Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	earth_n	father_n	heaven_n	17,972	5	5.2409	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45958	An invitation to the aforementioned society, or little common-wealth shewing the excellency of the true Christian love and the folly of all those who consider not to what end the Lord of heaven and earth hath created them.	Plockhoy, Pieter Corneliszoon, fl. 1659.	1660 (1660)	Wing I291; ESTC R28720	11,486	18

AN INVITATION TO THE Aforementioned SOCIETY OR LITTLE COMMON-WEALTH SHEWING The excellency of the true Christian love and the folly of all those who consider not to what end the Lord of heaven and earth hath created them MAT. 12. 50. Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven the same is my Brother and Sister and Mother LONDON Printed for the Author and are to be sold at the Black-spread Eagle neer the West-end of Pauls 1660. An invitation to the aforementioned Society or little Common-wealth c. THough men are bound one to another upon several accounts knit together with very streight bonds and that the likeness either of manners or of life conversation or of parentage and education begets a mutual friendship between them yet this is the most perfect and of all others the most blessed when God by the dispensation of his secret counsel joyned some such together as do agree with his divine will with the rules of nature they will not exchange their union or fellowship for all the riches in the World But the more divine this state of friendship is the seldomer is it seen amongst us and the more is Satan that enemy of mankind against it who knows full well that he hath not so much right or power to meddle with this holy fire and the matter which maintaineth it as he hath where either recreation or advantage is onely looked after which kind of friendships he useth with very little trouble to dissolve but in this way of amity God onely is the bond wherewith they are tyed together without being liable to be unloosed and upon which foundation being fix'd they resolve to withstand all assaults whatsoever If then there be any felicity in the life of man or any efficacious remedy to prevent his future misery I conceive nothing was ever more solacing or reviving and come nearer to the divine nature then love viz. true love which doth so communicate it self in and to that wherewith it reciprocates that it seems to have exchanged therewith and made over thereto whatsoever it did possess before so that amongst true friends there is such an agreement that no secret no joy no profit nor any cross or affliction is undivided but whatsoever betides either of them is no otherwise then if it were the change of one alone so that death it self can scarce seperate souls so totally united certainly the Heathens who in all things pursued that which they esteemed best found nothing more delightsom then perfect friendship But how far doth Christ excel all others in love who by his Doctrine and Example hath instituted a partnership or society of mutual love by the denomination of Brethren abolishing amongst his Disciples all preheminency or domineering of one over another requiring that the gifts and means of subsistence in the World for necessity and delight should be common having called his people to a moderation and to a life sutable to pure nature so that all Christendom ought to be meerly a certain great fraternity consisting of such as having denied the World and their own lusts conspire together in Christ the sole head and spring of love doing well to one another and for his sake distribute their goods to those that stand in need Oh that we had this perfection and were answerable to the end of our creation certainly there would not be such going to law such intrenching and incroaching upon the bounds of lands such hiding and close locking up of money nor would there be such scraping together of superfluous Estates Oh total sum and highest pitch of all good if any may be admitted and that in due time to this divine favour for even many decrippid aged persons do seldom attain to this Emperors Kings Princes c. having spent all their years all their strength of body and soul have little or no time left them to serve a better Master then the World and therefore if God do join some such together as endeavour after a life more regular then their former each of them being at a loss for a companion to better and promote his resolution one to whom he may communicate his secrets a friendly reprover of his errors a reclaimer of him from the Worlds allurements a comforter in adversity a moderator of joy in prosperity and in all respects a sharer in that which God hath liberally given and last of all one ready for all cases and conditions that may happen I say and judge that these are the happiest of all persons that ever were upon the earth For as no painfuller or miserabler thing can be thought on then that life which a man lives according to the course of the world so nothing is more acceptable and lovely in the Universe then that harmony and concord which hath its Original from God and influence upon the man that is joyned with his fellow-man so agreeable to his mind which certainly can be found no where but there onely where a firm love agreement and concurring will in well doing as also a liberal distribution and imparting of all created things is entertained It is evident that the most wise God would honor the sacred society of Matrimony with the utmost perfection of this so great love since they that are so joyned together and built upon the right foundation have not onely their goods but also their joys and griefs common and cannot be severed by any kind of reproaches or malicious endeavours of the envious The World hath her delight in different degrees of dignities states titles and offices exalting themselves one above another but Christ on the contrary will that every one shall perform his office as a member of one and the same body in which no one exalteth it self nor accounteth it self worthier then other the eye is not puffed up because it sees the foot is not grieved that it sees not if any member in the body is blemished it is carefully covered by the other if any be weak it is diligently provided for by the rest whereas on the contrary every one in the World which by his Office or Title is differenced from others conceives he is quite another thing and in himself better then others and must be reputed for one that is set together and composed of some finer substance and designed to a sweeter life yea to an higher place in heaven then others Now if you do but divest and strip the World of her Riches Honors and State how naked and rufully forlorn will she remain and how far different wil she be found from that she seems to be and then it will be easie to believe that she is shored up by nothing else but wormeaten props which if they were once pulled away they would be fitted and made free for the imitation of Christ Do but see oh man what kind of things they are which do shut the door against true love and hinder communion or fellowship with Christ