Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	aaron_n	lord_n	rod_n	15	3	9.2655	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

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

the Lord hath inriched me and the Devil hath robbed me but as if he never heard mention made either of the Devil or the Chaldeans The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away Hee is not angry with Chance and Fortune and falls not out with Stars and Constellations David saw God on this Ladder Psal 44.12 13 14. like a good child he fathers the rod on God his Father Thou hast cast off Thou hast cast down when Gods rod was on his back he puts his hand on his mouth and his mouth in the dust Luther saw God on this Ladder when he observed though the Christs-cross be no letter yet he learned more by it than all the Letters of the Alphabet and that God never sent him on any special Errant or business but he first sent his mind by some special affliction And Alfred saw God on this Ladder who alwayes prayed that God would bestow some tryal on him to keep down his love to the World and draw up his love to Heaven Lorinus reports of Grashoppers formerly in England which depopulated England that on one wing they had written Ira in black letters upon the other Dei in golden The Saints are afflicted that is anger but by their God that is golden Hear the rod saith God and who hath appointed it Is that proper language buts its one thing to feel the rod and another thing to hear it God preaches to man a Lesson not only by his Word but by his Rod and as the Word must be felt before it can be heard so the Rod must be heard before it can be felt to purpose Repent prov●de for Eternity now do it or it may be you may never is the dialect of the rod as well as the word God appoints this man a cup of consolation and that man a cup of sorrow and he appoints how many drops shall be in their cups and all the world cannot put in a drop beyond the Lords measure Afflictions are a rod Schela crucis Schola lucis quae nocent docent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but they have honey at the end of them How sweet is it while the rod softens the heart and the hony opens the eyes Afflictions are called darkness in Scripture but they have enlightned the eyes of many who else might have walked in everlasting darkness How many may read legibly their sins in their punishments and need enquire for the cause of no other physitian God lays some sick in their own beds of wantonness and so hangs them at their own doores Lord says one Christian lying like Jacob at the foot of the Ladder I am thy vine and let me rather bleed than wither I am thy Apple-tree let me rather be lopt to grow than cut up to burn Lord says another frown on me rather than not to look on me let the Lord take me into h s hands and correct me rather than that I should have nothing to do with God or he should have nothing to do with me How many souls have occasion to say If the Lord had not plowed me with Afflictions and dunged me with Reproaches what barren ground had I been how had I wandred if the Lord had not sent his dogs to fetch me to his Fold I had certainly been cast away if I had not been cast down How had I surfeited on Pleasures and Friends if the Lord had not called me from the Banquet Adversity hath whipt many a Soul to Heaven which otherwise Prosperity had coached to Hell How glorious is it to see God in Riches in Friends in Honor in Persecutions in Crosses in Sicknesses God casteth down and my God lifteth up The Lord often writes angry Epistles to his children yet observe still at the bottom of the Letter he subscribes Your loving Father Hippocrates called the Pestilence the divine disease 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we call the spots thereof Gods mark the Falling-sickness of old was called morbus sacer because it was the immediate hand of God O Lord may every Soul say It matters not what my condition be So it but lead or whip me home to thee Secondly Providence is visible in publick Afflictions and Affairs of the world 1 In the publick troubles and distractions of Nations I create light and I form darkness Isa 45.7 Sin is mans creature and Afflictions are Gods creatures every Affliction bears the image of its Maker and God is not ashamed of his own handy-work Sinful man is the meritorious but Providence is the efficient cause of Evils Man is the cause of moral evils God of penal evils in the City Amos 3 6. Afflictions are Gods Thunder and Lightning Famine and Pestilence are the Kings evils onely caused and cured by God the Lords dreadful Ambassadors to a Nation they have their message to deliver and they will have audience Let God but fire our fields and blast our Corn as Absolom did by Joab we come presently Wars and Judgements are Gods Troops he is their Generalissimo they move according to his Orders he sounds his Trumpet and beats his Drum and all the Plagues and Punishments of Providence are in Arms when God saith charge they charge when retreat they retreat O Sword of the Lord how long before you are quiet here was a cry to the Sword but the Sword of the Lord answered you must speak to the General himself I am at his command Jer. 47.6 Not many years since we cryed out Oh the Sufferings and Alarms and Field-fights when will you cease in England but they never ceased till God bid them cease It is the honor of a King to discharge the first peece of Ordnance against the Enemy The Lord I am sure had the honor of beating the first Alarm and sounding the first Retreat in England Man may speak of Peace in but God onely can speak Peace to a Nation In Revel 6.10 they cry How long Lord they knew God had the time in his hand and he onely could tell how long They cryed not to the Tyrants how long will yee persecute how long will yee oppress the Saints But to the Lord How long before thou come to revenge Oh say many if it had not been for such and such men wee had never had wars and if it had not been for their ends and designs we had had an end of our Troubles ere now as if Providence were but a stander by or a looker on while men playd their Games or acted their parts But Jacob sees that Assur is the rod of Gods anger and that when his children are purified the rod shall be thrown into the fire and burned Sees that when God hath scoured his Plate he will throw the wisp on the dunghill that when he hath built his house the scaffold shall be pulled down England would be as full of Judgements as it is of Sin if men were the Makers and Masters of Judgements Men alone though never so wise or powerful cannot make either staves

of comfort or rods of afflictions God saith in Scripture he will give peace If all the Angels in Heaven should have said so we should soon have replied as Corah and his company to Moses and Aaron Numb 16. Yee take too much on you It is observed that God in Scripture is called a man of War and yet nothing so much discovers him to be a God as war 2 This Ladder of Providence reacheth the publick Honors and Governments of the World God 1 Sam. 2.8.9 raiseth the poor from the dust and lifts up the Beggar from the dunghill though too often they forget the ground from whence they came and the hand that lifted them up Promotion Psal 75.6 comes neither from the East nor West nor South That is from the Power and Policy of men Euthymius thinks there is an allusion to the Southsayers who promised good success according to the Stars of Nativity as if a man be born under Jupiter he should be honorable if under Mercury he should be witty no saith God Promotion comes neither from this or that Star from this or that quarter of the Heavens but from the Lord. It was accounted by a great man mentioned in our Chronicles a greater honor to make Kings than to be a King himself The Lord is a King and Kingdoms are his donatives and he Crowns and Uncrowns at his pleasure Nebuchadnezzar was cast down on purpose that he might see that God set him up Dan. 4.17 Kingdoms are not bound to Princes in chains of Adamant as one said his was Kings are faster bound to their Kingdoms than their Kingdoms are bound to them All Kingdoms on earth are Regna transcuntia moveables going and coming at Gods order from one man to another The Earth is the Lords and all the Kingdoms of the Earth are but Copy-holds belonging to his Kingdom as the Capital Mannor and Hold from him The Heathen well fancied a golden chain to reach from the divine Chair in Heaven to all the Crowns in the world Here we must shun two main Rocks against which the judgements of men are apt to split 1 What if some have exchanged a Prison for a Throne and Fetters of iron for chains of gold What if it hath been observed in the Journal of Providence Eccles 10.7 That Servants have been seen on horses and Princes walking as servants on the earth Subjects to prove Kings Tota ratio facti saepe pendet à ratione facientis and Kings to prove scarce Subjects Take heed of Atheism say not these things are fortuitous or unjust in God these are the chances q. d. and changes of Providence whose ways are sometimes secret but never unrighteous All Nations were made of one blood all blood is of one colour and if men take their descent from Adam they all stand on even ground When meanness is exalted do not bate The place its honor for the persons sake The Shrine is that which thou dost venerate And not the beast that bears it on his back I care not though the Cloth of State should be Not of rich Arras but of mean Tapestry 2 What if some rise on this Ladder of Providence as many have done and leave a good conscience at the bottom The Devil is visible in the best Governor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui conatur excipere conatur decipere and something of God invisible in the worst Governor on earth All the waies and kinds of Government are from God though the means and manner of getting those Governments are not always from God Magistracy is a civil Ordinance of God and so in it self good now the well or ill management of that Power is consequent to and not constitutive of the Power so that though Magistrates are bound to do well they may possibly do ill through their own corruption yet the Power is as much of God when they do ill as when they do well for though oft they want a Will to do good yet they have no Commission nor Power from God to do evill Good Magistrates are the garment in which God apparrels himself and he that shoots at the Cloaths cannot say he means not the man The objection of the Devils Power is inconsiderable because his power is not civil but moral and in it self evil and we are commanded to submit to the Civil Magistrate though evil but never to the Devil nor to pray for his Government that under it we may lead a quiet and godly life 1 Pet. 2.13 1 Tim. 2.2 Ephes 6 12. Every Power Rom. 13.1 is of God speaking of worldly Powers for there was not then a Christian Magistracy in the world point blank The power of Nero was from God Secundum merita subditorum Deus disponit corda praepositorum as well as that of Constantine The Apostle argues from the Author of that Authority It is certain all Higher Powers are from the Highest Power Let Subjects remember that Magistrates are Gods with Men and let Magistrates remember they are but Men with God I said ye are Gods there is their Coronation But ye shall dye like men there is there Funeral The Name and Title of God is never in Scripture as I know attributed to any one single or individual person but with a certain limitation as God said to Moses I have made thee a god thou art a made god in my place thou art a god to Pharaoh What if Governors as there have been such should as the Proverb is more mind the beautifying their own houses than the building of Italy If when they put on a publick Gown they should not put off a private person that they should obtain their Crowns as Alexander the sixth did by giving his soul to the Devil and afterwards may prove Nebuchadnezzars the Lamentation of their Generations as the word signifies That when their single words should be as good as Oaths that they should play with Oaths as children do with Rattles What if when they enter into Office they should put Conscience out of Office That they should buy places of Judicature and sell Justice and that not at a cheap rate because they bought dear What if they should be men not compounded of flesh and blood as other men are but as it is said of Richard the Third made up all of blood If they lastly should not write their Laws in Milk with Edward the Sixt but as Draco in Blood Yet every Prince is the Minister of Providence and if men were wise for their good if a good Prince for their temporal good if a bad Prince Si bonus nutrit●r tuus sin malus tentator tuus for their eternal good by their temporal evil If it be questioned whether Inferiors ought to honor Superiors that are evil I answer yes for the wickedness of man cannot make void Gods Ordinance no more than mans unbeleef can frustrate Gods promise We must honor Magistrates that are evill but not in evill Hos 8.4 They have