Linguistic DNA - Concept Modelling Demonstrator

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	incline_v	keep_v	mercy_n	15,368	5	10.2607	5	true

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34597	The country-curate's advice to his parishioners, in four parts I. Directs us, how to serve God on the Lord's day, II. On the week day, III. How to discharge our duty in our several relations, as husband and wife, parents and children, masters and servants, IV. How to prepare for death / by H.C.	H. C. (Henry Cornwallis), 1654?-1710.	1693 (1693)	Wing C6333; ESTC R37664	30,893	81

and Family to an account for what you have read or heard and explain the same to them This is commended to us by the Practice and Example of our Lord himself who when he was come home said unto his Disciples Mat. 13.5 Have you understood all these things viz. that he had preached to the Multitude And Mark 4.34 When they were alone he expounded all things to his Disciples Whereupon one observeth That Christ by his Example doth instruct every Master of a Family how to carry himself in reference to those under his charge on the Lord's day after their departure from the publick Congregation A treble Benefit will follow hereupon 1. In respect to our selves for the more you build up others the more your selves are built up in Knowledge Faith and every Grace of God 2. In respect of your Children and Servants for it will make them to hearken more attentively to what is in publick delivered when they know they shall be called to an Account for the same at home 3. It will help much to the understanding and believing of what is heard if at home you repeat it conferr of it and examine the Proofs made use of for its Confirmation 2. Singing of Psalms is another Duty to be performed this day in our Families as well as in the Church Holy David that sweet Singer of Israel recommends it to us Psal 92. the Title of that Psalm is A Psalm or Song for the Sabbath and it begins thus It is good to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises unto thy name O thou most high For the manner of performing this Duty we have the Apostle's Direction in these words singing with grace in your hearts unto the Lord. 1. It must be in or with the heart that is our hearts must go with our Voices the one must be lift up as well as the other for God is a Spirit and must be worshipped in our Hearts and Spirits as well as with our Bodies Truly singing with the Voice without concurrence of the Heart and Spirit is no more pleasing to God than a sounding Brass and tinkling Cymball 2. As we must sing in the heart so with Grace in the heart i. e. we must exercise the Graces of God's Spirit as well as in praying labouring to express the same Affection in singing a Psalm as David in the penning of it If it be a Psalm of Prayers and Petitions then must our Affections be fervent if a Psalm of Praises and Thanksgiving then must our Affections be chearful Thus must the Affections of the Heart be suitable to the Quality of the Psalm 3. Another Family-Duty is Prayer for if this Duty ought to be performed every day twice at least viz. Morning and Evening then more especially on the Lord's day a day wholly dedicated to the Worship and Service of God CHAP. X. Of resorting to the Evening Sacrifice WHen it is now almost time to repair to the Evening Service call as many of your Servants as can be well spared that they may accompany you to the publick Assembly command their Bodies though you cannot their Souls And it may not be amiss but right edifying if some one Person read a Psalm suitable to the present undertaking of going to worship God such as the 84. Psal or the 119 th one or two parts of it being taken at a time as occasion shall serve to which reading all ought reverently to attend And this being done let the same Rules and Directions which were given touching going to Church in the Morning be observed in the Evening and let all as before resort to the publick worship where your carriage ought to be the same as was before directed Surely unless you and your House appear thus the second time before God you cannot be said duly to sanctify the Lord's Day but only to do it by halves And now to move you to this duty Consider you are bound in justice to God to do it Because God hath set a day not a piece of a day apart for himself and we should be more afraid to steal away God's time than to steal away Mans Goods the one is Theft but the other Sacriledge God Almighty hath consecrated to his own Service the seventh part of our time but if you come only in the Morning you give him but the 14 th part of it nay I fear too many spare him only that time which their Morning attendance takes up in our publick Assembly on the Lord's Day Now I appeal to thy own Conscience Christian Brother Whether it be a meet and fit thing that rational Persons Created by God redeemed by Christ should afford to the Worship and Service of Christ and the great Concern of their immortal Souls but two hours at the most on the Lord's day and that time perhaps spent in a formal customary cold heartless Worship of the infinitely holy and just Deity the tremendous impartial Judge both of Angels and Men. The Jews kept a whole day holy in a grateful Memory of the lesser benefit of the Creation and their Deliverance out of Aegypt and shall we grudge to spend a whole day in remembrance of our Deliverance from Hell and Death eternal We have not only greater Motives but we have greater Means they had only Moses and the Prophets but we have Christ and the Gospel they had the Shadow we the Substance And shall we that have more Means and Helps put God off with less Duty smaller Service and shorter Performances Nay the very Heathens guided by the Light of Nature gave whole Days to their Dunghill Deities and shall we Christians refuse it to a true God You give your Bodies two Meals a-day and will you feed your Souls but once It was a rational Discourse of Joseph to his Mistress Gen. 39.9 My Master hath kept nothing from me but thee because thou art his Wife how then can I do this great wickedness and sin against my God God hath kept no Days in the Week from us but only the First Day because it is his Sabbath how can we do this great Wickedness then and sin against him Nathan's Parable to David may be applied to thee O thou most prophane Sabbath-breaker Hath God only one Day which he hath kept to himself and sanctified to his Service and laid as it were in his Bosom and shall Men be so unworthy when their Hearts tempt them to Vanity even to take this day to please and gratifie their own corrupt hearts in When they are rich in time and have six days for themselves To entrench upon the Lord's Day it is something too much Nay as it is unreasonable so is it plainly contradictory to our own Prayers that day for upon every Lord's Day Morning as we make it our open Confession so likewise a publick Prayer after the reading of the Fourth Commandment Lord have mercy upon me and incline my heart to keep this Law As much as to say Lord we

not mine Ears listned unto filthy Communication And my taste delighted it self in Gluttony and Drunkenness 5. Have I been so truly thankful for God's Mercies as I ought to have been 6. Have not I this Week omitted my Prayers Slovered them over or suffered my thoughts to wander in them Lastly Have not I been guilty of some crying Sin that might justly cause God to reject them These Queries proposed and thy Heart O Christian upon Enquiry declaring thee guilty with me say Of these and all my other Sins that I have committed from my youth up unto this present day I most heartily repent me O Lord my God! and I am truly sorry for every thought word and act by which I have provoked thy wrath and indignation against me especially for my disobedience of so holy a Law and extream ingratitude to so bountiful a Lord. O God I do acknowledge my self unworthy the least of thy Mercies and obnoxious to the greatest of thy Judgments but thou hast revealed thy self a God of Pity and Compassion for giving the Iniquities of such as truly repent and acquitting those that voluntarily acquit themselves Wherefore with a penitent and contrite Heart I confess my own guiltiness resolving patiently to bear whatsoever affliction thou laist upon me for my Sins hoping for Pardon through the alone Mercies of our Saviour Christ And now O most gracious and liberal Benefactor with my whole strength and faculties of Soul and Body I praise and magnify thy name for thy great and innumerable benefits proceeding purely from thy bounty and intended wholly for my good Particularly for preserving the this Week in the midst of so many dangers incident to my condition and delivering me from so many Calamities and Miseries due to my Sins Thou art my Creator O my God! and gracious Protector thou art the ultimate end of my being and the supream perfection of my Nature and under the shadow of thy Wings is my perpetual repose from the Light of thy Countenance flows Eternal Joy and Felicity To Thee be Glory and Honour Adoration and Praise from all Creatures now and for evermore Amen And since thou hast ordained us the day to labour in and the night to take our rest as I praise thee for the blessings of the day past so I beseech thee for thy Protection this Night Let the Eye of thy Providence watch over me and thy holy Angels pitch their Tent about me that being safely delivered from all dangers and comfortably refreshed with moderate sleep I may be the better enabled to perform the employment of my condition and faithfully persevere in the duties of thy Service to my Lifes end Amen Beware of sitting up late your self on the Saturday Night or of causing others to do so Lest when you go into the House of God to join with the multitude in Prayer you are fitter to sleep than pray differing little from the dead Bodies asleep in their Graves The one sleeps above the Earth the other underneath it And when you are laid in your Bed let not your mind run on Worldly thoughts but think of the infinite Majesty of God that you are then to meet think of the great weight and importance of the holy Ordinances then vouchsafed you how they concern thy Salvation or Damnation thy Everlasting Life or Death Meditate on the short time thou hast to enjoy the Sabbath in how near thy Life is to an end how easily God can take down this Earthly Tabernacle how there is no working no labour no striving in the other World to which thou art going and continue thus musing till the fire of Meditation begin to burn If thou thus leavest thy Heart with God on Saturday Night no doubt but you will find it with him the next Morning CHAP. II. Of Awaking with God AS soon as sleep hath unseal'd thine Eyes lift up thy Soul in Thanksgiving to thy Maker for preserving thee that night and affording thee a good beginning of a new day especially a Sabbath day to labour for his Glory and the good of thine own Soul And that you may be incited to perform this Act of praise consider these several motives 1. That perhaps many others not so sinful as thy self have been hurried from their Beds to the Bar of Judgment from a Bed of Down they have been cast into a Bed of Flames yet God in his infinite Mercy hath spared you until now to Repent and prepare your Accounts 2. Consider that many others are visited by God Almighty with Sickness so that they cannot serve God in the Publick Assemblies while you enjoy your health and free liberty to go with the multitude into his Courts 3. Consider that you are now brought to the beginning of another day which when past you shall never see again Thou maist possibly see more Sabbath Days but that space of time when the Sun is once set thou shalt never see again any more How careful then should'st thou be to improve this Day so that it may turn to the best account Solomon sends Man to School to the Ant to learn this good Husbandry Prov. 6.6 7 8. Oh that we were as wise for the Bread of Life that came down from Heaven as the poor Pismire for Bread that springs out of the Earth The Sabbath is an Harvest and he that sleeps away his time in Harvest is a Son that causeth shame The Seaman or Mariner observes his Wind and Tide otherwise he cannot get to his intended Harbour but Seasons of Grace are not like the Tides of which if you miss one you may get another How careful then shouldst thou be to improve every Minute Our Saviour Christ said to his Disciples concerning the Loaves and Fishes Gather up the Fragments that nothing be lost The like advice I give you concerning the Lord's Day Gather up the Parcels thereof Let no part of it be lost no not the least Minutes which are pretious to this end Spiritualize all the objects you meet with in the Day as thus When first awake think that God Almighty can as easily awaken you out of your Graves from the sleep of Death as he hath in your Beds from the sleep of Nature Let the rising out of your Beds put you in mind of the Resurrection And when you see the Sun Let your Meditation be That if the rising of one Sun be so glorious how glorious will that day be when so many thousands of Bodies far brighter than the Sun shall appear to accompany Christ at the great Assizes Consider that this great Star must run in one Day ten or twelve Millions of Leagues and shall you make no progress in Virtue Consider that unwearied Harbinger is gone to take you up a Lodging in the Grave each Minute is so much deducted from your Life Follow therefore the Counsel of the Son of God Work while it is Day for the Night cometh when no Man can work Let not then this Light burn in vain but

acknowledge we have neglected thy Day we pray thee therefore pardon all our unchristian Sabbath-breaking for the time past and give us Grace to observe the Christian Sabbath better for the future Now shall we confess in the Forenoon and transgress in the Afternoon Will you beg pardon in the Morning and sin again the same Sin before Night Will you open your mouths to ask God's Grace to sanctifie and keep holy the Sabbath-Day and it may be prophane it in a graceless manner as soon as you are out of the Congregation But now to draw to a Conclusion You that God Almighty have blessed with Families I beseech you to take care of making any Visits on that day after Evening-Service for by that means you may become guilty of a double Sin 1. In neglecting to worship God your selves in your Family 2. In hindering others from doing that Duty But if the Weather invite you into the Fields let your Walk be such as Isaac's was to meditate and that you may not want matter to exercise your Thoughts about when you divert your self in the Field meditate on these Ten Particulars 1. The Greatness and Goodness of that God that you paid your Homage unto 2. With the Vileness of Sin and your selves because of it 3. With the Sweetness of Christ and the Greatness of his Love and Mercy 4. With the Excellency of that heavenly Work you have been about and the Gain of Godliness 5. With the Vanity of the World and all things therein 6. With the Worth and high Value of your immortal Souls 7. With the Rage Subtilty and Diligence of your Souls Enemy 8. With the Deceitfulness of your Hearts 9. With the Terrour and Torment of Hell 10. With the unspeakable and everlasting Glory of Heaven 2. Endeavour to spiritualize every Object you see As you walk and travail by the King's High-way say I am the way the truth and the life saith my blessed Redeemer the Way I must follow the Truth I must believe the Life I must hope for the Way which leadeth me the Truth which teacheth me the Life whereunto he bringeth me the Way is undefiled the Truth is infallible and the Life without end blessed are they that walk in this way that leads to everlasting life When you behold pleasant Grounds and variety of Objects O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all the Earth is full of thy Riches When you perceive a gentle Brieze of Wind Come Holy Spirit blow upon my Garden that the Spices may flow out make my Mind calm serene and quiet breath upon me and revive me with the Light of thy Countenance When you hear a Clock strike or perceive by the Sun the Hour of the Day O how fast do hour after hour come on Time hastening to be swallowed up of Aeternity So teach me O Lord to number my days that I may apply my heart unto Wisdom wisely providing for that long day wherein the Sun of Righteousness shall rise with healing in his Wings When you see an high place Thy Mercy O Lord reacheth unto the Heavens and thy Faithfulness to the Clouds When you perceive a Dunghill O make me to know my self and discover to me my false deceitful Heart and the Odiousness and Loathsomness of my Sins that I may hate them with a perfect hatred When you behold a stately House O God make me in love with that City which hath foundations whose Maker and Builder is God Oh when shall this earthly house of this Tabernacle be dissolved and I received into that Building the House not made with hands aeternal in the Heavens When beholding any Children or Infants O Lord out of the mouth of Babes and Sucklings dost thou prepare Praises for thy self When beholding a beautiful Woman O Lord let not this Creature 's Face be her Pride or the Beholder's sin or shame If you see any Cattle to stray think with your self O God how apt am I to go out of thy way I have erred and strayed O Lord like to a lost Sheep By such holy Ejaculations as these you may banish all Worldly thoughts out of your Mind and keep the Devil that is always busy to hinder the good Seed of the Word from taking effect better out of your heart than Teresa's holy Water or St. Anthony's Sign of the Cross When you come home observe the same Rules that were given you before to be practised after Dinner viz. to read the Scripture sing Psalms meditate repeat the Word c. but when you have done all look upon your selves as unprofitable Servants and that you come short of what God requires or deserves at your hands O what heavenly fervent and zealous Prayers doth such a God deserve such rich Mercy call for God is worthy a better Tongue to praise him and a better Heart to love him Disown therefore all your own Righteousness and expect all the Blessings you have prayed for through the alone Merits of Jesus Christ CHAP. XI Evening Exercise THE Day thus happily sliding away draws on the Night-season and there remains an Evening Exercise in order to even out Accompts with the great Father of the Family concerning our days labour in his Vineyard Before therefore you take your repose at night look over your days work search back into every hour of the day humble your selves and be heartily sorry for your miscarriage bless God if you have received any good Put these Questions to your Soul ere you betake your self to your rest First How did I ly down or rise up was God in my thoughts or no Secondly How did I put up my Prayers in my Closet did they proceed from my Heart or Lip only Have I gone this day with Joy into the House of Good have I heard â—he Word and treasured it up in my Heart Have not I aimed more at the information â—f my judgment than at the warming of my â—ffections was it curiosity or piety that led â—he thither have I gathered my thoughts â—ogether in the publick Prayers of the Church â—nd have my heart and desires gone along with the Supplications which the Minister of God put up to Heaven Have not I thought â—f my Farm Trade and Oxen while I have â—een repeating after him Have I read in priâ—ate have I called my Family together read â—o them instructed them made them give â—e an account of what they did remember When I received the holy Sacrament were â—y thoughts fixed on the Cross of Christ â—nd were my Soul affected with the great â—ystery of God's Love and did I meditate â—n the Word as soon as I left the Church â—as not the World in my Heart as soon as â—e word was out of the Minister's Did not â—eat and drink at Table more to please my â—ppetite than to repair the decayed strength â—f my nature Was my Discourse holy at â—â—e Table when I craved a Blessing was â—ot my mind more intent on the meat before

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