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	wife_n	3,538	5	6.4560	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32910	The female advocate; or, A plea for the just liberty of the tender sex, and particularly of married women. Being reflections on a late rude and disingenuous discourse, delivered by Mr. John Sprint, in a sermon at a wedding, May 11th, at Sherburn in Dorsetshire, 1699. / By a Lady of Quality.	Chudleigh, Mary Lee, Lady, 1656-1710.	1700 (1700)	Wing C3984; ESTC R4679	27,821	63

the General reply'd I 'll give you twice as many times to do it The Application is easy According to this rule what strange Inferences do naturally follow Suppose a Master and his Servants a Lawyer and his Clients a Physician and his Patients 't is you 'll say the duty of these Servants Clients and Patients to be govern'd and submit But a Servant may be abus'd by his Master a Client cheated and impoverish'd by his Lawyer and the Patient genteely dispatch'd by his Doctor Now certainly any Man would be of a weak Capacity to endure these things and therefore the Duties of Servants Clients and Patients must be always rung in their Ears and the Duties of Masters Lawyers and Physicians never Who sees not the mighty force and feels not the close girds of so sinewy an Argument His third Reason is because according to the Observation that he has made most of the Distractions and Disturbances of a married Life are owing to the Indiscretion and Folly of disobedient Wives Now if this Gentleman has spent the time past of his Life in making these Observations he may have made a great many in his time and deserves the name of the New Observator and then no wonder having been otherwise employ'd that his Lucubrations produce such Sermons as this on so solemn an occasion I suppose in his Observations he always happen'd to have the Women on that side he could see clearest and either knew not or wink'd at the Mens Mismanagements But suppose it were true that his Observations had furnish'd him with few or none of the Mens Faults it dos not follow that no ones Observation else has However he has an unquestionable Argument in store which is this I shall not scruple to affirm says he that the number of bad Husbands which their Wives have made so is greater by far than the number of those whom their Wives have found so Under which Head he is to be plac'd I need not determine I had heard indeed before of a very short way of proving things and that is by strong Affirmation And this is an Argument so ready at hand that it has been his inaccessible Refuge in several places throughout the Book Yet I think here he has pass'd an Act of Oblivion upon himself and has forgot that he uses this very Argument of strong Affirmation in a thing quite contrary to this when he says of Eve's Daughters or Women in general that if they will have Husbands and have them good they must take a great deal of Care and Pains to make 'em so P. 18. Therfore certainly they find them very bad if they must take so much pains to make them good And yet here he says the number of bad Husbands whom their Wives have found so is little or nothing compar'd with those they make so But the Pages lying at a convenient distance from one another and hoping it's like what sort of Readers he was like to have he might think no notice would be taken of it or that none would peruse the Book but those that wanted sense to discover the Mistake But I am willing to be more merciful to him than he is to us and shall no further insist on his Failings than to manifest that they are such and for our own Defence against a Man whose Arguments are like a two-edg'd Sword and cut at once two contrary ways And therefore I pass on to the fourth Reason which is Because the Love of a Husband does very much depend upon the Obedience of a Wife P. 6. If by Obedience he means a servile Subjection 't is a very clear Argument and will be very persuasive no doubt But if he means only reasonable and generous Compliance such as is produc'd by the noble and resistless Charms of mutual Love I grant him 't is true viz. that the Love of a Husband very much depends on the Love of a Wife But my Understanding is not so far enlightened as to see any reason in this why the Women should be teez'd and the Men for ever escape And here agen he hath another Paradox and tells us that if the Wife becomes pliant and yielding that is becomes a good easy tractable Slave to her Husbands Desire she then may do e'en what she pleases with him Which is as much as to say If she be a perfect Slave she may have her Liberty I shall never be persuaded that such Gentlemen who desire the subjection of their Wives and are willing to confine them to the treatment of Servants have any great opinion of their Persons or their Liberty And yet after all this well-bred Gentleman this Learned Doctor tells us we are more afraid than hurt and if we are I am sure 't is not owing to his Temper his Wishes nor his Discourse The 5 th and the last Reason he names is this Because that all he pretends to is to lay our Duty before us Very well But where the consequence is supposing this be his true and upright Intention I can't tell It 's true I grant him 't would prove that we ought to hearken to it but however it does not offer any Reason why the other part should not be insisted on for the self-same Argument would bring the Men upon the stage If he had but said You Gentlemen Husbands I design to say nothing but what 's your Duty this would have been thought a very strange Argument why nothing should be said to us But so it is and away he goes with it and tells us as for good Wives The knowledg and practice of their Duty is so comfortable and pleasant to them that they are not listed in the number of these Objectors And hereby he affirms that 't is impossible to be a good Wife and yet object against the omission of the Mens part which is a Mistake so gross that it may be felt And in the midst of all this Goodness and Charity which this Gentleman here professes he cannot forbear but breaks out and says that he wishes where there is one good Wife there were a thousand whereby he most uncharitably insinuates that there is but one among a thousand good So that if it be as he thinks and says he has a very strong opinion of himself to imagine that one single Sermon with its poor Endeavours as he expresseth it can make so many bad Women good when the number of the Bad according to his Computation is a thousand to one These five Reasons he imagins to be so gross solid and thick that he resolves to venture under their shelter in the face of his Female Adversaries mighty Courage and an Heroic Attempt But whether I have not shot this massy fivefold Shield through and through let the World judg I mean the just and generous part of it who have at least common sense and a moderate portion of Ingenuity Having thus like a Man of Valour and one of the seven Champions cleared his way through all

him to be one of the little snarling Animals that are angry at its Light and Glory 'T is not the first time a Woman has appear'd in Public and 't will be hard for any to accuse us for taking up Weapons since they are only defensive and we are provok'd into the Field by so great and honourable a Champion Besides the itch of being in Print which the Men have infected us with and the Glory of having but lifted up a Pen against so great a Man must needs be a sufficient Excuse beyond all Reply But you may easily imagin notwithstanding all these Thoughts and strong Resolutions how I began to tremble when I came within sight of the Enemy and perceiv'd with what a Front he appear'd Not Don Quixot was more scar'd at the first sight of the Giant Caraculiambro However the greater Danger the greater Honour So on I went with a mighty Courage till I came within reach of him and began the Battel which if it be not orderly and well pitch'd 't is owing to the motions of the Enemy whom I must follow up hill and down hill till he comes to the same place again To begin therfore with his forlorn Hope he tells the World in his Preface that we may easily see cause enough to believe 't was design'd for the Pulpit not for the Press No certainly he meant no such thing at all as to affront the Ladies in public and indeed he must be possest of very strange Thoughts and exceding vain in his Imagination that could hope to do the least good by such a Discourse from the Pulpit and yet much vainer to hope it from the Press And yet that very Reason which should have deter'd him for ever from the least thought of preaching at this rate is made an excuse why he should print it It hath he says so fallen out and that one half blind might have seen before-hand that the Doctrine therein contain'd is unhappily represented to the World by some ill-natur'd Females Now by the way this is a very pleasant Invention for any well-dispos'd Person to get into the World by 'T is but to utter some Doctrine or other that a Man may be sure before-hand will be justly spoken against and because 't is unhappily represented by some ill-natur'd People away to W. B y's of Bristol with it or any other Printer that has no other Business but Mountebanks Bills Wedding-Sermons and Ballads with such other honourable things and so immediately set up for an Author and expect that every one should complement him on the occasion Ay and this is a most clever excuse too for a second and third Edition with Additions c. So that if this Reverend Gentleman should have the Mortification to find at Christmas that some ill-natur'd Females had been so spiteful and profane as to have put his excellent Discourse at the bottom of minc'd Pies he may hereupon tell the World that they have found out a wicked way to obscure the Glory of so dread an Author and therefore for this and many other reasons him thereunto moving he resolves to reprint it and 't is no hard matter to prophesy with what Success But that it may not be thought that I suppose the Author has not purchas'd that Reputation which he deserves and which he seems to be so very apprehensive of when he talks so prophetically of purchasing the Character of a dull Blockhead I think it will without much dispute be granted that his words were ominous only this I must add that Dulness and Malice are commonly very near Companions and help out one another at a dead lift And yet he hopes he says good Gentleman that he shall avoid the imputation of Impudence yes tho it be by one of the grossest Instances of it that a Person of his Character is capable of As a proof of which in the next words he makes Proclamation Be it known unto all Men that I have not met with one Woman among all my Accusers whose Husband is able to give her the Character of a dutiful and obedient Wife And this also is a most infallible way of defending any thing in the World Just so when the Doctrine of Passive Obedience and Non-resistance was cry'd up and down with a mighty Confidence 't was but to say that all that spoke against this Doctrine were disloyal and rebellious and the business was compleatly done and ended and needed no further Confirmation So because the Ladies can't bear so harsh and imperious a Doctrine as his is therfore it shall be a Justification of his Doctrine that they cannot and prov'd to be reasonable because 't is intolerable Strong Thoughts a mighty Argument especially if we consider that the Husbands he speaks of 't is likely measure the Duties of their Wives by the boundless Limits which this Gentleman has laid out for them and if so no wonder if they are not able to give them the Character of dutiful and obedient Wives Then he tells us that good Wives are not offended with his Discourse now by good Wives he certainly means such as he describes and then no wonder they say not much against him since a word against his Doctrine is enough to purchase them a very rough and unwelcome Salutation from their Lords and Masters But I believe it would be no hard task to make a Catalogue of very good Wives who have censur'd him as an Instrument of Oppression and Tyranny to others tho they themselves are not under it However he is in a good humour for once and tells us he 'll promise to say as much to the Men I 'll forgive him if he does when this Discourse of his has reform'd imperious Wives Now this is a most dexterous turn and has very much in it and supposing his Notions to be ever so just and reasonable yet hereby he 'll excuse himself from ever publishing any thing for the instruction of Mankind how to behave themselves towards us for doubtless there are and will be still some imprudent and unreasonable Creatures on both sides Now as he makes this a Reason why he will not speak to the Men so if he had begun with them he might have made it a Reason why he would never have vouchsafed to dictate to the Women In the Conclusion of his Preface he begins a Triumph tho it may not seem a very proper place for it especially considering the Foundation on which he grounds it He finds he says upon the whole that 't is Womens Guilt that puts 'em to so much Pain which they feel in their Consciences for which he knows no better an Antidote you must know he has an insight into Physic than a speedy Repentance and Reformation very well but I wonder how he came to know that the Women feel such Pain in their Consciences for I suppose very few will make him their Father-Confessor This Gentleman has a most absolute way to discipline his Consort if she ever

'l own to be their Duty for they are not ambitious of the Revenues of the Church nor envy any Man the Glory especially of such Sermons as this I am now considering However since it hath pleased God so far to repair the honour of our Sex as to send a Saviour into the World by the means of a Woman methinks that should more than recompense for the consequences of the other since we are told that the Happiness we are advanced to by the second Adam is much more great and certain than that which the first possessed If God hath so far pardon'd the fatal Transgression of the Woman it looks a little too bold and revengeful for Man to pretend not to do it but to exact so many unreasonable things on this pretence Nay a late learned Man whom I suppose the Author honours has on the Verse following in Timothy these words viz. That by a Woman a Saviour came into the World which is some reparation of the Honor of the Sex Now this coming from a Man and one that was known not to be blass'd by any Passion for Women it is the more noted and singular a Confession Then he tells us that God impos'd this Task upon her as a Punishment for seducing her Husband Very true And thy Desire shall be to thy Husband and he shall rule over thee Gen. 3. 16. And the Comment on this is very admirable indeed Wherein is implied says he not only Subjection to him in obeying his Commands but it reacheth farther to the bringing under unto him the very Desires of her Heart to be regulated by him so far that it should not be lawful for her to will or desire what she her self liked but only what her Husband should approve and allow P. 13. I suppose this good Gentleman believes that these words contain part of the Curse for the Primitive Trespass and by consequence he thinks it the Duty of a Man to execute the Curse of God upon his Wife But let us try the Consequence which he makes and see if the Thred of the Argument is not stretch'd very far Suppose that be the meaning of the words that our Sex shall have an universal desire to theirs tho I believe if they were all such obliging Sparks as the Author 't would cure them of their Passion quickly yet it no way follows with submission to the ruling Judgment of the Men that therefore it shall not be lawful for her to will or desire any thing but what her Husband approves of I think in some cases 't is an Impossibility Let it be granted that 't is the part of a Woman being the weaker Vessel to submit and learn as well as she can the hard Lesson of Passive Obedience yet I defy the meekest Woman in the World if she meets with an unreasonable imperious domineering insolent Creature I defy such a Lady with all her Virtue and Patience to forbear wishing at least it were otherwise No she must not our Author tells us never groan never sigh for a happy deliverance from her hated Chains To use the same Phrase suppose I say my Desire is towards my Friend does it therefore follow that I must necessarily wish nothing whatever till I know 't is agreeable to her Humors But by virtue of his Office this Gentleman I see can interpret this way and that way and every way 'T is to be consider'd upon this Head that whatever was pronounc'd in general then can't be applied to every individual now For instance with modesty be it spoken the Curse of Child-birth which God may be thought to have denounc'd on the whole Sex we are told some entire Nations have escap'd as the Great Montaign tells us in his Essays I think Liv. 1. ch 14. And with like force of Reason might it be concluded that because God hath cursed the Ground and said it shall bring forth Briars and Thorns therefore it is utterly unlawful to root them out and sinful to possess any Ground but what is overgrown with them The Country People would quickly discern the force of such Reasoning in spite of all their Duties So that tho we grant this to be the true sense of the place yet it does not follow that the very Desires and every Desire of the Heart of a Woman must be according to the will and pleasure of the Man this way and that way and every way But if I should meet this Gentleman out of the Pulpit with his Hands tied behind him and his Cane secur'd that he might not use that method of Conviction which he thinks proper for a Woman I would humbly presume to tell him there is a far other meaning of the place and that not a late Fancy but a very antient Translation The LXX and they were all of his own Sex take it thus and thy Refuge or Recourse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be to thy Husband he shall be thy Refuge in Dangers This old Egyptian Translation no question he knew well enough and I suppose some will make bold to think it more easy and natural than the forc'd Construction and unconscionable meaning he puts upon the words Methinks it should suffice that the Women don't contradict their Lords and Masters that they tamely submit and bear with Patience what is impos'd on them No unless they are enamour'd of their Miseries and the very Desires of their Hearts brought under and in subjection they are threaten'd in our Author's Preface with Judgment and Damnation This is a Tyranny I think that extends farther than the most absolute Monarchs in the World for if they can but fill their Gallies with Slaves and chain them fast to the Oar they seldom have so large a Conscience to expect they should take any great pleasure in their present Condition and that the very Desires of their Hearts should strike an Harmony with the clattering Music of their Fetters Certainly he said very true when he told us that Women were of weak Abilities to learn as they must needs have so hard and impossible a Task After all this he acknowledges in plain words that since the Fall Man is grown more humorsom and hard to be pleas'd which tho he feelingly knows it he would never have own'd if he had not design'd to make even that an Argument against us for says he 't is not the Woman's pleading that her Husband is hard to be pleased that will excuse her no tho it be impossible for an incarnate Angel to bring him into a good Humor and cure him of his Frowardness And if the impossibility of a thing be not an excuse I know not what is yet I suppose there are some Instances to be given of such Tempers This may he says be a Memento to her of her original Guilt and why may not the Humors and unsufferable Passions of some Men be a Memento to them of theirs too But however he is resolv'd to advance an unheard-of Notion That the ill