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	father_n	parent_n	9,669	5	9.1242	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A18021	Achitophel, or, The picture of a wicked politician Diuided into three parts.	Carpenter, Nathanael, 1589-1628?	1629 (1629)	STC 4669; ESTC S107539	48,330	72

as critically directed to some especiall end or other in the State But admit his sinnefull proiects had laine open to discouerie yet sauouring of a reaching wit or seasoned with discretion they might seeme rather amongst vulgar iudgments the fruits of politicke preuention than humane weaknes Our intellectuall gifts we commonly value aboue our Morall vertues and therefore hold it a smaller disparagement to be taxed of d●…shonesty than indiscretion As if wee rather coueted an inheritance here amongst the children of this world than to haue our names enrolled with the children of light Thus far Achitophel had carried his matters in such fashion as might speak his wisedome though not his honesty Had Absolon through his aduice aduanced himself to the Throne of Israel his notorious treason had passed for profound policy neither could the world euer tearme that act treason which is of a King or for a Kings promotion Had Achitophels proiect falne below expectation as he did afterward it was Absolons weaknesse to reiect aduice not Achitophels to suggest the best counsell But shift the Scene and let the selfe same Theater which euen now found him plotting Absolons aduancement contriuing the meanes and manner of his owne death and you would imagine him all this while but to haue personated a wise man and now in the end to resume his proper habit like a certain beast of Scythia recorded by Pliny in his naturall history whom he reports to be able to change himself into all variety of shapes colours yet returning to his owne forme expresses the resemblance of an Asse A good embleme of a wicked politician who sitting as it were at the sterne of state holding the helme in his hands must of necessity vary himself a thousand wayes to obey all winds second all tides But Nature which is the worst dissembler of guilty actions will one time or other betray it selfe to discouery or atleast plain-dealing Death wil strip him naked lay him open vnto shame leaue him as a fool to mens cōtempt Gods vengeance Shame reproach the most vnwelcom guests to Achitophel in his life are here inuited as friends to bear him to his sepulchre the kind maner of death most odious to God man is thought the safest and sweetest in his foolish choice Among so many waies wherby euery man may make himself a passage to death he must needs chuse the worst to dye as a dogge on a tree and make himself guilty aswel of his shamefull death as the ignominious motiue Death is the cōmon destinie of mankind to feare or wish for death is the mark of a coward shame of a man To end our course of life in a warm bed is natures tribute and the crown of siluer haires to cancell cares in the field by the hand of an enemy is the chance of war the honour of a souldier To die by the sentence of iustice stroke of the executioner is a satisfaction of the law expiation of the guilt But to die out of cowardise despair to die by the enforced violence of our own hands to die as a theefe on a tree not expiating the guilt of sin by giuing satisfaction to the law or affording nature any right in expectation which is more than all the rest to quit the vexations of this world to incurre greater in the next to treade with vnresolued feet that vnknown path of death whose cōmon entrance shuts vp in as doubtfull an end as celestiall ioyes infernall torments what settled iudgement will not brand with the odious blot of extreamest folly in sight and comparison of which the greatest vanitie in the world should lose her name seeme discretion Here may we see the weaknes of humane wisedom tutored by temptation directed by the cōmon enemy of mankind as the strength of Sampson ouer mastred by the wiles of Dalilah which cōmonly affords the owner no greater courtesie than confusion their names and memorie no other Trophee than a liuing shame or a lying sepulchre Which by occasion directs our enquiry to the third last action preordained as it seemes by himselfe in his life but executed by his friends after death his pompous buriall Hee was buried in the Sepulchre of his Fathers 9 Whether this last action of Achitophel bee rather to bee ascribed to Achitophel himselfe as prescribed by his last Will Testament or to his children as their last duty obligation to their dead Parent we will make no long dispute It seemes an act of both wherin either partie may share an interest as commanded by the one executed by the other From each obseruation may be copied out vnto vs some vseful doctrine for instruction In Achitophels prouidence in seeking to preserue his name memorie in so fleight a Trophee as a stone or statue we may reade the shallow reach of many politicians of our age ambitiously setting vp their garnished sepulchres in Churches high places as idols of admiration to bee worshipt by ignorant spectators which notwithstanding in a iudicious censure liue only for a time to vpbraid their folly and fall after a time into the dust ashes as the rotten bones they shrowd vp in obliuion Enuious time which hath eaten out the workemanship of so many famous Architects left not so much as stones or ruines for antiquitie to boast or posterity to admire by the mouth of History his best Secretary might hane discouered the weaknesse of such considence as grounds it self on such vncertainties Babel the greatest ambition of humane industry vndertaken as it were by the ioynt handicraft of mankinde neither by disparitie of religions or difference of languages as yet diuided into factions wherein as Philo Iudaeus notes and holy Scriptures not obscurely intimate the chiefest men of ranke and estimation in engrauen stones sought to preserue their memory what other legacie in her fal hath shee bequeathed to our obseruation than the want of discouery the whetstone of diligent Antiquaries tortures of the most curious inquisition How much better is the content of a quiet conscience grounded on the assurance of Gods promises for future happines than such painted sepulchers which present in a maner nothing to posterity but their own ruines and their founders weaknesse Neuerthelesse from this officious care of Achitophels children toward their deceased Father may Christians bee taught the reuerend respect they owe to the ashes of their dead ancestors The raising vp of monumentall statues to the memory of others ought we rather to interpret the duety of Posterity than the ambition of our deceased parents yet in such wise that they ought rather to humble vs with the thought of mortality than puffe vs vp with glory of our Parents Nobility Neither can such monuments besids shame infamie if erected to wicked men expresse any other than the common Epithaph of mankinde That he liued and died The greatest Tyrant in the world can command no more the poorest beggar can challenge to himselfe no lesse Hitherto Beloued hath my discourse seconded by your fauourable attention followed Achitophel through the by-paths and indirect passages of his life actions from the beginning of his conspiracy with Absolon to his shamefull death and pompous sepulchre whose story deseruing a more able discouery than my poore discription out of all these circumstances will minister this one true and vndoubted Corrolary That honesty is the best policie When worldly policy commonly hides her selfe in darknes and Proteus like transformes her selfe into a thousand shapes to auoide discouery this one only dares boldly aduenture in the light and iustifie all her actions this one couets no other likenesse than her owne as not ashamed to present her face to view and censure Finally this alone is sufficient to preserue a competent estate in this life and after death aduance vs to Christs glorious Kingdome where we shall raigne with him for euer amongst the Saints in heauen To which Kingdome c. Deo Triuni laus in aeternum FINIS Part●… ●… Part Part 3.