Linguistic DNA - Concept Modelling Demonstrator

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	evil_a	good_a	know_v	2,974	5	4.2147	3	true

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64109	The rule and exercises of holy living. In which are described the means and instruments of obtaining every vertue, and the remedies against every vice, and considerations serving to the resisting all temptations. Together with prayers containing the whole duty of a Christian, and the parts of devotion fitted to all occasions, and furnish'd for all necessities.	Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.; Vaughan, Robert, engraver.	1650 (1650)	Wing T371; ESTC R203748	252,635	440

the spirits of one used to feed better yet the cheerfulnesse of a spirit that is blessed will make a thin table become a delicacy if the man was as well taught as he was fed and learned his duty when he received the blessing Poverty therefore is in some sences eligible and to be preferred before riches but in all sences it is very tolerable Death of Children or neerest Relatives and Friends There are some persons who have been noted for excellent in their lives and passions rarely innocent and yet hugely penitent for indiscretions and harmlesse infirmities such as was Paulina one of the ghostly children of S. Hierom and yet when any of her children dyed she was arrested with a sorrow so great as brought her to the margent of her grave And the more tender our spirits are made by Religion the more easy we are to let in grief if the cause be innocent and be but in any sence twisted with piety and due affections * To cure which we may consider that al the world must die therfore to be impatient at the death of a person concerning whom it was certain and known that he must die is to mourn because thy friend or childe was not born an Angel and when thou hast a while made thy self miserable by an importunate and uselesse grief it may be thou shalt die thy self and leave others to their choice whether they will mourn for thee or no but by that time it will appear how impertinent that grief was which served no end of life and ended in thy own funeral But what great matter is it if sparks fly upward or a stone falls into a pit if that which was combustible be burned or that which was liquid be melted or that which is mortal do die It is no more then a man does every day for every night death hath gotten possession of that day and we shall never live that day over again and when the last day is come there are no more dayes left for us to die And what is sleeping and waking but living and dying what is Sping and Autumne youth and old age morning and evening but real images of life and death and really the same to many considerable effects and changes Vntimely death But it is not mere dying that is pretended by some as the cause of their impatient mourning but that the childe died young before he knew good and evil his right hand from his left and so lost all his portion of this world and they know not of what excellency his portion in the next shall be * If he dyed young he lost but little for he understood but little and had not capacities of great pleasures or great cares but yet he dyed innocent and before the sweetnesse of his soul was deflour d and ravished from him by the flames and follies of a forward age he went out from the dining-rooms before he had fallen into errour by the intemperance of his meat or the deluge of drink and he hath obtain'd this favour of God that his soul hath suffered a lesse imprisonment and her load was sooner taken oâ—f that he might with lesser delayes goe and converse with immortal spirits and the babe is taken into Paradise before he knows good and evil For that knowledge threw our great Father out and this ignorance returns the childe thithe * But as concerning thy own particular remove thy thoughts back to those dayes in which thy childe was not born and you are now but as then you was and there is no difference but that you had a son born and if you reckon that for evil you are unthankful for the blessing if it be good it is better that you had the blessing for a while then not at all and yet if he had never been born this sorrow had not been at all but be no more displeased at God for giving you the blessing for a while then you would have been if he had not given it at all and reckon that intervening blessing for a gain but account it not an evil and if it be a good turn it not into sorrow and sadnesse * But if we have great reason to complain of the calamities and evils oâ— our life then we have the lesse reason to grieve that those whom we loved have so small a portion of evil assigned to them And it is no small advantage that our children dying young receive for their condition of a blessed immortality is rendred to them secure by being snatcht from the dangers of an evil choice and carried to their little cells of felicity where they can weep no more And this the wisest of the Gentiles understood well when they forbade any offerings or libations to be made for dead infants as was usual for their other dead as believing they were entred into a secure possession to which they went with no other condition but that they passed into it thorough the way of mortality and for a few moneths wore an uneasy garment And let weeping parents say if they do not think that the evils their little babes have suffered are sufâ—icient If they be why are they troubled that they were taken from those many and greater which in succeeding years are great enough to try all the reason and religion which art and nature and the grace of God hath produc'd in us to enable us for such sad contentions And possibly we may doubt concerning men and women but we cannot suspect that to infants death can be such an evil but that it brings to them much more good then it takes them from in this life Death unseasonable But others can well bear the death of infants but when they have spent some years of childehood or youth and are entred into arts and society when they are hopeful and provided for when the parents are to reap the comfort of all their fears and cares then it breaks the spirit to loose them This is true in many but this is not love to the dead but to themselves for they misse what they had flatterd themselves into by hope and opinion and if it were kindnesâ—e to the dead they may consider that since we hope he is gone to God and to rest it is an ill expression of our love to them that we weep for their good fortune For that life is not best which is longest and when they are descended into the grave it shall not be inquired how long they have lived but how well And yet this shortening of their dayes is an evil wholly depending upon opinion For if men did naturally live but twenty years then we should be satisfied if they dyed about sixteen or eighteen and yet eighteen years now are as long as eighteen years would be then and if a man were but of a dayes life it is well if he lasts till even long and then sayes his compline an hour before the time and we are pleased and call not that death

much more shall your Heavenly Father give his Spirit to them that ask him 4. The consideration of the Divine Omnipotence and infinite wisdom and our own ignorance are great instruments of curing all doubting and silencing the murmures of infidelity 5. Avoid all curiosity of inquiry into particulars and circumstances and mysteries for true faith is full of ingenuity and hearty simplicity free from suspicion wise and confident trusting upon generals without watching and prying into unnecessary or undiscernable particulars No Man carries his bed into his field to watch how his corn grows but believes upon the general order of Providence and Nature and at Harvest findes himself not deceived 6. In time of temptation be not busie to dispute but relye upon the conclusion and throw your self upon God and contend not with him but in prayer and in the presence and with the help of a prudent untempted guide and be sure to esteem all changes of belief which offer themselves in the time of your greatest weaknesse contrary to the perswasions of your best understanding to bee temptations and reject them accordingly 7. It is a prudent course that in our health and best advantages we lay up particular arguments and instruments of perswasion and confidence to be brought forth and used in the great day of expence and that especially in such things in which we use to be most tempted and in which we are least confident and which are most necessary and which commonly the Devil uses to assault us withal in the days of our visitation 8. The wisdom of the Church of God is very remarkable in appointing Festivals or Holidayes whose solemnity and Offices have no other special businesse but to record the Article of the day such as Trinity Sunday Ascension Easter Christmas day and to those persons who can onely believe not prove or dispute there is no better instrument to cause the remembrance and plain notion and to endear the affection and hearty assent to the Article then the proclaiming and recommending it by the festivity and joy of a Holy day Sect. II. Of the Hope of a Christian. FAith differs from Hope in the extension of its object and in the intension of degree Saint Austin thus accounts their differences Faith is of all things revealed good and bad rewards and punishments of things past present and to come of things that concern us and of things that concern us not But Hope hath for its Object things onely that are good and fit to be hoped for future and concerning our selves and because these things are offered to us upon conditions of which we may so fail as we may change our will therefore our certainty is lesse then the adherences of faith which because Faith relyes onely upon one proposition that is the truth of the Word of God cannot be made uncertain in themselves though the object of our Hope may become uncertain to us and to our possession for it is infallibly certain that there is Heaven for all the godly and for me amongst them all if I do my duty But that I shall enter into Heaven is the object of my Hope not of my Faith and is so sure as it is certain I shall persevere in the wayes of God The Acts of Hope are 1. To relye upon God with a confident expectation of his promises ever esteeming that every promise of God is a magazine of all that grace and relief which we can need in that instance for which the promise is made Every degree of hope is a degree of confidence 2. To esteem all the danger of an action and the possibilities of miscarriage and every crosse accident that can intervene to be no defect on Gods part but either a mercy on his part or a fault on ours for then we shall be sure to trust in God when we see him to be our confidence and our selves the cause of all mischances The hope of a Christian is prudent and religious 3. To rejoyce in the midst of a misfortune or seeming sadnesse knowing that this may work for good and will if we be not wanting to our souls This is a direct act of Hope to look through the cloud and look for a beam of light from God and this is called in Scripture Rejoycing in tribulation when the God of hope fils us with all joy in believing Every degree of hope brings a degree of joy 4. To desire to pray and to long for the great object of our hope the mighty price of our high calling and to desire the other things of this life as they are promised that is so far as they are made necessary and useful to us in order to Gods glory and the great end of fouls Hope and Fasting are said to be the two wings of Prayer Fasting is but as the wing of a Bird but Hope is like the wing of an Angel soaring up to Heaven and bears our prayers to the throne of Grace Without Hope it is impossible to pray but Hope makes our prayers reasonable passionate and religious for it relyes upon Gods promise or experience or providence and story Prayer is alwayes in proportion to our Hope zealous and affectionate 5. Perseverance is the perfection of the duty of hope and its last act and so long as our hope continues so long we go on in duty and diligence but he that is to raise a Castle in an hour sits down does nothing towards it and Herod the Sophister left off to teach his son when he saw that 24 Pages appointed to wait on him and called by the several Letters of the Alphabet could never make him to understand his letters perfectly Rules to govern our Hope 1. Let your Hope be moderate proportioned to your state person and condition whether it be for gifts or graces or temporal favours It is an ambitious hope for a person whose diligence is like them that are least in the Kingdom of Heaven to believe themselves endeaâ—'d to God as the greatest Saints or that they shall have a throne equal to S. Paul or the blessed Virgin Mary A Stammerer cannot with moderation hope for the gift of Tongues or a Peasant to become learned as Origen or if a Beggar desires or hopes to become a King or asks for a thousand pound a year we call him impudent not passionate much lesse reasonable Hope that God will crown your endeavours with equal measures of that reward which he indeed freely gives but yet gives according to our proportions Hope for good successe according to or not much beyond the efficacy of the causes and the instrument and let the Husbandman hope for a good Harvest not for a rich Kingdom or a victorious Army 2. Let your hope be well founded relying upon just confidences that is upon God according to his revelations and promises For it is possible for a Man to have a vain hope upon God and in matters of Religion it is presumption to hope

to their friends or to necessitous and poor persons they are in these cases to consider the rules of friendship and neighbourhood and the obligations of charity lest justice turn inâ—o unmercifulnesse 8. No Man is to be raised in his price or rents in regard of any accident advantage or disadvantage of his person A Prince must be used conscionably as well as a common person and a Beggar be treated justly as well as a Prince with this onely difference that to poor persons the utmost measure and extent of justice is unmerciful which to a rich person is innocent because it is just and he needs not thy mercy and remission 9. Let no Man for his own poverty become more oppressing and cruel in his bargain but quietly modestly diligently and patiently recommend his estate to God follow its interest and leave the success to him for such courses will more probably advance his trade they will certainly procure him a blessing and a recompence and if they cure not his poverty they will take away the evil of it and there is nothing elâ—e in it that can trouble him 10. Detain not the wages of the hireling for every degree of detention of it beyond the time is injustice and uncharitablenesse and grindes his face till tears and blood come out but pay him exactly according to Covenant or according to his needs 11. Religiously keep all promises and Covenants though made to your disadvantage though afterwards you perceive you might have been better let not any precedent act of yours be altered by any after-accident Let nothing make you break your promise unlesse it be unlawful or impossible that is either out of your natural or out of your civil power your self being under the power of another or that it be intolerably inconvenient to your self and of no advantage to another or that you have leave expressed or reasonably presumed 12. Let no Man take wages or fees for a work that he cannot do or cannot with probability undertake or in some sense profitably and with ease or with advantage manage Physicians must not meddle with desperate diseases and known to be incurable without declaring their sense before hand that if the patient please he may entertain him at adventure or to do him some little ease Advocates must deal plainly with their Clients and tell them the true state and danger of their case and must not pretend confidence in an evil cause but when he hath so cleared his own innocence if the Client will have collateral and legal advantages obtained by his industry he may engage his endeavour provided he do no injury to the right cause or any Mans person 13. Let no Man appropriate to his own use what God by a special mercy or the Republick hath made common for that is both against Justice and Charity too and by miraculous accidents God hath declared his displeasure against such inclosures When the Kings of Naples enclosed the Gardens of Oenotria where the best Manna of Calabria descends that no Man might gather it without paying tribute the Manna ceased till the tribute was taken off and then it came again and so till after the third trial the Princes found they could not have that in proper which GOD made to be common they left it as free as GOD gave it The like hapned in Epire when Lysnnachus laid an impost upon the Tragasaean Salt it vanished till Lysimachus left it publick And when the procurators of King Antigonus imposed a rate upon the sick people that came to Edepsum to drink the waters which were lately sprung and were very healthful instantly the waters dried up and the hope of gain perished The summe of all is in these words of Saint Paul Let no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter because the Lord is the avenger of all such and our blessed Saviour in the enumerating the duties of justice besides the Commandement of Do not steal addes Defraud not forbidding as a distinct explication of the old Law the tacite and secret thest of abusing our Brother in Civil Contracts And it needs no other arguments to enforce this caution but only that the Lord hath undertaken to avenge all such persons And as he alwayes does it in the great day of recompences so very often he does it here by making the unclean portion of injustice to be as a Cankerworm eating up all the other increase it procures beggery and a declining estate or a caytive cursed spirit an ill name the curse of the injured and oppressed person and a Fool or a Prodigal to be his Heir SECT IV. Of Restitution REstitution is that part of Justice to which a man is obliged by a precedent contract or a soregoing â—ault by his own act or another mans either with or without his will He that borrows is bound to pay and much more he â—hat sâ—â—als or cheats For if he that borrows and payes not when he is able be an unjust person and a robber because he possesses another mans goods to the right owners prejudiceâ— then he that took them at first without leave is the same thing in every instant of his possession which the Debter is after the time in which he should and could have made payment For in all sins we are to distinguish the transient or passing act froÌ„ the remaining effect or evil The act of stealing was soon over and cannot be undone and for it the sinner is onely answerable to God or his Vicegerent and he is in a particular manner appointed to expiate it by suffering punishment and repenting and asking pardon and judging and condemning himself doing acts of justice and charity in opposition contradiction to that evil action But because in the case of stealing there is an injury done to our neighbour and the evil still remains after the action is past therfore for this we are accountable to our neighbour and we are to take the evil off from him which we brought upon him or else he is an injured person a sufferer all the while and that any man should be the worse for me and my direct act and by my intention is against the rule of equity of justice and of charity I do not that to others which I would have done to my self for I grow richer upon the ruines of his fortune Upon this ground it is a determined rule in Divinity Our sin can never be pardoned till we have restored what we unjustly took or wrongfully detain restored it I mean actually or in purpose and desire which we must really perform when we can and this doctrine besides its evident and apparent reasonablenesse is derived from the expresse words of Scripture reckoning Restitution to be a part of Repentance necessary in order to the remission of our sins If the wicked restore the pledge give again that he had robbed c. he shall surely live he shall not

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