Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	age_n	zeal_n	zealous_a	16	3	8.7917	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69591	The spirit of Christianity	Blount, Walter Kirkham, Sir, d. 1717.	1686 (1686)	Wing B3352; ESTC R19098	56,878	144

to convert people to Jesus Christ are far preciouser then those which are given for their subsistance and the sweats pains and fatigues of the Missioners who go to preach the Word of God to Infidels in the remotest Countries are of far more value then the Treasures that are sent thither The soveraign perfection of Christian Charity is the fervent zeal of these holy Followers of the Apostles who quit all to seek in the most salvage and barbarous Climates the stray Sheep and to satisfie the thirst and hunger they have for the salvation of so many abandon'd people to make them know Jesus Christ and to bring them back to his Flock In these concurrences of wants Charity ought to dispose of her help according to the different degrees of necessities she finds But when the want is equal in two different persons It is says St. Augustine either Proximity of Bloud or Alliance or Friendship or Neighbourhood or Society or Country or the Considerations of other Ties that must regulate the preference of assistance due to one rather then to another For although Jesus Christ be come into the World to make by the Sword of Christianity division betwixt the Flesh and the Spirit yet he is not come to destroy the Duties of Bloud and to dispence with a Christian for what he ows his Relations because these Duties are grounded on Equity which is their principal foundation Thus what we owe to our Kindred is of a more strict obligation then that which is due to an unknown Person and a Stranger So a Pastor is more oblig'd to his Flock a Superior to those whom God has put under him a Prince to his own Subjects then to all others and in the order of Christian Charity a Friend ought to be more dear then one unknown a Domestick then a Stranger and a Christian then an Infidel and when they are both equally in need you are oblig'd to help the one before the other This Morality is founded on Justice and Reason which orders it thus and on the conduct of our Lord who carried himself after this manner between the Jews and Gentiles St. Paul thus instructs Christians St. Thomas and all Catholick Divines are of this opinion For the rest when the Rules I have establish'd are duly considered 't will be found that our Soul being our Neighbour a thousand times more intimate then our dearest Friends or our nearest Relations our first obligation is to exercise Charity towards her which we cannot do as we ought but by endeavouring her perfection preferably above all things For if we neglect her who will take care of her And if we give all but our selves to God is not that to keep our selves the better share because God will have us our selves and not what is ours as St. Jerome says The conclusion of this Discourse is that extream necessity in temporals and the salvation of a Soul in spirituals ought to have preference in the strictest obligations of a Christian So that the most laudable and holy of all Charities is to provide for spiritual wants as to procure assistance for People who are in a deep ignorance of all things relating to their salvation and without help But in assisting Aliens and Salvages must those be forgotten that live in the midst of us and are in the same wants can we hearken to what 's told us of the miseries of Persons of another World as one may say without beholding what we daily see amongst those we know It is this obliges me to repeat what I have already said and which is so important that it cannot be too often repeated That the greatest Zeal requires the greatest Knowledge That if Christian Prudence ought to be animated by Charity Charity ought to be govern'd by Prudence and justly to discern the order wherein Charity ought to be practised nothing more needs to be recommended to a Christian then what the Apostle recommended to those of the City of Philippi to whom he Preach'd this Vertue That their Charity may more and more abound in knowledge and in all understanding To be neither indiscreet nor rash because the greatest defect in Charity is want of light which renders this Vertue subject to an infinity of Illusions But intirely to purifie its practice 't is best to discover the Illusions that so they may be dissipated CHAP. V. Of the several Illusions to which the Practice of Charity is subject ALL Christian Vertues are in their Practice subject to Illusions through the false Principles every one establishes to himself in the exercise of Piety Sometimes out of conceitedness and oftnest out of weakness and ignorance But after all there is none of them more subject to this then Charity For as this Vertue has much lustre 't is pretended to upon very many occasions chiefly when we think to surprize and dazle Men as is usual enough And it is not to be wonder'd at if the spirit of dissimulation creeps into the exercise of this Vertue which is the most pure and sincere of all others since the corruption of this Age has so powerfully authorised all Artifices and Disguises In effect Self-love which always seeks its own interest by so many windings about cannot better conceal it self then under the veil of Charity It is through this Artifice it scrupulously sticks to the Duties of Good-manners to excuse it self from essential Duties It seeks conspicuous Charities to avoid obscure ones 'T is zealous where there should be no zeal and remiss where there should be Thus the falsly Charitable is uneasie to his own Domesticks whilst he is civil and officious to Strangers he grounds a tranquility and satisfaction on the state of his own pretended perfection and is only froward and disquieted at others perfections he is perpetually praising Christianity and quits nothing of his own Rights He gives Alms and pays not his Debts He maliciously praises false Vertues to take occasion to authorize real Vices He justifies his own ill Conduct only by censuring that of others and scattering Flowers over all he would poison he wounds the Reputation of every one under the deceitful veil of charitable and respectful Words But to discover methodically all the Illusions wherewith the Spirit of Charity is so often perverted I reduce them to certain Heads which are as it were their Sources Natural Affection is the First and withal the most ordinary Illusion which creeps into the Spirit of Charity One loves his Neighbour 't is true but 't is only for the good qualities which render him amiable one looks on him but on the most agreeable side and where he is most pleasing It is the wit quality humour and disposition one considers and the tenderer one is to all these Considerations of Flesh and Bloud the more insensible he is to all those of Vertue and Grace One believes 't is loving his Neighbour as he ought and living charitably with him to speak nothing vexatious to any one to be very