Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	lord_n	name_n	write_v	5,698	5	5.8489	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67746	A counterpoyson, or Soverain antidote against all griefe as also, the benefit of affliction and how to husband it so that the weakest Christian (with blessing from above) may be able to support himself in his most miserable exigents : together with the victory of patience : extracted out of the choicest authors, ancient and modern, both holy and humane : necessary to be read of all that any way suffer tribulation.	Younge, Richard.	1641 (1641)	Wing Y148; ESTC R15238	252,343	448

with Christ is never dissolved A usuall thing with 〈…〉 eleevers to have their ebbing and flowing waxing and wayning Summer and Winter to be sometimes so comfortable and couragious that we can say with David Though I were in the valley of death yet would I feare none ill Psal 23. 4 other whiles againe so deaded and dejected in our spirits that we are like him when he said One day I stall dye by the hand of Saul 1 Sam. 27. 1. sometimes so strong in faith that wee can overcome the greatest assaults and with Peter can walke upon the swelling waves by and by so faint and brought to so low an ebbe that we fall downe even in farre less●r dangers ●s Peter began to sinke at the rising of the winde Matth. 14. 29 30. And indeed if the wings of our faith be clipt either by our owne sinnes or Satans temptations how should not our spirits ly groveling on the ground Section 9. But thirdly and lastly for I hasten suppose thou art at the last cast even at the very brinke of despaire and that thy conscience speaks nothing but bitter things of Gods wrath hell and damnation and that thou hast no feeling of faith or grace yet know-that it is Gods use and I wish wee could all take notice of it to worke in and by contraries For inst●nce in creating of the world he brought light out of darkenesse and made all things not of something but of nothing clean contrary to the course of Nature In his preserving of it he hath given us the Rainebow which is a signe of raine as a certaine pledge that the world shall never the second time be drowned He caused Elias his sacrifice to burne in the midst of water and fetcheth hard stones out of the midst of thinne vapours When hee meant ●o blesse Jacob hee wrestled with him as an Adversary even till hee lamed him When he meant to prefer Joseph to the Throne hee threw him downe into the Dungeon and to a go●den chayne about his necke he laded him with Iron ones about his legges Thus Christ opened the eyes of the blinde by annointing them with elay and spittle more likely to put them out And would not cure Lazarus till after he was dead buried and stunke againe no question to teach us that we must be cast downe by the Law before we can be raised up by the Gospell that we must dye unto sinne before we can live unto righteousnesse and become fooles before we can be t●uly wise In the worke of Redemption he gives life not by life but by death and that a most cursed death making that the best instrument of life which was the worst kinde of death Optimum fecit instrumentum vitae quod ●rat pessimum mortis genus In our effectuall vocation he calls us by the Gospell ●nto the Jewes a stumbling-bl●cke and unto the world meere foolishnesse And when it is his pleasure that any should depend upon his goodnesse and providence hee makes them feele his anger and to be nothing in themselves that they may rely altogether upon him Thus God workes joy out of feare light out of darkenesse and brings us to the Kingdome of Heaven by the Gates of Hell according to that 1 Sam. 2. 6 7. And wherein does thy case differ he sends his Serjeant to arrest thee for thy debt commands thee and all thou h●ft to be sold but why onely to shew thee thy misery without Christ that so thou mayst seeke to him for mercy for although he hides his fatherly affections as Joseph once did his brotherly his meaning is in conclusion to forgive thee every farthing Matthew 18. 26 27. And dost thou make thy slight sufferings an argument of his displeasure for shame mutter not at the matter but be silent It is not said God will not suffer us to be tempted a● all but that we shall not be temp●ed above that we are able to beare 1 Cor. 10. 13. And assure thy selfe what ever thy sufferings be thy faith shall not faile to get the victory as oyle over-swimmes the greatest quantity of water you can powre upon it True let none presume no not the most righteous for he shall searcely be saved 1 Pet. 4. 18. yet let him not despaire for he shall be saved Rom. 8. 35. Onely accept with all thankefulnesse the mercy offered and apply the promises to thine owne soule for the benefit of a good thing is in the use wisedome is good but not to us if it be not exercised cloath is good but not to us except it be worne the light is comfortable but not to him that will live in darkenesse a prefervative in our pocket never taken cannot yeeld us health nor bagges of money being ever sealed up doe us any pleasure no more will the promises no nor Christ himselfe that onely summum bonum except they are applyed Yea better there were no promises then not applyed The Physitian is more off●nded at the contempt of his Physicke in the Patient then with the loathsomenesse of the disease And this I can assure thee if the bloud of Christ be applyed to thy soule it will soone stench the bloud of thy conscience and keepe thee from bleeding to death 1 John 1. 7. But secondly in stead of mourning continually as the tempter bids thee rather rejoyce continually as the Apostle bids thee 1 Thess. 5. 16. Neither thinke it an indifferent thing to rejoyce or not rejoyce but know that wee are commanded to rejoyce to shew that wee breake a Commandement if wee rejoyce not Yea we cannot beleeve if we rejoyce not for faith in the commandements breeds obedience in the threatnings feare in the promises comfort True thou thinkest thou dost well to mourne continually yea it is the common disease of the innocentest soules but thou dost very ill in it for when you forget to rejoyce in the Lord then you begin to muse and after to feare and after to distrust and at last to despaire and then every thought seemes to be a sinne against the Holy Ghost Yea how many sins doth the afflicted conscience record against it selfe repenting for breaking this Commandement and that Commandement and never repenteth for breaking this Commandement Rejoyce evermore But what 's the reason Ignorance thou thinkest thy selfe poore and miserable and only therefore thinkest so because thou knowest not thy riches and happinesse in Christ for else thou wouldest say with the Prophet Habbakuk in the want of all other things I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation Habbak 3. 17 18. Thou wouldest rejoyce that thy name is written in the books of life as our Saviour injoynes Luke 10. 20. though thou hadst nothing else to rejoyce in But it is nothing to be blessed untill we understand our selves to be so wherefore Thirdly waite Gods leasure with patience and hold fast to him in all pressures Time saith Seneca is the best Physicke for most diseases

and fore-appointeth every particular crosse Eccles. 3. 1. Rom. 8. 28. 29. but even effecteth them and brings them into execution as they are crosses corrections tryals and chastisements Isaiah 45. 7. Amos 3. 6. and also ordereth and disposeth them that is limiteth and appointeth the beginning the end the measure the quality and the continuance thereof yea hee ordereth them to their right ends namely his owne glory the good of his servants and the benefit of his Church Jeremy 30. 11. Gen. 50. 19. 20. 2 Sam. 16. 10. Psal. 39. 9. God useth them but as Instruments wherewith to worke his good pleasure upon us As what are our enemies but Gods Axes to cut us downe not for the fire but for the building Gods Masons to hew us here in the Mountaine that we may be as the pollished corner stones of the Temple Ps 〈…〉 144. 12. Or admit the M●son pulls downe the House it is not with an intent to destroy it but to reedifie it and raise it up againe in better form● and fashion Gods skullains to scowre up the vessell of his House that they may be me●t for the Masters use If then they be but as Instruments or To●les in the hand of the worke-man we must not so much looke to the Instrument as to the Author Gen. 45. 5. and 50. 30. Well may the Priests of the Philistims doubt whether their plague bee from God or by Fortune 1 S●m 6. 2. 9. but let a Joseph be sold into Aegypt he will say to his enemies Yee sent not me hither but God when ye thought evill against me God disposed it to good that hee might bring to passe as it is this day and save much people alive or let a David be rayled upon by any cursed Shimei hee will answer Let him alone for he curseth even because the Lord h●th bid him curse David Who dare then say wheresore hast thou done so 2 Sam. 16. 10. Or let a Micha be trodden upon and insulted over by his enemy his answer shall be no other than this I will beare the wr●th of the Lord be 〈…〉 se I have sinned against him untill be plead my cause and execute judgement for me Micha 7. 9. The beleever that is conversant in Gods booke knowes that his adversaries are in the hands of God as a Hammer Axe or Rod in the hand of a smiter and therefore as the Hammer Axe or Rod of it selfe can doe nothing any further than the force of the ●and using it gives strength unto it so no more can they doe any thing at all unto him further than it is given them from above as our Saviour told Pilate John 19. 11. See this in some examples you have Laban following Jacob with one troope Esau meeting him with another both with h●stile intentions both goe on till the utter most point of their execution both are prevented ●re the execution for stay but a while and you shall see Laban leave him with a kisse Esau meet him with a kisse of the one hee hath an oath t●●res of the oth●r peace with both GOD makes sooles of the enemies of his Church he lets them proceed that they may be frustrate and when they are gone to the uttermost reach of their teather hee puls them back to the stake with shame Againe you have Sen●ch●rib let loose upon Hezekiah and his people who insults over them intolerably 2 Kings 18. Oh the lamentable and in sight desperate condition of distressed Jerusalem wealth it had none strength it had but a little all the Countrey round about was subdued unto the Ass●rian that proud victor hath begirt the wals of it with an innumerable army scorning that such a shovell-full of earth should stand out but one day yet poore Jerusalem stands alone blockt up with a world of enemies helplesse friendlesse comfortlesse looking for the worst of an hostile sury and on a sudden before an Arrow is shot into the City a hundred fourscore five thousand of their enemies were sl●ine and the rest run away 2 Kings 19. 35. 36. God laughs in Heaven at the Plots of Tyrants and befooles them in their deepest projects If he undertake to protect a people in vaine shall Earth and Hell couspire against them Nothing can be accomplished in the Lower-House of this world but first it is decreed in the Upper Court of Heaven as for example what did the Jewes ever doe to our Saviour Christ that was not first both decreed by the Father of Spirits and registred in the Scriptures for our notice and comfort They could not so much as throw the Dice for his Coat but it was prophesied Psal. 22. 18. and in Psal. 69. 21. It is ●ore-told that they should give him gall in his meat and in his thirst vineger to drinke the very quality and kinde of his drinke is prophesied yea his face could not be spit upon without a prophesie those filthy excrements of his enemies fell not upon his face without Gods decree and the Prophets relation Isay 50. 6. Yea let the Kings of the earth be assembled and the Rulers come together Let Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel gather themselves in one league against him it is in vaine for they can doe nothing but what the hand of God and his Councell hath before determined to be done as Peter and John affirmed to the rest of the Disciples for their better confirmation and comfort Acts 4. 26. to 29. No notwithstanding the Devill raged the Pharisees stormed Herod and Pilate vexed Cayaph●s prophesied all combined and often sought to take him yet no man laid hands on him untill his houre was come that God had appointed so that by all their Plots they were never able to doe him any more hurt then onely to shew their teeth John 7. 30. If we are in league with God we need not feare the greatest of men Indeed it was Pilates brag to Christ knowest thou not that I have power to cruci●ie thee John 19. 10. And L●bans to Jacob G●● 31. 29. I am able to doe you hurt but they were but vaine cracks for doth not Pharoabs overthrow tell all boasting Champions that an Host is nothing without the God of Hosts Yea Sathan himselfe was saine to say unto God in Jobs case stretch out now thine hand c. Job 1. 11. 2. 5. Now it must needs comfort and support us exceedingly if in all cases we do but duly consider that inequalit● is the ground of order that superiour causes guide the subordinate that this subluna●y Globe depends on the celestiall as the lesser wheeles in a Clock doe on the great one which I ●inde thus expressed As in a Clock one motion doth convay And carry divers wheeles a severall way Yet altogether by the great wheeles force Direct the hand unto his proper course Who is he that saith and it commeth to passe when the Lord commandeth it not Lament 3. 37. Suppose