Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	bless_a	heaven_n	lord_n	6,010	5	3.8951	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61477	The way of God with his people in these nations opened in a thanksgiving sermon, preached on the 5th of November, 1656, before the Right Honorable the High Court of Parliament / by Peter Sterry.	Sterry, Peter, 1613-1672.	1657 (1657)	Wing S5487; ESTC R14198	34,785	58

to the world for the Churches sake I come now to the Uses Use 1. The first Vse is of Thankfulness God makes it his delight and praise to go new and extraordinary waies with his Church and with the world in order to his Church Let us then raise our delights and his praises from the sense of those new and extraordinary paths in which the Lord hath walked forth before our Eyes in the midst of al the nations round about us for our sake That the Newness of the divine footsteps in our dais and in our Land may leave the deeper print upon our spirits let us consider it in these Six Particulars 1. Our Changes 2. The Quickness of our changes 3. The Freshness upon our Changes 4. The inward Life whence our Changes spring 5. The Seal upon our Changes from their Living Principle 6. The Spirit of Grace evidencing it self as the Principle and the Seal First The Changes Which have been upon us shew the Newness of the Lords way with us Jerem 48. 11. The Lord complains Moab hath been at ease from his youth and he hath setled on his Lees and he hath not been emptyed from Vessel to Vessel therefore his tast remained in him and his sent is not changed How often hath England been changed from Peace to Warr from one Warr to another from one form of Government to another from Extremities to Enlargements from Enlargements to Extremities again These Changes have been as so many Vessels out of which and into which we have been emptyed Are we stil upon the Lees of Carnality and Corruption If we discern not God in a new Glory if we discern not Jesus Christ with his new name if we discern not the Newness of the Operations of the Spirit in al these things then doth our Earthly tast hitherto remain and our fleshly sent is not changed O for a refinedness of Soul now from the Lees of Earth to a pure wine of spirituality O for a heavenly tast a heavenly sent How should we rellish this feast of new delicacys which the Lord sets forth for us How should we love Jesus Christ for the Savor of his new and good Oyntments in which he powrs forth himself into the midst of us Revel. 6. 12. We reade of the Sun turning black as Sack Cloath of Hair the Moon as blood vers. 13. Stars of Heaven fel unto the Earth even as a Fig-tree casteth her untimely Figs being shaken by a mighty winde Verse 14. Heaven departed as a Scroule rolled together Verse 16. The reason of al this i. e. The Face of him that sits on the Throne and the wrath of the Lamb Many times over in this our little world of these divided Islands we have seen the Sun of our Religious Formes our Church-state becomming black as a Sack-Cloath of Hair which is a mourning weed the Moon of our Civil affayres as Blood Nay al Blood we have seen the Heaven of the Supream power pass away as a scrol of Parchment roled up and laid by our Eminent Persons which were as Stars in the Heaven of that Power shining with a Lustre and ruling with an Influence of universal Authority yet on a soden falling from this Heaven to the Earth of a common rank and obscure condition Do we not thorow al this perceive the Face of God sitting upon his Throne among us a Throne of most exalted Grace and loving kindness to his people but of the most exalted vengeance and wrath to his enemy observe those two things the Face and the Face of God sitting upon the Throne What unvailings of new and extraordinary glorys do these Expressions speak forth Are not these the Seal to which these Nations as Wax are turned and changed Blessed are they that stand within these Wheels to be carryed a long by them and move together with them Over others who see them not these Wheels pass and break them to pieces Joel 2. 30. The Lord saith I wil shew wonders in the Heavens and in the Earth Blood and Fire and pillars of smoake Verse 31. The Sun shal be turned into darkness and the Moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come There are three daies of the Lords comming First To a Particular Nation Secondly At his Incarnation Thirdly To the last Judgment Al these are Capable of having this Scripture applyed to them especially where the first of these daies the Comming of Christ to a Nation follows after the Second day of his Incarnation and borders upon the Third day of his last comming This Scripture hath been litterally fulfilled in our times in our land What frequent Eclypses of Sun and Moon have we seen What Comets Concussions and Prodigyes in al the Elements Earth-quakes Tydes changing their Courses Meteors of al sorts in the Ayre Devouring Fires Behold the Earth the Air the Waters the Fire the Heavens see the Lord and are troubled shal his Saints be insensible of him shal not they shout and say This is the day which no Created or usual light but the Lord hath made by his shinings forth It is wonderful in our Eyes beyond the whol Course of Nature we wil rejoyce and he glad in it Secondly The Quickness of our Changes This is the Second thing that argues the Newness of Gods way with us I intreate you here to compare 2 Scriptures Hagg. 2. 6. For thus saith the Lord of hosts Yet once it is a little while and I wil shake the Heavens and the Earth and the Sea and the dry land verse 7. And I wil shake al Nations and the desire of al the Nations sh●l come and I wil fil this House with glory saith the Lord of hosts Hebr. 12. 26. Whose voyce then shook the Earth but he hath promised saying Yet once more I shake not the Earth only but also the Heaven Verse 27. And this word yet once more signifieth the removing of those things that are made that those things which cannot be shaken may remaine The comparing of these two Texts affords us these Particular Observations First This word Once signifies one continued act of shaking unto an universal and Total Change Secondly That which maks this shaking is the Newness of Christs comming forth in the unchangable Glory of his Father and of the Spirit For the Prophet Haggi seeming to speak of the first comming of Christ in the flesh to fil that present Temple which was then building with the Glory of his Doctrine and Miracles is by the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews interpreted of the comming of Christ in Glory as being the truth and the end to which the other comming was only a Type and a Preparation So also that which the Prophet calls The Desire of the Nations is in the Hebrews called Those things which cannot be shaken in opposition to things that are made and to be taken away Both together cleerly describe Jesus Christ in the Newness of a Heavenly Glory which can never

Savior in the Heavenly Beauty and Glory of his Person if we have been carryed on to this Work by his Spiritual Appearances and Power in us then wil not our work be at an end til we see him shining forth in the ful Glory of his Person and Spirit not upon us only but upon the whol Earth The Vow of Christ is upon us not to give sleep to our Eyes til we have found a setled Habitation for our Lord Jesus as he is cloathed with al his Spiritual Glories in our own hearts and with men I have done now with the last Evidence of the Presence of our God with us in the New way of his Son and Spirit which Evidence is this That the Spirit of Grace hath been the Principle and Seal of these great Works and Changes in the midst of us The Vse that I would make of it is to enlarge us in our Praises that we may now see and say with joy The Lord Jesus goes up on high in our Land he carries Captivity captive he gives Gifts to men even to the rebellious that himself may dwel among them I have done with the First Vse Vse 2. A Caution to beware of four things Caut. 1. Limit not God This was the sin of the Jews in the Wilderness They limited the Holy One of Israel Psal. 7. 41. Princes love not to be prescribed much less doth God To what will ye liken God and to what likeness wil ye compare him Es. 40. 18. If the Lord be doing Great things among us according to the Exaltation of Christ if he doing New things according to his own Spirit what measure will ye take what President wil ye make what likeness wil ye frame of his Way by things past or present Take heed of Two Wayes of Limiting God First Shut not the Lord up into any Form or way of Working The Holy Ghost complains of the Jews Psal. 78. 19. They spake against God they said Can God furnish a Table in the Wilderness Let us take heed that the Language of our hearts and actions be not like to this that we say not If we have no set Form no Establisht way of Religion or Civil Government Can God in the Wilderness and Confusion of such a Condition continue or encrease Truth Holiness Prosperity and Peace Thus to limit God is to speak against him Secondly Shut not God out of any Form or Way of working I speak here of the Lords Working in Love not Wrath and accordingly of those Forms and Waies out of which he hath not excluded his Love by the contrariety between them and his Divine Holy Nature Nathaniel himself had like to have stumbled at Christ by his narrow-sightedness in this kind Can said he any good come out of Nazareth John 1. 46. Yet as Chrysostom tels us Nazareth signifies a flower Christ out of Nazareth was Flos è Flore a Flower out of a Flower That form or way which seems to thee most uncapable of having any good in it may be made by God a Sweet and flourishing flower out of which another more glorious flower may spring even Jesus Christ in the spiritual Civil and natural Image of things This is the first Caution Caut. 2. Murmure not against the Lord When Jesus Christ had sent this marke of his being come to John Baptist That To the poor the Gospel was preached or as some read it and the Greek ful as wel bears it The poor preach the Gospel he ads and blessed is he that is not offended at me Matt. 11. 5 6. How apt are men to murmure against to stumble at to reject Jesus Christ himself even then when he comes with glad tydings with peace and glory from the Father in the Gospel if the way by which he conveighes these things to them answer not their imagination and expectation but be in any kind poor obscure and dis-esteemed There are two Cases in which we are apt to be ensnared in this kind First The Jews had setled their expectation of the Messiah upon the Pompe and Power of an outward Kingdom He comes with his cross instead of a Throne They therefore are offended at him reject and persecute him So men generally fix the accomplishment of promises the answer of prayers the works of God the administration of Christ the operations of the Spirit in Religion and Civil things upon some way that is fairest in their fancyes or understandings If God come not to bless them and to save them in this way but by some other Person or Thing which is without comliness in their Eye they murmur and refuse him Secondly When the Soldiers had our faviour in their hands they put a Crown of Thornes upon his head a Reed for a Scepter into his hand a purple robe upon his back then they mock him and spit in his Face I humbly pray that this spirit be not powerful in us who profess our selves Saints and peace-makers that we do not after the same manner when the Lord makes any person or way which we have a low esteem of to be the instrument of his power Majesty and love cloath it with the most contemtuous disguises of Hypocrisie delusion Ambition Licentiousness falshood Atheisme and then spit in the Face of it persecute it with al bitterness and scorne under this Disguise Cant. 3. Judg not things by the outward apperance but by the inward principle Solomon saith Al the waies of a man are clean in his own eyes but the Lord weigheth the spirit Prov. 16. 2. I have heard of a blind man who could distinguish and judg of al mettals or precious stones by weighing them in his hand Thus judg alwaies not by the beauty of the outward forme but by the weight of the inward pinciple It was a Starr in the Region of the Ayre above the Earth that led the wise men to the House where Christ was borne So should it be the light of a principle in the spirit above the outward form by which we should be gvided in our esteem affections and pursuits Cant. 4. Judg every principle in the Light of the Holy Spirit Psal. 73. 16 17. Asaph professeth that it was too painful for him to understand things in this world by their outward Appearances until he went into the Sanctuary of God then he understood the end by discovring the principle or beginning Before this he was Foolish and Ignorant as a beast vers. 22. The Sanctuary was a Figure of our Savior in his Holy Spirit Agur Complaines Prov. 30. 2 3. That He was more brutish than any man and had not the understanding of a man He gives the reason of this because He had not learned Wisdom which is the Knowledge and judgment of things in their inward principles and he was without this wisdom for want of the Knowledge of the Holy This expression of the Holy in Scripture signifies Glorified Natures in Heaven somtimes whether Angels or Saints somtimes Saints on Earth Whatever