Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
fire_n	ghost_n	holy_a	spirit_n	6,646	5	5.6233	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A11144	Gods blessing in blasting, and his mercy in mildew Tvvo sermons sutable to these times of dearth: by Iames Rowlandson B. in D. and pastor at East-Tysted in Hampshire.	Rowlandson, James, 1576 or 7-1639.	1623 (1623)	STC 21415; ESTC S116262	34,190	80

hee speakes you see of that which was past and done I smote which againe implieth another note of Gods mercy for in that he saith I smote he saies in effect and by consequent that for the present he had laid aside his rod and now had ceased from smiting though as yet they had neglected to build againe the Temple for which neglect hee had thus corrected them Surely should not he giue ouer punishing till we giue ouer altogether sinning he should neuer make an end till there were an end of vs for we are but as lead to the fire of trouble should he neuer cease from refining of vs in that fire till all our drosse were purged he might consume our very substance and leaue vs nothing 2 Sam. 14.14 Yet he hath deuised a meanes not to cast out his banished and hath promised to purifie and refine vs as gold and siluer Malach. 3.3 Esay 1.25 to burne out all our drosse and to take away all our tinne but it must be then as the Prophets meant it by another fire than affliction euen the power of Gods word from the vertue of his spirit of which the Baptist thus Matth. 3.11 He shall baptized you with the Holy Ghost and with fire Therefore the Lord to magnifie his powerfull mercy hauing smitten this people I smote you saith hee comes to trie as it were another course with them and sends them a Prophet who by three weekes preaching and a little more Hag. 1.1 for the word came to Haggai the first day of the sixth moneth Id. 2. cap. 1. and the twenty fourth day of the same moneth they began to build obtained that of them which forty yeeres correction could not extort Hag. 1.15 So powerfull is the word of God so true that which he saith by his Prophets Esay 55.11 The word which goeth out of my mouth shall not returne vnto me void it shall accomplish that which I will and prosper in the thing to which I send it And thus as the Lord will not be euer chiding so not alwaies correcting and oftentimes hee doth that by the word of his mouth which many stripes could not effect For hee is not as Moses which could doe no great worke without the rod in his hand but laying aside his scourges he doth eftsoones by the powerfull operation of his holy spirit worke the conuersion of his people for so he speakes in Hosea Hosea 2.14 Behold I will allure them and speake friendly vnto them hee had said before that he would take away from them his corne in the time thereof and his wine in the season thereof that he would recouer from them the wooll Verse 9. and the flax which he had lent to couer their shame that he would destroy their vines and figtrees Verse 12. that he would make them as a forrest and that the wilde beasts should eat them c. But then remembring his mercy he makes this promise Behold I will allure behold I will speake friendly O the neuer too much admired goodnesse of the Lord that leaues no meanes vnattempted to procure our good As here when smiting could not preuaile hee sends a Prophet to perswade who yet must tell them that the Lord had smitten them That they may remember their affliction wherewith the Lord hath chastened them and their fathers for the space now of forty yeeres they must heare of it though it bee past and done And this in the next place importeth our dutie as before it implied a note of Gods mercy Conceiue it thus When troubles haue done with vs we must not so haue done with them former afflictions though past and gone would yet not be forgotten therefore the Lord here puts them in minde what he hath done what they and their fathers haue suffered I smote you And this very thing he wisheth them in this chapter once and againe and the third time to consider of Wee like it well that our children should not forget when and for what wee haue corrected them but him that remembers the rod no longer than he smarts by it wee hold a carelesse sonne It is an argument of a disposition almost incorrigible so to despise Gods smitings as to be no longer mindfull than wee are sensible of them or no longer to sorrow for sinne than we suffer for it Yet all of vs are too too like Ioab 2 Sam. 14.31 that would not goe to Absolon till he had set his corne on fire and I wish a many of vs were not worse for the Lord hath sent a blasting or as the word here signifies a burning winde into our fields and yet how few as it may be iustly feared haue recourse to God that smites them Though that neither be sufficient I meane only to visit him in our troubles then and neuer else to poure out a praier but when his chastening is vpon vs. Esa 26.16 We hold him scarce a friend that neuer comes to see vs but when some exigencie driues him and it is but forced homage which we doe to our heauenly King when by praier and repentance we repeare not to him vnlesse he send a Purseuant of affliction for vs. Our greatest motiues to turne vnto him should be his mercies but if wee will not stirre but when the spurre is in our sides there is but a little good metall in vs. If we be generous Christians such as so runne that we may obtaine not miseries only present but their very memorie will hasten vs. As then it is good for vs to haue beene in trouble so euer to remember it And here in few words let me heape vp many reasons First it is an excellent meanes to keepe the heart lowly still to haue in minde what wee or ours haue beene or haue suffered He that of a Potters son became afterwards a Sicilian Prince is renowned for it that he would be serued at his Table partly in earthen vessels to remember him daily of his former meane condition or parentage and partly in vessels of gold and siluer that he might not forget himselfe to be a King Surely as our aduancement to the state of grace should put vs in minde to walke worthy of our calling so the remembrance of our creation and mould of our corruption also and former crosses for them should quell our swelling and keepe vs lowly When the Prophet would take downe the pride and boasting of Ephraim he puts them in remembrance of the afflictions of their father from whom they were descended Hosea 12.12 Iaakob saith he fled into the countrey of Aram and Israel serued for a wife and for a wife he kept sheepe As if he had said If you boast of your riches and nobilitie you seeme to reproach your father who was a poore but an honest fugitiue and a seruant And thus the greatest houses would they but respect the rock from which they were digged out may finde beggerie or

clattering of armour and the fierce neighing of horses and the sense-amazing terrour of the Cannon we haue heard the sound of bels calling vs to Praier and Sermon In other places they heare the shrikings of infants their Rabels mourning for their children and will not be comforted because they are not ours laugh and play in the streets For balls of wilde fire that burne vp others with their houses we haue felt but blasting winds in our fields and for streames of bloud which fat other lands with the gore of the inhabitants we haue suffered but mists and mildewes that haue somewhat shrunke the fruits of our Land O that we would be thankfull he hath smitten vs only with blasting and mildew Yet neither had he thus corrected vs or this people in my text if he had not beene prouoked by vs. But such is the nature of sinne it angers the God of Nature No wonder then and let it be our next obseruation if it trouble and peruert the course of nature by causing the Maker to turne kindly winds into blasting the mornings wholesome moisture into mildewes and soft drops of raine into stones God had no sooner framed this world aboue and below as an excellent instrument or paire of Organs to set forth his praise and therein appointed man as the life and breath to sound out his wisdome and goodnesse in and by all the creatures but sinne came in and by the Serpents hissing marrd the musicke Then the heauens aboue began to looke disastrously on the world below Then the elements below perniciously to mutinie among themselues and all to conspire mans dissolution whose matter was compounded of them Then began the creatures some to rebell against him that reuolted from his Maker and the rest to doe him homage but with sighes and groanes Rom. 8.22 Then the earth by enforcement of labour to yeeld her fruits to nourish him but without labour thousands of minerals and herbes and plants to poison him Then his owne passions and affections to fight against his reason which should haue beene regent ouer them Then his owne humours to be at a perpetuall discord in him till they had wrought his death Then the father slew his posteritie which were not yet borne Then the brother imbrued his sauage hands in the bloud of his brother Then Nature turned vnnaturall nor euer doe we heare of crosses in and by the creature till sinne brought curses into the world This is it then that troubled Nature this is it which yet like Ahab troubles Israel It were our wisdome then to trouble it if we loue our owne peace not to be at peace with it but continually to fight against it by true repentance So should the earth yeeld her kindly encrease nor should we need hereafter to feare or burning of her fruits by winds or shrinking of them by vnwholesome dewes Would wee powre downe showres of teares how easily might we procure showres of raine to quell such windes and to wash away such Mildewes when they fall But to complaine of our smarting by these rods or to bee querulous against these second causes and not to heed the hand of the chiefe mouer what is it but with those foolish people in Aul●s Gellius to fight with the winde that dried vp their waters or with vaine Xerxes in Herodotus to beat the Hellespont that broke downe his bridge As in all other afflictions so in these we must obserue the supreme agent God himselfe that sends them for our good to profit by them For at his command the windes blow and againe are husht the aire powres out raine or sends downe Mildews vpon the earth and it rests in his power to make our land yet more barren if wee continue disobedient or to fructifie if we repent It is reported that the riuer Nilus makes the land barraine if in ordinary places it either flow vnder fifteene cubits or aboue seuenteene and therefore that Prester Iohn through whose country it runneth and in which it ariseth from the hils called the Mountaines of the Moone can at his pleasure drowne a great part of Aegypt by letting out into the riuer certaine vast ponds and sluces the receptacles of the melted snow from the mountaines Which that he may not doe the Turkes who are now the Lords of Aegypt pay a great tribute vnto him as the Princes of that land haue done time out of minde which tribute when the great Turke not long since denied to pay till by experience he found this to be true he was afterwards forced with a greater summe of money to renue his peace with that Gouernour of the Abissines and to continue his ancient pay The truth of this relation I question not mine author is both of worth and credit eminent and the thing it selfe credible But this we all beleeue that the great Emperour of heauen and earth who sits aboue vs can at his pleasure make our land and all the regions of the earth fruitfull or barraine by restraining or letting loose the influences of his blessings from aboue In respect whereof besides many other farre greater bonds of duty we owe and should pay vnto him a continuall tribute of thankfull obedience This if we will not acknowledge and tender he can force vs for hee hath dams and ponds rather an whole Ocean of iudgements in store which he can when it seemes him good let downe vpon vs to make both the land fruitlesse and the soule it selfe accursed that rebelleth Not Blasting onely or Mildew or fire or haile or lightning or thunder or vapours or snow or stormy windes but euen whole vollies and vollumes of curses moe than can bee numbred are prest to doe his will to afflict and vexe them that grieue his good spirit by their sins and reuoltings especially from the truth Why then doe we taint the aire with rotten speeches Why doe we with oathes and blasphemies euen blast his heauens that can blast our earth Why send we vp daily so many noysome vapours of our sinnes against him that can send to vs so many wrathfull messengers of his displeasure They of Tyre and Sydon shall rise vp in iudgement against vs to condemne vs of folly They would not warre with Herod Act. 12.20 because their countrey was nourished by the Kings land And shall wee by continuance in these and other sinnes dare the all-commanding Maiestie that is aboue by whose blessings the earth heere below Esay 55.10 ministreth seed to the sower and bread to him that eateth Doe we so reward the Lord ô foolish people and vnwise Deut. 32.6 What are we stronger than he or haue wee not read it that none can deliuer out of his hands For how shall any hand warre against him and preuaile without whom no hand can worke and prosper as it followeth in the next circumstance In all the labours of your hands In all 5. The Manner It is an vniuersall note how shall wee take it In the