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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	bear_v	faith_n	overcome_v	4,249	5	9.4129	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23734	The government of the thoughts a prefatory discourse to The government of the tongue / by the author of The whole duty of man.	Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681.; Pakington, Dorothy Coventry, Lady, d. 1679.; Fell, John, 1625-1686.; Sterne, Richard, 1596?-1683.	1694 (1694)	Wing A1131; ESTC R16378	90,774	192

Assurance Sanctification and the Spirit and Fervency of Prayer If so be comforted For as the Solar Eclipse and Descension of Light towards us can be discerned by no Lustre but it s own so neither can the want of Grace be possibly discerned by any thing but Grace Hast thou a hearty desire to have these wants of Grace supplyed Then that very holy Ambition is Grace it self without which thou couldst not desire it Our blessed Lord in his Sermon on the Mount Math. 5.6 pronounces Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after Righteousness for they shall be filled God will never desert that Soul which desireth him and his saving health None can hunger but the Living and none hungers for Grace but he that subsisteth by it But then thy desire of that Seed must be ardent not languid such as cannot rest unsatisfied with any thing else in the World 8. THERE may be an Enervate and Oblique appetite of Salvation in Balaam for fear of Damnation but he more loved the Wages of Unrighteousness The happiest thirsts for the Waters of Life and afflicteth the Soul till it be obtained and enjoys no rest or peace without it So that indeed this very State which so much afflicteth thee is the most secure and happy and thou shalt once know that which one said in the happy Event of his unhappy Shipwrack We had perished if we had not thus perished And when thou hast received the Spirit of God in such a measure as thereby to discern the things that are freely given thee of God then thou shalt find That Blessed is the Man whom the Lord chasteneth and teacheth in his Law that he may give him rest from his days of adversity Psal. 94.12 13. 9. MAKE that inquest with thy Soul whether ever thou wert possest of that which thou art now sensible thou wantest If so be assured it shall revive again and finally overcome For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the World and this is the Victory that overcometh the World even our Faith 1 John 5.4 And this sense and sorrow is a signal of the recovery of the health of thy most precious part thy Soul as the seven times Neezing of the Shunamite's Child presaged his reviving 2 Kings 4.35 If thou never yet enjoyd'st the Grace which thou now beginnest to be sensible of it now evidently is apparent thou shalt acquire it for this internal perplexity is but as the motion of the Waters of Bethesda a certain Prognostick of a healing Power descending on thee 10. NEXT ask thy self according to that saying of the Prophet Jer. 2.17 Hast thou not procured this unto thy self Even this which thou now complainest of Hast thou not neglected the appointed means If want of Faith perplex thee hast thou not negligently heard the Gospel Hast thou laid it up in a Solicitous Heart Hast thou valued it and begged it fervently and frequently of God above all things in the World Thou art querulous for want of the Spirit of Prayer Hast thou not neglected this Duty formerly and dost thou now duly prepare thy self for that holy Office Dost thou use that vigilancy which Christ enjoyn'd of Watch and Pray by recalling thy profane and wandring Thoughts from their Extravagancies and all attention of Spirit fixing them on the Holy Jesus Thou art sensible thy Heart Tongue nor Actions are not Sanctimonious Appeal to thy own Conscience and then tell me if thou hast not heretofore us'd all Arts and sollicited all things to appear in the throng to drown the loud checks of that voice within thee and hast looked upon it as thy utter Enemy Now if thou wouldst cease the Effect remove the Occasion duly observe God's holy Ordinances and he will infallibly perform his Promises 11. ENQUIRE whether thou dost not persevere in some habitual sin It is a great folly to cry out of the Heat and still cast oyl on the Fire If it be an Achan's Wedge hidden search for the Cursed thing Josh. 7.25 26. and the Plague in thine own heart 1 Kings 8.38 And by removing the Impediment and Obstruction thou shalt be Comforted If it be a sleeping Jonah cast him over-board And as Eliphaz said to Job If thou return to the Almighty thou shalt be built up thou shalt put iniquity far from thy Tabernacles The Almighty shall be thy defence then shalt thou have delight in the Almighty and shalt lift up thy face unto God Thou shalt make thy Prayer unto him and he shall hear thee Job 22.23 c. 12. TO reduce what has been said into practice follow these Rules Give an audit to God's Word preparedly that is renew thy Repentance and Invocate the Father of Lights to Illuminate thee that thou mayst be a Reverend and an Attentive Auditor Faith comes by Hearing so doth Sanctification God's Spirit operating upon his own Ordinance to make it Active The occasion why so many hear so often and so few so seldom practise and receive true Comfort by it is for want of a due preparation resembling them that sow among Thorns Let Faith and all Christian Graces be valuable to thee for his sake who is the Author of all our Happiness How few set a right Estimate on Heavenly things till it be too late Mundane Vanities are Rated high and often purchased at a dear Rate but where are those that rise Early rest Late Eat the Bread of Carefulness venture Sea and Land to obtain the holy City even the New Jerusalem Be eager in the pursuit of these things thou standst in need of and the Almighty will not with-hold them from thee 13. OUR Saviour affirms to us John 7.38 39. He that believeth in me out of his Belly shall flow Rivers of Living Waters That is fluency of Graces proceeding from the Holy Ghost If thou wilt labour and endeavour to attain unto this Faith chase away all Obstructions that do oppose thee For a Resolution to persevere in any known Sin and True Faith are inconsistent An obdurate Heart is like the great stone on the mouth of the Well at Padan-Aram which kept Men back from the Waters of Refreshment These Impediments I say must first be removed for sin in the Affections is like a venomous Toad in the Mouth of the Fountain obstructing the Waters of Life 14. CONSIDER the Operation of the Almighty in thee and compare thy misfortunes with others If thou art not heard by the Great Being perhaps thy Supplication is not consonant to his Will For his design is to save thee and infallibly to bless thee and if he performs that by a means suitable to Omnipotency wilt thou be impatient with Naaman if thou art not healed according to thy way which thou proposest Is not it enough that he will effect that which is properest and best for thee and canst thou pretend to outvie his Wisdom Perhaps he thinks it requisite to try thy perseverance and patience whereof I confess I know no severe object than an opinion

shall be Established Prov. 16.3 and by filling thy Soul with such happy thoughts as constant Meditation or God's Word will furnish thee And Wisdom as a Monitor advises thee Ecclus. 6.37 Let thy mind be upon the Ordinances of the Lord and meditate continually on his Commandments he shall establish thine Heart and give thee Wisdom at thine own desire Overcome thine own Mind and in every thing as much as possibly thou canst subject it to right Reason and let not Affection or Passion master it 12. SET thy Mind ever upon some good to prevent the rising of evil Thoughts that the Tempter may never find thee at leisure to entertain him The Mind is naturally active and prone to thoughts Even when thou lyest Dormant it hath its Motions Imploy it then in some Business it cannot be Idle As the Earth neglected for want of Culture bringeth forth noisom Weeds so will the Mind evil and vain extravagant Thoughts if it be not duly Cultivated Often the light of Reason is Eclipsed by the mischievous interposition of vicious Thoughts Yet perplex not thy Mind with too much or too weighty Affairs Proportion thy undertakings to thy Strength The Mind requireth some intermissions and rest which otherwise like the Fields with perpetual Bearing will grow Fruitless The Unballanced Ship is easily Overset with every gust of Wind And too much Burden Sinketh her 13. THERE is an Ark of God's secret Counsel which our thoughts must not pry into There are also admirable Mysteries from whence God calleth out of the fiery Bush Exod. 3.2 5. Come not nigh hither put off thy Shoes from off thy Feet c. Resign thy Thoughts to God's Immensity It is enough to believe his Truth tho thou canst not examine his incomprehensible Secrets If thou wilt play with these Flames thou wilt burn thy Wings God hath revealed suficiently enough to make thee Happy Ambition of knowing more destroyed Mankind 14. COMMUNE with thine own Heart concerning that which may advantageously make thee Happy Divine Soliloquies are Heavenly Raptures and the Soul's prepossession of that Blessedness Inure thy Heart to ponder on good and heavenly things and such will thy Thoughts Words and Actions be The Heart of the Wise teacheth his Mouth says Solomon Prov. 16.23 Custom grows habitual therefore also the Wise man saith Wisdom resteth in the heart of him that hath Vnderstanding Prov. 14.33 If the Wicked the worst of Fools have any notion thereof it can no more rest with them than Lightning in the Air. 15. TAKE the Prophet's advice Jer. 17.10 To set God ever before thee as a Searcher of hearts And that which thou wouldst detest to speak before others abhor to think with thy self Thoughts are the words of the Heart which God heareth who therefore saith Matt. 9.4 Wherefore think you Evil in your hearts And Solomon gives us this Charge Eccles. 10.20 Curse not the King no not in thy Thought Thou must be pure in Heart if ever thou meanest to see God Let not thy Heart dissent from thy Tongue neither desire to appear more Holy than thou art if thou intendest to please him who is Omniscient 16. PRAY and beseech the Lord with the earnest Supplication of the Psalmist to Create a clean heart and to renew a right Spirit within thee Psal. 51.10 To encline thy heart unto his Testimonies Psal. 119.36 Then Pray with the Prophet Jer. 24.7 That God would give thee a heart to know him To prepare thy Heart that thou mayst truly fear him Meditate on him and Love him above all And That he who cast out the tumultuous Rabble from Jairus's House would also be pleased to cast out of thy Soul and Mind all those thoughts which offend him or hinder the raising up thy Soul to the life of Grace here whereby it may be fit for the life of Glory hereafter CHAP. VI. Of the affections of Love and Delight FOR the right governing the Thoughts arising from some particular Affections or Passions which usually discompose and render the Mind less apt for the Service of God and less comfortable to our selves we must ever have in mind the General Rule before laid down that extream and violent Passions of any kind are Distempers of the Soul which at best befool a Man if not as Hypocrates thinketh maketh him Lunatick they are like a Deluge which rather overflow and drown than refresh the Mind they are like an enraged Sea full of hazard they disturb the Intellectuals and distract the Will Behold how all things in troubled Waters seem wreathed and disordered which in the still are clearly seen so is it here The calm Affections are more fit for God's Service and our own 2. LOVE and Delight are great Actors in this present Life and every Man hath some share in them Now our main skill is to fix 'em on right Objects as God Psal. 37. and upon heavenly Things as St. Paul directs us Col. 3.1 By this means we cannot fall into any Excess but shall be undoubtedly happy that we pervert not the Order we must not delight in or love any object but God let him be our first and chief Love and Delight and we shall have Felicity in all that is subordinate 3. LET no inferiour Love or Delight allure us away from him who is perfect Love Tho there is a time place and measure for Secular Delights so far as they are subordinate to God's Will which may make us fit for his Service and administer occasion of Expressions of Thankfulness to him But if on the contrary they prove hurtful to us if God loves us he will take that away from us which else would wean us from him A necessary Rule for them to consider who too impatiently bear the loss of that they so much loved or delighted in 4. LET us neither love nor delight in any temporal things otherwise than to hold it with a loose Hand and let us follow the Apostles advice 1 Cor. 7.31 To use this World as not abusing it for the fashion of this World passeth away And St. John commands us in his first Epistle chap. 2.15 That we should not love the World nor the things that are in the World We must be contented to part with all when God in his good pleasure sees convenient It was Job's Resolution chap. 1.21 The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away and blessed be the name of the Lord. CHAP. VII Of Joy CONCERNING Joy Rejoicing and Mirth the Rules are That God would not have us disconsolate but to rejoice and be cheerful in him evermore 1 Thess. 5.16 Melancholy Dejectedness worldly Sorrow bitterness of Spirit and secret repining against God's Providence are dangerous Symptoms of Incredulity For if as the Apostle says Rom. 5.1 Being justified by Faith we have peace of Conscience and cheerful access to God through Christ there will be joy in the Holy Ghost We shall rejoice in hope and glory in our Tribulations being assured of a blessed issue

of Confusion and every evil Work James 3.14 15 16. It is the mischievous Canker which nippeth the choicest Buds of Vertue attempting either to cloud them with Incredulity by reason the Envious cannot attain thereto or labouring to blast them with impious Calumnies 3. I need not here cite the Example of Antigones and Teutamus Conspiring against the truly Noble Eumenes or of Philip's Sycophants against Aratus Nor of Domitians envying Agricola his worth Nor Saul's envying David Cain Abel Rachel her Sister the Patriarchs Joseph Seeing it is manifest that Christ Jesus in whom were all Perfections was envyed There 's nothing so little but stimulateth it Nothing so Sacred or High but this Hellish Fury will flie at Joseph's Party-Coloured Coat awaken'd it and it was vigilant to strike at the Saviour of the World The Natals hereof were in Lucifer envying God's Monarchy and ambitious to share in his Sovereignty 4. NATURAL Historians acquaint us of some Countries free from Serpents but who can inform me of any barren of Envy I doubt it is the common Plague that visits all places Like those Croaking Plagues of Egypt which did not spare Pharoahs Bed-Chamber it deludeth the Country with False Opticks thinking our Neighbours Fields more Fruitful than our own 'T is a Monster not of Gods making but born of depraved Affections as Anger Fear Jealousie Self-Love which creates Indignation if another attain to a Happy and Prosperous Condition Envy thinks all the World too little for its own Orifice All this availeth me nothing so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the Kings Gate said ambitious Haman in his Envy Esth. 5.13 And again To whom would the King delight to do Honour more than to my self Chap. 6.6 CHAP. XI Arguments to be Considered by way of Dissuasion against Envy THAT Envy hurteth the Invidious most is apparent that there is not a greater Torment invented by the worst of Tyrants Nothing can be more unjust to others nor nothing more just to themselves The Serpent's Poyson infecteth not himself but Envy proves fatal to them that embrace it For as the Moth eateth the Garment which breeds it and as the Rust consumes the Iron so Envy preys upon the Mind that entertains it It is more Miserable that can be expressed for it is not only afflicted with its own Misfortune but it is disquieted at others Exhiliration Whatever is a Pleasure to others is but a Torment to him Another Man's Store is the Envious Man's Want another Man's Health is his Sickness and another Man's Praises his reputed Dishonour 2. OTHER Sins have some Remisness Anger will waste it self in time Hatred may be extinguished in the end but Envy never ceaseth Fierce Lyons are Tamed and become Tractable but the Envious grow worse and worse The more Christ did good to the Jews curing their Sick healing their Infirm and bestowing the words of Eternal Life upon them the more destructively did they Envy him It is the Canker that blasteth Friendship The corruption of Life and plague of Nature It is the Devil 's incentive to Rebellion who when he could not in his Malice hurt God assailed Man For it instigated Cain to Murder his Brother Abel and the Jews to Crucifie the Saviour of the World 3. BESIDES it hath irrational Effects It would stop up the Fountains and vail the Sun-beams It regardeth neither bounds of natural Civility or Religion Rachel Envied her Sister Gen. 31. Jacob's Sons their Brother Joseph Gen. 37.11 The Jews the very Preaching and Hearing the Gospel Acts 13.45 It is the rottenness of the Bones Prov. 14.30 It slayeth the Silly Job 5.2 And lastly it excludeth from Heaven for what should Envy lay claim to so bless'd a Habitation where there is nothing but love and rejoicing in each other's Happiness 4. FURTHERMORE it is a perverse Distemper of a diseased Mind rendring the Envious his viewing of the good of others as it were with sore Eyes grieved with seeing It delighteth and triumpheth in Men's Miseries As Flies feed themselves upon others Ulcers so the Envious propose to themselves a pleasant Entertainment by Discoursing upon others Misfortunes and Afflictions And to set a gloss upon their Hypocrisie they will sometimes personate the Compassionate and Merciful and like subtil Alchymists pretend to Extract Pity when indeed it is only to stretch their Malice to a larger Extent by which means it might not be acquainted with any Limitations 5. SOMETIMES Proteus like they will pretendedly act on the Theatre of Justice then will they seem zealous of Laws and due Punishment of Delinquents when indeed they do but pervert Judgment into Wormwood and Kill or Rob by Authority whom they durst not Assassinate or Assault by the Sword or open Violence Sometimes they will assume larget pretences of Sanctity appearing like the Devil at Endor in the Prophet Samuel's Mantle performing some things externally good whereby they may atchieve some greater Evil. Even so the false Apostles Preached Christ of meer Envy to St. Paul that they might add more affliction to his Bonds Phil. 1.15 16. 6. IT is at best but a fruit of the Flesh Gal. 5.21 Meer Folly Tit. 3.3 Devilish Sensual Earthly St. James 3.14 15. A dangerous Signal of a Reprobate Mind given up to Destruction Rom. 1.28 29. The most that Envy can acquire towards its own Satisfaction is to Mourn when others Rejoice and possibly to hurt Temporally with its own external Destruction of Body and Soul To define it further It is no better than the Spirit of Satan reigning in the Envious 7. THIS Mischief sometimes craftily steals on incautious good Men As Joshua was Envied for Moses's sake Num. 11.28 29. And the Psalmist confesseth My feet saith he were almost gone for I was Envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the Wicked Psal. 73.2 3. The Prophet Jeremiah and Habakkuk were a little infected with this Contagion which the Scripture as a Monitor admonisheth all Men to beware of that Snare which entrapped such good Men. 8. THE acts thereof are inconsistent with right Reason if we respect the Supream Giver of that which stimulateth Envy for how irrational a presumption is it in Man to controll the providence of God If Jacob's Eyes wax dim with Age and would not permit his dear Joseph to alter the Imposition of his Hands or to transpose the Blessing at his pleasure how much less will the all-seeing God permit the Envious Man to pervert his Hands Next we must respect the quality of the Envied Is he Evil whom thou Enviest Then thy Compassion is summon'd to pity him because his Sin represents him more Wretched than all the World can do Is he Good How guilty then must thou be in Envying his Felicity CHAP. XII Remedies against Envy ENDEAVOUR to put on Christ and then thou art sure to chase away Envy It is the Apostle's Rule Rom. 13.13 14. Let us walk honestly as in the day not in Strife and Envying but put