Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	action_n	good_a	sin_n	1,294	5	4.8298	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57199	Babylons ruining-earthquake and the restavration of Zion delivered in a sermon before the honourable House of Commons at Margarets Westminster, at their publique fast, August 28, 1644 / by William Reyner ...	Reyner, William, d. 1666.	1644 (1644)	Wing R1324; ESTC R18099	51,389	67

can detect and discover many blasphemies of the Beast and foedities of the Whore as justification by workes the propitiatory sacrifice of the Masse c. Yea not onely discover them but in an holy zeale deno●unce grievous judgements against the authors and fomenter of them according to the Word These doctrines and denunciations thus breathed out will prove even a sword of the Spirit for so they are being put into mans spirit by the Holy-Ghost to cut and kill slash and slay the Antichristian generation see Revel 2.16 19.21 Yea not onely a sword to kill the enemy that stands neere but an arrow also to kill the enemy that stands a farre off Psal 149.6 7 8 9. an axe to hew downe Hosea 6.5 Mat. 3.10 a wine cup of fury which they shall be forced to drinke and then grow mad spue and fall and rise no more Jer. 25.15 16.27 28. Lastly this Word shall be a fire to burne them up and they shall be as wood to it and it shall devoure them Jer. 5.14 For God will execute upon them the judgements threatned It shall be an hot even to the wicked and proud and they shall be as stubble easily and utterly burnt so it shall leave them neither root nor branch Mal. 4.1 This fiery weapon of the Word is one of those wherewith the poore sackcloath-Prophets have defended themselves against Antichrist and his gentiles all his long reigne and wherewith they have offended them Rev. 11.5 and therefore still proper to be used against him the great wild Beast for fire they say is the best weapon and of most excellent use against wilde Beasts Breathe out therefore this fire of the Word into their faces run with these flaming torches and thrust them into the dry thatch of Antichrists house that will set all on a light fire it hath done it in a great measure already the enemies feele the heat thereof to their great paine Rev. 16.2.9 10 11. They cast on all the cold water that hell can afford them to quench it as cruelties treacheries but every thing proves oyle to encrease the flame this Word at last will prove unto them unquenchable fire utterly to consume them Shake the Beasts Kingdome by prayer Vse 2 David shook Saul and all his enemies downe by this meanes see Psal 18.6.7 8. compared with the title of the Psalme which David composed when the Lord had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul In my distresse saith he I called upon the Lord and cryed unto my God he heard my voyce out of his holy temple and my cry came before him even into his eares Then the earth shooke and trembled the foundations also of the hils moved and were shaken because he was wroth God upon Davids cry laid about him and overthrew all his adversaries for the more the Saints pray the more they accelerate plagues upon their wicked enemies which is often the meanes of the Saints deliverance By this the two Witnesses did shut the heavens against the Antichristian brood Rev. 11.6 And therfore our fight being with their armie 's we are to be instant in prayer against them that is a weapon they have no skill at they can blaspheme and curse c. but not pray Moses and Eliah to whom that text alludes by this weopon and the Word overcame whole Nations alone Moses did but speake to God spreading out his hands and then as a God could tell Pharaoh that a plague would come to morrow shall be such a plague or to morrow shall such a plague be removed Eliah could but pray to the Lord that it might not raine and then confidently tell Ahab that there should be no raine but according to his word 1 King 17.1 Open therefore O you servants of the Lord the heavens by this Key open Gods Armory and get from thence the best dayes for the Church the helpe of God the Father the Mediation of the Sonne the Spirit of strength the assistance of Angels Seas rivers windes c. get from thence wisdome courage stratagems successe shut the heavens against the enemies that they may not get one good looke from thence not so much as one arrow but if they have any plot in hand get the heavens open for wisedome to discover it if any enterprize get from thence power to defeat it make it appeare to the enemies that Gods people have power with God Execute judgement for God Vse 3 every one as farre as his power will stretch First doe judgement upon thine owne selfe for thy sinnes in all wayes of godly revenge as by Fasting c. Sing mercy and judgement to thy Family as David Psa 101. Doe thy best that judgement that hath beene turned into Wormewood and Hemlocke may run downe like a mighty streame in publique and where thy hand cannot reach a blow or cast a stone at an idolater blasphemer persecutor c. let thy heart at least doe it For if a mans consenting to or approving of an act of injustice may inguilt h●m as I may say in it as it was with the Jewes whose state was ruined for killing Christ and the Prophets though most part of them had never seene any of them Mat. 23.37 why may not a mans executing judgement with his heart when he can proceed no further be accepted in respect of him for an act of justice by him that is pleased both in good and evill actions to accept the will for the deed This duty is principally incumbent upon the Magistrate who is to execute the judgement of the Lord not arbitrarily as himselfe pleaseth but according to the rule of the Word both for matter and manner For the Matter man hath no warrant either to leave grosse and horrid sinnes unpunished in the committers of them such as are the ring-leaders in idolatry and persecution nor yet to commute or change the nature of the punishment As by the way I question whether a pecuniary mulct especially if it be alone be a proper punishment for a sweater or blasphemer but it rather ought to be personall And here I cannot choose but with griefe take notice of a miserable failing in our first Reformation that the Maise priests were suffered still to continue in their places for he that had said or sung Masse the last Lords day and if he were a Preacher had Preached for Popery if he would but take the new Oath of Supremacy and read the Service-Booke this Lords-day was accounted a sufficie●t reformist a●d admitted to the Ministry So that of twenty thousand Prelates and P●iests at least in England and Ireland very few were cast out of their places and searce any of them unlesse it were Boner for any thing they had done Oh wofull I confesse I thinke the State did then want due information in that point But this hath been one thing that hath undone the Church viz. those that have all along and do still infest the Church

I mean the wicked and superstitious Clergie being their naturall genuine and proper posterity Let not such a sinne therefore lye any longer upon the State out therefore worthy Senators with all the generation of erronious Teachers Altar-worshippers c and prophane ones that have made so many abhorre the Offerings of the Lord. If any Object that the Church will then be destitute of Pastors I answer I know no warrant at all that there is to put or keepe such Wolves among Gods flocke Secondly that a thousand or two of goldly and able men well distributed if the other were out might by Gods blessing doe more good by far then now doe all the Ministers in England Nay I take it to be an absolute duty of them that have power to eject them besides what may be said otherwise even by the equity and analogy of that Text Ezek. 44.10 12 13. The Levites that are gone away farre from me which went astray from me after their idols they shall even beare their iniquity because they ministred unto them before their idols and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity therefore have I lifted up my hand against them saith the Lord God i. e. I have sworne against them as most high transgressours and so will not reverse it and they shall beare their iniquity And they shall not come neere unto me to doe the office of a Priest unto me nor to come neere to any of my holy things in the most holy place but they shall beare their shame and their abominations which they have committed Besides punishments should be aggravated according to the aggravation of the sinne or sinnes The most capitall offender can but be put to death but when the guilt is transcendently hainous it ought to be with such circumstances and expressions as may make it appeare that the Judge or Magistrate hath a doe sense of that hainousnesse and would reach it in the punishment if it were possible All Israel were to stone Achan and to raise over him a great heape of stones Jos 7.25 26. Now if this be so I wonder what punishment will be found out sutable to the crimes of some malefactors now in question who have wickedly endeavoured to seduce many whole Kingdomes quite to suppresse and extinguish true Religion in them if not throughout the world who have proudly trampled upon all lawes and estates being undoubtedly if all things were laid together of the greatest if not absolutely the greatest transgressors that ever were since men were upon the earth For the Manner the Word requires that judgement be executed with the spirit of justice or judgement of which the Text speaks Isa 28.6 In hatred of sinne love of God Zeale for his glory as Phenehas did orherwise if you punish a Malefactor with death who hath deserved it instead of taking away an old murder you adde a new and shal be punished accordingly judgement ought to returne to justice Psal 94.15 We have two remarkable examples in the Scriptures worthy to be taken notice of by all that are in authority of two Kings that were both rewarded and punished for the very same thing Baasha destroyed Nadab and the house of Jeroboam Jehu destroyed Jehoram Jezabel and the whole house of Ahab both of them had the Kingdome of Israel for their paines and yet for these very acts both their Families and Posterities were destroyed Baasha because he killed him viz. Nadab 1 Kin. 16.7 and so I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu saith the Lord Hos 1.4 And so it came to passe as may be seene in both their Histories What was the cause was there equity in this Yes the thing done was just to punish these idolatrous Families but the manner of doing it utterly displeased God because it was not done in the love of justice c. and so in respect of God but out of spleen and ambition to get the Kingdome That it was not done by either of them as an act of justice appeared in that they both continued in the sinnes of Jeroboam which they seemed to punish 1 Kin. 15.34 2 Kin. 10.29 For that Magistrate or man that lives openly in the sinne he punisheth in another cannot doe it as an act of justice and so doth not please God not to speake of this that he that punisheth one sinne as suppose theft because God would have it punished and so doth it as an act of justice will also for the very same reason punish another sinne as much or more odious to God as blasphemy swearing idolatry if his arme be strong enough and long enough to reach the Offenders which very thing may put I feare some suspicion sometimes upon our publique justice in matter of theft c. and makes it questionable whether it be done out of right principles as because it is sinne against God and punishable by his Word or onely because man is trespassed or no which if it be so the very lawes herein ought to be reformed I will not insist upon this that judgement ought to be executed roundly and speedily though protracting of it often takes off a great part of the edge of justice but I urge the doing of it in the manner before spoken Give me leave for a conclusion of this point to adde these two Motives for ensorcing the duty This execution of judgement is one of the best meanes in the world to expiate if I may so say the old sinnes of a Nation as namely the old idolatries and persecutions in which kindes our Land is infinitely guilty For besides universall strange and long continued idolatries there is scarce any Nation under the Sunne if any at all that can equall ours in the slaughter of so many Saints in a formall judiciary way Now if so be you wovld take the guilt of these away from the Nation as there ought to be a Nationall confession and reformation of them and strong application of Christs blood by prayer of faith for attonement represented by the elders killing of the Heyfer for the expiation of an unknowne murder Deut. 21.4 so there must be execution of judgement upon the slaughteters of the Saints For if the blood of one man and he a wicked man unjustly shed will bring sinne upon an whole Nation till it be done away by the blood of him that shed it as we may see Numb 35.33 How much more will the blood of so many holy Martyrs cruelly slaine for Christs sake ●nguilt our Nation no assuredly God will cleanse the blood that he hath not cleansed Now right Honourable because you cannot reach the old persecutors doe justice upon their successors that have revived all their sinnes This is of speciall moment to stay a plague Phinehas executed judgement and the plague was stayed Numb 25. Psal 106.50 Search saith the Lord and see if you can find a man in Jerusalem that executes ●ndgement and I will spare it Jer. 5 10. Josh 7.25