Selected quad for the lemma: land_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A65306
|
Paramuthion, or, A word of comfort for the church of God by Thomas Watson ...
|
Watson, Thomas, d. 1686.
|
1662
(1662)
|
Wing W1135A; ESTC R38519
|
17,807
|
46
|
in the midst of his people therefore the most violent storms of persecution are but as the beating of the wind against the Sails which makes the Ship go faster and brings it the sooner to its desired Haven Vse 2. Use 2. Exhort Let us labour that as God is in the midst of his Church so he may be in the midst of our hearts 1. Branch 'T is little comfort to hear that God is in the midst of his Church unless we find him in the midst of our hearts As he who when he was drowning saw a Rainbow What am I the better saith he that the World shall not be drowned if I drown So what are we the better that God is in the midst of his Church by his providential presence if he be not in the midst of our hearts by his sanctifying presence It should he our care not only to have Christ with us but in us Col. 1. 27. Christ in you the hope of glory This will be a Cordial when we are dying what though death be in our body if Christ be in our heart This should be our wisdom and ambition not only to have the presence of God with us but the Spirit of God in us Gal. 4. 6. God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts 2. 2. Branch If God be in the midst of his Church to uphold and preserve it then let not God people give way to distrust and despondency let them not fear the Enemies of the Church Psal. 46. 1 2. God is our refuge and strength therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed and the mountains carried into the midst of the Sea If we should be in new straits and exigencies let us not say we shall be undone God will set all his Attributes on work for his people His wisdom shall be to guide them his power to defend them his holiness to sanctifie them his mercy to save them To fear the creature is to undervalue God When Antigonus over-heard his Souldiers saying How many their enemies were he steps in suddenly with these words And how many do you reckon me for This word God is in the midst of her should beat down unbelief and put to flight a whole Army of fears that are apt to arise in the heart It is high ingratitude either to murmur or distrust after so many signal mercies and preservations as we have received But because the hearts of Gods own people are ready to be over-powered with a spirit of fear I shall therefore prescribe these five antidotes against fear 1. 1. Antidote God will have a Church upon earth Mat. 16. 18. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it Neither the Serpents subtilty nor the Dragons fierceness shall overturn the Church The Ship in the Gospel was tossed because sin was in it but not overwhelmed because Christ was in it Be of good comfort Christ is in the Ship * Sacro-sanctuÌ„ Ecclesiae emblema arcturus qui in coeli arce constitutus septem stellarum radiis fulgens semper versatur nunquaÌ„ mergitur Exod. 3. 2. The Angel of the Lord appeared in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush and the bush burned and was not consumed An embleme of the Church Militant this bush burns but is not consumed for God is in the midst of her Ecclesia potest opprimi non supprim The Church of God may be oppressed not suppressed Cain put the knife to Abels throâ—t and ever since the Churches veins have bled but she is not so weak but she can stand upon her legs The Church Universal is not extinguished Not but that the Church of God may suffer in several parts of it Caution For as by virtue of the Covenant made with Noah the whole earth shall never be overflown with a deluge yet there may and hath been such inundations since that several parts of the earth have been swallowed up with water So the Church Universal cannot be extinct yet it may suffer in some parts and branches of it as the seven Asian Churches had their golden Candlesticks removed 2. 2. Antidote The suffering of any particular Church is for their good Jer. 24. 5. Them that are carried away captive of Iudah I have sent into the Land of the Coldeans for their good God makes use of the wicked for the good of his Church He sometimes suffers his people to be cast out in the open field and lets the wicked pour waters of affliction upon them but he is all this while laying his people a whitening Dan. 12. 10. Many shall be tried and made white the wicked are flails to thresh off the husks of his people files to brighten their graces leeches to suck out their noxious blood Tully makes mention of one Phereus whom his enemy running at with a Sword accidentally opened his impostume and so cured him * Iully lib. 3. de natur deorum The enemies of the Church only cure the impostume of pride Isa. 31. 9. Gods fire is in Zion This Fiâ—e is not consuming but refining The Church is Gods House * Domus Dâ—i splendida Aug. the enemies think to break down the Walls of this House but they shall only purge the floor They think to crucifie they shall only clarifie Gods Church and take it off from its fulsome lees Thus God turns all the sufferings of his people to their good He stretcheth the strings of his Voial to make the musick better 3. 3. Antidote The more Gods Church is opposed the more it encreaseth It receives its augmentation by its diminution Exod. 1. 12. The more they afflicted them the more they multiplied Witness the ten Persecutions in the time of Nero Dioclesian Trajan c. Sanguine fundata est ecclesia sanguine crevit Sanguine showres have alwayes made the Church grow the more The more the Torch is beaten the more it flames * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost. Julian therefore did forbear to persecute the Christians not out of pity but envy because they grew so fast * Greg Naz. Religion is that Phenix which hath alwayes revived and flourished in the ashes of holy men The Church of God is a Palm-tree with this motto Percussa resurgo The more weight is laid upon it the higher it riseth Ecclesia dum premitur floret dum caeditur vivit * Cassiodor 4. * 4. Antidote When the Church of God is lowest mercy is nearest The sorer the pangs the nearer the deliverance Isa. 33. 9 â—0 The earth mourns Lebanon is ashamed Sharon is like a Wilderness now will I rise saith the Lord now will will I be exalted now will I lift up my self If you go to the Thames and observe the ebbing of the water when the ebb is at the lowest an high tyde is ready to come in So when the Church of God seems to be at a dead low water the
spring-tyde of deliverance is nearest When Dioclesian raged and things seem'd desperate soon after was the golden time of Constantius * Calvisius in Chronol 'T is usually darkest a little before morning 5. 5. Antidote Though the Church of God may seem sometimes to be in the wain yet when she loseth ground in one place she gains in another as when the fire is quenched at one end of the house it breaks out at the other Or as the Sun when it leaves our Hemisphere goes to the Antipodes At Rome there were two Lawrel Trees when one withered the other flourished An emblem of the Church Militant when it seems to wither in one place it shall revive and flourish in another All this may comfort us concerning the Church of God and may be as Physick to kill the worm of Unbelief and Fear in our hearts God is in the midst of her Therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed If God be in the midst of his Church let 3 Branch us do two things 1. Let us take heed of driving God from us There are wayes whereby we may drive God from the Nation As when Bees are in the Hive and bring their honey you may drive them out with smoak So sin is a smoak that will drive God out from a people Isa. 65. 3 5. A people that provoketh me to anger these are a smoak in my nose In particular there are Nine sins which drive God out of a Land and when he marcheth out judgement marcheth in 1. Idolatry 2 King 17. 12 18. For they served Idols whereof the Lord had said unto them Ye shall not do this thing therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight Idolatry is a sin which breaks the Marriage-knot and makes the Lord disclaim his interest in a people Exod. 32. 7. Thy people have corrupted themselves Before God called Israel HIS PEOPLE but when once they had defil'd themselves with Idolatry then God disclaims them he doth not say to Moses MY people but THY people as if he had quite discarded them and cut off the entail of mercy Take heed of Idolatry yea and of Superstition too which is a Bridge leading over to it Superstition is an intermixing our fancies and inventions with divine institutions 't is an affront offered to God as if he were not wise enough to appoint the manner of his own worship 2. Rapine and Oppression Jer. 12. 7 8. I have forsaken my house my heritage is to me as a speckled bird Or as a bird of prey * Uncis unguibus tanquam digitis in praedam involans Jun. When Gods Dove becomes a Vulture and is given to ravening and cruelty staining her feathers with blood God will then break up House and be gone 3. Uncleanness Hos. 7. 4. They are all Adulterers as an Oven heated by the Baker They who should have been Temples of the Holy Ghost are hot Ovens burning in lust * Urbs est jam tatae Iupanar Vers. 12. I will spread my net upon them That is I will spread the net of my judgements over them and they shall be taken in the Net 4. Covetousness Jer 6. 12. I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the Land for from the least of them even to the greatest every one is given to Covetousness When men smell rank of the earth when they love the Exchange better than the Temple and are more for the earthly Mammon than the heavenly Manna God will take his leave and be gone God is a Spirit he can no more converse with an earthly people than a Prince can converse with a Swine 5. Apostacy Jer. 6. 28. They are all grievous revolters Reprobate silver shall one call them because the Lord hath rejected them This made God remove his golden Candlestick from the Church of Ephesus because she had left her first Love Rev. 2. 4. And if apostacy will make God depart from a people then how can we expect he should stay long with us Where is that zeal for God and love to truth as formerly We live in the fall of the leaf There are many who courted the Queen of Religion when she had a Jewel hung at her ear but when she is in her night-dress and her Jewels of preferment are pull'd off now they desert her Lots wife was turned into a pillar of salt for looking back If all who look back should have this judgement inflicted on them we should hardly go in the streets for meeting pillars of salt Merchants tell us of divers Ships cast away at Sea I believe there have been of late more shipwracks at Land than at Sea I mean such as have made shipwrack of faith and a good conscience The golden head is degenerated into Iron a more faeculent and impure mettal Desinit in piscem mulier formosa supernè 6. Weariness of Gods Ordinances Amos 8. 5. When will the New Moon be gone and the Sabbath Vers. 11. Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that I will send a famine in the Land not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water but of hearing the Word of the Lord. God hath fed this Nation with the finest of the wheat even the bread of life we have had the Cream of Ordinances God hath come down to us in a golden shower of blessings the Vintage of other Nations hath not been so good as the gleanings of England but have not we said What a weariness is it Mal. 1. 13. Is not our sin Sermon-surfeiting though we have liked the dressing we have loathed the food we have said Who is this Moses and what is this Manna and may not we fear God is now coming to punish us for this sin When we have lost our stomacks God may cause the cloth to be taken away and would not that be dismal How sad is it for any Nation when their Seers are blind In what a condition is that people who have husks given them instead of Manna and Musick instead of food Weariness of the Gospel forfeits the Gospel If God sees that Sanctuary-blessings bear but a low price he will remove the Market 7. Perjury Jer. 11. 10. The house of Israel and the house of Iudah have broken my Covenant therefore thus saith the Lord Behold I will bring evil upon them which they shall not be able to escape and though they shall cry unto me I will not hearken unto them * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys ost When a people play fast and loose with God breaking their Solemn Vows and Obligations whether Sacramental or other this is a God-provoking sin it will make the Lord go away from a Nation and though they cry after him he will turn a deaf ear God will pass by infirmity but he will punish Treachery 8. Hatred of Reformation When God calls to a people by his Word Spirit Judgements but they regard him not he will pack up