Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	abode_n	day_n	zion_n	23	3	8.5370	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A16317	A discourse about the state of true happinesse deliuered in certaine sermons in Oxford, and at Pauls Crosse: by Robert Bolton.	Bolton, Robert, 1572-1631.	1611 (1611)	STC 3228; ESTC S116180	126,426	181

occurrents obseruable with deuotion and reuerence for the good of the soule haue no great power to worke vpon them sacred times or daies of affliction are not wont to make any such impression or to breed extraordinary stirrings and motions in them Let iudgements blast or mercies blesse a kingdome let Gods word find smooth and euen way or rubs and opposition let prophanenesse be countenanced or sinceritie cherished he takes no thought so he may sleepe in a whole skinne and keepe entire his worldly comforts his thoughts continue heauie dull and formall Hee may conforme and consort with the times in his outward gestures words and actions but ordinarily his thoughts admit no change saue onely so farre as his priuate temporall felicitie is endangered by publicke iudgements or enlarged by showers of mercies and blessings from heauen I cannot enlarge this point at this time only I will giue one instance in their difference of thoughts vpon the Sabbath day The Sabbath day is as it were the faire day of the soule wherein it should not onely repaire and furnish it selfe with new spiritual strēgth with greater store of knowledge grace and comfort but also feast with it heauenly friends the blessed Saints and Angels vpon those glorious ioies and happie rest which neuer shall haue end Euery child of God therefore which hath alreadie a reall interest in that eternall rest makes not only conscience of doing his owne waies seeking his owne will speaking a vaine word on that day but also in some good measure makes it the very delight of his heart the loue and comfort of his inward thoughts so that he may consecrate it as glorious to the Lord. He doth not onely giue quiet and cessation to his body from worldly businesse and works of his calling but also empties his head and disburdens his thoughts of al earthly cares that so they may wholly and entirely intend the holy motions of Gods Spirit and spend themselues in godly and extraordinarie meditations fitting the feast day of the soule and the Lords holy day This is the desire longing and endeuour of his heart thus to sanctifie the Sabbath and if at any time he be turned awrie from this vprightnesse by companie or his owne corruptions he is after much grieued and vext with it repents and praies for more zeale conscience and care for the time to come But the formall hypocrite howsoeuer he may on that day forbeare and abstaine from his ordinarie sinnes labours sports and idlenes howsoeuer he may outwardly exercise and execute all duties and seruices of religion though indeed more of custome and for fashion then with heartie and true deuotion nay he may haue other thoughts on that day but onely so farre as the bare solemnitie of the time and the greater Presence can alter them yet I dare boldly say it no formall hypocrite no kind of vnregenerate man can possibly make the Sabbath his delight as is required Isai. 58.13 And which is presupposed to make vs capable of the blessings following in the same place Then shalt thou delite in the Lord and I will make thee to moun● vpon the high places of the earth feed thee with the heritage of Iacob thy father for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it He cannot for his life sequester his thoughts at all not euen on that day from worldlinesse and earthly pleasures to diuine and sacred meditations Doe what hee can he cannot beate and keepe them off from worldly Obiects they will not leaue their former hants or be restrained from plotting or pleasing themselues with weeke-day businesses Lord it is strange that the soule of a man so noblely furnished with powers of highest contemplation being so strongly and sensiblie possest with consciousnesse and conceit of it owne immortality and hauing the restlesse and vnsatisfied desires of it wide capacity neuer fild but with the Maiestie of God himselfe and the glory of an immortall crowne should be such a stranger to heauen the place of it birth and euerlasting abode that vpon that day whereon as vpon the golden spot and pearle of the weeke the Lord hath stamped his owne sacred Seale of institution and solemne consecration for his owne particular seruice and speciall honour yet I say vpon that day it cannot settle and continue it owne thoughts and motions vpon those vnmixed and blessed ioyes and the way vnto them without which it shall bee euerlastingly miserable and burne hereafter in that fierie lake whose flames are fed with infinite riuers of Brimstone and the endlesse wrath of God for euer and euer Now I pray you tell mee when wee shall haue raigned hereafter many millions of yeeres in heauen what thoughts will remaine of this little inch of time vpon earth When we haue passed thorow a peece of eternitie where will appeare the minute of this miserable life and yet our thoughts and affections are so glued vnto the world as though eternitie were vpon earth and time only in heauen You are men capable of worthiest and highest eleuations of spirit I beseech you resume this meditation at your leisure methinks it should be able to breed thoughts of a far more noble and heauenly temper then ordinarilie arise and are nourished in the hearts of men But to follow my yurpose Certaine it is not the best vn●egenerate men can endure an entire and exact sanctification of the Sabbath it is not a Iubilie to their hearts and the ioy of their thoughts for they cannot abide to haue their minds stay long in a feeling meditation vpon spirituall affaires vpon the examination of their former life the state of the other world the sleights and tentations of Satan the day of death the tribunall of heauen and such like For though the best of them may haue a persuasion of their being in the state of grace as I haue largely proued heretofore yet sith it is wrongly and falsely grounded it cannot abide the search and touchstone Hence it is that of all things they loue not to bee alone They may please themselues well enough in solitarinesse vpon some priuate businesse for the more profound plotting and contriuing worldly matters for a more free but filthie exercise of the adulteries of the heart and contemplatiue fornication to feed vpon dull and fruitles melancholie to let their thoughts wildly range and runne riot into a world of imaginations to diue into the mysteries of nature or depths of State but to be alone onely for this purpose that the mind may more fully and immediately worke vpon the spirituall state of the soule and impartially inquire into the conscience they cannot they will not endure it and therefore commonly cast themselues into one knot of goodfellowship or other that they may merrily passe away that time for an houre of which the time of grace being once expired they would giue ten thousand worlds yet shall neuer bee able to purchase it againe But Gods children when they are alone haue inward

their soules before the gaining of the whole world Innocencie makes them as bold as Lions The wicked flee when none pursueth but the righteous are bold as a Lion And their warrant is out of Isai. 51. vers 7.8 Hearken vnto me ye that know righteousnesse the people in whose heart is my Law Feare ye not the reproch of men neither be ye afraid of their rebukes For the moath shall eate them vp like a garment and the worme shall eate them like wooll but my righteousnesse shall be for euer and my saluation from generation to generation Independancie holds their hearts vpright in all their actions that they are neither swaid awrie by partialities or secret relations to wrong ends I meane not independancie in respect of lawes gouernment authoritie charitie vnitie with the Church or the like I meane no such independancie but in respect of basenesse flatterie corruption temporizing indirect prosecution of their honours and preferments c. which are setters of Satan by which he confines many to a wretched slauery euen in this life and without repentance to endlesse miserie hereafter Secondly hypocrisie is many times by the world vniustlie laid vnto the charge of the children of God Dauid had his ful portion in this imputation as appeareth in many Psalmes The causes for this time I conceiue to be two The first may bee suspiciousnesse an argument euer of worthlesnesse and impotencie For insufficiencie is most apprehensiue and suspicious I know there is a godly iealousie and a iealousie of state but I meane that suspition which is opposed as an extreame to that imperfect vertue the Moralists cal immuniti● from suspicion by which a man doth cast the worth actions and affections of another in his owne mould and thinks euery man obnoxious to al the infirmities he finds in himselfe Hence it is that he which indeed is truly an hypocrite and neuer passed the perfection of the Pharisee doth most confidently brand the child of God with that name hoping therby to giue some poore satisfaction to his own thoughts that would gladly rest in a formality and notice to the world that howsoeuer there may be pretences yet indeed there is none better then himselfe The second cause is a disabilitie and blindnesse in the naturall man of discerning and acknowledging the operations of grace For let a man be otherwise neuer so eminently or vniuersally qualified yet without the experience of the power of godlinesse vpon his owne soule he cannot see hee will not bee perswaded of the actions of grace in another man and therefore interprets them to be nothing but hypocrisie and onely pretended vainegloriouslie to gainean opinion of more then ordinarie pietie What the conceit of an vnregenerate man is of the state of grace is plaine out of the conference of our blessed Sauiour and Nicodemus Nicodemus was a great Rabbi in Israel a famous Doctor in the Law and the Prophets in which no doubt hee had many times read the doctrine of regeneration yet when he comes to be examined of the power and practise of it he holds the new birth without which no man can euer see God to be as impossible as for an old man to returne into his mothers wombe and be borne againe Euen such is the iudgement of others in his state of the fruits effects and course of sanctification And therefore I maruel that any child of God wil afflict his soule hang downe the head or remit one iot of his zeale in goodnesse for vniust censures in this kind sith hee knowes that naturall men though neuer so wise so learned or glorious in the world want spirituall taste and therefore cannot rellish the fruits of the spirit are blind and cannot see or iudge of the light of grace are in darkenesse and cannot comprehend it Thirdly the formall hypocrite doth settle himselfe with more resoluednesse in his opinion of being in state of grace when he sees the world account the children of God but a company of fellowes who out of a proud singularitie diuide themselues from the common fashions and customes of the world not considering that if euer he meane to saue his soule he must be singular too in holinesse and sanctification for I meane not in vnwarrantable opinion or separation from the Church Except his righteousnesse exceede the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees what singugular thing doth he that is except to his ciuill honesty and outward performance of religious duties there bee added a singularitie of sauing grace and except besides all other ornaments of mind if it were possible possest in full perfection there be yet moreouer inspired that blessed and pretious vigor that quickens him to eternall life he cannot enter into the kingdome of heauen This note of singularitie hath in all ages bin imputed to those that with a good conscience haue laboured to keepe themselues blamelesse and pure in the midst of a naughtie and crooked generation Behold saith Isaiah chap. 8. vers 18. I and the children whom the Lord hath giuen me are as signes and wonders in Israel by the Lord of Hosts which dwelleth in mount Sion It had bin no wonder had they bin onely as signes and wonders amongst the enemies of God and nations of vncircumcision but that they should be signes and wonders in Israel God had chosen him but one little vineyard amongst all the spatious forests of the earth out of the glory of all the Kingdomes of the world he had chosen him but one handfull of people and yet in that vineyard his faithfull Ones are but as the berries after the shaking of an Oliue tree two or three in the top of the v●most boughs and foure or fiue in the high branches In that little people his children are but as the first fruits so that euen in Israel they are become as monsters and spectacles of amazement Then so it is indeed that a man drawne out of the darknesse of this world and illightned with grace is like a starre new created in the skie that drawes all the world to gaze vpon it Nay and he drawes not onely the eies of men vpon him but is an eie-sore vnto thē For thus speaketh the wicked of the righteous man Wisd. 2.15.16 It grieueth vs also to looke vpon him for his life is not like other mo●s his waies are of another fashion He counteth vs as bastards and he withdraweth himselfe from our w●ies as from filthinesse he commendeth greatlie the latter end of the iust and boasteth that God is his father Fourthly the formall hypocrite is well pleased with his present state and very vnwilling to embrace more forwardnesse because it is commonly thought that the state of a true Christian indeed is a life full of vncomfortablenesse melancholy austeritie and sadnesse The heart of man is naturally greedie of ioy and contentment and is either weakely or strongly refreshed according to the vanity or soundnes of the comfort in which it reposeth but it