Selected quad for the lemma: child_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
child_n	advantage_n	condition_n	great_a	98	3	2.1745	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69701	A sermon preached before the Lord Mayor, aldermen, and citizens of London at Bow-Church on the 29th of May 1682.	Calamy, Benjamin, 1642-1686.	1682 (1682)	Wing C216; ESTC R5415	18,725	40

former deliverances that they talk think of nothing but approaching Miseries and Confusions and by this means go the likeliest way to bring those Calamities upon us But though I thus speak yet there is great cause to think better things of you here present who are now Assembled to bless God not only for restoring to us our Lawful Prince but also for giving us such a Gracious King to Reign over us Wee have indeed a Country that is admirably fitted for Pleasure Profit and every thing that is desireable and we have a Prince that answers to all the Gentleness Mildness and Temper of our Climate I know very well people are much inclin'd to run backward to famous men and great Princes of Former Ages highly extolling those that have been long since dead and gone when they have a mind to disparage or undervalue those that are our present Governours But if men would make a more just and impartial Comparison let them look now into the World and see how other Nations are govern'd and by whom let them well consider their Condition and Circumstances abroad and ours under our Prince and try with themselves whether they would be willing to remove into another Country for the sake of a more easie and favourable Government besides other great advantages both temporal and spiritual we have so long enjoyed under the benign influences of his happy Reign and will we hope be continued to us and our Children after us unless by greater and new Provocations or impenitent perseverance in old we run our selves into a worse and if it be possible a more deplorable condition than we were this day delivered from Thus behold by the miraculous deliverance of this day we are made whole I beg your Patience while I briefly apply the Exhortation in my Text to this solemn occasion Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee where be pleased to observe these few plain things 1. That Sin is generally the cause of temporal evils which holds true especially as to Nations and whole Societies and Bodies Politick God often afflicts particular persons for their tryal for the encrease and exercise of their Vertues to propound their example to the World out of Love and Fatherly affection to them and sometimes notorious wicked men escape punishment in this State because the day of Judgment and recompence is to come hereafter but it is otherwise as to Communities of men or the inflicting of publick National Judgments Here God exerciseth a peculiar Providence over Kingdoms and Nations in this Life He useth other measures than he doth in assigning the good or evil things of this World to private persons In his Providences to single persons he doth not always consider their merit but when a Land is laid waste by a cruel War when a potent State is overthrown when Rebellion is prosperous when a flourishing People is given up to Slavery or Captivity we may then truly say Behold the destruction and desolation that sin hath made The reason of which difference commonly given is this that this Life is the only time of punishing or rewarding such Societies and Combinations of Men. All such civil relations to one another cease in the other World Every one shall then answer and account for himself only and so in this life alone can Nations or Kingdoms as such be either punished or rewarded We ought therefore to give to God the glory of his Justice and acknowledge that they were the sins of the Nation that gave success and victory to our Enemies which notwithstanding the undoubted goodness of the late Kings Cause the undaunted Valour of his Friends his own personal Innocence and exemplary Vertue yet betray'd him at last into their merciless hands which so long kept our present Soveraign from his rightful Possessions and subjected the People to that very Arbitrary Dominion and Power of the Sword the prevention of which was the specious pretence of their first taking up Arms. I shall not sully or eclipse the Glory and Joy of this day by enquiring into the particular Sins that brought the late Confusions upon us but only say thus much That though his Majesty hath graciously Pardoned them as far as concerns his Courts of Justice nay hath commanded us not so much as to mention them to the disgrace or damage of any persons guilty therein yet surely it is lawful nay very expedient sometimes to call them to mind yea often to remember them in order to the avoiding the like occasions or practices for the future which once proved so fatal to us That we should never more give way to such murmurings and discontents such fears and vain surmises such Divisions and Factions as then kindled those Flames which laid both Church and State in Ashes till their happy Resurrection on this day 2. Observe further that though publick National Judgments be always thus inflicted according to the measure and proportion of our sins yet the removal of these doth not always signifie that the Nation is reform'd and made better or that God is reconciled with us and hath received us again into his favour For the true cause may be only this that God would now use other methods would try other remedies he alters his dispensation and prescription finding the inefficacy of Judgments to awaken and amend us that we hardned our selves the more under the strokes of his Vengeance he now designs to melt and dissolve us with an amazing kindness So that the Miseries and Calamities of the late Times and the Deliverance of this day do both teach us the same Lesson preach the same Doctrine That we should sin no more After this manner God hath been pleased in this Age most sigually to deal with this Kingdom by an intermixture of Judgments and Mercies that either by fair and gentle means or by harsher and more severe usage we may be prevail'd upon and engaged to our duty Pardon me if I say that God Almighty seems to have a great inclination to save this Nation and make us happy if so be we would but yield to be such our selves He hath not done so to other People nay what could he have done more to oblige and reclaim us than what hath in the compass of a few Years been done He hath visited us with Rods and with Scorpions a long Civil War a devouring Plague and a Consuming Fire and the like and hath not he shewed us greater mercies that which we this day commemorate the preservation of the Kings Life to this time the late Discovery and prevention of the Popish Plot the maintaining us hitherto in Peace and Tranquillity notwithstanding our present distractions and dangerous Convulsions And therefore 3. If after all these various trials and means used by God we still go on in our Sins this mightily aggravates the guilt heightens the provocation and will certainly encrease our punishment For 1. We now sin after long and sad experience of the evil and