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	holy_a	time_n	5,790	5	4.7273	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77436	[A brief e]xhort[ation], with the means to [promote] pie[ty] especially directed to th[e] [...] of London. / By a lover thereof, a[nd] of all sincere Christians.		1669 (1669)	Wing B4591aA; ESTC R176327	10,189	27

particular person to make his private addresses to the Throne of Grace the omission of which hath certainly proved the undoing of very many and unless we herein reform as well as in the other we have as little reason to expect the safety of our Souls as they of their Bodies who will stint themselves to Two meales a day and will not out of those times taste any thing though their bodies stand in never so great need Of these private Devotions some may be constant and some occasional the constant are those which are to be performed every Morning as soon as we awake and every Night immediately before we go to sleep repeating seriously and intently in our minds either the Lord's Prayer or some short ejaculation befitting the season Occasional Devotions are those which are to be performed upon any sudden accident which befalleth us either by Night or by Day Viz. As soon as we perceive any affliction ready to befal us or when it i● come upon us Or presently upon the receipt of some great and unexpected mercy in mind body or estate Or whensoever we shall perceive the Devil putting into our minds any wicked thoughts tempting us either directly not to fear or love God as we ought to do or indirectly by perswading us either to omit or slightly to run over our daily Prayers or to omitt the daily hearing or reading of the holy Scriptures or either not at all or without due preparation to receive the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper or not to honour and obey the King or not to submit our selves to all our Governours Teachers Spiritual Pastors and Masters or not to love honour and succour our natural Parents or not to order our selves lowly and reverently to all our betters or to neglect our duty towards our Children Servants c. or to be proud to Swear rashly Curse Lye Slander to Covet Cheat Steal to be Prodigal Wanton Lacivious to Eat Drink Sleep or take our Pleasure excessively c. Lastly as soon as ever we are conscious to our selves that we have committed any of these or the like Sins in Thought Word or Deed. And upon all these or the like occasions to the utmost of our Power useing all other means or duties which we know to be necessary or expedient for us without which our devoutest Prayers and most servent ejacularions may not only be unprofitable but hurtful to us and abominable in the sight of God we may either retire to some private Place or Closer and with an audible voice pronounce or else if that cannot conveniently be done either in our Beds or at our Tables or in our shops or wheresoever we be we may in our minds only devoutly and fervently rebeat only the whole Lords Prayer 〈◊〉 any one petition of it or any other small 〈◊〉 aculation most suitable to the occasion and every such ejaculation imitating our Saviour in his most fervent Prayer immediately before he was to drink the bitter Cup of his Passion we might repeate two or three times or oftner and at every repetition endeavour more and more to kindle and inflame our affections In the Second place Let us constantly hear or read the holy Scriptures with our Morning and Evening Prayers as well in Private as Publick wherein likewise we should observe the Publick method where we have the holy Scriptures not only most excellently interwoven with our Prayers with which we are to begin and end our Spiritual meals but also appointed to be read after a most exact regular manner besides several select portions thereof most properly befitting certain seasons of the year Among the Apocryphal Lessons there be very few if any that can be excepted against but if any will not be perswaded to read them in their Families they may instead thereof read any other Lessons either out of the Old Testament or Apocrypha If there be any among us who do fancy that their worldly cares and employme will in the day of Judgment sufficiently ●●cuse them for not spending daily so muc● time in holy Duties as our Publick Service doth require supposing that a little short Prayer every Morning and Evening with a Sermon or two every Sunday is as much as they do need or God doth require o● them I shall desire them seriously to Consider 1. Whether they do not daily spend as much if not more time idly if not sinfully than that comes to if so then let them ask their own Consciences whether they will not be inexcusable in the last day 2ly If God doth require some part of every day wherein we ought solemnly to Worship him which is consented to both by the practice and judgment of all Nations whether he doth not at least require one hour in twenty four if not one hour in seven according to the proportion of one day in seven 3ly Whether it be not a very unreasonable and ungrateful thing not to allow God and our Souls an hour or two on our working-working-daies whereas God alloweth us on his holy-day several hours for works of necessity and mercy for our bodies and whereas by too many sad experiences we plainly see that our Souls do daily stand in as great need of holy-holy-duties as on Sun-daies our bodies of works of necessity and mercy 4ly Whether we can spend less than an hour daily in holy-duties and whether the reading of the holy Scriptures therein be not as necessary as Prayers since the Lord did strictly charge Joshua Chap. 1.8 That the book of the Law should not depart out of his mouth but he should meditate therein day and night that he might observe to do according to all that is written therein Which command though it was given to Joshua in particular yet may as certainly oblige all persons in general as that promise I will never leave thee nor forsake thee which was given to him at the same time Chap. 1.5 doth belong unto all true Christians as it is applyed by the Apostle Heb. 13.5 And King David that sweet singer of Israel in the very first beginning of his Psalmes pronounceth a blessing upon him that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly c. But his delight is in the Law of the Lord and in his Law doth meditate day and night and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of Water that bringeth forth his fruit in due season his leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doth shall prosper but on the other sid●●● by way of opposition he calleth those 〈◊〉 ly that do not meditate in the Law of God day and night and sheweth that they shall be not partakers of those blessings but are like the chaff c. And certainly nothing more or better can be expressed by the tongues of Men to perswade and press us to a constant reading hearing and meditating in the word of God than what the Spirit of God hath said by King Solomon the wisest of Men in the nine

first Chapters of his Proverbs There are several other Scriptures of the like nature which I shall forbear to rehearse these already alledged being sufficient to convince any serious understanding Christian of the necessity of this duty They who still persist to neglect the daily performance thereof stand more in need of our daily Prayers than Arguments Wherefore let all good Christians pray unto God to open their eyes and to give them repentance that the noble Bercans who searched the Scriptures daily and those many thousands of Martyrs and pious Christians which have set a part every Morning and Evening as much or more time for holy Duties than our Publick-Service doth require Rise not up in Judgment against them in that 〈…〉 Tribunal 〈◊〉 when they shall be 〈◊〉 by those 〈◊〉 ly Scriptures which they now so little 〈◊〉 gard and seldom take notice of They who sometimes have such extraordinary occasions that will not permit them to spend so much time in their wonted Devotions may read the Prayers with the Psalmes and one Chapter only If they can't do so they may with the Prayers read the Psalmes or one or two Psalmes and the Epistle or Gospel appointed for that week but at least without inevitable necessity I would have them seriously and devoutly say the Lords Prayer the Creed and the Ten Commandments which certainly may be done in so short a time that I cannot see how many persons can excuse the omission thereof except it be as I said in case of inevitable necessity but as soon as those urgent occasions are over questionless it doth become us to Redeem our holy-time by reading over those Scriptures which we then omitted As we ought to pray oftentimes as well out of as in our set seasons so certainly ought we at other times to read hear learn teach or meditate in the holy Scriptures for as St Peter sheweth in his second Epistle Chap. 〈…〉 to know the Arti●●●● 〈…〉 be established in 〈…〉 truth of them it we must add to our Faith Vertue and to Vertue Knowledge and to Knowledge Temperance and ●o Temperance Patience and to Patience Godliness and to Godliness Brotherly-kindness and to Brotherly-kindness Charity that we should not be barren nor fruitless in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And for this end as he sheweth verse 15. It is necessary that we have these things always in remembrance and as he further sheweth Chap. 3.2 we should often call to mind the Words and Commandments of the Prophets and Apostles which may be done by often repeating in our minds either the Creed or Ten Commandments which are the summ of the Law and the Gospel or some other sentences of Scripture which we find to have most influence upon us ●o stirr up our pure minds to perform our duty towards God our selves and our neighbour Which hath been the Practice of the Saints of all ages who almost in all times and places would have in their minds the Lords Prayer or Creed or Ten Commandments or some other portion of Scripture which they would get by heart for that end and that they might the of the 〈…〉 they would●● get the 〈…〉 Printed and 〈◊〉 them in those place 〈…〉 their houses wherein they might be most obvious to their sight And I know no reason why we should omit the use of these means which they counted so beneficial and necessary to put them in remembrance of the Word of God I am sure that they are a thousand times better than those wanton lascivious and prophane Pictures and Rhyms which do abound not only in Taverns and Inns but also in many private Houses In the last place let us take care not only that the holy Sacrament of Baptism be duly observed but likewise that we worthily receive the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper at least as often as it is appointed by Publick Authority And in order to our due preparation for our worthy receiving I am perswaded that there can be no better means than seriously and diligently to read over the Communion Service every time before our receiving Those who refuse wholly to receive this Sacrament I shall desire seriously to consider 1. Whether their Consciences do not oftentimes 〈…〉 their ab●●●ing doth 〈…〉 willingness to part with 〈…〉 their worldly imployments to 〈◊〉 pare themselve or else from a loathness to examine and throughly to kn●● what sinful lives they lead and to forsake their gainful and pleasant sins and to live according to the strict and holy rules of Christianity and if these be their reasons as I fear they be the only reasons even of those who pretend to abstain from a fear of unworthy receiving then let them judge whether their case be not very sad and dangerous 2ly That they who for fear of unworthy receiving abstain may as well upon the same account altogether leave off praying or reading and hearing the holy Scripture for those duties may be performed unworthily neither dare I free those that pray and hear or read the holy Scripture unworthily from the punishment due to the unworthy receivers of this Sacrament and besides I wonder how any dare to harbour any such fear whereas God hath plainly told us that he doth not require of us more than we are able to do by the due and constant use of the ordinary means which he hath afforded us which is as if we should tell 〈…〉 nnot do that 〈…〉 saith we ●an 3l That our Saviour doth not only ●●y expresly St John 6.53 Verily verily I say unto you except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you From whence we may plainly gather That all Christians upon the peril of loosing Eternal Life are bound to prepare themselves so as to be fit or worthy to receive the things signified in the Sacrament which certainly we can never do unless we be worthy to receive the Signs But our Saviour St. Luke 22.19 doth also charge us to receive the Signs adding thereunto the reason of his injunction saying Do this in Remembrance of me Shewing that the outward signes of Bread and Wine being things obvious to our Senses and fit resemblances or lively Pictures of his Body and Blood would be very great helpe or means to bring to our memory and to give us lively apprehensions of what he had done and suffered for us and how can any persons pretend to keep from this Sacrament through tenderness of Conscience or fear of offending God by unworthy receiving seeing they make no Conscience of breaking in 〈…〉 Saviours express Command 〈◊〉 are 〈…〉 the use of those mear● which he thought necessary for our Spiritual eating and drinking his Body and Blood which he hath enjoyned us to do upon peril of loosing Eternal Salvation 4ly That in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper we renew our Baptismal Covenant which by our Actual Sins we have broken and by refusing to renew it in this Sacrament we do as it were wholly renounce it and so forfeit all the Priviledges of a Christian in this World he World to come Finally I shall earnestly request all English Subjects seriously to Consider whether they do not eat and drink Damnation to themselves that receive this Sacrament after any manner contrary to our Soveraign's lawful command seeing that in their very manner of receiving it they commit the sin of disobedience to their Governours which certainly will render them unworthy Communicants And if so then assuredly it must needs be the safest way especially for tender Consciences to receive it after the manner appointed by Publick Authority it being cer●ain that there i● nothing therein required Contrary 〈…〉 of God Glory be to the Father and to the S●● and to the Holy Ghost As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end AMEN Feb. 11. 1669. FINIS