Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	abraham_n	father_n	zion_n	138	3	9.3291	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A00945	Certaine very proper, and most profitable similies wherein sundrie, and very many, most foule vices, and dangerous sinnes, of all sorts, are so plainly laid open, and displaied in their kindes, and so pointed at with the finger of God, ... Collected by Anthonie Fletcher, minister of the word of God, ... This present yeere of our happines 1595.	Fletcher, Anthonie.	1595 (1595)	STC 11053; ESTC S116009	166,265	184

noble and honorable parents bragging onelie of their nobilitie and chalenging their honour but despising their vertues shewe themselues wicked loose and leude of life He that is not nobled for some woorthy acts of his owne nor renowmed by reason of some famous vertues knowne and found to be in himselfe what honour may he looke for séeing there is nothing in himselfe that is good but onely a vaine and proud challenging of the excellencie woorthines of other men Christ calleth the proude bragging Pharisies the generation of vipers And when they boasted that they had Abraham to their father he saide Ye are of your father the deuil And when the Iewes resembled the Amorrheans and Cetheans and imitated their sins and iniquities the Lord saith That Amorrhaeus is their father and Cethaea their mother So that these places last cited do plainly shew that somtimes the holy Ghost doth call sonnes not of nature but of imitation and likenes bicause the Iewes did the déeds of the diuell Christ saith the diuell is their father And when they so followed the steps of the Amorrheans and Cetheans that for the likenes of their iniquities and abhominations they did séeme euen to bée bred and borne of them and had like condemnation with them bicause they had the same sinnes the Lord saith that Amorrhaeus and Cethaea be their parents EVen as Aesops Iay being clad with the faire feathers of other birds did vainly take vnto himselfe a beautie but being discouered and stript of all for a reward was throughly scorned and was turned into his old blacke gowne when euery bird had taken from him hir owne feather So they that make their boast of the noble acts of others and do vaunt themselues of the dignitie of their predecessors and do vsurpe vnto themselues the nobilitie of ancestors themselues being naked of all vertue and vtterly void euen of common honestie temperance and sobrietie are constrained many times with great ignominie shame to put off other mens vestures and with no small disgrace to forgo their vsurped honors It is a thing far more honorable and woorthier commendation that a man florish and be famous with his owne vertues and iust deserts than to borrow his praise and honor of others Men are very fitly though not naturally called the sonnes of them whose déedes they do and whose vices or vertues they imitate If ye be the sonnes of Abraham said Christ to the Iewes boasting and glorying of their originall then do the déedes of Abraham They were indéede by nature the children of Abraham but by imitation they were the brats of Amorrhaeus and Cethaea If thou wilt be counted the sonne or daughter of a noble honest and good man then do noble acts thy selfe lead an honest life and do good works And following the steps of Christ thou shalt be a christian otherwise looke whose maners and waies thou walkest in his sonne or daughter art thou rightly called ECclesiasticus saith that pride is the beginning of all sinne And indéede it is that centre in the sphere of mans life whereout do go lines to the circumference of iniquitie For a proud man hath no righteousnes no equitie he hath no liking of any vertue he scorneth and despiseth all all are his inferiors and he superior to all in his owne conceit Euen as in a thrashing place chaffe is séene aboue the wheate not bicause it is the better but bicause it is the lighter and wheras it is the viler and of the lesse valure yet notwithstanding it getteth the higher and woorthier place Euen so in this life a proud and vaine man is exalted aboue the humble and lowly not for any woorthines iust desert or true vertue that is in him but for his vanitie and a false opinion that he hath conceiued of himselfe And whereas he is of very little or no valure yet he putteth out himselfe before others which are far beyond him in vertue wisedome and nobilitie But the lowly though the woorthier and more excellent man doth euer humble himselfe not bicause he is of lesse valure but bicause he hath in him greater weight of wisedome vnderstanding and true nobilitie Wheat the weightier sounder and better it is the lower place it desireth and séeketh the humble man the wiser and more gratious that he is the more pleasure and delight he hath in christian humilitie and lowlines But the proud man being lighter then the winde lifteth vp and extolleth himselfe aboue all things Whereupon it commeth to passe that he peruerteth all the lawes of God and man for that souerainty sake which he falsely imagineth to belong vnto himselfe Tobias that vertuous charitable and wise man did earnestly disswade his son from all pride and did perswade him to humilitie and lowlines Suffer not pride saith he in any wise to dominéere o● to beare a swaie in thy vnderstanding nor in the words of thy mouth And Ecclesiasticus counselleth euerie man greatly to humble his spirit And saith That pride is odious before God and men and the holie apostle saith What hast thou that thou hast not receiued And if thou hast receiued it why boastest thou as though thou hadst not receiued it There is an old and true saying almost in all mens mouthes that is Pride will haue a fall and the same is very strongly confirmed by Christ himselfe who saith He that exalteth himselfe shall be brought lowe and he that humbleth himselfe shall be exalted Augustine saith that pride deceiued angels and that much more it will deceiue men and therefore to be shunned And Ambrose saith it made of angels diuels And no doubt it is the originall of all euils and the ruine of all vertues where it is maintained WE sée somtimes two men about to go into some sumptuous and stately hall or house through a very lowe and narrow doore the one stouping and bending himselfe doth passe through and go in without harme the other stout not stouping nor bending at all but preasing in with great force hurteth his head and falleth backward Such a stately and princely place is the kingdome of heauen the habitation of the saints of God whose way is very straight as Christ himselfe doth affirme and the doore thereof is so lowe and narrow that he compareth it with the eie of a néedle That man that humbleth himselfe and stoupeth lowe doth enter into that most stately and princely house of the king of heauen but he that is puffed vp with pride and swelled with insolencie cannot get in at that gate he falleth to the ground his pride doth throw him backward Augustine speaking of heauen saith it is a very high countrie but the way to it lieth very lowe And so much would the Lord and king of the house signifie when he biddeth all learne of him bicause he is méeke and lowly in hart And when he called a little childe vnto him and set him in the

and transitorie spirituall things and fleshly matters the things that are aboue with God and the deceiuable trifles that are belowe in the earth may not be mingled togither Thou canst not both sauour of the Lord and of the world thou canst not beare both good and bad fruit it is not possible that thou shouldest both be barren and fruitfull If thou louest God and his doctrine be graffed in thée then art thou fruitfull if not thou art vnfruitfull For the truth it selfe saith He that abideth in me and I in him he bringeth foorth much fruit SAlt is made of sea water but so long as it is in the sea it is not salt it must be taken out of the sea and placed vpon the dry lande that being in salt pits where the sun may shine the aire blow vpon it the water may be thickned and so conuerted into salt This world is a sea so long as we liue in the world being tormoilde in the swelling surges of the pride thereof and tossed with the ebbings flowings of the worlds inconstancie and ouerwhelmed in the bitter waters of the sinnes and wicked practises of the same we are as yet no salt We must go out of the world and enter into the lande to wit into our selues and take a iust view of our owne imbecilitie and haue a due consideration of our owne miserable and wretched estate that the sun of righteousnes may thrust out his beames and the winde of heauenly grace may blow vpon vs and so we may be turned into an admirable and woonderfull salt that being seasoned our selues we may be meanes and the Lords instruments to season others We may be bold to inueigh against all iniquitie when we haue amended our owne amisses Yet must that be done in measure and according to knowledge for so it behooueth al men to do all things that they do It is well saide of one that salt is an excellent sauce and seasoner of all things so that measure be not wanting Otherwise measure and meane missing the salt it selfe is lost and that which should haue béene seasoned is vtterly spoyled For too much doth make very bitter that which measure would haue made ful swéete And yet notwithstanding all men must but especially the ministers of the worde lift vp their voices and crie out against all maner of sinne and wickednes For the Lord saith by Ioel the prophet Sound out the trumpet in Sion crie out vpon my holy mountaine and let all the inhabitants of the earth be troubled and quake And Esaias saith Crie out cease not lift vp thy voice like a trumpet The Scripture doth signifie so much when it saith That God commanded Moses to make two trumpets of siluer wherewith he should call the people togither when their tents were to be remooued For with the sound of those trumpets the people were roused and stirred vp to wars and to celebrate certaine daies wherein sacrifices were offered vp vnto God Euen so euerie preacher of the worde of God ought to call vpon sinners to remooue their tents from this wicked world and the maners and fashions of the same and so much as in him lieth to bring the people that are blinded in their sins and falling from God out of their errors perils and dangers with all their force and skill to mooue and stir them vp to be that in déede which true christianitie doth require That euery one may say with the prophet Esaie Let the vngodly man forsake his owne waie and the wicked man the cogitations of his owne hart and be turned vnto the Lord And with Iohn in the Reuelation My people auoide out of the midst of Babylon be yée not partakers of their sinnes As if he should saie Remooue and separate your selues from the transitory and lieng things of the world forsake the wickednes of it and pitch your tents by godly meditations and holie affections of your harts and minds not in the earth but in heauen For euery preacher of the Gospell ought to prepare his hearers so much as in him lieth and by his owne example to stir them vp against the enimies of their soules And to counsell them with the apostle To put on the armor of God that they may be able to stande against the deceits of the deuill for we wrastle not against the world flesh and blood but against princes powers and the gouernors of the darknes of this world It behooueth vs therefore to be well furnished with the armour of light and that the weapons of our warfare be not carnall but spirituall AS an expert and skilfull husbandman doth first draw out of his fields or lands and pulleth vp by the rootes thistles briers brambles and all other venemous and wilde wéedes and afterward committeth vnto them his good séedes Euen so a wise teacher of the word of God ought first to roote out sinne and vices and to till as it were the minds of his hearers and as much as in him lieth to draw and pull out of them both roote and rinde of all maner of euill and wickednes and to prepare and make them méete to receiue the good séeds of the holie word and to sowe in them those things which being rooted and growne vp may bring foorth both pleasant profitable and plentifull fruites And although vertue and godlines vnto the wicked and vngodly séeme euen horrible and bitter and all vice and naughtines swéete and well sauouring so that they are not willing that the gardens of their harts should be wéeded and trimmed bicause they would haue no vprightnes no integritie of life no truth nor honestie to grow there yet not the lesse the Lords ministers must euer thinke that the same is spoken to them which was deliuered to the prophets long since Make Ierusalem to know hir abhominations And shew my people their wickednes and the house of Iacob their sins Offer vnto them salt wherewith their corruption may be drawne out and they made to sauour swéetely in the nostrilles of God if they be not altogither rotten and consumed in their sinnes Thrust at them with the goade of the holie word and strike at them with the two edged sword of the law of God that if they be not starke dead in their abhominations and be not alreadie swallowed vp of hell if there be any recouery in them at all they may be awaked out of their deadly slumbers and may be so pricked at their harts that they may finde and féele how forlorne they are in the sight of God and flie to him for succour grace and mercy if they belong to his kingdome WHat doth it profite a riuer to flowe from a pure and cléere fountaine if it selfe be foule filthie and vnholesome Euen so the noblenes of fathers and the honours of elders and auncestours what doth it pleasure their sonnes when they themselues degenerate from their