Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	according_a	church_n	law_n	1,084	5	4.5241	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58390	Reflections upon two scurrilous libels, called Speculum crape-gownorum by a lay-man.	Banckes, Matthew.	1682 (1682)	Wing R734A; ESTC R2975	10,205	20

Never was a true Christian found a Traytor to his Prince This 't is to have a sharpness and acuteness of wit beyond the common reach of mankind ib. This 't is to be dull and impertinent In my opinion a very little search into History might have taught this Glass-maker that Albiani c. are denominations of traiterous factions in the Empire and then by the help of a little Logick he might have concluded that what is denied of all the Parts is denied of the whole and then where 's the fault in the Translation I desire him to get it translated better or not to meddle with things he does not understand But what has this Fellow to do to defame a Clergy-man for doing his duty his Function obliges him to in excommunicating wilful stubborn Offenders according to the Laws in force in this and all other Nations in the Christian World as well as to the injucntion of the Gospel and the constant practice of the Church in all Ages Is the Law defective if any man act otherwise than he ought in a matter of so high Concern or must men stand to the Arbitrement of every Rascally Scribler or do they think to scare men out of their Duty If any man act contrary to Law let them accuse him Legally and not Post him up at every Book-sellers stall But the Laws themselves cannot escape these mens venom if they contradict their refractory humour witness the Laws against Conventicles c. But I have wearied my self in tracing him thus far and therefore shall let his Essay of a Sermon alone and I hope by this time such an estimate may be made of the Libeller that no man will have any extraordinary opinion of his Parts or Honesty For what man that has the least esteem for Religion or but common Civility to the Ministers of it would in so scurrilous a manner treat the meanest and most contemptible of the Clergy as if their very Function ought not to secure them from buffoonery and reproachful malicious invective Language Or what would expose his malice so ridiculously as to stuff out a Pamphlet with another mans wit impertinently applied and commit the very faults himself that at the same time he condemns in others but an Ideot to all Learning and good manners I am sensible I have omitted many things I might have taken notice of and so I must needs do unless I should transcribe the whole particularly two or three Latin Scraps though he derides others that spice and besprinkle their Harangues with Greek and Latin Sentences but he may the more easily be excused for not avoiding such indecencies because those that are worth any thing are not his own observations and he forgot 'em as soon as he had transcribed ' em Upon the whole I must apply his own words his own I call 'em but the Reader will easily guess if any of them be stoln and desire all men to observe how the poor man has laboured to make an Ass of himself and to judg whether he has not shewn an equal composition of Discretion Learning and Charity of each two drams but then how strangely conceited are they that after a long consideration serious meditation what pity 't is womb of Meditation would not come in here too and recollection of mind are so vain as to put their Conundrums their Quibles and their Quibus's in Print I suppose this taste will be sufficient to shew the Scribler is not capable of writing any thing that will bear Censure or satisfie any man of ordinary understanding else I assure the Reader I could with as much ease have exposed his Second Part. But because I doubt the Reader by this time is as weary as my self of such Bankside and froth to give him his Character in his own civil Language of this Iack-pudding to the Bear-garden I shall pass by this Ribaldry his slip-slap slip-slap his Hoytie Toytie and all his little Conceits which I suppose he took in Short-hand at some Mountebanks stage for he has more ways of stealing than one without doubt I shall take no notice of his So Almighty as if there were degrees in Omnipotency nor of his Greek and Hebrew in Latin Characters neither For what 's that to me he is but a Transcriber let every man do as he can and take it as he finds it at the nighest hand Why should a man be troubled with more Languages than will serve his turn Now he took upon him to write against the number of Scholars Part 1. p. 1. who knows but his next pique may be at the number of Languages I wish the Dissenters much joy of his Arguments Never was ever c. in behalf of Conventicles which has been urged above forty times as most of theirs have within this half year and answered as often but he has dress'd it up so apishly in false Mode and Figure and exposed it so unluckily that I hope any one will be ashamed to use it after him And so I have quitted my self of the biggest part of his Book which is nothing but a piece of Farce between the two Dialogists or a Trial of Skill which should express their Non-sense with more agreeable Grace in wretched Pun and Quibble I shall take notice then only of two or three choice Notions which are very extraordinary for their extravagance and entirely new and so I suppose his own First he says Ministers ought to insist upon Generals and leave the Particulars to the Hearers that is they ought to teach Obedience in General but wherein that Obedience consists or what is agreeable to it they ought not pretend to determine His reason is because the Scripture treats only of Generals and has neither Magna Charta nor the Oath of Allegiance in it So then our Casuistical Divinity is all gone at a dash and besides the Censures and Discipline of the Church are quite taken away for what can the Church censure but by its Ministers and what falls under Censure but particular Actions And what more heinous and so more worthy of Censure than Disobedience Most men understand the General Heads of their Duty but what particulars fall under those Heads is not so easily known and to explain this is the proper work of a Preacher Every one knows an Oath obliges suppose the Oath of Allegiance or the Oath taken by Jurors but if a Minister sees men act contrary to this Oath whether out of wilfulness or ignorance ought he not to admonish them of the sin I should think his sin as great as theirs if he did not for his very Function obliges him to it and he breaks the most solemn Vow that can be made to God if he neglect it I confess the same thing falls differently under the consideration of a Lawyer and of a Divine the one considers it as matter of Law the other as matter of Conscience yet every Action as it concerns the Conscience so it belongs to the