Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	day_n	law_n	sabbath_n	1,963	5	9.4513	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23831	Reflexions upon the books of the Holy Scriptures to establish the truth of the Christian religion. Volume I in two volumes.	Allix, Pierre, 1641-1717.	1688 (1688)	Wing A1227; ESTC R29574	310,757	644

Joshua concerning the several Blessings and Curses which were to be pronounced upon the Mounts Ebal and Gerizim because the form of them was to be borrowed from the Books of Moses which were Publick and Authentick The same Reflexion may be made upon the Law of the First-fruits and upon the Prayer which was to be made upon the Tithes of the third year as likewise upon many other Laws Fourthly It is certain that those Books were read over every seventh Year according to the Injunction of that Law which we find Deuteronomy XXXI 10 11. which was commanded to be done for the instruction of Posterity as it is intimated in the Thirteenth Verse of the same Chapter Whereupon it may not be preposterous to consider here God's Methods to prevent all Forgery and Imposture in this Matter We see that it was during the Longaevity of Human Life a constant and universal Custom amongst all the Patriarch's to Moses's time to put when they lay on their Death beds their Posterity in mind of the most important Truths and of the Fundamental Articles of Religion because as all Admonitions and Exhortations made at such a time are always look'd upon as sincere so they seldom fail of being favourably construed and better entertained than they would be at any other time We have as instances of this ancient Custom the Examples of Abraham of Isaac of Jacob of Joseph c. who in that I make no doubt follow'd the Custom of their pious Ancestors who in all likelyhood derived it from Adam himself That Custom we see was of an admirable use to perpetuate the memory of illustrious Transactions What was then spoken by those pious venerable men was a kind of a publick Sermon because it was delivered before those numerous Families which met then altogether about the Bed of their common Head and Father and that upon such an Occasion as did extraordinarily excite their attention To this Custom succeeded another which was that when the greatest Captains and Judges of the People of Israel were sensible of their approaching Death then they usually called the People together to give them such Exhortations Reproofs and Admonitions as they judged most proper either for their encouragement or for their Reformation nay and that even in some occasions many of them have affected to have their Speeches made publick and deposited in the Tabernacle Thus did Moses and Joshuah and the greatest number of the Judges and Samuel and Solomon c. We know that the Books of Moses were formerly read every Sabbath day as St. James does attest it in Acts XV. And tho there be no express command about it in Moses's Writings yet we find there something equivalent to it in the strict charge given by him to all the People to be continually conversant in his Books and to instruct their Families at all times in the Laws and Doctrines delivered in them for it is plain that if the Israelites were bound by that command of Moses to read his Books every day they were more particularly obliged by the same command to read them on the Sabbath day which was made a day of rest by God particularly on purpose that all Men might the better attend on that day to the reading and meditating God's Laws and the performing all other Religious Duties We know besides that those Books were continually explained both by the Doctors of the Law and the Levites who were on purpose dispersed through the whole Land of Canaan that they might the better attend and perform the Duties of their Ministry We see that Moses in his Writings hath exactly kept a kind of Journal which cannot easily receive any alteration If we read hereupon what relates to the sojourning of the Israelites and the several removals of their Tents in the Desert we shall be easily convinc'd by the very form and stile of those Books as we have them now that they were formerly publickly received and were exactly transcribed out of the Original and that if in Process of time they suffered any alteration it was only as to some Appendices or Postscripts inserted by Esrah or some other Prophet by way of Explication We see in those Books a History written without disguise or partiality exact in relating all Circumstances of Places Times and Persons even in the Narration of things of small importance for the main drift of the Author there are besides some Passages recorded in them which any Author who lived after Moses's time would certainly have left out if for no other reason yet at least to abolish the memory of some actions dishonourable to some great Families and whole Tribes of Israel Again we read in them the Songs and other Publick Monuments which were made upon extraordinary occasions to preserve the memory of them the better I have but three Observations more to make here and then I have done with this Chapter The First is That those Books have been constantly quoted by all the Authors amongst that People who followed Moses and that their Quotations do exactly agree with the Text of those Books as we have them now which is a certain sign as well of the Sincerity as of the Antiquity of that Author They were as much esteemed in Israel as in Juda both People did observe them as their Law The Prophets that arose from time to time did always and upon all Occasions acknowledge and maintain their Authority Thus we find in the Book of Joshua quoted out of them what relates to the Curses and Blessings to the Prophecies and Divisions of the Land of Canaan amongst the Tribes of Israel The whole History of the thirteen Judges whom God raised up amongst the People is nothing in general but an account of the accomplishment of that Promise which God had made formerly by Moses to raise up from among that People such Men in the time of their Afflictions and Captivities as would be the Assertors of their Liberty We see there in particular the Execution of Moses's order concerning Caleb Judg I. 20. Judg. VII 3. Judg. XIII 3. and of that Law in Deuteronomy which prescribes the manner of dismissing from the Army those that are fearful and faint-hearted and of that other concerning the Nazarites c. Thus we see that the Rule and Laws prescribed in those Books continued in force in the time of Ruth David's Great Grand-Mother that appears plainly by their Observation of those Laws which enjoyn'd the next Kinsman to take to Wife the Widow of his Deceased Relation and to redeem his Inheritance As for David and Solomon they are continually alluding to something or other delivered in those Books Nehemiah quotes them in Chap. XIII of his Book and that was in the year of the World 3563 and so does Malachy in the IV. and V. Chapters of his Prophesie in the year 3580. The Second Observation which is very material is that the Author of those Books hath inserted in them an express prohibition of adding