Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	appoint_v	jerusalem_n	zion_n	54	3	8.4749	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96104	Jerusalems glory, or, the saints safetie in eying the churches security, wherein is shewed the captives redress: being an invitation to all the different minded men in the world to become one; with the advantage of unity, and the danger of variety from the example of the saints and servants of God, as well in former as these latter times. Offered to the view of the 97 builders imployed in that work, for the building of the true temple, and all others. / By Thomas Watson, a lover of peace.	Watson, Thomas, d. 1686.	1661 (1661)	Wing W1131; Thomason E1856_4; ESTC R210370	59,985	120

Prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee they have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment It seemed a pleasing and melodious Vision that these Prophets did see for Israel as indeed it is too to frequent with most if not all people if they once bend their minds to any one vanity to hear such Prophesies as will secure them as they think from being in any guilt if they should practise and follow that vanity therefore it was the opinion of an ancient Heathen that if any man did speak well of any of his practises that he would ask him what it was that he ask'd him for for he supposed that if any man did speak highly of him it was to deceive him that he might gain honour or a reward by it and therefore he had a fervent affection for those that did most seem to envy him saying He had none that instructed him more then his enemies for be sure that if they knew that he did offend they would not hide it but would reproach him for it whereby he came to know in part how far he did offend in the thing I wish many Christians have not a worse rule then this Secondly Gods sury is the second cause by which a People are made destitute of singing this song for as sin is the first motive cause so Gods fury is the effected cause of their unsufficiency for when God is moved by sin to afflict a people and that he hath waited a long time it may be day after day and week after week and year after year and yet can see no hope of their return then his fury is moved and it may be he will slay some of them with the sword and give others to the famine that so he may revenge himself of them for their high provocations wherewith they have provoaked him to do it so that they shall know if his sword once be gone forth in fury it will tot return void of effecting the cause of its being moved so that whilst God is a taking vengeance upon a people they cannot in any wise be said to be sensible of singing this song for the song is praises to God for deliverance and no people can sing this song unlesse the Lord be reconciled to them as a friend in love and peace Thirdly Or the third thing that hinders a people from singing this song is the want of the Lords presence in times of tryal for though his love may be as great to them in the time of tryal as in peace yet if it be not manifestly known to them to be so they are very much disinabled to sing this song as it is recorded of Job in the 19 chapter of Job and the 6 verse and so along the Lord hath overthrown me says Job and hath caught me in his net I cry out of wrong but I am not heard there is no judgement He hath set darkness in my paths I am destroyed on every side I am gone and my hope hath he removed like a tree And as Solomon instances elsewhere Oppression maketh a wise man mad so that I say whosoever doth not see the Face of the Lord to shine victoriously in his sight cannot experimentally and knowingly sing this song but is as it were a stranger to the real and punctual harmony that the singers sing in by whom this song is and must be sung by but I shall speak more fully to this in my following discourse The third particular is In what Land or State this song may be experimentally and really sung in for this first we must understand it is only to be sung in the Land of deliverance and herein doth it answer with a perfect coherence to the text as it is opened for it is not the place that hinders them from singing this song but it is the want of Gods power to assist them in any place that makes the Land seem strange for a people to sing this song Israel could not account the wilderness a strange Land by reason they could sing it there though it was as strange a Land as Babylon as in respect of their acquaintance with the place but as in respect of their participating of the love favour of God in the place the Land of Babel was stranger to them then the Wilderness for in the wildernesse they were delivered from their enemies and in Babel they were restrained from their liberty by their enemies so that they cannot say but they were restrained from singing this song so long as they were confind to be prisoners and therefore did they complain of the decays of Zion because Zion was the City of their deliverance and that being wasted they were by that means made Heirs of a strange Land by being strangers to the song of Zion for this song cannot be sung out of Zion or the Lords fortified City and therefore saith the Prophet Zachariah in the 2 of his Prophesie and the 12 verse And the Lord sholl inherit Judah his portion in the holy Land and shall chuse Jerusalem again the Lord is pleased to call Judah his portion and he will inherit him in the holy Land Now there is no place that can be said to be unholy as to what it was made at first but by a peoples pollutions in the Land as you have it in the 102. Psalme and the 19 verse The Lord hath looked down from the height of his Sanctuary to heare the groaning of the Prisoners and to loose them that are appointed to death well for what purpose did he loose these Prisoners it follows in the next words to declare the name of the Lord in Zion and his praises in Jerusalem and as you have it in the 99 Psalm and the 2 verse the Lord is great in Zion and he is Hie above all people that is as much as if the Prophet should have said the Inhabitants of Zion have set the praise of the Lord High above all people or the praise of all people yea even the Lord to Reign in their hearts and so you have it in the last verse of that 2 of Zechariah be still or silent O all flesh before the Lord for he is raised forth of his holy Habitation for when the Lord is raised forth of his holy Habitation it is to Conquer and subdue and silence all flesh that he himself may be lifted up in Zion in Judah or in Jerusalem or in the Inhabitants of those places that are Jews indeed and in action and not by being Jews or Sons of Zion by name or profession only for those are the true Jews and Sons of Abraham that build up the decayes of Judah and do the works of Abraham for as Paul said we desire to know no man after the flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet henceforth know we him so no more and as you have it more plainly Romans the third the 28 29. verses he is not a Jew

suffer for maintaining the truth in any one particular for all are not called to suffer in one manner or way though flesh and blood may not seem satisfied with it by reason of the present anguish of spirit for no affliction seems joyous for the present but grievous yet after ward it yieldeth the pleasant fruit of righteousnes Heb. 12.11 So that though it may seem to terrifie thy outward man yet thy inward man will be strengthened the which ought to be rather nourished than neglected and though it may seem to prove disadvantagious to thee in this life yet here will be thy joy that thou hast obeyed the Truth and canst look death in the face with great boldness by thy exactness in thy word to all men even as David speaks in Psalm 15.4 concerning those that shall be Inhabitants in Zion amongst which one thing that is found needful is to keep his Word Though he sweareth to his hurt yet he changeth not revenge belongeth to the Lord if you receive any wrong commit your cause to him and do not seek any revenge upon any man but let not any seek to circumvent me in this my description I put a difference between the People of God promising and a people that are in darkness but I speak of them that engage when they are in the tuition of the Lord or at least wayes own themselves so to be and a difference between the promises of the Law or under the Law as they were understood and the promises under the Gospel for under the Law any man might put away his Wife onely giving her a Bill of devorcement but Christ tells us that it is adultery to do it in the Gospel and causeth them to commit adultery also that are put away in that nature so it is not every thing that is customary with men that is justifiable in the sight of God 3. Israel had experienced that God did make it his desire to keep those engagements that he had made to them as it is often mentioned in the Scriptures though they had broken their engagements as to their particular and general failings yet God was so tender least he should break his part as that he doth as it were stand and meditate before he will any wayes insist upon any urgent or austere punishment and doth often invite them to return and review their wayes and turn to repentance for their back-sliding that he may have mercy on them and defer his anger God is just and merciful and it cannot be said of him that he did ever break any engagement to any person or people for as his promises have been to his people many times but conditionally For as he engageth to be a God and a Defender to them if they will keep his Laws and observe and do his Commands so likewise he often engageth that if they will not keep his Law or perform their part that he will punish them and leave them to their own wills and their own desires and let them go on in their own filthiness until they have fulfilled the desires of their own wayes and then he will take the Rod and scourge them so as I said before in this parricular God is as just in performing this part of his Covenant as he was in performing the other by reason of the entailment of Truth that did force him to it but in respect to those promises that are made absolute he is so exact in keeping them where there is no entailment to the contrary as that he will keep his word though a people do offend him and vex his Holy Spirit as is instanced by his promise to Abraham Isaac and Jacob in relation to his causing their seed to inherit the Land of Canaan and although his People did oftentimes offend and vex his Holy Spirit yet nevertheless he being a God of Truth he would not be moved so far as to make his Promise null and void of effect 2. As he had promised that he would render up the onely beloved of his delight his Son Christ Jesus to the mercies of wicked men even to do after the imaginations of their own hearts with him so far as concerned life to their appearance so he did fulfil it to the full although they had denied to own him in his intercessions for a condiscention of love and unity yea they did not own him to be their God they would have none of him nor none of his instructions but did beat his Messengers and imprison and kill his Prophets and shewed him all the unhumane respect that possibly could be and did him all the dishonour that lay in their power yet nevertheless God had promised that he would provide an acceptable sacrifice for the seed of Abraham A Lamb without blemish or spot And though the People were never so wicked and unhumane and Breakers of all the Ordinances Laws and Commands that he had given them to observe and do yet he could do no lesse than perform his Promise Otherwayes how could it be said that he was a God of Truth So as it is plainly understood that God hath been compelled by Truth many times to bestow his gracious favours and mercies upon his People when they have deserved a curse and oftentimes though it might with true acknowledgment and obedience become a Blessing to them that receive it so it proves to those that are obstinately bent even a curse by their not prizing of it as they ought to do even as Christ was to Judas and several other of the Jews Besides The Israelites durst not break their promise with Gibeon for fear of dishonouring their God and provoking him to anger by making him odious in the fight of the Heathen who do hold of this judgement That if they do once promise a thing their gods will afflict them if they do not effect it And should Israel act below the Heathen The very Heathen would condemn their God of injustice as indeed it was Jacobs answer to his sons Simeon and Levi Ye have troubled me to make me stink before the Inhabitants of the Land and I being few in number the Canaanites and the Perizites will gather themselves together and slay me and all my houshold As you may read at large in the 34th Chapter of Genesis and the 30th verse Jacob accounted it a greater offence for Simeon and Levy to break their Covenant than to let their Sister remain with Hamor as indeed seeing she had been the occasion on the one part of working the defame in Israel even so they had made Israel to stink before the Nations on the other side and so consequently the God of Israel And if you do but mark in the following Chapter you shall find that God doth take notice of it in the first verse God calls to Jacob to go up to Bethel and dwell there If you do but turn to the 28th Chapter of this Book you shall find what Jacob did promise in Bethel whether he