Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	call_v	day_n	time_n	2,715	5	4.1899	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62583	A sermon preached at the cathedral church of Worcester upon the monthly fast-day, September 16. 1691 by William Talbot ...	Talbot, William, 1658 or 9-1730.	1691 (1691)	Wing T122; ESTC R33893	13,997	28

overthrown some of us as well as them as he did Sodom and Gomorrah consumed not only the greatest part of the Metropolis of our Land with a devouring Fire and made it a heap of Rubbish and Ashes but many other of our lesser Towns as the frequent Briefs of late years especially inform us and some of them with Fire immediately from Heaven Has he not also sent the Pestilence among us after the manner of Aegypt visited this Land with a sweeping Plague that carried away many thousands to their long Home Have not our young Men too been slain with the Sword have we not been engaged in Wars at Home and Abroad and all those three of his sore Judgments befallen us within the memory of most of us And as for the fourth which the Prophet mentions that of cleanness Teeth though blessed be his name we have not lately laboured under a Famine of our dayly Bread for the support of our Natural Lives yet Has he not been lately threatning us with a far severer Famine a Famine of the Word of God and Man shall not live by Bread only but by every Word that proceedeth out of the Mouth of God Were we not apprehensive not long since and had we not too good Grounds for it that he was going to remove our Candlestick to deprive us of that pure Religion and excellent way of Worship we are blessed with and to give us up to Popish Superstition and Idolatry into the Hands of those Men that would have taken from us the sincere Milk of the Word that Food which God has afforded us for the nourishment of our Souls to Eternal Life and would have starved us with lying Legends instead thereof Were not the Emisaries of Rome the implacable Enemies of our Church and Religion labouring with all their might and industriously improving the favourable opportunities they injoyed under the last Reign to destroy ours and establish their own Religion and were they not too likely in all human appearance to have been too succesful Had they not made a very large Progress for so short a time Did not their Priests appear every where barefaced in despight of our Laws Did they not commit their Abominations celebrate their Idolatrous Services in the most publick and conspicuous places in the Kingdom Had they not built many Altars and High Places for that purpose Had they not seized some of our Seminaries part of our Universities to breed up a Succession of disciplined and instructed persons to carry on and finish the Work they had begun Did they not openly solicit all they had opportunity or hopes of Perverting using all Methods offering Rewards and Preferments to some threatning menacing others to make them comply with them in a word Did they not look upon themselves as secure of gaining their Point And had they not all the Reason to hope as we to fear that they should have triumphed in the ruins of this Church and Religion that either a furious Zeal for their Cause an irreconcileable Hatred to us a Serpentine Subtilty indefatigable Industry the favour of the Government the Laws as they were managed the Army almost all Offices Military and Civil in their Hands and the assured expectation of a Foreign Assistance could afford them And if we seem now in some measure to be delivered from these designs of theirs if God seem now to have removed this Judgment yet believe me if we answer not his ends and designs in Threatning us with it the present suspension of it will not prove a total removal but only a lightning before death a puting back of his Arm to strike with a greater force Nay Is not God at this time making bare his Arm against us Are we not unavoidably ingaged in a War with a neighbouring and very potent Prince and May we not expect all the Hostilities and Injuries that his equal Hatred to our Nation and Religion his Politick Counsellors the Wealth of his whole Kingdom or his numerous Forces can suggest to or enable him to put in Execution And which is yet a more sad consideration Has not God sent a Spirit of Faction and Division among us Are we not unreasonably disunited among our selves broken and crumbled into Sects and Parties regardless of the Common Enemy and only jealous of and watchful against one another And can a Kingdom so divided against it self long stand Thus my Brethren has God been Manuring and Cultivating this Land of ours with various Chastisements and Corrections to try if he could make it bring forth the Peaceable Fruits of Righteousness when he found that though favour were shewn to us we would not learn righteousness he sent his Judgments his last reserve to try if they could teach our Inhabitants that Lesson And what effects have his Judgments had upon us Have we hearkned unto the Voice of his Rod and answered the ends of his Corrections Has the Fire of Affliction refined and purged us from our Dross and Corruption Have his Severities mortified our Sins and Vices Has the Lance let out the imposthumated Putrefaction Has his visiting our Iniquities upon us made us out of love with them and his Terrors persuaded us to forsake them Have we been more fearful to offend him more careful to please him more awfully regardful of his Majesty more Zealous for his Honor more diligent and constant in our attendance upon his Service and our Duty 'T is certainly no time to dissemble with God and impose upon our selves the Day calls for sincerity and impartiality in our examinations and if we will speak the truth Have we not been proof against these Methods of Gods too and as we have abused his Mercy and despised his Goodness so defied his Judgments also For does there not every where appear barefaced the same daring Impiety against God the same Atheistical Scoffing at Religion the same Neglect and Contempt of his Worship the same Profanation of his Word by drolling upon it and lightly using it in common Conversation the same Profanation of his Name by horrid Oaths Curses and Imprecations the same Profanation of his Day by converting it to Secular uses spending it in worldly Business idle Pastimes and vicious Practices the same Profanation of his House by wilfully abstaining from it or coldly formally or irreverently behaving our selves at it Does there not appear the same injustice and uncharitableness to our Neighbours the same Circumvention and Defraudation in Bargaining the same false Weights and Measures in Buying and Selling the same Extortion Oppression and Deceit in all Dealings the same uncharitable Censuring Backbiting and Detraction Does there not appear the same Intemperance and Incontinence against our selves the same Revelling and Drunkeness the same Chambering and Wantonness In a word Is there not the same general Dissolution of Manners the same unrestrained Practice of Wickedness of all sorts and degrees as there was before God made use of those his Judgments which I have enumerated to Reclaim and