Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	command_v	law_n	precept_n	1,277	5	9.1164	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51089	A modest apology for the suspended bishops with a brief vindication of the address which was signed in their favour by the Grand-Jury of the county of Gloucester, at the last Lent assizes / by a gentleman of the said Grand-Jury.	Gentleman of the said Grand-Jury.	1690 (1690)	Wing M2358; ESTC R38872	21,535	34

insinuate but they often cast off the Souldiers Coat to wear the Livery of their Saviour and deliver'd up their own Swords to the Use and Service of their Executioners I must not be thought by the tendency of my discourse to enervate the Minds and Spirits of Christians and to recommend Cowardize as an Article of Faith I desire no such interpretation may be made of my Words for I know that we must not only suffer but also plead for rightousness sake for as every Man is obliged by vertue of his being in a Society whether it relates to the Church or the the State not to consent to any thing which tends to the apparent ruine of it but to refuse all such Acts for the sake and general end of the Society so would a compliance with a sinful Command be in effect a disobedience to the Power that Commands and to the Authority it self when stated and considered And therefore if the Magistrate Commands any thing contrary to natural and revealed Religion or destructive of the Fundamental Laws of the State or Church we may rescribere Principi we may calmly advise him of the irreconcilable difference between his Precept and our Duty between his pleasure and voice of our conscience between his Will and the more indispensable obligation of Gods Word or the dictates of morality And if he is not satisfied with such Remonstrations we may Petition Address and humbly entreat him to supersede his Resolutions but if he yet remain peremptory in his Demands we must obey him by suffering and apply our selves to the Christian warfare of Prayers and Tears God in such a case hath reserv'd all Remedies to be expected by an Appeal to his own judgment Seat for he has said that vengeance is his and that he will repay it and as he is jealous of his Honor so will he not suffer any to go unpunished who Usurp upon his Province and presume to forestal his final retribution By these considerations were our suspended Bishops led under their Afflictions in the last Reign and God who is the rewarder of Innocence was pleased to Crown their constancy with a success far above our languishing hopes and the prospect of a faint Expectation I cannot therefore but strangely wonder why some Persons who speak irreverently of the same Prelates and write invectives against them do at this time accuse them because they are passively obedient and resolve not to resist Are they desirous the good Fathers should encourage their many Friends to rise in Arms on their Account Would this be for the Security of the Nation Or is this the way to establish Peace and Union among us I may assure those troublers of our Israel that our Bishops know not how to blow the Trumpet for such an Alarm longe aliud sonat tuba Evangelica aliud concha Panis aut cornu Alectûs If his Majesty with respect to their modesty and moderation would be pleased in a Parliament way to reinstate them in their former Capacities he would not hazard the Security of his Throne or the Glory of his Name I am certain he would purchase as much Honor by this one Act of Piety as he has gained by the Atchievment of his Arms when he passed the Boyn and waded through the other difficulties of War But if they must be still chained to a suspension they will be also chained to Passive-Obedience and Non-Resistance let the World cast what censures it please upon them I confess many others and those the great Enemies of this avowed Principle of the Bishops have formerly on many occasions taken the liberty to disturb the Peace of our Government and yet Mercy has been passively obedient to them but I leave them and their Party to another Tribunal where the proudest and most incorrigible Spirits must in a more dreadful Sense pay a Passive-Obedience to the scourge of infinite Justice In the mean time it is our comfort that the good hand of Providence doth over-rule the Affairs of this World and that these furious and Antichristian Men have not the Effect of their Clamors granted them but that the Sober and the Religious Gentlemen of our Nation do neither joyn with their interests nor expect their success to these therefore I shall seriously apply my self in a few Words I would desire them to consider with me the apparent Advantages our Enemies reap from the present Suspension How joyfully was the News entertain'd in the Popes Palace and in the Colledge of Cardinals with what triumph and surprizing Pleasure did the General of the Jesuits receive the Express how do they deride the fickle instability of our People who were so fond of the Bishops under the last Reign and seem now as violent against them The Subtil Missionary who loves to breath in the midst of Tempests and Whirlwinds takes occasion from hence to perswade the Friends of our Church that our Hierarchy is endanger'd and that the Suspended Bishops must expect little Relief since their very order is not altogether pleasing What is become crys he of the old plausible Text of Liberty of Priviledges and of Conscience Where is the comfortable and long expected Amnesty or at least the equal and just Administration when scandalous Sinners are exalted to a degree of of Eminence when Out-laws Pedlers of Perjury and Mountebanks of Treason are favoured with a Pardon and the holy the Orthodox and Learned are discharg'd the hopes and benefit of that Grace On the other hand the same Underminer of our Peace does insinuate to the Dissenter whose readiness to comply with his late proposed Equivalent renders him an apt Subject for his further delusions that now is the time to appear rampant to cry strongly against Episcopal Grandeur and to beat down the Fabric of our Church our Doctors and Prelates being so variously divided in their present Sentiments To some he suggests that our Church doth suffer too much by this procedure and that the whole Kingdom ought to be violent in their Demands for the Bishops Honour but he assures others that our Church suffers too little and must be yet chastised after the dreadful Model of the Scorish Reformation Thus we see with what Topics the Ignatian Order is furnish'd to widen the Differences among Protestants and to blow up the flame of our wretched Discontents and Passions for as it is their sport and pleasure to embroil us so is it their Interest carefully to maintain those Heats and Animosities which feed their own hopes and forward our destruction and I know no better Method to disappoint the Artifice then to dare for once to be Christians and to love one another with true Charity and Compassion which we cannot be said to do unless we renounce all savage and brutish Malice If we seriously study this peaceable Temper the Suspended Bishops will not be long bereav'd of their Places but may be admitted to a share in that common Concern and Benefit of English Men as will render