Selected quad for the lemma: peace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
peace_n	bring_v	good_a	tiding_n	2,863	5	11.4428	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66108	The peril of the times displayed. Or the danger of mens taking up with a form of godliness, but denying the power of it Being the substance of several sermons preached: by Samuel Willard, teacher of a church in Boston, N.E·	Willard, Samuel, 1640-1707.	1700 (1700)	Wing W2289; ESTC R224076	64,870	172

of it whereas were there the power of Godliness in them and did they feel and bewail the deceitfulness and unruliness of the corrupt part in them they would gladly come under the most potent obligations to Holiness and reckon it so far from being an injury that it is their real priviledge to be fast bound to the ways of God 4. That there is so much of Contempt cast upon the Gospel Ministry The Lord Jesus Christ hath appointed a Ministry for the outward Dispensation of his Gospel unto men and for the promoving of Godliness among them and hath made it an ordinary necessary medium to this great end according to that Rom. 10. 14. How shall they believe in whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a Preacher and how shall he Preach exc●pt he be sent and for this reason there is a good esteem to be had for this Ordinance of his by all that would approve themselves pious It is true there is a difference to be acknowledged between the work it self and the persons that are employed in it As to the persons in the Ministry though it be scarcely probable that men should profit by their Ministration whiles they despise their persons or entertain a low and a base esteem for them and therefore it is said of the better times Isa 52. 7. how beautiful are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings that publisheth peace c. yet certainly when God hath put them in this Service and hath made them both wise and faithful in the discharge of their work they are to be well accounted of for their works sake When therefore their zeal for the glory of God and their fidelity in not shunning to declare the whole counsel of God to men makes them to be sc●rned and reproached it bodes ill and such carriages to them speaks in his language 1 King 22. 8. I hate him for he doth not Prophesie good concerning me but evil But this must be confessed that the work it self is an Ordinance of Christ and when men grow weary of the thing look upon it as a needless charge had rather live without a Ministry than to bear the burden of it or count so meanly of the work it self that they think any one fit enough to be employed in it who is so bold as to thrust himself upon it though he hath nothing else to commend himself to it but noise and nonsense and those that are both able and faithful are despised as also when men think it no great matter to neglect their attendance on the Dispensation of the Ordinances by them every small occasion is enough to make an excuse of from Coming to the House of God or if men do come and afford their bodily presence there y●t they little regard the Doctrines taught but at best carry it like them Ezek. 33 31. they hear thy words but they will not do them c. If they reprove sin and come close to their darling lusts they are either en●aged at and revile them or scorn them if they urge Duty never so clearly and earnestly yet if the● like it not they will not believe them nor be at the pains of those Bereans who searched the Scriptures daily to see whether those things were so Acts 17. 11. and how much of this nature are we acquainted withal 5. The loose Conversation of Professors The more ample mens declared Creeds are the more scandalous must their licentious Conversation needs be bee use they visibly deny what verbally they own their Profession and their Conversation do in the Consciences of all men directly contradict one the other I am verily perswaded that the Name of God suffers more by the uncautious Conversation of those that call themselves the Children of God and seek the reputation of being Saints than by any others in the world for these pretend by their lives to exemplifie the Holiness required in the Gospel and to set others a copy of what is a Godly life according to the mind of Christ revealed in his word and if this be to be Christians indeed may not the carnal worldlings upbraid them and say as many do What do these more than we When all the difference between the one and the other is only at their devotions which the one carefully attends and the other carelesly neglects but follow them from thence and observe their carriages among men and you shall scarce if at all be able to discern which is the Professor and which is the Profane person yea possibly they will allow themselves to do such things which the other scorns to do God hath made that the duty of all that declare themselves to be his Eph. 5. 15. see that ye walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise and Paul could appeal to them on this account 1 Thes 2. 10. you are witnesses and God also how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved our selves among you that believe this was to confirm the power of Godliness But when those who call themselves Children of the light and of the day have fellowship with the unfruitful morks of darkness how much do they herein deny that piety which they talk so much of but alas how little is this Holiness practised among us how much of the contrary is to be seen certainly where men that profess Christ are yet ashamed of him and afraid to lead another manner of life than the generality of men do but are as prodigal in their vain communication as licenti ous in their talk and as obscene in their carriages as ready to comply with the vain customs of the times and places they live in as passionate in their carriages as others are and have no more of the pure Religion and undefiled than is to be found in Publicans and this grows to be a prevailing and common distemper it bespeaks the loss of the vigour of Religion and all mens fair talk and pretending to be of strick principles will not salve them but the more disgrace them and it saith that the power of Godliness is so far lost 6. The grievous neglect of Family Worship There is a Worship which is due to God from men and it doth not only concern men personally but relatively too in the several combinations which God hath ordained to be among them The most publick Religious Worship which was at first performed by men seems to have been in Families before it came to be attended in the more open and frequented Assemblies which is thought to have begun in the days of Enos Gen 4. 26. nor doth the making of this latter a duty now give men a discharge from the former any more than that did from secret Worship The principal parts of Family Worship are the Reading of the Scriptures and Prayer and the reason of it is because every Governour of a Family hath a charge lying upon him to see to the Religious management of it that so it may be a