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A79552 Saint Chrysostome his Parænesis, or Admonition wherein hee recalls Theodorus the fallen. Or generally an exhortation for desperate sinners. / Translated by the Lord Viscount Grandison prisoner in the Tower.; Parænesis. English John Chrysostum, Saint, d. 407.; Grandison, William Villiers, Viscount, 1614-1643. 1654 (1654) Wing C3980; Thomason E1531_2; ESTC R208923 51,851 141

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Saint Chrysostome HIS PARAENESIS Or Admonition wherein hee recalls THEODORUS the fallen Or generally An Exhortation for Desperate sinners Vincenti datur Manna torpenti relinquitur multa miseria T. A. Kempis Translated by the Lord Viscount Grandison Prisoner in the Tower LONDON Printed for Thomas Dring at the Signe of the George near Cliffords Inne in Fleet-Street 1654. To the Reader I Should not have the vanity to believe any thing of my owne worthy the Presse but being concern'd much in this treatise I undertook he translation and with some paines renew'd my long discontinued acquaintance with the Greek to render Saint Chrysostomes meaning into this plaine English It was writ with passion to his fallen friend I am very confident it may be beneficiall to many whose case is not unlike this of Theodorus I wish it may and that it may not be look'd lightly on as mine but with more serious eyes as the counsell of that reverend father whose it is I am certain there can be nothing more appositely said to men in a desperate course of life then what may bee found here I propound nothing of my own to any man but such an excellent cordiall as this I could not take alone I desire it may be to others what I pray it may prove unto my self that in this time of misery though we are lyable to all other losses we may lay certain hold on the better part which cannot be taken from us Yours GRANDISON TO MY NOBLE LORD THE EARL of CLEAVLAND MY LORD SInce I first began this translation your Lordship has stil encourag'd me to go on with it and when I had ended it I could not but think it unfirnish't till I had prefixt your name to it I have alwaies told your Lordship that I had no vanity to own my imperfections and if I thought my confidence to print this Treatise a fault I would smother rather then publish it But having most seriously weighed the content and satisfaction the originall brought to my selfe after I had taken the paines to translate it I resolv'd to make it communicable to as many as please to read Saint Chrysostome in my English And though it particularly aimes at fallen Theodorus and as at him so at every dissolute person the most opinionated reserved men may read it and perhaps somtimes find themselves not a little concern'd in it For it most particularly treats against desperation which is a disease lyable to the greatest confidence Especially when the very same men who have had the severe curiosity almost to blind their brethren with plucking the motes out of their eyes shall be brought to consider the beames that are in their own so great and just often proves their doome who are not forewarn'd by our Saviour not to judge lest they be judged My Lord This treatise of the holy Father signally invites us to be our owne Physicians and sincerely to arraigne our soules before the face of Heaven it instructs us how to prize the beauties God has endowed our minds with unlesse wee soyle them with our owne negligence it teaches us to preferre the care of our souls above all earthly alurements though baited with the most tempting delights and may well then be a fit mission from a Prison to those in the greatest liberty for men in restraint while they are most forbid vanities begin to know then most truly what they are for all deceiving delights possesse us like the Devil they take our wits from us but the correcting hand of God whilst we are in the troubles and miseries of this world prepares us for a better and here wee shall find weapons and arms fit for the fiercest conflict of that nature here my Lord in this translation which I dedicate to you with that infinite desire I have ever to be esteemed Your Lordship's Most faithful servant GRANDISON AN EXHORTATION TO DESPERATE SINNERS Taken out of St. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM In his admonition to falling THEODORUS CHAP. I. SAint Chrysostome passionately describes the great esteeme and valew wee ought to have of our own soules and on that Basis hee raises this Fabrick of this Treatise to perswade Theodorus plung'd into extream sinns and bewitch'd with the vanity of dissolute life to return to Vertue and Piety in which hee had once been a most eminent example Who will give water to my head and to my eyes a Fountain of tears I take up this lamentation at a farre more seasonable and needfull time then when the Prophets sorrow for the Jews made him so passionate a Mourner For although I determine not to bewaile the desolation of many Cities or Kingdomes I esteem the necessity of my grief much more urging that am to deplore the losse of thy most inestimable Soul more to be priz'd and therefore more to be lamented then many Nations Whose dignity though never so swelling in the additions of vast riches and innumerous numbers of people could not make them equall to thee Eccle. 16. For such is the esteem of one man embracing the will of God above ten thousand transgressors What then were infinite millions of those Jews in the ballance with thee before thy sad fall Wherefore let no man blame me if I double the bitternesse of the Prophets lamentation desiring thus nearly concern'd to make my grief exceed his And though I bewaile no sackt City nor sinfull men subdued by a conquering power the subject of my tears exacts a deeper sorrow It is a most sacred soul whose ruine I regret a soul forsaken and in a most deplor'd condition God's own Temple demolisht and raz't A Temple so sacred as Christ himself tooke pleasure to inhabite there while he govern'd alone unrivall'd by the possession or dominion of sin or vanity whatsoever How did the glorious beauty of thy soul excell all the magnificence and pomp of this World whose onely Ornament was our Lord JESUS the World's Saviour and Redeemer Where is this beauty banisht Where consum'd it in the rage and flames certainly of that hellish Fire which every temptation thy too easie soule yeelds to bring with it for prepar'd art thou by the Devills malice for thy destruction What honest and ingenuous man could abstain from mourning perusing cordially the Prophets lamentation When he speaks of those barbarous sacrilegious hands which prophan'd the Holy of Holies committing every thing that was dedicated to the honor and service of God The Cherubins the Ark the Propitiatorie the Tables of stone the Golden Urne And is not thy fall of much more sorrowfull consequence when all these were in a manner Types of thee but representations of that greater excellence thy soul was once enricht with Thou wert the more sacred Temple though not resplendent with Gold or Silver Yet refulgent with the grace of the Holy spirit Who hadst within thee in stead of Cherubins and the Ark God the Father Christ his Son and the holy Comforter But alas Thy glories are perisht and thou become a
and scourges to no afflictions abroad nor strife at hope no prisons or Irons no hazard of shipwrack no violence of theeves or thy own familiarsnares no hunger cold nor nakednesse neither to scorching fire And alas wilt thou dread my exhortations I impose no bitter task on thee but on the contrary earnestly desire thee to set thy self free from a most tyrannicall captivity And when thou art ransom'd from this bondage of thy sinns to the happy liberty thou didst once enjoy thy eyes opened to behold what true bliss is Thou wilt confesse the merited paines of a dissolute life the unquiet and tormenting afflictions of a mind given over to carnall lusts and what the happinesse and content of such a godly life is as thou didst formerly leade It were no greater wonder that an Athiest who believ'd no resurrection from the dead should lie lull'd in his lethargick bestialitie without any sence of his condition But that believers that Christians who look after expect and foresee what is decreed both to the good and bad for them to live thus miserably unconcern'd in their own calamities nothing at all awakened with the remembrance of their future hopes or fears is most heavy dul and sencelesse stupidity When with their lipps men shall professe themselves believers but look into their waies they are by many degrees worse then infidells and commit greater abhomination then they For amongst the very heathens themselves there cannot be greater monsters in sinns then are some Christians Nay what is more which should severely advise us to amend amongst them there are often eminent examples of lives led morally so well that they are fit to be look'd upon for our instruction with what shame then shall we cover our faces when the actions of heathens and aliens to God may be precepts Merchants who have suffer'd great damages and losses fall not from their hopes but try the Seas again though there be the same danger of stormes and shipwrack which they know their greatest skill and care cannot sometimes avoid And shall we base unworthy cowards that suffer by sin and wickedness not dare the recovery of our lost soules nor attempt our future preservation though wee fall into dangerous lapses being wee know we are forbid to despair in the greatest extremities When indeed no evill has power over us unlesse we willingly our selves consent unto it And why remain we then so insensibly stupid why use we not our hands in this combat but lie as if they were tyed behind us or what is worse if they are employ'd it is against us our selves what madnesse is this that men entring the lists to fight their adversaries turne all their blowes upon themselves The Divell lies in ambush for us diligently observing the advantages hee has over humane weaknesse to make us destroy our selves Wee must have courage then with undaunted spirits to meet the cunning assaltant on every attempt against us or with our own negligence and carelesse fears he ruins us for ever As thou art fallen Theodorus so likewise fell blessed David he to adultery added the heynous murther of innocent Uriah But what follow'd did he lie under the burthen of his iniquities did not he attempt to rise again but overcome by Satan lay prostrate to his fury No! he couragiously resumes his arms against his enemy and fought him with so prevailing courage that his children after him were the trophies of his victory and receiv'd the benefits of his conquest For when Solomon his Sonn's heart was turn'd after other Gods by means of his wives 1 Kings 11. When he went after Ashtoreth the Goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon c. When he had with all his abhominations provok'd the Lord it is recorded in holy writ that for Davids sake God rent not his Kingdome from him ver. 11. I will surely rend thy Kingdome from thee and will give it to thy servant Notwithstanding in thy daies I will not do it for David thy fathers sake but I will rend it out of the hands of thy Son Howbeit I will not rend away all thy Kingdome but will give one tribe to thy Son for David my servants sake So likewise in the daies of Hezekias though he himself were a just man does the Lord alledge the same cause of his mercy to Jerusalem 2 Kings 19. 34. I will defend this City to save it for mine own sake and for David my servants sake Thus did the Lord continue the remembrance of Davids hearty penitence to shew us how effectually true repentance finds accesse to the tribunall of Heaven This servant of the Loreds disputed not against his redemption had he had the desperate opinion thou seemest to be of now that hee could not be reconcil'd to God He would have said perhaps God has done me mighty honors he has chosen me into the number of his Prophets has given me Empire and Dominion over my brethren and deliver'd me out of mighty dangers and how can I hope for his mercy whom after so manifold blessings I have thus infinitely offended Had the Prophet permitted such desperate conceptions to overcome him he had not onely excluded himselfe from Gods favour in that his sad condition at the present but had blotted out the remembrance of all his former life As the wounds of the body neglected grow altogether incurable so those of the soul if we seek not for their remedie lapse us into eternall perdition yet such is our folly that in the least distempers of our bodies we refuse no paines no troubles but submit to any tortures art can prescribe for our recovery but obstinately werefuse the medicins of our sick souls nay though wee are so ill that we are beyond all cure with what a longing desire we are attentive to what the Physician speakes in the last extreames willing to hear of comfort But in the disease of our soules wee despair and languish before we see reason for it since the most dangerous wounds there are not incurable And where the nature of the sicknesse is really desperate wee continue our hopes but miserably despaire where there is no need And where we are absolutely forbid it we are willfully diffident putting on the vanity of a confidence when 't is ridiculous and beyond all hopes but such is our naturall fond inclination to our bodies that wee look on their decayes with horror and affrightment and in the hazards of our pretious soules are sottishly insensible Me thinks in such a state those words of Christ may awake our heavy dull spirits Mat. 10. 28. Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill soul but rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Hell If these be not prevalent with thee to perswade thee as yet to return to thy integrity I shall labour in anguish and affliction of soul for thy deferring so long so acceptable and necessary a task as thy reforming
the deepest abysse of Hell Nor does this discourse alone aver this For the records of holy writ most amply testifie the same The Evangelist Saint Matthew shewes it Matth. 16. 27. He shall render saith he every man according to his workes Nor in Hell onely but in Heaven also shall there be difference of reward John 14. 2. In my Fathers house are many mansions saies our blessed Saviour And again 1 Cor. 15. 41. There is one glory of the Sun another of the the Moon another of the Starrs for one Star differeth from another Star in glory so likewise in the Resurrection of the dead Let him who considers this value the expence of his labour and be continually employ'd in good deeds If we attain not the glory of the Sun or the Moon wee get to be little starrs if we discharge the duty of good Christians so far as to get there at all If we shine not in glory like Diamonds or like Gold wee may like Silver But we must be carefull we are not found of materialls fitter for the fire then a place in his Heavenly mansions And if wee are not able to discharge the highest actions of perfection let us not neglect the due observance of lesser things which we may perform For it is most desperate madnesse to do no good at all because we are not in the state of the most excelling perfection For as worldlings grow rich by saving every little trifle encreasing their store so are spirituall riches attain'd by a circumspect laying hold on every occasion wherein we may serve our Lord It is wonderfull and something strange to humane sence that God has appointed so great a reward as the Kingdome of Heaven to him that shall but give a cup of cold water in his name yet are men so foolish that unlesse they can atchieve the greatest they neglect lesser matters which are likewise very profitable He that neglects not his duty in things but small in their appearance will learn to be able to performe greater But he that is negligent in a little will be a weak discharger of greater duties And to prevent this humane inclination Christ has left us great proposalls of certain reward for things to be compast with very little trouble What is more easie then to pay the labourer his hire which is but a part of thy own gain and yet large are the promises of our Lord for that See then the way to lay hold on Everlasting salvation enter into it delight in our Lord pray incessantly unto him again submit thy self to his easie yoak take on thy shoulders the light burthen thou bearst in a more happy condition and let the end of it prove worthy the beginning of thy life Do not O do not despise such infinite riches which freely flow unto thee And they are all for ever lost to thee if thou perseverest to exasperate our Lord with those ill courses thou art in For if thou yet stopst the channells and hinder'st this deluge in time before it has made too great a breach thou maist repaire thy losses to thy great advantage When thou hast considered and meditated seriously on this as thou oughtest fling away the filth and mud which hangs upon thy soule rise from out of the mire wherein thou hast wallowed And see how formidable thou wilt be to thy adversarie who believ'd he had cast thee down never to rise again it will amaze him to see thee again provoke him to the battaile surpriz'd with thy recovery and astonisht at such an undaunted resolution how fearfull will the coward the Devill be to attempt again the ensnaring thee If other mens calamities be proper lessons for us shall not all our owne instruct us I believe that I shall see this shortly in thee and that thou wilt appear in the sight of Heaven a person restor'd to grace a more excellent and clearer soul then ever thou were one that shall give testimonies of such perfection and integrity that thou maist be ranckt amongst the best men if not preferr'd before them Onely despair not fall not againe This is my counsell do thou as my custome is When ever I hear any thing from others may profit me I make no delay to embrace and follow it and if thou receivest with a good purpose these my admonitions thy sick and languishing soule will need no other Physick FINIS Erata Page 1. l. 5. for this r. the l 7. of dissolute r. of a dissolute p. 3. l. 4. of sin r. of any sin l. 13. for for prepared r. so prepared l. 20. for committing every thing that was dedicated r. committing every thing to the flames that was dedicated p. 6. l. 7. for intollerable r. in alterable p. 9. l. 5. r. linkd to p. 12. l. 16. for rebellious r. religious p. 14. l. 15. for wretched r. wretches p. 23. l. 1. leave out and promised p. 24. l. 6. r. like a loving father p. 26. l. last for peruses r. persues p. 31. l 11. for confidences r. consciences p. 44. l. 28. r. delights for lights p. 46. l. 17. for again r. gone again p. 60. l. 7. r. there appeared not p. 62. l. 22. for receive r. conceive p. 67. l. 11. for screen scaene p. 70. l. 4. for undertake labour r. undertake the labour p. 72. l. 5. for choosed r. crost p. 79. l. 12. for Hermions r. Hermiones p. 79. l. 17. for starrs r. statues p. 80. l. 7. for Hermion's r. Hermione's p. 84. l. 6. for hope r. home ibid. l. 23. for greater r. great p. 87. l. 3. for were r. wore p. 103. l. 13. Chap. is intitled the 5. ibid l. 3. I knew a young Phoenix r. I knew a young man Phoenix p. 104. l. 3. for religions r. religious Reader this multitude of faults in so small a treatise I can attribute to nothing but my own ill hand which deceived the printer which I entreat thee to correct The Contents of every Chapter CHAP. I. SAint Chrysostome passionately describes the great esteem and value we ought to have of our own soules and on that basis he raises the fabrick of this treatise to perswade Theodorus plung'd into extream sinns and bewitch't with the vanity of a dissolute life to return to vertue and piety in which he had once been an eminant example CHAP. II. The Devil endeavours and practices to undermine our hopes and raze the foundation of our eternall happiness The comparison betwixt a dying body and a perishing soul with an exhortation to be couragious in our conflicts with the Devill CHAP. III. Gods mercie to the greatest sinners an argument against despair CHAP. IV. The example of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon a cohaerence to the preceding Chapter CHAP. V. That sincere repentance is alwaies acceptable to God declar'd out of Holy writ by example precept and parable CHAP. VI That we ought carefully to cleanse our soules from the filth of sin which must by no meanes be slighted or neglected since in this word we cannot presume on to morrow every thing is so subject to mutability And then the pleasures of the Earth being so short and so quickly vanishing we ought to fix our thoughts upon that eternity in which we shall be crown'd with glory or plagued in torments CHAP. VII Hell fire expos'd to the terror of the impenitent with the torments and the certainty thereof CHAP. VIII Of the beatitude of the Saints glorified in Heaven pressing Theodorus farther to amendment by arguing that Heaven is rather to be sought after then Hell to be fear'd the glory of the one being a more moving object then the terriblenesse of the other CHAP. IX Of the day of judgement CHAP. X. The joyes of Heaven prosecuted give occasion to discourse of the felicities and blessings God has promis'd our soules the excellencies wherewith they are enricht and vile contempt we have of them preferring our bodies their slaves before them CHAP. XI Saint Chrysostome continues here the glorious nature of the Soule and from that excellence prosecutes his perswasions to Theodorus still striving to overcome the rebellions of his lusts with exhortations and pressing arguments CHAP. XII The story of the Ninivites repenpentance the proeme to St. Chrysostomes farther urging Theodorus to his conversion collecting thence that the greatest sinners may return to God he prosecutes his perswasives alledging that many so converted have become the best and most zealous people CHAP. XIII Sant Chrysostome relates a story of Phoenix a young Gentleman of his time another of an Hermit another of a Disciple of Johns the Son Zebedeus and of Onesimus out of Saint Paul with which he continues his perswasives to fallen Theodorus CHAP. XIV The sum and conclusion of this treatise FINIS No comparison betwixt the death of the body and the soul St. Chrysostom's application to Theodorus The Hermet The schooler of John In Eusebius Eccles. Hist. lib. 5. c. 2.