Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	lord_n	name_n	write_v	5,698	5	5.8489	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30327	Charitable reproof a sermon preached at the Church of St. Mary-le-Bow to the Societies for Reformation of Manners, the 25th of March, 1700 / by the Right Reverend Father in God, Gilbert Lord Bishop of Sarum.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.; Societies for the Reformation of Manners.	1700 (1700)	Wing B5766; ESTC R3956	13,374	32

of God we must conclude that an Oath being an Appeal to him a false Oath is an Appeal to him as it were to vouch for our Lies And if no Honest Man could with patience hear another appeal to him to give credit to a Lie What do we think of the God of Truth if we can imagine that false Oaths will go unpunished This matter may be carried yet further to shew what dismal consequences arise from the habit of common Swearing Nothing tends more visibly to the perverting the course of Justice and the dissolving our whole Government which turns much upon Swearing than a vicious habit that takes away the fear of an Oath He who never Swears but upon great and just occasions comes to it full of dread and full of the Impressions that arise from a belief of the Attributes of God Whereas he to whom common practice has made Oaths become familiar cannot have that fear of an Oath that is necessary to strike the sense of an Obligation from it deep into his Conscience England is the Nation of the whole World that has studied the most to secure it self by Oaths All Employments are entred upon by peculiar Oaths many of these are very large and comprehensive How great is the extent of the Oath of a Grand Jury Does not all matters of Life and Death as well as of Property turn upon the regard that Jurors have to their Oath so that Blood-shed or Property given unjustly by their Verdict must lie heavy on them and to bind it the heavier they take the Oath of God upon them to give a just Verdict The Evidence given upon Oath is that which must direct both Judge and Jury A Man must have strangely subdued his Conscience that dares prevaricate and go against it when he is under the quick sense of an Oath newly taken When Men are once corrupted to such a degree there is an end of all Justice and Order How far are we got into this What loud complaints do we hear every where of Sets of Suborned Witnesses and of Partial Juries The Obligations to Justice and Equity ought to be strong of themselves nothing can force them more than these sacred Bonds of a solemn Appeal to God But can Men whose common Dialect is made up of Oaths and Imprecations consider an Oath so much as to be under any deep Impressions of dread and horror from it Oaths of Magistrates or Men in other Employments are very Comprehensive and too soon let go out of their Minds It were a good method to enter such Oaths as one takes in a Book that comes often in view that so it may be frequently considered as a powerful motive to engage him to the faithful discharge of his Duty It were to be wished that the Oaths of Magistrates were more explicite but Men of Conscience will consider Oaths well before they come to take them that so they may make a true judgment whether they think they can or will keep them and accordingly they will either avoid the occasions of being entangled by them or if they do take them they will be governed exactly by them Upon the whole matter when all this is laid together it will appear that the cursed habit of common Swearing has so many ill tendencies and effects that there being nothing on the other hand to recommend it but a depraved Custom every one will soon see what need there is to watch over himself till he wears out of that profane and impious Stile and if he is not watchful enough over himself he will easily be convinced how much he is obliged to those to help him to be more careful when all he suffers by it is that at the expence of a little trouble and shame and a small Forfeit he is taught to keep his Tongue with more caution And now I have done with all that I intend to say from my Text It remains that I say somewhat with relation to the occasion of our Meeting together at this time We have enjoyed a long continuance of Peace and Plenty even a long and devouring War has made no great Impression We have been safe and quiet at home when all the World about us was in a flame Nor has the great expence of the War altered the face of Plenty every where I am sorry to say it our Luxury and Vanity the Symptoms of an overflowing Plenty have not lessened upon all that Charge I wish it were not too visible that they increase upon us We may remember how near we were to great dangers it is not so long since we saw a Cloud gathered and set over our heads that we had reason to fear was to burst out in Storms and Tempests and must have thrown us into terrible Convulsions if not into utter Ruin All this went over with so little disturbance that we scarce felt our Danger till we were Delivered from it and after a War that gave so melancholy a prospect in a course of many Years we are now at Peace with all the World abroad But alas Are we at Peace with God or among our selves Does not Impiety and Atheism that walk abroad without either fear or shame seem to dare and defy God even to his Face This is such a plain Revolt from God and a rising as it were up against him that we have no reason to think that he will not at last arise and visit for all these things How soon can he withdraw his Defence And then how easily may that which we rely on be blasted Storms may shatter our Fleets and if God should for our Sins deliver us so far to an Enemy that they should but once Land upon us How naked and defenceless are we How soon must all be over-run And what a scene of Confusion and Pillage of desolation and Ruin would quickly open upon us But we need not another Enemy than our selves we are going into such strong and deeply rooted Animosities our hatred to one another our jealousy of one another our quarrels and factions do so increase and are growing to such a height that if no Temper can be found and if there is no Interposition from the Goodness of God or the Wisdom of Men to put a stop to the progress of all these Evils they must end fatally at last we may go on to bite and devour one another till in conclusion we are consumed one of another What can put a stop to all these sad things that we may justly fear A general Reformation is too great a Blessing to be soon hoped for In these matters Men seldome go all of the sudden from one extreme to another God knows how near we are the extreme of an universal Depravation It gives us some small beginnings of hope that in and about this great City from which the Nation is apt to take its ply whither to good or bad there has been for some years past a Spirit stirring that looks like a reviving as if even our dry bones could live A Spirit of true devotion a seriousness in the service of God a frequency at Sacrament with a Zeal for Religion and against Vice shew themselves upon many eminent occasions as if by a noble Opposition the more that the Men of Impiety shew themselves and enter into Clubs and Confederacies to advance their wicked designs the Spirit of Zeal should take fire from thence and be fortified by the joint endeavours of those who while many say Malac. 3. 14 16 17. It is Vain to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance those who fear the Lord speak often one to another Their words how secret soever are heard by God and all is entred in a book of remembrance written for them that fear the Lord and that think of his name for they shall be his and in that day when he makes up his jewels he will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him Blessed be God for this door of hope which he is thus opening to us and Blessed be they of the Lord who have offered themselves so willingly before him and before all the People Their Name shall be of a good Savour in the present and in the succeeding Generations who have begun the first to set forward so noble a Design to put a stop to so many vicious practices and to raise a true Spirit of Piety and Virtue among us These are the salt of the earth the Pillars of it and the light of the world Go on you noble Christians shine more and more as patterns of those Virtues which you endeavour to recommend to others Your Enemies wait for your halting that by your Errors they may bring up a scandal upon Religion and Godliness The publick Crimes of some who pretended highly brought within our memory such an ill reputation upon Religion that we have laboured under the ill effects of those prejudices ever since This we hope will make you the more watchful and diligent lest by your means the Name of God should be agains Blasphemed Go on and see to the Execution of the Laws but do it with a Zeal becoming the Gospel and not with a Pharisaical or bitter Zeal Be not discouraged neither by the slow progress that you can make nor by the contradiction and slanders that you may meet with Go on and prosper for great is your Reward in Heaven and while you study to repair the Breaches that are made in the House of God you may hope that God will build up Houses for you and your Posterity and will at last receive you into Everlasting Habitations To whom be Glory for ever FINIS