Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A42012
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A voice of comfort sounded forth and sent into the world to all the mourners in Zion who are born of the birth immortal wherein is declared the purpose of the living God concerning the righteous and the wicked / by Tho. Green.
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Greene, Thomas, 1634?-1699.
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1665
(1665)
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Wing G1847; ESTC R28047
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5,402
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10
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A Voice of Comfort Sounded forth and sent into the World To all the MOURNERS IN ZION Who are born of the Birth Immortal WHEREIN Is declared the Purpose of the Living God Concerning the Righteous and the Wicked By a Friend of Zions Seed Tho. Green London Printed in the Year 1665. A Voice of Comfort sounded forth c. Friends WHO are the beloved of the Lord who are called by scorners Quakers you the Lord hath blessed and often visited and hath called you out of darkness and hath brought many of you out of Captivity from under Sathans power to experience his goodness in the Light and Life of his Son Christ Jesus and since the day of his first Visitation and turning of us unto himself he hath never left us though he hath suffered many to be deeply tryed some by stripings bruisings woundings imprisonments banishment and death and in all these things he hath been a God nigh at hand to bear up and support the weakest child that he hath called to bear testimony to his name in the six troubles he hath not left them nor in the seventh he will not fail Oh you dear and pretious Sons and Daughters of Zion your birth is from Eternity your strength is from the mighty one who is the Being of Beings who doth whatsoever pleaseth him Oh my heart is in love with you and my life dwelleth among you and as concerning ye my heart hath been ponderous with my God and my spirit hath cryed wherewithal shall Jacob be raised up and Zions Mourners be comforted and this hath been answered in my heart from the Lord in the feeling of his love and of his dreadful Presence saying Fear not oh Daughter of Zion since the day of thy birth and nativity I have borne thee up and nourished thee as a little Child and led thee as a tender one and my eye of pitty hath been upon thee and I have entered into Covenant with thee and I am God that never changeth and I will never leave thee nor forsake thee And this further is the purpose of the Lord concerning thee oh thou afflicted one and disconsolated Child who art ready to say within thy self why doth the Lord take away the righteous with the wicked and remove the Innocent from the Earth in this Contagion and take away some of the faithful People who have put their whole trust in him and have chosen the Lord to be their God and that have no hope nor expectation of comfort but only from the Lord and because of this I and many a weak one are shaken in our minds because we see the wicked boast and rejoyce at the death of the Righteous and holy people of the Lord who triumph and say the Lord is angry with them for he cuts them off as he doth the wicked and this grieveth me most of all because they lift up their voice now and cry where is now your God Oh thou tender and afflicted one be not cast down in thy mind neither let thy heart be troubled nor thy spirit within thee grieved who hast believed and received with joyfulness the appearance of Gods grace and hast been led thereby out of the wayes of the wicked into the way where the righteous walk and meet with comfort and Heavenly refreshments from the Lord of Life Oh fear thou not thou tender one for there is nothing shall befall thee but what is common to men for the Lord hath made the World all of one Blood and of flesh which is as grass which must die and our bodies are mortal as well as others but our life by which we live to the Lord is eternal which life is more and more revealed to all that are begotten and born of the Immortal seed but our life is hid with Christ in God from all who are in the first nature and know nothing of the Lord but what they know naturally not being born again nor crucified to the evils of this World by the power of Gods endless life these knows not the end of the Righteous neither discerns the things of God yet let the Righteous know and the upright consider that in all ages the Lord hath tryed his dearest Servants and hath weaned them from all Creature-enjoyments and hath stripped them naked that he might cloath them with that Garment that never waxeth old and feed them with that bread which nourisheth to Eternity Oh how did he try righteous Abraham by requiring of him to offer up Isaac but his reward was known in the end And how did he try Jacob with the parting from Benjamin but Joseph was found thereby And how did he try Job with afflictions many wayes unto whom dreadful tidings was brought who said the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away and blessed be his most holy name And how did he try David Daniel and Jonah and delivered them in the day of their distress and was their comfort in the day of affliction and a covert for them in the day of Calamity Thus the Lord hath dealt with the faithful Prophets Christ and the Apostles and the wicked said as at this day they do to Gods people because God is executing his determinate will for it was said to Jesus if thou be the Christ come down from the Cross and save thy self and us but he was obedient unto the death and his Apostles they traveled in the way of the Lord and lived so that they might finish their course with joy they were beloved of the Lord yet he suffered them to be tryed and to be tribulated and the messenger of Sathan they knew a thorne in the flesh they witnessed but he that prevails with God prayed that their Faith might not fail Thus did the Righteous in all ages hear the rod and him that had appointed it and learned obedience by the things that they suffered and by the chastisement of the Lord they were drawn nearer unto him even as those people in the dayes of old who said other Lords hath had Dâ—minion over us but now we will make mention of thy name for thou art the Lord our God and the Prophet said though thou kill me yet will I trust in thee and said though I go to the bottom of the Mountains there wilt thou find me the Rocks nor Hills cannot hide me neither can the strength of Men nor Horses deliver me therefore will I remember the years of the right hand of the most High and while I have breath will praise his Name But oh saith the afflicted one I have often tasted of the mercies of the Lord and his goodness from day to day I have enjoyed since the time I received in his righteous Judgments against the Man of Sin which was revealed by the brightness of the light of Christ Jesus that did shine in my heart in an acceptable time it was a day of comfort since I have had hours of refreshment from the Lord by which I have been
established but that now the Lord should take me and mine out of this World this somtimes proves an exercise to my mind a grief unto my heart and the more because the wicked boast themselves against God thereby Oh thou tender one be not at this cast down for the Lord hath born long but now is risen as a Lion out of a thicket he hath taken notice how the wicked hath oppressed the Righteous and made a spoyle of the upright in heart and how they have determined to banish them into far Countries to force them into vacant Islands but they shall not have their end for many shall dye in their own land for now the Lord hath sent the destroying Angel forth and hath given him Commission to reap the Earth for the Lord himself will make the decission and the wheat he will gather into his garner but the chaffe and the tears he will burn with unquenchable fire and though the righteous dye they dy in the Lord and shall awake unto everlasting life but the wicked to shame and everlasting contempt And they that be wise said Daniel shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever for the Lord is judge himself who forsaketh not his Saints they are preserved for ever but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off who watcheth to slay the righteous but the Lord will not leave him in his hand nor condemn him when he is judged But they that have remembred their Creator in the dayes of their youth and have remembred and considered their latter end and have known the Spirit of the Lord to teach them to number their dayes and that hath applyed their hearts to wisedome these shall rest from their labours and be blessed who dye in the Lord and shall live with him for evermore therefore none be troubled who have believed the report of truth and have known the arme of the Lord revealed and in the patient Spirit dwells And with old Ely say it t is the Lord let him doe what he will for all thy thoughts and cares will but trouble thee and be a meanes to remove thee from thy rest and to draw thee from thy habitation Oh let these thy Tryals and Tribulations have this effect in thy heart that thou thereby may have patience and experience the Lords goodness every day for assuredly all things shall work together for the good of them that fear and love the Lord if all things be then the death of his Saints and Servants whose Names are written in the Lambs book of Life who have delighted to follow him through the Regeneration but the wicked will the Lord Plague in the furnace of his Fury whose portion is appointed in the Lake prepared for the Devil and his Angels But he will say to the Righteous who delights to doe his will on Earth Come yee blessed receive the Kingdom prepared for you And to the wicked who hath delighted in wickedness upon the face of the Earth these are on the left hand Cursed and are to goe into everlasting Torments for evermore but Gods Covenant stands sure with the Righteous and cannot be Altered because the Lord never changeth therefore are his People not Consumed by their many Enemies in the World But further saith the tender hearted Childe of God I have a weight and burden upon my heart to see Gods Judgements and his vials powering forth upon the Earth and the Sea and yet few layeth it to heart many there be indeed that mourne because of their sorrow yet they depart not from their sin neither turne from their Transgressions which have been the very cause of Gods heavy Judgments many are leight and wanton and live in pleasure far from the state of the people of Ninevy who humbled themselves from the Highest to the Lowest And had not I known something of the goodness of the Lord I should Judge their state better then mine Oh therefore consider thou afflicted one that this was the state of David in the dayes of old who saw the wicked in prosperity and they had no bonds in their death and their eyes stood out with fatness they had more then heart could wish but when he entred into the Sanctuary of the Lord he considered their end although he thought in time he had washed his hands in innocency because he was poor and needy and his heart was wounded within him he said I depart like a shaddow that declineth and am shaken off as the Grashopper my knees are weak through fasting and my flesh hath lost all fatness I became a rebuke unto many they that looked upon mee shaked their heads yet for all this will I give thanks unto the Lord greatly with my mouth and praise him among the multitude for he will stand at the right hand of the poor to save him from them that would condemn his Soule And further saith the poor broaken hearted one saying here is a cry with the ungodly as dyeth the wicked so dyeth the righteous and both have one event It 's true the natural bodyes of both dye yet there is a great difference between the death of the righeteous and the death of the wicked for Balaam said Oh that he might dye the death of the righteous and that his latter end might be like unto his for he saw there was goodly dwelling in the tents of Jacob and that the end of those that abode therein would be pretious because the Righteous who have minded to follow the Lord in his Righteous Judgments in which holiness and purity they have learned but the wicked have run from the Lord into wickedness and have done dispight to the Spirit of Grace and hath loved pleasures more then the Lord and have said as those wicked ones in the dayes of old to Jesus the Lord of Life Get thee out of our Coasts and as for the Lord we desire not the knowledg of his wayes and for these 〈◊〉 this day and at all times it will be a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God for there is no peace to the wicked saith the Spirit of the Almighty but the fruit of Righteousness is peace to them that walk righteously and the effect is quietness for evermore this by the Spirit of the Lord is true and shall stand for ever Therefore thou Childe of the living God feele the power of the endless life to keep the heart in awe before the Lord out of the Reasonings and Consullings about those things that may be seen with the natural eye for the saving Power and Comforts of God is onely to be witnessed within by a sinking down into the measure of Christ manifest in thy mortal flesh then thou wilt know the Lords Christ to rule in thy heart who brings glad tidings and publisheth peace and brings Solvation and saith in the Daughter of Zion thy God Reigneth this was he that SIMEON waited for it being revealed unto him that he should not taste death till he had seen the Lords Christ And when this was accomplished he said now let thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for my eyes hath seen thy Salvation So thou that hast had that Spiritual eye oppened whereby thou hast seen and tasted of the good word of God look not out at the works which the Lord is working in the Earth and the desolation that he is making among the Sons of men but remember Dinah who went out and came in ravished so keep close in the pure seed of life in which thou wilt see all things possible with the Lord and by his own works he will be glorified and by his power and judgments he will be known to all Nations So blessed art thou that lyeth down in the Kingdom and Patience of Jesus The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you and his Peace rest upon you for ever-more 7th Month 14th 1665. Given forth in the bowel◠of love and good will to all the Children of the Lord by your Companion in tribulation and rejoycing T. G.