Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	bear_v	yoke_n	youth_n	22	3	8.2455	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26921	Richard Baxter's dying thoughts upon Phil. I, 23 written for his own life and the latter times of his corporal pains and weakness.; Dying thoughts upon Philippians I, 23	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1683 (1683)	Wing B1256; ESTC R2942	256,274	424

shew us whither we must ascend and that after these comfortable words SAY TO MY BRETHREN I ASCEND TO MY FATHER AND YOUR FATHER TO MY GOD AND YOUR GOD Joh. 20. 17. And shall I not follow him through Death and trust such a Guide and Captain of my Salvation 14. He is there to prepare a place for me and will take me to himself And may I not confidently expect it 15. He told a Malefactor on the Cross that he should that day be with him in Paradise to tell believing Sinners what they may expect 16. The Church by the Article of his Descent into Hell hath signified their common belief that his separated Soul had its subsistence and operation and did not sleep or perish to tell us the Immortality of separated Souls 17. His Apostles and other Servants have on earth served him all with these expectations 18. The Spirits of the perfected Just are now in possession of what I hope for And I am a follower of them who by Faith and Patience have attained the promised Felicity And may I not trust him to save me who hath already saved Millions in this way When I could trust a Ferriman to pass me over a River that had safely passed over Thousands before me Or I could trust a Physician who cureth all that he undertaketh of the same Disease 19. I must be at his disposal whether I will or not I shall live while he will and die when he will and go whither he will I may sin and vex my Soul with fears and cares and sorrows but I shall never prevail against his will 20. Therefore there is no Rest for Souls but in the Will of God That will created us and that will did govern us and that will shall be fulfilled on us It was our Efficient and our Regent Cause and it shall be our End Where else is it that we should rest In the will of men or Angels or in our own wills All Creatures are but Creatures And our own Wills have undone us They have misgoverned us and they are our greatest Enemies our Disease our Prison and our Death till they are brought over to the will of God Till then they are like a Foot out of joint like a Child or Subject in Rebellion There is no rectitude or health no order no peace or true felicity but in the Conformity of our wills to the will of God And shall I die in distrustful striving against his will and desiring to keep up my own before it 21. What abundant experience have I had of God's fidelity and love and after all this shall I not trust him His undeserved Mercy gave me being it chose my Parents it gave them a tender love to me and desire of my good it taught them to instruct me early in his Word and to Educate me in his fear It chose me suitable Company and Habitation It gave me betimes a teachable ingeny It chose my School-masters It brought to my Hands many excellent and suitable Books It gave me some profitable publick Teachers It placed me in the best of Lands on Earth and I think in the best of Ages which that Land had seen It did early destroy all great expectations and desires of the World teaching me to bear the Yoak from my youth and causing me rather to groan under my infirmities than to fight with strong and potent Lusts It chastened me betimes but did not destroy me Great Mercy hath trained me up all my daies since I was Nineteen years of Age in the School of Affliction to keep my sluggish Soul awake in the constant expectations of my change and to kill my Pride and overvaluing of this World and to lead all my studies to the most necessary things and as a Spur to excite my Soul to seriousness and especially to save me from the supine neglect and loss of time O what unspeakable Mercy hath a life of constant but gentle Chastisement proved to me It urged me against all dull delays to make my Calling and Election sure and to make ready my accounts as one that must quickly give them up to God The Face of Death and nearness of Eternity did much convince me what Books to read what studies to perfer and prosecute what Company and Conversation to choose It drove me early into the Vineyard of the Lord and taught me to preach as a dying Man to dying men It was Divine Love and Mercy which made Sacred Truth so pleasant to me that my life hath been under all my infirmities almost a constant recreation and delight in its discoveries contemplation and practical use How happy a Teacher have I had What excellent help and sweet illumination How far beyond my expectation hath Divine Mercy encouraged me in his Sacred work How congruously did he choose every place of my Ministration and Habitation to this day without my own forecast or seeking When and where since he first sent me forth did I labour in vain How many are gone to Heaven and how many are in the way to whom he hath blessed the Word which in weakness I did by his Grace and Providence deliver Many good Christians are glad of now and then an Hours time to meditate on God's Word and recreate themselves in his holy worship but God hath allowed and called me to make it the constant business of my life My Library hath afforded me both profitable and pleasant company and help at all times when ever I would use them I have dwelt among the shining Lights which the Learned Wise and Holy men of all Ages have set up and left to illuminate the World How many comfortable Hours have I had in the Society of living Saints and in the love of faithful Friends How many joyful Daies have I had in the solemn Assemblies where God hath been worshipped with seriousness and alacrity by concordant though imperfect Saints Where the Spirit of Christ hath manifested his presence by helping my self and my Brethren in speaking and the People in ready delightful hearing and all of us in loving and gladly receiving his Doctrine Covenant and Laws How unworthy was such a sinful Worm as I who never had any Academical helps nor much from the Mouth of any Teacher that Books should become so great a Blessing to me and that quite beyond my own intentions God should induce or constrain me to provide any such like helps for others How unworthy was I to be kept from the multiplied snares of Sects and Errours which reigned in this Age and to be used as a means for other mens preservation and reduction And to be kept in a love of Unity and Peace How unworthy was I that God should make known to me so much of his reconciling truth while extreams did round about prevail and were commended to the Churches by the advantages of Piety on one side and of worldly Prosperity and Power on the other And the God should use me above thirty Years

Physical evidence of Truth On this account mens agreement about Natural Notices is infallible It seems strange that all the World from Adam's time are agreed which is the first second and third c. day of the Week and not a day lost till now It could not be otherwise Because being a thing of Natural interest and notice if any Kingdom had lost a day by over sleeping or had agreed to falsifie it all the rest of the World would have shamed them Thus all Grecians Latines Englishmen c. agree about the sense of Words for if some would pervert them the rest would detect it Thus we are certain that the Statutes of the Land are not counterfeit For men of cross interests hold their Lands and lives by them and if some did counterfeit them the rest would by interest be bound to detect it Arg. 1. There can be no effect without an adequate cause But in Nature there is no cause that can make all men agree to assert a known falshood or deny a known Truth against all their known interest therefore there can be no such effect Arg. 2. A necessary cause will necessarily effect But where mens known Interest obligeth them to agree of a known Truth this is a necessary cause of certain credibility therefore it hath a necessary effect You know who were your Parents and when and where you were Born c. by such Tradition in a lower Degree This dependeth not on pretended Authority nor on meer honesty but on natural necessity Having premised this I come to prove that we have such Tradition of Physical infallible evidence that the Faith of the present Church in the Essentials is the same which the first Churches received infallibly from the Apostles 1. The World knoweth that ever since Christ's Ascension all that believed in him were Baptized as all Abraham's Covenanting seed were Circumcised And what is Baptism but a Profession of Belief in Jesus Christ as dead risen and glorified and a devoting our selves in Covenant to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost All that ever were Christians by solemn Vow profest this same Faith And this is such a Tradition of Christianity as humane Generation down from Adam is of the same humanity in the World 2. They that were Baptized were Catechized first in which the three Articles of Baptism were opened to them of which Christ's Death Resurrection and Ascension were part And this hath been an undeniable Tradition of the same Faith 3. The Summ of the Christian Faith was from the beginning drawn up in certain Articles called the Creed which expounded the three Baptismal Articles and all Churches on Earth had the same in sense and most in Words and all at Age that were Baptized professed this Creed Which is as full a Tradition of the same Belief in Christ's Birth Death and Resurrection Ascension and Glory as Speaking is a Tradition of the same humane Nature 4. Before Christ's Ascension he instituted the Office of the Sacred Ministry which Friends and Foes confess hath continued ever since And what is this Ministry but an Office of publishing the Gospel of Christ his Life Death Miracles Resurrection Grace c. What else have they done in all Ages in the World So that the Office is an undeniable Tradition 5. Christ and his Apostles instituted the Weekly Celebration of the Remembrance of his Resurrection on the Lord's days Friends and Foes confess the History that the first Day of the Week hath been kept for such Memorial ever since through all the Christian part of the World Which proveth the uninterrupted belief of Christ's Resurrection as a Notorious Practical Tradition 6. Christ and his Apostles ever since his Resurrection instituted Solemn Assemblies of Christians to be held on those Days and at other Times Once a Week was the least through the Christian World And what did they meet for but to Preach hear and profess the same Christian Faith 7. It was the constant custom of Christians in their Assemblies and their Houses to sing Hymns of Praise to Jesus Christ in remembrance of his Resurrection c. Pliny tells Trajan that this was the practice by which Christians were known by their Persecutors Which is a Practical Tradition 8. Jesus Christ instituted and all Christians to this Day have constantly used the Sacrament of Christ's Sacrifice called the Eucharist to keep in remembrance his Death till he come and profess their Belief that he is our Life And as the constant Celebration of the Passover with all its Ceremonies was a most certain Tradition of the Egyptians Plagues and Israelites deliverance more than a bare written History would be so hath the Lord's Supper been of the uninterrupted belief of the History of our Redemption by Christ 9. The Church hath from the beginning had a constant Discipline by which it hath kept it self separate from Hereticks who have denied any Essential Article of this Faith Which is a sure Tradition of the same belief 10. None question but Christians have from the beginning been persecuted for this same Faith and in Persecution made Confession of it Persecutors and Confessors then are both the Witnesses of the Continuance 11. When ever Hereticks or Enemies have written against Christians their Apologies and Defences shew that it was this same Faith that they owned 12. Most of the adverse Hereticks owned the same Matters of Fact 13. The Jews were long before in Possession of the Books of the Old Testament which bear their Testimony to Christ 14. The Books of the New Testament have by certain Tradition been delivered down to this present Day which contain the Matters of Fact and Doctrin the Essentials Integrals and Accidents of the Faith 15. No Enemies have written any thing against the Matter of Fact of any Moment 16. Yea the Jews and other bitterest Enemies confess much of the Miracles of Christ 17. Martyrs have cheerfully forsaken Life and all in confessing it 18. God by his wonderful Providence hath maintained it 19. The Devil and all the Wicked of the World are the greatest Enemies to it 20. The Holy Ghost hath still blest it to work the same holy and heavenly Nature and Life in all sincere and serious Believers Quest This proveth infallibly the Tradition of the same Faith in the Essentials But how prove you that the same Holy Scripture is delivered as uncorrupted Answ All the Bible is not brought down so unchanged as are the Essentials of our Religion When there were no Bibles but what Scriveners wrote no wonder if oversight left few Copies without some of their slips There are hundred of various Readings in the New Testament and of many no Man can be certain which is true But none of them are such as make any difference in the Articles of our Faith or Practice nor on which any point of Doctrine or Fact dependeth And the words are necessary but for the Matter which they do record And 1. All Ministers and all Churches