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	pray_v	prayer_n	2,142	5	6.5517	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31858	Sermons preached upon several occasions by Benjamin Calamy ...; Sermons. Selections	Calamy, Benjamin, 1642-1686.	1687 (1687)	Wing C221; ESTC R22984	185,393	504

hath forbidden us How strange is this for men out of a dread of damnation to neglect their duty and yet at the same time not to be afraid to live carnal and sensual lives Never therefore let any amongst you so long as you continue in your sins plead that you are afraid you should offend your Saviour if unworthily you eat his body and drink his bloud and therefore dare not communicate for your daily practice confutes this pretence whilst you notoriously break his Laws and violate his Authority and scandalize his Religion You pretend fear of damnation no such matter this is not the true reason of your abstaining from this Sacrament You are rather afraid the Sacrament will engage you to leave those sins you have no mind as yet to part with that it will put you upon the practice of those duties which are inconsistent with your profit pleasure or secular interest You are not afraid of displeasing God but of being too strictly tied and bound to please him You are afraid lest that solemnity should raise some scruples in your minds which you have no leisure to consider of You would not be troubled with such a serious business you suspect you shall not be able to sin so securely and quietly after it as now you do Let not such therefore as neglect this duty invent any such pitifull excuses but confess plainly that they love sin and the world too much that they prize them above the benefits purchased by Jesus Christ that they resolve to go on in their wickedness for some longer time and that therefore they do not come to this Sacrament They are loth to engage themselves so solemnly to doe that which they find in themselves no heart or will to perform This indeed is the secret thought of many men though indeed it is a very foolish one for they are very much mistaken who think themselves at greater liberty to doe evil whilst they abstain from this Sacrament for Christians are engaged by receiving this Sacrament to no other obedience than they were before by their Baptism it doth not so much oblige us to new duties as enable us to make good those obligations which our profession of Christianity hath already laid upon us 5. And Lastly If the receiving of this Sacrament were an indifferent rite or ceremony that might be done or omitted at pleasure then indeed the great danger there is in receiving it unworthily might in a great measure justify our omission of it But what if the danger be as great and the hazard equal of not receiving it at all as of receiving it unworthily where then is our prudence or safety when to avoid one danger we run into another every whit as great when for fear of displeasing God we disobey a plain command and for fear of damnation commit a damnable sin for I can call it no less to live in the neglect and contempt of this holy institution It is not very easie to determine which is the greatest affront to God or doth most highly provoke him never to perform our duty or to perform it after a wrong manner never to pray at all or to be present at prayers but not to mind or regard what we are about never to receive this Sacrament or to receive it often but make no difference between what we and drink there and what eat we do at our own houses But however he that receives this Sacrament although it be after an undue manner seems to me to shew somewhat more respect to God and his commands than he who wholly neglects it And besides there is hardly any wicked man that dares come to the Sacrament without some good thoughts and resolutions or who is not for a little time before and after the receiving of it more carefull of himself and his actions and though this doth not last long but he soon returns to his former wickedness yet however this is something better than continuing in sin and wickedness without any intermission or cessation Moreover such an one uses the best means of becoming better which by God's grace at some time may prove effectual whereas he that casts off all these duties is in a more desperate and irreclaimable state In short were there neither sin nor danger in omitting this Sacrament and yet so great hazard in the receiving it unworthily prudence and interest might engage us to chuse the safest side and not to meddle with it at all but if we expose our selves as certainly to God's anger and displeasure by wholly neglecting this duty as by performing it unduly then these words of the Apostle can be no pretence or excuse for our abstaining from this Communion For would not this be an odd way of arguing because intemperate eating and drinking is very prejudicial to our health and often breeds mortal diseases therefore 't is better never to eat or drink at all would it not be madness lest we should kill our selves by a surfeit to resolve to starve our selves by obstinate fasting And this shall bring me to the fourth and last thing I propounded to discourse of which was IV. To shew what is the onely true and just consequence which can be drawn from what is here affirmed by the Apostle He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself which is this that forasmuch as our Saviour hath plainly commanded all his Followers and Disciples to doe this in remembrance of him and yet on the other side there is so great danger in doing it unworthily that we should neither omit the duty for that would be a plain transgression of our Saviour's command nor yet be careless in the performance of it And this is the inference which the Apostle himself makes not that the Corinthians whom he blames so much for their unworthy receiving this Sacrament should therefore forbear coming to it any more at all but for the future they should examine themselves and partake of it with greater reverence and devotion than they had used to do Let the danger of receiving unworthily be never so great the consideration of this ought onely to make us so much the more carefull to receive it after a right and acceptable manner and to put us upon greater watchfulness over our selves when we meddle with such sacred things This is the use we ought to make of these words of the Apostle not rashly or precipitantly without due preparation or consideration to rush upon this holy Sacrament but seriously to mind the end and design of it and so duely to affect our spirits with the things represented to us by it that they may make lively and lasting impressions upon us and we may bring forth the fruit of all in a holy and unblamable conversation in the world To end all I would not have any thing I have now said upon this subject to you so interpreted or understood as in the least to take away from the reverence you have of

this institution or to lessen that awe and dread you have of receiving it unworthily Onely I would not have men afraid of or scruple doing their duty There is preparation and good disposition of mind required for prayer and the right performance of other religious duties as well as this of the Sacrament We ought therefore to be afraid of these three things 1. Of neglecting to receive this Sacrament for that is to live in disobedience to a plain command of our Saviour 2. Of receiving it unworthily without reverence or attention to the meaning of it without hearty repentance and sincere resolution of amendment for that is to affront and prophane our Saviour's most excellent institution 3. Of turning to your evil courses after receiving it for then your having taken this Sacrament will be a great aggravation both of your sin and condemnation A SERMON Preached before the Late KING AT NEW-MARKET The Third Sermon PROV I. 10. If Sinners entice thee consent thou not IN Scripture we often find that the evil Spirits are represented as Tempters going to and fro in the earth and walking up and down in it seeking whom they may devour and to that end as furnished with all manner of wiles and devices by which they may ensnare and deceive Mankind They would not be unhappy alone and therefore bend all their study and cunning to involve Men in the same ruine they have plunged themselves into Yet these are not our onely Enemies whom we are to watch against or resist There are many in our own shape who though their Feet are not cloven yet drive on the same design and are the Devil's Agents and use their wit and parts to set up his Kingdom in the World by enticing Men to and pleading for Sin and Irreligion And this they doe just for the same ill-natured reason namely to make others as bad as themselves that they may be also as miserable that this may a little comfort them against the gnawing fears of future punishments that if they should chance to befall them as is threatned yet they have made sure of company enough And this may afford us one Consideration of no little force to secure us against the solicitations of Sinners that though they may pretend to great love and kindness and tell us of the excellency and bravery of being wicked and undertake to answer all the scruples and coyness of our Consciences yet the bottom of all is onely to engage us in the perills and dangerous adventures they have run themselves into They cannot endure to think that if the great Doctrines of Religion should at last prove true any should be likely to fare better in the other state than themselves they hope either by their number to bear down God Almighty to pity and pardon or at least that when they are so many they shall help one another more chearfully to suffer the worst that can happen to them But now would we count it reasonable for a Man to persuade us to be sick with him or because he hath undone himself and is lost and ruin'd that we should therefore bring our selves into the same circumstances and condition In our temporal affairs we are not thus easie and flexible nor can Men in their wits by any means be prevailed upon to hazard their lives and fortunes for the gratifying the vain humour of any desperate person who hath forfeited his own and why then should we be so foolishly soft as to part with all that can be called truly good and venture our everlasting concernments and immortal Souls onely to bear those company who are resolved to be damned Wherefore of old in all places where civility and good manners have obtained such as have taken up that vile trade of debauching others and enticing them to sin have been always branded with marks of infamy and accounted and dealt with as the very pests and publick enemies of mankind But I suppose there is not much need of convincing you that it is your interest to follow this advice of the wise man Every one will readily grant that it is good and wholesome counsel not to consent to the enticings of evil and wicked men the onely difficulty is in the practising of it especially in a time when sin is not onely grown into fashion but into very great reputation It would be well if the sad complaints of the hideous degeneracy and profaneness of this present age were as unjust as they are frequent it is the humour of too many to admire and commend all the persons that lived and every thing that was done before they were born whilst they please themselves in nothing more than in continually lamenting and bemoaning the sins and misfortunes of their own days And whatever times such had lived in 't is like they would have pickt out matter of discontent having no better way of shewing their own wisedom or goodness than by finding fault with others But however thus much is certain that since the World is always so throng'd and thickly beset with wicked men and we have no reason to doubt but that we at this time have our share of them amongst us since the best of us all are so apt to be misled surprized or betrayed into sin we have great need if we would preserve our innocence to fortifie our minds with all such considerations as may help us to withstand the restless allurements and subtile enticing of those who not onely themselves doe things that are evil but rejoice in making others doe the same I shall at this time discourse onely of these two ways by which those that entice men to vitious practices ordinarily prevail with them viz. either by their example or else by arguing for and excusing of sin and shall endeavour to make out how unreasonable it is to be moved by either of them I. Consent not when you are enticed to sin by bad examples He that is tempted onely by his own wicked self and drawn away with his own lusts doubts oftentimes and is afraid and sometimes repents and forbears but when his own inward propensions and inclinations are seconded and back'd with bad examples especially if they are numerous and given by men of authority interest and name in the World when by them he is encouraged and urged to that which of himself he had no little mind to then doth Vice become strong and triumphant the temptation is then at the full height and it is hard for a Man to stand it out When thus there is a confederacy and combination of sinners when wickedness joins as it were hand to hand and draws it self into leagues when the road is smoothed and the passage made broad and plain by the tramplings of others before us then we are in great danger either of being hurried on in the Crowd or else of being by degrees inveigled to venture our selves with those to whom we cannot but think we do owe a great regard Vice