Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	great_a	scripture_n	word_n	2,761	5	3.9668	3	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

Judgment who can touch the tops and sound the bottoms of this hard and knotty truth Sciat talis se esse theologum Deo gratias agat May not an ordinary capacity even here tu●● sceptique and seeker and say Hoc scio quod nil scio this one thing I know that I know nothing But to our purpose T is manifest there is in man a carnal and a spiritual wil. I see a law in my members rebelling against the law of my mind Rom 7.23 The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh Gal 5.17 T is equally manifest that this carnal wil is a most unruly beast as an untamed Heifer unaccustomed to the yoak flying off and not induring to do homage unto God especially in any strict and pinching Command Now therefore unlesse the spirital wil be the more prevalent and unlesse it hath this potency I cal it not the best wil either he do● not service at all else at the best he hangs in equilibrio as things weighed in an equal ballance sometimes bending towards God sometimes again bending towards his lusts or at the worst having begun in the spirit he ends in the flesh for example sake suppose one covetous and yet who would be godly too many such the dregge of our times have brought forth who have drawn a contract and would needs solemnize a Marriage between gain and godliness but can these deadly enemies ever be brought kindly to imbrace and kisse each other Tunc Ararim Parthus bibet But we come unto the example the man of our times God in his service cals him to part with some unlawful way of gain of which he hath found the sweet say in trading of Merchandizing now according to the potency either of his carnal or spiritual wil he answereth this spiritual voice His spiritual wil complies and saith instantly I wil do it but his carnal wil holds off and abhors and saith I wil not do it wherefore if the spiritual be the stronger he casts off the world and cleaves unto God but if his carnal wil be the more potent he forsaketh God and sticks unto his gain I might mention the same in ambition or voluptuousnes this therefore is the best will which bringeth up all carnal thoughts and reasonings to a determinate issue and wholly overpowreth them to comply with the Command be it for us or against us And now let me tel you that this is a work of the greatest pains and difficu ty Sometimes by arguments and reasons and sometimes by plain force we shal only be ab●e to subdue our carnal wils and desires That three leav'd Book of divers colours the red the white and the black is the best medium for argumentation this we must ho d close to the eye of our Consciences The first is red with the bloud of the Lamb oh a serious apprehen●●on of the sufferings of Christ is able alone to calm the frowardnes of our wit and provoak a willing obedience to all Gospel injunction The second is black with the horrors of Hel and the darknes of the infernal pit dwelleth upon it we must deal roundly with our souls Do this or dye God who gave the command wil revenge the neglect and grind thee to powder in the day of his wrath what thinkest of that devouring fire of those everlasting burnings this wil be thy portion if thou humble not thy self before God and submit unto his wil. The third is white with the joyes of Heaven yea brighter than the Sun with the everlasting light Oh blisfull Paradise oh blessed mansion of God how sweet art thou in contemplation how ten thousand times more in a real fruition and what shal I loose all to have my wil is there any carnal lust as good as Heaven why dost thou then stand up to retard my motion I am resolved to go to God follow me or I le dragg thee after And this is that which sometimes we must do when argument and reasons wil not prevail to compel our wils by force and violence As they I conceive of old with an untoward Lamb or an untamed Heifer which would not be caught for sacrifice they use many words and cals but in vain wherefore in fine they even tire and hunt it down Wel caught it is and brought unto the Temple but now that it sees the fire and the Altar and the sacrificing knife it bellows and struggles and were it possible t would get away wherefore the Priests lay violent hands upon it and by plain force fasten and tie it to the Altar This sure is the next sence of that place Psalm 118 27. Bind the sacrisice with chords even to the horns of the Altar what other use the horns of the Altar did serve unto for the present I do not remember Just such is the impetious hadstrongnesse of our carnal wils notwithstanding all moral and divine swasions wherefore with the same kind of violence we must force them to their good abearing And now let me tel thee for thy comfort thou hast shot the gulf thou hast triumphed glorious sly I see how thou draggest base lusts at thy Charriot wheels yea thou shalt conquer more more and tread down Satan under thy feet The wil of man is all in all sind me wil I le find all the rest as in civils so in divine actions as the Sun among the Orbs domineereth in his Light and gloriously illustrates the superior and inferior Planets so the wil in the mi●dle between the understanding and the affections hath a wonderful influence both upon the one and the other to set them in good earnest about the service of God 3ly With our best affections as with fear and reverence God is exceedingly to be reverenced in the Assembly of Saints and to be had in honour of all those who are round about him Psa 89.7 So likewise with love joy defire delight and in a word with zeal as hot as fire We must be passionate Lovers of God and of his service Be fervent in spirit serving the Lord Rom 12.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal 4.18 It is good to be zealous in a good work This is a good work and we must be zealous in the transacting it Zeal is the intention of any affection as strong desires is zeal vehement love is zeal which should be a perpetual concomitant to all our devotions if we have not this fire upon the Altar our sacrifice wil not burne T is not enough we take up our Bow and our Quiver but we must strain the string up to the arrows head by a strong nisus and labouring of the spirit He that sets out for Heaven must betake himself to the swifter Chariots of Aminadab Cant 6.12 and not drive on so heavily and sluggishly with the world We must not only be content to come to Church and hear a Sermon and spend an houre c but long for the Courts of Gods house with the same