Selected quad for the lemma: world_n
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B08933
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Divine consolations for mourners in Sion being an extract of certain choyce epistles of dying martyrs to each other and to their fellow prisioners for the cause of Christ, in the times of cruell and fiery persecution, wherein is much variety of suitable matter of meditation for all such who are burthened under the pressure of their sins and sorrows in these evil times.
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1664
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Wing D1719; ESTC W41420
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70,279
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130
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forget them nor you or any such like The blessing of God be with you all Amen Yours for ever unfeignedly John Careles A Letter of Thanks to a faithfull Friend of his by whom he had received much comfort in his inward troubles BLessed be God the Father of all mercy for the great comfort and Christian consolation which he hath so mercifully ministred unto my poor afflâ—cted heart by your means my most dear and faithful Brother Truly me thinketh your words or rather Gods words by you uttered have a wonderful power and efficacy working in my heart at the hearing or reading of them Rejoyce therefore my dear Brother and be thankful unto God for verily he both is and will be mightily magnified in you and that divers and many wayes both to the strengthning of them that stand in his Truth and also to the raising up of such as are faln from the same God make me thankful for you and on your behalf for verily great is the goodness of God towards me in giving me acquaintance in faithful love and amity with you Gods Name for ever be praised therefore and he perform all his merciful Promises upon you as I doubt not but he will for his sake in whom you trust I thank my God most heartily and also you my good Brother for that you are careful for me in your faithful Prayers remembring my just deserved sorrows as though they were your own and labouring so much to solace the same Ah my gracious good God what am I for whom thou and thy dear Children should be so careful Oh sweet Lord forgive me my great ingratitude and sin and grant that I never abuse thy great benefits Oh let the love of thine Elect which love me for thy sake be a sure sign and token yea a most firm testimony and a seal to my sinful Conscience of thine everlasting love and mercy towards me in Christ as verily it would and ought to be if mine infidelity did not let it Oh circumcise therefore the fore-skin of my heart that I may with lively Faith behold thy great love towards me in all thine Elect that I may alwayes be thankful for the same and love thee and them again most heartily and unfeignedly Ah my dear heart how sweetly and how truly yea how godly and how comfortably have yov rehearsed the sweet saying of Solomon concerning prosperity with true and godly friends What a treasure a trusty friend is I will joyn with it the Sentence which goeth a little before for doubtless it may be well verified on you A sure friend saith the Wise-man will be unto thee even as thine own Soul and deal faithfully with thy houshold folk If thou suffer trouble and adversity he is with thee and hideth not his face from thee A faithfull friend is a strong defence whose findeth such an one findeth a treasure A faithfull friend hath no peer the weight of gold is not to be compared to the goodness of his faith A faithfull friend is a medicine of life and they that fear the Lord shall finde him c. Lo my dear heart in the Lord here is a lively image or description of you for verily such an one have I alwayes found you unto me not onely sorrowing for my great sorrow but also oftentimes making me merry and joyful with such joyes as the world cannot feel There is no true friendship but amongst the godly Now let the world brag of his feigned friendship but I will boast of this true friendship in God and esteem it a more treasure then all transitory things And as for my mourning dear Brother God hath made you to turn it unto mirth for God hath put you in the stead of them to be my Comfort whom he hath in his great mercy taken away I trust henceforth to leave the mourning for my great loss and to praise God for gaining unto himself so great glory by his chosen children God make me a true mourner of Sion both for mine own sin and wickedness and also to see his honour defaced that I may be made meet and apt to hear the joyful and comfortable message that your beautiful feet shall bring me God bless thee my dear heart and faithful loving Brother and increase his good gifts of grace in thee as he hath most happily begun that you may daily more effectually feel and lively perceive the certainty of Gods grace wherein you stand and firmly to testifie the same to the Conversion or Confounding of all gainsayers and to the comfort and confirmation of all Gods dear children Amen Farewel mine own sweet Brother farewel as mine own heart Your own in Christ John Careles Another Letter of John Careles to a certain godly faithful Sister by the Name of E. K. THe grace and free mercy of God in Jesus Christ the sweet Consolations of the holy Ghost the guide of all Gods dear Children be with you strengthen and comfort you my dearly beloved sweet Sister E. K. now and ever Amen Albeit my dearly beloved Sister in Christ that as yet we did never see one another personally to any knowledge yet by the virtuous report that I have heard of you and also by the large loving Token that I have received from you methink that I do even presently see you and behold your person faithfully walking in the fear and love of God joying and rejoycing with you in the Spirit as though we were sweetly talking together of Christs Verity The Lord God do I humbly beseech in the bowels and blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that he will strengthen us both with his holy and mighty Spirit that we may constantly continue in the confession of his Truth unto the end that like as we now see one another presently in Spirit we may also see one another personally in the glorious presence of God and his holy Angels where undoubtedly we shall know one anothers personage to our great joy felicity and endless Comfort Preparation to the Cross And now therefore dear Sister K. be strong in the Lord our God for doubtless the time of triall is at hand a great persecution with cruel Murthering of Gods dear Saints is like to be very shortly in this woful wicked Realm of England Therefore dear Sister for the love of God prepare you to the Cross with all diligence and make your self ready to dye with Christ that you may also live with him for ever There is no remedy if you will be Christs disciple you must needs take up your Cross and follow him for the Disciple must not look to be above his Master nor the Servant to be better intreated then his Lord. If we were of the World good Sister no doubt the world would love us But forasmuch as Christ hath chosen us out of the world to serve God in Spirit Verity let us be well assured the World will hate us and persecute us as it hath done our
Lord and Master Christ But yet let us be of good chear for Christ hath overcome the World The pain is but short that we can feel here but the pleasure is perpetual that we shall feel elsewhere Let us set before us the Example of Christ which abode the Cross and despised the shame Consolation under the Cross in respect of the joy that was set before him even so let us consider for whose sake we suffer whose Cause we defend and what glorious Reward we shall have at the day of our victory and then doubtless the consolation of these things will make sweet all our sufferings and soon swallow up all the sorrows that we are sowled in for Gods sake I could recite divers Texts of the Scriptures to confirm this point but I need not for I am well assured that you do know them most perfectly already The Lord give you strength and assist you with his holy Spirit that you may continually walk in all points according to your godly knowledge And then shall you do not as the most part of your Gospellers do now adayes the more is the pity There are a great many in England that do perfectly know that the Idolatrous Mass is abominable devillish and detestable in the sight of God and yet alas they be not afraid to pollute and defile their bodies which ought to be the Temples of the holy Ghost with being present at it so sinning against God and their own Conscience But dear Sister K. do you fly from it both in body and Soul as you would fly from the very Devil himself Drink not of the Whore of Babylons Cup by no means for it will infect the Body and poison the Soul Be not partakers of her sins saith the Angel lest you be partakers of the Plagues that shortly shall be poured upon her O what an array is this that so many that know Gods Truth will now turn again and defile themselves in the filthy Puddle of Antichrists stinking Religion They go about to save their lives with their double dissimulation but doubtless they shall lose everlasting life by it if they do not Repent in time and turn unto the Lord. But dear sister my trust is that you do utterly abhorre the coming to any such thing I hope that you will not by any means turn back into Egypt now but that you will boldly venture through the Wilderness of Trouble and Persecution that you may come into the Land that floweth with all kinde of Heavenly pleasures and joyful delectations and possess the same for ever Let us consider how that every one of us doth owe unto God a death by nature and how soon the Lord will require it of us we know not Oh how happy are we then if God of his goodness appoint us to pay Natures debt with suffering for his Truth and Gospel sake and so making us his faithful Witnesses with the Prophets Apostles Martyrs and Confessors yea with his dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ to whom he doth here begin to fashion us like in suffering that we might be like him also in glory Thus my dearly beloved Sister I have been bold to trouble you a little with my rude and simple Letter being made in haste as it doth appear Yet I desire you to take it in good worth as a token of my poor zeal unto you and do accept my good will And if it please God to spare me life and liberty I trust hereafter to write unto you more largely Fare ye well dear Sister E. K. the Lord bless you and all yours and pour upon you the heavenly dew of his Grace The Lord indue you with plentiful knowledge of his Verity and fill you with his holy and mighty Spirit that you may continually rejoyce in the Comforts of the same now and ever Amen Pray pray pray with stedfast Faith Your daily Oratour John Careles Prisoner of the Lord. A Letter of John Careles to Mrs. Agnes Glascock THe everlasting peace of God in Jesus Christ the continuall ayd strength and comforts of his most pure holy and mighty Spirit be with you my dear and faithfull Sister Glascock to the good performance of that good work which God hath so graciously begun in you to his glory and the commodity of his poor afflicted Church and to your own eternal comfort in him Amen In our Lord I have most humble and hearty commendations unto you my dear Sister and most faithful Mother Glascock with all remembrance of you in my daily Prayers giving God most hearty land praise and thanks for you and on your behalf in that he of his great mercy hath hitherto so mightily strengthned you constantly to cleave unto your Captain Christ notwithstanding the great assaults and manifold temptations that you have had to the contrary Doubtless dear heart it cannot be expressed what joy and comfort it is unto my very Soul to see how mightily the Lord hath magnified himself in you and other his dear elect darlings whom he will shortly glorifie with himself as he hath done other of his sweet Saints that are gone before you Rejoyce therefore and be glad for verily you have good cause if you diligently consider the great dignity that God hath called you unto even in your old age to be one of his worthy Witnesses unto the World and I think you shall with me and other your Brethren in Bonds seal the Lords Verity with the Testimony of your Blood Surely sweet Sister What an high honour it is to suffer for Christ this is the greatest promotion that God can bring you or any other unto in this life and an honour that the highest Angel in Heaven is not permitted to have Therefore happy are you Oh faithful daughter of Abraham that the Lord will now preferre you before many other yea or any other of your age that I do know in England Oh faithful and virtuous Matron which wilt not be moved from the sure Rock Christ upon whom you have so firmly built your house that neither storms nor tempests neither yet Hell gates or any other temptations shall ever be able once to prevail against it Full well doth it appear by your constant continuance that you have played the part of a wise builder in counting the Cost aforehand belonging to the finishing of your Tower and I doubt not but through Gods gift you have sufficient to the performance thereof that the Hypocrites of their part shall have no just cause to triumph against you or to mock you saying Lo this woman began to build but is not able to make an end Therefore go on boldly and fear not for God is faithfull as S. Paul saith which will not suffer you to be tempted above your strength but either will he give you grace and strength to stand unto the death which is the gate and entrance into life or else he will make such an out-scape for you as shall be to the setting forth of