Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	pray_v	prayer_n	read_v	2,590	5	6.8286	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48847	A sermon preached before the King at White-Hall, March 6, 1673/4 by William Lloyd ...	Lloyd, William, 1627-1717.	1674 (1674)	Wing L2708; ESTC R20362	14,668	37

can never be otherwise without daily and earnest Prayer unto God But then Praying is not all ye must also do what ye can Ye can choose whether you will go to the House of Prayer at Prayer-time or whether you will sit at home or visit or walk the Fields at home you can choose whether you will pray or read a Book that may profit you or whether you will do that which may hurt or which cannot profit you You can choose whether you will give your mind to what you read or hear or whether you will divide it between Sleep and Talk and other matters You can if you please lay up what you learn you can think of it again in due time and so apply it that it may make some impression I do not say you can have Faith when you please but St. Paul says Faith comes by hearing the Word of God and you may hear it when you please and Gods Blessing is ready to go along with his Word it is your own fault if you do not partake of that Blessing If you are sick and a Physician comes to you and offers you that which he says and you believe will certainly cure you if you take his Physick and observe his Rules and so doing recover your Health it is he that has cur'd you you have not cur'd your self And yet thus much you have done towards it you have done all as he directed you you have been willingly passive which was more than he could compel you to be Now this is all that God requires in the Work of our Conversion He could compel us but he will not for he expects we should be willingly passive he would have us take his Physick and observe his Rules God expects we should apply our Hearts to Spiritual Knowledge with a full resolution to live accordingly God expects we should abstain from ill Diet that is from the satisfying of our Lusts which I have shown you upon a Moral Account we are able to abstain from if we please God expects we should be conversant in his Word and that we should observe him in his Works For his Word he expects you should read or hear it often and diligently that what you read or hear you should lay to heart so as to make some impression that you should heed it with the same concernment and with at least as much effect as you would do if your Lawyer should tell you of something which endanger'd your whole Estate or if your Physician should warn you of some Disease that if not prevented would shorten your Life Of his Works chiefly of his Judgments God expects you should be a diligent Observer First when you see others suffer for their sins which perhaps are also yours You cannot but know that God has made them Examples to you and therefore whatsoever his end may be towards them you have much cause to fear that unless you repent God will also make you perhaps you next an Example to others When any Judgment of God is fallen upon your self God expects you should consider whence it comes and wherefore 't is to take away your sin that you should mind this especially in Sickness which is the greatest Temporal Mercy in order to a Spiritual good the greatest God can show to any hardened and yet not incorrigible Sinner If ye neglect all these Methods and Means of Conversion what remains but a sad and fearful Account An Account that comes Slow but will be most Sure First for your Sin and then for your Impenitence and then for your neglect of the means of Repentance This last will make you quite inexcusable When you are in Hell whither you are going and must come without Repentance it will be another Hell to you to consider how possible it was for you by repenting in this Life to have prevented that misery which now you are for ever to endure and to have obtain'd that Bliss from which you are now separated for ever Whereas contrary wise if you lay hold on this Opportunity if you make use of these Means that use for which they were intended of God you will soon find a sensible Benefit in certain Effects which deserve more time then I have now to consider them First You will find the Means of Grace more effectual by degrees You will find a Lesson from hence make more impression upon your thoughts You will find both a softning and a strengthning of your Heart I dare promise you from God an encrease of the Means of Grace and perhaps a longer Life to profit by them Why not For God willeth not the Death of a Sinner but rather that he should be converted and live If longer Life therefore be needful to compleat your Conversion God will give it if not he will the sooner perfect your Conversion for he has declared in favour of such as you are that He will not quench the smoaking Flax nor break the bruised Reed until he has brought forth Iudgment to Victory till he has given you a full Conquest of your Sins But how Through his Spirit That is the inward Work of it which comes next to be considered God works outwardly as you have heard by giving us the Means of our Conversion God works inwardly by his Grace which gives efficacy to the Means or more properly he gives it to Us to a Sinner so humbled and so contrite as ye have heard for his own Promise for his own Mercy 's sake God gives that Grace which is the Life and Soul of Conversion And this being infus'd into our Spirits by the Spirit of God may cause that Doubt among Interpreters as ye have heard though it comes all to one whether our mortifying of Sin be by the Spirit of God or by our Spirit enlightened and enabled by his Spirit Sure enough the Agent or Efficient in our Conversion is the Spirit of God Our Spirit which is willingly Passive before and in our Conversion after this becomes Active it cooperates with the Spirit of God First in our Conversion 't is the work of Gods Spirit to mortifie our Lusts to break the power of them in our Hearts to set our captive and enthralled Affections at liberty 'T is the Work of God to change our Spirit or Rational Soul having thus broken the Bonds of Death wherein it was held to quicken it to give it Spiritual Life so to create in us as it were a New Heart and a New Spirit whence the Soul that repents is said to be a New Creature made as Adam was at first after the Image of God Both these Works of Gods Spirit St. Paul requires of us though our part in them be onely such as you have heard Ephes. iv 22 c. That we put off concerning the former Conversation the Old Man which is corrupt according to the deceitful Lusts and be renewed in the Spirit of our Minds and that we put on the New Man which after God is created in