Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	bless_a	heaven_n	lord_n	6,010	5	3.8951	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89259	Protection proclaimed (through the loving kindness of God in the present government) to the three nations of England, Scotland, and Ireland: wherein the government established, in the Lord Protector and his council, is proved to be of divine institution; and the great stumbling-block of thousands of Christians (in regard of his title) removed; proving it to be none other than what hath been given to those whom God hath made instrumental for his peoples deliverance of old. / Written to satisfie unsatisfied consciences, by John Moore, a well-wisher to the peace of our English Jerusalem.	Moore, John, of Wechicombe, near Dunster, Somerset.	1655 (1655)	Wing M2562; Thomason E860_5; ESTC R206643	17,676	24

they are restrained of Liberty but for their discontent dislike and dissatisfaction towards him and the Government which God hath put into his Hand and for my part I think it no indiscretion nor cruelty for any man to tie down for a time that hand that cannot hold still but must be scratching at his body till it bleed and so endanger the whole to destruction caetera mitto loqui lest any should think that I either wish or desire their restraint from their Liberty which the Lord knows I do not but from my very Soul desire their enjoyment of it so that it may stand with the peace and preservation of the whole body Secondly Consider that the wayes and workings of God especially in things of such great concernment as the Rule and Government of his people do not answer the expectation thoughts nor will of man I know that if this Nation had been divided into ten parts nine of them would have had the yoke of the Norman Race to have continued if there had been one part of ten left nine parts of that one would have subjected themselves to the yoke of a Parliamentary Government now that God might cross the expectation of man and let us know that our thoughts herein were vain he did upon a suddain bring forth and establish such a Government that we least thought of that less of Man and more of God might be seen in it When the time of Saul's Reign over Israel in God's Decree was accomplished he commanded the Prophet Samuel to leave off grieving for Saul telling him That he had rejected him for being King over his people and told him That he had provided for himself a King amongst the Sons of Jesse the Bethlemite one that was not so much as thought of in regard of ruling over them for the future not in all Israel The Prophet at first was afraid to go for fear of Saul that he would kill him but at last he did go and when he came and beheld his Sons he found the secret will of God clean contrary to his thoughts and purpose for when he beheld Eliab he thought him to be most likely and did purpose to anoint him for a future Governour of the people but the Lord said unto Samuel Look not on his countenance nor on the hight of his stature because I have refused him for the Lord seeth not as Man seeth for Man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart and the most unlikely to carnal apprehensions did God make choice of to be the Governour of his people and by his Decree anointed him in Spirit for the same end long before he came to the Government And truely for my part I do confidently believe from my very Soul that from the beginning of these late Wars the Lord did secretly Decree and in his own purpose set apart Oliver Cromwel our intituled Lord Protector to be the head Governour below himself of all the people in the three Nations Although at the beginning of these late Wars it was as unlikely for him to be Lord Protector of three Nations in the judgement of man as it was for David in the apprehension of his Father and Brethren to be Ruler over Israel But let all the Servants of God know yea let every individual Soul in the three Nations know That the counsel and determinate purpose of God will stand as an irresistable prick against all that spurn at it and a sharp thorn in the sides of all his enemies For as the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are the wayes and counsels of God higher than the wayes and counsels of Men and his thoughts transcending theirs What earthly powers what plottings and contrivings of an Enemy what ragings swellings tumults of vanquished Foes what murmurings repinings or discontents of any people shall reverse the thing that God hath purposed to bring to pass God is not a Man that he should lye neither the Son of Man that he should repent hath he said it and shall he not do it or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good for whatsoever the Lord pleaseth that doth he in Heaven and in Earth and in all places This therefore shall henceforth be the Petition of my Soul Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven Let God make haste to compleat his purpose This also shall be my Souls melody which I will sing with a joyful noise in my heart Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and for evermore From the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same the Lords name is to be praised The Lord is high above all Nations and his glory above the Heavens Who is like unto the Lord our God who dwelleth on high Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are done in Heaven and Earth He raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth the needy out of the dunghil that he may set him with Princes even with the Princes of his people Amen Hallelujah That Government that gives Christ the chiefest honour due unto him is of God The greatest honour that belongs to Christ here below is That he may bear Rule without interruption in the hearts and consciences of his Servants If this Government then do leave the power over the consciences of the Servants of Christ solely to him then it is of God But this Government doth so Therefore of God I shall say no more to this first thing namely That the Government is of God until occasion of reply which I look for doth engage me to it Secondly As the Government is of God so there is none more deserving to sit at the helm of it in subordination to God then Oliver Cromwel the present intituled Lord Protector First if constant faithful unwearied undaunted Service accompanied with Magnanimity Valour and Courage for the Liberty and Freedom of the people of God in England from the bloody and persecuting Statutes and Laws do deserve it then doth he deserve it his Constancy hath appeared in that he was in continual service day and night His Faithfulness in that he never betrayed the least of his Trust but proved from first to last as true as steel to his Country His Unweariedness in holding up his hand by Commission when others let theirs fall for if he had threw up his Commission when others did theirs when the Scots twice invaded us with a numerous Army I believe we had been in a miserable condition before now His Undauntedness hath the whole Army seen he was never known to decline action although the advantage have been never so great against him for the most part if not alwayes charging in the Front of his Army against the most resolved Enemy and seldom or never did he retreat without Victory I have heard with my own Ears some gallant Sparks of the Cavalry say That he was the most gallant resolved General that ever drew

at this my publike Testimony of affectionate Loyalty to the present Government having hitherto scarcely given the least solid Testimony of it for I must confess at the first appearance of it I was as many thousands beside troubled in my minde and unsatisfied in my conscience concerning it and the reason why as I now apprehend was because according to the determinate counsel of God who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will it was brought forth and established before it was so much as thought of so that the sudden appearance of it did startle many thousands of tender-hearted Christians lest Christ thereby should lose his honour and glory out of which tenderness to the honour of Christ many dear servants of God without deliberate consideration or without waiting to know the minde of God in such a Change did presently rashly and in my apprehension unadvisedly give publike testimony of the dislike of their spirits to the Government and the enmity of their hearts to the Person to whom God hath given it Whereupon the Common Enemy although before utterly vanquished in the Field seeing his dear Friends and Companions declare their open enmity against him and their dislike of the Government do take to themselves fresh Courage and re-animate themselves to plot and contrive his death who had so many times jeoparded his life for the peace and safety of his new declared * Discontented Friends Enemies nor is it unknown to England that at length it brake forth into an open Hostile Insurrection which if it had taken effect what could those his discontented friends have expected but the utter ruine of themselves and their Families and the absolute undoing yea beggery of all their innocent friends in England for their dislike of the present Government would not have quit them of their former enmity against the Royal party of the Kings Army unless they would as others had done before them return to their vomit But by this time me thinks I hear some Reader say that I have wrote this Testimony of my affection to the Government established in the Protector and his Council for some by-ends and self-respects and not from a real satisfaction of Conscience I do therefore give such to know that I take God to witness who knows the secrets of all hearts and as I believe I shall one day stand before the Judgement-seat of Christ to give an account of my faith and all deeds done in the flesh from thence That it is from a fully-satisfied Conscience of the lawfulness of submitting to it and from a full resolution to the utmost of my power to own it so far as it hath hitherto declared it self yea though it be to the laying down of my life which with his Higness to whom God hath given the Power I have heretofore been free and willing to do having still as I have alwayes had since I had the least knowledge of the worth of Christian Liberty this Motto upon the Shield of my minde Praestat emori per Virtutem quam per Dedecus vivere Esteeming it a thousand times better to resign my Heart-blood for the Testimony of my Conscience at the feet of an Enemy than to live in contempt and disgrace in obedience to his will The same resolution I finde to be in Sampson although I am a worm and nothing in comparison of him who rather than he would live in disgrace to the Philistines whose professed Enemy he had formerly been and be a laughing stock to them he desired of God that he might die with them a remarkable pattern and worthy of a serious survey of all English godly men and else that have openly engaged against the late King and his party that if we through our own divisions and dissatisfaction one towards another should suffer a vanquished Enemy to break in upon us it would fare full as evil with us as it did with Sampson all that we have would soon be taken from us the eyes of our comfort would soon be put out and we should see that Freedom and Liberty that we have in the Gospel no more our consciences bound to all their impositions with brazen Fetters and be forced to grinde in the Mill of their cruelty not a bit of bread should we eat but with sorrow of heart our lives would be bitter to us yea our lives would be a heavy burthen to us every one of us from the highest to the lowest would be a Sampson to make them sport and pastime and the main Petition of our Prayer to God would be for death So that there is no way left us visibly appearing to escape these things but to retain the strength of affection to the present Government under which we sit down under our Vines and Fig-trees of spiritual freedom and none to make us afraid Now Reader whoever thou art that hast formerly engaged with him whom God hath exalted to the Supreme place of Civil Government in subjection to himself over the three Nations of England Scotland and Ireland and yet canst not fully close with him in it nor art satisfied in thy conscience whether thou mayest lawfully do it If the Testimony of the Word of God recorded in Scripture especially or if Reason will satisfie thee I have here presented thee with both by which I my self was convinced and my conscience satisfied If it be the change of the Government it self consider that such an extraordinary and unheard-of change of Government in a Christian Nation could not have been but by the special hand and determinate counsel of God who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will Secondly is it the exaltation of his person from a low estate to such a height of greatness and honour that is a stumbling in thy way of affection consider what the Scripture saith Psalm 75.6.7 Promotion comes neither from the East nor from the West nor from the South but God is the Judge he putteth down one and setteth up another Compared with 1 Sam. 2. 7 8. The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich he bringeth low and lifteth up he raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the begger from the dung-hill to set them among Princes and to make them inherit the Throne of Glory for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's and he hath set the world upon them But I pray thee without prejudice of Spirit or hatred of Heart to his person whom God hath exalted amongst us Consider the persons whom God hath of old exalted over his people for their protection and safety What honour and glory did God exalt Joseph to whose Father Jacob was but a Shepherd Moses was a poor Shepherd yet chosen of God to be a Governour of his own people Joshua the Son of a poor Israelite and a Servant of Moses after his death had the command of Government over the people because he followed the Lord fully and the Lord emboldned him with a couragious

either as a common enemy possest with desperate envy or else as seeming friends with rash judgement of blind zeal But for my own part I am satisfied in this one thing that there have been very few in former ages if any at all whom God hath made choice of and by providence kept and preserved to Rule over his people but some of their friends have either enviously maglign'd them or else clandestinely sought their harm Joseph speaks to his brethren of God's exalting him above them and they presently conspire his death Moses although he had oftentimes endangered his life before Pharaoh for the Israelites and was instrumental in the hand of God for their freedom yet could scarcely get a good word from many of them they could ask him Who made him a Ruler and a Judge over them And Corah and his confederates could tell him to his face that he took too much upon him they were as good as he It is written of them in the Psalms that it did proceed from envie Psal 106.16 They envied Moses also in the Camp and Aaron the Saint of the Lord. Gideon found but small kindeness at their hands for all his service done for their safety So that Ephraim chid him very sharply the like requitall had Jephtha from Epbraim because he did not acquaint them with his proceedings they threatned to burn his house over his head Sampsons friends for his service could binde him and deliver him to the Philistines how often was Sauls Javelin cast at David enviously because the Lord was with him and had exalted him into the peoples affection and love So that it s no marvail though he whom God hath made instrumental for the peace and tranquillity of his people in England do meet with the like ingratitude from some of them I have observed this for a real truth that if envy do fancy evil in a good man it will both write and speak against him as if he were the vilest man alive because it is both blind and is such a passion that will have no pacification Did ever any Generall in this world engage for a people and obtain Victory but he was made Ruler over them Would not a Virgin if she be forcibly ravished against her will and should be delivered out of the ravishers hand by some other man Would she not all the dayes of her life love and honour and respect the rescuer sure I think she would or else she were very ungrateful Is not the conscience more pure then the body the defilement of the body is nothing to the pollution of the conscience the ravishment of the body is nothing to the forcing of the conscience If then he hath stood up faithfully and stoutly to rescue us from the bloody penall persecuting Lawes of Tyranny over the conscience if we do not all the dayes of our lives love honour and respect him we are as ungrateful a people both to God and to him the instrument in chief as ever were in the world and cannot in conscience desire any good from him But the reasons as I apprehened why so many Christians zealously professing Christ are unsatisfied in their conscience at the establishment of the Government are these First the suddain appearance of it contrary to their thoughts and expectations because their thoughts and mindes were contented and satisfied in the Government of a Parliament not thinking in the least that God would have established any other Government in the Nation the appearance of such a Government which was directly contrary to their faith and premeditation of heart startles their Spirits and fills them not onely with doubt whether it be of God or no but with absolute perswasions that it was not of God Now then my dear Friends I would ask you this single Question If God will restore to his people Judges as at the first and Counsellors as at the beginning then whether or no that the ancient Commonwealth of Israel was not governed by Moses as a Protector who also had Counsellors with him by Joshua Gideon Jephtha and the rest before either Kings or Parliaments So that I cleerly see in the establishment of this Government the beginning of God's work in fulfilling his promise of primitive restitution of Judges and Counsellors as at the beginning before they were governed either by Kings or Parliaments All the Promises of God are yea and Amen Heaven and Earth shall pass away but not one jot or tittle of the promises of the Lord till all of them be fulfilled And I am sure that 's one Let us take heed then of murmuring at the appearance of the fulfilling of God's promises lest God hide it from us again as he did from the Children of Israel in Egypt God having told Abraham above four hundred yeers before That they should be Strangers in a Land that was not theirs and that they should be afflicted four hundred yeers and that afterwards he would bring them forth of it the time being come that God would accomplish his promise in his own secret will and determinate counsel he did purpose to make it good by the hand of Moses who when he was full forty yeers old God put it into his heart to visit his Brethren the Children of Israel and seeing one of them suffer wrong he defended him and avenged him that was oppressed and smote the Egyptian for he supposed that his Brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them but they understood it not And when he would have made peace betwixt two of his Brethren that were at strife one of them asked him Who made thee a Ruler and a Judge over us at this saying Moses fled And forty yeers more affliction did God continue unto them for this one Murmurer Let our English Israelites consider this and take heed of murmuring and repining at the good hand of God in giving us a faithful and a careful Governour of his peoples Liberty lest God withdraw his hand and leave us and our children to a farther trial of Bondage The second I apprehend was and is this they did not wait upon the Lord nor seek unto him by prayer to know his minde and will in such a sudden Change so that in stead of waiting upon God and seeking unto him by prayer to know his minde and will therein supposing it not to be of God because it was contradictory to their thoughts and expectation they rather bent their mindes and studies to finde out something of corruption in it that might make it appear not to be of God and finding something in it which their Spirits did not disrelish they could not be satisfied that it was of God whereas I am confident if they had waited upon God and sought unto him by Prayer to know his minde and will in such an extraordinary change they had been satisfied and could not but have seen it to be of God A third Reason was they were afraid lest way would have been made by it for the induction and bringing in of such false worships as would embondage the free Spirits of the zealously godly people in the three Nations whereas provision is made to the contrary and their protection vowed yea and we shall enjoy it if we do not wilfully deprive our selves of it and by our own divisions make ourselves a prey to our enemies for that Proverb is certain true Whilest the Bore and Lion strives The Eagle waits for both their lives The meaning is whilst Friends contend Their Foes will spoil them in the end A fourth Reason was Because they were not made acquainted with it and so like Ephraim against Jephtha they were displeased with him though he had deserved no such thing at their hands Fifthly being formerly their equal they took it ill many of them that he should be exalted to rule over them therefore many of them thought and do still think that he hath taken too much upon him Corah and his Accomplices told Moses as much but the Holy Ghost commandeth us to rejoyce when a Brother of low degree is exalted for such a one is most fit for it especially being endowed with sutable qualifications as none alive I think can deny but that our present Lord Protector is and as prudent Counsellors for his Assistants So that in such a Government and such Governours to manage it let all the wel-affected people of the three Nations rejoyce Amen FINIS