Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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B03557
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The sacred diary: Or, select meditations for every part of the day, and the employments thereof: With directions to persons of all ranks, for the holy spending every ordinary day of the Week. Propounded as means to facilitate a pious life, and for the spiritual improvement of every Christian.
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Gearing, William.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing G438; ESTC R177551
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109,549
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305
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asleep to keep his Sheep from the Wolf God is the Keeper of his Flock he is always vigilant to defend them Behold He that is the Keeper of Israel shall never slumber nor sleep the Lord is thy Keeper Psal 121.4 5. St. Peter feared not to sleep in Prison Acts 12.6 Mr. Rogers our Proto-Martyr in Queen Maries dayes could scarce be waked when the Keeper came to warn him to prepare for the Fire having been condemned to be Burnt alive When the Lord undertakes our Protection we may sleep as our Saviour did in the midst of a Storm and Tempest As a good Nights rest is the Gift of God so it deserves daily acknowledgments by us SECT XLI When you compose your selves to Sleep HAving Prayed immediately before you go to Rest offer your Rest it self to God in this or the like manner My God! I desire as often as I shall draw breath this Night so often all my Respirations may praise thee Drexel de rect intent lib. 2. Drexelius adviseth a Christian to suppose that he heareth Christ speaking to him in these words When any one will repose himself to Sleep let him meditate somewhat of Me or confer with Me For so although he sleep in Body yet he shall watch in Mind unto Me Yea let every one which is ready to close his Eyes desire that I would receive every breath which he shall fetch that Night as it were to my exceeding Praise and I who cannot be wanting to the holy Wishes of a pious and loving Soul will fulfil his desires in Truth It is of great advantage to a Christian to reduce all things in this manner to the Honour of God and there is no moment of time but we might be on the getting hand It is good to empty your selves before you sleep of all that troubles you It was Pythagoras his rule to his Scholar Non te prius somno tradideris quam diurna opera ter mente revolveris Betake not thy self to sleep till thou hast in thy Mind gone thrice over the works of the Day The sleep of a Godly Man is sweet but the sleep of many wicked Men is very troublesome Richard the Third King of England after the murder of his two Nephews had fearful Dreams and would leap off of his Bed and take his Sword in his hand as if he had been seeking an Enemy And Charles IX King of France after the French Massacre was laid to sleep every Night and wakened by Musicians But good Men sometimes through Grief and Pain may find little ease or refreshing from their Beds Thus Job amplifies his Sorrows instancing in those ordinary Ways which give sick and distempered Bodies some abatement or intermission of their Pain lying down upon their Bed or Couch When I say my Bed shall comfort me Job 7.13 14. my Couch shall ease my complaint then thou scarest me with Dreams and terrifiest me with Visions As if he had said Whilst I was all Day conflicting with my Sorrows I yet had some hope to find comfort at Night that I should find rest on my Bed Or whilst in the Day my Spirit is overwhelmed within me I think sometimes to deceive my Pains a little by taking a Nap on my Couch Consider here That the most probable and proper Means are unable of themselves to minister any Ease or Comfort to us A Man may go to his Bed and lie down upon his Couch in vain unless God command a Bed to comfort us it shall yield us no Comfort and unless he say to a Couch Ease such a Man's Complaint it shall not do it But if God will say to an hard Stone give such a Man rest he shall rest and sleep sweetly upon it as Jacob did when he journeyed from Beer-sheba towards Haran making Stones his Pillows in the place where he lay down to sleep Gen. 28.11 12 13 14. there dreaming of a Ladder set upon the Earth the top whereof reached to Heaven and the Angels of God ascending and descending on it and the Lord standing above it promising to give the Land whereon he lay to him and his Seed and to multiply his Seed exceedingly and that in his Seed all the Families of the Earth should be blessed How often doth God scare some Men with Dreams and terrifie them with Visions as Job speaks concerning himself Sometimes Satan causeth sinful and filthy Dreams August Confess lib. 10. cap. 30. as St. Augustine bewails in the tenth Book of his Confessions Sometimes treacherous and deluding Dreams Some conceive that the Dream of Pilat's Wife Mat. 27.19 was from the Devil because Satan would thereby have hindred the work of Man's Redemption She comes to Pilat and desires him to have nothing to do with that Just Man For saith she I have suffered many things this Night in a Dream because of him As our waking times are in God's Hand so our sleeping times Sometimes God makes sleep an Affliction to us Job's Dreams were Terrifying and Scaring to him Some Dreams are for Warning and Admonition The Lord warned Joseph in a Dream the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a Dream whilst he thought on those things and gave him Counsel what to do Mat. 1.20 Holy Meditations even upon our Beds do many times meet with the Lord's Messages The Angels are at God's Service to assist his Saints as here of Joseph he helps him out of his perplexed Thoughts He was contriving how to please God in that Business of so great Importance and God sends an Angel to assist him No time is unseasonable for God to help his Children No time but he watcheth over them When they are sleeping when they think neither harm nor good then doth the Lord watch over them for good God can give us better direction sleeping than we can find out waking Many a one hath tasted more of Heaven in a Night-dream than in many Days attendance on holy Ordinances Yet this is no Pillow for Laziness If we do our best while we are waking God will relieve us sleeping Let us go to God and not distract our selves nor be careless Joseph thought what to do yet his thoughts were not so distracting as to break his sleep God helps him sleeping God will have us be doing and yet it may be he will do his own Work without us Let every Christian labour to be well employed in the Day-time for as Aristotle speaks it is possible that our Fancy in the Night may hold some conformity with the Days employment Fâ—â— Four Mind in the Day-time be intent upon good Employment and well fixed thereon our sleep may relish of the same Employment also and our Fancy may make return of something whereof we so fastened on in the Day as well as it will do in other Vanities The Wise Man saith In the multitude of Dreams and many Words there are also divers Vanities but fear thou God Eccles 5.7 If thou fearest God thou needest not fear thy Fancy nor thy Dreams I shall Conclude with the Advice of Chrysostom Chryfost in Gen. Serm. 6. Close thine Eyes with the thoughts of God and his Goodness and thou shalt have sweet Dreams thy Fancy shall not be troubled FINIS Some Books lately Printed for and Sold by Jonathan Robinson at the Golden Lion in St. Paul's Church-Yard FOLIO JOsephus's History of the Jews with Cuts Bishop Vsher's Body of Divinity with his Life and an Alphabetical Table the seventh Edirion Parthanissa a Romance In QUARTO Dr. Dillingham's Sermon at the Lady Alstons Funeral Dr. Bate's Harmony of the Divine Attributes Dr. Jacomb on the 8th of the Romans Dr. Tuckney 40 Sermons on several Occasions His Praelectiones Determinationes Lat. now in the Press Mr. Haworth's several Pieces against the Quakers In OCTAVO Mr. Tho. Gale his Philosophy Anatomy of Infidelity Mr. Baxter more Proofs for Infant-Baptism His Treatise of Justification Mr. Whiston his 4 Books in Defence of Infant-Baptism Mr. Wills his 3 Books in Defence of Infant-Baptism against Mr. Danvers A Contest for Christianity or A Account of two great Disputes between the Anabaptists and the Quakers Mr. Barret The Christian Temper or A Discourse on the Nature and Properties of the Graees of Sanctification Mr. Shelton's Discourse of Superstition with respect to the present Times A Catechism according to the Doctrine of the Church of England with Scripture Proofs at large together with Directions for plain Christians to pray on most occasions and to receive the Lord's Supper by the use and knowledg of the said Catechism A Catechism or the Church-Catechism inlarged and the Doctrine proved by Scripture for the use of such as were not Baptized in their Infancy or had no God-Fathers and God-Mothers Mr. Ranew on Divine Meditation In TWELVES Mr. Pearse's Great Concern or Directions for a timely preparation for Death recommended as proper to be given at Funerals The best Match or the Souls espousal to Christ Mr. Case his Treatise of Afflictions useful for these Times Mr. Hook's Doubting Christian drawn to Christ The Barren Fig-Tree or the Fruitless Professors Doom By John Bunyon The Epitome of the Bible briefly explaining the Contents of the Old and New Testament penned in Metre for better remembrance useful for Children