Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	antichristian_a	ministry_n	zion_n	28	3	10.3923	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88149	A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons: at their publique fast, holden in Margarets Westminster. Febr. 24. 1646./47. / By John Lightfoot, Staffordiens. a Member of the Assembly of Divines.	Lightfoot, John, 1602-1675.	1647 (1647)	Wing L2069; Thomason E377_27; ESTC R201371	27,223	40

divers of your owne Orders and expressions For in how many of your addresses and desires to the City or Countrey for the raising of moneyes men or Horses have you still laid much upon the hands and fidelity of the Ministers to promote the Worke and to stirre up their severall Congregations to it And I beseech you now Commune with your owne hearts how they have discharged that trust and performed your Injunctions And in your thoughts take up an account how they have behaved themselves in that matter and whether they have not been exceeding faithfull Have not these Trumpets and these poore Pitchers had their share and a good share too in bringing downe the walls of Jericho and the Campe of Midian Have not they like that Story in Ezekiel 37. if I may so expresse it Prophecied you up an Army The Witnesse of these things is in the whole Kingdome and a witnesse of them is in your owne bosomes and there I leave the consideration of them to bee laid to heart But now where is this Ministerie of England that have been so faithfull so usefull to the cause in hand and so forward to forward it upon all occasions how are these reall sons of Zion now brought low despised oppressed and trod under foot in many places of the Land Their Ministerie by many scandalled for Antichristian their persons vilified sometimes violenced and indangered their subsistence impaired their quiet interrupted their families impoverished the function of the Ministerie how neerely undone Now I beseech you commune with your owne hearts what the Ministerie of England hath done for you and what others have done to it and then consider what you have to doe A second thing that I would humbly recommend to the serious and sad debate and communication of your hearts is What hath been done before you And here I cannot but take up a little of the stile and manner of expression that is used by Paul when hee was to plead his case before Agrippa Acts 26. 2. I thinke my selfe happy most noble Senate that since my Lot is fallen to speake unto you from this place that my Lot hath fallen upon such a day as that it is now but foureteene dayes to the time that you have appointed to humble your selves before God for some of the mainest things that I am to speake about I know that they that are resolved to debate of these matters to the full betwixt themselves and their owne hearts and betwixt themselves and GOD on that day will patiently give mee leave at this time as by way of a preparation Sermon to speake the more freely concerning those things that you are resolved that Day to bee humbled for I say againe therefore I beseech you seriously Commune with your owne Hearts what hath beene done before you I shall tell you one of the saddest stories that I am perswaded is to be found in any Record or in any experience upon the earth and that is about the violation of our Covenant It is not yet foure yeares since we entred into as Solemne a Covenant as ever did Nation and will it bee believed in the next Generation if our guilt upon it doe not make it too evident Or would it bee believed in any remote parts of the world but that the fame of it is blowne through all Nations that in so short a time after so Solemne an Obligation and the Parliament that brought on the Covenant sitting the Covenant should bee so forgot as wee dolefully see dayly that it is I would I might say onely that it is forgot for if it were forgot onely there might bee some more excuse but it is set up as a signe to bee spoken against nay a Sword is gone through the very soule of it in such a kinde of violation as I think no Storie can parallel I shall instance onely in two things 1. Wee vowed against Error Heresie and Schisme and swore to the God of Truth and Peace to the utmost of our power to extirpate them and to root them out these Stones and Walls and Pillars were witnesses of our Solemne Ingagement And now if the Lord should come to enquire what wee have done according to this Vow and Covenant I am amazed to thinke what the Lord would finde amongst us Would hee not finde ten Schismes now for one then twenty Heresies now for one at that time and forty Errours now for one when wee swore against them Was there ever more palpable walking contrarie to God or more desperate crossing of a Covenant If we had sworne to the utmost of our Power to have promoted and advanced Errour Heresie and Schisme could these then have growne and come forward more then now they have done though we swore against them 2. And so in the second place wee entred into as Solemne an ingagement for Reformation in matters of Religion and this was the joyfull sound that stirred up the hearts of the people and this was their hopes five or six yeares agoe it was proclamed and betwixt three and foure yeares agoe it was Covenanted and our hearts danced within us for the hopes wee had in this particular But what hath beene done I looked saith God for Grapes and behold sowre Grapes and nothing else When Reformation was first spoken of wee had Order and Ordinances but now how is the one lost and the other slighted Wee had then Sacraments full Congregations a followed Ministerie and frequented Churches but now Sacraments laid aside Congregations scattered the Ministerie cryed downe Churches emptie Church doores shut up equestres Samnitum in ipso Samnio If you look for a Reformation upon our Covenanting for Reformation how little to bee found and how much cleane contrary Goe to the Isles of Chittim and from thence passe over to Keder in the East search all the Stories that are to bee found and enquire in all Nations under the whole Heavens whether the like things have beene done in any Times in any Nation and yet have these things been done before your eyes Give me leave to relate unto you a Story out of the Turkish Historie and to apply it Uladislaus the King of Hungarie having made a League with Amurath the great Turke and solemnly Covenanted and Sealed to Articles thereof in the Name of Christ was afterward perswaded to breake it and to goe to warre against Amurath Being in the heate of the fatall Battaile at Varna the Turke drawes out the Articles of the League out of his Bosome and spreads them towards the Crucifix which hee saw in the Christians Banner with these words Now Christ if thou be a God as they say thou art revenge the wrong done unto thy Name by these thy Christians who made this League in thy Name and now have thus broke it And accordingly was this wretched Covenant-breach avenged with the death of Uladislaus and almost all his Armie Should Christ spread our Covenant before us upon the same accusing termes as hee spread