Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	master_n	respect_n	servant_n	1,977	5	7.1711	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B10013	Advice to readers of the common prayer, and the people attending the same. With a preface concerning divine worship. Humbly offered to consideration, for promoting the greater decency and solemnity in performing the offices of God's publick worship, administered according to the order established by law amongst us / by a well-meaning (though unlearned) layick of the Church of England. T.S.	T. S. (Thomas Seymour)	1691 (1691)	Wing S2829; ESTC R183777	88,165	210

time before they begin which will be very helpful in this case and this would prevent an Abuse which I have observed in most Churches that have Prayers twice a day viz. that the Sextons are so careless and negligent that the Church-doors are not so much as opened when the Clock strikes the hour appointed for Prayers so that many that out of Devotion or by reason of the difference of Clocks come a little to soon are fain to wait a great while at the Church-door for entrance Secondly The natural Preparations are An ability to read distinctly that which we are to read and also to say perfectly by heart the daily Psalms and Hymns that so we may perform our part with the better grace 'T is certainly a thing most evident to any that will consider it that what is to be done in the sight and presence of Almighty God and especially when it is to be done most immediately for his Glory and Honour I say that it should be done in the most excellent manner that is possible and therefore it will need no proof to those that believe what I have already written on that Subjects that this which I advise is a great and most concerning Duty And I the rather insist on it because I have observed that many who profess to be great Approvers of the Common Prayer and of all the Orders of our Church do yet seldom or never read their part of the Psalms or joyn in the Repetition of the daily Hymns and Responses as they are ordered which I impute to their great carelesness in those preparations and that many who do what is required to be done yet do it so ill that it is apparent they want some excitation to their Duty hereabout I shall therefore intreat all that are defective herein to employ their leisure hours to practise a more perfect and punctual way of Reading which will be a thing of credit and use to them otherwise as well as here I have sometimes been present when Men of good Quality and Estates have taken upon them to read some Pamphlet in a Coffee-house but read at such a pitiful rate that a Man could scarce make sence of it or be ever the wiser for hearing it which is a reproach to them among wise Men for whatever the defects of their Education have been it might easily have been supplied by their own diligence if an inordinate love of Company and other Divertisements did not make them too much to decline profitable Retirements And I would intreat all Parents and Masters to consider the obligation that is upon them in this respect and to look that their Children and Servants do the same We owe not onely our selves but all ours to the honour and service of Almighty God And if Children were taught as they should be their duty to worship and praise God in the publick Assemblies and encouraged therein by the example of their Elders it would be a mighty Argument to perswade them to learn the most distinct and graceful way of Reading I have been much pleased to see the good success of this care in some Parents that are well affected to the Common Prayer whose Children read their part of the Psalms with a better grace than many when grown to be Men can do And when these do attain to a perfection herein it will beget in them a great delight in that heavenly Exercise and make them love to attend the Prayers and this doubtless will be a mighty Antidote against Prophaneness and Schism and both plant and root in our minds that Doctrine whence a holy Life cannot but spring II. That being prepared as before we should endeavour our selves to perform our part of this Service in the best manner we are able There are some things which I have observed in the performance of the People that seem to be very indecent As first That they speak when they should hear● repeating together with the Minister and often before him the Prefatory Admonition wherewith the Minister is to begin thi● Service and the Absolution which he give● them after the General Confession the Commandments also and many other thing● appointed for the Minister alone which i● by all wise men held very improper and indecent The Church indeed hath ordered some things to be said after the Minister with great advice As 1. The General Confession wherein we solemnize that Repentance that gives us admittance into the reconciled state that which makes all our Services acceptable to God And there is this great advantage in the conjunction of all therein and that with the Voice as well as the Heart That the professing of our Repentance in that manner hath all the circumstances that may make it satisfactory and obliging at least as far as the Church can provide in the case Therein every one doth as it were accuse judge and condemn himself before God and the whole Congregation for sins contained under the general heads therein mentioned the particular instances whereof are onely fit to be repeated in secret Confession to God himself and if he do it seriously with a Devotion suitable to the Words it is to me a more satisfactory sign of penitence than the enlarged Confessions used in the other Way wherein some to seem fervent or to make themselves so run into the enumeration of sins beyond due measures being as I think beyond what the Congregation in general can be supposed though Christians of a sort inferiour to themselves at least in their own judgment to be ordinarily conscious that they have been guilty in And 't is also obliging for this should be a mighty argument against returning to sin when we have solemnly confessed our folly and guilt therein before God and the Congregation For having as it were called God and Man to witness the truth and sincerity of our Repentance it will be a high aggravation of our carelesness if we suffer our selves easily to be drawn to sin again and that either in omitting our Duty or committing Iniquity in any kind and it will engage every good man to watch and pray lest he should enter into temptation and be hurried into the sins for which he hath so condemned himself The 2d is the Lord's Prayer which because it teacheth the forming of the affections and desires of our Souls unto the most excellent order and raising them by degrees to the highest perfection and because it comprehends the heads of whatever is to be sought by us at the hands of God and that with greatest brevity and plainness it is necessary to be learned of all even from their first attainment of the use of Reason and Speech And this the Church cannot better provide for than by engaging them always to say it after the Minister and besides it implies a declaration of our Christian Unity and a renunciation of all Heresies and Schisms as far as we know them And we do the greater honour to God and our blessed-Saviour

a time to turn themselves to seek the Pleasures that are always Savory and Lasting of which we can never surfeit But now these Lusts of the World that is Covetousness of Worldly Riches as they are more insatiable than those of the Flesh so they have scarce any recesses they follow us into our Closets and to Church accompany us when Sickness shuts us into our Chambers and even on our very Death beds and nothing but the utter destruction of our Faculties can eradicate this Love of Money These Lusts give us no time or composure for the Hearty and Zealous Service of God but tho' our Bodies be present our Minds being agitated with Thoughts about the World cannot intend what is done to the Honour of God and their Souls Health as they ought Therefore Men of this Temper can't be good Readers till they be converted and their Conversion is very difficult as our Saviour hath taught Matth. 19.24 There remains therefore but this Way to make them Read well That it be for their Worldly Advantage so to do and that none will employ them except they can approve themselves to Read very well and this will make them Study it and it may be Do it as well to the Peoples Edification though not to their own Acceptance with God as the most Pious Men. And it is my humble Request to those who Imploy Readers That they will be sure they do so before they Admit them to the Place and will not suffer themselves by any Importunity Interest Relation or any other thing to be drawn to Accept an ill Reader to the dishonour of this Service whereby we Glorifie God and in which we enjoy the Highest and most Heavenly Delights in our own Minds and Spirits if a good one may be got But because there may be defect of such and that they may be forced to accept such as need the Instruction Incouragement and good Examples of the Ministers to whom they belong my Request is farther That neither their reserving themselves for long and earnest Preaching which I fear God will not bless when set up to the contempt of the Prayers nor Greatness nor Studies nor Business nor any thing else may hinder them from Reading sometimes themselves according to that good Order of our Church which they are many ways obliged to observe and the more obliged for that they receive a large share of the Dignities and Benefits thereof I beseech them therefore that once a Month at the least they will most Devoutly and Solemnly Read the Service of the Church in their own Persons that thereby the Readers may see they have a great love for the same and be excited to do their Part the better in imitation of their Masters For certainly nothing will be so prevalent as the Example of those on whom they depend to make Readers more studious and industrious to do their Duty And to this I also beseech them to add one thing more as that which will be of great avail to beget a reverence and good esteem for our Prayers in the Minds of the People and draw them to attend more Constantly and Devoutly upon them and that is That the Ministers of the Parishes will never omit but when constrained thereunto to be themselves present at the Prayers when ever they are read in their own Churches And also that here in this City where Churches are very near in some of which Prayers are read twice a day that all the Neighbour Ministers will come as often as they can possible to such Prayers It hath been a great Grief and Offence to some good Men as I have heard them complain that they see so few Ministers at the daily Prayers at St. Christophers a Church that stands most advantageously to give Example and Influence to the City and Kingdom where Prayers are read twice every day and the Example of a devout Attendance and good Performance of Eminent Ministers of our Church in that Place would for ought I know Influence the whole Nation unto a greater Reverence for the Publick Worship according to this Order Others I have heard complain of the Ministers retiring into the Vestry all the time of Divine Service as if they came to Church to Study and not to Worship and were not as much concerned in the Common Prayers of the Church as the People I know not what their Plea may be in this Case but I have not been able by my own wit to excuse them to those that have blamed them for it But the worst Complaint of all hath been That of many Ministers who at the time of some eminent Lectures will sit in a Coffee-House till Prayers be almost done and rather let their Company be wanting to the Solemnity of God's Holy Worship than leave a Pipe of Tobacco before it be smoak'd out or not take their usual Dose of Tea or Coffee I confess I have been much troubled to hear of it and am more so to mention it especially thus publickly if the thing were not notorious and in no way that I know of I can assist the Reformation of i● so well as in this which I hope will plead my excuse with all good Men. I know Ministers may be many ways hindred sometimes from attendance at daily Prayers and I am against those that are so censorious in imputing their omission to ill causes no man desires to preserve a greater Reverence and Respect for the Clergy of our Church than my self but yet I cannot excuse them wholly in this matter and therefore I humbly beg that it may not be reckoned any sign of dis-respect that in my Zeal for the Service of God I have proceeded thus far since I believe the good or ill State of this Church depends much on the Esteem or Contempt that is had of its Publick Service of God and the Good Order appointed for the same and upon the Love and Reverence or Neglect and Contempt of it by its Ministers which will very much influence the Minds of the People in this matter I have but one thing more to beg of them which I must crave leave to press with some earnestness which is this That in their Sermons they frequently inculcate the Duty of being constant and devout in attending the Common Prayer and that they prove to their People That it is not only possible but much more easie to be devout in the use of Forms of Prayer than in the Ex tempore Way Methinks when Papists out of a Malicious Design to divide us that they may destroy us and Separatists out of Mistakes of some Scripture Expressions and an Opinion of Experience cry up the way of Ex tempore Prayer in opposition to the Publick Liturgy to the distracting Mens minds and dividing the Church I say surely since it is so the Ministers of our Church should not think themselves unconcerned about the Esteem their People have of the Common Prayer and their Devotion in the use of