Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	good_a	great_a	sin_n	3,394	5	4.6230	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62579	The remaining discourses, on the attributes of God Viz. his Goodness. His mercy. His patience. His long-suffering. His power. His spirituality. His immensity. His eternity. His incomprehensibleness. God the first cause, and last end. By the most reverend Dr. John Tillotson, late Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury. Being the seventh volume; published from the originals, by Ralph Barker, D.D. chaplain to his Grace.	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.; Barker, Ralph, 1648-1708, publisher.	1700 (1700)	Wing T1216; ESTC R222200	153,719	440

this visible World man is the chief and what is said of Behemoth or the Elephant Job 42. in respect of his great strength and the vast bigness of his Body is only true absolutely of man that he is divini opificii caput the chief of the ways of God and upon earth there is none like him The Psalmist takes particular notice of the goodness of God to man in this respect of the excellency and dignity of his being Psal 8.5 Thou hast made him little lower than the Angels and hast crowned him with glory and honour And this advantage of our nature above other Creatures we ought thankfully to acknowledge tho' most men are so stupid as to overlook it as Elihu complains Job 35.10 11. None saith where is God my maker Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven 2. The goodness of God to man appears in that he hath made and ordained so many things chiefly for our use The beauty and usefulness of the Creatures below us their plain subserviency to our necessity and benefit and delight are so many clear Evidences of the Divine Goodness to us not only discernable to our Reason but even palpable to our Senses so that we may see and taste that the Lord is gracious This David particularly insists upon as a special ground of praise and thanksgiving to God that he hath subjected so great a part of the Creation to our dominion and use Psal 8.6 7 8. speaking of man Thou hast made him to have dominion over the works of thy hands thou hast put all things under his feet all sheep and oxen yea and the beasts of the field the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas What an ininnumerable variety of Creatures are there in this inferiour World which were either solely or principally made for the use and service pleasure and delight of man How many things are there which serve for the necessity and support for the contentment and comfort of our lives How many things for the refreshment and delight of our Senses and the excercise and employment of our Understandings That God hath not made man for the service of other Creatures but other Creatures for the service of man Epictetus doth very ingeniously argue from this observation that the Creatures below man the brute beasts have all things in a readiness nature having provided for them meat and drink and lodging so that they have no absolute need that any should build Houses or make Cloaths or store up Provisions or prepare and dress meat for them for says he being made for the service of another they ought to be furnisht with these things that they may be always in a readiness to serve their Lord and master a plain evidence that they were made to serve man and not man to serve them And to raise our thoughts of God's goodness to us the Sons of men yet higher as he hath given us the Creatures below us for our use and convenience so hath he appointed the Creatures above us for our Guard and Protection not to say for our service Psal 34.7 The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and he delivereth them and then it follows O taste and see that the Lord is good And Psal 91.11 12. He shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways They shall bear thee up in their hands Nay the Apostle speaks as if their whole business and imployment were to attend upon and be serviceable to good men Heb. 1.14 Are they not all ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of Salvation 3. The goodness of God to men appears in his tender Love and peculiar Care of us above the rest of the Creatures being ready to impart and dispense to us the good that is suitable to our capacity and condition and concerned to exempt us from those manifold Evils of Want and Pain to which we are obnoxious I do not mean an absolute exemption from all sorts and all degrees of Evil and a perpetual tenor of temporal happiness and enjoyment of all good things this is not suitable to our present state and the rank and order which we are in among the Creatures nor would it be best for us all things considered But the Goodness of God to us above other Creatures is proportionable to the dignity and excellency of our Natures above them for as the Apostle reasons in another case doth God take care for Oxen and shall he not much more extend his care to Man To this purpose our Saviour reasons Mat. 6. Behold the Fowls of the Air they sow not neither do they reap and yet your heavenly Father takes care of them are not ye much better than they And v. 30. Wherefore if God so cloath the grass of the field shall he not much more cloath you And Chap. 10.29 Are not two Sparrows sold for a Farthing and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father But the very hairs of your head are all numbred Fear ye not therefore ye are of more value than many Sparrows 'T is true God hath a special care of his People and Servants above the rest of Mankind but our Saviour useth these Arguments to his Disciples to convince them of the Providence of God towards them as Men and of a more excellent Nature than other Creatures And indeed we are born into the World more destitute and helpless than other Creatures as if it were on purpose to shew that God had reserved us for his more peculiar Care and Providence which is so great that the Scripture by way of condescention expresseth it to us by the name of Love so that what effects of Care the greatest and tenderest Affection in Men is apt to produce towards one another that and much more is the effect of God's Goodness to us and this Affection of God is common to all Men tho' of all Creatures we have least deserved it and is ready to diffuse and shed abroad it self where-ever Men are qualified for it by Duty and Obedience and do not obstruct and stop the emanations of it by their Sins and Provocations And tho' the greatest part of Mankind be evil yet this doth not wholly put a stop to his goodness tho' it cause many abatements of it and hinder many good things from us but such is the Goodness of God notwithstanding the evil and undutifulness of Men that he is pleased still to concern himself in the Government of the World and to preserve the Societies of Men from running into utter confusion and disorder notwithstanding the violence and irregularities of Mens Wills and Passions the Communities of Men subsist upon tolerable terms and notwithstanding the rage and craft of evil Men poor and unarmed Innocence and Virtue is usually protected and

adversity as his only support and present help in time of trouble And this is a sure Indication that these men after all their endeavours to impose upon themselves have not been able wholly to extinguish in their Minds the belief of God and his Goodness nay it is a sign that at the bottom of their Hearts they have a firm perswasion of his goodness when after all their insolent defiance of him they have the Confidence to apply themselves to him for mercy and help in time of need and therefore our Hearts ought to rise with indignation against those who go about to perswade the belief of a thing so prejudicial to our Interest to take away the Light of our eyes and the Breath of our nostrils and to rob us of all the Comfort and Support which the belief of an infinite Power conducted by infinite Wisdom and Goodness is apt to afford to Mankind II. We should take great care of perverting and abusing this great goodness by vain Confidence and Presumption This is a Provocation of an high Nature which the Scripture calls turning the grace of God into wantonness making that an encouragement to Sin which is one of the strongest Arguments in the world against it God is infinitely good and merciful but we must not therefore think that he is fond and indulgent to our faults but on the contrary because he is good he cannot but hate evil So the Scripture every where tells us that He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity that the face of the Lord is against them that do evil he is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with him the foolish shall not stand in his fight he hateth all the workers of iniquity He is ready to shew Mercy to those who are qualified for it by Repentance and resolution of a better Course but as long as we continue impenitent God is implacable and will deal with us according to the tenor of his Laws and the desert of our Doings Despair is a great Sin but Presumption is a greater Despair doubts of the goodness of God but Presumption abuseth it Despair disbelieves but Presumption perverts the best thing in the world to a quite contrary purpose from what it was intended III. The consideration of God's goodness is a mighty comfort and relief to our Minds under all our Fears and Troubles Great are the Fears and Jealousies of many devout Minds concerning God's Love to them and their everlasting Condition which are commonly founded in one of these two causes a melancholy Temper or mistaken Notions and Apprehensions of God and very often these two meet together and hinder the cure and removal of one another Melancholy as it is an effect of bodily temper is a Disease not to be cured by Reason and Argument but by Physick and Time but the mistakes which men have entertained concerning God if they be not set on and heightned by Melancholy as many times they are may be rectified by a true representation of the goodness of God confirmed by Reason and Scripture Many good Men have had very hard and injurious Thoughts of God instill'd into them from Doctrines too commonly taught and received as if he did not sincerely desire the happiness of his Creatures but had from all Eternity decreed to make the greatest part of Mankind with a secret purpose and design to make them miserable and consequently were not serious and in good earnest in his Invitations and Exhortations of Sinners to Repentance and it is no wonder if such Jealousies as these concerning God make Men doubtful whether God love them and very scrupulous and anxious about their everlasting condition I have already told you that these harsh Doctrines have no manner of Foundation either in Reason or Scripture that God earnestly desires our Happiness and affords us sufficient Means to that End that he bears a more hearty good will to us than any Man does to his Friend or any Father upon Earth ever did to his dearest Child in comparison of which the greatest Affection of Men to those whom they love best is but as the drop of the Bucket as the very small dust upon the Balance If we have right apprehensions of God's goodness we can have no temptation to despair of his kind and merciful Intentions to us provided we be but careful of our Duty to him and do sincerely repent and forsake our Sins Plainer Declarations no words can make than those we meet with in the holy Scriptures That God hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live that he would have all Men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth that he is long suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance that he that confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall have mercy that if the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts and return unto the Lord he will have mercy and will abundantly pardon As for outward Calamities and Afflictions the consideration of God's goodness is a firm ground of consolation to us giving us assurance that God will either prevent them by his Providence or support us under them or rescue us out of them or turn them to our greater good and happiness in this World or the next St. Paul speaks of it as the firm belief and perswasion of all good Men that in the issue all their Afflictions should prove to their advantage We know says he that all things shall work together for good to them that love God and one of the greatest Evidences of our love to God is a firm belief and perswasion of his goodness if we believe his goodness we cannot but love him and if we love him all things shall work together for our good And this is a great Cordial to those who are under grievous Persecutions and Sufferings This Sermon was preach'd before the late happy Revolution which is the case of our Brethren in a neighbour Nation and may come to be ours God knows how soon But tho' the malice of Men be great and backt with a power not to be control'd by any visible means and therefore likely to continue yet the goodness of God is greater than the malice of Men and of a longer duration and continuance And thus David comforted himself when he was persecuted by Saul Psal 52.1 Why boasteth thou thy self in mischief O mighty man the goodness of God endureth continually The Persecution which Saul raised against him was very powerful and lasted a long time but he comforts himself with this that the goodness of God endures for ever IV. The consideration of God's goodness is a powerful motive and argument to several Duties 1. To the love of God And this is the most proper and natural effect and operation of the goodness of God upon our Minds Several of

another tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you Be ye therefore followers of God as dear Children and walk in love We cannot in any thing resemble God more than in goodness and kindness and mercy and in a readiness to forgive those who have been injurious to us and to be reconciled to them Let us then often contemplate this Perfection of God and represent it to our Minds that by the frequent contemplation of it we may be transformed into the Image of the Divine Goodness Is God so good to his Creatures with how much greater reason should we be so to our fellow Creatures Is God good to us let us imitate his universal goodness by endeavouring the good of Mankind and as much as in us lies of the whole Creation of God What God is to us and what we would have him still be to us that let us be to others We are infinitely beholding to this Perfection of God for all that we are and for all that we enjoy and for all that we expect and therefore we have all the reason in the World to admire and imitate it Let this pattern of the Divine Goodness be continually before us that we may be still fashioning our selves in the temper of our Minds and in the actions of our Lives to a likeness and conformity to it Lastly The consideration of the Divine goodness should excite our praise and thankfulness This is a great Duty to the performance whereof we should summon all the Powers and Faculties of our Souls as the holy Psalmist does Psal 103. Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy Name Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits And we should invite all others to the same Work as the same devout Psalmist frequently does Psal 106. O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever And Psal 107. O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of Men And we had need to be often call'd upon to this Duty to which we have a peculiar backwardness Necessity drives us to Prayer and sends us to God for the supply of our wants but Praise and Thanksgiving is a Duty which depends upon our gratitude and ingenuity and nothing sooner wears off than the sense of Kindness and Benefits We are very apt to forget the blessings of God not so much from a bad Memory as from a bad Nature to forget the greatest blessings the continuance whereof should continually put us in mind of them the blessings of our Beings So God complains of his People Deut. 32. Of the God that formed thee thou hast been unmindful the dignity and excellency of our Beings above all the Creatures of this visible World Job 35.10 11. None saith Where is God my Maker who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven the daily comforts and blessings of our Lives which we can continually receive without almost ever looking up to the Hand that gives them So God complains by the Prophet Hosea 2.8 9. She knew not that I gave her corn and wine and oyl and multiplied her gold and silver And is it not shameful to see how at the most plentiful Tables the giving of God Thanks is almost grown out of fashion as if Men were ashamed to own from whence these Blessings came When thanks is all God expects from us can we not afford to give him that Do ye thus requite the Lord foolish people and unwise It is just with God to take away his Blessings from us if we deny him this easie tribute of Praise and Thanksgiving It is a sign Men are unfit for Heaven when they are backward to that which is the proper Work and Imployment of the blessed Spirits above Therefore as ever we hope to come thither let us begin this Work here and inure our selves to that which will be the great business of all Eternity Let us with the four and twenty Elders in the Revelation fall down before him that sits on the throne and worship him that liveth for ever and ever and cast our crowns before the throne that is cast our selves and ascribe all glory to God Saying thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast made all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created To him therefore the infinite and inexhaustible fountain of goodness the father of mercies and the God of all consolation who gave us such excellent Beings having made made us little lower than the Angels and crowned us with glory and honour who hath been pleased to stamp upon us the image of his own goodness and thereby made us partakers of a divine nature communicating to us not only of the effects of his goodness but in some measure and degree of the perfection it self to him who gives us all things richly to enjoy which pertain to life and godliness and hath made such abundant provision not only for our comfort and convenience in this present life but for our unspeakable happiness to all eternity to him who designed this happiness to us from all eternity and whose mercy and goodness to us endures for ever who when by willful transgressions and disobedience we had plunged our selves into a state of sin and misery and had forfeited that happiness which we were designed to was pleased to restore us to a new capacity of it by sending his only Son to take our nature with the miseries and infirmities of it to live among us and to die for us in a word to him who is infinitely good to us not only contrary to our deserts but beyond our hopes who renews his mercy upon us every morning and is patient tho' we provoke him every day who preserves and provides for us and spares us continually who is always willing always watchful and never weary to do us good to him be all glory and honour adoration and praise love and obedience now and for ever SERMON V. Vol. VII The Mercy of God NUMB. XIV 18 The Lord is long suffering and of great Mercy I Have considered God's Goodness in general There are two eminent Branches of it his Patience and Mercy The Patience of God is his goodness to them that are guilty in deferring or moderating their deserved punishment the Mercy of God is his goodness to them that are or may be miserable 'T is the last of these two I design to discourse of at this time in doing which I shall inquire First What we are to understand by the Mercy of God Secondly Shew you that this Perfection belongs to God Thirdly Consider the degree of it that God is of great Mercy First What we are to understand by the Mercy of God I told you it is his goodness to them that are in