ij I.iii:'1f NV. 35° Chap.5. The Duties ofMafers and Servants. Coma. fons were executed to flay the Famine, yet King David ( as the Text faith ) fpared 2 SamsI7. Mephibofheth the fon of 7onathan, becaufe of the league ofFriendlhip between him and Tom:than his Father. And thus much for the Duties ofParents and Children. 3. The third Combination is between theMailer and the Servant,theMailer be- ing in the Family, as the Magiftrate and Superiour is in the Civil Body ; only here the Inflitution was from man, but the App,obation was from God, whereas the Ir.- flitution of the fupreme Civil Power in Kings was fromGod. And the warrant of a Kings 5.13. calling a MaJfer, Father, ( and fo honouringhim ) is clear from that place , where Naamans fervants call him Father. The fcope and efpecial Point to be aimed at in this Combinationis, r. That all Luke 19. 9. Mailers are to have refpea to the chiefeil good ; that Salvation, as with lichens, fhould come to their whole Family. So alfo it was withLydia and her Family, Aas 16.15. So withCornelius, As 10.27. With the Jayler, A 1. r 6.33. And with Ra- bab, Jofh.2. r 3,2. That the Matter do dominant inbono, govern his Family for their Ecclef.. 9. good andhis mutually; not as he, ofwhich the Preacher took notice, that ruled over another to his own hurt. For the firfi Inflitution ofthis Relation, we readof no Servants at the beginning, for if Man had continued in his Innocency, there thould have been none : and there were none we read of till the timeofCbam, who for difhonouring his Father, was Gen. 9. as. changed froma Son to a Servant of Servants, by the curfe ofNoah aad the confir- mation of it by God. So that propter malitiam or maledictionem by fin it was tirft 27. 29. brought in. And the like change happened afterward to Efau, becaufe he had be- haved himfelf lewdly towards his Father, andunreverently towards God, in neg- letting and contemninghis Birthright, the Blefling was tranflated from him to Ja- cob, to whom Efauwas made a Servant. Servitude is of three kinds or forts. Firft by Nature. Secondly by War. Thirdly by Covenant. I. The firft way is deprefflone intellellus, bya defell in nature, want of gifts of the mind. And men of this conditionareever fit tobe employed rather in the execution ofother mens commands, than to command others of themfelves, and are more meet to be ruled, than to rule: And this was Solomon: opinion ofNatures order, infipiens Prov. it. 29. eritfervus fsp:ensit, the fool fhall be fervant to the wife. And indeed he cannot be bet- ter fped than fo to be. We fee this in theGibeonites,which became fervile,and found fafety and eafe by it, and that fervice was good for them : therewas in them depreo intelleElus, aBefell in underFanding andknowledg of God and his Service, and there- Gen. 49. 14. fore they fhould be the fitter to ferve in mean works, and to be governed by the Levites: when faeob prophecied of I(facbar, that he fhould couch down and fubmit himfelf to the burden, and findeafe by it ; he fheweth, that in that Son , and in that Tribe there would bedepreffio intellellut, above all the reff, and conlequently that he Ar1R. was fit to be a Servant. And the Heathen man confidering this point, faith, that God fheweth who are fit to ferve, by defetf of underfianding in Come, or making the body deformed or crooked, fit for burdens, and not giving that proportion,that it Should be fit dominar,, to bear rule. And this is the fir ft way whereby Servitude came in, defeéì ofnatural parts. 2. The fecond way was by Force or War. Thus the Pollerity ofChamwere Hun - Gen. 31.36. tersofmen : and which is (£range, though the curfe of God was upon him and his poflerity, that they fhould be fervants, yet they were the Mil that began to hunt men, and to make fervants ofothers ( thereby drawing that curfe upon themfelves afterwards ) and thus came in fervitusbelli, fervice of necefty necelfity being that to. 8. which Bat legem legi, impefeth a law upon the law: as in thecafe of Jofeph, who be- 37. 36 ing fold to the Madianites by his brethren, and by them to Poriphar, was by con- ftraint become a fervant. And fo we fee in the flory of Chedorlaomer and his crew 14. 14. Lot was taken Prifoner, and became a Captive or Servant for the time, till Abraham refcued him. This is the fecond way. 3. The Taft way is fervituf Palli, fervitude by Covenant ; and this came upon the neceilìty which the other brought with it. For becaufe men were defirous to be freed from the cruelty of the Soveraignty of Tyrants, they willingly gave them- felves to filch as would ufe them well, and were able to defend them from the Tyranny
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