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
A87500	Heaven upon earth, or, The best friend in the worst of times. Delivered in several sermons by James Janeway, Minister of the Gospel.	Janeway, James, 1636?-1674.	1671 (1671)	Wing J466; ESTC R178954	227,422	377

Christ for he is our peace who hath made both one In verse the tenth is a description of our state withour Christ being aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel being strangers from the Covenant of promise and having no hope and without God in the world This is a description of our unacquaintance with God But Christ makes up the breach and that by a double Act. First by Covenant with the Father to make man sit for communion with him Secondly His giving man assurance that the Father will receive him upon his return This then is the great design in all those glorious accomplishments of Christ for this he left his Fathers bosome that he might bring us into acquaintance with the Father for this end did he who thought it no robbery to be equal with the Father make himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man and being sound in fashion of a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross that he might bring man into a re-union with God for this end did Christ live a wearisome troublesome life among a company of Rebells and Enemies as if a man should live among Toads and Serpents So that he cryed out as weary of any longer abiding with them Oh faithless generation How long shall I be with you How long shall I suffer you For this did he make himself an offering for sin that by taking away sin he might bring men to God This is the great purpose of Christ in all his offices Ye have heard of the three Offices of the Mediator that he is a Priest a Prophet and a King This is the end of the Priestly Office The purpose of Christs offering up himself a Sacrifice was by satisfying the justice of God to make way for sinners return to God This is the end of his prophetical Office to lead men into knowledg and acquaintance with God This is the end of his Kingly Office that governing them and ruling their hearts by his Spirit he might effectually bring men to God to acquaintance with him Now then since this is the great design of God in his great dispensation towards man to keep men in acquaintance with himself and to reduce him when he had lost it doth it not concern us to do our part for the bringing to pass this great work shall God lose his end in making us and in setting man in the world every way furnished for his service and shall God lose his end in sending his Son to receive us when we had forsaken him Shall Christ leave his Fathers bosom to bring us home to the Father and shall we refuse to return Shall he pour out his soul an offering for sin that he might make way for our access to God that we who were far off might be made nigh by the blood of Christ and shall we frustrate all by our refusing to go to him shall Christ come and offer us his help and direction to come to the Father and shall we abide still strangers Shall the Kings Son come into our Cottages to invite us to dwell with his Father at Court and shall we shut the door upon him esteeming our Cottages better than his Pallace Secondly It is the duty of man to acquaint himself with God because therein is the improvement of his highest excellency Every one acknowledgeth an excellency in man above all the rest of this lower world Now what is this excellency of man Is it not that he is made in a capacity of knowing God and enjoying God and having Communion with God This is the height of his glory Jer. 9.23 24. Thus saith the Lord let not the wise man glory in his wisdom let not the mighty man glory in his might nor the rich man in his riches but let him that glorieth glory in this that he understands and knoweth me that I am the Lord that exercise loving kindness and righteousness in the earth and judgment for in these things I delight saith the Lord. Yee see here wherein man is to glory for which he may value himself as truly glorious In his understanding and knowing of God man standeth above the rest of the Creatures in that he is a rational intellectual Agent This is part of the Image of God even knowledg Col. 3.15 which is renewed in knowledg after the Image of him that created him The nigher any thing resembleth God the greater is the excellency of that thing now in this we resemble God more than any other Creature in that we are knowing understanding Agents and the highest improvement of this excellency of man is in the knowledg of God and acquaintance with God Prov. 20.27 The spirit of a man is called the candle of the Lord that is it is a light set up in the soul to direct the soul to a discovery of God This is the highest improvement of our greatest excellency this is the excellency of man above other Creatures this is that whereby one man excels another Who are those whose names are as precious ointment poured forth who are those which have obtained a good report Are not they those who were most acquainted with God Enock is said to walk with God an expression which signifies intimate acquaintance with God and therefore was translated that he should not see death And Noah whose family alone was preserved when God destroyed the old World by water he was said to walk with God Gen. 6.9 Among all the sons of men he kept close to God and God took care of him alone Abraham who was the Father of the Faithful he was called the Friend of God Moses who was the Mediator of the old Covenant he was said to speak with God face to face as a man speakoth to his friend I might make mention of many more who were the excellent ones of the earth because they did delight in God God delighted in them Mal. 3.16 17. They that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard and the book of remembrance was written for them that fear the Lord and that thought upon his name And they shall be mine saith the Lord of Hosts in the day when I make up my Jewels Ye see how God accounts of those that are of his acquaintance that met together and spake of God and that thought upon his name he reckons them amongst his Jewels his peculiar Treasure Such honour have all those that are acquainted with God Ye see then the excellency of man above all the rest of the other Creatures Now if man fail in this which is his highest excellency he will become the vilest of Creatures Every thing if it fail in its chiefest end and purpose and highest excellency becomes base and of no account If salt lose its savour saith our Saviour it is good for nothing If man have lost his acquaintance with God he is

He honours the Truth of God by being earnest for what God hath promised though it be unseen he honours the Omnisciency of God by contenting himself with his eye and his car alone he sanctifies his Omnipresence by believing that his God can hear him and be with him in what corner soever he creeps into I might be large in speaking of the excellencies of this duty but I refer it rathes to another place But I would not be mistaken in what I have delivered as if I would by this exclude Family-prayer no far be it from me for God in these doth many times exceedingly refresh his But because a man can't possibly judge so well of himself by publick prayer as he can by secret And hypocrisie and pride do not usually so much attend secret duty as more publick It s possible in more publick duty that a man may be much raised and be very warm and high in his expressions and almost ravish the hearts of his Hearers whereas he may be all that while acted only by a proud heart and for all that I know the Devil himself may help a man thus to pray sometimes This I am confident of he is not afraid of such prayers as these which tend so much to the hardening of a sinner and makes him believe that his hear is warmed with communion with God when as it is possible it is nothing but a secret self-pleasing that those that joyned with him might think very highly of him as one that was passing Spiritual in his performances O the heart of man is deep and desperately full of deceit But now there is none of this Temptation in secret Closet-prayer and there a Soul may be more particular in its complaints and petitions more earnest in pleading with God and may use such expostulations postures and gestures such Intermissions and groanings such pauses as would be very unfit for more publick duty Wherefore I lay somewhat the more stress upon this duty of Secret Prayer But this I say again where one of them is practiced conscientiously the other will not be neglected I might add the practice experience of Gods children to inforce this duty David would never have been at it so oft at midnight if he had got nothing at all by it Peter would scarce have forgot to eat when he was an hungry except he had met with a bit in a Corner to stay his stomach 3. Fasting especially private Fasting is another duty wherein God meets the Soul and the Soul visits God This is as it were execution day the day when the Soul brings out all the Enemies of God to be crucified this is the day wherein the Idols are searched for brought out and buryed or ground to powder and these are things which God will come to see with much delight By this the Soul is as it were adorned her deformities done away and she is trimmed up to meet her Beloved When a Saint fasts from sin and abstains from sensual pleasures then it is many times feasted by God and refreshed with Spiritual enjoyments 4. Another season wherein God meets the soul and the Soul is visited by God is when Christians are met together to communicate experiences or to discourse together about the great things of God What though most of the world are ashamed to own Religion when it is out of fashion What though but sew dare meet together to speak of Gods goodness and to praise him and call upon his Name Why Christ says Though there be but two or three of them he will make the number one the more he will be in the midst of them And though they dare but whisper it may be and their meetings to serve God and do good to one another may be prohibited by the publick Magistrate and consequently what they do in this kind must be done in a great deal of hazard yet the people of God stand not long disputing they know what to do in this case yet they would be wise in it too Not to dare the Magistrate and to do what they do to confront Authority but in the uprightness of their souls they desire to meet together to worship God according to his own will Yet for all this though they manage their business with never so much secresie God will take notice of them he hearkens and hears and a Book of remembrance is written for them that call oft upon his Name and God will make them up among his Jewels But I shall have occasion to speak of something to this purpose afterwards and therefore I pass it over the more briefly 5. Another time wherein the Lord is pleased to discover much intimacy and indeared affection to his people is in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper This is the great passeover and it can't be unwelcome News to the poor Israelite to hear of a Redemption from Wars then Egyptian bondage instead of being burdened with barbarous Task-masters to be made free rich and honourable and to see the strength of the enemy laid in the dust It is not for nothing that this Passeover it to be had in everlasting remembrance If I should appeal to the people of God that have kept this solemn Feast and ask them how their hearts were affected do they not all bow their Heads and Hearts and adore that Goodness that should Save Feed and Feast them and Punish Kill and Damn others Are there not thousands that can tell you that Christs Flesh is Bread indeed and his Blood Drink indeed no Provision so great no Banquet so sweet so noble no Intertainment comparable to that which the Princely Jesus giveth to his Spouse in that Ordinance The King brings her into the Banqueting-House and his Banner over her is Love she is then made to understand that the Kisses of his Lips do breath Life and that his Visits at such a time usually leave behind them more special testimonies of the largeness of his Heart the loveliness of his Nature and of his matchless Excellency Speak Christian what dost thou say to this Canst thou not subscribe to this Art thou not able to say that then thou hast tasted and seen couldst thou not then go out and invite all the poor starved hungry souls in the world to come and see and taste Art thou not able to say come and I will tell you what Christ hath done for my soul Let me ask that Saint that hath been feasted many a time and oft what he thought of his Entertainment Were you not made welcome Was not the joy of the Lord your strength Was not the Provision that the world entertains her friends with but mean course unsavory compared with it Which was best the Husks or the Bread and fatted Calf the Garlick and Onions or the Manna the Milk and Hony 'T is not without cause that the Faces of some do shine their looks speak their Fare none of the meanest and their Activity is not a disparagement to their