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	lord_n	year_n	6,316	5	4.5357	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A03698	The shield of the righteous: or, The Ninety first Psalme, expounded, with the addition of doctrines and vses Verie necessarie and comfortable in these dayes of heauinesse, wherein the pestilence rageth so sore in London, and other parts of this kingdome. By Robert Horn, minister of Gods Word.	Horne, Robert, 1565-1640.	1625 (1625)	STC 13825; ESTC S104237	130,560	160

will deliuer vs Dan. 3.17 but the God whom wee neuer serued and therefore cannot in iustice deliuer vs but suffer vs rather to perish in that flame that burneth vp the vngodly as drosse And since a confession that there is a God standeth not without a prayer of confession due vnto him they denying the one how can they but be deniers of the other And denying God how can they with comfort looke for the saluation of God Let them consider this who neither at home nor in the assembly once a weeke call vpon God or if their lips goe their heart is not in the businesse of prayer Some cannot pray but in the Church and some will not pray when they are at Church what difference betweene such and deniers of God One sort salutes him not at all and the other with lippes without a heart Further if God should againe send some contagious death and mortalitie among vs what good could these vnprofitable limbes in the Church doe for the remoouing of it what is the King and his throne better I am sure much worse for them for though they cannot not care not to establish it by their prayers they can weaken it by their finnes and send againe for the Pestilence though when it is come they can neither helpe to cure it while it rageth nor the skarre of misery and desolations that it leaueth behind it in particular places and in the common state when it is gone And now that the bloodie Esau of Rome prepare with such crueltie and numbers to deuoure poore Iacob what can these doe but strengthen them weaken the righteous as they do by horrible Atheisme They cannot deliuer themselues and which is worse they cannot but draw the Gospel with vs further into bondage Let God threaten our haruest and corne fields with ill weather and forcible tempests what good doe these wanting the key wherewith Elijah shut the heauen and opening it wider and further by their blasphemies And as they doe no good so as doers of great harme by prouoking the Lord with their monstrous villanies they increase the wrath vpon England Nehem. 13.18 But further the Lord speaking of the righteous saith Hee shall call vpon me that is hee shall goe to no other for helpe in trouble Which was the practise of the Fathers in the old Testament Doct. 2 and teacheth that God onely is to be prayed vnto For God so commanded Psal 50.15 and the godly yea euery Reason 1 one that is godly must so doe Psal 32.6 So Psal 34.6 The poore man cryed and the Lord that is he to whom hee cryed heard him and saued him out of his troubles Thus did good Iehosaphat and the chiefe of Iudah with him for his eyes and theirs were to God onely not to Abraham or any Saint departed 2. Chron. 20.12 And in the New Testament Christ directs vs by forme Math. 6.9 and charges vs by precept Mat. 11.28 to come to no other then to God not to him otherwise then as God The reasons For our approach to any other then to him that is God there is not either in the old or new Testament any commandement or practice and the prayer taught by Christ the most perfect and best that euer was taught doth proue as much Secondly the obiect of our faith must bee the subiect of our Reason 2 prayers Rom. 10.14 That is to him onely we must pray in whom onely we beleeue But this is no other then God Thirdly none can helpe as God can and none can where hee Reason 3 will not And therefore he onely and none but he that is none but he that is God is to be prayed vnto Or from God alone come all the meanes of our deliuerance the wise vsing of them the successe and blessing vpon them therefore to him onely must we go for them by prayer Fourthly Christ hath put the matter out of question who saith Reason 4 in one of his answers to the Tempter Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serue Math. 4.10 Out of which answer I reason thus Prayer is a seruice and worthy of God but we must worship and serue God onely and therefore pray to him onely It taxeth Popish Liturgies Vse and formes of Prayer to Saints departed Exceptio 1. But they say that so call vpon the Saints that they pray not to them to helpe them but to speake for them not to be Sauiours but Mediators Repl. But the Apostle tels vs that there is one Mediatour hee speaketh of no mo and therefore but one onely betweene God and Man 1. Tim. 2.5 giuing instance in Christ both God and Man His meaning is that God the Father hath made to Christ the Sonne a Deed of gift of being that one Mediatour betweene him and vs and that euery gift and grant that is made passeth in his name and whatsoeuer is recouered to vs pertaining to redemption is entred in the title and right of him and giuen to vs because we are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones Ephes 5.30 This being the Apostles meaning touching that one Mediator who is Christ to entitle other Mediators to his office is a point of forgery and point that argueth all Papists of a great offence against the chiefe roialties of that only sufficient most mild Mediator between God vs the God man Christ Iesus Besides he that will take vpon him to be Mediator that is in this manner to be Spokesman betweene God and vs must be perfectly able to saue all them that come to God by him Heb. 7.25 but what creature bee it the mother of Christ though otherwise a most blessed woman be it I say againe the Mother of Christ or any other that haue died in Christ or for him is able to saue a soule and if not able to saue a soule then not allowed to be Mediatour for it Exceptio 2. But they further say Saints are Mediatours of intercession and Christ and he only the Mediatour of redemption Repl. But this answer is no other then that which was confuted before and it is a distinction without a difference like to that answer of the Physitians wife and it was a wise one pepper is hot in operation Bishop I●-will against Har-ding and cold in working as if operation and working were two things So here mediation and intercession but one thing two names are made diuers that differ not for what difference betweene a Mediatour and Intercessour Is not a Mediator one that laboureth betweene partie and partie and is not an Intercessor the same Exceptio 3. But who that hath offended the Prince commeth directly into his sight and not by some way made for him by his Nobles or some in fauour about him Repl. Be it so and be it granted also that wee dare not come to God offended without a Mediator haue we not a Mediator who as hath beene said is able to saue

vs 1 King 22.8 shall say and may truly say peace is come Esay 57.2 So much for the Plague of Pestilence darkly described and vnder the cloud of the figure the description of it without figure and plainely followeth And from the most grieuous Pestilence OR from the Pestilence of griefes in the Hebrew deliuering it by weight from thence and it is called the Pestilence of griefes because it pierceth them through with many sorrowes and is most grieuous to all or most of all that are visited with it as by pensiue solitarinesse their friends forsaking them and their neighbours not daring to come neere them by the anguish and worke of the sicknesse it selfe being very painfull and so pernicious that it passeth presently and terribly to the vitall parts getting into the head or working vpon the heart the castle of life and destroying there by opportunity of temptations the soule in so dangerous a priuatenesse being open to Satan and his malicious obiections not strengthned with the aides of Preachers or christian brethren in some by sundrie pitifull distractions caused by a hot bath or fire in the braine and through the whole bodie which maketh them to fall into fits of rauing and madnesse in many by the extremitie of paine and shortnesse of time in which so little respit is left if any to dispose their estate to their friends or to order their soules to God and in whom not who by reason of the contagion that it sendeth out dare not take leaue of their friends nor see the children of their owne bodie and must die separate and comfortlesse And is it not a sicknesse of griefes that maketh a mans whole acquaintance and best friends to forsake him that hurteth trades and impouerisheth townes that snatcheth here there emptying not some few houses only but whole townes and large towneships that breaketh and weareth men to nothing Doct. 1 The Doctrine from hence is the Pestilence of griefes is not to be regarded so little as some regard it who reuerence none of Gods iudgements The consideration hereof moued Dauid and the Elders of Israel clad in sack-cloth to fall vpon their faces 1 Chron. 21.16 for when they saw the drawne sword of this sicknesse in the hand of the Angel readie with it to destroy Ierusalem as hee had done other parts of the land with authoritie from the Lord that sent him they in humble cloathing and with their faces to the earth feared then as before some great destruction Where if they had regarded it no better nor otherwise then farre meaner persons at this day do they would neither haue feared so much nor walked so humbly before it He profiteth d Psal 4 4. Prou. 28.14 in the loue of God that profiteth in his feare by considering his iudgements And therefore he loued much that said My flesh trembleth for feare of thee Psal 119.120 that is in my imperfect state here when thou threatnest I feare and my heart is moued when thou art a little moued For feare makes way to loue and loue as it increaseth diminisheth feare But wherefore is the Pestilence in this Scripture called most grieuous and else where in the Scriptures the most terrible Plague Deut. 28.59 60. Ezech. 14.21 If it were no more to bee regarded It is one of Gods curses Deut. 28.45 and is any curse of God light or lightly to be respected The Lord by Amos complaines of the gouernours and people of Israel dwelling in Samaria that none of his strokes whereof the Pestilence that he sent among them was one could turne them by repentance Amos 4.10 Would he haue complained of this as of some strange thing if the Pestilence considered in it selfe had not bene a forcible outward meanes to worke in them this repentance and turning to God The Reasons The desolations it worketh are fearefull and the distractions Reason 1 that it is cause of are lamentable as hath bene said Secondly the finger of God is to be regarded in any stroke Reason 2 and shall not his whole hand bee feared in this of the Pestilence Thirdly of the foure valiant men that the Lord will send to reuenge Reason 3 the breach of his couenant Pestilence is and is said to bee one Ezech. 14.21 And if one then to be feared not desperately but profitably when it cometh Then the foole-hardinesse of some is no way tolerable who Vse 1 like mad persons runne vpon the naked point of this perillous sicknesse hazarding themselues vpon it by eating and drinking with those that haue it These feare too little and not where they should and therefore cannot but fall into euill Prou. 28.14 For as moderate feare worketh tendernesse so want of feare causeth hardning The godly though they haue greater confidence and more boldnesse in the changes then such audacious fooles can haue yet expell not godly feare but make the Lord their feare by fearing to amendment when such trumpets are blowne in the kingdome Amos 3.6 And therefore they cleaue to God and vnclaspe with sinne fearing his iudgements and feeling his louing fauour when the other go on still and are punished Prou. 22.3 Vse 2 An admonition to Christians wisely to looke into themselues when a iudgement of such griefes is sent For where a grieuous Pestilence walketh there are great sinnes and grieuous that make way for it in Towne and Countrey which is true and would be considered in euery other iudgement of God that is strange and grieuous For where he so visiteth he is forced by Mans impudencie in sinning so to visite As the world groweth in wickednesse so of the seede of sinne it bringeth forth according to the growth of that ill weede a like growing and proceeding in Plagues and Iudgements God hath new punishments for new sinnes and strange Plagues for strange offenders the store-house of his iudgements can neuer bee emptied It therefore much concerneth Christians well to obserue the workes of God whether they be done in mercie or iustice in his Church and if he execute iustice in it whether after the common rule or extraordinatily For if his strokes be other then vsuall the sinnes so visited are more then common and ordinarie This meditation will make the godly wise in such varietie of iudgements as haue within these few yeares shewed themselues among vs to feare not them so much though they bee all fearefull and fearefully wrought as the more fearefull sinnes of the State and Times that caused them nor onely the rod but chiefly the striker But because we saw nothing extraordinarie in so long and strong a Plague as so much and terribly wrought in London and all England so few yeares since and do see nothing but common matter in those varied Plagues which the yeares after fearefully and successiuely followed that therefore We are not wise to consider our end Deut. 32.29 And it is to be feared that we are giuen vp to the hardnesse of our heart to walke in our owne counsels to

it is not possible in these dayes sincerely and with good conscience to serue the Lord without some affliction The Apostle or Christ by him saith of the Church of Ephesius when she was something worth I know thy labour and patience and other workes as if he had said that when shee was at the best she had great matter offered for her labour and patience Apoc. 2.2.3 and other vertues by the things she suffered for his name and testimonie And to conclude what part of the world what age in the world from the blood of Abel to our times hath not heard of the cruell martyrdomes of Gods Children for the cause of goodnesse and of the true seruice of God All which shew plainely that the best and godliest in all times haue been vnder the rod and scourge of troubles for their Zeale in good things The slaughters in Spain and Italy the two chiefe seates of the bloody inquisition the huge fires of England France and Flanders into which they cast such multitudes of those that would not fal down before their golden image Dan. 3. 10 11. doe proclaime to all the world how great and many troubles haue followed goodnesse of late yeares besides the times of the Emperours In the ten first persecutions which our Church-stories haue left all wading in blood The third promise followeth And honour * Or glorifie him make him glorious him THis is the third promise which is not simply of deliuerance but of deliuerance with honour And so by an increase more is promised in these words then before to the righteous which is that God will not onely deliuer them but gloriously doe it in their greatest troubles and in an ouerplus of his fauour after raise them to honour as he did Ioseph Iob Dauid Daniel and others And therefore where the Lord saith I will honour him it is as much as if he had said I will alway deliuer him and sometimes set him in the chaire of honour This may well be the Lords meaning in this third thing promised to the righteous For all that are deliuered are not so preferred it is inough that some are and it is certaine that they that are not that is that haue not these glories temporall shall yet receiue when they haue serued their time glory euerlasting The words deliuer the Doctrine plainely Doct. 1 I will honour him saith the Lord Now if it be God that must giue honour or bring to honour we learne that outward honour is Gods blessing and the gift of God It is he that raiseth the poore out of the dust of basenesse and he that lifteth vp the begger from the dunghill of contempt to the seat of glory saith Annah in her thankefull song 1. Sam. 2.8 And Salomon Gods owne King tels vs who set him in the throne of his Father Dauid where he confesseth that Kings are set in the chaire of soueraigntie by God By me saith he meaning God who is there made speaker Kings raigne Pro. 8.15 that is sit on their thrones or benches And by my power and gift or as it is in the Text by me Princes rule and Nobles and all the Iudges of the earth that is not onely the scueraigne but subordinate authoritie is from mee and by my purpose and will Dauid speaketh plainely in another Psalme telling vs that to come to preferment is neither from the East nor from the West nor yet from the South that is from none of the quarters of the world but from God that made it Psal 75.6 For it followeth in the next Verse but God is the Iudge or God the Iudge doth dispose the risings of men who putteth downe one and setteth vp another Verse 7 that is barreth from honour or bringeth to glory The blessed mother of our Sauiour hath a like saying in her Song making the Lord the putter downe of one and the exalter of another Luke 1.52 And though a man bee borne to honour yet it is from God both that he is borne and that he is borne Noble If he after adorne his high place with a good life God for his singular good hath aduanced him but if hee proue wicked as Saul he is not exalted with fauour it is but for the greater fall of the house that it is builded so high Mat. 7.27 Easier had the iudgement of that person beene if he had beene but a shrub in the Common-Wealth then being a Cedar in it to haue had so terrible a downfall It is certain therefore that God is the author of Nobilitie and Soucraignty The reasons In themselues they be great blessings but all blessings great Reason 1 and other are from God Iames 1 17. Secondly Kings and Princes and Nobles are names of order Reason 2 and therefore come from the God of order Thirdly God that made the heauen made the different orders Reason 3 that are in heauen that is in the a Colos 1.16 Angels and b 1 Cor. 15.41 Starres of heauen and therefore that God that made the earth made the Nobles and Princes of the earth for that which was done in the one was done in the other and by the same Deitie and power An admonition to Nobility and Great ones to take their honour Vse 1 and risings thankfully and as a blessing whereof God is Author not resting on that which discends from man and stands only vpon the clay-feete of Pedigree and Auncestors Dan. 2.33 That they may so doe they must labour for that honour which is from God and to which there is no ascending but by staires of his scare for he is a good Gentleman and Noble-man of a good house that adornes his high place with the Ornaments of repentance and sanctified life and though a man be borne to honour yet not his birth but his New-birth giueth him his title to it They that hold their honours otherwise are but vsurpers not holding them in capite that is in Christ by seruing him And here it would be remembred that Nobilitie though a blessing of God yet is but an vncleane thing as one well c Master Perki●s on the Creed saith if they that be borne vnto it be not new-borne to Christ by holinesse and that noble blood before men is stained blood before the Lord till the blood of Christ sanctifie it Neither let the greatest thinke that God hath lift them vp to pull him downe that they should say God hath aduanced me therefore I will doe what I list who should rather say God hath aduanced me that I should honour him not my selfe with my noble parentage for shall I dishonour the Lord with his owne gift or hauing receiued honour from God not seeke the honour which is of God let all therefore whom God hath set vp labour to get a good interest to their noble-birth and places by their new-birth in Christ for better neuer to haue beene borne or to haue beene borne beggers then vnborne to God