Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	holy_a	lord_n	sabbath_n	2,282	5	9.1465	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29150	Church-musick vindicated a sermon preach'd at St. Bride's church, on Monday, November 22, 1697, being St. Caecilia's day, the anniversary feast of the Lovers of musick / by Nicholas Brady.	Brady, Nicholas, 1659-1726.	1697 (1697)	Wing B4169; ESTC R6317	9,287	27

because his Mercy endureth for ever 3 dly We may observe in the last place how Signal an evidence God has been pleased to give of his avow'd allowance and approbation of this use of Musick in his Service 1 st Then we may observe from the words of my Text that Musick whether Vocal or Instrumental may both innocently and profitably be made use of in the Publick Service and Worship of God Religion however mistaken or misrepresented by some is the most entertaining thing in Nature attended by a good Conscience which is a continual Refreshment and Supported by the Assurance of God's Favour and Protection which is the most certain Fund of Comfort and Satisfaction if we take her portraiture from the Life she will appear as bright and beautiful as an Angel set off with all those Charms and and raising Attractions which may most powerfully Recommend her to our Affections allowing and encouraging the truest chearfulness and not clashing with or condemning any Innocent Delights And therefore nothing has done her a greater prejudice nothing has more hindered her Diffusiveness and Efficacy than the false Draughts made of her by some sort of People who would have her to consist in Moroseness and Austerity They dress her up like a Fiend or a Fury they arm her with Snakes and Whips and Firebrands and having thus made her an Object of Loathing and Aversion they pretend to recommend her under so frightful an Appearance It is through their means who limn her after this hideous manner that Musick her obsequious and useful Handmaid has run the hazard of being Discarded from her Service as if she were an Attendant too light and airy to comport with the gravity of so reserved a Mistress But in this they deal with her as they did with the other and represent her much different from what she really is making that lightness essential to her which is purely accidental and decrying that as her inseparable habit which is only a loose Garment that the sometimes wears abroad but which the always drops before her entrance into the Church There the puts on such a Composedness and Solidity a● is suitable to the Sacred Offices in which she is employed and may qualifie her to be made use of both with Innocence and Advantage And 1 st As to the Innocence of this Usage It would be wholy unnecessary to insist upon this Topick were there not a party of Men so unaccountably scrupulous as to censure the Harmony which is made use of in our Churches as a sort of proceeding extremely culpable These then are the Persons whom I would desire to consider that that which has been the custom of good Men in all Ages without any mark of God's disapproval that which is so often recommended to our practice by those who have been commissionated to convey his Order to us that which is the Entertainment of the Blest above in their perfect State of Purity and Felicity that I say cannot be supposed with any shadow of Reason to contract any guilt or be liable to any just censure But this we find was a devout Emyloyment in which the best of Men have been exercis'd frequently witness the Songs of Moses and Deborah before the whole Congregation of the People of Israel Witness the Divine and Musical Compositions of David Solomon and others for the Service of the Temple Witness the Hymn that our Saviour sung with his Apostles who were then the Abridgment of the Christian Church and those that were afterwards in their solemn Assemblies made use of by the Disciples and Followers of our Lord. This also we find recommended to our Practice by those who revealed unto us the will of God such as the Royal Psalmist almost in every page Isaiah and Jeremiah in several places of their Prophesies St. Paul in his Writings to the Ephesians and Colossions and St. James in his Epistle to the Church in general in all which we have frequent Exhortations to this Duty as a positive part of our Religious Wo●ship In this we are assured that the Heavenly Host are always happily employed where Cherubim and Serayhim continually resound Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabbath Where the Four and twenty 〈◊〉 that attend about the Throne inc●ssantly chant out their Allelujahs and where those who have gotten the Victory over the Beast unanimously joyn in singing the Sorg of the Lamb Unless therefore we will unreasonably imagine that God would be so far wanting to his best beloved Servants as to suffer them to go on in a sinful course without giving them any notice of the E●rour they lay under unless we will Blasphemously suppose him so unfaithful to us as to suffer us to be deluded by those who come to u● in his Name and who bring his own Credentials along with them unless we will entertain absurd Notions of him that he is inconsistent with himself and admits of that in his Heavenly Pala●e which is offensive to him upon his Earthly Footstool we cannot conceive that this decent usage which has so many Testimonials of his Favour can be otherwise than highly Innocent in its self It is true indeed this Heavenly Art has been sometimes abused to the incouragement of Debauchery and as the best things corrupted contract the greatest illness so has this been made an instrument of loosness and sensuality but if this were sufficient to exclude it from the Temple when purified from that Allay which debated it's value Poetry as well as Musick must be banished from our Churches and the Psalms as well as Harp of David must be forbidden to us since the two Sacred Sisters have been equal Sufferers having both been prostituted to the most scandalous Employments Let us rather endeavour to snatch what we can of it out of the Hands of the prophane to rescue this Virgin out the power of her Ravishers and to present her unblemished at the Altar of our God where we may joyn Devotions with her not only with Innocence but with Advantage also In order to which end let us consider in the next place what profit may redound to us from such a practice Nothing is so proper or so available as this for composing our minds and setling them in a Sedate and quiet posture for reducing our straggling thoughts and fixing them to their Duty for calming and allaying our disorderly passions or for lifting up the Soul in a devout Contemplation When we are thus entertained with the employment of Angels our thoughts naturally ascend unto those Mansions of Joy we have an entercourse as it were with those Heavenly Inhabitants and our Conversation seems to be altogether above There is in Musick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something of Divinity which Captivates the Affections and Regulates them at it's Will it acts upon the Soul with such a sweet Violence as is almost insensible but irresistible too and I have heard many testifie from their own experience and I question not but we