Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n
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A29239
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The penitent pilgrim
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Brathwaite, Richard, 1588?-1673.
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1641
(1641)
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Wing B4275; ESTC R6455
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111,815
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454
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heavens are uncleane O when the righteous shall scarcely be saved what wil become of the wicked when the axe of his judgement shall not spare the greene tree what will become of the dry O nothing but woe woe may befall thee miserable delinquent if hee deale not with thee in mercy but in judgement I believe in the Holy Ghost This ninth Article Saint Iames the lesse delivered And thou art taught to believe thus much by it that the Holy Ghost the third person in the blessed Trinity is the Spirit of comfort truth and unity without which it is impossible to please God For as hee promised unto his Apostles a Comforter so in the shape of a Dove and in the forme of cloven tongues there appeared unto them this promised Comforter But how is it that thou beleevest in the Holy Ghost and yet with thine hardnesse of heart and loosenesse of life grievest the Holy Spirit of God Thus to beleeve if thou be not penitent will rather bee a meanes to draw on thee then remove from thee Gods heavy judgement The holy Catholike Church This tenth Article of faith Saint Simon founded But how dost thou beleeve the holy Cathelike Church or how is thy faith grounded if thou observe not what the Church has commanded How canst thou bee a Member of her so long as thou livest divided from her Or how canst thou truly call her Mother so long as thou hearknest not to her commands but becommest disobedient to her O then by a right faith knit thy selfe unto her or else disclaime thy being a Member of her But looke unto it for God thou canst not have for thy Father unlesse thou have his Church for thy Mother Neither canst thou ever hope to bee a Citizen in his Church triumphant unlesse thou bee first a Member of his Church Militant The Communion of Saints the forgivenesse of sinnes To this eleventh Article is Saint Iudas Thadaeus intitled And this Communion of Saints thou beleevest and for the forgivenesse of sinnes thou lookest And yet thou livest not as if thou desired to bee of this Communion Neither rendrest thou any such fruits of repentance as may cherish in thee the least hope of Remission The Resurrection of the body and the life everlasting Amen With this last Article Saint Mathias closeth our Creed And by it thou beleevest that thy body shall rise againe from the dust and that thy soule shall live with the just But hast thou not fed thy Body too delicately to rise againe to glory Hast thou not taken too much pleasure in sinning ever to enjoy life everlasting O thou blessed Trinity in unity and Vnity in Trinity thus have I made a confession of my Faith unto thee but my many faintings failings wants weaknesses and imperfections greatly discourage mee unlesse thou in thy mercy strengthen me I beleeve Lord O helpe my unbeleefe Give mee the shield of faith that here on earth I may acquit my selfe like a valiant Champion and in Heaven be made by thee a triumphant Citizen CHAP. 65. Having thus examined himselfe and found in the whole course of his life a fainting in faith and failing in Works He recalleth to mind those Quatuor Novissima or foure last Remembrances Memorials hourely necessary for all Christians THus hast thou laid thy selfe open to all discovery and there is no good thing to bee found in thee For in thy faith thou hast found a fainting and weaknesse and in all thy workes a failing and barrennesse Most freely went that blessed Father to worke and no lesse dangerous has beene thy walke when hee confessed himselfe in this fort Iinherit sin from my father an excuse from my mother lying from the Devill folly from the world selfe-conceit from the pride and arrogant opinion of my selfe Deceitfull have beene the imaginations of thine heart crooked have beene thy wayes malicious thy workes And yet hast thou taken the judgements of God in thy mouth Desiring nothing more then to blind the eye of the world with a counterfeit zeale But all such Hypocrites God will judge Hee will not be mocked with For as the Divell has his sive with which hee lets goe the good but keepeth the bad So the Lord has his Fanne by which he lets goe the bad and keepeth the good O when hee shall separate his goats from his sheepe his wheat from his tares when the Iust and the Wicked shall appeare before him and every man shall be put into the ballance O â— feare mee then thou wilt bee found many graines too lightâ— It were well for thee then to prepare thy selfe against that great and fearefull day And to furnish thee all the better by making thee a true Convert of an impenitent Sinner recall to mind those Quatuor Novissima or Foure last Remembrances Memorials hourely to bee thought and so necessary to be reteined in thy memory as the Christian use of them may prepare thee before Death summon thee and in this vale of misery fit thee for thine heavenly voyage to eternity And yet while I speake thus unto thee I find thy condition to be wofull for if thou consider them the very thought of them cannot chuse but startle thee and if thou neglect them thou wilt stand in amaze when they encounter thee O my deare Lord remember me in thy mercy and so prepare my memory that these Foure necessary Remembrances may never depart from me Let mee be prepared for Death before it come that it may never take mee unprepared whensoever it shall come Let mee thinke of that fearefull day of Iudgement and judge my selfe before I be judged that â— may not be found light in thy scale when I shall be weighed Let me O let me thinke how there is an Hell for the damned for better is it by timely fearing it to avoid it then by never dreaming of it head-long to fall into it Lastly let mee thinke of Heaven how it is the place of the Blessed and that none but those that are of a cleane heart shall dwell in it O cleanse thou mine heart that I may bee prepared for it and with much spirituall joy be received in it CHAP. 66. Death IT is strange that Death should bee such a stranger to thee when hee so daily visits those that neighbour neere thee Thou hast beene familiarly acquainted with many whose habitation is not now to bee found who have enjoyed the pleasures of sinne freely Others who have inlarged their Barnes and store-houses carefully others who have ruâ—â—led in their honours highly and could deliver a Word of Command bravely and now behold how all these being arrested at Deaths suit were enforced to veile to his surly command They have made their Beds in the darke They have left their Houses unto others they are gone unto their Graves and must not returne againe Their substance they have left unto others and strangers are become their Heires They are rooted out from the face of the
shouldst enter in he with-held thee How often hast thou drawne neare even to the gates of death and lest they should take thee in hee preserv'd thee Thus hath hee delivered thee from all evill and yet for all this good which hee has done thee thou hast requited him with evill And now thou concludest For thine is the Kingdome power and glory for ever and ever Amen Oh how ready thou art here to acknowledge his power and yet to deny it in thy life But confesse thou must his power not onely with mouth but heart and practise of a good life if ever thou meanest to partake with him in the Kingdome of glory O my sweet Saviour as thou â—ast taught mee by this absolute forme of Prayer how I am to make my prayer and hast promised 〈◊〉 grant me my request if I 〈…〉 that no place may be left for distraction Here thou hast taught how and in what manner I am to pray O let me not lose the benefit of it by losing my selfe wheâ—â— I pray CHAP. 64. He renders a private account of his Faith and in every article of the Creede hee finds a fainting failing weaknesse and want I Beleeve in God the father Almighty maker of heaven and earth This first Article of our Beliefe was made by Christs first Apostle Saint Peter And herein thou professest that thou believest But that is not enough The Devils doe beleeve and tremble Thou must not onely believe God but believe in God and that he is thy God Againe thou art not only to believe God and believe in God but solely love God and wholly live to God For as wee are to believe with heart unto righteousnesse and confesse with mouth unto salvation so are we to bring forth fruits hereof in an holy and blamelesse conversation O how much hast thou failed in the first what then may wee looke for at the last And in Iesus Christ his onely Sonne our Lord. Of this second Article was Saint Iohn the Evangelist Author one who was right deare in the eyes of his Master our blessed Saviour and one who leaned on his bosome at his last Supper And here thou confessest Iesus Christ the second person in the blessed Trinity to be the Sonne of God to be our Lord. But hast thou by a contrite heart regenerate life made him thy Lord Thou saist thou dost beleeve in him but dost thou love him in whom thou believest And how shouldst thou be lesse then his Lover so long as thou beleev'st him to be thy saviour But wher be any Signes of this love O if thou didst truly love him in who thou believ'st thou wouldst rather leave to live then leave to love him in whom thou believest Which was conceived by the Holy Ghost borne of the Virgin Mary This third Article S. Iames the Greater composed whereby thou art taught to beleeve all sanctification to be included in his Conception all humility in his Nativity But dost thou as every Christian should do seriously consider for whose sake this Virgin was conceived for whose sake thy sweet Saviour became so humbled that the Son of God should become the son of Man that the Son of Man might become the son of God that the immortall should become mortall that the mortall might become immortall that the living Lord should dye that the dying man might live that the free should become bound that the bound might become free that God should descend from heaven to earth that he might draw us from earth to heaven that God should become humbled that Man might be exalted that He should become poore that we might be enriched and reckoned amongst the transgressors that we amoÌ„gst his Saints might be numbred Hast thou I say meditated of this how he was borne for thee that thou mightst be re-borne in him O I feare thou hast beene more ready to partake of this benefit then by acknowledgeing it to bee thankefull for it Suffered under Pontius Pilat was crueified dead and buried This fourth Article Saint Andrew framed wherein thou seest and perhaps admirest the unjust proceedings of a wicked Iudge for thou hearest one and that an odious and malicious one pronouncing the sentence of death upon the Lord of life and inclining to the voice and vote of the people delivering a murdring delinquent to murder the innocent Nay pronouncing a sentence against his owne Conscience for hee washed his hands but not in innocence Againe thou hearest and beleevest that hee was crucified and yet it grieves thee not to crucifie him afresh with new sinnes Thou beleevest that hee died and was buried and yet thou daily diest not to sin but in sin and hast now not three dayes but many yeares laine buried in them He descended into hell This fifth Article Saint Philip added and thou beleevest in it Hee dâ—cended that thou mightst ascend to the place whereto hee is ascended Yet where be there any tokens of thy desire to ascend unto him Ascend unto him thou canst not unlesse thou descend into thy selfe for whom he so humbly descended The third day he rose againe from the dead This sixt Article Saint Thomas annexed An Article proper for Thomas who touching Christs Resurrectioâ— was so incredulous And here thou seest that late crucified man now acquit himselfe of death like a victorious Lord. And hence thou rejoycest but unlesse thou â—ise from sinne and live to righteousnesse Christâ— Resurrection shall afford thee small comfort in the bed of thy sicknesse Hee ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the father Almighty This seventh Article Saint Barthol omew penned And by this thou beleevest that hee is now ascended who for thy sake descended And as from his rising came the hope of thy Resurrection so from his ascending the hope of thy glorification But thou must rise with him before thou canst reigne with him rise with him who was free from all sin from the Grave of sin that thou maist reigne with him who dyed for thy sin in his heavenly Sion And as hee sitteth on the right hand of God the father Almighty where he offers up his prayers for thee sheweth those glorious scars of his precious wounds to his Father for thee per forms the faithfull office of a loving Mediator for thee So art thou in thy prayers to remember the necessity of his Saints upon earth But cold is thy charity in performing such a duty From whence he shall come to judge both the quick and the dead This eight Article was by S. Matthew published and by this thou believest how he who was judged unjustly shall judge the whole world in Equity For the Father judgeth none but hath given up this judgement unto his Son in whose brest are laid up all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge And this thou beleevest and tremblest and reason thou hast to tremble for how shalt thou be able to stand in his presence before whom even the