Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	action_n	evil_a	good_a	1,020	5	3.4395	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29573	An apologie of John, Earl of Bristol consisting of two tracts : in the first, he setteth down those motives and tyes of religion, oaths, laws, loyalty, and gratitude, which obliged him to adhere unto the King in the late unhappy wars in England : in the second, he vindicateth his honour and innocency from having in any kind deserved that injurious and merciless censure, of being excepted from pardon or mercy, either in life or fortunes.	Bristol, John Digby, Earl of, 1580-1654.	1657 (1657)	Wing B4789; ESTC R9292	74,883	107

never have betaken me to any other way of clearing my self although I am not ignorant upon how great disadvantage and hazard any man is brought to a Tryal upon the Impeachment and pursuit of the Houses Neither had I any reason to slatter my self with any indulgency towards we Yet withall I had and have so great confidence of my own clear Innocency in point of not meriting to be excepted from the same course of proceeding afforded others That I was never more desirous to attain any thing than I was and am to be admitted to an equal and fair Hearing and Legal Tryal As for the point of having served and adhered to the King I shall neither deny or evade it but my Case is in that the same with many Thousands and I should be too indulgent to my self not to expect the same misfortunes and suffering with others But now almost despairing of ever to be so happy as to see mine own Country again in regard of my Age and Infirmities and in less hopes of ever being admitted to a fair Hearing since the very ways of Addresses or Petitions unto them are debarred me and the using of any further indeavour to satisfie them is voted down And since their Sentence is already before either Examination Tryal or Conviction put in execution in as much as concerneth Fortunes or Estates by their actual possessing and disposing of them So that having nothing left unto me but an exiled Life present wants and an expectation of greater poverty I shall indeavour to bear those heavy visitations which God hath been pleased to send upon me and my Family with that Constancy of mind and pious submission to Gods holy will as befitteth a good Christian and leave unto my Family and Posterity the subsequent Discourse where in the first place I shall set down those Reasons that induced me to adhere unto the King being as I conceive thereunto bound in Honour and Conscience by the Law of God and of the Land by many solemn Oaths by natural Allegiance as a Subject and by Honesty and Gratitude as a sworn Servant both to his Father and to himself Of which several Obligations I shall speak in the first part of this Discourse And in the second part I shall make so true and faithfull a Narration of my Proceedings as I doubt not But to appear to have been a Faithfull Loyal and Affectionate Servant to the King my Soveraign and Master But to have had no hand in any of those Exorbitancies which caused those misunderstandings betwixt the King and his People To have been no Incendiary betwixt the King and the Houses But on the contrary to have used all possible indeavours as far as in me was to have put those unhappy breaches and differences into a way of Accommodation whereby a Civil War might have been prevented and since the War there never was any Overture or hope of Peace to which I did not contribute both my prayers and all the furtherance that was in my power And so not to have deserved that merciless Sentence of Unpardonable Destruction CHAP. II. The particular Reasons of adhering unto the King in this Cause and the method observed in this Discourse MY intention is not in this Discourse wherein the Vindication of mine own Honour and Innocency and the setting down of those Reasons which deterred my Conscience from taking Armes against my King is the main scope to write a defence of the Cause in general or to dispute the Question of Subjects taking Armes against their Soveraign It will require a large and elaborate Tract aparr which may not be interrupted by any thing of the proceedings of a particular man Neither will I censure or judge other men nor fix upon others though of a contrary way any thing that may seem opprobrious notwithstanding the Stile of Traitor and notorious Traitor hath often been my Title in Print although that detestable name in this Case doth not make me blush I know mens Consciences may by different Principles be carried different waies Neither will I censure so many men of all Qualities and Conditions and religious Professions of so much Impietie as to have broken through all Tyes of Allegiance and Loyaltie and so many Oaths their Consciences unconsulted and without conceiving they had found something to ballance their Judgements against so many precise and clear Duties I shall only set down the motives and inducements of mine own Conscience which ought to be to each Christian his Guide against which as he can do nothing well so even good Actions become evil if they be done with an unsatisfied or dubious conscience The Rules of Scripture being That we be fully perswaded in our minds Rom. 14.5 That he is happy that condemneth not himself in the thing he alloweth vers. 22. That he that doubteth is damned And that all things that are not of faith are Sin ver. 23. So that as it will be easily agreed That to all Christian men Conscience ought to be the strongest and most unresistable guide and of so great and binding authoritie with us That it should over-rule all considerations of Safetie Profit Ambition Revenge or other Interest whatsoever So it behooveth each Christian man to seek out the best and most unfallible marks and directions for the guiding of his Conscience in the right way And this I may with truth declare and take God to my witness in it That when I did see that no Industry wherein I omitted nothing that was in my power for the stopping allaying or reconciling of those differences and violences which breaking in like a floud prevailed over mine and all other peaceable minded mens indeavours could produce any good effect And that there was now nothing left to any man but in an unevitable War to make choice of the juster side as his Conscience towards God in the first place and his other civil duties and obligations should dictate unto him I did after many Conferences with learned men of the other way much studie and reading of all that I could find to have written in favour or excuse of Subjects taking Arms against their King resolve contrary to all worldy or prudential Interests of my own to adhere to the King according as my Conscience was satisfied I was bound to do By the law of God By the doctrine and practice of all Christian Churches and in all times By many Oathes By the laws of the Kingdom By my natural Allegiance as a Subject And by Gratitude and Fidelity as a sworn Servant both to his Father and Himself Of each which several Obligations I shall speak in the subsequent Discourse in the order that is here set down CHAP. III. Reasons deduced from Scripture AS it will be easily assented unto that Conscience ought to be the guide of our Actions so the most infallible Rule whereby to guide Conscience to a Christian ought to be the Principles of Religion and those Principles are above all other

binding and obliging which are deduced from the word of God I shall therefore first begin with those religious and pious Motives which have in Conscience restrained me from taking Arms against the King or making to him any hostile Resistance For I desire it to be understood that when I speak of Resistance I alwaies understand Actual and Hostile Resistance For I well know that in things in themselves sinfull mala in se I ought rather to obey God than Men And in such Cases suffering is a full performance of our Duty of Obedience Nay in Cases only illegal non illicita but illegalia against publique or private Right as if a Prince shall infringe the known undoubted Prilileges of the Kingdom or of Parliament or command that which is destructive unto them The Weapons of our Resistance ought to be Replyes Petitions Remonstrances Nay we may withold our free-will-Offerings though not our Tributes of Dutie we may stop our voluntarie supplies of giving Subsidies we may make a stand in the transactions of affairs untill the King condescendeth to do us Right as hath been often practised As it was in the Case of the Earl of Arundel who being restrained and kept from sitting in Parliament in the year 1626. by the King without cause shewn The House of Peers sate many daies silent without debating or transacting any Business untill he should be restored to his libertie and place in Parliament or cause shewed for his detention But to take Arms or to use Acts of force this is the Resistance which ought not to be used and is neither justifiable by the Laws of God nor of the Kingdom And this Resistance I am far from being satisfied in my Conscience may be used by any subjects against their lawfull and undoubted Soveraign The places in Scripture both in the old and new Testament commanding by positive precept our obedience and forbidding Resistance to the Powers ordeined over us by God are many But the Arguments of necessary deduction are infinite whereas Resistance is no where commanded or allowed And the Arguments by way of Deduction which are made use of to tollerate the Subjects taking of Arms against their Soveraign are by putting some places of Scripture upon wrack and torture to make them speak their sense whereas it is an undeniable Rule in Schools That Inferences and deductions cannot justifie the breach of plain duties injoyned by any one positive precept of Scripture In the old Testament it was death to disobey much more hostilely to resist the supream Authority by positive precept Deut. 17.10 Joshua 1.18 So it was to resist Parents And certainly in States and Common-wealths tam Pater Nemohe is Pater patriae and all the civill power that was of old in Paternall Iurisdiction is now by the Consent and Common Agreement of the People placed in the supream power of a State and the same obedience is due to it and resistance to it as unjustifiable And such as will indulge to the People a freedome to resume their first Original Power grounded upon that Maxime Omnis homo nascitur liber every man is born free seduce them by so false a Principle that the contrary of it is the truth Nullus homo nascitur liber no man is born free Neither was there ever yet in this world anyone man born free It is true there was one man created free our first father Adam But all his Children and all his Descent after him were born under Paternall Iurisdiction Nay our blessed Saviour speaking of him as a Man and Son to the blessed Virgin was born under this Paternal Jurisdiction and filial Obedience whereunto he submitted himself as is plainly set down Scripture Luke the 2.51 where it is said He went with Joseph and his Mother and was subject unto them Now this Paternal Jurisdiction which was at first the sole Soveraignty which governed the world By reason of Partiality in Parents Oppression by such as were the strongest and a multitude of inconveniences and confusions when the World was become numerous and full of People and every family become a Realm As it was too narrow so it grew to be so hurtful unto Mankind That men were forced for their own preservation Common Justice and comfort of life to transfer this paternal Jurisdiction all but filial and personal Duty of honoring and obeying Parents into Magistracy and willingly divested themselves for their own good of that Native Libertie which they had before And as the right power of Government is the same which it was in paternall Iurisdiction only by the Consent of the People changed into another hand So the Obedience unto it ought to be the same And the fifth Commandement of obeying Parents is by all understood to extend unto the Magistrate to whom the people having by consent tranferred the power of paternal Jurisction are likewise by Divine Precept bound to obedience and the People cannot still retein unto themselves that which by common consent they have divested themselves of and transferred to others So was it in the Common-Wealth of Rome when by lex Regia the people had transferred all their power to the Emperour they were not to resist And it was to those Emperours to whom our Saviour and his Apostles injoined Obedience not only for Wrath but for Conscience sake and not unto the good only but unto the froward David was pursued by Saul unjustly his life sought by him yet his Conscience check'd him when he had only cut off the lap of Sauls garment 1 Sam. 24.5 6. But when the attempting upon his person was mentioned he then cryed out Who can stretch forth his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guiltlesse 1 Sam. 26.9 Nay when he might have slain Saul and he was desired by Abishai that he might strike him to the ground he did not only forbid him but called unto Abner telling him he deserved to die that he had not more carefully kept and guarded his Master vers. 15 16. which sheweth that not only not to hurt but to preserve is our Duty And truly if I should have lift up my hand or drawn my Sword against the King I fear I should not have been so happy as divers have been that have gone the other way in finding out such satisfactory Arguments or distinctions as would have rid or cured me of that horrour of Conscience which would have made me most miserable in the height of all prosperitie and successe All the whole context of the old Testament incite to the obedience to the honouring fearing and reverencing of the King And all the Attempts that have been made upon the persons of Kings or their Government are either condemned as wicked or else were by the extraordinary and especial Commandement of God making use of wicked men to be the Executioners of his just Judgments Besides the Government of the Jewish Commonwealth was a Theocratia an immediate Government of God himself and by the Consent of all Divines

not to follow him in his Wars against his Enemies or his Rebels which the Subject de bene esse is to understand to be such as the King proclaimeth to be Traitors Not that a Proclamation maketh them so but the Subject is so to esteem them until they be brought to a legal Tryal So that there never was a harder Condition nor more unavoydable than this of the Kings present Loyal Subjects who should have been Traitors by the Law if they should have taken Armes against the King and should likewise lose ther Lands Honours Castles c. if they did not fight for him And yet contrary to the Law Providing that no man should forfeit Life or Estate for serving of the King He shall by an Arbitrary Power of his fellow Subjects be condemned to lose both without Pardon or Mercy for doing that for which he must have lost legally both Life and Estate and his Soul to boot if he had not done it CHAP. VII The Motives deduced from Honour Honesty and Gratitude of not forsaking the King in his troubles BEsides the Obligation formerly set down deduced from the Law of God and the positive Law of the Kingdom there is a third Law which hath a great Authority in the hearts of all generous and noble-minded Men which is the Law of Honour and Gratitude which Law I conceive to be a Branch of the Original and first Law The Law of Nature For it hath had and still holdeth a Value and Reverence through all Religions as it hath done through all times I must confess this Law hath been and is in some kinds too high lifted up and is become the Idol of many mens fancies who pay unto it a more exact Obedience and are more carefull not to transgress against it than they are not to offend God or the Laws they live under whereof we have daily too many Presidents when men rather than to be failing in point of Honour will upon frivolous provocations decline all duties to God and Man and sacrifice to this Idol oftentimes the hazard of their Lives and Fortunes together with their Souls But this is an Excess and Excrescency of Honour and Courage in the justification whereof I know nothing that can be said In the excuse of it it is to be hoped that in so generally-received an Error whereby men become Infamous and scarce fit for honest company that comply not therein Custom and Universallity may allay and mitigate the Offence But that Honour which I speak of is better exprest by plain moral Honesty and Gratitude when neither Fear nor Disadvantage shall drive us or withold us from just Duties nor the Misfortunes or Distresses of those to whom we have had former obligations make us leave and forsake to be assistant and serviceable unto them in all just and lawfull things although it be to our own Hinderance or that we can expect no further good or advantage by them And herein my Case is different from the common Cases of Subjects being more particularly bound unto Gratitude by many Benefits and unto Honesty Affection and Fidelity by my Service in places of greatest Trust about the King both for nearness to his Person as a Gentleman of his Bed-chamber and as a Servant confided in as a privy Counsellour As for Ingratitude it hath been at all times so detestable That to the Reproach of being ingratefull nothing can be added And the betraying or forsaking of a mans Master in his Distress hath so great a Rellish of the Judas that no noble and generous Heart would for any earthly Respect do any thing that might seem to be like it or be in hazard of being mistaken for it For mine own part I do ingenuously confess that had I no Precepts of the Law of God no Tyes by the Law of the Kingdom nor Horrour of Conscience for breaking those sacred Obligations into which I was entred by taking so many solemn Oaths Yet Gratitude and Honour singly should have been unto me of so high Recommendation That no Respect of my Life Fortunes or Posterity should have made me lift up my Hand against my King or to have forsaken my Master in his Miseries and Distress I have had the Honour to have served this King and his Father by the space of more than forty years and was by his Father from a younger Brother of a Gentlemans Family raised by his Goodness above my Merit to the Dignity of an Earl and a Conveniency of Subsistance in that Quality I was trusted by him in seven Ambassages and called to his privie Counsel recommended unto the Prince his Son as a Gentleman of his Bed-chamber and which was above all these Obligations I was admitted to more than an ordinary measure of his Trust and Confidence And certainly these great Obligations from the Father could not but imprint Gratitude in my Heart towards the Son especially He being now become my King and Master And so by all the Oaths that I had taken to the Father I was likewise by him obliged to them as his Successor But besides these Tyes of Gratitude I must Protest that weighing and considering impartially the Kings Actions either as they relate to his Government as a King or his personal Deportments as a Man setting Conscience aside and that I had not been thereby restrained I could never find any thing that could satisfie my judgement in point of Moral Justice or right Reason for the taking Arms against him I must and do confess that some things and too many w●●● ill done by the Kings Ministers and the Subjects Propriety and Liberty might have run great hazard under an ill Prince by those waies that were then set on foot For to speak freely my sense by the Principles then received all was put into the Kings hands for Necessity was made Master of all and of that Necessity the King was made the sole Judge and Princes may easily mistake their own private Wants for publique Necessity But from this Excess little of the fault can with Reason be charged upon the King and less ground for the taking of Arms For it is well known the King having been unseasonably imbarqued in War both with France and Spain his Treasure was wholly exhaust and he was reduced to great streights The King called divers Parliaments but they proved so unhappy that two or three of them were dissolved in great disorder and the Kings Wants were not relieved but the King and his People parted with little satisfaction on either side The King then being enforced to use all indeavours for his Relief in these his great VVants consulted with the Officers of his Revenew and his learned Councel what course was to be taken for his Supply without calling a Parliament For it had been voted at the Councel-Table That the Calling of a Parliament was not then fit or seasonable And at the breaking off of the last Parliament before this An. 1640. It had been declared

his Power and Greatness why should he not expect that Subjects should make as bold to transgress the same Duties in hope of recovering Liberty with the false shew whereof people are apter to be further transported than by any earthly desire whatsoever Neither will the fear of Death or Danger restrain them because they will not attempt untill opportunity make them hopefull of prevailing and then they conceive by Power to provide for their own Impunities But besides this proness in people to be easily led perswaded into Rebellion under the false and specious shew of recovering liberty The great Monarchs Princes of Christendom have been in great part the fomentors upholders of Rebellion and their Doctors have not so much by their preaching and writing beaten it down as the Princes themselves have by their Examples and Actions given encouragement unto it for although I shall ever speak with Reverence of Princes and their Actions yet I shall hope that the humble representation of this truth will receive a fair interpretation For it is undeniably true that in this later Age all the great Monarchies and States of Christendom have been made unhappy by Intestine Wars which have been fomented if not contrived and designed by one Christian Prince against another every one countenancing and encouraging Rebellion untill it become his own Case and then he is offended of this I shall give no particular instances the Notariety of it is too great and I fear every State may too easily apply it to what they have done And it may be feared that the sad Condition of almost all the States of Christendom at this present day may feel something of Gods Iudgements who hath said With what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again And wicked Kings as they are sure they shall not escape the severe Iudgment of God in the next world if they do believe the Scripture So if they will believe Antient Histories of what hath passed in former times or their own experience of what they see daily with their eyes or that they do believe that God will repay unto them that which they have either countenanced or contrived against others they must expect to have troublesome and uncomfortable lives accompanied with Hatred Hazard and Infamy And if these considerations will not restrain them yet we must not be wicked because they are so Neither will God admit of Recrimination for our Excuse Our Duty of not resisting is positive upon pain of damnation from which no good Success or Prevailing can kee● us although it may save us from the Gallows Besides this great hazard of our Souls Moral Prudence should teach us That a Civil War is commonly a Cure much worse than the Disease For no Oppression nay no Tyranny bringeth with it half those Miseries and Calamities which of necessity do ever accompany an Intestine War Wicked Kings may be Cruel Covetous and Licentious But their Oppressions and their Lusts are restrained to some Wickednesses and to some Persons But in a War Rapes Murthers Robberies Sacrileges and all Impieties break in and all sorts of People are made miserable which the poor Kingdom of England hath found by sad experience where within these five years last past more hath been taken from the Subject than would have been exacted by Subsidies Projects or any unjust Taxes whatsoever by the worst of Kings in the space of one hundred And so all other wickednesses proportionably have been increased I shall conclude this Discourse with my humble and hearty Prayers to God Almighty to avert his heavy displeasure from that most unhappy Kingdom which I have seen the most prosperous and flourishing of all the Kingdoms of Europe And by our own Dissention is now become of all other the most miserable And so like to continue unless it shall please God so to dispose the minds both of King and People that they may really desire and endeavour a just moderate equitable Accommodation Whereby they and the Kingdom may be again put into the Way of recovering some measure of happiness It not being to be doubted but that the many Afflictions which have happened to the King will adde much of Wisdom and Circumspection unto his other Virtues And the publique Calamities that have befallen the Kingdom and the Distractions that the War hath visibly brought both in Church and Commonwealth wil make the people value and esteem Peace and not so Wantonly be again ingaged in new Miseries And although unto me in regard of mine Age and other Considerations there remaineth little Hope of ever seeing my Country again Yet where or howsoever it shall please God to dispose of me I shall dye with Comfort if I may judge it in a probable way of recovering some measure of its antient Happiness and Honor THE APPENDIX Containing Many PARTICULARS Specified in the First Part of this DISCOVRSE With the Citations of the Chapters and Pages where they are Cited CAEN 1647. A Speech made by the Right Honorable IOHN Earl of BRISTOL in the High Court of Parliament MAY 20 1642. Concerning an Accommodation MY LORDS I Have spoken so often upon the subject of Accommodation with so little acceptance and with so ill successe that it was in my Intention not to have made any further estay in this kind but my zeal to the peace and happiness of this Kingdom and my apprehensions of the near approaching of our unspeakable miseries and calamities suffer me not to be Master of mine own Resolutions Certainly this Kingdom hath at all times many advantages over the other Monarchies of Europe As of Situation of plenty of rich commodities of Power both by Sea and Land But more particularly at this time when all our neighbouring States are by their sevetal interests so involved in War and with such equality of Power That there is not much likelihood of their Mastering one another nor of having their differences easily compounded And thereby we being only admitted to all Trades and to all places Wealth and Plenty which follow where Trade flourisheth are in a manner cast upon us I shall not trouble your Lordships by putting you in mind of the great and noble undertakings of our Ancestors Nor shall I pass higher than the times within mine own remembrance Queen Elizabeth was a Princess disadvantaged by her sex by her age and chiefly by her want of Issue yet if we shall consider the great effects which were wrought upon most of the States of Christendom by this Nation under her prudent government the growth of the Monarchy of Spain chiefly by her impeached The United Provinces by her protected The French in their greatest miseries relieved Most of the Princes of Germany kept in high respect reverence towards her and this Kingdom and the peace and tranquillity wherein this Kingdom flourished and which hath been continued down unto us by the peaceable government of King Iames of blessed memory and of his now Majesty