Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	great_a	london_n	lord_n	3,482	5	3.3624	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42061	The right way to victory discovered in a sermon, preached at Guild-Hall Chappel before the Lord Mayor of London, June 22, 1673 / by Francis Gregory ...	Gregory, Francis, 1625?-1707.	1673 (1673)	Wing G1904; ESTC R13098	10,563	22

Imprimatur Antho. Sanders Reverendissimo in Christo Patri Domino Domino Gilberto Archi-Episc Cant. à Sacris Domesticis Julii 2. Ex Aedibus Lambethanis The Right Way to VICTORY Discovered in a SERMON Preached at Guild-hall Chappel before the Lord Mayor of London June 22. 1673. By Francis Gregory D. D. Rector of Hambleton in the County of Bucks and Chaplain in Ordinary to his Sacred Majesty Printed at the Request of the Lord Mayor LONDON Printed by E. Flesher for Richard Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred Majesty MDCLXXIII TO The Right Honourable S r. ROBERT HANSON K t. Lord Mayor of the City of LONDON My Lord 'T IS from the undeserved Mercy of our God and the tender care of our Soveraign and his anointed that we now see to the great satisfaction of our Friends and the terrour of our Enemies the great City of England lately consumed with flames and entombed in its own Ashes not only raised again but advanced to that high degree of Splendor and Magnificence that now it much exceeds its Self and perhaps all other Cities of the World besides 'T is well known as well to our Adversaries as to our Allies that London is not only the Metropolis of England but its strength treasury and glory too Such is the number of its Inhabitants such is the stateliness of its structures such is the wealth of its Merchants Companies and Chamber that we may easily conclude that One London is more concerned in the success of the present War than all our Cities besides The quarrel betwixt us and our neighbours beyond the Sea is of grand importance the Dispute is Whether the New States of Holland shall brave it over the Antient Kings of England whether Rebels shall Lord it over Soveraigns whether the Texel shall rule the Ocean or that which is all one whether Amsterdam shall give check to London and Law to the World My Lord the matter now referred to the decision of the sword being of so great Moment every Englishman every Magistrate every Corporation but especially that of London stands obliged to do whatever may be done for the just honour of our Prince the security of our Trade and the establishment of our Church and Nation I do not doubt but your Lordships Mace when occasion is offered will be employed to defend his Majesties Crown I do not question but your Lordships Sword when matters so require will be readily drawn to protect his Majesties Scepter there 's no good Christian but is a good subject too and there 's no good subject but will sacrifice his Honour his Power his Estate his Blood his Life in the just vindication of his Soveraign But yet there is something more than all this that must be done our holy God that is so justly displeased with our Nation must be reconciled Religion that is so much decayed must be repaired sin that is grown so bold and daring must be suppressed and amongst the many detestable vices of this age there is none that ruines us more than drunkenness and whoredome the abuse of good wine and the use of bad women And could we but once see a restraint laid on sin could we but once see every accursed thing removed from our Cities our Camp and our Court we might then hope that our God would either bless us with peace or prosper us in war And this is the only design of this discourse a design which your Lordship was pleased so far to approve as to invite me to make it Publick And since through your Lordships encouragement the Press hath sent that abroad into the world which was designed for the Pulpit only as I humbly beg your Lordships kind Patronage so do I earnestly crave the Readers serious consideration with this assurance that if the matter of this seasonable discourse be duely weighed and the Rules delivered therein be conscientiously practised this poor Paper-Pellet will conduce more towards the gaining of a glorious Victory than all our Musket and Canon shot With my Prayer to Almighty God that he would so bless your Lordships Government that the Inhabitants of your City may be preserved from Sword and Pestilence and its sumptuous Buildings from further Flames I am Your Lordships Friend and Servant Francis Gregory The Right way to VICTORY DEUT. 23. 9. When the Host goeth forth against thine enemies then keep thee from every wicked thing THat a constant and uniform obedience is due to the great God of heaven at all times and in all conditions whatsoever 't is beyond dispute and that man is universally obliged at all seasons and in all cases imaginable to abstain from sin there 's none can doubt except it be some stupid soul that is insensible what Hell doth mean or Heaven is worth But although such an uninterrupted course of obedience be indeed a thing which God doth ever require and man must alway yield yet there are such and such conjunctions and nicks of time wherein we are engaged not only by Gods Perpetual and general laws but by his particular Providences and our own private concerns to practise Holiness and cease from sin In serene and Halcyon dayes when God smiles upon our Nation methinks were there not command to require it yet our own ingenuity gratitude and the great Gentleness of Christianity should constrain us when we abound with mercies to love and serve that good God which giveth them And when our Nation groans under the just displeasure of Heaven when the great God thunders just over our heads in black and dreadful clouds had we no Engagement besides yet methinks our present fears and apprehensions of imminent dangers should oblige us in the midst of judgments to avoid and detest those sins which bring them That 's our case and our great Concern this day there is a war commenced and the sword is drawn and that this war may prove successful that this sword may enter where it should that our armies and navies may prove victorious what must be done that great Moses who had the conduct of Gods own armies and was a warriour as well as a Prophet doth thus inform us when the Host goeth forth against thine enemies then keep thee from every wicked thing The words are familiar and easie and so need no exposition there are two things considerable in them 1. Gods severe and strict Command Keep thee from every wicked thing that 's our duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Hebrew --- 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 --- saith the LXX Caveto saith the Arabick take heed beware and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of every wicked thing 2. Mans Particular season wherein this great Command must in an especial manner be obeyed and when is that when the Host goeth forth against thine enemies then keep thee from every wicked thing if ever ye will do it do it then The substance of the text and the sum of our discourse will lie in this short conclusion namely That

holy Angels the Sun the Moon the Starrs even the whole creation to become enemies to that unhappy Nation where it reigns Thus the Prophet behold I am against you saith the Lord O dreadful word if God be against us who can be for us The Lord was an enemy who then can or dares be a friend If once it come to this that God proves an enemy the whole universe will be so too Thus Claudian-Militat aether conjurati veniunt in classica venti and thus a better author too the stars in their courses fought against Sisera For if we believe that God certainly is what Luther terms him Rector mundi the Governor of the World we must believe that all creatures whatsoever are as Pineda words it sub Dei vexillo under Gods own banner and do us good or harm according as he commands them I will not say what some are apt to fear that God is become an enemy to England no although vice doth strangely reign yet God hath still amongst us a considerable number of Religious and Pious servants whom he dearly loves and for whose sake the Church and Kingdom stands But as to the Nation in general God hath given us very shrewd signs to suspect that he doth not like our doings When we consider the crimes the many the brutish the devilish crimes that are committed without controll and that not by the rascality of ill bred people but the better sort of men whose actions do become examples and rules to inferiour persons we must acknowledge that our holy God might justly cast us off for ever And when we consider the sore the many the tremendious Judgements judgements almost beyond example that we have felt and yet grow worse and worse we have cause enough to be jealous that God is at least still displeased and angry with us The late mercies which this Nation hath received were beyond not our deserts alone but our very expectations too tell me was it not beyond our hopes that in spight of all opposers God should in a miraculous manner restore the King to his Throne the Bishop to his Chair the Nobleman to his Honour the Parliament to its Priviledges and every English man to his right without one blow without one drop of blood But consider what grateful acknowledgements hath this Nation made to God for this and the consequences of this many other signal mercies Alas Such an unkind return have we made to Heaven that we may now say Quantùm mutatus O how is Gods countenance changed how strangely is it altered his gracious smiles are now turned into such dreadful frowns as if he meant to bury us in the wrinkles of his brow we that through his favour were lately surprised with mercies beyond our hopes have now through his wrath and our own follies been surprised with Judgments even beyond our fears For tell me what man could have imagined that our late Plague begun in one single family should in a few weeks time so spread it self as to make so vast a City to become but one greater Pesthouse that there should be such a strange Mortality so many Deaths and Burials in every corner that every Church might have changed it's old name and every Parish been justly styled a St. Sepulchres Again what man could have dreamed that casus in urbe frequens an ordinary fire begun in one little corner should in four dayes time in dispight of all that man could do have reached and consumed so many thousand buildings the houses of men and the Temples of God too But to come neerer the business of the Text What man could have thought that our neer neighbours beyond the Sea who were once the Poor destressed States should ever have grown to that height either of impudence to affront or strength to withstand the King of England who would have thought that our old Petitioners should have ever become our new Controllers that they who were not able to secure to themselves a small spot of Land should now claim the vast dominion of the Seas and the main trade of the world Sure I am as it was the kindness or perhaps the imprudence of England that once made them great so it is the sin of England that now makes them troublesome When they were but in the egg it was our kind warmth that hatched them and although they are now grown up to be vipers yet if our own sins created it not they will never find a sting to wound us If it be true as some affirm that our enemies wickedness is full as great as our own yet that consideration will not much relieve us Their Vices are not our Vertues nor will their Poyson prove our Cordial What if God should use the Dutchman as he doth the Turk who is flagellum Dei the scourge of God that Rod which the dews of Heaven keep fresh and green and flourishing that it may last the longer and lash the sorer too What if God make England and Holland being Nations which mercies cannot win nor judgments scare so to weaken one another that a third shall over-run them both This is that which we have some cause to fear and many obligations to prevent and surely the way the only ready way to do it is to obey this great command in my Text When thine Host goeth forth against thine enemies then keep thee from every wicked thing Methinks in a time of War men and men deeply concerned in the success too should not so highly sin and so provoke the great Lord of Hosts Methinks if we consider that War is a solemn and serious thing we should forbear even our innocent sports much more our Hellish Crimes 'T is not for prudent Christians to act like the silly fish that are observed to play most and grow even wanton when the storm is rising I am confident it would even break our Hearts and well it might to see our Armies miscarry to see our Ships burned with fire or drowned in water to see a few broken Vessels return laden with nothing else but poor wounded men cloathed with shame and rolled in bloud if such a spectacle would not please you prevent it by your prayers your tears your vertuous lives which are things more likely then guns and swords to gain the Conquest I need not mind you that the matters in dispute and danger are of huge concern we do not sight for toyes and trifles no the things contended for are the King and the Subject the State and the Church the Crown and the Mitre Whatever it is that three kingdoms are worth doth now lie at stake Tell me then shall we be such desperate fools as to hazard all this for such or such a beloved sin Shall we be such brutes as to lose all this and our souls to boot for such or such a cursed lust O remember what the Great God commands us and that in order to success and Victory Keep thy self from every wicked thing Certainly 't is a wicked thing to be drunk 't is a wicked thing to blaspheme the name of God 't is a wicked thing to be unclean and wanton 't is a wicked thing to scoff at Religion and to droll at any man or any thing that is Holy all this and whatever else is wicked we must resolve either to quit or else to hazard all If the Pope think it his concern to send into the field as the Roman Pontifical words it Vexillum sanctificatum Ensem benedictum an hallowed banner a consecrated sword Methinks we should think our selves obliged to provide against our enemies though not superstitious weapons yet not Prophane warriours neither for 't is not the strong but the clean hand that best wields the sword nor is it the stout but the Pure Heart that 's most like to get the victory 'T is Religion that engageth Heaven and defends earth 'T is this that establisheth Thrones and Scepters 't is this that doth advance the Noblemans honour and makes his star shine so much the brighter 't is this that makes a Nation beloved of God and feared of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is Religion and Vertue that must beat our enemies and get us Triumphs 't is this and nothing but this that will give us through the assistance and mercy of our God a victorious and happy kingdom here on earth and an eternal one in Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deut. 28. 17. Pro. 6. 2● Pro. 23. 21. 1 Cor. 11. 30. 2 Cor. 2. 5. 8. Deut. 11. 8. Josh 1. 7. Pro. 28. 1. Isa 36. ● Isa 19. 3. Jer. 19. 7. Exod. 17. 11. Isa 1. 15. Jer. 7. 16. Josh 1. ● Josh 7. 12. Exod. 15. 3. Isa 13. 8. Lam. 2. 5. Judg. 5. 20.