Selected quad for the lemma: hand_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
hand_n	bring_v	israel_n	lord_n	4,710	5	4.1598	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30728	A sermon preached at St. Mary-le-Bow, before the Lord Mayor, Court of Aldermen and citizens of London on Wednesday, the 16th of September, a day appointed by Their Majesties for a solemn monthly fast / by Lilly Butler, Rector of Bubbingworth in Essex.	Butler, Lilly.	1691 (1691)	Wing B6278A; ESTC R35817	13,127	33

all that affection and importunity which becometh the importance of the suit not to remember our offences not to take vengeance of our sins but to spare his people whom he hath redeemed Hearty and fervent Prayer hath a mighty prevailing power with God The greatest blessings are promised to it and the hardest things have been effected by it It hath opened and shut the windows of heaven and restored departed souls to their forsaken bodies It defeated the malice of Haman the wisdom and counsel of Achitophel and put to flight an army of a thousand thousand Ethiopians It hath prevailed with God to revoke the judgments he hath denounced and to deliver his people after he had declared he would deliver them no more How then should this encourage us to lift up our hearts with our hands to God in the heavens to embrace all opportunities of pouring out our supplications before him both in our closets and our houses of prayer To pray without ceasing with the utmost vigour of our affections To cry mightily unto God to wrestle and not give over till with Jacob we have prevailed prevailed with God and obtained his blessing Thirdly We must add the reformation and amendment of our lives Otherwise our Humiliation will be mockery and our Prayer sin Our sins are the Achans the troublers of Israel and were but these accursed things put away from amongst us we might then be confident that God would be appeased and the Nation flourish It is to the wicked only that God saith there is no peace But the work of righteousness is peace and the effect of Righteousness quietness and assurance for ever O then that we would all know that in this our day we would know the things that belong unto our peace That every one of us would bid an eternal farewel to his sins in that passionate stile of returning Ephraim What have we to do any more with you Hence ye disturbers of our peace ye provokers of our God and most treacherous underminers of the safety and happiness both of Church and State Let us then resolve and if we do it not we have but dissembled with God in our approaches this day Let us resolve henceforward to ingage with all our might in bridling our passions in curbing our appetites in mortifying our lusts in pulling down the strong holds of Satan in us and in bringing nto captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ And thus fighting the good fight of Faith we may as effectually promote the safety and honour of our Country as if we had served in its Fleets or Armies This is the way to strengthen the hands of them that fight for us to send them most effectual relief and succour to bring down the Lord of hosts to go before them the God of Israel to be their Rereward to be a wall of fire round about them and the glory in the midst both of them and us O that my people had hearkened unto me saith God and Israel had walked in my ways I should soon have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries Ps 81. 13 14. But is it not may some object an universal Reformation that must produce these happy effects To what purpose then will our personal and particular Reformation serve For the answering of this I shall proceed to the last thing I am to do which is Fourthly To endeavour by some proper motives to perswade every one to do his own part in that the general practice whereof is the only certain means to procure the favour and divert the judgments of God To this end therefore let us consider these following things First That a General Reformation is nothing else but the Reformation of all Particulars and if ever it be wrought amongst us it must be the work of particular persons and the result of every one's doing his own part Let us not then stay for examples but rather contend for the honour of being examples to others Let us strive who shall be first and most active in so noble a design in setting forward that work wherein the Honour and Happiness of our Country is so highly concerned How great an influence might your examples have upon this whole City And how soon do the manners and fashions of that overspread the Nation You are therefore more concerned than others to begin this great and blessed work to cause your light so to shine before and above other men that seeing your good works they may be won by the charms of a bright and illustrious vertue to follow your steps and to glorify your Father which is in heaven And this would advance your reputation and perpetuate your memories more than all the dignities of this world Secondly Though by doing our own parts we should not be able to do much towards a General Reformation yet we might make up such a number for whose sake God might spare and bless the whole Land How ready was God to have spared even Sodom it self had there been but ten righteous persons found in it He did spare the City Zoar for the sake of Lot and the small company with him A single act of one single man staid the fury of a devouring Plague and restored health to the Congregation of Israel Ps 106. 30. Then stood up Phinehas and executed judgment and so the plague was stayed To which I may add that gracious Proclamation we find published Jer. 5. 1. Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem and see now and know and seek in the broad places thereof if ye can find a man if there be any that executeth judgment and seeketh the truth and I will pardon it One faithful Magistrate executing Judgment had saved that great City How then should this encourage you to a zealous and upright execution of the Resolution ye have made Not to bear the Sword in vain but to make it a terrour to evil-doers Thus avowedly to set your selves to destroy the works of the Devil To be hearty and couragious in the cause of God and righteousness in the midst of so crooked and perverse a Nation To contemn all the censures and reproaches the execution of justice and judgment may expose you to Who knoweth how far this might prevail with God If a few righteous men can yet save us none so likely to do it as such Magistrates by such heroick piety and vertue There may be a time indeed when the sins of a Nation are so ripe that though Noah Daniel and Job were in it they could not avert the judgments of God yet consider Thirdly That however They may deliver themselves by their righteousness Our personal reformation may procure a refuge for us in the day of Gods wrath Thus Noah escaped the Deluge of waters and Lot the flames of Sodom and those that sighed and cried for the abominations of Jerusalem the fury of that destroying Angel who went through the midst of it In what manner God doth often deal with good men when his judgments are abroad in the earth we have at large described in Ps 91. Thou shalt not be afraid of the terrour by night nor for the arrow that flyeth by day nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness nor for the destruction that wasteth at noon day A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand but it shall not come nigh thee If notwithstanding it should seem good to the Divine Wisdom to involve us in the common calamity yet let us consider Fourthly That the conscience of our own personal reformation would be then a most comfortable support to us What a reviving consideration would it be when the judgments of God are upon us that we are not the guilty causes of them that we have done our parts to prevent them and and are clear from the blood of all men That even these things will work together for our good because we love God and keep his Commandments That all these clouds cannot intercept the light of Gods countenance or hide his face or favour from us that no tribulation or distress neiter 〈…〉 nor famine nor nakedness nor peril nor 〈◊〉 able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Lastly Consider how unsuccessful soever our personal reformation may be in promoting the publick or our own particular good here it will not fail of a great and glorious reward hereafter For so an entrance shall be administred unto us into that City which hath Foundations whose builder and maker is God into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Where we shall be free from sin and all the dreadful consequences of it and when not only the Cities and Nations of this world but this world and time it self shall be no more we shall be still secure in the enjoyment of the most perfect peace and happiness To conclude then I exhort and beseech you all as you regard the Honour and Preservation of your Country your own present Good and Safety and the everlasting happiness of the Life to come by all that is valuable and dear to you both in this and the other world that you would no longer delay that Reformation in which all these things are so highly concerned O that there were such an heart in every one of us to repent and turn from all our transgressions to fear God and to keep his commandments always that it might be well with us and with our children for ever Amen FINIS