Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	covenant_n	law_n	write_v	2,528	5	6.5761	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35001	Several sermons, or, Declarations of Mr. Stephen Crisp, late of Colchester in Essex, deceased exactly taken in characters, or shorthand, as they were delivered by him at the publick meeting-houses of the people called Quakers, in Grace-Church-Street and Devonshire-House, London / and now faithfully transcribed and published ; together with his prayer at the end of every sermon.	Crisp, Stephen, 1628-1692.	1693 (1693)	Wing C6941; ESTC R32375	87,023	199

and length and breadth of thy Love in Christ Jesus that in the Sense of the freeness and greatness thereof all thy Children here and every where that in an everlasting Covenant of Grace thou hast gathered to thy self may have Communion with thee and thy Son and Spirit and may return thee the honour Glory and Praise of all thy Love and Mercy and Grace for thou alone art worthy who art God over all Blessed for ever and ever Amen Sermon III. The First and Great Commandment opened Or The Heart given up to God Preached at Devonshire-House May 27. 1688. VVHen God gave forth his Law on Mount Sinai which Israel was to hear and to obey The first great Commandment was Thou shalt have no other Gods before me here is the sum and substance of all the true Religion that ever was on the Earth to this day all the Commandments all the Precepts Prophecies and all the dealings of God with his People from that Day to this have been all contained in this short Precept thou shalt have no other Gods but me and as long as Israel stood in Obedience to this Command their Blessings were multiplied upon them their good things were increased from Day to Day The Lord was with them as long as they were willing to be his P●●ple he appeared as their God as their Defe●der wrought their Deliverances sought all their Battles for them gave them Dominion and Strength Courage and Wisdom Ministred out of his Treasury all good things unto them For the great Care of God Almighty was with all his People he had regard to them and visited them at all times to keep them from Idolatry I am saith he a Jealous God take notice of me to be so I am Jealous of my Name If thou wilt be mine thou shalt have no other Gods bu● me And all the Precepts about Offerings and Sacrifices and making attonement for Sinners and the divers Services and Worship the various Offices in the Temple and Sanctuary they were all as outward means appointed of God to keep this outward Church in an inward Conformity to the Command of God This Command was written in Tables of Stone and these Tables were laid up in the Ark of God and all this pertained to the First Covenant and all this Typed and Figured out the Dispensation of the New and everlasting Covenant that God would make with his People not like unto the old How not like it Not like it in the outward Shadows the Types and Shadows of things but he would bring forth the Susbtance of all those Shadows and Types and would alter the Form and outward appearance of things For as God is unchangeable so his Law is unchangeable Moses saith the first and great Commandment is thou shalt have no other Gods but me This was put into the Stone Tables Christ Jesus saith the first and great Commandment is thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Soul and with all thy Mind Mat. 22 27. This is put into the Tables of the Heart So here is a difference between the first Commandment by Moses and the first Commandment by Christ they both acknowledge the first and great Command to be the subjecting of the Creature to him that made him as his God that he may only serve him that he may love him with his whole Heart The Jew could prove this by his Stone Tables and Christ proves this by the Fleshly Tables of the Heart for there he is bound to love the Lord with his whole Heart and to serve him onely him onely shalt thou serve Now here is the Jews Law brought over to the Christians in the greatest Point of Religion that ever was Preached that shuts out all Idolatry all Superstition all variety of Religions all is shut out by this Commandment and the Christian that hath the Law written in his Heart according to the new Covenant he can go as readily to it and read it as ever the Jew could go to his Stone Tables and read the Law there you cannot deny that if there be a thing written and Graven in my Heart I can go as readily to it as I can go to any Book or Table though I have the keeping of it But the Jews had not the keeping of it generally it was laid up in the Ark of God Now Friends that which lies upon my mind to speak to you at this time and that out of the great Love that I have to all your precious and Immortal Souls as God hath had a Love to mine is that you would all consider and weigh in the fear of the Lord whose presence is among us which of you and how many of you are come to the Obedience of this Commandment I do not doubt but the most of you can say them all but a happy People are you if you can do one I dare pronounce that Soul a blessed Soul that can perform this one Commandment that can or dare stand before his Maker and say O Lord I love thee with all my Heart with all my Soul and with all my Might my love is withdrawn from all other things in comparison of thee there is nothing in this whole World hath a place in my mind but as it is in subjection to the love of thee Here is the first and the great Commandment the unchangeable Law the Law that was good in Moses his Days and good in Christs Days and it holds good in our Days and indeed it is such a definitive Law that the Breakers of it can neither be good Jews nor good Christians there is an absolute necessity lies upon us of abstracting and drawing away our minds and Souls from all other Gods from all Images and other dependencies and trusts that People are naturally liable to trust to And to have their whole Confidence set upon the Lord but alas with Grief of Heart I speak it there are but a very few that as yet have known the right giving forth of the Law and there are a great many fewer that are subj●ct to it This Law was not given forth at first without Thunder and Lightning and a terrible noise and the Mountain smoaking he that hath an Ear to hear let him hear in so much as Moses himself said he feared greatly and he Quaked exceedingly because of the Thunder of the Almighty and the Mountain that smoaked and burned with Fire so that Israel could not draw nigh Now I say there are but a few that have come to the Knowledge of the giving forth of this Law that have certainly known those Thunders and that Terrible Work that the Lord of the whole Earth makes when he comes to set up his Law for a great many that have come nigh to it and might have heard and received the Words of the Law of God they have gone backward they have done like unto the Jews of old though they had suffered much and gone through much and had seen the Wonders of

is much strife and opposition in that way If I have a mind to speak a Vain word I am Limitted if I have a desire to wrong my Neighbour and cheat and defraud him I am Limitted I am not to do it that belongs to the Broad way if a Man will seek after the Lord and walk in the way of Holiness and Righteousness the end whereof is Peace he will find it is a Narrow way wherein he cannot enjoy his own will such a one must be a David who said I behaved my self as a weaned Child that is as one that is affraid to be Beaten But thou wilt be ready to say I am a Man and not a Child I am come now to be a Man a Man of Parts I have seen much and read much and would you have me become a Child What a great Man was David If you speak of a Man he was a Man of Dignity and Honour a Man of Valour and Experience yet when he speaks with respect to the frame of his mind before the Lord he saith he behaved himself as a weaned Child as one that feared to be beaten feared to commit an Offence He feared the Rod of his God upon him he feared Judgment would come upon him he feared something of Judgment upon his Conscience David was an Old Testament Man but he had regard to that which never waxeth old but is the same in all times new and old Alpha and Omega Christ Jesus was his leader before he was born of the Virgin Mary his Word was a Light to his Feet and a Lanthorn to his Paths David had Acquaintance with God who did lift up the Light of his Countenance upon him And when Christ himself came to Preach upon Earth he saith himself Every one that comes into the Kingdom of God must become a little Child He must become as a little Child in Simplicity and Subjection he must be under Government he must become like a little Child or he must in no wise enter the Kingdom of Heaven They must not think to enter into Christs Kingdom because they are Men Men of Parts Men of Courage Men of Understanding Learned Doctors that are Masters of Liberal Arts and Sciences These may help to make them Men but they must be Children all their Wit and Parts and Manhood Courage and Valour will do them no good for little Children Babes and Sucklings may understand more than they of Divine Misteries and have greater Communion and Entercourse between God and their souls than they so that whosoever enters into Christs Kingdom must become like little Children So that here is a way provided by Jesus Christ for Man to come again into the favour of God which is by Christ alone not by any thing that a Man can do Christ must be their leader and their Counsellour he alone can give them the true knowledg of God No Man can know the Father but the Son and him to whom the Son reveals him Men can never attain to the saving knowledg of God by study and by Disputation and reading Books and Commentators and Observators of matters of Religion Time would fail me to speak of the multitude of Books that have been written about the Knowledg of God You must come to Christ for Divine Knowledg Theology the Knowledg of God and Divine and Heavenly things is from Christ he shall have this Divine Knowledg be he never so simple that comes unto Chist for it he cannot have it any other way for God hath ordained this way saith God he shall have it of my Son who is the Reconciler the Mediatour between God and Man he shall be beholding to Christ for all All Mens own works and labours will not Justify and save them for God hath Committed the whole work of Salvation to Christ One would think it should be no great matter for Men to lay aside their own works and Duties and submit to Christ but I tell you it is very hard and I found it hard my self Men think by reading and Learning and hearing this and the other Mans Notions and Opinions they may be edified and proffited and come to the true knowledg of God but while they are waiting upon God in the way he hath appointed they may receive knowledg from Christ and be more certain and Infallible in what they do know than by consulting all the wise Men and learned Doctors in the World For no Man knows all at once and no Man knows all things neither it is not a thing necessary that a Man should know all things in relation to God for as he is in himself he is incomprehensible For no Man knows the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son shall Reveal him Yet that which he knows of God he may know it as certain and Infallible Suppose a Man know nothing of God but that he is the searcher of Hearts and the trier of the Reins There are many have read this and say they know it that yet doubt whether there be a God or no But when God comes within them and convinceth them of Sin and searcheth them and brings Judgment upon them for what they have done then they know Infallibly that God is the searcher of Hearts This is not Mans work this is the work of God if I find God doth approach my Spirit I know it is Gods work I have now got some knowledg of God how came I by it who gave it me No body but he that hath all Knowledg he that was with the Father from the beginning and was Glorified with the Father before the World began he gave me this Knowledg and how did he give it thee By this Spirit for he hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into my Heart and that Spirit of Christ searches the Heart and tryes the Reins He tells me this is Evil that thou hast done this is that which God that made thee hath against thee this thou must forsake and this thou must Repent of here I have an Infallibility of what I know but I cannot get Rid of my Evil. Now if I can believe in that Power by which my Heart is search'd and trust in him that hath begun to deal with me then his work is not only to Reveal his Light to convince me but to put forth his Power to convert me so that by the Power of that truth by which my Heart is search'd I come to be converted and turned from my Sin and break off from it and when I am broken off from it I am sure and have a certainty that it is so that I am broken off from such a Sin and that my Heart is turned against it I am sure that now I hate it and detest it and that God hath turned my Inclination another way I am sure this is Gods work I can witness this Infallibly that something is now done in order to my Redemption But there is something yet Remaining to be done What