Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A93857
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A letter to a lady concerning the due improvement of her advantages of celibacie, portion, and maturity of age and judgment : which may serve indifferently for men under the same circumstances.
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Stephens, Edward, d. 1706.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing S5428A; ESTC R42770
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5,615
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8
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True Vse of External things is in my Apprehension as little understood in this Age as ever The Advice which I would recommend concerning it is this to exercise your self to need as little of the World as may be This is done by Abstinence from the Use of all that can well be spared and is not very necessary And it hath these Advantages to recommend it 1. It is a Means to acquire a more absolute Dominion of the Soul over the Body 2. When it is done for that Purpose and in order to the more compleat Subjection of the whole Man to God it is an Act of the great Business of our Lives and a reasonable Sacrifice acceptable to God 3. It will come into Account for Recompence and Augmentation of Reward hereafter 4. It will make our Lives more easie and more easily provided for here 5. It is an Imitation and Recommendation of the Example of our Saviour and his Disciples of old and a Payment of due Honour and Respect to them 6. It is a kind of fighting the Lord's Battles by opposing a very considerable Stratagem of the Enemy viz. to distract and incumber us with Cares about Unnecessary things by raising Emulation in Peoples Minds for them whereas whoever in Fact doth contribute to the Recommendation of these things doth the Devil's Work exposing his Wares promoting his Policies and encouraging and heightening that Emulation whatever he may pretend or intend for the Service of God 7. It doth promote us to the nearest Approaches to the Angelick State that our Mortality can bear 8. It is a ready way to obtain more excellent Enjoyments of Spiritual Consolations Graces and Fore-tastes of Heaven while we live upon Earth Secondly As we must be provident that our Master's Talent be not wasted so we must be prudent and studious that it may be well imployed and improved for our Master's Service that if we be Rich in this World we be proportionably Rich towards God Rich in good Works Rich in Treasure laid up in Heaven where even a Cup of cold Water given to a Disciple in the Name of a Disciple shall be remembred and rewarded This is a Matter so abundantly inculcated in the Gospel and in the Exhortations and Examples of the Christians of after-Ages declaring the Danger of Riches and directing how to use and bestow them in order to Perfection and Happiness hereafter recommending Contempt of the World and Heavenly-mindedness and obliging all Christians at their first Initiation by Baptism to renounce the World and the Pomps and Vanities thereof that the Glosses Shifts and Evasions wherewith too many of our Teachers impose upon themselves abuse others and as the Pharisees heretofore make the Word of God the Precepts of the Gospel and the illustrious Examples if not of our Saviour Himself yet of his Saints designed no less than the Precepts for our Instruction not only of none effect but even slighted despised contemned and reproached as Monkery and Melancholy or calculated only for Times of Persecution tho' Times of Prosperity do most need such Admonitions that if well considered it is a sad Instance of the Degeneracy and Corruption of this Age and does deserve good Consideration and great Resolution that we be not carried away with the Stream if not to Destruction yet to the Obstruction of our Graces and to our Loss and diminution of that full Reward hereafter which is of far greater Concern to us than this World and all that is therein But to a Person of your Parts and Progress in the study of Religion and disposition to it I hope I need not farther inlarge upon it And for the Practice of it I know not what can be proposed more proper than the PROPOSAL whereof a few Copies were lately Printed and one of them is here inclosed The Third Advantage doth greatly inhance the Obligations of the other Two by setting such Persons above the Excuses of such as have not yet arrived to that Maturity of Judgment and Command of themselves and by qualifying Them for the good Use and Improvement of them for the Service of God and their own Benefit and Advancement in Grace and Vertue here and Happiness hereafter Against this which hath been said Flesh and Blood if we consult with Them will certainly Object and the Spirit which rules in the Children of Disobedience if we will hearken to Him will as certainly Suggest all that can with any Colour or Appearance be alleadged But if you will adhere to Reason if you will believe the Revelation of the Scripture if you will attend to our Saviour's Admonitions and Example and if you will gratefully imbrace and faithfully follow the Conduct of the good Spirit the first will satisfie you that Future things of great Importance and Duration are to be preferred before mean and transitory Enjoyments and to be secured at any Rate though with Loss and Suffering here The Apostle will inform you That the Sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be revealed in us Rom. 8.18 and that our light Affliction which is but for a Moment worketh for us a far more Exceeding and Eternal Weight of Glory 2 Cor. 4.17 Our Saviour will assure you That the straight way of the Cross is the high-way to the Crown and that not only what is given for Him but also what is forsaken for Him shall be rewarded and recompenced hereafter and even in this present time an Hundred fold Mar. 10.30 full and overflowing Measure Luk. 6.38 and he hath furnished you with an Answer to all that can be said though out of the Mouth of an Apostle Get thee behind me Satan thou art an Offence unto me for thou savourest not the things that be of God but those that be of men Mat. 16.23 for in such Case it is not they that spake but the Spirit of Satan and of the World that spaketh in them v. Mat. 10.20 And that Blessed Spirit will enlighten your Mind to discern and after it hath tryed your Fidelity give you experimental Fore-tastes to Feel and at last conduct you to the Possession and full Fruition of that transcendent Bliss which Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither have entred into the Heart of Man the things that God hath prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. 2.9 the very Fore-tastes whereof do often render the Enjoyments of this World not only mean and despicable but tedious nauseous and a Burthen to experienced and holy Souls Christianity is indeed a Mystery and a Riddle to exclude unworthy Souls but it is a Rich Treasure and a Precious Jewel to such as will come up to the Price of it True Christians as to themselves may laugh in their Sleeves at the Enjoyments of others but Charity makes them pity and commiserate their Blindness and Errour Wherefore save your selves from this untoward Generation and come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you And will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters saith the Lord Almighty 2 Cor. 6.17 18. This is what it pleased God to put into my Mind for your Service and for his Service and I wish it a happy Success for both Be wise look to your Call and neglect not the Admonition ADVERTISEMENT THe PROPOSAL mentioned in this Letter is For the Accommodation of some Devout Women with such mean but convenient Habitation Work Wages and Relief that they may have Time and Strength for the Worship of GOD both in Publick and Private and Freedom of Mind for Meditation and Religious Exercises while their Hands are Imploy'd for Maintenance of the Body and that while they enjoy the benefit of such Accommodations for their own Souls their Benefactors and the Church and Nation may be benefited by their constant Prayers The Author hath Written also a short Discourse concerning the Antiquity Divine Approbation and high Esteem which hath always been had in the Catholick Church of a Religious Life Abstracted from the World but it is not yet Printed He hath also begun to put his Proposal into Practice having for that purpose procured a Friend to take a Lease of a convenient House of near 40 l. per Annum his Design therein being to give an Experiment and Example of the great Use and Benefit thereof and not meerly the Accommodation of one Twenty Women This he hath begun in hope and confidence that there is yet so much real Piety and Charity left in this City and especially in this Sex as not to suffer such a Proposal to come to nothing for want of Supplies and become a Publick Testimony of the Barrenness and Insincerity of the Religion professed amongst us as another Good Work begun by him for the Restitution of the most Solemn Christian Worship to its Integrity and just Frequency of a Daily Celebration in proper Places hath been for some time And he wisheth that People may be awakened by these Warnings and extricate themselves out of the Enchantments of the World lest they provoke some sweeping Judgment to clear the Land of such degenerate and fruitless Plants as well as the grosser Weeds Printed for the Religious Society of Single Women