Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	great_a	life_n	open_v	3,184	5	7.3311	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B05844	Divine breathings: or, A pious soul thirsting after Christ	T. S. (Thomas Sherman); Perin, Christopher.	1671 (1671)	Wing S3388A; ESTC R184098	42,078	222

others have the use of it onely the abuse of it he carries to judgement with him he hath made his friends as we say but he hath undone himself so that I may justly write this Motto upon every bagg This is the price of blood Shall I then treasure up the price of blood No Christ hath entrusted me as a Steward therefore what I have and need not Christ shall have in his members that need and have not So the transitory creatures when they shall slide away shall not carry me with them but when I shall pass away I shall carry them with me XII Meditat. GOod Lord what a miserable creature is a wicked man His very Manna turns to worms his very mercies make him miserable look upon him in his larger estate and you shall find either he hath not the benefit of enjoying it only the danger of keeping it and this adds not to his comfort or else if he doth enjoy it he doth so miserably abuse it that as one saith well he makes that which for use is but temporal for punishment to be eternal Alas the pleasures of it are quickly gone but the pain of it lyes in his bones for ever Lord therefore help me to improve thy mercies or else thy mercies will but improve my miseries XIV Meditat. WOuld'st thou know whether thy name be written in the Book of Life why then read what thou hast written in the Book of Conscience Thou needest not ask who shall ascend up into Heaven for to search the Records of Eternity thou mayest but descend down into thine own heart and their read what thou art and what thou shalt be Though Gods Book of Election and Reprobation be closed and kept above with God yet thy Book of Conscience that is open and kept below in thy very bosome and what thou writest here thou shalt be sure to read there If I write nothing in this Book but the black lines of sin I shall find nothing in Gods Book but the red lines of damnation But if I write Gods Word in the Book of Conscience I may be sure God hath written my Name in the Book of Life At the great Day of Judgement when all Books shall be opened there I shall either read the sweetest or the sharpest lines I will therefore so write here that I may not be ashamed to read hereafter XV. Meditat. BE not curious to search into the secrets of God pick not the Lock where he hath allowed no Key He that will be sifting every Cloud may be smitten with a Thunder-bolt and he that will be too familiar with Gods secrets may be over-whelmed in his judgements Adam would curiously increase his knowledge wherefore Adam shamefully lost his goodness the Bethshemites would needs pry into the Ark of God therefore the hand of God slew above fifty thousand of them Therefore hover not about this flame lest we scorch our wings for my part seeing God hath made me his Steward and not his Secretary I will carefully improve my self by what we have revealed and not curiously enquire into or after what he hath reserved XVI Meditat. NOthing is so sure as death and nothing so uncertain as the time I may be too old to live I can never be too young to dye I will therefore live every hour as if I were to dye the next XVII Meditat. AS the Tree falleth so it lyeth and where death strikes down there God layes out either for mercy or misery So that I may compare it to the Red Sea If I goe in an Israelite my landing shall be in glory and my rejoycing in triumph to see all mine enemies dead upon the Sea-shore but If I goe in an Aegyptian if I be on this side the Cloud on this side the Covenant and yet go in hardned among the Troops of Pharaoh Justice shall return in its full strength and an inundation of Judgement shall over-flow my soul for ever Or else I may compare it to the sleep of the ten Virgins of whom it is said they slumbred and slept we shall all fall into this sleep now if I lye down with the wise I shall goe in with the Bridegroom but if I sleep with the foolish without oyl in my lamp without grace in my soul I have closed the gates of mercy upon my soul for ever I see then this life is the time wherein I must go forth to meet the Lord this is the hour wherein I must do my work and that the day wherein I must be judged according to my works I know not how soon I may fall into this sleep Therefore Lord grant that I live every day in thy sight as I desire to appear the last day in thy presence XVIII Meditat. WHat is said of the Mariner in respect to his Ship that he alwayes sayles within four inches of death that may be said of the soul in relation to the body that it is alwayes in four inches of Eternity if the Ship splits then the Saylor sinks if our earthen vessels break the soul is gone plunged for ever into the bottomless Sea and bankless Ocean of Eternity This is the soul therefore that I desire to weep over that shall preposterously launch into the deep before he knows whether he shall sink or swim XIX Meditat. IT was a sad speech of a dying King Nondum caepi vivere jam cogor vivendi finem facere I must now dye before I begin to live It is the sad condition of many a dying man that their work is to do when their hour is come when the enemy is in the gate their weapons are to look for when death is at the door their graces are to look for when the Bridegroom is come their oyl is to buy the pursuer of blood is upon them and the City of refuge not so much as thought of by them In a word the seven years of plenty are wasted and no provision for the years of famine time is spent and nothing laid up for eternity I will therefore now finish every work I have to do that to dye might be the last work I have to finish XX. Meditat. THis impudent age of ours is grown so eminently uncivil that it is now a dayes counted one of the greatest shames to be ashamed of sin but for my part I had rather be accounted the Worlds fool than Gods enemy XXI Meditat. WOrldling thou deridest to see a Ceristian melting at the Word trembling at a sin I tell thee he is of a noble carriage he can triumph in death and in judgement it is not the King of fears that can appall him or Hell it self that can affright him but as a Conquerour over both he can leave the World with a smile O Death where is thy Sting O Hell where is thy victory That is his triumphant valediction and farewell But thou that gloriest so much because thou canst silence Conscience and out-face sin I tell thee thou art of a base