Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	enemy_n	yield_v	young_a	25	3	6.0218	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42886	The instruction of youth in Christian piety taken out of the sacred Scriptures, and Holy Fathers; divided into five parts. With a very profitable instruction for meditation, or mental prayer. By Charles Gobinet, Doctor of Divinity, of the House and Society of Sorbon, principal of the College of Plessis-Sorbon. The last edition in French, now render'd into English.; Instruction de la jeunesse en la piété chrétienne. English.	Gobinet, Charles, 1614-1690.	1687 (1687)	Wing G904D; ESTC R217420	333,500	593

it brings after it Regard not the Pain and Difficulty of resistance but the Joy Consolation and Benefit you will receive from thence If you act thus you will find that the Temptation will in a small time vanish The Second Deceit by which the Devil seduces young People Second Artifice is to propose unto them in the Temptation the easiness of getting Pardon and perswade them that they will do Penance and Confess themselves of it Alas Theotime how frequently doth it fall out and too often that in the Combat of Temptation the Conscience resisting on her side by the good Motions God gives her this misfortunate Thought comes into the Mind I will Confess my self of it I will do Penance for it And with this Thought one miserably resolves to commit this Sin. What then If you imagin'd that God presently after the Sin would cast you into the Pit of Hell you would not attempt to offend him And because you hope he will pardon you do not you scruple to displease him O what Impiety is this O Wickedness Will you be Impious because God is Good Do you offend him because he will pardon you What greater Affront can be offer'd to God O Theotime if ever this Thought come into your Mind reject it as a Blasphemy and as a Wile of the Devil by which he would cast you into the abyss of Sin. The Third Deceit of the Devil towards young Persons is Third Artifice that after he hath made them sometimes yield to his Temptations by the former Artifices he puts into their Mind this false and wicked Opinion That it is impossible to resist Temptations and to abstain from Sin to the end that being possess'd with this Persuasion they may make no Endeavors to resist them and give themselves over to Evil without any restraint The falseness of this Persuasion A detestable Persuasion a diabolical Invention which is so much more deplorable as being most false and pernicious it is nevertheless most common amongst young People O insensati Galatae Quis vos fascinavit non obedire veritati persuasio haec non est ex eo qui vocat vos Gal. 3. Poor insensible Creatures what is it that dazles you thus so that you cannot see the Truth more clear than day Do you not see how this Thought is injurious to the Mercy of your Saviour who hath shed his Blood to merit for you Grace to resist in these Occasions and who stretches out his Arms to succor you This Persuasion comes not from him who calls you to him to save you but from the Devil who seeks to destroy you without recovery O dear Child The Remedies permit not your self ever to be seduced by this execrable Thought but in the midst of the most violent Temptations call to mind the Mercy of your Saviour who never abandons those who hope in him * Circumdederunt me undique non erat qui adjuvaret memoratus sum misericordiae tuae Domine cooperationis tuae quae à sa culo sunt quoniam eruis sustinentes te Domine liberasti me de perditione Eccl. 5. Tribulations says the Wiseman have environ'd me on every side and there was no one that would assist me I call'd to mind thy Mercy O God knowing that thou succorest those who trust in thee and thou hast deliver'd me from my destruction These are the three most ordinary Artifices the Devil makes use of against young Persons in their Temptations and all three are pursu'd in order For first he hides from them the Evil and makes them believe it is not so great as in reality it is Next he persuades them that they may easily discharge themselve of it And in fine when he hath them deeply engag'd he makes the Difficulty to abstain vast and prodigious in appearance that they may not attempt to acquit themselves of it Reflect well upon these three Artifices and have a care not to be deluded by them ARTICLE VI. Of two considerable Faults which ordinarily happen to young Persons in Temptations Besides the Fault they commit who permit themselves to be deceiv'd by the three former Artifices they fall into two others which cause great Difficulties in them and which you must observe that you may carefully avoid them The First is that when they see themselves attacked by frequent Temptations First Fault they presently become impatient and after having resisted for a while lose courage and yield to the Enemy believing that they cannot resist him This Error is very ordinary amongst young People and it gives a great advantage to the Enemy of their Salvation over them Heretofore the City of Bethulia in Juda being Besieg'd by Holofernes the principal People of the Town with all the Commonalty betook themselves to their Prayers to obtain of God their Deliverance And seeing God did not hear them so soon as they expected they resolv'd to deliver themselves if Succor did not come in Five Days The couragious Judith being advertis'd of this Resolution disapprov'd it much and highly reprehended them saying * Qui estis vos qui tentatis Dominum non est iste sermo qui misericordiam provocat sed potius qui iram excitet surorem accendat Posuistis vos tempus miserationi Domini in arbitrium vestrum constituistis ei Sed quia patiens est Dominus in hoc ipso poeniteamus indulgentiam ejus fusis lacrymis postulemus Expectemus humiles consolationem ejus Judith 8. Who are you that thus tempt our Lord This Design is not to attract the Divine Bounty to you but to provoke his Fury and Revenge What have you limited a Time for the Mercy of God and appointed a Day to succor you We must not proceed in this manner Let us do Penance let us demand Pardon with many Tears and with all humility expect his Comfort I say the same to you dear Theotime when you vex your self in Temptations and despairing to be able to resist them you take a Resolution at length to deliver your self over to your Enemy you offer a great Injury to God for this is to distrust his Grace and dispose of it as you please This is not the Means to obtain it but on the contrary to make you fall more dangerously into the Temptations and Sin. No no we must not act thus we must have patience in Temptations and humbly expect the Divine Grace Deus enim nisi ipsi illius gratiae defuerint sicutopus bonum coepit ita perficiet operans velle perficere Con. Tr. Ses 6. cap. 13. which will never fail you except you be wanting to it first If you persevere couragiously to resist he will either deliver you from the Temptations or give you Grace to overcome them Remember that the greatest Saints have been tempted like you and much more Call to mind the Apostle S. Paul who having demanded of God to be deliver'd from great Temptations

If it be true as we have shewn that the Vices of Youth are very hardly Corrected it follows that a great part of the Corruption we see amongst Men springs from that which they had contracted in their younger Years Besides it is certain that bad Children become wicked Pathers and wicked Fathers make their Children vicious As they have liv'd in Disorder during their Youth they concern themselves but little that their Children should be Educated in the Fear of God and thus Corruption is communicated and passes from Father to Son by a continual Succession Now if this Proposition be verifi'd in the greatest part of young Persons it is sound more evident in those who are call'd to Study of whom it is true to say that their wicked Life causes the greatest part of the Sins and Disorders of the World because they are the Men that attain to Dignities whether Ecclesiastical or Secular wherein they behave themselves according to the Inclinations and Habits they had learn'd in their Youth and according to the first Impressions they receiv'd Now when they comport themselves ill in these Conditions the Evil stays not at their Persons but descends to many viz. to those they ought to Govern Instruct or Edifie who instead of receiving from them the Examples of Vertue gather nothing but the Imitation of their Vices and the Corruption of their Manners In a word I say Theotime that vicious Students become First in the Church wicked Priests Ignorant Unprofitable to God and his Church and frequently Scandalous Idle Covetous Worldly and Debaucht Incumbents Pastors incapable of their Charge who acquit themselves very badly of it to the great Detriment of the Salvation of Souls In the Nobility Gentlemen Proud Quarrelsom Duellers Immodest Blasphemous Libertines In the the Courts of Justice base Judges Corrupted Acceptors of Persons and who commit many Injustices for Mony Favour or Fear thro' the Ignorance or Rashness with which they give Sentence Advocates that are Wranglers Impostors and Cheaters In the Civil State Magistrates incapable of their Charges little careful of their Duty who see Vice and hinder it not And from the Corruption of these Four sorts of Persons springs the Depravation of the People and the overflowing of Vice in the World. Consider attentively O dear Theotome all these four Evils one after another and learn by their greatness how important a thing it is for you to addict your self to Vertue in your Youth CHAP. XIV That the Devil uses all his Endeavors to move young People to Vice. IN fine Eleventh Motive to Serve God in Youth Theotime that I may make you comprehend how important a thing it is for you to addict your self to God in your Youth there remains that I should tell you That the Devil that sworn Enemy of Mens Salvation fearing nothing more than to see you Vertuous in your Youth employs all his Endeavors to gain you to him and all those of your Age that he may destroy you presently after without recovery This Truth is a very manifest Consequence from all that we have said before The Attempt of the Devil to destroy young People That cursed Fiend who studies nothing but to rob God as much as he can of the Honor due to him and Men of the Happiness prepar'd for them knows very well that to incline Youth to Vice is the means to take away from God the first and greatest Acknowledgment which Men owe him He knows in the Second place how much a wicked Life of Youth is injurious to God as we have manifested above And moreover he understands very well that there is no other more certain way to fill the Earth with Iniquities and to Damn all Mankind This is the reason why he employs all his Industry to deprave the Innocence of Youth as the first Source of Salvation and of all the Blessings of the World. He knows well that to empoison the Waters of a Fountain it is sufficient to cast Venom into the Spring which communicates it easily to all the Brooks And that to Conquer a Realm it is sufficient to gain the chief Places which give Entrance into all the rest of the Country This misfortunate Fiend understands well how to put in practice the Malice he taught to Pharao Exod. 1. to whom he suggested the destruction of all the Male Children of the Israelites in their Cradle that so he might exterminate and root out that People of God. He Exerciseth daily both the Malice and the Cruelty of Nabuchodonosor 1 Reg. 21. who having taken King Sedecias with his Children at the Sacking of Jerusalem caus'd the Childrens Throats to be cut before the Fathers Face and satisfi'd himself to pluck out afterward the Father's Eyes and to let him live Thus this cruel Enemy employs all his Malice to murther the Children by Sin and strives to blind interiorly the Fathers that they may not see or not be sensible of the loss of their Children nor deliver them from the Danger wherein they are The same King returning into his Country Parvuli ejus abierunt in captivitatem ante faciem tribulantis Thren 1. Idcirco ego plorans oculus meus deducens aquas quia longe factus est a me consolator convertens animam meam facti sunt filii mei perditi quoniam invaluit inimicus Audite universs populi videte dolorem meum Virgines meae juvenes mei abierunt in captivitatem Ibid. Quos educavi enutrivi inimicus consumpsit cos Cap. 2. proud and puff'd up with his Victories carry'd for the fairest part of his Triumph the young People of the City of Jerusalem which he sent Prisoners before him as it is said by the Prophet Jeremy And he left nothing in that desolate City more to be lamented or mourned for than the deplorable loss of the young People which the same Prophet bewails above all its other Calamities some being destroy'd by the Sword others cruelly snatch'd away and sent into a barbarous Captivity Thus dear Theotime this detestable Fiend who as the Scripture says is establish'd King over all the Proud hath no greater reason insolently to triumph over the Holy Church than for the multitude of young People which he keeps in Salvery by Sin. And this pious Mother accounts no Ruin more deplorable than that of her dear Children which that Enemy snatches from her in their younger Years some by one Vice others by another and almost all by the Sin of Impurity which is the strongest Chain by which he Fetters them Exercising thus continually the Rage he hath conceiv'd against her from her Nativity and the immortal War he hath sworn to wage against all her Children according to the Revelation made to St. John in the Apbcalyps Apoc. 12. Lastly This War of the Enemy of Mankind against young People is a thing so manifest that the same St. John writing to the Faithful and congratulating every Age for the Blessings which were