Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	remember_v	youth_n	youthful_a	77	3	11.5274	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02180	A most sweete and assured comfort for all those that are afflicted in consciscience [sic], or troubled in minde. Written by that godly & zealous preacher, M. Richard Greenham. With two comfortable letters to his especiall friends that way greeued.	Greenham, Richard.	1595 (1595)	STC 12321; ESTC S117895	37,612	192

diseases of the soule no man abateth his sleepe no man abridgeth his diet no man prepareth Phisicke for it no man knoweth when to be ful and when to be emptie how to want and how to abound Others carried away with the loue of riches and verie nigh to fall into pouertie will not sticke to rise early to take sleep lately to fare hardly to teare taw their flesh in labour by lande and by water in faire soule weather by rockes and by sands from far from nere and yet to fall into spirituall decaies to auoyd the pouertie of conscience no man taketh such paines as though saluation and peace of mind were not a thing worthy the labouring for Some ambitiously hunting after honor not easilye digesting reproaches behaue themselues neither sluggishly nor sleepely but are actiue in euerie attempt by loue and by counsell by prudence and prowesse by wit and by practise by labour and learning by cunning and diligence to become famous and to shun a ciuill reproach yet to bee glorious in the sight of God and his Angells to fall before the heauens and in the presence of the Almightie to bee couered with shame and confusion of conscience we make none accompt as they who neyther vse anye meanes to obteyne the one nor auoyde those Occasions which maye bring the other Others verie vnwilling to come within the reache and daunger of the Lawe that they may by reading get experience howe to escape imprisonment of bodye or confiscation of goods wyll be painfull in penall statutes skilful in euery branch of the ciuill law and especially will labour to keepe themselues from treasons murthers fellonies and such like offences of life and death yet where the Lord God threateneth the seazure both of soule bodie the attaching of our soules the confiscating of our consciences the banishing of vs from heauen the hanging of vs in hell the suspending of our saluation the adiudging of vs to condemnation for the breache of his Commaundements few men sercheth his eternall Lawe few men careth for the Gospell neither the sentence of euerlasting diuorsement from the Lord neither the couenant of reconciliation is esteemed of vs. And to reache our Complaint one Degree farther The more we seek outward pleasures to auoyde the inward trouble of minde the more we hast and runne into it and wee speedely plunge our selues in a wounded spirite or wee be a ware Who posteth more to becom rich than the merchant man who hopeth lesse to become pore than hee that aduentureth great treasures who hazardeth his goods who putteth in ieoperdie of his life and yet suddenly he either rusheth vpon the rocke of hardnesse of heart or else is swallowed vp of the gulphe of a despairing mind from which happely he cannot be deliuered with a ship full of golde Woful proofe hath confirmed how some men whollie set on plesures such as could not away to be sad and hedged vp alwaies of godly sorrowe haue had their tables made snares and euen theyr excesse of pleasures hath brought excesse of sorrowes and whilest they laboured to put the euill daye farre from them they haue vsed follyes that haue beene the most bitter and speedie hang-men of their fearfull trembling consciences There be some of another sort who neuer dreaming of a troubled minde haue had their harts set on nothing but howe they might get some great fame and renowme therfore haue slipt into such vaineglorious attempts and foule flatteries as they haue not onely lost the peace of their Consciences but also fallen most deeply into reprochfull shame which they sought to shun Now therefore as the peace of conscience and ioy of minde is such a treasure as the eye hath not seene the eare hath not heard nor the tung expressed but passeth al vnderstanding as they only knowe what the peace of minde meaneth that feele it so they alone can in trueth speake of a troubled minde that haue tasted of it by experience But let vs shew what way is to be vsed to keepe vs from this wound of the spirit It is the vse of Phisicke as to cure vs of diseases when wee are faln into them so to preserue vs from sicknes before it hath takē hold of vs it is the power of the Word as to asswage the trouble of Conscience when it doth once presse vs so to preuent it before it hath ouertaken vs. It is a chiefe point of worldly wisedome not to tarie for the vse of phisicke vntil we be deadly sick but to bee acquainted wyth Gods mercifull preseruation to defend vs from it likewise it is a chiefe pollicie of a godly Christian not only to seek comfort when the agonie is vpon him but also to vse all good helpes to meet with it before it comes And if we condemn them of folly who will not as well labor to keep themselues out of debt as to pay the debt when they owe it so it is a madnes not to bee circumspect to auoyd all occasions which maye bring trouble of mind vpon them as wee would bee prouident to enter euerie good waye which maye drawe vs out of this trouble when wee haue once entred into it These remedies preseruatiue are first the searching of our sinnes the examining of our faith The examining of our sins is either the due acknowledging of our sinnes or the true sense and feeling of our sinnes The acknowledging of our sinnes is eyther of those that bee past whether wee haue vnfeinedlye repented vs of them or of those which bee present whether wee be truely greued for them Thirdly of those secret corruptions which in the course of our life are likely to come whether wee are reuerently afraide of them and resolue to suppresse them with all our indeuour Concerning sinnes past we must call to minde the sinnes done of old in our youth in our middle age in our olde age iudging our selues we maye not bee iudged of the Lorde that accusing of our selues sathā haue no occasiō to accuse throwing down our selues before the Lord he may lift vs vp For manie going quietly away and sleeping in carnall securitie notwithstanding the sins of their youth neglecting to make conscience of their sinnes done long ago sodainly haue falne into such horrour of minde that the violent remembrance of all their sins surcharging them they haue been ouerwhelmed This Examination then dooth rightlye proceede when it doth reach to the errors of this life to the sins of our youth because many men euen from their childhood by a ciuill righteous life hauing escaped grose sins wherewith the world could neuer charge them haue not withstanding caried the burthen of more secret sins done in their youth Dauid Psal. 25. 7. prayeth the Lord not to remember the sinnes of his youth Iob 23. 6. the man of God confessing that the Lord writeth bitter things against him saith he made him to possesse the iniquities of his youth What shall

wee think that Dauid or Iob wer giuen to notorious wickednes in their youth No they knewe they were subiect to youthful wantonnes and vnstaiednes of their affections which thogh it did not burst out yet it made them lesse carefull to glorifie GOD which loosenes is the way to leaudnes which weakenes the waye to strange vanities which wantonnes the waye to open wickednes is euen in the best of Gods children in the dayes of their youth which beeing afterwards in the time of their regeneration brought as it were to iudgement and layde before their consciences doth cause them to repent But here is a thing to bee blushed at which maketh mens eares to tingle when they heare that manie men farre no doubt from thys true repentance can largely indeed discourse of theyr sinnes done in theyr youth but in such a brauerie with such boastings and pleasing themselues in the remembraunce of them as besides that they prouoke others to sinne they likewise set them selues a flatter backe-byas against Repentaunce and in stead of this Christian examination they seeme to renue the decayed colours of their olde sinnes with the fresh suite of their second plesures conceiued in them But alas what pleasure haue they in those things whereof they haue no profit what profit haue they in those thinges whereof they should bee ashamed neither in this strein can we forget the madnes of them who may seeme to step one degree farther towardes this examination of sin than did the former by thinking that the leauing of sinne and repenting of sinne is all one Against this both daily experience and the word of God doth sufficiently declare Iosephs bretheren Iacob hys sonnes who deuised euill against their brother put him into the pit and sold him vnto strangers did cease from this crueltie but yet are not read to haue remembered their sins with anie remorce vntil thirteene yeres after the sinne was committed as we may see in the processe of the Historie Dauid had left hys sinnes of murther and adulterie as thinking all quiet and well the space of a whole yere after which time being admonished by the Prophet Nathan hee repented of it And experience hath tried in manie that though they left their sinnes manie yeares agoe hauing had some working of God in them yet because they repented not truly for them they haue rebounded on them with terrible sights and fearfull visions to humble them to bring them to serious examination of them being done and left long since Examples whereof wee need not fetch from farre seeing so manie preachers which are acquainted with fearfull spirits will giue witnes hereof The frute of which amazed mindes for sinnes alreadie left is ours to beware of sinnes which are to come And that other mens harmes might teach vs blessed wisdome let vs labor not onely to leaue sin which one may doo for profite for feare for prayers or for werisomnes but also to repent of it for conscience sake This Examination of sins past must bee partly of those that wee committed before our calling partly of those which were done after our calling Euerie man especially hauing his reason reformed by the Word of God wil grant an examination of the life before our true knowledge of God in Christ to be most needfull But it may be some will thinke that wee need not be so precise in the searching of those sins which were after our knowledge but seeing of all other sinnes these byte sorest and pierce deepest for that they are aggrauated with all the menaces of God going before and after sinne Sinne is then most sinfull when after we know the truth after we haue ben deliuered from sin after we haue been inlightened wyth the grace of God wee haue falne into it I thinke that examinatiō most specialy ought to be had of those sins Wherfore to it erate our former examples in a new matter as we maye see the former kinde of examining first for sinnes before our calling in the sonnes of Iacob so wee haue a patterne of the latter in the practise of the Prophet Dauid who at the hearing of his sin was so troubled in spirit that he could not rest though the Prophet tolde him his sinnes were forgiuen him but still he was disquieted as though hee found no comfort in hys spirite For as it fareth with sores it commeth to pas with sinnes we are loath to haue our wounds often grated vpon we cannot so well away to haue our sores rifled seared lanced but to be fed with healing salue so we are hardly brought to haue our Consciences grownd or our sins ransacked sifted searched ripped vp but could stil haue them playstered with sweete promises and bathed in the mercies of God whereas it is farre safer before incarnatiue and healing Medicines to vse corrosiue and mundifying waters without which though some sores may seem to cloase and skin vp apace yet they proue worse and be rotten still at the coare they haue aboue a thin skin vnderneath rotten flesh In like manner wee would cloake we wold hide and couer our sinnes as it were with a curtaine but it is more sound Chirurgerie to pricke and pierce our Consciences with the burning yron of the law and to cleanse the wound of the Soule by sharpe threatenings least that skinne being pulled ouer the Conscience for a while wee lament the rotten corruption which remaines vncured vnderneath and so we be constrained to crie out of our sinnes openly As it is a follye then to dissemble our soares whilst they be curable and after to make them knowen when they be vncurable so it is a great follye to dissemble our sinnes whilest they may be remedied and so after be constrained to blaze them all abroade when they are remedilesse But of this by the waye because wee shall more largely touch it in the last part to come It is sufficient to commit sinne before knowledge but after some good light of the spirit to sin breedeth eyther hardnes of heart or a troubled spirite both which wee shall auoyd if in truth we be careful to watch ouer our affections and beware least after our deliuerie we fall into sinne againe Seuerall men subiect to seuerall sinnes haue their seueral checkes in their consciences some are ouercom with wrath and yet after theyr moodie fit they can tell that the wrath of man dooth not accomplish the righteousnes of God some are subiect to lust and after they saye that mans life hath another ende some slip deeply into worldlines and yet they bee often weakened with most terrible checkes of conscience Wel blessed are they whose hearts be truly grieued let them beware that make a daliance with sinne for either hardnesse of heart will ouertake them or a troubled conscience will quite confound them Whereby it comes to pas that many spending their bodyes on lust lament that euer they haue so abused then strēgth many giu'n too much to the pleasures