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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
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Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30259	A sermon preached to the Honourable House of Commons assembled in Parliament at their pvbliqve fast, Novem. 17, 1640 by Cornelius Burges.	Burges, Cornelius, 1589?-1665.; Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.	1641 (1641)	Wing B5683; ESTC R19994	56,507	64

duties than in working up their hearts to that in dispensable pitch of heavenly resolution sincerely to strike through a religious and inviolable Covenant with their God Whereas without this all their labour will be utterly lost their expectations frustrate they take the glorious Name of God in vaine provoke the eyes of his glory more against them causing him infinitely to loath and abominate both their persons and service nor shall they ever by all their crying and sighing no not by whole rivers of teares be able to draw downe an arme of Mercy from Heaven to come and save them The more effectually therefore to provoke both my selfe and you at this time to the due performance of this most neglected but most necessary dutie I have thought fit in a very plaine and familiar way sutable to the nature of this exercise which ought to be as serious as solemne to worke and chafe into all our hearts the strength and spirit of that good Word of God which you shall finde written for our instruction in The Prophesie of the Prophet Ieremiah Chap. 50. V. 5. They shall aske the way to Zion with their faces thitherward saying Come and let us joyne our selves unto the Lord in an everlasting Covenant that shall not be forgotten WHich words are part of a Prophecy terrible to Babylon but comfortable to the Church uttered The Introduction to the maine Discourse and penned by the Prophet Ieremy about the fourth yeere both of the Babylonish captivity and of the tributary reigne of Zedekiah The occasion this The Prophet having laboured about thirtie yeeres to humble Iudah by continually ringing in her eares the dolefull tydings of a sore captivity approaching could not bee beleeved But when once the quicke and sad sense of their bondage under the Caldean Yoke had forced from them an acknowledgement of the truth of his Prophesies he found it as hard a taske to worke their hearts to any hope of deliverance For as it is a worke even insuperable to possesse a people ripe for destruction that any evill is neere them till the wrath of God breake in upon them and overwhelme them so is it a businesse of little lesse difficultie to hold up the spirits even of Gods owne people once cast under any great extremity with any hope of rescue This was Iudah case Before the Babylonian had laid this yoke on their necks God had plainly revealed and often inculcated that it should lye upon them just 70. yeares and no longer Ier. 25.11 29.10 after which they should have liberty of return to their own Land again Howbeit the weight of their misery the absence of God who had cast them out of his sight together with the insolence and cruelty of their proud oppressors had throwne them down so low in a disconsolate condition that nothing which God could either now say or doe was sufficient to raise up their hearts to any assurance of returne The same strength which Lust hath to draw men from obedience it will surely have afterwards to drive men from beleeving in their greatest necessities of living by faith The maine beame which stucke in their eyes to hinder their sight of deliverance promised was the greatenesse and invincible potency of the Chaldean Monarchy then in her pride and more especially the strength of Babylon the Queene and Mistresse of that puissant Empire Introduction How could they hope to be delivered when she that commanded the world detained them Shall the prey be taken from the Mighty Isay 49.24 or the lawfull captive delivered To cure them therefore of this desperate desponsion of mind the Lord stirred up this Prophet to foretell the totall and finall subversion and ruine of Babylon and of that whole Monarchy and further to declare from God that the desolation thereof should be the dissolution of the captivity of Iudah in it The better to assure them of all this Ieremiah wrote the whole Prophecy against Babylon contained in this Chapter and the next following in a Book by it selfe which he sent to Babylon by the hand of Seraiah Lord Chamberlaine to Zedekiah Ier. 51.59 and now going in an Embassie from his Master to great Nebuchadnezzar with Command from the Prophet that after the reading thereof to the captives he should binde a stone unto it and cast it into the midst of Euphrates with this saying pronounced over it Thus shall Babylon sinke and shall not rise c. But to hasten to my Text In the five first verses of this Chapter the Prophet summarily compriseth the substance of his whole Prophecy against Babylon declaring 1. her destruction 2. the Meanes 3. the consequent thereof to the people of God And first he makes Proclamation and an Oiyes as it were to all the world to come and behold the Great Worke he was to doe against Babylon the chiefe Citie of the Empire against Bell the chiefe Idoll of that Citie and against Merodach the glory both of that Citie and Empire yea though the King then reigning when God meant to destroy it should prove as potent as that great King the first of that name who for restoring the declining Empire to her ancient Splendor and for translating the Imperiall Seat from Nineve to Babylon was by posterity worshipped as a God and transferred his name to all his successors as the name of Pharaoh to the Egyptian Kings of Benhadad to the Syrian Monarchs and of Augustus to the Roman Emperours Although all these should be joyned together to withstand the downfall of that Monarchy yet desolation should be brought over them all they should all be confounded and removed for ever Verse 1.2 and all to make way for the deliverance of the Church But what should bee the meanes of such an unexpected destruction This was to bee done by an Army from the North that is by the Medes and Persians both of which but more especially the Medes were situated towards the North from Babylon Omne malum ab Aquilone and therefore ominous That these were the men appeares more fully by their description in the residue of this and of the 51. Chap. This Northerne Army should bee the confusion of Babylon the confusion of Babylon should prove the restoring of the Church ver 3. And the restoring of the Church should produce a Covenant with God For behold the issue and consequent of the ruine of Babylon was the returne of the captive Iewes from thence to Ierusalem and a renewing Covenant with him that had shewed such mercy on them vers 4.5 For in those dayes and in that time saith the Lord the children of Israel shall come they and the children of Iudah together going and weeping they shall goe and seeke the Lord their God They shall aske the way to Zion with their faces thitherward saying Come and let us joyne our selves to the Lord in an everlasting Covenant that shall not be forgotten This began to be fulfilled at the end of seventy

now in any deliverance bestowed it would be doubled if upon the deliverance received we would thus be ioyned to him Nor is this a notion or conceit onely but a reall trueth For marke what He saith to his people Hos 2. vers 19 20. I will marry thee unto me for ever I will betroath the unto me in righteousnesse and in Iudgement and in loving kindnesse and in mercies I will even marry thee unto me in faithfullnesse and thou shalt know the Lord. He that enters into Covenant with God is betroathed yea even married to him And how married even to the partaking of all his goods of all he hath yea of himselfe and of all that he is As the wife may say Gen. 31.43 Vbi tu Caius ego Caia and as Laban sometimes of Iacobs wives children and cattell These daughters are my daughters and these children are my children and these cattell are my cattell and all that thou seest are mine So a man once married to the Lord by Covenant may without arrogancy say this righteousnesse is my righteousnesse this iudgement is my judgement this loving kindnesse these mercies this faithfullnesse which I see in thee and all that thou hast is mine for my comfort supply support direction salvation and what not And take notice of that phrase Thou shalt know the Lord. Did they not know him before Yes but never in such a manner with such a Knowledge at least in such a measure They shall now know him in such neere familiar sweet and ineffable expressions of his deerest deepest choycest conjugal love as they never tasted nor could taste of before We know how it is with a wife married to a loving husband They loved one another before marriage and many expressions of a speciall love passed betweene them but they never enjoyed one another fully till the marriage was solemnized Then there is not only a more intimate manifestation of fervent intire loyall chaste love but a further enlarging and stretching out of mutuall affections to each other than they could possibly have beleeved they should ever have reached unto till now experience assure them of it And even thus it is between us and God Is he good in deliverances have we tasted of his love already Oh how great would his goodnesse be how full of grace mercy bountie and how would he communicate even whole rivers of all these to that Soule that would once come up to him and close with him in an everlasting Covenant All the wayes of the Lord are mercy and trueth unto such as make and keep Covenant with him Psal 25.19 3. Consider that what ever worke God calls You to 3. No buckling to the worke God calls us unto without a Covenant Yee will never buckle thoroughly to it till you have entered into Covenant with him An apprentise boy when he goes to a Master upon tryall onely his minde is now on then off againe sometimes he could like the trade by and by his minde hangs after his Mother at home or after some other course of life and he never sets close to his businesse till he be bound When once the Indentures be sealed and he enrolled he knowes there is now no more time to deliberate but he must fall to his businesse or else take what happens for his idlenesse and negligence So is it with a wife if she be but onely promised or betroathed to a man she may come to his house and cast an eye up and downe but it is rather to observe than to act she may perhaps cast out a word now and then somewhat freely also but she never sets her selfe to guide the house or to doe any thing to purpose till she be married then she careth for the things of the world that is with all possible diligence looking to 1 Cor. 7.34 and managing of the businesse of the family committed to her how she may please her husband all her thoughts care diligence run this way she makes it her busines that she must sticke unto and daily manage as a part of the marriage Covenant And thus also it will be with you You have much worke under your hands and are like to have more and I hope you desire to doe all in truth of heart for God and not for ends of your owne but let me tell you this will never be done througly till once you be marryed to him by solemne Covenant Then will you care indeed for the things of the Lord how you may please the Lord in every cause in every Answer to any Petition and in every Vote of any Bill or sentence You would then thinke when you come to manage debate vote any Question I am the Lords not mine own not my friends will this I doe stand with my Covenant will it please God will it be profitable for the State is it agreeable to Iustice and equitie Then on with it no man shall divert or take me off But till then one will intreate for his friend another for his one will make you one way another will draw you another way and they both are your friends and you know not how to deny either and thus are you even torne in peeces betweene them in so much as you sometimes resolve to be absent or to sit still and say nothing or to gratifie him that hath most power with You be the cause what it will But when once the Covenant is sealed all this will be at an end You will quickly stop your eares against all perswasions that may hinder Iustice and Reformation and when this is knowne men will soone forbeare also to trouble You with such solicitations 4. Wicked men Covenant with Hell Isay 28. Againe fourthly Wicked men sticke not at a Covenant with death and hell it selfe so they may but satisfie their Lusts though they know the end thereof will be damnation Oh then shall not we much more make a Covenant with our God to doe his will which will be beneficiall and comfortable both here and hereafter and procure a full torrent of his mercies bountie grace and eternall life to flow in upon us 5. Consider that the Devell himselfe will have a Covenant from all his vassals 5. The Devill himselfe will do no great matters for his vassals without a Covenant that expect any extraordinary matters from him else he will not be engaged to be at their Command There is not a Witch that hath the Devill at her beck but she must seale a Covenant to him sometimes with her bloud sometimes by other rites and devices and perhaps he must sucke her too as in those hellish bargaines you know they use and then he is for her during the time agreed upon And shall we think God will be so cheape as to be with reverence be it spoken at our Command to help direct assist deliver and save us who will not doe so much for him as Witches and Sorcerers will doe for the Devill