Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	arm_n	lord_n	zion_n	15	3	9.4719	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A10659	Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulnesse of sinne. The life of Christ. Being the substance of severall sermons preached at Lincolns Inne: by Edward Reynoldes, preacher to that honourable society, and late fellow of Merton Colledge in Oxford.	Reynolds, Edward, 1599-1676.	1631 (1631)	STC 20934; ESTC S115807	428,651	573

spue and rise up no more even that fierce and bitter indignation in the pouring out of which the Lord shall put to his right hand his strong arme not onely the terror of his presence but the glory of his power I say the Lord could let drunkards alone till at last they meet with this Cup which undoubtedly they shall doe if there be either truth in Gods word or power in his right hand if there be either Iustice in heaven or fire in hell till with Belshazzar they meet with dregs and trembling in the bottome of all their Cups but yet oftentimes the Lord smites them with a more sudden blow snatcheth away the Cup from their very mouths and so makes one Curse anticipate and preuent another Though Haman and Achitophel should have liv'd out the whole thred of their life yet at last their honor must have laine downe in the dust with them Though Iudas could have liv'd a thousand yeares and could have improv'd the reward of his Masters bloud to the best advantage that ever Vsurer did yet the rust would at last have seiz'd upon his bags and his monie must have perished with him but now the Lord sets forward his Curse and that which the moth would have been long in doing the gallows dispatcheth with a more swift destruction Thus as the body of a man may have many summons and engagements unto one death may labour at once under many desperate diseases all which by a malignant con●…unction must needs hasten a mans end as Cesar was stabd with thirty wounds each one whereof might have serv'd to let out his soule so the Creatures of God labouring under a manifold corruption doe as it were by so many wings post away from the Owners of them and for that reason must needs be utterly disproportionable to the condition of an Immortall Soule Now to make some Application of this particular before wee leave it This doth first discover and shame the folly of wicked worldlings both in their opinions and affections to earthly things Love is blinde and will easily make men beleeve that of any thing which they could wish to bee in it and therefore because wicked men wish with all their hearts for the love they beare to the Creatures that they might continue together for ever the Divell doth at last so deeply delude them as to thinke that they shall continue for ever Indeed in these and in the generall they must needs confesse that one generation commeth and another goeth but in their owne particular they can never assume with any feeling and experimentall assent the truth of that generall to their owne estates And therefore what ever for shame of the world their outward professions may be yet the Prophet David assures us That their inward Thoughts their owne retir'd contrivances and resolutions are that their houses shall endure for ever and their dwelling places to all generations and upon this Immortality of stones and monuments they resolve to rest But the psalmist concludes this to be but brutish and notorious folly This their way is their folly they like sheepe are laid downe in their graves and death feeds upon them And indeed what a folly is it for men to build upon the sand to erectan Imaginarie fabrick of I know not what Immortality which hath not so much as a constant subsistence in the head that contrives it What man will ever goe about to build a house with much cost and when he hath done to inhabit it himself of such rotten and inconsistent materials as will undoubtedly within a yeere or two after fall upon his head and bury him in the ruines of his owne folly Now then suppose a man were lord of all the World and had his life coextended with it were furnished with wisedome to manage and strength to runne through all the affaires incident to this vast frame in as ample a measure as any one man for the governement of a private family yet the Scripture would assure even such a man that there will come a day in which the heavens shall passe away with a noise and the elements shall melt with heate and the earth with the workes that are therein shall be burnt up and that there is but one houre to come before all this shall be Behold now is the last houre And what man upon these termes would fix his heart and ground his hopes upon such a tottering bottome as will within a little while crumble into dust and leave the poore soule that rested upon it to sinke into hell But now when we consider that none of us labour for any such inheritance that the extremitie of any mans hopes can be but to purchase some little patch of earth which to the whole World cannot beare so neere a proportion as the smallest molehill to this whole habitable earth that all we toyle for is but to have our loade of a little thicke clay as the Prophet speakes that when wee have gotten it neither wee nor it shall continue till the universall dissolution but in the midst of our dearest embracements we may suddenly be puld asunder and come to a fearefull end it must needs be more then brutish stupidity for a man to weave the Spiders webs to wrappe himselfe up from the consumption determined against the whole earth in a covering that is so infinitely too short and too narrow for him Wee will conclude this particular with the doome given by the Prophet Ieremy As the Partridge sitteth on egges and hatcheth them not shee is either caught by the fowler or her egges are broken so he that getteth riches and not by right shall leave them in the midst of his dayes and in the end shall bee a foole Secondly this serves to justifie the wisedome and providence of God in his proceedings with men The wicked here provoke God and cry aloud for vengeance on their owne head and the Lord seemes to stop his eares at the cry of sinne and still to loade them with his blessings he maketh their way to prosper they take roote and grow and bring forth fruite they shine like a blazing Comet and threaten ruine to all that looke upon them they carry themselves like some Tyrant in a Tragedy that scatters abroad death with the sparkles of his eyes and darts out threats against the heaven aboue him they are like Agag before Samuel clothed very delicately and presume that there is no bitternesse to come And now the impatiency of man that cannot resolve things into their proper issues that cannot let iniquitie ripen nor reconcile one day and a thousand yeeres together begins to question Gods proceedings and is afraid le●…t the World be governed blindfold and blessings and curses throwne confusedly abroad for men as it were to scramble and to scuffie for them But our God who keepeth times and seasons in his owne power who hath given to every Creature under the Sunne limits

and obediently undertake it Thou hast prepared mee a bodie In the volume of thy booke it is written of me Lo I come to doe thy Will O God Lastly our holynesse must have growth and proficiencie with it grow in grace Let these things be in you and abound as it is said of Christ that He increased in wisedome and favour with God and men and that He learned obedience by the things which Hee suffered If it bee here objected that Christ was ever full and had the Spirit without measure even from the wombe For in as much as his Divine nature was in his infancie as fully united to his humane as ever after therefore the fulnesse of grace which was a consequent thereupon was as much as ever after To this I answere that certaine it is Christ was ever full of Grace and Spirit but that excludes not his growth in them proportionably to the ripenesse and by consequence capacitie of his humane nature Suppose we the Sunne were vegetable and a subject of augmentation though it would be never true to say that it is fuller of light then it was yet it would be true to say that it hath more light now then it had when it was of a lesser capacitie Even so Christ being in all things save sinne like unto us and therefore like us in the degrees and progresses of naturall maturitie though he were ever full of Grace may yet be said to grow in it and to learne because as the capacitie of his nature was enlarged the spring of Grace within him did rise up and proportionably fill it Secondly from this Doctrine of our conformity in Holinesse to the life of Christ we may be instructed touching the vigor of the Law and the consonancie and concurrencie thereof with the Gospell True it is that Christ is the End of the Law and that wee are not under the Law but under Grace Yet it is as true that Christ came not to destroy the Law and that no jot nor tittle thereof shall fall to the ground Wee are not under the Law for Iustification of our persons as Adam nor for satisfaction of Divine Iustice as those that perish but we are under it as a document of obedience and a rule of living It is now published from mount Sion as a Law of libertie and a new Law not as a Law of condemnation and bond age The obedience thereof is not removed but the disobedience thereof is both pardoned and cured Necessarie is the observation of it as as a fruite of Faith not as a condition of Life or Righteousnesse Necessarie necessitate praecepti as a thing commanded the transgressing whereof is an incurring of sinne not necessitate medy as a strict and undispensable meane of Salvation the transgression whereof is a peremptorie obligation unto death Three things Christ hath done to the Law for us First He hath mitigated the rig●…r and removed the curse from it as it is a killing letter and ministery of death Secondly Hee hath by his Spirit conferred all the principles of obedience upon us wisdome to contrive will to desire strength to execute love to delight in the services of it The Law onely commands but Christ enables Thirdly Hee hath by his exemplary holinesse chalked out unto us and conducted us in the way of obedience for all our obedience comes from Christ and that either as unto members from his Spirit or as unto Disciples from his Doctrine and Example We see then the necessitie of our being in Christ not onely for righteousnesse but for obedience for we must have Life before we can have Operation If we live in the spirit let us walk●… also in the spirit Whereas out of Christ a man is under the whole Law as an insupportable yoke as an impossible and yet inexorable rule as a Covenant of Righteousnesse and condition by which he must be tried by which he must everlastingly stand or fall before the tribunall of Christ when he shall come in flaming fire to take vengeance on those who though convinced of their iusufficiencie to observe the Law have yet disobeyed the Gospell of our Lord Iesus Christ. Thirdly we may hence learne the necessitie of diligent attendance on the holy Scriptures and places where they are explained there is no abiding in Christ but by walking as he walked there is no walking as hee walked but by knowing how he walked and this is onely by the Scriptures in which Hee is yet amongst us walking in the middest of his Church Crucified before our eyes set forth and declared unto us many other signes Iesus did which are not written saith the Apostle but these are written that you might beleeve and that beleeving you might have life Wee know not any of Christs wayes or workes but by the Word and therefore they who give no attendance unto that declare that they regard not the wayes of Christ nor have any care to follow the Lambe wheresoever he goeth Secondly we must from hence bee exhorted to take heede of usurping Christs honour to our selves of being our owne rule or way The Lord is a jealous God and will not suffer any to bee a selfe mover or a God unto himselfe It is one of Gods extreamest judgements to give men over to themselves and leave them to follow their owne rules When hee hath first wo●…d men by his Spirit and that is resisted enticed them by his mercies and they are abused threatned them with his judgements and they are misattributed to second causes cried unto them by his prophets and they are reviled sent his owne Sonne to perswade them and hee is trampled on and despised when he offers to teach them and they stoppe their eares to leade them and they pull away their shoulder to convert them and they hardned their heart when they set up mounds against the Gospell as it were to non-plus and pose the mercies of God that there may be no remedie left then after all these ind●…gnities to the Spirit of Grace this is the judgement with which God useth to revenge the quarrrell of his Grace and Covenant to leave them to the hardnesse and impenitencie of their owne hearts to be a rule and way unto themselves My people would not hearken to my voyce and Israel would none of me So I gave them up unto their owne hearts lust and they walked in their owne counsels Let us therefore take heede of a will-holynesse We are the servants of Christ and our members are to bee the instruments of righteousnesse and servants are to be governed by the will of their masters and members to bee guided by the influence of the head and instruments to bee applyed to all their services by the superiour cause Every thing which Moses did about the Tabernacle was to be done after the patterne which he had seene in the mount and every thing which we doe in these spirituall Tabernacles