Selected quad for the lemma: water_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
water_n	air_n	earth_n	world_n	4,916	5	4.9346	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67572	A sermon preached before the peers, in the abby-church at Westminster October 10, MDCLXVI / by Seth Lord Bishop of Exon.	Ward, Seth, 1617-1689.	1666 (1666)	Wing W828; ESTC R10647	21,004	34

call it betimes to thy remembrance Wouldst thou drive off thy thoughts of it to the time of sickness to the hour of death and rudely throw thy self upon it But then try and examine all these together contemplate a little upon the mixtures and combinations of them these will afford us many millions of millions of wayes farr exceeding the varieties of the corporeal nature which proceed from the mixture of fewer elements so many as will utterly confound our thoughts to number Who can reckon up the wayes of the hearts of the children of Men Who can understand his errors And now that he that hath the World to uphold the Planets and Stars to guide the course of nature to maintain should keep a Register of our impertinencies and bring to Judgment all the wayes of Men the traces of a Ship in the Sea of a Serpent upon a Rock Who hath believed our report we are apt to think it cannot be Surely he sees not these things Tush he cares not for them This is indeed the last resort of the treacherous hearts of men the grand imposture which resolves into a species of Atheism and Infidelity O but then if I shall use the language of the Scriptures I must call thee fool and beast to doubt of that which is plain and evident to disbelieve that which may be known This Article concerning the Judgment to come is not a problem of Philosophy to be disputed this way and that way with equal probability neither is it only an Article of faith but it is a principle of natural Theology the Scripture speaks of it under terms of greater evidence St. Paul reasoned with Felix he disputed with the Philosophers concerning it he speaks of the terror of Judgment under terms of certainty and of a kind of Demonstrative evidence Knowing the terror of the Law c. and here in the Text it is not said Think or believe But know that for all these things God will bring thee to Judgment He is a fool that hath said in his heart there is no God and he that thinks he hath no understanding may well be compared to the beasts that perish and so sure as there is a God and that man hath an understanding soul so surely it may be known That for all these things c. For if there be a God he must be infinitely just and if so he must render to every one according to their actions and if not here then hereafter and if so he must bring them to Judgment But he doth it not here The wayes of Providence seem to be promiscuous there is a wicked man to whom it happens according to the way of the righteous and a righteous man to whom it happens according to the way of the wicked Dives receives pleasure Lazarus pain therefore so sure as there is a God there will be a Judgment Again If man have an understanding soul he must have freedom in his actions and if so he deserves either good or evil and if there be deserts there must be rewards and if there be rewards there must be a Judgment So then so sure as thou art an understanding creature so sure there is a Judgment to come Once more Reward is answerable to desert and desert is only in what is free and what is free in man is the ways of his heart wherefore they are to be brought to Judgment and if any then all for no reason can be fancied why some should be brought to Judgment and others not Wherefore if it be sure that God is in Heaven and that Man hath an understanding soul then it is also sure that for all these things God will bring thee to Judgment that God shall bring to judgment every secret thing And now how sure and evident are these things more sure and more plain if we will attend than any other truths in the world for there is not any known truth which doth not evict the truth of these things We know a truth because we plainly and evidently understand the composition or division of the notions in a Proposition or the Deduction of a Proposition from some others therefore if we know any truth we presuppose that we have souls which understand the notions of things and if souls which understand these notions then to be sure they are not bodies no combination os fire and air and earth and water no disposition of insensible atomes can cause the subject to apprehend and judge to reason and discourse and if they be no bodies then they are not subject to corruption It is evident therefore that our souls are understanding and also immortal deserving and capable of future Judgment And as evident it is also that there is a soveraign Power a God that governs and will judge the Earth This is not a Rhetorical undertaking but a just and measured truth there is not any thing in the world from whence these two may not be plainly and evidently evicted viz. a Godhead from the Creature and thine own Immortality from the discovery of a Godhead The world which thou seest had it a beginning or had it not if it had a beginning he is thy God that made it if it had no beginning then there are past as many myriads of years as minutes of time which is infinitely more absurd to grant than tosay thou hast as many hands as fingers as many wholes as parts If then at any time we find our selves to doubt of these things it is not because we are the beaux esprits or forts sprits our doubting proceeds from dulness and the want of that strong reason to which we do pretend the things are certain in themselves and evident He is not farr from any one of us in whom we live and move and have our being and the Light of Nature discovered our Immortality not only to Philosophers but even to the Heathen Poets to him that sung to us that We are also his off-spring So that now thy pretences are all taken off and every imposture of the heart discovered Return then once again into thy bosome and take account of thy apprehensions The day of the Lord is coming and stealing upon thee as a theif in the night the day of Judgment the great and terrible day A day of anguish and of gloominess a day of a whirlwind and a tempest a day of anguish and tribulation Where wilt thou hide thy self O that 's impossible Whether shall we goe then from his presence shall we call to the Mountains to fall upon us How wilt thou appear O that 's intollerable for our God is a consuming fire What wilt thou do when the day of Judgment comes and this may be the hour this minute thou mayst be smitten and hurried hence to Judgment Thousands have fallen besides us and Ten Thousands at our right hand and why may not we be next The time of our particular Judgment cannot be farr away and why may we

Behold God calls upon us Turn you turn you at my reproof why will you dye O House of Israel As I live saith the Lord I desire not the death of sinners Our Lord Christ calls upon us Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you In the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles he stood and cryed Saying If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink The Spirit says come and who ever will let him come and take of the water of life freely The Gospel assures us That God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life Behold I set before you this day life and death blessing and cursing and as an unworthy Ambassadour in Christs stead I pray you be reconciled to God take his yoke upon you his yoke is easie and his burden light embrace now the tender of the Gospel only repent and believe in the Lord Jesus accept him for your Saviour and your Lord. Your Prophet to instruct you your King to govern you your Priest to save you and you shall be saved Saved from the fears and horrors of a Guilty Conscience condemned by its own witness Saved from the wrath of God and of the Lamb. You shall meet the Lord with Confidence We shall be able to stand with boldness in the Judgment to lift up our heads with joy because our redemption draweth near This is the way to save our own souls from perishing which is the General design of all our Preaching And this is the way to appease the wrath which is gone out against us and to preserve our Nation from destruction which is the particular and more immediate end of our present Humiliation whereof I am yet to speak THe hand indeed of the Lord hath been heavy upon us his wrath hath been kindled it hath waxed hot against the Sheep of his pasture and he hath plagued our Nation very sore His Judgments have been multiplyed his strokes have been redoubled and for all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still Warrs and Pestilences and those other fore-runners of Christ's coming to Judgment have been seen and felt amongst us and now when these have not been able to prevail To awaken a drowsie people to rowse up a Lethargic Nation to ferment a people setled upon their Lees. God has made anew thing in the midst of us he hath wrought a work in our days which makes the ears of all that hear it to tingle A work not to be parallel'd perhaps in all the circumstances since the Creation of the World How hath the Lord covered the Daughter of our Zion with a cloud in his anger and hath cast down from Heaven to Earth the beauty of Israel and remembred not his footstool in the Day of his Anger he hath swallowed up the habitations of his people he hath taken away his Tabernacles and destroyed his places of Assemblies the Ramparts and the Walls lament and languish her Gates are sunk to the ground her Barrs are destroyed Who can express the terror of this fatal Judgment the unexpected eruption the sudden increase the irresistible force the remorsless rage the insatiable voracity of this fiery Judgment the present sufferings the lasting miseries of private persons are inexpressible the publique damage the dangerous consequences it may be unconceivable What thing shall I liken to thee O Daughter of my People Whereunto shall I compare the day of thy Visitation To the destruction of Jerusalem to the great and terrible day of Judgment O the terrors and affrightments the shreikes and lamenations the agonies the confusions of that Day They that were on the house top durst not stay to take any thing out of their houses nor he that was in the field return back to take his Cloathes they that were in the City betook themselves to the Fields and Mountains where they beheld their flaming habitations where they trembled to behold the abomination of desolation raging in the holy places How were the wise men amazed and the strong men terrified despair seised them counsel and strength fled away from them there was no help in them they presently gave all for lost they stood affrighted at a distance gazing at the dreadful spectacle in vain they thought it to contend it looked so like the coming of the Son of Man The breath of the Lord kindled the fire he rode upon Cherub he came flying upon the wings of the wind He made the winds his Messengers and the flames of fire his Ministers He brought the Winds out of his Treasure and to point the flame directly upon the bulk and body of the City through his power he brought in the South-East wind as a theif in the night as pains upon a woman in travel as the lightning that cometh from the East and passeth to the West so came this flaming Judgment and so shall the coming of the Son of Man be I cannot endure to dilate upon this Argument Sorrow and anguish are in the consideration of it Animus meminisse horret luctuque refugit Great is the Judgment and there is reason for us to fear that it may be portending and symtomatical YEt who can tell but God may have mercy upon us but he may yet save us from destruction though our breach be great as the Sea yet is not in it self irreparable though our wounds be deep and gaping they are not desperate or uncurable hitherto we may say with the Apostle We are chastned but not killed afflicted but not in despair The signs and symptoms of an approaching final Judgment are not so decretory and peremptory that we should despair God's signal Judgments have hitherto been accompanyed with signs of mercies and this is a plain case that he is not fond of our destructions and that he had rather that we should live He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men He stands pausing and hoesitating as he did once before O Ephraim how shall I give thee up O Ephraim O England How shall I give thee up O England What mean else those Alternations and those mixtures and combinations of wonderful Judgments and of wonderful deliverancies and mercies which our ears have heard and our eyes have seen We have heard with our ears and our Fathers have told us what wonderful deliverances he wrought in their time of old We have seen vicissitudes great and prodigious mixtures and combinations marvellous in our eyes horrible destructions and wonderful restitutions succeeding one another raging Plagues at home and signal Victories abroad God hath filled us with bitterness and covered us with ashes But it is his mercy that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not If the arm of his Justice and Severity hath been made bare that it might be seen of all the people He hath not left his mercy without