then are they most fit to expresse the nature of the heart 6. Thoughts are the peculiar acts of the heart peculiar to God only the world may see what thy outward life is but thy thoughts God only sees neither Angel Devil nor Man can see them and as they are peculiar to Gods eye so he most regards