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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	choose_v	life_n	zion_n	18	3	8.6256	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A68508	A commentary or exposition vpon the first chapter of the prophecie of Amos Deliuered in xxi. sermons in the parish church of Meysey-Hampton in the diocesse of Glocester. By Sebastian Benefield ...	Benefield, Sebastian, 1559-1630.	1629 (1629)	STC 1862; ESTC S101608	705,998	982

euident proofe for this your publike meeting There is Matth. 18.20 a speciall promise of a blessing to light vpon you as oft as you shall come to this place and thereof the author of all truth assureth you Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them O weigh and consider this If you loue and would haue the societie fellowship and company of your sweet Sauiour Iesus Christ you must frequent this place hither must you come Know this you cannot be right worshippers of God in priuate if you refuse or neglect to frequent this publike assembly the Sion the Ierusalem from whence God is pleased to speake vnto you Much then very much to blame you whosoeuer doe for none or for small occasions absent your selues from this pl●ce this house of God at appointed times where and when your publike prayers should be as it were a publike renouncing of all sects and society with idolatry and prophanesse an acknowledgement and confession of the true God and a publike sanctification of Gods holy Name to the glory of God The time was and I dare auouch it Act. 21.5 when all the congregation of Tyre with their wiues and children bringing S. Paul out of the towne to the sea shore kneeled downe with him and prayed Shall we in these dayes finde this zeale among Christians I much doubt it and am perswaded men will be ashamed in imitation of those Tyrians to kneele downe in an open place to pray vnto God publikely I will not rub this sore I know somewhat and you know more than I how backward many of you haue been from doing God due seruice in this place Shall I say you haue dishonoured him some by irreuerence some by much absence some by wilfull refusall to bee made partakers of the blessed Communion of the body and bloud of our Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ I thinke should any one of you inuite your neighbour to sup with you but once and he refuse it you would take some displeasure at him and shall God Almighty the mighty creator of Heauen of Earth and of all you that heare me this day inuite you many times to come and sup at the table of his blessed Son and you refuse it Beleeue it he cannot take it well It is no indifferent or arbitrary thing to come or not to come to the Lords table Come you must of duty though of duty you are first to examine your selues Whosoeuer therefore wilfully refuseth to come he sinneth very grieuously as a learned b Butanus I●c 48. Diuine well noteth 1 Because he contemneth not any humane but a diuine edict the expresse commandement of the Lord of life Doe this in remembrance of me 2 Because he little esteemeth the remembrance of Christ his death by which we are redeemed 3 Because he neglecteth the communion of the body and bloud of Christ 4 Because he sheweth himselfe to be none of the number of Christs disciples I beseech you dearely beloued lay vp these things in your hearts let this day be the beginning of your reformation resolue from henceforth to performe your due obedience to God in this place to powre forth your prayers before him to heare his holy word and to frequent the Lords table where by faith in his death and passion you may receiue many a gracious blessing forgiuenesse of your sins your reconciliation with God the death of iniquity in you and the assured pledge of eternall life I haue now by occasion of Sion and Ierusalem the place from whence God will speake vnto you exhorted euery one of you in particular to come to the Church I pray you note this to be but a part of your duty It is not enough for you to come your selues to the Church you must sollicite and exhort others to come likewise Fathers must bring their children Masters must bring their Seruants For old and young should come My warrant for what I say I take out of Ioel 2.15 16. Call a solemne assembly gather the people sanctifie the congregation gather the elders assemble the children and those that sucke the breasts Marke I beseech you Children and such as sucke the breasts must be assembled You must haue the spirit of resolution to say with Ioshua chap. 24.15 I and my house will serue the Lord. Your duty is yet further extended beyond your children and seruants to your neighbours and also strangers if they come in your way This we may learn out of the prophecies of Esay Micah and Zachary First Esay 2.3 The faithfull shall say Come and let vs goe vp to the mountaine of the Lord to the house of the God of Iacob and he will teach vs his wayes and wee will walke in his paths for the law shall goe forth of Sion and the word of the Lord from Ierusalem Againe Micah 4.2 You shall finde the very same exhortation made by the faithfull and in the same words Come and let vs goe vp to the mountaine of th● L●rd to the house of the God of Iacob c. The Prophet Zacha●y chap. 8.21 for summe and substance speaketh the same thing They that dwell in one towne shall goe vnto another saying vp let vs goe and pray before the Lord and seeke th● Lord of hosts I will goe also Thus farre of the place from whence the Lord speaketh expressed by two names Sion and Ierusalem THE Fifth Lecture AMOS 1.2 And he said the Lord shall roare from Sion and vtter his voice from Ierusalem and the dwelling places of the shepherds shall perish and the top of Carmel shall wither OF the speaker and place from whence he speaketh I haue heretofore spoken Now proceed wee to the sequels of the speech which shall for this time be the ground of my discourse The dwelling places of the shepherds shall perish So doe the words sound for their substance Yet after the letter in the originall and Hebrew copy we are to read otherwise the fruitfull or pleasant places of the shepherds haue mourned Let vs briefly take a view of the words as they lie in order The dwelling places So is the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 englished not vnfitly For though properly it signifieth fruitfull and pleasant fields and pastures yet because shepherds did vse in the wildernesse neare vnto such fields and pastures to erect themselues little cottages and cabins that they might be at hand to defend their harmlesse sheep from sauage and rauenous beasts it may here well be englished the dwelling places The dwelling places of the shepherds In my first lecture vpon this prophecy I told you there were two sorts of shepherds In the first ranke I placed sheepmasters in the second their seruants Among the first sort of shepherds was Mesa King of Moab who 2 King 3.4 is called a shepherd and there registred to haue rendred to the King of Israel an hundred thousand lambes and an hundred thousand rammes with the wooll The

m Geverharl Elmenhorst com ad Minutium Felicem pag. 41. Salisberiensis in his first Booke de nugis cvrial cap. 10. call Egypt Matrem superstitionis the mother of superstition For as n Tom. 5. pag. 170. c. S. Hierome in his Comment vpon Esay 45. witnesseth Neuer was there any Nation so giuen to Idolatrie or worshipped such a number of monsters as Egypt did This notorious superstition and Idolatrie of the Egyptians so much spoken of by Christian writers and others is also in the sacred volumes of Holy writ censured and controlled In Exod. 12.12 the meanacing of the Lord is against them Against all the Gods of Egypt I will execute iudgment I the Lord. The gods of Egypt that is the Images and the Idoles which the Egyptians adored and worshipped Concerning which o De quadraginta duabus mansionibus Mans 2 Tom. 3. pag. 42. S. Hierome in an Epistle of his to Fabiola reporteth out of the Hebrew writers that in very same night the Children of Israel departed out of Egypt all the Temples of Egypt were ouerthrowne siue terrae motu siue iactu fulminum either with earth quakes or thunderbolts These Hebrew writers say further eâdem nocte lignea idola putrefacta fuisse metallica resoluta fusa lapidea comminuta that in the same night all the wooden Images were rotten all the mettall Images were dissolued and moulten all the stone Images were broken If so it were it was doubtlesse a great worke a great iudgement of God vpon those Egyptian monsters In Esay 19.1 their confusion is againe foretold Behold saith the Prophet the Lord rideth vpon a swift cloud and shall come into Egypt and the Idoles of Egypt shall moue at his presence and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it Where the Idoles of Egypt are the heart of Egypt They are called the heart of Egypt because the heart of the Egyptians did wholy depend vpon them for reliefe and succour The Lord rideth vpon a swift cloud and shall come into Egypt and the Idoles of Egypt shall moue at his presence and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it The Idols of Egypt shall moue and melt at the presence of the Lord. In Ierem. 43.13 their desolation is likewise denounced There the Lord threatneth to send Nabuchadnezzar the K. of Babylon his seruant into Egypt What shall he doe there He shall breake the Images of Bethshemesh that is in the land of Egypt and the houses of the Gods of the Egyptians shall be burnt with fire Thus you see it confirmed not onely by Christian writers and others but also by the sacred volumes of holy Scripture that the Egyptians were a superstitious and an Idolatrous people Superstitious were they and Idolatrous Happie then wast thou O Israell that the Lord brought thee vp from the land of Egypt Liue in Egypt thou couldst not with a good conscience nor would the Egyptians willingly suffer thee to worship God otherwise then themselues did To haue worshipped as they did must needs haue beene a Hell vnto thy soule and to haue done otherwise must needs haue brought certaine daunger to thine outward estate Acknowledge it therefore for a great benefit and blessing of God vpon thee that he brought thee vp from the land of Egypt God in reckoning vp this fauour of his his bringing vp Israel out of the land of Egypt teacheth vs what an intollerable thing it is to liue among Idolaters and what a speciall fauour it is to be deliuered from amongst them And this should stir vs vp to a thankfull recognition of Gods goodnesse towards vs who hath deliuered the Church wherein we liue from the Babylonish and Romish Idolatrie wherein our auncestors were nus-led and trained vp to worship and adore not the true and liuing God but Angels and Saints damned ●●●les it may be silver and gold stocks and stones Images and Idoles and what not From such grosse and palpable Idolatry we are by Gods goodnesse deliuered and now doe as a long time we haue done enioy the bright Sunne-shine of the p 1. Tim. 1 11. glorious Gospell of the blessed God our Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ Being now deliuered from the q Colos 1.13 power of darknesse vnder Antichrist and translated into the light of Christs Gospell Let it be our daily care for it is our dutie to walke worthy the light h Ephes 5.8 as children of light to walke in truth Ep. 3. Ioh. ver 3. to walke in loue Colos 5.2 to walke in newnesse of life Rom. 6.4 to walke not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8.1 If we walke after the flesh we shall mind the things of the flesh we shall be carnally minded and our end shall be death but if we walke after the spirit we shall mind the things of the spirit we shall be spiritually minded and our end shall be life and peace The choise is not difficult Life is better then death If you chuse life you must abandon and forsake the i Gal. 5.19 workes of the flesh which cause death Adulterie fornication vncleannesse lasciuiousnesse k Vers 20. hatred variance emulations wrath strife l Vers 21. envyings murthers drunkennesse revellings vsurie extortion oppression and such like are workes of the flesh and doe shut you out from life Yet may life be yours if you will be m Vers 18. led by the spirit n Vers 22. Loue ioy peace long suffering gentl●nesse goodnesse fayth meeknesse temperance are the fruit of the spirit Let these dwell among you and life shall be yours The God of life shall giue it you Hitherto you haue the first respect why it was beneficiall good for the people of Israel that they were brought vp from the land of Egypt It was good for them because the people of the land were superstitious and idolatrous and among such there is no good liuing The other respect now followeth It was beneficiall and good for the people of Israel that they were brought vp from the land of Egypt because the people of the land were full of crueltie and held Israel in subiection and seruitude Egypt was long a harbour to the Israelites but at length it prooued a Gaole vnto them The posteritie of Iacob finds too late what it was for their forefathers to sell Iacob a slaue into Egypt There arose vp a new Pharaoh a new king ouer Egypt he knew not Ioseph Then then were the Israelites contemned as drudges o Exod. 1.11 Task masters must be set ouer them to afflict them with their burdens Why so How had they offended They prospered too fast For thus sayth Pharaoh to his people Exod. 1.9 Behold the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier then we Come on let vs deale wisely with them lest they multiplie and it come to passe that when there falleth out any warre they ioyne also v to our enemies and fight