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	owe_v	parent_n	5,339	5	9.4563	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A10152	The righteous mans way Wherein are given certaine directions, how men may profitably meditate upon the Commandements of God: that so through such manner of meditation, the Lordes Commandements may finde place in mens hearts, to serve in them as guides unto all their actions and thoughts. Directions most needfull for these times, seeing most men laying the commandements of God aside, doe leade their lives in disobedience to Gods commandements; and this, not onely to the scandall of Christian religion, but also to the extreame hazard of their own salvation.	Proctor, Thomas, fl. 1621.	1621 (1621)	STC 20411; ESTC S110512	50,262	77

in common experience that men living under Governments doe usually informe themselues before every Act of Importance whether the Law permit it or no so that they will not so much as cut a tree break open a hedge or the like but they will informe themselues first saying May I lawfully doe this Why should we not be as carefull of the Law of God consulting with it also before any Act Speach or Thought informing our selues whether we may doe such or such a thing or no If men doe not thus consult with the Law of God before-hand unvailing by its help the sinns which they are about it is their fault and such a fault as giues advantage to sinne so that it is committed before a man is aware of what it is he is about But the child of God that looketh for the rich Gifts of God in Christ may not be so negligent of the Law of God but rather with the Prophet David to make it his studie to thinke on the Commandements meditating also on them some now some another time for thus doing not onely the sinnes will appeare to the soule in their own vilenesse but also the soule will be fore-possessed with a dislike and loathing of them and this to the abating of the force of all occassion which shall be offered to commit or fulfill them Thus if you would use your selfe to look every sinn a in the face umasked wistly that so you may be discouraged from committing the same then would the incouragements or exhortations unto Righteousnesse and Godlinesse given us by the Apostles of our Lord Iesus Christ the more prevaile over us to divert us from sinning And truely we ought never to be unmindefull of our deliverance from the bondage of sinne by the conversion of us unto Christianity we ought never to forget the blessed benefite we received by our fore-fathers conversion from Heathenisme to Christianity Wherfore that you may as a fresh be put in minde hereof and the exhortations of the Apostles hearkened unto by you I thinke fit in this place to set before you some of them that so they may work upon you to dispose you to a willing keeping of the commandements of God Ephesiaus 2. 1. the Apostle saith thus And you hath hee quickened that were dead in trespasses and sinnes wherein in time past yee walked according to the course of this world and after the Prince that ruleth in the aire even the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience Among whom also we had our conversation in time past in the lusts of our flesh in fulfilling the will of the flesh and of the minde and were by nature the children of wrath as well as others But God who is rich in mercy through his great loue wherewith hee loved us even when we were dead by sins hath quickened us together in Christ by whose grace yee are saved And chap. 4. 1. I therefore being prisoner in the Lord pray you that you walke worthy of the vocation whereunto yee are called with humblenesse of minde and meekenesse with long suffering supporting one another through loue endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace And chap. 5. 8. Yee were ●nce darkenesse but are now light in the Lord walke as children of light approving that which is pleasing to the Lord. And having no fellowship with the unfruitfull workes of darkenesse but even reprooue them rather For it is a shame even to speake the things which are done of them in secret But all things when they are reproved of the light are manifest for it is light that maketh all things manifest Wherefore he saith Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead and Christ shall giue thee light Take heed therefore that yee walke circumspec●tly not as fooles but as wise Redeeming the season for the daies are evill Wherfore bee yee not unwise but understand what the will of the Lord is These exhortations are exhortations which ought ever to be sounding in the eares of them of those Nations which in antient time were heathens therefore remember still that you are Nations whose fore-fathers were carryed away after dumbe Images and false Gods yea devils and knew not the true Lord God of Israel Creatour of all things and the giver of life and all blessednesse Forget not therfore this Grace of your conversion shown unto you but rather apply your hearts to his Commandements who hath shown you this invaluable Mercy Put on a Resolution of heart that neither for pleasure not for profite nor for fellowship sake nor for Custome no nor for Displeasure o● Losse you will leaue the good waies of Gods Commandements to walke in the wickednesse which is contrary to the same and too too usuall in the world In which Resolution two things may strengthen you the one Good Education the other the Spirits Assistance Good or truely Christian education in children is truely a most needfull help unto righteousnesse therefore where Parents are negligent there the Magistracy should help to discerne what customes corrupt the youth leading it into things evill and then to suppresse and to allienate the youth 〈◊〉 these things for verily Magistrates are also Parents unto youth little lesse then they by whose generation they come into the world Therefore if the Parents care not what company their children keep or care not what evill they commit there in their jollity nor what wickednesse and prophanenesse their conversation or communication be corrupted with yet Magistrates owe to God a duty to take account of those houses or places where youth take liberty to be bold in such evill things Some fondly think that unlesse youth be suffered in evill conversation and evill actions they will never be bold and manly or valiant but we may see in the children of some Princes and Nobles that children become manly and valiant and yet without such liberty so that these evils doe but steale upon such to corrupt them and weaken them nothing furthering their Manliness or Valour I note this the rather because it is the errour of some mindes to thinke that a godly restraint of youth is the depression of the spirits and the cause of pusillanimity but whilst all exercises stirring the body and refreshing the mind and spirit may even by Gods lawes be practised the use of such things will increase the strength and magnanimity of youth and yet without admitting also the abuse And indeed the abuse of such exercises brings upon men first a mischieving and ruining one another and secondly a taking away the hearts of men by Gods not prospering the warres of such Though indeed sometimes as for punishments God lets out evill spirits giving way to their prevailing also so wicked Powers composed of wicked men are let loose of the Lord and suffered to prevaile in the world But the Kingdome of heaven even the victorious Church hath not its fortitude in wickednesse but in Righteousnesse and what

transport you say with your selfe in some breathing time Shall I wholy neglect God my Creator Shall hee make rich and inestimable Promises and shall I not so much as once minde them Thus stirring your selfe up but even to mind the Promises of God then allow your selfe some leasure time wherin now one then another of the speciall promises of God may be thought of by you Verily the very but thinking now of one then of another of Gods Promises will be a Meanes of our minds and hearts deep conception in time of all the speciall promises of the Lord. But if minding them your heart then esteeme them not then help also your estimation by saying thus or to the like effect with your selfe My heart what thinkest thou of this thing What if I may attain it shall I be the better is this a thing to be desired haue I need of it Thus teach your selfe by selfe-questioning to open to your selfe the riches of the Promises and the need which you your selfe rightly considering your mortall condition haue of it and then I doubt not but that the thing promised will appeare such as that you cannot but both esteeme it and desire also to attaine unto it This may be a convenient remedy against the third errour consider we therfore in the next place a remedy against the fourth and last errour If you think that all that God doth for you is put off to another life so that in this life you haue no benefite of any of his Promises then teach your selfe to know better by informing your selfe of the many and inestimably rich Promises of God which being in the Church you injoy even in this life Verily as many men injoying the light of the day never think of it as of a precious gift of God so many injoy the rich blessings of the Church never perceiving the gift of God unto them therein but let such negligence be with fooles not with wise men Thus haue I showen you briefly some convenient remedies against these common and also potent errours but there remaineth yet another thing of so great importance as that unlesse a man be also therein satisfied hardly can he haue the heart ever thus to doe by the Promises Which other thing is this That a man know whether these things belong to himselfe or no whether these Promises are made to him yes or no. To assure your selfe therefore hereof you must obserue whither you be without or within the Church for no man out of the Church so long as he remaines out of the Church hath right unto any of the Promises He that is out of the Church hath no right unlesse he be called but being called and upon the Call obeying and beleeving the Promises are made unto him Act. 2. 38. And if you be born within the Church then unlesse you proue an Esau in Israels house vilipending in time the riches of faith refusing also in your heart though not in outward profession to beleeue you may not doubt but that the Promises belong unto you For not an vnmanifested Election but the Promise made must be the guide of their faith who are in the Church therfore where there is not a reprobation manifested we may not presume to doubt of the generall Promise to be effectuall to any person but the generall Promise is made to them and their children who are in the Church Act. 2. 38. therfore to the children of those in the Church the Promises ought of duty to be applyed unlesse there be any manifested rejection of a party Therfore are you born within the Church then obserue whether comming to yeares of understanding you then vilipend not the grace of God in his Word unto you but rather imbrace and beleeue it for you then beleeving you may not doubt of the belonging of Gods promises unto you Yea being borne in the Church you haue moreover this benefit that though transported of the temptations of Satan or of the sinnefull pleasures of this world you run a race for a long time cleane against the grace of God yet in time repenting from the bottome of your heart and then yet beleeving the Gospell you may be most assured that all the pretious Promises of God belong and shall certainly be performed unto you To conclude labour first to haue a knowledge of the promises of God and then labour to get an estimation of them and desire of heart after them for if this be once attained then your heart will keep the Lords commandements yea though but because it would not loose those so rich things wherof now it hath a desire But to beget an estimation you must consider well the thing promised you must compare it with the other things of this world you must consider the need you haue of it and the bettering your selfe by it For as these things are more or lesse apprehended by your heart and soule so is your heart and soules more or lesse esteeme of the Promises But as the hearts esteeme is such also is its affection for if it first esteeme not of a thing it will haue no Desire of it though it might haue it Therfore some times and that in your most serious and private meditation set before your soule now one then another of the Promises questioning your own selfe What you thinke of this and whether it be a precious thing or no if it may be had But this be sure of that if none of the Promises of God prevaile over your Esteeme and Desire drawing them unto it then you will never haue care of keeping the Commandements even for the Promise sake made of God unto you One Promise well and seriously considered well opened unto our selues by discourse in private meditation discovering so unto our selues the riches and good of the Promise is more powerfull over our Affections to draw them to esteeme and desire it then if all our life time we heare never so much of all the promises of God resting in a superficiall Notion and bare knowledge onely of them all Wherefore at any hand rest not in a bare Notion of Gods Promises but consider each one and lay it to heart teaching your selfe to prise well of it and to haue a Desire of heart after it so shall you certainly come in time to say with the Prophet David I haue hid thy Promises in my heart that I might not sinn● against thee 7. Chap. THe sixt Motiue or Inducement unto the keeping of the commandements willingly and with delight is The Righteousnesse of the Commandement To this end Moses Deut. 4. 8. saith And what Nation is so great that hath Ordinances and Lawes so Righteous as all this Law which I set before you this day And the Prophet David Psal. 119. 86. saith All thy Commandements are true Again vers 128. Therefore I esteeme all thy precepts most Iust. Again vers 142. Thy Righteousnesse is an everlasting Righteousnesse and thy Law is Truth The