Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	call_v	name_n	write_v	6,549	5	5.6975	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53135	The countermine, or, A short but true discovery of the dangerous principles and secret practices of the dissenting party, especially the Presbyterians shewing that religion is pretended but rebellion is intended : and in order thereto, the foundation of monarchy in the state and episcopacy in the church are undermined / by one who does passionately wish the prosperity of the Church, his King and country.	Nalson, John, 1638?-1686.	1677 (1677)	Wing N96; ESTC R7744	126,642	332

Mind of the Lord or who hath been of his Privy Counsel that is in those secret affairs the knowledg of which is his uncommunicable Prerogative and which he hath reserved within his own peculiar Jurisdiction from the knowledg of which he has excluded not only Mortal Men S. Mat. 24.26 S. Mark 13.32 but even his own Son as a Man for of that Day knows no Man not the Son but the Father Which made an Apostle who had been in the third Heavens break out into that Ecstasie of Wonder and Admiration O the depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledg of God! Rom. 11.33 How unsearchable are his Judicial Proceedings and his Ways past finding out Now whether we should believe God or Men let them be Judges BUT it is no matter Let God say what he pleases they are resolved to say what they will and what may please their Party and serve their Interest and though the modest Apostle could say Let God be true and every Man a Lyar Rom. 3.4 they say what we affirm is true I dare not think much less speak the consequence though it follows most unavoidably from their confident and positive Assertion for there is but one Truth no more than one God and of a flat downright Contradiction as this is one part must of Necessity be false HAVING by their excellent Talent at Extempore Prayer left no scruple but that they have the Spirit of God and that being the Spirit which must lead all those that have it into all Truth the People are before hand prepared to swallow down this Doctrine without any chewing or Examination and in Truth as they have cookt it it is the most delicate and agreeable Repast to the Palates of those Souls who are so happy as to be treated at their Spiritual Entertainments For having first laid down as a Positive Infallible and Fundamental Truth That God from all Eternity did Elect a Determinate Number to Salvation and that this number is but small for it is but a little Flock Many are called but few are Chosen or Elected the next thing they have to do is to assure them who are their Disciples that they are of this Happy Number who have the Seal in their foreheads and whose names are written in the Book of Life Now the first step to this assurance is to use the means for Faith comes by hearing the Word of God though if this Doctrine of unconditional Decrees be pursued to the uttermost those means must be either unnecessary or nonsence by being the Decreed Conditions of an unconditional Decree Now these means that is this Soul-saving preaching is only to be found amongst them Theirs is the Land of Goshen where the Sun of Righteousness only shines whilst all others are in Spiritual Egypt and grope for the Truth amidst such Darkness as may be felt and is next to the very Region of the Shadow of Death and utter Darkness BUT they are too wary to rest here or to build so weighty a Fabrick upon such a slender Foundation they know that the impious Herod heard S. John the Baptist gladly and did many things And therefore before any one can be assured that he is of the Elect though never so diligent a Hearer that will not do unless he be able to give an account of the exact time of his Conversion and when it was that he was called of God and to God S. Mark 6.20 The Signs of this Calling are Contrition Compunction or a Trouble of Mind arising from a sight of their lost condition as they phrase it And they who are able to inform them of the time of this Call at such a Sermon or such a Night after my first sleep though they did but dream so it is enough the Lord was pleased to call me All those who can do this are pronounced from the Infallible Chair to be in a certain estate of Election the Children and People of God and after a time of probation which were needless since they cannot fall away they are solemnly initiated into their Church and enter into a promise never to return back again to the Tents of the Ungodly which might as well be spared if the rest of their Doctrine be true THIS alone were enough to ravish the hearts of those who do as firmly believe it as the Gospel and to fill them with joy unspeakable and full of glory But they have a Disert behind which closes the Banquet far better than the Egyptian Deaths-Head and that is this That they who are once thus elected can never finally and totally fall away from Grace so as to be in danger of Hell and Damnation Rom. 11.29 for the Calling and Gifts of God are without Repentance Could they prove this and that their Comment upon it were the true and genuine meaning of the Text this would be a happiness not inferior to the joys of Heaven and which for my part I think is only reserved to compleat the Felicities of that blest place where and not before we arrive there all fears tears and dangers shall be wip't away THIS is their great Diana not the Image which fell down from Heaven but the Image of Heaven it self which they all worship and which brings them in such fair Revenues both Temporal and Spiritual as they think as outdoes not only the poor hopes of Demetrius and all his Fellow-Craftsmen but the Riches of both the India's which are Dung and Dross in comparison of being thus certainly found in Christ And no wonder then if it raises such Tumults when it is opposed or in danger of being lost THERE can be no Doctrine more pleasing to credulous and fanciful people as most of their Disciples are and indeed so luscious is the high relish of it that those who have once gotten a say of it are difficultly if ever perswaded to abandon it or in comparison of it not to contemn and despise all others But as it is thus infinitely pleasing above all the Fruits in the Garden so like that treacherous Apple it is for that very Reason of all others the most pernicious both to the Souls of men the quiet of any Society and the safety of any Government that dare oppose it I DO not intend to attempt a long and solemn Confutation of every particular in regard it has already been sufficiently done by the Pens of many great and learned Names I will only therefore use a little of their own method undermine the Foundation and leave the rest of their prodigious Babel to ruine it self by the weight and stress they have laid upon it AND if we can but break these counterfeit Seals and erase these Marks we shall cancel this false Pass-port to Heaven and all those feigned Evidences to the blessed Inheritance of the Saints in Light and all those ill-grounded Joys which are built upon the Hopes of that glorious Reversion will in an instant vanish if once we