Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	charity_n	feed_v	great_a	61	3	2.1251	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61669	A sermon upon I Kings 17, 15, of the widow of Sarepta preached at Eaton Coll. Octob. 10, 1666 : being a solemne fast in consideration of the dreadfull fire in the citie of London / by David Stokes ...	Stokes, David, 1591?-1669.	1667 (1667)	Wing S5720; ESTC R34622	15,086	44

them and by whose meanes it seemed to be so long continued The man that saith in the first verse of this chapter and in the presence of the King himselfe As the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand there shall not be dew nor raine these yeares but according to my word He that had said thus would you thinke that his mouth should be heard and fed too and with that food that is therefore wanting to her selfe would you thinke that her distressed house should be made a sanctuary for him and every thing should be done juxta verbum ejus as he would have it that brought the famine upon them It is a wonder she falls not about his eares or at least that she doth not raise up the people against him to apprehend him and take away his life that brought them all in danger of theirs But in that she conceales him in that shee obeyes him in that she saves his life and saves it with the hazard of her owne and her childs can there be any other circumstance added to this wonder 3. Yes there can be so for as I told you all this referres unto him but now something there is that amplifies the action it selfe from the order and the manner of it 1. Abiit fecit that is she doth it with alacrity and chearfulnesse wherein the life of every good action consists without any more adoe without any further dispute as soon as she knew his mind she went about it Fecit juxta verbum Eliae that is she doth it in that order that he would have it to serve him first before she provide for her selfe and her sonne She tooke not her owne method of charity to begin with her selfe and her sonne but she followes that order that the man of God prescribes her by speciall dispensation First and presently to begin with him And thus you see in all there be three severall wayes by which wee may perceive the true extent of her charity Now to look upon them more distinctly 1. I will begin first with those that reflect upon her selfe and in that ranke first to consider her as a woman She went and did according to the word of Elijah we are here provoked to oemulation by the weaker Sex And it must be confessed that as in many other vertues by Deborah by Hannah by the foure Maryes and some of that ranke so here in the workes of charity we have a Copy set by a silly woman I will not say that the greatest Ladies and Dames may learne to take out but I will say more that never any of the Nobler sex have come so neare as to expresse it in all things to the life And I would they had onely out-stript us in Charity to which being more tender hearted perhaps we may perswade them that they are more inclinable by nature but I feare they have sometimes had the happinesse to be able to instance a preheminence in something else I will not conceale what Saint Chrysostome saith of his time on Ephes 4. that things were come to that passe Men were growne so effeminate so proud so inconstant so phantasticall and women on the contrary so laborious so discreet and so resolute that he thought it might be a question 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if it were Englished such a question from such a one as Chrysostome would please some women too much And at this time whereof we read in my Text there was no piety matchable to that of the great Prophet Elijah but onely that of Obadiah that hid so many Prophets in a cave and this of the woman to whom Elijah came And I doubt not but Chrysostome was of opinion that in some respects she exceeded the great Elijah and Obadiah too For he seemes to conceive Elijah carried a little too farre in his zeale and perhaps brought hither to be schooled of this woman not so much by observing her want and milery as by seeing her wonderfull and Charitable affection that Chrys Yom. 8. pag. 31. H.S. when he begged of her presently welcomed him with all her store Him that was in no greater streights then she her selfe Him that had not besides himselfe a family also to provide for as she had and lastly Him that being thus heard at his first begging from her yet would not so much as begge and solicite his God by prayers for the release of hers and the common calamity O woman great is thy Charity I say not this to make women proud that are commonly too apprehensive of any fewell fit for that vice to feed on but to encourage them and withall to rouse up the guides and Lords of the weaker Sex that so we may have Omnia benè Women being after so good patternes and praecedents ambitious of all vertue to the highest capacity of their nature and men expressing by their actions that they move in a higher Spheare and are as worthy of preheminence as they are ready to challenge it by a grant and patent from the maker of them both But I goe on We have looked upon this Charitable person in her Sex 2. Now we come in the second place to consider her in her country as she was a Sidonian a woman of Sarepta how she that was so went and did according to the word of Elijah Sidon was a City in Syria by the Sea side and bordering upon Iudaea a very ancient and famous City from whence it seemes the whole Territory thereabout were called Sidonians Among them is Sarepta a lesser and more obscure Towne And. Masius in Jos some six miles from Sidon and a place as it was conjectured by the name where they were wont to melt and fashion diverse mettals This Country of the Sidonians was wholly overspread with gross Idolatry And yet you may see by the manner of her oath if there were no more that in the midst of wicked Pagans she served the true God And she served him in no ordinary measure as appeares by this high degree of Charity Mat. 25. A vertue that hath the Keyes of Heaven and by which only it may seem God will pronounce his sentence of blessing and cursing at the last day as if no other vertue were of like value with that And no mervaile For it is a vertue of so large use and extent that it may be called the Mistris of the rich the Mother of the Poor the Patronesse of Widowes the Nurse of little Orphans the store-house and Treasure of the needy and the common haven and refuge of all that are afflicted And in this virtue doth she excell Neither is it charity alone for which this Sidonian of Sarepta is so admirable in her felfe A great and wonderfull Faith is the root and commendation of this charity and all her charity is but the fruit and evidence of a lively Faith Nor have I yet said all It is Faith accompanied with obedience to God and his Prophet a Faith