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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	great_a	see_v	word_n	2,798	5	3.6685	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91431	A farewel sermon preached in VVake-Field, January 1, 1655 By Thomas Parker, Master of Arts, late minister of that church.	Parker, Thomas, Minister of Wake-Field.	1656 (1656)	Wing P476; ESTC R229920	24,920	28

unexpressible Mercy Psal 61 2. When my soul was over-whelmed he laid my hands upon a Rock a Rock that was higher then I. The more my persecutions grew the more did the hand of the Lord appear in with and for me when the wickedness of my Persecutors grew so high and their sin so shameless that they durst appear like those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those Noon-day-Divels and declare their sin as Sodom when they durst come into Bethel it self a House of Prayer a place set a part for divine Worship and there with faces harder then flint out-dare the God and Master of that House and being Whores to out face Angels the Attendants of that Place when neither the sacrednesse nor dreadfulness of the place nor my own performance of publique Duties could safe-guard me from their hellish practises whose only capacity is like Machiavels undertakers to be wicked enough even then the Angel of the Covenant whose I am and whom I serve stood by me Then was the grace of the Lord with me to uphold and support me What shall I render to my God for these his mercies I will take the Cup of Salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord The third Mercy to be remembred by us is the continuance of mutual love betwixt Minister and People a Divine love doubtless because lasting unto the end The reproaches and scandals dayly heaped upon me could never alienate the heart of any one of my hearers so far as to a desertion of me Must we not needs say this was the work of God Love built upon human foundation is as the foundation it self changeable But here was more then the work of man God himself herein owning my integrity and approving my Doctrine I look upon all this as a fruit of that Sacramental love wherein our foundation was laid at my first coming to you I cannot as I have desired longer serve you in my Preaching yet my Prayers shall never be wanting for you to that God who is love that for those Bowels of love wherewith you have refreshed me you may finde mercy in that day when you shall most stand in need of it But I must to my Text My first entrance to you was in love and the main end of my undertaking here was this That among this great people I might be an Instrument of gaining some poor souls to God God is my Record I lye not I cannot say but there were some other Considerations went along with it but they were all subservient to this How far I was from that sin of Covetousness wherewith the people too much brand the Clergy and sometimes deservedly I appeal to your selves I never made any Compact or Covenant with you upon that account your offerings have been of free will and God hath blessed them What my Conversation and Deportment hath been amongst you notwithstanding the many provocations I have had I refer to you all I have not made the Pulpit where the glory of God and the riches of Christ and the salvation of poor souls is concerned a Stage or Theater to act my own parts and passions in I have endeavoured to walk inoffensively towards God and towards man This also was the Lords work Such was my Entrance and such hath my progress been your Tears do abundantly witness this day the sad parting of a Minister and his people God forgive them if at least it be lawful to pray for them who have robbed us one of another where there was so much love and so much delight in each other that we have found God delighting in us all to do us good We are now come to the Conclusion and to that purpose I have made choice of a plain Text and I shall speak to it with as much plainness You have it ECCLES 12.13 Let us hear the Conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandments this is the whole duty of man THat Solomon the Son of David was the Penman of this Book I think is without dispute the Style is his and there was no other Son of David King in Jerusalem but he The dispute is of the Title Choheleth which the Lxx. render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We the Preacher and concerning that there is a double Query First Why it is used in the Feminine Gender some say the word Nephesh is to be understood and so it must signifie a Preaching soul but how that can hold it being a proper name and never used but in this Book as Drusius observes upon the place I see not Others tell us it is usual with the Hebrews to put Feminines names upon men so the Gospel Preachers are called Mebaseroth Psal 68.11 The Lord spake the words great was the company of Preachers or Publishers Annunciatricum But whether they did this to set forth the purity of the Preachers of Christ Prov. 9.3 Where they are called Wisdomes Maids or those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which the Apostle relates Gal. 4.19 thereby making out not only the great Throws but the tender and motherly affection of a faithful Preacher to his people I shall not now stand to enquire But the second and main Query is why it is called Sepher Choheleth a Book of Gatherings or Congregations Some will have it to be one of the names of Solomon as Jedidiah or Lemuel Some say because it was publiquely delivered by Solomon himself to the Congregation and so it is in his Fathers stile giving God the glory in the great Congregation Psal 40.10 We read of his blessings prayers and sacrifices 1 Reg. 8. here of his preaching Petagl upon the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and thus Schindler seems to expound it of a gathering of men Others will have it so called from Solomons being gathered or re-uniting himself after his foul Idolatry and Apostacy from the Church and the Book to be the words of a soul or person brought back to the unity of the Church or Congregation of the Saints But I rather think without any straining of the words it relates to the subject or matter of the Book It is a Book of Observations experimentally gathered from Natural Moral Political Domestical and Divine things Wisdome is the souls great Endowment nothing more precious more sweet more coveted Read Eccl. cap. 2. especially such as Solomon's was it pursueth such high objects as may improve and not vitiate the intelectuals yet he tells us what the fruit of of it frequently is hellish policy pride violence oppression and cruelty wisedom to do evil Pleasures suite well with the inferiour and brutish part of man but in the exact enjoyment of them there is a mixture either of folly or want they grow in time loathsome and tedious to the possessors he tells you of buildings and Vineyards and Orchards and Fish-Ponds and Musick Vocal and Instrumental and he concludes upon the survey all is vanity Riches the great Idol of the world the Gold and Silver the