Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	child_n	honour_n	parent_n	5,183	5	9.2349	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B09529	The young man's remembrancer, and Youth's best choice: being an exhortation to conversion, in two anniversary discourses from Eccl. xii. I.	Mead, Matthew, 1630?-1699.	1700 (1700)	Wing M1563A; ESTC R180504	46,254	164

for his Portion he expresses a delight in his choice Psalm 16. v. 6. The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places yea I have a goodly heritage This is the Language of a Soul affected with its own Felicity and the pleasure it takes in an All-sufficient Good So it was in his chusing the Precepts of God says he I have chosen thy Precepts Psalm 119.173 and in the next Verse Thy Law is my Delight A Man loves what he chuses and where there is Love in the Choice there will be Pleasure in the Service for to love there is nothing grievous Thus you see what this chusing God does imply and carry in the Nature of it and that is the First Thing Secondly Let me give you the Reasons why it is the Duty of Young Ones thus to chuse God Why One great Reason is because God commands it that is the First Pray mind that of the Apostle 2 Epistle John v. 4. I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy Children walking in the Truth as we have received a Commandment from the Father Pray mind these were a Ladies Children to teach us there are none too great to be good these Children were found walking in the Truth not taking a step or two making it a Business by the by as your Genteels and great Persons use to do but they persisted in it they were steady in the Ways of God and that in their Childhood against all the Tide and Stream of Youthful Lusts Now this was that God had commanded Mark ye though they were Children yet God commands this of them I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy Children walking in the Truth even as we have received a Commandment from the Father But where do we find this Command that Youth should devote themselves to God You have it in the Text Remember now thy Creator in the Days of thy Youth And there is a Command older than that Psalm 78.5 6 7. He established a Testimony in Jacob and appointed a Law in Israel which he commanded our Fathers that they should make them known to their Children What for That they might set their hope in God and not forget the Works of God but keep his Commandments Nay our Lord Jesus Christ strictly enjoins it Matt. 6.33 Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof First here does not only not a Preheminence first above all but it notes a Priority first before all It is very Observable that our Saviour in that Prayer he gave to his Disciples which you call the Lord's Prayer he gives but one Petition for Temporal Things and Five for Spiritual and that for Temporals is neither the First nor the Last Not the First for Hallowed be thy Name is before it Nor is it the Last for Deliver us from Evil comes after it to teach us that we must begin and end with God In Mat. 21.28 The Command of the Father to his Son is Go Work to Day in my Vineyard The command of God brooks no Delays the Promises of God have Respect to the Future but the Command looks to the Present To Day if you will hear his Voice harden not your Hearts Why did God under the Law require for himself the first Sheaf of the Harvest the first ripe Fruits the Firstlings of the Herd and Flock but to teach us that our first Affections our first Strength our first Desires and first Choice and first Service should be Devoted to God For it is the command of God and that is the great Reason and Rule of all Obedience that is one Another Reason is this the Nature of your Extract and Original requires this Pray where had you your Beings Young Ones how came you into the World Who made you The Text tells you who this is in the very Notion God is mentioned in thy Creator There is a Concatenation of Reasons for the Creatures Owning and Chusing the Service of God included in this Notion of a Creator First He made us and not we our selves Psalm 100.3 The Prophet Isaiah says He spreadeth forth the Earth he gives Breath to the People upon it and Spirit to them that Walk therein Isaiah 42.5 So Elihu says Job 33.4 The Spirit of God hath made me and the Breath of the Almighty hath given me Life and is it not Reason that he that made us should b owned by us The Name of Father and Mother bespeaks all Duty and Honour from you Children If Children could begin their Duty in the Cradle and continue it a Hundred Years it could never Pay what Parents Deserve for all their Sorrow Care Pains and Cost Therefore Solomon is much in Pressing this Argument upon Children Prov. 23.22 Obey thy Father that Begat thee Mark that Begat thee he gave thee thy Being and Despise not thy Mother that brought thee Forth We are ever bound to Honour and Obey them for what they have done for us These Rational Beings do require it which they have been the Means to Derive to us and to Nourish and Nurse up This is highly Deserved at our Hands yea though they grow Old and Impotent and can serve us no longer O what then does God deserve from us who is much more the Author of our Being than our Father that Begat us or than our Mother that Bare us God is the First Cause Parents are but the Second Causes of Generation and the Second Cause depends upon the First and cannot act without it Therefore it is said of God In him we Live and Move and have our Being Therefore Man is nothing in our Production if compared with God and is it not Reason then that he made us should be owned and Honoured by us that he that is our Creator should be our Ruler We Own our Service where we Receive our Existence we are Debtors to God every one of us We Owe him our selves all we are and all we have for we are not our own we are the Lord's Propriety at his Disposal he hath the absolute Dominion over us as giving Being to us It is the Apostle's Argument Whether we Live or Die we are the Lord's de jure and it should be so de facto therefore we ought to Live to him Rom. 14.7 8. This Glory is the White at which we should aim Living and ●●ying He is the Centre in which all the whole Circumstances of our Life should meet for he made us therefore Remember thy Creator Secondly He made us after his own Image and that is a Peculiar Priviledge of Creation beyond what other Creatures injoy There is the Print of God's Hand upon all his Creatures but there are none bear his Image but Angels and Men and this you are Stampt with in the very Womb. Not one of you but have the Image of God upon you the Youngest as well as the Oldest Though indeed the Moral Image of God which consists in Righteousness and Holiness that is Blotted out and Lost by the Fall we