Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	church_n	england_n	time_n	1,468	5	3.5504	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85485	The progresse of divine providence, set out in a sermon preached in the Abbey Church of Westminster before the house of Peers, on the 24th of September, 1645. being the day of their monethly fast. / By William Gouge, one of the members of the Assembly.	Gouge, William, 1578-1653.	1645 (1645)	Wing G1393; Thomason E302_25; ESTC R200284	30,328	48

THE PROGRESSE OF Divine Providence SET OVT IN A SERMON PREACHED In the Abbey Church of Westminster before the house of PEERS on the 24th of September 1645. being the day of their Monethly FAST By William Gouge one of the MEMBERS of the ASSEMBLY ECCLES. 7. 8. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Inest omni utenti ratione naturaliter appetere potiora Bem de diligendo Deo LONDON Printed by G. M. for Ioshua Kirton next Goldsmiths-hall in Foster-lane MDCXLV Die Veneris 26. Sept. 1645. IT is this day ordered by the Lords in Parliament assembled That M. Doctour Gouge who preached on Wednesday last before the Lords of Parliament in the Abbey Church Westminster it being the day of the publike Fast is hereby thanked for his great pains he took in his said Sermon and desired to print and publish the same which is to be done only by authority under his hand Iohn Brown Cleric Parliamentorum I Appoint Joshua Kirton to print my Sermon and none else William Gouge TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE House of PEERS Assembled in PARLIAMENT RIGHT HONOURABLE AS in sundry other ages and places so in this age and place wherein we now live hath my Text been verified and that within the compasse of these last five years in every of which God hath done better unto us then at our beginnings and we have great and just cause to hope that he will yet continue to doe better and better It was an especial evidence of Gods good providence that the great Counsel of England was called at that time that it was called The State of Church and Common-wealth was so farre out of order and the disorder in both so backed as without a Parliament it would not it could not in mans apprehensions have been redressed The Reformation that was then intended by that Parliament being by some envious eyes espied a dissolution thereof was procured But that and other former dissolutions of Parliaments necessity forcing another Parliament soon after to be called occasioned an Act to prevent inconveniencies which may happen by the untimely Adjourning Proroguing or dissolving of this present Parliament What better thing rebus sic stantibus ut tunc nunc could have happened to this State The good consequencies that have happened thereupon are evident demonstrations of Gods minde still to do better and better for us It would exceed the proportion of a Dedicatory Epistle to reckon up the particular instances of the Divine Providence encreasing time after time for the better unto us and that by vertue of this present Parliament they are so clear and evident as none but such as take notice of nothing can be ignorant of them and none but envious and malignant spirits can conceal or pervert them When might the good Providence of God have been better discerned in protecting the persons upholding the spirits directing the counsels and prospering the endeavours of such as were assembled in a Parliament then in this When might the like Providence of God have been better discerned in stirring up mens mindes encouraging their spirits enabling their bodies and preserving their persons for maintaining a cause then in this cause that is now maintained by the Parliament Of them who with a single eye behold the footsteps of the Lord in the Counsels of our Parliament it may justly be said They have seen thy goings O God the goings of my God my King Have not our Armies had successe beyond expectation even to admiration What a stop hath been set to Superstition How good a progresse hath been made in Reformation And may we not yet hope that God will doe better unto us then at our beginnings Gods promise is the ground of hope and my Text sheweth that God hath promised as much Goe on Right Honourable and put forth your utmost endeavours for bringing on those better things that yet remain Where their is Hope there endeavours use to be most earnest For Hope stirreth up mens spirits to set upon great things Though the full accomplishment of the remaining better things should be reserved to a future age yet it becomes us to be as earnest in prosecuting them according to the ability and opportunity that God doth give us as if we our selves were sure while we live to have the fruition of them Experience sheweth that to be true which of old was said of the provident husbandman that he planteth trees which may be usefull in an other age But I hope that God will let you see and enjoy the fruit of your Counsels and of our desires This shall be the continuall prayer of Your Honours humble Servant and Oratour William Gouge THE PROGRESSE OF GODS Providence EZEK. 36. 11. I will doe better unto you then at your beginnings AMong other evidences of Gods speciall providence and care over his Church this is an especiall one that he ever afforded unto it sufficient means to instruct it in his will and to direct it in the way to happinesse When at the beginning he made man he did not only write his law in his heart but also revealed means of standing in his happy estate or falling from the same Instance the two Sacraments in Paradise the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil When men encreased into a Family God ordained the first-born both to be a Governour and also an Instructour of the Family When the Church multiplied into a Nation God set apart the twelfth part thereof namely one Tribe of twelve to be ordinary Ministers therein These he distinguished into Priests and Levites When that Politie ended be ordained Pastors and Teachers to be ordinary Ministers in his Church to the end of the world Of old in extraordinary times and upon extraordinary occasions God endued men with an extraordinary spirit who were stiled Prophets such an one was Ezekiel to whom I suppose more extrordinary visions and revelations were made known then to any other He was raised up in most corrupt and said times even when God was forced to doe his work his strange work and to bring to passe his act his strange act He prophesied in Babylon whither he was carried captive when the Babylonians first entred into Jerusalem and took away many of the sacred and precious vessels of the Temple together with a great part of the treasures of that house and of the King and Princes and carried them together with Jehoiakim the King and many of the Princes Priests and people into Babylon There he also continued after that the said Babylonians had again entred into the said City broke down the walls thereof burnt the house of God and all the houses in the City and carried away the remainder of the vessels of the said Temple and of the treasures therein together with Zedekiah another King and the remainder of Princes Priests and people About the same time Jeremiah was raised up to bea Prophet among that