Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	lamb_n	life_n	write_v	5,499	5	6.5172	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A04400	A discouery of the errors of the English Anabaptists As also an admonition to all such as are led by the like spirit of error. Wherein is set downe all their seuerall and maine points of error, which they hold. With a full answer to euery one of them seuerally, wherein the truth is manifested. By Edmond Iessop who sometime walked in the said errors with them.	Etherington, John, fl. 1641-1645.; Jessop, Edmond, attributed name.	1623 (1623)	STC 14520; ESTC S107746	83,433	114

life and saluation which are most fully and often recorded ●nd testified in the Scriptures of God to and concerning such persons in such maner qualified as we haue before according to the Scriptures described So that euery man so qualified may see and know through the Spirit of God in and by the same records his name to wit his person soule and body decreed and recorded of God in Christ euen from the foundation of the world to be for life and saluation This is the booke of life of the Lamb slaine for in him it was and is done and of this decree there is no alteration And whereas it seemeth to some that God doth alter his purpose and change his word because he sometimes promiseth blessings and life to men which by reason they on their parts do not that which he requireth he performeth not and likewise threatneth iudgement which by reason men repent he executeth not The truth is it doth but so seem to ignorant men who doe not rightly conceiue of the power of God nor vnderstand the drift and scope of his word For God is not like vnto men to purpose one thing to day and resolue vpon another to morrow but whatsoeuer he hath decreed in his heart shall surely come to passe though he sometimes vse to speake after the maner of men because he knoweth they are but men whom he speaketh vnto He publisheth his Gospell to all men in generall and doth promise saluation to all men that repent and beleeue and he requireth repentance and faith of all yet notwithstanding but few do repent and beleeue and so come to saluation doth God therefore alter his purpose and change his word He also gaue a law to all men before and required obedience thereunto promising life likewise to all that obeyed it but no man euer kept it and liued thereby did God therefore alter his purpose and change his word nay God did neuer purpose in his heart nor promise that any man should here in the flesh keepe his law and liue by it though the Familists say he did neither was it giuen to that end though they affirme it was For if it had bene so God would neuer haue giuen the other nay he knew such was mans miserable condition by his fall and the fiery sharpnes of that law against him that it was so farre impossible for him to keepe the same and liue thereby as that it vtterly slue him and kept him off Therefore God hauing decreed in his heart to saue some was pleased to giue the other if he had not done so but should haue proceeded against all for the breach of the first should he haue done any man wrong nay who dare say so And is he now vniust in publishing his Gospell to all because he saueth not all or darest thou say he altereth his purpose and changeth his word nay let God be true and vnchangeable and all men liers and moueable Men are as backward and vnwilling and haue as little power or strength in themselues to obey the Gospell as they had to keepe the law nay such is yet naturally the pride and loftinesse of mans heart as lamentable experience hath long proued that he rather desireth to remaine vnder the rule and command of the law and so seeke life by the works thereof then to subiect his soule to the rule and commandements of the Gospell viz. to repent of his sinnes from the bottome of his heart and seeke life by faith in the free grace of God in Iesus Christ and follow Christ in the regeneration But so it is I say that before the world was God did purpose and decree in himselfe to saue by the Gospell of his Sonne Iesus Christ a seed a remnant of the foreseene fallen posteritie of mankind which seed he reserued from the beginning cōprehended them in the promise which he first made to Adam saying The seed of the woman shal breake the Serpents head Christ being the principall and they in him and of him and seuereth them with him from the seed of the Serpent in these words And I will put enmitie betweene thee and the woman and betweene thy seed and her seed And afterwards againe to Abraham in these words In thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed Meaning by thy seed Christ and by the nations those children which God made Abraham the father of as he said I haue made thee a father of many nations euen they that were to haue the faith of Abraham the seed that were to beleeue in that one seed Christ And again in these words In Isaac shall thy seed be called By all which it is euident that as Christ was promised and seuered from the seed of the serpent so all the seed betweene whom and the seed of the serpent there was to be enmitie were also promised as Gods free people meerly giuen of him to life and seuered by him also from them and as Isaac was borne by promise so are they At this time will I come saith God and Sara shall haue a sonne So Saint Paul saith Now we brethren as Isaac was are the children of promise And that these children of the promise onely are the children of God and counted for the seed the same Apostle also in another place witnesseth in these words They which are the children of the flesh are not the children of God but the children of the promise are counted for the seed And they are called the children of God because also they are borne of God and adopted through the Spirit of his Son and therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God as he said to Abraham I will he thy God and the God of thy seed For be hath prepared for them a citie Now this seed as God foreknew them all and had chosen them in Christ frō the beginning and predestinated them to be conformed to his image and likenesse who are therefore said to be written in the Lambs book of life from the foundation of the world And as he seuered them by promise from the seed of the Serpent so from time to time hee calleth them and whom he calleth hee iustifieth and whom he iustifieth them also he glorifieth He hath not done these things to all The seed of the Serpent neuer had any of these priuiledges God neuer chose them in Christ nor predestinated them to be conformed to his image neither were they euer written in the Lambs booke of life from the foundation of the world neither did God euer promise to call iustifie and glorifie them or any of them therefore God neuer altered his purpose nor changed his word or promise as some ignorantly imagine but there hath been euer enmitie betweene the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman euen from the dayes of Cain and Abel to this present and shall be to the end according to the word

of Iudas and of his fellow disciples who could not relish the words of eternall life which Christ spake saying Except ye eate the flesh of the Sonne of man and drinke his blood ye haue no life in you and the case of those Antichrists and of those vnfaithfull euill hearted draw-backs as it hath been the case of many thousands more and is still at this day yet the case of Peter of Iohn and the rest of the Apostles was far otherwise as is now also the case of all regenerate true hearted Christians they beleeue to the sauing of the soule they eate the flesh of the Sonne of man and drinke his blood spiritually by faith and haue eternall life abiding in them they dwell in Christ and Christ in them they are borne of God and therefore draw not backe sinne not to perdition for the seed whereby they are begotten remaineth in them neither can they so sinne because they are borne of God nay they are sealed by the holy Spirit of promise vnto the day of redemption they ouercome the world endure and keepe his words and works vnto the end they are the liuely stones of Gods temple built vpon the chiefe corner stone who are made a spiritual house to offer vp spirituall sacrifices acceptable to God by Iesus Christ his Church against which the gates of hell shall not preuaile they are the good ground spoken of the good trees which cannot bring forth euill fruit but good only the euill which they doe at any time is not their fruit because it proceedeth not from their hearts but is done vnwillingly through weaknesse for in their hearts they serue the law of God The Scriptures account that to be a mans fruite which cometh from his heart whether it be good or euill because thereby the nature of the fountaine which is the heart is knowne as the nature of trees are by their fruite So that the nature of a good man I meane that which is borne of the Spirit not his fleshly nature is now to bring foorth good fruite only as Christ testifieth saying A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth foorth that which is good We can do nothing against the truth saith the Apostle A good tree cannot bring forth euill fruite And whereas the Scriptures speake so often after this maner If ye hold fast vuto the end If ye continue Him that ouercometh and keepeth my words and works to the end then are ye his house then will he approue of ye then shall ye be saued And on the contrary He that looketh behind him He that endureth not If any draw backe or fall away c. he is not meete for the kingdome of God My soule shall haue no pleasure in him There remaines no more sacrifice for sin The drift of the Spirit of God is to informe vs of the different estates and conditions of Christians of the danger of the one estate and of the well being and safetie of the other that so we seeing the difference and being forewarned thereof might not depend vpon that which is so dangerous but striue vnto that wherein there is safetie And where it saith of some Let them be blotted out of the booke of the liuing I will put his name out of the booke of life The meaning is not that God will put any mans name out of the booke of life that is written therein but his meaning is that such desperate and wicked persons as blaspheme his truth and Spirit shall be set down as it were with a blot cursed vtterly excluded and pronounced against for such as there is no hope or place for repentance as was Iudas and others of his companions of whom it was foresaid Let them be blotted out of the booke of the liuing let them not be written with the righteous c. for they persecue him whom thou hast smitten they talke to the griefe of those whom thou hast chosen So that whereas men may seeme to haue a place among the Saints in the Church of God and to be in as good an estate as they by reason of some gifts of the Spirit which they may receiue and some alteration the word of God may worke in them yet being neuer sanctified in heart by the faith of the Sonne of God in time they discouer themselues to be in heart euill and aduersaries to the truth and such as God doth by his word exclude and pronouuce cursed children twice dead and pluckt vp by the rootes such as neuer had nor shall haue their names written with his people in his records of life which before their discouerie might seeme both to themselues and to others to haue and therefore it is said And from him that hath not shall be taken away euen that which he seemeth to haue which seemeth also to be an improper speech for how can that which a man hath not be said to be taken from him He had something may some say and it is true he had heard and receiued the word with ioy but not in deepenesse of root not in a good heart his heart was neuer sanctified by faith like vnto his that brought forth fruit he was enlightned and had tasted of the good word of God and of the powers of the world to come but he seemed and made shew to haue more he presumed no doubt that his name was written in the booke of life which was more then that he had receiued could warrant him This his pretended shew is now also taken from him and his name is openly by the iust sentence of Gods word put out of all hope of being or euer to be written in the book of life and he is now like the earth which bringeth forth nothing but briars and thornes neere vnto cursing it is impossible he should now be renewed For nothing is secret saith the text that shall not be made manifest nor any thing hid that shall not be knowne and come to light Therefore saith he take heed how ye heare For whosoeuer hath to him shall be giuen and he shall haue abundance and whosoeuer hath not from him shall be taken away euen that which he seemeth to haue But what is the booke of life for peraduenture it is a secret to some doubtlesse It is both Gods secret and reuealed decree or will concerning such as shal be saued by that which is reuealed the secret is made knowne His secret decree we haue in the first beginning of our writing shewed which briefly is this That God before the world was foreseeing the fall of mankind did chuse in Christ a certaine number of them to life and saluation which were all foreseen and knowne of him and recorded by his decree in the roule of Christ before they were his reuealed will or decree which we haue before also at large exprest is briefly this namely the speciall promises and testimonies of