Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	according_a	dead_a	open_v	5,113	5	8.1423	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93781	Spiritual infatuation, the principal cause of our past and present distempers. Or a serious caveate to the many seducers and seduced who under the specious pretences of reformation and conscience endeavour the subversion of Church and State. In several sermons on Isa. 9,10,11,12. By W. Stamp D.D. late minister of the Word at Stepn[e]y near London.	Stampe, William, 1611-1653?	1662 (1662)	Wing S5195; ESTC R229850	116,158	268

Angels hath given this priviledge unto m●n He may take his choise whether he will be judged Here or Hereafter by himself or by another God hath made us all Ch●ncelours ●n our own Causes with this proviso That if we will deal truly and impartial●y with our selves that is if we will Summon our selves to ●ppear before our selves arraign our selves before the Tribunal of our own Consciences and there Examine Indite convict and condemn our selves we shall not come into any further condemnation If we would judge our selves we should not be judged of the Lord. But if we will not judge our selves we must stand or fall according to the Sentence of another Most Certain it is that we must all appear before the Iudgement seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad S Iohn in a vision saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which was the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works They are Books in the plural that shall be opened The Book o● Nature The Book of the scripture The Book of Conscience And out of these books several accu●…ons will be framed The Divel that Grand ac●use● will s●and so●th and plead against us The abused Creature will accuse us of excesse and luxurie The souls of the holy martyrs will 〈◊〉 us with oppression and blood gu●…i●…e The Sacred Oracles of God will 〈◊〉 ●s with infidel●ty a●d Contempt and our own guilty Consciences instead of pleading for us will give up a verdict against us The only way th●n to supersede the judgement of that day is to call our selves to an account beforehand To agree with our adversary quickly whilst we are in the way lest we be delivered up unto the Iudge and the Iudge send us to that prison from whence there is no Redemption To ri●le every cranny and co●ner of our hearts To bring sorth our murthering lusts our bosom Traytors and to use them as Ioshua did the five Kings that were hid in the cave of Makkedah that is set our feet upon their necks and slay them in the sight of all the world And this if we do we shall not fail of such a part in the first Resurrection as will secure us from the blow both of the second death and second judgement also So that it is in our own choise who shall pass sentence upon us whether our own selves or else some other person And what shall we be able to say for our selves in that great and terrible day of the Lord why the sentence of eternal death should not pass upon us when God hath given us the space of 10 20 30 40 50 60 years for the performance of so easie a task so reasonable a service and we have not done it We see with what malicious dexterity and boldness blood-thirsty and deceitful men manage the Tryals and des●gn the executions of persons of the highest quality and merit but how cold how dull and indisposed in enquiring after the guilt of their own wretched souls Certainly such men as they may be thought to be strongly infected with this disease of Infatuation so it may be feared they are very far removed out of the way of their recovery who have so much of other arens so little of their own guilt before their eyes A Cure then ye see there is for the Infauated soul and the first step to that Bethesda pool which cureth all diseases is by a descent of humiliation But do not mistake your selves It is not every s●gh or sad look no nor every tear that concludes a solid humiliation for sin There is a great difference between an humble man and a man that is humbled there are many of us God help us that are humbled and driven into great straits and extremities persons that have lived in their own Countries with great charity and hospitality towards others that have neither what to eat nor wherewithal to be clothed themselves And yet I fear were our purses as full of silver as our hearts are full of sin we should soon find the way to our former pride and luxury Physitians are wont to cure vomiting by a vomit and bleeding by letting of blood And truly the best cure I can prescribe for all our secular sorrows is by adding more sorrow and compunction for our sins then I fear resides in our dejected spirits I have dwelt long enough upon the severe● part of the Cu●e it may be demanded of me what are the messages of the Gospel to be delivered by Boanerges the sons of thunder Sure the world has ●ore then enow of such that take a great deal of pains to bring men unto Hell ga●e● by representing unto them the horrors of a damned Condition and the i●re●overable Estate of all the world besides themselves but then their Art fails them in bringing them back again They can bring the soul into a deep dejection but they know not how to raise it again They are good at the Corrasive but to seek in the application of the Cordial Like our Refo●mers in England they are de●…erous in p●l●ing down but they know not how or what to build in the place of it These are ignorant if not ●ll natured Physitians● that please themselves with wounding when they know not how to heal make work for their own mercinary and adulterate Art to practise on shaping their Cures too often accord●ng to their incouragements and though they will not sell the gifts yet they can find a way to sell the Comforts of the Holy Ghost for mony and advantage Now in the Samaritans Cure of the wounded man that fell among h●eves as he journied from Ierusalem to Iericho we find two ingredients wine and oyle not wine alone or oyle alone but both first wine to search afterwards oyl to supple Thus when S. Peter sound his auditory pricked in their hearts he presently applies an Evangelical Cordial and tells them that the promise was made unto them and unto their children even as m●ny as the Lord should call Thus S. Paul directs the Church at Corinth to deliver up the incestuous person to Satan for the destruction of the flesh but it was for no other end but that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus For the Churches censure having humbled him he writes a second Epistle to the same Church both to forgive him and to comfort him lest perhaps he be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow And indeed the more we are broken with sorrow and contrition the more firm and compacted shall we find our confidence and assurance in Gods mercy For though self-humbling be the certain fruit and effect of faith yet faith is not so clear and conspicuous till repentance hath scoured off the rust but

lies like a coal raked up in an heap of ashes or like fire in a flint which is there before but is not discernable before the stroke of the steel hath made it so Without doubt the light of fai●h burns cleerest in the dark and solitary chamber of our saddest retirement and the believing ey hath never so cleer a prospect into heaven● as when it is full of penitent tears An instance whereof we have in the distressed condition of the Church of Israel in the Prophet● Mi●ahs time When good men were perished out of the earth and evil and corrupt men were multiplyed and twisted in mischievous designs when the best man was as irksom as a briar and she most upright sharper then a thorn-hedge when a friend might not be trusted nor confidence reposed in a guide nor a secret committed to her that lay in the bosom when the son dishonoured the father the daughter rose up against her mother and a mans enemies were the men of his own house And yet in this dark dismal night of affliction see with what an humble confidence the Church addresseth her self to the strong God of her salvation Therefore will I look unto the Lord. I will wait ●or the God of my salvation my God will hear me Rejoyce not against me O mine ●nemy when I fall I shall arise when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him until he plead my c●use and execute judgement for me he will bring me forth to light and I shall behold his righteousness Now though in chastning or sorrow or whatsoever for the present seemeth joyous but grievous nevertheless afterward it yeildeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby The Law saith S. Paul is our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith but after that faith is come we are no longer under a Schoolmaster Prop and Supporters we know are necessary in the building of an Arch and scaffolds are necessary in the building of a Spi●e but when once these fabricks are finished these helps and advantages are laid aside The heyr as long as he is a childe differeth nothing from a servant though he be lord of all but is under Tutors and Governours until the time appointed of the father But when he comes to full age he understands his Title to his estate and is understood to be Sui juris at his own liberty in the disposing of it There is a time when the Christian is discharged from the Terrors of the Law from the Bondage of sin and Satan and restored ●… the glorious liberty of the sons of God Which is nor such a liberty as our Anabaprists dream of a liberty to live as they list a liberty to deny all manner of obedience to spiritual and temporal Governours As there is an Evangelical liberty so there is an Evangelical yoke and no man can pretend to the one that does not subject himself to the other Omnia sunt libera nob is per fidem tamen omnibus servi sumus per charitatem ut simul consistat servitus libertatis libertas servitutis The Gospel gives me an exemption from the Curse of the Law For there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus provided always that they walk not after the flesh but after the spirit It gives me the liberty of my person notwithstanding all my debts because they have been satisfied by my surety but then I must understand my person to be a consecrated Temple which I may not defile or dispose of at my pleasure It gives me liberty and ●ree access unto my Creat●… a liberty to present my suits unto him whensoever I am in want or extremity a liberty to serve him without the bondage of fear but it must be according to good old Zachariahs rule in holiness righteousness all the days of my life It gives me a liberty to u●e his good creatures a priviledge which was lost in Adam and is restored by Christ but then it must be wisely soberly justly charitably thankfully and contentedly Nay I shall ever think it agreeable to Christian wisdom to have my cancelled obligations still before mine eys that I may know my greater obligat●ons of duty and gratitude to my Redeemer And if from a changeling or brat of hell I am regenerated and formed anew according to the glorious image of my maker yet I will still have an humble ey upon my former ugliness and deformity if from a crooked bruised and decrepid Cripple I am restored to p●rfect strength and soundness I will hang up my crutches in the Temple not only as memorials of my gratitude but as monitors against any future relapse And though I know my sins are forgiven and forgott●n of my Redeemer when I have my patdon under s●al yet I will ever retain the memory of them to aw and humble me into an holy fear into a constant warines circumspection how I becoin again entangled in those snares out of which by the mercy of God I have escaped Thus ye see The Law and the Gospel Moses and Christ are not opposite and divided but subordinate and serviceable one to the other The Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ The Law was delivered with thunders and lightnings and earthquakes The Gospel descends into the soul l●ke rain into a fleece of wool like Elijahs small still voice that succeeded the whirlwind and the earthquake like the voice of the Turtle and the singing of birds after the winter is past and the rain is over and gone Moses takes his stand upon mount Ebal and from thence proclaims the curses of God Christ takes his stand upon mount Gerezim and from thence proclaims his beatitudes as appears Mat 5. 3. c The first solemn sermon that ever he p●eached to his disciples was a sermon of mercy The first Text that ever he preached upon was a Text of mercy which he did not light upon by chance as S. Austin did upon that of S Paul Rom. 13. 13 but the book of the Prophet Isaiah being delivered to him it is said that he opened the book and found that is turned to the place where it was written The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath Anoynted me to Preach the Gospel to the poor he ●ath sent me to heale the broken hearted to preach deliverance to the captives and recove●ing of sight to the blind to s●t at liberty them that are bruised to preach the acceptable yeer of the Lord And sure we that are employed as his Embassadours for peace and Reconciliation ought to follow him in this choise to understand it our main businesse to Heal and to recover and to set at liberty and to preach the acceptable yeer of the Lord. And if at any time wee fall upon severer