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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	great_a	pass_v	time_n	1,706	5	3.1051	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81174	The white stone: or, A learned and choice treatise of assurance very usefull for all, but especially weak believers. By Nathanael Culverwel, master of arts, and lately fellow of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge.	Culverwel, Nathanael, d. 1651?	1654 (1654)	Wing C7573A; ESTC R231750	66,496	141

widening and enlarging their affections opening their mouths like a dry and thirsty Land that waits for some satisfying showers and would fain be filled 3. Times of employment are sealing times When God intends a Christian for great and eminent service he first makes his goodnesse passe before him he sheds some of his love into his heart which doth both constrain him to obedience and encourage him in it his smile makes the soul go chearfully about his work his presence gives life and vigour to a performance The servants of God wait on him fix their eyes upon him look whether he gives them a propicious glance they walk in the light of his countenance they follow the direction of his eye they won ' move unless he breath on them Moses won't stir without assurance of his presence All the clusters of Canaan shall not entice him he had rather dwel with briars and thorns in the wildernesse with the good will of him that dwells in the bush He had rather be in a barren and desolate and howling wildernesse then in a pleasant and fruitful Land in a delicious Land without the presence of his God He knows there is no sweetness in Canaan without him there is more sting then honey in the Land of Promise unlesse ●e be there and Canaan it self will prove a wildernesse if he ●ithdraw himself The beams of his gracio●● Presence these gild a place they can turn a desert into a Paradise and can make a prison glorious The love of God in Christ it is attractive and magnetical and drawes the soul along when it is once toucht with it this will draw Moses to the Land of Promise this will carry him through all difficulties God sheds some of this love into Moses his heart and then he goes on with chearfulnesse and alacrity And so it was with his successour Joshua God calls him to an honourable imployment to be the Shepheard of his little flock to guide and govern his people Israel Now how does he prepare him for so great a work why he strengthens him and heartens him with a promise of himself with assurance of his love Fear not but be of courage I am with thee Thou hast my presence thou shalt have my blessing I have done much for thee and I will do more for thee be faithful in my service and be couragious and do not doubt of the love of God towards thee Thus God when he called Abraham to that great expression of obedience in the sacrificing of his Isaac he first warms his heart with his love and seals up the Covenant of grace to him he spreads before him ample and comprehensive Promises I am thy God All-sufficient I am thy Buckler and thine exceeding great reward and this will bear up and support Abraham though the staffe of his old age be taken away and by his own hands cast into the fire And this was his usual dealing with the Prophets when he sent them with great and weighty messages He first reveals his goodness to them before he reveals his minde by them he assures them of directing mercy of protecting mercy that shall bear them company that shall go along with them and this puts a generous undauntedness upon them that they fear not the frowns of men nor the threatnings of men nor of the greatest of men this makes Jeremy to set his face like a flint and Esay to lift up his voice like a Trumpet to tell Israel their sins and Judah their transgressions And this is that which prepares the Martyrs for their sufferings God tempers and allayes that Cup he drops some of his goodness into it and sweetens it to them He first sets his seal to their souls before they set their seal to his truth he diets them with the hidden Manna and gives them before-hand the White Stone as a sure pledge of victory What is it but this that makes them devoure torments and come to them with an appetite 't is this that softens the flames and turns them into a bed of Roses 't is this that fills their souls with joy and their mouths with praises that makes them more chearful in their sufferings then their Saviour in his for they usually have the face of a reconciled God shining out upon them which was wholly withdrawn from him when he cryed out my God my God why hast thou for saken me 4. Praying times are sealing times The same spirit that indites the Prayer seals it up When Hannah had put up her Prayer 1 Sam. 1.18 the text sayes expresly that her countenance was no more sad As 't is the great priviledge of assurance That Christians may then with confidence cry Abba Father so also 't is a great means to Assurance The hearing of prayers is a mighty strengthening to faith and the strengthening of faith does strongly tend to assurance Besides Christians may pray for assurance they may be importunate for a glimpse of his face for one beam for one smile and his bowels won't let him deny them Hence you shall finde it that such as are most frequent in Prayer are most blest with assurance Praying Christians have much intercourse and communion with their God And thus there may be a national kinde of assurance I say a national plerophory when God shall poure out a spirit of prayer and supplication upon his people and they with united and concentricated abilities shall besiege the Throne of grace there is no doubt there can be no doub● but at length he will yield up such a mercy to his praying People 5. Times of outward exigencies are sealing times 2 Cor. 4.16 Though our outward man decay yet our inward man is renewed dayly that feeds upon hidden Mannah a precious restaurative for a fainting Christian Manna you know was rained down in the wilderness and when the Israelites provision failed them then Manna was rained down When the water-pots are filled up to the brim then was the water presently turned into wine and so this hidden Mannah is provided for sad and cloudy conditions We except only the case of total desertion when the soul has not the least light shining in upon it which is the severest judgement that a true Christian is capable of but in other distresses especially outward and temporal distresses he does reveal himself more immediately to them And though the creature frown yet he will smile upon them Beleevers they are the friends of God and 't is no part of friendship to forsake them in the saddest times St. John when a banisht man in the Isle of Pathmos then God shewes him that glorious Revelation Paul and Silas when in prison then brim-full of joy which breaks out into Psalms of praise In the fiery trial as there is some scorching so there is some light too And God does prepare his people for the seal of the spirit by thus melting and softening their heart for the softer the heart is the clearer will the print of his

Moon under thy feet O let them scramble for the world that have nothing else to live on Pray give room to the green Bay-trees to spread themselves abroad but don't thou lose thy fatnesse and sweetnesse to rule over these Art thou sure of Heaven and wouldst thou fix thy Tabernacle upon earth Is it good for thee to be here or would'st have any more then the light of Gods countenance is it not enough that thou art sure of happinesse is not a Fountain enough for thee why wilt thou drink in muddy streams and thou that art filled with the love of a Saviour canst thou tell how to spend a thought upon the world is not there more beauty in a Christ then in a Creature is not he the fair'st of ten thousand away then with adulterous glances for why shouldst thou embrace the bosom of a stranger 3. Times of assurance they should be times of watchfulnesse and more accurate walking with God To sin against revealed love is a deep and killing aggravation To sin against light is too too much but to sin against love is a great deal more this heightened Solomons Idolatry 1 Kings 11.9 that he turned from the God of Israel which had appeared to him twice What wilt thou with Jeshurun wax fat and kick and kick against bowels too To provoke God in a wildernesse is not so much as to provoke him in a Paradise What could he have done more for thee then he has done and what couldst thou have done more against him then thou hast done and wilt thou still requite him thus wilt thou provoke him with Manna in thy mouth Does he give thee the sweet clusters of the Land and dost thou return him wilde grapes that which is the strongest engagement to obedience dost thou make it an encouragement to sin art thou so willing to dash thy joy to lose thy peace And O how will it please the powers of darknesse to see thee abuse a beam The Devil has several designs against the welfare of a soul First if it were possible he would keep thee from any grace at all But secondly if he cann't do that he would keep thee from strength of grace from growth in grace he would break the bruised Reed and he would quench the smoaking flax But then if he can't prevail here neither then in the thir● place he would keep thee from sense of grace in a sad and cloudy condition he envies thee one beam one smile one glance of his eye But then if the riches of Gods goodness do so run over as that he will give thee a sense of his love then fourthly in the last place he would not have thee abuse his grace and turn it into wantonness But when God has planted thee in so happy a Paradise don't thou listen to the whisperings of the Serpent Thou that art sealed by the holy spirit don't attend to a lying spirit The devil that great plunderer of souls would fain rob thee of thy Jewels of thy joy and peace and happinesse but do thou hide them in a Christ in the wounds of a Saviour and take heed of blotting thine Evidences thou that art a Child of light be not ruled by a Prince of darknesse If God give thee a sense of his love walk more ●tedfastly walk more accurately with thy God 4. Times of assurance they should be times ●f inviting and encouraging others in the wayes ●f grace Thus the Psalmist when his Cup over●owes he calls others to taste of it O taste and ●e how gracious God is that ye may trust in him ●hou mayest now bring a good report upon the ●nd of Canaan thou mayest shew them the ●odly fruits of the Land that were cut down 〈◊〉 he brook Eshcol Men look upon Religion as a rigid and austere thing that comes to rob them of their joy they must never have a smile more they must never have a Summers day after it but thou canst tell them of the sweetness and deliciousness that is in the wayes of grace thou canst assure them that all the wayes of wisdom are pleasantness thou canst satisfie them that grace does not mean to take away their joy but only to refine it that it does not mean to put out the light but only to sn●ffe it that it may burn brighter and clearer There is no such joy to be found in the wayes of sin there is no such joy to be extracted from the Creature no the sweetest and purest honey 't is sucked from 〈◊〉 flower of Paradise Spiritual joy 't is the mo●● clarified joy I and 't is solid and massy joy beaten joy like beaten gold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I and 't is lasting and durab●● joy All the Creatures make but a blaze but t●● least spark of this 't is immortal Can there be 〈◊〉 sweeter Sabbatisme of spirit can there be 〈◊〉 happier composednesse of soul then to be provided for eternity to be sure of heaven 〈◊〉 happinesse and glory to have the revealing 〈◊〉 Gods love the displaying of himself the bea●ings out of his face is not the least appeara●● of his love more worth then a world are 〈◊〉 the gleanings of spirituals better th●●●he v●●tage of temporals me thinks an assured Christian like a Galeb or a Joshua should be able and ready to confute all the false intelligence of the spies and to answer the weak objections that they bring against the Land of Promise Awake O sluggard and arise there is no Lion in the way or if it be it has honey in it There are no Sons of Anak or if there be before Israel even these mountains shall become a Plain 5. Times of assurance they should be times of store 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now treasure up beams heap up light store up hidden Mannah To be sure this Mannah won't breed worms Then thou mayest confidently applaud thy self Soul take thine ease thou hast goods laid up for many yeares Happy thou if this night thy soul be taken from thee Storing up of former evidences is a good provision against a cloudy day 6. Times of assurance should be times of breathing after full possession The espoused soul should long for the Nuptials for the full consummation of its joy and by a heavenly gradation it should ascend in its thoughts Is there such sweetnesse in one cluster of Canaan what shall there be in the full vintage is there such pleasantness in a prospect of the Land upon the top of Mount Pisgah what happiness shall there be in enjoyment of the Land is there such glory in a beam of Gods face what shall there be in an eternal Sun-shine is there such a sparkling lustre in the White Stone what then shall there be in all those Pearls that garnish the foundations and make up the gates of the new Jerusalem is there so much in the preface of glory what shall there be in the inlargements and amplifications of it is there so much in the Aenigma

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I taught him to foot it on the wayes of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I drew them with the cords of a man all gentle and perswasive sollicitations with bands of love I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws and I laid meat unto them The yoke of bondage the soul was under God freed the soul brought him to an easie pleasant yoke God has a special care of tender plants when Israel was a tender vine O then he fenced it and hedged it and shone out upon it c. Now Christ is thus pleased to reveal his love to unbosom himsel unto the souls of young Converts for their greater incouragement in the wayes of grace At the first step to heaven he gives them a viaticum If after the soul had been steept in legal humiliation and possest with fears and terrours and amazements compast with Clouds and now at last it has been drawn by a mighty work to receive a Saviour If after all this it should have no Sun-shine it would droop and languish and be ready to pine away it would be very unfit and unserviceable the wheels of the soul woud move heavily God therefore oils the wheels poures the Oil of gladnesse into the soul And now it moves like the Chariots of Aminadab with a nimble spontaneity Christ begins to flourish through the Lattices le ts in some of his love into the soul I and gives it a sense of this love too and this constrains it to obedience sets the soul a longing for more of this love and for more sence of this love so it will never leave longing til it have a full fruition of it in heaven this is Gods method this is the usual progress of grace in the soul And hence you may see why young Converts are usually so active in the wayes of Religion so forward and vehement O they have fresh apprehensions of the love of a Saviour what an eminent alteration he hath wrought in them how they are raised from death to life O they can tell you long stories of his goodness what great things he hath done for their soul So that their affections are raised there is a flush of joy the soul runs over and knowes no banks no bounds Thus God does many times seal up the work of grace in the soul and gives a satisfying light at the first conversion but yet I cannot say that this is alwayes so for there are diversities of workings and grace sometimes wrought in the soul after a more still and undiscernable manner as we shall have occasion to speak more hereafter 2. Sacrament-times are sealing times I speak of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper for as for those secret breathings of the spirit upon Infants in that other Sacrament of Baptisme they are altogether unsearchable and past finding out Now in the Lords Supper you have the new Covenant sealed up unto the soul the soul has not only his graces increased but they are printed clearer that seal of the spirits does print a Christians evidences with a clearer stamp You have plaIn and visible representations of the love of a Saviour and you have the sense of this love powred out into you A Christian feeds not only upon sacramental bread but upon hidden Manna too has tastes of that love that is sweeter then wine Here 's a feast of fat things The soul is satisfied as with marrow sweetnesse spiritual refreshments like fat things they are sweet and they are filling too yet not like the fat things that have a cloying fulsomness in them no these carry a delicious relish with them such as the soul takes present complacency in them and has a longing appetite for them The soul never nauseats the feast of fat things but the more it feeds upon them the more it hungers after them Now the two grand ends of this Sacrament in reference to a Christian are 1. Growth of Grace 2. Sens● of Grace 'T is a Sacrament of Augmentation by which a new-born-infant-soul may grow up to its just proportion and full stature in Jesu● Christ and 't is a Sacrament evidencing this hi● condition to the soul Christians come hithe● ad corroborandum Titulum the smoaking fla● comes hither to have some light and the bruise● Reed comes hither to have some strength th● worm Jacob crawles into the presence of a Saviour and is sent away with an encouraging voice Fear not thou worm Jacob. Many a tender babe in Christ has stretcht out his weak and trembling hand to lay hold of a Saviour and has found vertue coming out from him Many a thirsty soul has come breathing and panting after the streams of water it has opened his mouth wide he has filled it The longing affectionate soul has come with vehement and enlarged desires has found full expressions manifestations of his love towards her Many acloudy soul has come hither to see if he could spie out one beam has bin sent away brighter then the Sun in all its glory You that come hither with the most ample and capacious souls tell us whether you be not filled up to the brim whether your cup don't overflow O what heavenly entercourse is there between you and a Saviour what pleasant aspects what mutual love-glances what smiles and blandishments Do not you finde in your own souls a full Paraphrase upon the book of the Canticles that book of Loves He comes with an earthy and drossie soul that is not raised and advanced with such glorious mysteries And yet my meaning is not as if every true Christian that had received this Sacrament must needs have assurance No we know 1. Beleevers themselves may receive unworthily as the Christian Corinthians when Paul tells them they came together for the worse and not for the better he speaks it of such as were truly in the state of grace Thus he concludes his discourse You are chastened of the Lord that you might not be condemned with the world And thus the soul may go from a Sacrament with lesse comfort then it brought thither 2. Many that have much joy and sweetness from a Sacrament real and spiritual joy I and strength and vigour too yet it may be have it not in so great a proportion in so high a measure their cup is not so brim full as that it should reach to assurance All that do truly partake of these heavenly delicacies yet don't go away equally satisfied Some have but a taste which is enough to cherish them others a full draught which doth mightily enliven them So then all we say is this those Christians that have assurance have it usual at these times and some Christians that have wanted assurance yet here have found it which should strongly engage all to come hither with great and solemn preparation quickening and exciting their graces improving all present strength breathing and longing after these pleasant streams