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	read_v	scripture_n	3,013	5	5.7839	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

yet Ireneus speaks it from the relation of a Priest I confesse Austen in the last place quoted out of his comment vpon the Psal. speakes very preiudiciously of Salomon as may be gathered out of his succeeding words where he takes away the argument deriued from his penmanship But if he vncharitably and sinisterly censured this holy man it was no doubt a blemish in him perchance rather to deterre and affright euery soule from falling so low then peremptorily and preiudiciously to determine of his damnation we may say as Augustine himselfe sayes in another case of Saint Cyprian who held the Anabaptization of hereticks so of Augustine this was peraduenture magis discendi modestia quam docendi diligentia For their reason it is this Because his soule was so deepely tainted with Idolatrie and loue of his concubines and if he had repented say they we should haue read of his taking away the high altars before his death But to answer Although his soule was dibapho peccati tincta dyed in a crimsen dye of sinne yet he that came with redde garments from Bozrah who trod the wine-presse of Gods wrath alone he that sate vpon the white horse whose eyes were like a flame of fire and on his head a many crownes who had a name writ that no man knewe but himselfe whose garment was dipt in blood he he could purge him with hysope he no doubt could make the scarlet soule of Salomon as white as the snow in Salmon Againe what if he were for a time fascinated bewitched so with the loue of his concubines that for their sakes he followed Ashtaroth the god of the Sidonians Chemosh the god of the Moabites and Milchom the god of the Ammonites yet no doubt he might before his death command these abominations to be ruinated and defaced which were not peraduenture and which he beeing bedred it may be could not in his owne person by reason of his too long delay see throwne downe And by the way nor is it a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Ambrose saith God permitted Salomon thus grieuously to fall least the Iews might be deceiued and thinke promissum diuinum ad illum manasse and so consequently that he was the Messias But with authoritie and reason counterpoised against their vngrounded censure for any thing I see we will prooue directly that he repented and so was saued I will onely mention that place in Ecclesiasticus in which chapter is set out the prayse of Nathan Dauid and Salomon it is there saide Salomon felt sorrowe for his folly but God left not off his mercie to him nor did he destroy him for his workes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I thinke may be interpreted well he wip't him not out of the booke of life beeing the posteritie of Dauid whom he loued Hierome vpon Ezekiel cites a place out of the Prouerbs in the Septuagints translation where Salomon thus speakes of himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that is at the length I repented and beheld c. I know the Hebrew runnes not so for thus vaechezeh anôchi ashith libbi c. then I beheld and laid it to my heart and looked vpon it and receiued instruction Where the fault is it is not at this time to be discussed since it requires an ample discourse and I would not become tediously irkesome for as Nazianzen saies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is satietie in speach is as great on enemie to the eare as surfet to the body But this is not onely Hieromes but also Cyril the Archbishop of Alexandria his allegation who cites also this very place out of the Septuagints in his booke de Baptismo But Bacchiarius in his fore-mentioned booke he brings in this reason that he was repentant and so saued All the godly kings saies he are reported in the Scripture to haue beene buried among the kings of Israel their fathers in the citie of Dauid amongst which Salomon as a godly king is said to be thus buried but it is not read of the wicked kings as Ieroboam Ahab and the rest that they were thus buried therefore it is likely that Salomon was saued that he did repent in the iudgement of the church but let them that can discerne see into this reason In briefe our plaine arguments to prooue his saluation are these 1 First In the 2. of Samuel Salomon is caled Iedidah by Nathan the Prophet at the command of the Lord the word signifieth beloued of the Lord and so sayes the text because the Lord loued him now whom the Lord loues he loues to the ende and therefore he was saued 2 Secondly He was a sacred Scribe and penman of the Canonicall Scripture inspired by the holy Ghost as all other Prophets were which thing besuits not any reprobate now it is saide in S. Luke that all the Prophets of God are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the kingdome of God therefore to seclude Salomon one of the Prophets from the kingdome of heauen were to denie the Scriptures 3 Thirdly He calls his former waies madnesse and folly therefore it is probable that he seeing in the Scriptures mirrour and looking glasse his owne blemishes and fowle deformites that he washt away the spots of his soule by the troubled waters of Bethesda the teares of true repentance 4 Fourthly He was the liueliest type of Iesus Christ the true pacificus the true Salomon that euer was saue Melchisedeth To say then that he who was thus buried among the faithfull for a faithfull man in the citie of Dauid with the kings of Israel his fathers who was sufficiently reprooued and so cōsequently amended by the holy Scripture who was the louely darling of God the penman of heauēly writ one of the sanctified Prophets who was so liuely a resemblance of our Sauiour Christ who saw into his owne madnesse and folly that he he I say was damned withstands reason denies Scripture and iniuries the dead in the Lord and I verily am perswaded in my soule conscience that his portion is fallen in a faire ground that his inheritance is in the land of the liuing And thou O my soule inioy for euer that blessed paradise he now happily doth bathe himselfe in giue me leaue to end this point with the Poet Happie and thrise happie are them soules Quêis datur Elysium sic habit are nemus who thus are made free denizens in that heauēly Ierusalem the citie of the Saints And thus I conclude that Salomon he was this Preacher and penman of this penitentiall booke with making this short double vse vnto our selues 1. let him that stands take heede least he fall 2. let euery one vpon the bended knee of his heart humbly desire the Lord to conuert him then being conuerted with Salomon let him conuert his brethren Now will I come nearer vnto this first word Coheleth or Preacher As the Prophet saies of