Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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B08795
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Animadversions upon a fatal period, or, A brief discourse concerning the present state of the body, and the future state of the soul by Tho. Collard.
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Collard, Tho.
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1678
(1678)
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Wing C5102A; ESTC R174032
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31,547
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104
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at his Father and despiseth to obey his Mother the Ravens of the valley shall pick it out and the young Eagles shall eat it By this we see that Gods Law was that the undutiful Son should not be long-liv'd should not live so long as the dutiful and obedient Yea sometimes God executes this vengeance with his own hands as upon Corah and his rebellious Associates The Story of the Kings of all ancient and modern Records will assure us That the Disobedient Thieves Murtherers Rebels Traytors were not long-liv'd but perished often by the sword and immature death BUT our Lover of Humility at the end of his Paraphrase on this Commandment flatly deny'd all this from the Pulpit and I must tell you in a Parenthesis that I first animadverted on what W. C. preacht tho 't is wisely omitted by the Press and affirm'd with no small confidence as G. S. W. G. and several others besides my self will be depos'd viz. That we do see by Experience That the rebellious and undutiful to Parents do live so long as those that are dutiful and obedient A pure Catechist For this I presume is no infinitely Soul-concerning point if I may speak in his own Dialect or precious Doctrine to inspirit either men or children to duty and obedience but a grand Incentive for Villains to continue in their infernal plots and designes or when being detected a Salvo for them and is if we may believe our own Experience and the Word of truth it self a notorious falsity and delusion and clearly evacuates Gods promises For Myriads we know of Rebels and Murtherers in the most flourishing part of their lives have been cut off by the sword of Justice But Mat. 5. 5. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dr. Ham. very often hath a peculiar Critical signification in the Gospels and refers to the Land of Judaea and here by being promised to the meek and obedient looks distinctly on the fifth Commandment in it on the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee i. e. a fruitful prosperous being here on earth viz. long life and tranquillity which is here said to belong by promise of God peculiarly to the meek But when the exercises of this virtue of meekness and obedience in some singular conjunctures of time brings losses or death upon them they shall richly be rewarded in another world and be made amends abundantly there for all that the practice of this virtue hath brought on them BUT it may be said and that truly too for ought I know that W. C. had not this viz. That we do see by Experience c. in his Notes But this will not excuse him for should I extol and preach up the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England as in Duty and Conscience I ought and my Notes should be very sound and orthodox yet if I should tell my Auditors ex tempore or without my Notes That the Doctrines of Transubstantiation of Purgatory Invocation of Saints c. are agreeable to Gods word I know I ought and should be questioned for it and my Notes would not keep me in my Parsonage without an open Recantation seeing there are honest Witnesses enough to prove it BUT to do W. C. all the right imaginable I shall transcribe verbatim his new-model'd Answers to two Texts of Scripture which he thought might contradict as indeed they doe his former Assertions FIRST Solomon saith Eccles 7. 17. Be not overmuch wicked neither be thou foolish why shouldest thou die before thy time ANSW pag. 8. He that dies before his time dyes not before the time which God hath determined an unseasonable death to man doth not prevent Gods season To clear which we must distinguish about death which is Twofold First Natural Secondly Violent A man that dies a violent death is said to dye before his time which he might have reached unto by the course of nature Sin cuts him off before God cuts him off But then God cuts him off for sin Thus many dye before their time and except in this sense no man dies before his time TRULY Sir in this sense without aping you straining for Rimes and Quibles 't is perfect nonsense for how can a man that dies a Violent death be properly said in any sense to dye before his time when according to your own words pag. 11. God in his unchangeable purpose hath appointed and determined the very moment manner and place of every mans death whether Natural or Violent whether by burning at the Stake or hanging on the Gallows And besides we cannot truly affirm of many sincere pious and virtuous men that were remov'd hence by a Violent death Jeremy was stoned Ezekiel beheaded Isaiah cut asunder Eleazar at the age of fourscore years cudgel'd to death none of the easiest doubtless most of the Prophets and Apostles persecuted and slain St. Peter endur'd crucifixion with his head downward according to his own request and St. Paul decollation in one day at Rome as Eusebius tells us some burnt others devoured by wild Beasts or the like deaths as St. Polycarpus Ignatius St. Laurence Cyprian and Myriads which suffer'd under Nero Trajan Antonius Severus Maximinus and Dioclesian who everted Churches and made the sacred Bibles become fuel to devouring flames We dare not I say judge That Sin did cut those glorious Saints off because they suffer'd Violent deaths before God did cut them off and that then God did cut them off for sin for this were a signe of Gods justice wrath and fury But rather that God did cut them off before Sin did cut them off either for the advancement of his honor and glory the good of the Church for sanguis Martyrum est semen Ecclesiae or to free them from future miseries and calamities which otherwise might befal them So Isaiah 57. 1. The righteous is taken away from the evil to come All which are infallible Tokens of Gods infinite mercy and immense love SECONDLY David saith Psal 55. 2. That bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days ANSW pag. 9. For answer to this you must know Beloved that there is a general and special or personal limit of man's Life 1. The general Limit is Seventy or Eighty years Psal 90. The few exceptions which some have made by exceeding this limit weakens not this general Rule 2. There is a particular limit upon every person the limit of one may be Forty years when another is tied to Thirty a third to Twenty a fourth to Five and a fifth perhaps may be tied to Four years these are special Limits upon special men Now when the Psalmist saith That a bloody and deceitful man shall not live out half his days the meaning the subverting of it is that he shall not live out half the days of mans general limit As suppose a bloody man be cut off at Thirty he hath not lived out half Seventy or Eighty