Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	day_n	light_n	rule_v	3,378	5	10.4702	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A84600	The prisoners praises for their deliverance from the long imprisonment in Colchester. On a day of publique thanksgiving set apart for that purpose by the gentlemen of the committee of Essex, who for their fidelity in serving their country were surprised by the enemie at Chelmesford. In a sermon upon the sixth, seventh, & eighth, verses, of the CXLIX. Psalm. / preached at Rumford Septemb. 28. 1648. By Samuel Fairclough, pastor of the congregation at Ketton in Suffolk.	Fairclough, Richard, 1594-1677.	1650 (1650)	Wing F108; Thomason E589_4; ESTC R206306	32,215	40

by making joyful and perpetual confessions professions and declarations thereof to your brethren and the Congregations of his people that all you fathers make them known to your children and they also make your deliverance and praises to be remembred by future generations This is punctually prescribed to be observed in uttering praises for deliverances from bonds and imprisonment Psa 107. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness viz. for being the Author of their liberty and declaring his wonderful works in their deliverance to the children of men which also is in like manner observed in Peters praise for his escape out of prison Act. 12. where besides the thankful confession of it to God Vers 17. he both declares it to the Congregation of Saints himself and also requires the Church to make relation of it to others and especially to James and Iohn who being publique persons he knew would cause the praises of God to be remembred and celebrated therefore in all the assemblies of the Saints wheresoever they came in conformity to whose practise let me exhort you also to go tell your Iohns and Iames and other brethren how great things God hath done for you in this your enlargement so that as the Spirit of God in your very case requires Psal 102. 18 19 20 21. it may be written for the generations to come and the people that shall be created may praise the Lord for you and with you saying God looked down from the height of his Sanctuary from Heaven did the Lord behold the Earth To hear the groaning of us Prisoners and to loose us that were appointed to death That we might declare the Name of the Lord in Zion and his praise in Jerusalem When the people are gathered together and the Kingdoms to serve the Lord. Secondly Heighten the verbal expression of your praises 2. By Commemoration unto God by a thankful Commemoration of Gods great mercy in your deliverance between the Lord and your selves the practise whereof I would have you learn from the Psalmist Psal 136. where he praiseth GOD with high praises First for the work of Creation unto the tenth Verse and then for the deliverance of his people from the Egyptian bondage and thraldom Vers 18. In both which he heightens the praises of GOD these two ways First divides the total sum of GODS goodness into the several parcels and particular remarkable passages of his providence therein Secondly He multiplies and reiterates the expression and attribution of his praises according to the nature and number of the particulars observed in his antecedent distinction this is the method he observes in the first part of the Psalm unto the tenth Verse where he praiseth God for works of Creation dividing the mercy and multiplying the praise according to the number of the special Attributes and Actions of God observed therein First he observes the attribute of Goodness of God and then praiseth him for that Oh give thanks unto the Lord because he is good for his mercy endureth for ever Then observes him as God of Gods Vers 2. and praiseth him for that by it self Oh give thanks to the God of Gods for his mercy c. Then as Lord of Lords Vers 3. Then takes notice of his wonderful Power By diviving the mercy That alone doth great wonders Vers 4. Then of the attribute of his Wisdom in making the Heavens Vers 5. And having thus observed the distinction of Attributes in God and multiplyed Praises according to the number of them he then proceeds to the division of the total of his work into the principal parts of it and multiplies his Praises according to the number of them As first His stretching out the earth above the waters Vers 6. Then the making great Lights Vers 7. The Sun to rule the day Vers 8. The Moon and Stars to rule the night And as he observes this method of division of the mercy of Creation and the multiplication of praises for it so in praising God for their deliverance from bondage and their slavery in Egypt which is more properly your case he first in the beginning of each verse doth distinctly observe the several parts and circumstances of their deliverance as that he smote the first-born of Egypt and brought Israel from amongst them and with a strong hand overthrew Pharaoh and smote great Kings and famous Kings Sihon King of the Amorites and Og King of Bashan and unto every one of these particulars adds a particular reiteration of the praise of God for the fame in the end of each verse still inculcating and concluding That his mercy endureth for ever which is written for your learning and instruction that you also in praising God for your liberty should particularize the total sum of your safety and then to multiply and reiterate the expression of your praises accordingly And multipliing the praise Come therefore and sing unto the Lord a new Song and praise him this day in the Congregation of Saints and with good Ezra Heman and Asaph Ezra 3.10 11. Praise ye the Lord after the Ordinance of David King of Israel singing together by course praising and giving thanks unto the Lord your God because he is good for his mercy endureth for ever To the God of Gods that stood by us when all other comforts sailed us For his mercy endureth for ever To the Lord of Lords that hath subdued our Enemies under us For his mercy endureth for ever That rescued us from anger and rage of the multitude when they first apprehended us at Chelmsford For his mercy endureth c. That preserved us in the long march from Brantree to Colchester For his mercy endureth c. That suffered not our Enemies to do us any harm For his mercy c. That turned their hearts to be civil to us For his mercy c. That secured us from the bullets that were shot through our chambers For his mercy c. That made our society so comfortable whiles we were in custody For his mercy c. That did provide for us meat and drink plentifully when our Enemies starved For his mercy endureth c. Who by his Spirit stirred up so many to pray for us For his mercy c. And in his faithfulness answered those prayers For his mercy c. That caused our Enemies to give us life when they yielded themselves to death For his mercy c. That after so many weeks imprisonment brought us home with Honor Safety and Freedom For his mercy endureth for ever Thus if you shall begin to particularize your mercies and then proceed in multiplying your praises you will raise the expression of them to be high praises of God in your Mouths verbally unto which the Text requires another and higher expression of them to be added Namely An actual raising them in your lives The real expression of praise heightened with a two-edged sword in your hands which two-edged sword in your

not onely a purpose of Reformation consequent but actual performance of Vows and Covenants of Reformation for present as David in Psal 116.18 I will offer praise and pay my vows now in the presence of all his people even in the Courts of Gods House which made our Saviour injoyn an antecedent actual reconciliation and satisfaction before the offering a gratulatory gift as if an intention of it afterward would not be sufficient God rejects all the Solemn Feasts of his people Isa 1. Upon this ground They had not before put away the violence in their hands but they were still full of blood a day of Thanksgiving is not a day of running into more debts by future Covenants but a coming out of debt by present payment in which respect more practical holiness is required to be exercised in a day of Thanksgiving then in a day of Humiliation Having thus confirmed to your Judgments the duty to be high by way of Demonstration suffer me now to improve it on your consciences by way of Application wherein I shall look no way but to the sanctifying of the Name of our God in relation to your present occasion who have for that end purpose called me hither and that first by way of Information 2. Exhortation 3. Direction And for the first let me inform you and by you all other Use of Information of the excellency of the work concerning the great and high Work which ye have undertaken to perform in setting a day apart for this high Service in delivering you from your late restraint and Imprisonment a duty of so transcendent nature as requires the abilities of the Angels in Heaven rather then of any persons Gentlemen or others in earth and a far more suitable work for a glorified Saint above then poor sinful souls beneath you have herein undertaken to return this day unto God all the splendor both of the vertue and beauty of his Glory which hath shined forth in this work of your deliverance to carry him home to day the crop and fruit of all the passages of his divine providence exercised for you or dispensed unto you therein which is more prized and is dearer to him then any thing else in heaven and earth You have undertaken to perform that service unto God this day that shall exalt him that is the highest already to magnifie him that is greatest already and to glorifie him that is already most glorious yet how high great and glorious soever before your service began when it is once done he shall thereby be rendred to all Spectators more glorious then he was before in raising higher thoughts of God his power faithfulness and graciousness as well in their as your own hearts Yea and you have undertaken to make the day a good day and more holy then any other days whatsoever by exercising a greater measure of Scripture Light effectual Faith and practical Holiness then ever Yea to perform that Service which being rightly performed will ravish the divine thoughts and heart of the Almighty with highest delight and satisfaction as with Incense and sweet Odors in his nostrils I note this Applied 1. for Incouragement first to raise the value and estimation of this duty in your hearts and to stir up and quicken your endeavours and resolutions in the observation of the same being simply and absolutely the most sublime and perfect part of Gods Service under Heaven wherein the conscientiousness of men in observing such days according to rule discovers more sincerity of love to God and obedience to his Will then all other duties either of doing or suffering for God besides if this be neglected because necessity fear self-love may drive us to fast pray and extort other duties from us but only sense and feeling of Gods Love to us and our delight in him can draw us to this so high a Service which is so pleasing to God that he declares himself to be pleased in no other duty of his Worship whatsoever it be further then it is gratulatory and done in way of thankfulness unto him and make for the exaltation of his praise I note this in the second place Applied 2. for Caution to discover the odiousness and heinousness of their sin that shall neglect contemn or abuse this so high a Service as celebrating Gods high Praises in consciencious observing the days of Thanksgiving which is then perpetrated when they are appointed and also performed rather as a Ceremony then in sincerity rather as a matter of pomp and state in relation to men then as a duty of highest devotion and conscience towards God where men turn the days of Thanksgiving to God to days of liberty and licenciousness in themselves to days of inordinate eating Exod. 32. and excessive drinking as if with the Israelites their days of Thanksgiving to God were directed only to worship the golden Calf in sitting down to eat and drink and rise up to play and their practise therein the same that the wicked Jews observed in their Feasts against our Saviour to let loose a Malefactor Mat. 26. and crucifie the Son of God by which means it comes to pass that whereas days of Thanksgiving should be of all other the holiest these men by their wickedness change them into the prophanest possibly some of these men make some conscience to prepare themselves with some devotion when they come to the duties of hearing praying fasting c. but when they come to observe days of Thanksgiving their care is about nothing else but to put on their richest apparel to get ready a Thanksgiving dinner to be jovial with their carnal friends in carnal ways which done God must rest himself contented thus to be glorified but Oh ye foolish people Deut. 32.8 and unwise do you thus requite the Lord Will you call this a day of Thanksgiving and giving high Praises to God to eat the fat and drink the sweet and then being thereby waxen fat and pampered with Jesurun to kick up your heel against God by your prophaneness whom you pretend to extol by your high Praises What is this observation of days of Thanksgiving unto God but to do therein unto God as the Souldiers did unto Christ first to bow the knee of their profession by praise to worship him and then by their irreligiousness and excess to spit on his face and buffet him and instead of putting upon his head a crown of high Praises and Glory to crown him with the thorns of their prophaneness and infamy and could our Lord Jesus's voyce be heard in the midst of their confused jollity they would hear him say unto them as he speaks to the Jews John 10.32 Many good works have I done for you for which you pretend to serve me for which of them do you thus stone me I expected bread to day you give me stones I looked for fish and you give serpents I looked for high praises and you have