Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	day_n	lord_n	week_n	9,333	5	9.8928	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41238	Sir George Sondes his plaine narrative to the vvorld, of all passages upon the death of his tvvo sonnes.	Feversham, George Sondes, Earl of, 1599-1677.	1655 (1655)	Wing F823B; ESTC R213731	40,869	42

at the Rent if he leave it to me but as good as it was when he took it I will take it againe Nay notwithstanding Corn is so cheap I give any Tenant I have liberty to leave his Farme and I will take it I never did or ever will force any Tenant to keep his Farme Neither in all this time hath any Tenant come to me to take his Farme again Some indeed I would have outed of their Farmes being none of the best Tenants but could not perswade them I never arrested or imprisoned any Tenant for his Rent nor willingly used any severe course if I could indifferently be satisfied any other way I have scarce demanded my Rents of late because of the cheapnesse of Corn but have made all the shifts I could to get money to serve my occasions and spared my Tenants that they might not be forced to put off their Corn at too mean rates If these be the signs of an hard Landlord then I am one There is one Ellen of Stausfield I heare hath complained of me for being so I will tell you the case and then you shall judge whether I deserve it or not Last Michaelmas was two yeare I let a Farme there to him of forty pounds a yeare At the end of the yeare I sent to him for his Rent his answer was that it went hard with him the first yeare being to buy all his stock and seasons therefore he desired me to have a little patience till he could make money of his Corne upon his desire I did forbeare him About halfe a yeare after I sent to him againe and then he said Corn was so low that he could make but little money of it Upon this I forbore him till the other year was up and he indebted to me two years rent and went my selfe to him and wisht him to leave the Farme if he sound he could doe no good upon it Hee desired to keep it hoping the times would mend and offered to make over his stock to me for my security this he did and continued in his Farme and at Lady day next promised to clear all About a month after the time I sent to him to fulfill his promise and was informed that he had sold all his Corne driven away his Stock and carryed all his Goods and was gone himselfe and had left me about twenty pounds worth of Corne on the ground to satisfie for three yeeres rent which was six score pounds so I was to be a loser one hundred pounds by him This is the truth and who now doe you think did the wrong Many of these hardnesses have I used to my Tenants and have been so served by them To the Charge of living unmarryed To that Charge of my being unmarryed and not living so chastly and vertuously as a Christian ought to doe I confesse that for almost these twenty yeeres I have lived unmarryed and I thank Heaven I have an healthy able Body and have naturall and carnall affections in me and a love to Women and their company and I think he deserves to be un-mann'd that hath not I confesse I have been more vain and foolish with them then I ought to have been Heaven forgive me But for committing Fornication or Adultery with any Single or Marryed woman I protest before Heaven though perhaps few may believe it I am clear from it I never had illegitimate issue nor ever had carnall knowledge of any woman save of my owne Wife nor of her but as was fitting for procreation seldome or never after I knew her to be with childe Neither was this abstinence in me from any frigidity or disability in Nature for my dispositions that way were I thinke as strong as most mens Neither was it for want of invites and opportunities to it of them I had enough Nothing restrained me but the fear of offending Heaven vox illa terribilis alwayes sounding in mine eares Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge This hath all along been the bridle to my unlawfull desires and I hope ever shall be To the Charge of neglecting Family duties To that of ordering my Family and duties thereto belonging I confesse it is an excellent thing when the Master can say I and my house doe and will serve the Lord But it is hard in a great and numerous Family to have all so well minded It is the Masters part to see them performe the outward duties of Gods service as Prayer and going to Church and to shew them the way by his own godly example this I was alwayes mindfull of frequenting the Church on the Lords day both Forenoon and Afternoon if not hindred by the weather or some extraordinary occasion and calling upon my Servants to doe the same And all the week after it was my constant course to pray with my Family once if not twice every day and if I had not a Levite in my House I performed the office my selfe 'T is true though in my owne private devotions Morning and Evening Iused constantly without failing my owne conceived Ejaculations to Heaven yet to my Family after the reading some part of the Scripture I commonly used the set formes of Prayers of the Church or of some other godly men which in publick meetings and no extraordinary occasion hapning I conceive to be very fitting and sufficiently warranted both from Moses David and Solomon who composed Prayers for the Church as likewise from Christ himselfe who made a Prayer for his Disciples and bid them pray This Our Father c. It is warranted also by the practice of Christ who sure had the Spirit of Prayer as much as any yet in his Agony he used no variety but three severall times as the Text hath it went and said the same words Father if thou wilt let this cup passe from me He quarrelled not at the set forme nor doe I know why any man should If another man have composed a Prayer whose words speak my minde to the full and peradventure more full then my own words can doe it why should not I use them Let thy heart and affections goe with his words and then they are thine owne I confesse I like not praying by roat and I think him but a dull Christian who cannot or does not upon extraordinary occasions pour out his soul to God in his owne words Thou mayest have some soars which none but thy own words can discover But at a publique meeting upon a generall confession of our sins when we all joyn together in Prayer what a pleasant harmony or rather thundering violence doth it use to Heaven gates to bring down a remission of our sins And this hath the Church of God used heretofore For my part I cannot dislike it so the publick be not omitted for I confesse Nothing speaks a Christian better then frequencie in prayer no duty comes neer it It makes thee acquainted with Heaven it begets a familiarity between thee and thy god that ye