Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	law_n	lord_n	read_v	2,876	5	6.3934	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64642	Eighteen sermons preached in Oxford 1640 of conversion, unto God. Of redemption, & justification, by Christ. By the Right Reverend James Usher, late Arch-bishop of Armagh in Ireland. Published by Jos: Crabb. Will: Ball. Tho: Lye. ministers of the Gospel, who writ them from his mouth, and compared their copies together. With a preface concerning the life of the pious author, by the Reverend Stanly Gower, sometime chaplain to the said bishop.	Ussher, James, 1581-1656.; Gower, Stanley.; Crabb, Joseph, b. 1618 or 19.	1660 (1660)	Wing U173; ESTC R217597	234,164	424

the variety of the curses belonging unto a man unreconciled are so many that the ample book of God cannot contain them Deut. 28.61 All the curses which are not written c. We read v. 27. The Lord shall smite thee with the botch of Egypt and with Emralds and with a scab and with itch See the diversities of plagues All these are made parts of the curse The very itch and scab is a part of the payment of Gods wrath in hell Lev. 26.26 I will send a sword amongst you which shall avenge the quarrel of my Covenant the sword which shall destroy you that when you shall hear of war of the coming of the sword which the children of God need not fear all is alike unto them it shall be to avenge the quarrel of Gods Covenant The Book of God comprehends not all the curses that are to light on the wicked And therefore we find in Zachary a Book a great Folio-book every side whereof was full of curses Cap. 5.2 He said unto me what seest thou And I said I see a flying roll the length whereof is 20 cubits and the breadth thereof is 10 cubits Here 's a big Book indeed but mark what is in it Sure it is not for nought that the Holy Ghost sets down the dimensions of it there is something questionlesse in it the length thereof is 20 cubits and the breadth 10 cubits a huge volume Nor is it a Book but a Roll so that the crassitude goeth into the compasse and this is written thick within and without and is full of curses against sin Now for the dimensions of it compare this place with 1 Kings 6.3 and you shall find them the very dimensions of Solomons Porch A great place where the people were wont to come for the hearing of the Word and not onely in that time but it was continued to the time of Christ and the Apostles For we read how our Saviour walked in Solomons Porch and the Apostles were in Solomons Porch Acts 5. So large then was this Roll that it agreed in length and breadth with Solomons Porch and so many curses were written in it as were able to come in at the Church door It is as if we should see a huge book now coming in at the Church-door that should fill it up Such a thing was presented unto him and it was a Roll full of curses and all these curses shall come on those that obey not all the Commandements all shall come upon them and overtake them Cursed shalt thou be in the City and cursed shalt thou be in the field cursed in thy basket and in thy store cursed when thou comest in and when thou goest forth Deut. 28. Till a man come to receive the Promises till he come to be a son of blessing till he be in Christ he is beset so with curses that if he lie down to sleep there is a curse on his pillow if he put his money in his cofer he lays up a curse with it which as rust eats it out and cankers it if he beget a child he is accursed there 's a curse against his person and his goods and all that belongs unto him there 's still a curse over his head The creditor in this world by the Laws of the Realm may choose whether he will have his debtors person se●zed on or his goods and chattels But not so here this writ is executed against his person and goods and all that belongs unto him So that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God If this be the condition of a wicked man that his very blessings be curses what a woful case is it There 's nothing till he be reconciled to Christ but hath a curse at the end of it Consider that one place in the Prophesie of Malachy where the very blessings are accurs'd not onely when God sends on him the itch or botch or scab or sword but in blessings cap. 2.2 he 's accursed If you will not hear and if you will not lay it to heart to give glory to my name saith the Lord I will even send a curse upon you But how See how this curse is threatned I will curse your very blessings yea I have cursed them already because you doe not lay it to heart Mark is it not a great blessing that God yet affords the Word that we yet enjoy it but if we come to hear but formally to hear it onely and lay it not to heart God curseth this blessing yea I have cursed it already saith the Lord. When thou prayest in hypocrisie thy prayer is a curse to thee If thou receive the Sacrament unworthily the cup of blessing is a cup of poyson a cup of cursing to thee Stay not therefore one hour longer quietly in this cursed condition but fly unto Christ for life blessing run to this City of refuge for otherwise there is a curse at the end of every outward thing that thou enjoyest I have cursed these blessings already It is as sure as if already pass't on thee What a woful thing then is it think you to be liable to the curse of God! 2. But what 's become of the soul now why if thou didst but see the cursed soul that thou carriest in thy body it would amaze thee These outward curses are but flea bitings to the blow that is given to the soul of an unregenerate man that deadnesse of spirit that is within didst thou but see the curse of God that rests upon the soul of this man even while he is above ground it would even astonish thee 1. Consider there are two kinds of blows that God gives unto the soul of an unregenerate man The one is a terrible blow The other which is the worst of the two is an insensible blow The sensible blow is when God lets the conscience out and makes it fly into the face of a man when the conscience shall come and terribly accuse a man for wh●t he hath done This blow is not so usual as the insensible blow but this insensible is f●r more heavy But as it falls out that as in this world sometimes before the glory in heaven the Saints of God have here a glimpse of heaven and certain communion with God and Christ certain love tokens a white stone a new name in graven which no man knoweth but he that receiveth it And this is the t●stimony of a good conscience which is hidden joyes Privy intercourse is between Christ and them secret kisses And as Gods children doe as it were meet with a heaven upon earth sometimes and are as we read of Paul caught up into the third heaven which to them is more then all the things in the world besides So the wicked have sometimes flashes of hell in their consciences If you had but seen men in the case that I have seen them in you would say they had an hell within them they would desire

of the bridegroom and as Nazianzen I thank God I have a little learning to sacrifice to Christ. such a Precedent is worth the printing Thirdly that had not this course been taken a worse might have befallen directly contrary to the will of the godly Bishop For some of these notes were in the hands of divers persons who were much taken with them and much desired and it was feared might have endeavoured a private printing of them more imperfectly then now you have them That faithfull Minister mentioned in the frontispiece whose Latine Epistle is prefixed having with much adoe got this Copy out of their hands thought as the rest who have attested it 't was much better to publish these as now you see them then to indanger the creeping out of a more surreptitious Copy The general subject of these Sermons is of Conversion and so mightily did the Lord blesse them not only to the Edification● and Consolation of very many but also to the Conversion as we have good cause to judge of some I will say no more the Name of Doctor Usher by which he is more known to some and the Name of the most Reverend and Learned Father of our Church Doctor James Usher late Arch Bishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland by which he is more known to others not onely in these our Kingdomes but in forreign parts his great and good Name I say every where as oyntment poured forth prefixed before this Book though with some allay is enough to raise high Expectation of whatsoever cometh after these words and is argument enough to invite the Reader to look within and read them over and then he will find the least filing of this Master workmans Gold very precious Good Wine they say needs no bush and if this Wine was so sweet at first running I presume whosoever tasts it now though he have it but at the second or third hand will find it hath not altogether lost its strength nor will he repent his labour in reading what was taken after him if he be one that desires to profit his soul more then to please his Palat. That out of the ashes of this Phoenix the Lord would raise such successors as may by Pen Life and Doctrine do as this burning and shining Light hath done before them is the prayer but scarce the belief of him that prayeth for the peace and prosperity of Jerusalem and therein hopeth to have his share in the Concurrent prayers of every Godly Reader Stanley Gower Dorchester October the third 1659. Speedy Conversion the onely means to prevent imminent Destruction Heb. 4.7 Again he limiteth a certain day saying in David to day after so long a time as it is said to day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts I Have enter'd on these words in the other Vniversity on a day of Publique Humiliation as being suitable to the occasion the chief matter of them being the Doctrine of the Conversion of a sinner Forasmuch as Gods judgments are abroad upon the earth and hang over our heads the only means to prevent and remove both temporal and eternal is our speedy conversion and return unto God Else he will whet his sword bend his bow and make it ready to our destruction Psal. 7.12 God did bear a deadly hatred against sin in the time of the Psalmist and so he doth still for his nature cannot be changed If we return not we are but dead men The eternal weight of Gods wrath will be our portion both here and in the world to come if we repent not In the words there are three observable Points 1. Continuance in sin brings certain death Or For sin Gods judgments are on particular Nations and persons 2. If particular Nations or persons turn away from their evil courses no hurt shall come near them God takes no delight in the death of a sinner nor that he should despair of his mercy but would have us turn out of the broad way which leads to destruction 3. It behooves every one speedily to set about the work of conversion Nor esteem this a vain word I bring you those things whereon your life depends Obeying it you are made for ever neglecting it you are undone for ever Unless you embrace this message God will bend his bow and make ready his arrows against you Know therefore 1. That continuance in sin brings certain death There will be no way of escaping but by repentance by coming in speedily unto God The words of this Text are taken from Psal. 95. Harden not your hearts as in the provocation and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness If when God calls us either to the doing of this or leaving that undone yet we are not moved but continue in our evil wayes What 's the reason of it It 's because we harden our hearts against him The Word of God which is the power of God to salvation and a two-edged sword to sever between the joynts and the marrow The strength of the Almighty encounters with our hard hearts and yet they remain like the stony and rocky ground whereon though the Word be plentifully sown yet it fastens no root there and though for a season it spring yet suddenly it fades and comes to nothing We may have a little motion by the Word yet there 's a rock in our souls a stone in our hearts and though we may sometimes seem to receive it with some affection and be made as it were Sermon-sick yet it holds but a while it betters us not why because it 's not received as an ingrafted word Therefore saith St. James Receive with meeknesse the ingrafted word Jam. 1.21 Let the word be ingrafted in thee one sprig of it is able to make thee grow up to everlasting life Be not content with the hearing of it but pray God it may be firmly rooted in your hearts this will cause a softning To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts against Almighty God If you do expect him also to come against you in indignation Hearken what he saith by his Prophet I will search Jerusalem with candles and punish the men that are setled on their lees that say in their heart the Lord will not do good neither will he do evil Zeph. 1.12 Mark I will search Jerusalem and punish those that are setled on their lees When a man is thus setled and resolved to go on in his sins to put the matter to the hazard come what will come there 's a kind of Atheism in the soul. For what do's he but in a manner reply when God tells him by his Minister that he is preparing the instruments of death against him do you think us such fools to believe it What does this but provoke God to swear that we shall never enter into his rest What 's the reason of this It 's because men are not shifted they have no change they

we have begun our walks in this path And if thou art not terrified by the Law and the sight of thy sins been at thy wits end as it were weary of thy condition and bondage thou art not in the way yet Our sowing must be in tears And it is said that in the Church Triumphant all teares shall be wiped away from our eyes That 's a promise But is it possible that teares should be wiped from our eyes before we shed them Shall we look to goe to heaven in a way that was never yet found out Shall it be accounted a point of precisenesse to walk in this way or a soul-torturing doctrine to preach it This is the way that all our Forefathers have both preached and gone This is that time of sowing spoken of in Psal. 126.5 6. They that sow in teares shall reap in joy It brings us joy in the end to begin our sowing in teares It waters that precious seed and makes it bring forth joy unto us in abundance yea such as no man can take from us So then having laid this point for a foundation we now will come to the next That until we come to Christ the Law layes hold of us Till Christ come we are shut up under the Law kept under it And if there were nothing else in the world ro make a man weary of his condition this were enough Until a man hath given over himself to Christ and renounced his own righteousnesse he is subject to the Law kept under it not under grace It brings a man only to the place where grace is Put this therefore close to your consciences and jumble not these two together First Nature cometh and whilst you are under that you are under the Law Never think you are under the Covenant of Grace till you believe of which belief we shall speak more hereaftet Whilst you are under the Law you are held under it Whoever is under the Law is under the curse Now that I may unfold it and shew what a fearful thing it is to be under the Law to be held under it although many think it no great matter hearken what the Apostle saith of it Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the Law to doe them Gal. 3. Well then art thou under the Law then never think of being under grace at the same time not but that we may hope to be under grace afterwards By this Law we must be judged and the judgment of the Law is very severe It requires not onely that thou doe this or that good thing but if thou continuest not in every thing that is written therein it condemns thee Strange conceits men have now adayes and strange Divinity is brought forth into the world That if a man does as much as lies in him and what he is of himself able to doe nay farther though he be a Heathen that knows not Christ yet if he doth the best he can if he live honestly towards men according to the conduct of his reason and hath a good mind towards God it 's enough he need not question his eternal welfare A cursed and desperate Doctrine they conclude hence Why say they may not this man be saved as well as the best But if it be so I ask such What is the benefit and advantage of the Jew more then the Gentile What is the benefit of Christ of the Church of Faith of Baptism of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper This ground of Pelagianism is that for which the Church abhors us when we shall undertake to bring a man to salvation without Christ whereas if he be not under grace under Christ he is accursed If thou wilt be saved by the Law it is not thy endeavour or doing what lieth in thee that will serve the turn every jot and tittle that the Law requires must be fulfilled What would be thine estate if thou shouldst be examined according to the strict rigour of the Law Not the least word or thought that is contrary to it but thou must give an account for If thou standest upon thine own bottom or lookest to be saved by thine own deeds not one vain word which thou speakest but thou shalt be questioned for cast and condemned Consider then the great difference of being under Christ and grace and of being under the law When we are under Christ we are freed from a great deal of inconvenience we are not liable to answer for those evil things which we have committed as in that comfortable place of Ezekiel All his iniquities that he hath done shall not be mentioned unto him When a man is come to forsake his old way his evils are cast out of mind a marvellous comfort to a Christian whereas if a man be not in Christ every idle word he must be accountable for if in Christ the greatest sin he ever committed he shall not hear of All they that stand on Gods right hand hear onely of the good things they have done you have fed cloathed and visited me But they on the left hand hear not a word mentioned concerning the good they have done only their evil deeds are reckoned up Now that I may declare to you the difference between the Law and the Gospel I will difference it in three particulars 1. The law rejects any kind of obedience besides that which is thorough sound full and perfect without any touch of the flesh It rejects all crackt payment it will take no clipt coyne That obedience which hath any imperfection joyn'd with it will not be accepted But here I must not speak without book See Rom. 7.14 We know that the Law is spiritual but I am carnal And then concludes O wretched man c. The Law is spiritual What 's that We may know the meaning of it by the particle but but I am carnal The Law is spiritual That is it requires that all our works be spiritual without any carnality or touch of the fl●sh If in any point of our obedience there be a smell of the cask it is rejected If the beer be never so good yet if it have an evil smatch it will not relish Let our services have this savour of the flesh and they will not relish in Gods nostrils And thus the law is spiritual but we are carnal Now it is otherwise here in the state of the Gospel Alas we are carnal it 's true The Apostle himself complaines That there is a law in his members rebelling against the law of his mind and leading him captive c. Yet notwithstanding the Gospel accepts our obedience though the Law will not What 's the reason of this why it 's plain When the Law comes it looks for justice it puts a strict rule to us it requires we should be compleat But now the Gospel doth not so it requires not justification of our own but looks that being justified by Gods free grace we should

shew forth our thankfulnesse and express that we are so in heart by our obedience to our utmost power Here 's all the strictnesse of the Gospel If there be a willing mind it is accepted according to that a man hath and not according to what a man hath not 2 Cor. 8.12 God takes well the desires of our mind This is then our blessed condition under the Gospel it requires not perfect obedience but thankfulness for mercies received and a willing mind Suppose we cannot do what we would that 's no matter God looks to our affections and the willingnesse of our minds if it be according to the strength that thou hast it is received with acceptance Here then arises the second point of difference and that is 2. The Law considers not what thou now hast but what thou once hadst If thou say I have done my best and what would you have a man doe more then he can doe The Law heeds not that it considers not what thou doest but what thou oughtst to do It requires that thou shouldst perform obedience according to thy first strength and that perfection once God gave thee that all thou doest should have love for it's ground that thou shouldst love the Lord thy God with all thy soul mind heart and strength Here the Law is very imperious like those Task-masters in Egypt that laid burthens on the Israelites too heavy for them to bear They had at first materials and then they delivered in the full tale of bricks But when the straw was taken from them they complain of the heavinesse of their burthen But what 's the answer You are idle you are idle you shall deliver the same tale of bricks as before So stands the case here It 's not enough to plead Alas if I had strength I would doe it but I have not strength I cannot doe it But the Law is peremptory you must doe it you are compell'd by force you shall do it The impossibility of our fulfilling it does not exempt us as appeares by comparing Rom. 8.3 with Rom. 7.6 although it be impossible as the case stands for the Law to be by us fulfilled yet we are held under it as appears plainly thus If I deliver a man a stock of money whereby he may gain his own living and be advantagious to me and he spend it and when I require mine own with increase he tells me True Sir I received such a summe of money of you for this purpose but I have spent it and am disinabled to pay Will this serve the turn will it satisfie the Creditor or discharge the debt No no the Law will have its own of him If thou payest not thy due thou must be shut up under it It 's otherwise under the Gospel that accepts a man according to what he hath not according to what he hath not And here comes in the third point 3. Under the Gospel although I am fallen yet if I repent the greatest sin that is cannot condemn me By repentance I am safe Let our sins be never so great yet if we return by repentance God accepts us Faith and Repentance remove all The Law knows no such thing Look into the lawes of the Realm If a man be indicted and convinced of Treason Murther or Felony though this man plead True I have committed such an offence but I beseech you Sir pardon it for I am heartily sorry for it I never did the like before nor never will again Though he thus repent shall he escape No the rigour of the law will execute justice on him there is no benefit had by repentance the law will seize on him he should have looked to it before If thou committest Murther or Burglary it 's not enough to put one good deed for another to say I have done thus and thus for the King I kept such a Fort or I won such a Town this will not serve thy turn it will not save thy neck the law takes no knowledge of any good thing done or of any repentance This is thy estate Consider then what a case they are in that are shut up under the Law until a man hath faith it admits no excuse requires things far above thy power to perform it will accept no repentance And therefore we may well make this Conclusion in the Galathians As many as are under the law are under the curse as it is written cursed is every one that continues not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them But now where are we thus shut up It 's under sin as the Apostle tells us For the Law discovers sin to be sin indeed that sin by the commandement may become exceeding sinful Rom. 7.13 The Law makes us see more of it then we did or possible could come to have seen Rom. 3.20 By the Law cometh the knowledge of sin I had not known sin but by the law Yes peradventure I might have known Murther Adultery c. to have been sins but to have known them to have been exceeding sinful I could not but by the law To know what a kind of plague sin is in it self so as not to make a game of it or a small matter as many usually make it to see the uglinesse of it I cannot without the law But that we may know what sin is and that we may see it to be exceeding sinful I here bring you a few Considerations which I would have you ponder on and enlarge them to your selves when you come home 1. Consider the basenesse of him that offends and the excellency of him that is offended You shall never know what sin is without this twofold Consideration lay them together and it will make sin out of measure sinful See in David The drunkards made songs and ballads of him He aggravates the indignity offered him in that he was their King yet that those wretched and filthy beasts the drunkards made songs of him See it likewise in Job Cap. 29. when he had declared unto them in what glory he once was that he was a King and Prince in the Countrey Then see Cap. 20. They that are younger then me have me in derision whose fathers I would have disdain'd to have set with the dogs of my flock He aggravates the offence First from the dignity of the person wronged a King and a Prince Then from the baseness and vileness of those who derided him They were such as were younger then he such as whose fathers he would have disdain'd to have set with the dogs of his flocks A great indignity and mightily aggravated by these circumstances that a King should be abased by such vile persons Now some proportion there might be between David and the drunkards Job and these men but between thee and God what proportion can there be Who art thou therefore that darest set thy self in opposition and rebellion against God What a base worm that crawleth on the earth dust

the Corinthians of the great conflicts that he had in 2 Cor. 11.23 saith that he was in labours abundant in stripes above measure in prisons frequent in deaths oft In deaths often what 's that That is however he could die but once yet these harbingers of death these stripes bonds imprisonments sicknesses c. all of them were as so many deaths all these were comprehended under this curse and are parts of death in as much as he underwent that which was a furtherance to death he is said to die So we read Exo. 10.17 Pharoah could say Pray unto your God that he would forgive my sins this once and intreat the Lord that he will take away from me but this death onely Not that the locusts were death but are said to be so because they prepared and made way for a natural death Therefore the great judgments of God are usually in Scripture comprised under this name Death All things that may be expressions of a wrath of an highly provoked God are comprehended under this name All the judgments of God that come upon us in this life or that to come whether they be spiritual and ghostly or temporal are under the name of death Now to come to particulars look particularly on death and you shall see death begun in this world and seconded by a death following the separation of body and soul from God in the world to come 1. First in this life he is alwayes a dying man Man that is born of a woman what is he He is ever spending upon the stock he is ever wasting like a candle burning still and spending it self as soon as lighted till it come to its utter consumption So he is born to be a dying man death seizeth upon him as soon as ever it findeth sin in him Gen. 2.1 In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die saith God to Adam though he lived many years after How then could this threatning hold true Yes it did in regard that presently he fell into a languishing estate subject and obnoxious to miseries and calamities the hasteners of it If a man be condemn'd to die suppose he be reprieved and kept prisoner three or four years after yet we account him but a dead man And if this mans mind shall be taken up with worldly matters earthly contentments purchases or the like would we not account him a fool or a stupid man seeing he lightly esteemes his condemnation because the same hour he is not executed Such is our case we are while in our natural condition in this life dead men ever tending toward the grave towards corruption as the gourd of Jonah so soon as ever it begins to sprout forth there is a worm within that bites it and causes i● to wither The day that we are born there is within us the seed of corruption and that wasts us away with a secret and incurable consumption that certainly brings death in the end So that in our very birth begins our progresse unto death A time a way we have but it leads unto death There is a way from the Tower to Tyburn but it is a way to death Until thou comest to be reconciled unto Christ every hour tends unto thy death there 's not a day that thou canst truly say thou livest in thou art ever posting on to death death in this world and eternal death in the world to come And as it is thus with us at our coming into the world so we are to understand it of that little time we have above ground our dayes are full of sorrow But mark when I speak of sorrows here we must not take them for such afflictions and sorrows as befal Gods children for theirs are blessings unto them chastisments are tokens of Gods love For as many as I love I chasten saith God Affliction to them is like the dove with an Olive-branch in her mouth to shew that all is well But take a man that is under rhe Law and then every crosse whether it be losse of friends losse of goods diseases on his body all things every thing to him is a token of Gods wrath not a token of Gods love as it is to Gods children but it is as his impress-money as part of payment of a greater summe an earnest of the wrath of God the first part of the payment thereof It 's the Apostles direction that among the other armour we should get our feet shod th●t so we might be able to goe through the afflictions we shall meet withall in this life Eph. 6.15 Let your feet be shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace What is the shooing of the feet a part of the armour Yes For in the Roman discipline there were things they called Caltrops which were cast in the way before the Army before the horse and men they had three points so that which way soever they threw them there was a point upwards Now to meet with and prevent this mischief they had brazen shooes that they might tread upon these caltrops and not be hurt As we read of Goliah amongst other armour he had boots of brasse To this it seems the Apostle had reference in this metaphorical speech The meaning is that as we should get the shield of faith and sword of the Spirit so we should have our feet shod that we might be prepared against all those outward troubles that we should meet with in the world which are all of them as so many stings and pricks all outward crosses I say are so And what is it that makes all these hurt us what is it that makes all these as so many deaths unto us but sin If sin reign in thee and bear rule that puts a sting into them It is sin that arms death against us and it is sin that arms all that goes before death against us Hast thou been crossed in the losse of thy wife children good friends c. why the sting of all is from sin sin it is which makes us feel sorrow What shall we then doe Why get thy feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace Prepare thy self get God at peace with thee and if God be at peace with thee thou art prepared and then whatsoever affliction cometh howsoever it may be a warning-piece to another that Gods wrath is coming yet to thee it is a messenger of peace Now these outward troubles are the least part of a wicked mans payment though all these are a part of his death so long as he remains unreconciled whatsoever comes upon him whereby he suffers either in himself or in any thing that belongs unto him they are all tokens of Gods wrath and are the beginnings of his death In the 26th of Levit. and the 28th of Deut. the particulars of it are set down But this is that I told you the last time how that the law of God is a perfect law and nothing is to be added to it yet