Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	daughter_n	son_n	wife_n	6,684	5	7.2935	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66062	Sermons preached upon several occasions by the Right Reverend Father in God, John Wilkins ...; Sermons. Selections	Wilkins, John, 1614-1672.; Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.	1682 (1682)	Wing W2215; ESTC R21732	182,840	522

be had to it and the more wise and virtuous any man is the more care will he take to transmit a grateful memory of himself to future times And if he must be spoken of after his departure that he be well spoken of that his name may be as a pretious ointment leaving a perfume behind it that men may rise up at the mention of him and call him blessed 2. 'T is our interest in reference to the avoiding of that mischief which we may otherwise be exposed unto by doing things that will render us despicable I shall mention only two places of Scripture which will afford abundant proof to this purpose One is 1 Sam. 2.17 Where 't is said of the Sons of Eli that they did by their scandalous carriage render themselves vile before all the assembly and caused them to abhor the offerings of the Lord. And 't is worth your special notice that which follows upon this I do not know any more dreadful threats in the whole Bible Chap. 3.11 God tells them that he will execute his vengeance upon them in such a manner as shall strike a dread and horror by the very relation of it and cause both the ears of them that hear it to tingle And again v. 14. I have sworn to the house of Eli that their iniquity shall not be purged with sacrifices nor with offerings for ever i. e. Those very means which were appointed as the remedy and expiation for other mens sins shall be no benefit to them Sacrifices and Offerings were the things about which they had offended by rendering them contemptible causing others to abhor them And therefore no reason for such persons to expect any remedy from them whatsoever their particular repentance might do as to the saving of their souls The offences they had committed were so highly scandalous that God was immutably resolved he had sworn it to execute upon them some signal vengeance in this life that should manifest to the world how much he was concerned for that dishonour which these men had cast upon his Worship Which judgments did afterwards accordingly come to pass in the suddain death of Eli and his two Sons and his Daughter in Law in the rejection of Abiathar from the Priests office and in that Massacre committed by Saul at Nob upon fourscore and five Priests of this family together with their wives and children and servants The other Scripture is that Malach 2. towards the beginning where speaking of such Priests as by their unworthy carriage did render the publick worship contemptible and cause others to stumble at the Law God threatens that he will send a curse upon them and will curse their blessings and spread dung upon their faces and make them contemptible and base before all the people And there is nothing more equal than that those who expose religion to contempt should suffer under it themselves Now to put all this together if we have any ingenuity and desire to do things decent and congruous to our Profession any sense of the duty which we owe to others whom it is our business to persuade or which we owe to our selves in the preservation of that whereby we are to be excited unto virtuous and worthy actions If we have any sense of our own interest in securing to our selves the greatest blessing and avoiding the greatest mischief that this world can afford it will upon all accounts highly concern us that we do not so demean our selves as to deserve to be despised III. I proceed to the third general head proposed namely the means whereby we are to preserve our selves from contempt which are of two kinds Negative and Positive 1. Negative or such things as in order to this we are carefully to avoid All kind of vices whatsoever especially such as have in them a more peculiar deformity and turpitude which are most likely to alienate the minds of others from us I observed before that littleness and impotence is the most proper object of contempt I am small and despised saith David Psal. 119.141 So that all such qualities and actions as will make us appear unto others to be but minute and little things must needs render us despicable Such are Narrowness of mind judging of things and persons by little measures setting up for reputation by zeal in the smallest matters with neglect of the greater Putting the highest value upon those little things of gain and promotion and the favour of men which therefore ought to be esteemed but little because they cannot make us better and we can enjoy them but a little while We must shortly go out of this world when all such things shall be useless to us and therefore ought not to come in competition with those other matters which may conduce to our living with honour and dying with comfort Being subject to immoderate desires fears impatience to be amused and transported with wonder at outward pomp and grandeur All which doth arise from a wrong estimate of things occasioned by our own littleness Magna ista quia parvi sumus credimus These things would not seem great to us if we our selves were not little From whence will follow a servility of spirit a readiness to dissemble flatter revile to bow down to any kind of baseness before such whom we conceive able to assist or to hinder us in our little designs of gain And on the other side demeaning our selves with insolence towards others from whom we can neither hope nor fear any thing in this kind These are blemishes which in all ages the men of our Calling have been accused of And the truth is they are liable to some peculiar temptations in this kind more than others And therefore ought to be more especially careful for the avoiding of them To which I shall only add this one consideration If we of the Clergy would not have others to despise us we must be careful not to despise one another Those in places of dignity and power should not carry it with too great a distance from their brethren The proper notation of the word despise is to look down upon a thing as being much below us And much less should they permit any of their Officers to carry themselves with insolence towards such as are of this sacred Functoin It cannot be but that others will despise us when they see that we despise one another 2. The Positive means to this end are in general all kind of virtue and goodness But there are some things which the Apostle adviseth to as having a more peculiar fitness and tendency to this purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whatsoever things are venerable whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any virtue if there be any praise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have these things in account Phil. 4.8 Of these I shall mention only three 1. Wisdom 2. Generosity and largeness of mind 3. Holiness of