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_v	parent_n	3,193	5	9.2231	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59548	The duty and happiness of doing good two sermons : the former, preached at the Yorkshire feast, in Bow-Church, Feb. 17, 1679 : the other, before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, at the Spittle, Apr. 14, 1680 / by John Sharpe ...	Sharp, John, 1645-1714.	1680 (1680)	Wing S2976; ESTC R6463	37,896	84

propose to you these general heads First of all none can want opportunities of doing good that is in a capacity of performing any acts of mercy or charity strictly so called whether that charity be shew'd to the bodies or souls of men Now the instances and expressions of this way of doing good are infinite as infinite as are the wants and necessities of mankind To the bodies of men we do good when ever we contribute to the relieving and easing them of the outward pressures and wants and necessities they lie under Such as Sickness Pain Poverty Hunger Nakedness Debts Imprisonment or any other outward affliction that falls upon them whether that ease and relief be effected by our purse or by our counsel and advice or by our labour and pains And sure some one of these three things there is none so mean or inconsiderable in the world but it is in his power to benefit his poor Neighbour with To the Souls of men we do good whenever by our discourses or other endeavours we make men better or wiser when we instruct the ignorant when we satisfie the doubtful when we reduce those that are misled by error when we establish the weak when we reprove those that do amiss in a word all our attempts and endeavours in what way soever to reclaim men from vice and to bring them to wisdom and sobriety is a Charity to their Souls and whether our designs succeed or not we shall be rewarded as those that have done good in the world Secondly All the acts of Beneficence and kindness nay even of Civility and good Nature are to be accounted among the instances of doing good A man doth good not only by acts of Charity properly so called but by every courtesie that he doth to another He doth good by shewing his respect and good will to all about him by reconciling differences among neighbours and promoting peace friendship and society as much as he can by being Generous and Liberal and Hospitable according to his ability by forgiving injuries and if it be possible making friends of those that did them by being easie of access and sweet and obliging in his carriage by complying with the infirmities of those he converseth with and in a word by contributing any way to make the lives of others more easie and comfortable to them Thirdly A man also doth good when he makes use of that acquaintance or friendship or interest that he hath with others to stir them up to the doing of that good which he by reason of the narrowness of his condition or for want of Opportunity cannot do himself This is a very considerable instance of doing good how slight soever it may seem the man that exercises himself this way is doubly a benefactor for he is not only an instrument of good to the person or persons for whom he beg'd the kindness or the charity but he does also a real kindness to the man himself whom he puts upon the benefaction for God will not less reward his good will for being excited by another Fourthly Another way to do good is to be careful and diligent and conscientious in the discharge of all those Publick Offices which we are call'd upon to execute in the place where we live How burthensome soever these be and how much soever of our time they rob us of yet God by calling us to them hath put a prize into our hands as the Wise man speaks to do much good if we have hearts to make use thereof Fifthly We do good when being in a private Capacity we so carry our selves in all the Relations in which we stand as the nature of the Relation requireth As for instance when being Subjects we conscientiously obey the Laws of the Kingdom and submit to our Governours and promote what we can the publick Peace both of Church and State When being Masters of Families we take care of those under our Charge making sufficient provision both for their Souls and bodies When being Husbands or Wives we discharge faithfully all the Conjugal duties When being Parents we love our children and bring them up in the fear and nurture of the Lord. When being children we obey our Parents in all things When being servants we do our work in singleness of heart not as men-pleasers but as those that account they have a Master in Heaven When having contracted friendships we are secret and faithful and prudent in the maintaining and preserving of them and so proportionably in all the other relations that we stand in All these things though they appear little yet are they in their degree a real good and benefit to mankind and so necessary that there is no living tolerably without them Sixthly We also do good by an honest and a diligent pursuit of our calling and employment There is no Art or Trade that we are bred to but if it be a lawful one it may be of great use to the publick and by well minding it and fairly manageing it we may render our selves very profitable members of the Common-wealth Seventhly and Lastly We may do a great deal of good by our good Examples by being to others Patterns of Piety and Prudence of Diligence and Industry of Peaceableness and Loyalty of Humility and Meekness and Temperance In a word every man that will make himself Eminent in any Virtue will be a Light to the world his life will be a constant Sermon and he will often prove as effectual a Benefactor to those about him by his example as others are by their Counsels and Exhortations And now all these things considered who is there among us in such deplorable Circumstances that he can reasonably pretend to want ability or opportunity to do good in his life Sure I am he must live in a desart and have no Communication with mankind that cannot some or other of these ways be useful and beneficial to them And thus much of our Second Head of Discourse I now come in the Third and last place to make some Application of what hath been spoken And First Since every man is so highly concern'd as we have seen to do good in his life let us all be perswaded seriously and heartily to apply our minds hereunto Let us look upon it not as a by-work a thing to be done now and then as there is occasion after our own turns are served But let us lay out our selves upon it let us propose it to our selves as the great Business of our lives Let us take all opportunities for it let us contrive and manage all our affairs so that they may some way or other be subservient to the carrying on this great work Let this be the end of our gathering riches and the measure of our expending them To heap up riches that we may be rich or to throw them away upon our lusts are both equally intolerable it is the doing good with them that sanctifies both the getting and the

spending them Let this be the compass to steer and direct us in our pursuit after knowledge in our learning Arts and Sciences in the managery of our Trades and employments in a word in the choice and in the prosecution of every design that is proposed to us In all these things the great enquiry is to be what good will they tend to How shall we be rendred more useful to the world if our designs and endeavours as to these matters do take effect Let this be the great rule by which we proceed in the Education of our Children and Relations and the provisions we make for them in the world Let it be our first care to possess them with a deep sense of the duty they owe to the Publick and to furnish them with such qualities as will render them profitable members of it and to put them into such professions and employments as may afford them fair scope for the exercise of those qualities If we thus provide for them though we otherwise leave them never so small an Estate yet with the Blessing of God they have a good Portion Lastly let this design of doing good influence our very Offices of Religion When we make our applications to the Throne of Grace let us be sure to have the Publick always in mind and even when we pray for our selves let it be with this design and resolution that as God in mercy bestows upon us the Blessings and the Grace we pray for we will employ them for the good of others O that we would thus seriously concern our selves in doing good O that we would once lay aside all our little selfish designs and that narrowness and penuriousness of Spirit with which most of us are bound up and with ardent Love and Charity set our selves not to seek his own but every man anothers good as the Apostle exhorteth Secondly if the doing good be so necessary a duty as hath been represented what must we say of those men that frame to themselves Models of Christianity without putting this duty into its notion There is a sort of Christianity which hath obtained in the world that is made up of Faith and knowledge of the Gospel Mysteries without any respect to Charity and good works Nay have we not heard of a sort of Christianity the very perfection of which seems to consist in the disparaging this duty of doing good as much as is possible crying it down as a heathen virtue a poor blind piece of Morality a thing that will no way further our salvation nay so far from that that it often proves a hindrance to it by taking us off from that full relyance and recumbency that we ought to have on the Righteousness of Jesus Christ only in order to our Salvation But O how contrary are these Doctrines to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles How widely different a thing do they make Christianity to be from what it will appear if we take our notions of it from their Sermons and Practices Is it possible that he that went about doing good himself made it his meat and drink the business and employment of his life should set so light by it in us that are his followers Is it possible that they that so often call upon us to do good to be rich in good works above all things to have fervent charity among our selves telling us that all faith is nothing all knowledge of Mysteries is nothing all gifts of Prophecy and Miracles are nothing but that Charity is all in all I say is it possible that they should think doing good so insignificant so unprofitable nay so dangerous a thing as these I spoke of do represent it But I need not further reprove these Opinions because I hope they find but few Patrons but this seriously ought to be reproved among us viz. that we do not generally lay that stress upon this duty we are speaking of that we ought to do Many are ready enough to acknowledge their Obligations to do good and count it a very commendable thing and a work that God will bless them the better for yet they are loth to make it an essential ingredient of their Religion they think they may be Religious and serve God without it If they be but sober in their lives and just in their dealings and come to Church at the usual times they have Religion enough to carry them to Heaven though in the mean time they continue covetous and hard and uncharitable without bowels of pity and compassion and make no use of their wealth or their power and interest or their Parts and industry or their other Talents committed to them for the doing good in the world Far be it from any man to pretend to determine what vertues or degrees of them are precisely necessary to Salvation and what Vertues or degrees of them a man may safely be without But this is certain that charity and doing good are none of those that can be spared The Scripture hath every where declared these qualities to be as necessary in order to our Salvation as any condition of the Gospel Nay if we will consult St. Matth. 25. where the Process of the General Judgment is described we shall find these to be the great points that at the last day men shall be examined upon and upon which the whole case of their eternal state will turn So that if we take the Scripture for our Guide these men at last will be found to be much mistaken and to have made a very false judgment both of Religion and of their own condition Thirdly From what hath been said about doing good we may gather wherein that Perfection of Christianity which we are to aspire after doth consist It has been much disputed which is the most Perfect life to live in the world as other men do and to serve God in following our employments and taking care of our families and doing good offices to our neighbors and discharging all other duties that our relation to the publick requires of us or to retire from the world and to quit all our secular concernments and wholly to give up our selves to Prayer and Meditation and those other exercises of Religion properly so called This latter kind of life is so magnified by the Romanists in comparison of the other that it hath engrossed to it self the name of Religious None among them are thought worthy to be styled Religious persons but those that Cloyster up themselves in a Monastery But whatever excellence may be pretended in this course of life it certainly falls much short of that which is led in a publick way He serves God best that is most serviceable to his Generation And no Prayers or Fasts or Mortifications are near so acceptable a Sacrifice to our Heavenly Father as to do good in our lives It is true to keep within doors and to attend our devotions though those that are in appearance most abstracted