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	old_a	testament_n	1,680	5	9.6229	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A14923	The soules progresse to the celestiall Canaan, or heavenly Jerusalem By way of godly meditation, and holy contemplation: accompanied with divers learned exhortations, and pithy perswasions, tending to Christianity and humanity. Divided into two parts. The first part treateth of the divine essence, quality and nature of God, and his holy attributs: and of the creation, fall, state, death, and misery of an unregenerated man, both in this life and in the world to come: put for the whole scope of the Old Testament. The second part is put for the summe and compendium of the Gospell, and treateth of the Incarnation, Nativity, words, works, and sufferings of Christ, and of the happinesse and blessednesse of a godly man in his state of renovation, being reconciled to God in Christ. Collected out of the Scriptures, and out of the writings of the ancient fathers of the primitive Church, and other orthodoxall divines: by John Welles, of Beccles in the County of Suffolk.	Welles, John, of Beccles.	1639 (1639)	STC 25231; ESTC S119607	276,075	406

Seeke the Lord while hee may be found and call upon him while he is nigh and let the ungodly man forsake his owne waies and the unrighteous his own imaginations and turne againe unto the Lord so shall he be mercifull unto him and to our God for he is very ready to forgive The Lord alloweth the righteous Psal 11.6 7. but the ungodly and him that delighteth in wickednesse doth his soule abhorre and upon the ungodly he shall raine snares fire and brimstone storme and tempest and this shall be their portion to drinke But if that people Jerem 18.8 against whom I have thus devised convert from their wickednesse I will repent of the plague that I devised to bring upon them For mercy and wrath is with him Eccles 16 11. hee is both mighty to forgive and to powre out displeasure like as his mercy is great even so is his punishment also and he judgeth a man according to his works Therefore feare the Lord 1 Sam. 12.24 25. and serve him in the truth and with all your hearts and consider what great things hee hath done for you but if yee doe wickedly then shall you perish O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse Psal 107.31 43. and declare the wonders that he doth for the children of men who so is wise will ponder these things and they shall understand the loving kindnesse of the Lord. But who so despiseth wisedome and nurture Wisd 3.11 is unhappy and as for the hope of such it is but vaine their labours unfruitfull and their workes unprofitable Blessed be the Lord God of Israel Psal 106.46 from everlasting and world without end and let all the people say Amen THE SECOND PART OF THE SOVLES PROGRESSE Leading the way to the Celestiall CANAAN or Heavenly JERUSALEM A divine Direction in the way of Life Declaring the Order and Causes of mans happinesse attained by the imputation of the Righteousnesse of Jesus Christ our Salvation Of the New Covenant of the Gospell or the Covenant of Grace THe whole Scripture of the Bible is divided into two Testaments The Gospel the Old and the New which Bookes be of divers natures some Legall some Historicall some Sapientiall and some Propheticall The Old teacheth by Figures Shadowes and Ceremonies Exod. 20. that the Law was given terribly in lightning and thundring to induce the people thereby to the observance thereof by feare The New Testament all Mercy or the Covenant of Grace came in more gloriously with the gentle name of the Gospell and good tidings to induce the people to the observation thereof by love The Story of the Bible from the first beginning to the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ doth for the most part declare the miserable condition of man-kind how hee hath falne from the innocency of his nature which God gave him in his first creation and how he hath continued in sin and the curse of God for sin having no power in himselfe to satisfie the justice of God How to use and apply the Scriptures or to reconcile himselfe to his favour therefore did God give the Law of the ten Commandements the particulars of his revealed Will both to provoke men to endeavour in the exercise of all godlinesse and also that by the knowledge of the Law men might know their owne defects of nature and the frailnesse thereof and by their humiliation might be prepared and made fit for the mercy of the Gospell for though Jesus Christ Gen. 3.15 12 3. Rom. 1.1 2 3 4 5. the substance of the Gospell was in the counsell of God from all beginnings determined to be the Redeemer of man-kinde being also promised to our first Parents and by whom all the faithfull before his incarnation had the pardon of their sins apprehending by faith the promise of his righteousnesse yet was not this grace declared unto them in such plaine and direct evidence as now it is to us in the preaching of the Gospell Hebr. 9. it being then delivered onely in Shadowes Ceremonies Prophesies and in the mysticall sense of Allegories so that few had capacity and grace rightly to understand them all which difficulties are now vanished in the preaching of the Gospell the Gospell presenting us in most familiar and easie demonstrations the Substance without the Shadowes and the Truth without the Figure withall giving directions and infallible rules not onely to know the meanes of our salvation but how to make it ours to apprehend and apply it to our owne particular comfort The great favour and liberty of the Gospel and this grace doth the Gospell give with such favour as that the necessary doctrines exceed not the understanding of men of meanest capacities but that all that will without respect or exception may reach their hands of faith to the crosse of Christ and freely apprehend the meanes of their salvation which is the Lord Jesus triumphing at the conquest of his death over sin hell and damnation This is a blessed alteration in the state of the world for in the time A happy alteration when the grace of the Gospell was hid in the clouds of the Ceremonies the observers of the ceremoniall Law did seldome understand the mysticall sense of the Ceremony which did alwaies allude to some particular grace in the Gospell Therefore The ceremonies of the Law did allude to the grace of the Gospel though God was pleased to accept of their carefull endeavours in the religious observing the Ceremony which indeed was but a Figure of the Truth included in the Ceremony yet they wanted a great part of that spirituall comfort which wee have in the observing the Covenant of grace the Gospell the grace of God appearing to them Tit. 2.11 c. as God himselfe did to the Israelites their fathers at the delivering of the Law in clouds in fire in smoke and thunders Exod. 19.16 but to us he doth appeare more familiarly by Jesus Christ his Sonne the most lively representment of himselfe assuming our nature and conversing with us did wound our sin and healed the wounds sin had made in our soules whose words taught salvation whose actions wrought it This is the difference betwixt the Law and the Gospel What the Law commandeth and what the Gospel the Law commandeth to doe and live if not to die the Gospell all mercy requireth to believe onely and live and this is a wonderfull degree of Gods favour that because wee are not able to keepe the covenants of the Law is pleased therefore to yeeld to our infirmities to alter our obligation and enter new covenant with us the covenant of grace The wonderfull love of God towards us whereby God doth indent with man and binds the justice of the Law in the bonds of his mercy promising salvation to all them that faithfully believe in the merits and mediation of his Sonne Jesus Christ Thus doth

this is when men give themselves over to commit sin with affectation and greedy appetite and oppresse their conscience with the multitude of their committings so that such conscience doth not remember us our sins for the outragious conscience in the Reprobate is when the conscience of the Reprobate hath for a time beene silenced and hath given the sinner an unchaste liberty in his ungodlinesse yet so as that once apprehending the knowledge of his sin and knowing the state of condemnation wherein it is it breaketh out into violence which wanting moderation urgeth the sinne● to execute upon himselfe some desperate vengeance such was the conscience of Judas the traitor which slept all the time hee was plotting and practising his treason but when his sinne was brought into act then his conscience though evill did upbraid his sin with such violence as made the griefe unsupportable and the traitor not able to indure the torment of his conscience thought as Caine that his sin was greater then the mercy of God and so despairing of mercy he desperately hanged himselfe Mat. 27.3 4 5. such is the conscience of the Reprobate their conscience is sleepy and doth reprove but seldome yet when it doth reprove it is then most terrible and without all comfort and though conscience in this life never afflict for sin but seeme senslesse and dead in its appointed offices yet in the day of judgement Rev. 20.12 when the booke of every mans conscience shall be opened then will their consciences that in this life have beene most silent be most loud and terrible in their accusations denouncing judgement Wisd 17.9 10 11. and inflicting a greater torment on the soule then the damned can have patience to beare this is both the office and end of an evill conscience A good conscience Now the conscience of the childe of grace is in full opposition to the conscience of the Reprobate for when God shall please to call his servants to the knowledge of themselves How God moveth the conscience and to a detestation of their sin the grace of his holy spirit moveth in the hearts of such and first awaketh the conscience and giveth it sense to understand the calamity of the soule and spirit to reprove and admonish it in needfull directions and this grace of God giving the conscience sence to understand sinne and spirit to reprove it is the first degree of our reformation and a preparation to our spirituall conversion God himselfe being the prime and principall author thereof When God doth stirre our conscience it continueth that holy motion to our reformation for when our conscience is once touched with this godly desire to examine the errors of our life God doth not then leave us but giveth us assistance continually to finish that needfull care without despaire without fainting the conscience being once instructed by grace understandeth that the soule is in danger of Gods judgement this knowledge causeth a desire in the soule to examine the particulars of our life then doth it compare our severall actions The manner how a good conscience worketh with the severall duties of the Law and thereby is made manifest the many and great defects and transgressions of our life and that therefore our soules and bodies are guilty and stand in the danger of condemnation From this knowledge doth arise the griefe of a wounded conscience for the statute Law of God condemning us for the trespasse of our lives The cause of the griefe of conscience the conscience then whose office is to excuse or accuse upbraideth our sinne and denouncing the judgement of the Law against us which is eternall damnation neither can we free our soules from these extremities untill God who is the judge of all the world shall please to offer mercy and the benefit of his cleargy which is nothing else but the story of the meritorious sufferings of Jesus Christ the Lambe of God which is in spirituall characters upon the crosse of his death and this booke being the testament and writ with the blood of Christ the most righteous God presents to all the world all the world in respect of themselves being guilty and condemned by the Law doth promise remission of sinnes How to quiet the trouble of ● grieved conscience a generall pardon to all them that with their eyes or faith shall be seene and read in the booke of life and apprehend and apply Jesus Christ the contents thereof to their salvation Thus and but thus it is possible to quiet the trouble of a grieved conscience the conscience being never satisfied for sinne before the justice of God be satisfied by the apprehensive righteousnesse of Jesus Christ Rom. 5.1 and therefore saith Saint Paul Being then justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ for before we can live to God wee must die to our selves neither is there a spirituall regeneration where there is not first a spirituall mortification and where grace would enter sinne must avoyd for he that would follow Christ must deny himselfe therefore let no man presume to apprehend the mystery of the righteousnesse of the Crosse of Christ before hee hath reformed his actions quieted the clamour of his conscience and utterly denyed the strength of his owne nature for how shall hee beare the Crosse of Christ No man can be able to apprehend Christ before his conscience hath thus prepared him that is laden with his owne infirmities or how shall hee be benefited by the promise of the Gospell that doth not first judge himselfe by the Commandements of the Law for hee that knoweth not his disease seeketh no physicke and Christ came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance This doth admonish all men carefully to watch the behaviour of their lives Revel 20.12 for if the conscience of every man be a book wherein is writ the records of all his actions good and bad and that seeing this booke must be read at the day of judgement in the audience of all the world before God and his Angels and Saints what manner of men ought all to be in godly conversation This ought to move in every one a double care First that they avoyd carefully all ungodlinesse both in thought and action whereby they may suffer disgrace before God and all his creatures at the generall day of judgement when the booke of their conscience shall bee opened to every ones eye Secondly it doth perswade a diligence in all godly exercise and that all men contend with a holy emulation to exceede in godly actions whereby they may receive applause and generall reputation in the generall assembly of God and all creatures for as in earthly affaires men covet most desirously to gaine reputation and a generall good name There is no ambition lawfull but the covetous desire of heaven because it argueth an extraordinary degree of desert in him that hath