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	sin_n	3,547	5	5.4363	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69538	The last work of a believer his passing prayer recommending his departing spirit to Christ to be received by Him / prepared for the funerals of Mary the widow first of Francis Charlton Esq. and after of Thomas Hanmer, Esq., and partly preached at St. Mary Magdalens Church in Milk-Street, London, and now, at the desire of her daughter, reprinted by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1682 (1682)	Wing B1298; ESTC R5056	51,178	102

reached to assurance or not she had confident apprehensions of the Love of God and quietly reposed her soul upon his grace Yet not secure through presumption or self esteem but comforting her self in the Lord her God By this means she spent those hours in a chearful performance of her duty which many spend in fruitless self-vexation for the failings of their duty or in meer enquiries Whether they have Grace or not and others spend in wrangling perplexed Controversies about the manner or circumstances of duty And I believe that she had more comfort from God by way of reward upon her sincere obedience while she referred her soul to him and rested on him than many have that more anxiously perplexed themselves about the discerning of their holiness when they should be studying to be more holy that it might discover it self And by this means she was sit for praises and thanksgiving and spent not her life in lamentations and complaints and made not Religion seem terrible to the ignorant that judge of it by the faces and carriage of professors She did not represent it to the world as a morose and melancholy temper but as the rational creatures cheerful obedience to his maker actuated by the sense of the wonderful Love that is manifested in the Redeemer and by the hopes of the purchased and promised felicity in the blessed sight and fruition of God And I conjecture that her forementioned dispositiou to think well of God and of his providences together with her long and manifold experience the great advantage of antient tryed Christians did much conduce to free her from doubtings and disquieting fears about her own sincerity and Salvation And I confess if her life had not been answerable to her peace and confidence I should not have thought the better but the worse of her condition nothing being more lamentable than to make hast to Hell through a wilful confidence that the danger is past and that they are in the way to Heaven as well as the most sanctified 10. Lastly I esteemed it the height of her attainment that she never discovered any inordinate fears of death but a chearful readiness willingness and desire to be dissolved and be with Christ This was her constant temper both in health and sickness as far as I was able to observe She would be frequently expressing how little reason she had to be desirous of longer life and how much reason to be willing to depart Divers times in dangerous sicknesses I have been with her and never discerned any considerable aversness dejectedness or fear Many a time I have thought how great a mercy I should esteem it if I had attained that measure of fearless willingness to lay down this flesh as she had attained Many a one that can make light of wants or threats or scorns or any ordinary troubles cannot submit so quietly and willingly to death Many a one that can go through the labours of Religion and contemn opposition and easily give all they have to the poor and bear imprisonments banishment or contempt can never overcome the fears of Death so far even the Father of lies spake truth Joh. 2. 4. Skin for Skin yea all that a man hath will he give for his Life I took it therefore for a high attainment and extraordinary mercy to our deceased friend that the King of Terrours was not terrible to her Though I doubt not but somewhat of aversness and fear is so radicated in natures self-preserving principle as that it is almost inseparable yet in her I never discerned any troublesome appearances of it When I first came to her in the beginning of her last sickness she suddenly passed the sentence of death upon her self without any shew of fear or trouble when to us the disease appeared not to be great But when the disease encreased her pains were so little and the effect of the Fever was so much in her head that after this she seemed not to esteem it mortal being not sensible of her case and danger And so as she lived without the fears of death she seemed to us to die without them God by the nature of her disease removing death as out of her sight when fhe came to that weakness in which else the encounter was like to have been sharper than ever it was before And thus in one of the weaker sex God hath shewed us that it is possible to live in holy confidence and peace and quietness of mind without distressing griefs or fears even in the midst of a troublesom world and of vexatious businesses and with the afflictions of her dearest Relations almost continually before her And that our quiet or disquiet our peace or trouble dependeth more upon our inward strength and temper then upon our outward state occasions or provocations And that it is more in our hands than of any or all our friends and enemies whether we shall have a comfortable or uncomfortable life What remaineth now but that all we that furvive especially you that are her Children do follow her as she followed Christ Though the Word of God be your sufficient Rule and the Example of Christ be your perfect pattern yet as the Instructions so the Example of a parent must be a weighty motive to quicken and engage you to your duty and will else be a great aggravation of your sin A holy Child of unholy parents doth no more than his necessary duty because whatever parents are he hath an holy God But an unholy Child of holy parents is unexcusable in sin and deplorably miserable as forsaking the Doctrine and pattern both of their Creator and their Progenitors whom Nature engageth them to observe And it will be an aggravation of their deserved misery to have their Parents witness against them that they taught them and they would not learn and went before them in a holy life but they would not follow them Prov. 1. 8. My Son hear the instruction of thy Father and forsake not the law of thy Mother for they shall be an Ornament of Grace unto thy head and chains about thy neck Read and consider Prov. 30. 17. and 15. 20. and 23. 22 25. sins against Parents have a special curse affixed to them in this life as the case of Cham sheweth And the due obsevrance and honouring of Parents hath a special Promise of Temporal Blessings as the fifth Commandment sheweth Ephes 6. 1 2 3. Children obey your Parents in the Lord for it is right Honour thy Father and Mother which is the first Commandment with promise that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth The Histories of all Ages are so full of the instances of Gods judgements in this life upon five sorts of sinners as may do much to convince an Atheist of the Government and special Providence of God that is upon Persecutors Murderers Sacrilegious False-witnesses especially by Perjury and Abusers and Dishonourers of Parents And the great

day And yet not thou but Christ is he that hath been victorious for thee even as when thou livedst the life of Faith it was not thou but Christ lived in thee Gal. 2. 20. Thou mayst fear at thy departure and leave the Flesh with terrour and imagine that Satan will presently devour thee But the experience of a moment will end thy Fears and thou shalt triumph against thy conquered Foe He that saved thee from the dominion of a tempting Devil will certainly save thee from him when he would torment thee Here he would have us that he may sift us and get advantage on our weakness but Christ prayeth for us and strengthneth us that our faith may not fail Luke 22. 31. And he that saveth us from the sin will save us from the punishment and from Satans fury as he did from his fraud 2. Christs Receiving us doth include his savourable entertainment and welcoming the departed Soul Poor Soul thou wast never so welcome to thy dearest Friend nor into the arms of a Father a Husband or a Wife as thou shalt be then into the presence and embracements of thy Lord. Thou hearest and readest and partly believest now how he loveth us even as his Spouse and Members as his Flesh and Bone Eph. 6. But then thou shalt feel how he loveth thee in particular If the Angels of God have joy at thy Conversion what joy will there be in Heaven at thy enterance into that Salvation And sure those Angels will bid thee welcome and concur with Christ in that triumphant joy If a returning Prodigal find himself in the arms of his Fathers Love and welcomed home with his kisses and his robe and feast What welcome then may a cleansed conquered Soul expect when it cometh into the presence of Glorious Love and is purposely to be received with such demonstrations of Love as may be fitted to magnifie the Love of God which exceedeth all the Love of man as Omnipotency doth exceed our Impotency and therefore will exceed it in the effects Though thou hast questioned here in the dark whether thou wert welcome to Christ when thou camest to him in prayer or when thou camest to his holy Table yet then doubt of thy welcom if thou canst O had we but one moments sense of the delights of the embraced Soul that is newly received by Christ into his Kingdom it would make us think we were in Heaven already and transport us more than the Disciples that saw the Transfiguration of Christ and make us say in comparing this with all the Glory of the World Master it is good for us to be here but in consideration of the full to say It is better to be there But it must not be Earth must not be so happy as to have a moments sense of the unconceivable Pleasures of the received Soul that is the Reward and Crown and therefore not fit for us here in our Conflict But low things may by dark resemblance a little help us to conceive of something that is like them in a low degree How would you receive your Son or Husband the next day after some bloody Fight where he had escaped with the Victory Or your Child or Friend that arrived safely after a long and a dangerous Voyage Would you not run and meet him and with joy embrace him if he had been many years absent and were now come home I tell thee poor Soul thy Saviour hath a larger heart and another kind of Love than thou and other Reasons of greater force to move him to bid dice Welcome into his Presence 3. Christ's Receiving the departed Soul includeth the State of Blessedness into which he doth receive it If you ask What that is I answer It is unto himself to be with him where he is And that in general is full of comfort if there were no more For we know that Christ is in no ill place He is glorified at the right hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 1. 3. And that the Souls of the Righteous and at last their Bodies are received to himself he often telleth us John 12. 26. If any man serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall also my servant be John 14. 2 3. And if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there you may be also And in the mean time when we once are absent from the body we are present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 8. and that is in the building of God not made with hands eternal in the heavens V. 1. Paul therefore desired to depart and be with Christ as being far better Phil. 1. 23. And Christ promiseth the converted Thief This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luke 23. 43. And our State after the Resurrection hath the same description 1 Thess 4. 17. And so shall we ever be with the Lord And what it shall be he declareth himself John 17. 24. Father I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me The Soul of Lazarus Luke 16. was received into Abrahams bosom where he is said to be comforted The heavens receive Christ Acts 3. 21. and therefore the heavens receive the spirits that go to him even the spirits of the just made perfect Heb. 12. 23. that is that are crowned with Christ in Glory and freed from the Imperfections and Evils of this Life And so that 1 Thess 5. 10. is plain though some would pervert it That whether we wake or sleep we may live together with him Not Whether we wake to righteousness or sleep in sin for such Sleepers live not with him Nor whether we wake by sollicitude or sleep in security Nor Whether we naturally wake or sleep only But whether we live or die and so our Bodies sleep in death yet we live together with him In a word Christ will receive us unto a participation of his Joy and Glory into a Joy as great as our Nature shall be capable of and more than we can now desire and that the largest Heart on Earth can justly conceive of or comprehend And because all this tells you but to the ear stay yet but a little while and experimental sight nnd feeling shall tell you What this Receiving is even when we receive the kingdom that cannot be moved Heb. 12. 28. and when we receive the end of our faith the salvation of our souls 1 Pet. 1. 9. DOCT. 6. A Dying Christian may confidently and comfortably commend his Spirit to Christ to be received by him Though he have formerly been a grievous sinner though at the present he be frail and faulty though he be weak in faith and love and duty though his body by sickness be become unfit to serve his Soul and as to present sensibility activity or joy he seem to be past the best or to be nothing

though the Tempter would aggravate his sins and weakness and dulness to his discouragement yet he may he must with confidence recommend his Spirit to Christ to be Received by him O learn this Doctrine Christians that you may use it in the hour of your last distress The hour is near the distress will be the greatest that ever you were in As well as we seem now while we are hearing this our turn is nigh The Midwife is not so neccssary to the life of the Child that Receiveth it into the world as Christs Receiving will be then to our everlasting life To say over heartlesly these words Lord Jesus receive my Spirit will be no more than a dead hearted Hypocrite may do such formal lip-service in life or at death doth profit nothing to salvation Now make such necessary preparation that at Death you may have well-grounded confidence that Jesus Christ will receive your Spirits 1. And first let me bring this to the carnal unprepared sinner Poor sinner What thoughts hast thou of thy dying hour and of thy departing Soul I wonder at thee what thoughts thou hast of them that thou canst sin so boldly and live so carelesly and talk or hear of the life to come so senselesly as thou dost Thou mightest well think I wronged thee if I took thee to be such a brute as not to know that thou must die Thy Soul that brought thy body hither that causeth it now to hear and understand that carryeth it up and down the world must very shortly be required of thee and must seek another habitation What thoughts hast thou of thy departing Soul Will Christ receive it Hast thou made sure of that Or hast thou made it thy principal care and business to make sure O what doth intoxicate the brains of sensual worldly men that they drown themselves in the Cares of this Life and ride and run for transitory Riches and live upon the Smoak of Honour and Applause and never soberly and seriously bethink them whether Christ will receive their departed Souls That they can fill their minds with other thoughts and fill their mouthes with other talk and consume their time in other inconsiderable employments and take no more care and spend no more thoughts and words and time about the entertainment of their departing Souls When they are even ready to be gone and stand as it were on tip-toes when Fevers and Consumptions and many hundred Diseases are all abroad so busily distributing their Summons and when the Gates of Death have so many Passengers crowding in and Souls are making such haste away will you not consider what shall become of yours Will you say that you hope well and you must venture If God had appointed you nothing to do to prepare for your safe passage and entertainment with Christ you might then take up with such an Answer But it 's a mad adventure to leave all undone that is necessary to your salvation and then to say You must put it to the venture If you die in and unrenewed and unjustified state it is past all ventures for it is certain that Christ will not receive you You may talk of hoping dut it is not a matter to be hoped for Hope that God will make good every word of his Promise and spare not But there is no more Hope that Christ will Receive the souls of any but of his members than there is that he will prove a lyar He never promised to save any others and that is not all but he hath declared and professed frequently that he will not And you are no Believers if you will not believe him And if you believe him you must believe that the unbelievers the unregenerate the unholy and the workers of iniquity shall not be received into the Kingdom of Heaven For he hath professed it John 3. 3 36. Heb. 12. 14. Matth. 7. 23. If Christ would Receive the souls of all your venture then had reason for it Or if he had left it as a thing that depended only on his unrevealed will and not on any preparations of our own we might then have quit our selves of the care and cast it all on him as being his part and none of ours But it is not so I hope I need not tell you that it is not so Believe it the Question must be Now resolved and resolved by your selves whether Christ shall Receive your departed souls or cast them off as firebrands for Hell He hath made the Law and set down the terms already to which he will unalterably stand and which we must trust to It is now that you must labour to be accepted of him For we must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5. 9 10. O Sirs this is the reason of our importunity with you Knowing the terrors of the Lord we persuade men saith the Apostle in the next words vers 11. We know that the sentence will be just and that it is now in your own hands what judgment then shall pass upon you And if just now your souls were passing hence before you went from the place you sit in would you think any care could be too great to make sure that they should go to happiness O that you would consider how much it is your own work and how much it resteth on your selves what Christ shall then do with you Then you will cry to him for mercy O cast not away a miserable soul Lord receive me into thy Kingdom But now he must intreat you to be saved and to be the people that he may then Receive and you will not hear him And if you will not hear him when he calleth on you and beseecheth you to Repent and to prepare as sure as Christ is Christ he will not hear you when you cry and call for mercy too late in your extremity Read Prov. 1. and you will see this is true It is you that are to be entreated that Christ may receive you for the unwillingness and backwardness is on your part You are now poysoning your souls by sin and when we cannot intreat you either to forbear or to take the Vomit of Repentance yet when you are gasping and dying of your own willful self-murder you will then cry to Christ and think he must receive you upon terms inconsistent with his justice holiness and truth But flatter not your selves it will not be This is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation refuse it now and it is lost for ever O Sirs if this were the hour and you were presently to be received or refused would you blame me to cry and call to you with all the fervour of my soul if I knew that it were in your own choice whether you would go to Heaven or Hell Why now it is in your choice Life and