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	teach_v	4,178	5	7.2526	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96264	A sermon touching the divine right and due observation of the Lords day Preached before the Lord Deputy, and the Lords Spiritual & Temporal of the kingdom of Ireland; in time of Parliament. At Christ-Church Dublin. On Sunday the 6th. of October, 1695. With a preface humbly address'd to the whole body of English Protestants: especially those inhabiting the kingdom of Ireland. By Edward Lord Bishop of Cork and Ross.	Wettenhall, Edward, 1636-1713.	1697 (1697)	Wing W1520A; ESTC R229732	26,838	68

even to himself Waving then what was extraordinary Let us attend to what is ordinary and ought to be constant We may and ought on the Lords Day to be 1 in Spiritual Exercises and 2 in a Spiritual temper for attending them Sect. 16 Spiritual Exercises I call the offices of Worship or ordinary duties Of Spiritual Exercises on the Lords Day of Devotion on the Lords Day and those are either Publick Private or Secret which cannot commonly be omitted without sin Publick duties are those which are performed in Church Assemblies And they are chiefly four in their Scripture Names Praying Singing Doctrine and Breaking of Bread There is no reason to surmise from what we have extant in the Acts and in the first Epistle to the Corinthians that any Lords Day in the Primitive Church passed without each of these in their Solemnity What amongst us is most neglected give me leave to touch upon Of which sort is constant communicating The Christian Church while it continued in any tolerable purity never spent a Lords Day without the Lords Supper on which of old it was more Scandalous for any Christians to turn their backs than it is now for Men amongst us to live Excommunicate this I could easily prove at large but must forbear And that our own Church esteems the Lords day but half celebrated without the Communion appears by her having provided a Communion Service for every Lords Day in the Year The Communion as we have heard was ever attended with a Collection for the Poor now called Oblations Never Eucharist without Offertory And this we have seen to be as ancient as St. Pauls planting the Gospel Doctrine was subdivided into Prophesying or Interpreting of Scripture which we now call Preaching into Reading Exhortation Teaching and perhaps otherwise Now the word commonly used for teaching is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Catechise This Office was of so great note in the Primitive Church that it was committed to some choice Person appointed purposely thereto but him commonly most learned And by Catechising I do not mean meer hearing young People repeat the words of their Catechism but expounding to them the Doctrine of it Examining them upon such Expositions and by all the several plainest ways possible inculcating these Doctrines till they understand them And for gaining reverence to this Office as well as for other reasons which I will not name Elder people ought to fit by In a word all forrein Churches outdo us herein And if we take not more care than yet usual amongst us as to this work we shall without a miracle in the next age go very neer to loose our Religion Private Duties I call those which are performed in private Families Parents Children Sojourners Servants joyning in Prayer and Praises to God and in reading his Word and other good Books as conveniency offers Secret Duties are such as every Christian should perform by themselves in the Closet or Retirements Such are Meditation self Examination Recollection of our improvements and in the close Prayer and Thanksgiving as occasion requires Section XVII Those who demand Proof for these being duties of the day will give me leave to ask them whether Proof for these Duties such practices in the Family or in the Closet be necessary and duties on any day If they be so there is no sufficient reason for their omission on the Lords day when by Law of God and Man there is most leisure for them Besides they will be pleased to consult Numbers xxviii 9 10. where they will find the peculiar sacrifice for the Sabbath both Morning and Evening was required of the Jews over and above the continual daily Burnt offering the like too upon the New Moons ver 24. and on other Festivals ver ult That which I infer from hence is that the publick Lords Days Worship and other Festival Offices must not supercede or abate our ordinary Private or Secret Devotions on those Dayes These are to be faithfully superaded to them Section XVIII This haply some will cry out is Fanaticism Puritanism Sabbatarianism and the like A Vindication of this Practice from ill imputations I answer there may be a Fanatical and perhaps a Pharisaical way too of doing these duties but the practice of the duties it self is not Fanatical or Pharisaical and much less is it Sabbatarianism We must make Fanaticks and Sabbatarians of the most Ancient Fathers of the Primitive Church and the most learned Doctors and Pillars of our own Church if we can find either Fanaticisme or Sabbatarianisme in spending the whole Lords day in a succession or holy exchange of such Duties as these mentioned Justin Martyr was no Fanatick nor Sabbatarian yet in his second Apology he tells us the Christians of that age which was but one hundred and forty Years from Christ used to repeat at home what they had learned that day in the Publick Assembly Origen and St. Chrysostome were no Fanaticks nor yet Sabbatarians yet both nay the later more than once press the spending 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. This whole day in the exercise of Spirituals And to wave others of the Ancients and come neerer home I scarce think any Son of the present Church will adventure to brand the Reformation in King Edward the Sixths days with Fanaticisim or Sabbatarianism yet under that I find a Canon acknowledged for spending the Lords Day in private Prayer and Thanksgiving acknowledging our Offences reconciling our selves to our Brethren visiting the Sick comforting the Afflicted relieving the Poor and instructing Children and Servants in the nurture and fear of the Lord. But to be sure the Authors of the Book of Homilies we must not say were either Fanaticks or Sabbatarians For the Homilies we are bound still to subscribe and approve at least if not publickly to read yet they teach that on this day people shauld cease from all common and bodily labour and give themselves Wholly note that word to the exercises of Gods true Religion Arch Bishop Whitgift against the Admonitioners was no Fanatick Puritan or Sabbatarian yet saith he no man doubteth the meaning of these words Six days shalt thou labour c. to be this that seing God hath permitted us Six days to do our own works in we ought in the Seventh Wholly to serve him Bishop Francis White in his Book against the Sabbatarians was neither Fanatick nor Sabbatarian yet he tells us our Church requires that upon the Lords day Parents and Masters instruct their Children and Servants in the fear and nurture of the Lord. Mr. Hooker was neither Fanatick nor Sabbatarian yet he teaches we are to account the Sanctification of one Whole day in the week a Duty which Gods immutable Law doth enact for ever Finally I believe no sober man will say that Excellent Book The Whole duty of man savours either of Fanaticism or Sabbatarianism yet Partit 2. Sect. 17. The Author teaches all in their Families the practice I have perswaded

are returned Examining and Instructing our Children and Servants causing them to attend Reading and Family-prayers and Psalms for some reasonable time and restraining them all the day long from many Liberties usual on common dayes all these can have of themselves no sin in them but are pious and commendable and will turn to our own and our Families account one day if not at present Herein let the forced Concessions of some of the keenest disputants in behalf of Sunday Sports be heard 1. Whatever may hinder either the worship of God it self or our profiting therein should be forborn and avoided For all such things whatsoever Ironsides 7 Questions Cap. 24. p. 224. p. 269. as keep us from or hinder us in the Publik Worship are altogether unlawful on the Lords Day 2. It is not unlawful to observe the Lords Day with as great strictness as the Jews did the Sabbath provided we have no opinion that such rest is of necessity to be observed under pain of sin putting Religion therein p. 227. And that we censure not others who use their liberty nor out of a superstitious fear decline the doing any work of Necessity or Charity the benefit whereof would be utterly lost were the present opportunity neglected 3. Those who can and will spend the vacant time of the Lords Day in the private Exercises of piety ought not to be discountenanced or disheartened but encouraged rather p. 268. In a word let all follow thus what their own consciences when they are serious cannot what the very learned defenders of such Liberties as they are fond of when they consulted their own consciences could not but confess and there is little question but the whole Lords Day will be generally spent as in this discourse is pressed It may be observed I have not pressed such severities as exclude due refreshments and keeping the spirits in vigour and cheerfulness Nor do I suppose those expressions giving the whole day to God and the like which I have produced out of holy mens writings use to be taken in such a rigorous sense that the private and publick duties having been conscientiously performed and secured any should conclude it unlawful for people to walk abroad awhile in fresh air and Contemplate the works of God and enjoy themselves in beholding and moderately using them No nor for them sitting at home to let drop at their Meals or otherwise out of the times of their Devotions something of innocent cheerful discourse or as occasion offers to speak touching matters of concernment to them or of the common Occurrents in Human affairs though the less of this the better In a word That which I insist on as required is that All this day Christians take care not to disorder their hearts for the worship of God but that after their several refreshments they may return again with composed minds to the thoughts of God and Heaven and their duties and in the Evening sweetly commit their Souls and Bodys their family and substance to the Divine protection reposing themselves comfortably in Gods favour and in the good hopes of his acceptance in Christ Jesus If thus the day be spent it is as much given to God as our present condition will suffer us But will some say if this be all you contend for who denies the Divine obligation of the Lords Day or its observation thus stated I answer many have done and still do deny it Onely it comes to pass in this particular case what does more generally when men write in defence of such Doctrines which their Interest rather than their Conscience approves that by their own concessions in conscience they sometimes contradict what they have said for Interest And hence it is that we may easily pick out of our very Adversaries writings sundry memorable passages which favour us and so sometimes they deny what we contend for and sometimes they grant it In the mean time what is the effect which these Learned mens denying flatly and directly sometimes in their writings sometimes in ordinary discourse and it were to be wished they did it not in their most sacred discourses too what I say is the effect which their denying the morality of the fourth command has in the World Truely nothing but the growth of Licentiousness and Irreligion I know they pretend onely to Innocent Liberty and easing peoples Consciences of endless Scruples But is not Conscience easy enough by asserting such a Morality and Observation of a Christian Sabbath as above They would be understood to deny meerly such a Natural Morality of the letter of the fourth Command as there is in the first Thou shalt have no other Gods but me That is thou shall worship the Lord thy God and him alone shalt thou serve The Justness and Obligation whereof the very light of Nature or reflecting upon the very Terms doth dictate to us They would be content they 'l say to allow unto the fourth Command a kind of Equitahle morality and own the command too in some regard as positively Moral Nor do I deny but that when they thus speak they speak what if strictly taken and well understood is reason and as farr forth as there is reason and truth in it I have owned it But the People in the mean time understand not the Nice and distinct degrees of Morality And when they read or here learned men deny the Morality of the fourth Commandment they take all at Random and think themselves at liberty They say with themselves If indeed we keep the Lords Day t is true we do well but if we see fit to travel or if we take our pleasure or bodily ease all that day we sin not For the fourth command is not moral And the Lords Day is onely a Church Holy day All dayes under the Gospel are equal as our most learned Doctors teach us Now is it not evident that by these Terms such learned men have betrayed poor plain people into Licentiousness Prophaness and Irreligion And were it not better to be more cautious and allow all the Decalogue to be moral as indeed it is in one degree or other though one command or one duty may sometimes give place to another as Sacrifice to Mercy and onely to teach that the fourth command had one sense to the Jews and another to us Christians as had the Preface to all the commands Thy God that brought thee out of the Land c and divers passages in other Commands And finally to press the Evangelical sense of all which none question to be moral enough were not this I say much better than by our Learning and exactness by terms unknown to Scripture and distinctions not understood by common people to become Authors of their sins I leave this to the conscience and consideration of all prudent and serious Christians and pass on to another point in the following discourse which some haply may censure Amongst the constant publick Duties of the Lords day I