Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	bring_v	young_a	youth_n	59	3	7.8952	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80200	Refreshing streams flowing from the fulnesse of Jesus Christ. In severall sermons, / by William Colvill sometime preacher at Edenburgh.	Colvill, William, d. 1675.	1654 (1654)	Wing C5431; Thomason E815_2; Thomason E815_3; ESTC R207356	165,987	210

admonition to put us in mind to be moderate and sober in spirit in the use of things worldly Man is subject to a necessity of dying therefore set not your hearts too much upon those things ye must sometimes leave 1 Cor. 7.31 Vse the world as not abusing it we abuse it and it abuseth and abaseth us when we make it Master of our affections then make we the earth our heaven and happiness and by so doing the world draweth away the heart from true happiness The Apostle telleth us the fashion of this world passeth away like a Stage-play as the word imports within the space of an 100. years if the world endure so long new Actors and Players will come upon the Stage One generation goeth and another cometh like some going to the common market others who have made either a good or evil bargain coming from it you would think that Son foolish and evil-advised who being sent by his Father to travel for a short time in a strange countrey should marry there without his Fathers consent in a place which he must leave and he knoweth not how soon his father may send for him and reckon with him for misdemeanors abroad and shall we be so foolish and unadvised as to espouse our hearts to the world For who can tell how soon the Lord may send his messenger death for us and sentence us with an eternal divorce because our hearts went a whoring from him after strange lovers 2. Be not proud of any thing enjoyed Let us not be proud of any thing we enjoy in this present world Thou canst not tell how short a time thou maist enjoy it It is both vanity and folly to be proud of a borrowed cloak thou canst not tell how soon it may be sent for and thou divested of it The Romans of old did put a Sergeant in the triumphal Chariot to keep the triumphing Conqueror amidst all his triumph within the bounds of moderation and sobriety of spirit by crying to him Memento te esse mortalem Remember thou art a mortal man Philip of Macedon directed his Page every morning to call at his chamber door with this morning salutation Memento mori Remember death Thoughts of mortality in the morning keeps our spirits sober all day long Tamberlane that great captain and conqueror caused a winding sheet to be carried in his march before him the displaying of deaths banner made him sober minded amidst all his warlike and victorious banners it is well known some Jews of the greater and better sort had their sepulchers in their gardens that in the midst of their pleasures they might be mindful of death The thoughts of it were as water to their wine for preserving them from surfeit and drunkenness with worldly cares and pleasures This doctrine serveth for exhortation Vse 4 seeing sin hath brought on man a necessary subjection unto death Be preparing for our change it is the wisdom and duty of every person to be preparing for their change this is a duty required both of young and old The Preacher giveth the same counsel to young men Eccles 12.1 Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth and his reason is taken from deaths insensible and yet most certain approach because the time is coming when the marrow of the back-bone which joyns all the members to the head and one to another as a silver cord will be loosed The heart that is like a golden bowl from which all the parts of the body drink in the vital spirits will be broken And the head that is like a wheel eminent and conspicuous above other members as the wheel is above the cistern it will be broken and laid in the dust Although thou be young yet remember the day of death comes on apace No sooner begin we to live but so soon begin we to die Our life is in a continual flux and sometime it will run out The serious fore-thought of this change will be a mean to mortifie youthful lusts This will make sin die in thee before thy self die and thy life will be most comfortable after thy dying to sin from thenceforth Christ liveth in thee Gal. 2.20 and he comforteth and reviveth the heart where he dwelleth and liveth Isa 57.15 If the young should prepare for their change what should those do who are of riper years and by course of nature neerer to the end of their journey should not such prepare for their removal as Job did Job 14.14 All the days of my appointed time will I wait Motives till my change come Consider 1. The necessity of death is inevitable it is appointed for all to die Heb. 9.27 Nothing earthy can exempt thee not thy riches the rich Glutton died Not thy honour Kings are laid in the dust Not thy wisdom Solomon died against it nor might nor strength wil guard thee Great Commanders have been arrested and hurried to deaths prison in the head of their armies yea grace will not exempt thee Abraham the believing Patriarchs died 2. Consider the circumstances of time place and manner are all most uncertain One said truly we all come into the world one way but we go out of it a thousand divers ways Therefore thou shouldst be preparing at all times for thou knowest not at what hour of the day or watch of the night death may come upon thee as a thief Did not death and destruction come upon the old world when they were most secure Mat. 24.38 And upon the rich man at the time he had most rest and plenty of provision for many days Luke 12.18 Therefore number to thy self not years but days and count every day as thy last day Psal 90.12 So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom and is not this a special point of wisdom to foresee the plague and hide our selves under the shadow of Christ and the merit of his death from the curse of death Prov. 22.3 A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself but the simple pass on and are punished yea the Heathen Poet could say Think every day thy last day in all places guard thy heart and be preparing for death at home and abroad thou mayst go out of thy house in good health in the morning but return home sick and die before the evening 2 King 4.18 Old Eli went out in good health in the morning but dyed before the evening 1 Sam 4.18 How to prepare for death Object But how shall I be prepared for death Answ 1. Labour for repentance and reconciliation with God be reconciled with thine adversary while thou art in the way Mat. 5. which place Augustin applieth to this same purpose Augustine for if thou dyest in thy impenitency having God thy adversary consider in time what will be thy fear and confusion in the day of thy appearing before his tribunal Sin unrepented of is the sting whereby the first death woundeth a

THE MYSTERY OF CONTENTATION In and Through CHRIST LONDON Printed by A. M. for Joseph Cranford at the Signe of the Phoenix in St Pauls Church-yard 1655. TO THE Right Honourable and truly Religious Lady JANE Countesse Dowager of Marr Encrease of Grace and Peace Madam THE certain knowledge I have had for a long time of your devout affection toward the saving Truths of Jesus Christ the recent sense of manifold favours received at your hands both since and in the time I had the honour of employment for many years in that Noble Family and the experience of your gracious acceptance of my hearty endeavours unto your service makes me bold to offer to your Ladiship this part of my weak Labour as a small Testimony of my humble acknowledgement of much duty I do here present you with some refreshing drops from that Mystery of Contentment found in the Fulnesse of Jesus Christ In him is enough to supply all defects in the inward man and more then enough to supply all wants in the outward man which can befall us from the disappointing and discontenting changes in persons or things of this world yea it is of the Lords wisedome and mercy that our waies are hedged up with thorns that we may return to our first love Hos 2.6 7. That we may delight our selves in him and enjoy that solid satisfactory and unchangeable Contentment which in experience we perceive cannot be found in the empty insufficient uncertain and perishing comforts of the poor creatures Many times the Children of God enjoy most of himself when they enjoy least of the Creature As the Sufferings of Christ abounded in Paul so Consolation also abounded by Christ 2 Cor. 1.5 He had most of Gods presence when he had least of mans countenance 2 Tim. 4.16 17 Stephens face shined like an Angels when men looked on him like Devils Act. 6.15 Such enjoyments at such a time are no other as Jacob said from his experience of light arising out of darknesse then the gate of heaven a prelude on earth of that immediate Contentment we shall have in heaven in God alone without either opposition or interposition of the Creature Hence it is that the Children of God from the comfortable sense of this love have most vigour of grace sometimes under greatest outward pressures they can glory in tribulations Rom. 5.3 And sing praises to God in a prison Act. 16.26 Then have they enlarged spirits when their bodies are under restraint As the Sunne re-enforceth his light in the time of an Eclipse so the graces of the Spirit in the inward man are the more united and strengthened in an hour of darknesse from outward troubles The heat of our love as the Sunne-beam from the hard rock is the more reflexed toward the Sunne of righteousnesse from the cold and hard re-encounters of the Creatures In a day of prosperity our affections lagge and straggle here and there seeking Contentment in things farre below our happinesse and no waies proportionable to the vast desires of the spirit of man Therefore our God in great wisedome and mercy so orders the removall of worldly objects that our affections may be retired amazed and with greater vigour set upon himself that according to our measure of enlargement of heart our measure of delight and contentment in Christ may be the greater he dryeth up the brinks to the end we may seek and be filled with purer and sweeter contentment in the Fountain This earnest and first-fruits of absolute and full satisfaction abiding them in heaven makes the Children of God humble in their greatest prosperity and patient with much contentment in their greatest adversity Faith looks to things not seen It reckons all worldly advantages but losse and dung in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord and also reckons that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with that glory which shall be revealed in us A look to things not seen preserves the soul from fainting at what we see or feel And though the Children of God be subject to some qualms of fear in time of storms and trials yet all these will be gone as a sea-sicknesse when our Lord shall bring us within the port of eternal salvation Madam You know both whom and what ye have beleeved As it 's his will ye should look to the glory set before you and endure the Crosse So that ye should also rejoyce in the hope of that Kingdom which cannot be shaken that eternal mansion above all possibility of decay and that Inheritance incorruptible which cannot be defiled and fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for you by his Intercession who purchased it by his merit That your Ladiship may be comforted guided and guarded by his Spirit in this life and brought into the possession of that full happinesse in the other life is and shall be the humble prayer of him who in all duty is obliged to shew himself Madam Your Ladiships most faithfull and devoted Servant WILLIAM COLVILL THE MYSTERY OF CONTENTATION In and Through CHRIST PHIL. 4.11 12 13. For I have learned in whatsoever estate I am therewith to be content I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and suffer need I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me AMongst the many sweet and excellent fruits of the Crosse of Christ Contentation most necessary for a beleever Contentation of minde to a Beleever in all conditions of life is one exceeding necessary Hereby a beleever becomes Master both of the little and great world Of unruly desires within himself and of temptations in the world without It makes him acceptable to all with whom he converseth and to be admired and envied by his enemies His contentation is their bane and discontent It is their torment they cannot spoil him of this little heaven when possibly they have robbed him of his earthly emoluments It is a treasure hid in his soul that he carrieth with him to the third heaven where an exceeding weight of glory and contentation with full satisfaction to our desires will be added to the little stock of our contentment here which as Jacob said of that gracious manifestation Gen. 28. is no other but the house of God and the gate of heaven For God al-sufficient dwels in the heart of a beleever and giveth contentation to the soul where he dwels though the out-let of his allowance here to a beleever be not comparably such as it will be in heaven where we shall see him face to face and be filled with God yet it is the gate of heaven it is the porch wherein we wait for an entrance to the Temple not made with hands wherein the measure of our contentation according to the full measure of our knowledge and enjoyment of God will be full and