Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	dead_a	faith_n	lively_a	5,187	5	10.6802	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

But these are covetous men and delight not in the Law but in profit Many delight in the Law because they desire to sit in Moses chaire but these are ambitious men and delight not in the Law but in honour Many delight in the Law because it teacheth many hidden and secret mysteries but these are vaine men and delight not in the Law but in superfluous knowledge Many delight in the Law but onely to passe away the time as thinking it better otiosum esse quàm nihil agere but these are scandalous men and delight not in the Law but in idle fancies Many delight in the Law as Neoptolemus in Philosophy Philosophandum sed 〈◊〉 a little serves their turne and if the other sorts were all of them defective in substance this sort surely is defective in quantity those had not the right stuffe this hath not the just measure and so wee are little the neerer yet for finding out any markes of true delighting in the Law of God And how then shall we come to know the delighting which is true and perfect from that which is counterfeit and defective shall wee say it must be a delighting onely or but only chiefely Not onely for so wee should delight in nothing else and who doubts but there are many other delights which both Nature requires and God himselfe allowes therefore not onely but chiefely yet so chiefely as in a manner onely for chiefely is properly where there may be comparison but this is so chiefely as admits of no comparison In presence of this all other delights doe lose their light In ballance with this all other delights are found to be light And this is even intimated in the word it selfe used by the Prophet here which is Kephets and signifies a delight that takes up the whole will and leaves no plus ultra in our desires which as it onely is and onely can be so it onely must and onely ought to be true of our delighting in the Law of God Other delights may have their fits but no Kephets but onely this We may take delight in a care of our estates which is a provident and therefore a commendable delight For he that provides not for his family is worse than an Infidell yet it must not be our Kephets for corpus aggravat animam multa cogitantem much caring for the world makes the soule heavie and presseth it downe from ascending towards heaven We may take delight in wife children which is a naturall and therefore a commendable delight for no man ever hated his owne flesh yet it must not be our Kephets For hee that loves father or mother wife or children better than Christ is not worthy or Christ. Wee may take delight in bodily exercises which is a healthfull and therefore a commendable delight for he that neglects the care of his health is within compasse of being Felo dese a murtherer of himselfe yet it must not be our Kephets for Nimia cura corporis est incuria animi too much care taken of the body shewes there is but little care taken of the minde But why stand wee angling for markes of true delighting in the Law of God when the Prophet himselfe gives us a marke here that may be Instar omnium a marke that never failes that he who delights in the Law of God will be exercising himselfe in it day and night For it seemes to be here as betweene Faith and Workes that as Saint Iames saith Shew mee thy Faith by thy workes so we may say shew me thy delighting by thy exercising For as it is but a dead Faith that brings not forth the finit of good workes so it is but a fained delight that brings not forth the worke of exercising and as it is but an unsound Faith that workes but intermittingly and by fits so it is but an aguish delighting that hath its heat but at turnes and seasons but where wee see a constancy of good workes as wee may be bold to say there is a lively and sound faith so where wee see a continuall exercising we may be confident to say there is a true delighting The working shewes a life of Faith the constancy of working a true temper of that life The exercising shewes a delighting the continuance of exercising a sincerity of that delighting But will not this continuall exercising in the Law of God get men the name of common Barrettours and make them accounted troublesome fellowes amongst their neighbours as of whom it may be said they are never well but when they are going to Law Indeed the Law of man where summum Ius is summa injurie and where might oftentimes overcomes right may be subjest perhaps to such obloquie but not the Law of God For this is not a Law where the weakest goes to the wall but this Law is a wall to the weakest the delighting in this Law is not a going to Law but a Law to our going as it is said Thy Law is a light to our feete a light not onely to our eyes to make us see the right way but to our feet also to make us walke the right way and it is so farre from making us to become enemies to our neighbours that it makes us to become neighbours to our enemies for of this Law it is said it suffers all things it endureth all things it seeketh not her owne but if any man will take our Coat from us it makes us contented to let him have our Cloake also The delighting in the Law of God is that divine contemplation by which wee see God as in a Glasse and is the onely true way to our only true felicity though there be men that thinke they can tell of better contemplations and better waies to happinesse than David seemes to know or will at least acknowledge For if they should but name the contemplation which is contemplari nummos in arca or the meditation which is Meditari inauia or the pleasure of which it said Trahit sua quemque voluptas the worst of these would be a better delight and a better way of happinesse than this of Davids But these mens blindnesse must not leade us into the ditch For these delights they speake of are the very blockes that lie in our way and hinder us from happinesse they are the very weights that hang heavie upon the soule and keepe it from rising to the true heighth of divine contemplation and if a man whose minde were once raised up to this heighth should afterward descend and take a view of the world hee would even be astonished to see men that pretend to reason and would be thought wise be so simple as to take delight in their weights and to take a pleasure in their clogs and so sillily to leave the delight of heavenly meditation to follow these vaine and foolish things which the world admires And indeede what but this made our Prophet here in another place breake out into his