Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	abraham_n	call_v	canaan_n	1,554	5	10.1521	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85440	A state of glory for spirits of just men upon dissolution, demonstrated. A sermon preached in Pauls Church Aug. 30. 1657. before the Rt. Honourable the Lord Mayor and aldermen of the City of London. / By Tho: Goodvvin, D.D. president of Magd. Coll. Oxon.	Goodwin, Thomas, 1600-1680.	1657 (1657)	Wing G1257; Thomason E928_2; ESTC R202319	40,336	72

space Now we read Heb. 12. 12. the Apostle to hold forth this very relation of Gods being a father of spirits with this promise thereunto annexed That they should live which relation of Father c. although it be there explicitely spoken in respect of their first Creation which is common unto the Saints with others yet being uttered of and unto men in the state of Grace as those were supposed whom he there exhorteth and that to move them to be subject unto him as such with promise that they should live it evidently respecteth not meerely the relation of Father in respect of what was past the act of creating them but it looketh to the future That they depended upon him as children do upon Fathers for their future livelihood so these for to live in him and with him as a father to their Spirits by Grace For I take hold of that word and live this life is well interpreted by ver. 14. They shall see God that is be glorified and so I conclude all thus that if he would have them be subject unto God in holinesse as upon that relation as unto the father of spirits with this promise That they should live then surely one speciall aim of the promise is answerable and hath this eye That God as a Father of their spirits will therefore take care of their spirits singly and so when separate that they shall live And that accordingly he will give demonstration of this special relation born to their spirits when the occasion shall be considered apart in bestowing this life on them and truly when its more proper for him to shew himself a Father then when their souls after their subjection to him in holinesse here accomplished and when that as naked spirits they come to stand in need and stand afore him in his presence being now turned out of house and home and quite cashired out of this world and come stript and naked of all but holinesse unto their Father for it is said They return to God that gave them who proves to be their Father by Grace And doubt not of it but he will certainly then own them and give them a Fathers blessing and not reject them as if they were but Bastards and no children as that Chapter to the Hebrews speaks but as spirits who as sons that have served him and been subject to him Add to this Fourthly God his being our God which is more home to the demonstration of this point then all the former The Text sayes He that wrought us for this is God I adde he is your God And this alone if we will take the Scriptures verdict will carry it and loe as he is styled The Father of spirits in common and yet withall a father of their spirits out of special love So in like manner he is styled both The God of the spirits of all flesh that is of man Job 12. 20. thus in common and also to his Elect I am your God by grace And these two relations God and Father are commensurate and exactly parallel whether they be applied unto all men in common or to the Elect in special he is termed The God of the Spirits and likewise The Father of the Spirits of all men So in common answerably he is Your God and Your Father by special grace to his Elect both which in this latter respect you finde yoked hand in hand Joh. 20. 17. Look how farre he is a God of the one so farre a Father also extendeth in the other And look how farre that he is our God so farre reacheth also that he is Our Father If therefore the God of our Spirits to provide for them because he is our God then answerably the Father of our Spirits in the like peculiarness because our Father And so the proof of this fourth Particular will adde further strength and confirmation to that we presented in the former Now that his being our God which is the substance of the Covenant of Grace doth engage him to provide glory for separate Souls That one instance of Abraham The Father of the faithful and we all his sons personated in him is a sufficient evidence God did profess himself The God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and unto Abraham Gen. 15. 1. personally I am thy abundant reward which respected the life to come and his Friend 2 Chron. 20. 7. Now the Scriptures of the New Testament do improve this relation of Gods unto us unto two inferences drawn from Abrahams instance whereof the one is the point afore us The first is Christs inference from thence That therefore Abrahams soul lives and Abraham both soul and body shall rise again for God is not the God of the dead but of the living Matth. 22. 31. Thus Christ 2. Paul's collection from the same Promise is that God had provided in the mean time for Abrahams soul afore the Resurrection a City and an House therein for him Thus Heb. 11. 16. But now they desire a better country that is an heavenly wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City To give light to this Paul had represented the story and case of Abraham and the rest of the Patriarchs in the verses afore to have been this That God had indeed promised the Land of Canaan to him and them ver. 8 9. whereupon ver. 13. it is said That these all died in faith not having received the promises being strangers in the land yea not having a foot of land in the Land of Promise as Stephen speaks Acts 7. 5 6 7. And also Paul in the 9th verse of this Heb. 11. Now then when they died what was it their faith expected in stead thereof The 10th verse tells us He looked for a City whose maker and builder is God From which compared observe That when he died his faith was thus pitch'd to look for this City in stead of that Land of Canaan promised This was the expectation of their faith on their part Well but how doth it appear that this flow'd from Gods having professed himself to be the God of Abraham c. his reward and his friend You have this clear in the 16th verse where you have the whole summ'd up as the Conclusion of the story and as the proof and ground hereof but now they desire a better Country that is an heavenly there is their faith and expectation when they should come to die Then it follows Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City which is spoken in full answer to that their expectation at their deaths to shew that God in professing himself to be their God he had thereby engaged himself according to his own intent in that promise to make this provision for them at their deaths The words are express Wherefore God is not ashamed what should this mean in this Coherence but that his declaring himself to be their

God did import and carry this with it That he had provided this estate for them at their death even an heavenly and that otherwise as the Apostle glosseth upon it he had not come up unto the amplitude of nor filled full this convenanted Engagement and Profession of HIS BEING THEIR GOD Will you have it in plain English as we speak if he had not made this provision for their souls he would have been ashamed to have been called their God thus deeply doth this oblige him That he is our God and Father which is the point in hand And judge of this in the light of all that Reason we have hitherto carried along and again let this inference of the Apostle mutually serve to confirm us in all that Reason For poor Abraham to be driven out of his own Country by God who called him to his foot and said no more but as a Master to his Servant Take your Cloke and follow me who must presently without more ado trig and foot it after his Master as Isa 41. 2. and then to live a stranger in the Land of Promise upon the faith that God would be his God which faith in him was also to cease when he came to die If this God in this case should not have taken care to answer his faith in some greater way in stead of the possession of Canaan and that after upon his being turned out of that Country too which he sojourned in during this life if God had not provided another House or Country or City for his soul that was to live to bring it into when it should be deprived of all in this world The Apostle tells us God in this case would have been ashamed to have been called his God which now having provided so abundantly for him upon dying there is superabundant cause to say God is not ashamed for that is a diminutive implying That he infinitely exceedeth that their expectation could be supposed to be Let us but view the force of this inference of the Apostles and so of all the reasonings hitherto read But according to man or what is found amongst men and God will be sure infinitely to surpass men in his ways of favour Take an ordinary friend if his friend be turn'd out of house and home plundred banished driven out of all as the Steward in that Parable Luk. 16. was and comes to his friend at midnight as in that other Parable Luk. 11. 5 6. will not his friends entertain him into their houses as ver. 9. of Luke 16. yea and rise at midnight to do it as ver. 5 6. in that Parable of Luke 11. shall profession of friendship engage and oblige men to do this and shall not Gods professing himself to be our God Father Friend engage his heart much more Nay will he not so entertain them as shall exceed all wonderment What need I say more than this Wherefore He is not ashamed to be called their God He will therefore give you an entertainment that shall be worthy of his being your God The fifth and last Consideration is That these separate Souls having done and finish'd all their work that in order to glory God hath appointed them for ever to do they now at death appear afore him as a JUDGE AND REWARDER And that is the fifth Relation moving God to bestow at this season such a glory on them How that then the Soul returns to God you have heard again again out of Eccl. 12. 7. and that it is upon the account of his being the Judge thereof at the end of their work in this life The Chaldee Paraphrase hath long since glossed upon it It returns to God that it may stand in Judgement afore Him In this life it came unto God by faith as the Apostle speaks believing that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him and now at the end of its faith it comes unto God for the reward of its faith as some interpret that 1 Pet. 1. 9. which we so largely have insisted on This is certain That in that Promise to Abraham To be his God he intended and included his being to him an exceeding great reward And so we come to connect this fifth Head with the fore-going And therefore if the being his God moved him to prepare that City against his death as hath been said Then surely his being his Reward doth also then take place I shall not omit it because it falls in the next Chapter Heb. 12. 23. that in that stupendious Assembly of Heaven God the Judge of all is mentioned between the Church of the first-born which are written in heaven this afore and the Spirits of justified men made perfect this after it For there are none of these first-born or the Spirits of just men do come to sit down there but they pass the award of this Judge first for they sit down by him and surely having done all their work in the time of that day is allotted to each man to work in it is a righteous thing with God to give them a Reward in the evening of this day which is Christs time set for rewarding and it is the twelfth and last hour succeeding the eleventh of the day Matth. 20. 6 9. compared which is when the night of death comes Now there is a Law given by God that the wages to a man hired should be given him by him that set him awork in his day that is says the Septuagint the very same day so as his work or the wages of his work abide not with thee all the night untill the morning says God Deut. 24. 15. Did God take care for hirelings when their work was done not to stay any space of time no not a night and doth he not fulfil this himself unto his Sons that serve him Surely yes he defers not nor puts them off to the morning of the Resurrection as the Psalmist elegantly calls it Psal. 17. last It abides not with him all that dark and long some night or space after death in which their bodies rest in the grave which is termed Mans long home and The days of darkness are many says Solomon no he rewards them in the evening of the day besides what he will adde to it in the morning It is observable that Rev. 6. 9 10. concerning the separate Souls slain for Christ that whilst they cry for Justice on their enemies only And when he had opened the fifth Seal I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held And they cried with a loud voice saying How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth that they had white robes given them to quiet them in the mean time ver. 11. And white robes were given unto every one of them and it was said