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
B10013	Advice to readers of the common prayer, and the people attending the same. With a preface concerning divine worship. Humbly offered to consideration, for promoting the greater decency and solemnity in performing the offices of God's publick worship, administered according to the order established by law amongst us / by a well-meaning (though unlearned) layick of the Church of England. T.S.	T. S. (Thomas Seymour)	1691 (1691)	Wing S2829; ESTC R183777	88,165	210

time before they begin which will be very helpful in this case and this would prevent an Abuse which I have observed in most Churches that have Prayers twice a day viz. that the Sextons are so careless and negligent that the Church-doors are not so much as opened when the Clock strikes the hour appointed for Prayers so that many that out of Devotion or by reason of the difference of Clocks come a little to soon are fain to wait a great while at the Church-door for entrance Secondly The natural Preparations are An ability to read distinctly that which we are to read and also to say perfectly by heart the daily Psalms and Hymns that so we may perform our part with the better grace 'T is certainly a thing most evident to any that will consider it that what is to be done in the sight and presence of Almighty God and especially when it is to be done most immediately for his Glory and Honour I say that it should be done in the most excellent manner that is possible and therefore it will need no proof to those that believe what I have already written on that Subjects that this which I advise is a great and most concerning Duty And I the rather insist on it because I have observed that many who profess to be great Approvers of the Common Prayer and of all the Orders of our Church do yet seldom or never read their part of the Psalms or joyn in the Repetition of the daily Hymns and Responses as they are ordered which I impute to their great carelesness in those preparations and that many who do what is required to be done yet do it so ill that it is apparent they want some excitation to their Duty hereabout I shall therefore intreat all that are defective herein to employ their leisure hours to practise a more perfect and punctual way of Reading which will be a thing of credit and use to them otherwise as well as here I have sometimes been present when Men of good Quality and Estates have taken upon them to read some Pamphlet in a Coffee-house but read at such a pitiful rate that a Man could scarce make sence of it or be ever the wiser for hearing it which is a reproach to them among wise Men for whatever the defects of their Education have been it might easily have been supplied by their own diligence if an inordinate love of Company and other Divertisements did not make them too much to decline profitable Retirements And I would intreat all Parents and Masters to consider the obligation that is upon them in this respect and to look that their Children and Servants do the same We owe not onely our selves but all ours to the honour and service of Almighty God And if Children were taught as they should be their duty to worship and praise God in the publick Assemblies and encouraged therein by the example of their Elders it would be a mighty Argument to perswade them to learn the most distinct and graceful way of Reading I have been much pleased to see the good success of this care in some Parents that are well affected to the Common Prayer whose Children read their part of the Psalms with a better grace than many when grown to be Men can do And when these do attain to a perfection herein it will beget in them a great delight in that heavenly Exercise and make them love to attend the Prayers and this doubtless will be a mighty Antidote against Prophaneness and Schism and both plant and root in our minds that Doctrine whence a holy Life cannot but spring II. That being prepared as before we should endeavour our selves to perform our part of this Service in the best manner we are able There are some things which I have observed in the performance of the People that seem to be very indecent As first That they speak when they should hear● repeating together with the Minister and often before him the Prefatory Admonition wherewith the Minister is to begin thi● Service and the Absolution which he give● them after the General Confession the Commandments also and many other thing● appointed for the Minister alone which i● by all wise men held very improper and indecent The Church indeed hath ordered some things to be said after the Minister with great advice As 1. The General Confession wherein we solemnize that Repentance that gives us admittance into the reconciled state that which makes all our Services acceptable to God And there is this great advantage in the conjunction of all therein and that with the Voice as well as the Heart That the professing of our Repentance in that manner hath all the circumstances that may make it satisfactory and obliging at least as far as the Church can provide in the case Therein every one doth as it were accuse judge and condemn himself before God and the whole Congregation for sins contained under the general heads therein mentioned the particular instances whereof are onely fit to be repeated in secret Confession to God himself and if he do it seriously with a Devotion suitable to the Words it is to me a more satisfactory sign of penitence than the enlarged Confessions used in the other Way wherein some to seem fervent or to make themselves so run into the enumeration of sins beyond due measures being as I think beyond what the Congregation in general can be supposed though Christians of a sort inferiour to themselves at least in their own judgment to be ordinarily conscious that they have been guilty in And 't is also obliging for this should be a mighty argument against returning to sin when we have solemnly confessed our folly and guilt therein before God and the Congregation For having as it were called God and Man to witness the truth and sincerity of our Repentance it will be a high aggravation of our carelesness if we suffer our selves easily to be drawn to sin again and that either in omitting our Duty or committing Iniquity in any kind and it will engage every good man to watch and pray lest he should enter into temptation and be hurried into the sins for which he hath so condemned himself The 2d is the Lord's Prayer which because it teacheth the forming of the affections and desires of our Souls unto the most excellent order and raising them by degrees to the highest perfection and because it comprehends the heads of whatever is to be sought by us at the hands of God and that with greatest brevity and plainness it is necessary to be learned of all even from their first attainment of the use of Reason and Speech And this the Church cannot better provide for than by engaging them always to say it after the Minister and besides it implies a declaration of our Christian Unity and a renunciation of all Heresies and Schisms as far as we know them And we do the greater honour to God and our blessed-Saviour

well as in conformity to God and his Church this is required at their hands And I insist particularly on this because I have observed that many Readers having this Prayer more perfectly by heart than any of the rest they ramble it over with a greater hast and have less care to express that Devotion which becomes this Solemn Exercise in reading that than any other the amendment whereof I humbly desire of them And because I have a great desire that this may be amended I shall here adde somewhat to what was said before I have observed so great a proneness in all even the most Grave and Devout to say this Prayer faster than is meet and without due expressions of their sence of the Majesty of God who is in Heaven though our Father in Christ Jesus and of the great concern of those things most briefly expressed therein that I have in my thoughts inquired a little into the cause thereof which seems to me to be this That this Prayer being the first thing that we teach Children in the Exercise of Religion there is not that care taken to make them say it distinctly and reverently as ought to b● but they are suffered to do it with such Rambling hast and without any regard of what they are about that it begets an ill habit by long custom which is so strong that all the powers of Reason can scarce overcome it for else it were impossible but that those Men who are exceeding grave and intent in the Prayer they make themselves should ramble at such a rate when they come to conclude with that our Lord and Master hath made for them and that they who in all Offices of our Church would have none to want that Prayer which is the sum and substance of all our Prayers yet should have less of Gravity and Devotion in the repetition of that than any of the rest I cannot but impute this to an ill habit that almost all Men get in their Childhood in this matter of saying the Lord's Prayer and upon account hereof I make it my earnest Request to Parents and especially those of the Female Sex who have usually the charge of hearing their Children say their Prayers that they will teach them and often call upon them to say deliberately and distinctly what they speak in this Holy Office but especially the Lord's Prayer the want of this care causeth most Men yea Ministers to have so ill a delivery that it is very prejudicial to themselves and others and a dishonour to the Holy Offices they perform and a great hindrance to Edification especially in Ministers And 't is this that would season their tender Years with a sence of God and Religion which would never go out Some Vessels never loose the savour of that which first of all is put into them especially if it stand long and if Children were first taught a right manner of performing their Devotions and kept constantly to it while under the Tuition of their Mother they would retain the effects of it through their whole lives And we see by sad experience the neglect of this not only is cause of the habitual Defect fore-mentioned but betrays them to some ill Habits that make them a Grief to their Parents all their days And I have hope if Mothers were but conscious of their Duty herein it would make them more wary of giving way to these frothy or froward humours and that inordinate concern for little things which indispose them for the same and more willing to put on the Ornaments of the inward Man of the Heart which inables them thereunto by giving them that reverence and respect with their Children without which it can never be effected I hint this 1. Because as the welfare of Mankind depends very much on the good Education of Children so their good Education will be most essectually begun in the well performance of this Duty for in teaching them to say the Lord's Prayer devoutly they will have occasion to discourse to them of the Glory and Presence of God of the Awe and Reverence we must have for him of his all-disposing Providence and our Dependance on him c. which are the Principles of all Goodness and also of the great Indearments of our Blessed Saviour and of the excellency of his Person who taught this Prayer whereby they will be disposed to true Christianity and this foundation being laid it will be easie to build them up in all Vertues 2. Because I believe that as Formality hath for the most part its beginning from the ill saying this Prayer so it is most like to have its ending by our learning to say it aright and he that can be devout as he ought in this will be able to perform all acts of Devotion as becomes him 'T is the Opinion of wise Men That Christ and his Church hath therefore thought better to teach us to pray by prescribing us Forms than by giving us a Directory for the Matter of Prayer and leaving the Composure to ourselves because no laborious Exercise of the Memory or Invention should hinder the free and vigorous Exercise of Devotion and that these Forms are usually brief except those for Fasts which for a peculiar reason are longer lest that vigilant and erect attention of mind which in Prayer is very necessary should be wasted or dulled through continuance if the Prayers were few and long as Mr. Hooker hath it out of St. Augustine Now when Men pervert these ends and because they are not necessitated to be intent by being put to study their Prayers just when they make them or to remember what they studied before therefore they will take no care to be intent at all but say their Prayers as a Hireling doth his Work as fast as they can that they may be at leisure for that which they take more pleasure in And because they have these brief Prayers very perfect their Devotion is the more imperfect this is a very unworthy requital of the Care of Christ and his Church and how justly may such Persons be given up to such Errours as have drawn many into Fanaticism as That Forms of Prayer are the bane of Devotion The Lord's Prayer is no Form The way of Extempore Prayer is the only acceptable Service of God And to pray by the Liturgy or other Forms is unlawful and such-like Let me therefore once more intreat the care of Parents in this matter that they will first by their own Example in saying this Prayer most distinctly gravely and devoutly and in the most reverent posture in their Family-Worship and then by Instruction suitable to the Capacities of their Children and by the exercise of Parental Authority bring them once to a good performance in saying this Divine Prayer by themselves which might be easily done if Men had a mind to it and then bring them to Church with them and make them joyn with the Congregation in that Prayer first and in