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	see_v	write_v	5,407	5	5.3704	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A15575	Abels offering. Or The earely, and most accepted sacrifice of a Christian Shewing how soone every soule is bounde to begin, & betake himself, not only to the true, but also to the timely service of God. A sermon preached at Hamburg in November 1617. and now published at the instant entreaty of a godly Christian. By Iohn Wing (then) pastor to the English church, there.	Wing, John, of Flushing, Zealand.	1621 (1621)	STC 25842; ESTC S120118	48,552	80

him to be any way one of Gods principall secretaryes or meete to be entrusted with this rare jmployment of penning any part of scripture especially considering that he was brought vp in Pharaohs court as a Pagan for the first forty yeares of his life But for the cleare manifestation of this matter and for the justification of the authority of this sacred booke against all accursed cavills we answer and doe acknowledge that howsoever every thing reported therein by Moses were acted long before his birth yet neverthelesse all things written therin are as absolutely true as if Moses had beene borne had seene and heard each passage in his owne person The Lord made choyse of a man living so long after these things were done that he might honour himself and this his sacred historie aboue all humane histories vnder heaven For wheras no profane writer is able infaillibly to report any thing for matter of fact but what was done in his owne dayes and came to passe in his owne ceartayne knowledge the Lord is able to instruct such as he will set a worke to report the proceedings of his churches in all ages in the incontroleable truth of all things that came to passe though they that recorde it were vnborne when they were acted And who knoweth whether the Lord hath not done this and of purpose made vse of such persons who had not a being in the world till long after the time wherin the things themselves which they relate had their being that soe he might shew himself an alsufficient instructor of his servants in those things which were done long before their time and declared long after It is not my purpose to digresse into any generall discourse of those evidences that doe authorise and warrant the whole scripture which are discovered at large by many worthy judicious and learned Divines only that it may manifestly appeare that this booke is no lesse scripture then any other let vs take into our harts the due consideration of those things which may as vnreproveably argue God to be the author as Moses to be the penner of the same and they are among a multitude that might be produced these few that follow 1. Moses doth tell vs of some passages concerning God before the creation which no creature could heare or vnderstand as that of the first creature all the rest when he sayd of every of them Let there be light c. who could tell what God spake touching every of these seing as yet they were not when they were yet till man was created all other were voyd of vnderstanding 2. Hee relates to vs touching the creation of man what God sayd of his making to wit the matter and forme of his body and the infusion of his soule as also of the manner of the making of the woman when the man was in a deepe sleepe and perceived it not and what the man sayd of the woman when the Lord brought her to him 3. After the creation he report's the passages of mans fall and discover's the subtiltyes of Satan in seducing the first man and the first woman which relations must needes be of God for we cannot conceit that the divell would soe detect himself in the evill both of his grosse sin and great punishment 4. After mans fall he tell 's vs of divers secret passages as of Adams knowing his wife of Cains anger conceived inwardly and vnjustly against Abel his brother before it brake out of Noahs drunckenes and nakednes of Lots fayling and the manner therof how he was abused by his daughters with their close carriage of the matter how he knew not what was done when he had slept with them both of the close conveyance which Rebecca vsed to obtayne the blessing for Iacob with the most private circumstances therof and a multitude more of the like to these things soe secret that no flesh could know or relate but they must needes be recorded by the Lord himself 5. He make's narration of the sins of the most holy men and women either that which was common in those times to most of them as the Polygamie of the Patriarchs or such offences as any one of them particulerly fell into not sparing Abraham the freind of God nor any of the sincerest of his servants which a good man would have done had he beene guided but by his owne spirit Nay which doth absolutely seale the truth and authority of his writings to be of God Moses spare's not himself in his owne sins but make's a manifest discovery of his owne infidelity and vnadvised anger and the just punishment of God vpon him for them both This impartiality argue's a supernaturall spirit to guide it when a man cannot spare his freind nor himself but will leave both vpon everlasting record to be blamed and blemished to all posterity A thing not vsuall if at all vsed in humane history wherin men speake and write the best they can and many times more then they should of themselves those whome they favour It must be God that must make men thus to doe therefore this is one of the prerogatives royall of his writings 6. And lastly he tell 's vs of the most secret things that can be imagined nothing can be conceived soe close as the counsell of heaven what God speaketh there who can heare especially when he speaketh not in any such sort or soe openly where Angell's may heare but in his owne private closet nay which is yet more in his owne breast or bosome yet Moses can tell the world not only what God sayd in heaven but what he sayd in his hart how he was jnwardly affected Soe we finde in one chapter of this booke where Moses make's knowne how God repented and was greived at his hart at mans wickednes and in another how he was graciously disposed for the continnance of the constant course and succession of all the affaires of this inferiour world saying And the Lord sayd in his hart I will not againe curse the earth c. See Moses is privy to Gods hart and can make vs know what were his most jnwarde resolutions And who could give him the least light or acquaintāce of these things but God himself who made him his secretary and so made these secrets knowne to him And thus by all these evidences which are common to all other scripture as well as this but coummunicable to no bookes but the booke of God we see that there is no reason of doubting or debateing any thing in this parte of holy writ or any parcell of it because it was penned by Moses and he borne so long after all things written and recorded in the same were gone and past He had a singuler and all sufficient tutor even the most wise God and he himself did endite all that he taught and enabled Moses to write so that every jot and tittle of this booke of Genesis must be of absolute

and infaillible truth And soe having now by the way cleared this scruple we should proceede vnto our discovery of Abels sacrifice as we have it here layd downe in the words of the text which make report vnto vs what kinde of sacrifice it was and wherof it consisted But we must first take away another doubt which may be made by some how Abell could know the minde of God for these matters and soe readily offer a sacrifice of this kinde and doe it soe suitably to Gods prescription considering that as yet the law of the offering of first fruits nor any other part of the morall or ceremoniall was not given We answer it was giuen but not written as we have it now it was given in those dayes by divine tradition originaly from God to man and successively from man to man Then did the father informe the childe acquaint him with the dutyes that pertayned to piety and the children they received it from their parents obeyed it as from God And this course and manner of revealing the will of God by this kinde of traditiō endured all the dayes of the holy Patriarches and such as lived after them till Moses and also during all the dayes of Moses till that part of his life wherin the Lord employd him about the penning of this booke and that is diversly conjectured of some suppose it to be written before he went into Egypt within the compasse of these fourty yeares wherin he kept sheepe in Madian others imagine he did it immediately after his departing out of Egypt even in the first yeare therof Howbeit this as the former is no point of such importance as that we must of necessity have an exact knowledge of the same But that Gods law was delivered by this kinde of tradition till the time we speake off we nothing doubt and therefore the more foule is that slander layd vpō vs by the papist that we acknowledg not nor endure any traditions judeede those that are popish and vnwritten we cannot abide but doe abhorre them all because none of them can be defended but by blasphemy and some of them in particular are apparantly blasphemous But that there were traditions ●●ce to wit such as the Lord by himself or by his Angells made knowne to man man beleeved related to his posterity we doe no more deny then we doe that Moses penned this part of holy scripture which till his time was a tradition and vnwritten but can be none from that time forward And if the Lord have ceased his owne hath any man power to erect more that are none of his especially now that his holy will is sufficiently revealed in the writings of the Law and Prophets the Gospell That there were some traditions we freely confesse that any are of God now we dirictly deny those that are being not of God we detest because they are the fruit of the Popes braine who hath a very crazy head in heavenly things though he be applauded to be the head of the church and able to distill spirituall influence into it But to returne to Abel it is probable that he received the light and knowledge he had to offer sacrifice from his father who from God did instruct him how and what to doe in such duties as were to be required of him And vpon this did he embrace and obey the Lord in his ordinances which course of his and his forwardnes thus to doe in those times wherin no scripture was penned nor every man that spake of the things of God traditionally so infalliblely inspired as were all they by whome the Lord hath left his truth written to vs shall rise vp against vs to condemne our vntowardnes who refuse to be taught of God and to be obedient to him though he hath left vs a more happy way to learne then they had who had but a part of his good pleasure manifested and that not written wheras we have the whole and written vpon such records as can never be razed The saints of those times were most willing to take knowledge of the wayes of God and yeeld their obedience to them by that meanes which in comparison of ours are but meane and were but weake yet enough to bring them to God who lived by faith in the truth thus revealed The sinners of our dayes to whome the Lord hath dispenced a more absolute and most sufficient course of comming neere to him are farre from the Lord and will not give him neither such nor soe much duty as these did whose knowledg and practise is not soe much magnifyed as ours shal be manifested plagued of the Lord who looke's they should be the best schollers who have the best teaching Note Miserable will it be with those men to whome the Lord shall say these knew litle of my minde in respect of you yet have done much I made it all knowne to you yet have you done litle or nothing Let not this consideration be in vaine but thinke we how cheerefully Abel learned how conscionably he performed the worship of his God having but litle helpe to further him that we by due ponderation herof may be both ashamed for our faylings past and enforce our selves as it were by a holy violence for time to come to be more faithfull and industrious both to know and to doe what on our part we owe vnto the Lord what vnsepakeable shame is it that we should lye behinde them that have gone before vs in those dutyes wherin many of them had but few to follow nor any scripture to learne them but we have both Gods whole booke to giude vs and all his blessed saints are gone before vs yet are we exceeding short of those holy ones who lived graciously in that age which may truly be called the infancy both of the world and of the church But I will not dwell here we see the holy Ghoste beare's record of Abels offering let vs now come to the words of the text which tell vs what manner of sacrifice it was And Abel he also brought of the firstlings or first borne of his flock Exod. 22.29.30 cap. 34.19 26. Levit. 23.10.12 Num. 15.20.21 Deut. 12.17 cap. 18.4 cap. 26.1.2.11 and of the fate of them Of the first-lings or first borne that is the first encrease of cattell that the Lord gave him The Lord made a most exact law for the offerīg of the first borne both of man and beast and of all fruits vnto him and this law of his we finde to be very frequently repeated in divers places of the foure bookes of Moses Exodus Leviticus Numbers and Deuteronomie And as it was often itterated by God to Jsraell soe was it faithfully obeyed by Israell before the Lord both before the captivity in Hezekiah dayes 2. Chron. 31.1.51 Neh. 10.3.32.35 and after in the dayes of Nehemiah as appeareth in the storie of their lives nay from the begining before this law