Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	action_n	good_a	life_n	1,000	5	4.5123	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A97266	Self-examination with the likeliest means of conversion and salvation, or, haypy [sic] and welcome advice, if it meets with a soul ingenious : the which being thought (by many) worth the transcribing, at no small charge, is now published for the good of all / by R. Junius.	Younge, Richard.	1663 (1663)	Wing Y181A; ESTC R43839	23,147	32

Christian but an Hypocrite may do somewhat like it A man may attain to many gifts and seeming graces and make a great progress in Religion yea he may do all as to external duties and worship that a true Christian can do and yet be but almost a Christian As observe what God saith Isai 58. of that people They seek me daily They delight to know my way as a Nation that did righteousness and forsook not the Ordinances of their God They ask of me the Ordinances of Justice They take delight in approaching to God vers 2. yea in the next verse They were a people much in fasting and afflicting their souls Wherefore have we fasted say they and thou seest it not And yet for all this they were no better then a generation of Hypocrites as you may finde if you read the Chapter Some neither hear nor do as prophane sinners some both hear and do as true Believers some hear but do not as hypocritical Professors A man may believe all the truths of the Gospel all the promises all the threatnings all the Articles of the Creed to be true and yet perish for want of saving faith A man may be converted from a course of prophaneness to a form of godliness from a filthy conversation to a fair profession and yet be but almost a Christian A man may be outwardly reformed and yet not savingly renewed c. CHAP. XI BUt would you know who are indeed Christians as Saint Paul was and who but almost Christians as Agrippa was Or rather wouldst thou rightly know the sincerity of thine own heart of thy profession of thy Religion which as one would think should be the earnest desire of every ingenious soul then ask thy conscience these questions Art thou sensible how evil and wicked thou art Dost thou seriously lay to heart first the corruption of thy nature by reason of Original sin secondly thy manifold breach of Gods righteous Law by actual sinne thirdly the guilt and punishment due to thee for them both And in case thou art truly sensible of thy wretchednesse it is a good sign that thou art in some forwardnesse to be recovered And indeed the very first step to grace is to feel the want of grace and the necessity of a Redeemer And the next way to receive mercy is to see your self miserable Dost thou find that the Word and Spirit hath wrought an apparent change in thy judgment affections and actions to what they were formerly is Christ thy greatest joy sin thy greatest sorrow and grace the prime object of thy desires Art thou as conscientious alone and in private where God onely sees thee as if thy greatest enemy or all the World did behold thee Dost thou make conscience of evil thoughts grieve for thy unprofitableness under the means of grace for the evil which cleaves to thy very best actions and for sins of Omission Whatever thou enjoyest on this side Hell dost thou think thy self unworthy of it Dost thou more fear the want of grace then confide in what thou hast Dost thou endeavour to leave every sin and make conscience of every duty Dost thou make Gods glory the chief end of all thy actions and aims Dost thou desire the conversion of others Then my soul for thine thou art more then almost a Christian Again the love of grace in another is a good proof of the life of grace in our selves a child of God cannot love a sinner as a sinner Psal 15.4 Prov. 29.27 So a sinner cannot love a child of God as a child of God Briefly when a mans heart is throwly renewed by grace his mind savingly enlightned his conscience throwly convinced the will truly humbled and subdued the affections spiritually raised and sanctified and when mind and will and conscience and affections all join issue to help on with performance of duties commanded then is a man altogether a Christian But contrarily he that takes up with a form of Godliness hating or denying the power thereof is an Hypocrite ipso facto And let men take heed of that sin with two faces and whose reward is the deepest place in Hell as appears by Matth. 23. And the rather for that wickedness does most rankle the heart when it is kept in and dissembled Besides the scab of Hypocrisie does not seldom break out into the plague sore of Apostacy Julian the Apostate was first Julian the Professor To conclude if thou findest not these notes of sincerity in thy self let it be the earnest desire of thy soul and thy principal endeavour to obtain the same Otherwise woe unto thee For outward profession where there is want of inward truth and real practice does but help to draw on and aggravate judgment The Scribes and Pharisees had not heard of so many woes but for their glorious pretences and had the Figtree in the Gospel been utterly bare and leafless it had in all probability escaped the curse Thus mistake through ignorance is one great cause of many mens falling short of their hopes and of their being but almost Christians while they think themselves Christians indeed CHAP. XII BUt Secondly Pride is another cause We are so proud by nature that we have an eye to see our beauty but not our deformity our parts but not our spots our seeming righteousness but not our real-naughtiness our spiritual wretchedness We have all for the most part a self righteousness Every man says Luther is born with a Pope in his belly But it must be the work of grace onely that will make us see our extream vileness and that will make us acceptable to God and it must be the work of grace that must shew a man his want of grace It is the Believers Motto The least of Saints the greatest of Sinners But the Carnal mans Motto is I thank God I am not as other men Eph. 3.8 1 Tim. 1.15 Luke 18.11 But the onely way to become good is first to believe that we are evil Thirdly Another cause is Laziness and the love of the World Almost thou perswadest me to become a Christian says Agrippa to Paul but he could not find in his heart to become one altogether for then he must live a more strict life and relinquish the worlds wicked customs So Balaam could be willing to die the death of the righteous but to part with his covetousness and live the life of the righteous he could not finde in his heart And therefore Christ profited him nothing Hell is to be had with ease but the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence Matth. 11.12 Many shall seek to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but shall not be able because they did not strive Luke 13.24 Yea many run well in the way of Christianity for a while but they do not hold out Gal. 5.7 But perseverance is the crown of all grace and Heaven the crown of perseverance It is said of the truly righteous he shall scarcely be saved 1 Pet. 4.18 And it