Selected quad for the lemma: evil_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
evil_n	good_a	know_v	knowledge_n	3,077	5	7.3450	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27472	A mirror that flatters not, or, A looking-glass for all new-converts to whatsoever perswasion, Roman-Catholicks, Conformists, or Non-conformists : that is, certain sermons of St. Bernard translated into English ... : together with a preface of the translator to all new-converts ...; De conversione ad clericos. English	Bernard, of Clairvaux, Saint, 1090 or 91-1153.	1677 (1677)	Wing B1982; ESTC R5454	46,594	72

is no bitterness so great which the Prophetical Meal does not sweeten which the Tree of Life does not make favoury If you do not believe words believe works and acquiesce in the examples of many Sinners from all parts run to Pennance and such as are delicate hoth by nature and custom make light of all exterior rigor that they may lenify their exasperated Consciences Nothing is impossible to them that believe nothing difficult to them that love nothing sharp to the meek nor nothing hard to the humble to whom Grace gives help and the devotion of obeying lenifies the command How long do you walk in great and wonderful things that are above you It is a great and wonderful thing indeed to be a Minister of Christ and a Dispencer of the Mysteries of God The Order of Peacemakers is far above you unless perhaps omitting the degrees mentioned above you are rather minded to leap than to ascend Would to God notwithstanding whosoever so enters would if it were possible minister as faithfully as he intruded himself confidently But it is hard and perhaps impossible that out of the bitter root of Ambition the sweet fruit of Charity should proceed I say if you will hear me yea not I but our Lord says When thou shalt be invited to ae Wedding sit down in the lowest place for he who exalts himself shall be humbled and he who humbles himself shall be exalted CHAP. XXXI Of enduring Persecution according to the last Beatitude BLessed says he are the Peacemakers for they shall be called the Sons of God Mark well not talkers of Peace but makers of Peace are commended For there are which say and do not Indeed as not the hearers of the Law but the doers of the Law are just so not the announcers of Peace but the actors of Peace are blessed Would to God notwithstanding our whosoever now seem Pharisees for perhaps there are some although they will not do at least would say what they ought Would to God they who will not Preach the Gospel without a Salary would but even Preach it for a Salary would to God that they would but Evangelize that they may eat The hireling says he sees the Wolf a coming and flys away Jo. 10. Would to God they who in this our age are not Pastors would but prove themselves Hirelings to their Flocks and not Wolves that themselves would not hurt their Flock would not fly away no body persecuting of them that they would not expose their Flock until the Wolf were seen a coming For they were in some manner tolerable if they were found especially in time of Peace receiving their hire and at least for their hire labouring in the keeping of their Flock whilst that they themselves did not molest their Flock and against reason avert them from the Pastures of Justice and Truth For Persecution undoubtedly separates and distinguishes Hirelings from good Shephers For how must not he needs fear transitory losses who seeks after temporal gains When will he endure an earthly Persecution for Justice who seeks an earthly Reward more than Justice Bless●d says he are those who suffer persecution for Justice because theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven This Beatitude belongs to good Pastors not to Hirelings much less to Thieves or Wolves For they are so far from suffering Persecution for Justice that they had rather endure Persecution than Justice For it is contrary to their Works and it is troublesome to them even to hear of it But for Covetousness and for Ambition they are ready to undergo all Dangers to raise Scandals to endure Hatred to dissemble Revilings to neglect Curses so that the Animosity of such is not less pernicious than the Pusillanimity of Hirelings Therefore to true Pastors their Pastor the good Shepherd who spared not to lay down his life for his Sheep says Blessed shall ye be when men shall hate you and separate you and cast out your name as evil for the Son of Man Rejoyce in that day and exult because great is your Reward in Heaven For that they truly have no reason to fear Thieves who lay up Treasure for themselves in Heaven They have no reason to complain of the multiplicity of Tribulation when they consider the multiplication of their Reward Yea let them rather rejoyce as it is fitting they should that not so much their Persecution as their Reward is encreased and let them exult so much more abundantly as they suffer more things for Christ that so a more plenteous Reward may expect them with him Why are ye afraid O ye of little Faith There is a faithful saying and founded upon irrefragable truth No adversity shall hurt us if no iniquity rule over us But it 's a small matter not to hurt us it shall profit us abundantly profit us provided Justice be our intention and Christ our Cause with whom the patience of the Poor shall not lose its Reward for ever To Him be Glory now and for ever and ever Amen SERM. I. Of the Spiritual Combat GOD Almighty the Rich and Powerful King made man whom he had created his Son to whom as to a delicate Youth he appointed as Masters the Law Prophets and other Tutors and Governors until the time prefixed for his consummation He instructed him and admonished him constituting him Lord of Paradise shewing him and promising him all the treasures of his Glory if he would not forsake him And lest any thing should be wanting to his happiness he indulged to him also freedom of will that his Happiness might be voluntary and not forced And having now received liberty of good and evil he began to have an irksome weariness of his good things out of a concupiscence of knowing good and evil Out of the Paradise therefore of a good Conscience he goes seeking new things which he knew not for as yet he had known nothing but good and neglecting his Father's Laws and Tutors he eats of the Tree of Knowledg of Good and Evil against the prohibition of his Father and miserable creature hiding himself and flying from the face of his Lord foolish Boy he began to wander through the Mountains of Pride through the Valleys of Curiosity through the Fields of Licentiousness through the Groves of Lasciviousness through the Marishes of Carnal Pleasures and through the Floods of Worldly Cares The old Robber spying the wanton Youth wandring far from his Father's House without a Keeper without a Governor comes to him and with the hand of bad counsel reaching him the Apples of disobedience after he had got his consent he sets upon him he casts him headlong on the ground that is precipitates him into earthly desires and lest he should get up again he ties his feet that is the affections of his mind with the strong bonds of Concupiscence binds his hands of Operations blinds the eyes of his Mind puts him into the Ship of dangerous Security and the wind of Adulation blowing strong he transports him

aggravates the Soul and the earthly Habitation depresses the Vnderstanding ruminating on many things Wisd 9. Yet in both it is sin only which troubles and dims the sight nor does any thing else seem to separate betwixt the Eye and Light betwixt God and Man For as long as we are in this body we are Pilgrims from God Not that the fault is in the Body to wit this body of death which we carry about us but rather because the flesh is the body of sin in which there is no good thing but rather the law of sin Yet sometimes the eye of the body the mote not still remaining in it but being now taken or blown out seems for a while to see dimly the which very thing he who walks spiritually often experiments in the interior eye The wound is not therefore cured because you have drawn out the Sword but then first it is necessary to apply Plaisters and endeavour the Cure Let no man therefore emptying the sink deem that he is forthwith made clean but let him know that he needs yet many purifications Nor must he only be wash'd with water but also be purged and purified by fire that he may say We have passed through fi●e and water and thou hast brought us out into refreshing Psal 65. Blessed therefore are the clean of heart for they shall see God Mat. 5. Now indeed through a glass dimly but hereafter face to face to wit when the cleanness of our face shall be consummated that he may exhibit it to himself glorious having neither spot nor wrinckle CHAP. XXVI Of the Peaceable Patient and Peace-maker WHere very opportunely it 's immediately inferr'd Blessed are the Peacemakers because they shall be called the Sons of God For he is a peaceable man who rendring good for good as much as in him is wills no body no hurt Another is Patient who not rendring evil for evil is able to bear with him who does him hurt And there is also a Peace-maker who returning good for ill he is ready to profit him who does him damage The first is a little one and is easily scandalized nor can he that is such an one easily obtain Salvation in this wicked World and full of scandals The second as it is written possesses his Soul in patience The third does not only possess his own Soul but also gains the Souls of many The first as much as is in him has peace The second keeps peace The third makes peace Deservedly therefore he is beatified with the name of Son because he has fulfilled the work of a Son who being not ungrateful after his own reconciliation does also reconcile others to his Father For he who shall have ministred well acquires to himself a good degree nor is there a better degree to be believed in the house of his Father than that of a Son For if Sons then Heirs Heirs indeed of God but Co-heirs with Christ Rom. 8. ver 17. That as he says Where he is there also his Minister may be Joh. 12. v. 26 I have wearied you with the length of my Discourse and have kept you longer than I should have done So that now seeing that modesty does not the very time seems to command an end to my talkativeness Remember notwithstanding the Apostle who upon a time you read protracted his Sermon until midnight And I would to God that I may use his words that you would yet a little bear my folly for I emulate you with the emulation of God 2 Cor 11. CHAP. XXVII A Reprehension of the Ambitious who having not their hearts cleansed presume to pacify God towards others MY little ones who will shew you how to fly from the wrath to come For no body more deserves anger than an enemy counterfeiting himself to be a friend O Judas doest thou with a kiss betray the Son of man one of the same mind with me who together with me didst eat sweet bits who dip'st thy hand with me in the Platter Thou hast no part in that Prayer with which he prays to his Father and says Father forgive them for they know not what they do Lu. 24. Wo be unto you who take away the key not only of Knowledg but also of Authority neither do your selves enter in and you many ways hinder those whom you ought to have introduced For ye take away and do not receive the keys Concerning whom our Lord complains by his Prophet They have reigned and not by me they have been Princes and I have not called them Hos 8. Whence so great a zeal of Superiority whence such an impudency of Ambition whence such a madness of human Presumption would any of you dare to take upon you the Ministeries to invade the Benefices to manage the Affairs of some Earthly Prince he not commanding but even prohibiting of you Neither must thou think God Almighty approves those things which in his great House he suffers from vessels of wrath fit for destruction Many indeed come but consider who is called Mark the order of our Lord's Sermon Blessed says he are the clean of heart because they shall see God Mat. 5. And then Blessed are the Peacemakers because they shall be called the Sons of God Now the Heavenly Father calls those clean of heart who do not seek their own things but the things of Jesus Christ nor what is profitable for themselves but what is profitable for many Peter says he doest thou love me Lord thou knowest that I love thee Feed my Sheep Joh. 21. For when indeed would he commend Sheep so beloved to one that did not love him And this is required of Dispensators that one be found faithful Wo be to unfaithful Ministers who being not themselves yet reconciled as if they were men that lived righteously take upon them the business of reconciling others Wo to the Sons of Wrath who profess themselves Ministers of Grace Wo to the Sons of Wrath who fear not to usurp to themselves the degree and name of Peace-makers Wo to the Sons of Wrath who lying say they are faithful Mediators of Peace that they may eat up the sins of the people Wo to those who living carnally cannot please God and yet presume to undertake to appease him CHAP. XXVIII That some usurp to themselves the degree of Peacemakers WE do not wonder Brethren we who have compassion on the present state of the Church we do not wonder that from the root of the Serpent has issued a Cockatrice We do not wonder if he gather the Vintage of the Lord's Vineyard who transgresses the way ordained by the Lord. For he impudently invades the degree of a Peace-maker and the Office of a Son of God who has not as yet heard the very first Voice of the Lord making him to reflect upon his own heart or if perhaps at any time he has begun to hear it returning back again he ran to the Fig-leaves that he might be hidden by them Wherefore neither has he as