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	obligation_n	1,168	5	9.4651	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52139	The rehearsal transpros'd, or, Animadversions upon a late book intituled, A preface, shewing what grounds there are of fears and jealousies of popery	Marvell, Andrew, 1621-1678.	1672 (1672)	Wing M878; ESTC R202141	119,101	185

that ●…he offering of some grains of Incense was only to per●…ume the room or that the delivering up of their Bibles was but for preserving the Book more carefully Do you think the Christians would have palliated so 〈◊〉 and colluded with their Consciences Men are 100 prone ●…o err on that hand In the last King's ●…ime some eminent Persons of our Clergy made an open defection to the Church of Rome One and he yet certainly a Protestant and that hath deserved well of that cause writ the Book of Seven Sacraments One in the Church at present though certainly no less a Protestant could not abstain from arguing the Holiness of Lent Doctor Thorndike lately dead left for his Epitaph Hic jacet c●…pus Herberti Thoradike Praebendarij hujus Eccle●… qui vivus veram Reformatae Ec●…lesia rationem modum precibus studiisque prosequebatur and nevertheless he adds Tu Lector requi●…m ei beatam in Christo resurrectionem precare Which thing I do thus sparingly set down only to shew the danger of inventive piety and if Men come once to add new devices to the Scripture how easily they slide on into Super●…tition Therefore although the Church do consider her self so much as not to alter her Mode 〈◊〉 the fancy of others yet I cannot see why she ought to exclude those from Communion whose weaker consciences cannot for fear of scandal step further For the Non-conformists as to these Declarations of our Church against the Reverence to the Creatures of Bread and Wine and concerning the other Ceremonies as before will be ready to think they have as 〈◊〉 against the clause That whosoever should atfirm the Wednesday Fast to be imposed with an intention to bind the Conscience should be punished like the spreaders of falso news which is saith a learned Prelate plainly to them that understand it to evacuate the whole Law For all human Power being derived from God and bound upon our Conscinces by his Power not by Ma●… he that faith it shall not bind the Conscience saith it shall be no Law it shall have no Authority from God and then it hath none at all and if it be not tyed upon the Conseience then to break it is no sin and then to keep it is no duty So that a Law without such an intention is a contradiction It is a Law only which binds if we please and we may obey when we have a mind to it and to so much we are tyed before the Constitution But then if by such a Declaration it was meant that to keep such Fasting-days was no part of a direct Commandment from God that is God had not required them by himself immediately and so it was abstracting from that Law no duty Evangelical it had been below the wisdom of the Contrivers of it no man petends it 〈◊〉 man saith it no man thinks it and they might as well have declared that that laiw was none of the ten Commandments p. 59 of his first Book So much pains does that learned Prelate of his take who ever he was to prove a whole Parliament of England Coxcombs Now I say that th●…se Ecclesia●…ical Laws with such Declarations concerning the Ceremonies by them 〈◊〉 might muta●…is mutandis be taxed upon the same Top●…k But I love not that task and ●…hall rather leave it to Mr. Bayes to paraphrase his learnd Prelate For he is very good at correcting the 〈◊〉 of Laws and Lawgivers and though this work indeed be not for 〈◊〉 turn at present yet it may be for the future And I have heard a good Engineer say That he never 〈◊〉 any place so but that he reserved a feeble point by which he knew how to take it if there were occasion I know a medicine for Mr. Bayes his Hiccough it is but naming J. O. but I cannot tell certainly though I have a shrew'd guess what is the cause of it For indeed all his Arguments here are so abrupt and short that I cannot liken them better considering too that ●…requent and perpetual repetition Such as this Why may not the Soveraign Power bestow this Priviledge upon Ceremony and Custom by virtue of its prerogative What greater Immorality is there in them when determined by the Command and Institution of the Prince than when by the consent and institution of the people This the Tap-lash of what he said p. 100. When the Civil Magistrate takes upon him to determine any particular Forms of outward Worship 't is of no worse Consequence than if he should go about to define the signification of all words used in the Worship of God And p. 108. of his first Book So that all the Magistrates power of instituting significant Cerem-onies c. can be no more ●…rpation upon the CONSCIENCES of Men than if the Soveraign Authority should take upon it self as some Princes have done to define the signification of words And afterwards The same gesture and actions are indifferently capable of signifying either honour or contumely and so words and therefore 't is necessary their signification should be determined c. 'T is all very well worth reading p. 441. of his Second Book 'T is no other usurpation upon their Subjects Consciences than if he should take upon him to refine their Language and determine the proper signification of all phrases imployed in Divine Worship as well as in Trades Ar●…s and Sciences p. 461. of the same Once we will so far gratifie the tenderness of their Consciences and curiosity of their Fancies as to promise never to ascribe any other significancy to things than what himself is here content to bestow upon words And 462. of the same So that you see my Comparison between the signification of Words and Ceremonies stands firm as the Pillars of the Earth and the Foundations of our Faith Mr. Bayes might I see have spared Sir Salomon's Sword of the Divine Institution of the Sacraments Here is the terriblest weapon in all his Armory and therefore I perceive reserved by our Duellist for the last onset And I who am a great well-wisher to the Pillars of the Earth or the eight Elephants lest we should have an Earth-quake and much more a Servant to the Kiag's Prerogative lest we should all fall into consusion and perfectly devoted to the Foundations of our Faith lest we should run out into Popery or Paganism have no heart to ●…his incounter lest if I should prove that the Magistrates absolute unlimited and uncontrolable Power doth not extend to define the signification of all words I should thereby not only be the occasion of all those mischiefs mentioned but which is of far more dismal Importance the loss of two or three so significant Ceremonies But though I therefore will not dispute against that Flower of the Princes Crown yet I hope that without doing much harm I may observe that for the most part they left it to the people and seldome themselves exercised it And even Augustus Casar though

make merry on the Sabbath day but with it After this I walked a great way through bushes and brambles before I could find another Flower but then I met with two upon one stalk on occasion of hi●… Answers having said someting of the day of Judgment when men should be accountable Ob saith he We shall be sure to be accounted with at the day of Judgment and again Ah sweet day when these people of God shall once for all to their unspeakable Comfort and support wreak their eternal Revenge upon their reprobate Enemies This puts me in mind of another expression of our Authors ●…luding too this way 'T is an easie matter by this dancing and capering humour to perpetuate all the Controversies in the world how plainly soever determinable to the coming of Elias and after this rate shall the Barbers bason remain Mambrino's helmet and the Asses Pannel a furniture for the Great Horse till the day of Judgment Now good Mr. Bayes I am one that desire to be very well resolved in these things and though not much indeed yet I attribute something to your judgment Pray tell us in good earnest what you think of these things that we may know how to take our measure of living accordingly For ●…f indeed there be no Judgment no account for what is done here below I have lost a gre●…t deal of precious time that I might have injoyed in one of the fruits of you●… spirit that is Chearfu●…ss How many good ●…ests have I balk'd even in writing this book lest I should be brought to answer for every profane and idle word How frequent opportunities have I mist in my life of ge●…iality and pleasure and fulfilling Nature in all its ends How have you frighted the Magistrate in vain from exercising hi●… uncontrolable Ecclesiastical Power with the fear of an after-reckoning to God Almighty And how have you p. 238. defeated the obligatory force of all his Laws and set his Subjects at liberty from all obligations to the duty of Obedience for they lye under no Obligation you say then but of Prudence and Self-interest But unless there hath been some errour in our education and we have been seasoned with ill Books at first so that we can never lose the impression there is some such matter and the Governour had reason when he trembled to hear Saint Paul discoursing of that Subject The Fanatical Book of Martyrs for we will not with some call the Bible so tell●… us some old Stories of persons that have been cired by some of them to appear at such a day and that by dying at the same prefixed they have saved their Reconnoissances And in the Scot●…h History we read of a great Cardinal that was so summoned by poor Mr. G●…ichard and yet could not help it but he must take that long and sad journey of Death to answer at the Grand Assizes If therefore there be such a thing I would not for fear and if there be not yet I would not fear good luck sake set that terrible day at defiance or make too me●…y with it 'T is possible that the Nonconformists many of them may be too censorious of others and too confident of their own Integrity Others of them are more temperate and perhaps destitute of all humane redress against their sufferings Some of those make rash Chanlenges and the other just Appeals to appear at that dreadful Tribunal In the mean time 't is not for you to be both the Enemy ●…nd their Judg. Much less do's it ●…fit you because perhaps they speak too sillily or demurely of it or too breaving and confidently therefore to make a meer mockery of the whole ●…usiness of that supre●…e Judge and Judicature And one thing I will say more though slighter that though I am not so far gone as Campanella was in the efficacy of words and the magi●…k of the face and pronur ciation Yet I marked how your Answerer look'd when he spoke of the day of Judgment Very gravely I assure you and yet without any depressing or eral●…ing his Supercil●…um's And I have most often observed that ferious words have produced serious Effects I have by this time me-thinks gather'd enough nor are there many more left unless I should go for a Flower to the Du●…ghil which he saith is his only Magazin And this being an expression which he has several times used for no Nonconformist repeats so often I cannot but remark that besides his natural Talent Mr. Bayes hath been very industrious and neg●…ected no opportunity of acquiring a perfection of railing For this is a phrase borrowed from a modern Author lately dead and I suppose Bayes had given him a Bond for repayment at the day that he spoke of so lately There are indeed several others at which I am forc'd to stop my nose For by the smell any man may discern they grew upon a ranker soil than that on the South-side of the Lake Lemane even upon the bank of the Thames in the Meadow of Billingsgate as that of the Lye which he saith no Gentleman much less a Div●…ve ought to put up Now if this were to be tryed by a Court-Martial of the Brothers of the Blade 'T is to be considered whether it were the down-right Lye or whether it were onely the Lye by Interpretation For in the disputes of the Schools there is nothing more usual than Hoc est ●…rum Hoc est salsum But this passes without any blemish of honour on either side and so far it is from any obligation to a Challenge or a Duel that it never comes to be decided so much as by the Study-door key But quod restat probandum do's the business without demanding other satisfaction Then if it were the down-right Lye it is to be examined who gave the Lve first for that alters the case And last of all but which is indeed upon a quarrel the least material point yet it too comes under some consideration which of the two was in the right and which of them spoke truth and which lyed These are all things to be discussed in their proper places For I do not observe that the Answerer gave Bayes the down-right Lye But I find that Bayes gave him the Lye first in terms And as to the Truth of the things controverted and alledged there needs no more than the depositions that I formerly transcribed concerning Bayes his own words But all this is only a Scene out of Bays his Rebearsal Villain thou liest Arm arm Valerio arm The Lie no flesh can bear I trow And then as to the Success of the Combate They fly they fly Who first did give the Lye For that of Caitife and other Provocations that are proper for the same Court I will not meddle further And for the being past Grace and so past Mercy I shall only observe that the Church of England is much obliged to Mr. Bays for having proved that Non-conformity is the Sin against the