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	word_n	write_v	5,673	5	5.6270	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A14278	Ionah's contestation about his gourd In a sermon deliuered at Pauls Crosse. Septemb. 19. 1624. By R.V. preacher of Gods Word.	Vase, Robert.	1625 (1625)	STC 24594; ESTC S119027	48,155	72

the fire without melting And for this cause neyther was it the voyce of the Lord proceeding immediately from his spirit which spake to Ionah here or to any of his Prophets elsewhere For as no man hath seene his shape so neyther hath any man heard his voyce at any time as sayth our Saviour Ioh. 5.37 The voyce of the Lord sayth David is powerfull the voyce of the Lord is full of maiestie c. but in his Temple doth everie man speake of his glory And truly vnlesse wee first take comfort in hearing the Lords voyce in his Temple and that by the Ministery of man daily delivered wee shall take little pleasure in hearing the Lords owne voyce which shall shake both heaven and earth much more the consciences of all sinners when he shall show himselfe in farre more dreadfull manner then once he did vpon Mount Sinai But how came the voyce to Ionah I have showen you negatively how not was it then in audible manner from without audible or rather intelligible it was to Ionah but in secret and from within like that still small voyce that came to Eliah The Lord spake vnto Iob but out of the whirl-winde and Job therewith grew humbled before a man most daring And I thinke had there to this voyce in what kinde soever it came to Jonah beene ioyned but some powerfull signe of the Lords presence Ionah durst not then have carryed himselfe so petulantly if the Lord had spoken to him whither out of the whirlewinde as to Iob or out of the flaming bush as to Moses or out of the storme as to Eliah or in a more excelling vision as vnto Daniel as vnto Iohn Rev. 1. He durst not then have replyed as he doeth much lesse if as he is in his owne ineffable existency had God spoken durst he once to have muttered It is true the Lord doeth sometimes speake audibly striking the outward sense of man as by the Trumpet which called vnto Iohn Revel 4. Againe sometimes hee hath revealed himselfe visibly to the eye of mans body and so he did to the young man with Elisha the Prophet 2. Kings 6.17 and to Paul Actes the 9.3 Sometimes againe and that very vsually vnder the time of the old Law he hath revealed his will to the fantasie or imagination and that by a dreame in the night Lastly and that most specially and most inwardly of all hath the Lord made knowen his purpose to the minde of man his intellective or vnderstanding part as the most essentiall part of man and most capable of Divine revelation But this last hath not happened alwayes after one kinde and manner but sometimes after a more abstracting and ravishing sort the man for the present being so disposed that hee knowes not whether his spirit bee in or out of his body at the lestwise the spirit being for the time deprived the vse of any the senses that it may attend the better to heavenly visions Thus was Ezekiel carryed out of himselfe into the valley of dry bones Paul into the third heavens thus fell Peter into his trance Sometimes againe to come to the question in hand and this most commonly to his Seruants the Prophets the Lord hath given his word or his signe by a secret instinct or inspiration Thus was the manner of olde and that thus it was with Ionah in this place may appeare by the context in comparing this speech with the precedent verse where is set downe that Ionah fainting wished in himselfe to die and said it was better for him to die then live This wish or speech of Jonah was secret within himselfe no eare heard it but the Lord and so the Lord in secret againe doth answer him and hee againe answers to the Lord. The Lord saide to Ionah and Ionah saide to the Lord the manner and carriage of which saying and interchange of speech as it was secret and silent so no thoughts could vnderstand but the heart of Ionah and the Lord only Shall we now apply this the Author to the Hebrewes hath done it in these words God who did in times past at divers times and sundry waies speake vnto the Fathers the Prophets have in these last daies spoken to vs by his owne Sonne whom hee hath appointed heire of all things by whom he made the worlds Now which kinde of speakings had you rather choose whither by seruants in the house or him that hath made the house and is heire of all Some there be who say O that we had lived in the daies of the Prophets or the Prophets now in our daies for then should we be vifited with new revelations and visions from the Lord. Hence spring vp almost in all ages those Anabaptisticall spirits pretending daily new revelations but inspired from hell to leade away vnstable soules which will not content themselues with the sound doctrine of the Gospel delivered by Christ Iesus the only Sonne of God To this end also have the Ministers of Antichrist devised new traditions and vnwritten verities to feed the humour of such men that they all might bee damned saith Saint Paul who beleeve not the truth but have pleasure in vnrighteousnesse in his second Epistle to the Thessalonians O remember the saying before that God spake divers times and diversly to the Fathers the Prophets none of them for the time being able to deliver an absolute forme of doctrine but as expecting daily somethings yet to bee added they waited for further revelations or inspirations from above And shall we expect that doctrine which they left imperfect to be made vp or perfected by the giddy spirits or furious phantasies of such who come like the old Prophets I have dreamed I have dreamed O no God hath spoken to vs in these last dayes by his Sonne the heyre of all who came out of his Fathers bosome and therefore hath revealed his whole will concerning our salvation and the means thereof and the same to remaine without any addition alteration or change to the end of the world he hath also sealed the same by the witnesse of his spirit in the hearts of all beleevers so that we may say with Peter whether shall we goe from thee for thou hast the word of Life c. To conclude since Saint Iohn wrote his revelation which he received from Christ there is to be looked for no other Revelation whether from Angels or men but cursed is he that addeth or taketh away from the words of the Booke of this Prophesie or from the writing of any other the Prophets Euangelists Apostles This word of God saith S. Paul to Timothy is able to make the man of God perfect what neede then any other helpe and furtherance perfection being by this word to bee attained vnto a perfection greater then that the fathers before Christ saw a perfection so farre as is conuenient during the state of our mortall life and Pilgrimage here vntill that glorious day in full strength breake out and the

bottome of the gulfe For I am astonished with Iobs three friends when I behold his misery and I cannot but iudge him as one shut vp in the pit when I heare his words How commest thou out of the deepe O Iob who ledde thee out of darkenesse into light o Ieremy can a man live againe beeing once dead even so are the fruits of your hopes whose blasted blossomes doe againe flourish and your broken branches doe againe shoote out O the pit I now well perceive had not wholly shut her mouth vpon you nor was the life of your hopes vtterly lost I must in this recall my selfe for then as the fire doeth resist the water the water the fire as the divell is an enemie to our salvation and heaven is opposite to hell so they whom the God of heaven doeth cast out as his adversaries and they themselves doe so iudge of themselves to be perpetually reiected and abhorred of their Maker the estate of these men will you know or their condition what it is They are no longer men but have put on the shapes of divels for the image is quite changed from puritie and holinesse which was in the creation thus hath God lost them and they have lost their part in God God is now contrary to them and they to God as heate is to cold as light is to darkenesse life to death fire to water Thus God hates them thus they hate God thus God fights against them they fight against God Michael and his Saints and Angels against the Divell his members and angels and the enmitie it is immortall and never to be reconciled They began first to persecute God in his members God in his turne powres the viall of his wrath vpon their heads and they blaspheme God plagues them they curse God and cursing are plagued and plagued doe curse continualy this is the state of the damned in hell and this is all their spight against heaven These are sunke downe irrecoverably into the pit the pit of fire and brimstone hath shut her mouth vpon them they are closed vp in the pit for ever and ever But who will affirme who dare to avouch that thus it was with Iob or his companyon Ieremy or that to any of Gods Saints truely quickned by his grace in any of these measures it hath happened or can thus happen No For they never are at direct enmitie with God howbeit they may be brought to this point through the force of continued grievances to be confounded at Gods iudgements to stagger in their mindes and to incline to this suggestion that it had beene better for them whatever God may worke out of it for his vnsearchable ends yet for them and their parts it had beene better not to have beene borne at all then to be ordained to such present wretchednesse therevpon have they beene mooved to curse not God but their day the night the light and Starres as before you have heard any thing save only God whose counsels they admire though his iudgements proove distastfull The matter will proove yet more cleere if wee consider and compare but a little the contrary disposition of such whom God hath given over to this fearefull sinne First These doe resist that light which for the present doth convince their iudgements it fareth with the iudgements of the Saints for the time as with troubled waters neither pleasant to drinke nor apt to render the true forme or proportion of any obiect therevnto presented their imaginations are distempered and their mindes like the Sunne with a cloude of errour overcast Secondly the outrage is discharged directly in the face of God they disgorge blasphemies against heaven as Iulian the Apostate threw his blood into the ayre against Christ or the Thracians who shot their arrowes vp to heaven in thunder and lightning but the Saints divert the bent of their fury another way Againe those doe it out of a despight and malice to the spirit of grace in these it proceedeth from an impotency or infirmitie of their natures Lastly the Saints doe evermore end with fairer lightnings howsoever it may goe with them for the present and they hang their harpes vpon the willow trees they shall not alwaies live in Babylon they shall returne to Sion and their mouth shall be filled with laughter and their tongues with Praise in the meane time subiect to manifold alterations as is the state of all things in this world besides Now it shineth anone t is overcast and clouded now t is night and now t is day the seasons of the yeere doe alter there is Summer and Winter Spring time and Autumne so there is faire Weather and foule Weather in the heart of a Christian For now 't is health and then 't is sicknesse now 't is prosperitie and then adversitie now he sings and then he sighes praise the Lord sing vnto the Lord faith Ieremy cursed be the day wherein I was borne immediately after saith the same Ieremy Ionah is exceeding glad for the gourd for one night and is very weary of his life the next morning But consider the vpright and marke the end of the iust man saith David for sure the end of such a man is peace at the last Even as you may finde many complaints and bitter cries mixed in the booke of Psalmes what is the conclusion or how end the last Psalmes of that booke their beginning commonly and ending is this praise the Lord praise yee the name of the Lord. But what 's the end of sinners more specially of such sinners woundes and death and blood-shed knives and rackes and halters snares fire and brimstone storme and tempest horrours and terrours death and damnation For these are they that blaspheme God and really curse his holy name vpon these he powreth the vials of his wrath and they gnaw their tongues and blaspheme and repent not There is a word cloathed about with death saith Syrach but it is not found in the habitations of Iacob there is a sinne vnto death saith Saint Iohn I say not that yee should pray for it saith he but this he saith we know that every one that is borne of God sinneth not that sinne but he that is begotten of God keepeth himselfe pure and that wicked one toucheth him not albeit with Jonah he may be angry albeit in the strength of his malady hee may curse life and wish death yea never to fall into that sinne of death Thus have we performed a worke of love to draw Ionah out of the ditch and have preserved all Ionasses from the like danger of sinking What remaineth but the conclusion only and it shall be briefely folded vp in a few conclusions or generall vses deduced from this which hath beene said 1. And the First shall be a point of exhortation and this to the Saints of God molested in this their mortall condition with varietie of temptations and of passions that they may learne the way to peace and when they