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	work_n	3,459	5	5.8504	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62325	A sermon preached at Blockley in Worcestershire upon the thanksgiving-day, Sept. 9, 1683 by Samuel Scattergood ...	Scattergood, Samuel, 1646-1696.	1683 (1683)	Wing S844; ESTC R8062	11,501	31

our Church and Nation by stirring up Faction and Sedition amongst us and contriving Plots and Conspiracies against the Government All men shall fear First here is a Duty of Thankfulness to God for this gratious Deliverance This is the duty of this day to which God hath so signally obliged us and which the King in his Name commands us to perform And whosoever performs it not sincerely and cordially most humbly and devoutly offering up to the Divine Majesty the sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving surely hath neither any true Religion nor Loyalty in his heart but in contempt both of God and the King doeth what lies in his power to pull down a Curse instead of a Blessing upon himself and the whole Kingdom For where God sows plentifully he expects to reap so too and when he bestows upon us extraordinary favours it is but just that our gratefull sense and acknowledgment of them should be as far as is possible answerable And he can be no better than an enemy to his King and Countrey that will not acknowledge the discovery and disappointment of this hellish Plot to have been a peculiar and extraordinary demonstration of the Divine Goodness toward us 'T is a Mercy that hath continued to us as great a Blessing as we can desire and has delivered us from as dreadfull a Judgment as we could fear A Mercy that hath preserved our Church from being made the second time a Den of Thieves that would have establisht Schism and Heresie among us by a Law and given us as fair a Plea for Damnation as ever we had for our Liberty and Property A Mercy that hath freed us from the heavy Curse of having the Kingdom of God taken away from us and instead thereof hath confirmed that Kingdom unto us and hath settled amongst us I hope surer and firmer than ever the best Religion under the happy government and protection of one of the best of Kings I speak not this in flattery but as a truth of which I am so confident that I make no doubt but that the very dissatisfied party of the Nation themselves if they look round about cannot name any one King now reigning in Christendom whom they would rather have to rule over them than He under whose Government they are at the present so restless and uncasic But the truth is they would have no King at all but a Commonwealth and so it is a plain case that if our Saviour himself as the Fifth-Monarchy-men dream should come down from Heaven incognito and reign over persons of such Principles as these he would meet with as bad entertainment amongst them as he did amongst the Scribes and Pharisees They would be sure to treat him with Libels and Lampoons and endeavour to perswade the people that he intended to introduce Popery and Arbitrary Government If then ever any Nation had certainly we have reason to say with Israel If the Lord himself had not been on our side if the Lord himself had not been on our side when men rose up against us they had swallowed us up quick when they were so wrathfully displeased at us But praised be the Lord who hath not given us over for a prey unto their teeth Since God hath been pleased to stretch out his omnipotent Arm to defend us and to preserve our Liberty our Lives and Fortunes and which ought to be dearer to us than they all our Religion from the fanatick and brutish rage and fury of the worst and most inexcusable generation of Schismaticks that ever infested the Church of Christ if we pour not out our hearts in the devoutest praise and adoration and thanks to our Almighty Deliverer surely we are the most ungratefull wretches that ever received any favour from Heaven The Psalmist tells us here in my Text that to praise and magnifie the Name of God for such a Deliverance as this that he hath wrought for us is a piece of Wisedom For saith he they shall wisely consider of his doing and then not to doe it must necessarily be an evident demonstration of Folly And therefore whosoever neglects the duty of this day and refuses to give unto God the honour that is due unto his Name proclaims himself to be a Fool and that in the worst sense either an Atheistical fool that regards not the works of the Lord nor the operation of his hands or else a Rebellious fool that in his heart favours the design of the Traytors and inwardly grieves and repines at the Goodness of God that hath disappointed it If then we desire to escape the just imputation of Folly and Sin let us all this day wisely consider of God's doing and declare his work And that we may doe it wisely indeed let us be carefull to praise him as our Church teaches us to pray that we may not onely with our lips but in our lives by giving up our selves to his Service The Son of Sirach tells us that Praise is not seemly in the mouth of a Sinner But if we utter Praise in Wisedom then the Lord will prosper it Ecclus 15.9.10 And so saith David in my Text The righteous shall be glad in the Lord and shall trust in him and all the upright in heart shall glory Let us therefore this day make a new Covenant with the Lord our God to walk in his ways and to keep his Commandments Let us search and examine our hearts narrowly and cleanse and purifie them that there may be no accursed thing in them to defile our Sacrifice and to render the Tribute of our Praise unpassable in the Court of Heaven Thus if we doe God that hath hitherto protected us will protect us still and scatter our enemies that delight in bloud But if we doe otherwise with that Rod which he hath at this time onely shewed us in great Mercy to affright us into Obedience and with which he hath once already most severely chastised us he will e'er long in his just Anger dash us in pieces I shall conclude this Point with the Prophet Samuel's Advice to the people of Israel 2 Sam. 12.24 25. Onely fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart for consider how great things he hath done for you But if ye shall still doe wickedly ye shall be consumed both ye and your King And so I proceed to the second duty recommended to us in these last words of my Text and that is A Duty of Caution to take heed of such men as these that encourage themselves in an evil matter and labour to disturb the peace and tranquillity of our Church and Nation by stirring up Faction and Sedition amongst us and contriving Plots and Conspiracies against the Government All men shall fear This very counsel St. Paul gives to the Romans and with great importunity begs of them that they would receive it and follow it Rom. 16.17 18. Now I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause Divisions and Offences contrary

draw up an exact Scheme and Platform of their whole work assign to every man his particular Office and Station and agree to every little punctilio in what order and method to proceed that their Conspiracy may be sure not to miscarry Thus they search out iniquities And if ever any Traytors did so certainly ours that were concerned in this late Plot did it to the height They accomplished a diligent search they compassed both Sea and Land to gain Proselytes and had their Agents in Holland as well as in England and Scotland and both the inward thought of every one of them and the heart was deep How cunningly they had laid their designs the King hath acquainted us in his Declaration by which we may see how far their malice extended that they aimed not their Blow at his Majesty onely but at all his Loyal Subjects at all that were friends to him and the Church and were resolved not to stay their hands from shedding bloud untill they had thoroughly purged the Nation both of Loyalty and Religion And now we are come to the last Scene of this bloudy Tragedy a Scene that must necessarily end in the death either of the Innocent or of the Guilty either of the Traytors or of the King They say and are resolved that the King shall die but God saith and hath decreed that it shall be themselves They design to shoot Bullets at their Sovereign but God determins to prevent them by shooting an Arrow at them themselves And so I come to the second part of my Text which is God's gratious deliverance from this danger that threatened us But God shall shoot at them with an arrow suddenly shall they be wounded So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves all that see them shall flee away There are many devices in a man's heart saith Solomon nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that shall stand Prov. 19.21 Certainly the devices of these Traytors of ours were many and bloudy Their part was Malice and Cruelty but God's part is Mercy and Justice met together to us Mercy whom he hath delivered Justice to them whom he hath confounded and snared in the work of their own hands They had found out so convenient a place for the execution of their Treason that had the King come by that way according to their expectation it had been morally impossible for him to have made an escape but he must have run directly into the jaws of Death But nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that shall stand The Persons of Kings are sacred they have their Guard in Heaven as well as upon Earth and God himself stands in the congregation of Princes And though sometimes for the sins of a wicked people whom he hath a design to punish he permits even good Kings to fall by the hands of the Sons of Belial yet for one treasonable Plot that he suffers to take effect he disappoints many to shew how tender he is over the Persons of his Vicegerents and that Kings are the particular care and charge of his Providence And never did this Providence of his more clearly and gratiously manifest it self than in those many signal and wonderfull deliverances which he hath wrought for our present King whom he hath so often rescued from the very brink of Destruction and covered with his own hand from the weapons of his enemies and from the instruments of Death And surely he must be an Atheist or worse if possible one that believes there is a God but is resolved to fight against him and flie in his very face if after all this he can either plot or speak evil against him whom Heaven it self hath so plainly declared to be its Favourite But never did the hand of God more visibly appear in his preservation than it did in the discovery and disappointment of this late hellish Conspiracy When the Traytors had gotten all things in a readiness and waited onely for the fatal hour when they had laid their snares so privily and contrived their Plot so strong and sure as they thought that vain was the help of Man then God himself arises to protect his Anointed and to scatter his enemies he shoots at them with an arrow and suddenly are they wounded By a gentle and mercifull correction he prevents a most severe and dreadfull judgment and by a light affliction of one small and inconsiderable part of the Nation he preserves the whole from a most lamentable destruction By a sudden though a very auspicious and happy Fire he drives away the King from his Recreations to make an escape for his Life and so defeats and blasts all the designs of the Traytors This disappointment strook such a terrour into their hearts that although some of them were so hardened in Villany that they presumed to proceed in it still and held farther Meetings and Consults for the carrying it on yet others began to tremble and fear that God fought against them as most certainly he did and so their mischief would return upon their own head and their violent dealing would come down upon their own pate and they should be sure to perish themselves in the Attempt And thereupon they begin to think it high time for them to leave off plotting any farther against the King's Life and to provide if possible for the security of their own by surrendring themselves up to his Majestie 's mercy and making a full confession and discovery of the whole Conspiracy to the utter confusion and ruine of the rest of their Confederates some of them being thereupon immediately apprehended and the rest forced to save their lives by flying from the Sword of Justice exactly according to the words of the Psalmist in my Text So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves all that see them shall flee away And now we have seen what these bloudy-minded men would have done against us and what God hath done for us it is highly reasonable in the next place to bethink our selves of our own duty and to consider what obligations this great Deliverance which God hath wrought for us hath laid upon us And for this David gives us instructions in the remaining part of my Text And all men shall fear and shall declare the work of God for they shall wisely consider of his doing The righteous shall be glad in the Lord and shall trust in him and all the upright in heart shall glory Which words without any nice division of them recommend to us in general these two Duties First A Duty of Thankfulness to God to consider wisely of his doing to declare his work and to praise and magnifie his Name for this great and undeserved mercy which he hath shewed toward us Secondly A Duty of Caution to take heed and beware of such manner of men as these that encourage themselves in an evil matter that commune of laying snares privily and labour to disturb the peace and tranquillity of