Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	abhor_v	iniquity_n	zion_n	69	3	8.6637	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93062	The sinfulnesse of evil thoughts: or, a discourse, wherein, the chambers of imagery are unlocked: the cabinet of the heart opened. The secrets of the inner-man disclosed. In the particular discovery of the numerous evil thoughts, to be found in the most of men, with their various, and severall kinds, sinful causes, sad effects, and proper remedies or cures. Together with directions how to observe and keep the heart; the highest, hardest, nad most necessary work of him that would be a real Christian. / By Jo. Sheffeild Pastor of Swithins London.	Sheffeild, John, d. 1680.	1650 (1650)	Wing S3064A; Thomason E1863_1	165,696	337

we to swell and to depart from the living God And if we find our mountain to stand strong and lower springs of creature supplies to run fresh a David is too apt to say I shall never be moved Psal 30. 6. which causeth God to hide his face and turn our springs into bloud that we may learne to know on what ground we stand And ordinarily the men of the world if their riches increase they are apt to say I have a strong castle to secure me I may say to my soul thou hast goods enough Take thine ease eat drink and be merry I sit a Pro. 18. 11. Lu. 12. 19. Rev. 18. 7. Queen saith the whore in her pride and presumption I shall never see sorrow This presumption thrusts out gratitude So if any thing have been undertaken and succeeded how apt are we to attribute all to our selves and to sacrifice to our own net Habak 1. 16. and to say in the pride of our hearts with Nabuchadnezzar Is not this the Palace that Dan. 4. 30. I have built for the Glory of my Majesty c And with the Assirian to vaunt with the strength of my hand and with the sole of my foot have I done these things c. Which moves the Lord to pull down such Esay 10. 13. that they may learn to know that the heavens bear rule over the earth and there is a Dan. 4. 26. divine providence over-rules all humane affairs This presumption thrusts out dependance So again if any thing be to be done we are ready with David to say Go number the 2 Sam. 24. 2. people that I may know my strength we will send to Egypt and stay our selves on horses because they are many and on horsemen because they are strong but look not to the holy one of Esay 31. 1. Israel nor do we seek the Lord as the Prophet saith Thus presumption thrusts out faith and prayer Hence it is that the Lord often takes delight to wither the arm of flesh to blast our designes and deny the race to the swift Eccle. 9. 11. and the victory to the strong and sends us home mourning and well beaten for our pains as Israel once who would go up presumptuously in their own strength and took not God Num. 14. 44 45. along with them they were beaten home Deut. 1. 45. with shame then did they lament their folly And as the ten tribes who went against the wicked Benjamites in their own strength they were more then ten to one for number yet did they lose in two battels forty thousand and might have had more sad dayes if they had not been driven by Jud. 20. 21 25 and 26. compared their ill successe to seek God fast mourn and humble themselves Gods people are sometimes too strong in their own eye and too sure and too many for him to go along with and give salvation to ' as the Lord said once to Gideon God should have no more Jud. 7. 2. from such then he had from Herod who took the Dii eritis upon him and the vox dei The voice of God and not of man and became Ac. 12. a worm-eaten God for his paines a just recompence for a wormes affecting the honor of a God Or then he had from Pope Adrian the sixt who having caused a fair Colledge to be built caused this inscription to be set over the gates Trajectum plantavit Levanium rigavit Caesar dedit incrementum Utrecht planted me there he was born Lovaine watered me there he was bred up in learning and Caesar gave the encrease for he had preferr'd him to the Papacy to shew the folly and presumption of whom one wrote Hic Deus nihil fecit Here God had no hand in all said Luther Thus this presumption thrusts Gods honour out of the world Therefore doth the Lord warn his people to take heed of these presumptuous thoughts and speeches when their silver and gold is multiplied c. not to say in their hearts My hand hath got me this substance but thou shalt Deut. 8. 17 18. remember it is the Lord who giveth thee power to get this substance These presumptuous thoughts have been costly and dear thoughts to many a man who have paied full dear for them and by this presumption they have presumed themselves out of all and presumed themselves into misesery beggery infamy and disgrace The Lord walking constantly by that his just old rule to pull down the high hearts and looks and lay Psal 18. 27. Esa 2. 18. low the loftinesse of man and to exalt the humble and meek 2. Spirituall presumption Thoughts of this kind are more dangerous whereby many have presumed themselves into hell the proper place for it as we may see in a few instances 1. How many are there that will adventure their eternal salvation on this presumptuous reasoning If I be Elected I shall be Saved however I live if not all holinesse and endeavours are in vain But doth Election destroy or establish meanes You will not reason thus God hath decreed there shall be Seed-time and Harvest while the world standeth therefore we need not plow or sow or if thy house were on fire and thou in thy bed thou wouldest not say if God have a purpose to stay the fire I need not cry out or stir out of my bed but thou wilt find a tongue to call hands and feet to stirre and hast thou no hands nor feet nor cries nor prayers nor teares to escape Hell Faith sees a sweet consonancy between decrees and promises precepts threats and means Presumption is not content to oppose Heaven it self but would set all Heaven in a flame making variance between decree and decree as of salvation and sanctification both decreed simultaneously and at once 2 Thes 2. 13. between decrees and promises decrees and precepts c. 2. Many are apt to presume on salvation relying totally and solely on Gods mercy as they think which is indeed the onely refuge of Saints but not in way of duty and holy fear departing from sin and they think they give much glory to God by relying on his mercy so much as they do but the Lord abhors this presumption When wicked men say I shall have peace though I walk after the Imagination of my heart adding drunkennesse to thirst The Lord saith he will not spare such but his anger and jealousie shall smoak against that man c. Deut. 29. 19 20. So Micah 3. 10 11 12. They build up Sion with bloud and Jerusalem with iniquity the heads thereof judge for reward and the Priests thereof teach for hire and the Prophets thereof divine for money yet will they lean upon the Lord and say Is not the Lord amongst us none evil shall come upon us Therefore shall Zion for their sake be plowed like a field and Jerusalem become heaps and the mountain of the house as the high

much delight in casting off and then tormenting his creatures And if our sins be thus upon us we must needs die and how shall we then live they do object And the Lord to stop their mouthes and for ever to silence such destructive thoughts answers immediately and binds it with an oath As I live saith the Ezek. 33. 10 11. Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live Turn you from your evil wayes for why will ye die O house of Israel Who is then to be believed He that saith to man offending sin and live and to man repenting repent and die as Satan ever doth or He that saith to every sinner sin and die repent and live believe and be justified look to me and be saved 2. Neither are the godly often to be excused who as they have low thoughts of themselves so have too low and hard thoughts of God and hence they walk so sadly when these thoughts be entertained They have ever high thoughts of God for his Power truth holinesse faithfullnesse and loving-kindnesse yet misdoubt his mercy at Psal 77. and 88. least to them they complain sometimes as if God had forgotten himself cast off them and that he hath shut up his mercies in displeasure many such sad and mournfull complaints of the men of God are recorded in Scripture And the Lord often takes much paines to satisfie and remove these stumbling-blocks Esa 40. 27 28. Why saiest thou O Jacob and speakest oh Israel my way is hid from the Lord and my judgement passed over from my God c. And Esa 49. 14 15. But Sion said the Lord hath forsaken me and my God forgotten me Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb Yea they may forget yet will not I forget thee CHAP. XIV Of Despairing Thoughts BUT Thoughts of Despair which often follow on those hard Thoughts before spoken of and do therefore fitly follow the handling of them are of all sads the saddest and it may be said of them more truly then the Philosopher said of Death of all Terribles the most Terrible more dreadfull then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 death it self yea as black as hell from which they are but one remove distant Despair is the saddest Disease and Torment incident to the soul of man living or dead To the living it is the upper region of hell and the suburbs of it to the which no darknesse or shadow of death is to be compared no nor in his own thoughts hell flames torment not more And to the dead it is their nethermost hell the sting of the second death and the victory and triumph of hell A most wofull and sinfull condition wherein two seas meet as once to shipwrack Paul 1. The pain Act. 27. 41. of losse the greatest losse Gods favour and the comfort of it 2. And the pain of sense the greatest sense of Gods wrath and the terrors of the Lord to shipwrack the distressed soul yea ordinarily the two seas of sin and misery meet together threatning the present and eternal ruine of such poor creatures to make their miserable condition above all measure miserable Yet can I not but say some such as these may seize on a godly soul whose life is hid with Christ in God and bound up in a bundle of eternall love and life even godly soules have been often at the very brink of despair The sorrows even of Psal 18. 4. 116. 3. hell have taken hold of them and flouds of Beliall have made them afraid The Accuser of the Brethren sometimes casteth out a flood Rev. 12. 10 15. of these out of his mouth to swallow them up alive as those that go into the pit aggravating Prov. 1. 12. to their awakened affrightned Consciences their sins to be unpardonable and Gods Justice as unappesable the Laws sentence of condemnation nation as irrevocable and the interposition of Christs death as unavailable Hence have they Jonah 2. 4. Psal ●8 4. 40. 12. Job 6. 3. Psal 42. 7. cryed out I am cast out of thy sight my sins are gone over my head my heart hath failed me my grief is heavier than the sand All thy waves and billows are gone over me And sometimes have cried out their sorrow was inexpressible Job 7. 15. Job 6. 4. Job 3. 1. their soules could choose strangling rather then life the terrors of God have set themselves in array against them made them a terror to themselves yea they have made bitter exclamations accursing themselves their states their birth and life yea have cried out as if they had been in the sulphurous lake and belly of Hell and that the pit had shut her mouth upon them And all this while more fear than danger the Lord may bring down to Hell and bring 1 Sam. 2. 6. up to Heaven The Lord will not cast off for ever but though he cause grief yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies Lam. 3. 31 32. Yea it is as impossible that a soul that hath the least seed of God in it and the least of Christ a sin-bewailing a Christ-thirsting soul should be held fast of the powers of Hell as it was for Christ Act. 2. 24. himself to be holden by them the Lord will not leave their souls in hell nor suffer the least of his Saints to inherit corruption The least of the New Creature and true Grace is too good to be cast away But this is ordinarily the case of flagicious and atrocious offenders who have often resisted the Spirit of God and rushed into sin as the horse into the battell who having first sinned away their Consciences and afterwards their hopes they find that which they least feared to have come upon them their sins have now found them out and are as so many devils staring Num. 32. 23. them in the face The just Judgement of God They who grieved the good Spirit of God and would none of his counsels have an evil Spirit from the Lord sent to terrifie 1 Sam. 16. 15. them as Saul had they are of God delivered up to Satan now they find their Judgment before slighted lingereth no more nor doth their damnation slumber but they look upon themselves as if God and Satan had agreed in their destruction to laugh at their calamity What words can expresse the misery of this condition They are like the raging sea saith the Prophet which cannot rest whose waters cast out mire and dirt They have all Esa 57. 20. Job 20. 26. darknesse hid in their secret place saith Zophar as if all Hel had exhausted it self and adjorned his residence thither Yea his heart meditates terror dreaming talking of and feeling nothing but devouring flames and everlasting burnings Their sight is gashly their speech amazing and the

It is ever sucking cries for the brest sleeps with it wakes and cals for it or as a healthfull man desires his meat daily two or three times a day and can't live without it not as a sick man or longing woman who long for this or that and once serves their turn they long no more This is a diseased not healthfull desire Such were in Pharaoh and Ahab such hell is full of Many desire good prayers and read Scriptures or good books indistresse never else as the sick man desires a Cordiall or strong water and never drinks more till another qualm takes him They are sick and then they cry or howl on their beds they get up and return again to sin The Hos 7. 14. Mariner in a storm puts into a Port when the storm is over he meanes to go to sea again And the Traveller puts under the Pear-tree in a shower to keep him dry when the rain is over he is flinging at it These are killing desires such you read of Prov. 21. 25. the sluggards and the unconstant mans are so But when we say of good as the Lord of Sion I have chosen ●ion for an habitation I have longed for it here will I dwell because I have desired it Psal 132. 13 14. These are good desires 3. When ardent and vehement 2 Chron. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 often used in Scrip. signifie a most vehement desire and long●ng in the mind as Phil. 1. 8. 23. 4. 1. 2 Cor. 5. 2. 7. 11. 1 Pet. 2. 2. 15. 15. cal'd the whole desire Gen. 31. 30. Luk. 22. 15. Desiring with desire The mind is altogether desires the desires are altogether vehement So 2 Cor. 7. 11. 4. When they are large increasing and unsatisfied Three things are never satisfied the eye the ear the desire The covetous eye with seeing the curious or itching ear with hearing and the gracious heart with desiring But as the wicked mans desires are enlarged as hell Hab. 2. 5. Ephes 2. 3. So the godly mans are as large as heaven That all heaven must be ours ere the desire is satisfied That the soul is said to ly panting hungting thirsting longing coveting craving Psal 42. 1. 63. 1. 2. 73. 25. 1 Cor. 14. 1. 5. Laborious desires are good desires Prov. 18. 1. Through desire a man having separated himself seeks and intermeddles in all wisdome heart and hand go together as a scholar desirous of learning shuts up himself in his study le ts none come at him is still at his book early and late or the worldling riseth runs goes sweats toyles to get riches or the wicked man with cords and cart-ropes Esa 5. 18. draweth sin with both hands Micha 7. 3. So doth the godly seek grace as silver and lifts up his voice for wisdome as for the greatest treasure Working desires not wishing are saving desires But alas what violence do the Kingdomes yea cottages of the earth suffer and what contempt heaven Men will give twenty years purchase for earth not seaven for heaven yea many take more pains and are at a greater expence for hell then many a well-meaning man for heaven 6. When invincible and irresistible 1. As not to be quenched or quelled with difficulties but as Shechem desired Dinah Gen. 34. 11. let me have her said he what ever it cost what ever I suffer I love her must have her will not go without her so Cant. 8. 7. Divine love is not to be quenched with any waters of difficulty or discouragement 2. Nor to be taken off by any diversion as Hadad when he wanted no honour or preferment in the Egyptian Court yet said Howbeit in any wise let me go home 1 King 11. 22. The man is where his desires are and if the desires hang homeward a Kingdom cannot stay him and if they hang heaven-ward all the world will not content him But he saith with the Apostle in another case We being staid for a short time in presence 1. Thes 2. 17. not in heart endeavoured the more abundantly with great desire to come unto you Speaking of his love to the Godly beleevers But much more out of his love to Christ he saith 2 Cor. 5. 2 3 c. In this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked Yea knowing while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord we groan and are burdened willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord So Ruth 1. 16. 17. 7. Whenas they are not to be overcome themselves but overcome conquer and triumph over all especially captivate and command the heart and subdue it every mans desire is his master brings him under a voluntary but pleasing subjection as Gen. 3. 16. The poor woman who loves her husband The like Gen. 4. 7. dea●ly her desires are towards him she is subject to him and he ruleth over her Poor soul she still hath her husband at one end of her thoughts if abroad her heart is with him if at home her eye is on him if he be well he is the desire and delight of her eyes if not well he is the care and desire of her heart Every thing she doth she hath this thought comes in Will this please my husband c. so is it with the soul 8. True desires will be liberall and expensive to gain what is desired wicked men will be at charge to fulfill the desires of the flesh Schollers who desire learning will spare no cost in books and paines to fulfill those more noble desires of the mind Eph 2. 3. And vain men what cost will they be at as he in the daies of his vanity Eccle. 2. 10. Whatsoever their eyes desire they keep it not from them what ever it cost So is it with the best their desires being rightly set they lay out all they are able about them as David and Solomon in building that house for God which both of them were so ambitious to set forward 1 King 9. 1. 1 Chron. 22. 14. David expended as hundred thousand talents of Gold a thousand thousand talents of silver both summes put together as they are computed amount to seven hundred and fifty millions This was at first laid by in the time of his wars and straits when he came bare to the Crown And afterwards it seemes he added Three Se the late Annotations of the English divines on the place thousand talents of Gold of Ophir and seven thousand talents of refined silver 1 Chron. 29. 4. that is thirteen millions eight hundred thousand seventy five thousand poundes sterling more because as he said he set his affection on the house of his God v. 3. And shall we say we have good desires when we offer that to God which costs us nothing How many are there who