Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	affection_n	love_n	love_v	1,882	5	6.6827	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53957	A practical discourse concerning God's love to mankind written for the satisfaction of some scrupulous persons / by Edward Pelling ...	Pelling, Edward, d. 1718.	1694 (1694)	Wing P1083; ESTC R21771	58,579	154

confirm our Hopes to rectifie our Wills in such a Moral Way as is suitable to voluntary Agents and to induce our corrupt Natures with a super natural Principle of Grace for the performance of those Duties which God now requires in such a measure as God will accept of Thus from the beginning to the end of God's Oeconomy there is nothing on his part but Love Love Unspeakable Love Unfeigned and after all these various and astonishing expressions of it to us all for any of us to Revile that most Holy and Beneficent Being as the cause of Men's Sins as the Author of Men's Damnation as the hater and destroyer of Men's Souls by pretended absolute and irresistible Decrees this is such a complication of Blasphemy Ingratitude and other horrible Wickedness as would need another Sacrifice if that already offer'd upon the Cross were not of Infinite Value WERE Men possest with a true Sense of God's Love and his Works for us methinks nothing more would be needful to endear Religion to us and to engage us to Piety Charity and Holiness of Life Such a mighty influence would that Sense have over every one of our Souls to stir us up to every thing that is pure lovely and good And in order to it that I may now proceed to the more practical part of this Discourse give me leave to lay before you these six following Directions First That you be careful to entertain in your Minds Genuine Apprehensions of God Secondly That you do not Judge of God's Love by the Event of things Thirdly That you do not measure his purpose as to things Eternal by his present Acts of Providence in dispensing some special Favours here Fourthly That you do not think Uncharitably of others upon a presumption that you your selves are of the number of God's Elect. Fifthly That you diligently perform those things which are necessary in order to the final participation of God's Love Sixthly and Lastly That you endeavour to make God all possible returns of Affection CHAP. IV. Six Practical Inferences from this Point First That we should have Genuine Notions of God and what Notions are such First THAT you be careful to entertain in your Minds Genuine Apprehensions of God That Wise and Vertuous Heathen Plutarch in his Book of Superstition shews That though the Fancy of an Atheist be a very false and foul imagination and an Argument of extream blindness of Mind yet such a one is in a better case than he who believing the Existence of God takes him nevertheless for a Frightful Hurtful Tyrannical Cruel and Savage Being And he draws a Parallel from himself I had said he much rather People should Report that there never was such a Man living as Plutarch than that Plutarch was an inconstant and fickle Man addicted to Anger Revengeful upon every slight occasion moved out of himself by little Provocations or apt for ordinary disrespects to behave himself like an outrageous and unmerciful Creature To imagine there is no God is to Disbelieve to conceive hard and unworthy Notions of God is to Slander and Reproach him I call those hard and unworthy Notions of God which are unsuitable to the Perfections of so excellent a Being so Glorious for the infinite Goodness Rectitude and Beauties of his Nature He is absolutely perfect in himself the Supream Chiefest and purest Good without the least mixture of any thing that is a stain to perfection or a Debasement and Diminution of it This is Essential to the Deity and necessarily included in the Notion of God And as he is the most perfect Being in his own Nature so is he too the cause and spring whence all those Perfections are derived which are in any degree remarkable in his Creatures especially of those Perfections whereby all Rational Beings Angels and Men excell the rest whatever Excellencies are in these according to the measure of their Capacities we must suppose to be in God in the highest degree because it is unconceivable how he can communicate that to others which he himself hath not Therefore in framing our Idea's of God we must abstract and lay aside all Conceptions which include Defect or any thing that is a Disparagement to Excellency Though it be impossible for us poor Finite Creatures to have Adequate Notions of that Infinite Being or to Understand and Know him fully as he is especially while we our selves are in this Mortal State Yet this is the best way of raising our Minds to the clearest and truest Apprehensions of him by ascribing to him all that Argues true Excellency and Perfection and by separating from our Conceptions of him whatever serves or seems to Degrade Lower and Vilifie a most perfect Being And to hit this matter rightly we should observe what is Vile in our selves Defective and Reproachful in our own Nature and be sure to remove and throw away all that from our Conceptions of God For though God hath given us divers excellent Faculties yet in each of these there is something that doth Deprave Vitiate and is a Blemish to it In our Understanding there is much Darkness In our Wills there is an Averseness to follow Reason many times though it be clear a crookedness that makes us stand awry and hold off from that which is Good And in the lowest Faculty of the Soul there are many Passions and Affections which most of all Argue Defect in us and are the greatest Disparagement and Stain to Humane Nature Therefore they are called Vices because they are a Blemish and Pollution to that Spiritual Being the Soul and so great a Blemish that the foulness of them is discoverable by the ordinary Light of Nature Frowardness Rage Malice Spitefulness Lying Insincerity Cruelty Crossness of Temper Love of Mischief and the Pleasure some take in Oppressing Hurting Ruining Poor People and many times too when there is no other Reason for such Barbarous Actions but onely the Fierceness and Violence of a Blind Passion These are very ugly things and such as appear very ugly in the Eyes of Heathens themselves They Argue great Defect and Corruption in Humane Nature and are a Disgrace to it They are the Efforts of Base Minds and Signs of a very Scurvy Temper Actions that Proceed from very Degenerate Spirits and evil Hearts and such as are hateful to all Men whose Natures are at all Refin'd and Improv'd These Qualities therefore being so inconsistent with all Excellency and so diametrically opposite to Perfection we may be sure they cannot be in God nor can any thing like them have room in his Divine and Super-excellent Nature To represent that most Glorious Being as one that from Eternity disposed of Men's Lots without any Consideration or Foresight of their Actions as one that made Mankind with a stedfast Resolution to Damn the Generality of them or at least took Advantage by one Man's Sin to consign the greatest part of his Posterity to Everlasting Torments To represent him as one that

he Fed all and Provided for all that were Hungry because he had enough to have done it if he would enough and to spare and yet would not vouchsafe so many Perishing Souls so much as the Crumbs that fell from his Table To instance in these plain Cases is enough to clear the Point under our present Consideration The Scripture tells us positively That Christ Died to give himself a Ransome for all and that he bought even those that deny him and bring upon themselves swift Destruction Therefore he intended on his part that all the very worst of Men should be put into a Capacity of receiving Benefit by his Blood If this was not his design nor his Bloodshed to that purpose he cannot with Truth be said to have Bought and Died for them which yet the Scripture expresly affirmeth A Sufficiency of Merits is not enough to denominate him every Man's Redeemer That Sufficiency must have been given on his part and that too with an intent That it should be a Ransom for every Man otherwise we may say by parity of Reason that he was the Redeemer also of the Devils themselves because there was a Sufficiency as to that too His Merits were so Infinite by reason of the Infinite Dignity of his Person that they would have served them too had God been pleased to accept of the Ransom and had Christ intended to lay it down for them In short unless we will shake the very Principles of Piety and offer direct Violence to Truth and common Reason we cannot deny any People room in our Saviour's Heart or shut them out of his kind purposes and wishes or think them deprived by a fatal antecedent Decree of the means and hope of Peace The Opinion is so repugnant to the Notion of the Divine Goodness and Clemency and so contrary to the Express Word of God and so inconsistent with that great Love of Christ that abundance of Grace that Tenderness of Mercy those Riches of Goodness and Bowels of Compassion which appeared so gloriously throughout the Work of our Redemption 4. FOURTHLY But there is one Text of Scripture more which I have reserved for my last Argument because it carryeth such a clear light with it as is enough to strike any Eyes that are but open to receive it It is the Principle supposed by St. Paul as a Truth acknowledg'd and taken for granted by all Faithful Christians then 2 Cor. 5 4. we thus judge That if one died for all then were all dead Where the Apostle's purpose is to shew the whole World how strictly they were concern'd to make the Lord Jesus a return of the most Ardent and Operative Affections from the consideration of that miserable and lost Condition whereinto the whole World without exception had fallen and wherein the whole World must have continued had not Christ come to offer up his Soul for them All were Dead that is in a deadly forlorn and undone Condition all were concluded under Sin The Medium to prove this Universal Ruine is taken from the Universality of the Redemption of the World All were Dead because One Died for All which shews that Christ Tasted Death for as many as were lost for as many as needed a propitiation to restore them to Life and Happyness otherwise the Argument would have been altogether short and inconclusive if Christ had made an Atonement for God's Elect only If one Died for a few this indeed would have proved that those few were in a lost Condition but how would it have follow'd hence that therefore all were Dead Rather it would have follow'd that all were not Dead nor stood in need of a Redeemer if one had not Died for the Redemption of all Mankind FROM all these premises the Truth of the point I proposed to consider will I hope evidently appear to those whose Minds are not quite Captivated to an Opinion that the coming of the Son of God into the World was a strong Argument and a plain Expression of God's Sincere and boundless Affection to the Children of Men. Those means which are necessary for Reasonable and Voluntary Creatures in order to their Happiness the Father of Lights hath of his own good Pleasure and Grace afforded Mankind in such abundant measure that if any People Perish the fault must be in themselves Christ's descending from Heaven was to declare those Truths which could not be discover'd or made known without Divine Revelation His Cloathing himself with Humane Flesh was that he might the better Converse with us and Transact the Office of a Mediator and be in a suitable Condition to Die at last for us His Holy Life and Heavenly Doctrines were to direct our Feet into the Ways of Peace that he might be not onely the Glory of his People Israel but a Light to Lighten the whole Gentile World His Miracles were to shew the greatness of his Person and his Divine Authority that he might be relyed on as the sure Hope of all the ends of the Earth His Blood that was shed by his most bitter and dolorous Passion was to speak far better things than the Blood of Abel or of all Abel's Sacrifices It was the Blood of Atonement to make Peace between an offended God and a wicked World to procure Remission of all Sins that were past to deliver Mankind from a necessity of Perishing and to open the ways of Mercy to all that would desire to enter into the Kingdom of God It was the Blood of the New Covenant that was confirmed upon the Cross to ascertain People of all God's Promises in it on condition of Faith on their Part and of Obedience to God's Laws for the future It was the Blood of Sprinkling to cleanse us from all Filthiness of Flesh and Spirit to Purifie unto Christ a peculiar People Zealous of good Works Besides these means of Grace and Salvation now mention'd God was pleas'd of his abundant Mercy to add divers more after our Lord's Ascension for the particular Application of his Son's Merits to the Soul of every Believer that the Blood of Christ might not be shed in vain like water spilt upon the Ground Great was the Company of Preachers whose business was to Publish the Gospel to every Creature to proclaim the Terms of the New-covenant to shew the necessity of repentance for the compleat and actual remission of sins and to invite all Nations to turn unto the Lord to perswade them to seek and flie unto him and to gather up those Mercies which he had purchas'd for all And so the descent of the Holy Ghost was not only to strengthen the Apostles and their Fellow-labourers for the Discharge of their great and most Charitable Office but to enable all those to whom they should Preach to receive with meekness the engrafted Word which is able to save their Souls His Gracious and Kindly Operations are to enlighten our understandings to help our Infirmities to subdue our wild and unruly Affections to