Selected quad for the lemma: prayer_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prayer_n	meditation_n	morning_n	noon_n	4,887	5	14.4491	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66656	Eurēka, Eurēka the virtuous woman found, her loss bewailed, and character examined in a sermon preached at Felsted in Essex, April 30, 1678, at the funeral of ... Mary, countess dowager of Warwick, the most illustrious pattern of a sincere piety, and solid goodness his age hath produced : with so large additions as may be stiled the life of that noble lady : to which are annexed some of her ladyships pious and useful meditations / by Anthony Walker.	Walker, Anthony, d. 1692.; Warwick, Mary Boyle Rich, Countess of, 1625-1678. Occasional meditations upon sundry subjects.	1678 (1678)	Wing W301; ESTC R233189	74,039	235

wanton lascivious despisers of others wasters of their time Idolizers of their own reflections in a Glass and careless or afraid to behold the image of their impurer Souls in the Crystal of God's Law and more afraid of being sick or dying than of a thousand Sins or Hells Secondly deceiving and destroying silly Men through whose Livers * Prov. 7.23 the seats of Lust those mortal Darts do strike which an invisible Bow shoots from their wanton Glances and bewitching Smiles and Arts. And by parity of reason the like may be said of all the other perishing empty lying vanities honours riches strength the wisdom of the flesh and learning meerly humane which are but adventitious Goods at best and seldom make Men better often worse What shall I say shall I praise you for these I praise you not nor will God ever praise you or reward you for them Nay I must rather drive such false Hucsters for true praise out of the Temple of lasting Honour with such a Scourge as the Prophet Jeremiah long since prepared for that purpose Let not the wise man glory in wisdom Jer. 9.23 nor the witty woman in her wit Let not the strong man glory in his strength nor the fair woman glory in her Beauty Let not the rich man glory in his riches nor the fine woman glory in her dress Let not the honourable Man glory in his Honour nor the courted Mistress glory in her Favour Let not the learned Man glory in his being Natures Secretary nor the wanton woman in being skilled in the depths of Satan But let him and her that would glory and not be ashamed or glory in their shame glory in this that they know the Lord and love and fear him in sincerity and truth Which brings me to the positive part and is the foundation which Solomon lays whereon to build a Pyramid of lasting Fame Not the graceful Pulchritudinem existima animi ornatum non in corporis forma sed in moribus pulchritudo sita est Corn. a Lapide ex Chrys but the gracious woman not she who glories in her face but she who like the King's Daughter is all glorious within even the woman that feareth the Lord she shall be praised In which positive part we have the good Womans Character and Crown 1. Her Character which hath two parts for the new creature also consists of Soul and Body an inside and an outside 1. She fears the Lord there 's the Soul of her Virtue the root of the matter within ground Grace in the Heart 2. She hath fruitful hands there 's the Body of her Virtue the good Tree above ground works in her life 2. Her Crown Praise and Renown Which is 1. Promised to her She shall be praised 2. Commanded for her Give her of the fruit of her hands let her own works praise her in the gates 3. Performed concerning her Thou excellest them all As briefly as may be concerning these Particulars and first let us view both Pages on which her Character is written 1. A woman that feareth the Lord that is who is sincerely religious good in good earnest Nothing is more frequent or obvious in Scripture than such Synechdoches as put one eminent Grace for all the Chain of Graces So sometimes the Love of God sometimes Trust in God and most commonly the Fear of God is put for being truly religious or is made the Periphrasis of a godly Man As in that signal promise of the New Covenant Jer. 32.38 39 40. They shall be my people and I will be their God and I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me for ever for the good of them and their Children after them And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good and I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Job 1.1 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job and that man was perfect and upright one that feared God and eschewed evil so vers 8. Hast thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the earth a perfect and an upright man one that feareth God and escheweth evil vers 9. Doth Job fear God for nought Eccl. 12.13 Fear God and keep his Commandments that is the whole of Man Psal 15.4 He honoureth them that fear the Lord where the godly Man is under this Denomination of one that feareth the Lord opposed to the wicked called there a vile person 'T is also an infallible sign of the presence of all other Graces in the exercise of which true Godliness consists for as the Law is copulative so are the Graces by which we obey it and as where the Soul is discovering it self by one vital act all its faculties and powers are so where the Spirit of God is working one Grace in truth the Spirit of all Grace is for the Spirit can no more be without its Graces than the Soul without its Faculties yea the fear of God contains all Graces in it therefore when Abraham offered up his Son Isaac which was a mighty act of Faith and Love God saith Now I know thou fearest me Gen. 22.12 And as 't is so frequent it would be endless to cite all so 't is so obvious 't is needless to cite more 2. The other Page hath this Inscription Fruitful hands the good Woman is like Dorcas full of good works 1. Hands two Hands to hold the two Tables of the Law Deut. 9.15 as Moses came down from the Mount with the two Tables in his two hands in each hand one neither empty nor idle The first in the Right Hand there 's Religion towards God The second Table in the Left Hand there 's Righteousness and Charity towards Men. 2. These Hands bear Fruit good works spring and grow naturally freely seasonably easily maturely as fruits from a prolifique Tree planted in a good soil and by the Waters side as the godly Man is described in the first Psalm called Fruits of Righteousness Fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5. where S. Paul hath a signal Antithesis betwixt Graces and Vices calling the first Fruits the other Works the Works of the Flesh vers 19. There 's servile drudgery in them Fruits of the Spirit vers 22. There 's a spiritual easiness in the production of them by the new Nature 3. They are Fruits in the plural for variety of kinds for number in every kind First various acts of Devotion Prayers Prayses Reading Hearing Meditation Conference Preparing Communicating and all these reiterated the Morning and the Evening Sacrifice the weekly Sabbaths solemn Fasts and Festivals secret private publick Devotions Morning Evening and at Noon day Psal 119. yea at Midnight seven times a day yea in a sober sense all the day long nay all day and all night too as it is testified of Anna Luk. 2.37 That she departed not from the

this our noble Mary or devoted themselves more unreservedly to God's love and fear and service learning to be good in very good earnest and to encrease and grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2. To promote this like the wise man in the Gospel Mat. 7.24 She dug deep to lay her foundations on a rock She made a strict scrutiny into the state of her Soul and weighed the reasons of her choice in the balance of the Sanctuary And with the other Builder in the Gospel sate down and considered with her self what it might cost to finish her spiritual edifice and whether she were furnished to defray that charge And also whether the grounds of her hope were firm and such as would not abuse and shame her and her evidences for Heaven such as would bear the Test and Scripture would approve And this she drew up at large with her own hand judiciously soberly modestly humbly and about twenty years since did me the honour with greatest secrecy to read it to me and obliged me with all freedom and faithfulness to give her my judgment of it which I could not but do with much approbation And this I doubt not remains amongst her many excellent Papers Having thus put her hand to the plough she looked not back but minded Religion as her business indeed and never gave suspicion of trifling in so serious a work 3. Therefore for her practice of it it was her great design to walk worthy of God in all well-pleasing to adorn her professed subjection to the Gospel by a conversation becoming it and to shew forth his virtues and praises who had called her to his marvellous Light First then she was circumspectly careful to abstain from all appearance of evil and in all doubtful cases 't was her rule to take the furest side for she would say I am sure 't will do me no hurt to let them alone Though therefore none were further from censuring others or usurping judgment over their liberties yet for her self she would never allow her self the addition of artificial handsomness used neither paint nor patch and was pleased with a saying of one of her spiritual Friends upon the reading the Book which apologizes for it O Lord I thank thee that thou gavest me not wit enough to write such a Book unless withal thou hadst given me Grace enough not to write it Neither would she play at any Games because beside many other inconveniences she judged them great wasters of precious time of which she was always very thrifty And though she was known to be a woman of good understanding yet were there three things which were too hard for her and she would confess she could not comprehend them First How those who professed to believe an Eternal Estate and it's dependance upon the short inch of time could complain of times lying as a dead commodity on their hands which they were troubled how to drive away Secondly how Christians who would seem devout at Church could laugh at others for being serious out on 't and burlesque the very Bible and turn Religion into Ridicule Thirdly How knowing men could take care of souls and seldom come amongst them never look after them And though in the forenamed particulars she was content only to give example of forbearance yet from the Play-house since the Stage hath taken so great liberty she would openly dehort her Friends with greatest earnestness She very many years since began to keep a Diary and consulted two whom she used to call her Soul-Friends and ever esteemed such her best Friends concerning the best manner of performing it This at first she used to perform every Evening but finding that inconvenient by reason of her Lords long illness which gave her many inevitable diversions and interruptions at that season she changed it into the quiet silent morning always rising early And therein amongst other things recorded the dayly frame of her own heart towards God his signal providences to her self and sometimes towards others his gracious manifestations to her Soul returns of prayer temptations resisted or prevailing or whatever might be useful for caution or encouragement afford her matter of thankfulness or humiliation And by this means she had arrived at such experience that she could conclude at least make strong conjectures of the events of things she spread before the Lord in prayer by the frame of her own heart in the performance of it as I could instance in particulars if it were convenient She used to call Prayer Hearts-ease as she often found it and though her modesty was such and she was so far from a vain affected ostentation of her gifts I cannot name one person with whom she prayed yet can I say she was as well mighty and fervent in prayer as constant and abundant in it for she sometimes using her voice hath been over-heard and her own Lord knowing her hours of prayer once conveyed a grave Minister into a secret place within hearing whom if I should name I suppose would not be denyed to be a competent Judge who much admired her humble fervency for she praying prayed and when she used not an audible voice her sighs and groans would eccho from her Closet at good distance And the very day before she died she was shut up above an hour which she spent in fervent private prayer notwithstanding her indisposition and indeed prayer was her very element in which she lived and actually died and 't was as the vital breath of her Soul and the wing that wafted it immediately to Heaven But if she exceeded her self in any thing as much as she excelled others in most things 't was in meditation this was her Master-piece for she usually walked two hours dayly in the morning to meditate alone in which divine art she was an accomplished Mistress both in set and occasional in the first chusing some select subject which she would press upon her heart with intensest thoughts till she had drawn out all its juice and nourishment and for the second like a spiritual Bee she would suck Honey from all occurrences whole Volumes of which she hath left behind her After this consecrating of the day with reading Scriptures Lectione assidua meditatione diuturna pectus suum Bibliothecam secerat Christi unde hic fervor aisi ex amere Dei unde legis Christi indefessa meditatio nisi ex defiderio ejus qui legem dedit prayer and meditation a short dressing time and ordering her domestick Affairs or reading some good Book spent the remainder of the morning till chappel-Chappel-prayers from which she was never absent and at which she was ever reverend and a devout example to her whole Family She was a strict observer of the Lords-day which is truly called the Hedge and Fence of Religion and though some please themselves to call this Judaizing to excuse the liberties they indulge themselves I am sure our Church