Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	believe_v	faith_n	jesus_n	17,223	5	6.3565	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48116	A letter of advice to a young gentleman of an honourable family, now in his travels beyond the seas for his more safe and profitable conduct in the three great instances, of study, moral deportment, and religion : in three parts / by a True son of the Church of England.	True son of the Church of England.	1688 (1688)	Wing L1566; ESTC R7895	45,890	138

not indulge your self in any one Lust neither commit the least sin with delight and approbation because even those which we think are the smallest will prove Decoy's and Incentives to greater vain and sinful Thoughts proceeding to Words and Words to Deeds So that in this Progress of Wickedness a Man knows not where to stop till he has plunged himself into the most dangerous and irreparable Mischiefs And then on the other hand for your Positive Duties you should always propose God's Glory the happiness of your self and others as the End and his infallible Word and the Dictates of sober Reason as the Rule and Standard to govern all your Affairs by For without this your best Endeavours will prove either unprofitable or sinful Whereas if you observe this Method and your Intentions be sincere tho you fail in many Instances of Duty and unwillingly fall into some Sins and Errors yet God will be gracious in not imputing them and pass Judgment upon you according to the general Frame and Tendency of your Life if you do not wilfully and wickedly continue in any known Sin or the neglect of any known Duty 'T is observable hence what Obligations you lie under to avoid the most accursed and tempting Company of profane Swearers gluttonous Persons Wine-Bibbers unchast Men and Women c. I have singled out those Vices on purpose which are most incident to Youth and given you the most seasonable Advice I can think of to vanquish and overcome them Reject therefore every Temptation to sin and wickedness in the first Assault and the Conquest will be easie and certain Lament and deplore your past Failings and humbly beg the assistance of God's Grace and Spirit that you may be more watchful over your self and ways for the future Now the best and most certain Means to avoid greater Sins is to make Conscience of the less For the least Sin is damnable in the sight of God and when the work of Regeneration is wrought in you beware of Relapsing consider the dangers of habitual Sin and Apostasie from Grace and exert all your Endeavours to live in the exercise of a Conscience void of offence both towards God and Man For so the whole Time of your short aboad in this World will be pleasant and comfortable and your Death happy There are some other little things I desire to note to you before I leave this Point And First Beware of Swimming which you 'l probably be allured to in those Low Countries the most being dexterous in that Art For tho it may save a Mans Life in case of necessity yet a vain Currosity herein may expose you to the greatest Dangers and Hazards Therefore if you should attempt it for your Pleasure exceed not your own Depth and in seeking to save another have a care you drown not your self Secondly Your Gesture and Deportment should neither be light nor insolent nor wanton For the Life and Soul of true Honour is in generous Qualities and a modest and affable Carriage but yet with a comely regard to your self and such as becomes a Gentleman whose Mind is furnished with worthy and generous Spirits But in this Point as in his abstinence from the Vices and practice of all the Vertues hitherto recommended you have an admirable Pattern in your dear and worthy Father almost beyond Example whose temper and sweetness of Disposition has deservedly recommended him to the Favour and made him honourable and respected amongst all Persons of all Ranks and Conditions Yet be careful to avoid the other Extreme of affected Easiness or Compliance lest your good Disposition should be imposed upon by others Deceit and your own too much Credulity For too much Familiarity and Fawning is always rewarded either with Flattery or Contempt Thirdly What concerns your Bodily Deportment Wrestling Fencing and other Feats of Arms and Military Skill and how far all or any of these are expedient or necessary to be understood or practised I must leave to your self and better Judgments for Advice and Direction for these are not my Province What other Vertues or Vices may occur in your Conversation with others which my designed Brevity and the Occasion I write upon have persuaded me to omit you should note and observe them and make that use of them at least to improve and correct your own For what you dislike or admire in others study and endeavour to avoid the Evil and strive to imitate what is vertuous and commendable And when you have seriously consider'd all those several Rules and Arguments which under this Head do concern your Manners and Deportment you 'l be pleas'd to go one step farther to the last Branch of this faithful and friendly Advice which will have a more peculiar Respect to your Religion The End of the Second Part. ADVICE TO A YOUNG GENTLEMAN Of an Honourable FAMILY Now in His TRAVELS Beyond the SEA'S c. PART III. Of RELIGION THE Business of Religion is the grand Concernment that all of us are sent into the World to mind and our eternal Happiness or Misery depends on the right knowing and acknowledging of God or mistakes about it We had need therefore be very accurate in the choice of that Religion we intend to live and die in and venture our eternal Salvation upon Now there are many Opinions in the World concerning Religion and we may be easily imposed on and deluded if we make not a prudent and wise Choice I shall not trouble you with an account of Heathenism Mahometanism and Judaism For these are all false Religions and contrary to the whole scope and design of the Gospel which being without the Lines of Christian Communication we leave 'em to themselves and the righteous Judgment of God. We Christians know no other way to Salvation but One and that 's by Faith in Christ Jesus and therefore we think our selves obliged to believe the Principles of Christianity with all our Hearts and live according to them For there 's no other name under Heaven whereby we can expect or hope for Salvation but the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ Acts 4.12 Yet there are many Differences not only Circumstantial but Fundamental even amongst those that are called Christians which disturb the Peace of the Church and ruine the Souls of many private Persons as will appear more fully afterwards But 't is more immediately my Design to recommend to you and inforce the Belief and Practice of the truly Primitive and Reformed Religion as now solemnly and publickly profess'd and by Law establish'd in the Church of England I have not the least cause to doubt or suspect but that your Parents did seriously weigh and consider when they sent you abroad the Minority of your Age and Judgment which yet without your own extraordinary care and caution may hurry you unawares into the peril of Miscarriage For alas how many young Gentlemen have lost their Hopes and themselves in Foreign Adventures and return'd home as empty

several Speeches Declarations Tryals and Transactions occasion'd by the late unhappy Wars in England wherein you 'l find more natural and useful Knowledge than is ordinarily to be met with in all the mouldy Records of antient Statists and Polititians Eighthly There will be no need to advise you what Authors you shall read in Divinity for I know sufficient care is taken for that already yet in my Opinion next to the Holy Scriptures and our Churches Catechism Dr. Hammonds Practical Catechism and those Books by the Author of the Whole Duty of Man are the best And indeed all our modern Writers of the Church of England for the last fifty or sixty years who have imploy'd their Parts Faculties and Time in treating de omni ente and out-done the greatest part of the World if accurately read and well digested will furnish you with variety of Matter all sorts of Methods and a delicate Style But then you should take Advice in the choice of such Books as are approved and most authentick upon every Subject that the whole Time of your Study may be profitably imployed for a few Books well read and throughly digested will more improve your Reason and Judgment than hundreds superficially turned over as many young Students do Yet there 's abundance of Pleasure in variety of Books for when your Faculties grow dull and weary of one you may pass to another as your own Genius and Inclination shall direct whereby the whole Time and Business of your Study will become a delight and benefit rather than a burthen to you Nor can any Recreation be so pleasant this I find by experience nor any Labour so profitable to a Scholar as Study And Lastly You 'l find it of singular use and advantage for the improvement of your Parts to imploy and exercise your Pen upon every Occasion Write often to your Relations and Friends for the neglect of that is a general fault in young Students Have always a Common-Place Book by you your Tutor will direct you to the most useful Heads and note therein the most remarkable quaint and ingenuous Passages you meet with in any Author which you may afterwards have recourse to immediately upon every occasion Observe likewise and note in writing all the Remarkable Occurrences in your Travel particularly the Situation of Places the Customs and Manners of the People their Religion Government Policies Traffique c. This will be of great ease to your Memory and of singular use and advantage in the whole Progress of your Life besides you 'l find that your Parts Style and Method will be the best improved by much Writing All Learned Men can witness this from their own Experience and is very remarkable in all our English Worthies insomuch that I dare be confident if you 'l apply your self to this method your Reason and Judgment will by degrees attain to such a Habit as will not dare to present you with any thing but what 's very curious and excellent Yet I would not hereby engage you to be so earnest in the pursuit of your Studies as to prejudice your own Constitution for there 's a Time for all things and too much reading may prevent the Access of a newer nearer and quicker Invention of your own Besides if your Body be strong as you 'l rather complain of the shortness of the Day than be wearied with Study so if it be weak and feeble the Decays of Nature may be repaired being also allowed to the strongest Constitutions either First By a sutable Conversation or Secondly By moderate and innocent Recreations For the first of these namely a sutable Conversation When you are wearied and indisposed with your Studies a door of Conference is open and the Conversation of learned wise and good Men is a greater Refiner of the Spirit than Books Yet let not this tempt you from your Studies in the Forenoon which is the most proper Time to be reserved and at your Book however whilst you continue in the Vniversity And herein let me advise you to lay down such Rules to your self in observing those stated Hours as no Man shall be able to persuade you to recede from them for that when your Resolutions are once known as no Person of Ingenuity will disturb you so you 'l find this Method of keeping this best part of the Day to your self will become not only practicable but very commendable and of singular benefit to you in more instances than I can readily mention But when Dinner is over so soon as you can with convenience and civility to the Company retire to your Closet and pray as in the Morning always concluding your Devotions in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ and with the Lords Prayer Again read some portion of the Holy Scripture in the Old Testament and the Psalms for the Day and as before with attentive Observation And be as careful in performing your Evening Devotions with Thanksgivings for the Blessings of the Day and earnest Prayer for your Safety and Protection that night and for ever I do not doubt but you have good * As Common Prayer Book Patrick's Devotions c. Helps and particular Devotions by you for Morning and Evening which you may use with your own as God shall be pleas'd to enable you But be sure that you never lie down to rest till you have made your Evening Oblation that whether you sleep or wake you may be always safe under the shelter and protection of a gracious Providence But to return having performed your Devotions after Dinner then you may either go to or send for such Companions as you think fit and see that they be always choice and few for as the vitious and unlearned are not worthy of your Company and Acquaintance so too many of the more learned wiser and better sort will but increase the expence both of your Time and Money besides the Examples of others do usually prevail more and have a greater Influence than their Precepts and Counsels and by the opportunities of Converse either good or bad we commonly imbibe all the Tinctures of Vice or Vertue insomuch that 't is almost impossible for the most prudent Man to hold out long against the forcible Batteries of Custom and Opportunity But There are no certain Rules to be prescribed for Converse seeing all Discourses of that Kind are Occasional and depend much upon the Circumstances of Time Place Persons c. yet a Gentleman has usually the freedom to be as inquisitive as he pleases and what would be censured in others as humorous Moroseness or pragmatical Sawciness will be interpreted in you as an ingenuous desire and thirst after Knowledge Therefore 't is a singular and extraordinary Priviledge you have in this Kind above Persons of a lower Rank which being improved to the best Advantages may very much conduce to your Interest and Satisfaction for he 's a very weak Companion from whom you may not receive some benefit and