Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	abraham_n	call_v	zion_n	245	3	10.0786	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31107	Mercy in the midst of judgment by a gracious discovery of a certain remedy for London's languishing trade : in a sermon preached before the right honourable, the lord mayor and the citizens of London, on September 12, 1669, at the new repaired chappel at Guild-Hall / by D. Barton ...	Barton, William, 1598?-1678.	1670 (1670)	Wing B989; ESTC R37078	21,906	62

taken Houses at great Prices and Furnished our shops with rich wares but loe it comes to little there are few Buyers and but small gaines we can scarce pay our rents Doth not the Handicrafts man complain we look for much for we labour hard and work good and sufficient wares but loe it comes to little The Shop-keeper will not buy but at his own rates so that we have little more than our labour for our Paines And that which adds to the unhappiness of all this is that every one of these is apt to impute this Calamity to any thing rather than the right cause and so hinder themselves of the true remedy because they will not understand the true cause of the distemper Either a Forreigne Nations ingrossing Trade abroad or the Magistrates neglect of Trade at home must bear the blame who is it that considers that Gods House lyes wast while every man runs to his owne House Gods House said I nay Gods Houses how many of them lie in their ruines in their rubbish for we must not fancy that God hath no Houses now and that because that Temple at Jerusalem together with it's Ceremonial worship is abolished that God hath not adopted any other places which he will own for his for before the foundations of that Temple were laid and since they have been razed and one stone not left on another which was not thrown downe God always had a place appropriated to his worship and where he was pleased to afford a more gracious Presence than elsewhere Even in Paradise Adam had a place to present himself before God Which was called Gods Presence or Face Gen. 3. 8. From which he hid himselfe for from Gods general presence nothing can be hid but all things are naked and open And his Sons out of Paradise had their places where to bring their Sacrifices Gen. 4. 3. From which when Cain stood excommunicate for the Murther of his Brother Abel he is said to be cast out from the presence of the Lord. Vers. 16. Abraham besides Altars in several places planted a grove Gen. 21. 23. To be a fixt place for Gods worship for there he called on the name of the Lord. And so it is expounded by one that was no great friend to our Churches And afterwards when he is commanded to offer his Son Isaac the very Mountain is prescribed him Gen. 21. 1. and Gods title to it ceased not with that one act for there Solomons Temple was afterwards built which God in my Text calls his House nor did it then begin if we may believe the general consent of the Jewish Rabbins who assert that to be the place where Cain and Abel nay Adam himself offered When Jacob consecrated that place where he saw the Vision of the Ladder reaching to Heaven Gen. 28. 18. he called it Beth-el Gods House the ground of which both consecration and name is rendred Vers. 16 17. Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not how dreadful is this place This is none other but the House of God the gate of Heaven So that Gods Houses began not with the Temple of Solomon no nor that ambulatory Temple of Moses the Tabernacle which is peculiarly by David called Gods House nor while they were in being did they ingross that title to themselves for there were both in Jerusalem and in other places of the Land no small number of Synagogues for the People to resort unto for their Devotions which are called Synagogues of God and Houses of God in the Plural Number and these were Frequented by Christ and his Apostles as well as the Temple And since the Destruction of that Temple God was never destitute of Houses for his Worship True it is that in the Primitive times of Christianity when they had not the Publick allowance and Countenance of authority they could exercise their Religion only in Private yet then they had places for the Saints to meet in for Divine Worship such were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the upper-roomes mentioned so frequently in the Acts of the Apostles and distinguished by St. Paul from Private Houses 1 Cor. 11. 22. Have ye not Houses to Eat and Drink or despise ye the Church of God understood by most Interpreters both ancient and modern of the publick place of Gods Worship those perhaps not so sumptous and stately as afterwards the Churches mean Condition and the worlds envy would not permit that but such as their Poverty would allow they had But when it pleased God to raise up Kings and Emperours to favour sincerely the Christian Faith Churches were then erected in all places and no cost spared nothing thought to deere which that way was spent and these were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords from whence the Scots Kirke and our English Church doth proceed and is the same title which is given to his day Rev 1. 10 And not improperly since we find the place and time of Gods Worship Joyned together by the Holy Ghost in Scripture Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuary and then what the Son of Syrach saith of one may be applied to the other and we may say why doth one place excel another by the knowledg of the Lord they are distinguished and some of them he hath made high places and hallowed them and some of them he hath made ordinary places As the one is the Day of rest and when we hallow it it is called Gods rest so the other when Consecrated to his name is called Gods rest This is my rest for ever And such were those Houses in this City which are now wast for they were Dedicated and Consecrated to Gods service in them the Saints were assembled the Gospel of Jesus Christ was Preached The Lords Holy Name was Invocated and the Sacraments of the new covenant duly administred to all which Christ under the Gospel hath Promised a gracious presence Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them Mat. 18. 20. And to this promise he hath set to his seale by Converting to and Confirming many a Soule in the doctrine of Jesus Christ from these places Now that these are wast is as legible as if writ in Text but where to lay the blame is not perhaps so easily discovered To impute it to the Magistracy of this City this Honorable Bench would be no less then Scandalum Magnatum Their Zeale in general is Sufficiently evidenced by this place wherein we are now Assembled and in particular many of them either by actual contribution or subscription have testified abundantly their respects to these Houses And of the Commonalty I have reason to have as good an opinion if their abilities were consonant to their desires when I consider their ancient zeal while the City was Flourishing to these Houses of God how they opened their hands and filled with Blessings many Churches both

on Gods side and he pays them home in the same kind they thought in the Famine to have kept the more for themselves and they had less for keeping from him that which was his own A just hand of God upon all such who think every thing too much for his service for the most part they are alwayes in want and needy their wealth melting away like Snow before the Sun The Merchant that denyes to pay his Customs forfeits all his Commodities they forfeit their own portion who with-hold Gods from him God tames his Prodigals and starves their bodies who by neglect of his worship starve their owne souls God denies the same external things to them which they deny to Gods House But might not these Jews have pleaded against this Sentence and charged God with too much severity saying with their Forefathers The way of the Lord is not equal What is this Temple more then another place Cannot we worship God in any House as well as this Is not God a spirit and will be worshiped in spirit and truth and that we may do in any Mountain as well as this Whereunto although it might be a sufficient answer to say with S. Paul O man who art thou that replyest against God Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus Shall sinful man plead with his Maker Yet because this malapert sauciness is the temper of many in this age as well as that that the most just God may be justified when he speaketh and clear when he judgeth we may take notice of the equity of it by a twofold consideration First Of the nature of the place and Secondly Of the nature of the punishment First Gods equity will be cleared from the nature of the place which was First A visible sign and token of Gods more immediate and gracious presence for although God dwels not in Temples made with hands that is so as we dwell in our Houses to be comprehended in them yet God is sayed to dwell there where he manifests himself and therefore what was done before the Temple was sayed to be done before God called therefore The Throne of his Glory The place of his rest The place of his habitation His dwelling place Now we know that affronts offered to the Kings Chayre of State although in his absence are as much resented as when he is present Secondly That House was the choisest and chiefest instrument of Gods worship in the Jewish administration they were to direct all their worship towards it It was the King of Heavens Court of Requests which he had appointed for the hearing their prayers and granting their Petitions and which had the priviledge of an universally gracious audience In this place will I give peace saith the Lord c. 2. 9. Now because the honour done to any part of Gods service reflects on himself as those that offered any polluted bread on Gods Altar are sayed to despise his name therefore to punish this offence so grievously could be no over much severity Thirdly That House was a type of Christ it was a sacred Mystery representing their Messiah to them who was the true Temple made without hands as himself makes the application John 2. 19. Destroy this Temple and after three dayes I will raise it up which S. John who was his beloved Disciple and lay in his bosome interprets as meant of his own body Vers. 21. He spake of the Temple of his body And this the Apostle asserts at large in the ninth Chap. of the Epistle to the Hebrews Jesus Christ was that true Temple in which the God-head dwelt bodily that is really fully substantially by the neerest union and most intimate conjuction as the soul dwels in the body and so the neglect was the neglect of Christ himself Fourthly That place was the spring-head of all their blessings God had made that the staple of all his favours In all places where I record my name I will come to thee and bless thee From whence it is that in Scripture Gods blessings are not said to be given from Heaven immediatly but from Syon the place of Gods worship There the Lord commanded the blessing even life for evermore Psal. 133. 3. And the Lord that made Heaven and Earth bless thee out of Syon Psal. 134. 3. The Ocean of blessing is in Heaven but the well-head is Syon and so by neglecting Gods House they forsook their own mercy so that the nature of the place acquits the Lord of Hosts from the imputation of over-rigorous proceeding which likewise will appear Secondly From the nature of the Judgment if we shall consider those veins of mercy which run through it which is the Second general part and is included in the scope and designe of the words of my Text. And this mercy is visible in four particulars First In the Judgment it self Secondly In the matter of that Judgment Thirdly In the measure of it Fourthly In the discovery of the cause and consequently the means of removing it First It was mercy that they were punished at all correction being a signe of Gods paternal care For every Son whom he loveth he Chastneth and Scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth Immunity from Chastisement and Correction is the Bastards not the Childs prerogative Gods forbearances are his most dreadful Severities and a prosperous iniquity is the most unprosperous condition in the world It is cruelty not mercy to suffer men to go on in sin unpunished it being that which hardens men in sin and consignes them over to ruine and reprobation It is a deplorable condition when God shall say Why should ye be stricken any more ye will revolt more and more Vis indignantis Dei terribilem vocem audire will you here the terrible voice of a provoked God Hear it saith Origen in that of Hos. 4. 14. I will not punish your Daughters when they commit whoredome Never was Jerusalem's case so desperate as when God sayd to her I will make my fury towards thee to rest and my jealousy shall depart from thee and I will be quiet and will be no more angry Ezek. 16. 42. That 's the first beame of mercy that they are punished A Second is that their Punishment is in external temporal things and not in internal and Spiritual which as they are most necessary so the loss is most dangerous Man may be happy without the one he cannot be so without the other The Lord of Hosts might instead of a famine of bread have sent a famine of the word of God which is the Souls proper food and without which it cannot live which he threatens in another Prophet as the most dreadful Famine Behold the day is come saith the Lord that I will send a Famine in the Land not a Famine for Bread nor a thirst for Water but of hearing the Word of the Lord. We never fear a dearth if we have Bread-Corne