Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
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A44931
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A practical discourse of silence and submission shewing that good men should possess their souls in patience under the severest providences : and particularly in the loss of dear relations : preached at St. Thomas's Hospital, Southwark / by William Hughes ...
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Hughes, William, b. 1624 or 5.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing H3345; ESTC R2599
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45,851
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98
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therewith to be contented Phil. 4.11 In Health and Plenty in Peace and Liberty this is no difficult Lesson all Men know But in the case of Sickness Poverty loss of Friends Estate of Liberty or in the danger of Life how many then will quickly cry out This is an hard saying who can bear it I answer them Such a one as Paul can do it And further he that hath been taught of God and hath learned the truth as it is in Jesus even He can do it also If all the World should frown upon them if Midnight-Darkness hide all Comforts from them if neither Sun nor Moon nor Stars appear unto them yet these People are able to retire within themselves or rather run into the Name of the Lord and All is well For the Name of the Lord is a strong Tower the righteous runneth into it and is safe saith Solomon Prov. 18.10 This also made the holy Apostle say He could do all things through Christ that strengthen'd him Phil. 4.13 And the Context sheweth that this Doing Chiefly respecteth Suffering Wherein Christ's Presence with the Soul converts Complaints into Thanksgivings and Repinings to Rejoycings The Church of old makes a clear Proof of this Altho the Fig-tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the Vine the labour of the Olive shall fail and the Field shall yield no meat the Flock shall be cut off from the Fold and there shall be no Herd in the Stall Yet I will Rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation Habak 13 18. And how are Murmuring and Impatience sent into Exile then never to take harbour in such Breasts as these Well now we know how quiet and at what hearts ease the holy Apostle was in in the worst condition He was content And what are Any or the very Best of us that in our Sufferings we should not bring our Minds to that Sedateness wherein his was who was so much Above us The plain reason is Because in Grace we are so much Beneath him Recapitulation Now looking back upon this Cloud of Witnesses we must acknowledge that they all conspire to ring it loudy in our ears Let Patience have its perfect Work within you whatever Distresses lye upon you If we are Real Christians to be Meek with Moses to hold our Peace with Aaron leave God to himself with Eli possess our thoughts with our own approaching End as David did to bless God's Name for our Adversity as well for Prosperity after Job's example approve his Methods altho severe in a compliance with Hezekiah submit our Wills entirely unto his as was our Saviour's holy Practice and lastly to learn with the great Apostle of the Gentiles in all estates to be contented If God see meet to take away Estate to be content if Name content if Health content if Liberty Friends or Children nay Father Husband or Wife dear to us as our selves yea or life it self to be Contented still Whatever Distress the gracious Providence shall bring us to it is our Duty after the Examples of all these Famous Worthies Christ Jesus Soldiers and the Captain of their and our Salvation himself to learn the Doctrine of my Text To be dumb and open not our mouth and that because God doth it And so much of the Examples II. Arguments Now for Powerful Arguments which will evince the necessary Obligations that Pious People do lye under to bear Afflictions without Impatience and a Quiet Mind There are but five I shall make use of but that which bringeth up the Rear if I may not say 't will prove a Mother of Nations at least 't will shew it hath a Teeming Womb and bring us forth a double Number to the whole Tale mention'd They are these in brief 1. Hereby they are conformed to the Best of Saints and in their Best Condition on the Earth 2. The first and second Birth do Both dispose to Troubles 3. Impatience is so far from helping then that it doth more hurt 4. There is Undoubted Good unto the Godly at the Bottom of all they suffer And 5ly 'T is the Lord that sendeth their Distresses to them Arg. 1. Good Christians should bear with Patience their Distresses because They but conform them to the best of Saints and in their Best Condition upon Earth Then why such sore Complaints among them Had there been formerly no famous Instances given to this Purpose who that hath only tasted Holy Scriptures can be ignorant that * In origine statim mundi Abel a fratre occiditur Jacob fugatur Joseph venundatur David Saul persequitur c. S. Cypr. de Exhort Mort. cap. 11. Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles had Generally this Measure meted out unto them nay pressed down shaken together and running over especially to the Last and I may say the Best of them our Lord 's most dear Disciples 'T is certain that St. Paul saith not barely that They were appointed to asslictions 1 Thess 3.3 but that he thought God had set Them forth as Men appointed to death it self for they were made in their Sufferings a Spectacle to the World the upper and the lower of Angels and Men too 1 Cor. 4.9 And should it now be accounted a grievous matter for the Successors to be like their Predecessors What Are we better than they Alas How much beneath them Whose Modesty will not prompt him freely to confess himself far shorter of them in real worth than he is in time behind them And pray now do we not all desire to be Partakers with them in point of Prosit and shall we grudge our share of Pains Would we arrive at the blessed Harbour where they are driving an heavenly Trade and yet refuse to cross the swelling Waves after them Is it fit and equal that we should settle in their Canaan without the Troubles and the Dangers of that Wilderness which they have pass'd and is the strait way to it If we have hopes to be such as They in Heaven it must not be grudg'd if we be like them on the Earth How proper is it that a Similitude should be betwixt the Eellow-members And how much more with the Head it self Is it not written Heb. 2.10 That the Captain of our salvation was made perfect thro' sufferings He put not on his Crown but going from the Cross nor sat he on the Throne before he had hung upon the Tree And shall it be thought intollerable or any thing hard to follow such a Leader And unto such a Journey 's End But as I said before Saints suffering State was best unto them even so it is The Riddle was of old that the Eater affords meat and the strong sweetness Judg. 14.14 And truly good Men's sorrows on Earth bring solace down from Heaven unto them When the Knife was putting to Isaac's Throat by the sad Father an Angel comes and puts a Ram into his room unto his greater joy Gen. 22.14 As a father pittieth his
fear he should have done himself a Mischief upon hearing of it As the Hebrew Phrase importeth * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and both the a Procul dubio malum sibi inferet Syriack and the b Ne malum sibi inferat Arabick Version read Now all these Considerations put together make it fully manifest that this Stroke of Providence must needs fall very heavy and certainly was enough to shake him sorely if not link him utterly to the Ground Yet mark his Stilness under so great a Storm Whilst the Child was living he did his utmost to preserve the Life thereof But when 't was Dead What had he else to do but at the least to acquiesce in what the Lord had done And note what weighty Arguments he stops the mouth of all Impatients by And they are three 1. 'T were most Vnreasonable to Afflict my self saith he for this Affliction any longer Wherefore should I fast i. now when the Child is Dead Produce just Cause or any colour of Reason for that if any of you are capable so to do Reason is so far from Patronizing such a Practice that it quite abandons it as carrying 2. Perfect Vanity and impertinent Folly in the face thereof Can I bring him back again i. to life Kings can do much indeed And good Kings in all reason should be able to do more than other Now in this number David was But this is above all Mortal Art and Power The King of Kings alone is sufficient for such Work 3. To conclude I have other business and of far greater conscquence upon my hands faith t is great Man Instead of foolish and fruitless afflicting of my thoughts in the bringing of him back 't is my grand concernment to bethink me of and prepare myself for * Cur immoderate ferat ab isse quem mox subsequeris Tert. de Patient c. 9. going unto him Whose turn is next God only and no Mortal knoweth But this I know that I must go to him how soon I known not He cannot return to me Here lies the Art of putting such an Affair into its right Method And proves the best Improvement of what we may account the worst of Providences So shall the loss of some dear Friend tend to the saving of a dearer self our precious Soul This is the Example of that Person who was A Man after God's own heart and who elsewhere too and in a worser Case was yet content That God should do unto him as seemed good in his eyes 2 Sam. 15.26 And are not these such Steps as are most worthy to be trod in by us 5. Job Next let us look on Job On him this glorious Character is bestowed even by God himself as to a very NONE-SUCH viz. A perfect and an upright man that feared God and eschewed evil Chap. 1.8 Nay his Judge and the Judge of all the World declares him innocent as to a Guilt deserving such a Punishment as was falling on him And for full proof thereof makes him a full Amends and ample Reparation for all him Losses afterwards Chap. 42.10 c. But that as yet could not come under the Sufferer's Cognizance Well this so excellent a Person 's Calamities assault him like the Billows of the Sea where furious Tempests force them foreward one upon another's back till all before them is overwelmed by them First the bad News of the Sabeans seizing on his Oxen and his Asses and slaying of his Servants that attended them Then how the Lightning had consumed his Sheep and Shepherds all together Next that the Chaldeans fell upon his Camels and destroyed their Keepers too And last of all with scarcely a time to breathe between them as we say the frightful Death of his Dearest Children Chap. 1.14 15 no fewer then seven Sons and three Daughters by the sudden fall of an House upon them is brought unto his Ears Now when so sad a Story with all the frightful Circumstances of it shall be considered seriously by us shall not we be apt to start these question What flesh could bear it what heart of steel but must sink under it Well grant the Case be insupportable unto meer Humanity yet Nothing is too hard for God Gen. 18.14 For tho' the flesh and the heart doth faile where He is the strength of the heart Ps 73.26 there is full support notwithstanding His grace s sufficient 2 Cor. 12.9 and can give Conquest and make Triumphant when the other is utterly overcome and routed See here a Proof Job is affected greatly and his Soul affected deeply God's hand is very heavy upon him But 't is far from driving him into Rebellion The most humble Submission is practised by him He worshiped and said Naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return thither The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away and blessed be the name of the Lord Job 2.21 Where we see plainly 1. He disclaims is own right to any Mercies 2. Proclaims God's sole Interest in them also 3. Thanks him heartily for his Rod as well as for his Staff And what lively Arguments are these of a Mind acquiescing fully in God's good Pleasure altho' its one great Pain Thus 't was with this good Man Nay when the Hurricane that before had overturned his Estate destroyed his Servants and all his Children reacheth at last his Person with a tremendous Judgment both an unusual and universal kind of shameful loathsome and painful leprosie Job 2.7 having great advantage to his other Afflictions for forcing him unto Impatience and Desperation and when She that lay in his Bosom and whose Duty 't was to have administred Help and Comfort to him in his Distress instead of cooling labours to inflame the Feaver of his Soul and puts him upon Raving like a Bedlam or a Devil rather Verse 9. How doth he play the Man shall I say yea with a Vertue more than manly act the Saim and instead of being overcome comes off with Victory Thus he both justly rebukes his Wise and vindicates God Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh What shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil Verse 10. Q. D. Must we be cocker'd so as to have all Days and no Nights the Sun shine constantly but not a Shower or a Cloud The Summer to last all the Year and Winter never take its turn most foolish fond and proud Presumption That Man's Humour should be still complied with and the Supream Providence by no means cross it Oh! the vile Absurdity the prophane Impudence of the Clay to prescribe unto the Potter Who doth not know when he remembers that he is a Creature and will not acknowledge if he be a Christian that we are not to be Carvers for ourselves but thankfully should accept the Portion given us And in a Journey to the heavenly Kingdom we should be well content that foul Ways sometimes as well as fair