Selected quad for the lemma: end_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
end_n	mark_v	peace_n	upright_a	1,413	5	10.3964	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62629	Sermons preach'd upon several occasions By John Tillotson, D.D. Dean of Canterbury, preacher to the Honourable Society of Lincolns-Inn, and one of His Majesties chaplains in ordinary. The second volume.	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.	1678 (1678)	Wing T1260BA; ESTC R222222	128,450	338

the Reward of his goodness 1. The Description of a good man He is said to be one that loves the Law of God that is that loves to meditate upon it and to practise it 2. The Reward of his goodness Great peace have they that love thy Law The word Peace is many times used in Scripture in a very large sense so as to comprehend all kind of happiness sometimes it signifies outward peace and quiet in opposition to war and contention and sometimes inward peace and contentment in opposition to inward trouble and anguish I understand the Text chiefly in this last sense not wholly excluding either of the other My design at present from these words is to recommend Religion to men from the consideration of that inward peace and pleasure which attends it And surely nothing can be said more to the advantage of Religion in the opinion of considerate men than this For the aim of all Philosophy and the great search of wise men hath been how to attain peace and tranquillity of mind And if Religion be able to give this a greater commendation need not be given to Religion But before I enter upon this Argument I shall premise two things by way of Caution First That these kind of Observations are not to be taken too strictly and rigorously as if they never failed in any one instance Aristotle observed long since that moral and proverbial sayings are understood to be true generally and for the most part and that is all the truth that is to be expected in them As when Solomon says Train up a child in the way wherein he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it This is not to be so taken as if no child that is piously educated did ever miscarry afterwards but that the good education of children is the best way to make good men and commonly approved to be so by experience So here when it is said that great peace have they that love Gods Law the meaning is that Religion hath generally this effect though in some cases and as to some persons it may be accidentally hindered Secondly When I say that Religion gives peace and tranquillity to our minds this is chiefly to be understood of a Religious state in which a man is well settled and confirmed and not of our first entrance into it for that is more or less troublesome according as we make it If we begin a religious course betimes before we have contracted any great guilt and before the habits of sin be grown strong in us the work goes on easily without any great conflict or resistance But the case is otherwise when a man breaks off from a wicked life and becomes religious from the direct contrary course in which he hath been long and deeply engaged In this case no man is so unreasonable as to deny that there is a great deal of sensible trouble and difficulty in the making of this change but when it is once made peace and comfort will spring up by degrees and daily encrease as we grow more confirmed and established in a good course These two things being premised I shall now endeavour to shew that Religion gives a man the greatest pleasure and satisfaction of mind and that there is no true peace nor any comparable pleasure to be had in a contrary course And that from these two heads From Testimony of Scripture and from the Nature of Religion which is apt to produce peace and tranquility of mind I. First From Testimony of Scripture I shall select some of those Texts which are more full and express to this purpose Job 22.21 speaking of God Acquaint thy self now with him and be at peace To acquaint our selves with God is a phrase of the same importance with coming to God and seeking of him and many other like expressions in Scripture which signifie nothing else but to become religious Psal 37.38 Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace Or as these words are rendred according to the LXX in our old Translation Keep innocency take heed to the thing that is right for that shall bring thee peace at the last Prov. 3.17 Where Solomon speaking of Wisdom which with him is but another name for Religion says Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace Isa 32.17 The work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever Matt. 11.28 29 Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Now to come to Christ is to become his Disciples to believe and practise his Doctrine for so our Saviour explains himself in the next words Take my yoke upon you and learn of me and ye shall find rest for your souls Rom. 2.10 Glory and honour and peace to every man that worketh good And on the contray the Scripture represents the condition of a sinner to be full of trouble and disquiet David though he was a very good man yet when he had grievously offended God the anguish of his mind was such as even to disorder and distemper his body Psal 38.2 3 4 Thine arrows stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore there is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin for mine iniquities are gone over mine head and as an heavy burthen they are too heavy for me Isa 57.20 21 The wicked are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt there is no peace saith my God to the wicked And Isa 59.7.8 Misery and destruction are in their paths and the way of peace they know not they have made themselves crooked paths whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace Rom. 2.9 Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil You see how full and express the Scripture is in this matter I come now in the II. Second place To give you a more particular account of this from the Nature of Religion which is apt to produce peace and tranquillity of mind And that I shall do in these three particulars 1. Religion is apt to remove the chief causes of inward trouble and disquiet 2. It furnisheth us with all the true causes of peace and tranquillity of mind 3. The reflection upon a religious course of life and all the actions of it doth afterwards yield great pleasure and satisfaction First Religion is apt to remove the chief causes of inward trouble and disquiet The chief causes of inward trouble and discontent are these two Doubting and anxiety of mind and Guilt of Conscience Now Religion is apt to free us from both these 1. From Doubting and anxiety of mind Irreligion and Atheism makes a man full of doubts and jealousies whether he be in the right and whether at last things will not prove quite otherwise than he hath rashly