Selected quad for the lemma: master_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
master_n	duty_n	lord_n	servant_n	4,270	5	6.7893	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78979	An indictment against England because of her selfe-murdering divisions: together vvith an exhortation to an England-preserving vnity and concord. Presented in a sermon preached before the Right Honourable House of Lords in the Abby church at Westminster; at the late solemne fast, December 25. 1644. By Edmund Calamy, B.D. and pastour of Aldermanbury in London.	Calamy, Edmund, 1600-1666.	1645 (1645)	Wing C256; Thomason E23_5; ESTC R21745	38,703	51

is shortly to begin you would make Religion your Iewell and Peace as your golden ring on which it may be put To make Peace your boxe of Alablaster And Reformation the precious oyntment within it To make Peace as the gold and Religion as the Temple that sanctifieth the Gold Happy is the people that is in such a case Happy England if once it comes to sing the Angels Song Glory be to God on high in earth Peace And yet let me forewarne you also not to trust too much to Treaties and overtures of Peace David had a sonne whose name he called Absolom which in Hebrew signifieth a Father of Peace David promised to himselfe great felicitie in that childe But he proved a Father of warre and misery to his Father Say not This Treatie will be an Absolom for feare it prove an Absolom in a contrary sense as Absolom himselfe did It is very fatall that in the midst of our Treaties there have alwayes been great Plots to destroy us as we see verified at this day Secondly But that which I especially ayme at this day is to perswade you that are here present to be at peace and unitie amongst your selves and to ioyne together against the Common enemy But most of all you that are Earles Lords and Gentlemen of ranke and qualitie For the greater the persons are that disagree the more is the hurt that is done by their disagreement As in a House if the Master and Mistresse agree the house will stand and subsist though the inferiour servants fall out one with the other So if the Lords and Commons unite together the Citie and Kingdome will stand though there should be many divisions amongst the Common people And therefore it is your dutie above others Right Honourable to follow after those things that make for * Peace Vnitie and Concord to be ambitious of Peace as you are exhorted 1 Thess. 4. 11. to speake the truth in love * Eph. 4. 15. and to love in the truth * 2 Epist. of Iohn vers 2. Now that your hearts and affections may be fully wrought up to make it your chiefe designe to practise this dutie I shall use these ensuing Motives and Arguments First Consider how Pathetically and Emphatically the holy Apostle perswades all Gods people to the practise of this dutie I will name but two Texts 1 Cor. 1. 10. Now I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Iesus Christ that ye all speake the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but that ye be perfectly ioyned together in the same minde and in the same iudgement Phil. 2. 1 2. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the spirit if any bowels and mercies fulfill ye my ioy that ye be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one minde c. Secondly Consider what excellent Arguments the Apostle useth Ephes. 4. 3 4 5 6. Endevouring to keepe the unitie of the spirit in the bond of peace There is one body and one spirit even as you are called in one hope of your calling One Lord one faith one baptisme one God c. These are omnipotent Arguments If one God and one Lord and one body c. Shall not his children be one And afterwards vers. 11 12 13. the Apostle tels us That when Christ ascended up to Heaven he gave some to be Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints c. Till we all come to the unitie of the faith c. Christs intendment in appointing a Ministery in his Church was not onely to bring his people to veritie but also to the unitie of the faith This is the great worke of a Minister to bring his people to unitie as well as veritie Thirdly Consider what a horrible sinne it is to divide one from another and to be at hatred and variance one with another This is a worke of the flesh Gal. 5. 19 20 21. where it is observable that the Apostle reckons up seven synonymicall expressions to set out the greatnesse of this sin The works of the flesh are hatred variance emulation wrath strife sedition envyings of the which I told you before as I have also told you in time past that they which doe such things shall not inherit the kingdome of God This sin alone unrepented on will shut a man out of heaven Therefore it is said Revel. 22. 15. without are dogs This sinne alone makes thee unsit to come to the Sacrament Mat. 5. 23. This sinne alone makes God abhorre our Fasting-dayes Isa. 58. 4. Behold ye fast for strife and debate c. This sinne alone turnes our prayers into curses For when thou prayest unto God Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespas against us if thou beest in malice and hatred with thy brother thou prayest unto God not to forgive thee thy trespasses Notable is the speech of Cyprian Peius est seindere Ecclesiam quam sacrificare Idolo Schisme in the Church is a greater sinne then Idolatry Austin saith it is a greater sinne then heresie And this saith he God himselfe declared when he punished Corah and his company that were Schismatiques with a greater punishment then ever he punished Idolaters or Heretiques Quis iam dubitaverit hoc esse scelaratius commissum quod est gravius vindicatum Fourthly Consider the wofull mischiefes that are brought into Church and State by these our divisions If all the Iesuites in the Christian world If all the Devils in hell should joyne together to devise a way to undoe the Parliament and the good Cause they manage they could not invent a readier way then by dividing you one from another at this time This makes you to fight against your selves to murder your selves your Cause your Religion and to murder all that adhere unto you Hereby God is dishonoured Reformation hindered Religion discredited the good Cause disliked the Enemie strengthened You are weakened your Counsels disturbed the Warre prolonged the Power of godlinesse abated c. as hath beene formerly mentioned Hereby we are all tantum non destroyed and destroyed we must be if our breaches be not made up For if we bite and devoure one another we shall be consumed one of another Gal. 5. 15. Famous is the Story of Menenius Agrippa who when the people of Rome had divided themselver from the Senate of Rome came to the people and told them an Apologue of the members of the body how they did once conspire together against the belly because that the belly did live idlely devoure all the meat that the hands did work forand feet walke for c. And therefore they agreed together to starve the belly The hands refused to work for to feed it the mouth refused to take in meat the feet refused to goe to fetch it c. But within a very

guilty of Robbery and Murder it is to steale away and murder their good names which is as precious as life it selfe and it is a sinne that God will not pardon unlesse the party that is guilty endeavour to make restitution of his good name which is a worke not easie to be done For a mans good name is like a white piece of paper which if once blotted it will be hard to wipe out that blot so as to leave no print of it behind A mans good name is like a Merchants estate which is long in getting but is lost in a minute and when it is lost in the bottome of the Sea how shall it ever be recovered againe So is a mans good name But yet God will accept of our endevours to make restitution if faithfull and industrious Tenthly To heale our Divisions we must make conscience to silence all our private Opinions and differences Hast thou faith saith the Apostle Rom. 14. 22. have it to thy selfe before God Doe not disturbe the Church of God at this time with thy private faith Indeed if it be a matter absolutely necessary to salvation it is charitie to acquaint the Church of God with it but if we can be saved without it this is not a fit time to broach any new Opinion For as Elisha said to Gehezi 2 King 5. 26. Is this a time to receive money c. So say I Is this a time to trouble England with New Opinions Aulus Gellius tels us of certaine men that were in a Ship ready to perish by reason of a great Tempest one of them being a Philosopher fell a asking of many trifling Questions to whom they answered {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} We are perishing and dost thou trifle So say I Is England a perishing and is this a time to trouble it with unnecessary disputations I doubt not but there will a time come wherein every mans owne opinion shall be heard but this is a time wherein we should all unite against the Common Enemy that seekes to devoure us all For my part I doe here openly professe That if I had an opinion disagreeing from that way of Reformation which is likely to be set up and did see that the publishing of it would disturbe the peace of the Kingdome I would doe with it as the Mariners did with Ionah I would cast it into the sea rather then increase the Tempest by my opinion especially at such a time as this is And I doubt not but every honest man will do the like Lastly It is your dutie Right Honourable whom God hath betrusted with great power to suppresse these divisions and differences in Religion by your Civill Authoritie as farre as you are able lest you be accessary unto them For God hath made you Custodes utriusque tabulae Keepers not of the second Table onely as some fondly imagine but of the first Table also and not onely Keepers but Vindices utriusque Tabulae Punishers also of those that transgresse against either of them For you are the Ministers of God for good and Revengers to execute wrath upon him that doth evill Rom. 13. 4. And God hath deputed you for the punishment of evill doers and for the praise of them that doe well 1 Pet. 2. 19. There are some that would blot out halfe your Commission and restraine this Good and evill to civill good and to evils onely against men But this is against that generall Rule Non est distinguendum ubi lex non distinguit Where the Law doth not distinguish there must not we distinguish Tell me I beseech you Shall it be lawfull for Magistrates to punish those that destroy mens bodies but not those that destroy mens soules Shall they be blamed for suffering men to draw people away from obedience to the Laws of the Land and to themselves and not also for suffering men to draw away people from the truth of the Gospel and from the wayes of God such as Hymenaeus and Philetus who overthrow the faith of some and their words eate as a Canker Shall Christian Magistrates take up the Maxime of Tiberius Deorum iniurias Diis curae esse Let God himselfe take care to vindicate himselfe from injuries committed against God As for me I will just like Gallio take care of none of these things Can Christian eares endure such language Doth not God prophecy Isaiah 49. 23. That in the New Testament Kings shall be our nursing Fathers and Queenes our nursing Mothers And how can a Christian Magistrate discharge that dutie aright if he hath not power from God to punish those that would poyson the soules of his weake children with heresies and soul-destroying opinions I do not deny but that there is great wisdome to be observed by Magistrates in distinguishing between persons and persons betweene errors and errors Some persons are pious and peaceable others turbulent and furious Some errors are such as subvert the faith and destroy the power of Godlinesse others are of a lesser nature which may consist with the power of Godlinesse and with an unitie in the faith But that which I now speake against is that unbounded libertie that is pleaded for in divers books lately written which hold forth this prodigious Tenent That every man is to be suffered to have the libertie of his conscience be it never so Hereticall or Idolatricall This overthroweth all the power of the Magistrate in punishing heresie blasphemy Idolatry and is contrary to many plaine Texts of the * Old Testament and to those of the New Testament above mentioned Object Will you allow the Magistrate to Tyrannize over mens consciences Answ. By no meanes But I beleeve it is the Dutie of Magistrates to keepe men from infecting their Subjects with soule-destroying errors If thou hast an Hereticall opinion have it to thy selfe and the Magistrate will not nay cannot meddle with thy private conscience But if thou labourest to infect others with thy grace-destroying opinions I doubt not but the Magistrate is bound to keepe thee from spreading thy infection to the undoing of the souls of his Subjects If he may lawfully shut up a man that hath the plague upon his body that he may not infect others why not a man that hath the plague of Heresie upon his soule that so he may not destroy the soules of thousands Shall a Master in a Family have power to put away a servant that is tainted with a grosse opinion and yet not be called a Tyrant over that servants conscience And shall not the Chiefe Magistrate of a Kingdome have power to put out of his Kingdome at least to shut up from doing hurt one that is his subiect and polluted with blasphemous hereticall Idololatricall opinions Is not the Kingdome the Magistrates House and Family But enough of this These are the meanes that are to be used to cure the miserable distractions of England The Lord give us grace to put them in practise