Selected quad for the lemma: mind_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mind_n	day_n	lord_n	sabbath_n	2,158	5	9.8855	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61398	The trades-man's calling being a discourse concerning the nature, necessity, choice, &c. of a calling in general : and directions for the right managing of the tradesman's calling in particular / by Richard Steele ...	Steele, Richard, 1629-1692.	1684 (1684)	Wing S5394; ESTC R20926	138,138	256

past as God did on his at the six days end and to bewail your Sins therein that you may have time to consider what Mercies you have to acknowledg and what Blessings to beg on the Day following that you may solemnly renounce all your Sins and wholly dismiss all your worldly Business and the thoughts thereof till the Sabbath be past Let not the Guilt nor the Love of any one Sin enter with you into the holy Ground but wash you Hands in Innocence and so compass the Altar of God And tho upon that holy Day you may be innocently chearful and rejoyce in the Blessings of God yet you should not only abstain from any vile Thoughts or Words but even from vain and fruitless ones Isa 58. 13. Thou shalt call the Sabbath a Delight the Holy of the Lord Honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own Wayes nor finding thine own Pleasure nor speaking thine own Words Yea your Hearts must rise against all unfit Discourse and with a Christian Dexterity endeavour to carry the Stream of such Discourse another way Be not ashamed to speak of God and Heaven since ungodly Men have the Impudence to speak of Wickedness See that ye rise early and work hard that day in your heavenly Trade that so you may be able all night to give as clear an account of what you have gotten as you can on other days Let no worldly Business be contrived or mention'd or done that Day which might have been done before or may be done after without plain Prejudice It was the Men of Tyre that sold their Wares on the Sabbath whom Nehemiah represt Neh. 13. 16 20 21. and command your Families from stragling or foolish Sports that day beware how you give them Liberty that Day because you can best spare them to see their Friends or to be out of your sight for that Day and that Way multitudes of them are undone but let them spend that Day in God's House and in your own Examine them of the state of their Souls of their Proficience that Day and scriously catechize the younger sort in the Principle of Religion O let not your Childrens Souls be neglected while you pamper and deck their Bodies but show them the evil of Sin and the beauty of Holiness convince them of their woful State by Nature and mind them of the Vow which they are under in their Baptism let them see you in the Pangs of Travel for them till Christ be form'd in them you have time for this upon this Day and you are bound in Equity and Piety to recover them out of that Condition into which you have brought them put good Books into their Hands and talk with them about Regeneration and explain the Catechism to them that being well grounded in the Principles of Religion they may rationally imbrace the Practice of it And then for your Servants both Apprentices and others Do you think it is sufficient that they do your Work faithfully Have not they most precious Souls and have not you the charge of them can you find in your Hearts to suffer them to live and for ought you know die in a State of Ignorance and Unregeneracy Where are your Bowels of Compassion Alas you should have the same care of their Souls as you have of your own Children You allow to your Beasts Food and Lodging for their Work and will you treat Christians no otherwise on this day you have time if you have but Hearts to call them to you and to enquire into their Spiritual Condition and never to give them rest until you have with God's help cur'd their Ignorance and Vices or find them incurable Lose not therefore a minute of that precious Time make it as long a day as any of the rest and when it is done long for another Sabbath And heartily bless the Lord that he hath given you such a merciful Release from the Labours of your Body and the Cares of your Mind and withal blest you with a Market-day for your Souls I say bless him and let the Voice of Praise and singing Psalms be heard in the Righteous Man's Dwellings A joyful Sabbath is the Suburbs of Heaven 7. This Religion will oblige the Tradesman to the practice of constant Watchfulness Which is a continual care to please God in your Thoughts Words and Actions and that you offend him not in any of them And herein lies much of the Essence and Life of Practical Religion as preventive Physick is much better than curing and Obedience better than Sacrifice For they that have such sinful Hearts within them and such a wicked World and malicious Devil without them had need to watch as well as pray against Temptation Above all keeping keep the Heart Prov. 4. 23. quench the first Sparks of Sin there O quench them quickly and know that as Light only excludes Darkness so it is impossible to keep out bad Thoughts without the Prevalence of good ones Watch over your Words and consider what and how and why you speak and indeavour not only to speak what is lawful but what is useful remember that Words are like Arrows when once out you know not where they may light especially be careful of them before your Children And for your Actions take a wise Man's Counsel Prov. 4. 26. Ponder the Path of thy Feet and let all thy Ways be established And especially watch against the Temptations of your particular Calling for every Trade hath some particular Snare as every Constitution hath some particular Sin and it is the Wisdom of a Man to keep constant Watch against it But the Temptations that are most common to all Trades are either Debnuchery on the one hand or Worldliness on the other Your greatest Temptation to the former besides what is common to you with other Men is the obliging of your Customers or Chapmen when to get or keep them you will break with God distemper your Body Head Hear tand all Now how can you expect that Gain to be blessed which is procur'd by Sin No no if you deal with wise Men it is the Punctualness of your Word the Goodness and Cheapness of your Commodity that will oblige them sufficiently and sooner or later I am sure this will do the business but if you deal with Fools whom Wine and Drink do chiefly oblige they 'l disappoint you at last and leave you in the lurch And on the other hand Take heed of Worldliness beware of the love of Money or of loving the World for its own sake For the love of Money is the root of all Evil 1 Tim. 6. 10. It is not the greatness of an Estate but the nearness of it to a Man's Heart which ruines him The Water under the Ship makes it swim Water within it makes it sink They that buy should be as if they possessed not 1 Cor. 7. 30. for the time is short And worldly Wealth will not stay long nor satisfy the Soul while it

this Subject CHAP. IV. Concerning the right Entrance into a Calling I Come now in the fourth place to speak of the right Entrance into a Calling when you have made a discreet Choice For in all matters a right beginning is half the Business done and he that misses his way at setting out strays still further to the end of his Journey We may justly impute the Miscarriage of thousands to their rash Atheistical Entrance into their Callings How many go to the Vniversities and to Trades without any Sense of Religion of their Duty of their Dangers and the Temptations that are before them And being thus unarm'd are soon surpriz'd with Temptations and blown up to the Grief of their Friends and their own Ruine It 's true the most hopeful beginning may end sadly but what End then may we expect from a careless Entrance Let all Persons then at their first starting out be careful First To have right Ends for the End as I said before either enobles or debases the Action Tho a good End will not justify a bad Action yet it will sanctify a good one And on the contrary a base a wordly a wicked End will vilify the holiest Action in the World Now the Ends you should aim at in every Particular Calling are as you heard in the Description these three First and chiefly the Glory of God Reckon upon this that you were made redeem'd called and kept meerly to the end that you might glorify your Maker Now as every Pin and Nail in the Building how obscure soever concurs to the Beauty and Strength of the Work and consequently to the Credit of the Workman even so every Calling how mean soever it is contributes to the Honour of the great Housholder the Maker of Heaven and Earth Keep therefore the Honour of God in your Eye and then tho you may be disappointed in your inferiour Ends as Riches and Splendor yet you will attain your great and noble End which is best of all That is an undoubted comprehensive Rule 1 Cor. 10. 31. Whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever you do do all to the Glory of God Conclude thus with thy self that since the Lord made all things for himself I will make it make it my Design and count it my Honour to glorify this good God in that course of Life I am entring upon And assure your selves that the more sincerely solicitous you are for his Glory the more careful and provident he will be for your Welfare and Happiness for it is a tried Truth Those that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed 1 Sam. 2. 30. A second thing ye should aim at is the Common Good This thing is generally far enough from young Peoples Thoughts their narrow Spirits mind it not Their Eye is fixt upon a Livelihood for themselves let the Publick sink or swim But this Temper results from the Depravation of our Nature and the very Heathens have determin'd that the Common should always be prefer'd to ones Private Good And we see in the Body Natural which is a lively Resemblance of the Body Politick the Hand in case of any attempt upon the Head or Heart or Life will venture it self and will chuse to be wounded and in case of Gangrens to be cut off to preserve the whole Conclude then thus with thy self I am a poor inconsiderable Creature and tho I am oblig'd to endeavour to maintain my Life for the Service of my Maker yet my Business and Ambition shall be rather to be an useful Member to the Country that nourisheth me to promote the Good of Mankind than only or chiefly to build my Nest on high and load my self with thick Clay And you may be sure that if you contrive and consult the Publick Good the Publick will be interessed in your Welfare and he that watereth shall be watered himself And then thirdly You may and ought in the Entrance into your Calling to aim at your own Good Temporal Spiritual and Eternal You may desire the obtaining of a Competence in this World this is justified by the Light of Nature and commanded in the Eight Commandment yea as hath been said you may aim at a comfortable and plentiful Provision if it please God not thereby the more to satisfy your Appetite nor to gratify an ambitious Humour but that you may do the more Good not only to your Friends but to God's Friends the Poor But you should have a more special Eye at your Spiritual and Eternal Good For as there is a Natural so there is a Spiritual Life and you should chuse to be placed where this noble inward Life may be nourished where the true God is truly worshipped where his Day is strictly kept where you may be under a wholesome Restraint and in short where you may learn the Trade of true Godliness and both how to live in this World and in the World to come Secondly For the happy Entrance into a Calling you must be sped with due Qualifications for it And they are especially Knowledg in the Head and Grace in the Heart 1. Knowledg And for the meanest Trade 1. You should know how to read and write Reading is both necessary for your Spiritual and Temporal Calling Thereby you are inabled to read God's Word and other good Books which should be to you both Food and Recreation Thereby you may get Knowledg by the Fire side and receive that sacred Warmth into your Heart which will be helpful to you for every good Word and Work Particularly thereby you will injoy sweet Company on the lord's-Lord's-Day when you must not work and should not play Both these are also very necessary in your Temporal Affairs in so much that he who is unaccomplished with them is scarce to be reckoned among rational Creatures is unable to convey his Mind with any certainty to his distant Friends to understand their Minds or Desires but by Assistance from others He is unable to take or keep any just Account of his own Affairs of the Encrease or Decay of his Estate much less can he be useful to others which is always a comfortable thing and sometimes beneficial And the Book is delivered to him that is not learned saying Read this I pray thee And he saith I am not learned Isa 29. 12. A sad Answer But if you are designed for higher Callings a sutable measure of Learning is requisit according to the Quality of the Imployment you chuse rather always storing your self with some Grains too much than too little for any of them For in most Callings your Learning will suffer Loss either through want of List or want of Leisure 2. You should be well vers'd in the Principles of Religion These are the Ballast which must keep you steady in the various Assaults your Faith may meet with in your Christian Course An uncatechiz'd Head and an unsanctified Heart are liable to all manner of Temptations Think it no Burden