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
A14996	A caveat for the couetous. Or, A sermon preached at Paules Crosse, vpon the fourth of December, out of Luke. 12. 15. By William Whatelie, preacher of the word of God, in Banbury; Caveat for the covetous.	Whately, William, 1583-1639.	1609 (1609)	STC 25300.5; ESTC S105709	57,700	142

A CAVEAT FOR THE COVETOVS OR A SERMON PREACHED at Paules Crosse vpon the fourth of December out of Luke 12.15 By WILLIAM WHATELIE Preacher of the word of God in Banbury The loue of the world is enmitie against God You cannot serue God and Mammon LONDON Printed by T. S. for Thomas Man and Mathew Lawe 1609. TO THE COVRTEOVS Reader CHristian READER Nothing is more lamentable than the worldlinesse of vs Christians Our life is little else but a breach of our most solemne vow to the Lord of life Wee renounced the world at our first entrance into the Church of God deuoting our selues to the seruice of Christ These were good words if there were any thing besides words in the most of vs. But being growne wee renounce Christ and returne to the seruice of the world in all our actions Our deeds proue that wee doe but onely talke of God and Christ and heauen for what hath God but our breath and with what doe wee seeke heauen but with the tongue the world hath heart and hands and if not all yet most of all our strength Being therefore against my will and earnest entreatie to the contrary commaunded to speak vnto this great congregation I thought I could not discharge mine owne dutie profit the present auditorie better than if I did labour to beate downe this vice which hath gotten more ground against the power of godlinesse I thinke then the diuels whole hoast of lusts besides If I haue offended in any thing it is in being too plaine which whether it be a fault yea or no in a preacher I cannot determine with my selfe but I know well it is lesse faulty then that other extreame which in our times is more in price and vse Yet me thinkes the Apostle Paul hath giuen vs a very good direction saying it hath pleased God by the foolishnesse of preaching to saue the beleeuers 1. Cor. 1.21 Doth the Apostle disgrace Gods ordinance by giuing it such a name or doth hee not rather deride mens censures that so miscall it For not the wise not the learned not the wittie not the eloquent kinde of preaching doth helpe mens soules to heauen but that kinde which the greatest part out of their fleshlinesse esteeme base and foolish because it wants the excellencie of words the enticing speeches of mans wisedome as elsewhere the same Apostle saith If I should aime at any other end in preaching then the saluation of men were I not accursed for doing Gods work negligently or peruersely If ayming at this I should vse any but his owne meanes were I not foolish that would prefer mine own thoughts to his If this kind of preaching please God why not speaker why not hearer why not all If it saue men why should it not content those that come the one to offer the other to seeke saluation To say the truth I doe not vnwillingly confesse that my learning is but small For much learning requireth much reading much reading many yeares which all that know me know to be wanting vnto me Wherefore to make shew of much by the helpe of an index or such like when I haue it not were but a cousoning tricke and a pranke beseeming a bragger or a bankerout of whom Salomon saith There is that maketh himselfe rich and hath nothing But say I had had the greatest abundance of learning yet it behoued me to remember that a pulpit is not a place to shew schollership in but faithfulnes nor to declare how well read we are in other authours but how ill practised the hearers are in the will and word of God the best author Preaching was not appointed to tickle the eare with a gay speech and learned oration but to peirce the heart with a sharpe reproofe and earnest exhortation not to winne credit and applause to the speaker but to work knowledge and obedience in the hearer not to make the auditorie commend vs and say sure hee is a good Scholler a man of good wit and great reading c. But to condemne themselues and say wee haue beene bad men men of polluted hearts and liues In a word not to draw men to admire the gifts of him that speaketh and offer him preferment but to repent of their owne sinnes and offer submission vnto Christ that sent him to speake This if the Minister aime at hee is happy and the people also if he attaine it but whosoeuer aimes at credit or profit in preaching may goe from the Pulpit to hell and take his wages with the hypocrite to whom it is saide that he hath receiued his reward Loth would I be to buy praise or profit at such a price neyther did I dare to hazard my selfe vnto God for misintending his ordinance and handling his word in a wrong manner With this determination did I come to speake with this determination should euery Christian come to heare And if any twit me with the name of an English Preacher a name taken vp to disgrace the foolishnes of preaching which God commends I haue to answere that I speake to Englishmen and the most no Schollers otherwise it had not beene hard to haue heaped vp and learned by heart and spoken readily many a Greeke and Latin sentence fit for the purpose but who would loose labor and time make two speakings where one would serue the turne And in this plaine manner Reader haue I encountred by the sword of the spirit this capital euill of the world which is worldlinesse I was willing to publish being spoken what I was not willing to speake hoping to helpe some man against the sinne which I speake against besides mine hearers if but one Christian grow lesse earthly by benefit of this labour my recompence is sufficient if not one yet I haue this fruite that I intended to doe good and endeauoured it Now Reader if thou meete with any fault censure it with fauour for I am but a man and in reading apply nothing to any but to thy selfe I haue my desire Thus I commend thee and thy grouth in vertue to the helpe and assistance of our gracious Father Banbury Ianuary Thine in all Christian affection William Whately M. VVHATELIES SERMON PREACHED AT PAVLES CROSSE Luke 12.15 Take heede and beware of couetousnesse for though a man haue aboundance his life consists not in his riches THese are the wordes of our Sauiour Christ vttered vpon occasion of a certaine accident related immediatly before Two brethren were at variance about their fathers lands It seemes that one would haue had all to himselfe and left very little or nothing to his brother Hereupon the party that thought himselfe wronged entreats our Sauiour by good counsell to compose the controuersie betwixt them and to bring his brother to some more equall course of diuision Our Lord that alwaies regarded the the soule more than the state perceiuing couetousnesse to be the cause of this contention refuseth to intermeddle with the parting of

successe must also take of the bad and the light of religion will not suffer him that hath any of it to deny this principall of charitie that Christians must serue one another in loue and not themselues alone in self-loue both which principals are directly contrary to the very trade of the vsurer for he makes sure for himselfe to haue a part onely and infallibly in the profit and therefore serues himselfe alone and also his brother and for this cause the vsurer is set among those that cannot come to dwell in the mountaine of God which bee should not be were hee not vniust So then the vsurer whether he doe it plainly or vnderhand as men haue a thousand policies to couer their sinne in this respect must vndergoe the imputation of liuing by wrong and iniurie A third vniustice in any man is to withhold dues from those to whom they belong as debts wages and the goods of orphanes and such things as haue been giuen for charitable vses and the like These be so openly euill that I see not how any man can open his mouth with any shew or colour to iustifie them When a man will pay his hireling nothing but keepe his owne from him by fraud or put him off with ill words and post him away from time to time or make him because he is his tenant c. take one or two pence in a day lesse than others giue or pay him very grumblingly who could brooke such dealing and not say fie vpon it it is starke staring wrong So when a man hath wherewithall to pay his debts in some measure at least and yet will breake and not discharge them so farre as it will goe or when being a rich man he sends away the creditor all to be rated and shaken with ill words and empty of money but laden with reuiling speeches yea though he haue to discharge it what man doth not loath to meete with such vsage to himselfe but chiefely when the fatherlesse childe or widdow haue not the portion bequeathed to them and committed in trust to a friend reasonably fully and readily paid in vnto them this euery man sees to be bad dealing In a word to retaine any part of anothers due is indignitie For Salomon hath sayd With-hold not the goods from the owners thereof Prou. 3.27 To liue vpōtenths chiefely not prouiding for the maintenance of Gods worship Another vniustice of this kind in lay-men is possessing of tenths or church-liuing specially without any care to haue the duety of the ministry faithfully and sufficiently discharged For not to stand vpon that question whether tenths be due by Gods law to the minister which yet I thinke might probably and sufficiently be defended euen against a cauilling and wittie obiector because the Apostle saying that he which is taught in the word must make him that teacheth him partaker of all his goods Gal. 6.6 doth thereby interest the minister into some portion of his peoples substance Now seeing none other part was euer assigned him either by the law of nature or the lawe of God but this doth not it probably at the least follow that euen vnder the Gospel this is his due but I say not to dispute this question we haue another reason to conuince apparantly that the tenthes cannot by that true right which will hold good in the courts of conscience and of heauen be detained from the ministrie without some full requitall other way for whatsoeuer hath once bin giuen consecrated to the maintenance of Gods worship and the true religion established by him that is inuested into the person of God or intangled vnto Iesus Christ as I may so speak who wil neuer acknowledge any fine and hath this royall prerogatiue that whatsoeuer is once his the same is alwaies his and whatsoeuer is giuen to him can neuer be taken from him neyther is there any prescribing against him seeing he hath neyther superiour nor law aboue him therfore can forfait no right Pro. 20.25 so that it is alwayes destruction to deuoure holy things and after the vow to require Now that these tithes were giuen deuoted by men well disposed to the maintenance of the true worship of God euen before grosse and heriticall popery had ouer-clouded the face of the world is a thing that I thinke no man will or can deny Wherefore the conclusion follows ineuitably that they be Gods stil and not to be bestowed any other way than in his seruice So many lay-men therefore as serue themselues with Church-goods deale vniustly with God and mens soules and cannot escape the blot of worldlinesse if knowing this they reforme it not The last vniustice that I wil name as common to all sorts of men is gaming in hope of gains Neither let the the gamester except that his riotous humour cannot come within the compasse of couetousnesse for hee doth therefore venture vnthriftily that hee may get more vnlawfully and his manner of gaining is most palpable wrongfull He takes that to which he hath no right at all that might make it his He pleads none other title but that he won it that is plaid better than another or perhaps not so but onely cast the lot more luckely and all the wit vnder heauen can neuer set a colour of lawfulnes vpon this plea. I must haue his money because I plaid better than hee or threw the dice more happily If he alleadge the couenant betwixt him the party that playeth with him that is nothing to the purpose Foreuery lawfull couenant is the expressing of some lawfull right that was in nature before the couenant as the ground thereof which hee cannot name any and therfore the couenant is vnlawfull cannot giue him lawfull possession of any thing If he flie to the mutual will of them that play let him not vrge that will but the ground of it which is to get another mans goods and therefore it is wicked cannot be the foundation of a iust couenant Indeede all will transferring right must eyther bee free-will and then the thing so passed ouer is free gift of which nature he will not acknowledge the thing that he wins neither can he call it so if hee would or else will grounded vpon some lawfull and equal consideration which the gamester cannot for his life make shift to name any and therefore this will that hee speakes of is either none or naught and so he plaies the theefe with another when he winnes as with himselfe when he looseth And whatsoeuer man hee may be in presence that accustomes to any of these last named things for his riches sake let it be certified to his heart that these things shall condemne him before the Lord and say Thou also dost yeeld to this sin of couetousnesse and thou art the couetous man that so continuing cannot enter into life eternal Thus haue we at the last brethren shewed you both what couetousnesse is and the notes