Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	family_n	master_n	servant_n	3,657	5	6.8258	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55056	The present state of New-England impartially considered in a letter to the clergy.	Palmer, John, 1650-1700?; F. L.	1689 (1689)	Wing P247; ESTC W19307	40,586	47

examples of better Princes Besides the Lives of Princes are to be considered with some grains of allowance in respect of those many provocations and opportunities they have to offend which private men have not All men have their Failings we our selves have ours and in case we will admit of none in Kings we must not rank them amongst men but Gods. The Moon hath her spots Venus her Mole and if we can find nothing under the Sun without blemish why should we expect perfection in Kings He is very uncharitable that judges of Rulers by some few of their evil Deeds passing over many of their good ones Seeing therefore that there is in all men's lives as in our best Coin an intermixture of good and evil it is sufficient to denominate a Prince good if his Vertues excel his Errors Besides to charge the Vices of Kings upon the Government as they usually do who affect Innovation is but a Cheat For what is this but to condemn the Law for the Corruption of some Lawyers Or Agriculture because some men do curse God for a Storm Si mentiar Ego mentior non Negotium If I do lye saith the Merchant in St. Augustine it is I that am to be be blamed not my Calling And if some Princes do prevaricate in some things they and not their Function are ●o be blamed But as to Laws tho they cannot be so made as to fit every m●n Case yet it sufficeth to denominate them good if they obviate such 〈…〉 as are frequently practised and so do good to the generality of the People But as to such cases which because they rarely happen cannot so easily be provided against by particular Laws even these a●so are understood to be restrained by general Rules For though the Reason of the Law being particularly applyed to that special Case hold not yet in the General under which special Cases may lawfully be Comprehended it may And much better is it so to do than to live without Law or to permit every man to be a law to himself Very apposite to this purpose is that of Seneca Lib. 7. de Benef cap 16. Better is it not to admit of some excuses though just from a few than that All should be permitted to make whatsoever they please Memorable is that of Pericles in Thucydides Lib. 2. Better it is for private men that the Common-Wealth flourish though they thrive not in it than that they should abound grow rich in their own private estates and the Common-Wealth pine and Wither For if the whole be ruined every private mans Fortunes must needs be ruined with it but if the Common-Wealth flourish every private mans estate though in it self weake may in time be repaired Wherefore since the state if well ordered can easily support any private mans fortunes but a private mans estate though never so well ordered cannot repair the loss of the publique state why do ye not rather contribute your utmost care to advance the Publique than as ye now do seek to build your own private Fortunes upon the publique Ruines Wherewith agrees that of Ambrose de Off. Lib. 3. Eadem est singulorum utilitas quae Universorum The Profit which the Common-Wealth receives redounds to every private man. And that also in the Law Semper non quod privatim interest ex sociis sed quod communi societate expedit servari debet Evermore not that which particularly availeth any one party but that which conduceth to the Benefit of the Common Society is to be observed When the Common people in ●ome began to Mutinee by reason of some Taxes extraordinarily imposed on them Laevinus the Consul exhorted the Senate to encourage the people by their own example and to that very end advised every Senator to bring into the Senate-house all the Gold Silver and Brass Money he had that it might be delivered to the ●r●umo●ri for the publ ck service adding this reason If our City overcome no man needs to fear his own 〈◊〉 but if it fall let no man think to preserve his own Liv. l. 26. For as Plato rightly observes What is common strengthens a city but what enricheth private families only weakens and diss lves it And therefore it concerns both Princes and subjects to prefer the Affairs of the Common-Wealth before their own either pleasure or Profit It is a very true Observation of Xenophon's He that in an Army behaves himself sedi●ion sly against his General sins against his own Life And no less true is that of Jamblicus No man should think himself a Loser by what the Common-wealth gains for every private mans loss is sufficiently recompensed in the publick profit For as in the natural body so doubtless in the Civil In totius Salute Salus est partium the well being of every part consists in the safety of the whole But without doubt among those th ngs that are publick the chief principal is that aforesaid Order of we●● Commanding and well-Obeying which cannot consist where private Subjects assume that Licence of resisting the publick Magistrate which is excellently described by Dion Cassius whose words sound much to this s●●se I cannot concei●e it seemly for a Prince to submit to his subjects for there can be no safety wh●●e the free are advanced above the Head or wher they undertake to govern whose Duty it is to be governed What a dismal Confusion would it introduce in a Family if Children should be permitted to despise their Parents or Servants to dispute the Commands of their Masters In what a d●sperate Condition is that Patient that will not be ruled in all things by his Physitian And what hopes can there be of that Ship where the Marriners refuse to obey their Pilot Surely God hath ordained and humane Reason upon tryal hath found it necessary that for the preservation of 〈◊〉 me Society some should Command and some Obey To the Testimony of St. Paul we shall add that of St. Peter whose words are these Honour the King Servants be ye subjects to your Masters with all fear and not only to the good gentle but also to the froward For this is thank-worthy if a man for conscience sake ●●●ourd God endure Grief suffering wrongfully for what glory is it if when ye be buffeted for your faults ye take it patiently But if when ye do well suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God. 1. Fet. 2. 17 18 19. And this he by and by confirms by Christ's own Example which Clemens also in his Constitutions thus expresseth The servant that seareth God saith he will serve his Master also with all faithfulness yea though he be impious and unjust Whence we may observe two things First That under the subjection that servants are in even to hard Masters is also couched that of Subjects unto Kings though Tyrannical And therefore as a little before he commanded Subjection to every humane Ordinance that is to the Laws and

Constitutions of Princes without distinction for when that Epistle was written there were very few Princes that were not Idolaters yet submit we must saith St. Peter for all that and that p●opter Dominum for the Lord's sake So what follows in the same Chapter being built upon the same foundation respects the Duty as well of subjects as of Servants And so requires the same Obedience as well passive as Active Such as we usually pay to our Parents according to that of the Poet Thy Parents love if good if bad yet bear And also that of Terence To bear with parents piety Commands And that likewise of Ciccro in his Oration for Claentius Men ought not only to c●nce●l the injuryes done unto them by their parents but to bear them with 〈◊〉 A young man of Erc●ria that had been long educated under 〈◊〉 being demanded What he had learned Answered Meekly to bear ●is ●rath So Justin relates of 〈◊〉 That he endured the Reproaches of the King with the same calmness of Spirit as if he had ●een his Father I●b 15. ●●renda sum 〈◊〉 ingeria The Humours of Kings most be endured saith Tacitus Ann. 16. Hist 6. And in another place he tells us That Good Emperours are to be wished for but whensoever they are they must be obeyed So also Livy As the R●ge of our Parents so the Cruelty of our Countrey are no ways to be 〈◊〉 but by patience and Sufferance For which Claudius highly ext●ls the Persians who obeyed all their Kings equally tho never so cruel 5. Neither did the Practice of the primitive Christians swerve from this Law of God which is an undeniable Argument that they so understood it For though the Roman Emperours were sometimes the very worst of men and deadly Enemies to the Christian Faith yea though there wanted not such under their Government who under the specious pretence of freeing the Common-Wealth from Tyranny and Oppre●●●on took Arms against them you could the● never perswade the Christians to join with them In the Constitutions of Clemens we read ●●giae potestati resistere Nefas To 〈◊〉 the power of a King is impious ●e●tullian in his Apology writes thus W●at was that Cassius that ●●nspi●●d against the life of Julius Caesar What was that Polcennius N g●r that in love to his own countrey took Arms in Syria as Clodius Albinus did in France Britain against that bloody Emperour Septimius Severus Or What was that Plautianus who to set the Common-Wealth free from Tyranny attempted the Life of the same Emperour in his own pallace What was that Aelius Laetus who having s●st po●sened that infamous Emperour Commodus fearing it should not take that effect which he desired did afterwards hir● Narcissus a strong Wrestler to strangle him Or What was that Parthenius whose fact Tertullian doth so much detest who being Chamberlain to that execrable Tyrant Domitian yet killed him in his own Chamber What saith Ter●ilian were all these Surely not Christians but Romans Nay So abominated they were by Christians that Tertullian seems to glory in this that though Christians were every where reproached as Enemies nay Traitors to the Imperial Crown yet could they never find any of them either stained with that Crime or so much as favouring those Treasonable Practices of either Cassias Niger or Albinus When St. Ambrose was commanded by the Emperour Valentinus to give up his Church to be Garrisun'd by Souldiers though he took it to be an injury done not only to himself and his Congregation but even unto Christ himself yet would he not take any advantage of the commo●●●s it made among the People to make Resistance S●● Gratian c. 23. q. 8. If the Emperour saith he had commanded what was in my power to give were it mine House Land Goods Go●d or Si ver how readily should I obey Whatsoever is mine I would wi●ingly offer hat the Temple of God I cannot give away 〈…〉 to any man Cum ad cust●di●ndum n●n 〈…〉 〈◊〉 it was commit●ed to m●e to defend and to 〈…〉 And where●s the people being ●●raged thereby 〈…〉 to repel the Souldiers he re●used it saying 〈…〉 Though provoked and compelled thereunto yet withstand or resist I cannot grieve and weep and mourn I can against Arms Souldiers and Coths I have no other weapons but Tears for these are the only Forts and Mu●ments of a Priest Aliter nec debeo n●c possum resistere Otherwise I neither ought nor can resist Lib. 5. Orat. in A●xen And presently after being commanded to appease the Tumult he replied That not to excite them was in his power but being exasperated and enraged to appease them was in the sole power of Him who when He pleased could ●●●ll the ragings of the Seas the madness of the people Epist 33. And in another place he writes thus Will ye hale me to prison or cast me into chains I am willing to suffer neither shall I guard my self with multitudes of people who offer themselves to defend me Neither would he make use of the Forces of Maximus when offered against the Emperor though an Artan and a grievous Persecutor of the Church In imitation of whom Gregory the Great in one of his epistles confesseth That if he would have engaged himself in the Death of the Lombards that Nation had at that day had neither King Dukes nor Earls but had been reduced into extreme Confusion Greg. l. 6. Ep. 1. Nazianzen informs us That Julian the Apostate was diverted from some bloody designs he intended against the Church by the Tears of Christians Adding withal That These are our best Preservatives against Persecutions Naz Orat. 1. in Julian And because a great part of his Army were Christians therefore his cruelty towards them would have been not injurious to the Church of Christ only but would at that time have much endagerd the Common-Wealth Unto all which we may also add that of St. Augustine where expounding those places of St. Paul he saith Even for the preservation of our own Lives we ought to submit to the supreme Power not to resist them in whatsoever they shall take away from us 6. 〈◊〉 Magistrates ought not to resist the Supream Some very learned men there are even this age who accommodating themselves t●o servil●l● to the times and places wherein they live do perswade themselves l●st and then others That though this licence of Resisting the Supream power be inconsistent with the Condition of private men yet it ag●ee with the Rights of inserior Magistrates nay further that the● sin in case they do it not which Opinion is to be exploded us For as in Logick there is a Genus which is called 〈◊〉 which though it be comprehensive of all that is under it as a living Creature comprehends both man and Beast yet hath it a Cenus above it in respect whereof it is but a Species As a living Creature is to a body which comprehends all sorts of bodies both animate and