Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	pray_v	prayer_n	watch_v	1,258	5	10.1995	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40082	Libertas evangelica, or, A discourse of Christian liberty being a farther pursuance of the argument of the design of Christianity / by Edward Fowler ...	Fowler, Edward, 1632-1714.	1680 (1680)	Wing F1709; ESTC R15452	145,080	382

Thirdly Our Saviour hath moreover purchased for us a rich supply of Grace to enable us to use the forementioned Means with happy success He hath obtained from his Father by his Perfect Obedience both Active and Passive Authority to send the Holy Ghost powerfully to assist us and hath assured us that those who ask him shall have him in those most excellent and most comfortable words Luke 11. 11 12 13. If a Son shall ask bread of any that is a Father will he give him a stone Or if he ask a fish will he for a fish give him a Serpent Or if he shall ask an Egge will he offer him a Scorpion If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more shall your Heavenly Father give his holy Spirit unto them that ask him And if any of us want the Holy Spirit 's Assistance it is certainly because we either pray not at all for it or not with a sincere and earnest desire that he should root up and destroy every Evil Affection in our Souls Because we are secretly unwilling to let go some beloved lust or other And because we are false to God and our own Souls in those things which he hath put into our Power For 't is certain that not to put forth the power we have already received and yet complain for want of strength is to play the Hypocrities and no wonder if the Holy Spirit of God doth estrange himself and withhold or withdraw his blessed Influences from such persons But as for those who are faithful so far as those Talents reach which they are at present intrusted with our Lord hath promised them that more shall be given them That is the meaning of those words Mark 4. 25. He that hath to him shall be given That is that useth what he hath for no man properly hath or possesseth what he makes no use of 't would be the same thing to him to be without it Nay our Lord doth not only promise to him that hath that more shall be given him but also that he shall have abundantly more Matth. 13. 12. For whosoever hath to him shall be given and he shall have more abundance And he repeats this Chap. 25. 29. And if we were not through wilfulness and carelesness wanting to our selves in putting forth that measure of strength we have as sure as Iesus is the Christ we should fully experiment the truth of this promise We should then feel the Divine Spirit working in us mightily as the Apostle S. Paul saith he did Col. 1. 29. The great things that are spoken concerning the Spirit and of what he shall do in the hearts of men would be then punctually fulfilled in us and we should be satisfied by happy experience that they are not mere words the Holy Ghost would not fail to do all that for us he was sent by our Lord to do It is to be acknowledged with great sadness that both Fleshly and Spiritual Lusts are exceedingly strong and vigorous even in the generality of those that profess Christianity as well as in others and no less than in others that are Strangers to our Religion But this never to be enough lamented Evil doth not proceed from hence that grace is denied to the generality but 't is wholly to be imputed to their Receiving the grace of God in vain and wilfully refusing to comply therewith It is not at all to be ascribed to the Spirits refusing to perform his Office in them or to do in their behalf what doth belong to him but to their refusing to do their part This we are as fully assured of from abundance of Texts of Scripture as we can desire to be The same is to be said of mens so ordinarily falling again and again into those sins which they frequently Pray and Resolve and Vow against This is far from being the account of it that God is not willing to hear their prayers For as S. Iohn speaks 1 Epist. 5. 14. This is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us and to ask victory over our Lusts is of all Petitions most agreeable to his will This cannot be the reason of it that the Holy Spirit refuseth to inforce his Preventing or Prevenient with his Assisting Grace that he will not assist some persons in the performance of those good Resolutions which his Preventing Grace hath excited in their Souls But this is the true account hereof viz. Such Persons are undoubtedly wanting in the use of some Necessary Means or other for the subduing their Lusts they do not use all the means our Lord hath appointed and are especially faulty in neglecting particularly the great duty of Consideration They pray it may be very frequently and earnestly too that God would give them strength against this or that Corruption and they add Vows to their Prayers but they add not Consideration to their Prayers and Vows they watch not over themselves disregard the first motions of their Wills and inclinations of their Souls towards the sins or sin they so Pray Resolve and Vow against and are not careful to avoid Temptations And as inconsideration is the chiefest cause of unsuccessfulness in the use of means for the subduing of Corrupt Affections so the gross neglect of that grand Means the Lords Supper but now discoursed of which I hope in no Age nor among any people professing Christianity was ever so common as to our great shame it is in this Age and this Nation this gross neglect I say is questionless a very great cause of so much Non-proficiency in attendance on other Ordinances as is complained of Which Nonproficiency may well be notwithstanding the Promises of the plentiful Effusion of the Spirit and our Saviour's purchasing so rich a supply of Grace for us For our Saviour is no such Friend to Negligence and Carelesness as to dispense his Grace in such a way and manner as that it must necessarily be a motive and encouragement to do nothing or but little our selves But on the contrary he so communicates his Grace and Strength as to make it a great Exciter and Quickner of Endeavours Of this S. Paul assures us in making God's working in us to will and to do or his readiness so to do an argument to perswade us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2. 12. Lastly As our Saviour hath purchased for us a rich supply of Grace for the Enabling us to use the Means of our Deliverance with happy success so he hath given us the most powerful Motives and Arguments that can be imagined to prevail upon our Wills to comply and cooperate with this Grace And these Arguments are not only proposed outwardly to us in his Gospel but they are also inforced inwardly upon our hearts as appears by what hath been now said by his Holy Spirit That is they are inforced upon the