Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	day_n	law_n	sabbath_n	2,914	5	9.8028	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02739	A plaine and profitable exposition, of the parable of the sower and the seede wherein is plainly set forth, the difference of hearers, both good and bad. To which is added a learned answer to the Papists, in diuers points of controuersie betweene vs and them, the heads whereof are set downe in the pages following.; Difference of hearers: or an exposition of the parable of the sower	Harrison, William, d. 1625.	1625 (1625)	STC 12870.5; ESTC S113021	177,915	420

in this verse and the rest There were 4. sortes of grounds mentioned CHRIST sheweth that by them hee meant 4. sortes of hearers some good some bad Before wee come to speake of them seuerally and particularly we may note one thing in generall frō them all That as the same seed sowne in diuers kinds of ground doth not fructify in all alike in some it yeeldes little or no fruite at all in some both good and plentifull fruit So the same doctrine taught to diuers people doth not profit all alike It may profit some nothing at all others verie much Though seed bee neuer so good yet badnes of ground may spoyle it and cause the sower to lose both labour and cost Euen so though the doctrine wee teach bee neuer so good and profitable yet through the ill disposition of the hearers it may become vnfruitfull This seede doth fructify or not fructify according to the qualitie disposition of the ground into which it is cast If the ground be bad the seed perisheth if the ground be good it encreaseth And because some mens hearts be as a barren ground and other mens harts be as a fertile soile in some it yeeldeth no fruit at all in some it yeeldeth great abundance This difference may by seene in each mixt company and populous congregation to which wee preach It was found among Christs hearers it was founde among the Apostles hearers and may also be found among ours The consideration whereof serues for the instruction both of Preachers people 1. Of Preachers to comfort them and to encourage them in their labours when they see them vnprofitable vnto a great number Christ spake this Parable especially of him selfe and of his hearers He taught the true word of God in the best maner that might be yet did he not profite all his hearers he had 4. sorts whereof three were vnprofitable one onely was profitable The Disciple must not be better then his Master if hee be no worse let him be well content It doeth not a little grieue the Ministers of the Gospell to take great paines in teaching the truth and that in a good manner and yet see most of their hearers to receiue little or no profit at all but still remaine after many yeares teaching as ignorant as Popish and prophane as they were at the first Yet let them not be dismayed it was Christs owne case the fault is in the hearers not in the teachers God wil reward thee for thy paineful preaching though few doe profit by it Let not their fault hinder vs in our dutie but let vs instruct with meeknesse them that be contrarie minded prouing if any time God will giue them repentance They who be vnprofitable hearers now may proue profitable hereafter Till the time of bearing fruit doe come wee know not which will proue good ground which will proue bad 2. This also serueth for the instruction of hearers Seeing that these 3. kinds of bad grounds do paint out 3. sorts of bad hearers who neuer receiue profite to their soules by the word which they heare You must know that you may be receiuers of this heauenly seede You may be hearers of Gods most holy word and yet be neuer the better for it neuer come to heauen by it Three parts of Christs hearers were bad as appeareth by this Parable And he telleth vs that many shall say Wee haue eaten and drunke in thy presence and thou hast taught in our streetes but he shall say I know you not depart from mee all yee workers of iniquitie And the Apostle saith We are to some the sauour of death vnto death and vnto others the sweete sauour of life vnto life Euery kinde of hearing will not saue your soules It must be good and profitable hearing with good hearts to vnderstand beleeue and obey what you heare Yea not onely they who wilfully refuse to heare but likewise they who heare vnprofitably stall bee damned And therefore as Christ afterward exhorteth you in this Chapter Take heede how you heare As many seeke and find not because they seeke amisse Many runne and obtaine not because they runne amisse Many aske and receiue not because they aske amisse So many doe heare and profite not because they heare amisse Some imagine that if they be no Recusants if they be no prophane contemners of the Word and Sacraments but repayre to the Church euery Sabboth day heare diuine Seruice Sermons orderly as by Law they are enioyned they are good Christians sure to bee saued But let thē know that they may do all these things yet not be saued They may offend in the manner of their hearing and then their case will be no better then if they heard not at all The Diuell is very subtill and this is one of his subtilties whereby he deceiueth many people to their perdition First he labours by all meanes if it be possible to keepe them from hearing because he knows it is Gods ordinance and is afrayde least it bee powerfull in them But if hee cannot keepe them backe from hearing he deceiueth them with this conceit that any kind of formall hearing will serue their turne But do not herein beleeue the father of lies beleeue Christ who is the way the life and the trueth He tels you that there be 3. sorts of hearers which shall not be saued onely one sort among 4. shal be saued And therefore examine your selues what kinde of hearers you bee and doe not cortent your selues with that hearing that shall not edifie your soules Now let vs come to the seuerall kinds in particular And first let vs see who are they which receiue the seede on the high-way Some hearers are compared to such ground You know that if Land lye by the high-way side or an high-way lye through the middest of a plowed field some seede in the sowing wil fall on the high-way and so be lost Therevnto are some hearers compared and that very fitly For first as the high-way is not kept seuerall and priuate but lyeth open and common to all trauellers and passengers so these mens hearts are not enclosed and kept seuerall for heauenly things but lye open to all tentations and suggestions of the Diuell to all inticements of the world and to all idle thoughts vaine imaginations and that in the time of hearing Againe as the high-way is so troden and trampled by the feet of passengers that it cannot couer the seede or if it shoulde couer the seede yet the trampling will so harden the soyle as the seede can neuer sproute So these mens hearts are so hardened by wandering thoughts both in and immediatelie after hearing as the word cannot enter or at least cannot take any rooting in their hearts And as corne sowne in the high-way will neuer yeelde croppe like other ground so these hearers will neuer yeelde such fruit of the worde as others doe But who are these

I am good They may here behold and if they please take a tast of the meate wherewith his Maiesties subiects are daily fed Though their diet be homely yet I hope it is holesome though the manner of teaching be plaine yet is it profitable especially for such people as I am appointed to instruct My iudiciall hearers can testifie that these sermons were sutable to my ordinary teaching and that in penning them I haue altered very little either for matter methode or stile I thinke few will complaine of the vnprofitablenes of our labours but those who doe reioyce thereat and would haue vs remoued lest our labours should become more fruitfull hereafter who would rather haue the countrey still remaine addicted to popery and impiety then brought to the obedience of the Gospell How fruitfull our labours haue bene your Lordship can better iudge then any of them Yet must we needes confesse that the fruitfulnes thereof hath bene and still is greatly hindered by two sortes of persons namely by popish priests and profane Pypers The priests like Samballat and Tobiah hinder vs in edifying the Lords Temple and labour to pull downe as fast as we build vp like the old seducers they creepe into houses and lead captiue simple women laden with sins and led with diuers lusts They withstand vs as Iannes and Iambres withstood Moses Yea they subuert whole houses teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre They are sent by the Pope to recouer if it were possible the reuenews rents tributes which once he had out of this kingdome who hauing no other meanes wherby to liue haue raised a gainefull trade of seducing and through couetousnes doe make marchandise of the peoples soules Though it pleased his Maiestie to banish them yet as a Witch was found in Endor after that Saul had banished all out of Israel So now vpon diligent search many priests might be found in these pants Though they lurke in secret corners and dare not shew their faces yet may we tra●e them by their footesteps and take notice of their presence by their practises euen as we may discerne where a snaile hath crept on the wall by the slime which it leaueth behind it Who maryeth our recusants who baptizeth their children but they Not one recusant is maryed not one of their children is baptized by our ministers Shall we thinke that they who hold Matrimonie to be a sacrament would liue together as man and wife and neuer be maried Can we imagine that they who hold baptisme to be absolutely necessarie to salnation will suffer all their children to remaine vnbaptized Therein they verifie the Poets saying In vetitum nefas gens humana ruit Before we had any statute lawe against mariages and baptizings by popish priests it was a rare thing to heare of any one who offended that way But since that law was made it hath bene a rare thing in this countrey to heare of a Recusants mariage solemnized or a Recusants childe baptized by any of our ministers So as if our law-makers had foreseene the issue it may be they would haue forborne the making of that law least as Solon thought of a law to be made against Parricides they should put men in mind of such an offence What is the reason of this their wilfulnes Not onely impunitie our lawes made against them being like an vntimely birth dead assoone as borne and wanting execution which is the life of them but especially because the priests doe euermore excite them to disobedience and will canonize them for holy confessours for that their contemptuous breach of our lawes And whence commeth it that scarce one of an hundreth of all our Recusants and non-communicants would come to take the oath of allegiance when they were therevnto lawfully called but because the priests disswade them from it by authoritie of the Popes bulles and by warrant of the Cardinalls bookes Augustine acknowledged that through feare of the imperiall lawes put in execution not onely some few persons but likewise many whole cities who formerly had bene Donatists became right Catholikes So if our lawes might be duely executed if not against all papists yet against the priests I doubt not but within a while we should drawe most of the people to due conformitie All their bookes haue bene answered all their dispersed pamphlets confuted and many disputations haue bene graunted them Seeing then that after so many conuictions they remaine obstinate I hope all will acknowledge with the same Father that wee may lawfully craue the execution of the lawe against the enemies of the faith if it be done with a minde to correct and not with a desire to reuenge Moreouer I cannot but lament and with griefe of heart complaine that still in this part of the countrey the course of religion is exceedingly hindered the fruites of our labours greatly frustrated the Lords Sabboth impiously profained by publike pyping by open and lasciuious dancing on that day That it is not consecrated as holy to the Lord but rather kept as a feast of Bacchus and Venus That pyping should put downe preaching that dancing should draw the people from their dutie That for one person which we haue in the Church to heare diuine seruice sermons and catechisme euery pyper there being many in one parish should at the same instant haue many hundreds on the greenes Our learned and late diuines doe teach that the virgines of Israel giuing themselues to dancing on their feast day did thereby abuse it And that it was no maruaile if at the same time they were all ranished for the punishment of that their sinne Gregory Nazianzen exhorted his people to celebrate their feastes diuinely and not by dancing And accounteth the vse of it and such like things an hethenish maner of celebrating feastes Isidor Clarius thought that gamsters players and dancers sinned more haynously and should be punished more g●…sly then he who gathered stickes and 〈◊〉 the ●●wes who gathered manna on that day Augustine taught that it was better for men to dig and delue and for women to card and spin then to dance wantonly on the Sabboth which he ment not of the Iewish Sabboth onely but also of the Christian Sabboth because in the same places he exhorted christiās to keepe their sabboth spiritually end not carnally as the Iewes did by idlenes and dancing The councell of Toledo forbad that custome of the common people on their holy daies And charged Priests and Iudges to suppresse that bad custome in all their prouinces Leo 4. with 67. Bishops in a Synode at Rome decreed that priests should admonish men and women not to gather companies together on their holy daies after the maner of Pagans to dance and sing filthie songs And that those who were admonished and would not cease should be suspended from the Communion Yet the greatest part of our people spend more then

vanitie and an euill sicknesse Some are so miserable as they cannot finde in their hearts to vse their riches for their owne comfort but let them lye by them as a sicke man doth his meate Againe there be many who liue in pleasure and yet enioy little wealth who waste their wealth in wantonnesse and care little for riches so that they may haue their pleasure for a time Such are the wanton youthes of our age who like the prodigall Sonne spend their patrimonie by riotous liuing These carnall pleasures will no lesse choake the seede of the word and hinder the fruites of it then cares of the world or deceitfulnesse of riches Salomon was a myrrour of wisedome yet when hee gaue himselfe to voluptousnesse he forgat himselfe neglected his dutie to his Creator and gaue way to abhominable Idolatrie And for this cause did Iob sacrifice for his children when they were feasting lest the pleasures thereof should make them blaspheme God in their hearts And Paul sayd that the widdow which liueth in pleasure is dead while she is aliue because such are no more able to performe the duties of Christians then one that is dead is able to performe the office of a man These pleasures hinder the fruitfulnes of the word in three respects 1. In regard of the nature of the word the obedience therof it affordeth no such carnal pleasures as the natural man desireth though it yeeld spirituall and heauenly pleasures yet it it yeeldeth no corporall or carnall pleasures And therfore voluptuous persons who minde nothing but their pleasures haue no care to obey the word which bringes them no such pleasures as they desire Nay the word doth crucify our lusts doth curbe moderate our pleasures And therefore the naturall man who hath his heart wholy set on pleasures and will not be stinted in the vse of them cannot endure it 2. In regard of the effect of pleasures they breede securitie in the heart make it more vnfit for grace more prone to vice lesse fearefull of sinne and punishment And therefore it is sayd That Whoredome and Wine take away the heart Pleasure like another Cyrce so enchanteth mens mindes that like bruite beastes they are altogether giuen to sensuallitie and wholy neglect their dutie to God 3 In regard of the matter of pleasures for many carnall pleasures consist in the vse of vnlawfull thinges and in the practise of some sinne Now if a mans heart bee set on pleasure then to satisfie his pleasure hee will sinne against GOD as Eue did in eating the forbidden fruite And as Herode did who though hee heard Iohn Baptist gladly and did many thinges that he taught yet he would not put away his brothers wife as he was commaunded Voluptuous persons wil not embrace such doctrine nor follow such teachers as condemne their vnlawfull pleasures They will not suffer wholesome doctrine as Paul fore-told but after their owne lusts get them an heape of teachers to trie whether any will tollerate their sinfull pleasures and them will they like best Uolupt as est escamalorum Pleasure is the baite of sinne And man is taken with pleasure as the fish with an hooke As the Fisherman couereth his hooke with a baite that the fish biting at the baite may be catched with the hooke So the Diuell doeth baite many sinnes with pleasure that man receiuing the pleasure may be catched with the sinne In regard whereof the voluptuous man who will not bee abridged of any pleasure committeth many sinnes against God and fayleth often in the obedience of the word He may often heare the word yet will not obey it in any point which crosseth his pleasure As some sicke patients are content that the Physition prescribe them a dyet and sometime aske him a question whether such meate be good for them or no though the Physition who best knowes what is hurtfull for him doe forbid them some kinds of meate yet haue they so strong an appetite to some of those meates as for all his direction they will not forgoe them but onely would haue beene glad if he would allow them So men come to heare the worde and thereby to learne what is good and ill for the health of their soules though the Preacher giue them good direction yet so earnest is their desire of pleasure that they will take their delight in those thinges which hee by the worde doeth forbid This may teach vs to take heede of pleasures If our hearts be drawne away with them wee shall be barren soyle We professed and promised in our Baptisme to renounce the vaine pompe and glorie of the world and all carnall desires of the flesh shall we then by seeking following them choake the word in our hearts Although before our conuersion we were as the Apostle speaketh of himselfe and others disobedient deceiued seruing the lusts and diuers pleasures yet now after our conuersion we must forgoe many pleasures that so we may yeeld better obedience to the word of God It was foretold by Paul that in the last daies shall come perilous times for men should be louers of pleasures more then louers of God I may say to you as Christ sayd of Isaiahs Prophecy This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your eares now are come those perilous times Now doe many men loue their pleasures more then they loue God The loue of God is seene in keeping his Commaundements Those then that are more carefull take more paines and defray more charges to satisfie themselues in their pleasures then to glorify God by the obedience of his word Are they not louers of pleasures more then louers of God And those that wilfully breake Gods Commaundements that so they may enioy their pleasures as some by whoredome others by surfetting and drunkennesse others by scoffing and iesting others by lasciuious dancing riotous gaming wanton sports prophane pastimes on the Sabboth day Are they not louers of pleasure more then louers of God And if they loue their pleasures more then they loue God they may rather be counted prophane Epicures then godly Christians The greater their pleasures is now the greater will their paine be hereafter Many of these are so addicted to their pleasures as they will not by any meanes be reclaymed wee finde it an harder matter to reforme them then to reforme other offenders The Phylosophers obserued that many fel from other Sects to the Epicures but not any from the Epicures to other Sectes When we speake against their pleasures wee but speake to the bellie which wanteth eares Surdo canimus they are like the deafe Adder that stoppeth her eare But if they will take no warning let them goe on and trie what will become of them in the end Reioyce O young man in thy youth as Salomon speaketh and let thine heart cheere thee in the dayes of thy youth and walke in the wayes of thine heart and in the