Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	abide_v	safe_a	zion_n	25	3	8.6845	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51292	Discourses on several texts of Scripture by Henry More.	More, Henry, 1614-1687.; Worthington, John, 1618-1671.	1692 (1692)	Wing M2649; ESTC R27512	212,373	520

meat and do all drink of the same spiritual drink and are all incorporate into one Body all quickened by the same Spirit all conspire into one Will through unity of the same Life so that all 's in peace and good order And thus much for the Persons assembled Which if you doubt of or are perswaded that you shall not continually enjoy their company yet I will shew you an assembly that so long as you enjoy a pure Conscience you shall alway enjoy their company in a true Paradise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Holy Paradise where are assembled Vertue Wisdom and all Decency and Discretion And these are excellent companions tho' they were known to no body but him that lives with them And He lives with them that hath a pure Heart for the Father of them abides in the sincere Spirit 2. But it were time now to speak of the Provision had I not spoke already somewhat of it almost before due time But no tongue can declare it I will rather use the Psalmists words O taste ye and see how gracious the Lord is For they that fear him shall lack nothing The lyons do lack and suffer hunger but they that do seek the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good So then here is apparatus non neglectus at least no want if not redundancy Ay but it 's a poor Feast you 'll say where there is no overplus If any man suspect he shall come to such a slender Dinner I will use the words of our Saviour Mat. 16. O ye of little faith why think you thus within your selves Do you not perceive neither remember the five loaves when there were five thousand men and how many baskets were taken up neither the seven loaves when there were four thousand men and how many baskets were taken up If Christ could satisfie such multitudes of men with so few loaves so that so many fragments were left Surely we need not fear but when he feeds us with himself who is that Heavenly Bread and the foecundity or fulness of God but that we shall be unspeakably satisfied and superabundantly refreshed So we have plainly seen how excellent our company how good our chear shall be I will interfeit one accomplishment which Varro omits in his Feast And that is Musick The concent of Musicians at a Banquet is as a Signet of Carbunoles set in Gold As the Signet of an Emerald well trimmed with Gold so is the melody of Musick in a pleasant banquet Ecclesiasticus 32. 5 6. Now that this Feast is not devoid of Musick will thus appear For Righteousness is nothing else but an harmony of the lower parts of a mans Soul with the upper of the Affections with Reason as the Pythagorists define it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Polus the Pythagorean When as the inclinations of a mans Will or Desire answer the dictates of true Reason these are Heavenly responses indeed fit for a Celestial Quire When Reason begins the point and all the Affections chearfully follow it as Philo comments upon that Song of Moses and Miriam I will sing unto the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously the horse and his rider he hath over-thrown in the Sea The Lord is my strength and praise and he is become my salvation Who is like unto thee O Lord among the gods Who is like unto thee so glorious in holiness fearful in praises doing wonders Then Miriam the rest of the women following her with Timbrels and with Dances takes up her Timbrel in her hand and answers Sing unto the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously the horse and the rider hath he over-thrown in the Sea Such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as these such Triumphal Songs against our Spiritual Enemies will become this Feast well The same exultation of Spirit you shall find in the blessed Psalmist The Lord is my strength and my shield my heart hath trusted in him and I am helped Therefore my heart danceth with joy and in my song will I praise him Psalm 28. This is that which the Apostle exhorts to Eph. 5. Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess but be filled with the Spirit speaking unto your selves with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts Hitherto then is this Feasting very compleat good Companions good Chear good Musick 3. But what is all this if not in a good convenient place Iobs Children you know as they were making merry at their elder Brothers a strong Whirlwind took a corner of the house and buried them with the ruins in the midst of their merriment But whosoever dwelleth under the defence of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty that is under the protection of him that is able to keep them safe Ps. 91. And at the 90th Psalm Lord thou hast been our habitation from generation to generation Before the mountains were made and before thou hadst formed the earth even from everlasting to everlasting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou art the strong God a more sure sustentation than the steddy Earth a more strong safeguard than the massy Hills So then this Holy Assembly feast under a safe roof far from the reach of any tumult or tempest God is our hope and strength a very present help in trouble Therefore will we not fear though the earth be moved and though the hills be carryed into the midst of the sea Though the waters thereof rage and swell and though the mountains shake at the tempest of the same Yet there is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God the holy place of the tabernacle of the most high In all this danger and stir you see here 's secure Feasting and Joy in the Tabernacle of the most High The voice of joy and gladness is in the dwelling of the righteous safe pleasure and never fading delight in the habitation of the upright in Heart and pure in Conscience But if any man be not contented with the Safeness of the place but would curiously inquire into the Beauty of it that Description is done to our hands in the 21th of S. Iohns Revelation Gold and pearl and precious stones is a slight glimpse of the Glory of that Habitation and the Beauty of God 4. I will pass now to the fourth thing considerable in a Feast The convenience of time And no time surely is inconvenient to these Feasters who have the preeminence exceedingly above them that enjoy any outward delight For these men be confined to Seasons and Opportunities which be but poor small parcels of time But all Time and Eternity too is but one entire Opportunity for those Spiritual Feasters to enjoy themselves in A good Heart or a pure Spirit is one continual everlasting Feast It was well said of Diogenes to one that was too much taken with the seldom solemnity of an outward Feast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What saith

of mind and Disquietness And this very latter disposition is good too but not alwayes that is when it is accompanied with a Iudas-like despair otherwise it is good as wholsome Physick not as a pleasant Banquet But it is seldom or never known that the Heart was ever established without the fore-going of this disquietness of mind For mans Natural Inclinations lead him astray and Childhood and Youth betray him unto vanity So that man being lost thus in his Natural blindness when Christ begins to open his eyes by his Truth and he is convicted of his wicked errours what can come of it but sorrow Nay but being thus in some good measure enlightened afterward to have rebelled against this measure of light or at least through weakness or rather the love of sin and neglectful yielding to the Devils assaults to fall into the same filth he was warned of before surely this must needs breed great distraction and confusion of Spirit And so long will this be as that Holy Light keeps in and we live not conformable unto it For God is a God of pure eyes and cannot behold wickedness and so long as we see this eye upon our wayes this light over our actions which we see by light imparted from it in lumine tuo videbimus lumen as it is said in the Psalms In thy light we shall see light Every work of darkness will so ashame us and confound us that we shall never be at quiet till we vvalk uprightly before the avvful Majesty of Heaven that is ever present before us But vvhen through the Mercy and Might of Jesus Christ and his quickning Spirit vve vvalk in unfeigned Obedience in the sight of the Father of Lights our Conversation being in Heaven vvhere Christ sits at the Right Hand of the Povver of God having led captivity captive as the Psalmist speaks Then shall our mouth be filled with laughter and our tongue with joy as it is said in another Psalm about the turning again the captivity of Sion And Psal. 63. My soul shall be filled even as with marrow and fatness when my mouth praiseth thee with joyful lips But there is a more apt and ample description of this joy and feasting Esay 25. In this mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things a feast of fined wines and fat things full of marrow of wines fined and purified This is Mount Sion whom the Lord hath chosen to be an habitation for himself which he hath longed for which shall be his rest for ever Here will he dwell for he hath a delight therein Ps. 132. Here he keeps open house all the Year long or rather all Eternity long Ho! every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters and ye that have no silver come buy and eat Come I say buy wine and milk without silver and without money Wherefore do you lay out silver and not for bread and your labour without being satisfied Hearken diligently unto me and eat that which is good and let your soul delight in fatness Esay 55. But what is this Mountain that God should promise such Joy upon it Or what is Sion that such Feasting and Mirth should be in it Mount Sion is called the Hill of the Holiness of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the hill of his holiness Psal. 3. Such a kind of Holiness such a kind of Purity as a man may stand before God in that a man sees God in that is approved of God and will abide the fire For our God is a consuming fire and burns and pains a mans Soul so long as filth resides there Who amongst us shall dwell with devouring fire Who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burning He that walketh in justice and speaketh righteous things c. He shall dwell on high his defence shall be the munition of rocks bread shall be given him and his water shall be sure saith the Prophet Esay He shall dwell on Mount Sion that high and holy Hill where God hath prepared this great Feast This is the Hill of the thirsty for so may this word Sion signifie And blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be satisfied Or more properly it may signifie dry Earth And so we may fitly use that of the Psalmist My soul thirsteth after thee as a thirsty land And the same Happiness will return again as before they shall be satisfied so our English 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall be fed so the Greek They shall be sufficiently fed they shall be feasted continually feasted For he that eateth of this bread shall never hunger and he that drinketh of this drink shall never thirst saith our Saviour How excellent is thy mercy O God! therefore shall the children of men trust under the shadow of thy wings They shall be satisfied with the fatness of thy house and thou shalt give them drink out of the river of thy pleasures Psalm 36. This is the excellent inward state of the upright Soul and undefiled Conscience streaming and over-flowing with strong and full torrents of Heavenly Delight issuing from the Throne of God and of the Lamb. But to handle the matter some what more distinctly I will consider the nature of a Feast and of what parts it chiefly consists The curious Varro in Gellius makes a compleat Feast to consist of these four things Si belli homuncali collecti sunt si electus locus si-tempus lectum si apparatus non neglectus i. e. If good disposition'd People be gathered together if the Provision be not poor or sordid if the Place be convenient if the Time fit and seasonable 1. That those that are assembled to this Feast are belli homunculi in the best sense I shall easily prove Mat. 8. Many shall come from the East and West and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Iacob in the Kingdom of Heaven There is very good Company you 'll all grant it But the Doubt will be what this Kingdom of Heaven is Let the Apostle resolve you Rom. 14. The kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost All which things may be obtained in some good measure at least here without spreading a Table-cloth in the Coelum Empyreum But to proceed You saw before out of the Prophet how that God prepares a Feast in Mount Sion The Apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrews makes known to us the Guests But you are come to the mount Sion and to the city of the living God the celestial Ierusalem and to the company of innumerable Angels and to the congregation of the first-born written in heaven and to the spirits of just and perfect men All these are the Guests of Gods Heavenly Table There these are assembled Wheresoever the carkass is there will the eagles resort saith our Saviour This is the great Communion of Saints who do all eat of the same spiritual