Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
lord_n work_n world_n zion_n 349 3 9.0208 4 false
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A26260 Scripture-prophecies opened which are to be accomplished in these last times, which do attend the second coming of Christ : in several letters written to Christian friends / by E. Avery. Avery, E. (Elizabeth) 1647 (1647) Wing A4272; ESTC R2586 37,649 53

There are 2 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

would not hide it from his chosen ones and certainly God would not suffer them to act as they do as to endeavour to build up the State that is fallen and shall the Saints build Babel sure this is a very preposterous thing and certainly this is not a truth hold Answer That the Saints shall endeavour with all their might to heal Babel according to the appointment of God as in Jerem. 51. 8 9. where it is said Babylon is suddenly fallen howl for Babylon take balm for her pain if so be she may be healed And when the Saints have endavoured what they can to heal her then they take up this sad expression We would have healed Babel but she is not healed let us leave her and depart every one to his own Country for her judgement reacheth unto heaven and is lifted up to the skies Now I shall give an Answer to some Questions and some Objections and so close up The first Question How it can be said that when the Saints depart out of the land of their nativity they go unto their own Country if it be to be understood of a local separation Unto this I answer The Land of our nativity is not their own Country to the Saints if in such a place they are in bondage for how was the land of Egypt the own Country to the children of Israel though it was the land of their nativity and so was Babylon to many of the people of God but the land of Canaan was the place of their rest and so God hath prepared a wildernesse for the Saints to depart into when he shall gather them from the land of their Captivity not a wildernesse where there is want of all things but where there shall be abundance both of spiritual and temporal enjoyments as can be proved by the Scriptures before quoted which is an undoubted truth as well in a literal sense as spiritual I say it may appear to be a wildernesse for the present to the carnal sense but it shall not be so long for the Scripture doth prefix a time Rev. 12. a time and half a time that is three yeers and a half and then when that time is accomplished as in Isai. 31. the solitary places and the wildernesse shall rejoyce for them and the desarts shall blossome like a rose The second Question What is the reason if God will gather his people out of their land he doth so hide it from the generality of the Saints for there is not one amongst a thousand of your judgement Unto this I answer that the Lord doth thus hide it from his Saints for divers Reasons First Because he will have them endeavour vi armis id est by force and might to heal Babel which if it were made known unto them that all their labour were in vain they would not trouble themselves any further but God will have it so because he will render his Saints a righteous people unto the whole world and that they shall acknowledge shortly when as they shall say in the words following The Lord hath brought forth our righteousnesse let us declare in Sion the works of the Lord our God The second Reason why it is thus hidden Because if it were revealed the people of God would be so impatient under these sufferings that they would make too much haste and be gone before that God have finished his work on mount Sion which he hath appointed for Babylon to do in the cruel using of the Saints unto the mortifying of the flesh in them And the onely and true reason that God doth reveal it to so few is because there is no considerable part of the Church in a capacity to apprehend such a mercy as to have a deliverance out of such bondage as we are in to whom the Lord is pleased to reveal these things unto our great consolation in the time of our greatest dolour and extremity Now I shall answer to some Objections First of all it may be objected How can it be made appear that there is more excellency in the feet and toes of the great Image then in the head of gold Unto this I answer that there is in divers particulars as it is held forth in the letter As first There is more excellency in the feet and toes then in the head of gold because the feet and toes which were partly of potters clay and partly of iron have mixt themselves with the seed of men and so upon this account the seed of men is more precious then the golden wedge of Ophir for none will deny but that the body of the meanest man in the world is more worth then raiment and so of gold and whatsoever we look on as excellent Now this is clear in the letter In a spiritual sense the feet and toes of the great Image is more excellent because they have mixed themselves with the seed of men Now the seed of men in this nature is the Saints Unto this it may be objected How can that be for the Saints are but men as others as it is spoken of Elias and Moses and all the faithful and so they have their infirmities as the Scriptures speak Unto this I answer It is true that the Saints are men and subject to infirmities none will deny but the Kings daughter is all glorious within the Saints do not appear to the world as yet but when the Witnesses Rev. 11. shall ascend in a cloud into heaven then the enemies shall behold them and then the Saints shall appear as they are unto the confusion of their enemies which shall be very shortly Now it may be objected If it be so as you say that the seed of men which are mixed in the State is the Saints as you call them yet sure they have done no good And are they not over-voted and accounted as the worst of men because they will not joyn with the rest of the body insomuch that they are the means to bring all to confusion which if they had held together it would have been otherwise It is true that though the State have mixt themselves with the seed of men thinking thereby to joyn themselves to the Iron which is the Monarchical power yet it cannot be so for iron and clay will not hold together insomuch that the stone that was cut out of the mountain hath but smote the Image upon his feet and hath broken them already Now here may arise a Question How it can be proved that there can be more in the seed of men then in the head of gold for if the seed of men be the Saints in a spiritual sense then the head of gold must needs be understood to be the Truth and so I say How can it be made appear that there is more excellency in the Saints who are but men then in that whereby they are sanctified for Christ prays the Father that he would sanctifie his by the Word and the Word says
and risen with Christ being secured in that chamber here spoken of in respect of the spiritual man in that there is no more sin nor hell nor death though hell and death remains in the flesh as yet insomuch that we have cause to cry out with the Apostle O wretched men that we are who shall deliver us from this body of death But now the Lord is come into his temple in many of the Saints though we have a being as yet in Babylon amongst the dens of lions and the mountains of the leopards but though the Lord is come into his temple even the Messenger of the Covenant in whom we delight yet it is said Mal. 3. 1 2 3. who can abide his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth what flesh can endure his presence Flesh must die when God appeareth in it So God sits in his temple to destroy sinful flesh in his Saints which is done even here whilst we have our being in this strange land amongst our cruel enemies But when the Lord hath accomplished his work on mount Sion which he will effect by the cruelty of the inhabitants of Caldea to the mortifying of the flesh in the Saints then the Lord will visit the proud heart of the King of Babel and gather all his from among the Heathen and so give rest unto his people and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon Now I shall sum up in brief the particulars of the fall of Babylon which is begun in some and shall be accomplished in all even in this Island of Great Britain In the first place Babylon is fallen in a very inconsiderable part of the Saints even in the least number but in a spritual sense it is fallen in the least number so when Babylon was thus fallen in them Light did appear in that they had brought forth a man-childe spoken of Rev. 12. 1 2. Isai. 9. and 66. which man-childe is understood in the first place to be onely the glorious manifestations of God in the flesh of that number of Saints in whom he doth appear Now when God doth thus appear in any then that dragon which of late hath made war in heaven Rev. 12. who did not prevail because Michael did withstand him I say when that dragon was cast to the earth even that glorious State which is now come to confusion and so he saw his power he did presently begin to persecute that part of the Church who did represent the woman which had brought forth a man childe but the woman had fled into the wildernesse where she is kept as is spoken of in the Scripture which wildernesse in a spiritual sense is onely that place of safety in which the spiritual man doth reside which is God himself who does manifest his presence most unto his Saints in their desolate and disconsolate condition and the Saints live more in God in the want of all help and comfort from the creature then in the enjoyment of all But though that part of the Church is secured in that place which is God in respect of the spiritual man yet as she is in the flesh she is in Babylon amongst her hateful enemies who have procured the greatest evil unto themselves in persecuting of the Saints In that the violences done unto us unto our flesh be on Babylon shall the inhabitants of Sion say not onely in that which God hath done already in the fall of this glorious State and Church which shall never be rebuilt again but our blood be on the inhabitants of Caldea shall Jerusalem say Now here we may see the fall of Babylon whose fall is first in an inconsiderable part of the Saints and when it is in any light doth appear and you know the Prince of darknesse hates the light so as they hate the light they persecute them in whom God doth appear and in persecuting them they dash themselves against the rocks and so are broken and sure the stone that is cut out of the mountain without hands shall fall on all the enemies of God and grinde them to powder even as Babylon is fallen in some of the Saints and fallen in the State and National Church of Great Britain which out of doubt is the great part of the tenth City spoken of Revel. 10. so Babylon shall fall in all gathered Churches and in all the Saints shortly and so not onely shall the stone break the feet of the great Image bu● when the feet are broken then all falls with it the gold and silver which is the truth it self that is held forth in Babylon Howsoever truth shall return from the land of the enemy as Jerem. 31. and the fire shall try every man his work and we know that gold and silver shall abide the trying and refining and so truth shall be tried and appear to be truth the Saints themselves shall be tried and appear to be Saints so in this fall and refining the Truth loseth nothing but its drosse and the Saints nothing but their corruption and when this is done the whole body shall go out of Babylon and fl●e out of the land of the Caldeans with a voice of singing Isa. 48 20 21. When we shall trust God in a wildernesse-condition in respect of temporals having so good experience of his supplying us in spirituals so assuredly as God hath already and will gather all his out of Babylon spiritually in respect of Errour so likewise he will gather all his from all places whither they have been led captive as well as out of this Land which doth more evidently appear to be spiritual Babylon then any other place which gathering shall be out of doubt a local separation The Scriptures to prove are as followeth Isai. the 8 9 13 14 25 26 27 34 35 43 52 and 66 Chapters Jerem. the 30 31 50 and 51 Chapters Ezek. the 37 and 39 Chapters Hosea the 5 6 and 13 Chapters Mala●h the 13. and Revel. 18. Compare these Scriptures which shew the great tribulation which shall befal the Church of God immediately before her deliverance out of Babylon in respect of Darknesse and Errour and her deliverance likewise temporally from the bondage of the creature the hateful enemies of God and so the Church shall be secured in that chamber spoken of in Isai. 26 and the wildernesse Revel. 12. as well in a temporal sense as in a spiritual which is a place of safety as we may understand it in the letter which God will provide as a resting-place for the Saints which I say is an undoubted truth in respect of the judgements of God which are coming on the earth an utter destruction of the wicked by Sword Pestilence and Famine which is one of the main motives which God doth use to perswade his people to depart out of Babylon Jerem. the 50 and the 51 Chap. Rev. 18. Unto this it may be objected If this were a truth that you speak concerning the gathering away of the Saints surely God