Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	call_v	name_n	year_n	1,753	5	4.4679	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57061	A sermon preach'd before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen in Guild-hall Chappel, on Sunday the xxi of October, 1688 by Nathanael Resbury ...	Resbury, Nathanael, 1643-1711.	1689 (1689)	Wing R1131; ESTC R36776	11,824	35

of some and the Cowardise of others the strange Vicissitudes of Fortunes in all the wondrous mutability of Humane Affairs the uncertain Condition of the Highest and of the Lowest too But then look we into the Books of the Prophets and there we find the immediate interest that Providence hath in all four hundred years before pointing out a spot of ground wherein the Israelites should be fixt and what kind of Nations should be rooted out to give them room calling the very Person by name whom he design'd to make a Great and Illustrious Emperour two hundred years before that Person had any Being Thus we find in Isaiah who flourisht 200 years before Cyrus was born that saith of Cyrus he is my Shepherd Isa 44.28 And this he challengeth to himself beyond the pretences of all other Gods. Who hath declared this from ancient time who hath told it from that time have not I the Lord Isa 45.21 And tho' in these later Ages of the World we have perhaps no Prophets nor Sons of Prophets amongst us yet have we one standing Book of Revelations wherein the Fate and Revolution of the Church and of the World is unalterably determin'd and describ'd where the Vicissitudes of our own Age may be read in the Event tho' perhaps not so well understood before-hand in the Prediction it self Where the Apostacy the Idolatry the Ambition the external Splendor and the Bloody Tyranny of the Church of Rome is no doubt one great Subject of that Mystick Volume which how dark and obscure soever it hath formerly seem'd and may yet seem as to things that are not yet come to pass yet the Events of Things give light into the Prophecy wherein they are concern'd and assure us what an hand and direction Divine Providence hath had in all and confirming to us that mighty foundation of Hope that as it hath pleas'd God according to his Predictions of old to throw his Church into a warm Furnace of Affliction for some Ages yet that she shall come out like try'd Gold and Triumph in all her determin'd Glory over all her Bloody and Insatiable Enemies And this leads me to my Third and last Head which I shall briefly Consider 3. That Divine Providence is most assuredly concern'd in the Well-being of his Church This I observe by considering those to whom our Saviour directs his Discourse not meerly as Men in General but as his Followers and those whom he design'd to Adopt and Constitute as his Church Indeed his whole management of this World his turning and overturning his raising up some and putting others down is all with peculiar respect to that part of Mankind which he calls his Church It is for her chastisement and correction for her prospering and encouragement for her amendment and reformation for her encrease and accomplishment that all the great Affairs and Revolutions of this World are directed by God. The Church is his immediate Care in all the applications of Providence in his Government of the World. This may appear 1. From that endearing relation he hath pleas'd to own and challenge to himself with this part of Mankind He calls them sometimes his Children sometimes his Peculiar People sometimes his Inheritance sometimes his Spouse nay and sometimes the very Apple of his Eye all which must give them undeniable assurance that God leaves not such so nearly interested with him to the wide World to blind Chance or to fortuitous surprizals of calamity and trouble befalling them upon no other account but because it is the Lust and Will of their Enemies it should be so No the blessed Lord of all hath engag'd the Ministry of his Angels for their Protection and Guardianship that they are said to pitch their Tents round about those that fear God Psal 34.7 He hath told us that they are Ministring Spirits sent forth to Minister to them who are the heirs of Salvation Heb. 1. ult All which is no mean instance of the Care he hath for and the Concern he hath with them But then Secondly it might be further illustrated from the actual Experiences the Church hath in all Ages had of the Interposures of this Providence in its greatest extremities This indeed might run me into an History of the Church which would far exceed the bounds of the time I now have I will only observe to you that both the History of the Scriptures and other Books of Record handed down to us to this very day do give us such memorable instances of strange and unaccountable Deliverances in the near and immediate dangers that have seem'd to threaten an unavoidable Overthrow that they have Proclaim'd the Finger of God in all none but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 none but the ever-wakeful Care none but the Almighty Power could have accomplisht them This very Church which it hath pleased God to Reform and Establish amongst us what Stories have we to tell what Footsteps and Impressions hath it pleas'd Divine Providence to leave even amongst us of its care and vigilancy when the enrag'd and implacable Enemies have thought they had laid their Contrivances so deep that no Eye could have pierc'd to the bottom of them so strong that no Arm could have broken them with such precaution and fore-sight that no length of Time should have weaken'd or defeated them But that I may use the Expression of the Apostle he hath deliver'd us and doth deliver in whom also we trust that he will yet deliver us To say the truth considering that restless and unweary'd Rage and Inveteracy of successive Enemies from one Age to another the combin'd and confederated interests of the greater part of Mankind against what may always challenge the name of a little Flock it is no mean instance of Providence that there is such a Community as his Church in Being in the World To see how this tost and weather-beaten Vessel hath liv'd so many Ages in the midst of a Tempestuous Sea where she hath sprung many a Leak lost her Tackle and frequently been upon the very point of Foundring by meer stress of Weather the Winds and the Waves in mutual contention which should most effectually contribute to the Shipwrack what account can be given why she had not been lost before this but the interposure of Providence who that he might convince the World that it is his Hand in all this hath frequently turn'd what have been the design'd Methods of her ruine to prove the immediate Occasions of her Salvation and Deliverance Nay hath made the very blood of some to become the seed and propagation of others Object And this lays in our way the grand Objection that hath been frequently made and sometimes by the very best of men viz. Not only that all things happen alike to all there is one event to the Righteous and to the Wicked c. But that frequently it pleaseth God to order it that the Scenes of the Wicked are all prosperous and gay in this World whilst