Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	day_n	good_a	lord_n	2,726	5	3.8026	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60149	Seasonable advice to youth A funeral sermon on Psal. 119. 9. Preach'd upon the death of Mr. Richard Walter, jun. In the eighteenth year of his age. January 13th, 1691/2. By John Shower.	Shower, John, 1657-1715.	1692 (1692)	Wing S3685; ESTC R220294	25,103	44

give up your Children to God by Baptism in Infancy you seem to profess a Desire they should be his as soon as yours you solemnly ingage and promise to bring them up in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord but how false to God and them must you appear if you do not season them with Holy Principles betimes if when you know they have Immortal Souls to Save and an Eternal Blessedness to obtain and endless Misery to escape yet bring them up in Ignorance without that necessary Knowledge that must make them wise to Salvation If you do not instruct them in the Rules and Obligations of their Duty that they may know the God of their Fathers 2 Chr. 28.9 and serve him with a perfect Heart If you do not mind them of the Evil of Sin the Uncertainty of this Life and the Assurance of an Everlasting State of the Truth and Consequences of the Fall of Man of the way of our Reconciliation to God and the Participation of his Image c. If you do not inculcate these plain and necessary Truths upon them if you do not bring them to the publick Worship teach them how to spend the Lords Day observe their particular Tempers Corruptions and Temptations and apply your selves accordingly with Wisdom and Seriousness for their good Of all others you have the most Power over them and Interest in them none have such Advantages and Opportunities to instruct and persuade them as you None are under so many Obligations of Duty and Interest of every sort as you It is therefore Unnatural and Unexcusable to neglect it You are not easily Apprehensive how much your present Comfort is concerned in it for if while they are Young you are negligent in your Duty to them they are likely enough when grown up to fail of theirs to you And it is but just they should not know their Duty to You if you do not instruct them in theirs to God These Arrows to which they are compared in Scripture Prov. 22.6 Deut. 4.9 11.19 and happy is he that hath his Quiver full of them should be directed right at first for accordingly they are like to Fly afterwards It may fall out otherwise but usually the gracious or vicious Habits of the First Age are transmitted to the next and the after Conversation is suitable to the Education of Childhood and Youth Besides the Sin and Mischief which you may prevent For we know not at what Period of Time a Child comes to the use of Reason and so cannot tell when God will impute their Follies nor whether they will tend or what Impressions they may leave But when he does not impute them to Damnation it may be he will so far as to cause Sickness or an hasty Death And therefore they should be instructed in their Duty so soon as capable and be restrained from the material Parts of any Evil even evil Words which they understand not Before I dismiss this Head let me mind you that are Masters of Families that you ought thus carefully to instruct your Younger Servants the care of whose Souls is committed to you by the Providence of God Your own safety and comfort and the good success of your Civil affairs is concerned in it as well as your Duty * Mr. H. Palmer Dr. H. Wilkinson on Job 13.26 p. 17. An Eminent Preacher in his time upon a like occasion in a Sermon at Aldermanbury made mention of a memorable Passage to this purpose That in the beginning of the Irish Rebellion there were some Popish Servants cut the Throats of those who had formerly been their Masters telling them that they should have taught them better Somewhat of Direction and Counsel I would now add unto the Younger sort Let me therefore beseech you First To make a Pause to stop a while and bethink your selves Employ some time in a serious Consideration of your Hearts and Ways according to this Word of God Think what sort of Creatures you are and how you came into this World Who was the Author of your Beings and the Original of all things What did he make you for but to Glorifie and Enjoy him How wretchedly uncapable you have rendered your selves of both And in order to your Relief what is to be done on your part and what may be hoped for on God's and how remediless your Case is if this Affair be not begun to be transacted before the only time is past wherein it may be done O try your Reason and use it in such Reflections Think in what a Condition you were born how you have lived what you have done and what you now are whether you are going and where you must shortly be Think what your sinful Folly hath already cost you what you have lost and the manifold Hurts and Mischiefs you have received by it What unthrifty Bargains you have made and what is the bitter Fruit of those things whereof you are now ashamed The Devil himself cannot persuade you but you must Die and you dare not say or think that there is not an everlasting Heaven or Hell You therefore sometimes wish to die the Death of the Righteous And will you not consider a little how impossible that is without being like them while you live Secondly Endeavour clearer Apprehensions and a better Vnderstanding of the Religion you profess as to the Evidence of its Principles the Nature Grounds and Reasons of it That you may know your own Case and what it is to be a Christian and what the necessary change does imply and how it is to be wrought That you may know the God from whom you have revolted whom you are to obey as your Sovereign Ruler and to enjoy as your chief good That you may know the Saviour that must befriend you for the Pardon of Sin and for Eternal Life That you may know the Holy-Ghost the Sanctifier by whom you must be Enlightened Quickened and Renewed How can you love and obey your Maker if you know him not what he is and how he will be served How can you believe on Christ if you know not who he is or what he hath Done and Suffered Purchased Promised Offered Prepared and is ready to be and do and give How can you bewail your Sin and Misery Loath your selves and seek for Grace if you continue Ignorant of such things as these It is by the Light of Holy Knowledge you must be recovered you are lost and perishing 2 Cor. 3.4 while this Gospel is hid from you If you are not sensible of your own Ignorance and Disease and where is the Remedy how will you come to Christ as your Teacher and Physician Thirdly To this end diligently study the Holy Scriptures and attend the Publick Preaching of the Word Deut. 17.18 with suitable Desires and Designs Apprehend the weight of the matters treated of and know that it is for your Life You know not the advantage of an affectionate Study of the

and powerful sharper than a Two-Edged Sword to pierce and wound by Conviction It is the Word of God's Grace to heal those Wounds Act. 20.32 1 Tim. 2.3 able to build us up and give us an Inheritance among them that are Sanctified What Sins are to be avoided how Temptations are to be resisted how Bosom Lusts are to be Mortified and a Pure Acceptable Worship to be performed and what otherwise is necessary to the pleasing of God and Communion with him is taught us in this Word Hereby we are acquainted with our Sin and Misery and told the only way of our Recovery and Happiness The Malicious Arts and Stratagems of the Devil are here unfolded hence we are instructed how to conceive of God how to approach to him converse with him and resemble him Our Steps are hereby directed by unerring Light our Purposes setled and our Course stated and Directions given us how to use our Selves and all we have for the Service of our Maker Redeemer and Sanctifier By taking heed to this Light we are safely led out of those Labyrinths where others have lost their way and may prevent stumbling into the Pit of Destruction into which others fall All the Doctrins and Precepts of this Word tend to our Healing and Recovery to promote the perfection and felicity of our Nature to bring us to the best kind of Life for the present in respect of duty to God comfort to our Selves and usefulness unto others And this in the expectation of the Heavenly Reward enabling us in some measure to partake of the Earnest and enjoy the Fore-tastes of it In short It is by this Word that we believe in Christ and have hope towards God and are enabled to love him and so to dwell in Love Our Faith our Hope our Love to God and Christ are all begun cherished and maintained by the influence of this Word To this we owe that Faith whereby we are vitally united to the Son of God that Hope whereby all our Grace flourisheth and that Love whereby we are Fruitful For as by Faith we have a Spiritual Life by Hope we gather Strength and by Love we become active in all the Fruits of Holy Obedience 2. This will justifie the extraordinary Esteem and Affection that Good Men have for the Word of God Who after such experience of its cleansing Virtue but must profess that the Sayings of this Book are Faithful and True and Worthy of all Acceptation more to be desired than Gold than much Fine Gold sweeter than the Hony and the Hony-Comb Psal 119.93 97. O how love I thy Law saith David It is my Meditation all the Day I will never forget thy Precepts for by them thou hast quickened me O that this Law might be continually within my Heart to enlighten counsel and refresh me that it may dwell richly in me be always an Ornament of Grace to my Head and a Chain of Gold about my Neck Health to my Navel and Marrow to my Bones I heard its Voice I felt its Power and beheld its glorious Beauty and so have been changed into the same Image and shall I not love it If any should seem to wonder and think such Estimations and Affections strange you may answer with the Man born Blind John 9.30 This is a marvellous thing that you know not what it is or why I so much prize and love it when it hath opened my Eyes I was Spiritually Dead and Defiled and by this Word I received quickning and cleansing No wonder therefore if I account all things but Dross and Dung in comparison of this Knowledge Phil. 3.7 8. 3. What Thankfulness should they express whose Hearts have been seasoned with Holy Principles and Affections betimes and their Way cleansed by the Word of God If through the Knowledge of Christ you have escaped the Pollutions that are in the World through Youthful Lusts when so many others are thereby Drowned in the Gulph of Perdition should you not be very Thankful When you behold Multitudes who wallow in the Mire and take Pleasure in the ways of Sin are regardless of God and Christ and the Eternal World you may say I was as Mad as they or should certainly have been so if Free Grace had not prevented What Gratitude do I owe to my Redeemer and his Mighty Spirit who makes me thus to differ Many of you can look back with Joy and Praise upon the Early Experience you have had of this kind You can reflect how early God began with your Souls so early that your Baptism seemed to have had its effects and influence presently so early with some that you cannot tell the very time when God first began Others can remember the special Instruments whom God imployed from time to time to do them good by what careful and prudent Education Prov. 4.4 by what useful Examples of Holy and Affectionate Relations by what convincing Sermons Ch. 5.3 4. by what awak'ning Providences by what repeated Motions and Strivings of the Spirit of the Grace you were brought to the knowledg of your Sin and Duty and enabled to own and avow your Baptismal Covenant and seriously out of choice come under the Bond of it To which Purpose David acknowledgeth God Psal 16.2 7. O my Soul thou hast said to the Lord thou art my Lord therefore I will bless thee who hast given me Counsel and enabled me to receive it who hast enlightened my Darkness removed my Prejudices cleansed me from my Pollutions softned my hard Heart subdued my Enmity and Disaffection to thee and made me willing in the Day of thy Power to come to Christ that I might have Life and Healing by him Lord how is it that thou dost manifest thy Self to me and not unto the World That I should be quickned and cleansed while others are left under Spiritual Defilement and Death 4. What need have Superiors to be careful and diligent to bring Young Persons under their Charge acquainted with the Word of God It is mentioned not only to the Praise of Young Timothy but of those who were concerned in his Education that he knew the Holy Scriptures from his Childhood 2 Tim. 3.15 i.e. those of the Old Testament for scarce any other were then written when he was a Child He was also acquainted with what was necessary to be known concerning Christ as is mentioned in the same Verse under the Expression of the Faith which is in Christ Jesus Women and Children had then the Scriptures in a Language they understood for his Grandmother Lois and his Mother Eunice instructed him very early in the knowledge of God and Christ The Debauchery of Youth is very much owing to the want of good Principles instilled into their Minds in their Tender Years By that means they are a more easie Prey to the Devil having little or nothing to oppose to the Snares he lays for them or to their own corrupt Inclinations You therefore that