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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	day_n	holy_a	sabbath_n	11,447	5	10.0144	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44137	A discourse of the knowledge of God, and of our selves I. by the light of nature, II. by the sacred Scriptures / written by Sir Matthew Hale, Knight ... for his private meditation and exercise ; to which are added, A brief abstract of the Christian religion, and, Considerations seasonable at all times, for the cleansing of the heart and life, by the same author.	Hale, Matthew, Sir, 1609-1676.	1688 (1688)	Wing H240; ESTC R4988	321,717	542

Business of thy Soul or if thou hast who can tell whether that deceitful World which hath robbed thee of that time which was due to anothers Business may not with much more ease harden thy Heart and take up the whole time of thy Life though thou shouldest live many ages But if thou devote the first and choicest of thy endeavours to thy great Concernment grant that the residue of thy Life be not sufficient for thy Provisions for thy self or thy Posterity in this World thy exchange is happy thou hast secured an everlasting weight of Glory a Kingdom immortal and undefiled that fadeth not away in that time wherein perhaps thou mightest or it may be thou mightest not have gotten some small temporal Provision which by this time thou art ready to leave and thy immortal Soul left in an anxious unsatisfied unsafe Condition But this is not all though the gain of Eternity would infinitely over-weigh the loss of those Temporals which it may be in this time thou mightest have gotten yet thou must know thou servest such a Master that whilst thou obeyest him in seeking thy chiefest good in the chiefest place will not only give thee that Eternity which thou thus seekest but will add unto thee the things of this Life which yet thou neglectest And whiles he gives thee that great and everlasting Treasure which he commands thee to seek will not deprive thee of the Conveniences of this World though thou seekest them not All these things shall be added unto you And here learn a compendious and safe way of getting the external Conveniences of the World if thou labour first to be rich thou mayest lose thy labour and miss of being what thou labourest to be but thou art sure or at least likely to miss of being happy but if thou first endeavour after Peace with God in Christ thou art sure to attain Blessedness hereafter and shalt not want a convenient Competency here 2. As in the Order so in the Seasons or Times of seeking after Wealth when a Man shall encroach upon those times which either by the Command or Dispensation of God or thy own voluntary Consecrations are dedicated to the service of God or of his Neighbour It were but equal if he that is the Lord of our Times and of our Lives should require all our Time in his own immediate Service but when he allows us unto our own occasions the greatest part of our time wherein we may do all that we have to do and requires a small portion of our time for his immediate service and that also for our own everlasting advantage it is the highest sacriledge to God and injury to our selves to steal that from him which while we do it we rob our selves I thank God I ever found that in the strictest observation of the times of his Worship I ever met with the best Advantage to my worldly Occasions and that when ever my worldly Occasions incroached upon those times I ever met with disappointment though in things of the most hopeful and probable success And ever let it be so with me It hath been and ever shall be to me a Conviction beyond all Argument and Demonstration whatsoever That God expects the observation of his Times and that whilst I find my self thus dealt with God hath not given over his care of me It would be a sad presage unto me of the severe anger of my Maker if my inadvertence should cast me upon a temporal Undertaking upon his Day and that it should prosper The End of Wealth is to supply the Exigence of our Nature in Food and Raiment and when God did in an extraordinary way supply the latter without the assistance of the former to the Israelites by Manna the seventh Day was without Manna and the sixth Day supplied that defect with a double proportion Exod. 16.29 And I shall never doubt but the same Providence will in the six days of the Week improve my Endeavours one in seven though I rest upon a seventh day from my own Occasions for The earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof and it is he that gives power to get Wealth Isa 58.13 If thou turn thy foot from the sabbatb from doing thy pleasure upon my holy day and call the sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own ways nor finding thine own pleasure nor speaking thine own words then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Blessed Lord that requires but a portion of our time and that also for our own advantage and whilst thou thereby dost improve our everlasting Blessedness thou dost not deny our temporal Benefit but dost make even that portion of time that we spend in thy service an improvement of the rest of our time for our temporal Advantage And what we say concerning that portion of our time which we sequester to God from our outward Occasions the same we may say concerning that portion of our Wealth or Estate which we give either to his service or by his command When thou denyest either thou mayest look for much and it may come to little when thou bringest it home he will blow upon it Haggai 1.9 That which is detained from works of Piety or Charity will eat holes in thy Bag and let out it self and the rest which had it been daily bestowed it would have preserved the rest and returned with increase Malachi 3.10 Bring all the tithes into the store-house that there may be meat in my house and prove me now herewith saith the Lord of hosts if I will not open unto you the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it Prov. 28.27 He that giveth to the poor shall not lack Prov. 19.17 He that hath pit● on the poor lendeth unto the Lord and that which he hath given will he pay him again Thou owest all thou hast to thy Maker and if thou shouldest give him all thou hast thou givest him but his own 1 Chron. 29.14 He calls to thee but for a part of what he hath lent thee and yet he is pleased so far to accept thy chearful obedience herein that he is pleased to become thy debtor even for that which thou owest him This is thy honour and this will be thy profit thou shalt receive thy Loan with advantage I can safely and without vanity say I have hitherto found this Truth exactly fulfilled In those Weeks and Years wherein I have thus sowed sparingly I have even in Temporals reaped sparingly and I ever found when my hand was most liberal I never lost by it but found a return an hundred fold more than my expence And the Bread that I have thus cast upon the Waters I found it within a

measure as is either beyond the convenience of our Nature or beyond the conveniency of our Condition the former is Intemperance and destroys the Body the latter is Prodigality or Profuseness and wastes the Estate the dispensation of God's Providence in Externals ought to be the measure at least beyond which we must not go in the use of Meats and Drink Again under this Rule is prohibited the making Provision for the Flesh exciting the Appetite beyond its natural disposition by Meats Drinks and Provocations 3. Vnseasonably This though it exclude not the considerations of the places where and Persons with whom we converse yet it principally looks upon the time of our action as that stands qualified or circumstantiated God hath allowed me a comfortable and liberal use of his Creatures as well for Delight as Necessity but use not that liberty upon these Seasons 1. When God's Providence hath set a mark of Sadness upon the Season Isa 22.12 In that day did the Lord of hosts call to weeping and to mourning and behold joy and gladness c. 2. When either God by his Word or Civil or Ecclesiastical Constitutions or Customs or thy own particular Dedication hath set apart a time for religious Abstinence or Duty 3. When the ordinary occasions of thy Profession Calling or temporal Employment permit it not without inconvenience to thy self or others In order to our sensual Appetite are those Affections which are carried towards those things that are subservient thereunto and these Affections we find in the Bruit Creatures The Ants a people not strong yet gather they their meat in summer Prov. 30.25 And from the same proceeds their desire of mastery one over another As the former is for Provision for their Appetites so the latter is for their Protection of that Provision or themselves in their acquiring a use of it Answerable to which in Man are those two Desires of Wealth which we call Covetousness and of Power which we call Ambition Neither of these but is conversant about those things which are meerly useful either for the Supplies of the sensual Appetite or protection of those Supplies in us or our Posterity Touching those Desires we say as of the former that they are not in themselves unlawful for as the Divine Dispensations hath appointed our natural Life to be supported and defended by these external Provisions so he hath dispersed those supplies in the World and given us Appetites to them and appointed means to acquire them They are his Blessings and we are commanded to be industrious in serving of the Divine Providence in the acquiring of these things Deut. 8.18 It is he that giveth thee power to get wealth Deut. 28.8 c. He shall command the blessing upon thee in thy store-houses he shall make thee plenteous in goods the Lord shall make thee the head and not the tail Prov. 6.6 the wise Man sendeth the Sluggard to the Ant and it pleased God oftentimes to give unto those who were his sincere Servants a great measure both of Wealth and Honour and a lawful and sober Industry to acquire them is not only permitted but commanded and injoyned He that provideth not for his own house is worse than an infidel The Errors concerning these Affections are as in the former 1. Inconsiderateness in the prosecution and use of them These things are not desirable for themselves but in order to something else and they are in themselves more remote from our Nature than the immediate Objects of our Senses and yet we are not to desire them for their own sakes but in order to that End for which that Desire is put into us viz. the preservation of our Beings and Species but Wealth and Honour and the desire of it is therefore put into us in order to those immediate Objects of our Sense We are to desire Meats and drinks in order to the preservation of our Lives And we are to desire Wealth and Riches in order to the supply of Meat and Drink And as we are not in common Reason to make Eating the End of our Eating so much less are we to make Wealth and Riches the End of our being Rich. It is more distant and remote from the necessity of my Nature to be rich than to be fed yet both are but instrumental though in a different order and therefore must be so desired and prosecuted And as this consideration is to be in the gaining of Wealth so it must be in the use of it Solomon tells us of this Vanity Eccles 6.2 A Man to whom God hath given Riches Wealth and Honour so that he wanteth nothing of all that his Soul desireth yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof As Eccles 4.8 there was no end of his Labour neither was his Eye satisfied with Riches in his pursuit of them so he makes not that rational use of them for which they were given he desired to be rich because he would be rich and being arrived to his End he cannot find in his Heart to employ them to those Ends for which alone they are only valuable And as this inconsiderateness of the End of them is to be avoided so the want of consideration of the Author of them which should carry up our Hearts with Thankfulness to the God who giveth us power to get Wealth who putteth down one and setteth up another and not to sacrifice to our own Nets or magnifie our own Deservings or Wisdom but to walk humbly and thankfully and soberly as in the presence of that God that hath made us Stewards and but Stewards of those Externals and to employ them in such a way as may be most agreeable to our Masters Will most conducible to our Masters Honour and most becoming our Masters Presence 2. Immoderation 1. In our Care for them 2. In our Love to them 3. In our Confidence in them 1. In our Care This proceeds from our Infidelity and Distrust of God's All-sufficience When we consider not that the Dispensation of things convenient for our Life is in his hands and that the accommodation of them to our use is from the Word or Commission that he gives them Man lives not by bread only but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God Matth. 4.4 It is from his hand that thou must expect thy Bread and thy Clothing Gen. 28.20 If God give me bread to eat and raiment to put on and it is from his Blessing and the Commission which he gives to that Bread and that Raiment that he gives thee to be useful for thee and accommodate to this Preservation And this Solicitousness Care and Distrust our Saviour forbiddeth and convinceth Matth. 6.25 Take no thought for your life 52. for your heavenly Father knoweth you have need of these things Thy Care is but a tormenting Care it is but an unuseful and unprofitable Care Thou canst not by thy Care add to thy own Stature It is an impertinent Care and a Care