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	life_n	tree_n	2,346	5	8.7759	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A68609	Certaine sermons preached by Iohn Prideaux, rector of Exeter Colledge, his Maiestie's professor in divinity in Oxford, and chaplaine in ordinary; Sermons. Selected sermons	Prideaux, John, 1578-1650.	1636 (1636)	STC 20345; ESTC S115233	325,201	634

wisdome that sets all in their due places You see what a masse of matter yet remaineth to be discussed if it needed in this place and the time would giue scope For any one that can speake ill may haue enough to say against ill speaking and ill speaking against Rulers when Rulers are in presence should receaue blowes rather to punish then words to reproue Against this virulent humour whole volumes haue been written And out of most of the Psalmes of David out of Solomons Proverbs and Ecclesiastes out of Iesus the sonne of Syrach who hath amassed together the receaued moralitie of the Church as then it stood how many passages to this purpose might bee produced But J am to gleane only therefore I vrge no more but this This ill speaking against God is blaspemie against our Gouernours scandalum Magnatum a kinde of treason against our fellow brethren vncharitablenesse and by our Saviours interpreting the sixth Commandement a degree of murder Math. 5.22 Math. 5. Cōcerning the first sinne that ever was committed the Fathers Schoolemen and later Divines haue divers coniectures some say 't was pride others infidelitie others ingratitude I thinke 't was all these together and therefore quarrell with none of thē But for this I haue a scriptum est that the first sin vnder a scriptum est was a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against God the supreme Ruler of vs all For consider but that fetch of Satan in the third of Genesis Yea hath God said that yee shall not eat of every tree of the garden It was replyed yes he hath said it that we should not eat of it nor so much as touch it and a penalty is added least yee dye What followeth And the Serpent said vnto the woman Yee shall not surely dye for God doth knowe that in the day that yee eat thereof your eyes shall be opened you shall be as Gods knowing good and evill you are simple and mistake the injunction for the tree is not named the tree of life and death but the tree of knowledge of good evil therefore by eating of it there 's no feare of death but assurance of the knowledge of good and evill which would make you like God himselfe and that he is loath to afford you This is the first fault and fallacy we read of in Scripture and this includeth detraction from the most wise iust and omnipotent Ruler of vs all But who first invented it and vented it The Divell To what purpose To dishonour God and ruine all man-kinde What event had it The most wofull misery of vs all and is not this sufficient to make vs detest detraction From this place vntill vpon 2000 yeares after we scarce finde a scriptum est of any opposition against the Rulers of the people but that dangerous one in the 16. of Numbers in the conspiracy of Corah Dathan and Abiram Their evill speaking indeed was high against Moses and Aaron Prince Priest Numb 16.3 Yee take too much vpon you seeing all the Congregation are holy every one of them And the Lord is among them wherefore then lift yee vp your selues aboue the congregation of the Lord But what was theissue of this Did not Moses fore-tell them If these men dye the common death of men vers 29. and if they be visited after the visitation of all men then the Lord hath not sent me But if the Lord make a new thing and the earth open her mouth swallow them vp and all that appertaine vnto them and they goe downe quicke into the pit Then yee shall vnderstand that these men haue prouoked the Lord. Is not this sufficient to terrifie all factious detracting and rebellious spirits The execution was presently vpon it as David repeats it The earth opened and swallowed vp Dathan and covered the company of Abiram But these men may some interpose went too grosly to worke Come we then to Ahitophel who wanted not wit nor crafty conveyance 2. Sam. 16.23 Whose Counsell in those dayes saith the Text was as if a man had enquired of the oracle of God But what came all this deepe policy to at last when it was pernitiously bent against the Ruler of Gods people I need say no more then scriptum est He sadled his Asse 2. Sam. 17.23 and arose and got him home to his house his Citty that his neighbours and tenants might take notice of it and put his house in order hanged himselfe And so let all thine enemies perish O God which thinke ill or speake ill or much more plot ill or act ill against the Rulers of thy people 10 And here I am at a stand B. for I know not how well it would relish after this downe right doctrine to breake out into the curiosities of Schoolemen and Postillers and to discourse of the mother of this evill speaking against the Rulers which some make to be Pride some Anger others Envy I thinke all concurre Then of her vntoward and mishapen sisters which are 1. disobedience 2. contempt 3. presumption 4. Morosity 5. Stubbornesse 6. simulation 7. whisperings 8. traducings 9. groundlesse suspicions 10. implacable hatred and the like touched by our Apostle in the 1. to the Rom. and the 5. to the Galatians My perswasion giues me that you had rather heare how to doe well then to be terrified from speaking evill of the rulers of the people In this particular then S. Bernard hath a good passage Detractor saith he libens auditor vterque Diabolum portat in lingua The detractor and he that giues way and soothes him in his malignity both of them carry the divell vpon their tongue For if thou be poore they will say thou art base and abiect and not worthy to be looked after if thou be rich thou art ambitious covetous and grating ever for more If affable they will cast out that thou art dissolute or altogether complementall If a Preacher or Doctor thou art wholy for humane plausibility and preferment If thou say little thou art not for imployment and good for nothing If thou be strict in thy life thou art an hypocrite If free a wordling or glutton And thus farre S. Bernard I may adde for these times if resolute against popish superstitions a Puritan If for the discipline of the Church in vpholding and reuerencing Bishops in furthering Church structures ornaments and all laudable ceremonies a Papist at least in heart If for due obedience to the Rulers a flatterer If for the Countreys common good a malecontent If constant in received tenents violent and perverse If warping in any point to novelty a Turnecoate These evill speakings and the like you know are too too common and this would not be so if S. Pauls ingenuity were better learned and S. Bernards position better thought vpon Detractor et libens auditor both the evill speaker and the applauding hearer carry the Divell in their tongue Necessary it is certainely Math. 18.7

also Heresies Thirdly their seat and nest where they are hatched and reside In the midst of the church There must be also heresies amongst you Must implyeth a necessity Necessity hath no law no law Rom. 4.15 1. Iohn 3.4 no transgression sayth the Apostle no transgression no sinne By this reckoning then it will come to this that heresies are no faults as proceeding rather from Gods appoyntment then mans perversity Chrysostom Theodoret. Oe cumenius The Greeke Fathers answere that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oportet which wee render Must imports not any determination of God what shall be Gemina necessitas 1. judicij Dei seu disponentis 2. ex qualitate seu dispositione eorum qui in illa Ecclesia conveniebant Musculus in locum but a foretelling what would bee that notes the event not the efficient cause This necessity therefore sayth Salmeron the Iesuite is not to be taken simply but vpon supposall of mans perversnesse and Gods permission Hee might haue added the Divels setting on mens negligence and infirmityes and naturall propensity to novelty Which causes alwayes remaining the effects must needs follow except God of his infinite grace and power please to stop them which oftentimes he doth when and where and in what measure he holds it fit Not alwayes nor absolutely because his wisdome hereby takes the hynt to turne all to the best for his Church and Children So that Heresies which in regard of men are frailtyes and faults in respect of God are a tryall or punishment shall there be evill in the city Amos. 3.6 and the Lord hath not done it sayth the Prophet Our Saviour turnes this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oportet Math. 18.7 into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 necesse est Necessary it is that offences come but woe vnto the man by whom the offence commeth Doth it come of necessity and yet bring a woe with it Our Saviour sayth it and we must beleiue it And all this will stand well together For as this is to bee taken for an infallible ground that all things come to passe by God certaine eternall appoyntment otherwise his infinite wisdome providence power and prescience might be prophanely cald in question So this is ever to bee conceiued withall that all things come not to passe as proper effects of his appoyntment but some as necessary consequences The consideration of which difference well vnderstood would satisfy divers scruples and make that evident which many hold most perplexed For that is not alwayes the cause sayth Cicero that goes before but that which goes before effectually Would any man say that the absence of the Sunne is the cause of darknesse as its presence is the cause of light Darknesse is but the consequence of his absence light the effect of his presence In like manner all good is the effect of Gods appoyntment all ill a consequent So heresies here then are not by any act of God but by his sufferance they follow They are effected necessarily by their proper causes the Divells malice and mans perversnesse which God hindereth not but ordereth to sort that to good which was meant ill Vid. Aqu. in locum Encheirid For God is so good it is a known saying of S. Augustin that by no meanes hee would permit any evill except he were also so wise and powerfull that out of that very evill he could picke good 7. It but agravates therefore our faults to cast them vpon God and to excuse our selues by necessity when we doe that which is wicked Wicked man vnderstand this that Gods revealed will in his word is the rule of thy actions and not his secret decrees which thou knowest not before they take effect David was told by Nathan the Prophet 2 Sam. 12.14 that his child borne in adultery should surely dye notwithstanding he fasteth and prayeth and lyes vpon the earth for hee knew these were the revealed meanes for pacifying Gods anger And afterwards instructs his servants that wondred at his carriage in that businesse while the child was yet aliue Vers 22. saith he I fasted and wept for I sayd who can tell whether God will be gratious vnto me that the child may liue but now he is dead it is past remedy Gods will is manifested wherefore should I fast It is one thing Beloued to consider how reverently wee are to thinke and beleiue of Gods infinite attributes and another thing what we are to doe according to his ordinance He by his prerogatiue may doe what he pleaseth but wee by our duty must performe what hee commandeth vs. When S. Peter commanded to follow our Saviour Iohn 21.21 would needs know what should become of Iohn who also followed hee receiued from his Master this checke for his curiosity If I will that he tarry till I come what is that to thee follow that me I would to God sayth a good interpreter this saying were so ingrauen in all mens minds Vtinam haec sententia omnium animis insculpta esset vt vnusquisque disceret in suam vocationem respicere Brentius apud Marlorat Deut. 30.29 Iohn 15.15 that every one would haue an eye to their owne calling and not be impertinently prying into things that belong not to them Secret things belong to the Lord our God it was one of the cheife proviso'es of Moses law but those that are revealed to vs and to our children that wee may doe all the words of thè law The servant knoweth not what his Lord doth It is not for vs to runne on in our wickednesse and to say with that desperate Monke in S. Augustine De hono perseu l. 2. c. 15. whatsoeuer I am now Talis ero qualem me Deus futurum esse praesciuit I shall be hereafter as God foresees I shall be He sayd true sayth that good Father but ended like a dogge in his own vomit For it is the Divells method to set a man on a pinnacle Math. 4. and bid him cast himselfe downe headlong Luke 14.10 but our Saviour directs vs to beginne at the lowest seate that thence we may heare Friend sit vp higher We must ascend then from the survay of our owne fayth and workes to the most comfortable perswasion of Gods immutable decrees and favour towards vs not beginne with predestination and end in desperation For would it not proue a mad kind of Logicke to make an inference vpon premisses which can be no way knowne How can wee coniecture that wee are elected or reiected but by that We belieue and doe If then our hearts be good and hands cleane and our intent sincere then God hath decreed to doe vs good for our encouragement But if otherwise we are not yet altogether past hope seeing it is impossible for vs to know any such perēptory decree which is past against vs but haue the meanes left to better vs the Iudge mercifull examples many of convertants receiued into favour If we can