Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
fire_n	little_a	put_v	water_n	5,400	5	6.6483	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80566	Cordiall councell, in a patheticall epistle: first written to an eminent professor of religion, for the seasonable preventing of a relaps. Which proving efficacious, is again revised, enlarged, and published for the good of others. As being applyable to many thousands, whose practise is neither answerable to the Gospel, their Christian profession, nor the millions of mercies they have received. By R. Junius.	Younge, Richard.	1645 (1645)	Wing C6283; Thomason E274_16; ESTC R209892	13,437	14

Castles come once to a parley there is great feare they will yeeld Satan desires no more then to be heard speake As what thinke you If that old Serpent and Sophister did so easily perswade Eve by himselfe and Adam by her to believe what he spake though they had heard God himselfe say the contrary immediately before what hope have we to stand out being so extreamely degenerated If they in the state of innocencie when they had wit at will and their reason at command found him too hard for them when they fell once to argue the case with him how much more too weake shall we find our selves that are as we are and when our owne flesh is become our enemie and his cunning Soliciter It is not safe to commit a little Wherry to the Seas violence much lesse to put flax to fire or a match to dry powder A stick that hath once beene in the fire much more a Torch newly extinguished being forthwith put to the flame will soone be kindled againe Ob. But by slighting them I shall lose all my customers and others will be glad to humor them for all trades men doe the like both in Citie and country would you have me undoe my selfe that have nothing but my trade to live by this were to make my selfe scorned and derided of all Ans Are you convinced in your conscience that to drinke without thirst to loose your time to spend your money to wast the good creatures to disgrace Religion to harden them in their wicked practises c is evill and displeasing to God for I hope you denie not the Law to be a rule for us to walke by and square all our actions as doe some Antinomians who take the ready way to pluck up all holinesse and piety by the rootes If so it is easie to determine for as this only evidences a good conscience when the maine weight which setts the wheeles of our hearts on worke is the conscience of Gods commandement so that which is absolutely evill can by no circumstances be made good Neither is the least evill to be adventur'd one for the greatest good which commeth by accident Neither say that it is a small sinne for admit it were so comparatively yet even the least sinne in its owne nature is not only mortall but rests unpardonable so long as it is willingly committed and excused or defended And such have no good consciences that dare gratifie Satan in committing the least sinne or neglect God in the smallest precept Will any eate poyson because there is but a little of it And what saith our Saviour He that is faithfull in that which is least is faithfnll also in much and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much Luke 16. 10. He that will corrupt his conscience for a pound what would he doe for a thousand And one sinne were it but one keepes posession for Satan as well as twenty Neither will God alow those things in his owne children which he may permit in strangers As for that common and sottish excuse of others or every one doth so therefore of necessity I must now and then drinke with them least they count me rude and uncivill It savors so much of ignorance and unbeleife that I hope none who are conversant in the word will offer to aleadge it Well may it become blind worldlings who have no other rule but custome example and their owne will to walke by but its very unbeseeming a beleiver Yet least this plea should find place in your thoughts for the heart of man is deceitfull above all things I answer Gods precepts must be our only presidents Yea if your heart be not wicked custome and example will no more sway you then it doth others of Gods people who shine as lights in the midst of a crooked generation Yea you will redeeme the time because the dayes are evill Ephes 5. 15. 16. If grace doe bare sway in your heart and not the love of the world you will not make the badnes of the times and your calling a cloake to excuse your conformity in drinking and wasting your precious houres wickedly but rather a spurr to incite you to be so much the more carefull not to be swayed with the common streame And as for their good or evill report were your eyes open to see this deepnesse of Satan whose Agents they are and what their ayme and endeavour is you would count their dispraise an honour their praise a dishonour Lastly As touching the losse of your customers and undoing your selfe if you should not be sociable with and pleasing to them I would faine know whether you beleeve Gods word If you doe read the 28. chapter of Deuteronomie Mat. 6. 25. Psal 37. Marke 10. 30. Acts 17. 25. 1 Pet. 5. 7. together with that of Paul to Timothy Bodily excercise profiteth little but Godlines is profitable unto all things having the promises of the life that now is and of that which is to come 1 Tim 4. 8. If you doe indeed beleive these and many the like scriptures to be Gods word take his word at least try whether he be worth the trusting Who hath said I will not faile thee neither forsake thee Heb. 13. 5. 6. Shall I for your better encouragement the honour of my Lord and Master to justifie the truth in this behalfe to discharge my duty c. though I hazard the imputation of a foole speake what I have experimentally found Yes I will become a foole in this my present boasting for yee have compelled me Time was that in serving the Common wealth I gained in a lawfull and laudable way five hundreth pounds per Annum if not a thousand all losses and expences defraied but being unthankfull and becomming vaine in my imaginations not once intending by reason of a foolish dark heart to glorifie God with my substance what I earned God did blow upon and it was put into a bag with holes Hag. 1. 6. 9 For my estate rather lessened then increased and thrice happie for me that it fell out so for I had utterly perished in my soule if I had prospered in my estate for this brought me on my knees and humbled me to the very ground made me reforme what so ever I conceived might displease God as touching the Sabbath and the like and make vowes of new and better obedience so farre as he should give me grace and likewise indent with him that in case he should blesse me with a conveniencie that I might not be a scorne to the world I would returne to him the tith of all mine increase as he should be pleased to direct Whereupon for sundery yeares after though my meanes of getting failed and to the eye of reason my necessary expences were farre more then my gettings God did so blesse and prosper me that I purst up two or three hundreth pounds a yeare Which to me appeared miraculous for no reason could be given of this his mercy but his mercy and O the depth I speake it before God in Christ who knoweth that I lye not my conscience also bearing me witnesse in the Holy Ghost that I speake it only to Gods glory whose goodnesse constraines me though I could have spoken as much of that reverend Divine Mr. Wheatly and many others that I have converst with And why all this but to verifie what the Lord speakes by the Prophet Haggai 1 and 2 Chapters Which I pray read at your leasure So that when all is done giving and loosing rather then sinning is the way to grow rich Pro. 19. 17. and 22. 9. and 28. 27. Mat. 19 29. And in reason If rising ●early going to bed late and eating the bread of carefulnes will not make rich without Gods blessing upon it Psal 127. 1 2. much lesse will drinking doe it And what a base and unworthy thing is it to thinke that God will let us be loosers by our serving of him Indeed an ancient acquaintance of mine working to Gentlemen who would have their Bootes brought home on Sabbath day mornings for some yeares together durst not breake that no lesse wicked then common custome though it was much against his judgement for feare of loosing them and undoing himselfe But at length he gathers courage and resolves rather to displease them all then anger God and his conscience as he had formerly done Whereupon no lesse then threescore of his best customers forsooke him which in all probability would prove his undoing But he lost nothing by it for contrarily from that day he began to thrive in his estate which he could never doe before As his wife friends and servants did averr after his death and are still alive to witnesse 〈◊〉 you should not only loose your customers but undoe your selfe by refusing to drinke with 〈◊〉 what then will you therefore with Demas forsake Christ to imbrace this present world 〈…〉 then possible that if God should give you riches they would doe you hurt and prove your 〈◊〉 That it would prove like the putting of a sword into a mad mans hand for not seldome as we grow 〈◊〉 in temporalls we grow poore in spiritualls Well might this ad to your content but it would endanger 〈◊〉 soule You are Gods Patient prescribe not your Physitian be not wiser th●n he ●he Nurse knowes better then the Child what is good fit for it and indeed no man would be more miserable and pittie upon the grosse misopinions and misprisions of others Rom. 9. 3. John 4. 28. 29. And what knowest thou O man whether thou shalt save thy brother 1 Cor. 7. 16. 2 Tim. 2. 24. 25. For a word seasonably spoken God blessing it like a rudder sometimes steeres a man quite into another course Yea how many have I knowne to blesse the time that ever they were plainly dealt withall And certainly there could never be such bowsing and quaffing and whiffing and healthing such reeling and staggering and stabbing both with tongue and hand where the Gospel is so gloriously taught if men were but so happie as to meet with timely and faithfull admonition But this is the misery that which worldly men call discretion hath eate up all true wisedome and devotion Imprimatur John Downame FJNJS

wherein does our times differ How many worldly wise men have you knowne sinceerly religious or to submit to the simplicity of the Gospel in conforming their lives thereunto How many that have forsaken Lands Liberty Livings creadit or other their worldly immunities to follow Christ Or that have been any whit zealous for Gods glory in promoting the best things and opposing the contrary very few I dare say in comparison of meaner judgements No they scorne to be singular or counted presize Or indeed so simple as Abraham who beleived God upon his bare word thought it were against reason and obeyed his voice in sacrifysing that sonne wherein lay all his hopes without disputing the matter Or Saint Paul who when God sent him on an unlikely and unwellcome errand did not communicate with flesh and bloud but yeelded obedience without further dispute Gal. 1. 16. No God must give them a reason of the case before they will yeeld to him their ascent And were it not so Why should the same Saint Paul say Not many wise men after the flesh are called but God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise c. 1 Cor. 1. 26 27 29. Or why should our Saviour say I thanke thee O father Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and men of understanding and hast revealed them unto babes Mat. 11. 25. Luke 10. 21. So that lay all together and it amounts to this More hope of a fooles being reformed then of theirs that are so exceeding wise Iohn 9. 39. Pro 26. 12. I confesse there is a possibilitie of their being as wise for heaven as they are for this world but then they must submit to Saint Pauls councell 1 Cor. 3. Let no man deceive himself if any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world let him become a foole that he may be wise for the wisedome of this world is foolishnesse with God verse 18. 19. Let him denie his owne carnall reason submit his wisedome to Gods and esteeme nothing folly but disobedience nothing silly that is not sinfull nothing true wisedome but that which is done according to the rule of Gods word and tendeth to his glory our neighbors well faire and the furthering of our owne salvation and then he shall be wise indeed Deut. 4. 5 6. Even as that which is on our left hand will be on our right let us but turne our selves Nor is it more the cause of Lust then of all other sinnes as history and daily experience proves For drunkennesse as one fitly tearmes it is the roote of all evill the rott of all good Wherefore not only hate it as the most prodigious foule and filthy feind but shun the company of all such who in any measure are adicted to it Neither account them friends for who so will be the friends of such make themselves the enemies of God James 4. 4. And of all enemies they are the deadliest as being traytors to the soule who endeavour as much as in them lyes to slay the best part eternally As for their kindnesse those cunning Hypocrites never intend so ill as when they speake fairest Nor can you keepe too farre from their flattering and Syren-like-aluerments For by their kind words they will so worke upon your yeelding nature that you will not be able to deny untill they alimulat you to their owne customes And their company is so infectious that they will worke a consumption of your vertues and wast them from an ounce to a dram from a dram to a scruple to a graine to nothing before you be aware of it You know how it faired with Peter falling but once into the company of Christs enemies and if such a Cedar as he fell the very first time what probabilitie is there of your standing when you are daily conversant with such yea worse for this let me asure you Temptations on the right hand have commonly so much more strength in them above the other as the right hand hath above the left Satan wins not so much by battery as by treachery When all the Philistems could not with their strength bind Sampson Dalilab did it with her subtilty The Devill did not appeare to Christ with threats but with faire promises of honour pleasure profit whence the Italian thinketh himselfe upon the point of being bought and sold when he is better used then he was wont to be without manifest cause Satan and his instruments like a flattering Host may promise good cheer but the reckoning paies for all and he that compares the wellcome with the farwell shall find he had better have fasted for if we swallow the baite the hooke will choake us But to escape their aluerments requires courage to deny the requests of a seeming friend For what but a proude ignorant and timmorus bashfullnesse makes men thus miserably sinne against God and wrong their owne soules It is nothing but want of courage that makes many a drunkard One principall meanes to fill Hell is loathnesse to displease whence it is that the fearfull are placed in the fore-front of that damned crue who shall be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone Revel 21. 8. I confesse bashfullnesse and modesty in some cases are very commendable but it is an ill modesty that hinders a man in the way to blisse And a great indiscression to feare more the blasts of mens breath then the fire of Gods wrath For what is this other then with the foole to leape into the water for feare of being drownd in the boate And he that hath either wit or grace will rather fall out with all the world then with his maker then with his conscience Yea a magnanimous Christian will loose his life rather then the peace of a good conscience And indeed it is pitie that ever the water of Baptisme was spilt upon his face that cares more to discontent the world then to wrong God But as touching their dislike who may you thanke for it but your selfe in begining such a custome for if you had denied them at first they would never have expected it afterwards Yea they would have honoured you the more for your refusing as my selfe and many others can witnesse out of grounded experience But since you have proceeded thus farre there is only one way to avoide it Resolve to drinke with none and then none can take acceptions But to resolve is nothing except you pray and that earnestly for divine assistance wresting wholly and only upon God for strength and successe Neither is that enough except you also use the meanes that is as Ioseph no sooner heard his mistresse say come let us lye together but he left her and fled away so if you but heare them say come let us drinke together be sure to leave them though without taking your leave of them Entertaine no parlie with such for there is no disputing with Satan or his deputies When