Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	earth_n	great_a	let_v	6,859	5	4.2631	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42091	The fast: As it was delivered in a sermon at St. Margarets in Westminster, before the honorable House of Commons upon Wednesday the 12th. of June 1661. being the day appointed by His Majesty and the Parliament, for a solemn humiliation upon the late abundance of rain, and the danger of famine, and pestilence likely to ensue thereby. / By Tho: Grenfield A.M. Preacher to the Honorable Society of Lincoln's-Inne.	Grenfield, Thomas.	1661 (1661)	Wing G1937A; ESTC R30320	22,523	38

more particularly contribute to the judgment we now fear you may see Jer. 23. 10. where we are told that because of Oaths Curses the land mourneth There is a sort of ground which husbandmen do call weeping ground and 't is barren and good for little we have such now whole Counties lie bathed in the tears of Heaven and that because of Oaths for if by them we pull God out of Heaven and tear him in pieces between our teeth if we use his name so vainly as if there were no such being 't is no marvell if the Clouds tumble down upon us when we leave none in Heaven to govern and hold them up He that thinks or lives as if there were no God shall be cared for here as if there were none Thirdly what think you of the sin of Adulterie whether this may not beget a Famine Jer. 5 7 8. When I fed them to the full they then committed Adultery and assembled themselves by Troops in the Harlots houses they were as fed horses in the morning every one neighed after his neighbours wife shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord and what is the visitation for these things you shall find it verse 17. a famine this that we fear though coming another way yet from the same sin They shall eat of thine harvest and thy bread which thy Sons and Daughters should eat they shall eat of thy flocks and thy herds they shall eat of thy Vines and thy Fig-trees c. and it is a pun●shment both just and proper if thou borrow strength from the creature to squander it away upon unlawful beds 't is fit that God should take the creature from thee If a stallion grow unruly tye him up to an empty rack Fourthly what think you of Intemperance a sin that brings forth this suspected judgment both physically and judically too Physically 't is no marvel if there be a scarcity when we fill our Tables to such a height to feed a few as will suffice for many committing a miracle contrary to that of Christs who fed 5000 with five loaves and we feed but five with some scores of dishes And judicially this judgement lies much at the door of this sin to wit the Luxury of man for if you marke it this plague of Rain hurts not the grasse so much as the grain the horse and oxe are provided for well enough nay the Country man tells me that Cattle are like to be gainers by 't it is because they are temperate but 't is the Luxurious and debauched part of mankind that are like to be the losers in that Wheat and Barley are the greatest sufferers in this deluge and he that told me that the Barrels of Beer and the Buts of Wine were seen to swim about the Cellars here in Town made me presently think It was to punish our Drunkennesse For as a Father spils the Wine and breaks the Cup when he sees his child but in danger to be fluster'd so God does language it in this judgement that it was our Luxury that brought it by destroying the Tooles and Utensils of that sin Fifthly and lastly I will mention one sin more which I fear hath contributed somewhat more than the rest to this judgememt and that is our publick defayler in the duties mentioned in the Text The want of Justice and Charity and indeed to tell you the truth I chose this Text and have spoken all this while upon it onely to introduce what followes and give me leave to be very plain and home with you There is a party yet alive in England if they be alive and indeed 't is as much as they are that have been and do still own the name of true English-men for the rest live only by an Amnesty and are English-men but of one year old but these I am speaking for are true old English men and great sufferers for being so in that they live and are let pass not onely without reward but restitution not only without respect of others but the recovery of their own Astrologers have amused the World of late with reports of strange and wonderfull Conjunctions never were there such strange and monstrous couples as are now seen marching together in England Loyalty and rags Loyalty and lice Loyalty and hunger Loyalty and a prison Poor Loyalty the flower and credit of every good Christian how hardly art thou used to be unequally yoked with such as these his complaint in the Gospel about wages was nothing in comparison to that which these can make Matth. 20. 12. These last have wrought but one hour and thou hast made them equal unto us which have born the burden and heat of the day but these men can say We have born the burthen and heat of the day and have not received a penny for it but they received it who did nothing if not worse than nothing 'T is a smart and a true one of him that said It seems a hard piece of justice that the price of publick freedom when restored should be the ruine only of such as did assert it 'T is the fashion of this Town to give you once a week their bill of Mortalitie and to instance the several diseases by which they dyed but I find not this disease mentioned So many dyed with the sense of a d●s-regarded loyalty With a little pains I could present you with a black Bill of at least a hundred Gentlemen that dyed in and about this Town by no other disease but this and want and yet as Job though they saw no deliverance they still held fast their integrity and carryed it with them to be regarded and rewarded in another World I could shew you whole Cart-loads of old shooes and mouldy bread all the houshold-stuff that is left to these poor Gibeonites I could tell you from a very good hand of a stout Royalist that like Lazarus came into our Hall carefully gather'd up the parings of bread which not only the men but the mice and dogs had left for our City dogs are so sinely fed that they scorn to eat that which he was glad to find And 't is this endangers a famine and provokes it there is a signature in the very judgment like Adonibezeck Judges 1. 7. As I have done so God hath requited me so God goes about this way to make you and them all of a piece by tasting the same sauce with them and by letting you to feel what 't is to be in want methinks t is the very language of Heaven If you wil not help them the Earth shall not help you God will reduce your fair fields and fatned selves to the same leannesse with them and then 't will be in fashion to want when great men wear it Let me give you my just fear that as the present unkindnesse if not injustice to this sort of men is very great so I do believe you will never thrive neither in Creatures nor in

but my application and your practise You are here mett in the house of God and what to do to fast and for what the suspicions and fears of a famine like to come upon us from our late abundance of Rain threatning to spoil the Fruits of the Earth 'T is very well that any thing will drive us home to God but yet it is observ●ble how early we are in this duty we fast for a judgement that is not yet upon us further then the fear and suspition of it It would be much more ingenuous to be early and quick in fasting for the sins of the Nation as we are for the dangers of it those I am sure are ripe enough and ready for the sickle we are much beyond the Suspicions of sin we are under the Commissions of it and yet as yet we have had no fast for these It would very much beautifie the beginnings of this blessed revolution and fortunate change of things we live under to begin with such a fast as this but it seems we love our bellies very well and as some followed Christ for the loaves so we fast for fear we shall want the loaves we fast for fear that we shall fast But since it is so that the work of this day stands stated to my hands upon this bottom it will be convenient before I can direct you how to be rid of this judgement to give you my judgement whence it comes For assuredly 't is no brutum fulmen no arrow shot at rovers no accident slipp'd out of the womb of chance without any signification in it no no as God is the highest Reason so all that he does comes from it and is guided by it his very judgements themselves are reasonable judgements and therefore though many things come forth from God the causes of which shall not be known untill the day of the revelation of his righteousness yet in the generall he bids us believe and would have us know that he hath not done without cause all that he hath done Ezek. 14 23. Well then a reason for this judgement there is and what is it to tell you that it is Wickednesse in the general is to fling an whole loaf at your head and not to cut it for you but yet the Psalmist tells us so Psal 107. 34. He turneth a faithfull land into barrenness for the wickednesse of them that dwell therein and as God told Adam Gen. 3. 17. that the ground was cursed for his sake that is for his sin so if our ground now be like to undergoe a Curse it is for our sins And for what sins Certainly for some sins above others for as the Clouds send down no other waters then what the Earth sends up so there is something comn up from us before God that has drawn down our present judgements on us There have been divers interpretations past on this late abundance of Rain The Star-gazer charges it upon some notable configuration in the Heavens but yet as our late Astrologers confessed they could not read our late revolution and blessed return of the King in any conjunction of the Planets but gave it clearly up to be a Miracle so if you now examine their Almanacks you shall not finde a word fore-telling all this foul weather which makes me think it is more then a naturall it is a judicial effect And therefore others that are no good friend to our present welfare will adventure to make a malicious glosse upon the present judgement and whisper it at least in corners that it is for the Kings coming in for our importunate desires of his return and for our great rejoycings at his presence And they observe with some pleasure to themselves the great Rain that fell at the first treatment of his Majestie in the City the great Rain and Thunder upon the day of his Coronation and the great Rains that have continued ever since and they make bold with Scripture to prove this to be the cause of the judgement from 1 Sam. 12 17. where Samu●l tells the people thus I will call unto the Lord and he shall send thunder and rain that ye may perceive and see that your wicednesse is great which ye have done in the sight of the Lord in asking you a King But I question not but this interpretation is too private and wide enough Therefore to come nearer home What may the sins be Truly the Nation stands now guilty of such sins that I could find in my heart rather to pray for a famine then to pray against it For as fasting in the way of a physicall operation is good to cure many diseases so there be many sins especially those of pride and luxury which famine would be an excellent means to remove by removing the food and fomentations of them What our sins are may be read in the very face of the Judgement that as the Hetrurians of old erected a Colledge of wise men to be their fulminum interpretes their Expositers of Thunder-bolts and as Physicians now by the signature they observe in a plant will guess shrewdly what it is wholsome for and hurtfull to So there is a signature in the present judgement and by the Features and Complexion that is in it we may Calculate its Nativity and judge whence it comes First then what think you of the sin of Sabbaoth-breaking a sin now more frequent impudent and unpun●sh●d then in those late black days in which greater sins were counted none at all This blessed day is now as much mangled and broken as once the Lord and Master of it was and as the Poet deriding the immoderate dresses of a girle told her that she was minima pars sui so is this day so divided and loaden with affairs and sins that it is now become the least part of it self and you may seek for a Sabbaoth in a Sabbaoth and yet not find it And whereas it is an holy day now other days are innocent to this those we spend upon our callings this upon our sins and now do but see how this judgment is fitted to this sin Lev. 26 34. where Moses tells the people that the land should enjoy her Sabbath and lie desolate because the men of the land will not keep their Sabbaoths therefore the land it self shall keep hers and such a Sabbaoth is now l●ke to be kept for this year by a great part of our land Secondly next what think you of the sin of swearing a sin whereby the devil cheats a man more then by any by being damned for it and getting nothing by it never did bullets fly thicker in the hottest battel then oaths now in this wicked City you cannot passe the streets but your ears will be box2d by an oath at every step and 't is a wonder to me if these arrows which are shot bolt up right and levell'd point-blanck at God do not recoyle upon the heads of those that shot them but how this sin does