Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	master_n	perform_v	servant_n	3,566	5	7.2466	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51618	Rites of funeral ancient and modern in use through the known world written originally in French by Monsieur Muret ; and translated into English by P. Lorrain.	Muret, Pierre, ca. 1630-ca. 1690.; Lorrain, P. (Paul), d. 1719.	1683 (1683)	Wing M3098_VARIANT; ESTC R27516	105,782	322

Grave BUT I should be too prolix should I mention all the particulars Antiquity furnishes us withal on this account which are so many convincing Arguments that the Burying of the Dead has ever been reckon'd one of the chief of Religious Duties Wherefore I shall conclude this Head and come now to speak of the Judgment of Wise men who have fully and clearly explained themselves concerning the indispensableness of the Right of Burial by which all are obliged to give the Dead their due PLATO in that excellent Idea which he was fram'd of his Common wealth does not forget amongst the several kinds of Justice he there speaks of to mention that which we owe to the Dead HIS Disciple Aristotle teaches in his Book of Virtue that one part of Distributive Justice does belong to the Dead and in his Problems he asserts that it is more just to pay them their due than to the Living PINDAR who was a great Philosopher as well as Poet says that the things of this World are not so entirely assigned to the Living but that the Dead may claim their lawful share in them and that besides a special place which they ought to have to be Buried in we are bound to bestow a part of the means and Estate they leave behind them to celebrate their Funeral with honour and decency CICERO in the division which he makes of the parts of Justice marks one to respect the Gods the other the Dead and the last the Living SERVIVS does observe that Virgil who so often calls Aeneas by the name of Pious in the Poem he has writ to immortalize the memory of that Heroe does chiefly give him this Character because of the Funeral Honours which he with so much care and application always paid to his Relations and Friends wherein he spared nothing nor himself neither doing many actions that would have been unworthy of him had they been done upon any other account BUT on this occasion all is honourable even for Persons of great Quality to carry the Dead on their shoulders because the motive of Piety and Humanity that engages them to do it highly raises that action which is but low and mean of it self When I Inter a Dead Body says Seneca though I never saw or knew the Party when he was alive I deserve nothing for my so doing since I do but discharge an Obligation which I owe to Humane Nature WHICH Duty even to unknown persons is so just that the Latin hath given it no other appellation than that of Justice and the Greek of a Lawful Custom Piety and Godliness So that amongst the Romans and Grecians which have been the two most potent and civilized Nations in the World when they would express that one had been interred they said that they had done him Right or Justice THIS Duty consisted in casting three several times a handful of earth upon the Corps which was to be done by one of the Priests when any could be had or for want thereof by any other Person whatsoever This is that which the Ancients called the Sacredness of Burying without which no Soul as they believed could enjoy any rest for a long season It availed nothing to the Dead that he was buried in a deep Grave or laid in a Tomb if the Funeral Ceremony were not begun with these three handfuls of earth for lack of which a poor Soul though it had liv'd never so well was fain to wander up and down for the space of an hundred Years before it could be admitted into the Elysian Fields And on the contrary when these three handfuls of earth were flung upon the body though it was never after interr'd they thought the Soul did nevertheless enjoy its rest But as it would have been a piece of cruelty thus to leave the Corps exposed to the open view of all so the one was seldom performed without the other for the poorest and most inconsiderable fellow in the World as a Slave or a private Souldier could not be denied the usual Garments Coffin and other Necessaries for his Funerals IF any Master was so inhumane as not to discharge this pious Duty towards his Servant the first Man who took upon him the care of performing it had an Action against and was sure to cast him the Law ordering a reimbursement of all the Plaintiff's expences on that account no debt having more priviledge than this as being prefer'd even before Legacies and the strictest Covenants yea before a Wife's Portion which was esteemed the most Sacred Engagement that belong'd to any Society and for which the Law had very carefully provided And this is the more observable because a Slave who enjoy'd no priviledge and was by his unfortunate condition not much more regarded than a Brute being liable to all manner of abuses without redress subject to all sorts of affronts injuries and violence and very often to loss of life it self the Law taking not the least notice of it for his relief had nevertheless after his Death a Right to demand of his Master by any that would do it for him his Funeral charges and in case of refusal to distrain for them True it is that these charges were very inconsiderable and the place where this sort of People were buried most abject But how small soever the one and abject the other might be yet was it a Right that could not be dispensed with AS for Souldiers they in this case provided for themselves after another manner not being willing in a matter of so great importance to trust their Captains with the care of it Each Legion had a Purse for their common Burials into which every one that was listed was obliged to put some thing of his Pay and with this stock the Charges of their Interments were defray'd VEGETIV'S who tells us of that Pious Custom amongst a sort of Men that are thought to have neither Faith nor Law adds another instance of that natural love of Burial which is no less admirable than the foregoing He says that after the bloody Defeat of Cannae most of the Roman Souldiers despairing of being interr'd because their Enemy was Conqueror and Master of the Field were found to have as well as they could digg'd holes for themselves and laid down their Heads foremost in them that they might not be wholly depriv'd of Burial FOR this Reason it was that they feared not Death in Land-fights as hoping that the very same place wherein they fought would afford them a Grave for their Eternal rest But they were mightily troubled and dismay'd at the thoughts of a Naval Combat or when they were in danger of shipwrack because they saw themselves upon the point of being for ever deprived of it UPON which account also Achilles who braved all manner of Dangers could not as Homer says keep himself from being daunted at that of shipwrack when he