Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	aaron_n	according_a	rod_n	24	3	9.6761	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49971	Orbis miraculum, or, The temple of Solomon pourtrayed by Scripture-light wherein all its famous buildings, the pompous worship of the Jewes, with its attending rites and ceremonies, the several officers employed in that work, with their ample revenues, and the spiritual mysteries of the Gospel vailed under all, are treated at large.	Lee, Samuel, 1625-1691.	1659 (1659)	Wing L903C; ESTC R41591	488,038	394

the Gowned Nation but I seriously profess I had no design when the whole work was finished except the ninth chapter to have appeared publikely in it having resigned it up as a piece of service to a friend for the company of a larger Treatise of his written in our Mother-Tongue upon a subject of this like nature and thereby I should have passed through the world with more contenting secresie But since some urgent providences well known to several of my friends have over-ruled me to walk without another's shelter I thought it no unsafe course to pitch upon your Candid and Learned Protection Obliged Duty challenges the tender of my respects and former experience lays the foundation of your expected Favour The natural love and affection which I ever found planted within me toward that place of my Education even as I have generally observed I know not what Genius may I so term it or affectionate tincture to run in the veins of such as have been bred at Wadham strongly invites me to the former and I cannot dispute the equitable return of your kindness in the latter being grounded upon past experiment I shall mean-while not cease to breathe out hearty Prayers towards the Golden Mercy-Seat That all within your Walls may be set up for standing Pillars in the House of God that your hearts may be flaming Altars your Tongues golden Harps and that Garments of praise may be your Covering That the great High Priest would please to sprinkle your Consciences from all dead works with his own most precious blood and that he would carry your Names engraven upon the Stones of his Brest-plate continually before the Father That Holiness Vertue all savoury and wholsome Knowledg and whatsoever is Praise-worthy may flourish and be ever verdant within your Walls That golden Crowns of Learning imbellish'd with sparkling Diamonds of Grace may adorn your Heads and Hearts and give forth a most Orient and Radiant lustre in the Schools of the Prophets That not only the Lamp of Knowledge shining out of the Sanctuary may illustrate your mindes with Scripture discoveries But that also the Soul satiating Bread of life from the golden Table as of old it was the Priests every Sabbath may be your portion That ye might all taste of the hidden Manna that Aaron's Rod might fragrantly blossome among you and that God would write his Laws according to the tenour of the New Covenant not in Tables of stone but the fleshly Tables of your hearts That your hope may be fixed within the Vail sure and stedfast whither the Fore-runner is entred for all the Saints It would be one of the choice joys of the Lovers of that place to hear concerning you that Mercy and Truth have met together that Righteousness and Peace have kiss'd each other That all profaneness and unholiness being utterly rooted up and cast out to the Dunghil there may such proceed from thence as may prove Truth 's able Champions against the Goliahs of Errour and persons of cementing and healing Tempers to soder and salve the Schisms and Rents in the Church that Trees of Righteousness may be transplanted out of your pleasant and fruitful Nursery into the Garden of God which may yeild all manner of fruit in due season That silver streams of consolation may flow from your Spring being seasoned with the salt of Grace to refresh wearied souls and abundantly to water the dry and thirsty places of Immanuel's land That God's Urim and Thummim may be with you enabling such of you as are consecrated to God to teach Jacob his Judgements and Israel his Law That you may burn the spiritual Incense of sweet smelling Prayers before him and offer up the whole burnt Sacrifices of the Divine Ordinances upon the glorious Altar within his Gospel Temple So Prays Your hearty Well-wisher Samuel Lee. A PREFACE to the READER Courteous Reader I Here present thee with the sometime most pompous and splendid Glory of the whole world The Temple of Solomon at Jerusalem For prospect the most pleasant for foundation and walls the strongest for all its circumambient buildings the most Magnificent for costly Ornaments the richest and for its mysterious Rites the most Sacred Structure that ever the Sun saw It is commonly reported as I remember of Austin That if he could have obtained the pitch of his wishes he would gladly have seen Christ upon Earth Paul in the Pulpit and Rome in her Glory I wonder he mentioned not a fourth viz. The Temple in all its holy-day bravery I mean at the solemn Dedication thereof by King Solomon In the Land-skip of this Treatise thou maist have a short and I hope in some measure a true glance of its Royalty Though formerly as a Gentile thou mightest not presume to enter these Sacred walls yet now the partition-wall being down thou mayest draw near to the Holy of Holyes without fear of Crassus his doom never to thrive after his irreverent and bold intrusion But before I lead thee Good Reader into the Temple it self give me leave to detein thee while I discourse of some few things in haste which are necessarily to be premised to the following Work Some matters I confess might have been handled more concisely and some consequences might possibly have been wrapt up in a narrower compass But considering that Obscurity is the daughter of Brevity and that the unproficiency of some Readers proceeds from the over-frequent use of terms of Art and too compendious expressions I have taken the counsel of Aelian in the first Chapter of his Tacticks not to involve the sense in obscure and intricate words who blames most of the preceding Writers in his kind thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That they wrote as if all men knew already the things about which they compiled their Treatises manifesting by their dark terms wherein they laboured to be intricate that they intended not instruction but ostentation To let that pass The same Author promised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Types or Figures to Illustrate the matter that the Eye might assist the understanding So in this Treatise thou wilt find some figures of the Temple interserted which though not fully to my mind yet may moderately serve for the advancement of the true and genuine apprehension of its description as well as to delight the pious fancy of the devout Reader The next thing I am to mention is that form and figure of the Temple which is exhibited in the fifth part of the Apparatus preceding that late famous Work of the many Languaged Bibles I should not for modesties sake and the great respect I beare to such noble Labours whereby not onely our Country but the very age is honoured have mentioned any thing of this nature Had it not openly exhibited the frame thereof different from what is here produced whereby the very Body of this VVork at the first blush would have lain under dislike in the Censure of every vulgar eye However I am not

that at the very same time there were upon it botn buds flowers and fruit and probably leaves also which might be included in the general signification of the Verb set in the first place Junius Tremelius renders it Ecce flourisset c. Producens enim germen emiserat florem educebat amygdala Behold it had flowred c. For bringing forth buds it sent forth flowers and brought forth Almonds much to the sense of our present acceptation of the Text. The Almond-Tree is exceeding plentiful in its flowers and when they knit well it s a sign say some that it shall be a very great year for Corn Pierius p. 647. Hieroglyph as Pierius observes out of Virgil according to our common saying that a good Nut-year shewes a good year for Wheat The rind of an Almond is bitter but the kernel very delicious and the Oyl exprest out of it very physical and of much vertue To shew that chastising and reproving words though bitter in the present taste yet yield a precious and excellent fruit if well improved The shell of the Almond is very hard and not to be broken by the teeth but with great difficulty Such is the Law but the Gospel is the sweet kernel within Though mainly this Rod did decipher and hint at Christ yet did it also lock at the Ministry Heb. 13.20 1 Pet. 2.25 whereof he is head and principal He is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the graet Shepheard of the sheep and Bishop of souls A flourishing Ministry is an excellent Omen of a fruitful and holy people Besides this Rod did denote a continued succession of Gospel-Ministers in the work Christ the great Aaron hath his successours by his assignation (d) Cant. 2.13 nay that are begotten by him by the Word of truth as his Children Some tender buds growing up in the Spring of Learning and divine knowledge Some sweet blossomes opening into the flower of service and giving a goodly sent Some ripe fiuit able Ministers of the New Testament that can both divide the truth aright and withstand gainsayets whose shells are hard for opposition whose kernels sweet in the food of Doctrine Or we may understand this Rod as signifying the Ministry effectivè as to the effects it produceth by the blessing of God being made effectuall to produce some precious buds of Grace in the hearts of their hearers some blossomes of heavenly joy and assurance some holy fruits of righteousnesse and new obedience There are some Lambs in Christ's fold some riper some elder Christians some great with young travelling in birth with Paul (e) Gal. 4.19 till Christ be formed in others The Buds nor Blossomes nor Nuts did not perish but miraculously continued on the Rod laid up by the Testimony so neither shall the Ministry or the Word of the Gospel or the work of Grace in the hearts of the faithful wither away Every branch in Christ shall not onely be like Aaron's Rod but shall (f) Joh. 10.10 bring forth more fruit and have life more abundantly The colour of the blossomes of the Almond are of a rubens Candor a whitenesse tinctured with red white to shew the purity and innocency of the Doctrine and Life of faithful Ministers and yet many times discoloured with rednesse by reproach and persecution They have a fragrant and sweet sent so saith the Apostle that the Gospel-Ministers are a (g) 2 Cor. 2.15 sweet savour of Christ in them that are saved and them that perish (h) Plin. lib. 7. cap. 17. Pliny relates of the Panther that by his sweet breath he draws and allures the beasts to him so doth Christ in his Gospel-Ministers draw the souls of sinners to him and then teacheth them the knowledge of life and salvation But as to this Rod further We do not read expresly of any leaves it brought forth though I cannot say it did not yet however by way of allusion we may thence observe that as leaves are Emblems of outward profession so the Ministers ought mainly to take care of bringing forth fruit in themselves and others No leaves of a bare formal profession onely but a holy practical fruitful life attending their flowring doctrines This Rod was laid up neer the Ark which was the Embleme of Gods presence The Mercy-seat of Christ incarnate the Cherubins of the holy Angels and the tables of the Law and all this within the Oracle the Figure of Heaven To note that the pastoral or Prophetical Office of Christ is near and dear to God The only begotten son who lyeth in the bosom of the Father he hath (c) Joh. 1.18 declared him and as all the Buds of the Ministry flow from Christs Rod and lies by and near him It notes from whence the Gospel Embassy comes even out of the Conclaves or secret Chambers of Heaven and to note that Ministers should study much converse with God with Christ and the holy Angels and as the Tables of the Law were there the Compend of Scripture So should it be their diligent care to search in it as (d) Prov. 2.4 for hidden Treasure As the Holy of Holies signified Heaven wherein this Rod lay It admonishes Dispensers of the sacred Oracles that they should often Ascend the rounds of Jacobs Ladder be often in the Mount of transfiguration with Christ and be transformed from the Image of the world often in the Pisgah of Prayer often in the Nebo of meditation and when they come down O how will their faces like to Moses's shine before the people But alas many there be who intrude into that sacred Function that need Moses's Vail rather to cover their shame than to hide the strength of their gracious beauty from the people Did they walk more with God the reproaches and marks of Christ would be their honour (a) Pet. 4.14 The Spirit of God and of glory would rest upon them Though Israel was in the Wildernesse yet this Rod lay in the Oracle and though the Israelites murmured against the Priestly Office yet the Rod falls a blossoming If thou wouldst prove a blossoming Minister endeavour to keep company with the Ark of Gods presence Hence we may infer from the Rods lying near the Ark that a holy fruitful flourishing Ministry is of great esteem with God How then ought the people to cherish honour and pray for these Rods of Aaron Oh pray for a blossoming Ministry While Zachary was praying within the Sanctuary and conversing with an Angel we read that (b) Luke 1.10 the people were praying without If the people did pray more fervently for their Ministers they would feel more blossoming work in and upon their hearts from the Ministry of Christ While they are meditating and seeing Visions do you fall a praying If this Rod were laid up as a token of the persons whom God had chosen then let all persons beware of prophesying unless their Rod do bring forth blossoms unlesse they find a sealing

not presently feed upon it by Faith and digest it in a holy life it will be of no value nor efficacy o our souls But so much of Manna The Rod of Aaron As in Moses time there was laid up in the Oracle Aaron's rod which blossomed It is likewise probable that it might be laid up also in the Oracle of Solomon though it be not praecisely mentioned The story of Aaron's Rod is at large recited in the 17th of Numbers which may be consulted at leisure Aaron being the High Priest and chief of the Tribe of Levi as all the Princes of the Tribes had their Rods or staffes Numb 21.18 So he had a Rod for an Ensign of Government He was a Signal Type of Christ as the Apostle to the Hebrews doth clearly manifest Some think that all the three Offices of Christ respecting the Church were signified by these three choise things in the Oracle The Ark with its Crown round about it and as being the Throne of God noted his Kingly Office The Manna his Prophetical or Pastoral Office And the Rod of Aaron his Priestly And therefore it is that he is so often styled in Scripture the Branch as Isaiah 4.2 11 1 10. 53 2. Jer. 23.5 33 15. Ezek. 17.22 23. Zech. 3.8 6 12. Rev. 5.5 22 16. The Hebrew word in some of those places is in the Septuagint version rendred by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which makes me to reflect upon that place in Luke where the (a) Luke 1.78 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred by us the Day spring from on high Now considering that the old Greek Version was much eyed by the new Testament Writers we may translate it The Branch from on high hath visited us and overshadowed us with his healing Boughs and therein possibly might be an allusion to Aarons Rod or Branch laid up in the Oracle signifying Heaven which that it did denote Christ is the opinion of Justin Martyr (b) Dialog Cum Triphare Jud. pag. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Rod of Aaron bringing forth Buds did declare him High Priest Isaias did prophesie of Christs birth by the Rod out of the root of Jesse To speak then a while to this Rod of Aaron being the note of the Ministerial function as residing in him and his successours and that none should take to themselves that honour but such as are called of God as was Aaron (c) Heb. 5.4 Here give me leave to enlarge a little upon this flourishing subject of Aarons Rod. A Rod in Scripture denotes Government and so this Rod signifies Christs royal Dominion in his Church He will send the (d) Psalm 110.2 Rod of his strength out of Zion He is to rule over his people with a (e) Psalm 45.6 Scepter of Righteousnesse Sometimes it hints at judgement Hear the (f) Mic. 6.9 Rod and who hath appointed it 1. The Rod of affliction Shall I come to you saith Paul to his Corinthians with a (g) 1 Cor. 4.21 Rod i.e. with some Church-censure Sometimes it notes Teaching and Doctrine He shall smite the earth with the (h) Isa 11.4 Rod of his mouth i. e. with doctrinal reproof Feed thy people with thy (i) Mic. 7.14 Rod of Instruction The Metaphor being taken from Shepherds who carry wirh them a Rod a crook the one to drive their sheep into green pastures and the other to catch them (a) Psalm 23.4 Thy Rod and thy staffe comforted me Thereby they kept off the Wolves the wild Beasts from the Folds Mercury of old was the Caduceator Virgifer of the gods being painted with a Rod twined with Serpents to note its Rhetorick and perswasive Eloquence in speaking he being interpres divum Christ is the revealer of the Father's will he lay in his bosom and hath declared him Joh. 1. 18. Sometimes it signifies ease because this is the end of a Staffe or Rod to lean upon as Jacob (c) Heb. 11.21 leant upon his Staffe to shew that the Evangelical Ministry whereof Christ is the head is a safe resting place for the Church This Rod of Aaron was made of an Almond-Tree of which its observed by (d) Plin. l. 16. c. 25. Pliny that it flowres the first of all Trees even in Jan. in the more Southern Countries and brings forth ripe fruit there in March To shew how quickly those that are designed for the Ministry should blossom toward Heaven young (e) 1 King 18.12 Obadiahs (f) Jer. 1.5 Jeremiahs (g) Luk. 1.15 John Baptists (h) 2 Tim. 3.15 Timothies even in their youth savouring the things of God This doth likewise reflect upon the effect of their Ministry how soon God will bring to passe what they precict in his name when they receive their Visions from him in the holy Mount Therefore Jeremy who was a Priest of Anathoth saw the Vision of an (i) Jer. 1.11 Almond-Tree to confirm his heart in the work of the Ministry The vulgar Latine reads that place by virga vigilans a watchful Rod hin●ing how God would hasten the judgement he threatned unless the people repented and further to shew what diligence and vigilancy Ministers ought to use in their Embassies they must be (k) Isay 11. Watchmen and See●s of the night We read that the Egyptians resembled God by the hieroglyphical sculpture (l) Plutarch de Iside Ostride moral part 1. gr p. 632. ed 1. H. Step● 573. of a Rod or Scepter with an Eye in it noting his omni●cient care and wisdom in the Government of the World Every Gospel-Minister should have for his hieroglyphick an Almond Rod with an Eye annexed to it not to rule and teach onely but a so providently to foresee the evill coming and to warn the people of approaching judgements Besides it was a fruitful Rod. The Rod of Aaron had (m) Numb 17.8 Buds Blossoms and ripe Nuts all at once As to the words in the letter there is a little haesitation among the (n) Dr. Gell on Pentateuch p. 512. learned why it should be translated thus the Rod of Aaron budded and brought forth buds as if so be it were a tautology whereas in the Hebrew it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And behold the Rod of Aaron for the House of Levi budded and it sent forth buds c. The same radicall word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being used first in the Verb and then in the Noun The 70 not ashamed to use the same word likewise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It budded and brought forth buds and so Paul Heb. 9.4 onely speaks in general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the terme being comprehensive of all the rest after mentioned in that verse in Numbers The meaning this the Text first sayes in the general that Aaron's Rod did germinate or bud or sprout forth which ye please and then comes to the particulars rehearsing in order how it was or else to express