Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	bind_v	law_n	moral_a	1,736	5	9.5201	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96785	Vox pacifica a voice tending to the pacification of God's wrath; and offering those propositions, or conditions, by the acceptation, and performance whereof, in some good measure, a firme and continuing peace may be obtained. It is directed to the King, Parliaments, and people of these islands: By Geo. Wither Esquire, (a commander in this war) heretofore their unheeded remebbrancer [sic] of plagues and deliverances past; and their timely forewarner of the judgments now come. He hath disposed it into six books, or canto's, whereof foure onely are contained in this volumne; and the other deferred to be hereafter published, as there shall be cause.	Wither, George, 1588-1667.	1645 (1645)	Wing W3210; Thomason E1242_1; ESTC R202399	111,848	215

From thy free favour and preventing-grace It doth proceed that our despised Host Fled not before their Adversaries face Or fell not by them who the field have lost And that the Joyes which now our Citie hath Are not this day in Askalon and Gath. But what will these prevailings be at last If Grace thou likewise give not to pursue Those victories which thou bestowed hast And to improve the mercie thou didst shew What will our sad rejoycings at the length And bloudy enterchanges prove O LORD But an impairing of our native strength To make a passage for the Forraine-sword And what from our divisions and the spoiles Torne daily from each other can arise But utter devastation of these Iles And which is worse than forraine enemies Selfe-murthers Or perhaps a Dearth so great That men shall kill each other for their meat Such things have been and such for ought I see May here befall us ere these wars be done If thou permit our cruelties to be As wilfully pursued as begun Thy judgements teach us therefore LORD to feare So make us thy forbearances to weigh So let thy kindnesses our hearts prepare That we no longer foole our Peace away Let not the sighs the prayers and the cries Of thy afflicted children be in vaine Behold how desolate their dwelling lies Look on their wounds observe how they are slaine How many of their Fathers are bereft How many widowes desolate are left Or if this move thee not mark how the Foe Blasphemes thy Name See with what height of pride Against thy Truth his malice he doth show And how thy holy things he doth deride Mark what damn'd Oaths and curses forth they roare And with what lyes and slanders they do wrong us Mark how they scorne the counsels of the poore And to betray us how they lurk among us Mark how they play the hypocrites array'd Sometime like Bosome-Friends sometime disguis'd With outward Sanctitie while snares are layd That unawares thy Saints may be surpriz'd And let not us who in thy Truth have joy'd By those who persecute it be destroy'd If not on us yet LORD compassion take On those that shall out of our loynes descend If not for our yet for thine Honour-sake To these destroying times impose an end Ev'n for the sake of thy Beloved-One Who through our sides is wounded by our Foes Behold what spoyles what mischieves they have done And help us ere our sorrow helplesse growes Teach us to see and know how miserable We are and may be if we persevere As we begun informe us how unable We are to save our selves from what we feare And to consider too how worthlesse we Are of that mercie which I beg of thee Vaine is the help of Armies Foot or Horse Vaine is the pow'r of Nations and of Kings Vaine is united policie and force Vaine is the aid of all terrestriall things Thou makest War thou only makest Peace And out of nothing canst create the same Nay out of that which discords doth encrease An everlasting Concord thou canst frame Although the people like huge waters rage The mountaines yea these Islands moved be Thou in a moment canst the storme asswage And make all quiet when it pleaseth thee O LORD command a Calme command a Peace That our unnaturall debates may cease To us be reconcil'd and to begin That reconcilement let us so endeavour To breake the league which we have made with sin That Thou and We may now be friends for ever Make for us an Atonement with our King Let him perceive in what his course will end What Mischeeves evill Counsellours do bring What Vengeance doth on Tyranny attend Give him both sight and sense of that huge floud Which threatens daily to o'rewhelme his head That roaring torrent nay that sea of bloud Which in these Iles hath wilfully been shed And with his wronged and enraged Nations Make thou for him his Reconciliations His heart is in thy hand and if thou please Thou canst returne him to us wholly changed Thou canst yet make us mutually with ease As deare as if we had not been estranged Thou that restor'dst Manasseh canst restore Him to Himselse to Vs and to thy Grace And it may glorifie thy goodnesse more Than to advance another in his place Yea and for us it shall be better too If with a true forgivenesse of each other We that have lately been divided so Shall lovingly unite againe together For what more sweet than when unkindnesse ends In reconciling of divided friends Thou know'st O GOD that we have no desire To take from Him or His the Royall Throne Or pull it lower but to raise it higher And set him rather faster thereupon Thou know'st that though his courses we abhor We love his Person and would faine prevent That mischiefe which he seemes to labour for By hunting after his owne detriment If by his wilfulnesse that bloud be spilt Which we would save of them require it LORD Who make him to be Patron of their guilt Or bring him within danger of the Sword And keep us and our children ever cleare From all the bloud that shall be spoyled here And as for me whom our Opposers blame As having my first principles forsaken Because I now against the Royall-Name With Reall-Majestie a part have taken Thou know'st my heart had never an intent The Shadow for the Substance to adore And that if I so foolishly had meant Discretion bids me so to think no more A Single-Person or a Factious Rabble The King by Armes opposing acteth Treason But Kingdomes joyn'd by Counsells-warrantable Against a Tyrant do the work of Reason Yea 't is the hand of GOD that strikes him then Although he doth it by the sword of men Thou know'st O GOD that not a hand of our Is rais'd against his Person or his Seed Or to diminish any Royall pow'r Which to discharge his Office he may need Or for due honour But we rather fight As he would know if undeceiv'd he were To save his Dignitie to do him right And keep him from Destructions drawing neare Thou know'st we no offensive War intended Nor armed came for any private Cause But as our dutie binds to have defended Thy Truth our Countrie 's Liberties and Lawes And to remove the wicked from the Throne That he may rule with righteousnesse thereon And though to fright us from this dutie LORD The sons of Belial whom we pursue Cast termes on us which better do accord With their proceedings as to them most due Yet thou canst witnesse that we called are And come in true obedience to that Pow'r Of which He but the name doth only weare Whilst he abuseth his owne Rights and our Thou know'st his Wilfulnesse doth us compell Since nor his Parl'aments Thy Lawes nor His Nor other course prevailes now to appeale In that which at this time depending is To thy Arbitrement and that the Sword May to our differences an end afford Wherein we pray

there have been crimes For which this priviledge is not procur'd Though Noah Job and Daniel interceded At such a season grace should not be showne They should not get a pardon when they pleaded For anie soules offending but their own And so it may be for ought yet you know With everie unrepentant sinner now Some of you have a hope as vain as this Another way for manie men suppose To be secured by the wickednesse And crying sins of their blasphemous Foes But Edom did Jernsalem suppresse Although the former had transgressed more The Saints although their errors may be lesse Are daily murther'd by the Scarlet-Whore GODS Magazine hath punishments enow To seize on all at once that him offend He Scorpions hath for them and Rods for you And both will scourge if both do not amend He as he lists can make you whip each other Or spare the one or punish both together Indeed a Kingdomes laying-wast hath bin And is sometimes deferred for the sakes Of righteous men inhabiting therein But that but little for the safety makes Of Individuall sinners For you see They by the Sword are pick'd out everie day Their habitations daily ruin'd be And their posterities are swept away Yea when quite round them all the neighbourhood Stands unimpaired they are somtime seized That others may observe it for their good Or that GODS wrath may thereby be appeased And otherwhile the just are taken from A wicked-place toscape the plagues to come But what or whom need you suspect or feare Though both your Horse Foot this day were routed Of your own selves you well-conceited are Of your own courses nothing is mis-doubted You have designes wherein you can confide Though GOD be verie little in your thought You in a blindfold hope can quiet bide Though in due meanes his aid you have not sought You seem so knowing that none must advise So righteous that you reformation hate So holy that your brethren you dispise So powerfull as if you preserv'd the State And beare your selves as if unto these Nations GOD were oblig'd by speciall obligations And if but with a superficiall look A view of you were taken on that side Which fairest showes you might be then mistook For better then you 'l prove when you are tride You are now frequent in humiliation You are profest Reformers of your waies You are become the longest-praying Nation And holiest-talking people in these daies Your simplest tradesmen are grown mighty Preachers Your souldiers guifted are with double power Young silliest women are admired teachers And speak and pray among you by the houre The chiefest places in your Common-weale Supplied are with men of noted-zeale The godly party now preferments gets At least they who the form thereof put on And when some of them are prov'd counterfeits The honest party will be thought upon To keep the foremost-table of the LAW Inviolate you care of late have took And many think it showes you stand in awe Of GOD and that you at his honour look And peradventure if it hinder not Your lusts or profits when you are at leasure Some Orders or Provisions may be got To make you carefull in some better measure To keep the second-Table wherein lies The proofe of your faire-seeming sanctities You zealously have likewise overthrowne The monuments of Popish superstition Pull'd Crosses Images and Altars down Even those things that gave but just suspition Of an Idolatrous or fruitlesse use As well appeareth in not lettting passe When you demolish'd them for their abuse The guilded Organs and the painted glasse You have for ev'rie week a Sabbath now For every moon a Fast in private more Thanksgiving daies you likewise do allow For holy-daies observed heretofore Which of those feasts will well supply the room Vntill you wearie of them shall become These works are found among you and of those Some part from upright-heartednesse doth flow And from those rectified consciences Which do a reall Reformation show And though the works themselves have no deserving In their own nature or through imperfections Concomitant yet GOD in you observing A will renew'd and following his direction According to your power accepteth so A fraile performance from a weake intent That he as much by Grace imputes thereto As if it perfectly were done and meant And for a few thus qualifi'd GOD hath Deferr'd full prosecution of his wrath But so far off your Reformations yet And pious showes are from deserving ought Or from a likelihood that they will fet The peace for which you have both pray'd and sought That if more mercies GOD vouchsafe not to you Then by your Sanctitie deserved are Your holy-things would utterly undo you Though all your other sins remitted were For as before their thrall the wicked Jewes Did act a seeming-sanctified part Approaching near to GOD in words and shewes Yet kept themselves far from him in their heart So most of you have done And GOD therefore Your Sabbaths Fasts and Praises doth abhorre To him your hands you lifted in a VOW A serious Covenant with him you made You made it also not without a show As if unfained purposes you had To do as you profest And you have seem'd Not only to have rightly understood That League and highly thereof to have deem'd But thereby likewise you receiv'd much good Yet as if with well-doing tir'd you were Or rather as if you besotted grew To tender it you very little care Or thereunto conformity to shew A needlesse duty this by some is thought Or pressed farther then of right it ought But if it hath impos'd unduly been Why were two Realms so unadvis'd to make it If righteo us in your eyes the same still seem Why is not everie man requir'd to take it If necessarilie it was injoyn'd And lawfully why should you suffer them Both libertie and favour too to finde Who therein shall your Ordinance contemn Why is there not a difference put 'twixt those Who take it and all those who shall refuse it And punishment why do you not impose On them who take it only to abuse it Since breach of publike Cov'nants is a sin Which alwaies brings a publike vengeance in A Cov'nant broke through with the Gibeonites Who gained it a surreptitious way Brought down a Plague upon the Israelites Which cost the bloud of Princes to allay No branch of this is anie way unjust Or inconsistent in the least degree With anie dutie which performe you must As Christians or as morall men you be Nor is it being understood aright A barre to anie Christians Libertie Or humane Priviledge though at first sight To some these may appeare infring'd thereby For by that Covenant you vow'd no more Then what you were obliged to before It binds you no profession to imbrace Of Doctrine Manners or of Discipline Ought farther then conformable it is Vnto the Canon of the Word-divine You vowed nothing to reject but what Shall prove upon due triall to be