Selected quad for the lemma: water_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
water_n	air_n	element_n	fire_n	13,062	5	7.1789	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A04160	Iudah must into captivitie Six sermons on Ierem. 7.16. Lately preached in the Cathedrall Church of Christ in Canterburie, and elsevvhere, By Thomas Iackson Doctor in Divinitie, and one of the prebends of the said church.	Jackson, Thomas, d. 1646.	1622 (1622)	STC 14301; ESTC S103336	71,773	128

Gods people and destruction to their enemies Doth there come up an huge multitude of Moabites Ammonites and Mount Seir against King Iehoshaphat let but him proclaime a fast throughtout all Iudah and let them pray and God will make their enemies destroy one another and he and his shall looke on and only sing and praise God Oh Peter is in prison a great calamity is thereby threatned to the Church but if the Church make praiers to God for him the Angell of the Lord came with great power and glory into the prison and brake off Peters chaines opened the prison doores yea and made the iron gate open of it owne accord Loe how the praiers of Gods children are stronger than fetters and gates of iron Yea Christ is gone on high and hath left his Church what is now to be done let them continue in praier and doe their duty after the Holy Ghost commeth as this day witnesseth which and much more that might be said to this purpose doth abundantly confirme your raised Doctrine viz. That Gods faithfull servants by their praiers are powerfull with God to turne away and prevent threatned and imminent judgements to themselves or the Church of God which made zealous Luther say There is nothing omnipotent under God but faithfull praier This commandeth all things in heaven earth hell in all the elements aire fire earth water But it would not be amisse to search that we may know the reasons why the praiers of Gods servants are so powerfull with God and they are principally these two viz. First our praiers are not our owne as the worke of our reason will affections or any thing that is naturall in us but the operation of Gods owne Spirit in us For as for us we know not what to pray as we ought but the spirit it selfe maketh request for us and againe It is the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father In nothing is there so evident demonstration of the spirit of God as in zealous praier To which purpose Gregory hath an excellent saying The Saints receive from God what they oppose to his blowes and as I may say from him it is whereby they lift up themselves against him and whereby they are enabled to resist him Iacob wrestled with God prevailed but it was God gave him the strength so to doe now God cannot but acknowledge the worke of his owne Spirit and therefore we know that whatsoever we aske of the Father according to his will he heareth us and our Saviour hath said Whatsoever yee shall aske my Father in my name he will give it you But the praiers of Turkes Iewes Idolaters Heretikes Infidels Hypocrites are of no power with God because such are not made by the Spirit of God the praiers of a wicked man are abominable and turne into sinne no more accepted of God than if he cut off a dogs necke God hath threatned that though such doe multiply their praiers hee will not heare them The second reason hereof is Gods owne free love and mercy who is pleased to make all the faithfull his favourites so as Haman nor any favourite could ever doe so much with those Monarchs and Kings that have set their love upon them as the least of Gods Saints may doe with the Lord for if earthly Kings be exceedingly offended favourites must give way Hamans face must be covered he shall never see the Kings face any more But though God be angry and have mustred his Armies yea and besieged and battered so powerfull are Gods servants that they can stand up in the breach and by their praiers turne away threatned judgements Oh who would not be such a Kings favourite who cannot deny any thing which is for his glory and their true good The more I thinke on this the more I am astonished that man poore miserable man weake sicke diseased vile and abominable in his owne eies despised of others yet should be such a favourite to the King of Kings Oh the free mercy and love of God! How should the consideration hereof ravish us This being so when the sinnes of a people are full and when the Lord is purposed to bring a judgement upon a people hee commonly maketh way thereunto As an earthly King purposing to doe a thing which he knoweth is displeasant to his favourite who would hinder him in it will make way by sending him out of the way or forbidding him to speake or some way taking him off So the Lord sometimes by taking to himselfe and calling out of this world such as else would stand in the gap whereof the Prophet Esay thus speaketh The righteous is taken away from the evill to come Thus God tooke away good King Iosiah that in his sonnes daies he might bring the threatned evill upon the Land And God tooke good S. Augustine when his City Hippo was besieged by the Vandals that he should not stand in the breach for them Or if he suffer them to live he restraineth them from praier as here he did our Prophet and rebuked Samuel How long wilt thou mourne for Saul seeing I have reiected him from reigning over Israel Or else he takes away the spirit of praier and doth suffer it to be dulled as that they cannot pray fervently as Esay complained that no man did stirre up himselfe to lay hold on God but as it were grew weary As then it is a most comfortable thing to see godly men to live and to see men zealous in preaching praying and serving God as when a storme commeth to see all men betake themselves to their tacklings as the Prophet saith to stirre up them selves to lay hold on God so is it a fearefull thing to see the righteous taken away by death or such as have beene zealous to become cold carelesse and negligent set all at six and seven let others care whom it doth more concerne and so post it over from one to another For hereby God even maketh way to the execution of some great judgement by removing such as might stand in the breach and stop his course And verily herein lieth no small part of our feare that within these few yeeres past God hath taken away a great number of his faithfull servants both Magistrates Ministers and Christian people and howsoever in his mercy he hath left a remnant some few Noahs and Lots Nehemiahs and Esaies that being sensible of Gods judgements doe warne this secure and unthankfull world lift up their hearts and hands with Moses against Amalek make intercession with faithfull Abraham mourne for the abominations of the Land wrestle and weepe with Iacob otherwise we had surely beene made long agoe as Sodome and like to Gomorrha yet alas what are these amongst so many prophane carelesse and secure sinners and how are these scorned and derided disgraced and discouraged how are such for signes

and appearance of Gods anger Who saith Moses considereth the power of his wrath Psal 90. Oh it is a powerfull wrath indeed as Hezekiah and David say It crusheth and breaketh the bones it woundeth and killeth If the wrath of a King who is but a mortall man be as messengers of death what is the wrath of the King of Kings Oh saith David when thou turnedst away thy face I was troubled and Solomon said A wounded spirit who can beare Oh it is the sense of Gods anger troubleth woundeth killeth is the hell on earth at the appearance whereof Gods children are so affected mourne and cry The second reason is because next unto God Gods Church and people are dearely beloved of all the true members thereof as being the people that God hath redeemed with his bloud entred into perpetuall league and covenant with yea the spouse of Christ Ephes 5. 32. and therefore it wonderfully affecteth Gods servants with griefe and maketh them cry when they foresee any judgement or miserie befall them the rather because in the miserie of Gods Church Gods glory seemeth to be stained whereof they are so zealous that rather than that should happen Moses wished to be blotted out of the booke and S. Paul to be separated from Christ Oh how father Eli was afflicted at the report of heavie newes when one told him that Israel was fled before the Philistims his two sonnes slaine and the Arke of God taken It strucke him dead at heart he fell backward from his seat and broke his necke and his daughter in law hearing the same newes presently fell into the throwes of travaile and being delivered of a sonne called his name Ichabod When zealous Nehemiah heard how the people of God were in great affliction Ierusalem broken downe and the gates burnt with fire he could not containe himselfe but sate downe and wept and being the Kings Cup-bearer and as much as his office and life was worth to appeare sad and hee never had beene so before yet now he could not hide it his countenance bewrayed it the King tooke notice of it and asked him Why is thy countenance sad seeing thou art not sicke this is nothing else but sorrow of heart Oh the ruines of Ierusalem lay at his heart which also made the people of God so imprecate themselves If I forget Ierusalem let my right hand forget her cunning yea let my tongue cleave to the roofe of my mouth if I preferre not Ierusalem to my chiefestioy The third and last reason whereof flesh and bloud are more sensible than the two former is That the godly may be wrapped with the wicked in the same temporall punishment and therefore when they see it comming they are much affected and labour to prevent it I say againe howsoever God is marvellous in commonly providing for his children before a judgement come as we shall heare more hereafter yet many times even the godly are wrapped with the wicked in the same temporall punishment and therefore are so affected Shall we condemne all that perished in the waters and all that were consumed with fire God forbid If yee doe yet know that though all were not guiltie of the sinne of making and worshipping the golden Calfe yet it endangered all Let mee alone saith God and I will utterly consume them and blot out their name from under Heaven for Achans sinne Iosuahs armie is put to flight and many slaine for Sauls sinne in killing the Gibeonites there came a famine upon the land for three yeeres together and you know for that great villanie committed by the inhabitants of Gibeah in abusing the Levites Concubine not only vengeance came upon the Citie wherein it was committed but upon all the Tribe of Beniamin because they delivered them not up to be punished but rather would seeme to defend them yea not only upon that Tribe which might seeme justly accessarie but upon the inhabitants of Iabesh Gilead because they came not up to the warre to see Gods judgements executed upon those wicked men Let him that readeth that story consider how farre the judgements of God may extend themselves towards all such as are not affected with Gods anger and doe not to the uttermost of their power endevour to punish sin This was it made all the people of Israel so much afraid when they heard how the Reubenites Gadites and halfe the Tribe of Manasseh had erected an Altar on the other side Iordan and supposed it had beene to offer sacrifice on their Commissioners told them if they did so rebell against the Lord the next morrow the Lord would be wroth with all the Congregation of Israel If then the zeale of Gods glorie and love to Gods people will not move yet the love to ourselves and estates may move us to mourne for sinnes and abominations of the land and to take greatly to heart the tokens of anger and threatnings of judgements because wee also may be wrapped up in them But mee thinketh I heare some say such is Satans malice and bloudie murtherous desire to have Gods judgements generall and therefore dulleth the spirits of Gods children thus Alas what profit will it be for me to mourne and afflict my soule if the judgement come I and mine all we are and have shall be wrapped up in it as well as those who take nothing to heart but live joyfully and therefore let us even eat and drinke and let God doe his will Oh fainting soule be not abused and deceived step up for thy part into the breach to stay Gods wrath seeke the Lord amongst the meeke of the earth for Sions sake hold not thy tongue and for Ierusalems sake give God no rest bee one of his remembrancers day and night in all thy supplications and prayers hold up thy hands against Satan and Antichrist and bee thou to the uttermost of thy power an enemie to all the enemies of the Church and helpe the Lord and his people against them with prayer prease and push of pike if thou beest thereunto called and crie mightily unto God for helpe in this that God would generally open the eyes of all men to see our sins and the judgments thereby deserved that all mens hearts may melt into teares as Iosiahs did in the like case and that all as one man may goe out and meet the Lord by repentance before his decree bee executed upon us Yea if none shall joyne with thee but in this case thou mayest complaine with Eliah that thou art left alone yea so farre from helping as that they doe mocke and discourage thee as David complained For thy sake I have borne reproach and shame hath covered my face when I wept and chastened my soule with fasting that was my reproach I put on sackcloth and became a proverbe they that sate in the gate spake against