Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	call_v	day_n	supper_n	10,399	5	10.1829	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65469	The profitableness of piety opened in an assize sermon preach'd at Dorchester, March 24 1670/1 : before the Right Honourable Sir Richard Rainsford Knight, one of the judges of the Kings Bench at the request of the Right Worshipful Robert Seymer Esquire, His Majesties High-Sheriff of the County of Dorset / by Richard West, D.D. ...	West, Richard, 1614-1690.; Rainsford, Richard, Sir, 1605-1680.; Seymer, Robert.	1671 (1671)	Wing W1380; ESTC R8228	19,335	34

wit that they were Conformable to the Image of the Son of God as 't is Rom. 8. 29. Summa Religionis est imitari quem colis it is the summ and substance of Religion to Imitate Him whom we worship Those that are truly Godly must be God-like What the Devil in heighth of Pride once said concerning Knowledg and Power the same should every Christian in all Humility say concerning Holiness and Righteousness Ero similis Altissimo I will be like the most High This S. John calls a walking as Christ walked 1 John 2. 6. And observe I pray how that was in some few acts of his ordinary Obedience 1. Look on him in his Devotions and he is Hearing Reading Kneeling on his Knees and Praying again and again in the same Form of words and that in the Temple and Synagogues the publick places of Gods worship where he carefully observed the Rites and Ordinances of the Church though some of them were of bare Humane Institution and held Communion with it though the Priests were corrupt in their Office and a Judas was amongst the Apostles 2. Take him in the Kingdom or Common-wealth and he is subject to Authority He payes Tribute and Renders unto Caesar the things that are Caesars yea though Caesar gave not to God the things that are Gods 3. Once more look upon him in his Carriage and Converse with men of inferior rank and order and you shall find him Meek and Lowly Peaceable and Patient alwayes going about to do good even to them who made it their business to do him evil And now thou that callest thy self Saint though thou wilt not vouchsafe the Evangelists and Apostles that Name how walkest thou in these respects In the Church thou art a stranger yea a separatist thou breakest the Peace despisest the Orders and contemnest the Officers thereof yea and thou neglectest and revilest that Liturgie or Divine Service which is double-refined from Popery and wherein the Reformation it self is Reformed and art thou conformable to Christ Thou resistest the lawful Powers thou despisest Dominion and speakest evil of Dignities and art not afraid to offend Him who is the Defender of Thee and the Faith and art thou conformable to thy Saviour Again in thy private behaviour and conversation Thou art haughty turbulent and censorious rendring Evil for Good and Hatred to those who are at Peace with thee and art thou conformable to the Son of God On the other side amongst Those who think themselves Conformable in the aforesaid particulars yet many of them O what Antipodes are they to Christ in other matters In Christs lips was found no guile and He sayes Swear not at all but let your Communication be yea yea nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil But yet their mouths are full of Cursing and Blaspheming running over the Passion in a most horrid Litany and using Gods Name more in their Oaths than Prayers making thus their Sins most shew their Christianity in so much that if according to the custome of the Jews we should rent our Clothes as oft as we hear Gods holy Name prophaned we should scarce have a Rag left upon our backs Again Christ kept Holy the Sabbath and only Heal'd and did good Works upon it But O how is that Day made the most sinful Day of the Week the time of leisure for Iniquity or of Rest to mens Sloth Many labour six dayes in their lawful Callings who shamefully Play and Sin away the Seventh which may justly occasion the revival of what Alstedius once said of the Germans If the day should be call'd according to some mens observation of it Daemoniacus potiùs quàm Dominicus it should not be call'd the Lords day but the Devils Once more briefly What a miracle of Temperance and Charity was Christ Though he turned Water into Wine yet upon all his Cups was writ Holyness to the Lord. When he sate down to feed himself he multiplied Loaves and fed Thousands so that all his Meals were consecrated as it were into a Communion and as strict and sober as our Sacramental Suppers But alas how is the old English Hospitality turned into a Dutch Debauchery Variety of Liquors is now the chiefest Entertainment while in our Feasts more is spent in Sauce than in Meat in Smoak than in Fire in Wines than in Loaves as if we meant to abrogate the old Petition in the Lord's Prayer and say no more Give us this day our daily Bread but Give us this day our daily Drink These doubtless are spots in our Feasts I cannot say of Charity but of Wantonness and Riot when more care is taken to fill the Brain than the Belly the Rich than the Poor as if we would Correct the Magnificat and invert also the words of the Blessed Virgin-mother Filling the Full with good things and sending the Hungry empty away There is no better remedie to retrive Christian Charity and Temperance than instead of making men Blind and Lame to call in such as are so and to be as liberal at the Door as in the Dining room causing the Basket to go about more and the Bottles less This this would be to be conformable to Christ But now if true Godliness be thus a likeness to God where O where is it to be found Betwixt the Atheists in Heart dissembling Hypocrites on the one hand and Atheists in Practice the prophane Hectors on the other betwixt Scribes and Pharisees here and Publicans and Sinners there How is sincere Piety decayed and lost so that we may justly take up the Psalmists complaint and say Help Lord for the Godly man ceases the Faithful fail from amongst the Children of Men. Once Orbis ingemuit factum se videns Arrium The whole world groaned to see her self made Arrian but now she groans much worse Factum se videns Atheum to see her self turned Atheist In some there is but a Form of Godliness in others not so much as a Form In few is found the Power and Exercise thereof which is the Act here mentioned and the next thing to be insisted on Exercise thy self unto Godliness The word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a making bare or stripping our selves of all incumbrances in the Christian course of Piety as Racers Wrestlers and Combatants do in their preparations for victory Grotius tells us it alludes to Gymnasium a School and imports our being as diligent in Religion as we would have our children that go to School be in Learning And indeed there is nothing that we ought to make our Business so much as Godliness Pietas est pro pietate sumptus saies Tertullian This is Godliness to be at cost for God Holy David would not serve God of that which Cost him nothing And if any man be otherwise minded and thinks much to take pains

be Warm better than to Burn. In the next place Fasting from Meat and Drink that is Good in its place and season when 't is done in Order to the Exercises of Godliness but who will not say that to that end An every-days Temperance may be as good as the Pharisee's Fasting twice a-week These are those Bodily Exercises which the Apostle does not here altogether Condemn but extenuates in respect of Benefit if compared with Godliness and therefore he says in my Text Exercise thy self rather unto Godliness for that is Profitable for All things both in this Life and that which is to come For the Things of this Life I shall instance only in a few as namely Wealth Health Publick Peace and Safety as Prov. 3. 16 17. where 't is said of Godly Wisdom Length of days are in her Right hand and in her Left hand Riches and Honour Her ways are ways of Pleasantness and all her Paths are Peace I shall begin with Wealth and first shew That the way to be truly Rich is to be Religious Though Great Gain without Contentment is some mens Godliness yet the Apostle assures us that Godliness with Contentment is Great Gain And needs must it be so 1. Because it is accompanied with Contentment for who so Rich as he that hath Enough and is Content with what he hath That is Wealth indeed that frees a man from Want and that Contentment doth even in Want it self 2. This Exercising our selves unto Godliness it is Ars quaestuosissima as Tertullian calls it The most Gainful Trade because of Gods Blessing that attends it and now the Blessing of the Lord that maketh Rich says Solomon Prov. 10. 22. 3. It is said of the Godly man That whatsoever he doth shall prosper and then sure he must needs be in a very Thriving way If any of you had the Philosophers Stone that could turn Iron into Gold you would think your selves Abundantly wealthy as if you had both the India's and much more may you do so when you have this precious Pearl or White stone of the Gospel which hath the Vertue to turn Losses into Gain and that an hundred fold Matth. 19. 20. yea and make All things work together for your Good Rom. 8. 28. The Godly mans Expences may be reckoned as part of his Income and Revenue in that what he spends in Charity to the Poor and in Liberality to Pious Uses is counted a Lending to the Lord who will pay him again in Kind or in Kindness in money or in money-worth for which he has the Bond of God's Promise which is the best Security in the world Riches thus scattered Non periunt sed parturiunt by an Honest Usury and happy Brocage they are Improved and Insured and like good Seed sown they are not cast away but Multiplied and Increased Away then with the old Wives Proverb which says Plain or Pious dealing is a Jewel but he that uses it shall die a Begger I acknowledge the first part of it to be Orthodox 't is a Jewel of Inestimable value but I cannot see how the latter part can be true when I consider how many Beggers there are in the world and how few Plain and Pious dealers Examine things aright and you will find that there is no such Vnthriftiness and Ill-husbandry as Sin Many complain of Wars and Taxes and these they say have wasted and impoverish'd their Estates But alas their Sins are far more Chargeable and Consumptive Think but with your selves at what a High rate Contention and Revenge are maintain'd when the Toll is more than the Grist and the Fees far greater than the Satisfaction Think what vast summs of money Pride and Idleness exact when a whole Lordship shall be hung at the Tip of the Ear and men spend their Patrimony meerly to spend their Time making it their every-days work only to Play all day Again Think but how the Drunkard swallows both Life and Livelihood down his Throat and so makes it an open Sepulchre to bury all he has Think also what a Master that slie sin of Adultery is when at once it Empties both Back and Bags leaving a man as Poor and Naked as the High-way Robbers and throwing him into a deep Ditch as Solomon calls the Whore which like a more devouring Sea confounds the Revenue of all the Land that it encloses And again once more Think but how many Elements are dispeopled for Variety of Dainties to defray the wantonness of Lust and satisfie the Curiosity of a Critical Ingenious Palate which studies the the Art of Eating Think I say seriously of these things and you may live cheaper under the Power of any Needy and Disorder'd Armies than thus pay Taxes to Sin and give Free-quarter to the Devil Unless then you had rather be poor and wretched Sinners than Rich and Happy Saints Exercise your selves unto Godliness Which secondly Conduces as much to Health as Wealth What man is he says David that desireth Life and loveth many days that he may see Good Keep thy Tongue from Evil and thy Lips from speaking Guile Depart from Evil and do Good Many mens Tongues are such sharp Swords and Razors that they cut their own Throats Others dig their Graves with their Teeth and others by Wantonness and Lust like the worst of Cannibals Eat away their own flesh killing themselves by piece-meal whilst alive and doing that which the Devils desired to shun viz. Tormenting themselves before their time The Physician being asked the Causes of Diseases answers and that truly Mali Humores The Ill Humors of the Body But the Divine resolves it more fully and says Mali mores The Ill Manners of the Life Art thou fetter'd with the Gout Rackt and Tortured with the Stone Or are thy Loins Ulcer'd with the Pox or thy Breast spotted with the Plague O consider That there were shackles on thy Conscience before those of thy Feet There was a hardness in thy heart before that in the bladder and the more filthy spots of thy life they make the sores run and cause those spots in the Liver In brief thy drunkenness drowns thy little World with a Dropsie thy Apostasie brings the Epilepsie or Falling-sickness thy Envy pines thee into a Consumption and thy hot boiling Lusts cast thee first into a Fever and thence into Hell fire Great Plagues says the Psalmist remain for the Vngodly But Godliness that 's the Grand Antidote against Pestilential diseases as you may see Psal. 91. 3 6 10. ver If then you would escape such sad and loathsome Sicknesses labour to live free from more foul and nasty sins Try it when you will you 'l find it to be true That as Honesty is the best Policy and Patience the best Law so Temperance and Chastitie they are the best Physick And Thirdly This Exercising your selves unto Godliness it makes also for publick Peace and Safety which is the Magistrates great Concern