Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	life_n	name_n	write_v	18,504	5	6.4426	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30676	The husbandmans companion containing one hundred occasional meditations reflections and ejaculations : especially suited to men of that employment : directing them how they may be heavenly-minded while about their ordinary calling / by Edward Bury.	Bury, Edward, 1616-1700.	1677 (1677)	Wing B6207; ESTC R23865	229,720	483

thou provided another habitation against this shall be disolved and moulder into dust when this earthly tabernacle shall be dissolved hast thou a building not made with hands but eternal in the heavens hast thou acted thy part well upon the stage of the world that thou maist go off with applause ●f not … s better thou hadst not been born for if death meet thee unprepared as thy body moulders into dust so must thou down to everlasting darkness there to suffer eternally the demerit of thy sin Oh my God! take me not away before I be fit to be lodged in thy bosome kill me not before my sin be killed if any thing that is necessary be wanting Lord give it in and let me not be deceived in so great a thing as the salvation of my soul Let my sins die and let my soul live Let me see the funeral of my vices before others see the funeral of my body Vpon a Tuft of green Grass 3. Med. WAlking into the Garden as at other times to take the ayr I fastened my eyes upon a green tuft of grass that grew besides me the sight of it brought to my remembrance what I had often heard and read viz. that the damned in hell should suffer exquisite torments such as the tongue of men or angels are not able to express and that for as many millions of years as there are grass-piles upon the earth sands on the sea shoar stars in heaven and motes in the Sun and yet after all this long tract of time their torments shall be no nearer to an end nor they to a delivery then they were the first day they were cast in This made me a little to consider the number of piles that was in this little tuft and when I found it too hard for me to number them I considered what was this tuft to one pasture or that to one Parish or that to one County or that to one Kingdome or that to the whole world this made me to cry out Oh Eternity Eternity who can conceive of thee who can fathom thee Oh the horrible nature of sin that provokes a mercifull God to lay such heavy strokes upon his poor creatures Oh the love and pains of our dear Redeemer what did he suffer to quench those flames and discharge those debts for his people in suffering what was due for their sins and oh the madness of men and my own folly that knowing there is such a remediless gulf before us run on so madly towards it and that for momentary pleasures deceitfull riches worthless honour or filthy sin do venture the soul upon the pikes of danger Oh the misery of poor unregenerate wretches what will you do in the latter end who amongst us shall dwell with devouring fire who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burning Esay 33.14 Tophet is prepared of old even for the King it is prepared the pile thereof is fire and much wood and the breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone doth kindle it Esaiah 30.33 Were a man compelled to lie upon a feather bed but one year without turning or stirring though other comforts were afforded how painful how tedious would that year seem but what is this one year to eternity or what is a featherbed to scalding lead and burning brimstone or what is that to hell torments Oh Satan how dost thou deceive us Oh world how dost thou insnare us Oh sin how dost thou bewitch us Oh heart how dost thou betray us to this deadly danger Oh earth how dost thou betray thy fastest friends and payest them off with pains for pleasure and buyest their souls for a thing of naught Oh Satan who would be thy servant if this be thy wages and yet how many fish come to thy net and how prosperous hast thou been when thou hast baited thy hooks with the world Oh my soul is Eternity such a fathomless gulf without bank or bottom how stands the case with thee art thou for everlasting joy or endless torment what interest hast thou in the one or what hopes to avoid the other what hast thou that a hypocrite cannot have or what dost thou that he cannot do God surely expects great difference in the work when there is so much in the reward give thy eyes no sleep nor thy eye-lids no slumber till thou hast some comfortable assurance of the love of God in the pardon of thy sins and the salvation of thy soul make peace with thy Creditour before thou art cast into prison otherwise there must thou remain till thou hast paid the utmost farthing If death surprize thee before thou art ready hell will be thy lodging get oyl trim up thy lamp get on thy wedding-garment that thou be not shut out into utter darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth Oh my God! make me such as thy own soul delights in give me in the qualifications thou hast made necessary to Salvation thou knowest my wants Lord supply them my debts oh forgive them my corruptions Lord subdue them and binde up my soul in the bundle of life write my name in thy book and at last lay me up amongst thy Jewels Vpon a barren plat of ground 4. Med. WHen I perceived one plot in my garden fruitful and another barren and observed the difference between the one and the other how lovely how amiable how pleasant the fruitful plat seemed to me how fresh and fragrant how green and ardent it was how it was diapred with various coloured flowers beautiful and lovely and how lothsome unseemly and unhandsome the other lookt where nothing appeared but briars and thorns weeds and thistles with stones and rubbish which was a fit receptacle for toads and serpents and other venemous vermine I began to consider it was yet possible to reduce this plot into a better form and turn it to a better use And hereupon I caused the rubbish to be stockt up the weeds to be pluckt up and the stones pickt out and after I digged and manured it and had an effect answerable to my expectation for when it was sown with better seed it brought forth better fruit The unlovelinesse of this plot when overgrown with weeds and rubbish produced this following Meditation I thought it lively represented a heart barren of grace and goodnesse but fruitfull of briars and thorns sin and wickednesse which is more odious to God then this plot was to me and yet how lovely a fruit bearing Christian is in his eye the one is like a loathsome muck-heap which stinks the other like a watered garden that yields a sweet favour like a garden of spices Cant. 4.14 the one brings forth fruit for Gods basket the other fewell for the devils fire all the seed sown upon it is lost and choakt with briars and thorns and all the rain that falls upon it doth but make the weeds more rank and flourishing their grape is the grape of Sodom and of the fields of

think upon their accompts these are some but not all the drones we have amongst us oh my soul is idleness so detestable a vice take heed of it employ every talent God hath lent thee to thy Masters glory lest thou meet with the doom of the unprofitable servant spend all the time allowed thee in the world either in thy general or particular calling and spend time on nothing thou wilt be unwilling to hear of another day let not Christ when he calls for thee nor the devil when he tempts thee finde thee idle lest thou be not ready to open to the one or resist the other lest Christ reject thee and the devil vanquish thee and death usher thee into outer darkness oh my God I have much work to do and but a little time to do it in and it is work of great concernment and much time already hath been wasted by me Lord incline my heart to diligence and convince me of the necessity of working while it is called to day because the night comes that no man can work Upon the gaudy Wasp 56. Med. OBserving the wasp in her gaudy dress what an enemy she was to the pain●ul and laborious Bee and was not content her self to be idle but robs also the Bees that do labour and feeds upon that which this painful and industrious creature hath laid up against winter and so oft-times exposes them to want and penury yea to death it self and if the poor bees make resistance kills them and spoils their habitation I observed also that this pernitious insect more hurtful then the drones before-mentioned making no provision for winter before it comes puts her head into a hole and dies the consideration of this occasioned this following Meditation I thought there were many such wasps amongst us that is such as have the nature and disposition of wasps that are hurtful to many helpful to none that live an idle life and live upon others labours and not their own and making no provision for death or eternity are then utterly destitute of what is necessary here with the rich man Luk. 16.19 c. they are cloathed in purple and fine linnen and fare deliciously every day and at last would beg a drop of water to cool their tongues but cannot obtain it but shall have punishment without pitty misery without mercy sorrow without succour crying without compassion mischief without measure torment without end and past imagination Among the rest of these gaudy wasps we may rank many griping Land-lords some Land-lords are of a better complexion but they are too few but too many are guilty of grinding the faces of the poor and the spoil of the poor is in their houses Esay 3.14 15. they make their tenants serve in the very fire and weary themselves for very vanity Hab. 2.13 and are like unto the Egyptian task-masters force the tale of their bricks and not allow them straw they pluck not only the meat from their mouths and the cloaths from their backs but the very flesh from their bones they drink not only their tears but their very sweat and bloud and all too little to satisfy their greedy humours they squeese so many tears from them in their life time that they have none left to shed for them at their death they by racking their rents and their cruel extortion draws many tears from their eyes and sobs from their hearts but God will put those tears into his bottle and those sobs into his book and will vindicate their wrongs how oft may we see greedy Land-lords force their tenants to feed their dogs with what should feed their own children a barbarous custome which will rise up in judgment against them another day They deal with their tenants as they do with their horses when they have tired them or rid them out of breath they call for a fresh one and shew not so much mercy on them as on their dogs whom they cherish if weak or weary but when the poor tenant with all his pains and diligence can no longer satisfy their greedy humours they turn them out of doors seize upon their estates perhaps cast them into prison till they have paid the utmost farthing to the ruinating of their families and exposing them to beggery and all this is to maintain their pride and luxury these men act as if they were the sole proprietors and must never give an accompt to any other Master but let such remember the parable of the man that owed ten thousand talents and would not forgive his brother a hundred pence but cast him into prison Mat. 18.23 he himself was cast in till he had paid the utmost farthing those shall have judgment without mercy that have shewed no mercy Jam. 2.13 those that will not forgive others shall not be forgiven themselves let such remember the rich man Luk. 16.19 who 't is conceived refusing to give a bit of bread to Lazarus was himself denied a drop of water by Abraham But these are not all the gaudy wasps that trouble the laborious bees there are many rich men that undo their poor neighbours with unjust and vexatious Law-suits that oppress them with wrongs injuries and unjust vexations and make bold thus to do because they are too great for them to grapple with these great flies break through the net there being also too many of these wasps in places of Judicatory civil and Ecclesiastical I accuse not all and I think no wise man will justify all many Lawyers to maintain their state and garb knowingly undo their clients some by taking bribes to prevent justice some by unnecessary delays some for favour and friendship they either break the neck of a good cause or suck the clients dry before they tell them their cause is bad Ecclesiastical Courts are not much better some think far worse many officers there do as greedily prey upon the poor as ever a hungry fly did upon a galled horse back and many times make sores where they finde none and the greatest offences are not always punished with the hardest stroaks but preaching and praying is esteemed worse then swearing and cursing and that reformation of sin is not intended though pretended is apparent when poor adulterers are let alone who are not able to pay the fees of the Court when the richer are made offenders for a word Isa 29.21 let not any that are not guilty apply this to themselves but there are also too many in the Ministry that may reade their character Esay 56.10 c. but the time is coming these causes will be called over again and then it will evidently appear who are the troublers of Israel oh my soul is there such oppression such injustice in the world take heed of having a heart or hand in any such matter come not into their secrets and unto their assembly the time is coming that those that have been fed with sin will vomit up what they so greedily swallowed and those