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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	pass_v	young_a	youth_n	16	3	7.4865	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38823	The Gospel treasury opened, or, The holiest of all unvailing discovering yet more the riches of grace and glory to the vessels of mercy unto whom onely it is given to know the mysteries of that kingdom and the excellency of spirit, power, truth above letter, forms, shadows / in several sermons preached at Kensington & elswhere by John Everard ; whereunto is added the mystical divinity of Dionysius the Areopagite spoken of Acts 17:34 with collections out of other divine authors translated by Dr. Everard, never before printed in English.	Everard, John, 1575?-1650?; Brooks, Thomas, 1608-1680.; Barker, Matthew, 1619-1698.	1657 (1657)	Wing E3531; ESTC R29421	513,595	936

the shell of the Letter except we go further and Iesus Christ opens the seals and shews us the life the marrow That which except it be given to us we cannot understand And therefore the Apostle flatly denies all other knowledge 2 Cor. 5. 14 15 16. for saith he the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead and he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him that dyed for them Wherefore saith he in the 16. verse henceforth know we no man after the flesh yea though we had known Christ after the flesh yet henceforth know we him no more What may be the meaning of this blessed Apostle thus seemingly to sleight the very body of Jesus Christ In all probability he never saw the body of Jesus Christ upon earth in that 33 years he lived here except he had a vision of him as he marched to Damascus when he was smitten from his horse His meaning therefore must needs be If we know Christ after the Letter never so exactly the whole history of him what avails it Our knowledge of Jesus Christ must be internal spiritual experimental to live unto him that dyed for them if a man be not as the Apostle saith in the succeeding verses made a new creature altered and changed according to Christ in the inward man so that he lives no longer to himself but to him that dyed for him so that all old things are past away and all things are become new so that there is by the mighty power of Jesus Christ a new man begotten in us as the Apostle saith My beloved of whom I travel in birth till Christ be formed in yo● This is indeed that Christ that died for us else Christ dyed not for us his cross is of no effect he dyed in vain to us T is not all the knowledge and believing that ever thou canst attain to of an external Christ will do thee any good without a Christ begotten within thee a Christ in experience Hath any man gotten or attained though by much pains and industry any taste any knowledge of Christ otherwise it is but old things old knowledge old learning attained by the power of the old man fot self-ends And all old things must pass away saith the Apostle That knowledge that was conveyed to us by our parents or by our School-masters let it be what it will or by whom it will by all the Catechisms and Books that can be made and that we are able to apply them to our lives according to the Letter t is all but old things old knowledge as the young man in the Gospel he knew the law and had kept all those things from his youth but he failed in point of self-denial he obeyed from old powers and to old ends And although we had all knowledge and all power and all conformity in this regard before Christ be created in the heart it must all pass away This is that knowledge that we cannot depend on This is that knowledge that the Apostle regards not he esteems it Nothing let it be never so glorious and splendent and though all the world hath received it and in their words own it though in practise they renounce it he counts it all dross and dung Why St. Paul what manner of knowledge then is it that thou wilt know nothing besides it And that is the second thing he answers it himself in this chapter Lo if ye are able to understand saith he so that the god of this world hath not blinded your eyes we do speak wisdom even the hidden wisdom of God yet in a mystery not the wisdom of this world nor of the Princes of this world which comes to nought indeed this wisdom it tends not to outward pomp not to riches nor honour nor the setting up of men and parts but we speak wisdom to those that are perfect to those whom Jesus Christ hath pulled off the scales from their eyes What mystery is it to know Jesus Christ his death and resurrection outwardly and all the circumstances Will this faith save you No but to those that know no more we are very fools and they can see no wisdom in our words The carnal man knoweth not the Profound the Deep things of God neither indeed can he because they are spiritually discerned But he that can divide these waters shall have dry and firm ground to walk on and over Iordan safely He that can crack the shell those can rellish and digest these precious mysteries And to those they are the preciousest dainties in heaven and earth they are the sweetest excellencies wherein their souls can live and die these are the souls which delight themselves in Fatness undervaluing the world and all things therein as seeing them lean and empty things But to the carnal man and he that will go no farther then the Letter these truths we now speak of are the unrelishablest the tasteless est the sapless est meat you can give them we pour but water in their shoes ye cannot please them worse then when you talk of these things or preach of these things because ye are out of their element t is as unwelcome and as Nauseous as a c●p of cold water they are sick of such doctrine To tell them that they must be killed and slain their own knowledge their own lives must be crucified they must no longer have their own desires their own wils their own affections but must be content to cross themselves in every thing and to take up their cross dayly and follow Christ else they cannot be his Disciples oh here is vinegar and gall ye are the unwelcomest men to them in the world they cry with the Jews Our soul is weary of this light meat give us somewhat that we can feel give us some ponderous thing some comfortable thing somewhat that our senses may see and feel good Alas this is not the Heaven we look for Can we think it a happiness to be destroyed to be killed and crucified Give us such a Christ and such a Heaven as is good to our outward man who will let us have credit and honour and riches such a Christ that we may believe in who died so many years ago that will save us outwardly such a Christ that will be good to my eyes to my hands and to my feet to my back and to my belly such a Christ as will save us if we do but externally and litterally believe in him and will let us have our own wils and speak our own words and please our affections and save our souls at last I marry Sir Here is a Christ indeed this is such a Christ as all the world would have But give me leave to tell you This is a Christ of thine own making this Christ which thou speakest of

for present I conclude and commit you all to the Lord and to the word of his Grace Farewell Where Christ FEEDETH AND RESTETH CANT 1. 7. Tell me O thou whom my soul loveth where thou feedest where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the stocks of thy companions In two Sermons preached for Mr. Hodges at the publick meeting place at Highgate in the Forenoon THIS Text may well be called the request of a fair Lady to her dearly beloved Lord it is clear it is so for though she complains of her self in the verse before my Text that she is black the Sun hath looked upon her yet in the verse following my Text he sayes That to him she is the fairest among women and she cannot be so forward in requesting any thing at his hands as he is ready to accommodate her if she desire to have her name written in the palms of his hands he will do more he will set her as a Signet upon his heart as you may perceive in reading over this Book this Lord here spoken of is such a Lord whose judgment when you know him you cannot disallow for it is Christ Jesus the Lord of life and death and this Lady is the Spouse of this Lord viz. the Congregation or the body of this Saints and Servants and wonder not that I call her a fair Lady for though we see it not yet He her Lord says she is all fair and there is no spot in her And I tell you if we would see the beauty of the Church we must not look upon any one particular member for then we can never say she is all fair ye shall see many spots many wrinkles in them but if you look upon the whole Church then she is all Fair that is the compleat body together As any one species the excellency thereof cannot be known by any one Individual as in a horse the best that is though he may excell in one and many things yet he may want something that is excellent in another if he have strength yet he may want comliness if one have comliness he may want swiftness c. but take all together and then you may judge of the species of a horse and so of a man or any other kind it is a vain thing to judge of the perfections of a man by any one m●n one is comely of body another is comely in mind if one be diligent another is wise so if you look upon the whole kind of man and the excellencies of all men put together I say look upon him outwardly inwardly then you must needs say he is a glorious Creature a rare workmanpiece So O Lord Christ wherewilt thou shew us where shall we find that beautiful one thou speakest of that is Altogether fair that is Tota pulchraces amica mea if we look upon any one Member but take the religion of one and the charity of another the zeal of another the faith of another the patience of another and go through the whole body and look upon these as a compleat body and then thou mayest say truly Tota pulchraes amica mea c. There is no spot in thee Thou art all fair my Love And if any one man or member shall claim this beauty to himself except it be as he stands in relation to the body he claims a lye for if ye will claim this Perfection ye must look upon The whole body both all below upon Earth and all that are in Heaven all that ever were and all that are and all that ever shall be and adde to them Christ the head of all then we shall confess that as she requests him not to look upon her as black in any one member so he answers her and acknowledgeth that she is all Fair. This Text then is a request of a fair Lady to her dear espoused Lord whom he hath was●t and purified with his own blood I hope be that is the weakest the meanest in religion will not imagine this Sons to be a Dialogue between two carnal Lovers or as Solomon and his wife complementing together if ye consider them so they are but the e●crements of flesh and blood and they shall perish with them But whereto then shall I liken these songs of the Canticles They are like those three Tabern●cle● that the Disciples would have made when Christ was transfigured one for Moses one for Elias and one for Christ. 1 One for Moses and for his Law that is for the legal and civil life 2 The second Tabernacle is like the Book of Ecclesias●es and the Proverbs leading a man above this life when it condemns this civil legal life reprehending whatsoever is in man as man as wisdom strength power and what ever power there is in him to act and to bring any thing to pass 3 But the third Tabernacle may well be called The Holy of Holies and such is this namely this Book of the Canticles Here Christ answers his Spouse familiarly face to face even in the silence of thunder as it is in Psal. 81. 7. there he calls it the silence of thunder and yet what is more ●ud then thunder the meaning is that to that soul to whom God speaks it is as loud to him as thunder but to them that stand by it is silence and secret wispering because they hear not the voyce of Christ. Beloved this Book is a Mystical Divine High-flown Book the things herein contained are not fit for every ear to hear lest the dead Flie as Solomon saith corrupt this precious oyntment Let the flesh abuse it and turn it to fleshly liberty and for this end the Jews would not suffer their children to read this Book lest the wantonness of flesh should make them abuse it but I hope well of you that you are better instructed so that you will not abuse this Scripture to your own destruction as the Apostle saith Charity bids me judge the best I go on propound them as to the immaculate Spouse of her dear Lord. Ye may observe in the words yet rather for memory then order sake four things 1 The first is her Request Tell me she is in a doubt and cannot be satisfied therefore she desires to be taught 2 The Adjuration or the Poise or weight she hangs upon her request it is not slight weak cold or perfunctory but she is violent in her request follows him with strong arguments Oh thou whom my soul loveth she offers violence to the Kingdom of God to say the truth she doth as it were commit a Rape upon the Kingdome of God 3 The Matter of her Request and that is double she would know where he feeds where he rests at noon 4 The Reason of all this why she would be taught where he rests and where he feeds for why should I be as those that