Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	child_n	master_n	wife_n	2,782	5	6.2775	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59652	Moral vertues baptized Christian, or, The necessity of morality among Christians by William Shelton, M.A., late fellow of Jesus Colledge in Cambridge, and now vicar of Bursted Magna in Essex.	Shelton, William, d. 1699.	1667 (1667)	Wing S3099; ESTC R37384	107,365	208

we may follow the Example of Christ and the Apostles we are then certain we do truly preach the Gospel when we command Moral Vertues for it is evident they did the like before us and that not sparingly but in abundant manner This is the first part of the Argument from the Scripture The commands for Moral Vertues are very many and we may easily find them CHAP. III. Sect. 1 THey are likewise plain commands that when found they may easily be understood The directions which the Scripture gives about the management of our Affairs are not so dark as the Answers that the Heathens had from their Oracles They themselves called their Apollo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of his ambiguity we may give him another Epithete that which the Pharisees without any Reason gave to Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That deceitful Spirit 27 Math. 63. the Devil that took upon him the state of a God was ambiguous on purpose that by those riddles he might salve his own credit amongst them though they should chance to be deceived as Croesus and others were But the Scriptures are clear and plain especially as to these matters of practice The word of God 2 Pet. 1. 19. is a light shining in a dark place Such was the World till Christs time a dark place men were much in the dark and that as to Vertue as well as Religion as hath been before said and made Book 1. an Argument of the insufficiency of the writings of the Philosophers But here have we a lamp 119 Psa to our feet and a light to our paths So our Divine Poet expresses it But all the Doctrine which he taught and gave Herbers Poems Was clear as Heaven from whence it came At least those Beams of Truth which onely save Surpass in Brightness any Flame Divinity Love God and love your Neighbour watch and pray Do as you would be done unto O Dark instructions even as dark as day Who can these Gordian knots undo What the Disciples once said to our Saviour Joh. 16. Loe now speakest thou plainly and speakest no parable So may we say of many of the commands of Scripture for what can be more plain whether for matter or manner then for a man to Love his Neighbour as himself who knows not how he loves himself and he who will not believe he hath many Neighbours will 10 Luke find that he ought to show himself neighbourly to whomsoever shall have need of him if he understand the Parable so to recompence Evil for Evil and many others These are such things of which we use to say he that runs may read them There needs no great intenseness of mind it is not necessary to dwell long upon them to understand them they are plain and easie to be understood This is now another advantage we have by the Gospel it doth both bring us light and open our Eyes to see that light the directions of the Word and the teachings of the Spirit promised in that Word make our Rule very plain and easily understood Sect. 2 These many plain Rules of life are not all general so that the application of them may be easily mistaken but directed to particular conditions and Relations and circumstances of life we do not only read in the general that we must abstain from fleshly lusts but we 1 Pet. 2. Gal. 5. 1 Thes 4. have particular Catalogues of those Lusts we are not only bid to walk so as to please God but we are told what it is that is well pleasing to him In so small a Volume as the Scripture is it would be unreasonable to expect particular commands for every Punctilio for every smaller Occurrence of Life There are general Rules of prudence which may easily be accommodated to particular circumstances yet evident it is that there are many commands for persons in such Relations For Husbands and Wives Parents and Children Masters and Servants Magistrates and Subjects Moreover there are commands for particular duties for Meekness and Humility and Charity and Temperance c. if the Scripture sometimes speaks in Parables yet many of them are such which we may easily apply to our selves as Nathan did his to David when he said thou art 2 Sam. 12. the man As John the Baptist gave directions in particular to the people to the Publicans and 3 Luke to the Souldiers as they applyed to him so will the Gospel answer us if we come with the same question And what shall we do go and search the Scriptures see what is written how readest thou It were a childish fancy to expect to be called by our Names as once Peter was Arise Peter kill and eat who will dare to say that when the King issues out a Proclamation to all his subjects because I do not find my name there it doth not concern me We are all concerned and we are as good as named and particularly directed in many affairs of our lives how to exercise our selves in righteousness and goodness and all Moral Vertues Here are now 3 things said to prove that the Scripture doth make Vertue necessary by giving many plain particular commands in the case but that there may remain no question of our Obligation the 4th follows CHAP. IV. Sect. 1 THese many plain particular commands are absolute without any condition that may excuse they are peremptory and severe and strict so that when they are found and understood and ready to be applyed there remains no evasion to shift off that Application Certain it is that where God doth not dispense with his Laws there man may not It is against all Reason that an Inferiour Magistrate should controul a Superiour but it is monstrous that the head and the feet should change places that the Common people whose duty it is to obey Laws should usurp Authority over the Law-makers and dispute their commands And if it be necessary there should be such a distance between man and man for the safety and preservation of mankind Is not then the distance greater between God man Thinkest Job 35. 2. thou this to be right that thou saidst my Righte●●sness is more than Gods Elihu first puts the question but afterwards God himself demands the same I will demand of thee and declare thou Job 4● ● 8. unto ●e wilt thou also disannull my Judgments wilt thou condemn me that thou maist be Righteous Hast thou an Arm like God or ●anst thou Thunder with a voice like him Where is the power and Authority that dare oppose it self to God before whom the Hills mel● like wax 97 Psa ●● 2. for fear of whom and for the glory of his Majesty the lofty looks of men are humbled and the ●●●ghtiness of men is bowed down Yea moreover where is the wisdom that may better inform God or alter what he hath once established Isal 40. Who hath directed the Spirit of the Land o● being

not grow in our own Garden There are some things of daily use among us our Sugars and Spices our Silver and Gold c. which we must go out of doors for to fetch them in from other Nations though we have likewise Commodities of our own to export to others Now if the trade of a Merchant be a lawful calling this likewise makes it evident that all Relations between man and man are not dissolved there where the Gospel takes place So then there do continue such distinctions and Relations as these in the Christian World Sect. 3 Wherefore so long as these Relations do continue there are some duties necessarily resulting from these Relations There is a carriage and behaviour due from one to the other every Relation doth connote some duty else if there be nothing required they are as Strangers that are unconcerned in each others affairs and not as Relations A Father must provide and take care for his Child and the Child reverence and obey his Father and so in the like cases It is non-sense for a man to say he owns such a one to be his Child and yet he hath no more regard to him then to a meer Stranger Again the correspondencies of Kingdoms and States and the Traffick from Nation to Nation do not these suppose duty Is it fitting we should rob other Nations to enrich our own we have just reason to be angry with other Nations that would do so to us or is it equitable we should import their Commodities without making them a compensation There is somewhat required by way of Duty whether in war or peace whether in buying selling or exchanging or any other reference that one man speaks to another or any business that one hath to transact with another there is somewhat just equitable and due in our carriage and behaviour that is every Relation infers duty Sect. 4 These duties that are required for the due approving of our selves in these relations are exercises of Moral Vertue In the systematical or doctrinal part of Moral Philosophy Ethicks are distinguished from Oeconomicks and Politic●● yet evident it is that the latter do belong to the former generally taken No man can live morally well according to the rules of the Ethicks if he do not order himself in his family and political capacities according to those rules Subjection to Magistrates and protection of Subjects Obedience to Parents and respect to Children and all those other just and charitable and liberal actions which are necessary for us to practise as we are engaged in such relations these are duties of the second table commanded in the Gospel and are exercises of Moral Vertue So that the substance of the Argument contained in these premises is this For as much as we Fellow-creatures are in some relation one to another which cannot be fulfilled nor managed unless we be vertuous It remains that there is such a goodness in Moral Vertue as that we being as we are and must continue to be without it we cannot be said to live good lives Sect. 5 This Argument hath proceeded upon the comparison of our selves with our selves the several respects in which Christians stand to one another Let one thing more be added let the Heathen and the Christian be compared together and it will be found true that if Morality were necessary for the Heathen so that where they failed their lives were not good then it must be as necessary for us Christians Who doubts but that Justice and Temperance were vertues in the Heathen how shall they be judged but by the not be for Immorality as well as for Idolatry and Irreligion for wherein is the Light of Nature plainer and they more inexcusable then in Unrighteousness and Intemperance and such like Vices which they themselves sometimes acknowledged to be such Now need not a Christian be as vertuous as a Heathen undoubtedly he ought unless the Gospel exempt him which hath already been observed to be plain and positive in the case But furthermore is not vice the same now that it was of old as abominable and reproveable and vertue as commendable and necessary If mens lives may rather give them a denomination then their profession a great part of the Christian World is still Heathenish The Devil is a revengeful as well as a malitious spirit It hath pleased God to spread abroad the Christian Religion far and wide by his Almighty power His name hath Malac. 1. been great among the Gentiles from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same But if Heathenism hath been dispossest in one kind hath it not returned in another Is not the Devils Chappel near Gods Church Hath every one that hath been baptized into the name of Christ put on Christ Why then should it now be thought a strange thing that Drunkards and Swearers and Murderers and Adulterers and Lyars and Thieves and Knaves and Rebels and Covetous and Proud and Peevish and Uncharitable men should be reproved for these sins as well as Hypocrites and Formalists and Unbeleivers c. did not David sin in the matter of Bathsheba as truly as Amnon in the case of Tamar and was he not accordingly reproved for it by Nathan Would Treason be ever the less crime if one of the Court or Bed-chamber should be guilty of it was Brutus more pardonable then the rest who conspired the death of Julius Caesar because of his near relation to him Surely the Israelites are taught otherwise You onely have I known of all Amos 3. all families of the Earth therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities There was a greater Communion between God and the Jews then with other Nations and more plentiful Communications from him by reason of which they knew more of God then other Nations did This is now the case of us Christians We know more of God then the Heathens did in particular we know what the word of God requires of us in point of Morality He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do Justice and love Mercy and to walk humbly with thy God and that which is shewed us we do or may know Wherefore to him that knoweth to do good James 4. and doth n●t to him it is sin And if it be a sin to break these commands then it is good to keep them and if it be good so to do then the first Argument is made good There is a goodness and such a goodness in Moral Vertue as that without it we cannot be said to be men of good lives Which was the first necessi●● assigned of Morality that our lives may be good CHAP. V. Sect. 1 End 2 IT is necessary for us to be vertuous that our deaths may be safe I shall be mistaken if I be thought to mean that bare Moral Vertue will make our lives good or our deaths safe Faith and Repentance and the grace of the good