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	lord_n	time_n	5,344	5	4.0909	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66558	The vanity of mans present state proved and applyed in a sermon on Psalm 39.5. With divers sermons of the saints communion with God, and safety under his protection, in order to their future glory, on Psalm 73. 23, 24, 25, 26. By the late able and faithful minister of the Word John Wilson	Wilson, John, minister of the Word.; Golborne, J.	1676 (1676)	Wing W2905; ESTC R218560	137,734	239

near to God 3. It will inform us of the great difference that is between good men and others the one lives above the other below one upon the Creature the other on the Creator Some are so far from being ever with God that they desire it not They say unto God Job 21. 14. Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways Psalm 10. 4. God is not in all their thoughts There is a vast difference between the dispositions of good and bad Take a good man and the frame of his heart is to be solicitous about God and thoughtful about God in duty Will this please will this honour God As to sin How shall I do this evil and sin against God As to Ordinances he seeks God in them and enquires whether he have met with God If God hath withdrawn himself he is troubled It is not so with the wicked they are not solicitous about any such thing their care thoughts and endeavours is how they may be well thought of reputed how they may drive on their covetous lustful or malitious designs How they may gratifie their senses They fense and keep of any passes that are made by Gods messengers to pierce them towards their conviction and amendment They will not bear the thoughts of God and their duty Use 2. of Exhortation If it be the property of pious and holy men to be with God to abide with him and herein to rise to this degree of being ever with him Then as ever we would be pious and holy men reputed such and found such let us endeavour ever to be with God spend our days with him No company is like unto God's you have heard in the Reasons Let the Divel the World the Flesh say what they will no company like society with the Father and the Son Let us seriously consider whether it be not as well our interest as our duty to live more unto and with God It may be for a Lamentation unto us that when some pious Christians have been spending all their time with God yet we have been but little taken up with that good company How little Lord have we been with thee even when we have stood before thee as thy people that desired to know thy ways and do thy will How little of our hearts hast thou had when with our mouths we have professed much love How have the world our lusts run away with our souls thoughts and affections and left thee the outside and carcases of Christians Let us run through all difficulties that we may get to God Idolaters would run through the very fire to get to their Idols 2 Kings 16. 3. A strange piece of devotion and this was partly to express their great zeal toward them and partly to be purged from their sins and so to be a fitter sacrifice for their Idols Let our souls then make hard after the true and living God though through difficulties and fiery trials Psalm 63. 8. My soul followeth hard after thee Hereunto take these directions 1. Withdraw your affections from the world Look upon it as below you to spend your pretious time in converse therewith Reason thus with your selves What hath God given me a a soul fit to converse with himself and shall I pass my time in converse with this dunghill this impure filthy world God forbid He hath designed me for nobler matters and shall I not do what I can to pursue them As ever you love God and would be with him to enjoy his love for ever love not the world withdraw your affection from it 1 Joh. 2. 15. Love not the World neither the things that are in the World If any man love the World the love of the Father is not in him 2. Take pains with your souls to raise and lift them up to God They are naturally averse to be with God as children are naturally averse to be with their aged parents they would rather be in the streets with their play-fellows and children of their age and humour so natural men are averse to be with God they would rather be in the World about trifles By how much the more backward they are the more pains we should take take with our hearts say thus to thy self It is better for me to be at some pains and trouble now than to be in eternal flames and misery for ever David labours to lift up his heart Psal. 25. 1. Unto thee O Lord do I lift up my soul. The heart is naturally addicted to sink down into sensuality it should be raised up Isa. 64. 7. There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee There must be a rowsing and stirring up of these sluggish and indisposed hearts of ours How vainly and unreasonably do many wicked persons reason themselves into Hell and destruction I am as good as God hath made me and shall I be damned for that averseness of spirit which is natural to me and I brought with me into the World This is Christians divelish arguing which Satan suggests and puts into mens mouths that he may drive them on farther to ruine You must be taken off your own bent and affections or you will be ruined for ever It had been better you had never been born than that you should rest in the same state of wretchedness wherein you are by nature Take pains therefore with your hearts though they shrink and draw back yet follow them from room to room from one idle excuse to another till they be driven out of all harbour Lay hold of them keep them fast say soul I must I will have thee up to God Thou must dwell with God here or else thou must never dwell with him hereafter 3. Allow not your selves in any sinful and ungodly course that sets God at a distance from you and begets a fear and dread in the soul that makes it run from God as offended till it recover the thoughts of Gods mercies and then the soul returns and comes toward God with trembling Now if the soul would be still with God with how much boldness might it approach into the divine presence If you do allow your selves in any unwarrantable course you stop that entercourse you might have with God therefore when you begin to feel your souls starting aside from God recall them charge them to keep close to God leave them not till you have brought them into some good frame and resolve as David Thy benefits are so innumerable they are so large a theme for my thoughts that Psal. 139. 18. When I awake I am still with thee Yet he had a holy jealousie over him self ver 23. 24. Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts And see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting Daved was a man that did commune much with his own heart and knew how things went with himself Yet he is desirous that God would make a

and if it be great he is notwithstanding vain so that let it be what it will he is still vain If he live and injoy it himself he meets with discomforts in it and if he die and leave it he knows not who will have it or what use will be made of it after he is gone Perhaps it falls into the hands of a wise man and if it do what great matter of satisfaction can it be that he hath transmitted to him an heap of vanity which perhaps may make him both a fool and a beast But it may be it falls into the hands of a fool that will be as prodigal in spending it as he was industrious in getting it Nay it may be it falls into the hands of one that will not only prodigally spend it but likewise deride him both for his care and pains in getting it and his frugal living upon it Now this must needs render a man very vain in that estate Providence is pleased to bestow on him and intrust him with This David urges in the verse following the text surely every man walketh in a vain shew surely they are disquieted in vain he heapeth up riches and knoweth not who shall gather them that is so as to possess and injoy them And this Solomon his son renders as the reason wherefore he hated all the labour he had taken Eccl. 2. 18 19 20. Yea saith he I hated all my labour which I had taken under the Sun because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured and wherein I have shewed my self wise under the Sun This is also vanity Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the Sun And no marvel for admit a man have a plentiful estate what comfort can he take in it when he do's not know but he who succeeds him may spend it to the dishonour of God the disgrace of religion and the everlasting shame of himself who hath taken pains for it and conveyed it to him He may perhaps use it well but withall it is to be considered that he may do otherwise he may imploy it to the promoting of wickedness and vice and the eternal undoing of himself and others And when a man thinks of this what an allay must it needs be to the complacency he might otherwise have in what he injoys that it may for ought he knows after his decease be imployed to such bad ends and purposes In these five particulars I have evinced to you that man is vain and might have have instanced in some others but these are sufficient to make good the point before us which is that the present state of man is a state of extream vanity 4. Having in what went before shewed in what respects man is vain or how far the vanity which is in him hath diffused it self I shall now give you an account how he came to to be thus vain And. 1. This is come to pass partly through the proceedings of God with him in the business of Creation He having supream rule and liberty might make him in what fashion he thought and dispose of him to what State he pleased As the Potter hath power over his clay to make thereof what vessels he sees good so had God power over the whole stock of mankind to dispose of them to what state he should think fit Rom. 9. 21. Now in pursuance of the rule and liberty belonging to him he made him indeed happy but it was not unalterably but mutably so that he remained at his own free will and choice either to stand or fall Upon which account the vanity he labours under at this day is in some sort to be ascribed unto God not as a fault that without blasphemy is not to be imagined but as the just exercise of his own liberty who not being bound to make him unalterably happy might make him otherwise So Job 5. 7. Man saith Elipbaz is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward In the Original it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if Eliphaz had said that Adam who was our first parent and his ofspring was born to trouble As the sparks those sons of the coal as the Hebrew phrase is were by the Law of Creation designed to fly upward so was Adam designed for trouble And if he were designed for it what can his posterity expect This the Psalmist is so affected with that he expostulates with God about it and saith wherefore hast thou made all men in vain Psal. 89. 47. so our translations render it but in the Original it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherefore hast thou created all the Sons of Adam in vain or in vanity or to vanity mark created the word in the Original is the very same with that whereby Moses sets forth the creation of our first Parents Gen. 1. 27. so that according to the Psalmist man was in some sort created in a state of vanity which he here makes bold to reason with God about Taking a serious view of the affliction and mortality of man he makes bold to expostulate with God about it and enquire of him wherefore he had disposed of him to such a vain state Not that he meant in the least to impeach God upon it or to reflect upon the stupendous and noble work of our creation but to inform himself of the true reason of it that so he migh the better comply with the will of God in it and do his duty God was at his own liberty in our creation he might have made our condition better and he might have made it worse and therefore our business is not to censure or find fault with him but to acquiesce and submit and take care that we perform the duties which such a condition calls for He might indeed have ordered things far otherwise then he hath done he might have made every Cloud a Star and every Star a Sun and every Sun a thousand times bigger and brighter then that we now have but he hath thought good to manage things otherwise and who is there that may find fault And as we are to reason thus as to other creatures so we are to do it as to our selves he hath disposed of us to a State of vanity and we must bow our heads and submit 2. This is come to pass partly through the malice and activity of Satan who having undone himself and envying the happiness of man who was once in a condition below him solicited him to eat of the forbidden fruit whereby he knew he would incense God against him and provoke him to throw him out of that state of Happiness wherein he then was into a state of Distress and misery That he should thus seek the ruine of an impotent creature who had no way offended him was

that God seeth us and takes notice of us how would it influence upon us to be more serious reverent and holy The wicked and hypocrites have no fear of God before their eyes God is not in their thoughts They say in effect he seeth not he knoweth not or doth not consider but this holy man sees God observing him and therefore he is the same in private that he is in publick The same in his own house that he is abroad Psal. 101. 2. I will walk within my house with a perfect heart Many when they are abroad carry themselves plausibly and fairly but follow them into their own houses what frothy talk what cursing and swearing what passion and bitterness How disorderly are they there How little of God in their mouths and less in their lives As when they go abroad they put on commonly other cloaths so they do other deportment But when returned to their own families they fall into the same unhappy disorder and confusion as if they had forgotten what manner of persons they were 3. He that is ever with God affects solitude and retirement He would not be alwaies in company though never so good and proper He would sometimes be alone that he might more closely converse with God Thus Isaac go's into the fields to meditate and pray Gen. 24. 63. The word in the original may be understood of both and no doubt this good man had supplication and prayer joyned with meditation How oft do we read of our blessed Saviour that went apart to pray Mat. 14. 23. He went up into a Mountain apart to pray so Mat. 26. 36. He leaves his disciples with this command Sit ye here while I go and pray yonder To the same purpose Luke 9. 28. He took Peter and John and James and went up into a Mountain to pray The more pious any man is the more he desires at least some times to be alone Those that cannot endure to be alone loose much of the sweetness and ravishment of communion with God 4. He hastens through the creature to God When he is engaged in his calling he hastens through the concernments of the world that he may enjoy himself with God Though what appertains to his place he doth with diligence yet this is not the principal object of his care nor the end of his thoughts When he hath gotten this dispatched how glad is he that he may entertain himself with meditation and other holy exercises which are a most pleasant refection to him This is the difference betwixt carnal and good men they both hasten but the sensual makes all possible hast and hurry through his duty he thinks of and longs for the end before he begin the good man is of another spirit he hastens through all business that he may have time and leisure to converse with God In relations and friends he finds comfort but abundantly more with God Psal. 63. My soul followeth hard after thee As a man in a croud presses hard to get to his friend So the Psalmist though he was in a croud and multitude of business and obstructions yet he presses hard to get to God 5. He is glad of an opportunity of being with God whether it be to be with him publickly or privately A carnal heart shrinks from duty looks on it as a burden when will this Sabbath be over O that I might fall upon my worldly business David was glad when there was an opportunity of drawing nigh to God Psal. 112. 1. I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord. 6. He that is ever with God takes care to state things aright between God and him to set all streight and keep all well In the evening he enquires how go things betwixt God and and me what good have I done this day wherein have I been useful what evil have I done and wherein have I offended How go's the case between God and me Soul I must not lay mine eyes to sleep till I have cleared all between God and thee After he lays himself down and sleeps and dwells in safety Psal. 4. 4. Let me ask you one question Christians do not trifle but give Connscience leave to make the answer what prayers and diligence have you used to interrogate and examine your state and settle your spiritual concerns Have you used your utmost care and the best advice as you would do in a worldly concernment for fear of fraud or crime to direct you and keep you from mistakes Have you not contented your selves with easie work and slight evidences I doubt upon a faithful tryal and a true account you 'l find much amiss 7 The more any duty or ordinance hath of God in it the more he is pleased with it Sometimes God affords more of himself in an ordinance sometimes less He is at his own liberty and so will be let himself be enjoyed as he sees good But according as God doth let out himself he is more or less affected with them It is God that he desires and therefore his respect to ordinances is such as carries a proportion in it to what they have of God 8 He that is ever with God despiseth all in comparison of God Heaven Earth and all are but baubles trifles and nothing in comparison of God as in the 25th verse of this Psalm the language of an holy man is whom have I in Heaven but thee 9 When he hath been with God he keeps in mind how God carried it toward him what communion he had with God and how things passed betwixt God and him Did God awaken me by such a sermon Did he enliven and quicken me in such a prayer David remembred how God had appeared in the Sanctuary Psal. 63. 3 He longed to see Gods power and glory as he had seen it in the Sanctuary Those revivings and out-goings of ●od were written and imprinted in his heart Psal. 77. 3. I remembred God and was troubled To think how God had carryed to him at other times 10 One that is continually with God counts the intervals of his being with God long and tedious A pious man saith when will the Sabbath or Lords day come that I may sing forth the praises of God When shall I be with God to hear from him and pray to him as David Psal. 42. 2. When shall I come and appear before God Now revise these particulars and see how they suit with your temper and frame and if upon a serious scrutiny you find these not agree to your case bless God that he hath wrought these in you but if otherwise humble your selves and mourn and never cease till you can bring the matter to this that you may say with the Psalmist Nevertheless I am continually with thee SERMON IV. Psalm 73. 23. Thou hast holden me by my right hand HAving dispatched the former part of the verse and from thence given you an account of the Psalmists communion with