The true and faithful discharge of relative duties, is a very great honour and ornament to the doctrine of the gospel: without, which the talk of Godliness, and profession of religion, is vain; and therefore all Christians should labour to understand their relative duties, and be careful and conscionable in the discharge of them.

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Title: The true and faithful discharge of relative duties, is a very great honour and ornament to the doctrine of the gospel: without, which the talk of Godliness, and profession of religion, is vain; and therefore all Christians should labour to understand their relative duties, and be careful and conscionable in the discharge of them.
Publication: London :: printed for Awnsham Churchil,; 1683.
Rights/Permissions: To the extent possible under law, the Text Creation Partnership has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above, according to the terms of the CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). This waiver does not extend to any page images or other supplementary files associated with this work, which may be protected by copyright or other license restrictions. Please go to http://www.textcreationpartnership.org/ for more information.
Subject terms: Christian life; Conduct of life
Link to this Item: http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A94915.0001.001
Cite this Item: "The true and faithful discharge of relative duties, is a very great honour and ornament to the doctrine of the gospel: without, which the talk of Godliness, and profession of religion, is vain; and therefore all Christians should labour to understand their relative duties, and be careful and conscionable in the discharge of them." In the digital collection Early English Books Online 2. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A94915.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 13, 2024.

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Of Masters.

1. TO be gentle, not harsh and ri∣gorous, like the Task-Masters of Egypt, this is unbecoming Chr∣stian Masters, the Apostle joyns the good and gentle together, 1 Pet. 2. 18. must not be outragious for every trifle, but gentle, kindly, bear with their Servants. Masters should be as fathers to their Servants, not only in point of superiority over their Ser∣vants, but in point of loving and tender respect to their Servants, 2 King. 5. 13. Eph. 6. 9.

2. To keep up their authority; lose this, and the beauty of a family is lost, and, 'tis much if sad confusion don't creep into the family; remem∣ber in whose stead thou art, as a Ma∣ster and Governour of a family thou representest God himself, who is the Master and Governour of all, and therefore thou shouldest maintain the dignity of the place wherein the Lord hath set thee.

3. To provide convenient, com∣fortable food and rayment for their Servants. Prov. 31. 15, 21. are clo∣thed with scarlet, or double gar∣ments, i. e. they are well clothed against the cold, Col. 4. 1.

4. To look to their commands; both as to, 1. The matter of them; Masters must see their Com∣mands be lawful and good, must not impose any thing upon Servants which the Lord hath not warranted in his word, not require Servants to lye or filch for them, or break the Sabbath. 2. The measure, Masters must not impose more labour upon their Servants than they have strength well and comfortably to perfom; this is oppression and cruel∣ty, Esai. 58. 6.

5. To protect and shelter their Servants, must not suffer them to be wronged and abused by others; as the Lord is a shield to his Servants, Psa. 84. 11.

6. To take care of their Servants in their sickness and weakness, and use means for their recovery, Mat. 8. 6.

7. To endeavour the good of the souls of their Servants: of all duties this is the greatest, and yet most neglected; good Joshua would not Serve God alone, but have his hou∣shold serve God with him, Jos. 24. 15. what a Religious family Abraham had; as they were train'd in civil af∣fairs, and military postures. Gen. 14. 14. so in Religious matters too.