Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	better_a	divine_a	great_a	88	3	2.0866	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50337	A letter out of the country to a member of this present Parliament occasioned by a late letter to a member of the House of Commons, concerning the bishops lately in the Tower and now under suspension.	Maurice, Henry, 1648-1691.	1689 (1689)	Wing M1365; ESTC R34531	14,805	20

intended by it So that in our Constitution it would be very hard to shut out the King from his Share in it and say he was not at all concern'd in that Maxim But yet in admitting a Head I would not exclude the Body And although 't is possible Kingdoms may have suffer'd by the Peoples Encroachments upon the Royal Prerogative yet to say That a Government can suffer in no other Instance would be full as absurd as to say That a Man can be Mortally wounded no where but in his Head But we are sure there are parts in our Body as fatal to be touch'd as the Brain it self and therefore ought to be guarded with equal care And in all well-order'd Commonwealths the Rights of the Subjects ought to be as Sacred as those of the Soveraign Or else we should invert the very End and Design of Government in its first Institution which certainly was not erected only for the agrandising one single Person or Family but was intended for the Safety of the whole Therefore in those Cases we are not tied up to the Rigour and Words of a Law For if the Moral Equity and the Design of the Commandment is better observ'd by breaking the Letter of it 't is surely very lawful nay our Duty to do it And this holding in Divine must by a stronger Reason do so in Humane Laws for the Positive Precepts of the Decalogue it self have been and are frequently dispensed with and that by God's permission As for instance The great Commandment of the Sabbath although so essential a part of the Jewish Law and Service that one calls it The very Sacrament of the Worship of the True God the Creator of Heaven and Earth in opposition to Idolatry Whether it deserves that Title or no I know not yet I think I may very properly stile it The Distinguishing Character of the Jewish Church and that it is a Precept which is the oftest repeated more Promises made to the Observers of it and more Judgments threaten'd to the Breakers of it than to all the other Commands of the Law So that I should make this swell to a Volume should I transcribe all the Texts wherein the Observation of the Sabbath is enjoyn'd And yet for all that God seems to lay so particular a stress on that Commandment you see our Saviour blames the Jews for adhering so strictly to the Letter of it for the saving of the Life of an Ox or Ass was to be preferr'd before their Obedience to it But waving all those Instances which our Saviour gives us in the Gospel wherein the Jews themselves did break the Sabbath and were blameless I shall insist only on one Story in the Maccabees which is pretty much to this purpose 1 Mac. 2. beginning at the 31. Verse where we have the Relation of the Fate of those poor mistaken Jews who for fear of prophaning the Sabbath would not so much as stop the Passages against their Enemies but let them come in and kill them tamely without striking a stroke But Mattathias and his Sons though as great Zealots for the Law as any we read of yet seemed to understand that Point better and in ver 41. 't is said At that time therefore they decreed saying Whosoever shall come to make battle with us on the Sabbath day we will fight against him neither will we die all as our brethren that were murdered in the secret places which was surely a lawful as well as prudent Resolution And truly just such wise Martyrs should we have been to the Fifth Commandment as they were to the Fourth had we pursued the Notion of Passive Obedience so far as some would have had us by which we should have betray'd both our Religion and our Friends and at once have render'd our selves the Prey and Scorn of our Enemies For we are not to think that God Almighty will work Miracles for the maintaining of our fanciful Opinions and Comments on his Law For if we will lay Necessities on our selves and chuse Destruction when he allows means of Escape it is but reasonable we should perish For that generally speaking is his method as to this World as well as to the next We must do our part to save our selves or he will never help us There must be the Sword of Gideon as well as the Sword of the Lord if we design to get the Victory for we see that God suffer'd the Passive Jews to perish but blest the Active Maccabees with most miraculous Victories while in the defence of the Law they broke the Commandment And a great many more Arguments might be drawn from the same Topick but that I fear to swell this to too large a bulk Therefore to conclude this Point I shall only recite what our Saviour saith of the Fourth Commandment Mark 2.27 The Sabbath was made for Man not Man for the Sabbath Which may as properly be apply'd to the Fifth for we may as truly say Kings were made for the People not the People for Kings But I doubt you will think that I forget my Letter all this while but I was so taken up with his Wish That the Bishops would take the Oath that I could not but say all I could to induce them to it But alas so many have fail'd in that Attempt that I dare hardly hope my weak Arguments should be more powerful But now to my apprehension this is downright Demonstration that either it is lawful to obey K. W. or 't is not if 't is lawful why then may not any Man swear they will do so For certainly any body may lawfully swear to do a lawful thing especially when the Law requires them to do it But indeed if they do not think it lawful to obey King William then they have no reason to take the Oath nor truly has the Author very much to expect that the King or Parliament should grant Dispensations to them that avow'dly disown their Authority and disobey their Laws But perhaps it will be urged that this is not the Law but I 'm sure our Saviour tells us Luke 11.23 He that is not with me is against me And 't is so hard a thing to be perfectly Neuter that all sides suspect them that pretend to be so Therefore it would give great satisfaction if these Worthy Persons would declare themselves And besides it is so reasonable a thing to give Security to that Government from which they receive Protection that no Sect refuses doing it after some way or other And if the Bishops do really stumble at the Oath yet 't is possible for them to contrive some other way of binding themselves as firm and giving as good security to the Government as if they had taken that But 't is their part to propose it for they are not to expect that the Parliament should be projecting ways to evade their own Laws or offer Relief to those Grievances that were never complain'd of to them The Bishops know the