Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	day_n	great_a	lord_n	3,227	5	3.8203	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37052	Encouragement to charity a sermon preached at the Charter-House Chapel Dec. 12, 1678, at an anniversary meeting in commemoration of the founder / by William Durham.	Durham, William, d. 1686.	1679 (1679)	Wing D2830; ESTC R3150	13,894	28

condescend to the meanest offices of Humanity and Kindness to the poor and the abject which he performed with great compassion thoroughout the whole course of his Life This was his constant practice as we find in the History of the Gospel to which his Doctrine was exactly suitable His Sermons and Discourses to the people were all to the same purpose he did not entertain his Disciples with nice and high-flown Speculations according to the vain way of the Gentile Philosophers which should onely amuse their minds with unprofitable and impracticable Notions that tended to no real and substantial good But his Doctrines were purely for the use and real benefit of mankind for the establishment of Peace and Love and Kindness in the world and for the restraining and curbing those immoderate Passions which made men mischievous or at best very uneasie to one another His Law was the perfect Law of Love and Charity according to the utmost extent in the greatest Comprehension that ever yet it was proposed to the world He commands us not onely to love our Neighbours and Friends with whom we peaceably and amicably live in the same civil Society but also that we love our enemies and those that hate us He commands us not onely not to revenge an injury which was the highest strain any Philosophers ever reach'd to in their Principles few so high in their Practice but instead of evil to return good to bless those that curse us and to shew kindness to those that despitefully use us He commands us to bestow our Charity not at large to any persons we may have a fancy and inclination to but he particularly determines it to our very Enemies If thine enemy hunger give him bread if he thirst give him drink These are the Principles of Humanity and Goodness he has recommended to the practice of the world refined and sublimated to the highest degree of Perfection that Humane Nature is capable of And thus we see how this Divine Law of Love and Charity is pressed upon all Christians both by the example and particular commands of our Saviour so that the observance of it is not left to our liberty for a Free-will Offering whereby we may supererogate but it is essential to true Christianity without which we can in no wise pretend to be the Disciples of Christ We are not therefore to think to apply this Discourse more particularly to Charity which I mainly design with the selfish and churlish Worldlings that whatsoever we can scrape together provided it be by means allowable by the Law is presently all our own and that when once we have got it into our clutches we may dispose of it as we please No man in this World is a Free-holder and an absolute Proprietor in respect of the Worldly Estate which he possesses but he has it from God under some certain terms and limitations who has made some Reserves and allotted some Pensions that are to be paid out to the Poor and the Distressed The Rich are only Gods Stewards and Almoners with whom he intrusts the Relief of their Necessitous Brethren Now if they spend the Portion of the Poor in Riot and Superfluity or any other way divert it from the use it was designed they are false to the Trust Almighty God has reposed in them they oppress and defraud the Poor and are upon the matter as Criminal as those that pick their Pockets and rifle their Houses for which their Great Lord will one day call them to a severe account And indeed if the Gospel were silent the common Principles of Natural Reason and Equity would in great measure enforce this Duty For can we suppose that God the Wise Creator and Governour of all things who regardeth not the high looks of the Proud and is no Respecter of Persons should be so favourable and partial to the Rich and to the Great as to bestow upon them such Plenty and Superfluity without some Reservation for the necessary Support at least of those who have the same Common Principles of Nature and are equally the Workmanship of his own Hands Or if Societies of men were joyned together meerly by compact can we reasonably think that the meaner and lower sort of People should ever willingly consent or quietly submit to so unequal nay so unjust an Establishment as that which raiseth some to so vast a height and greatness whilst they themselves are destitute of the necessary supports of Life without remedy Is it reasonable that the Head and some other of the more Honourable Parts of the Body should be filled with pretious Ointments and Perfumes decked and adorned in the most costly and extravagant manner while no care or regard should be had to the Feet and other viler Parts which do the common drudgery of the Body and are the chief support of the whole No there ought certainly to be a proportionable care for all the Members because they partake of the same Nature and perform their distinct functions in the common offices of Life And so ought it also to be in Societies of men the Rich and the Powerful and the Honourable who are maintained and supported in their Greatness by the Services of Meaner Persons are obliged in way of just Recompence to take such under their care and protection and out of their Superfluities as often as occasion requires make the low and mean Estate to which the others quietly submit for the sake of Order and Peace to be as supportable and comfortable as is possible Now if it be demanded in what way or after what proportion this Charitable Relief is to be distributed to Persons in Want and Distress I answer it is to be done without any bounds or limitation both for the Manner and the Measure but such as Christian Prudence shall direct and determine We ought out of our greater Experience and Knowledge to counsel and advise the Ignorant with our Power to defend and protect the Innocent from Oppression and with our Riches and Abundance to relieve the Wants and Necessities of the Poor and Indigent without any determinate stint but according to our Abilities and according to what the Exigence of others may require And in this Latitude and Extent are these Acts of Beneficence and Charity in a more peculiar way Duties of Gospel which was the first Particular But besides this obligation of Duty I shall as I proposed shew Secondly The farther Encouragements we have to the Performance of these Acts of Beneficence and Charity from their own nature in that First They are agreeable to the Principles of Humanity and highly grateful to a Generous temper in the very Performance Secondly They give us great satisfaction of Mind at the time of our Death Thirdly They make us live in the World after Death by perpetuating our Names and Memories Fourthly They lay a good and sure foundation for Everlasting Life in the World that is to come First These Acts of Kindness and Charity are