Selected quad for the lemma: evil_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
evil_n	evil_a	heart_n	thought_n	2,080	5	8.0009	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64572	A preservative of piety in a quiet reasoning for those duties of religion, that are the means and helps appointed of God for the preserving and promoting of godliness. Namely, I. Of four Christian-duties, viz. 1. Reading the Scriptures. 2. Preparation for the Lords Supper. 3. Estimation of the ministry. 4. Sanctification of the Lords-day-Sabbath. II. Of four family-duties, viz. 1. Houshold-catechising. 2. Family-prayer. 3. Repeating of sermons. 4. Singing of Psalms. With an epistle prefixt, to inform and satisfie the Christian reader, concerning the whole treatise. By William Thomas, rector of the church at Ubley in the county of Somerset.	Thomas, William, 1593-1667.	1662 (1662)	Wing T988; ESTC R37887	203,614	274

providing for honest things not only in the sight of the Lord but in the sight of men Let thy fear O God who art great and terrible be upon our hearts and before our eyes all the day long that so we may presume to do nothing which it will or should grieve us to think upon at night Let there be cause rather to bless thee in the Evening as for thy goodness toward us so for some goodness in us and that the day hath not passed without using our Talents so as to bring in some advantage to our great Lord mean-while being here before thee to confess how good thou art every way unto us we would not go out of thy presence without praising thee our most merciful God for ordaining such peace for us as that we may with safety both abide at home and go abroad about all our occasions It is of thy great goodness that we are not forced to go in by-ways for fear of violent men but the high-wayes are freely occupyed and we have cause to rehearse the righteous acts of the Lord towards the Inhabitants of his Villages who now dwell without fear in such undefenced places In special we bless thee our gracious God for that Government whereby we enjoy this peace and liberty humbly beseeching thee to settle still amongst us and ever to preserve over us a religious and righteous and rightful Magistracy for our present tranquillity and felicity And ever to establish amongst us an able and faithful Ministry for the saving of our souls and our everlasting happiness in the day of the Lord Jesus for whom we bless thee in whom we enjoy and joy in thee and to whom with thee O Father and the Holy Spirit we acknowledged to be due and desire from our souls to give all Glory Majesty Dominion and Power now and evermore Amen A Family-Prayer for the Evening O Most holy and most glorious Lord God we poor and polluted creatures acknowledge our selves altogether unworthy to be admitted into thy presence so much as to confess our sins yet since thou art pleased to offer thy self unto us in Jesus Christ under the name of a Father assuring us that If we confess our sins thou art faithful and just to forgive us our sins we are therefore bold in him to come before thee confessing O Father that whereas at first we were made very good and very like God Now through our own fault and fall every one of us is shapen in Iniquity and in sin did our mother conceive us And besides this corruption of nature enough of it self to condemn us Against Thee Against thee only for there is but one Law-giver have we sinned in the whole course of our lives Justly O Lord mayest thou draw up an heavy charge against us for our sins of omission upon which our Saviour will pass his last Sentence for we cannot but acknowledge that we have left made light of and like leaking vessels let slip many Sermons Our fruits after much seed sowen have been so few that we deserve our stripes should be many unto which this other evil is added that we have often sleighted the Lords Supper either by not caring to receive it or by neglecting to prepare for it We have idled away also or profaned many Sabbaths at least we have gone heavily under the service of that day which we should call a delight And whereas heart-searching is exceeding needful for the well-ordering of our hearts and lives we confess that many examinations of our hearts and wayes for which thou hast hearkened we have neglected yea though this duty of Prayer by our selves and in our Families be so needful so beneficial and such an al-sanctifying service yet for a long time either we have been very careless and mindless of it or else careless and heartless in it But besides all these omissions and neglects of duty we do further confess that we have committed much evil and been guilty of much Rebellion against thy Majesty yielding ordinarily unto Satans temptations who never ceaseth to put fair colours upon the forbidden fruit rushing often into evil company and partaking with them in the unfruitful works of darkness and when we have been alone sadly and securely satisfying the lusts of our evil and distempered hearts especially in the evils more pleasing and sutable to our sinful natures In regard of all which and all other our many and great transgressions we deserve O most just God to be deprived of all thy blessings and to be laden with thy judgements as we have laden thee with our sins But whilest we are displeased with our selves for them and it is in our hearts desire not only to confess them but forsake them and turn to thee from them We beseech thee O Father of Mercies in the Name and for the merits of Jesus Christ to be merciful to us sinners laying every one of our sins for we are not able our selves to bear the least of them upon that Lamb of God on whom the Lord hath laid the Iniquity of us all freeing us also of thy free grace from all those evils which are either on us or due unto us for the same And that we may be hereof assured Give us we pray thee that most excellent grace of Faith without which the Word of Promise and of Pardon cannot profit that thereby receiving the forgiveness of our sins our spirits may rejoyce in God our Saviour which since we cannot do but in the Publicans way who said God be merciful to me a sinner that is in a way of repentance therefore do thou O Lord work and if any thing of godly sorrow be already wrought do thou more and more work so upon our ever too-hard-hearts as that we may remember our former evil wayes and doings that have not been good and lothe our selves in our own sight for all our iniquities Nor let us lothe our sins only and our selves for them but leave them also and settle it in our hearts after thou hast spoken peace to us not to turn again to folly And because our own resolutions are soon altered and by our own strength we cannot prevail therefore we beg of thee our God to whom power belongeth so much strength as that though sin while we a●e here dwell within us yet it may not have dominion over us especially let us be strong in the Lord and the power of his might for the subduing of our special sins and those Goliahs that seem to set at defiance the whole Army of the Graces of God in us Neither let it suffice us to depart from evil unless also we do good and live soberly righteously and godly in this present world And that this may be better done Good Lord make us mindful of the use of all good means of a godly life such as are the

day where his confidence is also implyed and this contained that The Lord will mercifullly remember them who remember dutifully the Lords day In the two verses before te●ited v. 17 18. is contained Nehemiah's contending or arguing the case by strong and solid reasons with the Nobles who either had a hand in this evil as being Acto●s in it themselves or at least were under the guilt of it for want of being the restrainers of it being it's like intrusted with the care of such things in Nehemiah's absence This contention is made good by the great evil that there is in profaning the Sabbath day which is twofold 1. The evil of sin v. 17. What evil thing is this that ye do 2. The evil of punishment Did not your fathers do thus and did not God bring all this evil upon us v. 18. The former of these sheweth that It is an evil thing to profane the Sabbath day I use the word Sabbath not as intending to speak of or to give any countenance to the observation of the Jews Sabbath now but as purposing to speak of the Christian Sabbath and to take in that only of the Jews day which sometime belonged to it in the general nature and no●ion of a Sabbath and with respect to that observation of a Sabbath which being prescribed in the fourth Commandement belongs to every Sabbath of Gods appointment Nor do I while I make use of the name Sabbath deny the Lords day to be the more Evangelical name but I call it a Sabbath because it will never be the Lords day unless it be a Sabbath day that is it will never be a day of holy Rest unless it be a day of rest which the word Sabbath signifieth Concerning which I shall mention these three particulars 1. The Rest enjoyned 2. The thing intended in that rest to wit Holiness 3. The Extent both of the rest and the holiness it is for the whole day First In a Sabbath rest is required and that so as to do no manner of work the meaning is not that we are to abstain from sinful works only which though they be eminently unlawful on that day yet are truly unlawful any day and 〈◊〉 ●●rbidden in all the other Commandements Nor is it the meaning that we should abstain f●om servile work only that is worldly works painful and gainful which are allowed on other days for howsoever such works be in special manner forbidden as being named in the fourth Commandement yet that 's but by a Synechdoche or a figure whereby more is meant for if they only were forbidden then the Sabbath might be spent in things easie liberal and ingenuous without blame and then God should have the day no more or little more then if it were spent in servile works when yet it must be a Sabbath of or to the Lord The thing therefore required is that all manner of work be forborn by what name or title soever it be called that is ours and not Gods that depriveth God of his day or is an hinderance of that holiness which is intended in the Sabbath or day of rest Of this Rest there are divers reasons As 1. The solemnity of the day for it 's one of Gods solemn dayes Psal. 81.5 that the celebration thereof may be more fair and full by laying aside all work and the whole Creation as it were to wait on the Creator Levit 23.3 2. As in point of solemnity so In point of mercy for the relief refreshing and taking breath of the toiled creature after six dayes labour which is said of God himself after his work but it is spoken after the manner of men Exod. 31.17 On the seventh day he rested and was refreshed 3. And especially In point of Piety for the sanctification of the day in the holy services thereof and that not without need For if we look to innocent Adam albeit some question Whether the Law of the Sabbath were given to him before the Fall yet there 's no cause to question but that it would have been useful to him though he had not faln because he could not at once dress and keep the Garden and have that compleat and indistracted communion with God which it was easie for him to enjoy in a time of rest and separation from all such earthly and heterogeneal imployment But now man being faln this Rest is of more absolute necessity because both humane infirmity and corruption so compass and cleave to us that we cannot with full intention of mind be in Heaven and Earth both at once that is we cannot at the same time apply our selves intirely to matters of so different a nature and operation as heavenly and earthly things are which apparently carry our hearts contrary wayes whereof there needs not further proof then the dayly experience we have of the dividing of our hearts and the withdrawing of them from things spiritual or at least the eclipsing of them by the interposition of earthly things which if they be earthly thoughts hinder spiritual thoughts and disturb heavenly meditations if they be earthly words they cool spiritual communications a man cannot speak two different languages both at once and if they be earthly Actions they weaken spiritual exercises and thrust aside heavenly transactions For this reason Play also and Sports are forbidden for God forbids not work for the thing He likes work better then play but for the end to wit because it hinders the intire imploying of the day in holy things which Play doth much more because of a greater delight in it and for that the heart is more taken up with it and stollen as the hearts of the men of Israel were by Absaloms kisses 2 Sam. 15.5 6. from the son of David the Lord of the Sabbath by it Now Albeit there might be some rest out of the fourth Commandement appendant to the Jews day and proper to them as appertaining to their Education which I conceive it will be hard to find that which is produced for it being as probably answered as urged yet all that rest which is enjoyned in the Commandement and is necessary for Sabbath-sanctification belongeth to us as well as to them for As the observation of the Sabbath prescribed in the fourth Commandement being spiritual argueth the Law that requireth it to be both moral and eternal so with respect thereto the bodily rest also becometh moral and therefore a common and continuing thing to us as well as to the Jews Nor need this rest seem tedious if we consider what works God requireth and alloweth on the Sabbath-day As 1. Works of Religion Six dayes shalt thou labour and do all thy work saith the Commandment but on the Sabbath-day we may and must do Gods work Hence it 's said The Priests profane the Sabbath that is materially by doing those works that would profane it if God had not commanded them for his service but being that he

hearing of thy Word heedfully the receiving of thy holy Sacrament preparedly the keeping of thy Sabbath conscionably praying to thy Majesty often and earnestly together with conversing with good company as there shall be liberty and occasion and a gaining of time to commune with our own hearts and so to think on our wayes as that we may turn our feet to Gods testimonies Thus and every other good way O our God lead us by thy good Spirit into the land of uprightness and into a state of blessedness And because it is our duty to pray for thy Church whereof we are members as w●ll as for our selve● yea and our honour also who art but dust and ashes to be admitted so to do therefore we beseech thee Do well in thy good pleasure unto Sion build thou the wals of Jerusalem Make it the study of those that are thy people to be an holy people as thou their God art an holy God Where thy Church hath rest make them careful to walk before thee in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost that so their peace may be continued or they prepared for trouble if their quiet state be altered Where thy Church is in trouble make them mindful of and able for that truly penitent humbling themselves before thee and faithful seeking unto thee whereby their peace and prosperity may be restored Strengthen in all parts their hearts and hands that stand in the just defence of Religion and Right In special manner we beseech thee to have a gracious respect to this sinful Nation with the adjoyned Dominions Enable with all eminent gifts and especially sanctifie mo●e and more with saving grace the Kings most Excellent Majesty our Supreme and most gracious Governour and so pour forth thy Spirit upon all in higher Authority that they may with all wisdom diligence faithfulness and good success manage the great affairs of State Be pleas'd to establish and ever to preserve and stand by the two great Ordinances of Magistracy and Ministry that by the preaching of the one the power of the other and thy blessing on both Errour and Ungodliness may be restrained truth and holiness may be promoted and in that way all outward good things may be ministred Bless we humbly pray thee outwardly as thou seest meet but especially spiritually all that fear thy Name yea have mercy on them call them and put thy fear into them that yet fear thee not In special we desire thy favour in behalf of those to whom we have any relation and whom we are desired or ought to pray for more particularly this Family In singular mercy vouchsafe thy grace to any in it that yet want it and encrease thy grace in those that have it Extend thy compassion O thou that art the Father of mercy to those that be any way afflicted with sickness pain poverty injustice reproach restraint And more especially to those that suffer either in Conscience or for Conscience Give them all wisdom to see what thou intendest grace to give thee what thou expectest strength to bear what thou inflictest and in thine own way and time make them glorious by deliverance And now O Lord we return humble thanks unto thy Majesty for the mercies of this day in regard of our souls and bodies and businesses desiring that we may still make a good use of all our crosses And so craving pardon in Jesus Christ for the sins of this day for which we are here before thee to judge our selves we resign up our persons and all we have into thy gracious hands beseeching thee so to watch over us this night as that our souls may be kept from sin our bodies from sickness our goods from loss and those decreasings that we deserve And withal so to bless our Rest unto us that we may awake with cheerfulness in the morning well enabled for thy Service and the duties of our Callings the day following And all this for Jesus Christs sake in whom we beseech thee to accept these our poor and weak Prayers which we conclude with his absolutely perfect Prayer saying as he hath taught us Our Father which art in Heaven c. A shorter Prayer for the Morning MOst gracious God we do here humbly present our selves before thee to offer unto thee the Sacrifice of praise that is the fruit of our lips and to give thanks unto thy Name for the rest of the night past and the mercies of this morning We confess thou mightest justly have awakened us out of our sleep at mid-night as thou didst the Egyptians with a great cry or else have made our sleep as when thou smotest their first-born the sleep of death but we have lien down in peace and slept because thou Lord only makest us dwell in safety Truly the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is to the eyes to behold the Sun but How excellent is thy loving kindness in causing the Sun of Righteousness to arise unto us with healing in his wings Blessed be thy Name for giving the Lord Jesus to be a light to lighten us Gentiles as well as to be the glory of thy people Israel And that we have together with him and not without him all things also We praise thee for the health of our bodies the peace of our mindes for our understanding and all the powers of our Souls for our sight and hearing and all the parts of our bodies for the liberty of our Persons the blessings of our Estate and all the comfort we enjoy in our Friends and Relations Yea for all those fatherly Corrections whereby thou hast sought to drive our foolishness far from us and to make us mend our pace in the wayes of Wisdom In special we thank thee for any well-grounded hopes we have of a better life and that Inheritance which is incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us and for which also we are preserved O Lord We are less then the least of all thy mercies and if thou lay upon us the heavyest of thy judgements we have no right to complain being men of death and such as have deserved everlasting condemnation For we brought into the world with us a corrupt nature wherein is the seed of all sin and by reason whereof in the whole course of our lives we have neglected or done negligently what thou requirest and have moreover too too carelesly rusht into those evils both in thought word and deed which thou forbiddest But since thou art a God that delightest in mercy and that hast been pleas'd out of thine infinite love to mankind to lay upon thine only Son the iniquity of us all We that are the sheep that have gone so far astray come boldly unto the Throne of Grace in his Name intreating thy Majesty that by that Lamb of