Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	holy_a	read_v	scripture_n	8,342	5	5.9261	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A97103	The povver of love.	Walwyn, William, 1600-1681.	1643 (1643)	Wing W690A; Thomason E1206_2; ESTC R208782	16,819	65

be doubted wee have seene the vaine humour of man puft so high and the world so fill'd and pestered with works and labours of this vaine nature lest there are some such daring undertakers that like as Alexander the great is said to have wept that there were no more worlds to conquer so these Champions are grieved that there are n● harder places for their braines to worke upon or which is more to bee lamented one would fear● they are much troubled that the most necessary truths are so easie to be understood for that when they treate upon some very plaine place of Scripture even so plaine as thi● which I have read unto you yet in handling thereof they make it difficult and darken the cleare meaning thereof with their forced and artificiall glosses but as I wish there were no such dealers in divin● things so have I in my selfe resolved to avoid these extreame evills for as in naturall things I am fully assured there is nothing of necessary use but what is easily understood and even ready at hand so also doth my experience tell me that we have no bettering of our understandings or quieting of our mindes the end for which God hath vouchsafed his word from any places of Scripture that hath any obscurity in them but from such as are clearely exempt from all difficulty You know God frequently complaines by his Prophets saying My people will not consider they will not understand and when I consider that your owne experience schooles you not sufficiently against your dotage upon the vaine superfluities of this world wherein you know your selves to be carnall and to walke as men heaping unto your selves vexation upon vexation I doe wonder that it doth not stagger the Ministers of God in their publishing of things divine to a people so qualified so extreamely inconsiderate indeed it would make one to suspect the doctrine that you continually heare that it were not powerfull nor from heaven but weake and fitted to your corrupt humours and customes since after so long time it hath not subdued your worldly mindednesse Sure I am and I must have leave to tell you that there is utterly a fault amongst you nay those expressions are too soft you have almost nothing but faults amongst you and you will not consider which you must doe and seriously too or you will never reduce your selves into such a condition as will be really sutable to the blessed name of Christians Beloved I have seriously considered it and it is not your case alone but it is the universall disease I know not any that is not infected therewith nor to whom it may not be said Physitian heale thy selfe the milke we have suckt and the common ayre hath beene totally corrupted our first instructions and all after discourses have beene indulgent flatterers to our darling superfluities and therefore he that undertakes the cure must bee sure to bee provided of a fit and powerfull medicine and to be diligent and faithfull in his undertaking it is a taske that I have proposed unto my selfe and though I should meete with the greatest discouragements as the world is like enough to furnish his utmost forces to preserve his Kingdome yet considering whose service I have undertaken and whose works it is I shall not despaire of successe I am not ignorant that this worke hath often-times beene attempted and persisted in but with little fruit through the universall mistake that men are sooner perswaded from their vanities through pressures of the law and affrighting terrors of wrath and hell then by the cordes of love which yet I abundantly preferre as you may perceive by this text which I have chosen for when all is done It is the love of God bringing salvation that teacheth us to deny all ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world I must entreate your most carnest attention as being full of hope that I shall doe you much more good then you conceive for I must tell you I cannot cure you of your earthly mindednesse of your dotage upon superfluities till I have first showne you your peace and reconciliation with God and have wrought in you through the power of Gods word peace of conscience and joy in the holy Ghost You are then seriously to consider what is said and understanding will succeed The love of God I know is often spoken of a theame that hath begotten abundance of bookes and discourses yet none in no comparison like the Scriptures most if not all discourses that ever I have read or heard doe in some sense or other or in in some measure injure and wrong those blessed discourses therof The love and favour of God saith David is better then life it selfe What man in the whole world doth not gladly heare the joyfull tydings of the love of God But it is good that every man rightly understand and mistake not himselfe in this so blessed and delightfull Subject I shall lay downe therfore some infallible principles which concerne the same And I shall tell you nothing but what your selves know and that is that God doth most vehemently hate all manner of sinnes and that it is impossible for him to doe otherwise as being directly opposite to his most righteous nature and to that righteous nature wherein at first man was created for in the likenesse of God created he him and whilst you consider this I shall advise you not to flatter your selves as the Pharisee did saying Lord I thanke thee I am not as other men extortioners unjust adulterers drunkards covetous proude or licentious can you say you have noe sinne if you should the word of God would contradict you which testifieth that he that saith he hath no sinne is a liar and the truth is not in him and if sinne be in every one necessarily it followes where sinne is there is Gods hatred nor doeth it any whit excuse or exempt those from the hatred of God that can say their sinnes are fewe in number and of very meane condition compared to others whosoever you are that are thus indulgent to your selves you doe but deceive your selves for Gods hatred his wrath and anger is so exact against all and every sinne and so odious it is in his sight than he denounceth saying Cursed is every one that continueth not to doe all that is written in the booke of the law So as every mouth must be stopped and all the world stand guilty before God and though the sense and deepe apprehension of this woefull condition doe worke in you the deepest of sorrow though you should spend your dayes in weeping and your nights in woefull lamentation though you should repent your selves in dust and ashes and cover your selves with sackcloathes though you should fast yourselves into palenesse and hang downe your heads alwayes though you should give all your goods to the poore nay though you should offer up the fruit of your bodies for