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book_n	prophecy_n	word_n	write_v	3,353	5	6.1475	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31997	The Godly mans ark, or, City of refuge, in the day of his distresse discovered in divers sermons, the first of which was preached at the funerall of Mistresse Elizabeth Moore : the other four were afterwards preached, and are all of them now made publick, for the supportation and consolation of the saints of God in the hour of tribulation : hereunto are annexed Mris. [sic] Moores evidences for heaven, composed and collected by her in the time of her health, for her comfort in the time of sickness / by Ed. Calamy ...	Calamy, Edmund, 1600-1666.	1658 (1658)	Wing C248; ESTC R22111	99,589	306

and comforts under soul-troubles There is no Monarch can furnish his table with such variety of delicates as God hath furnished his Word with variety of comforts 2 The Word of God is not only the Magazine of all true comfort but the Fountain from whence it is derived All the comfort that you receive by reading of good books is fetched out of this Book All the refreshings that the Ambassadors of Christ administer to you are borrowed from this Fountain As the King of Israel answered the woman that cried out saying Help my Lord O King If the Lord do not help thee whence shall I help thee So will all the true Ministers of Christ say to any distressed soul that cries out for comfort How can wee comfort you if the Word of God doth not comfort you All our comforts must bee fetcht from thence 3 It will comfort us at such a time when no outward thing can comfort us And that is when wee are under soul-agonies and when our soul sits upon our lips ready to depart when wee are sailing into the Ocean of Eternity then even then the promises of the Word will comfort us When gold and silver Father and Mother Friends and Physitians are miserable comforters then will one promise out of the Word fill us full of joy unspeakable and glorious 4 The Comforts of the Word exceed all other Comforts for they are pure and purifying sure and satisfying they are soul-supporting soul-comforting and soul-ravishing they are durable and everlasting The comforts of the world are not worthy to bee named that day in which wee speak of the comforts of the Word They are not consolationes but consolatiunculae At best they are but bodily unsatisfying and transitory Many times they are sinful and soul-damning 5 The Word of God is not onely a Magazine and a Fountain of comfort but also a touchstone by which wee must try all our comforts whether they bee true and real or no. All joyes hopes and assurances must bee tryed by the Word and if not rightly grounded thereupon are false and soul-delusions 6 It is as an Apothecaries shop or a Physitians dispensatory out of which wee may fetch all manner of Medicines to cure all the diseases of our souls Art thou spiritually lame blinde or dumb c. The Word will open blinde eyes make the dumb to speak and the lame to walk If dead in sins and trespasses the Word when it is the sword of the Spirit will quicken thee It is as a corrasive to eat sin out of thy heart therefore David saith I have hid thy Word in mine heart that I might not sin against thee 7 It is a spiritual Armory out of which wee may fetch all manner of Weapons to conquer the Devil and his temptations 2 Corint 10. 4. It is that little Brook out of which every David may fetch five smooth stones to destroy the Devil These five smooth stones are five texts of Scripture three of these Christ took out of the brook of the Word by which he subdued the Devil Mat. 4. 4. 7 10. 8 It is the Sun of the Christian VVorld As the Sun is the light of the Natural VVorld and without it the World is but a Chaos and a Dungeon full of darkness So is the VVord of God the light of the spiritual world without which a Christian is under an eternal night Therefore David saith Thy VVord is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path Psal. 119. 105. What would all the World avail if no Sun to illighten it and what comfort would all the wealth of it afford us if no word to instruct and counsel us For this is the Christians compass to sail to Heaven by his staffe to walk withall to Heaven his spiritual bladders to keep his soul from drowning The Cork to keep up the net of his soul from sinking Afflictions are like the lead of the Net which weigheth it down but the Word is as the Cork which keeps it up that it sinks not So saith David in the Text Unless thy Law had been my delights c. Vse If the Word of God bee of such invaluable excellency absolute necessity and of such admirable use 1 Let us bless God exceedingly for revealing his will unto us in the Word It was a great honour and priviledge to the Iews that to them were committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3. 2. And it is our great happiness that wee have not only the same Oracles of God which they have but an addition of the New Testament for the clearer discoverie of the mysteries of salvation unto us If God be to bee praised for every crum of bread we eat much more for giving us his VVord which is the bread of life and the only food of our souls Blessed bee God who hath not only given us the book of the Creatures and the book of Nature to know himself and his will by but also and especially the Book of the Scriptures whereby wee come to know those things of God and of Christ which neither the Book of Nature nor of the creatures can reveal unto us Let us bless God not only for revealing his will in his VVord but for revealing it by writing Before the time of Moses God discovered his Will by immediate revelations from Heaven But wee have a surer word of Prophecy a Pet. 1. 19. surer to us than a voyce from Heaven For the Devil saith the Apostle transforms himself into an Angel of light Hee hath his apparitions and revelations hee is Gods ape and in imitation of God he appears to his Disciples and makes them beleeve it is God that appears and not the Devil Thus hee appeared to Saul in the likenesse of Samuel And if God should now at this day discover his way of worship and his Divine Will by Revelations how easily would men bee deceived and mistake Diabolical delusions for Divine Revelations and therefore let us blesse God for the written word which is surer and safer as to us than an immediate Revelation There are some that are apt to think that if an Angel should come from Heaven and reveal Gods Will to them it would work more upon them than the written word but I would have these men study the conference between Abraham and Dives Luke 16. 27 28 29 30 31. Habent Mosen Prophetas c. They have Moses and the Prophets if they will not profit by them neither would they profit by any that should come out of Hell or down from Heaven to them For it is the same God that speaks by his written Word and by a voyce from Heaven The difference is only in the outward cloathing and therefore if Gods speaking by writing will not amend us No more will Gods speaking by a voyce O bless God exceedingly for the written Word Let us cleave close to it and not expect any Revelations from Heaven of new truths but say with the Apostle

purpose read over these Sermons and study them in time of health that you may injoy the benefit of them in the time of sickness Lastly Let mee intreat you to praise God in my behalfe that hee hath been pleased out of his free love to uphold mee amongst you in my Ministerial imployment for these Eighteen years And to continue your earnest prayers unto him that hee would make my labours more usefull and successful that hee would guide mee that I may guide you that hee would not onely make but keep mee faithful in these back sliding times and teach mee so to preach and so to live that I may save my self and those that hear mee Your Servant in the Work of the Ministry Ed. Calamy Books lately printed for Thomas Parkhurst at the sign of the three Crowns ●ver against the great Conduit at the lower end of Cheapside Four profitable Treatises very useful for Christian practice viz. The Killing Power of the Law The Spiritual Watch. The New Birth Of the Sabbath By the Reverend William Fenner late Minister of Rochford in Essex The Journal or Diary of a thankful Christian wherein is contained Directions for the right method of keeping and using according to the Rules of Practise A Day-book of National and publick personal and private passages of Gods Providence to help Christians to thankfulness and experience By Iohn Bendle Minister of the Gospel at Barstone in Essex large Octavo Here followeth the Sermon preached at the Funeral of Mris. Elizabeth Moore the 27th of February last at Aldermaenbury The Godly mans Ark OR City of Refuge in the day of his Distresses SERMON I. PSAL. 119. 92. Unless thy Law had been my delights I should then have perished in mine Affliction THis Psalm out of which my Text is taken exceeds all the other Psalms not only in length but in excellency so far in the judgement of Ambrose as the light of the Sun excels the light of the Moon As the Book of Psalms is stiled by Luther An Epitome of the Bible or a little Bible So may this Psalm fitly bee called An Epitome of the Book of Psalms It was written as is thought by David in the dayes of his banishment under Saul but so penned that the words thereof suit the condition of all Saints It is penu doctrinae publicum unicuique apta convenientia distribuens A publick store-house of heavenly doctrines distributing fit and convenient instructions to all the people of God and therefore should bee in no less account with those who are spiritually alive than is the use of the Sun Air and Fire with those who are naturally alive It is divided into two and twenty Sections according to the Hebrew Alphabet and therefore fitly called A holy Alphabet for Sions Schollars The A B C of godliness Sixt●● Senensis calls it An Alphabetical Poem The Iews are said to teach it their little children the first thing they learn and therein they take a very right course both in regard of the heavenly matter and plain stile fitted for all capacities The chief scope of it is to set out the glorious excellencies and perfections of the Law of God There is not a verse except one onely say some Learned men in Print but are therein deceived but I may truly say Except the 122. and the 90. verses in this long Psalm wherein there is not mention made of the Law of God under the name of Law or Statutes or Precepts or Testimonies or Commandements or Ordinances or Word or Promises or Wayes or Judgements or Name or Righteousness or Truth c. This Text that I have chosen sets out the great benefit and comfort which David found in the Law of God in the time of his affliction It kept him from perishing Had not thy Law been my delights I had perished in my affliction The word Law is taken diversly in Scripture sometimes for the Moral Law Jam. 2. 10. Sometimes for the whole Oeconomy Polity and Regiment of Moses for the whole Mosaical dispensation by Laws partly Moral partly Judicial partly Ceremonial Gal. 3. 23. Sometimes for the five Books of Moses Luke 24. 44. Sometimes for the whole Doctrine of God contained in the Scriptures of the Old Testament Joh. 7. 49. By Law in this place is meant all those Books of the Scripture which were written when this Psalm was penned But I shall handle it in a larger sense as it comprehends all the Books both of the Old and New Testament For the word Law is sometimes also taken for the Gospel as it is Micah 4. 2. Isa. 2. 3. The meaning then is Unless thy Law that is Thy Word had been my delights I should have perished in mine Affliction David speaks this saith Musculus of the distressed condition hee was in when persecuted by Saul forced to flye to the Philistins and sometimes to hide himself in the rocks and caves of the earth Hi● vero simile est fuisse illi ad manum codicem divinae legis c. It is very likely saith hee that hee had the Book of Gods Law with him by the reading of which hee mitigated and allayed his sorrows and kept himself pure from communicating with the Heathen in their superstitions The Greek Scholiasts say That David uttered these words A Saule pulsus apud Philistaeos impios homines agere coactus when driven from Saul and compelled to live amongst the wicked Philistins c. for he would have been allured to have communicated with them in their impieties had he not carried about him the meditation of the word of God Unless thy Law had been my delights c. In the words themselves wee have two Truths supposed and one Truth clearly proposed 1 Two Truths supposed 1 That the dearest of Gods Saints are subject to many great and tedious Afflictions 2 That the word of God is the Saints darling and delights One Truth clearly proposed That the Law of God delighted in is the afflicted Saints Antidote against ruine and destruction 1 Two Truths supposed The first is this Doct. 1. That the best of Gods Saints are in this life subject to many great and tedious Afflictions David was a man after Gods own heart and yet hee was a man made up of troubles of all sorts and sizes insomuch as hee professeth of himself Psal. 69. 1 2 3. Save mee O God for the waters are come in unto my soul I sink in deep mire where there is no standing I am come into deep waters where the flouds over-flow mee I am weary of my crying my throat is dryed mine eyes fail while I wait for my God And in this Text he professeth that his afflictions were so great that he must necessarily have perished under them had hee not been sustained by the powerfull comforts he fetched out of the word There is an emphasis in the word Then I should then have perished that is long before this time then when I was afflicted then I

though there are starrs of divers magnitudes differing from one another in glory yet every star hath its beauty and benefit So though some Promises are more glorious than others like the Sun in comparison of the Moon yet every promise hath its beauty and lustre and as star-light in a dark night is very comfortable so in the dark night of affliction every little promise will afford unspeakable comfort to a troubled soul. To help you in making this Catalogue give mee leave to suggest three things 1 Bee sure to make it in time of health Woe bee to those that have their promises to gather when they should make use of them You that sleight the promises in prosperity shall receive no comfort from them in adversity 2 Forget not to treasure up all those promises which God hath made to his children in the day of their adversity As for example God hath promised in all our afflictions to bee with us Isa. 43. 2. When thou passest through the waters I will bee with thee and through the Rivers they shall not overflow thee c. hee will bee with you to protect and direct you to support and comfort you If three Saints bee put into the fiery Furnace the Son of God will make the fourth Dan. 3. 25. 2 God will be afflicted in all our afflictions Isa. 63. 9. he suffers in all our sufferings Act. 9. 4. 3 Hee will make our beds in our sicknesses Psal. 41. 3. hee will condescend to the lowest office for our ease and refreshment 4 Hee will know our souls in adversity Psal. 31. 7. hee will know us to pitty us and to succour and to help us 5 Hee will keep us from the evill of all afflictions Job 5. 19. God hath not promised to keep his people from afflictions but to keep them from the hurt of them Though they are not good in themselves yet hee will turne them to our good Heb. 12. 10. 1 Cor. 11. 32. Ier. 24. 5. The good Figs were carried into Captivity for their good God hath promised that all things shall worke together for our good Rom. 8. 28. not only all Ordinances c. but all Afflictions c. 6 God hath promised to lay no more upon us than wee are able to bear but either to give us less pain or greater patience 1 Cor. 10. 13. And though in a little wrath hee hide his face from us for a moment yet with everlasting kindness will he have mercy on us c. Isa. 54. 7 8. These and many such like Promises will bee as so many spiritual Cordials to revive our fainting spirits and as so many Pillars to uphold us under the greatest Affliction 3 For the compleating of this Catalogue you may make use of many excellent Books written for this purpose wherein you shall have Promises of all kindes both spiritual and temporal gathered together Yet let mee advise you not to rest satisfied with the Collections of others but when you read the Bible and meet with a suitable promise with which God is pleased to affect your hearts take the pains to write it down and one such promise of your own writing will work more powerfully upon your souls than many others of anothers gathering So much for the first viz. Make a Catalogue of the Promises The End of the third Sermon AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER Reader THis and the following Sermon contains a large Discourse about the Promises which because it may bee thought by some to bee impertinent to the Text and rather a Digression from it than an explication of it I crave leave to informe thee of two things 1 That the Promises are the Principal grounds of Comfort to a Childe of God in the day of his Adversity They are his chiefe City of Refuge when all Creature-comforts faile when hee suffers Ship-wrack of all humane props these are his Planks upon which hee swims safe to the shoar of Heaven All Comfort that is not founded upon a Promise is Delusion not true Consolation And therefore a Discourse about them cannot rationally bee interpreted Eccentrical to the Text. 2 That there are diverse particulars added to these Sermons concerning the Nature Necessity Excellency and Vsefulness of the Promises which were not mentioned in the preaching of them And if any of them shall appeare to bee Heterogenial to the Text yet if they prove serviceable to heighten thy esteeme of the Promises and to quicken thee to a more serious and frequent Meditation on them and Application of them I hope thou art not at all injured And I may justly desire that thou wouldest not bee offended It is reported of Saint Austin in his life written by Possidius that by a digression in one of his Sermons from his Text hee converted an Hereticke from his erroneous Opinions If any passage in these two Sermons prove usefull to turne thee from thy sinfull Negligence and to awaken thee to a more diligent study of the precious Promises I shall account it a happy and blessed Digression For herein especially consisteth the difference betweene a Religious Christian and a Moral Man A Mor●l Man will abstaine from the outward acts of sinne But hee knowes not what it is to live upon Promises Hee never tasted any sweetnesse in a Promise Hee lives upon Creatures not upon Promises and therefore when Creatures faile his heart sinkes like a stone and hee is at his Wits end and Faiths end But a Religious Christian lives upon Promises and not upon Creatures and therefore when Creatures faile hee hath the Promises to live on Hee labours to taste the sweetnesse that is in them Hee lives upon Promises when Providence seemes to run crosse to Promises They are his fiery Chariot to carry him up to Heaven If then these ensuing Sermons inflame thy affections with a greater love to the Promises and a greater care to meditate on them and to get an interest in them thou hast cause to bless God and to pray for Thy unworthy Servant in Christ ED. CALAMY MEDITATE ON THE Promises SERMON IV. PSAL. 119. 92. Unless thy Law had been my Delights I should then have perished in mine Afflictions HEE that would improve the Promises so as to make them Spiritual Bladders to keep him from being drowned in the deep waters of Affliction must not only make a Catalogue of the Promises but hee must also 2 Fixedly and seriously meditate on them first hee must treasure up these Iewels in his heart and then unlock them by meditation first hee must make his Nose-gay and then smell of it The Word of God as I have said is as a Garden full of excellent Promises as so many choice flowers And it is our duty to walk often in this Garden to gather up all the flowers that lye scattered in it into several Nose-gayes to binde them together if I may so speake with the threed of Faith and then every day to smell of them The Promises are the Saints

even as hee is pure 1 John 3. 3. And I trust that I am kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1. 5. I know whom I have beleeved and I am perswaded that hee is able and willing to keep that which I have committed unto him which is my immortal soul. Thus I have according to the Apostles exhortation endeavoured to give a reason of the hope that is in mee What have I but what I have received The desire of my soul is that God may have all the glory And if I bee deceived the Lord for Christs sake undeceive mee and grant that if I have not true grace I may not think I have and so bee in a Fools Paradise And the Lord that is my heart-maker bee my heart-searcher and my heart-discoverer and my heart-reformer Amen FINIS Books Printed and are to bee sold by Iohn Hancock at the first shop in Popes-head Alley next to Cornhill A Book of Short-writing the most easy exact lineal and speedy method fitted to the meanest capacity composed by Mr. Theophilus Metcalf professor of the said Art Also a School-master explaining the Rules of the said Book Another Book of new Short-hand by Thomas Crosse. A coppy-Coppy-book of the newest and most useful hands with Rules whereby those that can read may quickly learn to write To which is added Brief Directions for true Spelling and Cyphering c. Four Books lately published by Mr. Thomas Brooks Preacher of the Gospel at Margarets New Fish-street 1 Precious Remedies against Satans Devices OR Salve for Beleevers and Unbeleevers Sores being a companion for those that are in Christ or out of Christ that sleight or neglect Ordinances under a pretence of living above them that are growing in spirituals or decaying that are tempted or deserted afflicted or opposed that have assurance or want it on the 2 of the Corinthians the 2. and the 11. 2 Heaven on Earth OR A serious Discourse touching a well-grounded Assurance of mens eeverlasting happiness and blessedness discovering the nature of Assurance the possibility of attaining it the Causes Springs and Degrees of it with the Resolution of several weighty Questions on the eighth of the Romans 32 33 34. verses 3 The Vnsearchable Riches of Christ OR Meat for strong Men and Milk for Babes held forth in two and twenty Sermons from Ephesians 3. 8. preached on his Lecture nights at Fishstreet-hill 4 His Apples of Gold for young Men and Women AND A Crown of Glory for old Men and Women Or the happiness of being good betimes and the Honour of being an old Disciple clearly and fully discovered and closely and faithfully applied 5 His String of Pearles OR THE Best things reserved till last Preached at the Funeral of Mrs. Blake late wife of Mr. Nicholas Blake Merchant The Covenant of Gods Free Grace unfolded and comfortably applyed to a disquieted or dejected soul on the 2 of Samuel 23. 5. By that late Reverend Divine Mr. Iohn Cotton of New-England Darkness discovered or the Devils Secret Stratagems laid open shewing the way to end controversies in Religion written by Iacobus Acconcius and translated into English A brief Description of the Presbyterian Government approved by divers godly Divines and humbly presented to the consideration of the Assembly A Treatise of Civil Government by Robert Spey A Glass for the Times briefly confuting divers errors in Religion The Ruine of the Authors and Fomenters of Civil War as it was dilivered in a Sermon before the Parliament at their monthly Fast by Mr. Samuel Gibson sometime Minister at Margarets Westminster and one of the Assembly of Divines The New Creature with a Description of the several marks and characters thereof by Richard Bartlet A Learned Speech by Sir Francis Bacon in Parliament quinto Iacobi concerning the Scottish Nation A Mirrour for Christian States or a Table of politick Vertues considerable amongst Christians by E. Moliner Doctor of Divinity A Treatise of the external works of God 1 In General on Psal. 135. 6. 2 In Particular on Gen. 1. 2. 3. Of Gods actual Providence By George Walker B. D. late Pastor of St. Iohn Evangelist Church The Expert Physitian Learnedly treating of all Agues and Feavers essential whether simple or compound confused Erratick and Malignant shewing their different Nature Cause Signe and Cure written originally by that famous Doctor in Physick Bricius Bauderon and translated into English by Doctor Wells Licentiate in Physick by the University of Oxford To bee sold by by Iohn Hancok at the first shop in Popes-head Alley next to Cornhill 1658. Books lately Printed for Thomas Parkhurst at the Sign of the three Crowns over against the great Conduit at the lower end of Cheapside A Learned Commentary or Exposition upon the first Chapter of the second Epistle to the Corinthians by Dr. Richard Sibbs published for publick good by Thomas Manton Folio There is newly come forth Mr. William Fenner his Continuation of Christs Alarm to drowsie Saints with a Treatise of Effectual Calling The Killing Power of the Law The Spiritual Watch New Birth A Christians ingrafting into Christ A Treatise on the Sabbath which were never before printed bound in one Volume Fol and may bee had alone of them that have his other Works as well as bound with all his former Works which are now newly printed in the same Volume Truth brought to light and discovered by time or an Historical Narration of the first fourteen years of King Iames in 4 ● Mr. Robinsons Christians Armor in large 8 ● Book of Emblems with Latine and English verses made upon Lights by Robert Farlie small 8 ● Grace to the Humble as preparation to the Sacrament in five Sermons by Dr. Iohn Preston Picturae L●●ventes or Pictures drawn forth into Characters 12 ● A most Excellent Treatise containing the way to seek Heavens Glory to flye Earths Vanity to fear Hells Horror with godly Prayers and the Bell-mans Summons 12 ● Iohnsons Essaies expressed in sundry Exquisite Fancies The one thing necessary By Mr. Thomas Watson Minister of Stephens Walbrook 8 ● Sion in the House of Mourning because of Sin and Suffering being an Exposition on the fifth Chapter of the Lamentations by D. S. Pastor of Upingham in the County of Rutland Groans of the Spirit or the Trial of the Truth of Prayer A Handkercher for Parents Wet-eyes upon the death of their children or friends The Dead Saint speaking to Saints and Sinners living in several Treatises viz. On 2 Sam. 24. 10. on Cant. 4. 9. on Iohn 3. 15. on Iohn 1. 50. on Isa. 58. 2. on Exod. 15. 11. Never Published before By Samuel Bolton D. D. late Mr. of Christs Colledge in Cambridge Peoples Need of a Living Pastor at the Funeral of Mr. Iohn Frost M. A. 〈◊〉 M● Zach. Crofton A Treatise against the Toleration of all Religions By Mr. Tho. Edwards Chatechizing Gods Ordinance in sundry Sermons by Mr. Zachary Crofton Minister of Buttolphs Aldgate London the Second Edition