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	world_n	write_v	4,962	5	5.8081	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A11116	A most excellent treatise containing the way to seek heavens glory, to flie earths vanity, to feare hells horror with Godly prayers and the bell-mans summons.	Rowlands, Samuel, 1570?-1630?	1639 (1639)	STC 21384; ESTC S502	58,638	288

torments of hell Assuredly it goes beyond the compasse of all common sence and conceit of humane reason to consider That there should be such negligent wilfull grosse and carelesse blindnesse able to enter and take such deepe rooting in the soule of man The Conclusion of all the Premises IF now all this be so I beseech thee even for the bitter passion of our sweet ●viour Jesus Christ to remember thy selfe and consider that thou art a Christian ●●d that thou beleevest assu●dly for a most undoubted ●●th whatsoever the true faith ●●sructeth thee This faith telleth thee that thou hast a judge above that seeth all the steps and motions of thy life and that certainely there shall a day come when he will require an account of thee even for every idle word This faith teacheth thee That a man is no● altogether at an end when he dieth but that after this temporall life there remaineth another everlasting life and tha● the soules die not with th● bodies but that whiles th● body remaineth in the grave untill the generall day of judgement the soule shall enter into another new country and into a new world where it shall have such habitation and company as the faith and workes we which it had in this life This faith telleth thee also that both the reward of vertue and the punishment of vice is athing so wonderfull that although the whole world were full of bookes and all creatures were writers yet should they all be wearied and the world come to an end before they should end their description and make a perfect declaration what is comprehended in each one of these points This faith informeth thee also that the debts and duties which we owe to Almighty God are so great that albeit a man had so many lives ●s there be sands in the Sea yet would they not suffice if they were al employed in his service And this faith likewise telleth thee that vertue is such an excellent treasure that all the treasures of the world and all that mans heart can desire are in no sort comparable unto it Wherefore if there be so many and so great respects that doe invite us unto vertue how commeth it to passe that there be so few lovers and followers of the same If men be moved with gaine commodity what greater commodity can there be than to attaine life everlasting I they be moved with feare of punishment what greater punishment can be found than the mo●● horrible everlasting dreadful torments in the lake of fire and brimstone to continue eve● world without end If that bonds of debts and benefits what debts are greater than ●hese which we owe unto almighty God as well for that he ●s what he is as also for that which we have received of him ●f the feare of perils doe moove ●s what greater perill can there be than death the houre thereof being so uncertaine and the ●ccount so strait If thou be moved with peace liberty quitnesse of minde and with a ●leasant life which are things ●hat all the world desires it is ●ertaine that all these are found ●uch better in the life that is ●overned by vertue and reason ●han in that life which is ruled ●y the affections and passions of the minde for so much as ma● is a reasonable creature and n● beast Howbeit in case tho● account all this as not sufficient to move thee thereunto yet l●● it suffice thee to consider further that even almighty God ● abased himselfe for thy sak● that he descended from heave unto the earth and became man and whereas hee create the whole world in sixe daye hee bestowed three and thi● yeares about thy redemption yea and was also contented ●● the same to loose his life Almighty God dyed that sin● should dye and yet for all th● doe we endeavour that sin● might live in our hearts n●● withstanding that our Lo●● purposed to take away the life of sinne with his owne death If this matter were to be discussed with reason surely this already spoken might suffice to prevaile with any reasonable creature for not onely in beholding almighty God upon the crosse but whethersoever wee doe turne our eyes wee shall finde that every thing crieth out to us and calleth upon us to receive this so excellent a benefit for there is not a thing created in the world if wee duely consider it but doth invite us to the love and service of our Saviour Jesus Christ insomuch that looke how many creatures there be in the world so many preachers there are so many bookes so many voices and so many reasons which do all call us unto almighty God And how is it possible then that so many callings as these are so many promises so many threatnings and so many provocations should not suffice to bring us unto him What might almighty God have done more than he hath done or promised more greater blessings than hee hath promised or threatned more grievous and horrible torments than he hath threatned to draw us unto him and to plucke us away from sinne And yet all this notwithstanding how commeth it to passe that there is so great I will not say arrogancy but bewitching of men that doe beleeve these things to be certainly true and yet be not afraid to continue all the daies of their life in the committing of deadly sinnes Yea to goe to bed in deadly sinne and to rise up againe in deadly sinne and to embrue themselves in every kinde of loathsome detestable and odious sinne even as though all their whole endeavours intended by the practise of sinne to resist all grace and favour in the sight of God And this is done in such sort so without feare so without scruple of minde so without breaking of one houres sleepe and without the refraining of any one delicate morsell of meate for the same as if all that they beleeved were dreames and old wives tales and as if all that the holy Evangelists have written were meere fiction and fables But tell me thou that art such a desperate willfull rebell against thy Creator and Redeemer which by thy detestable life dissolute conversation doest evidence thy selfe to bee a firebrand prepared to burne in those everlasting and revenging horrible fires of hell What wouldest thou have done more than thou hast done in case thou haddest beene perswaded that all were meere lyes which thou hast beleeved For although that for feare of incurring the danger of the princes lawes and the execution of their force upon thee thou hast somewhat brideled thine appetites yet doth it not appeare that for any feare of Almighty God thou hast refrained thy will in any one thing neither from carnall pleasures not from backebiting and slandering thy neighbours nor yet from fulfilling thine inordinate lusts and desires in case thine ability served thee thereunto Oh what doth the worme of thy conscience say unto thee whiles thou art in such a fond securitie and confidence

mispent their time in vanity Oh that now I might die the death of the righteous Oh that I might not die at all Oh that I might feele in my conscience the least hope of pardon which is as unpossible as to un●ade all the water in the vast Ocean with aspoone Oh that God would give mee the least dram of grace which is as impossible as for the least graine of Mustardseed to fill the whole earth prevent this betimes which thou maist doe by abandoning the vanity of the world and so live that wheresoever or howsoever thou dyest whether abroad or at home by day or by night sleeping or waking whether a sodaine death or a deliberate death thou maist willingly commend thy spirit unto the hands of God as unto the hands of a faithfull Creator and maist say with the Bride Come Lord Iesu even so come Lord Iesu come quickly my heart is prepared to enter into thy rest receive me into the armes of thy mercy entertaine mee into thy owne kingdome that leaving the vanity of this world I may with thy glorified Angels and blessed Saints enjoy that everlasting felicity of a better world which never shall have an end Adew therfore vaine world with all worldly delights whatsoever and now solitary soule begin to take thy solace in better things And to prove the world vaine and consequently thy selfe vaine behold these shapes read these Verses and in order open the leaves that are folded up Herein as in a mirrour behold thy owne estate reade and consider what thou readest that thou maist know and see thy owne vanity Here thou shalt see what thou wert what thou art and what thou shalt be Dust thou wert dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt returne dust in thy creation dust in thy constitution dust in thy dissolution Hels Torments I. THough long it were since Adam was Yet seemes he here to be A blessed creature once he was Now naked as you see Whose wife was cause of all my care To say I may be bold Turne back the leaves and then you may My picture there behold II. To thinke upon the workes of God All worldly men may wonder But thinking on thy sinnes O man Thy heart may burst asunder The sinner sits and sweetly sings And so his heart beguiles Till I come with my bitter stings And turne to griefe his smiles III. Muse not to gaze upon my shape Whose nakednesse you see By flattering and deceitfull words The Divell deceived me Let me example be to all That once from God doe range Turne backe the leaves and then behold Another sight as strange IV. Had Adam and Eve never beene As there you saw their shape I never had deceived them Nor they ere made debate But turne behold where both doe stand And lay the fault on me Turne backe the upper and nether crests There each of them you see I. III. Here we doe standin perfect state All formed as we were But what the Serpent did by hate Shall sodainely appeare Then here behold how both doe stand And where the fault did lye Th' almighty power did so command That once we all must dye II. IV. See what comes of wicked deed As all men well doe know And for the same God hath decreed That we should live in woe The dust it was my daily food Vnto it we must turne And darknesse is my chiefe abode In sorrow so we mourne Of the punishments which the Lord threatneth unto such as live a sinfull life ONe of the principall meanes that our Lord hath used oftentimes to bridle the hearts of men and to draw them unto the obedience of his commandements hath beene to set before their eyes the horrible plagues and punishments that are prepared for such persons as bee rebels and transgressours of his Law For although the hope of the rewards that are promised unto the good in the life to come may move us very much hereunto yet are wee commonly more moved with things that be irkesome unto us than with such as be pleasant even as we see by daily experience that we are vexed more with an injury done unto us than delighted with any honour and we are more troubled with sicknesse than comforted with health and so by the discommodity of sicknes we come to understand the commodity of health as by a thing so much the better perceived by how much more it is sensibly felt Now for this cause did our Lord in times past use this meane more than any other as it appeareth most clearely by the writings of the Prophets which are every where full of dreadfull sayings and threatnings wherewith our Lord pretendeth to put a terrour into the hearts of men and so to bridle and subdue them under the obedience of his Law And for this end he commanded the Prophet Ieremie That hee should take a white booke and write in the same all the threatnings and calamities which hee had revealed unto him even from the first day he began to mlke with him untill that present houre and that he should read the same in the presence of all the people to see if peradventure they would bee moved therewith unto repentance and to change their former life to the end that hee might also change the determination of his wrath which he had purposed to execute upon them And the holy Scripture saith That when the Prophet had done according as hee was commanded by almighty God and had read all those threatnings in the presence of the people and of the Rulers there arose such a feare and terrour amongst them that they were all astonished and as it were bestraughted of their wits looking one in anothers face for the exceeding great fear which they had conceived of those words This was one of the principall means which Almighty God used with men in the time of the written Law and so he did also in the time of the Law of graces in vvhich the holy Apostle saith That as there is revealed a justice vvhereby God maketh men just so is there also revealed an indignation and vvrath vvhereby he punisheth the unjust for vvhich cause S. Iohn Baptist the glorious forerunner of our Saviour Christ was sent vvith this commission and embassage to preach unto the world That the axe was now put to the rooot of the tree and that every tree that brought not forth good fruit should bee cut downe and cast into the fire Hee said moreover That there was another come into the world more mighty than hee that carried in his hand a fanne to winnow and cleanse therewith his floore and that he would put up the corne into his garner but the chaffe hee will burne in a fire that should never bee quenched This was the preaching and embassage which ●he holy fore-runner of our Saviour Jesus Christ brought ●nto the world And so great was the thunder of these words ●nd the terrour which entered ●nto mens hearts so dreadfull that