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	let_v	zion_n	145	3	8.9908	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42547	God's soveraignty displayed from Job 9. 12. : Behold he taketh away, who can hinder him? &c., or, A discourse shewing, that God doth, and may take away from his creatures what hee pleaseth, as to the matter what, the place where, the time when, the means and manner how, and the reasons thereof : with an application of the whole, to the distressed citizens of London, whose houses and goods were lately consumed by the fire : an excitation of them to look to the procuring causes of this fiery tryal, the ends that God aims at in it, with directions how to behave themselves under their losses / by William Gearing ...	Gearing, William.; Gearing, William. No abiding city in a perishing world.	1667 (1667)	Wing G435A; ESTC R18630	101,655	265

avenged and will avenge with the forest destruction the Temple in Jerusalem was afterward burnt and utterly overthrown by the Romans no flame is more fierce than when oyl wine or sugar are fired if you will know when the sins of a people are at the full and ripe for the sickle of destruction it is when the Gospel is rejected and his Messengers despised and misused They mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his Prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people till there was no remedy Therefore he brought upon them the King of the Caldees who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their Sanctuary and had no compassion upon young man or maiden old men or him that stooped for age he gave them all into his hand and all the vessels of the House of God great and small and the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the King and of his Princes all these brought he to Babylon and they burnt the house of God and brake down the wall of Jerusalem and burnt all the Palaces thereof with fire and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof 2 Chron 36.16 17 19. Whether you are guilty of this sin you best know SECT III. A third sin is the sin of oppression when men grinde the faces of their needy Brethren and make the necessities of others their advantages to oppress them the more how can the love of God dwell in such hearts I may say to such you rob the poor because they are poor and grieve their sad hearts rather than relieve them dealing with them as the Jews did with our Saviour in their extreme sufferings give them gall and wormwood to drink instead of waters of comfort their own poverty like Solomon chastiseth them with whips and your oppression like Rehoboam whips them with Scorpions and as he told the oppressed people that his finger should be heavier than his Fathers loins it is most true of your oppression it is far more tyranny than their wants whereas you should pour oyl into their hearts you pour in vinegar to aggravate their calamities whereas you should shew mercy to them in misery you shew all cruelty to the miserable your bounty should relieve them your cruelty draws more from them Oppression is like unto a Grindstone yea it is as a Milstone hung about the necks of the needy and sinks them deeper and deeper into want and misery the poor are the grapes and you are the Wine-pressers squeezing out the blood of the poor It is a notable phrase of Solomon Prov. 12.10 The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel it is in the Hebrew the bowels of the wicked are cruel The tender mercies that is when men seem to shew mercy to their needy brother their words and actions carry fair shews of compassion as lending money to them in their necessity yet there is much cruelty in those mercies in the event ensuing thereupon How often do Oppressors fetch home their money lent to needy brothers with a vengeance and unconscionable exactions How often do they take the garments which should cover the nakedness of their needy brethren for a pledge aad instead of cloathing the naked they expose them to nakedness Exod. 22.22 23. God threatens if thou afflict any stranger widow or fatherless childe and they cry at all unto me I will surely hear their cry Oppression is a crying sin it cries for vengeance yea Gods anger will burn against such merciless men And my wrath saith he shall wax hot and I will kill you with the sword God threatens to meet with the Oppressor by one judgement or other and God will make your Wives and Children to be in the same extremity that your needy Brethren are The stone shall cry out of the wall and the beam out of the timber shall answer it Habak 2.11 Suppose the poor and needy whom you oppress do not cry against you yet these dumb inanimate creatures will cry out against your oppressions for vengeance upon you Amos 5.11 Forasmuch as your treading is upon the poor and ye take from him burdens of wheat ye have built houses of hewn stone but ye shall not dwell in them God threatens to take away the habitations of such as oppress the poor and needy SECT IV. A fourth sin I will set before you is incorrigibleness under former judgements God sent the Plague to the great City of this Land the last year which swept away many thousands of the Inhabitants week after week for a great while together and even to this day the Plague rageth in many Towns Cities and other places in this Land But my Brethren who is the better after this sore Visitation Did not sins of all sorts and kinds abound in the great City before God consumed great part of it with fire Oh what wicked and profane practises hath over-spread it since the late devouring Plague like the Sluggards Field that Solomon speaks of that was all over-spread with thorns and thistles and not only so but persons of all ranks and conditions and estates it is to be feared have been Actors Factors and Abettors of sin most men have run into sin with more greediness than before As Noahs flood covered hills dales mountains vallies so the flood of ungodliness hath covered high and low rich and poor Though God justly punished us yet in the time of his just wrath he remembred to shew mercy Habak 3.2 The mercies of God are over all his works even over his penal judiciary works Psa 145.9 his mercy is most conspicuous in times of judgement to command deliverance when we are in the mouth of danger in the Den of Lions in the Burning Furnace is mercy indeed to save a people being in the very jaws of death is mercy indeed it is the Lords mercies you were not utterly consumed the Sword would have consumed the Plague would have devoured all these judgements like fire and water are merciless had not God interposed his own mercy you had been utterly consumed if mercy had not rebuked his judgements they had swallowed you up quick you can no more resist an overflowing judgement than a level of Sand can withstand the inundation of the Sea The Lord gave you a respite after the last years wasting plague he moderated his wrath and did not make a full end of you the Lord would make tryal whether you would act according to your resolutions vows and promises made in the day of your distress When the plague of Frogs was upon Pharaoh when the Frogs were crawling on his bed on his table in his chamber when he heard Frogs every where croaking and saw all Egypt to be filled with them then he sent for Moses and Aaron and begs them to pray for him Entreat ye the Lord to remove the Frogs and then he promised to let Israel go and they should serve the Lord Moses prayed and

earth because our heart and thoughts are here and how unwilling are we to go out of it albeit we are in danger of being suffocated with the smoak of it It is a great folly so eagerly to love fading and unstable things Gregory speaks well to this purpose We never forego any thing willingly but what we possess inaffectionately and speaking of Job he saith He parted with all with a willing mind which he possessed without inordinate delight You now see the best of this world to be but a Moth-eaten thred-bare Coat resolve now to lay it aside being old and full of holes and look after that house above not made with hands eternal in the heavens Set not your heart upon the world since God hath not made it your portion and your inheritance What misery of miseries is it for the immortal soul of man to be enslaved to the world which is but an heap of fuel kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgement and perdition of ungodly men especially now in this age of the world when it is ready for the fire but in that day when the perdition of the ungodly shall be then shall the world be destroyed the world and all its fond lovers shall perish together in one day How shall this make for the glory of Gods Justice who shall bring destruction upon them that love the world above himself on that day wherein the world it self shall be destroyed Let us therefore endeavour daily to curb and restrain this exorbitancy of affection as King Tarquinius walking in his garden whipped off the tops and heads of the tallest flowers with his staff so must we cut off these rising affections as soon as they begin to peep forth and put up head in our hearts this world which God will not have to be yours O Christians is but the dross and scum of Gods Creation the portion of the Lords poor hired servants the moveables not the heritage of the Sons of Zion It is but an Offal or hard bone cast to the dogs that are thrust out from the new Jerusalem upon which they rather break their teeth than satisfie their appetite Keep your love and your hope in heaven it is not good your Love and your Lord should be in two sundry Countryes as one excellently speaketh he is semper idem alwayes the same yesterday to day and for ever Keep at a distance from the walls of this Pest-house even the pollutions of this defiling and fading world SECT IV. Do not muse too much upon these transitory things do not let your thoughts dwell too much upon them do not mind the things that are beneath do not think often nor think seriously of them so as to say It is good for us to be here let us here build Tabernacles as they are transitory in their own nature so they must be lookt upon in transitu As a Traveller in a Journey may see many fine Towns and stately Edifices with his eye but he mindeth his way he will not stay his horse to take a view of them So he that hath heaven in his thoughts and will seek after a City that is to come must not suffer these fading things to stay him in his course heaven-ward It is the vanity of our spirits that enclineth us to muse upon these transitory things and on the other side the more we dwell upon them in our thoughts the more light and vain our spirits are the more you muse upon them the more you will be ensnared by them What is a soul the poorer to want the lusts and perishing vanities of this present evil world Certainly we have no cause to weep at the want of such toyes as these we have nothing to do in this prison except to take meat drink and house-room in it for a time only this world is not yours let not your heaven be made of such poor mettal as mire and clay Oh where are those heavenly-minded souls that have nothing but their bodies of earth walking up down upon the Superficies of it whose souls and the powers of them are up in heaven Oh mens souls have no wings and therefore they keep their Nest and fly not to that upper Region Could we be deaf and dead to this worlds charms we might deride at the folly of those who are wooing this world for their match and scorn to Court such a withered Princess or buy this worlds kindness with a bow of our knees Alas it is little the world can take from us and it is not much that it can give us but the worst of Christ is better than the worlds best things his Chaff is better than the worlds Corn. Oh let your thoughts dwell much upon that blessedness that abideth you in the other world and upon that continuing City that is to come SECT V. Labour not much for these transitory things Labour not for the meat that perisheth Joh. 6.27 Our Saviour therein teacheth us to look upon all things here below whatsoever but as meat that goes into the belly and is cast out of the draught to the dunghill and exhorts us to labour after that meat that shall endure to eternal life Do not then toil and moil for such uncertainties all earthly things are very mutable they are like a Land-flood which faileth in a time of drought when we have most need of water S. Peter tells us The end of all things is at hand It is true in a two-fold sense 1. In a relative sense in relation to every particular person and his interest in them in relation to thee and me and every one of us when our end cometh then the end of all things is come unto us when thy life endeth then the world and all the things of the world do end to thee it is as much to thee as if all the world were at an end 2. It is true in an absolute sense 2 Pet. 3.10 The day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up So that all these visible things are temporal and shall have an end Now these visible things are of two sorts either first The substances or subjects Or secondly The accidents though in a proper sense the accidents are visible and the substances cannot be discerned but by their accidents You see not the substance of the world but the colour the form and figure of it the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and even this also is temporal and the fashion of it passeth away 1 Cor. 7.31 All visible things though never so pleasing to us as health wealth honours pleasures riches beauty strength all the outward and natural perfections that are in any creatures are not abiding they are temporal only though never so pleasant to us On the other side all

God removed that plague then he put Pharaoh upon the tryal whether he would be as good as his promise but then he hardened his heart again and would not let them go By this God made a discovery of the grand hypocrisie of his heart hath it not been so among many of you in the time of your sickness in the day of your calamity when you supposed your selves to be very neer to death did you not then promise to let your sins go God was pleased to give you a respite to set you at liberty and have not many of you again hardened your hearts and refused to let your sins go therefore you may think God hath now suffered this late fire that was kindled among you to devoure your habitations Certainly it were better to have no respite given at all than to have it and abuse it it were better to be taken away by the first judgement than to have a respite between judgement and judgement if you repent not for now ye become greater sinners and you treasure up for yourselves more wrath the more respites you have given you and you abuse them the greater will your condemnation be To such the Lord saith Why should ye be stricken any more ye will revolt more and more Isai 1.5 They were never the better for all the stroaks of God upon them but encreased their revolts now see what judgement follows hereupon Ver. 7. Your Country is desolate your Cities are burnt with fire and your Land strangers devoure it in your presence Scultetus on this place saith it is Theologica Pictura Germaniae a Divine Picture of Germany I may say it is Theologica Pictura Londini nec-non totius Angliae it is a Theological description of London yea of all England I mean of the wicked in City and Country Isai 26.10 Let favour he shewed to the wicked i. e. let a respite be given him from destruction yet will he not learn righteousness but return to their former wickedness see how God threatens them Ver. 11. The fire of thine Enemies shall devoure them Though thou bray a fool in a Mortar with a Pestle among Wheat yet his folly will not depart from him Prov. 27.22 Though God doth pound them even to powder following them with stroak upon stroak yet their folly remaineth with them SECT V. Whoredome is a sin also which God threatens to punish with fire Sodom and Gomorrha burned with lust and God overthrew and consumed them with fire and brimstone from heaven O how many have been guilty of this sin in City and Country how many are there who have eyes full of adultery 1 Pet. 2.14 How do multitudes of men make lusting after a woman the end of their looking upon them they look in order to their lusts making no other use of their eyes than a man doth of a Burning Glass meerly to set their own hearts on fire of unclean lusting yea many continue looking till their hearts be enflamed with lust after women pulchris vultibus oculos Affigunt they nail their eyes and fasten them to beautiful faces as Chrysostome speaks delighting to feed their eyes with the sight of women and seeking after beautiful faces to feed their eyes with them and as the same Father saith not so much that they would commit corporal uncleanness with them but only that they may lust after them As often as a man looketh on a woman with a fixed eye or a glancing eye it mattereth not much if it be accompanied with a lustful motion this is adultery before God how many such adulterers are there every where And as with the eye so there are many that commit adultery in the heart as by unchaste imaginations and unclean fancies and by lodging unchaste thoughts in their hearts and giving entertainment to them how many are there whose hearts do long lodge dwell and insist upon unclean things which is abominable heart-adultery in the sight of God inwardly wishing to have their lusts and desires satisfied with an actual Commission of carnal uncleanness with those persons they lust after yea many take great delight in such wanton and unchaste fancies and contemplations this is an high degree of adultery in the heart I know it is a question whether every such thought and motion of the heart be a sin as long as a man doth not consent unto them Papists will not acknowledge them to be sins till they are accompanied with delight and consent but Paul determineth the question Rom. 7. who there tells us tha● such motions are sins whether consented to or not delighted in or hated Paul did not consent to them yea Pau● hated them yet he acknowledged then to bee sins whatsoever is a transgression of the Law is a sin now to covet or lust is forbidden by the Law whether a man consents to it or not consents to it hateth or delighteth in it yet because he coveteth he sinneth to consent to them is a higher degree of sinfulness the fuller consent men give the more hainous sins are the more men delight in such lustings it is an higher degree of sinning against God Hence you see the reason why our Saviour doth so much condemn the filthiness and uncleanness of the heart Mat. 5 27 28. Heart-adultery is minoris infamiae of less infamy because it is secret and unknown to any man but it is majoris culpae a greater fault the reasons are these 1. Because heart-adultery argues Atheism and contempt of Gods presence more than the outward act thou actest that in the sight of God which thou wouldest not act before a poor sinful man Moreover 2. Heart-adultery is more directly against a mans own soul than other sins here a man makes his own soul the adulterer and the adulteress the Bed and the Brothel-house the Incubus and Succuba the Agent and Patient the Whore and the Whoremonger 3. Adultery in the heart is far more frequently committed in the heart than the outward act is or can be opportunity can never fail the Adulterer in his heart he can have an opportunity when he will The heart-adulterer can never want an adulterous subject he can frame one in his mind and can with delight commit folly with his own imaginary Strumpet he can do it in every place and company yea though a thousand eyes be upon him and when he wanteth strength and ability of body yet then his will and fancy is strong to act this wickedness sick men old men can then commit mental uncleanness with greediness yea many there are that come into our publick Congregations chiefly to look after and look upon beautiful faces and when they are outwardly conversant in the Worship of God when they are hearing the Word their eyes and heart may then be full of adultery What cause have we all to bewail the woful pollutions of our hearts Who can say my heart is clean Now for corporal uncleanness never was this sin thought to be more frequently