Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	ceremonial_a	law_n	moral_a	2,252	5	9.4056	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67700	A discourse of government as examined by reason, Scripture, and law of the land, or, True weights and measures between soveraignty and liberty written in the year 1678 by Sir Philip Warwick.	Warwick, Philip, Sir, 1609-1683.	1694 (1694)	Wing W991; ESTC R27062	96,486	228

is that religion neglected or despised weakens all other parts of government Religio neglecta aut spreta trahit secum rempublicam for where there is but an indifferency to it or a want of devotion and inward esteem of it the soul of moral virtue is lost for men will be rather temporate for health than for the peace of society or to have a fitness by piety to have an intercourse with their God and justice will be observed rather as an outward compliance with laws than an inward esteem of such a beneficial tye in relation to society For it is the love of justice which flows from religion not the fear of its punishments that inspirits government for this values the Legislators authority and wisdom the other dreads only the Lictor's rods Secondly Government is never freely and chearfully obeyed but when it is supposed God's ordinance and that it is accounted a part of religion so to esteem it else obedience will be more precarious than the nature of it will admit The commission of goverment therefore issues out of God's Chancery and directs the Prince to direct his government to the benefit of the subject and yet when he fails therein leaves no appeal to the subject but unto his providence who prescribes to both for Nero's vices were not half so pernicious to the empire no nor to particular men as were the revolts even from that monster and from his Successors Galba Otho and Vitellius who were but pestilential breaths of the same ill vapor When conspiracy had cast out Kings the Consul's rule seemed so majestick and arbitrary that the Commonalty must needs be tempering it by Tribunitial power so as Livy observes that the cord of government was so strongly haled at each end or extremity that there was no strength left in the midst and that strife was more for the management and rule than for the safety and preservation of the State and all these revolutions because government was not supposed God's ordinance but the peoples choice Thus we see it is religion that only makes Soveraignty and liberty sociable or sets such bounds to majesty in the Prince as may advance concord among the Citizens Cast off this temper and every mistaken judgment will produce such angry humors as will neither endure the ordinary evils or sores of government nor the common remedies or salves for its cure Thirdly the highest throne though never so wise powerful or sincere depends upon Providence which can either by natural or moral causes disappoint all its best laid designs An earthquake a storm or a treachery frustrates all man can do whilst nothing can withstand heavenly benedictions and the very opinion men have that the Gods are propitious to them gives diligence and courage in all attempts These are the reasons and many more why government must be supported by religion Next we will offer a few why the religion of every Nation should be but one Religion should be but one First Religion is the highest as well as the strongest obligation upon the mind of man so as if that admit any principles of liberty or exemption from Civil authority disobedience shelters it self and replies it is fit to serve God before man and so grows incorrigible because reasonably it may justifie it self though that be an error as will be soon proved Secondly Men of a superstitious temper either infect one another or are misled by some subtil knaves who make good gain of men who are of a superstitious devotion and who make conscience of every little thing and are apt to believe vain and foolish prophesies or interpret revelations And thus says Livy in his fourth book they became a publick offence insomuch as the Aediles had in charge that no other Gods should be worshiped but those of the Romans nor after any other manner than had been usual in their native Country Indeed if it were rightly considered the religion of all Nations should be but one because all should serve but one God and he by the tradition unto the Patriarchs before the Law and by his divine prescripts under the Law and by the revelation of his will by the Messiah and his Apostles after the Mosaic-Law made his will known in all necessary natural moral and divine truths tending unto salvation whereof Kings and Priests were the guardians but not the parents for they were to deliver in matters immediately relating to salvation nothing but what they had received though in matters relating to decency and order in his service or in matters of civil concern they were authorized to give the law suitable to their own best judgments and all subordinate to them were thus to seek an unity in the faith and a common utility in the State in the band of peace Thus God is a God of order and not of confusion and if he made religion a support to government private men by framing new axioms of their own to exempt themselves from odedience or to weaken the sinews of government must not distract it For if a Soveraign may command one thing which God hath not forbidden and a high Priest another which God hath not revealed or a private person contradict both in those things which are both true and suitable to their distinct authorities then the reins or girdle of all authority divine ecclesiastical or civil is dissolved Among the Gentile world instituted religion was no disturber of government because it consisted principally in outward rites ceremonies and observances But in the Christian religion God being a jealous God of his honor and truth it hath great influence on government because the main end of it Instituted Religion was to restore natural as it was to make reconciliation and clear the intercourse betwixt the divine and the intellectual nature so it was to restore natural religion and to cleanse that polluted stream Therefore that Church which upon false glosses on instituted religion introduces corruptions in natural and weakens civil Soveraignty that it may usurp Ecclesiastical or dispences with moral duties that men may be the more observant of their ceremonial laws makes the buttress which was to support the wall thrust it down And those Princes whom God bridled by his moral law in the exercise of their Soveraignty weaken but their own Governments when they decline those laws natural religion and common justice recommended unto them as to be the basis of all their civil municipal and human laws Nor doth any spirit more weaken government by pretence of religion than those Enthusiastical persons who upon pretence of particular impulses respect neither human nor divine laws The ill influences on Government by several phanatick principles for these can fall in love with their own selves and their tribe and broach doctrines that we may say turn the world topsie turvy for one says 1. Dominion is founded in grace and thereby is all Soveraignty overthrown though the same men at the same time read that Cyrus