his abilities.

But this subjection we all owe one another is nowhere more necessary
than in the common conversations of life, for without it there could
be no society among men. If the learned would not sometimes submit
to the ignorant, the wise to the simple, the gentle to the froward,
the old to the weaknesses of the young, there would be nothing but
everlasting variance in the world. This our Saviour Himself
confirmed by His own example; for He appeared in the form of a
servant and washed His disciples' feet, adding those memorable
words, "Ye call me Lord and Master, and ye say well, for so I am.
If I then, your Lord and Master, wash your feet, how much more ought
ye to wash one another's feet?" Under which expression of washing
the feet is included all that subjection, assistance, love, and
duty, which every good Christian ought to pay his brother, in
whatever station God hath placed him. For the greatest prince and
the meanest slave are not, by infinite degrees, so distant as our
Saviour and those disciples, whose feet He vouchsafed to wash.

And although this doctrine of subjecting ourselves to one another
may seem to grate upon the pride and vanity of mankind, and may
therefore be hard to be digested by those who value themselves upon
their greatness or their wealth, yet it is really no more than what
most men practise upon other occasions. For if our neighbour, who
is our inferior, comes to see us, we rise to receive him; we place
him above us, and respect him as if he were better than ourselves;
and this is thought both decent and necessary, and is usually called
good manners. Now the duty required by the Apostle is only that we
should enlarge our minds, and that what we thus practise in the
common course of life we should imitate in all our actions and