Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	know_v	lord_n	time_n	3,131	5	3.5997	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96869	Ioseph paralled [sic] by the present Parliament, in his sufferings and advancement. A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons, on their solemn day of Thanksgiving, Feb. 19. 1645. For the great mercy of God in the reducement of the city of Chester, by the forces under the command of Sr William Brereton. By Fra. Woodcock minister of Olaves Southwarke, one of the Assembly of Divines. Published by order of the said House.	Woodcock, Francis, 1614?-1651.	1646 (1646)	Wing W3430; Thomason E323_5; ESTC R200595	19,383	35

IOSEPH Paralled by the present PARLIAMENT in his sufferings and advancement A SERMON Preached before the Honourable HOVSE of COMMONS on their solemn day of Thanksgiving Feb. 19. 1645. For the great mercy of God in the reducement of the City of Chester by the Forces under the command of Sr William Brereton By FRA. WOODCOCK Minister of Olaves Southwarke one of the Assembly of Divines Published by Order of the said House LONDON Printed by G. M. for Christopher Meredith at the Signe of Crane in Pauls Church-yard 1646. Die Lunae 23 Februarij 1645. ORdered by the Commons assembled in Parliament That Master Rous do give thanks to Master VVoodcock and Master Case for the great pains they took in the Sermons they preached at the intreatie of this House on Thursday last being a day set apart for a day of publike Thankesgiving for the taking of Chester and to desire them to Print their Sermons And it is Ordered that none shall Print their Sermons without license under thier hands writing H. Elsynge Cler. Parl. D. Com. I appoint Christopher Meredith to print my Sermon FRA. WOODCOCK TO THE HONOVRABLE HOVSE OF COMMONS Assembled in PARLIAMENT THE many successes of late vouchsafed you has made you as frequent in your solemn rejoicing as in your solemn mourning and for these severall moneths together you have not oftner kept daies of fasting and prayer then daies of feasting and praises Formerly in so much hazard have mattes been that not daring to tarry the coming of the monethly fasts you were glad to take up extraordinary ones between whereas now not so much of necessity as of course you celebrate a day of fast once a moneth Not long ago the cry of every man was what shall I do now it either is or ought to be what shall I render so mercifully has God changed your water into wine and taking away your sackcloth girded you with gladnesse And now what is your wisedom but to endeavour to walke worthy these great deliverances and the God of them which if you do you may be confident that he that hath and daily doth deliver will go on also to finish deliverance but if by doing any wicked thing you shall evilly requite him how soon can he turn you to your fasting again or to something else that 's worse and instantly blast all that smiling hopefullnesse of things already vouchsafed But I hope better things and shall not fail to pray for better you having a right to challenge this and much more from Your avowed servant for Christ Fra. Woodcock To my dear and much Honoured Countrey-men the well affected of the County and City of CHESTER MY affection to my native place now surrendred together with my interests in many of you thereto appertaining will easily bear me out in that I take the boldnesse in a few words to congratulate with you the surrender of it That a mother City in England is this day preserv'd cannot but be matter of rejoicing to every good English heart how much more must it be unto me who being so neerly related to it am more especially concerned in its preservation Give me leave therefore who sometimes have mourned with you and for you now to rejoice also with and for you and to endeavour to helpe forward your present rejoicing as in time past I have endeavoured your mourning Surely God hath wrought a great deliverance for you a very great deliverance and I plainly perceive you shall need all the helpe and furtherance that may be to enable you to render to him according to the benefit 'T is true I confesse the matter lookt upon with a carnal eye will not perhaps appear so great and considerable and some of you beholding the ruins of the place and perceiving also your particular estates gone and your houses burnt to the ground may say that as to you Chester is lost still Yet notwithstanding considering what advantage the gaining of the place is to the publike and to the most of you in particular withall duly weighing the circumstances of time means manner of gaining it who is there will not be enforced to say 't is a very great mercy Me thinks in that 't is Chester which is reduced to me imports exceeding much of mercy that that place is gained which was the only dore of hope remaining unshut against the bloudy Irish sure the Kingdom looks upon it as a very great mercy and who is not glad that Chester will no more let in those barbarous Irish either into it self or into the Kingdom The time of its surrender hath much also in it of mercie for was it when the enemy was very high and prospering was it at such a time as they could well spare us such a place as Chester or rather were they not very low exceedingly declined even gasping for life and with giving up the City did they not in those parts at least wise give up the ghost also and having let go Chester will they be able to hold any thing after it I may not omit the means whereby you won the City for there 's much of mercie in that also and was not your spirituall militia the chief in gaining of it may I not be confident that 't was your close beseeging Heaven did contribute more to the surrender of it then your close beseeging the place it self and did not your fasting starve the enemy out of Chester that kinde having seldom been cast out of any place but by prayer and fasting and speaks not this a great deal of mercie And though the Lord hath long delaid you and your hopes have suffered a frequent defeazure yet hath he not hereby taught you to overcome your hasty impatience the overcoming whereof in Solomons judgement is more then if any of you singly and alone had conquered the City Besides there 's hope you will come now weaned Prov. 19. 32. to your comforts you having been so long and so much weaned from them and the throwing you out of your place and habitation has taught you not to look for in the present life an abiding City and is not all this rich mercie And what though you come many of you to emptie houses yea to no houses yet finding all peaceable and quiet within what a mercie is it If you have not saved your estates yet if you can say as he I have saved the Sir Ralph Piercie at his death vide Speed bird in my breast what a mercie is it If conscience be not wasted though every thing else is and though your state is broken yet that your peace is not broken what a mercy is it If you have been kept free from those conscience wasting oaths and those peace breaking practises which others have been miserably intangled with oh what a mercie And for your estates how speedily can the Lord repair you how quickly have some I know among you got up their estates and trade again which for owning a good cause

they have for a time been hindred of And is not the promise the same If any man forsake father or mother lands or houses c. and I make no doubt of the same if not fuller performance So then the mercie being great great to the publike and to your selves great also what remains but that you consider how to render unto the Lord sutable to the greatnesse of it And for this purpose give me leave first of all to advise that seeing God hath surrendred the City into your hands you would deliver it up again into his hands my meaning is that you procure such a Magistracie and Ministry to it as may govern and watch over it for God In the Next place sinne no more You know whose counsel it is forget not to repent of old sinnes beware of committing new either whereof may expose you to new miserie Be at one among your selves Oh that Chester might Psal 122. 3. be as Jerusalem a City compacted together A City divided against it self cannot stand And you that are the Lords serve him in that good old way I mean in humility self-deniall in love without dissimulation and faith unfeigned wherein I know some of you well experienc'd The Lord in repossessing you of your habitations has shewn you reall kindnesse requite him not with fancies serve him not with emptie notions which is but too too common every where at this day And if in these you shall be carefull I make no question but you shall quickly forget your former trouble have your losses repaired and finde in conclusion it was good for you that you have been afflicted which that you may shall be the unfeigned desire of Your true friend to serve you in Chrict Iesus FRA. WOODCOCK A SERMON PREACHED before the Honourable House of COMMONS on their solemne day of Thanksgiving for the reducing of the City of CHESTER February 19. 1645. GEN. 49. 23 24. The archers have sorely grieved him and shot at him and hated him But his bowe ahode in strength and the armes of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Iacob from thence is the shepherd the stone of Israel THE Patriarch Jacob perceiving his end now very neer approaching sends and calls for his children about him intending before he dies to share a fathers blessing and counsell among them his father before he died had both bless'd and counsel'd him and he now dying is desirous to do the like also for his children Wherein is held forth a paterne most worthy the imitation of all carefull parents who though they cannot on their death-beds as Jacob prophesie a blessing yet may they pray for one and may hope also the words of a dying parent will leave impression on their children although possibly they have sleighted whatever counsell hath been given before In this chapter is recorded the whole carriage of the businesse how the Patriarch bespeaks his children and what portions he leaves to each of them The whole chapter being nothing else but as Luther stiles it The last will and testament of the Patriarch Jacob. The verses that I have chosen out of it do treat concerning Joseph the elder of the two darlings of Jacob his beloved Joseph And may either be lookt upon as entire and absolute or else as they usher in the words that follow after Take them as they refer to that which follows and so they are the preface to that full and ample blessing which Jacob was now ready to pronounce upon the head of his dear Joseph The Patriarch fearing perhaps lest Josephs blessing being greater then that of his other brethren might therefore expose him anew to their envy before he proceeds to blesse him he therefore first prefaces something of Josephs goodnesse as also of his brethrens former unkindnesse if haply by the mention thereof he might prevent their envy Look upon them as absolute and incoherent in which capacity I shall deal with them and so we shall perceive them to be Ioseph in little or an abstract of the life and if I may say so adventures of Ioseph And thus lookt upon they offer to your view these particulars 1. Joseph encountred assaulted in these words The archers have sorely grieved him shot at him and hated him 2. Ioseph unconquer'd not prevailed upon by any assault or encounter of his enemies in these words But his bowe abode in strength and the armes of his hands were made strong 3. Ioseph not only not conquered but prevailing and wearing the trophies of his conquest in these words From hence is the shepherd the stone of Israel 4. The mean whereby all this is brought to passe in these words By the hands of the mighty God of Iacob To open these particulars a little The archers sorely grieved him shot at him hated him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ad ver●um amarificaverunt cum jaculati sunt oderunt The archers shot at him By which are meant Iosephs brethren that hated him sold him whom therefore the Patriarch might now in his last words glance at at once to leave a record of his abominating their cruelty towards their brother as also haply to beget in them a deeper sense of their faultinesse therein of which they could not easily be over sensible Iosephs brethren I say are the archers that Iacob aimes at as also all those others that did practise against the life or wellfare of Ioseph Nor is it strange in Scripture for persecutours of the Saints to be accounted archers and their malicious practising against them either in word or deed to be reckoned a shooting arrows at them Thus I am sure the persecutour is described Psal 11. 2. For loe saies he the wicked bend their bowes they make ready their arrow upon the string that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart In like manner you finde him describ'd Psal 64. 3. To which purpose also if need were might be added severall other Scriptures In the Hebrew it is The masters of arrows shot at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ●omini sagittarum uti supra cap. 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dominus sumniorum Peritus so●●iorum ita Pro● 22. ●4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 procl●●●● ad iran him and hated him The masters of arrows that is your prime archers subtill wilie enemies accurate markes-men such as know how to kill dead with their malice thereby intimating The worse the persecutour is he is the better archer Hast thou therefore a malicious heart against the Saints a bad tongue thou art then in Scripture language although its no commendation a good archer The archers sorely grieved him c. It follows But his bowe abode in strength and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ad verbum Et habita vit in forti ar●us ejus roberaverunt se brachia ejus Chald. Contriti sunt sortitud ne arcus corum dissoluti sunt nervs brachij corum Sed obstat