Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
fire_n	cloud_n	night_n	pillar_n	4,723	5	10.5941	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02525	Contemplations vpon the principall passages of the holy storie. The first volume, in foure bookes by J.H. ...	Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656.	1612 (1612)	STC 12650; ESTC S122621	82,503	377

which hee rubs often times in vaine Others thinke that the Sunne is lost out of the firmament and is now with-drawen for euer Others that all things are returning to their first confusion All thinke themselues miserable past remedie and wish whatsoeuer had befallen them that they might haue had but light enough to see themselues die Now Pharaoh prooues like to some beasts that grow mad with baiting grace often resisted turns to desperatenesse Get thee from mee looke thou see my face no more whensoeuer thou commest in my sight thou shalt die As if Moses could not plague him as well in absence As if hee that could not take away the lice flies frogges grashoppers could at his pleasure take away the life of Moses that procured them What is this but to run vpon the iudgements and runne away from the remedies Euermore when Gods messengers are abandoned destruction is neere Moses will see him no more till he see him dead vpon the sands but God will now visit him more than euer The fearefullest plagues God still reserues for the vpshot All the former doe but make way for the last Pharaoh may exclude Moses and Aaron but Gods Angell hee cannot exclude Insensible messengers are vsed when the visible are debarred Now God beginnes to call for the blood they owned him In one night euery house hath a carcase in it and which is more grieuous of their first borne and which is yet more fearefull in an instant No man could comfort other euery man was too full of his owne sorrow helping rather to make the noise of the lamentation more dolefull and astonishing How soone hath God changed the note of this tyrannicall people Egypt was neuer so stubborne in deniing passage to Israel as now importunate to intreat it Pharaoh did not more force them to stay before than now to depart whom lately they would not permit now they hire to go Their rich iewels of siluer and gold were not too deare for them whom they hated how much rather had they to send them away wealthy than to haue them stay to bee their executors Their loue to themselues obtained of them the inriching of their enemies and now they are glad to pay them well for their old worke and their present iourney Gods people had staid like slaues they goe away like conquerours with the spoile of those that hated them armed for securitie and wealthie for maintenance Old Iacobs seuenty souls which he brought downe into Egypt in spight of their bondage bloodshed goe foorth six hundred thousand men besides children The world is well mended with Israel since he went with his staffe and scrippe ouer Iordan Tyrannie is too weake where God bids Increase and multiplie I know not where else the good hearbe ouer-growes the weedes the Church out-strips the world I feare if they had liued in ease and delicacie they had not beene so strong so numerous Neuer any true Israelite lost by his affliction Not only for the action but the time Pharaohs choice meets with Gods That very night when the 130. yeeres were expired Israel is gone Pharaoh neither can nor can will to keepe them longer yet in this not fulfilling Gods will but his owne How sweetly doth God dispose of all second causes that whiles they doe their owne will they do his The Israelites are equally glad of this haste who would not be ready to goe yea to flie out of bondage They haue what they wished it was no staying for a second inuitation The losse of an opportunitie is many times vnrecouerable The loue of their libertie made the burden of their dough light who knew whether the variable minde of Pharaoh might returne to a deniall and after all his stubbornenesse repent of his obedience It is foolish to hazard where there is certaintie of good offers and vncertainetie of continuance They goe therfore and the same God that fetcht them out is both their guide and protector How carefully doth hee chuse their way not the neerer but the safer He would not haue his people so suddenly change from bondage to warre It is the wondrous mercy of God that he hath respect as to his owne glory so to our infirmities He intends them wars heereafter but after some longer breathing and more preparation his goodnes so orders all that euils are not ready for vs till wee be ready for them And as hee chuses so hee guides their way That they might not erre in that sandy and vntracked wildernesse himselfe goes before them who could but follow cheerefully when hee sees God leade him He that lead the wise men by a starre leads Israel by a cloud That was an higher obiect therefore hee giues them an higher and more heauenly conduct This was more earthly therefore he contents himselfe with a lower representation of his presence A piller of cloud and fire A piller for firmnesse of cloud and fire for visibilitie and vse The greater light extinguishes the lesse therefore in the day he shewes them not fire but a cloud In the night nothing is seene without light therefore he shewes them not the cloud but fire The cloud shelters them from heat by day the fire digests the rawnesse of the night The same God is both a cloud and a fire to his children euer putting himselfe into those formes of gracious respects that may best fit their necessities As good motions are long ere they can enter into hard hearts so they seldome continue long No sooner were the backes of Israel turned to depart than Pharaohs heart and face is turned after them to fetch them backe againe It vexes him to see so great a command so much wealth cast away in one night which now he resolues to redeeme though with more plagues The same ambition and couetousnesse that made him weare out so many iudgements will not leaue him till it haue wrought out his full destrustruction All Gods vengeances haue their end the finall perdition of his enemies which they cannot rest till they haue attained Pharaoh therefore and his Egyptians will needs go fetch their bane They well knew that Israel was fitter to serue than to fight weary with their seruitude not trained vp to warre not furnished with prouision for a field Themselues captaines and souldiers by profession furnished with horses and chariots of war They gaue themselues therefore the victory beforehand and Israel either for spoile or bondage yea the weake Israelites gaue vp themselues for dead and already are talking of their graues They see the sea before them behinde them the Egyptians they know not whether is more mercilesse and are strucken with the feare of both O God how couldest thou forbeare so distrustfull a people They had seene all thy wonders in Egypt and in their Goshen they saw euen now thy piller before them and yet they did more feare Egypt than beleeue thee Thy patience is no lesse miracle than thy deliuerance But in stead of remoouing from them the cloudy piller remooues behinde them and stands betwixt the Israelites and Egyptians as if God would haue said They shall first ouercome mee O Israel ere they touch thee Wonder did now iustly striue with feare in the Israelites when they saw the cloud remooue behinde them and the sea remooue before them They were not vsed to such bulwarkes God stood behinde them in the cloud the sea reared them vp walles on both sides them That which they feared would be their destruction protected them how easily can God make the cruellest of his creatures both our friends and patrons Yet heere was faith mixed with vnbeleefe Hee was a bold Israelite that set the first foot into the channell of the sea and euery steppe that they set in that moist way was a new exercise of their faith Pharaoh sees all this and wonders yet hath not the wit or grace to thinke though the piller tels him so much that God made a difference betwixt him and Israel Hee is offended with the sea for giuing way to his enemies and yet sees not why hee may not trust it as well as they Hee might well haue thought that hee which gaue light in Goshen when there was darknesse in Egypt could as well distinguish in the sea but hee cannot now either consider or feare It is his time to perish God makes him faire way and lets him run smoothly on till hee be come to the midst of the sea not one waue may rise vp against him to wet so much as the hoofe of his horse Extraordinary fauours to wicked men are the fore-runners of their ruine Now when God sees the Egyptians too farre to returne he findes time to strike them with their last terrour they know not why but they would returne too late Those Chariots in which they trusted now faile them as hauing done seruice enough to carry them into perdition God pursues them and they cannot flie from him Wicked men make equall haste both to sinne and from iudgement but they shall one day finde that it is not more easie to runne into sinne than impossible to runne away from iudgement the sea will shew them that it regards the rod of Moses not the scepter of Pharaoh and now as gladde to haue got the enemies of God at such an aduantage shuts her mouth vpon them and swallowes them vp in her waues and after shee hath made sport with them a while casts them vp on her sands for a spectacle of triumph to their aduersaries What a sight was this to the Israelites when they were now safe on the shore to see their enemies come floating after them vpon the billowes and to finde among the carcases vpon the sands their knowen oppressors which now they can tread vpon with insultation They did not crie more loud before than now they sing Not their faith but their sense teaches them now to magnifie that God after their deliuerance whom they hardly trusted for deliuerance FINIS