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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	aaron_n	lord_n	pray_v	17	3	7.8848	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92190	Jacobs ladder, or The protectorship of Sion, laid on the shoulders of the Almighty; in a description of the sufficiency of providence, suitable in these times of tentation. With Jacobs wrestling. / By Francis Raworth of Shoreditch.	Raworth, Francis, d. 1665.	1655 (1655)	Wing R373; Thomason E1507_2; ESTC R209489	136,597	367

makes the Alcoran his Ladder the Jew makes the Temple of the Lord his Ladder the carnal Protestant makes his char●ty his Ladder and the Papist hath his Ladder also there is a Red Ladder by the blood of Christ but they will have a White Ladder by Marys obedience this they accompt the easier way mee thinks these men mistake Jacobs Ladder yet something like it is for they are in a dream as Jacob was these are all rotten Ladders and the climbers have rotten hearts Thirdly A Providentiall sense and thus I shall handle this Vision The Ladder signifies the Divine Providence and in this Ladder wee have many things observable First The variety of Providence in the many steps The Providence of God hath indeed but one end yet it hath divers waies to that one end every living creature hath four faces and four wings to signify the several appearances and swift execution of Providence Eze. 1.6 It is a difficult thing to take the picture of Providence at this time in the world it maketh and hath so many faces let our eyes be never so exact in observing and our hands ready in describing its waies The locks of the Spouse in the Canticles are black and curled black for their obscurity and curled for their various intricacy There are not so many several countenances of men as there are dispensations of God and it s as rare a thing to find dispensations as men of the same complexion In heaven God will appear to the Saints in one glorious form but now as it was said of an Emperor that every day he put on a new suit so it is the Lords honour to apparell himself in changeable robes the imbroidery of Providence is made up of divers colours Sion is not allwaies in one condition nor the soul allwaies in one posture sometimes Christ frowns and sometimes he smiles sometimes hee casteth down sometimes hee lifteth up sometimes the Church of God is in the wildernesse sometimes in Canaan sometimes on the raging sea sometimes in her harbour The Lord keeps his people from infection by leading them into divers aires black and bloody Providences set off the wisdome and faithfullnesse of our God the better Standing waters corrupt and breed noysome creatures but running waters are pure and preservative Every new day brings with it a new tentation and wee shall never be experienced Souldiers till we are tryed at all sorts of weapons Credend a plura sunt de Deo quam scienda We must not look on the scattered lines of Providence but tarry till God hath made a conclusion never say Providence scribles til you have seen the whole copy Princes letters wee say ought to bee read thrice Let us consider the waies of God and wee shall never censure them Secondly In this Ladder we have the seeming uncertainty of Providence The Ladder is partly above the Clouds and partly visible in the Air as the Spirit Joh. 3. blows where it listeth so God in his works worketh how he listeth It is observable that usually of old when God appeared in the Tabernacle a Cloud ushered in his presence All the world is in the light to God but God is in the dark to all the world Sometimes the Lord walks so plainly in his works that he that runs may read that the dim-sighted'st Christian may say this is the Lords walk and this is the Lords work at other times he wraps himself in a cloud Si vides ubi fides and overcasteth Syon with darkness that the poor children of God cannot tell where to find their Father that they can but guesse at his footsteps knowing not which way to march for their Leader hath hid himself Pompey the Great said when the scales weighed down on Caesars side that there was a mist on the eies of Providence but indeed the Sun shone clearly and the mist was on his eye that he could not see it I confess in this age it is easier to know what particular things in Providence God will pull down than what he will set up We often imagine there is a disorder in Gods works when if we mind it the disorder is in our imagination We know not how to beleeve and we phancy the Lord to be at a stand as not knowing what to do But we must take heed of charging the Lord to be out of his way when onely he is out of our sight Thirdly In this Ladder we have the seeming contradictions of Providence The Angels ascend and descend the Ladder One Providence seems to go one way and another Providence seems to go another way Sometime the Cloud in the wilderness seemed to carry Israel immediately to Canaan now for Canaan might Moses and Aaron say and on a sudden the Lord wheels about and Israel turns faces toward the Red Sea as if he intended they should never see Canaan more How plainly hath the Lord led England for some years toward a Reformation The Saints have encouragingly said one to another Certainly we are within two or three years journey of the New Jerusalem Have at the scarlet Whore of Babylon Now for the building of ruinate Sion But the Lord hath seemed to cry face about and follow me yet longer in the wilderness and some of the Saints conclude we are never like to go forward we shall return to our Leeks and Onyons The conversion of souls visibly goes backward and not forward About twelve years ago hundreds came out of the Devils Kingdom into the Kingdom of the Gospel but now many fly from the colours of the Gospell visibly Miremur non rimemur Providentiae reconditam vi● and run into the Devils quarters again The Lord seems to seal up the hardness of mens hearts and to say to the womb of Grace Give forth no more let no more sinners be changed from darkness to light in England Well might Solomon Prov. 30.19 compare the Church to a ship in the midst of the Sea which as the Prophet speaks Now even mounts up to the Heavens and anon descends as it were to Hell God sees our works in our wills but we cannot many times spell out the Lords Will by his Works who can trace the Lord in his travel or find out the work or walk of the Almighty in the world The Texts of Providence are as difficult as the Texts of the Scriptures there are as high contests about Providence as about Predestination and it is as hard to reconcile the Works of God as to reconcile his Word though there is a real concordance and harmony in both Be not over righteous says the Preacher Eccles 7.16 Can a man be too righteous rather we think he should have said be not too prophane but as one Diamond cuts another so one Scripture opens another ver 15. I have seen a just man as just as Abel perish in his righteousnes and to lose his life because he would keep his conscience and on the contrary I have seen a

Gospel Surfet And might not the Lord justly take us down and make us know the worth of the Gospel by the want of it Since we have plaid with the light of Truth might he not make us feel the fire Might not God lay down his Basket and take up his Ax and because we are not fit for fruit and building make us fit fuel for burning Have not the Ambassadors of the everlasting Gospel had as hard lot in England as they had in Sodom Who cannot but admire that when England is as chaffy as Sodom that we ave not the same flames as Sodom had Is not this salvation that when wee have been weary of God that yet God is not weary of us That when we have refused to be a holy Nation that yet we are a Nation That when our sins are the sins of Sodom that our sufferings are not the sufferings of Sodom God hath lighted up a flaming Candle of Justice in Sodom the Lord grant that luke-warm England may yet see to read her salvation by it Mercy always swims in Justice but with us Justice seems to be drowned in Mercy 2 From this Ladder admire that we are not made an Egypt God lately turned our waters into blood our Sea was then a red Sea indeed What a mercy is it that English darkness is not a proverb as well as Egyptian darkness England of old was called Albion from the white Rocks and Scotland as some Criticks fancy signifies a Land of darkness But how quickly can the Lord turn Albion into Scotia England into Scotland and Scotland into England we are their neighbors already We have much liberty to bless God Oh that there we not so much liberty to blaspheme God! We have more liberty than either we have deserved or been thankful for There was a time when the Saints in England had Conscience without liberty we have now much liberty of Conscience the Lord grant the time may never come that we should have liberty without Conscience Liberty and nothing else but Licentiousness and Atheism We had once hearts to bless God but wanted opportunity Oh that now we have opportunities we did not want hearts As when a doubting Christian complained that he had no interest in God he was such a stranger to God a Preacher of the Gospel replied But what will you take for that interest though as you think little you have in God not a thousand worlds said the doubting Christian Saints in England what will you take for that liberty you have Now your eyes see your Teachers what if they were all shut up in corners now the doors of the Congregations q.d. are open what if it were past Sermon-time and past Repentance-time what if the silver bell of the Gospel should no more sound in England Oh that we had as much conscience of liberty as we have liberty of conscience That of Omnium Deorum among the Romans of Omnium Sanctorum amongst the Papists of Omnium Sectarum here in England are monstrous Every variation from unity is a step to nullity If ever England should come from one Religion to all and we are in the high way we shall quickly go from all Religion to none 3 From this Ladder admire that we are not made a Germany Instead of the sword of War you have the Scepter of Peace instead of Garments rowled in blood and the noyse of Arms you have the blood of Christ sprinkled on your Garments Oh trample it not under feet Instead of the roaring Cannons you have the sweet sound of Gospel-Ordinances God hath but shaken his rod over us while he hath broken their backs while we have been let blood he hath even let them bleed to death God bid David chuse which of the three plagues of War Famine Pestilence he would have but God puts it to our choyce which of those three plagues we will not have inflicted on us Though God hath sheathed up his sword yet he holds it still in his hand therefore fear What salvation is this that parents are not drinking the blood of their ch ldren to quench their thirst and eat the flesh of their children to satisfie their hunger 4 From hence admire that we are not made a Babylon Pray pray that the Bibles may be opened in Spain and yet bless God that there are not Pad-locks hung on them in England Pray mightily that Antichrist may fall abroad and forget not to bless God that though there be much of Rome in England that yet England is not Rome that none can go to Market that none can buy or sel without the mark of the Beast Revel 13.17 either in their right hands or on their foreheads It is the opinion of some good men that the Protestant Profession shall be over-spread with Antichristianism again and that then the Lord will extraordinarily awaken them from their sleep and actively engage them against Babylon But I wish though we have looked on Babylon that we may not so lust after Babylon Spiritual longings in this kind are dangerous but I hope God will prevent Sions miscarriage in the birth of Reformation The Lord grant if we go to Rome it may not be to dote on her but to destroy her There is an old Prophecy that Antichrist shall never overcome Paris nor Venice nor London Let us not be secure for if his Soul have entertainment here his Body will not tarry long after But some may say What Salvation hath the Lord wrought for us what fruit is there of all the blood shed in England is not our condition as bad as ever nay in some sense worse the Saints were united are they not now divided how many Professors are turned Apostates nay Persecutors and Prophane This is sad indeed and to be lamented yet as the Disciples did not wish the blood in Christs veins again though they were distressed by his death So I dare not say though in our Distractions and among the Blasphemies of this age Man hath lost his way that God hath lost his end This is the support That as God hath laid the Foundation so he will carry on the Building that as the Great Turk makes a Bridge of the Bodies of his Souldiers to scale the wals of a Garrison So the Lord knows how to make his glory to rise by the fall of ours and to give life to his Cause by the death of his followers Secondly From this Ladder we may take many sweet Prospects forward on what God will do more apparently for Sion in the world There are eight famous Prospects The first Prospect from Jacobs Ladder is Gods Jacobs may foresee the abundance of knowledge yet to be poured out Isa 36 26. Isa 52.8 Isa 11. Knowledge shall abound as waters do upon the Sea Knowledge is now but at a low Ebb in comparison of that high Tide that shal flow hereafter Knowledge shall abound as the Sea intensively and extensively it shall more increase and be more clear As