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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	commandment_n	day_n	sabbath_n	6,700	5	9.9732	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64114	Holy living in which are described the means and instruments of obtaining every virute, and the remedies against every vice, and considerations serving to the resisting all temptations : together with prayers containing the whole duty of a Christian, and the parts of devotion occasians [sic], and furnished for all necessities / by Jer. Taylor.	Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.	1656 (1656)	Wing T374; ESTC R232803	258,819	464

will be as tempting with the windiness of a violent fast as with the flesh of an ordinary meal But a daily substraction of the nourishment will introduce a lesse busie habit of body and that will prove the more effectual remedy Chi digiuna altro ben non fa● sp●ragna il pane al infernova See Chap. 2. Sect. 2 3. 8. fasting alone will not cure this Devil though it helps much towards it but it must not therefore be neglected but assisted by all the proper instruments of remedy against this unclean spirit and what it is unable to doe alone in company with other instruments and Gods blessing upon them it may effect 9. All fasting for whatsoever end it be undertaken must be done without any opinion of the necessity of the thing it self without censuring others with all humility in order to the proper end and just as a man takes physick of which no man hath reason to be proud and no man thinks it necessary but because he is in sickness or in danger and disposition to it 10. All fasts ordained by lawful authority are to be observed in order to the same purposes to which they are enjoyned and to be accompanied with actions of the same nature just as it is in private fasts for there is no other difference but that in publick our Superiours choose for us what in private we doe for our selves 11. Fasts ordained by lawful authority are not to be neglected because alone they cannot doe the thing in order to which they were enjoyned It may be one day of Humiliation will not obtain the blessing or alone kill the lust yet it must not be despised if it can doe any thing towards it An act of Fasting is an act of self-denial and though it doe not produce the habi● yet it is a good act 12. When a principal end why a Fast is publickly prescribed is obtained by some other instrument in a particular person as if the spirit of Fornication be cured by the rite of Marriage or by a gift of chastity yet that person so eased is not freed from the Fasts of the Church by that alone if those fasts can prudently serve any other end of Religion as that of prayer or repentance or mortification of some other appetite for when it is instrumental to any and of the Spirit it is freed from superstition and then we must have some other reason to quit us from the Obligation or that alone will not doe it 13. When the Fast publickly commanded by reason of some indisposition in the particular person cannot operate to the end of the Commandment yet the avoiding offence and the complying with publick order is reason enough to make the obedience to be necessary For he that is otherwise disobliged as when the reason of the Law ceases as to his particular yet remains still obliged if he cannot doe otherwise without scandal but this is an obligation of charity not of justice 14. All fasting is to be used with prudence and charity for there is no end to which fasting serves but may be obtained by other instruments and therefore it must at no hand be made an instrument of scruple or become an enemy to our health or be imposed upon persons that are sick or aged or to whom it is in any sense uncharitable such as are wearied Travellers or to whom in the wh●le kinde of it it is uselesse such as are Women with childe poor people and little children But in these cases the Church hath made provision and inserted caution into her Laws and they are to be reduced to practise according to custome and the sentence of prudent persons with great latitude and without niceness and curiosity having this in our first care that we secure our virtue and next that we secure our health that we may the beter exercise the labours of virtue lest out of too much austerity we bring our selves to that condition * S. Basil Monast Constit. cap. 5. Cassian coll 21. cap. 22 Nè per causā necessitatis eò imping●mus ut voluptatibus serviamus that it be necessary to be indulgent to softnesse ease and extreme tendernesse 15. Let not intemperance be the Prologue or the Epilogue to your fast lest the fast be so farre from taking off any thing of the sin that it be an occasion to increase it and therefore when the fast is done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Na● be carefull that no supervening act of gluttony or excessive drinking unhallow the religion of the passed day but eat temperately according to the proportion of other meals lest gluttony keep either of the gates to abstinence The benefits of Fasting He that undertakes to enumerate the benefits of fasting may in the next page also reckon all the benefits of physick for fasting is not to be commended as a duty b●t as an instrument and in that sense no Man can reprove it or undervalue it but he that knows neither spiritual arts nor spiritual necessities but by the doctors of the Church it is called the nourishment of prayer the restraint of lust the wings of the soul the diet of Angels the instrument of humility and self-denial the purification of the Spirit and the paleness and maig●enesse of visage which is consequent to the daily fast of great mortifiers is by Saint Basil said to be the mark in the Forehead which the Angel observed when he signed the Saint● in the forehead to escape the wrath of God The soul that is greatly vexed which goeth stooping and feeble and the eyes that fail Baruch ● v. 18. and the hungry soul shall give thee praise and righteousness O Lord. SECT VI. O keeping Festivals and daies holy to the Lord particularly the Lords day TRue naturall Religion that which was common to all Nations and Ages did principally relye upon four great propositions 1. That there is one God 2. That God is nothing of those things which we see 3. That God takes care of all things below governs all the World 4. That he is the Great Creator of all things without himself and according to these were fram'd the four first precepts of the Decalogue In the first the Unitie of the Godhead is expresly affirmed In the second his invisibility and immate●iality In the third is affirmed God's government and providence by avenging them that swear falsly by his Name by which also his Omniscience is declared In the fourth Commandement he proclaims himself the Maker of Heaven and Earth for in memorie of God's rest from the work of six daies the seventh was hallowed into a Sabbath and the keeping it was a confessing GOD to bee the great Maker of Heaven and Earth and consequently to this it al●o was a conf●ssion of his goodness his Omnipotence and his Wisdom all which were written with a Sun-beam in the great book of the Creature So long as the Law of the Sabbath was bound upon God's

people so long GOD would have that to be the solemn manner of confessing these attributes but when the Priesthood being changed there was a change also of the Law the great dutie remain'd unalterable in changed circumstances We are eternally bound to confess God Almightie to bee the Maker of Heaven and Earth but the manner of confessing it is chang'd from a rest or a doing nothing to a speaking somthing from a day to a symbol from a ceremonie to a substance from a Jewish rite to a Christian dutie wee profess it in our Creed wee confess it in our lives wee describe it by every line of our life by every action of dutie by faith and trust and obedience and wee do also upon great reason complie with the Jewish manner of c●nfessing the Creation so far as it is instrumental to a real dutie Wee keep one day in seven and so confess the manner and circumstance of the Creation and wee rest also that wee may tend holie duties so imitating God's rest better then the Jew in Synesius who lay upon his face from evening to evening and could not by stripes or wounds bee raised up to steer the ship in a great storm God's rest was not a natural cessation hee who could not labor could not bee said to rest but God's rest is to bee understood to bee a beholding and a rejoicing in his work finished and therefore wee truly represent God's rest when wee confess and rejoice in God's Works and God's glorie This the Christian Church does upon every day but especially upon the Lord's day which she hath set apart for this and all other Offices of Religion being determined to this day by the Resurrection of her dearest Lord it beeing the first day of joy the Church ever had And now upon the Lord's day wee are not tied to the rest of the Sabbath but to all the work of the Sabbath wee are to abstain from bodily labour not because it is a direct dutie to us as it was to the Jews but because it is necessarie in order to our dutie that wee attend to the Offices of Religion The observatio● of the Lord's daie differs nothing from the observation of the Sabbath in the matter of Religion but in the manner They differ in the ceremony and external rite Rest with them was the principal with us it is the accessory They differ in the office or forms of worship For they were then to worship God as a Creator and a gentle Father we are to adde to that Our Redeemer and all his other excellencies and mercies and though we have more natural and proper reason to keep the Lords day then the Sabbath yet the Jews had a divine Commandement for their day which we have not for ours but we have many Commandements to do all that honour to GOD which was intended in the fourth Commandement and the Apostles appointed the first day of the week for doing it in solemn Assemblies and the manner of worshipping God and doing him solemn honour and service upon this day we may best observe in the following measures Rules for keeping the Lords day ●nd other Christian festivals 1. When you go about to distinguish Festival daies from common do it not by lessening the devotions of ordinary daies that the common devotion may seem bigger upon Festivals but on every day keep your ordinary devotions intire and enlarge upon the Holy day 2. Upon the Lords day wee must abstain from all servile and laborous works except such which are matters of necessity of common life or of great charity for these are permitted by that authoritie which hath separated the day for holy uses The Sabbath of the Jewes though consisting principally in rest and established by God did yeeld to these The labour of Love and the labours of Religion were not against the reason and the spirit of the Commandement for which the Letter was decreed and to which it ought to minister And therefore much more is it so on the Lords day where the Letter is wholly turned into Spirit and there is no Commandement of God but of spiritual and holy actions The Priests might kill their beasts and dress them for sacrifice and Ch●ist though born under the Law might heal a sick man and the sick man might carry his bed to witness his recovery and confess the mercy and leap and dance to God for joy and an Ox might be led to water and an Ass be haled out of a ditch a man may take physick and he may eat meat and therefore there were of necessity some to prepare and minister it and the performing these labours did not consist in minutes and just determined stages but they had even then a reasonable latitude so onely as to exclude unnecessary labour or such as did not minister to charity or religion And therefore this is to be enlarged in the Gospel whose Sabbath or rest is but a circumstance and accessory to the principal and spiritual duties Upon the Christian Sabbath necessity is to be served first then charity then religion for this is to give place to charity in great instances and the second to the fi●st in all and in all cases God is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth 3. The Lords day being the rememb●ance of a great blessing must be a day of joy festivitie spiritual ●ej●icing and thanksgiving and therefore it is a proper work of the day to let your devotions spend themselves in singing or reading Psalms in recounting the great works of God in remembring his mercies in worshipping his excellenc●es in celebrating his attributes in admi●ing his person in sending portions of pleasant meat to them for whom nothing is provided and in all the arts and instruments of advancing God's glorie and the reputation of Religion in which it were a great decencie that a memorial of the resurrection should be inserted that the particular religion of the day bee not swallowed up in the general And of this wee may the more easily serve our selvs by rising seasonably in the morning to private devotion and by retiring at the leisures and spaces of the day not imploied in publick offices 4. Fail not to be present at the publick hours and places of praier entring early and cheerfully attending reverently and devoutly abiding patiently during the whole office piously assisting at the praiers and gladly also hearing the Sermon and at no hand omitting to receive the holy Communion when it is offered unless some great reason excuse it this being the great solemnitie of thanksgiving and a proper work of the day 5. After the solemnities are past and in the intervalls between the morning and evening devotion as you shall finde opportunitie visit sick persons reconcile differences do offices of neighb●u●h●od ●nquire into the needs of the poor especially house keepers relieve them as they shall need and as you are able for then wee truly rejoice in God when we make

For although the co●j●ct●●●● and expectations of Hope are not like the conclusions of Faith yet they are a Helmet against the scorchings of Despair in temporal things and an anchor of the soul sure and stedfast against the fluctuations of the Spirit in matters of the soul. S. Bernard reckons divers principles of Hope by enumerating the instances of the Divine Mercy and we may by them reduce this rule to practise in the following manner 1. GOD hath preserved me from many sins his mercies are infinite I hope he will still preserve me from more and for ever * 2. I have sinned and GOD smote me not his mercies are still over the penitent I hope he will deliver me from all the evils I have deserved He hath forgiven me many sins of malice and therefore surely he will pity my infirmities * 3. God visited my heart and changed it he loves the work of his own hands and so my heart is now become I hope he will love this t●o * 4. When I repented he received me graciously and therefore I Hope if I doe my endevour he will totally forgive me * 5. He helped my slow and beginning endevours and therefore I hope he will lead me to perfection * 6. When he had given me something first then he gave me more I hope therefore he will keep me from falling and give me the grace of perseverance * 7. He hath chosen me to be a Disciple of Christs institution he hath elected me to his Kingdom of grace and therefore I hope also to the Kingdom of his glory * 8. He died for me when I was his enemy and therefore I hope he will save me when he hath reconciled me to him and is become my friend * 9. God hath given us his Son how should not he with him give us all things else All these S. Bernard reduces to these three Heads as the instruments of all our hopes 1. The charity of GOD adopting us 2. The truth of his promises 3. The power of his performance which if any truly weighs no infirmity or accident can breake his ●●pes into undiscernible fragments but some good pl●●ks will remain after the greatest storm and shipwrack This was Saint Pauls instrument Experience begets hope and hope maketh not ashamed 10. Doe thou take care only of thy duty of the means and proper instruments of thy purpose and leave the end to GOD lay that up with him and he will take care of all that is intrusted to him and this being an act of confidence in God is also a means of security to thee 11. By special arts of spiritual prudence arguments secure the confident belief of the Resurrection and thou canst not but hope for every thing the which you may reasonably expect or lawfully desire upon the stock of the Divine mercies and promises 12. If ● despair seises you in a particular temporal instance let it not defile thy spirit with impute mixture or mingle in spiritual considerations but rather let it make thee fortifie thy soul in matters of Religion that by being thrown out of your Earthly dwelling and confidence you may retire into the strengths of grace and hope the more strongly in that by how much you are the more defeated in this that despair of a fortune or a success may become the necessity of all virtue SECT III. Of Charity or the love of God LOve is the greatest thing that God can give us for himself is love and it is the greatest thing we can give to God for it will also give our selves and carry with it all that is ours The Apostle calls it the band of perfection it is the Old and it is the New and it is the great Commandement and it is all the Commandements for it is the fulfilling of the Law It does the work of all other graces without any instrument but its own immediate virtue For is the love to sin makes a Man sin against all his own reason and all the discourses of wisdom and all the advices of his friends and without temptation and without opportunity so does the love of God it makes a man chaste without the laborious arts of fasting and exteriour disciplines temperate in the midst of feasts and is active enough to choose it without any intermedial appetites and reaches at Glory through the very heart of Grace without any other arms but those of Love It is a grace that loves God for himself and our Neighbours for God The consideration of Gods goodness and bounty the experience of those profitable and excellent emanations from him may be and most commonly are the first motive of our love but when we are once entred and have tasted the goodness of God we love the spring for its own excellency passing from passion to reason from thanking to adoring from sense to spirit from considering our selves to an union with God and this is the image and little representation of Heaven it is beatitude in picture or rather the infancy and beginnings of glory We need no incentives by way of special enumeration to move us to the love of God for we cannot love any thing for any reason reall or imaginary but that excellence is infinitely more eminent in God There can but two things create love Perfection and Usefulness to which answer on our part 1. admiration and 2. Desire and both these are centred in love For the entertainment of the first there is in God an infinite nature immensity or vastness without extension or limit Immutability Eternity Omnipotence Omniscience Holiness Dominion Providence Bounty Mercy Justice Perfection in himself and the end to which all things and all actions must be directed and will at last arrive The consideration of which may be heightned if we consider our distance from all these glories Our smallness and limited nature our nothing our inconstancy our age like a span our weakness and ignorance our poverty our inadvertency and inconsideration our disabilities and disaffections to doe good our harsh natures and unmerciful inclinations our universal iniquity and our necessities and dependencies not only on God originally and essentially but even our need of the meanest of Gods creatures and our being obnoxious to the weakest and the most contemptible But for the entertainment of the second we may consider that in him is a torrent of pleasure for the voluptuous he is the fountain of honour for the ambitious an inexhaustible treasure for the covetous our vices are in love with phantastick pleasures and images of perfection which are truly and really to be found no where but in God And therefore our virtues have such proper objects that it is but reasonable they should all turn into love for certain it is that this love will turn all into virtue S. Aug l. 2. Confes. ● 6 For in the scrutinies for righteousness and judgment when it is inquired whether such a person be a good man or no the meaning is not