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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	good_a	holy_a	scripture_n	3,042	5	5.5201	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23622	The life & death of Mr. Joseph Alleine, late teacher of the church at Taunton, in Somersetshire, assistant to Mr. Newton whereunto are annexed diverse Christian letters of his, full of spiritual instructions tending to the promoting of the power of Godliness, both in persons and families, and his funeral sermon, preached by Mr. Newton.	Alleine, Theodosia.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; Alleine, Joseph, 1634-1668. Christian letters full of spiritual instructions.; Newton, George, 1602-1681. Sermon preached at the funeral of Mr. Joseph Alleine.	1672 (1672)	Wing A1013_PARTIAL; Wing N1047_PARTIAL; ESTC R19966	231,985	333

Imaginations or of the Lifeless motions in a Poppit-Play where there is much stir to little purpose till the Play be ended further than the Matters of God and of the Church and Mens everlasting concernments are comprehended in them The report of one Souls Conversion to God and of the Reformation of one Family City or Church and of the noble Operations of the blessed Spirit by which he brings up Souls to God and conquereth the World the Flesh and the Devil the Heavenly Communications of God unto Sinners for their Vivification Illumination and holy Love to God and to his Image are so far better than the Stories of these grand Murderers and Tyrants and their great Robberies and Murders called Conquests as the Diagnosticks of Health are than those of Sickness Or as it is more pleasant to read of the Building of Cities than of their ruins or of the Cures of a Physitian than of the hurts done by Robberies and Frays yea of the Healing of Immortal Souls than of the over-hasty destroying of mens Bodies which would quickly turn to Dust of themselves if these valiant Murderers had but the patience to stay the time And among all parts of Church-History the Lives of Wise and Holy Men do seem to be not least Useful and Delightful which is the reason why Satan hath so marvelously and successfully bestird himself to corrupt this part of History with so many impudent lies in the Popish Legends as might render all such Narratives afterwards Contemptible and Incredible and might destroy the Ends Therefore is the Sacred Scripture so much Historical and the Gospel it self is not a Volumn of well composed Orations or a Systeme or Encuclopaedia of the Sciences and Arts nor yet a great Volumn of unnecessary Laws but the History of the Life and Death of Christ and the wonderous Works of Himself and his Spirit in his Servants and a Record of those brief Laws and Doctrines which are needful to the Holiness and Happiness of Man In the Lives of Holy Men we see God's Image and the Beauties of Holiness not only in Precept but in Reality and Practice not Pictured but in the Substance And though the Precepts and Rules be more perfect in their kind as wanting no Degree or Part yet the real Impress and Holiness in the Soul is that living Image of God which is the end of the former and of which the Scripture is but the Instrumental cause And Holiness in visible Realities is apt to affect the World more deeply than in Portraiture and Precept only Therefore we find that Satan and his Instruments are used to do that against the Scriptures exemplified in the Godly which they have not done against the Scriptures in themselves They can bear the bare Precepts of a perfect Rule who cannot bear the very imperfect practice of them in a Holy Life Many have burnt Martyrs that could endure good Books Living Holiness most exciteth Malice Besides that the best of men have Imperfections which may be a pretence for Detraction Slander and Persecution when the Sacred Rule is not so boldly to be accused till they are ripened in Malignity and Audacity Many a one can read with Reverence the Life of a dead Saint who will neither imitate nor indure the Living And I doubt not but many can bear the Narrative of this holy persons Life who could not have endured to see themselves condemned in the Exercises of his present Holy Zeal And yet it is not to be denied but that Humane Nature yet containeth such Principles and Inclinations as give an honourable testimony to goodness For the exercises of prudent impartial equal Vertue and eminent holiness in a Heavenly Life and in the joyful Hopes of the invisible Blessedness and in servent Love to God and Man and in an innocent Life and Self-denying endeavours to do good to all do so much convince and awe Mans Nature and so powerfully command Approbation and Honour that Satan and bad Men could not resist them were it not that such excellent Persons are too Rare and that the far greater number of good Men are lamentably imperfect and tainted with many unlovely Faults And were it not 〈◊〉 for two great advantages that Satan layeth hold on that is Mens Strangeness and Disaecquaintance with those that are good and the Slanderous reports of them by others And whoever noteth it shall find that most that ever Hated and Persecuted men of eminent Holiness were such as never intimately knew them but only at a deceitful distance and such as heard them odiously described by lying Tongues And it is not a small benefit of this kind of History that the Weak and Lame Christians may see such excellent Examples for their imitation and the sluggish and distempered Christian may have so real and lively a reproof and the discouraged Christian may see that higher degrees of goodness are indeed attainable and that the dark and troubled Christian may see the Methods in which Gods Spirit doth work upon his Servants and see that a Genuine Christian life is a Life of the greatest joy on earth And that the sloathful Hypocrite may see that Religion is a serious Business And that the factious Christian may see that a man may be eminently Holy that is not of his Opinion Side or Party And that both the proud domineering Pharisee may see that eminent Piety is separated from his Traditions Formalities Ceremonies and Pomp And the Opinionative Hypocrite may see that Holiness consisteth of something else than in circumstantial and siding Singularities and in a condemning of other mens outward Expressions or Modes of Worship or a boisterous Zeal against the Opinions and Ceremonies of others And it is a notable benefit of this kind of History that it is fitted to Insinuate the Reverence and Love of Piety into young unexperienced Persons For before they can read much of Theological Treatises with understanding or delight Nature enclineth them to a pleasure in History and so their Food is sugard to their Appetites and Profit is entertained by delight And nothing taketh well with the Soul that is not pleasant to it nor did he ever know the true way of Educating Youth or doing good to any that knew not the way of drawing them to a pleasedness and love to goodness Omne 〈◊〉 punctum qui miscuit utile dulci. On such Accounts we may conclude that such men as Melchior Adamus Mr. Samuel Clark c. that have served the Church with this sort of History have done no small or useless Service which we the easilier perceive when we remember at what rates now the Church would purchase a full History of the Lives of all the Apostles and all the Eminent Pastors of the Churches for the first two hundred or three hundred Years yea or but of some few of them And how much of the History of the Times they lived in is contained in a just History of such mens Lives It were to be wished that

good part of a body of Natural Theology called Theologia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De cognitione Dei 2. De Existentia Dei 3. De 〈◊〉 Substantia Dei. 4. De Attributis Dei in genere 〈◊〉 de ejus Unitate 5. De Perfectione Divina c. 6. De Decretis Divinis 7. De Providentia Divina 8. De 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de Precibus In all which he succinctly delivereth in a very good Latin Stile the Christian Doctrine and then by way of Annotations addeth the Testimony of the Antient Philosophers so that you have together a sum of sound Doctrine and the fullest Attestation of Ethnicks consent that ever I have seen being such a Promptuary for any one that hath not leisure to peruse or to gather to such particular uses the Philosophers themselves that I know not where you can find the like For every Sheet or two of his Doctrine on the Subject there is about eight ten twelve or more Sheets of Collected Attestations The rest are all impersectly written onely that De Providentia hath his Ultiman Manum and is Licensed for the Press but being Latin and Greek and such Books having too few Buyers in England none yet is found that will be at the charge of Printing it much less altogether though indeed though imperfect it is pity they should be separated The Title of this Licensed Piece is Theologiae Philosophicae sive Philosophiae Theologicae specimen In quo AEterni Dei Providentia solius Nature lumine comprobatur validissimis rationum momentis demonstratur quoad Partes Species Objecta explicatur Contrae omnes denique Adversariorum Objectiones firmatur Ex Aristotele Platone Chalcidio Sallustio Firmico Empirico Jamlico Antonino Epecteto Proclo Simplicio Cicerone Seneca Macrobio Porphyrio Xenophonte Galeno Plutarcho Plotino Tyrio Appuleio Alcinoo alisque Philosophis Oratoribus Poetis tum Graecis tum Latinis ad Atheorum Convictionem Orthodoxorum confirmationem Elucubratione J. A. Anno Dom. 1661. CHAP. II. A Brief Relation of his early setting forth in the Christian Race from his Childhood Also some Memorials of his Industrious and Prosperous pursuit of Learning and of his singular Piety during his Abode in the University Written by an Eye-Witness thereof MR. Joseph Allein Born in the Devizes in Wiltshire in the Year 1633. During his Child-hood shewed forth a singular sweetness of Disposition and a remarkable Diligence in every thing he was then imployed about The first observable Zeal of Religion that appeared in him was in the eleventh year of his Age about which time he was noted to be very diligent in private Prayer and so fixed in that Duty that he would not be disturbed or moved by the coming of any Person accidentally into the places of his Retirement This and other Fruits of a Serious and Gracious Spirit were the common observation of the Family From this time forward the whole course of his Youth was an even-spun thred of Godly Conversation which was rendered more amiable by his sweet and pleasant deportment towards all he conversed with While he thus openly began to run his Christian Race his Brother Mr. Edward Allein a worthy Minister of the Gospel departed this Life Whereupon he earnestly desired to be brought up in Preparation to succeed him in the Work of the Ministry Which good Motion his Father gladly hearkned unto and speedily prepared to putit in Execution Such was his great diligence at School that he redeemed for his Book the time allotted for Recreation In the space of about four years he attained to very good knowledge in the Latin and Greek Tongues and was by his School-Master adjudged fit for University-Studies After which he abode some time with his Father in the Country where a worthy Minister of the Place read Logick to him And when he was about sixteen years Old he was placed in Lincoln Colledge in Oxford He had not been long in the University but a Wiltshire Place becoming void in Corpus Christi Colledge he was chosen SCHOLAR of that House The Pregnancy of his Parts assuring all that his own MERITS were the SOLE FRIENDS the ONLY MANDAMUS which brought him in Being entered and setled he gave both early and constant Proofs of his indefatigable Industry Signalizing thereby his love to Learning and evidently Demonstrating how much he abhorr'd to be found a Drone in such a Hive He esteemed a Colledge an otherguess place than a VICTUALING HOUSE and coming into this with a Nobler design than onely to TAKE COMMONS He thought himself happy in nothing so much as the advantage he had gain'd for the best Aquists I have known too many who in the very Places which they have got by their Parts have lost the Parts which got them their Places and peradventure had been excellent excellent Scholars had they never had those Incouragements to be so which they unhappily won from their Competitors For Idleness enervates the strength of Nature and makes those Loggs that might have been Mercuries but this Person was none of those He quitting himself so well at the Election was but a Pledge and Earnest of his doing better afterwards He made it appear to all observing him that when he stood he stood not so much for a Place as for the Accomplishments by his future studiousness attainable in it demeaning himself like one who even in the dayes of his Vanity well understood how prophane a thing it was to live in a School of Learning no otherwise than as if it were a Sanctuary for Lasiness or a Place priviledg'd with nothing else but Leave and Opportunity to eat the Founders Bread with no other sweat of the Brow than what 's provok'd in a Ball Court Never had Learning a truer Drudge since she kept House in Oxford At her Work he was both day and night thinking all time too little no pains too much that he spent in her Service When but a School-Boy as I have heard he was observed to be so studious that he was known as much by this Periphrasis The Lad that will not play as by his name And sure I am when in the University he was so generously and ingeniously bookish that he deserved to be called The Scholar who by his good will would do nothing else but Pray and Study Courteous he was and very civil to all Acquaintance But if they came to visit him at Studying times though they were sure enough to find him within yet withal so busie generally with better Company as to have no leisure to let them in And if at this they were moved and murmured and went away offended with him he cared not That notable Principle of Joachimus Fortius which shut him up bearing him out and being his relief in all such Cases Viz. Better it is that they should wonder at thy rudeness than thou shouldest lose thy time for only one or two will take notice of that but all Posterity would be sensible of this His Appetite to his Business being