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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	great_a	see_v	world_n	3,570	5	4.4154	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43455	A private peace-offering, for the discovery and disappointment of the late horrid conspiracy against the King, &c. in a sermon preached July the 8th, in St. Helen's-Church London / by Henry Hesketh.	Hesketh, Henry, 1637?-1710.	1684 (1684)	Wing H1614; ESTC R10800	9,532	31

last of all his own Son forms and heads a desperate Rebellion against him But so many as were his troubles and dangers so many were the Acts and instances of the divine providence and interposition for him and one as remarkable every way or more than the other till at last you read of his giving him rest from all his Enemies on every side and of every kind too and giving him leisure to pass his old Age in comfort and safety attending quietly the duties of Religion and his devotion to that God whose mercies had been so great and extraordinary towards him into whose hands at last he resigned his devout Soul in comfort and in peace But the insisting at large upon these things would prevent me wholly from what I chiefly purpose at this time which I intend to dispatch in these three things 1. Instance the care and providence of God towards Religious Kings and Governours and inquire a little into the reasons of it 2. Remark this care and providence towards our King 3. Make some deductions and inferences by way of application 1. The 1st is to assert the care and providence of God over good Kings for though it be in the Text in the singular number He is the Tower of Salvation to his King yet we shall find Ps 144.10 that it is equally in the Plural Number it is he that giveth salvation unto Kings as well as he that delivereth David from the peril of the Sword It is piously acknowledged by our Church in one of the Collects appointed upon November 5th that God in all Ages hath shewed his power and mercy in the miraculous and gracious Deliverances of his Church and in the Protection of Righteous and Religious Kings from the wicked Conspiracies and malicious Practices of their Enemies And it is certainly true and spoken upon very good reasons and should we revolve the Stories of all Ages of the World we should scarce fail of meeting with many instances of this nature in every Age of it It cannot be expected that I should stay to examine these at present and to trace these mighty providences of God through the several Periods of the World there are enough in the sacred History of your Bibles and there are more in the Histories of all Religious and Christian Nations and out of them men may furnish themselves with instances enough Though the truth is this Generation hath seen enough to superside its need of looking after any more I shall therefore proceed to inquire a little into the great reasons of this providence and examine what probably may be the causes why God is pleased to give such specimens of his guarding of them and care over them 1. And First this doubtless proceeds from his great care and respect to the societies of Men and their happiness in the World It is most certain Government is one of the greatest blessings that can be injoyed by Men here and both the reason of the thing and the general consent of Men prove and allow it to be so and in elder times those have been honoured as Gods that have been happily instrumental in reducing men to it all mortal honors have been accounted too mean for them and too much below the blessings injoyed by them And it is as certain that Monarchy is the Best form of Government in it self and that Kings are the most regular conservatours of Order and Goverment as hath not long since been proved in this place So that my Brethren Kings are really for the good and happiness of the people and the good of the one is included in and greatly dependent upon the other and whatever we may think of their grandure or how much soever we may stare at their Pomp and Glory it is we that really gain by all and the World is preserv'd and kept from Barbarisme and Confusion by their means And because God loves the Societies of Men and delights in the peace and order of them therefore he is so tender and careful of Kings and so seldom lets violence touch and prevail against them and indeed we may truly say he never doth this but when the wickedness of People and Nations is grown high and Clamorous and even extorts vengance from Heaven it is the sins of the People which are to be punished that provoke God at any time to pull down his wall of protection about good Kings 2. Because Government is his own Institution and Kings his own immediate substitutes and delegates I do not think it needful to examine the accounts that have been given of the original of Government by the great factor for Atheism in this Nation which have been so greadily sucked in by so many of the young Gentry of this Age and indeed almost all orders of Men which have tainted the ancient Loyalty of this People to such a monstrous degree I have done this also not long ago in this place We that are at all conversant in the Holy Scriptures or indeed have any becoming thoughts of the power and providence of God his care over the World and his concern for the welfare and good of it may be assured that Government is Gods own institution and ordinance as St. Paul calls it that he hath both instituted the thing and fitted Men for it that Government is a Divine gift as the same St Paul calls it and that he teacheth Kings and Princes wisdom and that by him they Reign as David and Solomon both tell us So that Kings are immediately constituted by God they are his Viceroys therefore he is called King of Kings and Lord of Lords and they are often in the Holy Scripture called Lords and Gods because they bear the characters of his Power and Greatness are little Images of his Soveraignty and the conveighers of blessings to Men which are not below the greatness of a God to give Therefore they are called the Anointed of the Lord in this and many other Texts of Scripture and we may observe that as the Scriptures intitle God more especially to a care and regard of them so they seem to take notice of that extraordinary awe and veneration to them that God hath implanted Naturally in the breasts of all Men to keep them at a due distance from them and to restrain all thoughts of violence against them And all this to keep up and to give credit to his own institutions among Men yea to hedge up his own honour and keep Men from any intrenching upon it for he is concerned in his own Image and what dishonour or wrong is offer'd to them redounds in some measure to himself as we have always seen it de facto true those never much fear God that honour not their King the Church and the Throne always suffer together and Traytors and Rebells were never very Religious nor can be though it must be confessed none make greater pretence to it that pretence of duty to God may take off the guilt of

Disloyalty to the King though there is not an instance of more wretched and fulsome hypocresie in the World 3. Another cause perhaps may be the extraordinary and difficult task that God hath laid upon them What vain men may think I know not but certainly to Govern is the most dificult province in the World Obedience is a thing easily learn'd it lies in a narrow compass but to command and order well is extreamly hard Every one that is in any little measure of Power finds it so not a Master of a Family but is sensible of it How easily then may we guess what a task he hath upon him that is to Rule us all Man is through his Vices and Debaucheries a very wild ungovernable creature and perhaps the most Salvage may better and easier be kept in awe though there is difference among Men and I wish he knew not too well who are the fiercest The multitude hath in the Symbolls of all wise Nations been compared to a very fierce and wild Beast that is not easily Governed and that expression in Ps 65.7 goes higher where the madness of the People is compared to the raging of the Sea and the same Power said to rule the one that stilleth the other and if so we need nothing more to tell us how difficult Government is And therefore as where God gives much he requires more so where he requires much he gives more I mean proportions his care and providence his grace and mercy answerable to the duty that he hath Imposed and because Kings carry heavier burthens of care and trouble than other Men therefore is the Divine care and protection greater over them and more concerned for them 4. Especially 4ly Because they are exposed unto greater dangers than other Men the rising Sun exhales and draws up many vapours and there never were or will want those that will look upon Kings with an evil Eye As long as there are Devils in Hell who delight in and will be contriving the misery and confusion of Men so long will they be standing at the hands of Kings and endavouring to stir up evil Men against them And so long as Pride and Ambition Covetousness and discontent find places to harbour in there will not want Traytours and Rebells Men that will envy Powre and greatness and will be contriving means by which to surprise and graspe them into their own hands when Men have once given entertainment to such lusts as these and committed themselves to the conduct of them a Crown is a glittering temptation and such as they cannot resist their minds will run upon greatness and will ever be beating to find out ways to it and whatever appears with a promise or shew of success shall certainly find ready admittance and be entertained and persued how unjust or violent how bloody and mischievous soever it may be For a Crown will legitimate all crimes to get it and greatness will attone for any evil that tends to the compassing of it This is a sad and evil return I confess that Kings have for all their labour and trouble their watchings and cares but it is such as considering the lusts of Men they will never miss of And therefore the Divine providence is the greatlier concerned for them and knowing their dangers doth more carefully guard and super-intend them just as in the case of just and good Men if God permit evils to haunt them or overtake them he either doubles his care or their comforts as their troubles abound so their consolations from God abound also So it is that in this case the more dangerous and hazardous that their condition is the more doth the Divine Providence take care of them and the more signally remark it self in their protection and preservation 2. And these reasons now will not only be accounts of the thing in general but especially of the preservations of our gracious King Gods providence to whom I have promised to remark in the second place It is plain how all these reasons concentre in our case never did a Nation injoy more by a King than ours hath done by this and perhaps had one of any other temper Govern'd in our times our case had had a worse Crisis never were People more happy then we might be under him if we please and were not the fault our own Never was it more remarkably true that the Powers that are over us are set over us by God then in our case his Restauration being a Miracle in the sight of all the World Never had a Prince a harder task then ours hath had coming to Govern a People that are not only to their shame said to be more ungovernable more fickle and changeable than other Nations but being broken into Factions and Differences and leven'd with the loose principles of Rebellion and Usurpation as we were and we see how close these tinctures and ill principles yet stick to too many Mens minds and that length of time heightens and rankles them rather then heal and carry them off And I would it could not be said as truly too that never was a Prince exposed to more dangers and troubles than he hath been For should we recollect the past passages of his life and soberly make remarks upon the same I do not well know whether we should more admire his fate and wonder that so many dangers and adversities should concenter to spend their spight against one Man or that providence and care of almighty God that hath still brought him through and delivered him out of them all I have a Copious Theam here before me and should I enter upon it could not want matter for a long discourse should I either play the Historian or the Oratour go either to recount the dangers and deliverances that have befell him or to enhanse and heighten the circumstances of Gods extraordinary care and providence in them here were a large field before me for both in which I should run my self out of breath sooner then exhaust the subject But I must forbear this now out of a necessary respect to the time and your patience and I do it with the less regret and the more contentedly because it is a known subject in which every one that hears me can prevent me and enlarge it sufficiently himself and I do not doubt but we shall have an occasion e're long publickly to do the same So great a mercy will not pass I hope without a publick and solemn recognition among those that seem so sensible of the greatness of it I doubt not but there would have been mock thanksgivings enough had these black designs succeeded and God would have been intitled to it and his providence magnified in it as we have seen it done in almost as bad instances I am sure it is more just in this the Lords hand hath been visibly stretched out in this deliverance and in many others and it ought to be marvellous in our eyes to this we