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	heart_n	lord_n	2,687	5	3.9369	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39584	Hagioi axioi, or, The saints worthinesse and the worlds worthlesnesse both opened and declared in a sermon preached at the funerall of that eminently religious and highly honoured Knight Sr. Nathaniel Barnardiston, Aug. 26, 1653 / by Samuel Faireclough ...	Faireclough, Samuel, 1625?-1691.	1653 (1653)	Wing F107; ESTC R16705	30,836	42

holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of our lives or with Paul Acts 24.16 living alwayes with a clear conscience both toward God and man you shall find his life a copie or counterpane of them all As first In duties of piety for duties of piety to God whether you instance in secret or publick exercises of Religion he did so earnestly devote himself unto them that for my part amongst persons of his quality I think he hath left very few supersours therein behind him if any equalls I remember I have read it related to the everlasting praise of the Lord Harrington so famous for piety that it was his course to pray twise every day in secret twise with some choice friends and servants besides his Family duties But I am assured by those that seriously observed this gracious Knight 1 1 Private that it was his practise to humble his soul before the Lord in secret thrise every day and sometimes oftener if he could gain oportunity beside Family duties and other dayes of extraordinary humiliation which he greedily laid hold on when occasion was offered This I can testifie from mine own experience that for many yeares together when I was first acquainted with him I seldome visited him or he me but if any convenient place could be found we might not part except we had prayed together Nor was he more frequent in secret prayer then constant in secret reading the Scriptures but never without prayer before and after for the blessing of the Lord thereon afterward he read other choice Authours of which he had store but of late he took singular delight in reading Mr. Baxter his Treatise of the Saints everlasting rest and preparation thereunto which since his death I perceive was nothing else but the gracious event of divine providence sending it as a guide to bring him more speedily and directly to the possession of that rest For the sanctification of the Sabbath so was it his delight that for the most part he arose the first in the family that day 2 2 Publick and then would call his children and others up that they might have time to prepare themselves for a more reverent attendance upon the Lord in his publick ordinances and for himself he ordinarily spent much time upon his own heart every Sabbath morning before he came to the congregation And for his estimation of and constant attendance upon the ministration of the word publickly dispensed it was so eminent and reverent Ministry of the word that I verily believe whoever in the congregation have been loosers by his death we of the minislery have the greatest losse if the hearers put on blacks the preachers have cause to mourn in sackcloth for the godly ministers had not a more faithfull and cordiall friend and well-wisher of his quality in the land none so earnestly and frequently prayed for them none so highly prized their calling and labours as he did he was fully of his mind who openly professed he had rather fall with the Ministery of England then stand in greatest power with their enemies When some talked of mortall bloudy times and dark black dayes coming upon us he replied that those would be dark black dayes indeed when the lights of the ministry were extinguished then the shortest life would be accounted the best This made him so exceeding cautelous and serious when any place belonging to his presentation was vacant that he would spend many dayes in fasting and prayer to be directed therein professing many times solemnly unto me that his spirit did more tremble to set his hand and seal to a Presentation then to any other writing or deed whatsoever lest said he I should thereby bring the losse of the peoples souls to be required of me or my posterity through my negligence therein And therefore when by all his own care and advice of friends such an one could not be procured that for his sufficiency and abilities could give his own conscience satisfaction then he left it wholly to the better sort of the people in that place to choose their own Minister and Pastour In his personall attendance upon the word taught what the Apostle James requires in a blessed hearer was his punctuall practice for he was swift to hear he could never satisfie his own conscience if he were not present to joyn with the congregation before there was one word spoken or one petition sent up to the Lord his constancy in this course is notoriously known to you all After the congregation was dismissed the first thing which he did usually after he came within his own doors was immediately to betake himself to his closet to begge a blessed dew from heaven to water the seed sown in his heart that day And he that exceeded others in his diligence and reverence in other duties of piety Sacrament did exceed himself in his conscientious preparation unto and fruitfull improvement of the Lords Supper for the most part he would spend a fortnight never lesse than a week before the Sacrament in his closet in reading praying and examination of his spirituall estate with other duties of preparation tending thereunto and what he practised himself in this kind he constantly called upon others under him to do the like Neither did this his singular piety in the things of God Duties to man make him as it is in very many others the more remisse or regardlesse in the performance of the duties of equity or charity in his deportment to men but on the other side rendred him much more exact and accurate in them all for consider him in his carriage towards others in their severall relations to him and you shall have cause to conclude his life as gracious in performing the duties of righteousnesse unto all his relations as it was in the exercise of holinesse and the worship of God and all acts of immediate communion with God Consider him as pater-familias Relative graces Master of family the governour and master of a family and it may be truely affirmed of him whilest he was a house-keeper which the prophet David professeth of himself Psal 101.5 6. That he walked in his integrity in the midst of his house he permitted to known profane person to stand before him or wait upon him but his eyes were ever fixed upon those that were faithfull in the land that they might serve him He had at one time tenor more such servants of that eminency for piety and sincerity that I never yet saw their like at one time in any family in the nation whose obedience joyned to their governours care produced so rare an effect that truely they made his house a spirituall church and temple wherein were dayly offered up the spirituall sacrifices of reading the Word and prayer morning and evening of singing Psalmes constantly after every meal before any servant did rise from the table the chiefest of them did usually after every Sermon they heard call

then all in the ship with him and Noah better then all in the Ark or in all the world besides in as great degree as the richest diamond doth excell in dignity ten thousand pebbles Unbelievers are not worth one farthing in Gods esteem nay they are worse then nought or a meer non-entity for it had been good for them if they had not been born take them at their best in all worldly excellencies and perfections and if the Lord may set the price of all he tells you they are digni damnatione worth no more then damnation Now then seeing they are so vile and the meanest believer so worthy by reason of imputed and imparted worth into him may not the Lord in equity and justice preferre the meanest Saint before a world of them there being a greater distance in respect of worth and dignity between the meanest and poorest believer in the world and the worldling what confluence of parts honours and other enjoyments soever he enjoyeth then there is between the most glorified Saint in heaven and the weakest believer on earth because the difference between the believer is onely graduall every believer in time will grow up to be such but the difference between the former is essentiall and so they differ in nature and kinde All that now remains is the application and improvement of this truth upon out selves sutable to our present occasion which that I may the better perform I shall first apply it in relation to the person whose Funerall this day we desire to solemnize and then to the rest of the auditory here met on this occasion Use 1 First I shall apply it in relation to that person of eminent worth deceased which that I may do I shall premise as an introduction three things by way of inference 1. If it be so that the meanest Saint is of more worth then all the world thence it follows necessarily that the losse of one of them is a greater losse and more to be lamented then the losse of a thousand others how great soever they be in other respects If the daughters of Israel must weep for Saul 2 Sam. 24.16 well may David say wo is me for thee my brother Jonathan if there be cause to let fall a drop for the one surely there is cause that our eyes should gush forth in a floud for the other 2. If this be one evidence that the Lord values his Saints namely that he honours them and remembers their faith and other graces to their praise many hundred yeares after they are dead and asleep in their graves then surely it is a duty which we also owe to all Saints after they are dead to speak good of their names and to perperuate the memory of their worth and graces in the hearts and eares of others that survive them The anointing of dead corps preserves them from putrefaction a good name is this precious ointment wherewith God hath anointed the corps before us above others and doth therefore call us all forth and warrant me especially to bring true and honourable testimony of his worth this day 3. If God so values the meanest Saints how much more did he esteem this honourable person whose graces made him not onely more worthy then all unbelievers in the world but also more conspicuous and eminent then the greatest number of true believers in the church whereof if any doubt or hath hitherto been ignorant he will now certainly be convinced and assured if he shall please to remember with me 1. His honourable birth 2. His gracious life 3. His blessed death But before I enter the relation of either of them I have a double petition to present to the Auditory And my first addresse is to his Right worshipfull mournfull A petition 1. To his Lady and her children and lamenting Lady with her children who have called me to a work so difficult and so farre above my power as to delineate and represent the effigies and beauty of his life and conversation which indeed was in heaven whilest he was here on earth This must be the work of some divine Apelles and not mine for how can the Sun be inlightned by a starre or the fountain be watered by its own stream And therefore I humbly petition your worships to expect no such thing from me as that I should give either your selves or the Auditory satisfaction in declaring either the greatnesse of your losse or the excellency of his desert Alas you your selves neither do not can yet conceive or understand your own losse much lesse the want which the Church of God will find of him many yeares hereafter And for the expression of his deservings whence is it that when your selves begin to remember and make mention of one or two of them you presently stop and forbear to proceed and after a long pause in the midst of your discourses looking one upon another conclude with sights and sobs and tears in all your eyes but onely to signifie with these gestures what you cannot utter with your words Years I confesse are the best Oratours at Funeralls and speak much more effectually then any verball language can expresse yet you having joyntly expressed what you can thereby still confesse all of you come short in the proportion to his deserts how think you then that 't is possible for me alone to satisfie both you and the whole Auditory also by my words especially considering that it is one property that belongs to things that deserve admiration that they cannot be expressed All that I hope to effect herein is to manifest by what I shall speak that I really intended his honour though I actually perform no more then he that undertook to represent the beams and body of the Sun onely by making a prick or dot of gold with his pen in a fair sheet of paper or that Limner who having undertaken to draw a most beautifull picture finding his skill insufficient cast a vail over the face of it to cover his own ignorance as well as the beauty of the piece My second petition is to the rest of the Auditours 2 2. To the Auditory the summe whereof is that they would not receive the testimony I shall deliver concerning him as arising onely from the strength of mine affection to his person but rather from the conscience of that duty which I owe to the glory of God and the good of his peoples souls therein for although I must ever acknowledge him to have been the Lords great instrument of good to me and all mine and therefore do desire all of you that ever have received any benefit by my poor labours in this place to joyn with the in thankfulnesse to the Lord for him as the chief instrument thereof yet rather then I would speak one syllable in this place which I did not either know to be true on mine own knowledge or believe it to be so from the testimony of unquestionable witnesses

the sight of God and their betters 3. Lastly there was in him a blessed conjunction of those things that rarely meet in any other I mean both an admirable facility easinesse to be intreated with a great yieldingnesse of spirit even to inseriours when any good might be done thereby and yet also a strong resolute unmovablenesse and stedfastnesse of mind in opposing all evil in whomsoever superiour or other in the cause of the Lord so that he was truely that which is reported of Athanasius Magnes Adamas Nazianzen a loadstone for his sweetnesse in drawing on good an adamant for his courage and stoutnesse in suppressing evil In regard of the former I may say as it is said of Titus he was delicia humani generis the delights of mankind and in respect of the latter he was Nathaniel a true Israelite without guile The observation of these things in him rendred him not onely to me but to all that were intimately conversant with him like Chemnitius caput Veneris gloria Christianorum Melchier Ad in zira chem the beauty of grace and the glory of Christianity which as so many precious jewells adorned him and presented him gracious and honourable to all men whilest he lived and being dead as so many redolent flowers stuck upon his herse give such a pleasant and odoriserous savour in the nostrill of all spectatours that the memory of them shall ever remain in the hearts and mouths of all future generations who shall understand thereby how the Lord was pleased to honour him first with a spirituall birth and after with a gracious life and last of all with a most blessed death which now in the next place falls under our consideration And surely if their death be blessed that die in the Lord and rest from their labours their works following them Revel 14. if it be a blessed death to depart in peace with Simeon Luc. 2. our eyes beholding the salvation by Christ if it be a blessed death to die as Paul did Phil. 4. having finished our course and kept the faith or with Jacob blessing our children in the arms of our dearest Joseph then the consideration of the particulars following which attended his death will manifest to all that his death was as blessed as his life was gracious or his birth honourable The first whereof was his carefull preparation thereunto His death blessed for the space of two years before when he made his last will and testament and writ it with his own hand upon this very ground as he there expresses it that after he had so set his house in order he might have nothing in the world to look after or look upon but his blessed Saviour and Salvation by him In which last Testament of his he expresseth so much assurance and confidence of the Lords everlasting grace and love unto him as if at the same time with Simeon he had imbraced the Lord Jesus in his arms In the disposall of the severall portions to his posterity he doth withall annex and twist in so many heavenly counsels and precious instructions tending to their everlasting inheritance that it rather resembled our Saviours Testament conveighing the legacies of the covenant of grace or a heavenly Sermon then any politicall instrument to dispense onely earthly possessions A second observable thing in his death was his gracious welcome of the messenger of it As soon as ever there appeared on his side a small swelling in which none but himself conceived any danger Gracious courage in sicknesse he taking me to walk with him presently fell into discourse of the worth and immortality of the soul of the manner of its subsistence and actings when it was separated of the joyes of the other world and the vanity and emptinesse of all things in this as the things most sutable to his present condition and herewith he was so deeply and spiritually affected that at our parting he expressed himself in this manner unto me Sir I now much wonder that any man that fully believes these things to be realities and not mere notions being in my condition should be unwilling to die for my own part I will not be so flattered with any carnall content as to be desirous to live longer in this world where there is little hope left that the Lord hath any more work or service for me to do except it be to suffer for keeping a good conscience in witnessing against the apostasies and impieties of the times and therefore now it is a great favour of God to be sent for speedily Which passage I note because it was one of the last I had with him before his removall to London and also because I have certain intelligence he made the same profession to others after he came under the Physicians hands Where another thing is remarkable for his pains and infirmities growing so fast upon him that he was thereby debarred the benefit of publick ordinances He one Sabbath morning observing the persons in the Family were he lodged preparing themselves to joyn with the congregation of that place fell into a great passion of sorrow and wept very sore and with David poured out his very heart because he had gone with the multitude and led them to the house of God but now was necessitated to want the benefit of that which his soul so much thirsted for Hereupon he gave himself so much the more earnestly to the exercise of secret reading the Scripture meditation and prayer so long as his strength would hold out but one wave followed another so fast that he was disable thereby to be so frequent and constant in those secret duties of communion with the Lord as he desired for which he made many complaints to his sonnes and others as they came about him The week before he died he was perswaded in respect of the extremity of his pain once or twise to go to bed before Family prayer but the night following being again perswaded to it he told them he would not be intreated to do so any more for he said he was sure that he slept the worse those two nights for the want of it spiritually using that proverb whet it no let The day before his death his children being about him as Jacobs were he blessed them all with his prayers for them and gave these his last counsels unto them First he admonished them to take heed of worldlinesse and vain-glory shewing what a vast difference there was between a gracious humble man and a proud gracelesse man both in the estimation of God and man Secondly perswaded them to live in love and unity together yet so as they should ever count it their duty to watch over one another and never be afraid to tell one another of their faults lovingly and not to be mealy-mouthed as his expression was Thirdly that they should take heed of timorousnesse and shirking from the truth by reason of the oppofitions of the