Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	christian_a	church_n	religion_n	1,340	5	5.5492	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52850	Discourses concerning government, in a way of dialogue wherein, by observations drawn from other kingdoms and states, the excellency of the English government is demonstrated, the causes of the decay thereof are considered, and proper remedies for cure proposed / by Henry Nevill ...; Plato redivivus. 1698	Neville, Henry, 1620-1694.	1698 (1698)	Wing N503A; ESTC R39070	112,421	300

had no Yeomen but all are either Noble or Villains therefore the Lands must have been Originally given as they now remain into the hands of these Nobles But I will come to the Administration of the Government in these Countries and first say wherein they all agree or did at least in their institution which is That the Soveraign power is in the States assembled together by the Prince in which he presides these make Laws Levy Money Redress Grievances punish great Officers and the like These States consist in some places of the Prince and Nobility onely as in Poland and anciently in France before certain Towns for the encouraging of Trade procured Priviledges to send Deputies which Deputies are now called the third Estate and in others consist of the Nobility and Commonalty which latter had and still have the same right to Intervene and Vote as the great ones have both in England Spain and other Kingdomes Doct. But you say nothing of the Clergy I see you are no great friend to them to leave them out of your Politicks Eng. Gent. The truth is Doctor 〈◊〉 could wish there had never been any 〈◊〉 the purity of Christian Religion as als●… the good and orderly Government of th●… World had been much better provide●… for without them as it was in the Apost●…lical time when we heard nothing 〈◊〉 Clergy But my omitting their Reve●…end Lordships was no neglect for I mea●… to come to them in order for you know that the Northern People did not bring Christianity into these parts but found it here and were in time converted to it so that there could be no Clergy at the first but if I had said nothing at all of this Race yet I had committed no Solecism in the Politicks for the Bishops and great Abbots intervened in the States here upon the same Foundation that the other Peers do viz. for their great possessions and the dependence their Tenants and Vassals have upon them although they being a People of that great sanctity and knowledg scorn ●o intermix so much as Titles with us ●rofane Lay-Ideots and therefore will ●e called Lords Spiritual But you will ●ave a very venerable opinion of them ●f you do but consider how they came ●y these great possessions which made ●hem claim a third part of the Govern●ent And truely not unjustly by my ●…le for I believe they had no less at ●…e time than a third part of the Lands 〈◊〉 most of these Countries Noble Ven. Pray how did they acquire ●…ese Lands was it not here by the Charitable donation of pious Christians as it was elsewhere Eng. Gent. Yes certainly very pious men some of them might be well meaning people but still such as were cheated by these holy men who told them perpetually both in publick and private that they represented God upon Earth being Ordained by Authority from him who was his Viceroy here and that what was given to them was given to God and he would repay it largely both in this World and the next This wheedle made our barbarous Ancestors newly Instructed in the Christian Faith if this Religion may be called so and sucking in this foolish Doctrine more than the Doctrine of Christ so zealous to these Vipers that they would have pluckt out their eyes to serve them much more bestow as they did the fruitfullest and best situate of their possessions upon them Nay some they perswaded to take upon them their Callings vow Chastity and give all they had to them and become one of them amongst whom I believe they found no more sanctity than they left in the World But this is nothing to another trick they had which was to insinuate into the most notorious and execrable Villains with which that Age abounded Men who being Princes and other great Men for such were the Tools they work'd with had treacherously poisoned or otherwise murdered their nearest Relations Fathers Brothers Wives to reign or enjoy their Estates These they did perswade into a belief that if they had a desire to be sav'd notwithstanding their execrable Villanies they need but part with some of those great possessions which they had acquired by those acts to their Bishopricks or Monasteries and they would pray for their Souls and they were so holy and acceptable to God that he would deny them nothing which they immediately performed so great was the ignorance and blindness of that Age and you shall hardly find in the story of those times any great Monastery Abbey or other Religious House in any of these Countries I speak confidently as to what concerns our own Saxons that had not its Foundation from some such Original Doct. A worthy beginning of a worthy Race Noble Ven. Sir you maintain a strange Position here That it had been better there had been no Clergy Would you have had no Gospel preached no Sacraments no continuance of Christian Religion in the World or do you think that these things could have been without a Succession of the true Priesthood or as you call it of true Ministry by means of Ordination do's not your own Church hold the same Eng. Gent. You will know more of my Church when I have told you what I find the word Church to signifie in Scripture which is to me the only rule of Faith Worship and Manners neither do I seek these aditional helps of Fathers Councels or Ecclesiastical history much less Tradition for since it is said in the word of God it self That Antichrist did begin to work even in those days I can easily believe that he had brought his Work to some perfection before the word Church was by him applied to the Clergy I shall therefore tell you what I conceive that Church Clergy and Ordination signified in the Apostolical times I find then the word Church in the New Testament taken but in two sences the first for the Vniversal Invisible Church called sometimes of the First-born that is the whole number of the true Followers of Christ in the World where-ever resident or into what part soever dispersed The other signification of Church is an Assembly which though it be sometimes used to express any Meetings even unlawful tumultuous ones as well in Scripture as prophane Authors yet it is more frequently understood for a gathering together to the Duties of Prayer Preaching and Breaking of Bread and the whole Number so Congregated is both in the Acts of the Apostles and in their holy Epistles called the Church nor is there the least colour for appropriating that word to the Pastors and Deacons who since the Corruptions of Christian Religion are called Clergy which word in the Old Testament is used sometimes for Gods whole People and sometimes for the Tribe of Levi out of which the Priests were chosen for the word signifies a Lot so that Tribe is called Gods Lot because they had no share alotted them when the Land was divided but were to live upon Tythe and serve in the

prejudice to his convalescence a reprehension I have to make him Doct. Yes yes you may say what you will to him for your Repremands will rather divert than trouble him and prove more a Cordial than a Corrosive Eng. Gent. Then Sir pray consider what satisfaction you can ever make me for the hard measure you have used towards me in letting me learn from common Fame and Fortune the news of your Sickness and that not till your recovery and for depriving me of the opportunity of paying the debt I owe to your own merit and to the recommendation of those worthy Persons in Italy who did me the honour to address you to me And this injury is much aggravated by the splendour of your Condition and greatness of your Fortune which makes it impossible for me ever to hope for any other occasion to express my faithful service to you or satisfie any part of the duty I have to be at your devotion To be sick in a strange Country and to distrust the sincerity and obedience of Noble Ven. Pray Sir give me leave to interrupt you and to assure you that it was not any distrust of your goodness to me of which I have had sufficient experience nor any insensibleness how much your care might advantage me much less any scruple I had of being more in your debt which if it had been possible for me to entertain it must have been thought of long since before I had received those great Obligations which I never made any difficulty to accept of It was not I say any of these Considerations which hindred me from advertising you of my Distemper but the Condition and Nature of it which in a moment depriv'd me of the exercise of those Faculties which might give me a Capacity of helping my self in any thing But otherwise I assure you that no day of my life shall pass wherein I will not express a sence of your Favours and Doct. Pray now Sir permit me to interrupt you for this Gentleman I dare say looks for no Compliments but that which I have to say is That the desire you signified to me to give you some account of our Affairs here and the turbulency of our present State will be much better placed if you please to address it to this Gentleman whose Parts and Studies have fitted him for such an Employment besides his having had a great share in the managing Affairs of State here in other times And really no man understands the Government of England better than he Eng. Gent. Now Doctor I should tell you i pari miei si coglionono for so you your self have baptized this kind of Civility But however this is a Province that I cannot be reasonably prest to take upon me whilst you are present who are very well known to be as skillful in the Nature and Distemper of the Body Politick as the whole Nation confesses you to be in the concerns of the Natural And you would have good store of Practice in your former Capacity if the wise Custom amongst the Ancient Greeks were not totally out of use For they when they found any Craziness or indisposition in their several Governments before it broke out into a Disease did repair to the Physicians of State who from their Profession were called the Seven Wise Men of Greece and obtain'd from them some good Recipes to prevent those seeds of distemper from taking root and destroying the publique Peace But in our days these Signes or Forerunners of Diseases in State are not foreseen till the whole Mass is corrupted and that the Patient is incurable but by violent Remedies And if we could have perceived the first Symptoms of our Distemper and used good Alteratives the curiosity of this worthy Gentleman had been spared as also his command to you to give him some light into our matters and we unfortunate English-men had reposed in that quiet ease and security which we enjoy'd three hundred years since But let us leave the contest who shall inform this Gentleman lest we spend the time we should do it in unprofitably and let each of us take his part for if we speak all it will look like a studied discourse fitted for the Press and not a familiar Dialogue For it ought to be in private Conversation as it was originally in the planting the Gospel when there were two sorts of preaching the one Concionary which was used by the Apostles and other Missionaries when they spoke to those who had never heard of the Mysteries of Christian Religion possibly not so much as of the Jewish Law or the History of Christ The duty of those was to hear and not reply or any way interrupt the harrangue But when the Believers called the Church assembled together it was the Custom of such of the Auditors to whom any thing occurred or as S. Paul calls it was revealed to interpose and desire to be heard which was called an Interlocutory Preaching or Religious Conversation and served very much to the instructing and edifying those who had long believed in Christ and possibly knew as much of him as their Pastor himself and this is used still amongst many of our Independent Congregations Doct. I have besides the reason I a●ledged before and which I still insist upon some other cause to beg that you will please to give your self the trouble of answering this Gentleman's Queries which is that I am very defective in my Expressions in the Italian Language which though I understand perfectly and so comprehend all that either of you deliver yet I find not words at hand to signifie my own meaning and am therefore necessitated to deliver my self in Latin as you see And I fear that our pronunciation being so different from that which is used in Italy this worthy person may not so easily comprehend what I intend and so be disappointed in the desire he hath to be perfectly instructed in our Affairs Noble Ven. Really Sir that is not all for besides that I confess your pronunciation of the Latin Tongue to be very new to me and for that reason I have been forced to be troublesom to you in making you repeat things twice or thrice I say besides that your Latinity ●s your Writings shew and all the world knows is very pure and elegant which it is notorious to all that we in Italy scarce understand Gentlemen there never Learning more Latin than what is necessary to call for Meat and Drink in Germany or Holland where most of the Hosts speak a certain Franck compounded of Dutch Latin and Italian And though some of us have Latin enough to understand a good Author as you have of our Language yet we seldom arrive to speak any better than this Franck or can without study comprehend good Latin when we meet with it in discourse And therefore it is your perfection in that Tongue and my ignorance in it that makes me concur with you in desiring this Gentleman