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
A88797	The penitent lady: or Reflections on the mercy of God. Written by the fam'd Madam La Valliere, since her retirement from the French king's court to a nunnery. Translated from the French by L.A. M.A.; Reflexions sur la misericorde de Dieu. English. 1685	La Vallière, Françoise-Louise de La Baume Le Blanc, duchesse de, 1644-1710.	1685 (1685)	Wing L623H; ESTC R179362	31,041	152

whence springs all my Misery 't is from this that instead of serving thee in Spirit and in Truth instead of making thy Glory the end of all my thoughts words and actions I persue after nothing but the gratification of my irregular Lusts Let me be never so rash and so ungrateful unto thee O my God as to fancy my self the Author of those Reflections which I somtimes make when I retire my self from the hurry of this world wherein an unquencheable appetite torments the most happy persons and renders them miserable slaves even by the accomplishment of their most earnest desires REFLECT V. The Thoughts of a penitent Soul fearful of being deceiv'd by the Appearance of a False Conversion WHat am I my Lord and my God what am I but a proud Atome a poor blind creature who continually goes astray when thou withholdst the Rays of thy Grace I deserve to be annihilated if at any time I should attempt the conversion of my self by my own power without the assistance of thy Grace Mortifie in my soul all vain glory every thing that tempts me to too good an opinion of my self but chiefly that frothiness of humour which serves only to divert me from thy ways to deprive me of the benefit of my afflictions and the sweet comfort ●f thy Holy Spirit Give me humility and distrust ●f my own reason let me thirst ●fter doing good more and car●al knowledge less lest valuing 〈◊〉 more than thy grace I lose my ●elf and instead of becoming a ●ood Christian become a Phi●osopher better acquainted ●ith the Maxims of Aristotle and ●escartes than the knowledge ●f the Cross O how vain and deceitful are ●he thoughts of man unless go●ern'd by that Wisdom which is ●rom above by that Wisdom ●hich is Foolishness to the World because it is unacquainted ●ith it by that Wisdom which ●od has concealed from the ●roud and discovered to the ●umble by that Wisdom which ●aughs at humane subtilty and ●cts only according to the grace of Jesus Christ In short 〈◊〉 that Wisdom which is produc●● by the Fear of God and whi●● is the beginning and the end 〈◊〉 all true Wisdom Permit me not O my God t●● flatter my self that I hate all si●● because I am perhaps restraine● from Luxury and passion Le● me not flatter my self that 〈◊〉 am taken off from loving th● Creature because my diversion● are innocent Let me not flatter my self tha● I have mortified my passions fo● I find them revive with mo●● strength then ever and encli●● me to self-love which is th● more dangerous decause by j●● stifying these irregular motion● it renders me deaf to the dictate● of my reason and the holy in spirations of thy grace Let me not fancy my self to b● without pride ambition sel●-love because I despise the World ●●d scorn to owe those Honours ●ortune has stripp'd me of to ●●ything else but my ovvn deserts Let me not so much deceive my ●●lf as to think I am throughly ●●nverted when indeed I have ●●ly chang'd the sins of sense ●●r those of the mind A pro●●ane proud and fensual Life 〈◊〉 which I was always tormented 〈◊〉 reflecting on my Crimes and ●●e remorse of my Conscience ●●r a life in which my whole en●eavour is to gratifie self love ●nd enjoy the pleasures of the World and in the mean while ●se my precious time forget my ●od hazard the salvation of my ●oul obtain nothing but the Mo●ality of a Heathen which alone ●ill not save me at the day of Judgment O state truly deplorable ●nd the more so because I am ●ot sensible of my condition but rest satisfied without endeavouring after any other Repentanc● or Conversion REFLECT VI. Vpon the Opposition of a Worldl● Life to the suffering Life o● Jesus Christ TEach me O Lord that thi● sort of life is not the life of a Christian and that the end of Christ's Death and Incarnation was not to instate us in so delicate and effeminate a life as might gratifie sense and indulge the flesh and that all Moral Vertues are but dead Works unless enlivened by the Merits and Vertue of Jesus Christ That unless the inclinations of our hearts are changed it will nothing avail a sinner to reform his outward conversation to ●ate the World without love to God to do works of Justice without sincere Repentance and as the Royal Psalmist has it ●o cease from evil without doing good At the same time O Lord that thou destroyest my sinful Habits plant in my soul such Graces as may be fruitful to Good Works Grant that by a lively Faith I may meditate on the Mysteries of thy Life and Passion That my soul may be deeply affected with them and that it may be my greatest pleasure to contemplate those Sufferings which thou didst willingly undergo for my sake That beholding the Divine infant lying on the Straw and in a Manger the Treasures of Heaven vailed in the Poverty of the Earth I may contemn all those Riches which endure but for a moment and endeavour to obtain those incorruptible treasures which Moth and Ruct do not corrupt which will never fly away That the consideration of that private life in which thou wast pleased to disguise thy self from the eyes of the world may create in me a desire to be forgotten by it that I may retire and employ my self only in the great business of my salvation That rhe receiving of thy holy body and precious blood those sacred pledges of thy love which thou wast pleas'd to leave us when thou gavest thy life for our offences may produce in me a holy horrour at the consideration of the cause of thy Death and a detestation of all sin That I may rejoice and be exceeding glad when I shall be disgrac'd and contemned remembring my Saviour's humility who was set at nought by Herod and the Court where he never appear'd but once and then on purpose to be despised That those Scourges which rent thy Sacred Body those Thorns which pierced thy Precious Head may penetrate my callous heart render me truly penitent and willing for the love of thee to undergo all those rigours of Mortification and Self-denial which are requisite for the subduing of our Lusts In fine that the consideration of thy ignominious death on the Cross on which thou perfectest the work of my salvation in grief and misery may be my only hope REFLECT VII What the Hope of a Penitent Soul ought to be THis is the second Favour I desire of thee for the Merits of that precious Blood which trickled from thy Sacred Wounds and which thou didst offer to thy Eternal Father for the price of my Redemption That thou wouldst be pleas'd to give me a true hope in thy Mercies I say Lord a true hope because there is nothing more common than to abuse thy Mercy by making it an incouragement to sin more securely than for sinners to hope in thy goodness without so much as endeavouring

this World Have compassion on my indigence and inconstancy which divert me from any thing that is good and maugre the light of Faith render tll my good Works abortive O God who lovest us more than we can love our selves and who out of thy infinite goodness hast rescued me from a false hope by which I should have been flattered into final impenitence and thus hast sav'd me contrary to my own inclination Give me a solid hope in thy Divine Merits let me consider them as the only Object of my Trust and principally when the Devil tempts me to dispair and employs all his artifices by the interposition of my sins and frailties to eclipse the contemplation of thy Merits In this day of my affliction and distress O my God fix my eyes upon my blessed Saviour dying on the Cross for my sins and miserably torn by those furrows which the Scourges made upon his back Let me consider that thou didst endure all this to obtain pardon for my sins and to encourage me to the taking up of thy Cross upon which depends all my hopes of Salvation Let me contemplate in thy Sacred Wounds the right I a notorious sinner have to hope in thy Mercies Let the hope of a blessed Eternity and the immutability of thy Promises take off my Meditations from the vain and fleeting Enjoyments of this World which hinder my Soul from aspiring to Eternal Felicity For thou knowest O Lord how little stability there is in my best Desires and how speedily the impressions of thy Grace on my heart are defac'd by the vain Idea's of worldly pleasure How the hopes of some trifle some vain lust puffs up my Soul how the Honours and Applause of this World makes me giddy and drunk with the fumes of Vain-glory In fine Lord thou knowest much better than I my self how pliable I am to receive any impression of evil how averse to any ●hing which is good and how unstable in the ways of thy Commandments This is the reason O Lord ●hat I put no confidence in my self that my heart converts it self to thee in all its wants and ●n the day of adversity To thee O Lord who enlightenest the darkest recesses of my mind who possessest me with patience under the severest afflictions and art the Anchor of my Soul Here is Lord my Merit my Riches and my Refuge when the consideration of my wicked life terrifies me Here is Lord my comfort in this vale of Tears and Spiritual Warfare wherein my Soul is made the Scene of all sorts of passions In fine This makes me hope more than fear and rely on thy Mercies rather than dread of thy Justice Ah Lord since I know by experience that thou art a sure Help to those that trust in thee Teach me to relie upon thee in my greatest Extremities to rejoyce in thy Chastisements and to look upon them as marks of thy favour Assist me patiently to undergo them and assure me that thou wilt lay upon me no more than I am able to bear but wilt take thy Rod from me when it shall be conveucent for the health of my Soul Let me be fully assur'd that thy Grace will in thy good time remove all Obstacles which obstruct my Salvation that my Sufferings and the malice of my Enemies will have an end but that thy Mercies endure for ever that after I have fought the good fight here on Earth I shall receive a Crown of ●lory in Heaven for thou ma●est the Rays of thy Grace to ●hine upon the just and the un●ust which at the same time ●elt down the humbe Soul into 〈◊〉 sincere repentance and harden ●he habitual and obdurate sin●er to the end that the one ●hould not be tempted to Presume or the other to Dispair ●ut all remain in a continual dependence upon thy Grace Let me not then O my God be in the number of those who will be astonished and confounded at the Great Day because they have rejected thy Grace for I cast my self wholly upon thy Mercy which is infinite and knows no bounds without any reserve or confidence in my own merits But O Lord because Faith and Hope and all other Vertues will avail me nothing without Charity because tho' I could remove Mountains and work all sorts of Miracles yet my works would be dead and sinful unless season'd by thy Love Give me therefore in the third place that Charity which is the Crown of all other Vertues and the Soul of our Good Works I would say Lord Give me a fervent and a faithful Love to thee whereby I shall easily overcome all seeming impossibilities and satisfie the thirst of my panting Soul after a sincere Conversion unto thee REFLECT XI She Prays to God for a New Heart inflam'd with his Love FOr a Foundation of that Miraculous Work which one very truly calls the chiefest Work of thy Grace Create in me O my God a New Heart a humble yet an resolute steady and couragious heart estranged from the World and its Vanities and in short a true Christian heart which may possess me with the love of thee enable me to expose my Life and Fortunes for the Confession of thy Name and render me Obedient to the Foolishness of the Cross in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation amongst whom it is esteem'd a scandal to be Religious A heart which will love thee in the midst of the severest Tryals resisting the Concupiscence of the Flesh mortifying its corrupt Appetites and irregular Desires A heart which will love thee when I am call'd upon to evidence that love by loving my Enemies and returning them Good for Evil. A heart which for the love of thee will deny it self when there is any competition between the Creature and the Creatour which will silence all the importunities of Nature that it may become more obedient to the voice of thy Grace A heart which will love thee when it must suffer for it and will be content I should sacrifice my reputation and honour to thy Glory in imitation of thy humble Life and opprobrious Death upon the Cross A heart which for the love of thee will relinquish the favour of the Court prefer thy Service before the Splendour of my Family or whatsoever is most dear to me demonstrating hereby that my love to thee surpasses that of the World Lastly Grant O my God that 〈◊〉 may love thee not only for thy benefits when thou blessest me with prosperity and the abundance of good things in this World but also when I am in disgrace poverty or any other Affliction Learn me then to submit to the dispensations of thy Providence and become more conformable to thy Divine Will For O Lord what testimonies can I give thee of my love which will in the least answer thy love to me nay which are not infinitely surpass'd by those favours thou hast been pleased to confer upon me REFLECT XII If the Soul finds any thing in th●