Selected quad for the lemma: hand_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
hand_n	ascend_v	father_n	heaven_n	4,449	5	5.5021	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A74767	Gods gracious thoughts tovvards great sinners.	Homes, Nathanael, 1599-1678.	1647 (1647)	Thomason E385_22; ESTC R201472	32,054	44

musick Our comfort is most glorious and God is most glorified the more it comforts others as well as our selves It s the fame of a river that it ariseth at such a fountaine runs so many hundred miles fructifies the vallies and adornes the country as it goes and then at length falls into the Ocean As of Iordan And Danube So it is the honour of spirituall comforts to doe likewise in mens hearts 4 That the excellentest comfort and way of comforting is to comfort from experience God comforts with the comfort he hath himselfe but of himselfe therefore so should we others from that we have from him so the Text. Therefore the Apostle commends experience Rom. 5 Experimentall comfort is like a medicine with a probatum est that hath been proved to be effectuall Experimentall comfort is like the Nurse warming the milke or pappe in her owne mouth before she puts it into the childs This layes a great ingagement upon a disconsolate soule to argue thus with himself when he heares anothers experimentall comforts It is in the same God the same word the same Spirit the same considerations that comforted him that now speakes to me and he was the same in every respect as I was aut sumus aut fuimus vel possumus esse quod hic est why therefore should it not comfort me also why should not I trust God as well as another where or when hath God excluded me from comfort more then him Therefore oh yee comforted Christians draw forth your experimentall comforts and serve them in to others It is excellent to be an Empirick in spirituall physicking as David speakes Come I will tell you what the Lord hath done for my soule Waters running through mineralls as Brimstone Alum c. have more strength in them for a physicall use so comfort is more fitted for men of like frailty with us and takes more with them when they have first runne thorow our hearts and have beene soaked in our experience and so communicated with a strong streame of compassions supplications and sympatheticall consent of spirits Something for this lyes in our likenesse with them something in our senses and so are more feelingly wrought upon when spiritualls are communicated in a sensible way Therefore examples oft worke more upon us then rules but the maine thing for it lyes in Gods Institution and appointment and therefore a divine blessing goes along with it God will also have the elder Christian to be an executor of Christs testament of comfort to the younger to exercise his graces and to keepe us all inunion one with another Thus of instructions 5 See wee be Gods people set wee be his that we may freely take this comfort to our selves The Apostle describes these to whom he writes 1 Cor. 1. ● to be such as are called to be saints and sanctified in Christ Iesus These import three things 1 The Qualification of them that are Gods people namely they are Saints they are holy they are of unholy made holy holy in conversation that 's their common rode and course of life Titus ● 12 And holy in heart that the complexion and temper of their hearts Their hearts are purified by faith Act. 15.9.2 The instrumentall meanes called to be Saints As the Apostle saith yee are not called to uncleannesse but to holinesse They have heard a voyce in the eare and a voyce at heart that have called them away from their former corrupt conversation yea called them from their corrupt selves from their corrupt condition into that which is holy from the world to looke towards heaven from sin to Christ So that they leave all rather then Christ as the Apostles did at Christs call That is by the call of the word and holy Spirit they could be ready to part with all rather then to part with Christ and so we fall upon the third thing the principall meanes of their Saint-ship namely sanctified in Christ Iesus not sanctified or made pure only by Christ Iesus by his word and Spirit but in Christ Iesus They are u●…ed to Christ looke upon themselves in Christ They reckon themselves as Rom. 6.11 dead to sinne in Christ and alive to God in Christ All their consideration is to be found in him not having their owne righteousnesse but the righteousnesse which is th●ough faith of Christ They behold Christ making a glorious change Isa 53 2 Cor. 5. ult He was made sinne for us upon him the iniquities of us all were layd that we might be made the righteousnesse of God So that those that are thus Gods people they live as none of their owne but as Gods for the generall of their lives 1 Cor. 6.19 20. 2 Cor. 5.15 Now those that can with a good conscience plead their sincerity in these things though not their integrity or perfection take yee the sweet comforts of this doctrine to your selves God is the fountaine so the text The father of mercyes Christ the Channel so the text the father of our Lord Jesus Christ Say not who shall ascend up to heaven to bring God or Christ downe thence God is with thee united to thee in Christ Jesus Be not as Hagar to pine for thirst for want of sight of a well at hand Be not as under Hagar that is the Law Gal. 4. thou art not under the Law but under grace Rom. 6. Thou hast the God of all comfort to be thine by many engagements as hath beene cleared to thee out of the text and doctrine Hee is the God of all comfort it is his nature He is the father of Christ who is thy saviour redeemer and thine husband He is the father of mercyes therefore of pitie to thee that art one of the miserable ones He comforteth in all tribulation therefore he is wonted to comfort yea till thou hast enough to overflow to others to comfort them Of all which wee spake in the explication now rubbe and chase this suppling Oyle of gladnesse upon thy soare soule Hee is God therefore good Fully good infinite in goodnesse Freely good because the first good Therfore exceedingly communicative of goodnesse as in the creation so in regeneration Hee creates peace he creates a clean heart He is a sunne Psal 84. Therefore must communicate himselfe by beames He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ As God is the father of man-kind in the first Adam in a naturall way Luk. 3. ult So he is the father of beleevers in and through Christ the second Adam in a spirituall way so the text The meaning is this As sure as God is united to Christ so hee is to beleevers Joh. 14 20. Joh. 17.22 As sure as God loves Christ Mat. 3. ult So sure God loves those in him Ephes 1.6 As sure as God loves Christ as his sunne So Christ loves beleevers called his children Heb. 2. Joh. 15.9 Hee is the father of mercies wee are not so prone to bee fathers of Children as God is to

his Spirit Just as when an earthquake stops the springs on this side the mountaine yee may expect them to breake out in some other place Ob. If creatures of themselves cannot comfort without God comming in how doe carnall men that have no interest in God rejoyce in them A. 1. Some flatter themselves that they have God and argue 〈◊〉 from their having worldly comforts that therefore God loves them 2. Others feare they have not God and so in the midst of laughter their heart is sad 3. Others have neither of those apprehensions but are Atheisticall and so their joy is but flashes as the crackling of ●●ornes under the pot As Solomon speaks Therefore still the truth stands firme without God no comfort in creatures And therefore our surest way is to crosse our common course namely instead of going to creatures to finde God to goe to God first to have the creatures and to finde comfort in it To fetch every mercy warmed from the hand of God 4. That though the Saints may need comfort yea and from creatures too yet God hath reserved to himselfe to be the foun●●ine and dispenser of all comfort to them through every thing to keepe them in a dependance upon them Blessed be God saith the text the God of all comfort that hath comforted us in all our ●●ibulations that he may comfort us and comfort us that wee may owne him the author of comfort in blessing him for it and so all our dependence on him God keeps the locke and key of all comforts we must be beholding to him for all Elijah must pray to God to unlock the clouds that it raine The Church Act. 12. pray to God to unlock the prison doores to let out Peter The Spouse prayes Cant. 1.4 that God would unlock her heart that it might be unchained and forced to run after him Therefore it is a maine spirituall duty in all our injoyments more to consider the motions of our hearts towards God through all comforts then to looke upon the movings of comforts towards us It is good to see the beames of divine favour to shine a glory upon all the flouds of our comforts but better to see the streames of them to carry us afloat to the ocean of all God himselfe This the maine of all on our part and this the great thing God lookes after as a father more looks at the childs affections towards him then upon what he layes out upon him Therefore let us aime at that most that God most looks at We see all the creation of plants manifest their dependence on the drops and beams of heaven by shooting up towards heaven Grace the activest thing under God must needs have a stronger instinct to ascend to that from whence it came A sure signe mercyes come from heaven by speciall dispensations of favour when they exhale and draw us up to a tendency thitherward when wee imbrace the creatures though as God in them we imbrace but the hand of God wee kisse his hand but when by them wee ascend up to consider God as better then all wee stroke his face and kisse his mouth that bids the creatures go serve us smiled upon us the while And farre greater is our sweet communion with the giver then our possession of the gift wee forget our letters and tokens while wee imbrace our divine husband himselfe Answer wee then to Gods designe Hee hath set all in a dependance on him as the lines and circle to a Center Therefore for all wee would have yea for all that already wee now have to be comforts to us go to god for them and so accepta referre to render back all to God againe in away of prayse Blesse him for all as it is in the Text. Let a prayer and a praise as it were hemme and compasse in God given in through the particular mercy Take in all our mercyes as accomodations to further us in our journy homewards towards God Let us delight more in parting with mercyes to serve God our freind then in keeping them to serve our selves we can doe so for men much more then let us doe so for God In every thing give thankes Phil. 4.6 Let God have an excise out of all About all things wee injoy fetch as many errands to Court as you can two at least Viz of prayer and prayse concerning every particular Mind this still that all that God doth is to mind thee of thy dependance When Adam wanted nothing God gave him a command and a threat to mind him of his dependence When he left his dependence on God in Paradise he lost all So did the very Angells in the heaven of glory As soone as they slacked their dependence on God there they fell How much more should wee mind our dependence which is hourly and minutely And therefore let us conclude that when God upon sight of our too fond setting our hearts upon creature-comforts withdrawes them from us it is that wee might sue them out upon our dependence that wee might take a new state from the chiefe Lord and not gather them up as from the earth as taking our tenour from the meane Lord yea when God afflicts it is that wee should goe to him to bee ●…ruted with comfort 3. That comfort is given to us beleevers that wee might with that comfort others So the text and wee must be like God that communicates that comfort that is in him Thus at once we can have comfort and tell where we had it to draw others to goe immediately to God This doth nothing diminish our own comfort But as a candle lighting many shines rather more then lesse it selfe the meane while our comfort if truely good is will be communicative of it selfe It is a muddie-poole not a quick spring that runnes not over wee are a mysticall body therefore our spirituall blood and spirits and warmth must be in common We talke oft of the sweet of communion of Saints Feast take feast make and wee get by this feasting others soules with our spirituall comforts The very telling of the story of the manner how wee were comforted is a chewing the cud and brings up the sweet of our comfort upon our palates afresh But in the application and pressing of it upon the hearts of others wee heate and warme our owne hearts and spirits Wee rubbe the spices and make them smell more fragrant Yea God is as well seen in his streames of comfort running through the ground of our hearts to anothers heart as in running into our hearts at first Therefore we having the first handsale the first fruits let us communicate The wicked compasse Sea and Land to make proselytes for the Devill therfore let us much more for God especially considering Gods end he gave thee comfort for that end Every thing is most eminent in its operations when it is applyed to its end and utmost end As the sun in its fullest shining the instrument for the fullest