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	duty_n	servant_n	6,964	5	6.9372	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30349	An exposition of the Thirty-nine articles of the Church of England written by Gilbert Bishop of Sarum.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1700 (1700)	Wing B5792; ESTC R19849	520,434	424

David or Solomon when the Iews were once lawfu● 〈◊〉 ●ubjects and the Christians owed the same Duty to the Emperors 〈◊〉 ●eathen that they paid them when Christian. The Relations of Nature such as that of a Parent and Child Husband and Wife continue the same that they were whatsoever mens Persuasions in matters of Religion may be So do also Civil Relations Master and Servant Prince and Subject they are neither increased nor diminished by the Truth of their Sentiments concerning Religion All Persons are subject to the Prince's Authority and liable to such Punishments as their Crimes fall under by Law Every Soul is subject to the higher Powers Neither is Treason less Treason because spoke in a Pulpit or in a Sermon It may be more Treason for that than otherwise it would be because it is so publick and deliberate and is delivered in the way in which it may probably have the worst effect So that as to persons no great difficulty can lye in this since every Soul is declared to be subject to the higher powers As to Ecclesiastical Causes it is certain That as the Magistrate cannot make void the Laws of Nature such as the Authority of Parents over their Children or of Husbands over their Wives so neither can he make void the Law of God That is from a Superior Authority and cannot be dissolved by him Where a thing is positively commanded or forbid by God the Magistrate has no other Authority but that of executing the Laws of God of adding his Sanctions to them and of using his utmost Industry to procure Obedience to them He cannot alter any part of the Doctrine and make it to be either truer or falser than it is in it self nor can he either take away or alter the Sacraments or break any of those Rules that are given in the New Testament about them because in all these the Authority of God is express and is certainly superior to his The only question that can be made is concerning Indifferent things For instance in the Canons or other Rules of the Church How far they are in the Magistrate's Power and in what Cases the Body of Christians and of the Pastors of the Church may maintain their Union among themselves and act in opposition to his Laws It seems very clear that in all matters that are indifferent and are determined by no Law of God the Magistrates Authority must take place and is to be obeyed The Church has no Authority that she can maintain in opposition to the Magistrate but in the executing the Laws of God and the Rules of the Gospel In all other things as she acts under his Protection so it is by his Permission But here a great distinction is to be made between two Cases that may happen The one is When the Magistrate acts like one that intends to preserve Religion but commits Errors and Acts of Injustice in his Management The other is When he acts like one that intends to destroy Religion and to divide and distract those that profess it In the former case every thing that is not sinful of it self is to be done in compliance with his Authority not to give him Umbrage nor provoke him to withdraw his Protection and to become instead of a Nursing Father a Persecutor of the Church But on the other hand when he declares or it is visible that his design is to destroy the Faith less regard is to be had to his Actions The People may adhere to their Pastors and to every Method that may fortify them in their Religion even in opposition to his Invasion Upon the whole matter the Power of the King in Ecclesiastical Matters among us is expressed in this Article under those Reserves and with that Moderation that no just Scruple can lye against it and it is that which all the Kings even of the Roman Communion do assume and in some Places with a much more unlimited Authority The Methods of managing it may differ a little yet the Power is the same and is built upon the same Foundations And though the Term Head is left out by the Article yet even that is founded on an Expression of Samuel's to Saul as was formerly cited It is a Figure and all Figures may be used either more loosely or more strictly In the strictest sense as the Head communicates Vital Influences to the whole Body Christ is the only Head of his Church he only ought to be in all things obeyed submitted to and depended on and from him all the Functions and Offices of the Church derive their Usefulness and Virtue But as Head may in a Figure stand for the Fountain of Order and Government of Protection and Conduct the King or Queen may well be called The Head of the Church The next Paragraph in this Article is concerning the Lawfulness of Capital Punishments in Christian Societies It has an appearance of Compassion and Charity to think that men ought not to be put to death for their Crimes but to be kept alive that they may repent of them Some both Antients and Moderns have thought that there was a Cruelty in all Capital Punishments that was inconsistent with the Gentleness of the Gospel But when we consider that God in that Law which he himself delivered to the Iews by the hand of Moses did appoint so many Capital Punishments even for Offences against Positive Precepts we cannot think that these are contrary to Justice or true Goodness since they were dictated by God himself who is eternally the same unalterable in his Perfections This shews that God who knows most perfectly our Frame and Disposition knows that the love of Life is planted so deep in our Natures and that it has such a Root there that nothing can work so powerfully on us to govern and restrain us as the fear of Death And therefore since the main thing that is to be considered in Government is the Good of the whole Body and since a feeble Indulgence and Impunity may set mankind loose into great Disorders from which the Terror of severer Laws together with such Examples as are made on the Incorrigible will naturally restrain them it seems necessary for the preservation of Mankind and of Society to have recourse sometimes to Capital Punishments The Precedent that God set in the Mosaical Law seems a full Justification of such Punishments under the Gospel The Charity which the Gospel prescribes does not take away the Rules of Justice and Equity by which we may maintain our Possessions or recover them out of the hands of violent Aggressors Only it obliges us to do that in a soft and gentle manner without Rigor or Resentment The same Charity though it obliges us as Christians not to keep up Hatred or Anger in our Hearts but to pardon as to our own parts the Wrongs that are done us yet it does not oblige us to throw up the Order and Peace of Mankind and abandon it to the Injustice and

such Forms as are agreed on among Nations and when that is not granted he may take such Reparation from any that are under that Obedience as may oblige the whole Body to repair the Injury Much more may he use the Sword to protect his Subjects if any other comes to invade them For this end chiefly he has both the Sword given him and those Taxes paid him that may enable him to support the Charge to which the use of it may put him And as a private man owes by the Ties of Humanity Assistance to a man whom he sees in the hands of Thieves and Murderers so Princes may assist such other Princes as are unjustly fallen upon both out of humanity to him who is so ill used and to repress the Insolence of an unjust Aggressor and also to secure the whole Neighbourhood from the effects of Success in such unlawful Conquests Upon all these accounts we do not doubt but that Wars which are thus originally as to the first occasion of them Defensive though in the Progress of them they must be often offensive may be lawful God allowed of Wars in that Policy which he himself constituted in which we are to make a great difference between those things that were permitted by reason of the hardness of their hearts and those things which were expresly commanded of God These last can never be supposed to be immoral since commanded by God whose Precepts and Judgments are altogether righteous When the Soldiers came to be baptized of St. Iohn he did not charge them to relinquish that course of Life Luk. 3.14 but only to do violence to no man to accuse no man falsly and to be content with their wages Nor did St. Peter charge Cornelius to forsake his Post when he baptized him ●cts 10. The Primitive Christians thought they might continue in Military Employments in which they preserved the Purity of their Religion entire as appears both from Tertullian's Works and from the History of Iulian's short Reign But though Wars that are in their own nature only Defensive are lawful and a part of the Protection that Princes owe their People yet unjust Wars designed for making Conquests for the enlargement of Empire and the raising the Glory of Princes are certainly publick Robberies and the highest Acts of Injustice and Violence possible in which men sacrifice to their Pride or Humour the Peace of the World and the Lives of all those that dye in the Quarrel whose Blood God will require at their hands Such Princes become accountable to God in the highest degree imaginable for all the Rapine and Bloodshed that is occasioned by their Pride and Injustice When it is visible that a War is unjust certainly no man of Conscience can serve in it unless it be in the Defensive part For though no man can owe that to his Prince to go and murder other persons at his command yet he may owe it to his Country to assist towards its Preservation from being over-run even by those whom his Prince has provoked by making War on them unjustly For even in such a War though it is unlawful to serve in the Attacks that are made on others it is still lawful for the People of every Nation to defend themselves against Foreigners There is no Cause of War more unjust than the propagating the true Religion or the destroying a false one That is to be left to the Providence of God who can change the hearts of men and bring them to the knowledg of the Truth when he will Ambition and the desire of Empire must never pretend to carry on God's work The wrath of man worketh not out the righteousness of God And it were better barefacedly to own that men are set on by Carnal Motives than to prophane Religion and the Name of God by making it the Pretence ARTICLE XXXVIII Of Christian Mens Goods which are not common The Riches and Goods of Christians are not common as touching the right Title and Possession of the same as certain Anabaptists do falsly boast Notwithstanding every man ought of such things as he possesseth liberally to give Alms to the Poor according to his Ability THere is no great difficulty in this Article as there is no danger to be apprehended that the Opinion condemned by it is like to spread Those may be for it who find it for them The Poor may claim to it but few of the Rich will ever go into it The whole Charge that is given in the Scripture for Charity and Almsgiving all the Rules that are given to the Rich and to Masters to whom their Servants were then Properties and Slaves do clearly demonstrate that the Gospel was not designed to introduce a Community of Goods And even that Fellowship or Community which was practised in the first beginnings of it was the effect of particular mens Charity and not of any Law that was laid on them Barnabas having land sold it and laid the Price of it at the Apostles feet And when St. Peter chid Ananias for having vowed to give in the whole Price of his Land to that distribution and then withdrawing a part of it Acts 4.36 37· and by a Lye pretending that he had brought it all in he affirmed that the Right was still in him till he by a Vow had put it out of his power When God fed his People by Miracle with the Manna there was an equal distribution made yet when he brought them into the promised Land every man had his Property The equal division of the Land was the foundation of that Constitution but still every man had a Property and might improve it by his Industry either to the increasing of his Stock the purchasing Houses in Towns or buying of Estates till the Redemption at the Jubilee It can never be thought a just and equitable thing that the sober and industrious should be bound to share the fruits of their labour with the idle and the luxurious This would be such an Incouragement to those whom all wise Governments ought to discourage and would so discourage those who ought to be encouraged that all the Order of the World must be dissolved if so extravagant a Conceit should be entertained Both the Rich and the Poor have Rules given them and there are Virtues suitable to each state of Life The Rich ought to be sober and thankful modest and humble bountiful and charitable out of the abundance that God has given them and not to set their hearts upon uncertain Riches but to trust in the living God and to make the best use of them that they can The Poor ought to be patient and industrious to submit to the Providence of God and to study to make sure of a better Portion in another State than God has thought fit to give them in this World It will be much easier to persuade the World of the Truth of the first part of this Article than to bring them up