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	minister_n	people_n	2,506	5	4.7611	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56801	A beam of divine glory, or, The unchangeableness of God opened, vindicated, and improved : whereunto is added, The soul's rest in God / by Edward Pearse ; to which is prefixed the author's last letter, written in the time of his sickness to some peculiar friends.	Pearse, Edward, 1633?-1674?	1674 (1674)	Wing P970; ESTC R32172	116,330	239

Enoch that he walked with God three hundred years and begat Sons and Daughters of others 't is said that they begat such and such and they lived so many years afterwards but of Enoch 't is said he begat Methuselah and walked with God three hundred years as if his whole life for that three hundred years were one continued and uninterrupted course of walking with God The * Deum presentem praeoculis ac familiarem habuit Deique placito se ita accommodavit ut videretur perpetuo cum Deo ambulare Tirin Phrase as a learned Critique observes seems to carry this in it that he had God so present alwayes with him and he so accomodated himself to the pleasure of God as that he seemed perpetually to walk with him His life was as it were one constant course and series of walking with him This also is what God calls for Be stedfast immoveable alwayes abounding in the Work of the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 This is what the Apostles are ever and anon praying for both for themselves and others The God of all Grace stablish strengthen settle you 1 Pet 5.10 This is what being attained is the Crown and Perfection of a Christian so in that same 1 Pet. 5 10. The God of all Grace after you have suffered a while make you perfect stablish strengthen you To be stablisht and settled in our Spirits and wayes in holy things this is our Perfection 'T is indeed the glory of Christianity and the honour of a Christian Oh my Beloved the more even and uniform we are in the things and wayes of God the more excellent and perfect we are and the more amiable in the sight of God Oh 't is not the flashy high-flown talking but the even and steady Christian that is most excellent most amiable in God's Eye this is a Crown of Glory indeed upon the Head of a poor Soul 'T was queen Elizabeths Motto semper eadem alwayes the same and truly were it more in an holy respect the Christians Motto he would be more glorious than he is Rawlins you left me and Rawlins you find me said that Martyr meaning that he was still in the same Mind the same Spirit being constant to his Testimony which was his Crown and Glory Quod desideras autem magnum summum est Deoque vicinum non conents Sen. 'T is an high and great thing sayes one to his Friend which thou desirest and even bordering upon a Deity not to be moved and changed Sure I am 't is an high and great thing in Spirituals to come up to an holy evenness and fixedness of Soul This is that which honours the Gospel this is that which renders Religion amiable this is that which makes way for full and constant communion with God for abiding Consolations this is that which delights the Heart of God this is that which brings us near to the state and life of Heaven for there the Saints and Angels are fixed and unchangeably confirmed in all Good in all Holiness in all Happiness Oh labour for as much of this Holy Unchangeableness as possibly may be attained unto here on Earth and then sigh and long for that Life and State where you shall know no change for ever but be perfectly unchangeably and etenally holy and happy as God himself is for you shall be like him and see him as he is 1 Joh. 3.2 'T is true 't is no easy thing to fix our roving Spirits and reduce them to a steadiness in what is good but remember the God you are to have recourse to to do this great Work for you is the God of all Grace as you have it in the prequoted place 1 Pet. 5.10 and he therefore can do it with ease for you Oh look to him for this great Blessing this high Attainement CHAP. XI The Unchangeableness of God a sweet Spring of Comfort to his People Several consolatory Conclusions thence AS God's Unchangeableness calls for much duty from so it Ministers much sweet comfort to his poor Church and People The truth is there is scarce any such Spring and Treasury of Comfort as this is God's Immutability sayes one is the best Cordial to refresh a fainting Soul The great Cordial God sent Israel in their distress was this I am that I am I am an Unchangeable God Exod. 3.14 and indeed that was enough for them But more particularly there are several consolatory Conclusions which flow from God's Unchangeableableness Conclusions which do carry strong consolation in them 1. God being Unchangeable his Glory shall live and in due time shine forth conspicuously before all for this see Isa 42.8 I am the Lord I am Jehovah I am he who was and is and is to come the Unchangeable God Well and what then Why My Glory will I not give to another nor my Praise to Graven Images my Glory shall not die but live my Glory shall not be alwayes veiled and eclipsed but it shall shine forth in perfect lustre and splendor One of the great burthens that lies upon the People of God is the sufferings of his Name and Glory The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me sayes David Psal 69.9 God's Glory is veiled his Name is blasphemed his Worship is interrupted his Providence is denied all his Attributes are obscured and his Honour every way thrown in the dust which makes holy Souls go mourning from day to day But my Beloved here is that may comfort the Soul God is Unchangeable and therefore his Glory shall live and shine forth again the Veil shall in due time be taken away and his Glory shall appear yea it shall be as eminently illustrated and displayed as ever it has been veiled and eclipsed You know how God speaks in reference to the Glory of his Name in answer to Christ's Prayer Joh. 12.28 Father glorifie thy Name sayes Christ and what answer does the Father give him I have glorified it and I will glorifie it again q.d. I have hitherto taken care of my Glory and I will take care of it still O my Beloved God's Glory has hitherto been dear to him he has hitherto maintained it in the World and he is Unchangeable and therfore his Glory is as dear to him as ever it was he is as jealous for it as ever he is also every way as able to vindicate maintain it as ever he was and assure your selves were it not that he knows how to make it shine forth so much the more illustriously and conspicuously afterwards he would not suffer it to be so veiled and eclipsed as sometimes he does yea let me say he is alwayes carrying on as the interest of his Peoples Happiness so the concerns of his own Glory 2. God being Unchangeable his Church shall be preserved and delivered preserved under and in due time delivered out of all her troubles and afflictions and what a sweet thing is that The poor Church of God is oftentimes

of humbling from the consideration of God's Unchangeableness as our unlikeness to him therein our charging him with change our living so little upon his Unchangeableness AS the Unchangeableness of God is very teaching and instructive so also very humbling if rightly weighed and improved by us there are several things which the consideration thereof do call aloud upon us to be humbled for and Oh that we would lay them to heart 1. Is God unchangeable Then how should we be humbled for our exceeding great changeableness and therein our unlikeness to God the chief good The more changeable we are in what is good the more unlike God we are and the more unlike God we are the more cause we have of humbling Oh how should we loath our selves and be abased at the foot of God in the sense of our great fickleness and changeableness Alas how changeable are we in all that is good how changeable are many of us in our Judgments and Opinions being like Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine as you have it Eph. 4.14 being apt to be soon removed from the Faith of the Gospel as the Galatians were at which Paul marvelled Gal. 1.6 How changeable are we in our affections to God and the things of God Now the heart flames with love to God and Christ anon 't is chill and cold Now we are full of holy longings and desires after God and Christ Grace and Glory we can say with the Church of old The desire of our Soul is unto thee O God and to the remembrance of thy Name Isa 26.8 yea our Soul thirsteth for God for the living God Yea as the Hart panteth after the Water-brooks so panteth our Soul after God as the Psalmist speaks Anon there is not any one holy breathing to be found within us No we are even made up of worldly sinful unclean desires we pant after the dust of the Earth as those Amos 2.7 we are athirst for the Creature and nothing but that will satisfie us Now we delight in God and his Wayes We rejoce in the Lord and our Soul is joyful in our God as 't was with the Church Isa 61.10 and his Wayes are sweet and pleasant to us his Law is our delight anon we relish no sweetness we take and excercise no joy no delight either in the one or in the other but we drive on heavily every duty being a burthen to us and the very thoughts of God a trouble Now we fear and stand in a we of God not daring to sin against him we stand in awe of his Presence we stand in awe of his Holiness we stand in awe of his Goodness we stand in awe of his Power and the like Anon we are fearless and regardless of him boldly venturing upon sinning against him Now we dread sin as Hell it self yea and worse too anon we imbrace it and delight in it Again how changeable are we in our holy purposes and resolutions We take up this and that holy resolution we purpose to walk so and so with God to keep such and such a watch over our spirits and wayes to live more in communion with God to drive a greater trade and design for Heaven and to hasten more to that better Countrey and the like but alas how do such resolutions fade and change and die within us not one of many of them ever proves firm and effectual yea many times no sooner are such resolutions taken up by us but presently we run Counter to them and break with God more than before the first temptation that comes turns us quite beside our purpose and we miserably miscarry in the very things we resolved about Our holy purposes are for the most part abortive We turn aside like a deceitful bow as God complains of those Psal 78.57 'T is a sad complaint which I have read in one of the Ancients Oftentimes says he have I promised refolved to amend Multoties permisi me emondare nunquam tenut sed semper ad peocatu redii prioribus seeleribus nova deterior a conjunxi nunquam ut debui mores meos in melius mutari c. Bern. de ascen Domini but I never made it good but alwayes I returned to sin and to my former wickednesses I added new and worse I never reformed as I ought And who of us may not in a great measure make the same complaint Yet once more How changeable are we in our ways and walkings How uneven and unconstant in our goings We have an heart that loveth to wander as God speaks of them of old Jer. 14.10 O the turnings aside and O the turnings back that we are guilty of in our walking with God! Oh the gaps and pauses and interruptions that are in our obedience we should go on in one even constant tenure of holy Obedience but alas we are in and out off and on often in the day yea in the hour yea many times sudden and great changes are found in our spirits and carriages God-ward and that for the worse I 'le give you one and but one instance of this and that in an eminently holy Man an instance that may well make all of us tremble and that is of Jeremiah Jer. 20.13 14 15. Sing unto the Lord praise ye the Lord for he hath delivered the Soul of the poor from the hand of evil doers Cursed be the day wherein I was horn let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed Cursed be the man that brought tidings to my Father saying A man-child is born unto thee making him very glad Pray mark what a great change there was wrought in this good man's spirit and that all of a sudden in vers 13. he looks like one dropt out of Heaven praising God for his Goodness and Salvation and calling upon others so to do but in vers 14 15. he looks rather like one broken loose out of Hell cursing himself and almost every one about him In the one he looks more like an Angel than an imperfect Saint in the other he looks more like a Devil than a Man so great was the change in his spirit and this suddenly made When he had in vers 13. been praising God and was as it were taken up to Heaven the very next news you hear of him is that he is full of cursing and truly thus changeable are we all here O how suddenly many times do we change and fall from the best into the worst of frames and carriages before God from love to hatred from faith to unbelief from holy fear to carnal security from obedience to rebellion from delight in God to a neglect of God and a weariedness of his wayes and presence O let us be humbled for this our exceeding changeableness and therein our unlikeness to God in his Unchangeableness 2. Is God unchangeable Then how should we be humbled that we do so often wrong God charging him with