Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	aaron_n	according_a	son_n	455	3	4.7667	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45315	Select thoughts, or, Choice helps for a pious spirit a century of divine breathings for a ravished soule, beholding the excellencies of her Lord Jesus / by J. Hall ...	Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656.; Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656. Breathings of a devout soul.	1654 (1654)	Wing H413; ESTC R19204	93,604	402

be welcome to the feasts of God we must put off the old man with his deeds and put on the new man which is renewed in knowledg after the image of him that created him LXXX It is not for us to cast a disparagement upon any work of our Maker much less upon a peece so neer so essential to us yet with what contempt doth the Apostle seem still to mention our flesh and as if he would have it sleighted for some forlorn out-cast he charges us not to make provision for the flesh What shall we think the holy man was faln out with a part of himself Surely sometimes his language that he gives it is hard The flesh rebels against the spirit I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing but how easie is it to observe that the Flesh sometimes goes for the body of man sometimes for the body of sin as the first it is a partner with the soul as the latter it is an enemy and the worst of enemies spiritual No marvel then if he would not have provision made for such an enemy In outward and bodily enmity the case and his charge is otherwise If thine enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink but here make no provision for the flesh What reason were there that a man should furnish and strengthen an enemy against himself But if the flesh be the body of the man it must challenge a respect but the very name carries an intimation of baseness at the best it is that which is common to beasts with us There is one flesh saith the Apostle of men another flesh of beasts both are but flesh Alas what is it but a clod of earth better molded the clog of the soul a rotten pile a pack of dust a feast of worms But even as such provision must be made for it with a moderate and thrifty care not with a solicitous a provision for the necessities and convenience of life not for the fulfilling of the lusts This flesh must be fed and clad not humord not pampered so fed as to hold up nature not inordinateness shortly such an hand must we hold over it as that we may make it a good servant not a lawless wanton LXXXI What action was ever so good or so compleatly done as to be well taken of all hands Noah and Lot foretel of judgments from God upon the old world and Sodom and are scoffed at Israel would go to sacrifice to God in the wilderness and they are idle Moses and Aaron will be governing Israel according to Gods appointment Ye take too much upon you ye sons of Levi David will be dancing before the Ark of the Lord He uncovers himself shamelesly as one of the vain fellows Our Saviour is sociable He is a wine-bibber a freind of publicans and sinners John Baptist is solitary and austere He hath a devil Christ casts out devils He doth it by Beelzebub the prince of devils He rides in an homely pomp through Jerusalem he affects a temporal kingdom and he is no friend to Cesar that can suffer him to live He is by his Almighty powr risen from the dead his Disciples stole him away whiles the Soldiers slept The Spirit of God descends upon the Apostles in fiery and cloven tongues and they thus inspired suddenly speak all Languages they are full of new wine Stephen preacheth Christ the end of the Law He speaks blasphemous words against Moses and against God and what aspersions were cast upon the primitive Christians all Histories witness What can we hope to do or say that shall escape the censures and mis-interpretations of men when we see the Son of God could not avoyd it Let a man profess himself honestly conscionable he is a scrupulous hypocrite Let him take but a just liberty in things meerly indifferent he is loosely profane Let him be charitably affected to both parts though in a quarrel not fundamental he is an odious neuter a luke-warm Laodicean It concerns every wise Christian to settle his heart in a resolved confidence of his own holy and just grounds and then to go on in a constant course of his well-warranted judgment and practise with a careless dis-regard of those fools-bolts which will be sure to be shot at him which way soever he goes LXXXII All Gods dear and faithful ones are notably described by the Apostle to be such as love the appearing of our Lord Jesus for certainly we cannot be true friends to those whose presence we do not desire and delight in now this appearing is either in his coming to us or our going to him whether ever it be that he makes his glorious return to us for the judgment of the world and the full redemption of his elect or that he fetches us home to himself for the fruition of his blessedness in both or either we enjoy his appearance If then we can onely be content with either of these but do not love them nor wish for them our hearts are not yet right with God It is true that there is some terror in the way to both these his return to us is not without a dreadful Majestie for the Heavens shall pass away with a great noyse and the elements shall melt with fervent heat and the glorious retinue of his blessed Angels must needs be with an astonishing magnificence and on the other part our passage to him must be through the gates of death wherein nature cannot but apprehend an horror but the immediate issue of both these is so infinitely advantageous and happy that the fear is easily swallowed up of the joy Doth the daughter of Jephtah abate ought of her timbrels and dances because she is to meet a father whose armes are bloody with victory Doth a loving wife entertain her returning husband otherwise then with gladness because he comes home in a military pomp Is the conqueror less joyful to take up his crown because it is congratulated to him with many peals of Ordnance Certainly then neither that heavenly state wherein Christ shall return to us nor the fears of an harmless and beneficial death wherein we shall pass to him either may nor can hinder ought of our love to his appearing O Saviour come in whatever equipage or fashion thou wilt thou canst be no other then lovely and welcome Come Lord Jesus come quickly LXXXIII Suppose a man comes to me on the same errand which the Prophet delivered to Hezekiah Set thine house in order for thou shalt dye and not live with what welcome do I entertain him Do I with that good King turn my face to the wall and weep or do I say of the messenger as David said of Ahimaaz He is a good man and brings good tidings Surely Nature urges me to the former which cannot but hold Dissolution her greatest enemy for what can she abhor so much as a not-being

flesh but for him God took him and cloathed him living with immortality I finde none but him and Elijah that were thus fetcht to their Heaven It will be happy for us if we may pass in the common road to blessedness O God give me to walk close and constantly with thee and what end thou pleasest let my body pass through all the degrees of corruption so that my soul may be immediately glorious FINIS THE BREATHINGS OF THE Devout Soul I. BLessed Lord God thou callest me to obedience and fain would I follow thee but what good can this wretched heart of mine be capable of except thou put it there thou know'st I cannot so much as wish to think well without thee I have strong powers to offend thee my sins are my own but whence should I have any inclination to good but from thee who art only and all good Lord work me to what thou requirest and then require what thou wilt II. Lord God whither need I go to seek thee Thou art so with me as that I cannot move but in thee I look up to heaven there I know thy Majestie most manifests it self but withall I know that being here thou art never out of thy heaven for it is thy presence onely that makes heaven Oh give me to enjoy thee in this lowest region of thine heavenly habitation and as in respect of my naturall being I live and move in thee so let me not live and move spiritually but with thee and to thee III. Whither now O whither do ye rove O my thoughts Can ye hope to finde rest in any of these sublunary contentments Alas how can they yeeld any stay to you that have no settlement in themselves Is there not enough in the infinite good to take you up but that ye will be wandring after earthly vanities Oh my Lord how justly mightest thou cast me off with scorn for casting any affective glances upon so base a rival Truly Lord I am ashamed of this my hatefull inconstancy but it is thou only that must remedy it O thou that art the father of mercies pity my wildnesse and weak distractions Take thou my heart to thee it is thine own keep it with thee tye it close to thee by the cords of love that it may not so much as cast down an eye upon this wretched and perishing world IIII. Lord I confesse to my shame thou art a great loser by me for besides my not improving of thy favors I have not kept even-reckonings with thee I have not justly tallied up thy inestimable benefits Thy very privative mercies are both without and beyond my account for every evill that I am free from is a new blessing from thee That I am out of bondage that I am out of pain and misery that I am out of the dominion of sin out of the tyranny of Satan out of the agonies of an afflicted soul out of the torments of hell Lord how unspeakeable mercies are these Yet when did I bless thee for any of them Thy positive bounties I can feel but with a benummed and imperfect sence Lord do thou enlarge and intenerate my heart make me truly sensible as of my good received so of my escaped evils and take thou to thy self the glory of them both V. Ah my Lord God what heats and colds do I feel in my soul Sometimes I finde my self so vigorous in grace that no thought of doubt dare shew it self and me thinks I durst challenge my hellish enemies another while I feel my self so dejected and heartlesse as if I had no interest in the God of my salvation nor never had received any certain pledges of his favour What shall I say to this various disposition Whether Lord is it my wretchednesse to suffer my self to be rob'd of thee for the time by temptation or whether is this the course of thy proceedings in the dispensation of thy graces to the sons of men that thou wilt have the breathings of thy Spirit as where so how and when thou pleasest Surely O my God if I did not know thee constant to thine everlasting mercies I should be utterly disheartened with these sad intervals now when my sense failes me I make use of my faith and am no lesse sure of thee even when I feel thee not then when I finde the clearest evidences of thy gracious presence Lord shine upon me with the light of thy countenance if it may be alwaies but when ever that is clouded strengthen thou my faith so shall I be safe even when I am comfortless VI. O my God I am justly ashamed to think what favors I have received from thee and what poor returns I have made to thee Truly Lord I must needs say thou hast thought nothing either in earth or in heaven too good for me and I on the other side have grudg'd thee that weak and worthless obedience which thou hast required of me Alas what pleasure could I have done to thee who art infinite if I had sacrificed my whole self to thee as thou commandest Thou art and wilt be thy self though the world were not it is I I only that could be a gainer by this happy match which in my own wrong I have unthankfully neglected I see it is not so much what we have as how we imploy it O thou that hast been so bountiful in heaping thy rich mercies upon me vouchsafe to grant me yet one gift more give me grace and power to improve all thy gifts to the glory of the giver otherwise it had been better for me to have been poor then ingrateful VII Ah Lord What strugling have I with my weak fears how do I anticipate my evils by distrust What shall I do when I am old How shall I be able to indure pain How shall I pass through the horrid gates of death Oh my God Where is my faith that I am thus surprized Had I not thee to up-hold and strengthen my soul well might I tremble and sink under these cares but now that I have the assurance of so strong an helper as commands all the powers of heaven earth and hell what a shame is it for me to give so much way to my wretched infidelity as to punish my self with the expectation of future evils Oh for the victorie that overcomes the world even our faith Thou O God art my refuge and strength a very present help in trouble therefore will I not fear though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the Sea VIII Lord I made account my daies should have been but an inch but thou hast made them a span long having drawn out the length of a crazie life beyond the period of my hopes It is for something sure that thou hast thus long respited me from my grave which look't for me many years ago Here I am O my God attending thy good pleasure Thou know'st best what thou hast to do

with me Dispose of me as thou wilt Only make me faithfull in all thy services resolute to trust my self with thee in all events carefull to be approved of thee in all my waies and crown my decayed age with such fruits as may be pleasing to thee and available to the good of many Lastly let me live to thee and die in thee IX How oft Lord have I wondred to see the strange carriage of thine administration of these earthly affaires and therein to see thy marvailous wisdome power goodness in fetching good out of evill Alas we wretched men are apt enough to fetch the worst of evils out of the greatest good turning the grace of thee our God into wantonnesse but how have I seen thee of liveless stones to raise up children to Abraham of sinners to make Saints out of a desperate confusion to fetch order out of a bloudy war an happy peace out of resolutions of revenge love out of the rock water out of a persecuter an Apostle How can I be discouraged with unlikelihoods when I see thee work by contraries It is not for me O my God to examine or pre-judge thy counsailes take what waies thou wilt so thou bring me to thine own end all paths shall be direct that shall leade me to blessedness X. How many good purposes O my God have I taken up let fall to the ground again without effect how teeming hath this barren womb of my heart been of false conceptions but especially when thy hand hath been smart and heavy upon me in mine affliction how have I tasked my self with duties and revived my firme resolutions of more strict obedience which yet upon the continuance of my better condition I have slackened Lord it is from thee that I purposed well it is from my own sinfull weakness that I failed in my performances If any good come me the will and the deed must be both thine The very preparations of the heart are from thee and if I have devised my way it must be thou that directest my steps O God do thou ripen and perfect all the good motions that thou puttest into my soul and make my health but such as my sickness promised XI Every man Lord is unwilling that his name should dye we are all naturally ambitious of being thought on when we are gone those that have not living monuments to perpetuate them affect to have dead if Absolon have not a son he will yet erect a pillar yet when we have all done time eates us out at the last There is no remembrance of the wise more then of the foole for ever seeing that which now is in the daies to come shall all be forgotten O God let it be my care and ambition what ever become of my memory here below that my name may be recorded in Heaven XII Thy wise providence O God hath so ordered it that every mans minde seeks and findes contentment in some thing otherwise it could not be since we must meet with so frequent crosses in the world but that mans life would be burdensome to him one takes pleasure in his hauke or hound another in his horses and furnitures one in fair buildings another in pleasant walks and beautiful gardens one in travailing abroad another in the enioying of the profits and pleasures of his home one in the increase of his wealth another in the titles of his honor one in a comfortable wife another in loving and dutiful children but when all is done if there be not somwhat els to uphold the heart in the evil day it must sink O God do thou possesse my soul of thee let me place all my felicity in the fruition of thine infinite goodness so I am sure the worst of the world hath not power to render me other then happy XIII O Lord God under how opposite aspects do I stand from the world how variously am I construed by men One pities my condition another praises my patience One favors mee out of the opinion of some good that he thinks he sees in mee another dislikes me for some imagined evil What are the eyes or tongues of men to mee Let me not know what they say or think of me and what am I the better or worse for them they can have no influence upon me without my own apprehension All is in what termes I stand with thee my God if thou be pleased to look upon me with the eye of thy tender mercy and compassion What care I to be unjustly brow-beaten of the world If I may be blessed with thy favour let me be made a gazing-stock to the world to Angels and to men XIV Speak Lord for thy servant heareth What is it which thou wouldst have me do that I may finde rest to my soul I am willing to exercise my self in all the acts of piety which thou requirest I am ready to fast to pray to read to hear to meditate to communicate to give alms to exhort admonish reprove comfort where thou bid'st me and if there be any other duty appertaining to devotion or mercy let me serve thee in it But alas O my God howsoever I know these works are in themselves well-pleasing unto thee yet as they fall from my wretchedness they are stained with so many imperfections that I have more reason to crave pardon for them then to put confidence in them and if I could performe them never so exquisitely yet one sin is more then enough to dash all my obedience I see then O Lord I well see there is no act that I can be capable to do unto thee wherein I can finde any repose it must be thine act to me which only can effect it It is thy gracious word Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Lo this rest must be thy gift not my earning and what can be freer then gift Thou givest it then but to those that come to thee not to those that come not To those that come to thee laden and labouring under the sense of their own wretchedness not to the proud and careless O Saviour thy sinner is sufficiently laden with the burden of his iniquities lade thou me yet more with true penitent sorrow for my sins and inable me then to come unto thee by a lively faith Take thou the praise of thine own work Give me the grace to come and give me rest in coming XV. O blessed Saviour What strange variety of conceits do I finde concerning thy thousand years raign What riddles are in that prophesie which no humane tongue can aread where to fix the begining of that marvailous millenary and where the end and what manner of raign it shall be whether temporal or spiritual on earth or in heaven undergoes as many constructions as there are pens that have undertaken it and yet when all is done I see thine Apostle speaks onely of the souls of thy martyrs raigning