Of parents making a will before they die 570 63 Of neglecting to make a will 571 64 Of parents leauing their estate to their children when they die 572 65 Of the inconueniences which improuident parents bring their children vnto after their death 573 66 Of parents impartiall respect to all their children 575 67 Of parents preferring a dutifull childe before a disobedient childe 576 68 Of the prerogatiue of the first borne sonne 576 69 Of parents partiality towards some children 578 70 Of the causes for which the first borne may be disinherited 579 71 Of the dutie of fathers and mothers in law 580 72 Of the peruerse carriage of fathers and mothers in law to their children 581 73 Of the faults of parents to their childrens husbands and wiues 582 74 Of their duty who are in stead of parents to orphants 583 75 Of the common neglect of orphants 584 76 Of the duty of guardians 584 77 Of the fraud of guardians 585 78 Of the duties of Schoolemasters and Tutors 586 79 Of the negligence of Schoolemasters and Tutors 587 VII TREATISE Of Seruants Duties § 1. A Resolution of the Apostles direction to seruants 589 2 Of the lawfulnesse of a masters place and power 591 3 Of the Anabaptists arguments against the authority of masters and subiection of seruants 592 4 Of a seruants feare of his master 594 5 Of the extremes contrary to seruants feare of their master 595 6 Of seruants reuerence in speech 596 7 Of the vices contrary to a seruants reuerance in speech 599 8 Of seruants reuerend behauiour to their masters 601 9 Of the faults of seruants contrary to reuerence in carriage 602 10 Of seruants obedience 603 11 Of seruants forbearing to doe things without their masters consent 604 12 Of the vnlawfull liberty which seruants take to themselues 606 13 Of seruants obedience to their masters commandements 608 14 Of seruants hearkning to their masters instructions in matters of their calling 608 15 Of seruants hearkning to their masters instructions in piety 609 16 Of seruants faults contrary to obedience in matters of religion 610 17 Of seruants obedience to reproofe and correction 611 18 Of the extremes contrary to seruants patient hearing of reproofe and correction 613 19 Of seruants amending that for which they are iustly reproued or corrected 614 20 Of seruing with trembling 615 21 Of seruing with sincerity 616 22 Of seruing for conscience sake 617 23 Of seruants willingnesse to performe their dutie 618 24 Of seruants quicknesse and diligence in their seruice 619 25 Of seruants faithfulnesse 622 26 Of seruants faithfulnesse about their masters goods 623 27 Of seruants carelesnesse ouer their masters goods 624 28 Of seruants fraud 625 29 Of seruants faithfulnesse in the businesses which they are to dispatch for their masters 626 30 Of seruants faithfulnesse in keeping their masters secrets and concealing their infirmities 628 31 Of seruants faithfulnesse in helping one another 629 32 Of seruants faithfulnesse about their masters children 630 33 Of seruants faithfulnesse in regard of their masters or mistresses bed-fellow 632 34 Of seruants faithfulnesse about their masters person 633 35 Of the meanes to make seruants faithfull 634 36 Of seruants endeuour to make their iudgements agree with their masters 635 37 Of seruants yeelding to doe such things at their masters command as they cannot thinke to be most meet 636 38 Of seruants forbearing to obey their master against God 637 39 Of seruants choosing good masters 639 40 Of the first motiue to enforce seruants duties The Place of Masters 641 41 Of the second motiue The Place of Seruants 642 42 Of the third motiue Gods will 642 43 Of the fourth motiue Reward of good seruice 643 VII TREATISE Of Masters duties § 1. OF the heads of masters duties 646 2 Of masters choosing good seruants 647 3 Of masters carelesnesse in choosing seruants 649 4 Of masters maintaining their authority 650 5 Of masters making their authority to be despised 651 6 Of masters too great rigor 652 7 Of masters commanding power restrained to things lawfull 653 8 Of masters presuming aboue their authority 654 9 Of masters commanding seruants to doe their dutie 655 10 Of the sinne of masters in suffering seruants to neglect their dutie 656 11 Of a masters wisdome in ordering things indifferent 656 12 Of masters offence against expediency 657 13 Of the power of masters to correct their seruants 658 14 Of the restraint of masters power that it reacheth not to their seruants life 659 15 Of masters excesse in correcting seruants 660 16 Of masters ordering that correction which they giue to their seruants 661 17 Of masters power ouer their seruants in and about their mariage 662 18 Of masters rigor in forcing mariages vpon their seruants or in seperating man and wife 664 19 Of masters power to dispose their seruants person 664 20 Of masters well managing their authority 665 21 Of masters endeuouring the saluation of their seruants 666 22 Of masters neglecting to edifie their seruants 668 23 Of allowing seruants sufficient food 668 24 Of defect and excesse in allowing seruants food 669 25 Of masters care about their seruants apparell 670 26 Of moderating seruants labour 671 27 Of affording seruants fit means for their worke 672 28 Of affording seasonable rest to seruants 672 29 Of denying seasonable rest to seruants 673 30 Of masters offence in keeping seruants from the rest of the Lords day 674 31 Of allowing time of recreation to seruants 675 32 Of masters care ouer their seruants in sicknesse and after death 675 33 Of neglect of seruants in sicknesse and after they are dead 677 34 Of masters prouiding for the future estate of their seruants 678 35 Of well imploying seruants 679 36 Of exercising seruants to a calling 679 37 Of appointing to euery seruant his particular function 681 38 Of disorders in families through masters negligence 682 39 Of masters ouerseeing the waies of their seruants 682 40 Of prouoking seruants to their duty both by faire and soule meanes 683 41 Of paying seruants their wages 684 42 Of masters iustice about their seruants wages 685 43 Of suffering seruants to prouide for themselues 686 44 Of kindnesse to be shewed to good seruants 686 45 Of vnkinde dealing with good seruants 688 46 Of the subiection vnder which masters are 689 47 Of the equality betwixt masters and seruants in relation to God 691 48 Of Gods being in heauen how it is a motiue to prouoke masters well to respect their seruants 691 49 Of Gods impartiall respect of all 693 The first Treatise AN EXPOSITION OF THAT PART OF SCRIPTVRE out of which Domesticall Duties are raised EPHES. 5. 21. Submit your selues one to another in the feare of God §. 1. Of the Apostles transition from generall duties to particulars AS there are two vocations whereunto it hath pleased God to call euery one one Generall by vertue whereof certaine common duties which are to be performed of all men
2. Others scorne to be corrected which disdaine they manifest many waies as 1. By muttering and saying they came not for that end But though that were not the maine end of their subiection yet is it a meanes to keepe them vnder subiection and therefore to be endured by them 2. By running away as Hagar 3. By strugling and striuing with their master or mistresse and taking the staffe or wand by the end or by holding the hands of those that correct them Obiect Shall I suffer my selfe wrongfully to be beaten when I can helpe my selfe and hinder it Answ 1. Seruants may not be their owne Iudges whether their correction be iust or vniust for men are so prone to sooth themselues and to extenuate the euill actions which they doe as if they be not corrected till they thinke it iust they would neuer be corrected 2. To endure punishment that I may vse Saint Peters word is not otherwaies thanke-worthy If iustly thou beest punished thou hast but thy desert If forcibly so as thou canst not resist necessity maketh thee beare it The sturdiest theeues that be being pinnied suffer themselues to be turned ouer because they see a necessity But Christ whose example in this case is set before seruants could haue freed himselfe but would not If seruants endure for conscience sake they will not resist though they be able 3. Others if they be smitten by master or mistresse will giue as much as they receiue they will smite againe a practise vnbeseeming any Christian but most vnseemely for Christian seruants who manifest thereby a despight of Gods image and power in their masters 4. Others are so possessed with a deuill as they will seeke all the reuenge they can if they be corrected whence it commeth to passe that some hot heady hardy youth sticke not to challenge their masters into the field and others more maliciously minded secretly endeuour to take away the life of their masters Many that haue not the opportunity to practise such villanies doe notwithstanding in their hearts wish their masters destruction and make most fearefull imprecations against them whereby they make themselues guilty of blood before God §. 19. Of seruants amending that for which they are iustly reproued or corrected More then patience is required of them that are deseruedly rebuked or corrected for their faults namely repentance and amendment Thus shall the smart and paine which seruants endure be as good physicke vnto them and turne to their good True amendment of former faults may make one a better seruant then he was before he committed those faults witnesse that which Saint Paul saith of Onesimus in time past he was to thee vnprofitable but now profitable to thee and me Contrary is their disposition who notwithstanding all rebuke and correction goe on still in their euill and lewd courses and continue to prouoke their master more and more and so make them adde blow vnto blow and stroke vnto stroke till they haue no hope of them but are forced to put them out of doores This commeth either from a scornfull disdainfull stomach for a scorner heareth not rebuke or from a base seruile stupid blockish brutish nature that is not moued with any smart or paine like a restie iade that will not stirre though he be whipt or beaten neuer so much Solomon implieth thus much by putting into one leash an horse an asse and a foole meaning by a foole a scornfull blockish seruant to whose backe a rod is as a whip to an horse of such a foole he saith that an hundred stripes enter not into him and againe Though thou shouldest bray a foole in a morter among wheat with a pestle yet will not his foolishnesse depart from him But what shall we say of such as for rebuke and correction are the worse What but that shame beggery and some ignominious death or other is like to befall them Hitherto of the kindes of seruants duties The next point respecteth the manner of performing them §. 20. Of seruing with trembling The Manner how seruants ought to performe their duties is noted in foure phrases The first whereof is this with feare and trembling Feare is both as a fountaine from whence all other duties flow and also as a sawce to season them all Commonly the season and sauour of waters commeth from the fountaine which Saint Iames implieth where he saith no fountaine doth yeeld salt water and fresh for if the fountaine be salt the streames issuing from thence will be salt and fresh if the fountaine be fresh so if feare be seated in the heart of seruants all their obedience and submission will be seasoned therewith Let therefore seruants here learne by their manner of performing all their duties to declare that there is a true seruant-like feare seated in their hearts Hereof I shall need say no more then what hath beene before deliuered The other word trembling added to feare addeth emphasis shewing that it is no small feare that is required of seruants and it giueth them to wit that their masters hauing a power to punish them they must so carrie themselues as they prouoke not their master to wrath but be very carefull and circumspect to auoid his displeasure that they giue him no iust occasion of offence This care had that seruant of Dauid which first espied Absolom hanging in a tree and told Ioab thereof he so feared the displeasure of the king his master as to gaine a thousand shekels of siluer he durst not kill Absolom The like is noted of Obadiah who was afraid to tell his master Ahab where Eliah was left his master might haue thought he had mocked him if the Spirit had carried Eliah away This trembling feare is needfull in regard of the small loue that seruants commonly beare to their masters There are not those motiues to stirre vp loue in seruants to their masters as in children to their parents except therefore through awe and dread they be kept in compasse they will exceedingly transgresse and because this is so needfull seruants must labour to nourish it as a meanes to keepe them from ouer-much boldnesse Contrary on the one side is a proud despising of a masters authority saying if not with their mouthes yet in their heart as Gaal of Abimelech who is he that we should serue him or as those that despised the gouernment of Christ their master we will not haue this man to reigne ouer vs and againe let vs breake his bonds asunder and cast away his cords from vs. And on the other side a wretched carelessenesse not fearing any punishment before they feele it like to many desperate theeues that no whit feare the power of the Iudge but desperatly say we haue but one death to pay The authority of God himselfe is despised and his reuenging hand is lightly regarded by such proud and desperate seruants so as their sinne is
It is noted of Cain that being very wrath his countenance fell downe Gen. 4. 5. Now the manifestation of a masters wrath against his seruant is a correction But words whether of rebuke or threatning doe much more declare the same This phrase which Solomon vseth Pro. 29. 19. a seruant will not be corrected with words sheweth that there is a correction by words and though it be negatiuely propounded yet doth it not imply that correction by words is not to be vsed to a seruant but rather if thereby he be not moued that blowes must be added thereto which is a correction by deeds whereof Christ maketh mention in the parable of those seruants that according to the greatnesse of their fault are to be beaten with many stripes It is therefore in a masters power to correct his seruant with stripes or blowes Which being so I will shew 1. How farre his power herein extendeth 2. How it is to be ordered §. 14. Of the restraint of masters power that it reacheth not to their seruants life Concerning the extent of a masters power in correcting his seruant this question is to be resolued Whether a master haue power for any fault to take away his seruants life Answ His power reacheth not so farre as is euident by these reasons 1. There is no precept nor approued example nor any other warrant out of Gods word for it The Iewes had great power ouer such seruants as were strangers Of them they might buy bond-men and bond-maids they might haue them for a possession and take them for an inheritance for their children after them to be bond-men for euer they might be put to the most toyling droyling base and abiect workes that they had as drawing water hewing wood and the like but yet their masters had not power ouer their liues 2. A master might not dismember his seruant if vnawares he did smite out an eie or tooth of his seruant he must make a recompence which was to let him goe free Much lesse therefore might he take away his seruants life 3. If a seruant died vnder his masters hand when he corrected him though he intended not wilfully to murder him that master was to be punished It was not therfore lawfull for a master wittingly to kill a seruant 4. The power of life is proper to the publike magistrate who doth all things in open publike places that so there may be many witnesses of his iust proceeding If masters had this power many might priuily be put to death and no man know for what cause as it is in popish inquisitions 5. The approued lawes of men make it wilfull murder for a master to slay his seruant wittingly though the seruants fault be neuer so hainous Neither the authority of the master nor desert of the seruant shall exempt the master that slayeth his seruant from the guilt and punishment of felony Obiect In ancient times masters had this power Answ They neuer of right had it though some might exercise it Among Gods people it was neuer exercised in any age of the world That liberty which was taken was among the heathen and yet among them as polities came to be more and more ciuilly gouerned that vsurped liberty by the lawes of Magistrates was much restrained and when Emperors and Kings became Christians it was vtterly taken away Obiect If a man take an enemie by warre he hath power to kill him Answ If in the time of the warre he slay him not but then spare him and take him as a captiue and make him his seruant though but a bondslaue he hath not power of his life §. 15. Of masters excesse in correcting seruants Contrary to their iust and due power doe they who in their rage stab their seruants or otherwise make them away yea they also who so vnmercifully and vnmeasurably beat them with rod cudgell or any other thing as death follow thereupon for many there be who hauing once begunne to strike know not when to cease but lay on as if they were striking stocks and blocks and not their owne flesh God foresaw that masters were prone to such cruelty and therefore set a stint number of stripes which none that beat another might exceed Among these may be reckoned such desperate masters as in their moode will strike their seruant with any thing that commeth next to hand be it heauy cragged hard or sharpe they care not As a mad man who casteth fire-brands arrowes and death These things may endanger a seruants life if not they may breake his head or otherwise wound bruise and lame him It is beyond a masters power by any correction to impaire life health or strength of his seruant or any way in his body to disable him from doing that which otherwise he might haue beene able to doe If masters no not for punishment of any sinne may not take away or endanger the life of his seruant what may we thinke of such masters as without any fault of their seruants cause them to be made away by putting them vpon some desperate attempt either to maintaine their owne quarrell or for some other vniust end Dauid dealt thus with Uriah but afterwards he sorely repented this part of iniustice At another time when three of his seruants had fetched him water which he longed for with ieopardy of their liues though in safety they returned yet his heart smote him for his longing and he would not drinke of that water because they had ventured their liues to fetch it But what may we say of such masters as cause their seruants for their sakes to commit felony murther treason rebellion and such other things as cause the publike magistrate to vnsheath his sword against them cut them off We noted this before to be a grienous fault in regard of the vnlawfulnesse of the thing here further we may note it to be much more hainous in regard of the mischiefe that followeth thereupon which is the losse of their seruants life so as thus they make themselues accessary to a detestable sinne and guilty of the bloud of their seruant §. 16. Of masters ordering that correction they giue to their seruants 2. That masters may well order that correction which they giue to their seruants difference must be put betwixt the age sex disposition and faults of those whom they correct 1. Masters ought not to be so forward to strike such as are growne in yeares as the younger sort Yeares bring vnderstanding and a rebuke will make one of vnderstanding more sory for a fault and more carefull to amend it The direction prescribed to parents Treat 6. § 47. for well ordering that correction which they giue to their children may in many points be here fitly applied Read it then blowes smart more workes vpon the younger sort But if notwithstanding their yeares they be stout and will not regard words their stoutnesse must be