Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	father_n	jacob_n	joseph_n	2,306	5	9.7122	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62597	A sermon preached at the funeral of the Reverend Mr Thomas Gouge, the 4th of Novemb. 1681 at S. Anne's Blackfriars with a brief account of his life / by John Tillotson ...	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.	1682 (1682)	Wing T1234; ESTC R17437	26,169	94

If we consider the eminent faith and obedience of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. Abraham left his Country in obedience to God not knowing whither he was to go And which was one of the most unparallel'd and strange instances of faith and obedience that can almost be imagined he was willing to have sacrificed his onely Son at the command of God Isaac and Jacob were also very good men and devout worshippers of the true God when almost the whole world was sunk into Idolatry and all manner of impiety Now what can we imagin but that the good God did design some extraordinary reward to such faithfull servants of his especially if we consider that he intended this gracious declaration of his concerning them for a standing encouragement to all those who in after Ages should follow the faith and tread in the steps of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. Thirdly If we consider the condition of Abraham Isaac and Jacob in this world The Scripture tells us that they were pilgrims and strangers upon the earth had no fixed and settled habitation but were forced to wander from one Kingdom and Country to another that they were exposed to many hazards and difficulties to great troubles and afflictions in this world so that there was no such peculiar happiness befell them in this life above the common rate of men as may seem to fill up the big words of this promise that God would be their God For so far as the Scripture History informs us and further we cannot know of this matter Esau was as prosperous as Jacob and Jacob had a great many more troubles and afflictions in this life than Esau had But surely when God calls himself the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob this signifies that God intended some very peculiar blessing and advantage to them above others which seeing they did not enjoy in this world it is very reasonable to believe that one time or other this gracious declaration and promise of God was made good to them And therefore the Apostle to the Hebrews chap. 11. from this very expression of God's being said to be the God of Abraham and others argues that some extraordinary happiness was reserved for them in another world and that upon this very ground I am now speaking of namely because the condition of Abraham and some others was not such in this world as might seem to answer the fulness of this promise All these says he died in the faith not having received the promises but having seen them afar off and were perswaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims upon the earth From whence he reasons very strongly that these good men might reasonably expect something better than any thing that had befallen them in this world For they says he that say such things declare plainly that they seek a Country which at the 16. verse he calls a better Country that is a heavenly They that say such things that is they who acknowledge themselves to be strangers and pilgrims in the earth and yet pretend that God hath promised to be their God declare plainly that they expect some reward beyond this life From all which he concludes Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God because he hath prepared for them a City Intimating that if no happiness had remained for these good men in another world this promise of God's being their God would shamefully have fallen short of what it seemed to import viz. some extraordinary reward and blessing worthy of God to bestow something more certain and lasting than any of the enjoyments of this world which since God had abundantly performed to them in the happiness of another life his promise to them was made good to the full and he needed not be ashamed to be called their God But if nothing beyond this life had been reserved for them that Saying of old Jacob towards the conclusion of his life few and evil have the days of the years of my life been would have been an eternal reflexion upon the truth and faithfulness of Him who had so often called himself the God of Jacob. But now because to all this it may be said that this Promise seems to have been made good to Abraham Isaac and Jacob in this world For was not God the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob when he took such a particular and extraordinary care of them and protected them from the manifold dangers they were exposed to by such a special and immediate providence suffering no one to doe them harm but rebuking even Kings for their sakes Was not he Abraham's God when he blest him so miraculously with a Son in his old age and with so considerable an estate to leave to him Was not that Saying of Jacob a great acknowledgment of the gracious providence of God towards him with my staff passed I over this Jordan and now I am become two bands And though it must needs be a very cutting affliction to him to lose his Son Joseph as he thought he had done yet that was more than recompensed to him in Joseph's strange advancement in Aegypt whereby God put into his hands the opportunity of saving his Father and his whole Family alive And was not God the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob in making them Fathers of so numerous an off-spring as afterwards became a great Nation and in giving them a fruitfull Land and bringing them to the quiet possession of it by such a series of wonderfull Miracles what need then is there of extending this promise to another world doth it not seem abundantly made good in those great blessings which God bestowed upon them whilst they liv'd and afterwards upon their posterity in this world And does not this agree well enough with the first and most obvious sense of these words I am the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob that is I am he that was their God while they were alive and am still the God of their posterity for their sakes I say because the three former Considerations are liable to this Objection which seems wholly to take off the force of this Argument therefore for the full clearing of this matter I will add one consideration more Fourthly then we will consider the general importance of this Promise abstracting from the particular persons specified and named in it viz. Abraham Isaac and Jacob and that is that God will make a wide and plain difference between good and bad men he will be so the God of good men as he is not of the wicked and some time or other put every good man into a better and happier condition than any wicked man so that the general importance of this promise is finally resolved into the equity and justice of the Divine Providence And unless we suppose another life after this it will certainly be very hard and I think impossible to reconcile the History of the Old Testament and the common appearances of