Selected quad for the lemma: glory_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
glory_n	amen_n	ghost_n	holy_a	4,466	5	4.4001	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32958	A sermon concerning national providence preach'd at the assizes held at Ailesbury in Buckinghamshire, March 13, 1693/4 Ab. Campion ...	Campion, Abraham, d. 1701.	1694 (1694)	Wing C406; ESTC R4878	20,450	44

over us especially in stormy times when the Kingdoms of the Earth are under such violent concussions But how shall we do to insure our God to us We have heard of some who have chain'd their gods to their Pedestals that they might not depart from them A conceit suitable enough for Idol gods what ever need there was of it But ours is an Almighty God no material chains can hold Him But yet by our devotions and obedience the Almighty himself may be secured So powerful was Moses in this kind that God is pleas'd to express Himself as struggling to get loose from those fetters that holy Mans prayers had cast upon Him Let me alone saith God that my wrath may wax hot against this people Exod 32.10 2. If God be King it will concern us to own Him in his Authority to honour his Name observe his Laws and punish those that transgress them For if sinners are suffer'd to go unpunish'd sin then becomes National The Magistrate himself shares in the guilt and the whole body stands obnoxious to the Divine vengeance When vice is grown impudent it is then fit only for the Magistrates rebuke and the great King will severely require it at their hands if they be not faithful to their trusts Those that are ashamed of Him and his Cause of such He has declared that He will be ashamed before his Father and the holy Angels Luk. 12.9 The Laws of God are the Laws of the Kingdom let Magistrates look to the Crown and Scepter from whence they receive their Commission they will find the Cross there advanced the Badge of Him who is our Kings King and from whom all Authority is deriv'd 3. We have seen that if God has a more particular regard for any Nation it is for the sake of his Church and true Religion amongst them The Church is the Palladium the safeguard of the State the best way therefore to secure the State is to preserve the Church in its purity and so conformable to the primitive pattern as God may know it to be his own Church and not be provoked to remove his Candlestick from us Tho' the Spiritual curse thereof would not perhaps be much regarded by harden'd sinners yet let such know that the Temporal Guard and Fence of the Nation goes along with the Candlestick and God leaves such a Nation to its own confusions or the ravage of its Enemies History and experience abundantly confirm this When the Jews forsook God God forsook them The Angel of the presence departed out of the Temple with a loud voice saying Let us be gone hence Jos de Bel. Jud. L. 7. c. 12. as their own Historian informs us And then presently follow'd that fearful destruction such remarkable vengeance as never was the like from the foundation of the world nor shall be till the day of Judgement We might call in for witness all those Countries where Christianity once flourish'd places which were once famous in History and renown'd but since their degeneracy and falling off from the faith they have continued for many years in obscurity and slavery and their Countries in great measure desolated are become an habitation for Thieves and Robbers for Owls and Jackals To be sure the more we have been Gods favourites the worse will our condition be when he comes to cast us off Nothing provokes more than despised favours You only have I known of all the families of the earth therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities punish you with an emphasis Amos 3.2 What the measure of a Nations iniquities is I know not He only can tell who knows how far He will be pleas'd to extend his own mercies Most certainly where the light of the Gospel shines brightest the date of Mercy will soonest there be out if not complied with If so I am afraid we may read our own destiny and I almost tremble to enquire into it Tho' my self an unworthy Member of the Order I must do my brethren that right as to own that the Gospel of Christ was never since the Apostolick age more substantially and usefully preach'd than in this our age and Nation and the Press too did never more abound with pious and discreet practical discourses And yet to our horrid shame never did wickedness more abound and this not common wickedness for it is not enough now to be wicked except it be in a way of triumph over Religion Vice insults amongst us it is the part of virtue to blush and sneak The Devil seems to be here trying his master-piece and shewing to what heighth he can possibly advance his Kingdom of darkness in the midst of the greatest Gospel light as tho' it were his ambition to nose God in his own Kingdom where Christ appears most of all to reign and to bid defiance to Him so impudently do's vice rage in our streets Scarce do's a good Man now dare to venture into a mix'd company for fear of having some horrid oath or some hellish curse belch'd into his face it is great odds but he hears the name of God presently blasphem'd or some lewd dull jest upon a sacred text of Scripture or some such filthy discourse as Sodom would have blush't at And as tho' Comorrha and all that cursed Sisterhood were sprung again out of their ashes and transplanted into England we may see bargains for lusts driven in our streets and the family-whore as publickly own'd perhaps jointur'd as the wife And do not these things call aloud for some speedy remedy For the Cities sake for God the keeper of the Cities sake we begg it And yet this is not all tho' a wicked life be the worst of Heresies yet to carry on all the despite that Hell can possibly manage against God our Age and Nation grows now also infamous for the greatest Heresies The conceited grinning Atheist laughs at the belief of a God and scornfully pities the Psalmist for taking him for a fool For great is the power of a jest in some heads neither good sense or reason can stand against it The malice of others is particularly bent against the Son of God for attempting to save them from eternal perdition some under the title of Theists deny his being and deny his Gospel as a Fable others make Cabals against His Godhead and upon one pretence or other the whole blessed Trinity is scoffed at as a Monster And all this besides a swarm of innumerable croaking Sects amongst us who have some of them destroy'd all difference between good and evil and have weeded the most frantick opinions and wildest dreams into their Religion And dare we still plead our priviledge with God as His Church and claim the right of being his favourites All our hope then is That there are still some righteous left in Sodom some who stand in the gap who by their prayers and tears in secret do screen the Nation from vengeance do wrestle with God and prevail not to cast us yet out of His protection To conclude Lastly If God keep the City with what confidence may a good people triumph in their keeper Let them but take care to continue His favour to them what can in reason affright or dismay them Fear of any thing besides God seems inconsistent with the Christian faith even in the midst of the most pressing eminent dangers Peter was sharply rebuked as one of little faith Matt. 14.31 for fearing when just sinking almost swallowed up by the Sea Their case cannot be desperate or without remedy who have a God engaged to rescue and defend them Nothing but sin can be the ruine of such a people as Achior wisely told Holofernes It is in vain to assault them Judith 5.20 21. if their God be not first angry with them it is kicking against the pricks Happy are the people that are in such a condition blessed are the people who have the Lord for their God In perpetual triumphs they securely live rejoycing in the Lord always Nothing to cloud the serenity of their minds nothing to disturb the cheerfulness the gaiety of their humours nothing to damp the briskness of their delights their full satisfaction in their God and Patron Let them but pray and Kings with their Armies fly and they divide the spoil They only stand still and see the Salvation of their God in the confusion of their Enemies They as upon a safe shore sit viewing those storms with which the world is toss'd spectators of the destruction and calamities of sinners and approving of Gods righteous Judgments but the name of their God is to them a strong Tower They run to it and are safe Under their Vines and Fig-trees they entertain themselves with songs of praise and thanksgiving telling their pleasant stories of all Gods wonderful works and mighty deliverances Rejoycing always in His Salvation and in the name of their God setting up their Banners Thus is it with the City which God keeps so shall it be with the people which the King of Kings delights to honour Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end Amen FINIS