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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	call_v	read_v	write_v	3,024	5	5.2192	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A14670	Salomons sweete harpe consisting of fiue words, like so many golden strings, toucht with the cunning hand of his true skill, commanding all other humane speech: wherein both cleargie and laitie may learne how to speake. Preached of late at Thetford before his Maiestie, by Thomas Walkington Batchelour in Diuinitie, and fellow of S. Iohns Colledge in Cambridge.	Walkington, Thomas, d. 1621.	1608 (1608)	STC 24971; ESTC S119399	35,733	88

silent but to speake 3 The obiect that he aimed at in his speach euen words of spirituall delight and pleasancie The Preacher sought c. 1 The subiect Salomon or Ecclesiastes or the Preacher he was the blessed pen-man of this booke the heauenly musician who was equaliz'd vnto the sweete singer of Israel whose songs were a thousand and fiue whose sweeter straine went beyonde the apprehension of a vulgar eare out-stripped the Poets Daphnis of whome thus the Caprarius speakes O how pleasant and amiable is thy voice O Daphnis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I had rather listen to thy chaunting and inchaunting voice then to taste of the most delicious Hyblean hunnicombe This Salomon whose admirable wisdome the Queene of Sheba came afar to heare presenting vnto him sixescore talents of gold pearelesse precious stones and abundance of sweete odours He who excelled all the Kings of the earth in riches for he offered in one sacrifice vnto the Lord 22. thousand beeues an hundred and twentie thousand sheepe Who made himselfe palaces of the trees of Lebanon whose pillers were siluer the pauements gold the hangings purple whose midst was paued with the loue of the daughters of Ierusalem Who had in his building seuentie thousand that bare burdens and 80. thousand masons in the mountaine He who planted himselfe vineyards made him orchards of all manner of fruit who had the gold of Kings and prouinces who had men singers and women singers the delights of the sonnes of men who had nothing withheld from him of all his heart desired who was seated in the blissefull Eden and Paradise of all content glutted with all delicious viandes crammed as it were with the pleasures of the world wanting no delicie to relish his tast no elegancie to delight his eie no symphony to rauish and surfet his eare when he had had his full repast in sinne when he had runne through myriades of delights glutting all his fiue senses which we may tearme the Cinqueports or rather the sinports of his soule hauing thus runne his wild-goose chase waging warre against God almightie tandem receptui canit he sounds at lēgth a woful retreit he comes home by weeping crosse he sees the windowes of his spirituall eyes beeing ope with Daniels vnto Ierusalem that he was in the very suburbs of death rowing along by the banks of hell he sees that vanitie was the Golden calfe he daily sacrificed vnto vpon the altar of his sinfull heart with the fire of too carnall deuotion This mighty Monarch therefore vnmasks and pulls off the vizard of all vanitie and pennes this booke this heauenly booke of Retractations which the auncient Rabbies entituled Teshuuah leshelomoh the repentance of Salomon it is he that conuerts himselfe by the helpe of God and beeing conuerted seeks to conuert others to God it is he that here is the Preacher We must not thinke with Dauid Kimchi that Esay wrote both his owne prophesie and the Canticles and this booke also that he was the preacher nor with the Talmudists that Ezechiah and his adherents writ the booke which they call Iimshoch that is Esay the Proverbs the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes but as Boaz saide to Ruth gleane in no other field but this so let vs imbrace no other sinister opinion but this that Salomon was the penman of this book that here he was this Preacher who sought to finde out pleasant words They that auerre Salomon not be this preacher the penman of this booke doe prooue it hence because the booke is penitenciarie and they constantly auouch that he neuer repented but that he was damned to the gulfe of hell of which thing because comprized by methode within the lists of our Text we will by Gods assistance treate a little Their chiefe Authorities to patronize their opinions are culled out of Augustine one place in his booke of the citie of God where he saies that Salomon had good beginnings but euill endings secondly in his booke Ad Faust. Manich. The holy Scripture sayes he reprooues and condemnes Salomon because no where we read of his repentance and Gods indulgence But the most strict place of all is in his commentary vpon the Psalmes where he saies in plaine tearms Salomon reprobatus est à Deo Salomon was reprobate of God a cast-away as they interpret it I know that some of the Fathers are diffident concerning the saluation of Salomon and amongst them this Augustine as it seemes at a blush yet notwithstanding they may be answered 1 First for the first be it that he began in the spirit and ended in the flesh yet this is not to be ment of his final ending he died not in his sinnes we know the iustest man he falls 7. times a day that is often yet he rises againe and after his rising he still falls when the finger of the holy Spirit holds him not vp and euery fall though not finall may be called malus exitus an euill ending in regard of the holy rise which is a good beginning Or els thus he began to sway the scepter of his kingdome very wisely and religiously yet after he reuolted from God especially in his old age which may be called his exitus yet so that ere he did depart this world ere he were gathered to his fathers he did clense his wayes he did repent 2 For the second we wil answer with Bacchiarius a Britaine in Augustines time in a booke which he writ concerning a Monke that had committed adulterie sayes he let vs graunt that in no place we read that Salomon repented be it so at acceptabilior erat poenitentia priuatâ eius conscientiâ quàm publicâ notitiâ ecclesiae more gratefull to God was his penitencie in the closet of his owne heart then by giuing publike notice to the Church 3 For the last The word reprobatus doth not alwaies signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we take it for one in the state of the damned for a cast-away but for one reprooued of God So Tertullian speaking of the second comming of Christ saith that Christ post reprobationem fuit assumptus after his reprobation was taken vp now what blasphemous tongue would euer say that Christ was a reprobate So Salomō was reprooued of God as he was of the Scripture Ireneus after he had recited the good gifts that God had inriched Salomon withall out of the rich exchequer of his vnspeakable bountie and mercy about the midst of the chapter he saies that he fell grieuously and was tainted with the pollution of outlandish women yet saies he sufficienter eum increpavit scriptura vti dixit mihi presbyter vt ne gloriaretur vniuersa caro in conspectu Domini Whēce we may gather these two things 1. that he was reprooued of the Scripture as we spake before 2. that the word of God so sufficiently wrought vpon his heart that it caused him to repent

Ierusalem the earthly Eden of pleasure the navil of the world the cathedrall sea of God Many excellent things are spoken of thee O thou citie of God so we may say of Salomon many glorious titles are giuen to thee O thou man of God Diuerse singular men haue had other names for their excellencie as Origen was called Adamantius Iohannes Constantinopol for his mellifluous eloquence was called Chrysostome Basil was called Magnus Gregorie Nazianz. for his worthie disputations in diuinitie was called Theologus Thus he that was Saul before his conuersion as Sheol or hell was after called Paul that is mirabilis wonderfull or os tubae the mouth of the trumpet of the Lord though there be no great substance in that But King Salomon as a man specially graced with rarest parts has sundry excellent and worthy names as first Salomon that is a peacemaker then Iedidah that is beloued of the Lord then Ithiel that is God with me then Agur that is gathering together and so in the same sense here in this booke and in this place is he tearmed Coheleth or Ecclesinstes or the preacher because like the sound of Aarons golden bells he calls the flocke of Iesus Christ together by his heauenly pleasant words The Hebrew word Coheleth is here of the feminine gender as the learned know as if he called himselfe the shee preacher or the woman preacher Because as some say he writ it when he was satur annis very aged when they began to wax dark that looke out by the windows when all the daughters of singing were abased when his Almond tree began to flourish the grashopper was a burden to him when his siluer corde was lengthened and the golden ewre broken when he was as Nazianz. speakes of Eleazar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gray-headed and graue-witted when his day declined and the shadowes of his euening began to be stretched out when his manlike strength once failed him when he was by age as weake as woman the weaker sex at the very brink of death then he writ this booke and calls himselfe the woman preacher which confirmes the former assertion of the Hebrues that this was his last booke his palinodia his sweet recantation like the swanne on the bankes of Maeander Cantator cygnus funer is ipse sui who sings the sweetest when her death is nearest that this was his penitenciarie more then auricular confession therefore seemes he in this Autumne of old age to scoff at his yong April yeares nay almost all his former daies which were much like this backward spring without buds and blossomes of heauenly vertues and therfore cryes out in this booke Reioyce O young man in thy youth and let thine heart cheere thee in the daies of thy youth and follow the lust of thy heart as I my selfe haue done but presently least he might peraduenture being in a losse run himselfe breathles in a false sent ouer the craggie and steepie waies of sinne he windes his dreadfull horne to check him backe againe he lets him see after this his comicall plaudite a tragicall and lamentable plangite after mirth a doolefull end he comes in with a terrible But which serues as a peale of ordinance or a thunderclap to rouse him out of his dead slumber of iniquitie he brings in a But to curbe and stint him like huge bankes to limit his boundlesse Ocean But know that for all these things God will bring thee to iudgement which I my selfe seeing and hauing tasted the pleasure of sinne for a season especially with these my alluring concubines that haue wofully drawne me from Almightie God haue thought it very requisite to set an euerlasting memento mori before thy face to put thee in mind of the second death the endles death of the soule in hell fire which by a diuine accident those outlandish women making almost my pore selfe as outlandish euen an aliant from the commonwealth of Israel haue caused me happily to doe and therefore am I Coheleth as a woman preacher Others say he calls himselfe the shee-preacher as hauing respect to his chiefe and heauenly part his soule or hauing a reference to wisdome comprized in his soule the cynosura or polestar to direct al his speach and action as if thus he had saide Marke now what Salomon the preacher saies yet not what Salomon but what his very soule and wisedome harbouring in his aged brest by long experience what it can say to the throwing downe of Dagon this gilden idol Vanitie which all the world adores list with an attentine eare what sage aduise deliuers what a learned lecture of mutabilitie curiositie mortalitie it reads and therefore is he Coheleth or the shee-preacher Oh you you that are in eminent place that daily conuerse with Salomons golden throne ye pines of Ida ye cedars of Lebanon ye okes of Basan ye that lie on downy pallets on beds of Iuory with the princes of Israel ye that feede on the dew of Hermon on mannah Angels food here take your sweete repose sit you downe heare with me feede a while in a spirituall contemplation consider what I say and the Lord Iesus giue you vnderstanding see how this mightie Monarch casts away his Princely ornaments deuests himselfe of his royall robes his stately Parlament weeds indeed but as weeds in regard of spirituall flowres of heauēly habiliments see how he leaues his ●haire of state as it were rapt vp into the third heauens of all spirituall thoughts he humbly turnes Clergy-man betaking himselfe vnto the pulpit to preach and all to teach thee a spirituall meditation humiliation conuersion and that thou beeing conuerted to God shouldst conuert others vnto God O how beautifull vpon the mountains are such louely feet that come with the glad tidings of saluation from the Lord. He that is an earthly King acts the King of Heauens embassadour thus he humbles and yet honours himselfe We read of a worthy historie in Pol. Virgil. Canutus sometimes happy king of this our happy Isle beeing flattringly cald of some of them that were nie him King of kings to disprooue this their too hie a title he sate him downe vpon the shore of Thames hard by the flowing water vpon a garment wrapt on a heape and after a little pause many wondring what he intended he thus spoke vnto the billowes Proud waues I commaund you to cease your flowing who no sooner hauing vttred the speech but the rebellious waues set him wetshod see saies he ye call me King of kings and alas I haue no power to forbid this silly waue after he going to Winchester raught of his golden diademe and with his owne hands impald the head of Christs statue with his Crowne and neuer would weare his crowne after howeuer this were in too superstitious a zeale yet he shewed his great humilitie Our blessed Salomon here was like vnto this Canutus for humble demeanour he