Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	child_n	father_n	obedience_n	1,848	5	7.4897	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45548	The first general epistle of St. John the Apostle, unfolded and applied the first part in two and twenty lectures on the first chapter, and two verses of the second : delivered in St. Dyonis. Back-Church, An. Dom. 1654 / by Nath. Hardy ...	Hardy, Nathaniel, 1618-1670.	1656 (1656)	Wing H722; ESTC R31526	315,886	434

by God for this end to publish the doctrine of salvation to men no wonder if St. Paul writing to the Corinthians resembleth himself to a Father and tells them I have begotten you in Christ Iesus through the Gospel to the Galathians compareth himself to the Mother and using this phrase of the Text my little children giveth this as the reason of whom I travaile in birth again till Christ be formed in you and to the Thessalonians likeneth himself to a nurse that cherisheth her children Thus Ministers are Fathers and Mothers to those who are converted and so as it were begotten and brought forth and nurses to them who are confirmed and it were so as educated and brought up by their labours Upon this ground it was that Paulinus writing to Delphiuns by whom he was baptized and instituted in christian doctrine saith to him Tu nobis à Dom●no in Domino Pater factus you are under and in God a Father to me And oh beloved that every soule in this congregation might be able to say of me my Father oh that I might be able to say of you my children why tell me why do you enforce us to complain with the Prophet we labour in vain and spend our strength for nought when oh when will you by receiving this caelestial seed make us joyfull Fathers and Mothers surely what Abraham in another case said to God What wilt thou give me seeing I go childlesse that we say to you in this what will you give us reverence maintenance I but all this is nothing if we go childlesse our desire is like that of the King of Sodom to Abraham give us your soules that we may give them to God and as Isaiah prophesieth concerning the Messiah He shall see of the travaile of his soule and shall be satisfied so this is our prayer to God and desire of you that we may see the travaile of our soules in the conversion of yours then and not till then shall we be satisfied Oh that you would do us this honour afford us this comfort by your spiritual birth and growth under our ministery that we may be able upon this reall ground to call you as here St. John did those to whom he wrote My little children But further we may conceive our Apostle using this appellation by way of allusion thereby to teach them Implicitely how they ought to look upon him to wit as a Father Explicitely how he did look upon them as his children 1. By calling them his children he teacheth them to look upon him as their Father and not only in respect of his age for so old men are stiled by the younger but his office for so superiours are called by inferiours and accordingly behave themselves as children in his second and third Epistles he giveth himself the title of an Elder being an Elder he was a Ruler and therefore to be owned as their Father Naaman being a Ruler in Syria is called by his servant My Father Elijah being a Prophet in Israel is called by Elishah my Father Micah said to the Levite Thou shalt be a Father and a Priest to me and surely St. John being an Elder nay more then so an Apostle ought to be accounted by them as their Father Thus tacitè dignitatem suam ind●cat saith one upon these words here is a tacite insinuation of his dignity and the authority he had over them whereby they might be minded of their duty and that both towards him and his writings 1. Towards him a duty of reverence filio semper honesta sancta persona patris videri debet saith the Civil law the person of the Father ought to be venerable in the sons eye when Alexander was asked why he did so highly respect Antipater answered because he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of a Father to him upon this account it is that Ministers may expect and the people ought to give them a filial respect It is Gods argument to the Priests that despise his name a Son honoureth his Father if then I be a Father where is mine honour saith the Lord of Hosts it may be the Priests argument to the people that despise their persons If we be your Fathers where is our honour 2. Towards his writings a duty of obedience Hear ye children the instruction of a Father saith Solomon indeed whose instruction should children hear if not their Fathers so that our Apostle in calling them his children intimateth what an obligation lay upon them of conformity to his writings and following those Counsels which were thereby given to them 2. But lastly by calling them his little children he expresseth how he lo●keth upon them to wit with most endeared affections 1. He declareth his love and care of them in that he calleth them his children He letteth them see that it was no lesse then a paternal and maternal love which he did bear to them Father saith Tertullian is not only appellatio potestatis but pietatatis a word of power but of love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said the Poe● All living creatures love their young ones love many times doth not ascend from children to parents but it usually descends from parents to children such an affection had S. Iohn to those to whom he wrote 2. And yet further he sets forth the dearnesse of his love in that he calleth them his little children it was the language of his loving Master to his disciples and he learned it of him as being full of sweetnesse Indeed sometimes diminutives are words of contempt and scorn but sometimes of tender respect no doubt this was the reason of our Apostles using this d●minutive not out of a supercilious contempt but an affectionate esteem of them Clemens Alexandrinus hath observed that all little things are most regarded and delighted in There is in us a kind of sympathy with and care of little things It was Iacobs phrase to Esau that he must have regard to the tender children and young cattel in his journey Besides parents though they love all yet especially their little children let the other shift for themselves but their little ones they will be sure to take care of can a woman forget her sucking child is the question of God himself the sucking little babes are carried in the armes dandled on the knee fed at the brest and though the mother may love her ●lder children as truly yet not so tenderly no wonder if interpreters conceive this expression as a word of greatest love and manifesting his singular care of their good Thus he who was the beloved disciple sheweth himself a loving pastor and as he was dearly beloved of his Master so his flock was dearly beloved of him nor was this only the temper of S. Iohn spirit but of the rest of the Apostles especially S. Paul who therefore tells the Corinthians how gladly he would spend and be spent

may be to his glory my comfort and your profit Amen THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St. IOHN CHAP. II. Ver. 1.2 My little children th●se things write I unto you that ye sin not and if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous And he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world WHat a disease is in the body that sin is in the soule nor are mali humores ill humours more pernicious to the one then mali mores bad manners are to the other and indeed these are as more so far more dangerous then those by how much the part affected is more noble In this respect they who are appointed to watch over the peoples soules are not unfitly called spiritual Physicians and as Luke a Physician of bodies was one of the Evangelists so all the Evangelists Apostles and all Ministers are Physicians of souls Upon this account we find this holy Apostle as in this whole Epistle so in these verses performing the part of a careful and skilful Physician for whereas the whole body of Physick is divided into two parts namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one whereof is for preventing the other for curing diseases here we have this ghostly Physician prescribing to his Patients whom he calls little children in both these kinds giving them a preservative to keep them from sin and a restorative in case of falling into sin My little children these things I write unto you that you sin not and if any man sin c. These two verses might very well have been annexed to the foregoing Chapter because the matter of them is pertinent to yea depends upon that which immediately precedeth as Marlorate and Illyricus have both truly observed for whereas in the end of the former Chapter the Apostle insisteth upon three things remission of sins as being the foundation of fellowship with God confession of sin as being the first step of walking in the light and saying we have no sin which being opposite to confession is a step of walking in darknesse our Apostle in these verses doth but further amplify explain and confirm these several parts letting us know that the confession of sin he speaketh of is such as puts on not sinning and yet we cannot so not sin as to say we have no sin and that the comfort of our remission dependeth upon Christs Advocateship and propitiation In the words we have two generals considerable namely A caveat entered which requireth care against sin in those words My little children these things I write unto you that you sin not A comfort annexed which discovereth the cure of sin in the following words and if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins and not for our sins only but the sins of the whole world In the Caveat we have observable A friendly compellation my little children A faithful admonition these things I write to you that you sin not In the comfort we have considerable A disease or danger supposed if any man sin A remedy or succour proposed we have an advocate c. and he is the propitiation for our sins c. At this time onely of the first general and therein begin we with the Friendly compellation my little children These three words in the English are but two in the Greek and accordingly we may observe a word of Declaration who they were little children Appropriation whose they were My little children 1. He calls them little children and that not once but often very often in this Epistle and here yea not only here but in the most places he so stileth them upon a double ground 1. Because though not in a carnal yet spiritual way they were little children what the Proverb saith of old men is true of all good men they are twice children by Generation and Regeneration as when they first partake of the humane so when they participate divine nature they become little children 2. Because being regenerate they were to be as children our blessed Saviour puts these two together except ye be converted and become as little children intimating that all converted persons become such and St. Peter calleth upon those who were born again to be as new born babes indeed in little children are the shadowes of many graces and vertues which are really found in the regenerate Little children cry after the dug an image of spiritual thirst after the word are solicitous for nothing a lesson of dependance upon divine providence are content with a little a document of temperance lye upon the ground a shadow of humility give willingly of their meat to their play-fellows a representation of liberality have no fraud nor deceit in them an embleme of sincerity bear no malice are soon pacified a dictate of placability and charity are harmlesse and inoffensive a monitor of innocency It were easie to multiply parallels in this kind and truly inasmuch as little children put us in mind of these duties and thereby of avoiding the contrary sins of pride covetousnesse injuriousnesse guile malice wrath disobedience contempt of Gods word hypocrisy and all uncharitablenesse our Apostle here intending to disswade from sin in general which includeth all these particulars fitly bespeaks them in this phrase little children 2. It is further observable that he calleth them my little children and this both in respect of a reall though spiritual relation and also by way of a metaphorical yet apt allusion 1. My little children in reall relation God having no doubt made him an instrument of converting many of them to and strenghthening all of them in the saith this spiritual affinity have all true christians to their Ministers Indeed primarily they are Gods children being as the phrase is frequent in this Epistle born of God in this respect it is that St. James saith Of his own good will begat he us and St. Peter blesseth the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ for begetting us again and thus indeed Ministers as well as people if believers are Gods children But still secondarily the people are the Ministers children for whereas God is the principall they are the instrumental causes of forming Christ in the hearts of their auditory and as the instruments of their natural being do so no lesse justly the instruments of our spiritual being may call us their children To clear this a little further you may please to consider that the word of truth is the means whereby we are begotten to a spiritual and nourished to eternal life in which respect S. Peter compareth it both to seed and to milk the seed by which we are born again and the milk by which being born we are fed now the preaching of this word is committed to the Ministers of Christ and they are sent and appointed