Selected quad for the lemma: master_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
master_n	child_n	father_n	servant_n	8,837	5	6.6381	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60681	Agapai aspilai The Norfolk feast : a sermon preached at St. Dunstans in the East, upon the 18th of July, 1671, being the day of the anniversary feast for that county, for some years omitted, but now intended to be continued / by a minister of that county.	Smythies, William, d. 1715.	1671 (1671)	Wing S4366; ESTC R223729	14,570	43

my duty better considering what an offence it is to the great God I would ask you whether I might be so bold as to speak against it 'T is a vice accompanied with so much impudency that there is nothing is the occasion of more mirth or renders a Preacher so ridiculous as that he should tell a Christian it is not fit he should be a Beast 'T is a vice strangely Epidemical and so interwoven with the common concerns of men as if the trade of the Nation could not be carried on without it no agreement made but the parties must drink and often-times in such excess as if to be drunk were part of the bargain Or as if there were some Statute in the Nation that no bargain should be good in Law unless the Devil were a witness to it However men please and delight themselves in this vice I am sure the consequences of it are very sad As to God his holy name who furnisheth our Tables is rent and torn by blasphemous oaths and cursings they are worse to him than the Angel was to the Devil ver 9. of this Epistle who would not give ill words railing accusations And as to men I may say respecting general concerns it is the destruction of whole Families That Country to which we belong doth too apparently prove the truth of this a Country which hath been a long time adorned with a crowd of antient Gentry persons of rare parts and accomplishments that are able to give a reason almost for any thing but their extravagancies by which some of them have turned their bags into bottles their money into wine and I am sure that 's the way contrary to our Saviours miracle to turn their wine into water What a sad condition doth this vice leave them in their friend that honoured them may make the Prophets Lamentation they that did feed delicately are desolate and they that were cloathed in Scarlet lye upon the Dunghill If the vice destroys the body of that person as well as his estate which too often happens what a solitary Widow is there left one whose Birth Education and Fortunes little thought of such a Devil in the world as Drunkenness that hath robb'd her and her Children not only of a plentiful estate but a necessary subsistence She may now sit solitarily in her closet and fill those bottles with Tears which her Husband tumbled into his Grave by Drunkenness lately emptied of Wine What becomes of the poor Children they that were called Masters as soon as they were born must make hast and learn to be Servants till they dye or else they may want Bread or have very little to eat because their Father had so much to drink And this is the commendable vice that must not be found fault with if we consider likewise the ill consequence of it in the time of Feasting what an uproar it makes amongst sober persons it doth no sooner prevail but is a disturbance as if the house were on fire In the midst of innocent mirth the Devil commands his Trumpeter to sound a challenge Bacchus ad arma vocat and unless some more sober person can tame the beast and perswade him to be more civil to others than he is to himself instead of meeting like Brethren Country-men and Christians with unfolded arms to embrace each other we had need like the Saxons meet in our Armour instead of being merry and chearful in the house of Feasting we must be like Paul at Ephesus fighting with Beasts The Love-Feasts were usually observed by Christians as a Preparatory to the Blessed Sacrament some say in imitation of Heathens who used to Feast before their Sacrifices others because Christ instituted it after Supper However if the vice of gluttony or drunkenness prevail what a sad Christian Love-Feast is that which is so far from preparing us for the Lords Table that it hath made our own to become a Table of Devils 3. Feasting is dangerous as it too much occasions us to forget our Duties to God Moses seemed to be more afraid of this than ever he was of any thing Deut. 8.10.11 When thou hast eaten and art full then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God and ver 11. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God 'T is a strange thing that empty bellies should know how to beg and full bellies should not know how to thank That scarcity should make them lye howling upon their beds for Corn and when they have eaten and are full that plenty should not make them rise up to return thanks In the Prophesie of Jeremiah c. 5. v. 7.8 God was never more abused than when he least deserved it had he pulled the meat out of their mouths they could not have been more base than when he fed them to the full They then committed Adultery which so provoked God that he seems to be at a loss for a punishment sutable to their wickedness Shall I not visit for these things Questions in Scripture are always of extraordinary importance This may be considered either as an appeal to mans judgment who can blame my wrath if it breaks forth against those that abuse my love or else it denotes Great displeasure Shall I not visit whatever offence I leave unpunished this ingratitude shall not escape my indignation And thus I have done with the Second Particular the Danger of Feasting I hope you will consider what I have said that the first may make us merry in the house of Feasting and the second may keep us from Spots in this our Feast of Charity ERRATA PAge 4. in the Margin read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and for Arist r. Aret. p. 4. line 15.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 9. l. 18. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 12. l. 6. for appealed r. apparrelled p. 15. for drink r. drank p. 30. read viz. Nabal that Feasted c. p. 28. r. acessit FINIS

receive from him The Beasts of the field when they are afforded fresh Pasture or any extraordinary Provision they do some way or other express that they Feast and are Merry The pritty Birds have no sooner filled their Crops but they sing the several notes which their Creator hath appointed them to tune we observe some of them rising from their turff when filled their bellies but with little stones or some such contemptible fare singing merrily and soaring higher and higher as if they were going to thank their Maker for a Feast The Earth when it brings forth its fruit Sic prata viderunt Virgil. expresseth mirth and jollity The Pastures are not seen in a sable hue or mourning habit but appealed with such gorgeous attire that Solomon in all his Glory is not to be compared to one of the flowers of it Math. 6.29 The Corn Fields are seen with a merry countenance when they grow near unto Harvest the Harvest men may hold their tongues and mind their work The Fields themselves make their own Acclamations and sing their own Harvest Songs Psal 65.13 Lataseges The little Hills rejoyce on every side The Vallies are covered over with Corn they shout for joy they also sing And if the Servants be so merry when they bring in the Provision how may the Master rejoyce for whom it is provided God will have man to rejoyce in every condition in his Religious capacity as a servant to God The Apostle commands the Philippians to rejoyce in the Lord always and then he calls for a second part to the same tune and again I say rejoyce Phil 4.4 When we pray unto God we must not come like Malefactors before a Judge but as Children to a Loving Father who delights to give whatsoever is good for them Ask in faith and come boldly are expressions to chear the heart of man in this piece of his Religious Service In our Meditations it is not pleasing to him that as sometimes did the Psalmist we should think of God and be troubled but that our Meditation of him should be sweet as they were other while to David who could willingly lye awake to solace himself with the thoughts of him In Afflictions God will not have us dejected but merry accounting his rod as well as his staff a comfort we may well rejoyce if we are accounted worthy to suffer The adorning of our houses with the richest furniture should not be so pleasing as the spoiling of our Goods should be rejoyceing no Musick more pleasant in the ears of God then to hear the Apostles those birds of Paradise singing in their Cages No melody on Earth more pleasant to God then to hear a Saint sing in sufferings or glorying in tribulations Rom. 5.3 And if it becomes us to be merry when there is seeming cause of sorrow surely it doth not please God that we should be sorrowful when we have an apparent cause of rejoycing If we must be merry and joyful when we have nothing but the bread of Sorrows and water of affliction we may and ought to rejoyce when God gives abundance we may then eat our bread with a merry heart and drink our Wine with chearfulness as those in the Book of Ezra Chap. 6.22 who kept the Feast with joy because the Lord had made them joyful 2. Feasting is lawful in that it is the occasion of mutual love and Friendship which is so acceptable to God and so beautiful an aspect void of Spots that the Scripture it self knows not how to express the splendour of it Behold how good and how pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity The same word which in the singular number signifyeth Love Psa 133.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the plural signifieth Feasts to let us know that we do not meet to eat and drink but to express love one to another or as if meat and drink were meer intruders and that Feasting consisted in nothing but the multiplication of Love The Pen-man of the Book of Job describing his happiness after the large Inventory of his goods gives an account of his comfort in his Children and that particularly in their mutual love which was expressed by the brothers Feasting in each others house and calling their sisters to eat and to drink with them what their meat and drink was is not set down nor is there any reason why it should 'T is enough to say they eat and drink together and we may suppose that they Feasted with the mutual love and embraces of brothers and sisters When Isaac saw Abimelech and the two others coming towards him his heart began to rise at the sight of one whom he supposed to have too little love for him but after some parley Isaac makes them a Feast which proved a confirmation of the League made between them Our Feasting is or should be some resemblance of future happiness we all meeting to enjoy good from God and to love one another till we come to Feast with our elder brother in his and our Fathers kingdom where our Souls shall be filled with the Glory of God as our bellies are now with his good Creatures where we shall drink with him of that wine of joy which he promised us I will not drink of the fruit of the Vine till I drink it new with you in my Fathers Kingdom Luke 26.20 4. Feasting is good as it gives opportunity for acts of Charity to those that are in misery I am a stranger to the manner of proceedings in these Festivals having never been either Preacher hearer or spectator at of any them But I was lately informed that there hath been upon the like occasion a Collection for the relief of some distressed Countrymen a practice very commendable and very antient too for it was antiently one of the great designs of Christians in their Love-Feasts Our Saviour observing too great a neglect of this seems to command that none but the poor should be invited When thou makest a Dinner or a Supper call not thy Friends Luke 14.13.14 neither thy Kinsmen c. but call the poor the maimed the lame the blind That which is done to our poor brethren is done to Christ himself Better not Feast at all than that Christ should say they Feasted but there was not one Morsel for me I was Hungry and you fed me not 'T was said of the Jews Est 9. ver 22. that they observed days wherein they rested from their Enemies and a month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy and from mourning into a good day in which they made them days of Feasting and Joy and of sending portions one to another and gifts to the poor There was a Feast carried on well a good occasion which God had given they rested from their Enemies good deportment they rejoyced and a good conclusion they sent gifts to the poor they were not so merry as to forget those that were