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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	body_n	see_v	soul_n	6,413	5	5.5530	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58146	Blessedness, or, God and the world weighted in the balances of the sanctuary and the world found too light preached in a sermon at Paule, before the Right Honourable the Lord Major, Aldermen, and commonalty of the city of London, on a thanksgiving-day, for the prosperity of our navy in a conflict with the Spaniard, October 17, 1656 / by Francis Raworth ...	Raworth, Francis, d. 1665.	1656 (1656)	Wing R372; ESTC R18645	28,408	72

to the double Blessedness in it One interpretation proposeth it by way of competition Blessed is the people that is in such a case that is while others are annoyed with the Pestilence have prosperity while others are consumed by the Famine have plenty while others are destroyed and harrassed with Wars Tumults and Alarums have peace and quietness in their Borders sic aiunt ferunt This is the Popular rumor this is the onely Language and Dialect of the vulgar If they can but have these things they think themselves happy whatever become of Religion or of their immortal souls but David stands up as offended with this vote and verdict How now Is this true Blessedness to enjoy the shell without the kernel the Ring without the Jewel to live like a Beast and die like a Dog and having no portion in God afterwards to be damned like a Divel No no saith the Prophet this is a false Maxime a man may be thus imaginarily happy he may have riches honor plenty pleasures and the world at will and yet be really in a miserable case to all eternity But if you speak of happiness I will put you a better case Happy yea thrice happy is that people whose God is the Lord a notable Epanorthosis and correction of the Opinion of worldly happiness But the second interpretation more probably supposeth it to be spoken by way of subordination and comparison as if David had said You call poverty and disgrace miseries and you call riches and honor happiness Why let this be granted that there is some kinde of felicity in this world and that it is better to be rich then poor to be in honor then in disgrace I will not affirm that there is an inconsistency inchoherency between a possession in this life and a propriety in the next let it be so that a people in such a case is happy and so it is a Synchoresis or grant it is true what you say How happy then is that people that hath not onely peace without but peace within that hath a portion in this world but yet not this world for their portion that hath a title not onely to the streams and Creatures but also to the Fountian Creator yea doubtless happy indeed Well fare that man that Nation who in this sense have God to be their Lord and farewell the contrary Prop. The proposition from hence is That the greatest happiness in this world is not to have this world to be our happiness but in our Worldly happiness to have God to be our Lord. The truth whereof will the better appear by setting before your eyes as in a Table and by weighing as in scales the happiness of this world and the happiness of Gods people 1. We must make an Anatomy of the World view it and see what it bids towards happiness and without offence I presume I must personate the moral or meer worldly man and shew you the happiness of being in his case 1. Let health strength and an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or good temper of body appear and indeed what is a velvet Pantofle to a dis-joynted foot a Velvet Jacket to a broken arm the most delicate vyands to a dis-eased Stomach The world my Beloved is like an Hospital of diseased Patients Here stands one man crying out of the Tooth-ach there sits another tormented with the stone there lies a third distracted with the Collick a fourth wracked with the Gout And who is there in this great Assembly that can say For my part I know not who you speak to I feel no distemper I bless God I ail nothing But how many are ready to complain with him that cryed out 't is true God hath set his Rain-bow in the Heavens his mark in the clouds that the world shall not again be drowned with water But what 's that to me that am like to be drowned presently So what is Peace and Tranquillity abroad when I have a burning fear within my body what is it to have plenty in the Land when I have a lingring Consumption and Feaver in my blood It is true there is never a gracious heart but would of the two rather be a Lazarus here then a Dives hereafter rather if God put it to his choice beg his bread on earth then his water in hell yet as to this world it is better to fare delicately then to be a Beggar to be a Dives then a Lazarus for a man to have work for God to do and to have ability of God to do it while others groan out their days and waste their precious time in languishments for others to have good blood running in their veins to have their bones as the Prophet speaks full of marrow and strength Who would not think himself happy to be in such a case Secondly What though a man have health if he enjoy not his Liberty I must confess It is better to be a Gally-slave at Algiere then to be a drudge to the Divel it is better to be a Cato in a Prison with shackels fetters about ones heels then a Caesar in the Senate house with a chain of Gold about his neck Yet how sweet is freedom not onely in Conscience but of Body Whom doth it not pity to see anothers Body to be a Gaol to his Soul and his House to be a Prison to his Body And who would not give the greatest sum with that Greek Captain in another sense to obtain this freedom Matth. 22.28 When I take a view of our weekly Bills of Mortality in London I finde a report of so many dying in one Parish of a Fever of so many dying in another Parish of a Consumption c. But when I cast my eye down to the bottom of the Leaf suspecting still that I should see some Funerals of the Plague contrarily for these 12. moneths and above I finde there nothing but Ciphers Ah Lord how unthankful are we for such a blessing when thou might'st as justly as suddenly turn our Ciphers into Figures cause our faces to gather paleness hang our streets with mourning and make us know what an happiness health and liberty is by the doleful and dreadful effects and restraint of the Plague and Pestilence Thirdly But what a case were man in though he had his health if he wanted Relations and Friends How comfortable is it in the Marriage state for a man to have his Table compassed about not with Thorns and Bryars but with Olive-plants emblems of peace How much better is it for a man to have so many children to call him Father then to have so many pieces of gold to call him Lord Therefore it is that when God would give us an Inventory of Jobs happiness he first sets down his piety A man fearing God but descending to his comforts in this life he begins with his children before his estate Item saith God Job had given him so many sons and daughters whereas certainly some

ungodly men count children but Bills of charges and it s an ordinary thing to say such a man hath a fair estate and would be an happy man but that he hath a great charge of children Man is immortal not onely Physically in his soul because that dies not being immortal not onely morally in his name and reputation if godly because God hath engaged himself to make men afraid to pollute the names of them who while living feared his name but also naturally in regard of off-spring a man leaving so many Lamps burning behinde him as he hath children surviving and as it was an Old Testament curse to be barren and to have no light so also for God to put out a mans Lamps and in that sense to leave a man no light to follow him Happy or Blessed am I said Leah when Zilpah her maid bare Jacob another son for the daughters will call me Blessed and she called his name Ashur And as for friendship a Friend is a mans second self he careth at all times he is particeps curarum partaker of our care he is as Alexander was wont to boast the best treasure We know diseases of stoppings and suffocations are the most dangerous in the body and it is not much otherwise in the minde You may take Sarza to open the Liver and Steel to open the Spleen flour of Sulphur for the Lungs but no receipt in a moral sense so opens the heart as a faithful Friend The Parable of Pythagoras is obscure but true Cor ne edito Eat not the heart Certainly if a man would give it a hard phrase those that want friends to open themselves to are Canibals of their own hearts Two saith the Wise-man are better then one when one falleth the other helpeth him up To have health and liberty and relations and friends is comfortable under God and who doth not applaud his happiness that is in such a case But Fourthly What though a man had all these Providential favors if he wanted an Estate though its a thing more honorable to be master over his Lusts then to be master of a great estate and more glorious for a man to have Grace Love and Faith and Patience in his heart then silver and gold in his purse yet who knows not but Money is a Queen and those that abound in it are Kings upon earth with men that the Borrower is a servant I oft a very slave to the Lender that he that hath riches hath wherewithal to give which because its an imitation of God is better then to be on the receiving hand that it is somewhat for a man to be able to defray his charges as he passeth out of the world and when he is dead rather to have the Parish left to his children then his children to the Parish And riches as the great States-man saith are so honorable among wordlings that its hard to distinguish between virtue and fortune for the most virtuous if unprosperous have been despised and the most impious if prosperous have ever been applauded It is certain that its onely the right hand of Christ the light of his countenance that must save that must imbrace us yet his left hand may be under our heads the mercies of this world may help keep us from murmuring and distrust they may uphold us It is not for nothing that God coupleth Poverty and Shame together Prov. 13.18 The reason whereof may be either because poverty usually maketh men ashamed though in it self its no more shame for a man to be poor then to be honest and often is a temptation to men to do things that are shameful and that Solomon intimates to us that there is greater danger in extremity of want then in excess of wealth Give me saith he neither poverty nor riches Why so Not riches lest I be full and deny thee and say Who is the Lord A desperate Interogatory indeed but yet not poverty neither Why so Lest I be poor and steal and take the Name of God in vain Mark it the Temtation of Riches is Pride but the temptation of Poverty is sacriledge against God and it is a greater sin to Blaspheme God whom we own then to turn Athiest and deny him But Fifthly How can this man be yet happy if in his wealth he want Honor and Reputation It is known that our Lord and Master lost his good name and was mis-called before he lost his life and sure enough there will to the comfort of the righteous at the last day be a Resurrection of their Names as well as of their Bodies Though it be the affliction of a just man to be traduced yet it s the sin onely of the Traducer for though we have the command of our ears yet we have no bridle to restrain others tongues and its an ordinary yet a royal thing to do well to hear ill And let no man be despondent that his coat be torn if his conscience be whole yet it must be acknowledged a great Blessing though not to be flattered yet to be well reported of not onely to have a good conscience towards God but a just credit before men and if a man lose the opinion of being good though yet he be good he may be packing out of the world for any advantage of doing good for though a good conscience be necessary for our own salvation yet a good name is necessary for the salvation of others and though it be the care of men generally rather to be thought honest then to be honest To covet a milk white name and to be cryed up and down the world to have the encomiums of men There goes a righteous man there goes a charitable man yet it s an honor for a man to have a pot of oyntment and to have no dead flies in it to make it stink Eccles 10.1 And a good name is rather to be chosen then great riches and loving favor rather then silver and gold though such may not have the Lord to be their God yet happy is he in a moral sense that is in such a case Sixthly But how inestimable were a man and so a Nation with all this respect if they should want Dominion and Empire It is a promise that Gods People shall possess the Gates of their Enemies Gen. 22.17 and that their Rule shall extend from Sea to Sea The Athenians reckoned their great Empire to be their greatest glory Alexander thought himself unhappy that he had not another World to Conquer Caesar had rather be King of a Cottage he so loved Rule then the second at Rome The King of SPAIN gives for his Arms a Shield with the Sun rising and setting on it It is observed That he that hath the command of the Sea hath the command of the world and he that hath the command of the Navy hath the command of the Sea Now let us suppose a Nation to have riches at home and power abroad for a Nation to be

condition he that loseth that he cares not to enjoy and enjoys that he can't lose And in a spiritual sense he onely is such a man whose God is the Lord Methinks the words are here represented as Antiphanys Dialogue-wise The world begins Happy is he whose Sons grow like Olive plants yea saith David whose God is the Lord the World succeeds Happy is he whose Oxen are strong to labor and that Nation whose streets knows no complaining yea saith David whose God is the Lord still that is the note of a gracious heart as he rescribed back nothing but King of France King of France King of France and why happy such a man above a worldling 1. He that hath outward happiness in the world may not have a title to the Lord but he that hath God to be his Lord hath a title a spiritual title to the World The Corinthians were ready to quarrel about their properties I am of one from Paul saith one I am from Apollo said another tush said a third I care neither for Paul nor Apollo give me Cephas I am for Cephas The Apostle rounds them in the ear what saith he Is Christ divided will you contend for a part All men are gain not onely Paul Apollo Cephas but all things life death things present and things to come But by what tenure Why Because Christ is gain When we lost our Title to God we lost our comfortable title to the Creatures and no wonder the Creature rebels against us since we have rebell'd against the Creator The Creatures may justly say to unregenerate men that hunt after and dig for happiness in them I say Honors Riches Pleasures may say to such as Samuel did to Saul Why come ye to us since God is departed from you He is a Rebel that harboreth him whom the King hath Proclaimed a Traytor And what comfort can that soul have to lay his head in the bosome of any Creature when God himself hath turned his back on him But he that hath a new title to God hath a better title to outward comforts he holds them in capite God hath provided for him a Kingdom and therefore doth not grudge him crums How sweet are those mo●sels of bread that by Faith are dipt in Christs blood not that property comes by Grace but it is cleared up by Grace Many a man hath an Estate and a childe of God enjoys the comfort of it The worldly man may say This house this childe is mine by Creature right a Saint saith These are also mine by Covenant right but you may have all worldly happiness and not be happy Therefore secondly Grace claims a title to all the Ordinances of God Preaching is thy Chariot to bring the Lord down to thee Prayer and Meditation are wings to carry thy soul up to God It is generally believed and without scruple among the judicious that the visible and not the invisible Church is the prime and proper subject for the dispensation of Gospel Seals but his title to them that hath a right to Christ is indisputable He that can say the body and blood of Christ is his may challenge and claim the Bread and Wine that signifie those as his He that hath right to the Pearl hath right to the Casket He that is marryed to the King of Glory ought not upon any pretences whatsoever to be kept out of the Presence Chamber and from prayer while others stand like strangers without doors knocking and speaking to God at a distance as slaves to a master you have freedom to enter into the Palace of Heaven and cry Abba Father The Ordinances are the glory of a Nation and where ever God goes his Ordinances go too and where ere they reside and abide he abides too My Beloved God and his Institutions go and come from and to a Nation together as it s the honor of a Nation to say Jehovah-Nissi The Lord is our Banner in a Military sense for God to fight for us so a greater for others to say of any Nation Jehovah-Shammah The Lord is there in an Ecclesiastical sense The Ordinances are the comfort of the soul they are not as some new Anti-scripturists calumniate the Grave wherein Christ lies but the Throne whereon he sits as King of the Church and we were better lose our evidences for our Lands then part with the seals of the Gospel Is it then a small matter to have liberty to tread in Gods courts to sit under the tree of Life and dew of Heaven to have commerce with Angels to have communion with the Lord of Glory when thou art hungry to have freedom to run to Gods House for Bread when thou art distracted and troubled with doubts of thy Faith thy salvation to have recourse with David to Gods Sanctuary for resolution and that by thy title to the Lord as thy Lord Thirdly Thou hast moreover a propriety in all his Providences his Providences are thine for thy satisfaction if thou wantest enlightning he is thy Sun if defending he is thy shield if a Nation be fearful he is a wall of fire without if fainting he is a well of water within They may be without many things but we have the Broad-Seal of Heaven for it that they shall want no good thing Thou art in trouble and if thy Friend could but see thee How happy God is therefore Omniscient Thou art weak if thy Friend could help thee God is therefore Omnipotent El Shaddai All-sufficient If thou art weak he hath a shoulder to carry thee if feeble a bosom to warm and cherish thee He that hath him that is all hath all Secondly For thy security and that 1. To sustain thee If thou goest into the water I will be with thee if into the fire I le be with thee said God q. d. If thou burn I le burn too if thou drown I le drown too Hence it was that Israel was safe in the Red-sea and the three children secure in the Furnace God may cast his childe down and so his Nation yet not cast them away he often breaks your hearts that he may not break your backs 2. To order all for thee The Devil may turn Cordials into poyson but providence turns those poysons into Cordials again God hath his fairest ends in our foulest ways when temptations have sucked our corrupt blood away those Leeches shall be taken off when you are provoked to storm at God and quarrel with the seeming inequality of his ways are ready to judge his present carriage to your souls inconsistent with the hopes of election past or future glory Let despair vail and murmuring be tongue-tyed and consider the Lord thinks it better rather to bring order out of these spiritual disorders then not to suffer those disorders to be at all It s easier for vain man to wrangle with the Almighty and to set up in his pride an Anti-Providence in the world then rightly to discern what God is a doing we neglect

wicked many times deport themselves so comfortably so chearfully as if they were the children of God and on the contrary the children of God carry themselves so melancholily so despairingly as if they were wicked men and had no interest in God at all they rejoyce when they should mourn and you mourn when you should rejoyce Christians Is the Lord contented with you and is not God sufficient Will not you be contented with him Is the Lord satisfied with a My son give me thy heart and are not thou satisfied with this the Lord hath given me his spirit tolle meum tolle Deum It s remarkable that all the Beatitudes are fixed on unlikely conditions to intimate That the Judgement of this world and the Judgement of Gods children differ about Blessedness Shall that man rejoyce that hath but his Angels of gold to smile on him and wilt thou not rejoyce that hast the Angels of God I the God of Angels to tend on thee Is not he sad that hath onely a claim to the dirty and muddy streams of Peace and outward prosperity and wilt thou be sad that hast a title to the Well-head of Comfort to the Spring and Fountain of Happiness Shall he be merry that can but say This mirous House that Mannor is mine and wilt thou not be glad when thou saist That this God the Landlord of Heaven and Earth is mine Religion is no melancholy thing though the Religious may be often melancholy and what ever worldlings phansie though oft the body be sad yet the heart of a childe of God keeps Holy-day and if he be troubled it is not because he is Religious because the Lord is his God but because he is so carnal and doubts of that claim And surely one great reason why we are not so composedly chearful enough it is because we are not Christians enough Is God thy Father Christ thy Redeemer the Spirit thy Comforter will not this support thee Hast thou sometimes such triumph of heart that thou wouldst not exchange those few sweet minutes for all the World and dost thou live in the longing and thirsting for Death and a Resurrection and after them the sight of Glory and an immutable and immortal state of Heaven and Happiness where thou shalt sigh and sorrow no more And will not these hopes relieve thee Hath the Gospel disappointed thy thoughts Didst thou unadvisedly enter into Covenant with God Is not there that felicity and favor in Gods presence that thou didst promise thy self to finde in him Wilt thou change portions and exchange properties with the world Shall this man have thy pardon of sin and thou his riches that man thy hopes of Glory and thou his Lordship and Honor Speak out what wilt thou take for God what price for thy soul Will Pleasure and Past-time buy it Will Riches or Revenues buy it Are not all these things partial and improportionable to the God of Glory and Centre of all Happiness If the World can't come up to thy price and thou canst not mend thy market for shame be satisfied and be at rest If you would credit Christianity and commend thy God to the lost world get comfort in thy conscience away with unjust scruples against thy entituled peace part not with thy priviledge or thy God till thou canst meet with better If you value not your own peace have an estimation of Gods glory What will carnal men say Would you have us part with all for God when you are ready to part with God for nothing Why do you exclaim against our worldliness and our vain Pleasures when you your selves do seem to count Mortification and Heavenliness a burthen either keep your breath to your selves and reprove us no more or live up to your interest and to honor your God How do you convince us it is worth the while to sell all for the Pearl of price that when we have done so we should think our selves miserable after the bargain It seems rather by the anxiety and perplexity of your mindes that you envy our comforts in the world to which for shame you dare not return and would esteem it a piece of your happiness if we would be miserable with you for company But let the world consider that a Saints want of comfort proceeds not from the insufficiency of his purchase but from his want of faith to claim it And let Believers consider that as their unbelief is uncomfortable to themselves so it reproacheth God Hence many have denyed God and so have turned Atheists because they could not maintain Gods All-sufficiency and live like Epicures Habitual distrust of God is a greater Blasphemy in some sense then a total denyal of God for what greater shame then not to believe him whom we profess cannot deceive us and not to be content with him whom we acknowledge to be All-sufficient Verily the poorest soul in all this Congregation that can but say God is mine is happier then if he could say all the Mines of Gold and Silver in the West-Indies are mine Fifth Inference By way of perswasion to the worldly happy that they would look after the Lord Why will you seek any longer vitam beatam a blessed life in regionem mortis in the Region of death Pearls in the dust and Heaven compararatively in Hell Wilt thou perish for that which shall perish Dost thou love Gold so well as to run into Hell fire to fetch it Thou proclaimest thy happiness because of an healthy Body and wilt thou be less happy in having a sound Conscience How happy wert thou if besides these Rings of gold thou hadst but the inestimable Jewel if in thy Terrestrial and Earthly Paradice thou hadst but in the midst thereof the Tree of Life Jesus Christ You ought not to throw away Christ when you imbrace the world neither need you prodigally throw away the world when you embrace Christ Christ and the werld may dwell both in one house though not in one heart Be as covetous as thou wilt be as ambitious as thou wilt wouldst thou have earth wouldst thou have this World so thou maist and Heaven and the next too As Achsah when her Father gave her a Portion desired a Blessing so do thou at Gods hand and say Lord Thou hast given me the nether springs but I yet want the upper springs thou hast given me the Streams but what are all they without the Fountain As thou art not content with my things without my self so Lord I have thy Gold and Silver thy Comforts and Creatures but these are not thy self all these I may have and yet be poor naked be hopeless in this life and a damn'd wretch to all Eternity As the Father brings in King Ahab sitting in his chair of State with his Nobles attending about him and environed with all outward glory in the three years Famine crying out What avails all this if yet the Heavens continue to be Brass and the earth Iron So