Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	christian_a	church_n	faith_n	1,944	5	5.0013	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52574	New-Englands duty and interest to be an habitation of justice and mountain of holiness containing doctrine, caution, & comfort : with something relating to the restaurations, reformations, and benedictions promised to the church and world in the latter dayes : with grounds of hope, that America in general & New-England in particular may may have a part therein : preached to the General Assembly of the Province of the Massachusetts-Bay, at the anniversary election, May 25, 1698 / by Nicholas Noyes ...	Noyes, Nicholas, 1647-1717.	1698 (1698)	Wing N1461; ESTC R16814	53,865	112

throughout and Deut. 28. throughout And the way of God was accordingly So that if a man had known before hand now that People would have acted towards God and one another he might have written their History in a good measure before things came to pass Hence they were so condemned for not knowing the way of the Lord which means not only the way of his Doctrine but of his Discipline and Providential Dispensations Jer. 5.4 Therefore I said surely these are poor they are foolish for they know not the way of the Lord nor the judgment of our God Yet must not this be so strictly taken as if God dealt with them according to their deserts for had they been dealt with according to the First Covenant they were never good enough to deserve the Blessings they were always bad enough to deserve greater Wrath than ever fell upon them They were always less then the least of Gods Mercies God always punished them less than their Iniquities deserved and upon their Repentance Humiliation and Reformation God was always ready to pardon and turn their Curses into Blessings as upon their Apostacies and Declensions he turned their Blessings into Curses and was wont to distinguish between weakness and wickedness between Sins of Infirmity and Sins of Enormity His Severities were for the most part against presumptuous Sinners and such Sins as violated the Covenant There were also at that time by Divine Appointment Sacrifices of Expiation and Atonement not only for particular persons but for the Congregation not only for the Sins of private persons but of the Priests Rulers also Hence in Judgment God remembred mercy many a time he forgave them and did not stir up all his wrath and in some instances his Judgments were unaccountable but ordinarily they were as the light and the Equity of them very discernable 4. Gods Judicial Proceedings with the Jews before the Coming of Christ are instructive to people and places professing the Christian Religion that it is like to fare with them as to happiness or misery according as it goeth with them as to Holiness and Righteousness For the proof of this I offer to your consideration the following Arguments which for brevity I shall but name 1 That God is the same now as he was then as holy and righteous as ever he was Did he then love Righteousness and hate iniquity So he doth still therefore his Way and Discipline is like to be much what the same now as it was then 2. His Church is the same Church now though not the same people God hath but One Church Christ hath but one Body from the beginning to the end of the World Cant. 6.9 Eph 5.23 25 27. 3. This Law requiring Holiness and Righteousness is the same not one tittle of it is passed away 4. Gods Name and Honour is alike concerned in the ways and behaviour of his people now as it was then Did the Sins of the Jews give occasion to the Enemies of the Lord to blaspheme 2 Sam 12.14 So do the Sins of Christians now See 1 Tim. 6 1. That his Name and Doctrine be not blasphemed 5. They were under the Covenant of Grace as well as we and we under the authority and direction of the Law as well as they Heb. 4.2 plainly affirms that they had the Gospel preached to them and in James 2.8 it is evident that Christians are required to fulfil the Royal Law When Paul saith Believers are not under the Law he means not under the Curse of the Law though under the Command of it 6. The Apostle speaking of Gods Judicial Proceeding with the Jews in Instances of Severity saith All these things happened unto them for Ensamples and they are written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the world are come 1 Cor. 10.11 7. The Apostle saith that Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is as well as of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 and consequently Ungodliness hath the Threatning of the life that now is as well as of that which is to come And of like import is that 1 Pet. 3.10 11 12. He that will love life and see good days let him refrain his tongue from evil c. for the Eyes of the Lord are over the Righteous that is his Providence is active about them for good but his face is against them that do evil that is the frowns and rebukes of Divine Providence are against them that do evil 8. Gods Judicial Proceedings with his professing people in the Old World and afterwards till Moses's time were much what the same as they were afterward as the Book called Genesis the Book of Job 2 Epist of Peter and Jude plainly show 9. Experience hath convinced the Christian Churches of this and many of the New-Testament Promises Threatnings Argumentations and Prophesies show the truth of it 10. That this is no new Doctrine may be seen in the Confessions of Faith set forth by the Assembly of Divines and the New England Confession in the Chapter concerning the Law of God Sect. 6. The Threatnings of it viz the Law serve to show what their Sins deserve and what afflictions in this life they may expect for them although freed from the Curse thereof threatned in the Law The Promises of it in like manner shew them Gods approbation of Obedience what Blessings they may expect upon the performance thereof although not as due to them by the Law as a Covenant of Works All this notwithstanding I would not be understood as if the Dispensations of God now did exactly quadrate with his Dispensations to the Jews before Christ came The Church was then in its non-age and under a certain Tutorage proper to that time when the promises and threatnings that relate to the other World were more darkly and more rarely mentioned and temporal promises and threatnings more frequently insisted on and the accomplishment more visible and conspicuous and Dispensations more Corporal God did more visibly plague Disobedience and reward Obedience than now although he hath not left himself without witness but maketh all the Churches to know that he searcheth the hearts and tryeth the reins and renders to his people according to their works Rev. 2.23 And the same is evident by all the Epistles to the Churches of Asia in which it is manifest that our Lord Jesus Christ who hath the Government of the Church and World declareth that he will deal with them as they deal with him Obj. Doth not Solomon say that all things come alike to all and that there is one event to the Righteous and to the Wicked c. Eccle. 9 1 2. A. Solomons meaning is not that it is alwayes so but that it is sometimes so and that notwithstanding temporal promises and threatnings God hath reserves for the display of his Soveraignty whereby unbelievers will be hardned in their sin and good men will be humbled and their faith and patience exercised And