Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	people_n	read_v	word_n	2,947	5	4.1038	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93746	The nature of God's kingdom and dominion over men clearly laid open and explained, as the same relates to these following particulars ... in a discourse on Deut. 8.2. wherein is likewise shewed, what influence these things ought to have upon our life and conversation / by Richard Stafford.	Stafford, Richard, 1663-1703.	1697 (1697)	Wing S5125; ESTC R42792	28,272	40

after it Then they Cried unto the Lord in their Trouble and he delivered them out of their Distresses This Trouble and Distress is that same Bondage of Corruption and that Groaning and Travelling in Pain spoken of Rom. 8. 21 22. Which the present State of the Creation is under And we being a part of it this should be our Business all our Life long to Cry unto the Lord and to call upon the Name of the Lord to be delivered and saved from it And that amidst all the Wandering of others or of our selves he would lead us forth through this Earth by the Right Way there is a great deal in that and when God doth lead be you sure to follow and take notice so the Lord alone did lead him and there was no strange God with him Deut. 32. 12. Neither Idolatry nor Covetousness nor Sensuality for these are kinds of Idolatry nor no strange Lust nor no Sin for in the Judgment of our Creator any Sin is a strange God or a strange Thing which should not be there viz. in any of his Creatures Take these two Directions along with you and observe them viz. to follow when he leads and that the Lord alone may lead thee that there be no strange God with thee and I will warrant my Life for yours that he will lead you and also bring you by the Right Way unto a City of Habitation which is Heaven the Habitation of his Holiness for the same Power that sent us here will translate us up to that High and Lof●y Place if we shall be found meet and worthy where we shall be no longer Travellers Pilgrims or Strangers but in a proper and true Sence Fellow-Citizens and Inhabitants for ever to abide He led them forth by the Right Way As for my self in my Journeying and Travelling I have mistook the Way but by enquiry and going forward I always arrived at the place at last where I would be It is the very same in our way to Heaven People may yea and they do often mistake the Right Way but if they will keep on in the Way of Holiness which the Vnclean shall not pass over Isa 35. 8. if they will seek out of the Book of the Lord and Read in the sure Word of Prophesie if they will take ●eed to the Day Dawn and the Day Star in their Hearts and do according to the Light which that shews them If they will confer Experiences with the Saints that are on the Earth for they that ●eared the Lord spake often ●●e to another But above all if they will be sure to be Travelling on and in motion and always making towards it though perhaps in Twenty Miles we may go half a Mile or more about though in Sailing over the Sea of this Life sometimes we cannot go directly forwards by reason of contrary Winds yet we may Sail this way and that way to make towards it and at last God bringeth them to their desired Haven Psal 107. 30. We Read in the Acts of the Apostles of the Fair Haven Put one Letter more in and Haven spells Heaven which indeed is the Fair Haven for it is all Fair and Clear there it being above all Winds and Storms This is our desired Haven or the Haven where we would be More need not to be said to Paralel our Condition here on Earth for Threescore Years and Ten or Fourscore Years with that of the Wilderness for Fourty Years In the Text it is said To Humble thee And this seems to be the very Reason of those several seve●e and harsh Dispensations of his Providence as in sending upon us Afflictions Poverty Sickness and such like As also why he made us thus and placed us in such vile Bodies Phil. 3. 21. In the vulgar Latin there for it is Corpus Humilitatis which signifies the Body of our Humiliation or such a Body as God hath prepared ordered and thought fit for this our present State of Humiliation and Imperfection To Humble us We are as it were Men and Women in Carcases And truly if we know our selves and particularly our own outward Frame there is all the reason in the World as God in making us thus and cloathing us with such Garments of Flesh which are so course if I may so express it filthy and weak and little did it on purpose and design to Humble us So we should be indeed Humbled For wherefore is Earth and Ashes Proud Consider what were we whilst in the Womb from thence we were cast out to the loathing of our Person in the Day that we were Born Ezek. 16. 5. What are we now A Breathing Cold of Clay A sink of Flegm and Excrements What shall we be Meat for Worms Ghastliness stink and Corruption Canst thou throughly think upon this and not be Humbled However to such as will be Obedient the Language of Truth speaks on this wise It is the Will of our Heavenly Father and Creator that during this short time we are in this Wilderness of the Earth we should be very Low Trembling and Poor in Spirit Even by thine own Frame and Constitution He hath shewed thee O Man from within thy self what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee to walk humbly with thy God Micah 6. 8. And see that thou comply with his Mind herein The Text goes on to add to prove thee to know what is in thine Heart whither thou wouldest keep his Commandments or no. Here is the Principal Intent Specified and under this is comprised the Reason of almost all his doings towards the Children of Men from the Day he first Created them on the Earth until the End of time He proved our first Parents Adam and Eve to know what was in their Hearts whither they would keep his Commandments or no and they did not keep them And so he did afterward Prove Abraham Isaac and Jacob who did keep them according to the Covenant and Measure as he did accept of For I know Abraham that he will command his Children and his Houshold after him and they shall keep the Way of the Lord Gesi 18. ●9 And so it is of all the Descendants from Abraham ever since some did keep his Commandments and some did not Besides that constant and continued Proving them throughout their Life God doth sometimes Prove his Children in an extraordinary manner as he did tempt Abraham to offer up his Son Isaac which was a great Instance of his Faith and whereby he did know that he F●ared God Seeng thou hast not witholden thy Son thine only Son from me even the Best and dearest thing and all that he had of that Nature It is a Wonderful thing to Consider how he doth Prove all the Generations and Persons of Mankind one after this manner and another after that according to their different Circumstances and Condition of Life to know what is in their Hearts whither they will keep his Commandments or no. The whole History