Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A58347
|
A call and patern for true and speedy repentance being an abridgment of those many severe sermons by Thomas Reeve ... intituled God's plea for Nineveh.
|
Reeve, Thomas, 1594-1672.
|
1683
(1683)
|
Wing R692; ESTC R33984
|
87,424
|
108
|
the Lord your God hath blessed you and ye are as the Stars of Heaven for Multitude yea that ye are a great People that cannot be numbred Ye know your Bounds but do ye know the vastness of your Inhabitants Ye have the double Blessing amongst you the Blessing of the Basket and the Store Deut 28.5 and the Blessing of the Brest and the Womb Gen. 49.25 What a large Ordinary is this City what a spacious Bed-Chamber what a Spring of People is there here The Breath of Life never stirred quicker in such a quantity of Ground Nature here doth shew her Organizing Art and this is one of her gendring Receptacles The Myrmidons were so many that they were said to be begotten of Pismires this City doth so abound with People that it may be called one of the Ant-heaps of the Earth Living Persons do here so abound that they seem rather to be struck out then brought forth their increase is so plentiful that they come up like Spring-flowers to garnish the City or that they were rained down from Heaven Oh Look about you and see if these persons be your Treasures how fast your Mint doth go and what incredible heaps ye have in banks ye are the Skin'd and Flesh'd City the true Corporation indeed for here are enow to make up not only a body Politick but a Republick of Bodys if all your Bodys should appear at once you 'd scarce have street-room enough they would adorn the City more than Hangings of Arras at your Publick shews your Suburbs do vy Multitudes with the City But are the People Treasures are you affected with these Treasures Have ye done honor to the Lord of the Mine that the City is sprinkled scattered heaped and wedged with these Treasures Did all the Bells in the City ever Ring the Trumpets Blow and the Wind Instruments play I mean your thankful Lips make Melody to the Lord for the People No I doubt ye have forgot your People that though they dayly Face you and their Clappers strike in your Ears yet that ye are both Blind and Dumb in extolling God for this favour What Hecatombs have ye ever offered for this numerous Blessing Have ye ever sung Hosannah in the highest for this high Mercy I question whether ye have an Altar in the City for this Service for that Persons in great Multitudes are a great Blessing ye may see it here by Nineveh who had it mentioned as her great Felicity to reckon Persons by Thousands wherein are six score thousand Persons 2. This shews your present Blessing that you are preserved in your Thousands Ye are yet a populous City and the Lord God if it be his Blessed Will make you a Thousand times more as you are Deut. 1.11 But if the Arrow that flyeth at Noon-day should glide among you A 2d Plague how many wounded Breasts would there be If Hippocrates were among you with his pretious Odours and sweet Oyntments to perfume places If Mindererus were shooting off Guns in every Street to dissipate the Air. If Quercitan and Avicen were prescribing the strictest Rules of Dyet if Galen and the whole Tribe of the most expert Physicians that ever lived were teaching you to make Pills Electuaries Pomanders Cordials c. to make new Fires and Fumigations of Storax Calamint Labdanum and an hundred other Materials to expel ill scents yet they may be all ineffectual to prevent that irresistible stroke For I am not yet resolved with Vido Vidio That Kindred take the Infection sooner from one another than from Strangers because of the assimilation of Blood nor with Minderer us that Virgins are more subject to it than married Women because the Spirits are fluid and retained and so apt to putrify nor that a Man being well Dieted may escape Infection because Socrates if it be true lived in many Plagues being a Man of high Temperance But I hold that a Plague is the Hand of God as David called it and the Sword of the Lord as Chron. 21.12 So that when where or by what means God will strike is uncertain but 't is certain wheresoever God doth lift up his Hand he will strike home Is there any thing more terrible than the Pestilence No 't is the noisom Pestilence Psal 91.3 and if this stench come up into your Nostrils ye are gone 't is a Weapon so sharp that 't is able to leave a Nation without an Heir for I will smite them with the Pestilence and dâ—s-inhâ—rit them Numb 14.12 If this pale Horse come to Neigh in our Streets he 'le dash many Thousands into their Graves Numb 16.49 14700 dyed in one Plague and Numb 25.9 24000 dyed in another And 70000 dyed in a third 2 Sam. 25.15 The Ectenae a people of Boeetia with their King were all destroyed with a Plague so the Hyantes and Aeones came in their stead to people the Land At Rome in the Reign of Commodus there dyed for a great while 2000 Men a day In Africa there dyed in one Plague 1100000. Under Gallus's there dyed so many in the East West and South that many Countrys seemed so destitute of Inhabitants and for a long time remained uninhabited which occasioned St. Cyprian to write his Book de Mortalitate In this City how often have there dyed ten and twenty thousand in one Plague In Edward the thirds time in the space of one year there were buried in one Church commonly called Cistertians above 50000 persons how many then were buried elsewhere And may not the like happen again God's hand is not shortned there are now more people among you and more sins If the Pestilence doth once discharge how many will be slain at one Shot it will chase men out of their Dwellings as if there were some fierce Enemy pursuing them and shut up shop-doors as if Execution after Judgment were served upon Merchants There will then be no other Musick than doleful knels nor no other Wares carried up and down but dead Corps it will change Mansion houses into Pest-houses and rather gather Congregations into Church-yards than Churches the Markets will be so empty that scarce Necessaries will be brought in a new kind of Brewers will set-up oven Apothecaries to prepare Diet-drinks People are afraid to eat Meat lest they should eat it out of infected Shambles or to wear Rayment lest it should be stitch'd up with the Plague they shall lye down without the least Spot seen upon them and rise up with GOD's Tokens upon them yea with the Carbuncle scalding in the Flesh like a Fire-coal They shall walk well out from their Houses and drop down before they get home again In the time of a Pestilence Fly quickly go far and return slowly every Disease turns into the Plague Come not nigh thy soundest Friend within the distance of two Cubits nor within the distance of infected Persons the space of six Cubits beware lest the Wind blow upon thee from him or lest there be any Sun Fire
LONDON's REMEMBRANCER A CALL AND PATERN For TRUE and SPEEDY REPENTANCE BEING An ABRIDGMENT of those many severe SERMONS By Thomas Reeve B. in Divinity INTITULED GOD's PLEA for NINEVEH The only seasonable Work that can be done in this day Jer. 18 7. At what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil way I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them Sam. 3.12 When I begin I will also make an end LONDON Printed for Th. Dawks 1683. * This is Abridg'd The Author's DEDICATION To the Religious Citizens of LONDON who are sensible of the Sins and do suplicate for the Safety of their CITY Honored Sirs and Citizens of a famous City c. I Call you out to a new Merchandize many of you have been negotiating in most of the known Cities of the World but did any of you yet Trade at Nineveh Let this be your Empory buy up her Commodities and set up an Exchange of her Wares others may call upon you to traffick elsewhere I direct you to this City Some of Nineveh's Ashes Sack-cloth men with new lips feet and hands would be more useful now than all the precious Rarities the richest Marts can afford Nineveh is the Place the way is beaten you shall never repent of the Journey 't is a renowned place in whose Ruins you may find Treasure enough to redeem you out of the present hazards and to prevent future Miserys Indeed I lay your Sandals before you yet be not discouraged ye shall go but like Merchant-Adventurers if ye be Industrious ye may drive a very advantagious Trade and come home laiden with the Riches of the same linger not set forth speedily and make a quick return and Millions shall bless you quarrel not who shall go first but walk peaceably and God Almighty prosper you Apply your selves to the right work and fall to right down Christianity let him be the best Man which can be most Zealous in this Religious Service 'T is hard to build a City and 't will be as hard to preserve it When a City is grown crazy with Sin they must be Master-Workmen that repair its decays or keep it from a Down-fall be ne'er so well prepared your Task requires almost Angelical puriâ—y and perfection to discharge Consider what ye are to do to wring a Spear out of the Almighty's Hand to turn back an Host of Judgments upon their March appear in 〈◊〉 2. compleat Harness and quit your selves like men But by what Citizens shall this 〈◊〉 done By them that are truly Religious and are sensiâ—le of the Sins and do supplicate for the safety of the City I Must have such as have the Sins of the City smarting upon their Hearts and the safety of the City ecchoing in their Lips I take no delight in hearing Citizens commended for exterior things such are The conspicuous Persons which are perspicuous in Graces and the Eys that see them bless them for their Piety whose chief Mart is in Heaven and Trade for such Riches as excel all the Treasurâ—s of Aegypt whose Hearts are knit to the City and whose Tongues are soliciting for it which weep over the Sins of the City and would even sacrifice themselves in Expiatory Dutys to prevent Judgments from it Pardon me I judg not the City by Furs and Gold-Chains c. These have no place but only the feeling Conscience and fervent Soul the rest I might send to C. M. Coriolanus who in the greatest necessity never tendred the well-fare of the Inferiors but lookt only to provide for his own Greatness and his great Ones and held the poorer Citizens to sad sufferings lest being supplyed with what they wanted they might be enabled to call him and the rest to account for their Injurys Having taken upon me a dolorous Service to whom should I apply my self but to the true Mourners in Jerusalem yes there are sins in the City and these sins do threaten Judgments All ye which do face the one and fear the other let me intreat You to sigh and sacrifice with me that the City being penitent neither the Peril nor perishing of the City may be dreaded To obtain this Blessing I confess I have as I can sanctify'd my self with some solemn Resolutions I desire you to enter into the same Vow with me not to desert the City with your Repentance and Devotion till a discharge be brought out of Heaven and the City settled in a Condition to be spared I hear a loud speech what is not this City able to do I wish it may be able to examine amd to extricate her self I cannot but love your City for her Breast that she proved such a kind Nurse to them which had neither Milk nor Maintenance when upon the Death of their Mother they were as exposed Children I thought once to have call'd in all the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation to joyn in this Work I would have Invited the Reverend of the Clergy to have assisted in this Religious service I would have drawn in all the Civil and Common Lawyers to plead in Heaven for this City I would have summoned in all the Physicians to have administred a soveraign Potion to this City I thought to have sent down to all the Citys in this Kingdom to have repaired hither themselves or send faithful substitutes their Conversion to officiate for the City in her greatest peril for seeing this is the Metropolis why should not all the Daughters do their Duty to their Mother and wait upon her with their Prayers Tears Humiliation and Mortification yes they here vending all their Commoditys and buying their principall Wares 't is convenient should bless her with their Repentance which hath blessed them with Revenue But because the most proper Cure is that which is personal people being able to prepare their Antidote therefore ye knowing both the Malady and the Medicine what need I trouble others when ye are able if ye will to do the work your selves and to be your own Physicians And now I have left you in your own Hands setting Life and Death before you Oh that I could speak to the City in general that as ALL Nineveh so ALL your City would be unanimous to unite their Repentance to keep oft a Judgment But I see such a Complicated Disease of bad Opinions and such 〈◊〉 Cakexy of evil Life amongst you some only magnifying the Virtues of the 〈◊〉 others going on in an Insensibility of any thing that it is either Sin or Danger that dispair to find the generality apprehensive either of Disease or Cure I remember that Calcedon was called the Town of the Blind because they would not suffer an experienced Work-man to build their Houses and so such a blind City shall I leave you if I set on Work half sighted Architects who can neither