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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
enemy_n	appear_v	great_a	time_n	1,507	5	3.2676	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77007	Salvation in a mystery: or A prospective glasse for Englands case. As it was laid forth in a sermon preached at Margarets in Westminster, before the Honourable House of Commons, at their monthly fast, March 27. 1644. / By John Bond, B.LL. late lecturer in the city of Exceter, now preacher at the Savoy in London. A member of the Assembly of Divines. Published by order of the Commons House.	Bond, John, 1612-1676.; England and Wales. Parliament.	1644 (1644)	Wing B3574; Thomason E43_2; ESTC R1754	41,396	73

so this Parliament out of the fire of the two Kingdoms when they were in a combustion some three years since to cast them into the consuming flames againe at last No surely that is not the Lords usuall manner 2 Continuance 3 Supply And as for your Convention so secondly consider the progresse of providence in your settlement How hath God fastned you as a naile in a sure place This is an argument in which the Jewes did comfort themselves at the time of their returne from Babylon Ezra 9.8 And now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the Lord our God to leave us a remnant to escape and to give us a NAYLE in his holy place c. Surely you are our remnant escaped without which we had been as Sodome and as the inhabitants of Gomorrah and you are fastned as a nayle in a sure place by a speciall Act for your continuance above all former Parliaments Well did the Lord fore-see both what a great worke himselfe would put into your hands and what great oppositions you should meet withall When God doth thus fasten a nayle of power and authority in a sure place hee doth usually intend to hang some extraordinary weight and glory upon it as it is said of Eliakim who was a figure of CHRIST Esai 22.23 And I will fasten him as a nayle in a sure place c. vers 24. And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his Fathers House the off-spring and the issue all vessels of small quantitie from the vessels of cuppes even to all the vessels of flaggons Thirdly besides your extrordinary convention unparalleld fastning Consider lastly what the Lord hath done for you and by you since you came together 1. FOR YOU How often hath he given a new life to your whole House collectively in common that sometimes by rescuing you from bloody Assassinates Oh! let the the 4th of January Anno 1641. be unto you as the 5th of November 1605. Sometimes by giving you the victory in the open field when your lives lay at stake in the battle as in both those generall Battles at Keinton and Newbery Besides how many of your Members distributively have had their lives given unto them as a particular prey being snactht out of naturall and violent deaths since they began this service I do not speak this that your hearts should be lifted up within you but that they may be lifted up in the wayes of the Lord. 2. Next consider what God hath done BY You also did ever the Lord do so much work of this kind in so short a time how ever we thinke the time to be long since Protestant Reformation began in the Christian world Sleidani Commentaria If so then I was mistaken or forgetfull in reading that exact Record of Reformation since Luthers beginning Quest. So much worke done you will say Alas alas what is there done all this while besides the kindling of an unnaturall warre As for Reformation there is nothing compleatly perfected in that to this day for want of the Royall assent c. Answ I answer first yes there is somewhat already done the best the spirituall part of the worke doth still go on and the reason why we see it not is because we looke to the politique and outward part of the businesse more then to the inward and spirituall part For this abundantly goes on still even in the middest of all the stormes The Wall is building though in troublous times as Dan. 9.25 Have you ever been upon the shore at low-water and there observed the comming in of the tide you shall see first one little wave creeping forwards and presently retiring it selfe again and so another and another but every one doth still retreat as soone as fast as it did advance so that a diligent observer viewing the water in motion may easily beleeve that the floud doth not at all increase But set a marke or keepe your standing neere the wash of the waves for a short time and then you shall quickly and clearly see and feele that all this while it is flowing water and anon insensibly it will be full-sea So in the present great worke though there appears to be a vicissitude of victories betwixt God and his enemies though successe doth seeme to a carnall eye promiscuously to go and come yet stand still a while and looke upon the spirituall the religious part of the worke and you shall find the waters of the sanctuary still flowing and increasing as in Ezekiels vision Chap. 47. first they were to the ancles next to the knees then to the loynes and lastly they were a River that could not be passed over I meane that the worke of Reformation still goes on there we do get ground as to perfect a Protestation into a Covenant to ripen an Impeachment into a Roote Branch and in a word to settle an Assembly of Divines as a generall resiners fire to try all metals in the Church Answ 2 But secondly whereas you say that nothing is yet compleatly perfected for want of the Royall assent Know this that the Lord doth carry-on this frame of building in like manner as Solomons Temple was built Doe you not remember how Solomon built his Temple you may see it in 1. Kings 6.7 And the house when it was in building was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither so that there was neither hammer or axe or any toole of iron heard in the house while it was in building And in King 5.6 it is said that the Cedar-trees were hewen and made fit in Lebanon and then they were brought downe by water unto the place where they were to be used and verse 15. you shall reade that Solomon had threescore and ten thousand that bare burthens and fou●score thousand that were hewers in the Mountaines c. Just so is the building of this Christian Protestant Temple carryed-on The Lord prepareth one piece of the building in Germany there he hath had thousands of hewers of wood and fellers of trees these twenty yeers to cut down some and to square-out others for this structure he hath others that beare burthens in Ireland and they shall bring in another kinde of materials And then Scotland doth come in perhaps with soader and cement they shall further us in Covenanting and at last when all these materials shal be brought in place by water by our prayers then you shall see a glorious Temple set up perhaps in one weeke nay in a day or a night and that without the noyse of axe or hammer or any toole of iron You are hewing in the House of Parliament the Divines are squaring in their Assembly in one night the Lord is able to worke upon the heart of the King for he hath it in his hand and to deliver him into the bosome of you his faithfull Counsell then the whole work may suddenly be passed and

Tolle lege take up and reade it seems that very providence did direct that amongst all sorts of bookes the King should pitch upon History and amongst all sorts of History this volume and amongst all the parts of this volume this page this passage that so way might be made for Esthers intended motion Well fourthly vers 3. And the King SAID what honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this Why did the King take notice of this service at this time more then formerly for it is said chap. 2. ver 22. that Esther had formerly certified the King of this businesse in Mordecai's name yet then no reward is thought upon But it seemes Mordecai's reward was kept for this very time by an act of extraordinary providence But fifthly to put a heape of casualties together That Haman should so seasonably come in in that very nick of time when Ahasuerus was studying how to reward Mordecai That Haman should come in with that request and motion for the executing of Mordecai Adde to these the Kings admission of Haman the question propounded to him and Hamans answer to that question all which you may reade in chap. 6. vers 4 5 6. And then all these graines put together do make a great weight Let all these casuall circumstances be cast in and you must confesse that every particular of them being a severall piece of wonder the whole doth make up little lesse than a Miracle Honourable and beloved how easily could I shew you the faces of such like casualties or petty-wonders in the glasse of your owne proceedings You have instances enough of your owne I meane in your owne History to parallel all these particulars and a thousand more I need not to go a borrowing for you Only thus much in a word this Manna of rarities from heaven is your daily bread I must on-wards Thirdly a work is then carried-on mysteriously when it is carried on contra naturam What English shall I have to reach this expression withall When a worke is carried on CONTRARILY and CONTRADICTORILY It is an hard phrase but so over-flowing are the mysteries of mercy which God is now working amongst us that certainly our English tongue is grown too narrow to lend us words to expresse them I must therefore use the word Contradictorily Contradictory what is that That is when a worke is promoted and carried-on by its contraries I must shew it by an instance When the carriage of a worke doth run like Samsons riddle Iudg. 14.14 Out of the Eater came forth meat and out of the strong sweetnesse That the Eater should yeeld meat and the strong give out sweetnesse this is such a riddle that a strict Logician hearing it would be ready to cry out Implicat 't is a contradiction in adjecto yet so it is when enemies do become furtherers of a worke against themselves and that is common you see amongst us If Samsons riddle doth not expresse it sufficiently adde another expression out of the Psalmist It is in Psa 112.4 Unto the upright there ariseth light in darknesse It is according to nature that the dawning doth spring out of the night and that the more perfect day doth arise out of that dawning is still according to nature because the increase is graduall But when light shall arise immediatly out of darknesse when high-noone shall suddenly leape out of midnight such a jumpe is against nature and you must call it a mystery because it is held as a Maxim amongst Naturalists that Natura nihil agit per saltum the motion of nature is not by leaps but by paces Thus Mark. 4.28 First the blade then the eare after that the full corne in the eare Therefore as often as we shall see a branch I meane a fruit of Providence like the Rod of Aaron that in one night was budded and brought forth buds and bloomed blossomes and yeelded Almonds Numb 17.8 so often let us confesse with the Psalmist This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes Yea but when or where did we ever see such things as these I would give some few particular instances under this head of salvation through contrarieties and contradictions As 1. 1 Enemies furtherers When Enemies doe further a worke against themselves yea and that by fighting against it This contradiction we have found true ever since the beginning of our present troubles The enemy by projecting fighting against Reformation hath both hastened and hightned it more then our selves could perhaps would have done in that time When there had been a talke a while after the beginning of this Parliament of some solemne way of uniting the Kingdomes by some speciall Association in those crazie times the enemy by increasing our dangers and obstructing as I remember the proceedings do quicken us into a Protestation And because that obligation was easily broken ah lamentable by the generality of men who deserted their owne protection and remedy therefore the enemy would never leave adding one horrid provocation to another by fighting against the Parliament denying them a being proclaiming them Rebels and owning the Diabolicall Rebels of Ireland as good Subjects to cut their throats untill by such sharp provocations as these they had spur'd and switch'd the three Kingdomes into a most Solemne Oath and Covenant for a compleat Reformation The men would not suffer us if we would only to pare and clip Prelacy no they will have it pluckd up Roote Branch They will not suffer the three Kingdomes to rest in severall kinds and pitches of government and worship but they will have one true reformed uniformity in these and all other Churches of Christ Thus their rage hath abundantly ripened the worke This is seemingly contradictory 2. When one and the same thing is at once helpfull to Gods people 2 Helpfull-Hurt and hurtfull to the enemy As it is sayd of the Angel and of the Pillar of the Cloude Exod 14.19 And the Angel of God which went before the Camp of Israel removed and went behinde them and the Pillar of the cloud went from before their faces and stood behind them ver 20. And it came between the Campe of the Egyptians and the Campe of Israel and it was a cloude of darknesse to them but it gave light by night to these so that the one came not neer the other all the night Such helpfull-hindering occurrents have we often met withall that have proved like the extraordinary frost that 't is said did suddenly happen in the North at the comming in of the present Scottish Army it blocked up the wayes of the enemy by abundance of Snow that they could not plunder and fire as they intended but it gave an unexpected passage of Ice over the river unto our Brethren and their carriages Many like acts might be shewen which upon the one hand did shew the Lords presence with his people as I have seen some two faced pictures and on the