Selected quad for the lemma: evil_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
evil_n	darkness_n	good_a	sweet_a	3,257	5	8.2420	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77614	Precious remedies against Satans devices or, salve for believers and unbelievers sores. Being a companion for those that are in Christ, or out of Christ; that are high, or low, learned, or illiterate, staggering, or wandering; that slight, or neglect ordinances, under a pretence of living above them; that are growing (in spiritualls) or decaying; that are tempted, or deserted, afflicted, or opposed; that have assurance, or that want assurance; that are self-seekers, or the common-wealths caterpillars; that are in love sweetly united, or that yet have their spirits too much imbittered, &c. By Thomas Brookes, a willing servant unto God, and the faith of his people, in the glorious gospel of Christ, at Margarets fish-street hill.	Brooks, Thomas, 1608-1680.	1658 (1658)	Wing B4954; Thomason E1426_1	231,671	413

been consumed by the sword and by the famine This is just the language of a world of ignorant prophane and superstitious souls in London and England that would have made them a Captaine 'T is said of one of the Emperours that Rome had no war in his daves because 't was plague eno●gh to have such an Emperour you are wise and know how to apply it to returne to bondage yea to that bondage that was worse then that the Israelites groaned under Oh say they since such and such persons have beene put down and left off we have had nothing but plundering and taxing and butchering of men c. and therefore we will doe as we and our Kings and Nobles and Fathers have formerly done for then had we plenty at home and peace abroad c. and there was none to make us afraid Now the Remedies against this Device of Satan are these that follow THe first Remedy is solemnly to consider 1 Remedy that no man knowes how the heart of God stands by his hand his hand of mercy may be towards a man when his heart may be set against that man as you may see in Saul and Tully judged the Jews Religion to be naught because they were so often overcome impoverish'd and afflicted and the Religion of Rome to be right because the Romans prospered and became Lords of the world yet though the Romans had his hand the Jews had his heart for they were dearly beloved though sorely afflicted others and the hand of God may be set against a man when the heart of God is dearly set upon a man as you may see in Job and Ephraim the hand of God was sorely set against them and yet the heart and bowels of God were strongly working towards them no man knoweth either love or hatred by outward mercy or misery for all things come alike to all to the righteous and to the unrighteous to the good and to the bad to the clean and to the unclean c. The sun of prosperity shines as well upon brambles of the Wildernesse as fruit-trees of the Orchard the snow and haile of adversity lights upon the best gardens as well as the stinking dunghills or the wild waste Ahabs and Josiah's ends concur in the very circumstances Saul and Jonathan though different in their natures deserts and deportments yet in their deaths they were not divided Health wealth honours c. crosses sicknesses losses c. are cast upon good men and bad men promiscuously The whole Turkish Empire is Nihil est nisi mica panis Luther nothing else but a crust cast by Heavens great House-keeper to his dogs Moses dies in the Wildernesse as well as those that murmured Nabal is rich aswell as Abraham Achitophell wise aswell as Solomon and Doeg honoured by Soul as well as Ioseph was by Pharoah Usually the worst of men have most of these outward things and the best of men have least of Earth though most of Heaven The second Remedy against this Device 2 Remedy of Satan is seriously to consider That there is nothing in the world that doth so provoke God to be wrath and angry as mens taking incouragement from Gods goodnesse and mercy to do wickedly this you may see by that wrath that fell upon the old world and by Gods raining hell out of Heaven upon Such soules make God a God of clouts one that will not doe as he saith but they shall find God to be as severe in punishing as he is to others gracious in pardoning Good turnes aggravate unkindnesses and our guilt is increased by our obligations Sodome and Gomorah This is clear in that 44 of Jeremiah from the 20 verse to the 28 verse the words are worthy of your best meditation oh that they were engraven in all your hearts and constant in all your thoughts though they are too large for me to transcribe them yet they are not too large for you to remember them To argue from mercy to sinfull liberty is the Devils Logick and such Logicians doe ever walk as upon a mine of Gun-powder ready to be blown up no such souls can ever avert or avoid the wrath of God This is wickednesse at the height for a man to be very bad because God is very good a worse spirit then this is not in hell ah Lord doth not wrath yea the greatest wrath lie at this mans door Are not the strongest chaines of darknes prepared for such a soul To sin against mercy is to sin against humanity it is bestiall nay it is worse To render good for evill is Divine to render good for good is humane to render evill for evill is brutish but to render evill for good is devilish and from this evill deliver my soul oh God The third Remedy against this Device 3 Remdy of Satan is solemnly to consider that there is no greater misery in this life then not to be in misery no greater Religio peperit divitias filia devoravit matrem Religion brought forth Riches and the daughter soon devoured the Mother saith Augustine affliction then not to be afflicted woe woe to that soul that God will not spend a rod upon this is the saddest stroke of all when God refuses to strike at all Ephraim is joyned to Idols let him alone Why should you be smitten any more you will revolt more and more When the Physician gives over the Patient you say ring out his knell the man is dead so when God gives over a soul to sin without controule you may truly say this soule is lost you may ring out his knel for he is twice dead and pluckt up by the roots Freedome from punishment is the mother of security the step-mother of virtue the poyson of Religion the moth of holinesse and the introducer of wickednesse nothing said one seemes more unhappy to me then he to whom no adversity hath happened Outward mercies oft-times prove a snare to our soules I will lay a stumbling block Ezek. 3. 20. Vatablus his note there is Faciam ut omnia habeant prospera calamitatibus eum à peccato non revocabo I will prosper him in all things and not by affliction restraine him from sin Prosperity hath been a stumbling block at which millions have stumbled and fallen and broke the neck of their souls for ever The fourth Remedie against this device 4 Remedy of Satan is seriously to consider that the wants of wicked men under all their outward mercy freedom from adversitie is far greater then al their outward injoyments They have many mercies yet they want more then they injoy the mercies which they injoy are nothing to the mercies they want 'T is true they have honors and riches and pleasures and friends and are mighty in power their seed is established in their sight with them and their off-spring before their eyes their houses are safe from feare neither is the rod

his bowels is turned it is the gall of Asps within him Forbidden profits and pleasures are most pleasing to vaine men who count madnesse mirth c. Many long to be medling with the murthering morsels of sin which nourish not but rent and consume the belly the soule that receives them Many eat that on earth that they digest in hell sins murthering morsels will deceive those that devoure them Adams If intemperance cou●d afford more pleasure then temperance Heliogobalus should have been more happy then Adam in Paradise Apple was a bitter-sweet Escu's messe was a bitter-sweet the Israelites quails a bitter-sweet Jonathans honey a bitter-sweet and Adonijahs dainties a bitter-sweet after the meale is ended comes the reckoning Men must not think to dance and dine with the Devil and then to sup with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdome of Heaven to feed upon the poison of Asps and yet that the Vipers tongue shall not slay them when the Aspe stings a man it doth first tickle him so as it makes him laugh till the poison by little and Plutark little gets to the heart and then it pains him more then ever it delighted him so doth sin it may please a little at first but it will paine the soule with a witnesse at last yea if there were the least reall delight in sin there could be no perfect Hell where men shall most perfectly be tormented with their sin The third Remedy against this Device 3 Remedy of Satan is solemnly to consider that sin will usher in the greatest and the Isa 59. 2. Psal 51. 12. Isa 59. 8. 2 Chron. 15. 3 4. Jer. 17. 18. saddest losses that can be upon our souls it will usher in the losse of that Divine favour that is better then life and the losse of that joy that is unspeakable and full of glory and the losse of that peace that passeth understanding and the losse of those Divine influences by which the soule hath beene refreshed quickned Jer. 5. 25. raised strengthned and gladded and the losse of many outward desirable mercies which otherwise the soule might have injoyed It was a sound and savory reply of an English Captain at the losse of Callice when a proud French-man scornfully demanded when will you fetch Callice again replied * Quando peccata vestra erunt nostris graviera When your sinnes shall weigh downe ours ah England my constant Prayer for thee is that thou mayest not sin away thy mercies into their hands that cannot call mercy mercy and that would joy in nothing more then to see thy sorrow and misery and to see that hand to make thee naked that hath cloath'd thee with much mercy and glory The fourth Remedy against this Device 4 Remedy In Sardis there grew an herb called Appium Sardis that would ' make a man lye laughing when he was deadly sick-such is the operation of sin of Satan is seriously to consider that sin is of a very deceitfull and bewitching nature sin is from the greatest deceiver 't is a child of his owne begetting 't is the ground of all the deceit in the world and 't is in its own nature exceeding deceitfull Heb. 3. 13. But exhort one another daily while it is called to day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfullnesse of sinne it will kisse the soul and pretend fair to the soul and yet betray the soul for ever it will with Dalilah smile upon us that it may betray us into the hands of the Devil as she did Sampson into the hands of the Pro. 5. 22 23. Philistimes sin gives Satan a power over us and an advantage to accuse us and to lay claime to us as those that weare his badge 't is of a very bewitching nature it bewitches the soule where 't is upon the throne that the soule cannot leave it though it perish eternally by it Sin so bewitches the soul that it makes Which occasioned Chrysost●me to say when Eudoxia the Empress threatned him Goe tell her Nil nisi pr●●atum ti 〈…〉 I feare nothing but sin the soul call evill good and good evill bitter sweet and sweet bitter light darknesse and darknesse light and a soul thus bewitcht with sin will stand it out to the death at the swords point with God Let God strike and wound and cut to the very bone yet the bewitched soul cares not fears not but will still hold on in a course of wickednesse as you may see in Pharaoh Balaam and Judas tell the bewitched soul that sin is a Viper that will certainly kill when 't is not killed that sin often kils secretly insensibly eternally yet the bewitched soul cannot nor will not cease from sin When the Physitians told 〈…〉 nen 〈◊〉 Ambrose Ambrose Theotimus that except he did abstain from drunkennesse and uncleannesse c. he would loose his eyes his heart was so bewitch't to his sins that he answers Then farewell sweet light he had rather loose his eyes then leave his sins So a man bewitcht with sin had rather loose God Christ Heaven and his own soul then part with his sin O therefore for ever take heed of playing or nibling at Satans golden baits The second Device of Satan to draw 2 Device the soule to sin is by painting sin with vertues colours Satan knowes that if h● should present sin in its own nature and dresse the soul would rather fly from it then yield to it and therefore he presents it unto us not in its owne proper colours but painted and guilded over with the name and shew of vertue that we may the more easily be overcome by it and take the more pleasure in committing of it Pride he presents to the soul under the name and notion of neatnesse and cleanlinesse and covetousnesse which the Apostle condemns for idolatry to be but good husbandry and drunkennes to be good fellowship and riotousnesse under the name and notion of liberality and wantonnesse as a trick of youth c. Now the Remedies against this Device of Satan are these FIrst Consider that sin is never a whit 1 Remedy the lesse filthy vilde and abominable by its being coloured and painted with vertues colours A poysonous Pill is never a whit the lesse poysonous because 't is gilded over with gold nor a Wolf is never a whit the lesse a Wolfe because he hath put on a sheeps-skin nor the Devil is never a whit the lesse a Devil because he appears somtimes like an Angel of light so neither is sin any whit the lesse filthy and abominable by its being painted over with vertues colours The second Remedy is this That the 2 Remedy more sin is painted forth under the colour Turpiora sunt vitia quae virtutum specie celantur Jerome Thus the Illuminates as they called themselves a pestilent Sect in Arragon professing and affecting in themselves a kind of Angelicall purity fell suddenly to

the point in hand of Satan is to have your hearts strongly affected with the greatnesse holinesse Majesty and glory of that God before whom you stand and with whom your souls do converse in religious services Oh! let your souls be greatly affected with the presence purity and majesty of that God before whom thou standest A man would be afraid of playing with a feather when he is speaking to a King ah when men have poor low light slight c. thoughts of God in their drawing neer to God they tempt the Devill to bestir himselfe and to cast in a multitude of vaine thoughts to disturb and distract the soul in its waiting on God There is nothing that will contribute so much to the keeping out of vaine thoughts as to looke upon God as an omniscient God an omnipresent God an omnipotent God a God full of all glorious perfections a God whose Majestie purity and glory wil not suffer him to behold the least iniquity The reason why the blessed Saints and glorious Angells in Heaven have not so much as one vaine thought is because they are greatly affected with the greatnesse holinesse majesty purity and glory of God The second Remedie against this Device 2 Remedy of Satan is to be peremptory in religious services notwithstanding all those wandering thoughts the soule It is a rule in the civil Law nec videtur actum siquid supersit quod agatur nothing seems to be done if there remains ought to be done is troubled with This will be a sweet help against them for the soul to be resolute in waiting on God whether it be troubled with vain thoughts or not to say wel I will pray still and heare still and meditate still and keep fellowship with the Saints still many precious soules can say from experience that when their soules have been peremptory in their waiting on God that Satan hath left them and hath not been so busie in vexing their soules with vaine thoughts when Satan perceives that all Si dixisti suffisit periisti i● once thou sayest 't is enough thou art undone saith Augustin those trifling vain thoughts that he casts into the soule do but vex the soule into greater diligence carefulnesse watchfulnesse and peremptorinesse in holy and heavenly services and that the soul looses nothing of his zeale piety and devotion but doubles his care diligence and earnestnesse he often ceases to interpose his triflles vain thoughts as he ceased to tempt Christ when Christ was peremptory in resisting his temptations The third Remedie against this device 3. Remedy of Satan is to consider this that those vaine and trifling thoughts that are cast 'T is not Satans casting in of vaine thoughts that can keepe mercie from the soule or undoe the soul but the lodging and cherishing of vaine thoughts oh Ierusalem how long shall vain thoughts lodg within thee ●er 4. 14. Heb. in the midst of thee they passe through the best hearts they are lodged and cherished only in the worst hearts into our soules when we are waiting upon God in this or that religious service if they are not cherished and indulged but abhorred resisted and disclaimed they are not sins upon our soules though they may be troubles to our mindes they shall not be put upon our accounts nor keep mercies and blessings from being injoyed by us when a soule in uprightnesse can look God in the face and say Lord when I approach neer unto thee there be a world of vain thoughts croud in upon me that do disturb my soule and weaken my faith and lessen my comfort and spirituall strength oh these are my clog my burden my torment my hell oh do justice upon these free me from these that I may serve thee with more freenesse singlenesse spiritualnesse and sweetnesse of spirit These thoughts may vexe that soule but they shall not harm that soul nor keep a blessing from that soule If vaine thoughts resisted and lamented could stop the current of mercie and render a soule unhappy there would be none on earth that should ever tast of mercy or be everlastingly happy c. The fourth Remedy against this device 4 Remedie of Satan is solemnly to consider that watching against sinfull thoughts resisting of sinfull thoughts lamenting and weeping over sinfull thoughts carries Psal 139. 23. Thoughts are the first born the blossomes of the soul the beginning of our strength whether for good or evill and they are the greatest evidence for or against a man that can be with it the sweetest and strongest evidence of the truth and power of grace and of the sincerity of your hearts and is the readiest and the surest way to be rid of them many low and carnal considerations may worke men to watch their words their lives their actions As hope of gaine or to please friends or to get a name in the world and many other such like considerations oh but to watch our thoughts to weep and lament over them c. this must needs be from some noble spiritual and internal principle as love to God a holy fear of God a holy care and delight to please the Lord c. The Schools do well observe that outward sinnes are of greater Majoris infamiae Majoris reatus infamy but inward heart sinnes are of greater guilt as wee see in the Devills There is nothing that speaks out a man to be throughly and kindly wrought upon as his having his thoughts to be 2 Cor. 10. 4 5. brought into obedience as the Apostle speaks Grace is growen up to a very great height in that soule where it prevailes to the subduing of those vaine thoughts that walk up and down in the the soule well though you cannot be Psal 139. 2. Isa 59. 7. ch 66. 18. Mat. 9. 4. ch 12. 25. Zen● a wise heathen affirmed that God even beheld the thoughts Mat. 15. 15 16 17 18 19. rid of them yet make resistance and opposition against the first risings of them when sinfull thoughts arise then thinke thus the Lord takes notice of these thoughts he knows them afar off as the Psalmist speaks he knew Herods bloody thoughts and Judas his betraying thoughts and the Pharisees cruell and blasphemous thoughts afarre off oh think thus all these sinfull thoughts they defile and pollute the soule they deface and spoyle much of the inward beauty and glory of the soule if I commit this or that sinne to which my thoughts incline me then either I must Tears in stead of Gems were the ornaments of Davids bed when he had sinned so they m●st be thine or else thou must lie downe in a bed of sorrow forever repent or not repent if I repent it will c●st me more griefe sorrow shame heart-breaking and soul-bleeding before my conscience will be quieted divine Justice pacified my comfort and joy restored my evidences cleared and my pardon in the Court of Conscience sealed then