Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	abate_v	verse_n	zion_n	33	3	9.9413	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80721	Prayers prevalencie for Israels safety. Declared in a sermon preached in Saint Margarets Westminster, before the Honourable House of Commons, at the late solemne fast, June 28. 1643. / By Thomas Carter, minister of Dynton in Buckingham-shire. ; Published by order of that House.	Carter, Thomas, d. 1646.	1643 (1643)	Wing C668; Thomason E60_2; ESTC R22771	35,268	44

be darkenesse unto them and should rather increase then abate their misery Now at the ver 15. 16. he exhorts them to repentance as the most proper remedy to prevent all doe not proudly despise d Vers 15. 16 the Lords threatning but humble your selves and by repentance give God the glory of his truth justice and power which by your sinnes you have impeached But ver 17. e Vers 17. if ye will not heare this but proudly despise this admonition and stand out under the meanes of grace surely though ye be the Lords owne people 2 Chro. 36. 17. yet ye shall be carryed away captives and he speakes in the present-tence to note unto them the certainty of the event that it was as sure to come to passe as if done already the particulars of the judgement is more largely set downe 2 Chro. 36. 17. First the sword of the Chaldeans shou'd come and wast their countrey and not onely so but they that escape the Sword shall lose their liberties which they did enjoy and be made captives and slaves to a strange King and which was worst of all with their liberties they should lose their Religion too and be carried into Babylon Another example we have in the 11. of Matthew Capernaum had Matth. 11. 29. so many outward and spirituall priviledges that it was said to be lift up to heaven for riches and honour it was the chiefe citie in that Province and for spirituall priviledges there was the seat of the Messiah the place of his habitation there he wrought many wonderfull miracles and preached many excellent Sermons such effectuall meanes that might have moved even the stony hearted Sodomites if they had beene alive yet such was Capernaums obstinacy that all these Sermons mercies miracles wrought not upon this Citie and therefore saith our Saviour this Citie that by pride and prosperitie is so lifted up shall be brought full low and so as Histories report it was overthrowne of this great Citie nothing there remayning but two or three poore Fishermens Cottages Reas 1 The reasons are two First because obstinacy is the full height of sinne and its full measure First as obstinacy is the greatest aggravation of sinne and maketh our sinnes great in Gods account and most provoking as carrying with it great unthankfulnesse to God contempt of the meanes of grace and of God and of all the good offered to us in the meanes So secondly it causeth a reall increase of sinne the heart like a Castle resisting the Spirits assault upon it in the ordinances corruption within gathers strength the flame of sin if not blowne quite out by the Spirit in the ordinances increaseth accidentally by the blowing of it backe Now all sinne like poyson is of a destructive nature though it not alwayes actually kils through want of measure now when it is growne to the full then it usually destroyes So when the Amorites wickednesse was full the Lord cast them out Gen. 15. 15 Reas 2. A second reason is because it makes a people incorrigible and so brings them into a remedilesse condition the Lord for a time at the entreaty of the dressers did forbeare the Jewish state that barren Figtree but it was to try if the digging or dunging of an evangelicall ministery would produce a reformation but when it continued unfruitfull it was by Titus and Vespasian hewen downe and Solomon saith b Prov. 29. 1 that such as harden their hearts under frequent reproofes under effectuall meanes shall be destroyed broken to pieces as a stone with an hammer as the word signifies because they are in themselves remedilesse although indeed there is a remedy in it selfe namely Gods mercy in Christ upon their repentance yet none to the obstinate because he wilfully rejecteth the remedy indeed the prayers of Gods people may keepe off a temporall judgement for a time as anon we shall shew but the Lords forbearance will but make way for a heavier judgement in the end if they continue obstinate For application If obstinacie in sinne provoketh the wrath of God against a people and hastens its ruine then certainly repentance is the proper remedy to appease the wrath of God and save from ruine But this dutie having beene often taught and pressed in this honourable Auditory I shall passe over and proceed to another observation In the first place therefore observe the exception of Moses out of this threatning here implyed with this gracious promise here expressed I will make of thee a mighty Nation Efficiam ut ex te gens oriatur magna vel praeficiam te genti multo majori so the Chaldee Paraphrase hath it that either the Lord would raise him up a people out of the loynes of Moses or else give him the Princedome over some other nation How ever it be the Lord here promiseth not onely to save his person but to raise his house and the like promise upon the like occasion the Lord made unto him Numb 14. 12. Whence wee inferre Numb 14. 12. this proposition In all the combustions and devastations wherewith the kingdomes of the earth are shaken as it is the Lords care to keep his Church on foot so also to preserve every of his servants persons and to recompence their outward losses This generall falleth into three particulars First The Lord will certainly keepe his Church on foot so long as the world endures No sooner had the Lord a thought of destroying this people but he presently resolves upon another for the Lord loves the gates of Sion more then all the dwellings of Jacob a Psal 87. 2. hee delighteth more in his Church then in all other societies and he upholds the world keepes off judgements bestowes many blessings for the Churches sake b Isa 19. 24. if his Church should faile the world would fall to ruine Indeed it is not tied to any certaineplace but is in the world like a ship in the Sea driven from place to place but stil in the Sea Neither doth it at all times continue the same degree of outward splendours but like the Moone not alwayes alike visible yea sometimes scarse discernible yet still in the heavens and therefore howsoever Satan and his instruments by crueltie and subtiltie endeavour the Churches ruine yet all the power and policie of hell shall never so farre prevaile as utterly to destroy it d Matth. 16. 18. sooner may they pull the Sunne out of the Firmament then the Church out of the world and when the Lord destroyes the rebellious multitude he will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob e Amos 9. 8. Secondly When the Lord destroyes a sinfull nation he will preserve his owne people he will not destroy the righteous with the wicked f Gen. 18. 23 though hee tosseth the people and sifteth them as Wheate in a Sieve though he scattereth the wicked and like dust they are blowne away by the winde of his wrath yet not a

it did de jure unchurch them and de facto had unchurched any other Nation whatsoever And during their continuance in that sinne they had forfeited their right lost the comfort and sense of that relation betweene God and them neither could others that were unacquainted with that absolute covenant looke upon them as Gods Church any longer Now as our Saviour yeelds that the Jewes though they had nothing of God in them and were none of his spiritually but Joh. 8. 37. 39. 41. the children of the Devill yet living under right ordinances they were members of the true visible Church the sonnes of Abraham and of God by externall sonship so also the Jewes confesse that if they were children of fornications i. e. members of an idolatrous Church they were broken off from God and none of his sons no not by externall adoption Indeed superstitious additions to the ordinances or an erroneous way and manner of using them are sins of an high nature and in a sense the taking of Gods name in vaine in hindering the ordinances from attaining their true and proper end namely the honouring of Christ and edification of his people at least in that degree as otherwise they might Yet as I conceive such superstitious additions and errours in the manner of using the ordinances cannot amount to a setting up of an Idol and so dissolve a Church Though the wife be a blasphemer and guilty of the grossest sinnes yet a wife still adultery onely breakes the marriage bond so only Idolatry breakes that bond of relation betweene God and a people When rebellious Israell had played the harlot and would not repent but continued obstinate in her Idolatry the Lord gave her a bill of divorcement Jer. 3. 8. and cast her away Use Now therefore it nearely concernes a people of all other sinnes to beware of Idolatry and idols b 1 Joh. 5. 21 As we have cause to be humbled for the Idolatry that hath beene committed in the Land lest it becomes ours by consent so for time to come with detestation to cast it utterly out of the Land c Isa 30. 22. Yea to remove all appearances of it a true Church like a modest woman should not endure a whorish dresse Yea and to remove all occasions of Idolatry though not formally so not gradus in re yet if it be gradus ad rem any occasion helpe or step to it put it farre away d Job 11. 14. and so keepe the Kingdome farre from an evill matter In the fourth place be pleased to take notice of the nature of Israels sinne and the judgement denounced against it First their sinne is obstinacy metaphorically set downe they are a stiffenecked people First By necke is meant the heart or will as Zedekiah stiffened his neck and hardened his heart e 2 Chro. 36. 1● which is all one as the neck of the Oxe beareth the yoke and so drawes in the Teame so should the heart beare the yoke of Christ and goe on in his wayes Secondly By stiffenesse or hardnesse of the heart is meant the settled strength of the will to goe on in sinne And when once it is so set First the heart becomes impenetrable like Pharaohs nothing can pierce it f Exod. 7. 23. either with feare of sinne before it is committed or with remorse for sinne when it is committed but is fearless and senslesse Isa 28. 15. Zep. 1. 12. Secondly the heart becomes also inflexible and unalterable like the Adamant stone g Zach. 7. 12. nothing can worke upon it or bring it into a better forme No washing can make this Blackmore white h Jer. 13. 23 Indeed first there is a naturall hardnesse which we bring with us into the world i Isa 48. 8. a child though it hath a tender body yet it hath a hard heart Secondly there are some remainders of this hardnesse in the hearts of the best even of Christs owne disciples k Mar. 6. 52. but this is partiall and but for a time But when this sinne comes to the height and is totall and finall the heart fully and unalterably set to doe evill a Eccles 8. 1. then it properly denominates a person or people obstinate and stiffenecked This hardnesse is partly habituall voluntarily procured and that First by long and frequent committing of sin b Neh. 9. 29. acts encrease habits and indispose the subject to receive contrary habits thus the heart becomes like the high way so hardned by the often passage of sinne that no seed will enter c Mat. 13. 4. Secondly by long standing out under the meanes of grace like the Tortoise which floats so long upon the water untill the Plin. beames of the Sunne have hardened its shell that it cannot sinke so living long in sinne under the Sun-shine of the Gospell the heart becomes so hardened that it cannot repent d Rom. ●5 This hardnesse is partly also penall and judiciall The Lord for their sinnes so many and so long continued in and for refusing of grace offered in the meanes in his just judgment gives men up to Satan and to their owne hearts lusts letting them loose upon them and so their hearts become fully obdurate This is the nature of their sinne but in what degree and how generally spread we cannot exactly determine Secondly the judgement denounced is set downe in a metaphoricall expression and implies that the Lord was ready by some severe judgement to consume that people his anger growne hot even to fury like an enraged Lyon ready to teare to peeces and consume From the sinne and punishment the doctrine which ariseth is this Doctr. 4 That obstinacy in great and grievous sinnes under effectuall meanes is usually the immediate forerunner of ruine it is a token that the Lords anger is hot against a Nation and ready to breake in upon it by some consuming judgement I desire to instance in an example or two In the 13. of Jeremiah Jer. 13. by a linnen girdle hid at the river Euphrates untill it was rotten Ver. 10. the Prophet shewes that the Lord would cast the State out of his sight untill it was consumed verse 10. Now because they presumed of safety that either through the wisedome of their State or at least that by their cunning each private person would make some shift for himselfe therefore he tels them that they should be like drunken men a Ver. 12 13. sottish and staggering to and fro in their resolutions not knowing what to pitch upon for their safety And because they presumed of their power b Vers 14. he tels them that they were to God but as a pot in the hand of the potter soone broken to pieces by him yea the Lord will cause them one to dash against another one to plunder and kill another And because they expected forraine helpe from Aegypt he tels them c Vers 16. that it should