Selected quad for the lemma: master_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
master_n	lord_n	servant_n	service_n	5,597	5	7.0128	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28908	Pandaemonium, or, The devil's cloyster being a further blow to modern sadduceism, proving the existence of witches and spirits, in a discourse deduced from the fall of the angels, the propagation of Satans kingdom before the flood, the idolatry of the ages after greatly advancing diabolical confederacies, with an account of the lives and transactions of several notorious witches : also, a collection of several authentick relations of strange apparitions of dæmons and spectres, and fascinations of witches, never before printed / by Richard Bovet ...	Bovet, Richard, b. ca. 1641.	1684 (1684)	Wing B3864; ESTC R15851	101,986	250

to allude to that of Saint John Nothing shall ever be able to hinder them from this which though exceeding great is yet followed with another part necessary to their happiness which is 8thly A publick solemn and full declaration of their absolution from the charge which men or Devils in their accusation of them would load them with nay the charge wherewith the Law would burthen them shall be fully and solemnly taken off when they shall be justified before men and Angels from all that from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses Act. 13.38 which shall be when our Lord shall proceed in Judgment towards all when according to the order of the Resurrection those that are Christs shall be first called judged and absolved when according to the order of the Parable Matt. 25.34 Those shall be adjuged to glory first who fed the hungry cloathed the naked took into their houses those that were strangers c. This I doubt not you 'l confess is a great happiness indeed well when our Lord cometh thus happy shall all his faithful and diligent Servants be who in life laid out themselves in labour for the Lord who in death rest from their labours and whose labours follow them into Judgment to be examined pardoned and rewarded according to the riches of Grace 9thly Our Lord when he cometh will add another thing to their happiness They shall then with him as assessors and approvers of his righteous proceeding with the rest of the world sit Judges of the world of this we are assured Jude 14 The Lord cometh with or in midst of ten thousand of his Saints to Judg c. Of this the Apostle speaks more clearly 1 Cor. 6.2 The Saints shall judg the world Nay more we shall judg Angels saith the Apostle This honour have all his Saints and in this they are blessed and this is enough to make every condition good to them until the glorious coming of their Lord until they are thus advanced In a word Christ seems to promise to his who are more than the ordinary Servants in his Family a more than ordinary degree of this Honour Luk. 22. ver 28 29 30. with Matt. 19.28 I will not enquire how far faithful Stewards and Ministers are herein next to the Apostles concerned It is well for them their faithfulness to souls shall then be manifested and honoured 10thly and lastly Christ our Lord when he cometh in the Glory of his Father Judg of all will when the solemnity of Judgment is finished and the wicked world is cast into Hell thrown into the place of Torment where their worm dieth not where the fire is not quenched Then Christ will take all his faithful ones and pass with them into the inconceivable and eternal Glory of his Kingdom brought to the fullest degree of greatness and Majesty that is foretold to us When they shall ever be with the Lord and behold his Glory when they shall be like to him whom they see and be filled with that Glory that shineth on them when all the Saints of God and none others shall be amassed into one great and general assembly and all orderly ranged before the throne of God and the Lamb ministring in sinless praises love and adoration for ever Now certainly could you and I lift up our eyes towards this illustrious assembly could we view them there we should ever be satisfied That diligence in and faithfulness to the service of our Lord according to our capacity now is and will at the coming of our Lord appear to be as much our comfort and happiness as it is our Duty and ought to be our care Oh then let us consider What it is to be acquitted from guilt What to be approved and rewarded What 't is to be bettered by all providences What to die in safety at last Is not this to be blessed Is not this to die the death of the righteous Why Christians your faithfulness and diligence shall so be found and so end if you continue it Do we believe a glory succeeds our death a resurrection our burial a publick absolution our being judged shall we sit assessors approvers and witnesses to the Great Judg and pass with him into glory everlasting And shall not our unwearied diligence and faithfulness exercised in his Service prove we believe the truth and expect this benefit hereof I hope now you will be less moved with present difficulties and more fixed for future diligence in serving the Lord and doing good to his Family expressed here by giving the Portion of meat in season in which appears the wisdom and fidelity of Servants and Stewards and to which blessedness is annexed and appropriated in the Text. The Reason whereof is the fifth general head of discourse and which we shall now briefly touch upon 1. Wisdom and faithfulness in Servants and Stewards are the best qualifications and comprise all that a Lord and Master requireth or need require in them for wisdom makes them meet for such a trust and faithfulness encourageth their Lord to trust them And both these appear in their observing what is sit for each person and season and applying to both accordingly So when Fathers know what is fit for Children and Masters know what is fit for Servants and Ministers for their people and accordingly instruct reprove warn encourage or comfort them Here is both the widom and fidelity requisite to a good Servant and the Lord who intends in the Text to oblige us to all that good Servants and Stewards should do hath thus closely couched all our Duty in this comprehensive phrase So the blessedness is appropriated not to a single Duty but to the universal diligent discharge of all our Duty which is summed up in this giving to each other our Portion of meat in season 2. Thus we are seasonably minded of that great and necessary duty which the last and worst age of the world doth neglect we are minded of giving mutual help and furtherance to each other in the way of Holiness and Obedience Our disputing quarrelling censuring and condemning age is ready to turn one another out of the way to dispute each other out of the truth and to quarrel each other for doing their duty instead of helping each other to do it But this little becomes Servants and Stewards in the same Family this is no part of their wisdom or fidelity Christ knew we should unto his coming need each others help and hath therefore so commended it as our wisdom and fidelity and so encouraged the discharge of it by this large reward Let us then have so much reason to see the excellency of the duty and temper and so much Religion before God and love to our selves as to get this temper that we may do the duty and receive the reward and be at last blessed with those we helpt towards Heaven 3. This giving the portion of meat in season This charitable benificence puts

a great honour upon Religion and commends it to others And Christ doth therefore expect we should thus adorn our Profession and he encourageth us to it by such a declaration of the blessedness of those who attend this duty A wise faithful and diligent Physitian credits his Profession and convinceth men that it is very useful and profitable to mankind A Christian of such a temper in Christianity and so exercising himself to do this comprehensive good in his place doth as much convince the world that Christianity is of all Professions most useful to mankind who are by it helped forward in the arduous and important affairs of eternity 4. Thus we are awakened to greater watchfulness over our selves and others and minded of observing laying hold on and improving opportunities which though we are so engaged not to let slip yet we too too often let fall quite out of our own hands and that becometh for ever impossible to us which once might have been easily effected by us Time is not easily redeemed but opportunities are more difficultly recovered and for most part once slipt and for ever lost Well then might such Emphasis be laid on this Duty of giving a portion in season that all might be awakened to heed what opportunities are in their hand Oh consider it I beseech you Parents for your Children Husbands for your Wives Masters for your Servants elder ones for the younger and Ministers for their People you cannot always live they must dye and neither can give or receive helps when death swallows up your opportunities You 'l never hear him catechising preaching praying and exhorting who now rests in his grave and you are not sure you shall ever have such another How heedful should we be then to receive our portion when offered and to offer it to others while we may and be so found prepared for the reward which is promised to these good Servants but is reserved until the coming of our Lord The reason of which delay or adjourning of our happiness is the sixth General branch of our discourse and now cometh to be considered And so 1. The seasons and manner of our Lords coming before Death and Judgment are notable discoveries of the unhappiness of sinners and therefore do by a necessary consequence manifest the happiness of the servants of God Though light is always pleasant yet it was most pleasant in Goshen when Egypt lay in darkness Heaven is always desirable but when the misery threatned involves the contemners of it they will appear blessed indeed who sought it and obtain'd it The various coming of our Lord doth shew the world the evil state in which the unbelieving and rebellious sinners are found and so cannot but shew the good state in which the faithful are found to be at his coming 2. There is somewhat of Royal prerogative in it God will have his last coming to be the season because it seems good to him that it should be so And this were reason enough though there were no other he hath reserved times and seasons in his own hand and he who gives the reward freely may surely choose the time wherein he will give it That ever he will give it is grace that he will give it at last is his pleasure of which none ever complain'd when they received the blessing 3. There is much of Decorum and due order herein it would not be so seasonable at any other time their Service is for the Lord their Master and he is the fittest to view their Service and to assign their recompence they did not expect their happiness before his coming and yet they professed they should receive it at his coming and now when times and seasons suit their expectations and declared hopes there appears a just order and harmony between times and things Now the promise and their hopes are consonant to each other 4. There is somewhat of that we call necessary in the case their happiness is reserved to that time because it could not be sooner For 1. All the greatest good Gods Servants can receive before this coming of their Lord is too little and mean to be their blessedness besides that most of external advantages are the rewards of such as shall never have better and are given to hypocrites Now 't is necessary that faithful Servants should stay till they may receive a better reward than hypocrites have 2. It is necessary all their work be done before they receive their full blessedness now their work ends not till they dye then their works follow them and they are blessed It is not more necessary a Labourer do his work ere he receive his wages or a Soldier conquer ere he triumph than that the faithful Servants of the Lord do all their work ere they are blessed and fully recompenced for it 3. Full blessedness of Gods Servants must be in a place and state where all not one excepted may meet and be joynt-heirs of the same inheritance Now this cannot be in any place or state but that to which at the Lords coming they shall be carried Now we come into the world live a few days and in small numbers together and cannot live all together nor long together your tears witness it but we must be all gathered together ere all tears shall be wiped from all faces and this cannot be but where our Lord will be with us for ever which will not cannot be till his coming 4. Vntil death be conquered and we raised immortal which cannot be till the last coming of our Lord we are not able to bear that glory which must be our final and full blessedness none can see God while they live mortal flesh is too weak for immortal Glory this is too weighty a Crown for heads that must lye down in dust We must dye that we may be raised immortal and so be made capable of our final happiness Vlt. lastly in a word The eternal Presence of God with us in the immediate fruits of it is our objective happiness and necessary to our reward and this cannot be hoped or enjoyed whilst we are on this side eternity and are measur'd by time But when the last coming of our Lord shall determine the periods of time and fix our eternity which shall commence at the expiration of time Then he will never more be absent from us or hide his presence or abate it to us This being necessary to our happiness it is necessary we stay until his last coming wherein you will I hope and wherein I pray that you may meet the faithful and diligent Servants of God his Stewards wherein I perswade my self you will meet this faithful servant of Christ whom you now lament but shall then ever rejoyce with him Sirs I believe you will scarce doubt the truth I have preached I am sure you cannot with reason contradict it I hope you will not through slothful hearts lose the proposed blessedness which is last that it may be best

to you I have now done with all the Doctrinal part and think I have spoken to as much as needed to be handled in it I proceed to the Uses of the Point which I shall confine to these two following 1. Information Hence we may learn 1. That the care and business of Christians is as their priviledg very great Happiness in every condition and state is an exceeding great priviledg and to be faithful and diligent in the Lords Family according to our Talents and Relations is no light and easy care or work it requires much wisdom and much heedfulness I wish we were more apprehensive of both that our endeavour to be faithful might somewhat answer our hopes to be happy if you separate them now God will separate you from them hereafter when death shall cut you off from your opportunities and Judgment shall cut you off from your hopes Be holy and serve your Lord as ever you hope to be happy with your Lord. 2. Hence learn The first part of a faithful Servants and Stewards work is the more troublesome the last part is most sweet and satisfactory Sincerity and Diligence are sweetest at last The idle revelling Servant is most at ease when his Master is at farthest distance but the diligent and faithful Servant doth most rejoyce when his work is nearest an end his Master nearest coming and his reward nearest to his hand All that is difficult is at first somewhat harsh to our weakness but when difficulties are well nigh conquered it is greatest quiet and satisfaction to the diligent hand and willing mind Religion grows sweetest to us at last if we are sincere in it 3. Hence learn That best men though they shall be fully blessed at last yet that last shall not be but when the Lord pleaseth None have our times in their hands to prolong them or shorten them to their humors or passions Good Christians should live too little and serve God and the Church too little if bad men might measure out the time of their service such men would send them to their happiness sooner than would be convenient for those that neeed them And were our arrival in glory at the disposal of our friends and such as love us we should be kept longer from it than we would It is fit it should and 't is best that it be in God our gracious Soveraign and Lords hand to measure out the time of our Service and to fix the time of our reward which shall be when he cometh and he will come when he pleaseth and never to the loss of his faithful Servants 4. Hence learn To check the inordinate and excessive grief or impatience of Spirit under our losses in the death of our Relations A thousand disputing thoughts will start up in your breast which must not be allowed any debate It is the Lord who might have come sooner though we should possibly think he came too soon crush such like surmizes look rather to the known piety diligence faithfulness and labours of your deceased Christian Relations and consider to whom they lived Servants to whom they are passed with whom they now do and ever shall live Be followers of them as they were of Christ that in Gods time i. e. the best and fittest time you pass to them and be with your Lord and theirs in fulness of rewards and joys But Secondly By way of Exhortation Since the faithful and diligent Servant shall be blessed at his Lords coming be perswaded all whether Hearers or Readers especially you who have such examples and who have a more peculiar concern in the occasion of these lines Be perswaded to get such a temper of soul and lead such a course of life as may best become the Servants of such a Lord who will come and as may most comfort you when he cometh I will not prolixly direct how you may thus do nor farther move with argument I will suppose you willing already and desirous to hear how you may be blessed in your temper life and death 1. Wisdom is necessary the verse before my Text tells us as much therefore you must get wisdom from the Scriptures Read consider and remember them they are the rule our Lord hath left for direction of his whole Family The entrance into these giveth wisdom and this wisdom will attemper both heart and life that both may be holy and the end happy 2. Settle your resolutions to do all the known will of your Lord Let it be your motive why you do and your warrant when you have done the things that are proper to your places and callings An unresolved man will never be throughly faithful or diligent the full purpose of your heart must be to do all the good to all as you can which is the will of him who is good to all and whose tender mercies are over all his works 3. Whatever advantage you have on men whether it be advantage of Interest or Authority use it all for God and the good of their souls who in likelihood will hearken to you and be advised by you Perhaps you may thus save some Where you may forbid let not sin be committed unforbidden Where you may command let not good be omitted through want of your Command use the Power God gives you to engage others to serve God Abraham would command his House to keep the Covenant of the Lord so do you 4. Watch over your selves that you may watch over others and ere you pretend faithfulness to others and diligence and care to make them good be sure to be good your selves none can believe you are in earnest bent on the good of souls if you neglect your own First Do the good which your places require and then perswade others to mind their Duty in their places Masters Fathers and Teachers will do more hurt by bad examples than they can do good by best Counsels 5. Look frequently to the future blessedness under the conditions with which it is proposed to you and others in the Text Context and other places a frequent view of that blessedness will heighten your desires and hopes A frequent view of the conditions will awaken your care and provoke to diligence lest you should come short of your hopes and be disappointed of your best desires We are apt to forget our hopes therefore look often to that blessedness we are apt to indulge our ease and sloth therefore look well and often to the terms on which it must be expected Though many weaknesses are passed by and covered yet wilful negligence and insincerity will not be passed by you must be faithful and sincere if you will be happy and blessed This light is sown for the upright and the spirit in which is no guile is and shall be blessed Psal 32.2 6. Remember and imitate the best examples that fall under your observation Beside what are recorded in sacred Scripture to which you must look it will be helpful to

you if you will remember and imitate those whose life and carriage was much in your eye And let me tell you in the Copy our late faithful Brother set you there are remarkable for your imitation A prudent care to manage soul-concerns a constant unwearied diligence in Labours for their good an undaunted resolution for known duty to God and Man a tender and meek spirit gently dealing with the weak yet willing enquirers after God A ready and full-willing mind to minister on every occasion to the edifying of those he conversed with An even and steddy practice of what he commended as excellent or urged as necessary duty an acquaintedness with the importance of duty and reward A serious mindfulness of Death and Judgment on which he discoursed frequently and lively dying to the World but living to God and still valuing most what was so good God would not and men could not take from him which appear'd in his deportment and frame of spirit when loss of dying Children and uncertain riches raised his esteem and value of the Gospel and his and your hopes set before us in the Gospel a heart full of love and thoughtfulness for your good whence those last desires and requests in order to the promoting of your good which I am informed he left you to consider Prize a Guide that will be faithful to your souls keep the unity of the spirit into which you are called by the Gospel and seek God earnestly for both Now could we prevail with you who heard and with others who read this discourse to endeavour for such a frame of spirit and to act according to it I know there would be more faithfulness diligence and mutual hope among the Servants of the Lord and his Family would be more beautiful in sight of others and more comforted and edified in their own souls Read then and read again and be in your houses which should be little Families or Churches of God in directing and helping them to Heaven what he desired and labour'd to be amongst you all I do think he gave you the Copy of Faithfulness and Diligence or I would not have thus set it before you and I commend it to you as becomes both me and it viz. It is the Copy of one who whilst he was good was still a man but though I could wish you would excel him I will not flatter you with a hope you will do it Oh that you would equal him of whom allow me to say He could do as much as most of best Men Scholars Christians Husbands Fathers Brethren Ministers and his will was ever equal to his ability the Service of his Lord was his life though he lived not on it he would not he could not live without it by a gracious Master sitted for succeeded in carried through much work in a little time and I believe now rewarded with a Crown of Life and Righteousness which he knew he did not merit though he knew it should be his wages In brief he was such an one as friends who knew him desire they may be and now is such as they hope they shall be such an one as some enemies already as I am inform'd have wisht they might be and others will once at last wish they had been He had a worth known to himself and others but it did not puff him up Should I say all I could strangers would think I exceed Friends would know a better Orator might justifiably have spoken more Yet once for all If either Readers or Hearers carp at the Character I have given him I have two things to say First it will be easier to quarrel at the praises than to deserve them Next I would defraud none of the Commendation due to them nor do I prefer him above all there are some but too few superior in gifts and graces I hope there are many his equals I am sure the most are lower by head and shoulders who likeliest to misinterpret me shall have a good wish for them or rather a serious Prayer testimony of a hearty love to their persons and unfeigned desire of their own good comfort and welfare and of all these to theirs and the Church of God in this and after ages for them I say I will pray more days fewer troubles and that they may be in other things altogether such as he was FINIS only on particular Men Women and Children but even on whole Towns and Countries many of which have been miserably Afflicted and some even totally destroyed by Tempests Fires Pestilences and other strange Accidents whereof no cause in Nature could appear And this hath been Attested not by one or two private or Ignorant Men but Transmitted from one Generation to another as the Opinion of the most Authentick Historians Physicians and Divines grounded on the best and strictest Enquiries of such who have taken Indefatigable pains to sift and search out the truth of what they have Related Nor have we alone the Authority of such but the consent of whole Courts of Judicature and the most Learned Assemblies of States-Men and Divines who in all Ages by their Publick Solemn Sanctions have declared their belief Detestation of such Cursed Practices Besides the undeniable Testimony of the sacred Scriptures before mentioned to whose Unerring Suffrage we ought to submit our belief and not by our fidelity Contradict the Authority of the Almighty and take upon us to be the Patrons and Champions of those Hellish Practises we seem to disbelieve By Charmers in a strict sense may be understood such as by some spell or form of Words employ their Familiar Spirits to bring at their call such Creatures as they shall demand rendering Venomous Creatures disarmed of their Noxious Quality during their pleasure and the most Ferose and Wild Brutes to become Tractable and Couchant Such were they who could suscitate or call together great numbers of Snakes or Serpents and cause them to go of their own accord into the Fire which was inclosed within a Magical Circle of which Dr. Casaubon of Credulity and Incredulity gives an account at large page 103. some have Charmed Flyes and Grashoppers when the Fields have been Infested with them and the fruits of the Earth in danger And of this sort of Operators the Psalmist seems to speak Ps 58. v. 4. Which will not hearken to the voice of the Charmer Charming never so wisely So Ecclesiastes ch 10.11 v. surely the Serpent will bite without Enchantment and the 8. of the Prophet Jerem. 17. v. I will send Serpents Cockatrices amongst you which will not be Charmed and they shall bite you c. Southsayers were such as by Inspection into the Entrails of Beasts or the flying of Birds were wont to prognosticate of Weather what Tempests or other seasons were like to ensue they gave their Opinions too with relation to other Contingencies as Events of Battle the fatality of Seasons or Attempts This they foretold by some certain Omens