Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	believe_v	receive_v	son_n	4,380	5	5.7638	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66656	Eurēka, Eurēka the virtuous woman found, her loss bewailed, and character examined in a sermon preached at Felsted in Essex, April 30, 1678, at the funeral of ... Mary, countess dowager of Warwick, the most illustrious pattern of a sincere piety, and solid goodness his age hath produced : with so large additions as may be stiled the life of that noble lady : to which are annexed some of her ladyships pious and useful meditations / by Anthony Walker.	Walker, Anthony, d. 1692.; Warwick, Mary Boyle Rich, Countess of, 1625-1678. Occasional meditations upon sundry subjects.	1678 (1678)	Wing W301; ESTC R233189	74,039	235

him his own fault and hear him presently say As the Lord liveth the man that hath done this thing shall surely dye This discovers to me my own iniquity who am many times ready with David to condemn my own actions in an other person and to be a severe censurer of the faults of others but to pass a very slight one upon my own and can easily discern the mote in my brothers eye but cannot perceive the beam that is in my own eye O Lord I beseech thee when I would censure make me to begin at home and to judge my self remembring that I have most reason to do so for I can see in my brother but a a life full of sin but I can see in my self an heart full of sin let me therefore in lowliness of mind esteem others better than my self and not judge another but judge my self that I may not be judged of the Lord. REFLECT VII Jos 23.15 But as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. LOrd when I read of thy servant Joshuah before his death reckoning up all the great engagements that the Children of Israel had to serve thee to provoke them to renew their Covenant with thee and to keep close to thy service and hear him taking his most happy resolution that whatever they did He and his house would serve the Lord. How desirous O Lord am I to follow this holy man's Example and to resolve that whatever the rest of the World doth I and my Family will serve the Lord let me not think it enough to serve thee my own self but make me to do as thou saidst thou knewst thy servant Abraham would to command my Children and my Houshold after me that they may keep thy Commandments to do Judgement and Justice And as holy David did let me say He that walketh uprightly he shall serve me mine eye shall be upon the faithful of the land that they may dwell with me He that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight that it may be said of me as it was of Cornelius That I fear God and all my house REFLECT VIII Luke 16.25 And Abraham said Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented LOrd when I read this sad answer of Abraham to the Rich-mans request Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things How sad a remembrance do I believe this must needs be to him to consider his former prosperity and to think that he was cleathed in Purple and sine Linnen and sared sumptuously every day and now wanted a drop of water to cool his tongue The remembrance of his former prosperity was now but an aggravation of his misery For what good did it do him to consider that in his life time he had it may be a great Retinue and many to wait upon him when in Hell his Attendance were only Divels and damned Spirits O Lord I beseech thee therefore let it never be said to me as it was to this miserable great one thou hast in thy life time had thy good things thou hast had thy consolation O Lord I beseech thee give me not my Portion in this Life nor let me have a short Heaven here upon Earth and an eternal Hell hereafter Let me not be satisfied with the blessings of thy Foot-stool without those of thy Throne nor with the fatness of the Earth without the dew of Heaven Let me not say to gold thou art my hope or to the fine gold thou art my confidence Let me not count these lower things my good things because these may stand with Reprobation and a Dives may have them and go to Hell But let me account those things my good things which cannot stand with Reprobation O visit me with the favour of thy chosen O let me not so much covet to be cloathed with purple and fine linnen as to be like the kings daughter all glorious within and be cloathed with the Righteousness of Christ and help me to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and to make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof REFLECT IX Mark 8.36 VVhat shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul LOrd when I read these words and see as it were my blessed Saviour putting the whole world into one Scale of a Ballance and the Soul of a poor Creature into the other and the Soul out-weighing all the World How really doth this convince me that whosoever shall exchange his immortal Soul to gain the whole World would make a sad bargain O Lord I beseech thee therefore let me not sell the Devil mine for a little scrap of it but remembering the preciousness of it by the price it cost For we were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ Therefore if the Devil should come to me as he did once to my Saviour and shew me all the Kingdoms of the World and all the glories of them and say all these will I give thee for thy soul I may say to him Get thee behind me Satan I 'll never make such a fools bargain REFLECT X. 1 Sam. 30.6 And David encouraged himself in the Lord his God LOrd when I read this Chapter and consider the sad condition of David who when he returned found Ziglag burnt and his two Wives carried Captives by the Amalekites and the people that were with him talking of stoning him that he was in so sad an out-side condition that he was sorely distressed yet the Text saith that David even then encouraged himself in the Lord his God O Lord how doth this make me cry out and say blessed are the people which are in such a case yea blessed are the people whose God is the Lord yea blessed are they who in their greatest tryals and distresses can encourage themselves in God that can trust in God at all times Lord those that know thy name will put their trust in thee and thou wilt keep them in perfect peace whose mind is staid on thee because they trust in thee O Lord I beseech thee let this make me follow holy David's Example in all my distresses to encourage my self in thee knowing it is better to put confidence in God than to put confidence in Princes REFLECT XI Gen. 22.9 Abraham bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar on the wood V. 12. Lay not thy hand upon the lad neither do thou any thing unto him LOrd when I read with what ready obedience faithful Abraham complyed with that command which not only ran cross to his natural affection but eemingly would disappoint the Promise he so long waited for and at length received with so much joy and satisfaction that he named his Son Isaac Laughter as a Witness and Memorial of it And also how when he had stretched out his hand

it is everlasting The best Shield against Slanderers is to live so that none may believe them He that revenges an injury acts the part of an Executioner He that pardons it acts the part of a Prince Sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotions Man is a pile of Dust and puff of Wind. Why are we so fond of that life which begins with a Cry and ends with a Groan But I will not cloy you knowing it is safest to rise with an appetite even when we are entertained at a Banquet 4. Where she had particular kindness or personal interest she would improve the authority of her friendship to gentle but free correption and argue and perswade so strenuously that her Bow like Jonathan's seldom return'd empty and plead the cause of God and their own souls to whom she spake with so winning and insinuating sweetness that 't was hard to resist the Suada shall I say or rather the spirit by which she spake Let me refound and eccho from her lips though alas too faintly how she would with melting charms and powerful strains attempt upon the Friends for whom she had a kindness and whom she longed to rescue COme come my Friend you must be good you shall be good I cannot be so unkind nay so unfaithful to the laws of Friendship as to let you perish and perish in a way you know as well as I leads down to Hell It grieves my very soul to see so good a nature ensnared against the dictates of its own light by bad example custom or somewhat else And if they replyed with excuses she would stop them thus I pray my Friend have patience hear me out I know or guess at least what you would say and I would not have you say it 'T is bad to commit sin but 't is worse to plead for it and defend it None sin so dangerously as those who sin with excuses The Devil then ties a new snare when he gets into our tongues to fasten us to our failings and raises an out-work in our own mouths to secure the Fort he possesses in our hearts I take it for granted all other Holds were slighted easily could you conquer such or such a vice too much by custom prevailing with you Unhappy custom that dares prescribe against God's Law But Friend use no arguments that will not hold water at the day of judgment though hand joyn in hand you know what follows And no example custom number should allure us which cannot excuse us and secure us But this is the mischief of sin liv'd in it bewitches the heart to love it that it cannot leave it Cannot so men love to speak but 't is because they will not that is will use no endeavours to be rid on 't But you must leave it there 's no remedy though it cost you trouble smart and self-denial There 's as much as all this comes to in cutting off a right hand and digging out a right eye I speak to you as to one in whom I have a party to help me plead I mean your conscience and the belief of the Scriptures for if you were one of those on whom you know I use to set my mark I should not give you this trouble nor esteem my self under more than the Laws of general charity to wish you better should hardly venture my little skill to make you so But as for you who still own God's authority and believe his Word and attend his Worship Why should I despair of making one piece of your self agree with the other your practice with your convictions your conversation with your conscience And not to fright you with the Thunder-claps of wrath and vengeance and God's judging you know who listen still to the voice 't is your peculiar eminency to be kind and grateful and because there is a kind of magnetick virtue in those arguments which touch our temper and a string will move it self when another instrument is touched that 's set to the same Key and pitch I shall attack you on that side hoping the strongest excellency of your nature will prove the weakest defensasative for sin and to keep out God You therefore who are so good natured so kind so grateful that you never think you have acquit your self sufficiently to those who have been civil or as you please to call 't obliging Oh how can be so unkind and so ungrateful unto God Almighty the kindest Fiend who is so much before hand with you who hath given you so much and is so ready to forgive you all Oh that you who I dare say would take my word for any thing else would do me the honour to take my word for him who I assure you upon your sincere repentance will be fully reconciled to you in Christ and never so much as obraid your past neglects but heal your back-slidings and love you freely And do not fear that you shall have cause to repent of your repentance No man ever yet was a loser by God and you shan't be the first you shall not lose your pleasures but exchange them defiling ones for pure and clean and ravishing And let it not seem strange or incredible to you that there should be such things because perhaps you never felt them Alas you have deprived your self unhappily by being uncapable of them New wine must be put into new bottles To say nothing of what the Scriptures speak of a day being in God's courts being better than a thousand and of joys and unspeakable and full of glory of the great peace they have who keep God's law and that nothing shall offend them that wisdoms ways are pleasantness Let my weakness reason out the case with you Do you think that God's Angels which excel in all perfections have no delights because they have no flesh no sense no bodies as men and beasts or have our Souls the Angels in these houses of clay which are God's Images and the price of his Blood no objects no employments which may yield them delight and satisfaction Think not so unworthily of God or meanly of your self have not the stroaks of your own fancy or the intellectual pleasures of your mind sometimes transported you beyond all the charms of your senses when they have chimed all in tune together And cannot God think you who is a spirit and so fit an object for our souls give them as great pleasures as any object of our taste and sight Come come my Friend take my word for 't there is more pleasure in the peace of a good conscience and in well grounded hopes our sins are pardoned and in serving God and expectation of eternal life than in all the pleasures in the world Alas I was once of your mind but I assure you upon my word I have really found more satisfaction in serving God than ever I found in all the good things of the world of which you know I have had my share Try therefore dare to be good resolve