Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	hand_n	house_n	tabernacle_n	2,823	5	9.9204	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56457	Seasonable counsel to an afflicted people in a letter to the distressed inhabitants of Wem in the county of Salop, after the dreadful fire, which consumed that market-town, March 3. 1676/7. Written by Andrew Parsons, M.A. and sometime minister there.	Parsons, Andrew, 1615 or 16-1684.	1677 (1677)	Wing P559D; ESTC R220462	17,781	51

Seasonable Counsel TO An Afflicted People IN A LETTER To the Distressed INHABITANTS OF WEM In the County of SALOP After the dreadful FIRE which consumed that Market-Town March 3. 1676 7. Written by Andrew Parsons M.A. and sometime Minister there LONDON Printed for E. Brewster and Tho. Parkhurst at the Crane in St. Pauls Church-yard and at the Bible and three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers-Chappel 1677. To my dear Friends of Wem who have suffered by the late dreadful Fire BEloved people when I first heard of that devouring Fire how could I be otherwise affected than Nehemiah was Chap. 1.4 when he heard Jerusalem lay waste and burnt He was astonished wept and prayed to the God of Heaven And oh that my prayers may be as effectual and successful for you as his were for them then Wem would be built again as Jerusalem was the glory of whose second Temple exceeded that of the first as did also their own Houses and habitations Hag. 1.4 But is Wem burnt indeed What Wem the place that God hath blessed and where he hath as signally manifested his power goodness forbearance and mercy as in any place you or I ever knew And is this lot and fate at last befallen Wem What! to come down so wonderfully and in a little more than an hour for her beauty to be turn'd into Ashes Sure this Fire who ever kindled it here like that of Sodom came down from the Lord out of Heaven it was so fierce and unquenchable Therefore if other great and stupendious providences have passed as unregarded by us this must not if we mean to prevent the flaming vengeance of God next upon our selves O Wem thou wast a Town saved by the Lord from Pestilence when you do remember God shot his Arrow in Shrewsbury on one hand and Whitchurch on the other but the impression of this quickly wore off and yet the long-suffering of God still waited the holy and righteous God is slow to wrath and he was long a coming to Wem expecting still his Gospel preached there might find better acceptance and prevail more to the amendment of their lives In the mean time he visited other places and uttered his voyce in dreadful flames in Drayton the sound whereof had it not been for a general and moral deafness would have been shrill in your ears crying Wem look upon Drayton and learn to be wise in time in this thy day know the things that belong to thy peace and safety God called but Wem would not answer yet still Gods bowels wrought strongly towards Wem as of old toward Ephraim how shall I give thee unto the flames Make thee as Admah Hos 11.8 I 'le practise in like manner upon another place also it may be then they will hear and fear and do no more wickedly so a Fire and that a dreadful one was in Newport Now God said as in Zeph. 3.7 Surely they will fear me in Wem and break off their sins which are greater some circumstances considered so iniquity should not be their ruine But behold no returning yet such as God looked for and though divine Justice cryed Wem is incorrigible let it utterly perish yet mercy triumphs further over justice No saith God I will not destroy it utterly yet as I did Sodom there are righteous in it who though they be sleepy yet the firing of one little house this happened March 76. almost out of harms way may awaken them if others would not hear being come home to them to contend likewise by Fire this might well be received as a strong Alarm at the Gate But at this time God repented and therefore Wem repented not yet after all this Five Months after God would Fire one Beacon more in the highest place in the heart of the Town and if he must be put to quench it himself with the Clouds because they did it not with their Tears the next shall be an unquenchable Fire which was March 3. 76. I would not have made mention of those neighbour Towns upon whom the hand of the Lord was heavy but that I feared then I should lose my chief design which is to advance the infinite riches of Gods forbearance to aggravate your sin and to make way the better for your deeper humiliation and repentance but especially though your houses be in Ashes that you might put your mouths in the dust and justifie God in all his righteous proceedings against you that you may have nothing to say against God but to turn your complaints against your selves as the People of God in like cases always have done And if this was the effect at present of this dreadful stroke I hope you will experience another hereafter which is to do you good in the latter end Of two evils God would chuse the least for you he would burn yours but not you he knew that Tophet would be a worse place for burning than Tabora Numb 11. If a people were set upon sin so that there was no saving them but by Fire if they were not burnt they might be damn'd if their houses were not desolate their salvation was endangered if they would not so carefully look for a House in Heaven so long as they had where to lay their heads here on earth he must cure by burning And my dear Friends you are not the first that God practised this way upon his own People the Jews were consumed by Fire and other horrible judgments at last sent packing away to Babylon your suffering not the one half of theirs and yet all was for their good Jer. 24.5 And therefore my dear Friends give me leave to tell you that now under this stupendious providence is your day Now is your critical time for making or marring for Body and Soul hear and your Souls shall live repent and your Town shall be built and you and not others shall inhabit it No Conscience can be so stupid but must conclude that as this dreadful stroak by all circumstances was from an angry God in Heaven so from thence it brings this errand Now or never repent you did burn lately you must turn presently I tell you this Providence admits no delay you must sin no more lest a worse fire come or you come to a worse fire God says to you as well as to his People burnt out of old Consider your ways Hag. 1.5 O would to God you were my dear friends so come to your selves as the Prodigal was to run and cry Father we have sinned against Heaven else the Heavens would not so furiously have blown the flames that did consume us The Town consumed in little more than an hour O that the People of Wem were like the men of Issachar who understood the times and knew what they ought to do Then I would comfort you who have lost your Houses you should instantly have a House without hands made sure to you in Heaven for ever Would not that be a bonefire indeed that consumed your lusts

that ye might be meet to dwell in that brave House though it burnt your earthly tabernacles together That wind did blow you good indeed if the Spirit of God was in it consuming the while your sins and purifying your Souls were your Houses built to day and burned again to morrow you might afford to bear it if Christs Fathers House in Heaven by the Spirit of adoption be sealed securely unto you which then it would be Now my Brethren having this house I have been speaking of in hope if you do repent which this present Providence crys and calls aloud to you to do if it had been done sooner your houses might have stood if it be not done now your houses may never be re-built if they be you may not live to dwell in them and where shall ye dwell then Oh the houses in Hell are woful houses will you without delay obey this voice Oh that while I am writing I could be assured you are repenting that some good man or other would come to me with good tidings The people of Wem are much changed and refined by the Fire there are like to be more new creatures among the poorer sort than new cottages the Church is burnt yet the people passionately say Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob weeping as they go I will not despair I hope God will hear prayers and give you repentance unto life After Gods voice I beseech you by the mercies of God let the voice of his and sometime your unworthy Minister be heard repent and amend your lives I need not go to particulars to press this repentance the sad Providence of God hath wrought so I hope as to save me this labour and brought your sins fresh to your remembrance Though I cannot yet sure God doth hear your own Consciences peaching you viz. Ah this is for my going prayerless to bed if our houses had been Churches and we spiritual Priests to offer morning and evening Sacrifices unto God of broken and contrite hearts this would this might never have been but I did rise early and made more haste than good speed out of my own house that I might be in the Ale-house rise early to follow strong drink follow it indeed when I stand at it the whole day I came thither a man but I went thence a brute Shall I mention burning my house 't is the infinite mercy of God I my self am not burning in Hell Yonder yonder stood the house where I consumed so much precious time where I spent most of that which cost me so much sweat and labour where I was drinking and debauching my self while my family at home wept and sighed for want of bread or something else This fire was for our profanation of the Sabbath a Judgment particularly threatned for this sin Jer. 17.27 God threatneth Zach. 5.4 to burn houses for swearing and forswearing and was it not a wonder of mercy my house stood so long O the Scripture sure is the Word of God I 'le go no farther than the fulfilling of it for a proof O my folly my folly saith this and twenty men more whose hearts ran after their covetousness I have cared and laboured plotted and contrived with all my might a whole age for that which thieves might have stolen which fire hath utterly consumed in one hour How shall I answer God who gave me so long time since I have nothing left now to shew what I did all this while I have little knowledg of the things of God to shew I have few good works to shew I was a true lover of the Mammon of unrighteousness it was in my heart so that I was an Idolater and sacralegious person all that while What have I employed a soul a precious and immortal Being about things that it could never have content in And are these now gone in an hours time Look yonder all that I laboured for and loved above my soul is now some carts full of rubbish and a few handfuls of ashes I have spent my time well that am now level'd with the poor man that could arrive to no more than to see a little meat in his cubbard My Heaven hath took Wings and fled from me and what a Heaven now shall I have Lord shew me my folly or I am undone The House of God is burnt saith another And now if God should reckon with me for all the sins I have been guilty of there What a fire did I deserve to feel Here stood my seat where I slept so much while I waked my ears were stopt because my mind was devising evil devices and was prejudiced against the Preacher and his Doctrine both especially the Application I do now wonder and wonder again at my self that while I heard there the glad tidings of the Gospel sounding in my ears I should be no more affected than the pillar I leaned unto There I was invited to the marriage-supper yea I was promised in case I would consent my Maker would be my husband and if I would be for him he would be for me Matth. 18. But I made light of it and disdainfully said I pray have me excused though that while I had no other sutors than the Devil the World and the Flesh whose motions I embraced though my early vow in baptism enjoyned me by the Command of God upon greatest penalties to forsake them all There we call to remembrance the Minister cited and applied the words of Moses to the two Tribes and half Numb 32.22 Behold you have sinned against the Lord and be sure your sin will find you out We were told there over and over that we had God to serve souls to save death to pay an account to give a sentence to receive and eternity to live in But these things did not move us so as to stop our running to all excess and committing iniquity with greediness as if we could not soon enough provide fuel not only for this fire which hath consumed us but for a worse which if God be not infinitely gracious to us through Jesus Christ will be consuming of us for ever And now methinks I hear you sigh and cry Men of God help us what shall we do The wrath of the Lord is gone forth the fire of his indignation hath begun upon our houses what must be done to quench it that it might not reach our souls that we may not suffer the vengance of eternal fire Christs Counsel to the impotent man John 5.14 Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee is proper and seasonable for me and you My friends come let us return unto the Lord for he hath torn us and he will bind us up he hath burnt you and he will then build you up Knowing the terror of the Lord sure this Exhortation will obtain Burnt children will dread the fire O tell thy lusts that have been as dear as thy right