Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	egypt_n	israel_n	time_n	1,593	5	3.5035	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89259	Protection proclaimed (through the loving kindness of God in the present government) to the three nations of England, Scotland, and Ireland: wherein the government established, in the Lord Protector and his council, is proved to be of divine institution; and the great stumbling-block of thousands of Christians (in regard of his title) removed; proving it to be none other than what hath been given to those whom God hath made instrumental for his peoples deliverance of old. / Written to satisfie unsatisfied consciences, by John Moore, a well-wisher to the peace of our English Jerusalem.	Moore, John, of Wechicombe, near Dunster, Somerset.	1655 (1655)	Wing M2562; Thomason E860_5; ESTC R206643	17,676	24

either as a common enemy possest with desperate envy or else as seeming friends with rash judgement of blind zeal But for my own part I am satisfied in this one thing that there have been very few in former ages if any at all whom God hath made choice of and by providence kept and preserved to Rule over his people but some of their friends have either enviously maglign'd them or else clandestinely sought their harm Joseph speaks to his brethren of God's exalting him above them and they presently conspire his death Moses although he had oftentimes endangered his life before Pharaoh for the Israelites and was instrumental in the hand of God for their freedom yet could scarcely get a good word from many of them they could ask him Who made him a Ruler and a Judge over them And Corah and his confederates could tell him to his face that he took too much upon him they were as good as he It is written of them in the Psalms that it did proceed from envie Psal 106.16 They envied Moses also in the Camp and Aaron the Saint of the Lord. Gideon found but small kindeness at their hands for all his service done for their safety So that Ephraim chid him very sharply the like requitall had Jephtha from Epbraim because he did not acquaint them with his proceedings they threatned to burn his house over his head Sampsons friends for his service could binde him and deliver him to the Philistines how often was Sauls Javelin cast at David enviously because the Lord was with him and had exalted him into the peoples affection and love So that it s no marvail though he whom God hath made instrumental for the peace and tranquillity of his people in England do meet with the like ingratitude from some of them I have observed this for a real truth that if envy do fancy evil in a good man it will both write and speak against him as if he were the vilest man alive because it is both blind and is such a passion that will have no pacification Did ever any Generall in this world engage for a people and obtain Victory but he was made Ruler over them Would not a Virgin if she be forcibly ravished against her will and should be delivered out of the ravishers hand by some other man Would she not all the dayes of her life love and honour and respect the rescuer sure I think she would or else she were very ungrateful Is not the conscience more pure then the body the defilement of the body is nothing to the pollution of the conscience the ravishment of the body is nothing to the forcing of the conscience If then he hath stood up faithfully and stoutly to rescue us from the bloody penall persecuting Lawes of Tyranny over the conscience if we do not all the dayes of our lives love honour and respect him we are as ungrateful a people both to God and to him the instrument in chief as ever were in the world and cannot in conscience desire any good from him But the reasons as I apprehened why so many Christians zealously professing Christ are unsatisfied in their conscience at the establishment of the Government are these First the suddain appearance of it contrary to their thoughts and expectations because their thoughts and mindes were contented and satisfied in the Government of a Parliament not thinking in the least that God would have established any other Government in the Nation the appearance of such a Government which was directly contrary to their faith and premeditation of heart startles their Spirits and fills them not onely with doubt whether it be of God or no but with absolute perswasions that it was not of God Now then my dear Friends I would ask you this single Question If God will restore to his people Judges as at the first and Counsellors as at the beginning then whether or no that the ancient Commonwealth of Israel was not governed by Moses as a Protector who also had Counsellors with him by Joshua Gideon Jephtha and the rest before either Kings or Parliaments So that I cleerly see in the establishment of this Government the beginning of God's work in fulfilling his promise of primitive restitution of Judges and Counsellors as at the beginning before they were governed either by Kings or Parliaments All the Promises of God are yea and Amen Heaven and Earth shall pass away but not one jot or tittle of the promises of the Lord till all of them be fulfilled And I am sure that 's one Let us take heed then of murmuring at the appearance of the fulfilling of God's promises lest God hide it from us again as he did from the Children of Israel in Egypt God having told Abraham above four hundred yeers before That they should be Strangers in a Land that was not theirs and that they should be afflicted four hundred yeers and that afterwards he would bring them forth of it the time being come that God would accomplish his promise in his own secret will and determinate counsel he did purpose to make it good by the hand of Moses who when he was full forty yeers old God put it into his heart to visit his Brethren the Children of Israel and seeing one of them suffer wrong he defended him and avenged him that was oppressed and smote the Egyptian for he supposed that his Brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them but they understood it not And when he would have made peace betwixt two of his Brethren that were at strife one of them asked him Who made thee a Ruler and a Judge over us at this saying Moses fled And forty yeers more affliction did God continue unto them for this one Murmurer Let our English Israelites consider this and take heed of murmuring and repining at the good hand of God in giving us a faithful and a careful Governour of his peoples Liberty lest God withdraw his hand and leave us and our children to a farther trial of Bondage The second I apprehend was and is this they did not wait upon the Lord nor seek unto him by prayer to know his minde and will in such a sudden Change so that in stead of waiting upon God and seeking unto him by prayer to know his minde and will therein supposing it not to be of God because it was contradictory to their thoughts and expectation they rather bent their mindes and studies to finde out something of corruption in it that might make it appear not to be of God and finding something in it which their Spirits did not disrelish they could not be satisfied that it was of God whereas I am confident if they had waited upon God and sought unto him by Prayer to know his minde and will in such an extraordinary change they had been satisfied and could not but have seen it to be of God A third Reason was they were afraid lest way would have been made by it for the induction and bringing in of such false worships as would embondage the free Spirits of the zealously godly people in the three Nations whereas provision is made to the contrary and their protection vowed yea and we shall enjoy it if we do not wilfully deprive our selves of it and by our own divisions make ourselves a prey to our enemies for that Proverb is certain true Whilest the Bore and Lion strives The Eagle waits for both their lives The meaning is whilst Friends contend Their Foes will spoil them in the end A fourth Reason was Because they were not made acquainted with it and so like Ephraim against Jephtha they were displeased with him though he had deserved no such thing at their hands Fifthly being formerly their equal they took it ill many of them that he should be exalted to rule over them therefore many of them thought and do still think that he hath taken too much upon him Corah and his Accomplices told Moses as much but the Holy Ghost commandeth us to rejoyce when a Brother of low degree is exalted for such a one is most fit for it especially being endowed with sutable qualifications as none alive I think can deny but that our present Lord Protector is and as prudent Counsellors for his Assistants So that in such a Government and such Governours to manage it let all the wel-affected people of the three Nations rejoyce Amen FINIS