Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	conscience_n	good_a	sin_n	3,825	5	5.2827	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30448	A sermon preach'd before the King, at St. James-Chapel on the 10th of February 1694/5, being the first Sunday in Lent / by Gilbert, Lord Bishop of Sarum.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1695 (1695)	Wing B5904; ESTC R8267	15,648	35

knows to Prayers our Assisting that is being present rather than joining with any Devotion at them that our giving the Hearing often a very wandering one to a few Discourses and our coming to Sacrament upon some great occasions in compliance with Law or Custom rather than out of true Devotion Can I say any man have such high thoughts of such Nothings such mean and dead Performances or can he have such low thoughts of God and Religion as to imagine that any value can be set on them It is certain that so simple and plain a Religion as ours is which lays so little cost or trouble on us can be of no value in the sight of God it has not so much as an outward appearance considerable enough to give a false quiet so that man who know that his Religion has not its real effects on him has no reason to flatter himself upon that account Indeed such a half Religion as it lets in upon a man the belief of the Principles of it so it lays him open to all the Checks and Terrors which arise out of these It is strong enough to teach him his Duty to make him know his Sins and to apprehend the terrible Consequences of them but it does not compleat its Work it gives him only the Terrors but lets him not in to the Joys of true Religion He does not live in that purity as to feel the Sense of a good Conscience nor has he that right to the Promises of the Gospel which may settle in him a firm confidence in God with a full assurance of his Love and an entire dependance on his Providence The Terrors of Guilt must make him start often and the Corruptions that he feels still within him are to him like those secret Pains and Diseases that though they break not out into violent Symptoms yet are sensibly felt and do imbitter our Lives in spite of the highest affluence of wealth and pleasure that may compass us about on every side After all such a low state of Religion though it is not to be rested on yet is not to be neglected it may be a good beginning and carry us on 〈◊〉 better things A fire may arise from a spark an● a little Leaven may come to leaven the whol● lump Men of low attainments ought to know that they are but low and to press forward fo● getting the things that are behind reaching 〈◊〉 those that are before them To conclude this Head As we have seen different Classes of men who do receive this grace in vain so in opposition to them those who do not receive● in vain are they who are firmly persuaded of t●● truth of it and that not from the impliciteness o● Education or Custom but upon Principles ●●ter a due consideration of the matter They being thus assured of the truth of it apply themselve● in earnest to frame the inward disposition of the mind their Designs and setled Resolutions n●● even their Wishes and suddener Thoughts into conformity to the Spirit of the Christian Religion They become inwardly humble and modest charitable and good natur'd patient and gentle serious and devout they have moderate designs as to this world and are contented with that state of life and those Circumstances that God shall think sit to chuse for them They consider this World as a Pilgrimage and themselves as Strangers in it and have their Eyes and Aims raised to a blessed Immortality beyond it and so they lay down a stedfast Resolution to allow themselves in no sin nor to compound for any one by affecting higher degrees of zeal in any of the other parts of Religion Thus their mind is framed within To this Temper they join an exactness in their whole deportment free from affectation or superstition They begin at the most indispensable Rules of Vertue they are sincere and true honest in all their dealings and faithful to all their Promises they are harmless and innocent shew neither envy nor spite to others nor allow themselves the liberty of Calumny or Detraction They are chast sober and temperate ready not only to do good to all but particularly to render good for evil And in all these things they do not content themselves with low degrees but study to shine not to gratify Vanity or to be observed but to set a pattern to others and to do all the honour that they can to their holy Religion But alas if this is the extent of not receiving this grace in vain how ●ew are they who come within this Character Oh where are they to be found Some there are God be thanked for it in whom Religion shews both how amiable and how effectual it is It is indeed an amazing and melancholy Consideration that the number of them should be so small nor does any thing prove more evidently the monstrous depravation of Human N●ture than that a Religion composed of such Principles and supported by such an Author should prevail so little and have so feeble an influence even over those who seem to deliver themselves up to its discipline This carries me to the second Point to which I proposed to speak to wit What are those Arguments that we have to offer the World to persuade them not to receive this grace in vain The 1 st is imported in the very word it self that it is Grace and Favour Generous minds value themselves on this That how firm soever they may be against Terrors or Threatnings they are easily conquer'd by the methods of love and of kindness They are rather too feeble here and too apt to be overcome by them If we do either consider our own guilt or the Majesty of that God who offers this Grace to us we will have tenderer impressions of this matter I know the profane Tribe look upon all the sad reflections that men may be induced to make on their past lives as the fumes of Melancholly and as vapours that arise from cross Accidents or uneasy Circumstances If indeed we thought that a few sad Acts could compound matters with God be as sort of reparation to discount all other Reckonings this were a very mean thing and a great foundation for Superstition But when reflections on past Disorders are only meant in order to the humbling of our selves to the making us claim to and value the Mercies of God the more and to the obliging us to be more watchful over our selves for the future and more tender towards the failings of others sad Reflections so managed and so directed must give us another view of things and make us see our selves in other colours These while they sink us under the apprehensions of what we have deserved so they must raise in us a high sense of the Grace and Pardon offered us in the Gospel such persons must love much in proportion to the sense that they have of the much that is forgiven them If to this we add the consideration of the method by which