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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
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
A78903	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. 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, B.D. and pastor of the church at Aldermanbury.	Calamy, Edmund, 1600-1666.; Moore, Elizabeth, d. 1656?	1657 (1657)	Wing C247; Thomason E1616_1; ESTC R209627	96,958	299

for the comforts of the Scriptures in his heart There are eight things may be said amongst many other in commendation of the Word of God 1 It is the Magazin and storehouse of all comfort and consolation There is no condition but one that a man can bee in but hee may finde soul supporting comfort for it our of the Word Indeed if thou resolvest to go on in sin the Word cannot comfort thee it threatneth hell and damnation to all such If the God of Heaven can make such miserable they shall bee miserable But excepting this one there is no condition so miserable but a man may fetch a cordial out of the Word to support him under it Art thou as empty of riches and as full of diseases as Job under the Old Testament and Lazarus under the New Testament are the sins with which thou art willing to part many and great Is thy conscience exceedingly wounded and disquieted doth the Devil roar upon thee with hideous temptations let thy condition bee never so sad the Word of God is able to afford thee comfort under it For it is the Word of that God who is the God of all consolation There is no kinde of true comfort but here it is to bee had here are cordials of all sorts Comforts under bodily troubles 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 Magazin of all true comfort but the Fountain from whence it is derived All the comfort that you receive by reading of good books is fetcht 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 cryed out saying Help my Lord O King If the 2 King 6. 26 27. 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 only a Magazin and a Fountain of comfort but also a touch-stone by which wee must trie all our comforts whether they bee true and real or no. All joyes hopes and assurances must be tried 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 Cor. 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 hee subdued the Devil Matth. 4. 4. 7 10. 8 It is the Sun of the Christian world As the Sun is the light of the natural world and without it the world is but a Chaos and a dungeon full of darkness So is the Word of God the light of the spiritual world without which a Christian is under an eternal night Therefore David saith Thy Word 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 withal 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. Use 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 Use 1 It was a great honour and priviledge to the Jews 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 discovery of the mysteries of salvation unto us If God bee to bee praised for every crumme of bread wee 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 blesse God not only for revealing his will in his word 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 2 Pet. 1. 19. surer to us than a voice from Heaven For the Devil saith the Apostle transforms himself into an Angel of light Hee hath his apparitions 2 Cor. 11. 14. and revelations hee is Gods ape and in imitation of God hee appears to his

together in 1 Cor. 1. 10 the same minde and in the same Judgement 19 Study often and often the quatuor novissima The four last things Death Judgement Hell and Heaven The meditation of Death will prepare you for Death The meditation of Heaven will make you heavenly-minded The meditation of Hell will keep you from Hell Therefore Bernard Descendamus viventes ut non descendamus morientes perswades us to go often down to Hell by meditation while wee live and wee shall not go down to it when wee dye The meditation of the day of Judgement will bee both fraenum calcar a bridle to curb you from sin and a spurre to incite you to all godliness that so you may give up your account with joy at that terrible day 20 Study the exceeding great and precious promises of the Gospel make a Catalogue of them meditate on them and labour to apply them to your own souls for your everlasting comfort And for this 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 behalf 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 useful and successful that hee would guide mee that I may guide you that hee would not only make but keep mee faithful in these backsliding 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 E. C. The Reader is intreated to correct these following Errata's or else hee will scarce understand some passages in the Book PAge 12 for 2. r. 20. pig 25. dele 1. pag. 29. for chasteneth r. chastenest pag. 32. for buld r. build p. 48 for imittantur r. immittantur p. 65 for policarp r. Politian p. 73 for Cranmor r. Cranmer p. 79 dele 1. p. 85 for John r. Jehu p. 150 for those r. these p. 161 for third Sermon r. fourth Sermon p. 167 for tells r. tell p. 167. for contest r. fear p. 199 for appliable r. applicable p. 222 for sixt r. fift Here followeth the Sermon preached at the Funeral of Mris. Elizabeth Moore the 27th of February last at Aldermanbury 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 onely 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 Sixtus Senensis calls it An Alphabetical Poem The Jews 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 Ames Couper 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 James 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 John 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 Hic 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 amonst the wicked Philistins c. for hee would have been allured to have communicated with them in their impieties had hee 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