Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	church_n	old_a	testament_n	6,574	5	8.1314	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50172	The way to prosperity a sermon / preached to the honourable convention of the governour, council, and representatives of the Massachuset-Colony in New-England on May 23, 1690 by Cotton Mather.	Mather, Cotton, 1663-1728.	1690 (1690)	Wing M1168; ESTC R28821	21,291	52

uttered upon We find them in the Sacred Book of Chronicles which Chronicles are not the Civil Records in other parts of the Bible refer'd unto but an Inspired History of things that concerned the Line of Christ and the Church of God for five hundred more than Three Thousand years It seems as an Epitome of the Whole for so t is in Ierom's Language to be written as late as the Last of all the Books in the Old Testament and the Hebrew Bibles give it a place accordingly The Greeks choose to entitle it The Book of things else where passed by because as Lyra notes according to the Rule of our Saviour It gathers Fragments that nothing may be lost and if there were nothing else but the Story which affords our Text unto us to justifie that Appellation it were enough 't is a Story passed by in the Book of Kings but worthy to be had in everlasting Remembrance The ready Pen of Ezra for him we conjecture to be the Scribe of the Holy Spirit here notwithstanding those few Clauses which may be judged to be added by another hand after his Decease I say the Pen of Ezra is here informing us That the people of God had newly been invaded by a vast Army of Cushites but we are yet at a loss who these Cushites were Far more Scholars in the World than there were Souldiers in that Army have hitherto been content with our Translation which renders them Ethiopians here But that learned French-man Bochart by whose happy industry more than any man's the Treasures in the Bowels of the Scriptures have been delv'd into has with irrefragable Demonstration prov'd That not Ethiopians but Arabians are the Cushites mentioned in the Oracles of God These Arabians tho they have not been called Saracens as has been thought from their word Sarak that signifies to Steal yet for their Furacious Inclinations they well deserved such an Etymology they were a wild sort of men that liv●…d much upon the Rapin and Ruin of their Neighbours and particularly a Million of them now designed Ierusalem for a prey The blessed God gave His people a notable victory over these Invaders and they were now returning from Gerar a place between thirty and forty miles off unto Ierusalem The Holy Spirit of God excited and inclined a Prophet whose Name was Azariah to entertain them with a faithful solid Sermon hereupon and in my Text you have the Sum and Substance of it We may observe First The Praeface of it and that is very awful and earnest Hear ye me Asa and all Judah and Benjamin As he was probably none of the greatest so t is like he was none of the oldest men for it seems by the eighth verse that his Father was yet alive present at this time Yet being to speak in the Name of the great and eternal God he expects he demands the attention of the whole Army to him Secondly the Design of it and that is to decclare both the Rise and Use of their late Prosperity The Lord is with you while you you are with Him or as the Vulgar Latin has it Inasmuch as you have been with him What follows is but an Explication and Amplification of this He saw they were taken up with various Businesses and Contrivances they had their Enemies under Hatches and their minds were full of Thoughts and Cares What to do next But he calls them off to acknowledge the Presence of God as the cause of their coming off so well in their late Action and above all things to obtain secure the presence of God that they might come off as well in in their future Enterprises I am therefore to call for your Attention unto this Faithful Saying DOCT. That The GOD of Heaven will be with a people while they are with Him 'T is by the ensuing Propositions that the Explication of this Truth shall be endeavoured PROPOSITION I. It is the Interest and should be the Desire of Every people to have the God of Heaven With them But we are to enquire What is implied in that presence of GOD which we are to be solicitous about For Answer to this There is a Threefold Presence of God mentioned in the Scripture of Truth First God is Naturally present with all Creatures He is an Immense Being and no Creature can be without him The Apostle thus argued in the Court at Athens in Act 17. 27. God is not far from every one of us No He is near us all He is with us all And Paul could have had the Gentiles themselves confessing it for besides what their Seneca did own One of their own Poets had said Iovis omnia plena It is the Speech of our God in Ier. 23. 24. Do not I fill Heaven and Earth saith the Lord Yea That He do's The Jews call God by the Name of Makom or of Place because all things are in Him this is His Name in the Book of Esther if I mistake it not Whether we may count it proper and physical to speak of an Imaginary Infinite space beyond the utmost Selvige of the world replenished with our God alone yet we are sure that the Heaven of Heavens gives no limits unto His Being and the Ancients were not mistaken when they said Deus Ipse Sibi et Mundus et Locus et Omnia We cannot so well say That God is in the World as we may say The whole World is in God we may say with the Psalmist in Psal. 139. ●… Whither shall I flee from thy presence Secondly God is Gloriously present with the Inhabitants of the Third Heaven The Heaven of Heavens hath in it most intimate and marvellous manifestations of God It is the Place of which we may say as t is said of that State in Rev. 21. 23. The glory of God doth lighten it There the blessed ones have God with them so that they Alwayes behold His face and they are satisfied with His likeness for ever When we come to Heaven then as in 1. Thes. 4. 17. We shall ever be with the Lord. So the Lord will be with us for ever Heaven is the Throne of the Most High He is there as a Prince in his Throne the Great KING is in a manner very ineffable residing there To be there is called in 2. Cor. 5. 4. A being present with the Lord. Hence unto the Heaven and not unto a Bible are we directed to make our Corporal Applications in our Prayers or our Oathes before the Lord. But Thirdly God is Graciously present with His people by being Favourable unto them And this Gracious presence of God is that which a people ought to be concerned for It lies in The Engagement of Divine Providence for the Welfare of such a people God is with us when God is for us To particularize First God is with a people by Directing of them When Israel was to pass thro' the Wilderness they had that encouragement in Exod. 22. 15. The