Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	great_a	holy_a	see_v	3,964	5	3.2444	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A04157	Dauids pastorall poeme: or sheepeheards song Seuen sermons, on the 23. Psalme of Dauid, whereof the last was preached at Ashford in Kent, the day whereon our gracious King was there proclaimed. By Thomas Iackson preacher of Gods word at Wie in Kent.	Jackson, Thomas, d. 1646.; Swan, John, student in divinity.	1603 (1603)	STC 14299; ESTC S107441	134,253	302

at the first draught ouer-running his noates and referring vs by signes and markes to displaced wherein peraduenture wee haue not rightly traced him or discried his directions in euerie place This I thought good to prefix in excuse of the forme but as for the matter of the Booke it is able to speake for it selfe and that in such sort as I doubt not will preuaile with such as feare God and which can discerne betweene badde Bookes or paltrie Pamphlets which haue of late pestered the land and betweene sound Sermons or profitable Treatises that carrie their waight with them and serue substantially for the building and beautifying of the Lords house As this Booke is thus able to vouch testimonie for it selfe out of God his most holie Oracles so I can beare this witnesse vnto it that being in Kent when the most of these Sermons were preached I haue heard them commended and God thanked for the Authour by such as whose hearts I perceyued were touched nay much mooued at the hearing of them And further touching the man sith I am indyting this Preface without his priuitie and writing not to claw him whereby nought can bee gained nor to giue Tytles to men to whom belongs nothing but shame but to gaine glorie to God to whom all praise is due for raising vp such instruments to the furnishing of the ministerie and building vp of his Saints I say touching the man this I may truly and not to no purpose report that hee comming from Emanuell Colledge in Cambridge for want of maintenance as I suppose euen in his young yeares before hee was ripe and afterwards as himselfe reporteth in his Epistle Dedicatorie going before spending some yeares and those not vnprofitably as appeareth when after that hee addressed himselfe to the Ministerie and was newly young as yet entered thereinto and placed at Wie in Kent where now he is he seemed to haue the thoughts of Moses Exod. 4. 10 13. I am not eloquent send whom thou wilt c and of Ieremie Ier. 1. 6. I cannot speake I am a child and of Paule 2. Cor. 2. 16. Who is sufficient for these things The consideration whereof not onely mooued but euen enforced him to fall roundly to his studie and hauing gotten good Bookes about him hee so laboured therein rising earlie and sitting vp late adioyning also practise of continuall preaching to his set order of reading as that in short time hee ouer-tooke such as in those parts had beene before him in Christ and had been accounted chiefe in the labours of the Gospell yea hee matched the proceedings of many who stay longer take further degrees of schooles in the Vniuersities And thus becomming a man well knowne for sufficiencie was called vpon to make one in the combination at Ashford where for the space of certaine years he hath kept his course as his turne came about with credite and like a good steward brought forth those things both new and old where with hee had before furnished himselfe in his priuate studies and by his publike and painfull preaching in his more priuate Congregation so much of the man Concerning his manner of preaching at the first I haue then noted and since heard himselfe acknowledge it that it was somewhat conceipted and fantasticall sauouring more of Wit then of Wisedome stuft with humane learning and borrowing withall some flowers of the Fathers out of Hibernicus pleasing also himselfe many times with wittie Alligories And to be short taking a course more painfull then profitable Now these his Sermons shew what he hath read and that he contemneth not either the Schoole-men or the old or new Writers no nor the Humanitans themselues as hee hath beene challenged yet this I can say withall that hee shewes himselfe more plentifull by making shew hereof in this his penned Treatise then hee was in the Pulpit in preaching of the Sermons The which no doubt he hath done with aduised iudgement considering that a man may by reading at leysure ponder the sentence and sense of an Authour alledged which in hearing on the suddaine especially if it be cited in a strange tongue he can not doe without finding his attention therewithall much troubled Againe if a Preacher were bound to cite authoritie for all that he speakes hee should neuer haue done for as the Wise man saith What is it whereof man may say behold this is new so also we may often say Nihil iam dictum quod non dietum prius Yea further I do not see for my part any such profite in the great curiositie of some of late much practised in quoting chapter and verse so thicke and three-fold as they doe no not out of the holy Scriptures themselues For it may be obserued that our Sauiour himselfe and his Apostles are oftentimes contented to quoate at large not citing so much as the Psalme or Chapter whence they alledge much lesse the Verse but pointing as it were to the place they presently bend themsleues to make vse of it according to the purpose they haue in hand as in Math. 4. 10. Iohn 7. 38. Ro. 9. 25. Rom. 10. 15. Rom. 11. 26. Heb. 2. 6. Iam. 4. 4. In many of which places we may also obserue the sence rather than the words to be alleadged yea the sence also sometimes rather collected than expressed And so also Master Caluin a man pregnant in the Text verie often in his writings doth in such sort quoat and cite the Scriptures And touching the Author of these Sermons as he hath changed his first kind of preaching as I said into a better method so also in his present manner of handling the word he is not so plentifull in alleadging places as in this his treatise hee hath set downe By which his course and conscience in the labours of his ministrie seeking his peoples good not his glory what good hath been don in his charge bringing into good compasse that people which not many yeeres agoe were out of square I had rather ye should find it in M. Stoughtons Treatise of Or the vanitie of Poperie the Gospels prosperous successe than read it reported by my pen. Onely this in this place I will remember that these paines in studie and carefull ouersight in teaching and gouerning the people committed to his charge hee hath imployed in a place where both Parsonage and Vicaredge being impropriate swallowed downe into the gulfe of those High places that sometimes stood in this land as this was into the Abbey of Battell the stinted allowance for this mans maintenance after all defalcations the fat offerings for the priests who in those dayes liued being now ceased is xvii pound by the yeare and no more the rest is supplied by way of contribution wherein I cannot but commend both Preacher and people the one for being contented with such allowance as is made the other for extending so farre as they doe But my hope is that ere it be long some good order will bee taken whereby Preacher and people both in this place and many others shall bee otherwise prouided for the one secured with a certaine or standing stipend the other freed from a chargeable contribution which comes the more vnwillingly from them by meanes they are neuer awhit the more eased from yeelding their impropriate both great and small tythes In which regard heere fitly commeth to be had in thankefull and honourable remembrance the Royall bountie of our late Soueraigne and gracious Queene Elizabeth who at the instance of that most worthie religious and deepely prudent Councellour Sir Frauncis Walsingham Chauncelour of the Duchie of Lancaster was pleased to impart a large portion of those her Reuenewes certaine hundred pounds to yeeld standing yerely stipends of Fiftie pounds a peece to some Master Midglie M r. Harrison c. Preachers to labour in that shire before as it may seeme but slenderly prouided for in that behalfe which I thinke also to be the cause that mooued this Authour their Countrey-man to be so carefull of that County as appeareth before in his Epistle to his friends and kinsfolks of Lancashire But to returne and so to draw to an end after hee had preached many other Sermons at Ashford aforesaid in his seuerall turnes at last hauing begun and fully finished the 23. Psalme in these seuen Sermons hee was much importuned by many to put them in print especially by Master H. H. who being the first man that gaue him certaine and full information of our late Queenes departure and of the Proclaming of our present most gracious King in London on the Thursday before he did so stirre him vp to fit himselfe to speake the next Saturday being his course to preach which fell out to bee the last of these Sermons that he in such sort spake vpon those two the one dolefull the other ioyfull occasions as that there was not an eie in that plentifull audience of right worshipfull and others met about the said Proclamation to bee made also there but sent out abundant testimonies of that their ioyfull-sorrow Thus commending this booke to the kind acceptance the which I do the more desire in regard of the timerous disposition wherewith I haue perceiued the Author to be much oppressed euen since hee committed his booke to the Presse from which his bashfull feare if he shall be by the curtesie in some measure set free hee may be brought to impart mo of his Meditations wherinto he hath alreadie made some entrance And commending thy selfe to the word of grace which is able to build thee further to an inheritance among the Saints I bid thee farewell From London the last of September 1603. Thine in the Lord Iesus Iohn Swan

to all them to whome this people sayth a confederacie neither feare ye their feare nor be afraid of thē but sanctifie the Lord of hoasts and let him be your feare and dread and he shall be as a sanctuarie vnto you n Esay 8. 12 13. Againe when tyrants most cruelly rage and persecute yet Christ biddeth vs not feare them that can but kill the bodie but feare him that is able to destroy both bodie and soule in hell o Mat. 10. 28. Yea when that great terrible day of the Lord shall come euen the day of wrath and vengeance when the Lord Iesus shall shew himselfe from heauen in flaming fire as the Apostle Paule saith p 2. Thess 1. 7 8. Yea when the elements shall melt with heat the heauens goe away with a noise yea and the earth with all the workes therein be burnt vp as S. Peter saith q 2. Pe. 3. 10 The waters roare that vnbeleeuers hearts shall faile them for feare as saith the Euangelist r Lu 21. 25 26 28. Yet euen then our Sauiour biddeth his Disciples not to be afraid but lift vp their heads with ioye knowing that their redemption draweth nigh r Lu 21. 25 26 28. But because nothing is more fearefull to nature thā death which is the enemie and dissoluer thereof * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Eth. lib. 3. and wherein many of Gods deere Saints bewary great weakenesse I will therefore gather a fewe Argumetns from the holy Scriptures the consideratiō whereof may serue to strengthen our faith Foure Arguments for the strengthning of faith and suppressing the immoderat feare of death suppresse in vs the immoderate feare of death that in some measure wee may triumph in Christ and say with the Prophet I will feare no euill And whereas the scriptures afford vs many yet I will content my selfe onely with these foure The first Argument for this purpose The first argument is drawne from consideration of those manifold and great euils from which by death we are for euer deliuered may be the consideration of those manifold and great euils from which by death the faithfull are deliuered which that we may the better conceiue and discerne are of two sorts generall and speciall by speciall euils I doe meane those which for some great and extraordinarie causes are to be inflicted vpon some particular persons and places as the burning of Sodome and Gomorha ſ Ge. 19. 24 the carrying of Gods people into captiuitie t 2. Kin. 24 15. VVhat are the speciall euils from which by death Gods Saints are deliuered This was the blessing promised to old Father Abraham saying Know for a suertie that thy people shall bee a stranger in a land that is not theirs foure hundred yeeres and shall serue them and they shall intreat them euill but thou shalt goe vnto thy fathers in peace and shalt bee buried in a good age u Gen 15. 13. 15. This was a blessing which God promised to wicked King Ieroboams sonne saying I will bring euill vpon the house of Ieroboam and will cut off him that pisseth against the wall aswell him that is shut vp as him that is left in Israell and will sweep away the remnant of the house of Ieroboam as a man sweepeth away dung till it be all gone the dogs shall eat him that dyeth of Ieroboams stocke in the citie and the foules of the aire shall eat him that dieth in the field yet that child for whom his mother came disguised to the Prophet should die in his bed and all Israel shall mourne for him and burie him for hee onely of Ieroboams stocke shall come to the graue because in him there is found some goodnesse towards the Lord God of Israel in the house of Ieroboam w 1. Ki. 14. 10 11 12 13. Also this mercie the Lord promised vnto good King Iosiah saying The wordes that thou hast heard shall surely come to passe but because thine heart did melt and thou hast humbled thy selfe before the Lord when thou heardest what I speake against this place and against the Inhabitants of the same viz That it should bee destroyed and accursed and hast rent thy cloathes and wept before me I haue also heard it sayth the Lord Behold therefore I will gather thee to thy Fathers and thou shalt bee put in thy graue in peace and thine eies shall not see all the euill which I wil bring vpon this place x 2. Ki. 22. 19. 20. Yea this is a course which the Lord many times taketh with his faithfull ones thogh the world do not obserue it whose taking away is a prognostication of some fearefull euill to befall that place as the Prophet Esay noteth saying The righteous perisheth and no man considereth it in his heart that mercifull men are taken away from the euill to come y Esay 57. 1 2. And surely in this respect it must needes bee a great blessing for Gods Saints to die and go to the graue in these happie daies of peace before the Lord bring vpō vs those great euils which hee hath many waies threatned we euery way deserued in ful mesure to be powred vpon vs as for the wicked it is not so with them God is so farre from taking them away from the euill to come that rather he taketh them away in full measure to suffer the euill to come so that the day of death of all other is most woefull vnto them and therefore no maruaile though they feare death so much as they doe that skinne for skinne and all that euer they haue they would giue for their liues z Iob. 2. 4. and as the Gibeonites were contented to be hewers of wood and drawers of water a Iosh 9. 23 25 so they had rather endure any miserie than die and therefore must euen be pulled from home with no lesse violence thā Ioab was from the hornes of the altar b 1. Kin. 2. 30. Whereas the Godly knowing that when the earthly house of this tabernacle shall bee destroyed they shall haue a building giuen of God an house not made with hands but eternall in the heauens doe therefore sigh desiring to be cloathed with that house which is from heauen c 2. Cor 5. 1. 2. By generall euils from which by death we are deliuered I meane such as either all or most men doe suffer and they are of three sorts either such as concerne specially the bodie 2. VVhat are the general euils from which Gods saints by death are freed or 2. such as concerne the soule or 3. such as doe ioyntly concerne both The generall euils which chiefely concerne the bodie VVhat are the general euils of the bodie are many as sicknesses diseases aches paines hunger and wearinesse cold and nakednesse toyle and labour losses and crosse greefe and sorrow troubles and persecution And lastly death it selfe which maketh an end

not mixed either with fearefull imprecations or sorrowfull complaints vnto God but altogether ioyfull and milde as proceeding from a quiet and peaceable spirit relying with great confidence assurance on gods prouidence seemeth to haue been penned when as after many and great troubles he had obtained the peaceable fruition of his Crowne and Kingdome wherein hee doth thankefully acknowledge Gods great goodnesse towards him and vpon the great experience of former mercies gathereth this full assurance that God by his prouidence will still preserue him to the end that by his authoritie he may maintaine exercise himselfe in the pure seruice and worship of God so handleth the same Argument that in many other psalmes he doth p Ps 18. 118. For the Psalme it selfe Diuision if we view it well we shall find it to bee verie methodicall and therefore that we may the more orderly and profitably goe ouer it we are to note that it chiefely diuideth it selfe into these two parts The first containeth a notable discription of Gods great care and prouidence and of his manifold sweet mercies bestowed on Dauid and all his elect in the fiue first verses In the second part the Prophet sheweth what vse he made thereof and in his person teacheth all Gods people what vse to make of former receiued mercies viz Fully to be perswaded that God will continue the course of his fauour louing kindnesse towards them vnto the end in the last verse in these words Doubtlesse kindnesse and mercie shall follow me For the first Subdiuision he maketh no large Catalogue or rehearsall neither vseth any long and perticular ennumeration or reckoning vp of Gods benefits bestowed vpon him as elsewhere q Ps 18 66. but by a few short familiar pleasant parables he doth most elegantly point out and significantly expresse the same the verie Metaphors them selues as folded vp offering much more to our consideratiō than by a long discourse or oration could possibly haue been declared The Allegories here vsed for this purpose are twaine The first is taken from a faithfull Shepheard carefully attending vppon his straying sheepe and plentifully prouiding al good things for their necessitie and securitie and this containeth the foure first verses of the Psalme The second is taken from an host or courteous friend most liberally entertaining his inuited guests with all delicats both for necessity and delight and that is laid downe in the 5. verse Thou doest prepare a table before me in the sight of mine Aduersaries For the first Allegorie or pastoral Idyllion it consisteth of two parts First the Allegorie it selfe in the first second and third verses Secondly the vse therof in the fourth verse Though I should walke through the valley c. for the Allegorie it selfe it is first briefely and summarily laid down in the first verse and then continued and illustrated by the parts thereof in the second and third verses The first verse containing the summe of the Allegorie consisteth of two parts viz A proposition in these words The Lord is my Shepheard Secondly the inference thereon therefore I shall not want And thus you haue the logicall resolution and Analysis of this methodicall Psalme into his parts and members by obseruation whereof our memories may bee greatly helped in the handling of it it now followeth that hauing laid the foundation wee begin to build more narrowly to view the parts of this holy scripture for our further instruction and comfort and first to beginne with the proposition in these wordes expressed The Lord is my Shepheard Summe of the proposition Although Dauid had now passed through the stormie waues was safely arriued vpon the shore and maugre the beards of all his mightie and subtil enemies obtained the kingdome that now he might triumph in the Lord and say as elsewhere he doth The stone vvhich the builders refused is made the cheefe stone in the corner this is the Lords doing c. r Psa 118. 22. Yet being not ignorant with what manifold cares a crown is beset and seeing many dangers imminent he had some cōbat or conflict within himselfe but hauing had such great experience of Gods fauour in former deliuerances and protections his faith getteth victorie ouer naturall distrustfulnesse and he bursteth out into these words of Christian resolution and assurance The Lord is my Shepheard I shall not want q. d. Oh my soule be not discouraged nor cast downe within me dangers obiect themselues to thy view but let not troublesome thoughts dismay thee cast thy care vpon the Lord he that so promoted thee from following the Ewes great with young to be gouernour of his people will also preserue thee the almightie wise and euerliuing God is thy Shepheard and therfore contemne whatsoeuer may astonish thee and sing thy former song I trust in God how say yee then to my soule flye to your mountaine as a bird ſ Ps 11. 1. And againe I will not be afraid for ten thousands of mine enemies that should beset mee round about c t Ps 3. 6. Q. But vvhat was God Dauids sheapherd onely A. No surely though it be the propertie of faith to make application and in generall promises to vse the first person as wee are taught by diuers examples u Heb. 13. 7. Yet Christ Iesus the great sheapheard himselfe hath said 1. Ti. 1. 15. They that heare his voice and beleeue are his sheepe x Ioh. 10 26. So that Dauid pronounceth this in the person of the whole church all the members thereof wherfore if wee heare Gods voice and beleeue we are fold-mates with Dauid and I and you haue as great interest in the Lord as he had and may boldly and as freely say as he did The Lord is my Shepheard The Lord is our Shepheard c. 1 No man Sence of the words but meanly exercised in the scriptures can be ignorant that the metaphor of a Shepheard is not more plaine and familiar than frequent and commōly vsed sometimes the great care and prouidence of God ouer his humble sheepe lowly lambes is hereby shadowed out as in this place and elsewhere Say vnto the Cities of Iudah behold your God hee shall feede his flocke like a Shepheard hee shall gather the lambes with his arme and carrie them in his bosome and shall guide them vvith young c. a Esay 40. 11. Againe thus sayth the Lord God Behold I vvill search my sheepe and seeke them out and I vvill deliuer them out of all places vvhere they haue beene scattered in the cloudie and darke day c. b Ezec. 34. 11 12. c. And Christ himselfe hath plainely said I am that good Shepheard c Ioh. 10. 11 14. And S. Peter speaking of the faithfull saith ye were as sheepe going astray but are now returned to the Shepheard Bishop of your soules c. d 1. Pet. 2. 25. and else-where