Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	bread_n	eat_v	let_v	11,805	5	5.9138	4	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

though we want Apples and Plums Let God deny us the worldly toyes of earthly enjoyments if he continue his spiritual blessings we cannot be esteemed miserable A third Island of mercy appearing in this Sea of misery is the measure of it They had a little though not much God did not take away all but left them a pittance as we say enough to keep life and soul together I will correct thee in measure saith God to his people and not leave thee altogether unpunished If he should have been extreame to have marked what had been done amiss he might have utterly destroyd them as he did Sodome and Gomorrha and set them forth as perpetuall examples of divine vengeance but it was of the Lords mercies that they were not consumed because his mercies fail not There is yet a fourth ray of mercy shining in this judgment and that is the discovery of the cause which he doth not onely in respect of himself for the vindication of his justice but also in respect to them that they might provide for deliverance God by reason of that independent dominion which he hath over all his creatures which in their very being depend upon him hath no obligation lying on him to give any other reason of his acting than his Sic volo sic jubeo and therefore it must be an act of great mercy to come to debate and reason with his creature to be content to bring himself as it were before mans tribunal and to plead his cause and make even sinners his judges yet so he doth frequently Come now and let us reason together And now O Inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah judge I pray you between me and my Vineyard Should he have made short worke with them and dispatcht them in a moment yet he would have continued just and holy and he might have justified his proceedings but to stoop so low as to give an account of his doings and to render a reason of his sentence is a condescention of mercy that can be never expressed and never enough admired or praised And thus having run through the two Stages of my Text Judgment and Mercy I cannot dismiss you without making you partakers of some observations which you may improve to your advantage As First That all the industry and labour of man in his calling is in vain if God withhold his blessing he may sow and reap and bring in too he may export nay import too and little come of it if God do but blow upon it Not but that men may nay must take paines in their vocations Adam even in his innocency and integrity before his fall had his employment set out to him to dress and keep the Garden much more since the fall when all the Creatures are under the Curse for the sin of man and the earth is so farre from yeelding fruit without our labour that it is often fruitless and barren with it So that now it is not so much our curse as our duty that in the sweat of our brows we should eat our bread and he that will not labour as he doth not deserve so he hath no promise that he shall eat Labour then they must but in that they must depend upon God for the success whose blessing only can make rich Moses saith It is not bread that man liveth by only but by the word of God that is his blessing and therefore except the Lord build the House and watch the City mans labour and watching is to no purpose It is but lost labour that ye rise early and so late take rest and eat the bread of Carefulness if God doth not give sleep Joyne then to your honest labour trust in God and fear not a good success you have King Davids warrant for it Trust in the Lord and do good and verily thou shalt be sed Psa. 37. 3. Let your labours as well as the Creatures for which you labour be Sanctified by the word of God and Prayer Secondly The use or abuse the care or neglect of the Instruments of Gods worship is no indifferent thing no matter of slight consequence it procures a blessing or brings down a curse These Jewes neglect to build Gods House and God neglects to provide for their Families They no sooner go up to the Mountain and bring Wood and begin to build but from that very day God begins to bless them Take one instance more The Arke which before the building of the Temple was the dwelling place of Gods name was among the Philistins who profanely insult and triumph over it and are smitten with sore diseases and the hand of God is heavy upon them Afterwards it comes to the Bethshemites who are bold with it and pry into its secrets and fifty thousand of them are slain for it After this Vzzah toucheth it irreverently and is struck dead before it whereas Obed-Edom entertains it reverently and cheerfully and is blessed in all that he hath When God sends the instruments and means of Religion among a people it concerns them deeply to look about them God intends something towards them either of judgment or mercy and counts it an high indignity if men think he will do neither good or evil The Prophet Isaiah compares Gods Word to Rain which returns not voyd but accomplisheth what he pleaseth and prospers in the thing whereunto he sends it it either brings up wholsome Herbs or noysom Weeds it either furthers our Salvation or hastens our Destruction The Gospel of Christ is savour either of life unto life or of death unto death Gods Ordinances are all of the same nature with the Lords Supper they are either for the better or for the worse Christs coming to a Nation as to Capernaum is fatal it either lifts neerer to Heaven or throws lower into Hell Thirdly The neglect of Gods worship forfeits all our temporal estate as Tenants that refuse to do their homage to perform Suit and Service and to pay their Land-lords rent do make their Estates lyable to a seizure These outward blessings are the appurtenances of Gods worship And it is piety onely which hath the promises both of this life and that which is to come These provisions are properly for Gods Household and those that wait in the House of the Lord If a profane person that regards not Gods worship hath them it is but at adventures and they are so farre from beeing a blessing to him that they become a Snare making him fall into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drowne men in destruction and perdition search the Chronicles and Annals of the Kings of Israel and you shall still find those times wherein Religion was advanced as under David Solomon Asa Jehoshaphat and Hezekiah to be prosperous times whereas under Idolatrous Kings all things went contrary So that the best way to secure what men have is to employ part of it

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