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	word_n	4,036	5	4.6953	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61620	A sermon preached before the Queen at White-Hall, February 22d, 1688/9 by Edward Stillingfleet ...	Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1689 (1689)	Wing S5660; ESTC R14193	17,444	42

condition of Humanity Made to be Happy and yet fond of Misery Loving what 's vain and yet despising Vanity Hating what 's Good and yet accounts it best And therefore fittest for our Choice and Love. The Love of God above all things is so just and reasonable that those who doe it least approve it as the most excellent Imployment of our Minds and those that doe it most think they fall short of what God deserves from them The more we know of God the more we know that we ought to love and delight in him and all our Difficulty in the Practice of it can never make us think it is unreasonable to love Him above all things without whom nothing can make us happy and who alone can doe it 3. Vniversal Holiness of Heart and Life If this were not necessary to Salvation our Apostle would not have pressed it with so much earnestness as he doth As obedient children not fashioning your selves according to the former lusts in your ignorance but as he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation because it is written be ye holy for I am holy Again Dearly beloved I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the Soul. And again That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God. This is a hard saying to Mankind who part with nothing so hardly as with their Sins yet these must be parted with if ever we hope to get to Heaven I do not say that a Perfection in Holiness is required for that were to suppose Happiness in this World since there can be no perfect holiness without it but there must be a constant uniform and sincere endeavour after it by avoiding all known and wilfull Sins and doing all our Duties to God in such a manner as our Conscience cannot charge us with gross Neglect or Insincerity There are some things we cannot say are downright Sins yet if they lead to them if they indispose our Minds to God and his Service if they tend to Lightness and Vanity and make us more easie to entertain the Devil's Temptations we ought to avoid them as the Snares of the Devil So on the other side there are some things which we cannot say are plain and express and necessary Duties of Religion yet they tend so much to keep up the Life and Spirit of it that a general Design of Holiness is enough to recommend them As to positive Duties of Religion we cannot exactly fix the Time and Measure and Season of their Performance which must vary according to Circumstances but this we can say that the more Persons set themselves to the Practice of Holiness and the greater Preparation they make for another World the more they will delight in the performance of God's Service and the more ready to embrace any Opportunities for it Those who would have all Religious Duties determined as to the Circumstances of them are like Men who would have punctual Rules set down how often two Friends should converse with each other and how long time they are to stay together True Friendship will need none of those things but will incline them to embrace the best opportunities for mutual Conversation lest too long distance beget a Coldness first and then the Friendship dissolves It is no hard matter to pray as far as words go but to pray with Zeal and Devotion to attend upon God with that seriousness of Mind we ought to doe will require our utmost Attention And it is no easie matter to keep our Minds composed and fit to converse with God in Prayer and other solemn Duties of Religion But as hard as this appears to us it is most fit and reasonable that we should doe it For what an unbecoming thing it is to worship God in a careless trifling perfunctory manner as though nothing less deserved the imploying the Vigour of our Minds about than the Service of God. But how can we love him with all our Hearts if we do not serve him with all our Mind and Strength 4. Resignation of our selves to God This the Apostle calls casting all our Care upon him This is a very wise Duty if we can attain to it because it eases our minds of many Fears and Perplexities both as to our selves and others But it is no easie thing to set our minds free from solicitous thoughts about possible Evils We cannot mend our Condition nor prevent what is determined by our most anxious Care but we may enjoy our selves with far greater Peace and Tranquillity if we can be content to commit our selves to the best Conduct and that is of him that Governs the World. And whatever strugglings we may find within our selves about it yet the more we search and weigh and consider things the more we shall be satisfied that the Resignation of our selves to God as to all our Concernments in this World is the best means to calm our Passions to abate our Fears to prevent our Impatience and so to attain to that Ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit which is with God of great Price But if all these Duties be so necessary to our being saved and we lie under such Difficulties as to the Performance of them their appearing to be Reasonable makes our Condition so much worse For to find it so hard to doe what we are convinced is most Reasonable to be done is one of the worst Circumstances of our Condition It s true we do not want Faculties of Understanding and Will but what then if our Moral Indispositions make these useless to our Spiritual Advantage A man that is like to be stifled in a large Vessel full of Downy Feathers cannot complain of the hardness of what he lies upon for all things feel soft and easie about him yet he may be stifled with them our evil Habits and corrupt Inclinations have nothing that feels hard or troublesome to us but if we cannot overcome them they will certainly Ruine and Destroy us There is therefore a Necessity of a higher Principle of Divine Grace to enable us to break thorough all these Difficulties Which Grace is so abundantly promised by the Gospel to those who seek it that it comes at last to be our own fault if we be not saved II. And this helps us to Reconcile the Difficulty of Salvation with the Easiness of the Terms of the Gospel For that which is not onely hard but impossible to us in our own strength may by the mighty Power of Divine Grace become not onely possible but easie to us And withall those things are accounted easie which bring ease and that is a light burthen which rids one of a far harder And thus the Commands of Christ however hard in themselves to us yet being considered with the Grace of the Gospel and the blessed effect of inward Peace