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	law_n	rule_n	1,234	5	7.2505	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27175	The terms of peace and reconciliation betwixt all divided parties a sermon preach'd at the assizes held for the county of Buckingham, at the town of Wicomb, July the I, 1684 / by Luke Beaulieu ...	Beaulieu, Luke, 1644 or 5-1723.	1684 (1684)	Wing B1579; ESTC R23006	19,365	38

any Rebellion or Undutifulness against their Governors by their grievous Sufferings but still for Conscience sake to bear what Laws and Providence had impos'd upon them and still to be faithful and peaceable Subjects There are no other Terms of peace with Magistrates but either to obey the Laws or to undergo the penalty of their Transgression So that where their duty to God kept them from Active Obedience there the Apostle would have them so to dissent from their Rulers as not to trouble the Order and the Tranquillity of the place where they Liv'd That is as he tells them plainly in the following Chapter Rom. 13. absolutely to be Subject and never to Resist under the pain of Damnation That they might be acquitted from any Stubbornness or Pride or Rebellious Principles by their free Obedience in all that was lawful and their humble patience under all sinful Injunctions By this 't was to be manifest that they were disposed to render every Man his due to give Cesar the things that were Cesar's to be Friends to all Men and to live peaceably with them as long as it engaged them in no Rebellion against God Answerable to this was ever the Behaviour of Primitive Christians under those tedious and cruel Persecutions they endur'd for Three Hundred Years And had the Temper and Principles of such as pretend to be the best of Christians in these latter Times been the same we should have had more peace And those Excellent Laws under which we Live and which oblige us to Fear and Worship God and to Honour the King and to be Just and Charitable to all Men these would have been better obey'd I wonder for my part how they can so delude the People as to get the names of Godly and good Patriots who under such an equitable and gracious Government as is here Establish'd yet are Discontented and Restless and Clamorous and always dissatisfied with publick Constitutions And very busie sometimes very fierce against those Laws which keep us in peace and make us very happy if we knew our own Happiness When besides our present Interest our whole Religion the very Spirit of Christianity is so directly contrary to all Murmuring and Faction and Unpeaceableness 't is very strange they should take such good Names that do things so ill and so very mischievous But no more can be done from this place than to shew People their Duty That the Laws are the Measure of our publick Peace and the Foundation of it That they are most peaceable who make those Laws in things lawful the Rules of their Actions and who by their Power and their Interest in the World maintain their just Authority And that if a good Man should live under such wicked Laws as should be contrary to his Christian Duty there he must be patient and suffer for his Allegiance to God expecting a reward from him that hath bound him to be Subject still preserving the Reverence and Submission due to his Governors and shewing himself desirous of peace and ready to embrace it upon any terms that are not an offence against God In these a Man must shew his peaceable Disposition if he be really a professor of the Gospel of Peace As also in receding from his Right in lesser matters in making allowance for Humane Infirmities in being Gentle and Charitable as well as Just to every Man These are apt to win Men and to prevent or compose Contentions Or however publick Peace which may be called Peace with all Men is secured by yielding to Authority and being subject to those Laws which are the common Bonds and standing Conditions of peace As certainly Christians as that we must one day give an account for what we do here upon Earth it will be one of the great Enquiries when we shall all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ and there receive according to our Works whether or no we preserved that Order and Subordination which God appointed amongst Men whether we mov'd in our own Spheres and minded the proper Duties of our several places And sad will be their Doom that were here Contentious and caus'd Murmurings and Confusions in the World There all such workers of Iniquity who by their power or Hypocrisie escaped here the hands of Justice shall meet with a severe Vengeance and have their portion for ever with those proud and rebellious Spirits who would not be content with that station wherein God had plac'd them None but Meek and Just Loyal and Peaceable Men shall be numbred among the Saints of God and enjoy for ever that Rest he hath prepared for his People We are all going to the Grave where we must be quiet After all the Bustle and Hurry and Clamurs and Contentions of this World we must dwell in Silence and one by one go to receive that Irreversible Sentence upon which depends an eternity of Bliss or Misery Let us then becalm our Passions and compose our Spirits and by Lowliness and Humility and Obedience to God and Subjection to those that Reign by him secure a lasting peace to our Immortal Souls Fear and Terrors seize upon evil Minds There is is no peace to the Wicked They that disturb the World and are mischievous to Mankind are themselves like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest they live in a perpetual Storm Where Envying and Strife is there is Confusion and every evil Work But blessed be the Peace-makers for they are the Children of God Peace and Felicity shall be their portion for ever There is no need I should Tire you further with laying before you the many Obligations which Nature and Reason and Religion have laid upon us thus to endeavour after Peace And how much our prosperity in this World and our happiness in the next are concern'd in this our Duty We cannot look into our Consciences nor into our Bibles but we find declarations of this We all know it to be true I pray God we may find it seriously and practise accordingly That he that came to teach us to deny our selves to mortifie our Pride and our stubborn Humours and so make a Reconciliation betwixt God and us and Unite us together that he may now so guide our Feet into the ways of Peace that we may here enjoy that blessed Legacy he left his Servants as an earnest of that Eternal peace which makes the Bliss of Saints above and the earnest desire and endeavour of good Men here below Amen Peace upon Earth Glory to God on High FINIS

Nature may be unactive and seem very quiet yet if he holds or abets Dividing Principles if he lessens the Reverence of the Authority of Laws he doth weaken the bonds of our Common Union and he really disturbs the Publick Peace If we should see Officers of Justice pursue a Criminal break up Doors and ransack Houses whilst the guilty Wretch lurks silent and without motion if when he is taken and they hale him before a Magistrate we should hear him declare how he desires to be quiet if they would but let him alone charge them with being Rude and Violent and with disturbing Persons that meddle not with them This might be thought specious enough and the Malefactor outwardly would appear more liker a Man of peace than those that seize and arrest him Yet all this while 't is most certain that they are the Preservers of the common Tranquillity and he the Disturber of it notwithstanding his soft Language So that I say 'T is not the outward shew nor the Complaints of such as break the Laws but the Dispositions and the Principles of the Mind that make good Men to be truly peaceable If a Christian hath enough of Humility and of Gods fear upon his Heart to make him deny his own conceits and his own desires to submit to Authority and square himself not by his own Humour but by that Rule which is prescribed to all then he hath in him the true principles of Peace And by his Obedience he joyns with his fellow Subjects in the same Laws and Orders when perhaps by his own Will and private Judgment he might be at unity and peace with no Man And this gives us the Character as of a peaceable so of a moderate Man truly so called That it is not he that halts betwixt two and pretends friendship to the Law and to the Transgressors of it and would not oppose nor disoblige any man in vindication of his Superiors nor endanger himself to assert the Justice of their Cause when it is like to be opprest He that goeth half way with the Government to shew he is not so stubborn as some and then stops and goeth no further to shew he is not so rigid and high-flown as others He that complies so far with his Rule as to hold as fair correspondence with the Conforming Side and so far complies with those that Dissent as to have their Friendship also such a one is by some esteem'd a quiet and moderate Man who would be in neither Extreme But I say it appears clearly that Moderation consists rather in Submitting our selves to those whom God hath placed over us For the Lords sake and for Conscience sake as the Scripture commands to obey every Ordinance of Man And in all things that are not against God to yield meekly to their Determinations There is naturally so much of Pride in every Man that he would be glad to be uppermost And who would not rather have his own Will if he might without Sin than be over-rul'd by a Superior Command I know not how 't is with others but for my part I should count it a fine thing to depend upon no Body to do what I list my self And amongst all the Rules and Prescriptions of Government to pick and chuse what I like best But certainly there is more of Self-denyal and Moderation to act contrary perhaps to my own Wisdom and Desires in yielding Reverence and Obedience to Laws and Magistrates and restraining my own Inclinations to chuse the Injunctions of my Governors for the rule of my Actions But that it should be call'd Moderation for a Subject to Obey but by halves and to do his Duty very untowardly to make it a matter of Commendation that a man hath no great regard to the Laws nor no great affection to his Prince To say that a Child is moderate in his concerns for his Parents and in doing what they bid him this is an odd way of speaking That a man transported with passion when any ways injur'd fierce and troublesome before Humane Tribunals for a few Pence of his That such a one should be call'd Moderate because he cares not whether the Government sinks or swims and he will not engage himself to vindicate and defend it I say this is an odd way of speaking and begets in the Minds of men a strange notion of a Christian Vertue It is in their private concerns in bearing and forbearing out of Charity to others in shewing a contented Spirit in receding from their Rights and their Opinions to buy peace It is in these that good men may approve their Moderation Submit your selves one to another and be clothed with Humility This submitting our selves to our Equals where no Law requires it is indeed one part of Moderation But then no doubt the other is Submission to our Superiors The making our own Interest and our own Passions stoop to the Laws of those Higher Powers under which we live the appearing in defence of their Rights and their Persons and espousing their Quarrels with more Zeal than our own This shews that a Man is concern'd for his Duty more than for his own Will And this gives a much better account of the vertue of Moderation than the being but coldly affected towards our Governors and the being partial and defective in our Obedience to their Laws He certainly is the great Peace-maker who by his Example and Persuasion and Power and Interest in the World brings others as much as he can to the known and standing terms of Publick peace That is to comply with the Laws A good Man that hath Prudence and Temper may compose some little Differences in the Neighbourhood and 't is very well so to do But he prevents greater Mischiefs and is a more publick Benefactor that endeavours to Unite a Nation by bringing them to make the Laws the Rule of their Actions In order to make things even and fit to be joyned 't is not to bend the Rule according to the Obliquity of each one that would leave-them as they are as crooked and as unfit for Union But 't is the bending the things themselves and bringing them to the streightness of the Rule So the Laws which are the publick measure of Actions must not be made to yield to every one whose Will or Opinion makes him dissent from them that would make no Agreement nor no Settlement that would leave all things loose and uncertain as contrary to each other as mens Tempers or Notions are Whereas making Men yield themselves and fit their Actions to the prescript Rule and so far deny their own Will as to order their outward deportment by the publick Standard That makes Uniformity and Order in things material and of publick Interest and in others Men must govern themselves by Discretion and Charity A due regard indeed is to be had to our Brothers to be tender and Compassionate towards them to give them and to forgive them of our own