Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	according_a	feed_v	zion_n	26	3	8.9046	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35689	The ruine of Rome, or, An exposition upon the whole Revelation wherein is plainly shewed and proved that the popish religion, together with all the power and authority of Rome, shall ebbe and decay ... written especially for the comfort of Protestants and the danting of papists ... / published by Authur Dent ; to which is added an epitome of Reverend Mr. Brightman his Exposition upon the Revelation.	Dent, Arthur, d. 1607.; Brightman, Thomas, 1562-1607. Exposition upon the Revelation.	1644 (1644)	Wing D1057; ESTC R29350	192,764	462

one of a City and two of a Tribe and will bring you to Sion and I will give you a Pastor according to my heart which shall feede you with knowledge and understanding Now then if a good Minister bee so great a blessing of God and so peerelesse a Pearle how great is the sin of those which contemne them and tread their Ministery under foot as vile and nothing worth Our Lord Jesus saith of all such He that despiseth you despiseth me Luke 10.16 Let those scoffers and scorners therefore take heed how they despise Christ for assuredly he will not long put it up at their hands If any man demand a reason why all these Epistles are specially sent and directed to the Angels or Pastors of the Churches seeing Iohn before chap. 1.11 is commanded to write them to the Churches of Asia I answer that he writing to the Pastor excludeth not the Churches but in them or under them he writeth to the whole Churches as plainly it appeareth in the conclusion of every Epistle when he saith Let him that hath an eare heare what the Spirit saith to the Churches Then that which is spoken to the Angel of the Church spoken to the Church The reason why the speech is specially directed to the Pastor of every Church is because the good or bad estate of the Church for the most part dependeth upon the Ministers For commonly we see it commeth to passe Such a Pastor such a People Such a Shepheard such Sheep Such a Husbandman such husbandry And as the Prophet saith Hos 4.9 Like Priest like People For we may observe in all these Epistles that where the Minister is commended the people are commended and where the Minister is discommended the people are discommended also So that they stand and fall sinke and swimme together As concerning the Person from whom these Epistles are sent it is Jesus Christ who is very gloriously described of his divers qualities in the entrance of every one of these Epistles First in the Epistles to the Church of Ephesus it is said These things saith hee that holdeth the seven Stars in his right hand and which walketh in the middest of the seven Candlestickes Secondly in the Epistle to the Church of Smyrna These things saith he that is first and last which was dead and is alive Thirdly to the Church of Pergamus Thus saith hee which hath a sharpe sword with two edges Fourthly to Thyatira These things saith the Sonne of God who hath eyes like a flame of fire and his feet like fine brasse Fifthly to the Church of Sardis These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God and seven Stars Sixtly to the Church of Philadelphia it is thus said of Christ These things saith he that is holy and true which hath the key of David which openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth Lastly to Laodicea it is thus said These things saith Amen the faithfull and true witnesse the beginning of the Creatures Now then we doe plainly see how gloriously Jesus Christ is described of his severall properties in every one of these Epistles and what honourable and magnificent titles are given unto him and to all this end to move attention and to worke in us a reverence of so great a Personage that wee might more seriously regard and deepely ponder the things which proceed from so great a Majesty For we see and know by common experience that almost every mans words are heeded and regarded according to the opinion and reverence which is had of his Person Sith then that every one of these Epistles fronted with this great authority Thus saith the Sonne of God Thus saith Christ Thus saith Alpha and Omega therefore we ought to give diligent heed to the things herein contained So like wise we read in the Hebrewes that after the Holy Ghost had very notably described the Person of Christ and extolled him farre above the Angels and all other creatures he giveth the use of it in the beginning of the second Chapter saying Therefore we ought to give more diligent heed to his doctrine And thus much concerning the Exordium or entrance of these seven Epistles touching the person to whom and the Person from whom these Epistles are sent Now it followeth to speake a word or two of the generall proposition contained in these words I know thy works We read in all these Epistles how the Sonne of God praises some of the Churches and dispraises others commends some Pastors and discommends others Now he that will praise or dispraise must especially looke to this that he be upon a good ground and therefore Jesus Christ before he enters into any praysing or dispraysing commending or reproving doth first protest that he knoweth their workes and is privy to all their particular actions yea their very thoughts and therefore cannot erre or be deceived in his censures True it is indeed that men may erre in their opinions and censures of others because they know not mens hearts and with what affections things are carried Men I say may praise or dispraise too much or too little But Jesus Christ whose eyes are a flame of fire and which searcheth the reines cannot faile one jot nor erre a haires breadth as we say either in commending or discommending and therefore he stoppeth their mouths at the first dash so as they can have nothing to reply when he saith I know thy works I know well enough what thou art and what thou hast been I am not deceived in thee I know thy sitting downe and rising up and am accustomed to all thy wayes And this briefly of the proportion The narration as is aforesaid contained in the matter of the Epistles consisting of praises and dispraises admonitions reprehensions threats and promises Touching the first we finde that some Churches are highly commended others wholly discommended others partly commended partly discommended As for example The Pastor and people of Smyrna and Philadelphia are generally commended for all things and discommended for nothing there is no fault found with them that is no grosse fault as in others for they were not without common corruptions and infirmities The Minister of Smyrna was a very rare and excellent man although a poore man to the world ward For Christ saith thus unto him Apo. 2.9 I know thy poverty but thou art rich that is rich in grace and the manifold gifts of the Spirit Thou hast done great service to the Church Thou hast imployed thy gifts to the good of many Thou takest great paines in the Ministery and art greatly blessed in thy labours for thou hast an excellent flock a notable good people and therefore I cannot but greatly commend both thee and them The Minister of Philadelphia was also a very worthy and notable man For although his gifts were not so great as some others yet was he very painfull and faithfull in a little of whom it is said Thou hast a

it up at their hands but will up and maintain the womans cause and bear her out against them all nay he will make ready his bow that he may shoot off and make his arrows drunk in the bloud of her and his enemies and wil whet his glittering sword that he may sheath it in the heart of Antichrist and all his adherents Therefore now let both the great beasts and their fire look to themselves for here comes in one that will knock them all down and lay them in the dust that they shall never rise up again For this cause now at length S. John in a vision seeth a Lamb stand upon mount Sion that is Christ present with the Church For mount Sion was an antient figure of the Church as it is written Mount Sion lying north-ward is faire in situation Psal 48.2 it is the joy of the whole earth and the city of the great King And again The law shall goe forth of Sion Mich. 5.2 and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem Moreover Saint John seeth here with the Lamb an hundred fourty and foure thousand that is the particular members of the Church putting a certain number for an uncertain and specially alluding to the sealing of the twelve tribes of Israel as before hath been shewed For it might be demanded where the Church was when all the world wondred and followed the first beast And also when all Chap. 7 4. both small and great rich and poor received the mark of the second beast Saint John answereth that even then in the midst of the heat of persecutions God had his hid and invisible Church whom Jesus Christ did protect and preserve even in the very flames of persecutions being alwaies present with them and amongst them as he said to his disciples a little before his bodily departure from them Loe I am with you even unto the end of the world And here he is said to stand upon mount Sion with his hundred fourty and four thousand And it is added that this number of Gods faithfull elect children had his Fathers name written in their foreheads that is they did professe and practise the doctrine and religion of God their Father only utterly renouncing and abhorring the worship religion of the beast For the Fathers name in this place is set opposite to the mark of the beast to signifie that as the worshippers of Antichrist received his mark so the true worshippers of God received his brand which is his Spirit and the fruits therof whereby they were perfectly discerned from those which had the beasts mark So then it cleerly appeareth from this place that God preserved many thousands of his true worshippers even in the daies of the great Antichrist when there seemed to be very few or none remaining upon the earth as it was in the dayes of Elias In vain therefore do the Papists ask us where our Church was before Luthers time sith the holy Apostle here stoppeth their mouth and telleth us plainly that Christ had his little flock in the wildernesse even then when it was in greatest streights and as we say driven to the walls And therefore visibility is no sound note of the Church as the Papists do most ignorantly dispute For it is a fond and absurd kind of reasoning to say there is no Church at all because it doth not visibly appear as if a man should reason that there is no moon in the heavens because sometimes there is none seen as in the change And I heard a voice from heaven as the sound of many waters and as the sound of a great thunder Verse 2. and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps Here is set forth how his company of true worshippers doe magnifie and praise God for his great mercies towards them First John heareth a voice from heaven that is an heavenly voyce or the voice of the Church praising and glorifying God For we have heard before Chap. 8.1 that Heaven in this booke is sometimes put for the Church upon the earth and the reasons thereof Wheresoever therefore the Church is assembled to hear the word and to pray and give thanks there is a voice from heaven or an heavenly voice Now this voice is compared to three things first to the sound of many waters Secondly to the sound of a great thunder Thirdly to the voyce of harpers harping with their harps It is likened to many waters because it proceedeth from sundry sorts of people of sundry nations countries and kingdoms as the word waters is taken afterwards in this Prophecie Chap. 17.1 Chap. 17.25 It is compared to thunder because the prayers and invocations of the true Church are as loud in the eares of God as any thunder-crack It is compared to harpers harping with their harpes both because their spirituall worship and service is as sweete unto God as any musick unto men as also because all Gods faithfull people doe tune together among themselves and in their worship as the strings of a wel-tuned instrument of musick or as many musicians playing together which make a sweet harmony and most melodious ditty Verse 3. And they sang as it were a new song before the throne and before the four beasts and the Elders and no man could learn that song but the hundred fourty and foure thousand which were brought from the earth Now it sheweth how this holy society of the faithfull do continue their praying and glorifying of God they are not weary of well doing but hold on constantly in the course of Gods worship having new songs of thanksgiving in their mouthes and serving God daily with renewed affections as men inflamed with the zeale of Gods glory and all this they do performe before the throne before the foure beasts and the Elders that is in the presence of God and his Angels and his holy congregation And no man could learn that song but the hundred fourty and four thousand that is none of the reprobates and ungodly worldlings could inwardly feel and understand this spirituall worship but only the elect to whom it is given to understand the secrets of God and the mysteries of his Sons kingdome These are they which are not defiled with women Verse 4. for they are virgins these follow the Lamb wheresoever hee goeth these are bought from men being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouthes was found no guil Verse 5. for they are without spot before the throne of God This holy company are not defiled with women that is with grosse and divers sins or rather with idolatrous pollutions For they are virgins that is chast worshippers of God which are not polluted with the defilements of Antichrist These follow the Lamb Christ whithersoever hee goeth They hear his voice they professe his worship and obey his doctrine they abhor Antichrist they follow not the beast nor receive his mark They are bought from