Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	creature_n	great_a	heaven_n	5,812	5	5.2233	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50489	The good of early obedience, or, The advantage of bearing the yoke of Christ betimes discovered in part, in two anniversary sermons, one whereof was preached on May-day, 1681, and the other on the same day in the year 1682, and afterwards inlarged, and now published for common benefit / by Matthew Mead.	Mead, Matthew, 1630?-1699.	1683 (1683)	Wing M1555; ESTC R19143	252,739	482

is the tye of God upon the Soul till a man comes under the power of the Precept he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not without Law but under the Law to Christ 1 Cor. 9.21 CHAP. VI. Holds forth the Reasons of the Doctrine 2. WHY it is the concernment of every one to take up the Yoke of Christ in his Youth Reas 1. Because of the Call of God He doth not call us to bow to his Yoke to submit to his Authority to obey his Commands only but to do it betimes as he states our duty what we shall do so he times it when it must be done And therefore it is as much a sin to let slip the time as to neglect the thing Not to do what God commands is a sin and not to do it when God commands it is another sin If God says To day go work to day in my vineyard Mat. 21.28 To day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts Heb. 3.15 Why then to put it off till the morrow is a sin and so the adding of one days neglect to another is the adding of sin to sin For it is a repeated slight to the Call of God Now to shew you the force of this reason do but consider who it is that calls and what the Call is First Who it is that calls it is God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost 1. It is God the Father he that made thee and gave thee thy being And this one would think should be obligation enough to duty He that gave thee thy being calls for thy obedience especially considering he made thee for this end other Creatures were made to serve thee but there was no end of thy being but to serve God and therefore thou hadst another make tnan other Creatures He stamped a greater excellency upon man than upon the rest of the Creatures Every Creature bears some impression of God but no Creature on earth but only Man bears the likeness of God In other Creatures there are vestigia Dei but in man only there is imago Dei there you may see his footsteps but here only his image Other Creatures are formed of earth but Man is partly earth and partly Heaven the dust of the earth is married to the breath of God And why such an excellent being but to fit him for the end to which God designed him viz. Duty and Service And is it not reason that God who gave thee thy being should have thy obedience That he who gave thee a reasonable Soul should have a reasonable service Creation is an obligation to service Hence that of Solomon Eccles 12.1 Remember thy Creator He that was not made by himself should not live to himself He that can't cease from depending on God as a Principle he ought not to cease from intending God as an end that he may be the object of our obedience as well as the Author of our being 2. It is God the Son the Lord thy Redeemer First It is he that took up flesh came into thy Nature was made Man became thy Surety bore the Curse due to thy sins shed his Blood laid down his life to ransom thy Soul rose again for thy Justification is gone to Heaven upon thy Errand It is this Christ that calls thee to take up his Yoke and is it not reason that we should bear the Yoke for him that bore the Cross and the Curse for us Is it not reason that if we have the good of his Sufferings he should have the glory of our service Secondly It is he that with the Father hath stablished this as the great Condition of Salvation bearing the Yoke so that it is the standing Law of Heaven Whoever will be saved must take up Christs Yoke This is the way to blessedness and there is no other bear the Yoke of Christ and be blessed cast that off and Christ will cast you off submit and be saved reject it and Christ will reject you This is the unalterable condition of Salvation and there is no other Things are so setled in the eternal Compact between Father and Son about the case of man that the Blood of Christ it self cannot stead us nor the mercy of God infinite as it is benefit us Per legem per crucem per lucem per concilium per afflatum auxilium See Pareus in Revel 3.20 without this condition be performed by us And therefore it is that Christ is so importunate in this Duty that he calls and knocks so many ways by the Law by the Cross by Gospel-light by the operation of the Spirit Thirdly It is he that made this his great end in redeeming us to restore us to obedience as well as to favour and to render us capable of that service and duty which hath Glory and Blessedness annexed to it Therefore his Blood is said to purge the conscience from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9 14. And this is made a reason of his bearing our sins in his body on the tree that we being dead to sin might live to righteousnss 1 Pet. 2.24 And who did he redeem was it not young ones as well as others Did he not shed as much blood and pay as great a price for them as others Fourthly It is he that hath purchased unto himself a fulness of Grace to be given forth for the inablement of thee for the susception of this Yoke and the performing all the Duties belonging thereto so that there shall be nothing wanting if there be but a willing mind The Lord Christ knows thy case and the impotency contracted by sin that thou canst not bear his Yoke without his strength and influences of his Grace and therefore he calls thee to partake of his fulness that thou mayst be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might The wise God permitted the loss of mans self-fulness that he might never more be any thing in himself but might glorifie the Redeemer by an intire constant dependance upon him in fetching all from him as an indigent Creature Mans first miscarriage was in a desire of self-sufficiency and he hath been poor and naked from that very day He would have a stock in his own hands and he hath been a begger ever since It was pride at the first that overthrew him and ever since God hath left sin in him to humble him He would have a happiness in himself and therefore he shall have no happiness but by being outed of himself He would live as an independent Being and therefore to cure this God brings him to an absolute dependance for all things he shall have nothing but what he hath by faith and expectation that he may thereby see what a beggerly indigent Creature he is and so glorifie the fulness of Christ And it is the mercy of Christ that he hath a sufficiency of Grace for

and blessed Spirits in a state of Glory but yet it is a state of subjection and obedience they are all under a Law they have many immunities we have not They are freed from all infirmities of the flesh from the necessities of meat and drink freed from dying but they are not freed from homage and duty to God They are under a Law there Psal 103.20 Bless the Lord ye his Angels that excel in strength that do his commandments hearkening to the voice of his word Their state of Happiness doth not exempt them from obedience therefore they owne themselves our fellow-servants Rev. 22.9 Revel 19.10 I am thy fellow-servant And that petition in the Lords Prayer Mat. 6.10 Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven shews that they are under a Law of obedience though in a glorified state Look into the starry Heaven and all the Host there are under a Law Sun Moon and Stars observe their courses and vary not from their appointed motions He hath made a decree which shall not pass Psal 148.6 Look into the lower Heaven and you shall find a governing Law there Psal 148.8 Fire and hail snow and vapor stormy wind fulfilling his word Who can govern the wind that blows where it lists Joh. 3.8 or give a Law to an unruly tempest that bears down all before it and yet these fulfil his word He makes the storm a calm Psal 107.29 Look lower to that raging and unruly Element the Sea no Potentate on Earth can bridle one wave Xerxes presumed he could tame the Hellespont but it knew not his power nor felt his wrath neither could his three hundred stripes allay the fury of its waves nor his fetters thrown in bind it from raging It is storied of Canutus our Danish King that when his Courtiers would have flattered him into a belief of a kind of Omnipotency in him he caused his Chair to be set by the Sea-shore at time of flood and sitting down commands the Sea thus I charge thee come not upon my Land nor wet my Robes But the Sea coming on without regard to his Command made him glad to retreat whereupon he crys out How vain and weak is the power of Princes None but God can set bars and doors to it as it is Job 38.10 And what are these bars and doors not the sands nor banks nor rocks so much as the Law of Heaven for so it follows in the next words Hitherto shalt thou come but no further and here shall thy proud waves be staid v. 11. This is the bound it can't pass over other banks and bounds it can and hath passed as in Noahs Deluge History reports of many sad inundations of the Sea no bound can hold it but this Law of Heaven Thou hast set a bound that the waters may not pass over that they turn not again to cover the earth Psal 104.9 So that all Creatures are under a Law according to which all their motions are guided and governed Now these Laws differ according to the differing nature of the Creatures that are under them all are not capable of Moral government but Man is being a creature fitted with intellective and elective powers Therefore the Law by which he is governed is the Moral Law with the superaddition of Gods revealed will to all that are under the Gospel And the will of God is revealed two ways in his Word and in his Works The one is voluntas de nobis Gods will concerning us The other is voluntas in nobis his will in us to be done by us in the one consists our active obedience in the other our passive active obedience respects his Precepts passive respects his Providences and obedience is as truly manifested in the one as in the other in patience as in Holiness for as in Holiness we owne God as the supreme Law-giver so in patience we owne him as the supreme Lord who hath absolute Dominion over all Creatures and all Events And this is the Yoke of Jesus Christ And it hath six essential Properties belonging to it which do so describe the Nature of it as that it may be distinguished from all other Yokes First It is a pure Yoke and needs it must for it is a Yoke put on us by that Law which is a Transcript of the Holiness of God The Apostle James calls it pure Religion Jam. 1.27 And it is so whether you look to its Precepts or its Promises First To its Precepts The commandment of the Lord is pure Psal 19.8 Holy just and good Rom. 7.12 No Doctrine so holy no Precepts so pure Secondly To its Promises They are pure Promises First In regard of the matter of them they do not flatter us with sensual delights and brutish pleasures 1 Pet. 1.4 but secure to us an undefiled inheritance not a Turkish Paradise full of swinish sensualities but a sinless felicity made up of visions of God and likeness to him Secondly In regard of the end and design of them which is to purifie the heart and promote the sanctification of the whole man He hath given us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature 1 Pet. 1.4 No Religion in the World can rightfully lay a claim to this Character of a pure Religion but the Christian Reformed Religion Compare it with the Religion of the Jews the most like to be a perfect Religion of any because it was a Religion of Gods setting up but yet that had its imperfections their Sacrifices wherein it chiefly consisted Heb. 10.1 could not make the comers thereto perfect and therefore it is done away Compare it with the Religion of the Heathens And how corrupt hath that been in all ages and in all parts What a numberless number of Gods have been found among them a Varro reckons up more than 30000. Some worshipping dead men for Gods b As Belus or Bel or Baal whose image was set up after his death by his Son Ninus who was the first Idolater Diodor. Plutarch says the Egyptian God Osyris was a man such was Saturn made a God by his Grandson Faunus such was Mercury Vulcan Apollo Mars c. Cicero in his Book De Natura Deorum shews that all their Gods were but men Some worshipping dumb Creatures c As the Egyptians c. Some worshipping Sun Moon and Stars d As the Arabians c. Some worshipping Herbs and Plants And some worshipping Devils it is a filthy Religion making Gods of them who made themselves Devils e As the Americans and the old Romans and Grecians under the name of Pluto Proserpina Cerberus c. Compare it with the Mahumetan Religion and what is that but a mixture of Jewish Heathenish and Popish vanities little of truth to be found in it A Religion not known in the World till 600 years after Christ a Mahomet was born under Mauritius the Emperor An. Christi 591.

be burned 1 Cor. 3.12 15. There are many that were of differing opinions when here on Earth who are all of one mind now in Heaven Therefore he that condemns Religion because of the differences of them that fear God shall be condemned to Hell as abiding in the estate of them that fear him not Fifthly If differences in Religion be the cause why you owne not Religion then why do you not owne it so far as all good men are agreed in it though there is difference in some things yet there are many and they the greatest things wherein they are all agreed All are agreed that he that believes not shall be damned Mark 16.16 and why then do you not close with Jesus Christ all are agreed that without sincere repentance and a sound conversion there can be no Salvation why then do ye not shake off your lusts and turn from sin to God all are agreed of the necessity of fearing God Eccles 12.13 Tit. 2.12 Heb. 12.14 and keeping his Commandments of living soberly righteously and godly in this present world and that without holiness no man shall ever see the Lord and therefore why are not these things practised which have an universal consent if some lesser matters are accounted doubtful and disputable yet these are things without all controversie Sin must be forsaken self must be denyed lust must be mortified the world must be renounced Christ must be your King and Lord he must have his throne in your hearts his commands must be obeyed or you can never be saved This is the plain way to Heaven and there is no other but what runs into this And to this you have the consent of all good men that ever heard of the Gospel Now if differing opinions about lesser matters have kept you off from medling with them why should not universal consent ingage you to mind these great and necessary things whereon your Peace your Life your Souls your Eternal Salvation and Happiness do depend especially considering this that if you neglect the great things of Salvation Heb. 2.3 you can never hope to escape nor find shelter from the wrath of God under so vain a plea as the differences about Religion Obj. 7. Another thing that hinders young ones from taking up the Yoke of Christ is the easiness of repenting and turning to God hereafter God is full of mercy and will not refuse or reject a penitent sinner at any time no though at the last hour witness the thief upon the cross how little time had he for repentance and yet he obtained mercy and why may not I Answ This Thief may in a sense be said to be a greater thief dead than living The example of his repentance and conversion in a dying hour hath stole away many a purpose many a season of grace many a resolution nay many a Soul which hath taken incouragement from his late conversion to put off the great business of Salvation to the last Now to prevent this undoing and Soul-destroying mischief I would say six things concerning this example 1. This is an example without a parallel and therefore not to be urged in this case God did this once as one says that none might despair and but once that none might presume You have not such another instance in all the Scripture which is a story of five thousand Years and yet in all that time we have but one instance of a man that repented when he came to dye and will any man dare to adventure his Soul upon such an instance as that you read Acts 27.44 that the Ship wherein Paul failed was ran aground and yet not one man lost some by swimming and some on boards and some on broken pieces of the Ship they all escaped safe to land Now would not that man be accounted a mad man that should run his Vessel a ground upon the incouragement of this success 2. It is a pattern without a precept Where is any command that incourages the dedicating our youth to sin and lust and our old age to repentance is there any precept of God that indulges to a youthful remisness in the great business of Religion no not one but the quite contrary I dare not deny but God may be found in the last hour but no man ought therefore to put off seeking him till then because the rule is Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth before the evil days come and the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them Ec. 12.1 3. It is a precedent without a promise shew me one promise that ever God made to accept such a repentance as this And therefore it is a very hopeless attempt nay a down-right presumption to expect mercy without a promise of mercy or in a way not promised is presumption 4. It was a miraculous work upon a peculiar reason to wit to shew forth his Godhead even when his humane nature was dying There was never such a concurrence of works of wonder in any age of the world as at that time the Sun losing his light the Air darkened the Earth quaking the Rocks rent the Graves opened many Dead raised and among the rest this was one a Thief while hanging upon the Cross converted this was to manifest his deity under his greatest suffering and to take away the ignominy of his cross so that we may as one says almost as well expect a second crucifying of Christ as a second conversion of this nature 5. Was there not another Thief at the same time upon the Cross and yet he repented not though he had much means to help him in the work his fellow recanting of his sin becoming a true convert reproving his sin calling him to repent owning the Lord Christ praying for mercy yet notwithstanding all this he repented not but as he lived so he dyed in his sins and lusts And therefore thou hast greater cause to fear being cast off with the impenitent Thief than to be received to mercy with this signal Convert especially considering that there is but this one instance in all the Bible and for this one that was received to mercy thousands and thousands have been cast off 6. This Thief upon the Cross is an example pleaded but not imitated and so we make that a dangerous temptation which would otherwise be an incouraging instance You that urge this for an example do but imitate it and then you 'l make a right use of it For we don't find that this Thief was ever called to believe till then and therefore so soon as he heard of Christ he believes in him and ventures his Soul upon his righteousness And God requires no more than that we would answer his call and accept the first tenders of Grace If God calls when it is late he will accept late conversion and therefore Christ takes that for an answer in Matt. 20. Matt. 20.6 when he asks them why stand ye