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	parent_n	servant_n	4,972	5	7.0122	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45357	The excellency of moral vertue, from the serious exhortation of St. Paul to the practice of it in several discourses upon Phil. 4. 8. : to which is added, A discourse of sincerity, from John i. 47 / by Henry Hallywell ...	Hallywell, Henry, d. 1703?	1692 (1692)	Wing H463; ESTC R18059	47,683	182

our selves if we will but when we come into the other World we shall find the great Enquiry there to be whether we have Acted according to the Prescriptions of Virtue or not Hence it is that the Holy Apostle so fervently Exhorts us to the Observance of all Virtue and particularly of that which is Just God has made Man a Reasonable Creature and by this distinguished him from Brutes Now Right Reason is nothing but that Eternal Law which God has Engraven upon every Man's Soul and from this general Law of Reason are derived all Particular Virtues amongst which this of Justice which always supposes some Law to which as to some standing Measure all its Acts must be Reduced and made Conformable For Just in a large sense is no more than Crongruous and Agreeable And there must be something which of necessity must be the Rule and Measure of this Congruity and Agreeableness which can be nothing else but that Nature of Eternal Reason that God hath formed in our Souls Hence it follows that to do that which is Just is to do that which is Agreeable to Eternal and Immutable Reason But the Words of the Apostle here seem a little more restrained and confined and when he says Whatever things are Just it is all one as whatsoever things are Righteous Now Righteousness that respects others and then to be Just is to give every Man his due And that we may know these things the better Christ gives us an Excellent Rule which is indeed the foundation of all Justice and for which the very Heathens Reverenced Christianity Mat. 7.12 Whatever you would that Men should do to you do ye so to them Into this great Principle all Natural Justice and Equity may be resolved Which that we may not abuse by a wrong understanding of our Saviour's meaning as some are too apt to do thereby to palliate excuse or shift off their Sin there are Two things to be considered 1. That it was not Christ's Mind to Confound the different States and Conditions of Men as if by this Law Princes were bound to perform all those Duties back again to their Subjects that their Subjects do to them Or that Masters are bound to Obey their Servants because they would have their Servants Obey them Or that Parents should Reverence their Children because their Children are obliged to Reverence and Honour them For this would destroy all the differences of things and set Princes and People Masters and Servants Parents and Children upon equal terms which it was never Christ's intent to do But only to consider how we would be dealt withal if we were in the place of those we deal with and to Act accordingly 2. Nor did our Saviour intend that this Precept of doing as we would be done by should be enlarged to things Unjust and against the Common and Publick Good of Mankind As for Example Because Men that Violate the Sanctions of Right and Just and break those Laws that are made for the Common Profit of the World would willingly be freed from Punishment that therefore we are bound by this Precept of Christ to deal so with them For this would be to encourage all Wickedness and Impiety and to open a Door to all the Villanies and Enormous Actions the Vilest Wretches can think to commit This were to give a liberty to Wicked Men to Invade that which is anothers and to Countenance Rapine and Fraud by Christ's Law Therefore it is certain that our Saviour who came to discountenance all Vice and to give Men Rules of Holy Living and teach them Justice and Equity never intended his Words should be understood in this Sense But his Words are to be restrained to whatever is Lawful and Right that which is agreeable to the Nature of God who is the highest and most Impartial Justice a Copy of which he has Transcribed and Written in every Man's Soul And so the Command signifies thus much That we never do that to another which if we were in that other Man's place we would clearly and truly suppose to be Injustice and against the Laws of Evident and Right Reason To give a plain instance of this Law If a Man were brought into great Difficulties Straits and Distresses he would willingly be relieved by those that are able to help him therefore now he must do the same to others and be ready to relieve them If a Man would not be Defrauded or Oppressed by another he is bound by our Saviour's Command to bear such an Honest and Just Temper of Mind as not to Defraud and Undermine and Circumvent and Oppress any other You see now by this what the Apostle means by things that are Just viz. That it is to follow that Excellent Precept of our Saviour in which all the Parts of Justice are in a few Words comprized i. e. To do as we would be done by Now you will better understand and peradventure remember this if I shew you in a few particulars what every good Man desires and would have done to him for then you will evidently discern that what you desire to your selves you ought to do to others 1. Every Good Man desires above all things his own Happiness both in this Life and in the next And since he is so willing to have this for himself it is a piece of Christian Justice and Charity that he should stand so affected to all others He would not have any Man disturb the Ease and Comfort and Quiet of his Life here he desires not to be Pained or Grieved or to have his Spirits wasted and consumed with Cares and Miseries Now if we would but be as Just to others as we are to our selves we should not only desire but endeavour to help forward as far as we are able the Happiness of all Mankind We should Comfort those that are cast down and pour in the Oil of Joy and Gladness into the Bones that God has broken we should never behold any Watry Eyes but be ready to dry them up nor find any Aking Heads but endeavour to Bind and Ease them We should never send away any without the real signs of our Charity and Compassion If there be any that desire our Counsel and Advice in weighty and doubtful Affairs any that are wavering and unsettled in Religion that stand in need of and want some Faithful Guide to resolve and settle their Fluctuating Minds All these are Objects to which this great Law of Justice obliges us to afford our best Skill and Assistance because we would desire the same at their Hands if they were in our Circumstances and we in theirs Let those then reflect seriously upon themselves and behold how far they are removed from this great Law of Justice and Charity who take delight in the Miseries of others that are pleased in anothers Ruin and Affliction that have an inward Joy and Contentment as it were when they have Defrauded and Over-reached another And yet their own Hearts

whatever is venerable grave decent and becoming For doubtless there is such a thing as Natural Decency and Decorum which may be rated according to the different Circumstances and Qualifications of Men. Thus some things may pass irreprehensible in a private Person which are unbecoming a Prince And that which may be allowed in another would yet be unfit for a Minister of the Gospel who is to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 3.2 of good behaviour which in Verse 8. is expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grave i. e. Adorned with a comely Gravity and Decency in his whole Conversation So that whatever Degree or Place a Man holds in the World he ought to Act suitably and agreeably to it Thus Parents and Masters ought to set their Children and Servants an Example of Gravity and Becomingness Which though in many things it is to be taken and measured from the Use and Custom of the Place and Nation wherein they are yet there are some General Rules of becomingness which Nature and Reason will furnish us withal For Grave and Venerable and Becoming being Things of a Moral Nature it is certain that there is some Rule and Measure whereby these things are to be known as well as for any other Vertue As 1. This Gravity and Becomeingness which the Apostle advises us to follow requires that we Act in all things suitably to the Dignity of our Nature We are to Consider that God hath made us Rational Creatures and endued us with a Power of discerning between Moral Good and Evil. Now we having the Laws of Good and Evil of what is Base and Deformed and what is Honest and Becoming engraven upon our Souls whenever we Transgress these Rules we Act contrary to the Excellency and Dignity of our Nature Hence was that Precept of the Philosophers Reverere teipsum Reverence thy self i. e. Take Care that thou Act not below the Dignity and Eminency of thy Nature For Right Reason being that Rule and Measure according to which all our Actions are to be formed and squared whenever we swerve and deviate from that Rule we go below and debase our Natures And this Superiority of Reason over all our Animal and Brutish Passions and Inclinations is denoted in Gen. 1.28 where God bids Man have Dominion over the Fish of the Sea and over the Fowl of the Air and over every living thing that moveth upon the Earth There are many Passions and Affections and Sensations which arise from the Body and as they are Innocent in themselves so they are Necessary to the Perfection of our Nature Wherefore Man being made after the Image of God he has likewise an Empire and Rule and Dominion given him over all his Bodily Affections and Inclinations to moderate and guide them in the lesser World as God doth all the parts of the greater throughout the whole Creation Thus St. Jude Verse 6 speaking of the Lapsed Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which kept not their first Estate the Vulgar Latin has it Principatum suum non servaverunt which is thus expressed by Simplicius after the Platonical manner In Epictet p. 163. and in terms very little different from the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neglecting that Archical Power wherein consisted their similitude with God and giving themselves up to the Conduct of their irrational Appetites Now when the Bruitish Life leads us astray from the Government of Reason and we cast away that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Principality and Archical Rule wherewith God hath invested us over all our Corporeal Passions and Affections then the Order of the Creation is inverted and the Beast governs the Man than which nothing can appear more unbecoming and unhandsome to every one that hath any spiritual sense and discerning in him It was an Evil which Solomon says he saw under the Sun Eccles 10.7 Servants upon Horses and Princes walking as Servants upon the Earth The Moral is true in every Wicked Man in whom Reason is dethron'd and the lowest of his Appetites and Desires command and force him to obey them For any Man therefore by Intemperance Debauchery and a lawless pursuit after sensual Pleasures to abuse any Power of his Body or Faculty of his Soul he does that which is Dishonest and Uncomely in forcing Reason from its Seat and setting up his Brutish Lusts in its stead To be carried out in a fond doating upon the World and an immoderate love of Sensual Vanities and to follow them with a mighty eagerness and desire as if they were the ultimate Happiness of Man it is to debase and dishonour our Souls It is an abuse and a slur cast upon Humane Nature because we make use of it to those Purposes which God never intended it for In like manner to be over-curious in making Provision for the Body and to bestow too much time in Decking and Adorning that to the Prejudice and Neglect of the Soul it is what is unbecoming and dishonourable to a Man because 't is a preferring our worser part before our Souls which are much the Nobler half of us Now as for that Decency which ought to be even in our Apparel it is to be measured by the Custom and Manners of the best and wisest Persons among whom we live whose Judgment in this Case ought by no means to be slighted or undervalued The State likewise and Condition of Persons is to be Considered They that are Gorgeously Apparalled and live Delicately says Christ Luke 7.25 are in King's Courts In which our Saviour does not condemn the wearing of Rich Apparel either as a thing undecent or unlawful but seems to intimate that the Quality and Condition of Persons is to be observed 2. Gravity and Comeliness require that in all our Actions we consider the end of our Beings and that we Act suitably and agreeably to that end Every thing is such as is the end to which it is determined and as the end is more or less Noble so is the Excellency of a Creature proportionably more or less Now the highest and best end of Man as a Rational Creature must undoubtedly be the Participation of the Nature of God for there is nothing in the World more Noble nothing more Excellent than this Wherefore all Comeliness and Decorum consisting in an apt and due order and consent it follows that we then Act the most Becoming when we Act the most Agreeably and Consonantly to the Great and Universal End of our Beings Therefore whatever it be that hinders our Communication with God and our partaking of his Nature so far forth it is Dishonest Vile and Unsuitable to our Intellectual Creature It was good Advice of the Wise Ben Syrack Ecclesiast 7.36 Remember the end and thou shalt never do amiss For he that Acts agreeably and conformably to the end of his Being he Acts according to that Order which God hath appointed and therefore cannot be guilty of any thing that is Base and Unworthy Let