Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A28628
|
Joseph's entertainment of his bretheren in a sermon preached at the Herefordshire feast at St Mary-le-Bow, June the 25th. 1684 / by William Bolton.
|
Bolton, William, 1650 or 51-1691.
|
1684
(1684)
|
Wing B3536; ESTC R4320
|
12,180
|
25
|
cruelty could torment him His nailed hands and bored feet distilled and dropped bloud nay his whole body in every particular part endured a several Crucifixion Yet then even then it was he shewed himself the highest example of what he taught his Disciples and in them us loving our Enemies crying with a loud and strong cry not for himself but for those who so inhumanely butchered him Father forgive them for they know not what they doe I might now from Examples farther press this duty as from other things so from your interest from the eternal interest of your bodies and souls For as you forgive men their trespasses so will your heavenly Father forgive you yours But I have been I fear too long upon this point I must hasten to another Therefore secondly from Joseph's entertaining his brethren who came into Egypt to buy Corn for themselves and their little ones by reason of the great famine that then raged in Canaan and other parts adjacent to Egypt Let me propose another duty incumbent upon us especially at such solemn meetings viz. that of Charity towards the Poor And this is so inseparable from a true Christian feast that I never read of the one without the other I might press this duty had I time from several arguments but I shall confine my self to what may naturally be inferred from the Text concluding this particular by way of Direction upon whom chiefly you are to dispose your Charity Egypt by an easie Allegory may be taken for the World by the eleven brethren you may understand the poor and necessitous and by Joseph are represented those whom God hath blessed with riches to the end they may supply out of their store to them who labour under need and poverty Joseph so well managed his Province and so effectually provided against that raging famine that then was in the land that I read in several Histories That the Egyptians supposed him to be more than man and therefore in after-ages adored him as a God under the name of Serapis I am sure all ye who abound in Riches have the same honourable employment entrusted to you though your Province is not so large but then you have your Commission from a greater King than Pharaoh viz. the King of Kings and Lord of Lords And if the poor should want relief when you can assist them you will have this reproach upon you that whereas Joseph supplied the wants of a great Kingdom with the adjacent Countries in an extreme want of seven years you suffer a few indigent people to starve in a great plenty of all things But I hope better things of you especially having been an eye-witness how free and liberal you have been at our last Annual meetings And here if I may guide your hands in your more liberal distributions I would propose those Loyal persons as larger Objects of your kindness who either suffered in the service of the late Royal Martyr or of late in their faithfull adherence to our present Sovereign when the Tragedy of Forty-one was if possible in more dismal circumstances designed to be re-acted by some of the same men but all of the same Principles with the former And I am sure my Text will justifie my advice wherein though Joseph entertained all his brethren at a feast yet Benjamin 's Mess was five times so much as any of theirs Thirdly and lastly Did Joseph a pious chast and religious Man yet entertain his brethren after that manner as you have heard and was his Practice followed by the Jews under the Law by our blessed Saviour and the Primitive Christians Why then let us not regard the unjust censures of unreasonable men as to our present Assembly Those Writers did but dream who fansied the fruit of the forbidden tree to be that of the Vine No no God never made the Vine onely to tempt Mankind and that he should not taste thereof The Impostor Mahomet indeed denied it to his Worshippers but God himself was pleased to accept of it in Sacrifices and the blessed Jesus put himself to the expence of a Miracle that men might know his sense thereof But here let me beg of you not to misconstrue what I have said and do not think that whilst I plead for the innocent mirth of Christians that you may behave your selves as if you were at the Roman Bacchanals or which is very like their Carnivals now I shall sum up all in a word or two by way of Exhortation Do not O do not abuse God's goodness and that which he hath indulged to us to cheer and refresh us Let us not make use of it to the dishonouring his Image in us to the unmanning our selves and putting on the shapes of beasts as too too many doe I shall give you but one direction herein be sure none of you touch that glass whereby you may be rendred less fitting for God's service As for drunkenness and debauchery let it not be so much as mentioned as becometh such Christian Meetings When you are at Dinner remember that as the Jews after their Sacrifices so you just before were worshipping God at his holy Temple Let your carriage at the following entertainment baffle the idle clamours of those who oppose such Meetings of Love Shew to them that you can be sober as well as cheerfull and that you can be men without laying aside the Christian Let this meeting be like that of the Primitive Christians of whom Pliny wrote to the Emperour Trajan an engagement to Vertue and an abhorrence from sin and iniquity Be constant in your Allegiance to our English Joseph Continue true members of Our establish'd Church which best of all others teaches how to render to God the things which are God's and to Caesar the things which are Caesar's Let us follow St. Paul's advice and doe good to all men especially to those of the houshold of faith Nay let our charity be more extensive and let us imbrace even the Dissenters themselves though not by prostituting the Churches Orders to their peevishness and wantonness but by praying for them that they may return to their duty to our common Mother the establish't Church of England that so at length we may all be loving brethren and with one unanimous consent may with one heart and one voice glorifie God the Father of us all If any of you have had that grand happiness of Mankind a true friend doe your utmost to preserve him so Nay if any of you hath an enemy who hath done you wrong or injury imitate Joseph and our present Sovereign but above all our blessed Saviour single out that person and forgive him If any Object of Charity comes into your thoughts especially of poor loyal persons take hold of the occasion accordingly as God hath enabled you These and the like things if you perform you need not fear but that this following Banquet will be an Antepast of an eternal Feast in the Heavens Which God grant Amen FINIS