Selected quad for the lemma: concern_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
concern_n	good_a	great_a	matter_n	49	5	5.0560	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61107	A discourse concerning prodigies wherein the vanity of presages by them is reprehended, and their true and proper ends asserted and vindicated / by John Spencer.	Spencer, John, 1630-1693.	1663 (1663)	Wing S4947; ESTC R24605	129,689	118

the lustre and glory of the Jewish Polity and pedagogy by the ceasing of prophecy the absence of the heavenly fire the arke of the Covenant the Shechinah the Oracles by Urim and Thummim from the second Temple the lapsing of the government from Kings to Dukes from Dukes to the Sanhedrin from them to the Romanes there having been no Kings types of Christ after David and Solomon except Hezekiah be admitted a candidate for that honour This vanishing splendour of the face of Moses that Oeconomy whereof he was the minister was a sign that the Sun of Righteousness was now a rising under whom a state of more spiritual and inward glory was shortly to obtain 2. Signa praedicta signs of times long before spoken of and of sacred and scriptural institution such as were the departing in a good degree at least of the Sceptre from Iudah the near expireing of Daniels weeks the coming of Iohn the Baptist in the Spirit of Elias the general expectation of the Messias about that time rais'd up in the minds of men 3. Signa miraculosa the mighty signs and wonders every way equal to those upon which the credit of the Mosaical dispensation was built which attended the person and doctrine of our Saviour and to which as his visible witnesses he sometimes made his appeal Whereas the signs of times I contend against are neither of any moral nature speaking not to the Reason but the phancy of men neither were they ever foretold God doth not now appear so far to value the world as to usher any change in the affairs thereof by the promises of a Prodigie nor are they miraculous the power of Nature in such a coincidence of causes being able to reach the production of any of these prodigious signs 2. The disparity of things signified All the forementioned signs were tokens for good but as the blushings of the Evening before the dawning of that happy day wherein a state big and good enough for the title of the Kingdom of Heaven was to take place Besides they were matters of no narrow and private reference the fall of some Great Person or the commencing of some petty war but of a catholick concern such wherein the felicities of Jew and Gentile were bound up matters big enough for the solemnity of a sign to preface and bring on The things signified were also matters of huge importance as that Iesus was the promised Messiah that all the shadows and rites of the law were to expire and conclude like the Phaenix in a nest of spices in the graces truths and glories of the Gospel-state that the wall of partition was now to be taken away and all Nations to own themselves brethren under one common Father These things all men were concern'd to know and believe and therefore God taught them by great signs as well as excellent Preachers Whereas Prodigies are suppos'd the signs of wrath and judgements which yet often surprize men not unfitly therefore stil'd Gods arrows which give a fatal but withall a suddain an● a silent wound and besides are presum'd to come forth to serve some worldly and little ends and interests which men easily perswade themselves Heaven hath espoused with as much passion as themselves 3. The disparity of the times spoken of in that Text from our own The times there intended were times rather present then fu●ure times wherein the Mosaical Oeconomy brought on with mighty signs and wonders was to determine Times wherein the Church was to be put under an immutable and excellent form of administration stil'd therefore the last times in Scripture Now necessary it was that some remarkeable signs of those times should be given fo●th in scripture that so the age wherein that mighty change should fall might the better acquiesce therein and succeeding generations might have the more secure a faith of the exhibition of the true Messtas because observing all the signs of the times to which he was promised exactly conspiring in those wherein he was exhibited Whereas all the changes which chequer and vary the times of the World now are of no name and reckoning if compar'd with this The world is so acquainted with civil changes that I should expect a Prodigie rather to give notice of some days of peace and settled tranquillity to which the world is the greatest stranger 4. The Disparity between the Persons to whom those words were spoken and our selves The Jews were a People so us'd to signs that the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 1. 22. the Iews require a sign And it was the vulgar opinion amongst them that as all extraordinary Prophets were to seal their commission with a miracle so all events extraordinary were to be foreshewn by a sign Hence the Jews come to our Saviour with that bold demand What sign shewest thou unto us seeing that thou doest all these things Jo. 2. 18. and the Disciples upon the credit of this common conceit no sooner heir our Saviour foretell strange events in reference to Hierusalem and the Temple but they presently ask him what shall be the sign when all these things shall come to pass God perhaps gave them signs to assure them that the evils which befell them arose not out of the dust but came upon them from the fore-appointing counsels of heaven and to awaken their dull and worldly minds into a lively sense of his justice and providence But now in the broad day light of the Gospel 't is expected that we should not need awakening by any such monitors into a sense and awe of the Divine Majesty We must now believe without a sign and derive our repentance not from mighty Earthquakes and prodigies but an ingenious and understanding sense of ●in I suppose now that the light of what hath been said upon this Text of Scripture is sufficient to chase away all shadow of any argument from it to a bet any such signs of times as our adversaries plead it in favour of And what though we should be forc'd to return a Non liqu●t in reference to the true ends of Comets and new stars sometimes discovered to the World must we therefore conclude them but a sort of more glorious impertinencies in Nature unless they serve our curiosity by being made signs of times Is it such news to hear so short a creature as man is past his depth We find the Almighty poseing of Iob almost through every science In Geometry Knowest thou the ballancings of the clouds whereupon are the foundations of the Earth fasten'd or who hath laid the corner stone In Natural Philosophy Hast thou entred into the springs of the sea or hast thou walked in the search of the deep hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow In Opticks Where is the way where light dwelleth and as for darkness where is the place thereof by what way is the light parted which scattereth the East-wind upon the earth In Astronomy canst thou bring