Linguistic DNA - Concept Modelling Demonstrator

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	action_n	sin_n	thought_n	2,136	5	6.9222	4	false

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80798	Captivity improved to spiritual purposes. Or spiritual directions, given to prisoners of all sorts whether debtors or malefactors Principally designed for the use of those who are prisoners in those prisons which are under the jurisdiction of the city of London, as Newgate, Ludgate, the Counters, &c. Though also applyable to others under the like circumstances else where. To which are annexed directions to those who have their maintenance and education at the publick charge, as in Christ-Church hospital, or cure, as in St. Bartholomew's and St. Thomas's, or reducement to a more thrifty course of life, as in Bridewel, or have been happily restored to their former sense[ ] as in Bethleem, alias Bedlam.	Cressy, Edmund.	1675 (1675)	Wing C6889A; ESTC R230962	54,833	136

a brand in the hand some the lash and publick whippings but those are violations of the Eighth Commandment and both of them place men in the Number of those Thieves of whom St. Paul hath said expresly that they shall not enter into the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6. 10. He that shall kill a man in his heat and passion is counted here not guilty of Murder but Manflaughter but both these are violations of the sixth Commandment and both make us liable to the judgment to come Nay more that very passion which we make the alleviation of our crimes here is counted Murder in the the sight of God For so our Saviour expresly asserts Math. 5. 21. 22. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not kill and whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment and whosoever shall say unto his Brother Racha shall be in danger of the Councel but whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of Hell-fire Where we see different degrees of causeless anger have different degrees of punishment but all of them are violations of that Commandment Thou shalt do no murder and all punishable more or less in the judgment to come And as for those that are acquitted here let them examine whether they are clear before God and if of that crime whether of others as great perchance and as crying in the account of God And to them who escape with life and liberty as well as to others is appliable that of our Saviour unless ye repent ye shall all likewise perish My second exhortation to such is that for the time to come they would endeavour to live without offence in the sight of God and man New mercies require new acknowledgments and we have no way of shewing our gratitude to God but by doing things that are pleasing in his sight God hath granted them life let them improve it to his honour they have had the pardon of the King let them seek forgiveness of God also they have dishonoured themselves and their profession let them endeavour to adorn the Gospel for the time to come by a more spotless conversation Let them heartily repent of all their publick and private crimes against God and against men that when they come to dye they may be fitter to dye than they were when they were Tried for their Lives and for this among other things let them pray in this or such like address to God A PRAYER O LORD our God we acknowledge before thee our manifold transgressions the sins of our hearts the sins of our Lips the sins of our Lives our unclean thoughts our filthy discourses all our unrighteous actions we are here Prisoners in one place but very different is the Lot which thy Providence hath assigned to us such of us O Lord whose days thou hast measured out to the oppressour give us grace to repent of those sins which have caused this punishment and the less mercy we find with men the more let us find with God As many of us as have found thy mercy in our Lives and Liberties give us grace to be sensible of thy mercies and to live closer with our God who hath delivered our feet from falling and our soul from the snare and our life from the Grave Let the shame we endure make us truly sensible of those sins that have caused it and however we have had disgrace here let us not be confounded when we stand in judgment make us mindful of thy eternal judgment and prepare us for it that when we come to die we may be fitter to die and fitter to give an account to God Lead us O Lord by thy councel guide us by thy grace give repentance and pardon here and bring us to thy glory hereafter through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ In whose c. CHAP. IV. Considerations suited to the condition of Malefactors as are actually under the sentence of condemnation for death WHat hath been already written in this discourse is designed to prevent if possible mens wretched arrival at the height of wickedness and by such considerations as the nature of the subject would suggest to stop their carier in wickedness before they proceed from lesser crimes to those that are Capital But there always was and always will be a generation â—f men that are reprobates to every good work that have their consciences seared with a hot Iron that turn a deaf ear against all good Counsel and harden their hearts against all good advice and as for these seeing milder Methods will do no good upon them necessity enforces to practice those that are more severe God says nay which is more swears that he does not delight in the death of a sinner but that he should turn from his wicked way and live but yet it is consistent both with his Justice and mercy to make death the Portion of such as by their wickedness pursue it and to make Perdition the inheritance of those that by the obstinacy and perverseness of their way unavoidably run upon it And the same method is very consistent with the rules of Justice and mercy among men Nay very often it is that severity upon offenders is mercy to the innocent and compassion to the wicked is cruelty to the just for the slackening of Justice encreases the number of Malefactors and if severe laws were not made and executed against Malefactors honest men would not be safe but the Nation would be soon overrun with Robbers and Murderers and all sorts of evil doers for as Solomon observed long ago Because Sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore it is that the heart of the Sons of men is thoroughly set in them to do evil Eccl. 8. 11. Righteous therefore and just it is that the wages of sin should be death death eternal by the Law of God and death temporal by the Laws of God and man but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord But to what acts of Faith and repentance to direct the Malefactor that he may lay hold of that eternal life will require much Spiritual skill and prudence The Right Reverend Bishop Taylour and the Learned Doctor Hammond and some others have written diverse things very accurately towards the Lessening of that esteem which some men have of the efficacy of a death-bed repentance If I should here lay down their opinions in express terms as they have delivered them in all probability I should drive those whom I now write to into utter despair but if I should endeavour to assert and maintain the contrary those surriving Malefactors into whose hands this Book shall come would in all likelyhood make use of it as a further encouragement to delay their repentance to the hour of death Seeing therefore it is hard to Minister to the comfort of some without giving occasion to the Presumption of others I

towards the support of those that are in an afflicted condition For it is not afflict on that entitles to the particular Patronage of God but either the causes oâ— it when it is for righteousness sake or ouâ— Christian deportment under it but setting aside these two considerations a man is never a whit the more a Child of God for being chastised nor does any man entitle himself to those promises that are made to mourners by having drawn trouble upon himself by his own folly and extravagance or injustice or unrighteousness for there are afflictions that are not chastisements but judgments not the effects of God's fatherly correction but of his just indignation The Midianites were distressed yet not a jot the more to be accounted God's people for it Pharaoh severely scourged by God yet not the more a Saint upon that account Those Nations that oppressed Israel had their time of being led into Captivity as well as others and yet no Title to those promises made to Captives Good men ought to humble themselves under those Fatherly corrections which the Wisdom of God thinks fit to exercise them with But evil men should be awakened by those judgments which are sent to them for their obduracy in their sins and which fall upon them as the results of their sinful follies Secondly When the Prisoner has discerned his sins in their punishment in the next place â—â—t him endeavour to be troubled for them â—nd to repent of them and in his restraint mourn over the miscarriages of his Liberty and study to redress them Sadness and pensiveness of spirit is an usual attendant of this condition and happy is it when carnal grief is improved into spiritual sorrow for sin and transgression For Godly sorrow worketh repentance not to be repented of saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 7. 10. But the sorrow of the world worketh death For our grief for our losses may stir up the impatience of our spirit against God and the dispensations of his providence towards us The desperateness of our circumstances may lessen our hope and faith and dependance and Christian relyance upon him and the reflection upon the rigour and severity of our Prosecutors and Creditors may possibly Minister to the useless purposes of inward malice and secret revenge and all this is productive of sin and sin of guilt and guilt of death But when our sorrow is directed against our sin as the sourse of our trouble all this is prevented and that grief which in others is the cause of sin and death is by this means made the happy occasion of repentance and life For he that looks upon his riot as the original of his poverty and those troubles which ensue upon it will in likelyhood be for the time to come more in love with temperance He that accuses his sloth as the ground of his evils will at present commend in the secret approbation of his own conscience that diligence which God hath made both his interest and his duty and hereafter practice it when God by his enlargement shall give him the happy opportunity to do so And if the Prisoner discover that the Curse of God hath rotted his estate and blasted all his unjust designs denied him those riches which he sought as the reward of iniquity and given him that poverty for the punishment of his sin which he endeavoured to avoid by the pursuit of it he is in a fair way of returning to his duty and such a man in all probability will use his Liberty to better purposes when God in his good time shall restore him to it and commit himself and his Affairs to God in well doing following God and his Providence in the ways of justice and paths of righteousness casting all his care upon God who careth for him 1 Pet. 5. 7. I know and have often with sadness of spirit observed that quite contrary is the usual practice of Prisoners Their own folly hath perverted their way and they fret against God Their sloth and negligence their excess and riot have brought them to poverty and they repine at providence They have disappointed deceived and delayed the just expectations of their creditors and they accuse their rancour and severity their cruelty and unmercifulness and lay that blame upon them which they ought to take upon themselves These are the usual miscarriages of most Prisoners and in some others there are greater than these And that place which should be the School of repentance is made to them the Nursery of sin they knew what it was to want before they came thither and there they learn to cheat they lay under all the temptations to it before and there they learn all the Arts of it or perchance they came in Knaves and go out Theives Before they knew how to over-reach their Neighbours now learn how to Rob them be ore practiced all the unjust arts of the Shop now learn those of the Highway too were very bad men when they came to Prison and grow worse by their converse with men as bad or worse then themselves were unjust enough in their inclinations before and among men more skilful in the mysteries of iniquity than themselves learn all the art and cunning of it But several men have several inclinations and there are some that grow worser by their Imprisonments but in other instances of sin they have time enough and to spare lying upon their hands and they spend it in Diceing and Carding and all sorts of Gaming have sorrow and sadness lying upon their spirits and endeavour to drown it by Tippling and Carowsing Are of a malicious temper and shew it in fretting against their Creditors and praying for their ruine or perhaps not only of a malicious spirit but profane too and vent both the one and the other in vile Oaths and horrid urses and deep imprecations against their adversaries And those that they take to be the contrivers or promoters of their misery And thus affliction which well improved is the best spiritual Physick in the World proves often an occasion of the greatest sin but if we will not be wanting to our selves we may soon find that a Prison that deprives us of all other opportunities of thriving wants not its conveniences nay happy opportunities too For the exercise of repentance in the several parts of it and here as elsewhere may a man religiously and virtuously disposed practice those important duties of contrition for sin and confession of it and humiliation for it and reformation of life which if he cannot shew here constantly in some of those outward actions which are the demonstrations of it to men and for which he wants the opportunities in that narrow Scene of action yet he may always practise it in the inward acts of it such as Faith and Patience dependance upon God and resignation to his will in the sincere purposes and resolutions of outward which before God the searcher of hearts are always accepted and in

order to this their reclaim they would take occasion from that degree of Punishment which at present they endure to reflect seriously upon those several evils and inconveniencies which by the just Judgment of God attend upon sin even in this life And for this meditation they may find abundance of matter supplyed by observing the circumstances of their present condition They are in restraint and other men enjoy their liberty and so might they have done too if they had used their liberty more soberly they are exposed to scorn and contempt disgrace and obloquy while other men live in Credit and repute among their neighbours and thus they might have lived too if they had sought the praise of God and man by a Faithful continuance in well doing They are employed at hard drudgery and severe Labour under their fierce and Aegyptian Task-masters while others follow their callings with mirth and cheerfulness maintain their Families by a prudent and moderate industry take paines in an honest way but are forced to take no more then the conveniency of their concerns engages them to and what is the condition of other men might have been theirs if they had so pleased themselves but because they refused an honest labour they are brought now to this forced and constrained drudgery Surely no way is so foolish as the path of iniquity and no Fool so unwise as the sinner is He loses his ends by those very methods whereby he pursues them and runs upon mischief by those very ways by which he seeks to avoid it the pride of his heart made him ungovernable and in Bridewel he finds a severe check for his pride He hated labour and there he finds a drudgery more toilsome than any of those labours that industrious men are usually engaged in he was of a gadding and a vagrant humour but there he hath a close restraint he loved sloth and pleasure but there he wants both and instead of them meets with the Lash and the working-house to correct the riot and laziness of his former conversation It is possible that sinners when they are under the smart may murmur at God and his providence towards them in all this but if they will but seriously consider the tendency of things they will have reason to acknowledge that what they call severity is the greatest mercy imaginable for it is much for our interest that sin should be made uneasie to us that the Paths of it should be hedged with Thorns and that sinners should meet with rubbs and blocks in their way for fear the pleasure of sin should prove a bate to them to tempt them to swallow the hook more glibly and the more uninterruptedly to pursue those ways the end of which will be destruction and perdition at that dreadful day of judgment when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels In flaming Fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2 Thes 1. 9. And this brings me to another direction suitable to the condition of those that are concerned in the Meditations of this Chapter and that is Thirdly When these offenders have in their most retired thoughts considered the several inconveniencies which attend sin and sinners in this life it would be a very useful instance of spiritual wisdom in them to carry their thoughts further to those punishments which are due to it in the world to come Suitable in this case is the counsel of our Saviour to the impotent man whom he found and healed at the Pool of Bethesdah sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee S. John 5. 14. For although heavy are those afflictions which they are under already more heavy are those which they may still expect unless the grace of God and a timely repentance prevent both in this world and in the next grievous it is for men to consider that they are slighted by their friends that their kindred and acquaintance forsake them that they are accounted and that justly the fiâ—th and off-scouring of the world but more grievous is it for them to think that they are rejected of God accounted by him as reprobate Silver Vessels in which there is no pleasure Vessels of dishonour here hereafter likely to be Vessels of wrath and indignation Now at present accursed children without Christ aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel strangers from the Covenants of promise Without hope without God in the world hereafter like to be of the number of those Goats which shall be cast to Christs left hand those tares whose end shall be to be burned those unprofitable Servants whose lot it shall be to be cast into utter darkness and whose dreadful sentence that shall be which our Saviour mentions St. Mat. 25. 41. Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devils and his Angels Shame is burdensome to an ingenious spirit and God hath planted a keen and quick sense of it in our natures for this very purpose that it may be a check to sin and a present punishment to those that do things deserving shame and however mildly men or women may be used when they come to Bridewel yet a punishment it is barely to be sent thither in that it brings a blot to their Name and a stain to their reputation and will be a note of infamy upon them even after they are delivered from that place Now if shame be grievous as indeed it is there is another shame and a more lasting one attends the wicked after they are delivered from this For as the righteous shall go into everlasting glory so also the wicked shall go into a place of shame and everlasting contempt Dan. 12. 2. Here only our grosser actions and such are scandalous are exposed there our very secret thoughts Here the greater miscarriages of our lives there the naughtiness of our hearts Here men only and usually but few are spectators of our infamy and disgrace but there we shall be made in a worse sense then that in which the Apostle spoke it Aspectacle to the world and to Angels and men Even God himself the God of mercy and all consolations shall laugh then at their destructions The Good Angels who rejoyce in Heaven at the Conversion of one sinner that repenteth shall shout at the ruine of those transgressours against their own souls and the Devils who were their tempters to sin here shall be their tormentours for it there and all mankind shall behold their shame and none shall endeavour to cover it none shall pity it But if the sense of shame be but a weak argument to those that have cast off all shame let them consider that that is a place of pain too If fire be tormenting there they shall converse with everlasting burnings if the gnawing of a Viper in

sedateness of their Spirits and in the peace of their consciences and in their mastery over those inordinacies of Soul which often transport men into phrensy Love nothing passionately but God and those Divine beauties though they may transport will never distract the Soul Submit to the disâ—â—â—sâ—tions of God concerning you and think that condition best which his providence hath allotted you and you need never fear that discontent will crack your brain Keep a conscience clear in all things for nothing is so distracting as guilt nothing more sedate then uprightness and integrity In Religion study not the things that are mysterious but the things that are necessary Deep enquiries have often distracted the acutest brains but plain truths never discomposed the most illiterate understanding Believe the Trinity to be a mystery incomprehensible and let it continue so Acknowledge the decrees of God to be unsearchable and pry not into them too curiously Resign your self to the guidance of the Spirit and be content to be ignorant of the manner of its operations and if this you do you will be as wise as God requires you should be more Religious then some men that count themselves more wise then you and more composed in your Spirit then those that distract themselves with mysterious enquiries And this is my second direction to this sort of People to avoid violent passions and nice speculations Thirdly My third direction shall be that when men have recovered the use of their reason they would employ the exercise of it about the best things the service of God the good of mankind and the discreet guidance of their own lives and conversations And surely God in his providence will preserve that reason sound and entire that is employed to so Divine purposes In these generous employments there are many things ennobling to our reason nothing disturbing or distracting To serve God and submit our will to his to hope in his goodness and depend upon his mercy are things easie to be understood and require not an acute brain to perform them But the disputes about God and Religion lead men into endless mazes and Meanders To do as we would be done by requires no great skill and cunning but the methods of Craft and deceit may soon puzzle the shrewdest understanding for the paths of righteousness are plain and easie but the contrivances of the wicked are many of them very distracting And then for those duties which concern the Regulation of our affections there are none of them have any tendency in them to disturb our Spirits but all proper to compose them Anger and impatience enrage the heart but meekness will compose and settle it Thirst of revenge boyls up the blood to unnatural heats but Christian forgiveness makes us at peace within our selves and with others Anxious care and desponding thoughts are very often productive of Phrensy but nothing so proper to quiet and allay all the fluctuations of our minds as Faith and Hope and those other graces that are nearly allied to these If God of his mercy restore our reason in gratitude we are bound to employ it in his service and this is also the best course to preserve the soundness and integrity of it for God will bless that reason that is employed in the exercises of Religion and the duties of Religion naturally tend to the improving and preserving of it The last duty that I shall recommend to them is to pity them that are in the like condition to that wherein they heretofore were to aid them at present with the assistance of their prayers and hereafter their Hospital with the bounty of their purse if God shall enable them to do so To do good and to communicate forget not saith the Apostle for with such sacrifices God is well pleased but our charity is most suitable when it is extended to those who are under those miseries which heretofore were ours Israel must not grieve the stranger because they were strangers in Egypt The believing Hebrews to whom the Apostle writes must remember those that are in bonds as being bound with them and them that suffer adversity as being themselves also in the body And those that have wanted their senses should remember those that want them still remember them always in their prayers and when they shall be able in the largeness of their bounty too I add not further to this Chapter but only the usual conclusion of the rest a Prayer A PRAYER O LORD we desire to return unto thee all possible praise and thanks for all thy mercies bestowed upon us more particularly for that great mercy of restoring us to our former senses We beseech thee teach us to employ our reason in the service of God and the duties of religion to work out our salvation with fear and trembling and to study the things of our peace Subdue in us all disturbing passions and inordinate affections which are contrary to our peace and contrary to thy Gospel Root out of our souls sensual love and restless ambition and all pride and haughtiness of spirit and teach us to regulate our desires according to the rules of reason and religion Preserve our reason which thou hast restored and restore it to those that want it pity their dark and disconsolate condition allay their fears answer their doubts and subdue their distempers and speak peace and health to them and make us truly thankful to God who hath made it to be better with us than it is with them And as thou hast relieved our bodily distempers so heal all our spiritual diseases Make us every day more and more to be religious towards our God just and charitable towards our Neighbours and sober and temperate in our chast and Christian usage of our own bodies Fill us with the fruits of the spirit goodness and meekness and faith and hope and patience and long-suffering and all other Graces here and the fulness of thy glory hereafter through Jesus Christ our Lord. In whose name c. The Close HItherto from the beginning to the ending of this Treatise I have walked in a path untroden by others before me But all along have sincerely aimed at the spiritual good of those that have come under the directions of my Pen. It is very meet that in this as in all other actions the main end that I propound to my self should be the hohour of God and the good of Souls but râ—â—â—er that I have also designed to testifie my duty and respects to the Court of Aldermen whose Stipendiary I am and to the Worshipful Governours of the several places mentioned in this discourse and if they will permit these books to be distributed among the people under their charge I shall pray for a blessing from God upon what I have writ and theâ— shall read and direct them to pray for their Governours and Patrons and Benefactours in the short form following A PRAYER O LORD the giver of every good and perfect gift we return unto thee the tribute of praise and thanksgiving for all the priviledges and advantages reached out to us by the hands of our Patrons and Benefactours We beseech thee give us Grace to walk worthy of all these thy mercies and their favours and restore unto them into their bosomes a hundered fold for all their Christian charity and bounty Granting them in this life all the blessings of thy Grace and favour and in the world to come life and immortality through Jesus Christ our Lord who hath taught us to pray saying Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy name thy Kingdom come thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily Bread and forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that Trespass against us and lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from evil For thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen THE CONTENTS Of the several Chapters of this Treatise Chap. 1. Directions suitable to those who are Prisoners for Debt which may be applyable to the condition of such as are Prisoners in Ludgate the Fleet or either of the Counters or Newgate as it is the County Prison for Debt Pag. 1. Ch. 2. Instructions for such Malefactors as have committed such crimes the punishment whereof is some publick shame or corporal infliction or any other punishment below that of death Applyable in great measure to the condition of those that are in Bridewel p. 28. Ch. 3. Directions for those that are Tried and Cast for their Lives but have them spared by the mercy of the King or the Bench. p. 45. Ch. 4. Considerations suited to the condition of such Malefactors as are actually under the sentence of condemnation for death p. 60. Ch. 5. Instructions suited to the condition of those who have their Education in the Hospital of Christ-Church p. 77. Ch. 6. Instructions proper for such for whose care Provision is made in the Hospital of S. Bartholomew near Smithfield and S. Thomas the Apostle in Southwark p. 94. Ch. 7. Instructions for those that have been restored to their senses in the Hospital of Bethleem p. 110. FINIS The Reader is desired before he proceed to peruse this Book to mend with his Pen these following mistakes which are not wholly chargeable upon the Printer but in part upon the Copy which was in some places interlined and in others not very fairly writ mispointings and smaller Errata's I have not here noted but such as pervert the sense of which the first is the Grossest and in that as well as the rest the Reader hath the very Pages and Lines noted Pag. 2. l. 9. for Creditors read Chapmen p. 4. l. 26. for we r. be p. 8. l. 27. for Learning r. hearing p. 15. l. 25. after world insert then p. 29. l. last for side r. size p. 31. l. 28. for Heb. 3. 1. r. Heb. 3. 13. p. 37. l. 16. for Devils r. Devil p. 39. l. 9. after are blot out with l. 26. for reach r. reak p. 41. l. 3. after themselves blot out they are p. 49. l. 16. after these blot out as p. 55. l. 19. for Counts r. Courts p. 80. l. 2. for reports r. reporters p. 93. l. 20. blot out in and insert old p. 95. l. 16. for Authority both by r. both by the Authority

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