Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	hear_v	lord_n	word_n	6,751	5	4.4015	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A16657	The English gentleman containing sundry excellent rules or exquisite observations, tending to direction of every gentleman, of selecter ranke and qualitie; how to demeane or accommodate himselfe in the manage of publike or private affaires. By Richard Brathwait Esq.	Brathwaite, Richard, 1588?-1673.; Vaughan, Robert, engraver.	1630 (1630)	STC 3563; ESTC S104636	349,718	488

Serpent or some brute beast and this it knew but it would not for thy goodnesse sake This it was which forced from that devout and zealous Father this emphaticall discourse or intercourse rather with God who upon a time walking in his garden and beholding a little worme creeping and crawling upon the ground presently used these words Deare Lord thou might'st have made me like this Worme a crawling despicable creature but thou would'st not and it was thy mercy that thou would'st not O as thou has● ennobled me with the Image of thy selfe make me conformable to thy self that of a worm I may become an angel of a vassall of sin a vessell of Sion of a shell of corruption a Star of glory in thy heavenly mansion And in truth there is nothing which may move us to a more serious consideration of Gods gracious affection towards us than the very image which we carry about us preferring us not only before all the rest of his creatures in soveraignty and dominion but also in an amiable similitude feature and proportion whereby we become not only equall but even superiour unto Angells because Man was God and God Man and no Angell To whom are wee then to make recourse to as the Author of our Creation save God whose hand hath made and fashioned us whose grace hath ever since directed and prevented us and whose continued love for whom he loveth he loveth unto the end hath ever extended it selfe in ample manner towards us How frivolous then and ridiculous were their opinions who ascribed the Creation of all things to the Elements as Anaximenes to the piercing Aire Hippeas to the fleeting Water Zeno to the purifying Fire Zenophanes to the lumpish Earth How miserably were these blinded and how notably evinced by that learned Father who speaking in the persons of all these Elements and of all other his good creatures proceedeth in this sort I tooke my compasse saith he speaking to God in the survey of all things seeking thee and for all things relinquishing my selfe I asked the Earth if it were my god and it said unto me that it was not and all things in it confessed the same I asked the Sea and the depths and the creeping things in them and they answered we are not thy god seeke him above us I asked the breathing Aire and the whole Aire with all the inhabitants thereof made answer Anaximenes is deceived I am not thy God I asked the Heaven Sun Moone and Stars neither are wee thy god answered they And I spake to all these who stand about the gates of my flesh tell me what you know concerning my god tell mee something of him and they cryed out with a great voice He made us Then I asked the whole Frame and fabricke of this World tell me if thou be my god and it answered with a strong voyce I am not said it but by him I am whom thou seekest in mee hee it was that made mee seeke him above me who governeth me who made me The interrogation of the creatures is the profound consideration of them and their answer the witnesse they beare of God because all things cry God hath made us for as the Apostle saith the invisible things of God are visibly to be understood by those things which are made by the creatures of the world Thus wee understand the Author of our Creation of whom seriously to meditate and with due reverence to contemplate is to die to all earthly cogitations which delude the sinne-belulled soule with extravagancies And let this suffice for the first Memoriall or Consideration to wit who it was that made us we are now to descend to the second particular which is for what end he made us He who rested not till he had composed and disposed in an absolute order of this Vniverse proposed us an example that we should imitate So long as we are Pilgrims here on earth so long as we are Sojourners in this world wee may not enjoy our spirituall Sabbath wee may stay a little and breath under the Crosse after the example of our best Master but rest wee may not For what end then did he make us That we might live such lives as may please him and die such deaths as may praise him lives blamelesse and unreproveable lives sanctified throughout pure without blemish fruitfull in example plentifull in all holy duties and exercised in the workes of charitie that he who begetteth in us both the Will and the Worke may present us blamelesse at his comming Now that our lives may become acceptable unto him to whose glory they ought to be directed we are in this Taberna●le of clay to addresse our selves to those studies exercises and labours which may benefit the Church or Common-weale ministring matter unto others of imitation to our soules of consolation and in both to Gods name of glorification Wherein appeareth a maine difference betwixt the Contemplative and Active part for sufficient it is not to know acknowledge and confesse the divine Majesty to dispute or reason upon high points touching the blessed Trinitie to be rapt up to the third heaven as it were by the wings of Contemplation but to addresse our selves to an actuall performance of such offices and peculiar duties as we are expresly injoyned by the divine Law of God Our Lord in the Gospell when the woman said Blessed is the wombe that bare thee and the brests that gave thee sucke Answered Yea rather blessed are they that heare the word of God and keepe it And when one of the Iewes told him that his mother and brethren stood without desiring to speake with him He answered and said unto him that told him Who is my mother and who are my brethren And stretching forth his hand toward his Disciples he said Behold my mother and my brethren For whosoever shall doe the will of my Father which is in heaven the same is my brother and sister and mother It is not knowledge then but practice which presents us blamelesse before God Therefore are we exhorted to worke out our salvation with feare and trembling Not to idle out our time in the market-place as such who make their life a repose or cessation from all labours studies or vertuous intendments Of which sort those are and too many of those there are who advanced to great fortunes by their provident Ancestors imagine it a Taske worthy men of their places to passe their time in pastime and imploy their dayes in an infinite consumption of mis-spent houres for which they must be accomptants in that great Assize where neither greatnesse shall be a subt●●●●g to guiltinesse nor their descent plead privilege for those many houres they have mis-spent O how can they answer for so many vaine and fruitlesse pleasures which they have enjoyed and with all greedinesse embraced in this life Many they shall have to witnesse against them none to

conceive or apprehend the smallest occasion of offence than to prosecute revenge upon occasion offered For the first the bravest and noblest spirits have beene affected to it I meane Ambition but their ends were more glorious As Themistocles Who walked in the night time in the open street because he could not sleepe the cause whereof when some men did enquire hee answered that the triumph of Miltiades would not suffer him to take his rest The like might be observed in Alexander Who sighed that his father should winne so much and leave him so little to winne So as it is said that he wept hearing that there was another world saying He had not yet wonne one world But with these it fareth many times as it did with Marius who not contented with the glory hee got in the Cimbrian warres by seeking to augment it did extenuate it Yet are these more noble in their aymes than such whose Ambition it is to commit all impieties onely to gaine them a perpetuall infamy As Pausanias who killed Philip of Macedon onely for fame or vaine-glory so did Herostratus burne the temple of Diana to get him a name by an infamous act For the latter sort being such as are given to quarrells I have ever noted their gaines to bee small in all their adventures For what are these but such as value bloud at a low rate they pretend how their reputation stands engaged they cannot put up such disgraces but with touch of cowardize and what a blemish were it for ones Reputation to bee brought in question upon termes so neere concerning them and not seeke revenge where the wide world would take notice of their disgrace pointing at them in the streets and saying There goe such and such who were most grosly baffled preferring their bloud before their honour their safety before their reputation O Gentlemen how many of your ranke and quality have perished by standing upon these termes how many and those of the choicest and selected'st ranke have exposed themselves to extremest danger whereby they might gaine themselves the stile of valiant how many even upon trifling occasions have gone into the field and in their heat of bloud have fallen Sure I am their deare Countrey hath felt their losse to whom in all due respect they should have tendred both love and life and not have made prodigall expence of that which might have beene a meanes to strengthen and support her state Yet doe I not speake this as one insensible of wrong or incapable of disgrace for I know that in passages of this nature publike imputations require publike satisfaction so that howsoere the Divine Law to which all humane actions ought to be squared may seeme to conclude That wee are to leave revenge to whom revenge belongeth yet so passionate is the nature of man and through passion so much weakned as hee forgets many times what the divine Law bids him doe and hastens to that which his owne violent and distempered passion pricks him to Now to propose my opinion by way of direction in a word it is this As one may be angry and sinne not so one may revenge and offend not and this is by heaping coales of fire upon our Enemies head for by this meeknesse is anger appeased and wee of our owne fury revenged But the best meanes to prevent occasion of distaste in this kinde is to avoid the acquaintance or society of such as are given to offence whence it is that the wisest of Kings exhorteth us in these words To have no familiarity with an angry man neither go● with the furious man And why Lest thou learne his wayes and receive destruction to thy soule For indeed these whose turbulent dispositions are ready to entertaine any occasion of offence albeit the occasion perchance was never intended are unfit for any company or to passe time withall in any Recreation So as of one of these it may be said as was said of Scaeva who shewed apparant arguments of resolution to slave himselfe to the servile yoake of tyrannous subjection Infelix dominum quant â virtute parasti How many courses miserable man hast thou tryed How many wayes hast thou traced how many adventures entertained to get thee a Master Fury Archtrai●our to that glorious fortresse of Patience These are those Bloud-hounds who are ever in quest and are never satisfied in pursuit till their eyes become the sad spectators of a fall yea rather than these men will be out of action they will engage themselves in maintaining other quarrels so prompt they are to take offence as a strangers engagements must be made their owne rather than they will discontinue their former profession Another sort there are who albeit they finde abilitie in themselves to subdue and moderate this passion of furie by the soveraigntie of reason yet it fares with them as it did with Hannibal Who knew better how to conquer than how to make use of his conquest or as it is said of Glendor That he was more able to get a victorie than skilfull to use it So these though reason like a discreet Monitor advise them to moderate their passions yet so ambitious are they of popular praise as rather than they will lose the name of being esteemed resolute they will oppose themselves to all perils and entertaine a course in the eye of true valour most dissolute Yet respect to our good name being indeed the choicest and sweetest perfume must not be so sleighted as to incurre apparent termes of disgrace and not labour to wipe off that staine by shewing some arguments that wee have so much conceit as to apprehend what an injurie is and so much spirit as to take revenge on him by whom the injurie is offered It is true neither am I so stupid as not to conceive how insupportable the burden of those wrongs is which touch our name So as indeed to speake as a man unto men these wrongs are above the nature of mortalitie to beare for the naturall man tasting more of earth than heaven whilest he ponders the qualitie of his disgrace and how farre he stands engaged in respect of the opinion of men to beare himselfe like himselfe and not to burie such wrongs in silence as if senselesse of the nature of an injurie he never considers what the divine Law injoynes but casteth his eye upon the wrong he sustaines Wherein if passion will needs over-master reason albeit I doe not hold it consonant to the Divine Law Morall or Nationall but to all generous spirits experimentally usefull I could wish him to come off faire at the first for this either wins him the buckler or loseth it so shall hee ever gaine to himselfe an esteeme of conceit in knowing the nature of a wrong and an opinion of spirit in daring to wipe off the disgrace that shall be laid upon him For this is my Position Faile at

like answers will flesh and bloud make to dispence with workes of Charitie or like the answer of churlish Nabal Who is David and who is the sonne of Iesse There be many servants now adayes that breake away every man from his master Shall I then take my bread and my water and my flesh which I have killed for my Shearers and give it unto men whom I know not whence they be O let not these objections divert the current of thy compassion Eye not so much his Countrey whether neighbour-borne or a stranger as his Countenance the expresse Image of thy Saviour But to descend to some reasons why the Active part of Perfection is to be preferred before the Contemplative this amongst others is the most effectuall and impregnable In that great day of Account when the sealed booke of our secretest sinnes shall be unsealed our privatest actions discovered our closest and subtillest practices displayed and the whole inside of man uncased it shall not be demanded of us what knew we but what did we Fitting therefore it were to prefer Action before Knowledge in this life being so infallibly to be preferred after this life Howbeit greater is their shame and sharper doubtlesse shall be their censure whose education in all Arts divine and humane hath enabled them for discourse fitted or accommodated them for managements publike or private yet they giving reines to liberty invert their knowledge to depraved ends either making no use of such noble and exquisite indowments or which is worse imploying them to the satisfaction of their owne illimited desires O happy had these beene if they had never knowne the excellence of learning for ignorance is to be preferred before knowledge loosely perverted Yea but will some object I cannot see how any one should observe a Law before they know it wherefore as I thinke Knowledge is to be preferred because by Knowledge is Action directed It is true indeed Knowledge directs and instructs for otherwise we should grope in darknesse neither doe I exclude all Knowledge but admit so much as may instruct man sufficiently in matters of faith put him in remembrance of heaven whose joyes are ineffable of Hell whose pains are intollerable of the last judgement whose sentence is irrevocable So as I exclude only this grosse ignorance or blinde Paganisme for to these is the way to heaven closed because they are divided from that light without which the celestial way cannot be discerned Wheras then I have so much insisted heretofore upon the Contemplative part of Perfection my ayme was to shew how those who continued in a Contemplative and solitary life sequestring themselves from the cares and company of this world doubtlesly conceived ineffable comfort in that sweet retirement yet in regard they lived not in the world the world was not bettered by their example But in this Active Perfection where the Active part no lesse than Contemplative is required we intend those who doe not only know but doe and in the Actions of this life use to make their Lights so shine before men that they may see their good workes Yea but it may be againe objected all sinnes be properly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and beare the name of ignorance how then may wee exclude any knowledge Every Sinne indeed implyes an ignorance of the creature towards the Creator which ignoran●● imports rather a forgetfulnesse For admit a man should steale commit perjury or any such act contrary to the expresse will and commandement of God it were to be imagined that this breach or transgression of the divine Law proceeded not of ignorance for he could not chuse but know that consent to any of these incurred the breach of his Law but rather it may be said he had not God before his eyes but out of a wilfull forgetfulnesse violated the ordinances of God But to conclude this Branch in a word the Active is to be preferred before the Contemplative for two respects The first whereof hath relation to our selves The second to others To our selves having account to make for the Actions of our life how we have imployed or bestowed those Talents which he hath lent us what use profit or benefit we have made of them in what spirituall affaires have we beene exercised in what holy duties trained Have we not preferred private profit before the testimony of a good conscience Have we not laboured to inhaunce our means by sinister and indirect courses Have wee not withdrawne our hand from releeving our needfull brother or defrauded the labourer of his wages Have wee not consorted with the evill doer and encouraged him in his sinne Have we not hindred some pious worke tending to the honour of God and imitable for example of others Have we propagated the Gospel comforted Sion when shee mourned repaired those breaches which were in her and received those in peace which blessed her Have we only sought the kingdome of God and the righteousnesse thereof esteemed godlinesse to be great riches left our selves and all to be followers of him who gave us dominion over all If we have done this as we are here in the Alpha of grace we shall be there in the Omega of glory here initiate there consummate but having knowne the will of our Father and done it not read principles or instructions of a good life and observ'd them not conversant in deepe mysteries and applied them not studied in all Arts and Sciences and practised them not how miserable is our knowledge pronouncing on us a heavier judgement Wherefore in respect of our selves whether our knowledge be great or little if our conversation be not in heaven though our habitation during our Pilgrimage be on earth our knowledge is but as a tinckling Cymball and shall smally availe us before the high Tribunall For knew we the power and vertue of all creatures of all plants and vegetive bodies from the Cedar of Lebanon to the Hyssop upon the wall yet were this knowledge fruitlesse being not seconded by a life conformable to that knowledge § Secondly in respect of others Action is the life of man and example the direction of his life How much then doe such men prejudice those who live in the world that betake themselves to a private or retired life estranged from humane societie and ending their dayes in some solitary cave as men divided from the world For howsoever their manner of life be religious their discipline strict and rigorous and in their devotion fervent and zealous yet they deprive others of the benefit which they might reape by their example Wherefore most safe and sure it is to use the words of a judicious Author for those who have a desire to take upon them a solitary life to retire and withdraw their affections before they withdraw their bodies from the world and to force the world to flie from their minde before they flie the world lest going out of