Selected quad for the lemma: grace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
grace_n	baptism_n	covenant_n	seal_n	5,819	5	9.5412	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56118	Instructions to a nobleman's daughter concerning religion at first designed for one, now directed to all of that rank, and useful to young persons of quality, and others of that sex : with sacramental and other suitable devotions / by John Provoste.	Provoste, John.	1700 (1700)	Wing P3877; ESTC R35367	45,590	134

has not forbidden it and whether the best and the wisest Men would not forbid it and advise against it Very great Reason there is to consider thus because you will otherwise have no Blessing from that God from whom I hope you will have an overflowing Plenty of it no Blessing so as to finish the Action you begin or no Blessing afterwards so as to have any good Effect rising from it And surely all that Prudence which your present Behaviour gives us a Promise of will not give you leave to think of doing any one thing in vain much less that which should be worse than Vain should be hurtful Be pleased to consider first whether the Thing have any sinful part and not first what Pleasure it may have and what Profit because our greatest Profit is in Religion and in Religion should be our greatest Pleasure and because Religion should be the governing Principle of all our Actions and should be always at the Helm to guide them and is always the most faithful Oracle to be consulted upon the Issues of them So a great Man says a Prince as Pious as Great I have set the Lord always before me therefore I shall not be moved Psalms 16. I shall neither do nor suffer Ill I shall be sure in my Actions and safe in my whole Condition The not considering in our first Steps of Action whether it be such as we should go any farther in it whether it be good or not is an ill Thing it self much worse than at first sight it seems to be it leads us into Profaneness and a Contempt of Religion and therefore in Scripture it is a Mark hereof Indeed so much rather it is a Mark of Profaneness because this very thing is a first Principle of Religion that our Actions should begin from Him from whom all Creatures had their beginning and because if Religion does not come in at first it comes in seldom afterwards either that withdraws upon the contempt or we make the first contempt greater still and we harden'd Men too soon learn to forget what before too boldly we had despised The Action begins in disorder which gives the first place to Profit or Pleasure and it cannot but end as it began Remember always your Confirmation that is this your Dedication of your self to God as the Jews had an yearly Remembrance of the Dedication of the Temple your taking the Vow upon your self which in your Baptism you made by others and that you always may remember it be pleased to read the Form of Confirmation once every Quarter of the Year This was a Sacred tye and the first with which you by your own act bound the first and tender part of your Life and I know the Bond was not uneasie or too stiff for the tenderness of it but in Solomon's Language an Ornament of Grace unto your Head and a Chain about your neck and to be bound continually upon your heart This was one of the most awful the greatest Acts of Religion you ever yet perform'd because it was the sealing of a Covenant between God and your self in most awful manner the Covenant made in Baptism but sealed in Confirmation You then declared what you would do and you obliged your self to the doing of it in your whole following life and the Bishop declared what God would do at the same time he prayed to God for it that he would assist you in and reward you for the performing your pious part How great and solemn was the Engagement when the Bishop askt you with others Do ye here in the presence of God and of this Congregation renew the solemn Promise and Vow that was made in your Name at your Baptism ratifying and confirming the same in your own Persons and acknowledging your selves bound to believe and to do all those things which your Godfathers and Godmothers then undertook for you How great and solemn was the Bishops Prayer when the Venerable Man invested with heavenly Power and with all things to give commanding Authority to his Person and a Religious Grandeur to the performance laid his hand upon you as if he would convey a part of that precious spiritual Oyntment which had been poured on his Head to yours like the Oyl running down from Aaron 's head and so spreading farther to the parts below At the same time the Bishop laid one hand upon your Head he lift up another to that Heaven from whence his Power was derived in Prayer for you Defend O Lord this thy Servant with thy heavenly Grace that she may continue thine for ever and daily encrease in thy Holy Spirit more and more until she come into thy everlasting Kingdom Amen I have indeed a particular reason for recommending all the nice and serious respects to your Confirmation not only because of the useful Greatness of the thing itself but also because of the extraordinary regard I ow it as well as you seeing I bore a part therein had the Honour to attend you in it and present you to it My Lord your Father as he observed me to be always so upon this occasion save me to be most particularly concerned for your Spiritual Interests he did me the Honour to think favourably of me and was willing to believe that this my zeal for your Confirmation had a Knowledg with it and at the same time to wish I may suppose that in order to the having such a Zeal others might have such a Knowledge and therefore he askt me what Proof I had from Scripture for the practice of Confirmation My Answer was to this purpose that 1. however it is Sacrament to some it is not to us but indeed it follows one and being not essential but very useful in Religion like many other useful and yet not absolutely necessary things it might not be expresly commanded and not so expresly found in Scripture which is a particular and a standing Rule only for things absolutely necessary to Salvation In other things the Church may know that they advance the great ends of Religion and then it wants for their use no other Command besides its own But 2dly Confirmation has a proof from Scripture Acts 8. The first Christians of Samaria were baptized upon the preaching of Philip v. 12 and after their Baptism the Apostles sent Peter and Johh to pray for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost v. 14.15 then laid they their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost v. 17. that is were Confirmed Your Baptism placed you in the Christian Church but your being there was declared and you engaged your self to the abiding there in your Confirmation As an Ambassadour may be sometime unknown in the Kingdom he is sent to but he is not supposed or declared to be there till his publick Entry and then he begins publick Action When you were to be Confirmed your Age made your beginning of Religious Action very seasonable and your Confirmation made your going on