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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	call_v	scripture_n	word_n	5,563	5	4.4592	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43125	A sermon preached before the Right Honourable George, Earl of Berkeley, governour, and the company of merchants of England trading into the Levant seas at St. Peter's Church in Broadstreet, Jan 30, being Sunday, 1686/7 / by William Hayley ...	Hayley, William, 1657-1715.	1687 (1687)	Wing H1210; ESTC R11867	14,379	30

view and a fuller consideration we shall find that they do really lead and conduct us to the most ample even of those enjoyments that they are all glorious within and that their Clothing too is of wrought Gold that Piety is of that nature that it need not affright us from her embraces by an apparent Poverty that it does not only invite us by proposing the most real contentment the most lasting delights and the most sublime enjoyments of the mind and better part but that even the avaricious may here find wherewith to content himself and gratifie his most lavish desires For so we are told by one of the greatest of men seated in the most advantagious prospect in possession of the greatest wealth and abundance and what is more inspired by God himself with a Divine judgment and understanding and therefore certainly one who was most able to judge what is the best method of acquisition by him I say we are informed that Piety is the surest and straitest way to wealth for as he tells us in the words of my Text Riches and Honour are with her yea durable Riches and Righteousness The Relative Me in my Text has relation to Wisdom whom Solomon introduces speaking in the 12th verse of this Chapter and by Wisdom is generally meant in this Book of Proverbs that which only deserves the name of True Wisdom i. e. Vertue and the Fear of God For so the wise man explains himself when he says The Fear of the Lord is the beginning or as the Original rather signifies the perfection of Wisdom and therefore the sense of the words is what I have already hinted it to be viz. With Piety are Riches and Honour yea durable Riches and Righteousness There is nothing more usual in the Writings of Solomon than to reiterate the same Assertion in substance with some variation of phrase So at c. 12. v. 28. it is said In the way of Righteousness there is life and in the path-way thereof there is no death And c. 5. v. 22. His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins And in conformity to these and many other places of the like nature I take the two parts of my Text to signifie one and the same thing and that the different expression is only to set off the Truth more advantagiously and the repetition to inculcate and impress it the deeper upon the minds of men So that Riches and Honour in this place signifies the same thing as Riches and Righteousness and the difference lies only in the addition of durable to make the latter part of the sentence more elegant and pathetick Now Righteousness signifying most frequently in Scripture especially when it is joyned with Riches that part of general Righteousness or universal Justice which is opposite to Avarice and is usually called Liberality and Charity the sense of the latter clause will be that Piety gives durable Riches and dispositions likewise to make a liberal and charitable use of them and consonant to this the Honour in the first part of my Text must denote that honour which arises from such a bountiful management of Riches and so is the consequent and effect of Righteousness which is nothing else but that due management And thus the whole sense of the words seems to be briefly comprised in these three particulars That Piety is the most effectual means 1. To gain Riches certainly 2. To enjoy them durably And 3. To use them honourably But this last Proposition that Piety teaches to manage Riches honourably is that which will at first sight be granted by all men of reason since if Honour be taken in the true notion 't is nothing else but the Testimony that is given to virtuous and good actions and therefore cannot arise properly from any thing that is not guided by Piety Nay nothing is more dishonourable and detestable than to use Riches as the Idols of our affections or the instruments of our vices to covet them doat upon them and put our trust in them or to make them subservient to gratifie our lusts oppress our neighbours or obstruct the course of Laws and Justice I shall therefore wave this as granted on all hands and confine my present Discourse to the former parts of my Text which seem more to stand in need of proof and illustration Namely that Piety is the most effectual means to gain Riches and to secure and perpetuate the possession of them The most effectual means I say for before I proceed further I must premise that all the sentences that occur in this Book of Proverbs are not universally infallible and uncapable of any exception but that the Book does chiefly consist of such Observations as are generally true and such Rules as Prudence would commonly dictate To give an instance of each 't is a Rule given c. 22. v. 26. Be not thou one of them that strike hands or of them that are Sureties for Debts And 't is an Observation c. 10. v. 27. The fear of the Lord prolongeth days but the years of the wicked shall be shortned Now the former of these is not so to be understood as if all Suretiship were utterly unlawful and that there could never happen a case in which Love Gratitude or Charity might require it at our hands but that it is very prudential not to engage in it commonly nor without due caution and previous consideration Nor is the latter to be taken in that sense that God does never call a good man to himself before he arrives at Grey hairs or that the wicked are alwaies cut off in the vigor of their youth but that in the ordinary course of things and the common dispensation of Providence the fear of the Lord does tend to the prolongation of life and wickedness and debauchery hasten our dissolution Now agreeably to these and such like places the meaning of my Text is not that good men are alwaies favoured with Wealth and Riches or that they never lose them when once obtained nor that 't is impossible for very vicious persons sometimes to be raised to Fortunes and Estates but that however God in his extraordinary Providence may dispose of things however he may sometimes in his Wrath let sin flourish to make up the measure of its wickedness may let the ungodly be lusty and strong secure from the misfortunes of other men and prosperous till their Eyes swell with fatness and they do even what they list And however on the contrary it may please him to deny Riches to the good and vertuous or to deprive them of those he had formerly given them either to manifest his own Power to try their patience to divert their minds from the World to better things or by an act of the greatest mercy to deliver them from the temptation when his Omniscience foresees they would be ensnared by them Whatever I say may be the extraordinary dispositions of God's