Selected quad for the lemma: order_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
order_n	according_a	lord_n	zion_n	16	3	8.7549	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92190	Jacobs ladder, or The protectorship of Sion, laid on the shoulders of the Almighty; in a description of the sufficiency of providence, suitable in these times of tentation. With Jacobs wrestling. / By Francis Raworth of Shoreditch.	Raworth, Francis, d. 1665.	1655 (1655)	Wing R373; Thomason E1507_2; ESTC R209489	136,597	367

notwithstanding all winds and waves of men and Devils the Church shal arrive at her harbor The Ninth remarkable in Jacobs Ladder is The security of Providence and that both mediately and immediately 1 Immediately God sits on the top of the Ladder not Angels nor men One Translation renders it Deus stat ut vindex sedet ut ●judex God leans on the Ladder but the Ladder rather leans on God than God on the Ladder The Chalde The glory of the Lord stands on the Ladder Oh say some if we had but such Judges as Sampson as Gideon were these words are bad though proceeding from good men if proceeding from distrust and are all one as if they should desire not that God but man stood on the top of the Ladder Remember God is better than a thousand Gideons than a thousand Sampsons The best of men as experience hath taught are but men at the best and all men are but men at the most It is well for Sion that God stands on the top He doth not reside in his Palace but comes to the door and Porch visibly to his people ready to receive the Petitions of his Jacobs by out-stretched armes Revel 4.3 God is presented there as sitting on a Throne as a King in his Chair of State curâ securâ to note how easily he rules the world The eye of God in Scripture is said to be against a Nation and that is able to discountenance any design God blew on Pharaoh and his Host and when breath comes out of Gods mouth then breath goes out of mans nostrils and he dies He is said to turn his hand on his Enemies and indeed with the turning of an hand he turns man into Hell Quod Deus loquitui rid●ns tu lege lugens And lastly Psal 2. the Lord is said to laugh at wicked men and woe be to those men at whose fooleries the Lords laughs Arise Lord says David and let thine enemies be scattered There needs no more the very arising of God is the downfall of the ungodly There is nothing God doth by man or means but he can do without man or means Can God destroy Babylon with Armies then God can destroy Babylon without Armies Armies cannot destoy Antichrist without God but God can if he please destroy Babylon without Armies What a sweet order is in Divine Providence Jacob lies at the foot of the Ladder the Angels go up and down the Ladder and the Lord gloriously stands on the top of the Ladder 2 Mediately Providence secures his Church by Angels For in the Ladder you have mention of Gods standing and the Angels motion on the Ladder Though God did not create the world by Angels as some phancie from Elohim barah yet he Governs the world Melius est nescire fine crimine quam scire cum discrimine and especially his Church by Angels Angels ascended and Angels descended one Jacob but many Angels there were as we say questionless a number of Angels though we are at as great a loss to find out the number of Angels on this Ladder as in the world Now to let pass the curious and vain enquiry of the Schoolmen about the nature number order of Angels I shall onely discourse of Angels according to the revealed word with just consequence in order to their influence on or about Sion Of which Discourse I wish you as much profit in reading as I have had in the penning of it by the assistance of the Lord. Angels are conversant about the Church in relation to the Head and Members First In relation to the Head our Lord Jesus I confess I beleeve not that Christ is the Redeemer of Angels they were never Captives and how can they be ransomed they never were obnoxious to guilt and so are not capable of a pardon yet that Jesus that raised up man that was fallen caused that the Angels should not fall Qui urtique redemptio solvens illum servans istum delivering man out of and defending Angels from captivity and so in some sense may be said to be redemption to both curing man and keeping Angels Angels had not stood and man had never risen being fallen from his standing but for Christ He reconciled man to Angels and Angels to men and by vertue of his mediation he is the Redeemer of man but the Governor of Angels God gathered together in one all things in Christ in Heaven and on Earth Ephes 1.10 Hence Angels in Scripture express their homage to Christ as their Lord Exod. 26.30 The veil of the Tabernacle which covered the most holy which signifies the incarnation of Christ was made of broidered work with Cherubims which shadowed out the service of Angels to the Mediator Hence Matth. 16.27 they are called not onely the Angels of God for man but the Angels of God man It is observable in that space of time which was from his Incarnation to his Ascension they served him ten times 1 They carried the message of his miraculous Conception to the Virgin Ad Evam malus Angelus accessit bomo separaretur à Deo ad Mariam bonus Angelus venit ut in ea Deus uniretur homini Fulge 2 They advertised Joseph whom the ignorance of this Mystery had perplexed 3 They published his birth unto the Shepheards 4 They gave order to carry him into Egypt to avoid the fury of Herod 5 They had care to cause him to be brought back into Judea after the death of the Tyrant 6 They accompanied him and ministred to him after his temptation in the wilderness 7 They comforted him in his Agony in the Garden 8 They roled back the stone from the door of the Sepulchre wherein he had been inclosed 9 They declared his Resurrection 10 They instructed his Disciples who looked up after him ascending into Heaven that one day he would return Filius Dei caput Angelorum est non redemtionis sed creationis Wollebii Epitome Never did the Angels serve any person so often nor in so great a number of occurrences nor in so high charges nor through such diversity of means as they served the Son of God Christ had not a guard of men as the Kings and the Nobles of the World have but a Guard of Nobles and Princes and not onely of Princes but of Principalities and Powers Some Psal 91.11 say the Angels keep not Christ but Christ keeps Angels and that that promise of keeping thee in all thy ways belongs to Christ Mystical or Christ in his members not to Christ personal or thus that Angels ministred to Christ but did not keep Christ But this we are sure of Joh. 1. ult The Angels ascended and descended on the Son of Man not that they minister to Christ alone but that they for his sake and honor do minister to and are carefull for the whole Body of the Elect. Wherefore Secondly The Angels attend on Sion on the Saints First While in the world they

the Lord hath inriched me and the Devil hath robbed me but as if he never heard mention made either of the Devil or the Chaldeans The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away Hee is not angry with Chance and Fortune and falls not out with Stars and Constellations David saw God on this Ladder Psal 44.12 13 14. like a good child he fathers the rod on God his Father Thou hast cast off Thou hast cast down when Gods rod was on his back he puts his hand on his mouth and his mouth in the dust Luther saw God on this Ladder when he observed though the Christs-cross be no letter yet he learned more by it than all the Letters of the Alphabet and that God never sent him on any special Errant or business but he first sent his mind by some special affliction And Alfred saw God on this Ladder who alwayes prayed that God would bestow some tryal on him to keep down his love to the World and draw up his love to Heaven Lorinus reports of Grashoppers formerly in England which depopulated England that on one wing they had written Ira in black letters upon the other Dei in golden The Saints are afflicted that is anger but by their God that is golden Hear the rod saith God and who hath appointed it Is that proper language buts its one thing to feel the rod and another thing to hear it God preaches to man a Lesson not only by his Word but by his Rod and as the Word must be felt before it can be heard so the Rod must be heard before it can be felt to purpose Repent prov●de for Eternity now do it or it may be you may never is the dialect of the rod as well as the word God appoints this man a cup of consolation and that man a cup of sorrow and he appoints how many drops shall be in their cups and all the world cannot put in a drop beyond the Lords measure Afflictions are a rod Schela crucis Schola lucis quae nocent docent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but they have honey at the end of them How sweet is it while the rod softens the heart and the hony opens the eyes Afflictions are called darkness in Scripture but they have enlightned the eyes of many who else might have walked in everlasting darkness How many may read legibly their sins in their punishments and need enquire for the cause of no other physitian God lays some sick in their own beds of wantonness and so hangs them at their own doores Lord says one Christian lying like Jacob at the foot of the Ladder I am thy vine and let me rather bleed than wither I am thy Apple-tree let me rather be lopt to grow than cut up to burn Lord says another frown on me rather than not to look on me let the Lord take me into h s hands and correct me rather than that I should have nothing to do with God or he should have nothing to do with me How many souls have occasion to say If the Lord had not plowed me with Afflictions and dunged me with Reproaches what barren ground had I been how had I wandred if the Lord had not sent his dogs to fetch me to his Fold I had certainly been cast away if I had not been cast down How had I surfeited on Pleasures and Friends if the Lord had not called me from the Banquet Adversity hath whipt many a Soul to Heaven which otherwise Prosperity had coached to Hell How glorious is it to see God in Riches in Friends in Honor in Persecutions in Crosses in Sicknesses God casteth down and my God lifteth up The Lord often writes angry Epistles to his children yet observe still at the bottom of the Letter he subscribes Your loving Father Hippocrates called the Pestilence the divine disease 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we call the spots thereof Gods mark the Falling-sickness of old was called morbus sacer because it was the immediate hand of God O Lord may every Soul say It matters not what my condition be So it but lead or whip me home to thee Secondly Providence is visible in publick Afflictions and Affairs of the world 1 In the publick troubles and distractions of Nations I create light and I form darkness Isa 45.7 Sin is mans creature and Afflictions are Gods creatures every Affliction bears the image of its Maker and God is not ashamed of his own handy-work Sinful man is the meritorious but Providence is the efficient cause of Evils Man is the cause of moral evils God of penal evils in the City Amos 3 6. Afflictions are Gods Thunder and Lightning Famine and Pestilence are the Kings evils onely caused and cured by God the Lords dreadful Ambassadors to a Nation they have their message to deliver and they will have audience Let God but fire our fields and blast our Corn as Absolom did by Joab we come presently Wars and Judgements are Gods Troops he is their Generalissimo they move according to his Orders he sounds his Trumpet and beats his Drum and all the Plagues and Punishments of Providence are in Arms when God saith charge they charge when retreat they retreat O Sword of the Lord how long before you are quiet here was a cry to the Sword but the Sword of the Lord answered you must speak to the General himself I am at his command Jer. 47.6 Not many years since we cryed out Oh the Sufferings and Alarms and Field-fights when will you cease in England but they never ceased till God bid them cease It is the honor of a King to discharge the first peece of Ordnance against the Enemy The Lord I am sure had the honor of beating the first Alarm and sounding the first Retreat in England Man may speak of Peace in but God onely can speak Peace to a Nation In Revel 6.10 they cry How long Lord they knew God had the time in his hand and he onely could tell how long They cryed not to the Tyrants how long will yee persecute how long will yee oppress the Saints But to the Lord How long before thou come to revenge Oh say many if it had not been for such and such men wee had never had wars and if it had not been for their ends and designs we had had an end of our Troubles ere now as if Providence were but a stander by or a looker on while men playd their Games or acted their parts But Jacob sees that Assur is the rod of Gods anger and that when his children are purified the rod shall be thrown into the fire and burned Sees that when God hath scoured his Plate he will throw the wisp on the dunghill that when he hath built his house the scaffold shall be pulled down England would be as full of Judgements as it is of Sin if men were the Makers and Masters of Judgements Men alone though never so wise or powerful cannot make either staves