Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	day_n	good_a	lord_n	2,726	5	3.8026	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91029	Mishʻam A stay in trouble or The saints rest in the evil day. Exactly discovered from their cordial dependance upon God, and comfortable assistance by him. Shortly digested as the saints manual in the worst of times. The first part. / By Alexander Pringle, a worthless servant to Christ in the work of his Gospel.	Pringle, Alexander, of Harwich.	1657 (1657)	Wing P3500; Thomason E1592_1; ESTC R208844	60,000	209

in the saints when almost mortified with the sense of their sufferings Fourthly Interest bindeth the Saints to their good behaviour This obligeth the godly to a singular deportment before God beseeming his ingagement for them in the day of trouble As they are above the world in their unity with him so I would have them in the same degree of duty to him Oh how careful should they be to honour him whose principle and gracious practise it is by reason of his interest to preserve them 2d Ground the Saints weaknesse The second ground upon which the Lord is pleased to give in assistance to his Saints in their suffering condition is their weakness to deal with their enemies who are often as mighty as malicious and as numerous as furious 1 King 20.27 Israel marched like a flock of Kids before the Aramites who filled the Country This ground of the Saints weakness doth move the Lord with a great deal of tenderness towards them The Saints weaknesse the object of the Lords pity severity and bitternesse against their enemies that place of Obadiah chap. 10.11 13 14 15 16. is worth our animadversion and serious consideration How tenderly is the Lord affected with Jacobs calamity and how smartly moved against Esau's cruelty For thy crueltie against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee and thou shalt be cut off for ever when thou stoodest on the other side in the day when the strangers carried away his substance and strangers entered his gates and cast lots upon Jerusalem even thou wast as one of them After such like direful and dreadful expostulations he concludes the destruction of all his peoples enemies giving a ground of his ingagement against them Law of retaliation equalis redditio For as ye have drunk upon my holy Mountain so shall the heathen drink continually It seems the Lord will satisfie the temporary crosses of his servants with the continued curses of their enemies and that because they had insulted upon their weakness The strength of the godly is without them The Lord is the Saints strength God is the strength of Davids heart and his portion for ever Psalm 73 26. and therefore in all their engagements they lean not upon themselves although considerable in respect of competent ability even in the sight of their enemies The saints have no confidence in the arm of flesh Jehosaphat professeth for all his numerous army that he knew not what to do We know not sayes this potent Prince what to do but our eyes are towards thee 2 Chron. 20.12 He will rather lean upon God for the victory and his assistance then to dispute with such a malicious enemy by the strength of a puissant and valiant Army a stronger then which was never any assembled in Judah Note But as there is no counsel or strength against the Lord It is good to have the Lord to our party so is there none without him It is good fighting under the Lords colours if he command and order the battel the victory is certain The Lords presence is the fountain of power Note and the seat of salvation The Lord of Hostes saith David is with us the God of Jacob is our refuge He breaketh the bow and cutteth the spear and burneth the Chariots with fire And so we read of Saints performances in opposition to enemies of greatest abilitie and subtilty so eminently doth the Lord who is their strength act in weakness Not I saith Paul 1 Cor. 15.10 but the grace of God in me * Portus salutis This Land of Rest was in the sight of David when Psalm 125.4 he entreats Gods benevolence for the assistance of his brethren Do well saith he to those who be true and upright in their hearts Oh that this Ground might bring forth something to our spirits in the day of our controversies Applica ∣ tion making our weakness more visible to us in our conflicts with our spiritual and temporal enemies so that we might lean more upon our God and less upon our selves God the best Umpire of controversies we should then sooner have our digladiations more certainly decided and all the contention of our controversies peaceably determined then otherwayes we ever can No finishing of business without the Lords assistance Gods help in our councels to give advice exceeding profitable and necessary we should do more in dispatching the punctiloes of Sacred and Civil differences in an hour with God then all our dayes without him Let him be President of our Councels and then we shal find him the perfecter of our purposes Cast your burden upon the Lord saith David Psal 55.22 This good advise doth teach us the shortest way to ease our selves Commit thy work saith Solomon Prov. 16.3 unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be directed There is no thinking of any end of that business God must do all our work forus Isai 26.12 wherein the Lord hath not a finger to finish it and therefore in short Let the Lord be more familiar with us and then all our matters shall be a great deal more easie for us there shall be no opposition which can stand against us It is a memorable incouragement which the Lord gave to noble Joshua Josh 1.5 7. There shall not a man be able to withstand thee all the dayes of thy life as I was with Moses so will I be with thee I will not leave thee or forsake thee only be thou strong and of a valiant courage that thou maist observe and do according to all the Law which Moses my servant commanded thee thou shalt not turne away from it to the right nor to the left hand that thou maist prosper whithersoever thou goest These words are directed to Joshua Joshua's Commission comfort belong to all of his interest and Authority and in him to all of his gracious interest Piety honour or Authority of whatsoever magnitude they are that they may cleerly read their assured assistance in the lines of their reliance upon and correspondence with God Quo docemur ita nos demum fore in expugnabiles si ad prestandum Deo fidele obsequium enitamur Calvin ad loc The third Ground of the Saints assistance from the Lord 3d Ground The Lords word is his word He hath engaged his word for their assistance in any of their conflicts whoever be their adversaries of whatsoever place or power God secure his Saints by his word I find the Spirit giveth a large and full account of this promise in many Scriptures but especially in that most excellent Psal 9● 4 wherein we have assurances of the Lords kindnesse in this particular set down almost in every line but especially in the 5 6 7 15 and 16 verses Thou shalt not be afraid of the fear of the night nor of the Arrow that flyeth by day nor of the pestilence which walketh in darkness nor of the plague that

contagion may be the bane of others We know the right side cannot be well when there is a Pleurifie in the left when the heart is sick the head is heavy Non est enim pondus verae virtutis insensibilitas cordis quia valde insana per stuporem membra sunt quia incisa sentire dolorem non possunt Greg-Mor lib. 2. cap. 16. Where insensibility of the heart is there is no weight of true vertue because the members are unhealthfully stupified and being cut they feel no pain As if the Moralist should have said Analogie of the physical the mystical body When there is no feeling in the heart then the members are dead and vice versâ When the members are mortified the heart is sensless Hence it is easie to unriddle his conception that there must not onely be a symmetry of parts but a Gospel-sympathy of hearts amongst the Lords people in trouble I could heartily wish Objection solved one scruple were removed by the force of this Doctrine before we proceed It is the common Calumny of the wicked Object who have less of God then corruption That there is no such binding relation upon the spirit of any obliging them to a strict observance or sympathising correspondence of and with the suffering condition of the Saints This piece of arrogance hath no little efficacy to break Christian communion and to make our spirits answer with Cain Am I my brothers keeper Therefore to cut the root of this poysonable Coloquintida we shal shortly present two things 1. Sol. As there is nothing more perniciously destructive to common society then such a principle so all the Laws of Religion and Reason do forbid its practice Anima ut in toto corpore tota est in qualibet ejus parte ideo cum sit aliquid in exigua particula corporis quod non sentiat anima illa tamen tota sentit quia totam non latet August de Trinit lib. 6. cap. 6. As the Soul is in all and every part of the Body and there is no part of the Body insensible c. By which is demonstrate the sympathy not onely of the Natural but of the Mystical Body in its life motion affection and mutual compassion 2. Sol. It is a Dictate of the Deity transcribed by Paul Gal. 6.2 That we bear one anothers burthen and so fulfil the law of Christ which speaks nothing more then a fraternal correspondence of the Saints spirits in the time of trouble that as the Saints have common benefit in Christ so they have common burthen for him Members of the same Body are of the same tenderness and feeling if they be not dead and if such they are not of Christs Body or inlived by him Qui non dolet cum pungitur vellicatur pro putrido mortuo membro habetur August Hom. 18. Such a member saith he which is not pained when pinched is deservedly esteemed rotten and dead By which we are certified there is none of Christs Body but such who are touched with a sympathy of his Members Therefore let us savingly conclude Determination as there is no duty of greater utility Saints communion the ground of their compassion so there is none of greater authority to be improved amongst Professors of the same Gospel and its interest then this is Cum patiuntur membra corporis ejusdem quomodo alia membra licet superiora non compatiuntur membris unius corporis laborantibus Ambros-Epist 22. When members of the same Body are suffers how can the one be without the sympathy of anothers trouble Cum membra quaedam sunt in tribulatione quadam in pace istos contristat eorum tribulatio illos pax illorum consolatur August in Psa 30. There is such a communion amongst members of the same Body that they are sad and rejoyce as it goeth well or evil with them in their saddest and most peaceable times It seems it is their practice to mourn with them who mourn and rejoyce with them who rejoyce I have ever observed No such communion as that of the Saints that there is no such communion kept amongst any as amongst the Saints both in adversity and prosperity but especially in the evil day the time of common danger then they all cry with David Do well O Lord c. And so much for the first Proposition The first Doct. finished The second considerable Conclusion Conclus 2 suggested to us by Davids Prayer cometh to hand viz. That the Lord is to be intreated to befriend his people in danger Proved This it seems is Davids Practice let it be our Patern Let us take some pains this day for the Saints profit Esa 62.7 Give him no rest till he repair and set up Jerusalem c. It is not for Saints to be silent whilst their Brethren are suffering We are to pray for Zions prosperity if we love our own Psal 122.6 They shall prosper that love thee The Lord is pleased to make the peace of his people The Saints prayers profitable the return of their prayers that he may not onely ingage them but all of their Brethren in the duty for such a purchase and so it is easie to finde out how zealously and often the spirits of the godly hath been ingaged for their Brethrens security in the day of calamity Because sayes Samuel it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people God forbid that I should sin in resting to pray for you 1 Sam. 12.24 It seems Samuel lookt upon it as an act of iniquity to deprive the Lords people of the Benefit of his Prayers He considered his addresses for them to God might prevent their ruine How importunate is Abraham for the Saints in Sodom Gen. 18.25 26.27 How zealous is Elias for all the Israel of God! Nehemiah Jeremiah and Daniel for the children of the Captivity It is no marvel to reade those gracious Orators so compassionately earnest for the obtainment of their end seeing the prosperity and interest of the Lords people hath been so eminently dear unto them that they have joyntly striven to advance it at their utmost peril I confess there be very solid Arguments and Grounds for the Saints ingagement in behalf of their Brethren Arguments for he Saints prayers in the day of trouble as First in respect of God Demonstrate Exod. 19.5 6. they are owned by him as his inheritance his peculiar treasure though all the earth be his Exod. 19.5 As there is none like himself amongst the gods so there is none like them amongst the Nations They are not onely near but invaluablely dear unto him Precious in the sight of the Lord are the death of his Saints Psal 116. The Saints harm toucheth his honour Zech. 2.8 He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of my eye God is highly concerned both in the Saints injuries and favour he taketh both their enemies and friends as his