Selected quad for the lemma: reason_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
reason_n	day_n	time_n	week_n	2,306	5	9.4790	5	false

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

hath injoyn'd us all to cry to God for mercy for the breach of and for grace to incline our hearts to keep the fourth Commandment as well as any of the other nine and 't is not hard to observe that the streams of Religion are deep or shallow according as these Banks are kept up or neglected She was a very devout Communicant seldom omitting to prepare her Soul with solemn fasting to renew her covenant with God And in the act of receiving I cannot think of her without reflecting on S. Stephen when he saw the Heavens opened and Jesus standing at God's right hand and his face was as the face of an Angel And to encourage others to such serious preparation to that Sacred Ordinance as she us'd before it I shall shew what sweet advantages she reaped in it and by it And this I shall do by transcribing word for word out of her Diary what I find written with her own hand concerning one of the last Sacrament Days she ever enjoyed For the Sacrament which was appointed to have been administred in her Ladyships Chappel upon easter-Easter-day was put off by reason of her falling ill in Passion week November 25. Sacrament Day AS soon as I awaked I blessed God When I had read in the Word the Chapters of the Sufferings of my Blessed Saviour I spent much time in meditating of his dying love By which thoughts I found my heart much drawn out to love him and melted by his love then with great and awful apprehensions of God upon my heart I went to pray In which duty my heart was lifted up in the high praises of God for both spiritual and temporal mercies and my affections were much drawn out in the duty in which my heart did follow exceeding hard after God for a nearer communion with him in the Sacrament than ever yet I had I then renewed my covenant with God and made promises that by his Grace enabling me I would walk more closely with him for the time to come That which in especial manner I begged of God at this Sacrament was more love to him more holiness more contempt of the world and the Glories of it that I might be more useful to the Souls and Bodies of my Fellow Christians than formerly I had been Those mercies which in especial manner I was grateful for were the Creation and Redemption of the World and for the Gospel and the Covenant of Grace and for converting Grace and for Justification and for some measure of Sanctification and for so much Patience exercised toward me before my conversion and in order to it imbittering Creature-comforts that I might seek for comforts above and for a sanctified affliction and for some degree of patience to bear it and for supports under it by the warm and lively comforts of the Holy Ghost and for returns of prayer and for so many opportunities to seek unto God and for the sweet reviving hours I had enjoyed with God in solitude by Heavenly Meditations and for the Word and Sacraments and the sanctifying motions of Gods Spirit I was in a more than usual manner melted in the duty and shed a very great plenty of tears in it which when I came from I found a longing desire to partake of the Lord's Supper and a great joy that I was going to partake of it Then I went to hear the Text was I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh to the Father but by me I was attentive at that good Sermon And by what I heard of the excellency of Christ had my heart much warmed with love to him Afterwards at the confession before the Sacrament I found my heart in a more than usual manner broken for my sins which I bewailed with great plenty of tears and from my heart judged and loathed my self for them After I had received I found my heart in an extraordinary manner warmed with love to God And my Soul did follow very hard after him to be made more holy and for Grace to serve him better than ever yet I had done I had very lively affections in the duty in which I received much joy and had sweet communion with God in it After I had at the Table of the Lord given to the Poor I came from the Sacrament with my heart in a sweet grateful and Heavenly Frame and then in private blessed God for that blessed Feast and begged strength to keep my promises I had made to God of new obedience In the Afternoon I heard again the same person upon the same Text I was in an attentive serious frame at that good Sermon The Subject of which was to shew that Christ was the only way for poor penitent sinners to come unto the Father I meditated upon the Sermons and prayed them over And had also meditations of the Joys of Heaven with the thoughts of being for ever freed from sin and of being ever with the Lord where I should enjoy him in his fullest love I found my heart much revived and my Soul did then make strong Sallies and Egresses after that blessed Rest After Family Duties were over at which I prayed with fervency I did before going to Bed commit my self to God O Lord I do from my Soul bless thee for this sweet day in which thou wert pleased to vouchsafe unto me thy most unworthy Servant more Soul-joy than thou didst give me for a long time before She was a very ferious and artentive hearer of the Word and constantly after Sermon recollected what she heard sometimes by writing always by thinking and calling it to mind that she might make it her own and turn it into practice not content to be a forgetful fruitless hearer only but a doer that she might be blessed in her deed And such she was for the external performances of Religion And though this was beautiful and lovely yet her chief glory was within in the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible in that dress of Graces which adorned her Soul this string was all of Orient Pearls and evenly matched not one ill watered or of unequal size There was not one dryed or withered Limb one member wanting or defective in the new creature she was complete in Christ all of a piece The Head of her Knowledge was comprehensive and clear The Eye of her Faith was piercing and steddy The Ear of her obedience was open and light of hearing and boared at the door posts of wisdoms house Her Palate was savory and relishing to which God's Law was sweeter than the honey and the honey-comb and more esteemed than her necessary food The Cheeks of her Modesty were fair and ruddy The Arms of her desires were stretched out after God and flexible to embrace him The Hands of her Justice and Charity were strong and open The Breasts of her Bounty were well-fashioned and full of milk and the Bowels of her compassion were tender and fruitful Her hunger and

and satisfied her as with marrow and fatness he granted the requests of her lips and shut not out her prayer He gave her ability and time to discharge her trust and settle her worldly affairs with honour and satisfaction and he gave her opportunity space and an heart to recollect her self and redeem what a hurry of business had deprived her of and renew her evidences for Heaven He took out the sting of death before she died Intelligeres illam non emori sed emigrare mutare amicos non relinquene Hierom. and the pains of death when she died and with a kiss of his mouth sucked up her Soul to Heaven to be immersed in that fulness of joy and bathed in those rivers of pleasure which are at his right hand for evermore May we live like her may we die like her that we may live with her and with our common Lord for ever And for your noble Lordship who are now investing your self with her large and noble Mantle May Elijah's spirit rest upon you as well as his Mantle that you may rise up an Elisha in her place and stead That Leez may be Leez still the seat of Nobleness and Honour the Hospital of Bounty and Charity the Sanctuary of Religion and the fear of God That so you may live and may live longer and as much desired and when you die as die you must for Leez though a Paradise hath no Tree of Life you may die later and as much lamented as your Noble Predecessors A Copy of that Excellent and Pious Letter written to the Right Honourable George Lord Berkeley by the Right Honourable Mary late Countess Dowager of Warwick of which Intimation is given in the 48 page of the foregoing Discourse My Lord IN obedience to your Commands I have undertaken that which I know I am very unfit to perform which is to give your Lordship Rules for holy living Yet because your Lordships Friendship makes you so kind as to believe what is said by me will make a deeper impression than by others who have not so great a share in your Lordships esteem I have ventured upon it not to inform you as one I believe ignorant for I know your Lordship to be very much better able to instruct me but to put your Lordship in mind That not the knower of the Law but the doer of it shall be justified and that If you know these things happy are you if you do them For he that knows his masters will and doth it not shall be beaten with many stripes I will begin my first Rule of Advice to your Lordship with desiring you not to turn the day into night and by sleeping so long in the morning give your self only time in haste to put on your clothes and it may be sometimes with more haste say a short formal prayer to stop the mouth of a natural Conscience which for haste you hardly mind your self and therefore have little reason to expect God should Therefore I shall advise your Lordship to go to bed in so good an hour at night as that you may wake in so good time as you may not lose the morning which certainly is the best time for the Service of God And I would have you as soon as you wake fix your thoughts upon that God that gives you time to think and do as Holy David did who said As soon as I awake I am with thee Consider how your Bed might have been your Grave for many every night go down into the place of silence and there take their long and last sleep Consider also what a mercy sleep is and if we miss but a nights rest how burdensome and uneasie a man would be to himself therefore begin the morning with blessing God for it and then commune with your heart upon your bed and be still and consider what a mercy it is to have another day added to your life that you may make your peace with God before you go hence and be no more seen Think what many a poor dying Creature would give for a day to repent in and at what a high rate if it were to be purchased the damned Spirits would purchase a day to repent in Consider a day is a precious thing when Titus a Heathen could say when he had spent a day without doing good to his friends with great regret O my friends I have lost a day And another could say He was not worthy the name of a man who spent a whole day in worldly pleasures Remember this little moment of time is all we have given us to provide for Eternity in and therefore not to be spent and thrown away carelesly as if we had no God to serve nor no Soul to save Therefore have a care lest it be said of you as it was of Jesabel I gave her space to repent but she repented not When your Lordship has thus in the morning brought your heart into a serious frame then my second Advice is to leave your Bed and as soon as you are ready retire to your Closet and let none of the business of the World be first dispatched though the Devil be never so busie to perswade you to it but say to all your worldly imployments Stay here while I go yonder and worship and I will come to you again When you have shut your door and have shut out outward Company then have a care to shut out inward vain and distracting thoughts which will be very busie to steal away your heart Then I would advise you to begin your private devotions with reading the Word of God the Holy Scriptures for David says Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his ways even by taking heed thereunto according to thy Word And certainly these Divine Oracles of God are a most excellent means towards the mending of our lives Therefore I would have you begin every morning with reading some portion of it remembring it is that Word by which we must one day he judged When you have done this I would not advise you presently to clap down upon your knees but first to consider seriously what you are going about viz. That you are going about to speak to that God before whom the Angels and the Cherubins do cover their faces in token of reverence as not being able or worthy to behold so much glory and that Abraham the Father of the Faithful presented himself before him with so much humility as that he called himself dust and ashes Therefore do you prostrate your self before him with humility remembring that he has said that he will have respect unto the lowly And yet come with confidence as to a gracious Father who has promised That whosoever comes unto him he will in no wise cast out and that before we call he will answer and whilst we are yet speaking he will hear Remember that Prayer is the key of Heaven it is that by which you can pour out all your wants

it is everlasting The best Shield against Slanderers is to live so that none may believe them He that revenges an injury acts the part of an Executioner He that pardons it acts the part of a Prince Sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotions Man is a pile of Dust and puff of Wind. Why are we so fond of that life which begins with a Cry and ends with a Groan But I will not cloy you knowing it is safest to rise with an appetite even when we are entertained at a Banquet 4. Where she had particular kindness or personal interest she would improve the authority of her friendship to gentle but free correption and argue and perswade so strenuously that her Bow like Jonathan's seldom return'd empty and plead the cause of God and their own souls to whom she spake with so winning and insinuating sweetness that 't was hard to resist the Suada shall I say or rather the spirit by which she spake Let me refound and eccho from her lips though alas too faintly how she would with melting charms and powerful strains attempt upon the Friends for whom she had a kindness and whom she longed to rescue COme come my Friend you must be good you shall be good I cannot be so unkind nay so unfaithful to the laws of Friendship as to let you perish and perish in a way you know as well as I leads down to Hell It grieves my very soul to see so good a nature ensnared against the dictates of its own light by bad example custom or somewhat else And if they replyed with excuses she would stop them thus I pray my Friend have patience hear me out I know or guess at least what you would say and I would not have you say it 'T is bad to commit sin but 't is worse to plead for it and defend it None sin so dangerously as those who sin with excuses The Devil then ties a new snare when he gets into our tongues to fasten us to our failings and raises an out-work in our own mouths to secure the Fort he possesses in our hearts I take it for granted all other Holds were slighted easily could you conquer such or such a vice too much by custom prevailing with you Unhappy custom that dares prescribe against God's Law But Friend use no arguments that will not hold water at the day of judgment though hand joyn in hand you know what follows And no example custom number should allure us which cannot excuse us and secure us But this is the mischief of sin liv'd in it bewitches the heart to love it that it cannot leave it Cannot so men love to speak but 't is because they will not that is will use no endeavours to be rid on 't But you must leave it there 's no remedy though it cost you trouble smart and self-denial There 's as much as all this comes to in cutting off a right hand and digging out a right eye I speak to you as to one in whom I have a party to help me plead I mean your conscience and the belief of the Scriptures for if you were one of those on whom you know I use to set my mark I should not give you this trouble nor esteem my self under more than the Laws of general charity to wish you better should hardly venture my little skill to make you so But as for you who still own God's authority and believe his Word and attend his Worship Why should I despair of making one piece of your self agree with the other your practice with your convictions your conversation with your conscience And not to fright you with the Thunder-claps of wrath and vengeance and God's judging you know who listen still to the voice 't is your peculiar eminency to be kind and grateful and because there is a kind of magnetick virtue in those arguments which touch our temper and a string will move it self when another instrument is touched that 's set to the same Key and pitch I shall attack you on that side hoping the strongest excellency of your nature will prove the weakest defensasative for sin and to keep out God You therefore who are so good natured so kind so grateful that you never think you have acquit your self sufficiently to those who have been civil or as you please to call 't obliging Oh how can be so unkind and so ungrateful unto God Almighty the kindest Fiend who is so much before hand with you who hath given you so much and is so ready to forgive you all Oh that you who I dare say would take my word for any thing else would do me the honour to take my word for him who I assure you upon your sincere repentance will be fully reconciled to you in Christ and never so much as obraid your past neglects but heal your back-slidings and love you freely And do not fear that you shall have cause to repent of your repentance No man ever yet was a loser by God and you shan't be the first you shall not lose your pleasures but exchange them defiling ones for pure and clean and ravishing And let it not seem strange or incredible to you that there should be such things because perhaps you never felt them Alas you have deprived your self unhappily by being uncapable of them New wine must be put into new bottles To say nothing of what the Scriptures speak of a day being in God's courts being better than a thousand and of joys and unspeakable and full of glory of the great peace they have who keep God's law and that nothing shall offend them that wisdoms ways are pleasantness Let my weakness reason out the case with you Do you think that God's Angels which excel in all perfections have no delights because they have no flesh no sense no bodies as men and beasts or have our Souls the Angels in these houses of clay which are God's Images and the price of his Blood no objects no employments which may yield them delight and satisfaction Think not so unworthily of God or meanly of your self have not the stroaks of your own fancy or the intellectual pleasures of your mind sometimes transported you beyond all the charms of your senses when they have chimed all in tune together And cannot God think you who is a spirit and so fit an object for our souls give them as great pleasures as any object of our taste and sight Come come my Friend take my word for 't there is more pleasure in the peace of a good conscience and in well grounded hopes our sins are pardoned and in serving God and expectation of eternal life than in all the pleasures in the world Alas I was once of your mind but I assure you upon my word I have really found more satisfaction in serving God than ever I found in all the good things of the world of which you know I have had my share Try therefore dare to be good resolve