Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	abhor_v	judah_n	zion_n	18	3	9.2594	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67047	A word in season. Or Three great duties of Christians in the worst of times viz. abiding in Christ, thirsting after his institutions, and submission to his providences. The first opened, from 1 John 2.28. The second from Psal. 42.1,2. The third from Jer. 14.19. By a servant of Christs in the work of his Gospel. To which is added, by way of appendix, the advice of some ministers to their people for the reviving the power and practice of godliness in their families.	Servant of Christ in the work of his Gospel.	1668 (1668)	Wing W3548A; ESTC R204145	100,163	272

Josiah The ●●ticular judgment which God at his time had given him a prospect of ●as a Dearth as in verse 〈◊〉 dearth ●●rough want of rain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Hebrew ●ord signifieth and so the Text mak●●h it plain verse 3. The Nobles sent their 〈◊〉 ones to the water they came to the 〈◊〉 and found no water verse 4. The 〈◊〉 was chapt there was no rain on 〈◊〉 earth ver 7 8 9. The Prophet ●on the prospect of this-dreadful ●●dgment puts up a fervent prayer to God To which the Lord returns an angry answer verse 10 11 12. 〈◊〉 short he bids Jeremiah pray no more fo● them for he would consume them by sword famine and pestilence As there is an acceptable day a day when the Lord will be found so there is a time when his Spirit shall no longer strive with man his patience shall no longer be tired though Noah Daniel and Job pray they shall but deliver their own souls the decree is gone forth Verse 13. Jerem tells the Lord that there were a breed of Prophets sang another tune to this sinful people and told them they should have peace and neither see sword no● famine Thus Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses Such wretches have been in all ages when the Devil gets 〈◊〉 commission to seduce a people to ruine● the instruments he useth to execute 〈◊〉 are profane ignorant lying Priests Th●● was the way you know Satan to●● God he would seduce Ahab to go an fall at Ramoth-Gilead I will go sait● he and be a lying spirit in the mouth 〈◊〉 his Prophets The Lord tells Jeremy Verse 14. these Prophets were not of his sending they prophesied lies in his Name false visions divinations things of naught the deceit of their own hearts yet without doubt these were the generality of the Jewish Ministers men brought up in the Schools of the Prophets and in the orders of their Church and cloathed with an external call to their works Even under the Law God allowed his people a judgment of discretion and did not oblige them to believe what their Priests said without any examination of it It is possible regular Priests and Prophets may not be sent by God nor ●ught people to look upon them so when they find them speaking contrary ●o the Word of God But Oh! it is a ●angerous thing for the Ministers of truth to become the messengers of lies for us to corrupt the Word of God Dangerous it is to our selves Verse 15. Tell these Prophets saith the Lord By sword and ●●mine you shall be consumed It is dan●●rous for the people If the trumpet ●●ve an uncertain sound who shall prepare himself to the battel If the Ministers try All is well God is well pleased do wickedly still you do God good service in it The interpretation be to the enemies of all good men How easily are people hardened and encouraged in vile courses Verse 16. But shall their Priests words save them No. The people saith God to whom they prophesie shall be cast out in the streets of Hierusalem because of the famine and the sword and there shall be none to bury them their wives their sons and their daughters for I will pour their wickedness upon them The lie of the Prophet never justifieth the credulity of the people God expecteth that his people should search the Scriptures and examine whether those things the Minister speaks be conformable to his Word or no and yield no further assent to what they say then what they find ground for there After this Verse 17.18 God directeth the Prophet to act the person of a mourner before the people upon a prospect of his judgments to come as if they already were come Oh! how loth the Lord is to destroy a people amongst whom he hath once had a Name How shall I give thee up O Ephraim how shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zeboiim Jeremiah knowing he had to do with a gracious God that sometimes repenteth himself of the evil he hath threatned and brings it not upon a people sets himself to prayer as the proper means if any would do to avert the vengeance of God His prayer begins with the words of my Text and holds on to the end of the Chapter In which you have 1. A servent Expostulation Hast thou utterly rejected Judah hath thy soul loathed Zion Why c. 2. A sad representation of the state of the people 1. They were smitten and there was no healing for them 2. Their expectation was frustrated We looked for peace and there is no good and for the time of healing and behold trouble 3. Here is an humble though more general confession We acknowledge our iniquities and the iniquities of our fathers for we have sinned against thee 4. An earnest supplication express'd in several terms and back'd with several arguments closely couched The Terms are 1. Do not abhor us 2. Do not disgrace th● throne of thy glory 3. Remember Break no● thy Covenant with us The Arguments are 1. For thy Names sake 2. We are the throne of thy glory 3. Thou hast made a Covenant with us 4. Thou art he alone can●● give showers the vanitie● of the Gentiles cannot cause rain 5. Lastly here is the Prophets declared resolution to trust in God and wait o● him verse 22. My Text as you see contains only the two first general parts of this excellent Prayer of the Prophet The first I called his fervent expostulation Hast thou utterly rejected Judah 〈◊〉 Hath thy soul loathed Zion Why ha●● thou smitten us and there is no healing for us Hast thou in rejecting rejected 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in reprobating reprobated Judah Those that are critical in the Hebrew observe the word signifies to reject a thing with scorn and disdain as vile and contemptible it is used as in many other places Hos 4.6 Because thou hast re●ected knowledge I will also reject thee Hos 4.6 Lam. 5.22 But thou hast utterly rejected 〈◊〉 Lord saith the Prophet Lam. 5.22 hast thou ●●terly rejected Judah what Judah the remainder of the people the seed of Abraham thy friend which was so ●●ear to thee Judah of which it was ●aid In Judah is God known hast thou ●tterly rejected this Judah Hath thy 〈◊〉 loathed Zion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word used is much of the same signification with the other only it signifieth something more of the affection set against an object it is used Ezech. 16.45 Ezecth 16.45 to ex●ress the alienation of a leud womans ●eart from her husband It is also used ●evit 26.44 Levit. 26.44 a place to which one would think the Prophet here hath home special respect And yet for all that when they be in the hand of their enemies I will not cast them away neither will I abhor them to destroy them utterly and to break my covenant with them for

I am the Lord their God But I will for their sake remember the covenant of their ancestors c. Very like the Prophet eyeing that promise in the Law cries out Hath thy soul loathed Zion Zion there 's a great argument couched in that word All the dwellings of Jacob were dear to the God of Jacob but the Psalmist saith God loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Zion was the name of a Mountain at the foot of which Hierusalem and in it the Temple stood thence it is called the habitation of Gods holiness his dwelling place and it is put for the Church of God Lord saith the Prophet this is Judah against which thine anger smokes hast thou utterly rejected Judah There are but two Tribes and an half left of that people whom thou chosest to draw nigh unto thee hast thou rejected them utterly rejected them In this Judah is Zion thy Temple the place which out of all the earth thou chosest for thy habitation and in which above all thou didst delight hath thy soul abhorred Zion She was as thy Spouse and thou lovedst her doth thy soul now loath her As to the form of the words you see they are by way of Interrogation Interrogations in Scripture sometimes adde force to Affirmations and Negations Hath the Lord as great a pleasure in sacrifices as in obeying his commandments that is he hath not And so some would have it here then the sense is this Lord I know thou hast not utterly rejected Judah thy soul hath not abhorred Zion which is true as to the spiritual part of his people Hath God cast off Israel saith the Apostle God forbid he hath not cast off the people whom he fore-knew But all are not Israel that are of Israel Then the words have in them the force of an argument Lord I know thou hast not utterly cast off thy people thy soul hath not abhor●●● them therefore spare them as to this judgment So he pleads from Gods certain spiritual love to a part of the people formerly for the whole But I must confess I think this not the sense Interrogations sometimes are the language of persons inquiring for further certainty and satisfaction so I take it here as if the Prophet had said Ah Lord is the decree gone forth is there no hope art thou not to be spoken to for this people hast thou utterly reprobated them If not c. It follows Why hast thou smitten us and there is no healing These words have in them an Interrogation and an Expostulation No soundness in the Hebrew Here the Prophet begins to represent unto God the state of the people 1. They were smitten already smitten with a dearth 2. And in Gods purpose smitten with an approaching sword and captivity He owns God as the primary efficient cause Thou hast smitten he addes and there is no healing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word used in the Hebrew signifies health or soundness and healing or cure And so the complaint denotes two things 1. 〈◊〉 universality of the judgment they had no part sound no foundness 2. The desperateness of their distemper they could find no cure no remedy no healing their State Physitians were of no value they had tried but they could no help no healing he Expostulates with God not enquiring the cause Jeremiah was not signorant of cause enough in this people to justifie God in the severity of this dispensation but he speaks like a troubled man who would gladly have had it otherwise with his people if God had pleased 2. He further represents the sadness of this peoples case in this that their expectations were frustrated We looked 〈◊〉 peace and there is no good and for the time of healing and behold trouble There is nothing difficult in the words they only signifie the disappointment which God had given them in their great expectations The words may ●e understood either of the generality of the people who might have presumptuous hopes or of Gods own people who upon that great reformation which Josiah had began look't for peace ●oth were deceived no peace no good came but more trouble more disturbance still I intend not to speak to every Proposition might be drawn from these words I shall only fix upon one and that founded upon the words in the latter part of the Verse We looked for peace and no good came for the time of healing and behold trouble Prop. It pleaseth God in the wisdom of his Providence oft times to give people great disappointments in their expectations of peace and healing as to their outward concerns You may if you will take it in these two branches 1. People are very prone in evil times and disturbed times to look for good to look for healing 2. It pleaseth God oft times to give them great disappointments in their expeciations Trouble instead of peace● wounds instead of healing I say 1. It is natural to us in evil and disturbed times to look for good and to loo● for an healing It is true this Proposition is not universally verified in the Sons of men and the thing depends though not wholly yet in a great measure upon the sutural disposition There is much truth in that Maxim of Physitians and Philosophers Mores sequuntur humores Where any persons are more enclined ●o melancholly and that humour more prevails persons so enclin'd are more disposed to fears and jealousies and suspicions Where some other humour prevails in the body the person is more enclined to hope and presume so as you shall generally find men and women thus divided Some are more naturally disposed to fear the worst to be suspicious and jealous of every thing others ●●e naturally enclined to hope the best and to promise all good to themselves and the most of people either from this Natural cause or some Moral ●ouses for they also have some inscience on us are very prone to look ●or good for peace and healing and this ●s not only ordinary to the more ignorant and sinful sort of men but even ●o Gods own people The wicked cry ●●ace Peace when there is no peace to ●●e wicked saith the Lord. The Mother of Sisera looks out at the window when her Son was dead with agnail struck through his temples and cryes Why is his Chariot so long incoming Have they not sped Have they not divided the prey The false Prophets daub with untempered mortar Three hundred false Prophets spake good to Ahab and bid him go up to Ramoth-Gilead and prosper Nor are the better and wiser sort Gods own dear people exempted from this infirmity Even David saith in his prosperity I shall never be moved nor are we only vain in prosperity to promise our selves a stability in that state but in a time of adversity we are as ready to promise our selves a quick deliverance and freedom from it When the children of Israel were carried captives into Babylon they would needs believe

point we defend against the Papists All Protestants grant it as to matters of Doctrine why they should not also agree that it is so as to matters of Worship and Discipline I can not tell As to acts of Worship they all yield it too as to circumstances of humane actions in Divine Worship viz. such as no humane actions as such can want none can deliberately contend for it The Question is concerning Ceremonies or if they will call them so circumstances of Worship In very deed it will be a nice distinction and such as can abide no test to distinguish betwixt an act of Worship and a circumstance of Worship I mean such a circumstance as is not appendant to the action from its nature and necessarily but affixed to it by men without any necessity But not to digress here into that dispute The more strictly a Gospel Institution is administred according to the letter and examples of Christ and his Apostles in Holy Writ the more there is of God in it the more of Divine presence and influence is to be expected in it and from it The more plain and Scriptural a Sermon is the more authority it comes down with upon the conscience The honest heart saith to the quaint and oratorial Preacher to the quoter of Fathers and Schoolmen to justifie what he saith Paul I know and Jesus I know The Old Testament I know and the New I know but for Augustine and Hierom and Aquinas who are they Possibly worthy persons in their Ages but it is the word of God not their dictates which command the conscience For your high phrased Preachers they signifie nothing to the conscience the hearers as Luther was wont to say intelligunt ●●bum arte super se compositum ideo nau●●nt they loath the word thus can●●ied up in the language of men puffed 〈◊〉 in the conceit of their own parts and desirous to seem some thing when indeed they are nothing but folly and vanity There is abundance of ●reaching is good for nothing but to ●oil good Christians stomachs to hea●ing and to make them loath their food by reason of the fantastick sauce if you would keep your appetite to Ordinances keep the purest and most lively administrations of them 4. Fourthly Remember the dayes of old the years of former times I doubt not but many of you have heretofore tasted how good the Lord hath been you have tasted it in a Sermon convincing you of sin working faith in you bringing a word in season to your souls that hath even ravished your souls with the joy of it You have enjoyed much of God in a Sacrament in a few hours of prayer Oh let not the memory of those good dayes to your souls go out of your hearts and if you remember them you cannot but long for more of them It is almost impossible to imagine that a soul that ever in earnest tasted of God in Ordinances should not cry out Lord evermore give us that bread those that grow weary of Divine Institutions are such as never experienced the goodness and excellency of them 5. Watch against the prevailing of lusts and corruptions It is ordinarily experienced in the natural body A soul stomach hath no appetite or very little and teachy noxious humours in the stomach blunt the edge of it to its proper food It is as true to the soul suffer pride vanity of Spirit any spiritual or sensual lust to prevail upon you you will soon lose your appetite to spiritual things Keep your soul clean from these things and your appetite will be sharp 6. If you would keep your appetite to Divine Institutions improve them when you have them Indigested meat corrupts the stomach and takes off the edge of it The reason for this is This thirst after Ordinances as it is first caused from an apprehended suitableness in them to the souls needs so it is encreased by the souls experience of the truth of that apprehension This it never hath without an improvement of the Institution I mean such a ruminating upon it such a digestion and application of it as the soul may suck out the juice and vertue of it and find that a Sermon is not to his soul as a tale that is told nor a Sacrament as a meer morsel of bread and a draught of Wine Would you keep alive your thirst after Divine institutions when you have heard a Sermon go sit alone think of what you have heard what truth you have been instructed in and call to your souls to remember and believe it what sin you have been convinced of and call again to your souls to consider it and to avoid it What duty you have been admonished of and call to your souls to arise and do it 7. Lastly Beg this great blessing of God You beg or should beg an appetite to your bodily bread much more to your spiritual food Christians I doubt not but in these times of spiritual scarcity you beg Sermons of God you beg Preachers of him who is the Lord of the Harvest In this you do your duty but let not this be all Beg stomachs for your selves as well as mouths for us I am afraid it was too great a decay of this spiritual thirst that brought on Gods dreadful voider and brought the Wells of Salvation to so low a state as you see them If you could by begging of God recover your appetite again I doubt not but he who feedeth the young Ravens when they cry would also hear and feed you and in his Fatherly Providence so order it that you should not have Scorpions instead of Fish and Stones instead of Bread Nor as the Spouse be smitten and wounded Can. 5.7 and have your vail taken from you by pretended Watchmen whiles you are sick of love and ask them in your distress Saw ye him whom my soul loveth FINIS Jer. 14.19 Hast thou utterly rejected Judah Hath thy soul loathed Zion Why hast thou smitten us and there is no healing for us We looked for peace and there is no good and for the time of healing and behold trouble s THE words I have read are agreed by all to be the words of the Prophet Jeremiah he was one of those Prophets who prophesied last in Judah before their carrying away into the seventy years Captivity of Babylon chap. 1.2 He prophesied in the days of Josiah and in the days of Jehoiakim and so to the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah which was about forty years He began to prophesie in the thirteenth year of Josiah Jer. 1.2 and prophesied eighteen years during the reign of Josiah then three months during the ●●ign of Joachaz or Jeconias and eleven years during the reign of Je●iachim a second son of Josiah and three months more during the reign of ●●hoiachin and eleven years during the ●●ign of Zedekiah At what time he ●ophesied what we have in this cha●●er recorded is not expressed proba●●y before the death of

professors who are turned out the right ways of God The cla●●● of an ill-tongu'd world are so lov● that I am so charitable as to many 〈◊〉 to believe that in the midst of the● rage they are thus far justifiable 〈◊〉 lieving that they ought to do many this against those whom they hear so ●●ported of These are nearer pardon great deal than the Apostate is He h●● known the way of righteousness he ha● walked in it his conscience tells h●● that those whom he thus deserte● and possibly persecuteth are more ri●●teous than he that they are such as desire nothing but herein to exercise himself to keep a good conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men That there is nothing to be found against them but in the matters of God That their ways are more ●oly more righteous than the ways of ●thers and that nothing but the lust 〈◊〉 his own heart hath enticed him out of them or can intice any from them who hath any thing of the reason of a man or Religion of a Christian yet he ●bideth not in them but embraceth a present world in defiance of his known duty What shall the end of this man be 3. Consider how tenacious others are of their sinful and vain courses Jer. 2.10 11. Pass you over saith God by the Prophet the Isles of Chittim and send unto Kedar and consider diligently and see if there be such a thing Hath a nation changed their gods which yet are no gods but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit Give me leave to allude to it Pass ye over to the Mahumetans whose Idol is a sordid person whose course and so●● of Religion is a bundle of nonsense an● blasphemy yet will not they forsa●● their profession Send to the blind ●●pists who have nothing to say for they superstitions but They believe as 〈◊〉 Church believeth yet how rarely is o●● of them proselyted Look up among the blinder sort of Proteltants w● have got some forms of Religion 〈◊〉 they can neither give themselves 〈◊〉 others a rational account of what they believe or practise yet how true is the generality of them to their blind devotion Shall the knowing Protestant only be the reed which every wi●● will shake Did not the very foundation of your Religion allow you 〈◊〉 judgment of discretion a liberty to prov● all things requiring you only to ho●● fast that which was good Were you like others forced into your practice or did you upon deliberation and weighing of principles and practices chuse the way wherein you chose to walk as that which was most conformable to the will of God Have you a better evidence for the contrary now Bring forth your strong arguments Have you one but what is drawn from your impatience of suffering your ambition our covetousness of filthy lucrè c See amongst the Heathen there be such thing to be found Oh let it not be 〈◊〉 that those who worship they know 〈◊〉 what are yet more sure to their ●osession than you who know what 〈◊〉 do and that salvation is in that ●●y wherein you have walked Fourthly Consider what it is that you 〈◊〉 done The Prophet tells you 〈◊〉 2.13 You forsake the fountain of ●ing waters and dig up to your selves ●ken cisterns that will hold no water ●od is the Fountain of living waters the creatures are cisterns that will ●●d no water The pure Ordinances God are fountains of living water ●●d is the Spring Ordinances are the ●●ntains which this Spring filleth ●he waters are the Graces of Gods ●irit communicated to the souls of ●s people in and by his Ordinances ●he Ordinances are the wells of sal●●tion out of which our souls draw ●●e water of life If these wells be kept pure the souls of Gods people are treshed by them and grow fat in 〈◊〉 use of them Going on from strength strength till they appear before God Sion If they be corrupted according the tincture they have received the are more or less dangerous There is fountain you know that is kept clear how pleasant how wholsome are streams of it There are fountains 〈◊〉 which men have thrown mire and 〈◊〉 how unwholesome are their water how unpleasant are they to the 〈◊〉 how unsavoury to the taste Have you forsaken God to embrace the wo●● in the credit honours profits of 〈◊〉 You have forsaken the fountain of ●●●ing waters He must needs be so 〈◊〉 the fountain of all good he in whom live move and have our being have digged up to your selves cisterns ●●ken cisterns that will hold no water You will find it so when ever the providence of God brings you to be a third if ever your conscience akes if ever you have a thought rise up in arms again●● you if eyer you come to be within view of the grave and that you 〈◊〉 do one day if ever you come to have a prospect of hell you will find all the treature but a cistern a broken cistern that will hold no water I have heard of an Emperour brought to that digress that he cried out A Kingdom for ●● cup of water O take heed that you ●e not another day heard crying out will give all my credit all my honours all my places of trust and profit 〈◊〉 an hours peace of conscience for ●ne smile from my angry God for one ●rop of water to cool my tongue You ●aye forsaken the pure Ordinances of ●●od for the inventions of men you have forsaken the fountain of living wa●●s you have digged up cisterns that ●ill hold no water Here 's the name ●● the means of grace but where 's the ●ung What presence of God do you ●●d in them What strength do you trive from them What sweetness do ●●a taste in them Where 's your for●er spiritual joy peace satisfaction 〈◊〉 it not an Image in your bed in●●ad of an Husband a dream in your ●●uls from which when you rise up ●ou are still an hungry in stead of a feast fat things Fifthly O that you would consider 〈◊〉 it hath been with your souls since you 〈◊〉 your defection To this God calleth 〈◊〉 back-sliding people Jer. 2.14 〈◊〉 16 17. Is Israel a servant Is he 〈◊〉 home-born stave Why is he spoiled 〈◊〉 young Lions roared upon him and yelled they laid his land waste his cities 〈◊〉 burnth without an inhabitant Also 〈◊〉 children of Noph and Tahapanes 〈◊〉 broken thy head Hast thou not proc●●● this unto thy self in that thou hast 〈◊〉 saken the Lord thy God when he led the by thee way It may be worth the 〈◊〉 flection for you to consider how G●● hath dealt with you as to what you have most proposed to your self mean the getting of the world whether in the profits or honours or 〈◊〉 dit and reputation of it If the ba●slider gets not this he gets nothing and let me tell you it is not ordinary 〈◊〉 the providence of God to