Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	child_n	father_n	wife_n	1,871	5	6.7496	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77718	Solomons blessed land a sermon upon Ecclesiastes X.17. Preached before an extraordinary assembly at Newark upon Trent, May 29. 1660. Being the birth-day of our soveraign lord Charles II. King of Engladnd, [sic] &c. / By Samuel Brunsell rector of Bingham in Notting.	Brunsell, Samuel, 1619 or 20-1688.	1660 (1660)	Wing B5233; Thomason E1033_9; ESTC R208965	28,934	40

excess or usurpation of power the possibility and suspicion whereof at first in each other was the very spark that kindled it Supremacy therefore of Power as it is Essential to Government so can it not be reconcil'd with co-ordination without a plain contradiction To imagine such power in a people considered as so many loose individuals is to conceive an unity in division there being as many Soveraigns as men And to think that so great a multitude as the vast generality of a people can joyn and concur in such sort as to act every one for himself or be otherwise embodyed and united then by being made one term of a relation through the necessary position of some opposite term is to dream or that which is impossible to wit of an inferiour without a Superiour or of a Superiour where none are inferiour When once a relation is put the terms are immediately distinguisht and therefore to confound the properties peculiar to each term by imposing subjection on those that govern and attributing Supremacy of Power to those that are governed is to make the son beget the father or the father become the child of his own son Be it so that men of their own accord by their own consent and power either through chance or choice are fallen into a relation yet being once there they cannot make void or alienate the necessary duty which God by his Law hath thereto firmly annext A woman by her own consent uncompell'd by any Law of God makes her self a wife to a man whom therefore she may be said to have made her husband but being once in that relation the wife may not upon pretense of having made that man her husband reverse the husbands power and usurp authority over him Much less upon the like pretense may the Subject recall or invert the power of the Magistrate the duty of obedience and submission being by God annex'd to Subjection And therefore men so related must needs be subject not only for wrath Rom. 13.5 but also for Conscience sake whatever the motive or occasion were that first brought them into the relation This benefit however must needs be necessarily intended in the erection of any Government viz. That the Subjects may be secured so far as is possible from danger and mischief through strife violence and war in the confused tyranny of one another And that form of Government which best obtains that which all Government as such doth chiefly if not solely intend must needs be prefer'd before other forms notwithstanding its being obnoxious as all forms are through one accident or other to some defects and obliquities Engines that have many wheels will sometimes be out of order though no disparagement to him that either made or keeps them And therefore it cannot be expected that Monarchy with its greatest advantages should be able to satisfie all or fully put to silence the ignorance of foolish men The clearest light in heaven is observ'd to have some spots and if God himself did never please all is it possible that all should be pleas'd However to discover a weakness or imperfection in any thing is no argument that another is better no more then it would be for any pretender to prudence and moderation to conclude himself wiser then Solomon because he is able to charge Him with some act of folly Upon such an account it must needs be easie for any one to make good his claim to an universall precedency The question is What form of Government is best Not whether that Government only ought to be prefer'd or admitted which is every way perfect No state or condition upon earth is so and he that will not be satisfied upon any other terms shall roll a stone with Sisyphus and never be at rest Seeing then there always were are and will be defects in all certainly that must heeds be best which hath the least and fewest And that we say is Kingly Government or Monarchy wherein the Elementall powers of a simple and unbodyed people are drawn together and compacted in a single person The reason is this Because the more closely Soveraign power is united as when the Sun-beams are drawn towards a point by a Burning-glass the greater strength and aptitude it hath to obtain its end in the safety and honour of the whole Community For these can never be well provided for if a Magistrate want sufficient strength to suppress all attempts that may be made against the Government or cannot exercise that strength so seasonably and readily as by timely Discoveries and quick preventions to anticipate or countermine the practises of such as are enemies to the publique Peace which is never more in danger then when the Authors of sedition to which all Governments are subject more or less do receive incouragement from such probabilities of effecting their purposes as the frequency of opportunities and greatness of temptations cannot but create and suggest If Ambition long for Empire and be even choak'd with thirst after power if pride affectedly think it self too good or great to be subject if passion be impotent and cannot hold it self if prejudice and errour would contest by force what they cannot make good by reason if ignorance will not see the good of Peace and ill of War if wantonnesse being cloy'd and fall despise the Honey-combe or curse its own Blessings and be undone for want of variety or something of a new mode if covetousuesse would take and enjoy all but contribute nothing towards the expensive administrations of necessary Justice and Order if self-love will be partiall and blame the Government for those sufferings which the heedless Subject hath incurr'd by his own default if slothfulnesse imprudence luxury and pleasure will improve nothing but spend all and be in want and seek unlawfull supplies or contract debts and suits and if all these do wilfully and greedily expose themselves to danger by the guilt and punishment of their crimes how is it possible but that the natural desire in man to save and preserve himself should dispose and incline them all to secure themselves by force from being accomptable to that Authority which they know must curb and correct their Insolencies But then that Soveraign power which is made perfect in one to wit in a King or Monarch must needs be best plac'd and dispos'd because its Government when well administred doth evidently afford both lesse temptations and fewer opportunities to transgress and also less hopes of security and success For is it not much easier for an aspiring spirit to fancie its being one of a Senate then one where there is but one which makes the attempt more desperate If Supremacy reside in a multitude the natural desire of power will scarce penult any active person in that number to rest satisfied with 〈◊〉 when he may fairly hope to have all Nec quenquam jam ferre potest Caesar c. Lucan Equality is as offensive to one as Superiority is