Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	bear_v	fruit_n	tree_n	5,442	5	9.3742	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A74698	Logoi Ōraioi. Three seasonable sermons the first preach't at St. Mary's in Cambridge, May 31. 1642. The others designed for publick auditories, but prevented. / By Tho. Stephens, M.A.	Stephens, Thomas, fl. 1648-1677.	1660 (1660)	Thomason E1839_2; ESTC R210165	57,540	136

of their rebellion That so long as the altar has a being Men may learn from thence that no Man may take that honour to himself but he that was called of God as was Aaron 5 Heb. 4. And sure the love of God was such that he would choose none but the best of Governments for his Church Had all the Princes of the tribe of Levi had an equall share they by an Aristocrasy would have bred an emulation had all the People injoyed a parity their Democrasie would have brought in confusion but exalting Aaron in the high Priests chair and disposing of the rest in subordinate offices under him God maintained so blessed a Harmony in his Church as that it was an imperfect shadow of that blessed Harmony in heaven But 3. It was Aarons rod for the house of Levi upon whom the priesthood was entailed The Reubenites thought they had a fair plea for it because they were the first born of their Father Jacob and the other tribes wished well toward it witness the rods which every tribe put into the lottery in hopes it might be taken But God which is constant to all his purposes had chosen Levi of all the Tribes of Israel to be his Priest as the Man of God testifies 1 Sam. 2.28 To offer upon his altar and to burn incense before him And it is well that this honour was once esteemed so great that all the tribes were ambitious of it When the Ephod and the imbroydered coat were esteemed glorious The dregs of Jeroboams corruptions have a greater influence upon our times who made Priests of the lowest of the people and when God requires the most comely bodies and proportionable countenances for his service If any by nature be made so decrepit that he be unfit for any other imployment he will come and crouch and say put me into the Priests office that I may eat a morsel of bread Yet this Act of God which made the Priesthood Levi's impropriation as it debars others from affecting of it witness the destruction of the Reubenites Dathan Abiram and their Confederates or so much as intermedling with it vvhich cost poor Uzziah dear 2 Sam. 6.7 Who going to uphold the arke vvas smitten down so neither does it priviledge the Levites themselves to perform his service after their ovvn fancy If Aarons own sons Nahab and Abihu shall presume to offer up any other fire then that which descended from Heaven upon Gods Altar that fire which should consume their sacrifices shall devour themselves The service of the Sanctuary must be intire It will admit of no Mechanicks to officiate nor yet must the fiery zeal of Clergymen themselves coyne any new fangled formes of services and worship which God has not prescribed Both are enemies to Aarons rod here for as the one break it in pieces or steal it away and clap their own in the room so the other bow it to their humor and make it crooked after their own fancy Hitherto we have beheld the rod withered and dead let us now consider it in the miracle and see what fruit it bears which is branched in 3. degrees it budded it blossomed it brought forth Almonds Every tribe in Israel had provided his rod and every rod was strip'd alike and had the name of the Prince of the tribe ingraven on it Aarons rod had no more sap in it no more earth about it Onely it had Aarons name upon it Where God has made a secret choice he will make an open difference They go to the wrong end of the ladder which climb up into Gods breast first and there trace out those unsearchable points of his election and from thence ground themselves upon their impossibility of barrennesse and falling off and by consequence their necessity of budding and blossoming and bearing fruit Would such a course as this have comforted Aaron or satisfied the other tribes What difference between a Log and a Tree before it spring again But then is salvation sure when you work it out Then faith is alive when it is manifested by its works Then is Aaron declared to be Gods chosen when his rod quickens And quicken it must or else he cannot be the chosen of God No surer token of the life of grace then fruitfulness Barrenness was banished at the first creation out of his garden of the World Increase and multiply says he to all his creatures and if any fall short cut it down why combreth it the ground And he that is not marr'd by the Divel is always thus increasing he is alwayes going forward either budding new or ripening his last blossom'd fruit It was a curse laid upon avarice Esaiah 5.10 that ten acres of Vines should yeild but one bath and the seed of an Homer should yeild but an Ephah but one part for ten sure that is an incumbrance not a crop and those Vines are fitter for winters fire then summers vintage Nor yet will standing still in the same condition serve the turne as they say an Oak will for an hundred years together T is a true saying in Divinity qui Deo non progreditur regreditur he that goes not forward to God goes backward to the Devill It was no excuse to the idle servant that had hid his talent although he had buried it up for fear of losing ' ont and put it in a napkin for fear of rusting of it It was taken from him for his negligence he had gained nothing to it Yet who is there here present that cannot strike upon his heart and say Lord I am in a worse condition He was idle I am sinfull He hid his talent and brought it to light again I have spent mine and can shew no portion of it He did not ripen his blossoms I have made strip and wast of mine My beauty I have abused to voluptuousness my wealth to luxury my wit to knavery my zeal to hypocrysy my natural ingeny to maintain schism and heresy Utinam nescirem literas O that thou hadst given me no talent that having little I might had the lesse required The heat of thy spirit has sometimes quickened in me the buds of grace but the coldnesse of my devotion has nipp'd them Or if the warmth the sunshine of thy mercy or the fire of thy judgments has thaw'd my frozen heart and made it vigorous enough to bring forth blossoms the Prince of this ayr has mildewed them Or if the fruit has been set it has either been blown down by the storms of Affliction or wormeaten in the sunshine my prosperity and grown rotten at the Core Thus have our rods which should bud and blossom and bring forth fruit turned like the sorcerers to Serpents and stung us to death Observe yet farther as Aarons rod had three degrees of fruitfulness budding blossomming and bearing fruit so those three degrees met at one season spring summer ana harvest was joyn'd together as the one fed his hopes so the other confirmed his assurance

A comfort it was to Aaron no doubt to see the budding of his rod that there was life in it that God had quickened it and yet we know that a branch cut down so long as the stock of sap which is in it will feed it it will do so But when it shall prove like Jeremies tree planted by the waters Jer. 17.8 Which spreads out her root by the river and shall not feel when the heat cometh but her leafe shall be green and she shall bring forth blossomes This is delight as well as comfort And yet Hosea calls Israel vitem frondosam a vine full of leaves Hosea 10.1 Although within a few verses it wither'd and was plucked up But where the fruit is come to perfection grown hard and ripe and lasting then may it well be laid up in the Sanctuary to testifie for him in the latter day And surely beloved Aarons rod in a mysticall sense continues fruitfull to this day No Sermon which you hear which is but a branch cut off from the tree of Gods word shall return in vain but if it be dead to some and prove the savour of death it will quicken in others and prove the savour of life unto life everlasting Thus the very budding of this rod the watchfull attention of you that hear us puts us in some hopes that our labour is not in vain in the Lord. Or if after hearing you fall a discoursing of some point delivered praise the Preacher commend the fitneses semen accipitis verba redditis sayes St Austin good seed you receive good words you give back laudes vestrae folia sunt fructus quaeritur as he goes on good words are but leaves or at the best but blossomes it is fruit we preach for and this St. Matthew calls Chap. 3. ver 8. fruit worthy of repentance restorative fruit which may be antitidote against the fruit of that other forbidden tree which poysn'd us all If this fruit appear it will testifie for us in the latter day Us that we are of Gods sending called of God as was Aaron You that you are of Gods planting and if by him planted you shall never be rooted up Mat. 15.13 Thus whilst some are budding others in the blossome others grown ripe God may every day receive a fruitfull harvest One word more behold these Almonds grow upon the rod still and are not gathered off and it is a good reason which a reverend Prelate has given why Aarons rod was treasurd up and not Moses because this carried the miracle still in it self whereas the wonders of that other rod were past and gone Those are rotten fruits which fall off from the bough that bears them The parable in 13 Mat. Tells us of seed sprung up hastily amongst the stones but because it had not depth of Earth it withered There is I know a sort of Gospellers whose hearts on a suddain are all on fire but are soon quenched again Jonahs gourd cannot outgrow them but smitten by a worm they wither Those are Gods Champions which stand fast in the faith those are his chosen that fall not away whose buds grow blossomes whose blossomes grow fruit and so they grow on in grace from one degree unto another till they become perfect in the Lord of all perfection Jesus Christ The 2. Circumstances yet remain and I shall handle them but as Circumstances the Time and Place On the morrow in the Sanctuary 1. For the time this change was wrought on a suddain one night was spring summer and harvest to the rod on the morrow it bore fruit We must not limit the eternal God to time miracles are his works and his works are like himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in an instant And as the high Priest under the law so the Apostles and Bishops in the Gospel on a suddain were advanced There was but an insufflavit he breathed upon them and with his breath they received the holy Ghost Which Spirit so changed their Spirits that it amazed their Adversaries to behold such Idiots as Saint Luke calls them Acts 4.13 men unlearned and simple command so many tongues and cure such diseases So what the Schools say of the Apostles I may say of this Rod probatur Deus per Virgam as this suddain change proves Aaron and the Apostles preferment came from God so by them it proves there is a God since none but he could work the Miracles Then secondly for the place 't was in the Sanctuary and no place so fit as Gods own House for Gods own Work That house which budded in Davids thoughts for which God commends him 1 Kings 3.18 But it flourished in Solomons hands who raised the glorious structure of it And however the zeal of some in these wretched dayes go about to eat it up as the zeal of that eat up Davids Heart Psal 69.9 or rather Christ in David typified 2 John 17. Yet Gods House it shall remain still so long as there be Nations upon the Earth to inhabit any other and that in a twofold respect First as God dwells in it it is his Temple secondly as his services are performed in it it is his House of prayer My house sayes the Prophet Isaiah 56.7 repeated by our Saviour in three Evangelists shall be called the House of prayer to all Nations And now let the brain-sick Separatists brood what conceit they list that Temples were but ceremonial and Christs Passion put them out of date either they must grant the fulness of the Gentiles before the descension of the holy Ghost and that all Nations met at prayers at Hierusalem which is ridiculous enough or that whilst nations acknowledg a God to be worship'd he shall have a House to be worship'd in And truly Sirs we need not wonder that Harons rod in our dayes seems withered since the Sanctuary in which it is kept is so neglected But alas What speak I of the crosier when the crown it self has found the same doom When the traytor Jeroboam seduced the ten tribes of Israel against their King he forbids them to go to the Temple at Jerusalem and sets up his high-way Religion to worship his calfs at Dan and Bethel Nay he drives away the Priests of the Lord the Sons of Aaron and Levi with the Sanctuary away goes the budding rod They are Relatives you see pull down Church government and the Church will not stand long after it 2 Chron. 13.9 and made him Priests like the people of other countreys Whosover comes to fill his hand with a young bullock and seven rams the same may be a Priest of them that are no Gods But what speak I of earthly Princes when neglect of the Sanctuary ushers in Rebellion against the King of heaven Hence we finde those precepts so frequently conjoynd of Observing Gods Sabbaths and reverencing his Sanctuary T is strange that the one should be Morall the other Ceremoniall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Heathen Psal 74.8 they will burne

to the deadly stroak of the enemies to secure the person of their Emperors Others leaping alive into their Funeral piles as if they could do them no later no greater service But I will name no more lest their dust fly in our eyes so blinde and eclipse the glory of Christians For let me seriously put the question Are we Christions Do we know the vertue of in Oath What think we then of that solemn Oath of our Allegiance An Oath which can receive no dispensation no absolution from what power soever Are we Protestants Nay one step farther yet are we Protestors What think we then of that branch of the late Protestation that I will maintain the establisht doctrine of the Church as it stands in opposition to Popery and Popish Innovations I conceive this mainly material to the work in hand therefore give me leave a while to insist upon it What is the doctrine of the School of Jesuits Bellarmines position will fully tell us non licere Christianis tolerare regem haereticum c. Princes falling into Apostacie from the faith or heresie in the faith lose all dominion over their Subjects and our own Countriman Parsons goes a little farther that the People if they can gather strength sufficient ought to depose such an unworthy Governour and like apt Scholars they will learn their lesson quickly for thus a Jacobine with an Assassination shall soon make good in practise what their School hath taught them Thus without much straining they make good the Text Those there work their pleasure because there was no King in Israel these here will have no King because they might the more freely work their pleasure Contrary to this is established doctrine of the Church of England in the 37th Article The Kings Majesty his the chief power in this Realm of England and his other Dominions and is not nor ought to be subject to any Jurisdiction whatsoever but may and must restrain with the sword the Stubborne and Evil doers Farr different it seems from that he is tobe restrained by Stubborne and Evil-doers upon a pretence of his evill doing To which purpose are those six parts of the homily against Rebellion so full and apposite that we must either disclaim them from being the interpreters of the Doctrine of our Church or sit down convinc'd in the manifest truth of this assertion To these I shall and the Testimony of some unquestioned Divines amongst us purposely avoiding the authority of such who are amongst some men perhaps unworthily suspected lest their names prove a blemish to the Calendar Bishop Cranmer in his Necessary Erudition for Christian Men A work composed by him and other Divines of Henry the Eight and printed long since by the same King upon the fifth Commandement declares that by it we are bound not to withdraw our Fealty Truths Love and Obedience from our Princes for what cause soever it be nor yet for any cause may we conspire against his Person nor do any thing towards the hindrance or hurt thereof or of his Estate Not long after Bishop Hooper upon the same commandement determines that if he be naught that rules the place he is in it is the Order and work of God so if thou put a difference between the Office it self which is good and the Officer which is evill it shall keep thee in a religious fear that thou reverence a good and godly Government in a bad Governour Bishop Latimer a Companion of them both in a Sermon upon Twelfday tells us that we may for nothing in the World observe the Universality rebell against the Ordinance of God that is the Magistrate All these three glorious Saints did in their Actions consirme their Doctrine and in the days of Queen Mary received the triumphant crown of Martyrdom obeying her in suffering for that which their consciences would not give them leave actually to perform Next them comes that painfull and Reverend Bishop Jewel who dispuring the Case with Harding drawes issue in the story Chilperick of France whom the Nobles deposed the people were contented with it and then Pope confirmed it rebellion as well strengthened as we could wish yet did his Succcessor Pepin scarce ever with quiet injoy the Kingdom and of the nine Generations which were all that of that race succeeeded hardly one was found which went down into the grave in peace Dr. Humpheryes Sermons upon Abisha's story 1 Sam. 26. are so full to our cause in hand that I should do him wrong to cite any part of him and not spin it put to a just Treatise I referr yee to the book it self as also to Bishop Bancrofts English-Scottzing Bishop King in his 35. Lecture on Jonas makes it the very case of the Brownist who in his reformation would tread Conscience Obedience Religion and Duty both to God and Man under foot Whereupon the Reverend Bishop Davenant in his twelfth determined Question tells us induant quam venlint pietatis larvan● isti Magistratuum marke that Magistratuum not Religionum reformatores Albiniani tamen Nigriani out Cassiani rectius audient quam Christiani Let them mask under what cloak they will Religion may be their plea but Rebellion is their practise I shall forbear the envy of naming such as are still alive amongst us of whom Bishop Morton is not the least But one passage of the Reverend Primate of Armagh in a speech in the Castle Chamber may not be forborne because of the Universality of the position There is nothing so contrary to the nature of Soveraignty which I hope we still allow our Kings if not how fell they from it as to have any Superiour power to over-rule them Qui Rex est Regem Maxime non habeat I forbear Seravia because although one of our Church yet a stranger born and the Learned Erwin of Scotland their works will testify sufficiently Yet if you desire to know the consentient opinion of the Protestant Divines take Calvin in his 25. Sect. of his 4. book of Institutions Beza in his exposition on the 13. to to the Rom. and the Harmony of them all in the confession of the Helvetian Divines in the 19. Sect. Article 25. They have prepared against Sophistications in their Anathema there is put in both the palam and the Arte too whosoever openly by offence as well as cunningly pretending defence shall do it there is a damnamus past upon him there is sentence given by the Church against him acquit him who will These are men whose names will tell you never were yet suspected for a Malignant Party Should we blot out these from the Catalogue of the Churchy I fear we had but a poor Charter for our Religion if we esteem them as they are Protestants I wonder how we can make so brave a flourish with this late taken Protestation in our hats and banish the genuine interpretation from our hearts If then there be any here with whom that sacred name of Majesty like a high