Selected quad for the lemma: honour_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
honour_n	david_n	king_n	saul_n	1,226	5	9.8585	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55748	The mysticall match between Christ and his church by the late learned and reverend divine, John Preston ... The leading sermon to that treatise of his called The churches marriage.	Preston, John, 1587-1628.	1648 (1648)	Wing P3303; ESTC R33951	90,892	160

thing are his commands if thou seest he hath commanded a thing which thou seest no reason for nay thou seest a reason against it yet doe not question it The will of man is still objecting See this now in Adam and Saul In the commandement given to Adam there is nothing but a meere command 't is likely hee saw no reason for it yet see how God chargeth him hast thou eaten of that I commanded thee thou shouldst not eate Saul thought he had good reason on his side to spare the kine for sacrifice but did not I command thee the contrary The servant is not to examine his masters ground but to doe his will Lastly wee must be subject to his providence and all the passages of it Looke what variety of conditions of sickenesse and health good report and ill report thou goest through God requires that all thy affections should be subject without murmuring if he will have thee lye under an ill report without cause a long time it is his providence submit and wereas men will say if I were thus or thus in such a condition first then I would be content what is this but to make his will Regulam regulatam The third thing are motives to be subject From the nature of subjection which is as it was defined that the inferiour ought to be subject to the superiour so as there is reason for this if thou be an inferiour to him and when a man sees reason he will not be stubborne Now that there is reason for this looke through the whole universe That which is most base is lowest and if there should not be such a subordination what confusion would there be as if the waters should over-flow the earth or the fire possesse the place of the ayre As in the body of nature so politicall if servants should not be subject to their masters inferiours to superiours what confusion would it breed Eccles. 10. 5. 6. for the servant to be on horse-backe and the master on foot this is an evill and a folly So in the body of man for the humours to be predominant it brings sicknesse and death so in the soule for reason to be below and the affections above what disorder is it So that there is reason that in all things the inferiour should be subject to the superiour Consider who it is you are to be subject to It is to him that is able to doe you much good and one that is willing to recompence thee to the utmost Why are men so willing to be subject to Kings and doe them service because they are able to advance them and therefore men will doe any base offices for them even violate their consciences but in being subject to God thou shalt not be subject to base but honourable services and thou shalt get much by it also As Balak said to Balaam Am I not able to preferre thee so may I say of God and of others even of Kings as Saul said of David Can David give you Vineyards c Can Kings give you what God can give you why is there such seeking to the Court but that men are perswaded of getting profit and honour And is it not God that sets up whom he will pulls downe whom he will doth whatsoever he will in the earth and in the sea which if considered men would be ambitious of serving him Secondly hee is able to doe you much hurt and that is another reason of our subjection to Princes and therefore 1. Pet. 5. 6. hee bids us humble our selves under his mighty hand that is God hath a mighty hand able to bring you into subjection and therefore doe it willingly Humble your selves Doe you provoke him to anger are you stronger then he is hee not able to bring you downe In Ezechiel there be foure Emblemes of his power God compares their great men to Eagles the masters of all birds to Cedars that over-shadow all the trees of Eden to Dragons that doe live in the water and doe drinke it up as a river and to an excellent Cherub now God to shew his power sayes that hee will deplume that Eagle loppe the boughes of that Cedar uncover that Cherub put a hooke into the nosthrils of that Dragon so that God is able to doe the greatest men in the world hurt Thirdly God is exceeding munificent his goodnesse is great If one hath a father that is full of goodnesse an ingenuous sonne would not disobey him because hee would not grieve him now God will spare thee as a father spares his sonne that serves him hee will keepe thee still in the house notwithstanding all thy rebellions Last motive is taken from our selves It is for thy good to be subject to him which if men throughly apprehend they would not sticke though it were a thinge burthensome to them If a Physician prescribes thee an hard dyet to which thou hast no good will in it selfe yet if thou be told it is for thy good then thou art willing and thus it is with the Commandements But say is not liberty an excellent thing is it not better to live as a man lists Indeed if the mind of a man were framed as it ought to be it were so but seeing thy heart is possessed with errours c. it is not best for thee to be at liberty for one that is well in his wits it is good to be at liberty but not for one in a frensie againe for thee to follow thine owne will is to subject thy selfe more to the disease but when thou dost what God commands thee thou dost follow the prescript of the Physician For every man lyes as it were Inter morbum medicum if thou subject thy selfe to God thou growest out of bondage to the disease to further life and liberty but when thou obeyest thy selfe thou art brought in bondage to sinne which is the disease of thy soule Now bondage properly is this when one is subject to one that is not our proper Commander or when it is to our hurts and therefore now to bee subject to a Father is not bondage so not to God hee being our naturall and proper Commander Now one of these two you must be subject to either the law of sinne or of righteousnesse Consider now which of these is bondage which liberty Every creature hath a certaine rule given it and so long as it keepes close to that rule so long it is well with it and so it is with men whilst they are subject to the Law which is their proper rule to be subject to the contrary rule that is bondage But thou wilt say I finde it a pleasant life to bee subject to my lusts But what is the reason of that because it is agreeable to the present disposition of thy soule but yet know this that thou hast another radicall disposition in thee in which thou wert created to which the

cattell for Sacrifice for the Lord but it was but a pretence for it was for himselfe indeed that he spared them So Balaam spake faire when hee sayd he would speake nothing but what the Lord should say to him and that hee would not curse the people of Israel except God bad him curse them but it was not for any love to God but he had an eye to himselfe and his owne honour hee knew it was in vaine to curse where God did blesse and so he thought thus with himselfe if hee should curse them without the command of the Lord hee should but discredit himselfe and loose his labour wages and all for his curse would take no effect therefore hee would not goe till God commanded him to goe likewise it may be hee desired to dye the death of the righteous so as all was out of selfe-love Likewise Amaziah was subject to the Lord walking in all the wayes of David but all was done to other ends then David did But you will say it is hard to discerne when a man doth obey the commandement whether it be to the Lord or no how therefore shall we know it Consider after any failing in thy obedience or commission of any sinne what it is that troubleth thee the offence against God or the harme discredit c. redounding unto thy selfe You shall see the falsenesse of Saul his heart in this the disobedience of the Lord never troubled him though he seemed a while affected with offending the Lord but hee after shewed that it was only the losse of his credit which he was tender of for when Samuel would have left him and hee thought some dishonour would redound to him that was it that troubled him hee desires not so much that God would pardon as that Samuel would honour him come sayes he with me and let us goe and offer Sacrifice honour me before the people It was not his sinne and disobedience but the losse of his credit that hee stood upon The contrary you may see in David see his carriage under the guilt of his murther and adultery for which he was so greatly afflicted but how much did he slight all other things his affliction he did beare well enough when his owne sonne had abuse his wives this did not perplex him it was his sin troubled him as appeares by that Psalme he made upon that occasion in which you have not a word of his affliction but his sin it was that hee was tender of Find out therfore where thy tendernes for sin is as a Smith when he would trie the hoof of an horse look where it shrinketh that is the tender part so see what shrinketh and galleth thy heart most if it be sinne and offending the Lord it is a signe thy eye was upon the Lord but when thou art tender of losses and crosses and discredit to thy selfe it is an ill signe shewing thou respectest thy selfe David taxeth himselfe in those things which were counted no sinne by men but an honour as the cutting off Sauls lap of his garment it was an honour to him to come so neare his adversary and but cut off the lap of his garment So in numbering the people it was no outward shame or evill but the sinne that troubled him Lord sayes he strike me for these sheepe what have they done A fourth rule whereby thou maist try thy subjection to the Lord is by thy disobedience to all others it is a rule may seeme somewhat remote at the first hearing but it is such a rule of trying subjection that I find in the Scripture St. Paul when he would expresse his subjection he doth it by way of opposition If I should yet please men I were not the servant of Christ it is a good argument of our being subject to the Lord when we care not for displeasing others Rom. 2. 8. as not obeying the truth is joyned with obeying unrighteousnesse so as the contrary obeying the truth is alwayes joyned with disobeying all unrighteousnesse I am 4. 7. they are put together Submit your selves to the Lord and resist the Devill He that is most subject to the Lord is a most untractable man to man and to all creatures else upon every occasion because the common course of the world is contrary to holinesse Ephes. 2. 1. which causeth others to quarrell so much with them as they doe and this ariseth from their obedience to the Lord. It is common amongst us when wee see a man easie plyable tractable ready to give satisfaction and content to men to commend him for it as a good disposition in them but to be so in all things even in sinning against God this though it is pleasing to men it is abominable to God it is an evident case that they which would not doe a thing if left to themselves because unlawfull yet to give satisfaction to friends to their company as Herod did they will that is a signe of disobedience the more waxy the heart is to men the more hard to the Lord. It is a signe of pusillanimity in Christians that yeeld so much to men they forget themselves there is a certaine magnanimity which Christians should maintaine wee are Kings the Sonnes of God therefore what is the countenance or discountenance of man wee should cary our selves as greater men than they wee should learne regnum gerere in pectore to cary a kingdome in our brests It is a common saying among men such a man understands himselfe well that is he understandeth his place his dignity and caryeth himselfe according to it In this we are ready to goe too farre but we should learne to doe thus in our obedience to God The truth of a wives chastity is seene in the peremptory denyall of all that solicite her the more peremptory wee are in such denyals of the creatures the more subject we are to the Lord. Lastly you shall try it by this consider what you doe in those things that above all others you would not be subject in single out that sinne that is dearest to thee though a man would be obedient in all else yet in some things to be restrained it goes to his heart something is more peculiar and is that he fancies and it goeth more neare unto him to obey in that then in any other thing When the Lord would trie Abraham he tries him in that which he was most unwilling to part with Now sayes hee I know that thou fearest mee for I have tried thee in that which I know thou lovedst dearely and yet thou art content to part with it for my sake Make the same question to you look what it is that above all others you would not be subject in whether it be a matter of credit of estate or a lust that sitteth close if thou wilt try whether thou be subject so if for his sake thou canst obey the commandement which is against it that crosseth it for such a