Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	angel_n	heaven_n	lord_n	10,698	5	3.8517	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61809	Of the reverence due to God in his publick worship a sermon preach'd before the King & Queen, at White-Hall, March 25, 1694, being the 5th Sunday in Lent / by the Right Reverend Father in God, Nicholas Lord Bishop of Chester.	Stratford, Nicholas, 1633-1707.	1694 (1694)	Wing S5937; ESTC R687	12,865	32

speaks at our very best estate we are all Vanity It is the Observation of the Father now mentioned That when St. Paul would shew the distance between God and Man he doth not represent it to be so great but we may conceive it to be much greater For what says he Chrys de Incomprehens Dei Nat. Hom. 2. Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it Why hast thou made me thus Hath not the Potter power over the Clay to make of the same lump one vessel to honour and another to dishonour The distance says he between God and Man is as great as that between the Potter and the Clay Yea much greater for if a Man seem more Noble and more Beautiful than the Clay it is not the diversity of Nature but the Skill of the Artificer that hath made the difference but so great is the distance between God and Man that neither can the Tongue express nor the Mind conceive it Let us consider 2. What God is to us and in what Relation we stand to him It is he that raised us at first out of Nothing into Being that spake the word and we were made And shall we not with the humblest Reverence fall down before the Lord our Maker It is he by whom we live and move as well as have our Being in whose hands our Breath is and whose are all our Ways And shall we not devoutly adore him upon whom we continually so entirely depend that we can neither breathe nor live any longer than he sustains us It is he that daily poureth his Benefits upon us All those Enjoyments that render our Being more desireable than not to be we owe solely to him as our constant Benefactour And shall we not revere his Goodness to whom we owe all the good things we enjoy Shall we by our unseemly Carriage toward him provoke him to become our Enemy who hath been so great a Friend to us It is he upon whom we depend for all future Blessings from whose Bounty alone we can hope for the continuance of our Comforts in this World and for an Immortal Bliss in the next And shall we not pay all possible Respect to him by whom we hope to be made everlastingly happy It is he that hath redeemed us from the hands of our Enemies not with such poor corruptible things as Silver and Gold but with the precious Blood of his own beloved Son Since therefore we are not our own ought we not to glorifie him both with our Body and Spirit which he hath purchased at so dear a rate In short if the foregoing Considerations do not move us let us once more consider That this God who is our Maker and Preserver our munificent Benefactour and most merciful Redeemer is also our supreme Judge from whose Sentence there lies no Appeal We must there is no avoiding it but whether we will or no we must all appear before his dreadful Tribunal to give an account of our Behaviour toward him And can we hope for a favourable Sentence from him if in our most solemn Worship of him we carry our selves toward him as if he were a Being so mean as deserved not to be fear'd by us Consider 3. That this great and incomprehensible Majesty is in a peculiar manner present with us when we assemble together in his House to worship him Though he be substantially present every where yet in some places he is present in greater State as I may say than in other and by consequence a more awful Deportment is there required of us Heaven is the Place where he keeps his Court where his chief Ministers of State constantly attend his Throne where he most illustriously displays the Majesty of his Glory and from whence he dispatches his Ambassadours to negotiate his Affairs in this lower World But now as Earthly Kings have usually their different Palaces one in the Imperial City surpassing all the rest in Splendour and Magnificence others of inferiour Note in more obscure Palaces and at a great distance from the Seat Imperial so this King of kings who dwells in Heaven in Glory unapproachable by mortal Eyes hath also his Mansion-houses in which he dwells here on Earth and hath his Officers of State there also attending on him though not in such shining Robes as in Heaven Such are the Places set apart for his Publick Worship in these he is otherways present than in common Places and therefore these are by way of distinction called in Scripture His Houses and He is said to dwell in them Thus he dwelt among his ancient People first in the Tabernacle as his moveable House while they were in their Travels thro' the Wilderness and in the Temple afterward as his fixed Habitation when they came to be settled in the Land of Canaan as this latter is expresly called by David his Palace so he 2 Chron. 29. 1 19. himself said of it Here will I dwell for I have a delight therein If it be now enquired how or in what manner God is more peculiarly present in Church-Assemblies than in other places Though I might shew you that he is so sundry ways and in divers manners and more particularly by the communication of his Holy Spirit to all those who come duly prepared to receive it yet as more proper to the Argument I am now upon I Answer briefly by the Presence of his Heavenly Attendants See Mr. Mede upon this Text. the Holy Angels as a King is more eminently present where his Court is than where he himself is alone in Person Hence Jacob having seen a Vision of Angels upon his awakeing says Surely the Lord is in this place and Gen. 28. 16 17. I knew it not What did not Jacob know that God was in every place and by consequence in that where he then was Yea doubtless The meaning therefore is God is in a more solemn manner in this place than in others he is here as in his Palace with his prime Ministers attending on him as appears by what follows How dreadful is this place this is no other but the House of God this is the Gate of Heaven Now that the Angels are present in the Assemblies for his Worship we have sufficient evidence both in the Old Testament and in the New The Psalmist speaking of Mount Sion the place set apart for his publick Worship says The Chariot of God is twice ten thousand thousands of Angels the Lord is among them Sinai is in Psalm 68. 17. the Sanctuary so the words are to be render'd according to the Original By the Chariot of God is meant the Host of Angels by which God's special Presence is convey'd from Heaven to Earth and the plain meaning of the words is this That a great Host of Angels does now attend upon God in Mount Sion the place of his Public Worship as they did formerly on Mount Sinai at the giving of the Law there This Angelical Presence