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
A50489	The good of early obedience, or, The advantage of bearing the yoke of Christ betimes discovered in part, in two anniversary sermons, one whereof was preached on May-day, 1681, and the other on the same day in the year 1682, and afterwards inlarged, and now published for common benefit / by Matthew Mead.	Mead, Matthew, 1630?-1699.	1683 (1683)	Wing M1555; ESTC R19143	252,739	482

CHAP. XIV Shews our subjection to Christ by such signs as are the genuine effects of it CHAP. XV. Exhorts such as have taken up this Yoke to thankfulness to God who inclined their hearts thereunto The wisdom of taking up this Yoke manifested CHAP. XVI Directs our obedience as to Principles matter manner and end CHAP. XVII Exhorts to perseverance under the Yoke of Christ with arguments to press it and directions to guide in it CHAP. XVIII Contains matter of counsel to Christless sinners with motives and directions to further it THE GOOD OF Early Obedience LAMENT iii. 27. It is good for a man that he bear the Yoke in his Youth CHAP. I. Somewhat Prooemial The Yoke explained what it is Literally taken what Metaphorically THE Apostle tells us that great is the Mystery of Godliness 1 Tim. 3.16 and it is so not only in credendis the things which are to be believed but in agendis the matters that relate to practice There are Mysteries in the Precept as well as in the Promise Psal 55.22 If a man be commanded to cast his burthen upon the Lord then he himself hath none to bear and yet the Lord Christ lays a burthen upon every Believer Matth. 11.30 Rev. 2.24 where he is a Redeemer he sets the soul free from every Yoke it is under and if the Son make a man free John 8.36 he is then free indeed And yet none are more under the Yoke than the Lords Freemen being not without Law 1 Cor. 9.21 but under the Law to Christ When he takes off one he puts on another Take my Yoke upon you Matth. 11.29 Though Christ breaks our Fetters yet he brings us into Bonds though he delivers us from thraldom and slavery yet not from duty he redeems us from the power of sin but not from the power of the Precept and therefore to argue from liberty to licentiousness is a kind of Logick found only in the Devil's School Rom. 6.1 2. Shall we continue in sin that Grace may abound God forbid The right reasoning is from mercy to duty Ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your Body and your Spirits which are Gods 1 Cor. 6.20 Redemption and service are in the design of the Gospel Luke 1.74 75. linked together That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life The freedom purchased by Christ makes service necessary for he quits us of our burden but not of our obedience he doth not set us free from service but changes our work and our Master Rom. 6.19 As ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness So that ye are Servants still It was the interest of the Flesh and fleshly lusts that was served before but now it is the interest of God and holiness the freedom then is from the Government of the God of this World who rules in the Children of disobedience Ephes 2.2 unto a voluntary submission and resignedness to the Divine conduct from the brutish drudgery of sin to the excellency of such an Empire Psal 19.11 whose Precepts carry their own reward with them besides the Glory that ensues So then the Yoke that hath a curse in it that Christ hath took off but the Yoke of obedience that he hath call'd us to put on and herein he hath excellently accommodated things to the great advantage of man For as it is his misery and burthen to be under the former Yoke which what it is I shall shew anon so it is as much his interest and happiness to be under the latter and therefore the earlier he takes it up the sooner he begins to be happy It is good for a man that he bear the Yoke in his Youth I shall not speak any thing of this Book in general only a little about the manner of penning it which is somewhat unusual each Chapter the last only excepted being penned according to the Order in which the Letters stand in the Hebrew Alphabet as some of the Psalms of David are For what reason the Spirit of God should direct the Pen-man of it this way it doth not appear Hierom labours to find out great mysteries in it but doth but beat the Air. This way of writing seems to be very useful for the help of the memory and may seem to hint as if God would have such Scriptures peculiarly remarked and remembred and that is the best reason I can give But whereas the first second and fourth Chapters begin with a single Alphabet the several Verses beginning with several Letters in their Order this third Chapter consisteth of a threefold Alphabet every three Verses in course beginning with the same Letter This Text which I have pitched upon falls under the Letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Hierome makes to stand for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Good and accordingly the 25th 26th and the 27th Verses do all begin in the Hebrew with the word Tobh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So in the 25th Verse Tobh Jehovah Lekovau Good is the Lord to them that wait for him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the 26th Verse Tobh vejahhil vedumam It is good a man should both hope and quietly wait 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so here in the Text Tobh Laggebher Ki-jissa gnol bingnoraiu Good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth The only difficulty in the Text that needs explaining is What Yoke it is that is here meant The Yoke is sometimes taken Literally and sometimes Metaphorically A Literal Yoke is an Instrument of Wood or Iron fitted to the Necks of Creatures either to tame them or work them or punish them These are the three chief uses of the Yoke First It is for the taming of wild Beasts and making them tractable The Yoke and the Collar bow down the hard Neck Ecclus 33.25 Ephraim complains of himself As a Bullock unaccustomed to the Yoke Jer. 31.18 that is untamed and unruly Secondly It is an Instrument of labour by which Beasts do draw burthens Deut. 21.3 Take an Heifer that hath not drawn in the Yoke And hence ye read in Scripture of a Yoke of Oxen 1 Sam. 11.7 Luke 14.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jugum Boum from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 niph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 copulavit And so in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quia est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thirdly It is an Instrument of punishment Deut 28.48 Thou shalt serve thine Enemies in hunger and in thirst and in nakedness and in want of all things and he shall put a Yoke of Iron upon thy neck until he hath destroyed thee These are the uses of the Literal Yoke But then there is a Metaphorical Yoke and

convictions Secondly It may respect the earliness of being And that seems rather to be the sense of the place Vatablus renders it from his Youth taking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 early impressions upon the conscience by the convictions of the Spirit are a great good to the soul It is good to bear this Yoke betimes for three reasons 1. Because the sooner it is done the easier it is done the longer we are before we come under it the harder it will be to bear it The longer thou continuest in sin the harder it will be to bear repentance If thy conscience be so charged with guilt that thou darest not look into it at ten or twenty years old what will it come to if thou lettest it run on till fifty or sixty The longer the Debt stands in the Book the heavier the account when we come to reckon for all the arrears of so many years actual sins added to the grand Debt of original sin Therefore it is good to bear this Yoke in your Youth Strength to bear it is then greatest and the burden to be born is then lightest Guilt of s●n encreases by lying and new guilt daily added to the old makes the burden still the heavier therefore it is good to comply with the spirit of God betimes Reas 2. The sooner it is begun the sooner it will be done the sooner this Yoke is put on the sooner it will be put off For it is but for a time that the soul bears it but how long or how little while is uncertain Paul lay under it three days and nights Acts 9.9 Acts 16.33 the Goaler for ought I can find not above an hour the three thousand in Acts 2. not above the length of one Sermon But some now adays are held days and months and years according as the Case requires But the sooner we come under this Yoke the less while it is like to lye Reas 3. How rich do such grow in Grace that by early conviction pass through the new Birth betimes He that sets up soonest is like to get the fairest estate if be improve his opportunities Ford of Bondage p. 75. If one go to be an Apprentice when he is a man there is a double inconvenience in it First His service will be much more irksome and tedious Secondly The prime of his days will be gone wherein he should have been trading for himself had he been his own man Though the work of the Spirit be better late than never yet it is an unknown loss the soul sustains by a late work He loses much joy and peace the thought of his living so long without God becomes many times a new wound when the old is healed the after pains of the new birth do abide upon some to their dying day And in this Case there is but little comfort though the work be real He loses much sweet communion with God He loses many rich experiences He loses a great accession of Grace Growth in Grace is a work of time and he that hath but little time can make but little improvement He loses many opportunities of service Nay he loses much in the degrees of Glory Hadst thou had more time to sow thy Harvest would have been ●●●ater for as a man sows so shall he reap 〈◊〉 ●●●refore he that spends the best of his time in the service of the flesh if he should be converted at last which yet few are he is like to prove but a feeble Christian The more our opportunities of service are if improved and the more our seasons of communion are if used aright the richer must we needs be both in grace experience and comfort therefore it is the most thrifty course to be an early Convert to bear the Spirits Yoke in our Youth CHAP. IV. Containing some useful counsel and directions to persons of several denominations with respect to the Yoke of the Spirit THere are three sorts of persons I would speak somewhat to by way of counsel and direction in this matter First To such as have born the Yoke of the Spirit with good success to whom the Spirit of bondage hath at last become the Spirit of adoption who are passed from a state of fear and terrour into a condition of hope and comfort Your Duty lyes chiefly in these three things be thankful be humble be fruitful First Study thankfulness and give the Glory of this work to the Spirit of God We are very apt to ascribe too much to means to this or that Minister alas they are but poor Instruments Who is Paul and who is Apollo but Ministers by whom ye believed 1 Cor. 3.5 even as the Lord gave to every man They have but the place of Instruments God is the great Agent and therefore all supernatural effects are to be ascribed to him alone Neither is he that planteth any thing neither he that watereth but God that giveth the encrease And therefore the Apostle Paul having called the Church of Corinth his Epistle in 2 Cor. 3.2 he doth in v. 3. call them the Epistle of Christ ministred by us written not with Pen and Ink but with the Spirit of the living God Ministers are but as Pens it is the Spirit of the living God that writes his Law in the heart by them and thus they become the Epistle of Christ and therefore let him that glorieth glory in the Lord. 1 Cor. 1.31 Is there not a cause Especially if it he considered 1. What a heart thine was when the Spirit of the Lord first took it in hand how hard how stubborn how dead how obstinate how long was the light opposed that shined in darkness and the attempts of the Spirit frustrated how great were the resistances made by it against Grace and how many the strong holds of Satan which were pulled down to bring about the Conquest Think how often the Spirits motions were slighted his counsels set at nought his strivings resisted Think how often he knocked how loud he called before he could be heard think how much unbelief how many confederacies with corruption what strong lusts what enmity to God and holiness lay in the way to obstruct the Spirits design O what a mighty power did he put forth to make sin a burthen and to fasten his Fetters upon the soul without which thy resistances had never been conquered nor thy thoughts brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.5 And hast thou not cause to be thankful 2. How many miscarry under the same convictions which have issued in a sincere conversion to thy soul Many by their sights of sin and Hell have been driven into utter despair as Cain and Spira Many have laid violent hands on their own lives as Judas many have stifled and sinned away their convictions and thereby have provoked the Spirit finally to withdraw and give them up to hardness of heart many have mistaken their convictions for