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
B08106	An epistle of a religious priest vnto his father: exhorting him to the perfect forsaking of the world.	Southwell, Robert, Saint, 1561?-1595.	1597 (1597)	STC 22968.5; ESTC S95268	12,378	49

AN EPISTLE OF A RELIGIOVS PRIEST VNTO his father exhorting him to the perfect forsaking of the world TO THE WORSHIPFVL his very good father R. S. his dutifull sonne R. S. wisheth all happines IN childrē of former ages it hath bene thought so behofull a point of dewty to theire parents in presence by seruiceable offices in absence by other affectuall significa●ions to yeld proofe of their thankfull mindes that neither any child could omitte it without touch of vngratfulnes nor the parents forbeare it without iust displeasure But now we are falne into such calamitye of times and the violence of heresy hath so crossed the course both of vertew nature that their ingraffed lawes neuer infringed by the most sauage brute creatures cānot of Gods people without perill be obserued I am not of so vnnaturall a kind of so wilde education or so vnchristian a spirite as not to remember the roote out of which I braunched or to forget my secondary maker and auctor of my being It is not the carelesnes of a colde affection nor the want of a dew and reuerent respect that hath made me such a stranger to my natiue home and so slacke in defraying the debt of a thankfull minde but onely the iniquity of our daies that maketh my presence perillous and the discharge of my dewty an occasion of daunger I was loth to enforce an vnwelcome courtesy vp on any or by seming officious to become offensiue deeming it better to let time digest the feare that my return into the realme had bred in my kindred then apruptly to intrude my selfe to purchase theire anger whose good will I so highly esteemed I neuer doubted but that the beliefe which to all my frendes by descent and petegree is in maner hereditary framed in thē a righte perswasion of my present calling not suffering them to measure their censures of me by the vgly termes and odious Epitheetes wherwith heresy hath sought to discredite my function but rather by the reuerence of so worthy a Sacrament and the sacred doome of all former ages Yet because I might verye easely perceiue by apparent coniectures that many were more willing to heare of me then from me and readier to praise then to vse my endeuours I haue hitherto bridled my desire to see them with the care and ielosy of their saftye banishing my selfe from the sent of my cradle in my owne country I haue liued like a forreiner finding emong strangers that which in my neerest bloode I presumed not to seeke But now considering that delay may haue qualified feare knowing my person onely to import daunger to others and my per swasion to none but to my selfe I thought it highe time to vtter my sincere and duetifull minde and to open a vent to my zealous affection which I haue so long smothered and suppressed in silence For not onely the originall lawe of nature written in all childrens harts and deriued from the bowells and brestes of their mothers is a continuall soliciter vrging me in your be halfe but the souereigne decree enacted by the father of heauen ratified by his sonne and daily repeated by instincte of the holy ghost bindeth euery child in the dew of Christianitye to tender the estate and welfare of his parentes and is a motiue that alloweth no excuse but of necessity presseth to performance of dewty Nature by grace is not abolished but perfited not murdered but manured neither are her impressions quite rased or annulled but suted to the colours of faith and vertew And if her affections be so forcible that euē in hell where rancour and despite chiefly reigneth all feeling of goodnes is ouerwhelmed in malice they moued the rich glutton by experience of his owne misery to carry the lesse enuy to his kinred how much more in the Church of God where grace quickneth charity enflameth and natures good inclinations are abettered by supernaturall giftes ought the duety of piety to preuaile And who but more merciles then damned creatures could see their deerest frendes plunged in the like perill and not to be wounded with deepe remorse of their lamentable and imminent hazardes If in beholding a mortall enemy wroung and tortured with deadly pangues the toughest harte softeneth with some sorow If the most frozen and fierce minde cannot but thawe and melte with pity euen when it seeth the worst miscreāt suffer his deserued torments how much lesse can the hart of a childe consider those that bredd him into this world to be in the fall to farr more bitter extremities and not bleed with griefe of their vncomfortable case Surely for my owne parte though I chalenge not the prerogatiue of the best disposition yet am I not of so harshe and currish an humour but that it is a continuall corrasiue and crosse vnto me that wheras my endeuours haue reclaimed many frō the brincke of perditiō I haue bene least able to employ them where they were most dew barred frō affordinge to my deerest frendes that which hath ben eagerly sought and beneficially obtained of mere strangers Who hath more interest in the grape then he that planted the vine who more right to the cropp thē he that sowed the corne or how can the child owe so greate seruice to any as to him whōe he is indebted vnto for his very life and being With yong Tobye I haue trauailed farre and brought home a freight of spirituall substance to enrich you medicinable receites against your ghostlye maladyes I haue with Esau after long toile in pursuing a painfull chase returned with such pray as you were wonte to loue desiring therby to procure your blessing I haue in this generall famine of all true and Christian food with Ioseph prepared abundance of the bread of Angells for the repast of your soule And now my desire is that my drugges may cure you my pray delight you and my prouision feed you by whom I haue bene cured delighted and fedd my selfe that your courtesies may in parte be counteruailed and my ducty in some sorte performed Despise not good Sir the youth of your sonne neither deeme that god measureth his endouments by number of yeeres Hoary senses are often couched vnder greene lockes and some are riper in the springe then others in the Autumne of their age God chose not Isaï him selfe nor his eldest sonne but yong Dauid to conquere Golias and to rule his people Not the most aged person but Daniel the most innocent infant deliuered Suzanna from the iniquity of the iudges and Christ at twelue yeares of age was found in the temple questioning with the grauest Doctors A true Elias can conceiue that a little cloude may cast a large abūdant shower and the scripture teacheth vs that God reuealeth to little ones that which he concealeth from the wisest Sages His truth is not abased by the minority of the speaker who out of the mouthes of infantes sucklinges can perfit his praises Timothy