Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	article_n	believe_v	creed_n	2,820	5	10.5298	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92883	A funeral gift: or, a preparation for death With comforts against the fears of approaching death: and consolations against immoderate grief, for the loss of friends. By the author of The devout companion.	Seller, Abednego, 1646?-1705.	1690 (1690)	Wing S2452A; ESTC R215121	60,167	186

Mortification for times of Sickness and old Age when 't will be easie to leave their Pleasures because their Pleasures will leave them yet in the Judgment of God the Son the Word and Wisdom of the Father 'T is the part of a Block-head and a Fool to make Account of more years than he is sure of days or hours XI He is a Sot as well as a Sinner who does adjourn and shift off the Amendment of his Life perhaps till twenty or thirty or forty years after his Death 'T is true indeed that Hezekiah whilst he was yet in the Confines and Skirts of Death had a Lease of Life granted no less than fifteen years long but he deferr'd not his Repentance one day the longer 2 Kings 20.6 XII And shall we adventure to live an hour in an impenitent Estate who have not a Lease of Life promised no not so much as an hour shall we dare enter into our Beds and sleep securely any one Night not thinking how we may awake whether in Heaven or in Hell we know 't is timely Repentance which must secure us of the one and 't is final impenitence which gives us assurance of the other XIII What the Apostle of the Gentiles hath said of wrath may be as usefully spoken of every other provoking Sin Ephes 4.6 Let not the Sun go down upon it Let us not live in any Sin until the Sun is gone down because we are far from being sure we shall live till Sun-rising XIV How many Professors go to sleep when the Sun is gone down and the Curtains of the Night are drawn about them in a State of Drunkenness or Adultery in a State of Avarice or Malice in a State of Sacriledge or Rebellion in a State of Deceitfulness and Hypocrisie without the least Consideration how short a time they have to live and how very much shorter than they imagine XV. Yet unless they believe the y can Dream devoutly and truly repent when they are sleeping they cannot but know they are damn'd for ever if the Day of the Lord shall come upon them as a Thief in the Night and catch them napping in their impieties 1 Thes 5.2.4 2 Pet. 3.10 XVI Consider this all ye that forget God lest he pluck you away and there be none to deliver you Psal 50.22 Consider it all ye that forget your selves that forget how few your days are and how full of Misery Consider your Bodies from whence they came and consider your Souls whither they are going Consider your Life is in your Breath and your Breath is in your Nostrils and that in the management of a moment for the better or for the worse there dependeth either a joyful or a sad Eternity XVII If our time indeed were certain as well as short or rather if we were certain how short it is there might be some Colour or Pretence for the putting off of our Reformation But since we know not at what hour our Lord will come Matth. 24.42 43 44. this should mightily engage us to be hourly standing upon our watch Hab. 2.1 XVIII Next let us consider that if our days which are few are as full of trouble it should serve to make us less fond of Living and less devoted to Self-preservation and less afraid of the Cross of Christ when our Faith shall be called to the severest Tryals XIX O Death saith the Son of Sirach Eccles 41.2 acceptable is thy Sentence to the Needy and to him that is vexed with all things The troubles incident to Life have made the bitter in Soul to long for Death and to rejoyce exceedingly when they have found the Grave Job 3.20 21 22. XX. If the Empress Barbara had been Orthodox in believing Mens Souls to be just as mortal as their Bodies Death at least would be capable of this Applause and Commendation that it puts a Conclusion to all our Troubles XXI If we did not fear him Who can cast both Body and Soul into Hell Matth. 10.27 28. We should not need to fear them Who can destroy the Body only because there is no Inquisition in the Grave Eccles 41.4 There the wicked cease from troubling And there the weary are at rest There the Prisoners lye down with Kings and Councellors of the Earth The Servant there is free from his Master There is sleep and still silence nor can they hear the voice of the Oppressour Job 3.14 17 18 19. The Prayer O Lord God of my Salvation thou hast delivered me from the Captivity and Bondage of Sin and Misery fill my Heart with holy Sorrow and Compunction whenever I trespass against thee and teach me so to deny my self to mortifie my Affections to crucifie my Lusts and all the Temptations of the Flesh that I going on my way Mourning and Weeping despising the Pleasures of this Life may when thy great Harvest shall come and thy Reapers the Angels shall separate the Wheat from the Tares come before thee with Joy and escape everlasting Burnings through the Mercies of Jesus Christ Amen Meditation XXXI The Sick Man's last Will and Testament IN the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost I a poor Sinner of sound and perfect Memory being daily read in the Lecture of Man's Mortality how all Flesh is Grass and the Beauty thereof as the Flower of the Field which this day flourisheth to morrow withereth and that it is every Chriftian's Duty to Prepare himself before Death come lest it find him unprovided at such time as it shall approach II. Moved I say with these Considerations I have here made this my last Will and Testament as followeth First I bequeath my Soul into the hands of my gracious Redeemer by whose most precious Blood I was Ransomed and by whose Merits and Mercies I hope to be Glorified III. And forasmuch as there was no safety out of the Ark nor no Salvation now without the pale of the Church figured by the Ark and that the Tares from the Wheat must be severed And the Sheep and the Goats must not into one Fold be gathered IV. Here in the Presence of God and his Holy Angels for the discharge of my own Conscience and the Satisfaction of others who perchance have in their Opinions been divided doubting much how I in Points of Religion stood affected do I make a free and publick Confession of my Faith Being that Cement by which we are knit unto her and made Members of her V. I believe the Holy Catholick Church to be the Communion of the Faithful whereof I desire to live and die a Member to suffer for which I should account it an Honour holding this ever for a Principle that none can have God for his Father that will not take this Holy Spouse the Church for his Mother VI. There is no Article in the Apostles Creed which I do not believe for Catholick and Orthodoxal with the Exposition thereof and every Clause or Particle thereof in such manner as it hath been universally

received by the Holy Catholick Church and holds in Consent or Harmony with the Holy Scripture the Christians Armour by which and the constant Practice of Piety every faithful Soldier of Christ may be enabled to pull down those strong Holds of his spiritual Enemy and by Possessing his Soul in Patience obtain a glorious Victory VII With all due Reverence I esteem of those two Sacraments Baptism and the Lord's Supper the one to cleanse and purifie us at our entring the other to strengthen and sanctifie us Living and to glorifie our Souls at their departing As with my Heart I believe unto Righteousness so with my Mouth do I confess unto Salvation VIII Neither do I profess my self such a Solifidian asto hold Faith sufficient to Salvation without Works Neither such a Champion for good Works as to hold Works effectual without Faith As Faith is the Root so are Works the Fruit. These are ever to go hand in hand together otherwise that fearful Curse which our blessed Saviour sometimes pronounced upon the barren Fig-tree must be their Censure IX And now in this day of my Change as in this Confidence I have ever liv'd so my Trust is that in the same I shall dye that in the Resurrection of my Saviour Christ Jesus is my Hope And in his Ascension is my Glory For I believe that my Redeemer liveth and that with these Eyes I shall see him X. And having thus returned a due Account of my belief my next thing is to remember that Message returned by Isaiah the Son of Amos to Hezekiah set thine House in Order for thou shalt die 2 Kings 20.1 for it is a Maxim when the outward part is orderly disposed the inward cannot chuse but be better prepared XI To remove then from me the Cares of this present Life that I may take a more willing adieu of the World before I leave it weaning my desires from it by addressing my self to a better for live he cannot in the Land of the living who prepares not himself for it before his arriving XII And now my Worldly Cares are drawn near unto their Period Seeing then I am sailing towards my Harbour let me strike Anchor that taking the Wings of the Morning I may fly to the Bosome of my dear Redeemer go forth then my Soul what fearest thou Go forth why tremblest thou thou hast had enough of these Worldly Pleasures for what foundst thou there but Anguish turn then thy Face to the Wall and think of the I and of Promise XIII Thou hast now but a little time left thee the remainder whereof is justly exacted by him that made thee Sighs Sobs Prayers and Tears are all the Treasures that are left thee and precious Treasures shall these be to thee if presented by Faith to the Throne of mercy for the Enemy can never prevail where Christian Fear and constant hope possesseth the Soul XIV Let thy desire then be planted where thy Treasure is placed and as one ravished with a spiritual Fervour cry out and spare not with that devour Father St. Hierom Saying Should my Mother tear her Hair rent her Cloaths lay forth those Breasts which nursed me and hang about me should my Father lye in the way to stop me my Wife and Children weep about me I would throw off my Mother neglect my Father contemn the Lamentation of my Wife and Children to meet my Saviour XV. And less than this O my Soul thou canst not do if thou callest to mind what thou leavest to whom thou goest and what thou hast in Exchange for that thou losest For what dost thou leave here but a World of Misery to whom goest thou but to a God of Mercy and what haft thou in Exchange for a vile frail and corruptible Body but immortal Glory Whatsoever thou hadst here was got with Pain kept with Fear and lost with Grief whereas now thou art to possess eternal Riches without Labouring and to enjoy them without fear of losing The Prayer O God my Heart then is ready my Heart is ready too long have I sojourned here and made my self a Stranger to my Heavenly Countrey It is high time for me then to discamp and to leave these Tents of Kedar that I may rest without Labouring rejoyce without sorrowing and live without dying in the Celestial Tabor saying with that Vessel of Election I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ even so Lord Jesus come quickly A Prayer when we hear a Bell ring for a Person at the Point of Death OEternal God I humbly thank thee for speaking in this voice to my Soul and I humbly beseech thee also to accept my Prayers in his behalf by whose occasion this voice this sound is come to me For though he and all of us have highly offended thee yet do thou in mercy receive us and grant that now his Soul being ready to depart from hence to thy Kingdom it may quickly return to a joyful re-union to that Body which it hath left and that we with it may soon enjoy the full Consummation of all in Body and Soul II. I humbly beg at thy hand O merciful God for thy Son Christ Jesus sake That thy Blessed Son may have the Consummation of his Dignity by entring into his last Office the Office of a Judge and may have Society of humane Bodies in Heaven as well as he hath had ever of Souls and that as thou hatest Sin it self thy hate to sin may be exprest in the abolishing of all Instruments of Sin the Allurements of this World and the World it self and all the temporary Revenges of Sin the Stings of Sickness and of Death and all the Castles and Prisons and Monuments of Sin in the Grave III. Let time be swallowed up in Eternity and hope swallowed in Possession and ends swallowed in infiniteness and all Men ordained to Salvation in Body and Soul be one intire and everlasting Sacrifice to thee where thou mayst receive Delight from them and they Glory from thee for evermore Amen Meditation XXXII Of this Life compared with Eternity FOrasmuch as Man who is born of a Woman hath but a short time to live and is full of Trouble so Man as regenerate and born of God hath a long time to live and is full of Bliss A Life so long that it runs parallel with Eternity and therefore without an abuse we cannot use such an Expression as length of time II. It is not a long but an endless Life it is not Time but Eternity which now I speak of Nor is it a wretched Eternity of which a Man may have the Priviledge as he is born of a Woman but an Eternity of Bliss which is competent to him only as born of God III. And of this Bliss there is such a fulness that our Heads are too thick to understand it Or if we were able to understand it yet our Hearts are too narrow to give it Entrance Or if our Hearts could