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	heart_n	zion_n	35	3	9.0169	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B08803	Several discourses concerning the actual Providence of God. Divided into three parts. The first, treating concerning the notion of it, establshing the doctrine of it, opening the principal acts of it, preservation and government of created beings. With the particular acts, by which it so preserveth and governeth them. The second, concerning the specialities of it, the unseachable things of it, and several observable things in its motions. The third, concerning the dysnoēta, or hard chapters of it, in which an attempt is made to solve several appearances of difficulty in the motions of Providence, and to vindicate the justice, wisdom, and holiness of God, with the reasonableness of his dealing in such motions. / By John Collinges ...	Collinges, John, 1623-1690.	1678 (1678)	Wing C5335; ESTC R233164	689,844	860

in gold and in silver and in brass and in the cutting of stones to set them and in cutting of wood to make any manner of cunning-work and God put into his heart to teach others Hence it is we see such a strange improvement as we call it in gifts and parts in persons called of God to offices of the magistracy or ministry That once fixed in those relations there is as is said of Saul another spirit given them they are quite other men than they appeared to the world before The Actual Providence of God attending persons in new works and new relations with new spirits new gifts and abilities And indeed this working of Providence seemeth so reasonable that the contrary cannot be supposed without a blasphemous impeachment of the wisdom of God Which of us unless surprized by our own ignorance or over-born with some foolish lust or passion of our own would set any person about our work that is in nothing fit for it Indeed our reasonable nature will not allow us wilfully to commit such a mistake to suppose ignorance or any bias of passion in God were but to blaspheme Who can without blasphemy say God hath called a fool to be a magistrate or a coward to be a soldier or an ignorant person that cannot speak or not speak sense to be a Minister It is true Gods gifts are inequally distributed according to the good pleasure of his own will some have greater abilities for magistracy and ministry than others have and so are more eminently qualified for their work but there are none called of God to any employment but are in such a competent measure qualified for it and the principal acts of it that they are able to do that work and I say but to suppose the contrary concerning God were either to suppose that God was surprized with some ignorance or biassed with some passion or did that which no reasonable creature would do But here ariseth a question Quest How then comes it to pass that we see in the experience of all ages persons employed in works and relations by no means nor in any degree qualified for the work of their relations cometh this without God Is there any thing which escapeth his Providence I answer We are now speaking not of the permissions of Providence but the efficiencies of it Persons at works and in relations which they are in no measure fit or qualified for are great evils to the world and these evils are not in Nations and Cities without Gods permission and sufferance The short of it is this That sometimes it is in the heart of God to bless and prosper a people and to vouchsafe his presence amongst them when he doth so he doth accordingly adequate and proportion means in order to that end For Magistrates if he doth not give them men according to Gods own heart such as David and Solomon yet he gives them such men whom he hath fitted with a sutable spirit to their work that whatever they be as men are good governours men of valour and courage men of prudence and conduct that know how to manage affairs of state When God hath a contrary design to chastise and afflict a people and to punish men for their sins he suffers such to come in either by election or succession as are no ways fitted for the duties of those great relations So for Ministers when God designeth to grant and to continue to a people his presence and blessing he gives them faithful Ministers and such as are able to teach others to reveal the whole Counsel of God to them to speak a word in season to the souls that are weary to bind up the broken in heart c. But when he hath designs to chasten and scourge any people he suffereth such to get into the Ministry as are described Isa 56.10 Blind and ignorant watchmen dumb dogs that cannot bark sleeping lying down to slumber greedy dogs which can never have enough shepheards that cannot understand c. you have this Isa 1.25 26. And I will turn my hand upon thee and purely purge away thy dross and take away thy tin that is I will return in mercy to thee and what followeth And I will restore thy Judges as at the first and thy Counsellors as at the beginning afterward thou shalt be called the City of righteousness and so for the Ministry Jer. 3.14 15. God ver 14. saith Turn O back-sliding children saith the Lord for I am married unto you and I will take you one of a City and two of a tribe and will bring you to Zion and I will give you pastors according to my heart which shall feed you with wisdom and with understanding So again Jer. 23.3 4. vers 3. And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countreys whither I have driven them and will bring them again to their folds and they shall be fruitful and increase and I will set up shepheards over them which shall feed them and they shall fear no more nor be dismayed neither shall they be lacking saith the Lord On the contrary when God is in a course of vengeance and judgment against a people when God hath forsaken a people he suffereth a ministry that prophecy lyes but sends them not Jer. 27.14 15. For they prophecy a lye unto you for I have not sent them saith the Lord yet they prophecy a lye in my name see the same Jer. 14.14 15. Jer. 23.21 22. vers 38. The sum of this discourse is this That when the Providence of God is moving in a way of mercy towards any Nation Church or Family he sets persons in relations to them and calleth them to work in them whom he hath fitted and doth fit for the several parts of their work with such gifts and graces of his spirit as qualifie and capacitate them for the work and relation to which God calleth them and this he doth by way of efficiency pouring out his spirit upon such persons but when he is proceeding in a way of wrath and judgment against a people either finally to destroy them or severely to chasten them for their iniquities then he suffereth such Rulers and such Ministers to be over them or such governours in any societies as are no way fit for their work Rulers that have no wisdom nor understanding proportioned to their relation no courage nor valour no principles of justice and righteousness but such as will as the Prophet Amos expresseth it sell the needy for a pair of shooes and the poor for a piece of silver and suffereth Ministers to rise up and be allowed that are blind dumb ignorant greedy indeed not fitted at all for their work or the several parts of it but only fitted for Gods design to be a scourge and a plague to the people amongst whom they go to seduce them to tear to rend and to devour them and this you shall observe to be the constant motion of the Actual

thy gifts to man Sometimes unite The Indian nut alone Is clothing meat and trencher drink and cann Boat cable sail and needle all in one Most herbs that grow in brooks are hot and dry Cold fruits warm kernels help against the wind The limons juice and rind cure mutually The whey of milk doth loose the milk doth bind Thy creatures leap not but express a feast Where all the guests sit close and nothing wants Frogs marry fish and flesh bats bird and beast Sponges non-sense and sense mines th' earth and plants To shew thou art not bound as if thy lot Were worse than ours sometimes thou shiftest hands Most things move th' under-jaw the Crocodile not Most things sleep lying th' Elephant leans or stands But who hath praise enough nay who hath any None can express thy works but he that knows them And none can know thy works which are so many And so compleat but only he that owes them All things that are though they have sev'ral ways Yet in their being join with one advice To honour thee and so I give thee praise In all my other hymns but in this twice Each thing that is although in use and name It go for one hath many ways in store To honour thee and so each hymn thy fame Extolleth many ways yet this one more A DISCOURSE Concerning ACTUAL PROVIDENCE PART I. Concerning the Nature and principal Acts of Divine Providence to all created Beings SERMON I. Ephes I. 11. Who worketh all things according to the Counsel of his Will THE Relative Particle who in the front of the Text must necessarily relate to God spoken of vers 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Many of these spiritual blessings are enumerated from that third verse to my Text. He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world predestinated us unto the adoption of sons vers 5. Made us accepted in him vers 6. And here again ver 11. Predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things according to the counsel of his will All this is written to those at Ephesus who were faithful in Christ Jesus Ephesus was a City in the lower Asia A City famous for Trade and as famous for their Idolatrous Worship of the great Goddess Diana Paul came thither Act. 18.19 20. but tarried not being to keep the feast at Hierusalem Acts 19. You find him returned thither where he stayeth two years and three months as you may gather from Acts 20. You may in that Chapter find him forced thence by an uproar of the people during the time of his abode there God used him to plant a Gospel-Church He left the charge of it with Timothy 1 Tim. 1.3 As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus while I went into Macedonia We cannot gather from any thing in this Epistle that any such corruptions in Doctrine or manners had crept into this Church as had done into the Churches of Rome Corinth and Galatia but the blessed Apostle knew that although they stood they were concerned to take heed lest they fell and that the common temptations of those times might influence them to obviate which he writeth this Epistle unto them In the Preface contained in the two first verses he after his manner saluteth them In the third verse he begins the matter of his Epistle minding them of the wonderful benefits and acts of Grace which God had made them partakers of in and through Christ He instanceth in the Election of them to eternal life as the end and the Predestination of them to the means in order to that end ver 4 5 6 7. Thence he proceedeth to a discourse about Redemption vers 8 9 10. In this Verse he returneth again to the business of Predestination In whom also saith he we have received an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him Who worketh all things according to the counsel of his will Where you have two things affirmed concerning God 1. That God worketh all things As he at first created all things so he worketh all things some by way of Efficiency and special influence others by way of Permission or he worketh all things whatsoever is not sinful 2. That he doth it according to the counsel of his will I am aware that there are some Divines who restrain the Universal Particle all things to the things before spoken of or at least to all those things which God worketh in a way of Efficiency The latter is Bellarmine's sense for which he quoteth Hierome I do rather encline to those Interpreters who think all things are to be interpreted more generally Nor is there any fear that by this interpretation we should make God the Author of sin for besides that after Bellarmine had spit his Venom against Calvin and Beza Bellar. de amiss Gratiae statu peccati cap. 15. he could find out a way himself to entitle God to all things yet not to sin for he tells us right Peccatum facere est deficere certainly all actions as things or natural motions must be from him in whom we live move and have our being though the irregularity obliquity malice and deformity and crookedness of actions in which alone lyes the sinfulness of them is not from God but from the corruption and malice of the sinners hearts Now the very esse formale of sin if it be not improper to say so lyeth not in the natural action but in the obliquity and deviation of the action from the Divine rule and this neither Calvin nor Beza nor any valuable person ever ascribed unto God And therefore the All things of the Text may safely be understood of all beings natural motions and actions and to entitle God to them is no more than to say after the Apostle In him we live and move and have our being Now the Text doth not only say That God worketh all things but that he worketh all things according to the counsel of his will that is an eternal Decree made in infinite wisdom So that two Propositions are plain enough in the Text 1. Prop. 1 That there hath been an eternal purpose and counsel of the Divine will concerning all things 2. Prop. 2 That according to this eternal counsel of the Divine will the Lord worketh all things I begin with the first of these Nothing hath come to pass nor ever shall but what the will and counsel of God hath before determined that it shall be observe that phrase That it shall be There are many things have been done and are every day done or doing in the world which the purity and holiness of God will allow him to have no efficiency in but there is no effect which he hath not willed should be done Indeed concerning the means the primary efficient or instrumental causes of actions Gods VVill hath moved variously For all good