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	parent_n	reason_n	3,280	5	5.9698	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A82010	A persuasive to full communion, with the churches of Christ in all Gospel-ordinances and priviledges Containing an essay for the conviction and reformation of such adult, or grown persons who live in the sinful neglect of baptism and the supper of the Lord. Together with an account of the manner of the transition of church-members from their infant to their adult-state, and regular admission to full communion. Written, for the help of such as need instruction in these spiritual concerns, 1 Cor. 12. 13. For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be jews or gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit. By the late reverend Mr. George Day, minister of the gospel in London-street in Ratcliff / 1697.	Day, George, d. 1697.	1698 (1698)	Wing D461; ESTC R232085	42,081	116

the comfortable Priviledge of Christian Parents to bring their Children unto Christ in their Infancy and to see them owned as in the same Covenant with God together with themselves by receiving Baptism the Sign and Seal thereof so it is their unquestionable Duty to instruct them as soon as they are capable to Learn in the Knowledge of God and of the Covenant solemnized in Baptism the Nature Use and Ends of it and the Seals thereof and to acquaint them when grown up to Years of Understanding and competently instructed in the Christian Religion that it is their Duty and will be their Interest to give their own actual and hearty Consent to their Baptismal-Covenant seeing the Consent of Parents in their behalf will serve them no longer then until they are capable to Consent for themselves which if they refuse or neglect to do they forfeit the Benefits and Blessings of the Covenant And that they ought to desire and prepare for the Renewing of their Covenant with God by receiving the Lords-Supper that being the other confirming Seal thereof But alas The Generality of Parents sinfully and shamefully neglect the Souls of their Children and their own Souls too at this Day breeding them up in gross Ignorance of the very Foundation-Truths of Christianity by which means the most of our Youth either regard not Religion at all or only content themselves to be now and then present in our Publick Religious Assemblies to which they are led more by Custom and Example then by any Sense of Religion or Conscience toward God little minding what is said or done there because indeed they understand little of it and so are little the wiser or better for what they hear Continue Strangers to the Life and Power of Godliness lie open to Temptations and are easily carried away to Error or Prophaneness The Lord convince such Careless and Cruel Parents of this crying Sin give them Repentance and quicken them to their neglected Duty toward the Souls of their Children or else I fear the next Age will degenerate into down-right Heathenism and Atheism If any of them shall cast their Eyes on this Paper I intreat them to spend one hour in the serious Consideration of these few Particulars First Consider the preciousness of your Childrens Souls they are Heaven-born Immortal Spirits capable to know fear love and serve the God that made them here and to see and injoy him for ever hereafter And so are more worthy of your Love and care than their Bodies yea one Soul is of greater value than the whole World and should you not be much more concern'd for their present and future Welfare and Happiness What Will you suffer so precious a Thing as the Soul of a Child to be lost for ever through your sloth and carelesness when your Love to them will make you ready to hazzard your own Lives to save their Bodies from a Threatning Danger Secondly Consider the need they have of Instruction for they come into the World spiritually Blind and Ignorant of God and Christ yea of themselves too they know not their sinful miserable and dangerous State by Nature the need they have of a Saviour nor what they must do to be saved The future Happiness of Saints in Heaven nor the dreadful Punishment of Sinners in Hell and that which yet makes their Condition the more deplorable is that usually they desire not the Knowledge of these Things but are rather unwilling to be Instructed and Love Darkness rather than Light Now one would think you that have the Bowels of Parents should Pity the Blind Compassionate your Ignorant Children and do what you can for their Cure though you were under no other Law but that of Nature to do it Thirdly Consider God hath made it your indispensible Duty by his Positive and express Command to Teach your Children his Revealed Mind and Will with the greatest Care Constancy and Diligence Read and weigh those Scriptures Deut. 6.6 7. Prov. 22.6 Eph. 6.4 So that it is no Arbitrary Thing nor left to your Pleasure to do it or not your neglect of it is a direct Disobedience to the Law of God and how will you be able to Answer it to God in the Day of your Account Fourthly Consider God hath intrusted you with Authority over your Children to Command them to Learn the Knowledge of God and of his Will and to obey it and hath commanded your Children to Honour and Obey you herein and expects you should use your Authority over them especially to this End and Godly Parents have so done and are commended in Scripture for it Read and Consider Eph. 6.1 2 3. 1 Chron. 28.9 Gen. 18.19 You Use this Power over them for your selves in requiring them to Obey your Wills and will you not also use it for your God who gave it and for the good of your dear Childrens Souls Fifthly Consider if your Children Live and Dye in Ignorance of Soul-saving Truths they will perish for ever and if they do so through your default or neglect of Instructing them their Sin will hereby become yours and God will require their Blood at your Hands See Isa 26.11 2 Thes 1.7 8 9. Now do you not cry out of those as Monsters in Nature Wolves and Tygers in humane Shape yea worse than Beasts who Murder their own Children and imbrue their Hands in their own tender Infants Blood How much greater Monsters are those Parents who starve the Souls of their Children by with-holding spiritual Food from them and so help them forward toward Eternal Destruction And are you willing to be found in the number of such bloody Parents at the last Day and to have your Portion with them for ever If these Considerations have convinced you how sinful your neglects of instructing your Children and Families have been and impressed your Souls with such a Sense of your Duty that you resolve upon it in the Strength of Christ for the Time to come This will prepare you to accept of and hearken to a Word of Counsel which I will offer you also in a few Particulars First See that you are well acquainted with the Knowledge of God and Christ his Will and Worship your selves that you may be capable of Teaching your Children Remember God requires Parents first to get his Word into their own Hearts and then to Teach them diligently to their Children Deut. 6.6 'T is impossible for you to instruct others in that which you have not learnt your selves It 's very sad to observe that many Parents are but Children in Understanding and that when for the Time they have lived under the Means of Knowledge they might have been such good Proficients or Schollars in the School of Christ as to be able to Teach their Families they themselves need to be taught the first Principles of the Oracles of God as Heb. 5.12 I am perswaded this is the Grand though not the only Reason why Family-duties are so generally disused at

this Day 't is not so much out of a dislike of or a Malignity against the work it self in many as for want of Ability to perform it and this Impediment can be no ways removed but by the Blessing of God on a diligent use of due Means for the obtaining such an Ability Therefore if you are indeed too Ignorant of the Will of God be ashamed of your Ignorance and Sloth but not ashamed to Learn though Late yet better late then never Secondly Having got a competent Measure of Knowledge your selves begin your Work of Teaching your Children betimes be dropping and instilling some of the plainest easiest and most necessary Truths into them as soon as you find them capable to Learn and to remember Be frequent at it to Impress them the more firmly on their Memories when they can Read put Catechisms into their Hands and require them to Learn them to Read the Holy Scriptures daily Hear Sermons and take Account of them what they Remember and Discourse with them about the Truths heard to help them to a clearer Understanding of them and labour to affect their Hearts with those Truths that chiefly concern them and Charge them especially to commit such to their Memories encouraging the Diligent by your Commendations and Rewards and quickening the Negligent by Reproofs and moderate Corrections Thirdly Be much in Prayer to God both for and with your Children begging a Blessing on your Instructions Pray your selves and teach them to Pray that God would second your endeavours and succeed all the Means used for their Instructions by the Inward and Effectual Teaching of his Holy Spirit to open their Understanding strengthen and sanctifie their Memories Write his Law in their Hearts and put his Truth into their Inward Parts that they may understand spiritual Truths spiritually and be made wise to Salvation Fourthly Set before your Children a good Example of Sobriety Righteousness and Holiness in your own Lives second your Godly Instructions with a Godly Conversation let them see by your own Obedience to the Will of God that you believe the Truths which you teach them and press no other Duties on them than what you make Conscience to perform your selves Then will your Instructions be most like to prove Effectual for your Children are naturally prone to imitate you in their Practice more apt to be led by the Eye then by the Ear and more inclinable to do as you do than as you say or Command Could you be perswaded to follow these plain and necessary Counsels your Children would have the Benefit you would have the Comfort the Church would be Enlarged and God would be Glorified And what should you not be willing to do within your Power for such desirable Ends as these But if any Christian Parents remain yet unperswadable by these Arguments to set about this Duty their sinful neglect will become the more inexcusable and themselves the more unworthy of that Honourable Name by which they are called Blessed be God there are yet some Pious Parents left among us who have a Sense of their Duty and endeavour to bring up their Children in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord and I hope the late unanimous Labours of the Ministers of Christ in and about this City pressing their respective Congregations to the Revival of Family-worship have been signally Blessed for the Increase of the Number of such and that this is one good presage of Gods continuing his Candlestick in the midst of us For Religious Families are the Seed-Plots of Piety and the Nurseries of the Church so that if these flourish which God grant the Church will from them be supplied and enlarged There are also some Adult Persons whom though their Parents wretchedly neglected their Souls in their Minority yet God is pleased to awaken and Inlighten Convince and Convert by the Publick Ministry and so are brought into Christ and joyn themselves for full Communion with the Particular Churches of Christ Though alas the Number of Converts in our Days is small in Comparison with what hath been in former Ages as Gospel-Ministers generally observe to their Grief and this proves us to be upon the decaying Hand And though it be the certain Duty of all Adult Persons that make a serious Profession of Christianity to joyn themselves to some Particular Church in Order to a Participation of all Gospel-Ordinances and Church-Priviledges yet the far greater Number live in the shameful neglect hereof some to thirty forty yea fifty Years of Age and yet never received the Lords-Supper These may properly be call'd Christians at large or loose Professors if not for the Looseness and Immoralities of their Lives yet for sitting so loose from the stricter Rules of Religion and for their backwardness to come wholly under the Yoke of Jesus Christ though it be really a far easier Yoke than that of Sin To such as these I would in the next Place make an Address attempting to Convince them of and dissuade them from their Sin and to instruct them in and persuade them to their Duty For your Conviction I offer you these following Considerations First Consider until you are Joyned to some Particular Church of Christ you come not under the special Care Guidance and Oversight of any Pastor and so lose the Spiritual Benefit of that Relation which may be a greater Dammage to your Souls then you are aware of for in divers Cases you will need their special help by Way of Councel Instruction Support or Comfort to Answer your Doubts Encourage you against your Fears Succour you under Temptations c. The want of a skilful and faithful Soul-friend in such Cases would be greatly Prejudicial to you Secondly Consider until you are thus Joyned you neglect one of the Holy Ordinances of the Lord Jesus Christ his Supper the last that he Instituted left as a standing Monument of his Matchless Love to his Church in Dying for it and as a means to Perpetuate the Memory thereof in all Future Ages and as another Sign and Seal of the Covenant of Grace An Ordinance wherein he proposeth himself as the spiritual Food of Believers to refresh and satisfie their Souls increase their Grace and nourish them to Life Eternal so that by the neglect of this Ordinance 1. You Contract the guilt of great Sin upon your Souls for it is a direct Disobedience to the express Command of Christ who saith Take Eat c. Drink ye all of it and Do this in Remembrance of me Therefore to neglect it is practically to forget Christ and if you forget him how can you Hope he will remember you 2. You lose the Spiritual Benefit and Comfort of this Ordinance the nourishment and strengthening of your Souls in Grace which you need as well as others and hereby give God just Cause to withhold his Blessing from other Ordinances And is this a loss that you can easily bear Is it much at one with you whether you Profit by the

than that this Hand of mine should give the Holy Things of the Lord that is the Lords-Supper to the adjudged Contemners of God Melch. Adam in the Life of Calvin Now should not every faithful Minister of Christ be as careful to keep this Ordinance of Christ from Prophanation and their own Souls from Participation of other Mens Sins as he Doubtless they should 6. You do not forbear to Consult a Lawyer about your Estates or a Physician about your Bodies when occasion requires it for fear they will ask you such Questions as you cannot answer But you willingly submit to their Inquiries because you know it is necessary that they should understand your Case that they may give you proper and agreeable Counsel and Advice and should you not be as willing to submit to the Inquiries of Gospel-Ministers the Counsellors and Physicians of your Souls that they may know your Spiritual State and give you such Counsel as is suitable to it Obj. 4. But we are ashamed to come before Ministers and have not Confidence enough to Discourse with them nor are we able to express our Minds to them or give an account to them of our Knowledge Ans 1. You should be ashamed of nothing but Sin To be ashamed of Duty or of what is good is a sinful Shame and you have Reason to be ashamed of such a Shame and Repent of it and Pray against it until you are Cured of it Yet 2. It must be granted there is a natural Bashfulness in some especially in those of the weaker Sex and in Youth that is not easily Conquered this Ministers do well Understand and therefore Prudence will direct them to Treat such with the greater Tenderness and Mildness 3. Ministers will not expect that such should express the Sense of their Minds with that readiness that others of a bolder Spirit may but will wisely consider their Weakness and discern Sincerity under Imperfection Obj. 5. But others say we are afraid to come to this Holy Ordinance least we should Eat and Drink unworthily for we should thereby become Guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord and Eat and Drink Damnation to our selves as the Apostle says 1 Cor. 11.27 29. And we dare not run such an Hazzard as this Ans 1. It must be granted that it is very hazardous for all wicked and graceless Persons to meddle with this Holy Ordinance for they cannot but abuse and Prophane it and so bring themselves under great Guilt and become liable to great Punishment for it therefore none such should dare to Approach this Ordinance until they Repent of their Sins and are Converted this Ordinance being appointed not to work Grace where it is wanting but to Increase and Strengthen it where it is already wrought 't is Childrens Bread and not to be given unto Dogs Yet know 2. If you are yet in a graceless State you are already in danger of Damnation for your other Sins though you keep from the guilt of this and so should as much fear it as those that are guilty of this Sin Nor is this Sin unpardonable but upon true Repentance both hath been and may be forgiven 3. The Sin of Eating and Drinking unworthily lies in a Persons not discerning the Lords Body that is in not distinguishing or not putting a difference between Ordinary and Common Bread and this Sacramental and Holy Bread by which the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ is signified and represented and in using this Bread with as little Preparation Care Regard and Reverence as he doth the other Now gracious Souls know there is a great difference between Common Bread and this Holy Bread and therefore will take due care to use it in an Holy and Reverent Manner and so keep from the guilt of unworthy Partaking though they are not altogether free from sinful Weaknesses and Infirmities in this as well as in other Duties which yet should not keep them off from this Ordinance because upon their Repentance they are Pardoned to them for Christs sake 4. The Threatning mentioned in the Text of Damnation or Judgment is not designed by the Apostle to affrighten Christians from this Ordinance but to Caution them against the Prophanation of it 5. Consider that the neglect of a known Duty and turning your backs upon an Ordinance of Christ is a Sin and makes liable to Damnation or Judgment as well as the ill performance of a Duty or the Partaking of an Ordinance unworthily and you ought to fear the one as well as the other It is well worth your Consideration what Christ intimates to us in that Parable of the Marriage-Feast of the Kings Son Mat. 22. That those who made Light of the Gracious Invitation and refused to come were at last as blame-worthy as those who came without a Wedding Garment and therefore as he was Punished for his Defect so were they for their Disobedience And most deservedly for of the two they were the greater Sinners it being a greater Sign of Contempt wholly to neglect an Ordinance of Christ than to Partake of it without some due Qualifications as one well Observes so that the only way to avoid the Danger on both Hands is to examine your selves carefully concerning your Right to and fitness for this Ordinance and when you have an Evidence of these so Eat of this Bread and Drink of this Cup with Holy Care and Reverence Obj. 6. But we fear to come to this Holy Ordinance lest we should Sin again after it and then what will become of us Ans 1. It must be acknowledged you have Cause enough to fear sinning after this Ordinance as well as before while you are liable to Temptations from without and have Corruption remaining within you inclining you to close with them The Sense of your danger should make you to watch against Temptations and Occasions of Sin and nourish in you a fear of Caution Such a fear while it keeps within its due Bounds is your Duty and of great use to prevent Sin But it is immoderate and sinful if it makes you neglect another known Duty as Receiving the Lords-Supper is and no better than being guilty of one Sin to avoid another 2. There is not a Child of God on Earth that is perfectly free from the danger of sinning while he is in this imperfect tempted State and you may not expect to be freed from it any more than others so that if none should come to this Ordinance but such as live without Sin we must all lay aside the Use of it for there are no such Persons on this side Heaven Eccl. 7.20 1 John 1.8 James 3.2 3. Know that the right Use of this Ordinance is a good mean to keep you from sinning being a solemn renewing your Covenant with God and a new Bond laid on your Souls to love and serve the Lord and walk the more Circumspectly and a means to strengthen Grace in you 4. If you do Sin after your Partaking of