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
A60132	An exhortation to youth to prepare for judgment A sermon occasion'd by the late repentance and funeral of a young man. Deceased September 29. 1681.	Shower, John, 1657-1715.	1681 (1681)	Wing S3664; ESTC R214018	26,182	49

An Exhortation to Youth to prepare for Judgment A SERMON Occasion'd by the Late REPENTANCE AND FUNERAL OF A Young Man Deceased September 29. 1681. ECCLES I. 12. Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth while the evil days come not nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them LONDON Printed by J. G. for Benjamen Alsop at the Angel and Bible in the Poultry MDCLXXXI TO John Bawdon Esq SIR IF either the Preaching or publishing of the following Sermon may be any way useful to promote the great design of doing good if the seriousness of the Subject or the weight of the Instance that gave occasion to it may awaken any one Soul to prepare for his final judgment I know you will heartily rejoyce and bless God with me and as readily pardon my defects in the management of so important a Theme and the rather since I indeavoured only to convince and perswade an attentive Auditory consisting mostly of young persons without the least intention of appearing in Print as knowing very well that what may be acceptable to a Christian ear when pronounc'd from the Pulpit doth often fail of being so when perus'd afterwards by a critical eye However the Impression once consented to I ought to address it to no other name but yours being Conceiv'd and Born in your House as well as Preacht in your hearing especially when 't was proper for me to prefix an example of the Connexion between seriousness and chearfulness For having discours'd somewhat concerning the Mirth and Joy of a Christian Life as well as of the unreasonableness and vanity of sensual pleasures it seem'd necessary to confirm that Truth by a lively Instance And were there nothing else to recommend the practice of Godliness but that tranquillity and peace of mind that calmness and serenity of spirit which follows a good Conscience and is the only true ground of a chearful conversation the argument were very pressing But I need not mention this save to let you see the excellency of your choice and thereby incourage others to make the same And none Sir that understand my obligations to you and to your excellent Lady will judge me guilty of the usual flattery incident to such Dedications if I take this first opportunity to avow my Debt of Gratitude and Honour to you both And such I must profess it as is exceeded only by the Duty owing from Children to their natural Parents my loss of whom your respects and kindness have in great measure undeservedly supplied I have only to add that as the mention of your Name will doubtless invite many to read the Sermon who would otherwise be apt to throw it by so I am told I shall lose other Readers by concealing that of the person on whose account it was Preacht To which I have this to say that his name and quality his life and Conversation the circumstances of his sickness and his temper and expressions on his deathbed are sufficiently known to obviate the least insinuation of a Forgery as to what I have related concerning him And as to what I have not recited the Readers benefit would be as unconcern'd in the publication as his curiosity is like to be dissatisfied if he expect any other Reason of its concealment I am Honoured Sir Your most Affectionate Most obliged Humble Servant JOHN SHOWER TO THE READER WE reckon it a piece of justice to the Author of this Sermon to believe and according to that belief to testify that the occasion it self did against his own inclination extort from him the publication of it For when the conflict was only between the Modesty due indeed to his years on the one hand and sence of Duty on the other upon the concurrence of a general Obligation and a present discerned opportunity to promote the eternal good of Souls the determination of the matter this way could not seem difficult to an impartial unbribed Conscience Whither the Discourse it self the occasion and all circumstances taken together have any aptness to serve that end must be left to the Judgment of such as shall read and consider with whom the Discourse must speak for it self And what it had reference to will we cannot doubt appear not very considerable only but be highly grateful also to all Pious and Good men For tho' the Sermon import a relation to a Funeral the Death of the Person had nothing in it so mournful as his Repentance to Life will have with it of Satisfaction and thanksgiving to God with all that are of a Serious and Religious inclination Nor can it enter into our thoughts that any to whom that Character belongs will behold the instance of a Soul as Christian Charity will believe rescued out of the Snare of the Devil and translated to Eternal Bliss with a slight or much less with an evil eye only because it was not by their means or not by one in all things of their mind and way Or that what is the Joy of Angels can be the Offence and Grief of good men It is surely not possible they can be so fatally divided between Paul and Apollo and Cephas as utterly to forget our higher common Relation to Christ For do we not all know we were Baptized into his Name and not of this or that imagined head or Master of a Sect But though that transcendent Relation be not quite forgotten there is too much cause to apprehend and lament that it is not remembred and considered enough And to reflect on it as one provoking cause of God's with-holding his Spirit in so great part from the Ministry of his word and of the consequent paucity of Conversions and abounding wickedness of the time that there is so great a proneness in many to subject the sacred Ministry to the serving of some private mean design more than that of the common Christian Cause and Interest to proselite men to themselves rather than Christ and make them more exact Formalists of their own Mould and Fashion rather than good Christians To teach them rather to deny or embrace this or that frame and set of Rites and Ceremonies than to deny ungodliness and worldly Lusts and to live Soberly Righteously and Godly in this present World And more earnestly to inculcate and press upon them the things wherein we differ than the unspeakably greater and more momentous things wherein we are agreed and whereof the Dead Carnal dissaffected heart of man far more needs the most earnest inculcation It may well be apprehended the Holy God will be jealous in this case And while we heartily joyn not and do not accept and rejoyce in each others help and concurrence though in somewhat different methods which for the present we cannot give remedy to in the pursuit of his ends we have no reason to think it strange if he leave us to labour in the Fire and weary our selves to no purpose in the pursuit of our own