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	law_n	nature_n	1,115	5	5.3946	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37178	A discourse upon Gondibert an heroick poem / written by Sr. William D'Avenant ; with an answer to it, by Mr. Hobbs.; Gondibert. Preface	D'Avenant, William, Sir, 1606-1668.; Hobbes, Thomas, 1588-1679. Answer of Mr. Hobbs to Sr. William D'Avenant's preface before Gondibert.; Cowley, Abraham, 1618-1667.; Waller, Edmund, 1606-1687.	1650 (1650)	Wing D322; ESTC R8934	45,679	154

constraints at Court where they must patiently endure the little follics of such small favourites as wait even near the wisest Thrones so fantastically weak seem Monarchs in the sicknesse of Care a fever in the head when for the humorous pleasure of Diversity they descend from Purple beds and seek their ease upon the ground These great Leaders say also that Law moves slowly as with fetter'd feet and is too tedious in redresse of wrongs whilst in Armies Justice seems to ride poste and overtakes Offenders ere the contagion of crimes can infect others and though in Courts and Cities great men fence often with her and with a forcive slight put by her sword yet when she retires to Camps she is in a posture not onely to punish the offences of particular greatnesse but of injurious Nations States-men look on Divines as men whose long solitude and Meditations on Heaven hath made them Strangers upon Earth and 't is acquaintance with the World and knowledge of Man that makes abilities of Ruling for though it may be said that a sufficient belief of Doctrine would bege● obedience which is the uttermost design of governing yet since diversity of Doctrine doth distract all Auditours and makes them doubtfully dispose their obedience even towards spirituall powers on which many would have the temporall depend therefore States-men think themselves more fit to manage Empire then Divines whose usefulnesse consists in perswasion and perswasion is the last medicine being the most desperate which States-men apply to the distemper of the people for their distemper is madnesse and Madnesse is best cur'd with terrour and force They think that Leaders of Armies are to great Empire as great Rivers to the Continent which make an easie accesse of such benefits as the Metropolis the seat of Power would else at vast distances with difficulty reach yet often like proud Rivers when they swell they destroy more by once overflowing their borders at home then they have in long time acquir'd from abroad They are to little Empire like the Sea to low Islands by nature a defense from Forreigners but by accident when they rage a deluge to their own shore And at all seasons States-men believe them more dangerous to government then themselves for the popularity of States-men is not so frequent as that of Generalls or if by rare sufficiency of Art it be gain'd yet the force of Crouds in Cities compar'd to the validity of men of Arms and Discipline would appear like the great number of Sheep to a few Wolves rather a cause of Comfort then of Terrour They think that chief Ministers of Law by unskilfull integrity or love of popularity which shews the Mind as meanly born as bred so earnestly pursue the protection of the Peoples right that they neglect the publick Interest and though the Peoples right and publick Interest be the same yet usually by the People the Ministers of Law mean Private-men and by the other the State and so the State and the People are divided as we may say a man is divided within himself when reason and passion and Passion is folloy dispute about consequent actions and if we were call'd to assist at such intestine warre we must side with Reason according to our duty by the Law of Nature and Natures Law though not written in Stone as was the Law of Religion hath taken deep impression in the Heart of Man which is harder then marble of Mount Sinai Chief Ministers of Law think Divines in Government should like the Penall Statutes be choicely and but seldome us'd for as those Statutes are rigorously inquisitive after veniall faults punishing our very manners and weak constitution as well as insolent appetite so Divines that are made vehement with contemplating the dignity of the Offended which is God more then the frailty of the Offender govern as if men could be made Angels ere they come to Heaven Great Ministers of Law think likewise that Leaders of Armies are like ill Physicians onely fit for desperate cures whose blindnesse calls in the assistance of Fortune during the fears and troubles of Art Yet the health they give to a distempered State is not more accidentall then the preservation of it is uncertain because they often grow vain with successe and encourage a restor'd State to such hazards as shew like irregularity of life in other recover'd bodies such as the cautions and antient gravity of Law disswades For Law whose temperate design is safety rather prevents by constancy of Medicine like a continu'd Diet diseases in the Body-politick then depends after a permitted Sicknesse upon the chance of recovery They think States-men strive to be as much Judges of Law as themselves being chief Ministers of Law are Judges of the People and that even good States-men pervert the Law more then evil Judges For Law was antiently meant a Defensive Armour and the people took it as from the Magazin of Justice to keep them safe from each others violence but States-men use it as offensive Arms with which in forraging to get relief for Supreme Power they often wound the Publick Thus we have first observ'd the Four chief aids of Government Religion Arms Policy and Law defectively apply'd and then we have found them weak by an emulous warre amongst themselves it follows next we should introduce to strengthen those principall aids still making the People our direct object some collaterall help which I will safely presume to consist in Poesie We have observ'd that the People since the latter time of Christian religion are more unquiet then in former Ages so disobedient and fierce as if they would shake off the antient imputation of being Beasts by shewing their Masters they know their own strength and we shall not erre by supposing that this conjunction of Fourfould Power hath faild in the effects of authority by a misapplication for it hath rather endeavoured to prevail upon their bodies then their minds forgetting that the martiall art of constraining is the best which assaults the weaker part and the weakest part of the people is their minds for want of that which is the Mindes onely Strength Education but their Bodies are strong by continuall labour for Labour is the Education of the body Yet when I mention the misapplication of force I should have said they have not onely faild by that but by a main errour Because the subject on which they should work is the Mind and the Mind can never be constraind though it may be gain'd by Perswasion And since perswasion is the principall Instrument which one can bring to fashion the brittle and mishapen mettal of the Mind none are so fit aids to this important works as Poets whose art is more then any enabled with a voluntary and cheerfull assistance of Nature and whose operations are as resistlesse secret easie and subtle as is the influence of Planets I must not forget left I be prevented by the Vigilance of the Reader that I have profe●s'd