Selected quad for the lemma: prayer_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prayer_n	cast_v	devil_n	fast_v	3,166	5	10.2336	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50650	The moral history of frugality vvith its opposite vices, covetousness, niggardliness, prodigality and luxury / written by the Honourable Sir George Mackenzie ...	Mackenzie, George, Sir, 1636-1691.	1691 (1691)	Wing M179; ESTC R20197	43,307	108

may be pleased about them or at least they are so busie in pleasing themselves that they are not employed about those new Projects which Avaritious Rulers are ever inventing The Luxurious also are more easily influenced and more exorable because they will not endure the torture of opposing the importunity of the Miserable But I have heard it asserted that the Luxurious make the worst Soldiers because that Vice effeminates and softens whereas Avarice makes Men Hard and Laborious and the love of Pay and Preferment will make the very noise of Cannons become melodious However Agur thought it worthy not only of his wish but of his Prayer that God would give him neither poverty nor riches but would feed him with food convenient for him and as the Life is compared to a Lamp so like a Lamp it burns longest and clearest when it is neither opprest with too much Oil nor starved for want of it and in this likewise we have occasion of admiring the Wisdom and Goodness of God who when we break all Squares forces us even by our Vices to ballance one another and makes things return to that just Proportion which he at first designed Thus he not only opens every wise Mans Eyes to see that it is his Interest to hold the Scales equal betwixt Riches and Poverty but when any Vicious Man runs to an Extreme in any of the two all others though as Vicious as he find it their Interest to lie heavy upon the other Scale If any affect an Universal Monarchy all Princes who are not Fools or guided by Fools or Knaves combine against him if a private Neighbour do Avaritiously incline to oppress he will joyn even those who were Enemies before in a firm design of bounding his Violence and the Avaritious and Luxurious are in a constant enmity against one another So that while each endeavours to draw that which is contended for to his own side it must necessarily remain in the middle and whilst the Frugal and Virtuous Man is going about his Affairs he is secured by Vicious Mens being Spyes upon one another and the very seeing them run to an excess is a new obligation on such as are Wise to Pray with Agur that God would give them neither Poverty nor Riches Every single Man also has the same ballance within himself and thus though the excessive love of Mony incline a Man to Oppress yet the fear of being oppressed stops his Carier and many would pollute themselves and others by Adultery Gluttony c. if Avarice would allow them to go to the price he who is fondest of Pleasure is forced by the fear of Law and the love of Health and Self-Preservation to imitate that Moderation which he would otherways neglect for if he have enjoyed too much at any time he is cloyed with his own excess and is forced to commend the Temperate whom he formerly scorned The chief thing that can recommend Frugality to all Men but especially to Magistrates is that it employs every thing to the use for which it was ordained If Men were enamoured with it and made it their chief care we should shortly see bloody Wars cease every where since let Men talk now what they please of Glory the great design of the War is rather to gain Land than Reputation of which this is a convincing Proof that those who talk of Glory take more pains to gain Towns and Countries by Bribes and Cheats than by exposing their own Persons to Danger or observing Capitulations Nor should we see Monarchs betrayed by their Ministers nor Common-Wealths by their Rulers as now most frequently they are Statesmen would not ruin their Native Country and consequently their own Posterity that they might get superfluous Riches nor would such as are under their care be tempted to Rebel against their Sovereign to be free from their Oppression and to enter into Combinations against those Rulers but Reason would make all our Laws and Duty would make us obey them If Frugality prevailed it would open the Store-Houses of Charity the Poor would be Fed the Sick would be taken Care for and the Prisoner would be Relieved This would restore Men to their sleep which is now oft-times broke by the fear of Want or the oppression of Abundance This would prevent the Melancholy caused by the one and the many Diseases occasioned by the other And we should have a satisfied mind in a sound Body a Frugal Womans staying within doors would prevent the jealousies of her Husband and the Husband by minding his business would thereby secure her against the infecting Diseases which he contracts in his idleness and Parents living thus regularly would not have Children who will prove rather Crosses than Comforts wishing either their Parents dead through Avarice or making them Beggars during their life by Luxury Frugality would enable every Man to live so well that the Servant needed not cheat his Master nor the Tenant the Landlord but on the contrary every Man would take as great Pleasure to help his Neighbour when he needed his assistance as Men do now in Hunting and Hawking and certainly there must be more delight in helping a reasonable Creature bearing the Image of God that is in distress than in rising Early and sitting up Late and giving our selves far more toil and vexation than Frugality requires merely to kill poor innocent Creatures that never offended us I know that it is hard to Reform a World wherein that which is wanting cannot be numbered and that which is Crooked cannot be made Streight And it seems that such Devils as Avarice and Luxury cannot be cast out without Fasting and Prayer but yet the opposing of these is so much every Mans Interest and is so sutable to Nature from which Men will get all possible assistance that if Kings and Governors would concur with God and Nature the Task would be Easie as the Effects would be Pleasant I cannot but commend most Cordially the Quakers who have let us clearly see that if Men please they may emancipate themselves from the Tyranny of Custom in this particular and this one excellent Endeavour does not only give them much Tranquillity and enables them to help all those of their Persuasion to a degree that is to be admired and commended but it really makes them acceptable in the Neighbourhood and Atones very much for the other irregularities with which they are charged and they may convince us 〈◊〉 least in this one Point that if such as 〈◊〉 much Power and Reason should concur together they would easily make Mankind Happy by making them Frugal FINIS This Elogy was written under the Authors Picture by Tho. Glegg M. D. in Dundee PIngere vis quâ fronte Cato titubante Senatu Asseruit patriae jura Verenda suae Pingere vis magnus quo Tullius ore solebat Dirigere attoniti linguam animamque fori Pingere vis quantâ Maro majestate canebat Et quali tetigit pollice Flaccus