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

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75003	The beauty of holiness Written by the author of The whole duty of man, &c. To which is added holy devotions upon several occasions, fitted to the main uses of a Christian life.	Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681.; Hove, Frederick Hendrick van, 1628?-1698, engraver.	1684 (1684)	Wing A1096A; ESTC R223525	94,600	252

as the wise man tells us An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning but the end thereof shall not be blessed Prov. 20.21 Thirdly The Christian rule is a most compendious and compleat directory to men in every station and place Parents and Children Masters and Servants Husband and Wife may from hence learn their duty As it gives no encouragement to Tyrants so neither does it allow Rebellion in Subjects but condemns it as a sin heinous and unnatural But I cannot stand to enlarge upon every particular duty onely I shall infer that from the accomplishment of those duties enjoyned by the Christian rule is formed that Holiness I would fain perswade men to follow To put a close to this Chapter it will not I think be amiss to shew that the Christian rule of Holiness is the most noble and most excellent that was ever extant that it far excels the Schemes of Morality drawn by the best and most celebrated Masters of Pagan Philosophy and is more comprehensive and effectual to form men to true Holiness than the Mosaical Law I confess the Heathen Religion does not in the least deserve to be compared with the Christian no more I may say much less than the light of the dimmest Candle should be compared with the Sun in its brightness when all mists and clouds are dispelled It were indeed too great an honour to name the Alcoran with the New Testament the one being corrupt and imperfect the other pure and perfect in its tendency designing to make men truely vertuous and holy If we view the rules which the best and most refined Moralists prescribed we shall finde much Brass amongst their Gold many things exceedingly faulty which instead of forbidding encouraged many foul Vices Thus concerning piety towards God what unbecoming thoughts did they entertain of him They changed as the Apostle to the Romans observes the glory of an incorruptible God into an Image made like corruptible man Rom. 1.23 and in those moral duties that concerned themselves and others it were easie to shew how miserably they failed The famous Peripatetick pleaded for the revenging of Injuries The divine Plato allowed the community of Wives The strict Stoicks patronized the lawfulness of Self-murther and thus professing themselves to be wise they became fools And yet to the shame of Christians how conspicuous was the moral gallantry of the Romans how famous and glorious are they esteemed for their Justice and Constancy in friendship by all succeeding ages their vertue did conquer respect and esteem from their Enemies and made them beloved by those who fear'd their power And here I cannot but take notice of St. Augustin's commendation of the old Romans Because God says he would not bestow Heaven upon the Romans they being Pagans he bestowed the Empire of the world upon them because they were vertuous And yet the best rules those Illustrious Heroes and Law-givers taught are not comparable to the Laws of Christianity upon these three accounts First the Pagan Law is deficient in many things and many particular Laws mightily tend to the promoting of vice their Law-givers being ignorant of the introduction of sin never made any precepts against the first motions to forbidden objects Secondly those good Laws they taught are more clearly revealed in the Gospel Which hath brought life and immortality to light As the Gospel commands onely such things that are good and forbids onely vice so it more conspicuously manifests what is good that we may do it and what is evil that we may evite it The good Laws that Epaminondas in Thebes Lycurgus in Lacedemon and Aristides in Athens taught are in the Gospel-Oeconomy more excellently confirmed and we are now undoubtedly secured that we do well in observing what is commanded and in abstaining from what is prohibited which Numa Pompilius Marcus Antonius and all the Law-givers either of Greece or Rome could never be fully ascertained of Thirdly we have better encouragements and inducements to obey the Gospel-precepts than any other Religion prescribes The best motive to virtue amongst the Heathens was that vertue is a reward to it self that it is the means to be celebrated by after-ages and such-like which were but insignificant encouragements if compared with the eternal and unspeakably glorious reward which Christianity holds forth and those severe threatnings by which it secures its Laws of which I shall speak anon As for the Mosaical Law which next to the Christian is the most exact and incomparable there are three reasons why it is not to be compared with it being so far exceeded by the Gospel First the Mosaical dispensation is not unfitly called by the great Apostle A law of a carnal commandment Heb. 7.16 and A law which made nothing perfect v. 19. but the Gospel which is there called the bringing in of a better hope is more spiritual and refined and Jesus is said to be a surety of a better covenant v. 22. So that we may argue as the Apostle in the 11th verse of that cited Chapter doth If therefore perfection were by the Levitical Priesthood for under it the people received the Law what further need was there that another Priest should arise I confess the legal Sacrifices did shadow forth the satisfaction of Christs but yet I make no doubt but we may now understand the intent and meaning of all those Types much better than they could Secondly the Ceremonial Law as it was very burthensome so did it chiefly tend to make the observers thereof externally righteous and did not so strongly enforce the purifying of the heart As for the Moral Law the Christian rule as it does as strictly enjoyn it so it does much more powerfully excite men to the performance of it promising not a temporal but a● eternal reward Thirdly the Mosaical dispensation did indulge many practices which the Christian rule justly condemns such as Polygamy and Divorce and several Marriages allowed by no other Law and indeed the whole contexture of the Jewish Religion seems to be onely calculate as it did well correspond with the humour and genius of that people and could not therefore be a general Law agreeing with and well attemperate to the inclinations and humours of all Nations as the Christian rule is Any man that shall compare the Jewish Religion with the Christian shall be easily convinced that this does more effectually conduce to the purifying of us from all filthiness both of the flesh and of the spirit than the former and that of all the Schemes of Religion that ever were published none does deserve to be parallel'd with Christianity nor can adopt to them that noble character the great Apostle gives of the Gospel Rom. 1.16 That it is the power of God to salvation CHAP. III. Motives and inducements to the practice of Holiness AS the naked proposal and representation of an excellent and beautiful object is motive enough to excite our love and draw out our affections to it so methinks

Holiness which of all things is the most noble most excellent and the most lovely should even abstracted from the considerations of its utility and advantages conquer our esteem But God knows how much our depraved natures in this lapsed estate stand in need of encouragements to excite us to our duty and I wish common experience did not make it too certain that all motives are little enough to form us to Holiness In the former Chapters I have onely laid a foundation to this for I thought it fit to tell men what I understand by Holiness before I should excite them to it In this dark age of the world we want not instances God knows too many of mens too frequent mistaking vice for vertue to prevent which errour it was thought necessary to shew men their duty and having done this the next thing I proposed was to lay down several motives and inducements to engage men to the practise of Holiness founded solely upon this that all those endearing arguments that prevail with us to perform any duty or action relating to our secular concerns do more powerfully oblige us to be holy This is I confess a subject which for its nobleness deserves a better judgement a more clear wit and a more enlivened and quick fancy to handle it than I can pretend to yet if I can but prevail with others to perfect what I have begun I shall not think I have much mis-employ'd my time in writing this Discourse This Chapter is like to be somewhat disproportionable to the rest in length it being at first the onely designed subject to be discoursed on I shall therefore divide it into several Sections SECT 1. The Noble Pattern of Holiness The great inclination of Mankinde to Imitation gave ground I doubt not to that old Maxime Plus docent exempla quàm praecepta our depraved natures are very apt to contemn Precepts and to court forbidden objects The tye of a Commandment is become by our increased guilt too weak to binde us to our duty is made as light of as Sampson made of those ropes with which he was bound before his locks were cut But O what a secret and powerful influence have Examples on the spirits of men I have seen Servants and Children who have contemned Commands yet shamed to their duty by the Example of their Masters and Parents The courage and valour of a Captain proves frequently more powerful to inspirit inferiour Souldiers than the most forcible injunctions and helps to make even cowards stout whileas a timerous Commander disheartens the bravest Souldiers and by his flight will make them who feared no danger turn their backs Common experience makes it past doubt that the patrociny and example of great men is enough to render any thing fashionable We daily have proofs of this before our eyes nay so powerful do examples sometimes prove that not onely the silly modes and gestures of men have been imitated but also their natural imperfections as Nero's wry Neck was at Rome It is the Poets observation Regis ad exemplum totus componitur orbis Vpon which account I heartily wish the Nobles and Great men of this age would illustrate Holiness by their Examples and I doubt not but contemned Holiness should be as fashionable as they have now made Vice by their patrociny In sacred Writ we read that when the Rulers of Judah and Israel were religious and examples of Vertue that the whole people imitated their footsteps and worshipped the Lord God of their Fathers But when the Rulers became patrons of Vice then the whole people sacrificed in the high places and worshipped their Calves at Dan and Bethel It is indeed a case that well deserves to be regretted with flouds of tears that the footsteps of those who transgress should prove more efficacious and effectual and have a greater influence on men than the presidents of good men but more lamentable is it that despised vertue lies like the contemned ashes on the level and has so few to raise up its esteem by their examples And now seeing Examples have so much force methinks I hear the Captain of our salvation saying as Abimeleck said to the men that were with him Judg. 9.48 Make haste and do as I have done Christ Jesus hath by his example taught us our duty 1 Pet. 1.15 16. As he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation because it is written Be ye holy as I am holy Upon which account we are seriously exhorted in Scripture to look unto Jesus and to walk as he walked and can any consideration more abundantly serve to inspirit and excite us to live holy than this Methinks our having so brave an example should provoke us to follow his footsteps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth There are two chief reasons that greatly prevail with us to imitate other examples First the dignity and greatness of the person Secondly Interest and advantage Now both these motives should most powerfully prevail with us to make Christ the copy of our lives For first if we consider the dignity and worth of his person is he not the Son of the living God who in the days of his humiliation thought it no robbery to be called equal with God He was not a person of a mean and low extraction how meanly soever he lived here but one of extraordinary worth who by partaking of humane nature elevated it to the highest degree of honour He was not onely the chiefest among stten thousands but the delight of Heaven and Earth before whom the Princes of the Earth must appear and the great men to give him an account of their works And as for Interest I shall afterwards make it plain that we in nothing more cross our advantage than in walking contrary to Christ But alas how little are we moved by this noble president to minde Holiness how seldom do we express in our actions the vertues of our spiritual King although there is nothing more rational more equitable and just than to follow his footsteps who hath called us to his Kingdom and Glory nothing more honourable nor can advance our happiness more than to be conform to the image of Christ yet in opposition to the most endearing encouragements we have as much set at nought his example as Herod and his men of war did his person Luke 23.11 Alas what tears are sufficient to express and set forth this exceeding great madness and insolency Methinks I hear our blessed Prince speaking thus in his own vindication Ye unwise and foolish sons of men how long will ye prefer imperfect and ignoble patterns to one that is every whit perfect and compleat In your secular concerns ye judge more rationally prove a thousand times wiser for who amongst you does not make diligent enquiry for the most exact pattern that ye may conform what ye designe according to it but in matters of everlasting moment

to be ministred unto but to minister And to correct the insolent pride and ambition of his followers how did he stoop to wash his Disciples feet a most admirable evidence of his lowliness of spirit And now since our great Lord and Master did so wonderfully debase himself to the form of a Servant since in all his actions he did manifest that he was meek and lowly how prodigiously incongruous is it for those who profess themselves to be his Disciples to be proud and lofty I confess Humility is a grace well becoming our state as creatures we are but dependent beings having life and motion and all those endowments we are proud of from the Father of spirits from whom every good gi●● cometh The fresh communications of his love we constantly participate of are freely bestowed which he may therefore when he thinks fit with an equal freedom and ease remove without being guilty of injuring us Humility is that peculiar grace that qualifies and fits us to receive the divine aid and assistance as the Apostle St. James tells us he gives grace to the humble Upon which account we may with the Wise man well conclude Better is it to be of an humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud Prov. 16.19 I doubt not but every considering man will finde his own Reason suggest a sufficient store of arguments to confute the imperious assaults of Pride and Ambition but methinks none can more powerfully prevail with ingenuous spirits than the consideration of Christ's humility with this how effectually may he repel every temptation to pride by saying Was my Master lowly of spirit and does it become me to be proud Thirdly Christ is also set forth as our Pattern in his sufferings If when ye do well saith the Apostle and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God for even hitherto were ye called for Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps c. 1 Pet. 2.20 21. c. Heb. 12.1 2. His patience under his sufferings was very admirable for although he was flouted and contemned by his unworthy creatures was exposed to the base outrages of scandalous sinners was made a spectacle set at nought spit upon and smitten by unworthy worms whom with a word he could have easily dashed into nothing in a word though he endured all that malice could invent suffered the worst of temporal evils and became obedient to the cursed death of the cross yet notwithstanding how patiently did he endure the contradiction of sinners how entirely did he submit to his Fathers Will Although he was extreamly sensible of the weight of his sufferings yet he did not in the least evidence any revengeful mind in the midst of his extream tortures but sweetly recommended his soul into his Fathers hands And now can any motive more effectually convince us to suffer patiently But God knows how much we set at nought this president fain would we enjoy a continual prosperity a life of ease without the least mixture or allay of trouble When we meet with any thing that imbitters our condition like the murmuring Israelites we fret and repine and our spirits begin to boil with rage and discontent we cannot endure to have our pleasures impaired but Jonah-like we are discontented and ready to say we do well to be angry we aggravate the most minute trouble with imagined circumstances and are ready to say Come behold and see if there be any affliction like mine And although we are assured that our repinings cannot remove or lighten our burthen cannot give us the least ease or relief yet we never rest till those puddled streams be stirred up Our grumblings are almost inseparable concomitants of our sufferings and if our Father smite us we begin to accuse his love and tenderness notwithstanding he hath instructed us that whom he loveth he chasteneth If we meet with reproaches our revenge is on the wing the least affront kindles this unsanctified fire No arguments can tame our Fury no president proves effectual to form our Souls to true patience If we drink of the waters of Marah we complain of their bitterness like foolish Children think we are hardly dealt with And although impatience enflames rather than allays the distemper though it augments the degrees of our trouble and disenables us to bear the stroke of Adversity yet we will not be perswaded to a calm and quiet submission to the Divine Will Though impatience exasperates the pain yet we think we do well to be angry If we meet with injuries our appetite of revenge is stirred up flesh and bloud we say cannot endure such affronts we imagine it stains our Reputation and Honour in the world and is degenerous and servile Thus do we sew Fig-leaves to cover our nakedness but the all-seeing God knows that all these repinings are arrows directed against his Providence otherwise we should with the Royal Psalmist say I will not open my mouth for thou didst it To this impregnable Fortress he had his recourse when causlesly cursed and reviled by Shimei it was this that silenced old Eli It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good he durst not quarrel at the message but quietly he submits There is a secret Providence which doth over-rule the most terrible accidents and is not accountable to humane Reason All those calamities and sufferings we undergo are ordered by infinite Counsel and in repining at such dispensations we indirectly blame Almighty Goodness and Wisdome Is it fit and congruous that God should take measures from men in his Oeconomy of the World is it reasonable that the whole course of things should be put out of order to satisfie every private mans humor can there be any greater madness than to prescribe rules of Government to infinite Wisdom Why then are we dissatisfied with our adverse state why do we repine and complain If we did indeed compare our Mercies with our Sufferings our Receipts with our Merits or our Condition with that of some others we could not but be convinced of our folly but we still pore upon the sore all our thoughts are taken up and in exercise about our affliction if we would deal rationally let us view the sufferings of our blessed Redeemer and see if we dare make a contrary conclusion to that of the Apostle 1 Pet. 4.1 Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh let us arm our selves likewise with the same mind He suffered patiently and calmly for us and it is but reasonable that Servants imitate their Master and suffer the disasters they meet with with the same mind that he did that being thus made conform to our head we may be also partakers with him of his joy 'T is indeed an unchild-like behaviour to quarrel at the dispensations of our Heavenly Father Alas all we merit by our sins is stripes and chastisements and it is