Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	master_n	perform_v	servant_n	3,566	5	7.2466	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23688	The art of contentment by the author of The whole duty of man, &c.	Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681.	1675 (1675)	Wing A1087; ESTC R227993	88,824	224

to render any man a dearling to God But if all men should have equal satisfactions we should puzle even Omnipotence it self Every man would be above and superior yet those are comparative terms and if no man were below no man could be above So in wealth most men desire more but every man do's at least desire to keep what he has how then shall one part of the world be supplied without the diminution of the other unless there should be as miraculous a multiplication of tresure for mens avarice as there was of Loaves for their hunger Mat. 16. 9. It was a good answer which the Ambassadors of an opprest Province made to Antony If O Emperor thou wilt have double taxes from us thou must help us to double Springs and Harvests And sure God must be at the expence of a new Creation make us a double world if he should oblige himself to satisfy all the unreasonable appetites of men and if he satisfy not all why should any particular person look that his alone should be indulged to 6. YET as unreasonable as it is the most of us do betray such a perswasion No man is discontented that there are lower as well as higher degrees in the world that there are poor as well as rich but all sensible men assent to the fitness of it yet if themselves happen to be set in the lower form they exclame as if the whole order of the world were subverted which is a palpable indication that they think that Providence which governs others should serve them and distribute to them not what it but themselves think good This immoderate self-love is the spring and root of most of our complaints makes us such unequal judges in our own concerns and promts us to put in Caveats and exceptions on our own behalf as David did on his sons See that thou hurt not the young man Absolom 2 Sam. 18. 15. as if God were to manage the government of the world with a particular regard to our liking and were like the Angels at Sodom Gen. 19. 22. to do nothing till we had got into Zoar had all our demands secured to us 7. IT would indeed astonish a considering man to see that altho the concerns of men are all disposed by an unerring Wisdom and acknowledged by themselves to be so yet that scarce any man is pleased The truth is we have generally in us the worser part of the Levelers principle and tho we can very contentedly behold multitudes below us yet are impatient to see any above us not only the foot to use the Apostles simile complains that it is not the hand but the eare because it is not the eie 1 Cor. 12. 15. 16. Not only the lowermost but the higher ranks of men are uneasy if there be any one step above them Nay so importunate is this aspiring humor that we see men are forced to feed it tho but with aire and shadows He that cannot make any real advance in his quality will yet do it in effigie in all little gaieties and pageantries of it Every degree in these respects not only emulates but imitates its superior till at last by that impatience of their proper distance they make it greater and sink even below their first state by their ridiculous profusion Indeed the world seems to be so over-run with this vanity that there is little visible distinction of degrees and one had need go to the Heralds office to know mens qualities for neither their habit nor equipage do now adaies inform us with any certainty 1. BUT by all these it appears that men look on themselves only as single persons without reference to the community whereof they are members For did they consider that they would endevor rather to become the places wherein they were set by doing the duties belonging to them then be perpetually projecting for a change A tree that is every year transplanted will never bear fruit and a mind that is alwaies hurried from its proper station will scarce ever do good in any This is excellently exprest to us by Solomon As a bird that wandereth from his nest so is a man that wandereth from his place Pro. 27. 8. T is easy to divine the fate of those young ones from whom the damn wanders and t is as easy to guess how the duties of that place will be performed whose owner is alwaies upon the wing and making towards another I wish we had not too costly experiments both in Church and State of the truth of this observation Alas we forget that we are all servants to the same Master and that he is to appoint in what office we shall serve him How should we like it in any of our own families to have an inferior officer leave his work undon because he has more mind to be Major-Domo Yet this insolence we every day repete towards God sullenly dispute his orders and unless we may chuse our own imploiments will do nothing 9. T IS evident this perverse temper of mankind breeds a great deal of mischief and disturbance in the world but would breed arrant confusion and subversion if it were suffered to have its full range If God permit but one ambitious spirit to break loose in an age as the instrument of his wrath what destruction do's it often times make How do's it cause the whole earth to tremble and shake Kingdoms as is said of Nebuchadnezzar Isa. 14. 16. and may be said of many others of those whole-sale robbers who have dignified the trade But if every aspiring humor should be as prosperous where would it find fuel to maintain the flame No doubt every age produces men of as unbounded desires as Alexander or Cesar but God gives them not the same opportunities to trouble the world And accordingly in the more petty ambitions of private men he often orders it so that those soaring minds can find no benign gale to help their mounting He that sets bounds to the sea saying hitherto shalt thou come and no farther and tho the waves thereof toss themselves yet can they not prevaile tho they roar yet can they not pass over Jer. 5. 22. do's also depress the swelling pride of men hangs clogs and weights upon them that they cannot rise to their affected height For tho we are all willing to forget it yet God remembers that he is the Rector of the Universe and will assert his Dominion The subtilest contrivance cannot circumvent him the most dareing pretender cannot wrest any thing out of his hand the Lord will still be King be the people never so impatient Psa. 99. 1. T will therefore sure be as well our prudence as our duty to be still and know that he is God Psal. 46. 10. with an humble dereliction of our own wills acquiesce in his and not by ineffective struglings provoke whom we are sure never to subdue We may like unmanaged horses fome and fret but still God has the bridle in