Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	holy_a	life_n	time_n	2,197	5	3.3218	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61073	Prison-pietie, or, Meditations divine and moral digested into poetical heads, on mixt and various subjects : whereunto is added a panegyrick to the right reverend, and most nobly descended, Henry Lord Bishop of London / by Samuel Speed ...	Speed, Samuel, 1631-1682.; Herbert, George, 1593-1633.; Quarles, Francis, 1592-1644.	1677 (1677)	Wing S4902; ESTC R1711	99,936	245

What here thou Viewest is the Gravers Art A shape of man Only the Outward part Peruse the booke therein more plainly read Vera effigies Samuelis Speed F.H. Van Houe fec What here thou Viewest is the Gravers Art A shape of man Only the Outward part Peruse the booke therein more plainly read Vera effigies Samuelis Speed Prison Pietie OR MEDITATIONS Divine and Moral Digested into Poetical Heads On Mixt and Various Subjects Whereunto is added A PANEGYRICK TO The Right Reverend and most Nobly descended HENRY Lord Bishop of LONDON By SAMUEL SPEED Prisoner in Ludgate London Despise not this 'cause in Confinement writ Prisons improve the gifts of Grace and Wit For Before I was aflicted I went astray but now have I learned thy Statutes LONDON Printed by J. C. for S. S. and sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster 1677. TO The most Reverend Father in God His Grace GILBERT By Divine Providence Lord Arch bishop OF CANTERBVRY Primate and Metropolitan Of all ENGLAND May it please your Grace USe hath become a Custome for Writers to shroud their Pens and Parts under the Patronage of some Honourable and secure Protection by which my Lord I am emboldened to supplicate your Graces favour my Attempt carrying with it these two Reasons to mitigate my Presumption First that these my Ejaculations and Meditations being Divine they pretend a Title to your Graces Cognizance with whose most learned Name being presented to the world they will undoubtedly sinde an Acceptance among Pious and Judicious Readers The other Reason is That since your Grace was acquainted with my deceased Grand father Mr. John Speed the English Chronologer and laborious Genealoger the Author and this his Enchiridion he humbly hopes may obtain your favourable Aspect For which causes I am apt to promise to my self a fair Interpretation though they are the Issues of my Retirements in a Prison since from the like place Almighty God by a Miracle did redeem St. Peter and our Blessed Saviour deigned to love poor Lazarus though in a low condition though I write from a Prison to the Palace of England's renowned Metropolitan it is however to testifie the zeal I have for your Graces merits May your Honours as your hours increase in this Age may your glorious Memory be admired in futurity And when your Grace shall exchange your Terrest●…ial Theatre for a Coelestial Throne may a Crown of Glory to eternity adorn your Vertues which is and shall be the continual Prayer of Most Reverend Learned and most Pious Patron Your Graces Most devout most humble and obsequious Servant SAMUEL SPEED To the DEVOUT Christian Reader LOndon's too late and fatal Judgments the Plague and Fire having made me uncapable to manage my Affairs with the like success as formerly some Creditors severe as well as covetous forced me to a Confinement in Ludgate where the bet ter to employ my time I have compiled and composed this Manual of Meditations which consists of Psalms Hymns and Divine Poems In which act of Contemplation I made my Prison my Paradise being so transported with Raptures that I banish'd from my memory all thoughts of my Affliction And as I found great satisfaction in the writing I hope the Reader will finde the like in the perusal for in it are variety of Subjects especially such as are extracted from the Psalms that book which may properly be called the Heart of the Bible and is therefore most fitly placed in the middle as the Anatomy of the Soul the Epitome of the Law and the Expositor of the Gospel the Register Enchiridion and Summary of the Holy Scriptures And as the writing thereof hath been delightful so certainly in Confinement no pleasure can exceed a serious especially if Divine Study no Companions can be better than divine Books nor can any time be better spent than in contemplative Devotion Therefore since this life is as it were a Fair and while the Fair lasteth there is to be bought in it any thing that is necessary if we suffer the time of the Fair to slip away it is in vain to expect another Wherefore before the time be past which the Lord of the Fair and the mercie of thy Maker hath allowed be studious to perform Repentance that thou mayst procure Pardon be diligent to gain Grace that thou mayst obtain Glory It is reported of Alexander the Great that when he came to besiege any place he caused a burning Light to be set up and then made proclamation that so long as the Light burned he gave his Enemy time to seek for mercie by surrendring themselves and the place but if within that time they did it not the Sword should destroy them all Now what is mans life but a burning Light and so long as this Light continues God gives us time to make our peace with him and to provide for our future safety but this Light being once extinguished before we draw neer to God by Repentance and Conversion those two fabricks of Salvation what remains but a sudden and an eternal destruction Therefore since we have filled God's bag with our sins let us likewise fill his bottle with our tears Wherefore when we waste our time we ought not to complain for the want of time but rather to follow the example of that holy St. Ignatius who when he heard a Clock strike would say There 's one hour more now past that I have to answer for Latimer rose usually at Two of the clock in the morning to his Study and Bradford slept not commonly above four hours in the night and in his bed till sleep came his Book went not out of his hand He counted that hour not well spent wherein he did not some good either with his Pen his Study or Discourse these Worthies well weighing that truth which Seneca asserts Time that is consumed idly is rather spilt than spent Contemplation is the life of the Soul and the Christians best Companion in his solitude but a contemplative life without practice is like unto Rachel Jacob's Wife beautiful bright-sighted but barren It is good therefore to have Rachel's beautiful face to be seconded with Leahs fruitful womb By Contemplation and Consideration Solomon got much of his Wisdom as appeareth by his Ecclesiastes which by some is very aptly called Solomon's Soliloquy St. Basil left his friends and acquaintance retiring himself into a Wilderness that he might the more devoutly serve God and delight himself in holy Meditations And St. Hierome comforting a young Hermit bad him look up to Heaven and take a few turns in Paradise by his Meditations assuring him that so long as he had Paradise in his minde and Heaven in his thoughts he should not be sensible of his Solitariness Nor is Contemplation onely delightful but also profitable by taking the meditation off from vain Imaginations idle Company profane Discourse and obscene Songs all which are too frequent in a Prison and tend not onely to the corruption of good