Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	earth_n	nation_n	shake_v	3,856	5	10.6061	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90288	A sermon preached to the Honourable House of Commons, in Parliament assembled: on January 31. A day of solemne humiliation. With a discourse about toleration, and the duty of the civill magistrate about religion, thereunto annexed. Humbly presented to them, and all peace-loving men of this nation. / By John Owen, pastor of the Church of Christ, which is at Coggeshall in Essex.	Owen, John, 1616-1683.	1649 (1649)	Wing O805; Thomason E540_25; Thomason E549_1; ESTC R203104	74,810	103

A SERMON Preached to the Honourable House of COMMONS IN PARLIAMENT Assembled On January 31. A day of Solemne Humiliation With a Discourse about TOLERATION And the Duty of the Civill Magistrate about RELIGION thereunto Annexed Humbly Presented to them and all Peace-loving Men of this NATION By John Owen Pastor of the Church of Christ which is at Coggeshall in Essex LONDON Printed by Matthew Simmons in Aldersgate Street 1649. Die Mercurij 31. Januarij 1648. ORdered by the Commons Assembled in Parliament That Master Allen do give the Thankes of this House to Master Owen for the great paines he tooke in his Sermon Preached before this House this day at Margarets Westminster And that he be desired to Print his Sermon at large wherein he is to have the like priviledge of Printing it as others in the like kind usually have had Hen Scobell Cler Parl. Dom. Com. To the Right Honourable the Commons of England Assembled in Parliament Sirs IT hath always suited the wisedome of God to do great things in difficult seasons He sets up wals in troublous times Dan. 9. 25. His builders must hold Swords and Spears as well as Instruments of labour Neh. 4. 16. Yea while sin continueth in its course here which began in Heaven and having contemporized with the Earth shall live for ever in Hell Great works for God will cause great troubles amongst men The holy harmlesse Reconciler of heaven and earth bids us expect the Sword to attend his undertakings for and way of making peace Mat. 10. 34. All the waves in the world arise to their height and roaring from the confronting of the breath of Gods spirit and the vapours of mens corruptions Hence seasons receive their degrees of difficulty according to the greatnesse and weight of the workes which in them God will accomplish to their worth and excellency is mans opposition proportioned This the instruments of his glory in this generation shall continually find true to their present trouble and future comfort As the days approach for the delivery of the decree to the shaking of Heaven and Earth and all the powers of the World to make way for the establishment of that kingdom which shall not be given to another people the great expectation of the Saints of the most high before the consummation of all so tumults troubles vexations and disquietnes must certainly grow and increase among the sons of men A dead woman says the Proverb will not be carryed out of her house under four men Much lesse will living men of wisedome and power be easily quietly dispossessed of that share and Interest in the things of Christ which long continued usurpation hath deluded them into an imagination of being their owne Inheritance This then being shortly to be effected and the scale being ready to turn against the man of sin notwithstanding his ballancing it in opposition to the witnesse of Jesus with the weight and poyse of earthly power no wonder if heaven earth sea and dry land be shaken in their giving place to the things that cannot be moved God Almighty having called you forth Right honourable at his entrance to the rolling up of the Nations heavens like a Scroll to serve him in your Generation in the high places of Armageddon you shall be sure not to want experience of that Opposition which is raised against the great work of the Lord which generally swels most against the visible instruments therof And would to God you had only the deuoted sons of Babel to contend withall that the men of this shaking earth were your only Antagonists that the Malignity of the Dragons tayle had had no influence on the Stars of heaven to prevaile with them to fight in their courses against you But jacta est alea the providence of God must be served according to the discovery made of his owne unchangeable will and not the mutable interests and passions of the sons of men For verily the Lord of Hosts hath purposed to pollute the pride of all glory and to bring into contempt all the Honourable of the Earth Isa. 23. 9. The contradictions of sinners against all that walk in the paths of righteousnesse and peace with the supportment which their spirits may receive as being promised who pursue those wayes notwithstanding those contradictions are in part discovered in the ensuing Sermon the foundation of that whole Transaction of things which is therin held out in reference to the present dispensations of providence being nothing but an entrance into the unravelling of the whole Web of Iniquity interwoven of Civill and Ecclesiasticall Tyranny in opposition to the kingdome of the Lord Jesus I chose not to mention Neither shall I at present add any thing thereabout but onely my desire that it may be eyed as the granted Basis of the following discourse Only by your very favourable acceptation of the making out those thoughts which were the hasty conception and like Jonah's Gourd the child of a night or two which with prayer for a rooting in the hearts of them to whom they were delivered had certainly withered in their owne Leaves had they not received warmth and moysture from your commands in general and the particular desires of many of you to give them a life of a few dayes longer I am encouraged to the annexing of a few lines as a free-will offering to attend the following Product of obedience Now this shall not be to the Opposition which you doe and shall yet further meet withall but as to the Causes real or pretended which are held forth as the bottom of that contradiction wherwith on every side you are encompassed The things in reference whereunto your proceedence is laden with such criminations as these sad dayes of recompence have found to be Comets portending no lesse then blood are first Civill then Religious For the First as their being beyond the bounds of my Calling gives them Sanctuary from being called forth to my consideration so neither have I the least thoughts with Absolom of a more orderly carrying of of Affaires might my desires have any influence into their disposall Waiting at the throne of Grace that those whom God hath intrusted with and enabled for the Transaction of these things may be directed and supported in their employment is the utmost of my undertaking herein For the other or Religious things the generall interest I have in them as a Christian being improved by the super-added Title of a Minister of the Gospel though unworthy the one Name and the other gives me not onely such boldnesse as accreweth from enjoyed Favour but also such a Right as will support mee to plead concerning them before the most Impartiall Judicature And this I shall doe as I said before meerly in reference to those criminations which are layd by conjecturall presumptions on your Honourable Assembly and made a cause of much of that opposition and contradiction you meet withall Now in particular

them that oppose themselves if at any time God will give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth imprisoning banishing slaying is scarcely a patient waiting God doth not so wait upon unbeleevers Perhaps those who call for the sword on earth are as unacquainted with their own spirits as those that called for fire from heaven Luk. 11. And perhaps the parable of the tares gives in a positive rule as to this whole businesse occasion may be given of handling it at large for the present I shall not fear to assert that the answers unto it borrowed by our Divines from Bellarmine will not endure the triall we hope that spirituall quiet and inoffensivenesse in the whole mountain of the Lord which is wrapt up in the wombe of many promises will at length be brought forth to the joy of all the children of Sion 3. Sundrie other arguments taken from the nature of faith heresie liberty of Conscience the way of illumination means of communication of truth nature of spirituall things pravitious tendence of the doctrine opposed if it should be actually embraced by all enjoying authority and the like I thought at present to have added but I am gone already beyond my purposed resting place Come we in a few words to the last thing proposed wherein I shall be very brief the main of what I intended being already set down the power of the Magistrate to compell others to the embracing of that Religion and way of worship which he shall establish and set up which for the greater advantage we shall suppose to be the very same both for the things proposed to be beleeved and also practised which God himself hath revealed and requireth all men every where to embrace What is to be done for the setling and establishing of the profession of the Gospel and the right apprehension of the minde of God therein contra-distinct from all those false and erronious perswasions which in these or former dayes are or have been held forth in opposition thereunto was before declared how it is to be supported maintained protected defended safe-guarded from all oppositions disturbances blasphemings was then and there set down Now supposing that sundry persons living under the power and owning civill obedience to the Magistrate will not consent to sound doctrine nor receive in some things fewer or more lesse or greater that form of wholsome words which he holds forth and owns as the minde of Christ in the Gospel nor communicate with him in the worship which by the Authority of those words or that truth he hath as before established it is inquired what is the duty of the Magistrate in reference to the bringing of them into that subjection which is due unto and acknowledgement of the truth And to this I shall briefly give in my Answer in these following Positions 1. In reference unto us in this Nation the greatest difficulty in giving a full return to this question ariseth from the great disorder of the Churches of God amongst us were the precious distinguished from the vile Churches rightly established and Church discipline exercised that Christians were under some orderly view and men might be confidered in their severall capacities wherein they stand an easie finger would unty the knot of this quaere but being in that confusion wherein we are gathering into any order being the great work in hand I suppose under favour that the time is scarce come for the proposall of this question but yet something may be given in unto it though not so clear as the former supposall being effected would cause it to be 2. The constant practise of the Churches in former ages in all their meetings for advise and counsell to consent into some form of wholsome words that might be a discriminating tessera of their communion in doctrine being used in prime Antiquitie as is manifest in that ancient Symbol commonly esteemed Apostolicall of the chief heads whereof mention in the like Summary is made in the very first writers among them having also warrant from the Word of God and being of singular use to hold out unto all other Churches of the world our apprehensions of the minde of God in the chief heads of Religion may be considered If this be done by the authority of the Magistrate I mean if such a declaration of the truth wherein the Churches by him owned and protected do consent be held out as the confession of that truth which he embraceth it will be of singular use unto yea indeed must necessarily precede any determination of the former question of the nature and use of confessions c. so much hath of late been learnedly disputed that I shall not powre out any of mine own conceptions for the present about them in that hasty tumultuary manner wherein I am enforced to expose this essay 3. Those who dissent from the truth so owned so established so decreed do so either in lesse matters of small consequence and about things generally confessed not fundamentall or in great and more weighty heads of doctrine acts of worship and the like both agreeing in this that they will not hold communion as either to all or some parts and duties thereof which those Churches and persons who do embrace the truth so owned as before and act accordingly For the first of these or such as dissent about things of no great concernment in comparison of those other things wherein they do agree with them from whom they do dissent I am bold positively to assert that saving and preserving the Rules and qualifications set down under the second head the Magistrate hath no warrant from the Word of God nor command rule or precept to enable him to force such persons to submit unto the truth as by him established in those things wherein they expresse a conscientious dissent or to molest them with any civill penalty in case of refusall or non-submission nor yet did I ever in my life meet with any thing in the shape of Reason to prove it although the great present clamor of this Nation is punctually as to this head what ever be pretended this is the Helena about which is the great contest What I pray will warrant him then to proceed Will the Laws against Idolatry and Blasphemy with their sanctions towards the persons of blasphemers and idolaters for I must ingenuously confesse all that which in my poore judgement looks with any appearance of pressing toward Haereticidium is the everlasting equity of those judiciall Laws and the Arbitrarinesse of Magistrates from a divine rule in things of the greatest concernment to the glory of God if free from them and that these Laws I doubt will scarcely be accommodated unto any thing under contest now in this age of the world among Christians but shall I say a warrant taken from hence for the compelling of men sound in so many fundamentals as were it not for the contest with them we would acknowledge sufficient for the entertainment