Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	word_n	world_n	year_n	241	3	4.2448	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29711	The temple opened, or, The great mystery of the millennium and the first resurrection revealed and found to be different from all the accounts that have been given thereof by any who have hitherto wrote on the same subject : more fully and plainly opening the nature of the death humbly presented to the King and Parliament by Thomas Brookhouse.	Brookhouse, Thomas.	1696 (1696)	Wing B4972; ESTC R18149	52,493	72

place for the Servants of God in each Nation for the Dispensers of his Word to dwell in and it ought to be as our Saviours Sepulcher in which 't is said Never yet Man lay For had the Spouse layen in such an one before She had had no occasion of Repentance and had not now been called a Church Regenerate So many Vile Idolators having lain in Rome Corrupted her Manners and Conversation and made her unfit for her Lords presence What Irregularities and Confusions there have been in the last Dispensations I think will be needless here to enumerate they being so plain and self evident to the World and that the principal cause and occasion of them has been what I mentioned I think is a like manifest The Dispensation of Moses was much better than this Last for he appointed Thirteen Cities for the Priests and Forty Eight for the Levites through all the Tribes of Israel The Servants of God were not left to scramble for their Livings in such a precarious manner as ours but had their due Lot of Land allowed them for a Possession which indeed was the greatest Due and Justice in the World And God appointed Moses to do it And when they came into the promised Land they applied themselves to Joshua and Eleazer And they spake unto them at Shiloh in the Land of Canaan saying The Lord commanded by the hand of Moses to give us Cities to dwell in with the Suburbs thereof for our Cattel The Lord commanding this thing not only shews the Justice but the Fitness and Properness of it And I challenge all the Skill and Wisdom of the Universe to propose a better Way and Method of Dispensing Gods Word than what He here doth Himself in this Chapter of the New Jerusalem There is a River of Life and a Tree of Life in the midst of this City which no Skill or Learning in the World can make any thing of but must of Necessity allow it to be the Gospel and the Preachers thereof And to what purpose can the Twelve Gates serve but that the Preachers may go out Twelve times a Years or every Month to heal the Nations 'T is said The Tree yielded its Fruit every Month and the Leaves of the Tree were for the Healing of the Nations And the Kings of the Earth bring their Glory and Honour into it This shews the Millennium to be rather an Hierarchy than a Monarchy as I hinted before And this Constitution of Circular and Itinerant Predicants doth confirm the same The Inhabitants of the City are a Royal Priesthood a peculiar People zealous of good Works But some say This New Jerusalem is Heaven because it comes down from above The Millennium is the Morning of an Eternal Day and this Jerusalem-state is a Type of Heaven but not Heaven it self because the Text saith plainly it comes down from Heaven and therefore cannot be Heaven it self It is said to come out of Heaven because of the Excellency of its Constitution being contrived by God himself and because 't is a Copy of the Heavenly Motions answering it in all its Circular Revolutions But if Men consider it right 't is a very strange Opinion to make all the other Scenes through the whole Prophecy to be on Earth and this to be in Heaven they may as well make Solomon's Temple in Heaven as to make this City in Heaven As his Temple was the Perfection of the Tabernacle so this City is the Perfection of the last Tabernaculous Dispensation of Babylon The Bride and the Whore are always put in opposition to one another and to make one upon Earth and the other in Heaven is to go against the whole current of Scripture-Analogy This City can be taken no other way but in a Literal sence And Men that only Gaze and speak at Random may be surprized But whoever doth soberly and seriously consider of the matter must needs Vote for me in this Case There is such a Torrent of Reason and Justice on my side that I cannot well see how any one can withstand it All Men will acknowledge that God made This World as a Theater to display his Glory upon the Five Empires are no other but Five Acts And the Altar Tabernacle Temple Mock City and True City are the Five Scenes Jerusalem is but the Scene of the Fifth Act which always is the best And 't is usual in the Last Act to have all the Actors on the Stage at once For first there are the New-Risen-Witnesses or Church Regenerate then the Jews then the Whore and her Retinue and lastly a Set of Idolaters throughout the World Every one are to be rewarded according to their Merit The Witnesses are the principal Actors in this last Act and are Risen but as yet enter not publickly till The Scene of the New Jerusalem be Drawn when The Stone which the Builders rejected becomes the Head Stone of the Corner But I spoke of the Reason and Justice of the thing Is it not a most Just thing that the Lord in Chief when He comes to visit the World should be served with the best Furniture and lie in the best Room in his own House He has had the First Fruits of our Flocks and our Herds an Altar for the Earth a Tabernacle for our Tents a Temple for our Houses But he has had no City yet And 't is fit he should be presented with the first Fruits of all the Compositums as well as of the Simple and Natural Things on the Earth The Kings of the Earth have built to themselves many stately Cities and called them after their own Name Saith one Is not this Great Babylon which I have Built for the House of the Kingdom and for the Honour of my Majesty And this is the cause which makes the Earth mourn and the Hail-stones of a Talent the Bombs ruine so many Cities Men build their own Houses and neglect Gods David would not do so He would not lie in Cedar when the Ark of God was in Tents But now the WORD OF GOD is on his White Horse in the Fields and like Jacob must lay his Head upon a Stone For He has no Tent at all But 't is hoped ere long this thing will be considered by our David when the Wars are over and when God shall give him Peace round about Again Nebuchadnezzar calls Babylon The House of the Kingdom Every Kingdom is to have a House or Principal City in it Now all the Kingdoms of the World are become Christs and 't is the most reasonable thing in the World that He should have a House in every Kingdom as Lord in chief and Proprietor of the Whole This is but a very reasonable Sacrifice to Him who can enter upon the whole Premises when He pleases At this very time He is Soveraign Lord of the Universe The King of Kings and Lord of Lords and that by a Decree ordained Him from Eternity No Monarch in the World has a Foot

of Ground or an Inch of Power but what is given by him He therefore who has received from him the First Fruits of Power and Empire in England who has been preferred before all the Monarchs of the World being constituted his First Delegate He I say who has Received First ought to pay his Homage First and to Erect such a Monument of Gratitude as may be a Pattern to other Nations to all Generations I speak not so much of a Glorious City as a Tent Colledge or Tabernacle to shew the way and make a beginning And was it a City the thing is very feasible for if every little Village can rear a Church sure a whole Nation can quickly build a City In this Tent Colledge Tabernacle or City let there be built as for the Prophets of old a little Apartment for each Prophet putting a Bed a Stool a Table and Candlestick there and a sufficient Number being Annually chose out of all the Counties by Lot let them Twelve times a Year issue out and heal the Nation When this is done Righteousness will quickly cover the Earth as the Waters cover the Sea We shall have no dark Corners or barren Mountains but every thing will be full of Light and every thing will flourish and be green like the Paradice of God Indeed the Advantages of this most Excellent Administration are inexpressible and is worthy of the Great Contriver God Himself Then we shall know what the New Moons and the Sabbaths mean for Earth will Eccho to Heaven and we shall in a manner have a Sun Moon and Stars here below keeping due time in their Motions and Circulations with them above What the Sun is in the Heavens or the Heart in Mans Body the same will this City be in every Nation But Jerusalem in Palestine is to be the Head for to Her the great Stream of Promises belong The Text saith And Thou O Tower of the Flock to Thee it shall come even the First Dominion The Kingdom shall come to the Daughter of Jerusalem Jerusalem will be the Royal Seat or House of Christ Kingdom for The Name of the City shall be THE LORD IS THERE That is He will be there in a most Glorious manner but not Personally His Name is called Wonderful Counseller 'T is extreamly probable his Presence will be there after the manner he was in the Temple of old viz. Oracularly And since I am come to the City of Ezekiel it will not be amiss to observe the position of it and of the division of the whole Land which is exactly like a Man For there are the Lot of Five Tribes above and Seven Tribes below and the holy Portion for the Priests and Levites in the middle and this City in the upper part of the holy Portion answering the Heart exactly the holy Portion below answers the Belly and Intrails which are esteemed holy And the Princes Portion lies on both sides the holy Portion East and West like two Arms. to guard and defend it And 't is said They that serve the City shall serve it out of all the Tribes of Israel This seem but Reasonable for this City being the Heart supplies the whole Body with Salutiferous Juyces The Preachers do issue out Twelve times a year to heal them and there is the greatest Reason in the World that the whole Tribes should serve it by Administring such Conveniencies and Necessaries as are suitable And that the Inhabitants of this City are Preachers tho' the Text be silent yet is a thing without all contradiction For the Waters that issue out first to the Ancles then to the Knees then to the Loyns and at last to be like a River not be passed over these Waters I say do plainly manifest that the Gospel and Preaching is meant hereby and their Salutiferous Virtue does confirm the same And another Prophet is more apposite to the thing saith he In that Day Living Waters shall go out of Jerusalem half of them towards the former Sea and half of them towards the hinder Sea in Summer and in Winter shall it be Here is the exact Method and Administration pointed at and the Continuance of the same saying In Summer and in Winter it shall be Now 't is not possible to spell any thing out of this so clear an Expression but the Gospel and Preaching The Apostle to the Jews levels the whole of his Discourse to this New Dispensation for as it were rejecting the former he saith Leaving the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ let us go on unto Perfection not laying again the Foundation of Repentance from dead works and of Faith towards God of the Doctrine of Baptism and of Laying on of Hands and of the Resurrection of the Dead and of Eternal Judgment These all seem to be the matter of the last Dispensation and therefore he leaves them and designs to speak of something higher implyed by the succeeding Verse And this we will do if God permit And he makes Christ to be the chief Administrator in it saying For unto the Angels he hath not put in subjection the World Dispensation to come of which we speak And afterwards he tells them But ye are come unto Mount Zion and to the City of the Living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable Company of Angels To the General Assembly and Church of the First-born whose Names are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the Spirits of Just Men made perfect And to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant And to the Blood of Sprinkling which speaketh better things than that of Abel This City is of a Heavenly Nature ministring in Spiritual things in which the General Assembly of the New-Risen-Witnesses do convene The Latin Version is Conventum Concionem implying a General Assembly of Preachers and their Names being written in Heaven answers to that Conscript Number which John mentions stood on Mount Zion and we cannot suppose that Heaven is meant thereby But this as I have before intimated for their Security in opposition to the Jewish Genealogies which are kept so strictly on Earth And for the Ministration of Angels God has always used them to Minister to Those which shall be Heirs of Salvation And no doubt but they will be imployed in a more especial manner in this most happy Dispensation This New Jerusalem can by no means be Heaven for Isaiah after having brought in God making a New Heaven and a New Earth he brings in the Children of Israel building Houses and inhabiting them and planting Vineyards and eating the Fruit of them which are things inconsistent with Heaven And 't is said The Kings of the Earth do bring their Glory into it which they cannot do into Heaven For Heaven needs no Glow-Worms to enlighten it And to represent any Church-state which is past there 's too much Beauty and Symmetry in it for that It must needs therefore presigure something to come And if it be