Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	fear_v	lord_n	remembrance_n	1,962	5	9.9520	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64984	The death of ministers improved. Or, an exhortation to the inhabitants of Horsley on Glocester-shire, and others, on the much lamented death of that reverend and faithful minister of the Gospel, Mr. Henry Stubbs By Tho. Vincent, John Turner, Rob. Perrott, M. Pemberton. To which is added a sermon upon that occasion, by Richard Baxter.	Vincent, Thomas, 1634-1678.; Turner, Robert, b. 1649 or 50, 4aut.; R. P. (Robert Perrot) aut.; Pemberton, Matthew, d. 1691. aut.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1678 (1678)	Wing V430; ESTC R221906	43,418	108

spirit of meekness don't use opprobrious terms railing angry accusations remembring that the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God and anger in your reproof is apt to beget anger in the parties reproved the effect of which is like to be excuse and extenuation of their faults a hardning of them in their sins recriminations and retorts on your selves whereas if you reprove them mildly in a spirit of meekness and they perceive your love therein and design of their good you may the more probably reach their Consciences and through Gods blessing imprint a conviction upon them and be instrumental for their restoring a soft Tongue breaketh a bone and a mild reproof may mollify a heart that is like a bone or like a stone in hardness And as you ought to watch over one another in reference to sin so also in reference to duty as you occasionally or purposely meet together watch to advise and counsel one another to quicken and encourage one another in your duties both to God and man read Mal. 3.16 Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkned and heard it and a Book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name Here you have 1. Your duty to speak often one to another and what it is you should speak The wicked speak often one to another but they speak vanity and sin as if their Tongues were their own and they had no Lord over them their discourse is froth and filth they have a Treasure of evil things in their hearts and thence they bring forth that which is evil but you who fear the Lord have a Treasure of good things in your hearts and thence you should bring forth that which is good your words should be like choice Silver to enrich one another your lips like a Tree of righteousness to feed one another your discourse should be alway with grace unto your mutual edification that you may excite one another in the ways and service of the Lord. 2. Here 's a motive to quicken unto the duty the Lord hearkneth taketh especial notice hereof records this on his Book in order to the reward he intends and hath prepared for such in the other World Look into another Scripture Heb. 10.24 25. Let us consider one another to provoke not to anger but unto love and good works not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching We have not room in this Letter to enlarge in exposition of this Scripture but must leave it with your selves to do it in your Meditations must also contract in the other particulars Secondly The second duty which God calleth you unto on the loss of your Minister is fruitfulness Your Minister was a spiritual sower and we hardly know any who hath sown so much seed of the word as he used to do in all places where he came none more frequent in Preaching on the Sabbath days on the week days on ordinary on extraordinary occasions publickly and from house to house he ceased not whilst he had a Tongue and Breath to Preach the word We need not tell you how much seed he hath sown amongst you and what it is that God doth look for after such a seed-time as you have had But that the harvest of your fruitfulness should be in some measure answerable hereunto that as you have had more seed scattered among you than others so you should bring sorth more fruit than others Take heed now your Minister is dead that his Sermons don't die with him and be forgotten by you as if they had never been Preached never been heard Take heed you be not found barren after such sowings that you be not found dry after such droppings that you be not like Pharaohs kine lean after such plenty of spiritual food and such abundant means of Spiritual nourishment as you have enjoyed The fruits which God doth look for are the fruits of Repentance humility meekness self-denyal patience contentment diligence righteousness filial fear of God faith in Christ love to God and one to another zeal for Gods honour lively hope of Heaven thankfulness for mercies God looks that you should be fruitful in good words and in good works let the seed your Minister hath sown spring up after his death in such fruits as these such things he hath often taught you and exhorted you unto in his Sermons and he hath gone before you in the practice of them in his life ye are witnesses and God also how holily and justly and unblamably he behaved himself among you and how he exhorted and charged you as a Father doth his Children and be ye followers of him who through faith and patience doth now inherit the promises Thirdly The third duty which God doth now call you especially unto is Prayer Your Minister whilst alive did pray much with you and he pray'd more for you he was one of the most Prayerful Ministers in England he gave himself as to the Ministry of the word so also unto Prayer but now his praying work on Earth is changed into praising work in Heaven you have lost a praying friend you have therefore now so much the more need to pray for your selves pray secretly pray frequently pray fervently Pray against sin and pray for larger effusions of the Spirit upon you Pray against sin do as Hos. 14.2 Take with you words and turn to the Lord say unto him take away all iniquity and receive us graciously God hath taken away your Minister O beg of him that he would take away your iniquity the cause of this so great a loss Say Lord thou hast taken away him who was our glory O take away our sins which are our ignominy and shame thou hast taken away him who endeavoured to save us O take away our sins which if not taken away will destroy us Shall our Ministers go and our sins stay Shall our glory depart and our shame abide Our blessings go and our curse continue Our builders go and our destroyers remain God forbid Pray earnestly that God would take away the guilt of sin and deliver you from the power of sin not only the reign but also from the rage of it not only from its dominion but also from its Tyranny And pray also for larger effusions of the Spirit upon you for the teachings of the Spirit the witness of the Spirit more of the graces more of the comforts of the Spirit forget not Zion in your Prayers and the land of your nativity bear also your particular friends on your hearts when you are before God on your knees Fourthly The fourth duty we would mind you of is Family Instruction the Catechizing of Children and Servants and bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord And here we must not enlarge in motives and

and affections the resolving and removing groundless doubts and perplexing fears concerning your spiritual condition the arming you against Satans temptations the guiding of you in the dark night of desertion and when under the Eclipse of th● light of Gods countenance and for your quickning and encouragement under affliction● and all oppositions and difficulties which you do or may meet withall in Heavens way But should we write particularly and fully to you of these things our Letter would grow into a treatise which is beyond our design therefore we must refer you for Counsel in these things unto the Word of God and those Books in our English tongue which are written on these Subjects and particularly to call to remembrance what your dear Pastor hath taught you and advised you who was the best acquainted with the state of your Souls All that we shall further add is to mind you of some duties and to suggest some considerations for your comfort and encouragement under this so great a loss The duties which God calleth you more especially unto after his taking away your Pastor from you are 1 Watchfulness 2 Fruitfulness 3 Prayer 4 Family-instruction First Watchfulness All Ministers are or ●ught to be the Lords Watchmen the Watch●●n whom the Lord set over you was emi●ently faithful but he is now gone and will ●●itch over you no longer and therefore you ●●ve the more need and are now called to ●atch over your selves the more diligently ●nd to watch over one another 1. Watch over your selves guard your ●●nses which are the inlets of sin and keep ●our hearts with all diligence from whence ●re the issues of sin it is not long since you ●ad the eye of your Minister over you ●ho was a faithful reprover now he is removed take heed you give not your selves the more liberty either to neglect duties or to comply with temptations whereby you may be enticed unto any sin were Mr. Stubbs alive and by you it may be you would not yield to such and such Temptations lest you should offend him and be reproved by him but think with your selves that God is by you always and being infinitely holy is more highly offended with sin than the most holy man on earth can be and you have also an observer within you a reprover we mean your own Consciences and take heed of offending them in offending of God for if God and Conscience should be against you it is a thousand times worse than to have all the men on Earth and all the Devils in Hell against you Watch not only against grosser and more scandalou● sins but also against lesser sins and such as a●● of more ordinary practice in the World an● that not only amongst the profane but all amongst professors of Religion themselve● amongst whom too many hypocrites will b● found at the last day Watch also again● errours especially such as are damnable su● as are in the foundations of Religion whi●● should you entertain would be mor● effectual to ruin your Souls than if you we●● guilty of the grossest immoralities Havin● received the truth hold it fast prize it abo●● Silver and Gold as being far more preciou● yea above life it self and let all go rather tha● let any truth go let truths be rooted in you● hearts imbrace them with love and delight otherwise you may be imposed upon with e●rours by some cunning impostors and be tosse● to and fro with divers winds of Doctrine● by the flight of men and cunning craftiness 〈◊〉 such as lie in wait to deceive always suspec● them as dangerously erroneous who endeavou● to bring the Ministry of Christ's appointme●● into contempt and perswade you to a neglec● thereof which you have reason above othe● ●ighly to esteem and keep close unto having ●●d so eminent and faithful a Minister amongst ●ou Secondly As you ought to watch over ●our selves so also to watch over one another ●hat so instead of one there may be many ●atchmen amongst you Watch over one ●nother in reference to sin and in reference to ●uty In reference to sin both to prevent sin 〈◊〉 one another and to restore such as are fallen 〈◊〉 it Watch to prevent sin so far as you have ●ower say not with Cain Am I my brothers ●eeper As you ought not to murder the ●odies of any nor to suffer any if you can ●inder it to murder themselves so you ought ●ot to murder the Souls of any nor to permit ●hem if you can hinder it to murder their ●wn Souls should you see any of your neigh●ours or acquaintance take Swords or Dag●ers and therewith to gash and wound them●lves lift up their hands to thrust them into ●heir hearts would not you run to them and ●atch away those weapons and instruments of ●eath from them Would not you argue and ●ead with them to forbear the laying such ●●olent hands upon themselves By sin your ●●ighbours wound themselves if they wound 〈◊〉 their flesh they wound their Spirit if they wound not their bodies they wound their Souls and as those wounds are most inward so they are the most deep and dangerous the wounds of sin are mortal wounds and not only temporal death but eternal will be the effect of them without a seasonable application of the blood of Christ. O do what you can to prevent sin in your friends do what you can to arm them against Temptations and to encourage them to resist the Devil to expose themselves to any kind of sufferings and pains and to deny themselves any kind of delights and gains rather than to offend God and wound their Consciences by their sins But if any of your Brethren have been tempted and have yielded if they are falle● and wounded watch to restore such and there in follow the direction of the Apostle Gal. 6 1● Brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault 〈◊〉 which are Spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness considering thy self lest tho● also be tempted If you hear of a fault in any of your neighbours be not forward to believe it unless the thing be evident by clear proof or the parties own confession and then think what the Law of love doth require Lev. 19.17 Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thine heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour and not suffer sin upon him When your neighbours lie under guilt let love to their Souls prompt you to use your endeavour for the removal thereof don 't speak of their faults behind their backs to their defamation and the wounding of their names but speak of their faults to themselves in your plain and faithful reproofs in order to their amendment and the healing of the wounds in their Consciences and that your reproofs may be successful they must be managed with much prudence with a due consideration of the fault the person the place the time and the manner as to the manner the Apostle directs you to do it in the