Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	day_n	speak_v	time_n	11,715	5	3.7591	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50555	A sermon preached before the Queen, at White-Hall, March 11th, 1691/2 by R. Meggott ...	Meggott, Richard, d. 1692.	1692 (1692)	Wing M1632; ESTC R851	10,711	33

whosoever shall keep the whole Law besides and yet offend in one point that is wilfully and habitually let the Instance be what it will he is guilty of all It is not upon God's account but his own from Conscience towards him but respect to himself that such a one sticketh at the rest of them It must be granted we cannot when we have done our utmost actually keep all but if we do not our sincere endeavour conscientiously to keep all we are but counterfeit and pretended Penitents That is one fault in the Fruits which these brought forth tho' they brought forth some they were but some not all that were required of them 2. The other is That though they brought forth some Fruits they were but coarse and mean ones such as were of least value All the Commandments of God are equal in respect of their Authority but they are not so in respect of their Nature So some are of far more importance than others and their usual manner was to rest in the performance of those that were least material Thus our Saviour describeth them to themselves Matth. 23. Ye pay tythe of mint and annice and cummin but omit the weightier matters of the Law mercy and judgment and faith They did not distinguish as they ought between Natural Duties and such as are only Relative between the Essential parts of Religion and such as are but Instrumental between the power of Godliness and the empty form of it Accordingly they were punctual in fasting twice in the week and used their Bodies hardly but minded not so much the mortifying their inordinate Affections which were the Springs of all their outward actions They daily read some portion of the Law and got great part of it without book but they did not make Conscience of keeping the Commandments of if but made them void by their own Traditions They were strict Observers of the Sabbath-day so as to do no manner of work on it but their Tongues did not rest from slandering their Neighbours on it nor their Thoughts from laying Snares for them I would not be understood as if these things were despicable in themselves they minister to Piety and ought to be encouraged but only when the other are left undone to let you know then they are no where more to be prized than they were here The most specious of them all are but so many empty Shells without their Kernels like that Offering mentioned by Pausanias to Ceres Phrygaliensis not the Honey of their Bees but only the Wax the dry and tastless part of their Labours They are all consistent with a Carnal Mind and raigning Sins with a hard heart and a wicked life the unjust and the filthy the sensual and the uncharitable may abound in them and yet be unjust and filthy sensual and uncharitable still They who would approve themselves Penitents indeed must bring forth Fruits of a more substantial excellent kind These were not but they must bring forth fruits that are meet for Repentance And this is The last Proposition I have to speak to Prop. 3. That if we would have our Repentance accepted with God we must not content our selves with any Fruits but such as properly manifest the Reality and Ingenuity of it Fruits indeed meet for Repentance This we cannot but grant in the general but least any of us should flatter our selves in the case as these conceited ones here did and think those so that are not besides what may be gathered from that which hath been already spoken it will be convenient for the clearer explication of the Phrase to acquaint you that there is a two-fold meetness we are to have regard to in the Fruits of our Repentance First That they be meet with respect to our selves Secondly That they be meet with respect to others They must be meet with respect to our selves and that two ways meet with respect to our lives past and meet also with respect to our lives for the future The Fruits of our Repentance should be meet with reference to our lives past Our Humiliation bearing some proportion to the sins we have been guilty of When our blessed Lord Luke 15.7 speaketh of just persons that need no Repentance we are not to understand it absolutely but in a qualified sense There are none so just but need some the Righteous falleth seven times a day but they who from their Youth have lived vertuously and piously without being stained with any foul and heinous Crime are said comparatively not to need Repentance that is not such a one so sharp and signal so deep and grievous as they who have been extravagant and scandalous sinners are obliged to but where Transgression hath exceeded there it is meet that the Repentance should exceed also If it be true it is not to be imagined how it can be otherwise You may as well suppose a Man to be no more concerned for a dangerous Wound with a Sword than for a slight Scratch with a Pin as that a true Penitent should be no more disturbed for crying and presumptuous sins than for sins of meer surprize and ordinary frailties It is observable that when David had fallen into the great transgression though a Prophet from God had expresly told him that his sin was done away yet for all that he roared for the very disquietness of his heart and his bones were consumed within him he mourned all the day long like a dove and watered his Couch with his tear he chastned himself with fasting and eat ashes like bread And if he did this who was sure of his Pardon what shall we think of them who have sinned as heinously and yet do little or nothing in this kind tho' they are not sure It is true Penitential Sorrow is not seated in the Affections directly but in the Vnderstanding and is rather Hatred than Grief So that if this appears in the rational Appetite that we loath and abhor our evil ways it is not absolutely necessary it should be in the sensible But when in other cases that hath so general an influence upon this it is suspicious that the heart is not so throughly affected as it ought where it hath no discernable effects upon the outward man They who are conscious to themselves of any scarlet sins of any flagrant and enormous vices ought to consider that this is one meetness in the Fruits of their Repentance they should judge themselves by whether they have a meetness with respect to their lives past The other is That they be meet with respect to our Lives for the future becoming such as have really repented them of their evil ways That is there must be a putting off the former Conversation and we must be new Creatures The severest significations of trouble for our sins past if we forsake them not upon it St. Paul appositely calleth * 1 Tim. 4.8 bodily Exercise telling us it profitteth little and accordingly we are to esteem of it