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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	father_n	ghost_n	holy_a	6,035	5	5.1275	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94134	The hands of God: or King Davids choice, vvherein are proved: 1. That the least of evills is to be chosen. 2. That war is the worst of evills. 3. That the relation betwixt the king and subject, is the nearest of all relations. 4. That rebells are the worst of men. / As is was delivered in a sermon, By T.S. D.D.	Swadlin, Thomas, 1600-1670.	1647 (1647)	Wing S6216; Thomason E441_28; ESTC R204941	18,903	31

them learned and loyall good and great men in this And next to the hands of God let me fall into the hands of a Parliament so long as it remaines intire and each party preserve their owne priviledges without entrenching one upon another and not suffering a prevailing faction to encroach upon the Prerogatives of Royalty upon the liberties of Loyalty upon the essence of Episcopacy for then the people must expect no Religion in the Church but what the prevayling Lords and Commons shall prescribe them no liberty in the State no property in their Estates but what the mercy of their Fellow-subjects will allow them Hee is no true English man that honours not that feares not a true Parliament for the happinesse of peace is the perpetuall fruit of it but such a Parliament that crumbles it selfe into Conventicles where a small Committee shall have power to make rich men Delinquents and loyall men Malignants and learned men both for my part I neither feare nor honour for the plague of perpetuall Warre is commonly the reward of it and my prayer is A perpetuo bello perpetuo Parliamento libera regem Carolum subditos ejus Domine Let us fall into the hands of God and not into the hands of men for E malis maximum Warre is the greatest of evils It is my 2a 2ae aad my second Resolve 2a 2ae E malis maximum and thus I undertake it Peace is the greatest of blessings and therfore War is the greatest of evils peace is the greatest of blessings positively and comparatively First Positively it is the greatest of blessings for it was the last legacy Christ bequeathed his Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Saint Basil calls it his farewell gift a gift including all he had given before or promised after his departure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a gift dropt from an higher world then this we breath in Joh. 14.26 sayes Saint Chrysostome Peace I leave With you my Peace I give unto you Peace hee gave knowledge he promised his Church Peace hee gave before knowledge he promised after his Ascension The holy Ghost whom the father will send in my name Joh. 14.27 he shall teach you all things Our blessed Master therein telling us peace must have the precedence and first place in our hearts The best order certainely on earth because the onely order observed in Heaven The first place there is given to the Angels of Peace or Love which are called Cherubim the next to the Angels of Light or Knowledge which are called Seraphim But oh the Enthusiasts of our age as if they never meant to come thither they doe most confusedly invert the order for they will first have light or knowledge and that of Revelation then Peace or love and this to none but them of their faction neither so crosse are they to Christ that though he doe yet they doe not account peace the greatest blessing positively Secondly the greatest yet it is and that secondly comparatively too I will but run it over my Wife is a blessing but without peace in danger of a Rape my Childe is a blessing but without peace in danger of a Pyke my Wealth is a blessing but without peace in danger of a Plunder my Liberty is a blessing but without peace in danger of a Reformation my King the best of blessings without peace is in danger of a Rebellion and to be mistaken for an evill Counsellor That we may enjoy our Wives our Children our wealth our Liberty our Religion our King my prayer is Give peace in our time O Lord and let us fall into thy hands And because peace is the greatest of blessings therefore Warre is the greatest of evills the greatest essentially and the greatest effectually the Devill is the Author of it and destruction is the end of it God feldome suffers it but for the greatest sinnes Sacriledge and Rebellion The Israelites never knew the misery of Warre untill they had provoked God by their inventions Josh 7.11 12. 2 Sam. 15.21 and Achans Sacriledge and Absolons Rebellion were not the least of those Inventions nor the lowest of those provocations onely Jeroboams altering Religion 1 Reg. 12 31. and extirpating the high Priesthood which was the Jewes Episcopacy and in their roome instituting the basest and lowest of the people for a Presbytery was higher The best way therefore as I conceive for the Lords and Gentlemen of this Kingdome to remove this Warre is to give God and Caesar their owne the Church her Patrimony that is Gods due and execution of Justice upon the Rebells that is the Kings due And as Warre is the greatest evill in respect of the Author so also in respect of the End for it seldome ends but in ruine and desolation The Philistims warre put an end to Sauls life and Kingdome 1 Sam. 31.5 2. Reg. 10.7 2. Reg. 17.23 Jehues Warre swept away Achab and his posterity The Syrians Warre set a period upon Samaria The Romans Warre gave a date to Jerusalem It was Warre that writ the sad character Jam seges est ubi Troja fuit and as he reckoned up all evill men in Ingratum so it may truely be said of Warre Si bellum dixeris omnia dixeris for it is attended by spoyle and robbery which never leaves pilfering untill it hath squez'd out that abundance which the spunge of peace hath suck't up Would yon see a short and small Map of Warres misery in a word take it thus Imagine you see your Wives and Daughters ravished your Infants tossed upon Pykes or dashed against the stones your dead Parents dragged out of their quiet graves your goodliest Cityes on a flaming fire your houses plundered your bodies dismembred your Lawes subverted your Religion prophaned your Churches defiled and nothing to be heard or seene but weeping and wayling with mournfull lamentation one crying out Nulla salus bello another Heu miseri qui bella gerunt and tell mee then yea tell me now if it bee not high time to say and pray Let us not fall into the hands of men but let us fall into thy hands O God The reason follows Pars 3. which is my third part For with the Lord is mercy or The mercies of the Lord are great reade which you please With the Lord is mercy First sometimes Promethean mercies Jona 3.4 to prevent a threatned danger so in the case of Niniveh their danger was threatned and themselves summoned to destruction within forty dayes but who can tell whether God will have mercy if wee repent and wee perish not They did repent and God was mercifull and they did not perish And here were Miserationes bowells of mercy yearning as a Father doth for his childes past miscarriages and keeping him from misery Secondly sometimes Epimethean mercies to deliver out of an emminent and present danger so in the case of Jerusalem 2. Reg. 19.35 the Assyrians besieged them and intended

Servant may be bad and the Master never the worse but if the Subjects sinne the King perishes 1 Sam. 12.25 If yee doe wickedly both yee and your King shall perish there the King smarts for the subjects fault and if the King sinnes the subjects shall not goe scotfree for here the King sinnes and the subjects dye King David numbers the people and the people are diminished the transgression his the destruction theirs Yet whether the cumbring of the people were meerly King Davids sinne or mixtly his and theirs for they might have intreated him to have forborne this muster or if his sinne onely yet whether it was not so his sinne as that it was also the subjects punishment for former sinnes is a question amongst Expositors and in my weake judgement If the people had not a hand in this particular sinne yet their former sinnes were the cause why God permitted his Annoynted to fall into this errour So the Chapter begins 2 Sam. 24.1 And the wrath of the Lord was kindled against Israel against Israel not against David and because it was kindled against Israel therefore God moved David against them or as the Margent expounds it God permitted Satan and so it is said in the Register Satan stood up against Israel 1 Cron. 21.7 and provoked David to number Israel Be it which it will his or theirs Saint Gregory is in the right Mor. ● 25. cap. 20. and 23. secundum merita subditorum disponuntur acta Regentium the hearts of Soveraignes are disposed by God according to the merits of their subjects And what was the merit or rather demerit of the subject at this time Absolons conspiracy it could not be for there dyed 20000 in that and for that nor could it be King Davids adultery with Bathsheba for that was private and unknowne it was then certainely it was Shebas Rebellion none suffered for that but Sheba himselfe many more were in that combination and fit they should smart for such a sinne for God seldome suffers Rebellion to be unpunished and goe to the grave in peace Yea Master Calvin himselfe tells us Si piè regnent summa est Dei benedictio si in Apostasiam aut Tyrannidem degenerent flagella sunt Domini ad punienda populi delicta good Kings are nursing Fathers and Gods blessings badd Kings are Church-destroyers and Gods scourges I adde good Kings may accidentally for a while seeme to be the peoples scourges a good King may rayse a taxe of Ship-money King Solomon did so 1 Reg. 10.22 and seeke to establish an uniformity of Religion in all his Dominions King Jehosaphat did so 2 Cron. 17.7 and neither of these are in themselves sinnes not Shipmoney else aske the learned Judges and let them aske their honest Forefathers not uniformity in Religion for the Church was never so happy as when all the Churchmen were of one accord Act 2.1 nor the State neither as when all the Statesmen were like a City at unity in it selfe Psa 12 2. when the Pavement desired not to be the Roofe nor the Weathercock the Foundation nor the lower Hall the upper Parlor but every stone was content with his owne condition in that place where the Master-mason had placed him Yet even from hence may bad subjects take occasion to rebell and so that which was no sinne in the King is by wicked subjects made an occasion of the highest sinne in them And when people are come to the height of sinne Rebellion which admits no supreame Sacriledge excepted yet if we beleeve Optatus and weigh Gods punishments by the weight of punishment judging the height of sin we would not except that for hee tells us Rebellion is summum malorum the sinne Paramount Gen. 4.115 that hath no Peer Caine for his Fratricide is but mark't and so dismist Niniveh that Sacrilegious City in stead of ruine Jona 3.4 hath a warning Numb 16.32 but Corah and his complices for their Rebellion have a sudden and ma●chlesse destruction the earth coffins and buries them alive Saint Austen goes further and charges the Dona●ists Faction and Faction is evermore the usher to Rebellion with the sinne against the holy Ghost No wonder then if the wrath of the Lord be kindled and a wonder it is to me if when Gods wrath is kindled and the King will hazzard himselfe to preserve his subjects the subjects be not againe reciprocally bound to preserve the King with their owne hazzard Sure I am Nature resolves it so Scripture resolves it so and not a Casuist not one if my memory be right is against it 1. For Nature looke upon the Bees they have a King if you beleeve Pliny L●b 11. c. 17. and a guard is ever about his person to preserve him from a forraigne Invader and a Domestick Traytor If the Hornet will make his way yet he must dull his sting upon the subject that he may not hurt the King Capitis est habenda ratio quodlibet enim membrum naturae impulsu pro Capite vult perlclitari sayes Peter Martyr 2 Sam 18.3 we must secure the King as nature hath taught every member to endanger it selfe to preserve the head 2. And that is one Scripture resolves this case David the King having rebellious subjects risen up in armes against him resolves to goe in person against them No Sir it is not safe for you for you nor for us neither to goe into the battell for if we flie away they will not regard us neither will they passe for us though halfe of us be slaine but now thou art better then ten thousand of us Marke the Church-margent there and it is the best Commentator upon the Text signifying hereby that a good Governour ought to bee so deare unto his people that they will rather loose their lives then that ought should come unto him And the most glorious Epitaph that ever Abishai had is That which the holy Ghost gives him when hee rescued King David from the hands of Ishi●benoh when he thought to have slaine David 2 Sam. 21.17 But Abishai the son of Zerviah succoured him and smote the Philistim and killed him Nor are his Courtiers without their monument of praise for saying Thou shalt not goe out with us to battell lest thou quench the light of Israel Their glory it was that they had such a revend esteeme of the King as to account him their light For the glory and wealth of the country standeth in the preservation of the godly Magistrate Lyes our Margent there Non quod libet sed quod licet laus est facere so it ought to be though there were no other reason but this very piety of the King that hee supplicates the hands of God as well for his subjects safety as his owne because the mercies of the Lord are great and deprecates the hands of men because their hands are cruell hands because their hands are sacrilegious hands