Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	heaven_n	lord_n	word_n	16,216	5	4.2023	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50855	A sermon preached on the Feast of the Annunciation of the B. Virgin Mary, at St. Martins in the Fields, Westminster by John Mill ...	Mill, John, 1645-1707.	1676 (1676)	Wing M2059; ESTC R14945	14,174	34

of Ladiship for so much St. Ierom tells us the word Mary imports in the Syriac but in reality of very low condition Lord how thou despisest those things which in the opinion of the World pass for great and honourable how thou delightest to dignifie the most excellent grace of Humility by this and all the other circumstances of thy Incarnation A lowly Hand-maiden she was as she styles herself in her Magnificat v. 48. in whom before all the Princesses of the Earth our blessed Lord was pleased to invest himself with Flesh and become an Infant Of this astonishing Mystery the Angel Gabriel gives her solemn notice v. 31. and out of an admiration of the infinite Honour our Saviour was about to do her before he delivered his message he addresses himself to the Holy Virgin in this affectionate Salutation Hail thou that art highly favoured the Lord is with thee blessed art thou among women Which words admit a twofold Interpretation for they may be taken either in a plain Indicative sense and so they expresly denote the transcendent Glories and Priviledges of the blessed Virgin or else they may bear a sense Apprecative as the Learned Grotius and others are of opinion they do and so they are expounded to be a Salutatory form of speech wherein the Angel Gabriel most heartily congratulates her upon the subject of her wonderful Conception whereof he is come on purpose to give her an assurance and wishes her thereupon all the joy and happiness imaginable And thus the Reverend Doctor Hammond paraphrases the words in this manner Hail Gracious Person the Lord of Heaven be with thee and let all men ever account thee the most blessed woman in the world In either acceptation of the words the Glorious Saint of this day is sufficiently insinuated to be the Grand Favourite of Heaven such a woman as all the Generations of the Earth should have reason to celebrate and esteem most happy Let us now meditate upon and consider 't is or ought to be the religious exercise of this Festival the great and noble Character here given her Let us first of all fix our thoughts upon the high Honour God has vouchsafed her And then in the second place in Consideration of that and of her singular Endowments and Graces pay to her memory all due Veneration and Respect To the first part of this Religious Duty we have a prevalent Motive in the first words of the Text to the latter in the close of the Angels Salutation 1. Mary is here stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or highly favoured and accepted of God for so we render the word congruously to the sense of it in the best Greek Authors and to the mind of Gabriel who tells her that she had found favour with God Though I am not ignorant that other Interpretations are fastned upon the word Our Protestant Divines many of them rendring it gratis dilecta the Romanists generally gratiosa or gratia plena neither of them so much out of respect as I conceive to the meaning of the word in this place as out of a design to countenance their own particular Hypotheses Not to stand therefore upon Critical Niceties certain it is that highly grac'd and favour'd she was in so transcendent a manner that we cannot fix our Meditations upon the Honour done her in all its several ennobling and exaltingCircumstances without being swallow'd up with Admiration We cannot trace the Divine Love to Her through the various Mazes and Labyrinths of it without losing our selves in so profound a Speculation We shall in the following Discourse consider her as highly favour'd upon these two accounts I. Upon account of our blessed Lords Incarnation II. Upon account of those Excellent Graces and Vertues wherewith she was in a most eminent manner dignified and accomplish'd I. Upon account of our blessed Lords Incarnation Will God indeed come down from Heaven the Habitation of his Holiness and of his Glory and converse with Dust and Ashes Yes and what is infinitely more he will take upon him the very Nature and Infirmities of a Man And the blessed Virgin is to be the Woman in whom the whole Mystery of this Incarnation is to be transacted The Holy Ghost shall come upon her and the power of the Highest shall overshadow her Vers. 35. And that Holy Thing which shall be born of her shall be Essentially God God blessed for ever Rom. 9. 5. Amazing News And such as had the Angel acquainted Us with as he did Mary supposing us to have known as little what was to befal her as herself did before that extraordinary Message think whether we should have believ'd him and not rather have resolv'd all into meer absurdity and contradiction Nay but with God nothing is impossible says the Angel Vers. 37. Well then suppose for once a Conviction of the Possibility of the thing Suppose the Manifestation of God in Flesh Practicable that is to say that Infinity could be circumscrib'd in the Womb Eternity commence in Time Omnipotency be surrounded with Weakness the Ancient of Days become a Child of a span long and yet the Conception of Them is ready to crack our Faculties Suppose I say the Possibility of all these things and then consider how highly Dignified she must be who is to be the Illustrious Subject of all these Miracles The Woman who by peculiar Designation is to carry Divinity in her Womb and become the Mother of God Lord what shall we say She is inexpressibly far above either Saints or Angels The grand instance of a Creature on whom the Almighty has accumulated all the Greatness and Honour consistent with a Created Capacity a Finite Nature Virgo Mater as a pious Father harangues it upon this Argument Illa majorem Deus facere non potest Majorem Mundum potest facere Deus Majorem autem Matrem quam Matrem Dei non potest facere Deus God cannot says he create a greater Creature than a Virgin Mother God can make a larger World a thousand Worlds if it pleases him but to make a greater Mother than the Mother of God is perfectly Impossible Blessed Saint how beyond all Imagination highly hath the Lord regarded thy low condition How far hath he advanc'd Thee above the whole Creation in point of Honour and Dignity The Glorious Angels which attend upon his Throne were the Creatures he wholly passed by when he came down and Impregnated Thee by the Holy Ghost His dearest Servants are but small Sharers in his Favour when compared to Thee who didst possess even the whole Divinity Moses had the Honour to talk with God with the like familiarity as a Man talketh with his Friend and was earnest to have a sight of his Glory but was deny'd it as not being able to endure so dazling a Lustre The Prophets likewise had some converse with Heaven but 't was withal by secret Inspirations and Dreams in an imperfect manner Several Persons are