Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	church_n	word_n	world_n	3,040	5	4.5870	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A97126	The good-vvill of Him that dwelt in the bush: or, The extraordinary happinesse of living under an extraordinary providence. A sermon preached before the Right Honourable, the House of Lords, in the Abbey Church at Westminster, on Tuesday, Iuly 22. 1645. At their publike thanksgiving for the good successe given to the Parliaments forces, under the command of Sir Thomas Fairfax in the west. /	Ward, John, d. 1665.	1645 (1645)	Wing W774; Thomason E293_16; ESTC R200163	33,640	44

hath done mervailously for the Kingdom exceeding abundantly above all that we have asked or thought Vnto him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus world without end Amen There remaineth yet another Use to be made of this priviledge and advantage of an extraordinary Providence I will briefly dispatch it in a few words of exhortation 1. To contentednesse with cheerfulnesse under the mighty hand of God that ye may possesse your souls in your patience and be able to cleave to the Lord without distraction We may be happy in adversity why should we make our selves miserable by false fears and false apprehensions we cannot run from the fire if we would why do we disquiet our selves in vain were it not better to walk with God in it and follow the Lord fully It is an extraordinary priviledge to live under an extraordinary Providence there cannot be such an extraordinary Providence if all things move in the ordinary way there must bee change and trouble and how shall we hope to receive the good of it at the hands of God if we be unwilling to receive the evil also The worke which the Lord hath begun to do both in Mercie and Judgement is very great and manifold upon what ground or to what end can we thinke or wish it may be finished in a day He that beleeveth maketh not haste God will certainly glorifie himselfe and make his power knowne and get him a great Name why should not we desire to see the glory of God though we therefore must be set in straits and under a cloud and the hand of God be upon us The Lord hath prepared his Throne and hath begun to pull down Babylon and to avenge the bloud of his Saints and of all that are slain on the earth How shall their sin swell up to its fulnesse and they be ripe for the Judgement so as all the World shall confesse True and righteous are thy Judgements oh Lord if the meane while the people of God and the Kingdomes of the World suffer nothing grievous by them who would not be glad to live when God doth this The Lord is refining of his Church as Gold is refined it must be done in the Furnace of affliction He is purging them from their filth and he will do it by the Spirit of Judgement and by the Spirit of burning Now we know that chronicall diseases must have long and tedious cures where they have long been setled upon the lees they must be often rolled from vessell to vessell and when they hang upon the old haunt they must be whipe off and if this may be the fruit of it to take away our sins that we perish not in them wherefore should we make it our feare and not rather count it a mercy to suffer the tryall God is come down to redeem his Church there must be time and occasion for him tobring forth all his great Judgements multiply his wonders that his people may have many testimonies of his neernes to them many pledges of his faithfulnesse for the support of their confidence and hope that they may be convinced of and humbled under their weaknesse unworthinesse wretchednesse and learne to depend on God alone and give him all the glory that they may have the proofe of the grace of God working effectually in them and their patience may have its perfect worke that they may be entire and made fit for deliverance their hearts prepared and established to receive and weare it with all thankfulnesse to the praise of the glory of the grace of God And if this be the good of tribulation why should we not be willing to chuse with Moses to suffer affliction with the people of God or to say with Peter in admiration of the happinesse It is good being here Or at the least to resolve with Micah to bear the indignation of the Lord If we will needs so looke upon it and with H●bakkuk rejoyce in the God of our salvation although we shall be brought into extream desolation and never so great affliction be prepared if haply he will plead our cause and we may be brought forth to the light and shall behold his righteousnesse and walk upon our high-places rather than pray with Pharaoh Let there be no more thundering and haile We have made many prayers and supplications it becomes us now to wait as the Husband-man for the harvest of our hopes and have long patience for the raine as well as the Sun-shine that all things may be the more kindly ripened and the more seasonably gathered in and threshed out and sed upon to the more advantage of our blessednesse and in due time we shall reape if we faint not Be patient therefore and stablish your heares for the comming of the Lord draweth nigh Secondly That we may attain to these things suffer me to adde another word of exhortation and then I shall have done it is to prayer First that the Lord would give us an heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to heare while God dwells amongst us in good will that we may have the happinesse to finde the honey in the carcase the wisdome not to suck the poyson of Malignity and male-contentednesse to our ruine but to extract the sweet the good the righteousnesse that may be learned by judgements for our Reformation and edification unto salvation This would make us count that blessednesse that we now call misery for not affliction but the folly of him that suffers it is evil But we cannot finde out the Riddle unlesse we plough with Gods heifers Wherefore if any man want the Wisdome let him aske is of God who gives to all men liberally and upbraideth not Secondly That while the fire taketh hold upon the Kingdoms The good will of him that dwelt in the Bush may come abundantly upon us who are many wayes separated from other people A motion for prayer is seasonable in a day of thanksgiving This is the day which the Lord hath made we will rejoyce and be glad in it Save now I beseech thee oh Lord oh Lord I beseech thee send now prosperity And truly we shall not pray before we have need I know no reason we have to flatter our selves with a golden dreame of sudden or setled peace I am sure our sins do multiply and increase and so do our dangers too If the sword of Warre were sheathed again we are in hazard to be ruined by that drunkennesse wherewith the Lord hath filled the Land to perish by division schisme and faction in this distemper if we had no warre yet there would be no peace and if he dash us one against another and not pity nor spare nor have mercy but destroy us who can plead against him The Lord knowes how todeliver the godly out of temptation and to reserve the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 iudgement to be punished The Lord knowes how to fulfill all his works

faithfullnesse else we should perish hourly in our divisions distempers and the provocations wherewith we tempt the Lord We are filled with drunkennesse we dash one against another and yet his eye pitieth and spareth and we are not perished we are divided divisions are multiplied the Kingdome divided within it selfe the Church divided within it selfe and yet behold we stand We read in the word that a Kingdome divided within it selfe cannot stand we read also and who trembles not at the reading It is easier for Heaven and earth to passe then one title of the Law to fail What shall we say hath God revoked his word hath he repealed his sentence surely he suspendeth it and we hope it may passe away unfulfilled England may be the instance of exception from that generall rule a Kingdome divided within it selfe cannot stand Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisedome and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgements and his wayes past finding out We are a froward and perverse generation we do not receive correction we are sick of our remedies impatient of our cure discontented with our mercies murmuring at our deliverance lingring back in our hearts to our former bondage not beleeving the Lord for all the signes which he hath shewed amongst us yet the Lord bears with us in great patience forbears to turne our enemy breaketh not in upon us to destroy us but gives us liberty to humble our souls and pray before him and suffers himselfe to be intreated and proclaimes his Name The Lord the Lord gracious and mercifull slow to wrath abundant in goodnesse and truth keeping mercy for thousands pardoning iniquity transgression and sin and that will by no means clear the guilty Oh that we could make haste and bow and worship and glorifie God and be thankfull Truly if we bring all our story into view we shall finde nothing on the part of men but wickednesse or weaknes madnesse and folly and on Gods part nothing but wisedome and power grace and patience mercy and truth met together and justice shining in an infinitie of goodnesse To gather the whole matter into a short summe Confusion hath or might have covered us but together with the smoak of the furnace a lamp hath been seen to walke between the divided pieces many evident testimonies of the goodnesse of our God condescending in the remembrance of his Covenant to walke amongst us in paths of mercy and truth The fire hath broken out into a flame and it hath taken hold upon us round about and we are no better then a dry bush before it and yet by the good will of God abiding among us as when he dwelt in the bush destruction is inhibited intercepted and prevented daily The presence of God in the glory of his majesty hath been so tempered as to us like the spirit moving upon the waters at the creation it is refreshing reviving and we hope refining and reforming or at least preparing for the production of order and peace with truth while to our adversaries set as briars and thornes against him in the battell our God is a consuming fire Now what shall we say to these things Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodnesse for his wonderfull workes to the children of men May I say it again and again treble the repetition as the Psalmist doth on like and lesse occasions Psal. 107. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodnesse and for his wonderfull works to the children of men Oh that I could lift up my voice as the Angel his trumpet at the opening of the seals and perswade to come and see that we may together magnifie the worke we behold and exalt the praises of our God Come and see the work of the Lord what desolation shall I say nay rather what prevention of desolation what preservation he hath wrought in the Land There is desolation I confesse and great terriblenesse in the desolation but there is abundance of goodnesse outshining it in the extraordinary wayes and workings of deliverance by the good will of our God Come and see the worke of the Lord The worke of the Lord is great done openly before us as on a theatre a manifold worke of mercy done in wisedome fearfully and wonderfully done and is worthy to be sought out and pried into of all them that have pleasure therein there is a mine of blessings folded up in it and there may be a mint of pleasure and profit in the contemplation How precious should the thoughts of God in all of it be unto us Who so is wise will consider these things and he shall understand the loving kindnesse of the Lord Let us make observation of that wherein our God is glorious and we are advantaged of every thing whereby he makes himselfe known and we are or may be made blessed in the course of his extraordinary providence over us for good and pause and dwell upon the contemplation with meditation with deep and serious consideration with all intension and elevation of the heart alwaies Let the worke and praises of God be celebrated with admiration praise him according to his excellent greatnesse indeed there is no praise comely proportionable to the transcendent excellency of Gods majesty but admiration praise waiteth upon thee saith the Psalmist or as the Hebrew more significantly hath it praise is silent or silence before thee it is impossible to comprehend much lesse to expresse all that belongeth to his praise our eyes can as well read and measure the greatnesse and brightnesse of the lights in the firmament of Heaven as our hearts can discerne and display the glory of God Who can utter all the mighty acts of the Lord who can sh●w forth all his praise as the bright shining of the Sun beams in a reflection by a glasse is far lesse then the lustre of the Sun it self and the return by an Eccho is very imperfect and short of the voice when much is said and many speak together so the glorifying of God by men is infinitely disproportionable to the excellent glory that shines in his marvellous works the best praise of his providence is humble acknowledgement with reverence and adoration Let us therefore praise him according to his excellent greatnesse And let us publish his praises and not hide them in our hearts but together with the burning on the hearth let there be light and heat shed abroad that others also may be provoked to glorifie God and be thankfull I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty and of thy wondrous works I will declare thy greatnesse They shall speak of thy glory and talke of thy power they shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodnesse And as much as in us is let us propagate the glory of God to posterity and ages to come one generation shall praise thy works to another

which fled from under their jurisdiction and how nigh we were brought to Rome ere we were aware of it When these things were thus were we able to have rescued our selves from under the hands of those who dealt cunningly with us and evil intreated us and laid those sore burdens upon us Were we worthy that the Lord should look upon our afflictions and send to deliver us Did we so much as understand the drift and depth of those designes then on foot the methods the arts and wiles of those powers and spirituall wickednesses in high places with whom we then wrestled Were we duly sensible of the dangers wherein we were of the hazards which we ranne I beseech you let it not be forgotten how unexpctedly how seasonably how marvellously how graciously the God of our mercies prevented us and visited us to redeem us And as he whose Name is Wonderfull did wonderfully in the first turning of the wheel in like manner he hath wrought gloriously for his Names sake in the whole carriage and advancing of his great worke of preservation and deliverance When God began to worke his signes among us did we understand that he meant to give us such deliverance as this did we imagine those things possible which our eyes have been made to see When the woman took up the stool to cast at the head of the Dean when the Service-book was read at Edenborough did we dream that by that means as was hinted in the morning all the Bishops in the three Kingdomes should be set besides the cushion When our Brethren the Scots began to gather together to consult about and petition against the invading of their priviledges when they were necessitated to take up armes for their just defence did those Incendiaries who blew that coal intend to gather the people of these Kingdomes to the battell of the Lord against Antichrist and his Popish Priests and when there was an appearance of warre was it probable that that little cloud in the North should have risen against the winde and spread so farre and the storme fallen so heavily upon that party who first provoked them to it In the beginning of this Parliament when the manifold oppressions and grievances of the Church and Kingdome began to be represented by petitions who did imagine there had been such a blessing in that cluster that that despised day of small things should have been prolonged and prospered into such a probability of reformation In the beginning of this summer at the time when Kings go forth to battel what likelihood was there of so many daies of rejoycing in so short a space that the daies of publike thanksgiving should strive in number with the daies of solemne humiliation Let us draw yet a little neerer to behold this great sight and see if names and places and such like circumstances being changed the late and present waies of our God amongst us be not like to those which Moses looks at in this Prophecie Or if I may not take the liberty because the time is short to compare particulars yet give me leave to offer these remarkable things to your observation In the generall it must be acknowledged that the Lord hath his way in the storme and his fury is poured out like fire but withall this cannot be denied nay it ought to be confessed to the praise of God that even all that cloud hath been light to us-ward and darkenesse to our enemies we have found by the good hand of God upon us a very great moderation of judgements a marvellous mixture of mercies and therein wide difference put between us and them Hath he smitten us as he smote those that smote us or are we slaine according to the slaughter of them that are slain by us They have been many times lift up for their greater fall but we have been alwaies remembred in our low estate and redeemed from the hand of our enemies we have been at our wits end by the difficulty and perplexity of affairs the Lord hath made the storme a calme and brought us out into unexpected enlargement when we have stood on the brinke and precipice of ruin he hath sundry times snatched us off and set us in more safe estate what we have managed weakly and what they have attempted confidently and watchfully God hath over-ruled for great good and advantage to us and while they are left to themselves to abuse the providences of God to the exciting and inflaming of their own animosity the enraging of their spirits and the hardening of their hearts our God whose dwelling is amongst us in good will offers more grace to us because he hath compassion on his people he hath caused the trumpet to be blown to the solemne assembly and he sendeth his messengers to preach submission and conversion to God repentance and amendment of life and we hope that the names are more then a few that learn righteousnesse and mourn in Sion and wait upon God in the way of his judgements True it is there is no such Prophet amongst us to whom God speaks face to face as he did to Moses that can reveal the secrets of Gods counsel concerning the circumstances of the manner and end of this unnaturall warre but great is the company of Preachers that interpret the revealed will of God concerning our duty and the waies of our salvation which is more necessary and more profitable for us to know neither is there any one singular person that is such an eminent mediatour as Moses was that can fall down before the Lord 40 daies and 40 nights together and neither eat bread or drinke water because of all the sins we sin in doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger yet doubtlesse there be many that are afraid of the anger and hot displeasure of the Lord and the spirit of grace and supplication hath been poured upon many and there be many that steppe daily into the gappe and wrestle with God and prevaile The power and the wisedome of God who is wonderfull in counsell and excellent in working hath been very glorious in a world of providences in favour of us every where we may behold with open face the glory of the Lord in a world of wonders oh Lord how manifold are thy works in good will thou hast done them all we may say with amazement what hath God wrought and what Nation is there who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for or at any time since the Bible was written hath God assayed to preserve and prepare a people for himselfe by temptations by signes and by wonders and by war and by a mighty hand and by an stretched-out arme and by great terrours as the Lord our God hath done for us in our own land before our eyes The compassions of God fail not they are new every morning great is his