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
A48732	A sermon at the funeral of the Right Honourable the Lady Jane eldest daughter to His Grace, William, Duke of Newcastle, and wife to the Honourable Charles Cheyne, Esq, at Chelsey, Novemb. I, being All-Saints day by Adam Littleton ...	Littleton, Adam, 1627-1694.; Person of quality and neighbor in Chelsey.	1669 (1669)	Wing L2568; ESTC R21390	19,451	62

Her A Discreet Wise Woman say Others or as an ancient Armenian Copy has it one of a Sound Brain and a good Understanding and this falls in with the Fear of God here which the Wise Son and the Pious Father both tell us is the Beginning or as the Hebrew word imports the Sum Total of Wisdom And they have a good Vnderstanding that Do thereafter This fear of God doth not only Contract but Dilate the Heart too laying Restraints indeed upon the Conscience from Sin but withal Inlarging the powers of the Soul to all kind of Duty for 't is an Ingenuous Filial Fear that has a very quick sense and tender Apprehension of God's Displeasure and makes her wary of offending him either in Doing any thing that should not be done or Omitting ought that should 'T is not a Fear then that ariseth from the Weakness and Imbecillity of Female Constitution which renders them more apt to Devotion but is very well consistent with that Valour and Courage which the 70 and other Interpreters make the great Ingredient of the Character Imboldning us and putting us on to Do or Suffer any thing for God's sake And we may consider it Two Ways 1. In the Root and Principle 2. In the Branches and Productions In the Principle 't is a Reverential Fear which composes the Inner man to becoming Thoughts and awful Apprehensions of God and obliges the Heart close to him with Silken Cords and binds up all the Affections that they may not run loose after Vanities but fixes them upon Heavenly things and suits all the Passions of Humane Nature in a fit and constant Correspondence to the Attributes of the Divine so as to Love him for his Goodness Admire him for his Wisdom Dread him in his Power stand in Aw of his Iustice take Delight in the remembrance of his Mercies and at last to be swallowed up into Him in the Contemplation of his Infiniteness in all These In its Operations that is in all the Actions of Life for like the Warp it runs through the whole Web of all Her Duties it Tutors the Senses and puts all the Members in Array and orders the Outward man into an answerable Decorum to the Inward that her Looks her Speech her very Gesture and Carriage prove innocent Expressions of honest Meanings and a Vertuous Mind and all the Phaenomena and outward Appearances of Her in her Conversation are but the natural Representments of her Bright Spotless Ingenuous Soul the fair Inmate of a rightly Disciplin'd and well Order'd Body The Fear of God then comprehends in it all Religious Worship both Internal and External nor doth it consist in an hypocritical Demureness and a distantial Pride or supercilious Contempt of others but in a sincere Humility to God and Charity to Men when which is the Vertuous Woman's Practice what with Church and Closet on the one side to which she alway pays a regular Attendance and her Family on the other which she is always what with Instruction what with Example looking after She is continually Imploy'd and divides her Time betwixt the Offices of a Chearful Devotion and the Duties of an Indearing Converse Now certainly if there be such a Reward as Praise appointed for the Pious if Honour hath its Temple adjoyn'd to that of Vertue then this Pious Vertuous Woman here mention'd must be reckon'd the truly Honourable Woman and will deserve to have her Grave strow'd with Roses and Violets and her Memory crown'd with Flowry Chaplets and Myrtle Wreaths of fragrant and lasting Praises That 's the Next thing we have to do She shall be Praised It is a Morose Humour in some even Ministers that they will not give a due Commendation to the Deceased whereby they not only offer a seeming Unkindness to the Dead but do a real Injury to the Living by discouraging Vertue and depriving us of the great Instruments of Piety good Examples which usually are far more effectual Methods of Instruction then any Precepts These commonly urging only the Necessity of those Duties which the Other shew the Possibility and Manner of Performing But then 't is a most Unchristian and Uncharitable Mistake in those that think it unlawful to Commemorate the Dead and to Celebrate their Memories whereas there is no one thing does so much uphold and keep up the Honour and Interest of Religion amongst the Multitude as the due Observance of those Anniversaries which the Church has upon this Account scatter'd throughout the whole course of the Year would do and indeed to our Neglect of this in a great Part the present Decay of Religion may rationally be Imputed Thus in this Age of our's what Pliny saith of His Postquàm desiimus facere laudanda Laudari quoque ineptum putamus Since People have left off doing things that are Praise-worthy they look upon Praise it self as a silly thing And possibly the Generality of Hearers themselves are not free from this Fault who peradventure may Fancy their Own Life Upbraided when they hear Anothers Commended But that the servants of God which depart this life in his Faith and Fear may and must be Praised I shall endeavour to make good upon these three Grounds 1. In common Iustice to the Deceas'd themselves Ordinary Civility teaches us to speak well of the Dead Nec quicquam Sanctius habet Reverentia Superstitum quàm ut Amissos Venerabiliter Recordetur says Ausonius and makes this the ground of the Parentalia which had been ever since Numa's time Praise however it may become the Living is a just Debt to the deserts of the Dead who are now got clear out of the reach of Envy which if it have any thing of the Generous in it will scorn Vultur-like to prey upon Carcass Besides Christianity lays a greater Obligation upon us The Communion of Saints is a Tenet of our Faith Now as we ought not to Pray To them or For them so we may and must Praise them This is the least we can do in Return for those great Offices they did the Church Militant while they were with Us and now do they are with God nor have we any other probable way of Communicating with them The Philosopher in his Morals makes it a Question whether the Dead are any way Concern'd in what befals Them or their Posterity after their Decease and whether those Honours and Reproaches which Survivers cast upon them reach them or no and He concludes it after a long debate in the Affirmative not so he says as to alter their State but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to contribute to it Tully though not absolutely perswaded of an Immortal Soul as speaking doubtfully and variously of it yet is constant to this that He takes a good Name and a Reputation we leave behind us to be a kind of Immortality But there is more in it then so Our Remembrance of the Saints may be a Means to Improve their Bliss and Heighten their Rewards to all Eternity Abraham the