Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	bind_v	earth_n	loose_v	17,667	5	10.9453	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29912	Twenty five sermons. The second volume by the Right Reverend Father in God, Ralph Brownrig, late Lord Bishop of Exeter ; published by William Martyn, M.A., sometimes preacher at the Rolls.; Sermons. Selections	Brownrig, Ralph, 1592-1659.; Martyn, William.; Faithorne, William, 1616-1691.	1664 (1664)	Wing B5212; ESTC R36389	357,894	454

excess hath brought this judgment upon you God usually meets with men in their own ways Covetousness and earthly-mindedness luxury and excess all of them are abuses of these good gifts of God To punish us in the loss of these is a proper punishment 3. This calamity of dearth and scarcity the failing of the creatures that the earth doth not give her increase 't is a proportionable judgment The creatures are made to be our servants we are made to be Gods servants As long as we do perform our service to him the creatures shall yield their strength and increase and prove serviceable to us But if we fail God how just is it then that the creatures should fail us As S. Aug. sweetly observes our Reason would not obey God therefore our Sense shall not obey Reason As Hushi said to Absalom Whom all Israel makes King and serves him will I serve excusing his seeming revolt from David so when the creatures start aside and revolt from us prove unserviceable to us 't is their real profession They must serve their grand Lord if we revolt from him they revolt from us The Father's words are these Lib. 13. de Civit. 113. Qui superiorem Dominum deseruerunt inferiorem famulum ad suum arbitrium non tenebant And de Nupt. Conjug lib. 1. cap. 16. Injustum erat ut ei obtemperetur à servo suo qui non obediverat domino suo 4. God oft-times singles out dearth and famine to punish a Nation with it is a deep and evident and apparent judgment War and oppression and captivity many other calamities mans hand is seen in them they are agents and instruments in bringing them upon us And in such calamities we can be content not to see Gods hand in them but to charge our sufferings upon the malice of men as if God and we were in good terms God oft-times loses the glory of such afflictions As indeed the heart of man is exceeding desirous in all afflictions if it be possible to prove that God is not the authour but some other cause As Pharaoh laboured a long time to prove that God sent not those plagues upon him but that Moses wrought them some other way his Enchanters could do as much as that came to till at last they cried out It is the finger of God Now in such a judgment as want and famine to weaken the strength of nature to make that fruitfull womb of the earth barren to us none but God can do it He onely can make the heavens as brass and the earth as Iron and restrain the celestial influences Can man bind the sweet influences of Pleiades or loose the bonds of Orion Iob xxxviii 31. Can any but God forbid the clouds to drop fatness No these Judgments are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we must cry out God fights against us 5. Famine it is a Scourge wherewith he uses to chastise a people as being a comprehensive Judgment like a chain-shot that bears all before it Many other calamities that are brought upon us by humane means are most-what avoidable by humane helps Wisdom or riches or strength may exempt or secure from some other annoyances but scarcity and famine that strikes at the life of every man All must beg daily bread The profit of the earth is for all the King himself is served by the field Eccles. v. 9. No King can help against this Judgment If the Lord do not help thee whence shall I help thee Out of the barn-floor or out of the wine-press said the King of Israel in the famine of Samaria 2 Kings vi 27. These extremities are unavoidable They will make us look up to heaven and say with Iehosaphat O Lord we have no might against this Judgment that comes upon us Neither know we what to do but our eyes are towards thee 2 Chron. xx 12. III. A third Extraction from the Text is Gods own children and servants are lyable to these extremities of want and scarcity which God brings upon the world as well as others The Prophet here in his own name and in the name of the Church hath a fearfull apprehension of them Indeed sometimes and in some Judgments God vouchsafes a special exemption to his Church and Children Instance in three cases 1. To preserve an holy portion of his People and a Nursery for his Church Isaiah acknowledges it Chap. i. 9. Except the Lord of hosts had left us a small remnant we should have been as Sodom and like unto Gomorrah Still a remnant shall be saved And S. Paul applies it to the preservation of his chosen People Rom. ix 29. Gods Church must remain to all Posterity no Judgment must sweep them all away In this case when common Judgments are sent upon the world he exempts his own When the deluge came upon the old world an Ark was provided to save Noah and the holy seed When he visits them he doth it in measure he makes not a full end of them 2. God exempts his own People from common Judgments when the Judgments are sent in the cause of his Church to manifest and maintain that they are his People and that their sufferings from the world are most unjust then usually he puts a difference and exempts his own from common calamities Thus in all the plagues of Egypt Gosben was priviledged he put a difference betwixt the Hebrews and the Egyptians he passed over them when he plagued their enemies Thus in the case of famine Isaiah tells the enemies of Gods People Behold my servants shall eat but ye shall be hungry Behold my servants shall drink but ye shall be thirsty Behold my servants shall rejoyce but ye shall be ashamed Isai. lxv 13. Malachi assures them of this exemption and that God will make it appear Who are his Chap. iii. 17. In that day when I make up my jewels I will spare them as a man spares his own Son that serves him and then shall ye diseevn between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serves him not 3. In the pùnishment of those sins which his children have withstood opposed protested against and mourned for usually in that case God exempts such Saints and Servants of his This obtained Lot's exemption out of Sodom's overthrow he mourned for the abominations that were done in Sodom and S. Peter makes it a ruling case and argues from it 2 Pet. ii 5. If God spared not the old world but saved Noah the eighth person a Preacher of Righteousness and in the overthrow of Sodom verf. 7. delivered just Lot vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked thence he gathers this Conclusion vers 9. The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation This protected Ieremiah and kept him out of captivity This holy carriage exempted Baruch his life was given him for a prey Those that mourned for the abominations of the Land were marked out by God for escapal and deliverance

growth progress of Religion Gods worship and Service comes but slowly forward in the World The seed of Religion sow it never so timely as no question Adam did in his Sons comes up very late above all other seeds that are sowen into men See these two are their crafts-masters in their secular Trades and Professions Abel a Shepherd Cain an Husband-man expert in those mysteries but their Profession of Religion comes after many days The Trade of Religion is long a-learning After our fall man is become but an auk creature for any discipline very unteachable but above all most untoward and dull to receive Religious instruction Line after line and precept after precept much planting and watering and yet but slow increase Ye account it an unkindly year when ye receive no more then your seed again and that untimely in a backward Harvest It were well with us if we could see our seed again Thick sown and thin come up argues a bad soil and it is near unto cursing as the Apostle speaks He who sets himself to gain men to Religion is like him who goes to make a fire of green wood much a-do there is to make it take fire and it is soon out again How may God justly expostulate with us that He is last served who should have the precedencie Where is thy morning-Sacrifice Nay where is thine evening-Sacrifice In matters of Religion how are ye children in understanding whereas in matters of the world ye are men of a ripe age That 's the first construction 2. In process of time take it word for word 't is At the end of days And so it imports a more definite and determinate circumstance of time At the end of days that is at the just revolution of days at the end of the year So 1 Sam. ii 9. The sacrifice of days was the yearly Sacrifice And so it betokens a set solemn time appointed and appropriated to the Worship of God by publick Sacrifice and it was at the years end and that by the best computation and most natural was at the end of Harvest That was the beginning of the year by the civil computation as being most likely the beginning of the world The world was created in Autumn when the fruits of the Earth were ripe and mature This was the time in all probability when these men sacrificed Sett solemn times for the Worship of God are of ancient and usefull appointment especially this Sacrifice of the seventh Moneth was in most solemn manner to be performed to God with thanks for his blessings having gathered in their fruits 'T is here practised by Cain and Abel It was after commanded by God Exod. xxiii 16. The feast of Harvest the first-fruits of thy labours which thou hast sown in the field and the feast of In-gathering which is at the end of the year when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field then thou shalt appear before the Lord with a Sacrifice And this Law was so strict that men might not taste of their fruits till this Service was performed Lev. xxiii 14. Ye shall neither eat bread nor parched corn nor green ears untill the same day that ye have brought an Offering unto your God God will be first served and our recognition-Sacrifice the tribute and homage we owe him must be performed ere we put forth our hand to taste of his blessings God justly challenges this at our hands as being our great Land-lord we are but his Tenants Levit. xxv 23. There ye may see our Tenure of what we possess The land is mine saith God Ye are but strangers and sojourners with me How well doth it become us to present our selves and tender our Sacrifice of thanks to our God This Service was not meerly Judaical appointed onely by Moses the very Heathens pitch'd upon this practise They had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and their Cerealia festa post fruges comportat●…s Aristotle speaks of it that after Harvest they offered up a solemn Sacrifice And the great Law-giver of Religion amongst the Romans Numa strictly forbad any to taste of new corn or wine till the Sacrifice was past and the Priest had received Gods appointed portion 'T is a shame for us Christians to be so backward in this Service and to suffer Gentiles and Pagans to outgo and exceed us So much for the circumstance of time Come we now II. To the Substance of this Service and religious performance And of it we may take a double consideration 1. Let us look upon this Service and Sacrifice of these two men in common and then 2. We shall see the difference 'twixt them in the second part of the Text in the success and acceptance God gave to them This Service and Worship of Cain and Abel look upon them both together they agree in these five Particulars to be noted in them 1. It was Personalis cultus each of them in his own Person performs this Service and Worship to God Cain hath his Offering and Abel hath his Here is one observable point of Religion and take notice of it the performance of religious Worship to God is a duty that binds every man in person These men they put it not off to their father Adam they rest not in any other mans devotion but they take themselves bound personally to appear before God and worship him No man can worship God by a proxie He who will serve God by a proxie must look to go to heaven by a deputy No the duty of Piety binds every soul. As David saith No man can make an atonement to God for his brother We can neither buy nor borrow this oyl of our brethren we must all have it ready in our own vessels Thus Moses answers Pharaoh We will go with our young and with our old not an hoof must be left behind That soul that neglects to keep the Passover must be cut off from Gods people So strict was the Law for the Worship of God Exod. xxxiv 23. every man must appear before God to perform this Worship Every soul from a Moneth and upward were to offer to the Lord in token of their redemption Numb xviii 16. If any man can exempt himself from being Gods vassal and liege-man by Creation he may deny his homage If any can plead his innocency that he stands not in need of redemption he may neglect his atonement by Sacrifice If any man can say he stands not in need of a daily supply of blessings he may give over his daily prayers If any man can alledge he owes nothing to God that God hath not been aforehand with him in mercy and goodness he may omit his service of thankfulness 2. A second thing observable in this joynt-worship of Cain and Abel is Rectitudo cultus 't is a true warrantable and lawful worship that was performed by them 1. It was a worship directed and performed to the true God an invocation of Iehovah Not onely Abel