Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	child_n	estate_n	parent_n	1,677	5	9.2181	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50752	Reason an essay / by Sir George Mackenzie.	Mackenzie, George, Sir, 1636-1691.	1690 (1690)	Wing M193; ESTC R20171	47,708	168

to the Scaffold admire himself and talk of his Power and Glory would we not conclude him distracted And yet this is the true State of a Vain and Glorious Monarch who has nothing but what he has receiv'd from an Infinite God who can recal it when he pleases and who whil'st he talks of his Glory and Greatness is by that God condemn'd to die as irredeemably as must the meanest Slave over whom he insults And since we would laugh at a vain Coxcomb who whilst he were entertaining his friends in his Master's house as if it were his own were taken out of it by the ears and forc'd to tremble under the lash how ridiculous must we conclude Belshazzar and which is the case of too many other great Men who whilst he was feasting all his Nobles and perswading them of His independance was seized by an irresistable horrour which shak'd him all to pieces I doubt not for all this but Learned men will think they may justly value themselves on their own great Parts and Skill and you may read long Lectures made by them on this Subject but how unreasonable are they in this since these Endowments are given them as external things are given to others and a School-Boy may more justly admire himself because he can repeat excellent lines made by another or a man because the borrowed Furniture that he would make us believe to be his own were within and not without doors or were finer than that borrowed stuff which another had whom he despis'd If two poor men should borrow the one ten and the other a thousand pounds the difference of the borrowed Summs should not cease to leave both of them equally poor But he is really a wise and reasonable man who knowing that what he has is borrow'd endeavours not to boast of it as his own but to repay as much as he can the Interest to the true Owner for the Loan Let us then conclude this Period with the Apostle's just reasoning 1 Cor. 4. 7. For who maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou didst not receive Now if thou didst receive it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it Being once in company with a great Wit who seeing two poor Chair-men sweat in carrying a gross corpulent vain Fellow he cry'd out that he had rather be hang'd than serve so meanly such a Rogue Whereupon I told him he was doing a meaner thing in bearing up the Extravagancies of a violent and tyrannous Statesman to please whose extravagant humour I had seen him sweat more than these poor men did who had also in this the advantage of him that they did so to get bread for their Family whereas he did the other to feed that Ambition and Avarice which tended to destroy himself Man's unreasonableness appears also in the unsuitableness of the Means he uses to the Ends he proposes to himself Who would not think him a Fool who would endeavour to cure a mad Dog by putting a golden Collar about his Neck Or who would think to cure a Fever in a man by bestowing a great Office on him But are not men such Fools when they think they can quiet their Passions by Riches or their Minds by advancement Spiritual distempers are to be cur'd by spiritual means and as the finest Thoughts cannot feed the body so neither can the greatest Riches or any other external thing satisfie the immaterial Soul If I were desirous to get Preferment would not I endeavour to please him from whom I were to expect it and not his Enemies but tho' we say that we expect or at least wish to be Favourites to God Almighty and to be by him happy for ever yet we spend not our time in obeying him but in serving openly and assiduously the World the Devil and our own Lusts which are his declar'd Enemies and that too so resolutely that any reasonable man cannot upon considering our actions but conclude That either we car'd not for what he could give or else that we were subtle enough to cheat him or strong enough to over-power him If a man were going to live in another Country would he not endeavour to accustom himself to the Customs of it and to carry with him things that were useful in that Country And would we not laugh at him if he spent his time in building and adorning that Inne which he were to leave But this is our condition who bestow all our thoughts on the things of this World from which we should expect to remove every moment and in which we cannot stay long It is most strange that men to secure themselves against Fortune should put themselves more and more into its power For the remedies we use are to grow richer and greater and nothing subjects us more to accidents than these do for it is for these that men are pursued and destroyed and they are oftner crimes than defences God has promised that if we seek we shall find if we knock it shall be opened so that Prayer is the true way to attain to what is desirable and men may pray securely at their own Bed-side or in walking about their own Field But yet men will leave this sure safe and easie way and sail to the Indies amidst storms and travel through the Desarts of Arabia amongst Thieves to get unnecessary Riches expose themselves to Cannons and watch in Camps to get Honours trusting the Seas Winds and Cannons more than their own kind and merciful Father who made and governs all these When we have Children we are very desirous to leave them well secur'd and consequently provide them Estates but tho' we take pains to breed our Colts and Hawks we take no pains in teaching our Children their duty to their Master as we do those Beasts and probably by not being bred to a just way of reasoning they may lose by one extravagance all that we have left them or at least live unhappily in not knowing how to use it aright And the same Parents which would bestow their Estates to free their Children from burning for a month in a Fever will to get them a little addition to that same state breed them so as may occasion their burning to all Eternity If any man were guilty of Crimes and so needed the King's Pardon would we not think him a meer Brute if he should instead of seeking it earnestly and sincerely run up and down railing at him and reviling his Laws Yet most of our Wits who have indeed more guilt than wit and are not sure what moment they shall be damn'd for ever make it their business rather than sport to treat in ridicule his Divine Majesty and Laws Let us a little examine the unreasonableness of mens arguing in matters of Honour wherein they pretend to be so exact and delicate and we shall be convinc'd how weak their Reason is And in the first place would not right Reason dictate to us