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	true_a	1,044	5	4.3446	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61206	Satana noēmata, or, The wiles of Satan in a discourse upon 2 Cor. 2. 11 / by William Spurstow ...	Spurstowe, William, 1605?-1666.	1666 (1666)	Wing S5096; ESTC R22598	68,825	114

of which happily they never heard any others to be tempted to nor believe that ever any but themselves have had experience of This Parisiensis calls Extraneitas tentationis temptations that they cannot parallel or sample Now when Christians are exercised with such temptations it exceedingly amazes them as new Engines and weapons not before seen by Souldiers in former fights do amaze the Souldier and take off his courage and as new diseases of which Physicians have had no experience do most pose and trouble them and oftentimes discourage both Patients and Physicians So oftentimes new temptations do most amaze and sad the soul Hence come those complaints tempted ones do utter No body was ever troubled as I am who was ever assaulted with such blasphemous thoughts such Atheistical injections as I dare not speak or mention Sure if I were not worse than others I could not have such thoughts if I were not forsaken of God he would not suffer me to be thus tempted But in this case you must remember what Paul speaks to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 10. 13. There is no temptation happened to you but what is common to man I may truly say to such they think it new yet it is that which some Christian or other have had experience of You know what Elias said to God and what Gods answer was Rom. 11. 3. saith he I am left alone and they seek my life But what saith the answer of God unto him I have reserved to my self seven thousand men c. So you think you are alone in this or that temptation but alas there are a thousand in the Militant Church that are afflicted with the same temptations and Stratagems of Satan SECT XIII THe thirteenth Wile is about holy duties and that 1. In putting us to do good duties upon wrong ends which wholly alter their property It is a true Axiom in Philosophy Quod forma in naturalibus finis in moralibus What the form is in naturals the end is in morals In moral things the end specificates the action Jehu's slaying Ahabs Children was not obedience but murther though done by Gods Command Hos 1. 4. God required it as a righteous satisfaction to Justice but Jehu did it out of ambition therefore God saith I will avenge the bloud of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu Alms are good when they come like oyl that makes no noise but not when a Trumpet is blown before them Prayer is good when it comes from Zeal but it is but howling when it comes from lust Hos 7. 14. Worshipping God is good but if it be for base ends it is but self-seeking Oh therefore look to all duties God must not only be the Object but the End Worship must have no end below it self Or 2. Satans VVile is when he cannot hinder from duty then he endeavours to spoyl them he will excite to duties but to do them unseasonably It is the commendation of a duty when it is done in season Psal 1. The blessed man brings forth his fruit in due season Now when he cannot put out the Candle he will make it sparkle and flair as in Martha Luk. 10. 40 41. or he will turn affection the wrong way The Jews were zealous for the Law and he stirs up that against the Gospel Saul had a conscience of serving God 1 Sam. 13. 12. and he forceth him to offer Sacrifice The Corinthians were at first too remiss towards the Incestuous Corinthian after too severe he sees some heat and he drives it on too much ●he will make us tyrannize in some service and some duties he will make tyrants unto us his aim is by marrying Religion and Tyranny to discourage men from Religion 3. His design is to press Christians with some violent assault when they are preparing themselves for duty or to afflict them so in the duty that it may be rather their work to keep off the fowls from the Sacrifice than to give up themselves to God in the duty as they should do Therefore he presses Christians with extraordinary discouragements when they are to perform extraordinary duty that if he cannot keep them from ordinary he may keep them from extraordinary duties and labours to make them so uncomfortable as many are afraid to perform them Thus many are kept month after month and year after year from ever medling with the Sacrament who will pray and hear through the violent assaults of Satan so that some have given over duties for a kind of ease rather than be so assaulted All I shall say to this is whatever your discouragements are give not over Satan may imbitter a sweet duty by his temptations but he shall not make it ineffectual while you are wrastling and striving his design is but by this violence to make you give over to choose rather to walk in a kind of peace than to maintain a war in the performance of duty SECT XIV THe fourteenth Wile is by suffering false remedies to prevail The Devil suggests these to keep men from the true and tells men as Samson did Dalilah if he be so and so used he shall be overcome Thus the Jews used their Phylacteries as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 remedies against inchantments And those two Commandments upon which Christ saies hang the Law and the Prophets the Christians did from the superstitious Jews write them in Schedules and hang them about their necks as little Gospels but those were portanda in corde non in corpore as Jerom saith well upon Mat. 23. they were to be laid up in the heart not to be worn about the body So the Papists use Salt Spittle holy Water in their Exorcisms but these the Devil that hellish Leviathan esteemeth less than the Leviathan in Job 41. 27. doth of Iron which he esteemeth as straw and of Brass as rotten wood Beware then of his counterfeit weapons think not these things will affright the Devil rather look up to God as David who praies that God would turn the counsel of Achitophel to foolishness 2 Sam. 15. 31. SECT XV. THe fifteenth Wile is by making false Syllogisms by which he works upon the guilt of conscience and this consists in laying to our charge sins of omission or commission in which the Major or Minor is false As now he will lay to our charge many particular sins and corruptions committed by us as pride hypocrisie self-respects and so many duties omitted or done overly Which temptation if drawn in a Syllogism either the first or second proposition is false He in whom such sin raigns as hypocrisie is is not the Child of God But such a one art thou c. the Minor here many times is false It is true a Child of God cannot be an hypocrite but he may have hypocrisie in him the best way therefore to resist this temptation is to try whether hypocrisie reign in thee and this he will press by aggravating the evil and extenuating the good that he may bring men

Thus when Israel was nigh the enjoying of a great blessing the Land that God had promised Upon the borders they fall a murmuring by their hearkening to the Spies who had brought an evil report upon the Land Num. 13. 32 33. It is a Land that eateth up the Inhabitants and the people that we saw in it were men of a great stature and there we saw the Giants c. So that hereby they neglected the duty and let the mercy at a low rate So that those that are beggars and expectants of any great mercy had need to be watchers too SECT XXI THe one and twentieth VVile to make the duties of a Christians general and particular calling interfere and clash one with another There is a double calling in which every man is set There is Vocatio ad faedus vocatio ad munus or as we use to speak a general and a particular calling it is termed our general calling not only for its extent but because the things we are called to are but one and the same and common to all we are called to the same duties to the same promises to the same profession c. The particular calling is that in which men are not called to one and the same duty but do act according to several gifts one in this employment another in that Now both these are to be performed regularly and this is the excellency of a Christian when he so orders his particular calling that it doth not eat up the time that is due to his general calling and when he so orders his general calling as that it doth not take away the time that God hath allotted for his particular calling now Satans great Art is to disturb Christians in the performance of these Some therefore are never quiet but when they are hearing praying c. but their particular callings and relations they never mind this is Satans design to disturb them by putting them upon prayer when diligence is required in their particular calling O●h●rs he takes off from hearing and praying and those duties which belong to Christians as such under pretence they must provide for their Families that so while they care for their bodies they may altogether neglect the care of the inward man Therefore know it is a great part of a Christians prudence and that which affords a great deal of comfort duly to manage both callings when you do not let the time of your callings devour the time of your duties but let your soul have its portion of your time as well as your body Separate then your souls for a season to go up in the Mount and converse with God that you may be more sit when you come down again to converse with men in your particular callings SECT XXII THe two and twentieth and last Wile is that which the Text hints an endeavour of Satan to bring us from one extream to another that we may be kept from the golden mean wherein Grace stan●s as well as Vertue which you know is seated between two Vices as Solomons Throne was between two rows of Lions And this device he uses in matters of sin in matters of duty and in matters of Doctrine In matters of sin Thus the incestuous Corinthian is first puffed up with pride and sins presumptuously and then when by the Censures of the Church he is awakened to see his sin then he is well nigh swallowed up with sorrow In religious duties first he tempts to a neglect of them or such a rigorous tyranny that makes many to groan under them and lye under woful snares And this device he accounts the more prevalent because we are apt to think oft times that the very work of grace lies in the highest opposition to that sin or vice that sitteth heaviest upon our hearts when as indeed sins and vices are not only opposite to vertues but one to another be sure therefore remember grace lies in a middle way Sorrow for sin is not desperation confidence in God is not presumption but the middle way Faith leaves both extreams and closes with God according to the Rule of the Word So again in matters of Doctrine Basil writing against Sabellius to overthrow his Haeresie uttered some inconvenient expressions about the Trinity And Augustine in his zeal against the Pelagians who slighted Baptism was carried out so that he became durus pater infantum pronouncing those dying unbaptized not to be saved But I shall not insist any longer upon that second general the enumeration of Satans VViles Chap. V. Wherein are laid down several Antidotes against the Wiles of Satan THe next thing is to lay down some Scripture Antidotes and preservatives against them That may keep you not from being tempted by Satan but from being touched by the evil one as St. John phraseth it 1 Joh. 5. 17. That the evil one touch you not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is the same word used 1 Cor. 7. 1. The evil one doth not touch him so as to produce his own Image and likeness upon him Though I undertake not such Antidotes and preservatives as shall totally free you from his Wiles yet I shall lay down Antidotes against his poyson Such premonitions against his subtilties such Scripture Armour against his rage and malice as will if used keep you from being overcome by him SECT I. CHristian Sobriety and Watchfulness This we have from the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 5. 8. Be sober be vigilant because your adversary the devil goeth about like a roaring Lion c. Sobriety stands in a moderation towards the things of this life Pleasures Riches Honours they are the usual baits with which Satan hides all his hooks and temptations that so they may not be easily discerned and an immoderate thirsting a keen eager appetite after these things is the ready way to bring a Believer into the midst of snares They that will be rich saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 6. 9. whose desires and appetites are filled with the great things of the world fall into many snares Sometimes to strain their consciences by deceit sometimes to do evil actions it may be to make the stream of their actions great by the bloud of others But now as we must be sober in tempering our hearts and affections so we must be watchful which is a duty required of us as Christians but indispensably necessary as we are Christian Souldiers engaged in bello semper et si non in praelio as Livy speaks alwaies in a War though not alwaies in battel a Christian hath no peace but in his conscience and the grave Nay it is an irreconcileable Controversie it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Venenata non ferunt inducias a war without a truce Therefore a Christians life is c●lled a Warfare they are trained up non in deliciis sed in castris not in the pleasures of a Court but the hardiness of a Camp Christ who is their he●d is therefore called in Scripture a man of