Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
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A93058
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Samuel in sackcloth: or, A sermon assaying to restrain our bitter animosities, and commending a spirit of moderation, and right consittution of soul and behaviour towards our brethren. Upon I Samuel 15.35. By S.S.
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Shaw, Samuel, 1635-1696.
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1660
(1660)
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Wing S3044; Thomason E1029_4; ESTC R208909
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13,185
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27
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men are the best for any purpose the best in every relation the best Kings the best subjects the best Masters the best servants the best every thing Note It is worth observing that as God hath been ever careful to give commands concerning his Magistrates and Vicegerents so the best men have been alwaies most careful to observe those commands have carried it most tenderly reverently and obsequiously towards them Samuel here had still a secret respect for Gods annointed Nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul Consider what was said under the last particular 2 Saul an enemy In probability Saul was by this time become Samuels enemy There is a passage in the fourth verse of the 26th chapter that may seem to strengthen this conjecture When Samuel came to Bethlehem it is said that the Elders of the Town trembled at his coming and said comest thou peaceably whereupon the Dutch Annotations suppose that the Bethlehemites heard that Saul was provoked against Samuel because hee had pronounced him a man rejected of God and therefore thought that Samuel had fled from Saul It seems to appear also that Samuel suspected him that hee had no great confidence in his friendship by the second verse of the same chapter And indeed if wee consider the carnal ambitious revengeful frame of Saul's spirit wee may justly conclude that it was almost impossible that he should bee any other than an enemy to Samuel Yet Samuel mourned for this Saul this enemy And so did David for them that persecuted and spoiled him Psa 35. Our blessed Saviour who wept over persecuting Jerusalem and bewailed it with ingeminations doth set us a copy to write after that wee also should pray for them that persecute us bewail the sins and sufferings of them that hate us Their sins wee must bewail because they intrench upon the honour of God and endanger their own souls which ought to bee dear unto us Their sufferings wee must bewail out of Christian and brotherly compassion as Samuel did here Nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul 3 Saul a wicked man a disobedient man Samuel mourned for this Saul nay because Saul was this therefore hee mourned for him Do yee see a wicked prophane and sinful wretch some will be ready to laugh at him others to neglect him some perhaps in an over-hot zeal to curse him Oh but do you admonish him labour to reform him pray for him If all this prove ineffectual yet pity him mourn over him Is the Name of the great God dishonoured his commandements broken his waies despised is the precious soul of thy brother indangered and hee ready to go to Hell headlong Oh who can chuse but mourn who would not bee a Samuel here A wicked man is the greatest the fittest object of pity in the world and that upon the account of his wickedness The prophaneness of beggars had more need of pity than their wants their Ignorance and Atheism cries louder for our prayers and tears than their poverty for our alms When Jeremiah thought of the afflictions of the Jews hee calls to his eyes Jer. 9. 1. But when hee thought of their obstinacy and perverseness hee calls to his soul for tears Jer. 13. 17. When hee speaks of their captivity his eye ran down with tears But when hee thought of their impiety his soul wept in secret as you may see him as it were purposely varying the phrase in that place But when sin and misery meet together in a man then let the eyes and the soul conspire together to bewail him When Saul hath rejected the Commandements of God and God hath rejected Saul too then Samuel goes home and mews up himself in mourning Samuel mourned for Saul To this I might add also that Samuel mourned for Saul who succeeded him in the Government of the Nation even his own eyes looking on Men are usually apt to bee glad of the rejection of a competitor of one that stands between them and preferment of one whose election was their exclusion But so did not Samuel here which also commends in him and commends to us a self-denying humble gracious disposition of mind Thus much for the Object Saul and what may bee considered in him Lastly Let us consider the Modification of the Action exprest in the word Nevertheless which doth necessarily suppose something For being a Conjunction Redditive it must have one Adversative or more 1 Although Samuel and his Counsel was rejected of Saul Nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul Samuel had been at much pains with Saul to instruct him in his duty to counsel him in his affairs to reprove him for his faults and behaved himself in all things as though hee had been his guardian And yet found no success of his pains his instructions were not followed his counsel was disobeyed his reproofs despised and all his indeavours made unsuccesseful And yet this Samuel thus rejected mourned for Saul which doth commend in him an excellent spirit of patience and lenity and reproves the impatience and spleenishness of the most in the world who think if they bee at pains to fore-warn counsel or reprove their brother and hee do not hearken to them they have sufficiently discharged their duty they need do no more Of this mind was not holy Samuel hee though that after hee had done this and more than this it was his duty to mourn for Saul The good example of this good man may exhort us all to do the like especially it may teach Gods Ministers their duty after all discouragements and contempts that they meet with in the world from obstinate and unthankful persons Are their people froward dull careless ignorant idle Is their counsel scorned their reproofs sleighted their words made wind of all their importunate pains and incessant prayers unsuccesseful why yet something remains to bee done and that is all they can do even to mourn for them See the resolution of the tender-hearted Prophet Jeremiah Jer. 13. 17. If yee will not hear what then will hee curse them revenge himself upon them No. But will hee not at least desist leave them cast off all further care of them No. What then why My soul shall weep in secret places for your pride Oh that men had betaken themselves to their eyes to their preces and lachrymae to the wringing of their hands when they betook themselves to the arming of their hands to revenge themselves upon their brethren our intestine confusions had yet been to begin whereas now they are not at an end and God knows when they will bee If wee had shed as much tears as wee have done blood wee had not had so much guilt abiding upon us nor so much misery amongst us and it had been a Sacrifice the more pleasing to God of the two And as for Ministers if they preach well pray well exhort well reprove well yet if they do not mourn well too they have not discharged their duty well not so well as Samuel did here Nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul 2 Although Saul and his authority was rejected of God yet Samuel mourned for Saul Many men when they see God hath cast a man down are ready to cast him off too and all care of him all thoughts of him persecute and take him for God hath forsaken him If a Viper do but stick upon a mans hand if God shall banish him impoverish him or any way afflict him they conclude him to bee a murderer with the Barbarians Act. 28. 4. or an hypocrite with Job's friends Job 4. 7. and 8. 6. they pass sentence upon him presently and never look more after him But bee it so that God hath indeed rejected and cast off a person or a people yet the gracious soul cannot chuse but bee affected afflicted with it and pity them A good man a right Samuel is so much a friend to Gods justice that hee cannot but approve Gods sentence passing upon man and yet hee is so full of bowels that hee cannot but lament the execution of it upon his brother as Samuel did here Nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul 3 Although Samuel went not to see Saul yet Samuel mourned for Saul Samuel out of prudence absented himself from Saul But yet out of piety and pity he mourned for Saul Discretion may sometimes perswade us to some discouraging strangeness towards wicked men yet compassion will not suffer the godly man to estrange his bowels from them Samuel mourned for Saul Samuel would not bestow his eyes to see Saul but hee would employ them to weep over him The like sweet mixture of these two eminent graces discretion and compassion wee may see in David not suffering Absolom to see him 2 Sam. 13. and yet full of bowels towards him as wee see here in Samuel not going to see Saul but yet lamenting him the one seeming to imitate the other oh that wee could imitate either All love doth not consist in frequent visits For as I may bee visited and yet hated so I may bee neglected and yet pitied And they are better friends that stay at home and mourn for you than they that visit you to corrupt and ensnare you Every man will bee prone enough to bee a stranger to a man in anger even malice it self will take the first part of the verse will bee a Samuel there but withall hee mourned for him whom hee had no more any reason to visit Oh that wee were all Samuels here Thus you see the Modification of the action Although God had rejected Saul and Samuel had rejected Saul and Saul had rejected both God and Samuel Nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul Having all along mixed doctrine and application I pray God it may prove more successefully than it is methodically nothing remains further but that which I commit to God to work wee all go and do likewise FINIS