Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	call_v	pray_v	prayer_n	2,142	5	6.5517	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81220	A sermon pressing to, and directing in, that great duty of praising God. Preached to the Parliament at Westminster, Octob: 8. 1656. Being the day of their solemn thanksgiving to God for that late successe given to some part of the fleet of this Common-wealth against the Spanish fleet in its return from the West Indies. / By Joseph Caryl, minister of the Gospel at Magnus near London Bridge.	Caryl, Joseph, 1602-1673.; England and Wales. Parliament.	1657 (1657)	Wing C788; Thomason E899_7; ESTC R206750	25,634	47

in a corner Though he would doe it with all his heart yet he would not doe it onely in his heart but saith he I will praise him in the assembly of the upright Nor is that all he would doe it yet more openly I will praise him in the congregation I will praise him not onely in the assembly of the upright or in a meeting of some choice select ones but among good and bad even in the mixed multitude As if he had said As the Lord hath owned me and my cause and my people in the eye of all the world by his signall mercies so also will I own the Lord with signall praises Fourthly we have here the grounds of the duty And these are twofold or of two sorts First his experience of what the Lord had already done for him and his people Secondly his assurance of what the Lord was to them and would further be to and do for them The first sort of grounds upon which David gave order for a day of Thansgiving or the experience of what God had done is set down under four distinct adjuncts or attributes of his works 1. The Lord had not done small matters for them The works of the Lord are great at the second verse 2. The Lord had not done some obscure thing for them His work is honourable and glorious at the third verse 3. The Lord had not done some ordinary and common work for them His workes are wonderfull at the fourth verse 4. The Lord had not done some unprofitable wonders for them his work was beneficiall and advantagious He hath given meat to them that fear him at the fifth verse These are the four characters of the Lords works He had done great and honorable and wonderfull beneficial things for them and were not all these enough to cal up their hearts to the high to the highest praises of God All these make the first ground of Davids order for Thanksgiving The second ground of his order ariseth from the assurance of what God was to them and would further be to and do for them This is set forrh in three particulars 1. Praise the Lord for we have this assurance of him he is righteous and will be righteous His righteousness endureth for ever v. 3. 2. Praise the Lord for we have this assurance of him He is gracious and full of compassion v. 4. 3. Praise the Lord for we have this assurance of him He is faithfull and will be faithfull alwayes He will ever be mindfull of his Covenant v. 5 I am fallen upon a very rich mine of holy truths here 's that which is precious and here 's plenty of it greater plenty of precious and golden Oare then I shall be able to mint and stamp out into particulars at this time and therefore I purpose to propose but one generall point of duty from this large text and draw all the particulars of it together in a way of application for our better improvement of the occasion of this great and Holy Solemnity The point is plainly this It is our duty to pay the Lord speciall praises when he is pleased to bestow upon us speciall and remarkable mercies or speciall praises are due to the Lord for speciall mercies Here is speciall and speciall I expresse it so because to praise God is every days duty Thus the Apostle directs Heb. 13. 15 By him therefore let us offer the Sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name But though praise be an every days work yet there is a day of specialty in prasing God For as it is our duty to pray continually to continue in prayer Col. 4. 2. yea to pray without ceasing 1 Thes 5. 17. yet there are some speciall seasons for prayer or peculiar praying times Call upon me in the day of trouble Psal 50. 15. And we have the same rule James 5. 13. Is any among you afflicted let him pray T is both our duty and our interest to pray though we are not afflicted but the duty of prayer is most incumbent upon us in affliction Trouble drives us to God and God only can drive away our troubles Again it is our duty to repent continually yet there are some speciall seasons for repentance as when we have fallen into great sin● or when we are under the fear of great calamities Isa 22. 12. And in that day a day of common danger did the Lord God o● Hosts call to weeping and mourning and to baldness and to girding with sack cloath all which are the most significant acts of repentance and soul humilition before the Lord. So I say though to give thanks be every days duty and that upon a threefold consideration First because every day we receive new mercies and have our former mercies renewed Secondly because every mercy is a witnesse of the goodnesse of God to us and of his power put out for us Thirdly because every the least mercy is more then we have either deserved at Gods hand or could get alone with our own hand and therefore we are bound by this threefold cord to praise the Lord every day yet upon some dayes we are bound more to praise him and that upon a fourfold consideration First Some speciall mercies shew forth more of God then our every days mercies doe more of the power more of the wisdome more of the love more of the mercy and goodnesse of God is stampt and imprest upon them then upon many other mercies Now the more of God appears in any mercy the more and the lowder it cals us to this duty of praising him The least appearance of God is praise worthy His great appearances are infinitely more then worthy of our greatest praises Secondly We have more urgent need of some mercys then of others Some are onely accessary mercies others are extreamly necessary Some concerne only the well being or bettering of our estate others the very being of it Some are only ornamental mercies others are substantiall some respect only the honour and flourishing condition of our affaires others the very life and subsistence of them they are such as we know not how to spare nor what to doe without them such speciall mercies urge us unavoydably to speciall praises Thirdly For some mercies the Lord hath been more then ordinarily sought to in prayer and with a greater exercise of faith and patience then ordinary waited upon for the receiving of them They that know the Lord and have acquaintance with him would not have any mercy without asking they pray for every morsell of bread they eat they love to see all come in a way of prayer through the promise But there are some mercies for which there hath been abundance of striving in our own hearts and much striving and tugging with God that we might attain them we for some mercies have wrestled all night like Jacob before we could prevaile and be Israels Princes with

God Now when such a mercy comes in as hath been thus specially prayed for and of which we may say when we receive it as Hanna said to Eli about her son Samuel for this child I prayed and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him 1 Sam. 1. 27. So for this successe I praid for this mercy I fasted and mourned I wept and made supplication before the Lord and he hath given me my petition which I asked of him when a mercy hath been thus gained by prayer it ought and will be worne and enjoyed with praise and thankfulnesse Every answer or returne of prayer calls for a return of praises much more when it is an answer to many prayers to much prayer Then if ever praise waits for God in Zion Psal 76. 3. when in Zion that is in answer to the supplications made in Zion the Lord break●th the arrows of the bow the sheild the sword and the battel I grant those mercies which have stood us in little pains in few prayers which have come in for little asking yea without asking oblidge us to praise God most because of his readinesse to hear and speedinesse in granting when God answers before we call how great a call have we to praise him after such an answer yet those mercies which have been most costly to us as to the duty of prayer are most sensibly constrayning upon us as to the duty of praise And although when through the free grace of God we find our prayers even prevented by our mercies the heart cannot but be stirred up mightily to the duty of praise yet when through our own sloath we have neglected to fetch in our mercies by prayer we usually find our hearts little pressed unto praise Fourthly Because when we pray much and wait long for eminent mercies we always implicitely and sometimes explicitely vow praises to the Lord and so bind our selves by vow to praise him And hence we find often in Scripture that praising God is expressed by paying vows to God Psal 50. 14. Offer unto God thanksgiving and pay thy vowes unto the most high that is offer that thanksgiving unto God which thou hastvowed to pay unto him And as we have it in that Psalm laid down in a proposition so in another Psalm we have it laid down in practice I will offer to th●e the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will 〈◊〉 upon the name of the Lord I will pay my vowes unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people Psal 116. 17 18. Our praises are debts and Solomon tells us it is very dangerous being in this debt When thou v●west a vow unto God defer not to pay it for he hath no pleasure in fools pay that which thou hast vowed Eccl. 5. 4. Owe no man any thing but to love one another saith the Apostle Rom. 13. 8. that is Owe no man any thing to his prejudice or in his wrong And though we can never come out of Gods debt and therefore must be alwayes paying yet when he finds us to our utmost paying he looks upon us as if w● owed him nothing Mercy received brings us in debt and praise returned brings us in Gods account out of debt The Lord through mercy takes praise as payment for his mercies We have reason to be very carefull in making this payment not onely because we owe so much but because we can pay no more So then if speciall mercies have the clearest manifestations of God in them if we have an urgent necessity to receive them if God hath been more sought that we might obtaine them if the vowes of God are upon us to praise him when ever they should be obtained who can be unconvinced That speciall praises are due and to be paid for speciall received mercies And if so Then consider First How sinfull it is to with hold and imprison the praises of God in a day of eminent and speciall mercy There are two things which we should take heed we doe not imprison First the Truths of God Secondly the Praises of God And I may freely say It is as dangerous to imprison the Praises of God as it is to imprison the Truths of God To imprison or hold the Praises of God in unthankfulnesse as it is to imprison or hold the Truths of God in unrighteousnesse There are many that hold the Truths of God in unrighteousnesse O take heed take heed that no such prisoners be found among you For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against those that doe so Rom. 1. 18. Now as it is dangerous to imprison the truths of God so it is as dangerous to imprison the mercies and the praises of God To hold them in unthankfulnesse hath not onely this danger in it that God will give us no more mercies seing we use those he hath given us so hardly and unworthily but it hath this danger in it also that it may provoke the Lord to poure out wrath upon us Eliphaz chargeth Job with imprisoning prayer Thou castest off fear and restrainest prayer before God Chap. 15. 4. That 's a sad frame of heart if when the spirit moves and urgeth to pray and there are workings of conscience which provoke to prayer even a naturall conscience may doe it then to restrain prayer notes a very ill habit of the soul for such give witnesse against themselves that they have cast off the fear of the Lord. Now as to restrain prayer so to restrain praise is an argument that men have cast off the fear of the Lord. And when once t is so with man his heart is at worst and his sin at full Therefore the Apostle Paul 2 Tim. 3. 2 gives this as one of the blackest caracters of those perilous times of which he there prophecyeth Men shall be lovers of their own selves c. unthankefull unholy without naturall affection They who have no spirituall affections to performe duty to God are often punished with a want of naturall affection towards one another We have cause to fear that this Prophecy is fulfilled upon this Generation that for unthankfulnesse many are given up not onely to unholinesse towards God but unnaturalnesse towards men O how are the mercies of God swallowed up in unthankfulnesse yea not onely swallowed up in unthankfulnesse but murthered in our murmurings and discontents to what a height then is the sinfulnesse of this age like to encrease seing they who with hold from God the glory of his mercies are in a readinesse to with hold obedience to his commands yea in that they with hold obedience to his greatest and most comprehensive commands How can it be but the unthankfull must needs be unholy seing unthankfulness is the sum of all unholiness A heathen could say Call a man unthankfull and you have called him all that 's bad or nought or as we speak you have Call'd him all to nought Let the unthankfull remember That the inanimate creatures will rise up

A SERMON Pressing to and Directing in that Great Duty of Praising God Preached to the PARLIAMENT At Westminster Octob 8. 1656. BEING The day of their Solemn Thanksgiving to God for that late Successe given to some part of the Fleet of this Common-wealth against the Spanish Fleet in its return from the West Indies By JOSEPH CARYL Minister of the Gospel at Magnus near London Bridge LONDON Printed by M. Simmons and are to be sould by John Hancock at the first Shop in Popes-head-Alley next to Cornhill 1657. Thursday Octob 9. 1656. ORdered That the thanks of this House be given to Mr. Caryll for his great pains taken yesterday in his Sermon preached before this House in Margarets Westminster being a day set apart for publick Thanksgiving and that he be desired to Print his Sermon and that he have the like priviledge of Printing as hath been allowed to others in like Cases And that the Lord Broghill be desired to give him the thanks of this house accordingly Hen Scobell Clerk of the Parliament TO THE PARLIAMENT OF England Scotland Ireland AND The Dominions thereunto belonging THese are times of Action as well as of Consulation and this hath been your happinesse that while you have been consulting how to settle and assure as an earthly felicity may be called sure peace and Government at home God hath prospered those with a very signall successe who are acting in a war abroad And though successe be no infallible argument of a good cause yet a good cause receives a very comfortable encouragement by successe And as a neglect to goe on in doing good is not excusable even while we find that the good we are doing doth not goe on So when it doth our neglect is altogether inexcusable When God seems to stand still or as the Scripture sometimes saith to be a sleep 't is our duty to awake and work how much more when he appears eminently awake and at work for us 'T is not good to out-run providence and 't is as bad to loyter and lagge behind it The Arme of the Lord as the Prophet long since prayd hard it might Isa 51. 9. hath lately awakened for us The occasion of this Sermon is his witnesse it hath awakened and put on strength as in the ancient dayes in the generations of old it hath cut Rahab and wonded the Dragon in the Sea It hath broken some of the heads of Leviathan in peices and given him to be meat to his people inhabiting the wildernesse Psal 74. 14. And is not all this bottome enough for me to cry Awake Awake O arme of man O arme of the Parliament put on strength and be cloathed with a holy care courage for God and for his people though as yet but in a wildernes condition wherein we are much entangled with bryars and thornes and sometimes engaged in unbeaten paths many thousands will bear this witnesse with me that it is And my hearts desire and prayer to God for you is That your Counsels both in reference to this particular mercy for which you have so solemnly given thanks to God as also in reference to all those important affairs of these Nations that are in your hands may bear this witnesse also Else I must take the boldnes with much submission to say That your own Thanksgivings will give witnesse against you 'T is an act of high favour from God to bestow a mercy and 't is an act of much grace and faithfulnesse in man to improve it 'T is easier perishing for want of help from God then for want of a heart for God 'T is better to be in such streights that we know not what to doe then to make such little use of our enlargements as not to doe what we know And what an Obligation is there upon these three Nations and upon your Selves especially who are the representative of them to be more then active even very zealous for the publick good seing we daily find Sons of Beliall rising up who are active to the utmost against it T is honorable to imitate their industry whose undertakings we abhor and that their zeal in a bad matter should provoke ours in a good As therefore the Nations have reason to pay you many thanks for your unwearied labours and the issues of them to this day So the Lord give you to encrease more and more A good man may be weary in well doing but he shall never be weary of it And it should mightyly uphold our spirits not to be as the Apostle admonisheth the Galatians Chap 6. 9. weary in well doing because as it follows there we shall reap if we faint not That you may sow without fainting and reap with rejoycing is the vote of SIRS Your most humble Servant in this work of the Lord JOSEPH CARYL A SERMON Pressing to and Directing in that great Duty OF Praising GOD. PSALM 111. 1 2 3 4 5. Praise ye the Lord I will praise the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation The works of the Lord are great sought out of all them that have pleasure therein His work is honourable and glorious and his righteousnesse endureth for ever He hath made his wonderfull works to be remembred the Lord is gracious and full of compassion He hath given meat unto them that fear him he will ever be mindfull of his Covenant THIS Psalm is King Davids order for a day of Thanksgiving In which we may consider four things First the matter of the duty Secondly the encouragement to the duty Thirdly the manner and qualifications of the duty Fourthly the grounds of the duty The matter of the duty is laid down in the first words of the first verse Hallelujah praise ye the Lord. And lest any should think that their chiefe Magistrate invited them to a duty which he had no mind to himselfe he adds Secondly his own leading example in the next words for their encouragement I will praise the Lord. As if he had said I will not call you to this duty and withdraw from it my selfe my purpose is to bear a part and joyn with you in it 'T is a beautifull and blessed thing to see those who give the rule to be the example of it Praise ye the Lord saith David to the people I will praise the Lord. As he gives both the rule and the example of the duty so Thirdly the manner of it in a twofold qualification and that also from his own example in the same verse First He would praise the Lord not formally not because it was a custome to doe so when fresh mercies came in But because he loved to doe so for saith he I will praise the Lord with my whole heart that is I will praise him heartily and most affectionately There 's the first poynt in the manner Secondly he tells us that he would doe it very openly he would not be ashamed to praise God he would not doe it