Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	heart_n	holy_a	word_n	1,949	5	3.9082	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41124	The riches of grace a treatise shewing the value and excellency of a gracious spirit by comparing it with the nature and spirits of wicked and ungodly men, which desire not the wayes of the Lord Jesus / by that reverend and faithfull minister of Gods word, William Fenner ...	Fenner, William, 1600-1640.	1641 (1641)	Wing F697; ESTC R6526	27,782	148

a condition at such a price above which hee loatheth it This is the reason why the Mininisters of Christ are so unwelcome to men and their Ministery too Because they would bring men beyond the price which they would bid for Christ and grace they would willingly have Christ have faith have heaven but they are loath to take so much paines to bee at so much cost as they must be at if they ever have it suppose thou give over thy whoring thy swearing for grace yet if not thy company keeping thy lying thou hast no true desire of grace though thou give over all thy grosse sinnes yet if thou retainest thy deadnesse thy luke-warmenesse though thou give over all thy sinnes save one though but in a corner or a nook of thy heart though I say thou come to this price yet unlesse thou wilt give all thou hast no true desire of grace For the man that truly desires grace his desires are vehement such as will part with all things for it 2 Cor. 7. 11. Yea what vehement desires the word signifies desire upon desire one desire upon the backe of another and all for grace Gen. 30. Give me children or else I dye saith Rachel unto Jacob So the heart cryeth unto the Lord for grace as for a thing without which it perisheth Augustine saith that the desire of grace is the thirst of the soule it is a burning and gnawing desire that will consume a man with desiring Here therefore the whole world is convinced of their unprofitable desires For what dead prayer what dead hearing what dead receiving as if men would teach God how to deny them or as if they would bid the Lord keepe his graces They will come and say prayers and give an eare but they have no burning nor thirsting desire Mark 3 3 Delight in the means of grace though delight be an effect of true desire yet it is a signe of grace because grace in potentia is in the Ordinance of God therefore the man that desires grace hee will delight in the Ordinances of grace hee that desires learning delights in reading and studying the meanes of it so hee that desires mortification delights in the powerfull preaching whereby hee may have all the corruptions of his heart layd open hee that desires grace delights in all the meanes of it Psal. 37. 4. Delight thy selfe in the Lord and hee shall give thee the desire of thine heart Doest not thou onely pray but doest thou delight in prayer doest not thou onely heare the Word but delightest in hearing the Word doest thou not onely come to the Sacraments but delight in the receiving Then thy desire is true desire when the heart hath this delight there is an inward drawing the heart to it Canst thou finde a forcible tugging and moving of thy heart and soule to all holy duties that thou canst not but must at them but if thou art aukward and untoward unto holy duties to the worship of God thy desires are counterfeit Mark 4 The more delayes the greater desire delayes are as Oyle cast into the fire which makes the flame the greater As a stone the further it is from its center the faster it goes to it so if thou dost truely desire grace the longer thy soule is before it can attaine it the more thou art affected after it The Comicke hath a pretty Proverb When a man is athirst it is a miserable thing to goe digge a Well to quench it for every shovelfull will but aggravate his drought So it is with men that desire grace Prov. 13. 12. Hope desired maketh the heart sicke when a mans desires are held off and still deferred that yet he cannot have it it doth even make the heart sicke with griefe a man that wants health is sicke because he cannot get it he tumbleth and tosseth and turneth from this side to that side cannot be at rest So the soule that truely desireth grace is even sicke for it it cannot have content in this nor in that it is never where it would be it is as a stone cast up from its owne center till it have gotten Christ and his graces every delay though never so small seemes tedious to a man at such a time But on the contrary thou hast beene without grace it may bee these 20. 30. 40. 50. or 60. yeares what are thy desires are they more than before No but as before so they are still as thou didst pray before so thou prayest still as thou heardst before so thou hearest still and as thou was faint in thy desires so thou art still and such are thy endeavours it is an evident argument that thou didst never truly desire grace true desire the longer the more earnest Therfore the Prophet begins his prayer Psal. 13. with a How long Lord shall I have this proud heart shall I never be humble How long Lord shall I have this unbeleeving and impenitent heart shall I never have faith to rest upon thee and repent of my sinnes cōmitted against thee How long Lord shall I have such a dead heart such earthly affections in thy worship and service shall my heart never bee quickned and my affections never drawne to thee and fastned neerer to thy service How long Lord shall my heart bee under these corruptions shall I never get victory over them how long shall I serve the devil shall I never serve my God how long ere I shall bee a factor for heaven as I have beene for earth Mark 5 If thy desires be true then thou hast gotten some grace As it is in the veines of a mans body the more they are opened the more they are filled with blood and as the bellowes the more they are opened the more they are filled with wind so it is with the heart the more it is opened with enlarged desires unto God the more it is filled by God with grace the Psalmist hath a sweet passage Psal. 37. 4. Thou hast given him his hearts desire there is no desire on mans part but there is a hath given on Gods part Psal. 145. 16. there is no living thing in the world that can desire but the Lord satisfieth the desire of it Examine therefore thy selfe hast thou desired faith and yet doest thou distrust God hast thou desired repentance and doest thou live in thy sinne never the humbler never the lowlyer for all thy desires but as thou wast yesterday so thou art to day as the last weeke so this as the last yeare so this certainely thy desires are not true For then thou shouldest finde God satisfying of them as thou desirest so thou speedest little desiring little speeding great desire great speeding Alamentable thing it is that the desire of grace so great a thing should be so little esteemed in the world men say they have good desires but they are like wicked God-fathers and Godmothers at the Font who if the Minister asketh them Doe you forsake the Devill and all his

or any other thing and therefore he prayes Oh when wilt thou comfort me but alas men suffer themselves to be filled with this and that lust with some corruptions or other Now when a mans purse is full of stones there is no roome for silver so when the heart is full of sinne there is no roome for grace Joh. 8. 37. My Words saith Christ to the Jewes have no place in you As a great Inne filled with guests all the roome is taken up so as there is no roome for others and by reason of the noyse they cannot heare what others call for so it is when the soule is filled with sinne continually bawling for tendance and accomplishment there is no roome for the Word of God to enter all the roomes are taken up there are guests in every corner all the faculties are filled Therefore the Apostle James Jam. 1. 21. exhorts them Wherefore lay aside all malice and superfluity of naughtinesse and receive with meekenesse the ingrafted Word which is able to save your soules all superfluity of wickednesse sinne and evill though it be never so small or little it is superfluity and therefore if ever you would take physick take it fasting if you desire it should doe you most good so there is no taking of the Word of God or any meanes of Salvation to have any profit by them upon a full stomach as when the heart is filled with sinne with pride envy malice hypocrisie earthlinesse deadnesse untowardnesse to godly duties If thou wouldst desire grace consider the want of it wert thou never so gracelesse yet if thou didst but know the want of it thou wouldst desire it without grace thou art childe of hell a brat of the devill and an heire to the curse of the great God better had it beene for thee that thou hadst beene borne a dogge or a toade a serpent or any thing else than to be borne to live and dye without Grace Art thou proud and hast not grace to bee humbled know God will know thee a farre off and then woe woe damnation is thy end Livest thou in any sinne and hast not grace to mortifie and in time to kill it better had it beene for thee that thy cradle had beene thy Coffin and thy mothers womb thy grave than that thou shouldst live to sinne and dye without repentance O cursed art thou there are not so many letters in Gods booke as thou hast curses for thy portion it would burst thy heart with griefe if it were sensible of the 100000. part of that woefull griefe My heart breaketh for the longing for thy judgement the Prophet considering what a fearefull thing it was to bee without the comfort of Gods word it breakes his very soule True desire of grace is sensible of the want of it I say not therefore that it is without grace for there is difference betweene being in want of a thing and being without a thing a man may be in want of full health and strength and yet not without health and strength so a Christian seeing in himselfe not to have attained to the full degree of grace desiring after it is sensible of the want of it A dead man yee may carry to London or whither you will he never desires to baite in the way hee feeles no hunger nor thirst whereas a living man cannot travaile long but necessity of nature calls for refreshment a fearefull signe that men are dead in sinne and in the state of eternall death seeing they can travaile up and downe their whole lives and yet feele no want of grace Answ 5 Lastly feare to offend God the feare of evill is the desire of good feare to transgresse against Gods Commandements feare to pray coldly feare to have a by thought at any of the Ordinances of God feare to bee proud feare to carry malice and thoughts of revenge feare to do any evill to displease thy heavenly Father This feare is a marke of true repentance 2 Cor. 7. 11. Where there is most feare there is most desire What is the reason that women are most subject to desire but because they are most fearfull What is the reason that Stags and Harts as King James excellently noteth are so thirsty after revenge but because they are timerous and fearefull by nature Who desire most to be exalted to this and that honour place and office of credit and preferment but such as feare they shall never have honour enough Who are more covetous than they that feare they shall never have riches enough Would I urge you to the desire of grace I thinke I can bring such motives out of the Word of God as will either leave you in the gall of bitternesse or else make you to desire grace Mot. 1 Grace is like the poore man Solomon speakes of in Eccles. 9. 15. who when a King had besieged a City yet he by his wisdome delivered it but no man remembred this poore man though they had beene all dead men had not he by his wisdome delivered them yet no man accounted or esteemed of him So it is with grace were it not for grace we should all be damned and albeit that grace doth bring Salvation among us yet where is the man that truely accounts of it even so as to desire it Mot. 2 Consider that there is no good indeede good to thee but onely in grace What is it that men desire is it not good Psal. 4. Many say who will shew us any good some good or other all seeme to ayme at but it is a wonder what wide aymes men take some think it is in pleasure and therefore ayme onely how they may spend the time merrily in eating and drinking in hawking and hunting in carding and dicing and the like some thinke it in honour and some in riches some in learning some in one thing and some in another but alas thou mayst eate and drinke and yet be damned when thou hast done thou mayst desire much gold and silver and yet perish in hell after thou hast got it thou mayst desire honour and promotion and yet bee damned when thou hast attained it these are true but vaine goods outward and temporary good onely in reference to a further good so that if a man should rest on them he should lose all his good Our Saviour Christ puts a base Pronoune upon them calling them these things as if they were not worthy the naming Mat. 6. 33. Seeke first the Kingdome of God and the righteousnesse thereof and all these things shall be added unto you Where our Saviour forbids his Disciples the seeking of earthly things In the first place talke not of these things neither let your thoughts bee troubled about them for they are not what they seeme or as many judge them to be but if you would have the true good first secke the Kingdome of heaven So in James 5. 1 2 3. Goe too now ye rich men weepe and howle for the