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	love_n	parent_n	6,450	5	9.2665	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26782	Considerations of the existence of God and of the immortality of the soul, with the recompences of the future state for the cure of infidelity, the hectick evil of the times / by William Bates ...	Bates, William, 1625-1699.	1676 (1676)	Wing B1101; ESTC R10741	84,039	330

conspicuous marks of Gods Justice Nay by wicked means they are prosperous and happy 3. The best Men are often in the worst condition and merely upon the account of their Goodness They are opprest because they do not make resistance and loaden with sufferings because they endure them with patience They are for Gods sake made the spectacles of extreme misery whilst the insolent defiers of his Majesty and Laws enjoy all visible felicities Now in the judgment of Sense can Holiness be more afflicted if under the displeasure of Heaven or Wickedness more prosperous if favour'd by it But this is such a monstrous incongruity that unless we abolish the natural Notions of the Divine excellencies it cannot in the least degree be admitted If therefore we confine our thoughts to humane affairs in this life without taking a prospect into the next World where a new order of things presents it self what direful consequences will ensue This takes away the Sceptre of Providence from the hands of God and the reverence of God from the hearts of Men as if the present state were a game wherein Chance reigned and not under the inspection and disposure of a wise just and powerful Governour If there be no Life after Death then Natural Religion in some of its greatest Commands as to Self-denial even to the suffering the greatest evils rather than do an unjust unworthy action and to sacrifice Life it self when the Honour of God and the publick Good require it is irreconcilable to that natural Desire and Duty that binds and determines Man to seek his own felicity in conjunction with the Glory of his Maker But it is impossible that the Divine Law should foil it self that contrary obligations should be laid on Man by the wise and holy Lawgiver And what terrible confusion would it be in the minds of the best Men What coldness of affection to God as if they were not in the comfortable relation of his Children but wholly without his care What discouragements in his Service what dispair in suffering for him What danger of their murmuring against Providence and casting off Religion as a sowre unprofitable severity and saying Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency or exclaming with Brutus in a desperate manner when he was overcome in battel and defeated of his design to recover Rome from Tyranny O infoelix Virtus itane cum nihil nisi nomen esses Ego te tanquam rem aliquam exercui And the enemies to Holiness restrain'd by no respects to a superiour Power will obey their brutish Lusts as their supream Law And if such diseases or troubles happen that the pleasant operations of Life cease they may release themselves by a voluntary easy Death and fall into a sleep never to be disturb'd so that they would be esteem'd the only happy persons In short if we onely regard things as they pass in the sensible World we shall be in danger of being over-tempted to Atheism and to rob God of his Glory and Worship and that Faith Fear Love and Obedience that are due to him Of this I will produce only two Examples Diagoras saw a Servant of his stealing from him and upon his denial of the theft brought him before the Statue of Jupiter thundring and constrained him to adjure Jupiter for the honour of his Deity and of Justice and Fidelity to strike him dead at his feet with Thunder if he were guilty of the fact and after three times repeating the dreadful Oath he went away untouch'd without harm Upon the sight of this Diagoras cryed out as in the Poet Audis Jupiter haec nec labra moves cum mittere vocem Debueras vel marmoreus vel ahaeneus Dost hear This Jove not mov'st thy lips when fit it were Thy Brass or Marble spoke And whereas he should have been convinc'd that a Statue could not be a God he impiously concluded that God was nothing but a Statue and from that time was hardned in irreclamable Atheism So that other Atheist reports of some of the Romans that they successfully deceived by false Oaths even in their most sacred Temple in the presence of their supream Deity the reputed Avenger of Perjury And because Vengeance did not immediately over take Guilt he acknowledged no other God but the World and Nature unconcern'd in the governing humane affairs The disbelief of the future state strikes through the vital principles of Religion that there is a God the rewarder of Mens good or evil actions It may be objected That God's Dominion over the reasonable Creature is absolute For Man ows to him intirely his Being and all that his Faculties can produce so that without reflection on Justice God may after a course of obedience annihilate him To this I answer The Sovereign Dominion of God in its exercise towards Men is regulated by his Wisdom and limited by his Will that is Holy Just and Good Hence though the Creature can challenge nothing from God as due to its service yet there is a Justice of condecence that arises from the excellencies of his own Nature and is perfectly consistent with the liberty of his Essence to bestow the eminent Effects of his Favours on his faithful Servants His Holiness inclines him to love the image of it in the Creature and his Goodness to reward it His Government is paternal and sweetned by descending Love in many Favours and Rewards to his obedient Children There is a resemblance of our duty to God and his rewards to us in the order of Nature among Men. Parents may require of their Children entire obedience as being the second Causes of their natural Life And Children may expect from their Parents what is requisite for their welfare Now God who is the Father of Men will be true to his own Rules and deal with them accordingly but in a manner worthy of his infinite Greatness There is not the least obligation on him but his unchangeable Perfections are the strongest Assurances that none of his shall obey him to their final prejudice 'T is a direct contrariety to his Nature that Men for Conscience of their Duty should part with temporal Happiness in hopes of eternal and lose both 2. It may be objected That such is the essential beauty of Holiness that it should ravish our Affections without Ornament or Dowry that 't is its own Reward and produces such a sweet Agreement in the Rational Faculties as fully compensates the loss of all lower delights and sweetens the troubles that befal a vertuous man in the sincere practice of it And on the contrary that such is the native foul deformity of Sin as renders it most odious for it self that 't is its own punishment being attended with inward disquiets and perplexities much exceeding all its seeming pleasures Therefore we cannot certainly infer there will be future recompences But this receives a clearer Answer 1. 'T is true that Holiness is most amiable in it self