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	parent_n	servant_n	5,710	5	6.5909	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26967	Now or never the holy, serious, diligent believer justified, encouraged, excited and directed, and the opposers and neglecters convinced by the light of Scripture and reason / by Richard Baxter ...	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1662 (1662)	Wing B1320; ESTC R11592	92,411	266

spoil it and hinder the success make it do more hurt then good How many a Sermon or Prayer or reproof is made the matter of derision and contempt for some imprudent passages or deportment God sendeth not his servants to be jesters of the world or to play the mad-men as David in his fears We must be wise and innocent as well as resolute and valiant Though fleshly and worldly wisdom be not desirable as being but foolishness with God yet the wisdom which is from above is first pure and then peaceable and is acquainted with the high and hidden mysteries and is justified of her children must be the Guide of all our holy actions Holiness is not blind Illumination is the first part of Sanctification Believers are Children of the light Nothing requireth so much wisdom as the matters of God and of our Salvation Folly is most unsuitable to such excellent imployments and most unbeseeming the sons of the most High It is a spirit of wisdom that animateth all the Saints 1 Cor. 3. 19. 2. 6 7. Ephes 1. 8 17. Col. 3. 16. It is the treasures of wisdom that dwell in Christ are communicated to his members Col. 2. 3. We must walk in wisdom toward them that are without Col. 4. 5. And our works must be shewn out of a good Conversation with meekness of wisdom Jam. 3. 13. Yet I must needs say that its more in great things then in small in the substance then the circumstances in a sound judgement and estimate of things and suitable choire prosecution then in fine expressions or deportment answering proud mens expectations 2. Though you must work with your might yet with a diversity agreeable to the quality of your several works Some works must be preferred before others All cannot be done at once That 's a sin out of season which in season is a duty The greatest the most urgent work must be preferred And some works must be done with double fervour resolution and some with less Buying and selling and marrying and possessing and using the world must be done with a fear of over-doing and in a sort as if we did them not though they also must have a necessary diligence 1 Cor. 7. 29 30 31. Gods Kingdom and its Righteousness must be first sought Mat. 6. 33. And our labour for the meat that perisheth must be comparatively as none John 6. 27. 3. Lastly it is not an irregular nor a self-disturbing vexatious violence that is required of us but a sweet well-setled resolution and a delightful expeditious diligence that makes the wheels go merrily on and the more easily get over those rubs and difficulties that clog and stop a sloathful soul And now will you lend me the assistance of your Consciences for the transcribing of this command of God upon your hearts and taking out a Copy of this order for the regulating of your lives Whatsoever is not a word so comprehensive as to include any vanity or sin but so comprehensive as to include all your Duty 1. To begin with the lowest The very works of your bodily callings must have diligence In the sweat of your brows you must eat your bread Gen. 3. 19. Six dayes shalt thou labour and do all that thou hast to do Exod. 20. 9. He that will not work let him not eat 2 Thess 3. 10. Disorderly walkers busie-bodies that wil not work with quietness and eat their own bread are to be avoided shamed by the Church 2 Thess 3. 6 11 12 14. Lazy servants are unfaithful to men and disobedient to God who commandeth them to obey their Masters according to the flesh unbelieving ungodly Masters in all things that concerns their service and that not with eye-service as man-pleasers but in singleness of heart and in the fear of God doing what soever they do as to the Lord and not unto men knowing th●● of the Lord even for this they shall receive the reward of the inheritance Col. 3. 22 23 24. But he that doth wrong by sloathfulness or unfaithfulness shall receive for the wrong which he hath done vers 25. Success is Gods ordinary temporal reward of diligence Prov. 10. 4 12. 24 27. And diseases poverty shame disappointment or self-tormenting melancholy are his usual punishments of sloath Hard labour redeemeth Time you will have the more to lay out on greater works The sloathful is still behind hand therefore must leave much of his work undone 2. Are you Parents or Governours of Families you have work to do for God and for your childrens and servants souls Do it with your might Deal wisely but seriously frequently with them about their sin their duty and their hopes of Heaven Tell them whither they are going and which way they must go Make them understand that they have a higher Father and Master that must be first serve and greater work to do then yours Waken them from their natural insensibility and sloath Turn not all your family duties into lifeless customary form whether extemporate or by rote speak about God Heaven and Hell and Holiness with that seriousness as beseems men that believe what they say and would have those they speak to to believe it Talk not either drowsily or lightly or jeastingly of such dreadful or joyful unexpressible things Remember that your families and you are going to the grave and to the world where there is no more room for your exhortations There is no Catechising examining or serious instructing them in the grave whither they and you are going It must be now or never And therefore do it with your might The words of God must be in your hearts and you must diligently teach them to your children talking of them when you sit in your houses when you walk by the way when you lie down and when you rise up Deut. 6. 6 7 8. 11. 18 19 20. 3. Have you ignorant or ungodly neighbors whose misery calls for your compassion and relief Speak to them and help them with prudent diligence Lose not your opportunities Stay not till Death hath stopt your mouths or stopt their ears Stay not till they are out of hearing and taken from your converse Stay not till they are in Hell before you warn them of it or till Heaven be lost before you have seriously called to them to remember it Go to their houses take all opportunities stoop to their infirmities bear with unthankful frowardness It is for mens salvation Remember there is no place for your instructions or exhortations in the Grave or Hell Your dust cannot speak and their dust cannot hear Up therefore and be doing with all your might 4. Hath God intrsusted you with the Riches of this world with many talents or with few by which he looketh you should relieve the needy and especially should promote those works of piety which are the greatest charity Give prudently but willingly and liberally while you have to give It is

and creatures attending me that have health to enable me or affliction to remember and excite me that have such a master such a work such a reward as better cannot be desired who is lesse excusable for neglect then I Qu. 11. Could I do no more if I were sure that my salvation lay on this one duty that according to this prayer it should go with me for ever or if the soul of my child or servant or neighbour must speed for ever as my endeavours speed with them now for their conversion for ought I know it may be thus Qu. 12. Would I have God to come with the spur and rod How do I complain when affliction is up-me And will I neither endure it nor be quickened without it Is it not better mend my pace and work on easier tearms I would not have distressed souls to use these considerations meerly to disquiet themselves for their infirmities and so live in heaviness and self-vexation because they cannot be as good as they desire or do as much and as well as they should do It is not despair that will mend the matter but make it worse But I would wish the lazie sloathful soul to plead these Questions with it self and try whether they have no quickning power if closely urged and seriously considered Believe it Sirs it is the deceitfulness of prosperity that keeps up the reputation of a slathful life and makes holy diligence seem unnecessary When affliction comes awakened reason is ashamed of this and seeth it as an odious thing BY this time you may see what difference there is between the judgement of God and of the world and what to think of the understandings of those men be they high or low learned or unlearned that hate or oppose this holy diligence God bids us love and seek and serve him with all our heart and soul and might And these men call them Zealots and Precisians and Puritans that endeavour it though alas they fall exceeding short when they have done their best It is one of the most wonderfull monstrosities and deformities that ever befel the nature of man that men that learned men that men that in other things are wise should seriously think that the utmost diligence to obey the Lord and save our souls is needless and that ever they should take it for a crime and make it a matter of reproach That the serious diligent obeying of Gods Laws should be the matter of the common disdain and hatred of the world that no men are more generally abhorred and tost up and down by impatient men that great and small the Rulers and the vulgar rabble in most places of the earth cannot endure them To think how the first man that ever was born into the world did hate his own brother till he had proceeded to murder him because he served God better then himself Because his own works were evil and his brothers righteous 1 Joh. 3. 12. And how constantly this horrid unnatural madness hath succeeded and raged in the world from Cain until this day It is not in vain that the Holy Ghost addeth in the next words 1 Joh. 3. 13. Marvail not my brethren if the world hate you implying that we art apt to marvail at it as I confesse I have oft and greatly done Methinks it is so wonderful a plague and stain in Nature that it doth very much to confirm me of the truth of Scripture of the doctrine of mans fall and original sin and the necessity of a Reconciler and of renewing grace Distracted miserable souls is it not enough for you to refuse your own salvation but you must be angry withal that will not imitate you Is it not mad enough and bad enough to choose damnation but you must be offended withal that are not of your mind If you will not believe God that without Regeneration Conversion Holiness and a Heavenly Spiritual life there is no Salvation to be hoped for John 3. 3 5 6. Mat. 18. 3. Heb. 12. 14. Rom. 8. 9 13. 2 Cor. 5. 17. mnst we all be unbelievers with you if you will laugh at Hell till you are in it must we do so too if God and glory seem less worth to you then your fleshly pleasure for a time must we renounce our Christianity and our Reason for fear of differing from you if you dare differ from your Maker and the Redeemer and the Holy Ghost and all the Prophets Apostles and Evangelists and all that ever came to Heaven might not we be bold to differ from you If you will needs be ungodly and choose your everlasting wo be patient with them that have more understanding and dare not be so hardy as to leap after you in the unquenchable fire Mock not at Holiness if you have no mind of it Hinder not them that strive to enter in at the strait gate if you refuse your selves Be not so desirous of company in Hell It will prove no comfort to you or abatement of your pain But because you have the faces to contradict the God of Truth and to reproach that work which he commandeth and to say what needs so much ado when he bids us do it with all our might I will briefly tell you what you are doing and shew you the ugly face of the scorner and the filthy hearts of the enemies of Holiness that if it may be you may loath your selves 1. These enemies of Holy diligence deny God with their works and lives and are practical Atheists and it seems are so near of kin to that wicked one see 1 Joh. 3. 12. that they would have all others do so too And then how soon would earth be turned into Hell The case is plain If God deserve not to be loved and served with all thy heart and soul and might he is not God And if thy wealth or honour or flesh or friend deserveth more of thy love and care and diligence then God then that is thy God that deserveth best See now what these deriders of purity and obedience do think of God and of the world 2. These Cainites do blaspheme the Governour of the world When he hath given Laws to the Creatures that he made of nothing These wretches deride and hate men for obeying them If God have not commanded that which you oppose contradict it and spare not I would you were much more against that pretended Religion which he commandeth not But if he have commanded it and yet you dare revile them as too pure and precise that would obey it what do you but charge the King of Saints with making Laws that are not to be obeyed which must needs imply that they are Foolish or Bad though made by the most wise and Good 3. These Enemies of Holiness oppose the practice of the very first principles of all Religion For Heb 11. 6. He that commeth to God must believe that God is and that he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek

and you must hear it no more for ever That therefore which you will do must presently be done or it will be too late If ever you will repent and Believe it must be Now. If ever you will be converted and sanctified it must be Now. If ever you will be pardoned reconciled to God it must be Now. If ever you will reign it s now that you must fight and conquer O that you were wise that you understood this and that you would consider your latter end Deut. 32. 29. And that you would let those words sink down into your hearts which came from the heart of the Redeemer as was witnessed by his tears Luke 19. 41 42. If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace But now they are hidden from thine eyes And that these warnings may not be the less regarded because you have so often heard them when often hearing increaseth your obligation and diminisheth not the truth or your danger 3. And as there is no Return to Earth so is there no doing this work hereafter Heaven and Hell are for other work If the Infant be dead born the open world will not revive him That which is generated and born a beast or serpent will not by all the influences of the Heavens or all the powers of Sun or Earth become a Man The second and third concoxion presuppose the first The harvest doth presuppose the seed time the labour of the husbandman It s now that you must sow and hereafter that you must reap It s now that you must work and then that you must receive your wages Is this believed and considered by the sleepy world Alas sirs do you live as men that must live here no more Do your work as men that must work no more and pray as men that must pray no more when once the time of work is ended What thinkest thou poor besotted sinner will God command the Sun to stand still while thou rebellest or forgettest thy work and him Dost thou look he should pervert the course of nature continue the spring and seed-time till thou hast a mind to sow or that he will return the dead-born or mis-shapen Infant into the womb that it may be better formed or quickned Will he renew thy age and make the young again and call back the hours that thou prodigally wastedst on thy lusts and idleness Canst thou look for this at the hand of God when Nature and Scripture assure thee of the contrary If not why hast thou not yet done with thy beloved sins Why hast thou not yet begun to live Why sittest thou still while thy soul is un-renewed and all thy preparation for death and judgement is yet to make How fain would Satan find thee thus at death How fain would he have leave to blow out thy candle before thou hast entred in●● the way of life Dost thou look to have Preachers sent after thee to bring thee the mercy which thy contempt here left behind Wilt thou hear and be converted in the Grave and Hell or wilt thou be saved without holiness that is In despight of God that hath resolved it shall not be O ye sons of sleep of death of darkness awake and live and hear the Lord before the Grave and Hell have shut their mouths upon you Hear now least hearing be too late Hear now if you will ever hear Hear now if you have ears to hear And O ye sons of Light that see what sleeping sinners see not call to them and ring them such a peal of lamentations tears and compassionate intreaties as is suited to such a dead and doleful state Who knows but God may bless it to awake them If any of you be so far awakened as to ask me what I am calling you to do My Text tells you in general Up and be Doing Look about you and see what you have to do and Do it with your might 1. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do That is whatsoever is a Duty imposed by the Lord whatsoever is a Means conducing to thy own or others welfare Whatsoever Necessity calleth thee to do and Opportunity alloweth thee to do Thy hand findeth that is Thy executive powers by the conduct of thy understanding is now to do Do it with thy Might Do thy best in it 1. Trifle not but do it presently without unnecessary Delay 2. Do it Resolutely Remain not doubtful unresolved in suspense as if it were yet a question with thee whether thou shouldest do it or not 3. Do it with thy most awakned affections and serious intention of the powers of thy soul Sleepiness and insensibility are most unsuitable to such works It is a peculiar people zealous of good works that Christ hath purchased to himself Tit. 2. 14. 4. Do it with all necessary forecast and contrivance Not with a distracting hindering Care but with such a Care as may shew that you despise not your Master and are not regardless of his work And with such a care as is suited to the difficulties nature of the thing and as is necessary to the due accomplishment 5. Do it not sloathfully but vigorously and with diligence Stick not at thy labour Lest thou hear Thou wicked and sloathful servant Mat. 25. 26. Hide not thy hand in thy bosom with the sloathful say not There is a Lion in the way Prov. 26. 13 14. The negligent and the vicious the waster and the sloathful differ but as one brother from another Prov. 18. 9. As the self-murder of the wilfully ungodly so also the desire of the sloathful killeth him because his hands refuse to labour Prov. 21. 25. The soul of the sluggard desireth hath nothing but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat Prov. 13 4. Be not sloathful in business but be fervent in spirit serving the Lord Rom. 12. 11. 6. Do it with Constancy not with destructive pawses and intermissions or with weariness and turning back The righteous shall hold on his way and he that is of clean hands shall be stronger and stronger Job 17. 9. Be stedfast unmovable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15. 58. Be not weary of well-doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not Gal. 6. 9. These six particulars are necessary if you will observe serve the precept in my Text. But that misunderstanding hinder not the performance I shall acquaint you further with the sense by these few explicatory cautions 1. The Might and Diligence here required excludeth not the necessity of Deliberation and Prudent conduct Otherwise the faster you go the further you may go out of the way and mis-guided zeal may spoil all the work and make it but an injury to others or your selves A little imprudence in the season and order and manner of a Duty sometimes may