Selected quad for the lemma: hand_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
hand_n	house_n	israel_n	lord_n	5,710	5	4.4124	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52050	The right vnderstanding of the times opened in a sermon preached to the Honorable House of Commons, December 30, 1646, at Margaret Westminster, being the day of their solemne monethly fast / by Stephen Marshall ...	Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.	1647 (1647)	Wing M771; ESTC R6357	33,802	51

the Sword is not put up and in Ireland poor wretched Ireland the warre is more terrible where if we labour not to end it by sending our brethren timely succours the bloody enemy is like to come to make a new war upon us ere it be long And in the times of warre What have the heads of our Tribes to do Certainly all people in a time of warre should make it a time of mourning Ezekiel saith The Sword is furbished and drawne and made bright for slaughter should wee then make mirth Should this bee a time of jollitie and all should labour to finde out the Causes of the warre what the Sword-procuring sins are and every one to repent and turne from them But you that are our Heads are to look to these 2 Things principally First That while the warre doth last and must last that our Campes and Armies may bee in such a condition that God may not abhorre our Armies When the Host goes forth to the battail keepe thee from every evill thing And Secondly In the times of Warre you should alwayes labour after an honourable safe and just Peace peace is the end of warre Pax una triumphis One peace is worth 100 Victories and therefore you must principally addresse your selves to God who alone can give us Peace Kings and States may begin a warre but God onely must end it we may daube up a peace and get counterfeits of peace but all will bee arena sine calce Sand without lime a mortar which will not hold but as a swelling in a high wall whose breach comes suddenly Therefore remember againe and againe your work lies with the God of Peace pacifie him and hee will create peace for you Fifthly Our Times are times of Divisions such Divisions as I thinke were hardly ever knowne in the Christian World Divisions every where divisions in Parliament divisions in the Assembly divisions in the Citie divisions in State affaires but woe and alasse most of all and worst of all divisions among Gods people the Servants of God who heretofore prayed together fasted together could have been banished together now as if the curse of Simeon and Levi were fallen upon them they are divided in Jacob and scattered in Israel Manasseh is aagainst Ephraim and Ephraim against Manasseh and every one eates the flesh of his owne arme and through the wrath of the Lord the Land is darkened and infatuated by the miserable divisions of Gods owne people and these divisions are fomented encouraged and back'd by a Third il-affected party who desires that these Two like wilde beasts may teare one another and weaken one another that they may devoure them both and all this goes on thorough our sinne And truly wee are in my poore thoughts as if God had left us to bee as Moab and Ammon and Mount Seir where two stood up against one to destroy it and then the other two to destroy one another as the foolish Woman wee are pulling downe our house with our owne hands And now Honorable and Beloved in such sad uncomfortable times as these are what have the Heads of our Israel to doe what doth the Lord looke for at your hands Certainly you with others and you above all others should labour to bee our Physitians our Aesculapiusses to joine our dissever'd limbes and if it bee possible to make us one againe Noble Senators is there no way that your Wisdome can contrive to make Pacification Accommodation and Reconciliation but must wee goe on thus to ruine one another Any ordinary head may serve to embroyle things but here would bee the Master-piece of your Wisdome if you could find out a way how the envie of Ephraim and the ill will of Manasseh might cease and that Gods people might yet bee reconciled and united of one minde as farre as is possible and made of one heart in those lower things wherein they cannot bee of one minde Would God put this in your hearts that you might speedily and earnestly set about it that if there should be found any Animosities amongst your selves you would lay them down first all agree to study the Publike good and then see what you can doe to reconcile others in the Ministery in the City in the Countrey o that you could doe as Constantine did who burnt all the Libells that were presented to him from one Bishop against another and never left till hee had made peace among them O that God would both inable you and provoke you to set speedily upon this worke God and his people have their eyes upon you and expect you should imploy all your Wisdome Piety Parts and Authority to extinguish those flames which threaten speedy ruine to us all Our times are times of Reformation As they are times of sinne and errour and wrath and warre and divisions which all five are very sad so the other two are excellent our times are times of Reformation I mean they are times not onely of much Gospell light but they are times of growing and increasing light wherein the light of the Gospell spreads more and the Lord as in other parts of the world so especially amongst us seemes to bee laying out the platforme of his Temple and to set out a new edition of his Church fairer and more beautifull then ever and what have the Heads of our Tribes to doe at such a time without all question very much of it will lie upon your hands under God you have contended stifly and couragiously for our liberties and properties and to recover us from bondage and slavery and God hath been with you in it and although the kingdome doth not yet feele it and so it may bee doth not greatly thank you because in desperate diseases the cure is commonly more costly and more tedious then the disease is but I doubt when God vouchsafes a settling they will finde the fruit of what you have done for them and blesse God for you that are their healers But know I beseech you that our Religion is our most Orient Pearle and that whereupon our heart is most set and if there should bee any miscariage in it all will perish with it wee should call every thing else Ichabod if Religion miscarry all is gone and therefore to provoke you to helpe us in this thing let mee leave these two Conclusions in your bosomes First A Reformation begun and not carried on alwayes brings more wrath from God you have begun the Reformation you are engaged in it by oath and Covenant and some happy proceeding and progresse you have made in it God grant you slack not in it For you●l finde in the Scriptures a reformation begun and laid aside is a peoples undoing In Elijahs dayes there was a Reformation begun it fell downe and the Kingdome perished with it In Josiah's time a Reformation was begun and quickly laid aside with the death of that good King and the Kingdome was ruined presently