Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	act_n	perform_v	prayer_n	1,291	5	7.6185	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60609	The great salvation in another world, ascertain'd as to faith, and consider'd as to practice by William Smith, D.D.	Smith, William, D.D.	1696 (1696)	Wing S4279; ESTC R13254	14,500	31

and inconsiderate Minds say to all this Can they dare they Controul the Validity of such a Divine Attestation as the Gospel Exhibits for another World Either they must plainly and positively prove that the whole Gospel is False and the Religion of it a Cheat and our Saviour an Impostor or they are utterly lost and undone by their Atheistical Pretensions upon which they licence themselves to live in their Vitious and Leud Practices or at best to act only for their Worldly Ease and present Pleafures I say again are they sure Infallibly sure that they have Arguments sufficient enough to over-rule the Truth of Christiantty so as to adventure the Eternal Loss of their Souls upon it A Truth which even to this day hath so controul'd all publish'd Contests by fair Trials of Learning that the Vast Nations which do now Embrace a Religion in opposition to it are necessitated to let their People creep in the dark shades of Ignorance to preserve their fond Persuasions from any Learned Discourses or Rational Inquisitions And now who would Venture the Loss of an Eternal Safety upon the hazard if it were no more that Christianity should not prove to be true at last The very Doubt of it upon such likelihoods of Truth do not so much commend the Discretion of such as take a liberty from thence to act only for the Concerns of the Vain and Transient World and then lose their Souls at last This is the last Part of my Arguing Application to ascertain the Existence of the Great Salvation And now having dispatch'd my First Subject of Discourse upon that future Salvation which the Jaylor Enquired after and made the best Use and Application I could think proper as to the Ages Irreligious Humour I am fairly prepared to undertake the next Discourse I promised you And that is To demonstrate by an uncontroulable Argument that there is an Obligation upon every Man whomsoever in the very instant in which they now exist without any pretensions to make any delay of following the Jaylor's Example in seeking after and then acting what they should do to be Saved And to make this Argument plainly Convincing I shall move to the Conclusion of it from these three Approveable Premises apartly to be Considered I. First I hope I need not Question your Belief but that the only Season in which it is possible for any Man to persue and finish the Work of his Salvation must be acted in the compass of his Mortal Life For when that short Scene is over there will be no after Attempts to be made no Rafts to save Life after that Natural Shipwrack The foolish Virgins knock'd too late for Admission The undressed Guest had no Apology for himself when the time was elaps'd in which he might have put on his Wedding Garment This the First II. Secondly as my next Promise let me persuade you to consider what the Worth is which must be done in that short Season before you can secure your Salvation at last And that I may assist your Thoughts and Memories therein give me Leave to offer a summary Account in few Words of that Work which is to be done to attain your Salvaion First I desire you to consider what Work your Intellectual Faculties have to perform that is fully to understand what that whole Will of God is which must be done if you expect ever to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven saith our Saviour Mat. 7. 21. And are you sure that you have done all that is morally possible in that Point to avoid the Danger of perishing for the willful Ignorance of your Duty in any Part of it And then have you inform'd your selves how many unruly Passions you are to subdue how many impetuous Appetites to be restrain'd how many Temptations to contest and overcome sometimes in Cases which may perhaps make a Self-denial as severe as if you were obliged to pluck out your righ Eye or cut off your right Hand as our Saviour advertiseth Mat. 5. 29 30. in a particular Case Then consider how nice and numerous the Cases of Justice and a peaceable Life are and then to understand how necessary it is that Satisfactions are to be undertaken when Breaches are made as to either Duty After that I may put you in mind how many Possibilities of doing good God hath allowed you and for the Omission of which you will be accountable at the last Day Mat. 25. Then advertise your selves how many Prayers and Acts of Devotion will be sufficient to answer St. Paul's Injunction of performing them without ceasing 1 Thes 5. 17. And are you sure you have discharged your Duty of receiving the holy Sacrament with that Frequency which St. Paul intimates 1 Cor. 11. 25. and which holy Men in holy times carefully practised But to shorten this my Undertaking take all the Commandments into a general View of your Consciences and examin your selves whether you live knowingly deliberately and habitually in the Transgression of any one of them And if so then consider what must follow that is either your inevitable eternal Ruin or a timely Repentance And when it is come to the Case of repenting are you sure you have found out the true Notion of that necessary Duty and the various Acts and Circumstances of performing it It may cost you some Labour to be delivered from the mistaken Senses of them both And then when you come to lead a new Life the chief End and Design of repenting and that you can't but observe the many Failings and Imperfections which the greatest Care can't always avoid And that then nothing else but an intire Sincerity of Endeavour will avail Your next Work then must be how to acquit your Consciences as to the Reality of that Sincerity A Case that hath perplexed some very good Mens Minds unto their Lives End Now take all this whole work into one View and seriously think with your selves whether every Man is not necessarily oblig'd on that account instantly to enter upon the Jaylor's Design in Enquiring what he should do to be Saved But if it be Objected in confront to my Representation of this Work that the Apostles did only advertise the Jaylor to Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and he should be saved Ver. 31. In Answer to this it 's to be presumed that the Apostles intended that he should afterward take upon him and proceed in the whole Discipleship of Christ of which Faith was to be but an entring and an initiating Grace and Duty Had the Jaylor gone no further than Believing he had stumbled at the Threshold of all his Hopes as too many amongst us I fear have done when they pretended to make Faith as it were an abridged Sum of the Gospel-Condition not considering that if they would enter into Life besides their Faith they must keep All the Commandments Mat. 19. 17. to which Faith was only designed to be a Beginning and afterward to be a constant and necessary Attendant