Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	great_a	pass_v	time_n	1,706	5	3.1051	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66053	Of the principles and duties of natural religion two books / by the Right Reverend Father in God, John, late Lord Bishop of Chester ; to which is added, A sermon preached at his funerals, by William Lloyd ...	Wilkins, John, 1614-1672.; Lloyd, William, 1627-1717. Sermon preached at the funeral of John, late Lord Bishop of Chester.; Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.	1675 (1675)	Wing W2204; Wing L2705_PARTIAL; ESTC R20334	178,528	530

is this That there is no imaginable reason why amongst those that know them they should pretend to any kind of honesty or conscience because they are wholly destitute of all such motives as may be sufficient to oblige them to any thing of this nature But according to them that which is called Virtue and Religion must be one of the most silly and useless things in the world As for the principle of Honour which some imagine may supply the room of Conscience This relates only to external reputation and the esteem which we have amongst others and therefore can be of no influence to restrain men from doing any secret mischief From what hath been said it will follow That those who have any regard to their own safety ought to abandon all kind of society with such pernicious persons who according to their own principles must take all opportunities of doing any mischief to others which they are able to effect with any advantage to themselves Now if this be so as I have proved that the nature of man is so framed as not to be effectually perswaded and wrought upon without the consideration of such a future state if it be necessary to add everlasting motives as the Sanctions of that Law by which the Humane Nature is to be governed this must render it highly credible that there is such a state because it must needs be very unworthy of God to conceive of him that he hath contrived the nature of one of his best and most noble Creatures after such a manner as to make it incapable of being governed without falshood and deceit The necessity of this principle to the government of mens lives and actions is the ground of that saying amongst the Rabbins That Paradise and Hell are two of the seven Pillars upon which God is said to have founded the World As if it could not be upheld without such a support 3. The third and last Argument I proposed to speak to was from the necessity of this principle to the vindication of Divine Providence Nothing is more universally acknowledged than that God is Good and Just That well-doing shall be rewarded and evil actions punished by him And yet we see that his dispensations in this life are many times promiscuous and uncertain so that a man cannot judg of love or hatred by all that is before him The worst of men are sometimes in the best condition If in this life only we had hope we should be of all men most miserable saith the Apostle speaking concerning those primitive times of persecution when the better any man was the more was he exposed to suffering Nor is it thus only in the case of particular persons or in the success of private differences betwixt men and men but likewise for some of those decisions that are made by the Sword in the publick contests of Princes and Nations these may sometimes be so stated as to the event of them as may in the judgment of wise and good men seem unequal and not according to justice and the right of the cause Now the greater uncertainty there is as to the present affairs of this world by so much greater is the certainty of a future Judgment It is true indeed that virtue may be said to be a reward to it self and vice a punishment in regard of that satisfaction or that regret of mind which doth accompany such things But these are not such kind of rewards and punishments as Lawgivers are to take care of by which they are to excite those under the government to overcome the labours and difficulties that they may sometimes meet with in doing their duty and to restrain others from wicked actions It would seem a wild extravagant Law which should propose by way of Reward that those who had upon account of Religion or Virtue undergone any great dangers and troubles should for their reward be put again to undergo more and greater That they who had been guilty of Robbery should by way of punishment be obliged to commit Murder Besides those Moral advantages or mischiefs which are properly the effects of Virtue and Vice there is likewise some Physical Good or Evil that may be expected as the reward and punishment of them Would it become a just Governour to permit his rebellious Subjects those who contemn his Laws to persecute such as were obedient to him with all kind of scorn and violence stripes imprisonment torments and death it self and that for this very reason because they were willing to do their duties and to observe the Laws Would it be a reasonable excuse for such a Ruler to say That one of these had received sufficient punishment in the very commission of such crimes and that the other had a sufficient reward both in the doing of his duty and in his suffering for it What could be more inconsistent with the rules of Justice and the wise ends of Government What could be a greater disparagement to Divine Providence than to permit the calamities and sufferings which good men undergo in this world many times upon the account of Religion to pass unrewarded and the many mischiefs and prophanations which wicked men take the advantage of committing by their greatness and prosperity in this world to go unpunished What great glory would it be to preside over this material World Stars and Meteors Sea and Land Plants and Beasts to put these things into such a regular course as may be suitable to their natures and the operations for which they are designed and in the mean space to have no proportionable regard either for those that reverence the Deity or those who contemn him 'T is very well said to this purpose by a late Author That not to conduct the course of Nature in a due manner might speak some defect of Wisdom in God but not to compensate Virtue and Vice besides the defect of Wisdom in not adjusting things suitably to their qualifications but crosly coupling Prosperity with Vice and Misery with Virtue would argue too great a defect of Goodness and of Justice And perhaps it would not be less expedient saith he with Epicurus to deny all Providence than to ascribe to it such defects It being less unworthy of the Divine Nature to neglect the Universe altogether than to administer humane affairs with so much injustice and irregularity And therefore 't is necessary for the vindication of Divine Providence that there should be a future state and Day of Accounts wherein every man shall be forced to acknowledg that verily there is a reward for the righteous doubtless there is a God that judgeth the earth CHAP. XII Concerning the Duties of Religion naturally flowing from the consideration of the Divine Nature and Perfections And first of Adoration and Worship HAving dispatched the two first things I proposed as the principal Ingredients to a state of Religion namely 1. A belief and an acknowledgment of the Divine Nature and Existence