Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	bond_n	danger_n	great_a	20	3	2.0850	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55939	A sermon preached before the Right Honourable, the Lord Mayor and court of aldermen at Guild-Hall-Chappel, July the 23th, 1682 by Thomas Pargiter ...	Pargiter, Thomas, 1642 or 3-1705.	1682 (1682)	Wing P356; ESTC R604	14,925	40

amongst us as it ought to be for who is there that believes our report in this matter that hath any regard to what we say in this thing or that follows the Advice and Counsel that we give them in it who are the Persons and where are they now almost to be found that behave themselves aright in this case and are as careful as they ought to be not to go beyond and defraud their Brethren Are not the Hearts of most Men fully set in them to do Evil to one another Do not their inward Thoughts altogether run after Mischief And are they not continually plotting how they may compass their villanous Designs and bring about those pernitious Devices which they have devised to the hurt of others do not the generality of Men amongst us make account that their Wits are their own and that they may use them as they please for their own Interest and Advantage here Do not they think that they may be as wise in their Generation and as crafty as possibly they can for their worldly Gains and that to inrich themselves they may over-reach their Brethren in any of their Dealings and Concerns with them And may not we make the same complaint of our Age as Petrarch somewhere doth of the Age wherein he lived That Hunters and Fowlers cannot use greater cunning in laying their Nets and Snares for wild Beasts and Fowls than we do in setting Traps for one another For what mysteries of cheating and cozenage have Men now-a-days got amongst them What Arts and Stratagems do they use to inveigle and ensnare those that are unwary and make a Prey of them And how skilfull are they grown at all the ways of circumventing and over-reaching their Brethren How subtile and politick are they in their fraudulent and deceitful Courses What cunning Fetches and Devices have they to wrong their Neighbours and do them Harm And how many Wiles and Inventions have they found out to work this their Iniquity by So many indeed that if I should declare and speak of them they would be more than I should be able to express Nay it might justly bring a Man's Honesty into suspicion to have the Skill and be able to reckon them up And therefore in a word how busy and active are the Men of this Generation in invading the Rights of their Neighbours and injuring them in their Goods and Possessions How greedy are they to inrich themselves by Fraud and Deceit and to enlarge their Estates though it be by unjust Gain and the Spoil of others And how ready are they to take every Advantage that they can over their Brethren and to bring any kind of hurt and damage upon them if by so doing they may any ways profit themselves But now 2. Let us suffer some words of Exhortation also and be perswaded for the time to come to be more strict and precise more exact and punctual in the performance of this Duty than hitherto we have been Let us not hereafter any ways wrong our Brethren nor defraud them in any matter nor in any respect whatsoever do them the least hurt but let us walk honestly amongst them and in all things deal well and truly with them and in no kind be injurious to them Let us consider what Obligations we have upon us not to wrong others Let us consider that the Law of Nature it self that very Law that is written upon all our Hearts teaches us not to do others any wrong Let us consider also that the Laws of God are very full and express to the same purpose and that the Old and the New Testament do abound with Precepts of this nature that we must not harm others nor imagine Mischief in our Hearts against them nor take any thing from them that doth of right belong to them Nay let us consider that the Commands of God do carry the business somewhat higher and oblige us to love others and to love them though not in the same degree yet with the same Truth and Sincerity of Love that we do our selves and to endeavour their good as we would our own And let us not break these Bonds asunder nor cast away these Cords from us nor sin against these Obligations which Nature and the God of Nature hath laid upon us not to be injurious and hurtful to others But if these things will not signify any thing with us as perhaps with many of us they may not then let us consider farther how very great the danger is that we run in doing wrong to others Let us bethink our selves that if we do injure and oppress and defraud our Brethren it is very likely that the Wrath of God will break out against us in this World and that we shall be soundly punished for it here but to be sure we shall smart severely for it hereafter for then God will at last come in flaming Fire to take Vengeance on us and will condemn us to the Punishments of the other World to those dreadful Pains and Torments there that will last to eternal Ages and never have an end And let these Terrors of the Lord scare us out of all our unrighteous Practices and fright us from all manner of Fraud and Injustice in our Dealings with one another Before we venture upon the wronging of our Brethren let us consider it well in our minds whether we can bear up and support our selves under the Vengeance of God that will follow Is our Damnation a thing that we can lightly pass over and make no great matter of Can we withstand the Power of God's Wrath when he shall accomplish all his Anger upon us Can we for ever bear up under the weight of his Indignation and without any anguish of Mind lie under the strokes of his eternal Vengeance and Fury Can our Hands be strong in the day that an avenging God shall deal with us in his Justice and set all his Terrors in array against us Can our Hearts endure when he shall come in flaming Fire to take Vengeance on us and turn us into Hell for the wrong that we have done Can we then with any Comfort dwell in the midst of devouring Flames and everlasting Burnings Can we then suffer the Vengeance of eternal Fire without shrinking or being daunted at it Can we then take any Contentment in the company of cursed Angels and damned Spirits And can we then chear up our selves against the horror and remorse of our own guilty Consciences and with Patience indure the Stings and Bitings of that Worm that never dies If we cannot do these things as to be sure we cannot then what desperate Folly and Madness will it be for us to run into the commission of that Sin which will most certainly be avenged upon us by such dismal Punishments as these are Surely if we would sometimes consider how terrible God will be in his dealings with all injurious Persons and how dreadful the Works of his Vengeance will for ever

handle it both in a Doctrinal and in an Applicatory way For 1. I shall fully Prove it to you not only by the Apostles but also by some other Arguments that we must not do any manner of Wrong to others nor in any thing deal Injuririously with them And then 2. I shall bring this Duty yet farther home to you by some close words of Application 1. I shall clearly and fully prove it to you not only by the Apostles but also by some other Arguments that we must not do any manner of Wrong to others nor in any thing deal injuriously with them And 1. We must not do this Because that Nature it self teaches us not to do any Injury or Wrong to others We are not born Wild and Savage Creatures and Beasts of Prey We have not naturally a Disposition in us to bite and tear and devour one another The State of our Nature is not a State of Rapine and Violence Cheating and over-reaching are not any of the Principles of it as a late Monster of Men and Shame of Mankind the great Leviathan of Atheism that vile Asperser and Slanderer of our Humane Nature hath scurrilously asserted in his Works to make way for some other of his wretched and forlorn Principles But on the contrary our Nature would lead us to all kind of fair and just and honest Dealings with one another if we our selves did not stifle the Dictates and suppress the Inclinations of it Whatsoever the forementioned Traducer of our Nature or any of his Disciples may or can say to the contrary we are not left at Liberty by the Principles of our Nature to do what hurt and Mischief we can to one another but there are natural Principles of Honesty written in legible Characters upon all our Hearts that would check and curb and restrain us from doing wrong if we were not continually razing them out of our Hearts by giving way to Pride and Ambition and Lust and Worldly-mindedness We must wink hard and be wilfully blind blinder than ever the Heathens themselves could be if we cannot find a Law of Nature within us that plainly Instructs us in this Duty of not wronging others and strongly Prompts us to the Performance of it For this Doctrine of doing no Injury or harm to others is a Doctrine that was alwayes Currant not only at Jerusalem but at Athens too not only in the Church of God but also in the Gentile World This is a Lesson that was taught not only in the Schools of the Prophers but in the Schools of the Philosophers also a Lesson that we may learn not only out of the Word of God but likewise out of the Writings of Heathen men for many of the Heathens themselves who had only the Light and the Law of Nature for their Guide have spoken very excellent things of this Duty of not wronging others and have been very serious and earnest in pressing the Performance of it as might easily and abundantly be shewed to you out of their Writings Nay these Gentiles who were meer Strangers to the Grace of God and his written Word who had nothing else but the Dictates of their Nature and the Principles of their Reason and their In-bred Notions of good and evil to go by were so far from allowing the doing of any injury to one another that they had amongst them very severe Laws against Rapine and Violence against Theft and Cozenage against Fraud and Deceit and against all manner of injurious and dishonest Dealings and were also very strict and punctual in the Execution of those Laws And therefore we are obliged not to wrong others for this reason because the wronging of them is a plain violation and breach of that very Law of Nature which is written upon all our Hearts and such a Sin as the Heathens themselves who were any waies careful to follow the Di●●●●● of their Nature were quite ashamed to be guilty of And let us Christians have a care and look to it that the Heathens do not rise up in judgement against us in this matter at the last Day and then in the face and hearing of all the World confound and condemn us in it But then Secondly We must not do any manner of wrong to others nor in any thing deal injuriously with them because that this is a thing that is not only taught us by the Law of Nature but is expresly required of us also by the Word of God The Will of God in this matter is sufficiently re●aled to ●o in the Scriptures and his Commands both in the Old and in the New Testament are very full and frequent to this purpose that we must not imagine mischief in our Hearts against others nor do them any wrong nor injure them at all The Law of Wioses is plain to this purpose as plain at words can make it Levin 19.13 Thou shalt not Defraud thy Neighbour and again in the Thirty fifth Verse of that Chapter Ye 〈◊〉 do no unrighteousness in Judgment in Mete-yard in Weight or in Measure that is Ye shall not allow of any manner of falshood and wrong amongst you nor give way to any kind of Fraud and Deceit whatsoever in any of your Dealings and concerns with one another And perhaps this Duty of not wronging others was dearly signified to the Jews under the Law by the very Nature and Temper of those Living Creatures which they were to offer in Sacrifice For none of the Birds of the Air or Beasts of the Field were chosen and appointed by God for Sacrifice but such as were harmless and inoffensive and of a mild Temper and of a gentle and good Nature and Condition And the appointment of such only for Sacrifice might be to teach the Jews that they ought to be Tender-hearted Loving and Gentle towards one another and to live in all peacableness together and to do no hurt or injury or wrong to one another And then as for the Prophets they are very full and express in enjoyning this Duty of not doing any wrong and it would be endless to instance in places out of them to this purpose for they do all with open and with one Mouth exclaim and inveigh against the Jews for those injurious practices and unrighteous Dealings which they were given to and call aloud upon them to lay aside their unjust and fraudulent cours●s and to live uprightly and deal honestly with one another All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets says our Saviour Matth. 7.12 that is this is the very summ and substance of that which the Writers of the Old Testament have taught us concerning our Duty to one another that we should carefully observe amongst us that great Natural Rule of Equity To do as we would be done to that as we would not that others should do any injury to us so neither should we do any wrong to them