Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	day_n	time_n	work_n	11,850	5	5.5870	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90395	Severall fresh inward openings, (concerning severall things) which the day will declare of what nature they are, to which judgment they appeal for justice, being contented either to stand or fall by it: and being likewise ready to kiss that condemnation, which they are likely to meet with in the mean time, from all sorts of men, whom they finde ready to deal hardly with them. / Through Isaac Penington, (junior) Esq;	Penington, Isaac, 1616-1679.	1650 (1650)	Wing P1189; Thomason E608_2; ESTC R205900	38,872	56

not depart from him Nor is the mad man capable of a right sober true understanding of things Nor is it possible for either to be silent until they be cast as powerfully into it as they were into this prophetical folly and spiritual madness and then they shall be as unable to speak as now they are to forbear speaking When their brains are weary of imagining their tongues of expressing and their hearts speak plainly that all is vanity that which springs up from within as well as that which is received in from without both head heart and tongue will begin to fail and at last faint and cease from these kinde of motions And then it will be time for him who truly understands things to speak when every mouth else is stopped A Check to the Judger of his Brethren FROM 1 COR. 4. Vers 3. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of mans judgment yea I judg not mine own self HOw prone is Man to be judging Man hath an eye and light in his Day and he cannot forbear passing his judgment either upon things or persons The Natural man will be judging natural things and the Spiritual man will be judging spiritual things Men will be judging men and Christians will be judging Christians yea both will be judging both And as men grow in light and experience so much the more confident are they in their judgment And 't is so with Christians too a Church a gifted Church will not spare passing their sentence on the very prime of the Apostles In this place three things are held out 1. The nature of this judgment 'T is but mans 't is but in mans day in mans light 'T is a judgment passed by man Mark it well The judgment of the Churches in the Apostles times when the Spirit was poured out so abundantly yet it was but mans judgment That was not the Day of God it was but the Day of Man There was not so much light even then broke out from God as to make the day of God appear in man 2. The invalidity or worthlessness of this judgment in Pauls account With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of mans judgment Man cannot be more forward to judg me then I am to slight him in that action Alass what is man what value is he of wherein is he to be accounted of what is the judgment worth that he passeth upon things Paul though he had not seen the perfect light of God yet he had seen enough to discover to him the shallowness of the light of man The time is not yet come to judg nor the light whereby the true state of things is to be discerned and therefore a right judgment of things cannot be produced And though man will be so forward as to judg aforehand by way of anticipation yet it will stand for nothing then nor is it of any true value now It is a very small thing with me a thing I make as light of as may be Though ye are a Church of Christ though ye have the gifts of the Spirit yet if ye will set about judging once I do not regard you one rush it hath no manner of impression upon my spirit as a matter of any seriousness as a matter worth regard with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you Or of mans judgment I do not onely speak of you but any else any other Church I see how blinde and ignorant the best of men are and how unfit for any such undertaking and can say to the best of ye all who art thou that judgest another mans servant to his own master he standeth or falleth I can except against the person who judgeth be he what he will who art thou Pray how comest thou to be so exalted as to come to judg another art thou his Lord art thou Master it belongs to the Lord to be Judg thou hast no more right to judg thy fellow-servant then he hath to judg thee Besides 't is the day of man and so but the light of man The Lord hath kept his own light for his own day and so thou canst not discern the true nature and state of things what they are in themselves what force there was from without Thou canst not see how they lie in the heart nor how they come forth from the heart all which must be throughly seen and duly weighed before righteous judgment can be passed Therefore the Lord knowing how unfit man is for this work hath forbid him it hath bound him up very close left him to judg nothing before the time till the Lord bring forth the hidden things of the heart which is as necessary to judgment as any thing else And man might easily discern how unfit he is to judg in this respect for there is hardly any sort of persons judged by others but this is their refuge they run presently for shelter to the integrity of their own hearts and though at some times and in some cases it be very improbable yet it is very hard fairly to overthrow them Were it not therefore better to stay till the appointed time when all things shall be made clear then to be passing an uncertain and consequently an unrighteous judgment and thereby to expose thy self to judgment Wherein if thou shouldst come off for judging aright yet thou wilt not come off in this respect for judging afore the time neither canst thou be justified in thy judging though thou shouldst judg aright because thou didst it but by ghess and not in the clear and universal light of the day 3. The Apostles modesty upon the knowledg and sense of this yea I judg not mine own self A Man hath great advantage of judging himself There is None can look into a mans heart so as himself may The chief consideration in every action is the reference it hath to the heart A mans heart may justifie him wherein all others condemn him and a mans heart may condemn him wherein all others justifie him And upon this ground a man may more safely judg himself then he can judg any else because he may observe the passages of things from his heart and the influence they have upon his heart better then others can or then he can observe in others The Apostle had greater advantage of judging himself then most men He had that light which gave him a true insight into things and a truer insight into his own heart then others could attain to Yet saith the Apostle I judg not mine own self I see clearly that there is a greater a more searching light to judg me then as yet I have received and how things will appear by that I know not And therefore I value not mine own justification of my self in any thing If man condemn me I regard not that condemnation and if mine own heart clear me I

set no great esteem on that neither There is another judgment which I must stand or fall by as like wise every motion within me and every action that cometh from me But what others think or what I my self think in the mean time concerning these things is not much material O how sober doth true light spiritual light powerful light make the person in whom it is He can enjoy it and yet not be lifted up by it He can use it and go beyond any in the use of it to whom it is not communicated in the same degree and yet not stretch it beyond its line He can judg beyond others more clearly more truly more certainly and yet in his own spirit lay his own judgment lower and flatter then others can theirs who judg weakly foolishly falsly But who writes after this copy Man now-a-days is as short of this sobriety as he is of this light Where is the man that judgeth not himself that judgeth not others that justifieth not himself that condemneth not others Look upon the Natural man upon the Religious man upon the inward and spiritual man They are all able to judg all able to justifie all able to condemn The Natural man he hath his Principles of Reason whereby he judgeth So far as he himself or others walk up to them he justifieth himself and others so far as they differ or fall short he condemneth them Yea he is so bold that he will lay this very line to Religion and religious persons and condemn it further then it suits with the rule of his reason But how little doth he consider the weakness the shallowness the uncertainty of these principles and therefore is not drawn to set so low a rate upon this his judgment as he ought to do The Religious man he hath his light to judg by too The Turks their Alcoran The Papists their Church or at best the Scriptures interpreted by men of their own Principles We the Scriptures interpreted by men of our Principles Indeed we go beyond them in taking a further latitude to our selves then they allow of yet withall we cannot but see the inconveniency of that latitude but know not where to pitch upon an infallible remedy for want whereof we are often endevoring to set up one much like theirs Doth not every one almost see a necessity of deciding things in difference and thereupon desire that the decision might be put to that sort of persons whom they most affect and judg most able And what is this but an hood winking our selves for quietness sake a running in a circle into the same foundation of error and deceit for which we blame the Papists Now we all judg one another very confidently The Turks judg the Papists and us The Papists judg the Turks and us We judg both Turks and Papists So among our selves There are several sorts and Sects different Opinions about several things Differences in points of Government and Worship Differences in matters of Faith in matters of practise in interpretations of Scripture in reference to all these What do we all do why every man thinketh and judgeth himself in the right condemneth all others making no bones of laying blame of laying accusations of error and disturbance upon them The inward or spiritual man he will be judging too All things without he casts by without any scruple there is nothing can stand before him but the light within And all things within or from within that vary from his track that differ from his light from his sense from his experience must come under his lash And this is a great exception which hath been very strong in my spirit against all that hath appeared in this kinde that they break forth with a great vehemency of unbounded judging They come forth with a fleshly interest and for that they fight very vigorously with all that stands in their way Now what shall become of thee O Man Is it not high time for thee to be taken down Thou who hast ever been judging dost thou think thou shalt never come to judgment Thou who hast still been judging the things of God in thy day by thy light without the light of God must be judged for this in the day of the Lord and by the light of the Lord Thou now justifiest thy self that thou keepest within thy bounds thou judgest no further then thou hast ground and warrant to do We shall see what will become of this plea then Judg not saith Christ And he himself forbare judging I judg no man Joh. 8. 15. though if he had judged his judgment had been true Vers 16. Yet being not his time to judg though he was to be Judg he could forbear his sentence until the proper season of it Judg nothing before the time saith Paul until the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the heart And what he counselleth others he practised himself for notwitstanding the great advantage he had both of light and experience yet he would not venture to judg so much as himself either positively to condemn or justifie himself If others accuse him he can wipe off their accusation and justifie himself in respect of any thing they can lay to his charge But yet he does this as a fool he cannot justifie himself understandingly but even in this very thing may he be foiled when he comes to a stricter tryal and judgment And the Apostle knowing this though he could tell how to clear himself from any blame men might fasten upon him yet he did not value it at all but suspended even his judgment concerning himself until the time of tryal How wilt thou hold up thy head O thou self-justifier who art confident thou shalt stand in judgment and art sure that in such and such particulars thou shalt not be cast and severe condemner of thy brethren If thou knewest but the pure and searching nature of that light whereby thou shalt be judged thou wouldst be of another minde then thou art and the less thou know●st it the more strange will it be to thee when it comes and thy judgment the more unexpectedly dreadful The true ground of Mourning with an invitation to it LUK. 5. 34 35. And He said unto them Can ye make the Children of the Bride-chamber fast while the Bridegroom is with them But the days will come when the Bridegroom shall be taken away from them and then shall they fast in those days THere are two great exceptions against Christ his Ministry and Followers a little before these words 1. His keeping company with the looser sort Vers 30. The Scribes and Pharisees murmured against his Disciples saying Why do ye eat and drink with Publicans and sinners They expected that the Holy One when he once came should have picked out the most holy ones to have conversed and delighted himself with and not have associated himself with the vile

Creature there is but the shadow of anger but in him there is anger in substance in truth He doth not like either the deviation of the Creature or the misery which that deviation leads into He doth not like that vanity misery and corruption which is rivetted into the Creature He doth not like the present constitution of the Creature the present motions and actions of the Creature according to that constitution He is offended at the whole state and course of things at every thing that thus is at every thing that thus is done And he hath a day for his anger a day to give his anger scope in a day wherein he will let the Creature see and feel how angry he is with it A Day It will be night with the Creature a very black time to the Creature but it will be the Lords day He will not let out his anger as we commonly do in confusion and darkness but in cleer light and in perfect love As anger came from love so anger shall be subservient unto love and be guided and managed in and by the light of love Yet still it shall be anger it shall retain its own nature and make the Creature sufficiently sensible of it on whom it lights Now for all this he hath an hiding place wherein he can cover what and whom he pleaseth in this time of indignation from the heat and fury of it And this ye may meet with if ye be led by him to seek righteousness and meekness ye may be hid by him from the scorching violence of it If any thing scape it is like to be righteousness and meekness if any person scape it will be he in whom these are found The indignation will be so hot in that day that the most righteous and meekest person breathing will hardly avoyd the danger of it but there will be somewhat found even in them for the fire to seize upon and torment to death but this is the onely way to escape and perhaps by this means ye may escape it It may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lords anger Whatsoever shall become of righteousness afterwards yet certainly it shall escape that brunt that is to light upon sin Righteousness shall be hid in that day of anger and all persons so far as they are found righteous And let men think and speak what they please at present yet they shall one day see and say verily there is a reward for the righteous when they shall see God come to judg the earth and putting a difference between things and things persons and persons For doubtless notwithstanding the present confusion and distraction whereinto things are cast yet there is a time for the orderly bringing of them forth unto judgment where they shall receive their doom not according to what they now take themselves to be but according to what they are and shall by clear light be then made appear to be To shut up all When the eyes of our spirits are opened in the inward and spiritual world we shall then see the frame of inward and spiritual things We shall see in the spiritual Creation light and darkness good and evil which is as real in its kinde as that which the eyes of our senses cannot but see and acknowledg in the outward world is in its kinde And though darkness and light are both alike to God yet they are not so nor cannot be so in the outward world to the sense of the Creature Neither are they nor can they be so in the inward world to the sense of the spiritual man 'T is true they are so to God but neither I nor you nor any else can apprehend how they are so while we are what we are and therefore cannot speak truth in discovering how they are so O how hath infinite Wisdom entangled our reason in its going about to understand and fathom these things catching it in the greatest and strongest bands of folly and madness while it thinks it hath and gloryeth as if it had taken possession of the deepest Wisdom So let the glory of Man fall for ever So let the Reason Vnderstanding and Wisdom of the Creature always prove a broken reed to run into it pierce and wound it that none may ever come to know or enjoy God or any thing of God but as he freely imparts himself or of himself unto them FINIS

best advantage when it seemed most cast off it could never have wished so well for it self as it is provided for its Death Life Misery Happiness were all acted under a vail and were none of them what it took them to be but were all of them what it was best for it they should be Then shall Glory shine round abound him who is what none else is who works as none else can A PARABLE Translated out of JEREM. 48. 11 12 13. Moab hath been at ease from his youth and he hath setled on his lees and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel neither hath he gone into captivity therefore his taste remained in him and his scent is not changed Therefore behold the days come saith the Lord that I will send unto him wanderers that shall cause him to wander and shall empty his vessels and break their bottels And Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel their confidence THe Moabites were bastard-Israelites Not the children of Abraham but the children of Lot nor the legitimate children of Lot neither They were of kin to Israel of the blood of Israel but not in a direct but in a collateral line Now God who orders all things towards all persons acts very differently towards the Israelites and these He is very sharp and severe towards his own people but very gentle towards these Israel was afflicted from his youth up he is ever and anon scourging Israel Moab hath been at ease from his youth Moab meets with nothing to dissettle him nothing to trouble him nothing to disquiet him but enjoys his portion his habitation from his very youth enjoys his God his worship hath plenty prosperity all goes well with Moab Famine often befalls Israel that they are fain to run for relief into the land of Moab but Moab meets with no such misery or distress Moab hath been at ease from his youth Israel hath been tossed and tumbled up and down emptied from vessel to vessel carryed up and down into several captivities one after another never suffered to rest in his own Land But it hath not been so with Moab Moab hath not been thus emptied Moab hath not thus gone into captivity This is the different Dispensation of God towards Israel and towards Moab Now there followeth a different effect Moab setles upon his lees enjoys possesses his rest and that strength which flows from rest has that in his state which keeps it fresh quick living which preserves his excellency as the lees do the wine Therefore his taste remained in him and his scent is not changed There are two excellent properties in wine The taste and the scent both which are preserved by the vessel wherein it is kept Let a Nation settle in peace and it will gather and keep its sweetness its freshness its beauty its glory but toss and tumble it remove it out of one place into another it quickly loseth all Empty wine out of one vessel into another the taste the scent quickly changeth And this is the common lot of the people of God his dearest his strictest ones by his continual tossing and tumbling of them by his continued sharp vehement exercises upon their spirits they come to lose their taste their taste changes their scent changes that sweetness that freshness that vigor which was once in them quickly wasteth and passeth away after they have been a while emptied from vessel to vessel O what a sweet taste is there in a true Israelite a lively Israelite How lovely is the Israel of God when it is new-made when it comes newly out of the fingers of God! Moab is not worthy to be compared to him for taste for scent But how suddenly is this changed by Gods emptying him from vessel to vessel But now it is otherwise with Moab with the more bastardly fort Their excellency their life their beauty their religion their loveliness remains still the same They are not thus emptied from vessel to vessel and therefore they keep that taste and scent they had But shall it always be thus No there shall be a time for Moab to be met with too Though Judgment must begin at the house of God yet it will not end there but after he hath done with Israel he will begin with Moab after he hath done emptying Israel he will empty Moab and then he shall lose his taste and scent also And then he shall finde that it was not for his excellency beyond Israel that he scaped all this while His Religion his God his Worship was not of so much value beyond Israels because he thrived in it and kept up the life and vigor of it when Israels was falling and a great degree fallen But he shall be ashamed of that God that he framed to himself as well as Israel was of that God they framed to themselves That which might carry the bell for excellency O Christians is fallen is smitten to death That Knowledg of God that Life that Zeal that Holiness which did sparkle with lustre and heavenly beauty hath not been spared But that which is of a more degenerate birth doth yet live But shall it live Can God be just in making Israel ashamed of Bethel and suffer Moab to go on prosperously in worshipping Chemosh No certainly it cannot be thus but Moab shall be made ashamed of Chemosh as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel their confidence A Word to the Mad Folks YE have been very eminent many of you formerly in your generations the springing up and sprouting forth of your Religion strictness of conversation sweetness of deportment hath yeelded an wholesom savor to all with whom ye have conversed Ye have sweetly enjoyed God though ye have now forgot it not onely at a distance in longing desires but neerer at hand even in close embraces Gifts Graces Ordinances Duties spiritual exercises of all kindes ye have been well acquainted with and have known how to suck life through them and if ye have been skilful indeed how to let them fall and fasten upon the life it self But now ye are dead to all this All this is gone and passed away ye have been slain to this by him who was wont to convey life to you through it He that built you hath made you desolate And as your frame and fabrick was more beautiful and glorious then was elsewhere to be found So proportionable have been your ruine and desolations from the Lord who hath dealt so sharply with none as with you It hath not been done to any under Heaven so as hath been done to Jerusalem And it is not fit a book of Lamentations should be written for you because nothing that can be said is deep enough to express your misery Ye are so slain to your Religion that the very sweetness life vigor power purity of it stinks in your nostrils That which to others carries the greatest excellency carries to you the greatest

see how they can come from or be accompanied with true freedom in any whatsoever transportations may attend them therein When any shall indeed grow into perfect union with and enjoyment of the fulness of the Godhead then shall they know how to do these things as God himself now doth them But for the creature in its weak dark shallow empty state to rise up and say I will be like the most High nay I am the most High There is no evil to me nor to my eye Darkness and Light are the same to me in every kind as well as to him I must profess this is to my foolish apprehension the purest piece of madness that ever yet brake forth proceeding from a cup of very deeply intoxicating wine which all that drink of cannot chuse but err in judgment Wine maketh a person strongly conceited maketh him forget himself his state his sorrow his misery maketh him fool-hardy and altogether voyd of fear in the midst of the most apparant and most eminent danger but maketh no real change in his state or in other things about him which he judges far different from what he did before not from a true sight of the difference but from the strength of the wine The fumes of the wine now abroad may make a person forget sin its reference to him his danger by reason of it c. But when they are expelled and he awakened out of these his drunken dreams he will find himself but where he was even in the clutches of sin under the power guilt and condemnation of sin which will not leave him until he be more fairly quitted and delivered from it O God I have waited for thy Salvation All the turnings and windings of the creaturely imagination cannot relieve me A mighty power of misery of death hath seized upon my very Soul and nothing but a greater power of life can prevail to rescue me Perfection is the creatures full enjoyment of God in and according to its creaturely state When God is married to it and keepeth company with it compleatly even as abundantly as may be in that station wherein it is set when the creature hath as much of God as it can desire in that very way that it is taught and led to desire him Why may there not be a perfection in that very way in that very kind wherein imperfection hath hitherto appeared And why may there not be a season for that perfection to discover it self and be set up as well as there hath been for this imperfection There is an happiness to come forth before our being swallowed up into the fulness of God which is the letting forth of God into us in measure and degree proportionable to our creaturely state Well to draw to an end What shall we say to the present state of things Let me freely shoot my bolt which is this God hath been throwing down But man not able to endure a state of desolation hath been building up again as fast as he could God hath thrown down power with power but man hath reared up his new fabrick with weak airy empty notions What is like to be the issue God will make good his throwing down but mans re-building will come to nothing There is a worm in the foundation yea in all the materials which eats out the life heart and strength of them and so maketh them quickly discover their own weakness creatureliness and rottenness Yet do not boast over these O Man but consider thy self lest thou also be tempted As yet thou standest but art thou able to stand before that power by which they have fallen if it should as forcibly deal with thee as it hath with them I will conclude all with an Exhortation out of Zephaniah chap. 2. vers. 3. which shall be onely to such to whom the words themselves direct it The words are these Seek ye the Lord all ye meek of the Earth which have wrought his Judgment seek Righteousness seek Meekness it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lords anger Seek It is a time of scarcity of want of loss Seek Men have lost their light their life their excellency their sight and knowledg of every spiritual thing it is a very proper time for seeking Let those that have make much of what they have let them enjoy But let those that are sick that want the Physician that want their spiritual health and strength let them seek But what shall we seek Seek what ye want Seek the Lord Do not seek shadows lyes vanities things that will pass away But seek the Lord seek bread seek life seek substance seek true riches seek truth Seek that which your spirits most naturally gasp after and can onely be satisfied with Who are those you would have seek All ye meek of the earth which have wrought his judgment The meek and righteous ones they are onely fit to seek they are the persons God would have seek him Those that are broken in their spirits made tender by their breakings those that have had some taste of righteousness in their spirits that have the relish of it still on their palates and so cannot but hunger and thirst after it these are fit to seek these God onely desires to have seek him The high the lofty the unrighteous ones let them alone saith God let me deal with them but put the poor tender broken spirits out of the track of my indignation as much as may be But what should we seek in God what should we seek of God Seek righteousness seek meekness Do not seek God in his fulness in his perfection your house is not yet large enough to entertain him ye are not able so either to receive him or bear his presence but seek him in such a way in such an Administration as is suitable to you seek righteousness seek meekness seek him to be in you a living power of righteousness and meekness This is the way to be serviceable to God to hold forth God to enjoy God in Dispensations viz. to be righteous and meek The righteous and meek one He is a kinde of God to his fellow-creatures He enjoyeth sweetness within in himself and he hath God still flowing in more and more upon him This is that every one should seek in every Dispensation namely righteousness and meekness in that Dispensation But what will this avail This is but momentany All this must pass away When God comes forth in his perfection this will be discovered to be but empty and creaturely and will fall flat before him The fire must fall upon this and burn up as well the righteousness and meekness as the unrighteousness and ruggedness of the Creature How know you that It may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lords anger God is angry at the state wherein things have been yet brought forth I can say he is pleased with it too yet he is also angry and truly angry In the