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	good_a	know_v	1,164	5	3.7864	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26888	The certainty of the worlds of spirits and, consequently, of the immortality of souls of the malice and misery of the devils and the damned : and of the blessedness of the justified, fully evinced by the unquestionable histories of apparitions, operations, witchcrafts, voices &c. / written, as an addition to many other treatises for the conviction of Sadduces and infidels, by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1691 (1691)	Wing B1214; ESTC R13061	111,630	274

THE CERTAINTY OF THE WORLDS of SPIRITS And Consequently Of the Immortality of Souls Of the Malice and Misery of the Devils and the Damned And of the Blessedness of the Justified Fully evinced by the unquestionable Hist●ries of Apparitions Operations Witchcrafts Voices c. Written as an Addition to many other Treatises for the Conviction of Sadduces and Infidels By RICHARD BAXTER Eph 6.12 We wrestle not against Flesh and Blood but against Principalities against Powers against the Rulers of the Darkness of this World against spiritual Wickednesses in high Places in Celestials Matth 8. 31 32. The Devils besought him saying If thou cast us out suffer us to go away into the Herd of Swine And he said Go. Luk. 10. 18 20. I beheld Satan as Lightning fall from Heaven But in this rejoyce not that the Spirits are subject to you But rather rejoyce because your Names are written in Heaven Heb. 2. 14. Are they not all the Angels ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation LONDON Printed for T. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside and I. Salisbury at the Rising Sun near the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1601. THE PREFACE It seemeth hard to unruly Minds that God should keep Intellectual Souls so strange to the unseen World of Spirits that we know so little of them and that our Knowledge of them is no more by the way of ●ente But there is in it much of Gods ●rbitrary Soveraign Power and much of his Wisdom and much of his Justice and also of his Love 1. It pleased him to make Variety of Creatures What harmony would there be without Variety were there nothing but Unity there would be nothing but God And various Creatures must have a various Scituation Reception and Operations The Fishes must not dwell in our Cities nor be acquainted with our Affairs 2. We here dwell in Flesh in Bodies organized for the Souls Receptions and Perceptions and Operations And the Wisdom of God doth suitably dispose of his Communications and give us that measure of Light which is agreeable to our State The Sun must not shine on the Infant in the Womb nor must he there see our Buildings and Tradings and Business in the World 3. We have Light here that is proportionable to our work and interest So much as is necessary to our knowing of our selves and our God and Governour and our Duty and all those hopes that are our necessary Motives thereto Men that will but observe the Operations of their Souls may competently know what a Soul or Spirit is And Men that will but open their Eyes and considerately look about them may as certainly know that there is a God as they can know that there is any Being And Men that cannot but difference Moral Good and Evil and that know the Duty of Children to Parents Subjects to Rulers and Neighbours to Neighbours may know their Duty to God and that the performance of it shall not be in vain And if Men will not know all this which they may know it is just with God to leave them to their chosen darkness and not to know that which further might be known It is a dismal case to havea Soul that will not know it self to be what it is till utter Misery convince him 4. And the God of Love maketh Advantage of our not-seeing the World of Spirits for our Exercise of our higher Intellectual Faculties by a Life of Faith And Intuition a Nobler sort than our present Eye-sight will be seasonable and soon enough when ripeness hath made us ready for it We shall not need all the Organical parts of the Eye which Galen admiringly describeth for our Glorious sight And to see Devils and other Spirits ordinari●y would not be enough to bring our Atheists to the saving Knowledge of God without which all other Knowledge is vain They that doubt of a God the most perfect eternal infinite Being while they see the Sun and Moon and Stars the Sea and Land would not know him by seeing Created ●pir●ts As to the Originals of this Collection it had its rise from my own and other Mens need When God fir●● a●akened me to think with preparing seriousness of my Condition after Death I had not any observed Doubts of the Reality of Spirits or the Immortality of the Soul or of the Truth of the Gospel But all my doubts were about my own Renovation and Title to that Blessed Life But when God had given me peace of Conscience Satan Assaulted me with those worse Temptations Yet through Gods Grace they never prevailed against my Faith Nor did he ever raise in me the least doubt of the Being and ●erfection of God nor of my Duty to Love Honour Obey and Trust him For I still saw that to be an Atheist was to be ●●ad But I fou●d tha● my Fai●h of Supernat●ral Revela●ion ●●st be more than a Believing Man and that if it had ●ot a firm Foundation and rooting even sure Evidence of Verity Surely Apprehended it was not like to do those great works that Faith had to do and to overcome the World the Flesh and the Devil and to make my Death to be safe and comfortable Therefore I found that all confirming helps were useful and among those of the lower sort Apparitions and other sensible Manifestations of the certain existence of Spirits of themselves Invisible was a means that might do much with such as are prone to judge by Sense The uses hereof I mention before the Book that the Reader may know that I write it for Practice and not to please Men with the Strangeness and Novelty of useless Stories It is no small number of Writers on such Subjects that I have read it 's near threescore years time from the fi●st occasion And finding that almost all the Ath●ists Sadduces and Infidels did seem to profess that were they but sure of the Reality of the Apparitions and Operations of Spirits it would cure them I thought this the most suitable help for them that have sinned themselves into an incapacity of more Rational and Excellent Arguments And I have long feared lest secr●t unobserved defectiveness in their Belief of the Immortality of the Soul ●nd the truth of the Scripture is the great cause of all Mens other defects There lieth usually the unsoundness of Woridly Hypocrites where it is prev●iling and thence is the weakness of Gra●e in the best though it prevail not against their Sincerity By which Motives I did though it displeased some make it the Second Fart of my Book called the Saints Rest And aft●rward● provoked by Clement Writer I did it mu●h more fully in a Book called the Unreasonableness of Infidelity And after that provoked by the Copy of a paper dispersed in Oxford said to be Dr. Walkers questioning the certainty of our Religion and seeing no answer to it come from the Univ●rsity Men I wrote yet more Methodically of all in

a Human Soul and Body And so that Christ hath three Natures a Divine a Superangelical and a Humane But of this oft elsewhere This opinion is reconciling as to the Artans who have affirmed Christ to be a Creature above Angels And if God made such a Creature methinks it should be easie to perswade them that he that is as the Center and more than a Soul maketh all the World to be One though of unlike parts doth primarily unite himself with the first and Noblest of his productions Objection But Scripture saith that Abraham called one of these Lord. Answer That Name both Adonai and Elohun are oft given to Creatures And if the Name of Iehovah be sometimes used as to Angels it is only meant to God speaking by them whom Abraham knew to be present though Invisible and to know all that was said Yet further it was an Angel that appeared to M●ses in the burning the Bush and so that sent him on his work to deliver the Israelites from Egypt and Fortified him with power of Miracles and made him his great promises of Success And yet no doubt it was God and the Text is true that affirmeth both Therefore it must be God speaking and acting by the Ministry of an Angel Commissioned to use his Name It was Angels that gave M●ses the Law in the Mount Sinai For so saith the Scripture But it was God by them who were his Voice and Finger that made and wrote the Tables and spake all the words these were all Great and Wonderful Ministrations God promised Moses that his Angels should go before the Israelites to conquer their Enemies and bring them into the promised Land And he chargeth them not to provoke him for Gods Name was upon him and he would not forgive their Iniquities What greater things could be said than that an Angel shall bear Gods Name and be their Captain and Conquer their Enemies and be their Governour and not forgive their wilful Sins In Ioshuahs War at Iericho an Angel appeareth and professeth himself the Captain of the Lords Hosts Josh. 5. 14 15. and Joshua fell on his face to the Earth and Worshipped him and prayed to him to tell him his Message If Angels be not the Generals or Captains of our Armies we are unlike to Conquer It was by an Angel that God brought the Israelites out of Egypt Numb 20. 16. It was an Angel that chose a Wife for Isaack Gen. 24. 7. 40. The Angel of Gods Presence saved the Israelites Isa. 63. 9. An Angel delivered the three Men Dan. 3. from the Fire and Daniel from the Lions Dan. 6. Angels Preached Christ to the Shepherds An Angel made the pool in Ierusalem healing Io. 5. 4. An Angel Preacheth to Cornelius An Angel delivereth Peter Act. 12. The Angel of the Lord Encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them Ps. 34. 7. God giveth his Angels charge over us to keep us in all our ways They bear us up in their Hands lest we dash our Foot against a Stone Psal. 91. 11 12. Rev. 1. Tells us that God first Revealeth his Will to Christ and Christ to Angels and Angels to Iohn and Iohn to the Churches and the Churches to Posterity Yea Angels Ministred to Christ himself when he was hungry Mat. 4. 11. And appeared in his Agony strengthening him Luke 22. 43. Legions of Angels are at his Service And all the Holy Angels will come with him at Judgment and they will be the Reapers at the end of the World Above 260 times are Angels mentioned in Scripture and yet how little notice do we take of their help But is it only our Bodies that they help Can they reach or help our Souls Answ. If Devils can touch our Souls with their Temptations are Angels farther from us or less able to move us to our Duty But are they ordinarily present or know our Case Answ. They rejoice in our Conversion and therefore know it They are present in our Assemblies as Paul intimareth 1 Cor. 11. 10. Say not before the Angel that it was an Errour Eccl. 5. 6. which intimateth the Angels Presence Every Believer hath his Angel beholding the Face of our Father in Heaven Matth. 13 10 and they are not Strangers to their Charge We feel that the Devil is present with us by his Temptations continually in all our Duties molesting or hindering us And are Angels less intent upon their Work It is Michael and his Angels that fight against the Dragon and his Angels to save the Church While such Texts make the Papists think that Angels are always or ordinarily present if they give them not Divine Worship but such as we would do a Prince though I have said before why I approve not of their Doings I dare not as some late Expositors of the Revelation judge the Catholick Church to have become AntiChristian Idolaters as soon as they gave too much Worship to Angels and to Saints We are come to the New Ierusalem to the Innumerable Angels Heb. 12. and must honour them that fear the Lord Psal. 15. And we know that we are translated from Death to Life becau●e we love the Brethren And is it so damnable Idolatry to love and honour Angels and Saints a little too much while they give them nothing proper to God I blame their Irregularities but I dare not judge so hardly of them and the ancient Church for this as some do nor think them much better that love and honour Angels and Saints as much too little Some now would call a Man an Idolater that should say as Iacob Gen. 48. 16. The Angel which redeemed me from all Evil bless the Lads They say This Angel was Christ. Answ. Scripture saith it was an Angel Hos. 12 4. saith He had power over the Angel I dare not call God an Angel though Angels may be called Gods as Princes be If Christ had then no Nature but the Divine I should suspect it is Arianism to call him an Angel or Messenger of God If he had a Body then was it Ubiquitary Or had he infinite numbers of Bodies Or could he be but with one in the World at once For my part I have had many Deliverances so marvellous as convinceth me of the Ministry of Angels in them not here to be recited But I am satisfied that there is no less of the Presence and Efficacy of the Father Son and Holy Spirit when he useth and honoureth any Instruments Angels or Men than if he used no Means at all As I will not desire so to alter the stated Government and Order of God as to expect here visible Communion with Angels nor will offer them any unrequired Worship so I would not unthankfully forget how much we receive by them from Christ and how much we are beholden to them and to God and our Redeemer for them And I hope they will shortly be a Convoy to the Soul of this poor Lazarus to Abraham's Bosom or to the Paradise