Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	great_a	heaven_n	saint_n	5,831	5	5.8038	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62715	A call to the Shulamite, or to the scattered and divided members of the church delivered and published upon occasion by Thomas Tanner.	Tanner, Thomas, 1630-1682.	1674 (1674)	Wing T139; ESTC R30157	22,246	32

will not learn to be wise unto sobriety but still they seem never to pray with more spirit such as it is than when they pray against their Brethren 3. The third and last loss which I shall mention is also most invaluable our charity is distracted and abated which the poor do sadly feel our civility is disturbed so that men do not dare to become free in conversation till they have sufficiently proved the company our neighbourly love is abated and instead of a friend which one had before it may be he hath an enemy or but a faint-hearted kindness or an hollow pretence of some good will consisting rather in some good wishes that he were but such as his former friend would have him to be that he might love him whose love at best is not without its rigour But I will also spare to dilate my self on this point that at least on one side charity may remain the sounder The last reason why the Church doth so earnestly desire the return of her scattered and divided Members is the great benefit and content that she should find therein which is 1. The delight of love The Shulamite was passionately beloved for her good parts and beauty which the Daughters of Ierusalem do acknowledg when they say Return return ô Shulamite that we may look upon thee and the Shulamite understands no other when she answereth What shall ye see in the Shulamite We acknowledge the like and we will tell you with your favour what we would see in you We would see and be partakers of your knowledge and of your gifts of understanding in the Scriptures We would see your zeal for God and for his Sabbaths and for his Ordinances We would see your charity towards your neighbour whom you would not have seen heretofore to sin at least to commit a sin unto death but you would have aided and admonished him howsoever you think your selves to be excused since of being your Brothers keepers We would see the strictness of your lives and of those of your families We would hear your Readings Prayers Instructions Catechisings and other good Conferences that were wont to be there fit to edifie and to minister grace unto the hearers We would over-hear your private prayers and devotions in your Closets where you were wont to strive with God for the pardon of your sins and for the obtaining of his holy Spirit to sanctifie you throughout in body soul and mind We would see your first love again if it be possible and those fruits which you then brought forth worthy of amendment of life This is the beauty which the Church would now see in the return of the wandring Shulamite whether it be as in the dayes of old that if so she might admire and cherish her 2. The beauty of array which hath much decayed since our Congregations have been diverted our Families divided our People scattered We can no more see men coming with their whole Train to the House of God as they were wont to do And that was a beauty in the Streets of our Ierusalem We cannot see their order here where their seats are void so that our Churches look like great Houses that are specious to behold without but being unfurnished within afford the colder comfort We cannot hear their voices in his holy Temples singing aloud and praising God making also melody in their hearts so keeping time on earth with the Saints and Angels that are in heaven Much less can we meet them as we used to do at the Lords Table at that Feast of Feasts the only Feast of Loves that Feast of marrow and of wine refined on the Lees. And when we remember these things to use the Psalmists words we pour out our souls within us for we had gone with the multitude we went with them to the House of God with the voice of joy and praise with a multitude that kept holiday These are the daies that would return ô Shulamite with thy return Then if any unbeliever or any other bearing evil will to Zion should look into our Assemblies he might be apt to be striken and to be driven to confess that surely God were amongst us or in the midst of us But now if he look in here what shall he see but a despicable emptiness and if he go there a more contemptible multitude for want of order which is the beauty of holiness 3. Lastly Would but our divided Members return again as Brethren unto the body of our Church we should then come to have the strength of two Armies whereas we are now unstable and weak as water and cannot excel we should then become strong and invincible and might boldly write upon our banner Deus nobiscum quis contra nos God is with us who can stand against us The gates of hell shall not prevail neither policy nor power nor any weapon that is form'd against us We should then renew our strength like the Eagle our youth should return to us as in the day when we came up out of the land of Egypt in the beginning of the Reformation we should have strength within and the blessings of peace with it we should become a terror unto foreign Nations which do now despise us and mark us out for a prey in the day of their power and of our weakness Have we forgotten our deliverences from the power of Spain and Austria and the Pope of Rome our Victories in Ireland our Aids that we were then enabled to afford to Henry afterwards the Great King of France and to the then poor distressed States of Holland Having at the same time a Superintendency over all the Councils in the Realm of Scotland and an influence upon divers of our Neighbours with such a firm peace at home that we hardly read of any insurrection worthy to be mentioned in four and fourty years and upwards Nay the benefits of that blessed reign of Queen Elizabeth did extend to propagate a longer peace unto posterity than ever Albion knew before And if we have not yet forgot those flourishing dayes of our renown let us now remember that they were the rewards of an unanimous Reformation when the heart of the people rose as one man to establish the Protestant Religion as one Religion in the midst of us And oh that any one could promise me such another spirit to arise in England in these dayes of ours and under God I might as boldly promise even greater things than these But though there be but little hopes of this and but just reason to expect and fear that all our labour which is thus applyed is like to be in vain yet it is our duty to desire and endeavour it And with that I shall conclude Return return ô Shulamite return return that we may look upon thee You that have been offended with our Church and have left us that have sadned our hearts and weakned our hands thus long return at last to