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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	keep_v	religion_n	unspotted_a	1,921	5	12.0777	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64109	The rule and exercises of holy living. In which are described the means and instruments of obtaining every vertue, 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 fitted to all occasions, and furnish'd for all necessities.	Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.; Vaughan, Robert, engraver.	1650 (1650)	Wing T371; ESTC R203748	252,635	440

that we have being thy Debtors by reason of our sins and by thy own gracious contract made with us in Jesus Christ teach me in the first place to perform all my Obligations to thee both of duty and thankfulnesse and next enable me to pay my duty to all my friends and my debts to all my Creditors that none bee made miserable or lessened in his estate by his kindenesse to me or traffick with me Forgive me all those sins and irregular actions by which I entered into debt further then my necessity required or by which such necessity was brought upon me but let not them suffer by occasion of my sin Lord reward all their kindnesse into their bosomes and make them recompence where I cannot and make me very willing in all that I can and able for all that I am oblig'd to or if it seem good in thine eyes to afflict me by the continuance of this condition yet make it up by some means to them that the prayer of thy servant may obtain of thee at least to pay my debt in blessings Amen II. LOrd sanctifie and forgive all that I have tempted to evil by my discourse or my example instruct them in the right way whom I have lead to errour let me never run further on the score of sinne but do thou blot out all the evils I have done by the spunge of thy passion and the blood of thy Crosse and give me a deep and an excellent repentance and a free and a gracious pardon that thou mayest answer for me O Lord and enable me to stand upright in judgement for in thee O Lord have I trusted let me never be confounded Pity me and instruct me guide me and support me pardon me and save me for my sweet Saviour Jesus Christ his sake Amen A Prayer for Patron and Benefactours O Almighty GOD thou Fountain of all good of all excellency both to Men and Angels extend thine abundant favour and loving kindnesse to my Patron to all my friends and Benefactors Reward them and make them plentiful recompence for all the good which from thy merciful providence they have conveyed unto me Let the light of thy countenance shine upon them and let them never come into any affliction or sadnesse but such as may be an instrument of thy glory and their eternal comfort Forgive them all their sins let thy Divinest Spirit preserve them from all deeds of Darknesse Let thy ministring Angels guard their persons from the violence of the spirits of Darknesse And thou who knowest every degree of their necessity by thy infinite wisdom give supply to all their needs by thy glorious mercy preserving their persons sanctifying their hearts and leading them in the wayes of righteousnesse by the waters of comfort to the land of eternal rest and glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen CHAP. IV. Of Christian Religion REligion in a large sense does signifie the whole duty of Man comprehending in it Justice Charity and Sobriety because all these being commanded by God they become a part of that honour and worship which we are bound to pay to him And thus the word is used in S. Iames Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this To visit the fatherlesse and Widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world But in a more restrained sense it is taken for that part of duty which particularly relates to God in our worshippings and adoration of him in confessing his excellencies loving his person admiring his goodnesse believing his Word and doing all that which may in a proper and direct manner do him honour It containes the duties of the first Table onely and so it is called Godlinesse and is by Saint Paul distinguished from Iustice and Sobriety In this sense I am now to explicate the parts of it Of the internal actions of Religion Those I call the internal actions of Religion in which the soul onely is imployed and ministers to God in the special actions of Faith Hope and Charity Faith believes the revelations of God Hope expects his promises and Charity loves his excellencies and mercies Faith gives our understanding to God Hope gives up all the passions and affections to Heaven and heavenly things and Charity gives the will to the service of God Faith is oppos'd to Infidelity Hope to Despair Charity to Enmity and Hostility and these three sanctifie the whole Man and make our duty to God and obedience to his Commandments to be chosen reasonable and delightful and therefore to be intire persevering and universal SECT I. Of Faith The Acts and Offices of Faith are 1. TO believe every thing which God hath revealed to us and when once we are convinced that God hath spoken it to make no further enquiry but humbly to submit ever remembring that there are some things which our understanding cannot fathom nor search out their depth 2. To believe nothing concerning God but what is honourable and excellent as knowing that belief to be no honoring of God which entertains of him any dishonourable thoughts Faith is the parent of Charity and whatsoever Faith entertains must be apt to produce love to God but he that believes God to be cruel or unmerciful or a rejoycer in the unavoidable damnation of the greatest part of mankinde or that he speaks one thing and privately means another thinks evil thoughts concerning God and such as for which we should hate a man and therefore are great enemies of Faith being apt to destroy charity Our Faith concerning God must be as himself hath revealed and described his own excellencies and in our discourses we must remove from him all imperfection and attribute to him all excellency 3. To give our selves wholly up to Christ in heart and desire to become Disciples of his doctrine with choice besides conviction being in the presence of God but as Ideots that is without any principles of our own to hinder the truth of God but sucking in greedily all that God hath taught us believing it infinitely and loving to believe it For this is an act of Love reflected upon Faith or an act of Faith leaning upon Love 4. To believe all Gods promises and that whatsoever is promised in Scripture shall on Gods part be as surely performed as if we had it in possession This act makes us to rely upon God with the same confidence as we did on our Parents when we were children when we made no doubt but whatsoever we needed we should have it if it were in their power 5. To believe also the conditions of the promise or that part of the revelation which concerns our duty Many are apt to believe the Article of remission of sins but they believe it without the condition of repentance or the fruits of holy life and that is to believe the Article otherwise then God intended it For the Covenant of the Gospel is the great object of Faith and

receive the Holy Communion when it is offered unlesse some great reason excuse it this being the great solemnity 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 op portunity visit sick persons reconcile differences do offices of Neighbourhood inquire into the needs of the poor especially house-keepers relieve them as they shall need and as you are able for then we truely rejoyce in God when we make our neighbours the poor members of Christ rejoyce together with us 6. Whatsoever you are to do your self as necessary you are to take care that others also who are under your charge do in their station manner Let your servants be called to Church and all your family that can be spared from necessary great houshold ministeries those that cannot let them go by turns and be supplyed otherwise as well as they may and provide on these dayes especially that they be instructed in the articles of faith and necessary parts of their duty 7. Those who labour hard in the week must be eased upon the Lords day such ease being a great charity and alms but at no hand must they be permitted to use any unlawful games any thing forbidden by the laws any thing that is scandalous or any thing that is dangerous and apt to mingle sin with it no games prompting to wantonnesse to drunkennesse to quarrelling to ridiculous and superstitious customs but let their refreshments be innocent and charitable and of good report and not exclusive of the duties of religion 8. Beyond these bounds because neither God nor man hath passed any obligation upon us we must preserve our Christian liberty and not suffer our selves to be intangled with a yoke of bondage for even a good action may become a snare to us if we make it an occasion of scruple by a pretence of necessity binding loads upon the conscience not with the bands of God but ●f men and of fancy or of opinion or of tyranny Whatsoever is laid upon us by the hands of man must be acted and accounted of by the measures of a man but our best measure is this He keeps the Lords day best that keeps it with most religion and with most charity 9. What the Church hath done in the article of the resurrection she hath in some measure done in the other articles of the Nativity of the Ascension and of the Descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost And so great blessings deserve an anniversary solemnity since he is a very unthankful person that does not often record them in the whole year and esteem them the ground of his hopes the object of his faith the comfort of his troubles and the great effluxes of the divine mercy greater then all the victories over our temporal enemies for which all glad persons usually give thanks And if with great reason the memory of the resurrection does return solemnly every week it is but reason the other should return once a year * To which I adde that the commemoration of the articles of our Creed in solemn dayes and offices is a very excellent instrument to convey and imprint the sense and memory of it upon the spirits of the most ignorant person For as a picture may with more fancy convey a story to a man then a plain narrative either in word or writing so a real representment and an office of remembrance and a day to declare it is f●r more impressive then a picture or any other art of making and fixing imagery 10. The memories of the Saints are precio●s to God and therefore they ought also to be so to us and such persons who served God by holy living industrious preaching and religious dying ought to have their names preserved in honour and God be glorified in them and their holy doctrines and lives published and imitated and we by so doing give testimony to the article of the communion of Saints But in these cases as every Church is to be sparing in the number of dayes so also should she be temperate in her injunctions not imposing them but upon voluntary and unbusied persons without snare or burden But the Holy day is best kept by giving God thanks for the excellent persons Apostles or Martyrs we then remember and by imitating their lives this all may do and they that can also keep the solemnity must do that too when it is publickly enjoyned The mixt actions of religion are 1. Prayer 2. Alms. 3. Repentance 4. Receiving the blessed Sacrament Sect. 7. Of Prayer THere is no greater argument in the world of our spiri●ual danger and unwillingness to religion then the backwardnesse which most men have alwayes and all men have sometimes to say their prayers so weary of their length so glad when they are done so witty to excuse and frustrate an opportunity and yet all is nothing but a desiring of God to give us the greatest and the best things we can need and which can make us happy it is a work so easy so honourable and to so great purpose that in all the instances of religion and providence except onely the incarnation of his Son God hath not given us a greater argument of his willingnesse to have us saved and of our unwillingnesse to accept it his goodnesse and our gracelessenesse his infinite condescension and our carelessenesse and folly then by rewarding so easy a duty with so great blessings Motives to prayer I cannot say any thing beyond this very consideration its appendages to invite Christian people to pray often But we may consider That first it is a duty commanded by God and his holy Son 2. It is an act of grace and highest honour that we dust and ashes are admitted to speak to the Eternal God to run to him as to a Father to lay open our wants to complain of our burdens to explicate our scruples to beg remedy and ease support and counsel health and safety deliverance and salvation and 3. God hath invited us to it by many gracious promises of hearing us 4. He hath appointed his most glorious Son to be the president of prayer and to make continual intercession for us to the throne of grace 5. He hath appointed an Angel to present the prayers of his servants and 6. Christ unites them to his own and sanctifies them and makes them effective and prevalent and 7. Hath put it into the hands of men to rescind or alter all the decrees of God which are of one kinde that is conditional and concerning our selves and our final estate and many instances of our intermedial or temporal by the power of prayers 8. And the prayers of men have saved cities and kingdoms from ruine prayer hath raised dead men to life hath stopped the violence of fire shut the mouths of wilde beasts hath altered the course of nature caused rain in Egypt and drowth in the sea

immortal felicity and beauty is not made by white or red by black eyes a round face by a strait body and a smooth skin but by a proportion to the fancy No rules can make amability our mindes apprehensions make that and ●o is our felicity and we may be reconcil'd to poverty and a low fortune if we suffer contentednesse and the grace of God to make the proportions For no man is poor that does not think himself so But if in a full fortune with impatience he desires more he proclaims his wants and his beggerly condition But because this grace of contentednesse was the sum of all the old moral Philosophy and a great duty in Christianity and of most universal use in the whole course of our lives and the onely instrument to ease the burdens of the World and the enmities of sad chances it will not be amisse to presse it by the proper arguments by which God hath bound it upon our spirits it being fastned by Reason and Religion by duty and interest by necessity and conveniency by example and by the proposition of excellent rewards no lesse then peace and felicity 1. Contentednesse in all estates is a duty of Religion it is the great reasonablenesse of complying with the Divine Providence which governes all the World and hath so ordered us in the administration of his great Family He were a strange fool that should be angry because Dogs and Sheep need no shoes yet himself is full of care to get some God hath supplyed those needs to them by natural provisions and to thee by an artificial for he hath given thee reason to learn a trade or some means to make or buy them so that it onely differs in the manner of our provision and which had you rather want shoes or reason And my Patron that hath given me a Farm is freer to me then if he gives a loafe ready bak'd But however all these gifts come from him and therefore it is fit he should dispense them as he please and if we murmure here we may at the next melancholy be troubled that God did not make us to be Angels or Stars For if that which we are or have do not content us we may be troubled for every thing in the World which is besides our being or our possessions God is the Master of the Scenes we must not choose which part we shall act it concerns us onely to be careful that we do it well alwayes saying If this please God let it be as it is and we who pray that Gods will may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven must remember that the Angels do whatsoever is commanded them and go where ever they are sent and refuse no circumstances and if their imployment be crossed by a higher decree they sit down in peace and rejoyce in the event and when the Angel of Iudea could not prevail in behalf of the people committed to his charge because the Angel of Persia opposed it he onely told the story at the command of God and was as content and worshipped with as great an extasie in his proportion as the prevailing Spirit Do thou so likewise keep the station where God hath placed you and you shall never long for things without but sit at home feasting upon the Divine Providence and thy own reason by which we are taught that it is necessary and reasonable to submit to God For is not all the World Gods family Are not we his creatures Are we not as clay in the hand of the Potter Do we not live upon his meat and move by his strength and do our work by his light Are we any thing but what we are from him And shall there be a mutiny among the flocks and herd● because their Lord or their Shepherd chooses their pastures and suffers them not to wander into Deserts and unknowne wayes If we choose we do it so foolishly that we cannot like it long and most commonly not at all but God who can do what he please is wise to choose safely for us affectionate to comply with our needs and powerful to execute all his wise decrees Here therefore is the wisdome of the contented man to let God choose for him for when we have given up our wills to him and stand in that station of the battel where our great General hath placed us our spirits must needs rest while our conditions have for their security the power the wisdom and the charity of God 2. Contentednesse in all accidents brings great peace of spirit and is the great and onely instrument of temporal felicity It removes the sting from the accident and makes a man not to depend upon chance and the uncertain dispositions of men for his well being but onely on GOD and his own Spirit Wee our selves make our fortunes good or bad and when God le ts loose a Tyrant upon us or a sicknesse or scorne or a lessened fortune if we fear to dye or know not to be patient or are proud or covetous then the calamity sits heavy on us But if we know how to manage a noble principle and fear not Death so much as a dishonest action and think impatience a worse evil then a Feaver and Pride to be the biggest disgrace and poverty to be infinitely desirable before the torments of covetousnesse then we who now think vice to be so easie and make it so familiar and think the cure so impossible shall quickly be of another minde and reckon these accidents amongst things elegible But no man can be happy that hath great hopes and great fears of things without and events depending upon other men or upon the chances of Fortune The rewards of Vertue are certain and our provisions for our natural support are certain or if we want meat till we dye then we dye of that disease and there are many worse then to dye with an atrophy or Consumption or unapt and courser nourishment But he that suffers a transporting passion concerning things within the power of others is free from sorrow and amazement no longer then his enemy shall give him leave and it is ten to one but he shall be smitten then and there where it shall most trouble him for so the Adder ●eaches us where to strike by her curious and fearfull defending of her head The old Stoicks when you told them of a sad story would still answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What is that to me Yes for the Tyrant hath sentenced you also to prison Well! what is that He will put a chain upon my leg but he cannot binde my soul. No but he will kill you Then I 'le dye If presently let me go that I may presently be freer then himself but if not till anon or to morrow I will dine first or sleep or do what reason and nature calls for as at other times This in Gentile Philosophy is the same with the discourse

be happy with the expence of money and doing noble things 2. Riches are uselesse and unprofitable for beyond our needs and conveniences nature knowes no use of riches and they say that the Princes of Italy when they sup alone eate out of a single dish and drink in a plain glasse and the wife eats without purple for nothing is more frugal then the back and belly if they be used as they should but when they would entertain the eyes of strangers when they are vain and would make a noyse then riches come forth to set forth the spectacle and furnish out the Comedie of wealth of vanity No man can with all the wealth in the world buy so much skill as to be a good Lutenist he must go the same way that poor people do he must learn and take pains much lesse can he buy constancy or chastity or courage nay not so much as the contempt of riches and by possessing more then we need we cannot obtain so much power over our souls as not to require more And certainly riches must deliver me from no evil if the possession of them cannot take away the longing for them If any man be thirsty drink cools him If he be hungry ea●ing meat satisfies him and when a man is cold and calls for a warme cloak he is pleased if you give it him but you trouble him if you load him with six or eight cloaks Nature rests and sits still when she hath her portion but what which exceeds it is a trouble and a burden and therefore in true Philosophy No man is rich but he that is poor according to the common account for when God hath satisfied those needs which he made that is all that is natural whatsoever is beyond it is thirst and a disease and unlesse it be sent back again in charity or religion can serve no end but vice or vanity it can encrease the appetite to represent the man poorer and full of a new and artificial unnatural need but it never satisfies the need it makes or makes the man richer No wealth can satisfie the covetous desire of wealth 2. Riches are troublesome but the satisfaction of those appetites which God and nature ha●h made are cheap and easy for who ever paid use-money for bread and onions and water to keep him alive but when we cove● after houses of the frame and designe of Italy or long for jewels or for my next neighbours field or horses from Barbary or the richest perfumes of Arabia or Galatian mules or fat Eunuchs for our slaves from Tunis or rich coaches from Naples then we can never be satisfied till we have the best thing that is fancied and all that can be had and all that can be desired and that we can lust no more but before we come to the one half of our first wilde desires we are the bondmen of Usurers and of our worse tyrant appetites and the tortures of envy and impatience But I consider that those who drink on still when their thirst is quenched or eat even after they well dined are sorced to vomit not onely their superfluity but even that which at first was necessary so those that covet more then they can temperately use are oftentimes forced to part even with that patrimony which would have supported their persons in freedom and honour and have satisfied all their reasonable desires 4. Contentednesse is therefore health because covetousnesse is a direct sicknesse and it was well said of Aristippus as Plutarch reports him if any man after much eating and drinking be still unsatisfied he hath no need of more meat or more drink but of a Physician he more needs to be purged then to be filled and therefore since covetousnesse cannot be satisfied it must be cured by emptinesse and evacuation The man is without remedy unlesse he be reduced to the scantling of nature and the measures of his personal necessity Give to a poor man a house and a few cowes pay his little debt and set him on work and he is provided for and quiet but when a man enlarges beyond a fair possession desires another Lordship you spite him if you let him have it for by that he is one degree the further off from rest in his desires and satisfaction and now he sees himself in a bigger capacity to a larger fortune and he shall never finde his period till you begin to take away something of what he hath for then he wil begin to be glad to keep that which is left but reduce him to natures measures there he shall be sure to finde rest for there no man can desire beyond his belly full and when he wants that any one friend or charitable man can cure his poverty but all the world cannot satisfy his covetousnes 5. Covetousnesse is the most phantastical contradictory disease in the whole world and it must therefore be incurable because it strives against its own cure No man therefore abstains from meat because he is hungry nor from wine because he loves it and needs it but the covetous man does so for he desires it passionately because he sayes he needs it and when he hath it he will need it still because he dares not use it He gets cloaths because he cannot be without them but when he hath them then he can as if he needed c●rn for his granary cloaths for his wardrope more then for his back and belly For covetousness pretends to heap much together for fear of want and yet after all his pains and purchase he suffers that really which at first he feared vainly and by not using what he gets he makes that suffering to be actual present and necessary which in his lowest condition was but future contingent possible It stirs up the desire and takes away the pleasure of being satisfied It increases the appetite and will not content it it swells the principal to no purpose and lessens the use to all purposes disturbing the order of nature and the designes of God making money not to be the instrument of exchange or charity nor corn to feed himself or the poor nor wool to cloath himself or his brother nor wine to refresh the sadnesse of the afflicted nor his oyl to make his own countenance cheerful but all these to look upon and to tell over and to take accounts by and make himself considerable and wondered at by fools that while he lives he may be called Rich and when he dyes may be accounted Miserable and like the Dish-makers of China may leave a greater heap of dirt for his Nephews while he himself hath a new lot fallen to him in the portion of Dives But thus the Asse carried wood and sweet herbs to the Baths but was never washed or perfum'd himself he heaped up sweets for others while himself was filthy with smoak ashes And yet it is considerable If the man can be content to feed hardly and