Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	corn_n	hear_v	oil_n	3,037	5	9.7075	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61847	A discourse of the two covenants wherein the nature, differences, and effects of the covenant of works and of grace are distinctly, rationally, spiritually and practically discussed : together with a considerable quantity of practical cases dependent thereon / by William Strong.	Strong, William, d. 1654.; Gale, Theophilus, 1628-1678.	1678 (1678)	Wing S6002; ESTC R10428	996,223	490

earth 5. Creatures and promises could never make a man happy if a mans interest in them were never so clearly discovered to him for it could never put his soul into a fruition of the chiefest good it would only make all to be faith and we should rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God 1 Pet. 1.9 and it is true that this is a joy unspeakable and glorious Fruitio est actus voluntatis circa finem importat quietationem delectationem anima in amato Fruition is an act of the will about the end and it imports the quietation and delectation of the soul in its beloved Medin But the soul would be for ever unquiet and always full of restlesness still tending towards God Heb. 12.23 therefore it enjoys him as the end of faith and hope and thence souls in Heaven are made perfect not only because their image is perfected by the beatifical vision but also because they are put into a fruition of that which was the highest and ultimate object of their faith and love and fruitio est nobilissima actio voluntatis the most noble act of the will and it 's this act upon the highest object that doth perfect the will and the perfection of the will is the perfection of the man as the act of the will is the act of the man Vse 1 § 4. From hence see the misery of all those that are out of Covenant with God they have all the Attributes of God against them and they have no inheritance in him thou mayst have large revenues amongst the creatures for God doth give Kingdoms unto the basest of men but it is but mica canibus projecta a crum thrown to a dog as Luther speaks of the Turkish Empire and in them all thou shalt but inherit the wind Prov. 11.29 for thou hast no inheritance in the Lord he is no God to thee tolle meum tolle Deum take away my and take away God it is unto thee as if there were no God And here it 's good to consider 1. If a man had all the creatures armed against him for his destruction as all men out of Covenant have for the Creation groans under their service that is the bondage of corruption spoken of Rom. 8.21 but also they are very ready to make war upon thee for when a man is taken into Covenant with God there is a league made with the beasts of the earth the stones of the field and the creeping things of the ground And God will hear the Heavens and the Heavens shall hear the Earth Hos 2.21 and the Earth shall hear the corn and the wine and the oyl and they shall hear Jezreel and I will sow her unto me in the earth and will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy c. All the creatures shall work together for their good and yet if God arm the meanest of the creatures against a man they shall destroy him Pharaoh the great King of Egypt that durst presume to war against God cannot contend with Flyes nor with the Lice and the Frogs he cannot fight a pitcht battel with the waves Now if a man cannot stand out a battel with the smallest of the creatures how can he fight against God Therefore I would a little reason with you as God doth with his people if thou hast run with the footmen Jer. 12.5 and they have wearied thee how wilt thou contend with horses and if in a land of peace they have wearied thee what wilt thou do in the swellings of Jordan if thou canst not stand it out against creatures how wilt thou be able to endure when the Lord shall rise up and all his Attributes shall be armed against thee For as this is the great comfort of the Saints and their last refuge so it 's the great terrour unto wicked men and their last destruction 2. Consider if it were but a threatning what a miserable thing it is to lye under any evil aspect thereof the Lord has spread out the Expansum of his Word over the rational world and the Lord rules all by it and according to it he will judge them all Zac. 1.6 Did not my word overtake your fathers for the Decree will surely bring forth it will not always carry the judgment in the womb of it and if it be so terrible a thing to be under the power of any one threatning of God Zeph. 2.2 what is it to lye under the evil aspect of all the threatnings of God that there is not a word in this book but speaks terrour unto the man much more under the evil aspects of all the Attributes of God 3. This is the happiness of the Saints that they have something in God to plead for them they have as it were a threefold Advocate 1 within themselves and so the Spirit pleads the causes of the soul 2 without them and so Jesus Christ is an Advocate with the Father 3 they have something in God himself I say not that I will pray the Father for you for the Father himself loves you c. So here is the misery of wicked men not only the Spirit pleads against them and will strive with them no more but becomes unto them a spirit of bondage in themselves and binds them over unto wrath and Christ pleads against them as Luther tells a story of one Doctor Krans in a Tract of his De Fascina spirituali in Gal. 3. Ego Christum negavi ideo stat coram Patre accusat me illam cogitationem tam fortiter conceperat ut nullâ adhortatione aut consolatione sibi pateretur excuti atque ita desperavit seipsum miserrimè occîdit c. I denied Christ and therefore he stands before the Father and accuseth me c. The learned do for our understanding frame a holy kind of conflict between the Attributes of God according to the liberty allowed them in Scripture speaking of God after the manner of men in the work of our Redemption as if the Lord were reduced into some straights by the cross demands of several Attributes Justice calling for vengeance upon sinful and cursed creatures and with Justice the Truth of God doth joyn to make good his threatning the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye and mercy on the other side pleads for compassion towards miserable and seduced man and this sets infinite wisdom on work to reconcile the different pleas of the Attributes of God in mans redemption but what a misery will that man be in that shall have no Attribute of God to plead for him but they shall all joyn in their pleas and demands against him not only those terrible Attributes that the soul is afraid of as Justice and Truth and Holiness but also the Attributes in which a mans hope is Men cry out God is merciful Oh but mercy is set against thee O sinner and thou hast no interest in his mercy

upheld but now the Spirit comes in and makes bare his arm dispells the darkness and saith Behold me it is I now I come and so a mans comforts and supports come in from an immediate discovery of the Light of Gods countenance as if it were a voice from Heaven as it was to Christ This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased 7. He doth sometimes give unto his People courage and assistance immediately beyond what is natural unto them Zach. 4.7 and above and beyond all the means Zac. 4.7 Not by power nor by might but by my Spirit saith the Lord it is spoken of the Spirit of God immediately strengthning and stirring up the spirits of instruments beyond their own natural strength as Samson was the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and then he had the strength of many men in him Isa 35.6 and Isa 35.6 The lame shall leap as an Hart and the tongue of the dumb shall sing it is spoken of immediate strength and healing by the grace of Christ that as the Lord Jesus did heal men and with a word only and without means their feet and ankle-bones received strength and they did leap as a Hart and praise God so here they have immediate assistance as David had in the business of Goliah the spirit of fortitude came upon him for that service and the promise is Zac. 12.8 The weak shall be as David as full of courage in any difficult services that they should be called unto as David was when the Lord shall say to him that is of a fearful heart Be strong and it shall be so Esa 35.4 and so Mat. 10.19 It shall be given you in that hour Luk. 21.25 I will give you a mouth and wisdom that all your enemies shall not be able to resist for it is not you that speak but the Spirit of your Father that speaks in you that as Samson was not acted by his own strength so neither did they speak by their own spirits but by an immediate assistance from the Spirit both directing their minds suggesting to them the matter and also guiding their tongues and directing them unto words what to say and how they ought to speak that as 't is said of the Prophets the Lord speaks in them Heb. 1.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 1.1 for they are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they were transported or carried by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1.20 they were not acted according to their own spirits 2 Pet. 1.20 neither did they speak according to their own parts or light but as they were directed by the immediate assistance of the Spirit of God at the same time so there is an immediate assistance that the Lord hath promised unto his people when he doth call them forth unto any service wherein the immediate presence of God and power of the Spirit is necessary and required it is beyond the power or strength of a man and it is that which the Lord many times doth he will bring his people into such a condition that there shall be no means for them to look unto that they shall be wholly fatherless and have neither Sun-light nor Star-light in the creature receiving the sentence of death in themselves that they may look for Gods immediate appearing 2 Cor. 1.9 But we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves that we could see no means to escape but now must have an eye to an almighty and immediate power of God that we might trust not in our selves but in God that raiseth the dead that our deliverance must be a kind of resurrection from the dead And the people of God if they have the means yet they look upon them as nothing We have no might against this great multitude but our eyes are towards thee and if they have no means they can look upon him that hath a creating power that can make waters to break out in the Wilderness and streams in the Desart and the parched ground shall become a Pool and the thirsty ground Springs of water in the habitation of Dragons where each lay shall be grass with reeds and rushes that which only was fit and delightsom unto the Devil the Satyrs that shall be good for the glory of God and the use of man as it is Esa 35.7 8. 2. There is in the next place a mediate Providence and that is in the manner of Gods ordering of all things in the use of means and so all the means that the Lord does use are for the good of his people Rom. 8.28 All things work together for their good that though the Lord doth work by means and doth make use of second causes to produce their effects yet they do all concur in this that they do conspire for the good of the Elect of God Hos 2.21 22. I will hear the heavens and they shall hear the earth Hos 2.21 22. and the earth shall hear the corn and the wine and the oyl and they shall hear Jezreel the Lord doth work for the good of his people by second causes he doth not rain corn from Heaven as he did Manna in the Wilderness but the Earth shall hear the corn and he will give it them out of the earth and in all the actings of second causes it is the Lord that hath the great hand he doth make them to be a means of blessing or else they could never prove so to be it is the Lord that doth hear the Heavens it 's a mighty strain of speech that the Heavens and the Earth that were before deaf and dumb to them that took no compassion upon them in their necessity and answered them not now when they are reconciled are brought as it were to be humble suitors and petitioners for them the Heavens shall say Lord I would give my influence rain to refresh thy people and the Earth shall say Lord I would give my strength for the good of thy people also c. For as it is by virtue of the Covenant of the Saints that all the creatures stand so it is by their Covenant also that they do act it is by being betrothed unto God that all the creatures are in Covenant with them and it is for them that all means do act freely and all creatures willingly do serve for it 's their redemption that they wait for and long for but unto other men they are made subject not willingly but the Lord hath subjected them in hope Rom. 8.20 21. but their subjection is an act of Soveraignty and not of choice for they would not serve the lusts of ungodly men though they are willing to serve the necessities of the Saints therefore all the means that the Lord doth use are for the good of the Saints and it is for them that they work in all that they do 1. He it is that doth provide and appoint means there is in

them as if his sufficiency were in them then immediately the creatures have left their place and they have gotten the rule over the man and this is an evil that many times befals the best men they do not keep the world at a distance and confine it to its own place as they ought to do but when a man saith The creatures are my comfort but my sufficiency is not in them my portion is not in them ubi omnia mea sunt tu scis this will keep the creatures from incroaching upon a man and usurping authority over a man Tenet and bring them into subjection unto his servants which is contrary to the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free hence it comes to pass that men set their hearts too much upon them contrary to Psal 69.10 If riches increase set not your hearts upon them The more any mans heart runs out upon the creature and the more he doth place his happiness in any of them the more his soul departs from the alsufficiency of God And hence if you take away the creature from a man he saith you have taken away my heart and therefore he sorrows as a man without hope when another man can see the creatures departing and melting as ice under his feet and he can rejoyce in their departure and bid them farewel with joy because he has had the Moon under his feet and these being gone he knows he shall be restored unto that wherein more immediately his alsufficiency doth consist And the way to cast off this weight is to keep up the alsufficiency of God in the soul all my sufficiency lies in him alone and because he has made over his alsufficiency to me therefore I will not look upon any thing else as my sufficiency and happiness the man whose eyes are opened to see his alsufficiency to be in God in the middle of the creature-enjoyments is in a blessed condition 8. That the soul may upon this ground live in God immediately as in whom his alsufficiency doth consist 1 Thess 1.1 Joh. 3.21 there is a being in God and a dwelling in God he that dwells in love dwells in God and a working in God he comes to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God and therefore Nazianzen speaks of grace that it doth after a sort deifie the man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only begin a divine nature in him but making him to live out of himself in the alsufficiency of the Divine nature and the School-men speak of an illapsus Dei a certain illapse or coming down of God into the soul he is said to dwell in us 2 Cor. 6.16 that is cum infinita quadam opulentia with a certain kind of infinite plenitude and by this means spiritus nunc ab omni velle liber est acsi in coelo aut terra c. as if there were nothing that he did stand in need of in Heaven and Earth for when Gods love dwells in us it is in the manifestation of God and when God in his sufficiency dwells in us it is in the manifestation of it Harp p. 678. c. and therefore the soul looks upon God ut mare quoddam infinitae magnitudinis Harp pag. 666. our sufficiency comes from him and returns unto him again but all is in him and the soul looks upon all the creatures as things indifferent but if he sin he looks upon alsufficiency to pardon him Who is a God like our God pardoning iniquity transgression and sin and he looks upon alsufficiency for healing and if he has a work to do for God he looks upon alsufficiency for strength and if he has a cross to bear he looks for the support of everlasting arms and if there be creatures either to work with him or against him he saith that they can do neither good nor evil they work but as instruments in the hand of God and the wicked man is but thy sword Nebuchadnezzar that great King is but the staff of mine anger and if there be no creatures Psal 17. he saith there is no need of any for he is as able to save with few as many and his supplies tarry not for man he waits not for the sons of men nor for any humane concurrence in his work Mic. 5. and therefore his eyes are turned away from beholding vanity and he lives upon God alone for he saith What is Heaven and what have the Angels of God and the souls of just men made perfect to feed upon they neither eat nor drink they marry not all earthly comforts and relations cease they are but for the time of this life and no more but then God is all in all now if it shall be enough to live upon him in Heaven and it shall be there my happiness and perfection surely the more my heart is staid on him and the more it is setled upon his alsufficiency the nearer it comes to happiness and the less shall my spirit be disquieted by the changes and uncertainties of things below and unto this Christ did train up his Disciples Do not say What shall I eat and what shall I drink but say There is an alsufficiency in God which I have an interest in and it shall be manifested for me either for my provision or my protection for he that hath made it over to me by Covenant will lay it out for me and therefore I leave my self with him and cast my care upon him for my sufficiency is in him alone § 3. This Alsufficiency of God belongs unto none but unto his own Covenant-people it 's a joy that no stranger can intermeddle withal it is the hidden Manna that they only do feed upon who are fled for refuge to the hope set before them Gen. 17.1 2. I am God alsufficient walk before me and be upright and I will make a covenant with thee to be a God to thee and he is a Sun and a Shield not unto every one but unto them that walk uprightly Psal 84.11 there is a secret river the streams whereof do make glad the City of God when the earth is moved and the mountains cast into the middle of the Sea Psal 46.4 there is an Olive-tree that doth drop oil into the golden Candlestick Zac. 4.3 Zac. 4.3 it is new Jerusalem that comes down from God out of Heaven that has no need of the light of the Sun but the glory of the Lord and of the Lamb are the light thereof it is spoken of the light of creatures Rev. 21.23 and not of Scriptures as some would interpret it it 's only upon the glory that there is a covering 1 It is only by Covenant that he is thus made over and therefore it can be only unto his Covenant-people all men in Adam have forfeited their interest in God and they can lay no claim to him though it 's true that men in