Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	good_a	life_n	write_v	3,155	5	5.4448	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90350	The inseparable union between Christ and a believer, which death itself cannot sever, or, The bond that can never be broken opened in a sermon at the funeral of Mrs. Dorothy Freeborne, who was interred at Prittlewell in Essex on 24 of August, 1658 / by Thomas Peck ...	Peck, Thomas.	1671 (1671)	Wing P1039B; ESTC R29381	36,989	123

so shall he have rejoycing in himself and not in an other 5. Another sort that boast of false assurance are false believers temporaries who having by some common work of the spirit some common gifts and graces wrought in them some illumination convictions joy in the word and some partial reformation are presently so full of assurance that they have not any doubts and imagin they are able to judge and determine concerning others whether they have grace or no. But 't is a sign of a bad building that hath a weak or no foundation and it was a sign Jacobs venison was not right because it was so quickly catched so this assurance is too quickly gotten to be good and for the most part comes to nothing like Jonahs Gouard sprong up in one night and withered in another or like the stony ground hearers that received the word suddenly with joy and for want of a depth of Earth in time of temptation fell away All these assurances which men boast of are false and it apears by the fruits of them By their fruits ye shall know them saith our Saviour of the false Prophets Mat. 7. 20. So Mat 7 20. by their fruits ye shall know these false assurances or perswasions which make men never the better work no change in their lives no care to please God no fear to offend God nay they work contrary effects they harden mens hearts and keep them from sorrowing for sin Isa 57. 10. thou saidst not there Isa 57. 10. is no hope therefore thou wert not grieved nay they can commit very hainous sins and never be troubled at them Psal 64. 4. they shoot in secret Psal 64 4. at the perfect yea suddainly doe they shoot at him and fear not they incourage themselves in an evil way Farther this assurance they talk of doth inbolden them to commit sin Jer. 3. 4. didst thou not cry thou art Jer. 3. 4. my Father but they do evil more and more And in Hos 8. my God we Hos 8. know thee yet they have rejected the thing that is good Now how many are there whom Satan hath over thrown with this false perswasion yet men and women will goe away with it dreaming their case is good let such know as true assurance of salvation is a great mercy so false assurance is one of the most grievous judgments that can befal a man in Isa 29. 9. when Isa 29. 9. the Lord had sayd stay your selves and wonder in v. 10. he adds v. 10. this to be the judgment they should wonder at the Lord hath covered you with a spirit of slumber or hath powered upon you the spirit of a deep sleep he hath closed your eyes Of the two it is far better to be vexed with continual fears than to be lulled asleep with a false assurance for besides that it keeps a man from seeking to God it will not hold but certainly faile a man when he hath most need of it as Zophar saith in Job 11. 20. The eyes Job 11. 20. of the wicked shall fail and they shall not Escape and their hope shall be as the giving up of the Ghost that is as the Soul and body part with great pain and horror so shall he and his hope as the Soul departs suddainly so shall his hope leave him in a moment and as the Soul returns not into the body any more in this life so he and his hope take an everlasting farewel each of other his Soul and his hope depart together never to meet more therefore let me invert the words of the Apostle concerning true confidence Heb. 10. 35. and say concerning this Heb. 10. 35. cast it away cast away your confidence for it shall have no recompence of reward Thus much for this second use by way of reprehension III. Use Let it serve in the last place for Exhortation Is it so that a Christian in this life may be perswaded and assured he shall be saved then let this perswade and stir up us to labour for this assurance let us not run blundering on in an uncertain opinion or a wavering hope but strive after this sound perswasion you have heard 't is attainable others have actually injoyed it and we are injoyned to seek it and if the fault be not our own may obtain it and to make you the more earnest and diligent in the persuit of it consider these motives briefly 1. Mot. Nothing else can be assured are not riches honours possessions relations and all worldly injoyments uncertain is there not vanity written upon them all and are they not all subject to variation and loss such uncertain beings they are that the wise man saith they are not Pro. 23. 5. they are but Pro. 23. 5. like a flock of birds in a mans yard which he cannot call his own for they soon take to themselves wings and flee away but whoso is sure of his salvation sure of the love of God and his interest in Christ is sure of that which he can never loose this is an abiding substance an enduring inheritance which the iron teeth of time can never destroy nor eternity it selfe wear out 2. Mot. 'T is your indispensable duty to labour to be assured of Gods love and your own salvation God hath often charged his people to contend for the security and assurance of their spiritual Estates 2. Pet. 1. 10. 2 Cor. 13. 5. and in Heb. 2 Pet. 1. 10. 2 Cor. 13. 5. Heb. 6. 11. 6. 11. we desire that every one of you doe shew the some diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end And this commandment is for our good 3. Mot. This knowledge and certainty is naturally desirable Every man would faine know things to come ●especially concerning themselves If there were a book written that would tell men what should certainly befal them in this world to their last breath O how desirous would people be to procure and read it now is it so desirable to know our destiny to heare and know prophecies what shall hapen to us in this life and is it not as desirable to know and be assured what shall be our portion to all eternity what we must trust to and look for what state and place we must be in for ever why there is a book will tell you this the written word of God and this you may know if you will labour for it 4. Mot. This certainty of our salvation as it is very desirable so beyond expression comfortable Though not the being yet the well being the comfort of a Christian depends upon it and if ever God bestow this blessing of assurance upon thee whatever thy condition be in the world thou wilt account thy self the happiest man upon earth therefore this full assurance is called riches Col. 2. 2. Riches serve to Col. 2. 2. make the life of man Comfortable and put a great deal of joy into mens hearts

adorned with those graces wherewith the holy women of old were adorned of which St. Peter speaks in 1 Pet. 3. from the v. 1. 1 Pet. 3. 1. ad 7. to 7. Recount those worthy women recorded in sacred story Obedient Sara modest Rebecca Devout Hanna lovely Elizabeth and Dorcas full of good works and she was all these she was excellent in all those vertues and graces commendable in them what Saint do you read of in all the book of God which in some grace or other she did not resemble she lived and dyed a daughter of Abraham and is now no doubt at rest in Abrahams bosome 2. But more particularly Consider her both in her relative and personal capacity 1. In her relative capacity and here you might behold her 1 a most Chaste Loyal loving and according to her matrimonial ingagement and duty an obedient wife as her loving husband survives to testifie 2 Consider her as a Mother and a Mistress and she was exemplary in these relations Her government was made up of sweetness and gravity sweetness without levity or remisness and gravity without bitterness or severity There was no severity in her disciplines save what was in the pattern she Proposed to them in her conversation and indeed she was severely good Her care was that her family might know God and Jesus Christ whom to know Joh. 17. 3d is life eternal She was of a Joshuah like resolution as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. She thought it not enough to go to Heaven alone but laboured to carry as many as she could with her especially those of her own house By Catechising and instructing them she indeavoured their conversion and to bring them to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as well knowing that her Childrens and Servants Souls were as pretious to God as her own and cost Jesus Christ as much blood to redeem You that are Governours of families labour to imitate her in this 3. As a friend and neighbour she was of a most sweet obliging Converse beloved of all that knew her her large bounty and charity and offices of love in that kind made her highly esteemed of all the poor in the place where she lived which they testified by their bitter lamentation for her when she dyed what company soever she was in she retained her Christian modesty and gravity and would never talk vainly or frothily nor shew her self sometimes holly and sometimes prophane to please the company but her words were as those present were fit to receive them savoury and tending to edification I might inlarge in these her relative excellencys but a word or two of her 2. In her personal capacity because I hasten and her all that knew her might observe her holiness meekness love faith and patience were eminent She made Religion her business the common Sanctity of the world would not serve her turn which is only Civility and Morality She out went the Scribes and Phariseessin righteousness and walked according to the pattern her Saviour had set before her She wore the comely garment of an holy profession without any visible spot forgetting the things that were behind and pressing towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus In her meekness she resembled Moses this ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit rendred her amiable in the eyes of God and man Her love was transcendent to God whom she loved suparlatively to Christ whom she loved for his Person as well as portion for what he was as well as for what he had she beheld him with the spouses eye fairer then the Children of men the chiefest of ten thousand altogether lovely and pretious to her Soul Her love was great to the publique Ordinances to all Gods Ministers and to all others in whom she beheld any thing of Christ she dare not but love them for his sake Her faith and patience were always visible in their fruits but more especially in the time of her last sickness keeping her Spirit quiet and steddy amidst all those billows that beat upon her in her passage from Earth to Heaven so that all her afflictions were but the trials and triumph of her patience and faith by the exercise of which graces she at last came off a conquerour through Christ that loved her and hath her faith and patience rewarded with a full and joyful fruition of her beloved in his Kingdom and Glory I might inlarge farther but I forbear this is she whom we have lost and Oh what a loss do we all sustain One hath lost a loving comfort others a tender Mother and all of us a choise and faithful friend and Neighbour and what shall we doe shall we now give up our selves to sorrow No or shall we make it our work to forget her whom we cannot recal No neither but let us remember her so as to imitate her and be followers of her O that all that hear of her would imitate her that all you that knew her would follow her in that pattern she hath given you Especially you that are her near and dear relations do you remember her so as to be followers of her wherein she was a follower of Christ Methinks I hear her calling to you out of Heaven where her triumphant Soul is placed amongst the Spirits of just men made perfect as sometimes her Lord and ours bespake his Desciples saying I have given you an example that you should doe as I have done Now the Lord grant that you and all of us may be followers of her and all other the Saints of God who were followers of Christ that we at last with them and her may also inherit the promises FINIS