Selected quad for the lemma: land_n
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A61574
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Occasional sermons preached by the Most Reverend Father in God, William Sancroft ... ; with some remarks of his life and conversation, in a letter to a friend.
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Sancroft, William, 1617-1693.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing S561; ESTC R35157
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79,808
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212
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be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God will not make a final End now No a Remnant shall be left as the shaking of an Olive-tree and as the Gleaning Grapes when the Vintage is done Chap. xxiv 13. Nor shall they be only preserved but restored too The Lord God will in time wipe away every Tear from off all Faces and at last swallow up this Death too in Victory Chap. xxv 8. Hee 'l turn their Captivities and rebuild their City and their Temple too and all this shall be as it were Life from the Dead as the Apostle calls it so miraculous a Re-establishment at a Juncture so improbable when they are destroyed out of all Ken of Recovery that it shall be a kind of Resurrection and so like the great One that 't is described in the very proper Phrases of that both by the other Prophets and by Ours too a little below the Text Thy Dead shall live again My dead Bodies shall arise Awake and sing ye that dwell in the Dust c. And then which is of nearest Concern to us and to ou◠present Business the Prophet directs the Remnant that should escape how to behave themselves under so great a Desolation and he contrives his directions into a threefold Song that they may be the better remarkt and remembred tun'd and fitted to the three great Moments of the Event The first to the time of the Ruine it self Chap. xxiv where having set before their Eyes the sad prospect of the holy City and House of God in Flames When thus it shall be in the midst of the Land saith he there shall be a Remnant and they shall lift up their voice and sing for the Majesty of the Lord saying Glorifie ye the Lord in the Fires V. 15. And this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Song of Praise The second is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Song of Degrees or Ascensions fitted to the time of their Return when All shall be restor'd and rebuilt again and that we have Chap. xxvii 2. In that Day sing ye unto her A Vineyard of Red Wine I the Lord do keep it I will water it every moment lest any hurt it I will keep it Night and Day The third of which my Text is a principle strain belongs to the whole middle interval between the Ruine and the Restauration in this xvi Chap. In tha◠Day shall this Song be sung in the Land of Iudah We have a strong City Salvation will God appoint for Walls and Bulwarks c. As if he had said Though our City be Ruin'd yet God is still our dwelling place our Fortresses dismantled and thrown down but Salvation will he appoint us for Walls and Bulwarks Our Temples in the Dust but God will be to us himself as a little Sanctuary And this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Song to give Instruction teaching them and in them us how to demean our selves while the Calamity lies upon us sc. to make God our Refuge ver 4. to wait for him in the Way of his Judgments ver 8. and in this 9. ver earnestly to desire him from the very Soul in the Night in the Darkest and Blackest of the Affliction to seek him early when it begins to dawn towards a better Condition and in the mean time as 't is in the Text to improve all this severe Discipline as he intends it for the advancing us in the knowledge of Him and of our selves and of our whole Duty For when thy Iudgments are in the Earth the Inhabitants of the World will learn Righteousness A Text you see that supposeth Judgments in the Earth or upon a Land as its Occasions and so suitable to our sad Condition A Text too that proposeth our Learning as its End and Design and so suitable one would think to our Inclination too The Character and Genius of the Age we live in is Learned The pretence at this day so high and so universal that He is No-Body now who hath not a new Systeme of the World a new Hypothesis in Nature a new Model of Government a new Scheme of God's Decrees and the greatest Depths in Theology We are many of us acute Philosophers that must not be disputed us most of us grand Politics and Statesmen too All of us without exception deep Divines will needs be wiser than our Neighbours but however wiser than our Teachers and Governours if not wiser than God himself A kind of Moral Rickets that swells and puffs up the Head while the whole inner Man of the Heart wasts and dwindles For like the silly Women Disciples to the old Gnostics while we are thus ever Learning pretending to great Heights and Proficiencies we come never to the Knowledge of the Truth the Truth which is according unto Godliness In fine amongst so many Learners they are but few that learn Righteousness And therefore God himself here opens us a School erects a severe Discipline in the Text brings forth his Ferulas when nothing else will serve the Turn For he hath indeed four Schools or rather four distinct Forms and Classes in the same great School of Righteousness the last only that of his Judgments express in the Text but the rest too suppos'd at least or covertly implied For whether we look upon the latter Clause of the proposition The Inhabitants of the World will learn We find our selves there under a double Formality As Learners and as Inhabiters As Learners first and so indued with Faculties of Reason Powers of a Soul capable of Learning what is to be learned stampt and possest with first Principles and common Notions which deeply search'd and duly improv'd and cultivated might teach us Much of Righteousness And this is Schola Cordis in Domo interiori the School of the Heart God's first School in the little World within us Secondly as Inhabitants of the great World which is God's School too as well as his Temple full of Doctrins and Instructions Schola Orbis in which He takes us forth continual Lessons of Righteousness Seque ipsum inculcat offert Ut bene cognosci possit and that both from the Natural World and from the Political whether Schola Regni or Schola Ecclesiae Or if we return to the former Branch of the Text When thy Iudgments are in the Earth This when they are supposeth another time when they Are Not in the Earth and that time is the Time of Love as the Prophet speaks the Season of Mercy So that Thirdly here 's Schola Miseri-cordiarum the School of God's render Mercies inviting us gently leading and drawing us with the Cords of a Man with the Bands of Love And lastly when nothing else will serve here 's Schola Iudiciorum the School of God's severe Judgments driving us to Repentance and compelling us to come in and learn Righteousness A provision you see every way sufficient and abundant for our Learning were not we wanting to our selves But alas