Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	aaron_n	abraham_n	noah_n	22	3	8.8112	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29117	Elijah's epitaph and the motto of all mortalls in the other reason in the text, perswading him into a willingness to dye, in these words, I am no better then [sic] my fathers, I Kin. 19, 4 / by Thomas Bradley, D.D. one of His Late Majesties chaplains and præbendary of York, and preach't in the minster there, and in his rectory of Ackworth, 1669, Ætatis suæ, 72.	Bradley, Thomas, 1597-1670.	1670 (1670)	Wing B4131; ESTC R34264	17,583	51

in Jesurum yet in his temper the meekest man in all the Earth Saint Paul an Arch-Apostle the great Doctor of the Gentiles yet speaking of himself see how he lessens himself If he speak of Saints I am saith he the least Ephes 3.8 If of sinners I am the greatest 1 Tim. 1.15 The truth is they that have Grace know they want more then they have they are enlightened and so see their wants their corruptions their infirmities and are sensible of them Those that are voyd of Grace as they have it not so they doe not feel the want of it nor hunger and thirst after it for it is an Act of Grace to be sensible of the want of Grace And a further Act of Grace to hunger and thirst after it in spirituall things None think better of themselves then they that have least cause Empty Vessels make the greatest noyse and sound those that are full doe not so They are the light Eares of Corne that stand staring up in the field over-looking and over-topping the rest those that are weighty with Corne hang down their heads In the Pharisee and the Publican in the Gospel you have them both Luke 18. ver 10.11 c. I thank God I am not as other Men nor as this Publican I fast twice a week I pay Tythes of all that I have c. An empty Vessell see what a sound he makes and all this while but as sounding brass and a thinkling Cymball The other with a penitent heart and a submissive Voyce makes his humble Confession and Petition to Almighty God Lord be mercifull to me a sinner He goes away justified rather then the other The Voyce of humble Saints in the estimate of themselves was wont to be that of David 1 Chron. 29. Lord who or what am I that thou hast dealt thus bountifully with me that thou hast brought me hitherto But now the Voyce of empty and conceited Christians hypocrites rather is clean contrary What am I not am I not knowing am I not wise am I not holy had such a conceited Christian all that he pretends to have and pride himselfe in it that very humour would marr all the rest and take away from it all the thanks acceptance and reward in that he prides himselfe in that which is not his own and robs God of his glory For what hast thou which thou hast not received And if thou have received it to whom is the prayse of it due to the Receiver or to the Giver to the Owner or to the Donor David apprehended rightly of this when he confesseth That in all the largeness which he and the people had given towards the building of the Temple to the Honour and Worship of God they had given him nothing but what was his own 1 Chron. 29.14 Of thine own have we given thee Of his own every way For first 'T was he that gave them the substance which they contributed to that pious use Secondly 'T was he that gave them the heart to doe so so it was his own every way Of thine own have we given thee If there be any good in us whether Naturall Morall or Spirituall it is his own If any evills that 's our own and this is so much in comparison of that good which is sound in the best of us that it doth so over ballance it that it is no more then a drop of water in a bucketfull in comparison To keep us humble therefore and to make us so look not upon that little good that is in us which is none of our own but look upon that evill which is in us and is truely our own our sinnes our corruptions our infirmities our inordinate affections sinfull lusts unruly passions and if in this examen we will deale impartially with our selves I beleeve there is no man knows so much evill by another as he doth by himselfe and therefore shall doe himselfe no wrong if he confess as in the Text He is no better then others If so worthy a Prophet as Elijah doth acknowledge He is no better then his Fathers well may we the best of us confess we are much worse This of the first Observation The Prophet's humble Confession The second now follows and that is His ingenious Concession That he was no better then he should be For though there was singular modesty and humility in this testimony he gives of himselfe That he was no better then his Fathers yet withall he speaks it as sensible of his infirmities and that he was not free from those Passions and corruptions which humane frailty is subject unto Saint James making Honourable mention of him James 5.17 yet baukes not that Elias was a man subject to like passions with us And this very request of his in the Text That the Lord would now take away his Soule was not altogether free from blame it discovered some infirmity in him in not being willing to stay the Lords time for taking of him out of the World the Lord had more worke for him to doe before he took him away as it appears afterward in his Story But God doth not take the advantage of his servants infirmities against them though we doe so one against another but where he sees an honest heart an upright mind truth in the affections sincerity in the desires seriousness the endeavours and the bent of the will to be towards him and to the feare of his Name he will pass by many infirmities and failings in his servants and lay his hand upon them that he may not see them to be displeased with them for it and take notice of that which is good in them to approve it to commend them for it and to reward it such is the indulgence of our Heavenly Father Lord have mercy upon us if he should strictly marke what is done amiss and deale extreamly with us in this matter the best of us yea the best that ever were we or our Fathers Noah Abraham Lot Levi Moses Aaron David Solomon Peter c. saints of the first List famous for their faith and ●iety holiness and obedience yet had their ●aylings and those foule ones too in sinnes of high nature scandalous and fearfull up●n Record all Written for our instruction ●ot for our imitation But First For caution that we may walk warily ●nd circumspectly and at every step we tread ●ook to our footing Secondly For humiliation that we should not be high-minded but feare considering what weaklings what nothings we are if God leave us to our selves Thirdly For admonition that we may judge charitably of others in case of offence And Fourthly For consolation in case it may be our own case that we may not therefore give our selves for lost or forsaken of God but lay hold on Christ by Faith and recover our selves by Repentance assuring our selves that the Lord will accept us to grace and mercy as he did these our Fathers notwithstanding all these breaches in their obedience

he owned them still to be his servants and himselfe to be their God He is the same God still that pardoneth and passeth by the iniquity and the transgressions of his people Micha 7.18 because he delighteth in mercy He will not Sue us at the extremity of his Law but relieve us in the Chancery of his Gospel remembring whereof we are made considering that we are but dust Gratious and pretious is that Declaration which the Lord makes of himselfe to us-ward Malachi 3.6 I am the Lord I change not therefore ye sonnes of Jacob are not consumed Alas we doe change and most commonly every change is for the worse Which brings in the third Note or Observation arising out of these Words That seldome comes the better In all things wherein there is succession this Observation is found to be so true that it is come into a common Proverbe That seldome comes the better but the World grows worse and worse It were as endless as needless to instance in all particulars how this is made good Take one or two in stead of the rest When God at first Created the World Behold all that he had made was exceeding good and Man more excellent then all the rest But how soon and how fast did he and his Posterity degenerate and fall from their primitive purity so fast that in ten Generations they were so corrupt That it repented God that he had made them and their wickedness so great That the Earth was not able to beare it nor the Lord to forbeare punishing of it and that with so great a Judgement as sweept them all away from the face of the Earth And after the Flood when in Noah God had set them upon a new score How soon was this New World fallen back into the sinnes of the Old not onely in the Posterity of Cham which fell off in the very next Generation but even in Shem that great Patriarke after a few Generations fallen to Idolatry and to the worship of strange gods in Terah's dayes the Father of Abraham and who knows how long before him remembred by Joshuah Josh 24.2 Your Fathers dwelt beyond the Flood in old time even Terah the Father of Abraham and the Father of Nachor and served other gods After God had by miraculous Providence brought his People into the Land of Canaan and there settled them in a happy condition affording them all helps and means to keep them so and to continue them in his feare and in his true Religion how soon had they cast off all and by their multiplyed rebellious murmurings disobediences and unsufferable provocations tontinually renewed even sorc't him after many means used for their reformation in vain and without success to cast them off and to remove them out of his sight and out of that good Land that he had given them and to give them up into the hands of their enemies Salmanasar King of Asyria and Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon under whose tyranny they suffered great hardship a long time as is remembred at large in the 78. Psalme and 2 Chron. 36. Thus take the World in what Epoche or section of time you will As from the Creation to the Flood From the Flood to Abraham From Abraham to the setling of them in the Land of Canaan From thence to the Captivity and so all along till the comming of Christ and so downward from time to time you shall finde it still declining from bad to worse and generally every Age worse then other so that if God should not sometimes purge the Land and take away the evill that is upon it either by some generall Judgements as of Famine Sword Pestilence Fire inundations of Water and the like or by working some generall Reformations in it to stop the course and current of sinne prevayling and over-flowing if he should not frequently keep as it were his Courts of Visitations and corrections in the World for the suppressing of sinne continually growing and increasing the World would grow monstrous in all manner of sinne and iniquity and the wickedness upon it would be so great that the Earth would not be able to beare it every Generation of men adding to the iniquity of their fore-fathers and so making the World worse and worse The Antient Poëts had some apprehension of this when dividing the World into foure Ages they represented every succeeding Age worse then the former under the similitude of foure kinds of Mettalls every one baser then the other Gold Silver Brasse and Iron The first Age they termed the Golden Age. The second the Silver Age. The third the Brasen And the fourth the Iron Age Every one worse then other Or as another of that apprehension elegantly hath express't it in few words to the same sence Aetas Parentum avis pejor nos peperit progeniem deteriorem Our Parents Age worse then that of our Grand-fathers hath brought forth us an Off-spring worse then both of them And as in matters of Religion so also in matters of civill concerne if we compare we shall finde that we are much worse then our Fathers We have more Light but they had more Love We have more Knowledge but they had more Conscience We have more Preaching but they more Practise more Charity more Devotion more Works without which all the rest is but sounding Brasse and we with it but tinkling Cymballs Their Love shall out-weigh our Light Their Conscience our Knowledge Their Practise our Profession Their Charity our fruitless Faith Their Fruit our Leaves and Blossomes be they never so faire who exceeded us as farr in all Morall Honesty Truth Sincerity and Uprightness as we doe them in the shews of it and pretences to it They would deale justly with all men pay every man his own doe to others as they would be done unto In paying of Tythes they made such Conscience of it that you shall scarce Reade an old Will but you shall finde something set down in it for Tythes forgotten In making Conveiances they made not halfe that adoe that now adayes we doe no more but this In witness that this is sooth I bite it with my Tooth And that was Seale good enough But now if a man make or take a Conveiance there 's much more to be done there must be long Leases Deeds Bonds Secucurities Counter-securities generall Warrantyes Fines Recoveries and a World of businesses which the simplicity of our fore-fathers never knew nor used and yet all little enough to secure a man from a loose and false Chapman and too little too sometimes In buying and selling or bargaining in those innocent times of our fore-fathers a man might have dealt freely and safely and one beleeve another and trust him upon his word But in these dissembling times that we live in for the most part every man in these transactions must deale as warily with another as if he dealt with a Cheate and if he have not good skill in the Commodity he deales for he