Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	christian_n	day_n	lord_n	1,759	5	4.1527	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40078	A discourse of the great disingenuity & unreasonableness of repining at afflicting providences and of the influence which they ought to have upon us, on Job 2, 10, publish'd upon occasion of the death of our gracious sovereign Queen Mary of most blessed memory : with a preface containing some observations, touching her excellent endowments, and exemplary life.	Fowler, Edward, 1632-1714.	1695 (1695)	Wing F1703; ESTC R7038	47,822	152

see speak of Profaining Gods Name by vain Swearing for it would be much too little a thing to say of such a Saint that She abhorred this but of all irreverend Use thereof but of this I say our Blessed Queen did make great Conscience And so did She no less of Censuring and speaking ill of Others and of all other Liberties which even great Professors of Religion do too commonly give themselves in Talking And therefore She was one of St. James his Perfect Women for saith he If any offend not in Tongue the same is a Perfect Man And it is no Wonder if She who could so perfectly govern Her Speech should be as void of Offence in all Her Actions And it is certain that so She was So Extraordinary Strict was Her Majesties Life even from Her Youth that for the Seventeen Years of Her Married State The King as he hath Professed Could never see any thing in Her which He could call a Fault And no Man can keep a Stricter Guard upon his words than his Majesty is always observed to do And as to the Positive instances of the Queens Piety or Fear of God they were such as shewed She made no less Conscience of Sins of Omission than of Commission I might speak of the Pious Care She took of Her immediate Attendants and how concerned She was to have them secured from Temptations when they had occasion to go abroad But I cannot omit One Passage which is an Equal Instance both of Her Piety and Humility She having condescended to be God-Mother to a Daughter of one of Her Servants and calling to mind those Words at the end of the Office of Baptism You are to take Care that this Child be brought to the Bishop to be Confirmed by him c. She not onely took this Care of Her God-Daughter but in Order to Her due Preparation for Confirmation would instruct her Herself and hear her say her Catechism She did not think it enough to Command one of Her Servants or the Clerk of Her Closet to do this Office And how great a concern She had for the Reforming of the Manners of Her Subjects in this very Loose Age appeared by Her most Pious Letter to the Iustices of Middlesex Wherein She vigorously Excited them to do their Duty according to their Oaths in Executing the Laws against Swearers and Cursers and Profaners of the Lords day and all Debauched Persons And Her Majesties Charity ought to be taken notice of next after Her Piety in which most Christian Grace it is impossible So Excellent a Person in all other Respects should be defective The Queen could well distinguish between the Religion of the Means and of the End And no one can be more sensible than She was how little Praying Hearing Reading and the Sacraments do signify to those who place the Whole of Religion in such Things as Necessary as they are She knew that the Design of these Great Duties is the making us more and more to Partake of a Divine God-like Nature the Subduing of all Corrupt Affections and inordinate Appetites and the making us forward to all Good works And it is Evident that these were the Ends She propounded to Herself in all Acts of Devotion as by Her great Proficiency in Other Virtues so particularly by Her Excelling in Works of Mercy and Charity She filled Her Almoners with Business of this kind more perhaps than any King or Queen Ever did in this Kingdom within such a space of Time And tha● not only in Distributions at Home but also in Foreign Parts among Poor Sufferers for the Sake of Christ. And I have good reason to believe from what I Know that Her Own Hands were likewise large Dispensers of very Private Charities And it is strange that Her Memory should serve Her to be so Punctual as She was in the Payment of Her Private Pensions at the Times She had set for it without being put in mind of those Times when they came And Her Memory was no less Faithful in reference to the Performance of Her Gracious Promises as I have known by Experience These things I say are very Strange Considering how Her Mind was always Loaded with Business and with Business of the greatest Weight Importance especially when the King was Abroad Which I think hath mostly been for the greater Part of Every Year But it seems She thought nothing could be of greater Importance than Works of Charity In the Last Place I cannot forbare taking notice of Another Rare Endowment with which Her Majesty was Adorned and which few would expect to find in the Character of a Woman tho' a Queen viz. Courage and Fortitude Herein was She also a Second Queen Elizabeth This was Eminently demonstrated by Her Manly Her more than Manly Behaviour when the French Bravadoed it upon our Coast And great Danger apprehended from our Busy Enemies at Home and of Treachery in our Navy and The King then in very difficult Circumstances in Ireland So that the Streight the Queen was now in seemed much like that of David at Ziklag and much Greater than that of Queen Elizabeth at Tilbury But now did She demean Herself not only as That Queen but as David did at that Time She Encouraged Herself in the Lord Her God And Those who should have Animated Her had She need of being Animated by them were chiefly supported by the Observations they made of the Admirable presence of Mind She all along shewed Minding the Business which the Exegency of Affairs called for and Expressing no dissidence of Success And this no doubt was one of those Times to which a Noble Earl referred in this Saying which I heard from him viz. We have owed our Safety more than Once to the Queens Care and Vigilancy And he was at such a Post in all the most difficult part of Their Majesties Reign as to be best Able of any Minister of State to say this of his own Knowledge I cannot here Omit the mentioning tho' it would have better come in before what Another Great Person very Eminent for Piety as well as Parts and Learning with whom the Queen frequently Conversed did say to me of Her about Four Years since viz. She is so Good that when I Compare my self with Her I am Ashamed to find how much I fall short of Her She was so great an Example of Piety and every Virtue that Considering them altogether it can be no Hyperbole to say Certainly a Greater never Graced a Throne She had the Virtues of the Best Princes without the least Mixture of those Failings with which the Names of most of them are Stained in History As to that One that onely Thing which our Male-Contents would fix as a foul Blot upon Her Majesties Memory would they once be Perswaded to lay aside their Prejudices and the groundless Notions they have Entertained it is impossible they should not at length see with the Generality of their Protestant Brethren not only

determined otherwise And it is evident that no Temporal Evils are to be prayed against otherwise in that Afflictions of one sort or other are such things as hath been shewed as we have Need of upon several Accounts and there is no particular Affliction but it is better for us to undergo it than to be without it for ought we know We are therefore to refer our selves to the Unerring Wisdom of God who knows in all Circumstances what is best for us and best in it self after we have prayed Him to keep off such an Affliction or to remove it It becomes us consequently not to Beg either Over-passionately and Vehemently For this would be to prescribe to God and to tell Him what is best Those do no less than so who pray for Health or any outward Blessing for themselves or theirs as if they would have no Nay Instead of so doing we ought heartily to endeavour to bring our Minds to a full Acquiescence in the Divine Wisdom and Goodness and to a Willingness to bear such or such an Affliction with the Divine Assistance if God sees it fit we should as knowing that what He seeth fit must necessarily be so and that it is Madness to be averse to what is so And by this means shall we be able to say that our Petitions are never denyed I mean when we pray with Submission and desire Absolutely nothing but what is best for us or rather what is best in it self which also will prove to be best for us when we are once brought to this happy Temper It is said by the Author to the Hebrews That our Saviour was heard in that he feared How was he heard since the bitter Cup of death did not pass from him but he did drink it Why he was heard as in other respects so in this that he Prayed against that Cursed death not Absolutely but Conditionally And therefore he Prayed for it upon supposition that it was most agreeable to the Wise and Good Will of God that he should Suffer it For we have seen that he said Not as I will but as Thou wilt To this purpose I will present you with other most Excellent sayings of the last Cited Philosopher Let us begin every thing without too Passionate a desire or an Over-great aversness Let us behave our selves like a Traveller who when he comes where two Ways meet asks the first passenger which of them he shall take to such a Place having no inclination to the Right hand rather than to the Left But desiring onely to understand the ready way to his Iourneys End Iust so must we go to God as to our Guide as to One who ought to dispose of us as He Pleaseth We must not direct Him what Course to take with us but embrace that which He Proposeth and desire only that He will Conduct us in the direct way to Happiness This is our Duty and our Safety Whereas now you shall see Men runing to Him Saying Lord have Mercy upon me Deliver me from such or such an Evil Wretch that thou art wouldst thou have any thing but what is Best and who can tell what that is Is there any thing Best but what shall seem so to God Why dost thou endeavour to Corrupt Him who is thy Iudge and to Seduce Him who is thy Counceller and to move Him by thy Cries to do otherwise than He thinks sitting Suffer Him therefore to follow His own Wisdom c. What Admirable Discourse is this 'T is most worthy of the highest rank of Christians But yet it is not very Strange that it should come from the Pen of a Considerative Religious Pagan it being perfectly agreeable to Right Reason and necessarily to be inferred from a true Notion of God which very many of Them had And Consequently what a Shame must it needs be to us Christians not heartily to Endeavour to get our Minds into this Frame But it is a very Melancholy thing to consider that it should be so Extreamly difficult as we generally find it is so to master our Passions under great Afflictions as to bring our selves to an intire Acquiescence in the good Pleasure of God while we cannot but Acknowledge it to be the most Unreasonable thing imaginable not to rest well Satisfied therewith And that it should be even next to impossible without an Extraordinary measure of the Divine Grace to make our Minds Easie under Such Afflictions and especially for those who are of Unhappy Bodily Tempers be they never so good Christians but by the help of Time which without the help of Reason will much deaden the sense of any Affliction And therefore it is alike difficult not to Pray against such Evils as we are Naturally inclined most to dread over Vehemently and with less Submission than becomes us But God is so Good as to consider our Frame and to make Abatements for our natural infirmities so long as we do not give our selves leave to Repine and Murmur at any of His Providences One of the Philosophers I think Epictetus adviseth never to Pray to God for any External Blessings in Particular but only that he would do for us in the general what is Best And such a Sence may be put upon One or Two of the last recited Sayings tho' they do not necessarily imply it But he was so careful to avoid One Extreme as to run into Another tho' the safer of the Two For we are sufficiently warranted by the H. Scriptures and therefore that Extreme was very pardonable in those who were unacquainted with them to ask for particular Outward Blessings tho with great Care to do it with Resignation to the Wise Will of God And it is very wonderful to see how Epictetus could himself take that forementioned Advice which he gave to Others in this following Address he made to the Supreme Deity viz. Did I ever find fault with Thy Government I was Sick when Thou wouldst have me to be so and so are Others but I was willingly Sick I was always Poor at Thy Appointment but Rejoycing I never was a Magistrate nor had any Dignity because Thou wouldest not have me and I never desired it Didst Thou ever see me the more out of Humour or Cast down for this Have I ever appeared before Thee with a discontented Countenance Was I not always prepared and ready for whatsoever Thou Requiredst Wilt Thou have me depart out of this Festival Solemnity I am ready to go and I give Thee all Thanks for having Honoured me so far as to give me leave to keep the Feast with Thee and Behold Thy Works and Observe Thy Government of the World Let Death seize on me no otherwise employed than thus thinking and writing of such things And he thus Appealed to his Acquaintants Behold I am an Exile without House without Servants I lye upon the Ground I have no Wife no Children c. But when did you ever hear me Accuse either God