Selected quad for the lemma: diversity_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
diversity_n	church_n	prophet_n	teacher_n	471	5	9.2767	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39665	Husbandry spiritualized, or, The heavenly use of earthly things consisting of many pleasant observations, pertinent applications, and serious reflections and each chapter concluded with a divine and suitable poem : directing husband-men to the most excellent improvements of their common imployments : whereunto is added ... several choice occasional meditations / by John Flavell.	Flavel, John, 1630?-1691.	1674 (1674)	Wing F1166; ESTC R26136	198,385	305

that at its first transplanting into Italy 't was watered with wine I cannot say saith he that you have been so watered by me I dare not but this I can humbly and truly say that if our choicest strength and spirits may be named instead of water wine or if the blessing which hath gone along with these waters at any time hath turned them into wine in vigour upon your souls then hath God by me watered your roots with wine The Husbandman builds his house where he makes his purchase dwells upon his Land and frequently visits it he knows that such as dwell far from their Lands are not far from loss So doth God where-ever he plants a Church there doth he fix his habitation intending there to dwell Psal. 46. 5. God is in the midst of her she shall not be moved Thus God came to dwell upon his own Fee and Inheritance in Iudea Levit. 26. 11 12. And I will set my tabernacle amongst you and will be your God and ye shall be my people Which promise is again renew'd to his Churches of the New Testament 2 Cor. 6. 16. And when the Churches shall be in their greatest flourish and purity then shall there be the fullest and most glorious manifestation of the divine presence among them Rev. 21. 3. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying Behold the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and be their God Hence the Assemblies are called the places of his feet And there they behold the beauty of the Lord Psal. 27. Husbandmen grudge not at the cost they are at for their tillage but as they lay out vast sums upon it so they do it cheerfully And now O inhabitants of Ierusalem and men of Iuda judge I pray you betwixt me and my vineyard what could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it And as he bestows upon his heritage the choicest mercies so he doth it with the greatest cheerfulness for the saith Ier. 32. 41. I will rejoyce over them to do them good and I will plant them in this Land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul. It is not the giving out of mercy saith one that grieveth God but the recoyling of his mercies back again upon him by the creatures ingratitude When Husbandmen have been at cost and pains about their Husbandry they expect fruit from it answerable to their pains and expences about it Behold saith Iames the Husbandman waiteth for the precious fruits of the earth Iam. 5. 7. And he looked that it should bring forth fruit Isa. 5. 2. This heavenly Husbandman waits for the fruits of his fields also never did any Husbandman long for the desired Harvest more than God doth for the fruits of holiness from his Saints great are the expectations of God from his people And when the time of the fruit drew near he sent his servants to the Husbandmen that they might receive the fruits of it Husbandman are much delighted to see the success of their labours it comforts them over all their hard pains and many weary dayes to see a good increase Much more is God delighted in beholding the flourishing graces of his people it pleases him to see his plants laden with fruit and his valleys sing with corn Cant. 6. 2. My beloved is gone down into his garden into his beds of spices to feed in the gardens and to gather lillies These beds of spices say Expositors are the particular Churches the companies of Believers he goes to feed in these gardens like as men go to their gardens to make merry or to gather fruit Cant. 4. 16. He eats his pleasant fruit viz. His peoples holy performances sweeter to him than any Ambrosia thus he feeds in the gardens and he gathers lillies when he translates good souls into his Kingdom above For the Lord taketh pleasure in his Saints and will beautifie the meek with salvation The Husbandman is exceedingly grieved when he sees the hopes of a good crop disappointed and his fields prove barren or blasted So the Lord expresses his grief for and anger against his people when they bring forth no fruits or wilde fruits worse than none Hos. 9. 16. Ephraim is smitten their root is dryed up Christ was exceedingly displeased with the fig-tree and cursed it for its barrenness it grieves him to the heart when his servants return to him with such complaints as these We have laboured in vain we have spent our strength for nought Husbandmen imploy many labourers to work in their fields there is need to many hands for such a multiplicity of business God hath diversity of workmen also in the Churches whom he sends forth to labour in his spiritual fields Eph. 4. 12. He gave some Apostles some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry Amos 3. 7. I have sent my servants the Prophets 'T is usual with the Apostles to place this title of servant among their honorary titles though a prophane mouth once called it Probosum artificium a sordid artifice Christ hath stampt a great deal of dignity upon his Ministers in retaining them for the nearest service to himself 1 Cor. 4. 1. Let a man so account of us as the Ministers of Christ they are workers together with God the Husbandman works in the field among his labourers and the great God disdaineth not to work in and with his poor servants in the work of the Ministry The work about which Husbandmen imploy their servants in the field is toylsom and spending You see they come home at night as weary as they can draw their legs after them But Gods workmen have a much harder task than they Hence they are set forth in Scripture by the laborious ox 1. Cor. 9. 9. Rev. 4. 7. Some derive the word Deacon from a word that signifies dust to shew the laboriousness of their imployment labouring till even choaked with dust and sweat 'T is said of Epaphroditus Phil. 2. 13. That for the work of Christ he was sick and nigh unto death not regarding his life to supply their lack of service The Apostles expression Col. 1. ult is very emphatical Whereunto I also labour striving according to his working which worketh in me mightily The word signifies such spending labour as puts a man into an agony and blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh small find so doing The immediate end of the Husbandmans labour and his servants labour is for the improvement of his Land to make it more flourishing and fruitful The scope and end of the Ministry is for the Churches benefit and advantage They must not lord it over God's heritage as if the Church were for them and not they for the Church nor serve themselves of it but