Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	private_a	public_a	time_n	1,993	5	3.7610	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37283	A thanksgiving-sermon preach'd at Sutton in Surrey, April the 16th, 1696 being the national thanksgiving day for His Majesty's most happy preservation from the most detestable assassination, in order to a French invasion / by Henry Day ...	Day, Henry, M.A.	1694 (1694)	Wing D463; ESTC R16920	10,274	30

on all their gravity to vail their malignant Doctrins and Designs and make the best shew of Religion they can this is what they plead Vengance is mine and I will repay it saith the Lord I suspect these Men are Atheists at the bottom who hope by their wit to elude the Vengeance of the Magistrate and do not believe a future Judgment But I answer them we also read in Scripture He that spills Man's Blood by Man shall his Blood be spill'd But they will reply why should Vengance extend beyond the Persons that spill Blood I will rejoin why shall others by their ungodly Prints and Preachments tempt Murderous Assassines to do the vile deed If King William be an Usurper and a Tyrant then the horrour of the Assassination is taken off and his bold Enemies are not left unacquainted that old Greek and Roman Historians have celebrated the Murderers of Usurpers and Tyrants as Liberatores Patriae Deliverers of the Country It is of so violent and mischievous influence to lead a People to think that their King has no Title to his Crown and it is but just that Vengeance should reach them if their Doctrin reaches him But I shall be told let a Villany be as hainous as it will yet God has forbid private Revenge I will speak to that and borrow some words from the Author that has answered Sir R. Filmer of Government so Solidly that he will be as old as an Antediluvian Father or rather not die but be changed if he lives till his Book is well answered P. 229. Sect. 87. Man being born with a Title to perfect Freedom and an uncontrouled enjoyment of all the Rights and Priviledges of the Law of Nature equally with any other Man or number of Men in the World hath by Nature a Power not only to preserve his Property i. e. his Life Liberty and Estate against the injuries and attempts of other Men But to judge of and punish the breaches of that Law in others as he is perswaded the Offence deserves even with Death it self in crimes where the heinousness of the Fact in his Opinion requires it Hence I Argue That if upon the Murder of our King which God always forbid there were no Legal Successour but the Kingdom hurld into sudden Confusion and Anarchy then by the Law of Nature and Reason every particular Person had a right to Revenge himself to the uttermost upon the Murderous Assassines and all their Treacherous Adherents But I shall be told that this is not our Case no God be thanked it is not but we will not tamely part with our King for all that The Revenge which the Association threatens upon the violent or untimely Death of our King which God prevent is not a private Revenge but a Publick Solemn and Legal albeit not in the tedious usual Methods of Law which if at such time we were obliged to follow many of the most Guilty would have the Opportunity by one means or other to evade it But if every injured Subject be Commissionated to do the Traytours and their Adherents Justice 't is odds but they pay for their horrid Murder Pray Consider farther This Association is the most Solemn and Legal that can be imagin'd 't is an Association Enacted by the Supreme Authority of the Nation wherein the King himself and almost every particular Lord and Commoner join the King as to his part of it they to the whole wherein the People are duly called to join and have and are ready a vast majority to join they themselves not only by their Representatives but in their own proper Persons Then consider also that we have an Act for the continuing meeting and sitting of a Parliament in case of the King's death or demise c. so that this our Association even as to the Revenging part of it is all along Ascertained to be made good by a Legal Conduct I have yet one thing more to say in its behalf it is the best Expedient both for the Friends and Enemies of the Government that could be devised by the Wit of Man For now it may be Reasonably hoped that our King and his Government shall be safe since the destroyers of it are sure to be destroy'd themselves Dangers force improvident Men on wise Councils we had not been this day in the way of Settlement if we had not been a few daies agoe on the Brink of Ruine Therefore blessed be the name of God who hath disappointed the horrid designs of our Faithless and Cruel Adversaries who hath as it were forc'd us to Establish the Throne of our great Restorer our present King William forc'd us to Associate Vigorously in the defence of that Title which the consent of the People gave him which as hath been well and truly observ'd is the only Title of all Lawful Governments and which no Prince in Christendom hath more fully and clearly than King William Together with him we by this Association take the most effectual course to preserve our Religion Laws and Liberties I have spake what I could call to mind upon a short Warning concerning the Duty enjoyn'd in the first part of the Text Pray for the peace of Jerusalem that duty is enforc'd with this Reason They shall prosper that love thee I make no doubt but God in his Mercy may have order'd much Prosperity to them that Fear him Honour the King and Serve their Country by secret ways of Providence into which we are not able to Penetrate But I am convinc'd by the Evidence of Sense that a conscientious performance of these Duties is a natural means for Men to procure and establish their own Prosperity Every particular Person Member of a Body Politick by being a Member of such Body authorises the Legislative Power to make Laws for him as the publick Good shall require of which the Majority of them who have the Legislative Power are Judges Now as a particular Person 's Consent is included in the Acts of the Majority so his Peace and Happiness is included in the Peace and Happiness of the State which the Majority govern A Man cannot serve the Publick but at the same time he serves his own private Interest also on the contrary he cannot do mischief to the Publick without doing mischief to himself while the Parliament as they are in Duty bound take care of the Sacred Life and Government of K. William they take care also of themselves and of all that is near and dear to them and I do not believe that there is a Man a single Man that is not a penny-less Beggar as well as a wretched Villain who would have found his account in the Success of a French Invasion I might run through all orders and degrees of Men among us Courtier Citizen Souldier Scholar Merchant Mariner c. their Immunities Charters Stipends Revenues Trade Pay are not safe to them without the safety of the King and Government the King and Government not safe without the Association Let us therefore my Brethren Heart and Hand Associate so shall our King and his Government prosper and every one of us as well as the King and Government Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love thee I was just going to dismiss you but just now there comes into my Head another sense of the Words They shall prosper that Love thee a sense very obvious and literal I cannot say I have met with it in any Commentator those Gentlemen are so ingenuous that 't is ever their Custom Transilire ante pedes posita to skip over the literal sense of a Text and run in quest of the figurative Senses and Mysteries The Sense I mean is this O Jerusalem they that love thee shall prosper for I David the Anointed of God and the choice of his People Israel will take care to reward them who are most zealous to preserve my Life and Support my Government I am apt to believe that David in these Words encouraged the honesty of his trustiest Liege-People assuring them who defended his Right against the Abetters of the House of Saul that their faithful Services should be amply rewarded that their Prosperity should be his Care as his sacred Life and just Right was theirs God grant that the Words which we have now heard with our outward Ears may be so inwardly ingrafted in our Hearts that they may bring forth in our Lives and Conversations Loyalty to King William Zeal for the Religion Laws and Liberties of Old England FINIS

Head might satisfy the letter of this Text and pray for the peace of Jerusalem but in that they sought to dethrone him it appears they did or not understand the meaning of the words or not obey it They pray'd for the Peace of Jerusalem as Sinners do for the Grace of Repentance who pray but do not labour for the Grace they pray for they pray'd for the peace of Jerusalem as some Nominal Protestants have done for the Church of England at the same time they labour'd to bring back merciless Tyranny and foolish Superstition To know the ways of righteousness according to the Language of Scripture imports not only bare knowing but actual walking in those ways and to remember the word of the Lord denotes more than a simple calling it to mind even a conscientious conformity to it So the Command of praying for the peace of Jerusalem implies an honest endeavour of every man in his Station to promote it And what the Israelites were commanded to do on behalf of Jerusalem the Capital City of the Land of Promise the Law of Nature or right Reason commands every particular man to do for the peace and prosperity of that City Kingdom or Common-wealth whose Protection as a Member of the same Body Politick he enjoys Some of our Order my Brethren have been justly reproached for running too much out of their Province to meddle with Affairs that concern'd them not principally State-Affairs in the late Reigns And we all know out of what Design and to serve whose Purpose the Sons of Levi became the Disciples of Achitophel But Morality being a part of what we are oblig'd to teach I think none of you will say that I forget my Duty if I spend some time to shew you the Just Obedience due to the Legal Powers set over us for as these so is Religion and we that preach it ordain'd for the use and good of the Publick Our Prayers then for the Peace of the Kingdom of England and for the renowned Metropolis London our great Jerusalem and our Endeavours in our several Stations to promote that Peace cannot be sincere and honest unless we do these Three things 1. Own the Legality of the Government under the Administration of King William our Rightful and Lawful King 2. Forbear traducing it or patiently hearing it traduc'd 3. Associate for its defence against all the Enemies thereof whatsoever 1. Own the Legality of the Government under the Administration of King William our Rightful and Lawful King By nature all men are free equal and independent no man can be mov'd from this State and made a Member of a Community or Government but by his own consent and when for the better securing to himself his Temporal Interests he has giv'n his consent and becomes a Member of a Community or Government he must be contented to regulate himself according to the Laws and Measures which shall be prescrib'd by the majority of the Government or any number of men chosen by the Majority for that end No man in Civil Society ought to be exempted from the Laws of it for such an exemption brings him back to the state of Nature and in such a state every injur'd private man has a right to be reveng'd of him To apply this When the late King James after that he had tyrannically labour'd to alter the whole Frame of the Old English Government and utterly to root out the Christian Religion as it is profess'd and exercised by all that bear the name of Protestants did abdicate and renounce the Government of England Scotland and Ireland with their Dependences that would never basely yield themselves Popish Slaves to his Arbitrary Lust the Majority of the People chose their Valiant Deliverer to be their King to go in and out before them to fight their Battels and see their old Laws put in execution Now there is not an Englishman but according to the Law of Nature and Reason ought to be concluded by this Choice For as a Modern Author convincingly argues If the consent of the Majority shall not in reason be receiv'd as the act of the whole then nothing but the consent of every Individual can make any thing to be the act of the whole and then say I it is impossible there should be any such thing as Society I hope no man will he so foolish as to say That the Majority of the People chose King William to be their King in Fact but not of Right for they had not chose him to be their King if they had not been satisfied that the Tyrant his Predecessor had Forfeited and Renounc'd all the little Right that he could pretend to But supposing let me be pardon'd for so extravagant a Supposal that the Choice of the Oppress'd and Abandon'd People of England gave to King William only Possession of the Government and no Right since it came to pass I know not how he was not solemnly and expresly declar'd Rightful and Lawful till t'other day when it appear'd clear as the Sun that the de Facto Doctrine miss'd but narrowly of taking away not only both his Crown and Life but also our Religion Laws and Properties suppposing as abovesaid yet the present Parliament by whom the Nation is to be concluded have God be thanked at last recogniz'd King William as our Rightful and Lawful King He therefore that refuses to do the same being now by Law expresly call'd to it declares himself an utter Enemy to the Government and not only justly may but necessarily ought to be treated as such for the Safety and Preservation of the Government When Mercy to Restless Conspiring Traytors so plainly as in our Case appears to be Cruelty to the Government the Magistrates that show it cut not only their own Throats but the Throats of all Loyal Subjects who depend on their Vigilance Fortitude and Wisdom These seven Years that we have been disputing the Right of King William and the honesty of our Establishment what have we been doing but exposing his and our own Lives Religion Laws and Liberties to the bold Insults of bigotted Unreasonable Licentious Superstitious Needy Atheistical Men I do not think that all these Epithets belong to the Character of every Frenchifi'd Jacobite but if every one of them does himself Justice they will not leave me a word of Reproach upon my Hands 2. Our Duty of praying for the Peace and endeavouring to promote the Prosperity of our Nation obliges us to forbear traducing it or unconcernedly hearing it Traduc'd A discontented Reflection upon the Government naturally tends to weaken the Hands of it and cannot well be understood to be meant otherwise And since every particular is included in the acts of the Majority such Reflection is not more injurious to the Government than to the reputation of the Man who makes bold with it If a man cannot bring his mind to approve the Title of the Prince in Possession why is he so disingenuous as to