Selected quad for the lemma: father_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
father_n	holy_a	know_v	son_n	20,890	5	5.9615	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23734	The government of the thoughts a prefatory discourse to The government of the tongue / by the author of The whole duty of man.	Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681.; Pakington, Dorothy Coventry, Lady, d. 1679.; Fell, John, 1625-1686.; Sterne, Richard, 1596?-1683.	1694 (1694)	Wing A1131; ESTC R16378	90,774	192

that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth Rom. 14.22 Lastly In all thy undertakings beseech and humbly implore the Almighty to Direct Counsel and Bless thee and according to the Apostle's Direction In every thing by Prayer and Supplication let your requests be made known unto God Phil. 4.6 For he is unworthy to receive a Blessing who omits the duty of Asking A Prayer for Directions in all our Actions MOST Merciful Father who hast promised that if the Wicked turns from his Sins that he hath committed and doth that which is lawful and right he shall live and his Transgressions shall not be remembred In humble acknowledgment of our manifold sins the equity of thy Judgments to give us over to our own unhappy Ways who have so long refused to be guided by thy holy Word and our own helpless Impotency to stay our selves turn unto thee or fix our selves in any good way to Serve and Please thee 2. WE humbly beseech thee O Father for the sake of thy dear Son to pardon all our Offences and to vouchsafe to lead us in thy Paths and the way thou appointest us to walk in We have long gone astray like lost Sheep and thou best knowest O our God how dangerous Satan's Snares are to us how many the Distractions of a deceitful vain World how frail and infirm sinful Flesh and Blood and how many our Errors But O Lord thy Wisdom cannot Err which is immutable therefore renouncing our own Conduct we render our selves into thy Gracious Hands humbly beseeching thee who freely givest Wisdom to all that ask and upbraidest no Man hold thou up our goings in thy Paths that our Footsteps slide not direct all our ways that we neither incline to the right nor to the left hand to offend thee but give us the Shield of our Salvation and let thy Right hand uphold us 3. O thou that hearest the Prayers of them that call upon thee hear us for our Souls wait on thee direct and guide us keep us and counsel us in all our Actions that we neither design nor perform any thing but that which is pleasing to thee and which thou wilt bless unto us that we may walk unblamably and prudently towards all Men and in Sanctity before thee And grant that in all our actions we may Glorifie thee and adorn the Gospel of Christ by our holy Conversations give good Examples to our Neighbours and stop the Mouths of all malicious Adversaries so that when these days of Sin are ended that we rest from our Labours we may enter into that promised Rest which remaineth for thy People where shall be no more Sin Error nor Curse Hear us O Lord in these and all other things necessary for our Bodies or Souls for Jesus Christ his sake Amen CHAP. XXV Of a Wounded Spirit what it is SOLOMON tells you Prov. 18.14 The Spirit of a Man will sustain his Infirmities but a wounded Spirit who can bear The word signifies a smitten contrite or broken Spirit It is a kind of Speech borrowed from corporal Affliction by Stripes Contusions Bruises or Wounds wherein by Incision and Launcing the Sinews and Veins the Body is debilitated and endangered to Death and Disabled so that it is void of Supportation it is liable to Inflamations and Distempers that every slight touch prejudices it It depriveth a Man of Rest so that he is impatient of this present Posture and more perplexed at a Mutation To express it further it is the intense sorrow of the Soul a weak Confidence and an infeebled life of the Spirit so that God may well nominate it A wounded Spirit 2. THIS Affliction is of that Magnitude that it exceeds all other Temporal Sorrows And none can truly give their Verdict of it but they who can join and say with David The sorrows of Death compassed me and the pains of Hell gat hold upon me Psal. 116.3 Other Sorrows may be Mitigated by administring to the Afflicted something equivalent to the loss sustained as where one Treasure is lost another may be found or by some compensation or repair may be Retaliated as Job had a second Posterity and encrease of Wealth And Elkanah declared such a Medium of Consolation to Afflicted Hannah when he said to her Am I not better to thee than ten Sons Sam. 1 1.8 3. BUT these Comforts are no ways conducive to an afflicted Spirit for furnish him with Riches the company of the dearest Friends or that which might afford Relief Refreshment and Delight to others yet to him it procures no Ease no more than if you put on a rich Purple Robe upon broken Bones No no the Grief is internal and no external means can Cure it In other Crosses time will asswage by Prudence and persuasive Arguments excellent lenitives of Sorrow In some cases to divert Wine merry Society Musick or the like means may bear some part which the Wise Man accords to Give strong Drink to him that is ready to perish and Wine to those that be of heavy Heart Let him drink and forget his Poverty and remember his Misery no more Prov. 31.6 7. 4. DAVID'S Harp did for the time refresh Saul and Charm the Evil Spirit But this grief admits of no Efficacy in such Comforts In other Pressures we may receive Ease or be conducted from the Evil as St. Paul was from the Jews Conspiracy Acts 23.31 and David from Saul 1 Sam. 19.12 But there is no flying from a wounded Spirit Where ever we go our Affliction attends us even our secret Tormentor in our own Bosoms In short as it is in one sense a Separation from God so no Creature in Heaven or Earth can Cure it There is no Sanctuary for a troubled Soul but only Gods favourable Presence No other Expedient can be used till he return and Comfort it 5. SO Horrid in the mean time is this Affliction that the desperate Traytor Judas took Death for his Sanctuary as an Antidote against his guilty Conscience ● but with what ponderosity it sits upon the Hearts of God's Servants may appear by the Complaints of Job and others Wherefore is light given to him that is in Misery and Life unto the bitter in Soul which long for Death but it cometh not and dig for it more than for hid Treasures which rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they can find the Grave Job 3 2O 21 22. This was Job's Complaint And the Prophet complained of his Birth Jer. 20.14 15 16 17 18. And the Prophet Elijah being threatned by Jezebel at Beer-sheba poured out himself It is enough now O Lord take away my Life for I am not better than my Fathers 1 Kings 19.4 And Jonah at the loss of his Gourd expressed himself saying It is better for me to die than live Jonah 4.8 CHAP. XXVI What the Conscience is and the Tranquility of it THE Conscience is the Cognition of the Heart and is a divine internal Light which we cannot Extinguish a

Consider that he suffered and underwent what thou couldst not perform yet not for himself for he knew no Sin but it was to work thine and the World's Salvation If through Faith in him thou canst have Peace with God thou shalt not only bear but rejoice in Tribulation knowing as the Apostle says that it worketh Patience Rom. 5.3 If thou wilt preserve Innocency and a good Conscience thou wilt advantageously acquire peace and contentment of Mind which shall Compose thee in the midst of Tumults in things External But as a Seditious City or a Discorded House cannot be Happy so a discorded Mind cannot be at Unity in it self 5. KEEP within the Jurisdiction of thy proper Business Employment or Calling Undertake not neither propound to thy self any thing too great for thy Management Over-grasping thy Hand Enervates it and torments it with fruitless Pain And aiming too ambitiously crucifies the Heart when they fall from the Precipice of their vain Proposals Art thou endowed with Riches Actively offer them to that use for which they were sent which is God's Glory Is thy Fortune slender Contract thy Mind within its Limits which is to Necessity not Opinion We read of a Philosopher in his Journey which drank Water in his Hand and cry'd out With how few Vtensiles is Nature content I could wish many would follow his Example that they might enjoy that Peace and Tranquility of Mind 6. BUT many become their own Tormenters and Authors of their own Discontents proposing such strange Fabricks of their Babels erecting airy Castles and Towers to Heaven adding House to House and Land to Land Province to Province and Kingdom to Kingdom chasing for their main Concernments in the dangerous attempts of doubtful Adventures Grandeur and affluence of Riches They go Remote to find that which with Prudence may be produced at Home in our own Bosoms which is to be satisfied in that which God hath allotted for us with a contented Mind 7. IT was remarked of Pyrrhus that active Epirot that Fortune made him happy enough with Sufficiency to live Peaceably at Home if he could have contented himself only with the Sovereignty over his own Subjects But his insatiable Avarice which neither the Sea Mountains Inhabitable Deserts nor the Confines which separate Asia from Europe could Limit instigated him perpetually to seek out new matter of Trouble to himself and others Which his faithful Friend Cineas did once Prudently tho without Effect intim●●● 〈◊〉 him whereupon new Overtures of honourable and profitable Undertakings for the Tarentines occasioned by Cineas Quaeres Pyrrhus had said When we have Overcome the Romans there can neither Grecian nor Barbarous City in all the Country withstand us but we shall Conquer all the rest of Italy with Ease And what shall we do then said Cineas Pyrrhus replying telleth him of Conquering commodious Sicily Again he demanded That being Won shall our Wars end Pyrrhus replied The way was then open enough to attain great Conquests and who would not afterwards go into Africk and so to Carthage But when we have all in our Hands said Cineas what shall we do in the end We will then good Cineas said he be quiet and take our Ease make Feasts every day and be as Merry one with another as we can possibly Cineas having brought him to that point said to him My Lord What hindereth us now to be Quiet and Merry together since we enjoy that presently without farther Travel and Trouble which we should now go seek for Abroad with such shedding of Blood and so manifest Dangers And we know not whether we shall ever attain unto it after we have both suffered and caused others to suffer infinite Sorrows and Troubles 8. LEARN to obtain a faithful dependance on Gods Providence This ground of Content the Holy Ghost proposeth Heb. 13.5 Let your Conversation be 〈◊〉 Covetousness and be content with such things as ye have for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee When Men too much depend on second Causes they are impatient at every Cross. They would impiously prescribe God the time as Jehoram would 2 Kings 6.33 and rebellious Israel Exod. 32.1 Or in the Means as Naaman 2 Kings 5.11 But in assurance that God will never fail us we must patiently expect his help In every Affliction remember that God beholdeth thee and his Providence will give the issue with the Tryal 9. ART thou in Want which excites thy Discontent Then call to mind what thou broughtest into this World and what thou shalt carry out Thou hast not such Possessions Houses Riches Apparel as some have yet no Man liveth so poor as he was Born This was that which that Exemplar of Patience said in all his Losses Naked came I out of my Mothers Womb and Naked shall I return thither Job 1.21 So St. Paul maketh it a ground of his Exhortation to Contentedness We brought nothing into this World and it is certain we shall carry nothing out 1 Tim. 6.7 Kings and Princes are cast out Naked in the day of their Nativity and are beheld as Weeping little Masters of the World The Great Saladine will inform you what they carry hence who ordered that at his Funeral one should carry a Shirt or Winding-sheet on the Point of an advanced Lance and go before the Herse and proclaim thus Saladine the Conqueror of the East carrieth hence with him only this of all that he hath gotten 10. FEED not the bitter humour of Discontents for the growths thereof are sad and dangerous Give not over thy mind to heaviness and afflict not thy self in thine own Counsel Ecclus. 30.21 The exhileration of the Heart is the Life of a Man and prolongeth his days Some Minds are like the Sea which instantly turneth sweet Showers into its own Bitterness because they indulge to Impatience pleasing themselves with that which tormenteth them But the prudent in every Affliction elevate their Souls to God seeking Comfort in him and consider of the Life to come where there shall be no more Curse Rev. 22.3 no more Discontent but every Heart shall be filled with Joy A Prayer for Patience and Contentment MOST Gracious God I humbly acknowledge thy fatherly goodness in measuring to me those Corrections which my Sins daily provoking thy Justice most justly deserve and thy stupendious Mercy in sparing me whom in thy severity thou mightest not only have made the most Miserable of all Men living but mightest have cast me into that Lake which burns with Fire and Brimstone Lord as thou hast in a bleeding Jesus afforded me this Mercy so for his sake blot out the Hand-writing of all my Offences Lay no more upon me than thou wilt enable me to bear and never suffer me frail Dust and Ashes for any Temptation to fall from thee but give me a blessed issue out of every Tryal 2. AND O holy Father correct me not in thine Anger lest I perish in thy fierce Wrath neither chasten me in