Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	heart_n	law_n	write_v	3,285	5	6.1567	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B21346	A sermon against false weights & balances preach'd at Sheffield, January the 10th, 1696/7. By Nath. Drake, M.A. and vicar there.	Drake, Nathan, 1659 or 60-1729.	1697 (1697)	Wing D2127	15,223	38

and requires simplicity in Bargaining and faithfulness in performing Covenants The former respects chiefly the Dignity of Persons this latter the Equality of Things The common Instruments of this sort of Justice are Weights and Measures the use of which was introduced by natural Reason and Necessity Commerce and Traffick became necessary as soon as Mankind became multiply'd and divided into Colonies For God in his wise and good Providence has so ordered that there is no condition of Life wherein one does not stand in need of another whether we respect private Families Communities or Kingdoms And this for the preservation of Society and to promote and spread abroad Love and Friendship over the Face of the Earth Now it is not easie to imagine how this necessary Commerce could be effected without these Instruments of Justice Weights and Measures Neither is it material to enquire when and by whom they were invented seeing we are sure they are as old as Traffick in the World And indeed Authors disagree much in this point as Polydore Virgil has observed from whose account we can only gather thus much that some Nations invented them before others Diogenes Laortius affirms Lib. 9. Antiq. That Pythagoras first invented them for the Grecians and Josephus tells us that it is credible That Cain the Son of Adam first establish'd the use of them but there are no Footsteps of this in Scripture There seems to me to be more ground for a Conjecture That Tubal Cain the Son of Lamech contrived these and the like Instruments seeing he is recorded for an Instructor of every Artificer in Brass and Iron Gen. 4.22 Him Vossius takes to be the same with Vulcan But as to that particular Instrument The Balance The first Invention of it is by the Heathens attributed to Astrea who is therefore deified for the Goddess of Justice and her Balance is advanced among the Celestial Signs to denote the extreme Value of this Invention and the sacred Regard they had to the use of it But now if the Balance and Weights be of humane Invention how will this Proverb of Solomon's be accounted for which plainly ascribes 'em to Divine Institution A just Weight and Balance are the Lord's By which we are not only to understand that the Lord approves of 'em and requires 'em in all our Dealings of Traffique with one another But that he claims this Ordinance of Justice as his own Institution intimating that his over-ruling Hand was imployed in the Workmanship of all and every of these Instruments All the Weights of the Bag are his Work This seeming difference is easily made up For as Dr. Taylor observes Tho' this part of Justice depends upon the Laws of Man directly and takes its Estimate and Measures from civil Sanctions and private Agreements yet it is built upon the Laws of God by plain Consequence and undeniable Inference as I shall undertake to prove from three Topicks First From the Law of Nature Secondly From the Revealed Laws of God Thirdly From the Established Laws of his Vicegerent established in this Kingdom First If we examin the Law of Nature we shall soon find that all the Instruments of just Dealing are ultimately resolved into God's Workmanship For who taught the first Inventers of them this useful Art Who imparted to them this Skill in Geometry Who guided the Workman's Hammer Who gave Men that Natural Sagacity to find out the critical Rules of Proportion Who but the God of Nature Who but that Omniscient Workman who writ his first Law the Law of Nature in the Hearts and Minds of all his Servants This Natural Principle furnish'd Men with common Rules of Justice as is evident from the Moral Precepts and Practice of the Heathens Commerce says Tully in his excellent Book of Offices consists in buying and selling hiring and letting and exchanging Commodities but there can be none of this Dealing says he without Justice Offic. Lib. 2. And therefore in another place he condemns it as a pernicious Error That they had a cunning artificial sort of People in great admiration misstaking Craft for Wisdom And that the like fraudulent Abuses of this Divine Institution were practised in former Ages we learn from the Testimony which Aristotle gives of the Merchants in his time For the remedying of which Abuses the Ancients did appoint divers Officers call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wilkins who were to overlook the common Measures of Justice So sacred a Regard had those Moralists for this piece of Natural Religion that they worship'd Justice for a Goddess complaining that she had left the Earth and was retired in Heaven from whence she came leaving only her Scales as I hinted before within our sight in the Zodiac as a sign that our Dealings with Men should be equally divided as the Globe is with the Equinoctial Line Lucan adjustae pondera Librae Thus Nature it self directs us to Heaven for the Author of the Balance as Virgil sings Jupiter ipse duas aequato examine Lances Sustinet Intimating that the Righteous God weighs all the Actions of Mortals as in the Scales of Justice whence the Poets stile him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the High and Heavenly Holder of the Balance Such Honour and Reverence do the Disciples of Nature pay to the Balance as the noblest of all Mechanical Instruments and worthy of a Divine Author But Secondly A just Weight and Balance are the Lord's by the Laws of Reveal'd as well as Natural Religion The Divine Institution of this Ordinance of Justice is frequently repeated in the Old Testament and confirm'd by general Rules of Righteousness laid down in the New First Hear the Voice of the Lord in the Law given by Moses Ye shall do no Vnrighteousness in Judgment Lev. 19.35 in Meteyard in Weight or in Measure Just Balances just Weights a just Ephah and a just Hin shall ye have I am the Lord your God Observe that solemn Confirmation IAM THE LORD He stamps the Mark of his Royal Authority upon them Again This Law is enforced by a promised Blessing and the contrary Practice prohibited under pain of an heavy Curse Deut. 25.13 Thou shalt not have in thy Bag divers Weights or as it is in the Original a Stone and a Stone a great and a small i.e. the greater to Buy with and the lesser for Selling or the one for public Shew and the other for private Vse Likewise Thou shalt not have in thy House divers Measures a great and a small but thou shalt have a perfect and a just Weight a perfect and a just Measure shalt thou have that thy Days may be lengthened in the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee For all that do such things that is do falsify Weights and Measures are an abomination unto the Lord thy God i. e. highly abominable as the Abstract signifies Accordingly we find God expressing a more than ordinary Displeasure against his own People for this fradulent