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	owe_v	servant_n	1,002	5	6.9749	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44434	An exposition on the Lord's prayer with a catechistical explication thereof, by way of question and answer for the instructing of youth : to which is added some sermons on providence, and the excellent advantages of reading and studying the Holy Scriptures / by Ezekiel Hopkins ...	Hopkins, Ezekiel, 1634-1690.	1692 (1692)	Wing H2730; ESTC R17498	215,674	332

Righteousness through whom alone Pardon of our sins is to be obtained Sixthly and lastly We pray that we may be brought over to close with the Lord Jesus Christ by a lively Faith that his Righteousness thereby may be made ours and we by that Righteousness may obtain Pardon of our sins and an Inheritance among them that are Sanctified For though Pardon be procured by the Death of Christ yet the Application of it to the Soul is only by Faith uniting us unto him and making us one with him For all that Christ hath either done or suffered for the Redemption of the World would be altogether in vain as to our particular benefit and advantage were it not that Faith entitles us unto it and makes that satisfaction which he hath given to Divine Justice to be Mystically our Act as it was Personally his And thus I have considered the Petition it self Forgive us our Debts I now proceed to the Condition or Plea annexed As we forgive our Debtors And here we have First the Act Forgive Secondly The Object Debtors Thirdly The limitation of this Object our Debtors Fourthly The proportion or resemblance in the Particle as As we forgive our Debtors I shall begin with the Object Debtors As all Men stand indebted to God in a Two-fold Debt a Debt of Obedience and a Debt of Punishment So one Man may be a Debtor to another two ways either by owing to him a Debt of Duty or else a Debt of Satisfaction First Some Men stand indebted to others in a Debt of Duty And indeed I might well have said this Debt is reciprocal between Man and Man Thus Children owe Parents Reverence and Obedience and Parents their Children Provision and Education Subjects owe their Magistrates Honour and Tribute and Magistrates owe their Subjects Justice and Protection Servants owe their Masters Fear Diligence and Faithfulness and Masters owe their Servants Maintenance and Encouragement And generally all Men owe one another Love Respect and Kindness Now these Debts cannot balance one another that as much as is left unpaid me by any person so much again I may refuse to pay him If a Father pay not his Debt to his Child or a Magistrate to his Subject or a Master to his Servants they are not hereby acquitted of their Obligations but still Duty Obedience and Faithfulness is required from Inferiours to their Superiours And so on the contrary Love Protection and Maintenance is required from Superiours to their Inferiours although peccant as long as the Relation shall continue between them And the reason is because we are bound to these Duties not only by the Obligations that mutual Offices lay upon us but by God's express Will and Command and the performance of the Relations that is betwixt us And therefore though it be Lawful for two Persons that owe one another an equal Debt of Money or other such like things to cross out one Debt by the other and so discount it betweem them Yet it is not so where the Duties that God requires are the Debts they owe to each other for although others may fail in the performance of what belongs to their part yet thou oughtest not to fail in thine for thus to be even with Men is to run in Debt with God and to make him thy Creditor who will certainly be thy Revenger And from hence it appears that this is not the Debt that we are to forgive our Debtors for we have no power to release them from their Obligation to Duty whilst the Relation between us continues no more than we have to rescind the Laws of God and of Nature Secondly Some Men may stand indebted to others in a Debt of Satisfaction as they owe them reparation on good grounds for wrongs and injuries done against them and this is the Debt which we are to forgive others Now as wrongs and injuries are of divers sorts so many divers ways may others become Debtors to us And they are chiefly these Six that follow First By wronging us in our persons either by unjust Violence or by unjust Restraints Thus the Persecuting Jews were Debtors to the Apostles and Disciples of Christ for often Scourging and Imprisonieg them Secondly By wronging us in our Place and Dignity and in the Office to which by God's Providence we are called And so also those that vilifie the persons and detract from the Authority of those that are set over them become their Debtors Thus Aaron and Miriam were Debtors unto Moses for traducing the Authority that God had committed unto him Numb 12.2 Thirdly By wronging us in our Friends and Relations either by corrupting them Thus Sechem became a Debtor to Jacob and his Sons for violating his Daughter and their Sister Or else by destroying them So Herod to the Bethlemitish Mothers by murdering their Children Fourthly By wronging us in our Right and Title with-holding from us what is our due Fifthly In our Possessions when either by Force or Fraud they take from us what of Right belongs to us Sixthly And lastly in our Reputation and good Name unjustly defaming us for those Crimes which only their Malice hath invented and published against us To all these wrongs we are subject God permitting the wickedness of Men a large scope to vent it self and affording us a large field to Exercise our meekness and forgiving temper in each of these But withal if those who in any of these or any other particulars do wrong their Brethren are by the Sentence of our Saviour here pronounced Debtors this should teach them to look upon themselves as obliged to make satisfaction according to the utmost of their Power and Ability Thou therefore who art Conscious to thy self of wronging any either in their Persons or Dignities or Relations or Rights or Possessions or Reputations Though it be thy Duty to confess it before God and humble thy self to him for it begging Mercy and Pardon at his hands Yet this is not enough for by one single offence thou hast contracted a double Debt thou standest indebted to the Justice of God for the Violation of his Law But this is not all but thou standest in Debt unto Man likewise by injuries done against him and both thy Creditors must be satisfied God by the Righteousness of Christ through thy Faith and Repentance and Man by an Acknowledgment Reparation and Restitution The Apostle hath commanded us Rom. 13.8 To owe no Man any thing but to love one another And indeed Satisfaction for Wrongs is a necessary part of Repentance for he that truly Repents doth really and from his heart wish that the Wrong had never been done and therefore will be sure to do his utmost to annihilate the fault by giving the abused Party a compensation fully answerable to the injury and to the utmost of his Ability restore him into the same or a better Condition than that in which he was before he received the Wrong Therefore First Art thou Conscious to thy self that

Righteousness revealed in the Scriptures No Damnation had been unavoidable without this knowledge yet it had been better they had not known it For here is the Hyperbole of their Misery better they had been Damned than to have known these Truths and this rule of Righteousness and yet turn from the Obedience and practice of it O fearful state O dreadful doom when a simple and genuine damnation shall be reckoned a gain and favour in comparison of that exquisite one which God will with all his Wisdom prepare and all his power inflict on those who knowing the righteous Judgment of God that they who commit such things are worthy of Death do notwithstanding persevere in them He that knew his Masters will and did it not shall be beaten with many stripes Luke 12.47 And if I had not come and spoken unto them they had not had Sin but now they have no Cloak for their Sins saith our Saviour John 15.22 The Sin and punishment of those who are invincibly ignorant is as nothing compared to what the knowing Sinners lie under But do not flatter your selves your ignorance is not invincible Are you not called to the knowledge of Christ Do you not read or hear the Scriptures Do you not enjoy Gospel Ordinances and Ministry May you not if you will be but diligent and industrious understand what you are ignorant of Certainly there is nothing that can prove your ignorance invincible unless it be your obstinacy that you will not be prevailed with to be instructed by all the means of Instruction Your Ignorance must therefore be affected Well then attend unto The second particular Affected Ignorance is a greater Sin and will be more sorely punished at the day of Judgment than unpractised knowledge This kind of ignorance is so far from being pleadable as an excuse that it is an aggravation of Mens guilt and will be so of their Condemnation There be but two things that compleat a Christian Knowledge and Practice Both these God doth strictly require Knowledge may be without practice but the practice of Godliness cannot be without knowledge God I say requires them both Now Judge ye which is the greater Sinner he that labours after knowledge though he neglect practice or he that neglects them both He that fulfills some part of God's will or he that fulfills nothing of it Certainly in your own Judgment this latter deserves to be doubly punish'd once for not doing his duty and again for not knowing it when he might Truly it is but just and righteous that God should with the highest disdain and indignation say unto them Depart from me ye Cursed I know you not since they have audaciously said unto him Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways The Apostle speaking of God's patience towards Heathens who were invincibly ignorant of the truth tells us Acts 17.30 That the times of this ignorance and yet an ignorance it was that put them upon no less than brutish Idolatry God winked at Ignorant persons in ignorant times whilest as yet the World was destitute of the means of knowledge and darkness over-spread the face of it God connived and winked at But ignorant persons in knowing times God doth not wink at but frown upon I am the more earnest in pressing this because I perceive that vile and rotten principle unworthy of a Christian who is a Child of light and of the day is taken up by many That it is no matter how little we know if we do but practise what we know What a cheat hath the Devil put upon them Hath not God commanded you to know more as well as to practise what you know Is it likely you should practise what you know upon God's command who will not upon his command increase your knowledge And yet this is the usual Plea of profane Men. Ask them why they frequent the publick Ordinances so seldom they will tell you they know more by one Sermon than they can practise But how can such make Conscience of practising who make none of knowing though the same God hath enjoined them both Yea though they cannot practise what they know yet let me tell them that for those who live under the means of Grace and may be instructed if they will it may be as great a Sin to omit a duty out of neglect of knowing it as out of neglect of doing it yea and much greater We should our selves Judge that Servant who while we are speaking to him stops his Ears on purpose that he might not hear what we command him we should I say Judge him worthy of more stripes than he who gives diligent ear to our commands although he will not obey them So it is in this Case Thou who stoppest thine Ears and will not so much as hear what the will of thy Lord and Master is deservest much more punishment than he who takes pains to know it although he doth it not It is damnable not to give God the service that he requires But O Insolence not to give God thy Lord and Master so much as the hearing Hath God sent Man into the World and sent the Scriptures after as Letters of instruction what we should do for him here and will it think'st thou be a sufficient excuse when thou returnest to thy Lord that it is true thou hadst instructions but never opened'st them never looked'st into them What a fearful contempt is this cast upon the great God never so much as to enquire what his will is Whether or no he commands that which is fit and reasonable for us to perform And therefore refuse not to search and study the Scriptures upon pretence that the knowledge of what you cannot fulfill will but aggravate your Sin and Condemnation For be assured of it greater Sin and sorer Condemnation can no Man have than he who neglects the means of knowledge thereby to disoblige himself from practice And again the Scriptures were given to assist us in the performance of those duties which it requires from us They do not only inform the judgment but quicken the will and affections and strengthen the whole Soul to its duty And this is in answer to the first Objection Secondly Some will say the reading of the Scriptures possesseth them with strange fears and fills them with incredible terrors It raiseth up such dreadful Apparitions of Hell and the wrath of God as makes them a terror to themselves To this I Answer First It may be thy condition is such as requires it Possibly thou art in a state of wrath and would'st thou not be under the apprehensions of it Thou art under the guilt of thy Sins and then no wonder that the voice of God should be terrible unto thee It is most unreasonable to hate the word as Ahab hated Micaiah because it prophesieth no good concerning thee Alas What good can it speak as long as thou thy self continuest Evil Secondly It is not so much the Scripture as