Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	church_n	great_a	public_a	1,050	5	5.8664	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69475	An answer to the letter to a dissenter, detecting the many unjust insinuations which highly reflect on His Majesty, as likewise the many false charges on the dissenters. Published with allowance.		1687 (1687)	Wing A3416A; ESTC R14774	11,637	14

nothing more certain than that Qui sentit commodum incommodum sentire debet and therefore how much soever the King Exercises his Prerogative in this respect the Church-men must be silent and that in matters Ecclesiastical the King can dispense no Man of Learning that I could ever hear of but doth acknowledge it and others affirm that the King can in matters Civil dispense with whatever is but malum Prohibitum But for these things consult Nye's Discourse and the Replier to the Oxford Reasons against Addressing In a word if the King had been of the Church of England's Religion not only the Dispensing Power but the Legislative would have been as heretofore it has been affirm'd to be lodg'd in the King's Breast but if the King be of another Religion he must be depriv'd of all his Prerogatives But whatever the present sentiments of the Church of England are it 's very manifest that according to the frame of our Government as describ'd by the Church of England Men heretofore the King could not only dispense with Laws but the Prerogative is so very much above all Laws that even those Commissions granted by Prerogative against Statute-Law must be regarded more than that Law. It is not therefore the Prerogative that our Church-men are angry with but the Exercise of it to the Relief of others T is the Dissenters Liberty that vexes them For though it be known that the Dissenters lie under manifest Convictions of Conscience that it 's their Duty to worship God in their Way that their Privacy was but the Effect of a Violence laid upon them which is no sooner remov'd but they return to their Duty yet for the sake of Religion contrary to their Consciences they must lay aside the Public Worship of God and all this to gratifie their Persecuting Friends of the Church of England and must wait till a Parliament that is against Liberty of Conscience give 'em Liberty For the great thing the Dissenters desire is a Parliament that will concurr with the King in Establishing Liberty by a Law and for desiring such a Parliament they are expos'd by our Gentleman to the severest Censures But let us suppose that to gratifie their Persecutors the Dissenters would venture on one stretch of Conscience and tho when they could not Worship Publickly without Trouble yet were resolv'd to hold on in that Worship and will now whil'st they may be at ease leave off all Public Worship I say for once let us make the Supposition But then would not this be sufficient to justifie all the Clamors they have been loaded with above Twenty Years together of being the most giddy and obstinate People alive who know not how to live but in contradiction to the Government and would not this provoke the King to conclude that it 's not Religion but Faction and Sedition they are for And would not our Clergy have endeavoured to fix such Thoughts of the Dissenters on his Majesties Mind And might they not have continued their Privacy till Dooms-day for any Relief a Parliament would give ' em How then can any Man of Conscience or of mere Humanity be angry with this persecuted People because they thankfully accept of Liberty and are desirous that it may be Established by Law But this is not the worst part of the Pamphlet there remaineth what cannot but turn the Stomach of any Loyal Person against it for Reflexions of a more odious Nature cannot be cast on any Man of Honor than this Pamphleteer has cast on the King. In the First place he insinuates that the King gives not the Dissenter this Liberty of Inclination but of Necessity These New Friends saith he by whom he must mean his Majesty and those of his Religion did not make you their Choice but their Refuge they have ever made their first Courtships to the Church of England and when they were rejected there they made their Application to you in the Second place that the King being a Papist is not to be believed for the Papists are no more able to make good their Vows than Men married before and their Wife alive can confirm their Contract with another Besides he further suggests as if his Majesty would imitate a Neighbouring Prince in destroying all Protestants for he saith If in the Heighth of this great Dearness by comparing things it should happen that at this Instant there is much a surer Friendship with those who are so far from allowing Liberty that they allow no Living to a Protestant under them Let the Scene lie in what part of the world it will the Argument will come home and sure it will afford sufficient ground to suspect And in another Page the Prerogative is brought in retaining Counsel against Magna Charta and in answer to an Objection in which 't is said that the Church of England is never humble but when she is out of Power The Reply is That this is not so in FACT For whatever may be told the Dissenter at this very Hour and in the Heat and Glare of their Sun-shine the Church of England can in a moment bring Clouds again and turn the Royal Thunder upon their Heads blow 'em off the Stage with a breath if she should give but a smile or a kind word the least glimps of her Compliance would throw them back into the State of Suffering and draw upon 'em all the Arrears of Severity which have accrued during the Time of this Kindness to them But this is not all for it is further insinuated as if the next Parliament shall be chosen by the King and not by the People that no Liberty of Debate shall be left the Members of either House but the Roman Consistory shall be made Lords of the Articles All this and much more is to be found in the Pamphlet and what can be the meaning of all this But that the Bigotted part of the Church of England if ever they were Loyal are faln from their Loyalty and have out-done the most Seditious Scriblers For what can be said worse of any Prince What was ever said worse of Charles the Second by any Factious Party Or what can be said worse of any Man living The Lashes given our King are most severe and look like an Interpretation of their Doctrin of Non-resistance And if a Fear that others shall enjoy but a like Ease with themselves stir up all this Choler against their Sovereign may we not fairly conclude that if they had been in that Suffering Condition the Dissenters have been for Six and Twenty Years together they would have stirred up many a Rebellion And what shall we think of those who so very much applaud all this as too many of the Church of England Communion have done But do these Gentlemen think that this is the way to take with Dissenters Will they who by their Sufferings for many Years together could never be provok'd will they I say now their Sorrows are removed