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	lord_n	time_n	5,344	5	4.0909	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45350	A sermon preached in the cathedral and metropolitical church of St. Peter of York, on Thursday the fourteenth of February, 1688/9 being the day appointed by the lords spiritual and temporal, assembled at Westminster, for a publick thanksgiving to Almighty God, for having made His Highness the Prince of Orange, the glorious instrument of the great deliverance of this kingdom from popery and arbitrary power / by George Halley ...	Halley, George, 1655 or 6-1708.	1689 (1689)	Wing H454; ESTC R6579	12,462	36

no time unseasonable for the Practice of this Duty he continually revolv'd in his Thoughts and imprinted upon his Memory the Mercy and Loving Kindness of the Lord it was his pious Resolution to meditate or muse upon all his Works Psal 77.11.12 thus Psal 103.2 Praise the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his Benefits which he expresses Verse 4. Who saveth thy life from Destruction and crowneth thee with Mercy and loving Kindness But Thirdly Who can look upon God as his Creator and not at the same time think himself under an indispensable and eternal Obligation to praise and give him thanks Have we not the strongest Obligations to thank and praise him who is the Author of our Frame and Constitution Who is the Preserver of our Being Who sustains our Life by the continual Influence of his Love Upon him we have a constant and a necessary Dependance to him we owe the Common Protection of Life the Mercies of Health and Liberty and the reasonable Expectation of Happiness hereafter Can we then be so unnatural so inhumane so disingenuous as not to praise and give him thanks It is he that has made us saith the Royal Psalmist Psal 100.2 and not we our selves we are his People and the Sheep of his Pasture upon this Foundation he superstructs our Duty in the next Verse O go your Way into his Gates with thanksgiving and into his Courts with praise be thankful unto him and speak good of his Name We are his Creatures A Word of the greatest Emphasis a Word that demands and extorts from us all imaginable Thankfulness all possible Praise and Adoration being Creatures shews us God's absolute Soveraignty and Dominion over us we depend upon him as a Ray depends upon the Sun. When the Sun goes off the Horizon the Rays perish and vanish away Thus if God should withdraw his Influx from us we should instantly lapse and return into our primitive Nothing But Fourthly That we may be perswaded to offer up unto the Lord the Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving let us consider that by such Sacrifices we not only glorify the Lord but our selves we thereby pursue our own Eternal Wel-fare and Felicity for God is so infinitely happy in Himself so perfect and beautiful so transcendantly glorious that we can give no Addition no Lustre to his Divine Majesty by the greatest Praise and most Solemn Thanksgiving No! God enjoins us to this duty of praise and thanksgiving not for his but our own Interest and Advantage He would have us contemplate his Glory and Perfection bless and praise him for no other end and purpose but that thereby we may be excited to transcribe into our Nature his Adorable Perfections and thus fit and qualify our selves for Heaven and the Joys of Eternity These are Ties these are Obligations strong enough of themselves to enforce upon us the Constant Practice of the Duty of Thanksgiving But these are not all There is yet behind one Argument more an Argument of no little Weight and Importance an Argument which if any thing can must rouze and awake us to the Duty of Thanksgiving must perswade us to entertain a grateful Affection a deep Sense of the Mercy and Loving Kindness of the Lord and that is the rare Accident of Divine Providence our Miraculous Deliverance for which we are this day met to praise the Lord And which is the Second Observable in the Words of my TEXT Namely The Reason or Enforcement to the practice and observation of the Duty of Thanksgiving and that is the Consideration of a Redemption or Deliverance from the Hand of an Enemy Let them give thanks whom the Lord hath redeemed and delivered from the Hand of the Enemy And here I might Discourse of the Universal Redemption of Mankind by Christ who paid the greatest Price who purchased our Liberty and Enlargment with his dear and precious Blood who delivered us from our Spiritual Enemies from the Principalities and Rulers of the Darkness of this World from Spiritual Wickedness in High Places by recovering lapsed Man to his former Capacity of Bliss and Happiness by an Expedient as full of Wonder as Mercy of which we can never express too grateful a Resentment But I shall only speak of a Temporal Redemption or Deliverance for to such a Deliverance the Text directly points Let them give thanks whom the Lord hath redeemed and delivered from the hand of the Enemy E manu tribulantis de manu angustiae de potentia angustiatoris Out of the hand of the Oppressor out of our Distress out of the Power of such as vexed and afflicted us This is that for which we are now to celebrate the Divine Goodness to magnifie him who hath demonstrated his Providence in so wonderfully relieving us in the time of Danger and Distress Let us give thanks whom the Lord hath delivered from the hand of the Enemy that is from the detestable Superstitions and Corruptions of Popery from the intolerable Yoke of the Romish Church A Church which is our implacable Adversary a Church which is become our Enemy for telling the Truth because we worship God after the way which they call Heresy a Church which mortally hates us for recovering the Christian Religion to it's ancient Brightness and primitive Splendor for professing that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints Is not this to hate us without a Cause Because we have accurately filed Religion polished and freed it from the Rust it had contracted and set upon it its former Lustre because we have fully discovered their horrible Cheats and grand Impostures by which they get their Wealth The Romanists for these reasons industriously endeavour to take away both our Place and Nation to destroy not only our Holy and Excellent Religion but our Incomparable Government and to bring our independent Freedom into a Subjection to their Foreign and Antichristian Yoke How many Efforts have been made How many Arrows have been shot at this Glorious Nation out of their Quiver of malice and revenge but all of them missed the Mark it was God that covered this Nation with the Wings of his Providence that Defended it from the Arrows that flew by Day and from the Pestilence that walked in Darkness It was in Eighty eight when the Spanish invincible Navy came like Great and Formidable Castles floating to our Coasts with Sails swell'd with fury and puffed up with hopes of Victory but the Lord fought for us by Fire Winds by Rocks and Tempests how did the Lord then display his Wonders for us in the deep How wonderfully did he then deliver us from the hand of the Enemy Oh that men would therefore Praise the Lord for his Goodness and declare the Wonders he hath done for the Children of Men It was in the Reign of King James the first of Blessed Memory that the Execrable Gun-Powder Plot that damnable Contrivance was formed under Jesuitical Wings but when it was grown to Maturity and ready

A SERMON Preached in the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church OF St. PETER in YORK On Thursday the Fourteenth of February 1688 9. BEING The Day appointed by the LORDS Spiritual and Temporal Assembled at Westminster for a Publick Thanksgiving to Almighty GOD for having made His Highness the PRINCE of ORANGE the Glorious Instrument of the Great Deliverance Of this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power By GEORGE HALLEY M. A. Succentor of the Vicar's Choral of the Cathedral and Rector of St. Cuthbert's in York Published at the Request of the Auditors London Printed for R. C. and are to be Sold by Rich. Lambert and Francis Hildyard Booksellers in York 1689. A SERMON PREACHED In the CATHEDRAL CHURCH of St. Peter in York c. Psalm 107. Verse 2. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy Or as it is in the other Translation Let them give thanks whom the Lord hath redeemed and delivered from the hand of the enemy THis Psalm doth in the most Lively and Glorious Colours paint forth and adorn the admirable Kindness and Transcendent Love of Almighty God doth visibly represent to humane Eye the various and surprizing Scenes of Divine Providence doth clearly evince and prove That God who sitteth in Heaven doth so far humble himself as to behold the Things upon Earth that all the Vicissitudes and Changes all the great Revolutions and variety of Events in this World are from the Hand of God that all humane Affairs and Transactions are under his Providential Conduct and Wise Disposal And therefore it is that the Psalmist gives us so many Illustrious Examples such manifest Testimonies of Providence as are able to convince any considerate Person that the World is not governed by Fate or giddy Chance but by infinite Wisdom and infinite Goodness that God presides over his Creatures that his Providence is deeply concern'd and vigorously engaged in all the Changes and Chances of this Mortal Life Thus from the Third to the Seventh Verse we have a signal Instance of an Over-ruling Omnipotent Providence where we find the Children of Israel wandering in the Wilderness in a Solitary Way depriv'd of the necessary Supports and Comforts of this Life yet upon their devout Addresses to Heaven in Prayer found present Relief and Deliverance from their Pressures God by his Gracious Providence led them forth by the Right Way and safely conducted them to a City of Habitation Thus from the Tenth to the Fourteenth Verse we find how God is pleas'd to discipline and exercise others with Providential Afflictions with Bonds and Imprisonments because of their Wickedness and Impiety yet as soon as ever such sharp Discipline such severe Chastisement has produc'd its desir'd Effect that is brought them to a State of Meekness and Humility Repentance and Reformation as soon as they thus endeavour to make this Atonement God's Mercy then gets the Ascendant of his Justice and he becomes propitious and favourable to them brings them out of Darkness and the Shadow of Death and breaks their Bonds asunder Thus from the Twenty third to the Thirtieth Verse we read that such as go down to the Sea in Ships and do Business in great Waters such have more than ordinary Experiments of the Providence of the Sovereign Mercy and Power of God sometimes they are Mounted into the Air and then again go down into the Depths of the Vast Ocean are at their Wits end in the greatest Amazement and Consternation but when they cry or pray unto the Lord the Violent Storm then is turn'd into a perfect Calm by gentle Gales they are safely wafted to the Port they design'd to sail to Now What doth the Lord require at the Hands of such as have the Characters of Divine Providence so singularly and eminently engraven upon them for whom he hath wrought such Signal and Wonderful Deliverances Nothing but the Tribute of Praise and Thanksgiving that is a grateful Sense and publick Acknowledgment of his immense Favours such a Sense as darts a powerful Influence upon their Life and Conversation such a Sense as obliges them to look up unto him as the Heroick Captain of their Salvation to ascribe the Honour due unto his Name to praise him for his Goodness from whom they received their Protection their Safety and Preservation O give Thanks unto the Lord for he is good or gracious and his Mercy endureth for ever let the Redeemed of the Lord say so Or let them give Thanks whom the Lord hath redeemed and delivered from the Hand of the Enemy In the Words are these Two Observables I. A Duty enjoin'd together with the Object of it and that is to give Thanks unto the Lord. II. The Reason or Enforcement to the Practice and Observation of this Duty and that is the Consideration of a Redemption or Deliverance from the Hand of an Enemy Let them give Thanks whom c. But First of the First Observable A Duty enjoin'd together with the Object of it and that is to give Thanks unto the Lord. To give thanks in this place is according to the Version of the LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Word which according to the Sence of the Ancient Interpreters properly imports Confession and in this Sense I find it us'd by St. James 5.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Confess your Faults and indeed before we offer up unto God any Eucharistical Sacrifice it is necessary for us to Confess and beg Pardon of our Sins which hinder God's acceptation of our Services for if we regard Iniquity with our Hearts the Lord will not hear us Psalm 66.18 And here by the by we may admire the Beautiful Succession of Times and Seasons Yesterday was Ash-Wednesday a day of Sack-cloth and Ashes a day of Sorrow and Humiliation for Sin to day a day of Thanksgiving and Joyfulness But as Heinsius observes according to the Modern Interpretation the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth likewise import to praise or give Thanks unto the Lord and in this Sense I find it Mark 10.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jesus rejoiced in Spirit and said I thank thee O Father To give Thanks unto the Lord is a Duty frequently inculcated and press'd upon us in Holy Scripture thus Phil. 4.6 In every thing by Prayer and Thanksgiving let your Requests be made known unto God thus Col. 2.7 Abounding therein with Thanksgiving and Chap. 4.2 Continue in Prayer and watch in the same with Thanksgiving thus 1 Tim. 4.4 Every Creature of God is good if it be received with Thanksgiving thus Rev. 7.12 Blessing and Glory and Wisdom and Thanksgiving be unto GOD for ever and ever Amen But Secondly We have not only Precepts for but rare and illustrious Examples in Holy Scripture for the Practice and Observation of the Duty of Thanksgiving Not to Multiply too many Instances Where do we find a more Noble Pattern of Gratitude than the Royal Prophet King David He thought no place unfit