Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	better_a	divine_a	great_a	88	3	2.0866	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29240	Times treasury, or, Academy for gentry laying downe excellent grounds, both divine and humane, in relation to sexes of both kindes : for their accomplishment in arguments of discourse, habit, fashion and happy progresse in their spirituall conversation : revised, corrected and inlarged with A ladies love-lecture : and a supplement entituled The turtles triumph : summing up all in an exquisite Character of honour / by R. Brathwait, Esq.	Brathwaite, Richard, 1588?-1673.	1652 (1652)	Wing B4276; ESTC R28531	608,024	537

then turne loyterer their late distemper'd rest into a shady repose or plenteous repast Such as these will be the aptest for taking up those words of that malapert Servant in the Gospel My Master doth deferre his comming Hee resolves therefore to take advantage of time and to play the Commander in the absence of his Master Where like an imperious Censor he begins to smite the servants and maidens and to eate and drinke and to be drunken These are many times the fruits of parcimonious Masters who by tasking their Servants too strictly or by deteining from them what they are to render them in equity either make them dissolute or some other way desperate whereof wee have such daily examples as their too insulting command have brought many timorous Servants to a fearefull end The like may be spoken of domineering Mistresses who make their correction of their Maids their sole recreation And these for most part are of that tenacious nature as they will not afford a competence to their Family but ingage themselves to famine amidst of plenty These as they live without love so they generally dye without teares Their excessive care to advance a posterity as it expos'd them to an indiscreet parcimony so it ever closed their memory with an incompassionate Elegy This that injuried Melissa in the Poet expressed who having long time served where shee little profited and now freed of her sharpe Mistris Drusilla by death attached resolved to revive her Mistresses memory one no lesse decrepit in mind then body in this Loves Lachrymae or her Ladies Elegie Ladies tell mee you that shine In the fancy of the time Would you live when you doe feele Maladies from head to heele Rugged wrinkles on that brow Whiter once then Ida's snow Many rivels beamlings few Where the Rose and Lily grew When those dangling'trosses shall In a timely Autumne fall When that breath shall Earth partake Which was once Ambrosiack When those pearled Cordons shed Leave your mouths unpeopled When your nose and chin shall meet Balmy Palme has lost her heat When those weake-supporting feet Faile in traversing the street If Death pleasing be to such Why should frailty then thinke much When like Grasse she is cut downe For others good and for her owne Let not a tear then dimme your eye When you see your Mother dye She only to her Mother goes Where for a while she must repose Till her united parts shall sing A glorious Paean to her King Or to Dis I know not which Who made her poore by being rich For ready Entrance who 'l deny her That has the Keyes of Angels by her But let us decline our course from these parcimonious natures being such as make themselves most miserable in having by enjoying least what they have in possessing And in briefe deliver the true Character of a deserving Master Which we shall not presume to commend unto you as a Patterne or Modell drawne from the Engine of our owne conceit being already so exactly presented to life by that glorious Convert and excellent Vessell of Election in these words Yee Masters doe unto your servants that which is just and equall knowing that ye also have a Master in Heaven And to attemper the inclemency of sterne and implacable Masters whose highest glory it is domineere over their Servants he useth this exhortation Put away threatning for know that even your Master also is in Heaven neither is there respect of persons with him Now to observe this golden meane in your Command neither beare your selves so indulgent as your remissenesse may probably beget a neglect in your Servant for so by remitting your care might you occasion him to difert or omit his charge nor cruell for your distemper may discourage a well composed nature and make him weary of his imployments for so severe and rigid a Master Be it your care that neither your remissenesse make him sleight you nor your to much strictnesse bring him to hate you So shal your gracefull demeanour deserve the choyce of such a Servant as I am now to present unto you whose service shall be to your solace and whose behaviour shall ever conduce to your profit and honour NOw as you have heard those distinct Offices of Masters to their Servants You who are in all lawfull things to obey your Masters recollect what especiall duties import you and how you stand obliged both by divine and humane Law to performe conscionably what you are enjoyned to observe legally And to expresse your selves the better in the performance of this duty let not such taskes nor imployments as are injoyned you be done perfunctorily or remissely but cheerfully and with all alacrity Observe the direction of that sage Morall That labour loseth a great part of its honour that is done in a secure or drowsie manner A Servant to render himselfe truly obedient must have agility of hand and alacrity of heart Many by repining have lost their penny in the Evening And know ye that as a curse is denounced on that Master who defraudeth his Servant of his wages so can no blessing redound unto that Servant who defraudeth his Master of his worke It was the Apostles exhortation and it well deserves your attention Servants be obedient unto them that are your Masters according to the flesh with feare and trembling in singlenesse of your hearts as unto Christ. Whence you may collect how pretences of obedience without reverence and sincerenesse can purchase no acceptance Let it bee your principall care to reteine a memory of your highest Master by which you shall learne to performe those offices to his honour which are recommended to your charge and in the evening of your service amply remunerate your care Iacob because hee did the duty of a carefull servant became a Master of dutifull Servants He shall never know well how to command that has not learned first how to obey Obedience is a thankfull Sacrifice Neither can he well expresse it to his invisible Maker who has not endeavour'd to render it to his visible Master You know well what is commended and committed to you discharge your place with discretion it will improve your Masters affection confirme his good opinion and conferre a blessing on your fortune A discreet servant shall have rule over a lewd sonne Doe you observe this honour As you tender then your reputation let your service be ever seasoned with discretion Let not your labours be to the eyes of men seeing you are in his sight whose eyes are upon all the Children of men Let not your Masters presence be the sole motive to your diligence but when hee is farthest divided from you addresse your imployments as if hee were present with you Let no wandring thoughts distract you as you are seated in a vocation you must not suffer it to admit of the least distraction This has made too many Labourers mighty Loiterers by suffering their thoughts to

Which devout and godly endevour that it might be the better furthered and his glory by whose grace wee are assisted the more advanced needfull it were to reduce to our memory daily and hourely these two maine Considerations First those three profest Enemies that infatigably assaile us which should make us more watchfull Secondly that faithfull friend who so couragiously fights for us which should make us more thankefull for our Enemies as they are some of them domestick so are they more dangerous for no foe more perillous then a bosome foe Besides they are such pleasing Enemies as they cheere us when they kill us sting us when they smile on us And what is the instrument they worke on but the soule And what the time limited them to worke in but our life Which humours doe swell up sorrowes bring downe heats dry aire infect meat puffe up fasting macerate jests dissolve sadnesse consume care straineth security deludeth youth extolleth wealth transporteth poverty dejecteth old-age crooketh infirmity breaketh griefe depresseth the Divell deceiveth the world flattereth the flesh is delighted the soule blinded and the whole man perplexed How should we now oppose our selves to such furious and perfidious Enemies Or what armour are wee to provide for the better resisting of such powerfull and watchfull Assailants Certainely no other provision need we then what already is laid up in store for us to arme and defend us and what those blessed Saints and servants of Christ have formerly used leaving their owne vertuous lives as patternes unto us Their Armour was fasting Prayer and workes of Devotion by the first they made themselves fit to pray in the second they addressed themselves to pray as they ought in the third they performed those holy duties which every Christian of necessity ought to performe And first for Fasting it is a great worke and a Christian worke producing such excellent effects as it subjects the flesh to the obedience of the spirit making her of a commander a subject of one who tooke upon her an usurped authority to humble her selfe to the soules soveraignty Likewise Prayer how powerfull it hath beene in all places might bee instanced in sundry places of holy Scripture In the Desart where temptation is the readiest In the Temple where the Divell is oft-times busiest On the Sea where the flouds of perils are the nearest In Peace where security makes men forgetfullest And in Warre where imminent danger makes men fearfull'st Yea whether it be with Daniel in the Denne or Manasses in the Dungeon whether it be with holy David in the Palace or heavenly Ieremie in the Prison the power and efficacie of Prayer sacrificed by a devout and zealous beleever cannot choose but be as the first and second raigne fructifying the happy soile of every faithfull soule to her present comfort here and hope of future glory else-where Thirdly workes of Devotion being the fruits or effects of a spirituall conversation as ministring to the necessity of the Saints wherein we have such plenty of examples both in divine and humane writ as their godly charity or zealous bounty might worthily move us to imitate such blessed Patternes in actions of like Devotion For such were they as they were both liberall and joyed in their liberality every one contributing so much as hee thought fit or pleased him to bestow And whatsoever was so collected to the charge or trust of the Governour or Disposer of the stocke of the poore was forthwith committed Here was that poore-mans Box or indeed Christs Box wherein the charity of the faithfull was treasured Neither did these holy Saints or Servants of God in their Almes eye so much the quality of the person as his Image whom hee did represent And herein they nourished not a sinner but a righteous begg●● because they loved not his sinne but his nature But now because wee are to treat of Perfection in each of these wee are to observe such cautions as may make the worke perfect without blemish and pure from the mixture of flesh As first in that godly practice of Fasting to observe such mediocrity as neither desire to be knowne by blubbered eyes hanging downe the head nor any such externall passion may tax us to bee of those Pharisees whose devotion had relation rather to the observance of man then the service of God neither so to macerate the body as to disable it for performing any office which may tend to the propagation of the glory of the Highest For the first institution of Fasts as it was purposely to subdue the inordinate motions of the flesh and subject it to the obedience and observance of the spirit so divers times were by the ancient Fathers and Councels thought fitting to be kept in holy abstinence of purpose to remove from them the wrath of God inflicted on them by the sword pestilence famine or some other such like plague Saint Gregory instituted certaine publike Fasts resembling the Rogation Weeke with such like solemne processions against the plague and pestilence as this Rogation-weeke was first ordained by another holy Bishop to that end As for the Ember-dayes they were so called of our ancient fore-fathers in this Countrey because on these fasting dayes men eate bread baked under embers or ashes But to propose a certaine rule or forme of direction there is none surer or safer then that which wee formerly proposed So to nourish our bodies that they bee not too much weakned by which meanes more divine offices might be hindered and againe so to weaken our bodies that they be not too much pampered by which meanes our spirituall fervor might bee co●led For too delicate is that master who when his belly is crammed would have his mind with devotion crowned Secondly for Prayer as it is to be numbred among the greatest workes of charity so of all others it should be freest from hypocrisie for it is not the sound of the mouth but the soundnesse of the heart which makes this oblation so effectually powerfull and to him that prayeth so powerfully fruitfull It is not beating of the breast with the fist but inward compunction of the heart flying with the wing of faith that pierceth heaven For neither could Trasylla's devotion whereof Gregory relates have beene so powerfull nor Gorgonius supplication whereof Nazianzen reports so fruitfull nor Iames the brother of our Lord his invocation whereof Eusebius records so faithfull nor Paul the Eremites daily oblation whereof Ierome recounts so effectuall if pronunciation of the mouth without affection of the heart beating of the brest without devotion of mind dejection of face without erection of faith had accompanied their prayer For it is not hanging downe the head like a bulrush which argues contrition but a passionate affection of the heart which mounts up to the throne of grace till it purchase remission Thirdly for Almes-deeds and other workes of Devotion being

wise Dogge for so they were pleased to stile him preferred his suite seeing the Gentleman was neither distracted nor any way so disabled but hee might well enough manage that estate was left him O conscript Fathers said he know you not how this profuse foole ha's forfeited all that estate he had by his Ancestors by discovering his owne Bastardy in degenerating from his Ancestors vertues Ha's hee not made his Family a Brothell and exposed his Wives honour to a lascivious Duell Hee ha's not only stayned his house in becomming so enormiously ill but in depraving others who might have become had not his example made them ill ingenuously good Strip him then of all without him who ha's already stript himselfe of all graces within him Trust me Fathers wee have none here that will bemoane his losse but those whom even goodnesse loaths to looke upon and whose very lives make Athens a L●th-stow of pollution And such Mourners have all Prodigals nor doe these weepe to lose him but by his losse to lose that estate which did supply them Give me him then good Senators I shall become his trusty faithfull Guardian and keepe him short enough to consort with a Wanton Now to decline the just reproofe of such jeering Cinicks nay the distaste of all good men for men of honest quality can never relish any thing better than actions of Piety be it your highest terrestriall pleasure to tender her whom you ought to honour to estrange from your thoughts those injurious embraces of an usurping Lover And remember ever Lisimachus Song the memory whereof will preserve that pure splendor and beauty of your soule from an eternall staine The pleasure of fornication is short but the punishment of the fornicator is long One dayes dalliance exacts many yeares of repentance Imprint in your retentive memories the excellent interrogation of that choice Mirror of Chastity Patterne of presidentall Piety How shall I doe this wickednes and sin against God He chused rather to lose his Coat than his Honour Opportunity could not tempt him nor Importunity taint him Price prayer power became al weak in power to surprize a disposition so resolutely pure Be his Patterne your President his President the Pattern for you to imitate Nor is this Conjugall Office or Duty restrained only to this limitation As your affection is to be constantly continent to their Bed so are you to be affably pleasant at Board I have observed a strange kind of imperious and domineering soveraignty in some Husbands who held it a great posture of State to insult over their wives Nay to be marvellously discontented with what dishes soever were served to catch at offence and to relish nothing better than to discountenance those whose desires were levelled only to please But this argued in them a perversenesse of disposition resembling that ill-condition'd Aglataidas who was never better pleased then with displeasing others nor ever relished any dish better than what was distasted by others Or like that strangely temper'd Demophon who used to sweat in the shade and shake for cold in the sunne Now I could wish to these if their wives affability cannot in time reclaime them that their lots had beene throwne in more rugged grounds For had these beene match'd with our Zantippe's Iulia's Lucilla's or Faustina's no doubt but they would have addressed the best of their endeavours as much to please as their perverse humours are now to displease Then they would have studied Apologies purposely to divert the furious torrent of their displeasure and for the purchase of one poore smile engaged themselves to an Herculean labour It was a singular Philosophicall use which that wise Socrates made of his wives shrewdeness Whether I go abroad said he or I return home I am fenced with the armour of patience against whatsoever shall come Hee had so freely fed upon the herbe of Patience as nothing could distemper him how violent soever the assault were that encounter'd him yea those bickerings he grapled with at home made him better prepared to entertaine all encounters abroad So as with Mithridates hee had so well fortified his virile spirits with soveraigne Receipts against the invasive power of all poyson as he could performe the part of a true Philosopher in smiling upon affliction and receiving all distastes with so composed a brow as hee wondred much how any motives of anger should in an intellectuall soule beget the least distemper For whosoever he be that in resemblance of this Morall Mirrour of admirable patience can in Prosperity be silent and not transported in Adversity patient and not amated in neither of these distempered in either of these Philosophically composed scornes to ingage his more airy thoughts to an un-manly passion having already sphear'd them in an higher mansion In the very same Scene Gentlemen are you interessed wherein should you fall short or in the least measure defective Most part of all our Spectators eyes are fixed on you whose censure will prove as quick sighted as your errour accounting you unworthy those brave parts bestowed on you because mis-acted by you Entertaine these then to whom you are espoused with a free and no servile affection Waine them from passion if at any time they become ingaged to any rather with a pleasing smile then a daring frowne for the former partakes more of an awfull soveraignty then cheerfull fancy The way to preserve in any family a sweet consorting and concording harmony is never to have the Master and Mistris of the house at one time angry Let the sweetnesse of the one allay the sharpenesse of the other It was an excellent resolution which that Laconian Lady ever reteined My Husbands frowne shall be a Beame to disperse my Cloud which cannot chuse but beget in him a cheerfull reflexe seeing I make discontent a stranger to my heart for his sake Now there is one thing Gentlemen which I am to annex to what I have formerly delivered which being carefully remembred and cautiously practised cannot chuse but highly improve this Conjugall Love without which your unconsociable communion were but an hellish life And it is this Are you conceited that shee whom you have married is endowed with a sufficient measure of discretion to governe a Family and without just exception can propose to her selfe with those recommended to her charge rules of good Huswifery Doe not intermixe your care with her charge The disposall of a Daery is more proper for a Mistris than a Master of a Family Strong and manly Offices become the Man soft and delicate the Woman Nor is there any intrusion lesse beseeming then this nor ought that more exasperates the spirit of a woman then to have her care suspected or her charge interposed by her Husband either through a jealousie of her care neglect of her charge or disability to manage any such charge Those two honest Rurall Lovers though their estates were but meane their quality obscure their place of habitation

nearest tye of affection no doubt but wee are by the Law of Nature nay by the definite command of our Maker rather to surcease from living then from supporting those from whom we received our being Our breeding was their care let our care bestow it selfe on their succour Let not a wish proceed from our heart to accelerate their end Though a wish extend not to an act yet it breaths too much inhumanity to worke upon so native a part Man should be of a more noble and malleable a temper then to partake of the nature of a Viper It is reported that towards the North-west part of Ireland there is an Iland so temperate or by some miraculous influence so indowed as when any Inhabitant there becomes worne with age or so enfeebled as their life becomes an affliction so tedious their houres so fastidious their yeares their Children or Friends must remove them out of that place before they can dye Whether there be any such enlivening Ile or no I shall leave to the credit of the Relater but I much feare mee there be many remorcelesse Friends and gracelesse Children who would find ready hands to remove those eye-sores from that Iland long before such times as any such decrepit age seized on them desiring rather to enjoy their present fortunes then the presence of their persons But such premature hopes resolve themselves into weake helpes for where Sonnes are sicke of the Father or Daughters of the Mother they generally decrease no lesse in the prosperity of their estate then quality of their nature Be it then your care to provide for their necessity to support them in their misery and cheerefully returne them all such offices of piety as may relieve their age and consequently improve your comfort in a surviving posterity And so we descend briefly to those Domestick Offices wherein the Servant is to expresse himselfe with all diligence and reverence to his Master as likewise in what manner every Master is to demeane himselfe towards his Servant in a gratefull and ample measure to requite his endeavour Wherein as they merit precedency we are first to treat of the Offices of a Master and in the second place of those duties of a Servant to his Master which are ever to be rendred with competent honour Of Domestick Offices EVery private Family is a little City wherein if there should be no order nor harmony that distracted government would beget a private Anarchy It were a great abuse said that Mellifluous Bernard for the Mistris to play the Hand-maid the Hand-maid and Mistris yet as the eyes of the Hand-maid should be upon the eyes of her Mistris so must not the eyes of the Mistris be estranged from the eyes of her Hand-maid As there is a deputative charge recommended to the one so should there be a supervisive care in the other Now as Masters challenge to themselves a power to command so are they to have discretion in knowing what they command In some cases Servants may more conscionably dis-obey then obey the commands of their Masters Ioseph would not ingage his honour by prostituting his chaste thoughts to a prohibited pleasure for the losse of a light Mistris favour Lawfull things only as they are by Masters to bee commanded so are they with all alacrity by Servants to be obeyed Now to walke in such a faire a smooth path of commanding as neither the Master may erre in the exhibition of his commands nor the Servant shew himselfe remisse in observing what is commanded the Master is to decline two extreames the neglect whereof many times begets either a contempt or hate in the Master an insolence or remissenesse in the Servant These are Leuity and Severity for as the one makes the Servant more insolent so the other makes the Master more hated The Wise-man indeed proposeth a Rule how Masters are to command and in what manner they are to demeane themselves to their Servants which he expresseth to life in these words He that delicately bringeth up his Servant from youth at length hee will be even as his Sonne Whence he inferreth That too much delicacy or familiarity with ones servant begets a contempt This makes him quite forget his servile condition and strangely infuseth into him an over-weening conceit of his owne abilities which begets in him such a malapertnesse as in short time his perverse disposition confi●mes the Wise-mans assertion He will not bee chastised with words though hee understand yet hee will not answer It is dangerous then to make a Copesmate of our Inferiour You are then to observe a Meane in this neither to insensate them by too much indulgency nor decline their affections from you by too much severity That indiscreet act of Vedius Pollio could deserve no lesse then an extreame censure who as one stript of humane nature could so intemperately tyrannize over his Servants as to cause one to bee cast into a Fish-pond for breaking a Glasse What an excellent rigid Master would this man have beene for our lascivious and spritely Gallants who cannot present an Health to their britle Venus without the breach of a Venice Glasse Now there be many Masters who with Zimri by seeking their Servants lose themselves These are so glued to the world as they verily think the world has not enough mould to give every one an handfull They never looke upon the wheele for such Emblemes are farre from them which in its motion has ever the least part or portion of all his proportion upon the ground Earth receives the least part of it whereas earth enjoyes the most of their heart These though they reteine the title of Masters are in their condition poorer then the lowest of their Servants For in those comforts or complies of nature they partake the least share Their sleeps are distracted their unseasonable repasts undigested their clothes sordidly or broakishly suited So as such miserable wretches as these who are only rich in having but poore in enjoying want no Character to discover the quality of their slimy nature but that Epitaph or Inscription which was addressed for one of the like temper and in this manner Here lyes hee who had stocke and store Had flocks i' th field had corne o' th floore Had Goats within and Gates at 's doore Had all a-Shore yet dyed poore I vow by fate a wondrous feate That such a Mate should dye for meate It is farre better to possesse little and enjoy it then by possessing much to be estranged from the enjoyment of it These as they are ever their owne Tormentors so they for most part leave few Mourners but fat Executors I have observed many of these rigid and severe Masters suited with the very sluggisht and sloathfull'st Servants Such as though they pretended diligence in their Masters sight it was but eye-service at the best For their Masters absence gave them an easie dispensation with Conscience Their seeming labour must