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	remember_v	sabbath_n	1,017	5	9.6106	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66766	A paraphrase on the ten commandments in divine poems illustrated with twelve copper plates, shewing how personal punishments has been inflicted on the transgressors of these commandment, as is recorded in the Holy Scripture, never before printed : also, a metrical paraphrase upon the creed and Lord's Prayer / written by George Wither ...	Wither, George, 1588-1667.	1697 (1697)	Wing W3177; ESTC R11576	41,427	136

pretends Against this Third Commandement offends But none this holy precept more have broke Than they who on themselves Christs name have took Yet live like Infidels excepting those Who guild Hypocrisy with Godly shows And under pious habits use to prey On those who being more sincere than they Are threatned and suppose all well bestown While these will take till nothing is their own God keep his Lambs form these as from the worst Of all Dissembers and the most accurst The Faults condemn'd seem nothing to have bin To this abhorred Hell begotten Sin Are Drunken Jollities unbridled passion A wicked Custom Slight consideration And evil Nurture but much blame is cast On Tutors and some Parents for the last All these must therefore shunned be by him That would not Swear For-swear Curse nor Blaspheme This must be likewise heeded that unless We still on all occasions de confess The Name of God and Sanctifie it too By such good Duties as we ought to do As in Relieving those who in his Name Shall ask without abusing of the same In swearing by it when just cause requires In suffering for it though by Sword and Fires When God may be dishonour'd by a base Forsaking of our Faith or of our Place Yea if we be not ready to our might In all Gods Attributes to do him right And honour him in Deed in Word and Thought In what we can although not as we ought We faulter in our Duty and 't is plain We do profess to bear Gods name in vain My Heart LORD GOD so settle in thy way That I this Law may never disobey Amen IIII Remember that thou keep holy y e Sabboth day c. 'T is not in the Common Creed That he gather'd Sticks for need Who for Sabbath breaking dy'd For all wants were so supply'd That it seems he did transgress By Contempt or Carelessness He commits the same offence ' Gainst this Precepts moral sence Who the Christian Sabbaths wrongs And a Plague to him belongs Command IV. To hallow do not thou forget Those times which God apart hath set YOu that our christian Sabbath do despise Behold this Figure with regardful eyes For though on us this Precept doth not lay The Ceremonial service of the day Or to a Jewish Sabbath us confine It n'retheless a Duty doth enjoin Which no man living can be freed from Till to the general Judgment Christ shall come For Nature urges that convenient Rest Should be allowed both no Man and Beast Lest their corporeal substance should miscarry Before the time And 't is as necessary The Soul should have some leisure to attend His will on whom her being doth depend Freemen may rest their bodies when they please And Wise men know how for to take their ease But lab'ring Beasts and Men who are depraved Or they whom wants or Tyrants have enslaved Had restless lived till their life time ended Unless this holy Law had them befriended And they who to the flesh most ●avour show For Soul affairs but little time allow This God at first foresaw and for that cause Though in Mans heart he then ingrav'd his Laws Essential and long oblig'd him not To such additions as time since begot Yet when he found that error and transgression Had wholly rased out the first impression To stop Corruptions Growth he afterward To Rites to times and places had regard All men at first had liberty to take What daies they pleased holydaies to make Or for convenient Rest Nor did from all This freedom cease when God the Jews did call To keep their Sabbaths For to one set day No Nation were oblig'd save only they Nor had the Gentiles any other ties Save to observe it in a moral wise So far as might preserve unto the Creature The freedom and well being of its nature A Law concerning Rest and holy Dues Confin'd indeed the people of the Jews To one set day even one set day in seven To them were Ceremonies also given Concerning it which no man might transgress Save in great need without much guiltiness That Law which nature simply had received At our first being was to them derived With such like Accidents as might be best To keep them firm and bring in all the rest In Gods appointed season to embrace The Law of Nature in the Law of Grace Their Customs and their Ceremonial day With Christ was buried and so swept away When he arose from death that to renew And celebrate the Sabbath of the Jew We are no more obliged than to rear Their Temple and to build their Altar here And yet lest man's corruption and the lack Of Accidents might bring the Substance back Even to the first neglect Christ dist instate His Church with power to change or abrogate The Cirumstances of this Law so far As needful seem'd Provided that it were Essentially preserved and in this She hath performed what required is For though the time be changed it retains The same proportion It for use remains The same in Essence and that being so The same obedience is now due thereto And to what Circumstance the Church thinks fit To help continue the right use of it Now therefore though that every day be free For works which truly necessary be And though those Worshipers which are sincere May worship any day or any where Yet none can without guiltiness despise The Places Rites or Times of Sacrifice Appointed by the Church while they accord What may be authorized by the word This Law is therefore broke when we despise The Fastings Feastings or Solemnities The Church appoints or if we shall deny Such daies to honour and to sanctify By rest from Common Labours whensoere We may without much damage them forbear Or if we vilify those Christian Rites Whereto the publick discipline invites Or them perform not on their proper day As often as conveniently we may This Law is broke if to our lab ring Beast Or Servant we allow not so much rest As nature shall require and may conduce To keep them able for our lawful use Or if we shun not all occasious too Whereby we may against this Law misdo And they are these A hardned heart a mind Prophane and unto Greediness inclin'd A false belief false liberty false knowledge Frequenting of the Company and Colledge Off false believers From whom self will pride And Superstition no man can divide Let no man then that lawless Freedom take Which may occasion strife or scandals make By needless Labours nor mis-censure them Who take some liberties which they condemn In things indifferent and shall not move In such ' gainst which their Governors approve And in their manners let them peaceful be Though they in their opinions disagree Let not those times the Church hath set apart To rest the body to instruct the heart And to preserve a due Commemoration Of every blessed means of our Salvation Be judged vain or that they do not draw Authority sufficient for this

and honour him In outward shew and if believe we may What they themselves have pleased been to say They love him too But either they mistake him Or by their own Invention so new Make him That though they speak him by a gracious Name The goodness of his nature they defame By making him the Authour to have bin And cause original of every Sin For in affirming that the fall of Man And Sin and Death from Gods meer will began They say no less although they praise him much For being good to them and some few such To say of these I am no whit afraid As of old Idol-Makers hath been said Their God and they are like for on their Will They ground their practices which must be stil● Supposed Just and some perchance of them Would be as cruel as they fancy him But that their Finite Natures cannot reach The Tyranies which they of him do preach Let us of such impieties beware What we conceive of God let us have care And not with foolish Hereticks suppose By teaching common truths and making shows ●f holy piety to keep Gods eye from seeing when we wrong his Majesty For if he be displeas'd with such as make ●ood Creatures of his Godhead to partake ●ow much more cause have they his wrath to fear Who make him worse than his worst Creatures are ●nd that prime Attribute have overthrown ●y which he chiefly to be God is known ●or none are bound to serve him by this Law ●ut such as he did out of bondage draw ●or if he drew not all then some there be Who though they have a God ours is not he ●t least in such a manner as may give These Unbelievers courage to believe Their God they say did some unhappy make ●o shew his power and for his Glorys sake My God is he who pittied their Estates Whom these do fancy hopeless Reprobates ●n Issue leaving out of that temptation 〈◊〉 which they lying to their Just damnation ●nd for the day of wrath no sinners made ●ut such as do abuse the Grace they had ●heir God is he who forc'd mankind to fall ●nd mine is he who did Redeem us all My sweet Redeemer so my heart incline That I may always keep this law of thine Amen II Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any Graven image c. Superstition here is free If her Idols rais'd may be And with Zeal the same pursues If will worship she may use When she should Obey or hear Sacrifice she doth prepare Such Religion to profess Is but irreligeousness And for that presumptions vain Many Israelites were slain Command II. Let every Hand and Heart refrain An Image of our God to fain THree thousand suffered by their brethrens hand For offering violence to this Command And for Committing of the same offence The Sword hath been in action ever since Some where or other to the devastation Of many a powerful and renowned Nation For to adore one Godhead and no moe Save him to whom such Duty all men owe Sufficeth not nless our adoration Be such as may obtain his approbation A forged worship meriteth a Rod As truly as a falsified God And such as do their own Religion frame Serve but their Fancies though God bear the name When humane wit had fool'd away the notion Of Gods true Being and of true Devotion She calling to remembrance that each Creature Had in it some impression of his nature Did blindly seek him by that couz'ning light And lost at last the knowledge of him quite For some did make him Figures like their own Some like to beasts and some like forms unknown Then by degrees the Devil screwed in To seem a God and made the foulest Sin Thought pious worship For though vile it be To picture him whose form we cannot see And to ascribe to him imperfect features Who gave their bodies to the fairest Creatures And in whose Essence all perfections are Yet in their wickedness they staid not there By wicked Ceremonies they invited The world to think the Godhead was delighted With hellish actions for their living seed In horrid wise to death did often bleed As acceptable offerings murtherous hands Were thought the Actors of his just Commands And drunken Riots with lascivious Games Seem'd holy Duties and had holy Names Nor did the Gentiles only thus misdo But many Jews and many Christians too The self same sins in Essence did commit Though with new Vizzards they had covered it For how much better are their Festivals Then Bacchanalian Riots in whose Halls And Parlours are assembled in the stead Of those poor Souls whom Charity should feed A Rout of Roaring Ruffins who are there For nothing but to drink or game and swear Except it be that they might soon undo Those fools which do abuse Gods bounty so Mens follies make them frequently to err And then they Vice for Vertue do prefer Their Superstition makes them think amiss Of God And then their service of him is Accordingly devis'd they favour not That worship which their wit hath not begot They fear him Tyrant-like and dream that he Is pleas'd with such like works as Tyrants be For Carnal wisdom cannot be content Unless it may be suffered to invent The Scaenes which make her Stage Religion seem To superarrogate in her esteem Some tho' they Scoff Idolatry are hardly brought To serve a God of whom they have not thought A circumscribed Form to which they may Address themselves in that corporeal way Which they affect and therefore up they rear Such Calves as to their Fancies do appear Yea sometime such Ideas they devise As Piety would hate and wit despise Some others are too homely and too bold Another way and no man layeth hold Upon the Truth who thinks to seize thereon By searc●ing for it in himself alone These Sins against this Precept justly blam'd As thereto accessary have been nam'd In what we mused on the Law before To which are added here three other more Vain Curiosity blind Superstition Prophaneness and a changeable Condition By these we are perverted yea by these Our God is formed as our fancies please Sometime like those of whom the Psalmist speaks The God which to it self mans Fancy makes Is either blind or careless God says one Beholdeth not those evils that are done Tush God regardeth not another says The folly or perverseness of our waies Some others make unto themselves a God So mild as if he never us'd a Rod. And some again do fancy him to be So cruel that their God appears to me To be that Saturn now set up again Who as the ancient heathen Poets fain Devour'd his Children And they fain him for That which the God-like nature doth abhor These Evils to prevent This Law divine The wandring humane Fancy doth confine All men in Sacred worshipings restraining As well from Intellectual Objects faining As from Corporeal forms And him God threats Who due performance of this Law forgets For God

himself who knoweth best how far By representments it convenient were To shadow forth his nature did devize As many and as few as might suffize God knew that if mans frailty might not see Some objects whereupon might fixed be His weak Devotion he would either make Vain Fictions or Devotion quite forsake It therefore pleas'd his goodness to prepare Those objects for the Jews which fitting were For them such was the Serpent made of brass Till by Idolators abus'd it was Such were their Temple and the Mercy Seat On which or towards which their eyes were set In their Devotion that the wandring sence There being fixed Faith might raise from thence The safer flight and that Religion may A body have wherein her Soul may stay For doubtless that Religion is untrue Which hath no outward shape for men to view As for the Jews Our weakness tendring too God hath vouchsaft the like for us to do He hath advanc'd for us to look upon The Image of his Crucified Son And limb'd him in his word with such dimensions As may and should employ our Apprehensions Without all vain additions of our own Until the Essence of it may be known Nor of our selves nor to our selves was made This Image But the same from God we had He set it up for us to fall before it To contemplate to honour to adore it This Image he that faithfully shall view Thereby that long left Image may renew Wherein Mankind was framed by God's hand And in that likeness we shall ever stand Still praised be that Image which hath power To perfect such Imperfectness as our And let all those who shall the same despise Be guilty of the worst Idolatries Oh Christ so perfect my renewed will That I this holy precept may fulfil Amen III Thou shalt not take y ● name of y e Lord thy God in vaine c. Curses Blasphemies and Oaths Some can vary as their Cloaths And the Ruffin now begins To seek fashionable sins No more fearing to blaspheme Than to take a praiseful Theme But the Sin they count so small Doth aloud for vengeance call And in Figure here we view What for this offence was due Command III. If thou wilt free be kept from blame Take not in vain GOD's holy NAME TO fright Blasphemers we present them with An Emblem of the Son of Shelomith Who worthily condemned was to dye And Stoned for his daring Blasphemy For 't is a Crime now ripened in excess Though branded with a horrid Guiltiness And of this Blott who ever standeth free All these that follow deeply Guilty be The Common Swearer For his impious tongue Not only to the Godhead offers wrong But to his power he sometime rends and tears Christ's holy Body when he vainly swears He that affecteth cursings groweth foul By what this Law forbids For on the Soul Which loves to Curse these plagues are often brought Which to befall another are besought They are not in a mean degree to blame Who shall prophane the great Almighty's name Through Levity as when him name they shall For trifling Causes or no cause at all He that with Oaths protests in matters vain Or sweares for Truths what he himself doth fain Or tells for certain an uncertain thing Or vows to God what he neglects to bring Or maketh vows of what are not allowed Things lawful or things comely to be vowed Even he who ere he be that shall transgress These ways is tainted with a guiltiness For all these ways Gods name is vainly used And such offences cannot be excused To these we add our Scevites who presume The power of Exorcisms to assume And work by Conjurations of such kind As may no lawful approbation find And much from these those Cheaters differ not Who by confederacy the name have got Of cunning men or women and pretend To know black Arts and Practice to defend Our bodies or to keep our goods from harms By wicked Spels prophaning in the Charms The names of God or portions of his Writ For in such Actions they dishonour it Nor is he better who delights to make Gods Truth a Theam for vain discourses sake Or thence extracteth Jests or reads or hears His Word with heedless Eyes with careless Ears Or unprepared Heart Nor are they less Prophane who to conceal their wickedness Or meerly to be deemed men devout Still at their Girdles bear Gods Book about Or Study holy Scriptures to devise A Cloak for Sins and proofs for Heresies Or truths pervert their falshoods to maintain For all of these assume Gods Name in vain They of the like offence partakers are Who as they term it make a Holy War For Christ And in his name do that pretend Which is for some concealed wicked end All they who pray for these by name of such Do fight Gods Battles do offend as much If they shall know it For accursed is Such bold and bloody policy as this He that plots Treason or invents a Lie The Cause of God or Truth to justifie Doth Stray as wide For to assist his Foes These in Gods Name within his Ensign goes Moreover they are guilty of this Crime Who in undecent manner or ill time Reprove or threat or comfort or apply Gods promises or Judgments or deny Their needful application in Gods Name When time and place for them require the same For of the Service careless they appear Pertaining unto him whose name they bear He breaks this Law who runs ere he be sent And in Gods name speaks what God never meant He that from Holy Orders goeth back And by his Idleness becometh slack In Duties of his Calling or grown rich By Church promotions thinks it overmuch To execute that Function as he ought To which with wealth and honour he is brought Even he what fair excuse so ere he make Is justly said Gods name in vain to take For if he proveth guiltless he receiv'd A dispensation more than I believ'd A Prayer without Faith a formal mention Of Gods due praise without a due intention Yea vain or complemental Salutations Without Sincerity are prophanations Against this Law though many men have thought That these are signs of persons better taught Dissembling Fasts Thanksgivings mumbled out With babling Repititions and devout In nought but feigned Term or length of Time Do make men guilty likewise of this Crime Nay many Sermons of the vulgar strain Are taking of the Name of God in vain He that his Church or Chappel hath bedeckt And yet Gods living Temples doth neglect He that a love to those doth seem to carry Yet leaves defac'd his outward Sanctuary He that to bend his body is asham'd When he shall here his blessed Saviour nam'd He that without an inward Adoration Bows outwardly or with an Affectation To mimick Gestures or performs the same Unto the vocal sounding of the Name Or either practiseth or leaves undone Such Duties in Contempt of any one Even He though to be guiltless he