Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
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A61246
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A sermon preach'd in the cathedral church of St. Peter in York, on the 6th of February 1685/6 being the day on which His Majesty began his happy reign / by William Stainforth.
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Stainforth, William, d. 1713.
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1686
(1686)
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Wing S5171; ESTC R28875
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16,207
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33
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A SERMON Preach'd in the Cathedral Church OF St. Peter in York On the 6th of February 1685 6. Being the Day on which His MAJESTY began his Happy Reign By WILLIAM STAINFORTH Residentiary Canon of YORK Imprimatur Ro. Altham Rmo P. Dno Johan Archiep. Ebor. Ã sacris Domesticis YORK Printed by Jo. White for FRANCIS HILDYARD Bookseller at the Bible in Stonegate Anno Dom. M. DC LXXXVI To the Honourable SIR THOMAS SLINGSBY BARONET Sir I Humbly Present you with a Sermon which when it was preach'd met with such a favourable reception and kind entertainment from some of the Loyal and Judicious Auditors that they look'd upon the Printing it to be of public Vse and Advantage because it might as they thought in some measure at least contribute to the Reduction of such of His Majesty's Subjects as have been misled into seditious Practices and prevent others from falling into the snares of the same accursed Seduction and accordingly they importun'd me to make it as Publick as now it appears And tho' I took some time to consider before I would yield to their Requests yet when I had once resolved to comply with them I found no place for Deliberation to whom I should Dedicate it or whose Name I should borrow to give countenance and protection to it For the Design of this Sermon being to promote an holy Fear of God and a loyal Fear of the King no Person did or indeed could occur to my thoughts whose Patronage could be more proper or useful to a Discourse of this nature than your own because You Sir are so great an Example of those two necessary and indispensible Duties which are here recommended Your holy fear of God has been made visible to all who know you in your constant unalterable Perseverance in the Communion of the Reformed Church of England and in your zealous Concernment which upon all just Occasions you express for its true Interests and unalienable Privileges notwithstanding all the Temptations you may have met with either at Home or Abroad to corrupt your holy Faith and misguide your devout Affections Your loyal fear of the King has been as evident as the former throughout the whole course of your Conversation and most vigorously exerted and discover'd it self in sutable Effects and a Loyal Behaviour under the most frightful Posture and discouraging Circumstances of public Affairs when some were driven from their Duty and Allegiance by dismal Stories and factious Amusements and others were wheadl'd out of it by popular Addresses and smooth and crafty Insinuations And therefore you justly enjoy not only the Estate and Honourable Titles which belong'd to your Ancestors but also all that public Esteem and Reputation with your Prince and Country which their fam'd and celebrated Loyalty procur'd for them I need go no higher for a Proof of this than to your immediat Progenitor and Honourable Father Sir HENRY SLINGSBY who persever'd in his Allegiance to his Prince to such a degree of Faithfulness as made him Resist even unto Bloud not in a Fanatical but Christian sence and lay down his Life for his Natural tho' banished Soveraign whom no Terrours or Allurements of a remorseless and crafty Vsurper could oblige him to renounce So that Loyalty seems entail'd upon your Family and looks as if it were your Inheritance as well as your Choice convey'd in your Bloud as well as infus'd at your Baptism and descended upon you by your natural as well as spiritual Birth But however it is impossible that you should ever depart from your self or your Duty while you live in the Communion of the Church of England and make her Rules the Measures of your Subjection for she teacheth a perfect absolute unlimited Subjection by teaching all her Members to Obey all the just and lawful Commands of their King and with patience and resignation to suffer his Censures and Punishments where they cannot obey And I do not doubt but one great Reason among all the rest why you value and live in the Church of England rather than in any other Christian Society whatsover is because her Doctrine and Practices in point of civil Subjection are so conformable to those of our Blessed Saviour and his holy Apostles who died rather than they would resist those Soveraign Powers they liv'd under and who have forbidden all Resistance under the pain of eternal Damnation And may you long live in the Communion of this Holy Church to do Honour to God and Service to your Prince upon Earth and God out of his infinit Mercy in his due time receive you into the Church Triumphant in Heaven This is and shall be the constant daily Prayer of SIR Your most obliged and most humble Servant WILLIAM STAINFORTH Prov. 24. 21. My son fear thou the Lord and the King and medle not with them that are given to change CIvil Government is the great Comprehensive Wordly blessing for it is the Foundation of Peace and Quiet the Spring and Fountain of all those Inestimable Advantages which adorn and felicitate Humane Societies For without Government there would be nothing but Wildnes and Confusion Rapine and Violence and all the bloody Outrages of a barbarous and Merciles Inhumanity And therefore God who design'd the Happiness of man in his Creation not only implanted in his Nature strong and powerful Instincts after Society but also took care that he might Enjoy all the intended Blessings and design'd advantages of Society by instituting Government for its Support and preservation This is plain from that Authority and Dominion which God gave Adam over his Wife and all his Natural Descendents by vertue of which every man who was born into the World was born in a State of subjection and Ow'd Duty and Obedience to him from whom under God he derived his Natural Being So that Government began by the Divine Ordination as soon as there were any capable Objects for its Exercise and administration it being founded in Paternal Authority which as Families increased and multiplied grew up to the height and largenes of Imperial and Political Power Now of all the Kinds and Forms of Government Monarchy is not only the most Primitive and Natural but the most Compleat and Perfect for as it is most Conformable to the Heavenly Pattern and nearliest resembleth the Government of God So it is most Conducive to all those Useful and Beneficial purposes for which men enter into Societies and for which Government was instituted This might be prov'd by shewing that Monarchy has all those real advantages which any other Forms of Government can pretend unto without being subject to many of those Numerous Inconveniences and Mischiefs which inseparably attend them And of Monarchies that which is limited and Hereditary deserves the preference for its singular Value Usefulnes Now by a Limited Monarchy I mean such an One where the Supream and Unaccountable Power of the Prince as to its exercise and administration is under the direction of stated
Governments And for this very Reason the Fear of the King is commanded and injoyn'd us as if it were the whole of that Duty and Allegiance which we owe unto him Thus having Discourst in short upon those Duties of Fear which we owe to God and the King I proceed to make such Observations as may be gathered both from the Connexion of the Words and the Order of them 1. We may Observe that Religion and Loyalty have such a close dependence and strict connexion with each other that the wise Man puts them both together and injoyns them upon us in such a manner as if they were but one single indivisible Duty And certain it is that however some men may separate them in their internal persuasions or external professions yet in truth and reality they are always link'd and conjoin'd and inseparably accompany each other And this I shall make appear by shewing 1. That no man can be truly Religious who is not a Loyal Subject 2. That no man can be stedily and immoveably Loyal who is not truly and sincerely Religious 1. No man can be truly Religious who is not a Loyal Subject For what Duty is more clearly and strongly enforc'd upon us by the Laws of our holy Religion than this of Obedience and Subjection to Kings and Princes Government is God's Ordinance and Kings are his Vicegerents deputed by his Authority and Arm'd with his Power to keep the World in Order Peace and Quietness And that they may be secure in their Thrones and inviolable in their Persons and irresistible in their Administrations God has plainly taught us by the Light of Nature and the Revelation of his Word always to bear in our minds such awful regards to express in our Carriage such dutiful Respects as are suitable to the Excellency of their Character the Dignity of their Office and the Usefulness of their Institution How numerous are the Texts which might be produc'd out of the Old and New Testaments to this purpose wherein the Divine Original of Kingly Power is clearly asserted a willing Obedience to all their just and lawful Commands is indispensibly injoyn'd and all manner of Hostile and Forcible Resistance either of their Persons or their Authority is expresly forbidden and severely threatned so that if the Truth of Religion is to be judg'd by those Rules of Duty which God himself has deliver'd and if we are not to be reckon'd any further Religious than as we sincerely conform to those Rules it is plain that a Religious Rebel is as gross and palpable a Contradiction as a Sovereign Unaccountable Subject and it is in effect to say that a man lives under the Directions of God's Commands whilst he affronts the plainest Intimations and violates the clearest Injunctions of the Divine Will It cannot be denied that many have rebell'd out of conscience and taken up Arms against their Natural and Sovereign Prince from an accursed Persuasion that they were not only allow'd but bound by the Laws of God to do so But as the Nature of things are stated and determined fixed and permanent and do not alter and vary with mens Opinions and Apprehensions about them so no Errors and Mistakes of ours about Religion can either turn that into a real Truth which is a certain falshood or convert that into a necessary Duty of Christianity which either in it self or in its consequence is an effectual Contradiction to any of its Precepts Now all Resistance of the Supreme Sovereign Power is plainly forbidden by the Laws of our common Christianity and therefore Resistance will ever be a sin tho' we are never so strongly perswaded of its being a Duty and for the same reason we shall always be so far Rebels against God as we are Rebels against the King And tho' it be true that a Conscientious Rebel is very much to be Pitied because what he does may be owing more to the Power of his Errour than to the Malice of his Will yet of all Rebels these are the most dangerous to the State and Government For he who is a Rebel out of Conscience is push'd on to his wickedness encourag'd to persevere in it by the most Powerful Motives which can influence affect humane Nature For he who is perswaded that his Sin is his Duty must needs look upon himself Oblig'd by the Authority of God himself to Commit it and has all those great and glorious rewards which are promis'd to any Christian and Vertuous undertaking to encourage and animate him to the practise of the Conscientious Villany And therefore the Supream Power can never be too watchful over the Motions nor keep too strict a hand over the Men of such Principles whose Faith is Faction whose Religion is Rebellion because nothing but a perfect Disability and want of Power in them can ever restrain their Wild and furious Zeal from making Attempts upon the Government and creating disorders in it These are so many Snakes and Vipers in the bosome of the State which whilest they are cherish'd with its Warmth and kindly influences are alwayes endeavouring to Sting it to death and to Eat out the very heart and vitals of its Constitution and no Trust or Confidence can reasonably be reposed in them until they abandon their factious Principles and be Converted to the Truth and the Government by a full and sincere Conviction of their Duty An Atheistical Rebel may be held from pursuing his factious designs by the Visible terrors of the Civil Magistrate Or he may be won over to the Government by those secular advantages which his peaceable Compliance with the present establishment may procure for him Or a Man who is a Rebel against his Principle aswel as against his Prince may consider his Folly and his Guilt and repent of it His Conscience may awaken and recover it self and arrest him with its dreadful convictions and by shewing him the black Impiety and inevitable danger of his Seditious proceedings bring him back to himself and to his Duty and beget in him firm and invincible resolutions of being faithful to his Conscience and to his Prince and of never departing any more from the Fidelity and Allegiance which is due to both of them But there are no grounds for conceiving any such hopes of a Conscientious Rebel for he is under the possession and Conduct of a Principle which is too strong and powerful for any Earthly Motives or Secular Considerations and all those Ingagements to Loyalty and Civil Subjection which have relation to another Life through the Malignity of his Error the Corruptions of his conscience are made to minister to his Rebellious purposes and to cherish Encourage him in his most Furious Zealous executions of them So that nothing but perfect despair an absolute Incapacity of Harming the Government can ever withhold a Conscientious Rebel from disturbing the Peace and endeavouring the Subversion of it And therefore nothing can be more Reasonable in it self