Selected quad for the lemma: woman_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
woman_n	put_v	seed_n	serpent_n	4,832	5	9.9632	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49921	The labouring persons remembrancer, or, A practical discource of the labour of the body with suitable devotions.	Lee, Francis, 1661-1719.	1690 (1690)	Wing L841; ESTC R37963	21,877	54

THE LABOURING PERSONS Remembrancer OR A Practical DISCOURSE OF THE LABOUR of the BODY With Suitable DEVOTIONS OXFORD Printed by L. Lichfield A. D. 1690. THE LABOURING PERSONS Remembrancer MAN as Eliphaz saith is born to Labour as the sparks fly upwards That ought not to be thought so hard a case to any which is no more strange than for the flame to ascend nor less natural than for the Young Vultures to soar aloft as some Interpreters read it Yet tho' Labour or Trouble is so natural to Mankind so familiar and engrafted into his Constitution the number of such is so small as do either rightly understand or do bear it as they ought as is most deplorable to consider and as challenges all that can be done toward the Cure of so General an Evil. I doubt not but there are several holy Souls who do both understand and bear This as they are obliged to do and are thereby thro' God's Blessing arrived to very great Heights of Religion These stand not in need of any thing that I can say to them But to others perhaps it may by the Divine Assistance prove of some service to give them a few Hints of what they ought to consider and practise in their daily Employ and Work May the most good God bless this poor Endeavor of his unworthy Servant to the end by it designed Labour may be considered either first as a Punishment inflicted or secondly as an Act of Religious Worship enjoyned by God In the former respect it is the Effect in the latter the Remedy of Sin And in both respects it will not fail to give several useful Considerations Such as follow First Labour as it is accompanied Now with much Weariness and Toil ought to be look'd on as a Punishment or Corporal Chastisement inflicted for our Transgression God who infinitely hates Sin and is of purer Eyes than to behold the least Iniquity could not but denounce the Doom of this Monster as soon as ever it appear'd in the World I say Denounce the Doom for I tell thee O Man he did no more Accuse not God flatter not thy self Sin was the fatally fruitful Womb that brought forth every Evil into the World the deadly Poison that blasted the Earth and the baneful Seed of every Briar and Thorn in Human Life Nay had not the Divine Love and Mercy immediately broke forth as thro' a cloud after such a monstrous Birth had not the Eternal Word and Wisdom of the Father then interposed as our Mediator in a manner so astonishing as to make the Wonder of Men and Angels for everlasting Ages Man whose Vitals were already seiz'd by this corroding Venom who had begat and form'd in himself the Principle of Death and Hell I am verily perswaded could not have subsisted one minute longer but must certainly have died the Death without further delay and have fallen into an irrecoverable Abyss of Darkness and Pain But being thus retriev'd and rescu'd from the fatal stroke by the means of our great and ever blessed Mediator it being not only very fit but also necessary for us to concur in some degree toward our recovery from this Dismal state into that Happy one for which we were originally designed by our bountiful Creator and Father It was judg'd meet by the same eternal Wisdom and Love that then put a stop to the final Destruction of Man that so much of the Effects of his Crime should remain upon him a lasting Monument as might be able to put him in mind of the Place whence he fell as might push him forward to seek earnestly his Delivery from this Place into which he is faln from this State into which he has driven himself and might be a constant Caution to him for the future that he lose not the Effects of this Mediation but endeavour by conforming himself to the Divine Will to render himself as capable as he can of those glorious Privileges which by the means of it he may now attain Thus was the heavy and intolerable Punishment of Sin exchanged for an easy and very tolerable Doom Now Man is put into a state of Trial once more into a capacity to chuse whether he will be happy or miserable The Seed of the Woman is promis'd to bruise the Head of the Serpent but withal the Woman must be content to undergo pain and subjection and the Man having by his folly brought a Curse upon the Earth of which he was constituted Lord must be content to eat his Bread in sorrow and in the sweat of his brow For now by Sin great Travel as the wise Son of Sirach saith is created for every man and an heavy yoke is upon the sons of Adam from the day that they go out of their mother's womb till the day that they return to the mother of all things The consequences that follow from this Consideration of Labour as an Infliction for or as an Evil flowing from Sin ought I think at least to be these three § First Since therefore Iesus Christ the Seed of the Woman the Mediator betwixt God and Man undertook to procure the Pardon and Restauration of Man on this condition That Man should with Him tast of the Bitterness of Sin Wilt thou O Man that callest thy self a Christian refuse to satisfy this Condition Dost thou think it hard to tast of the same Cup to bear a little of the Chastisement with thy Saviour who has submitted to so very much for thee God was graciously pleas'd to chuse Labour and Travel for this Chastisement without satisfying which thou must never expect to obtain thy Pardon Indeed if thou hast no need of this thou mayest e'en then follow thy own Ease as thou pleasest walk in the ways of thy heart and in the sight of thine eyes and trample on any Condition that brings with it the least pain But if thou art otherwise perswaded as I doubt not but thou art then submit contentedly to this Correction and think not thy self too good for a little Toil or Labour that is the Effect of thy Guilt and is become by the Grace of God an Instrument in thy Release § Secondly Since God was so very merciful toward his offending Creature as for all the Punishment of his Crimes to take no more but a Moderate Labour for a short time that so he might afterward rest with his God and be advanced to a nobler state of Bliss and Honour than even that which he had lost by the most vile and sottish Rebellion It behoves him not only with Contentedness to submit to this light Chastisement but also with the humblest Thanks to praise the Mildness and Indulgence of his kind Father that has made it so easy for him to undergo but especially for this that he has been pleased to produce Hony from Bitterness and to make Sorrow and Labour instrumental to Joy and Rest. Consider whether any thing could more deeply concern the Almighty Creator than to be