Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	church_n	good_a	holy_a	1,129	5	4.2899	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70158	Gods eye on His Israel, or, A passage of Balaam, out of Numb. 23, 21 containing matter very seasonable and suitable to the times : expounded and cleared from antinomian abuse, with application to the present estate of things with us / by Tho. Gataker ...	Gataker, Thomas, 1574-1654.	1645 (1645)	Wing G321; ESTC R7798	128,608	144

us then for our good tho we had denied sleep to our eyes and slumber to our ey-lids yet in vain had we watched being altogether ignorant of any danger we were in nor being aware where the evil lay lurking against which we should have watched Had many thousands or ten thousands yea never so many millions of men been up in arms for the safegard of our Soveraign his Royall consort his Princely issue our Peeres our Prelates the main body of our Nobility the prime flowers of our Gentry and Communalty all could not have secured them from being blown up at one blast and dispersed into the ayr to find what sepulture if any at all they could where their disjected limmes or their battered bodies should light And what further mischief would have followed throughout the whole Land had that hellish designe taken effect it is not easie to imagine Onely this we may upon good grounds conceive that ●hose that should have survived to see the ensuing miseries would have deemed them thrice happy that had perished in that hideous execution at first and have wished that they had born them company therein And what can we say letted that it tooke not effect when it was so neere upon the point of execution but that Gods tender eye over us could not endure to see that hellish cruelty acted upon his people which those monsters of men would have beheld with delight Nor can we justly ascribe the discovery of so many severall plots and conspiracies as have been since the beginning of our present troubles set on foot by the adverse party but having been brought to light before they could be hatched and seeing the light before their intended time have by that means miscarried unto any other cause save the watchfull eye of our good God over us and his tender care of his people among us and of those that are entrusted by them in the publique affairs of Church and State for their good And let this in the last place mind us of our duty to God for such his mercy to us Is it so then that God is so chary of the welfare and good of his people that he cannot endure the sight of ought that tendeth to their evil or annoyance Then undoubtedly it is the duty of Gods people to be in like manner affected towards him it standeth them upon to be as chary of his glory as he is of their good and no more to endure ought that may impaire his glory then hee ought that may impeach their good it is but right and equall that it should so be yea it is more then equall that what God freely doth for us we should endevour at least in way of requitall to do deservedly for him And such indeed hath been the disposition and practise in a very eminent manner of some prime ones among Gods people Moses one of the meekest and mildest men upon earth by the testimony of truth it self yet in Gods cause how zealous how fervent how fierce how furious as might seem to some of another temper of another spirit so transported was he with passion when he saw God dishonoured by divine worship done to an idol he throws out of his hand the tables of the Law Gods own workmanship not considering what might and indeed did thereby befall them he stamps the idol to powder casts the powder into the water compels them to drink that which erst while they had adored causeth some three thousand of the people to be slain when as for the saving of the residue he made offer to have his name raced out of Gods booke David likewise tho in his own concernments exceeding patient even to wonderment I was saith he as a deaf man that heareth not as a dumb man that cannot open his mouth I was as one that could not heare or that were not able to returne a reproachfull answer And so it was indeed with him as the story shews when Shimei railed on him cursed him with a grievous curse threw stones at him and his train and carried himself most contumeliously and despightfully toward him he went on his way as quietly as if he had not either heard ought that he spake or seen ought that he did But whē ought came in his way that tended to Gods dishonour then the zeal of thine house saith he hath even wasted me the indignation that he conceived at the consideration of such things done as seemed to tend to the disparagement of Gods honour in the abuse of his house did cast him into a consumption did even waste him to skin and bone and the reproaches of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me such reproachfull speeches as prophane persons did cast out against God he tooke to himself he reckoned himself reproached in them and in him and by reproving them for their reproachings of God brought reproofe and reproach upon himself And again My zeal saith he doth even consume me or eate me up because mine enemies forget thy words as if he had said It is not so much the wrong that mine enemies do me in their cruel pursuing of me and plotting against me that troubleth and vexeth me as their forgetting of God and failing in their duty to him and the dishonour that in pursuit of their malicious practises against me they do to him nor could he therefore without much grief and whole rivers of tears behold how regardlesse wicked men were of God and his Law their sinnes and excesses were not an ey-sore onely but even a heart-sore to him as the like in the Sodomites among whom he lived was before-time to Lot And well were it with us could we be in the like manner affected could we worke our spirits to such a temper not so much to regard in the present troubles what our selves as what the cause of God suffers nor so much in our endevours courses and counsels to eye and aym at our own private emoluments the reparation of our own losses or improvement of our own estates as the publique interest of Gods Church the reparation of the dishonour that hath been and is still daily done to his Name his Word his Service his Worship his Sabbaths his Sacraments and the advancement of his glory in the purity of his Ordinances and the power of piety wrought into the hearts and exprest in the lives of those that professe themselves to be his people but to be well content to dispense with the one for the promoting of the other thinking nothing too dear not our lives themselves much lesse our outward estates to be expended and laid out tho but for laying a foundation of that that future ages may enjoy This tender care and respect had we unto Gods cause in way of thankfulnesse to him for that tender care that he hath from time to time had of us and did we make it appeare in our courses and carriages that men might thereby see that it were this indeed that did

the wicked make to themselves and the justified in regard of Gods seeing the being of sinne in them are made all one with the reprobate and wicked every one of which points is horrible blasphemy against Christ and his righteousnesse Besides that hereby they rob God of the glory of his justice and infinite hatred of the least sinne which being the image of the Devill is a thousand times more filthy and loathsome in Gods sight then the loathsomest dung can be to the eyes of a Prince and being horrible poyson of hell so poysoneth us and all our walking of sanctification that as Christ saith it defileth all unto damnation yea is such a plague-sore of our soul as maketh us unable to do any spirituall duty and as therefore the justified must needs be not onely more foul and loathsome then any spider or toad full of loathsome poyson or any swine defiled over head and ears with mire in our sight but even as foul as ugly Devils in Gods sight if he see any sinne in us and they are to be condemned of filthy hypocrisie that dare presse into Gods presence with the least sinne in them and upon them so God being the fountain of justice and righteousnesse cannot but detest and abhorre us as long as he sees us in our sins nor will the holy Ghost dwell in such foul hogsties nor will Christ knit such ugly members much lesse marry such a foul sow and such filthy swine to himself nor will God acknowledge much lesse adopt for his sonnes and daughters those whom he seeth full of the image of the Devill for if God see any one sinne in them seeing it is sinne it self and nothing else but sinne it is sufficient to defile them so in Gods sight Lastly they paint out God like an angry father ever seeing sinne in us and ever standing with a rod or staffe in his hand lifted up over our heads with which by reason that he ever seeth some fault and blame in us he is ever ready if not to strike us down yet to crack our crowns and sorely to whip us and to becudgel us thoroughly Thus you see with what language the first founder of this faction among us salutes all those and what liveries he b●stowes on them that either oppose him or dissent from him in this his groundlesse and godlesse conceit which to requite and that much more deservedly with the like tho it would be a matter of no great difficulty yet I shall willingly forbear onely desiring the intelligent Reader seriously to weigh and advisedly to deem of these ensuing propositions 1. Who they be that blind-fold God and make him a blind God they that say he seeth sinne wheresoever and in whomsoever it is or that say he doth not at all see it nor can see it in some 2. If Gods covering of sinne do so utterly abolish all sight of any remains of corruption in those whose sinnes are by God said so to be covered how it came to passe that in those former ages God saw and took notice of sinne and corruption in those whose sinnes yet he is in these times said to have covered 3. Whether of the two make men more conscientious of their wayes they who teach and maintain that God hath an eye on them as well when they do evill as when they do well or those who say that he hath no eye on them when they do amisse either to take notice of it or to be displeased with them for it 4. Whether this doctrine that God seeth when men sinne and taketh notice of it be a likely means to make men run out the faster into sin or the contrary teaching rather whereby it is avowed that he doth nothing lesse 5. Whether the former doctrine and the teaching of it when time was did then nourish hypocrisie and tended to the making of Gods people that then lived meer hypocrites 6 Whether Davids setting God alwayes before his face and his perswasion that all his wayes were in Gods sight did make him or other of the faithfull that then lived and were likewise so perswaded either the more slack or lesse sincere in their service 7. Whether any of the faithfull in the time of the Old Testament did ever paint out God like an angry father standing alwayes with a rod or staffe in his hand over his children ready because he saw ever some fault or blame in them therewith if not to strike them down yet to crack their crowns and whip them sorely or becudgel them throughly and whether it was not a notorious calumny for any man to say they so did albeit they did and by this Autors own grounds and graunts might truly teach herein then the same that we now do 8. Whether in the times of the Old Testament there were no difference at all between persons justified and the wicked and reprobate in respect of sinne it self the being of it and Gods seeing of it in them 9. Whether Gods covering of sin in those times when he is acknowledged yet to have seen it was all one with mans covering or with the deceitfull coverings that wicked men make to themselves or the garment of Christs righteousnesse which they also had a right to and a share in as well as we now have all one in that regard with the security and hypocrisie of the wicked 10. Whether the very being of the remainders of sinne that were in the beleevers tho justified persons of those times and Gods sight of the same in them did utterly disable them unto the performance of all spirituall duty defiled all their holy walkings even unto damnation made them as foul as Devils so abominable in Gods sight as that without filthy hypocrisie they could not proffer any petition unto him or presse into his presence so vile and ugly in his eyes that he could not but detest and abhorre them such hogsties as that the holy Ghost would not dwell in them such foul sowes and filthy swine as that Christ would not unite much lesse mary them to himself and so full of the Devils image that God would not own them much lesse adopt them for sonnes and daughters 11. Whether the faithfull in those times when God saw took notice of and chastised sinne in them and they beleeved that he so did found him no more their God then the Gentiles and Heathen did 12. Whether in those times those who taught that God saw sinne in such robbed God of the glory of his justice and hatred of sinne or made him impotent in his power false in his word and blind that he could not see his own and his sonnes proper work in and upon them and so by unbelief abolished to themselves the whole God-head All which assertions concerning God himself his Saints of former times his covering of sinne with them his sight of sinne in them his detestation of them and their dismall estate and condition in that regard if it be most