Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	evil_a	good_a	tree_n	33,809	5	11.7409	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77662	A paradox usefull for the times.	Browne, Edward.	1642 (1642)	Wing B5103; Thomason E126_21; ESTC R21739	6,693	10

A PARADOX Usefull for the Times Gentle Reader AS a preludium to the ensuing discourse I would intreate you to take notice that some Sheetes of printed Paper that flies up and downe the Streetes of this City in Mercuries hands are worthy of high estimation such are those Observations Protestations and Messages that truly passe betweene our gracious Soveraigne and his two Houses of Parliament and some of our eloquent Tullies and learned Demosthenes Orations and Petitions that adhere to King and Parliament but other Pamphlets that are against both are little to be regarded such is your lying Diurnals your absurd Passages your diabolicall newes from Heaven your horrible terrible and fearefull tydings and such like and to some of these I have seen an Order a Vote or the Clarke of Parliaments name inserted But I beleeve the Honourable House or Clarkes never did intend such things and therefore rather thinke that the covetous Stationers doth it to make their Bookes sell But such things being suffered and winked at I doe greatly feare will be a cause of ruine to this Kingdome In filling peoples mindes full of jealousies both against King and Parliament For the people of England being a free State feare as great a tyrannicall jurisdiction in an Aristocraticall or Democraticall government as they doe in the knowne Monarchicall State of the Kingdome In consideration whereof I having plaid the foole to print 36. Sheetes of Paper at my own charge being neither against King nor Parliement but for both I was bold to cast one shee●e of my diastrous losses into the Presse And having acted my part therein I thought good for the vindication of my reputation in this kinde of publique writing to let this Paradox passe the Presse likewise By which I will briefly and plainly prove That oftentimes good doth come of evill wisdome from folly and light out of darknesse Yet Truth it selfe saith That a good tree cannot bring forth evill fruit neither can a bad tree bring forth good fruit For answere whereunto It is true that a regenerate soule though some Leaves of his profession may wither for want of fervent zeale in the time of temptation and though some rotten branches of bad actions may remaine upon him for want of carefull diligence yet if he be sound at the heart these leaves may be driven away by the tempestuous windes of afflictions or pruned off with the sharp knife of Repentance and the tree will not be much the worse but rather the better for instead of these old branches and leaves there will spring strong sprigs and wholesome fruit Contrary though an evill man may make a glorious shew of his profession to God-ward and do some good workes of justice and charity towards his neighbour to be seen of men yet if they doe not spring from the roote of a true saving justifying faith he is but as the accursed Fig-tree that quickly withers away in the time of temptation or in the day of affliction But from hence let none judge rashly of any mans election or reprobation but judge charitably of all though you may know them by their fruits to learne to doe better or to imitate their vertues Yet notwithstanding this objection I will affirme my assertion to be true That God hath can will and doth daily bring evill out of good wisdome out of folly and light out of darknesse That God hath done this in former times I can prove by many testimonies but I will instance only in two The first shall be of our first Parents They did very evill in eating of the forbidden fruit in doing evill they committed folly and so did sin against the command of God and by that sin did walk in darkness according to Christs rule for they knew not whither to goe to hide themselves from the all-searching eye of omniscience Now for this evill God sends the promised Messias the seed of the woman according to the fulnesse of time In hope whereof the Fathers Patriarchs and Prophets lived a godly and religious life which by Divines is reputed to be a greater blessing than Adams being in Paradise for that was an earthly Lordship but by this he is heire ●pparent and joynt-heire with Christ of a heavenlie inheritance for there he was to be but a man but in heaven he shall bee as the Angels nay more as the Son of God Thus the wisdome of God the Father was given for the folly of man and for his sensuall blindnesse he had heavenly illuminations Secondly see this farther illustrated in the second Adam Christ did not that Traytor Judas very evill in betraying his Lord and Master with a kisse And for a few pieces of refined earth to sell a heavenly inheritance Did not the Jews as bad to seek the death of their Messias and exclude a murtherer Did not Pilate as bad as any in giving judgement against an innocent contrary to his owne knowledge and the counsell of his wife And were not the souldiers vile wretches to revile and spit upon a meeke and quiet Lambe in whose mouth was no guile found And were they not all fooles to put him to death that could only give them life Did they not walke in darknesse that blinded their eyes against the Son of righteousnesse Therefore it appeareth plainly they loved darknesse better than light and accordingly they had it for sure that was a dismall day to Judas when he went and hanged himselfe so that for very paine and vexation of spirit his bowels gushed out an example to all Traytors and was it not as black a day to Pilate when after he had caused many of the Jews and his owne souldiers to be slaine he went and killed himselfe and are not the Jewes ever since in a cloud and mist of darknesse knowing not whither they goe being vagabonds upon the face of the earth and dispersed and hated of all Nations Now see what good this evill brought It is plaine It brought forth the blood of Christ for the redemption of mankinde one drop whereof were able to save ten thousand worlds It is the beleevers lavor wherein he bathes his leprous soule and comes out as white as Snow for by the bloody death and bitter passion of Jesus crucified he doth as truly trample upon sin death and hell as if he had himselfe performed the same Now what greater benefit than the salvation of the soule None surely Againe out of their folly did arise wisdome to his redeemed even the best of all for the knowledge of Christ Jesus crucified is more and above all the wisdome in the world I desire nothing saith holy Paul but the knowledge of Christ Jesus and him crucified Is not here then great light for darknesse wisdome for folly and good for evill wee see it apparent it hath been so behold it in the second degree that it may and can now be so For God is as able and as willing as ever he was then consider the time wherein

we live Is it not reported for certaine That the Kings favourites and the Lordly Gentlemen did intend to bring up a Tyrannicall jurisdiction over the Commons of England Scotland and Ireland as it is in France did they not attempt it by Monopolies Projects exaction in Courts of justice and other wayes was this well done No sure it was very ill Did not the Lordly Bishops and imperious Clergy seek to Lord it over Gods Inheritance so to eat the honey of the poore labouring Bee to make themselves fat like idle Drones was this well done Surely no It was very ill Againe It is said That some would have an Aristocraticall government in this Island that hath been so many yeares a free Monarchy thereby to make the Prince a Subject to his Nobles and the Commons slaves to many imperious Lords will this bewell Surely no but very ill for I had rather be subject to one Royall King and his officers then be under so many distinct Lords and their favourites as I here it is beyond the Sea where they are inforced to pay for their owne meat and drinke and be exacted of all their labour which would be as grievous to an ingenuous spirit as the Aegyptian bondage Againe there is of late sprung up a strange kinde of Pharisaicall Teachers who though in words they despise the kingdome of Antichrist yet their deeds establish it And because they would make people beleeve that all they utter is by the Spirit they scorne the words of Christ at the close of their Sermons give God thanks that they have forgotten the Lords Prayer and because they would seeme to excell the Law and the Prophets they expunge the fifth Commandement out of the Decalogue and that you may see they have a Revelation above the Apostles they cancell the 5. Article in their Creed And thus they preach chusing a Text from whence they draw an observation as far from it as the East is from VVest Another he railes non-sense against the Booke of Common-Prayer for its well composed repetitions and never considers his own vain babling another is angry that Cheapside Crosse hath more gold than he hath in his purse another like Diogenes in a Tub b●bbles he knowes not what and because the Church hath been used by Papists he is afraid to come into it c. Are these things well done surely no. Wherein we shew our folly and contemning light we walk in darknesse so that we know not whether wee goe nor what to doe for these differences raised the bloody rebellion in Ireland and doth now threaten destruction to this Kingdome But God is the same God still hee can and will when he sees best bring out of all these evills much good in a well composed Monarchicall government By this all men may learne wisdome and grave Senators understanding and out of all this darknesse of error and blindnesse we may walke in the cleare light and so shine Brighter and brighter till it be perfect day that so the Lord may continue to be unto us a good and a gracious God and we may continue to be unto him a chosen generation a royall Priesthood a holy Nation a peculiar people even his own pleasant plant Thirdly and lastly That good doth daily spring out of evill I would prove by many Presidents but I will only instance in my selfe For I have lately made two Books the one entituled Annuall world and sacred Poems the other A rare pattern of justice and mercy with a Meteor a Star which I thought was a good work and is so approved in it selfe by many judicious and learned men but my ends was bad for I did them for by respects and not chiefly for the glory of God which I will illustrate in this fable following It is by Poets reported that Phaeton the too adventrous son of Sob and Clymene having with much intreaty obtained of his Father Phoebus the guiding of his Chariot for one day and being utterly unable to performe such an enterprise let the horses raines slip and had thereby almost set the whole world on fire scorching Aethiopia and many other places till at length Jupiter perceiving his boldnesse and fearing to be burnt himselfe struck him with a Thunderbolt and he fell into the River Eridanus now called Po or Padus which fable as it doth lively represent the picture of inconsiderate and ambitious men in generall so in particular it is verified in me for notwithstanding the grave advice of my late judicious loving Master Sir James Cambell and other my friends who wish● me to surcease my fruitlesse labour in making Bookes especially now in this paper-age wherein many strive to vent the froth of their inventions into the Presse so that lying and scandalous Pamphlets fly about the City in every corner and prove vendible ware whereas solid and learned mens workes are nothing regarded And for mee to trouble my selfe in making Bookes who never came within the view of double topt Parnassus I meane the two Universities of this Island and never proceeded beyond the Rudiments of learning I meane the Grammer it could not chuse but prove a fruitlesse labour Yet having for some small time conversed with Star-crowned Vrania that soul-ravishing and heavenly Muse I could not rest satisfied with a little taste of her divine Nactor till I had so intoxicated my sences that in a frantique humour I have set the frame of heaven in a combustion for I have stated the Sun Moon and Stars upon such improper objects as may cause amazement to the beholders Therefore it is no wonder if with the said Phaeton or rather with foolish Icarus if I with the wings of a vaine hope and as you may thinke an unadvised pride striving to ascend into a Bright firmament of favour am cast down into an ocean of contempt and disdaine Herein was my folly and thus to obtaine Bright I have walked in darknesse But yet to vindicate my reputation in this particular these Books may not unfitly be compared to those holy waters Ezekiel saw flow out of the Sanctuary which from a shallow Forde no deeper then his ancles became a River impassable and I my selfe may not unfitly be compared to kinde hearted Leander a young man in Abidos who for the love of Ero a beautifull Damsell of Sestos did oftentimes in the night swim over the narrow Sea of Hellespont it being between those two Townes to obtain the society of his Love But at length one night the Sea being rough he was drowned so I in like manner have oftentimes waded over these waters but at the first I only drencht my foot as is to be seen in Libro Amoris and by many chearefull perambulatious and loving welcomes I had free and easie accesse to my love at the next time those Poeticall waters flowed up to my ancles as appeareth in sacred Poems and with much alacrity I oft visited her but then these divine waters began to flow up