Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	good_a	minister_n	people_n	2,502	5	5.0957	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66607	A sermon preached before the judge at the assizes held at Nottingham, on the 19th of July, 1689 by W. Wilson ...	Wilson, W., Rector of St. Peter's Church in Nottingham.	1689 (1689)	Wing W2957; ESTC R8299	16,299	32

it consists in doing Justice and shewing Mercy and walking humbly with our God. Now Justice and Righteousness is frequently taken in the Holy Scriptures in a very large sense for the sum of that Duty which we owe to God in which sense it extends it self to all the Duties of both Tables And the Reason may be this because God in respect of his being our Creatour has a right of Dominion and Soveraignty over us to command us what he pleases which when we refuse to observe we are unjust in disowning the Right he has to our Obedience And the observance of his Commands is stiled a doing of Justice because we then give that Deference to our supreme Lord as is due to him Sometimes this Duty is taken in a narrower sense for our doing all those Offices and discharging all those Duties that we owe to our Neighbour and in this sense it is limited to the Duties of the second Table But in its strictest sense it respects only that single vertue which consists in the doing to all Men as we would they should to us or in the giving to every Man his due And according to the different Relations that we stand in to each other the Duties that Justice obliges us to are various It requires Inferiours to be Modest and Humble and Superiours courteous and gentle The People conformable to Laws and the Magistrates ruling in the fear of God. That Equals and Neighbours be kind and condescensive and all Men govern themselves by rules of equity in their Dealings and by those of good Nature in their Conversation That we walk uprightly work Righteousness and speak the Truth from our Hearts Render to all their dues saith the Apostle Tribute to whom Tribute is due Custome to whom Custome Fear to whom Fear and Honour to whom Honour Rom. 13.7 In which words the Apostle sums up that Duty and Homage that Support and Subjection that Reverence and Obedience that is owing to the Persons and Authority of those whom God has set over us And can any thing be more just and equal than that we should Honour the Person and reverence the Power that protects us Can any thing be more fit than that we should with the most grateful Minds bless God for the Patronage of those under whose Shadow we live in Safety and by whose Industry and Vigilance Order and peace are preserved that we should by a quiet and peaceable Deportment make the burden of Government as easy and light upon their Shoulders as 't is possible when they really are what they are stiled Nursing Fathers to their People and the Ministers of God for good In a word that we should bear Faith and true Allegiance to those to whom we are not only bound by all the ties of Gratitude but to whom a signal Providence has determin'd it and the Duty we owe to the Society we are Members of does require it For if we must be allowed to suspend our Duty and Allegiance till the Rights of Princes be determin'd for ought that I know there are few Societies in the World but must of necessity break up since there are few Princes can pretend to any better Title than what the Sword and Usurpation of their Ancestours has given them and still fewer whose Possession is setled upon so fair a Foundation as that of their present Majesties Was there nothing but Possession to be pleaded in the case I do not understand but a King of England may by virtue of it claim our Allegiance as fairly as either Augustus or Nero did from the Romans And yet it was with a respect to the latter of these that St. Paul required the Roman Christians to subject themselves because of his Possession Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers for the Powers that are i.e. the Powers that are in being or that have possession of the Crown are ordained of God. Rom. 13. And this our great Casuist Bishop Saunderson has determin'd to be not only Lawful but a Duty we owe to our selves because it is a madness to provoke him that has the Power of the Sword to our Country whose Peace and Safety we are bound to consult and take care of and to him likewise that does bear the Sword since thereby our Persons and Fortunes are protected Neither does he only give us his own but St. Chrysostome's Judgment in the case who so interprets the Apostle's Command to be subject for Conscience sake as if he had said since every Citizen or Member of a Community is conscious to himself how many benefits he enjoys by the publick Authority let him know that as a Recompence for so many Advantages his Obedience is due to him that has the Government But here is not Possession alone but the Consent of the whole Body of the Kingdom and I think I may challenge any Prince in the World to shew that his Title does stand upon a better Foundation The only thing that can here be objected that I can think of is that we being under a preceding Obligation to give our Allegiance to the present King is so far from being a Matter that in Justice we are obliged to that it is a great piece of Injustice to him to whom we have formerly bound our selves And truly I should be apt to think so too had not that unfortunate Prince suffer'd himself to be so far transported by the evil Counsels of those whose designs could not be carried on but by the destruction of our Constitution to invade those Laws by which our Rights are secured and the Measures of our Obedience stated and bounded But when he would not be contented with the Obedience that we obliged our selves to but endeavour'd by alienating a principal Part of his Authority to make us Traitors to our Constitution by subjecting our dearest Rights to foreign Jurisdiction those that have carried Obedience to the highest have here made a stand and I think 't is a folly to talk of being bound to give that Obedience which is not only not accepted but renounced But it is not only to the Cottages of the Poor that Justice is confined but Kings and all in Authority may be reminded that Subjects have their Rights as well as Kings their Prerogatives and that nothing does make a Government more easy or graceful than the keeping Judgment and doing Justice 'T is this does adorn the Diadems of Princes and make the Seats of Judicatures reverenced as well as feared Whatever unbounded Power the flattering Discourses of Court-Parasites have to their own as well as the Subjects Mischief complimented Princes with David was as well skill'd in the extent of a Princes power and had as much reason to be a Friend to the Prerogative as any Man yet he in his dying words declared no doubt for the Instruction of and as a Caution to his Son Solomon that he that ruleth over Men must be just 2 Sam. 23.3 But now if the Power of the Prince

would be only wise to do Mischief Our Understanding would be the most fatal Instrument of our Misery and our Wills the great Disturber of our Peace God therefore has in nothing given us more lively Instances of the Goodness of his Providence than in the Methods he has taken to preserve that which is of such Necessity to the Happiness of Mankind He knows our Frame 't is true and the Necessities of our Nature and since we cannot live without his care of us he makes those Provisions for our Flesh as our Bodily Wants do require But the great Concern that exercises his Wisdom and Power are the Interests of Religion without which he knows all his other Provisions would do little to make us happy When we consider indeed how much we our selves are concern'd in Religion it may almost seem a wonder that a Providence should be needful to preserve it that since it is so absolutely necessary to our present Peace and Happiness to satisfy the noblest Powers of our Nature and to prevent those Confusions that without it we are much more obnoxious to than the Creatures that are below us we should attend to it with so much Sollicitude and Care that even without the watchfulness of Divine Providence it should never be subject to decay One would think that a matter in which we are so much interested should lie so near our Spirits and be so much upon our Thoughts that it should never be in danger of being lost But besides that there are watchful Spirits that with industry and Sollicitude endeavour to corrupt and destroy it there is so much Corruption in our Nature and so much Ignorance and Folly in our Minds we have so much lost the true use of our Reason and our Spirits are so much under the Power of Sense and the World that it is with much difficulty if at any time we raise our Minds to the Consideration of those Things that are so much above us so much are our Souls debased by conversing with sensible Objects that we are apt upon slender Motives to exchange Truth for Errour and having once departed from the true Religion it is no hard matter to slide out of a bad one into none at all So that did not the same Providence that watches over us for our Good interest it self in the Preservation of Religion it would long e're this have been as great a Stranger in the World as the World is to the true Spirit of it But God who at first planted the Seeds of it in our Nature has upheld it by such strong Motives and Powerful Arguments such mighty Miracles and Signal Providences as the Reason of Man cannot but acknowledg to be the Demonstrations of the Spirit and of Power Thus did he of Old restore Religion among the Jews by delivering them out of Egypt and planting them in the promised Land And when after so visible a Demonstration of his Power and Goodness they were still apt to revolt from his Service he awak'd them to a sense of their Duty by setting before them the great Things he had done for them Thus in the Words before my Text he expostulates with them saying O my People what have I done unto thee wherein have I wearied thee Testify against me For I brought thee out of the Land of Egypt and redeemed thee out of the House of Servants and I sent before thee Moses Aaron and Miriam O my People remember now what Balak King of Moab consulted and what Balaam the Son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal that ye may know the Righteousness of the Lord V. 3 4 5. And when by reminding them of those mighty Favours which were too great to be gainsay'd and too Powerful to be withstood he check'd their straying humour and put them upon a sober Enquiry Wherewithal they should come before the Lord and how themselves before the high God. V. 6. i.e. by what means they should appease the Divine Displeasure and atone for their Crimes he directs them in the words of my Text to such an Expiation as is of more value and far more acceptable with God than Thousands of Rams or ten thousands of Rivers of Oyl He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what does the Lord thy God require of thee but to do Justly to love Mercy and to walk humbly with thy God And indeed there is nothing more just and equal than that those Motives whereby God does enforce the true Spirit of Religion upon us and those Miracles of his Providence whereby he secures it to us should put us upon such Enquiries Wherewithal shall we come before the Lord and how our selves before the high God For when Religion is so much our Interest he by the Methods he takes to secure so great a Blessing to Mankind and the wonderful Providences by which he endeavours to call up our Minds from those mean and sordid Projects that pinion them to Mortality and keep them here below to the Comtemplations of his excellent Majesty and a lively acknowledgment of his Being does require that we should do Justice love Mercy and walk humbly with him And as the most grateful return we can make to him for his care in the Preservation of our nearest Concernment he requires that we should apply our Minds to the exercise of a most vigorous Piety and the practice of the substantial Duties of Religion He has shewed thee O Man what is good and what does the Lord thy God require of thee but to do Justly c. He has shewed thee what is good Which Expression we may understand either of the true Nature of that Religion that he requires of us or of the powerful Motives to it that he does furnish us with That the true Spirit and Life of Religion does not consist in Meats and Drinks in the dress of seemingly Spiritual Forms but in the practice of those weighter matters of the Law the doing Justice the loving Mercy and the walking humbly with our God And that God has given us the most prevailing Motives to excite us to the practice of that Religion that he requires of us So that from the Words I shall beg leave to set before you I. The import of that Religion that God requires of us as it consists in Justice Mercy and a walking humbly with our God. II. That it is in the practice of these Things that the true Spirit of Religion does consist III. That the Reason why Men do at any Time act contrary to these Things is not because they are ignorant of them For God has shewed us what is good IV. That the practice of these Things is highly for our Advantage and the Benefit of the World It is the doing what is good V. And Lastly God does require us to do these Things as he has shewed us what is good I. I am to endeavour to set before you the import of the Religion that God requires of us as