Selected quad for the lemma: peace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
peace_n	army_n	great_a	war_n	2,116	5	5.8205	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60145	The present correction and reproof of sin or A discourse on 2 Jer. 19. vers. Thine own iniquities shall correct thee, & thy backslideings shall reprove thee.	Shower, John, 1657-1715.	1685 (1685)	Wing S3681; ESTC R221463	30,198	59

with in the actual commission of some sins Not only as the demands of several lusts are contradictory and inconsistent and Satan in such a case must needs cast out Satan because all cannot be gratifyed but the very act of some crimes is a down right punnishment So that with equal reason a man might desire a feaver or choos to be scorcht upon the fire to quench his thirst with his own sweat One man eats out his own heart with Envy and malice to see his neighbour prosper another burns with impatient lust and cannot meet with the opportunity to acomplish his lascivious design A nother is even choakt to death with thirst for gold and yet he labours in the fire and cannot reach that estate he covets Or if he do he is still as far from true content and satisfaction as he was before yea farther because his drought increaseth his feaver grows upon him the more he hath the more he thinks is necessary to make him happy like the horsleech he will still be crying Give Give till the diseas be cured Moreover to bring about a wicked purpose what pains do some men take to contrive the model to remove difficulties and objections to obviate Rivals and prevent disapointment surprize and discovery what mean things must they stoop to what base submissions must they undergo into how many different shapes must they be transformed and into what an agony do they put themselv's their countenance altered their eyes fiery their hands trembling their breath short and the whole man body and soul in disorder Wheras it were comparatively very easy the way plaine to keep in the path of righteousness and obey God 3. We may consider the consequent trouble upon the immediate commission The uneasiness remorse of a natural conscience and the frustration of their hopes the injoyment falling short of what they promis'd themselv's eagerly expected They look't for pleasure and they meet with disquiet from the reflexions of their own minds on their disapointment and a consciousness to themselv's that they have not done well They promised themselv's ease and meet with dissatisfaction What they sought for they do not find but instead of their expected joy regret conscience threatens them with an after reckoning to stop its mouth and silence its clamours they have recours to company fresh pleasures being weary of one sort they must change for another by various methods endeavoring tho in vaine to appeas their bosome enemy But more of this under another head And is it not a shame to consider what pains men take to be undone what Gibeonites they are in the Devil's service while we are such lazy dreamers in the service of God whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light What and how many are the cares and fears and difficulties of the Proud and Ambitious who perhaps may take it ill I began not with him first to be filled with the wind and applauded by the people and honoured in the world how jealous of every Rival how watchfull of every advantage how diligent to improve and make the most of it When the favor of God that is infinitely preferable may be had at a cheaper rate Why shall not we mind the things above our future intrest with the same eagerness that sinners do the satisfaction of a sensual lust why shall not we strive to enter into Heaven with the same diligence as others hasten to the Gates of Hell why shall not we seek the Kingdom of God and its righteousness with equal vigor and resolution as they the injoyment of a forbidden pleasure especially since instead of paine and trouble sorrow dissatisfaction which they meet with the joy of the Lord would be our strength incouragement and support For even in as well as after the keeping his commandments there is great reward His burden would be lighter too the more we are accustom'd to bear it his yoke easier the longer we have carried it § 3. Sin corrects the sinner in this world by spoiling that peace concord that love and unity among men and Christians which is necessary to our temporal happiness Whence come wars sightings tumults disorders animosities divisions quarrells contentions but from lust in the heart the fruits of it in the life from what other original can we derive the unchristian heats and janglings strifes and persecutions among Professors the uncharitable fewds and hatred among neighbours unnecessary tedious law suits and the consequent malice and contumelies of vexatious quarrelling on which the impoverishing of particular persons and the ruine of whole families is so often consequent did we but observe the Christian rules of Justice charity meekness humility did we but indeavor as much as in us lays to live peaceably with all men being kindly affectioned one towards another apt to be reconciled and ready to forgive restraining our exorbitant passions and interpreting every thing of each other in the best sens with how different a face would the world appear how happy would be the nation the citty the family where the case were thus But what contentions and enmities are caused every day by Pride drunkenness Evilspeaking in every town village and neighbourhood we might find Instances Were it not for the corruption of mankind and the sad effects of that there were no foundation in any sens to call the state of Nature the state of War And the peace and harmony and consequent happiness of the world had not been destroy'd but by the sin of man What Nation was ever set on fire within it self or made desolate by a forreign power what battell was ever fought much less a Duel what war was ever commenc't or prosecuted but on one side or the other or both Ambition or Pride Rashness or Rebellion Fury or Revenge was at the bottom hence they spring as from their grand source by thes were they cherisht as by their proper fuel the great convulsions desolations that tear Provinces Empires and destroy Kingdoms are caused by armies of Iniquities rather then of soldiers 13 Pr. 10. Discord contention and war are the scumm of pride Wheras the meek shall inherit the earth and be delighted with multitudes of Peace Among the sinless Angels 37 Ps 11. tho there be many Legions we read of no wars The Earth only is the seat of war Jerusalem above is free If men would cease to do evil and learn to do well Spears must be turned into ploughs hears and swords into pruning hooks And the inhabitants of the earth would learn war no no more did they once forbear to be wicked Princes would not then oppress and murder their Subjects nor would Subjects rebel against their lawfull Souveraigns a blessed universal peace would return to the earth which is now so much a stranger to the far greatest part of the inhabited world So that the Reproof and Correction of sin thunders in

our ears by the noise of canon and the Instruments of war is as loud as the beating of Drums and the sound of trumpets it should peirce our hearts as do the last cries of mangled soldiers and affect us with a like resentment as do the tragical effects of a desolateing War § 4. Sin doth correct and reprove the sinner in this world by impoverishing his Estate Gluttony and Drunkenness Uncleanness and Lust Ambition and Pride Contentions and Quarrelling Prodigality the Gameing humour c. have all a tendency to Poverty and commonly effect it If men will sell themselves to commit wickedness they must sell their estates to make provision for their lusts The Drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty 23 Pr. 21. and Idleness cloth a man with rags He that loveth pleasure shall be poor 21 Pr. 17.28 c. 19. And he that loveth wine oyl shall not be rich And he that follows after vaine persons shall have poverty enough Such men are not only unfitted for the works of their calling wherby they should subsist but will pawn all they have borrow all they can and sell all they are worth to maintaine their vices They mispend their time and neglect their Imployments which would otherwise find them a lively-hood and so poverty comes upon them ere they are aware For no man resolves from a vast estate to make himself a Beggar but at the long run how many do so this needless expence is for their honour or rather pride and will not undoe them that is for their pleasure and diversion and they think they may bear it it will not ruine them and so for others no one of which alone brings poverty but altogether in a little time do it What large revenues have been wasted in vanity how many considerable patrimonies devoured by lust men that had estates left them almost sufficient to maintaine an army have been begger'd by a ritious course and made as indigent as a disbanded foot soldier reduced to a morsell of bread and deprived of necessaries and forc't to depend on those who were once their dependants It would be endless to give a bill of all the cost and charges which some men are at to maintaine and feed their lusts How many have been forc't to feed on husks and ready to starve as the Prodigal by following his lustfull and riotous courses They that have glistered in scarlet 4 Lam. 5. have by this means imbrac't dunghills Great estates have been turn'd into sawce to pleas a glutton and he that once far'd deliciously every day was choice in his dyet and delicate in his food and prodigal in his treats and intertainments is at a losse where to find a dinner His throat was an open sepulcher and his houses lands and livings and money too have been buried in this tomb So for other sins the poor and the Deceitfull man shall meet together i e. the latter be brought as low as mean and miserable and indigent as the former What the oppressor wrings from the Fatherless and widdows or gets by over reaching his neighbours 29 Pr 13. thro the little arts of cheating which are called the mysteries of Trade shall be put into a bag with holes 1 Hag. 6. And methinks this reproof of sin should be very audible and affecting that you cannot loos your souls throw away your hopes of Heaven and be miserable and undone for ever but you must part with your money too and be begger'd here on earth I might add under this head that sin doth impoverish the sinner by consuming his precious Time God gives us other blessings with a larger hand in a greater plenty and abundance at once only our Time he distills by drops and never gives us two moments at once but takes away one when he lends us another To teach us the price of so rich a Jewel And what opinion have sick and dyeng persons of the worth and value of their irrecoverable Time which we prodigally consume in sin and folly in vaine company and sinfull mirth in sensual pleasures and diversions with the neglect of the great end and business we ought to prosecute in this Life in order to the felicity of the next Forgetting that we hasten dayly to the end of time and our final judgment that wither we sleep or wake wither we work or are Idle wither we prepare for death and judgment and our Everlasting state or do it not our glass runs and we are hastning to our last hour Oh that we would think with serious self-Reflexions what despairing souls beyond the grave would give for some of that Time we know not what to do with but spend in vanity or what is worse or what we our selus shal ere long be willing to give for a little of it upon the same terms as now when time is past and t' is too late § 5. Sin doth correct and reprove the sinner in this Life by blasting his Reputation There must be some appearance at least of vertue and goodness of justice and honesty to render any thing honourable and recommend it as praise worthy The grosser acts of wickedness are almost every where acounted of ill repute hence it is that few arrive to that height of impudence and degeneracy as to rail and speak evil of others for being upright and religious being honest men and good Christians but for being Hypocrites for pretending to be what they are not practical religion and the power of godliness hath still such an invincible awe upon the minds of men and commands that respect and inward reverence which they cannot refuse So true is it that they who honour God shall be honoured And t' is equally certaine and universal that they who despise and forsake him shall be lightly esteem'd 1 Sam. 2.30 And we find by experience that men expose themselv's to contempt loos their reputation by forsakeing God Lust and Drunkenness cloud the reason and weaken the understanding corrupt the judgment and destroy wisdom and render men not only an abomination to God and his holy Angels but the contempt or pitty of all wise and sober men Their vices make them vile Ecclips the glory of their birth and the honour which their ancestors and families or their own other good qualities would give them The name of a Liar is a brand of disgrace and a mark of dishonour among the worst of men who often resent it so far as to demand his bloud for reparation of the affront who presumed to call them so Sin sayth a late Author as some beasts hath a stinking breath as well as deadly claws and brings infamy and disgrace as well as paine and trouble If men degrade themselves into swine by Intemperance or into goats by lasciuiousness lust they must not expect the reward of vertue to be well reputed and spoken of If they are slaves to an Imperious lust they must bear the Infamy of being