Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	angel_n	assembly_n	zion_n	257	3	8.4496	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65188	The retired mans meditations, or, The mysterie and power of godlines shining forth in the living Word to the unmasking the mysterie of iniquity in the most refined and purest forms : and withall presenting to view ... in which old light is restored and new light justified : being the witness which is given to this age / by Henry Vane.	Vane, Henry, Sir, 1612?-1662.	1655 (1655)	Wing V75A; ESTC R23767	277,940	392

are the heavenly spiritual seed and from above measured out with a line of life as adopted children and friends of God the latter are the earthly or fleshly seed and from beneath measured out with a line of death as chusing the state of a servant or to remain single and alone in their natural principles enemies to the cross of Christ and resisters of the grace whereby the other are saved which saving grace we shall find 2 Tim. 1. 9. was conferred freely on the Elect without condition according to Gods purpose and given them in Christ Jesus before the world began So Ephes 1. 3 4. They were blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly in Christ according as they were chosen in him before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blame before him in love Thus we see in what sense the particular beings of men and Angels are the off-spring and seed of Christ children of the first or second covenant frequently so called in Scripture although none but those that are called according to his purpose to be heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ of the Fathers glory ministred to them in and by the new and everlasting Covenant do truly deserve the name of Sons or Children who have a name better then that of Sons and Daughters by the other Covenant From this general consideration therefore of Men and Angels as all are the seed and off-spring of Christ we must come to several distributions of them For First Here we have the general Assembly and Church of the first-born which are written in heaven the inhabitants of the true Mount Sion and City of the living God Secondly we have the innumerable company of Angels Heb. 12. 22 23. who are made ministring Spirits to these heirs of salvation Heb. 1. 14. Thirdly we have the Legions of wicked Angels that made themselves such by their fall and disobedience reserved in chains of darkness to the judgement of the great day Fourthly we have the whole race of mankind in one lump or mass as considered in their natural life and being bearing the image and similitude of God according to his first appearance wherein all are brought forth in the beginning as a state for them not to abide in but from whence to be passing into an endless and immortal state of honour or dishonour All these by name are created and have their invisible immortal substances brought forth by the WORD as his off-spring made to stand up together in and with the man Jesus Christ as their head and are committed to the charge of the Mediator to assign unto them all circumstances for their being brought forth into their visible bodily appearances in this world together with the means and method of bringing them upon the stage of this first creation and the lot there wherein they are to stand and serve in their several places uses and relations according as he hath received command from the Father So that from the time that the man Christ Jesus began to be in the WORD as in his head and root standing up in the sight and presence thereof as the promised seed to come we are to date the beginning of dayes unto the invisible substances of Angels and Men who then also began to be in their head and were ever beholding or rather beheld by their Father in heaven untill they were made actually to exist in continuance of time in their own proper persons and beings CHAP. IV. Concerning the Creation Nature and Ministry of Angels IT is said Gen. 1. 1. In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth In what sense Christ is the beginning hath been already opened and how as the Messiah he is the Minister of Gods first appearance in which he is head unto the Angels the Lord amongst them in Sinai by whose voice the Law or first covenant was given where he was compassed about with these his fiery Chariots who receive what is spoken by Christ of the mind and will of God to speak it forth again as the Word they are to publish unto men in the Ministry of the first covenant Heb. 2. 2. In this sense it is said Acts 7. 53. that the Law was given by the disposition of Angels They therefore do obtain the first order and rank of all natural beings in the first creation and are endued with an instrumentalness of being and motion to this use and service of their Head as also to be the subordinate means of all converse which by Christ is maintained between God and the first world unto whom it is put in subjection as Heb. 2. 5. compared with Psal 8. 5. do evidence These in their creation are described by the light which God made on the first day Gen. 1. 34. when he said let there be light and there was light and God saw the light that it was good approving this first work of his hands in the beginning of that day and God by his dividing the light from the darkness signified the heavenliness of their frame and constitution as they stand exalted and separate in their beings from all sensual life in the form of invisible spirits whereof the material heavens in their creation are the first shadow which are called Prov. 8. 26. the highest part of the dust of the world as David also giving account of both their creations together Psal 104. ver 2 3 4. saith who coverest thy self with light as with a garment who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters who maketh the clouds his chariots who walketh upon the wings of the wind who maketh his Angels spirits and his Ministers a flaming fire in which posture and preparation the Psalmist describes the WORD as he proceeds to the rest of the creation ver 5 6. c. intimating that as man in his bodily state was made dust of the ground so the Angels were made a flame of fire in their natural constitution In this their natural frame they excell in strength and power Psal 103. to execute the commands of their head and in their motion and actings are exceeding high and dreadful comparatively with all other parts of the Creation and therefore these Morning-Stars considered as they are together in one society and corporation amongst whom there is a chief and prince called Lucifer the first son of the morning are the image and glory of Christ as he is the first-born of every creature in like service use and relation as the woman is to the man whose image and glory she is A view of these angelical spirits in their nature ministry and use is lively set forth and represented in the vision Ezekiel had Chap. 1. compared with Chap. 10. as the body unto Christ who is there described by the living creature which the Prophet saw under the God of Israel which living creature is said to have the likeness of a man and is also called

preserving of them during the thousand years in this their spotlesse sinlesse nature not suffering the Devil to annoy them or deceive the Nations till the thousand years be fulfilled executing upon the rebellious and disobedient his fiery vengeance and indignation to the cutting them off from the Land of the living as Ananias and Sapphira were dealt with making good that Word of the Lord Act 3. 23. And it shall come to passe that every soul which will not hear that Prophet in these his dayes he shall be destroyed from among the people For all those that shall then discover that they love not the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity shall be Anathema Maranatha or accursed by this coming and from this presence of the Lord. And therefore we are to know that the natural generation of men which shall be in those dayes how pure and spotlesse soever their fleshly nature be yet being but mutable will have either a good or an evil change passe upon them The good we have already spoken to and of the evil we shall say but little here since we have so at large treated of it also as it is the serpentine seed growing up in and under that which is good to the fixing and hardning of men at last in an implacable rage and enmity against Christ in his heavenly and second appearance For this hardning when it is perfected proves an unchangable enmity and brings on the spiritual or SECOND DEATH wrought out in the natural mind which is not subject to the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus nor ever can be no place being now left for repentance These vessels of wrath will then be raised to everlasting contempt and will have the perfect exercise of their natural sences in spirit soul and body fitted and prepared for the taking in of the full vials thereof that shall be poured out upon them for ever from the presence of the Lord Yea for this purpose they are also heightned to a partaking with the wicked Angels in the raisednesse of their Angelical beings so as to become of equal capacity with the evil Angels through the power of the resurrection from the dead that raises them up into everlasting contempt and gives them their portion with the Devil and his Angels unto whom they serve as a Temple and habitation in like manner as the Saints in their glorified body are the Tabernacle of God And in this Idols Temple the Devil shall be so able to transforme himself into an Angel of light by the experience he will have gained during the thousand years and so to transform his Ministers also as the Ministers of righteousnesse and Apostles of Christ that he shall have the confidence at the end of the thousand years when he shall again be let loose to embody his party of wicked Angels and men from all quarters and come up in this seeming glorious posture to vie it out at last with the New Jerusalem the City of the living God in this its earthly state gathering Gog and Magog to battel the number of whom is as the sand of the Sea who hoping to carry all before them shall come up on the breadth of the earth and compasse the camp of the Saints about the Beloved City desiring and endeavouring to swallow up that Assembly of true Saints on earth who have not had as yet their finall change brought upon them but are waiting for it universally to be accomplished at the end of the thousand years At which period of time the Devil being let loose and putting forth his last and utmost power doth play his game by transforming his party into the likenesse of the glorified body of Christ and his Saints gathering into one counterfeit spiritual body all his children and servants whose coming then shall be with such power and signes and lying wonders as were never put forth by him before Then Christ in a moment shall finally perfect his glorious change upon all the Elect and carry them all up with him to the mansions provided for them in his Fathers house from whence he sends down fire to devour all their adversaries and the whole visible frame of the creation casting the Devil into the Lake of fire where the BEAST and FALSE PROPHET are and shall be tormented for ever day and night by vertue of the just judgement of God which then shall be revealed against the wicked when the last JUDGEMENT shall be set and there shall appeare a great white Throne and one sitting upon it from whose face the heaven and the earth shall flee away so that there shall be no more place found for them even for that heaven and earth wherein there had beene made a full restitution of all things in those times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord during the reigne of the thousand years Then the great and last universal day of judgement shall be brought forth when the dead small and great shall be made to stand up before God and then the books will be opened and another book will be opened which is the book of life and the dead shall be judged out of those things that are written in the books And the sea shall give up the dead that are in it and death and hell shall deliver up the dead that are in them and they shall be judged every man according to their works To be more particular in describing the state of things as to the change which does respect the whole creature during this thousand years will be needlesse considering that the general expressions are so clear and full that it shall be a glorious pure incorrupt state unto the whole creation which shall then keep a holy Sabbath and Rest unto the Lord a seventh part of the time of the worlds continuance in which there shall be no sowing of the field nor pruning of the vineyard nor exacting any labour from the creature but what in voluntary service it shall performe by way of homage and worship unto Christ for the use of his Saints during the thousand years who are yet in their corruptible natural body expecting their great change Even so come Lord Jesus Come quickly FINIS