Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	call_v	great_a	place_n	10,107	5	4.1120	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A74704	To pneuma ksopyrén, or Sparkes of the spirit, being, motives to sacred theorems, and divine meditations. / By a reverend father of the Church of England.	Davies, Athanasius, b. 1620 or 21.	1658 (1658)	Thomason E1903_1; ESTC R209994	79,302	390

Mat. 25. O God thou seest how my sins have taken such hold f Psal 40.15 upon me that I cannot look up to thy holy place Lord break the chains of my sins and let the pitifulnesse of thy great mercy loose me from the bondage of sinne the fear of death Rom. 8.1 the misery of this wretched life from the terrour and rigour of thy law that I may believe and feele that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Lord grant that we maybe fellow Citizens with the Saints and never look for a resting place here but let me say and sing with thy holy Prophet If I forget thee O Jerusalem let my right hand forget her cunning yea If I remember thee not let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I prefer not Jerusalem in my q Psal 1●● mirth Sect. VII Of the Kingdome of Heaven The Kings Palace THe place of Joy and the eternall rest of the Saints of God is described unto us in the Word of God by four speciall names above the rest whereby we may guess at the happiness therein contained namely by the name of a 2 Cor. 12. Paradise of a b John 14. House a c Heb. 12. City and a d Mat. 5. Kingdome It is called a Paradise to shew that it is as a Garden or Orchard of all sweet pleasure and delight But least we might imagine by the name of Paradise that the place of joy is but as a Garden adjoyning to a backside or a place by some corner of a house It is called a Princely House or Palace where many mansions and chambers be where besides a Garden there are also Halls Parlers Chambers Galleries Banquetting-houses and all other Lodges of pleasure but because a house though never so great cannot contain any great company or extraordinary multitude whereby we might be induced to believe that there can be but very few that can be saved for want of roome in heaven therefore the place prepared for us is also called a City which containes many Houses many Palaces many Temples many Orchards and such like places fit to contain and entertain many millions of Saints and Angels but least we should imagine that a City may be little and not spacious enough for the Sonnes of God and such as follow the Lamb therefore it is not called onely a Paradise a House or a City but a Kingdome yea the Kingdome of Heaven in comparison of which the whole earth is but as a point So that the Saints of God shall not onely be ●● a Garden or Paradise of all delight but also in a Palace of all pleasures In a City of all good Government acquaintance and familiarity yea in a Kingdome of all Glory and Majesty where every Servant of God shall be his Sonne and every Sonne a Citizen and every Citizen a crowned King to raigne with the King of Kings for ever Sparke 7. O God seeing there is with thee such a Paradise of pleasure q Psal 84.1 grant that I may not love this earth nor the vain delights therein and seeing thy House and Palace hath so many room● and mansions f John 14 ● let me not delight too much in building houses here upon earth as if I meant to stay here for ever r Psal 49 11. but with the Patriarchs m Heb. 11 10. Prophets and Apostles be content with such tents and mansions as may best put me in mind of thy dwelling And seeing that holy and heavenly Jerusalem is so great and glorious d Psal 84.1 let not me look here g Heb. 11.9 for any abiding City nor greedily gape for the Kingdome and preferments of the world seeing such a Kingdome is prepared for me that is like a well governed City a strong Palace or a Paradice of pleasure But when I walk in my garden let me desire thy Paradise when I sit in my house let me think of thy Palace when I tread in the town let me remember thy holy City and when I see the glory of the world and this earthly Kingdome let me seek thy Kingdome and the righteousness thereof Mat. 5. through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen Sect. VIII We must serve God in our prime and best time IT is a rule most certain in Reason and Divinity Abell's Oblation That man ought to yeeld his love and service to God as Creatures do give their love and service unto us who by the Ordinance of God do yeeld us both love and service in the best fashion or else man would not accept it And therefore the trees do not onely give their fruit willingly but such fruits as are seasonable sweet and delectable otherwise if they were bitter rotten and unpleasant we would not care for them For we ought to give our love and service to God when it is seasonable sweet and pleasant or else God will not accept of it Sparke 8. O gracious God as thou hast made me in the best fashion p Gen. 1. Psal ● Col. 3. more excellent than all other Creatures thy holy Angells excepted So grant I may yeeld the sweeter love more pleasant service than they by how much my Creation excelleth theirs Let me not bear leaves q Mat ●1 Mark 11. but fruits and those fruits which are most sweet and pleasant in thy sight Let my prayer be fervent r 1 Cor. 14. my zeal burning a Psal 69. and 119. 2 Kings 10. my faith unfained b Mat. 9. 1 Tim. 1. my fear filiall d Psal 86. my obedience child-like e Luke 2. my almes cherefull without ostentation and my whole life a pattern f Mat. 5 1● for my posterity through that true pattern of all purity Jesus Christ our Lord Amen Sect. IX Our love to God Sorrow's Antidote or Salve AS sorrowfulnesse is the death of the body and the grief of the soul so joy is the life of both For where there is no joy there is no life and where there is all sadness there is nothing but death For as the Soul's life consisteth in joy so the death thereof in sorrow So that he which hath true joy hath life but he which loveth his God in heart unfainedly hath true joy And seeing this joy doth arise from the love of God onely and from none other therefore it followeth that to have all our love all our good all our content and all our delight yea and all of life is to have the love of God And seeing the love of God I mean our love to God is within man that is in his will heart and affection it followeth therefore that to seek all our love all our life and all out contentment we need not to go out of our selves Spark 9. O gracious God teach me to have this treasure within me namely to love thee with all my heart d Deut. 6. with all

excellent things are spoken of thee thou City of God Psal 87. For thou Lord to shew us the beauty and bravery of that place callest it by the name of a City For whereas it is called in many places a kingdome Mal. 5. to shew the greatnesse and largeness of the place yet left any man by that name of a kingdom might suspect or imagine that there were in heaven many Hils and Deserts and such like waste places where nothing but bruit beasts did inhabite as in Woods and Rocks and such like as in this world therefore though it be called a kingdome yet it is such a kingdome as in all beauty civility pleasantness is like a city where fair Temples Houses Galleries Gardens Orchards and such delights are most plentifull Neither is it termed a city so much for the beauty of the place as for the goodness therein contained and practised For in this city though there be divers Nations of all countries and kindreds yea of Angels Archangels Principalities and Powers an infinite company and an innumerable multitude and in all likelihood more in number than men being of a differing kind from man yet they have all but one law and one language one king and one government being all true citizens having one heart and one mind all guided and governed by the law of perfect charity and because charity is contrary to hatred envy contention discords braules and other sins and vices Therefore that city and place of blisse must needs be void of all anger braule strife envy malice uncharitablenes and such like For there must raign true charity with justice peace and joy in the holy Ghost Rom. 14. neither is peace and amity the onely felicity of this place but perfect liberty is also granted unto the citizens thereof and that in many respects as first a freedome from the servitude of sin For whereas in the earthly Paradise Adam had ability and power not to sin à posse non peccare in this celestiall Paradise they have non posse peccare an impossibility to sin Such shall be their liberty from sin that they shall not be able to sin at all And as they have this freedome and liberty from the servitude of sin so likewise from the servitude of death and mortality For as in the earthly Paradise Adam had non posse non mori a disability not to die so in the city of Heaven he hath an impossibility to die So that not to be able to sin or not to be able to die sheweth a freedome from sin and death And as they are free from sin and death so from all kinde of necessity For here men have need to eat drink sleep sit stand and walk sometimes but in Heaven the Saints of God have no such need for they need nothing but enjoy the glorious liberties of the sons of God Rom. 8. How sweet this liberty is the poor the rich and the hollest men in the world may quickly know and perceive For what pains do poor take yea how do they toile and moile cark and care trot and drudge for a little meat drink and cloathing which they must have to supply their bodily wants and what great thanks do they heartily give unto those that supply their present want free them from this painfull servitude of necessity Yea not onely poore men feele the misery of this but holy and sanctified persons are much molested and cumbred with this servitude of necessity and think it a grievous burden to be bound to care for their own bodies necessary provision accounting the time they spend about such business in a manner lost and ill spent or at least that this care in providing is a hinderance to them from better imployments in holy businesses in so much that many Christians in the time of the Apostles were so busied and delighted in holy meditations Euseb lib. 2 Hist c. 15. that commonly they never took leisure to feed their bodies till after the suns going down yea some forgetting to take meat and for three days together Mar. 8. and some for whole weeks This bondage of necessity and corporall need was so heavy unto some of them that no doubt it made them cry out with St. Paul Oh wretched man that I am Rom. 7. who shall deliver me from this body of death And though the rich citizens of this world seem to be little troubled with this bondage of necessity because their meat and drink is sweetly prepared for them their rest in soft beds a kinde of contented quietness and Sabbaoth of rest yet if they exceed never so little in the use or abuse of any of these they fill their bodies with sundry and perhaps incureable diseases for the expelling of which they shall be fain carefully to seek and unwillingly to take many bitter potions and to endure many griping pains yea they shall be driven wi●l they nill they either to be at debate with God and to undergo his wrath or else to fight with their fleshly concupiscence for temperance and sobriety which strife is often both dolorous and dangerous to the patient Therefore both rich and poore wicked and godly are troubled and vexed in the city of the world with this servitude of necessity but the children of God in the city of God are freed from the servitude of all this misery For they cark not toil not eat not drink not sleep not surfeit not sicken not but have perfect liberty from the bondage of sinne of death of necessity and which is more from the law because the law is not given to the just but to the unjust and none are more just than the blessed Saints which are justified in the blood of the lamb and cloathed with his white unspotted robe being confirmed in true justice and unable to do injustly and though the just that live in this world have no threatning and permanent law to which they are bound because willingly and with a glad heart they obey unto the precept of God without law or compulsion yet they have a directing law and rule of godliness given them of God binding them to do what the law commandeth and to leave undone what it forbiddeth but the Saints in heaven which enjoy that glorious liberty of the sons of God need no law or direction who in the word and Son of God behold all righteousnesse and are so confirmed in perfect love that they cannot decline from the will of their God Thus do they live and love in that holy place as crowned Kings and free Citizens in the heavenly Jerusalem being freed from the bondage of sin death necessity and the law attending the service of the everlasting God which is true liberty and perfect freedome forever Sparke 6. O Gracious God bring me unto thy strong City d Psal 40. say unto me in the worthiness of thy son thou good and faithfull servant enter into thy Lords joy e