Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	life_n	name_n	write_v	18,504	5	6.4426	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59601	Immanuel, or, A discovery of true religion as it imports a living principle in the minds of men, grounded upon Christ's discourse with the Samaritaness : being the latter clause of The voice crying in a wilderness, or, A continuation of the angelical life / mostly composed at the same time by S.S.	Shaw, Samuel, 1635-1696.	1667 (1667)	Wing S3038; ESTC R35174	154,749	423

a vanity which I have observed in many pretenders to nobility and learning when men seek to demonstrate the one by their Coat of Arms and the Records of their family and the other by a gown or a title or their names standing in the Register of the university rather than by the accomplishments and behaviours of Gentlemen or Schollars A like vanity I doubt may be observed in many pretenders to religion some are searching Gods decretals to find their names written in the book of life when they should be studying to find Gods name written upon their hearts holiness to the Lord engraven upon their souls some are busie examining themselves by notes and marks without them when they should labour to find the marks and prints of God and his nature upon them some have their Religio● in their books and Authors which should be the Law of God unwritten in the Tables of the heart some glory in the bulk of their duties and in the multitude of their pompous performances and religious atchievments crying with Jehu come see here my zeal for the Lord whereas it were much more excellent if one could see their likeness to the Lord and the Characters of Divine beauty and holiness drawn upon their hearts and lives But we if we would judge rightly of our religious state must view our selves in God who is the Fountain of all goodness and holiness and the Rule of all perfection Value your selves by your souls and not by your bodies estates friends or any outward accomplishments as most men do But that is not enough if men rest there they may make an idoll of the fairest of Gods creatures even their own souls therefore value your souls themselves by what they have of God in them To study the blessed and glorious God in his word and to converse with him in his works is indeed an excellent and honourable employment but oh what a blessed study is it to view him in the communications of himself and the impressions of his grace upon our own souls All the thin and subtil speculations which the most raised Philosophers have of the essence and nature of God are a poor and low and beggarly employment and attainment in comparison of those blessed visions of God which a godly soul hath in it self when it finds it self partaker of a Divine Nature and liveing a Divine Life Oh labour to view God and his Divine perfections in your own souls in those copies and transcripts of them which his holy spirit draws upon the hearts of all godly men This is the most excellent discovery of God that any soul is capable of it is better and more desirable than that famous discovery that was made to Moses in the clift of the rock Exod. 34. Nay I should much either desire to see the reall impression of a God-like nature upon my own soul to see the Crucifying of my own pride and self-will the mortifying of the more sensual life and a Divine life springing up in my soul instead of it I would much rather desire to see my soul glorified in the image and beauty of God put upon it which is indeed a pledge yea and a part of Eternal glory than to have a vision from the Almighty or hear a voice witnessing from Heaven and saying Thou art my beloved Son in whom my soul is well pleased This that I am speaking of is a true foundation of Heaven it self in the soul a reall beginning of Happiness For Happiness Heaven it self is nothing else but a perfect conformity a cheerfull and eternal complyance of all the powers of the soul with the will of God so that as far as a godly soul is thus conformed to God and filled with his fulness so far is he glorified upon earth Sed heu quantum distamus ab illo 2. Let wisdom then be justified of her Children let the children of God those that are his genuine off-spring rise up and call him blessed in imi●ation of their Lord and Saviour that eldest son of God that first born amongst many brethren who rejoyced in spirit and said I thank thee Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast revealed these things Luk. 10. 21. or according to the style of the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 1. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again There is no greater contradiction in the world than a man pretending Religion and yet ascribing it to himself whereas pure Religion is purely of a Divine Original Besides Religion doth principally consist in the subduing of self-will in conformity to and complyance with the divine will in serving the interest of Gods glory in the world Then and not till then may a soul be truly called Religious when God becomes greatest of all to it and in it and the interest of God is so powerfully planted in it that no other interest no self-interest no creature-love no particular private end can grow by it no more than the Magicians could stand before Moses when he came in the power of God to work wonders So that Solomon saith of self-seeking Prov. 25. 27. For men to seek their own glory is not glory the like I may safely say upon that double ground that I have laid down self-Religion is not Religion How vainly and madly do men dream of their self religion carrying them to Heaven when Heaven it self is nothing else but the perfection of ●elf-denyal and Gods becoming all things to the Saints 1 Cor. 15. 28. Instead of advancing men towards Heaven there is nothing in the world that doth more directly make war against Heaven than that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Siracides calls it that proud and petulant spirit of self-will that rules in the children of disobedience So that when the Holy-Ghost would describe David one of the best men to the best advantage he describes him with opposition to self and self-will 1 Sam. 13. 14. a man after Gods own heart and again Acts 13. 36. he served the will of God in his generation There have been of old a great number of Philosophical men who being raised up above the speculation of their own souls which is the logical life unto a contemplation of a Deity and being purged by a lower kind of vertue and moral goodness from the pollutions that are in this world through lust did yet ultimately settle into themselves and their own self-love They were full indeed but it was not with the fulness of God as the Apostle speaks but with a self-sufficiency the leaven of self-love lying at the bottome did make them swell with pride and self-conceit Now these men though they were free from gross external enormities yet did not attain to a true knowledge of God nor any true Religion because they did set up themselves to be their own Idols and carry such an image of themselves continually before their eyes that they had no