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
B12251	Good newes from Canaan Full of heauenly comfort and consolation, for all those that are afflicted either in bodie or minde. With a proofe of true repentance for the same. By William Cowper, minister of Gods word, and B. of Galloway.	Cowper, William, 1568-1619.	1613 (1613)	STC 5919; ESTC S114575	78,519	300

be a Courtier in heauen holy in life feruent in praier by these hath a man fellowship with God and accesse to the Throne of the heauenly King to speake to his Maiestie when hee pleaseth In this holy disposition if this my little Treatise may serue any way to confirme you I shall be abundantly contented I haue dedicated it vnto you as a token of my loue for the good which is in you toward all that feare God and your courteous fauour shewed to my selfe in particular And so hoping that with as good an hart ye will accept it as I do offer it I rest Your owne in Christ Iesus William Cowper B. of Galloway ESA. 1. 18. 19. Come and let vs reason together saith the Lord Though your sinnes were as crimson they shall bee made white as snow though they were redde like scarlet they shall be as wooll If ye consent and obey ye shall eate the good things of the land GOOD NEWES From CANAAN My helpe is in the Name of the LORD To him that excelleth A Psalme of DAVID when the Prophet NATHAN came vnto him after that hee had gone in vnto Bath-sheba THE inscription This Psalme is a Psalme of Repentance and the vse of it is threefold of this Psalme being considerede will let vs see that it is a Psalme of Repentance made by Dauid after hee had defiled the wife of Vriah and murthered Vriah him selfe It serues vnto vs for this threefold vse First as a preseruatiue to keepe 1. A preseruatiue to keep vs that wee sinne not vs that we fall not into the like sinnes for why shall wee commit that which we see by example of others will either commit vs to eternall damnation or at least breed vs much griefe paine and dolor before wee can bee quit of it This sinne of Dauid thorough Gods mercie preuailed not against him to damnation yet yee see what anguish of Spirit what terrour of minde what sighing what teares what roaring night and day he sustained before hee could bee deliuered from it and find himselfe restored to his former ioy thus shall all flesh finde it that the falles momentarie and perishing pleasures of sinne shall haue sorrow in the ende For the motions thereof are like these Locusts of the bottomelesse pit hauing faces of men and their haire like the haire of Reuel 9. women but a taile like a Scorpion which stingeth vnto the death Next it serues as a corroboratiue 2. A coroboratiue to keep such as haue fallen in sin from despaire to keepe such as haue fallen into the like sinnes that they fall not further into the deepe of desperation so the Apostle Saint Paul saith that the mercie of God shewed vnto 1. Tim. 1. 16 him after that he had beene a blasphemer persecutor and oppressor was for an ensample vnto all them who shal in time to come beleeue in Christ vnto eternall life Thus the children of God when they looke to the sinnes of other Gods Saints recorded in holy Scripture doe not hereby confirme themselues in sinne but comfort themselues against despaire It is true of them all Basil de paeniten which Basil spake of Peters threefold deniall they are Registred Vt tu quoque consolationem haberes Let vs meditate vpon the sinnes of others as Bernard Bernard did Omnino propter mansuetudinem quae in te est domine Iesu currimus post te audientes quod non spernas pauperem peccatorem non horruisti confitentem latronem non lachrymantem peccatricem non Cananaeam supplicantem non deprehensam in adulterio non supplicantem publicanum non negantem discipulum non persequutorem discipulorum In odore horum currimus Surely LORD IESVS for the meeknes which is in thee we runne after thee hearing that thou despisedst not the poore sinner thou abhorredst not the penitent theefe the mourning sinfull woman nor the woman of Canaan when shee requested thee nor the woman apprehended in adulterie nor the Publican praying vnto thee nor the Disciple that denied thee nor yet the Disciple who persecuted thy Disciples in the smell of these thine oyntments wee runne after thee Thirdly it serueth as a restoratiue to raise vp such as A restoratiue to raise vp such as haue fallen Augu. haue fallen in the same maner for here Non cadendi exemplum sed si cecideris resurgendi propositum est There are many who delight to heare or reade the sinnes of God his Saints as if they were vnto them patrocinia peccati defences of their sinnes But alas what folly is this to loue that in Dauid which hee hated in himselfe Hoc non est defensionem parare animae tuae sed comites inquirere ad gehennam This is not to prepare a defence for thy owne Soule but to seeke companions to goe with thee into hell flattering thy selfe that thou art in state good enough because thou art not matelesse but rememberest not that albeit thou hadst neuer so many inuolued with thee in the giltinesse of thy sinnes what comfort can that be vnto thee Non enim propterea minus ardebis quia cum multis ardebis Shall thy fire in hell be the lesse because many will there burn with thee Nay by the contrarie the more matter the bolder fire It were great wisedome to Great wisedome to make other mens sinnes a medicine for vs. Chrysost in Matth. Hom. 27. embrace that counsell of Chrysostome that wee should not so much looke to Dauid his fall as to his rising Consider what he did after his fall how hee put on sackcloth how he watered his bed with teares how he roared night and day sighing and crying continually till hee found the forgiuenesse of his sinnes Sic medicamenta nobis Augu. de alienis vulneribus faciemus So shall we make medicaments to our selues of the wounds of others and not bee like vnto phranticke persons who slay themselues with the yrons of the Chirurgian by which they haue seene him cut the flesh of others he did it of skill for curing and they of their madnes for killing In this inscription of the Three things considered in the inscription of this Psalme Psalme wee consider three things First how Dauid goes into Bethsheba and commits Adulterie with her Next how Nathan comes to Dauid sleeping in his sinne wakens him and raiseth him vp by Repentance And thirdly how hee makes this Psalme and giues it to bee sung publickely in the Church as the first fruites of his Repentance In the first of these again there 1. The consideration of Dauid his person who sinned shold make vs feare our owne weaknesse are three circumstances to bee considered The person the sins which hee committes and the time The person that fals is Dauid a man endued with most notable graces of the spirit a man highly commended of God A man who before had endured strong temptations and preuailed victor in them all Now is ouercome and

the conscience of their sinne In the primitiue Church The maner of publike repentance in the primitiue Church such as had giuen publike offences were not receiued without publike repentance and humiliation yea they made supplication to all the assembly Volo veniam reus speret petat Ambr. de paeniten li. 1. ca. 16. cum lachymis petat populi totius fletibus vt ignoscatur obsercret cum secundo vel tertio fuerit dilata eius communo credat remissius se supplicasse I will that he that is guilty hope for mercy that he seeketh it with teares and mourning of the whole people and if twice or thrice his receiuing to the communoin be refused to him let him thinke that hee hath praied more slackly then he should and so humble himselfe more intirely then hee hath done And againe to the same purpose he saies If thou hadst a doe to satisfie a man whom How foolish are they who hauing committed publicke sinnes refuse to make publike repentance thou hadst offended how many wouldest thou request to sue for thee at his hands Now seeing thou hast to seeke reconciliation with God why imploiest thou not the praiers of all his his people Vbi nihil est quod pudori esse debeat nisi non fateri cum omnes simus peccatores For among vs nothing should be a matter of shame seeing wee are all sinners but not to confesse our sinnes Vbi ille laudabilior qui humilior iustior qui abiectior Heere hee is most worthy praise who is most humble and hee is most iust who is most contrite and deiected for sinne Fleat itaque pro te mater Ecclesia let therefore thy mother the Church mourne for thee But if men who haue offended This is because they are not touched with the sense of sinne were touched with the sense of sinne as Dauid was they would not be ashamed as publikly to confesse it and seeke mercy as he did For as I said hee found himselfe straited with his own sinnes Infernus quidam animae rea est Conscientia a guilty conscience is a hell to the soule and a sore prison not like other prisons for wheresoeuer the guilty man goes he carries his prison with him and this is the equity of Gods iudgements who inwraps sinners in their sinnes and bindes them with the coardes of their own trangressions whereof they cannot complaine And this appeareth out of How sinne binds and captiues a man his owne words when he saies Deliuer me His speech tels he found himselfe captiued Two manner of waies doth sinne strait and bind any man first by the commanding power of it for then it oppresseth a man in such a sort that hee can neither eate nor sleepe till he obey it An example of which tyranny we haue in Ammon many mo Next by the controlling or accusing power thereof whereby in such sort sinne committed so straites a man that it suffers him not to heare nor thinke of any other thing but of her accusations onely whereby the soule of man is filled with restlesse feares and horrible perturbations Now at this time Dauid was not troubled with the commanding power of sin but onely with the tormenting accusing power thereof and from it heere hee praies the Lord to deliuer him From blouds The word is plural from blouds Noting vnto vs how Dauid found euery Innocent blood when it is shed fals not to the ground but biaes on the head of him that shed it drop of Vriah his bloud a burden vnto him By the phrase of holy Scripture the bloud of him that is shedde is said to lie vpon his head that shed it It seemeth vnto men that the bloud of the man slaine is spilt on the ground but the spirit of God saith that it lieth on the man slayer A fearefull thing the bloud which before was in the body of thy neighbour to conserue his life thou hast now taken it vpon thy head to procure thy death and to crie vnto God for a vengance against thee If this were considered it might serue for an awe-band to keepe murtherers from hasting as they do to shedde innocent bloud And albeit Dauid was farre Many waies may men be guilty of sinne albeit by their own hands they doe it not from Vriah when he was slain for the one was in Ierusalem the other in Rabbah of the Ammonites yet the burden of that bloud lieth heauy on him because hee was the man who counselled Ioab how to slay him with the sworne of the Ammonites Many waies haue men whereby to excuse themselues in their sinne specially if they did not euill with their owne hands if they were farre off when the turne was done but you see how little all these auaile where the conscience cannot excuse a man O God of my saluation So the godly stile the Lord not onely Praise of our saluation properly belongs to God because he is the author of the beginning but of the progresse also and perfiting of our saluation he not onely gaue life to our soules when we were dead in sin but he keepes our soules in life we fall and he raiseth vs vp we wander and he recalls vs we sinne daily and he forgiueth vs. And it is for these renewing mercies wherby the Lord euery day saues vs from a thousand deaths in which otherwise we should perish that we praise the Lord as the God of our saluation giuing him this glorie with the Apostle The Lord hath deliuered vs from so great a death he doth deliuer 2. Cor. 1. vs in whom also we trust that yet hereafter he will deliuer vs. For the time past he hath deliuer'd for the time present hee doth deliuer and for the time to come he will deliuer vs In all these respects wee reioyce in him as in the God of our saluation Againe hee acknowledges Many great deliuerances receiue the godly but the greatest is deliuerance from sinne that the deliuerance of a man from his sinnes is not a worke of mans Power No it requires the powerful hand and sauing health of the mighty God of our saluation Many great deliuerances hath the Lord giuen to his annointed hee saued Noah from the deluge of waters Lot from burning in Sodome he saued Israel in the Red sea and Ionas in the Whales belly he saued Daniel from the Lyons and Peter that he did not sinke when he walked in the water but the deliuerance of a man from the hands of Satan and sinne is a greater work then any of these let vs be thankefull to our God for it So shall I sing a soule oppressed God hath fitted the exercises of his worship for our state and borne downe with the terrors of sinne cannot sing to the praise of God a Christian in that estate answers al that find fault with him as the Israelites of old did the Caldees How can Psal 97. wee sing a song