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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	covenant_n	mouth_n	seed_n	3,950	5	9.5565	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43579	Israel's lamentation after the Lord, or, A discourse, wherein every well-wisher to Zion is excited, and directed how to lament after the Lord with prayers and tears, to maintain the ordinances of God, or God's presence with his ordinances amongst us being some meditations upon 1 Sam. 7.2.	Heywood, Oliver, 1629-1702.	1683 (1683)	Wing H1768; ESTC R22352	67,400	163

in pleasant places we have a goodly Heritage 4. Aged persons and housholders you that are Parents have reason to lament after the Lord of the Ark and the Ark of the Lord that the Waters of the Sanctuary may run both with a clear and strong stream to your Families and Posterity Alas we that have Children have been Instruments to propagate filth and guilt and wrath to our Off-spring and what can we do to heal and help them But if the Lord would be our God he hath promised to be the God of our Seed God forbid we should intail a Curse on our Posterity and give them occasion to curse us to all eternity What unworthy Parents are those that have fair Estates left them and by their Prodigality leave their Children Beggars or Bankrupts But oh how sad would this be to deprive our Posterity of this Gospel-Legacy it will be both their loss and our own Lord suffer us not to go off the Stage in a snuff and leave such a stink behind us Better we had never been born than to fry and blaze in Hell flames we and our poor Children bundled up in Faggots together God thinks good to bind up Parents and their Seed in the Bond of the Covenant Oh Lord we are resolved to follow after thee for the sure mercies of David Be thou our God and we shall have better hopes for our Seed O remember that word Isa 59.21 As for me this is my Covenant with them saith the Lord my Spirit that is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seed nor out of the mouth of thy Seeds Seed saith the Lord from henceforth and forever This word is full and satisfying 1. Thy Spirit shall be upon me and mine in Sanctification 2. Thy words in my mouth and Childrens mouths in profession solemn Worship 3. They shall not depart from my Seeds Seed to many Generations 4. No not for ever 5. God even Jehovah undertakes this 6. It 's through Christ the Redeemer that 's come to Sion 7. It 's a new Covenant-mercy 8. It doth concern all Converts and such as turn from transgression in Jacob and am not I one of these My dear Lord make thou this word good to me and mine thou that livest for ever and ever I shall live in my Posterity when I shall be here no more let the Gospel-message survive me and the Gospel-grace live in them when I am gone Oh! cut not off thy kindness from my Seed let not them that follow me be deprived of that which I have found so much sweetness in O that Ishmaels may live in thy sight What will become of such as are born in sin if they want means of Conviction and Conversion There 's much ado to awake the sleepy Consciences of our dead Posterity under quickening Ordinances Oh! what then will become of these when such helps are gone How can I endure to see or foresee the destruction of my own bowels Oh! it cuts me to the heart to think of the damning of any much more my own flesh Lord prevent I will pray in hope live in hope die in hopes of the continuance of Gospel-Priviledges 5. Ministers must make it their work to lament after the Lord You you are the Persons mainly concerned You must sound an alarum to awake others you are appointed by the Lord as Instruments to carry on this work and if ever God do return he will excite his Servants to quicken themselves and others to this work as Samuel here Gird your selves and lament ye Priests howl ye Ministers of the Altar come lye all night in sackcloth ye Ministers of my God Yea let the Priests the Ministers of the Lord weep between the Porch and the Altar and let them say Spare thy People O Lord and give not thine heritage to reproach that the heathen should rule over them wherefore should they say among the People Where is their God Alas my brethren have you been so long cast out of Gods publick Work and Worship even twenty long years and have you not yet leavned to lament shall our Master cashie us his service and not judg us worthy to blow our triumpets of Rams horns break a pitcher or hold the lamps for him Surely he is very sore provoked shall I say three Shepherds he cut off in one month nay near three thousand in one day And hath drawn out his wrath a great length and is there no fault in us Yes certainly our Father would not have spit in our face or poured contempt upon us upon us peculiarly but he hath found great fault in us he hath doubtless seen much amiss in us He doth not use to single out a sort of men to shoot his arrows at without fault we cannot excuse instruments but certainly we have deserved all this at God's hands is not God punishing Eli's house for the iniquity he knoweth of Let us my Brethren deal faithfully and impartially with our selves before God and the world cast the first stone at our selves at last justify the Lord by taking shame to our selves Hath God set us in this office only to tell others of their faults Have we not reason to call to remembrance our own faults this day I hope such as are truly gracious have made this reflection many times Nor is this my present work to rake in this dirty Channel only it becomes us to enquire why God hath made us contemptible and base before all the People Mal. 2.1 9. My present work is to quicken our lamenting after the Lord that if it be possible we may fetch him again I may say as Mal. 1.9 And now I pray you beseech God that he will be gracious unto us This hath been by your means O it 's well if our People have not reason to say so of their Ministers how beit sincere Repentance will not make men throw it off themselves by laying it on others but we may sadly eccho Yes yes it hath been by our means we have put out our Candles by the Thief we have lodged therein We having obscured our glory by sinning We have robbed our People of the Ark and exposed them to Seduction and destruction by the abominations that have been found amongst us Let us fall close to our work of Preaching reforming praying calling God again who knows but if we mourn to our People but they may lament Our watery eyes may affect Peoples hard hearts If the Fishers mourn and such as cast angles into brooks lament our People will be moved God will hear our universal cry and awake for us Some will needs have our wearing black to import our mourning If so let us not be Hypocrites but lament indeed not in shew Some observe that People are much formed after the preaching examples dispositions of their Teachers But it 's to be feared they

house and is gone to another coast Psal 78.58 61. Mat. 21.43 Qu. Why were not they of Kiriath jearim afraid of Bethshemesh's punishment Ans they knew that plague was not for the Arks sake but for their Irreverence and Curiosity now they resolve to reform that and take warning as David did 1 Chron. 15.13 it becomes persons that suffer in Ordinances not to find fault with God or them but Charge it on themselves and amend what is amiss mens own sins are the procuring Gods justice the imposing cause of troubles that 's a good Scholar that learns these two Lessons under Gods hand I shall not trouble you with enumerating the several places in which the Ark rested amongst the Isralites before it was brought by David into Obed Edoms house 2 Sam. 6.10 Nor what this Sanctifying Eleazar or ordaining him to the Sacred Ministry what this keeping the Ark is that nothing be taken away or no uncomly thing be done to it or about it nor why Eleazar the Son and not Abinadab the father was imployed about it whether Abinadab was old and decrepid or dead or busie about household affairs or Eleazar was more holy is not much material to inquire But it may be asked whether the Ark was only twenty years there Ans 1. The Ark was there all the days of Saul which was above forty years but this was jam annus vigesimus the twentieth till this time of Samuels Preaching his Sermon in the following verse or before Israel much inquired after it or were sensible of their loss of it So deeply were the roots of impiety and idolatry fastened in them The text contains 1. The Ark's recess 2. Israel's repentance 1. for the former in the Arks recess Observe 1. The place where in Kirjath-jearim more particularly Abinadabs house v. 1 2. 2. The time or duration 20 years a long time indeed Qu. 1. What 's meant by the Ark here Ans 'T is needless to explain the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a Chest or Coffin Gen 50.26 or to put money in 2 Kin. 12.10 but this Ark was appointed by God where the Tables of the Law were laid up therefore called the Ark of the Testimony there God communed with Israel hence called the Ark of his presence Exod. 25.22 here the People of Israel were to Worship and inquire Gods mind at it and it guided their journeyings Numb 10.35 36. And though the Ark have many significations yet good Expositors think that what the Ark of God was to the Israelites of old that the Gospel Ordinances are to us which are means of grace tokens of Gods presence and institutions of Worship Qu. 2. What 's meant by the Arks being in Aibnadab 's house in Kirjath-jearim Ans It imports its privacy Solitude i. e. comparatively few could few would frequent it as formerly at Shiloh 1. Because this city was near the Philistins upon the borders of the land and so the other tribes could not so commodiously resort to it for devotion or they durst not lest the Philistins should set upon them if any numbers come together for that end as indeed they did v. 7. Never is the Devil and his Imps more enraged against God's people than when they meet to worship God for the Philistins had interdicted Israel to meet together and now they suspect them of Sedition and Rebellion 2. Because the Ark being but in a private house few could meet there at once to worship God or hear the word some it 's possible cared not for it had other ways of their own hearts they followed others had a months mind to it but being aged or infirm could not get thither or continue comfortably before the Lord there but were subject to many inconveniences others were afraid of the scoffs and reproaches of their adversaries and few would be at the pains to go attend on God in his appointments Qu. 3. had the People no publick Ordinances or Instructions all this time A. 'T is likely they had ordinary Levites and Priests to offer Sacrifices and instruct the People though in the time of several Judges there was sad work both in civils spirituals sometimes there was no King or publick Magistrate in Israel and then every man did that which was right in his own eyes hence Micah gets a house of graven Images a Levite to be his Priest Judg. 17.5 18. certainly there was sad ignorance and woful degeneracy into impiety and Idolatry as is aparent by many instances Expositors observe but two Prophets in all the time of the Judges which was 450 years Act. 13.20 the one was Debora a Prophetess Judg. 4.4 and that Judg. 6.8 the Lord sent a prophet except that Angel that came up from Gilgal to Bochim ch 2.1 by a Prophet So that Peter begins to number the Prophets from Samuel Act. 3.24 and Paul mentions Samuel the Prophet as not an ordinary Person yea he broke forth like a certain glorious Sun out of the night of darkness both of sin and errour and till those days the word of the Lord was precious 1 Sam. 3.1 i. e. it was 1. rarus 2. charus either rare because there were few Prophets to declare Gods Word to the People rarely did the Lord reveal himself and therefore was it the more precious and highly esteemed by all but that text saith further there was no open vision that seems to be an interpretation of my Text no Vision diffused or sprinkled abroad common multiplyed but shut up in a fence pail or within walls so the word signifys 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no broken vision a loaf that 's whole nourisheth not a book closed up instructs not a fountain shut up waters not the open preaching of the word distributes it abroad to all parts members of the mystical body this is the multiplication of seeds bread as in Christ's miracles distributed amongst thousands but alas there was none to break the bread of life to souls till Samuel arose and then the word of Samuel came to all Israel 1 Sam. 4.1 he now preached repentance to all and that they should make an expedition against the Philistins however for want of reformation it proved not successful but that evil was brought on them to promote their humiliation possibly Samuel foretold this fall to them as a punishment of their Sin And now Samuel renews his Exhortation providence producing this Argument to reinforce the duty of Repentance and though this lamenting after the Lord be mentioned before his Sermon yet it 's probable it was the consequent thereupon as their reformation also was ver 4. yea it may be this is the same with their drawing water and pouring it out before the Lord ver 6. which some understand of penitent tears Take some general observations from the context thus explained 1. God gives his People sensible tokens of his special presence visible Ark audible voice betoken spiritual invisible grace so the Ark

not be inquisitive for a reason of my sollicitude and complaint when all good is comprehended in this chiefest good whether real or imaginary Thus this people lamented laid to heart this great evil of God's departure the which no temporal good can compensate or countervail 5. They called cryed and shouted after the Lord by earnest prayer and supplication so the word imports sometimes sighing Let the sighing of the Prisoner come before thee Psal 79.11 Sometimes it 's rendred inclamarunt for lifting up the voice as Lam. 2.18 not only their hearts cryed unto the Lord but tears run down like a River day and night Yea v. 19. Arise cry out in the night pour out thine heart like water lift up thy hands towards him Yea Lam. 3.8 She did both cry and shout not that God is deaf or busie or pursuing enemies or sleepy and must be awaked as Elijah ironically twits Baal's Worshippers with their God but for our own sakes to evidence the honesty and zeal of our hearts and as a gracious disposition to which mercy is promised Hence it was that when the Children of Israel cryed and their cry came up unto God Exod. 2.2 3. Crying is the Accent of Prayer A crying Prayer sounds loud in God's Ear. The tender Mothers bowels make her look back on her crying Child God loves to be called back by a fervent affectionate Prayer 6. They betook themselves to the Lord Receperunt se ad Dominum i. e. by faith by repentance covenanting with God returning from sin having recourse to God by a sincere Reformation and without this all the former were insignificant but thus did the Children of Israel according to Samuels command and supposition in this Chap. v. 3. If ye do return with all your heart to the Lord then put away the strange Gods and prepare your hearts unto the Lord and serve him only and they did so v. 4. This was their best way of lamenting after the Lord No coming after God with a lye in our right hand or our Idols in our hearts if we do God will spurn us back into confusion for nothing keeps persons at a distance from him but sin they that hold fast sin pretend to follow God do either run from him or follow him with a Sword in their hand to wound him but such as cast away their abominations follow the Lord aright and shall overtake him this is the method prescribed by God himself Jer. 4.1 2. If thou wilt return O Israel faith the Lord return unto me and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of thy sight then shalt thou not remove thou shalt swear the Lord liveth Then and never till then are Souls fit to joyn in covenant with God when they are divorced from all besides 7. They were acquiescing in and fully satisfyed with the Lord this is the proper notion of this word Chald. quieti fuerunt post cultum Domini their hearts were abundantly quieted in the manner of Gods worship and much more in the object of their worship and in the union of their hearts to God and communion with him no Satisfaction like this David saith Return unto thy rest Oh my Soul Psal 116.7 No such rest as God is who is the Souls only Center and Sabbath Jer. 31.25 I have satiated the weary Soul and I have replenished every sorrowful Soul As God rests in his Love to his Saints so they are well satisfied with their choyce of God and look not out other ways or beyond him for any contentments to their Spirits Thus then these good Souls these lamenting penitents might say Alas we have been like wandring sheep that have gone astray every one wandring in his own way or as a bird wandring from its nest or as Prodigals from our Fathers house but now now at length by Samuel's Prophecy we are throughly informed that God is the true God that this his prescribed Worship is of his Institution and the mean of communion with him At our first hearing this man of God we were touched and began to incline towards him at last came to fixed resolution to follow the Lord in this his way we were assembled together to this purpose bemoaned our state in the loss of so dear a friend cryed after him Put away our Idols and lusts returned to the Lord by faith and repentance and now we see it 's not in vain it 's good yea very good for us thus to draw near to God we find full content in him we find the injoyment of him a full recompence for all this pains in a mournful pursuit of him We have found him at last we have found him happiness in him he is come whom we sought we need not look for another we care not for any other We fear nothing since we we have found our God From hence we may discern the reason why the same word in Heb. signifies both to repent and to comfort to mourn and to cease mourning to lament and rejoyce for as true comfort belongs only to penitent Souls so sorrow is the porch and inlet to joy none are exalted but they that are first cast down none bring forth the blessed babe of joy but such as Travel in the pangs of sorrows Joh. 6.21 The Painter can with a touch of his Pencil turn a crying into a laughing face thus saith David Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing thou hast put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness Psal 30.11 This is the second general head what is implied in this Lamenting after the Lord. 3. Another head in the prescribed method is the Reasons why it 's so fit that Gods Israel or professing People should thus lament after the Lord when Gods Ark is obscured or his Ordinances obstructed In confirmation of this Point I must demonstrate 1. That they must lament after the Ark of the Lord. 2. After the Lord of the Ark Briefly for both these 1. Gods Israel or professing People must lament after the Ark i. e. the Ordinances of the Lord when obscured or obstructed 1. Because the Ark or Ordinances of the Lord are a Peoples greatest glory their beauty strength honour Wherein is Israel better than other Nations then by having Ordinances of God among them Psal 147.19 20. He shewed his word unto Jacob his statutes and his judgments unto Israel he hath not dealt so with any Nation q.d. This this is that that exalts Israel above all other Kingdoms that they have the visible tokens of Gods presence which is a peoples only glory so faith the Apostle Rom. 9.4 To the Israelites pertain the Adoption and the Glory and the Covenants and the giving of the Law the Service of God and the Promises This is Israel's Heritage Patrimony and a rich one it is hence when the Ark was taken Phinehas's Wife breathed her last with that heavisom Ditty The Glory is departed from Israel for the Ark of God is taken 1

the Priest a kindness to find him work by new sinning to get pardons Yea some think strange at others that they are not as bad as themselves And is not this matter of lamenmentation to see the Earth thus for saken by a righteous God and possessed by so many Bears Lions Tygers and Goats that men are grown Wolves yea Devils to each other Is it not time to lament after that God that gives up men to such profligate and prodigious courses as hasten their own damnation and England's desolation Is it not time to seek God till he come and Rain Righteousness upon us Hos 10.12 2. Is not converting grace much withdrawn from the Ordinances of God And doth not this call sensible Souls to lament after the Lord Time hath been that our Lord hath mounted his white Horse and hath bent his Bow and shot his Arrows of Conviction and made them sharp in the hearts of the King's Enemies and caused people to fall under him going forth conquering hath had his Crown set upon his head by the Daughters of Jerusalem But alas now the Church hath a miscarrying Womb and dry Breasts Ministers cry out Who hath believed our Report I have laboured in vain God doth not go forth with his Word as formerly The Apostles were Fishers inclosed many at a draught present Ministers Hunters shout and run all day and catch but one or two and well too It 's worth a whole lifes pains Though it cannot be denied God's despised Servants have now and then seals of their Ministry to God's glory their incouragement and the stopping of the mouths of slanderers Jerusalem is built even in troublesom times The Gospel is not bound though Ministers be Men civilly dead may convey spiritual life God hath not left his Servants without some Testimonies in the Consciences and Conversations of their Hearers that God is in his Ordinances of a truth But alas how few gleanings hath our dear Lord compared with the full Vintage Satan gets among men We take these first fruits thankfully till the full Harvest come Let Ministers and People lament after the Lord that he would fill his House with glory hasten the day of his Power to make People chearful Volunteers in the Lord's Warfare Oh that more might knock at our doors with a What must I do to be saved Where is the Lord God of Elijah Lord cloath thine Ordinances with thy Power When shall Aaron's Rod bring forth ripe Almonds Lord let the Children of the Covenant own the God of their Fathers and be sprinkled with Covenant grace Lord break up that blessed Writ of Electing Love in converting grace Let Sermons be seconded with power Make thy Word the Arms of God unto Salvation 3. Doth not God much withdraw from the Societies of his Servants Is there to be sound that entireness singleness faithfulness amongst God's People to each other as in former daies Is there not much pride worldliness decay of love to God abating spiritual zeal for God such as was in the daies of old Alas we have reason to think the Spirit of Prayer is much withdrawn that close walking that distance from appearances of sin that entireness for God that endearedness and usefulness of Christians amongst themselves as is wont to be Yea hath not God seemed to take Peace from the Earth Is not Manasse● against Ephraim and Ephraim against Manasseh and they together against Judah Papists against Protestants and Protestants against Papists and they together against zealous Worshippers and exact walkers according to pure and Primitive Institutions Are not some Members of the same Church that desire to keep close to the Rule rendred black while the Sun hath looked upon them with some malignant aspects and reflections of displeasure Yea even the same Mothers Children are angry with them Yea their own Shepherds pity them not Nay some Watchmen are so rigid and censorious that they find them out wound them take away their vail from them expose the Members of the same Church as if they were factious traiterous or heretical and will hold no communion with them that have much charity for them and pursue them with intreaties to beg their consent to walk with them towards Heaven and joyn in God's work for winning of Souls and alas they brow-beat them and seem to deny them liberty to worship the same God own the same Bible or partake of the same common Saviour If this be not for a lamentation what is Methinks some deal with their Brethren as Saul's Courtiers with honest David 1 Sam. 26.19 They have driven me out this day from abiding in the Inheritance of the Lord saying Go serve other gods Or as it is Ezek. 11.15 Son of Man thy Brethren even thy Brethren the men of thy kinred all the house of Israel wholly are they unto whom the Inhabitants of Jerusalem have said Get ye far from the Lord unto us is this Land given in possession Monopolies are dangerous in Spirituals What envy hath excluding others begot in these cases Lamentable is the Story here in England of the haughty carriage of Austin the Monk and petulant behaviour of the Brittish Bishops who neglected to joyn with the other upon private animosities to Preach the Gospel to the Idolatrous Saxons Austin predicted and menaced that if they would not have Peace with their Brethren they should have Wars with their Enemies Shortly after Ethelbert King of Northumberland being a Pagan went with a great Army against the City of Chester whether animated by Austin God knows overcame the Brittans slew eleven hundred Monks i.e. persons religiously devoted to God for praying for the Brittans only fifty escaped with Brockmail Mayor of Chester A Spirit of Aemulation in so good a work hath alwaies bad Effects and Pride hath dreadful consequences Church-Divisions are much to be lamented and very rarely issue without Civil Dissentions For the Divisions of Reuben there ought to be sad searchings and heavy thoughts of heart Lord when shall Conscience-racking Oaths be broken How long shall intangling Orders for decency rend the bowels of thy Church When shall Subscription to Christ's Laws suffice It 's sure a matter of lamentation that the Devil casts the Bone among Professing Christians and they snarl at each other about it How long shall the pride and wrath of men make and blow up that spark into a flame that Satan the great make-bait casts among them When will men see the hand of Joab is in all this and discern at last that among all these contending Clients none is gainer but that common Barreter Lord open mens Eyes heal our bleeding wounds and bring back that antient Christian Spirit of Love and Peace Charity Humility 4. Once more Is there no cause for Gods Children to lament after the Lord for his return to their Spirits Is not God much withdrawn from the hearts of his People If a Child of God say