Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A60140
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No peace to the wicked a sermon preached on the fast-day, May 23, 1694, being the day appointed by authority for a general and publick fast in London and Westminster, &c ... / by John Shower.
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Shower, John, 1657-1715.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing S3676; ESTC R454
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31,697
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42
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their Power shame their Confidence lessen their Numbers and frustrate their Hopes When God was displeased with Israel for the accursed Thing in the time of Joshua three thousand Israelites shall flee and be smitten before the Men of Ai though but thirty six in number But if God be our Friend though ten thousand of the People set themselves against us we need not fear He is a sufficient Defence we need not fear all the Nations of the Earth if we are at Peace with God and at Peace among our selves which would follow upon it He is the Shield of our Help and can be a Wall of Fire round about us Tho the Enemy come in like a Floud he can lift up a Standard against him and when he comes one way make him fly ten He can show Strength with his Arm and scatter the Proud in the Imagination of their Hearts and turn their Devices backward What deep Designs does he defeat What mighty Projects does he disappoint by taking away Wisdom from the Wise and Courage from the Valiant cutting off the Spirits of Princes by a surprizing Stroke altering their Minds and Purposes or ending their Lives c. Peace and War are in his Hand All the Hosts of Heaven are at his Command and Service to fight his Battels and accomplish his Designs The Stars in their Courses shall fight and the Elements of Heaven shall be muster'd in his Quarrel From the Air he can pour down Hail-stones as on the Ammonites or send an Angel to discomfit a mighty Army as he did Senacherib's or by Fire consume an Enemy's Troops as those which came against Elijah The Water shall bury the Egyptians and rather than fail the Dust of the Earth shall start up into Armies of Flies and Lice and Frogs against Pharoah And he is the God of Peace as well as the Lord of Hosts As 't was of the Lord that the Canaanites did not make Peace with Israel and that Zedekiah rebelled and that Ahab went to War at Ramoth Gilead c. So 't is he that makes Peace I make Peace I create Evil Isa 45.7 I the Lord do all these things He is said to make the Instruments of War to create the Smith that formeth them and to create the Waster to destroy Isa 54.16 Therefore he can stop them hinder them destroy them when he pleaseth To all the Ends of the Earth he is said to make Wars to cease that is Psal 46.8 in all Places in all Countries in all Societies in Families in Churches in Cities in Nations in particular Souls Every where it is his Work to make Peace and every kind of Peace is from the God of Peace 3. If God be angry and bring desolating War on a People Human Help is all in vain and his Anger will make all the Calamities of War to be double If Israel become the People of God's Wrath he lets loose the Rage of Man and then every base proud idolatrous Assyrian shall tread them down as Mire in the Streets Even Sampson shall fall by the uncircumcised Philistines when God departs whereas before he was wont to slaughter them by Heaps If God be angry and send this Judgment of Sword or Famine against a People who can describe the Dread and Horror of such a Calamity Every Battel of the Warrior saith the Prophet is with confused Noise and Garments roll'd in Blood Isa 9.5 but this shall be with Burning and with Fewel of Fire The Wrath of God shall put an unusual Terror on the very Countenances of an Enemy and give an unusual Edg to their Sword The Anger of God will sharpen the Sting and Terror of natural Death it will invenom the Teeth of Famine and make all the Calamities of War unsufferably more grievous than can be exprest There is nothing so base but the greatest Spirits shall stoop to nothing so unnatural but the tenderest of you all may be brought to comply with You think you should part with your own Lives a thousand times over rather than eat the Flesh of your Children I doubt not but the delicate Women in Jerusalem thought so too and yet in Famine they boiled their Children and were glad to eat them Pity shall perish from Parents Courage from the Men of Might Wisdom from the Antients Flight from the Swift and the Strong not be able to find their Hands For it is the Day of the Lord's Wrath and who can abide it You may seek for Death at such a time and not find it and within an Hour Death may offer it self and then you will flee from it and within a few Moments repent and wish you had died Such will be the Distress and Anguish of your Souls between vain Hope and tormenting Fear that your very Lives will be a burden Think what the case would be where the Sword without and Torror within shall destroy young and old the Suckling and the Man with gray Hairs When there is no Peace to him that goes out or to him that comes in but great Vexation on all the Inhabitants Nation destroyed of Nation and City of City for God did vex them with all Adversity Think of these things and repent of Sin for that is the Cause of it 4. We do not know what we may further experience and feel of the terrible Effects and Miseries of War The most are confident that all will quickly be well and the present Cloud vanish There will speedily be an honourable Peace the French are impoverish'd and almost starved Their Numbers are lessen'd and ours encreas'd against this Campagne They must e're long make Peace or we shall force them to it Or if they should not many flatter themselves they have this or the other Project to provide for themselves they doubt not for their parts but to escape well let things be as they will But may not all such Confidence prove a Refuge of Lies Consider what God saith by the Prophet Jer. 37.9 10. Thus saith the Lord to the King of Judah Deceive not your selves saying The Chaldeans shall depart tho you had smitten the whole Army of the Chaldeans that fight against you and there remain'd but wounded Men among them yet should they rise up every Man from his Tent and burn this City with Fire What is there for publick Safety or private Defence that can be Proof against the Anger of God For certain it is not the great Numbers or Riches of a People no advantageous Situation or Strength of Places nor the best prepared Armies and Navies or any Confederacies abroad or Fortifications at home can secure us The best the greatest the most hopeful of all such things have been frequently baffled and sham'd and confounded by the Divine Anger Riches be sure profit not in the day of Evil they rather expose to Envy and Danger than secure against it They who have most to lose are likely to suffer most and commonly are least able to bear