Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	bind_v	law_n	moral_a	1,736	5	9.5201	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36721	An historical dissertation upon the Thebean Legion plainly proving it to be fabulous / by John Dubourdieu ...; Dissertation historique et critique sur le martyre de la légion thébéenne. English	Dubourdieu, Jean, 1652-1720.	1696 (1696)	Wing D2409; ESTC R17246	111,591	210

of Six Thousand Foot and Three Hundred Horse the others Ex veteri Instituto according to the Ancient custom being formed only of Five Thousand Foot and two Hundred Horse This great Author in all probability was better informed in the Roman Customs than the Author of the Passion of the Thebean Souldiers For the Legions having been raised to Five Thousand Men in the Roman Wars against Carthage Polybius observes that to his time they still retained the same number of Five Thousand Foot and Three Hundred Horse It cannot be deny'd but the number of the Legionary Souldiers increased under the Emperours since at the time of the Emperour Tacitus the Legions were of Six Thousand One Hundred and Twenty Foot and of Seven Hundred and Sixteen Horse which is a Remark of Modestus in the Treatise he addresses to him of the Terms used in the Military Art Vegetius who Dedicated his Book to the Emperour Valentinian tells us likewise that in his time the Legions were of the same number So that it would be an obligation to the Publick to prove by good Authors that at the time of Dioclesian and Maximian in which it is supposed that the Thebean Legion suffered Martyrdom the Legions were of 6666 or 6600 Men as 't is said in the Copies both of Surius and Chifflet CHAP. X. That in the Editions both of Surius and Chifflet a Miracle is related which hath all the appearance of a feigned Story IN the Acts of the Agaunian Martyrs there is a Miracle set down that deserves our consideration This Miracle hapned on the occasion of a man who in Surius's Original was a Gold-smith by Trade and in that of Chifflet a Black-smith or a Carpenter 'T is said in these Acts that all the Christians of Agaunum being Assembled at Church upon a Sunday this Man who was a Pagan stayed alone in the new Church which was then a Building to the Honour of the Thebean Souldiers Whereupon the Saints appearing to him in a bright and glorious Apparel dragg'd him from the place where he was stretched him as it were upon a rack and having banged him soundly reproached him with his absenting himself from the Church on the Lords-day and that he being a Pagan had been so bold as to work upon a Church which was Erecting to them It is incredible that a grave Author as St. Eucherius was should have made the Blessed Martyrs to speak such Nonsense For it is an easie thing to infer from their discourse that the Pagans themselves were obliged even as Pagans to observe the keeping of the Lords-day and this is a Tenet which one can't by any means admit For if the Fourth Commandment had obliged the Heathens as well as the Jews as the other Commandments of the Decalogue did 't would be a certain proof that the Duty enjoyned by the fourth Precept concerning the Sabbath-day is a Duty Essentially Moral of a Natural and inviolable Rectitude and it would be a very intricate difficulty to justifie the Apostolick Church about the translation of the Sabbath to the Day of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ When we dispute against the Sabbatarians one of the strong Reasons we bring against them is that the distinctive Character of the Laws Essentially Moral is their extension and universality that is that they bind all sorts of Persons at all times in all places and under both Covenants So that we conclude that the observance of the Seventh Day is not a Moral Duty since the fourth Commandment did not oblige the Gentiles and I do not know if the same thing may not be said of our Sunday which hath suceeded to the Rights of the Sabbath 'T is true that after Nature hath taught Men the existence of a God it may teach them further the reasonableness of Consecrating a setled time to his Service But it can lead them no further and will leave the choice of that time to their Liberty Let it be the Fourth the Sixth or the Seventh Day 't is all one in the main And to render the Pagans guilty in not keeping the Sabbath either according to the Jewish or Christian Institution the Sabbath ought to be one of those Duties that are as well known to us as the first Principles inbred in our very Nature at our coming into the World and ingraved by the Hand of God in the Hearts of all Men. The Agaunian Saints were much in the wrong to use a Pagan so scurvily under pretence of his not observing the Sunday They ought first to have instructed him to have set before him the excellency and Holiness of the Christian Religion and shewed him how just and reasonable it is to Consecrate the Sunday to the glory of Jesus Christ the Mediator and High-Priest of this new Law And after this had he been stubborn and Rebellious to their Charitable instructions and admonitions then in Gods Name let him fall under the Censure But to knock him down out of hand this is a way of Conversion only known and practised in our Days in France and which cannot be attributed to Saints without a great offence to their Charity It was an ordinary thing indeed at that time to see the Pagans drag the Christians by force to their profane Sacrifices but not one Example of those times can be produced of any Christians in places where they had the power to do to it tormenting the Pagans and compelling them to come and joyn with them in their Worship Nay it seems that in those former times they made some scruple of admitting Infidels into the places where their Holy Mysteries were Celebrated For otherwise to what purpose should the fourth Council of Carthage have Ordered the Bishops to suffer the Pagans the Jews and other Hereticks to enter their Churches and hear the Word of God 'T is true that it is added in that Canon that they shall not be suffered to stay but to the Mass for the Catechumens so that after the Sermon and Prayer for the Catechumens the Infidels were obliged to withdraw before the Celebration of the Holy Sacraments Another circumstance against the credibility of it is that the Agaunian Saints do reproach this Pagan for his boldness in working upon the Church which was a Building for them Is it possible than an Author so wise and knowing as Sr. Eucherius was should have put in the Mouth of his Saints such unbecoming reproaches Saints are not certainly so nice as this comes to I am sure God himself is not For when Solomon was Building him a Temple it does not appear that he found fault with him for sending for Wood and Stones from Heathenish Countries And according to St. Austin he would not have taken it ill though all the Timber of his Temple had been cut down in the Groves Consecrated to Idols ex lucis alienorum Deorum When we reflect on the the prodigious number of Workmen who were employed in the Building of the