Selected quad for the lemma: nation_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nation_n	church_n	jew_n	national_a	1,599	5	11.3519	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47086	A trumpet blown in Zion, or, An allarm in God's holy mountain containing an exposition of that metaphorical Scripture, Matth. III, 12 : lately delivered in two sermons ... / by Benjamin Keach ...	Keach, Benjamin, 1640-1704.	1694 (1694)	Wing K102; ESTC R17228	65,082	74

ears So Gods Wrath like a dreadful and an unexpected fire breaks out sometimes suddenly upon the ungodly How surprizing were the flames of Sodom and the amazing hand-writing on Belshazars wall when he was drinking Wine in Bowls immediately the Kings countenance was changed and he was troubled in his thoughts so that the joynts of his Loins were loosed and his Knees smote one against the other When they cry peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape 3. A fire sometimes breaks forth in the Night when men are asleep So God comes upon men many times in the night of ignorance and unbelief while they lye on their Beds of Ease and carnal Security by amazing Judgments or by sudden Death How secure was the old World and the rich man in the Gospel to whom God said this night thy soul shall be required of thee 4. A consuming Fire destroys wasts and devours exceedingly as Sodom found and London also by woful experience So God when he breaks forth in his Wrath and Fury he makes most lamentable desolation The Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath and the fire shall devour them The Wrath of God is compared to a consuming fire For our God is a consuming Fire 5. A Consuming and raging fire spares none the Palace of the Prince no more than the Cottage of the Peasant the mighty Oaks as well as the lowest Shrubs are devoured by it so the wrath of God seizeth and will seize on all wicked men on the mighty and honourable of the Earth as well as the poor and contemptible ones the King on his Throne as well as the Beggar on the Dunghill His wrath shall be on every one that is lofty and upon every one that is proud and lifted up and he shall be brought down upon all the Cedars of Lebanon and upon all the Oaks of Bashan He will come upon Princes as upon morter the whole earth shall be devoured by the fire of his Jealousy neither their Gold nor Silver shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lords wrath 6. Wood Hay and Stubble are fit fuel for the fire to seize upon and such things that are combustible make it to burn the more vehemently And if high strong Towers cannot stand before a consuming fire how is it possible for Briars and Thorns Some Sinners are like stubble fully dry They are fit Fuel for the Wrath of God like fire to take hold of O what horrid Guilt lies upon some mens Consciences just like a great heap or pile of wood well dried or Cart loads of straw or dry stubble What if God will to shew his wrath and to make his power known endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction A long Course in sin Custom in sin resisting the Grace of God slighting Convictions hardening the Heart against Reproof stifling the Accusations of Conscience and abusing the Patience and long Suffering of God sits men for the fire of his Wrath Whilst they are folden together as Thorns and whilst they are drunken as Drunkards they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry Such that are drunk with Pride drunk with Pleasures or whose Souls are surfited with the Riches and Cares of the World the fire of Gods Wrath as fit matter or combustable stuff will seize upon 7. A dreadful fire when it breaks out turns all joy into sorrow and makes a day of mirth a day of Mourning So the consuming wrath of God whether it seizes on the consciences of Men only whilst alive in the body or on Body and Soul both here or on the Soul at Death it turns all joy into sorrow O what extremity of misery do such feel ask Judas or Spira they could tell you 8. Fire is a most cruel and dreadful tormentor if a man be cast into a fire what intollerable pain and anguish doth it put him to but alas alas that 's nothing to the Wrath of God when God kindles it in the Consciences of men nor to Hell fire You will say O 't is a fearful thing to fall into a furious fire into a burning Furnace but O Sirs how much more dreadful is it to fall under the Wrath of God! It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God For our God is a consuming fire If it be terrible to have a finger a foot or a hand to be burned off or to have the whole body cast into a Furnace of boyling Oil as some of the holy Martyrs were how then can sinners who are as chaff bear the Thoughts of Gods wrath and vindictive Vengance which is far more intollerable than any fire into which any Mortal was ever cast For 1. Other fire burns only the external part or temporal or corporal matter but the fire of Gods wrath burns and torments the Spirit the Soul the invisible part 2. Elementary fire is seen but internal Wrath is only felt inwardly it cannot be seen 3. The fiercest fire that ever was kindled hath been overcome and by Engines or Instruments put out but the fire of Gods Wrath when kindled and the Soul thrown into Hell cannot be put out nor be extinguished 't is unquenchable fire Tho' the burning of Mount Aetna and other burning Mountains are impossible for man to extinguish yet doubless they shall not burn always they will be put out but wrath shall burn for ever So much as to the Explanation of our Text. From hence we may observe divers Propositions or Points of Doctrine 1. Doct. The old floor is gone 't is removed viz. The old Jewish Church or national Church of Israel the wheat that was in it being taken into Christs Gospel-Garner and the chaff or all graceless persons or unbelievers are fann'd away Now Christ hath removed the partition-wall that was between Jew and Gentile and hath reconciled both unto God in one body Now there is no knowing men after the flesh fleshly Priviledges i. e. being the Seed of Abraham or being the Seed of Believers as such gives no right to Spiritual saving and eternal Blessings Both those two People Jews and Gentiles that believe of twain are made one i. e. one now man or one Christian or Gospel-Church And this is done by Jesus Christ who by his Fan or Dispensation of the New Testament hath abolished the old Covenant-right of Church-Membership not the fleshly Seed but the spiritual Seed of Abraham are to be received into Christs Gospel Garner Ye as lively stones are built up a spiritual House c. But this I shall not prosecute 2. Doct. Jesus Christ would have none but pure Wheat be gathered into his Garner not the fleshly and spiritual Seed not the Believer and the Unbeliever not godly ones and ungodly ones not the Chaff and the Wheat as it was under the Law in the National Church of the Jews Not whole Parishes or whole Nations no

the root of the Tree think not to say within your selves we have Abraham to our Father so that all their confidence that they had in Abraham's Covenant Temple and Tabernacle and such things are burnt up and so they have no Root left them to stand upon and this is one thing intended by the Root Secondly There is saith he something more in it the Lord by the power of his Spirit doth cut us off from any power of our natural Gifts and Parts and spiritual Gifts also or from any Confidence of our own sufficiency the Lord hath cut us off from hope in the Righteousness of our Parents and from boasting of Ordinances And again he saith This we read of Mat. 4. 1. It is spoken of the Ministry of John the Baptist which did burn as an Oven against all the Scribes and Pharisees and left them neither the Root of Abraham's Covenant nor the Branch of their own good Works He cutteth them off from the Covenant of Abraham c. And by cutting them off from the Root he leaveth them no ground to trust on Thus Mr. Cotton on The Covenant p. 177 and p. 21 22. Now evident it is that nothing but the dispensation of God's Providence or the Expiration of that period of Time determined by the Almighty for the standing of the Church of Israel could cut the Jews off as a Nation from being a Church and peculiar People unto God I mean in respect of that Legal Covenant I deny not but that the Covenant of Grace God made with Abraham and with his true spiritual Seed stands firm for ever and ever and none in that Covenant can be cut off nor fanned away for the Jewish Priesthood Church-state and Church-membership and all their Church-priviledges were to remain until Christ came or until the time of Reformation that is till the Gospel-days and Gospel-dispensation took place and no longer But now that time being come and they not seeing an end put to the old Covenant-Church as it was made with the natural Offspring of Abraham and that their right to legal Ordinances and Church-membership could not give them any right to Gospel Ordinances nor Gospel-Church-membership and they not believing in Christ not accepting of the Terms of the Gospel were all of necessity purged out or fanned away by the Fan of the New Testament-dispensation and so were no longer a people in any sense in Covenant with God Thirdly Christ hath also another Fan in his hand viz. The Fan of Church-Discipline And many persons falling into sin are purged like Chaff out of his floor Hereby 1. Sometimes some evil and corrupt Persons who get among God's people or into his Church and pass a while for Wheat i. e. for gracious Persons yet in time God suffers them to fall into one Temptation or another by which means they are fann'd away the Holy Jesus by his wise Providence makeing a discovery of them and their evil Tempers and Dispositions 2. May be some glorious Truths or Truth of Jesus Christ is revealed or cleared up to his Church in General to which several Persons of the same Congregation may not only want Light in but may be filled with Prejudice against and not only against the Truth but against the Church or Minister for seeking to bring it in and this may rise to such a height through their Pride and Stubborness that they will not abide any longer Members thereof but violently rend themselves by Schism and so are purged out Tho' as 't is observed by an Husband-man some light Corn may be good Wheat may be fanned out with the Chaff which he knows how to recover by fanning the Chaff also afterwards And thus it was with some of those who were called Christ's Disciples they could not would not endure that blessed Truth Christ preached to them of Eating of his Flesh c. but cried out This is a hard saying who can bear it and so went away and walked no more with him O see what the Effects of preaching some Truths may be how many are there who cannot bear in this day sound Doctrine but desert his People and some Truths of Christ and seem to shut their eyes against them caling them Error and false Doctrine and what not And this way God takes in his wise Providence to purge out some rotten Members which possibly were a repoach to his People And altho' may be some Wheat may by this means through Satans Temptations and Corruptions of their own hearts and their great Ignorance be fanned out with the Chaff they being carried away by the Craftiness and Subtlity of such whom Christ hath a mind to sever from the Body yet he knows how to gather up the Wheat again as the Husbandman doth 3. Others whom Christ would have purged out of his Church may be suffered to suck in some evil corrupt and dangerous Principles or Errors in Fundamentals like that of Hymeneus and Alexander whose Errours being discovered were purged out 4. Also others fall into notorious and scandalous Sins and so are purged out 5. Some who are Chaff or unsound Christians may be suffered to take up undue offences against the Church or Churches to whom they belong and by giving way to Temptation they may become unreconcileable magnifying their own Wisdom and Self-conceitedness and so by a secret hand of God be discovered and purged out But it must be considered that the use and exercise of the Keys or Rules of Church-Discipline is appointed by Christ as the proper Fan by which those sorts of Persons last mentioned and some others are to be purged out of the Church or Congregations of the Saints Now the Fan of Discipline is two-fold First The Act of Excommunication In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ when ye are gathered together with my Spirit to deliver such a one unto Satan for the Destruction of the Flesh that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus The Persons Christ by this Fan of Discipline purges out are of three sorts 1. All gross and scandalous Persons who are Guilty of any Act or Acts of Immorality as Theft Swearing Drunkenness Uncleanness Covetousness Lying c. These being publick and reproachful Crimes the Offender ought forthwith upon clear proof to be purged out that the Name of the Lord may not be exposed to contempt and his People villified by the ungodly World and time given to him for the proof and Trial of the sincerity or Truth of his Repentance which in part will be manifested by his Carriage and Behaviour under his Punishment I mean the Righteous Censure of the Church The Second sort that this Fan of Discipline takes hold of are such that suck in Heresies or Capital Errors these after the first and second Admonition ought to be rejected and delivered up to Satan that they may not learn to Blaspheme The Third sort are such who refuse to hear the Church after their case in