Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	care_n	child_n	father_n	1,324	5	5.2351	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86660	The happiness of a people in the wisdome of their rulers directing and in the obedience of their brethren attending unto what Israel ougho [sic] to do recommended in a sermon before the Honourable Governour and Council, and the respected Deputies of Mattachusets [sic] colony in New-England. : Preached at Boston, May 3d, 1676, being the day of election there. / By William Hubbard ...	Hubbard, William, 1621 or 2-1704.	1676 (1676)	Wing H3209; ESTC W12661	72,888	77

one mind judgment will all both joyntly and severally exert your most strennous endeavours for the promoting the honour and Glory of God and the good of those under your charge In which endeavours if you shall persist it may be hoped that as hitherto God hath owned your selves as well as your Predecessors to become as a wall and defence to his vineyard here planted so there may be still found of you that shall help to build the waste places and raise up the foundations of many Generations and that you notwithstanding the present Combustions shall be called the Repairers of the Breach and the restorers of pathes to dwell in It is possible you may be importunately molested with the clamours of these or those to make this or that change in your course to gratifie particular mens humours of which you need take no more notice then the skilfull Pilot at the helme uses to doe of the cryes of the unskilfull fearfull Passengers that think that course will ruine the vessel which is the only way to preserve it There is an old Fable that when there hapned a great contention about the weather those of the high Countryes complained that they were almost burnt up with drought for want of rain and those of the valleys said they were almost drowned for want of Sun-shining dayes Jupiter sent them word by Mercury the weather should be as it had been Possibly some under your Goverment are as ready to complain of too much restraint as others are of too much liberty I humbly conceive you cannot doe better then to let things be as they have been heretofore so to countenance and encourage those that fear God and work rightiousness but sharply to rebuke and timely to repress whatever is contrary to sound doctrine or apparently tends to hinder the power of Godliness and progress of true Religion with all other profaness or unrighteousness that under the shadow of your Government we may lead quiet lives in all godliness and honesty yet keeping in mind the wise caveate of our Saviour that in gathering up the tares you root not up the wheat also It is one great part of the unhappiness of this life that neither wise nor good men are all of one mind but yet all due care had need be taken that differences be made neither more nor greater then they are or carried on with such Animosity or bitterness as should prejudice the interest of Religion or welfare of the Commonwealth Yea possibly the differences in our minds that occasion most disturbance arise only from that which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so as if things were not strained at both ends further then the equity of the Rule will allow all might well hold together when the overstraining of things is oft times ready to break all to pieces If God in whose hand our times are and who sets the bounds of our habitations shall as he hath begun goe on to perform his whole work upon his people and send such rest unto his Churches here that the Answer to be returned to the Messengers of the Nations shall be The Lord hath founded our Sion and that the poor of the people shall trust in it How can it better be improved then by taking care that the Churches under your care in this Jurisdiction may be edified walking in the fear of God that the Lord our God may be with us as he was with our Fathers that he may not leave us nor forsake us nor our Posterity after us Which to effect I humbly conceive there is no way more probable then by interesting them as much and as soon as may be in all the priviledges that Christian Religion allows as they grow up to engage them throughly and seriously in all the dutyes it requires to take care that it be done by those whom it more immediately concerns is certainly a duty in special incumbent on your selves To this end I may commend to your Consideration the Political Fathers of the Country the example of Abraham whom we find both approved rewarded of God for commanding his children and his houshold after him to keep the way of the Lord and to doe Justice and Judgment that the Lord might bring upon him that which he had spoken of him If he were not much mistaken who said it was morally impossible to rivet Christian Religion into the body of a nation without Infant Baptisme by proportion it will as necessarily follow that the neglect or disuse thereof will as directly tend to root it out How far the Command given to Joshuah by God himself to circumcise the Children of Israel i. e. to take order that Circumcision should be used again among the people by that meanes to nowl the reproach of Egypt from off the Children of Israel may be looked upon as obliging to your selves I shall not now say ye doubtless if what was written or hapned to them was intended as matter of example and admonition to us upon whom the ends of the world are come some use may and ought to be made of such Declarations of Gods will Whatever Indulgence may be judged needfull to be used to some that may be of different apprehensions I have adventured to say something in the following Discourse for cleering the duty of Rulers in matters of Religion from mistakes and stating the bounds of moderate Toleration so far as the time allotted for such an exercise would allow not so much for direction to your selves as for the information of others who by their too much rigidness on the one hand or laxness on the other may be ready to obstruct the Churches peace but not promote the purity of Gospel Worship placidè contra sentientem ferre is no small piece of Christian prudence the want of which I fear hath done much hurt in this poor Country as well as in other reformed Churches Dissenters in Religion being not much unlike the Seditious in the State who by fair meanes may be gained but by too much severity are apt to run into uncurable opposition and obstinacy It must be owned for your future Honour that much hath been done by you to carry on the work of God in this Generation yet may it be feared that his words will be found too true a man much employed and approved by your selves while he was conversant in this world that unless many things were done for the further setling of the matters of Religion amongst us before this Generation went off the Stage they that came after would have cause to say that their Predecessors had left much of their work undone Thus craving your acceptance of this my small mite which I am willing to cast into the Churches Treasury under the countenance of your Authority I shall no further trouble you this way I have made no materiall alteration in any expression nor addition of any thing but what was intended to have been spoken if time would then have

concurrence might be observed in the person of Saul between the rashness of the people to inforcing Samuel to the present choyce of a king and the rashness of the king in most of his enterprises which proved a bad Omen from his first anoynting whereby at last he ruined himself and many of his people yet was be furnished with extraordinary gifts as soon as he was called to the exercise of his goverment It may still be expected in a true sence that a divine Sentence should be in the mouth of the King and Ruler in Israel I will not here ingage in any dispute whither it it be either necessary or convenient for a free people to use their liberty in oft changing their Magistrates or chief Rulers Concerning inferiour Officers such as are Fiscalls Treasurers whose places by reason of the profit they usually are attended with are more liable to temptation corruption there is no matter of danger in their change Wise Hannibal while he was Pretor at Carthage got an Act from the Senate for the changing of such great Officers every year having observed how ready they were all to hold together to the obstruction of justice and oppression of the people But for the supream Rulers of whom one sayes well that quasi cor Reipubliae quod mutare non expedit i. e. that being as the heart and vitals of the Common-wealth it is not expedient to run an hazzard in often changing of them Another speaks to the same purpose That unless a Countrey be very full of skilfull and expert men by often changing their Rulers the Goverment will fall into the hands of rude and ignorant Mechanicks But where the wisdome of any Countrey hath by long experience seen cause to continue the same Rulers they had need be well advised that should promote any innovation especially in any difficult Juncture of affairs It cannot but be dangerous to put the helm into the hands of an unexperienced P●lot in a tempestuous or stormy season In such cases it is most an end found true as the Spaniards say the evill that is present is better then the good that is to come for so many times a small inconvenience and infirmity is charged into an unsufferable evill The people of Israel no doubt would soon have found the little finger of Absoloms vices heavier then the loynes of all Davids Infirmityes It was good Counsell which a wise man of Capua once gave his fellow Citizens that before they cut off the old Senators they should find new ones that were better to place in their room which when upon tryal they were not able to doe they were easily perswaded to continue the former in place Let wisdome and knowledge be found in our Electors as well as in our elected Rulers and that will be the stability of our times and the strength of Salvation Our Election is the foundation of our Goverment A small and inconsiderable error in the Foundation may put the whole Building much out of order As in the body natural a defect in the first conc●ction is seldome helped by the second so will it be found in the body politick And in all ages such as are the Rulers such will be the people both in Church and state Therefore how doth it concern those that have an oppertunity in their hands not only to keep it but to improve it and manage it aright for the upholding and maintaining good order and discipline both in Church and State For if I mistake not any man may make both a true prognostick diagnostick of the athletick State of your people through the whole order of your Goverment both eccleastical and civill by your Elections and the quality of the persons you chuse into places of trust be they Superiours or Inferiours in things sacred as well as civill I am bold to speak the more on this hand that I might imprint upon all your minds that are any way concerned in Election a conscientious care of your duty and faithfull discharge of the trust committed to you It was one of the last requests that Moses made unto the God of the spirits of all flesh just as he was ready to resign up his charge that a man might be set over the Congregation which might both goe in and out before them that the Congregation of the Lord be not as sheep that have no sheheard Num. 17.16.17 Lest they should there by be left to wander every one after his owne immagination and so degenerate into corrupt and foolish wayes to their owne destruct on I am not ignorant that the lot of this dayes Election is in a great part cast into the lap the disposal thereof from the Lord we expect to know by and by but I speak for the future and in way of caution to take heed to our Elections for our All depends upon it It was a sad presage of evill times approaching upon Jerusalem when the people were driven to such miserable shifts as to shrowd them-themselves under the skirts of unmeet persons only for the sake of meat and clothing Is●i 3.6 7. for they are the things lest requisite in him who is called to be an Healer A poor and wise child is better then an old and foolish King saith Solomon Eccless 4.12 And for a man to be put into the Priests office not qualified thereunto only to eat a morsel of bread may prove a curse to the place and people as well as to that person as was pronounced against the Family of Eli 1. Sam. 2.36 If any should here expect that a character should here be given how to judge of such men as may be accounted meet to be heads or leaders of Israel the text is a full description such as have understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to doe and they who are such doe discover themselves or may be distinguished from others by these qualifications 1. The fear of the Lord and the love of Righteousness The fear of the Lord is the beginning or chief part of wisdome as the text tells us He that is not wise for himself or for his owne soul will never be wise for the common-wealth They that are not of Israel will not much care to know what Israel ought to doe David that was a companion of them that fear the Lord is easily induced to seek the good of all such Psal 122.8 What Plato said of Philosophers we may say of the men that fear God which is the best wisdome who wished that they were the only kings or that kings were only such David owned by God himself to be a man after his own heart was the standard by which his Successors were measured amongst whom you will find that to doe that which was right was rather a diminution then otherwise unless it could be added with a perfect heart as did David his father So as to know or doe that which is right unless it were out of integrity

Mat. 22.21 Therefore for all known incendiaries in Church or state such as are the Jesuites Munsterian Anabaptists Wolves in Sheeps-cloathing Devils in humane shape who ever pleaded for their exemption from penal Laws but those that are or would if they might be like unto them Likewise all such as expose the religion professed by the countenance of publick Authority to vulgar contempt may justly fall under the same condemnation concerning these as well as the former I may say to the civil Rulers of the Country as David said to Solomon in another case Thou art a wise man and knowest what thou oughtest to do unto them 1 King 2.9 4. For simple Heresie or misbelieving any truth in Religion though fundamental if not seditiously or Blasphemously held forth there seems neither rule from the word of God nor reason from the nature of the thing why any should undergoe capital punishment Nor doth it appear to be the judgment of the best Protestant Writers that they should be so proceeded against They that desire to understand more of this Subject may peruse the Writings of the most judicious Professors of Divinity in the famous Universityes of Protestant Nations whither Lutheran or Calvinist as may be seen in the Common places Disputations of Gerrard Vostius Amesius and others The Law in Deut. 13. will not reach the case which seems to respect Apostacy or Blasphemy rather then heresy simply considered Yet as one saith men cannot be too cautelous and wary how they make others in that damnable Series seriously and solemnly professing the contrary yea by experience it hath commonly been found that such proceedings have in the issue tended more to the advantage of errour and prejudice of truth then otherwise .. The Magdeburgenses and Osiander tell us in their centuryes what was the success of capital punishment infl●cted upon the Priscillianites hac ratione haerisis haec magis confirmata quam extincta fuit As they speak out of Sulpitius Severus sc that Heresie in it self abominable odious enough was rather confirmed then extinguished thereby some have thought there hath been no better effect of the same course in following times ad judicium sanguinis said Luther territus sum etiam ubi meritum abundat Luther wanted no fervour against false doctrine yet was slow to consent to sanguinary punishment left occasion be taken thereby in following times to slaughter the innocent sheep of Christ as came to pass amongst the Jewes of old and since among the Papists Yet notwithstanding there is no doubt but the civill power may and ought to non-licentiate him that shall take upon him as a Physitian to prescribe to the people poysonous Drugs instead of wholsome food or physick although they may not punish him that shall declare that to be his opinion unless he offend the Lawes by his irregular manner of so doing Doubtless they that are nursing Fathers of their people ought as well to prevent poyson as to provide bread for them which seems to be all that was intended by the authority of the Countrey in the Laws formerly made against Hereticks If the owner or keeper of the Vineyard shall make a thorn hedge about it if any man by violence breaking in shall wound or destroy himself where will the blame be found in them that made the hedg so sharp and strong or in them that attempted without leave violently to break in Those hereticks saith Voetius that shall deny the fundamentals of the Christian Religion Arrians and Socinians Conventus corum nec publici nec privato-publici sunt ferendi if with publick safety they may be forbidden Their religion as he speaks being little better then refined Mehumitanisme directly tending to the destruction of souls It was a notable Stratagem Amphilochius used to convince Theodosius th● Emperour of his duty in suppressing the Conventieles or meetings of the Ar●ians The good Bishop refused to salute the Emperours son newly also created Emperour which Theodosius his father taking ill as if he had forgotten his duty whereupon the said Amphilochius returned upon him with these words vides O Imperator quam aegrè ignominiam filii tui patiare imo vero illis qui in illum insultant vehementer sucoenses credere igitur mihi ve●im hujus Vniversitatis Rectorem Deum eos qui contra filium suum unigenitum loquuntur Blasphemias itidem detestari et tanquam ingratos erga Servatorem et Patronem suum odio prosequi i. e. Thou seest O Emperour how hardly thou art able to bear the reproach done to thy son yea thou art vehemently offended with them that insult over him I would have you believe me that God the Ruler of this Universe doth in like manner detest them that speak Blasphemies against his only begotten son and doth hate them as very ungratefull to their Saviour and Deliverer Whereupon the Emperour forthwith enacted a Law that forbad any assemblyes should be held by the hereticks 5. In the last place for those Opinions which are inconsistent with the truth of Religion and power of godliness and where those that profess them may in charity be supposed to have in them aliquid Dei as Calvin or aeliquid Christi as Bucer was wont to say the case is far otherwise For though I would not be understood to plead for a Toleration of the least evil for all error is in it self a fruit of the first sin and part of the curse any further then necessity requires there should be an allowance made for humane infirmityes in this state of imperfection That which is wanting sayes Solomon cannot be numbred as that which is crooked cannot be made straight Yet why there may not be an indulgence or connivance at them that in some things not fundamental may not be so far perswaded of the truth of every thing professed or practised in the Religion established as to joyn with others in all outward acts of worship being in other respects orderly and peaceable but desire to worshsp God according to their owne perswasion I understand not Paul was permitted to dwell quietly in his owne hired house no doubt but that he worshipped God according to the Institution of the Gospel Act. 28 30. For as Magistrates and civill Rulers should not Gallio like let truth and errour run together in a race catch it who can so neither should they Gyant-like strain up all under their power to their owne measure or bringing them down to their owne size as was said of Procrustes that used so to deal with his Guests It seems not equal to force all others to keep our Pace Besides they may be thought to dispute under too much disadvantage when they know all the Arguments of their adversaries will conclude in Ferio whatsoever the medium may be Or to what end should men be put to produce either Scripture or reason to confirm the Religion they profess if as Jacobus Acontius sayes out of Tertullian they can expect no other Answer