Selected quad for the lemma: blood_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
blood_n	bread_n	eat_v	word_n	5,813	4	4.5462	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39665	Husbandry spiritualized, or, The heavenly use of earthly things consisting of many pleasant observations, pertinent applications, and serious reflections and each chapter concluded with a divine and suitable poem : directing husband-men to the most excellent improvements of their common imployments : whereunto is added ... several choice occasional meditations / by John Flavell.	Flavel, John, 1630?-1691.	1674 (1674)	Wing F1166; ESTC R26136	198,385	305

noted in Scripture as the most excellent and remarkable 1 Nuptial joyes the day of Espousals is the day of the gladness of a mans heart Cant. 3. 11. 2 The joy of children Though now it seem but a common mercy to most and a den to some yet the people of God were wont to esteem it a choice mercy and rejoyced greatly in it Iohn 16. 21. there 's joy that a man is born into the world 3 The joy of conquests and victories when men divide the spoyl And lastly The joy of Harvest these two we find put together as principal matters of joy Isa. 9. 3. They joy before thee according to the joy in Harvest and as men rejoyce when they divide the spoyl The joy of Harvest is no small joy Gaudium messis est messis gaudii the joy of harvest is the harvest of their joy 'T is usual with men when they have reaped down their harvest or cut the neck as they call it to demonstrate their joy by shoutings and loud acclamations APPLICATION THus and unspeakably more than thus do Saints rejoyce and shout for joy when they reap the favour and love of God for which they laboured in many a weary duty This joy of harvest as great as it is and as much as carnal hearts are lifted up with it is but a trifle a thing of nought compared with yours after they have sown to themselves in righteousness and waited for the effects and returns of their duties with patience and at last come to reap in mercy either the full harvest in heaven or but the first fruits of it on earth yet rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1. 8. This puts more gladness into their hearts than when corn and wine increases Psal. 4. 7. Carnal joyes are but soul-Fevers the Agues of the inner-man there is as great difference betwixt the unnatural inflamations of a feverish body which wastes their spirits and drinks up the radical moisture and that kindly well-tempered heat of an healthy body and as much between the sweet serene and heavenly joyes which flow from the bosom of Christ into the hearts of believers and those earthly delights which carnal hearts in a sensual way suck out of creature-enjoyments I will shew you the transcendency of spiritual joyes above the joy of harvest in these eight particulars following You that joy with the joy of harvest are glad because now you have food for your selves and families to live upon all the year but the Christian rejoyceth because he hath bread to eat that the world knows not of Rev. 2. 17. Christ is the food of his soul and his flesh is meat indeed and his blood drink indeed Iohn 5. 55. i. e. the most real and excellent food You read Psal. 78. 25. that man did eat angels food i. e. Manna which was such excellent bread that if Angels did live upon material food this would be chosen for them and yet this is but a type and dark shadow of Iesus Christ the food of believers You rejoyce when your harvest is in because corn is virtually many other things besides food you can turn it into cloaths to keep you warm and many other necessaries may be purchased by it but yet it is not like Christ the object of a Saints joy though it answers many things it doth not answer all things as Christ doth turn it into what you will it hath but a limited and respective usefulness but Iesus Christ is all in all to believers and out of him their faith can fetch all supplies he is their health in sickness their strength in weakness their ease in pain their honour in reproach their wealth in poverty their friend in friendlessness their habitation when harbourless their enlargement in bonds the strength of their hearts and life of their life O he is a full Christ and what ever excellencies are scattered among all the creatures do meet all in him and much more You rejoyce when you have gotten in your harvest because now you can free those engagements and pay those debts which you have contracted 'T is a comfort to be out of debt and you may lawfully rejoyce that God gives you wherewith to quit your engagements that you may owe to man any thing but love but still the joy of harvest falls short of the joy of Saints for you rejoyce that you are or have wherewith to help your selves out of mens debts but they rejoyce that they are out of God'd debt that his book is cancelled and their sins pardoned that by reason of the imputed righteousness of Christ the Law can demand nothing from them Rom. 8. 1. O what matter of joy is this You rejoyce because now your corn is out of danger all the while it was abroad it was in hazard but now it 's housed you fear not the rain But Christians rejoyce not because their corn is safe but because their souls are so All the while they abode in an unregenerate state they were every moment in danger of the storms of wrath but now being in Christ that danger is over and what compare is there betwixt the safety of a little corn and the security of an immortal soul Your joy is but in a gift of common providence Turks and Heathens can rejoyce with your joy but the joy of a Christian is a peculiar favour and gift of God Corn is given to all Nations even the most barbarous and wicked have store of it but Christ is the portion but of a few and those the dearly beloved of God Luther said of the whole Turkish Empire where is the best and greatest store of corn that it is but a crumb which the Master of the Family throws to the dogs He that had more corn than his Barns could hold now wants a drop of water to cool his tongue Christ is a gift bestowed only upon God's Elect. Your joy will have an end the time is coming that when you have reaped down your harvests your selves must be reaped down by death and then you shall rejoyce in these things no more but when your joy is ended then is the joy of Saints perfected they reap their harvest when you leave your harvest their consolation is everlasting God an separate your joy from these ejoyments even while you have them as well as when you leave them 'T is one thing for a man to have riches and full Barns and another thing to have comfort in them Eccles. 5. 19 20. But now the joy of Christians is a thing inseparable from their enjoyment of Christ Indeed the sense of their interest may be lost and so the acts of their joy intermitted but they alwayes have it in the seed if not in the fruit Psal. 97. 11. Ioy is sown for the upright he hath it still in the principle and in the promise The joy of Harvest-men for the most part is only in their harvest and in such earthly things take that

be the Churches servants for Iesus sake 2 Cor. 4. 6. the power they have received being for edification and not for destruction 2 Cor. 10. 8. Christ hath given them to the Churches their gifts their time their strength and all their Ministerial talents are not their own but the Churches stock and treasure The workmen that labour in the fields are accountable for their work to him that imploy'd them Church-Officers are also accountable to God for all the souls committed to them They are Stewards of the Mysteries of God 1. Cor. 4. 1. and Stewards are accountable We watch for your souls saith the Apostle as they that must give an account Heb. 13. 7. If these servants be unfaithful in their work and trust the blood of souls shall be required at their hands Ezek. 3. 17 18. which are fulmina non verba saith Erasmus thunder-bolts rather than words The guilt of blood is the greatest guilt and of all blood the blood of souls Those that spend their time and strength all their dayes in manuring and plowing the fields do maintain themselves and their families by their labours their hands are sufficient for themselves and theirs Even so hath God ordained that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel 1. Cor. 9. 14. The workman is worthy of his meat Mat. 10. 10. 'T is is sad thing if those who break the bread of life to souls should be suffered to want bread themselves God would not have the mouth of the ox muzled that treads out the corn but have liberty to eat as well as work Yet if any pretender to the Ministry be like the Heifer that loves to tread out the corn i. e. cares to do no work but such as brings in present pay he therein sufficiently discovers his beast-like disposition Ministers must be faithful in their Masters work and if men do not God will reward them For He is not unrighteous to forget their work and labour of love Heb. 6. 10. It is a great trouble to Husbandmen in a busie time to be put off from their labours by stormy weather which drives them out of the fields and makes th●m let all lye till it clear up again yet mean-while they are not idle but imploy themselves in home work Even so in God's Husbandry 't is an unspeakable affliction to God's workmen to be rendred useless and unserviceable to the Churches by those storms of trouble which drive them from their publick Ministerial work With what a heavy heart did Paul go off from his work at Ephesus Act. 20. It spends a Minister to preach but more to be silent 'T is a loud speaking judgment when God shall say to them as to Ezekiel Son of man I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth and thou shalt be dumb Ezek. 3. 26. Such silencing providences speaking thundring language to gracious hearts yet even then the keepers of the vineyard have a private vineyard of their own to look after they have much home-work when no out-work There is a vast difference betwixt those fields which have been well husbanded and drest by a skilful and diligent Husbandman and those that have been long out of husbandry How fragrant is the one how dry and barren the other When you pass by a field well dressed and fenced every thing prosperous and in exquisite order you may know without farther enquiry that a good Husband lives there Thus stands the case betwixt those places which God hath blest with a faithful painful Ministry and such as have none or worse than none For as the Husbandmans cost and pains appears in the verdant and fragrant hew of his fields so a Ministers pains and diligence is ordinarily seen in the heavenly lives and flourishing graces of the people The Churches of Corinth and Thessalonica where Paul and other holy instruments spent much of their time and pains became famous and flourishing Churches 2 Cor. 9. 2. A special blessing comes along with a godly Minister to the place where special providence assigns him Such places like Gideon's fleece have the dew of heaven lying on them whiles others round about are dry and barren The Husbandman is not discouraged though the seed lye long under the clods he knows it will spring up at last and reward him or those that come after him for their pains and patience in waiting for it Ministers should not be presently discouraged in their work because they see but little or no appearance of all the seed they have sown among the people The servant of the Lord must be patient towards all waiting if at any time God will give them repentance 2 Tim. 24. 25. And if it never spring up in his time it may after his death and if so he shall not fail of his reward Iob. 4. 36 37. And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life eternal that both he that someth and he that reapeth may rejoyce together and herein is that saying true one soweth and another reapeth Though Ministers die yet their words live yea their words take hold of men when they are in the dust Zech. 1. 6. Husbandmen find low ground and valleys most fertile Hills how loftily soever they over-top the lower grounds yet answer not the Husbandmans pains as the valleys do These are best watered and secured from the scorching heat of the Sun Experience shews us that the humblest Saints are most fruitful under the Gospel These are they that receive with meekness the ingraffed word Iam. 1. 21. whose influences abide in them as the rain doth in the low valleys Happy is that Minister whose lot falls in such a pleasant valley Blessed are they that sow beside all such waters that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass Isa. 32. 20. Among these valleys run the pleasant springs and purling brooks which fertilize the neighbouring ground Heavenly Ordinances there leave fruitful influences The first Crop is usually the best and the longer the Husbandman tills his ground the less it produces After a few years its vigour and strength if spent The first entertainment of the Gospel is commonly the best and what good is done by the Ministry is often done at its first entrance New things are pretty and very taking Iohn at first was to the Iews a burning and a shining light and they were willing for a season to rejoyce in his light Ioh. 5. 35. Paul was highly valued among the Galatians at first such was their zeal that they could have pluckt out their eyes and have given them to him but how quickly did this full tyde ebb again for he complains Gal. 4. 15. Where then is the blessedness ye spake of Lastly When fields prove barren and will not quit the Husbandmans cost nor answer the seed he sows in them he plucks up the hedges and layes it