Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	faith_n	good_a	work_n	3,907	5	6.0359	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57372	A sermon preached at the Parish-Church of S. Magnus the Martyr, in the city of London, on Sunday, December 24, 1693 by Edward Roberts.	Roberts, Edward, b. 1653 or 4.	1694 (1694)	Wing R1577; ESTC R6134	14,837	34

necessary to their entering with success on the Labours of their Private Callings Nor is the Efficacy of it contemptible among our selves For we may with Comfort observe in this great City that many Persons of Slow Capacities and in Strait Circumstances by a careful Watching over their Hearts and Ways by an entire Dedication of themselves to God by the signal Advantage of having the Honest and Good Heart together with an habitual Attendance on their Parochial Ministry to arrive to a good Proficiency in Practical Religion and by painful Degrees to be nurs'd up into Excellent Christians Whereas others of far Quicker Parts and more Leisure wanting Probity of Mind Closeness of Attention and a Teachable Humility ramble eternally from one Church to another but without receiving lasting Benefit in any Men of desultory Tempers grow Sceptical they may vouchsafe to try all things but are habitually pleased with nothing Who industriously decry what Solomon recommends as the only sure Method of Thriving in the Concerns of Eternity Eccles 11. 6. In the morning sow thy seed and in the evening withhold not thy hand for thou knowest not whether shall prosper either this or that or whether they both shall be alike good But the highest Zeal and Constancy in the Holy Offices can be no sufficient Security to venture our Souls upon these are only Means of Christianity and not to be rested in Considering therefore that the most flaming Sacrifice may carry in it destructive and consuming Qualities and that some in all Ages of the Church have set up Devotion to the ruin of Honest Morality Praying long the better to drown the dismal Cries of Widows and Orphans and to build their own Fortunes upon the Graves of their oppress'd Neighbours I must crave leave to carry the Matter higher yet and lay before you The Third The finishing Stroke of this Spiritual Improvement and that is Universal Righteousness which is never to be Concealed where it is and but rarely Counterfeited where it is not It being not a single Virtue but all united in the same Breast a strong Combination of the more Generous Qualities of the Mind which dilate themselves on all proper Occasions into Life and Practice And this was the concluding Argument of S. John by which he demonstrated the Growth of this excellent Christian Namely His Crediting of the Truth by agreeable Practises whose Charity was a real Fruit grafted upon a right Stock even Faith in the Blood of Jesus Now that Religion is most Genuine and Conformable to the Mind of its Blessed Author which is expensive and draws something from us which we highly value and would not part with but for Conscience-sake Instrumental Duties being cheap and easie may be performed by meer Impostors and Hypocritical Pretenders but Good Works are not so easily Counterfeited for Men seldom act a Part in Religion to their Great Cost In this Case the Danger of being imposed upon is far less or none at all Devotional Acts may have base Ends and sinful Mixtures they must be Tryed and Weighed in the Balance and oft-times they are Light and found wanting the Whore in the Proverbs had payed her Vows Whereas a Good Life a bright Charitable Conversation is like the purer sort of Money which passes freely from Hand to Hand and is never questioned in any Payment When the Actions of a Christian testifie for him in the Gates and his Worth is attested before the Church Malice it self is struck dead Nay the Publick-spirited truly Good Man stands intitled to the Blessing of Demetrius in this Epistle and has no Enemy or rather should have none but Satan the common Enemy of Mankind Our being Members of the Church and our using the Means of Grace are fair Arguments of Probability these are likely Signs that we shall but Real Acts of Piety and diffusive Beneficence are certain Evidences of our having by God's help already prospered And yet he that advances thus far on the way to Heaven and makes a full Stand here shall never unless by an extraordinary Mercy arrive thither for Christianity proposeth no fixed determinate Degree of Virtue beyond which there is no advancing The Spiritual Stature is at no Period like the Natural at a full Growth but always growing Our brightest Graces are still capable of Accessions and must shine more and more to the perfect Day For Men to get into a Road of Religion and yet alas how many are more unhappily engaged and upon the broad way to Destruction and to be content with living after the old customary Rate is plainly to deceive themselves They may in such a Case be no Blemishes to their Profession but by the strict Rules of it they ought to press forward and commence Encouraging Examples Visible Patterns of Righteousness which is a Station both of Safety and Honour And as the Voyage is never reckon'd prosperous till the Dangers of the Seas are past the Storms rid out and the Vessel brought safe into Harbour So neither ought we to conclude our selves free from Temptations and foul Relapses till we come to the New Jerusalem Our Felicity grows on this side but is there only in maturity and perfection This is the full Scripture-Nation of Spiritual Prosperity which was the first Point to be settled according to the proposed Method The Second General Head and now falling under Consideration is An Account of that Bodily and External Welfare which is strongly rooted in our Common Nature and too often sought with raving Importunity The Body being of a mean Original is incapable of the forementioned Discipline and Cultivation never to be raised in this World to an higher Character than an Heap of Dust and Ashes and yet overlooking its mean and corruptible Qualities many bestow on it the Greater Care This is an Object of a very distinguishing Passion and no Means are forborn no Cost spared to prop up and adorn it which is the degenerate Folly the reigning Sin of Mankind However God having formed the Body and made it the Mansion of the Soul which always acts by the Mediation of it we have it plainly granted in the Text that the Welfare of it is a Real Philosophick Good and the Object of a Christian Wish which consists mainly in three things I. In the Health of it Grotius in his Comment observes that S. John wishing Corporal Prosperity to Gaius set down Health as the most necessary and excellent Part of it without which his other Satisfactions had been of little Worth This preserves the Organs enables us to judge of Tasts and Sounds and all other sensible Objects it gives due Quickness and Agility and makes us capable of living with any Pleasure to our selves or Profit to our several Generations The want of Health caused the most patient Man to desire Strangling rather than Life A Blessing of that vast Use and Consequence that God reserves it in His own Power and makes it the Reward of Religion which in Scripture is