Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	church_n	young_a	zion_n	50	3	8.8063	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29134	The sleepy spouse of Christ alarm'd, or, A warning to beware of drowsiness vvhen Christ calls, lest he withdraw in a discontent being the sum of some sermons upon Cant. 5th, and the beginning / by J. B., minister of the Gospel ; recommended in a preface by Nath. Vincent.	J. B. (James Bradshaw), 1636?-1702.; Vincent, Nathanael, 1639?-1697.	1667 (1667)	Wing B4151; ESTC R27223	96,463	214

destruction 1 Thess 5.3 I am perswaded that the designe of the worthy Author of this ensuing Treatise is to prevent that ruine which is likely to follow upon that drowsiness and security which does so generally prevail And in wishing that he may accomplish his designe is to wish well to the whole Nation If a word spoken in season be like Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver there needs no enlarging in the commendation of this Treatise The Lord make it as profitable as 't is seasonable This is the desire and prayer of Thy Servant for Jesus sake Nathanael Vincent The sleepy Spouse of Christ alarm'd OR A VVarning to beware of Drowsiness when Christ Calls lest he withdraw in a discontent CANTICLES 5.2 3 5 6. It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh saying Open to me my sister my love my dove my undefiled c. THis Song which is an excellent part of Divine Scripture contains in it much sweet Heavenly and Divine matter profitable for our Edification and Consolation But the great difficulty lies in the right understanding of it in order to the drawing out from thence that sweet and Heavenly matter so profitable to our Souls edification For the helping us to a right knowledge of the Divine matter herein contained it is necessary to consider 1 The Nature 2. The general Scope 3. The Persons speaking and spoken of 1. As touching the Nature of this Book it is wholly an Allegory or Figurative discourse under the mask of Similitudes and Resemblances holding forth to us great divine and most excellent Mysteries And therefore in the understanding of it we must not acquiesce in the immediate literal Sense I mean in the immediate or Grammatical sense which the words bear but must look through them to the mediate literal or spiritual Sense that is couched in them For the literal Sense of the Scripture is that Sense which the Holy Ghost immediately and primarily intends in that portion of Scripture whether delivered in Proper or Figurative Expressions And therefore the Literal and Spiritual Sense are here one and the same 2. As touching the general Scope and designe of this Book it is to set forth the mutual Love spiritual Union and Communion between Christ and his Church and their mutual carriage and deportment towards each other in several conditions and under various dispensations brought in and carried on by way of Dialogue and discourse between several persons 3. The persons speaking and persons acting their parts in this Dialogue or Discourse are principally three First The Bridegroom by which we must understand the Lord Jesus Christ 2. The Bride or Spouse by which understand the Church either in general or particular Believers 3. The Daughters of Sion and Jerusalem c. by which we may understand either young Converts or visible Believers The persons spoken of are 1. The Bridegroom which is Christ 2. The Bride the Church 3. The Friends of the Bridegroom which are the Ministers or Messengers of Christ 4. The Virgins or Daughters of Jerusalem young Candidates in Religion and Professors of Religion 5. The Brides Mother the Church wherein young Converts are begotten nourished and brought up The particular knowledge of the Persons speaking and spoken of or to in every place will give much light for the discovery and right understanding of the thing or matter that is spoken and therefore this is necessary to be observed in every part of this Book The persons here speaking in this Chapter and discoursing of and with each other are Christ and his Spouse In the Text we have a rehearsal by the Spouse of Christ his speech to her and of her carriage and deportment towards him If you cast your eye back to the last Verse of the foregoing chapter you shall find the Spouse making her request to Christ for the revival of her Graces and the return of Christ into her soul That Christ would prepare and make ready her Heart by quickning inlivening and enlarging Grace and putting it into a posture fit for Exercise for the entertainment of him and being thus prepared for his entertainment that he would please to come in and taste of that Feast which himself had prepared Hereupon in the first Verse of this Chapter Christ makes answer to her request telling her that he was come and had brought his Friends with him to wit his Ministers that they as well as he might be delighted with that Feast For it is no small refreshment unto the Friends or faithful Ministers of Christ to see and taste of the flourishing Graces of the People or Spouse of Christ Yea he invites her also to taste of the sweetness of his Grace in her self that she might be refreshed with what he had revived and refreshed in her But she possibly being weary with waiting so long and late for him not expecting his company at that time of the night was gone to bed and fallen asleep as she her self confesseth Verse the 2. But as late as it was Christ comes and knocks and she hears and knew his voice and gives us an account what he said to her As she had but now made her sute and request to him desiring him to come so he being come makes another kind and loving motion to her and such a one as was very reasonable and one would have thought would have been readily embraced She had begged of him that he would come and now being come and finding her in bed he begs of her that she would open to him and let him in But alas poor Spouse as if she had forgot her respect to her Husband the benefit and desireableness of his company and her own request so lately made she gives him a flat denial couched under some complemental excuses Verse 3. I have put off my coat how shall I put it on I have washed my feet how shall I defile them She could wish to have Christ but is too lazy to rise out of her bed to open to him She would have Christ and his Comforts but would not be at the pains to perform any duty of obedience unto him would not open to him by faith but Christ having a more warm Heart and Affection for her than she had for him resolves not so to be put off and being resolved to speed in his request will not so let her alone and therefore powerfull yet sweetly makes an assault upon the Door of her Heart so effectually moving upon her Affections and awakening her Graces that she can no longer deny but ariseth to open to him and by arising and coming to the door finds a wonderful change and alteration in her self V. 4 5. My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door and my bowels were moved for him I rose up to open to my beloved and my hands dropped with myrrhe and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrhe upon the handles of the lock She no sooner begins to act faith upon Christ but she

to them from the Lord to give them a nail in his Sanctuary and some tokens of his favour and visible presence but now they begin to fall to their old course of sinning and mis-improve this day of grace this makes Ezra to tremble and sit down astonished And see what he saith in his Prayer to God vers 13. If after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds seeing that thou our God hast punished us lest than our iniquities deserve and hast given us such deliverance as this should we again brea● thy commandments Wouldst not thou b● angry with us until thou hadst destroyed us s● that there should be no remnant nor escaping 〈◊〉 Clearly intimating how dangerous a thing i● is to shut our ear against such a call as thi● is 3. Christs Call is eminent under great mercies spiritual or temporal largely bestowed upon us The more largely God's hand i● opened to thee in Bounties the more loud 〈◊〉 his Knock and Call to thee to open to him the Psalmist makes this a strong argument to his soul to return to his God Psal 116.7 Return unto thy rest i. e. unto thy God for God is the only true and perfect rest of the Soul O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee And if in this case thou shut him out or turn a deaf ear to his call the greater will be thy sin we finde therefore the Spirit of God often aggravating the sins of men from this consideration as in the case of David 2 Samuel 12. when he had sinned in the matter of Vriah God sends Nathan to him who thus speaks to him from the Lord ver 7 8 9. I anointed thee king over Israel and I delivered thee from the hand of Saul I gave thee thy masters house and thy masters wives into thy bosome and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah And if that had been too little I would moreover have given thee such and such things wherefore then hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight This made David's sin wonderfully great and so is it a most sad aggravation of any mans sin See how God pleads with his Church Deut. 32. upon this account Do you thus requite the Lord Why what had God done for them See vers 9 c. he had chose them for his portion His Providence had been wonderful about them his Presence had been wonderfully with them and his Goodness had been wonderful towards them and that therefore they should grow fat and kick was an heinous and intolerable affront and would be dreadful in the issue and therefore wisheth that they would be wise to consider their later end let us therefore think of this whom God hath so every way loaded with blessings 4. Christs calls are remarkable when his judgments are terrible when the terribleness of Gods Judgments do manifest the heat of Gods wrath then it is high time to know the voice of the rod and who hath appointed it We read Amos 4. God threatens to draw them forth with fish-hooks and cast them out of their own land because of their incorrigibleness under his Judgments he had so and so punished them for their sins and yet they had not returned to the Lord and therefore he would do thus with them vers 12. And what follows mark And because I will do thus unto thee therefore prepare to meet thy God O Israel This was a loud call without any more delays to prepare to meet God The same Prophet puts this question in the Negative which the more strongly affirms Amos 3.6 Shall a Trumpet be blown in the City and the people not be afraid When Gods Judgments sound as a Trumpet of an Enemy that hath taken the City it is high time for the people to tremble 5. When the meaning of Gods dealings with us is plainly and legibly written in the forehead of Gods dispensations towards us the more loud and intelligible is his call When the finger of God in his Providences plainly points at our carriages easie to be read and understood this makes the call more clear and us the more inexcusable if we take not notice of it Sometimes a man may plainly read his sin that God smites at in his punishment as David might read his sin of Adultery and Murder in Absalom's Rebellion and lying with his Concubines Sometimes Judgments put such a stop to us in our sin and take away the very occasion of our sins or the things whereby we sin that we may plainly see God correcting such a sin in us Sometimes again the circumstances of the puishment clearly point at the cause of them as here in the Text. Christ his immediate departure after the Spouse her complemental excuse and refulal to open to him did most clearly point out her sin to her and no question was a most bitter and biting sting upon her Conscience Sometimes there comes secret convictions and intimations of the cause of Gods cotroversie along with the affliction God whispers us in the ear and tells us that such a lash and scourge is for such a fault and when these things fall out thus they are loud calls from Christ to hearken to Instruction and to bow our ear to Discipline That saying of Elihu is very considerable for this purpose Job 36.8 9 10 11. If they be bound in fetters and holden in cords of affliction Then he sheweth them their work and their transgression that they have exceeded He openeth their ear to discipline and commandeth them to depart from iniquity If they obey and serve him then they shall spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasure But if they obey not they shall perish by the sword and shall dye without knowledge And therefore it must needs be of dangerous consequence to turn the deaf ear to such a loud call as this is Thus remarkable Providences are a loud call from Christ to open to him 3. Christ his calls are remarkable when he comes upon our calling and invitation when we from a sense of his absence have earnestly begged for his coming and he in answer to our prayers doth come and stands knocking at the doors of our hearts for admission and entertainment this call is very loud and our refusal to open would be most unworthy This is the very case in the Text and therefore I need not multiply Texts or Instances about it for the case is plain enough here The Spouse had prayed that Christ would come into the garden of her heart Christ makes no delay but quickly comes and might reasonably expect to find ready admission being so earnestly invited but contrary to his expectation he finds her in bed the door shut and she too lazy to arise to open to him and therefore he withdraws in a discontent as well he might If therefore upon our earnest prayer Christ come and knock at the door of our hearts either by