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	good_a	work_n	1,044	5	5.6274	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59793	The case of resistance of the supreme powers stated and resolved according to the doctrine of the Holy Scriptures by Will. Sherlock ...	Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.	1684 (1684)	Wing S3267; ESTC R5621	89,717	232

needs perswasion For I take it for granted that there is no need to perswade any man especially the good and vertuous not to resist the powers when he meets with the just rewards and encouragements of Vertue The usual pretence for Seditions and Treasons is to redress publick grievances to deliver themselves from a state of oppression and slavery but all mankind agree that they ought to obey Governours who govern well and no man thinks it just or honourable to rebel who has not or cannot pretend some cause of complaint The tryal of our obedience is when we suffer injuriously for righteousness sake when our Rights and Liberties are invaded when we groan under such oppressions as are enough to make a wise man mad and to transport him to irregular and unjustifiable actions This was the case of the Primitive Christians to whom the Apostles wrote and therefore we might reasonably expect that he should urge such Arguments to Subjection as should reach their case but if these men be good Expositors the Apostle says nothing to perswade any man to obedience to the powers who finds the powers uneasie and troublesome to him and those who have nothing to complain of one would think should need no Arguments to perswade them to subjection to so easie and gentle a yoak 3. Nay according to this interpretation of the Doctrine of Subjection that we are bound only to be subject to those Princes who rule well who punish wickedness and reward vertue this Doctrine of Subjection gives no security at all to the best governments in the world The most Factious and Seditious spirits can desire no greater liberty than this principle grants them For no humane government can be so exact and perfect but it may be guilty of great miscarriages Good men may suffer and bad men may flourish under a vertuous Prince and therefore ill designing men can never want pretences to misrepresent the government and to foment Discontents and Jealousies between Prince and People This unhappy Nation has been a sad example of this twice in one Age under two as just and merciful Princes as ever sate upon the English Throne When there were never fewer real grievances to be complained of and never more loud and Tragical complaints and if Subjects are not bound to obey any longer than all things please and gratifie their humors it is a vain thing to name the Doct●●●● of Subjection which is of no use at all 〈◊〉 peace and security of humane 〈◊〉 4. This is absolutely false 〈◊〉 are bound to be subject to 〈◊〉 Princes no longer than th● 〈…〉 according to the measures 〈…〉 and righteousness The Apostle I am sure supposes the contrary when he tells the Christians But and if ye suffer for righteousness sake happy are ye and be not afraid of their terror neither be troubled 1 Pet. 3. 14. Thus he commands servants to be subject to their Masters with fear not only to the good and gentle but also to the froward For this is thank-worthy if a man for conscience towards God endure grief suffering patiently For what glory is it if when ye be buffeted for your faults ye take it patiently but if when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God 2 Chap. 18 19 20. And certainly there is as perfect a subjection due to a Soverain Prince as to a Master for he is more eminently the Minister of God and acts by a more Sacred and inviolable authority And that this does extend to our subjection to Princes appears from the example of Christ which the Apostle there recommends to our imitation who was the most innocent person in the world and yet suffered the most barbarous usage not from the hands of a private Master but of the supreme powers And therefore when he commands in the same Chapter to submit to Governours as to those who are for the punishment of evil doers and the praise of them that do well it is evident that he did not intend this as a limitation of our subjection as if we were not bound to be subject in other cases since in the very same Chapter he requires subjection not only to the good and gentle but also to the froward in imitation of the example of our Lord who suffered patiently under unjust and Tyrannical powers 5. I observe therefore that the Apostle does not alleadge this as the reason of our subjection but as a motive or argument to reconcile us to the practice of it The reason of our subjection to Princes is that they are advanced by God that they are his Ministers that those who resist resist the Ordinance of God and therefore we must submit for Gods sake out of reverence to his authority But it is an encouragement to subjection to consider the great advantages of government that Rulers are not a terrour to good works but to the evil But though this motive should fail in some instances yet while the reason of subjection lasts and that can never fail while we own the Soverain Authority of God so long it is our dutie to be subject whether our Prince do his dutie or not 6. But to examine more particularly the meaning of these words When the Apostle says that Rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil that they are for the punishment of evil doers and the praise of them that do well I see no necessitie of expounding this of good and evil works in general that all good and virtuous actions shall be rewarded by them and all evil actions punish't for this is almost impossible in any humane government and there never was any government in the world that appointed rewards for all virtuous actions and punishments for all wicked ones But these good and evil works seem to be confined to the matter in hand to subjection and obedience as a good and virtuous action And so the Apostle enforces this dutie of subjection not onely from the Authoritie of God but from the power of Princes Be subject to the higher powers for Rulers are not a terrour to good works but to the evil We need not fear the powers when we obey them and submit ourselves to them but they will punish us if we rebel The force of which argument is this The best way to obtain safetie and protection under any Government is by being peaceable quiet and obedient such men generally escape under the greatest Tyrants for Tyrants themselves do not use to insult over the peaceable and obedient but if men be seditious and troublesome to government then he beareth not the sword in vain but is the Minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil that is upon all disobedience and rebellion for whatever wickedness escapes unpunish't Princes for their own securitie must not suffer disobedience and rebellion to escape And that this is the meaning of it appears from the next verse where the

flaves and vassals but Subjects who owe all duty and service to their Prince as far as he needs them But what is it then that Samuel finds fault with in Kingly power which he uses as an argument to dissuade the Children of Israel from desiring a King why it is no more than the necessary expences and services of Kingly power which would be thought very grievous to them who were a free people and at that time subject to no publick services and exactions The government they then lived under was no charge at all to them They were governed as I observed before either by their High Priest or by Iudges extraordinarily raised by God As for their High Priests God himself had allotted their maintenance sutable to the quality and dignity of their Office and therefore they were no more charge to the people when they were their Supreme Governors than they were when the power was in other hands either in the hands of Iudges or Kings As for their Iudges whom God raised up they affected nothing of Royal greatness they had no Servants or Retinue standing Guards or Armies to maintain their Authority which was secured by that Divine power with which they acted not by the external pomp and splendour of a Court. Thus we find Moses appealing to God in the Rebellion of Korah I have not taken one Ass from them neither have I hurt any of them 16 Numbers 15. And thus Samuel appeals to the Children of Israel themselves Behold here I am witness against me before the Lord and before his Anointed whose Oxe have I taken or whose Ass have I taken or whom have I defrauded whom have I oppressed or of whose hands have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith and I will restore it 1 Sam. 12. 3. Now a people who lived so free from all Tributes exactions and other services due to Princes must needs be thought sick of ease and liberty to exchange so cheap so free a State for the necessary burdens and expences of Royal power though it were no more than what is necessary which is the whole of Samuels argument not that Kingly government is more expensive and burdensome than any other form of humane government but that it was to bring a new burden upon themselves when they had none before No humane Governments whether Democracies or Aristocracies can subsist but upon the publick charge and the necessary expences of Kingly power are not greater than of a Commonwealth I am sure this Kingdom did not find their burdens eased by pulling down their King and I believe whoever acquaints himself with the several forms of government will find Kingly Power to be as easie upon this score as Commonwealths So that what Samuel discourses here and which some men think so great a reflection upon Kingly government does not at all concern us but was peculiar to the state and condition of the Iews at that time Let us then proceed to consider how sacred and irresistible the Persons and Authority of Kings were under the Iewish Government and there cannot be a plainer example of this than in the case of David He was himself anointed to be King after Saul's death but in the mean time was grievously persecuted by Saul pursued from one place to another with a designe to take away his life How now does David behave himself in this extremity What course does he take to secure himself from Saul Why he takes the onely course that is left a Subject he flies for it and hides himself from Saul in the Mountains and Caves of the Wilderness and when he found he was discovered in one place he removes to another He kept Spies upon Saul to observe his motions not that he might meet him to give him Battel or to take him at an advantage but that he might keep out of his way and not fall unawares into his hands Well but this was no thanks to David because he could do no otherwise He was too weak for Saul and not able to stand against him and therefore had no other remedy but flight But yet we must consider that David was a man of War he slew Goliah and fought the Battels of Israel with great success he was an admired and beloved Captain which made Saul so jealous of him the eyes of Israel were upon him for their next King and how easily might he have raised a potent and formidable Rebellion against Saul But he was so far from this that he invites no man to his assistance and when some came uninvited he made no use of them in an offensive or defensive War against Saul Nay when God delivered Saul two several times into David's hands that he could as easily have killed him as have cut off the skirts of his garment at Engedi 1 Sam. 24. or as have taken that spear away which stuck in the ground at his bolster as he did in the hill of Hachilah 1 Sam. 26. yet he would neither touch Saul himself nor suffer any of the people that were with him to do it though they were very importunate with him for liberty to kill Saul nay though they urged him with an argument from Providence that it was a plain evidence that it was the Will of God that he should kill Saul because God had now delivered his enemy into his hands according to the promise he had made to David 1 Sam. 24. 4. 26 ch ver 8. We know what use some men have made of this argument of Providence to justifie all the Villanies they had a mind to act but David it seems did not think that an opportunity of doing evil gave him license and authority to do it Opportunity we say makes a Thief and it makes a Rebel and it makes a Murderer no man can do any Wickedness which he has no opportunity of doing and if the Providence of God which puts such opportunities into mens hands justifies the wickedness they commit no man can be chargeable with any guilt whatever he does and certainly opportunity will as soon justifie any other sin as Rebellion and the Murder of Princes We are to learn our duty from the Law of God not from his Providence at least this must be a setled Principle that the Providence of God will never justifie any action which his Law forbids And therefore notwithstanding this opportunity which God had put into his hands to destroy his enemy and to take the Crown for his reward David considers his duty remembers that though Saul were his enemy and that very unjustly yet he was the Lords Anointed The Lord forbid says he that I should do this unto my Master the Lords Anointed to stretch forth my hand against him seeing he is the Lords Anointed Nay he was so far from taking away his life that his heart smore him for cutting off the skirt of his Garment And we ought to observe the reason David gives why he durst not hurt Saul Because he