Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	lord_n	sir_n	treasurer_n	4,367	5	11.0593	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A15700	An armoure of proufe very profitable, as well for princes, noble men; and gentlemen, as all other in authoritie, shewing the firme fortresse of defence, and hauen of rest in these troublesome times and perilous dayes. Made by Iohn VVoolton minister of the Gospell.	Woolton, John, 1535?-1594.	1576 (1576)	STC 25974; ESTC S106615	49,980	114

¶ AN ARMOVRE of Proufe Very profitable as well for Princes noble men and gentlemen as all other in authoritie shewing the firme fortresse of defence and hauen of rest in these troublesome times and perilous dayes Made by Iohn VVoolton Minister of the Gospell ¶ IMPRINTED AT LONDON by Iohn Shepperde Anno. 1576. COR. VNVM VIA VNA ¶ To the right honorable Sir VVilliam Cicil Knight Lord Burleigh and Lord high Treasurer of England Iohn VVoolton wisheth the fauor of God continual health and prosperous selicitie THere is engraffed and deeply rooted in mans minde an error and false opinion whiche euen immediately after his dounefall did spring and shew it selfe out of originall sinne to iudge of Gods Prouidence according to wordly euents and if sometime hee see the better side and iuster cause oppressed fraudulently and tirarmously then he eyther denyeth altogither Gods care ouer mortal men or else doubteth of the equitie of the cause and giueth iudgemēt that those which are ouercome haue the weaker title and are cast away from God and that the conquerours and victors doe defende the sincere parte and better title and and are accepted of God And this thing commeth to passe especially in matters of religion where men according to the estate of kingdomes and inclination of the people do weigh and esteme the truth of the same I his greeuous error if it continue any space in mans brest it breedeth in some an Apostasle and vtter departing from God In othersome troublous motions and flitting mindes whiche in time do quenche in man all sense of godlynesse and at last carieth him headlong into a godlesse contempt of Religion or driueth him downeright into dreadfull desperation For mans minde which was created to searche out the truth and to ●ol●w● the same is not able to indure those conflictes and assaultes of a vexed mind and sorely I am of this opinion that the gnowings and frettings of the conscience which arise by meanes thereof are more dolorous than any torments whiche mans body may sustayne Pompeius Magnus ariuing at Mitelenen after that famous foughtē fielde of Pharsalie discourseth with Cratippus his whose race of life and maketh large mentiō of his aduerse fortune and lastly drowned in the gulfe of despaire viterly denyeth Goddes prouidence by cause in a iust and good quarrelf as himselfe thought God suffered him to fall And Demades that eloquente orator and graue Senator of Greece giuing as holesome counsaile in matters touching the commō wealth as eyther Themistoclēs Miltiades or Pericles was wōt to alledge for himselfe that frowarde fortune and vnhappie desteny did frustrate his deuises VVhiche voyce albeit euen then it escaped not iust reprehēsion of the wise yet it paynteth liuely vnto vs the ruine of the Attyke commō wealth the greate perilles and daungers in all cinill regiment and the declining of Empires and kingdomes VVe liue no doubt in the last times and old age of the world which is feeble and doing for by common eourse of nature after vigor and strength foloweth inclination and fayntnesse and tho end of things is always weake VVherein we see the rage of Sathan to spurre mens myndes to ward furie to stirre vp troubles cruell warres and all kind of calamities euery where and for that he knoweth the restitution of mankinde to approch and hys time short he omitteth nothing vnattempted to drawe great swarmes and companies of the worlde to forsake nuereligion and to runne into ignorance and blasphemy And that I may let passe those that vpon the coastes of Hungary depart frō vs to the Turke persuaded with wealth and prosperous successe of his wares VVhat Tragedies dothe the Diuell moue on each side of vs to terrifie men from folowing Christ his ensigne and from a free and liberall profession of his most sacred and c●ernall Gospell In Scoplande we haue heard of dayly slaughters and butchery of Christes children where it is now a common sleight to minister an Italian dramme vnto their Princes and trayt crously to murder the peeres and nobles of their land The dealings of the Duke of Alu● and his successor in the lowe countries are more lamentable where no lawes no faith no promises are kepte no antiquitie of noble families regarded no faithfull seruice to theyr Prince and countrie remembred no silence nor abiuring of ●rue religion accepted but Spanishe crueltie executed uppon all ages degrees and fexes without any consideration besides these no spoyle nor robberie of mens substaunes no extreame punishments nor torments no rasing of townes and Cities no adulterie nor filthy Sodomy can cōtent their monstrous and most vile natures and appetites All good natures tremble and quake at the reports of the French eruelty exceeding Phar●● and Nero in all rage and tirannie whose proceedings are such that we may gather that their determinate mindes and purposes are no●●t●eeasse vntill they haue the hart bloud of all those in whom any sparke or breath of Christian Religion at any tyme heretofore hath hath appeared and so driuing away the shining brightnesse of the Gospell to reduce the Romish Idoll and to exalt him in all Europe as the chiefe Monarche agayne For now they cloke not their malice with pretence of suppressing rebellious subiects but lynking vnto them the Spanish natiō do most euidētly professe them selues the sworne enimies of Christe his espouse and the chiefe defenders and Champions of Babylonish Idolatrie The puissance and greate mighte of that side theyr terrible executions and the froward euents of lawful and godly enterprises languisheth and wholly discourageth many men that heretofore haue giuen some countenance vnto the Gospell And no mortall wight were able to continue in so sharp and endlesse a battel firme and constant without an vndoubted assurance of Gods prouidence and fatherly care ouer them VVherefore godly men comfort themselues with a grounded faith being tossed too and fro in vehemente stormes and tempestes and do knowe that the sonne of God guideth the sterne of his shippe and as hee promised so hath he in deede exhibited his holy spirite by whome hee giueth vnto his children courage and strength to giue testimonie of the trueth without dred in the middle of all punishments and ●●rmēts Touching the fornamed Tirants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 me God hath giuen stout stomackes ●●●till 〈◊〉 greete victories whereby they are grow●h into a licetious boldnesse bending 〈…〉 ●●ght against Christ his Church wee 〈…〉 our selues that God wil withdrawe 〈…〉 his generall graces that he will depri●● them of all their of n●ments in body and mind that he wil leaue them vnto themselues as he forsooke P●mpey ●lcibiades Alexander and such like VVe haue an especiall example hereof in Valerianus the Emperour who in the beginning for his vpright iustice and valiant hart was deerely beloued of the Senate and common people but afterward setting himselfe against Gods Church became captiue vnto Sapores king of the Persians who vsed his head as a●ootostoole

ye execute not the iudgementes of man but of the Lorde and there is no iniquitie with the Lorde our God neither respecte of persons nor receyuing of reward Wherefore the Lord stablished the kingdom in his hande and the feare of the Lord fel vpon all the kingdomes of the lands that were rounde about Iudah and they durst not fighte agaynst him and straungers brought Iehosaphat presentes and giftes and the Arabians brought him flocks of sheepe and Goates and hee prospered and grewe vp an high and his kingdome florished exceedingly Amasias the xij King of Iuda hauing warre with the children of Seer hyred one hūdreth thousād men of Israel to help him in battaile but a man of god came vnto him saying O King let not the army of Israel go with thee for God hath power to helpe thee and to cast downe Wherefore the King returned those men accordyng to the saying of the Prophet with his owne people couragiously went to the Salt valey and encountered with his enimyes and slewe ten thousandes and other ten thousande dyd the children of Iuda take alyue and caryed them to the toppe of a rock and tumbled them downe headlong and they all burst to peeces Ezechias the xvj King of Iuda with an earnest zeale embrased true religion and so perfitlye serued the Lorde that after him was none like vnto him among all the Kings of Iuda neyther were there any suche before him who being meruellously tempted and 〈…〉 the huge mightie army of the Assyrians and terrified with the blasphemous speech of Rabsaces turned vnto y Lord went into the temple lay prostrate sayd O Lord our God I beseech thee saue thou vs out of their hands that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou ô lord art only god which prayer the lorde harkeneth vnto answereth thus Bicause thou hast praied vnto me cōcerning Synachereb king of Ashur I will put my hooke into his nostrels my bridle into his lips wil bring him back again the same way he came he shal not enter this citie nor shoote an arrow there nor come before it with shield nor cast a mount against it And the same night the Angel of the lord went out smote in the campe of Ashur an hundred foure score fiue thousand when they roase early in the morning behold they were all dead corpses So Synachereb King of Ashur departed returned to Niniuie And as he was in the temple worshipping of Nisroh his god Adramelech Sharezer his sonnes slew him with the sword they escaped into y lande of Ararat and Esarhaddon raigned in his steed Out of these histories I gather three obseruatiōs first that God cōmonly tempteth his chosen 〈…〉 ighty aduersaries that their faith may be more perfit thā gold tried with the fire Secōdly that if they stedfastly trust in him he blesseth their coūtrey with treasure riches replenisheth their land with great plenty of valiant soldiers Thirdly that God wil not suffer the heathenish people and irreligious nations to treade his children vnder their feete but with small powers confoundeth their ten hundred thousandes in the day of battayle My first note appereth plainly in the raign of y late Iosias and presētly in our Hester who laboring in the new building of Gods tiple good lord what a nūber of subtile and bloudy enimyes haue whet their teeth against this little Ilande on euery side but let vs not be dismaid for al the papists in Europe adioyning to thē the Turk are not able to come once to the field with ten hundred thousād mē as Zerach of Ethiopia did against Asa if they were able to passe that number haue we not legions of Angels vnder Christ his standerd against them Secondly Asa and Amazia Kings of Iuda fearing the liuing god had vnder them a florishing cōmon wealth wer able to make thre hūdred thousād fighting mē This our coūtrey of englād hath wāted no tēporal blessings since god blessed vs with his word gospel neither do any monumēts and chronicles of England make record of so many able men at one tyme as are now to bee founde in this little Eland I haue hard it reported of credible men who by commission had authoritie to make a bewe of such things that in the Countie of Deuon only there hath bin sounde fourtie thousand comely and likely men for the sield so that if euery county in Englande doe matche the same according to their proportions there is no doubt but out powers will eyther surmount or answere that lande whereof I spake afore in number of warlyke men Lastly bowsoeuer this little region hath bin stored with men of warre heretofore yet a small handfull hath ouermatched a huge hoste and most commonly if I terme it aright a thinne Garryson hath suppressed and surprised many mightie armies of their enimyes as in Eoward the third his dayes at Cressy where xix thousand English men put to flight one hundred thousande frenchmen and slew xxx thousande at Poyters wher the blacke Prince lauing but a wing of men in respect of their enimyis tooke prisoners Iohn the French King Phillippe his sonne seuen Earles besides Barons and Knightes That blacke Prince as historyes declary had the courage and harte of a Lyon they mighte aswell haue commended in him the constante fayth and assured hope of a godly and religious Captayne For seeing his power so farre vnequall to his aduersaryes and his meyny halfe sorowfull hee vttered suche voyces as all godly englishe Capitaynes in lyke case ought to expresse Well syrs sayth hee albeit we be but sewe in regarde to the multitude of our enimyes let vs not bee abashed therefore for the victory lyeth not in the multitude of the people but where it pleaseth almightie God to giue it Therefore trust in him and take English mens hartes vnto you this day for if God wil this dayes victory shal be ours and if we dye wee haue a good quarell With which wordes he anymated and encouraged his souldyers Henry the fifth hauing in all but xv thousand discomfited the flower of France at the battayle Agincourte where sixe French men men were in the fielde agaynst one Englishe man and at the ende of the battayle the nobl● Henry caused a retraite to be blown brought all his armye togither willing them to gyue thankes to God by whose almightie power they bad receyued that victory and euery one kneeling down swng Not vnto vs Lord not vnto vs but vnto thy name giue the glorye c. So that it euidently appeareth that thys noble Prince had a perfit fayth and truste in the ayde of the lord which heard his prayer and regarded his fayth and miraculously in mercy gaue him victory In the dayes of the King of famous memory Henry the eight Kyng Iames of Scotlande the fourth came into

England with one hundred thousande at the least as all histories agree Paulus Iouius noteth the malaparte confidence of Iames in his hoste that he thought himself able with spear-men to holde vp heauen if it had bin slydying but behold xxvj thousand Englishe men encountereth him vanquisheth his strength and slew the king with the most part of the nobilitie of Scotlād at Braūston in Cheuiot Finally the field foughtē at Mouscleborough is fresh in most mens memory where God punished the periury of the Scots with the losse of xv thousand soldiers miraculously without any great effusion of english bloud for there perished not aboue one hundred on our side gaue vnto our countreymen a tryumphant victory Such examples are plentie but I haue chosen a fewe giuing occasiō vnto noble men therby to fixe their hartes vppon Gods fatherly prouidence in all their distresses and to sing with diuine Dauid The King is not saued by the multitude of an hoste neither is the Gyant deliuered by great strength A horse is a vayn thing and shall not deliuer any by hys strength beholde the eye of the Lorde is vppon them that feare him and vppon them that trust in his mercy to deliuer their soules and to preserue them in famyne And as God Defendeth good Princes agaynst soren enimyes so doth he most seuerely shew his wrath and powre his borrible and sharpe punishmentes vppon Rebelles and Traytors at home Chore Dathan and Abiron rebelling agaynst Moses were swalowed into the earth quicke and perished with a new and horrible kynde of death Absolon rebellyng agaynst his father was put to flight by Dauid vis army and seking to escape through the woods as his mule ranne vnder a thicke oke his heare was intangled in the boughes and he taken vp betweene the heauen and the earth and the mule that was vnder him wēt away so Ioab the Captayne came and ranne him through wyth dartes Sybas the sonne of Bochrus conspiryng agaynst Kyng Dauid had a wretched ende his head 〈◊〉 of by the counsayle of a prudent woman in Abela and the same was caste ouer the walles to Ioab The acte of the sonne of Ebed is notable who with a seditious oration styrred the men of Sichem to disobey Abimelech beyng in deede but a Tyrant for hee monstrouflye murdered about seuentie of his bretherne yet God fauoured not that cause but suffered Abimelech to vanquish those Rebelles and vtterly to subuert then Citie The enterprise of the children of Ephraim against good Iephthe had lyke euent for there fell of them by the handes of Gylead two and fourtie thousand Theudas Gaulonites made a shewe of earnest ●eale and loue to deliuer his countreye from seruitude and therefore by his pleasaunt perswasions allured many to arme themselues agaynst the Romaynes but he was slayne and his folowers as Gamaliel declared were dispercled and brought to nought And in our owne countrey we may beholde the seditious dealings of VVatte Tyler Iacke Strawe Iohn VVall and others who albeit they were fanored of the moste parte and had an army of 60. thousand men yet being in their chiefe ruffe Watte was slayne and they lyke sheepe scattered a●road Thomas Flamocke and Mighell Iosephe the blackesmith procured the Cornish men to rebel agaynst their Prince and assembled such a company that they astonied al good and faithfull subiectes but their power was discomfited at Blackeheath their chiefe Captayne the Lorde Audeley beheaded Thomas Flamocke and Mychaell Iosephe were drawen hanged and quartered and their quarters pitched on stakes after the manner of Traytors to warne others to beware of like crimes and offences Fynally the vnhappy insurrectiōs in the dayes of King Henry the eight of King Edward the ●xt and of our soueraigne Lady the Dueenes maiestie made vnder pretence of defending the faith and holye church and of deliueryng the common wealth from oppression do with ruful ruine of noble families with sauage spoil of goodly countreys with dreadfull executions of couragious personages paynt before all mennes eyes the hatefull hatred of almightie God agaynst Rebelles and Traytors and there withall doe shewe Gods fatherly prouidēce in assisting good Princes and noble men being enuironed on euery syde with enimyes and oppressed with extreme miseries and calamities Notwithstanding I graunt some speciall examples may bee founde repugnaunt to the premisses and it commeth to passe now then that wicked and seditious persons prosper and preuail that good lawful magistrats decay perish which things haue wonderfully astonied the myndes of mortal men moued them to think that eyther there is no God or at the least that there is no diuine prouidence at all ouer earthly things for if ther were any effectual care thē surely the world shuld go happely with the godly vnhappely with the vngodly Such firy darts wound euen Christiās reasoning thus with themselues if almightie God do care for earthly creatures and especially for the church why did godlesse Cain kil godly Abel why did y lecherous filthy strūpet oppresse clean chast Iosephe why was the holy prophet Esay giuen into y hands of cruel Manasses whi did not y pietie of religious Dauid touer him from so many stormes tempestes why did God suffer y slinking Gote Herodias to behead him than whō ther was no greater amongst the sonnes of women why was y monstrous Tyrant very froth of mischiefe Nero suffred to murder those two notable disciples of Christ trūpets of true religiō Peter and Paul Marcus Cato whē tidings came vnto him in● Cicil that great Pompei through fear of Caesar had forsakē Italy he cryed out saying O immortal Gods how obscure and variable are your cōsolations in humayne affaires For vnto this daye haue you fauored Pompei not so exactly ministring equitie and iustice but now in defēding cōmon libertie and in a most iust cause of his coūtrey you haue forsakē him Pompei himselfe scaping y sword in the fielde foughtē at Pharsalia sailed to Mytelene where Cornelia his wife made hir abode repairing to y Philosopher Cratippus lamēted much his aduersitie questioned whither ther were any prouidēce at all And now in France who seeth not poyseners trucebreakers Tyrants bloudit Papists to ttiumph again obediēt and ouer c●edulous subieus oppreste professours of true religiō murdered honorable gray whyte heads are cleft asūder y great bellies wombs of Ladies gentlewomē are ripped infantes and sucking babes are with pykes perced and fynally no kinde of crueltie vnpractised Albeit such lamētable calamities of good mē and sauage libertie of wicked mē both in churches cōmon welaths seeme to take away gods prouidēce yet god to remoue such doubts hath set before mēs eyes his workes ordinarie extraordinary hath added thereunto his expresse manifest word thereby shewing the properity and aduersitie come not to men by