Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	bind_v	law_n	obligation_n	1,168	5	9.4651	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90367	A practical discourse concerning the redeeming of time by Edward Pelling, D.D. chaplain in ordinary to Their Majesties, and rector of Petworth in Sussex.	Pelling, Edward, d. 1718.	1695 (1695)	Wing P1085; ESTC R42376	51,075	127

these main Offices to heighten their Zeal in the Performance of them to dispatch them with a very quick Hand and with a two-fold Expence of Industry and Labour because otherwise they cannot make up that Time which hath been lost nor compensate for what they have been wanting in For these things they ought to have done before they would have been necessary Works had they been very frugal of their Hours because to do Good is a Law of Religion and Nature too which bindeth perpetually Now as the Payment of a New Debt is no Discharge of an Old Arrear so neither is the doing of Good Offices at present a Defeisance of former Obligations The answering one's Duty at one time is no Requital for Omissions at another unless there be a large Supplement of Righteousness and Charity To use our Saviour's Words in another case Matth. 23. 23. These things ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone 'T is this Addition of Industry and Zeal which makes Men accepted with God as was observed before from that Rule that is to be in the Day of Retribution the Last shall be as the First and the First as the Last that is Every Man shall receive according to his Works And that Peoples Acquisitions may be the same 't is necessary there should be the same Proportion of Good Works either as to length of Time or increase of Industry Labours in the Vineyard if they be late are to be double to entitle the Workmen to an Equality of Reward as was shewed particularly from the Instance of St. Paul who laboured more abundantly than the rest and thought himself obliged to do so because he had not been so early a Convert as others When therefore you set your self about this most necessary Work of Redeeming your Time reflect upon your Life past and consider seriously what Sins you have been guilty of what sorts of Righteousness you have been most averse to what Duties you have been defective in what fair Opportunities of doing Good you have wilfully omitted and accordingly apply your whole Mind Strength and Soul to the Exercise of all those Vertues the Practice whereof you have hitherto neglected and pursue this Course with such Resolution Constancy and Vigour as if you were now to retrieve your Original Innocence and as if you had no other Business in the World for the future but to do all manner of Good to the utmost of your Power Let him that stole steal no more saith St. Paul Ephes 4. 28 But that is not all It follows Rather let him labour working with his hands the thing that is good that he may have to give to him that needeth You see where Injustice hath abounded there Industry and Charity must abound and that much more and so in all other Cases wherein a Man hath been either wanting or excessive he must attone for it by a most lively operative and earnest Zeal to do all the Good he can that he may be full of Good Works though the Remainder of his Time be short CHAP. VIII IV. THE next Way of Redeeming your Time is Not to let any one Day slip away wholly without promoting your Eternal Interest in some degree and measure The wiser and stricter sort of Moralists among the Old Heathens advised People to make choice of a Scheme of Vertue for the Rule of their Lives and to order all their Actions according to it Day by Day As thus To begin their Works with earnest Prayers to God to honour God before all things to have a Religious Regard for Oaths to reverence their Parents to love their Friends to delight in good Men to keep the Body with all its Faculties and Desires in subjection for very Shame to abstain from every thing that is Evil both abroad and in private to practice Vertue with Sincerity of Heart to look upon Riches as a thing that perisheth and as such to slight them to study how to resemble God in the Dispositions of the Mind and to make that ones Aim and Pleasure to be contented with ones Condition and at all times to submit to God's Providence who often gives good Men these outward Matters with a sparing Hand to be inflexible and constant in a vertuous Course to weigh ones Actions well before-hand and to consider the Nature and Consequence of them to observe Temperance and Moderation to be meek and patient and just and cautious in all cases Such Rules as these some old Moralists directed People to live by daily And then every Night before they went to sleep they directed them to examine themselves strictly how they had spent the Day that if they had lived according to Rule they might have for their present Reward the Pleasures and Joys of a Good Conscience but if they had transgress'd that they might repent and thereby learn the better how to amend their Lives the Day following To this end before you take your Repose say they ask your self wherein you have transgress'd What you have done And so look over all your Actions the Day past two or three times that no one thing may escape Scruteny and Examination This was great Advice especially for Heathens to give And it brings to my remembrance what Suetonius relates of one of the Roman Emperours that good natur'd Prince Titus who for the Sweetness of his Temper was call'd The Love and Delight of Mankind Considering once as he was at Supper that he had not done that Day such Acts of Kindness and Bounty as he was wont to do said Diem perdidi I have quite lost this Day Some Greeks that speak of this Story render his Saying thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or This Day I have not reigned I have not been a Prince As if all his Greatness consisted in doing Good daily and as if he had thrown away his Authority and Power in suffering a Day to pass without some considerable Testimonies and Marks of his Goodness He remembred Pythagoras his Rule of Self-examination at Night and of Repenting for Failings And however the Story be told it comes all to one in effect And no less a Man than St. Jerome takes particular Notice of it in his Comments on the Sixth Chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians and makes use of it to the Reproof and Shame of negligent Christians If saith he the Emperour Titus a Man that was a Stranger to the Law to the Gospel to the Doctrine of our Saviour and the Apostles if he was so concerned for the loss of one Day how should not we be concern'd for the loss of so many Days and Years too And the Truth is since Jesus Christ doth expect that our Righteousness should exceed the Righteousness even of the strictest Professors among the Jews the Scribes and Pharisees we cannot expect less than the greatest Condemnation if at last it cometh short of the Righteousness of Philosophers and Heathens As we are under the Laws and Discipline of