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	neglect_v	parent_n	3,017	5	9.3090	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12817	Honour and vertue, triumphing over the grave Exemplified in a faire devout life, and death, adorned with the surviving perfections of Edward Lord Stafford, lately deceased; the last baron of that illustrious family: which honour in him ended with as great lustre as the sunne sets within a serene skye. A treatise so written, that it is as well applicative to all of noble extraction, as to him, and wherein are handled all the requisites of honour, together with the greatest morall, and divine vertues, and commended to the practise of the noble prudent reader. By Anth. Stafford his most humble kinsman. This worke is much embelish'd by the addition of many most elegant elegies penned by the most accute wits of these times.	Stafford, Anthony.	1640 (1640)	STC 23125; ESTC S117763	67,272	160

Before hee attempted the subduing of the World hee desired to know what the World was and it is likely that the knowledge of it invited him to the conquest thereof How he doted on Homers Works is notorious even to Dablers in Story The same Alexander it was who would have no difference of Habit betweene the Grecian and the Barbarian saying that their knowledge and their ignorance were markes sufficient to distinguish them That incomparable Prince Alphonsus King of Spain Sicily and Naples Coetanian with Charles the Seventh of France after he had once read in Saint Augustine that an illiterate King was no other then an Asse crowned had ignorance in such detestation that where ever hee went and at all times whether in Warre or Peace hee endevour'd both by Reading and Conference to better his Understanding and at so high a rate he valued Science that hee gave for his Crest A Book open It was a frequent saying with him That his dead Counsellours his Books were to him farre better then the living since they without flattery Feare or bashfulnesse presented to him Truth naked without any disguising Coverture I ingeniously confesse I never reade that speech of Solon without infinite delight who lying on his Death-bed over-hearing some of his learned Visitants desputing and deciding some subtile question or other attentively listned to their Disputation which a stander by observing demanded of him why he now ready to leave the world should give eare to their discourse to whom he made this answer worthy to be treasured up in all memories Ut cum illud audiero moriar doctior That when I have heard that poynt discuss'd I may dye the more learned Aristippus being demanded by one in what his sonne should bee better'd if he learnt the Arts and Sciences answer'd Etsi nulla alia in re nequit certè vel in hoc quod in Theatro non sedebit lapis supra lapidem If in nothing else saith he yet truely in this that hee shall not sit in the Theater one stone upon another The same Philosopher often protested that hee had rather bee a Begger than a Foole in that the former onely wants money the latter humanity Antisthenes confounded the studious and the noble and admonish'd his Scholars that learning was the only Viaticum that in stormes and shipwracke when all things else perish'd would boy up in spight of evill Fortune Aristotle was so great a student that when he went to rest he used to hold in his hand a Ball of Brasse over a large Bason of the same Mettall that when hee slept the noyse of the Ball falling into the Bason might awaken him To one who asked him how the Learned differ'd from the ignorant hee replyed ut Viventes a Mortuis As the Living from the Dead Hee would often repeate this his owne speech That Learning was an Ornament in prosperity in adversity a Refuge and that Tutors were farre to bee preferr'd by Children before Naturall Parents because they received from the later the benefit of living onely but from the former the felicity of living well and blessedly I dwell the longer on this poynt that it may serve as an Admonition to all parents especially the more Noble to bestow on their Children a breeding answerable to their Birth In elder times a Sonne was discharged in all duty of obeying comforting and relieving his parents in their Age if he could prove that they had neglected to instruct him in his Youth The Ancients held that they who provided Lands and ample possessions for their posterity on whom to bestow a learned Education they would would not be at the charge resembled a silly fellow that hath more care of his shooes than his feete They thought that the heaping up of Riches for a flat-witted Coxecombe who knowes not how to use them was as if a faire sweete Lute should bee presented to one who knowes not how to make it speake harmoniously They deemed ignorance to bee at best but a dead Sepulcher in which many were buried alive Of the same minde were the tender parents of this sweet young Lord and therefore incessantly exhorted him to be carefull rather of augmenting his Knowledge than his Estate whom he readily obeyed his ambition their will being like two Lines that meete in one Center The first shew of his inclination to vertue was his love to Science and her Favourites which I may properly call the entry to that future Glory which vertue intended him and Time deprived him of Though he had Lands to till he forgot not to manure his mind Some by necessity are constrained to study hard he by delight was invited to his Book He was none of those who imagine all that time lost which they lose not accounting all those Houres mis-spent which they take from their pleasures give to their studies He would praise every man that aspir'd to Knowledge whether hee were his superiour his inferiour or his equall in Learning His Superiour had his best words as his due because he deserved them His equall he would not despise lest he should be thought to undervalue himselfe and his inferiour hee would not contemne or insult over for he held it no glory to excell the inglorious The very desire of Learning he thought laudable in any man much more the Acquisition of it It was an infallible Maxime with him that except those Eternall Workes of the soule wee can properly call nothing ours in that all other things wee leave behind us find other owners He therefore labour'd that by a barbarous Ignorance hee made not a forfeit of an Inheritance so inestimable as is a faire Fame which was able to make all the survivours of his name happy sharers in that honour posterity shall pay him But what was the scope of his study was it accutely to scold and wrangle after the manner of the Times No his thoughts could not but bee at peace whose spirit was composed of nothing but sweetnesse and mildnesse Was it to pry into the unrevealed Mysteries of the Deity Nothing lesse for hee had found that many secrets in Nature remaine yet unexplicable much more then are those of God inscrutable and impenitrable by any humane eye He had purus'd the Fable of the Poets which tells us that Minerva strooke Tyresias blind for beholding her naked The Morall is full and significant implying that the Deity must not be over-curiously searcht into Was it for Vaine-glory and to learne things more curious than profitable No he could not be proud of Knowledge who understood that man was ignorant and a stranger to himselfe till God reveal'd him to himselfe He learnt nothing being a Child that would not prove advantagious to him being a Man He hated superfluous Science and made choise of such Authors onely as may instruct not distract his minde He knew it fared with the soule as with the body which is not nourish'd by the greedy devouring of much but the

sacrificing to them Paul submitted himselfe to learne of Aquila and Priscilla the Art of Tent-making and got his living by it This last but most learned of the Apostles was a submissive petitioner for the prayers of others I beseech you Brethren saith he even in the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ and the Charitie of the Holy Ghost to assist me with your Prayers In other places hee termeth himselfe the least of the Apostles and professeth that he deserveth not the name of an Apostle In his Epistle to Timothy hee descendeth yet lower Iesus saith hee came into the world to save Sinners whereof I am the chiefe Of the same Humility rellish these his meeke formes of speech Not aspiring to height of Knowledge and thinking themselves superiours to one another onely in Humilitie Armatura tutissima animi Modestia saith Saint Basil A modest humble minde is an Armour of proofe Wittily Saint Bernard As the morning Light is a sure signe that the Sun is entring into our Hemispheare so the very dawne of Humility in any man is an infallible Token of approaching Grace This is the Vertue that sweetens all the rest and a good Frame and securitie ever attend it By this the holy Martyrs have triumph'd over Tyranny and Death and by it have obtain'd the eternall Crown of Glory they now weare He who void of Humility seeks to engrosse other Vertues doe like him who gathereth dust to throw it against the winde This Vertue never entred into the Heads or Hearts of the Heathen Nulla tanta est Humilitas saith Valerius Maximus quae dulcedine Gloriae non tangatur There is no Humilitie so great as to be altogether senselesse of the sweetnesse of Glory Humilis satis est they be the words of Livy qui aequo jure satis vivit nec inferendo injuriam necpatiendo etiam He is humble enough who is a just observer of this equall Law neither to act nor suffer an injury To these I may adde that of Isocrates Legi Principi sapientiori cedere modestum est It is the part of a modest humble man to subject himselfe to the Law his Prince and those in wisdome above him The Philosophers in the beginning were so proud as to assume to themselves the stile of Wisemen Pythagoras being the first as witnesseth Laertius that modestly called himself a Philosopher that is a Lover of Wisdome Socrates indeed seemed to look towards Humility when hee said Hoc tantum scio me nihil scire I onely know this that I know nothing But this was spoken respectively that what hee knew was nothing in respect of that whereof he was ignorant The Stoicall Magniloquent Sect uttterly excluded Humility and the Cynick though hee appeared sordid and abject was thought by other Sects as inwardly haughty as hee was outwardly dejected which was intimated by his speech who said to one of them That hee espied his pride through the hole in his Cloake The Poets went this way altogether as farre as they Valet ima summis Mutare insignem attenuat Deus Obscura promens As saith the Horace and Seneca in his Thyeste addeth Laus vera humili sapè contigit viro In this submissive Vertue this our sweete Bud of Honour grew to such a height that hee had many noble Emulatours who aspired to climbe to the same degree Hee made Mans miserable condition the Mirrour wherein his Humilitie beheld her selfe Hee rightly conceived that as the Tree that growes high must take deep root so the Minde that ascends to God must first prostrate it selfe before him His sanctified soule if her Creatour accepted of her poore endevours was altogether carelesse of the applause of men like a chaste Spouse who being ravish'd with the delight she takes in the kisses and embraces of her Husband is nothing at all mindfull or carefull of the frownes or favours of others yet did she humbly comply with all men as farre as the Service and Honour of her Maker would give her leave This Vertue prepar'd him to receive the yoke of Obedience which he readily put on and never after disobediently cast off He was conformable in all things to the Word of God the Church his Prince Parents Tutours and Superiours That there was a God hee learn'd from the Order and Beauty of the Universe which to attribute to the Vertue or power of things created were to ascribe the motion of the wheel to the wheele it selfe or the Excellencie of an Image to the Pensill Hee saw nothing that put him not in minde of God but being admitted to be a member of his mysticall Body his Church he there saw him more cleerly spake to him and receiv'd from him his divine behests of which he forth with vowed himselfe a most obedient and religious observer The Duty hee owed his Parents Nature had ingrafted in him and Grace had assured him that hee deserves neither the stile of Noble nor of Man who neglects to bee dutifull to those to whom he owes his Life and Being A reverence to these in-seated in the Bloud Two strange demonstrations of this Veritie wee finde in Livie and Valerius Maximus The first is that Marcus Pomponius having accused Lucius Manlius of cruelty to Titus Manlius his sonne the said Titus went to the House of Pomponius then Tribune and with his Sword drawne threatned to kill him unlesse hee would sweare to let the Processe fall against his Father and forced him to take that Oath The later in Valerius Maximus is of a Woman condemned to die by Famine whom her Daughter then a Nurse having leave daily to visit her Mother nourished with her milke which pious deceit of hers being detected bred that relenting and astonishment in the hearts of the Judges that they not only pardoned the Mother but in memory of this pious dutifull fact of the Daughter razed the Prison to the ground and erected in the same place a Temple to Pietie Diceret aliquis saith Valerius hoc esse contra legem Naturae nisi Naturae prima lex esset diligere parentes A man would say that for the Daughter to give suck to the Mother were a thing preposterous and against Nature were it not that the first Law of Nature is to love our Parents Aristotle affirmes that the Storks nourish their Dammes in way of a gratefull recompensation of their care and pains in breeding them Quicquid praestiti saith Seneca infra aestimationem Paterni Muneris est What ever I have perform'd comes short of the Benefits for which I stand a Debtor to my Father None but Monsters of Ingratitude forget such blessings as these His Tutours he honour'd and obey'd not for feare of punishment but love of Discipline Hee sufferd not himselfe to be hail'd and dragg'd to his Book but was as sedulous in learning as his Masters in teaching who no doubt had told him that the Muses love a smiling Schollar not one who lowers on them and beholds the