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
A62960	An exhortation unto reformation amplified, by a discourse concerning the parts and progress of that work, according to the word of God, delivered in a sermon preached in the audience of the General Assembly of the Massachusets colony, at Boston in New-England, May 27, 1674, being the day of election there / by Samvel Torrey ...	Torrey, Samuel, 1632-1707.; Mather, Increase, 1639-1723.	1674 (1674)	Wing T1916; ESTC R13732	47,259	54

At a General Court held at Boston May 27. 1674. THis Court Orders That the Reverend Mr. Samuel Torrey be Thanked from this Court for the great and acceptable pains which he took in his late Election Sermon And that he be desired to Print his said Sermon with as much speed as may be And that William Stoughton and Thomas Clark Esqs Capt. Hugh Mason Mr. William Parkes and Mr. Peter Bulkley be Appointed in the Name of this Court to give him Thanks accordingly By the Court Edward Rawson Secret AN EXHORTATION UNTO Reformation AMPLIFIED By a Discourse concerning the Parts and Progress of that Work according to the Word of God Delivered in a SERMON Preached in the Audience of the General Assembly of the Massachusets Colony at Boston in New-England May 27. 1674. BEING THE DAY of ELECTION THERE By SAMVEL TORREY Pastor of the Church of Christ in Waymouth Isa 30.15 For thus saith the Lord God the holy One of Israel In returning and rest shall ye be saved in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength and ye would not Ver. 18. And therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you and therefore will be be exalted that he may have mercy upon you for the Lord is a God of judgement and blessed are all they that wait for him Jer. 3.22 Return ye backsliding Children and I will beal your backslidings Behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God Rev. 2.7 He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches Cambridge Printed by Marmaduke Johnson 1674. To the Reader THe God of our Fathers hath done great things for this his people in the sight of the Nations We have heard with our ears our fathers have told us what work God did in their dayes how he did drive out the Heathen with his hand and Planted them how he did afflict the people and cast them out for they got not the Land in possession by their own Sword neither did their own Arm save them but his right Hand and his Arm and the light of his Countenance because he had a favour to them Yea the Lord hath given us his good Spirit to instruct us and hath not withheld Manna from us but hath turned this Wilderness into a Canaan and here hath he given us Rest the Land of Israel seldome rested longer fourty years and more and all this while hath he been feeding and leading of us by the hands of Moses of Aaron It would fill a Volume to declare in how many respects the Lord hath dealt with us as he did with his people in the dayes of old He that hath said I will make the Wilderness a Pool of water and the dry lands Springs of water I will plant in the Wilderness a Cedar hath in an eminent degree fulfilled that word before our eyes And we may conclude that the Lord intended some great thing when he planted these Heavens and laid the foundation of this Earth and said unto New-England as sometimes to Sion Thou art my People And what should that be if not that so a Scripture-Pattern of Reformation as to Civil but especially in Ecclesiastical respects might be here erected as a First fruits of that which shall in due time be accomplished the whole world throughout in that day when there shall be one Lord and his Name one over all the earth Upon all which accounts our not answering Divine Expectations concerning us hath the more of evil and of dangerous consequence in it Apostacy in any people is a great provocation to the eyes of Gods glory but much more in a people whom he hath brought under such manifold Engagements to the contrary as is to be affirmed of us in these goings down of the Sun It must be confessed to the praise of his glory that the Lord is not yet wholly gone from us and there are grounds of hope that he will not leave us nor forsake us at least-wise that as yet it shall not be For there are some though alas now but few of the first Generation still surviving who went after the Lord into this Wilderness when it was a Land not sown whose kindness God doth remember and it may be hoped that there shall be Peace and Truth in their dayes It must likewise be acknowledged that as for our Israel the Leaders thereof both in our Civil and Ecclesiastical state are in some measure faithful Scandalous evils when they break forth are born witness against and therefore the Lord will not impute them to the Land where they are committed When did the Lord ever give up any people to utter destruction but that first their Magistrates and Ministers were become corrupt Therefore as yet our Jerusalem shall not become heaps and the Mountain of the Lords house as the high places of the forrest Also the Lord who was still wont as there were any beginnings of Apostacy in his people of old to testifie against them by his Spirit in his Prophets hath raised up those in this Land unto whom he hath given grace and a Spirit of faithfulness to do the like witness the ensuing Sermon which is a token for good Nevertheless there are on the other hand awful Considerations which may cause us to fear vvhat the end vvill be O that vve vvere vvise that vve understood these things We have been and through grace to this day are a people near unto the Lord but in that respect vve have the greater cause not to be secure It is a very solemn Observation vvhich I remember Commenius hath speaking of those once-famous and glorious Churches in Bohemia viZ. That they were nearer to the Sanctuary then other Churches by reason of a more pure Discipline by them owned and professed and therefore when Contentions and Apostacies prevailed amongst them the Lord poured down his righteous Displeasures on them and hath set them forth as sad Examples before other Churches Let us lay it to heart And it greatly concerns us so to do for that there are sad evidences of our departures from the Lord in a woful degree and awful symptomes of the Lords departure from us Churches are not wont to cast off the good wayes of God at once but gradually it may be more generations then one may pass away first so neither doth the God of all patience and grace cast off them but in a gradual way of procedure How many stands did the glory of the Lord make e're it was quite removed never more to return in the former lustre Is it not so with this people In what place can vve behold the glory of the first Temple Do not the ancient men that have seen the first House weep over this If vve be not at all sensible of these things our case is no less desperate then Ephraims vvhen gray hairs vvere upon him but he knew it nor That people vvho vvere newly come out of the hands of those that sometime

people for their recovery Hos 14.2.3 Take with you words and turn to the Lord and say unto him Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously c. Asshur shall not save us we will not ride upon horses neither will we say any more to the work of our hands Ye are our gods for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy I shall take leave now in the Conelusion to propose this general Exhortation unto Reformation more particularly unto those who are especially concerned as Reformers I. I crave leave to Apply my self yet with humility and sincerity as it becometh me speaking in the Name and fear of God unto Those who are or who shall be Established or Re-established this day in Place of Rule and Government among us as our Magistracy Much Honoured that which I have humbly to offer unto You in the Name of the Lord and on the behalf of this People it is this plain yet great word of Exhortation Whereby I do most humbly beseech you to labour in your Place by the utmost and most faithful improvement of your Power Interest Wisdome Grace and Spirit of Government which you have received from the Lord to promote this great Work of Reformation in all the Parts and in all the Degrees of it This Government and so this Magistracy it was through the most wife and merciful Providence of God constituted unto a more direct subserviency unto the Work of Reformation as the great and main design of it in the intentions both of God and of all his faithful People Therefore God Spirited our first Magistracy unto this Work of Reformation and prospered that glorious Work unto a very happy progress under their Civil Conduct of this Religious and Reforming people And now the Place the Power the whole Betrustment of this Reforming Magistracy it is by our Annual Election and so by a Providential Succession devolving upon You and remaineth vested in You. Therefore our eyes our hearts our hopes are under God and as to men much upon You as our Reformers It is our great hope and will be our great rejoicing to see the Plummet stin in the hand of Zerubbabel with those Seven to see a powerful and prosperous progress of the Work of Reformation under your hand labouring therein with a full concurrence of Divine Assistance True it is there are great Mountains standing before you but this is the Word of the Lord unto you Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit if the Lord Spirit you unto the Work they shall become a Plain and although the work be much declined it shall be again revived and the Topstone thereof shall be brought forth with Shoutings and Acclamations of Grace unto the glory of God It hath been a great if not the greatest Honour which God hath pu upon Civil Magistracy and that which addeth true Glory unto its Greatness That he hath made Civil Magistrates Reformers Seldome hath there been any great Work of Reformation wrought either in the Church of old or in the succeeding Ages of it but God hath made Kings Princes and Civil Magistrates his Ministers in it And alwayes in the most flourishing state of the Kingdome of Christ he hath caused the Mountains to bring peace and the little hills righteousness The Church on earth will be in the height and top of its prosperity when the Mountain of the Lords House shall be exalted in the tops of the Mountains when Kings shall be her Nursing-fathers and Queens her Nursing-mothers You have the most encouraging Examples of the most Illustrious Refor mers before you You know this people their present spirit state and way You have been with us at Massah at Meribah and at Kibroth-hattaavah where we have both tempted God and tryed you You may well say of us as Moses did of them I know thy rebellion and thy stiff neck and so you may by a solemn Contestation call Heaven and Earth to record against us as he did sometime against them You are to labour with a very immorigerous rebellious backsliding generation under an extraordinary juncture of Provocations and Temptations Difficulties and Dangers O so much the more I am imboldened in the Name of the Lord with an humble importunity to beseech your Care Constancy Courage and Faithfulness in this your great Duty lest the Ruine of this Self-destroying people should be found under your hand It will be your Glory not onely to be Reformers but Repairers and Restorers to Repair the Breach and to raise up Foundations for many Generations Such as You are in Scripture called not onely Gods but Saviours and Saviours raised up upon Mount Sion we style you so with Modesty and Sobriety in Scripture phrase and sense as still remembring that you must die like men But hereby we understand that you are concerned in betrusted with somewhat that is Sacred you cannot approve your selves to be Gods more then by the Patronage of Religion you cannot approve your selves to be Saviours more then by being Reformers Reformation will be our Salvation We are to chuse you this day for God and so doing we may hope that God will in mercy chuse you for us You being so Chosen both by God and his people are under a double and so indispensible Obligation even by your Election to be for God and for his people that is for the promotion and preservation of that which is the main Interest of God and his people here which is Religion You are to Rule not onely over Men but Christians not onely over People but the People of God therefore you are to Rule as in the fear of God so in a more peculiar manner from God and for God that God may Rule by you that you may be the Ministers of God for our good God hath set you as our Hedge and as our Wall whereby he hath enclosed this his Vineyard and all his precious and pleasant things with us he hath set you as a part of the Defence upon the Glory God doth therefore expect that you should fully Assert and Exert all that Power which he hath committed to you to be improved for the publick Weal of his people especially in and about matters of Religion which is the greatest concernment of our publick Weal Courage and Faithfulness therein is the peculiar Excellency of a Christian Magistracy the regular exercise thereof will be the Strength and Glory of your Government and the Stability and Prosperity of this people under it It is your Concernment to uphold this Government in the full and whole interest and influence of it unto all the Ends of it especially this great and main End of it the Preservation and Propogation of Religion It will be your Commendation which was holy Davids as he was eminently a Type of Christ in the Work of Reformation that the Zeal of Gods house had consumed him The hearts of the sober faithful peaceable and religious people of the Land are towards the Governours

will restore health unto thee I will heal thee of thy wounds We must therefore make our Prayer to God Turn thou us and we shall be turned Jer. 31.18 Heal thou us and we shall be healed Jer. 17.14 7. We must labour in this Work by Faith Those who will be at least Publick Reformers must have a mighty power of Faith 2 Chron. 15.8 He took courage and put away the abominable Idols There must be the confidence of Faith Isa 30.15 In returning and in rest shall ye be saved in quietness and confidence shall be your strength There must be the dependance of Faith Hos 6.1 2 3. Come let us return to the Lord he will heal us he will binde us up he will revive us he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight There must be the hope and expectation of Faith Isa 26.8 in the way of thy judgements have we waited for thee ver 12. Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us for thou also hast wrought all our works in us There must be the strong and powerful intercessions of Faith Isa 62.6.7 He hath set watchmen upon thy walls O Jerusalem Ye that make mention of the Name of the Lord give him no rest untill he establish and make Jerusalem the praise of the whole earth There must be the wrestlings of Faith whereby we may take hold upon God and not let him go but hold him by Faith as a God in Covenant with us as a God All sufficient unto us as a God who hath engaged himself unto us by his Covenant and by all his Promises to pardon us to purge us to convert us to heal us Thus Moses Exod. 32.11 13 32. Thus also the Church Isa 63.16 Doubtless thou art our Father c. Isa 64.8 9. O now if ever is the time for all those who have Faith to improve their Faith unto the utmost for the publick good of this poor people and the prosperity of these Churches Faith will do much in this great work 2 Chron. 20.20 hear me O Judah and all ye inhabitants of Jerusalem believe in the Lord your God so shall ye be established believe his Prophets so shall ye prosper And now O that we understood that it is God himself our Fathers God yea God even our own God our good gracious merciful faithful and All-sufficient God that God who hath nourished us and brought us up as Children O it is he that is now testifying unto us and pleading with us to return unto him by Repentance and Reformation to speak with reverence of God after the manner of men Gods compassions are moving his bowels are sounding his repentings are kindling his heart is turning within him towards New-England towards this poor Generation though he hath many times and many wayes spoken against us yet he doth earnestly remember us still he remembreth the kindness of our youth when New-England was Holiness to the Lord Jer. 2.2 3. Thus saith the Lord I remember thee or as in the Margin For thy sake I remember though we have forgotten that first love and kindness unto God yet for our sakes God doth remember the love and kindness which our Fathers bare unto him the very remembrance of it doth move him to express some love and kindness unto us their Posterity and the remembrance of it hath hither unto stayed the hand of his divine Justice So that he is even ready to fay of us as of them Hos 11.8 How shall I give thee up Ephraim Surely God sheweth himself even loth to give us up And therefore after all our backslidings unworthy sinful shameful carriages evil requitals high provocations of him whereby we have so much grieved and wearied him yea notwithstanding he hath been entring into Judgement with us and departing from us yet he is after all now at last still calling and crying after us Return ye back-sliding children for I am married unto you Return O back sliding children I will heal your back-slidings Jer. 3.12 22. Yea let me say further It is our Lord Jesus Christ himself that calls it is he that stands at the doors of these Churches and knocks as Rev. 3.20 that he may return come in and replenish these Churches with a fulness of his Presence by his Spirit and Grace It is the voice of our Beloved that knocked saying Open unto me my Love c. as Cant. 5.4 O it is Christ who is solliciting for the renewing of our first love unto him as our Beloved yea our Beloved is yet putting in of his hand by the hole of the door i.e. letting in such Influences and leaving such Impressions of his love upon the Souls of his sincere ones as may move your bowels for him that you may be throughly awakened to arise and open unto him and that after he hath waited without so long untill his head was filled with dew and his locks with the drops of the night We are now solemnly put to the question Whether we will yet return to the Lord our God and whether we will yet open unto our Beloved Surely then we have cause most seriously and solemnly to deliberate upon this question Will we repent and do our first works yea or no Will New-England return and Reform yea or no What return shall we make what answer shall we give him what shall we say unto God thus expostulating in a way of grace and mercy with us O shall we be so desperate as to reply with them Jer. 2.25 but thou saidst There is no hope no I have loved strangers and after them I will go Jer. 18.12 And they said There is no hope but we will walk after our own devices we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart Is there no hope are we past hope of Reformation Surely then well may God make his Appeal from us unto the Heaven and Earth and enter into a Controversie with us as Isa 1.2 Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth Micah 6.3 Hear O Mountains the Lords Controversie for the Lord hath a Controversie with his people he will plead with Israel O my people what have I done unto thee wherein have I wearied thee testifie against me I brought thee up out of the Land of Egypt and Redeemed thee out of the house of Bondage I sent before thee Moses Aaron and Miriam Truly so may God plead with New-England O my people what have I done unto thee Have I been unfaithful insufficient unkinde unrighteous ungracious unmerciful unto you Have I ever failed or frustrated your faith hope or expectations Have I ever left you or forsaken you in any time of necessity extremity or danger Have I ever been in jurious unto you q.d. Charging me charge me if you can What iniquity have you found in me Have not I separated and set apart your Fathers as a peculiar people to my self Have not I nourished You and brought you up as Children brought you under my Covenant setled you in the