Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	create_v	lord_n	praise_v	2,444	5	9.8565	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75732	The legislative povver is Christ's peculiar prerogative. Proved from the 9th of Isaiah, vers. 6.7. / By W.A.	Aspinwall, William, fl. 1648-1662.	1656 (1656)	Wing A4007; Thomason E498_4; ESTC R205981	64,555	56

conclude let this comfort your hearts that the Lord Jesus will shortly appear in his Kingdom Rev. 22. 7 12. Beheld I come quickly and my reward is with me to give to every man as his work is For yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not t●●ry And David gives Heb. 10. 37. you a sign of the neer approach of this day of Christs reign which you wait and long for Psal 102. 13 c. Thou shalt arise and shalt have mercy upon Sion for the time to favour her the set time is come or coming Why How did David know that Or by what sign shall we know that it approacheth For saith he thy Servants take pleasure in her stones and favour the dust thereof When this cometh to passe therefore that Christ puts it into the hearts of his people to look for and pray for it and they pray much for grace unto the ancient people of God the Jews then you may conclude saith David the season and the time appointed is now at hand This sign he gave for our sakes according as you have it vers 18. This shall be written for the generation to come that the people which shall be created may praise the Lord. And as the context seems to hold it forth the imprisonments and sufferings of the Saints who hope and wait for this coming of Christ is an other argument of the neer approach of the time For saith he in the words following Christ looks from Heaven and hears the sighings of his Prisoners c. And truly it seems to me to argue strongly that Christ is nigh even at the doors For 't is not many years ago since Mr. Mede Mr. Archer and Mr. Tho. Goodwin might preach of this fifth Monarchy and no offence was taken at it beause it was then a little more remote But now it is matter of offence or scorn to speak of such a Kingdom And what should be the reason of the difference The truth is the same then and now But the imminent approach of the time and the publication of it doth now terrifie carnal Spirits that would still wallow themselves in sensual pleasures and pomp which they think the Holiness of Christs Kingdom will not allow These fears are like the hornets which God sent amongst the Canaanites and it may be those hornets were the fears that did possesse the Spirits of the enemy and operated more to their ruine then the Swords of the Israelites Wherefore Joshua saith I sent the hornet before you which drave them out from before you even the two Kings of the Amorites not with thy Sword nor with thy Bow Josh 24. 12. So then lay all these reasons together and they strongly argue the neer approach of Christs Kingdom and the deliverance of his Prisoners And let this be a comfort to Christs suffering Saints that his HIGHNESS doth look from the Highness of his Sanctuary to take speciall notice from his high prospect of poor Prisoners for his cause You have his HIGHNESS eye and his HIGHNESS ear Why then should you not be cheary I shall add but one argument more of Christs day approaching and that is the strong opposition which Satan makes against it as if he were now come to the push of pike being loath to lose his Kingdom And for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this cause he is called Satan a malitious accuser and opposer as the word signifies and you may read it so used Ezr. 4. 6. Now the God of Peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly Rom. 16. 20. Therefore when the old Serpent begins to work after this manner and to send forth a company of pick-thanks and hirelings to raise up malicious accusations in Emperours and Princes Courts it is a sign his Kingdom begins to shake and then Christ will bruise him shortly Let this suffice to be spoken by way of comfort and incouragement unto Christs suffering Servants I know not whom this may concern nor into what hands it may come I am not acquainted with the varieties of temptations which the Servants of Christ meet withall and therefore draw my Bow at adventures and leave it to the guidance of the good Spirit of the Lord to direct my Words aright unto such as are concerned therein I have only picked here and there some sweet smelling flowers to present the sufferers for Christ withall You may take them as a Nose gay to refresh and cheer you Spirits in the places of your sufferings For though you have received a full portion of the Heavenly Vnction which will instruct and comfort you as with Apples and with Flagons in your darksome Cells and have no need of any thing which may be presented from so slender a hand Yet take it in good part if I do as the little Child did that brought the Lady Elizabeth a Posy of flowers to her Prison-chamber to smell at Accept it as an expression of my love to you for the sake of Christ for whom you suffer Who knoweth but such a poor present bedewed with love and dipped in the blood of the Lamb may yeild much spiritual refreshing though it proceed from a mean hands And the Lord that comforts Sion comfort your hearts with many sweet embraces of his love and fill you with joy unspeakable and full of glory And the Spirit of God and of glory rest upon you that are reproached and suffer for his Name Amen Come Lord Jesus come quickly LAst of all let this serve for exhortation to Princes and Rulers to deal kindly with the people of God to advance them unto places of trust For they are the most fit men to be improved and will approve themselves most faithful Their study will be to advance both truth and peace and by the sweetness of their Government they will so pacifie the Spirits of men that it will conduce more unto the establishment of peace then whole legions of armed men with all their Militia according to that of the Psalmist the Mountains shall bring peace to the people and the little Hills by righteousness Psal 72. 3. They will he like rain upon mowne grasse and as great Showers that water the earth The experience of this hath induced heathenish Princes to be propitious and favourable to Godly m●n Pharaoh advanced Ioseph Nebuchadn●zzar advanced Daniel Shadrach Meshek and Abednego Ahasuerus advanced Mordecai and Darius the Mede advanced Daniel Artaxerxes also advanced Nehemiah Which instance is very remarkable For that Artaxerxes was the longest-lived Prince of all the Persian Monarchs Whereas on the contrary Christ takes it very ill at the hands of Rulers when they deal unkindly with the people of God in general or with some of them in particular especially when his people are forced to cry to him Oh! then Christ is quick of hearing He heard the cry of Abels blood Gen. 4. 10. And when Israel groaned under their taxes Christ heard it Exod. 2. 24. The continuation of taxes and burdens lost Rehoboam ten parts of twelve of his Kingdom 1 King 12. 10 14 15. The imprisonment of Hanani an eminent Christian cost Asa dear 2 Chron. 16. 10 12. Ieroboams arm was dryed up for stretching it forth against a good man 1 King 13. 4. and if they do but touch them Christ will rebuke the greatest Princes in the World Ps 105. 14 15. Yea If they do but taunt and jeer them Come sing us one of your songs of Sion and fall to drinking and carousing in the plate which they have plundered from Gods people which men at arms are apt to interpret as a Divine gift because providence permits it c. but God counts it rapine and spoil then behold they cry to God in the bitterness of their Spirits My violence or the violence done to me and to my Jer. 51. 33. remnant be upon Babel c and lo then whilst the adversaries are quaffing it and feasting it Christ sets conscience as a Sergeant to arrest the King in the middest of his jollity Oh! then what agonies angish what torturing terrours and Pannick-fears seize upon their hearts when they see the hand-writing upon the Wall against them These things weighed and considered it will be good for Rulers especially such as profess themselves servants to Christ to use the people of God kindly 2. Let Rulers be exhorted to take their Laws from Christ as the most perfect platform to model their Government by It will be more safe and their Governments more permanent and peaceable then if they contrive a Government according to the most curious Artifice of politick States-men The Pattern of the Altar at Damascus may please carnal hearts but the Pattern shewed in the Mount is far better Thus much I thought it my duty to speak unto the Rulers of the Nations especially our own as a witness for Christ against all Image-Government FINIS

Childe shall be born unto us a Son shall be given Unto whom shall this childe be born Surely the Prophet here personates the Church of Christ and by Vs he means the Church of the Jews according to what is spoken Isa 42. 6. and 49. 6. I will give thee for a Covenant to the people to wit the Jews and for a Light to the Nations So that his meaning is God will give to the Jews such a Son as shall sit upon the Throne of David to execute Judgement and Justice It is the promise of a blessing then to come And the phrase Vnto us or For us or Of us a Son shall be born implies That the Messiah here promised according to his Humane Nature shall be born and descend of the Jewish race And that in the first place he was given for them they then being the onely Church of Christ in the world And the GOVERNMENT shall be upon his shoulder The conjunction argues That it was already on his shoulder in regard of one of his Natures and shall in Gods appointed time be laid upon his shoulder in regard of his Humane Nature also The word translated a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Government is not elswhere to be found in Scripture and therefore it is more difficult to judge of the proper sense thereof But it hath a near affinity with two other b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words which signifie Princely Rule and Dominion according to that of Isa 32. 1. Princes rule in Judgement And By me Kings rule Prov. 8. 16. And it is such a power as Princes and Conquerors do put forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as may appear by the use of that Root Gen. 32. 28. And when the Prophet saith That this Government shall be upon his shoulder it implieth That it is so weighty as none but the shoulder of the MESSIAH was able to bear And his Name shall be called WONDER Counsellor The Everlasting Father The Prince of Peace The word which our Translators render Wonderful is never so translated by them but in this place But it is a Substantive and not an Adjective and properly signifies a WONDER A new and strange thing that a Virgin should conceive Isa 7. 14. And that the Power of the Most High should overshadow a Virgin and that she should conceive without the help of man This is a WONDER indeed Counsellor This word c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is generally spoken of such Counsellors as are about Princes and Civil Magistrates such as were Jonathan and Achitophel in Davids time 1 Chron. 27. 32 33. and such were Azur Peletiah and Benajah in Zedekiahs time whom we commonly call Privy Councellors or Councellors of State And this argueth That the Government here spoken of is to be understood of Civil-Government The Everlasting Father Christ is so called in a double respect 1. Because he begetteth us through the Gospel administred by his Servants 1 Cor. 1. 15. And hence it is that Conversion is called a new birth 2. Christ is the Everlasting Father in regard of Creation He is the God of the spirits of all flesh Numb 16. 22. Moreover Christ is called The Prince of Peace or as the Apostle calls him He is first King of Righteousness typified by Melchisedeck Gen. 14 18. and then King of Peace Heb. 7. 1 2 The extent of this Government is expressed by an unusual form of writing the word Increase which here and nowhere else that I remember is written with Mem finale in a quadrangular form to shew that this Government 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d should spread it self into all the quarters of Heaven East West North South So extensive should the Government be and so also should be the peace of the same And for durance it should have no end so long as the world indures The Subject or Object of this Government about which it should be conversant it is not said Upon Zion but Vpon the Throne and Kingdom of David to shew that he means not a Government over the Church in an Ecclesiastical way but a Government over the Common-wealth in a Civil way The effects of this Government are these two to order and to support it amplified by the means of this Support Judgement and Justice For by Justice the Throne is established Prov. 16. 12. Thus have you the words briefly opened I shall onely raise one Observation from the same as that which I conceive to be chiefly intended and shall lay down as a firm Position which all the Powers in the world shall not be able to overthrow That the Power of Civil-Government is laid upon the shoulder of Jesus Observ Christ the MESSIAH the Son of David and to him it doth of right belong This I take to be the chief scope of the words and the great Promise here held forth That there should come a time when the MESSIAH should exercise Rule and Dominion as a Prince over all Nations of the world as well in Temporal or Civil things as in Spirituals Now that I may the better clear this Truth consider That there are three kindes of Government and they are all laid upon the shoulder of the MESSIAH 1. There is an Universal Government over all the Creation and Workmanship 1. Vniversal Government of God The parts of which Government that I may so speak are two 1. The Law-giving part which Christ exercised in the Creation giving unto every creature a Law and imprinting the same upon them or putting the same within them And this we commonly call the Law of Nature whereof we can give no reason but the will and pleasure of the Creator Hence springs those secret Virtues in the Magnet and many precious Stones Herbs and Minerals the ebbings and flowings of the Sea which Philosophers ignorantly and absurdly attribute to the Moon putting the Effect before the Cause Hence it is that Fire burneth and Water quencheth and all things act according to their several Natures which is none other but the Law given them by the Lord Jesus in the Creation For we must understand that the worlds were made by him Heb. 1. 2. and without him was not any thing made that was made Joh. 1. 3. And the same day that he created them he gave them a Law To the Heavens he gave their Motions the first day Gen. 1. 1. And on the fourth day he gave the Sun and Moon and Stars their Motions So that as David saith Psal 19. 1 4 5. The Sun like a bridegroom cometh forth of his chamber and rejoyceth as a strong man to run his race And on the fifth day he gave a Law to the Herbs Trees Plants Fowls Fishes Beasts and every creeping thing to produce their like for propagation of their kinde And as Jeremy saith Chap. 8. ver 7. The Stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times and the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallow observe the time of their coming