Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	according_a	call_v	word_n	3,243	5	4.0248	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A84600	The prisoners praises for their deliverance from the long imprisonment in Colchester. On a day of publique thanksgiving set apart for that purpose by the gentlemen of the committee of Essex, who for their fidelity in serving their country were surprised by the enemie at Chelmesford. In a sermon upon the sixth, seventh, & eighth, verses, of the CXLIX. Psalm. / preached at Rumford Septemb. 28. 1648. By Samuel Fairclough, pastor of the congregation at Ketton in Suffolk.	Fairclough, Richard, 1594-1677.	1650 (1650)	Wing F108; Thomason E589_4; ESTC R206306	32,215	40

no way unprofitable to insist somewhat largely either for the better observing this present day or more acceptable discharge of our duties unto God in days of the like nature for the future In the demonstration whereof I shall make choyce to instance in that Ordinance and Exercise of Religious Worship which the Scripture requires to be performed with more extraordinary degrees of Sanctity and Piety then any other besides a day of Thanksgiving I mean a day of publique Humiliation observed according to Gods Institution 2. I shall shew That the duty of publique Joy and Thanksgiving is by Gods Institution to be performed with a greater measure of Light Faith and Sanctity then a day of Humiliation Which may be collected from the Scriptures thus Which appears 1. From the titles First From the different names titles and adjuncts the Spirit of God in the Word is pleased to cloath them withall As first a day of publique Fast is called a day of restraint Isai 58. or day of afflicting the Soul Levit. 23. or day of mourning and weeping Joel 2. But on the other side a day of Thanksgiving is called a good day Esth 9. they must keep the days of Purim for good days very holy days Neh. 8.10 Weep not for the day is holy to the Lord intimating therein That by how much the exercise of goodness and holiness which are the high Attributes of God himsef is more heavenly and spiritual then the exercise of sorrow weeping and affliction the inseparable off-spring of misery and sin by so much a day of Thanksgiving rightly performed is better and holier then a day of Humiliation which is yet more manifest in the Levites Inhibition Weep not for the day is holy The tears there shed by the people and forbidden by the Levites were Tears of godly sorrow for their sins against the Law of God which are most expresly commanded on a day of Humiliation and are in their performance the splendor and glory of the day But these Tears are forbidden on a day of Thanksgiving upon this ground because they are not holy enough for the Services of it Weep not for the day is holy to the Lord Oh how transcendently holy is that Exercise where the pearl of a Tear of godly Sorrow is a blemish Unto this more general demonstration of the point in hand 2. The end let me entreat you to take notice of that expression of the Holy Spirit in Esth 9. Vers 31. when the days of Purim or Thanksgiving are said to be the matter of the fastings and cries that is the success and fruit of their former days of Humiliation mentioned in the fourth Chapter of the Book Now who knows not That the End is the perfection of the Means and in that respect more excellent as Faith is better then Hearing because Faith is the End of Hearing Christ better then Faith because the End of Faith is to bring to Christ So a day of Thanksgiving is better and higher then a day of Humiliation because Fasting is but the subservent Means leading to a day of Thanksgiving and a day of Thanksgiving is the End and Perfection of a day of Humiliation As these different Titles of a day of Thanksgiving and Humiliation in the Scripture declare their high excellency of one above the other in the general 3. The particular graces which are 1. Scripture Light in 3 particulars So it is yet more manifest from the different degrees and measures of Light Faith and Holiness required in the observation of a day of Thanksgiving above a day of Humiliation in particular As first In the observation of a day of Thanksgiving there is required exercise and practice of more heavenly knowledg In the second of Joel the Lord requires a day of publique Humiliation should be performed not onely by men women Priests and Levites that are supposed to be persons of knowledg but also even babes and sucking children that are known to be in a condition of ignorance Yea and the people of Nineveh Jonah 3. who cannot be conceived to have had any art or speculative understanding and skill in the form nature or order of observation of a Fast according to Scripture being Heathens and having had the means but three days amongst them yet they were called to that Duty and their performance of it was accepted of the Lord because the Lord requires little art or skill in confessing our sins or sorrowing for them But now in the Duty of our return of thanks and praises there is an express injunction of the exercise and use of special skill and understanding as Psa 147.6 7. Oh sing praises unto our God sing praises sing praises to our King Sing praises for God is King of all the Earth sing praises therefore with understanding And Psa 119.171 My lips shall utter praise when thou hast taught me thy statutes And Vers 7. I will praise thee with uprightness of heart when thou hast learned me thy Judgments All which Scriptures evidence That how upright soever mens hearts be to God yet there can be no acceptable performance of praise except also that upright heart be an understanding heart that hath learned the Statutes and Judgments of God from the Lords teaching and therefore in the Solemnization of that Duty of Thanksgiving which was so holy that they might not shed a Tear in it Nehem. 8. it is expresly said There were none of that great Congregation that were gathered either of men or women but such as could hear and understand Neh. 8.2 And the observation of Gods minde expressed in other Scriptures will certifie us of the special degree of Heavenly skill required to be in such as offer high praises of God namely Knowledg First Of the form of the Service Secondly Of the blessing for which the Service is undertaken Thirdly Of the matter to be returned First 1. The form Of the manner and form of the Service prescribed of God not minted in our brains as is most evident first from the description of days of Thanksgiving Esth 9. where the form and manner of observation of the same is prescribed in every particular even to the appointment of their meat drink apparel and looks on that day And secondly from Nehemiahs and the Levites reproof and Inhibition Neh. 8.10 rebuking and blaming the people for their varying so much as in shedding a Tear contrary to the same Secondly 2. The matter There is required special understanding and knowledg of the nature and worth of the mercy for which the Duty is undertaken for God will not be praised confusedly but distinctly and proportionably to his Dispensation Psa 150. Praise him according to his wonderous works which is to be the prime and peeper matter of their high praises even his more proper and peculiar high acts then to be remembred as is largely expressed in Moses praise for the particular mercy of coming safe through the red Sea Exod. 15. and Debora's

brought me high reproaches and disgraces Bell-joy Table-joy Musick-joy and Bonefire-joy in a day of Thanksgiving without the exercise of a greater measure of Scripture Light effectual Faith and practical Holiness in giving him high praises is but to do with our God as the fisher-man in Plutarch with his 2 Use of Exhortation to heighten Praises because God requires who for blessing him with a great draught of fish promised to give his god half but paid him by taking out all the fish for himself sent the shels to his god For prevention of which abominable sin against God in the observation of this your day let me now by way of Exhortation entreat you Gentlemen in the Name of that great God who hath of late so graciously heard and answered so many of your own and others prayers speaking for you now to hear and also obediently to answer the Counsel and Exhortation of God in this truth you have heard speaking unto you which is this That seeing the Praises of God are and ought to be high Praises that then both your selves and all others that would joyn with you to answer God in thankfulness for this or any other mercy received be careful and studious to raise and heighten their praise before they be returned The things that the Lord hath done for you all are not small and low but many great and high Favours be careful therefore that the thanks you return him to day be not formal common or ordinary but many great and raised praises unto which your hearts will the sooner be convinced to yeeld obedience in raising and heightning your praises if you consider with me these two things manifest in Scripture First That whensoever God requires praise to be returned for any mercy 1. Proportionable Praises he doth not only require it to be returned in kind but also in weight measure and proportion and that according to the greatness of his love manifested either in himself word or works towards them So Psal 29.1 2. Give unto God you mighty that is men of place and power give ye unto God glory and strength that is your highest and uttermost strength in giving him glory and why vers 2. Because this is his due from you that are mighty by way of proportion therefore give him the Glory due to his Name give him his full due in worshipping him in the beauty of holiness and Psal 66.2 the Spirit of God doth require of all Nations not only to sing forth the honor of his Name but to make his Praise glorious raise it to the height of beauty and greatness make his Praise as great as himself proportionable to his own greatness So Psal 145.3 Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and because the Psalmist adds that his Greatness is unsearchable he also infers that men must wonderfully gloriously and abundantly praise him in proportion thereunto from vers 3. to 7. They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness and declare thy greatness even proportionable to the excellency and height of it Psal 150.2 Praise him in his mighty acts and according to the excellency of his greatness Thus you see the first thing that God looks for proportionable praise great praise for a great God doing great things and high praises for a high God doing high things The second thing I would have you observe to move you to raise your praises for the mercy received before they be returned 2. Proper Praises is this That that goodness of God in delivering you out of prison wherein you were unjustly detained is a mercy of that nature that God in his Word hath required and expresly and particularly declared that he expects proper and special thanks and praise for the same as Psal 107.10 Such as sit in darkness being bound in affliction and iron these prisoners cryed unto the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them from their distress and brake their bands asunder Vers 13. What then doth the Lord expect from these praying and now delivered prisoners see Vers 15. Oh that they would praise the Lord for his goodness and declare his wonderful works in their deliverance to the sons of men because he brake the gates of brass and cut in sunder the bars of iron in which they were restrained by which you see That the Lord expects amongst all other mercies express praise for delivering men out of bonds which made David Psal 142.7 when he was imprisoned and shut up in the Cave and had the Army of Saul round about him seeking his blood use this as the strongest motive he could use to obtain his liberty That if God would grant him the same and set him at freedom he would then praise his Name Bring my Soul out of prison that I may then praise thy Name which I cannot do now so fully and freely as I would being in bonds And as he here promised praise unto God for liberty if he might obtain it so we see him as faithful and careful to perform it when he did enjoy it Psal 116.16 Lord I am thy servant the son of thy hand-maid and thou hast broken my bonds and set me at liberty and therefore I will offer unto thee the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving my thanks which I will return for my liberty shall be a Sacrifice without blemish or imperfection the first the best no low mean formal but high and masculine praises by which Gentlemen you may both be strengthned and justified against all gain-sayers in this your action in setting this day apart for this publique way of thankfulness unto God for your late enlargement seeing the Lord looks and expects it specially and proportionably therefore and also be now throughly incited seeing God looks for special praises for the mercy received to heighten your praises before they be returned 3Vse direction how to raise them which leads me to the third and last Use intended namely Direction from what hath bin spoken how to raise your thanks and make your praises high praises before and in their delivery which you shall effect if in relation to the high praises you are to give for this your special mercy in your enlargement you be careful to perform these two things 1. To raise their conception in your hearts inwardly 2. To heighten their expression in your lives outwardly For the first 1. Inwardly High praises must be heightned in womb and conceptions of the heart inwardly they must be of high discent and noble birth and therefore the heart which is the spring and fountain from whence high praises must arise must be enlivened and quickned with the seminal vertues from whence all high praises take their original which are these three especially 1. 1. By the deep sense of the danger in 4 particulars From a clear understanding and apprehension of the greatness of your misery under which you were enthralled 2. From an enlarged affection from the sense and

hands is not your own sword but the Sword of the Lord even the Sword that proceedeth out of his Mouth the Word of God which Word of God must be born in the hand of all those that have the high praises of God in their months that both hand and tongue celebration and action may concur in the expression of Gods high Praises Two ways were the expression of your praises verbally viz. by Celebration and Commemoration and two ways you must heighten them actually namely by the acts of Obligation and Vindication and these two are written on the two-edged sword in your hands I mean the Word of God which directs you actually to heighten your praises for your liberty First By acting with one edg of this Sword in fighting therewith for God and his glory Secondly By acting with the other edg of it in fighting therewith against Satan and all his rout and company whether they be Heathen Vulgar Kings or Nobles the former is accomplished in making your liberty a bond Obligation upon you to promote the worship and glory of God the latter by improving your liberty for due suppression and vindication against the Enemies of God First 1. By way of obligatiō to God Therefore convert your broken bonds and chains whereby you have been loosed from men into cords of love to bind you faster to glorifie God thus David actually expresseth his praise unto God for granting him liberty from men Psal 116. Because thou hast delivered my soul from death mine eyes from tears my feet from falling I will therefore walk before the Lord in the Land of the living And thus the Lord himself teacheth the people of Israel Exo. 20. to shew their thankfulness for being brought out of the house of bondage by making the consideration of it an Obligation to observe all his Commandments I am the Lord thy God that took thee out of the house of bondage therefore thou shalt have none other gods but me nor bow down to any other nor take my Name in vain but sanctifie my Sabbath So argue your hearts unto real thankfulness for your freedoms by making it an over-powering argument and a prevailing motive to ingage you to every duty which the Word of God shall call for at your hand when no other reason can perswade or motive induce you to be accurate and exact in walking with God or be strictly cautelous and abstemious from the occasions and appearance of evil then let the remembrance of your deliverance from prison out of Colchester overcome you to and resolve with David and declare That because when the snares of death and the sorrows of bondage did encompass you in so great extremity the Lord your God did so graciously and wonderfully deliver you therefore you will wholy give up your selves to do his Commands all the days of your lives under the engagement of the strongest bond and Obligation Secondly 2. By way of Vindication against his enemies Raise the actual expression of your praise with the two-edged Sword of God in your hand by improving your liberty by way of Vindication in executing vengeance upon the Heathen punishments upon the People by binding their Kings in chains and Princes in fetters of iron that is to execute the Judgment written according to the Rule of the Scripture in your Callings and Places to bring to condign punishment all the Enemies of God and his Church of what rank or order soever they be which you shall perform three ways Origen Ecumen Chrisost Moller according to the variety of Interpretations that are made of this act of Vindication and Execution of the Judgment Written mentioned in the Text 1. Morally 2. Instrumentally 3. Politically 1. Morally in your own persons as you are distinct Members of Christ in your selves without relation to others 2. Instrumentally in the Church as you are joynt Members of Christs Church in fellowship with others 3. Politically in the Common-wealth as you are Magistrates and in place of Government over others First As you are distinct Members of Christ 1. Morally so shew your thankfulness in executing the Judgment written against the Enemies of God Morally In your own bosoms are heathenish popular potent raigning Enemies of God against your heathenish sins execute the vengeance of penitential revenge and the punishments of self-condemning and self-judging against your popular sins the iron fetters of fasting and prayer and the spirit of mortification upon your potentate and predominate sins Secondly As you are joynt Members of Christs Church 2. Instrumentally shew your thankfulness in executing the Judgment Written Instrumentally as God hath taken the chains and fetters from your feet most graciously so do you in thankfulness therefore shew your uttermost endeavors to take off the bonds and chains that are upon Ordinances the Worship the Messengers of the Gospel ministerially so reasons and concludes Ezra God hath not forsaken us in our bondage but hath shewed us mercy that we might set up the House of our God and repair the desolations thereof It cannot be unknown unto you what desolations hath been made in the House of your God in his Worship against Christ Ministerial and Sacramental by heathenish popular royal and powerful Enemies I may truly say in the words of the Apostle Ephes 6. Flesh and blood principalities and powers worldly Governors of the darkness of this world and spiritual wickedness in high places have taken away the liberties thereof and subjected it to heathenish popular and royal bondage It is your duty and should be your work to be Instruments like Peters Angel to open the brazen gates and unhinge the prison doors that Christ Ministerial may be enlarged and that the Gospel may run and be glorious so shall you Instrumentally execute the Judgment Written upon the Gospel Enemies for by it the Kingdom of Christ shall be exalted the Heathen by the preaching of the Gospel converted from their Idolatries the People by Scripture conviction and reproofs reduced from their prophaneness and Heresies the Kings and Nobles bound in chains and iron fetters restraining their vices and bringing their persons under bonds and subjection to the Gospel 〈…〉 are Magistrates and Members of the Common-wealth show your thankfulness in executing the Judgment Written Politically where also you shall meet with many heathenish popular royal and potent Enemies to lawful Government and Magistracy whilst they are abettors and actors for Tyranny Injustice Oppression and Cruelty do you execute the Judgment written upon these and cast the chains and fetters of your power upon them by restraining them from evil by executing preventing Justice on some and by executing the vengeance of vindictive Justice upon the evil demerits of others so that as far as lieth in you all may be brought to condign punishment that manifestly and wilfully break those bonds asunder and cast away those cords from them wherewith and whereunto they were bound by our solemn League and Covenant God hath made many of you Magistrates in your respective habitations and divisions and so hath put chains and fetters into your hands wherewith to hamper and fetter to restrain and chastise the malefactors of all sorts and rank that are brought before you it will be a most acceptable Sacrifice to God and a real expression of your high praises to God for your own liberty to execute lawful political vengeance upon them and with your chains and fetters to overcome them by which means these your bonds shall become famous your praises for your liberty become glorious and God himself become propitious to you all in perpetuating your liberty and augmenting your felicities and thus the Lord himself by your high praises be exalted magnified and glorified and you your selves be rewarded and honored even with this honor that is peculiar to all and only his Saints to have the high praise of God in their mouths and a two-edged sword in their hands FINIS