Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A34747
|
The nail & the wheel the nail fastned by a hand from heaven, the wheel turned by a voyce from the throne of glory / both described in two severall sermons in the Green-yard at Norwich by John Carter, pastor of Great St. Peters.
|
Carter, John, d. 1655.
|
1647
(1647)
|
Wing C654A; ESTC R34786
|
76,219
|
107
|
innumerable company of wheels but God accounts of them all but as of one great engine to bring to pass his Counsel and decrees Look up to the glorious heavens rouling over your heads The primum mobile the first moveable or first mover turns continually from East to West in 24. hours upon the poles of the world the other inferior orbs as so many cross wheels turn quite contrary from West to East upon the poles of the Zodiak and finish their circle in different spaces of time yet all these in respect of God put the aire and the bottles of rain and the earth and all to them are but as one great wheel to do his work See it plain in the 2. of Hosea v. 21. I wil hear saith the Lord. I wil hear the heavens and they shal hear the earth and the earth shal hear the corn and the wine and the oyle and they shal hear Jezreel Here you see are many wheels many second causes or means subordinate one to another as it were a wheel in a wheel but all joyn as one wheel to do Gods work viz. to feed and sustein his Israel The Lord of hosts hath abundunce of Souldiers under him yet all but one great Army whereby he gets the victory In a clock you see many wheels some greater some lesser some move one way some the quite contrary way some flower some quicker yet they are all one engine serving for one and the same end viz. to count the time and point at the hours There 's nothing more plain Let us make some Use of this and learn how to judg rightly of Gods admirable providence You must not take the work in pieces nor six your eye too much upon some one special wheel but you must take all together if you sever the wheels and look upon some particular dispensations you wil think the wheels move strangely Consider Joseph he was made as a wheel and if you mind only some particular turnings you wil think he was turned strangely he was turned into the ditch into a harlots house into the prison and yet the best of all the brethren other wheels also moved disorderly about him The Ismaelites were moved by covetousness his brethren moved by envy his Mris. turned by lust strange spectacles to look upon them severally but now mark the whole work of Gods providence and you shal see it good and comely by the turning of these wheels he brings about Josephs advancement and Israels preservation How many wheels and contrary motions were there about the passion of Jesus Christ The Jews were moved with envy if you look no further that 's a strange sight Judas was moved with covetousness if you look no further that 's a strange sight Pilate was moved with popular air and that 's a strange sight Christ was pierced and by wicked hands crucified and slain and if you look upon that alone oh it's a prodigious and dismall sight but take all the work of God's providence together and you will behold it beautifull and glorious by all these wheel's the Lord works the redemption of man the salvation of his Church the destruction of death and hell the conquest of the Devill and the exaltation of his Son and the glorification of his Saints When you see Tyrants prevaile and domineer and exercise savage cruelty When you see bloody Massacres of God's dear people holy Martyrs go to prisons slakes and flames when you see the Prophets and Ambassadors of the Lord slighted contemn'd silenced If you look no further these things will seem very sad and amazing but take all the whole work of God's providence together and you shall see it 's wise and good The Church is sowen with the Martyrs blood and made fruitfull The destruction of the Churches enemies is ripened the glory of the Saints hastned and in all God is glorified Consider therefore the motions of the wheels not by piece-meale but wholly and entirely part not one wheel from another I say as S. Augustine Atten â—e totum lauda totum Mark all and praise all In all the confusions that our eyes behold let this stay our minds though this wheel and that wheel and another wheel seem to us to move dangerously preposterously and disorderly threatning to crack and overthrow all yet in Gods hand they are all but one wheel and he will turn them so about that in the long runne they shall work out his own glory and his Churches good You have heard the word cryed Now let us hearken to The second part of the text TO whom was this word cryed to the Wheels And you have heard already what is signified by the wheels viz. The round world and all the creatures that are therein more especially the lower world and all sublunary things and here you may observe The mutability of all things in the world They are compared to wheels subject to continuall turning and change The condition of this world is quasi versatio continua as if it did run continually upon wheels here 's nothing firme stable or permanent The celestiall Spheres they run their rounds every day and the glorious lights of heaven are in continuall wheeling The Sun comes forth out of his tabernacle in the morning like a bridegroome and as a Gyant runs his race till he be mounted up to his meridian and then declines towards evening and sets commonly in a cloud The Moon sometimes it 's in the new sometimes encreasing sometimes in the full sometimes waning and ever in the change The Elements the fire the aire the water are in continuall motion and transmutation the earth which only is immoveable what is it but a stage of nothing but changings and turnings Upon this Theater kingdoms and common-wealths are turned up and down How were the four great Monurchies those high and dreadfull wheels rolled up and down from one to another from the Babylonians to the Persians from the Persians to the Grecians from the Grecians to the Romans And so are all the Nations before the Lord as the chaffe of the mountains before the wind and like a rolling thing before the whirlewind Esa 17. 13. Upon this Theater of the earth how is the Church of Christ wheeled and hurried up and down Now shee is in Aegypt by and by in Canaan not long after in Babylon and often driven into the Wildernesse sometimes in prosperity sometimes in persecution and never long in one condition You have her lively picture in the twelfth of the Revelation the first verse She is clothed with the Sun indeed but under her feet is the Moon to shew that her way is in continuall change and turning never long permanent in one condition Upon this Theater of the earth how do cities and Families wheel about Volvuntur revolvuntur Ziklag to day flourishing to morrow in the ashes Jerusalem a while the beauty of the whole earth her towers buildings and bulwarks the worlds wonder and within a while
furnished table bottles and flagons delicious dishes and a deale of Kitchin-stuff But what service do they as Magistrates Truly nothing at all that I can discern either for Church or Common-wealth These are only a kind of embossed nayls such as are driven into garments collars coaches trappings of horses chaires and other things only for state and ornament they have great and glorious bossed and gilded heads but a little ridiculous stalk hardly enough to hold their own or to keep them from falling out of their places they are so close driven that nothing can hang on them There are other of the high Nayls hang very full of things But of what Are they vessels of the Sanctuary Oh no such matter they bear up a deal of the Devils houshold-stuff Upon one there hangs a company of drunken ale-houses swearers prophane persons Sabbath-breakers cheaters and sharks these are upheld and born up bythem when honest men are thrown down to the ground Upon another hangs a knot of Anabaptists Antinomians Brownists Independents and others of the same bran disturbers of Sions peace these are countenanced and born up on high whilest the Orthodox party are sleighted cast off and suffered to fall flat on the ground Upon another depends a cluster of persons Popishly affected Malignants lignants Incendiaries such as these are born up and born out too upon all occasions Oh there 's too too many such rotten rusty misimployed nails 2. The middle nails they are the Ministers of the word the Clergy as they call them wel what hangs upon the most of them What but a plurality of livings A black gown or Canonical coat A service-book or book of homilys There did hang a while agone abundance of Copes Surplisses Alters Crucifixes Images and such trash til they were taken down by a strong hand But for powerful and frequent preaching prayer and the weighty works of the Ministry as strengthening the weak healing the sick binding up the broken bringing again that which was driven away and seeking that which was lost there 's nothing of all these to be seen amongst them Are these indeed for the glory of their fathers house 3. The lowest sort of nails they are the ordinary people Gentry and Commons Oh! What abundance of empty nails do we see round about Nothing at all hangs upon them only they take up a place in the wall There is a generation of Gentlemen and others and wel parted men too able to undergo good service and yet live without any calling any office any imployment at all as if they were born to no other end but only to spend and scatter what their progenitors had scraped together and left them but they wil not put under their shoulder to bear any burden of profitable employment in Church or Commonwealth See see what commonly hangs upon them bundles of hair Sampsons locks bushy periwigs dogs dice drabs cards and tables bottels of generous wine and flagons of strong drink red eyes swollen bellys and black souls nothing else at all Gentlemen are these things for the glory of your fathers house There are a company of idle Vagrants and sturdy Rogues that wander up and down the streets and lanes and high-ways ragged nails that stick out almost every where whethersoever we go and are ready to catch our garments and tear us almost in pieces and there 's nothing hangs on them but the sweat of other mens brows purses and garments and such things as they have torn from honest passengers Others there are of all sorts that indeed are cruelly loaden there hangs upon them huge bundles of oaths rapine Blasphemies Adulteries Treasons railings filthy speeches and all kind of sins but they wil bear no burden of service in the Church or Common-wealth Whereto shal I liken this accursed generation They are like unto Ezekiels vine-tree of which he speaks thus Son of man What cometh of the Vinetree above all other trees And of the Vine-branch which is amongst the trees of the Forrest Shal wood be taken thereof to do any work Or wil men make a pin thereof to hang a vessel thereon No No the Vine-stalk if once cut up wil not make a peg to hang a bottel on it wil not be profitable for any thing But what 's the end Behold it 's cast into the fire for fewel the fire devoureth both the ends of it and the midst of it is burnt is it meet for any work So shal it be with this unprofitable generation Therefore thus saith the Lord God As the Vine-tree among the trees of the forrest which I have given to the fire for fewel so wil I give them and I wil set my face against them they shal go out from one fire and another fire shal devour them Surely such nails as these shal not be suffered to stand long in the wall if a man see a nail stick up in his house of no use wil he not presently knock it out There were abundance of such nails as these in Juda and God knocked them out and threw them into Babylon Christ himself passeth sentence upon all such Cast that unprofitable servant into utter darkness there shal be weeping and gnashing of teeth Mat. 25. 30. Hear and tremble all you useless nails You unprofitable burdens of the earth Be you men or women that take up places in the world and do no service in the world in the name of the Lord I pass upon you Shebnas doome ver 25. In that day saith the Lord of hosts shal the nail that is fastned in the sure place be removed and be cut down and fall and the burden that was upon it shal be cut off for the Lord hath spoken it Of Exhortation and that is manifold and various to divers sorts of persons and to several dutys I am to direct my word of exhortation to 1. Magistrates 2. People The 1. Exhortation to the Magistrates You are all nails some higher some lower Remember that you are not for ornament only but chiefly and principally for use In the name of God let every one in his place do the office of a nail Truly all things in the Church and Common-wealth lye disorderly at this time or hang very dangerously and ready to fall and miscarry I beseech you let it be your care to uphold things let every nail bear something yea though you weaken your selves for the common good Take your charge in some particulars and that very shortly I speak to wise men a word wil suffice 1. Keep the peace Magistrates know your office you are all Commissioners for the peace and this is that which we are enjoyned to pray for you in authority That under you we may lead a quiet and a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty The nail holds things together when they are hanged upon it which lay scattered and sundred one from another before Yes upon one good pin they keep close How are the people