Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	good_a	hear_v	read_v	2,687	5	6.0596	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75965	The male of the flock, or A sermon preached at St. Pauls, before the right honourable, the Lord Mayor, and the right vvorshipfull, the aldermen of the city of London, Septemb: the 9th: 1655. By Benjamin Agas, minister of Cheneyes in Bucks.	Agas, Benjamin.	1655 (1655)	Wing A758A; Thomason E861_3; ESTC R206648	27,438	38

way unmanly are they managed and transacted Let no man say what need so many words for I need them and ten times more and all too little to set forth the wretchednes and unwor thines of our daily Sacrifice of our common and customary devotions Oh how little good is to be found in the best of our services Bonum est quod sui plenum est Good is that which is ful of it self as gold that nobler mettle is ful of it self and therfore the heaviest of all mettles But alas how unempty are our devotions of themselves viz pious and holy affections and desires even like a puff in ones hand you may squeeze them to nothing or like the Lamb in the verse preeding my Text so light and macilent that the blast of ones mouth would have blown it off the Altar God saith My Son give me thine heart and we give him the lip and the knee the eye and the ear but our hearts are far from him Matth 15.8 That which should be the work of the spirit is commonly no more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a meer bodily labour Let us look upon two o● three particulars wherein the great stream of our Religion flows viz reading praying and hearing How often is reading the labour of the eyes Yee have set your selves a task to read good Books and so many Chapters in the Bible every day by the way no good Books should take us off from reading the Scripture in the pure and simple Text yea I would hate the loveliness of that Book though lovely only for the piety of the matter and sublimity of the stile which should in my affections stand corrival with the Word and bewitch my mind more with love and admiration than those sacred Oracles in their own phrase and expression But for our reading the visive Organ is only altered and affected and this is the greatest part of that service The words in the Book say Jesus Faith Repentance and the like just while we look upon them imprint their image upon our eyes but make little or no impression upon the understanding and the lest alteration upon the wil or affections so that after we have read over the Bible again and again our understanding is as unfruitful our affections as carnal as if we had never read a word in our lives So for our prayers we say our prayers but not pray our prayers Our tongues are vocal but our hearts are silent They fulfil their task and run their round as an horse in a Mill by a continual custom they will go from petition to petition until the words be said and the prayers be done But in the interim the soul lay dorment and fast asleep and in all these words uttered not a voice nor put up any request at the throne of Grace If God know what we have prayed for t is many times more then we know our selves so little of our mind and spirit went along with the duty Then for hearing the sound of the Ministers voice strikes upon the ear and finds a passage into the head but as we say proverbeally in at one ear and out at another because our spirits do not way-lay these heavenly truths and surprize them in their passage The rich Traveller would passe on nay stand saith the Theef I must have your Treasure so those rich Treasures of all Heavenly wisdome wil suddenly glide away unlesse greedy desires like a Theef presently lay hold and carry them into the secrets of the heart there to rifle and rausake them but here we are men too too honest for our own good Truth often passeth by and yet we never come to finger the lest of her Treasure Generally this is the best account of a Sermon there was a great Audience he was a rare man he had a strong and a clear voice was very zealous and pressed things home But what here they are utterly to seek Even as Ahimaaz 2 Sam 18.29 that came from the Battle of Absalon parting and puffing what is the News saith David I saw a great tumult but I know not what it was so as you would think they are much taken and heard great matters but what They know not what only they have heard they have read and they have prayed they satisfie themselves that the work is done though never so unworthily But my Brethren these things ought not so to be Therefore For the future let us be more careful in this matter Exhort let us make Conscience not only to sacrifice but also to offer the Male of the Flock not only to serve God but in the best way and manner I have prepared for the house of my God with all my might saith David 1 Cron 29.2 It was for God and his House therefore he did with all his might so what-ever we intend for God should be to the utmost of our powers A true Isralite in antieut times was able to witnesse at the Altar I have brought the best Lamb in my flock and a better I could not find So good Christians should do service to God in that manner as that they may justifie themselves and say I could not have done it better Grace should imitate nature which stil puts forth her strongest abilities A stone fals downward as fast as it can and faster it cannot fal fire flies up as fast as it can and faster it cannot flye So we in all our services to God should be pious and devout as we can This rule with some proportion is heedfully to be observed not only in our services immediatly holy such as were even now mentioned reading praying c. but also in those which are holy by a mediem remotely holy and one removal from God such are the services of our secular imployments in our ordinary vocations and Callings Here commonly the next thing is man but it is ultimately resolved into God As for examples sake an Apprentice or servant serveth in the next place his Master but in serving his Master he doth finally service unto God who gave the Command Again a Magistrate who is the greatest Minister of the people his service in the next place is unto them in protecting them from evil and consulting for their good and welfare but yet in the last and chief place it is unto God who requires as much at his hands In such services as these which are remotely holy we must yet be careful to offer the Male of our Flock See for servants Col. 3.23 Servants obey your Masters not with eye service but in singleness of heart and whatsoeuer yee do do it heartily as unto the Lord and not unto men for yee serve the Lord Christ How so I serve Peter and Paul I but in serving them you obey a command and so serve a greater Master See for Magistrates Rom 12.8 Let him that ruleth do it with diligence not only rule but do it faithfully and with the greatest care In the one concerning servants

in evil wayes They have appetitum caninum and swallow down Hel at a bit as if they were afraid others should get the lest share of it besides themselves As I have seen an hungry Dogg swallow a bone without chowing for feare his fellow should come to touch it Oh how mad and how violent are wicked men in the prosecution of their Lusts shal not their excessive wickedness provoak us to exceed in goodness do we not serve a better Master are we not about a better work do we not expect a better reward when Job provided a sacrifice for the World 't was the Male of his flock and when we provide a sacrifice for our God shal it not be the Male of our flock God put us not off with Saints or Angels though he had store and choice but one better then all the only lovely Lamb in the Fold for brightness and perfection even his own dear Sonn He spared not his Son but delivered him up for us all Rom 8.32 what therefore shal we render unto the Lord gratitude wil answer I have nothing good enough but the best which I have sha● forever be at his service Which that we may do let us observe these following rules Let all our services be ordered according to the rule of the Word Meanes we may not presume to know above what is revealed To the Law to the testimonies we may expound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Romans 12.1 by 1 Pet 2.2 where we have the same epethite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is there translated the milk of the Word and not reasonable Milk and then our sacrifice wil be the service of the Word viz according to the word of God Here we must stick otherwise we shal strangely vanish away in our own foolish imaginations and set up graven images which we all know is abominable in the eyes of God that service is peformed in the best manner which God saith is the best for God is sole Judg in this matter and not our foolish and fond opinions we may see groves and Idols a world of vanity and wil-worship in the world among all Sects and perswasions But while they take freedom to abound in their own sence doing what is right in their own eyes let us only do what is right in the eyes of God 2 Let all our sacrifices be offered upon the golden Altar Jesus Christ It is the Altar that sacrificeth the gift Mat 23.19 yea and inricheth it too and only makes it of worth and value Christ is Gods beloved Son in whom he is wel pleased and for his sake wil not quarrel with us or our Offering though we do not attaine unto the perfection of the Sanctuary yea the spots of our sacrifices are easily covered by his spotless righteousness so that God himself wil say here is an Offering according to my mind Where ever Christ is there God is fully satisfied for his eye is so taken with this lovely object that he cannot look off to see else-where what is done amiss 3. Time also and its opportunity is much to be observed for helping on this work especially there let us put our selves upon service when the good fit is upon us I intend soberly and seriosly when the spirit of grace moveth more sensibly upon the face of our souls warming and melting our affections and unkindling gracious desires in us and there are such golden seasons now strike while the iron is hot now to reading praying thanksgiving c for now thy hands wil drop with myrh and thy fingers with sweet smelling myrh O how holy are such breathings how seraphical such expressions how wil thy soul mount upward how near wil it come unto God! and thou whether in the body thou canst not tel or out of the body thou canst not tel 4. Keep a sacred reserve of the strength of thy Spirit and the best of thy affections for God and for his service and let them not consume and blaze out among the lying vanities of this world if we do not use the world as if we need it not we shal serve God as if we served him not There was a time when Solomon gave unto the Lord the Male of his Flock but when afterward he suffered his heart to be taken with si ver and gold with Wine and Women with Men-fingers and Women-fingers with Orchards and gardens and Vineards with Apes and Peacocks and all other the vainer delights of the Sons of men Solomon was another Man and now presently instead of a Male he offered unto the Lord a Corrupt thing The Lord said unto Moses Exod 30 34. take unto thee sweet spices and thou shalt make it a perfume a confection after the Art of the Apothecary tempered together pure and holy and as for the perfume which thou shalt make you shal not make unto your selves according to the composition thereof Whosoever shal make like unto that to smel thereto shall even be cut off from his people This was a sweet only to be smelled in the Sanctuary and not else-where upon paine of death so I conceive there are several aims and high breathings in our affections which are only for God but to spend them upon our selves would be the greatest sacriledg and moreover puts us upon an in possibility of performing the duty I have alwayes observed people high and hot in their pastimes and pleasure as low and as cold in their prayers and performances They who suffer themselves to admire Romances and Play-books and seldome seen to affect Sermons and gods-Gods-Book but they hear and read with a certain kind of loathing and fastidiousness The reason is this the purer strength of their spirit is spent upon vanity and therefore feeble and weak in the things of solidity A tree running out in foolish excrescences the fruit is rare and little and that too of the basest sort In your common Limbecks the purer spirits being drawn out and gone nothing is left behind but a Caput mortuum fleam and dreggs Therefore we must be careful to keep in our spirits to moderate our Joyes and to check our desires and not to suffer our selves to love any thing beneath God with an excessive love midling affections are enough for these things as for those high breathings of soul let them wholly be sacrificed unto the Lord. Stop up the floud-gates that the pools may be ful when yee go unto God and now open all and let them flow as fast as they can the faster the better I love such a thing with all my heart a common saying but once a grave Christian replied not lesse piously than truly why for shame all thy heart for this trifle and that and for every vanity all thy heart must be for God else thou wilt have for God no heart at all To conclude Thou hast in thy flock a Male but if that be meat for thine own palate if that be consumed at thine own Table then when thou comest to offer thou wilt most certainly sacrifice unto the Lord a corrupt thing Gloria in exelsis AMEN POSTSCRIPT I Have under two or three Heads put in a little more filling which for fear of tediousness I thought good silently to passe over in the Pulpit B A.