Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	call_v	day_n	time_n	2,715	5	4.1899	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46799	Practical discourses upon the morality of the Gospel	Jenks, Sylvester, 1656?-1714.	1699 (1699)	Wing J630D; ESTC R220354	63,738	198

Holy Will contented with his Appointments always Calm Serene and Undisturb'd When Worldly Cares are thus restrain'd they are no more than Duties But when they pass these Limits then it is that they are Thorns which not only prick our Feet but pierce the very Hearts of us They wound our Feet I mean those Pious Affections of our Soul which are the only Feet by which we move towards Heaven and pierce our Conscience with a terrible Remorse of loving this World too much and for ought we know a great deal more than the next 'T is possible you 'll say to love the World to a very great degree and yet love God a little better which if we do we love him above all things and that 's enough to save us But surely you are not in good earnest Your whole Heart is due to him And can you think you do him Justice by allowing him a little more than half Your whole Heart ought to be a House of Prayer And is it just to make almost one half of it a Den of Thieves Your whole Heart ought to be the Temple of God And dare you offer to defile it by making a Partition in it and erecting Altars to his Mortal Enemies the World the Flesh and the Devil A true Christian cannot be so false-hearted If we believe the Gospel He has the best of Hearts His Heart is Good and Honest He 's no Trimmer betwixt God and the World He hates all double Dealing and endeavouring to please both Parties He scorns to do so mean and base a thing as to divide His Heart and steal away any part of it from him who has a Right to All. He does not use the World because He loves it but because He needs it He Eats and Drinks and Sleeps that He may live He does not live that He may Eat and Drink and Sleep If He takes care of His good Name it is because it will enable Him to do more Good If He diverts himself 't is only to refresh His Spirits and prepare them for a better use He knows very well that all the Comforts and Reliefs of our Corrupted Weak and Sickly Nature are very pleasing and delightful to it and are therefore apt to entice our Hearts to love them But alas He sees and grieves at his diseased Condition And tho' He gladly uses the Remedies because His Nature wants them and His Misery makes it His Duty to apply them yet He is so far from loving them that He could wish with all His Heart He were so Healthy and so Happy as not to stand in need of them The Sores of His Mortality are grievous to Him and the itching Pleasure of His Plaisters does not make him such Amends but that He had much rather be without them He hears and He believes there is a State of Immortality where Health and Happiness expect Him where He may be sure to find them if He please and where once found it is impossible to lose them The Word of God assures him of it And this is the Word which in a good and honest Heart he receives joyfully keeps faithfully and brings forth Fruit with Patience because he is not so much concern'd for any Worldly Matter as to be impatient about it Discourse II. Of the Advantages of Christianity and Duties of a Christian JEsus said to his Disciples Blessed are the Eyes which see the things that you see For I tell you that many Prophets and Kings have desired to see those things which you see and have not seen them and to hear those things which you hear and have not heard them And behold a certain Lawyer stood up and tempted him saying What shall I do to possess Eternal Life He said unto him What is written in the Law How readest thou And he answering said Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Strength and with all thy Mind and thy Neighbour as thy self And he said unto him Thou hast answered right this do and thou shalt live But he willing to justifie himself said unto Jesus And who is my Neighbour And Jesus answering said A certain Man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among Robbers who stript him and wounded him and departed leaving him half dead And by chance there came down a certain Priest that way and when he saw him he passed by And likewise a Levite when he was at the place came and looked on him and passed by But a certain Samaritan as he travelled came where he was and when he saw him he had Compassion on him and went to him and bound up his Wounds pouring in Oil and Wine and set him on his own Beast and brought him to an Inn and took care of him And on the Morrow he took out Two Pence and gave them to the Host and said unto him Take Care of him and whatsoever thou spendest more when I come again I will repay thee Which now of these three thinkest thou was Neighbour unto him that fell among the Robbers And he said he that shewed Mercy unto him Then said Jesus unto him Go and do thou likewise Luke 10. v. 23 to 38. The Glorious Advantages of Christianity and the Principal Duties of a Christian are the whole Matter of this Gospel The Advantages are so great that we should be ungrateful if we pass'd them slightly over and the Duties are of such Importance that we should be inexcuseable if we refus'd to take them into serious Cosideration I. S. Paul in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians considers the Preheminency of the Law of Christ above the Law of Moses And that we may better understand the Comparison it will not be amiss to observe the Rise and Progress of the Divine Law from the first Establishment of it God in the first Creation gave to Man a Natural Knowledge of his Duty which Knowledge is the Law of Nature By this Abel offer'd Sacrifice Enoch walkt with God Abraham paid Tythes to Melchisedec Lot was hospitable to Strangers Job was Patient Just and Humble In a Word All the Saints who lived before the Law of Moses by the Light of Nature were instructed in their Duty Mean time the growing Malice of Corrupted Nature every Day encreased the Will became more prone to Evil and the Custom of transgressing being as it were a second Nature superinduced a second Law which the Apostle calls the Law of Sin The Dictates of this Law of Sin altho' they were not able to efface the Original Impression of the Law of God yet they obscured and darkned it The Understanding which ought to have led the Will was now misled and blinded by it And. Vice prevailing almost universally the Law of God was in a manner out of Sight and out of Mind When the World was in this desperate Condition God of his Infinite Mercy promulgated the Law of Moses the Morality of which was formerly

because it only Discovers to them a Heaven which they do not Relish and Disturbs them with unwelcome Thoughts of a Hell which makes them Tremble Their Hearts are wilfully Blind and obstinately Deaf And therefore they seeing see not and hearing hear not Our Saviour thus describes them in the Thirteenth of S. Matthew Their Heart is gross their Ears are dull of hearing and they shut their Eyes for fear lest at any time they should See and Vnderstand with their Heart and should be Converted and I should Heal them They are not so much afraid of Vnderstanding with their Mind because the Mind only Preaches 't is the Heart that Practises Their great fear is lest at any time they should Vnderstand with their Heart They have not patience to think of any real and effectual Change of Life and therefore are afraid of changing their Foolish Hearts and bringing them to a better Vnderstanding of the Word of God lest at any time they should begin to Love it take Delight in it and Practise it The Devil is always watchful to take the Word out of their Hearts And they are no less Careful to keep it always out He takes it out for fear lest they should Believe and be Saved They keep it out for the same reason lest at any time they should be Converted and Heal'd The Devil fears nothing more than that they should Believe it so as to be Saved And they are so much of his Mind so fully in his Power and so led Captive by him at his pleasure that the Devil himself is not more afraid of it than they are II. When the Heart of Man is thus doubly hardned from without and from within 't is no great wonder that it does not receive the Word of God No wonder I say that the Seed which falls by the way is trodden down and presently devour'd But the Second sort of Ground is something better than the First Though it be Stony underneath yet it is cover'd over with some little Earth which readily receives the Seed and helps it to spring up although it does not keep it nor allow it any Root S. Luke says It wither'd away because it wanted Moisture And indeed there are some certain Tears of hearty and sincere Repentance which are apt to mollifie the hardest Heart and soften all the Stony places in it They are as it were the Dew of Heaven that Heavenly Moisture which Nourishes the Love of God and of his Holy Word and helping the Seed to Enter Deeply hinders it from being Scorch'd and Wither'd In the Thirteenth of S. Matthew we read that the Seed which fell upon stony places sprung up immediately because it had no deepness of Earth and presently Wither'd away because it had no Root It was soon up for want of Depth and soon down for want of Root The Love of this World in the Heart of many Christians who prefer it before God and do not know they do so is like a Rock under Ground The Soil seems good and so much as there is it really is so but because there is no more of it 't is little better than none at all It is not Deep enough to be fruitful The Seed immediately Enters but being little Cover'd and less Rooted is presently Wither'd with the first heat that Scorches it The generality of Mankind are strangely in love with this foolish World and violently fond of transitory things belonging to this present Life Their Worldly Honour Wealth and Pleasure are dearer to them than their Lives and this Life dearer to them than the next When they hear of the next and are awaken'd with a lively Apprehension of a future State where Everlasting Happiness attends them if they please they receive the Word with joy and are very glad to understand that when they have done being Happy here they may perhaps begin to be so there They are not very much Charm'd with what they hear of Heaven they know not how to relish those Spiritual Pleasures which are too refin'd for Sensual and Carnal Souls but however they presume that God who cannot but be infinitely Happy in himself must needs know how to make them Happy when he takes them to him and therefore when their own Felicity is spent which they desire may last as long as possible they then are willing to try what Heaven is and see if it can make amends for what they leave behind them Upon these Terms they seem to love God pretty well but 't is too plain they love themselves a great deal better And the more we consider the matter the plainer 't will appear that it is not so much the Love of God which Leads them as it is the Fear of Hell which Drives them into a Desire of Heaven Fear is a troublesome Passion And Hell is a thing so terrible that even those who have no mind to believe it are not easie in themselves when they admit a serious thought of it It soures all Worldly Comforts and Embitters the Enjoyments of this Life And therefore for their own dear sakes that they may Love the World Securely and Enjoy it with an undisturb'd and quiet Mind they are willing to come to a Composition and to comply with all the Exterior Duties of Religion provided they may keep their Heart to themselves and bestow it where they please without being oblig'd to Wean it from the World and Disengage it from the Treacherous Endearments of it For this reason they are very exact in all their Parish-Devotions punctual in their times of Morning and Evening Prayer diligent in Hearing Sermons chearful in giving Alms and charitable in comforting the Afflicted All this they are ready to do and any thing else whatever it is that does not hinder them from loving and enjoying Themselves the World and their own Humour as much as ever And all this they are the more willing to do because it pacifies the troublesom Remorses of their Conscience it cheats them into a belief that they are better than they are it makes them hope they love God better than they do and that they are not so very fond of any Worldly Satisfactions as not to leave them all for God's sake when occasion requires The out-side of their Piety Amuses them but the in-side of their Heart is always Hidden from them They take no Pains to Search the Bottom of it and to discover the wretched Corruption of their misplac'd Affections because there are some certain things in which they are fully determin'd never to practise any Self-denial they will not hear of any reason to the contrary but in spite of all the Reason in the World they are resolved upon the Point that such things must and shall be reasonable because they have a mind they should be so In other matters where their strongest Passions are not much concern'd they can comply with ease They can Read and Pray and Hear the Word of God with Joy they can