Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	holy_a	read_v	scripture_n	8,342	5	5.9261	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30835	An epistle to Friends shewing the great difference between a convinced estate and a converted estate, and between the profession of the truth, and the possession thereof : with the comfort and sweetness to the soul it affordeth : with a few words of good counsel and wholesome advice both to parents and their children / by one that travails for Sion's prosperity, known by the name of John Banks.	Banks, John, 1637-1710.	1693 (1693)	Wing B652A; ESTC R22805	14,665	20

that is in it neither a Wife nor an Husband nor any Possession or Enjoyment here below though never so great fair or promising For such say in their Hearts that commends them to God My beloved to wit the Truth is mine and I am his the fairest and chiefest unto me of Ten thousand And such it is in their heavenly and Spiritual Exercise that fit where the Spouse of old did which is under his Shadow and that with great delight and his Fruit is sweet unto their Taste And these are they that above all things Truth is precious unto that feel pertake possess and enjoy of the sweetness and preciousness thereof in their Hearts and Souls as I even at this moment of time with all the truly faithful and Obedient do to the Praise and glory of the most high God be it spoken Wherefore my Heart and Soul is broken and melted into true Tenderness before him which makes me to say again in answer to that weighty concern that seized upon my Spirit as I was waiting upon the Lord in my own dwelling House when such weakness of Body attended me that I was not able to go to a Meeting to write on this wise for the good of all I am thus concerned for in this my Epistle Oh the great Difference between a Convinced Estate and a Converted Estate between the Profession of the Truth and the Possession thereof and that chiefly because of the sweetness and comfort it affordeth unto the Souls of the Faithful So that I was truly willing in Obedience to the blessed requirings of the Lord my God on this wise to discharge my coscience and ease my Spirit in answer unto the movings and motion of his pure Holy Living Spirit that blessed be his Holy Name for evermore he hath made me with a large Remnant livingly sensible of desiring and heartily wishing that my endeavours hereby may be truly Effectual for the good of all that may be concerned in this my Testimony And now Friends unto you that are Parents and that have Children I have something to say both to you and your Children And in the first place the concern that is upon my mind and hath often and long remained Is to give you to understand a little of my own Experience and concern in Ordering and Framing up of my own Children that if happily it may tend to stir up those or such as may be short in their Duty towards their Children When it pleased the Lord to give me Children as Mercies from his hand amongst many more I have received from him as my Children grew up a concern many times very weighty the Lords knows seized upon my mind both upon my Bed and many other times what way I might betake my self to Train up my Children as did become the Truth and that might become a Blessing to them and a Comfort to us their Parents And accordingly I saw it my way as much as in me lay that as they grew up in years to mind and take diligent notice of their Natural Inclination or what it was they most naturally Inclined unto and when I saw any one of them to Incline to any thing in Word or Actions that under a serious Consideration was not like to prove if it was suffered to grow or increase either to be good for their Soul or Body for that which is not good for the Soul it cannot be good for the Body it greatly became my concern to restrain them from that when it was but little and small and when they were young so that it was both easie for me to do and them to get over And when I found any thing of stubb●rnness get up in them contrary to the Counsel and Advice I had given them I did not let foolish pity prevent due Admonition and Correction though I dearly and tenderly did and do love them all But some spoil their Children in letting them have their wills so much that they become disobedient ●nd rebellious and so give away their Power so much to the Will of the Child and lessen their Authority That as sometimes I have heard to the grief of my Soul Parents say to their Children Do such a thing they have replied I will not and whether ought the Child that doth not yet understand what 's good either for its Soul or Body to have its Will Or ought not the Parents rather to Constrain them to do what they know is good for them though they be stiff and stubborn That so what way or course in after-time their Children may take when they are from under their power the Parents may be clear of their Children in the day of their Account I say my great concern was many times how I might Train up my Children as did become the Truth chiefly in what might be good for their Souls relying upon Gods Providence for other things as he did see good And as they came up in their tender Years one after another in the Fear of God I laboured what in me lay not only by Advice and Counsel and timely Endeavours to restrain the wild and stubborn nature and keep them out of and from every thing that had an evil tendency in it but also what in me lay to beget Love in them to Truth and Friends and one to another And so as they grew up in years did encourage them to go to Meetings And I hope I may say without offence my Endeavours with the Blessing of God hath wrought a good Effect in my Children to this day I bless the Lord for it and I never durst put them forward to Play as some do and when they had a Capacity Educated them in reading the Holy Scriptures and Friends Books And always had and have a care to keep them out of the vain Fashions of the World neither could I ever suffer them to go to see or behold any Sport Game or Pastime or Play that tends to nothing but stirring up of the vain light mind and letting loose the wild Nature and corrupting of Youth And it was my great Care and concern to be a good Example before them and unto them according to the Counsel I had often given them And hence it is where this Care in Carriage and Behaviour in Parents before their Children is a wanting though such Parents may profess the Truth it tends to drive their Children farther from it and hardens their Hearts and so they grow wild and wanton proud and high minded and as they get up run to Sports and Plays and to Drinking and Tippling amongst the wild Rabble as I have seen to the grief of my Soul in Towns and other places and going to Cock fights and Bull-baitings and to stand amongst wild rude People spying a Fool and Mounte-bank acting Folly and Madness upon a Stage or Rope against which God's Anger at sometimes by eminent Judgements hath been manifested As for Example and Proof at a certain time when a Person had