Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	see_v	word_n	write_v	4,744	5	5.2335	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66558	The vanity of mans present state proved and applyed in a sermon on Psalm 39.5. With divers sermons of the saints communion with God, and safety under his protection, in order to their future glory, on Psalm 73. 23, 24, 25, 26. By the late able and faithful minister of the Word John Wilson	Wilson, John, minister of the Word.; Golborne, J.	1676 (1676)	Wing W2905; ESTC R218560	137,734	239

his doubts and scruples resolved 3. There is the counsel of his Spirit whom he sends to them to acquaint them with the meaning of his word and to help them to accommodate it and apply it to their present case and condition The word through our weakness not being sufficient he sends his Spirit in to our assistance not to make any new revelations to us or to acquaint us with any more than the word contains but to enlighten our understandings that we may see the meaning of it and bow our wills to a compliance with it God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book that shall add to these things Rev. 22. 18. Joh. 16. 13. He shall guide you into all truth The Holy Ghost doth guide us into all those necessary truths contained in the word of God 4. There is the Counsel of his Providences God doth many times discover his will to his servants in them thereby declaring what he likes and what he dislikes what he would have them to do and what to decline Psalm 32. 8. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go I will guide thee with mine eye The Master when he is in Company sometimes directs his servant by his eye what to do and so God There is an eye in his Providence he doth sometimes look upon his people when backsliden as Christ did upon Peter when he had deny'd him which makes them remember what they have done and weep bitterly The eye of this Providence saith a gracious soul is upon me I must do this and the other Duty Sometimes Gods Providences carry in them so much light and evidence and such plain intimations of his mind and will that there is no room for contradiction or doubting as Gen. 24. 50. The Providence mentioned by and afforded to Abrahams servant was so pat and evident that Laban and Bethuel answered The thing proceedeth from the Lord. We cannot speak unto thee bad or good that is either one thing or other against it It is as Munster and Fagius note a Synecdoche expressing both parts but intending only one Good they could not speak against it evil they would not The like Proverbial speech we have Gen. 31. 24. God chargeth Laban as he was pursuing Jacob that he should not speak to Jacob neither good nor bad by no means direct or indirect to do him violence by flatteries or threats to detain him Why doth God doth thus guide his people by his Counsel Réason 1. Is taken from their necessity of it And that proceeds partly from the difficulties attending our present condition partly from our inability to manage them and get through them As for the difficulties attending us they are many and great Psal. 34. 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers them out of them all Acts 14. 22. That we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God And then for the due management and getting through them we are not of our selves able to do it Were we furnished with natural light and wisdom sufficient to direct us upon all occasions and help us through all our troubles the Counsel of God might be spared But alas still our abilities are so weak natural or acquired and we are surrounded with temptations to lead us as ignes fatui do many out of ●he way and into danger if not destruction And have such deceitful hearts that entertain the enemy many times pollute and profane Gods Ordinances we have need of Gods deliverance and guidance The best of Gods servants are not without their sins Deut. 32. 28. We are void of Counsel neither is there understanding in us How ignorant blind and dull were Israel an holy people in the matters of Religion How were their neighbours ever and anon drawing them to Idolatry or rather they like wantons gadding abroad to learn the fashions of the heathenish abominations When Moses their guide was in the Mount how do they run mad upon their Idolatry How much more should we lye open to all wickedness had we not God for our guide God sees our frailty and weakness and therefore complies with our necessities and conveys his guidance to us 2. From their prayers to him for his guidance and Counsel being sensible both of their difficulties they must encounter and inabilities to overcome them and get through them of themselves they betake themselves to him and crave his help Psal. 31. 3. Thou art my rock and my fortress therefore for thy names sake lead me and guide me David was wiser than his teachers had made great progress in Religion yet with what argument and importunitie With what sense and affection begs he the guidance of Gods spirit For thy name sake lead me as if he had said such are my straits and infirmities that except thou guide me by thy Counsel I shall perish I shall be lost and undone What influence their earnest and believing prayers have on God appears from Gen. 32. 26. saith the Angel to Jacob Let me go Jacob would not let him go unless he blessed him Thus as a Prince he hath power with God and prevails for a blessing So Moses wrestles with God Exod. 32. 10. till God says Let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them and that I may consume them God speaks as one that is held back from beating his child Oh the mighty power that poor praying believing Jacobs and Moseses have with God to hold as it were his hand striking not that there is any impotency in God but to give a greater lustre to his Ordinance 3. From the mercy and goodness of his own nature which puts him upon helping his people in their Distress When the father sees his child faln into distress he runs and helps So God when his servants are perplexed and fallen into doubts he resolves them by his Counsel when they are dangerouslly wandring amongst pits and snares of temptation he runs in to their preservation or rescue and leads them in a safe way He will not stand over them and see them perish but when they are sinking he puts forth his hand as Christ to Peter and saves them Whence doth this proceed From his mercy to them that will pull them out of danger as the Angels did Lot his wife and daughters taking them by the hand So Isa. 49. 10. Hunger or thirst heat or Sun shall not hurt them For he that hath mercy on them shall lead them even by the springs of water shall he guide them Which is mentioned not only as a description of his nature but likewise as the reason wherefore he would do it He hath mercy on them therefore he will do it upon the account of that mercy that is in his own bosom 4. From his promise whereby he hath engaged himself as they stand in need to administer advice to them to furnish them with matter of hope and confidence Psal. 32.

sooner sometimes have his people done praying but he gives them a gracious Answer 2 Kings 20. 4 5. Thus Isaiah must return immediately after the delivery of his message to Hezekiah and tells him that his prayer was heard a quick return did God make Nay sometimes he do's it while they are praying Dan. 9. 20. Whilst Daniel was praying confessing his own and the peoples sins even while he was speaking in prayer Gabriel being caused to flie swiftly came and touched him ver 23. He saith that at the beginning of his supplication the commandment came forth and he was sent to tell him things which should be afterwards brought to pass Nay farther sometimes he do's it before they pray Psal. 3. 4. I cryed unto the Lord with my voice and he heard me out of his holy hill So our Translation renders it in the Preter-tense but the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is in the future I will call and he heard me as if he should have said I was about to pray to the Lord and am still resolved to do it but as to that which I thought to beg of him he hath happily prevented me for he hath given it me before I asked him for it So Isa. 65. 24. Before they call I will answer and whiles they are yet speaking I will hear While Daniel was speaking God heard and before David cryed to the Lord he heard him It is much grace in him to grant our requests when we have made them and persevered in soliciting his savour more to answer whiles we are making our requests but to do it before we make them doth marvellously express the goodness of his nature 3. There is none like God to be confided and trusted in Men are deceitful and false and apt to fail those that trust in them They make fair flourishes and pretences when a man hath no occasion to use them and afterwards when he needs the performance of their promises turn their backs upon him but God is as firm as the very rocks How ordinarily doth the Scripture propose him as the Rock of his people Psal. 31. 3. Thou art my rock Deut. 32. 4. He is the Rock withal telling us there is none worthy of that title but he 2 Sam. 22. 32. Who is a rock save our God Who ever was disappointed by this God whose ways are perfect Who ever was ashamed that trusted in him Psal. 22. 4. Our father 's trusted in thee they trusted in thee and were delivered And Psal. 28. 7. My heart trusted in him and I am helped 4. There is none like or beside God to be loved or desired Such is the generousness of mans heart that it will bestow it self upon one thing or other Now there is none in all the world so worthy thereof as God and therefore he forbids us to bestow it upon other things and commands us to bestow it upon him 1 Joh. 2. 15. Love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the father is not in him Whom then must we bestow our love on Prov. 23. 26. My son give me thine heart And it was Asaphs sense of his peculiar fitness for it that made him cry out Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none on earth that I desire in comparison of thee 5. There is none like God to be worshipped and adored He is worthy of divine and Religious worship that is to be worshipped as the Author of what good we enjoy the Judge of our actions and disposer of our conditions and there is none else worthy of it but he Matth. 4. 10. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Our Saviour speaks not here of Civil worship for such we are to yeild to others but such as is religious and that he shews is peculiar to God There is neither Saint nor Angel that is fit for it and therefore we find when it hath been offered to them they have refused it Acts 10. 25 26. When Cornelius fell down at Peters feet and worshipped him Peter reproves him with this I my self also am a man A greater worship were the people of Listra about to shew to Barnabas and Paul Acts 14. 11 14. They cryed out the Gods were come down in the likeness of men and were about to do Sacrifice but Barnabas and Paul rent their cloathes when they heard of it ran in amongst them crying ver 15. We are men of like passions with you When John fell at the Angels feet to worship him he is forbidden Revel 19. 10. See thou do it not I am thy fellow servant and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus Worship God Again Rev. 22. 8 9. When he had heard and seen those things which before we shewed he fell down to worship before the feet of the Angel which shewed him those things The Angel forbids him See thou do it not I am thy fellow servant and of thy brethren the Prophets and of them which keep the sayings of this book Worship God 6. There is none like God for a man to be with or whose glory he should desire to partake of I pray think of this we are each of us to choose one for our selves a companion to abide with us to all eternity And there is none like God Saints are sweet companions and much good is to be had in their company the Angels are heavenly company but neither Saints nor Angels are like God The Apostle urgeth it as greatest matter of comfort to the Godly 1 Thes. 4. 17 18. Then when Christ shall appear to judgment we that are alive shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and we shall ever be with the Lord wherefore comfort one another with these words 1. Use of Information Of the goodness of God that would be pleased to make known himself to us and work us to a closure with him that he who is so great high that doth infinitely transcend Heaven and Earth Angels and men should work us to a closure with himself We are all naturally addicted to a Deity It s even as easie to keep men from eating and drinking as from the pursuit of a Deity for the latter is as rational and agreeable to the dictates of reason as the former is natural to the cravings of the sensual appetite If we close not with one God we shall with another and men will rather have a thousand Gods than none Now for God when we were to make our choice to come and tell us that he is the true God and work us to a closing with him Oh what goodness was it This was a favour worth ten thousand Hallelujahs Indeed by the contemplation of the works of Creation and Providence we might have learned that there was a God and that he was wise mighty good and the like But that we should know that the God of Israel was he