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land_n	find_v	great_a	king_n	3,579	5	3.5272	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34877	A supplement to Knowledge and practice wherein the main things necessary to be known and believed in order to salvation are more fully explained, and several new directions given for the promoting of real holiness both of heart and life : to which is added a serious disswasive from some of the reigning and customary sins of the times, viz. swearing, lying, pride, gluttony, drunkenness, uncleanness, discontent, covetousness and earthly-mindedness, anger and malice, idleness / by Samuel Cradock ... useful for the instruction of private families.	Cradock, Samuel, 1621?-1706.	1679 (1679)	Wing C6756; ESTC R15332	329,893	408

mouth of a strange woman is a deep pit and he that is abhorred of God shall fall therein that is he whom God is highly offended with for some former wickedness shall in a just way of punishment be delivered up to this ruining sin 3. God declares that he himself will judge those that commit this sin Heb. 13.4 Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge God will judge all other sinners but the Apostle seems to intimate that God will judge these in an especial manner 1. Because this sin being usually committed in secret man cannot so easily come to the knowledge of it nor can he prove it by sufficient witnesses 2. Many great and potent men are oftentimes guilty of this sin whom ordinary Magistrates either cannot or dare not or through remisness will not meddle with Therefore God will take the matter into his own hands and he himself will judge it And 't is a dreadful thing to fall into the hand of the living God Crimes among men are oftentimes extenuated by reason of the greatness of the Person that commits them But God will judge every man according to his works 4. 'T is a sin that is usually attended with hardness of heart and very often with final impenitence When once men have so far debauched their consciences that Adultery and Fornication seem small matters to them they are seldom recovered By frequent committing this sin they give their consciences such a dose of Opium that the lowdest threatnings of Gods word cannot awaken them The Prophet tells us Hos 4.11 that whoredom wine and new wine takes away the heart that is besot the understanding Terrible are those words Prov. 2.18.19 The house of the strange woman inclineth unto death and her paths unto the dead None that go unto her return again neither take they hold of the paths of life O the extreme hazard and danger that all Adulterers and Fornicators expose their precious souls unto for a short pleasure Travellers * Doctor Browns travels into Germany p. 111. tell us that at Presburg Metz and some other places in Germany they have a strange way of executing capital offenders which is this They have an Engine made in the form of and finely dressed up like a young maid or Lady with her hands before her The malefactor being brought to the place of execution salutes her first and then retires But at his second salute she opens her hands and cuts his heart asunder Methinks this is a notable emblem and representation of the horrible danger that adulterers expose themselves unto by their lascivious embraces * Cito praeterit quod delectat permanet sine fine quod cruciat Aug. Which if they did but duly consider before-hand they would as much tremble to venture on them as the poor condemned Malefactor does to make his second salute to the fatal Engine 5. Adultery * Adulterium quasi ad alterius thorum accessus is one of the greatest plagues imaginable to private families For thereby a spurious bastardly brood is brought in to inherit and share the estate instead of a legitimate issue Like as the Cuckow layes her filthy eggs in another birds nest making it to hatch and nourish them as if it were its own off-spring So that this sin usually breeds dismal confusion and fatal jars and strifes in those miserable Families where it is found 6. 'T is a great mischief to the Church For by Lawful Wedlock among Christians a seed foederally holy is brought forth but by this sin a spurious and unclean brood 7. 'T is a sin that defiles a Land and provokes God to send down most heavy judgments upon it We read that the Land of Canaan where Israel dwelt spewed out the Nations that were before them for their uncleanness Lev. 18.27 28. And therefore every honest person should have a great zeal for chastity and an utter abhorrence and indignation against uncleanness as that which is a ruiner of a Nation and a mischief to the community by drawing down Gods Judgments upon it 8. 'T is a sin that exceedingly blots the name * A Learned man writing of a great Prince who was also a great Captain sayes of him that he was egregius bellator sed non adversus carnem suam So that great men one would think should be afraid of this sin lest they should be recorded to Posterity under the Characters of fi●thy persons There are few fornicators or adulterers who do not by great and solemn repentance and amendment of life break off that sin but leave an infamous name and memory to posterity Prov. 10.7 The memory of the just is blessed but the name of the wicked shall rot Prov. 6.32 33. He that committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding He that doth it destroyeth his own soul A wound and dishonour shall he get and his reproach shall not be wiped away 9. It usually blasts the estate Prov. 6.26 By reason of a whorish woman a man is brought to a morsel of bread Job 13.10 'T is a fire that consumeth to destruction and will root out all their increase I appeal to every wise mans observation whether this be not usually the fruit of uncleanness 10. 'T is a sin that very frequently wasts and destroyes the body The Apostle 1 Cor. 6.28 Exhorts to flee fornication because among other reasons 't is a sin that so much hurts the body In other sins that men commit commonly they abuse something without the the body as the drunkard doth wine but this sin hurteth and abuseth the body it self in a more remarkable manner by an intemperate and excessive exhausting the vital spirits and consuming the natural heat and moisture which are the preservers of health strength and life And besides this sin is frequently attended with that loathsom disease which makes the committers of it to rot and stink above ground So that if there be any men so sottish as not to fear Hell or punishment in another life yet methinks they should resolve to live chastly for fear of rotting their bodies by uncleanness and so shortning this life wherein they expect all their happiness The Apostle indeed in that Chapter before-mentioned uses another argument of another nature to true believers why they should keep themselves from uncleanness Verse 15. Know you not sayes he that your bodies are the members of Christ and will you take the members of Christ and make them the members of an Harlot God forbid For as wedlock makes man and wife one body lawfully so fornication makes the fornicator and the harlot one body unlawfully Further he shews that the bodies of true believers are Temples of the Holy Ghost who is freely given of God to dwell in them and therefore their bodies ought to be kept pure and undefiled The Apostle therefore in this place uses these arguments to true believers and not impure Fornicators For their bodies are not members of Christ nor Temples of the

faithful fail from among the children of men They speak vanity every one with his neighbour with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak 14. Labour for a plain spirit without guile and represent to your thoughts the amiableness thereof Remember what is the note or character of a Godly man Prov. 13.5 A righteous man hateth lying but a wicked man is loathsome and cometh to shame Think with your self how ill you should like it that those whom you deal with should lye to you or deceive you and why should you then do so to them 15. Learn to trust in God at all times A man that does humbly repose himself on Gods Fatherly care and protection over him in the greatest dangers and straits and is resolved that he had better stand to Gods determination and choice in all things than to his own what need can he apprehend he hath of a lye or any sinful shift even at the greatest pinch Distrust of Gods fatherly care was Isaacks weakness at Gerar Gen. 26.7 And the men of the place asked him of his wife and he said she is my sister for he feared to say she is my wife lest the men of the place should kill him for Rebeckahs sake because she was fair to look upon 16. Think much of Gods omniscience and that his eye is alwayes upon you 'T is a weighty saying of my Lord Verulam He that tells a lye shrinks from man and braves it towards God He fears the wrath of man and so tells a lye to prevent it but he brasens it out in the face of the Alseeing God Gehazi feared his masters anger and so lyed to prevent it thinking he could not find it out But he feared not lying in the sight of God for which he was punished with the Leprosie 2 Kings 5.27 17. Remember that those things that are got by a lye are usually imbittered with a great deal of smart and sorrow A remarkable instance hereof we have in Jacob who indeed got the blessing by a lye But observe what followed hereupon 1. His Brother Esau vowed to kill * Gen. 27.41 ●2 c. him for it 2. He was thereupon sent away from his Fathers house to his uncle Laban who dwelt at Haran in Mesopotamia a great way of 3. As he had dealt deceitfully with his Father so his uncle Laban dealt deceitfully with him changing his wages ten times Gen. 31.41 and gave him at last Leah instead of Rachel beside all the other hardships he endured there for twenty years together 4. His Mother Rebeckah that put him upon that course of beguiling his Father never saw her beloved Jacob more as far as we can discern by the story she dying as 't is probable before his return Thus we see that they that get any thing by lying and indirect dealing have reason to expect that they shall smart for it in the end 18. Avoid those two great Jesuitical tricks viz. equivocation and mental reservation Equivocation is when an answer is expressed in such words as are ambiguous and carry double and contain more senses and significations than one and that on purpose to deceive Mental reservation is when the sense is but half expressed as if a Magistrate should ask a Romish Priest Art thou a Priest and he should answer I am no Priest reserving in his mind I am no Priest of Baal This trick is plainly eversive of all truth in speaking For the reply in such cases being deceitful doth not answer the question as it ought to do But here one thing is to be interposed viz. that Hyperboles and such figurative speeches are not lyes but are used to express a thing more significantly As the Land of Canaan is called in the Scripture a Land flowing with milk and honey Exod. 33.3 whereby is meant only that it was a very fruitful Land abounding with all necessaries Neither are Parables or Apologues to be accounted lyes when by things feigned an unfeigned truth is more lively represented as in Jothams parable Judges 9.8 The trees went forth on a time to anoint a King over them c. See also 2 Kings 14.9 and 2 Sam. 12.1 Neither is it a lye when in shew of words some false thing is uttered but by the gesture or pronunciation of the speaker it owe may appear that something else is intended See 1 Kings 18.27 And it came to pass that at noon Elijah mocked them concerning their god Baal and said cry aloud for he is a god either he is talking or pursuing or he is in a journey or peradventure he sleepeth and must be awaked c. 19. Let Parents Masters and Superiors be careful not too hastily or suddenly to charge faults on their children servants or inferiours For such sudden surprises put them by all due consideration and so disorder their understandings that many times they speak what otherwise they would not Therefore let them give them time to consider and let them advise them to speak the truth though against themselves declaring to them that if they be in a fault an humble confession of it is the only way to obtain pardon both from God and man Whereas a lye will double their fault and greatly increase their guilt 20. Lastly let such as profess religion and pretend to piety take heed they be not at any time found tardy as to this vice For thereby they will bring a scandal upon their profession and open the mouths of wicked and prophane scoffers who are ready enough to watch for the haltings of good men and to charge them though unjustly that they will lye though they will not swear Let them therefore be very careful to be honest and true in their words cautious in their promises and faithful in their performances that the name of God and the Christian profession may not be blasphemed through them And though they that commonly swear make no conscience of a lye yet let it appear that they * Isay 63.8 Surety they are my people children that will not lye so he was their Saviour that fear to swear fear to tell a lye also CHAP. III. Of Pride IN treating of this Argument I shall shew 1. What is not to be accounted Pride though it may by some be so esteemed 2. What Pride is wherein the nature of it consists and what are the signs and evidences of it 3. The great evil and malignity of it 4. Give some remedyes and directions against it For the First There are some things that look like Pride and make men censured for proud which are not so such as these 1. When a man in authority whether Magistrate or Minister having a Spirit suitable to his place and work and casting off all pusillanimity and irregular fear of men and by Faith eyeing God and designing to please him does his duty couragiously leaving issues and events to him This is not Pride but Christian courage and resolution and a gracious gift of God

themselves to consider what kind of life that is that is there lived They savor and relish earthly things but spiritual things seem to them to have no tast in them But the true Christian exercises himself in the meditation of things invisible and lives in the believing views of the excellency and reality of those things and by faith ascertains them to himself The Martyrs had their hearts set on things unseen The invisible comforts and recompenses of the other life bore up their hearts against the terrors of visible and present torments And so much of the causes of Covetousness 4. I come now to shew what are the marks and characters of such as are Covetous and Earthly-minded and who may be stiled men of the World 1. Men whose knowledge and skill lyes only or chiefly about the things of the world They are shrowd understanding men in worldly matters but in the things of God and such as concern their Souls and their everlasting welfare meer Children In the things that concern their trades or professions they are notable men but talk with them about the Covenant of Grace about Conversion and Regeneration about the true nature of Repentance or Faith and they know little 2. Their hearts are chiefly set on these things The things of the World they love and affect as being sutable to their spirits The Apostle commands us 1 John 2.15 Not to love the World nor the things of the World for all the things of the World may be reduced to these three heads the lust of the flesh or sensual pleasures the lust of the eye or riches and such things as are seen with the eyes and the pride of life that is preferments and honours But though the Apostle commands we should not set our hearts or affections on these things yet this is the Worlds Trinity and more adored by them than Father Son and Holy-Ghost 3. Their discourse is chiefly about these things 1 John 4.5 They are of the World therefore speak they of the World Their breath is earthy which they say is a sign of death Talk with them about worldly things none more free to discourse than they But speak to them of matters that concern their Souls they have nothing to say Such discourse is usually unpleasing to them 4. Their pains and endeavours * Rem Rem quocunque modo Rem Ocives querenda pecunia primum est Virtus post nummos are only or chiefly for the things of the World They take little pains about their own Souls or the souls of those under their care but are mighty industrious about the things of the World They rise early and sit up late to acquire them but a short attendance upon religious duties and exercises what a weariness is it to them and they are ready to snuff at it as the Prophet speaks Mal. 1.13 They take a great deal of care and pains how they may live here it may be ten or twenty or thirty years but they take no thought how they should live a thousand years hence when they have left their bodies in the earth Oh were the endeavours of these men for the saving of their immortal precious souls but any thing answerable to the pains they take to get the World how happy might they be God is not always pleased to bless and succeed the endeavours of men who are very diligent in their calling and painful and laborious to get wealth God sees it best to keep them low But what man ever was diligent and serious in seeking the things of eternal life and working out his Salvation that did not find God assisting of him and prospering his endeavours 5. They are very careful to secure to themselves those temporal things but use no answerable care to secure to themselves things eternal They are very careful about the Titles of their Lands and Purchases and hardly ever think themselves secure enough Let a Minister come to one of these men on his Death-bed and ask him concerning the evidences of his estate he will tell him they are all safe in such a trunk or chest But let him ask him what evidences he has that his Soul is in a safe condition Alas He has nothing to say He has not minded those things His Soul is left upon miserable uncertainties He has taken no care to secure to himself erernal * Nulla satis magna secu●itas ubi periclitatur aeternitas happiness He has taken care to leave a clear estate to his children but no care to clear his Soul of guilt or to deliver himself from the wrath that is to come 6. They are commonly very solicitous about their own private interest but little or nothing concerned about the interest of Christ or his Church They are wholly and only for themselves We read 1 Sam. 4.13 that old Eli's heart trembled for the Ark of God which was the symbole of his gracious presence among them But how little are worldly and earthly-minded men concerned how it fares with the Church of God provided their own private worldly concernments be safe and secure 7. These outward things they make their trust and confidence They set their prime affections of love and trust upon them in that measure which is only due to God The rich mans wealth is his strong City Prov. 10.16 They make Gold their hope and fine Gold their confidence Job 31.24 Their wealth is the Idol upon which they dote Their confidence and trust is taken off from God and placed upon their riches As the Psalmist speaks Psal 52.7 Lo these are the men that make not God their strength but trust in the abundance of their riches And this their way is their folly and a course very injurious to God who should be the only object of our trust and can only help us in a day of trouble The Scripture doth frequently disswade men from such carnal confidence 1 Tim. 6.17 Charge them that be rich in this World that they be not high-minded nor trust in uncertain riches but in the living God Psal 62.10 If riches increase set not your hearts upon them And our Saviour himself gives us this precept Matth. 6.19 Lay not up for your selves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal but lay up for your selves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal For where your treasure is there will your hearts be also And so much of the marks and characters of such as are earthly-minded 5. I come now to shew the great evil of Covetousness and earthly-mindedness 1. 'T is a sin the Scripture testifies very much against 1. 'T is called Idolatry Ephes 5.5 Col. 3.5 because the Covetous man loves * Amor tuus Deus tuus his money more than God and more trusts in it 2. 'T is called the root of all evil 1 Tim. 6.10 'T is the cause