Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	holy_a	old_a	testament_n	5,516	5	8.0329	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30298	An essay to revive the necessity of the ancient charity and piety wherein God's right in our estates and our obligations to maintain his service, religion, and charity is demonstrated and defended against the pretences of covetousness and appropriation : in two discourses written to a person of honour and vertue / by George Burghope.	G. B. (George Burghope)	1695 (1695)	Wing B5732; ESTC R26568	69,015	226

or abroad and are asham'd to show any reluctance at it but when a small piece of Charity is to be done or but a Brief to be given to how many Difficulties are objected and what Complaints for want of Money And yet at the same time if an useless Piece of Vanity is propos'd to sale or some little thing to gratifie Ostentation how eager they are and how will they incommode themselves to procure Money to purchase it And yet when procur'd it shall be laid up in a Box and there sleep it may be whole Years together and never see the Sun How happy wou'd it be if those Jewels were imploy'd to adorn the Soul withal and if those precious Stones were turned into Bread for the Poor If those Pearls were dissolv'd into Drink for them But this must not be hop'd for yet I must say again That many of these chargeable Trifles may be spar'd without the least dishonour And here I will not be so impudent as to ransack the Ladies Closets and search their Boxes and note their Extravagances in Dressings and outward Ornament nor will I compute the Charge of their Lordship's supernumerary Hawks Hounds Horses Attendants and the Instruments of State and Pleasure of both Sexes They are able to judge of that best as also what may be spared without detriment to Life or Honour for something must be if the Estate will not bear it otherwise For both God and Man will expect Works of Charity and Mercy to be done while we are here and that in proportion to what we possess And this I name in the Second Place as an End for which God has given us our Earthly Portion and which is next to be considered §. VII The second End Works of Charity and Mercy 2. That no Man's Estate is so much his own that he may spend it as he pleases and that our dear Country our Neighbour our Friend yea and our Enemy if in want claims a part of it and that God will expect an Account of these Things at the great Audit appears by the Book of Nature as well as by the Holy Scriptures and hath the united Suffrage of Reason and Religion In Nature we find that as every This prov'd first By the Law of Nature thing depends so every thing is subservient to each other and the Universe preserves it self by mutual Helps and Assistances The Heavens rowl about incessantly for the Benefit of those things within their Vortex and the Sun the greater Luminary rejoycerh as a Giant refresh'd with Wine to run his Course as David expresses himself according to Vulgar apprehension or rather according to the Modern Sages in Nature stands still in the Centre and contents himself to send out his Emanations of Light and Heat to gild the Globes that wheel round about him and enliven the Creatures that inhabit them The Earth our common Mother feeds and supports her Offspring and they in return enrich her Superficies The sensible Creatures notwithstanding the mutual enmity of some become Food one to another and submit to the Law of Nature and serve and feed Man the Lord of the visible Creation And God hath convinc'd Man by the Wants that he is sensible of and the Help he expects from others to supply theirs also To give as well as ask and to be a blessing to those from whom he expects a blessing For no Man can live without the assistance of another and the King is beholden to the Charity of Women in his Childhood and the Labours of the Field throughout his whole life To which I add That the End of the Existence of Things is founded in Community and we live not for our selves but for some Being without us The Sun shines not to it self but to us and the Earth feeds and nourisheth not her self but the Creatures that live upon her The Birds Beasts and Fishes continue their Species but it is for the delight and service of Man And Man was not made to eat and drink and propagate his like but to be serviceable to his God and his fellow-Creatures Is not this then the Lesson of Nature and do not we read it in all the Works of God That Self-preservation is not the sole End of the created Beings but the Good of the Community as the Glory of God is that of the whole Creation §. VIII And 2dly By the Law of God in the Holy Scripture But if the Book of Nature be seal'd up to those that will not open or read it yet the Holy Scriptures are not so that Book lies open and is read and expounded daily in our Ears and if we do not stop them we cannot be ignorant of our Duty and this whether we consider God's Commands about Works of Charity in the Old Testament or the New In the Old he was pleas'd to settle an Estate by a positive Law on the Poor viz. A Second Tenth after that of the Levites was paid every Third Year which was the Third Part of every Man's Nine Parts the Tenth being paid before to the Levites and besides this the extraordinary Gleanings of the scattered Corn the restoring of the Pledge and lending without Interest and other occasional Charities Add to these those general acts of Love which we are taught to bear even to our Enemy whose Oxen or Asses and consequently any other of his Goods we should not suffer to fall into any hazard and much less his Person So that here is a manifest Charge entail'd for ever upon every Jews Estate for the good of the Publick And this is greater to the Christians if you consider that our blessed Lord not only fill'd up the Vacuities but strain'd up the Obligations of their Law higher than it was before Give saith our Lord to every one Matth. 5. 42. that asketh thee and from him that would borrow turn thee not away Love your very Enemies and do good to them that hate you Thus he for all And then for our Friends Nature will teach us enough for them So that the Law of Christ subjects our Estates to a boundless and universal Charity even to the worst as well as best of Men and no Man that wants must be excepted or neglected And the Apostle St. Paul accordingly orders his Gal. 6. 10. Galatians to watch opportunities to do good to all Men and to the Houshold of Faith especially And lest this doing Good shou'd be interpreted of a verbal Benefaction of wishing them well and praying Jam. 2. 20. for them only St. James another of his Apostles vehemently declaims against such Charity and calls it a dead work and the Man vain that trusts to it And this was no more than what he had learn'd from his Master in the instructive Parable he made in answer to the Question of the Lawyer Τίς ἐστίν μου πλησίον Luke 10. who is my Neighbour Where he shews by the sequel that 't is our Duty to engage our Time Beast