Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sin_n	gift_n	life_n	wage_n	3,267	5	10.5376	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02148	Meditations and disquisitions upon the first Psalme of Dauid Blessed is the man. By Sr. Richard Baker, Knight.	Baker, Richard, Sir, 1568-1645.	1638 (1638)	STC 1229; ESTC S100559	70,342	136

place makes it a rule of infallibility Marke the upright man and behold the perfect man for the end of that man is peace And so it is verified here which is said by the Prophet Sorrow may be over night but ioy com meth in the morning And this againe is another advantage of the prosperity of the godly that their sorrow comes but over night when they may sleepe it out and passe it over but their ioy cometh in the morning when they come fresh unto it and have the whole day before them to enjoy it And now if we aske the Prophet what reason he can give of this prospering of the godly Doe not his words themselves answere for him and carry in them the very reason of it For in saying Whatsoever he doth he seemes to intend a godly mans service and in saying shall prosper hee seemes to intimate Gods wages and if this be so then is the prospering as sure as checke for as God is a Lord that lookes his servants should doe their worke so hee is a master that never failes to pay his servants their wages And then if blessednesse be Gods wages and godlinesse the mans service what is this but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very thing the Prophet takes upon him to demonstrate A godly man is blessed And here now we may stand and admire the great bounty of God and consider how good a service it is to serve him and what great wages hee gives his servants for the meanest of them all may reckon upon this that All he doth shall prosper The wages is not stinted by the Master but by the servant that if hee have not prosperity enough hee may thinke himselfe that would bee idle and doe no more for All he doth shall prosper But nothing but what he doth the Prophet promiseth no further for if he doe nothing hee must looke for no prospering But what have good thoughts then and good words no promise of prospering If they followed by doing then are they Praeviae actiones and as part of the doing shall have their reward Otherwise they are but abortives and come not to life to give them capacity for the life of words and thoughts is actuated by the acting And yet even thus the service is so small the wages so great that if it were told us by any but by a Prophet or told us of any but of God we might justly doubt it but hearing it from such a Reporter and of such a Master if we should doubt it now it might justly be said unto us what doubt yee of O yee of little faith Yet it must be observed here though we call it wages that yet it is not so much earned as given being more of favour than of Merit and cannot be exacted though it may be expected For though the wages of sinne be death yet we cannot properly say the wages of godlinesse is life the Antithesis hath not place because our godlinesse hath not weight but eternall life is the gift of God through Iesus Christ our Lord. And now if we should aske the world what it saies to all this whether it thinke not these blessings to be farre more worth than all their guilded vanities what doe we thinke would the world answer to such a question We may be sure the world would answer thus it likes the blessinge well and thinkes them all good but one circumstance in them it doth not like that they are all in the future none in the present all birds in the bush none in the hand never a bird in the hand amongst them all Blessed are they that mourne for they are not but shall be comforted The tree is planted by the waters side but beares no fruit yet but will doe A godly mans actions doe not prosper but they shall prosper This delay the world doth not like it cannot away with these future Tenses so much talking of what shall be and nothing of what is and therefore they have a question to aske too the same which the Disciples asked Christ But when shall these things be For if the blessednesse be long a comming it can then come but to this that it may be said A godly man shall be blessed but is miserable and miserable too for God knowes how long Therefore give us the present say they and as Christ also seemes to teach us let Hereafter shift for it selfe This indeed is the Hinge the world still turnes upon and it is a hard matter to take it off But may wee not answer these men as Christ answered his Disciples Non est vestrum nôsse tempora It is not for you to know the times and seasons which God hath kept in his owne hand It may suffice you to know that these things shall be when they shall be is more than the portion of your knowledge comes to It is indeed an earthly question and moved onely by such of whom it is said Earth thou art and to earth thou shalt returne For when wee move such questions we returne to earth for if wee staid with God we should know that as the darknesse and the light is all alike to him so to him the Future and the Present is all one that we may marvell what Saint Peter meant to say A thousand yeeres with God are as a day as though there were a proportion between eternity and time when Esay speakes it out plainly All Nations are to God as nothing and put in the ballance are lesse than nothing and wee may say as well All time is to him as nothing and put in the ballance with Eternity is lesse than nothing And therefore when we meete with these words Will be and Shall be in relation to God we may take them rather as words of order than of time as in order of Nature the tree must first be planted before it can bring forth fruit a deed must be done before it can be rewarded and yet even this order also is in Gods disposing either to divert it or wholly to reverse it at his owne pleasure As in the Garden of Eden there was bearing of fruit as soon as planting of trees this was a diverting of order But when God said Esau have I hated and loved Iacob before they had done either good or evill here was a prospering before a doing and we may say a bearing of fruit before a planting the tree and this was an absolute reversing of order The world therefore must take notice that Will be with God is as much as with men it is and when he saith it Shall be it is as good as if it were already We all know there is to be dies retributionis a day of account and this day to be God knowes how soone sooner perhaps than the world thinkes but certainely sooner than the world would have it and we are sure that this Will be and Shall be shall not exceed that day but how much it shall be sooner