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	week_n	2,075	5	9.7497	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93313	Reformation and union recommended, as the present duty and interest of the nation in a sermon preach'd at the assizes held at Hertford August the 1st, 1698 / by Ri. Skingle, vicar of Roydon in Essex.	Skingle, Ri.	1698 (1698)	Wing S3941B; ESTC R42554	9,577	19

Piety and Holy Living Something of this nature I hear is done in some places as also by some in this County to their great Honour And God's Blessing upon their Hearts for it Such are the Men that are likely to serve their Country and such are Persons that we are to have a Value for But alas What hath yet been done is by so few that still the Practical Language of the greater Number among us is like that of Pharaoh Who is the Lord that we should obey him Many live as if they question'd his Being and more his Authority Such Provocations are common with us as even dare God to his Face as if Men took Encouragement from the Influences of his Goodness to mount to a greater Degree of Sin after a fair Sun-shine of Mercy to entertain more unbridl'd Resolutions and to pass forward with more Licentiousness to bind themselves stronger to their Iniquity by that which should bind them faster to their Duty Now When will all our Magistrates be pleas'd to take notice of this and to the utmost Extent of their Power and Influence as they are in Duty bound put a Stop to it I know they will assuredly say unto us that Proverb Physicians heal your selves and first do your Parts herein And I most readily own that to be Ensamples to our People is very much our Duty and to let them know that Sin is the Ruin as well as the Reproach of any Nation and that for these Things the Wrath of God cometh on the Children of Disobedience Nay to bring off our Hearers from all such Doctrines as but tend to the upholding them in their Evil Ways to deliver a wary and sober Sense of the Efficacy and Benefit of the Sacraments to warn them against taking up with Church-Privileges like those who cry'd The Temple of the Lord and bless'd themselves in their being Abraham's Children tho' they minded nothing less than the treading in the Steps of Abraham's Faith and Obedience of satisfying themselves with being within the Pale of the Church and a bare Performance of the outward Duties of thinking their Attendance on the Lord's Day a License to live loosly all the Week after and a quitting Scores with God for what was past In short That he that will acquit himself like a Christian must give himself to the Lord 1 Cor. 2.8 5. That is as our Church expresseth it most excellently * See the Communion-Office He must offer and present himself his Soul and Body to be a Reasonable Holy and Lively Sacrifice to God † The General Thanksgiving giving up himself to his Service and walking before him in Holiness and Righteousness all his Days All this with all the Encouragement we are able to give to Pious and Godly Living I acknowledge to be incumbent upon us But then there is also much lying before Magistrates in this good Work and this with Submission I take to be their proper Business who are to be a Terrour to Evil-Works Rom. 13.3 And were but one half of that Vigour exerted for the Suppression of Prophaneness and Immorality which was formerly express'd by some others for the punishing of Men in the Matters of their God we should soon see a blessed Alteration Shall I then speak freely of two or three of the fore-mention'd Evils tho' not of them with Desire to exclude or abate your Zeal against any of the rest of the same kind There is Cursing and Prophane Swearing 't is very sad that it should be so found among us and Parish-Officers not most strictly requir'd to take notice of it And whoever observes how carelesly and impudently Oaths are taken especially if to serve a Turn and what is frequently given in Evidence at such a time as this and what Oaths to discharge Offices are often swallow'd and how little if at all regarded will soon be convinc'd how needful it is to observe very strictly when any come within the Verge of Perjury and to punish it according to its due Merit And then for the Prophanation of the Lord's Day 't is plain that it is not only the thing that be-dwarfs Men's Religion by cramping the Advantages to be gotten by the publick Ministery but is a great Cause why the Attendance on it is so much neglected And now Right Honourable and much Honoured the King tells us once and again that he doth most earnestly desire and shall endeavour a general Reformation in the Lives and Manners of all his Subjects 't is obvious then where it must stick if it be not effected Be up then be up and a doing in this good Work I most humbly but earnestly beseech you and the Lord be with you And here will the Learned and Reverend Judges of the Nation allow me one Word to them in particular Why then it is this That they would be pleas'd to remember that there is much expected from them in this Matter not only from their High and Honourable Stations for they are always the same but from those high Thoughts the Nation hath of them and the mighty Veneration that is justly entertain'd for them There is no Man but will own that God exceedingly bless'd the Nation in directing the King to such an excellent and very extraordinary Choice of Persons when he fill'd those great Places Now as Nehemiah argu'd from his Place of great Trust and from the Graces and Gifts of the Spirit of God in him saying Shall such a Man as I flee Thus we are all ready to say Such Judges as the Nation is now favour'd with will go a great way in this Work Yea let every one do his part herein there is none so mean but may set an Helping Hand to this if not otherwise yet by Family or Personal Reformation Every one is a King a Priest and a Prophet in his own Family and the Neglect of Parents and Masters especially of such as have any way the Addition of Outward Greatness in setting good Examples and commanding their Children and Houshold to keep the Way of the Lord is the Rise and Continuance of all Prophaneness What a brave Change is it then in the power of such to make in the World And as for Personal Reformation every one in this Case hath a Corporation within himself and hath Authoriry to arraign and execute every Rebel against God and the Peace of his Soul And if he wants Help against his Trayterous Lusts he may call in the Divine Aid and if he will but be directed by it he will not fail to cut off the Heads of those Uncircumcised and to lay all those Sons of Anake flat Stir up your selves then stir up your selves in this manner against Sin Yea let those that profess above the common Rate see what is amiss see their Coldness and Formality in Religion their Compliances with the sinful Humours of the Age their making themselves free to all Companies and Customs their Loosness their Earthliness the Decays and sad

one rational thought about him that will not argue from Mercy to Duty from Deliverance to Obedience Yea surely if God hath delivered us out of the Hands of our Enemies 't is highly reasonable that we should serve him without fear of them in holiness and righteousness all the Days of our lives And so much for the Doctrinal part of this Discourse I shall now pass on to that which is plainly Consequential of what hath been said And First Are these our Mercies and this our Duty Then according to our Duty let us ascribe our Mercies to him from whom they came Let us own God the Author of every wise Resolution taken for us of every proper Method us'd for our God and of all the Advantages that have accru'd to us 'T is true we are bound to love and honour also the blessed Instrument of our Enjoyments and to hate that unworthy Carriage to think of dealing with him as the Traveller doth with the refreshing Fountain who kneels down to it when he is thirsty and in Want and turns his back upon it when his Turn is serv'd This in our Case is a very base Temper to be abhorr'd by all But yet we must remember that no Man hath an Heart or an Hand Skill Will or Ability to do us good but from God 2. Hath God done Great Things for us Then let us take heed of Uneasiness under his Grocious Dispensations towards us an unworthy Temper very incident to our fickle and unconstant Natures The Israelites were a very strange Example herein they repented them of their Complying with their Deliverance and had a Regret that they were brought out of * Charnock on the Aarie butes of God Egypt they were angry that they were Free-men Nay such a Distraction had seized them that they spake of taking Moses from the Place where God by an extraordinary Providence had set him for their Benefit and of returning to their Egyptian Tyrants Now this is a very stupid ungrateful Demeanour which we are to avoid And on the contrary and in the 3d Place If God hath done Great Things for us let us be truly thankful to him Blessed be God if he hath not asswag'd the Malice yet that he hath abated the Pride and confounded the Devices of our Enemies Indeed God suffer'd them to have a Day and we beheld the Wicked in great Prosperity but blessed be God Light hath sprung out of Darkness and we have now a very Comfortable Day shining upon us Indeed Taxes have been and are great but truly after all an easie Composition for the Security of the whole even all that is dear unto us Blessed be God that our Liberties were not Finally Subverted nor we Depriv'd of our most Holy Religion We know not what Dragooning is any further than by Report We quietly profess God's Sacred Truth and possess the Rights and Inheritances of our Fathers And blessed be God we have also a King of whom it may be said he came to seek the Welfare of us all A King that sets up no Interest separate from that of his People's and of whose Actions not a single Instance can be given that looks not like his designing Good to the Nation the making of us truly happy and the securing of it to our Posterity And Oh! what Praise is also due unto God as for the Giving of him to us so for the Merciful Preservation of him How eminently hath God appear'd herein Indeed he suffer'd the Sons of Belial to contrive his Destruction but even that barbarous Design it self was not only most graciously defeated but also so over-ruled for our Good that it perhaps prov'd the Means of saving the Nation How seasonably did it awaken us and give us to consider a-new how much our Interest lies in the Preservation of the King What a fresh and most convincing Argument also had the King immediately of the Nation 's good Affection to him And how opportunely did it shew the World the Parliament and People's due Zeal for his Person and Government And put the Parliament upon making such Laws for our Security as perhaps would not else have been thought of and without which it may be we might have been undone Thus hath our gracious God even turn'd our Enemies Swords into their own Bowels and their Artillery on their own Breasts Let us then be thankful unto him 4. If God hath done Great Things for us Then let this induce us to a firm Reliance on him yet so as not to neglect the Means for our Security Jehoshaphat's Eyes were towards God and he excited his Subjects to Confidence in the Almighty yet he did not neglect the Security of Outward Means To rely on God and to cast off Humane Help is to trust his Power against his Command and to pretend to glorifie his Strength against his Sovereignty God's usual Way is to exercise his Power in giving Life and Success to Second Causes and Prudent Endeavours And in this Way it is that we are to depend upon him 5. If God hath done Great Things for us Then let us remember the Churches abroad who are persecuted for Righteousness sake the Thoughts whereof should strike deep into our Hearts and our Bowels ought to be towards them And while they write Lamentations to us we should send up Lamentations to God for them We find it thus charged as a very great Fault in Amos 6.7 They drink Wine in Bowls and anoint themselves with the chief Ointment but they are not grieved for the Afflictions of Joseph Let us seriously think hereof and know that we are bound to do what we can for them and that the least we can do is to cry mightily unto God that he would graciously vouchsafe unto them the like Mercies and Deliverances to what we do enjoy 6thly and Lastly If God hath done Great Things for us Then what do we do for God and for the Continuation of what he hath done for us And here I crave Leave to suggest two Things which I humbly conceive are very proper herein The First is A Thorough Reformation And the Second That some effectual Course be taken for the Uniting of us Indeed these are Things that tend much to the helping forward one another Reformation-Union and Union-Reformation and both of them very much our Duty and as much the Nations Interest I begin with the First A Thorough Reformation Of this in Church Matters I shall only at present say Oh that God would purge all his Churches from their Dregs and I easily persuade my self that every good Man will readily join with me herein When O Lord when shall it once be Oh that it might be But that which I shall urge and press here shall be the Reformation of Men's Lives and Conversations I mean That some speedy Course be us'd for the Suppressing that Drunenness and Uncleanness Swearing Perjury Prophanation of the Lord's Day and the like which hath over-spread the Nation and for encouraging of