Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	bind_v	law_n	nature_n	1,568	5	5.4669	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57623	Reliquiæ Raleighanæ being discourses and sermons on several subjects / by the Reverend Dr. Walter Raleigh.	Raleigh, Walter, 1586-1646.	1679 (1679)	Wing R192; ESTC R29256	281,095	422

he doth not sow and requiring a law at their hands to whom he gives no ability for performance In Gods name therefore and mans too let us be content to speak as the Scriptures do which in this here and more than a thousand places besides do seriously urge and necessarily require the observance of the Law and keeping of the Commandments which St. John tells us through the grace of Christ are not grievous neither Such as will needs speak otherwise that they may not be kept either for any time or in any action let them take heed lest they open gates unto impiety and like those Spies in the 13 of Numbers discourage the hearts and weaken the hands of the people of God yea let them beware lest they cast dishonour too as on God himself so especially on the blessed Spirit that inhabits and Christ Jesus our Lord that dwells in his Saints if all yet can produce in any not any thing but sins Much better therefore it were to leave disputing and give good ear to that of our Saviour He that breaketh the least of these Commandments and teacheth others so to do shall be least in the kingdom of heaven that is as some interpret shall least of all others enter into that Kingdom For what is this indeed but to withdraw men from their duty and teach them disobedience for even duties cease to be due whensoever they begin not to be possible But this is every mans constant duty and the whole duty of every man the invincible reason wherewith Solomon here backs his conclusion and withal confutes this opinion Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is c. The Reason is strong and full three degrees or ascents there are in it First a Duty and Secondly universally of all men the duty of man and mans universal duty and Thirdly the whole duty of man And though there be diverse inventions sought out many turns and wrenches made to slip this duty yet one of these three or other will meet with and refel all our devices For they that scruple at the conclusion as impossible evince that they will not stay there but be as apt to quarrel with the duty at least as not simply necessary a duty peradventure in the rigid exaction of the Law and of such as are under it as they were to whom Solomon spake this but we are under the Gospel dead unto the Law that we might be married unto one even to Christ our Lord and our life what then hath this legal duty of Commandments to do with us or we with it since we are mutually dead one to another Yet be we under what times we will or states either so long as we lose not our humanity so long as we cease not to be men under any as being not really dead but morally so long it will have to do with us for this is a duty not of some times and persons but universally of man Neither were they simply under the Law to whom this was spoken led indeed they were by the oeconomy of the Law but yet under the promise and promised seed and were saved by the Gospel as we now are though the Gospel not so distinctly believed then as now it is Neither indeed they nor any people else under Heaven since that promise The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpents head are so meerly under the Law either of Moses or Nature but that if they do their duty keep the Commandments which they have and glorify God according to their knowledge they may for ought I understand be saved too by the Gospel which they knew not for even the Gentiles so doing their incircumcision shall be counted for circumcision as the circumcision otherwise is esteemed but as incircumcision In that day when God shall judge the secrets of all hearts not simply by the Law but according to my Gospel saith the Apostle Rom. 2. And indeed this is the only reason why this duty continues still to bind because men are not under the Law simply but under the Gospel for that is the state only of Devils whose doom is sealed and though the law of their nature cannot be abrogated as being a branch of eternal equity yet they seem not to be lyable unto any mens punishment for the breaches of it now because not capable of any reward for the observance The Gospel therefore doth not evacuate as St. Paul speaks but establish the Law since every man is therefore bound in duty unto the Law because not absolutely excluded from all benefit of the Gospel But we who are under the fulness of this Gospel are in a fuller manner tied and in an higher degree unto the observance of the law than any people else before that fulness came as being bound now by the special coming of the Holy Ghost to keep the Commandments not in the oldness of the letter which as it seems was sufficient whilst the Heir was but a Child and in minority but in the newness of the Spirit for the Spirit it is which gives life and vigour unto the Commandments as being the very strength and power of all lively performance And therefore our Saviour though he came with Gospel in his mouth yea was the Gospel himself yet think not saith he that I came to dissolve the law I came not to dissolve but to fulfil it And that we may know the true fulfilling of it if we think to enter into life belongs to us as well as the entire and perpetual unto himself after he had vindicated the Text of the Law from the corrupt glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees and set it forth in the highest perfection if not added perfections above the Law and beyond that which was said unto them of old he closeth up all at last with this conclusion He that heareth these sayings of mine and doth them I will liken him unto a wise man What then though being dead under the law we become through the favour of the Gospel to be dead also even unto the law yet it is but to the condemning power the killing letter of the law that so we might be married unto Christ our life since the end of this marriage is but to bring forth fruit unto God as St. Paul in that place and that in the newness of the spirit which is not sure to break but to keep with more exactness the Commandments of God This therefore a duty still the duty of Jew and Gentile and Christian too universally of all mankind For this is the whole duty of man c. But though a duty not only in Solomons time but even now under the Gospel yet for all that it may be but a voluntary duty a freewill offering indeed of thankfulness and gratitude or so but not a necessary duty necessary unto life Our life in this World is our justification in Christ and Christ and justification too we have them both by faith and by faith

shedding of it which was purposely shed to cleanse them from the guilt of their sins if instead of sealing salvation to their own Souls they do but eat damnation to themselves for not discerning the body of their Lord. For did they discern it did they understand and conceive it to be there they could not but approach unto it with greater reverence with much more heed and awful regard When it was at the worst and lowest estate the malicious Jews could bring it to bereaved of all form and beauty yea and of that blessed Soul which dwelt within it and now remained only a dead and crucified Carkase all over gaping with wounds and gored with blood yet even then with what care and reverent respect was it handled by the good Arimathean It was wrapt up in fine and clean Linnen imbalmed with sweet Oyntmens and perfumes and laid in a new Sepulcher hewen out of the Rock How then and with what high esteem should we we that are to be made not Sepulchers but Shrines and Temples not of his ignominious but glorified body not of his body only but of his whole person of his body and blood and Soul and Divinity and all how I say and with what diligent preparation should we see that all things be pure and clean and sweet and new where such a guest is to be entertained where he is not to be lodged for a night or two but to inhabit where he is not to lye a while as in the grave but to dwell and live for ever This were something to the purpose and we should then shew we discerned the Lords body which now we seem not at all to regard eating and drinking of his flesh and blood with no more reverence and respect than if we were at an ordinary Table of Bread and Wine Nay I assure my self many of us make more preparation being but to dine with some Neighbour than they do to come to the great Kings supper They can with all diligence apparel and trim up the outward man against every ordinary feast in the mean time neglecting the inward man of the Soul little regarding how foul and slovenly that comes to the holy Banquet But let such careless men in time take heed the wrath of the Lord hath never shown it self more terribly than on the profaners of holy things especially his own holy presence Many and fearful are the examples in this kind The great King of Babel no sooner polluted the Sanctified Vessels but even whilst he is carrouzing in the bowls of the Temple a strange hand from heaven writes his doom on the wall before him the terror whereof looseth the joints of his loyns and makes his knees knock one against another which was but a forerunner of his ruine who that night lost at once both his Kingdom and his life But how dreadful was that judgment in the 1 of Sam. vi where fifty thousand Souls are suddenly struck dead for but looking irreverently into the holy Ark and Uzzah instantly smitten with the like vengeance for but touching it with profane hands though with a good intent to hold it up when in his judgment it was like to fall And shall we who are permitted I say not to touch or to look into the moveable but to walk into the standing Ark the Temple of the Lord yea to enter in within the Vail and approach up even to the Mercy-seat and eat of the holy shew bread that stands before the Lord if we continue to pollute that sacred place and banquet with our unwasht feet unclean and impure affections shall we think to escape alone without wrath from Heaven Let no Soul flatter it self with such a bold and mad presumption The divine indignation that in former times was wont ever almost to follow such profanations at the heels though in these later ages the great day of final accounts drawing on it seem to slacken the pace yet it will certainly overtake them one time or other if not here in this world yet infallibly in that other hereafter though oftentimes even in this also Even at this instant when the Apostle wrote this very Chapter the Lord had sent a fearful sickness amongst the Corinthians and that for this very cause their profaning of the Sacrament as you may read the words immediately following my Text. For this cause saith he some are even now sick others weak and many amongst you fallen asleep that is taken away by bodily death But however it go with us now yet at that day when the great King shall come to take a particular view of his guests he will not fail to find out all those careless people that have presumed to sit down at his table without their wedding garments and pronounce upon them that heavy doom in the Gospel take them bind them hand and foot and cast them into utter darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth So necessary is this duty of reverent preparation and so great the necessity urged upon the high terms of no less than plagues and punishments here and destruction for ever hereafter So true is that of our Apostle he that eateth unworthily doth but eat judgment unto himself so the word imports judgment temporal though he repent and without repentance damnation eternal and that in so heinous a manner as if he were guilty of the very body and blood of the Lord no less than the cruel Jews that shed the one and crucified the other or treacherous Judas that betrayed both Well then necessary it is and highly But to come to the second point let us now see what the preparation is that is so necessary wherein it consists and how far it extends that must denominate and make a worthy Receiver Surely though no Man living be absolute worthy in himself or can by any means attain unto that entire and compleat worth which is fully answerable unto the dignity and holiness of those sacred mysteries yet it pleaseth God of his grace to accept of him for a worthy Receiver of them that doth truly and faithfully endeavour to receive them with a competent measure of that reverence and those qualifications which he hath prescribed in his word amongst which Knowledge Faith Repentance Love and Charity Love to God and Charity to our Brethren I suppose are the chief if not all And these sure at least are simply necessary by them we must examine and with them we must prepare our selves whosoever will be worthy Receivers First with Knowledge an honest degree of knowledge what the mysteries are what they signifie and exhibite for what purpose they were ordained of God and are received by our selves Thus much seems requisite in the meanest capacity for so long as we are ignorant of the substantial parts and fundamental doctrine of the Sacrament so long as we neither know nor consider the main ends and purposes for which it was instituted how can we possibly prepare our selves worthily to