Selected quad for the lemma: end_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
end_n	east_n	north_n	west_n	5,069	5	9.1516	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80872	A discourse of spiritual blessings or a discovery I. That every Christian is blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ. In four sermons. II. That God hath a high account of the least grace in the saints. In three sermons. By Mr. John Cromwell, late pastor of a church of Christ in the city of Norwich.	Cromwell, John, 1632 or 3-1685.	1685 (1685)	Wing C7038A; ESTC R228995	89,109	202

give thee So I may say to a Christian Christian come look from the one end of the Scripture to the other look upwards look downwards look on this hand and look on the other hand from the East to the West from the North to the South Behold all this God hath given thee Ay but I am poor saies the Christian it is no matter thy poverty doth not destroy thy right thy Poverty makes no alteration in thy right do not say in thy Heart this is for those that are tall Cedars this is for those that are fruitful but as for me alas I am not well if there be but a little though never so little thy right is the same a little grace you see doth give right to the greatest blessings and the greatest blessings are established upon the least grace Blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven There is nothing in the Kingdom but what is theirs that are poor in Spirit that have but little and are sensible that they have but a little though they have but a little yet blessed are the poor for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven 2. The same grace that gives the right makes the difference the gradual difference Though there be a gradual difference in the receipt yet it is the same grace It may be the Lord hath given thee five Talents it may be to another he hath given but two and it may be he hath given to another but one Talent well but yet I say it is the same grace that gives all those Talents and that gives a like right with those various or disproportioned gifts it is the same grace all issue from the same Fountain and therefore it is that the least grace will be looked after He that gave thee a right to five Talents gave thy Brother as good and as equal a right to one he that gave thy Neighbour a Possession of a great measure of grace and thereby it may be his right is more manifested it was the same grace that gave thee the Possession of a little grace and yet thy right is as substantial and true because the grace that giveth grace differenceth in its giving and yet gives the same right under these different gifts 4. The least grace discovers an interest in the greatest relations as well as the highest degree of grace do's Where there is a great deal of grace you say surely this is a Child of God Ay and there is one that hath but a grain of grace that is as surely the Child of God as he that hath more he is as surely born of God as he that hath the greatest degree of grace here is one that it may be can fill a Prayer with grace and here is another that hath hardly grace enough to stock a few Petitions or it may be he hath grace to stock a Confession or two and he puts forth that little grace that he hath in his Confession or Petitions what then I tell you God will take care of the one as well as of the other the least grain shall not fall to the ground because the least grain gives a discovery of an interest in the greatest relations thou sayest surely this is a Man of God why O he hath a great deal of grace and I say as surely that poor man is a Man of God why because he hath a little grace A Member of Jesus Christ is that man whose grace is flourishing Ay and that man is also a Member of Jesus Christ whose grace lies under the ashes there are no Flamings forth as yet Ay but my Friends there is a spark under the Embers I shall likewise open this in these two Branches 1. The first is this Greatest relations do not depend upon the proportions of the graces of the relations nay let me tell you that those relations that do discover the greatest intimacy and bring a Man within the greatest Blessedness these do not depend or hang upon the proportion of the graces of those relations O sayes the Spouse in the Conclusion of the Book of Canticles O that thou wert as my Brother that sucked the Breasts of my Mother 8. Cant. v. 1. So I may say it is many times with the Lords People they cry out O that Jesus Christ would reveal himself to me O he discovers himself to such and such O that he were as my Brother I dare not call him my Brother Ay but though thou darest not call him thy Brother thou canst humbly hope that thou art his Servant though thou canst not with that Freedom and fulness of assurance call him thy Brother O that he were as my Brother as one that sucked the Breasts of my Mother O that I were but in full communion with him Well it may be thou art not yet in that fulness of Freedom of Spirit that thou canst not as yet call him thy Brother yet thou mayst do so though thou hast but little grace Relations do not bear proportions according to the proportion of the graces of the related and therefore it is that God will look after the least grain of grace because the least is his It is my little grain of Corn this is my little grace this is my little Faith and my little Love and this is my little meekness the least degree of grace doth discover an interest in the greatest relations and greatness of relation doth not bear proportion to greatness of enjoyment 2 Secondly That those relations that a Christian stands in unto God immediately up-his entring into the relation all the blessings of the relation lye before him Now the least degree of grace doth admit to the Relation and now being admitted all the blessedness all the glory all the sweetness all the comfort all the happiness of the Relation lye before this man as well as before him that hath the greatest degree of grace You will say what is the glory of the Relation Nay what glory is there that is not in any relation that belongs to the Gospel In every Gospel Relation there is a fulness of glory and a fulness of Blessedness Now no sooner is a poor creature admitted into the Relation but all the blessedness of the Relation ly's open before him And the least degree of grace admits into the Relation The Lord doth not deal with his people that are related to him as we do first bring him into one Relation and then into another Relation and then into a higher Relation and then into a nearer Relation As now many times men bring one first into their Family take him up it may be by the high way or a neighbours Child and make him a poor and mean Servant in the Family it may be a Scullion or the like and then take him up to a higher place after that to a higher place till at length he come to make him his Child and not only his Child but his heir But now I pray friends consider

least Satan may suggest why what is this a poor thing that can hardly crawl towards Christ in a duty so weak there is little or nothing to be seen of the Image of God in his heart because there is so little Ay but Christians you do not know under what designment this little is what great things the Lord hath to manage by this little grace Daniel when the Lord shewed him the great revolutions that were to be in the world he shewed him a Mountain a mighty mountain And he shewed him also a little Stone that was cut out of the Mountain without hands and this stone should be bigger than the Mountain The Mountain if you take it to be the Roman Empire that was as a Mountain that filled a great part of the Earth ay but the little Stone that is cut out of the Mountain without hands that shall cover all the face of the Earth in its time So I say do but you make it your business to discover grace and never prescribe any limits as to that grace A little grace may be under a great design little David did more then the mighty man Saul that was taller than all the Israelites he was under a greater designment I pray consider this with me under these two branches 1. The least grace may be under a designment for greatest service for the time to come Christ is Prophecied of as a root that should grow out of a dry ground so Christ is compared he promised but little there was but a very slender appearance of Jesus at the first that ever he should be the man in whom all the Promises and Prophecies should center A Carpenters Son this is but the Son of a Carpenter say they an unlikely thing that all the Promises and Prophecies of the Messiah should center in him and have their accomplishment in him Even so it may be with Christians little beginnings many times do work and boil up and improve unto greatest undertakements If you nakedly consider how the Lord dealt with his own Disciples one would wonder that they should be his hearers three years and and an half and when all came to all had not so much Faith as to believe that this was really he that they should not have grace enough to bear them out in one brush of trial that they met with in the apprehending of our Lord but they must all forsake him when he was upon the Cross That indeed was something a great trial but to forsake him as soon as ever he was apprehended and for Peter to deny him as soon as ever he was challenged this do's not discover greatness of grace Truly these men as I may say were men of little stature and the Kingdom of Heaven in them during that time they lived with Christ and heard the Lord Christ was but as a grain of Mustard Seed and yet these were the men that must do the great work of God in the World So it may be there is but a little grace in thy Childs Heart or in thine own Heart but that little grace may be under a great designment for great service and therefore it is that the Lord will look after a little because he knows what it is that you are designed for and that every one is designed for 2. The least grace may be under a designment for the greatest injoyments that is God may design a Person for the greatest enjoyments that hath now but the least grace Many times Children that are weakest have most of the manifestations of the tender affections of the Mother Truly so I may say the Lord doth lead those many times by the hand that he hath given but little grace to when others are as it were turned to go of themselves the Lambs are carried in the Bosom of the Shepherd Isa 40.11 the Lord promiseth that he will raise up a Shepherd that shall gather the Lambs with his arm and carry them in his Bosom Christians though you be but little yet I Pray consider you may be under a designment of great enjoyments the Lord doth many times give you as it were the sweet of the Gospel whilst he feeds others with courser and harsher fare The Lord giveth you the dainties of the Covenant and of the Promises when he doth treat with others with more course or more common Providences Christians I pray consider not only for the present but for the time to come you may be under the greatest designments for the greatest enjoyments and therefore it is that God will not lose the least grain what sieve soever he makes use of to be sure his Eye and his Hand will be upon the least grain in the sieve because of their designment 3. The Lord will take care of those that have the least grace because those that have the least grace have a full right I pray do but observe there is no gradual difference in Gospel right if I have a right to an Estate wrapt up in a scroul of paper it is as much as the right that another hath to his Estate that is written or enlarged upon in a sheet truly so it is with Christians little grace gives a full right and therefore the Lord will look after it or else he must suffer his own right to be lost the right that he hath given to be void if he doth not look after the least grace I will open this in these two Branches 1. The greatest promises are made to the least of graces I pray turn to that passage of our Lord in the first Sermon that ever he preached upon the Mount in Mat. 5. Blessed say he are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven What can you have more than the Kingdom not the Kingdoms of the Earth but the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom without limitation Theirs is the throne of the Kingdom and their is the Crown of the Kingdom theirs is the Blessedness the glory of the Kingdom and who are these to whom this Kingdom in all its glory is thus annexed by promise It is those who are poor in Spirit that have but a little grace and yet are sensible of their little Christians there is no graduall variation in right though there are always gradual variations in the comfort of your right you shall scarce meet with two Christians that have in all points an equal ballance of comfortable enjoyment of their Right and yet their Right is the same thy promise is my promise and the Blessing that is a Christians by Covenant that hath attained to the greatest measures of grace these very Blessings and this very Covenant may with all its Blessings belong to him that hath least grace May a man that is well thriven in grace say all this is mine as God said to Abraham when he led him forth come saies he look towards the East and the West and the North and the South Behold all this Land will I