Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	great_a	king_n	kingdom_n	9,660	5	5.5175	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29694	A heavenly cordial for all those servants of the Lord that have had the plague ... , or, Thirteen divine maximes, or conclusions, in respect of the pestilence which may be as so many supports, comforts and refreshing springs, both to the visited and preserved people of God in this present day : also ten arguments to prove that in times of common calamity the people of God do stand upon the advantage ground as to their outward preservation and protection ... : also eight reasons why some of the precious servants of the Lord have fallen by the pestilence in this day of the Lords anger / by Thomas Brooks.	Brooks, Thomas, 1608-1680.	1666 (1666)	Wing B4948; ESTC R29135	31,420	88

to these Crowns The goods things of heaven are so many that they exceed number and so great that they exceed measure and so precious that they are above all estimation What will that life be or rather what will not that life be since all good either is not at all or is in such a life Here is light which place cannot comprehend voices and musick which time cannot ravish away odours which are never dissipated a feast which is never consumed a blessing which eternity bestoweth but eternity shall never see at an end and who would not wade through a red Sea to come to this heavenly Canaan What are all the silks of Persia and all the spices of Egypt and all the gold of Ophyr and all the treasures of both Indies yea what is the glory of ten thousand worlds to that glory that those saints are now enjoying who have died by the pestilence in the midst of us When Cyneas the Embassadour of Pyrrhus after his return from Rome was asked by his Master what he thought of the City and State he answered That it seemed to him to be Respublica Regnum a State of none but great States-men and a Common-wealth of Kings Such is Heaven no other than a Parliament of Emperours a Common-wealth of Kings every saint in that Kingdom is Co-heir with Christ and hath a Robe of Honour and a Rom. 8. 17. Scepter of Power and a Throne of Majesty and a Crown of Glory Now what doth that Christian lose who dies of the pestilence and by that means is brought to the fruition of all this glory Death saith M. Brightman that was before the Devils Serjeant to dragg us to hell is now the Lords Gentleman-Vsher to conduct us to heaven In the Ceremonial Law there was Levit. 25. an year they accounted the year of Jubile and this was with the poor Jewes a very delightful and acceptable year because that every man that had lost or sold his lands upon the blowing of a Trumpet rerurned and had possession of his estate again and so he was recovered out of all those miseries and extremities in which he lived before Now our whole life in this world is made up of troubles and trials of calamities and miseries of crosses and losses of reproaches and disgraces but death is the Christians Jubile it wipes away all tears from his eyes it turns his miseries into mercies his crosses into crowns and his earthly hell into a glorious heaven Though death though the pestilence be to the wicked as the Rod in Moses hand that was turned into a Serpent yet to the godly death the pestilence is like to the wand in Elijahs hand a means to waft them over into a better life The Heathen Gods held death to be mans summum bonum his chiefest good Solomon upon his Throne extol'd his Coffin above his Crown Death is a fall that came in by a fall For a saint to die is for a saint to be no more unhappy By death the saints come to a fixed and invariable eternity Death is but an entrance into life That is not death but life which joyns the dying man to Christ and that is not life but death which separates the living man from Christ Death will blow the bud of grace into the flower of glory Death is a saints Quietus est All fearful disasters saith Gregory which rob the saints of life do but serve as a rough wind to blow them suddenly into their desired haven I mean heaven It matters not saith Austin whether a burning feaver or flash of lightning or whether a stone in the bladder or a thunder-stone in thy head sends thee out of this miserable world for God minds not saith he the immediate occasion of thy coming to him but the condition and posture that thy soul is in when it cometh before him The great thing that God will look at is whether thou art a sheep or a goat a sinner or a saint a friend or an enemy a son or a slave a believer or an infidel whether thou art growing on the Crab-stock of old Adam or art engrafted into Christ whether thou art cloathed with the righteousness of his Son or whether thou standest before him in the ragged righteousness of thine own duties The Eleventh Divine Maxime or Conclusion is this Viz. Though a godly man should die of the plague yet he shall be certainly delivered from the evil of the plague The smartest rod that God layes upon his own people is from a principle Rev. 3. 19. Prov. 3. 11 12. Heb. 12. 5 6 7 8 9. of love though he be angry with his peoples sins yet he loves their persons Though the pestilence comes as a judgement upon wicked men yet it comes onely as a chastisement upon the people of God When the plague comes upon wicked men it comes upon them by vertue of the first Covenant and as a fruit of the Curse but when it comes upon the godly it comes upon them by vertue of the second Covenant I mean the Covenant Psal 89. 30 31 32 33 34. of Grace and as a fruit of his love Hence God is call'd the great and terrible God that keepeth Covenant Neh. 1. 5. But why is he called the terrible God that keepeth Covenant but because as he hath covenanted to keep them from the evil of the world and to purge away their Psal 119. 75. John 17. 2 Tim. 4. 17 18. sins and to save their souls and to preserve them to his heavenly kingdom so he stands bound by his Covenant to make use of any terrible judgements or terrible dispensations to effect these great and glorious things As we sometimes preserve those things in salt that we cannot preserve in sugar so sometimes God preserves his poor people in the salt of afflictions in the salt of terrible dispensations when they would not when they could not be preserved in the sugar of mercies c. Though the plague should come into a godly family yet God will deliver that family from the evil of the plague Psal 91. 10. There shall no evil befall thee neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling Beloved Though the plague should come into a godly mans house yet there shall not be any evil in it to the godly man When the plague comes into a wicked mans family it alwayes comes in the quality of a Levit. 26. curse but it never comes into a godly mans family in the quality of a curse for Christ was made a curse for Gal. 3. 13. them It never enters into a godly mans family as a fruit of Gods revenging justice or wrath Rom. 8. 8. Jer. 24. 5. Isa 54. 7 8 9 10. Jer. 31. 3 33 34 35 36 37. When the plague comes upon the wicked it comes upon them as a fruit of Gods judicial wrath but when it comes upon the godly it onely comes upon them as fruit of Gods fatherly anger When it

us and quiet us how should this cool us and calm us how should this satisfie us and silence us before the Lord and cause us to lay our hands upon our mouths as David did Psal 39. 9. and as Aaron did Lev. 10. 1 2 3. and as Ely did 1 Sam. 3. 18. and as the Church did Lament 3. 26 27 28 29. Solinus writeth of Hypanis a Scythian Cap. 20. River that the water thereof is very bitter as it passeth thorow Exampius yet very sweet in the spring So the cup of trembling which is this day offered to the children of God is often very bitter at the second hand or as it appears in second causes and yet it is sweet at the first hand yea it is very sweet as it is reacht to them by a hand from heaven and therefore they may well say as their Head and Husband hath done before them Shall we not drink of the Cup that our Father hath given us to drink of c. The Second Divine Maxime or Conclusion is this Viz. The Pestilence and all other Judgements of God are limited as to places Hence it comes to pass that God shoots his arrows of Pestilence into one City and not into another into one Town and not into another into one Family and not into another into one Kingdome and Countrey and not into another Exod. 8. 20 21 22 23. and Exod. 9. 22 23 24 25 26. 2 Sam. 24. 15. Turn to all these Scriptures and ponder upon them The Third Divine Maxime or Conclusion is this Viz. All the Judgements of God are limited not onely to places but also to persons And therefore such and such must fall when such and such must escape and such and such must be infected when such and such are preserved Hence 't is that one is taken in the Bed and the other left one smitten at the Table or in the House and all the rest preserved in perfect health c. God hath numbred so many to the sword and so many to the famine and so many to the pestilence so many to this disease and so many to that 2 Sam. 24. 15 16. Ezek. 11. 5 6 7. Ezek. 5. 12. Ezek. 6. 11 12. Exod. 12. 13. Psal 91. from vers 3. to v. 9. Isa 65. 12. Jer. 15. 2. Ezek. 33. 27. Turn to all these Scriptures and ponder upon them God marks out those persons that he intends to shoot the arrow of pestilence amongst God never shoots at rovers he never draws his bow at a venture but he singles out the persons that he purposes to hit and his arrows flie swiftly and suddenly yet they hit none but those that God hath set up as a mark to shoot at as Job speaks The Fourth Divine Maxime or Conclusion is this Viz. No man knows divine love or hatred by outward dispensations Eccl. 9. 1 2. Luke 13. 4 16. Lam. 4. 6. Dan. 9. 12. Psal 73. 12 13 14 15 21 22. In time of great judgements God sometimes spares those whom his soul hates and abhors Isa 1. 5. Hos 4. 14 17. God sometimes preserves wicked men from great judgements that they may fall by greater judgements as you may see in Sodom and her sisters which were preserved from the slaughter of the four Kings that God might rain down Hell out of Heaven upon them And so Sennacherib escapes the stroke of the destroying Angel that he might fall by the sword of his own sons Isa 37. 37 38. And as in times of great judgements God sometimes spares those sinners that his soul hates so in times of great judgements God takes away those whom his soul dearly loves 2 Cor. 34. 27 28. Turn to it In all the considerable plagues that have been in this Nation how many precious Christians have fallen by the sword and by the hand of the destroying Angel when many thousands of Balaks and Balaams I mean the worst of men have escaped the sword the plague c. And is there any thing more obvious and notorious this day than this surely not The Fifth Divine Maxime or Conclusion is this Viz. The Lord sometimes takes away his dearest people by some one judgement that so he may by that means deliver them from many judgements and sometimes he takes away his people by one great judgement that so they may escape many other greater judgements that he intends to bring upon the Earth And thus good Josiah was slain in battel yet because he lived not to see the woful miseries of succeeding times he is said to go to his grave in peace 2 Chron. 34. 27 28. Turn to it Henoch lived long in a little time and God took him to heaven before he brought a sweeping Flood upon the world but he fore seeing the Flood named his son Methuselah that is to say He dyeth and the dart or flood cometh and so it fell out for no sooner was his head laid but in came the Flood And so Augustine was taken out of the world before Hyppo was taken by the Vandals And so Paraus was gotten to his better Countrey before Heidelbergh and the Palatinate was delivered into the power of the enemies Ambrose is said to have been the Walls of Italy and when he died the Earl Stilico said That his death did threaten destruction to that Countrey And when Luther was laid in his grave then troubles wars desolations and confusions came in upon Germany like a flood The righteous are taken away Isa 57. 1. from the evil to come and their death is a sad presage of sore and signal calamities that are hastening upon the world Of late many precious servants of Christ are fallen asleep but who knows what a day of wrath is coming When a man cuts down his chiefest timber-trees it is an argument that he intends to part with his land and how many tall Cedars in this our Lebanon hath God lately cut down in the midst of us Therefore we have eminent cause to be importunate with God that he would neither part with this Nation nor depart from this Nation When some fatal judgement hovers like a flying fiery scrole over a Nation God many times gathers many of his choice servants unto himself that he may preserve them from the evil to come The Sixth Divine Maxime or Conclusion is this Viz. None of Gods judgements upon his people ever make any change or alteration of Gods affections towards his people However his hand may be against them yet his love his heart his favour his affections in Jesus is still one and the same to them Isa 54. 7 8 9 10. Isa 49. 14 15 16. Psal 89. 31 32 33 34. Jer. 31. 3● 35 36 37. compared Malach. 3. 6. John 13. 3. James 1. 17. Ponder seriously upon all these Scriptures So when God sent the plague upon Davids people and that for Davids sin too yet how sweetly how lovingly how tenderly how compassionately how indulgently doth the Lord carry it towards David himself 2