Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	law_n	nature_n	precept_n	1,292	5	9.1116	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60592	The charge given by Sr. William Smith, Brt. at the quarter-sessions of the peace held for the county of Middlesex, at Westminster, on Monday the 24th of April, 1682.	England and Wales. Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace (Middlesex); Smith, William, Sir, 1616 or 17-1696.	1682 (1682)	Wing S4255A; ESTC R19647	12,812	13

of a good King It is to be a good People for God who is infinite Goodness gives an ill King for the punishment of an ill People and you cannot displease and provoke him more than when he hath given you a good King if you do not treat and esteem him as you ought The King which he hath been pleased to bless us with at this time is I may say with great truth the best Prince in the World whom God long preserve and if we honour and obey him as God expects and our duty requires God will not fail to send a good Successor The Peace of the Kingdom is and ought to be the King's Care and it could not be expected that the Duke should have sate still under such an Indignity and if he had the Princes of Christendom to whom he is allied and he is allied to many and the Greatest would have taken up the Quarrel and then our Fields of Peace would have been turned to Fields of Blood Those who read History may find what Miserie 's this Kingdom for many years suffered when the Dispute was between the two Houses of York and Lancaster how many noble Families were destroyed and many thousand of men lost their Lives and if God had not had compassion of this Kingdom and provided an Expedient to unite them the misery of War for ought I know might have continued to this day Wars are not so soon or so easily ended as begun and it is very observable that the neighbour-Princes made it their business to continue that Difference some Prince or other always took part with him who was conquered and so vicissim with him who was down not out of any other consideration than their own Interest that they might keep England imbroiled at home which they knew was the true way to keep Wars and Troubles from their own doors I hope England for the future will never be so unwise as to give them the like advantage Gentlemen The proper business of a Charge is to acquaint you with the Laws and Statutes of this Kingdom their Usefulness and Penalties that I have done heretofore to former Grand Juries but it hath not had so good effect as I could have wished Amongst others I did acquaint them with the Statute of 13. of the King which was made for the preservation of his Majesties Person and Government it did provide against Treason against seditious Preaching and Printing and against setting up Votes of one or both Houses of Parliament to be effectual as Laws But notwithstanding that and other Statutes we find that Persons have been lately accused for Treason defamatory Pamphlets and Libels are sold about the Streets as good merchantable Wares and Votes of the House of Commons printed to give check to Laws Men are grown to a strange boldness and out-do Pasquil in Rome he tells bold Truths but these here wicked and impudent Lyes The sin of Cham and that which clave to his Posterity was that he uncovered his Father's nakedness and the greatest Crime of that Tyrant Nero was that he ript up the Belly of his Mother Gentlemen The King is Pater Patriae and the Common-Wealth is our Mother and he who rips up her Bowels and shews her Weakness or Deformity or abuseth his Father forfeits his very nature and is more wicked then either Cham or Nero until men come to have a sense of Religion and obey for Conscience-sake I shall be hopeless that Laws will prevail and yet I shall adventure to recommend one Statute to you more a Statute not made by Kings Lords and Commons but by their King the King of Kings and it is this Statutum est omnibus semel mori a Statute Gentlemen which was never repealed or ever will be and those who shall be indicted upon this Statute no Ignoramus can prevent their Tryal nor shall the credit of the Evidence be questioned and the Sentence will have speedy Execution Those who shall be found Innocent their Sentence will be Venite Beati but those who will be found Guilty Ite Maledicti a dreadful Sentence that not like the Sentence we have here Go to the place from whence you came and so to the place of Execution and there hang by the Neck until you are Dead Or as we have it by Tradition to be hanged in Chains alive until you are starved to Death These are easy Sentences because a little time determines the pain but this dreadful Sentence of Ite Maledicti sends the Criminal to a place of horrour and darkness where his Meat and Drink will be Fire and Brimstone his Companions such who he durst not look upon when he was in the World Devils and Furies not to make him sport and pastime but to torment him and that which aggravates this punishment is that it is attended with despair never to come out of that place of Torment If this was well considered and laid to heart could a reasonable man be invited by any temptation whatsoever to gratify his ambition or other appetites with those things which will be enjoyed but for a very short time and adventure this Sentence of Ite Maledicti but pray let us consider what to do to avoid this fearful Sentence The Psalmist instructs us he who will ascend the Holy Mountain must have clean hands a pure heart must not lift up his mind to vanity and must not be sworn to deceive his Neighbour he must have clean hands not subject to Bribery or Corruption a pure heart he must design nothing injurious to God his King or his Country he must not lift up his mind to vanity but must lay aside all ambitious thoughts and be contented with the Station where God Almighty hath placed him he must not be sworn to deceive his Neighbour this last is part of the Law of Nature and one of the Precepts of the Moral Law Thou shalt not bear false Witness against thy Neighbour under this Head comes all Perjury Subornation of Perjury Lying Deceit Treachery and Falshood the Psalmist lays before us our Duty at this time and if we perform it justly we may avoid this Sentence of Ite Maledicti Gentlemen we have all sworn you the Juries of Constables to present without favour or affection hatred or malice and you ought to present all those Crimes which are committed within your several Parishes and Precincts against the Laws and Statutes of this Kingdom and you Gentlemen of the Grand Jury are likewise sworn to present without favour or affection hatred or malice and we upon the Bench are sworn to do Justice according to the best of our skill and knowledge we are not only sworn but we have likewise made a Covenant with God to be just according to our Oaths at the end of our Oaths we say so help me God which is as much as to say we desire no help from God in our needs if we do not do that which is just according to our Oaths Now I would