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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	people_n	read_v	scripture_n	3,073	5	5.7739	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48855	A sermon preached before Her Majesty, on May 29, being the anniversary of the restauration of the King and royal family by the Bishop of S. Asaph, Lord Almoner to Their Majesties.	Lloyd, William, 1627-1717.	1692 (1692)	Wing L2716; ESTC R6946	15,431	33

such works as seem to us to be of the greatest difficulty When all Humane help fails then it is worthy of God to shew himself to be the deliverer of his people And therefore God has chosen such times when his people have been at or near the very brink of destruction then to give them deliverance from it We may see this in many Instances in Scripture The most tamed Instance is that of God's bringing his people out of Egypt and through the Red Sea We read the like of Hezekiah's deliverance from Senacheribs's army The Book of Judges is full of such great works of God for the deliverance of his people Such things as God did then by Miracle he doth now in the course of his Ordinary Providence things which no man can do nor can think how they were done And when he thus delivers his people from such dangers as seemed to be inevitable and especially when at such a pinch of time when nothing but destruction is look'd for that then deliverance cometh in the stead such a work has so many marks of Gods hand upon it that whosoever sees and considers it cannot but say this is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our Eyes Now for the Application of this I am to shew all those marks of Gods hand that they are in the work of this day I speak plainly in the Restauration of the Royal Family and therewith of our Church and Religion our Government and Laws the most valuable things in this Nation But though that which led in all the rest and that which giveth the title to the day the Restauration of the King that then was and of all the Royal Family tho that I say is and ought to be the chief subject as well of our Sermons as of our Prayers and praises on this day Yet I shall at this time crave leave to insist chiefly upon the restoring of our Church and Religion as being the great concernment of God in this Nation In order to which Kings and Queens are chiefly a blessing to a Nation As to Civil government this is the only promise that God has made to us in Gospel Times that Kings and Queens shall be nursing Fathers and nursing Mothers to his Church which he has now Graciously accomplish'd to us And therefore to return to the work of this day I am to prove that this was the Lords doing by shewing these three marks of his hand upon it First that the restoring of the Royal Family was for the benefit of the Church of God and of the true Christian Religion Secondly that it was in a most needful time when Gods true Church and true Religion were in the utmost danger of being extinguisht in this Nation Thirdly that then God was graciously pleased to preserve and restore it by such means as were to men unaccountable These three things being proved it will certainly appear that the work of this day was the Lords doing The same may be said of all our other deliverances since I cannot when I speak of such things I cannot without ingratitude to God but mention that mercy of the late Revolution and those of our deliverances since especially that of this present time All these being so visibly the effects of Gods continued care of us being all for the same Church and Nation all in times of great and near danger and all with the like Evidence of Gods hand in them so that whosoever considers them severally cannot but see reason enough to acknowledge that each of these was the Lords doing as well as the great work of the Kings restauration 1. But first I am to shew that This was the work of God It was certainly so If ours be a true Church of God If it be did I say I said it not as doubting but taking it for granted as we have Just reason to do We have reason to insist upon that which has been sufficiently proved in so many excellent Books as have been written in the Just vindication of our Church I need not say more particularly what has been done of this kind especially in the last reign when the Press was most open and free to all sorts of our Adversaries That more then Liberty that Power they had then gave the world occasion to see how little they had to say against us And therefore after such a tryal as this we ought to take it for granted that ours is a true Church of God as it stands establisht at this day To this we may add the Testimonies of all the Reform'd Churches abroad who not only agree with us in Doctrine but allow of our Orders and Worship and Sacraments and are so far from denying us to be a Reform'd Church that they own us to be the Bulwark of the Reformation They that will not allow of this proof and of these Testimonies that I have mentioned as they cannot expect to be heard in this place so if they have any thing to object against them they will not want an answer elsewhere Only in this place I cannot but mind them If they are Papists how they have used to reckon wordly prosperity among their notes of a true Church and if they are other Dissenters how they used when time was to value themselves by it that God own'd them by Acts of his Providence I hope neither of them will take it amiss if we tell them again that God has not left us altogether without witness of that kind What greater Testimonies could he give to any Church then he has done to ours in those wonderful deliverances he has given us Not to go to Old things such as that of Eighty Eight and at the time of the Gunpowder Treason tho these were as great as ever were given to any Nation yet we need not go so far back we have enough to name of later memory many and great deliverances and those fresh in memory even in the memory of you all that hear me this day 1. But first upon this day I must insist on that Deliverance that we had at the Kings Restauration How great a Deliverance that was they that were not then born can scarce conceive but I shall tell you what they that lived then saw and know We were then as to our Civil Government after many horrible things which I do not love to repeat after many vain Attempts to set up a Commonwealth which stood like a Castle of Cards pray pardon the Comparison we were at last come to be under no Government at all unless I may call that a Government which an Army sets up and pulls down as often as they please It was such a State of a Nation than which worse cannot well be spoke or conceived Not to give you a Detail of the many Mischiefs that are contained in it I will only give you two Examples of the wretchedness of this Estate I could name you many more but these two are the best known that