Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	according_a	great_a	write_v	2,348	5	5.0480	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62137	Twenty sermons formerly preached XVI ad aulam, III ad magistratum, I ad populum / and now first published by Robert Sanderson ...; Sermons. Selections	Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663.	1656 (1656)	Wing S640; ESTC R19857	465,995	464

him outwardly so as he is at a kinde of peace with them or howsoever sustaineth no harm by them Either of which when it is done it is thirdly Mutatio dexterae excelsi it is meerly the Lords doing and it may well be marvelous in our eyes It is he that maketh a mans enemies to be at peace with him 22. The scope of the whole words is to instruct us that the fairest and likeliest way for us to procure peace with men is to order our wayes so as to please the Lord. You shall therefore finde the favour of God and the favour of men often joyned together in the Scriptures as if one were and so usually it is a consequent of the other so it is said of our blessed Saviour Luke 2 that he encreased in favour with God and men My son let not mercy and truth forsake thee c. so shalt thou finde favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man saith our Solomon Prov. 3. And S. Paul Rom. 14. he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men In all which places favour and acceptation with God goeth before favour and approbation with men followeth after 23. You may see the proof of it in the whole course of the sacred story wherein the lords dealing with his own people in this kinde is remarkable When they started aside to walk after their own counsels displeased him how he stirred them up enemies round about them how he sold them into the hands of those that spoiled them how he hardned the hearts of all those that contended with them that they should not pitty them Againe on the other side when they believed his word walked in his wayes and pleased him how he raised them up friends how he made their enemies to bow under them how he enclined the hearts of strangers and of Pagans to pitty them Instances are obvious and therefore I omit them 24. Of which Effect the first and principall cause is none other then the overruling hand of God who not only disposeth of all outward things according to the good pleasure of his will but hath also in his hands the hearts of all men even of the greatest Kings as the rivers of water to turn them which way soever he will as our Solomon speaketh at the 21th ch of this Book The original there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Palge maijm as you would say the divisions of waters Which is not to be understood of the great rivers though the greatest of them all even the wide and great Sea also is in the hands of God to turne which way soever he will as he turned the waters of the red sea backwards to let his people goe through and then turned them forward again to overwhelme their enemies But the allusion there is clearly to the little trenches whereby in those drier Eastern countries husbandmen used to derive water from some fountain or cistern to the several parts of their gardens for the better nourishing of their herbs and fruit-trees Now you know when a gardner hath cut many such trenches all over his garden with what ease he can turne the water out of any one into any other of those channels suffering it to runne so long in one as he thinketh good and then stopping it thence and deriving it into another even as it pleaseth him and as he seeth it most conducible for the necessities of his garden With much more ease can the Lord stop the current of any mans favour and affections in the course wherein it presently runneth and turne it quite into another channel drying it up against one man and deriving it upon another even as it seemeth good in his sight and as will best serve other his holy and just purposes whether he intend to chastise his children or to comfort them or to exercise any other part or passage of his blessed providence upon them Thus he gave his people favour in the sight of the Egyptians so as they lent them all their precious things at their departure who but a little before had consulted the rooting out the whole generation of them And thus after that in his just displeasure against them for their sins he had given them over into captivity into their enemies hands when he was pleased again with their humiliations he not only pittied them himself according to the multitude of his mercies but he turned the hatred of their enemies also into compassion and made all those that had led them away captives to pitty them as it is in Psalm 106. 25. The Lord is a God of power and therefore can work such effects as he pleaseth for our peace without any apparent means on our parts But being withall a God of order for the most part therefore and in the ordinary course of his providence he worketh his own purposes by second causes and subordinate means At least he hath so tied us to the use of probable means for the bringing about of what he hath promised that although we ought to be perswaded he can yet we may not presume he will work our good without our endeavours Now the subordinate means to be used on our part without which we cannot reasonably expect that God should make our enemies to be at peace with us is our faire and amiable conversation with others For who will harme you if ye be followers of that which is good saith S. Peter As if he had said so long as you carry your selves graciously and wisely if the hearts of your enemies will not be so far wrought upon as to love and affect you yet their mouths will be muzled and their hands manacled from breaking out into any outragious either tearms or actions of open hostility so as you shall enjoy your peace with them in some measure Though they meane you no good yet they shall doe you no harme 26. But it may be objected both from scripture and experience that sundry times when a mans wayes are right and therefore pleasing unto God his enemies are nothing less if not perhaps much more enraged against him then formerly they were Our Saviour often foretold his Disciples that they should be hated of all men for his sake And David complaineth in Psalm 38. of some that were against him eo nomine and for that very reason because he was a follower of that which was good What a seeming distance is there between the Prophets and the Apostles speeches or else how may they be reconciled Who is he that will harm you if you be followers of that which is good saith the one Yea saith the other there are some agai●st me even therefore because I follow that which is good As if by seeking to please God he had rather lost his friends then gained his enemies 27. There are sundry considerations that may be of good use to us

dealing with the Iury perhaps get one packt for his turne tampering with the witnesses tempting the Iudge himself it may be with a Letter or a Bribe he will leave no stone unmoved no likely means how indirect soever unattempted to get the better of the day and to cast his adversary You may observe it likewise in Church-affairs A regular Minister sitteth quietly at home followeth his study doth his duty in his own Cure and teacheth his people truly and faithfully to do theirs keepeth himself within his own station and medleth no further But schismaticall spirits are more pragmaticall they will not be contained within their own circle but must be flying out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they must have an Oar in every Boat offering yea thrusting themselves into every Pulpit before they be sent for running from town to town from house to house that they may scatter the seeds of sedition and superstition at every table and in every corner And all this so wise are they in their generation to serve their own belly and to make a prey of their poor seduced proselytes for by this means the people fall unto them and thereout suck they no small advantage You may observe it also in most other things but these instances may suffice 29. The point thus proved and cleared that the children of this world are wiser then the children of light that we may make some use of it briefly First let me say with St Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Marvel not my brethren when you see an evil cause prosper it may be for a long time together and the better side go down as if some strange thing had happened unto you and such as never had been heard in the word before neither be troubled or scandalized at it Fret not thy self saith David at him whose way doth prosper against the man that doth after evil counsels If you would but well consider how solicitous how industrious how smooth and cunning how unanimous they are on the one side how far short they on the other side are in all these and all other like advantagious respects you would soon finde that in the saddest events that ever your eyes beheld there is no matter of wonderment at all Yea did not the powerful hand of Gods over-ruling providence sometimes interpose giving the enemy now and then a sudden stop when they are in their full cariere in the height of their pride and jollity and making good his promises to his poor distressed Church by sending unexpected help and deliverance when they are brought very low both in their estates and hopes we might rather wonder that it is not even much worse with the people of God then it is and how they should be able at all to subsist their enemies having all the advantages in the world against them 30. Let not their successes therefore trouble us Rather in the second place let their wisdome quicken us to a holy emulation Not to imitate their wayes nor to joyne with them in their wicked enterprises God forbid no nor so much as to encourage them therein by any unworthy compliances It was not the stewards injustice but his wisdom that his master commended him for in the parable and that our master in the application of the parable intended to commend to us for our imitation His example should kindle a holy zeal in us and an endeavour to be as wise for spir●●uals and in the business of our souls as he was and as the children of this world usually are for temporals and in the affairs of the world It is no shame at all for us to learn wisdom of any whomsoever 1. Of a poor irrational contemptible Creature Vade ad formicam Goe to the pismire O sluggard and learn her wayes learn wisdom of her 2. Of an Enemy Books have been written by Moralists de utilitate ab inimicis capienda We curse our Enemies many times unchristianly whereas did we seriously consider how much we are beholding to them for the greatest part of that wisdom and circumspection we shew in the managery of our affairs we would not only bless them as we are in Christian charity bound but heartily bless God for them also by way of gratitude for the great benefit we reap by them 3. Yea of the Devil himself Watch saith St Peter for your adversary the Devil goeth about c. as if he should say He watcheth for your destruction watch you therefore for your own security and preservation Thus may we from the worldlings wisdom learn something that may be of use to us and that in each of the fore-mentioned particulars 31. From their Sagacity learn to forecast how to please God to fore-arme our selves against all assaults and wiles of Satan to fore-think and to be in some measure provided before hand of needful and proper expedients for any exigent or cross accident that may probably befall us 2. From their Industry learn not to be slothful in doing service nor to slack the time of our repentance and turning to God to run with constancy and courage to the race that is set before us to think no pains no travail too much that may bring us to heaven to work out our salvation to the uttermost with fear and trembling 3. From their Hypocrisie and outward seeming Holiness learn to have our conversations honest towards them that are without not giving the least scandal in any thing that may bring reproach upon the Gospel to shun the very appearances of evil and having first cleansed the inside well to keep the outside handsome too that by our piety devotion meekness patience obedience justice charity humility and all holy graces we may not only stop up the mouth of the adversary from speaking evil of us but may also win glory to God and honour and reputation to our Christian profession thereby 4. From their Unity learn to follow the truth in love to lay aside vain janglings and opposition of science falsely so called to make up the breaches that are in the Church of Christ by moderating and reconciling differences rather then to widen them by multiplying controversies and maintaining hot disputes to follow the things that make for peace and whereby we may edify one another Thus doing we may gather grapes of thorns make oyl of Scorpions extract all the medicinal vertue out of the Serpent and yet leave all the poisonous and malignant quality behinde 32. Emulate them then we may may we ought It is the very main scope of the parable to provoke us to that But sure envie them we must not indeed we need not if we will but take the Limitation along with us which now only remaineth to be considered and that the time so requiring very briefly How much wiser so ever these worldly-wise men seem to be or indeed are as we have now heard it is but quadantenus and in