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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	king_n	kingdom_n	lord_n	18,878	5	4.5108	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90065	A sermon, tending to set forth the right vse of the disasters that befall our armies. Preached before the honourable houses of Parliament, at a fast specially set apart upon occasion of that which befell the army in the west. In Margarets Westminster, Sept. 12. Anno 1644. / By Matthew Newcomen, Minister of the Gospell at Dedham in Essex.	Newcomen, Matthew, 1610?-1669.	1644 (1644)	Wing N913; Thomason E16_1; ESTC R18134	39,055	48

not only have fasted but have starved not only have shed Teares but Bloud all this should never have prevailed with God to relent any thing at all towards him or reverse one Tittle of the wrath denounced against him we would have thought so had not God left the contrary upon record in his holy word to teach us That his thoughts are not as our thoughts nor his wayes as our wayes Therefore the word of the Lord came to Elijah saying Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me because Ahab humbleth himselfe before me I will not bring the evill in his dayes Let all the earth now keep silence before the Lord and after so manifest a proofe of Gods regard to Humiliation even in an Ahab let sinfull dust and ashes never murmure more nor dare to say What profit is it that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts Mal. 3.14 Application Now what shall we say to this Shall England that hath more Strugglings in her wombe then Rebekah had say as she If it be thus why am I thus If it be thus as we have heard that God doth vouchsafe so gratious a tender regard unto the Humiliations of his people Why am I thus Why am I yet after so many Dayes of monethly and other occasionall Humiliations a Stage of warre a Field of Bloud Hath God forgotten to bee gratious or hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies Is his Mercie cleane gone or doth his Promise faile for evermore Hath not the Lord promised 2 Chron. 7.14 If my People which is called by my Name shall humble themselves and pray and seeke my face and turne from their evill wayes then will I heare from Heaven and I will forgive their sin and I will heale their Land And againe Levit. 26.42 43. c. If they shall confesse their iniquity and the iniquity of their fore-fathers c. and if then their uncircumcised heart be humbled and they then accept the punishment of their iniquitie then will I remember the land Now what shall we say hath God forgotten to be gratious was God gratious not only to Joshua and the Elders when they humbled themselves but to Rehoboam and his Princes when they humbled themselves Nay even to Ahab when he humbled himselfe and will not the Lord be gratious unto us Hath God promised that if his people humble themselves and pray and seek his face he will forgive and heale and doth his Promise now faile God forbid we should thus thinke or speake the failing is on our part not on Gods we faile in that which God hath made these Promises and usually beares this Tender regard unto We are not humbled we are not humbled we are not humbled After two yeares of extraordinary judgements and three yeares of extraordinary Meanes and Dayes of Humiliation we remaine an unhumbled people where can we finde the Evidences of such a Humiliation as was here in Joshua or such as was in Rehoboam or such as was in Ahab or such as was in Nineveh Oh England thou hast destroyed thy selfe thou hast destroyed thy selfe even with a double destruction Thou hast destroyed thy selfe Once by thy sinnes thy ancient idolatries and persecutions Thy late Apostacies Superstitions Oppositions to the Power of godlinesse hating to be reformed c. these have called the destroying sword upon thee Thou hast destroyed thy selfe by these a first time And a second time thou hast destroyed thy selfe by thy unhumblednesse and impenitencie under the present judgement Thy sins began thy not being humbled perfects thy destruction I am as confident as confidence it selfe can make me for I have Scripture for it that if England were humbled England should be healed God would say unto his sword that now devoures Returne unto thy place Rest and be still Nay though All England were not humbled yet if King and Parliament were but humbled the Breach between King and Parliament yea betweene God and the King between God and the Kingdome should be healed God would be reconciled to King Parliament and Kingdome and God would reconcile King Parliament and Kingdome one unto another if King and Parliament were but humbled and things should yet goe well in England That Example of Rehoboam and the Princes of Judah induceth me thus to thinke Nay if the Parliament were but humbled if you Lords and Gentlemen were but humbled I durst promise that things should yet goe well in England God would prosper your Counsels your Armies things should succeed in all according to your minde if you were humbled according to the minde of God This sad blow whereby God hath called you to his foot this day even in your owne understandings speakes thus much that God would have you even you be more humbled then yet you have been The Lord sanctifie it and blesse it that it may produce such and such a measure of Humiliation in you and in us all as that for time to come our gratious God be no more enforced to use such severe wayes to breake our hearts and humble us I come now to that which God gave notice of to Joshua in these words Israel hath sinned and hath also transgressed my Covenant wherein you may please to consider first the thing that God gives Joshua notice of Secondly the Manner how God gives Joshua notice of it The thing that God gives Joshua notice of is Sinne Haec Thesis Israel deliquit sic quasi per gradus amplificatur graviter deliquit Israel nam quod nuper jusserānō observarant fecerūt enim nonnullas reliquas res quas perdidisse oportuit quod gravius est non reliquat modo fecerunt sed sibi usurparint tum quod majus est flagitiū surtine usurparunt ad haec mēdaciis insuper ●allere conati sunt Denique quod malorū est extremū obsirmarunt animū rebus subtractis in suum suppellectilem relatis Mas in loc Israel had sinned The Manner of Gods giving Joshua notice of it is first by way of gradation God first in the generall tels him Israel hath sinned Then secondly descends a little neerer to the Nature of the sinne And they have also transgressed my Covenant And then thirdly instances the particular sinne And they have taken of the accursed thing and have also stolne Then fourthly follow the aggravations of the sinne And they have dissembled also and they have put it even amongst their owne Stuffe Or if you please you may consider in the words 1 Gods Charge against Israel and 2 the Amplification of it The Charge it selfe is this Israel hath sinned The Amplification is in severall particulars First their sinne was a breach of Covenant They have also transgressed my Covenant Secondly this breach of Covenant was in an accursed thing For they have taken of the accursed thing Thirdly this breach of Covenant in the accursed thing it was a Theft And they have also stollen Fourthly they have added Lying to their Theft They have also

had six hundred thousand fighting men in his Camp still and what if all the Inhabitants of the land come against them they are enough are they not to deale with them yea but Joshua saw that God was angry he went not forth with their Armies and Joshua knew that if his 600000 Men were 600000 Millions if God continue still angry with them they should all fall before their enemies we talke of thousands were our thousands multiplyed into Millions if God frowne still upon our Armies as he now begins to doe we are but bread for our enemies Beleeve it it is a signe of a carnall heart that would shift off this stroke of God and is loth to lie under the sence of it to comfort it selfe at such a time as this is in our remaining Armies If God will not withdraw his anger the proud helpers stoope under him Job 9.13 If we will not beleeve this God will make us feele it Joshua had men of warre enough to have comforted himselfe in but he could not durst not doe it Fourthly did Joshua feare that this Disaster would give occasion to the proud heathen to blaspheme the Name of the God of Israel therefore he saith What wilt thou doe to thy great Name And may not wee feare the same upon this of our Army Nay doe we not know it how have they heretofore how often have they as with a sword pierced the hearts of Gods people Witnesse Bristoll and Bolton c. while they say daily in their reproach Where is now your God Psal 42.10 Where is now your God your God to whom you have prayed before whom you have wept fasted of whom you have made your boast Where is now your God Encline thine eare O Lord and heare Open thine eyes O Lord and see and heare all the words of thine enemies whereby they reproach the living God Isai 37.13 〈…〉 But O Brethren shall not all this affect our hearts shall not all this cause us to lie in the dust before the Lord seriously and sincerely humbled under him and mourning before him Oh that I could find this disposition in my selfe O that I could behold it in you especially in you Parliament men O that I could see your Eyes speaking the sense which your hearts have of this sad hand of God upon us even in Teares Beleeve it Right Honourable it would become you nay it is your duty O that I might obtaine it from you or obtaine it at the hand of God for you O Parliam●nt Teares are pretious Teares would you drop but every man a Teare this day before the Lord for England O what a Balme might it be for this bleeding Kingdome I tell you Brethren it is more to that great God before whom you stand and whose face you desire to seek this day to see you Parliament men to see you unfeinedly judging your selves sitting in the dust at his feet giving him glorie in all his righteous dealings with you Mourning under this frowne that he hath cast upon you it is more to God to see you doing this then to see some thousands of others in such a Posture Are not you as all the Tribes of England is not all England epitomized contracted in you If you be humbled All England is humbled virtually eminently If Joshua and the Elders be humbled it is as if all Israel were humbled if Rehoboam and the Princes of Judah be humbled it is as if all Judah had been humbled God will grant some deliverance and things shall goe well in Judah 2 Chron. 12.6 7 12. It hath often been the Prayer of some of your Remembrancers at the throne of Grace upon our dayes of Humiliation that whatever God doe with private Congregations yet that in this place and upon your hearts there might be a mightie Presence and Effusion of the spirit of Humiliation the same is my desire and prayer this day O that God would humble us all every soule of us but if not all if there be any of us whom God for our personall sins will leave to the hardnesse and dedolency of our hearts this day yet the Lord be mercifull unto you and unto us all in you That your hearts may be as Gideons fleece moystened with a dew from Heaven though we round about you should be dry which yet to us would be exceeding sad But somewhat it would comfort us concerning England would the Lord please to humble you Now the Lord humble you The Lord affect your hearts with his dealing the Lord cast you downe at his feet with Joshua that with a hand of mercy he may lift you up as he did Joshua and say Arise wherefore liest thou upon thy face Thirdly for Reproofe But if there be any Man here especially any Parliament man to whom it were more fit to say as the Master of the ship did to Jonah Vp sleeper and call upon thy God if so be that God will thinke on us that we perish not then as here God to Joshua Arise wherefore liest thou upon thy face If there be any man here that upon such a Day and such an Occasion as this is hath an unstirred and unawakened heart within him And I feare there are too many such I seldome come in a Fast into any Congregation where it is discernable by the face and garbe of the Assembly that they are in a dutie of Fasting and Mourning Our monethly Fasts are degenerated into most lothsome Formalities into lesse then a formality lesse then an outside then an appearance of Fasting and Mourning But that Man that can be so this day hath a heart more Atheisticall then the very Heathens had Inops Senatus auxilii humani ad Deos populum vota convertit lussi cum conjugibus ac liberis supplicatum ire pacemque exposcere ●●cûm omnia delubra imp●ent Stratae passim Matres crinib● Templa verrentes veniam irarum coelestium exposcunt Liv. lib. 3. He that reads the Romane Story will finde how they upon such like occasions as is this day presented unto us kept solemne dayes of Supplications and with what throngs of men women and children their Temples were filled how sad and mournfull their demeanour was how their Ladies and Matrons rowled themselves in the dust and swept the very pavements of their Idoll-Temples with the haire of their heads ô how farre are many amongst us from any such affection consternation I cannot but feare that there is a great deale more Atheisme and a great deale lesse sence Irarum Coelestium of the Anger of a God against us in the Calamities now lying upon us then was in those very Heathens O that their Dayes of Supplication may never rise up in Judgement against ours to condemne them The Lord humble every Soule of us that hath not yet been humbled Even this alone is sufficient Cause why we should now be humbled because in all our Dayes of Humiliation we have been unhumbled hitherto many of

all cut off by Hannibal he not listening to what Envy or what Revenge might dictate to him came in to their reliefe presently and not only rescued them but by that courtesie reduced Minutius to his obedience again the man is as willing to resigne his command as ever he was ambitious to take it up Truly these glorious sparklings of something humano majus even in heathens of selfe-deniall of faithfulnesse of Zeale for a publike good swallowing up all other interests of Factiō Honour Priority Power These things even in heathens make me blush wonder tremble Si faciunt hoc Ethnici ut fama sua nomen extendant Dan. quid agendum est Christianis ut in coelesti sibi gloriâ sedes acquirant If Heathens will doe thus much for a Bubble of vaine-glory upon Earth what should Christians doe for a Crowne of Glory in Heaven Or were I to speake this day to the Ministry of England that are rightly affected to the glory of God and the Publike good I would intreat them to consider with me whether we may not feare that some of our former sins in the matter of Gods Day and Worship may at this time come in remembrance before the Lord especially seeing we have been no more humbled for them and whether our present divisions and dissentions and the undue managing of them may not have an influence into our present calamities I remember in the beginning of the first Reformation there fell an unhappy difference between Luther and Zuinglius and their followers which was managed with a great deale of bitternesse and remaines to this day uncomposed And both parties smarted under the sword of the common enemy the longer it is probable for their disagreement among themselves The Lord grant it fall not out so to us O that we could all of us both Ministers and people remember that vehement obtestation of the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 1.10 Now I beseech you brethren by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speake the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but that you be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgement Oh that at least the advantage that redounds to our enemies and disadvantage to our selves from these our differences might compose them for us And that we would imitate Basil and Eusebius who perceiving the common adversary the Arrians to improve a difference which was between them to the prejudice of the Orthodox Churches were soon reconciled and imployed their united strengths against those enemies But I digresse too farre to returne therefore to my present Auditory You that stand here before the Lord this day Men and Brethren I beseech you every one aske your owne Consciences and say What have I done what sinne is it of mine that hath awakened this hand of God against us Is it my unsensiblenesse of the indignation of the Lord in this civill destructive warre Is it my pride my luxurie my eating flesh my drinking wine my clothing my selfe with scarlet my walking with an out-stretched neck at such a time as this when the Lord cals to weeping and mourning and baldnesse and girding with sackcloth every day Beleeve it brethren it is a great provocation in the eyes of our God to behold so much bravery and joviality as he sees every day in this great Citie at such a time as this when he is making his sword drunke with the bloud of our slaine There are three Texts of Scripture Oh that all the children of pride and vanity would but studie them Ezek. 21.9.10 A sword a sword it is sharpened and also fourbished It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter it is fourbished that it may glitter should we then make mirth Isai 22.12 13. And in that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping and to mourning and to baldnesse and to girding with sackcloth And behold joy and gladnesse slaying oxen and killing sheep eating flesh and dinking wine Isai 3 16-25 26. Moreover the Lord saith Because the daughters of Zion are haughtie and walke with stretched forth neckes and wanton eyes walking and mincing as they goe and making a tinkling with their feet Therefore thy men shall fall by the sword and thy mighty in the warre And her gates shall lament and mourne and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground Little doe our Ladies thinke that their Gallantry which that third of Isaiah gives an Inventory of may make our mighty men fall in the warre and our strongest Cities sit upon the ground But say againe Is it my trusting to an arme of flesh my putting confidence in the Gallantry of our Army and ah Lord in this thing the Lord be mercifull to us who almost can plead Not guilty that hath made this Arme of flesh to wither Is it my neglect of Prayer Am I the man that when I heard our Army was in streights nay when his Excellencie sent to desire Prayers my wretched heart would not lift up one Prayer Nay if it were to doe again if One Prayer would save the Army save the Kingdome I could not doe it Am I the man that have with those perverse Israelites despised the pleasant Land the Land of desires as it is Psal 106.24 When Israel was in Egypt there was nothing they desired more then the Land of Canaan when they were come out of Egypt and were upon the borders of that Land then they despised it and wished themselves in Egypt againe ô that it were not so with us It is not long since a Parliament an Assembly of Godly Divines the Reformation of the Church in Doctrine Worship and Discipline was the desire of all the well-affected in the Nation But now the Parliament the Assembly of Divines despised The Reformation which we are now even upon the borders of in Doctrine Worship Discipline despised Men wish themselves in Egypt againe And had rather be under Prelaticall Bondage then under a Government most conforme to the Word and to the Government of other Reformed Churches No Reformation of Religion now now nothing will satisfie some but a Toleration of all Religions and all Opinions Church Government Discipline is to some a fiction to others Tyranny and Persecution Ah Brethren this is a Provocation and will be a Provocation for this God may turne us into the wildernesse againe It were an endlesse taske to enumerate the rest of the particular sins that possibly the people of this City and this Kingdome may be guilty of and that God may have his Eye and Hand upon in this Rebuke that he hath given us And therefore I must not prosecute this any further Only againe I beseech you all Lords Gentlemen Souldiers Ministers Men Women Every one of you say to your selves Sure we have sinned Israel hath sinned and every one of you aske your owne Consciences saying What have I done And let us all in the feare of God make it one part of this dayes

to thinke of that saying of Tully Si clementes esse voluerimus Cicero Epist ad Brutum nunquam ●●●erunt Bella civilia yet there is a great deale of reason in that which one speakes in confirmation of it Zevecotius in Observatis Politi●is cap. 14. Paena Lenior majorem peccandi occasionem suggerit c. a slight punishment doth but tempt men to wickednesse while all men hope they may escape and never be discovered or if they be they know before hand they shall goe away with it pretty cheape Therefore saith the same writer Laudo Venetos apud ques unicum publicae pecuniae denarium intervertisse non infame solum est sed Capitale Consilia decreta patrum revelasse quempiam rarò auditum est semper graviter punitum We have all Covenanted for our selves and all that are under our power both in Publike in Private in all duties we owe to God and man to amend our Lives and each to goe before other in the example of a Reall Reformation had we kept this Covenant ô what Saints should we have bin all our families would have bin as so many Churches England would by this time have been the Holy Island we had not now been fasting and weeping and mourning but rejoycing and singing praising But I beseech you Beloved tell me is there that Evidence of Personall and Family Reformation that such a Covenant as this did seeme to promise Look upon the Families of Lords Gentlemen Citizens where is such a Reformation as this Covenant binds us to Me thinks in all these particulars It is too too evident that we have transgressed our Covenant We have sinned and transgressed our Covenant The Lord help us to lay this sin to heart There is indeed a double violation of Covenants the one through wilfulnesse this I hope you are free from The other through unmindfulnesse This may be chargeable upon Gods owne Servants They were not mindfull of his Covenant saith the Psalmist Now even this is cause of Humiliation to us I remember the Day wherein we tooke the Covenant together in this place was like the Day of laying the foundation of the second Temple A Day of shouting a Day of weeping A Day of joy and a Day of trembling A Day of joy and shouting to see Parliament Ministers People so willingly offer to joyne themselves in Covenant to the Lord 't was such a Day as England never saw before and yet withall a Day of Trembling Weeping The Lord knowes there was many a gracious heart trembled that day for fear we should transgresse the Covenant we then made And now behold your eyes see even yours we have done so in too great a measure O what should our Weeping and Trembling be before the Lord this Day O let every one of us take up a Lamentation and cry with Ezra O my God I am ashamed confounded and blush to lift up my face unto thee ô my God Behold we are before thee in our sins and trespasses and cannot stand before thee because of this O let us be humbled for our Covenant breaches past and if we would not have God go on to break and blast our Armies let us not only renew our Covenants which is a part of the worke of this day but let us be mindfull of and faithfull to our Covenants or never look to have God more with our Armies The Lord tels Joshua plainly in the 12. verse of this Chap. Neither will I be with you any more till you have destroyed the accursed thing frō among you Breach of Covenant is an accursed thing It is a polluting of the great and dreadfull Name of the Lord our God The Lord our God is a jealous God We cannot expect he should be any more with us while such a provocation is among us FINIS