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	servant_n	wage_n	1,026	5	11.4895	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49846	A search after souls and spiritual operations in man	Layton, Henry, 1622-1705.	1700 (1700)	Wing L759; ESTC R39121	317,350	468

would need no more for their Cure and putting them out of Conceipt with that Vain Apprehension Finally It seems that if our Preachers in Cities Burghs and such as we call Good Towns and Trading Places did apprehend there were no Separate Subsistence of Souls said to be departed they would much abate of their Pressures usually made upon the Score and Title of Men's precious Souls and they would not so clearly neglect and forget if not despise the Body as they commonly appear to do We see them fully joined together in Life and that they arise grow stand decay and fall together And we read much and often that they shall rise be judged and be rewarded together without any one express Averment that either of them doth ever did or can subsist without the other Hence it appears not very sound in them to build their Perswasions to Christian Piety upon Ground so Sandy as the Separate Subsistence of Souls seems to be especially considering they have a Rock so near to them as that of the Resurrection hath been proved Next we say That if they did believe the Rewards of Piety were so far off as to the time of the Resurrection and not to be expected till the Soul and Body should be reunited likely it is they would run a little less hotly upon the serving God mainly at least and primely if not only for the Rewards expected and the Gain and Advantage Men hope to make of a Bargain so prudently driven for their Benefit Men who in their Service look only or principally at their Rewards or Wages are apt to chuse not the best so soon as the most liberal Master a bounteous though wicked rather than a frugal though honest Master And if a Master of Servants find some who serve only or principally for the Wages and others who though they need and expect the Wages yet serve heartily and not as Men-pleasers but out of Love to their Master and a Desire to please him and render themselves acceptable to him We say a Master to whom this Proceeding is undoubtedly known cannot fail to make a great Difference in Account and Esteem of such Servants and their Rewards may be expected enough to give a clear Testimony of the same Baxter in his Quoted Book Pag. 34. 35. says It is certain and proved that God made it every Man 's chief Duty and Care and Work in this Life to obtain Happiness hereafter And yet I cannot grant him this confident Assertion but do say That the Chief End of Man's Creation was not to obtain Happiness of any sort That was not the End or Scope of the Creation of Man or any other Creature Not made chiefly to obtain or seek their own Good Joy Content or Ease but for the Glory and Service of God and the fulfilling of his Will Things of much greater Importance than the Happiness or Sufferings of Creatures Beasts or Men. And so as they serve God's Will and effect his Glory the Design of their Creation is therein more fully and perfectly accomplished than if they should otherwise have obtained all the Happiness which their Natures are capable of And they have the Advantage of doing and bearing freely the Things and Duties appointed for them which otherwise must however be accomplished by them and upon them Our Lord teaches That when Men have done their uttermost they are but unprofitable Servants and therefore their Rewards must come ex Gratia not ex Debito or by way of Stipulation in the Mode of a gainful Bargain And it seems the Conceipt that the Happiness of the Creatures is the great or main Design of their being or acting is a clear Mistake in a main Point and of very great Importance in the Oeconomy of the World and Disposal of the Creatures in it whose Sufferings shall never be undeserved nor can be very considerable in comparison of their Design viz. the Service of God the fulfilling of his Will and the Advancement of his Glory And the Serving to these Ends or Designs is every Man 's chief Duty and ought to be the Care and Work of his Life much to be preferred before his own obtaining of Happiness hereafter although that is no way excluded or weakned for it is a certain Concomitant or Consequent of such Performances though not the main Design or Intent of them For God is not unrighteous to forget Mens Works and Labour of Love which they shew to his Name And certainly they thought so who sold all they had and delivered the Money to be divided and distributed to others every one as his Need required Our Lord directs Seek first the Kingdom of God and leave the Care of your Rewards to him They are no Debts from God whatsoever Preachers may call them who sometimes say God hath obliged his Word and his Truth to make them good and to pay them accordingly And he who labours in the Vineyard shall be sure of the Wages They ought to remember the Ground of that Expression was but a Parable or Similitude a Sandy Ground for Doctrines to be built upon And whatsoever other Expressions are found in Scripture to that Purpose may pass for Condescentions to the Weakness of Men. Paul tells us God that made the World and all things in it derives not Worship from Mens Hands or Actions as if he needed any thing seeing he giveth to all Life and Breath and all things Whence he who gives all things to all Men cannot be made a Debtor to any since no Man hath any thing which he hath not received from God who cannot be made a Debtor for his own When the Servants who had employed their Talents came to Account they delivered up both the Principal and the Product without Pretence to Wages or Hire and yet they were not the less but very highly rewarded Rom. 4.4 To him that worketh is the Reward not reckoned of Grace but of Debt And therefore Christian Righteousness consists in Faith always productive of sutable Works So our Service to God in fulfilling his Will is always productive of Rewards sutable to the Greatness and Goodness of our Lord and Benefactor as the Proceed of his own Bounty and Goodness not paid as Wages nor suting with Mens Work nor in discharge of a Debt nor upon a Compensatory Account but ex certa Scientia mero Motu He knows the Person loved and feared him and had a perfect Heart towards him and therefore laboured to keep his Commandments and all that he hath appointed and to glorifie his Name and fulfil his Will Great Rewards are as sure the Consequences of such Performances as good Works are of a true and lively Faith one can by no means be without the other and where the one is not the other cannot grow nor is reasonably to be expected Performances of Duty for Hire or in Expectation chiefly of the desired Wages is Servile and Mercenary without Chearfulness in the Servant or Regardfulness in the

Master and we will not pretend to determine what may be the Effect of such an Expectation But whatsoever that may be we are sure that whoso serves God for Love and thence principally fears to offend that serves God for Duty and with Desire casting Rewards into the lowest Degrees of his Consideration is in the most certain Way to attain them We read of generous Persons who have preferred the Good of other Men before their own Happiness Moses prays to be blotted out of God's Book or Catalogue of the Blessed for Preservation of his Nation And Rom. 9. St. Paul could wish that himself were accursed from Christ for his Brethren and Kinsmen according to the Flesh Our Men seem to be of other Minds they prefer the Reward their own Happiness above all other things They profess indeed to love God as Men ought to do but yet they make it every Man 's chief Duty and the Care and Work of his Life to obtain Happiness hereafter terminating their Duties in their own Happiness or the Rewards expected for their Service of God and are taught to count God their Debtor upon Promises made in his Word as for Wages due and stipulated between two Parties What can Men imagine of Men so set upon Gain or the Gain of Godliness but that if there were a Being which ' could give greater Wages and would offer larger Hire such Chapmen would go over to the fairest Bidder and as they hoped to obtain the most gainful Bargain Consideratis considerandis But Rules of Nature or Grace teach not this Practice viz. to love for Hire or serve God for Rewards but to love God for his Excellency and Beneficence to serve him well because that is the most Perfect Freedom and the best Imployment that the World affords to seek his Glory as our own Happiness and greatest Exaltation to prize his Acceptance more than his Rewards and to esteem his Rewards more highly for being Effects and Assurances of his Favour than for the other Benefits which we may reap from them This manner of Proceeding creates a Freedom in Service and makes that our Choice which is our Duty and cannot fail of obtaining one of those Crowns which are laid up and to be distributed at the Last Day not as a Debt Wages or Hire but as an Effect of God's Bounty Liberality and Love But perhaps Men of Trade brought up to seek Advantages in Bargains may better relish to have God made Debtor upon his Word and Book than to rely upon the Excellent Goodness of his Nature or being It may be they are not capable of so high a Principle to their own therefore of Wages Hire and a Book-debt we leave them with Advice not to be over-hasty in their Expectations for fear of being put off by their mis-understood or mis-called Debtor to a farther Day viz. that of the Resurrection And however that may seem some Disappointment to them yet it will be without Cause or Power to complain of his so doing And the very Opinion that it will so fall out may go in Abatement of such Mens Expectations and take them something off that Eagerness which they have or make Shew to have in Matters of Religion and whereby they are too often troublesome to Government and the quiet State of their Neighbours and such as otherwise have Occasion to converse with them If they can believe that their Hire Wages or Debt shall not be paid till the Resurrection and that all then shall be called and paid off together as it is in the Parable it seems they will more easily be perswaded to put off all Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions c. concerning which heavy Charges have been laid upon them and Accusations have been brought against them which we wish may be found Mistakes and not so well grounded as hath been by their Accusers pretended This Inconvenience of eagerly expecting a suddain Transportation to Heaven in State of a Separated Soul was the last in our Examination propounded and we have so gone through it as to bring it to an End though likely not to a Determination but however it fall our we do mean to take and use it as an End and Termination of our present Argument and Enquiry concerning the Soul and here fix our Pillars with the Inscription upon them of a Ne plus ultra As to the Conclusions inferrible from or upon this Argument or any particulars of it we leave them to be drawn up and inferred by the unbiassed Perusers of the same And because we doubt whether any such there are all Men and the Arguer himself amongst them having been nursed taught and educated in the Opinion and Belief of the Immortality and Separate Subsistence of a Humane Soul we desire this Treatise may fall into or under the Examination of the Prudent who can consider the Force of Prejudice and will make it Part of their Endeavour to lay aside or weaken in what they can the Power of such Prejudice which will otherwise take from them the true Denomination of Just and Equal Judges and make them Partial ones a Quality condemnable in any who shall be made or shall make themselves Judges We wish those Desires which induced the Search and the Communicating this Product may accompany the Perusers of it viz. a Desire to find out the Truth in this Point and a Willingness to weigh and consider patiently the proposed Arguments and to endure the Contradiction they will certainly offer to the Bent or Assurance of their Opinions in this Point long since accepted and hitherto fostered without any former Doubt or Hesitation concerning the same Judges thus qualified are such as we desire and to such we offer the Perusal of this Argument intended for their Examination and willingly to be put under their Censures and for that of other People we shall rest indifferent and under Expectation of a great and general Contradiction such as many Truths have met with in the World upon the first Proposals made of them and seems naturally incident to all like Undertakings Whence Men must either stifle or smother their Idea's of Truth putting such Lights under a Bushel or covering them with some other Vessel or putting them under a Bed or into some other secret Place without daring to set them upon a Candlestick and expose them to the View of the World that their Light may be examined or else they must be exposed or even expose themselves to the Violences of inveterate Prejudices and indiscreet Surmises of mistaking and impotent and Passionate Judges made by the publishing and making themselves so by their sudden Censuring and Condemning the Tenet and Design before they have half perused or in any measure weighed the Grounds or Reasons offered or alledged in the Behalf of it It is truly told us that though Light be offered to the World yet Men may love an Old and Accustomed Darkness better than a New and Unaccustomed Light And yet