Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	bring_v	zeal_n	zealous_a	13	3	8.7723	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44431	The almost Christian discovered, in some sermons on Acts 26, 28 with a blow at profaneness / by the R.R. Ezekiel Hopkins, late Lord Bishop of London-Derry ; to which is added the upright Christian discovered, gathered out of the judicious treatises of William Bates, D.D.	Hopkins, Ezekiel, 1634-1690.; Bates, William, 1625-1699.	1693 (1693)	Wing H2728; ESTC R13653	54,869	143

this day And that whether in Publick Private or Secret The Day is not done when the Church dissolves The whole of it is holy to the Lord. Walks and Visits are not to be the Evening-Work of the Sabbath but holy and spiritual Conferences Those who have Families to look after be best employed in seeing them spend the vacant time of the Sabbath in Holy Exercises sc Reading the Scripture giving an account what Truths they have been taught joining with them in Praises and Prayer unto God In all of these in their Courses and Order till Night calls for Repose Fifthly The Ordinances of Jesus Christ Which we profane when we neglect or are remiss in our attendance upon them Some particular Characters of a profane Person here follow First He is a profane Person that thinks and speaks but slighly of Religion Religion our chiefest Excellency the Crown of our Beings But have we not many who deride Piety and make a scoff of Religion Who take up their Religion by chance never examining it Thinking that any may suffice whatever it be Secretly despising the holiness and strictness of others thinking they make more ado to get to Heaven than needs But indeed they are not too precise but these are too profane who contemn Religion as unnecessary and superfluous Secondly He is a prafane Person who neglects the Publick Worship of God when he hath opportunity and ability to attend it God's special Presence is in two places Heaven and the Church Thirdly He is a profane Person who neglects the performance of religious Duties in private Every House ought to be a Temple dedicated to God And every Master ought to be a Priest to offer to God the daily Sacrifice of Prayers and Praises Such profane Families as those which are without them God ranks with Infidels and Heathens and devotes them to the same common Destruction In the Morning Prayer is the Key that opens to us the Treasury of God's Mercies and Blessings In the Evening it is the Key that shuts us up safe under his Protection and Safeguard Excuses are vain and cannot take off your Obligation Are you ignorant Many are the helps that God hath provided you Are you incumbred with your Worldly Affairs The weightier they are the more need you have to ask Counsel and Direction of God Are you bashful and modest Alas be ashamed to sin be ashamed to talk loosly be ashamed to neglect thy Duty before thy Family but be not ashamed to pray and do thy Duty Our Saviour hath told us Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and 〈◊〉 my words in this adulterous and sinful Generation of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with the Holy Angels Mark 8.38 What will become of them who are ashamed of their Duty Fourthly He is a profane Person that performs Holy Duties slightly and superficially Our whole Hearts must go into our Holy Duties And the strength and vigor of our Spirits must diffuse themselves into every part of them to animate and quicken them Sacrifices of old were commanded to be offered up with Fire And no other Fire could sanctifie them but that which shot it self down from Heaven The which was ever after to be kept burning for that use Our Christian Sacrifices of Praise and Prayer must be offered with Fire and that Fire must be d●rted down from Heaven The Celestial Flame of Zeal and Love which comes from Heaven and hath a natural Tendency to carry up our Hearts and Souls thither But indeed commonly our Duties are either offered up with strange unhallowed Fire some unruly Passion of Hatred Self-love and Pride Or else they are very cold and heartless Our Prayers are dull and yawning and drop over our Lips without any Spirit or Life in them Fifthly He is a prosane Person that performs Holy D●ties for Worldly Ends and Advantages For what greater contempt of God can there be than to make his service truckle under base Designs A Hypocri●e is the most profane Wretch that lives He entitles the Holy God unto the Wickedness he commits and makes God the Patron of his Sin And the Wound that Religion receives from Hypocrites is far more dangerous than that which open 〈…〉 upon it When he that speaks 〈…〉 ●●●● this tempts Men to think that all Religion is but Mockery Sixthly He is a prosane Person who makes what God hath sanctified common and unhallowed And have we not many such prosane Persons Many that abuse the Holy and Reverend Name of God about ●ous Matters Who make mention of him in their ●dle Chat. but are mute and dumb when any thing should be spoke to his Praise There are but two Ends that can warrant and justifie the use of any of God's Names Titles and Attributes And they 〈◊〉 1. God's Glory and 2. The Edisication of our ●es and others God's terrible Name is so full of Glo●● and Majesty that it should never be uttered but where the Discourse is serious and weighty Those who rend it with Oaths and Blasphemies ought to be punished by the Judges And would to God Laws 〈◊〉 put in severe Execution to cramp the 〈…〉 Wretches Others ●ill up their fan●har Tattles with the Name of GOD and LORD making them to express some 〈…〉 and fill 〈…〉 their Discour●s These God will not hold guiltless He holds 〈◊〉 contemned and will revenge the Dishonour 〈◊〉 they do him by it What! Will you dare to 〈…〉 the great Name of God without considering 〈…〉 it a Name to be sported with To be tost to and fro upon every light and vain Tongue Whenever we ●●ntion it we ought to how our hearts in the dee●est pr●stration before it to which all the Powers an● Heaven and Earth bow down with most humble Veneration Canst thou in Duty easily compose thy self to reverence the holy and dreadful Name when thou hast accustomed thy self to name him without any respect in thy common Discourses Let me beseech you O Christians as you tender his Glory of which He is jealous whensoever you speak of God or but mention his Name do it with an holy Awe and Dread of his Divine Majesty And you who are Masters of Families and have Children beware that you stop in them the growing Sin of profaning God's Name To attest any thing by their Faith or by their Truth is a wicked Oath more impious in effect than louder ones The By word Marry is no less than swearing by the Virgin Mary It is a notable Device of the Devil to bring foolish masked words into common use 1. That they may swear who use them though they know it not And 2. That by using unknown Oaths they may be brought in time to take up known ones Vehement Asseverations be also dangerous beginnings of Oaths By the customary use of them we shall insensibly be tripping upon an Oath This and more see p. 163. and up and down on the third Commandment To return Many profane God's Sabbaths invade impiously the Time that be hath set apart for himself his own Worship and Service Many make the Bible their Jest-Book prostituting those Expressions which God hath sanctified to convey to us the knowledge of Himself and of Eternal Life unto the Laughter and Mirth of their loose Companions Those very words which the Holy Ghost inspired for the Edification of the Church the Devil inspires into these prosane Wretches for their own Dammation and the Damnation of those that have pleasure in such horrid Profaneness Seventhly He is a profane Person who despiseth Spiritual Privileges and E●ments Upon this very account the Scripture sets a black an● li●le Brand upon Esau Left there be any For●●●or or profane Person as Esau who for one morsel of Meat sold his Birthright Heb. 12.16 They are profane who vilifie the Ministry in Themselves and in Others Who dishonour God's Ambassadors And who despise his Children whom God so highly honours as to adopt them into his Family He who despiseth him that is begotten despiseth him likewise that begetteth Contempt of Children and Servants argues secret contempt of the Master and Father Now lay these things to your own Hearts and bring them home to your own Consciences and see whether you are in none of these particulars guilty of Profaneness Do none of you think slightly of Religion accounting it a politick Design or a needless Preciseness Are none of you negligent in the Publick Worship of God Nor in Private and family-Family-Duties Or if you perform them is it not very carelesly and perfunctorily Or if you seem zealous in them is not your Zeal excited by some Temporal Advantages and Worldly Designs Do you not make that Common and Vnholy which God hath made Holy Either by abusing his Name polluting his Sabbaths or vilifying his Word in your ordinary Raillery Lastly Do none of you despise Spiritual Privileges and the Persons who are invested with them If you do how fair soever your Lives and Actions may be although you may think the rude debauched Sinner at a vast distance from your selves and account him the only profane Person yet certainly this black stile belongs as properly to you And you are prosane Violaters of the First Commandment Which requires you to take the Lord for your God and accordingly to honour and reverence Him and whatsoever appertains unto Him FINIS

Man falls short of a saving Change and that usually in these Particulars First In that it is a fickle and unconstant Will their Desires may be sometimes violent and passionate as if they would take Heaven by force and wrest Mercy out of the hands of God their Prayers may be importunate and earnest as if they would take no denial but this violent Spirit is soon spent and this full Bent of their Souls soon flaggs and returns again as formerly ever and anon into the commission of some foul and gross Sins Such a Will as this is though at first it hurries them apace yet it is soon tired and leaves them short of Grace and Heaven The Christian Race is not to be run by so many fits but by a constant course and progress still getting ground upon our Lusts still approaching nearer to the Kingdom of Heaven But it is with such men as it is with the Sea when a spring-tide covers all the shoar when it ebbs it discovers nothing but Sands which before was nothing but deep Water so these affected and flowing Christians they discover that there is nothing but barren Sands at the bottom that they are as unstable as Water A Christian is not made in a Fit neither is the Work of Grace wrought in a Passion but it is a setled solemn and constant frame of Heart that brings a man to Christ and Salvation Secondly The Will of an unregenerate man is never universally changed still they reserve to themselves some Lust or other that they will not part withall and their Resolutions concerning their sins are such as the Resolution of Naaman the Assyrian 2 Kings 5.18 In this thing the Lord pardon thy Servant that when my Master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there and he leaneth on my hand and I how my self in the house of Rimmon c. The Lord pardon thy Servant in this thing So men may be peremptory in their resolutions to forsake their Sins yet still there may be some one dear Lust or other that makes them cry with Naaman Lord pardon thy Servant in this thing Now they will be willing to receive Christ if they may be allowed in one Darling-Sin now the partition that any one Sin makes between Christ and the Soul must needs hinder the soul from closing with Christ as if you throw but any little thing between the branch and the stock that it is ingrafted into the Sap will never be communicated to it and so it will never grow up to be a Plant. Thirdly The Will of an unregenerate Man is usually irrational it would obtain the End and yet not use the Means Grace possibly they would have but they cannot bring their averse Wills to close with the performance of those unpleasing irksome Duties wherein God usually bestows Grace and by which he conveys Grace to the Soul Could they be holy with a wish and a sudden fancy that inflames them then none should be better Christians than themselves could they enter into Heaven by being willing there is none then should shine above them in Glory but when there is so much hard and unpleasing work first that they must be born of God and after they are true Christians they must exercise every Grace and perform every Duty that may sit and prepare them for Glory they look upon these things as too difficult which makes them sit down with idle Wishes short both of Grace and Glory their Wills are very irrational they would have Heaven but they slight Grace the way to it and possibly they would have Grace but they cannot bring themselves to the performance of those irksome and unpleasing Duties in and by which Grace is usually bestowed and conveyed Fourthly The Will of an unregenerate Man is usually general not a particular Will If God should ask them Sinner what would you do to be saved They would answer Any thing every thing But let God bid them leave such and such a Sin perform such and such a Duty they answer with Naaman Any Sin but that any Duty but that So it is with these Men Oh any thing in the general but when God brings them down to Particulars to do this or that then they are willing to do just nothing Now I have shewed you how far the Will it self may be changed in unregenerate persons they may wish after Grace and resolve to be better and to do better and yet fall short of saving Grace and also what it is that hinders this change from being a through work of Grace what it is that obstructs them when they are almost that they are not altogether Christians Fifthly As for the Life and Conversation There may be a great change wrought in the Lives of unregenerate persons who yet fall short of Christianity The Apostle 2 Pet. 2.20 speaks of such who having escaped the pollutions of the world through Lust were again entangled therein and overcome c. It seems to escape the pollutions of the world is no Argument of true Grace unless they be also cleansed from the pollutions of the Heart for sin may be left merely from external and forced Principles such as Terrors of Conscience for the heavy Judgments of God When God sets up a flaming sword between a sinner and those sins which he accounts his Paradise here now to leave sin upon such a strait as this is is to leave it with a great deal of reluctancy as when a Mariner in a storm casts his goods over-board into the sea it is with his will indeed but it is with an unwilling willingness he is frighted and terrified to it so when the soul is tossed with the Tempest of divine wrath and when ready to be split upon the Rock of Ages and sunk and be swallowed up in a Sea of Fire and Brimstone he is forced to light himself and to cast this and that dear Lust over-board this he doth from his will but it is such a forced will as that of Mariners who throw their Treasure over-board and as soon as the Tempest is over the one gathers up his floating wrecks and the other his sins These men leave their sins as Lot's Wise left Sodom they dare no longer continue in it lest Fire and Brimstone rain upon them and yet when they do leave them they give many a wishly look back again and have strong and vehement desires after them That Reformation of Life that only frees us from debauchedness that falls far short of true Christianity and of making us altogether Christians this is that with which many sooth up themselves when they they reflect back upon the wild extravagances of their former time how outrageously wicked they have been riotous drunkards unclean blasphemers and now they find themselves deadned to these sins and grown men of staid and sober lives they straightway conclude Certainly this great change could never be made on them otherwise than by the renewing work of the Holy

5.7 8. Ye did run well who hindered you This perswasion cometh not of him that calleth you This perswasion that you are Christians cometh not of him that calleth you possibly it would be well with them if they did not think they were so Sirs if so be that thoughts of your being Christians and in a state of Grace did encourage you to walk worthy of that holy Calling if the hopes of your good and holy estate do engage you to purifie your selves as God is pure as they will work if they be right and genuine then still entertain and cherish them but if they turn to loosness remissness or presumption here suspect them to be the overweening Conceits and Elevations of a carnal heart and such as will certainly hinder you of what you thus fondly imagine your selves to be hinder you from making further progress in the Ways of Christianity in regard you take up false conceits that you are Christians already Fourthly Another Ground whence it is that forward Professors many times fall short of true Christianity It may be when they are already gotten far then the Devil especially doth all he can to hinder them when they have gone far towards Grace and Christianity then he unites all his Force and Subtilty to stop them from proceeding further lest they get from under his power and jurisdiction he knows if they once become Christians they are then almost out of his reach and therefore whatever lust be in the Soul he will then especially stir it up whatsoever reserve of Temptations there be he will then send them upon the Soul For none are more assaulted with Horrours and multiplied Temptations than those who make a great progress towards the Ways of God and are near to the Borders of true Christianity because then the Devil suspects that he shall lose them and that they are even revolting from him When they begin to move towards Heaven and labour after true Grace and Holiness the Devil sees that ordinary Temptations are not then sufficient to secure them that those Lusts that before hampered and captivated them at his pleasure will not now so easily prevail for he finds them too resolute too rough and untractable to deal with he begins then to fear to what a Rebellion this may grow and therefore he sets upon them with all his power way-lays them with all Ambushments circumvents them with all his Wiles and Stratagems and though these be only Armies and Musters of Shadows which a man might break through without any danger would he but arm himself with noble and undaunted Resolutions yet with these the Devil assaults and undermines them and that incessantly and doth at last stop them in their course towards Grace if not beat them back again to their former course of Prophaneness Luke 11.24 25. When the unclean Spirit is gone out of a Man he walketh through dry places seeking rest and finding none he saith I will return to mine house whence I came out and when he cometh he findeth it swept and garnished V. 26. Then goeth he and taketh seven other Spirits more wicked than himself and they enter in and dwell there and the last state of that Man is worse than the first i e. When men have cast out unclean gross Lusts by an external Sanctification that the Devil seems to be dislodged when he seeks to return again to his ancient feat and possession he finds the Heart swept and garnished swept from the filth of common Sins and garnished with common Graces as its ornaments so that there seems no re-admission or re-entrance of this unclean Spirit and then he goes and takes to himself seven other Spirits worse than himself that is as I conceive stronger Temptations and more prevailing Lusts and by them he enters and dwells there and defiles that clean-swept house and not only keeps the Sinner from being better but makes his latter end worse than his beginning Fifthly When Men have gone far towards Christianity natural Conscience then leaves them and ceaseth to excite and provoke them to a further proficiency Conscience is the Spur that quickens wicked men to make that progress which they make Now when it hath brought them past common Sins to known and common Duties then it leaves them and urgeth them no further and so they sit down far short of true Grace and Christianity which they endeavoured after Well then let me say to such men as St. Paul to the Galatians chap. 5.7 You did run well who hindred you Was it the difficulty of Religion or the strength of Temptation the Flatteries and Allurements of the World the Violence and Rage of your own Lusts But might you not nevertheless have armed your selves with peremptory Resolutions Might you not undauntedly and victoriously have broke through all these Were you not able when you stood still or when you gave back as frighted and terrified at these things to make one step and another step still forwards Could you not proceed still further and press onwards through all these Yes you might have gone much further if you would you might have made a further progress though all Hell had armed it self against you therefore if you perish there will be cause and reason to blame your selves you can only charge your damnation on your own wilfull sloth and negligence This may suffice for an Answer to the Third General Whence it is that Professors that have gone far towards Christianity yet fall short of Grace and of being true Christians They were too nice to encounter Difficulties they were apt and forward to think well of themselves they were too faint-hearted to cope with Temptations loth to disoblige the World and would not proceed further than spurred on by a natural Conscience and therefore wilfully fell short through their own Sloth and Negligence of Grace here and of Glory hereafter Fourthly The last General propounded was to shew you the Folly and extreme Miscry of those who proceed thus far as to be Almost Christians and yet will not be perswaded to be such Altogether The Apostle seems to be very passionate Gal. 3.1 3. O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the Truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you c. Verse 3. Are ye so foolish having begun in the Spirit are ye now made perfect by the Flesh What are you mad Are you besotted Are you bewitched out of your common Reason and Understanding that having begun in the Spirit and made so far progress in the Ways and Knowledge of Christ that after all this you should fall back again to carnal fleshly Rudiments Why the same may I say to many You that are Professors Why who hath bewitched you Why are you so foolish as when you have not only begun but proceeded far towards Holiness and true Grace that yet you should give over and sit down in a state of Nature and Unregeneracy short of